Hi! This is Ksenia :) Sorry for not writing posts for so long. Now I am on my way to improve this situation! In my first post I will describe my feelings and oppinion about this amazing year in general in order to provide the whole picture of my thoughts so far.

I've been in America already for 3.5 months and I feel that now, after completing full adaptation, I have enough experience to wright about this country from the foreign student perspective.

During special "Pre-Departue Orientation" ( simply "PDO" ) we were told about typical stages of mood of an exchange student during the whole year. According to their diagram, right now I should feel a little bit exhausted after all the new things I've seen and been through. Excitement was planned for the fist two months, now I must feel tired. November is the time of  homesickness and lack of energy, as people say. Well… good news, I feel nothing like that. My staying in Des Moines is amazing, so far :) Here I have a chance to try so many incredible things and activities so I literally have no time for worrying, sadness and depressions! Tyler and Rebecca said once, that here is always something going on and you are just lazy if you can't find stuff to do. Couple of weeks were enough for me to make sure that they're right. With their help I get to go through a ton of great things: I tried a lot of new food, had a fabulous trip to New York, seen a Live History Farms with it's fantastic vintage spirit, been on a Renaissance Festival and in Haunted House, explored the world of art in local Art Center (in which I fell in love from the first sight, by the way), watched some great TV shows and played fascinating games! And that is not even the end of the list! I also joined the crew of Community Playhouse as a volunteer. That keeps me busy every tuesday, thursday and friday. We are working on a costumes for "Wizard of Oz" in steam-punk style (steam-punk is something like victorian sci-fi). That gives us a perfect opportunity to involve our fantasy and imagination which provides a big fun :]   

Moreover, right now I definitely can tell that one of the best experiences for me were two adorable creatures that live with us - Caz and Kiko. I've never spend so much time with any pets before and it is just unbelievable how fast this special affection can appear. Once I skipped a walk with them and realized that I miss it and that is crazy, I haven't seen them only for couple of hours! I can say without a doubt that this guys is a significant part of a family and always will be.