Used my amazingly large shower today :). It was awesome. I could see and everything cause theres a light in there. And it doesn't flood within the first five minutes. It doesn't flood at all! lol And theres like 6 different showerheads. Crazy right? So now I'm just chillin. I'm staying home for new years tonight. One of my brothers is in london right now for new years and will be back on sunday. The other brother is throwing a 'small' party of sixty people in some other place that isn't home lol. Apparently the brother that is in london usually has a big party of about 500-1000 people in that same place, but since hes in london the other brother is taking it over this year. Then my host sister is having a 'few' friends over. Meaning 30 friends and it's a party in our garage lol. So I'm just gonna stick around the house. Hang around the garage and talk to people. Should be fun. I'll straighten up my hair and look pretty. Happy new years eve everyone!! A whole lot has changed for me since 2009. It feels like forever ago. Hope you guys had an amazing year and a better next year. I should probably decide on my new years resolution huh? Wish me luck!

All moved in! I have all my clothes unpacked...but the rest can wait lol. This house is sooo nice. They have a sauna.... lol I have the basement pretty much to myself. My room is huge with two couches and a chair and a table and a tv. Plus my bed and desk and night table and cabinets for my clothes. I don't have wifi in my room yet, but will soon I think. And the family is just so nice :). The parents don't speak any english, but thats ok cause I speak enough deutsch to get by and when i dont understand my siblings help cause they do speak it. I get along with them really well. I can sleep in here and the meals arent all prompt and stuff. So I can sleep more and dinner is just kinda when you want cause their hot meal is at lunch. I even get to sleep an extra hour on school days cause I don't have to catch a bus. And they might have a bike that will fit me....hopefully. Its my host sisters old one from when she was smaller..... lol

My massive headache took its time going away. When I layed down last night it was still there and I almost felt a little woozy in my bed. I woke up this morning and my headache was still there, with lots and lots of drainage, and I felt really woozy. Almost dizzy like. Thats never happened to me before, but it seems to be ok right now. Maybe it's nerves. I have everything packed and ready to go. Today so far has gone by pretty slow. I thought it would take alot more time than it has to get everything done. Now I'm just waiting for my hair to dry so I can straighten it up and put on my makeup. Then everything will officially be done.

Big car is back! whew I'm safe :) Wicked was amazing of course. The props and costumes and everything were so so awesome. You could tell a ton of money went into it and the acting and singing and dancing were very very impressive. I wanted to take a picture of the set before the production started, but Rebekka said it wasn't allowed....as everyone around us took pictures...sorry guys. gotta follow the rules lol drinking a cherry coke and hoping it helps make my massive headache go away. Got that from the dumb people behind us that wouldn't stop wooing and talking. They didnt talk during the performance, but they were really annoying beforehand and during break. My headache was so bad from it, I had to fight to keep control of myself from snapping at them. And it was actually a really hard fight too. But my better side won so it's ok.

Alrighty!!! Wicked today :) I'm leaving at 4 for Oberhausen. Lunch is at 1:30. I have a feeling it's gonna be a late night, but I'm not actually sure. I'm super duper excited lol. Guess I gotta finish everything today. Cause the big move is tomorrow at 3 I think. And apparently we only have the little cars....I'm not sure how that's gonna work with my huge suitcases....Not the smartest thinking on my host parent's part. Maybe I'll get lucky and we'll have the big car again by tomorrow?

So I'm kinda getting nervous for this move lol. Didn't think I would, but I guess it's just cause it's something new. I know it's gonna be fine though. Did almost all of my packing today. Now I'm just waiting on some laundry and then finishing touches. After that I went to Borken and went shopping with some of my christmas money. Bought stuff like a straightener, a toothbrush, two pairs of tights, a casual everyday kind of dress, leg warmers, a new purse that matches stuff, and I think that's all. Maybe a couple more small things. I was lucky. There were some sales going on :). Then I came home, had dinner, walked eika, and downloaded my pictures to facebook. Tomorrow is Wicked!!!

Ok went to Hartmut's Mom's house today. Alot more people at this one. At one point they all broke into some sort of song....it was crazy. They were all in perfect harmony and it was completely random, but really really good. Spontaneous singing...lol they sounded literally like a choir it was so good. I ended up playing with the little kids for alot of it today. Much better than just sitting there twittling my thumbs while the adults talk. They grandma even gave me a present :) same thing as all the other older kids. I got a chocolate bar and a red hand towel. Why? I have no idea.

Merry Christmas EVERYONE!!! Today we went to a resaurant for lunch and had a 4 or 5 course meal with the extended family on Sofia's side. The grandparents buy everyone this lunch as their christmas gift. Then afterwards we went to their house and played cards, drank champagne, and then ate some finger food dinner for the rest of the night. Just got home about an hour ago. Tomorrow is something similar I think with the other side of the family. I took more pictures today. There isn't a whole lot, but I'll put what I have up after Christmas is over.

Got my package yesterday! Felt amazing. Total relief. Today is Christmas eve!! So Germans celebrate their Christmas on Christmas eve. Then continue celebrating with the different branches of family for the next few days after...so lots of Christmas as of now!! Everyone opens their presents tonight. I hope my host family likes what I got them! I'm also feeling alot better today. Although I am still kinda sick, less flu like and more cold like now. Just coughing and stuffy nose and such. Today we went out and bought a christmas tree. They put it up the day of, a real one. No fake trees here. And then in an hour or so we are going to the service at the church. Then tonight there will be pictures taken and presents opened :)

No school today! It is officially winter vacation thank goodness. Tomorrow is christmas eve. I'm feeling slighty better today. Not loads, but a little. I keep forgetting to breathe.... :/ it's kinda weird. Don't have any plans for today obviously. But tomorrow everything starts so I hope I'm better by then! Then after the Christmas plans I should start packing since I'm moving families.

stayed home from school today. thought i could do it, but i cant. I'm pretty sure I have the flu.

Still sick. I hate being sick. I went to school today determined to get through the day, but my teacher and Meghan convinced me to at least go to her house and rest. So halfway through the school day I left with her and went to her house. Her host mom gave me advil/ibprofen. And some meds to help with my nose and throat. And some nasal spray to clear me up so I could breathe. That's what happens when you go to a pharmacist's house when you're sick. Then I slept in Meg's bed until she woke me up at 1. Then I ate at her place and drank this hot lemon drink. And after that I went home on a bus. Now I have to go and sing in an hour and a half. Technically I don't have to because I'm sick...but I will. I feel like I should. I hate that I had to leave school already.

Every bus was late today. My teacher held us after school for thirty minutes of extra practice. Which made me miss my bus home. So I had to wait an hour. Then my bus home was 20 minutes late getting there and getting me home. It's really cold. My deutsch teacher moved our lesson thirty minutes later then cancelled it. And to top it all off, I'm pretty sure I'm sick. I feel terrible. It's this cold I know it. My day hasn't been the best to say the least.... I'm sure it will get better...but I'm not feeling so hot right now. Going to the movies with my host family later today. I move families in nine days. I should probably start packing a bit. Tomorrow I have to sing in Raesfeld at night with some people at my school. The cold is not my friend. I'm ready for spring now.

Another day of doing nothing....reading...computer...music...facebook. Maybe I watched a movie? I don't remember. I went sledding though with my host dad and Benni. But I only went twice cause I was really bad and I kept falling off really big and rolling in the snow. Which would have been fine. Except i got snow everywhere and it was super cold and my gloves are fingerless so my fingers actually hurt really bad they were so cold. I talked to Stefan somewhat today though and of course he made me smile and feel good again. Thank God for good friends. They make you feel good when the weather is determined to do the opposite. And I looked up the recipe for pancakes cause I knew you had to be able to do it without pancake mix, but I didn't know how to do it. So I wanna make them for my next host family. And maybe this family on Christmas eve or Christmas or something.

Rest in Peace Kim Brack. You were too young. This wasn't supposed to happen. People love you. You were an AMAZING person. After you moved we didn't talk so much, but just recently we have been talking since I've been in Germany and sometimes you would just brighten up my day. You had an awesome sense of humor and we clicked really well. I was really looking forward to maybe hanging out with you or something when I got back in the states....You are so beautiful...and many people miss you...I wish you had realized that beforehand...

Snowing...more. It's cold....I don't want snow anymore.....Why can't it go back to rain? :/ oh well...so two of my classes were cancelled so I got to come home early and only had English. That's about it for today. No plans or anything.

My hair turned out fine and I got the first payment for tour all payed for. Nothing real interesting today. It's been snowing constantly. We got out of school early because of it. That's about it though. Maybe I'll get lucky and we'll have a snow day tomorrow :D

About to perform one of the most difficult tasks in life...dying my own hair. I've only done it once. But I've had my hair my natural color for a very long time now. These Germans haven't seen me with anything but my natural red. It's time for a change. I'm not sure whether they'll like it or not. We'll see. If not...well it fades quick anyway. The only reason I hesitated in the slightest is because I'm the only girl around with this color of hair. So I've had alot of people tell me never to dye it. And now I'm about to do it....but I used to really like my hair this color. So we'll see how it turns out. Maybe they'll like it better on me...who knows? Maybe they'll beat me up for changing my hair to something so normal. It's possible :P. Gotta go to the bank later and get the first payment for euro tour all sorted out. But once thats done I can relax a bit.

Normal day of school then had a rotary meeting. Meghan was making her end of the year speech :(. It was really sad for me. Really stressful for her. And really confusing and funny for David. Boys...lol Then I caught the bus home and here I am. No other plans for today.

Regular day of school today. Meghan is coming back from Finland late tonight :) So I'm excited to see her again. Time is really flying by.... My deutsch teacher couldn't come today. Sick. :( but she'll be here on Thursday so it's fine.

Didn't do much of anything. Just kinda sat around and read a book. After lunch Hartmut tried to teach me how to play poker....but it's hard to learn it when it would have already taken me a long time to understand in ENGLISH. But to teach me in Deutsch was nearly impossible. Oh well. They told me to ask Stefan to teach me. So I'll do that. After that we went to Sofia's parent's house. And the grandpa had bought us all chocolate :) it was sweet. He's a nice old man.

Well...today I was going to a town outside of Muenster to make cookies with my friends. But David said that we were taking a train at 2....and while I was at the bahnhof 40 minutes early, David wasn't there until 1:40. Which I thought was fine. Until he told me that we had to take a bus to Muenster at 1:30, then a train. Gah! Latins...LOL So we ended up taking a bus to Muenster at 2:30. Which is fine...except that the last bus from Muenster to Borken was at 4:30. And it's an hour ride there. So we called our friends and instead just decided to hang in the city for an hour. At least it's free and we can say we went right? Then the bus ended up getting to Muenster 25 minutes late! So we had 35 minutes in Muenster. Then had to leave again. Once we got into Borken again I just went and had ice cream with one of the girls that was with us. Pato is her name. Then we both caught our buses and we went home. I couldn't believe everything was so closed up and the buses stopped so early on a Saturday. You would think there would be more, not less. Borken was like...deserted. Crazy people. Oh well...at least I was out of the house.

Today I went to school...my schedule should be changing soon, but the teacher doing it is taking forever. After school Stefan came and picked me up and we just went into Borken and walked around. Had some pizza. Then he dropped me off at my house again. That was it. Only Benni is home I think so I don't know about dinner or anything. Guess we'll see.

nothing much more to post today. just a normal school day. Deutsch lesson. I'm getting better at past tense :) And my deutsch teacher compliments my deutsch alot now. so its a good feeling.

Yesterday I wasn't able to post because I didn't get home until 8:30 and quite honestly I forgot by that time. I went to school and then had a rotary meeting. And of course the guy making the speech couldn't stop talking so I missed my bus home. The next bus wasn't for an hour. Then Stefan texted me to tell me that he would be there an hour earlier...so he was arriving at my house 10 minutes after I missed my bus. And I didn't like that cause I had absolutely no makeup on, becasue I had planned on going home before hanging out with him. I knew he wouldn't care....but I would want to put on makeup even if I was hanging out with girl friends. I hate being in public with no makeup on. And it's not like the US where theres a ton of girls putting on their makeup in the school bathroom every morning. Oh well. He just met me in Borken and of course I was right and he didn't care. And eventually I forgot I wasn't wearing any. So then he drove us to the Centro. Which is one of the biggest malls or the biggest mall in Germany. And it's in Oberhausen, so a big city only 30 minutes away by car. So we hung out there for a few hours. Then went outside to the christmas market. Then went back inside and hung out in there for awhile longer. Then we left and he dropped me off at home. Today I accidently got up late, ten minutes before I had to walk out the door...I was ready in time. With out a shower...but whatever it wasn't too bad. But my host mom was pretty upset I missed breakfast. They didnt care until recently if you accidently over slept because thats on you, not them. And if you have school that starts later then you can sleep in and dont have to go to breakfast. But for some reason on monday all of the sudden the rules changed. And I have to be at breakfast every day. And they get mad if I'm not. Like on Monday I found this out because I slept in because I had later school and after school they gave me a talking to. Then today she was upset about it in the morning. I felt really bad about it all day. But I decided the best way to make it better is just to apologize again when I see her. So I when I came home and saw Sofia's car I just took the iniciative and found her right away and apologized thoroughly. Explaining that it was an accident and I wasn't skipping breakfast. Then she was ok. So it's all good now I guess. I cleaned my room and everything so ya. No plans for today.

Nothing exciting to report today. Went to school and it was just a normal Monday. Meghan isn't here because she is in Finland visiting her host sister from Australia. She doesn't get back until Thursday. I miss her already. I hate that she's an oldie and leaves in a little over a month. I'm gonna miss her so so much. My friends here are my family. I hate that we all have to leave each other eventually. And most of us will never see each other again. It's like they filled this hole in my heart that I didn't know was there and as soon as they leave it will leave that hole gaping open. Never to heal properly. And to be reopened everytime you are reminded of them. Because your german friends are amazing and you love them and they will be the best friends you have ever had...but your exchange student friends...there is something completely different there. Something magical that no other person, but those exchange students can reciprocate. Ich liebe meine austausschuleren freunde!!!

Pirates...thats the first thing you think of when you send a package? hahahah and I was fine. no, no straightener. I'm good without my laptop when I'm with my friends. I typically forget about facebook and stuff. Today I got the nutcrackers!!! woo!! So now I have almost completed my christmas gifts....Just a couple more and I'm done! I had an AMAZING weekend. I love my exchange student friends :) they make me so happy. We toured the city...went shopping, went to the zoo, went ice skating....it was awesome. Then I went to the weinacht market with Stefan and Kaleigh. That was fun :) even though it was all slushy...and my shoes and feet were soaked. But I got the stuff I wanted! And had a little adventure trying to figure out a new way home cause it was too cold to stay in Munster for too long. Yay for trains!

Busy day today! Went to school and had a deutsch lesson for an hour and a half directly after. Then right after that I went and got my hair cut. Cheapest hair cut I've ever gotten. Only 20 euro. But it wasn't bad. She just trimmed it up a bit like I wanted. Then came home and ate dinner. Then walked Eika. Then packed for the rotex weekend that starts tomorrow. All one right after the other. It was kinda fun in a way....Even busier tomorrow. Unfortunately I will not be bringing my laptop or anything to this weekend so no new blog posts until late sunday or monday. I'm sorry if you're really torn up about it ;). Thanks for understanding!

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures because I forgot my camera. :( oh well. And no I didn't eat any cheese.....but I had really good hot cocoa! Nothing much to say about today. It is getting down to below zero celcius. It's really cold. And it continually snows. Really really glad I brought my ugg boots...I wouldn't be able to live with out them.

Nothing much to do today. Went to school. Gonna have a deutsch lesson today. Reviewing everything I've learned so far. It's been snowing all day. It's beautiful....but so so cold. Snow is covering everything. And it isn't fun while waiting for the bus to come. But it happens. Maybe we'll have a snow day tomorrow. That would be good :) Oh and thank you Kaykay for your emails of encouragement and love :) I really appreciate them. An email like that can really turn a girl's day around.

Went to Munster today. It was really really cold. Rebekka ran her marathon thing and then we went to the christmas market. I didn't get all of what I needed so I'm going back next weekend. There was this guy that was dressed really funny, and he was cleaning the steps to the city hall with a tooth brush. There was loads of bottle caps on the steps. Hartmut explained that this was because he turned thirty that day. And he isn't married. So he has to clean these steps with a toothbrush and wait for a virgin girl to come and kiss him. Idk but I thought it was hilarious. He was wearing a tutu after all....

Project went fine today. People just kinda came in and out and watched the picture slide show and such. I actually happened to meet my next host family by chance. They walked into the room and after talking for a little bit they put two and two together and everyone got super excited. I'm so so excited for this next family. I think they hugged me about four times. We traded numbers and emails. They were super nice. Apparently, they don't even have to take an exchange student. They just wanted one before their daughter left. So they are taking me in out of the goodness of their hearts and nothing more. :D That's about it for today.

So after eating cheese fondu and skyping with the fam, Stefan came and picked me up and we went to McDonalds and hung out. I had a Mcflurry and he got actual food. It was kinda spontaneous and surprising. He just popped me an email at 6 and said that he would be driving around where I live that day and wanted to know if I wanted to hang out for an hour or two. So we did. It was fun :). Then I got home at like 10. While we were out it started snowing! So I had my first snow in Germany on Thanksgiving and with a friend. It was nice. Then I got on the computer for a few minutes and then went to bed. Today was project day at school so I spent the entire school day on the computer putting together a presentation to promote foreign exchange. Whatever. It was fine. Tomorrow I have to get up at 7 am again though and go back to school to present the actual thing :(. I hope I get to nap!

Thanksgiving today! To my surprise, a few german girls in my grade remembered and they called me over and gave me a huge group hug and told me happy thanksgiving. I was so happy I almost cried. I'm so thankful for so many things, but for now we will settle with my family, my friends (old and new), God being on my side and always there, and this amazing opportunity thats been given to me. I was in the netherlands today on a class trip to a college. I think it would have been alot cooler if it wasn't raining and freezing outside. But it was still fun in it's own way. Skyping my family tonight. :)

I must be out of my mind lately. I totally forgot to blog yesterday. Sorry guys! Last hip hop class today. I'm also planning on calling Naoma today. We need to talk desperately. I had an english exam today. I hope I get a good mark. I wrote...five pages for 3 questions so I hope that is sufficient. And I don't think my grammar was too terrible, but you never know. Today is my three month anniversary of being here. Wow...so much has happened in that time period. It feels like its been so much longer, and yet it still flew by. Crazy. And nothing really happened yesterday. It was my day that I had nothing to do.

lol everything happens at night. Nothing much to report today. Meghan is picking up my book for english today in Bocholt because I couldn't find it in Borken and she was already going. I hate how you have to buy your own school books here. Deutsch lesson at 5:30 today because my deutsch teacher couldn't make it on time....again....At least I didn't have any plans. Some guys in my physics class invited me to hang out with them on friday. Or kinda anyway. I think that's what they were doing. They were like...hey did you know theres this soccer game here this friday. And one was like..ya I'm gonna play. And the other was like....ya so you can cheer for him with me :D lol Then later I made all the girls in my music class get together and take a picture with me. It was cute.

Yesterday was kinda busy so I didn't have time to blog. Yesterday I went to the store and made another house key with my host family and then we went to a little town in the netherlands because they opened up their market thingy. It was cool and I found purple fanta and I bought some dried fruit. The dried fruit here is sooo good. Then we went home and we skyped with my host brother. After that I got ready to go out because me and a few friends made plans to go to Oberhausen that night. So we did and it was awesome! I went with Kacie (Hawaii), Kaleigh (Nevada), David (Chile, but you know him), and Stefan (a really awesome rotex that went to the US). I must have mentioned all these people before, but I figured I would add that so you don't get confused. We had a really good time and I already got an email from Stefan saying that he had a great time and we should definitely hang out again. So ya :D I was so happy to go out. I hate being all cooped up at home.

Sorry. I forgot to blog yesterday. Not sure how. Just a bad day. Harry potter was good. Once again very accurate with the book so it was easy to follow. Thursday wasn't the best day of my life, but it's minor so I'll get over it. Today was good. I thought I was going to the movies tomorrow, but I'm not anymore :(. So...nothing to do this weekend. Again. At least the christmas rotex weekend is coming up. That will be fun.

Meghan and I are no longer living in the same host family for a couple weeks. I'm going to a different family. But they sound awesome so it's all good. Hip hop class today and then harry potter!

Found Dr. Pepper today!!! I was sooo excited. Tasted mostly the same too. Not as different as the Mountain Dew was. Made my speech. I actually got lots of compliments on it. It was the appropriate length and I told them what I needed to. Meghan said it was good. David understood it. Which means everyone else understood it. So that was comforting. Cause he speaks almost no english. Then I went to meg's house to pick out pics to show as a slide show to promote exchange students at school. Then I walked David to the bahnhof to meet some other exchange students and a rotex and ended up staying and hanging out with them. We were gonna go to a museum in borken, but then i dont know....we didnt know where it was or something lol. We didnt end up going. Maybe we just got sidetracked. haha

Went to school today, drank four cups of coffee. Little ones in plastic cups, don't worry. I'm starting to drink coffee alot though. I didn't drink it at all until deutschland tour. I drank coffee every day, numerous times a day. But what can you expect? We were up until at least 1 in the morning every night and had to get up at 6 or 7 every morning. For two weeks straight. You end up needing coffee. Everyone was drinking it. By the end of the day Meg and I decided we wanted to do something. So we went to the movies today. I saw Stichtag. I'm not actually sure what the movie is called in english. Something day. It has Robert Downy Jr. in it and that hairy guy from the hangover. But ya. Saw that in the theater today, in Deutsch. Fun stuff lol. Before that I had a deutsch lesson. But thats it for today. Just got back from the movies. I'll be going back on Wednsday to see harry potter. That should prove to be interesting.

So today was a bit crazy. Decided to get with my friend after the soccer game today. She ended up arriving way way before I thought she would. So I left the soccer game a bit early and walked about 3-5 km in about 10-15 minutes. Adrenaline I guess. When I saw her I was like, I know your one of my best friends cause I just walked all this way really really fast on the spur of the moment for you and I am NOT an athletic person. Oh well. I still was super glad to see her and get to spend some time together. We went and ate pizza and ice cream and just walked around talking. (yes thats right, more walking) I feel terrible though cause the guy I went there to watch play, I didn't even get to see him play cause he accidently injured himself warming up. He was limping really bad. He must have torn or pulled a muscle in his thigh really bad. And I didnt really get to say bye either because I was so stressed about meeting my friend. It didn't help that for some reason the battery on my phone died. It was fully charged when I left. But as soon as I was with my friend the stress was totally gone and everything got way easier. I finally put all my pictures up from the netherlands on facebook! So it's all there. The ball will be put on soon hopefully by Meghan.

Was actually yelled at today for peeling the poisonous skin off my slice of cheese instead of cutting it off with my knife. Seriously? Come on. The skin is peelable! Why on earth would it matter? Thats been really bothering me all day.

Ball yesterday wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was low stress. And there were many guest performances from high up people. There were performances by dancers who were ranked 3rd and 5th in the country and two were ranked in the world. One I think was ranked 42 in the world. The other I couldn't understand. And those were dancer dancers. Like jazz dancing was what most of them did. But there were a few guest groups who did a routine for us that was ball room dancing. That was amazing I have to say. All of it was. Meghan and David and I were dressed perfectly. We didn't stick out at all. There were people dressed much fancier than us and people dressed in jeans and tshirts. So it was fine. I forgot my camera :(. And David forgot batteries for his camera :P. But Meghan had us covered. So there will still be lots of pictures on facebook.

Deutsch lesson. All is going well. Ball tomorrow. I'm going to Meg's after school and getting ready with her. So probably no entry tomorrow. But I'll write about it on Saturday. My Physics class was cancelled again today :(. I should be happy about that, but I'm really not. Maybe it's cause there's people in that class I actually like to talk to. I don't know. Tomorrow I have Religion and English. Bleh. I have friends in both of those classes though so it should be alright. And for the record, the reason I don't like religion class is not because of the subject material, not that I understand what they're saying...., but because the teacher is really creepy. He's a creepy creeper. Says not only me, but all the students, and teachers too. So I'm not alone. You don't want to know why.

Got a dress and shoes today! Good prices. I can't believe I found them. I'll make sure and take pictures the night of. I'll have to borrow some sparkley jewelry from someone cause the dress and shoes arent too dressy. But the heels are pretty high so I'm gonna have loads of fun in those. I was hoping to find some cute, closed toed kitten heels that match my dress, but no such luck. Only high heels. Oh well. Hope I don't fall on my face or brake an ankle like mom used to always say.

I'm so glad I got a planner. My schedule seems to fill up so fast! I have lots to do and it helps to write it all down. Shipping is outrageous btw. It's 35 euro to ship a 5kg object! How crazy is that? Not to mention the humiliation I had to go through to send it. It was so frustrating. And I'm still mad about it so I don't even want to type about my embarrassment. Basically, I have 20 euro to buy a dress and shoes. This will be fun. At least I'm going to a bigger city where I can find stuff for cheap! Nah. Thats no problem. I'll figure it out.

No we're still 7 hours apart. We had it a week before you guys actually. So we were 6 hours apart for a week. I had a really bad nightmare last night :(. About zombies. I'm not sure why. That's never happened to me before. But it was really scary and now I don't really want to go to bed tonight...but I don't have enough cash on me to go crazy on coffee tomorrow if I don't sleep. Goodness. Had a deutsch lesson today. It was good. But I caught on to the concept fairly quick and I kinda wanted to do more. Maybe it was because I studied the lesson before she taught it. I'm gonna start doing that every time. Study everything we learned and then study the next lesson before she comes. Makes it easier and I learn faster. Therefore I am speaking better quicker. Which is what I need. Wednsday I am going dress shopping for the ball on friday. And since I'm dragging Meghan and David with me, Meghan is buying shoes for herself. I might need to do the same...but I dont know yet. I don't want to dance in heels. But maybe theres a compromise? We'll see I guess. When I get a dress of course. For cheap. I found out the email of a boy from Australia who is coming in January when Meghan lives. He'll be going to my school and living with my first host family so I figured I would shoot him an email and give him a heads up that we would be spending a lot of time toghther. And said if he had any questions he could ask me. Hopefully I'll get a reply back soon or he'll add me on facebook.

So today i went to my dance lesson. I also found out that it was my last one. And the only thing left to do is a ball. On friday. To show what we've learned. bleh. But I get to bring Meghan and David haha. My host parents told me that as soon as I mentioned Meghan in conversation at all. It was cool cause I never would have guess I could bring anyone, but apparently I can bring them :D. The other thing...I have to wear a dress....I don't own a dress. So I'm gonna go look for cheap ones. Tomorrow and then if I don't find anything, Wednsday with Meg. That's about it. For dinner we had these cooked apples filled with marzipan and rainsins and cranberrys and oats, all topped with vanilla. It was good. We went to a festival today after the dance lesson. There was a market and music and a guy all dressed up in Medival clothes on a big white horse leading a parade of little children with homemade lanterns. It was interesting. I have no idea what it was for :D

New phone! Well not new...but new to me :D. My phone I was borrowing from my host parents freezes up all the time and has a huge crack on the screen. Last night I finally got fed up with it because it froze when I needed it. I was locked out of my house in the rain because of a miscommunication. That happens sometimes when they speak in German to me. It just comes with the exchange student package. Happens to everyone. But anyway, I was locked out in the rain and my phone froze up and I couldn't use it. I was lucky that my friend Felina was with me and she lives a couple minutes away so I just went back to her house until we got it sorted out. Meaning we went back and started watching Ice Age 1 until my phone unfroze and I called the house phone and Benni had come home and was able to let me in. So Felina reminded me that she had a phone that I could have for the year. Which is awesome because I was gonna have to give the phone I got from my host parents back when I left their house. Then I would have needed to find another one. This phone doesn't freeze, flips, has a camera, and a huge screen. It's not the newest phone out there, but definitely works better than the other one. Thank you Felina! So I just got my "new" phone sorted out. I had to add all my contacts in again manually and delete all her old stuff. Then I made sure it worked ok. All thumbs up! Yay new phone! Today I am going to my host grandmas house because it's her birthday. I might sing her a birthday song in spanish. I think they would enjoy that. I wish I could have gone to Cologne with all of my friends today...but I didn't realize it was a legit thing and that everyone was going until after I already told my host parents I have no plans and said I was coming with them. I don't want to go back on my word and I figure that this is more important in the long run anyway. So no friends for me today. Oh well. My friends Kacie and Meghan didn't go either so I don't feel so bad. I'll go next time. Not tomorrow, but next Sunday, apparently I have to showcase our ball room dancing to my host parents :(. I don't wanna....I think we both aren't looking forward to it. Benni and me. Grrr....I hope its not like...an actual ball. Like where I have to dance with my host parents and stuff. I really really don't want to do that.

At this point...i think I would take the chores lol. Today was a day of mixed feelings. I don't really want to write about it. I went to felina's house. That was good. But everything else was just kinda bleh. Not terrible. just not good. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I'm exhausted for now.

Well the hip hop class was hard, once again. And I'm definitely sore today. But it was good and I'm glad I'm going. I liked this combination better than the other. Today I went to school and the first two classes went as planned, but the last 6 did not. After my first two math periods I found out that my physics class was writing a test so I didn't actually have to be there. Then I wait through those and find out that my last four classes were cancelled because the 12 grade is in Muenster. And none of this was on the board. Oh well. I tried. I took the next bus home and now here I am.

Hip hop class today. And this time I'm wearing the proper apparel so hopefully I wont feel so out of place. It's really hard work, but I'm determined to get through it! For my health, for the sake of staying in shape, and for something to do. LOL Meghan attacked my newly covered planner. Since it was construction paper she wrote me little notes all over it and colored it, so now its all decorated. She said she isn't done though. Just doesn't know what else to add yet. She also left me little notes all in the inside. Put important dates in there too. I'm also pretty sure she wrote a letter in there in the week she leaves for me to have and read. A pretty long one at that. I'm really glad. A friend has never done things like that for me before :D

Nothing much today. Went to rotary. Didn't have to make my speech. I do it in two weeks. David is doing his the same day. But it only has to be five minutes long and in Deutsch because no one understands Spanish and he doesn't speak very good English. Poor boy. At least my speech is completely prepared. I don't have to worry about it now. After that we went to a book store and I purchased an exercise book for my Deutsch. I would like to learn faster and practice. I also got a planner and a book cover protector for my new Deutsch book. Unfortunately the only planner I could find that had 2010-2011 was Hannah Montana. So now I have a Hannah Montana planner. But it works and I covered the outside with paper. I really needed one for any school activities or plans with my friends or parties and etc. Exams. Things like this. Then we caught a bus home. That's pretty much it. Hip hop class tomorrow. Then Deutsch lessons start back up next week.

Don't have much to say today. Went out with friends last night. After the train left we found out that the person we were going out to see and the whole point of going out was ditching us for a different group of kids in a completely different city. So we were on a train to another city with a small group of kids that wasn't going to get bigger like we thought. It was still ok though. I'm really mad at panda for ditching us though. If he had told us where he was going, we could have gone with him there. But no. He told me he was coming with us and then changed at the last minute and didn't call us to tell us. I'm going to chuck a phone at his head next time I see that boy. Oh well. I ended up staying the night at Meg's like I planned. Then today went to mcdonalds and then took the next bus home. It's a holiday so no school today. No school tomorrow either because its a teacher inservice thing. But I have rotary so I have to do that. And we're going to get me a bus schedule tomorrow. I think tomorrow is the day I have to make my ten minute speech about america, but I'm actually not sure. So I'm going to prepare it and bring it, and if I make it then fine and if I don't then cool. That's all I have planned.

Oh yes and I missed talking about what I'm doing today. I'm going to go and meet Meghan in a little over an hour. We're hanging out with some other people back at home. Then I'll go to my dance class since we'll be in town. And hopefully later we'll meet with some other exchange students and hang out. The tickets for movie park were sold out unfortunately. So now we have to get creative with other things we can do. I just hope we still all hang out. A lot of us have been looking forward to this for awhile.

So yesterday I went to the netherlands. To me, it looked pretty much like Germany. But my host family said it was very different. Hmm. We ate at this fairy tale restaurant. I ate a bacon, mushroom, onion, and cheese pancake. It was delicious. Do you guys that know me really well believe that I would eat that? I would never have eaten that at home. Ever. Btw, the pancake wasn't like...a pancake. It was a mix of the german pancakes and a pizza. We walked around in a little town for awhile. Then we went to the north sea. It was beautiful of course. But the water was way too cold to get into and the wind was blowing and it was cold, so not as enjoyable as it could have been. I took lots of pictures the whole day trip, so those will go on facebook soon. We then went to Amsterdam. It was awesome. Although slightly awkward with my host parents. It would have been a lot more fun with exchange students or friends or my lovely older sister and her friends :). I'm definitely going to find a way to go back there before I leave. I didn't get to really explore because we didn't go in anywhere. They just kinda walked around. Then we left. But I did manage to stop and buy myself a winter hat that says Amsterdam on it. And I bought three monsters. Because you can't buy them in Germany. After I bought them my host mom went off on me though about how monster was so much worse than red bull and thats why they dont sell it in germany and she would never let her own children buy those. She went on about it for quite awhile. But come on. I love monster. And I can't get it in my country. Of course I'm going to buy it while i can. And I told them I was going to buy it if I could find it ahead of time. They didn't care until I had already bought them and she looked at the nutrition facts. She kept saying, why would anyone need this? why would anyone need this? When do you go to sleep after drinking this? If someone is tired then they should drink coffee or sleep more, but not drink this. So I'm just not going to drink them around my host family. Easy enough. I overheard a tour guide talking and it made me laugh because it was just like in the movies. She was warning them about prostitutes and safe sex and just because they say they are clean doesn't mean they are. Like I said....uncomfortable around my host parents. But we got a good laugh about all the coffeeshops. There's a billion of them. And there really are people drinking coffee in them...but then you walk by the door and the smell kind of overtakes you. So ya. I'm putting my pictures on facebook. There isn't anything terrible in them. But it is Amersterdam I was taking pictures of so keep that in mind when you look.

Yes actually. They do usually eat nutella instead of peanut butter. Today I found out that a few people died. First off my friend Meghan's friend's dad died. Second my great uncle Bob :(. And third, Nathan Stiles. He was a boy from my school in America. No words I say right now will do them much justice so all I'm going to say is Rest In Peace. All three of you.

Nothing really interesting going on today. I was really tired, despite sleeping until 8. I got like 8 hours of sleep though so that's good. I drank like two or three 40 cent coffees to stay awake and peppy today. haha. It only accomplished the first. Not much more to tell. On saturday I'm going to the north sea and Amsterdam with my host family. I'm really excited cause I can get candy and american things there that I can't here. Like peanut butter. And other things of that nature.

Nothing much to say today. I'm going to that hip hop class. We'll see how it goes. At least it's only an hour if it goes badly. I'm really not sure what to wear. I don't know where my dance pants are or if I brought them to Deutschland with me. So I have on my hotshorts, black tights (cause I can't find my tan ones), jeans, and tennis shoes. Then two tank tops, a hollister jacket, and my northface. It's really cold outside. I'm really nervous about this so wish me luck!

LOL Oktoberfest is very very over. It's actually mostly in September and only the first week of October. And yes, the beer bikes were totally cool. So today I went to Essen with Meghan and met Panda there. It was fun :). We ate lots of food and ran around town. Window shopping and what not. I got home safely even though I had a minor freak out with the buses. Tomorrow I think I'm going to the hip hop dance class. It's free so why not? I just hope it's not way way too advanced for me. I enjoy a little challenge, but I don't want to completely humiliate myself in front of a world famous choeographer after telling him I was on a dance team for two years. Call me crazy. Sunday I'm going to movie park!! Which is just an amusement park. Alot of exchange students are all meeting there unofficially. It'll be fun. I think Meg is bringing her host brother. He's like 14. He's the cutest thing though! :) I haven't written in my diary at all for a long time. I think I'm going to make a list of stuff just to highlight it all. I don't have the time or the hand muscles to write it all out haha.

So I just found out that my Deutsch teacher can't come for another two weeks. Gah! I feel like I'm never gonna be able to really speak Deutsch. I need these darn lessons. But on a lighter note. I think I'm going to Essen tomorrow with Meghan and we'll meet Panda there. Panda is Rob. Rob is from Canada and one of my best friends. I have a lot of best friends now. On Halloween I'm going to movie park, which is an amusement park, with a whole bunch of exchange students. But we're inviting German friends to come too if they want to. I've decided to stay busy and be really social. That's the way I'm going to keep my mind off home, learn Deutsch faster, and stay off the internet. I don't want to spend too much time on here. It looks bad. I'm finishing uploading my pictures to my facebook today. It was messing up, but this guy Juan gave me some amazing tips. Bless his heart. And now it's gonna be easy. At school alot of people commented on my new hair. They said they liked it alot. We randomly ran into David at the mall today. That was weird. But wunderbar!! (amazing/wonderful)

Currently uploading my pictures to the computer. Theres 790 of them. This is going to take forever.... lol. Not to mention uploading them to facebook....worst nightmare, I'm telling you now. And see the funny thing is, I didn't even take pictures of everything. Not nearly. We went and visited Dakau and I took no pictures of that. Or the cinderella castle. And I'm sure there were more group pictures and such that I didn't take that I'll either have to tag myself in on facebook, or I'll be tagged. Goodness. I didn't realize how many pictures I had taken. oh well.

Wow...that was amazing. I've seen so many amazing things the past couple weeks. I've really made some life long friends. Theres so much to tell that I just can't put it in a blog entry. Just know that I had an amazing time and it was crazy and fun and not what I expected, but so much better. I'll never forget it and im definitely looking forward to spending more time with this group of kids. I've never been so close to a group of people. And the things we saw...and memories we made, completely irreplacable and unique. I'll put picures on facebook. I think they speak for themselves. You can see alot of the things we saw through them. unfortunately they do not allow you to take pictures inside most of the castles. It sucks. But we got the outside! I even got to see the cinderella castle. The real one. But it was too foggy for pictures that day :(.

Went shopping again today. I got everything I wanted and more :D. I feel very european. Not much else to say. Finishing up packing. Yay deutschland tour!

Today I went shopping. I got to school only to realize that I didn't have any classes today until the afternoon. So I went into Jasmin's class for the first two periods. Then we went and I bought my hat and a scarf. I still need laundry detergent, but I'll get that tomorrow. I know where to go now. I then ran into Felina and went shopping again. I bought a pair of earrings because I needed some good diamondy looking studs to put in my first holes. I had an allergic reaction to my other ones because I forgot I was allergic to nickel. They turned green and cut into my ear and infected it. It was gross. My ear is finally all healed though. So I bought a cheap pair of silver earrings with out nickel. They were only 5 euro. She was looking for jeans. Then we came back and went to singing class. I don't like that teacher. He's mean and thinks he knows everything and teaches in a really boring way, but gets mad if you read or talk quietly. Today we were mad because Felina is a wonderful singer, one of the best, if not the best, in the class. She's had private lessons since she was very small and used to sing in a choir that traveled all over Germany. And the singing teacher insulted her and told her she wasn't a good singer and she could do so much better and her voice didn't hold. Which was ridiculous because I've heard her sing over and over again and she's perfect every time. But I was even more mad because he had the guts to insult her like that right after complimenting me and saying how wonderful I am and said that it was obvious I had been in choir at home, I sounded very experienced. Which I enjoyed even if I don't like the teacher, until he started up with her. ugh. The we rode the bus home and I ate and attempted to pull back the string on Benni's bow, but it was too hard. And now I'm blogging. Story of my life.

Today was much much better. I didn't have to get up until 10 cause I only had to be at the school for the last lesson. I'm gonna buy a hat and a scarf later today/tomorrow for Deutschland tour. I've spotted a few cute ones in my window shopping ;). I'm waiting for philipp to text me back though to see if he can help me get money. I need someone to translate the Deutsch on the screen the first time so I can do it on my own later. I'm pretty much just preparing. I packed some yesterday. I'm getting a head start because I'm excited and this way I don't have to stress about it the last day. I have most of my laundry all done. There's just alot of little extra stuff Rotary asks us to bring, so it can be really overwhelming if done at the last minute. I probably wouldn't even have all the stuff I need. So doing a little at a time seemed to be the best option. Today I'm feeling relaxed. It's go with the flow day. Maybe it was that 11 hours of sleep I got last night :D! lol

Today is not my day....first I had to put my makeup on in a hurry this morning because I couldn't be excused from the breakfast table until late. Cause Benni and Rebekka weren't up on time. Then my first two class periods were cancelled. Then my tutor group teacher couldn't stay so that was another free period. Then the singing teacher kept getting on my case for having my nook. When half of the time he was mad at me I wasn't even reading it. And that class is super boring. Especially when I don't have any friends in it cause they were both gone today. Then I hung out with a different friend during my next free period and she invited the one girl in the school that acts mean towards me to hang out with us. Then my next class period was cancelled. So I was like...oh I'll just go home. I missed the first bus. So I had to wait. And sometime during the day I managed to forget I had a Rotary meeting after school today. So I rode the later bus home and didn't remember the meeting until I had just walked in the door. It was 1:09. The meeting started at 1. And the bus to Borken so I could at least be late left at 1:02. The next bus wasn't until 2:02. The meeting ends at 2. There was no way to win. So I called the guy that is in charge of the exchange students at our club. Twice. He didn't answer. No answering machine. I wonder if they even have them here. And I couldn't find his email. So I ended up emailing my counsilor. Telling him the situation and that I was so so sorry. But I would be back from Deutschland tour by the 22nd of October. So I could go to the last Rotary meeting in October and still make my monthly meeting. Then I figured that there were a few things I needed to buy for tour. I was gonna take it out of my German account. It was the first time I have ever taken money out of that account. I made sure I knew my pin and I had used those machines before. I got there and the bank was closed but we could still reach the machines. I put the card in, and it didn't have a choice to make it in English like it usually does. It took me awhile to realize that it is a German account so why would it give an English option? So I texted Philipp and asked if he could come and help me by translating the screen. And he was on his way to work of course. So I went to the store I was gonna go to originally to at least make sure they had what I needed. It was closed. So I went to another store, they didn't have what I needed. So I just gave up and walked home. There's no point in extending my humiliation and frustration. Please please let this day get better....

So remember that time when I went to school and no one showed up for my Deutsch class? And I found out the class was cancelled. That happened again today. But it was even more frustrating because I only had one class period today. That was the only reason I went to school, and I found out it was cancelled. So I went to school for no reason today. Gah! Oh well. I wish I had known though. I could have stayed home and had an extra day of weekend. That's all that happened today though. I walked with a few people on my free periods. Then came home. And that's it.

I just found this big purple bruise on the back of my thigh. I have no idea how it got there. I must have bumped into something and I don't remember. The funny thing is, I probably bumped into something and said, that's gonna bruise. And I don't remember. Today some of Sofia's family came over and ate lunch and visited with us. I got to have an ice cream dinner! It was so exciting cause I haven't had ice cream here yet. Today was the first time. I had my dance lesson again today. It was fine. We're learning how to cha cha now :D. I want to show Benni the clip from Grease when the cha cha girl is dancing at their school dance. So I went to my host family's Nephew's band concert last night. At first I was like, why on earth is so there so many people here? It's just a school band concert. And wow! they have a super nice set up. It looked very nice and professional. You can tell alot of money was put into it. And they had little book pamphlets that were just like a playbill you could get at a show on broadway. All I could think was "my school would go broke just making this many pamphlets". Well then I found out it wasn't a school school concert. It was a special music school concert. And they were simply amazing. It was a full on show. They had a few singers that changed outfits and a narrator type guy and everything. A huge backdrop and two screens for the projectors cause they had pictures and videos to go with the music. They even had special light effects and such. Not to mention the bands talent. The music they made really was amazing. I can only imagine what hard work they put into that. There were people of all ages in the band, but mostly were middle school and high school age. Then just a few older people. I also thought I would be home by maybe 10:00 at night at the latest. I ended up getting home at 2:45 in the morning. The show started at 8 and didn't end until 11:45. They had a 30 minute intermission in that. The rest was all show. Then we dropped by Hartmut's brother's house to give him champagne for his birthday today. That was at like 12. Didn't leave until 1:30. Now I know, when Germans say they are dropping off champagne, they mean that we will be there for an hour and a half to share the champagne, talk, and eat food.

Well today I'm going to this concert thing with my host family. It's Hartmut's brothers birthday tomorrow so we're going to celebrate with him today and go to his kid's concert. I think its orchestra, but I'm not sure. Hope everyone had a great homecoming last night! I know it was the fall homecoming dance last night. You know, I thought I would be sad or jealous or something when it came time for stuff like this....but I'm not. I don't feel any remorse for missing homecoming. It might start showing up around prom time though. But they have something similar here I might be able to go to. It's not nearly as expensive. It's like 5 euro to get in and you don't really have to have a date. It's more just an excuse to get all dressed up. Since most of us can go dancing anytime we want, what point would there be in school dances? I'm sooo excited for Deutschland tour. All of us are that are going haha. It's everyone's status or you chat with them and it ALWAYS comes up. I just helped make a kiesch type thing. I'm not sure how you spell it. It's like a tart, but with vegetables and eggs. It's huge. Oh oh oh! So my host father tends to travel alot on business. All over the world actually. And every time he goes to a city, this family has a tradition where he/they (if it's a vacation) go to the Hard Rock Cafe. And they always get tshirts. So they have an extensive collection of Hard Rock Cafe tshirts with the different cities on them. And he was gone in Venice all week. I woke up this morning and found out that he got me one too!! I was so happy :). It's the right size and everything. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. So now I have an awesome Venice Hard Rock Cafe tshirt. It's white with a really sweet picture on the back. It says Venice really big and has guitars in those long boat thingys that Venice is famous for. And big Roman looking columns and a masked face. And it says "love all, serve all" underneath the big letters. And since I want to get tshirts from all the countrys I visit (not sure if it's gonna happen, but still) I have one down already! I still need to get a German tshirt. And probably a soccer jersey..... ;)

No big plans this weekend. Meghan went to England. A friend invited me to sleep over at her house at some point, but never spoke of it again. oh well.

So I didn't realize my English class was leaving for England TODAY. So I was only at school today for two lessons cause today is one of the days I have two free periods in the morning. So I went to my two lessons first then to my English class. And when I showed up to english they all had suitcases....and my english teacher just told me to go home lol. So I went home. I was at school for a total of 2 hours today :D. Thats about it though.

Everyone I've talked to is psyched for the deutschland tour! Not much to say about today. I have a deutsch lesson here in the next few minutes though so I don't have much time. I just went to school, had a normal day, then came home and ate and walked the dog, got my passport back, and now I'm waiting for my deutsch teacher to get here.....sorry. I just had my lesson. I didn't get to finish my post in time. My teacher's dogs are having a litter so I won't have deutsch lessons next week. Then I have deutschland tour so my next lesson isn't until the 25th of October. Crazy huh? Time flys I'm tellin ya. No wonder she assigned a ton of homework. Oh well. I could do like one excersize a day and be done wayy before the next lesson. Or deutschland tour lol. I just checked my stats today. My blog has been viewed over 1,200 times! Woo!

I forgot. I'm terrible at guessing ages here. I have no idea how old anyone is. I've been chatting afterschool with this guy on the bus for a week or so now. I thought he was at least a year older than me. 17-19. Found out yesterday that he's 15!! He's turning 16 in late October. Wow....

Not too much to say about today. I didn't like waking up in the morning. But what else is new? I was having some really vivid dreams, I think about home. I don't remember them though. I just know that I woke up as my alarm was going off, but it felt like I woke up while I was still dreaming. So it was extra hard to get up. I've been pretty tired all day. Even though I went to bed at a reasonable time. Today in Music we sang. And the book had Summer Nights from Grease in it. I knew all the words and I was really theatrical with it so the whole class barely sang at all. They just watched me and smiled. They found it really entertaining. But it felt good because they weren't making fun of me, they just genuinly enjoyed watching me. They had never seen that silly side of me before. A few of them started dancing a bit in their seat with me and getting into it. It was great. I'm going to the bank today to pay for Deutschland tour! woo!

Nothing to say about today. Except that I went to school at normal time today. When I could have slept in until 8. i was so mad. My first two blocks were taking a test today and I don't have to be there when they take tests. Oh well. I slept those two blocks on the couches in the front of the school with a friend.

Deutsch lesson today! I found moutain dew yesterday! I was sooo happy. You have no idea. I also tasted my first German beer. It was gross. I don't like beer apparently. So they mixed it with orange fanta! Then it was good :). This was at home at the dinner table with my host family lol. Then afterwards I walked with eika. But I asked Philipp to come with me since it was dark and unsafe to walk by myself at night especially since I had a little bit of alcohol in my system. Since I am inexperienced with alcohol, I thought it would be safest if he came with me. :) So he did. I had another dance lesson. But that was it for yesterday. Today it's been raining all day. I went to school. Meghan and I went to another town during our free periods. We went to this little boutique. I liked it alot. The clothes there were really cute so I told her that we should go back sometime when I have some spending money. Technically I have some, but I'm trying to save all my money for Deutschland tour. You never know what will happen. Right before tour, I'm going to transfer most of my money from my american account to my German account so that I can get money from an atm for free. Thats pretty much it. School was school. The end!

We were all actually dancing. Guys included. And the deutschland tour is from October 9-22. Hopefully soon we'll have a meeting all together about what to bring and such. Maybe a more detailed description of where we're going. I feel bad that I forgot cause I know that's something ya'll would want to know. I got up while the clock still said 10 today. all on my own. no alarm or anything. I fell asleep next to my computer last night. I was watching Anchorman. Has anyone ever noticed that even if something is funny, you don't really laugh or laugh as much unless your watching it with someone else? It's kinda weird. I don't have any plans today. Maybe something will come up? I don't know. Oh...I take that back. I have that dance lesson at 3. But besides that I don't have anything. I'm hoping for a miracle and somebody will call me or text me with something to do. Anything. Wanna come paint the walls of my room? Sure!! Wanna come do yard work with me? Sure!! Wanna go to the cinema and watch a movie that you won't even understand because it's in Deutsch and they obviously don't put subtitles on in a movie theater? Excellent!!!! haha That would be my life now. I'm pretty happy to be doing anything simply because that would mean doing something. But alles gut. I'll blog later if my miracle comes true.

That was fun :). We were on the actual dance floor all night. haha. Got home really late but thats ok. I slept in really late today on accident. Lunch never tasted so good lol. I finally got my Deutsch book so I did my homework. Bastian helped when I got confused. Thats it really. It keeps raining really hard and then the sun comes out. This weather is so bipolar. But its chilly no matter what so at least I wont get caught with out a jacket. I just realized that in Deutsch you say die welt for the world. Which is cool cause that means world is feminine. Which goes with mother earth and such. I dont know. I'm a dork. I just thought that was cool.

Normal day today. I'm going dancing so I'm blogging now. I'm in a really good mood actually :). I'm excited. This should be fun.

I don't like making these titles. I'm thinking about stopping

Girls here do shave btw. Thanks for that little comic comment. Nothing much to say. Going dancing tomorrow. I think thats it for this weekend besides dance classes. I don't know. Maybe theres something I totally forgot. Wouldn't surprise me. The weather was wonderful today. It was the perfect temperature and the sun was out :D. Although I did have a few bad things happen. First of all, I set my alarm for 5:45 like usual. I had nightmares last night though so I was sleeping pretty deep. I vaguely remember hearing it, turning it off, then I guess I went back asleep cause I woke up at 6:45! I have to leave the house most days by 6:50 to catch the bus. But I didn't miss the bus lol. I think that's the quickest I've ever gotten ready. I felt disgusting the entire day though because I didn't get to shower and I was starving all day because I didn't eat breakfast. I had a full day of school today plus two afternoon classes. Thurdays are my hardest days. And it didn't help that I had math first. Then after school I ended up missing the bus home because there were too many people on it and they wouldn't squeeze together or move so that my friend and I could get on. So my friend said we were either gonna have to wait an hour for the next bus or she was gonna call home. So she called home, and while her sister was on her way to come pick us up, another bus just happened to come. Not sure why because it wasn't on the schedule. So I took the bus while she waited for her sister. I felt terrible leaving her, but I figured that it's better to arrive home on a bus then in a car and have my host family ask questions. So then I got home and ate a ton all by myself because it was only me and Benni home and he already ate. Then I showered and it felt wonderful. And the rest was just normal.

just got back

Just got back from my nightly walk with eika. Philipp walked with me this time :). Today I had my Deutsch lesson again after a full day of school. The bus' went smoothly this time thank goodness. My Deutsch teacher is weird lol. I'm not sure whether I like her or not. Everyone else hates her. After this I'm getting my Deutsch lessons by myself :(. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted. I think I'm gonna go dancing again on Friday. This time with Benni (if i can convince him), Christoph, Meghan, and David. It will be more fun cause I'll have friends there. Friends that will dance with me.

Four weeks

How crazy is it that I've been here four weeks already? My bus driver decided she was too good for round a bouts today. She drove right over it. I'm not sure why, but everytime I looked around there was always someone staring at me today. It was quite annoying. I almost yelled at a few people on the bus because they kept pushing. I was gonna yell that if they push me one more time then I was gonna push them back and they weren't gonna like it. But I decided to be a good girl and keep my mouth shut. This morning in Deutsch class I noticed that there were English senteces written on the board from the day before. It annoyed me because they were wrong. And the teacher had obviously taught them that this was the right way to say it. There were two. They said "Have you got any children?" and "No, I haven't got any children, but I have some pets". Gah!! Thats so not right. It sounds funny. You're supposed to say "Do you have any children?" and "No, I don't have any children, but I have some pets". That sounds sooo much better. I have my first English exam tomorrow. I have to take it :(. It's four hours long! But I get to miss music so it's all good. Today I have my first Deutsch lesson. For real. Like my first language lesson. I'm taking two different buses to get there. I hope I get off in all the right places. I've never taken this route before. I don't even know where to get off really. Wish me luck!

Monday

Just another Monday. Nothing special. I forgot to say before though, Jasmin was looking through my yearbook when I was over at her house. There was a picture of a certain basketball player shooting. She laughed and said "uh oh...he didn't shave". And I was like "what?". Cause she was referring to his underarms. And I was like "what guy would shave their underarms? They see it as manly pride or something". So she told me that guys in Europe apparently shave their underarms. I thought that was really strange, but cool. So ya. I went to bakery today and it was yummy. But thats about it. I'm really loving this off campus free period stuff. I window shopped today in town :)

Sorry

Sorry I haven't blogged in a few days. I was at Jasmin's last night and yesterday was the swimming. Swimming was fun. It was way different than what I had expected. Almost all of it was indoor obviously. I was thinking one pool. Maybe a couple diving boards if I was lucky. Like the simple Olypic swimming type pool. Nope. Not even close. There were water slides and warm pools and cold pools and lazy rivers and kid pools. It was huge. Crazy. It was called Atlantis lol. I also had my first experience with the whole european nakedness. We went into the big group shower thingy to rinse off in our bathing suits. I get under the shower head, turn around, and there is a butt naked lady behind us. And another topless one. No shame. They were like full out showering. Crazy people. It was a late night, but I got to sleep in the next day so it was all good. Then I went to Jasmin's place and to her brother's bastketball game. It was fun. It was just like American basketball except on a smaller scale. There were even "cheerleaders" who cheered in English. They just wore a tshirt and shorts. All matching. They did a couple cool stunts, but....let's just say that cheerleading is definitely an american thing. Then I ate Mcdonalds for the first time since I've been here. I didn't think I'd be that into it until my big mac was in front of me and it was the best big mac I've ever had lol. Pretty sure Jasmin took a picture of me with it. Then we slowly discovered that we had the same taste in movies. Like completely. So we watched Step up 2. Which she owned and had seen a billion times just like me. And we watched it in English! Yay for no weird voice overs! It was her first time watching in English and she said it was cool because she could understand it now. And she liked the original voices. Then I got up today and went to Rotary orientation. It was boring. But I had to introduce myself in German. My name, what country I'm from, my host family, where I live in Germany, My host club, and what I expect of this year. I was so nervous, but my host family said I did really really well. So woo! I nailed it. That was about it. We left. Another dance lesson. The teacher used me as an example almost the whole time. Like an example to teach a new move. So I just had to figure out what to do based on his body cause I had no clue what he was saying. He's nice though. I like him. While everyone is practicing he likes to talk to me about America and my life and such. He speaks perfect English. It finally got out today that I've danced before and at the mention of my small amount of hip hop experience, he said that there was this guy at the studio I should meet. That he's famous all around the world for hip hop choreography and such. And he just happens to teach on wednsdays at this studio. And he seemed like he really wanted me to meet him and that this guy really was just amazing so I told him I would look at my schedule and see if I have time. I think I have German language lessons that day. But he was saying that this guy goes all over europe and stuff. And he's famous here in Germany and in Paris and all that. I forgot what else, but it was really impressive. So who knows? Maybe I'll get to meet this guy!

Yogurt

Yogurt isn't dessert. They seem to think it is here. Meghan is over currently. We're gonna go swimming soon :). Yay!! I'm excited. Had to borrow a swimming suit top, but oh well. Normal day of school today. Thats about it.

Thursday

No...i don't drink coffee here lol. They drink it plain with milk. Not even sugar usually. Otherwise I would be drinking coffee in the mornings. Thursdays are usually my busy days cause I don't have any free periods. Well everything was going as schedule until my last two class periods. In these periods, I have deutsch class. I showed up, but no one else did. I'm lucky I happened to be talking to a girl I met who went to kansas on exchange last year and helped me out. Theres a board they have to tell you which classes won't be going on that day. I never look cause I didn't know how to read it. They don't have substitute teachers here, so if a teacher is sick or not in town then the students don't have that class. Oh well. So I came home early. End of story. Bye bye. See you later ;)

Wednesday

Just another day. I did accidently go to the wrong class and also accidently fell asleep in English class today. But in my defense, he was lecturing in German for some reason. And he didn't stop talking the entire two periods apparently. I fell asleep within the first ten minutes and didn't wake up until the bell rang again for break and class was over. But I didn't get in trouble. He didn't say anything about it, nor did he care. No one woke me up at all. I was surprised by all of it, including just the fact that I fell asleep on my desk. I've never done that before, ever. And I wasn't just dozing. I was out completely. There isn't much else to say about today. I made banana bread last night and it was delicious this morning. Although it could have been cooked for a few more minutes. I brought like four slices to school and they went in like 5 minutes flat.

Three weeks today

I can't believe I've been in Germany three weeks. It's gone by so fast. This is going to be a good year though. I found out who my next host family is going to be, but I won't be moving until after Christmas, so I don't need to talk to them for some time. Meghan will actually be moving in with them in October and when she goes home, I will move in with them. Not too much to say about today. I couldn't get my bus ticket because the bus was too full. I'll do that as soon as I can. I'm not going to the movies this weekend either. But I am going to swim with Meghan and Christoph. This weekend is also my sleepover with Jasmine. Yay!!

these titles are annoying

So I only had one class today :). The other two afternoon classes were cancelled due to an assembly. I did't even go to the assembly. I just sat outside. They said I could, the teachers. It was cool cause I got to show up to school late and could have left early, but the assembly and Meghan was coming over after school for a few things and she had afternoon classes. It was fun :) I got to show her a bit of my life back at home. So she can put faces and names together now. I love this one picture we all took together on Saturday. We all love it. It's David's profile picture on facebook and mine and Meghan's screen saver on our computers. Then Meghan left and I came back to the house and had dinner. Then did dishes and walked Eika. Easy enough. I'm gonna buy a bus ticket tomorrow. I'll pay like 15 euro a month and I can ride the buses to anywhere at anytime as much as I want. And I'm gonna need it for deutsch lessons with David. And just going out with friends and such. Buses are so expensive otherwise. It's like 5 euro one way. Crazy. Money matters are finally getting worked out so I feel a bit better, but I'll feel really relieved when it's all done. That's really all for today. bye!

Just got back

Just got back from my rotex weekend! It was great. The group of kids were so easy to be around. You could really just be yourself. No one cared if you sang to your ipod or not. They would be more likely to sing with you. It was so cool being around all the different people from the different cultures. We had like four or five languages going. Most of the time they explained things in English though because most everyone understood it. But everyonce in awhile they would translate it in Spanish and/or Portugese. Usually Spanish. I can't wait for Deutschland Tour. It's going to be the best ever. We took a tour of the Schalke stadium (soccer). It was huge. Soccer here might even be bigger than Texas football. I haven't decided yet. Going to this stadium made me realize how many people here literally live and breathe soccer. There was even a chapel in the stadium. Some people like to go to kind of church there. And people get married there. It was crazy. I took tons of pictures of the weekend and the stadium though so you'll get to see on facebook. (Stop buggin me about the pictures. I can't just choose a couple to put on here. There's too many.) We got to take a big tour of the stadium and see the museum inside. After that we had an interesting experience. We had to fit all inbound students, rebound students, and rotex people on one bus. We were packed so tight that it was like sardines in a can. You literally could not move. It was soo hot. Everyone was sweating all over. I will never complain about a bus being crowded again. Once we got back, there was alot of relaxing and just talking. We visited with each other and eventually ate dinner. Then they had some games planned for us for the rest of the evening. Of course they had to make the games as awkward as physically possible. It was fun! LOL. Unfortunately during one of these games, a rebound had a seizure I think. They had to clear out the gym and an ambulence picked her up. It was sad and everyone was very worried. But we went back inside and turned on some music to lighten the air. It ended up being this spanish dance music that was amazing! All the latin girls and guys got up and showed us a thing or two about dancing. They were super nice though and taught us all how to dance haha. We were all dancing till like 1 or 2 in the morning. Then everyone split up into little friend groups and talked or whatever. Then the night was over. I got a whole three hours sleep. And no nap lol. And now school tomorrow haha. Oh well. So is the life of a teenager. The morning was uneventful. Just got up, cleaned, had a relfection time so they could improve their weekends. But everyone said that this one was the best one yet. Then we left. I came home, showered, wrote half of this entry, ate lunch, and left for ball room dancing with Benni. After that he took me to meet with the head rotary guy for the exchange students here and I got some stuff worked out. Then came home and ate dinner and walked eika. Now I'm finishing this and I'm gonna put pics on facebook :P ciao!

And no...

No I can't the way I want to. I have too many pictures and to put them on my blog would mean one by one. and there wouldn't be near enough room and I don't have the time. So everyone who wants to see should just add me on facebook. I'm making you cooler by force. hehe. My name on facebook is Taylor marie c. for people who are trying to find me and are having difficulties. I don't put my last name on there for safety purposes.

woo!!

My phone works finally!! yay!! It took forever, but it finally works. I have no idea why, but thank the Lord Almighty! I was in desperate need. lol. Now to figure out how to use it....it's kinda a dinosaur compared to my old phone. Nothing new at school today. Baked a cake with Rebekka for tomorrow. No entry tomorrow cause I'll be at a sleepover! Ciao! I spelled it wrong before.

Nothing eventful

Nothing eventful happened today. Toby caught me this morning on the bus. We talked and he walked me to class even though his class was all the way across the school. :). Classes were long and boring. Nothing much to tell there. Got home. Everything was normal. I get to sleep in until 8 tomorrow though so that's exciting. I'll probably go to bed early tonight too, so I'm gonna be really well rested. That's pretty much it. Sorry this entry is so short. It was just a normal day though.

Wow...

Wow. I just found a way to see how many page views I've had. I didn't know I could see. And my blog has been looked at 704 times since it started. It got more specific, but I don't want to go into it. It was viewed 40 times yesterday. How crazy is that. I never imagined it was THAT popular. I knew there were people looking. Quite a few people. But 704 times? That's amazing and it makes me feel so secure. So safe knowing that many people support me, so thank you. My phone is still searching for a network so I'm gonna wait another day, but if it doesn't work by morning then I'm gonna have to get Rebekka or Benni to check it out. I was gonna have Meghan over after school today, but her German lesson got moved up so she didn't have time. We'll just do it monday. It actually made my life a little simpler because there was this guy. His name is Toby. He is Christoph's brown haired cousin that I talked to on the bus one day and he was super nice. We laughed about the big student next to me who took up half my seat and could have crushed me. Today he sat by me on the bus this morning. We talked and stuff and he had asked what I do in the afternoons. I told him how I don't usually have alot to do besides family stuff and blogging to you guys and facebook. Reading and rotary meetings and such. He laughed that I'm an exchange student and I'm not like crazy busy. We got into the school before I went into class he asked if he could ask a favor. I said sure. So he said what is your name again? I laughed and told him taylor and asked for his name cause i had no idea. That seems to happen alot recently. I still have a friend that I don't know her first name. Then he asked if I want to meet after school. So I said ya, that would be good. But that it would be best if we rode the bus home first so I could drop off my stuff at home and tell my host family. Then we said our goodbyes till later. This was not a date mind you. I don't think anyway. Alot of German guys aren't like that cause there isn't much casual dating around here. You're just friends and you might flirt. Then you either stay that way or you start dating. For example, according to Jasmine and Samiel, if a boy kisses and girl or flip flopped, if you kiss basically, then you're automaticallly boyfriend and girlfriend. When two people get together here, theres alot of commitment involved. So that's why I say it wasn't a date. We were just hanging out as friends. The day went on uneventfully until free period. That's when I meet up with Jasmine and her/our :) friends. (I got my bus ticket though!!) She said she had a surprise for me during free period. And we were going into the city. So we walked, to the mall, and it was a great surprise. It was one of those machines with the pictures :). So we took a picture together and got a bunch of copies. Then we just walked around until free period was over. Then religion, then the bus. And btw, there was this nine year old girl on the bus who had an awesome cell phone! Way better than mine. I was astounded that a girl that age could A. work a phone like that, B. had a phone at all at the age of nine, and C. that she had a nicer phone than a sixteen year old girl (me). How sad. So I got off the bus and met up with Toby. We agreed to meet back there at 2 so I could go home and drop stuff off. Life went on. I got home, dropped off my stuff, told Sofia and Rebekka my plans, ate some crescent rolls (yummy!), and went to go meet him. We ended up walking to the store to buy bread, and peanut butter. Theres two stores right next to each other. We got the bread, american bread :) his pick, but neither store had peanut butter. Sad. So I said let's just eat bread :). And he thought that was crazy but was cool with it. So we walked with no destination in mind. It started raining of course, but it didn't really matter. We sat in a parking lot to eat and his mom just happened to drive by and see us. She insisted we get in the car and come home lol. She was nice. So we went to his house for a bit. We just hung out in the living room with his little sisters. he has 6 siblings I think. two younger sisters, two older brothers and two older sisters. I met the two little ones and his older brother and his mom. It was wonderful to be there because it was an atmostphere I was used to. The kid kind. We sat there with them and talked and ate chocolate. And he had four puppies. :) It was awesome to be greeted at the door by two big doggies. Both were mixes but one looked like a lab and the other like a soft german shepard. The german shepard looked alot like percy. And he had floppy ears and soft fur. They were both so sweet. Both about a year old too. Turns out the lab had 8 puppies recently with the german shepard and all were given away except two. So there was the cutest little puppies there. One was black with little blonde patches and the other all blonde. Both just looked like labs. They were darling. The entire time I was there I had all four dogs cuddled up to me and asleep. It made me soo happy. At about 3:15 I said that I should get going soon, cause my host family didn't tell me when to come home. I didn't want to worry them. So he walked me home. I got to keep the bread lol. He said he wanted me to have it cause he knew I said I missed the food back at home. I thought it was cute. Then we just said bye at my house and he walked away and I went inside. Then I announced I was home and sat down to blog about it. I got home at like 4. I think that's all so far. If anything interesting happens I'll try to type about it.

Long day so far.

Its been a long day so far. I had to get up to go to school in the morning. Which is normal, I know. But today it was extra exhausting. God definitely got me through this day. So many things could have gone wrong. I just got home. It's hard to type cause my fingers are stiff from the cold. I forgot to mention yesterday. The castle wasn't a castle with like gift shops. I didn't go inside because they still use it. Someone was getting married in it and theres actually a restraunt inside. Any way, Today I got to school and I was tired, but everything was fine. It all started down hill when I went to singing instead of tutor group on accident. Meghan had to search the school for me. She found me though and I realized what I had done. It was embarrassing. Then after tutor group I went back to singing on schedule. Then Meghan reminded me that we had a rotary meeting today right after school that I completely forgot about. So I was all stressed out trying to figure out how to tell my host parents this (even though it was on the calender) so that they know why I'm not home on time and that I need to be picked up. I couldn't find Benni after school so we went ahead and walked to the meeting. I used Meghan's phone to call home. Couldn't figure out how to use her phone. So she had to dial for me. My phone doesn't start working until later tonight or tomorrow morning. I found out a little late my phone from home doesnt have a sim card so I have to use one of my host familys old ones. I talked to Rebekka and told her about rotary and she said ok. I felt better except I almost fell asleep during the meeting several times. Meghan said thats normal though. I didn't though. It was sooo hard not to, but I successfully got through the meeting. So we were waiting for my ride home to arrive...and waiting...and waiting. And no one showed up. So I called home again. I said very nicely "I'm done with my rotary meeting now and I was just curious to know whether you were going to pick me up here or whether I should take the bus home?" They said take the bus. So I had to walk all the way back to the school bus stop and wait for forty minutes for the bus to arrive. Then the bus driver spoke no english. I'm really glad I got my paper today that says I'm a student at the gymnasium remigianum. She understood and I didn't have to pay. After that everything has gone smoothly. So thank the Lord I got here safely. Oh and one more thing. They don't have a charger for this old phone. So I have to use Rebekka's. I'm not sure how that's gonna work and I'm nervous to ask her cause I think I'm getting an annoyed vibe from her. She's never had a sister and my host parents tend to always ask her to take me with her when she goes places. I know she doesn't like that and I feel terrible about it. I'm not being annoying. But I feel like I'm annoying her. And I really don't want to add to that list by asking to use her charger all the time. Plus I feel like I'm annoying everyone because they have to speak english when speaking to me. It's like they're trying to rush me into speaking German now so they don't have to deal with it. Once again with the I feel terrible. I'm trying. I really am. Meghan says it will come, but it's gonna take a few months. There's no going around that. I've made flashcards though and I'm trying to learn simple sentences and vocabulary. It's hard....it's not something you can rush. I know I'll learn it though. It will come.

two weeks tomorrow

Today Meghan and I did the calculations and I will be in Germany around 40 weeks. I will have been here two weeks tomorrow. It actually didn't feel like two weeks. It's like, as long as I stay busy and always have something to look forward to, it's gonna fly by. Which is funny because you would think it would go by slower because I'm away from home and school is shorter. So there's more time on my hands. But I have so many small things to fill up this time and bigger things to worry about, that I hardly notice. For example, this weekend is the big rotex sleep over in the gym of my school. I'm super excited to meet all the other students. Theres gonna be like 60 there. Meghan says the entire front of my blazer is gonna be covered by the end of the weekend. This is the time to trade pins. Next weekend, Jasmine invited me to stay over at her house Saturday night. She told her mom about me and how I'm from America and her mom wants to meet me. Jasmine's older brother has a basketball game that Saturday so they invited me to come along and since it goes late she asked if I just wanted to sleep over! I'm going to ask my host parents tonight. Tomorrow is another rotary meeting. The routine, once a month ones. It'll be boring, but at least Meghan will be there so I'll have someone to talk to. And they feed us so free food is a bonus. I'm starting to learn a little more German today. I studied in my Physics class. I also got my residence permit today. I should recieve it in the mail in a couple weeks, but now I'm all legalized. After that I went to school and met Meghan. It took awhile to find each other, but once we did it was all good and we went to the Aldi and bought my phone card. I'm gonna ask Benni to activate it and such later. We didn't have enough time to go shoe shopping. So I went to class and she went home to call her dad. Yesterday was Father's Day in Australia. Then I had another free period before English. Jasmine was done with school so she took me to one of the nearest shoe stores during that period. Turns out theres a mall right by my school! I know where I'm going on my free periods now ;) lol. I'm so glad I went with her because I got the pair of shoes I wanted for 12 euro! Everyone said they would be like way more expensive. I love off brands :). I was choosing between two shoes that I was looking for and I just happened upon the off brand of the better one. So yay! I think it was like the German pay less, idk. But it was great. So now I have my phone card and shoes to go with my skinny jeans. And I have extra money so I can save it and have some if I need food or something. Extra money is always good. I don't have anything planned for tonight, so I think that's it for today. Email me and tell me how I'm doing with this blogging thing. If you don't have it, my email is pbandwaffles@yahoo.com. If you're reading this and you have something you want to say to me, but are hesitant because you didn't know how to contact me or you think you shouldn't because you're a friend of a friend and I don't know you, it's ok. Now you have my email, so shoot me one! I need feedback so I know what I need to improve on or if I'm doing ok.

almost two weeks

Not so much to say about today. I'm still sore from yesterday. I went to the rotary bbq today and Meghan was there so I had someone to hang with :). That was basically just parents talking and teens talking and we all eating. Then I changed and went to my first ball room dance class with benni. I liked the teacher alot. He was cool and even knew some english, so he explained some stuff when I was confused. It was a class for teens so I didn't feel as foolish. He told me just to come to him if I was having any problems. In Germany, the highest class and sometimes the 11th and 12th class get to go to this ball at the end of the year. It's the only "school dance" they have. I think it's like prom. And it's a huge deal. Like mega huge. So that's why benni is taking the classes. So that when he askes a girl to dance, he will know what he's doing. I thought that was sooo sweet. Teenage guys in America don't really care that much about it, but apparently it's common for guys in Germany to take dance lessons for this reason. There was some family over later and the rest of the afternoon was just relaxing and talking. School tomorrow. I'm gonna get my residence permit and get my phone card and look at shoes during my two free periods with meghan. Well, the latter two. The first with Sofia before school. Chau!

exercise

No one. Absolutely no one, can say I'm not exercising while I'm abroad. You know what I did today? I biked thirty kilometers with Rebekka and her friends. I feel like I have diaper rash and my back and legs are sore. I did it all on a bike that was too big for me. I can't even touch the ground on it. I haven't rode on a bike for so long that I had to relearn how a couple minutes before this charade. I had to learn how to ride, stop and start riding the bike that was too big for me the german style. Then I biked 30 kilometers. I only fell once in the bushes that happened to have a plant that gives you a rash. So my hands don't feel so good. And I did it all for you people. Cause I wanted to see the castle and take pictures for you. Hope it was worth it! LOL the pics will go on facebook shortly. I also rode the bike to Rebekkas horse school. One of the horses took a liking to me. I never knew how soft they are! This one kept sticking his head out of his stall and breathing on me and nudging me and trying to get my attention. He went as far as pulling my shirt with his teeth. I think he was trying to eat me. But he was cute! Theres something about horses I noticed today. They have alot of personality and they seem so sincere. I look at them close up and I almost feel.....like they're sad all the time. But thats probably just me. The disko was awesome!! Everything I thought it would be and more. I love it. The only thing was that I thought it was a big group of kids going, but it was just me and benni and christoph. It was still fun though. They pretty much just sat on the couchy thing and I danced. It will probably be way better with some girl friends. Muahahahahaha....tomorrow benni has to dance. You know why? Cause tomorrow is our first ball room dancing lesson. This will be interesting. Hes really tall and I'm....not. lol. Tomorrow is also a rotary bbq so full day. Today was exhausting. Early bedtime? I think yes.

Buses...

Buses are terrible. They are shortist. They are not for small people lol. I was almost pushed off the bus today when people were getting off. It's no mercy here. I also almost fell quite a few times. I'm excited for tonight. There's some things I need to do first though. Like get money for the sleep over off my account. And I was told that I would be provided with a phone here, but that doesn't seem to be the case so I'm gonna go and get a phone card at Aldi. It's cheap and everyone does it here. I also found that people here wear skinny jeans alot. I have two pairs, but I don't have any shoes to go with them because my tennis shoes look terrible with skinnys. My flats are not appropriate for the amount of walking I do each day, and my other pair of shoes are uggs and not seasonally appropriate. Girls here seem to either wear flats or converse or what look like keds. So I'm going to get some of the latter. So I have to get money for shoes and a phone card too from a different account. I also will probably shower cause my hair is straight for the first time today and its gonna look terrible if I get sweaty. Thats about it for today. Nothing too exciting at school. Just boring classes. I'm just happy I'm finally making a few friends!

Two new things

Two new things today. I got to try my first bit of champagne :). I was surprised when it was offered to me by my host parents, but then I remembered and decided to try it. I wasn't sure what I thought of it, so they mixed it with orange juice and I had a glass of champagne mixed with the juice. They were also drinking this. I also made a new friend today and she asked me to go dancing with her and her friends sometime. I was also asked this by christoph, but I told him no because I need to go with girl friends first. And I just thought it wouldn't be good for me to go dancing with just me and a big group of guys. Then later today Sofia said that Christoph had come by earlier. I have to hand it to the boy. Turns out a huge group of kids that all live near here are going dancing tomorrow and my new friend and Christoph had talked and both wanted to invite me and Benjamin. So I get to go dancing tomorrow! Since Benjamin is 18 now, his birthday was today, he can write on a slip of paper that he is responsible for me and I can stay out later than midnight. He could also drive me there, but some parents of the kids are driving everyone. Or Sofia said she would drive us. School was boring. Some friends of Rebekka's came today and are staying until tuesday. They are very nice. There's one in particular that has alot of common interests as me. That's about all for today I think.

oh!

And after the second period there is a 20 minute break. And after the fourth period there is a 15 minute break. But no lunch break or anything. Five minute passing periods. Thats it.

Schedule

Mondays: Four free periods so I don't have to show up until 11:20, so at 11:20 Physics, then free period. Then on week A I have music from 1-2:30. On week B I have English from 1-2:30...

Tuesdays: 7:35-9:10 Deutsch (German), 9:30-10:15 tutor group (German language tutoring), 10:20-11:05 Vocal Practice or singing (its not choir, more like practice for ppl wanting to sing opera. No performances), free period, 12:05-12:50 Math....

Wednesdays: 7:35-9:10 English, 9:30-11:05 Music, free period, 12:05-12:50 Religion....

Thursdays: 7:35-9:10 Math, 9:30-11:05 Physics, 11:20-12:50 Deutsch, no afternoon classes on week A, but week B I have Vocal Practice at 1-2:30...

Fridays: Two free periods in the morning so I don't have to be at school until 9:30, so 9:30-11:05 Religion, 11:20-12:50 English, no afternoon classes on week A, but week B I have Deutsch 1-2:30...

That's it. I know that's confusing. Week A and Week B just rotate. The only difference is if I have afternoon classes and which ones if I do. Tell me what you think of my classes!! Different eh?