Week 7 - Homecoming and Written Driver License Test

This week was Homecoming Week in Marshall. There was a lot going on on the campus during the week and of course at the game day. For all of you, who don't know what "Homecoming" is (probably the majority of the readers), Homecoming is just a randomly picked football game in the season, where a lot of PR is being made and the whole week before there are events (mostly to make money :)). On each day of the week there was a specific topic for dressing and some students really followed these guidelines. We should go to class with pajamas, dress up as people in the 90s, super heroes or villains.

On Saturday there was the Homecoming Parade. I participated in the group of the International Student Organization. We all should wear traditional clothes from our countries and I also wore my Lederhose. We all got a pack of candies and threw it to some kids, who stood at the side of the streets. Afterwards, we had a little tailgate with the ISO. A tailgate is just eating something before the football game (we got some pizza, chips and beer), a lot of Americans also have barbecue at their tailgates. The game started at noon and Marshall won with 49:24!

Other activities this week:

On Sunday I played for the ISO-Team in a dodge-ball tournament. Dodge-ball is comparable with the Austrian "Völkerball", with a few extra rules. It was fun, even when we lost every game.

I also made the written driver license test in the local DMV. In the USA you can get your driver license really cheap and fast. I only had to pay 5 bucks to take the written test. The test itself was not very difficult, but I had to study for it because there are some custom regulations for West Virginia such as laws for alcohol, punishments and other variations. So now in about 30 days I can do the driving test and the I will hopefully get my license. I got a pre-drivers license, so now I would be able to practice but I would need a car and someone with a driver license would have to accompany me.

On Thursday we also went to a "Hispanic Night" where they had a lot of good food from South American countries. And the best thing was that I won a tablet - which they gave to a random attendee. Afterwards we also went to Jake's and had a few beer.