Enjoying every single second of this experience!
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Marit
06 Februari 2017 | Verenigde Staten, Houston
It’s time for a new blog again! First of all, this crazy Texas weather is going wild. Quoting Mathilde: ‘’ Living in Texas is so extra, do you wanna have some wind, well here is a tornado, do you wanna have a some sunshine, well here is a heatwave, do you wanna have some rain, well here you go, let’s just turn Houston into a swimming pool ‘’. That last thing happened 2/3 weeks ago. We started the week on Monday, just normal, not crazy cold or warm, just normal. So Tuesday morning we woke up and it had rained a lot. The game we were supposed to have in the afternoon got cancelled because there was no way we could play on the field… Wednesday morning, Mathilde and I woke up around 6 am, because of an alert on our phones. It is a really loud noise, holy mother, it will wake you up… First we thought it was an amber alert, but it was a flash flood alert. It had rained so much that night that they had to send out an alert! We didn’t know it was really bad so we got all dressed and ready to go to school. Then one of our friends sent us a text that we can’t come to school until 10 am because of the rain. It was kind of a weird school day, because it was short and wet and everybody was unclear about the classes. Some kids never even showed up at school that day haha. The game on Wednesday was of course cancelled too because of the field… On Thursday we had to run on the track during soccer practice, because we couldn’t play anywhere with a ball. It really sucked, because the official competition games were coming up and our first opponent, Bellaire High School, would be challenging.
On Friday it was 25 degrees Celsius again (?!), Texas you’re driving me crazy hahaha… During lunch we had such an interesting conversation about religion and evolution. People say you cannot talk about religion with friends because they turn into fights but that didn’t happen at all. It was so interesting to hear how our American friends thought about those things and how we think about it (Mathilde, me and Gaia, the Italian girl, believe in evolution and not in God creating the world). Right after school it started raining so bad again. Rain, lightning and thunder it wasn’t even funny because we had to walk ‘all the way to the car’, 50 meters gehehe… ;)
Mom picked us up and we had to get Larry from work. Mathilde and I were craving for pizza so we spontaneously decided to go to a pizza restaurant with the four of us. The weather was still going crazy, we could see lightning every 20 seconds. I’ve never seen so much lightning, it was really cool actually! We chose a spot beside a big window so we could eat our pizza and watch the lightning at the same time :) After the pizza we went to the store and bought Oreo’s and milk for dessert. Back home mom, Mathilde and I had a PJ/Oreo/movie night. Quality time :) I was sleeping in Mathilde’s room that night and the lightning was still going wild. We could see the sky lighting up every single minute, it was amazing. The dogs were scared so they came in our room. Then they suddenly left and after a couple of minutes, mom comes in our room asking if we’ve seen the dogs. We hadn’t seen them so we start looking for them in the house. Eventually, mom finds them hiding in her closet… poor dogs hahaha.
Saturday was just a chill, not doing anything day. The plan was that I could sleep in my own room again, but Mathilde and I started hanging out and talking in her room after dinner. We were separated for too long (5 hours) so we were sleeping in the same room again :)
On Sunday, after church, Mathilde, Daniel, Andreas and I hung out at Daniel’s house. They’re both Danish exchange student so I was surrounded by Danes that day. A good thing is that they talk English with each other :) We spent some time outside, even though there was a lot of wind (tornado things you know). We also watched the two semifinal games of the football competition. The winners of those games play against each other in the Super Bowl final. We found out that Super Bowl tickets are $2000 tickets if you want to sit all the way up in the stadium. You must be a millionaire if you want to sit in the front… It is really special that the Super Bowl is in Houston this year, because it is such a big event :) It was a really nice day!
On Monday we finally had soccer practice again after 1.5 week or something. It was really hot that day but nice to practice. The official competition has started and Tuesdays and Fridays are our game days. We can wear our warm-ups on game days, so that means no uniforms on those days yaaasss! Our first game was against Bellaire. Bellaire is really good and probably the best in our competition. We can win from all the other teams, but Bellaire is a really challenging team. Our games are after school/around 6 pm, which is really nice, because it is way too hot during the day. We stay with the team after school because that’s more efficient when we have to get ready for the game. Every game somebody has to bring dinner for the team, because our games are around dinner time. This day we had chicken spaghetti and it was really good. The boys play at the same location but in another stadium, so we go with them in the same bus. We go in the typical yellow American school busses ;) We started the game really good but eventually lost with 0-2, so that was unfortunate. We play them again in 3 weeks so we’ll beat them then!
We had early dismissal on Wednesday. Unfortunately for me, I still had to take my English final, because I missed it in December when I went to Kentucky. I had to sit in my Dean’s office but she wasn’t there, no clue why. I didn’t cheat y’all, even though she wasn’t there, I am a good student haha. But because she wasn’t there, the phone kept ringing alllllll the time. Literally every minute. It was really annoying, but I just need to pass my test (that is when I get 70), I don’t need to get a 100 so it was ok :)
Mathilde plays lacrosse, but doesn’t know how to play, because we don’t play lacrosse in our countries. So I helped her a little bit. Not that I am a professional lacrosse player but we just did a little catch and throw together. It was really fun, and I’m glad she plays lacrosse and not me, because it is freaking hard to do..! That night I spent 3 hours online shopping and I bought way too many clothes… But it is ok, because my clothes just arrived and they all suck so I have to return it and get money back. Don’t shop online y’all, bad idea….
During 4th period, we evaluated our game against Bellaire and prepared ourselves for the new game. These games are serious business, the coach is really strict about it. But he is also really sweet, he is the best! We’re reading a book in out English class, it is called The Stranger. We’re reading out loud in class and this day our class period was 90 minutes. So we had to read 90 minutes out loud and everybody fell asleep, but we finally finished the book so that is good haha. After school, I watched Mathilde practice lacrosse, because I didn’t have practice. It looks so funny, all those sticks in the air, I can’t wait to see a game!
Fridays are NO uniforms day, so that is always something to look forward to. We’re not really free though. We can only wear jeans, no gray or colored pants, and our shirt needs to be something from Westside. I’m ok with it, because it is only for one year, but a lot of people are going crazy about the uniforms, even though there is nothing you can do about.
It was game day and somebody brought us Subway sandwiched for dinner, so that was gooooddd. The bus, the boys and we had to go in was way too small. Barely our team could fit in there haha. So we had to wait for a new bus and that takes time blablabla… But we arrived on time and it was a nice game. We played against Heights HS and we won 3-1, which was good, because we needed the 3 points.
Of course Saturday, the only day I can sleep in, I woke up at 8.30…. But it was fine because I helped Stephanie with some things for her school and I went to Andreas around 1 pm. He lives in Katy and we just hang out with some other friends, Sif, Valentina, Daniel, Jan, Stella. Katy has some really pretty lakes and it was a really pretty day so we walked around the lake in his neighborhood. Daniel wore his cowboy hat that day and he already has a big Texas accent. Every time we passed a group of people he said; “Howdy y’all!” , it was the funniest thing! They have a HUGE tv in their house, but I mean HUGE, its enormous. They also have 5 big cinema seats so it is just like a private movie theater, it was really cool hahaha. We ordered pizza and just talked the rest of the time, it was a really nice day.
Monday we had to run during 4th period and we had practice after school so I was practically dead when I came home, but it is all fun though ;)
Tuesday, we stayed after school and ate chicken lasagna. We played against Sam Houston and won 6-0. It wasn’t really a special game, but winning is always nice!
Wednesday I thought it would be nice to try something from the cafeteria in school. Every day you can buy ‘real’ food from restaurants. Monday is chicken, Tuesday is Chinese food, Wednesday is Pizza, Thursday is burrito and Friday is a different kind of chicken. ( they have so many different chicken restaurants here, It’s ridiculous ). So Wednesday I bought pizza and I also got a pizza roll or something. The pizza was ok, but the pizza roll was disgusting, man man man, I’m never doing that again hahaha. Just wanted to share that with y’all. America has good food too by the way ;). We didn’t have practice or a game after school and suddenly I had so much time. I did all my homework while tanning in the backyard and I still had time left, isn’t that just amazing?
After dinner we went to a real Western store. They sell all kind of Texan things, such as cowboy hats, cowboy shirts, belts, typical Texan jeans, and the cowboy boots of course. Mathilde and I were amazed by all the things they sold. Stephanie needed a hat so she was trying one on, but she didn’t like something about it. They steamed the hat and they reformed some parts of it so it would be the way Stephanie likes it. It was really cool to see that all the people who work there actually look like cowgirls and cowboys :).We also had to go to a printing store, because Stephanie had some things she needed to print for school. The printer didn’t work and it took longer than we thought, so Mathilde, mom and I walked to Whataburger to get some milkshakes. It was a really nice family night we spent together.
The football team sells chocolate almond in small boxes as a fundraiser for the team, so when you walk through the hallways, you see boys carrying there box with smaller boxes in it. They are actually really good, so everybody buys it. Our English teacher had to cry during class, because the boys in my class are crazy and they make such funny jokes. She thought it was so funny that she cried, it was the best hahaha.
Last Friday, coach took us out of class at 1 pm, because we had to make team pictures. I thought we would just look nice and take a picture, but it took us like 15 minutes to look good and be in the right position haha. The game started at 4 pm so we had to leave school at 2:30, but the bus was late… We thought we were gonna be late so we were stressing out, but when we arrived at the stadium, the other team wasn’t even there. Apparently the other team decided not to come until 5:30…… We waited 2 hours on them, just hanging out with each other, having an extra practice. Gaia, Mathilde and Rachel came to watch the game, so that fun! When they finally arrived we had to shorten our game so we only played 80 minutes. We won 9-0, but it wasn’t a surprise. We’d already played them twice, we both won 11-0 ;) I baked chocolate chip cookies on my own when I came home and nothing burned down so that was definitely something to be proud of ;)
Saturday morning started easy. I did all my homework, worked on my photo album and I was just chilling. Today we watched the Super Bowl with church people and there was a price for best dessert so I baked Hollandse Appeltaart ( Dutch apple pie ) !! Our flour was empty, so there was a little stress, but then…. Aunt Nancy! Isn’t it just amazing to have you aunt living across the street who is always there for you? We ‘barrow/steal’ milk, eggs and flour from her all the time. Gotta love her :) Mom has an apple peeler machine and it is absolutely amazing. I put the video on Facebook, it’s cool and fast! I also helped mom baking here cake for the Super Bowl party and we prepared birthday dinner. It was Stephanie’s birthday last Thursday so Saturday we had a birthday dinner for her. Kat, Jake, Aunt Nancy and Uncle Gerald were there too, so it was a good night. We ate huge steaks and they were delicious. Of course there was the well-known chocolate birthday cake for dessert. The rest of the night Kat, mom, Mathilde and I were just hanging out puzzling together :)
This morning we went to church first. Mathilde had hot chocolate milk in a cup and she had put it on the floor to cool down a little. We were both playing games (bike race), because we actually never understand what people say in church. I was so chill that I decided to stretch my legs, and of course I hit her cup and there was just hot chocolate milk all over the floor. While the pastor just keeps talking, I’m cleaning up the floor, embarrassing…. We made mom addicted to Bike Race after today, it is really funny to see her play haha.
After church we hang out at home until 4:30 pm or something, until we left for the Super Bowl party. Mom had made hot chili and we also took our desserts to the party. We could watch the game on a big screen and Lady Gaga was the half time show so that was nice to watch too! The game was against the Patriots from New England and the Falcons from Atlanta. The Falcons were ahead for a long long time. Mathilde, Carl and Josephine, the other exchange students, were together the whole time and we just tried all the dessert and hang out it was a lot of fun. There were three contests. There was a price for the best dessert, the best chili and the hottest chili. Mom had won the hottest chili AND best dessert last year. This year she won the hottest chili!! After the 3rd quarter we left to go home because it was already 8 o’clock ( the game started at 5.30 whaatt ). When we came home the Patriots had come back in the game a little bit so it was getting more excited to watch the game.
While finishing this blog, the whole country is going crazy because The Patriots just tied the game, it’s 28-28 now! The 4th quarter just ended so they’re playing longer and now to see who the winner is. I’m just waiting for the results………….
Oh there it is, The Patriots just won! 34-28! They were so behind in the beginning. This is a lesson kids, never give up, you can always come back and win the game hahaha.
Oh by the way, I am the Queen of the Mardi Gras YFU parade and Daniel is the King. It is a parade and a party at the end of February and we’re going with a lot of YFU people. A lot of people signed up for it so we’re going with big group. When they had to decide who were gonna be the King and Queen of our part of the parade, they just took random names and I am the Queen apparently…. . No clue what we have to do but I’m sure it’s gonna be fun! This is it for now and I’ll tell y’all about the parade in the next blog!
On Friday it was 25 degrees Celsius again (?!), Texas you’re driving me crazy hahaha… During lunch we had such an interesting conversation about religion and evolution. People say you cannot talk about religion with friends because they turn into fights but that didn’t happen at all. It was so interesting to hear how our American friends thought about those things and how we think about it (Mathilde, me and Gaia, the Italian girl, believe in evolution and not in God creating the world). Right after school it started raining so bad again. Rain, lightning and thunder it wasn’t even funny because we had to walk ‘all the way to the car’, 50 meters gehehe… ;)
Mom picked us up and we had to get Larry from work. Mathilde and I were craving for pizza so we spontaneously decided to go to a pizza restaurant with the four of us. The weather was still going crazy, we could see lightning every 20 seconds. I’ve never seen so much lightning, it was really cool actually! We chose a spot beside a big window so we could eat our pizza and watch the lightning at the same time :) After the pizza we went to the store and bought Oreo’s and milk for dessert. Back home mom, Mathilde and I had a PJ/Oreo/movie night. Quality time :) I was sleeping in Mathilde’s room that night and the lightning was still going wild. We could see the sky lighting up every single minute, it was amazing. The dogs were scared so they came in our room. Then they suddenly left and after a couple of minutes, mom comes in our room asking if we’ve seen the dogs. We hadn’t seen them so we start looking for them in the house. Eventually, mom finds them hiding in her closet… poor dogs hahaha.
Saturday was just a chill, not doing anything day. The plan was that I could sleep in my own room again, but Mathilde and I started hanging out and talking in her room after dinner. We were separated for too long (5 hours) so we were sleeping in the same room again :)
On Sunday, after church, Mathilde, Daniel, Andreas and I hung out at Daniel’s house. They’re both Danish exchange student so I was surrounded by Danes that day. A good thing is that they talk English with each other :) We spent some time outside, even though there was a lot of wind (tornado things you know). We also watched the two semifinal games of the football competition. The winners of those games play against each other in the Super Bowl final. We found out that Super Bowl tickets are $2000 tickets if you want to sit all the way up in the stadium. You must be a millionaire if you want to sit in the front… It is really special that the Super Bowl is in Houston this year, because it is such a big event :) It was a really nice day!
On Monday we finally had soccer practice again after 1.5 week or something. It was really hot that day but nice to practice. The official competition has started and Tuesdays and Fridays are our game days. We can wear our warm-ups on game days, so that means no uniforms on those days yaaasss! Our first game was against Bellaire. Bellaire is really good and probably the best in our competition. We can win from all the other teams, but Bellaire is a really challenging team. Our games are after school/around 6 pm, which is really nice, because it is way too hot during the day. We stay with the team after school because that’s more efficient when we have to get ready for the game. Every game somebody has to bring dinner for the team, because our games are around dinner time. This day we had chicken spaghetti and it was really good. The boys play at the same location but in another stadium, so we go with them in the same bus. We go in the typical yellow American school busses ;) We started the game really good but eventually lost with 0-2, so that was unfortunate. We play them again in 3 weeks so we’ll beat them then!
We had early dismissal on Wednesday. Unfortunately for me, I still had to take my English final, because I missed it in December when I went to Kentucky. I had to sit in my Dean’s office but she wasn’t there, no clue why. I didn’t cheat y’all, even though she wasn’t there, I am a good student haha. But because she wasn’t there, the phone kept ringing alllllll the time. Literally every minute. It was really annoying, but I just need to pass my test (that is when I get 70), I don’t need to get a 100 so it was ok :)
Mathilde plays lacrosse, but doesn’t know how to play, because we don’t play lacrosse in our countries. So I helped her a little bit. Not that I am a professional lacrosse player but we just did a little catch and throw together. It was really fun, and I’m glad she plays lacrosse and not me, because it is freaking hard to do..! That night I spent 3 hours online shopping and I bought way too many clothes… But it is ok, because my clothes just arrived and they all suck so I have to return it and get money back. Don’t shop online y’all, bad idea….
During 4th period, we evaluated our game against Bellaire and prepared ourselves for the new game. These games are serious business, the coach is really strict about it. But he is also really sweet, he is the best! We’re reading a book in out English class, it is called The Stranger. We’re reading out loud in class and this day our class period was 90 minutes. So we had to read 90 minutes out loud and everybody fell asleep, but we finally finished the book so that is good haha. After school, I watched Mathilde practice lacrosse, because I didn’t have practice. It looks so funny, all those sticks in the air, I can’t wait to see a game!
Fridays are NO uniforms day, so that is always something to look forward to. We’re not really free though. We can only wear jeans, no gray or colored pants, and our shirt needs to be something from Westside. I’m ok with it, because it is only for one year, but a lot of people are going crazy about the uniforms, even though there is nothing you can do about.
It was game day and somebody brought us Subway sandwiched for dinner, so that was gooooddd. The bus, the boys and we had to go in was way too small. Barely our team could fit in there haha. So we had to wait for a new bus and that takes time blablabla… But we arrived on time and it was a nice game. We played against Heights HS and we won 3-1, which was good, because we needed the 3 points.
Of course Saturday, the only day I can sleep in, I woke up at 8.30…. But it was fine because I helped Stephanie with some things for her school and I went to Andreas around 1 pm. He lives in Katy and we just hang out with some other friends, Sif, Valentina, Daniel, Jan, Stella. Katy has some really pretty lakes and it was a really pretty day so we walked around the lake in his neighborhood. Daniel wore his cowboy hat that day and he already has a big Texas accent. Every time we passed a group of people he said; “Howdy y’all!” , it was the funniest thing! They have a HUGE tv in their house, but I mean HUGE, its enormous. They also have 5 big cinema seats so it is just like a private movie theater, it was really cool hahaha. We ordered pizza and just talked the rest of the time, it was a really nice day.
Monday we had to run during 4th period and we had practice after school so I was practically dead when I came home, but it is all fun though ;)
Tuesday, we stayed after school and ate chicken lasagna. We played against Sam Houston and won 6-0. It wasn’t really a special game, but winning is always nice!
Wednesday I thought it would be nice to try something from the cafeteria in school. Every day you can buy ‘real’ food from restaurants. Monday is chicken, Tuesday is Chinese food, Wednesday is Pizza, Thursday is burrito and Friday is a different kind of chicken. ( they have so many different chicken restaurants here, It’s ridiculous ). So Wednesday I bought pizza and I also got a pizza roll or something. The pizza was ok, but the pizza roll was disgusting, man man man, I’m never doing that again hahaha. Just wanted to share that with y’all. America has good food too by the way ;). We didn’t have practice or a game after school and suddenly I had so much time. I did all my homework while tanning in the backyard and I still had time left, isn’t that just amazing?
After dinner we went to a real Western store. They sell all kind of Texan things, such as cowboy hats, cowboy shirts, belts, typical Texan jeans, and the cowboy boots of course. Mathilde and I were amazed by all the things they sold. Stephanie needed a hat so she was trying one on, but she didn’t like something about it. They steamed the hat and they reformed some parts of it so it would be the way Stephanie likes it. It was really cool to see that all the people who work there actually look like cowgirls and cowboys :).We also had to go to a printing store, because Stephanie had some things she needed to print for school. The printer didn’t work and it took longer than we thought, so Mathilde, mom and I walked to Whataburger to get some milkshakes. It was a really nice family night we spent together.
The football team sells chocolate almond in small boxes as a fundraiser for the team, so when you walk through the hallways, you see boys carrying there box with smaller boxes in it. They are actually really good, so everybody buys it. Our English teacher had to cry during class, because the boys in my class are crazy and they make such funny jokes. She thought it was so funny that she cried, it was the best hahaha.
Last Friday, coach took us out of class at 1 pm, because we had to make team pictures. I thought we would just look nice and take a picture, but it took us like 15 minutes to look good and be in the right position haha. The game started at 4 pm so we had to leave school at 2:30, but the bus was late… We thought we were gonna be late so we were stressing out, but when we arrived at the stadium, the other team wasn’t even there. Apparently the other team decided not to come until 5:30…… We waited 2 hours on them, just hanging out with each other, having an extra practice. Gaia, Mathilde and Rachel came to watch the game, so that fun! When they finally arrived we had to shorten our game so we only played 80 minutes. We won 9-0, but it wasn’t a surprise. We’d already played them twice, we both won 11-0 ;) I baked chocolate chip cookies on my own when I came home and nothing burned down so that was definitely something to be proud of ;)
Saturday morning started easy. I did all my homework, worked on my photo album and I was just chilling. Today we watched the Super Bowl with church people and there was a price for best dessert so I baked Hollandse Appeltaart ( Dutch apple pie ) !! Our flour was empty, so there was a little stress, but then…. Aunt Nancy! Isn’t it just amazing to have you aunt living across the street who is always there for you? We ‘barrow/steal’ milk, eggs and flour from her all the time. Gotta love her :) Mom has an apple peeler machine and it is absolutely amazing. I put the video on Facebook, it’s cool and fast! I also helped mom baking here cake for the Super Bowl party and we prepared birthday dinner. It was Stephanie’s birthday last Thursday so Saturday we had a birthday dinner for her. Kat, Jake, Aunt Nancy and Uncle Gerald were there too, so it was a good night. We ate huge steaks and they were delicious. Of course there was the well-known chocolate birthday cake for dessert. The rest of the night Kat, mom, Mathilde and I were just hanging out puzzling together :)
This morning we went to church first. Mathilde had hot chocolate milk in a cup and she had put it on the floor to cool down a little. We were both playing games (bike race), because we actually never understand what people say in church. I was so chill that I decided to stretch my legs, and of course I hit her cup and there was just hot chocolate milk all over the floor. While the pastor just keeps talking, I’m cleaning up the floor, embarrassing…. We made mom addicted to Bike Race after today, it is really funny to see her play haha.
After church we hang out at home until 4:30 pm or something, until we left for the Super Bowl party. Mom had made hot chili and we also took our desserts to the party. We could watch the game on a big screen and Lady Gaga was the half time show so that was nice to watch too! The game was against the Patriots from New England and the Falcons from Atlanta. The Falcons were ahead for a long long time. Mathilde, Carl and Josephine, the other exchange students, were together the whole time and we just tried all the dessert and hang out it was a lot of fun. There were three contests. There was a price for the best dessert, the best chili and the hottest chili. Mom had won the hottest chili AND best dessert last year. This year she won the hottest chili!! After the 3rd quarter we left to go home because it was already 8 o’clock ( the game started at 5.30 whaatt ). When we came home the Patriots had come back in the game a little bit so it was getting more excited to watch the game.
While finishing this blog, the whole country is going crazy because The Patriots just tied the game, it’s 28-28 now! The 4th quarter just ended so they’re playing longer and now to see who the winner is. I’m just waiting for the results………….
Oh there it is, The Patriots just won! 34-28! They were so behind in the beginning. This is a lesson kids, never give up, you can always come back and win the game hahaha.
Oh by the way, I am the Queen of the Mardi Gras YFU parade and Daniel is the King. It is a parade and a party at the end of February and we’re going with a lot of YFU people. A lot of people signed up for it so we’re going with big group. When they had to decide who were gonna be the King and Queen of our part of the parade, they just took random names and I am the Queen apparently…. . No clue what we have to do but I’m sure it’s gonna be fun! This is it for now and I’ll tell y’all about the parade in the next blog!
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