Big Yellow Smelly School Bus

Hellooo Dutch and American friends and family,

I have a lot to tell you (again haha). That means this is going to be a long story.

A couple weekends back Cassidy and I had a pool party at our house. We had such a great time! Just like all the other days here, the weather has been great. It was a beautiful sunny day. After we played volleyball in the pool, we played Twister and pool inside. Playing pool was hilarious because none of us were actually good at it. In the evening the girls stayed for the sleepover which was also really fun.

Last Saturday Debbie, Cassidy and I went to Mc Cormick (it’s a park). Andddd guess what?! I RODE A HORSE! It was awesome and so relaxing. The horse ride lasted an hour and the view was so pretty. There was so much green and the only things we heard were the horses walking, the wind blew through the woods, the water floating in a small stream and the birds chirping. My horse was named Oreo, just like the cookie haha.
After the horse ride, we had a picnic in the grass. A little further were little kids playing on a swing or going down a slide. Next, we went on a hike through the woods to see a small waterfall and cave.

FOOTBALL GAMES! Football games are awesome! Every week there’s a football game and the whole school dresses up. The first game the theme was ‘Safari’. Cassidy, Hannah and I went to Goodwill (a shop were they sell clothes that have already been worn). It’s a really big store and they have all sorts of things. I bought my safari themed clothes there and together with my hat I was ready to go to the game. The first game was a Home Game. All the students sat together in the student section and cheered on the football team. The Monrovia High School cheerleaders were also there. They looked great and did some awesome tricks in the air. Unfortunately we lost the game.
To make up for the loss of the first game, the Football team did great last Friday and won with (somewhere around) 82 -7 from Cascade. This time we dressed up in overalls. It is so fun to stand on the tribune, take funny selfies and laugh with everyone. It really feels like we’re one group and together we sing traditional songs to cheer on the team.
It’s really fun to watch the game and see how everyone tackles, dives and jumps on each other. I might not understand the whole game, but when I see someone from our team run for his life with the ball tightly in his arms, I start cheering and clapping even more. As soon as there is a touchdown all Monrovia fans freak out and everyone is like “YEAHHH Bulldogs, yeahhh, wooohhhooo”.

We’ve had a couple volleyball games already and it was awesome to be in the court. My team hasn’t won any games yet, but I’m positive that will change soon. We are getting better and we are play more and more as a team now. I am really happy I’m in the volleyball team, because I got to learn a new sport, I made new friends and together we have a lot of fun. I also got to experience my first ride in the Big Yellow Smelly School Bus with the volleyball team last week. It was so much better than people had told me it would be haha. It wasn’t smelly, the couches were comfortable and I had enough space. Well, maybe my opinion about the school bus will change when I’ve taken a few more rides in it, haha.
(For the Dutch people the schoolbus is a huge thing, but for Americans it’s the most normal thing in the world. That explains why they thought it was funny that riding an American school bus was on my bucket list J )

Something completely different that happened last week is that I didn’t wake up alone. Okay stop, it’s not what you’re thinking right now. I woke up with a dog next to me. Didn’t see that one coming did you, haha. Ziva came to my room at night and walked around in my room. I tapped on the bed, she jumped on the bed and stayed there for the rest of the night. Ziva is quite a big dog, so she took a lot space, leaving me just enough space to sleep (without moving haha).

Yesterday, Debbie Cassidy and I went to the animal shelter to volunteer again. There were quite a few visitors looking to adopt a cat or dog, so Miranda (the supervisor) didn’t really have the time to explain us everything about the cat room. We led the dogs out to play outside and did the laundry. There wasn’t that much to do, so most of the time we just pet the dogs (Debbie and Cassidy) or pet the cats (ME ME ME ME of course). There are so many young kittens in there. They are adorable! All three of us have said that we wish we could adopt all the animals.
Afterwards we went to Walmart. I finally bought a SIM card, so from now on I am not using my Dutch SIM card anymore. I also bought some clothes, which made me very happy.

Today (Sunday) we went to church for a little while, but Cassidy isn’t feeling well, so the rest of the day we stayed home. It’s nice to have a lazy day once in a while J. Get well soon Cassidy!

This was my update for today!

Love,

Tasha

What Are My Classes Like?

Hi everyone,

I have a lot to tell you. First of all I want to say that I feel so lucky to be here. My dream of living the American life came true and I am so thankful for that!

I already told you which classes I am following, but I couldn't really tell you what they're like yet. Algebra II is easy, because I've had the material already. That makes it easier to work ahead so I won't have any homework. When the teacher saw my homework, he saw that my way of multiplying matrices is different than theirs. He was amazed, because with my way (thank you mrs. Gault) I would get the right matrix as result. My way of multiplying matrices was so much easier than theirs, so from now on the teacher is calling it the Tash-way, haha.

Art is really fun and relaxing. We have sketchbook in which we have to make a drawing every week. That’s our homework assignment. During class we work on a different drawing. Right now we’re working on drawing a room with dimension. As you know I like to be creative, so learning new ways of drawing is really fun.

Chemistry is my third period every day. For my class it’s their first year of chemistry so we start with the basics. This is also pretty easy for me, because I’ve had chemistry for multiple years now. But the teacher is fascinated by how much I already know haha. It’s actually not that bad to get the basics again. It refreshes my memory. The other day I showed them a video in which Harry Potter (actually Daniel Radcliffe) sang a song about all the elements in the periodic table. I’m still amazed by how he talked so fast and remembered every element.

My lunch break is from 10:30 to 11:00. After that I go to US History. Before my first test I thought it was going to be a hard class, because I remember my years of taking history and they didn’t go that well. We get a lot of notes here, but we can’t read them because the teacher has a terrible handwriting, haha. He knows that and that’s why he repeats his sentences so that in the end we all have the notes that we need. This week I had my first test and I did well. I think I only made one mistake. In school we get test prep the lesson before the test and the teachers tell you everything you need to know. That means if you actually pay attention, you won’t have to study too long. I still find it difficult to understand what’s being said in class sometimes and that’s what makes it a hard class. To really understand I have to look through my notes.
US History is also the class where I learned that American people don’t like to read (out loud for the class). At first it was only one person, but after I heard more people read the same way, I figured it was just an American thing. They read monotonous and without punctuation. When I asked someone if everyone reads that way he answered yes. So I guess I just have to get used to that, haha.

Psychology is my favourite class at the moment. The teacher is so funny and serious at the same time. He explains us the things we have to know, but at the same time he gives it a funny spin. This week we have studied the differences between men and woman in the brain. We watched a video about what makes a woman or a man attractive. It was quite funny and interesting.
We also got some information about how things are transported through the body and this is where my biology knowledge is involved. Neurons, dendrites, spinal cord, etc.

English is my last real class of the day. Every day we have to write down a ‘new’ word with its definition so we expand our vocabulary. Every Tuesday we have a test about the words we learned the week before. We also get 10 minutes of reading time every day, because we have to read a book every nine weeks. I have just started reading the second book of my favourite series. The book is called Insurgent (thank you grandma and grandpa). I also gave a speech this week. It had to be about the ten things I care about most. I already put a list of the ten things I chose in my previous blog post. I was really nervous and was shaking the whole time (just like everyone else who presented haha). The teacher thought I did really good, so that was a relief. After my presentation someone told me it was the first time he actually heard I had an accent. I understood what he meant, because I could hear myself speak different too, during the presentation haha.

My last period every day is Math Lab, this is where we get time to do our homework and ask questions. If you’ve finished your homework or don’t want to use this period to do it, you can just talk and have a conversation with someone.

Last Sunday Cassidy, Debbie and I went to the animal shelter where they got their two dogs a couple years ago (Beau and Bear). We volunteered there and are definitely going back there sometime. The dogs were so sweet and the cats (mostly kittens) were adorable! They licked me (very pleasant of course haha) and walked all over me. One of them, my favourite, laid down on my arm with one two legs on one side of my arm and two legs on the other side. It was so cute. I am a little bit allergic to cats so two days after we went there my eyes still ached. But it was worth it!

This is my update so far. I have a lot more to tell you, but I can’t right now. I have a volleyball team bonding party to attend. You’ll hear from me soon!

Love,
Tasha

Random Talk

Hi friends and family,

First some more differences:
Restrooms in America are a bit weird haha. Their doors don't entirely close the whole 'view', so there's a vertical line through which you can see people on the other side of the door. The first time I saw them was on Indianapolis airport and I said to myself, "Welcome to America, you better get used to this" haha. I'll try to take a picture of it soon.

Last Saturday Cassidy and I went swimming with her dad and we had a lot of fun. We even got a tan (and of course we got sunburned too). It was really nice and relaxing. In the evening we went to dinner. This was also when I learned that food with 'Buffalo' in the name is really spicy.

Sunday we went to church and after we had done our homework Cassidy, Hannah (a friend) and I went shopping in Plainfield. I bought some basic supplies, sports clothes, a volleyball, a clock and school supplies, Most stores aren't very different than the ones in the Netherlands. For the Victoria Secret lovers (like Nicole), there are a lot of them here and a lot of girls wear Pink clothes, have Pink backpacks or other stuff.

Today was Picture Day and as always it feels like my picture was terrible, haha. We'll see how I will be presented in the Yearbook. We don't have a class like we do in the Netherlands, so we just got a normal 'lonely' picture and a team photo with the volleyball girls.

My first grade (doing your homework) was an A, so I'm happy with that! Tomorrow I have to give a speech for English about the 10 things I care about most. I have to bring those objects or if you can't bring the object you have to bring something related to it. These are my 10 things:
1 Dutch flag (my friends gave me this at my Farewell Party)
2 Polaroid pictures (of my friends to remember their faces -> just kidding!)
3 Teddybear (thanks Denise and Evelien)
4 i love New York T-shirt
5 Insurgent book (but it's actually about the whole Divenrgent series -> thanks grandma and grandpa)
6 First Monrovia T-shirt
7 Dream catcher
8 Phone
9 Field hockey (the only thing I have here that's related to field hockey is my hockey skirt haha)
10 Backpack (thanks Robin, mom and dad!)

I totally forgot to mention it, but last Friday I went to a bonfire at Kyrsa's house. It was really nice and I ate my first Smore (THEY ARE SO GOOD!). It's practically a cookie with marshmallow and chocolate on it.

I'll add some pictures on my blog as soon as possible.

If I think of more to tell you, I'll put in on my blog.

If you want to respond or have a question, just ask me in a comment on my blog.

Love,

Tasha

My First Week In Indiana

FIRST WEEK IN INDIANA

Hi everyone,

This week has been a crazy adventure! On Monday I had my first volleyball try out and I was really nervous. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go, but my Dutch flag gave me the courage to at least give it a try. “In the end we only regret the chances we didn’t take”. What is the worst that could happen, right? Well, I went to the try out and met the other volleyball girls. They were really nice to me and I felt home immediately. After the volleyball practice we go to the weight room and work out. My muscles still hurt haha.

The second try out was less fun, because I wasn’t allowed to participate. Every school athlete must have done a physical before participating in any sport. I wasn’t able to get my physical before the second try out so I had to watch the team practice. I was sad I couldn’t participate, but it was really fun to watch though. All the girls made it to one of the two teams, I am a right side hitter in the JV team (Junior Varsity). The other (better) team is called Varsity. We have two teams, but we always practice together and go the same city for games.

MY FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

In America I have all my classes every day at the same order and time.
My schedule is:
1 Algebra II
2 Intro Dimensional Art
3 Chemistry
lunch from 10:30 to 11.00
4 US History
5 Psychology
6 English
7 Math Lab (time to do your math homework and ask questions)

I can’t really tell if I like all my classes, because I’ve only had them for three days. I will come back to it some other time.

There are quite some differences when I compare my American school with my Dutch school. First of all the classrooms. In every classroom there is an American flag present. Every morning during first period we stand up, put our right hand on our hart and say the pledge of allegiance. Our desk consists of a table with a chair connected to it. Everyone sits apart, so there’s a table, an aisle, a table, an aisle, etc. The doors are also different, now you’re probably like, how can doors be different? Well, they are. Here the doors have a lock which makes it impossible for people to enter our class. The door can only be opened from the inside or with a key. The doors also have a small window. The locked door and small window prevent strangers or people with wrong intentions to enter our classroom or to see if there’s someone in there. This is all for safety purposes. You’ve probably heard of the things that have happened in America a while ago. A shooter entered a school and randomly started shooting at the kids and teachers.
Next is the WIFI, In the Netherlands my school has free WIFI, which makes it possible for me to go on the internet. Here I don’t have WIFI at school so I can’t really use my phone. Besides that we aren’t allowed to use our phone in class. They are very strict about that. Talking about the phone, we aren’t allowed to take any pictures in school due to privacy/safety rules. I have a locker in the Junior hallway and guess what, it’s a typical American locker haha. They gave me a locker at the Freshmen hallway at first but since I am a Junior they changed it for me. On my second day of school I struggled a lot with my locker, because it just wouldn’t open. During my lunch break I had to find someone who could open my locker, because I had to put my backpack in there and I had to take my lunch out. When I finally found someone with a key (I don’t have a key, but a combination), I only had ten minutes left. That wasn’t enough to eat my lunch, find someone to open my locker again and go to class. So instead I went to see my guidance counselor and ask for a new locker (the one in the Junior hallway). It isn’t allowed to eat in the hallway so I had to wait until after my 7^th period to eat. I was so hungry!

My day consists of 7 periods, 2 hour volleyball practice and one hour in the weight room. Almost every day I go home at 6 pm. This is also a difference, because the latest I would go home in the Netherlands is around 4.15 pm.

.........................................

I don't have the time to finish this story so I'll update it later :)
I am really busy, so I do the best I can in writing a story every now and then.

Love,

Tasha

I Met My Host Family

Hello dear readers,

There I was, it was 5.30 am and I was waiting at the gate. I could see the plane waiting outside. It was a very small plane with one seat an aisle and 2 seats. I was nervous because I was on my own and I had never been in such a small airplane. I wasn’t the only exchange student that was more nervous for small airplanes than big ones. It took me about two hours to fly from New York to Indianapolis. When I arrived I was walking to the retrieve baggage hall when I saw my host family. They made a pretty welcome sign for me. It was so nice to meet them!

Okay, I thought everything would be bigger in America, but I did not see this coming. The roads are wider here and the cars I saw on the road were huge. Their house (well mine too now

Later that day we had lunch in a restaurant and it was good! It’s for sure that American food is amazing! And no, I’m not eating unhealthy stuff haha.

In the evening we went to the Morgan County Fair and I met Leighann (also called the first friend I met haha). We were supposed to go to watch Hog Wrestling, but we walked around the fair instead. It was really fun.

When I went to bed I realized I had been awake for 40 hours with 4 hours of sleep (2 hours in the airplane and 2 before the fair in my awesome new bed).

The Third Day

Helloooo,

After breakfast we went to the Party Bus and drove to the City again. We called it the Party Bus because we had a cd full of songs (most of them about New York) and sang along with the songs together. It was really fun.
Our guide took us on a boat to watch New York from a different perspective. Today was a sunny day with almost no clouds and a blue sky. It was the perfect weather to get on a boat (you’ll see on the pictures). We sailed past the Statue of Liberty. It was quite a long boat trip so we were able to enjoy the view for a while. There were Chinese people on the boat as well and as soon as the guide told us there was something to see on the right side of the boat they all ran over to watch it. They did the same for the left side. It was fun to watch.

The 9/11 memorial was our next stop. It was amazing. There was a big waterfall and all the names of the people who had died were written on the stone wall to remember them. Some people left flowers. It was beautiful.

We had lunch at a small restaurant and again, the food was amazing. It was now time for Coney Island, where we got a little bit more than an hour of free time to walk around, get in a rollercoaster or swim in the Atlantic Ocean. We went there with the subway (metro). I decided to go swimming with my friends and the water was nice. After that we used the baseball bat (the one our guide brought with him) to write “I love High School” in the sand.

To end our adventure the bus took us to another park with a fountain (it’s where NYU students usually hang out). There was a free play to watch, someone was making music and people were writing or drawing all sorts of things on the ground with chalk.

The bus brought us home and we sang the songs from the cd for the last time. That was it, that was New York. It went by fast, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I had something else to look forward too, meeting my host family.

We wrote all of our names down on a post card as a thank you to Cindy, who was our supervisor. I packed my suitcase and went to bed around 00:00. My alarm clock rang at 2.30 because I had to go to the airport for my flight to Indianapolis.

The Second Day

Hi there,

At 8.30 am we had bagels, apples, bananas or cereal for breakfast. After that our New York adventure began. In our (what we called it) Party Bus we drove to the city where our guide was waiting for us. He was a funny man with a weird looking moustache and a lightsaber (instead of an umbrella, what most guides use) so we could follow him on the streets. He told us a lot about the city and the buildings. We were supposed to eat our lunch (I had a chicken wrap) in Central park, but it started raining just before we got out of the bus. When we thought the rain stopped we started walking through Strawberry Park. Soon we got soaked by the rain. It happened again and again and again. Unfortunately it was also raining when we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. By this time we had a different guide. We could recognize him because of his baseball bat. There was a thunderstorm nearby, so it was a bit scary. It was quite an adventure though. Our bus was supposed to wait for us on the other side of the bridge, but he wasn’t there. Our guide decided to take us to an Ice cream shop and wait for the bus there.

We had dinner at the Hard Rock Café and went to Top of the Rock at night. We were able to see New York from the 67^th floor. I literally don’t have any words to describe the view, but I’ll try to get close by using the words AMAZING, BREATHTAKING and PERFECT. Too bad we only got 15 minutes up there because of our busy schedule. After that we drove back to the hotel, took a shower and went to bed.

You’d think the rain was terrible, but it was also very special to have experienced that in New York. It was a shame though that my passport got soaked and another girls phone died.

New York Adventures

Hi friends and family,

The last few days have been absolutely amazing! I have never seen anything so pretty as New York. Together with the rest of the exchange students we travelled through the city and we became a very close group.

THE FIRST DAY

At 9.15 am we were supposed to leave the airport, but for some reason the luggage had to be counted again. We got delayed by an hour. In the mean time I got in a conversation with my neighbors in the plane. A lady from Toronto sat on my left side and a girl my age from Texas on the right side. We talked a lot and when we didn’t I watched a movie, listened to music or tried to sleep. We got lunch, ice cream (delicious) and drinks in the plane.
When we landed we had to go through immigration and get our luggage. We stepped out of the airport and there it was, America. It was warm outside and the sky was perfectly blue. A bus brought us to a shopping mall where I spent my first dollars. After that we went to the hotel. At first I couldn’t believe that we were going to stay in the building I was looking at. (See the pictures in my album)

Inside the building there was a pool and a gym. We had to wait for the German exchange students for dinner so we had a couple of hours of free time (we went swimming of course).