About not being a minor anymore, moving, Christmas, and other small details.

Soooo... A month passed since my last blogpost, and a lot happened:

• I saw some really awesome Christmas Lights
• I turned 18
• It snowed for the first time!
• I survived finals
• I moved (to a new hostfamily)
• I was at the Plaza 
• I went to Cunningham (smaaall town in Kansas) 
• I spent my first american Christmas

So, that's pretty much the gist. If you're still reading, and actually want to know the details: Thanks. I love you.

Aaand from the top:

Christmas Lights! What happened was: My friend Amy and me drove around and looked at some Christmas Decorations people put on their houses etc. and we saw some really cool stuff!

Yeah that one from the video was probably the most spectacular one (in case something's gone wrong, it's like a little light show in their garden with music too... Their bill is probably pretty high), but a week later or so, my hostfamily took me to a neighborhood called "Christmas Place", or something like it, that's really small, it's just like two small streets, but every single house has awesome lights and there were literally like 20 more cars and we all were just driving through there, looking at the lights. It was worth it!

Next:
I turned 18! It's kind of disappointing how not-different I feel. But sometimes I remember, and the most random moments, and it's just like 'Oh no! I have responsibilities now!'
But, to be honest, the thought doesn't stay prominent too long.
Anyways, I got a package from Austria for my birthday, and I got some presents from my hostfamily, and I spent the evening with some friends, and it was a really nice day!
I also got two cakes! Actually a cake from my hostfamily (each quarter had a different taste!!) and a pie (Linzertorte, classical Austrian cake, and my Grandmother and my Dad make the b e s t, I'm not kidding!) from my Dad, he sent to me. My hostfamily gave me my cake at around 00:00 too, that was pretty awesome!

 

So yeah, my birthday was on a Saturday and the following week I had finals from Wednesday to Friday. What are Finals? Finals are the final exams at the end of each Semester, to prove that you actually know all the stuff you learned before. I think. Yeah. I am sure.
So I had those from Wednesday to Friday but I didn't sweat it too much, most of my finals weren't really hard and I have good grades. Yeah, I'm ready for my next semester! School! Yay!
It also snowed on Thursday, that was pretty cool. Sadly it was gone pretty quick, and it hasn't snowed since, but I enjoyed that one snowy day a lot!

Sunday after the finals, I then moved. That doesn't mean me and my hostfamily moved, but rather I switched hostfamily. Don't worry, no bad blood, they just had too much to do next semester, so they thought it would be better if I looked for a new hostfamily who would have more time for me. Or so they told me. (Just kidding)
So yeah, I packed all my stuff and thought it was kinda sad how little it was, and also kinda terrible how much it was, because I'll have to transport that back to Austria eventually!
Anyways, Sunday about noon I said goodbye to the Vedantams, and moved to the DeWeeses.
The new family living at the house, is: Brian (the father), Brina (who was in my English and my Anatomy Class, she's also a Senior) and Dalton (who was in my Sociology Class, he's a Sophomore).
I live in Tori's old room, who is currently in College. They also have a cat called Kitty and a dog called Blue. The cat is lying in my bed right now, and even though she is of course not as cute as my cats in Austria, she comes pretty close!
The same night I also went to the Plaza for the first time, where we did a little bit of shopping and then went to a Burger restaurant. (This might be a good time to mention that while my old hostfamily was very vegetarian, my new hostfamily is very not.)
The Plaza was definitely no disappointment! For people from Austria: It's a little bit like a small-town-Version of Vienna's first district, if you'd like.
Anyways it's very beautiful, and they turn on these awesome lights when it's dark.

The next day, we (Brian, Tori, Brina, Dalton and me) went to Cunningham, wich is a very, very small town in the southern middle of Kansas.

We spent a two days there, and it was really nice and relaxing. We played cards a lot. We also had a little family Dinner, with the Grandma, an Uncle and an Aunt, a Cousin and his kid. It was a really nice Dinner, and we got awesome cake!
We also went to the Uncle's house the next day, which was an american Farm, and it was really cool to see that.
On the 24th, we then left and drove back to Kansas City, that took us around 5 hours. Or maybe 4. I am not sure, obviously.



On the 24th, we went to Lori's house (Lori is Brina, Dalton and Tori's mother), and I spent my first american Christmas. Jim, Lori's boyfriend, and his three kids were also there, and we unpacked presents, and technically we were watching How the Grinch stole Christmas, but not really.
I also ate Canned Cheese for the first time there! Dalton gave it to me for my birthday, because he knew it was on my american bucket list, so I ate it with Crackers and Sausage and it was actually not as bad as one would think.
Of course it's not comparable to Vorarlberg's or swiss Cheese, but let's not go there, it's spray Cheese after all.
But, Christmas wasn't over after that. On the 25th, Christmas Morning, we had Christmas at the House with Brian, and we unpacked some more presents, and it was very nice! The same day I also saw Into the Woods with Brina and her Friend Maia, and Brian, Tori, Brina, Dalton, Maia and me had Dinner at an asian place with an all you can eat buffet. It was really good.
So yeah, that was my christmas. I enjoyed it a lot.

In my next blogpost, I will probably have more pictures of the family, I know there's kind of a lack of those right now! But I'll take some, and I know Brian has some, so you'll see some.
Thanks to everyone who actually took the time to read this whole thing, and thanks to everyone who just gave it a little glance or whatever.
Hugs from Leawood!