Recently I haven‘t had much time for my blog, so now I have a lot of catching up to do.
Halloween At school a lot of kids wore costumes. The reason why I didn‘t, was because there are too many restrictions in this school — yes even for costumes. In other words, skirts, leggings, hats, ripped fabric and showing shoulders was not allowed. Leaving the students only little room for creative costume ideas, I decided to not take part and a lot of other kids did the same. In the evening there was another football game but I didn‘t go because it was an away game and I rather wanted to give candy to the children who were trick or treating. My host dad was on a business trip and both of my host siblings, since they are in band, were at the football game, leaving me and my host mom the only ones at home. The first thing the two of us did after school was going to Walmart to buy candy for the children. Next, we put the candy into a bowl and put it on the porch. Then my host mom took me to a nearby neithborhood to show me halloween decorations. We didn‘t see that much though, apparently the decorations turned out poorly this year.
When we came back home and looked at our candy bowl, we saw that a lot of children already passed our house, since it was almost empty. I started studying for a quiz on the couch and a few times the doorbell rang and we gave out candy. Afterwards we picked up Ximena and Luis and went to get dinner.
San Antonio About two weeks ago me and my host family went to San Antonio for the weekend. The reason why we went there was because the Wylie Band had a competition there and my host mom never misses a performance, plus, it was a great opportunity to see the city. That Saturday, I got up at 5 and left the house at 6. My host mom was driving me and Adriana (her bestie), my host dad went to San Antonio directly from his business trip and my host siblings went with the band by bus. It was a 5 hour drive, so naturally I slept most of the time. After we arrived, we went to the stadium where the band competition took place. We were there for about 7 hours, so I was really bored and depressed. I had seen different bands perform a thousand times and was sick and tired of seeing it all again. Also, we couldn‘t even say hii to the Wylie kids, since the band directors are way too strict and treat their kids like slaves! But anyway, after those 7 hours of pure agony, we finally checked into the hotel. Since my host mom shared a room with her husband, I was roommates with Adriana. I‘m glad nobody from EF knows about my blog, since they would have background checked her (if they knew about it). So after checking in, we went to the famous river walk of San Antonio. We had dinner at a cool restaurant, but it took a while to find one, everything was full. The river walk was better than I could imagine; a beautiful canal, restaurants, lights, music and a good atmosphere.
After having dinner we went on one of those boats for a tour around the river walk. It was dark by then and the lights created a magnificent experience. It was so beautiful and reminded me a bit of New Harbor in Copenhagen.
When we got off the boat, we went back to the hotel and got ready for bed. Adriana and I talked a long time and from our room we could even see the fireworks. I like her a lot, actually I like all of the Landrums.
Sunday, we went to have breakfast at a German restaurant which earned the title as the oldest still existing restaurant of San Antonio. I had pancakes and a doubled portion of fruit because from time to time I really miss eating fruits here in the US. After breakfast, we downloaded an app for renting scooters. My host mom wasn‘t a big fan of the idea but eventually she gave in. We used the scooters to get from place from place faster and it was really fun! This way I actually met up with Jacob. He was checking out the city with a group of other band kids and my host family and his group just happened to „accidentally“ see each other 😉.
After bolting through the city for two hours, we went back to the hotel, checked out and headed home. I have to say that San Antonio was definitely the most beautiful part of Texas that I‘ve seen so far. Most of Texas is flat and the nature doesn‘t impress me, but San Antonio is definitely a place that I‘d recommend visiting.
My last football game A week ago, the official football season at many schools ended. That doesn’t mean that my school was done though. Wylie High School had won literally every football game against schools in the same school district, meaning we’re DISTRICT CHAMPIONS! So last weekend, there was the first playoff game against bigger schools from further away. The High School we played was Prosper, and everybody was excited about the big game. I went to the game, but it was extremely cold and the other team was clearly better than ours. I don’t remember the final score, but it was something like 24:0. Losing a playoff game means the immediate ending of the football season, which made it my last football game this year.
Last weekend On Saturday my host mom’s family came to visit. Before eating a late lunch, her mom and sister with all of her kids came to our house. It was really depressing for me, since neither of them could speak English and naturally, my host family spoke Spanish the whole day. Being unable to communicate with our guests, I decided to get ahead with homework. An hour later, we got in the car and drove to a nearby Mexican restaurant. For dessert we even had a chocolate pinata. It was just a huge ball of chocolate, that was filled with other desserts. So my host mom’s sister took the bat and smacked the chocolate ball until opened. Much to my dismay, the insides of the pinata weren’t that good…… After lunch/dinner we went bowling. That was more fun, since my host siblings said that it was exhausting for them to speak Spanish the whole day and they started speaking English with me.
On Sunday, I had my boyfriend come over for a video chat with my parents. It took quite a long time to convince his parents to let him come over before church, but they finally agreed. After the video chat, we got bubble tea for my host sister, because a day earlier she agreed to get her hair done (she usually hates it). Then we just chilled on the couch a little, until Ximena and my host mom wanted to go to a mall. Jacob and I had to go with them since my host parents have this weird rule that couples can’t be alone at home 🙁 But the mall was alright and the christmas tree in the center of the mall was amazing. It was the same mall that the EF meeting took place the day before. But we skipped this meeting, telling the staff that I had to attend a debate tournament that day. I just don’t like EF meetings and my host
