I love Germany!

I'm not sure that I have made in completely clear how much I LOVE Germany! This was definitely an excellent decision on my part. I still remember the date December 5th, 2010, when I went down to Duluth with my mom for my final district interview. I remember someone told me I must dress-up for it so my mom and I went out and got some new clothes (thanks mom!). I remember how completely nervous out of my mind I was... totally stressing out one-hundred and ten percent...

^ Exactly how I feel ^

Eleven Reasons Why I Love Germany So Much !

1. Transportation - so easy and cheap! I barely miss my lisence!
2. Pommes - they are everywhere! With mayo.. mmmm
3. Formailty - at first it was really offputting, but now it just makes things easier. You meet someone new, and you are expected to shake their hand. Simple.
4. Taxes - they are all included in the price before you buy it, so you always know how much money you need before you're up at the counter.
5. Tipping - it's not a must at restaurants, which again, makes things a lot easier.
6. Street Musicians - even though sometimes it gets awkward when they ask you for money, I love walking down the street or on the s-bahns or u-bahns and hearing live music.
7. Water Boilers - every house I have been in has a separate water boiler, its just like a tea kettle but it has its own little stand and heats up very quickly, nice.
8. Closeness - all the buildings here are very close together, there is no space wasted. At first it was disconcerting but now I rather like it. It's cozy.
9. Christmas - I think there are more decorations here than in the U.S., not to mention all the christmas markets! So cute.
11. Nutella - a must in every home. Absolutely delicious.
12. German - I love the German language! Now I feel like I cant understand so much more and it is so good to feel like that! I have started prefering listening to German over English, not because it will make me learn faster, but just because I like it so much!
13. Mesh of Cultures - there is SO MUCH more diversity here than I am used to, I love it! And I love how Germany has adopted other cultures, Döners (a very popular sandwhich wrap) is from Turkey(?), the music they listen to is a mix of European, South American, and North American. And you can't walk down the street in Berlin without hearing several languages!

Thanksgiving post up next! (:

18 Years Old

In my life I have slowly come to realize that being 18 years old is a pretty magical age, when suddenly overnight obtain loads more freedom. One day you are a child and the next day you are officially considered an "adult". Where I come from in America when you are 18 you can do things that only adults have the privilage of doing, such as buying tobacco, gambling, etc. Now in Germany, they have slightly different laws. When you turn 18 you can get your driver's liscence, buy hard alcohol, and, as I found out today, buy a pet animal.

I found that last one out today, when I went to Fürstenwalde Süd to buy a Chinese-Fighting Fish with my friend Rebekah. We get to the shop and look around because it was AWESOME. The petstore was really very cool. It had meter long fish, snakes, birds, rabbits, and an ALIGATOR. (Okay, I'm not 100% sure that was actually real, but I swear it was.)

It was only a little bit of a struggle explaining what I wanted. Weirdly, after I told the guy I would like a fish that lived in a bowl where it didn't need an air ventilator thing he got really un-salesmanly-like.I don't know what his deal was. I saw the fishtank where they kept the fish I wanted, and it didn't have a bubbly thing in it either. Then he goes and tells me that I better come back with my mom and dad sometime because I have to be 18 years old to buy it.

I learn something new every day (:

Feuerfeiern! (Fire Celebrations)

I am running off of a very small amount of sleep so please bear with me as I try to do this shenanigan. Last night a bunch of us exchangers got together in Biesenthal for a bonfire. I was really excited because I love bonfires and since coming to Germany I have had way less wilderness-me time than I really would have liked, and a bonfire would be a chance to chill with some pretty kick-awesome people and enjoy the warm (for me) November night. Unfortunately my camera was having a bad day and the pictures are definately not mona lisa's, but I have been told that pictures are cool to include in my blog so Imma include some for the heck of it.

Here is some of our group chillin' by the fire with Kiwi on guitar

I have to say, we had a really good time. Pumpkin soup for dinner, gummy bears, and käse flavoured corn chips. Basically super yummy. After we ran out of wood and energy we went inside and watched "Dinner for One" which is hilarious, I definately reccomend seeing it. Dener's host mom suggested us watch it, and at first I was super skeptical because it's all in black and white and that's weird for someone like me who has grown up in color, but totally worth it. Here's the link, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDqD0Dz_J-M it's only ten minutes long so you should probably just watch it and get it over with (: haha

Ah, the second movie we watched was "The Pink Panther II" and that was funny, and cool because the main character in the movie has an excellent French accent and Laurine, from France, was like "Oh no, do I really sound like that?" it was very cute.

The road on the way to Dener's place.

Biesenthal was pretty cool except in the part of the house where we were staying  (the basement, it doesn't get used so much) was FULL of spiders! Seriously, with their legs they were like an inch, inch an a half big. Like in the bathroom, you can't look up cuz it's like a colony of 'em up there.

Thanksgiving is this Thursday and I don't know how I feel about that. I'm hungary, right now, and Karin said there are meatballs, or "Buletten" for dinner. Yummy (:

National Story-Telling Day

Today was Germany's National Story-Telling Day. My Englisch teacher at Palmnicken thought it would be nice for Rebekah, Andrea, and I to read at the Library. There were maybe 30 students there who came from an Oberschule in Fürstenwalde. We read from a book, Noughts and Crosses, which is apparently all the rage in England right now. Most of the students were between 14 and 16 years old and I think they had a little bit of a hard time understanding our English. But it was good (:

I was a little worried there would be that usually awkward silence when we do the usual "okay does anybody have any questions?" but that wasn't the case! In America it always seems as if someone, or atleast a couple people always ask a question or two at the end because it seems rude if you don't but here in Germany it's an awkward silence almost every time.

After the we finished reading at the bibliothek we went back to my house and had leftovers from the night before, which is called "Baack" or "Wek" or something like that. My host family tries to eat at least one veggie meal a week. This meal reminded me a bit of what we call Stir-Fry back home. It was peppers, broccoli, maybe onions or something, and some green leafy things. At the end we added coconut milk and rice. And I ate it all with chop sticks! I was very proud of myself!

Paris

I have just spent five very crazy, exhausting, incredible, sleepless, amazing days with my exchange students traveling to and in Paris! The forcast for the weekend predicted rain, but we were lucky and the weather was excellent! I think those first three nights I got a combined time of about 7 or 8 hours of sleep, but as Frenchie told me (guess where shes from):

 "we aren't going all the way to Paris just to sleep!"

Frenchie & I

In front of the Mona Lisa

I seriously still need some time to digest the past few days, but I will do my best to include all the important stuff. As I said in an earlier post, I went to Paris four years ago, so this wasn't my first time. It was pretty sweet to recognize statues or buildings that I had previously forgotten about. Throughout the whole trip though I had a serious case of déjà vu. And having seen everything before I wasn't so stressed out about viewing all those standard tourist attractions and let myself relax and have fun.

 The Louvre was AMAZING. It wasnt as packed as last time which was nice. After that we went to the Opèra, we didn't go in but we walked around Paris. I was absolutely starving because the breakfast that morning was all bread (I'm allergic) so we found a McDonalds.

I'm gonna be honest, I have no idea what this building is here.

It felt very weird not being in Germany anymore, like "why am I here, this doesnt feel right" kept going through my head. I am so used to talking to everyone in German except for that in Paris you will more likely find someone who speaks English than German.

On the Metro

The next day we took a city bus tour of Paris and then went to Versailles. For lunch Nathan, Frenchie, Kiwi and I went and got Escargo and frog legs because I wanted to try some escargo. It was €8,50 for six snails but totally worth it. I took a video but for some reason it isnt uploading. Heres a pic anyhow!

Me & ze Escargo

On the last day we went to the Eifel tower and then Notre Dame. I love going into the Notre Dame because every time I think of the movie, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and that scene where they are in the main part with all the pilars around them.

Being Hunch-backed.

As much as I love Paris, I missed Berlin very much. The people in Paris were a lot ruder than people in Berlin. If you were in their way they would just shove on past you, with no "pardons" or anything. Although I did notice that they were a lot more willing to talk to new people, unlike Berliners.

Here is a public link to all of the photos I have put on facebook. Enjoy!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2361201302914.2124504.1036756913&type=1&l=c578a36941