So last day in germany. I might do maybe one more post once I get home to tell you that I'm safe and such, but otherwise this is probably the end. Theres not really a need to blog and this was supposed to just be about my year. I'm pretty proud that I even made it through the whole year blogging. Usually with diarys and such I get tired out and stop after awhile. But my diary and my blog made it through the whole year. Tiff left earlier. Hopefully she can make it to the airport tomorrow. I'd rather it wasnt goodbye. but we'll text all the time back in the usa. My plan for today: shower, get dressed, triple check packing and bag weight, run to atm for money to check my bags, ..... actually thats all. pretty sad for my last day in the country right? I'm sure theres more planned by my host family somewhere in there, but I don't know what. Dinner and eating is in there at some point. oh and sleeping. I'll sleep at night. hopefully. Then tomorrow I'll get up early and get ready. Gotta leave the house at nine. be at the airport at ten. Then my plane boards at 11:40 and takes off at 12:10. On the plane for 8 hours and have a layover in new jersey. then two more hours and then home in KANSAS for a night. I'll get there at 6:40. Not sure what the plan is from there.

So my last day of school was uneventful. My teacher was sick so I ended up having three lessons free in the beginning of my day. Then I had religion then my day was done. sad huh? so i didnt really see any of my friends from school to say goodbye. a few though. The problem was that the teacher that was sick was herr rose. And he had to give me my paper from the end of the year with all of my courses and report for the year. So I was really worried. But then he called that night and worked it out so he was supposed to come by the next morning to give it to me. I got up early so that I could meet him but he never showed up. I didnt have his number to call him so i had to text all of my friends to see if they did. Luckily one did and I finally got ahold of him the next day on friday. I was worried maybe he had come earlier than I got up but it turned out he literally never showed up. He said sorry and asked if I was at home then. I said I was and would be and so he came over a couple hours later and gave me the papers. Right before Tiff came over and we closed my bank account, then made tacos. We just hung out all day and then left for the party in bocholt. Then we took the first bus home afterwards. It was my last party here so I had to say goodbye to everyone. Of course we were all exhausted from the all nighter and no sleep and emotionally crazed because it was the last time we were all together. It was like 7 in the morning. I was crying pretty much the enitre time saying goodbye to everyone. I can't believe I probably wont see these people again. It seems so unreal to not see a person or a place again. Especially these people I'm so close to. The thought of living without them for the rest of my life is so bad. Then I came home and slept for about four hours with tif and lindsay. then we got up and got pizza. Then came back home, watched half a movie, ate the pizza, slept four more hours, got up, watched the rest of the movie, started another one, and ate ice cream. Just me and tif btw. lindsay left after we picked up the pizza. Now we're chillin and prob gonna go to sleep for the night pretty soon. last night together. Hopefully she can come to the airport on monday with me and my host mom and maria and david and hopfeully lindsay. Got everything packed pretty much. gotta check in for my flight tomorrow with the help of maria and google chat with mom. wow...

So tomorrow is my last day of school! I'm feeling good. Today was my last rotary meeting and my last german lesson. I had to make my speech today. I wasn't nervous... just anxious until about the time when it was time to make it. Then I got nervous. I just had to remind myself that its only talking. But they seemed to like it and I somehow made these old buisness men laugh quite a few times. I recieved many many compliments on a speech well done and when we traded flags in front of everyone afterward the speaker complimented my german and asked if i had had lessons before coming because it was so good. They gave me three flags. One for me, one for my club back at home, and one for the district back at home. They also gave me a book all about the NRW. (the state in germany that we live) And they signed it and left me a note inside. I got through my speech without any serious mishaps except that i had a powerpoint and in the middle of my speech it stopped responding and i had to start the program over. And my computer took awhile to start up. But they were patient with me and we all got through it. I think I was glowing with all the compliments they were giving me about my german. I was really nervous that the speech wouldnt be good or not what they were looking for but it was the right amount of time and they seemed to like it. Apparently I looked alot more confident than I was, and like I wasnt reading off the cards (which it felt like I was, but apparently it looked like I was just looking at them a few times for reference. I guess I did some good eye contact.) So ya. I have that huge thing off my chest. And with german lessons over and only one day of school left... I guess all there is to do at this point is hang out with friends, take pictures, pack, and party :D. But not too hard cause I don't wanna get the flu or something like a friend of mine had recently. I'm worried she was gonna get me sick cause i was just getting over my sickness when I was with her and she got super sick. So my ammune system wasnt what it normallly is. And she had to go to the hospital so I don't want that. I just wanna come home healthy and happy :)

Speech tomorrow! I'm not exactly nervous... but I hope I get all my grammatics right and such. So wish me luck! I timed it and its 15 or 16 minutes long. Tiffany said all speeches get longer when you actually present them too... so hopefully thats true. But I'm sure that it will be long enough. Exactly one week until I come home. Time has definitely flown. But this last week has actually been quite slow. I only have three days of school this week cause we have thursday and friday off so my last day at school is wednsday. Theres a party on friday I'm going to but I'm not sure what I'm doing besides that. And I know theres a girls night thrown in there somewhere also.

So there was the party on Friday. More people came than I thought would. They just kinda came with their friends. It was awesome and everyone had a really good time. I cut my finger on a glass bottle though. not smart. Then most everyone slept for a couple hours and then we got up and ready in about 15 minutes. all 14 of us. some people even showered in that amount of time. amazing right? Then we left for district conference. We were there all day. But the last couple hours they took us to a movie theater and paid for us to watch a movie :D. it was awesome. Then I lost my bus home by two minutes. So I was going to have to wait two hours by myself in a strange city in a chair at the bahnhof. my friends completely saved me though. Panda, Al, and Gavin asked me what i was doing and I told them. They were completely surprised, asked why I didn't say anything, then said I had to go with them. So I did and we hung out pretty much all day. Then I took the train with them and went home. It was a goodish day. I wanted to go to the party with them after but i had to stop by home first and there werent any buses and trains there any more. So I slept. Then today is my host moms bday so we're going out to dinner.

Had to add alot to my speech last night. Hopefully its long enough now. I'll do it again outloud today and practice so I know how long it is. I can't think of anything else I could possibly say. I've covered all my bases. Currently I am eating strawberry shortcake and planning my party for tomorrow! yay!! And... i have absolutely nothing else to do today. I wanted to go to muenster but my friends backed out :(

Finally printed off my speech and cut it out and pasted it to notecards all in order so i dont get confused. Even double spaced and made it 14 size font cause i really dont wanna get lost. I'm really worried its not gonna be long enough though. Even after all this work and I have it all perfect. I'm probably just gonna have to comment on a few extra things that wont be written it. like explain a picture or tell a short story. So more people seem to be coming to my party :) hopefully it will be something around 20 people. not all staying the night of course. ok well im gonna go practice my speech in front of the mirror with the powerpoint presentation so i know how long it is and get it better flowing. Besides that I really dont have much to do today. Maybe I'll watch a movie or something. And shower def. i kinda need to even up my hair since i cut it myself the other day.

Went to amsterdam today with Alexandre, Lindsay, Joanna, and Bruna. Our teacher Herr Rose took us. We went to the Anne Frank Museum. Her house. It was so sad but completely interesting and I read I think every possible thing I could read and watch and look at. I touched what I could touch... just so I can say hey... I touched the same sink handle that Anne Frank did. The same walls she spent so long pasting pictures on to make it seem more lively. I couldnt take any pictures though... i was really upset about that. but i understand why they would make that rule.

Sadly we're already having a problem with the party. Most of my exchange student friends dont wanna come cause we have district conference the next day earlyish. I don't see the problem as long as they bring their blazers and we all leave the next day together. but then jaime pointed out that everyone needs to shower. I was like... well cant they shower right before they come over? the party starts at night... but he said that everyone stinks after a party. which is true. but are they really gonna stink THAT much that EVERYONE would have to shower right away in the morning? they can't wait until they get home after district conference?

So I'm having a party at my house on Friday with maria! We decided we needed a reason to party so it's gonna be my goodbye party since I'm leaving a little over a week later. Officially only two weeks left. time flys. I'm actually really excited for it. I'll probabaly wear a dress and stuff since its technically my party now. Tomorrow I don't have school so I'm not sure what my plans are for tonight or tomorrow. I should probably get on packing but that wont take two days. If I actually get on it and do it then it will be done in like one night. Then I'm all packed for two weeks. I'm not sure if I should wait a little bit longer or not. I'm packing a year but I already have one suitcase packed. And I'm not sure if I should just leave out one weeks worth of clothes and pack the rest or pack it all and live out of the suitcase. my toiletries would be the thing I'd have to leave out but I'm not bringing those with me anyway. My toothbrush and toothpaste ya I guess, but I can get new stuff. same with deodrant. but my shower stuff stays. my razor I'll bring. I finally finished my speech yesterday I think. So now its just time to print and practice it.

Added some of the latino music to my ipod haha. i had alexandre write down the names to the songs they always play. Not that anyone will know the difference except me but still :D. long weekend this weekend. I think I'm gonna chill in my room and watch movies. Theres a party tonight but i opted out. it was gonna be mostly spanish speakers.

Finally went to the doctor today. I have some antibiotics and now I'm ready to go! A little over two weeks left and I'm finally ready to come home. I'm just gonna write my speech, pack my things, and enjoy the time I have left in preparation. I'll go to parties when I can and keep hanging out with my friends. Hopefully I can go to amsterdam on tuesday and see the anne frank house. Nothing else really to do today except this speech. Time to really get it finished up!

hey sorry I haven't blogged in awhile. I don't really get on the computer when I have friends over. So there was the week with victoria. We had a really big sleepover at my house with ten people during the week when we didnt have school but thats really all to say about it. We went to oberhausen earlier that day and then met some exchangies there and they tagged along. The next day we laid out in the sun in the back yard. I got a sunburn on my back and a little color everywhere else haha. The sunburn looked really bad but it faded a bit each day so it wasnt so bad. it was just sore. Then it was adventure weekend. I was camping with all the exchange students in my district and some from out of my district that were on our euro tour. There were also the german kids going on exchange next year there. So maria was there. We went canoeing and swimming and had big bonfires and went to a beer garden. But we were only allowed one beer. I'm pretty sure some people drank more than one though haha. That night I got sick though and threw up :/. not from the beer. I had apparently had just way too much sun. We had been laying out pretty much all day and walking. So ya. sun exhaustion. its not fun. I was freezing but my body felt steaming to the touch and I was grumpy and my stomache hurt. The next day everyone went home and when I got home I slept pretty much all day. Then got up and threw up again. Then teddy came over cause he needed a place to stay the night until he could take the train in the morning. I threw up again while he was there. I was so sick and I felt terrible that he chose my house to have fun and stay at and I was too sick to really hang out. We ended up falling asleep during the movie and just going to bed. I've been sick and in bed pretty much ever since then. My throat hurts too though and im not sure why. I'm gonna try to go to the doctor tomorrow since the rest is ok now. I cant imagine what my throat has to do with sun exhaustion so that must have been a separate problem. like a sickness i got while i was sick cause my body was weak. Today I felt well enough to leave the house. So I went to a small get together of the exchange students at my school and our teacher at his house. we bbqed and ate ice cream and swam. hopefully on tuesday we'll all go to amsterdam and visit the anne frank house since the england trip wont work. monday i dont have school. thats about it.

Victoria came last night. Her train got in at 7:30. I picked her up and then we walked back to the house and watched movies. We went to school today but it was all rainy so we got wet cause we had to walk all the way to and back from school. Then we watched the breakfast club together after eating lunch and a little bit of hoodwinked. I had a deutsch lesson that she had to sit in on. More like the teacher made her participate in. haha. Then we just kept on with the movies and watched house bunny and then anchorman. Now we might watch step up 2 but since its kinda late then maybe not. we'll prob put it on and fall asleep. Tomorrow we have late school and then we'll go to oberhausen. Since we have thursday and friday off school I'm hoping to have a big sleepover tomorrow night also.

Victoria comes today. Alot later I think. like after 6:30. She said afternoon but she said she was going to a city with her friend. I'm wondering if she meant she was actually gonna look around in that city or her friend was only traveling that far with her and then she would go on. She'll be in that city at 3:30 and it takes 3 hours to get from there to here. So I hope she doesnt think she has time to visit around. We have early school tomorrow. And we have to walk so we gotta get up a bit earlier. Short school today though! only had three classes. No german class today either. not till tomorrow. My friends got back from london today. But I'm sure they're tired so no seeing them today.

So yesterday I got up and ate and then got ready for this family event I had going on. It was the 25th wedding anniversary of my host uncle and aunt. Apparently this is a really big deal in germany. Because I didn't realize first off that I needed to dress up. But Maria and my host mom picked an outfit out for me real quick. I had to wear a dress and tights and my cardigan and my nice flats. It started at 4:30. I thought oh... we'll be done by say... 7 or so. Maybe 9 if it goes a little late. oh no. i was so incredibly wrong. First they had this big church service about it. Then everyone moved to this restaurant where we had the whole thing to ourselves in this big room. For a long time everyone just talked outside and drank champagne and beer and such. congratulated the couple and gave them gifts. not to mention that it was kinda raining on and off and it was quite chilly. So we finally went inside. We didn't start eating until at least 7. Then it was a several course meal with plenty of time in between each course. Then they had a slide show of old pictures and such. Then they had us all get up and they started moving the tables so that the band could play their music and everyone could dance. Drinking and dancing. which continued. and continued. and finally we were some of the first people to leave. wanna know what time? 3. 3 in the morning. I was exhausted. I wanted to go home way before then. My feet hurt and my mind was on overload. Maria wasn't happy about going home but I stopped caring at that point. Once I got home I crashed. I fell asleep before I hit the pillow I'm sure. Then I woke up this morning and couldnt get to sleep after ten o clock. I'm not happy. I wanted to sleep in desperately.

Alrighty so I have it all worked out with my school and my host fam. Victoria is staying with me for the week before adventure weekend. I'm not sure if she comes on monday or sunday though. Yay for the weekend!!! I can sleep lol. And since most of my friends are out of town it seems my weekend is gonna be fairly calm. Not much to do. I should start putting together my ending speech though. really. I have to give it in like 25 days or something. on the 21st of june. I think I'll start that today. It will be best to do it slowly over several days because there will be less mistakes and it will be better thought out that way I think. Maybe I'll just go through my pictures today so I can get an idea of the highlights of my speech so I can write an outline. I'm starting to crave the food and stuff of back home.. so I think my body knows the time is coming soon. its starting to revert back into its old ways. I seem to always be going into the kitchen and looking for something to eat but nothing looks appetizing and I can't figure out what I want. The weather has not been looking good. I was soaked this morning driving my bike to school in the rain. And it wasn't warm rain either. Isn't it supposed to be summer? cause it looks and feels strangely like the very beginning of spring.

Oberhausen was fun. We were only there a couple hours to get a belt for tif and get her computer fixed. Just had to drop it off at the mac store and talk to the guy about the problem of course. Then I came home and a friend of mine came over for like two hours. I wish they would have stayed longer though :(. Then I went to bed early. Today was school and then I picked up the duffle bag for the flight home. After that I've pretty much been chillin in my room all day. NOt much else to do. Dominik might come hang out with me later, but I'm not sure. MOst of my friends are in London until Monday. :/ school kinda sucks with out them. NOt that it was ever my favorite thing in the world... but yous get it. And... tomorrow is.. friday friday gotta get down on friday... the day before is thursday.... after that is saturday. partyin partyin ya! partyin partyin ya! Rebecca Black.... singing the song.. Friday. look it up if you havent heard it yet. it gets the award for worst song of the year. then glee did it in an episode. it sounded good... but it will never be good. the lyrics are just too dumb. please look it up. it really is entertaining and great for inside jokes.

Tomorrow I have no school because the upper class is graduating. So I'm gonna get up early still and meet Tif in Oberhausen. She want to buy a belt an drop her computer at the mac store. Then I'll come back in the afternoon and hang with friends. Most of them are leaving on thursday for london and wont be back until monday so I have to hang out with them while I can. Today I went to school and picked out the duffle bag I'm gonna buy in my free period. My new hair reminds me of a small furry animal but im not sure exactly what it is yet... perhaps a squirrel?

So I don't REALLY have anything to say today. I went to school, but when I went to chemistry class... no one was there. I couldn't figure out why except my class must be cancelled. but it wasnt on the cancelled classes board. Once I was in my next class, physics, i realized... uh oh... the chemistry class wasnt there because... i had english. not chemistry. oops. I had my deutsch lesson today. and died a streak of blonde in my hair because i had two other friends who did the same thing and we decided to just do it together. It's more red than blonde though. i guess it looks like a really dark strawberry blonde so its not too bad. Then I went through all of my stuff and threw the stuff away I wasnt gonna bring back with me and i didnt need. I weeded out the old clothes and trash and school papers... everything. it was sad to do. but it needed to be done. hopefully now all my stuff will fit in the other suitcase and the duffle bag im buying. plus my two carry ons. i know that seems like alot, but when you go on exchange... this is my life for a year im packing up. you collect alot of stuff. at least triple what you came here with. But I weeded out a TON of clothes that I never wore or I wore out too much. And all the junk stuff that wasnt worth keeping as a souvenoir. So now its a count down.

Good weekend. Jehna was over and it was great seeing her again. We went to anna's on friday but it was just a few of us and everyone was asleep pretty early. We went shopping in oberhausen and such. Overall pretty good, I'm just abnormally tired today. totally weird.

I ended up loading pics to facebook yesterday, watching movies, and then having a different friend over haha. Today I also don't have anything to do. So I think I will take a nap maybe? I've considered going out to see a movie. I'm not sure. Maybe I'll watch more movies or something. my life is boring this week! I'm just counting down to the weekend!!!

Well I was supposed to have a friend over today but they cancelled :(. But this weekend is the big one! I'm sooo excited! 7:30 on friday it starts. I'll pick up Tif and Jehna at the bahnhof. yay!!!!! I only had three classes today so not much else to do. guess its gonna be another day of uploading pics to facebook ahah

Alrighty! I'm back. I didn't really get on the computer while kaykay was here. Everything went well I think. Smoothly definitely and it was really really nice to see some fam. Jehna is coming to my house this weekend! my aussie friend from euro tour. me and her and tif will have a whole weekend sleepover. its gonna be awesome!! And tomorrow is my sleeping in day so yay!!

So I finally got a good nights sleep last night. I went to bed at a reasonable time and got up at 8:30 for school because it was my sleep in day. I actually dreamed alot and I haven't done that much lately either. The past few nights I've just been laying in bed all night and not really sleeping until 5 o clock. Then sleeping until 6:30. I'm not sure why I was having these troubles. Now tonight I need to go to bed quite early because I have to catch the bus in the morning at 6:30. Which means to be early to the bahnhof and walk there so I don't mess up my hair on the bike... I need to leave my house at 6:05. Fun stuff right? And David better not be late.... if he isn't there 10 minutes early like we planned or at least five so we dont miss the bus, bad things will happen. To him, and the situation will be bad. If he is a bit late for our meeting time then ok, but late for the bus can not happen lol. Very full day tomorrow! Kay kay get ready for germany!!

So during tutor group today we were talking about Anne Frank and the museum in Amsterdam. I expressed a very large interest in seeing it. Unfortunately the class trip we could hitch a ride on leaves in July. Of course I'll already be at home. The others could go but it kinda defeated the purpose when it was me originally who wanted it. So Herr Rose came up with this. MAYBE, he still needs to figure out how much it would cost and the particulars, we can go, just us exchangies at my school together one weekend. And we would do a bit more too. We could leave on friday and go to Amsterdam. Then catch a ship and stay the night on it and Spend a day in New Castle, England!!! Then again on the ship or a hotel and back to Amsterdam for the final day where we can spend all day in Amsterdam and seeing the Anne Frank house and whatever else we want to see there. I'm so excited I really hope it works out. All my friends are going to London all together for like 5 days in the end of May and I'm not because it was way too late notice for me. They decided for sure they wanted to go and tried planning it a few days before tour. It wasn't completely planned or even permissed for them to go until after euro tour. And they moved the date now twice. Each time a week later. So I didn't jump aboard that boat. So I'm very excited because this gives me a chance to see England! Not london... but at least England. Thats about it for exciting news for today. just the day after tomorrow until I get to see FAMILY!!!

Stayed home sick today. My throat was hurting and my head and I was sooo sleepy. I didn't feel super sick or anything, but I wanted to stay home and make sure I didn't get more sick by going about my daily activities. I thought it would be better to rest so I'm not sick when Kay kay comes. Speaking of, I FINALLY bought the train tickets today. It took forever to figure it out but I got it and now we dont have to be stressed about getting there early to buy the tickets and still making the train. But I'm a bit worried cause some of the train changes are very close together. I think one we only have four minutes to get to the next train. I think its just the next one over though so it should be ok. The weather today is hot! And It seems like its gonna stay that way for awhile. yay for shorts and tshirt weather! there were even a few tank tops goin around.

Happy Mother's day!! I'm waiting for either one of mine to get on skype or get out of church currently. Today makes me miss home a bit... I'm also trying to upload more euro tour pics on to facebook but it wont let me approve them!! I use picasa cause its faster and facebook is messing it up :(. My goodness facebook! Get yourself together!! I wanna show everyone Budapest! lol

So yesterday I wasn't sure what to do with myself cause it was friday and I had no plans. I decided in about two minutes that I should go to the Oberhausen mall. Then I decided that Alexandre had to come with me cause he was prob the best choice. So I called him up once I got home and we worked it out and I took the next train. He got on at his stop and we were off! Once in Oberhausen we ran into three other exchange students from our district. Taylyn (canada), Georgia (Australia), and Johanna (Finland). We ended up hanging out with them in the mall and they invited us to go bowling with them in Ddorf later. So we met up with alot of other exchangies in the ddorf bahnhof and went bowling. This included Tiffany. Then we slept over at Taylyn's house and left in the morning. Not Alexandre though. He slept at another Brazilian's house cause he was already supposed to be going to ddorf today to hang with them. Now I'm back home and I have no idea what I want to do. Theres a party but I don't particularly want to go... I guess I'll figure it out!

alrighty so yesterday my day turned around from nothing to do to a whole lot haha. After school I got the call that Panda was definitely coming later. Then apparently a huge group of exchange students were all coming to borken that day. In short, I had about 12 or more exchangies all in my house all evening. We sat around and talked and drank box wine and ate pizza and danced and listened to music. I also spent all day today at school updating my diary from euro tour. Literally... all day. There was so much we did each day. My wrist was dying by the end. I'm still not done... and today all I had to write was the second half. The first half I actually wrote while on euro tour. So it took 8 class periods to write most of the second half of euro tour. each class period is 40-50 minutes. Isn't that crazy? Then I came home and ate. And then I decided to take a nap. I set my alarm for two hours later and went to sleep. I woke up four hours later with four missed calls and two texts and my alarm turned off... I have no idea how that happened.

Oopsie! I made a mistake last time. I wrote Beebee was coming when i meant Vicki. Sorry guys! Today I stuffed myself with yummy rotary meeting food and dessert and had my deutsch lesson. I'm gonna miss a little school when the fam is here, but I talked to my teacher in charge and he said it was fine and told me what I had to do. Basically just type it up in a formalish proposal. Only really stating that I would like to miss school at this and this time on these days and why. And he'll sign it and then wahla!! Finished. You know whats LOADS of fun? Doing nominative, dative, accuisative, and genative in conjunctive sentences with a comma in German. Seriously... you should try it sometime. I had to think so hard in german that I was having a really hard time separating my german and english when spoken to in english. And english started sounding really funny today. If anyone spoke it, it was like I wanted them to say it quietly cause it sounded wrong. Like one of those things that you hear or see and you cant help but twitch a bit. oh well. So that was my day. And herr rose changed my schedule AGAIN. grr. But its not that different so its all good.

Ok so I'm back. That really was THE BEST three weeks of my life. I miss it so much already, I just want to be back on tour with everyone. I miss the bad and the good parts of it. As someone put on facebook: we miss the 6:30 wake up calls every morning after a late night every night, being counted constantly, eating crappy breakfasts and cheap fast food all the time, spending hours upon hours on the bus, sleeping with anywhere from 4-12 people in one room, always getting yelled at to stay in groups of at least three, and hearing "Vamos! Rapido! Schneller!". But most of all we miss just being together and living as a group like one big family. Even the rotex miss being on tour. I've seen just about everything I've ever wanted to see in life and experienced what I could. Panda and I both agreed we can die happy now :D haha. I absolutely loved euro tour and have so many stories and memories from it that will last my entire lifetime. I have a feeling that for the rest of my life I will be craving being on tour with those same people again. We're all gonna be in our 90's and we're gonna get on facebook and try to set up a meeting so we can all hang out for an extended time again ;) :P. And now.... I have only two months left of my exchange. A few members of my family are coming to visit me in a week and a half :D including my grandma kaykay, two great aunts being beebee and aunt wanda, and my great uncle james. Today I have a german lesson and tomorrow I have a rotary meeting and a german lesson. It seems that things are starting to wind down this year... with only two months left I need to start preparing my end of the year speech to rotary and start going through my clothes and throwing away the old bad ones and replacing them with the new ones. Since I've worn jeans pretty much all year around this year so far they have gotten really worn out. So I'm going to have to throw away a few pairs of those and replace them before leaving. I'll also have to start going through all my papers from school and such and throwing away what I don't need to or want to keep. It's sad having to think about this again... but its time to start winding down my year. But I wont concentrate on leaving until I have to :D.

Today is the day!!!! I'm soooooooooooo excited. only three and a half hours now until I leave. I'm gonna watch movies and make peanut butter cookies to make the time pass by quicker!! So I'm off! I'll write if I can... if not... don't take it personally ;)

Euro tour is tomorrow!!! Horrayyyyyy!!!! Best three weeks of my life here I come!! Got my hair cut and a few highlights in today. Red ones. I needed to lighten it up a bit for spring. I was looking into blonde but the stylist said red would look alot better so I took her word for it. She was right. I'm sooo excited for tour. I'll try to get in one more entry tomorrow before I go. The tour is three weeks long and I'm not sure when I'll have wifi so if I can then I'll get in an entry or two. Don't get mad if you go three weeks with out an entry though! ;)

2 days until euro tour!! Tonight I'm gonna really get the ball rollin on packing. Finally made a list of everything I'm gonna need and now I'm gonna start goin down the checklist. I've had some clothes thrown in there for awhile now, but now I'm gonna start packing toilettries and such. Or what I can pack that I wont need for tomorrow and thursday morning. I was hoping to pack light... but it doesn't look like I'm actually capable of such a feat. I really thought I would pack bare minumum... but then the list of things I absolutely needed just kept getting bigger. Like I can't just pack one pair of jeans. What if its a bit colder in a few of the countries and I need to wear jeans? Then I can't just have dark jeans. I need to have a pair of light ones too. And not just skinny jeans, I have to have a pair of boot legged. Then I need to have a skirt. But I can't just have a flowery cloth one! I have to have a jean skirt too just in case for weather or if the outfit isnt right or if the other is dirty when i need it. And thats kinda how the thought process goes... just like I can't bring only one perfume... gotta have a different one for all the different occasions that might happen lol. You understand my packing issues? I think Joana is coming over today. Unless she forgot... which is likely. hahah well I'm just gonna pack until she gets here.

Maria was very pleased with her birthday gift today. The family came over after school and we ate cake and played games. Then after they left we went to a restaurant for dinner and I ate a huge burger and wedge fries and I am completely stuffed. I have a total food baby. Then my host parents gave me a big ole glass of some fruity champagne. So now I am completely exhausted and off to bed!

Had an absolutely amazing shopping experience yesterday! Got everything I needed and more and still had money left over from what I budgeted. I think I'll go get one of those flowery skirts that are so popular here and maybe some tan panty hose or a tank top. That is springy and also really in right now. I should probably be packing for the best three weeks of my life right now... but i don't really have the energy. I made and bought marias birthday gift last night. Stayed up super late. I think I'm just gonna do nothing today. Like stare at my computer screen and not even process the movie playing on it doing nothing. That sounds great to me.

Less than a week to go! Tiffany is over today and we're just hanging. We went to the store and bought everything we needed and made tacos! it felt so good to just eat homemade tacos haha normal food. I havent had tacos is seven months. David also came over and helped us make the guacamole. totally delicious. Then we walked him to his bus. Tomorrow is shopping for euro tour!!

So I had a bit of an adventure this morning. All was going smoothly until I accidently ate breakfast a bit late. Five minutes late. So I had exactly enough time to get to class. But then as I was walking out the door I realized that I had no idea where my bike key was. I must have lost it! There was no way I could get to school on time with out it! So I frantically searched everywhere for it. I was going so fast it only took me five minutes to realize that it wasn't anywhere. I started thinking about where I might have dropped it... knowing I was already at least five minutes late. Then a thought occured to me... maybe I left it in my bike? Maybe I forgot to lock up my bike yesterday and just got off it and parked and never took out the key. No... I'd never do that right? I've never done it before.... but I looked outside and sure enough. There was the key in the bike... So I was gonna be five minutes late for nothing. But determined to be at least less than five minutes late I pushed myself as fast as possible to get to school ontime. I was only two minutes late instead of five. I've never gotten to school that fast. I know three minutes doesn't seem like a big deal, but it totally is when the ride to school takes 10 when I'm going at a good speed. Its almost three km. So I walked into the school and I was pep talking myself for walking in late when I walked past the hang out room for when kids have free periods. A few people from my class were there... so I walked to the lists of cancelled classes and realized that I wasn't late for anything. I didn't even have class. So then I had two free periods in which I listened to my ipod the entire time in the hang out room. Then after school I was gonna go to my sport class with bruna for the first time but the doors were locked. Not sure what was up with that. And I'm supposed to have it tomorrow morning but i have absolutely no idea where it is cause its in a totally different class room. One that isnt in our school building. But I'll go to art for the first time tomorrow. I've got to at least do that.

accidently slept in today :( but its ok. i got to school in time for religion. Then I've spent all day reading :). Tomorrow there is a test in math so i dont have to go to school till 9:30. yay!!

So today I have a deutsch lesson and then after that Alexandre and Bruna are making speeches to rotary so im gonna go along and eat free food. I showed up to school today at normal time and I could have slept in :( oh well. OH and Australia is playing germany today so apparently Lindsay is going there.

9 days until euro tour!!! I didn't have school today, but I do have a deutsch lesson that I completely forgot about until Maria reminded me. I slept in super late on purpose so I could get as much sleep as humanly possible before having to face the week. Maybe I'll just go to bed early every day this week or something. If I can sleep the week away then euro tour will come faster!! It's a fool proof plan. I'm gonna start my new schedule this week too. I think anyway. I don't see the point in doing it before euro tour, but it works.

I just realized I spelled poured wrong on the last entry. I'm not sure if that is due to my english getting worse or fast typing. Either way I have now corrected myself. The party last night wasnt all that great. We were only there for a couple hours then went to sleep at Alexandre's house. But Maria's concert was awesome! There were some really really talented singers up there. Some of them I wondered why they were singing on that stage for 7 euros a ticket when they could be on broadway. Maria sang her solo beautifully. I was so proud! And she wore my dress that I wore to my ball room dancing ball and it looked perfect on her and for the song she sang from Sister Act. They sang alot of songs I was unfamiliar with but they did sing quite a bit from Sister Act and Legally Blonde and even Enchanted! haha. Their vocal teacher is from the USA, but I'm not really sure from where. I honestly can't place her accent. But when she speaks deutsch its pretty much the funniest thing ever. I can barely understand her accent is so strong. :D

slept 14 hours last night :D It was great. Tonight Maria has her singing concert and then I'm gonna go hang out with friends after. Theres a party in Raesfeld tonight. an official german party so we probably wont stay too long. Last time we got lots of drinks and such pored on us and it wasnt very enjoyable... drunk germans.

Got up at 8:30 today but I was still exhausted when I woke up. Then I went through school... a few people might come over today but I'm not sure. If they do then we are just hanging out.

Today I had a full day of really boring classes. I also cut myself shaving and now i have this big ole cut all the way up my calf muscle. maybe thats a sign I should change my razor? next time I'm getting better ones. it feels like these dont last long at all and arent nearly as good as my old ones. im so tired. I'm sooo going to bed early tonight. and ill get up a bit later tomorrow. woo!

I forgot something very important!!!!! On monday I got the WONDERFUL news that I will be in the second tour! By some miracle, they changed me and I am so so so excited. That is where Tiffany is and such and my mood has durastically changed ever since. So thank you so much God. I prayed and prayed about this and it happened. it just goes to show that if you really really want something and pray for it, and it is in God's will then it WILL happen. Tiffany came and visited me from cologne today. She was only here a few hours but it was nice to see her again. I've gotten so close to my exchange friends. I end up missing them as soon as they leave. Even if I know I will just see them again the next day or in a week. My school made me a new schedule. So now I don't get to sleep in on mondays :(. only once a week on wednesday and only until 8:30. but ill take it of course. better than 6. And I went from having 9 free periods to having 5 a week. oh well. So now art and badmitten have been added to my schedule. And they also changed me to a different english class. Fun stuff! not.... but its ok. i wonder if the art teacher is gonna care that im not good in art at all.... in fact im kind of terrible. but all the other exchangies are in art so it must not be too bad.

Yesterday I had my deutsch lesson and afterwards everyone kept missing their buses so they ended up staying until like 9 at night hahaha. We went to my host parents' supermarket and such. Then went downstairs and had a very heated conversation about world politics. hard to believe i know. exchange students hahah and today another deutsch lessson.

So we ended up not going to that restaurant on thursday. Instead we went and met up with Bruna, Jaime, Sonja, Alexandre, and Roberta. We just walked around town and then hung out at Bruna's place. We ended up staying until like 9 something. Then went home. The next day I went to school, met with Tiffany after school, walked to my place and dropped off our bags, and then walked to the bahnhof to catch the bus to Muenster with Bruna, Alexandre, and Lindsay. Then after that we went to the american restaurant. It was good. Like a typical burger, wings, and fries place. The way it was set up and done was actually like in the USA. It felt nice to be in that setting and eating that food again. Then we caught the bus home and hung out some and slept. The next day we walked into Borken to do a bit of shopping, but most of the stores were closed because it was a saturday. So we went back home and chilled on the computer until everyone came over and we got ready for the party. Then we all went and it was ok. It was me, Bruna, Tiffany, Alexandre, Lindsay, Joana, Jaime, Roberta, Rafa, and David. I ended up in kind of a bad mood though because the drunk people at the party kept spilling drinks on us and one guy thought it was hilarious to head butt me while I was walking past. We left at like 2 and walked back to my house. There we all hung out for awhile until the people not staying over here left. When they left we all went to sleep. When I woke up this morning all my friends were gone. I guess they decided to leave early morning and didn't want to wake me.

Today I will go with my friends to an american restaurant we found near by! they sell hot wings and burgers and all that. The owners are actually from the USA so I'm hoping for the best! But we aren't meeting until 6:45.... so what to do until then? no idea.

Sorry I haven't blogged for a bit. the internet was out! Nothing much happened though. Stefan came over for like two hours on tuesday. David was here too. And then everyone showed up and we had our deutsch lesson. We should be finding out pretty soon about which tour we are in. Bruna and Alexandre are coming over today just to hang out. We have absolutely nothign else to do. Tiffany is coming over again this weekend and we will have another chill day on friday and on Saturday there is a party my host sister is helping to put together and we will go there. Euro tour is in three weeks!!

Today I will be watching a list of movies I miss online! :D like the notebook and moulin rouge and i will watch p.s. I love you for the first time ever.

Yesterday had a few friends over. Today Tiffany is here and we have been doing silly american girl things like over eating and watching girly movies and eating lots of ice cream. Now we'll go to bed I think. At least I've laughed alot recently! feels nice to get a good laugh. It gets kinda rare sometimes.

Bought my lovely summer dress today :) I'm very happy with it. It's pale blue with white butterflies and small polka dots on it. Euro tour is in less than a month!!! I'm so excited you have no idea. Its been raining alot lately. but I take that as a good sign because that rain is rain and not snow or ice. So that means its really warming up. Which means.... SPRING!!! then summer!! I can't wait to wear shorts and dresses and flowy shirts again :D. I hope euro tour has really nice weather.

Went to Münster today! Found the perfect summer/spring dress I wanted for euro tour. Tomorrow I'm gonna go back and buy it :). Then friday and saturday I'm having friends over and there is a party at my school we are going to friday night. Thats all I think. Start counting down to euro tour!

Karneval was awesome! There was this huge parade with all these different people and the floats were like big political cartoons. I got lots of candy and a plastic ducky. And I got hit in the head with a bounty bar... it hurt. It was really funny cause the people on the float were drinking alcohol with one hand and tossing candy with the other. And everyone was singing songs and dressed up and a whole bunch of people were really drunk. I got to go to the Karneval museum and go swimming later. It was lots of fun :).

Ok so today I will pack everything for the weekend and bake banana bread! For rotex weekends we always have to bring cake or salad so I'm bringing delicious banana bread. It will be a group effort with Maria and I and two other friends. Hopefully it wont over flow or anything this time. Thats it for today. Then tomorrow is the rotex weekend in Ddorf!! Karnival!!!

Sooooo bored today. I have absolutely nothing to do. Maybe I can go to Münster for a few hours or something with Bruna. Cause she doesnt have anything to do either. I bought my fun ticket yesterday so I want to get my use out of it.

Not too much to report. I did as I said and went to school then the rotary meeting yesterday. Then I went home for the deutsch lesson. After that I walked Lindsay to the bahnhof and ate some mcdonalds ice cream :). then went home and had Maria dye my hair. At last I went to bed after my nightly work out. Then today again was school. I have a new exchangie from Brazil here shadowing me in all my classes this week. Not through Rotary. She's nice, Johanna. then I went home, ate, went and got my hair cut, then went to Bocholt with the brazilians and hung out the rest of the afternoon.

School and then deutsch lesson today. Nothing real special, but tomorrow is the first of the month so i have money and a rotary meeting and a deutsch lesson. So tomorrow ill get Maria to dye my hair and then Wed. I'll go get my hair cut.

Slept in, got my deutsch homework done, and now I'm just gonna do absolutely nothing. Maybe put forth the effort to watch a movie and thats it.

Alrighty. So yesterday was another day of rushing. I knew I was going to Ibbenbüren with friends and we were going to go to a disko. But normally we would go late. I found out that day that we were taking the 4:30 bus and I had school until 2:30. So I was rushing around trying to get everything done quickly and get ready when I get a text saying we will take the 5:30 bus instead. HUGE relief. I sat back and relaxed and got everything done. Although thats still way earlier than I thought initially, its much better than 4:30. So we take the bus there. Its me, david, and jaime(MEX). then we meet gavin(USA) at the münster bahnhof. then we take the train to Ibbenbüren. First we met up with the other exchange students. Rafa(Ecuador), Santiago(Ecuador), Lia(Ecuador), and Valentina(no clue but she spoke spanish). Needless to say there was alot of spanish going on....me and gavin joined the i dont understand anything club so just follow the group. We met up with some of Rafa's german friends too and all went to the disko together later. I haven't been to a disko since deutschland tour with everyone :). It was fun. then in the morning we took the early trains home and I was back at home by 10 in the morning. Then I slept some until 2. And I could have slept alot longer, but I don't want my sleeping patterns so messed up. Now tonight I have a birthday party for a german guy friend of mine. And then I'll walk home with Bruna in tow and we'll sleep at my house. Then nothing is going on on Sunday. But a big week coming up!

Ok so a full day today! But its kinda late so I'm gonna try to make this quick. Woke up this morning to snow. Which I was NOT happy about. It was hard to ride my bike in cause german bikes have no traction so i face planted AGAIN for the second day in a row. I blame my two brazilians and the aussie because they wished for snow since they never have seen it. Luckily it melted by the end of the day. School was the same as always. But math was cancelled so yay!! Spontaneously we decided to take a Münster day trip so I rode home quick on my bike after school and dropped it off. Told my host parents and walked to the bus. So Alexandre, Lindsay, and I went to Münster until 8:30. We just walked around and went into a few shops. They bought their Karnival costumes. Lindsay a hippie and Alexandre is Zoro. Then Lindsay went home and once again quite spontaneously Alexandre and I decided to go with Uli to Bocholt. Turns out I ended up going bowling with Uli, Bruna, Ilana, Maye, and Alexandre. I won!!! for like the first time in my life. And Uli is on a bowling team so yay me!! Ilana is from Brazil and Maye from Mexico. Then Uli brought me home. And that was my day.

Not my favorite day in the world. Nightmares all last night. Very vivid so when I woke up I was still freaking out this morning. I felt so dumb being scared of everything and giving myself pep talks that its not real. Happens to everyone though right? I ended up being in the shower a bit longer than I planned because of my constant need to look around me and make sure there wasnt a chucky doll wanting to kill me. So this made me not have time to eat breakfast. So I had to pack it and go. Then I got on my bike and almost all the way down my street I finally realize theres a funny sound coming from my bike. And it has been making the funny sound since leaving the house. Flap flap flap flap.... So I look down and see my front tire is completely flat. Well I think I should try and make it to school anyway. I soon realized that would not be happening. So I turn around and because of the flat tire, my bike didn't turn correctly which resulted in me face planting the ground and getting a face full of cement. it was great. The best part was the lady walking her dog who got to see the whole thing and just stared. So I walked my bike home and just accepted that I was going to have to walk to school. All 2.5 km. And I knew I was going to be late. Because it takes 10 minutes to ride to school. And at least 30 to walk if you're going fast at a good pace. Then almost half way through the walk my ipod dies. completely. absolutely no battery. I guess it just wasn't in the cards for today for me to have an enjoyable or fast way to school. Well I finally arrived....25 minutes late for class. I was lucky I had Herr Rose. Since he is in charge of all the exchange students we are very familiar with each other and when I knocked, gave him an "Entschuldigung", and sat down; he didn't ask or say a word to me. Later that class he asked me questions about the task at hand (Music class) and I gave him perfect answers and stayed attentive. So after class when I went to him to apologize again for being late he said not to worry about it. These things happen and he really liked and appreciated my attentiveness and good answers in class that day. The rest of the day went by pretty smoothly. Got my bike fixed. Said goodbye to Thomas :(. Thats about it.

Tomorrow is Thomas' last day in Deutschland :(. He's an exchange student at my school from chile. But he's here through a different program for only three months. I'll be really sad when he leaves though. So tonight we all hung out at my house until now to give him one last hurrah. It was a nice time :). Nothing else much happened today.

I think the forces were against me today. I woke up late, didn't get to eat breakfast, and the weather was sunny with super cold wind. So good for walking cause you can put your hands in your pockets and still feel the sun. Terrible for biking when your hands are out and you forgot gloves. Its cold and you cant feel the sun and biking against strong wind is really hard and frustrating especially when you think you'll be late to school. And if I'm late to physics then I might as well not go cause the door locks automatically once it closes and it closes right on time. even if you are only about 30 seconds late. Then you have to knock on the door and make an entrance if they even let you in. And the wind made my eyes water really bad apparently. Cause when I got to school people were staring. I had two minutes until class by some miracle and I stepped into the bathroom where a random german girl looks at me and caringly asks if I'm ok. So I look in the mirror and it literally looks like I had been crying really bad. Huge tear streaks and eyes red and cheeks red. It was terrible. But I made it to class on time :D. Then the rest of the day has gone by with not so much incident. Well except for the driver that didn't stop when he was supposed to and tried to go on my turn and almost ran me over. And the cars that wouldn't stop to let me cross the street but didnt go fast enough for me to wait a second and cross like normal. This resulted in me letting my bike ride a bit too far waiting for them to pass instead of stopping and running into the tree and falling over. Then the lady decided to stop and let me pass. I waved her on while I got back on my bike. She parked like ten feet away at the kindergarten. And watched me ride by. It was great.

ok so something really funny happened today so I figured I would share it before I forgot. So I learned some new things about Brazilians today. The first being...they throw their used toilet paper in the trash can!! Because if they put any in the toilet then it over flows. So some of the Brazilians here thought they had to throw it in the trash! One of them was presented with a problem when there wasn't any trash cans in the bathroom at school. This was before someone explained to them that you can in fact put the paper in the toilet. So they put the used paper....on. the. floor.....hahahahahahhahahaahha it was a huge laugh for us. Then I found out that some Brazilian girls thought that girls can only use a tampon if you weren't a virgin.... So we had to explain that there are sizes and different types. Apparently they don't explain that in school or something. She thought it was gonna hurt or something. hahahhaha oh goodnes... good laughs today. I cried I laughed so hard.

It was a good time last night. We ate pizza and watched movies until we all fell asleep. It was low key, but nice and I would definitely want to do it again. It was easy and I got sleep and I was still around friends and had a good time. So I think I'll plan things like this more often. Today I have a rotary meeting with Herr Künstler with all the newbies at his house. I totally forgot about it until about 30 minutes ago. Then I freaked out a little bit and showered and got ready really fast. For some reason I thought I had nothing going on today and I was gonna chill and maybe sleep some more and stuff. Oh well. yay meeting!! enthusiasm is the key!

Once again I would like to thank all of you for being such great supporters. It really helps give me strength when I know that there is a whole bunch of you out there reading about what I'm doing and rooting for me from a far. Checked my stats today and this blog officially has 4,393 views! So thank you everyone! Today my plans were cancelled. Yesterday's plans were cancelled also. So yesterday I just chilled and went to sleep early and woke up late today. Today I made more plans instead! So Tiffany is coming down and spending the night tonight. And most likely Lindsay will join us in the city and perhaps Dominik (a guy from my school, german, not sure if I've mentioned him before). We would like to go eat pizza and maybe see a movie. Then everyone comes back to my place and hangs out. We'll talk and maybe put on a movie. Something like that. Probably all end up checking our facebook at some point :P. We're teenagers. If there is opportunity to get on our facebooks then we do. Thats one thing that doesn't really change all the way around the world. Did you know that in Germany they don't have myspace? so none of the germans have ever had one. They all have a german social network and you have to be invited to it. But most of them are getting facebook now. The problem being they might only have one picture.

Sooo tired. Think I'm gonna go take a nap and relax tonight. Bruna and Alexandre are coming over later to hang out. But thats about it. Another friend from school invited us to a party, but I'm skipping. I'm tired and I've never hung out with the guy outside of school before. So i'll make the smart decision and just stay home and sleep. Maybe it will kick the last of my coughing.

Nothing much to do today. Maybe I'll actually look up the British parliament for english class. I don't know. I don't have plans for tomorrow either. But theres a birthday party on Saturday that I'm going to and I'm really excited! Actually two. but the second one is the most exciting cause i know more people. One is my friend's party and the other is maria's friends. then i have a rotary meeting that sunday also. thats about it though!

I rode my bike 15 kilometers today :). I'm quite proud of myself. I will reward myself by having a nice workout before bedtime and sleeping early. Today was kind of a spontaneous day. At school I was talking to Bruna and we had a free period together. We ended up finally finding the indian costume she wanted (pocahontas, sp?). But we didn't have enough time for her to try it on and buy it so we decided right then that we would meet later that day again in the city and do that. Then we decided while we were together in the city all of the sudden that she would just come over to my place cause she needed to print out a recipe from the internet and I had nothing else to do. Then she had to leave because her spanish class (which included two other exchange students) were getting together to cook latino food at the school. So I ended up deciding as she was walking out the door to leave that I was going to go with her. So I did and it was so much fun! :) we all helped cook the food and then we all got to have a nice meal together. We talked alot and compared countries and laughed and cooked. Then we parted ways and went home. Well Bruna and I went home. The others stayed. but I decided to leave because I didn't know how late it would go. This is germany...it could go late.

So I haven't blogged for awhile. If you were waiting up for it then I'm so sorry about that. I've just been busy and there hasn't been much opportunity. Didn't want to blog right in front of my friends. It's kinda awkward. Ok so friday. I didn't have school :D. the german students only had two periods because they got their grades and my first two periods are always free on fridays. So no school yay!! But I got up at like 8 and drove with my bike to the school. There I picked up Bruna and we rode our bikes bike to my house. Then Coco (a friend of Maria) came over and Bruna, Coco, Maria, and I all took the 11:30 train to Oberhausen. The first thing we did is walked out of the bahnhof and ran smack into Diego (another exchange student through rotary from mexico). But he was just passing through. He was going to a friends house so we said hi and talked for just a few minutes. Then we parted ways. Then we went to the Centro (one of the biggest malls in germany and the main attraction in Oberhausen) and immediately found the Lego store :). It was there that we decided was the best meeting place for us and Tiffany. Tiffany is a good friend of mine who is an exchange student from New York and lives in Köln. We met in Chicago and were on the same plane to germany. So then we hung out at the mall pretty much the whole day. We ended up running into three more exchange students also. Panda (Canada), Leanna (Canada), and another girl from Brazil. I don't know her name because shes a newbie. So they hung out with us a bit, but the two girls had to leave earlier so Panda stayed and hung out with us for a couple hours until it was time to go home. During our stay at the mall there was much trying on of random clothing and visits to the mac store to play games (ninja fruit slicer :D) and to check facebook and email :D :D :D. It was a great time though. Then we went home and the other two girls in our group met up with us (panda went home, girls night). Nina and Sonja. then we went to the movie. Two guys from my school ended up coming along for the movie too then left afterwards. That movie was incredibly uncomfortable. Probably one of the most uncomfortable movies I've ever seen. Right up there with Bruno. If you have kids, don't go see it with them if you just have to see it. Black Swan. Remember it. Don't watch it with your kids or your parents. It is truly uncomfortable. But then we went home and talked. And then bed. Then the next day Tiffany and I went to Ibbenbüren. We spent the night with Morgan (USA) and went to this teen hang out place where they were holding a small concert. But we thought it was supposed to be acoustic night. Morgan got the dates wrong. It was hard rock. And not our type of music at all. Morgan was into it, but not me and Tiffany.l So by the end of the night we ended up outside talking to all the german people. Then we were home by midnight. We stayed up a little later on the internet and talking, but eventually went to sleep. I had four hours of sleep that night. We got up at 7 the next morning, had breakfast, and took the buses and trains back to my house. We hung out there for a little while then tiffany took her trains back home to Köln. After that I relaxed and did my deutsch homework. Then Monday was Valentine's day. Nothing special here in germany really. Went to school, had a deutsch lesson, then everyone stayed after the lesson because it is also my host brother Heiner's birthday. So he had some friends over and we all chilled in the garage. Then around 10 David, Lindsay, and Bruna left. So Maria and I went to bed about an hour later. Today we went on a field trip to the rock and pop museum. And that was cool. Outfits and guitars and information all about michael jackson, the rolling stones, the beatles, elvis, etc. Unfortunately no cameras were allowed :(. I also met Alexandre today. He's really cool. And his english is great. Then everyone came over afterwards and then we had our deutsch lesson. It ended about an hour ago so everyone is gone now...and thats what you missed!

Well I understood all the german you typed lol. I just haven't had anyone explain to me what Karnival is from and stuff yet. I'm sure they will do that at the rotex weekend. So my body still isn't behaving. Now my ear has alot of pressure. But I think I know how to fix it. So I'm going to work on that. Tomorrow I don't have school so me and some friends will go to Oberhausen and go to the mall there and have a girly day. then go to a movie and everyone spends the night. then the next day ill probably go to münster and spend the night with a friend there and have another girls night :D. fun stuff. endless talking and romantic movies!! yay!!

Fat Tuesday? whats that? I know jokes aren't funny when explained, but your gonna have to explain that one. Another deutsch lesson today of course. I've changed out of my outfit for the day and put on a big tshirt and pj pants. I feel like being comfortable. I'll change again if I need to. I met the new brazilian girl. She's really nice :). Her name is Bruna and she lives with my host sister's friend so we should be seeing alot of each other besides the fact that she goes to my school. She's even smaller than me! :D but in a good way of course. She's pretty much drop dead gorgeous. But feels the same way I do about being kinda intimidated by the german girls looks. They are almost all really tall, blonde, and have no curves of any kind. And we are...opposite lol. Especially Bruna who has really dark skin and long dark hair, and a really short petite body with huge curves in all the right places. Did you know in Brazil they train the girls to have big thighs and butts and small chest and tiny waist? Just like how the chinese used to bind girls feet to be really small. It's kinda cool though. No wonder they all have perfect bodies. It's enough to make any girl grab her man and run :P.

Went to school today :D. My mood is much lifted after getting out finally. I think I'm gonna see that movie black swan on friday too. I want spring!! The weather was fairly nice today, although a little windy and it makes me want that all the time! I put together my Karnival costume too. I just wanted something simple that I could make out of my own clothes. Cheap ya know? So I'm gonna wear all black, do my hair and makeup all crazy, wear alot of glitter, and a pair of cat ears. It works. I managed to cover almost all of my body and tried to make a point of being modest but still stylish and costumy looking :). I'm pretty proud to say I think I pulled it off. My host mom thought it was so cute :D.

Woke up early and went to church today. It was the big catholic one in borken. Maria got to be part of the service. I got alot of dirty looks from the old people all around though. Cause i didn't know all the chants or when to cross myself or kneel. But it was ok. Gave me time to think and pray to myself instead of with the congregation. It feels more real and meaningful that way anyway. The communion tasted like styrofoam.... but thats ok. I took it and that seemed to make my host mom happy. Cause she really stressed that I didn't have to. But I mean she stressed that I didn't have to go to church too. I did because I wanted to. And I'll probably go again next sunday if I can. I don't necissarily agree with the catholic ways but it at least gave me some time to think and pray in a church setting. The church was beautiful...

Slept in really late today on accident. I just kinda passed out. But i think it was for the best. I feel alot better since. Like my throat hasnt been hurting today and such. But I have been coughing more which isnt fun. Maria is going to a party tonight. I was originally gonna go with her, but I can't. I'm sick and the doctor said not to play sports or party for a few days or whatever. Besides that I've just been hanging out and watching movies with maria all day. not very active, but nice all the same. good for recovering.

Went to the doctor today. Amazing how completely vague a doctor can be. oh you have a viral infection. Thanks genius. I feel like poo so can you please tell me whats really wrong? I told him theres a big possiblity I have bronchitis again. But after everything he still said viral infection. Then proceeded to write me a prescription for two antibiotics to take three times a day. How that would help a virus? i dont know. But once I looked at the boxes later I realized they were for chronic bronchitis and sinuses... guess he was just too prideful to admit that a patient was right or something. idk. The other strange thing, he lifted up my shirt to examine me. I've never had a doctor do that before. It was totally weird. But apparently normal here in germany. I mean my host mom and secretary were there so its ok...but freaked me out for a split sec.

Still sick. Still completely miserable. I've now been sick for five days. Today was my breaking point. I'm going to the doctor tomorrow. Appointment at 11.30. they were somehow completely booked today. Guess theres only one doctors office in Borken or something. I'm so tired...but going to bed early doesn't help anything...I just lay there not able to sleep and sweating or shivering. Depending on the hour. You know whats humiliating? Not being able to stand long enough to put on your own pants. Maria had to help.... I've never been so weak and hopeless in my life I swear. I just wanna be better now.

Just woke up and it was three in the afternoon. But that's probably good cause I haven't gotten one our of good sleep in days. I've been a zombie. Finally I decided to take some ibuprofen and slept amazing. No more on and off hot and cold extremes or shivering or nightmares. It was great. So I ended up sleeping 17 hours. And I really feel so much better. Not sure if that is still the meds working or if this has helped my sickness go away alot...but either way its progress. I didn't go to school today. My host mom called them this morning. Last night we decided it was best for me to not go and that way I can at least have a day where I sleep and try to recover before it gets worse. Yesterday it took all of my energy just going up the stairs to get to class. Its only two flights.

aww!! Congrats Becca!!! I bet you are so proud of yourself and you should be. And no way! lol thats the first time ive actually stayed up all night here. all the other nights were just kinda late. I think I'm kinda sick. sleepless nights, shivering, throat hurts, no hunger, etc. not fun. But I got through it today cause i needed to go to my rotary meeting and my deutsch lesson. But thats about all for today.

I don't feel good. I'm starting to think maybe I'm sick again. It feels like the flu. I think its the weather cause it went from warm to really cold super fast recently. And im always in that weather cause i walk everywhere and ride my bike to school. speaking of, my bike broke today. idk how. after school i went outside, put the key in, and right before I got on...i realized that the pedals were almost totally unattached to the bike. I'm not sure if someone kicked it or what. so i had to walk 2.5 km from the school to my house, with the bike. it was fun. and very very cold lol. Deutsch lesson in an hour.

Exchangestudents get together was fun. But we stayed up all night talking so I am exhausted beyond recognition. Only slept for an hour once I got home. Thought I had a Rotary Meeting today, but Herr Künstler finally figured out that the brasilians are not here. So it is rescheduled for later. Going to bed early tonight and waking up late tomorrow.

Yes I did actually have a few of them watch that clip from hookwinked. They thought it was hilarious of course. Yesterday school seemed to drag on. Not particularly sure why. Maybe I was just ready for the weekend. I never used to look forward to the weekend, but now I do. hmm :) We went to that birthday party thing in the evening. It was all girls and we just sat around and talked and drank a glass of champagne, etc. Eventually we danced a little. We were only there until 11:30. Then I came home and slept like a rock after my nightly work out. I had been tired all day long. Set my alarm for 11:30 this morning because of the semi late night, but my internal alarm went off at 11. So I woke up 30 minutes early and came upstairs and ate a little breakfast. Then talked to Maria some. She just left to go shopping with her friend. I was gonna go but we were afraid that we wouldnt make it back in time for the exchange student get together later today. So now I decided to blog and check my facebook and such before I go and get ready for the day. I don't have to be ready until 5 technically, but ill probably get ready early and be done a few hours ahead. maybe wait to put my makeup on until a little later. Then David comes over at 5. And we'll meet Lindsay at the bahnhof McDonalds at 5:30. After that we'll take the bus over to Raesfeld at 6, its only a 15 minute drive with bus. And then we'll be at the get together. yay!! lol It's supposed to be the best one of the year so I'm pretty excited. I don't go to these that often. They have one like everyweekend, but I've only actually gone to one or two. It's too expensive to be going all the time. I'm really not sure how panda does it. He must have like...unending resources. but ya... so....im gonna go check my facebook and stuff now and then get ready for the day!

I'm getting excited for the weekend! :) sleeping in and hanging out with friends. It's gonna be a good one. I just have a feeling. Today I'm gonna study my deutsch a whole bunch and then relax. Maybe watch a few movies. I don't want to have to deal with studying over the weekend or worry about it. But right now I'm gonna go eat noodle rice, cheesy potatoes, and schnitzel. yumm :)

nothing too much happened the last couple days. I should have all my paperwork done by sunday. then ill send it off. I already told this to the lady i have to send it to. she said that all is good. so im about set for euro tour. on saturday im gonna hang with the exchangies at a rotex girls house. on sunday is the meeting with herr künstler. Besides that theres nothing really going on. I'm going swimming with maria today. and thats the extent of my plans.

ahhahaha i know im boring right now. but not a whole lot of major stuff has been going on. Its pretty much just smooth sailing at the moment. And what? wear greens, reds, and pinks as a redhead and look like that crazy woman from Nanny McPhee? No way. Today I met the new Australian exchange student. He's cool. Big redheaded guy named Lindsay. We got along well and there werent any awkward silences so its all good. AWW and Meghan's boyfriend Tim wrote me this little peotic story thing today. It was meant to cheer me up and it did. It was so cute. When Meg was here, she would draw him pictures and write stories (the both have a love for stick figures) and he would write songs and poems for her. So it meant alot that he spent the time to write one for me so we can feel better about her leaving. Cause hes a really quiet reserved type of guy and we arent real close or anything. I'm gonna take Lindsay to get a phone card tomorrow and then get a german friend to set him up on flatrate. On Sunday I have a meeting with my rotary guy to welcome all the newbies. And on Saturday theres a sleep over at a rotexers house with a whole bunch of exchange students that I want to go to.

Relaxing again today. Went to Maria's handball game and dyed my hair. Now I'll be doing nothing and liking it. Going to bed early cause I have to actually get up early tomorrow. On my big sleeping in day. Tomorrow is the day I'm meeting the new exchange student and getting him situated.

Nothing much to do today. Want to dye my hair. We'll see. Nothing else besides that. Time to relax I guess.

Ok so I think I'm finally getting my hair cut today. yay!!! but then it started snowing so im not too happy about that. I think I'll buy hair dye while in town also. Then tonight I'm going out to dinner. The rest of the weekend is pretty cleared out. I get to relax :). The new Australian student comes soon. I'll meet him on Monday and show him around the school. Play orientor like Meg did for me.

Nothing new today. Well, I think I'm going out to dinner with my sister and her friends tomorrow. But only because they invited me and no one is spending any of their own money. They are using the profits from the new years party. And since I helped alot with setting up and such, I'm going with them. But thats about it for today. Don't think I have any other plans.

Later I'm going to show my host family a whole bunch of pictures from home cause they really want to see :) I think I'm also going to one of Heiner's handball games today and maybe Maria's dance thing. No plans yet for the weekend. Once again the day seemed to go by pretty fast. Maybe its the obscene amount of reading I've been doing. I've ripped through two very long books in about a week. And these aren't easy reading. They are adult books. Murder mystery type books, which is odd because I've never liked this kind of book before. I guess when you're desperate for English reading material then you'll take anything. Good thing I have a whole bunch of books on my nook still to read.

Finally went to the bank and paid for euro tour. Whew... now on to the paperwork!! Bring it on. I'm actually almost finished with it. All I have to do is sign the rules, have the parentals sign a paper, pick up my official school paper, make more copies of my passport and residence permit, get my rotary club to sign the permission form, and send it all away. That sounds like alot now that I've typed it all out....but you have no idea how long that list was before. When it comes down to it, most of that can be done in about five minutes. Well...it can be put together quickly, if everyone does their part. Today school went by quickly for once. I got my quarterly report done today also. And my deutsch homework. Man I'm good :). Then in about an hour my deutsch teacher will arrive for our lesson. And David just a little before her. Then I'm going to relax with a book or a movie and food. Bernd bought two boxes of oreos just for me yesterday :D. What a nice brother.

I haven't sent any packages home yet lol. I'm still looking for the other part of Rebecca's gift since I messed it up the first time. And theres another gift I need to buy and I'm not sure what to do about it either. And I wanna send all my packages at the same time. Bank closes earlier than expected, so paying for eurotour tomorrow now. early. Deutsch lesson today. It was fine. David and I have lessons together again. Makes things easier on everyone. And I stress less. Afterwards we just kinda hung out and watched Hairspray. That's about it for today.

Party last night was fun :) I didn't really know many people though...so it could have been better. But the setting was cool. Tons of people and lots of lights and stuff. It was kinda like a disko. Relaxing today.... I think we're going to a restaurant later for dinner. And all of my siblings have/had handball games today. So idk...maybe we're going to one of those? Right now Maria is taking a nap and I'm gonna go downstairs and watch a movie and drink hot chocolate. I guess it's actually OK for us to take naps in this family :D.

So tonight I'll be hanging with Maria and her friends. I was gonna go transfer money for euro tour today, but apparently the banks are closed. :( guess I'll just have to do it monday. But I'm not too terribly worried, cause supposedly not one single person is completely signed up for eurotour yet. So all I have to do is the paperwork after this. Pretty simple stuff.

Düsseldorf was fun :) There was like 30 ppl that showed up. Thats almost half of our exchange group. Kinda crazy. Everyone loved Maria of course. Pity we had to leave at 1 though. Everyone else was staying there alot longer. Other than that my day was uneventful. School, home, food, get ready for Ddorf, etc.

More rain today...but better than snow. I'd definitely vote for rain before snow and ice. Although riding a bike in the rain isn't the most fun thing I've ever done. Singing was cancelled today so I got to be home for lunch. And in Physics they had a class test so I didn't have to go. I spent those two free periods reading my book and listening to my ipod. Nothing else particularly interesting today.

Went to school today. Ran into Jasmin during my free period so we hung out before class. After school I rode my bike home in the rain, getting very wet in the process. Then ate some of the best lasagna in my life after I changed my clothes. At 3 I walked into town and met up with David and Meghan. We went out to eat and then to Meghan's house so she could pack some. Then we went to Mcdonalds because they sell beer at McD's in Germany. We've always thought that was funny and promised that one day we were gonna go and get a cup simply to take pictures and say we bought beer at McDonalds. So we did all that....then it came time for Meghan to go because she had to say her goodbyes to her second host family. We all cried and hugged and said our very sad goodbyes and promises to keep in touch. David, Meghan, and I. Right in the middle of that McDonalds. Then kept crying outside. Then she got in Tim's car and they drove away. That's the last I will probably ever see of Meghan.

So today nothing much happened. Went to school, had rotary, etc. But on the way home I think I must have broken alot of biking laws.... cause ppl driving their cars got mad... sorry people. I am just happy I could ride the bike! I have no idea what the biking laws are. And I'm pretty sure that Germany has like a million. Cause David got pulled over from the police one time cause he was talking on his phone while riding a bike. Plus they have like...special stoplights and stuff for bikes. But how are we supposed to know what all the biking laws are? Why can't it be simple? oh well. I didn't get pulled over or anything. And I know for next time. On friday and saturday I have some plans with friends and my sister. This should be a fun weekend :). Gotta do something to get my mind off Meghan leaving. Deutsch lesson today at 5. fun stuff....

First day back at school today. And my first day riding my bike. It wasn't so bad. I didn't crash or anything. My biggest problem came after I had already gotten home. I couldn't figure out how to lock up my bike. Cause here each bike comes with a key. And the key locks or unlocks the back wheel. School was normal. Except a little more sad cause I had english and thats my class with Meg. And it's one of her last days of school. She goes back to Australia in four days. In the early morning on Saturday. I really want to go with her to the airport to see her off, but I can't figure out a way to get there. Her car is full unfortunately. I'm going to be very sad when she leaves :(. She's been one of my very best friends since the beginning. She oriented me and told and showed me what I needed to know to survive here. Except for the things that I needed to discover on my own. In that case, she knew just when to step out. She isn't just a friend, she's alot like a sister. And I'm going to miss her dearly. And if she doesn't come visit me in the USA in like five years then I'm gonna go to Australia and drag David with me and we're gonna kick her butt all the way back to the USA where we will go eat mexican food and drink good soda and eat cheap college kid food like mac and cheese and ramen noodles :). This will happen. But besides all that...not much going on this week I don't think...

ok so I did just hang out and watch. I read a book, listened to my ipod. It was fine except that it was freezing. Then later was Meghan's party....sad...but fun :) Slept in Meghans room that night. Then got up early the next morning and walked home. After that I showered and made myself presentable again and went to Köln with my sister, mom, and some family friends. There we walked around, did a little shopping for new shoes for my sister...not me for once lol. Then went out to eat and went home. We were home by 1 in the morning. Needless to say, I was exhausted. I totally konked out last night and woke up today at 12. Then had breakfast and now I'm writing to you. No other plans for today I think. But we'll see :)

Going to go hang out with my sister and her girls today. We were gonna go to Köln, but the traffic is bad. So instead I think we're going ice skating. Which means I'm bringing my ipod and a book to hang out and watch them ice skate cause I'm really bad and I don't feel like breaking any bones on my exchange. Call me crazy. Then later is Meghan's party :/. It has come so fast. I can't believe I'm nearly half way through. I'm gonna be an oldie soon :O! So tonight I'm spending the night at Meg's place and then tomorrow going home in the morning and then I think I'm going somewhere with my host family. I forgot where. Frankfurt maybe? I don't know.

Nothing much going on today. Gonna go change my address officially. Thats about it. Probably gonna veg and watch movies or something. Meg's party is tomorrow. And I need to go get hairdye and get my hair cut...but thats all I can think of.

Yesterday was fun :) we went to Oberhausen and hung out in the mall for a long time. But it was fun! just me and Bastian (spain) and Maria (my sister). I ate soooo much lol. And we actually waited in that line to Hollister that took eternity. It was worth the hour and a half train ride there :P. I don't have any plans really today except to relax, watch movies, and call my darling mommy!! Love you!! Have an amazing birthday!! Bastians last day here. Then friday is meghans going away party :(. oh and on friday im going to koln with my sister. fun stuff!! sorry about the no entry yesterday. not gonna lie, i totally forgot till i was in bed.

nope none of my new friends go to my school i think. Went on a nice walk on a nature trail around a lake today :) very pretty. there was this cute dog that went out on the iced over lake just to chew and tug and play with this big branch. it was so funny. it was bendy so he kept going back and forth...and snapping it lol. letting it go and chasing it again. then we came home and pretty soon we'll go to some families house i think for dinner. Tomorrow Bastian is coming for a few days. I think we'll be pretty relaxed tomorrow. Maybe go to a movie in town. Maybe try to go to Oberhausen the next day. Thats about it.

Hey happy new year everybody!! Hope you all had a good one. I hung out at the party going on at my house with my sister and all her friends. It was cool. made alot of new friends :)