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.