2014
Food on Christmas Day
Christmas cookies Penny and I made
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.
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
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
Rays
Sea otters
Some sea animal similar to crabs
Baluga Whales
Starfish
Whale sharks
Jelly Fish
The biggest tank with Whale sharks and other creatures
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?
Before the dance Penny took some photos pf me :)
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 ;)
Lake Michigan
Now my first week in school is over. :) It was a lot to take in but it was okay. The lesson that I enjoy the most is PE, I think. I have PE every day which is so different from Sweden where I had it once a week. This week we played Soft Ball and Golf. I'm so bad at both, but it was so much fun anyway. I also had a short private lesson with the choir teacher. I will have those once every second week. I just had to sing some scales for her.
On Friday Penny bought Macaroni and Cheese, because I really wanted to try. I think it's a thing you have to try if you are in America and I liked it. Some days ago I also tried Root Beer which is an American soda. I thought it tasted like the toothpaste I usually use so I couldn't drink it because it felt like I was drinking toothpaste
And this is me and Dolly. I usually call her sneezer because she always sneezes in my face. She sometimes joins me when I eat breakfast.
Today Penny, Bob and I went to Manitowoc. First we went to a Harley Daivdson motorcycle shop. After that we went to the beach on Lake Michigan. It was really nice and Penny took some photos of me :)
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My name is Aleks and I'm 17 years old. 
