After our first week in St. Charles we visited Chicago. We went by train for about one hour. First we went to the German consulate, following an invitation of the consul. The Americans visited the consulate first and realized the consulate wasn’t in his office and then they watched a boring video. During that time we waited in front of the building at the entrance. After they came out, we went to “Billy Goat Tavern”. When we had finished our tasty cheeseburgers, we walked to go on a boat trip which showed us the architecture of Chicago. After the boat tour we visited the Millennium Park and took some nice pictures with the “Bean”. On the way to the Willis Tower, we did some short stops at some souvenir shops. With 442.1 m the Willis Tower is the highest building in Chicago and we took the elevator to the highest floor and walked on the glass floor. After visiting the tower we took the train to St. Charles and our trip ended.
The Scarecrow Fest is an annual event celebrated all over America. I got to experience the 32nd , which was my first and probably my last, Scarecrow Festival in St.Charles, Illinois. It took place in St.Charles’ Lincoln Park and went from October 6th until October 8th. Over 100 hand-made scarecrows were displayed and divided into 6 categories. Mechanical Category, MEGA Scarecrows Category, Clubs – Schools, NEW! Individuals’ Category, Family Category and St.Charles Business Category. You also get the opportunity to make your own scarecrow from donated clothes etc. and to vote for your favorite scarecrow. You can shop at the arts & crafts show, dance to live music, spin on carnival rides, groom a horse or tour live on a 19th century farm. Plus – admission is free, as well as parking, the shuttle bus or the festival trolley. And if you like you can even stay overnight in a hotel near the festival.
On the day of the parade the Germans from North High School were at East High School. Before we went to the parade, we had normal lessons with our host partners until the 6th lesson. After the 6th lesson we met in the main lobby and went to the school buses. We arrived at Walnut Street after a 10 minutes ride. All of us were looking forward to the parade. We walked with the German classes. Armed with German flags and posters we were prepared for the walk. Finally the parade started and we all walked through down town St. Charles where the beautiful window paintings had been painted on Monday 9th. So many people like family, friends or students came to see the parade and were cheering and it was a huge success.
American football is the most popular sport in the United States. There are a lot of forms of the game like professional, college, high school and youth player football. At Saint Charles North High School American football is very famous, too. My exchange partner Rob is a football player. Everyday after school he had training for 3 hours. It depends on the day and situation of the team what they do in training. A typical training starts with a warm up. After that they take a lap around the field. Then they do tackling drills.
But on some days they are going to lift weights in the power room. Every Friday in season there is no training, because they have a game against another school. The whole team meet after the game at school on a Saturday morning to reflect on their performance.
On Tuesday we met at the airport and had a heartbreaking goodbye with all Americans. Then we flew to New York and tried to get to our hostel by bus and subway. We arrived there and started unpacking our baggage. After that we took the subway and went to Times Square so we could see Times Square at night. The next day we left the hostel at 8 a.m. and started our sightseeing tour. First we had a boat trip to Liberty Island. We stood in front of the statue of liberty and took a lot of pictures.
Then we went to Ellis Island and had the opportunity to visit the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. After that we went to the restaurant Sauce & Barrel and ate some Italian meal and then took the train to Times Square where we could buy souvenirs. The last point on our list for that day was the off-Broadway theater show „Stomp“. Jenny F.
On our second day in the Big Apple, our first stop was Central Station. We stood in the big main hall admiring the ceiling while people where running around trying to catch their trains.
After everyone had taken some pictures, we continued and made our way along Fifth Avenue to Central Park. The weather was really nice and inside the park we could take a break from noisy Manhattan and listen to several buskers. We even went on a little rowing tour on the lake.
It was midday then and we were all quite hungry and decided to have lunch in Chinatown. As soon as we got out of the subway station there, you could tell we were in a totally different place. There were lots of food stands, Asian lettering everywhere and…it smelled really bad. Fishes, still alive, were lying around and crabs almost falling onto the street.
We had our lunch and after that we went to Rockefeller Center and used the remaining time to do some last shopping in the U.S. Shortly after, we were ready to go onto the “top of the rock“. Seeing the sun set over beautiful New York City and all the lights slowly coming on, illuminating the streets,was the perfect ending for that fun day.
On the next morning our last day began and we were all sad because we had to leave the USA and New York. But at the same time we all were anticipating to see our families and friends again. We left the hostel to have breakfast in one of the many Brooklyn cafes and afterwards we had a little walk through the colorful borough. The subway took us to the west side of Manhattan where there is High Line, a 1.45-mile-long (2,33 km) elevated linear park, greenway and rail trail.