Week four
Just a few more days will make it a month since I got here. A month of living my dream. And nine more to come. It flies by so fast…
Last Friday, I attended my first ever high school football game, and I watched my first college football game on Saturday. My host family and I all put on Huskers shirts, sat in the living room, and watched the game together. Despite all our cheering and tense staring at the screen, the Northwestern Wildcats beat us. Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the game. I did; I had a lot of fun and although I still cannot confidently say that I understand football (yet), I have a slightly better idea of what all the players are doing on the field, so even the Huskers’ loss had an impact on me. 😀
The day got even more remarkable in the afternoon, though. We had some sort of an “orientation meeting” for all the exchange students with our local coordinator. We were supposed to meet all the other foreigners from the surrounding areas; however, it was more of a Czech reunion since my local coordinator apparently likes placing us. 😀 Six of her total nine Czech students showed up for the meeting and we had a great time. I never would have thought how happy being able to use my native language could make me. It’s been a while since I last talked to someone in Czech face to face…
We were all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and spent the whole afternoon catching up on one another’s lives and struggles here in America. I was the last one leaving (as always when it comes to exchange student community events) and as I was helping with putting away all the leftovers and cleaning the place, I was invited over to hang out with the local coordinator’s daughter and the foreign exchange student they’re hosting. We went to get ice cream and had a fun time driving around town until curfew.
Sunday, too, I spent with my friends, but this time they took me dress shopping at the mall insomuch as we all know very well homecoming is soon to be. We did not pick out dresses for the dance, but besides other things, we bought a pack of BeanBoozled and were entertained by tasting it afterward.
During my fourth school week, I survived all classes successfully and got through every day with no greater inconveniences and, not to brag, with excellent academic results. And besides the things we study at school, I also learned a little more about American high school culture. It’s true what people warned me about – rumors spread incredibly fast and everyone knows everything as soon as it happens. 🙂
We had an away volleyball game on Tuesday and a home one on Thursday. The whole volleyball team dressed up for school on game day and the overall atmosphere was simply astonishing.
On Friday there was an early football game quite far away, so the football team had to leave early and because football is such a big deal here, we all got out of school at 11. Howbeit, we didn’t do anything important during the three school hours either. All students gathered in the gym in the morning and were divided into some groups that I still don’t fully understand what are for. It didn’t even have anything to do with what we did that day because we did all that in different groups. We first made thank you cards for local small businesses and people important to the Doniphan community to show our gratefulness and then went on a walk around town to hand deliver them. So I got to see more of the surroundings before the very early school dismissal and then was able to spend the day with my friends. We went out for lunch and simply hung out all afternoon since we had nothing else to do. All that was only thanks to a single football game. It still amazes me how big of a deal that sport is for Americans. I’m not complaining, though! I love how enthusiastic they are about it even though no one really knows the rules well, just like I don’t. I’m considering myself almost American. 😀
