Schoolweek 16-17 5th-14th- (AW Basketball, NBA, Birthday)

December 5th, first high school basketball game with Anthony Wayne.

We won this game 60-69. The game was at home. I didn't play myself but it was still a fun. There were a lot of people that watched the game. 

This picture is of the US flag that they show before the game during the national anthem. Before every game we play they sing the national anthem and all look at the flag.

Here some pictures of during and after the game.

December 6th, first NBA game.

Philadelphia 76ers - Detroit Pistons 

108 - 101

Together with my family and Jake (friend from the basketball team), we went to Detroit to watch my first nba game. It was a very close game, so it was fun. The tickets for this game were very cheap for us. This was because the Exchange Student group bought a lot of tickets in one time, so we only had to pay 20$ for each ticket. 

100-100 at the end of regular time means.... OVERTIME. 

This is 5 minutes extra time. 

After the game we were allowed to stay in line and than go on the field and shoot a free throw. It was crowded but pretty fun to do.

Jakey getting ready for his shot.

December 11th, my 18th birthday!

I got a lot of post cards from my friends and family! And at school there were a lot of friends that knew it was my birthday. Even some of my teacher knew about it. One teacher baked cookies for the whole class because it was my birthday haha :D.

It was a lot of fun. I had basketball game too. But we lost this one.

On Friday I went to a restaurant with friends. Kathy bought two cakes for us, so we had something as a desert! 

Schoolweek 15-16 (November 24th - Thursday December 4th)

THANKSGIVING.

26, 27 and 28th of November, we didn't have school. And 29th and 30th was the weekend. We had a 5 day weekend :). Thursday 27th was officially the thanksgiving day. We ate all the good food on Friday morning. On Thursday night, me, Reese and Mike went to a big mall in Toledo to go black Friday shopping. We left the house around 11 a'clock. Black Friday shopping is very popular in the US. It is the night of Thanksgiving dinner, and there are a lot of crazy sales! People stay in lanes before stores for more than 5 hours. A lot of the good sales start at midnight. Some stores had their sales from the evening. We left at 12:30. It was fun to see so much people shopping at night.

The next day, around 1, we ate our thanksgiving "dinner". Kathy cooked everything herself. It was SOOO good! We decided that I will do thanksgiving at home in the Netherlands, to keep the tradition, and she will tell me how to cook everything.

On the pictures you see the food. We had mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, sweet potatoes, gravy, ham (with cranberry) and of course: TURKEY!    

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

With the basketball team we made team pictures and individual pictures. 

One of the pictures was with only the seniors of the school. This picture came in the school newspaper. My name was in the text.

---------------------------------------------------------

FINALLY, THE DAY IS ALMOST THERE......

Tomorrow (December 5th) is my first American High School Basketball game. A dream comes true. I don't know yet if I will get playing time, but I am still very excited! The game is a home game, and there will be around 1000 people watching. 

Another day that is almost there....

Saturday, December 6th, I am going to my first NBA game ever. We are going with the family and my friend Jake to Detroit. The Detroit Pistons are playing against The Philadelphia 76ers. 

Another dream that comes true.

Schoolweek 12,13 and 14 (November 3th-23th)

On Monday 3rd and Tuesday 4th we had free from school. Monday was a perfect day do shoot some guns. One of my friends Tyler, asked me if I wanted to try to shoot with some guns. Of course I said yes, but I had no idea what kind of guns he meant. On the first picture you see the 3 guns we used. From left to right: Semi-automatic assault rifle with the bullets that you see on the 2nd picture - a light gun with bullets you see on the 3rd picture - shotgun, the bullet is on the 4th picture. It is a bullet with like 40 small balls in it!

We were shooting in his backyard, on some cans. It was amazing! Another great experience.

That night we went somewhere to a restaurant. I had my first American steak, it was very very good!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

November 7th, big day for basketball. The official practices started. So we didn't practice anymore with a big group of students, only with the varsity players (12 and 11th grade). The first practice we had was before school. We started at 5:45. This means, you need to be at school at 5:30, and the drive is 15 minutes. I left the house at 5:15! Collin, a friend from the team picked me up every morning. 

I was very excited for it, and kind of nervous too. I was not 100% sure yet if I made the team. After a day it was more clear for me, and I was sure I made the TEAM! :)

After a few practices I got my own locker. On the locker we have our name, and our slogan for this year: Hold The Rope! If you want to know why it is hold the rope, read the text on my locker. 

Now it became pretty serious. We had less than a month left till our first game! Everybody got their GAME Jersey and Shorts (+socks). This season I will play with the number: 25.

This is our schedule for this year.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

November 15th. My first American hockey game. Tom, he got some tickets through the company he works for. We had very good spots. Before the game we had a buffet, so we ate a lot. After that we got to our spots and watched the game. The game was in Toledo (the Walleyes).

TOLEDO WON THE GAME!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

November 23th. EF-Students sleepover.

In the city Holland (5 mins from me), live 2 exchange students in one house. They had a EF party for all the exchange students who live within a hour (maybe hour and a half) from us. There were like 25 exchange students. We had taco's for dinner! It was very good. We had a lot of fun. The exchange students were all from Europe (Italy, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, The Netherlands).

That night there were 17 students that spent the night at their house. We watched movies and just talked. It was fun!