Die letzte zwei Wochen, The last two weeks

I have not updated everyone in a while, sorry! I've been getting a bit busier and more into my life here in Germany. I still love everything, so very very much. Red white and blue may still be my colors but my heart now also beats Black red and gold. Last weekend was absolutely wonderful, one of the best weekends yet I think. We had another German training weekend with Caro and so my good friend from California, Angie took the train over from her host city, Hameln, for the weekend to learn with us. So, the boys came over again, One and Ryan and then this time Angie joined us too and it was so wonderful. On Friday night, we all went bowling with Caro and Pascal and a few friends of theirs. At Allerpark, where the bowling arena is, after 10, there is what is called "party bowling" and it is so awesome! They turn on the disco lights and the fun colors and turn on the dance music and it's just so much fun. Angie and I danced around like crazy people and just enjoyed the night :), it was so great. The next day, we continued with German training and after that, we went to a party in the evening for the people from Denmark that had visited our club for 2 weeks. They are such nice people and so much fun to be with :). At first, the 4 of us exchange students had a few doubts about how the night would go and truthfully thought it would be quite boring. But it ended up being one of the best nights ever. We came to realize that it doesn't quite matter what you're doing as much as who you're with. And that night, we were with our family, our best friends. As long as we were together, everything was ok. We laughed harder than we had in quite some time and we couldn't stop smiling probably even if we wanted to(: we had an amazing meal with a little bit of Denmark culture and then after dinner, there was a jazz band and so Angie, Onesimo, Ryan and I got up and started dancing, and Angie taught us a little bit because she learned how to dance in Cali. It was so much fun and then all of the Rotarians started getting up and dancing too! It was so cool because we had started it. And then at the end of the night, we all said goodbye and as a Denmark tradition, we stood in a circle holding hands and singing a song. It was so great. The rest of the week was just as fantastic as every other week here in Deutschland. I learn something new everyday and I'm still happy as ever to be here. This last weekend on Friday, I went bowling again at Allerpark with a few friends which was very fun and then on Saturday, I had a few friends over and we went accross the street shopping and bought things to make pizza and cupcakes (because they didn't know what cupcakes were!) and we made pizza and cupcakes and then sat in the basement and played Aepfel zu Aepfeln :) it was so much fun. Then Sunday, we went to the 50th birthday party of a good friend of my family's and also a Rotarian. It was such a nice party and everyone I met was so nice, just like all the people here. The granddaughter of the woman whose birthday it was is 7 years old and she is so cute. She came up to me and asked me "malst du gern?", "Do you like to color?" and so I was like yeah, of course! and so she asked if I would like to color with her and I said of course and I hung out with her for the next four hours. Little kids are so much fun, especially when learning a language! :) Today, I had school again and Latein as always. I talked to the teacher today though and so I think it will be better from now on because I explained to him that it's harder for me to learn because I am still not quite fluent in German. I realized when talking to him also that he really is just trying to help me and I appreciate that so much. There are about 4 teachers here that are really great to me and are always asking if they can help and they understand that I am here to learn and try to help anyway they can. I really appreciate these teachers! This last week also we have been visiting future exchange students! Students who want to go on an exchange year! And of course, everyone wants to go to America! :) It made me so excited and so happy that so many students from my city here in Wolfsburg want to go on exchange because it's such an amazing experience and life changing and I want more people to be able to experience that too. Going to those students' houses made me remember how I felt a year ago in their shoes and it made me so happy and so excited. I remember EXACTLY how I felt sitting in that chair, thinking about how amazing everything would be. And now, here I am, having the best year of my life. My sister told me once, "Rotary exchange is not a year in your life, it is your life in a year" I find this to be so true. I can't wait for tomorrow. Everyday is a new day and everyday is so beautiful. Love you all, liebe Gruesse aus Deutschland! Gute Nacht :)

Austauschschueler in einem Zug, Exchange students on a train

This weekend was the first District 1800 weekend conference. It was absolutely amazing and so much fun. On Friday after school, the other exchange student in my city and I boarded the train in Wolfsburg and headed on the way to Hannover. We met Onesimo, the mexican exchange student, also in our club, in Gifhorn which is also on the way to Hannover. The three of us drove together to Hannover where we had to get off and switch trains. we met about 20 other exchange students in the train station and all boarded the next train together which would take us to Soltau, where we would be staying the weekend! With 20 exchange students on a train, there is always a party. We had a lot of fun and we were all so excited and just so happy that we were together. All the troubles in the world went away when we were together. We arrived in Soltau and took a bus to a barn where we were greeted by Ekky and had a great dinner, talking, laughing, smiling. It was just great. The dinner that they made for us consisted of food from all over the world. It was so cool and so nice that they tried to represent each one of our cultures. After dinner, we all went up, one country at a time and sang our anthem. Each country also decided to share a little bit more of their culture as well and each did a little something (America did the hokey pokey haha). After the anthems, we had a disco which was so much fun. Nothing else in the world mattered. We were together. Our family, our best friends. Together, in Germany. After the dance and an amazing first night, we met our host families, said goodbye to our friends and drove to the houses we would be staying in for the weekend. I ended up staying with 3 of my friends, also American, Andrea from Iowa, Emily from Indiana, and Summer from Pennsylvania. Our host family was so nice! We got very, very lucky. The next morning, we met the bus and the other exchange students again and drove to this really awesome park where we spent the day. We did archery, there was a ropes course, there was a beach, beach volleyball, lots of different things to do and just have fun. I didn't end up going on the ropes course because my friend Emily wasn't feeling very good and so I stayed down with her, took pictures with I think 5 different cameras, and helped people get off the course at the end. It was such nice weather too! I even got sunburned which was quite funny because the last week here was around 60 degrees farenheit and then this weekend it was back up to high 80s early 90s! After the fun events of the day, we went back and learned a dance that we would have to perform for the rotary club of Soltau on Sunday. The dance was called la vaca (the cow) and it was so funny. My good friend Emily was starting to really not feel good though and so I talked to a nice lady who had Emily go lay down. The lady came back to me later and told me that they had to take her to the hospital because one of the rotarians who was a doctor, looked at her and told her she should go. I asked if I could please come with and she told me no, that wouldn't do anything. That really frustrated me because the lady didn't speak very good English, I was translating for Emily and Emily didn't speak very good German. The other exchange students in our district are our family and so I'm her family now and all I wanted to do was be there for her so I had a really hard time not thinking about her the whole night and it was also hard to have fun. But I still did have some fun and tried to make the most of everything. We had another dance which was again a lot of fun and then afterwards we went again back to our host family's house, only this time without Emily because she had to stay the night again in the hospital. Sunday morning, we woke up and had breakfast, took pictures with our host family and said goodbye. Then we drove again to Soltau where we had lunch, performed "la vaca" and spent the morning with our friends, our new family. It was so sad saying goodbye but luckily we still had the train ride to Hannover with the 20 of us. On the train ride home, we played the guitar and sang spanish songs, we laughed harder than ever and we danced down the isles of the train. I've never had so much fun. The Germans that were also on the train didn't seem so amused though haha. But whatever, we were enjoying our lives. We all said goodbye in Hannover and everyone hugged each other. We get to see eachother again in 3 weeks so that is something I know we're all looking forward to. I love those kids so much, just like my 6290 family, I can't wait to see them again and I'll miss them and think of the times we had this weekend but knowing It won't be long before we meet again is a very good thought. Ich hab dich lieb distrikt 1800, bis 3 wochen! :) Gute Nacht