I stayed 10 months in Cedar Springs, Michigan and it was an amazing year; full of experience and fun.Living only with my mom here in Germany, I came to a family with a brother, sister, mom and dad. Sometimes they were annoying because you were never alone – always someone around, but I guess that is normal with siblings. Now as I am back it is so boring without them! I got to know so many people through school and also through the orientation camp from into in New York. I was so excited to get there and when we were finally in New York you are so overwhelmed. After all that excitement you had to fly all by your own to your hostfamily – another new experience. I was so glad that I didn’t miss any flights. My hostfamily became a second family to me. They showed me places and let me spent time with friends whenever I wanted. We went to Chicago for a couple days, Detroit and Washington DC – we drove to these places (DC 12 hours). In DC we visited many museums and places. We also went to Arlington where John F. Kennedy is buried. As we wanted to leave I saw some students and teachers from my school in Germany. This coincidence is one of my highlights. Another highlight would be in general all that senior stuff – graduation, the senior all night party after graduation, prom, sports and other things I could enjoy as a senior.Other than that the weather in Michigan is better than here… in my opinion. In summer it’s warm and in winter there’s snow – no rain like here, so just perfect.My local rep was a nice woman. Sometimes when I was around I went into her house. It was always open and there was always someone to visit. Now I still write emails with her, also with some teachers. The schools and the relationships between teachers and students is way different than here. All in all I gotta say it was great over there and everyone who has the ability to go to America should do it :)