What have you learned while taking this course? What did you like? What would you change?

First of all, I have to say goodbye this is my last post on this blog. I really enjoyed this course and I am happy that I get the chance to take this course.

During the last 10 weeks I can proudly say that I learned so many things about so many different cultures, more than I had ever learned in my entire life. I got in contact with so many different students from so many different nations, also I learned a lot things about the American culture. I spent 2 hours in the Elida elementary school and I really enjoy this time with this kids. I am sure that I will never forget this experiences.

I also liked the fact that everyone did a presentation about their own countries and especially for me it was my first presentation in the United States. I was happy that I could do it in this class, because this students have the same problem like me with the language.

Honestly , what I really disliked was the time when the class was scheduled. Every week I struggled to go to this class, but I did it every time. One time I felt the lesson was very monotone, it was when we were talking about the laws in the United States.

This small negative facts can't change anything about my view about the whole class. It was a really nice class. I would take this class any time again.
I also wanted so say that at first I didn't like to write a weekly post in my blog, but during my last blog I noticed how easy it is for me to write a blog. I can remember that I did over 1 hour for my blog. It is nice to see that I did such an improvement.

So I hope all of you were interested in reading my blog. 

Auf Wiedersehen!

My plans for the winter break

Honestly, I can not wait for the winter break this year. The first reason why I am so ready for winter break is that I finished my first quarter of college. The second and main point is that I will travel back to Germany and visit all of my friends and family.

I have so many plans during break. This is the first time in my life that I was gone for such a long time away from my family. I am so excited for the moment at the airport when my mom and my dad will pick me up. Furthermore, when I am in my hometown and I am able to hug my girlfriend and spend a lot of time with her. Also to do things with my best friend Niklas, and my brother Christoph.

During this time here I really noticed how much I miss them and how much they mean to me. I am also happy that I spend with my family and my girlfriends family. I am really excited about that. Moreover, I look forward to a big celebration at the end of the year.
I have so many plans, which I want to do with them all that I can not write them all down.

At the end of my winter break is another highlight, I will fly back to the United States on the 7th of January and 3 days before that I am able to celebrate the birthday with my brother and have a good time with all of them.

 I am also a little bit scared of the last day in Germany because I have to say goodbye to everyone. That will be really hard.

After that I will come back full of energy to the United States and I will be ready to start my second quarter. Also I know that I will be very happy to see all my new friends again which I met here from all over the world.

My family

Friends

 

my girlfriend

What is something that I have learned about myself since I arrived in the U.S. and began college?

My living experience here in America, has been different from what I am used to.
When I was at home I lived with my family my whole life and I never really had much responsibilities,  I never had to cook for myself and wash my clothes.

Since I´ve been living, many things have changed. I can proudly say, that I am a decent cooker. The first days were hard, but now I am used to it and I also have to say that  I like it, whenever I have more freetime I like to try out new things and do cooking experiments. Sometimes I get good results from these cooking experiments.

I have a lot of things that I want to do in the United States, but at the moment I don't have to much freetime, because I am currently playing a tournament with the soccer team. I think I will have more time in spring to do things.
One of my biggest wishes is to watch an NBA game. I am a huge supporter of the LA Clippers and my favorite player is Blake Graffin. Whenever I can, I watch the games. I know that Los Angelos is really far, so It doesn´t really matter if I cant go there, I simply want to watch a professional basketball game.

Another desire I have is to travel within the United States. Before I travel to the United States I though of  a few city's which I definitely want to visit during my time here. I am happy that I could visit one city with my team so far. At the start of our season we flew to New Orleans for 5 days, it was a really nice trip. Here are a few cities which I want to visit: New York, Miami , Washington D.C, Los Angelos, Las Vegas, San Fransisco, Chicago ,and many more.

So I hope that I can reach so many objectives as I can and I also hope that I can improve my cooking skills. I will look forward with optimism and I am very excited to experience my life here in America.

My team and my in New Orleans

What do you find the most interesting/exciting about living in Lima, OH?

For me, the best thing here is that I met so many new people, especially my teammates.We are a family and everyone is from a different country. I have been introduced to many different cultures. I want to learn more about their cultures

 

I can learn from so many different cultures, but the main point is, when I came to this college I was extremely excited about being intorduced to this amaying culture :). This is so exciting for me to be around people from the United States, I try to learn more everyday about their culture and about the people in general. They are not so different, but I can see a few differences.

It is a completely new experience for me to live alone. I have to do so many things for myself now. I have noticed lots of things i like in Lima. As I said before, I witness so many new experience, which I never earned if I would have stayed in Germany.

Aside from that,  I have to say that I enjoy my classes this quarter; I really like to go to school and learn new things. I can’t say that my classes are boring or I only go to class because I have to. It is the opposite. I enjoy it and I like it every day here.

So all in all, I would say that I like it so far here and i learned so many things since I’ve been here and I am also very excited about the time that will come in the future. I hope that I can enjoy many more good things.

The most difficult/frustrating things about living in Lima, OH

Hello,

I have been here over two and a half month, here in Lima and I have enjoyed the experience so much.

In this post I will talk about my experiences that I havent enjoyed so far. For example, if we travel to an away game by bus, we always have to travel more than two hours. Sometimes we have to travel more than five hours, but then we will travel one day before the game and stay this night in the hotel. This is very stressful.

 Furthermore, I have to say that I dislike the transportation in Lima. For me as a Student without a car is it really hard to leave the Campus. I am only able to travel in a radius of 3 miles. So it is really hard to see more in Lima. If I compare it with my hometown in Germany, which has a similar population size like Lima, it is totally different. We have a lot of bus stations and you are able to ride with a bike to most places in town in only a few minutes. We also have small roads for bicycle's, but here I never saw something like that. To be honest that frustrates me a lot.

Another one is food. I cannot say that I hate the food here, but I miss my food, that I eat in Germany. I think that is normal because I was used to the food in Germany and it is a big change, so I think it takes time. For example the pizza here, pizza is very fatty and with lot of cheese, by the way most food is served with cheese here. I also can talk about sausages like salami or peperoni. In germany I eat a lot of these things, but here I can not eat it.

If I compare the things that I dislike here with the things I like. It is a big plus for the things I like. I hope that I can find another things which I can eat here, so that I find food which I really enjoy and that I do not think so much about German food.

A friend and me at Tim Hortons, one of my favorite places in Lima

A friend and me , travelling to an away game

Thanksgiving

The holiday that I am looking forward to celebrating the most in the United States is for sure the Thanksgiving day. The reason main why I am extremely excited for this date to get closer is due to the fact that this is the day when many families from all over the United States come together as a anis dy unit and I like it be around with your family.  Thanksgiving will celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday in November.

The celebration quoted elements of the pioneer life of the Pilgrims ( Plymouth Colony ) and thus carries a certain national character . Thanksgiving is in the United States, the most important celebration in Ordinary time , also used by many families and friends or other guests invited. In its center is a large meal (often dinner).  For the fact that they often gather all the generations of a family and they live scattered part of all parts of the country, there is at airports and roads in the country around the celebration far more traffic than all.

In Germany, we called this celebration as the “Erntedankfest” , it is not exactly the same , however it is a similar celebration, but in Germany most people do not really care about this day. Sountryo to be honest, I don't have so much experience with this celebration, but I am really looking forward to have a great time during this day in the United States in order to understand what really means this holiday for the Americans and their culture. 

In addition to all these reasons, I am also really excited for the thanksgiving holiday because I was invited to pass the day with an American friend, and for that reason, I will be able to learn how him and his family enjoy this holiday that is considered one of the most traditional holidays in the country.

My educational experience so far

I've been studying here for 3 and a half weeks already and I honestly have to say I enjoy alot.
During the first week I was so excited about how college life in America is and how my school mates were going to interact with me. They are very appreciative to me and that helped me a lot. I also improved my English skills during these 3 weeks a lot and I feel much more confident now.

Moreover I have to say , that I think I have to study more then most of the students here, but that is normal. When I am doing homework I have to read the chapters more times until I understand them and sometimes it takes a lot of time and it's kind of boring or sometimes during a quiz or an exam I don't know a few words and then it is hard to answer correctly, but I am sure that it would be better in a few months.

In this quarter I am taking 4 courses, two 5 credit hour classes and two 3 credit hour classes.
The 5 credit hour classes are Principles of Management and Marketing , the 3 credit hour classes are First Year Experience and Language and Culture in the US.
 My favorite class so far is Principles of Management, I have to study a lot for this class , but it is much easier for me, because I enjoy it.

I am also scheduled for the next quarter and I will take 4 courses again .
Basic English , Intoduction to Human Communication , Business Math ,and International Business.
I am eager to take Business Math, because I have good math skills.

This is my educational experience so far!