12.01.2008 // Eli is in Indiana Rundmail #5
Hallo zu Hause.
From now on, the Eli is in Indiana newsletter thingy amazingness will be in English... I left Carmel, and I want the 2 paid friends I had there to know what's going on in my life... like you guys at home. And I'm too lazy to write the same stuff down twice... so at home people... just use a dictionary if you don't understand what I'm trying to tell you... and Carmel people... don't translate the stuff that is in German. I mean, you can do it, but it's this kind of weird "insider" stuff... so it wouldn't make sense to you anyways.
Quick reminder: my name is Eli and I'm in Indiana.
It's been quite a while since I wrote my last mail... some time before thanksgiving... and quite a lot of things happened.
I know, this is a whole lot to read, and I need to say, I'm always pissed off when other exchange students write that much in their mails and expect it to be read... so the short form: I moved. but i'm fine. i like my new family and my new home.
I love and miss you. Eli <3
Now the longer version... I doubt anyone except my mom is going to read this... but I'm still typing it down.
I guess... for educational reasons... at home people are probably pretty interested in thanksgiving. War jetzt nedd so der Burner. We drove up to Chicago, and I was actually pretty excited about it. There was a bowling alley or whatever you call it, and I mean... bowling... I only had good memories when it comes to bowling. (Tschechien xD). Now I also have some bad ones. Da geh ich jetzt nicht naeher drauf ein, es war halt einfach ploeth mit der familie da und im Endeffekt bin ich deswegen mit meinem Laptop die Treppe runtergefallen... aber mein Laptop funktioniert noch.
I saw High School Musical on ice, by the way... Isn't that awesome?! The show was great - the stuff around it not.
And then probably the best time I had in Carmel started.... holiday spec! The choir shows... I told you about it in my last mail. It was so much fun. I went to the rehearsal and we had dance practises (wie gesagt, bester schellhorn style) and then the shows started. I love the kids in my choir. The made my hair curly and we listened to hiphop music and ate and just had the best time. But the funniest part during those shows was probably when all the choirs were on stage for the second act. All the girls wore long blue dresses and looked so pretty and we sang (it sounded amazing, but the audience was kind of bored) and then the kids just started falling over. Because they lost consciousness or because they locked their knees and whatever. It was scary though... but a lot of fun.
And then time started going by so fast... I tried to get my yearbook crap done, got full credit for the worst and most time-engulfing business law project ever, went carolling with German Club and went to a birthday party (yah - someone actually invited me).
And then there was christmas.
I was seriously scared about it. I didn't get along with my Carmel family anymore, and I didn't really want to be there for christmas. But at the same time I could not not be there, so I was.
And I need to say - I loved christmas eve. We went out for lunch, and our waiter was emo, and that made me seriously happy. I still ask myself why I didn't start telling my never ending emo stories. Instead they made fun of me being vegeterian - and at applebees, there's nothing without meat.
And then we went to church (we actually arrived nearly an hour too early and there was still not enough space for all of us to sit in one row - of course it was awesome. An dieser Stelle moechte ich euch noch schnell das Buch "did adam and eve have belly buttons" ans herz legen - jede katholische frage die uns noch nie bewegt hat wird in diesem buch eroertert. highly entertaining. ) and then we went home and got presents. Jaha.
The 5 oldest kids and me, we did some kind of white-elfing thing... everyone of us got one name and we only had to buy a gift for that one person and the little ones... and I had Kevin and Kevin had me. Ich frag mich immernoch warum des nedd geheim war. Des waere viel witziger gewesen. Anyways... he got me one of those ipod music systems! You know... you dock your ipod to it and then it plays your music loud... the awsomeness! And he even told me why he got it for me (while I was still shocked that he actually knew my name): "because you listen to your ipod all the time". I was really happy. And I got some scrapbook stuff and candy and another pink pony and I learned a very hard lesson: not everything that is pink is good.
I liked Christmas. But at the same time... it was just sure that this was not the place to be for me. Everything felt wrong. And I felt bad. And on Saturday after Christmas, I went up to Anderson with my Carmel mom to meet my potential new family. I thought they were really nice, and by nine o' clock that night, I knew I was going to move to their place two days later. This was pretty much when the second worst time of my life started. (jah... die schlimmste zeit war irgendwie immernoch die woche bogy bei McDoof).
I knew it was right to move... but it was so hard. I spent the last night over at Isa's house, watching chickflicks and later youtube videos... I didn't want to be at home. My Carmel family had people from Chicago over... and I knew it would have been just the way it was the way it had been the last two months... cold. And so I left. The next morning... I tried to find things I missed, my stupid iPod chord, and I cried. I just cried. Not too much difference to the time before I was moving out, but I was so disappointed. Even now, for the last 2 hours I spent with that family, they didn't give me any kind of attention. All my siblings left, just giving me a quick hug (das letzte was ich zu Luke gesagt hab, war uebrigens "you're a bitch!" naja, der wirds verkraften.), and then and I sat on the stairs for another hour and cried waiting to be picked up.
And then my new life began.
Und mir gings richtig schlecht. Richtig richtig. I sat in the car next to my new mom Donna (she's a emegency nurse) and cried. And all she said was: "you're hurt. cry." And so I cried.
It took over an hour to get to Gaston. Gaston is the village I live in now. Actually they still count it as Muncie, but it actually is Gaston (jah... des koennt ihr jetzt alle mal schnell bei google earth suchen). And I live on a farm. Imagine that! Stadtkind das geglaubt hat Kuehe sind lila wohnt jetzt aufm Bauernhof. Ist aber kein Erwerbshof und die ham auch nur 5 Kuehe.
It's a big difference. I mean, in Carmel... I pretty much lived in a Castle. And now... a farm. It's more like my house at home. I like it. So I got out of the car and I heard the dogs bark and then there stood my new brother Micheal in the door. Mein Bruder ist wie der Coach vom Verein!! I was like - oh my gosh. And he even played baseball in high school! I hope he's going to seriously teach me how to pitch while I'm here. He goes to college in Michigan to become a priest. I think he's 21. And then there is my dad Ron. Er sieht n bissle aus wie der Almoehi von Heidi und ich versteh immer nicht ganz was er sagt. He's laughing all the time, it's pretty funny. I have another sister here in Gaston, her name is Rebecca. She graduated last summer and now goes to Ivy tech in kokomo. She's 19, and the funny thing: She pretty much has all the hair care products I own. Becca dates a guy called Doug... ganz ehrlich: er ist jetzt nicht umbedingt der smarteste, aber extremst nett. He's halfway to living here. Officially he isn't, but he's over all the time. And then there's Mason. Becca babysitts him, and he lives here about 3-4 days a week. He is probaly the cutest baby you've ever seen. So funny. Naja, er ist adoptiert, und dann sind Becca und Doug auf jeden mal mit ihm zum Walmart gegangen, und so ne alte Frau dann: "oh, what a smart baby, your parents must be proud of you" und Becca dann so: "well, mommy is a crack-whore and daddy is in jail, I don't think so". Haha.
Okay... so back to what I did so far. Again, I'm describing the second worst time of my life here. I knew, that moving was the right thing to do, but it was freaking hard. I will probably never see my Carmel siblings again, and the 2 paid friends I had there neither. Und meine Geschwister, zu mindest the little ones... die warn echt wie geschwister fuer mich. Und das Gefuehl die nie mehr zu sehn ist verdammt beschissen. I mean... honestly, I've never really been homesick. I knew, I was gone form Germany from 10 months, and then I would be back and my family would be there and you would be there. But the Carmel people... I don't think I'll ever see them again. And I cried. I felt so bad. Not even kidding. I thought my heart was breaking. But I think it already was. The way my personality was broken.
So... I arrived in Gaston on 12/21... sylvester! And me and Donna and Micheal and Becca and Doug went to a family's house to play poker. And I played. I even won one time. only 25 cents, but still. Und des coolste: Die ham mich sogar n Bier trinken lassen. Joa, is illegal. No matter. And then we watched the ball drop in New York... kind of weird, but funny.
And the next week I spent crying and watching chickflicks on DVD and watching MTV. It was horrible. There was nothing really to do, and I thought about Carmel, and my brothers, and at home, it was weird. I spent a lot of time working on my thank you letter for my Carmel family... my coordinator told me to leave one, but I didn't really have time for that in Carmel... sollte ja von herzen kommen und nicht nur so hingeschmotzt sein, gell... so I spent quite a while thinking about how to write that down... I think my letter pretty much sucks, but by sunday I thought: tomorrow school starts, my new life starts, I don't want to think about all the things that are already over then. So I put it in the mail box (took me 3 minutes to walk there, by the way), and my Carmel life was over.
On Monday morning, Donna took me to school when she came home from work (she works night shifts), and I firstly had to introduce myself to the principal. He didn't really know I was coming... Donna left a message on the AM but that was pretty much it... and it felt like a casting. It was so weird... he asked me so many questions on why I moved and why I didn't get along in Carmel and why I thought I would be the perfect student for Wes-Del... I was close to crying and hiding in the bathroom, but of course I didn't and then I was proud student of Wes-Del high... choosing my classes with a guy looking like my doctor at home. (der Doktor Kupferschmied - Lui weiss wahrscheinlich von wem ich rede). I told him the classes I was going to take this semester, and he looked at me and said: We don't offer most of that. And I was like: okay.
I'm a junior at Wes-Del, by the way. For 4 weeks, I have the same 4 classes every day: Economics, physics, Anatomy and Psychology. I like my classes. they're okay. neither really challenging nor really entertaining, but I like them. The kids are really okay. Sind halt Bauern. Aber da kann man nichts machen. I think my Lunch buddies are the popular kids. But I'm not sure about that yet. Anyways... while in Carmel evryone looked the same only wearing different kinds of spirit wear... in Gaston kids are really individial. In Carmel gabs keinen einzigen HipHopper, hier gibts einige. I like it. There is diversity. I miss the people in school I knew form Carmel though. Or Carmel in total. My new mom Donna is the director of the choir at Wes-Del, and of course I went to choir. There were only 3 other kids there on Tuesday... and the songs they sung were songs from the fall concert from Carmel. I was bursting out in tears. And the kids came to me and hugged me, and Audi, the funniest girl ever (she's a senior, by the way), looked at me and said: "we might not be such a good and big choir like Carmel, but we here are family."
And the weird thing: it got so much better. I don't miss Carmel that much anymore.
It's still hard, but being here is awesome. My new family is so nice! I already love them. They talk to me. They take care of me. They will take me on trips (yah - Eli is in Indiana and Carla is in Michigan will probably unite during spring break xD).
My school is small, only 300 kids, and I hope to play softball here as soon as it starts (ich hab hier uebrigens heute schon angefangen kondition aufzubauen... ich bin 2 Meilen gelaufen - seit an dieser Stelle bitte stolz auf mich).
I like it. I hope my life stops being a mess now.
For everyone who suvived reading all this...
I love you. No matter where you are, Carmel or Germany. Be hugged. I miss you.
Eli <3 <3 <3
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