#day47 (Throwback Day)

Hi everyone,

Thursday was throwback day, so you just had to dressed up with your parents or grandparents's clothes. I wore a blue sweatshirt, a jeans jacket and a pair of big jeans that was my mum's pair of jeans when she was was young. Then, I did a pony tail with a half of my hair on the top of my head and I wore a blue bandana. I looked like one of the character of Grease.

#day46 (Wacky Wednesday)

Hi everyone,
Wednesday was Wacky Wednesday, so you had to be crazy and creative! I wore a white shoe and a pink shoe, a red sock with points and a black sock with dogs on it, yellow shorts on a black pair of legghins and a pink sweatshirt. With my hair, I made two small buns on the top of my head and I tided them with two stripes of paper.

 With Maria and Lily.                                                       

With Vanessa.

At 6 p.m. I went to the powder ruff with Kyla. There were 4 teams: freshmen & sophomore (here were only one freshman), junior, senior and staff. First, the freshmen & sophomore beated the junior, and then the senior beated them and the staff. So that, the senior won the powder ruff!!

#day45 (Character Day)

Hi everyone,

Tuesday was character day and some girls of the swimming team and I decided to dress up like the characters of Desicable Me. I was a minion! I wore shorts, a yellow shirt and I added a sort of suspender made with white and blue paper stripes😁. In addition, my host family had a pair of minion's goggles, so I really looked like a minion!

With Mirza who was dressed up as Agnes.

That day I had swimming morning practise at 5 a.m. where I ate waffles with chocolate, butter, whipped cream and syrup. Then, I went on a field trip with my yearbook class and there were donuts for everyone! In addition, when we went back to school it was lunch time, so we stopped to my favourite pizzeria so far, that is Papa John's Pizza, we ordered pizza and we ate it at school hahah😇

At 4:30 p.m. I had a swimming meet where I swam breastroke (50 and 100) and freestyle (50 and 100). 

With Katie.

#day44 (Black/White Day)

Hi everyone,

Monday was the first day of the spirit week and the dress code was black/white.

Given that I don't have white pants, I decided to wear all black. I wore a black shirt, a black hoodie, black legghins, black socks and a pair of black nike.

In the afternoon, given that I'm in the yearbook class, I went to drama club and to speech club to take  some pictures and then I went swimming.

After swimming, I went with my host dad to a pet shop and they had birthday cookies for dogs. I think that in Italy I have never been to a pet shop, but I don't think they have birthday cookies for dogs😃

SPIRIT WEEK + HOMECOMING

Hi everyone,

my seventh week in the USA was homecoming week!

It is basically the week before homecoming: everyday there's a different dress code that the students have voted for and also a different event.

Homecoming is the Saturday night's dance where everyone is dressed up with fancy clothes. The word 'homecoming' should mean that the people that have graduated in the past years come back to their school, but it's basically a dance for the high school's students.

Before week starts, some students have painted the windows of the entrance of the school and of the gym based on what the homecoming theme is. This year the theme in my high school is Red Carpet🎥👗

This year, my school's dress codes are:

• Monday: Black/White Day
• Tuesday: Character Day
• Wednesday: Wacky Wednesday
• Thursday: Throwback Thursday
• Friday: Purple and Gold Day (which are the school's colors)

The main events are:

• Tuesday: Powder Puff which is a soccer game where random girls from the school play soccer divided in teams by their classes
• Wednesday: Powder Ruff which is a volleyball game where random boys from the school play volleyball divided in teams by their classes
• Friday: Homecoming Assembly in the morning where the dance team performs, the band plays, all the teams and the Homecoming Court walk, and the king and queen are 'crowned'. Football game at 6 p.m.
• Saturday: Dance from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.

I'm super excited!!!

#week6 (embarassing moment + s'mores)

Hi everyone,

On Monday, my swimming team and I took some pictures for the yearbook and I really hope they are good! Anyway, taking those pictures was really embarassing because the football team, the golf team and the cross country team had to take them, too. So that, we were all outside together waiting for our turn to take pictures, but the embarassing part was that we all had to wear our "sport clothes", so our "sport clothes" were the suits. For this reason, we were basically in our suits and barefoot in the middle of dresses pleople😂

On Tuesday, I should have had morning swimming practise, but I didn't hear the alarm clock, so I didn't wake up and neither did my host parents. For this reason, I woke up at 6:20 a.m. as every day and I couldn't understand what day was. Then I figured everything out and my host dad asked me 'You didn't wake up this morning right? Because I didn't wake up, so don't tell me that you woke up, but I didn't'. I was like 'no, I slept until now, so don't worry'😅

On Wednesday, one of my friend tried to write my last name and this is what he wrote: Kraymanski😂

On Thursday, I woke up at 4:40 a.m. and I went to morning practise. It was the first time that I wasn't late, but I was exhausted! On the other hand, I almost had two entire waffles with chocolate, cream and syrup, so the end of the practise was really yummy!

On Friday, after dinner, I went outside with my host parents and we enjoyed the firepit. It was really cool! And 'firepit' means only one thing s'mores, so we roasted the marshmallows and we put them between two crackers with Nutella. I loved them so much!

On Saturday, I went to school at 10:30 a.m. because some girls of my swimming team had a meet, so I cheered and timed the events. The first events, I was stressed about timing people because it was my first time, then I discovered that I really had just to press a button twice and write the time of the people😅. At 6:30 p.m. Kyla picked me up and we went to Meatheads to have dinner with some other girls. There I ate a delicious cheeseburger with fries: I'm really becoming an American😍

On Sunday morning I made an Italian pie that it's called 'Crostata' and everyone really liked it!

After church, my host family and I met with my host grandparents to spend the day together. We split in two groups and I stayed with my host mum and my host grandmother. We went to Portillo's where we ate a hot dog with fries that was super good! Then we went shopping: I bought a necklace, a pair of earrings and... the shoes for homecoming!! I am so happy that I have everything I need for next Saturday!

#day36 (homecoming dress shopping)

Hi everyone,

on Sunday, after church, I went with my host dad to visit Sara, an Italian exchange student that came here with the same association as me. I didn't know that she was so close to me (here in America and also in Italy). My host dad is her local representative, so he had to check if everything was ok and he asked if I wanted to go with him. After eating amazing burgers at Sara's house, we went all together to Camp, a city near where she lives because I needed to find a homecoming dress and there, there are more shops than in Bloomington (here there aren't shops😢).

There I tried a lot of dresses, and Sara and her host sister were the judges. After many dresses, I didn't know what to choose between a blue dress with 2 holes on the two sides with sparkling silver stripes (it's hard to explain) and a purple tide dress with a horizontal lace striped in the middle. Finally, the moment when I had to choose arrived. I said yes to the blue dress😍. I was extremely happy! I had finally found my homecoming dress and I really like it!

After that, I tried also some pair of heels, but unfortunately I didn't find mine. So that, I paid, I greeted Sara and her host sister, and I went home.

#day35 (swimming meet + pineapple pizza)

Hi everyone,

on Saturday September 15th I had my first real swimming meet.

We left school around 9:30 a.m. to go to the Centennial High School which is an hour far away from where I live. When we arrived the divers started their competition, so we watched them and waited for them to finish. I love watching the divers dive because they were really good! In our team there are only two divers, but only one dived in that meet. She got 5th out of 12 people (I think) and this is really good!

Then, at about 12 p.m. we started to warm up before the meet. Finally, it started! That day I had only to swim the 200 free relay, that it's basically 50 free with other three people (I would be the third one). It is not a lot, but it was my first meet and I have been swimming only for one month, so I was happy. Before it started, I was a bit nervous because I wanted to do well and the best I could. I didn't want to fail! After about 2 hours, it was my turn to go: I got ready and the first person started, the second started, then I started. When I finished, I was proud of myself and happy to be done. My time was 33 seconds and something. Given that I have been swimming only for my month, it was good! In addition, last time that we took our times, mine was 40 seconds, so I really improved!

After the swimming meet, we went back by bus and I arrived home at 6ish p.m. There, my host sister had invited some of their friends to celebrate her birthday. My host parents had bought me pizza with ham and pineapple because I told them that I wanted to try it. So, I ate pizza and Caitlyn's birthday cake. I didn't like the pizza😁: it was too weird for me, but I really liked the cake😋.

#week5 (carb-up + football game)

Hi everyone,

on Monday it was my host sister's birthday, so we had donuts for breakfast! I tried my first cinnamon roll and, even if I thought I would hate it because I'm not a big fan of cinnamon, it was so good! My thoughts about cinnamon are really changing now.

On Tuesday my host family, a friend of Caitlyn and I went to Logan's for dinner to celebrate my host sister's birthday. There I ate delicious bread and filet mignon with baked potato.😋

On Wednesday I was super tired and I had to study 50 flashcards of American Government.

On Thursday I got my Senior sweatshirt and it's so cool! Then I went to my host sister basketball game and after that we ate Chinese food. It was so good and I was so hungry! I hope I didn't scare my host parents with all the food that I ate that night😅

On Friday, given that the day after we would have had a swimming meet, my team and I went to the house of a girl who is in my swimming team after practise. There we all had dinner together. We ate pasta with tomato sauce, meatballs, bread with garlic (which is in the list of the best food that I have tried here), pumpkin bread and cookies😍. Everything was super delicious!! After that, some girls stayed to watch a movie, some girls and I went to the football game of my school. It was away, but still close from where I live. There, there were all of my friends and some girls of the swimming team. I really enjoyed staying with them and cheer. In addition, I took some pictures with another girls for the yearbook. After that, I was super exhausted and the day after I would have had a swimming meet, so I was happy to finally go home and sleep.

With Katie, Bella and Aidan.                                             With Luna.

#day31 (aftre one month)

Hi everyone,
Finally I can say it... I have been for an entire month!
In this month I have met a lot of new people, I started the American high school, I have eaten American fat food, I watched my first football games, I celebrated my 17th birthday, I went to Chicago and Springfield, I joined the swimming team, I took my first tests at school, I went homecoming dress shopping (even if I haven't found one yet), I spent time with my host family, I joined my first surprise party, and I did a thousand of other amazing things.

'How are you doing? Are you happy?' is the questions that everyone usually asks me... Why shouldn't I be happy?! I'm literally realizing my dream: travel, visit new places, know a new culture and meet new people. Obviously, I had some moments where my English didn't really work, so I was asking myself where all the years that I have studied English were.😅
Anyway, I got used to my tiring daily routine, so I'm proud of myself.😂
My routine is basically this one:

• At 5 a.m. I wake up to go to swimming morning practise (only on Tuesday and on Thursday)
• At 7 a..m I go to school which starts at 7:30 a.m.
• Then I have English, American Government, Anatomy, Algebra II (I changed the maths class because honors pre-calculus was too hard), then I have Spanish III, lunch, Spanish III, American History and Journalism (it's basically the yearbook)
• At 2:15 p.m. school finishes and I go to swimming that starts at 2:30 p.m.
• At 5 p.m. swimming finishes
• Then I go home and I do my homework, I have dinner and I take shower (the order changes everyday) or I sometimes go out with my friends
• Finally, I go to bed

Saturdays

• From 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. I have swimming practise
• In the afternoon, I usually go out with my friends or I do something with my host family

Sundays

• I go to church at 11 a.m.
• In the afternoon, I usually go out with my friends or I do something with my host family

Yeah, it's basically everything.

It's already been one month... How is it possible?!

A random picture from this amazing month! 

#day25 (team photos + Steak 'n Shake)

Hi everyone,

on September 5th I took the pictures with all the girls of the swimming team to make a poster to hang in the school.

With Allison and Katie.

 With Rujuta.

After swimming practise, I went with some of my friends to Steak 'n Shake to drink a milkshake. I didn't know what milkshake get because there were so many and I just wanted to try all of them! Finally, I got the S'mores one because they will make it only during fall and it was so good!

#day23 (last day in Chicago)

Hi everyone,

September 3rd was the last day in Chicago.

As soon as we woke up, we went downstairs to have a delicious and big breakfast with whatever you wanted as the day before. I loved everything! You could have pancakes, bacon, eggs, rice, muffins, donuts, bread, cereals, bagels, omelette, and all types of drink you wanted (obviously, I tried everything😅).

At about 11 a.m. we went on a boat where there was a guide that explained to us the buildings standing near the river. It was really interesting!

Trump Tower.

When the tour was done it started raining, so we were really lucky! So that, we went having lunch and eating a super yummy waffle cone.🍦

Mine was with Cookies & Creme and Roasted Almond😍

At about 5 p.m. we took the train and we came back to Bloomington.

#day22 (second day in Chicago)

Hi everyone,
on the second day in Chicago we went on a segway and we saw a lot of breathtaking views. It was so fun!😄

Buckingham Fountain

At 6:30 p.m. we went to Lou Malnati's to finally eat the deep dish! There I met 2 of my 4 host grandparents for my first time and they are so nice! The deep dish was super delicious and I ate 3 slices of it (it's a lot)😍🍕.

After dinner, my host dad and I went on the Centennial Wheel in Navy Pier. From there we could see the skyline of Chicago at night. It was one of the most beautiful, amazing and breathtaking things that I have ever seen!