Week One; continued

13/8/2011-cont.
In the morning, Doris and I walked through the village to go to the bakery, and the post office. We picked up about 8 Brötchen (rolls), and pickeda up Luisa's contacts. When we went shopping, we also went to the Library to get Luisa's books for school. And Theresa and Luisa also picked out a book for me to help me with learning German. The library was HUGE. simply huge. but beautiful none the less. Today was also the 50th anniversary of the Berlin wall being knocked down! :D! So, at night, we watched a movie (it was in German, so I'm not sure exactly what was said and such but...) about the Berlin Wall being built. It was about how a teenaged boy was separated from his parents, because the day that they decided to make a line that couldn't be crossed, his parents were visiting a friend, and he was at school. It showed the struggles and hurt that both, and everyone really, went through, and how desperate they became to get to the other side of the wall.
14/8/2011
Woke up to something I might not get used to: CHURCH BELLS. Loud, and continuous for over 20 minutes! We live almost right across the street from the church, so they were extremely loud-especially for someone who isn't used to them. Normally, I would get annoyed, but I'm just pretending that they're greeting me, and telling me good morning! :) Theresa and I made a cake today! and muffins!!! :D the muffins had mandrin oranges in it-which tasted really good. The cake, well...it looks more like a pie to be honest :p On the bottom of it, was like the cake batter/crust stuff, then on top we put rasberries, then on top of THAT we put some of the batter/crust around the edges, and sprinkled sugar over the entire thing. Everyday thus far, I've helped make at least one meal :) I love it :D.Breakfast for today was outside. Breakfast, at least for this family, is a choice of: bread, quark, strawberry/rasberry jam/jelly, butter (to put on the bread of course), a few selections of meat (another choice to put on your bread), sometimes cheese, and cereal with fruit and your choice of either milk or yogurt. To drink is normally coffee and/or tea. I have noticed that when it comes to measuring ingredients, they weigh it. I thought that was pretty neat! :D Today, I aslo got to meet the grandparents! I not only met Oma und Opa, but also an Uncle, and two cousins. Opa is how I've always imagined older German people being: he has a rounded nose, a beer belly, big bushy eyebrows, a smile like he doesn't have anything to be sad about, he's just adorable for an old man! :D Oma...Oma kindof scares me. She seems stern, but she's nice and friendly :) .At their house, they have some chickens, a rooster, a bunny (named Tequilla-spelling I'm not sure on), a guinnea pig, about 22 deer (obese one=Otto, he's the only one that will walk up to you and eat the food out of your hand), and a dog (Carlos). I got to feed Otto and the rest of the deer! It was fun ^_^
15/8/2011
Went to HAMBURG today! It was a three hour train ride to get there. I went with Theresa and one of her friends that's in Rotex. Hamburg is enormous!!! We went on a boat ride to take a better look at, and around, the Port/Harbor. Then, we walked around and found a wax museum, so we decided to adventure into it. It was pretty creepy in my opinion, but i got pictures from it ^_^ . I also got to try this ice cream called "soft ice"-which was REALLY delicious.
16/8/2011
Doris went to work in Helmstadt, so it was just Luisa, Theresa, and I for breakfast. After that, we did our chore for the day: to pick apples from the yard for Oma und Opa. Theresa climbed the tree and was shaking some apples down (not sure why, but it was highly entertaining :) ). We then set to work on part of Doris's birthday present. So, we intensely cleaned off the patio furniture (wooden desk and chairs), in preperation for staining them.I helped Luisa make lunch again. I also went to Helmstadt again (will probably be going there a lot).
17/8/2011
Last night, Theresa and I went over to Julia's house (Theresa ended up spending the night there) to watch a movie. It was the movie 2012. It was pretty interesting, and after it was over, we talked about how we think the world will end, when it will end, etc...we all agreed that anything can happen at anytime, and you have to keep your mind open to the world of possibilities (which applies for anything, really). After the movie was over, Luisa came and picked me up, and we went home. Today we stained the chairs and desk, and they turned out very nice. Theresa later on in the day had a friend over (so did Luisa), so we played UNO! :D I tried teaching them how to make the bridge thing when you're shuffling the cards, which was fun to see the cards fly everywhere :p .Then, we went outside and played badmitton :) We later had supper outside, and got attacked by bees! xD
18/8/2011
First day of school...it definitely did not go as planned, and not very well. Let's just leave it at that, I survived, so that's all that matters! :D Later on, Doris had her birthday party. I got to meet some of her friends and more family. This guy named Harry (reminds me of the commercial back at home: "That's one bad hat, Harry"), was halarious. He would talk to me in German, making these overly-exaggurated gestures :) I can't really explain him much further, but yeah...it was great xD
19/8/2011
Second Day of school: got out at 11:20 am! I was so excited! Today, in school, was just a "Sport" day. We were all outside for the time that we were there. We were playing this game that's sortof like hockey, only not. It involved a ball, with smaller sticks. It was interesting. I didn't play all that much (due to me not feeling the greatest) though. But, we ended up getting a lot of rain, and nothing else was planned-so they let us go home early :). Since we got out ealry, and Doris was in Helmstadt, she picked us up, and we went to get a few groceries, came home and had lunch, then we all took a nice nap <3 :) At around 17:30 we had to leave for a Rotary meeting. It was a very nice meeting, held in a castle that's over 800 years old. We all sat around this big table, were given something to drink, and the meeting began. All of us, including host parents and siblings, introduced ourselves. We then took a tour of the castle-it was extremely beautiful. I'm begining to realize that most everything is going to seem big to me :p. At this meeting, I was able to meet my next family, and my potential families. The exchange students were all given a little gift that was originally thought up by the Myans: it's a little bag that has little wooden, decorated, people in it. What you do, is if you're worried about something, you tell that worry to these people, put the people in the bag and the bag under your pillow, and when you wake up the next morning your worry will be lifted. I think it's pretty interesting, and will most definitely be trying it out in the near future.
20/8/2011
Today was mostly spent in Braunschweig (mom, this is the place I was talking about in my e-mail). It was spent with the other exchange students in/near Helmstadt, and a member of rotex (also a sister of one of the exchange students). It was pretty fun/good. We had Itlian foor for lunch, at this place called Vapiano. It was delicious! I had a peperoni pizza, and so did one other student. the others had pasta. The pizza was hand-made, had hardly any excess greese...ah, it was GOOOOOD. Most of the people we encountered could instantly tell that we weren't from here, so when we spoke German to them, the responded in English. We ventured into a Catholic church that was set up like a museum, and it was very extravagent. Pictures? -OF COURSE! :D! while there, we all sat down in the chairs, and began talking about different religions, and how we feel about religion in general. We each realized how complex it can get. a girl from Brazil told us about how there are several people that live in Brazil, that don't know they exist-and vise versa. She explained that people were wanting to meet the people, but it's forbiden because if they did so, they would completely shake their world, which could be disasterous. It would sortof be like when exchange students go to another country; the citizens of that country are sometimes really shaken.
When it came time to leave, we arrived at the train station a minute before the train left, so we had to RUN to get to it in time. When I got home, we had to leave almost immediately to go to Doris's brother's birthday party. It was a very good time. I met his neighbors, some friends, and a little more family. One of the neighbors was extremely nice, and talked to me a lot-asking what I wanted to do after high school, why I wanted to come to Germany, what I like to do, etc...Theresa, Katja, and I played UNO and a different card game that is a really old game-one that Doris played when she was a little child. I successfully taught both how to make the bridge thing for shuffling the cards-so I was proud ^_^. Oma, Doris, and I walked around in their garden, and they taught me how to say the names of the vegetables in German, and i got to feed the deer again-this time with apples! We didn't get back home until really late, but again-I had a good time.

Next blog: in about a week! :)
Have questions? -well, ask them! ^_^