Other pictures from our past track meets..

Eastside Lady Blazers Seniors

Finally found a picture of me doing high jump!

 Tuesday's meet, when I won the 800m! (I passed Laura at the very end!)

Wednesday April 29^th

Easy day at track, only 30 minutes. However my shin splints hurt really bad, so I didn't run really fast... Why don't they wanna go away! I've had them since the beginning of track season!

After practice, I went to Tessje's house and from there, we went to Bryan, Ohio, to get spray tanned!

That was the first time I did it, and it was a bit weird, but I really liked the result! Right now I look like a mexican, but afte rmy shower tomorrow, I should look nicely tanned!

Tuesday April 28^th

After school, we had our third “away meet”, at Angola. Angola is a huge school, like 3 times our size! It's always harder to run against big schools, because as they have a lot more people to chose from, the runners are usually really good... It was a very nice day, sunny and warm. I ran the 4x800m relay again. I was first leg (first runner), and surprisingly, I kept up with my Angola rival! I even passed her! However the other girls of my team didn't and so we lost. Then I did my high jump. I did better than saturday! (in a way, I sucked so bad on saturday that it wasn't really hard to do better!) I jumped 4'8'', my average height.
Finally the event I was the most nervous about: my 800m. We were 7 runners. 3 from Eastside, and 4 from Angola. After the first lap, I was second, and the girl in front of me was like 20m in front. This girl, Laura, is also an exchange student from CHI. I know her really well, I went to Chicago and on the cruise with her. When I saw her in front of me, I decided that there was no way she was going to beat me, so I gave everything I had, I made up the 20 meters (which in a race is a lot!) and I passed her! I kept up my sprint until the end of the race and...I GOT 1^st! I was so proud of myself, I'd never won a race before!

So I was nervous for nothing, it actually was a really good day!
Way to progress in track!
PS: Even if at the beginning of the season, I didn't feel quite as open with my track team as I was with my basketball one, now it is much better. I make jokes with the coaches all the time, I talk to a lot more people... Track is hard but definitively fun!

(1^st! 1^St! 1^St! 1^St! 1^St! 1^St! 1^St!!!!!!!!!)

Sunday April 26^th

I spent my entire day playing baseball. Literally, at 8.30am when I woke up, Mason and I went outside and practiced throwing and hitting. It was only my second “practice”, and I made big progresses! I am still a horrible pitcher, but I can catch pretty well, and even if I hit more like a golfer than a baseball player, my balls go pretty far! We played like this until noon, and then I went to the park with the Kitchen's. I played for a few hours with the kids in the playground, chasing them...It's more tiring than a track practice!
Back home, we watched a baseball movie, and then at 9pm, we returned outside and played a bit more.

I improved a lot and I really enjoyed playing this american sport!

Tate is just the cutest boy ever!

Ceramic projects so far..

Saturday April 25^th

Turtletown Relay at Churubusco today! So I met the rest of the team at 7am at the school...yep, 7am at the school on a saturday, not the happiest thing in the world! After 45 minutes of bus, we arrived at Busco. It was only a girl competition, but 23 teams were competing! That means lots of girl! Every team had a tent for its runners, so we put our big Eastside tent, and another camping tent. It was freezing.^th . Just to show how good the other teams were! My next event, the 800m, was only 4 hours later, so I had to stay there, in the rain and the cold, and wait to run..how exciting. And it lasted twice longer because girls from each division ran each event, and they were so many of us that we had to do like 4 heats!

One of the first event was high jump for black division. We were separated in 2 divisions: gold for the bigger schools, black for the smaller ones (still bigger than us!). It was maybe 3 degrees Celcius outside, and a cold rain started..I only brought my spandex and tank top jersey on...I sucked. I don't know if it is because of the cold, or just because of me, but I didn't even pass 4'6''...Emma, who is really good, finished 5

I took a little nap in our camping tent, and woke up right before my 800m..I was still half asleep on the starting line!

We had 2 heats: the first one with the less goods, the second one with the best runners...I don't know why, but I had to run with the best runners! So most of them usually run it in a 2'30'' !

I got 9^th out of 12, and I was really happy with it! I PR! My time: 2'46''.

Then last race of the day was the 4x400 relay. I was second leg. We finished last. I don't think I did specially bad, but I didn't do amazing, and the other girls either...

At the end, our Eastside team got 7^th which isn't amazing but not bad either.
THIS.DAY.WAS.SO.COLD!

Back home, I took a long & WARM shower, and then Tessje, Kendall and her boyfriend came pick me up to go to the movies. We watched “The Longest Ride”. I knew that it was gonna be one of these girly love stories (“cucu la praline” as Mamie would say), but I really likes it.

Friday April 24^th

We didn't have practice on wednesday, and I worked only on high jump yesterday, so I was a bit out of shape today! Hopefully, as the guys had a meet, we did a chill practice, where we played ultimate with the girls...Mentally getting ready for the hard meet we are going to have tomorrow....

Tuesday April 21^st

I had a busy day! Test in spanish, test over the Vietnam war in History...Highlight of the day, I asked someone to prom! OK, it was a girl, so don't start freaking out dad... So Abby, my friend, doesn't want to go to prom because her boyfriend is too old to go with her. We really want her to come with us, and have fun with her friends, but she said only if we officially asked her...So we did! Tereza and I went to a pet store, and we bought 3 fish. Then we wrote on the aquarium: “Out of all the fish in the sea, will you go to prom with me?” Next to that, we also made a collage where she could check “yes” or “no”. Between 6^th and 7^th period, we hid it in her locker and she saw it when she opened it! She laughed a lot! She didn't really answer because she still doesn't have a dress or anything, but she said she would think about it!

Tereza and I asking Abby to prom

Then came practice...Oh My Goodness! H.A.R.D practice. After our 15 minutes practice, we went on the track to take times. We ran 12 400m. (By running I mean sprinting.) and we only had 1 minute and a half break in between! So 4800m sprinting... It felt awful, my throat hurt, and I felt like my legs would stop carrying me! After that we ran an extra 10 minutes and we did 99 push ups... Yep, as I said, hard.

Monday April 20^th

Visa sent! Once thing less on my mind! We had 3 new girls joining our distance team today! We are maybe gonna have a real team finally!

Saturday April 18^th

I had a lot of homework to do for this day! I wrote a research project about Martin Luther King, I had a spanish test...It was a super warm day, so I stopped studying for a bit, to play with the Kitchen's. We played baseball, 4 squares... They even put a piece of plastic at the bottom of their slide, and with water and soap on it, we slid! It was awesome! I spent the rest of the afternoon working on my visa status change...Tons of paper to fill with questions like “Have you ever tortured someone”, paper to scans... I have to say, I love America, but their administration isn't the easiest thing to deal with !

Friday April 17^th

Senior trip! We met at 7am at school, and we had breakfast in the theater room. (eggs, toasts, sausages...a real american breakfast!) Then they announced the awards (we voted a few weeks ago for some categories: most outgoing, most athletic...). After that it was finally time to leave! We had 2 buses, full of young teenagers. After 2 hours, we stopped at a rest area and then 1 hour and a half later we arrived finally in Chicago!

The buses dropped us on Michigan Avenue, the street where all the shops are. The teachers just told us to meet them in this same street at 5pm and we were free to go! I stayed with Tereza, Tessje and Abby. We started by doing some shopping, and we spent at least an hour in Victoria Secret! Then we took a cap (it was the first time that Abby took one and she was freaking out!) to the Willis Towers. I learned that it's the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere! 103 floors. In 60 seconds, we were at the top. The view was just amazing!

We could see all over the city, 360 degrees...The best part was that they had some glass “cage”, and when you stand up on the glass, you have the entire city under your feet! It's scary but it was an incredible feeling!

After a bit, we came back down and left. Another thing that we really wanted to see was the bean, so we decided to walk there. After 30 minutes we arrived in the Millenium Park, where the bean is. It was so much better than when I came in October! There were less people, it was sunny...

After taking a few pictures, we left again, and walked another 30 minutes to the Rainforest Café. It's a very special restaurant, with fake trees and animals everywhere! The ceiling is a giant sky, and when people bring you your food, you can hear gorillas screaming! Oh and there are giant aquariums in the middle of the room!

We also went to the Hard Rock Café. Then we didn't want to walk anymore, so we took another cap that brought us to the Cheesecake factory. It was as good as I remembered! These cheesecake are amazing, they just melt in your mouth! I bought 2 of them this time! We finished our day by going to Gino's East, the famous pizza restaurant.

After that we had to leave, so we met the rest of the group on Michigan Avenue and we took the buses back to Butler.
I spent an incredible day, walking across Chicago with some of my best friends... I just loved it! Even if I love Butler, I am a big city person!

Thursday April 16^th

Last day at school for the week (we have field trip tomorrow)! During lunch, I left the school to go to a Rotary International meeting. It's an organization like CHI, for exchange students. So I met them at the American Legion center in Butler. There were about 10 people, all between 40-70 years old, they were teacher, librarian, mayor... They asked me questions about my life in Switzerland and here, and we ate there. The food was amazing! I was so happy that I missed the school lunch for that! Taco salad and chocolate cake, yummy! (It lasted for about 1 hour and a half)

we also had our first away track meet at Churubusco. Busco is probably the best team we will run against (they are a really big school), so we knew it was going to be very hard and we were all very nervous...The first race was my 4x800m..and they killed us! We only were 2 groups, one from each school. I am the best runner in our group, and I run a 2'52'', the Busco girls were talking before we started and they said they usually ran a 2'35''! I was freaking out! We lost, they finished 200m in front of us! So when it was time for my 800m, I was scared! I never ran as fast! I ran this race in a 2'46''...6 seconds faster than usually! However it didn't happen as I wanted...I was second the entire race, and I came to the finish line 50m before the third one...there were 2 lines on the floor, and when I passed the first one, I was sure it was the finish line, so I stopped... guess what? It wasn't. I stopped literally 1 meter in front of the real finish line, what gave time to the 3^rd one to catch up and pass me. I couldn't believe I had been so stupid!!! I was so disappointed, and mad at myself! I just made my team lose 2 points, because I didn't know which one to stop at. I never had a race fast like this one, I had an amazing time, and I ruined all of it for a freakin stupid mistake.

For high jump, I finished 2^nd, I jumped 4'8'', emma did 4'10''.

Our girl team lost by 12 points, which isn't bad at all against the best team we will run against.

SO MADDDDDDDDDDDD AT MYSELF!

Wednesday April 15^th

I had to work during the junior high meet today, just putting the bar up each time they made it fall. I couldn't really run today, because right after warm up, my entire legs started to hurt. From my ankle all the way to my hip...

Tuesday April 14^th

Meet day! My second real meet... We competed against Fremont and Hamilton. It was a really nice weather, warm and sunny. We started the meet with the 800m relay..and we were the only team! Neither Fremont or Hamilton had enough girls to run, so before even starting we knew we were 1^st! We could have just jogged it, but we tried to run it as a real race. However, it's harder to go fast when you have no one to compete with! I did 4 seconds slower than last time. Then after a long time, I had my 800m race. We were 2 from Eastside, and 2 from Fremont. I finished it 2^nd! With the same time (2minutes52seconds) as last time. I was proud! Then I went to high jump...I jumped 4'8'' but I couldn't pass 4'10''...not amazing! However Emma (who usually is amazing) did even worse than me so I actually finished 1^st! At the end of the season, if we have 12 varsity points, or if we are one of the 2 best in an event, we receive a letter, a distinction for great work. And with today's wins, I already passed it! And i'm also the 2^nd best in high jump so I have it for sure!

There was such a good atmosphere during the meet between everyone, even with the other teams, and I always feel happy and appreciated during these events! Love it!

Monday April 13^th

I didn't do anything special at school, my spanish teacher announced that she would have to leave because she wasn't good enough (totally true). I ran 1hour15 during practice!

After that, I went to Mindy's house and I made Oreos cake pops...for the first time it actually looked good and it tasted really good too!

Sunday April 12^th

We left for Fort Wayne with Maddy, Tereza and Bri. Bri borrowed her dad's car, a nice red convertible (décapotable). All for girls, in this awesome car, hair in the wind, and loud music...That was what I call a fun car ride! We stopped to eat at Chipotle (kind of Mexican Restaurant) and then we went to the mall to shop for prom shoes. I can't decide if I want heels or flat shoes for prom...

We also went to Tj Maxx a store where you have a lot of different things for really cheap: underwear, clothes, beauty stuffs, bags, shoes...

On the way back we stopped at Dairy Queen for another ice cream.

It was a super girl day, with some of my best friends, and I couldn't ask for a better way to spend my last months here in America. Back home, I played with the little Kitchen's, and helped Mindy making cake balls. Definitively gonna make them when I go back to Switzerland!

Just found that in T's fridge..YOu can buy plain white eggs..never seen that!

Saturday April 11^th

perfect day! I woke up pretty early for a saturday (8am), but as Mason was awake too, we decided to go play outside. It is now officially spring, we were just wearing a t-shirt and we could see the sun, hear the birds...I love spring, honestly!

He taught me how to play baseball. For a while, we just threw and caught the ball, and he told me I was pretty good at it! Then I learned how to hit it with the bat...I didn't do too bad (not good either), but it hurts! My hand was burning after that!
Finally we did some pitching...There I can for sure say that I sucked! On the entire bucket of balls, I think I threw 2 in the right way!

Before going home, we stopped at Mindy who showed us the amazing Elsa cake she made for a Frozen party.

Yes, it is a cake!

Then, I took my bike, and I rode to the library to get a new book and say hi to Teri mom who was at her quilt group. On the way back, I stopped at Tessje's house to see how she was doing.. She had been sick for a bit, and I hadn't seen her for too long! And as I'm a good friend, I also brought her some desserts! After all that, Tereza's host parents came to pick me up and drive me to her house. Not long after, Abby came pick up Tereza and I and all 3, we wen't to her house to ride her horse!
Abby has her own horse in her backyard, a big white horse...Tereza rode very well, and freaked me out when the horse and her started running toward me! I ran away, screaming, and I jumped on a gate! Then it was my turn, and you could tell that I'm not made to ride horses! It didn't wanna go to the good direction, started to run when I didn't want...But it was a good moment. After that, we stopped quickly at the barn where Abby works and took care of the horses, and we then left to go to church. We went back to Dayspring, the same church I went to a few months ago...the modern church! Once again it was super cool, the rock band singing songs about Jesus, the pastor making jokes and talking very simply, about things from everyday's life...It wasn't boring as the services I went to in Switzerland, and they weren't saying the word “God” every 2 words as I expected. I really liked it!

Rock n'Roll church

Abby had to stay after the service, because she had a meeting about a trip she will do to Nicaragua to the care of kids, and we had to stay with her...It initially was supposed to last 30 minutes...we were there for 1hour45. Boring.

For dinner, we stopped at Dairy Queen, a place I'd never been to before. They are famous for their ice cream and I understand why! It was sooo good! When you buy an ice cream, they will put it upside down, and if it's fall, they give you a new one for free. To show you that their ice cream is real, and not just soft fake preparation.

Also got my grades today... I was pretty happy with them! 

straight As !

Class rank: 1st! best grades of all the juniors!

First Softball Game! 

Friday April 10^th

That was a good day! First, I have to talk about my spanish class: our teacher, for what I saw, does not speak spanish AT ALL! I've only taken one year of spanish, and I have to correct her sometimes! Moreover, we don't do anything in class! For example today, the only thing we did was correcting an activity we did the week before. It took us 10 minutes. And then we didn't do anything for the 40 next ones! It is crazy! You would never chill like this in Switzerland! (and I know it's gonna make u mad dad, because you wanted me to do extra work during my free time, but today I was way too tired for that!) Then I could talk about my chemistry class...we had a fun time! The teacher showed us how to make ice cream...with liquid nitrogen! Unusual! It was awesome to watch! She first mixed normal ingredients, milk, sugar, vanilla...and then when she added the nitrogen, it started to smoke and freeze! After waiting a little bit, we were able to eat it with chocolate syrup and candies!
Next fun part of the day: during track practice, after warm up, we didn't run, we played frisbee for the entire practice! Actually we played Ultimate, a frisbee competition: 2 teams, you can only throw it, not walk and you try, with passes, to cross the field. I sucked at it, but it was fun to play!

Then I watched my first softball game! Our team played Concordia, a bigger school, however we won. I like it better than baseball, it's less boring!
The game was LONG. 2 hours long! 

normal ingredients

While adding liquid nitrogen

Middle state

 

Convertions...

 High jump:

4'0''= 122 cm

4'2''= 127 cm 

4'4''= 132 cm

4'6''= 137 cm

4'8'' = 142 cm (what I jumped indoor meet)

4'10'' = 147 cm (what I jumped yesterday!!!)

5'0''= 152 cm (almost passed it..)

5'1''= 155 cm 

5'2'' = 157 cm (what Emma jumped)

Running:

1 mile = 1600m

2 miles = 3200m

Some pictures from our meet yesterday..

 Running my mile

 Mile again

 800 probably (all the pictures where I look awful come from the 800m...it was the hardest race!)

 The photograph wasn't there when I did high jump, so here are some pictures of Emma doing it...Just to see how it works!

 That is 5'1'' or 5'2'' (2 inches more that what I jumped)...It's high!