- Be in Vermillion on DakotaDays.

- Go to an NBA game.

- Sit in first row of an NBA game.

- Visit at least 25 states (so far: South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin).

- Visit Vancouver Island.

- Miami Beach.

- New York City.

- See Nigara Falls.

- Yellow Stone National Park.

- German Museum in Munich.

- Go to a Vikings NFL Game.

- Make three 3 Pointers in a basketball game.

- Visit the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.

- Visit a zoo in the U.S.

- Swim in one of the Great Lakes.

- Rocky Mountains.

- Go to a College Football game in one of the 15 biggest stadiums.

- Go to a Nebraska Game.

- Never go to a baseball game! lol

- Go to a Liverpool game and stand in/on The Kop.

- Become an American citizen.

- I am a huge sports fan and Germany is pretty much a soccer country. The US have NBA Basketball, NFL Football, and of course college sports. There are hundreds of games on TV every month and I could watch them all.

- Food: The only German food I really love is Wiener Schnitzel. The rest is pretty much all American style. Restaurants in the US are way cheaper and they don’t serve you any extra “Schnickschnack” like they do in Germany. Come on people: If I wanted a salad to that Schnitzel, I would order it.

- Television: Well, Germany does have all the American shows, or at least most of them. But they are dubbed and that is just stupid. In the US I would be able to watch all my favorite shows on television.

- American women dig my accent…LOL ROFL OGM

- School: American universities have a better system I think, but it’s very expensive obviously, so thats a big minus. However, Americans are lazy and therefore it’s easier for me to get good grades (good thing I didn’t write “greats” before) without having to do much work.

- They really know how to celebrate their holidays. Food, beer, food, and don’t forget lots of FOOD!!!

- Matt, Angela, Jesse, Chelsey, Alison, Jay, Clay, Eric

- They have the Midwest to live in and the two coasts to travel to.

- Girls don’t spend 3 hours in the bathroom before going to school.

-  Jag-Bombs, Skittles shots, $5 pitchers at Eagles

- Mountain Dew, Dr.Pepper, Skittles, pen-cakes, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

to be continued…

Where are the mistakes?

Once upon a time there lived a very old woman in the dark woods. She were 71 years old and saw very ugly. She came at night out of her big house and made a bright fires with the dry grass and trees. This was the time when she eaten her dinner.

However, in one particular night the fire did not burns as bright. Puzzled, the woman lit more of the grass but it does not worked. Anything was wrong. It did not rain and the grass was completely dry.

Suddenly she heart a voice. “Do not burn me. It hurts.” The woman looked around, but she didn’t see somethings. Again, she tried to lit the wet grass and suddenly the voice had appeared again. “Please burn me not. It does me hurt.” The woman looked around again, and then she saw something glows on the ground. It was a piece of woods and it had big round glowing eyes. “Please stop,” the piece of wood sayed. The old woman was scared. She has never seen a talking peace of wood. Was it really or does she dreamed it all?

“Don’t burn me.” “But I needs a fire to cook my meat,” the women answered. “You can eat my fruit. It is much healthyer anyway and it will made you stronger, too.” “Really?” the woman ask and thinking about it. She after a while decides the fire to stop and then went to bed. She collected fruit the next morning from the trees in the woods and lived healthier ever after.

Well, I have school; but that’s not really an excuse, because let’s be honest: I am not sitting in class or in the library all day and it is not like I have to study in every spare minute of the day. I should rather blame  my own laziness, that is keeping me away from finishing my school papers or writing in my blog. Also, there is not really much to say. I have been home for six months and it has been the same old boring life that I had before my year abroad at USD. The only change is that I have to work a few hours a week now and that I know there is a much better life waiting for me either three years or 3000 miles away.

Some days I really wish I could just pack up all my stuff and move back to the Verm: this cute little town in the south-east corner of good old South Dakota. It has less than inhabitants than my hometown, nevertheless there were way more fun things to do during the week and on the weekend. Now, my evenings are pretty much filled with practice, school, or watching football.

Well, and that’s a wrap. Let’s see how long it takes me to write another post?!

There is not a club in the world that doesn’t play any of the Gaga songs and the whole audience flips out. Everybody can sing along and people go crazy when dancing to these songs. Not me included, lol.

What not so many people know is that Lady Gaga, or with her real name Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, is actually a very good singer and songwriter. In fact, before her big career as a recording artist, she visited the Tisch School of the Arts in New York, and worked as a songwriter for many fellow artists on her label. Even for her own album, she wrote and co-produced many of her own songs, which is rare for pop-artists in our modern society. For people who like music because of the singer’s voice Lady Gaga is real insider’s tip. Especially the song “Pokerface”, gets a whole new feeling in the acoustic version. So just check out these videos:

A special sleeper is the Glee performance of Pokerface by Lea Michele and Idina Menzel:

When I was 13 or 14 years old, Britney Spears came up and had huge success with her first single “Baby One More Time.” At first, I thought “Not another one of these girl singers with stupid pop songs.” However, the more I heard her songs I actually started to like the music. I bought her first single, then her second, and her third, then her first album, and so on. Additionally, being thirteen years old and in the middle of puberty, boys easily have crushes on pretty girls. Guess that happened to me with Britney. So soon enough, my room was filled with posters and pictures of her. When I was 16 or 17 I started to grow out of that guilty pleasure. Still, I am big fan of many female singers like Alicia Keys, Joss Stone, or Beyonce Knowles.

Around that age, another guilty pleasure of mine started: I started to write novels. Well, that might not sound so bad; there are many male authors, however, only few of them write about typical girl topics, like high school, love, and drama. Yeah, I did that, and actually wrote about 300 pages. There is no way I would ever give them to anyone to read. However, it helped me a lot to become the writer I am today, and to be honest. Sometimes, when I am bored, I still keep writing on those stories. Nowadays, I tend to write about actual life stories and rather in form of a movie or TV-show script.

My last guilty pleasure really isn’t one, because I honestly admit to this topic and talk about it: Watching girly TV-shows like Gilmore Girls, Grey’s Anatomy, or even Hannah Montana. However, these shows work for me on different levels. Grey’s Anatomy was one of the first shows I really followed from first to last episode, and it was also the first show I watched completely in English. Actually, I watched the first season in German, but I needed to know how it went on, and season two was only available in English. So I owe my good English speaking skills partially to this show. Anyway, I really like Grey because of the stories; they really fascinated me. Gilmore Girls was more about the actresses. Alexis Bledel and Lauren Graham are both really good at their job, and it was incredible to see their connection in front of the camera. Last, yes I admit I watched all Hannah Montana episodes. In the beginning I wanted to see what all the fuzz was about. Then I was interested in the story about the girl living two different sides of her live, which then kept me watching the show, since I wanted to know how the authors were developing the stories. I really don’t like Hannah’s music, not am I that astound by Miley’s acting job, but I was really interested in the script.

So, I realize know that these stories are not really the best examples for guilty pleasures. However, that is kind of how feel about them. Maybe you want to share some of your guilty pleasures with me?!

To take a quick review, however, this semester was pretty successful. I got credited two of my USD course with straight A’s. That will get up my mean grade. Also, I finished my oral test with a straight A, thanks to my time in the US. Here I am especially thankful to my teacher Dennis Sjolie for the help in the class last year, to my language tutor Abbey, and to all my friends from the Mafia, who talked to me for eight long months. Sounds silly, but it could have been a different trip if I hadn’t met these great people. Worst case scenario, I could have sat in my room all day and only come out for classes. Luckily, it didn’t happen , I almost learned to get rid of my German accent. Quote from random girl the last day in Vermillion: “Oh, I didn’t know you were an exchange student. I totally can’t hear an accent.”

So, now that in mind and the A from my oral test, I would say this trip was definitely a success.

Besides the oral test, I also wrote a paper for an education class. Still waiting on that grade, but at least I had some fun writing this thing. And it’s not like I had to work my ass off for that. *wink*

So after the shortest long semester ever, I am waiting to be done with school in about ……………………………………………………….. 2 years! Damn it So long…

In an one hour (or rather summer long) ESPN Special he announced that he would join the Miami Heat with his Olympic teammates Wade and Bosh! Honestly, it is still unbelievable that the Heat organisation could land three superstar free-agents, one of the arguably the best individual Basketball player in the world.

But questions still fill the air. Did Miami make the right move? YES! Getting three big free agents, who belong to the Top10 players of all basketball is a great accomplishment. Pat Riley can clap his own shoulder and be proud of himself. This move has never been done before! It should show the way to a new decade of Basketball dominance in the Eastern Conference.

Did Wade and Bosh make the right decision? DEFINITELY! Although both of them gave up a few million dollars, they could not have made a better decision. With LeBron as their teammate, they could write history. And they have nothing to lose. Wade already has a Ring and Bosh will see a lot more W’s on his account.

Did LeBron make the right choice? MAYBE! Maybe not! First of all, he abandoned his former team, the team that made him the superstar he is today. In my opinion, on a human level this was the wrong move. As a representative of this sport, it is important to show loyalty to the city that made one strong; that cheered one on every night; that tried everything to bring success to the team! Of course James wants to win the rings, but to what prize? In sporting terms, he probably made the right decision. Giving up money to win more games is also not selfish, like so many players were before. However, if he does not win the ring in the next two years, his legacy could end in a failure. Then he will never be mentioned in one sentence with Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, or Tim Duncan! James has the best supporting cast in NBA history. It’s not even comparable to Jordan/Pippen/Rodman, or Bryant/O’Neil/Fisher or Bryant/Gasol/Fisher or Duncan/Parker/Ginobili. The title has to go to South Beach soon. Real soon! Otherwise, I think this was a bad move. Not winning the championship with the Cavs would have still made him a Winner! Not winning it with Heat would make him a Loser!