Last Post from Somerset

The day I got here.

We're leaving to the airport in about thirty minutes... I can't believe how time flies.
So I guess this is for now and probabky a longer time my last post from Somerset, Kentucky.
When I look around the room now, I'm just super sad that I have to leave this house, Lacy, my family.
There's this song by "Owl City" called 'Fireflies' and there's one part I consider being so pretty:
"To ten million fireflies, I'm weird 'cause I hate goodbyes.
Got misty eyes as they said farewell.
But I'll know where several are, when my dreams get real bizarre,
'cause I saved a few and I keep them in a jar.
I like to make myself believe that planet earth turns slowly."

Saying goodbye is a little like storing marmalade in the fridge. After saying goodbye, you still store the memories in the back of your mind, just as you store the marmalade, and you always got the opportunity to take the marmalade out of the fridge and say hello again, even though it never tastes exactly the same.

Our first picture together with the poster they
made for me saying: "Welcome to the USA".

Last Goodbyes

It's my last evening in  Somerset. I'm sitting outside, watching the sunset. Whitney is riding the bike in the neighborhood, David is washing his truck, and Michele is watching something on her laptop. Later Whitney will come in and we'll play some games such as chess or Scene It! So I guess it's like a normal evening. The only exception is that I know that I might never have a "normal" evening like this one with these people again. My stuff is already packed, and the last set of goodbyes had been done. At this point I have to mention some other people (instead of my host family) that are just awesome and I'm really glad I met them.
I'm gonna start with the best freshman-girls. There's Sarah Flinchum. She's probably the most polite person I met here. Almost too polite! But just almost. I remember the first time I saw her. It was our merit trip to the Ice Scating hall. I was sitting alone in a row. She was sitting across from underneath a hatch through which water kept dropping on her. But shy as she is she didn't ask me if she could sit next to me. So after watching her misery for about two minutes I was like: "Hey, you can certainly come and sit over here!" So she did. We talked a looot since the bus broke down a bunch of times. After that day she was like my best buddy. And I still love her.
Then there's Taryn Haddix. We became friends in drama. And she's just awesome. She wants to become a broadway star and has dancing classes almost every day. Indeed, she;s pretty good and I'll miss her a lot.
Then there's my favorite freshman boy Spencer Harsh. He was like my first friend when I came here. Homecoming was a great evening. I remember when I put the carrots on my plate thinking they were fries. Yap, that was a good time!
Also there are my favorite sophmores. Abi Hutchinson, Caroline Parker and Logan Adams. I just can't split them up because they just belong together! I remember the first time I saw them. Logan came to my locker and he was like: "Hey. Du bist fett und hast keine Freunde." (You are fat and have no friends). I had to pause because I didn't know what to say since the way he said this sounded super sweet. It just doesn't sound mean with an american accent. In the evening at church he asked me if I've ever been to Antarctica. From this point I just knew he was crazy, in a good kinda way though. Caroline and Logan are going to my church too so I got to see them a lot. And all four of us were in the drama play "How to Succeed In Business Withough Really Trying". We did a bunch of choreographies together, and I just loved doing that. I remember this one time, when Abi, Caroline and me were trying to teach the boys a choreography that only includes them and they just wouldn't listen. Caroline and I just sat down to wait because we didn't want to sound mean or something. Whenever this happened, Abi would be like: "Ok guys, this is not how this can work!". She'd hold a short speech  about effectivenss and Caroline would look at me and be like: "Yap, we just leave these things to her". And I just love Abi for this. The best moment with her was probably when I gave her all the stuff I would've usually been throwing away. It was BIG box. Carrying it from my room downstairs and get it into her car like strong men was the best thing ever.  And Caroline. Well, it's Caroline. You just have to love Caroline. She's just super funny, and super cute and a super good volleyball player! Since we both are setters we kinda made a good team! I'll miss these folks.
And then there are, of course, Bethany and Emily Cox. They are just lovely and super nice people. I loved having drama with them, and Bethany's 16th birthday party was super good and I'm so glad I got to meet them. They are awesome singers, by the way.
Then there's David Sams. He was a senior and graduated this year. Even though we never talked that much I just like him a lot! I remember when I was telling Logan I love musicals. And he was like: "Oh really? You should tell David Sams! He's a big musical fan!". And I answered: "Who's David Sams?". Haha, I'll never forget him!
And then there was Jarred Johnson. He's just worth mentioning because he's so talented in everything. He's a good dancer, singer, writer! In the academic team he knew everything! Goodness, he's just awesome. The first time I talked to him was in drama class. In a little room behind the stage there's a piano. Logan, Jarred, me and some others were back there. Jarred started playing a song on the piano. He's super good. Then Logan was like: "Lara, didn't you say you can play too? Play something!". I played the only good song I knew by heart. When Logan went out, Jarred was like: "So you're a super good dancer, a super good writer, a super good volleyball player and you play the piano? Anything else I should know about?". This is really ironic since he's the superbrain, haha :D I probably never met anybody who can do so many things as him. The last day I saw him he told me his plan is to study Literature and Theatre and go to New York City. Pretty funny that I'm thinking about doing the same!
Then I have to mention the best Somerset Christian School teacher Mr. Robert Akers. I was in three of his classes: Bible, US History and Drama. My three best and favorite ones! He's an awesome preacher and story-teller and I just loved as a teacher and I'll miss his jokes sooo much! He's just awesome. He's bold and out of whatever reason everybody's joking about it. One time he was like: "Give me your three bold jokes". One was: "You're so bold, you look like the top of deodorant." Or: "You're not bold, you're just taller than your hair." Or: "You're so bold, it looks like your neck is blowing a bubble". He's just awesome for taking this with humor hahaha :D
So last but not least saying goodbye to all the church people. That was one of the hardest things I've ever done. At the end of the service Pastor Bill Haynes wanted me and my host family to come the front. They prayed for me and afterwards a bunch of them lined up to say goodbye to me personally. It was super sad. I had to say goodbye to Mickey Hicks and Rhetta Haynes who are like my choir buddies. They are sitting next to me during choir. I will miss them so much! When Mickey hugged me I almost started crying. But I could provide me from doing it. One day in choir the woman in front of us sneezed so I was like "Bless you!". Ten seconds later the woman next to her was like: "Oh yeah! Bless you!" It took Mickey like ten more seconds to finally also say "Bless you!". I just had to laugh a bit. Mickey looked and me and was like: "What?! She sneezed!". "Naaaa?! For real???" Hahaha, I just lately got to LOVE her! Both of them are the best. Another day in choir practice Whitney and I were talking to Ryan Cravens, the only younger member of the choir (before we came). He was like: "I'm so glad you joined! I was the only one with natural hair in the choir so far!" Hahaha :D So everybody said goodbye... Caroline, and the choir people and all the others. I really wanted to cry but not in front of everybody. When I looked to my right I saw Whitney. She was crying... That moment was super hard for me because I almost started to cry too. She later told me that this one old choir lady came up to her and was like: "So you're going to lose your sister now?".

Rhetta, me and Mickey (from left) during choir.
I love them!

It has just been super sad! I will miss wednesday nights, bible school, sunday service, choir and all these great people who really care!
Before I left Rhetta gave me a scapbook to put all my photos I made here in there. They are just awesome and I will miss them so much...
So yeah. I guess that's it. Tomorrow I just need to say goodbye to my host family. That will be the hardest part of all. Especially saying goodbye to Whitney. I'll miss my sister being around...
But well, I still got 22 hours and 28 minutes left. So I gotta use them now!
C ya tomorrow!

Wednesday Night

Last wednesday night was one of the best evenings I've spent here. As always, wednesday night is church night - Including choir practice. Now, that we've got summer break, the services on wednesday kinda stopped, but we're still meeting to play games and do some stuff. The game on wednesday was the best game ever.
We were seperated into groups of four people plus one driver. In my group there was Logan, Ashley and another random guy. A woman drove us.
So they gave us one single dollar. The task for every group was to trade the dollar for something else, and trade whatever we get then and in one hour get the best thing we were able to get. We were not allowed to ask somebody we know. The reward was a coupon for an ice-cream store. The group with the best thing wins.
So when we first went out, we had like no clue where to go. We just went into the car and drove around first because nobody had an idea. Then we stopped at a restaurant. Ashley and Logan went inside to ask somebody. When they got out they had a package of tissues a lady gave them. So after that we didn't know where to go again. I had the idea to just go to Walmart and ask random people. So that's where we were heading. When we parked, we saw a man (- a redneck by the way) putting a water melon into his car. Logan was shouting "Laraaa! Ask him! Now!" So I was kinda hurrying out, I almost fell in front of his feet and he was like: "Wow, young lady." So I explained to him: "We need to trade this packet of tissues with something somebody else has. It's a church challenge."
"I know you!", he said. "No, you don't." I answered. "Wait... Where are you from?" "Well, from church right now, and we got to get this going, so.." "Well! I'm not giving you the water melen ( :c ) but I can give you half full packet of gum!" So he gave it to us. Even the packet was broke... Seemed like it was going worse, and worse... Then we went into Walmart. First we were hoping in front of the building there would be people who give puppies away for free - But we got disappointed.. ;)There were Walmart-Workers though who would have given us their work-schedule but we decided not to make this trade.
So inside, we were walking around and I was like: "We should ask old people. Old people are THE best." So there was an older lady and I was just going up to her, and explained the whole story to her. She traded the gum with a strawberry-pretzel candybar. From there we went to a restaurant. Logan and I got in to ask for maybe a Kids' Menu or something. So we went in, but nobody came to help us, so we went out. When we went out the car was gone. After about two minutes they came back. They had picked up a broken umbrella... Didn't look very well for us. Then we stopped at Cracker Barrel, another country-cooking restaurant. Logan and Ashley went in and traded the candybar with kids menu... We only had about 20 minutes left and we still had to get back - This meant: One more stop and then we need to get back. We stopped at like a tank station or something like that.. And Ashley, Logan and me went inside. Nothing was going on in there. It was a bad situation for us. Suddenly the other boy in in our group came in and said: "Hey guys! We need the menu! There's a man who wants to trade it!" The woman who drove us around really found our final trade! Through the opened windows of the car she was talking to a man with piercings literally everywhere! The little boy in the back was like: "They can have my cereals!" Hahaha! This man was the best! He gave us shears which were still in the packet!! He was the best!

Picture of my reaction haha :D

My present (: I don't know why I can't turn the picture, sorry.

We had ten minutes to get back and the car in front of us was driving super slow! We were the latest group and like two minutes too late.Then Todd (the youth minister) told us that every group has to choose one member to explain and commercialize their product in the best way possible. We chose Logan to do it. He's one of the best and funniest story tellers I know. There were only about three of seven groups that traded the whole entire time and didn't buy something with the dollar. So Logan explained everything. What has been really weird about this evening is that Todd mentioned we had to hurry up to get us to choir... Normally nobody would care. One of the choir ladies came in two times to tell Logan to hurry up. He's in he choir too. I really wondered why they cared so much this evening. So I we went with her the second time she came. When we got into the lobby every choir member was there - Not in the choir room, as usual. The choir lady was like "Surpriiiiise!" And I was like: "Ehm.. Well.. Thank you". I was so surprised I didn't even know what to say. Then she was like: "She's here everybody! Scream surprise!" Everybody screamed: "Surprise!!!". It was sooo cute! I just need to say that these people are the best people ever! They really care about you and are just so cute and funny. As a goodbye-present they had a card for me, and a magnet board. On the board they pinned a picture of the chair I'm sitting on during church service! Furthermore they had provided drinks, cookies and pancakes. I just love them, and I will miss them so much!! I can't even believe it. After that we just had a short practice. My last practice. Whitney couldn't be there because she had gotten her wisdom teeth pullen out in the morning, the poor one. Anyways, I just had a great evening which is worth to be mentioned!

Packing

This weekend I was packing my stuff into boxes. Now, that I look into my room, it looks awful empty! It's like when I got here... Really weird. I wanna share some things I found here, about which I almost forgot:

My room sign. I once made it with Aiden
and Conor. When I put it off, Whitney put it on
the door again. <3

My wall.

The both corsages for Homecoming (on the left), and
Junior-Senior (on the right), which Spencer and David
gave to me. Of course they looked better with the
blooming flowers. ♥

My mom got me this before I got here.

Gabby Moore made this for me
- She thought this was the most fitting
song for me, haha

This is from my first monday.
Whitney had Academic Team, and Logan
and Abi though it was odd, that I don't
have a second name. So they gave me one..

The ticket when I got here.

Science Olympiad Instrument... :D

My first starburst, in Geometry.
Ms. Pierce gave it to me because I was the
only one with a 100 points in the test,
and never had one (: It's goooood!

My Minnie-Mouse-Mole for Chemistry Class.

The board on which I pinned anything that I got...

... And how it looks now. :(

Conor's Birthday

In the car (: I love her!!

Conor's (Michele's brother's son) birthday was on the 14th of July, so we went to Florida to see him and his family. It was fun. We got there on Thursday, celenbrated a bit, and then went to the Magic Kingdom (Disney) on Friday. That was even more fun! Even though I have to admit that I'm not half as much into Disney as Whitney is. Oh my goodness, she was looking at the firework as if she had just been drinking two liters of coffee... Mix of joker and bambi, hahaha :D She's too cute.
Anyways, it was a good time. The other day we went bowling. It was fun also. There were disco lights and super good music, I really enjoyed that. After that we went back home. It was probably the last time I saw Conor, Aidan, Kenny and his wife Katie here. They may be moving to Germany because of the military though, so I might see them again :) It was a ten hours drive through the night. We got home at like 5 am. I didn't sleep most of the time - It was like the best time ever getting back home, haha! :D

Another Sleepover (:

Seems like summer break is only there for one thing: Sleepovers (: On Monday there was another sleepover at Katie's. We almost just talked and played "Just Dance" (and Taryn, Hannah and I had a little staircase-party). It was fun! Really sad too though, because it was the last time I saw all of the Freshmen... Well, if I visit again, I bet I can see them again!! :)

Scary Movie Night

Before ..

.. After

Yesterday to today Taryn and me had a scary movie night. And yeees, it was scary!! We watched "The Lovely Bones" (super sad!!), "Dream House", "The Woman In Black" and wanted to watch "The Silence Of The Lambs" but it didn't work, so we watched "The Day After Tomorrow". My favorite movie was "Dream House". I really enjoyed that one. I kinda didn't want to watch "The Woman In Black" again because it's just super scary!! I was just sitting underneath the blanket u.u  Until Taryn was like: "The next time you're coming here you're not getting any blankets!". :D And after the "Woman In Black" when I looked out of the window there was a bat o.O And I was like: "There's a bat..." Taryn: "Sure.. It's the woman in black" .. "Are you kidding me?! It's batman!" .. "No! It's Edward Cullen!" hahaha, that was a good time! I really enjoyed this and I'm kinda glad that I'm not the only girl in Somerset that likes horror movies :))

Time To Say Goodbye

So all of the foreign exchange students left Somerset now already.. On the 20th of April they had a Goodbye-Party for all the foreigners... I didn't really want to realize it but well, now it comes to an end. I'm the only one that's still here and it just feels a little awkward because pretty much all of my best friends are gone, so I was thinking I should create one post in memory of them.. So this is it!

1) Marta Civettini. From Italy. I love this girl! She's been my very best friend here and we've got soo much in common, I never want to lose contact to her!! I was checking our pictures together, and thought about the best moments we had and I just couldn't decide which one to show here. I am pretty sure that some of our best moment were when we were texting. Texting with her is just hilarious! Trust me, we'd use all he smileys we can to make the message more alive, haha!
This conversation is hilarious:
Lara: "Ah ok. I think for living Boston is better. NYC for shoppin' lol"
Marta: "I live for shopping u.u lol"
Lara: "Hahaha you are crazy!!"
Marta: "No, I;m Marta u.u lol"
Lara: "Doesn't Marta mean crazy in... korean maybe?"
Marta: "No, actually it means owner lol"
Lara: "Owner of what? Shops?"
Marta: "Owner in general.. Maybe ower of the whole world muahahahaha"
Lara: "Sure. Lara means winner :D beat that!!"
Marta: "-.- That is victory!"
Lara: "Exactly"
Marta: "No I mean is not Victoria that means victory?"
Lara: "Maybe. But Lara means winner anyways! :)"
Marta: ".-. Mmm"

Last hug.. Maybe for
a long time :(
The place is symbolic though ;)

Hahaha, it was really funny also, when we kept coming too late at my second Merit Trip to the Salt Mine. I remember this day I told her that I probably wouldn't cry when I leave Somerset, since I didn't cry when I left Germany - That's kinda ironic now, since I already cried a lot, and probably still will be! Another really funny moment with her was when we were skyping with Jason and we both skyped first and then invited Jason so we've been able to change his messages. Whenever he texted something normal it would end up in something like "I love Christian.. From now on no girls.. just Christian!!!!!! Marta.. are you angry if I will ask Daniel to go to prom together? I love him so much!" Hahahaha and it would go on, and on, and on... I guess Jason's still mad because of this conversation haha :D  We always talked about getting each other bracelets. We never got to get them so without talking to each other we both got the other one a bracelet, haha :D It was cute. I love her sooo much!

Favorite Picture <3 Softball!

2) Cindy Yu. From China (though resident in the US). Cindy and me are the workaholics! We both are thinking about becoming a doctor and compeeted together in three competitions in Science Olympiad. We did horrible in every single one of them but well..Who cares? :D Then we both wanted to do Track, Golf and Softball all together... Not possible, haha! I think I had my best time with her not knowing what the translations for all the terms in Science Olympiad were!! Or building the car for Gravity Vehicle. Two girls on a car competition -- Suuuuuree! :D It was really funny too when we've ben on the Ski Trip and Marta and me were like: We're gonna make a before and after black slope picture and on the after picture Cindy won't be there anymore and we'll be like: "Yeah.. She didn't make it"  ahahah it was a good time!

Favorite Picture <3
Junior/Senior after-party!

3) Josephine Pedersen. From Denmark. I just love Josephine! She's too sweet! The first time I saw her I thought she was crazy though.. It was the first day and I was standing at my locker, and Marta and her came up to me in a kinda crazy mood and they were like: "Yaay! Now we got more foreigners than americans in our trig class". And then they just kinda pulled me into the class.. It was crazy! :D Three days later I changed the class anyways, haha. Sorry to dissapoint them! The best time with her was the first time Marta, Cindy, her and I met at Tumbleweed and went to the movies ("The Vow") after. I remember Cindy being like: "I talked to my mom this morning." Marta: "Oh yeah! I talked to my mom this morning too!" Me: "I can't even remember the last time I talked to my mom.." Jose: "Me either.." And we just kept talking, leaving Cindy out and after a while she was like: "Yeah.. you never let me talk. Anyways.. This morning I talked to my mom and.." Marta: "OOOH! I talked to my mom too!" It was too funny, haha! :D I couln't find any picture with her and me alone, but I love this one!!

Favorite Picture <3
Kat had a blue eye because she got
hit in softball. Good times!

4) Kat(harina) Sellmaier. From Austria. Kat is my bro. Can't say it better :D She'd be the only one to call me bro and repeat the sentence "That's soooo sad" billions of times.. Even though something wouldn't be sad. :D I had soo much fun with her playing softball this season. I guess this was my best time with her too! She's just funny. Even when I said to her "I love you", she'd be the only one not to answer "I love you too", but "Sure, bro!".

Favorite picture! It was the first picture we took (:
I needed it for his contact in my phone.

5) Jason Lim. From South Korea. Jason was probably my first friend of the foreigners here! I remember the first day I came here, he said a phrase in german that actually doesn't need to be repeated ( :D ), and I was cracking up every time I saw him again. Then we've been lab partners in chemistry. I remember this one time when he had an acid in a bottle and he grabbed it with a small stick, so our teacher Ms. Adkins was like: "Jason! Don't grab it like that!" He was like: "Naa, that's gonna be fine". One second later he almost dropped it over me. Yeah, him and me in chemistry. That didn't work out very well. Even though I gotta admit the sinks in this room are crazy. Just a little push and they freak out and the water pours out so fast that everything gets wet. Another time we had to boil water. So I put some water (100 ml) in a beaker, set up the boiling stand and then wanted to put the beaker onto the stand... I didn't realize I did it to fast and in a 90 degrees angle. So all the water pours out of the glass right on Jason.. And I mean - He was wet! I still feel sorry for this. He was like: "I swear! You did this on purpose! Because of the acid thing!" Hahaha, I loved the labs with him! Furthermore we worked in the Science Olympiad in the competition "Sounds Of Music" together. Oh my, that was A MESS! But it was too funny! Another really interesting thing about our friendship was our passion for tetris. He started playing it. So one time he wanted to compeet against me and he'd win every single time with soooo many more points! From this time on I played almost every day so that I'd become good enough to finally win against him - And it worked! In the end I won against him (even without him doing mistakes on purpose). I'm just really glad I got to meet him because he was so much fun.

Favorite picture!
Nerd day at school, haha :D

6) Christian Scheit. From Germany. Yaaay! Here goes the german! This boy is just hilarious. We never really talked german to each other instead of calling the other "Opfer" or "Knecht". When we once did we just realized it was awkward :D Even when I texted him in german on facebook he wouldn't answer in german. I remember in the beginning I thought he was a nerd. I remember a group of us sitting in the cafeteria, at one of these round tables, and it was awkward silence. He was the one putting his wallet on the table, saying "Okay, guys. Let's talk about money." Hahaha :D Another really good time was on the Ski Trip when he was being obsessed with the "Red Solo Cup" :D Or when we've been to the salt mine and the guide would ask: "Any questions?" And Christian whispered: "I kinda wanna know where the elevators are..." He's just funny and I'm excited to see him in Germany because I'm wondering if we'll talk german or english... Yeah, for real! :D



Favorite picture!
After the musical // Swag

7) Victor Magelund. From Denmark. Victor is a funny guy too. I remember the first time I talked to him at the Ski Trip when we were going in a lift together.. It was really funny because he went with the snowboard and he wouldn't wear a bib because he thought it looked stupid :D Then he fell and broke his hand? Or thumb? Can't really remember, but he broke something! I was the only one who waited for him, so we kinda lost the group for a time. It was funny. He's just really nice and I have to admit that now, that he's gone, I feel really awkward at church on wednesday evening, because I never really know who to talk to! And I gotta say that there's one thing I really have to agree with him: Hats are awesome! :D I never saw him without a hat out of school..

Favorite picture!
The pirat dance. (:

8) Daniel Gonzales. From Mexico (though resident in the US). Speedy Gonzales! :D (sorry..) I remember the first time I talked to him.. Or he talked to me. It was in chemistry class, and he had a piece of Milka chocolate, and turned around, put it into his mouth and asked: "Naa, are you jealous now?". That's actually kinda ironic when I think about that later I told him I'd give him a bar of this chocolate when we finally got our dance done. I can't really find any words to describe him.. He just makes random, crazy comments to everything and I don't think I had any serious conversation with him.. Maybe about dancing, Dubai and soccer but usually he's just making fun of literally everthing. When we were dancing together, and practiced for the lift, he'd just keep making fun. So I was like: "Daniel, we really gotta try this harder!" His answer would be: "Does your mother try this harder?". 'What?!' was the thing I thought after almost every sentence he said to me. One time when we did the lift and I couldn't hold the strain, he just turned around in a circle. I still have this video.. It looks hilarious! :D He's a good dancer though. One time in the very beginning of the dance practices we had to dance in front of the whole drama class watching us, and then I made a mistake.. That was kinda embarassing! :D And just like Victor he cares a lot about the way he looks. He's the only boy I know who goes to the gym every day, cares about the way his nails look like, and put a pink bandade around his toe at the night of the musical performance because he had a little black spot there. He's also a really honest person. When I said goodbye to him, I was like: "Well, maybe we'll see each other someday again.." I tried to make the situation better. His answer was: "No. I really don't think so."  I'll really miss dancing with him, it was a good time! So all in all I'm glad to know him whenever he's not wanting me to touch his legs (...) or making fun of something I say. :D

Favorite picture!
Good time in the car!

9) Nels Acquistapace. From Germany. He's the only foreign in this group (there's also Hauke and Timo, but I never really go to know them) that didn't go to Somerset Christian School. Still I feel like he really belongs to us. I got to know him at the Ski Trip. He went down a black, hilly slope with a snowboard. I took him like forever but well.. He made it! :D I remember one time I was texting with him on facebook and he was all like: "Yeah, when I'm done with school I wanna see the world". He named a few places he wants to see, and I was like "Well, I really wanna see the rainforest too!" He said: "No, I really don't wanna go there!" I answered: "Well, there are cool birds!". He never let me forget this. Even the last day I met him with a few others, and we were sitting at a table, and everybody said where they wanna go after graduation in ther countries, and Nels was like: "I wanna live in the rainforest!" Somebody was like: "What the heck.. Why?!" .. "They got cool birds!". Hahaha, he's just hilarious and really special. I don't know any other boy who likes going to the theatre, jazz music (especially "cheese cake" by Louis Armstrong), reading, and at the same time is still super funny. He's just awesome. Another thing that's really special was is old phone with an antenna.. and his car here.. He drove an old Dodge, and it was crazy. His left blinker was broke so every time he turned left he had to put his arm outta the window. It was a truck, so after it had rained, there was a small pool in the back and the whole car would shake when he stopped. I'll never forget that. With him I'm really certain about which moment was the best one! It was definitely when we went to see "The Avengers" together, and he said that they had two clips after the movie. So we waited for the first one - The first one was pretty good, I guess. Then we waited about ten more minutes for the second clip after the final credits and this clip was the worst ever... All the superheroes sat in a restaurant eating. And yes, that was it! Oh my, I can still laugh about that...

So I guess this is it - The most awesome people I EVER met! I just love them so much, and I will never forget them.
I swear, I can't wait for the reunion!

The Smoky Mountains

From the 1st to the 4th we've been camping. We means my host family and me. It has actually been the first time in my life I've been camping. And indeed, it has been awesome! Something I'd really like to do again someday. The Smoky Mountains were our destination. The Great Smoky Mountains are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee-North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. It's the most visited national park in the US. The name "Smoky" comes from the natural fog that often hangs over the range and presents as large smoke plumes from a distance.

Bambi, haha :D

We got there with a camper. On Friday we didn't do a whole lot, but still it was a pretty good day, I think! We just went on a path extra for cars to see a bunch of animals such as deer, turkey, or even a black bear. We've really seen all three of these, even though the bear was pretty far away. It was neat! In the evening there was an "auction night". The camp gave us fake money to bet on some stuff they gave up for auction. 40 dollars each person. I really wanted to get one of these stuffed animals so Whitney and me put our money together to 80 dollars.. We still lost the first two stuffed animals (a sweet penguin and a plush bear). The very last thing for auction was another animal. All the people around who didn't want their money gave us theirs so we had about 220 dollars... - And still got beaten up!! So in the end we didn't get anything.. Guess we're just bad at this! Anyways, they gave tshirts and some over stuff away for nothing (: So I got a shirt, and two bibles (I'm gonna give them to our church). Whitney got some kitchen stuff for her mom. Might have been tablecloths...
After that we had dinner and made a fire over which we warmed up some marshmellows (.. probably written wrong..) :D
The next we went hiking in the morning. It was cold. Icecold. Can't say any more.. :D 

Enchanted <3

Then we did tye-dying (weird, american way of painting shirts), went swimming and played BINGO in the afternoon. She won a free popcorn for the evening movie "ENCHANTED". This is the cutest movie ever! I love it so much! You gotta be watching this, it's too cute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRYU4cqUAUs It's actually really ironic because I was singing songs of this movie the whole entire week before and Whitney would get really annoyed of it. :D
I remember Isabel, my best friend, and me watching this movie and keep singing the songs one evening last summer. It was a good time!


Jap, we had a lot of fun
on the playground :D 

I broke the line... :s

This was the first evening I realized that Whitney is really a sister to me. I wanted to get some M&M's and the woman behind the counter asked me if I liked the movie, so I answered "Oh  yeah, I've seen it a lot of times before!" And she was like: "Oh me too! And I love the songs! Got all of them on my iPod". So I said: "Me too! I keep singing them and my sister gets really annoyed". - On my way back I realized that I called her my sister - Not my friend, or host sister. Just sister. And I actually meant it, I didn't just say it so I don't have to explain a lot. I just love her sooo much! Even though she can be annoying, playing the recorder at 10am... I love her! Today at church one man said "Hey girls" to us and we turned around and said just at the same time "Hi!" So he was like: "Oh my!! You both must have been practicing this! This was at the same time and in exactly the same pitch!! Like in a choir!". Whitney was like: "Sure.. We practice it every evening in front of the mirror"! It was a good time!
On sunday we went hiking a looot! First up the

hill, down the hill, up the hill, down the hill, to a waterfall (it was nice), and the way back. I've been in front of my host family the whole time because I was a lot faster. Then I saw a snake o.O Freaked me out a bit... In the afternoon we've been resting, and swimming in the pool. In the evening we wanted to see the "Fireflies" in the Smoky Mountains. Our "neighbour" family told us they was a really nice place you could go, up in the hills, where all the fireflies are kind of synchronized, and light up all together at one time.. We thought we could drive up there with the car. Obviously we couldn't. So with this family we decided to hike about 2.3 more miles up there and then back. After about the first thirty minutes of hiking it was dark. I couldn't see anything. And I wore flip-flops because I was thinking we'd drive up there.. It was rough but I wanted to see the fire flies. So after fifty minutes of hiking they'd all stop. David and I have been a bit (like ten feet) in front of them. They were discussing if they wanted to go back because it was way too dark. Suddenly David said: "Look to your side, guys. There are fireflies!" We've been all surrounded by those beautiful, beautiful creatures. It was so pretty! I looked like people would be taking pictures the whole time! It was just so pretty and romantic. It was great. Even though I'm thinking it would have been better if we would've kept walking. 

Hiking in the shirt I won the evening before
- Little too large, but good message: Donating blood!

This is what the web is saying about it: "They are a rare species of firefly that seem to coordinate their blinking into a little Smoky Mountain show (all they need is some music!) around mid-June (the 2nd through the 10th) each year. There’s only one other place in the world, Southeast Asia, in which this phenomenon can be seen. This species of fireflies has an internal “sensor” that let’s them know when a nearby firefly has lit, in which they respond with their own light as quickly as possible. It may take a minute for them to get in sync, but all of a sudden that start performing together with flashes that last as long as six seconds. This, in turn, presents an amazing wave of blinking lights that is truly astonishing." I wanna go back one day! It was awesome! We just stood there for like twenty minutes. Everybody was tired so we went back to the car. One conversation of Whitney and me on our way up:
Whitney: "I see something that you can't see and it's..."
Lara: "Let me guess... Green?"
Whitney: "Oh my... That's right! Can you guess what it is also?"
Lara: "A tree?"
Whitney: "Oh my... You're a mind-reader!"
Haha, even though it was rough, it was a good time!

Titanic exhibition

The next morning we slept in. In the afternoon we went watertubing in the small river which also flows in front of our campside. That was cold... Again. But it was fun! A lot of fun! I had a good time. Then we hopped in the pool for a second (which felt surprisingly warm then..) and in the afternoon we met a part of their family in a town in the Smokys called Gatlinburg. There was man with his wife and their son. In this one streat there were a LOT of really cool attractions! We wanted to go to a museum about Titanic exhibitions all together but their son was crying a lot and (obviously) having some issues so we ended up going without them. This was amazing too. So sad, but amazing. In the first room I almost cried, when the woman talked about the facts that happened. I could talk a lot about how incredible the distuingishing between 1st and 3rd class people has been but I guess it wouldn't make anything better. In the beginning everybody got a "boarding pass". On this pass there was a name and a story of one passenger aboard the Titanic. Michele, Whitney and David all got 1st class people (I believe..) or at least 2nd class. David's person has been a worker on the ship. My person was third class person. I just have to tell her story. It was Helene Rosblom. 41 years. Residence in Kolla, Rauma, Finland. My card said this:
 "Do you take premonitions seriously? My 10-year-old son, Eino, does. That's why he refused to joing his sister, two-year-old Salli, and I on Titanic. He absolutely refused and said, "I won't go with them to drown!" Those were his words! I'm Helena Wilhelmina Rosblom from Finland. I couldn't wait to be reunited with my husband in America. Eino could stay with relatives until I returned. Actually, our original plan did not include Titanic, but when my Salli got sick in Southhampton, England, we had to change ships and departure dates. It seemed like a lucky omen when they booked us on Titanic, yet misgivings nagged me. As the days at sea went on I found my enthusiasm fading. Eino's words kept echoing in my mind: "I won't go with them to drown!"  Why had there not been a lifeboat drill? Would we be able to get into a lifeboat? Could we swim in 28-degree water? What to do?"  - She and her daughter died. Her daughter was, I believe, the second youngest person to die this day. There was another child of one year that died. It made me so upset if you think about her leaving his husband in the US and her son in Finland.. It's just crazy..

The original size of Titanic's anchor

There was one room where you could put your hand in 28 degree Fahrenheit cold water. It was COLD! It's about 2 degrees Celsius. It was way colder than the river earlier. The longest time swimming in there made a man (I can't remember his name). He made more than two hours. Why? He was part of the crew, and when he knew the ship was going to sink, he got drunk. So he was drunken, in the water, swimming for two hours, not feeling the cold - And made it... :O My host dad was like: "So what is this all telling us? If your ship is sinking - Don't worry! Get drunk!" :D
Another thing I didn't know is that there were also dogs on the ship, including an Airedale Terrier (like our Lacy). (: So they showed a lot of stuff that was inside of the Titanic, a lot of facts about it, and also some stuff about the movie (like costumes, how it was made, etc.)
It was really, really interisting! I'm really not a Titanic (movie) fan, but now I really wanna watch that movie again!

The house!! :O

Anyways, after this we just had dinner with this family, which was pretty funny, and then we went back to the campside. The last night there - It was CRAZY! It started raining really bad, so Whitney and me just couldn't sleep. We stayed up, just talking, until about 4:30 in the morning... And this means: YES! We've got issues! Then we'd have small lamps in front of our bed and after a time we've already been able to predict when the other one was going to turn it on right into the other one's face. It was crazy. The other morning, when I got up, I was asking: "Hey Whit, did yesterday night really happen?" "Yap" "Oh my..".
We started our way home really early. 
All in all it was a great trip and I'm so thankful for it! It has been awesome!

The best in the end!!
I've seen the cutest dog ever!! Look in its eyes *-*
Mix of a pomeranian and a chihuaha (: