Helloooo friends and family,

It’s been a while since my last blog update and I’m sorry for that. I know you’re curious to know what I’m doing. To make up for last time this blog post is going to be very long, haha. Every time I do something that is awesome (which is all the time), I write it down on my list so I know what to mention on my blog.

Let’s get started! I am just going to write in a random order, which means I will go forward and backwards in time.

Breanne turned 17 this month and she celebrated that by taking Becca and me to an awesome go-karting and mini golf party place. Breanne’s mom, sister and her sister’s boyfriend came along too. We started with race course. We were all very competitive and raced as if we were professionals. Whenever we speeded in on each other you could hear a devils laugh. We alternated racing with mini golf and water boats. Before we went on the water (each one of us in a small boat) Breanne told me there were two buttons. One of them was to move forward and the other one to spray water. She didn’t want to get wet so told me not to use the water button………
You know me guys… guess what happened… that button is meant to be pressed….
We had a water fight and it was so much fun! Every single one of us was soaked (don’t worry, our valuable items weren’t with us on the boat).
We ended the night with gambling, because we got some free coins. I learned I should never start gambling, because it is VERY addicting! The three of us ended up with two or three chocolate bars a person. (Yes, even the chocolate bars in America are good!) Afterwards Breanne’s mom took us to Fazoli’s which is a Italian restaurant with UNLIMITED bread sticks. We got there around 10.30pm and were the only ones in the restaurant, haha. If you ever plan on going to America, make sure you go to Fazoli’s! To finish this fun night, we had a sleepover.

On Labour Day we were free from school, which meant we had a three day weekend. The weather was perfect, just like any other day. Gregory’s (Cassidy’s father) best friend had a three day pool party so we came over on Saturday and Monday to swim in his pool, relax in the sun and to play volleyball in the yard (he has a volleyball net next to his house). When we played volleyball I got to serve a lot, which was a good practice for me since I still have to learn that skill. This practice turned out to be very helpful in my volleyball game two days later. I usually don’t serve in a game, but this game we had to adjust which meant I suddenly had to serve. I was so nervous and my hands were shaking so bad. I took a deep breathe, served and YES the ball went over the net and was in! I was so happy, even though my serve looked nothing like the awesome jumping serves other people have, but that doesn’t matter, the ball was in. I got to serve three times in a row because the other team messed up. After my third serve, the score was something to 15 (points for us). My team started jumping with a big smile on their face and walked towards our opponent to shake hands. I had no idea what was going on, because we usually play to 25 points so as far as I knew we hadn’t won the game yet. I followed the rest, shook hands and asked my team mates what was going on. That’s when they explained to me that JV (Junior Varsity teams) play until 15 point in the third game when both teams have won one game. It was very funny!

Two weeks ago I was taken out of class and taken to a hallway where about 30 other students were waiting. They told us we were randomly picked to be drug tested. They do this every year at school. I don’t do drugs so I had nothing to worry about, but still I was freaking out. We had to pee in a cup, and then give the cup to an employee. Very comfortable as you can imagine…. Now it’s over and they told me my results were negative (which means there’s no trace of drugs in my system) I can laugh about it, haha.
The fact that I was “randomly” elected wasn’t that credible since everyone thinks of weed when they hear I live close to Amsterdam, haha.

As you might have seen in movies, most people in America have a school ring to remember their High School years. I decided to buy one of those too, since that would be the perfect item to remember my high school experience. The cool thing is that you can design your own ring online. I will upload a picture of the design on my blog. The ring is partially handmade, so it takes a few weeks before it’s delivered. When I have it, I will definitely make sure to upload a picture on my blog.

One day I walked in to my 7^th period when a girl came up to me, introduced herself to me, told me she was from the school newspaper and asked me if she could ask me a couple of questions. The next day I checked the school papers website and read the very nice article she put online about me. The website is: http://thebulldogfetch.blogspot.com/2015/09/foreign-exchange-students-of-2015.html

(If the link doesn’t work, go to www.thebulldogfetch.blogspot.com scroll down click on “older posts” and you will find the article called “Foreign Exchange Students of 2015”. (There’s one other exchange student at school, she’s from Brazil. I haven’t met her yet.)

Okay, let’s talk about volleyball. It’s awesome learning a new team sport and making new friends. That doesn’t mean it’s easy. A difference between the Netherlands and America is that sports are played during the week instead of on the weekends. Also, we have about two or three volleyball games each week. When I played field hockey we only had one game a week and it was always on a Saturday. I have always loved being active and to lose my energy by playing sports. It isn’t easy though, there are quite a few things you have to think of when you’re in the game. I make it even harder by wanting to make progress too fast. Even though I know it takes time to get better…
Yesterday my team (JV) had a volleyball tournament in Cloverdale. When I woke up I was super excited and I was ready to play some volleyball. Only when we got there and coach changed the line-up and told me I was going to play a different position, that freaked me out. What would I have to do, how should I rotate, does that mean I have to serve? I had so many questions…
I learned now that next time I would find myself in a situation like that, I should forget about all of that and just stick with the basis. That way I can keep myself focused and still manage to have fun. I have to work on not letting things go to my head like that.
Let’s just forget about that and be happy about the fact that we ended in third place and got a lot better as a team. I am so glad to have such an awesome team, who supports each other and cheers each other up. We have two great coaches who support us, try hard to improve our skills and make us better as a team. We are going to have so many more games to play and I’m ready for this week’s games (Tuesday and Thursday)!

One time in the school bus I was asked to teach my team mates something in Dutch. My friends from the Netherlands told me to teach them the following sentence: “Er is een kabouter in de gang”, which means “There’s a gnome in the hallway”. We had a lot of fun and the next day Lexi came up to me, pointed in the hallway and said “Er is een kabouter in de gang”. She remembered well and had a funny accent. It was cool she remembered how to say it.
A lot of times I am surprised to realize how many English words are spelled similar in Dutch or look a lot like the Dutch word.

Okay, just a random comment now. I just wanted to say how confusing age is in America. It is hard to explain and you’ll have to see it for yourself, but American people look older than they are. It always freaks me out when people mention their age and it’s so different than what I expected, but it’s also funny.

Back to the story now. This week was Spirit Week which meant every day had a different theme and the Homecoming football game was on Friday. The themes were:
Monday: Hawaiian
Tuesday: America
Wednesday: Old People Day
Thursday: Throwback Thursday
Friday: Green & White
Every day there were people dressed up in creative ways. Not everyone, but definitely a lot of people wore something according to the theme.

HOMECOMING ON SEPTEMBER 18^TH
On FRIDAY’S (September 18) all the football players wear their jerseys to school. Every period ended a couple minutes earlier than usual, so that we could watch the Powderpuff game. Powderpuff is a game where the girls play football ( a different version though). That was quite funny to watch. At 7pm we got to see some real football. I borrowed a shirt from Cassidy to fit in the cemo theme (camouflage clothes like you’d wear when you go hunting). Before homecoming we all got to vote for homecoming princess, prince, queen and king. The top four candidates came to the game and during the break the winners were announced. It was really fun to experience an American Homecoming!

In the weekend of September 11,12 and 13 there was a festival in Monrovia. Cassidy, Lindsey, Taylor and I went there on Saturday and walked around for a while. That was the first time I was actually cold in America, haha. I thought it wouldn’t be necessary to bring a jacket, but that was a mistake. We went home early and had our first bonfire at the fire pit next to the house. It was a clear night so there were quite a lot of stars to see.

Yesterday after the volleyball tournament I went shopping in Greenwood with Breanne and Becca. We tried on some hilarious outfits. Becca looked hilarious in her fancy outfit which was a leather skirt, a fur coat and a shirt that said “I just did it…”. We had a great time and ate chicken teriyaki for dinner (again… food in America is GOOD, not always healthy though, but sooo good). We should definitely do that again, haha.

To end this story I want to talk about another thing I crossed of my bucket list. I WENT TO THE MOVIES! We went to the movies with some friends to see the movie called “The Visit”. We all thought it was going to be super scary and already pictured ourselves walking out of the movie theatre scared for our lives. It turned out to be a really funny movie with a couple of scary moments. We had a great night.

Recently I saw a post on Facebook that talked about what it’s like to be an exchange student. I could totally relate to it. I would describe my life as an exchange student as:

Being an exchange student is AWESOME and everything I could ever wish for. It’s throwing myself out there, adjusting to a new life style, making new friends because I’m starting from scratch and barely having anything that’s familiar around me. It’s new, exciting, adventurous, fun, awkward and a DREAM all together.

At the same time being an exchange student is hard, frustrating and scary. It’s making mistakes using the language asking people to repeat what they just said, even when they’ve already said it twice. It’s wanting to text someone, but not knowing who. It’s pointing, describing and guessing.

But when all of that comes together, I lay down in bed at night and when I finally have the time to realize where I am, what I’m doing and who I’m living with, the only feelings I have are happiness and gratitude.

I am so most definitely living my American Dream, a dream I will never ever forget!

P.S. I told you it was going to be a long blog post, haha!

Talk to you soon!

Bye,

Tasha