Day 9 - First day in our host family (Nastia)

It's the first whole day with our host families and first day without our group! The whole week I didn't get enough sleep, so I stayed in bed for quite a long time, since it was the first time I could sleep well. I woke up in the late morning and had a great breakfast. 

After breakfast we talked about the plans we had for the day and since it was colder than expected in Minneapolis and I didn't have a coat we were getting ready for the Mall of America, the biggest mall I have ever seen. It was so impressive! They had an amusement park in the middle of all these stores. I was speechless because you would never think that you could find a roller coaster in a mall. So after trying to process this we went to many stores and I was scared I couldn't find myself a jacket and I have to freeze but finally after over 2,5 hours I found one and we could leave satisfied.  

After we arrived home we made some brownies, had dinner and played a board game which was really fun. I was texting with some other "Germans" and they told me that their day was good as well. After only one day I got my host family to know me better and I got to know them better. It was an exiting but also exhausting day. 

Day 7 - Arlington Cemetery (Leon)

After breakfast we went to the metro and took a train to Arlington Cemetery. It is one of the biggest cemeteries in the US and is used for high ranking military personnel or important servants of the nation, like presidents.

At Arlington we had a great view over all gravestones. We walked trough the Cemetery and saw gravestones of the Kennedy family. After that we went on the top of the hill to the tomb of Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the designer of the layout of Washington D.C. From his tomb we had a great view over the city.

Further along we walked down the hill to the Tomb of the unknown soldier. We where there just in time for the "Changing of the Guard," a ceremony to honor all unknown soldiers who have died in wars past. Right after the this, there was another ceremony that honored the unknown soldiers who died in Somalia.

All in all I had a good impression of the cemetery. I like how it honors the dead. But I don't fullyunderstand why they are making such a big effort over the ceremony involving the tomb of the unknown soldier. In my eyes it was a bit exaggerated.

After we had some time to eat something, we went to the National Air and Space Museum. It was a very modern museum and it was very big as well. It was very informative and you had fun to go around. From Apollo capsules that landed on the moon, to the original Wright flzer, that was used by the Wright brothers to persorm the first flight in the history of mankind, zou could see many important artefacts here.

I had the impression that this museum is very important for Washington D.C. The thing that I really liked were the facts about  World War II, because the airplanes played a really big role at that time.
All in all it was a good day and I learned a lot about Washington D.C.

Day 6 - From Capitol Hill to the White House (Caro)

The second day in Washington DC started als always with bagels, toast and peanutbutter. After a ''delicious" breakfast we got ready to go to the Capitol, the seat of the US parliament. Walking there was actually kind of fun because our Ms.Krehl and Mr.Buehring were always two blocks in front of the group. But finally we all made it and got through the 3000th security check. But then we realized that we were in the wrong building and had to go to another house, and of course, again through security! When we arrived at the room of Keith Ellison's assistants we were all absolutely thirsty. So after we all got something to drink the assistant told us about different tasks in the Capitol and what her an Ellison's job are. After a few difficult questions from Nastia and interesting talk about Mr Ellison's standpoint on, for example, gun laws and gay marriage, we left to see the real house of the Capitol. A really nice tour guide lead us through the most important rooms in the capitol. The highlight was, that in a room that used to be the assembly room for the House of Representatives, they made a mistake when they built the ceiling. Because of these special accoustics, you could hear exactly what some people were saying at the other end of the room. After that, we had a few hours free time. I went to a typical American burger restaurant with some friends, and the burger was one of the best I've ever eaten! The next stop this day was the White House. So we all had to find it and go there by ourselves. When we finally found it, we were on the wrong side of it so we had to walk around the whole house. And we weren't very smart and walked the long way around.
At the white house there were many pictures taken and we heard a very short presentation about the White House. Before we left there I had to do a little interview with two experts of the White House... :D (video will be uploaded).
Then we left to go back to the hostel. A few of us took part in a tour through Georgetown, a small, rich part of Washington DC. We saw many beautiful houses and learned about who lived here. So we also saw the house where the Kennedy Family lived in and we visited the university of Georgetown, which is really good and expensive. At the end of the tour we left the other people and went to a burger restaurant. Everyone was happy about finally having something to eat. Even though some of us accidently bought burger with only meat in it...

We got back to the hostel by bus and then the day was pretty much over and everyone went to bed after a long, but interesting day.

Link to Caro's interview of "two experts"... 

Day 5 - Off to Washington, D.C. (Maike)

It would be our last day in New York City.
At 9am we had breakfast and after  cleaning our rooms and packing our bags we walked to a station and took the train to the next bus stop. The bus brought us to Washington D.C. After a 4 1/2 hours long trip by bus we arrived at 5:15pm in "D.C". We had a few problems to find our hostel but at 7pm we finally checked in. Two hours later we walked along the National Mall. The National Mall is a collection of parks, buildings and monuments for example the Capitol and the statue of Abraham Lincoln. We started taking a lot of photos in front of the Washington monument. We had a beautiful view there and we could see the big difference between New York City and Washington D.C., because New York was full of people and buildings. We were very tired, so we went back at 12am. The day was hard but very nice as well. All of us were falling asleep quickly. That was our 5th day. 

Day 4 - Museum of Modern Arts (Selima)

Todays Plan was to visit the Museum of Modern Arts. We had to get up earlier than usual and take the metro. 

When we got there, we handed in our jackets and bags and waited for Ms. Krehl to get our tickets. While we were doing that, Veronique and I tried to get prepair for our short presentation. (Everyone had to do a presentation) We wanted to find a quiet spot in the sculptur garden to present it.  We had some struggel finding it and we even lost some of our students on our search. It took us a couple of minutes to find them. Veronique and I presented our presentation. (we weren't that good). After that we spent some more time walking around the museum until we had to leave. We got free time to grab some lunch or to go on a short shopping trip. Tizita, Veronique, Tania, Wibke, Hanna and I went to "Burger Heaven" and had delicious burgers there. We also did some shopping.
Back in the hostel we relaxed a bit, before we headed off to the Brooklyn Bridge.
We had a stunning view over the city and took many pictures including some with the whole group. After that one group went back to the hostel with Ms. Krehl because they were tired, the other half crossed the bridge with Mr. Bühring. I was in Mr. Bühring's group. It was nice to see the skyscrapers covered in lights for the last time. We went back to our hostel, exhausted but it was definitely worth to stay awake.

That was our 4th day in New York.

Day 3 - Ground Zero (Hanna)

Short Video of Hanna at the 9/11 Memorial in New York City.

                                                           
                                                                   Click to watch the video

The day began like every other befor.
But I was very exited to this day because it was my birthday! After a little breakfast we got some hours to discover the City by ourselfs in litzle groups.
We went with the Subway to Soho. At the beginning we had sone problems with the ticket machine but in the end every one got a ticket. We saw nuch of the New York daily life because it was the rush hour. The Subway was full and on the streets every one was on the way to work or shopping. Later back at the hostel wa hadn't much time to have a break or something because the plan was to go to the Ground Zero. From wide away we already saw the new World Trade Center. It was so big and huge. But when we got near to the Ground Zero Memorial the mood of the whole group turned very seriously because of the reason that this Place is such a sad one. When I saw the many roses on the graved names from the victims from 9/11 I felt very sad. First I thought it hasn't a real meaning but the rose shows that this person would have had his birthday at this day. I was shocked because I can celebrate my birthday with cacke and get presents and come together with my family and friends but they can't. They never get this chance again. That was a moment of sadness and also when I don't have a personal conection with this place because it happend when I was to young to recordnise it it very toched me. The day went on and I got later in the afternoon so we slowly started our way to the Empire State Building. I was so excited to have such a nice view over the whole city. And I mean in the end it was so fantastic and better than I've ever imagined. To stand there and look down to the city was such an unforgatteble moment in my life. We were there at time of sunset and the sky was so beautiful cllored in pink, orange and red. We were there until the sky turned black and the night began. All lights of the city shindes so bright and beautiful and there was no dark place. At the end the group had a surprise for me. The have sung for me a german birthday song also of it wasn't allowed to sing and I got a I love NY - T-shirt were all names from all school mates who came to the US. This day was so wonderful and filled up with exciting moments I'll never forget but as well I felt very tired. So now to walk back to the hostel even if it only took 20 minutes I and my friends took a taxi. We felt a little bit like in Sex and the City to stand at the street and surching for one but it was funny! All in all the day began fantastic and ended fantastic, what is needed more?

Day 2 - Bus Tour > Statue of Liberty > Ellis Island > Times Square (Till)

It was a busy day here in New York: Bus Tour > Statue of Liberty > Ellis Island > Times Square

After a short night we all got up for our first American breakfast: The classic peanutbutter & jelly sandwich. 
Now we were ready to head straight to Grand Central Station, which is relatively popular and known through many different hollywood films. There we took our first 10 group pictures. From there we took the bus to Battery Park.
On the way we already saw a lot of New York, from the Empire State Bulding to the bull of Wall Street. We got a first impression of all the different districts of Manhattan, such as SoHo or the Financial District. Most of us used half of their cameras memory space photographing all the things we saw only during this tour. Approximately one and half hours later we finally arrived at Battery Park. The view over Hudson River was fantastic, we could even see the Statue of Liberty from there.
As we all were hungry we had some free time. I went with Isi, Niklas, Hanna and Yandamé to TGI Friday's and let me tell you, the chicken there was literally the best I have ever eaten.
Next on our To-Do-List was a trip to Liberty Island. On the ferry we had an amazing view of the Statue of Liberty. As we didn't have much time there everyone got rid of their audio guide as soon as possible to take pictures. We also took 20 more group pictures.
After a quick walk around the island we got back on the ferry to Ellis Island and the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. The museum is special for us from Hamburg as we have an emigration museum there. You can see how the people emigrated from Germany there. The museum on Ellis Island is dealing with the immigration to the US. To see what procedures the people had to go through in former times, I had to do a test. Click here to watch As you can see in the video, people, who wanted to immigrate, had to prove that they were sane. Luckily I managed to prove that I am healthy, so the officer let us go back on the ferry.

After a long day full of new impressions and experiences, we all were exhausted. But the day was not over, though. The next trip brought us to Times Square, which is an absolutely insane place at night. There is so much light that you can easily forget that it is night. After a short walk back to our hostel we finally arrived at our destination... The bed