The 1st Week

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Hi again!

It's already been over a week since I got here. As of today, I had my first day of school! Which I will get to in my next post (to follow soon), because there is a reason I haven't written anything before this: I barely had any time to do so. From all sides I got invited to do stuff while I still had free time. So I will break down that first week for you.



Sunday (august 17th)
The first day wake-up and there you are. In a strange house with a family of practically strangers. Still a bit dazed from a near 24-hour day of travel and not sure how things should go in the morning. I started with unpacking, giving at least my clothes a place, before I even left my room to see if there was any breakfast out there. Luckily, Ronda was already up and she showed me the way around the kitchen. Relieved that this family was apparently not short on yogurt of any kind, I had my every-day breakfast with a cup of tea. It was pretty relaxed and Ronda even got worried that I was bored a few hours into the morning. But really I was enjoying the peace and quiet after the hectic day I'd had before, so I didn't really mind not going out to do something.

Around the noon hour, Ronja (a former German exchange student of the year 11/12) came out of her room to join us. We got briefly introduced the night before, but now that I was more awake I actually got to know her a little bit and her story about staying here. She's not quite done with travelling yet, since as of after her vacation here, she will be going on a Europe tour by motorcycle.

With still nothing to do, I got called by Kaitlyn to do some grocery shopping at the "Wei-store" (though the sign says 'Weis'). Just to see if I wanted to get something special (they were already extra glad that I wasn't vegetarian, since they had their share of those). Even though I had seen the All American Grocery Stores, I agreed to tag along. Maybe I was a bit bored after all. In the end I didn't get anything special, though.

We ate dinner outside, on the porch. Despite all the rain I had heard about, I hadn't seen a single drop fall from the sky. The weather was actually perfect. Not too hot, not too cold, just good for sitting outside without a van needed to blow directly in your face.

After dinner (mac 'n cheese with hamburger, a la mode), Jim came to me asking if he could "steal me for a minute". Now I admit that got my nerves starting up. I hadn't really talked to Jim before, due to his busy work schedule and the time difference, so from everyone I had met, I knew him the least. But that were his thoughts too, it appeared, because he just wanted to catch up with me and ask me how I liked it so far and where I'd been in America on former trips (honestly even I myself can't recall all the places I set foot on anymore). And that just went on to talking about whatever topic came up. Which really calmed me down, knowing that I was in a family where I didn't have to push to keep conversations going. Because let's face it, that isn't always my strongest point. But I knew right then, that I am at a good place here.



Monday (august 18th)

Feeling half guilty-half relieved that I already found my way into sleeping in till 12, I got down to see a new face at the kitchen table. Taylor, a 10-year-old cousin, was sitting there with Ronda. Getting breakfast, Ronja came out soon after me. Which made the guilt I felt before wash away. I wasn't the only one lazing off for half a day. After getting all started up, Ronja, Taylor and I went for a ride to show me around town. Which didn't take that long. You can drive by Millersburg in a flash if you want to. And if you really want out, Harrisburg is where you need to be. Still there is a pool, of course a school, a Weis and the river nearby to hang around at. Still it didn't take all day to get around and get back home. So we decided to play a game in which you have to create cities and streets with card and get the most points (I forgot the name, but I do know that I totally beat them at it).

Before dinner, a lot more people came in. Vicky, another German exchange student who comes around off-and-on because of her boyfriend here, Nicole, Jim's other daughter, and her two children (Taylor and Alex) and Betty, a friend of Ronda's. Suddenly the house was full. Luckily I'm used to having a lot of people around, so adjusting wasn't a big problem. And like this I could get more adjusted to non-stop English conversation. So far I haven't had any problems understanding everybody, it's just that processing quick replies without slipping in some Dutch actually is harder than it seemed. Speaking as of now, I've had more than one occasion where I was relaxing and just watching some TV, making a comment with Ronja having to ask for what I was saying up to three times before I realized I was talking to her in Dutch and it wasn't the volume of my voice that made her miss what I was trying to tell her. Habits die hard, right?

Either way, the night was 'gemütlich' (they really should have a word for 'gezellig' in this language), and even ended in a spontaneous ALS Ice Bucket challenge by Ronda and Betty truly. (Thank you DAD, that I can join in on that now, too. Thanks a lot.)



Tuesday (august 19th)

My first event. I knew it was coming and I was actually pretty excited, right until the moment that we came down into a bunker filled with guns. Were we really gonna shoot those?

Yes, to "Americanize", we drove up to one of the family's gun-loving friends to go out shooting. Everyone was excited to do it *again* (yes I was the only one that had never even held a gun before, let alone shoot it). And though I'm not a party killer and I'm not really against shooting as a sport or just for fun, I was questioning my morals as a looked around to pick out what I wanted to be shooting some moments later. Though they were really serious about it, so I wasn't frightened that any accidents would happen. And actually then-and-there, it was pretty fun. Though, the lady that I am, I liked the simple hand-gun the best. I could aim it better, not having to balance it against my shoulder, and it felt like I was a police-in-training, practicing to hit a target.

The guy (gosh, I'm bad at names) even assured me that if I ever wanted a private lesson, I could just call and we would go out at the first available time. I'm not sure, but I might just take him up to that.



Wednesday (august 20th)
This morning I had a rather peculiar wake-up call. Namely, a dog wanting to play. That was the last night I didn't check if my door was really closed, out of precaution for jumping dogs. Don't get me wrong though, so far I'm really enjoying having Willy and Lizzy around. They're really sweet and I've only heard them bark once. Not to mention they sit on my lap more than my cat does. Our plan was to ride the ferry. Ronja, Betty and I never had done so, so we stepped into the car. Halfway there though, the weather we were warned for started. The first rain of my stay in little Millersburg. The ferry got canceled, unfortunately. We got some delicious ice cream, though. Which I was very satisfied with. They sure know how to make a cookie dough sundae. Because the ferry trip was canceled, though, we had a free afternoon. So Ronja and I decided to take the car up to the Harrisburg Park Mall and go to a five-dollar movie. Eventually, with a lot of unclear directions scribbled on a paper and signs that notified you only 300m before your exit. But in return we got a private theater, since almost nobody else showed up. And we should be able to find our way back easier, right? Wrong. It's remarkable how easy it is to get lost in a small city without electronic navigation. I'm looking forward to our roadtrip in a few years if we don't manage to get GPS in our car.



Thursday (august 21st)

The week was ending fast and the first school week was drawing close. Especially when I went with Kaitlyn to choose classes for my year at Millersburg High School. It took some puzzling to fit everything I wanted in and I was disappointed to hear that the only class I really wanted (Creative Writing) wasn't offered for the year. Still I got fun classes and I hope I didn't make it too hard for myself, because I'm done with stressing for tests for at least this year after my finals back home. I didn't get into any club yet, but I signed up to be a runner for the school band. Which is a five minute job every Friday night in return for free seats at the game. A fair trade, if you ask me.

Back from school, Ronja and I went on a car adventure once more to another mall in Harrisburg to do some shopping. Where I broadened my poster collection with the lovely Ed Sheeran and got myself some band T-shirts. And where I discovered that my trusted orange card doesn't do much good anywhere besides and ATM. Oh well. I'll just have pull some money out of the wall every once in a while to pay for my needs.

We ate at Garfield's before heading back to Romberger Rd to watch some Netflix with Kait. Which resulted in setting up a to-watch list, seeing my host sister and I both love our horrors and comedies. "Have you seen that one?" "No, I don't think so." "Alright, you need to see that, that's going on the list." I don't think we're gonna be out of things to watch any time this year.




Friday (august 22nd)

It was only until Kait me notified that we'd be going that I got notified that this Friday was "the first day of school". Because what better was there to open the school year than with the first band performance? And Kaitlyn, being in charge of the silks (the girls waving around flags), had to be there early. So me, being the runner, went along with her to get everything ready and set.

I wasn't sure what to expect from a marching band. I was mostly surprised by the kind of songs they played when I immediately recognized them. The Black Parade, Dynamite, you name it. It was all in there and I heard there was more to come during the season. It was overall fun to watch an even more fun to be part of (kinda). The marching band is made up from 6th to 12th graders, so I met a lot of different people all at once. And once it ended I even got invited to have a movie night with two girls in the band (one who is also named Kaitlyn and one named Jess) together with Vicky and Ronja. Which took a start-out of Frozen until the drastic turn to The Dark Night Returns.

Out of the whole day, I was mostly happy to get to know some people from school. I'd have some faces to look for on Monday. And even though I wasn't nervous in any way yet, I knew I'd be glad to know that by the end of the weekend.




Saturday (august 23rd)

Actually I used up this whole day to go bowling with Jim and Ronja. Not because we were at the alley all day, but because we had to get there. When it comes to destinations I'm starting to believe Ronja and I make the dream team of "Getting lost because the only one who's ever been here hasn't been here for two years and the directions are unclear lets just ask the way at this gas station." So no more said, we were only one hour late to our appointment with Jim. Still we got to play three games and I got gradually better every one. Still I couldn't nearly match up to the two professionals I was up against. But I mean, they even had their own bowling balls. I knew from the start I wasn't gonna win any of those matches.

Jim told me, despite that, that I had a pretty good technique. So maybe if I get over there just a little more regularly, I might stand a chance one day.




Sunday (august 24th)

My week-iversery, as Kait called it, had passed. It was the last day of vacation, not counting the opening pep-rally, and it was the first time seeing my family again face-to-face over Skype since I got here. What better way to make the day worthwhile than going to an amusement park? I can't tell you, because that's exactly what we did. Knoebles (Ka-noe-buls) was just an hour away and we drummed up a group of five (Heidi, Kait, Jacob/Jake, Ronja and I) to go over and end the (well, mine, anyway) vacation properly. It was a pay-for-the-rides-you-want-to-ride kind of park, which made me think it was rather small. But despite being a park that was built in the early 1960s and got built up again after getting flooded almost each year, it was rather impressive. The rides were typically only around 2 dollars and worth every penny and the arcade was a whole new event for me, containing games I had never seen before. Especially the one Kait and Jake, and soon Heidi as well, were addicted to, where you have to line up five balls in a row by rolling them into the right holes. Which, with the balls curving and jumping around, is basically just a matter of luck and maybe a tiny bit of skill. But that's what makes them arcade games, right?

Last day of vacation also meant the last time of our eating-mostly-take-out week. So we settled for what was pizza for the third night in a row for Ronja and me. I was afraid this would happen. But hey, it was still vacation, so don't judge me just yet! I'm a band runner, after all, so I'll run those pizza's right off. (No I won't, I don't even have to run as a runner). Kidding, but it'll get better once we settle in the school rhythm. Or so Ronda assured me.

Once back home, though, the facts started to settle in. Tomorrow was gonna be the day. At 7:30 (inhumanly early) that big yellow contraption would stand right at the end of the drive-in. Tomorrow the "student" part of the program would actually start. Nervous? To be honest, no, not really. I knew some faces, I went around school a couple times and it really isn't big enough to get lost. Plus, I have pretty nice classes. The only thing actually bothering me was that damn alarm clock that I didn't want to wind up hearing so early for a full school year.

Well, you can't be lucky all around.

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Photos

The Five-In-A-Row Game
with Jake and Kait