Day 10 - (Nils)

Today was our first day in South high school. I woke up at 7:20 in the morning and got dressed. Then I had an awesome american breakfast with fried egg, potatoes and bacon. After that my host mother drove Leif and me to the school. There we met Mr. French and all our classmates that participated in the school exchange. In school Mr. French told us about the schedules in US schools and the rest of the school life here. We got introduced by a tour from the students taking german class from Mr. French. The school is a really big building and it is really complex to know where is what. Another weird thing was that there were securitys all over the school. That is because there we're school shootings, where people we're killed in the USA. The second lesson we spent meeting the principles of south high school and taking photos with them. After that we had a talk to Mr. French again about our questions abilout the school, while each one of us had a small talk to our teachers. As we finished that we went to the cafeteria to get lunch. Then we joined our hosts to their normal school subjects. First I was at the Pre-calculus (which is some difficult and high level math). There the students got some tests back they wrote a week ago. After that we did some worksheets. During lessons there is a difference to german schools too, because there are more students in the classes, so it's louder and harder to concentrate too. After Pre-calculus,  I had Goverment/Economics, where we had a simulation of the race for president. That was really interesting. After that we switched rooms again were we did the yearbook. There I met a few of the German students, whose hosts went there too. There the American students took photos for the yearbook. After that school was over and everyone went home with their host families again. That's how we spent our first day at South high.

Day 14- (Lars)

Stillwater and a football match

Today we went to Stillwater after one hour of school. The first hour was math like every day. I think a timetable with different subjects every day like in Germany is more interesting. 

To Stillwater we drove by car, and the students from south high by bus. But on the way back home we had to drive by bus, because some of the students had to be back earlier for the football match in the afternoon. 

After we arrived in Stillwater, we visited a house, next to a prison that was once owned by the prison owner. Old things who were used earlier and some rooms like an old dinner room or a play room for kids were presented in this house.

We went up a hill next to the house and our teachers took some photos of the whole group before we had lunch at a restaurant where we got some nice burgers with fries. It took a very long time, because we were very many students and everybody could add his favorite topics. So we waited more or less an half hour for our burgers. 

The end of this trip were 15 minutes of free time we spent in a candy shop near to the restaurant. You can buy very nice sweets there so if you will go to Stillwater anytime you should visit the candy shop!

In the afternoon the whole group watched the football match of the south high tigers witch was very interesting for me because I have never seen a football match before.

 

All in all it was a funny day and I saw a football game witch was one of my goals for America!

Day 18 - U of M, good bye South (Julian G.)

This morning we met at 8:30 in the lunchroom of south high for the last time. After that we started our trip by train to the university of Minnesota, where we first had to wait for a couple of minutes before we could enter the building. Finally being inside we got a presentation from an university professor and one of his assistents, who were talking about the system of American universities and the differences between the American and the European/ German system. After we got this interesting information and asked a few questions, we split into two groups and had a tour around the campus and the most important buildings, which ended at the universities minimall where we all got free food.

Next we went to the Bell museum of natural history, which is located on the universities campus. The Bell museum shows the history of Minnesotas animal population, the environment and the changing of landscapes. The museum is famous for its dioramas. A diorama is a three-dimensional model of a frozen scene. They show the interaction of animals in their natural habitat more like a window into the nature, than like an unliving exhibit. We spent about 45 minutes inside of the museum before we took the train back to south and arrived there at 3pm. 

During our last hour at south high we wrote letters for our host families to say thank you for the wonderful time we spent here in Minneapolis with you and good bye. We had a few problems finding the full addresses of everybody, but we finally managed.
So we all left the school, that hosted us for the past 9 days for the last time. There will be no school untill next monday, when we are already back in good old Germany. 

We spent the rest of the day with our host families