First Football Game

Football is big in America. I have always known that, but I did not understand until I arrived at school the morning of the first game day.

#15: Mason Pack

Each Friday of the football season is game day. This means that all day, everything you hear is somehow connected to the game from that evening. Okay, that might be a slight excaggeration but you get the point...

Everywhere I looked there were boys in yellow jerseys. A couple of sophomores but mainly juniors and seniors form our team. The school has around seventy players, so it is impossible to not know at least one. Of course, no game without the cheerleaders. It was like High School Musical in real life. Girls walking around in their uniform and a ponytail with a bow. Yes, it's all real.

Apparently, being a cheerleader is not as much of a big deal at my school so the attention that I expected they would get was not there. 

All the students were excited and while I was walkin down the hallways switching classes I heard people talking about the game that would happen that night. 

Because it was an 'away' game, there would not be as many students attending but that did not mean the support was any less. Players kept getting comment after comment, telling them good luck. 

School Spirit

I had never experienced something like this. At home, we don't do sports at school and there is no such thing as 'school spirit'. It felt nice, like the student body (as all the students of a high school are called) was coming together and they all agreed that they wanted to win that very first game.

And winning they did.

The next week it was the same thing all over again, except this time it was on Thursday. The next day we would be off but the game would still take place on Friday. 

With Emma

There were people selling white t-shirts as it would be a 'white rush out' and everyone supporting the Chiefs, as the team is called, was supposed to wear white.

That was until the team we were playing against that night decided that they would be doing the same color so we switched to yellow. One of our school colors. 

Yes, in America, each high school has its own colors. Ours are yellow and brown. I have no clue who came up with those two colors but he or she was probably severly color blind. Who on earth picks yellow and brown to represent a school? Not me... Not me...

Anyways, so a 'yellow rush out' it was. That Friday Lexa took me to a Walmart where they sell some of our school t-shirts. I bought one that I thought looked okay-ish and I was happy I would not be standing out at the game.

With Courtney

We went back to her house to let out her dog, Pearl, a great dane. When she came back inside, she started sniffing me. Not something I really appreciate from a dog I do not know and especially since I do not know where that nose has been! Being a clean freak, I just stood there frozen with my hands up high and waited for Lexa to whisk her away. Not before she left a brown stain on my new shirt, obviously. And then you would think: why is she complaining? Now you have both your school colors on you but no, thanks. Luckily, I carry around a laundry detergent to-go stick...

We arrived early and just sat around watching the team warm up. I was so excited. People do not understand but this is one of the reasons I wanted to come to America. To experience things like this, to live the life you see in movies.

And it might not all be as glamourous as it seems to be, it definitely is one hell of a lot alike. 

Lexa and Emma

I have never been the person to really understand any sports I don't practice myself so what was happening on the field was a complete mystery to me but hey, boys running and laying on top of each other to get a ball? I am not complaining.

I had been told that our team was not that great and I should not expect too much from them. Like I said, I don’t know anything about football so I could not tell if they were playing well or not. I mean I have trouble reading the score board and that is not because I have bad vision, just no clue what is going on...

During half time the players get to rest for a bit and the Golden Girls entertain the crowd. They did a few dance routines and then they came out with a bunch of little kids. They were separated in groups and they all danced to a different song. 

Half Time Entertainment

The moment I heard the first notes of Party In The USA by Miley Cyrus coming through the speakers, I got tears in my eyes. My all time favorite song at a place I have always wanted to be. I realised how happy I was and I immediately I started dancing and singing. I texted my mom afterwards to say thank you for letting me go and reassuring her that I was super happy being here.

The game continued and the stands were getting less occupied. At the beginning, it was packed. Everyone was getting sweaty being all scrammed together. When it became obvious that we would be winning the game, people started to leave so that meant that the remaining students had a bit more space to move around.

Lexa and I left early to beat the parking lot traffic and drove home jamming out to songs in the car. I am not the best singer in the world and neither is she but it was so much fun. 

WHAAAT???!!!

We went through the drive thru at Sonic and we ordered the biggest size of slushie they had. It was big, bigger than my head and there was no way I'd be able to drink that all but that was not what it was about.

I am in America and I can order slushies bigger than the size of my head.

Much love,

Naomi

Weekend with Nicole: Part Two

Once again, I woke up late. No let me correct that. I woke up two hours later than I did the day before. Talk about wasting your day...

Hoolihan's

I showered, got dressed and then went to find John and Nicole. Waiting for me, again. This time we all went to Houlihan’s for breakfast. It was the first time I was there and apparently they don’t have purified water. You would say: don’t be a brat and just drink water from the tap. Problem is: it gets me sick. So as a solution, I drank diet coke for breakfast lunch. Welcome to America...

It seemed like it was also the waitress' first time being there, because she did not know a whole lot about their menu or the way the restaurant worked. Luckily, my companions had been there before so they explained it all to me. In the ended it didn't really matter, I went with my very simple and standard Caesar salad.

We went back to their house and I packed my suitcase. Yes, I brought a suitcase for a two night stay over. I am a girl, we bring crap we don't need. Deal with it.

Poster at the restaurant

Nicole and I decided to rent a movie and then go back to my house as I still needed to do homework. Today, several months later, that homework still needs to be done, but we enjoyed watching 'Beauty & the Briefcase'...

A bit later Becca came over. She has been Nicole's best friend for twenty year and together they are hilarious. They really have that 'teenager-stuck-in-an-adult-body' vibe, or dilemma, depends on how you want to see it. Honestly, they are so much fun.

We went out to China Wok to get our dinner and then ate it at the house. It was the night of the VMA's and One Direction was going to be there so of course I wanted to see it. Now, I hear all the girls of the universe going 'Hello N' Sync!' To be fair. I've never been a fan but Nicole and Becca definitely are. So here I was with my fellow teenagers, in front of the tv.

This photo is not mine, click
here to see where I got it from

Of course, Miley Cyrus and her choices for that evening were...different. Half naked and a foam finger as accessory. Definitely not classy and definitely not something I think is a good example for the rest of the world. But, they are her own choices and if she is happy then that is all that matters. Most of you know I have been a huge fan of Miley since I was twelve. I will always support her and I will always love her but I would not make the choices she is making now. Seeing her now makes me upset and I miss having her to look up to in the way that I did. Still, I think people can look up to her for being herself (as she says this is). But please people, more clothes and keep the foam fingers to the sport games...

At the end of the show, Becca decided it was time for her to go home and I still had to unpack my things. Nicole and I both went to bed afterwards. She was stay the night with me because my host mom was still in Texas until that Monday.

Although it has been two or three months since this happened, I still laugh about everything. It was a wonderful weekend and I had so much fun. My blogs have been lacking big time and I really have to get back on track! Actually I am listening to Christmas music right now. Yes. That is how late this blog (and the fifteen upcoming ones) is. I am on break now so I will be blogging as much as possible in between the Christmas shopping. I am so excited!

Nicole, thank you so much for taking care of me this weekend and I will never forget any of it (since I now finally wrote all of it down). I love you. You are amazing!

Much love,

Naomi

Weekend with Nicole: Part One

A few weeks ago I had a super fun weekend at Nicole’s! She is one of my host mom’s daughters and she’s absolutely wonderful.

I overdid the silliness

We started off at Papa’s to celebrate his birthday. Lexa, Luke, Emma and I drove there together, a fun little road trip as it takes an hour and a half to get up there. Emma and I were in the backseat taking silly pictures while Lexa and Luke were sitting in front. We stopped at Sonic to get a smoothie to drink, which was a first for me!

My gift for Papa

We were the last ones to arrive, of course being fashionably late. After we had dinner it was time to give all of the presents everyone got Papa. I was feeling a bit unsure about mine, after all I didn’t really know him well so who wouldn’t?

Luckily, he loved it and my plaque is now part of his living room decorations.

As Rosemary, my host mom (I am not sure if I mentioned her name before) was going to go to Texas for the weekend; I was going home with Nicole and her husband John.

Nicole scared me for life whilst driving home, her driving is horrible and I was happy as never before when we where at their house, safely.

(I put in that part to make John happy, Nicole’s driving is perfectly fine! Or at least when I am in the car :p)

The two of them are so sweet, they have a daughter Lauren, she is amazing, who went away for college and they me sleep in her bed. Pretty much the best bed ever!

We watched a movie with Adam Sandler before going to bed. Because the bed wasn’t made yet, Nicole and I did that together and honestly next time I go to Target I am buying the sheets she has! Heavenly. And that makes me feel old, wanting to have things like sheets. What happened to wanting Barbie dolls?

I woke up the next morning at about half past ten, after telling them I’d be awake at nine the day before… Who was I kidding? But to be fair, I was planning on setting my alarm at nine so that we would have a full day of fun! But the bed was so nice and I couldn’t wake up when my alarm went off so I slept through it.

Dessert at lunch

When I did wake up, I felt a bit guilty. I mean, they asked what time I would wake up for a reason. Surely it was so that they would be awake too but I made them get up whilst I wouldn’t be awake for another ninety minutes. I use minutes because it makes it seem shorter than saying an hour and a half, right?

Fortunately, the couple just joked about it and then Nicole and I left John at the house to go have breakfast, I know… Lunch, at the Aviary!

We got in the car and drove to a couple of places where they had a Starbucks. My mum was in London with my brother, sister and my dad and asked me to see if we had certain cups in America. She wanted to buy them in London but they might have been cheaper here. I think we drove to about three different ones but sadly, we couldn’t find them.

Following, we drove downtown to go eat!

Amazing interior

The Aviary is a neat little placed with lovely decorations and very tasty food! Nicole and Lauren go here quite often so they know what’s good and that was everything!

I went for the Caesar salad, obviously, and afterwards Nicole and I shared the Salted Caramel crepe.

It was delicious and I kept taking pictures of the interior. It was so cute! Definitely a place I would want to take my mum if she is able to come visit me at the end of the year.

My purchase

Moving on, we walked around for a little bit and ended up in a small store with all sorts of little knick-knacks. There wasn’t anything I actually needed but I found a pretty gift bag that says ‘Dreamer’ with an owl on it. I bought that because I thought it fit me quite well. After all, I am a girl with big dreams and everyone knows that owls a
re seen as intelligent. I hope that some of his intelligence rubs off on me!

We visited a couple more other local stores, all filled with Halloween stuff! Excuse me; I thought Halloween was on the 31^st of October?

Ready for the game

And then the great Target came around! A-ma-zing. I love it.

We spent a good amount of time in there and I came out with a good amount of stuff. Including a Cardinals shirt. Comes in handy since all the exchange students are going to Saint Louis for the weekend and we’re going to be watching a game as well!

We were done shopping for the day and continued our super fun day by going to the bull riding that was taking place.

We arrived there at 5.30 pm because that’s when the doors would open and thirty minutes later the show would start. So we both took a seat and we were there early so we watched the guy on the tractor driving circles in the ring for a while.

It was six o’clock but the show wasn’t starting yet. So they were a little late? No big deal. Soon enough it was twenty minutes later and Nicole and I started wondering why it was taking so long. So I stood up and asked the first people that I saw what time the show was supposed to start: eight pm.

Waiting with the beautiful Nicole

The show would start two hours later than we thought it would. We got there two and a half hours early. The people who were there really must have thought we were die hard bull riding fans, just like they were. Not so much.

We laughed so hard, thinking we were there for so long before the show even started and we surely didn’t end up staying there to watch the show for the same amount of time.

It was definitely something I haven’t seen before, only on telly. I don’t agree with using bulls as an object to entertain other people by getting them all heated up and trying to ride them but it certainly is some show.

Games for kids during the break

We were seated underneath one of those huge lights, the same they have at football games. The light attracts bugs and other flying organisms that like to sit on my skin to either suck my blood or freak the hell out of me. This resulted into me screaming and embarrassing myself and Nicole when there was a huge ‘thing’ on my leg. I almost cried: I was so scared that it would do something. We left. It was a nice show, just not nice enough to have flying creatures bugging you for the time you are there. Or longer, what if they are in your hair or clothing and you don’t notice? Just saying.

All together I am super glad Nicole took me their, it was a typical American experience. It was nice to see it together, both of us for the first time!

We went back to the house and back to John who we had abandoned for the day. We brought him some food and watched some more telly. We all went to bed not long after. Back to the amazing sheets <3

Much love,

Naomi 

First Time on the School Bus

The seats are surprisingly comfy!

Everyday, Lexa picks me up to go to school and then at the end of the day, after fourth block, she takes me home again. The second week of the schoolyear, Lexa's teacher announced that she and her other classmates had to go to the Missouri State University every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to take their classes there. MSU is on the otherside of town and she wouldn't be able to take me home. So on those days: the schoolbus it is!

On Wednesday I immediately went to the main entrance and walked out of the door. I didn't want to be late so I walked as fast as possible but at the same time, I was trying not to look like an idiot.

All the busses were already lined up so I started looking for the bus that I had to be on, #38-10. And it was not there. So here we go again: asking someone else. If you only knew how many people I have had to ask for help these past days. Actually I was not sure if it was past or passed, so I had to ask that to someone too...

Sunny weather and
a beautiful view

The girl told me the bus was always ten minutes later than all the other ones. Here I was standing in the burning sun waiting for the bus to come (and that rhymes). It was not too long and I got on, telling the bus driver I was new and I gave her my address.

I was having a headache already from getting very little sleep and wearing nerd glasses all day (remember, nerd day?) so a long bus ride was not really something I was looking forward to. But hey, first time on the school bus is definitely an experience!

It was not exactly what I had expected. No fighting over the backseats, no trash, no food spills and so on. Most important: no extremely annoying children except for one girl who seemed to think that everybody needed to know about her problems!

The bus ride seemed to take forever. Everybody was getting off and it was just me and three other students still waiting for our stops.

After another half hour it was just me.

The bus driving away
after dropping me off

And then the bus driver asked me: ‘Where do you live?’. So I gave her the address again and she said: ‘No, I mean how do we get there?’ Well, I didn’t know! This was only my second week here, mind you. Plus I never paid any attention to where we were going as people who drove me knew where to go!

So we pretty much just drove all through Battlefield, where I do not live so I have my questions there but then finally after two whole hours of trying to get home we were finally there.

Luckily, now that the driver knows where I live I get dropped off as one of the first students and it only takes thirty minutes!

Much love,

Naomi

Spirit Week

In case some of you don’t know what spirit week is: it is a school week where Cabinet, a group of students that organize things in order of the school, decides on themes for each day of the week in which you should dress up for that day.

Monday
Lazy Day

Now I would love to write about the week itself but it is honestly not interesting at all. It was just like any other week but dressed up. So I figured as it still is something of an event. I would tell you about my shopping experience and add photo’s of my outfits!

Prior to this week, I went shopping in Battlefield to buy clothes that would match the themes of this year. My host mom dropped me off at the mall around 10.30 am and from that point on I was on a mission. For a good five hours I shopped my butt off, trying to find some good outfits.

I started in Zumies, a skater-ish sort of store. The staff was super nice, refreshing after the past three days in school. The guy who helped me, Connor, did a good job and stayed with me the entire time I was looking around, asking me questions. I actually felt bad that nothing in the store fit the themes and to be fair, it wasn’t really within my budget either… As soon as Connor’s workmate called him over, I snuck out of the door…  

Tuesday
Twin Day

I went into the next store: Hollister. I’ve never bought anything there before but it’s the closest thing to Abercrombie & Fitch so I thought I’d give it a shot. I prepared myself for the whole: ‘Welcome to Hollister, here are your gasmask and your flashlight…’-thing. It was not as bad as I was used to, meaning I was able to breathe easily and my sight was clear. Right after I went in, I found the first thing on my list: a plaid shirt. One day down, four more to go.

Whilst shopping I kept texting my friend, together trying to come up with ideas for good outfits.

Charlotte Russe was not as amazing as I thought it would be. Lots and lots of clothing items splattered across the store and honestly not having an good clear view on what they have freaks me out and makes me think their collection is just rubbish so I didn’t spend more than five minutes in there.

Wednesday
Nerd Day

Of course, Forever 21 saved the day. It’s been one of my favourite stores for a while now and they never disappoint! Again, that means if the staff does a good job of tidying the store. I bought most of my outfits here. That includes all the gold accessories for colour day, a laidback pink shirt for lazy day and glasses for nerd day as well as a collared shirt.

Here I was walking around the mall carrying all of those bags with me, and god knows there were a lot, when I walked past a card store. It was almost Papa’s birthday so I had to go in and see if they had anything suitable for him. Papa is my host mom’s dad and everybody knows him as Papa, it is basically his name. It is a bit strange writing it down, as papa is dad in Dutch so I call my dad papa, you just pronounce it differently but let’s not get into that.

So I went in and when they asked me if I needed any help I told them I was looking for a card for an older man who I didn’t know very well, or at all, and the card had to mention God as that was the only thing I knew he would love. So they sent me to an isle and told me to look there.

Thursday
Color Day

I can tell you now: looking for a card for someone you don’t know is one of the hardest things in life. No, but really it was hard. Every single card mentioned either being family, being someone’s everything, loving someone or how you’ve known that person for so long. I am not exaggerating when I say I’ve been in that store for over half an hour looking for a suitable card.

The last store I went into was Old Navy. This is not a store I would normally go into but as I have been to the mall before with Lauren and Nicole and enjoyed it then I figured I might as well go and check it out.

Friday
Plaid Day

Good thing I did because I found my last two items there! A simple pair of sweats and a white tank top with gold detailing on the shoulders. I didn’t want to go all out with an all gold shirt, it would be too much and honestly, am I ever going to wear something like that again? No. And that is how I bought all my items. I asked myself the question: am I going to wear this again? Because what is the point in buying something you’ll only wear once? Besides your wedding dress…

Much love,

Naomi