New York & My last days in America

The Statue Of Liberty

Hello there! During my exchange year I got to spend some more time in my favorite city: New York. I wasn't with my parents or host family this time... but with my grandparents! I don't think a lot of exchange students have their grandparents come over during their year, so I'm really glad I got to see them. Only a few weeks after the trip I had to say goodbye to Greenville. In this blogpost I'll tell you about our week in New York and my last few days in the USA.

On April 20th my grandparents flew from Amsterdam to New York and I flew from Greenville to New York! We met at the airport and couldn't be happier to see each other again. I'm really close with my grandparents so it had been hard to miss them.

Prom

Hey! Here I am again with another blogpost. I hope I'm gonna be able to catch up with everything I did before I leave ;-). This time I will tell you all about prom!

So you probably already know what prom is: a big dance at the end of the school year, where girls wear beautiful long dresses and boys wear tuxedos. There are lots and lots prom pictures taken and most schools also have activities right after prom. Prom is something every exchange student wants to experience, since most schools in our home countries don't really have anything similar.

California

Hey everyone! I haven't updated in a long long time haha, sorry for that! My life in the USA has been really busy lately. The time I'm leaving is getting closer and when I think about that I have mixed feelings. On June 2nd my plane will depart and on June 3rd I'll be in the Netherlands again after 10 months. I'm super excited to see my family and friends again but I'm not excited to leave Greenville behind.
In this blogpost I'll tell you all about the trip to California I made with my parents and sister over a month ago. My last blog post was all about their time in Greenville. After the week they spent here, Spring Break began and we flew to Los Angeles to start our trip.

Family in Greenville & the play!

First picture together after more than 7 months! 

On March 21st the day I'd been waiting for finally arrived: my parents and sister came to visit me in my American town, Greenville. I was really excited to finally show them my school, house, friends and host family. They had heard all my stories but they never really knew what it was like, and I'm so happy they could experience it too!

What I've learned from my exchange year

At the beginning of 2015 I made a blogpost called Why an exchange year? in which I explained my reasons for going to the USA. When I was reading through old blogposts I came across that list and I was surprised to see that I've experienced all the things on that list! I decided to wrote this blogpost about everything I learned during my (almost) 7 months abroad.

I've learned to get out of my comfort zone and to just do it. 
This exchange year is probably the scariest thing I've ever done and will ever do in my entire life. Leaving my family and friends for people I don't even know yet, in another country, with another language and another culture. Of course it scared me a lot, but I was ready for a change in my life, an experience I would never forget. So I just did it. And that's what I am doing during my year too. Want to try a new sport? Just do it. Want to audition for the school play? Just do it. Want to talk to new people? Just do it. Because an exchange year is mostly what you make out of it yourself, and by just trying out new things you can have the best possible experience.

Flight dates home?!

Last Thursday I got an email from EF saying: EF Homebound Flight Wave. In this email I found out that I'm assigned to the wave of June 7th to June 9th. This means that I'm flying home on one of those days which is only 3,5 months away. This email also made me realize that I should actually post on my blog again. So here's a blogpost with everything that's been going on in my life lately!

Snow!!!!

The play
I have rehearsals for 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' almost every day after school. The part I play is that of a fairy and I have all my lines memorized by now. I've also seen my costume already which is really cute. We perform on March 23rd and 24th, which is the week my parents and sister are here. I'm so happy they are gonna be able to see it! Play practice is also a great way to make new friends and I met a lot of nice people there. Doing a Shakespeare play is not boring like you would think, but it's fun and challenging. I love it!

Winter time

Hi everyone!
It has been more than a month since I've written something on my blog, sorry for that! It's January already (can you believe it?!) which also marks the first 5 months of my exchange year. I'm exactly halfway through now with only 5 months to go. I know I've said it before, but time flies!

Winter has only started a few days ago here. It was still quite warm during christmas but now it's finally starting to get cold. There hasn't been any snow yet though. It's really different in the Netherlands right now: it's been so cold there that streets have frozen over and turned into ice skating rinks! So basically, people ice skate through their street. I don't think it's ever been like that before.

The Christmas lights in Disney World

Christmas is so much more important here in the USA than what I'm used too. A lot of houses are decorated with cute lights, Christmas music & movies are everywhere, people go caroling and bake Christmas cookies. Of course I did all of those things. I also went Christmas shopping with my host family in Charlotte, and went to a few Christmas parties!

Thanksgiving Break

My thanksgiving break just ended (sadly enough), and I'm back to school and tests. It was nice to have a few days off because apparently American schools don't really like holidays. ;) I've only had 5 days off school so far. 2 days for fall break and 3 days for thanksgiving break. I had a great time together with my host family! It was awesome to celebrate thanksgiving for the very first time. This blogpost will be all about what I did during thanksgiving break.

Me, Cassidy, Kaylee & Duffy, Kendall, Amy & Chandler. 

For the ones who don't know what thanksgiving is: it's the fourth Thursday in november, when people give thanks for all kinds of things in their life. It originates in the 17th century: native Americans had helped Pilgrims with their harvest and they held a big feast to celebrate that, the first Thanksgiving day.

A week in my American life

After writing a blogpost about A day in my American life, I thought it would be fun to write about a typical week here as well! I won't tell much about specific classes but I'll mostly tell the activities I did after school. I'm not going to start on Monday but on Friday, since I want to write about my weekend as well. My week was filled with a retreat, exchange student meeting, lacrosse practice, birthday and much more! Hope you enjoy reading. :)

Everyone that was at the retreat!

Video #2 / EF Student Video Crew

Hi there!
Just a short post to let you know that the second video of the EF Student Video Crew is online! This one is all about the Welcome Days. It brings up some really good memories since I loved my time there. Please let me know if you have anything you'd like me to film during my year here. Enjoy watching!