Back in Germany

Hey!

I landed yesterday morning at around 9 o’clock in Hamburg, Germany.
Prior to that I landed at around 6 o’clock in Frankfurt, Germany. My flight from Philadelhpia departured around 4:30 in the afternoon and after 7 hours of flight plus 6 hours of time change, I safely landed in Frankfurt. It was a long way without any sleep until Saturday evening. I didn’t sleep at all on the plane, however, I wasn’t that tired and I didn’t even got a jetlag at all.
When I came out of the arrival section on the Hamburg Airport, my parents, brother and grandmas welcomed me. When we came home, I was suppose to go into our living room without any idea what could happen. And when I opened the door, my whole family and lots of my friends were there to welcome me. That was awesome and followed by a very nice afternoon.
My time in America was awesome! I would recommened it to everybody who would like to do something like that but isn’t quite sure yet. You can even find Orbitz coupon codes online for a possible discount. I found so many new friends, a new family, I learned and earned so many things.
I guess this blog lost its task now… However, I won’t delete it; it will stay online. Maybe there will appear some new posts, I don’t know yet.
Thanks to everybody who followed and read my blog!

Kind regards,
Maximilian

Last Day in America

Hey!

Wow.. 5 months – an awesome time, an experience I will never forget, so many new friends I will never forget and always remember. 5 months in America, I lived it and I love it!

Right after I woke up today, I started getting all my stuff together. That was like around 9:30 in the morning. I took me about 4.5 hours to get everything together and halfway into my two suitcases and carry-on baggage. I hope they won’t weight too much and I won’t have to pay extra for that tomorrow
I won’t take my hockey stick with me because it would be like $200. My host family will send it to me together with a few other items which just don’t fit into the luggage anymore.
It wasn’t easy to get all the stuff together.. I just like functioned but didn’t really thought about or noticed what I was doing.

When I was finally done, I played a little bit of hockey in the backyard.. the last time in America.
A little later, 3 of my best friends came over after their school ended. It was awesome to see them one last time but at the end it was even harder to say goodbye to them.  It was really hard to say goodbye, they became three best friends of mine.
In the evening my host family and me went out for dinner to kind of end this amazing experience. It was awesome and I really enjoyed the Buffalo wings for the last time After we played some darts there we came home and figured out the last things with my luggage and so on.
Tomorrow morning at 11:25 my flight will leave Buffalo in direction Philadelphia and then the next plane will bring me to Germany. I had an awesome, awesome, awesome time in the United States, I got so much to see, found so many new friends, gained a second family. Thank you to everybody who made this exchange even possible and also such a great experience, especially to my parents. I will never forget anybody from my experience and I’ll stay in touch with everybody and I’ll come back to visit! I don’t think there is anything better than being a foreign exchange student, I think everybody should do something like that because that what you’ll experience will change and shape you, it will be such an awesome time you will never forget!

Kind regards,
Maximilian

Last Day at Bishop Timon

Hey!

Today was my last day of school at Bishop Timon – St. Jude High School.. I’ll take off from school tomorrow because I didn’t even start yet with getting all my stuff together for my flight back home on Friday.
It was such an awesome time at Timon. The guys are all so awesome, I’ll never forget my time as a Timon Tiger.
I got free cookies during lunch today from the woman who is responsible for the cafeteria. That was awesome. But the best part was the following:  One of my teachers bought himself and me lunch from KFC which we enjoyed during his lunch period (which was my chemistry period. He got me out of it ). It was awesome!
During my actual lunch period, our principal announced that today was my last day at Timon and I got a some applause. Then at the announcements of the end of the school day they announced it again and wished me the best. After school ended I went to my homeroom teacher to say goodbye, then to my chemistry teacher to get rid of my chemistry book and to say goodbye and to say thank you. There I actually found my best friends and it was quite difficult to say goodbye. But a few of them will come over tomorrow After that I went to my computer science teacher again to say thank you for everything and to say goodbye. He is really one of my favorite teachers ever!

Then I got home and played some hockey in the backyard. I asked my travel agency how much it is to take my hockey stick on board of the plane. It would be like $200, ridiculous for a piece of wood.. Hopefully I’ll find a different way.
Then my local coordinator came over a last time to say goodbye and to wrap things up. It was quite good.
In the evening we went to the Buffalo Bills Field House. It’s the practice field of the Buffalo football team and it’s a huge house It has to be that high to practice punts like the players are outside. Here’re some pictures:

Later we watched the Buffalo Sabres game which was fortunately on TV tonight. The Sabres played so much better than the last games even though the games was against the New York Rangers. Unfortunately, we lost in the shootout and the final was 0:1. But that game tonight should be a beginning of a new and better series.

Kind regards,
Maximilian

Spring?

Hey!

Today was the hottest “winter” day I have ever experienced during my entire life!
Already when we left for school, the sun was shining and it was way to warm. During school it got so warm in the school and we had to open some windows to get some fresh air and wind into the class rooms.
When I came out of school I was stunning: The temperature had risen to 54°F, 13°C. You can easily forget what time of the year it is, when you see something like that.
After I came from school, I finally found the packet my parents sent me for Christmas. It just took 7 weeks, good job postal service Anyway, even though I’ll go home on Friday, it was awesome to finally get that packet. The things in it are awesome, thank you!:)
Later that afternoon I played hockey in the backyard just in a thin sweater.
January 31st + sweater – winter jacket = nonsense 
But it was actually kind of cool and I enjoyed it
I had 4 study halls today: definitely too much. We had shorten periods on a special schedule because there was an Anti-Bullying-Assembly from 10:00am to 11:00am.  Two New York State Police Troopers came into Timon and presented about bullying and also talked to us about the results of a prior survey.

Kind regards,
Maximilian

Last time Ski-Club

Hey!

We got new schedules today. I got a new one even though I’m only in school until Wednesday. My photography class changed to economics, my web design class ended also and now I got study halls for that. The schedule is basically the same, it just has a lot more study halls
Also our lunch table changed because a couple of the guys had to change their lunch into the 6th period. But the table is still pretty awesome.

We actually got some real snow over night and so the skiing was a lot more fun today. The slopes were pretty good and we had a lot of fun. Unfortunately, it was the last time I will be able to ski during this season.. After about an hour, it started to snow again and it was kind of difficult so see because I don’t have goggles. Fortunately, I was able to borrow some when they went to eat something and after that it stopped snowing.
When we went back into the bus, at around 8pm, our teacher just didn’t appear. We waited until after 8.30pm and then a police woman came into the bus and took two of the girls out of the bus. Nobody knows why or what they did. Maybe I’ll find that out tomorrow
However, that delay costed us about an hour and so we finally arrived at Timon at 10pm. Maybe next time it will pay to get some hotel coupons and just spend the night there.

Kind regards,
Maximilian

Hey!

Nothing above tennis!
The men finals of the Australian Open took place last night/morning in Melbourne, Australia. The women finals took place earlier and were won by Victoria Azarenka.
Novak Djokovic vs. Rafael Nadal – the 2012 Championship match. It was a heroic match which took 353 minutes, so almost 6 hours. The match started around 7.30pm local time (3.30am Eastern). I said myself that the first two sets weren’t that important and I really wanted to get a little bit of sleep during that night. So I set an alarm for an hour later and woke up again around 6 o’clock. Right then Djokovic held a 2:1 set lead. But in the next 4 hours Nadal came back and the match found its end in the fifth and final set. Unfortunately, the wrong player won, Djokovic. Still, Nadal you’re #1 and wrote Grand Slam history: the longest match ever!
After the match (10am), I slept for about 1.5 more hours and got up after that; what a night.

After noon I skyped the last time with my family in Germany; next week I’ll already be there again.
I played a couple hours of hockey with my host dad in the afternoon which was very good. After that I actually built a little snowman with most of the snow which laid on the ground. Just in the evening we got about 2 inches of new snow:)

Kind regards,
Maximilian

Hockey

Hey!

Crazy how long you can sleep when it doesn’t get that bright outside. I woke up at 12.30pm tonight because it just didn’t get that much brighter outside.
It was so windy the whole day, it was crazy. Then in the evening we got snowstorm – you couldn’t even see 20 yards so bad was it.
I went to the Timon hockey game tonight in the arena in the park right next to where I live. Timon won 9:1 and it was a pretty good time.

 

In the evening we watched the NHL All-Star competitions. The All-Star came will take place tomorrow, today they have all different kind of competitions like “Fastest Slapshot” and “Best Accuracy”. It was so amazing to see what those players can do
Now I will go bowling with almost all of the exchange students in the Buffalo Area. It’s going to be a great evening.

Kind regards,
Maximilian

Buffalo Bandits

Hey!

School was pretty good today. My photography took place the last time this year. It was a really nice class and here are two of the pictures I took with an old-school film camera (they don’t look that great right now because I took a picture of them with my phone’s camera):

 

In the evening I went to the Buffalo Bandits game with a friend of mine. I got the tickets for Christmas. I can say the following: Lacrosse games are crazy but awesome! It was so much fun there and a great game even though Buffalo lost 13:10. Here a some pictures of that great evening (click to enlarge):

Only one more week to go..

Kind regards,
Maximilian

Dress Down Day

Hey!

It’s pretty bad that the Semifinals and Finals at the Australian Open take place at 7:30pm local time what means 3:30am in the US. Because of that I couldn’t watch the live broadcast of the match Nadal – Federer. When I woke up this morning they already played the last game in the last set. Nadal won in 4 sets: 6:7, 6:2, 7:6 & 6:4. I actually watched a replay of the match in the evening; it was a pretty good match. This night Djokovic plays against Murray.

School was good today, mostly because we had a Dress Down Day. We could pay a dollar and then come to school in casual clothes. The money will be used by the Seniors. It was my last Dress Down Day…
We are actually not allowed anymore to stay in school after school. Our principal announced it yesterday but nobody really knows the reason for it Because of that I can’t work out after school anymore. But because I didn’t have anything to do at home I stayed with the chess team for almost 2 hours and had some fun there. Then I walked home and of course it had to start raining. It wasn’t a lot but still pretty nasty
Rain at the end of January.. come on man, what the heck is going on?
When I came home I did my homework, studied and watched some Australian Open.

Kind regards,
Maximilian

Hey!

I got 38/40 in the U.S. History test from yesterday which makes me pretty happy. I also got a 100 in the Spanish test which makes me even more happy
I talked to my guidance counselor after school because of next week which will already be the third quarter when I’ll go to school for three more days until Wednesday. My schedule will almost be the same as the one I have right now the only thing is that my photography class will end on Friday and I’ll go to an Economics class.
After school I did my homework and played some hockey in the backyard as usual
In the evening we went to the bowling lanes because my host brother was chosen as the WKBW/Channel 7 Athlete of the Week after he bowled a perfect, a 300, game last week. He threw a strike 12 times in a row, unbelievable :D A man from Channel 7 came to tape some of his throws and then he got interviewed and got a nice trophy. Congrats!

Kind regards,
Maximilian