My visit in Utah

Visiting Utah was a lot of fun and one of the best times of my stay in the United States. In the beginning, visiting Moritz, who lived 3000 miles away from SC was not even an idea in my head. My first host family was telling me about things they wanted to do with me during that time, but I already knew that they would never do it with me.

Then, everything changed. It was January and I had been living with my new, awesome host family for 4 months now, spending a great time there. We were talking about spring break and what we would do, but they said they had to work during that time, so why shouldn't I go to Utah and visit Moritz and his family there? Of course i thought that this was an awesome idea so I called my parents in Germany and told them about it. They also thought that this was a great idea.

I then spoke to Moritz and (sorry:S) Dixie and they said it would be ok as well, but there was also a problem, and it was a big one. I went to my coordinator of Aspect, asked her if Aspect would have any problems or concerns regarding this trip, she instantly denied and said that trips like that have been done by many other exchange students they've hosted before, and there has never been an issue. So my hostmom booked the flight for me, I would give her the money later. The flight was booked and I turned the Travel Request in to Aspect and the unbelievable happened. My request was not approved.

I was shocked and terribly mad at my coordina tor, who didn't even think of doing anything to convince Rene Brown, thats Aspect's regional manager for the Eastern United States. She was the one who denied my request for ridiculous reasons. Before me there were other foreign exchange students who wouldn't leave the other host family any more etc. It was incredibly ridiculous.

Somehow, and I don't really know how my host mom and I 

did it, but it was St. Patrick's day, and Rene Brown sent an email to us which confirmed the trip to Utah. Thanks for praying for me Dixie, Rex, Moritz, Riley and Tyson, it obviously worked;) I was more than glad that Rene Brown reconsidered her decision to let me come, even if my parents had to take full responsibility for me.

It was March 14 and my host mom and I went to Walmart to get the rest for my trip, it was so funny. When we came back at about 8 pm, i started to pack my bags and got excited. I think I didn't sleep that nigh

t. Saturday morning we had to get up at 3:30 in order to get to the airport in time. My hostmom took me to the airport in Myrtle Beach, I thin

k it was one of the smallest airports I ever took off from. My first flight was Delta .

.. to Atlanta, Georgia. While I got ready to say goodbye to my host mom, who had to go to Columbia, SC to get their taxes done, I checked my bags if I really had everything for my trip. Then, we hugged, she left the Terminal building and I went through security. Then I had to wait an hour for the flight. It was one of the first flights that took of this morning.

Just in time at 6:15 my airplane, which was a Canadair 500, took of from Myrtle Beach airport with destination Atlanta airport, the night before there had been a tornado in Downtown Atlanta, so I was kind of scared to fly in this aircraft. When we started the approach, bad thunderstorms were shaking the aircraft and the lightning was very bright. It was also very pleasing when the lady beside me and the lady in front of me started to get their sick bags and make disgusting noise. I was so glad when this flight was over and I got off this airplane into the airport.

So there I was, at Atlanta Airport, the world's largest airport

, and I really felt that way. To reach the next flight to Vegas, I literally had to run across the entire airport, as soon as I noticed that I was to slow when I walked, I thought about taking the train which I finally did in order to get to my flight in time. Delta 749 was supposed to take off at 8:30 to Las Vegas, NV, please do not ask me how often I had to ask the Airport staff where the gate was.

Nevermind, I found the gate and got on the airplane.

The Boeing 767-300 was packed with people, I had a seat om the gangw

ay, which was very comfortable

with lots of leg space. Every seat had a personal tv, on which you could flip through certain channels, listen to music, even play with other passengers quiz game, some of them yelled through the airplane because t

hey just missed the last question (the seat numbers were shown on the display). It was a fun flight.

The plane was delayed about 30 minut

es, so I had be fast to get on the p

lane to Salt Lake. When I got off the plane, in the terminal there were of course gambling machines everywhere, so you already had

the feeling you were in Vegas. Fortunately, the plane to SLC was standing right next to the gate from which I came. I talked to Moritz and told him that I was in Las Vegas now and he better gets ready to pick me up from the airport in time.

After a snowy flight to Salt Lake City, on which a whole family cried because they did not get to sit next to their partners and

children, and I had a small talk with a nice lady who also had German ancestors, I arrived in SLC, it was snowy and I was looking back to 80° South Carolina weather. I was just too excited to get to know Moritz and his family,

 since we just talked on the Phone or on Skype before, it was an awesome moment and I didn't care that my bags were stuck in Las Vegas.

We though finally left the airport and I got to see Utah the first time, the first time I actually saw mountains in America, I am talking about real mountains. The first thing we did was going to eat in an awesome restaurant (It was not only us who had this

 idea, it was kind of crowded so we had to wait about half an hour and Tyson, Moritz and I played football in the parking lot (IT BEGAN TO SNOW!!!!)), sorry I forgot the name, I know it's in Moritz's scrap book, there were cliff jumpers that jumped into the water right in front of us, it was very cool, being splashed while eating. I called my mom and had the pleasure to hand the phone to Moritz, it was just funny. 

After that we continued to drive home, and this was the 

first time I got to ride with Moritz and I thought I better checked my seat belt twice. Everything was allright, he did not drive us into a ditch.

I don't quite remember what I did when I first went into the house, I just remember Rex welcoming me by the counter and then I had a little tour through the house, I've had that before though via webcam, so I already knew where the dishes

 and towels and all the important stuff was;) The only thing I was worrying about was my suitcase, which was supposed to be there by this evening, but nothing happened. 

The next morning, Moritz came into my room, woke me up in GERMAN (imagine that) and brought my bag. From then on, my morning was allright and I had a reason to get up, say Good Morning to everybody, get

 into the shower and put on my suit, since we were going to church that morning. After my first "MonaVie", which I am missing until today (please send me some) I was totally awake and ready to go to church.

Church was very interesting, after an hour of singing and praying, writing little notes to each other in the row and looking at Riley who was standing in the front, we went together in little groups and learned about the Church of LDS, different but interesting, especially the Skittles were good! The last half an hour we went into the main front office and discussed some things about events and dinners, I didn't have much to do with that so I was not really knowing what was going on. Anyway we left the church and walked back to the house, it was COLD and I my toes were freezing off in that weather, I don't know how YOU survive in that in the wintertime;)

We started to make dinner which was set for 4 in the afternoon, Janice and her daughter came over to eat, we had salad (Hidden 

Valley Ranch Dressing, I discovered it there and there is still some of it in our German refridgerator!!) Mashed potatoes and I think it was Schnitzel but I am not sure, it was meat though. I am not sure either what we did after, I think we just relaxed and stayed at home and I played piano. At night we were reading in the Book of Mormon and Moritz tried to show off his awesome iPod, on which you could read it as well. After that, we discussed the upcoming week, what we are going to do and important stuff. 

Monday, March 17

The first time I went to a real High School in the United States was yet to come real soon, I got up and was very excited about what w

as coming next. We took the car and rode to school, Dixie dropped Riley and me off that morning since Moritz had to be there early, we met him in front of the main

 office where I had to get my "Day pass". The first hour I think was physics which was quite boring for me because they had to take a test. Moritz's physics teacher though was very nice and tried to speak some German, which didn't work out real well. I don't know what the second period was, I'll find out.

Anyway, after school we went to get Tyson from school and then to see Salt Lake City, one of the most beautiful cities I've seen in the US, compared to NYC or Atlanta it is very clean and it doesn't stink on every corner. We first parked at the State House, Tyson was almost crying already because he was hungry and I gave my camcorder to Moritz to record a little bit. We then went up further and finally into the capitol. We were lucky because they just redid the whole thing, It looked new, fancy and expensive and it was big, bigger than the SC state house. After half an hour and a visit in the gift shop we went to the back where it was not very exciting and then back to the car. We drove down to downtown and parked the car in a parking garage which belonged to I think it was the library of the Church. We walked to see the movie "Joseph Smith" and then the Conference center, the outside of the temple and some other sights. It was a cold day but the sun was shining and that made it bearable to walk around.