Carriere, Mississippi

Hi everyone,

It has been a while since i posted something. the reason for that is that i have had quite irregular week. i have left my first hostfamily for several reasons that i will not discuss here. before i went to another emergencyfamily last week called the malone family i stayed at a camping for one weekend and i am very grateful that i was able to stay with both families. while i was there i went to elvis' birthplace. i didn't knew he was from that erea untill i saw a street named after him. after a week or so they found me a new hostfamily in carriere mississippi. next to changing host family i changed schools as well because carriere is about 5 hours south from hamilton, the place i stayed initially. it's about an hour away from new orleans and an hour from the beach. the school i go to now is called pearl river central, which is referred to as prc. the school is quite a bit bigger, they even have a soccerteam that i could join. the family i am staying with is called the duracher family, which consists of the father(aaron), the mother(katie), a son(aaron) and a daughter(zoe). they are a great family and i feel like i am in a much better place now. i am ready to take on the rest of the year. :)

i hope you all are doing great,
Thomas

Mississippi

hello everyone,

i am in mississippi for about a week now and i have to say that i really have to get used to the way the things go around here. i found out that the place where i'm living isn't even a town, but a community, which basically means that everything is very small and there is barely anything to do. the way the schools works is also completely different: you have three classes a day, 1.5 hour each, and you have those three classes for one semester. and when school is finished you stay at school for footballpractice or any other activity you participate in. football is a great sport sport, but for a beginner are the rules pretty complicated. next to that the training is quite heavy (1 hour of conditioning and one hour of weightlifting in the burning heat of 35 degrees) for someone who is used to being a goalie... maybe it is fun to know that the legend of the yellow school bus is true: i have to use them every day to go to another schoolbuilding. and last but not least i have to mention that my hostbrother jorge finally arrived. he should have been here two days earlier, but he didn't had the necessary paperwork to leave his country ecuador. that's it for now..

greetz from mississippi,
thomas

New York

Hello everyone,

I have spent the last four days in New Rochelle as a preperation for my stay in the USA. I've had an amazing time and met even more amazing people. New Rochelle is nearby New York, which we visited twice. We have spent the first day around the rockefeller center, go to the top of the rock if you can, the view is amazing. A boattrip on the hudson is also recommendable: if you pick the right time you'll see New York by night as well as by day. The second day we went to SOHO, a more affordable area i you want to do some shopping, but not really special in my opinion. And I have some advice for you: allways bring some paper napkins with you or anything in case you're nose suddently starts bleeding hahahah.
I arrived in Mississippi yesterday and i'll let you know more about that later on.
If you have any questions or comments just let me know.

see ya later,
Thomas

Welcome!

Hello,

My name is Thomas Gerritsma, I am seventeen years old and I'm from the Netherlands. last year I finished high school in the Netherlands and  next year I will go to Mississippi to join the local high school during my gap year. On this page you can follow my adventure in the USA. I will try to post something every week, I hope you enjoy my blog!