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!

Kostuem Party! Distrikt 1800

Rotex 1800 Hannover Weekend

Last weekend was the first Rotex 1800 weekend of the year. After school, we took the train to Hannover where we met all of the other students once again. We were all so happy to see each other again! We then all took the bus from the trainstation (yes, all 60 or so of us) to the sport hall where we would stay together for the weekend. We first all checked in and then hunout for a little while before we had dinner. Dinner was a buffet made up of different foods from all of our countries because we were a all asked to make and bring something. I made no-bake cookies, all the food was really good and it was cool sharing a bit of our cultures with each other. After dinner, we had a "candle-light" talk in a few smaller groups and just talked about how things were going for us so far. We then got to hangout more with our friends and then of course, Rotary tradition, we had a dance which was of course so much fun as always. We were up until 3 am. It was so great. The next morning, we woke up at 7, had breakfast and then played a few very interesting, quite hilarious games. After the games, we started the day. We split into 2 groups, one of the groups went first to "sealife" and the other group went to the city to answer questions-in German of course(:. My group went to the city first. We had to ask a lot of random people on the street different questions to practice our German. Most people were very nice and laughed at our "adorable fails at German"(: and helped us out. Some people, however, didn't want anything to do with us. We also got free balloons from a store who was celebrating their anniversary of opening. It was pretty funny how amused all of us exchange students could be by balloons. It was great. I ended up giving my balloon to a little boy with his mom walking down the street. He was so happy which made me happy(:

After we saw the city and answered all of our questions, our two groups met at a park and ate lunch together. After lunch, the groups switched and our group went to Sealife. It was really, really cool! Sealife is an aquarium with all sorts of different fish including sharks, piranhas, and even... NEMO! It was really fun and interesting to see. I bought a pin for my jacket and a bracelet that says, "Ich helfe Meeresschildkroeten" which means, "I'm helping sea turtles". After the aquarium, we had to wait for the bus because the other group took the first one and we couldn't all fit on one bus. So, our group waited in the opernhaus center and played "Cha cha" and "Pony", 2 very funny games. Yes, people stopped to watch the crazy foreigners laughing and having a great time. Some people even took pictures. It was so funny!

Back at the sports hall, we had dinner and then we all got ready for the "crazy style" party. I didn't really know how to make a "crazy style", so I asked one of the Rotex who is really nice, to help me. She said she would love to and so she did my makeup-bright red lipstick, glittery blue eyeshadow and way too much, orangish, blush. Then, she took a can of orange hairspray someone had brought and messed my hair up completely. I wore a pink shirt, green pajama pants and really long stocking slippers. I'm not sure how crazy I looked but I sure felt crazy! We then all played some more crazy games and took pictures together with all of our crazy styles (and yes, there were some pretty crazy styles!) It was simply just so much fun. We then once again had a dance with our crazy costumes which was so fun and went to bed again a little late, this time about 4 am(;. We woke up again at 7 and packed our things up to get ready to leave. We said goodbye which was sad but we get to see each other again in 1 month when we go to Hamburg together! The Rotex dropped us off at the Hauptbahnhof Hannover and we hungout waiting for our trains. We ended up being there for about 4 hours but it was alright because we got to hangout for a little while longer with all our friends, our family, district 1800! <3