“Things do not change – we change.”  Henry David Thoreau

It is amazing what a difference one year can make. I never thought my exchange year in Washington State could make that big of a change in my life. My older brothers had always told me how great it was to study abroad and since I was getting tired of my life being the same every day, I was ready to head off.

It was not too hard to say goodbye. My friends were also excited for me. The whole adventure would start with a seminar in New York. We went sight seeing and they also prepared us for the next months.

Right from the first time I met my host family we got along very well with one another. After my arrival there was still about one month of summer break left, so we did a lot of different stuff like hiking, crabbing, camping, horse riding, tubing, shopping and many other things. I got to know my environment pretty well and I loved it!

It felt like it was getting better and better every single day. Right from the beginning I was determined to take every possibility I’d get to try out something new. This would start with my Volleyball practice, beginning two weeks before school had started. The first days were tough. You don’t know anybody and moreover I had not really played Volleyball before. But it felt good that somebody had high expectations in me and made me work hard.

The first day of school was so exciting! We had an assembly and the principal talked about school matters and introduced the new exchange students as well. Besides me there were four other exchange students from Brazil, Serbia, Thailand and Germany.
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