Half time, Birthday and so much more

Dear family, friends and readers,
it has been a while again since the last time I posted something.
Again many things happened.

I had the midterms, which were a little stressful and they were quiet hard, but I did okay at almost all of them. My semester grades are still pretty good so everything is fine :)
Many people don't understand at all why I am even trying to get a good grade, because my grades don't count at all, because I will repeat the year when I get home, but I don't want bad grades, because I am not trying. As long as I tried in a test I also accept a bad grade. I learn new things, I learn with a new system I never had before, I can be in better classes, meet very nice and smart people and don't be bored in classes which are not my level. To every future exchange student, who is reading this: It is okay to skip sometimes the homework, but still try in school. People in your host community will think better of you, they might want more exchange student and you can adjust better. Your reputation will also be just better with trying in school, than without trying.

On Saturday after the midterms and before my birthday, I met with some exchange students and some volunteers. There was also a Malaysian girl with us, who arrived the day before in Boston. She is staying with some of our AFS volunteers and she is here for the last half year. I was very excited to meet her, because I've never met a person from Malaysia before.
We went first to a thai restaurant, then to a roller skating rink, then to a shopping mall and afterwards again to a restaurant, but this time it was (American-) Italian. I have never been roller skating with the "old fashioned" roller skates before and I've never been indoor roller skating, so it was a very new experience again. It was a little different, but it was a lot of fun! There were many of us who were falling a lot, but fortunately I didn't belong to them. I belonged to the ones teaching the beginners.
After an hour of skating and a little sweating, because it got very hot in the indoor rink, we went to a shopping mall. We had the opportunity to go shopping, but most of us decided that we would rather talk with the new exchange student girl and digest a little. We all ate too much in the Thai restaurant and we knew that we are going to eat more in the Italian restaurant. One of the most common conversations I have, when I am with exchange students, is that we are gaining a lot of weight, because of the food we are eating a lot. The AFS volunteers we were with that day again, always take us out to restaurants and we always end up eating too much. No wonder we are gaining weight when not even the AFS volunteers are helping us not to eat too much :D. Although they feed us always too much food, they are probably the best and most active AFS volunteers an AFS exchange student could wish for!
At the end of the day in the Italian restaurant I got a birthday cake with my name and roses on it. It was a very pretty cake and it was also a big surprise! The first seconds I didn't understand at all that they were all singing "happy birthday" for me.

On Tuesday was my "real" birthday. I got up in the morning and opened the letters that my Swiss family sent me and the present from my aunt. My host mom bought me a bagel for breakfast, which is my favorite breakfast besides pancakes and waffles of course. When I got to school my friend Lea from Germany waited in front of the school with a birthday cake for me. It was so nice of her and I was so happy! She also made sure that everybody knows that it was my birthday, by making me carry the cake which was decorated with a giant bow on top of the box. I definitely had the attention with that box of at least two thirds of the school, but it was a very cute idea.
After school my host dad picked Lea and me up and brought to a (American-) French bakery. We had a hot chocolate and some sweet delicious sweets. After the bakery we were hanging out for a while at my house and then my host family took me out for dinner. It was a typical American restaurant and had a burger. My host sister, with her sons and her husband came too to the restaurant. It was a very fun evening and I was very happy. I was a little homesick in the morning, because of the beautiful letters my Swiss family sent me, but I wasn't anymore during the day and at the end of the day, because of wonderful people here.

On Friday during my birthday week, I had a birthday surprise dinner organized by my friend Lea. Some of my friends school friends were there and also Mavi from Italy.
Mavi came to my house that night to have a sleepover, because the next day we had an orientation in my town.
Our district group grew a little since the last orientation. A boy from Germany and a girl from Malaysia joined us. During the orientation we talked about many topics, that we discussed already last orientation, but also about our goals and changes in our very exciting lives. To be with this group of 13 exchange students from nine different countries is just the best feeling. I'm sure many people haven't had that interesting company in their lives ever before!
After the orientation the girl from Pakistan stayed for a sleepover at my house.

These were the most important and most interesting events that happened since January 10th.

The upcoming very exciting event will be my ski trip next weekend, my trip to NYC with my 5th cousins and the February vacation.

I hope enjoyed reading this blog post again. Let me know if you have any questions!

Hasta luego,
Nadia =D