Montag

the bbq was fun last night! the family who's house we were at re hilarious they have the cutest dog. oh its the same family with the farm and the 100 cows. a baby cow was born there before we got there nbd to them haha :)

school was fine today we got out a period early because our history teacher wasn't there!

i start speaking courses in my town tonight every monday and wednesday from 7-9:30.

but before that im meeting Saskia (play basketball with her and she's in my class) in the town to shop.

oh also the other kids from the program and i have a youtube channel you can search "amikinder" and thats it on youtube. a group of kids who went on this exchange did it last year and now we're continuing it.

Holland!

church in the city in Holland

these are also in /nordhorn too just to happened to photograph on same trip.

saturday morning

so i got up around 915 this morning and fenni too so she asked if i could finish making the tea and put it out with spoons and cups while she goes to get brötchen. (the most delicious oval spheres of bread ever.) so im like ok i can do that

so i go downstairs and find the kettle and it already has some tea with the bags in it but its cold so i think for like 10 minutes staring at it not knowing whether to pour it out, add to it, or heat it up.

then comes the problem of HOW to do any of those. i chose to ignore it and boil a new thing of tea. so i get out a pot and put water in it and put on the stove and thinking i made a safe decision.

then i find the teas and i have no clue which one to make.

so then fenni comes in and turns out not only was i cooking the water with the stove cover on the like heat circle but theres a special easy machine that heats the water for the tea. so now i know haha.

last night was really fun at pier99! and my friends made me a schülervz (kinda like german version of facebook) and ICQ what they use to chat so that was exciting.

i could eat brötchen every day all day with butter and marmelade its SO good.

ok going to holland!! :) with Alina and Annabel girls from my class to go shopping :D!

ich liebe ihr Mutti und Vati

forgot

i am also participating in the converse and skinny jean look that everyone wears so i think i look stupid and weird but i fit in that way haha ok also its cold here and my school sells twix and these things called happy hippos and they are so cute they are little hippos of chocolate and like cookie.

we have fall break after next weeeeek ! :)

Freitag nachmittag (friday afternoon)

so something else i noticed

everyone.wears.purple.every.day.

like seriously half my class every day has purple on including all the boys and teachers its insanee.

also they all wear skinny jeans and not sure if i said that the girls wear like little heels to school? they do.

i tried a math test today i understood half the directions on it :) hhaah i couldnt do any of the problems but whateverr.

tonight im going out to dinner with the girls from my class to a place called pier 99

its like 8 minutes on bike from my house

and tomorrow holland! for shopping! adn then basketball team is having a get together tomorrow night that i may or may not be going to.

Dienstag 22.09.09 Tuesday 9/22/09

success with bike today no crashes just a honk once because i cant take my hand off the steering thing to signal that im moving but whatever.

basketball was fun! im really bad but the girls are nice there were only 5 at practice and 10 on the team ahah.

tomorrow im going to a friends house to ride her horse with her! and another friend from my class.

ethiks today was weirrrrrrrrd.

the teacher was like ok were going to the computer room so we go down like 6 flights of stairs no joke my school has 6 levels i think

and so then i walk in the room and hes like ok you sit here ( in front of the class at the teachers computer) and im like okayyy?? so i sit and one of my friends in that class (diff. class because we change for ethics) comes with me to translate if necessary ahha.

so then he types in this web address and hes like ok go.

and it was like this thing where you talk to a robot online. and we were supposed to (i think) figure out if it was a computer or a person from USA. so i asked its favorite color and it said transparent.

so i told the teacher it was a computer. then the class proceeded to watch me chat with this silly robot for the period and translate what we were saying it was soo weird. then we went back up and read some text about some guy and theories on cause and effect.

yeah so today was actually really fun also we didnt have an english teacher today so my class rode our bikes into the city and ate at "kochlöffel" a fast food restaurant. i ordered all by myself :)

yeah so now i have to attempt math more because we have a test friday but im only going to "try" it. that should be fun haha.

oh also i wanted to say that girls here like some have a diamond on their tooth like you have your two big front teeth then on the next one they have it. so i told them about grillz like rappers and they thought it was hilarious. i also taught them the word poser the other day. haha they use that now.

montag

alright more about my life here

we watch tv about every night but its kinda boring for me but i do it for a little anyway because i like to spend time with them. we have watched who wants to be a millionaire twice haha

so fenni and i ate dinner and we each had two eggs in front of us like hard boiled and in germany or my family at least they cut the egg in half to eat it. instead of like cracking all around it and then peeling the shell off then with a spoon we ate our eggs haah weird.

oh also german fire places are sweet and look so high tech and intense.

i start basketball tomorrow! its in the next town over. there are 10 girls on the team and my classmate says they are all bad but im not sure i believe her haha.

so in english the other day we were listening to a passage about a girl with a working experience at an aquarium and she talked about how she "is in charge of the sea horses now! and she takes care of them every day, but has to be careful with the water temperature because they die quickly!" so the whole concept of seahorses and then dying made me giggle and then they others didn't understand because they didn't catch all of it look at me so that makes me laguh more and i had to explain afterwards to them about the dying seahorses.

im also addicted to chocolate now

i rode by myself to school and back today! without getting lost. but on my street starting off i have trouble going straight when i first get on so i fell into this fence on the other side of the street and like didnt fall to the ground but off the bike and caught the fence and its like 7 in the morning or whatever so this girl is like down the street a little and totally saw me fall hahah i was so embarrassed and i passed her and like she was just staring at me.

then i took a wrong turn but realized right away and turned around so that was all good.

so then after school i make it through the town all fine and dandy and then i have to like cross this high way kind of thing but its not THAT busy and cars always stop for bikes so no problem but there was this girl that unexpectedly turned where i was going across the street and so i was thrown off and i was also trying not to hit the car so i end up swerving onto the wrong side of the road. ( it is a circle/loop road thing and in the middle there are plants but its like surrounded by a curb. and bikes just ride on this nice little path across but that is in a circle too to the right of the car circle)so i swerve in order to avoid crashing with girl and car and ride up on this huge curb and back down and i like bounce and it was so embarrassing because it was in the middle of the loop of the highway! everyone around me saw because after school everyone is going home in cars and bikes. yeah.

so also in school:

we talked about media in english class it was stupid and basically all we accomplished was that no one goes to ballets or art galleries in their free time.

were learning about WW11 in history which is sweet because i love my teacher she is crazy but is an english teacher too so she talks to me.

oh also every single one of my teachers has the most horrific handwriting which makes translating notes even harder haha i write down all the options of the word that it could say then figure out which one is actually a word later.

i still sleep after school every day ahah. but also today i went with fenni to check on her stuff she sells at this vacation place she makes bags scarves shoe things and egg lamps with holes and puts them in a little glass closet thing in the foyer of the place.

she makes them with her friend, so we visited her friend after and she lives on a farm with 100 cows! and there was a baby cow who was 2 days old!!!!! cutest thing ever. and then that family invited us to go to a wine festival on saturday.

i learned a german saying elephant running in german though and its when a truck passes another truck on the autobahn haha.

oh also i have a hard time making european 1s that look likes upside down Vs and if you have a decimal its 1,54 instead of 1.54 which is like the hardest habit for me to break haha. ok thats all.

Osnabrück

so went to osnabrück with afs this weekend and it was okay met people from all over: bolivia, honduras, china, japan, dominican republic, italy, switzerland, russia, thailand, ecuador and places it was sweet. and i also felt really smart because the most common spoken language was english and whenever someone couldn't think of a word they would ask me or a girl from texas. oh yeah she was the only other from usa. but then we did a bunch of workshops all day and ate the exact same thing legitimately same thing for breakfast lunch and dinner.

yes, bread. bread with cheese and meat. sweet.

but it was good bread so it was ok.

yeah so also things i noticed here i forgot to mention

-boys dress up every day like its picture day its adorable

-they style their hair also adorable

-german teens eat at school all day long: chocolate and bread

-the teachers wear jeans! like all week

-they have parties every weekend

-they really do ride their bikes everywhere

-they dress up for school in cute outfits everyday but wear it two days in a row like a lot of people will wear the same blouse with like a high belt thing? sorry for the poor fashion language arden and the next day like wear a different belt with the same blouse

-if they use binders in school its one huge one with everything in it, otherwise these folders with like idk how to explain but you hole punch papers with two holes on the side of the paper but like halfway and they go in the folders

-i think most families eat lunch when you get home from school

yeah and theres like a billion eiscafes in the city here and i went to one today adn you sit down like a restaurant and you order these intricate ice cream dishes and they bring it to you!

and its really cute and good. oh eiscafe=ice cream place

im starting to get known as the american as i meet more people in the town haha.

oh there are little paths EVERYWHERE for bikes its great nice and smooth.

oh and the town has the cute little ground like cobble stone i think its called and theres a ton of stores of every type and restaurants but shops are closed on sundays.

food/donnerstag

someone brought it to my attention that i haven't mentioned food very much. its not all meat. people show know that germans eat bread all day long. mostly with cheese.

in the mornings i have bread with strawberry jam and a cup of tea

at school i have bread with jam and butter and apples and sometimes a granola bar thing and then usually buy cheesebread "käsebrötchen"?

and then i come home and have a small lunch once it was pasta thing with chicken, another time tomato salad.

then dinner we've had hamburgers and fries, toast with cheese and ham and peaches ahhah, went out to an italian restaurant and got pizza, oh and potatoes and pasta and goulash? beef stuff. so yeah its really good for the most part.

oh and theatre yesterday was pointless for me because she would tell us to act out something but i didnt understand her so i didnt do it. but e had to get in groups and make a skit but only one person talked while others acted so i "got in a fight with a girl" for our skit. yeah silly.

politics was boring because after 15 minutes of not knowing any words my mind shut down .

i understood most of math today!!

Mittwoch

today i didn't do gym but watched and they did gymnastics it was crazy they had the little trampolines and a wall thing and big mats they ran and flipped so their hands were on the wall and flipped it was so easy for them ahhaha. im glad they are starting hockey for next week when i play. ok so i got a cell phone today! haha oh and i have friends officially! they stopped by while roller blading at my house to hang out yay haha. they told me after my birthday we can go to the disco and they will take me to the stuff they are doing on the weekends but this weekend i have orientation with afs (program) which i'm kind of excited for? but i might be the only american and in that case i'm not. plus they told me to bring slippers. so that sounds promising.

i get can get like halfway to school by myself now its a 20 minute bike ride. tomorrow will be the 2nd time i attempt it, but with my host mom so i dont get lost. and tomorrow i get to find my class room by myself! im pretty confident. hahah. oh and i get out a period early because no french.

oh tonight we went to an italian restaurant (my host family's favorite) and i got pizza. oh also before that i got my first ice cream here. it was snickers and delicious.

then every night we watch tv drink tea and eat chocolate its great.

oh i posted pictures of my room on facebook!

schedule

so here's my german schedule for school:

monday

english

geography

art

art

physics

history

tuesday

go in late because im not taking french haha

history

german

math

english

religion

religion (ethics)

wednesday

gym

gym

english

geography

theater

theater (yes, acting in a foreign language. ill let you know how that one goes)

thursday

math

math

politics

politics

biology

physics

chemisty

friday

german

german

chemistry

math

biology

there are weird breaks in between some classes. and you go and like buy cheese bread and candy and yogurt? at this stand thing haha.

and some of the students are the school nurse from what i understand they carry around a cell phone and it rings when someone needs them haha.

but i like that i get out early some days like 130 i think? but today i got out at like 320 so LAME.

and im dreading thursdays because math is hard haha we are doing like exponents im pretty sure but i finally could do the easy problems after about 20 minutes today and didn't have time to attempt the harder ones. but that teacher like gave up explaining to me haha because i couldn't understand what he was telling me but its all good cause i take turns asking my classmates how to do it.

yeah and then 2 hours of politics. no.

and biology i have yet to have sooo hopefully fun and physics as i think i said is straight up impossible but im trying. because you can only translate some words but the equations and graphs don't work. oh then chemistry i hope isn't too hard but just being wishful.

again, i rocked english today did a role play in front of the class so they could hear english. and i really like that teacher

german we are doing regular and irregular clauses? and wishes and i kind of understand that because we did wishes and possibly the others in german (thanks frau D!)

yeah ethics the teacher was annoying and like after i told him i didn't speak a ton of german started like speaking super fast with big words like 7 different times at me and i had no clue what was going on.. but he gave out a reading on a philosopher i think and we were supposed to read it and summarize it so of course i had to translate the whole thing first so then i had the girl next to me ask if i had to do it and he was like hwefs uhh you can you should no you dont so i decided that was a no. haha then we watched irobot.

Erste Tage in Schule

ok so first day of school. i got up at 630 and got ready and everything and fenni drove me to school then i met my english teacher and Lea (host family's niece). so then i met all of her friends that are in our class. for those of you who don't know german classes are like elem. school where you stay with them. but we move for physics art and we have breaks for random times in between classes. so in english it was great i taught my class how to say curious and they thought i was like the smartest. and then we got in groups and had to write a letter as an employer and i wrote it haha. btu that was really fun. so then i had geography and i got 4 words out of that: export,import, coffee, tractor. yeah. ahha and then i had art and drew this horrible picture but the teacher is weird and it didnt matter at all. physics is impossible i learned the words speed and something else i forget. but most of the teachers are nice. then i had history. yeah so school was okay it will get better. some friends i met invited me to go shopping in the netherlands sometime.

here!

'i'm here! its my first day. the plane ride was looooooonnnnnnggg. and then we had to wait forever for a train and then get off and on to another train adn then finalllyy at like 9 o clock german time i got to Osnabrück station where my host family picked me up! it was awkward adn weird at first and we drove an hour to our house. then we ate hamburgers and drank champagne hahah. the burgers had a lot of stuff on them not sure what i think cucumbers instead of pickles? but they eat superrrrr fast so i they were like ohhh..you're not done yett.. haah but it was ok. i showered and went to bed. my bed is SO comfy. i slept until 1230 in the afternoon german time! ahha but steffen left at like 9 to his boarding school. i had bread and nutella for breakfast then my classmate Lea (host family's niece) visited with her parents and my host mom spilled orange juice haha. but that was neat. i think im sopposed to wear shoes in the house? but i cant wear sneakers because of these mad blisters i have on my heels from shoes in DC so i put my flip flops on but they told me my feet are cold haha so i showed them my blisters and Lea's mom is a nurse so they left adn we rode our bikes ( i did well) to their house so there she put some tape stuff on them ahah then we rode into town adn it was soooo nice and fun. the weather is PERFECT here. they use these keys that pop out of the bike instead of locks so that it only works with the key in it. its really cool. yeah so then we drove out of town by the lake and stopped at a restaurant for drinks then rode back home by the zoo! haha. my host dad said sometimes the monkeys wake them up in the mornings :). it rained in the morning here but now its cool and a little windy. ok ill write another time when more happens. loving it so far! i have english first period tomorrow hooray! my family says my german is very good and i understand a lot. i'm still really tired. islept in until 1230 afternoon here haha but they didnt mind. so its all good here!

DC pictures

retry.

DC

September 10, 2009 by Rachel!

ok so orientation is better than i thought it would be. we went to dept. of state today which was pretty boring and visited lincoln memorial and Vietnam and WWII. Meet with Jim Gerlach briefly to promote AFS and to thank him. And we went to the German Embassy. they gave us free lanyards and pins so it was okay we watched a movie thing then got lectured. dinner was at a german place it was also okay. tomorrow we’re in the hotel all day so its whatever it will be fun.

just found out Steffen will be able to come with my host parents to pick me up Saturday night in Osnabrück train station. so .

the hotel is really nice.

ok bye.