2014
Food on Christmas Day
I went with Heather and her family to a cabin in west/northern Wisconsin. We went skiing, snowmobiling, played games and watched movies :)
I cut and colored my hair
Penny took some photos of me in the snow
I went shopping with money I got from my parents and grandfather for Christmas
Last Friday I went skiing in Sunburst with school. It was so much fun!
December
A month ago it was Thanksgiving. Penny and I made a turkey. Penny also made pumpkin pie. I have never tried pumpkin pie before but it tasted good. I made some Mizerja (polish dish) and Bob and Penny liked it :) We also dressed the Christmas tree and took out the Christmas decorations.
Svenska julkalendern from Emilie
Some weeks ago it was Black Friday in America. Black Friday is when stores have big sales over one night. Heather and I wanted to do the whole Black Friday experience so we woke up at 3 in the morning and went to Fond du Lac to do shopping. It was a fun experience to go shopping during the night. We were both really tired but it was fun. Then we ate breakfast at Starbucks and we went back to Heather's house and slept from 7-11am. Then in the afternoon we went back to Fond du Lac to see Catching Fire in the Cinema.
The last weeks before Christmas break I had so much to do. I have basketball practice everyday after school or a game either at school or in an other town. Basketball is fun and I think I'm improving. Two weeks ago at a game I got tripped and I sprained my ankle, so that was not fun... My ankle was all purple and swollen :(
The last weeks I had a lot in school. My hardest class is AP Biology. Sometimes I have a hard time understand because the teacher speaks really fast and uses hard biological terms, but it's not that bad. The Algebra 2 course is a lot of homework but it's not that hard. In Choir we just had a Christmas Concert. In English we just finished writing a theme comparison paper comparing Macbeth and The Crucible. In PE we have played basketball, indoor hockey and volley boll.
Last weekend it was the Benzschawel Christmas party. Bob's family is big so they meet before Christmas so that they can all celebrate Christmas together. The party was at the Chilton Hotel. It was a lot of people there and lots and lots of food. I made some Swedish gingerbread cookies for the party and everyone liked them. Everyone though that the cookies were really really thin... Americans usually do everything bigger and better, haha. They also usually put frosting on the cookies. After we ate and swam in the hotel pool we played some big Jenga, so that was fun. Kate, Bob's daughter from Chicago came to visit and it was very nice to meet her :)
This weekend I slep over at Heather's house with Karissa and Veera. It was a lot of fun. We had our gift exchange and we did some scarfs. I got a Monsers University Blanket, some basketball tshirts and socks :) Karissa tought us how to arm knit scarfs. It was a lot of fun. In the morning Heather and I made some Swedish pancakes for Karissa and Veera. They all liked it and I didn't burn them so that was good.
Here in Wisconsin the weather is different than at home. Right now we have 30cm of snow and -10* Celcius while thereis no snow at home... The last weeks it has been really cold some days. Some days it was less than -20* Celcius... Yesterday apperently it was said that is was a storm (they named the storm Alice). It was snowing all day and it was very windy. Penny took some great photos of me in the snow :) Sometimes we see turkeys outside our house which I think is really cool because we don't have wild turkeys in Sweden (I think…)
The 26th of December I'm going with my friend Heather and her family to a cabin. There we are going to ski, ice skate and go snowmobiling. It's going to be so much fun. I'm also going to spend New Years Eve there.
Basketball!
This is my third week of basketball. Three Mondays ago I went to my first practice. It was scary but I survived! The first two practices were really hard so my whole body was very soar. We have approximetly 1,5-2h practice every day after school. The first week we also had practice both before and after school. I had to get up at 5 in the morning because the practice started at 5:55... The first week was a really long week. All the girls on the team are really good and because I just played basketball when I was little and the American girls played basketball in Middle School too. Veera (the other exchange student) and I both started basketball and we are the worst once on the team... Hehehe... But we are improving ;)
The second week we had our first game. I didn't think that our coach would let me play but I got to play the last 48,6 seconds of the game which was at least something :) I was very nervous because there was over 100 people watching the game and when I came on the court people screamed my name which made me even more nervous. We lost the game.
This week we also had one game. This game I got to play a total of 4min. I got to shoot two shoots and of course I missed them both, but otherwise my coach said I did good :) We won this game which was nice. Tomorrow we have another game.
Rachel, Lily, me, Veera and Sara (from left) before our first game. We are not suppose to have our pants that high up, but we took this photo as a joke... The jersey and the pants are so big on me...
A very bad quality photo of us during our first game taken by Karissa.
The schedule for December...
Sleep over!
Last week it was parent/teacher conference in school. Penny, Bob and I went there. It was a little embarrassing sometimes because the teachers thought it was funny to embarrass me :P I have good grades though and the teachers say I'm good so that feels nice :)
I'm in the A Honor Roll which is a good thing apperently. My GPA is 3.723 of 4.0 which is good too.
Last Friday Penny and I went to Fond du Lac. We went to a Christmas store. Americans are crazy. It was a whole two floor store open all year around. They had so much stuff.
Last week it was cold and it was snowing :O
Last Friday I also did rice with appels in the oven which is a Polish dish. Bob and Penny really enjoyed it!
Last week I also bought an Iphone case and some Monster University PJ pants :)
On Saturday I went shopping with Heather, Karissa and Veera. It was a lot of fun. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings where the food was okay and then we also went to Starbucks :) At Starbucks we drank some hot Christmas drinks. They were so good!
After that we went to Piggly Wiggly and bought some ingrediences. Veera and I was going to make some Polish/Swedish/Finnish food for Heather and Karissa. We made köttbullar (meatballs), klyftpotatis (potatoes in the oven), Mizerja (cucumbers in sour cream salad) and also ungspannkaka (oven pancakes) for breakfast. Karissa and Heather made Monkey Bread for us. I had no idea what it was. It is like small breadballs that you roll in cinamon and then u kind of dip them in carmel toffe mixture. It was very good :) Here are some pictures from that night :)
Karissa and I
Karissa and Veera
Monkey Bread
Tie Dye
Last weekend I did some Tie Dye shirts :)
Package from home!
Last week we had a sleep in on Tuesday and Thursday. We started school at 10:45. On Tuesday I spent 3h in school just doing catch up work for the week I was gone to Atlanta and sick. I was sick the whole last week. At the end of the week I went to the doctor becuase I felt really bad. I had pink eye which is an eye infection and also infection in my bronchial tubes. The doctor thought that I had pneumonia but it later turned out that I didn't have pneumonia. I got some eye drops with antibiotica for the pink eye and I also got some cought medicine.
This week has gone by pretty fast. In AP Biology we are doing a lab testing respiration which is fun mostly because I have a good time with the group I work with :) Today Heather, Colton and I were preparing for doing the lab and we (Heather) accidently (she blaimed it on me) spilled a lot of water all over our table and everything got wet. I really like AP Biology except that the course is really hard. In English we are reading Macbeth which is very challenging. My English teacher always picks on me so I usually have to read out loud and everyone thinks it's really amusing when I read because of my accent. In PE this week we played pickle ball which is basiclly tennis but with wooden rackets and a indoor hockey ball (innebandyboll). We were in pairs and we played a tournament. I played with Erick and we played three games and we lost two of them so we are now out of the tournament. In choir we sing the songs "God bless America" and "Homeward Bound". We are going to preform for the Middle school on Monday because it's Veteran's day.
Yesterday I got a package from my parents which made me really happy. I'm most happy about the kinder eggs because here in America kinder eggs are apparently illegal :(
Bob got a LHC tshirt :)
Funny carrots we picked in our garden and ate yesterday
A cake Penny made a week ago
So on Thursday because we had a sleep in Veera, Karissa, Heather, Jessica and I went to Seven Angels in Chilton and ate breakfast before school :)
Senior Photos
In America when you are a senior you take senior photos. Then you print small copies and give them to your friends so that they remember you after high school. Veera (the other New Holstein exchange student) and I are seniors so we thought we could do this too. The good thing is that my host mom is a photographer so she took our senior photos :)
Me and Veera
Veera
Me
World of Coca Cola
When I was in Atlanta I also went to The World of Coca Cola. The museum was really cool and very well made. It was partly a guided tour and partly you could go around yourself. At the end everyone could try all the products that Coca Cola makes in different countries all over the world. It was about 60 different sodas. I wanted to try them all but at the end I had enought of soda. The best sodas were suprisingly from Asia. My favorite soda there was "Smart" and I think it was from China. The most disgusting sodas were from Italy, UK and Root Bear from America.
Polska reklama Coca Coli :)
Tara (Penny's daughter) and I
It was a human inside the Coca Cola polar bear costume :)
Georgia Aquarium
On Friday my host mom Penny and I flew to Atlanta in Georgia. We are staing with Penny's daughter Tara, her husband and their two children. They also have a huge dog named Reggie.
Atlanta
TGIF with Penny at the airport
Reggie and I
On Saturday we went to the Georgia aquarium. The Georgia aquarium is the biggest aquarium in the whole world. The aquarium has more than 30 million liter water, 100 000 animals and 500 different species of animals. It was a very cool experience :) I got to pet Rays and sea starts. I saw a dolphin show which was very cool.
Turtles
Albino Aligators
Rays
Sea otters
Some sea animal similar to crabs
Baluga Whales
Starfish
Whale sharks
Dolphins
Jelly Fish
The biggest tank with Whale sharks and other creatures
My animals!
This week went by pretty fast. I had a lot of homework and essays. On Wednesday I had a yearbook meeting after school which was very fun and I'm really excited about the yearbook. In PE we did archery which was very fun, and I was actually good at it ;)
On Thursday the Red Cross was in New Holstein High School and students over 16 could donate blood. I wanted to do it but I couldn't, because if a person have lived more than five years in Europe the person can't donate blood in America. It has something to do about that my ancestors might have had the mad cow disease that could have affected my blood now... I don't know... Their explination was vague. Instead of giving blood I could help as a volunteer, so I did.
On Friday after school I went to Veera's house. We watched a Criminal Minds episode, talked and ate a Finish pancake (that Veera made) which tasted great :) Then we went with Nikki, Mitch and Devante to Two Rivers. In Two Rivers the New Holsteins High School's Football Team had their last football game :( They won which was a good end of the season. It was really cold, but thankfully Veera brought a blanket :)
Yesterday I tried to skyped with some of scout friends because they had a scout event, but sadly we couldn't talk so long because their internet connection wasn't great. Maybe because they were in the middle of nowhere... :P
This is how pretty the forest around my house looks. The leaves are turning colorfull and it's just so pretty :) Bob and I sometimes take a ride throught the forest with the four wheeler which I really love!
I also want to present the animals that I live with :)
First we have Bell, the mother. She is very calm and quiet.
Zeek, the father. He is crazy and selfish.
Dolly, the daughter. She is my favorite! ;) She always sneezes and licks my face... Hehe
Roxy, the odd one :P She is Penny's Daughter's dog, but because her daughter got a baby so Bob and Penny take care of Roxy. She likes to cuddle :)
And all the dogs together:
This is Steve. I don't like him because he bites and scratchs me when I don't want to pet him... He lives on the porch.
We also have four more cats but they live in the garage :)
Homecoming dance!
On Friday we had a really short day and then we had the Parade and the Pep Rally. Everyone in the school (except the people in the parade) went on a road and sat down at the side walks. Then the long parade went through some roads in New Holstein. When the end of the parade came we were supposed to walk after the parade, and so we did :)
The homecoming court :) Kelly and Zac (that won) and Veera and Nathan :)
After the Parade we had the Pep Rally. There was some games and competitions and it was so much fun. The juniors won the spirit stick of the homecoming week 2013 just because the seniors got disqualified for a stupid reason... Then after the Pep Rally Heather and I went to my house and I painted her nails :) At 7pm there was the homecoming football game. The guys played against Waupun and they lost by one point (27-26). It was a very emotional game and when we lost almost the whole Footboll team cried :( It was mostly because now the football team won't go to the regionals. After the game Heather, Jessica, Karissa and I went to Heathers house and had a sleep over :) It was a very fun night!
Veera, the other exchange student in New Holstein High Shool :)
On Saturday it was time for the Honecoming Dance. First Heather, Jessica, Karissa, Morgan, Brett, Brandy and I met at Heathers house to take photos of our Homecming group. Then we went to Fond Du Lac to eat dinner at Appelbees. The food was very good and we had a good time together. Then we went back to Heathers house and watched a movie. At 8:30pm we went to the dance at school. It was fun, but not really my thing. The dance ended at midnight and Heather, Jessica, Veera and I went to Jessica's house and had a sleep over. I had a great time and I finally got to taste "Swedish Fish" which is a cherry candy that people claim is swedish?
Heather <3
Karissa and I :)
Before the dance Penny took some photos pf me :)
Homecoming week :)
Last Friday Heather and I went to the football game together. It was so much fun and a really interesting game. We won by 21-20 :D After the half time I helped out with other Ice Fishing Club members with sellig popcorn, pretzels, soda, candy etc to people at the game. It was very fun :) After the game when Heather drove me home a deer ran infront of the car :O
Last Sunday Penny, Bob and I went to Pat's (Bob's sister) house. We watched the packer game and the Packers won. I got to borrow Bob's jersey :) Every Sunday a lot of people here in Wisconsin wear Packer cloths. We went just in and out of Walmart and I saw 13 people wearing a Packer t-shirt/hoodie. Sports are so big here. Almost everyone is intrested in sports here. So different from Sweden and Poland. The whole day I was asking questions about football so I think I got it now :)
This week in school is homecoming week. It is a lot of fun stuff happening in and after school. On Saturday we have the Homecoming Dance :) Every grade has a theme. We are the Sinister Seniors :P
On Monday I went paintballing for the first time in my life :) It was so much fun and I really want to do it again! The team that I was in played four games. We were supposed to get to the middle of the field, take the flag and then take the flag to the other team's base tower. When you got hit you were out of the game. During the first game I was the last one in from my team with the flag. Someone from the other team run behind me and shot me six times from a close distance. So now I have six big bruices on my ribs, side and arm. I really want to play paintball some other time again!
On Tuesday after school me and Penny went shopping to Green Bay. I found black high heels for the homecoming dance :D
Yesterday was a very fun day. First Veera came home with me after school and Penny colored our hair and we did our "Sinister seniors makup". After that we went to the school. For the last week or two the senior football players have had practices with the senior girls. They have tought us how to play football. Yesterday it was a game between the junior girls and the senior girls. A lot of people came and watched. In the beginning I was a little scared that I would screw up, but I didn't. I played Nose Tackel. Nose tackle is the person who tries to get through the line of offense and get the ball from the quaterback. We didn't play with tackle though. Instead of tackeling the juniors to the ground they had flags on a belt that we were supposed to rip off. I got to play a lot because I have come to all the practices that we had :) One fun thing that happened was when I got a little upset because several times I would run through the line of offense and rip off the flag of the quaterback with the ball, but the refs didn't see it so the play would just continue. After that happened three-four times I got upset and went to the Ref to told him that he should look when I rip off the flags. He blaimed it to be because I'm Swedish so I got more upset and told him that I wasn't. Mr.Neilsen who was commenting the game in a microphone said "And now Aleks, the sweed, is arguing with the Ref" and apperently everybodyin the audience laughted... Hehe... After a hard game the Seniors won (of course) by 12-0 :D After they game everyone rushed out on the field and it was such an amazing moment! I really had a great time yesterday.
Today on Tuesday on PE we played lacross. I have never played lacross and I knew very little about the sport. Basicly what you do is that you run around with a type of stick/tennis racket and tackel people in your way. You get a point by getting the ball in the other team's goal. It's a mixture of hockey, soccer and football. We had to have chest and shoulder protection, gloves and a helmet. The sport to me is very weird and different but it was a new experience.
Today at home a tried deer loaf and it was very good :)
My week
Two Fridays ago Heather and I went to the fotball game together. It was so much fun, but the Huskies lost miserably...
Heather and I
Karissa, Caleb, Heather and I
On the Saturday after Friday Penny, Bob and I went to an airport. There it was a MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) gathering. Me and Penny just look at the planes and then we went to Sheboygan. We were looking for a Homecoming dress, but we didn't find one :(
My hair that day
On Monday last week Penny and I went to Appelton to look for a homecoming dress. I bought a very pretty dress in Macy's. I will post some photos some other day.
On Tuesday Penny, Bob and I went on a motorcycle dinner ride. First we stopped by a goat farm in Pipe and we saw how the farmer milked the goats. They also had Lamas :) Then we went to a restaurant called Capone's. The restaurant was very cool and very American.
During PE on Thursday I got stung by a Wasp. We were playing soccer when I felt pain on my hand. I looked down and saw a wasp sitting on me. I tried to shake it off but it didn't want to stop putting poison in my hand. I hit it and it flew away. I got a small mark anda small area around where it stang me got red and swollen. After the lesson I got some ice from the PE teacher and a cream to ease the pain (it hurt really badly). The next day my hand was even more swollen. On Saturday though my whole hand, fingers and half of my arm swelled and it was not pretty. I couldn't even see my nucles on my hand when I bent it. It also hurt really bad and it was itching all the time. I had some pills and creame to ease the pain/itching. Now (4 days later) only my hand and a little part of my arm is swollen and red. I'm not allergic to wasps but apperently (acording to the internet :P ) 10% of the people have a worse reaction than others and of course I'm one of the 10%.
On Friday after school I went to the first Ice Fishing meeting directly after school. I'm so excited! We are going to be in tournaments and it's going to be so much fun! Then I went to Jill's house with her. We studied some for the AP Biology test (that we have tomorrow, and it's really hard D: ) and then we talked and played Wii. I also ate dinner at her house and I was really tasty.
On Saturday I went to school because I thought that we had Powder Puff practice (american football for girls for Homecoming week) but it turned out it was in a whole different place, so I had to go there instead. Thankfully my host parents could pick me up and drive me there :) well there we had practice and after that I was meeting up with Heather. I asked a girl to drive me back to school to meet Heather there. When I came to school Heather called me and told me she went to Marytown (where my practice was to meet me there... After some confusion we finally met and Heather and I went to a restaurant called South Town. There we met Jill and some other people from school so we ate lunch with them. After that we went to a volleyboll tournament back in school. The Huskies won :D
Yesterday I met a missionary from Paraguay. I got to taste a kind of tea (it was so discusting) from Paraguay. I also got a Candy Bar from Paraguay from the missionary because Sarah, Rachel and I helped him serve the weird tea to people.
Volleyboll game
On Tuesday evening Heather picked me up and we went and ate at Subway. After that we went to the volleyboll game at school. The Huskies played against the Raiders, and we won :) There was a soccer game at the same time so for the half time we went and watched the Pom Pom girls doing their routine. It was very nice and I realized that sports are a really important thing in America. It was so serious, intense and amazing. You could feel the team spirit. I have never experienced something like that. It was very fun and I came home very happy that day :D
This is me and my friend Veera. She is an exchange student from Finland. We go to the same school and we always sit at lunch together :)
Yesterday after school Penny, her friend and I went to pick some apples at Bob's sister's house. It was so pretty and the apples we picked are really good.
This week I have taken the yellow bus to school. The bus goes at 6:50 in the morning and the ride to school is so nice. I always see the beautiful sunrise.
Today after school Penny had a photoshoot with a family so I went with her and helped her out. After the photoshoot she took some pretty photos of me ;)
Yellow School Bus
On Sunday I had a meeting with the other exchange students in the Wisconsin area. There were about 13 exchange students. They were from: Finland, Thailand, Japan, Holland, Switzerland, Italy, Brazil and Sweden. I met 3 other girls from Sweden and it was really nice to speak some Swedish for a change :) In the beginning of the meeting you were supposed to take a peice if toilet paper (nobody knew what for). I thought that I would be a little different than everybody else (that took just two pieces) so I took around 20 peices. It turned out to be a getting-to-know-each-other game. We had to say something about ourselves for every piece of paper that we took, so everyone at the meeting got to hear a whole essay about me... hehe... But everyone clapped at end :D
Today I took the school bus to school. I think that it is so cool that I'm going on THE yellow school bus. I'm going to go with the bus this week. I sadly have to get up an hour earlier than usual to go on the bus, but to go on a yellow school bus is a thing that has to be done when I'm here.
Today I also tried a potato-cheese-hotdog gratin that Penny made which was very tasty. Penny also made a pumpkin in the oven which was also something new to me, but it tasted really good.
Today I took the school bus to school. I think that it is so cool that I'm going on THE yellow school bus. I'm going to go with the bus this week. I sadly have to get up an hour earlier than usual to go on the bus, but to go on a yellow school bus is a thing that has to be done when I'm here.
Today I also tried a potato-cheese-hotdog gratin that Penny made which was very tasty. Penny also made a pumpkin in the oven which was also something new to me, but it tasted really good.
My name is Aleks and I'm 17 years old. 
