The first days in San Diego

New address, new family, new school, new people, a new country and a new culture. I don't think I really realized it yet, even though I've been here for almost three weeks now. But hey, here I am and I'm still excited about everything.

When I decided to spend a whole year of my life in California, I didn't really know what I was going into. I wasn't able to imagine how it would be, how I would feel etc. The only thing I was sure about was that I wanted a year full of experiences and get a look into the American culture - And that is a thing that I know will come true! I've been planning this trip for almost two years and now it suddenly happens

I arrived at August 19th (I've figured out that I travelled for almost 18 hours!) and so much have happened since. I've moved in with my new lovely family, started school and meet a lot of new people!

I spent the first week after my arrival together with my new family. We went to the Zoo, the beach, I experienced my first horse race, celebrated my birthday and meet the other exchange students from CHI (I'm the only and lonely Dane) I did and still do feel really welcome and my family is so open, nice and welcoming and they're so easy to be together with. I feel really comfortable in their company even though I'm still on the "settling in"-level. 

For almost two weeks ago I started at school. I'm in High School as a senior which means that I'm the youngest in class but I don't feel like it matters. I'm entering a different kind of high school so it's without the football team, cheerleaders. In the beginning I felt like I missed the change to experience a "real" American school, but after being at High Tech High International - as my school is called - for two weeks, I totally changed my mind. I really like the place! The teachers are great, the building is comfortable (even though the Californians have a very special relation with their air-conditioning) and the students are so nice and out-going. It's a little weird though, to only have three classes and the same schedule each day. My schedule the first half year is Multimedia (which actually is an art class, and I have it for two hours every day. It feels like a lot of art, but it's a really cool subject and I like it) followed by Government (which back in Denmark used to be my favorite class, and here in the time before the election I couldn't imagine a better class) and the day ends with Calculus (math), which is really, really hard. 

So status quo for the first three weeks of my American life is extremely positive! I like the place, the people and the environment and that's how I'm going to end my first post!

With a lot of love and Californian thoughts,
Marie

(The view from our terrace - Downtown San Diego in the background)