There's no place like Prom

Hello my fellow human beings. It is finally time for another blog post! Why? Because Prom.

Yup. Finally. Prom. It all took place last weekend, on Saturday.

And it was a very nice Saturday. I believe there is a lot that European people think they know about prom, and some of it I found was true, other things not. 

Anyways, I had a lot of fun! 

We took nice pictures, I had an absolutely delicious meal, I had fun at the dance itself, After prom was hilarious and I even went to a nice little after party. 

I didn't know just how different American proms are from Austrian proms. (Even though I wouldn't call our Austrian "Schulbälle" prom anyways...) 

Two of the most obvious differences are that first, the American drinking age is 21 and therefor there are no alcoholic drinks offered at prom, and second, that you go in couples here. This is also something that most of the people I talked to about prom, already knew. You don't have to have a date to go to prom, but most people go with one. Even though I had a very nice date (his name is Matt and it was great to go with him) I think it might be less stress-full to go the way we go in Austria: We kind of just all go together in small groups. This also means no prom-posals though. (This is when one person asks another person to go to prom with them. Traditionally the guy asks the girl. I have heard some crazy stories about prom-posals but at my High School they were pretty tame).

Another one is that in Austria people usually come to prom taking the subway or maybe a cab (that's more on the way home though...), whilst in America most people came by car and a couple people even rented party busses or limousines. 

I did also notice a lot of stress amongst my (Kansas) classmates starting about a month prior to the actual dance, which is another thing that I don't think happens a lot in Austria. It is just generally a more chill event, people just go to or they don't. I personally wasn't stressed about it in Kansas either, but it was a huge deal to many of my classmates. A lot of people didn't just spend a lot of money but a lot of energy on that night. Especially girls. Many got their hair and nails and make up professionally done, but the preparation actually starts before prom weekend itself! It is just a lot of planning, especially because there are some big groups. I was in a group of about 40 people, but there were even bigger groups. That means you have to find a good spot to take pictures, you have to find a restaurant that takes that many people, etc.

Also, in America, prom is just for pupils and their dates. While in Austria friends and family might come to your school's prom too, here in the US I only saw students, their dates, and teachers and other grown-ups as chaperones.

The last difference I want to mention is after prom, because it was actually really nice! (That picture on the left is of Amy, Kaine and I at afterprom in our green shirts we got at prom, and in the background you can see the gym a little bit... I don't have any better pictures sadly) After prom is an event planned by the school, right after prom (duh). Anyone from the school can come, it was at the gym in school anyways. It started at about 12 am and lasted until 3 am and there was a lot of cool stuff to do. There were three really cool things that I don't know what to call, but one of them was like a big "bouncy castle" (that's from google translate, yes) but kind of like a parkour so you could run through it and there were obstacles and there were two more things kind of similar to that. There were also a lot of poker tables and smaller little activities, and of course there was a lot of food and drinks (for free!). The whole thing was western themed, and the whole area was decorated really nicely! 

Anyways, while I could go one listing differences between Austrian and American proms, that isn't really the point. The point is I had an awesome night, I enjoyed it a lot, and I am happy my one and only prom here went like it did!

(And by the way: No, I did not buy that dress. It was the one my hostsister wore the year prior. Since prom dresses here can be very expensive, I thought I'd rather take hers. I know it isn't exactly typical for me to wear a dress like this, but I thought for a night I could like it.)

Springbreak and more cool stuff

So, since so many of my fans have complained about me not writing a post in such long time, here I am again!

Yeah, you heard right. The wait is finally over! 

So, Alrighty. Let's start. 

What happened since my last blogpost? A lot of cool stuff! What is worthy to mention in a blogpost? 

Well there's one thing that is for sure worth mentioning:
A couple weeks ago I went to my first Sabbath dinner! It was really cool. AFS organizes this kind of event every year for the exchange students. What basically happens, is that jewish families invite AFS exchange students to their place for an evening. 

It was really interesting, and my hosts, the Mueller-Hammers, were really nice and welcoming! 

We had a great time, a great dinner, and we played a little bit of Cluedo afterwards which was a lot of fun. Before the dinner, the family spoke a little blessing for the house, another for their son, and finally one for me and JJ, the exchange student from Thailand that was there with me. 

We ate some bread and drank some "Wine" (grape juice). I really liked having this little insight into this whole other religion I never knew a whole lot about.
I might not know that much more now, but I definitely know a little more, and that was totally worth it.
It was also nice, because the father Marc used to live in Vienna 20 years ago, and I enjoyed talking to him about it a lot. It felt great to finally talk to someone about it again, who knows it and loves it just as I do! (Even though sometimes he did seem to know more about it than I did) 

Sadly the picture of all of us didn't turn out in too great quality, but I like it anyways.


Another thing that I have to mention, but would rather not, is that I got interviewed for Diversity Week at my high school.
Diversity week is a really cool thing my school hosts. Is just a week of appreciating the diversity at Blue Valley High School, but also in general.
I especially appreciated that, because there's really not a whole lot of diversity at my school, and to be honest there isn't even that much diversity in all of Austria sometimes.
Well, besides just appreciating diversity, Blue Valley High also did stuff. There were 4 panels for all the students. One was about Religion, one was about body types, one was about sexual orientation and gender, and one was about ethnicity, race, etc.
The last one included an interview with all the exchange students at the school: Jamal from Pakistan, Anel from Kazakhstan and me, Anna from Austria.
"Sadly" I can't manage to find the video of it, but that's okay, because it really is a little bit embarrassing. In my defense though: I was still kinda sick when they filmed it, and I bet I could have done a better job, had I felt any better.


Something else pretty cool and pretty worth mentioning happened:
Last week was spring break and I went to Philadelphia and New York City!
From Friday to Saturday I was living with my friend Katie from Summer Camp in Philadelphia, and she and her mom took me to New York City for two days, and I spent an afternoon in New Jersey at Katie's College which is right next to Princeton University.
It was honestly such a great time!
First of all, I got to see the other people from the delegation from back then again! Jack, Molly, Sam, Katie, and me had an awesome time, and it was so good to see them again, after such a long time! It was especially cool to see, how we still got along so well, after 2 1/2 years of almost no contact. It made me really happy and also reminded me of why I love CISV (the organization through which we met) so much!
I also had my first Shamrock Shake with them, and I honestly didn't think I would, but I thought it was really delicious!
The other days went to Philly and I saw Love Park and I met a couple of Katie's friends who were all super nice and friendly and bright young women. We went to a thrift store and a really cool book store and they just showed me Philly. And I ate a Philly Cheese Steak, which was delicious!
In New York I got to see Central Park (which was probably my favorite part) and we went to MoMA, museum of modern art, (which was probably my second favorite part) and we stayed in a hotel right by Times Square and we did a lot of exploring and I met with Angelica, who'll be going to the same Seminar Camp as me this summer in Rome, which was also really exciting!
I just had a really great time this spring break. And I honestly can say I don't know if I could have spent it any better!
Plus, Katie has two super cute dogs, Scout and Atticus.

my first shamrock shake, and on the right is our little reunion. We had a great time, even if we all have a pretty fake smile on the picture. 

 This was on St. Patrick's Day, which we spent with Casey and Dana, and for a little while with Katie's friend Ethan too.
It was really fun, and it was really great getting to know Casey and Dana a little more.
We stayed at home the whole night but we still had a great time. We didn't do anything typically Irish, but we ate some kind of typically Irish cake that Katie's mom Laura made for an Irish dinner she had with a friend of her's and her parents.
It was delicious!

This was in Philly, on South Street. That was the day we went to that Thrift Store and the Book Store, I believe. It was really nice out, the sun was shining bright, and I had an awesome time.
I also took a couple more pictures with my film camera, but I haven't developed the film yet. I might post some of them later...
I was obviously not the one taking this picture, so all credits go to Casey. Thanks btw. I really like this picture.

This picture is also from Philly. It is (obviously) the famous Love Sign in Love Park. I kinda thought the sign and also the park would be bigger to be honest. But it was still really cool! Also, since it was kind of cold, there weren't too many people there, which was good for us! There was just a couple of skaters who always managed to be in my picture!

This picture is only a screenshot from a video that I took, but sadly it turned out to be really poor quality. It was this band we saw at Suburban Station though, and they were really good! Just three men singing some awesome songs...  One of them was "ain't no sunshine", and before I left the guy that sang smiled an pointed at me. Great moment.
We also left them some change, because they were that good. And when I took the video, the guy on the drums posed really funny with his daughter (in the stroller right next to him...)




This was on our second Day in Philly, when Katie and me went to go eat Dim Sum. the food was really good, and it was also really beautiful on that day! Some weird strangers talked to us on the street though, but I guess that's just city life, which I'm not really used to any more.
Still, being in a city again and not in a Suburb was awesome. It's not that I don't enjoy being in the Suburbs, it's just that I'm so used to being in the city, and the way the city works. I also do really miss public transportation and certain specifically Viennese things like our awesome Cafes, and "Burggarten", and Akakiko, and so on.

And now to the pictures of NYC: 

On the first day we spent in NYC I found the Austrian flag on our way to the St. Patrick's Cathedral. As you can see, I was very excited.
(Also don't worry everyone, this is not disrespectful in Austria. I know I shouldn't do this with the US flag, and I don't, but it's okay in Austria (: so no worries)
It was on that square with the ice skating thing and the big statue of neptune (?) and there were a lot of flags there!

 This was on our first evening in NYC, or rather my first evening. Katie and me spent the time after dinner before going to bed with annoying tourists and being stupid on the red stairs on Times Square. It was a great time, and some people might have been a little annoyed by us, but I think most of them loved us!
It was also kind of chilly but we just put on what ever we had brought and made it the best we could!

 This was our view from the Hotel window. Even though you can't really tell, because it was on the 33rd floor or something, that is right above Times Square! It was a really nice room too.

 

We took these picture at "the VU" this kind of bar in a hotel right across from the Empire State Building. We drank (alcohol free) Mojitos and enjoyed the view and took selfies and it was awesome. And yes, the reflection you can see on that table is the Empire State building. It was an awesome view! 

All of those picture are from MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art. It was sooo great to see all of those pieces in real life! Some of my favorite Artists (Klimt, Van Gogh, Magritte, Dali, Max Ernst, Frida Kahlo, Basquiat, Andy Warhol...) had something displayed there, and I was really amazed. I also took a lot of pictures with my film camera in there, but since it sadly wasn't that good of a camera, a lot of them will probably turn out bad. Anyways, Katie took a picture of me taking a picture with my film camera of the skyline, and can we just take a second to appreciate my dedication? Thanks.

 This was after MoMA at UNIQLO, a store that sells Shirts with some awesome MoMA art on them! I bought a shirt with Basquiat Design on it, and I love it to death! It looks really cool, I swear!

After UNIQLO we went to Sarandipity (I think that's how you spell it), this really cool Cafe! The only bad thing was that I ordered Dim Sum and it turned out to have Shrimp in it, which I hate, but I also got a really good frozen drink with lemon and pineapple. It was reallllllllyyyyyy delicious! Just look at it. 

 This is (obviously?) Central Park. This is also probably one of my favorite memories from New York City.
We (Laura Katie and me) went all the way down 5th Avenue and alongside Central Park, where they were already preparing for the St. Patrick's Day Parade.
Katie and me then sat down on those big rocks in central park and it was really nice and sunny but not too hot or anything. We had a great talk about the world and life and stuff and then we took some goofy picture. It might not sound that great but it was a really nice time!

And I saved the best pictures for last: 

Atticus! Sadly I didn't take any (good) pictures of scout, Katie's other dog, but to be honest, I liked Atticus a little bit better anyways. (I love Scout too so don't tell her) 

 

Halftime

So. Last week, Saturday January 24th, was my halftime here. I had been here for 162 days, and had 162 more days to go.
Today, February 1st, I have 154 more days. Time is flying by!

Well, since my last blogpost I did a lot of stuff, like go back to school and get a new schedule.
My new one looks like this:

1. Photo II
2. French 2.0
3. Pre-Calculus
4. Anatomy and Physiology
5. US Government
6. English Language Arts 12
7. US History

So really, not that much has changed, but still quite a bit. Photo II is a really cool subject, we shoot pictures on film, we develop them and print them ourselves in the darkroom, and I like it a lot! We get assignments to shoot almost every weekend, and so far I liked them all.
I don't really have any pictures scanned or in any digital form yet, but maybe some day I'll upload one or two.

And, while I'm talking about pictures:
I know that in my last blogpost I promised pictures of the family. So, voilà:

PS: the little young kid we're playing cards with, is not one of my hostsiblings, all the other's are! The blond one is Tori, the oldest one, which is at College and in who's room I'm living in now, Dalton is the guy (duh) and Brina is the brown-haired girl.
I still feel very comfortable in the new family and we get along very well! I'm glad to be here!


The only other think I took pictures of lately, was when Brina, Brian and me went to Sea Life, which is Downton in Kansas City. It is basically a big house full of aquariums with all kind of fish and other animals in it.
It was pretty neat, and afterwards we ate dinner at a restaurant were small trains bring you your food. There was only kids, there parents and us, but we liked it anyways.

Also, after 5 months of being at Blue Valley High School, the student council finally decided to introduce all the exchange students to the school. That includes me. Yep. I'm an exchange student.
Anyway, so we had an assembly, and what the student council decided to do, was to introduce us by letting us answer 4 question before hand (1. Who's your host family? 2. What do you like to do outside of school? 3. What kind of music do you listen to? 4. What is your favorite thing about Blue Valley?) and then they read them out, while we awkwardly stood in the middle of the gym. So yeah, that was super fun.

Another thing I noticed recently, is that I forgot to talk about Hag-Coming, and show all of you nice people reading this what my school looks like! Because yes!! I took pictures, to nourish all those crazy minds, wanting to know what an American High School actually looks like.
Anyways, before I show you the pictures I should probably clarify:
Hac-Coming was a school danced hosted by the NAHS, the national art honors society, and I was kind of a part of that at the time, so I attended it. Even though it wasn't a huge crowd (ok the crowd was really small. But people came, ok? some people were there!) I had an awesome time, and I even got to keep a huge balloon in shape of an A! yay
I also saw my opportunity to take some pictures of the school, so here they are:
the first picture is right when you come in, the second picture is the hallway by the main entry, the third picture is the "Senior Hallway" (with all the senior lockers...) and the third and fourth pictures are in the commons - during the day, that's where we eat lunch. At night, that's where the party's at.

 btw, that first picture was before everyone came – I was there early to help decorate and stuff – and the last picture is pretty soon towards the end, that's why there's so few people. Not gonna lie tho, there were never a lot more. It was still great!

So yeah, that's it for today, because I gotta go watch the Superbowl, like a real American.
See you sometime soon. It's always a pleasure, Hugs from Kansas!

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!