On Monday the 14th of October, our day started very sadly because we had to say goodbye to our host families. As a farewell, the whole students of the Charles City High school stood up on the walls into the corridor and we went through the middle. That was pretty cute! Then we started our trip to Chicago with one stopover at the Mississippi River where the nature was such beautiful. After that we drove to the second stopover: Dubuque. There we ate lunch and some of us drove with the Fenelon Place Elevator where we had a great view above the city. And then we started the last two hours drive to Chicago where we ended up in the hotel.
On tuesday, october 15th, most of our group went to the Science and Industry museum, the other part of the group visited the Arts institute. After the stay in the museum we met in the Millenium Park, where also "The Bean" is located. Afterwards we went on a boat tour on the lake michigan and the Chicago river. from there we also saw the Navy pier, which we also visited afterwards. The last two hours were at our disposal, which many used as a chance to buy the last souvenirs for friends and family. In the evening we all went out for a last meal together and reviewed the last weeks. On Wednesday the 16th of October was our last day in America and thus the return of our journey. In the morning we went to "Willis Tower" which is the highest building in Chicago. We drove with an elevator to the top of the tower and had a fantastic view where we took a lot of pictures. After that we had to say goodbye to America because we drove to the Chicago O'Hair International Airport and took the flight to Amsterdam. From Amsterdam we flew back to Bremen where our families were already waiting for us. That was the end of our adventure.

Wednesday, 10/9/19: a beautiful and foggy day in South Dakota

My morning started at 8 am.
Everybody ate breakfast on their own, so we weren't able to talk to each other after a too short night.
When we started our trip we needed to change some of our plans because the weather wasn't on our site this day.
We visited the statue of crazy horse and its museum. Because of the foggy weather we just could look at it for a few minutes.

After that, we visited the Mount Rushmore. It was interesting to get to know the history of the four former presidents of the United States.


Then we rode by bas through a Wildpark where we saw a lot of donkeys, bisons and deer. It was cold and windy when we hopped out of the Bus to stroke and feed the donkeys but it was still an unique moment.

At 6 pm we were back at our beautiful lodge. Some girls cooked chicken with curry - that was delicious. Meanwhile the others packed their suitcases and cleanded everything up. So at 8 pm we all were ready to leave our house in beautiful South Dakota. 

Now we're sitting in the bus on our way to the next hotel. Our busdriver Joe organized a DVD for us. - now there are 19 happy students and two teachers in a quiet bus watching "dirty dancing" and then there's me. I'm writing the today's blog. 
          Thank you for an amazing day. :)

Packing our stuff and saying Goodbye

It's Sunday, we all know that we'll already leave for Chicago tomorrow morning. It feels surreal, hadn't we just met our host families? Hadn't we just gotten used to the life here, the school,
hadn't we just met our new friends? Well, they're going to visit us too, we comforted ourselves. On this last day with them, we wanted to do something together, and spend as many happy
hours as possible with them before we had to pack our stuff for Chicago on finally get everything in our bus on Monday morning to leave for Chicago. It felt weird, the last time we left,
it was just for even less than a week and now it should be final. My Sunday morning began in the worst way possible, I overslept. So I texted my friends with whom I had planned to eat out breakfast.
Luckily, they hadn't gone for it yet. So they gave me a ride and we got breakfast pizza from Casey's. What's that you might ask yourself. Iowa is known for loving pizza from the gas station
"Casey's" and a speciality of this gas station is its renowned "breakfast pizza" topped with sauce, eggs, cheese and either bacon or sausages. It sounds strange, but actually tastes delicious.
So after tasting the typical Iowa cuisine, we tried to decide upon what to do, there was just a little problem. The car we wanted to use was broken. So we were more or less stuck at home.
We quickly changed plans and got to the conclusion that a relaxed Netflix day would be a perfect solution. At first it seemed like an impossible task to find a show everybody was willing
to watch. Mostly, because half of the audience was strongly convinced that horror movies would be a perfect fit, at last we settled on "Stranger Things".
Watching the show wasn't such an easy task though, because the house we were in was also inhabited by three very cute but also very active dogs, which couldn't resist jumping on us, running
around, trying to steal our snacks, trying to lick our faces or begging for attention. All in all, we spend a very relaxed but fun time. In the evening we went to the farewell potluck at
Charles City High School, where we got to meet the whole group: St. Ansgar and Charles City for the last time. Remarkable about the buffet was the wide sortiment of typical pumpkin pie on the dessert table.
At least 6 different families had brought some and we all tried it the classical way: with a lot of cream. After the dinner, we took group pictures and said farewell. In the evening we all went home and started packing our luggage, trying to find every last item that might be hidden in the room while thinking about the fun time we had here in our partner city.

Our last Saturday in the US

After many great days in the US, the last two days left with our host family had arrived.
Since we didn’t plan any actions with the GAPP group everybody did something different with their host, enjoying the little time that is left.
The day started with four of us Germans, and our teacher Mr. Bleischwitz waking up way to early for a Saturday to do something really exiting: The local radio station wanted an interview with the Germans to talk about Germany, our school and the GAPP program. So from 8.00 am to 8.50 am we answered questions. We were all very nervous, but the interviewer made us feel as comfertable as possible.
After the nearly one hour long interview and a lot of laughing about our faults we did when answering questions, we went back to our hostfamilys.
I went shopping with my two hosts Emily and Lily. We went to a Mall one hour away from Charles City, but even the drive there was really funny. We sang with the radio and made silly jokes until we finally arrived.
We scoured all the shops, and I can promise you there is a lot of funny and silly stuff in the US.
And, of course, at some point we ended up in the bookshop Barnes and Noble, since both, Emily and I love buying and reading books. And let me tell you, two people very fond of reading, are fun in theorie, but resultet in way more books than we probably needed.
With two heavy bags full of books we went on buying even more.

So this was my last Saturday here in the US together with my hostfamily. I had a lot of fun here and I wish I could stay a little longer, but I can promise that the stress of our arrival was worth it.

Alexandra

Tuesday, october 8th 2019
After our long bus trip yesterday, we woke up in a Motel in Wall, South dakota. After getting ready we went downstairs for breakfast. At 11 am we left the Motel and drove to badlands nationalpark . It took absolut 10 Minutes to get there. While there we stopped at many observatory platforms to enjoy the incredible view. ( while there we also took the following picture ).We drove and walked through the badlands for about 2 hours.
After that we headed to our lodge in the blackhill Nationalpark along the was we stopped in Rapid City at Walmart to buy some food for the next there days.
From there we drove 45 mins to get to our lodge. After arriving in our beautiful lodge in the Woods we unpacked our stuff and begann cooking pasta for supper. It was really fun. Since the day was so busy and exhausting most of us went to bed early.

Thursday, 10.10.2019

The day started with a surprise: we woke up and when we looked through the window everything was covered with snow.

We were able to eat the typical american breakfast in our hotel until 9:30. After this, at 10 o’clock, our bus left towards Sioux Falls, the biggest city of South Dakota. After 4 and a half hours journey and a short stop at a gift shop we finally arrived in our destination: The Empire Mall in Sioux Falls.

There we had free time for about 2 hours to go shopping and to eat something. 

We met in front of the Mall to drive to our hotel, where we discussed what we are going to do next. 

Some of us went to the cinema and watched “Joker“, others stayed in the hotel and just rested or went swimming in the hotel pool.

Everybody stayed awake until 12am because Lina had birthday, we sang “Happy Birthday“ and some had little gifts for her.

All in all, it was a very relaxed day and something different than the days before. 

5. Oktober 2019, CC

Our day began with a typical breakfast: cornflakes and a cup orange juice. We ate at approximately 10 am and then we drove to a collage football game in Ames. The Iowa State University (ISU) played against TCU. It was a very interesting game with smart gameplays. The ISU won 49 to 24 against TCU.
After the game we visited the older sitster from my host, who studies in Ames. We had lunch in a traditional American resturant with the howl family. Later she showed us the Iowa State University which is quite huge and very old. You can get over 100 different educations.
Back in Charles City we met some Americans friends and hang out. We had nice conversations and played some basketball. Finally at 12 pm we went to bead.
All in all it was a exciting and interesting day with unique experience.