Probably every exchange student knows that if you want to get the full american experience and find friends, you have to join extracurricular activities in school. And so did I.
At the beginning I only had my obligatory classes in school. Amongst others, I was in P.E. Dance. I really liked my teacher from the beginning on, she was always pretty kind to me and tried to involve me, but, to be honest: I didn‘t feel really comfortable in that class because of the other student. I don‘t even really know how to describe them, but they just didn‘t have a school appropriate behavior. After a half week my teacher talked to me, because she noticed that I didn‘t feel really good in that class and asked me if I want to come dance with them after school and I didn‘t hesitate one second.
So I went there and watched them. I was impressed from the beginning, they were all nice to me and even tough I wasn‘t even on the team yet, they really made me feel like I belong there.
The next day my teacher send me to the counseling office in the dance class to change my schedule so that I can officially be a team member. I went to my first football game with them that day and the next week I could already perform! (Well actually I don‘t perform during the halftime yet, but at least at the beginning and in the bleachers.)
Joining the team was probably the best decision I made in my exchange year so far and I‘m so happy! There is no such feeling than standing on the football field and dancing while the football players are running through us!
To make things clear, I‘m in the „drill team“. We call us the Emerald Dazzlers and we‘re sort of the dancers of the school. When I tell people in Germany what I do they most of the time think I‘m a Cheerleader, but I‘m not. We perform at Pep Rally‘s, football games, competitions and we have a spring show at the end of the year. During spring break we‘ll drive to California and Disneyland and I‘m already so excited for that!
I hope I could give you a little insight of how I spend my free time now, outside of school.