Let's just call this episode CRAZYNESS since so much stuff has happened since my last blog including graduation and a trip to California.

But one thing after another.
2 weeks ago I started my last school week at Huntington North and it was a really short school week. Monday and Tuesday we still had to take some finals but it basically didn't really matter too much anymore since the finals are only a small portion of the grade and the grades we (the exchange students) get won't ever be seen by anybody that needs to care.
But away from grades to more relevant things like the last day of school that wasn't even really a day of school anymore. 
All seniors didn't have any real school that day but we started with senior breakfast. Meaning we got a little breakfast consisting of some fruit, cinnamon rolls, biscuits and gravy and some other yummy things.
After the breakfast it was time to get more serious and learn about what is happening on graduation night. I never thought there could me that many things said about a event like this. But I guess there can be and we had to listen to it for almost two hours. Then we had to practice walking into the gym and after that walking over the stage twice because here in flat Indiana nobody is used to walk over a 3 feet high stage.
The last thing we had to do was returning our macbooks and then we were officially released from school. But there was a senior party hosted so we stayed for quite a while and played 9 square and other games before we went home in the afternoon. Then I hung out with some guys and we went swimming in a pond and later had some snacks in a nearby park and threw footballs and baseballs. It was a really good evening and day and sadly the last time all the three exchange students and others got to hang out so we just enjoyed the time we could spend.
Fast forward to Friday and graduation day. All seniors had to enter the building through door number 11 and everybody was wearing the funny hat and coat we got on Wednesday. All girls were in red and carried a flower and all guys wore black and got the flower fixed on their gown on the left hand side. 
Obviously even before the ceremony already pictures were taken and then we watched the senior slideshow that just consisted of a whole bunch of submitted pictures of seniors from when they were small to what they look like today.
And finally the big moment came. We all got to walk out into the gym always two people next to each other. the gym was packed! We did some rough maths and figured there must have been about 4000 people, without the students, crammed into that gym.
In the beginning there was a lot of talking going on before each and everyone had to walk over the stage, receive an empty! diploma cover and then get a picture taken.
After that the Class President gave a speech during which we had to switch our tassel from one to the other side as a symbol of being graduated. The whole ceremony took about 2 hours before we were released into the field house for many pictures and congratulations and, sadly for me, also some definite goodbyes. But to me this was the best part of the graduation because everybody was so happy and in a good mood it really made me happy. 

In the field house I got spontaneous invited to a little improv grad party right after so I went there for a while and had a great time and the cake and ice cream were delicious. And funnily I met new people that went to the same school as me the whole year but I never got to know and also talked to some people I knew from football but hadn't talked to in a while.
In the middle of the night, literally, it was time to go home since the next day was a leave early day to go to Cedar Point, which is an amusement park in Ohio. We went there as a big group of exchange students and left early in the morning to spend as much time as possible in the park. 
The rides in the park were actually pretty cool! We started off with a few crazy ones doing a bunch of loops rolls and drops and for every ride we had to convince someone out of the group to do it. We just had a blast. After some sandwiches for lunch we split up into smaller groups and spend more time standing in line or being on rides. The best thing was, that right before we had to meet up in the evening somebody else and I found undoubtedly the best ride in the park. The only downside of it was that there were a ton of flies or mosquito or some other little bugs flying around the ride and you got them all into your face while rushing through them with the high speeds.
We spent the night in a nearby hotel and the hotel had a pool so I definitely had to check that out. A few other guys and I headed to the pool and after some horsing around two travel baseball teams joined us and we all had a great time doing some chicken fights team against team and just talking. One of the teams was from Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania called Hitsquad and the other one from Ohio.
One of the guys from the Ohio team wanted to have a race across the pool and after he won by a hair he told me that a few years ago he was a junior Olympic swimmer before he focused on baseball and football only. I thought it was kind of neat tho that I was quite close on to him even tho he certainly swam a lot more than me even though it has been a while since.
As the Ohio team started leaving I hung out with the Pittsburgh team for quite a while and it happened to end with them giving me a whole pizza because they had gotten a whole stack from somebody else and couldn't eat it all.
The following Sunday was just a travel day and we actually had a super good ride home, at least after everybody took a nap for a while and was not as tired anymore. Sadly some of the people who are leaving early or late and wont come to next weeks trip I saw for the last time so it was a very hugfull event.

But the traveling didn't end with me getting back from Ohio it was basically just a pack and unpack kind of situation since I left the following Monday morning to go to California.
But there was enough time in between to go to another graduation party that was actually hosted in a indoor gocart place and we got to race a whole bunch with electric carts. It was a fun night and again I met some new people. Also all the home made desserts were absolutely delicious. My favorite was the one that had parts of cookies in it.
As said, Monday I traveled to California. I flew from Fort Wayne to Chicago and from there directly to San Diego, my destination.
I spent the 9 following nights in San Diego and during that time I got to do a whole bunch of stuff.
I spend a day just at the beach and in the touristy village behind it but the water was a little cold so I didn't even go into it that day. But it happened to be the only day that I was taking pictures. In the evening we went to a Padres game and they were playing the Chicago Cubs, which I thought was kind of funny since the Cubs basically traveled to the same place at the same time as me. The son of the family I was staying with played the national anthem with his school on the field which must be quite an experience, being surrounded by all those people ready for the game. After the super touristy and not so touristy things were done I started with activities and went wave surfing. It didn't go as well as I hoped and man was I struggling getting out against those waves but I still loved it and surprisingly wasn't an ice cube when I came out.
Scuba Diving was also on my list and together with my German speaking Instructor I did two dives for a total of almost 2 hours. We saw an awful lot of stuff on our dives.
This stuff includes two seals playing with us and shooting around us. That was supercool, at the same time it sucked in a way because always when I would turn my head I had some cold water running into my wetsuit and therefore over time I was freezing my butt off.
We also saw some huge Lobsters and a big crab. One of the coolest things I thought was, how the kelp and sea grass was moving with the waves and it looked like it was floating and being pushed around by some invisible force.
Before we dove again with new cylinders we had a chocolate croissant and some water and then we went in again. This time there was less visibility because there were many particles in the water on this side of the cove. This time one sea lion swam by real quick but didn't really seem interested in us. We also saw multiple about 2 feet long sharks and a few stingrays. It was really exciting for me to dive in the sea also because the water wasn't still but moving and I have never experienced that before.
Besides doing all that fun stuff I went back to High School. Well just for a day and it was the schools last day so the teachers didn't really care that I showed up if they even noticed at first.
It was actually quite interesting and I didn't meet any exchange students but a guy who has hosted before and is going to host again next year. Funnily he is also with the organization AFS.
On the weekend we also went to the San Diego County fair and it was fun. We went on a ride and played some games. And most importantly, had ice cream and good food.
We also spent a day at the waterpark and I was pretty impressed by how big it was. The only thing that wasn't as big was their waves in the wave pool. Those were pretty small compared to all other wave pools I have seen before.
Fast forward back to Huntington. A long travel day and another day in SD passed.
A friend and I decided to go out onto a nature trail in a nearby town by a river. We had a great time walking along the river and taking a ton of stupid pictures. The hours flew by really quick and we just walked along the river and crossed it multiple times and threw stones into it.
After that we had some lunch at a super funny place. It is kind of like a drive in restaurant. You park your car on spots and either eat in your car or at the tables and you get it served right to you. It is basically the prototype or the drive-through and their food as quite good.
And in the evening I started with the bittersweet packing. Even though I wasn't really packing yet but at least starting to figure out what certainly won't get taken back to Switzerland and what will come with me.
And then I was writing on this blog in the middle of the night but couldn't finish it so I did that now :)

I will try to post another blog with some pictures in the next few days. Have a great day :)

Prom #2 and PR’s

It’s time for another two-and-a-half-week blog. And by the time this is posted it is actually a 3 week blog but that is just a little insignificant detail ;)

The first week we had our track senior night. On senior nights, all seniors in the sport, including the lovely managers, get honored with their parents, get a picture taken and the moms get a flower. After that it is just a meet like every other and we competed against two other schools.

This night I ran in the mile and a 4 by 4 and did also long jump.

The cold was quite harsh on us and I personally wasn’t too happy with my results. I still got a PR in long jump and the mile with a jump of 17”3’ and a mile time of 5:05 min. Especially in the mile I was really unhappy because I wanted to break the 5 minute barrier really bad but luckily I had another shot at that a week later.

The weekend we spent going to another Prom. We went to Pendleton’s Prom where my mom teaches and the prom actually took place in the public library of Indianapolis. Before we went to the actual dance we ate at a German restaurant. The food was really good and it was just so much fun seeing all those German beer mugs and insignia and understanding them and translating them for my parents.

Already at dinner we saw a whole lot of dressed up people and as we went to the dance we obviously saw even more of them.

The dance was fun and especially the library was really impressive and a great location for hosting the dance. The not so great thing was the music which was just blasting about three times as loud as it would have been necessary. The night was still great and I met a few new people since I didn’t know anybody but my parents when we walked in.

As unlikely as it seems but there was also a Swiss exchange student there. She doesn’t come exactly from where I am from but from Rapperswil and it was just so crazy thinking about how likely such a coincidence is. The three other exchange students were pretty cool too and I hung out with them for a while.

We also went to after prom and that was almost even more fun than the actual dance. Post prom was located in a family fun zone thing and it had volleyball, soccer, basketball fields in it as well as a whole blow up jumping castle army with a racetrack, trampolines with bungees that allowed me to do my first ever double front and back flip and a laser tag arena I didn’t even get to use, a whole bunch of video games as well as pool and most important, an awful lot of pizza and cookies.

After going on the trampoline, I met some people while eating and they were real cool dudes and together we went into the blow up jumping things for a few races before we played some girls in volleyball.

Volleyball was an awful lot of fun and we played girls against boys first but they kicked our butts without mercy so we changed up teams and it was so funny as there were a few saying “the Switzerland guy is in on my team now!” because I have played volleyball before in school. Never thought that the volleyball skills I had to learn in PE in Switzerland would help me one day. So we played another game and mostly laughed a whole lot and didn’t play very good volleyball but that was definitely secondary.

After volleyball we played some soccer and gosh was I sweating against them. But it was pretty clearly visible in which nation soccer is one of the most played sports and in which nation it is just slowly gaining support and fans. It was so much fun though and it got even that worse that I managed to make a guy fall over by following the dribbling.

Against 1am the fun was over and it was time to go to bed. We slept in a hotel in Anderson and then drove back to Huntington the next day.

On Monday I went to Campus Life as almost every other week. But it was a special one since it was the last time that the college seniors were there because they graduated the weekend after. 3 out of the 4 that were included in that I have gotten closer with over the time and I’m so happy for their achievement but also a little sad since I might not ever see them again.

Last week was the last normal week of school and also of track. We also ran our last regular meet of the season in North Side where I competed once before. The track meet was a huge success for me. Not only did I break the 5 minutes in the mile with a 4:53.7min time and placed second in my race but also in the 4by4 I ran a split of 56.4 seconds for another PR. And lastly I made a PR in the long jump by half an inch for a 17”3.5’. The night was great and I was super happy with my results. Afterwards we had as always dinner together and we went to the Berg Haus, a German restaurant in town, and ate a wonderful burger.

It was all in all probably the best track meet for me even though we didn’t win as a team.

On the following Saturday we had another track meet but I couldn’t run in this one since it was only for the 9^th and 10^th graders. But it was in Huntington so everybody had to go and help with hurdles and whatever else had to be done. It was a fun day after all even though I had a sun burn because the weather was really nice that day. After the meet, which our school won, we had a cookout and played games like corn hole and can jam after. Because none of the three exchange students will be able to come to the track banquet we also got our pictures already that day and it was a pretty happy day.

The following Sunday we went to church and made a more relaxed day.

And just like that it was this week’s Monday. As almost every other Monday I went to Campus Life and it was the last regular one. Therefore, it was Campus Life senior night!

There were almost 20 seniors there and we all got asked 3 questions to answer. Our happiest Campus Life memory, the most touching campus life memory and the most valuable advice they have.

The advice part and happy memory were incredible funny. There were examples named such as the best moment was when my friend puked or I got kicked in the head. Absolutely there were more normal ones too but those were definitely outstanding.

For the advice part there were some fun things too.

One of my friends Eli mentioned that under class men should find something they like to do because when they advance through high school they will have lots of free time to do that stuff. To my left I immediately heard some whispers saying they didn’t’ have any free time besides sports and homework through senior and junior year and I just had to smile about how different students here in the US go through school.

Another great piece of advice was mentioned by JJ. He first mentioned a few more serious ones but the one that stayed was his final statement that if anybody was thinking about cutting his or her hair, don’t do it!

Maybe the funniest and most simple advice consisted of only five words.

“Remember your social security number”

Since it was the last night we also looked through the highlight video of the year and it was quite emotional for me seeing those pictures from the first campus life event I went to after a football game and the GoMad camp last fall when I got to know so many people on that weekend and hear probably the only life concert I heard all year long.

Those pictures just remembered me of the time I came here and had even less idea of what’s going on than what I do now and how I had my whole exchange ahead of me and now it just all ran through my fingers like a handful of fine sand.

After Campus Life we ate together at Taco Bell and as weird as it sounds, but I might have gotten to know more people on that last night than any other one.

After all I am so glad I joined Campus Life back in fall when I didn’t even know what it is all about or what to expect. I made many memories, met many good people and had wonderful talks each Monday with them that consisted of so much more than a “How are you?” “Good, what about you?” but often went really deep into personal opinions and believes. Campus Life might had quite an impact on me throughout this year and it was nice going there each Monday knowing I’m welcomed and can be with others and enjoy the evening.

On Tuesday, we went to Fort Wayne to play laser tag and eat at stake ‘n shake to try the “famous” milk shakes that aren’t even that great in my opinion.

Laser tag was actually quite fun even though I stood no chance against the others that played it so many times before. We were only playing the 4 of us against each other so it was kind of a little competition.

On Thursday, we were supposed to have the sectional meet. Since I am an alternate for long jump I went with the team but the meet ended up getting canceled.

It seemed like the perfect day for a meet when we got to New Heaven High School. But just as the meet was about to start it started raining heavily and a thunderstorm came up. For safety reasons everybody had to go into the gym of the school.

While being in there for the 30minutes we have to stay in there by regulations I met three more exchange students from Sweden, Germany and Indonesia. I had a good talk with Linnea, the girl from Sweden. All these three are with STS as their organization and therefore Felix knew them and told them to come to the meet, that ended up getting canceled.

After the waiting period we went back out on the field for about 15minutes before another thunderstorm struck and we had to run back inside. After we went out again it thundered again right away and the meet got canceled and moved to Friday.

Friday the meet actually took place but it was a wet cold day and not even half as good of a day for a meet as Thursday would have been. We came second as a team which is really good even though the first place had a big lead but still it isn’t bad. I only got to go and not do anything since, luckily, nobody was injured.

Then Saturday rolled around and we had our pre-departure orientation with AFS. Once again we went to Plymouth for it and it was nice seeing some of the exchange students again but at the same time did this orientation more confuse me and make nerveous than really help me. Maybe later on I will see the value in this orientation but currently it just left me with mixed feelings about departure and all that comes with it and made me pretty nerveous. Sometimes I wish we would’t know what day we leave and it would just be a 2 day notice kind of thing and I wouln’t have to worry about it early on.

Today Sunday, I got to go to the Indy 500 Qualifications!

Well as the first thing when we got there and were walking towards the museum we got completely soaked because just out of nowhere it started raining like crazy. After waiting for the rain to pass we went to the museum and as we were walking towards it there was a guy coming out of it and an older gentlemen in front of us asked him for an autograph and he must have been a driver but we had no idea who it is.

The museum was pretty neat. It was better though I was told but the cars displayed were still pretty cool.

Because they can only drive on that 2.5 mile oval track when it is dry the whole track had to be dryed off by the drying crew. And man they have some big hair dryers!

Those machines simply consist of a jet engine/turbine mounted on a trailer that’s directing the hot air on the track and the thing is pulled by a pick up truck. It was mind blowing.

Then a little delayed they started the practice runs and my mind got blown again! Since I have never been to any sort of race like this first I was super surprised by the amount of noise those cars make. They look pretty cool but they are louder than my brother!

As crazy as the noise is the speed. The cars for the qualification don’t get measured or qualified by their lap time but by their average lap speed. Well if you break it down most likely they measure the time and calculate the speed for an accurate result but I don’t know how it is done but that would be my assumption. Anyways their speeds are ridiculous! Those cars drive the whole 2.5 Mile at an average speed of up to 230 mph! That is around 370km/h! If you just look at one spot and they drive by all there is, is a colorful blurry arrow shooting by.

It was really impressive though and I am sure I have never seen anything like it before.

During the afternoon the weather actually got really sunny and we managed to get a sunburn even though the weather forecast said it would be cloudy all day.

Then it was time to go home and eat Mexican dinner J

And there you go, a little recap on my 3 weeks that was long overdue ^^

And a huge thank you to Lexi for letting me write on her Mac during the Track meets so I actually got this thing done ^^

PROM

The most exciting thing within the last two weeks was certainly prom night.

In the pas two weeks I had another few Track meets and ran PR's in the 800m and 1600m.

One of the meets was at East Noble high school where I know some other exchange students and it was real nice to see them again after quite a while. Two of them where there so we had a little "exchange student meet" since there were 5 of us there in total.

That day I also ran a PR for the mile with 5:15 minutes. Later in the evening I talked to my coach and told him that we have a problem now since my season goal was getting into the lower 5minutes for the mile and I already achieved that. He just replied real dry and laughing: "Well we will break 5minutes then." and now I have a new season goal...

The meet on Saturday was in Muncie where I know another exchange student from France. We met in fall in a camp and haven't seen each other ever since so it was real nice to catch up with her on basically the whole school year.

Right across the street from the high school is also this fantastic bakery and everybody got some donuts after the meet. Maybe I went a little crazy and ate too many over the day but they were definitely delicious.

During this past week we had a lot to talk about prom that was coming up and besides that we ran another two track meets. One of them actually yesterday on prom day.

The first one went somewhat well for me and I could run a PR in the 4x800 relay and had a split time of 2:17 minutes which is a whole 12 seconds faster than my old time. I am still not really happy with it though.

Yesterdays track meet was wet. It was raining most of the time and just nasty. Since I was only an alternate runner and nobody was hurt I did not need to race so I wasn't freezing.

The meet got done around 3pm and prom started at 9pm so there was some time for a nap since it was going to become a long night.

Then I had to get ready since I met up with others to take pictures and then go out to eat. 

We had such a good time eating dinner and the waitress was the same one we head 2 weeks ago after the track meet so we had many laughs and she convinced her coworkers, which we talked to a little earlier, that she was psychic abilities since she knew we were exchange students from Europe.

Then it was time to go to the actual dance. The music was deafening loud but it was a lot of fun talking to so many people I know and just having a great time.

ready :) (I will add some more pictures as soon as I get them)

The highlight was definitely the cookies though! And meeting one of the wrestlers that already graduated last year : ) And talking to everybody. All in all it was great.

After the dance we went home to chance into super casual clothes to go to the post prom at 1am.

Post prom was fun as well! First we ate some pizza, donuts and cookies and and drank coffee to keep awake and then we started having fun. There were a whole bunch of activities. At one station we got drunk goggles and had to drive around cones on a three wheel bike. I didn't hit a single cone and even started racing against other dudes that cleared all of them. If that's a good sign I am not sure but it was fun.

We also raced on a blow up parcour course and had drag races with a bungee cord attached. The bungee cord thing was fun and after I played it against a friend and happened to tie the best score of the evening as well I had to use the bounciness of the mat and did a front flip on the way back as requested by the other exchange student :D

The night flew by real quick and all the sudden it was 4am and time to go home.

It was a super great night and then I slept until 12:30pm today.

Today was a really relaxed day and I just did my laundry, talked to my family and ate :)

Trackmeets

This week was only a 4 school day week, which was quite nice. We had Friday off since it was good Friday.

The week was rather uneventful except for the two track meets I was able to attend.

On Tuesday we had a dual meet in Huntington itself. It was my very first track meet so I was as excited as nervous about it.

All in all I can say it went somewhat well for me and I'm glad that I know now how those things work.

Participating in 4 events, so I had quite a lot going on. 

Before my first race I already got two long jumps in. Then I was running in a 4x800m race. My 800m took me 2:29 so I was really unhappy about that. But at least there is room for improvement.

Then I took another two jumps into the sand and ended up having as my longest jump 16feet 9inches. I guess considering the amount of preparation I had for this event, almost none, that is acceptable but it did not make me happy.

Then the only good race for me for the day came. It was the 400m race.

Starting in the JV section I was able to win the race with a time of 59.2s therefore achieving my goal of breaking the 60s mark.

Followed by a longer waiting period, during which all of us were freezing, I participated in the 4x400m.

I ran a 62s split leaving me really unhappy with my own finish of the race. But I knew all I can change is doing better next time so I just went with it.

Here are two pictures taken during my first race, the 4x800m 

After this meet I was really tired and sore for the next few days, which made practice the following days not so much fun.

On Saturday I was able to run in another race. We went to Fort Wayne to North Side High School.

It was a bigger meet and there were around 16 teams there.

I only ran one race, the 400m in the DMR, which is a race split up into a 1200m, 400m 800m and 1600m ran by a group of 4 runners.

It was a really long day since we drove a total of almost 2 hours, stayed there for about 6h and all I did was warming up and cooling down for a total of 30minutes, stretching for 15minutes and actually racing for only 57.6 seconds. This time isn't official, since it's only a split but for me it is setting my PR over the 400m two times in one week which made me quite happy.

Today, Sunday we went to church in the morning and then had lunch.

We ate in McAllisters and I got a sandwich with "swiss cheese" and beef. I am pretty sure the "swiss cheese" is actually Emmentaler by the taste but I always have to laugh when I think about how many cheeses are swiss and what is considered a general swiss cheese here in the US. The Sandwich was followed by one of the biggest cookies I ever had which was great :)

And this concludes my week.

I hope everybody had a happy easter and a wonderful time

Springbreak 2k17

Springbreak didn’t even start right away. During the winter we had some off days because of snow, cold or fog (I’m still amazed that something like this happens) so we had to make up 3 school days.

Nothing special happened and I just went to school Monday through Wednesday and Thursday we were supposed to have a Track meet. I was really looking forward to this since it would have been the first meet I could run. But Indiana weather decided that it wasn’t a good day for a meet and let it rain and we had thunderstorms as well as reported tornado touchdowns all over the mid-west, not in Huntington though.

Friday we went to buy a „toy“. So I got to go to a gunshop for the first time since I have been here. Well not the first time actually, but the one I was in in Nashville didn’t have any guns in it.

Im still amazed by what can be bought just over the counter and we had a good laught when we saw the target throwing machines having a ruber tube around to mark the radius where a person could get hit in the leg.

Then the weekend flew by and we had spent some time in Fort Wayne too.

On Monday we did some work on the bookshelf for the downstairs and it’s crazy how many types of different little tools can be handy for such a thing. I enjoyed building somethign with my hands again since I haven’t really done that in quite a while.

Tuesday was a good day too. Dad and I went to Chicago. We spent about 5 hours in the Field Museum which was really impressive and had a great amount of different exhibitions and pieces in those. I really enjoyed the ones about the dinosours, the meteorites and the different tribes of central and south america.

After our museum visit we took a walk into downtown and paid „the Bean“ a little visit and spent some time outside in the sun before we had to get on our way back to beat the rush hour traffic.

On our way back I got dropped off in Plymouth where I stayed until Friday.

I’m glad that I could spend some time there. I always enjoy being with other exchange students. We talked an awful lot about our exchange which is coming to an end and what we experienced and learned. We also went to the movies and saw Kong. All in all we thought it’s a good movie and it has real pretty sunset pictures J

We also went running in the rain and wind.

After coming home on Friday I went to Fort Wayne again with my liaison and after lunch we had some fantastic ice cream.

And then the weekend came again. This weekend we went to Cincinnati. We went there for a surprise birthday party for my mum but she didn’t know about it until all the children and her siblings welcomed her. It was a lot of fun and I got to meet her siblings for the first time as well as see all my hostsiblings again, which is really nice since I only saw the ones living a little further away once so far.

We spent the night in a Hotel and today we went back to my hostbrothers house for breakfast before we went to downtown Cincinnati where we walked around in the beautiful weather and warm sunshine, had a good lunch and fantastic ice cream after and then it was time already to say goodbye and head home which means a 3 hour drive. And just like that springbreak was over and I will be going back to school tomorrow.

The only picture I took in Cincinnati...