Arrival and first days in Florida

I don’t think I’ve realized it yet. Realized that I’m in Florida and that I’m going to be here for a year. But hey, I’m here!

I didn’t know what I was supposed to expect when I gave my application to Rotary. I just knew that I wanted this year full of experiences. And I’m definitely not disappointed! My days in Florida have been just great. But first I would like to talk a bit about all the travelling. We were around 35 students travelling together to Chicago. We met at 4 am in the airport, but I wasn’t tired. It was probably because of all the excitement. During the 26 hours of travel I only slept like 20 minutes. Many of the other exchange students slept, but I just couldn’t fall asleep. There was a lot of talking on our way to Chicago via Stockholm. Everyone was excited and the fact that we were all going through the same thing was great. I’ve heard that many of the other students from other countries were travelling alone, so I really appreciate that I didn’t have to travel alone. That wouldn’t have been any fun. Well, I had to travel alone from Chicago to Jacksonville, but that was okay. 

The 7 hour layover in Chicago wasn’t as bad as I could have feared. Even though we had to wait outside the security area for 2 hours it was okay. We were 3 people, Morten, Lene and me, who had to wait for quite a long time in the airport. We talked about all kinds of stuff and the time went by pretty fast. We tried to find a McDonalds in the airport, but couldn’t find any. And actually: I haven’t had McDonalds yet here in Florida. :p

During the flight to Jacksonville I could think of nothing but the fact that I was soon going to see my new family for the first time. I felt that I knew them already. I had been emailing with my sister, Sam, for a long time and skyped once with my host parents. I had planned to sleep all the way to Jacksonville, but only slept like 20 minutes. Even though it was dark outside and only the lights from the cities we passed were visible I spend most of the time watching United States from the window.

I didn’t know that there would be so many people waiting for me at the airport. When I got to the baggage claim area around 12 people were standing with large posters and waiting for me (picture on facebook). It was great to see them all; my first 2 host families and the people from Rotary. They were all so nice, so everything was quite overwhelming. I didn’t really know what to do with myself, so I smiled. :p When I think of my first hours here in Jacksonville it feels like I’m thinking of a dream. Everything seemed so unreal when I just arrived. The heat outside the air conditioned airport was fantastic – and yeah, I still like the warm weather here. My first host family; David, Jennifer, Sam and Lexi + Aly drove me all the way to St. Augustine. It was fantastic to be able to talk with them in real life for the first time – even though the drive to St. Augustine didn’t take that long. When we arrived I went straight to bed. It’s not every day I stay awake for 26 hours (minus the 20 minutes of sleep in the plane).

I’m not going to go in detail with all the stuff that have happened since my arrival. I’ll just tell about some of the great experiences I’ve had so far.

The beach… I can’t believe that I live in a city with such an amazing beach. Wow! And then the weather is great too. I’ve been there twice. The first time we got there in a jeep. Yep, my family has a jeep. It was so cool! The water wasn’t cold at all. Usually I have to force myself into the water even though I’m in Italy for example. But here it was so warm that I could just walk right into it. I went to the beach with my family and we stayed there for a while. On our way back from the beach we ate at sonics. Real drive in restaurant where the waiters are having rollerblades on. Cool!
The second time I went to the beach was only with Sam. And we went surfing! It was pretty hard, but with great help from Orion (third host brother) and Laurie (third host mom) I finally stood up twice. It was great fun even though I got a few scratches here and there. Julien (another exchange student with rotary from Switzerland) also went surfing and to my disappointment he really got the hang of it. Just kidding! :p He was quite good at it. J

I’ve got to know a bunch of great people here. Some of them I’ve met through Sam, while I’ve met the others in school or at parties. Before school there were 3 parties for us exchange students so we could get to know everyone. It was great fun and everyone are so nice here. I’m starting to feel that I have a small network of people here, which is great. In the beginning everything was new – including all those people I met, which was quite scary. :p

I’ve just been at the Orientation Weekend with all the exchange students from Rotary here in Florida. Such a great experience! We were more than 70 exchange students from all over the world together for the whole weekend. My blazer is full of pins now! :p
We made all kinds of stuff together including playing American sports, making skits/rap songs and performing them, getting information about being an exchange student and America and just relaxing and getting to know people. When I arrived to the camp I knew some people: Those I had talked with through facebook, the exchange students in St. Augustine and the Danes I had been travelling with. When I arrived I knew a lot more! Mostly people from Northern Europe for some reason. I guess it was easier to talk because we were from similar countries. We had a lot of fun together! I’m looking forward to see everyone when we are going to Disney World!

I’ve now been in school for 2 days and so far I like it. It is different. :p You have the same schedule each day. Mine is:

1.      Chorus

2.      Pre-Aice Physics

3.      Spanish 1

4.      English 3

5.      Law Studies

6.      American History

7.      Algebra 2

So I have those 7 lessons every single day. School starts at 9:15 am (which is great, ‘cause Sam and I have to drive for 20 minutes to get there) and ends at 3:45 pm. We don’t stay in the same class room. The teachers stay in the same classroom and the students move around – and you only have 5 minutes to get from one classroom to another. So if you have to pie, then you have a problem. :p So far I’ve only been late for one class. Chorus is great. We are maybe going to perform at Disney during Christmas. I hope so! Go yellow jackets!

I’ve been surprised by how few things that are different here. And because of that I would like to make a list out of those things:

1.      We drive more here in USA. Things are quite far away from each other, so you just have too.

2.      You can get a refill on all restaurants.

3.      The walls are not normally painted white. And Americans find it really strange that all our walls in the house are white.

4.      The weather obviously. I love it!

5.      You don’t use knife and fork for everything. You only put knives on the table if you need to cut something. It’s hard to get used to!

I love it here. I really do and I know that so many great experiences are awaiting me in the future: North Carolina, Tennessee, Disney, West Coast (including Las Vegas, San Fransisco, Grand Canyon and LA), Hurricane Irene (haha :p), Football game with the Yellow Jackets, and so much more!

I will be online on facebook and skype on Friday around 4:30 pm Florida time (22:30 danish time). J Look on facebook if you want to see pictures.