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 :)