Holland Klassenfahrt

Seeing as I got back from my class a little over a week ago, I figured it would be nice to inform you as to what went down while in Holland...

This trip was absolutely an amazing trip!! It was totally relaxing, but at the same time we got the chance to help out with sailing and stuff. We actually spent the week on a boat called "Manna", and we started our journey in a little city called, Lemmer, which is on the IJsselmeer. Then we made our way up north and even managed to spend on night on the North see. Every night we spent in a different harbor. Some locations were better than others, but in general they were just littles villiages. So unfortunately I don't really remember the names of them.

But this trip in general was just a great opportunity. I really got to know the people in my class much better, and that makes in much harder to leave. I don't necessarely feel american when I am with them, I just sort of feel like I fit in. They have explained to me so many things that have just made me feel welcome and comfortable to be with them. I really am going to miss them!

Aside from that, my host sister is back again, and her boyfriend from Australia too. We also celebrated my host sisters confirmation on Sunday, so that was really cool to see the differences from an American and a German confirmation. Yesterday I have my last official day of German school because next week I'm going to Poland with my school, and there we are going to Auschwitz and Krakau....time is flying!! Only 16 more days!

Last Month...

Well I apoligize for harldy posting at all in the last month, but I have actually been quite busy, so onwards with whats been up...

Well I still have hardly been in school due to so many different holidays and other cancelations, one of the days we didn't have school we celebrated one of my friends last nights in Germany, because he is also doing an exchange to Chile...that was one of the funnest nights!! I have also been going to the beach quite a bit with my friends, and then just chilling at their houses and what not. I personally feel as if I am fully immersed in the German lifestyle!! I know that this is a feeling that you're supposed to get on exchange, but it only makes leaving a lot harder!!

Also, on this past weekend we had our final Rotary conference. It was in this random city called Rheinsberg, and it was only a one nighter. We just grilled, and swam and just hung out for the last night together. It was a really fun night too, to say the least!! Then the next day, we visited once again another castle, which was probably the worst one that we've ever seen before, and afterwards we went and sang the people in our district, which supprisingly went quite well. I am going to try and post the video, but it was during this song that everyone started crying...but I suprisingly just didn't have it in me to cry, it kept wanting to come out but I just couldn't...I am really going to miss all of the exchange students, we have been through so much together, and it sucks realizing that I will probably see less than 50 procent of them in my lifetime!! But our year really ended off on a good note!

This past week was also shortened due to Himmelfahrt(Skyride??), something like when just went up to heaven...I don't think this holiday exists in the U.S. But also on this day, all the guys go out and celebrate as well, it's called "Herrentag"(Guy's day) or "Vatertag"(Father's day)...just another reason for Germans to celebrate, and it was alot of fun too!! Then we also had the day off of school yesterday and I met up with some people from my old class and just grilled in somepark over by my old school.

Now today just packing and getting ready for our trip to Holland tomorow!! Five days on a boot sailing through Holland!! I'm actually not too excited, but it should still be cool. I'll make sure to update after I get back!

9 Months

Today marks my 9th month in Germany, and I must say...time sure does fly!!

I honestly don't know where to start in this post seeing as I haven't updated in 3 weeks. After the Easter holidays I had another week of holidays and then school started again. In the break I didn't really do too much, I just met a couple of people, and just sort of hung out. When school began it wasn't really anything special, few teachers acknowledged the fact that I was even gone, and my class mates also treated it as if I was never gone. I kept getting the same comment over and over about how tan I looked, but other than that, there wasn't too much said about my Eurotour or anyones holidays in general. But I think it was for the best that just focused on school and the next couple of months....

After my first week of school my parents took a hiking trip in Saxony somewhere, so they let me have a few friends over and it was very chill, then the next day was Bölscherfest and it was pretty lame with alot of drunk trashy people going around and getting into fights. As funny as it was, it wasn't too much fun. Then the next day I finally met up with the exchange students again, and we played soccer in Mauerpark, which is this really cool park where some parts of the Berlin Wall still remain, but there was a fleemarket or something going on, so it was really crowded!

The 13th class has also began to write their A-level exams, and the 10th grade started taking their MSA tests, and it says if they can move onto the 11th grade or if they stay behind...another thing is if they pass they can also drop out of school all together, but most students don't do that. But because of these tests I have alot of random days where I have no school, which has been really nice, but really confusing too. We generally just meet up and play basketball though!

I don't really think anything else exciting has occured. In this next month I have my last Rotary conference, then I travel to Holland with my class and then a poland trip with my class as well. And in between all of that my sisters have confirmation, on is graduating, a possible Düsseldorf trip, and another one with my family as well. These next 47 days will keep me busy!! I look forward to them, but at the same time I am sort of dreading going home...

Endlich....EUROPAREISE!!

So...finally after over a week of procrastinating I am finally going to post a blog over my Eurotour!! Let me just start out by saying that the 2 1/2 weeks I spent on Eurotour were probably the best 2 1/2 weeks of my life, and it truely was a trip of a lifetime...well, with that being said, onwards we go...

Day 1 Berlin-Dresden

We met up in Berlin Ostbahnhof(East station) at 10 and headed off to Dresden, Germany. When we got there we were given a tour in English, by some guy that seemed to make a rant against America every 5 seconds. After this, we went back to our Mexican styled hotel, ate, and then headed out to discover Dresden for the night.

Day 2 Dresden-Prague
After getting up we did one last thing in Dresden and that was seeing this computer modified Dresden from the 1700's, I don't know how to describe it other than saying that it was pretty legit. After that we drove to Prauge in the Czech Republic, and we were in what appeared to be the sketchy part of Pragug. We were actually in a 4 star hotel, but to the rest of the worlds standards it would be mabye a 2 star hotel. After room assignments and eating some awful food, we went into the legit parts of Prague, which was also pretty legit! Also something interessting about Prague is that people either know German and English....or nothing!! We couldn't even ask the police how to get back...

Day 3 Prague

Before we did our city tours, we were greeted with the news that one of our exchange students had spent the night in the hospital. Fortunately they were back before we got up, and they were going to be able to make it through Eurotour, but it was just a little bit of a shock seeing as it was only the 2nd night. Aside from that we did a city tour by foot, English and German like always, and hardly anyone was in the English group so all the English native speakers had to join...it became quite the irritating pattern. After the tour we ran into another German Eurotour group and so we went shopping with them and drank a couple legit Czech beers with them too. Then we ate disgusting Czech food again, watch a Black Light Theatre group perform, and roamed around Prague that night again. O, and I also made the Prague Drinking Team...that's just an inside joke with literally no referrence to alcohol at all...so please don't be concerned!

Day 4 Prague-Vienna
The bus ride took up most of the day,and it sucked because I was sick...we did stop at some little Medival-Themed amusment park but there was literally no where to eat, other than sit down resturants, or you could buy from a French Fry machine...so needless to say we went hungry. But it was all worth it because when we go to Vienna we had the best schnitzel ever, as well as one the most entertaining dinners ever. Afterwards, we sort of just walked around the city and chilled.

Day 5 Vienna
We had another city tour today, but this time it was a bus and walking tour and finally only in Germany!! I loved the ladies accent by the way too, it was not so evil sounding like the Berlin accent...now I can't stand my evil Berlin-German accent or my Nasily American-English accent. But Vienna was just an amazing city in general, the accent was just a plus. We got to eat legit Apple Struddel too! Well only I did because I got the last with out realizing...anyways, after this we had freetime and we went shopping like usual. Then we headed back, changed into nice clothing and headed to a classical concert, which was suprisingly good. I personally think I would move back to Vienna in a heart beat if I could...


Day 6 Vienna-Venice
Once again another long driving day. We arrived in a city outside of Venice just in time to take a quick look at the beach, then go back and eat like Italians. After eating, we all changed and the temparture had gone down quite a bit, but we still when swimming. Then we played some soccer and just chilled on the beach...

Day 7 Venice
We got up relatively early to catch a boat that would take us into the city of Vennice. We made it there on time and the boat ride just made me feel sick. After about a half hour we arrived and I must say, Venice is absolutely beautiful! It is clean and there's not waiting for bikes and cars. Only boats and people there. We were immideately given freetime and we roamed, ate ice cream, ate pizza, ate ice cream again, and then 4 hours later we met the group and took boat taxis to the opposite side of the city and we walked back from there with this real cool tourguide lady. She did it in German, and she kept calling us her kids. She also had us stop at this once place to buy the worlds best ice cream...it was literally the best. After the tour we headed back on the boat, when we got to the hotel we had schnitzel again and then headed back to the beach for probably the funnest night on Eurotour!! Except for the fact that my camera received sand damage, and made a personal choice never to open up again...


Day 8 Venice-Rome
It was another really long driving day today. We arrived in Rome, and today we were only allowed to take our backpacks with because we had to travel with the Subway instead of going with bus. We actually got off one stop to late, so we got stuck walking 30 minutes thru the dangerous streets of Rome. We walked past the Vatican, and 5 minutes later we arrived at our hotel. Then we had really good Italian food again, and afterwards headed out and saw the Vatican at night...which was suprisingly open, and it was amazing!


Day 9 Rome
We did another tour today, and it was in German! It really sucked not having a camera to take picutres, but I think I managed to steal enough from people anyways. After the tour we had pizza and wine, and then we headed to the Colleseum which was suprisingly dissapointing. Rome was actually a small city, and we had really nothing left to see and a day left, so we literally went back and slept because we couldn't take the sleep deprivation anymore. It was suprisingly a somewhat lame day.

Day 10 Rome-The Vatican City

On this day we literally got to go see the Pope! We had to wake up at about 6 and then we had like 30 minutes to eat and get ready. Everyone was late except for a few people, so she just let us go early. We ended up waiting for 2 hours, and of course the pope came in the Pope-mobile, which was very cool...then he took a seat, and from that point on, the ceremony just got extremely boring. He read really long texts in 7 different languages, which was quite impressive, except his English accent was bad, and I understood his German better...they also forgot to mention our names, even though they were supposed to.

After the ceremony we went and viewed the Vatican property...we went inside of the Basilica, which was the coolest church that I've been in, and I've seen many since coming to Germany. Once we were done looking around in there, we headed out to grab a little more Pizza and ice cream, and later headed back to the hotel to eat and head out for our night ride to Innsbruck...

Day 11 Innsbruck

We arrived early in Innsbruck, then just went straight to our hotel, and afterwards headed to the Swarovski Crystal World. It was just some interesting factory, where everything was made out of Crystals and was just sort of strange. After this we headed into the city for some freetime, and Innsbruck turned out to be a really amazing city. It is located right on the Alps, and it was just beautiful, and very authentic Austrian. Later that night we tried to explore the night life of Innsbruck, but that was sort of a failed attempt...

Day 12 Innsbruck-Nesselwang

Today was one of those really relaxed days that we had all been waiting for. We drove about 2 hours and crossed over from Austria to Germany finally, and then we visited a castel called the Linderhof Castel, and it was extremely tiny, but everything was convered in Gold! Unfortunately I was stuck in the English group again...but I was sort of feeling English by that point anyways...afterwards we headed to our hotel, and we were the only people there, and then we got passes to go to this big swimming place, where I lost my key, so there was something else I had to pay for!

Day 13 Nesselwang-Schloss Neuschwanstein
Once again, today was a very relaxed day. We got to see the Neuschwastein Castle, which is meant to be the Fairy tale castle...it is what disney uses as its basis for the castel at disney world. This was all the we did for the day, but the castel was very interessting and where it was located was just astounding. After visiting the castel we went to a ski resort and road up to the top to just chill in the snow and eat. Then we went back down and we all got to go riding on these slide things, I don't know how to explain it, but it was alot of fun! We actually did end up staying in the same hotel that night, so we headed back to the swim place again, except for this time some of us hit up the Sauna, which was one of the most relaxing things of my life, and if my parents do read this, I did take my pants off...

Day 14 Munich

Well we got to visit the famous city of Munich today. To start out we go a tour of the Olympic region of the city, and then a little bit longer tour from the bus of the rest of the city. Munich is suprisingly a really cool city. After finishing our tour, and visiting the hostel, we headed to the main part of Munich. There we had free time and of course everyone went to the main Brewery of Munich, including our Rotarians. Then we headed over to the Hard Rock Café, and we ate legit American cheesburgers and ice cream, then once again we headed to another Brewery to try Augestien Beer because our tour guide said it was the best beer in the world...it was only alright. I really wish we could've had more time in Munich, it was too much of an amazing city for so little time...
I also ran into Hunter too that night at the Hostel...he was my really good friend from my district back in the U.S., and we live in Neighbouring towns in the U.S. So it was sort of strange running into him in Munich as he was doing his Eurotour with his French District. I wish we could've gotten a better picture though...

Day 15 Regensburg

We headed to Regensburg today, which is also a Bavarian city, with only about 100,000 residents, but at one point it was actually the 2nd largest city in Germany. We made a quick stop first at this one thing called the Vahalla, and it was just a bunch of busts of old German people, and other Europeans. But Regensburg was a very nice authenic Bavarian town, that was hardly destroyed in the war, unlike most German cities. We did once again a city tour, and once again in English. The guy was very funny, but very creepy at the same time. We ran into some famous Australian chef, I did go up and meet him, but all the Austrlians were freaking out about it. So after the tour was done, we went back to eat sauerkraut and sausages from the place that he was filming his show, which was unfortunately already over. Then we met up with the group, had dinner, and then we all finally hung out together for the night, which was one of the first times since Venice. It was a great night chilling at the water...

Day 16 Regensburg-Berlin

We arrived in Berlin somewhat late this day, and the only thing planned was dinner. So of course we went and bought döner, and you don't even know how amazing döner tastes after not have eaten it for 2 weeks. I had enough of it though, that I couldn't eat the Dinner provided at the hostel, then we headed out again and chilled on the bank of the spree for the night...

Day 17 Berlin

We expected that this day would be extremely boring seeing as a good 2/5 of us live in Berlin or at least close enough that they're there once a month. But it actually wasn't at all. It was refreshing being back in a well known enviornment, plus there was a boat tour of the city planned for us, which was something the most of us had never done before, and probably never were going to...but it was still interessting. Then once again we didn't have anything planned for the rest of the day except for dinner, so we took a quick group photo in front of Brandenburger tor, then some people when to the Jewish Mueseum and the others had freetime. So went to Zoologischer Garten and got Döner...what else. Then we walked through Tiergarten, and found a good place and just slept.

After our nap, we walked back to the Hostel and there we met everyone for dinner. It was some place with a stage, and coaches, and it was just sort of chill. When we arrived, all the rotarians were there from our past meetings, including our head guy who didn't come with. We had to perform a song for him, that we had been learning, and he pretty much just bashed us, but we've never really gotten along with him, so it didn't really affect anyone, plus we already knew that it sucked...but after we got done arguing with him, people started breaking out in random singing, and it wasn't really too sad, but more just fun. After we stopped sing around 10, Kerstin told us the plan for the next day, and then it was just sort of over...but we all talked and we wanted to spend our last night together, so we met up infront of Reichstag(on Hitler's Birthday??), then we headed over to a little open area by the Spree and just chilled and had fun together for the last time! That's where the tears began, but it was an unforgetable night...

Day 18(The last) Berlin

We all rolled out of bed at about 8, and ate breakfast together for the last time. Then we walked to Hauptbahnhof as a group, where we watched people go one by one. Kerstin made the announcement that anyone who attended Eurotour was invited to our last conference at the end of May, which made the mood alot better...so leaving wasn't necessarely so hard, and we went home earlier than expected to just sleep!! When I got back only my host sister was there, and I just went back to bed, and rolled out at like 5 to eat dinner and meet up with friends who came by about 8...even though I missed my friends, I just wanted to sleep! But in all honesty that was the greatest feeling in the world, that I had German friends that card enough about me to show up and make sure that I was doing good...

Like I said, those were the best 2 1/2 weeks of my life, and I don't think that I'll ever quite get the opportunity like it again...that is of course until Eurotour Reunion!!

Frohe Ostern!

I am assuming this isn't the post that you guys were expecting, seeing as I returned from Eurotour 5 days ago now, and easter was only 2 days ago, but I haven't had quite enough time to right this big exciting post...so I'll try to get to that tomorrow. All I can say is that Eurotour was amazing, and I will try my hardest to finish that post...aside from that Easter was also amazing!! It started out with us getting up at 5:30 in the morning, then going to some christmas tree burning thing put on by the church, followed by a church service, which is even more boring in German. After that my host dad was incharge of a little group walk through the forrest and we ended up at the kindergarten, where my host mom actually works, for breakfast...which was very good, except for the fact that it was nothing like the American brunch I was used to, and the fact that they kept running out of coffee...that doesn't go well with Germans. When we were done with breakfast, we went back home and had a little siesta!

The host grandparents came over at 4 and we had German cake and other sweets. Then we had to leave the house so that the easter bunny could come and hide all the chocolate. We just went out front and played ping-pong with a couple good friends, until everything was ready, then we had to search for our presents, which were suprisingly were hidden quiet well. I got a basket from my host family, chocolates from one of my Grandmas, and then an ornament with chocolate inside from my other grandma....needless to say, a little bit too much chocolate!!

We ended up grilling for our easter dinner, and I finally got some legit steak and fish! It was one of the better easter dinners, seeing as we generally only eat Easter brunch in America, and not so often dinner. So all in all it was a pretty good Easter!!

Short little update....

I am just getting back from the airport after me and my host dad dropped off my mom and sister. They came for about 4 days and we just explored Berlin and hung out. There really isn't too much to say other than that because I'm really not in the mood to write but I won't have anytime for a few weeks because I leave tomorrow for Eurotour! I'm suprisingly not freaking out and jumping out of my seat, I'm just tired and getting ready. I don't have school for 2 weeks, and I already feel sort of sad. Like I've said before, I feel better around my school friends than exchange students now, but I know that'll change after spending 18 days with them. Well, that's it for now, and I'll be updating on facebook and probably post another post in about 3 weeks!

The Seventh Month Mark....

This is a little late, but as of last Friday I have officially been in Germany for seven months....seven months away from Marysville, seven months away from Americans, seven months away from English, and mostly seven months away from my family. But I have made it! I have made it this far without regrets, and there is only about 3 months left, and I am still not looking forward to go....

Aside from my opening note, it has been the same old same old. I actually had no idea what to post in the last couple of weeks, so I'm just going to do a little more of an update. I have only hung out with my German friends in the past couple of weeks. I only met up with the exchange students once, and that was to meet Adrian's mom who came to visit. I think we are all just releasing that we don't have to rely on eachother like before. We all have friends now, we all have a very good understanding of the language, and we're all just having fun and realizing that the point isn't to be with other exchange students, but to be with Germans and do as the Germans do.

Two weekends ago was Jonas' Birthday and we just hung out and stayed over at his place. Then the next day we played basketball and then we to Tobi's(another German Friend) for a little bit. Then I went home relatively early and the next day skyped my mom and aunt to figured out if they were coming to visit or not. My host parents were present as well, so I got to work on my translating skills!!

Then this past weekend we were literally at a party in my little village, Schöneiche. We showed up and there was a fight going on and we just waited until it was done, then went to lock up our bikes and my friend got a glass thrown at her, so it almost broke out again until they pushed us inside and the other people got kicked out. It was a pretty legit party, other than that. It was a birthday party for a few people from my soccer team. My older host sister was there, and her friend and my friends. My old host brother's girlfriend was there too, and it was nice talking to her since we hadn't seen eachother since December. It was probably one of the funnest nights I had here. It's really annoying though how eveyone wants to speak English to me and then I respond in German, and it always goes back and forth and it doesn't help us improve our languages in anyway, but that's just how Germans get at these parties....Then Saturday I went to Sarah with a few friends and we stayed over. Then the next day we played basketball again. I love how I'm finally the best at baskeball!!

But over these past weeks there is a lot going through my head. I don't feel like an exchange student anymore, and I don't feel like Germany is all that foreign. I will admit, the language still feels very foreign, especially because I am not fluent yet, but it still doesn't matter, I feel like I belong. I feel like I understand my friends here, better than most people in the U.S. There has already been moments in which we've almost started crying because we've only known eachother since January, but I already feel close, and I don't feel like I could ever leave my friends. I wish there was a way that I could graduate here, but I know that wouldn't fly with my mom. But I just don't think that leaving will be as easy as I thought, this reverse culture shock already appears to be growing as a spend more time with my German Friends, making leaving harder and harder....

But on a brighter note my mom and sister come next Wednesday for a 4 day visit. I wish it was longer, but I have to go on Eurtour the following monday, so they will be leaving Sunday, then I will be leaving for 18 days! I'm excited for my eurotour, but I'm a little disappointed too. I feel like were getting cheated in the places were going. Of course Prag, Vienna, Venice, Rom, and Munich will be cool, but there are many other places like Zuruck we could've gone to over these little villages that we are going to and also two days in Berlin!!! Half of us live in Berlin, and the other half was already here...this makes not sense!! One of my friend's eurotour will go to 12 different countries, for only 400 euros more...I am still very excited, but this is just how I am feeling....

But now in June, along with going to Holland with my class, we can now go to Auschwitz in Poland!! This may sound weird, but I've actually always wanted to go there, and it should be extremely interesting. June will be an amazing month, and I can already say that!!

I apologize for this very poorly written post, I can't really think so well in English anymore, and I sort of was writting what poped into my head....

I will try to post next Sunday when my mom leaves, and when I'm getting ready for Eurotour!!