Sorry but I won't maybe able to post my daily occupations during a while, I on't have wifi on my computer for a while! Family incomprehension...

Monday October 27^th

Return to school ! I had to wake up at 6am because I'm trying basketball and we have conditioning in the morning... In fact it's another word for dying! We sprinted during 40 minutes through different exercises.. I needed time at the end to remember how to breath! So of course I was red when I arrived in class! Nothing special, just the normal, boring classes! In spanish we just spent the whole class, copying the vocab and the translation..not very interesting! In math class, we began a new chapter, trigonometry... and I already studied part of that last year so for once I wasn't the last one! I also continue my new project in art class. That's it! Because after lunch, all the people who had government class (around 40 kids), mostly seniors (I was almost the only junior) went to a field trip to the Auburn courthouse! I was exited to see how it was gonna be in a real court and in fact it was exactly like in the movies! The judge with his “dress”, the lawyers (big and serious guys) and the defendant, most of the time they came from jail. Unfortunately, it was almost only drink cases or drug.. no exited crime (I know it's horrible to say that !) And 7 cases of drunk wasn't funny at the end.. but a good experience! As soon as I arrived at school, I went to the gym because it was my first real basketball practice!!! At the beginning, I felt so stupid because I wasn't able to do anything.. like dribble with 2 balls ! Impossible ! But then we did some rotations, group positions, shoots... and I actually wasn't horrible! The coach even told me I played really good! I still don't know if I will do it or not because Tessje told me that she was going to play in a volleyball club and like I really miss volleyball I'd like to do it. But for now, as I don't know I will do both (volleyball is only on thursday).

Scared but ready for tomorrow morning!

Dekalb county courthouse

Sunday October 26^th

Last day of vacation! Maddy drove me home around 9 and I just chilled at home until the afternoon. After lunch, all the family (except Terry dad who's working on the bathroom) left for the corn maze! But when we arrived we discovered that it will only opens at 2. So before that, we went to the pumpkin farm to choose some pumpkins to carve for halloween! Of course I took 1 hour to choose mine..but I had an excuse ! It will probably be my first and last pumpkin ever !

me and my choice of pumpkins !

we finally chose ours !

(we don't do it in Switzerland) I finally found one, for 6$. Then we returned to the corn maze, that was open by the time. We decided to do the long one, 45 minutes. I began with Teri mom and Delaney, but after 5 minutes, I lost them. I turned around, alone, for a long time. I finally found mason. We turned a bit more and finally went out..by the entrance!

lost in the corn maze,,, it was a sunny, hot day !

Wrong exit! We returned but this time we grabbed a map. And we finally found our way out of this maze. We also did the short one, 20 minutes and I had the map so we did it even quicker! And the people who were lost even followed us! We also played other games too.

one of the other game we played

 At home, we played a new game with Mason, called “Circle”. Addictive! We played all evening !

The maze seen from the top... big I know! (the colts are a football team in Indianapolis )

Saturday October 25^th

I slept until 11 this morning ! And I continued my lazy day by reading my book, on the floor next to the big windows, on the sun, all afternoon! I try to read in english and like everybody says that “the fault is our stars” is amazing, I began to read it in english. I had issues to understand it at the beginning, but now it's going better and I'm really into it! We had to tidy our room with Delaney and just after, we left to the last volleyball sectional game! If they win this game, they will be the sectional champions, and they will go on regionals. If they lose, it's over. It was pretty far so we only arrived after 1.30. Unfortunately, they lost in 3 sets. Each one was really close, 22-25, 23-25, 20-25. They actually played really well but the other team was also really good and to be honest, really lucky. So no more volleyball for the rest of my high school year.. that's a really sad thing to say! But I'm sure I will enjoy the other sports!

On our way back home, we stopped at a shop, where we bought accessories for the new bathroom. We also stopped at Target and Payless, where I bought some winter boots. As soon as I arrived at home, Tereza came with Maddy to pick me up. With them, their family and Jackie, we went to Fort Wayne, to a haunted house. We had to wait 2 hours in the line! But it was really good so we didn't regret! In our group, we were 6: Maddy, Tereza, Me, Jackie, and Maddy's parents. We had to walk through the path in the haunted house, I was the second one, just after Maddy's stepfather. I grabbed his shirt during all the “visit”, screaming and jumping! It was really scary! 

the name of the place we went to

People came from nowhere, dressed like evil poppets or crazy doctors, they grabbed our feet, jumped on us.. I screamed like a baby...but not as much as Maddy! She was terrified! And Tereza just ran into all the walls! We were really tired after being so scared that when we arrived at Tereza's house, everybody went to bed. With Jacky and Tereza, I began to watch a movie with Brad Bitt who was killing some zombies in New York (I think it was called World War Z) but after 30 minutes, I was just too tired and I went to bed.

Friday October 24^th

Last game at the water park ! We enjoyed our last slides, even if there were a lot more people. Around 11.30, we finally left the park! For lunch, we stopped at Taco Bell and Steak'n Shake (the amazing milkshakes!). After 2.30 hours in the car we arrived at home where we quickly have dinner before we left for the football game. It was the first football sectional game, so everybody was very exited! Like always, I just loved this game. I love football and I love this atmosphere, everybody cheering for his team, talking with my new friends... It's some of my favorite moments !

And we won! 41-7! which mean, farther in the sectionals! Congratulations blazers!

Thursday October 23^rd

First wake up in the water park hotel! We had breakfast in our room and then we returned to the water park. We stayed here for the whole morning and then after lunch, we left to Sandusky where we walked, watching the Erie Lake. 2 islands farther it was Canada! We decided to go see the Marblehead Lighthouse. It was really beautiful! This big white lighthouse, the blue sky and colorful trees... We took some pictures, played on the rocks..a good afternoon !

I look really tall on this picture... are maybe they look really small !

Then we returned to the water park for a while. On the evening, we ate outside. We found online a restaurant alled “the pie factory” that sounded really good but when we arrived there was no space to sit so we just bought a pie and left. They brought me to “five guys” a very good hamburger “fastfood-restaurant”. It's the same I went to in Washington when I visited Juliette. And like the last time...I loved it! The hamburgers are homemade and just so good! I ate mine in like 30 seconds! And they have a pop machine incredible! More than 50 different flavors! I discovered Fanta cherry, strawberry, fruit punch, lime, raspberry, peach... Amazing!

Chocolate and peanut butter pie

AMAZING HAMBURGERS IN FIVE GUYS !

Wednesday October 22^nd

With Tereza we decided to to a bit sport this morning. As Tereza's hostmom works in a fitness center...we decided to go with her! We did 1 hour of zumba. I really liked it! It didn't look very hard but jumping during one hour was tiring! Then as we still had time, we played a bit basketball, volleyball and went to the fitness room, doing some running, push ups... I haven't done sport for 2 weeks, since the last volleyball game so it was really good to do a bit again!

Then Teri mom came to pick me up and at home, I packed really fast because we were leaving to a water park! After 2 hours of driving, we arrived at kalahari, a huge water park in Ohio. It was like twice the size of Aquaparc. (maybe a bit less) There were a lazy river, a lot of slides, a waves pool, hot tub... We left our bags at the hotel, which is all on the theme Africa. We spent the whole afternoon and evening, swimming and enjoying the slides. We were almost the only ones! There were maybe 20 persons in the entire park! Maybe because Eastside is one of the only school that has 2 break weeks!

the water park

Tuesday October 21^st

I don't really remember what I did in the morning, I think nothing special! I write that 4 days after so... I know that a bit before 4pm, Tereza came to pick me up because I went to the first volleyball sectional game! The game was 1h10 away so I slept on the sport bus. Like only varsity is playing sectional, I didn't have to be here, but I wanted to cheer for my team! They won the game! Next one on saturday! Then all the team and me went to Taco Bell to celebrate that. Finally I slept at Tereza's house. We watched american pie, eating candy and chocolate.

Monday October 20^th

I slept until 11 this morning ! I was so tired from my weekend! We had Lucy, Jayci and Tate at our home again. Tate just had a surgery so he had a plaster cast. I spent the whole morning doing my diary because I was late and then I skyped with my dear family and grandparents...it was so good to see them again! After lunch, we had a girl afternoon: we left to Walmart, where there is a nail spa.

Delaney and I at the nail spa

Very nice vietnamese girls took care of us, we were sitting in a massage chair, while they were massing our feet and “polishing” our nails. Then we did our hands. We all chose the same color! Teri mom then decided to make me discover the milkshakes from “Steak'n Shake”. They are amazing! With a lot of sugar but so good! We finally went to the mall to do a bit shopping. I found 2 jeans, 15 bucks each, slim and...long enough! Which is really rare in here! They usually don't know tall and skinny people! We met Donna and some of her friends at an italian restaurant. Very good! But like I just had a huge milkshake I wasn't really hungry. They also made me try the “Debrand” chocolates. Almost as good as the swiss chocolate! Just kidding, they were really good!

first american milkshake !

We left all together to the FortWayne's theater. Because Teri mom invited me and Delaney to MAMMA MIA ! The show was amazing! I'm never bored of seeing it! And the theater was so beautiful ! Amazing night !

 MORE PICTURES OF MY AMAZING WEEK END IN CHICAGO !

Sunday 19^th of October

Last day in Chicago.. I'm sad, it was so good! But I was decided to enjoy this last day as much as I could ! And I did! First we woke up in our amazing hotel... I slept like a baby, no dirty sheets, no drunk guys.. perfect! We had a delicious breakfast, pancakes, fruits, bread, cakes... At 10.15 we all met in the hall to take the bus.. but Queen was late so missed the bus and we all had to wait 20 more minutes. We were all kind of mad because we lost time for our last day for a stupid reason! But 20 minutes after we finally took the bus to the airport where we took the subway to downtown. Here we separated in 2 groups: The first one will go to the aquarium and the museum (both are expensive) and the second group will go to the Chicago zoo(free). I decided to go to the zoo because all the exchange students I like went there and because I already saw a lot of aquariums so I didn't really care. So I left to the zoo with all 6 North Indiana's students and 5 from South Indiana. We even found the “Geneva avenue”! In chicago!

geneva street !

It was the perfect weather, all trees were orange, it wasn't too cold..it even smelled fall! I love this smell! We finally arrived at the Chicago Lincoln Zoo. Like we had to carry our bags all day, we rent 2 carts to put our bad in.

We began by seeing tigers and lions. We were hungry so we bought pretzels that “tasted like german pretzels” (the german girls told us that). We also saw the gorillas..they were my favorite! They are so intelligent! We then arrived on a bridge in the middle of the zoo... the view looked exactly like Central Park. So beautiful!

Like I wanted a memory of this day, I went to the photo booth where I took pictures with Laureen, Kendall and Tessje. They are really funny! We finished our visit by seeing the giraffes and otters (!). Then we just went to tired to walk to our next stop so we decided to take a taxi. We had to separate in 3 groups. One went with Stephanie, one with Kendall (because she's american and speaks english) and one with me because...I don't know why! I'm always scared by the taxi drivers so I discretely looked at his license to know his name... Something-B.-Ali! Stupid but we laughed about that after! The taxi is really cheap ! Less than 10 bucks for 5 people! He drove us to the Cheesecake factory, a really good cheesecake restaurant. I think I ate cheesecake here for the first time and it was..amazing! In the shop, there were at least 20 differents cheesecake flavors, all looked amazing. I took Key lime and I just loved it !

Then the girls from South Indiana left to join the rest of their group and we left to the train station (our train was 2 hours before theirs). On our way, we found one of these guys that paint their face and stay without moving for a long time. He was really good! We were too lazy to continue to walk so we took another taxi to McDonald. Like I talked about my chicken nuggets all weekend long, we finally went just for me!

I ate 22 chicken nuggets just for me.. I felt fat at this moment!

Our train this time had 2 floors and we went on the second...so comfortable that I fell asleep immediately! At home, I quickly tell everybody about what I did in Chicago before going to bed.

Saturday October 20^th

I have to tell what happened during the night... Stephanie told us she went to the bathroom and she stepped on puke... then a drunk guy was sitting in the middle of the hallway, in his underwear and he was laughing because he was locked out... so time to leave this hostel! Stephanie managed to have her money back and we left. As we needed to find a place to have breakfast, we went to McDonald where I had pancakes and a disgusting hot chocolate. We took the subway during 45 minutes to go to our next hotel and we discovered it was...an Hampton Inn ! Clean, free coffee, towels, no drunk people, nice staff.. perfect hotel! We had 20 minutes to install and then we left to join the boys and Elizabeth who already were at the bean. When we arrived downtown..I finally saw one of the things I wanted to see the most..THE SILVER BEAN! 

a swiss girl in chicago !

Of course I took 200 pictures because I mean, it's THE thing everybody wants to see! And it's why I was so surprise that almost nobody here knew about it! After the bean, it was shopping time! We walked all long on the Michigan Avenue. I already said it but..OMG it really looked like New York! All these skyscrapers, in the fall colors, the american flags everywhere, all these famous shops everywhere.. It's awesome!

We walked during at least 30 minutes and then we arrived at the water tower, one of the only monuments that stayed after the Chicago fire. We separate again in different groups, I stayed with my NI girls. I knew we were supposed to mix more but I felt so good with the girls I already knew that I didn't want to go with other girls! We decided to go to the mall and eat there, in M Burger. I've never tried before but it's pretty good and cheap! We began to go on different shops, Forever 21, Wetseal, American Eagle, Body shop... All amazing places! In body shop, I wanted to buy a body cream but I didn't know which one so I just tried all! At the end I couldn't smell anything anymore! So I didn't buy anything. And as I wanted to be careful with my money because I already spent a lot, I decided to not buy anything today. In sephora, I also tried all make ups! The staff looked at me so bad because they knew I wasn't going to buy anything but...fun to do! Finally I returned buying one of the cream I found before, and not in purpose split a whole box of cream on the floor! Fortunately I wasn't in trouble. Then we separate again, I just stayed with Laureen. We hung out a bit together, doing more shopping...and then it was time to go meeting the others in the restaurant. As we didn't want to pay a taxi, we decided to walk the 30 minutes back. It was another magic moment...walking in the street in Chicago, it was cold outside but we were warm with our big winter coats and a hot coffee in our hands...I felt this amazing feeling, the same that I feel at Christmas time! I felt as if it was christmas...I was so happy! Another magic moment..I just loved this atmosphere! On our way to the restaurant, we stopped at the bean. There were almost nobody this night ! We took other pictures, it was awesome ! Then we had to search a bit for the restaurant but it wasn't very far and we met the rest of the group. The restaurant, “Giordano's” is very famous in Chicago for their amazing pizzas...and they actually were amazing! It was the biggest pizzas I've ever seen! Like 6 cm large! And soooooo good !

huge pizzas hein?

When we finally finished, we came back to our amazing hotel...and we took a shower because this time we had towels and a giant, and CLEAN bed! We all slept like babies!

Friday 17^th of October

Let's go to the windy city! I woke up at 5.45 because at 6.50 we had to met Stephanie and the other exchange students from North Indiana at the train station. Unfortunately, our train was 30 minutes late so we had time to go buy breakfast at the gas station. Then I met Queen, from Vietnam, (I have no idea how to write her name in the right way but it sound like “queen” so I will call her like this). There also were Laura (spain), Laureen (germany), Tessje and Kendall who I already knew.

And of course my favorite, Stephanie! (our AC)

6 exchange students from North Indiana, ready to discover the windy city!

 Our train was pretty big, we had a lot more room in it than the swiss ones! I was really tired because I only slept 4 hours last night (Mason came in my bed and we talked a long time) but I was so exited to go to Chicago that I couldn't sleep! So I just talked with the other students and Stephanie about our life here. It was super to hear again the experience that other teenager are living in the same time as me ! After 3 long hours, we finally arrived in the Union Station..in CHICAGO!!! 

When we went out, it was like a movie: huge buildings, big roads, people walking very fast, taxis, shops... In fact I found that it looked exactly like New York...in a bit smaller! The weather wasn't as bad as I thought, of course it was cloudy but it was around 15 degrees celcius so not too bad for this season in Chicago! We took the subway to go leaving our bags at our hostel. The subway also is like in the movies: Long, grey, and hard to understand! There were around 6 different lines, by colors, in every direction...We bought a pass for 3 days because the subway in here is very expensive (2.50$ each time). After 15 minutes, we arrived in our station. Our hostel was 5 minutes away from the famous baseball field. Just in case, a hostel is the bottom of the hotel chain... Fancy hotel-hotel-youth hotel-hostel. But when we arrived we couldn't see our rooms because we were too early so we just left our bags in an empty one and we left to return to downtown. Everybody was hungry so we decided to go to the Hard Rock café. It was the first time I went to a Hard Rock café and my first time was in Chicago! I just loved it! There were clothes that stars wore on concerts all over the walls, rock musics on TV everywhere, signatures from celebrities...it was awesome! We commended hamburgers and french fries and it was yummy! When we finally left, just behind, there were a famous McDonald, on 2 floors..the biggest I've ever seen!

And just next to that, another restaurant very special.. When we came into, it was like if we just arrived in the jungle! There were trees everywhere, aquariums, plastic monkeys that moved, waterfalls, crocodiles...

the front of the restaurant

The other exchange students from South Indiana just arrived so we went to the Willis Tower to meet them. The Willis Tower is one of the biggest in Chicago (it's what I understood) and at the top there is like a glass box where you can stand and you can see all the city under you.

exchange students in chicago !

 
 

I was really exited to see it! But unfortunate there were too many people and the only way we could go was paying 40$. I stilll wanted to go but nobody in my group wanted so I didn't go (which I regret now). 4 girls in the group from South Indiana didn't want to go either so with them, we walked a bit around the Willis Tower and like we were all tired, we decided to sit in a Starbuck. When the other group was finally done, we all met to take a water taxi. In the group from South Indiana: 2 girls from Brazil, 2 girls form Thailand, 3 persons from Germany, 3 from Australia, 1 from Belgium, 1 from Poland and 2 form Korea. They all were very nice. With the boat, we navigated through Chicago on the Chicago River, we were in the middle of the city ! So beautiful! The boat drove us to Navy Pier. It's a

1,010 m long pier on the Chicago shoreline of Lake Michigan. We separated in different groups, I stayed with my group from NI. We first walked a bit on the pier. It was so beautiful! We saw all the city behind us, we were next to the lake... We decided to go buying souvenirs in the shopping dome. I bought a sweatshirt “Chicago” and christmas gifs for my dear brothers. Then we returned outside. We decided to do the Ferris wheel. All the city under us, with the first lights on the evening...how to describe it? This city is just amazing!

the ferris wheel behind me

We were hungry so we went back inside to buy some food and look at the shops. We also went to the botanic dome, a huge dome full of plants, water...it was so peaceful!

Like we had time left, we returned outside and...I saw the most beautiful thing I've ever seen! Chicago in the night. A dream. We could see all the city, in the night, with hundreds of lights everywhere. It was like on the postal cards, it was magic. We took a lot of picture to remember this incredible view and the chance we had to be here. Then we began to walk on the navy pier, watching the view, listening the music that the restaurants were playing... we finished our walk with a group hug, and we sat during a while to enjoy each second of this moment. I hope I will remember my all life what I felt at this moment..just happiness.

As it was time to go back, we took a group picture with all the 21 exchange students and we returned to the subway station.

all 21 of us plus the 3 ACs

The boys went to another hotel so we left them. When we arrived, we discovered the rooms... not the dream! The room on the basement was just next to the living room where there were a bunch of drunk guys... the rooms in the first floor were...dirty. There were boxes with chemical product and dead insects at the bottom of each bed, the sheets were grey with weird dirty sports. We wanted to take a shower but there weren't any towels. The bathroom was small with hairs everywhere and a shoe in the shower... Nobody was really exited about spending the night here but..not other option! There were french students in the hostel too! I wanted to talk to them but they were arguing so it wasn't the good moment to talk to them! Just as we were going to sleep, a guy came into a room to ask us...if we wanted some beers! Stephanie quickly answered them that we were under age and he left! Good night!

Thursday 16^th of October

Even if it's better, my wrist and my elbow still hurt this morning... Hopefully, I didn't really do anything so I didn't need them! We spent the whole morning watching TV, Ghost Whisperer, Criminal Minds (creepy show)... It was fun ! After lunch (we ate delicious chicken finger!), everybody left for different activities, so I was alone at home.. I watched TV (again I know, that's a lot of TV) while I was doing sport. Tessje arrived in the middle of my abs... my hair was wet and I was supposed to be ready to leave! I dressed up very fast and get in the car. But after 5 minutes, I realized I forgot to leave my phone at home; Terry dad needs it to change it with a new one because it doesn't work anymore... So we had to come back for me and we were late for the party. Paige (our volleyball coach (I know I criticized her a lot but finally she's kind of nice)) had a party for the JV team at her house. We ate pizzas while we were watching “mean girls”, in french “lolita malgré moi”. Not an amazing movie but pretty funny ! Then other girls arrived and we watched “pitch perfect” (and not “peach” like I thought) because everybody is always talking about that and I've never seen it. It's not the best movie I've ever seen but it's cool. Finally we decided to play a game outside, in the dark. We were on teams of 2, one team was counting, the other hided. Then we had to join to the safe place without beeing seen by the team who was searching. I have to precise that we played that in an isolate farm, in the night, with dogs around and scary noises... And I just spent the whole morning watching scary shows! I was really freaking out! But it was very fun.

Kent (Tessje's host dad) came to pick us up at 9.30. At home I had to charge my new phone. But each time we tried with Terry dad, it didn't work. We had to spend 1 hour on the phone, talking with 3 different persons before we finally arrived to make it work. But now I have my new phone !!!

And another amazing event...TOMORROW I WILL GO TO CHICAGO !!!!!!

Wednesday 15^th of October

I finally could wake up late because no kids this morning ! I decided to go shooting and playing basketball outside with Mason. I tried to shoot but i'm definitively not good for that ! At school I'm kind of good but here I missed all my shoots! Then we played 1/1 and actually we had the same score ! I had like 200 more occasions than mason but like I missed everthing it was fair!

At the end, we were playing a “violent” basketball, pushing each other... and I don't really know how it happened but I fell on the gravel pretty badly. I hurt my wrist and my elbow. I didn't do anything else for the rest of the day, chilling around with ice on my wrist. Oh and I built an Ikea shelf for my room. (here they don't pronouce “Ikéa” but “Aikia”)

 All these amazing girls I spent the season with... I'm so happy I had the chance to know each one of them and to be able to play with them... It will stay an amazing memory forever...