November 2014 – Mathias goes to the USA

Hey guys,

I hope you all doing good and have also a great pre christmas time as we have. I m very glad that some of you consistently comment my posts and stay in contact with me. 🙂 I am always very happy to hear some news from my home, family and friends and getting updated.

At the beginning of November two friends of mine (Felix & Kevin; also participants of CBYX), living normally up in Chicago, came down to Olney and stayed one night with my hostfamily. On the next day one other friend of us (Lena; also participant), came as well and we four drove together to Nashville, TN which is only a four hours drive. Nashville, TN is known as town for country music and live bands. In Nashville´s downtown we met seven other CBYX´ler and we all went clubbing togehter which was a lot of fun. Such get-to-gether from PPP´ler from different cities is always fun. Saturday during the day we all drove to Lynchburg, TN where the well known Jack Daniels distellerie is placed.

In the middle of November and exactly to the right time, as it started be getting colder and snowing in the south of Illinois, my hostfamily, Clarisse and me we left Olney to the south to Fort Myers, FL. After a 16 hours drive with changing up drivers we finally reached the paradise of US. I would mention it is the place to be during winter season. We were able to stay at a friends house of Geneva just one block far away the beach. (Golf of Mexico) Most of the time as you probably can imagine we were at the beach, swimming, playing soccer and football or taking a nap. Average temperature were 80 degrees Fahrenheit which means approximately 30 degrees Celcius. We also had two cloudy days where we played board games or went to the Thomas Edison and Henry Ford museum. On Sunday we four kids drove to Miami, FL which is on the other side of Florida and had also a chance to swim in the Atlantic ocean. In the evening we went to a NBA game between the Miami Heats and Milwaukee Bucks, my 2nd NBA game. 🙂

I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving ! Enjoy being together with your family and friends.

Best,
Matt

: Nashville, TN

: Jack Daniels Distellerie

: Jack Daniels

: Nightlife Nashville

: 11 CBYX´ler

: Jack Daniely Distellerie

: Jack Daniels Distellerie

: me, Felix & Kevin

: Jack Daniels Distellerie with 11 CBYX´ler

: Fort Myers, FL

: Tegernseer beer at Golf of Mexico beach

: Fort Myers, FL

: Golf of Mexico

: Miami, FL

: me, Dylan, Clarisse & Levi in Miami

: me, Dylan & Levi at Miami beach

: Miami beach, Atlantic ocean

: American Airline Arena, Miami Heat

: Miami Heat

: piece of German wall

: Geneva´s friends house at the beach

: relaxing at the beach

: happiness

: happiness

: Thomas Edison & Henry Ford museum

: Thomas Edison & Henry Ford museum

: Pelican is watching me

: view from house at Golf of Mexico

Hi 2gether,

At first I want to inform you that I had a medical issue over the last 1 1/2 months. But the good news are that it is over now. The summary is that I had a swollen lymph node under my left armpit and the first step taking antibiotics did not help. The second step then was to make a CT (computed tomography) scan and also a analysis of my blood but both did not help to figure out what it is as well. Finally my doctor suggested to extract the whole lymph node (what matched with my opinion) during a surgery and to send it in for a study. The results came back last week and the pretty good news are that I do not have cancer. Instead it was an infected oil gland which could be causes through several things so now I still take special antibiotics for that issue. Do not worry about me please I m doing good! 🙂

Two weeks ago we were taking our family pictures for the christmas cards. Yes this was a really big thing for my hostmom 🙂 But it was worth it! We got pretty beautiful pictures with the whole family. By the way everybody who comments this post will get a personal written christmas card from me 😉

Another funny story is that the soccer season is over now and last week we had our semifinal versus one team against which we had lost all three regular season games. But in this game the luck was on our side and we beat them unexpected 1:0, so we got another game what was called championship! It was on the next day and we lost but it did not matter because the kids were very happy and proud of theirselves. Thats what counts only. And who had thought that before that the German guy will win his first soccer trophy and medal in the unknown soccer country US. Haha 🙂 For me the happy end was that my headcoach asked me during cooking German food (Schnitzel with Spätzle) if i would like to help him coaching a kids basketball team as well. Of course I want! :), so soccer is over and basketball starts. 🙂 I love it.

As you probably all know last weekend was halloween and everybody was going crazy here. Haha 🙂 We organized a haunted house with the student senate through the wood behind our college, this was a lot of fun. 🙂 Trick and treat was also a pretty big thing here in town especially in our street which is known as get-together for kids to get candies.

Finally I got my Illinois driver´s license today! 🙂

Best,
Matt