Afgelopen woensdag was ik precies 5 maanden in Amerika en dus op de helft van mijn onvergetelijke avontuur. Morgen is het de 21e en dus ben ik dan precies 5 maanden hier in Essex Junction, Vermont. Tis wel gek hoor.. Er is sinds de laatste keer dat ik geschreven heb niet mega veel interessant gebeurt volgens mij, maar halfway there is toch wel bijzonder, dus dacht ik dat het misschien leuk was om eens over mijn algemene ervaring van het afgelopen semester te schrijven!!

Okay I'm going over in English now, cause to be honest... sometimes that is just easier now....... Last summer, after an amazing but really busy three days of New York, I jumped in to the deep end. I started a new life with a new family I had never met in reallife before, and from being the youngest kid, I turned into the oldest one, the younger sisters were looking up to. Something that might have been one of the biggest changes for me personally.

On the second they here they already brought me the highschool and I started playing fieldhocket with about 45 (?) girls I didn't know. That might have been my most nervwrecking moment I have ever had in my life so fare. I met a lot of them, but I could not remember there names at all, and when one of them showed me around the school two days later I couldn't even tell who it was (I know it now tho :)). They were all super nice, but my first day of school was not amazing. All my classes were really easy and I didn't know anyone in the classes. I didn't know anyone at lunch, so yeah I truely did feel like one of those kids in the movies that sits alone in a huge cafeteria, feeling like people are staring at them. They changed my schedule tho, and I ended up in a few classes with people I actually knew. People started talking to me more and more and I made more and more friends which was awesome.

I think it was maybe the first one and a half month that I experienced lots and lots of homesickness. It wasn't that I didn't like my school, friends, sport or family, cause they were all amazing, but I just felt like I was missing one of the most important parts of my life, especially my parents. Now I'm thinking about that period, I start thinking that I probably also had a bit of a culture shock. My parents were really amazing with this situation, eventhough I might have told them a few times that I didn't like what they did at all. We made this rule that we could only have contact once a week, on saturdays, and at first this was the most awfull thing that could happen to me. Less contact seems hard, but it made me see all the amazing things that I was experiencing, all the opportunities I had. It helped me more then anything and I started realizing that I didn't want to go home. That I didn't want to leave my friends here and the whole new life I build behind again.

So I already gave my real parents credits, but I can ensure you that I also would not have been able to do it without my other parents, my parents here. Especially my hostmom helped me trough multiple difficult moments and the love that my hostsisters gave me made me feel like I was in the right place. It is gonna be so hard to leave them behind in 5 months.. but lets not think about that yet! :)

So after that hard period I started enjoying everything and I am trying to say yes to as many things as possible. I still have an injury so I can't really compete, but why not go to a track meet with a bus leaving 6:00 am, to spend the day with my friends?

It is strange how an experience like this can change you so much. I know everyone says it, but I have grown so so so so much. Not only did I have to learn how to do my own laundry (which I HATE btw) , or have to make sure I get somewere and back home myself, my way of thinking has also changed tons. Being away from everyone that you know, starting in a total new different culture with another etnical group, gave me a different view on the world. Having to deal with happiness and sadness at the same time matures you. It is hard to explain, but I am sure that everyone that has done something like this themself would say this too. Ofcourse I have/had help with stuff around the house and I'm not living on my own. But no one helped me talking to people I didn't know, making new friends in an already thight friend society, and that all in a different languages.

The first month of my year felt like 1000000 years, but these last 4 months felt like 2 weeks. The time really does fly by. My parents are coming in less then 70 days ?!!! I am super exited to see them again, show them my school, my home, my family, my friends, my whole new life, I truely ca't wait... But that also means that me leaving this amazing new life behind gets closer and closer, and that is not what I want... You could kind of see my experience like a week:

Monday is awful and takes so so so so long, so my first month. Tuesday always feels like thursday, it is allright and not monday, you think that it's almost weekend but it actually still takes a while --> my second third month. Wednesday is the top of the hill. You're at half till the weekend end the week only gets better and better and goes faster and faster. --> now Thursday and friday are good because it is almost weekend,--> coming 3 months end then saturday is the best. No school en lots of fun. --> 8th and 9th month. Sunday is still really good, but the thought of school the next day gives it also a little bit of a sad feeling. --> last month. It is gonna be amazing and probably the best month I will have. I still have my life her, but I also know that it doesn't take long till I'm with my life in holland again. The thing that stings tho... Going back to the Netherlands means leaving everything here behind. --> The ''it is monday tomorrow'' feeling:(

But I'm not planning on thinking off that till at least another 4 months!!!!

I hope that this made you guys understand the true rollercoaster I have been through a little better... Soon I will write about my experiences of the past months again but I thought this would also be fun to do once!

Love,

Pien