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 ^^