Aufwachsen!

It seems like everyone lives their lives on a one track path to the "American Dream". In high school, all the other kids had their top colleges picked out, they studied hard for the best ACT scores and they applied years in advance for those scholarships, telling themselves they'd do whatever it takes to get into where it is they want to go. I was never one of those kids. I never had a college picked out or even a profession for that matter. I just had a country picked out and a driven dream to become an exchange student. I never dreamed about living in the dorm room, going to all the frat parties and after graduating a 4-year university getting married, settling down, getting a great job and buying a beautiful little house with a fenced in yard and having a few children to go with it. That's what most people think of when they think of the "American Dream", right? I finally got the opportunity 2 years ago to fulfill my dream.
Ever since I was a little kid, all I wanted to do was go to Germany and be an exchange student. And I did, I was. I became apart of something bigger than anything I could have ever imagined and I found myself terrified, and excited for every new day. I came to find that the things in life we're most afraid of are the things that were most worth while. I got back from Germany about a year and a month ago. July 10th to be exact. This past year, i've just felt like there was something missing, I lost that unionized excitement and terror I had on my exchange and gained comfort. I got back into the every day role of things, going through the motions and waking up every day wondering what it is i'm doing to make my life matter. I got comfortable and I lost the adventure. I keep telling myself, I need to do something that makes me come alive, that gives me fear, that gives me purpose. But somehow, I never get around to it. But this is me, getting around to it. This world is something bigger than me, something bigger than all of us. I completed one dream and so it's time for me to start another. My new dream? I want to experience the world. I don't want to see the world, I want to experience it to its full potential. I want to go to a third world country and give all of me that I can, to not only see how others live but to see how they can live such simple and worry-filled lives but still dance through the streets in rejoice that they had the opportunity to see today. I want to get to know those people, I want to talk to them and find out what their dreams are, find out what makes them come alive. I want to dance along side them and share time side by side. I want to go to Europe and travel around, I want to go back to the beauty of the earth all the while being surrounded by languages that I don't understand and not be held back by a border separating countries. It's time for me to break away from the loop of every day life once more and continue on in direction "out of the ordinary". I know where I want to be, I can see myself there and the journey scares me but that's how I know it will be the journey that is going to be the most worth while. All I need to do now is: get there.

Die Kolibri Geschichte

I am a terrible blogger. Really, really terrible haha. Just wanted to start off with that ;). I really should be writing more but lately, I haven't seen my life as an exchange. I've been seeing it through a person who lives in Germany, a person who loves their family and goes to school, striving for passing grades. I no longer really see myself as an exchange student, rather a part of this other world I entered and so it's hard remembering to blog my everyday life ;). I will definitely TRY(keyword) to write a little more often so that you all know what i've been doing but for now I want to share a story with you. I heard this story during a presentation at my Rotary Club last Tuesday from a man from Ghana and I found the story really amazing and something I wanted to share. So, here it is "Die Kolibri Geschichte/ The humingbird story".

One day there was a forest fire. All of the animals in the forest panicked and fled, as their natural instincts tell them to. However, a little humingbird flew as fast as he could to the lake and picked up on single drop of water in his beak and flew back to the fire, pouring the tiny dropplet into the fire. The other animals ask him, "Are you crazy? We need to get out of here! There's nothing you can do!" but the humingbird simply says to them "I do what I can." The other animals thought about this for a second and then ran to the water, bringing back what they could carry. The fire was put out.

"I do what I can"

It makes a big difference. We all just have to work together.

Rotary Youth Exchange 2011-2012 <3

Today, I'm switching host families for the first time. I'm a little sad leaving my family but I know that no matter what, nothing will change the fact that they will forever remain my family, and I now have the opportunity to become a part of another family. I'm excited and ready for the unknown and any challenge that might be thrown.

Ich komme aus USA aber ich bin keine Amerikanerin. Ich bin doch ein Mensch, wie alle.

Thanksgiving

Two weeks for, my family and I celebrated Thanksgiving together. My mom and I spent all day working on dinner in the kitchen. Together, we made pumpkin pie, apple pie, green bean casserole and of course, the turkey! Rudi bought an 18 kilo turkey, that's about 40 pounds. It wouldn't fit into the oven so we had to take it to a Restaurant and they cooked it for us. It was soooo good! We ended up eating turkey for the lunch and dinner the next two days but that's ok haha :). We also made Rotkohl (red cabbage?), and knoedeln (dumplings-so good!). The whole day while we worked together, I talked about what we do in the U.S and I realized then how important Thanksgiving actually was to me. I talked about how it's a day where all of our friends and our families come togehter, just to be together and be thankful. In previous years, Thanksgiving had just been another holiday in the year where we would eat a bunch of food and watch football. But when you have to explain to a person who doesn't have that tradition, you really find out what it means to you. It was an amazing evening with my family. There were 22 of us all together and we talked and talked and laughed until late at night. Like in the U.S, the adults stayed at the table talking and the kids went off to play. We all played Wizard, our favorite card game. It was so much fun adn we laughed and smiled so much. We were all sad when it was time for everyone to go, too. Afterwards, Corinna told me what a wonderful evening it had been and I could only agree. She said that everybody had never stayed so late before. I found that to be almost magical in a way. Thanksgiving's not a day to be running around the house, stressed and rushing to get everything prepared for a meal. It's about the time we spend togehter, sharing our lives and what we're thankful for. And it's about the love we show for each other. I hope my families knows how much I love them and how much they mean to me. My German family didn't have to celebrate Thanksgiving, they did it because of me and that was amazing. I have so much to be thankful for!

Wochenende, Weekend

Friday night, I had a couple of friends over (Sabine, Kim, Asalia, Mira and Ryan the American) for a little party night. We made pizza and macaroni and cheese and had popcorn, gummy bears and chips for while we were watching the movie. We played the guitar and sang for a little while during dinner and then when we were done, we ended up watching High School musical 3 which was really funny because we watched it in Englisch with Englisch subtitles and so with the subtitles, we could sing along. After the movie, we played the playstation for a little while and then everyone had to head home. It was a really nice night with my friends :). Saturday, my family went to look at houses with Rike and Norman because they want to build a house that uses no outside energy, just sun power (which I think is so cool!) and so they wanted to get ideas by looking at other houses like that. They couldn't bring me with them because there wasn't enough space and they thought also that it would be a little boring for me and so I stayed Saturday with my second host family. They are such very nice people and I have 2 really awesome brothers so that is really great because I was really sad about having to switch families in January because I love the family that I'm with right now so much. But I know that everything will be great :). So on Saturday, I got to their house around 10 and they showed me where I would be staying and then began working on lunch. After lunch we hungout for a while and then at about 3 we walked to the Planetarium in Wolfsburg which is about an hour walk but was really nice. The leaves all look so beautiful with the different colors and the little bits of frost that hang from the trees in the morning, simply beautiful. The Planetarium was really cool, we watched a video about Neil Armstrong landing on the moon and the setup was just really cool. We walked back home afterwards and made and ate dinner (we had rocklette (not sure if that's how it's spelled) which was really fun because everyone has their own mini pan and can choose what they want to make (much like fondue maschine thing only different haha, hard to explain) later, we all went and got ready for bed. I slept in Ryan's room and Ryan slept in our little host brother's bedroom. At around 11, they came and knocked on my door and said they wanted to have a pony night and wanted to know if I wanted to watch with them and if they could watch it in my room (they do this every Saturday) and so I said hey, why not, we're in Germany. And so for the next hour, Ryan, Adrian (my host brother) and I sat in my room watching My Little Pony on youtube and eating popcorn. They even had little My Little Pony action figures. I think I laughed for about an hour straight. It was so funny. Especially since earlier I had been talking to Clemens, my older brother who was in Argentina for a year, and he told me that he was the "only man on this floor" but I didn't really know what he was talking about. Life is hilarious, exciting, fun, great. The next morning, we all went together to family Loebbecke's house for breakfast. We all ate breakfast together which was so nice and then afterwards, we were showed around their farm which was very cool. They have a lot of potatoes and it looks like they are very hard workers! So many potatoes is a lot of work! After the little tour, Gordana and Hanno (my second host parents) drove home and the Loebbeckes and we had an awesome day together. First, we went go-karting. For those of you who have been to Craig's cruisers, that's nothing. Here, you are allowed to drive so fast! It was sooo much fun. I crashed twice, once I went around a corner too fast and got cutoff and so I ran into the tires which went over the car and I was so stuck! I sat there for about a minute just wondering what to do while Onesimo was laughing at me and then finally some nice worker came along and helped me out. It was such a great time. Then after that, we went to eat at the "Parlament" in Braunschweig which was really cool and had really good food but also a LOT of food! The boys got curry wurst and wiener Schnitzel which was bigger than their face haha it was so funny watching them try and finish it all. After lunch, we went to the museum in Braunschweig which was very, very interesting. There was a lot of really fascinating art and antiques, some of which were over a thousand years old. It was very cool to see. It was a really, really great weekend! :D

I am a Rotary Exchange Student

Hello everyone! I found this on one of the other exchange students' facebook and I wanted to share it with all of you and with all of the future exchange students of the world because it's 100% true and that's what makes this life worth while :) you never know what you're missing until you take that chance presented.

I promise to write about what I've been doing in a few days. I've just been pretty busy the past few weeks. This weekend, I'm going with my family and my cousin hiking in Harz mountain to the highest mountain which is about 1,300 meters I believe they said. I could be wrong though :)

Everything is still absolutely wonderful! I'll update everyone in a few days ;)...

I am EXCHANGE STUDENT! :)
.-How are you gonna know what a dream is...if you've never completed one.
.-How are you gonna know what an adventure is...if you never undertook one.
... .-How are you gonna know what anguish is...if you never told your family and friends "see you soon" with your eyes full of tears.
.-How are you gonna know what desperation is...if you never arrived in a place, alone, without understanding anything the others were saying
.-How are you gonna know what it means to miss someone...if you've never been away from home
.-How are you gonna know what diversity is...if you've never shared under the same roof with people from all over the world
.-How are you gonna know what tolerance is...if you've never had to get used to something different, even if you don't like it.
.-How are you gonna know what independence is...if you've never had to make decisions for yourself.
.-How are you gonna know what it means to grow...if you never quit being a child to start in a new direction.
.-How are you gonna know what disability is...if you've never had to urge to hug someone, but the computer screen got in your way
.-How are you gonna know what distance is...if you've never looked at a map and said "Wow, I'm far"
.-How are you gonna know what a language is...if youve never had to learn one to make friends
.-How are you gonna know what patriotism is...if you've never shouted "I love my country" holding a flag in the hand.
.-How are you gonna know what a party is...if you've never traveled hours to go to one
.-How are you gonna know what true reality is...if you've never had the opportunity to see many different ones so you can create your own.
.-How are you gonna know what an opportunity is...if you've never taken advantage of one
.-How are you gonna know what pride is...if you never felt it for yourself when you realize what you've accomplished.
.-How are you gonna know what it means to seize the moment...if you've never seen how time passed through your hands with great strides
.-How are you gonna know what a friend is...if the circumstances never taught you which ones are real
.-How are you gonna know what a family is...if you've never had one that supported you unconditionally
.-How are you gonna know what your boundaries are...if you've never passed them to see what lies beyond.
.-How are you gonna know what money is...if you never had to manage it to get along.
.-How are you gonna know what imagination is...if you've never thought about the moment you get back home
.-How are you gonna know what the world is...if you never were an EXCHANGE STUDENT

Maerchen Deutschland, Fairytale Germany

As I promised, I will now update everyone on what i've been up to lately!

A few weeks ago (In the beginning of October), my family took me to Bavaria for my host uncle's birthday and since we were already so far, we visited the Czech Republic, and Austria. It was simply an amazing weekend! On Friday after school, my friend Emily (from Indiana) came over because she would be coming with my family and I on our trip this weekend. I took her downtown to show her my city and we got to see Oktoberfest Wolfsburg a little (it's not very big but still pretty cool with German music, stands and beer tents) and we bought some Gebrannte Mandeln (really good German roasted almonds) and then went and got some ice cream at a little place my friends and I go to sometimes during free hours. I then showed her our train station and the canal where Autostadt is. It's really pretty there and also quite peaceful. We then took the bus home and had dinner with the whole family (Rike and Norman came over :)) and then Emily and I watched Spongebob and Family Guy in German and also watched the movie from Calvin. It was really nice seeing my friends (: and then, when we were watching the talent show, a boy I met at the conference named Daniel was playing the violin. Emily said, "wait, I know him!" so I was like, "yeah, he was at the conference his name is Daniel." She told me, "No! He's in Helmstedt!" (Helmstedt is her host city)! What a small, small world. So cool.

We went to bed around 1 am and woke up again at 2:30 because we needed to leave for Bavaria at 3 (it's about 6 and 1/2 hour drive there) But it was alright, we got to sleep in the car the whole way there :). We had breakfast when we got to Bavaria, as the sun was rising (it was so amazing, the sky was the colors of the rainbow!) I noticed the accent right away when the waitress started talking to us. It was hard to understand because the accents in Bavaria are quite strong and quite different (It's very similar to an Austrian accent) but I got used to it after a while of being there. We then drove to my uncle's house where we all celebrated his birthday together. I got to see Alena and Lotti again which is always nice. And also all my other little cousins who I love so much :) I love my family! I'm glad Emily got to meet them too! For lunch, we had some "typical Bayerisch food" which was very good! Some of the typical Bayerisch food includes white sausage, pretzels and leberkaese which is the funniest thing because leberkaese means liver cheese and there's no liver or cheese in it! :) After the party, we drove to Burgenhausen where we stayed that night. Burgenhausen is the longest castle in Europe and it's just simply amazing and beautiful! There were a lot of stairs to the top but it was completely worth it or as the Germans say "lohnt sich". The view was simply amazing and the sunset over the horizon and the mountains in the distance was breathtaking, we had the perfect timing and weather!

This day, we also crossed the bridge to...AUSTRIA! It was so cool and I can now also say i've been in 2 places at once. We didn't go into Austria that day, we just went over the border because we thought it was so cool (Emily and I) that over this 1 little bridge was a whole other country! It was really cool.

The next day, Caro and Pascal drove home and Em , Ruedi, Corinna and I drove once again across the bridge into Austria and visited a little town called Braunau. Have you ever heard of this town before? I hadn't. But maybe the reason for that is because Adolf Hitler was born here, which the people are not proud of. It was so strange walking the streets of that town and thinking that a little boy ran up and down the same streets, a little boy who grew up to become one of the biggest mass murderers of all time. It was crazy to think about. Did you know that Hitler was not born with the last name Hitler? He changed it because his real name was too embaressing!

Another thing I found amazing about this adventure to Austria was the fact that we could simply cross the border without any problems. It was as if Austria and Germany were one country, the same as when we traveled to Czech Republic (which I will write about in a second) it made me really think about how the world would be if we could all just live together as one in peace. The world should belong to all of us, together as brothers and sisters. I find the problems that Mexico and the U.S have to be quite sad because I have so many friends, so much family in Mexico but our countries can't live together in peace. There is such heavy border control and so many problems with people crossing the border and I find it quite sad. I really hope that someday all of the problems will go away and the world will be able to live together as one, as brothers and sisters as it should be. I hope that through my exchange I will be able to help in someway towards this goal as well! :)

After our visit to Austria, we headed back into Germany and started on our way in the direction of Czech Republic. We stopped on the way in Passau where we would stay the night. Passau is an absolutely amazing city. It's so beautiful! This is also the city where the 3 rivers, Danube, Inn and IIz meet! We stayed overnight there in a very cool hotel. The next day, we left Passau in the morning and headed on our way to Czech Republic! We went over the border and instantly everything turned from German into Czechisch! It was so crazy! I also got to experience what it's like to go to a country not knowing any of the language or what people are saying! But we weren't completely hopeless, everyone spoke English, German and Czechisch so we could still communicate :). We visited a few couple of really interesting and cool cities and drove for a while through the country, mostly along the parallel of Germany's border heading north. For lunch, we went to a market and bought some verschiedene (I'm losing my English xD) things for a picnic and drove to a really peaceful field where we could see the mountains in the difference and sit in the grass, eating lunch together. It was really awesome! After lunch, we headed back into Germany and on our way back home to Wolfsburg, Niedersachsen, Deutschland! It was such an amazing weekend, one that I will never forget!

Basketball Training

I started going to Basketball training with my friends Kim and Sabine on Wednesdays. I'm not very good... at all haha but I will practice a lot at home so that I can improve and my friends at practice said they would help me too ;). I really love practice though because the whole team is so nice and they ask me all sorts of questions about America because they think it's so cool. And our trainer is really cool too, he played basketball by Michigan years ago and so it's really cool because he was quite excited that I was from Michigan and finally, someone knew what Michigan and Michigan state was! I asked which team he thought was better and he said that Michigan State was doing better with basketball right now so they're his favorite in the meantime ;). I will also be going sometime with Kim to a basketball game in Braunschweig. I'm pretty excited about that and I also can't wait to see a football game at our Wolfsburg stadium! Our team is VFL Wolfsburg and everyone has so much pride (including me! ;)) for our team! It's so great!