Update

So, I haven't updated in like a month =]. Coolio.

I filmed a video to post as an update, but I'm not interested in finishing it in Germany. I only have a few days left, and would much rather do something other than working that video... my boyfriend also came back from America recently. It's amazing with him ^^. I had a going away party, and well... I'm going to be back in Arizona soon.

But is Arizona ready for me? After all, I changed so much... but am I really ready for Arizona? After all, I changed so much, and will have to reconcile that with my earlier life. The wonderful thing about an exchange year, is that the host community doesn't know anything about you, so you get the freedom to be who you truly are, because they don't judge you on your past actions (because they don't know what your past actions are!). I'm a different person. But now this different person will go back to America, and be confronted again with people that can judge her based on her past actions, and who will expect her to be what she was, and not what she is.

What will happen?

At the recent Berlin Seminar for my exchange program, one of the language teachers told me that he always saw me walking around with my backpack, and always wondered why I always had that backpack on... he thought I was ready to bolt in the next few seconds. But now he can see I've changed. He said I've really become a personality. And he hopes I don't regress to who I was when I go back home.

That's really the beauty of a year in a foreign country. In the first half year you really change, but none of these changes are permanent. If you went back home at the end of that half year, then you would be the same person you always were after a while. But in the last half year these changes become the foundations of who you are. That is my experience at least. And if my foundations will change when I'm back in America? Of course they will. It would be sad if they never changed again, because you can't grow without change... but will I be growing, or will I be shriveling back into the person I was, and essentially undoing my growth?

What will I do?

I will tell you.

I will turn into a beautiful Caitlin flower.

Not Really an Update!

Ok, so this isn't really an update, but you should be expecting an update! I got a wonderful idea last night, and I'm going to try to make it work, but it will take a lot of work to make it work!

(Hint: expect to get a video/youtube update ;) )

14.05.10

28.04.10

I went with my community representative to her university, and got to sit in on a lecture. It was interesting, and something unexpected happened. I heard something. It was an accent. An American was sitting not too far from me.

After the lecture I talked to him for a really long time about colleges... I had been wanting to sort of just apply to whichever school I know would accept me, and avoid having to stress out too much about going somewhere out of state, or somewhere expensive. He had a really good point though. Why not at least try?

30.04.10



I met up with the exchange student from Switzerland after school, and we rode our bikes to the Heilandskirche (a church) on the side of the Havel river. No one was allowed to go there during the Cold War, because it was a part of the wall. Literally. One of the walls of its bell tower was used as a piece of the Berlin Wall.



But, it is a beautiful church. And it's really on the water's edge, so you go down a small staircase and wade in the river, or walk along the church's outer wall, which juts out into the Havel.

Another fun thing about the trip, is that I didn't know 100% how to get that. What I like about navigating along a river, is that all you really need to know is in which direction something is. Then you follow the river until you get there. Berlin itself is turning more into a huge maze that navigate through without fear. I can just be somewhere, and I'll always figure out by myself how to get home. Whether it be by bike, bus, subway, tram, train, boat, or foot, I'm getting there. Ironically, that's something my mom was afraid of before I came here. She didn't want me to get lost in Berlin. But to me, that seems impossible to do.

01-02.05.10

I went to the Baltic Sea again with my host family, but my host brother stayed home this time. We went on huge bike rides through the forest, and I got rained on really badly, but I also managed to find souvenirs that don't cost a fortune! I also went to a city called Wandemünde, and it was really nice there. An interesting thing about the Baltic Sea, is that this one type of ancient tree grew there, and only there. Now, when we find the remnants of this tree, it's called amber. And guess what? You can only find it at the Baltic Sea.

06.05.10

I saw a beautiful movie with my host cousin. It was called "The Last Song", and you really shouldn't read what I'm about to say, unless you want a spoiler. So, do you really want to know what happens? Really? 100% sure? (This is your last chance to skip this paragraph!) Ok, here goes. The father dies from cancer. But there's sea turtles. Why is this important? Because the sea turtles are eggs. The daughter (who is visiting her father), protects the sea turtles for the first half of the film, and then they hatch. As she and the rest of the people (you know, the cast that I don't want to explain right now) watched the sea turtles go into the sea, her father collapses. Basically, the ideas of new life (the sea turtles) and death (the father and cancer) are always there. But they're not fighting for camera time, no, they're coexisting harmoniously. As if life was just a cycle. As if there will always be new life, and there will always be the ending of old lives, but it must be like that. A 'death' is just a new opening on this Earth for more life, and there wouldn't be any room for new life, if the old life didn't cease. It's a cycle. A circle. No beginning, no end.

08.05.10

I ran a marathon. And I didn't die! There's an annual Avon marathon in Berlin to fight against breast cancer, and everyone who participates gets a bag of makeup. It goes through the Tiergarten and ends and begins at the Siegelsäule. And the marathon I took part in was really only 5 kilometers, so it wasn't really that bad. But I ran it with some friends, and it was fun. I was happy that I wasn't the last person over the finish line, even though I walked a lot. And even though I walked a lot, at least I did it. That's a lot just by itself.

09.05.10

I went to see a theater with my host mom and host grandma. We saw it in Friedrich The Great's palace, in the room he saw it in (it was a newer take on an older piece), where only he and his noble guests went to enjoy amusements. I was really frustrated at first, because almost the whole thing was in Italian, and at first I didn't understand that the jesters were giving summaries about what was going to happen in the next scene before the people starting singing in Italian (did I mention it was half opera?). But it was entertaining.

13.05.10

I watched Germany's Next Top Model at a friend's house, and we made crêpes with Nutella. Then we watched another TV show, and I was a bit tired, but not too bad, so I didn't realize how late it was. No mom, I didn't get home at 11pm. I got home at midnight!

It's really interesting to think about all of the freedom I have here in comparison to how it was before in my life. My mom wouldn't have allowed me to stay out until midnight, and I wouldn't be able to do a lot of the stuff I do normally now. But I'm also not the same person I was before. It'll be hard to adjust to American culture again, and no, I don't mean the rules by that. I'll have to talk the whole time in another language too... I'm used to German. I speak different in German. I learned how to express what I want in German, and forgot how to do it in English. And the worst part? I can't translate German into English, and vice versa. I didn't know what my own German blog's title was in English.

This will probably not make any sense to you though.

But I'm on school break, and I'm sick, and I really hope my mom doesn't send me more cough drops after reading this, because I already have two bags, and I found tasty Wasabi beans. They really open up your nasal canal.



(Unrelated note: my exchange program is having a photo competition, and I entered three photos. I'm not really sure what I sent is what they wanted, but oh well. I like my photos, and at least I'm trying!)

Yo

Ok. There's not an amazingly large surplus of days before I go back home, just 58. Although that is a long time, it's still dwarfed by the much larger amount of days in ten and a half months. What am I trying to say? I would rather be living those days out, instead of taking so much time to write my blog ^^. That is why it has taken about a month for me to update this.

06.04.10

I finally went to the big zoo in Berlin! Some time I will have to hit up the aquarium too though... but anyways, I totally forgot that I was supposed to be going to the zoo with my neighbors, so I ended up being a bit late, but I went to the zoo with them and their grandchildren, and it was fun. The little boy held my hand, and it was all just so cute :3.

07.04.10

I ate ice cream at the Florida Eiscafé, and arranged to go with her to a college class, to get the feel of what it's like to attend college in Germany.

23.04.10

Tara slept over my house, and we went shopping, and I had a lot of fun. I finally bought new jeans, and was happy to find some for just 9 Euros. I found some other cheap stuff too, and was very very happy with myself.

24.04.10

I went to a seminar for the parents of kids who're going abroad next year (so, parents of German exchange students), and they asked me a lot of questions about, well, basically what it's like to be an exchange student. It was a lot of fun.

25.04.10

I went to the smaller zoo in Berlin with my boyfriend's mother. It was weird, because this drunk dude decided to hit on me on the subway (even though it wasn't noon yet, he was still drunk...), and tried to sit between my boyfriend's mom and me, then he turned to me and started talking. I didn't understand what was happening at first. But, we walked away and so he left.

But at the zoo, my favorite part was with the stork thingies. They were free to just walk out of their pen, and the visitors could pet them. One didn't like ANYONE, and another was nice, but ended up hitting a little kidy in the face with his beak... the kid was ok though, and I got to take pictures with one of the birds. This one was a LOT calmer than the others.

°°°

So, this part is basically just a rambling summary of random things that have happened to me. I managed to get a few 'jobs' going, and have earned a total of €67 now :D. I help two people out with learning English, and another girl I just sort of watch until she gets her homework done, because otherwise she wouldn't be very productive.

My German blog found its way onto the website from my German high school. You can find it here.

Other than that, I'm really tired right now. It feels like life is picking up speed. So many things are happening.

I also signed up for a marathon. My host mom is worried, because it's 5 kilometers wrong, and she doesn't want me to collapse somewhere.

I Like to Ride My Bike

28.03.10

You know what I did today? I rode my bike for an extremely long time, and went very far. I rode my bike along the Havel River, then across it, where I found a marathon in my way. So followed the marathon throughout Berlin, and suddenly found myself on the shopping street called Kurfürstendamm; basically I was pretty much in the middle of Berlin. Then I was going in circles around Potsdamer Platz, before going to Alexander Platz, after which I sort of just... went east. I almost left the city boundaries before a little voice in my head told me to go home. So I went north to go home (not sure why, to be honest), and well... I was all over the place. I also visited a Jewish cemetery. But, I planned on riding my bike the whole way home too (I was over 20 miles from home), but then my host mom called me, and told me to take the subway home. So I did. And I got all the way to the Olympic Stadium, where the Olympic Games were held during Hitler's reign. I liked how one of the streets around the stadium was named after Jesse Owens, a black person who had been a competitor in the Games, and won some shiny metals despite his "racial inferiority". But, back to the bike riding, I rode my bike over 30 miles through Berlin. Here is a map of an estimate of where I was (I know where I went, just not how I got there). The thin red line is my trip through Berlin, the blue is after I got on the subway to go home.



(Thanks Google Maps for the map.)

Afterwards, my host family and I ate out at a Mexican restaurant. It didn't taste as well as Buckeye...

29.03.10

Dude, I took a break from doing anything.

30.03.10

I cooked with the neighbors and ate leaks for the first time. It was actually a lot of fun. We made this meat thing with leaks, a pepper purée, a potato purée, and a weird thing. The weird thing was dessert, had caramel at the bottom, was in a small bowl, but the rest of it was like Jell-O-pudding. It all tasted pretty good. I was surprised by how much I like leeks, and also by how nasty it is to clean them. They actually have sand between their leaves. I am just so used to not expecting food from a store to have ANYTHING resembling dirt, much less actual dirt, in it. So, my host brother, the neighbors and I all enjoyed the meal, and then I helped them more with making bread dough. It's amazing what the Germans all make.

31.03.10

I visited my host mom's work. She happens to work in a library at an institute (Max Planck Institute) where English is the main language, because scientists from all over the world go there to exchange ideas, and basically work on finding out new things about the fundamentals of science. I ended up getting one talk about latex, and one tour of the place. It was actually pretty nice. And well... there was too much there to talk about. But it was really interesting that the scientists there were basically just working on any random thing they wanted. A lot of research was being done on teeth, and on natural structures (how your bones are structured, or bark, or ... anything you can think of).

That evening I watched a film about Scientology, called "bis nichts mehr bleibt" (Until Nothing Remains). It was... kind of creepy, what the Scientologists were doing... and then there was a debate after the film, about whether or not it was an accurate portrayal... it was kind of creepy.

01.04.10

I looked at the Scientology Church that's here in Berlin. From the other side of the street of course. I didn't want them to see me taking pictures and try to talk to me. But look. This looks more like a bunch of office buildings than a church, and the first floor looks like a storefront... it actually is, to be honest. They're trying to get people to come in and take a personality test, and also are trying to sell their books...



Also, the church is six stories tall, and the whole building belongs to the church...

02.04.10

I went with my host parents to Potsdam, a city close to Berlin, with our bikes. We also took a Water Taxi. Basically, a boat that works more like a bus than a taxi... it has its own route, and you pay to use it, but you don't say, "take me to that really pretty rock there", and well, you're using it with other people too. Then, we were in Potsdam. And what can I saw, Potsdam has an evil amount of hills. And guess what? We went to the top of the biggest one! We visited a castle that was basically just built so that the royal people could kick back, relax, and see around for miles.



After that my host mom and I went to this little Russian village within Potsdam, and then a Dutch part of Potsdam. Then she showed me a way through the forest to get home faster.

04.04.10

I rode my bike to this tiny little town called Fahrland. But before that, I went with my host family to church, and then I got presents. I got this little gadget for my bike, that calculates how fast I'm going, how far, how many calories I burn, the temperature... just about everything. In case you're wondering, I traveled 23 kilometers today, my max speed was 38 kilometers per hour, average speed was 15.9, my time was 1:27:20, it's 20.5 C° in my room right now, and I burned 372 calories. Beat that.

Shoes.

22.03.10

I visited the neighbors for a little bit, and arranged a time when I will come over to cook with them, and also to babysit for them. Some flowers started to bloom as well. My host mom said that normally you can tell what month it is in Germany according to the flowers that are blooming... and normally the flowers don't bloom all at once, like they're doing this year. The winter was abnormally long and cold, so it's like the flowers are making up for lost time... they only last for about a week though, before they start to go away again, and the next ones come.


23.03.10

I was hanging out at Ikea with a friend during these two periods I have free from school, and my friend has a car, so he just drove us there. Also, Ikea is a swedish chain, did you know that?

But anyways, we were just hanging out, drinking the best hot chocolate I have ever had in the world, when my stomach attacked. It started to eat me, so my friend drove me home... and I'm really thankful of that favor.

24.03.10

I had rode my bike to school the day before, but didn't get a chance to get it back home... and when I got to it today, it was fine, but I somehow forgot that I left my helmet with my bike. And a dog ate it.

25.03.10

I watched "The Reader" with my host mom. In German, it's called "Der Vorleser", and is originally a German novel. The point of the story is basically how the Germans dealt with the past after the Nazi time. It was really interesting to watch it with my host mom, because I had read half the book already and didn't understand some things, but she was able to point out things that made me realize what was going on.

And I got to talk to my boyfriend before going to bed ^^. He spent spring break in the Caribbeans.

26.03.10

Well, in case you don't know, I LOVE RIDING MY BIKE! I rode my bike today to Spandau City Center again, then around in that area a little, then sort of in the direction of Potsdam, then a pretty forest road distracted me, and I found myself by a barn, and then I got onto this road, and got home. But on the way to Spandau, I rode along the edge of the river that runs by my house. There's this ferry that comes every hour, and is like a bus, but like on the water? (My point is, it's basically still a part of public transportation ;)) I also saw another kid from CBYX in Spandau. It was strange, because I had seen someone who looked like him about a week ago, and ran up to him, but then noticed that it wasn't him, and then... yeah. Funny looks and what not.

But the really interesting part of my day, was biology class. The kids were messing with the teacher the whole time. But before I explain the first part of the story, please note that my biology class is on the third floor, and that EVERY wall in the school is practically filled with windows (of course, only when the wall is on the exterior).

But anyways, my teacher was talking about heart rates and breath rates, and had us measure ours. This one kid's pulse was like, awful (the teacher asked himself why the kid wasn't dead), then had the kid run around the school once. Well, my whole class gathered by the window to watch him and cheer him on. And also to see him lose his shoe in the middle of the street. So, another kid went down to get his shoe for him, while a third kid was sitting in the window, telling the shoe-fetcher-kid to throw the shoe through the window. The third story window. Well, the runner-kid got back, was sitting in the window to catch his breath, when his shoe flew over his head. Somehow the shoe-fetcher-kid managed that without breaking something/someone. Later on, someone stole the clock off the wall when the teacher wasn't looking, and set it 10 minutes faster. Then a bunch of the guys tried to convince the teacher that class was over, but the bell just hadn't rang. Then they tried convincing him that it had rang, and he just hadn't heard it. Then they tried playing a cell-phone ringer that sounds like the bell... we didn't get out early.

Oh, and Buckeye isn't the only place with tractors driving down the middle of the road; Berlin has tractors on the streets sometimes too ;). I swear though, I had seen an ATV driving on the road today...

I suis müde.

17.03.10

The kids in art class stole my apple again.

18.03.10

My host mom bought me a used bike :D

19.03.10

I rode my bike to and from school today ^^.

I also gave my first presentation in German. It wasn't very interesting, and I was rather nervous, but at least I did it... and my host mom and I had corrected it, but then I forgot to save the corrected version on the stick that I used to bring the powerpoint part to school :\.

I found my apple in my backpack.

After school I rode around taking pictures. I took a few really pretty ones. And I found a farm.



20.03.10

I rode my bike the seven miles into town to go to my boyfriend's mom's house... one of her friends came over with her son, and I tutored him. I earned 15€ ^^. I got rained on on the way home.

I stuck my laptop in my wardrobe so that I wouldn't use it.

21.03.10

My host brother flew to America today to go to Florida with my other host brother.

I pulled my laptop out again to update my blog. I made five posts in total. One here, and four on the German blog ;).

The weather here has been warming up, the snow is finally gone, flowers are starting to grow, I think I have hay-fever, and the weather is giving my a headache... and my left eye has been twitching for like five days now.

Je parle allemand.

28.02.10

So, I totally forget what happened on this day.

01.03.10

It was my mommy's birthday ^^. And I went to a book store, and I sort of want to buy one of those Moleskin journals, but I don't know... they're so expensive, and I only want one because other people have said that they're wonderful. I don't know.

03.03.10

I stayed home from school today. I was pretty sick... I had used almost two carry-around packages of tissues the day before.

04.03.10

I saw a limo! But really, what I did was go with my host mom, who is a community representative in case you guys forgot, and meet a family who was wondering about whether or not they should become a host family. They live in Wandlitz, a city outside of Berlin (and on the way there, you pass by where the Olympic players were living when Germany hosted the Olympics during Hitler's reign), and they lived practically on the shore of this really pretty lake. They were a really nice family, and I think that if they get an exchange student, the student will enjoy itself there.

Other than that, I just stayed home sick this day too, because, well... I wasn't feeling too wonderful for the first part of the day ^^. (I'm perfectly fine though now mom, so PLEASE, do NOT send me more cough-drops!)

06.03.10

I got into the van with Stranger Danger, and he gave me candy :D.



No really, I got into the van with my host family, and we went to the Baltic Sea. It was simply beautiful there. It was sort of strange though, because it was freezing cold with snow on the shore, but... we were at the ocean. Basically, when you think about the ocean, you think about warmth. That sort of permeates every other idea. But it was cold. The waves were splashing, the seagulls were flying, the sun was in the sky, but I was jumping up and down because I was FREEZING!

But we stayed at the "vacation apartment" that my host family rents out. Basically, it's like an apartment that is treated like a hotel (tourists are always checking in ant out). So, my host family rents this apartment (and decorated it all themselves), and then rents it out to other people who want to stay there. We were visiting to take care of the apartment before tourist season.



7.03.10

We went back home :'(. I actually really liked it there ^^.

8.03.10

I tried to tutor someone in math and English. They were in the 9th grade, but it didn't go too brilliantly. It was hard for me to try to explain something in German, and she was sort of going over the section of math that I had in 9th grade too... but sort of slept in. I think Mr. Henrion knows how well I can mentally tune out subject matter ;). But, I ended up learning myself what she was doing... the problem was the way that she did it. I had taught it to myself a different way, because the other way made more sense to me. But not to her. And, oh well ^^. She ended up not needing English help because they're just reading a book in her class, and I couldn't help her as well in math as a tutor should be able to, so... ya.

9.03.10

I had SO much fun today! I was playing Egyptian Ratslap in the library with these two guys, and it was SO much fun! I can't wait to play that game again ^^! (But I feel bad for the little German kids that had to listen to me play ;))

10.03.10

Someone stole my apple. It was just sitting there on the table... and then it was gone. Poor apple.

But anyways, in art class we were drawing still-life, and we each got a tomato, a nut, and an apple. The kid sitting next to me kept on messing up my nut, and then he was throwing them at my head xD. He even rolled a retard-tomato across the table at me. Then, when I was trying to trace something onto my paper, and wasn't paying attention, someone stole my apple.

Afterwards I went to KFC with my boyfriend's mom. She gave me candy :D. Then I went to a community representative meeting with my host mom, and it was... well, I wasn't paying attention during the actual meeting, but other than that, it was interesting. I got to see this video that was filmed in Buckeye, Arizona, in order to get the point across to the exchange students that they can go to a host family that's in the middle of nowhere ;). But the kid's family was literally in the middle of nowhere... they weren't even in a housing development; there was just a bunch of cacti around the house.

I also got to meet another one of my host brothers at the meeting. The one that studies in Munich was there, and he's going to be staying with us for 10 days now. The first time he talked to me though (admittedly, I had seen him once months ago, before I knew he would be my host brother), he was just asking me if this glass was already being used. No "hi Caitlin". But then I told him that, and he hugged me ^^.

13.03.10

I bought materials to make a pencil case. I have never sewn anything before, but my host mom has a sewing machine, and will let me play around with it.

14.03.10

I got rained on. And I forgot my jacket. And my post card got all messed up...

15.03.10

This boy figured out how to make me laugh. He basically just needs to get me to laugh a little bit, then he makes the dumbest face ever, and imitates exactly what I do, and even pretends to laugh. He and his friend made me laugh for like 10 minutes straight by doing that. I honestly have no idea how long I was laughing, just that I could hardly breath anymore, my stomach hurt, and I started coughing.

16.03.10

I went to Broadway today.

Really, it was just this little cinema in the middle of Berlin. We went to see a French movie there with German subtitles. It was really interesting. It's called LOL (Laughing Out Loud) ®, because the main character's name is Lola and her friends just call her "Lol". But, it basically follows her life through a year of French high school, including all of the girl-problems, love-problems, and family-problems that come along with it.



Also, on the way home from the movie, I met this Lebanese man and a Serbian woman on the bus. I was taking a picture of someone on a bike in the middle of the street, riding along side of the bus, when this guy was telling me to take pictures out of the other side of the bus, because the other side is clearer... I said something, and then could hear him saying to his friend "I didn't understand a single thing" basically... and then we got to talking. He attempted to convince me that he's a pilot and that they were going to the airport :D. He was just pulling my leg though ;).

German blog!

So, I've been writing a blog in German. At first I wanted it to be like this one, just sort of like a journal, but then I decided it would be better if I was writing about the differences in the German and American cultures that I see everyday. After all, I'm sort of here not just to learn German, but to also learn the culture. You can find the link on the right hand side of my blog, really close to the top. But, everything in it is in German.

20.02.10

The 21th of February was the last day of the Berlinale (Berlin's annual international film festival), so today I first did some quick shopping with my host family, sent my boyfriend a postcard, and ran to the Zoo Palast (a movie theater (by a zoo, hence the name)). To be honest, running would be a bad hyperbole in this case, because it's a 40 minute bus ride there. Of course, for the time that I wasn't on the bus, I was at least walking hurriedly. The Zoo Palast was only selling tickets for that day, but the movie I wanted to see was the next day, so I went to a different place, called the Urania, and they told me that the movie was sold out earlier that morning. Yay! But, I got some tickets to a different movie at least. The ticket was only €3, that made me happy. Oh, and I was also really lucky today! I just so happened to have my camera out and ready at the exact moment I found someone driving on the sidewalk!



I also finally bought a Russian book.

We had company over later on. My host mom's two friends came over (who are married to each other), and it was really nice. The wife had lost her voice, but the husband was making up for it. He was born and grew up in Algeria, and his first language is Algerian, a sort of Arabic. In school he learned French (unless I'm wrong, all of the courses were held in French), and he came to Germany at some point in time, without speaking any German, and eventually just learned it. I had a really interesting time talking to him. He introduced a new idea to me... he said how much German I should learn depends on what I want to do with it. Someone who just wanted to well... basically do nothing else with German again in their life, does't have to learn that much German here, but someone who wants to use it in their daily life (by living here or something), needs to learn a LOT... it makes sense. I don't want to go home and be like, "oh I know a little bit of German". I want to go home and be talking to all of the German exchange students in German, and then hopefully be able to attend a German university... and he was reading an Arabic book to me. My host mom had been studying Arabic during her time studying in a university, and had a book with French on one page, and the same text in Arabic on the other. So, he was trying to have me read the French out loud, and he was correcting me. Then he would read the Arabic, and I would repeat him. I learned and remember how to say "elephant" in Arabic, but I already forgot how to say rabbit and crow...

21.02.10

I went to the Berlinale movie, called This Way of Life, and got there 10 minutes before the theater should've opened. I say "should've", because it was already open. And I managed to get tickets then for the movie that was sold out before. But, the first movie was really good. It's a documentary about the life of a family living in New Zealand, and it's all a true story. Over the course of the movie, their house is first sold while they're still living in it (it was in the family for seven generations, and the grandfather isn't getting along well with the father, and the grandfather happens to own the house and the land around it), they were harassed, someone tried jumping in their window, their house was set on fire by an arsonist, they moved into a camper by a river (I think it was by a river at least), they moved into a shed, the father started a business with horses, the family's wild horses in the mountains were stolen (30 or so), and they moved into a house. It was really a wonderful movie though, and it really brought you close to the people. Which was helped by the fact that it was all actually real. The mother and one of the sons (they had six kids or so) was there, and the son said that they all lived in a tepee on a hill now, surrounded by 60 horses. They weren't happy in the home, because they all had their own rooms, and would play in there alone, and wouldn't spend as much time together as a family. So, in the end, this family is really... together. They are the essence of that word. It's really a beautiful story, and I'm not even going to try to describe why, you guys just have to watch it yourself. I got to talk with the makers of the movie afterwards, and they were talking to an American company about mass producing it like how they would with a Tom Cruise movie (I just don't know the word for that, basically they will make DVDs and put it in theaters, if everything goes right). Here's a linkto the film's website. Oh, and I got the mother and the cameraman to sign my entrance ticket! Oh, and I totally forgot. In line to get the tickets, I met this nice lady and her daughter. The daughter is 18 and is hopefully going to New Zealand next year as an Au Pair.

The second movie was "Sons of Babylon". It wasn't as good, but the whole point of the movie was to show the devastation of Iraq after Sadaam Hussein's reign. It starts out with this kid and his grandma walking in the middle of the desert along a road. They're looking for the kid's father, who is also the grandma's son. Eventually a vehicle comes, but it doesn't stop. Then a second one comes, and the grandmother stands in front of it, forcing it to stop. The driver reluctantly lets them come along (although he does it more happily after the grandma bribed him), and they well... got to a city. They looked in a jail where the father was supposed to be, but they couldn't find him. They then went to mass graves looking for him. The movie is extremely desolate. Every single scene is desolate. The landscapes are nothing but sand, the buildings are destroyed, and the people are dead, mourning, or somehow doing something that isn't... happy. There's just a few moments that are different. And in the end, the grandma can't take it anymore, and just dies. The kid is left alone. It's not really mentioned, but it's sort of assumed that he has absolutely no family left. Now that I think about it, this film was actually really good too... it wasn't made to be enjoyed, it was made to show what a tyrant did to the people. And it showed that amazingly well. Too bad the movie doesn't have a website...

Interestingly though, the whole movie was in Arabic and Kurdish. It had English under-titles though.

Also, rather to this subject, "Free Iran" was written on the statue outside of the Berlinale headquaters.



22.02.10

I got a little nauseous at school, then pukey at home.

23.02.10

I stayed home from school, and ended up drawing flowers.

24.02.10

I hung out with Tara and bought CLOTHES!

25.02.10

I went out with Tara again and BOUGHT MORE CLOTHES!

26.02.10

I bought more clothes! (Not really, I just sent my mommy a box with stuff in it)

27.02.10

I wrote a LOT for my German blog, and I also sort of went wandering around... I walked in on a fashion show in the middle of a mall. I took pictures, and I interviewed someone for my German blog (that means the interview is going there and not here ^^ (P.S. learn German)), and I got autograph from her for some people.

08.02.10

My first day back at school after Winter Break! I got a new schedule, and now I get out of school at 12:25 every Wednesday! I also have no more geography, instead I have history.

09.02.10

I started taking free art classes every Tuesday in a renovated Citadel. Basically, I get to go to a room almost whenever I want Tuesday after school, and throw paint around or draw. And I actually mean it when I say „throw paint around“.



I don’t really have any skills at all with painting though, and my first painting is well... extremely ugly. It’s like a splotch of brown with orange. But also, there IS a teacher there, but he’s really only there to help you... the class really just let kids explore their own talents, and what they want to do. I want to throw paint :D.

10.02.10

I went over a very nice lady’s house with my host mom. The lady is my host mom’s friend, and she is also an artist. She even has her own art supplies shop that she runs with her husband, and her home is FILLED with paintings, and not just her own, but also from just random sources I believe. She gave (or let me borrow, I’m not sure) a novel, then gave me a book about painting.

11.02.10

I wanted to go ice-skating with a friend, but when we got there, the skating arena was going to close in half an hour... so we just walked around, found really good deals on Coca-Cola at the Euro Shop... and I think she ate a Döner.

12.02.10

No school today!

14.02.10

I went to Carnival celebrations with my host mom. You might know this event by the name of „Mardi Gras“. It’s celebrated in Germany, mainly in the southern area (especially in Cologne), with parades and other celebrations. And on TV, it seems like there’s nothing but constant footage of some guy making a comedy appearance, speaking in the German version of a Southern Drawl, standing in front of a bunch of people in outrageous costumes. And that’s a HUGE part of Carnival; the costumes. My host mother used to live in Bonn, a city close to Cologne, and there it is normal to come into work during Carnival with your fingernails all painted different colors, and something in your hair. You actually look out of place when you DON’T dress up.



In Berlin, that’s not really the case though... my host mom doesn’t like participating in Carnival in Berlin, because the spirit just isn’t there.

17.02.10

I went shopping with a friend, and found a really pretty dress for €13 or so, and earrings for only €1 per pair :D (they’re more like a bead glued onto an earring holder thing, so that sort of explains it... but they’re pretty!).

18.02.10

First, I met my community representative after school in the Florida Eis Café, and I ate ice cream. Second, I used that pretty dress I bought the day before. I went to my school’s „Valentine’s Ball“. The dress code was „glamorous“. Someone was talking to me a day later about the ball, and the first thing they said was, „I heard everyone got drunk“. He/she/it (I can’t remember) was sort of right... one of the first things I saw after getting off the bus to go to my school was guys drinking beer. A little bit before the school, the friends of a different exchange student stopped me, and asked me where I was from, and... well, they were acting like idiots. I assume they were drunk. And then a little later, in the school, someone was telling me that I can’t learn German without drinking beer. So, this was all surprising to me, but... well, it’s sort of normal in Germany. Alcohol isn’t so taboo, and you can start buying beer at 16. And then on the way home, I was wearing sandals and stepped on a beer bottle (they were ALL over the place)... yay!

But seriously, the party was fun. And it was more of a party than a „ball“. There was NO slow dancing when I was there, and there were strobe lights, and those lights that flash on and off REALLY fast, and well... it’s what I always thought a club was like ^^. But it was a lot of fun. Everyone was dancing, and they made like circles (to the best of their abilities, the whole dancing group was packed together like a sardine can, even though not the whole dance floor was being used) of friends, who were all like... dancing sort of, together. It wasn’t real partner dancing, just sort of moving ^^. And German club music was being played, but there was also some soldier boy ;). And people stepped on my feet. I seriously have a bruise from where someone stepped on my foot... but, I was dancing half the time with these girls I don’t know too well, but then I found my friends and was dancing with them until 10:30pm almost. I was really tired, so I went home early, even though the dance ended at 11pm. Also, there was artificial smoke in the room too, to add to the light effects, and there were SO many people! Their sweat and everything... ew. It was like, as soon as you walked into the dance room, you were covered with a layer of people-exhaust. You actually needed to go out and take a break from it every 15 minutes or so... but then the people-exhaust leaked into the entrance hall, and people were going outside into the snow filled outside world, without jackets, just to cool off.

19.02.10

I actually didn’t have any school for the first period, because of the dance last night ^^. So cool xD.

Hallo! Ich heiße Charles.

Good news! For me, at least. The Euro is losing its value, and so in comparison the US Dollar is slowly rising in worth. I started paying attention to my allowance recently, and within two weeks it rose by four Euros. Yay!

Also, I was talking a lot with another English speaker, and he told me that I use the word „thingy“ a lot... I only use it because I have forget what the word is called in English.

And my mom sent me a box of candy! ^^

I have also been thinking about starting to post in German as well as in English... sure no one would read it, but oh well ^^.

31.01.10

I know I wrote about this day before, but I didn’t mention that my host mom came back from the south of Germany this day.

01.02.10

A Monday, and the first day of February! I was walking to the Topography of Terror (an outside exhibit about the history of the area where it’s now situated, more about that later), when I saw a very nice looking building. I was a bit nervous at first, because there was a cop patrolling outside of it, but I walked inside anyways. Here's a picture of it from the inside, rather elegant, isn't it?



I found out it was the building for Berlin’s parliament. So basically it is where the Parliament of Berlin meets to do those things that parliaments do. And it’s also just for the state of Berlin (Germany has 16 „Federal States“, and Berlin is big enough to be its own state), not for the other areas of Germany. It was really cool inside, but mainly because I thought it was the meeting ground of the actual national German Parliament (Bundestag). But, I did find a nice little cafeteria inside.

Right across the street was the Topography of Terror. It’s a collection of pictures with information about the area. The area is so important because it used to be the headquarters of the SS during World War Two. In fact, the government of that period was mainly headquartered in that area, not just the SS. There was also a Gestapo prison there in the cellar. In the war the SS-headquarters were extremely damaged, and instead of rebuilding them, the Germans tore them down. And then built the Topography of Terror exhibit where the SS headquarters and Gestapo prison used to be. Here’s a link to the actual website, in case you want to know more.

Topography of Terror

Afterwards I found a souvenir shop where I could buy 10 postcards for €4. I of course took advantage of this deal. The postcards in Berlin are really nice, in fact this guy I met from England thinks the best part of Berlin is the post cards. Speaking of which, I slipped on the ice outside of the souvenir shop, and this guy who was walking by with his nose buried in a map asked me if I was ok. I asked him if he needed help finding something, and then I walked with him to a holocaust memorial. That is how I met the guy from England.

02.02.10



I went over the neighbors to cook with them. We made „Rouladen“, a traditional German food where you basically beat up the meat before you cook it. The end result is a rolled up thing of meat with seasonings, or basically whatever the cook wants, smeared on the inside side of the meat strip. To make it though, you need to first take a mallet and hit the meat so that it has the same thickness in all areas, and it will also become wider and looser. Then we smeared mustard on the inside, sprinkled bacon and onions over the mustard, and then rolled them up and cooked them. We also made an orange flavored cream, and „Spätzle“ (a type of noodle).

03.02.10



I met up with a friend in a café in a store by my school. Then we realized neither of us wanted to actually eat or drink anything, so we walked to the Luftwaffen Museum that’s behind my school. The planes were really cool there, but it wasn’t too informative... but I believe that’s only because I’m not really into planes. But it was definitely nice to see all the different kinds there ^^.


Afterwards I went home and my new community representative came over. I was assigned a new one because my old one is now my host mother, in case someone missed that ^^. But, she’s really nice and just started going to college last fall, and offered to show me her university. I’m the first exchange student that she has had to look after.

04.02.10

I met up with the British guy again at the Siegelsäule statue in the Tiergarten. Here's a picture of the statue.



Then we walked to the Kaiser-Wilhelm Memorial Church. Afterwards I lead us in circles looking for a Döner shop I had eaten at one time with my boyfriend. I found it like a half an hour later. I felt bad for dragging him all over the place... but then we went to Museum Island. We reserved a time slot for us at the same museum I was at before with the Egyptian collection, the Neues Museum. I got something to drink before it was actually time to go in, and then we looked at the museum ^^. It was a lot of fun though, because the museums were all free (except for two because they had special exhibits) on the island, and we ended up really just looking at all of them we could get into for free ^^. We weren’t really studying every exhibit... if we were, then we wouldn’t have been able to see them all in one night. But then we went to the Altes Museum and looked there. Then the Bodes Museum. The last two weren’t as interesting as the Neues Museum, but one of them had a very nice (and HUGE) coin collection.

To end the day, we walked towards his youth hostel, and found a restaurant to eat at. The English guy had his eye on a traditional German good called „Eisbein“, and we ate that. It was pretty good, but there was so much food! The only bad part is that it’s basically a pig leg with some side-food, and the leg still has the outer layer of skin on it.



Then, I kind of freaked out because I didn’t really realize that my options on getting back home were limited, and I was sort of in the middle of Berlin... my host mom had said it would be ok if I started heading back at 10pm, but I had planned on taking this one bus that didn’t run anymore because it was too late, and la la la la. I basically didn’t get home until midnight. My host mom looked up on the Internet how to get home for me, and she told me to take this one train, and it was really late... I was waiting for I don’t remember how long. But then I got to Spandau, and she picked me up from there ^^.

05.02.10

I dragged myself out of bed rather early, and got on the subway system to Oranienburg. It’s a really small, sort of out of the way town. Or, at least I believe it is small... and I had to take some crazy subway connections to get to it. But, I was going to meet up with the English guy there, but the information I had given him about how to get there from his hostel wasn’t so up-to-date (sometimes there are last minute changes on which platform a train will go to), and he ended up needing to take a different route and being an hour late. It wasn’t his fault though, so I didn’t mind so much. I walked to a bakery and ate a donut. Then I walked to McDonalds and ate a cheeseburger. I was rather hungry, because I didn’t really eat that morning, since my stomach had been hurting me.

Anyways, he finally got there, and we starting walking. And on the way, I swear one sign said „Sachsen Hausen 2,0 kilometers“, and the next one said „Sachsen Hausen 2,6 kilometers“ :(. But, as you might have figured out, we were walking to Sachsen Hausen. I doubt any of you know what that is. Or maybe you do. It was used as a concentration camp by the Nazis, and as a „special camp“ by the Soviets. It was one of the major concentration camps in Germany. And did you ever hear of that one plan the Nazis had, where they were going to counterfeit an enormous amount of British (I’m not sure if they had been planning on counterfeiting a second country’s money as well or not) money, and then drop it into England to super inflate, and destroy, the British economy? Well, they succeeded in making a crapload of money. And they did it at Sachsen Hausen.



At first, we were just walking by ourselves, but then, I heard something. Another American! And he was leading a tour group! Of course, we followed them. I thought he might get mad (since technically, people were supposed to pay for a guided tour), so we drifted off for a while, but then we found him again, and I flat out asked him if we could follow. And we could ^^. It was definitely interesting there. And extremely sad. Without the guided tour though, we wouldn’t have understood what most of the stuff was, so if anyone goes there, do NOT go without a tour guide!

But, in the end... I can definitely say that it was awful what the Nazis did. It’s one thing to read or hear about what they did, and it’s another thing to actually stand there and see the remnants of what they did.

Afterwards, it was getting late, and I took the English guy with me to Spandau and showed him around a little. I showed him the local church, the Rathaus, the huge shopping mall, and marzipan. And I also spent five minutes talking to a salesman for him because he wanted to buy some German sausage ^^. Then, I showed him how to get home, and got home myself.

06.02.10

I really can’t remember if I did anything productive. I was just so tired...

Oh wait, I washed my clothes!

07.02.10

I watched the beginning of Shrek 3 with my host mom, and then she and my host dad walked to a restaurant, while my host brother and I left an hour later for the restaurant (we took the bus). We got there and had really nice meals. I had little pieces of chicken with rice in a curry sauce. The same restaurant has special events going on sometimes. They have a back room where it’s all decorated like a medieval castle, and people are allowed to eat in there once a week ^^.

Then I walked back with my host parents, while my host brother walked a little bit, but then got the bus to go back home. My host mom and I went to walk over the river in this one area, when I made this picture.



Just one last question. Do you like green cheese? I do!

Köln!

I’ve been writing letters to the Bundestag (German parliament), and I’ve had my host mom look over them... I realized I make fewer mistakes when I write in German than I do when I write in English. Whenever I make a blog post, I always have a bunch of mistakes that Microsoft Word finds, but only two or so when I write to the German Parliament... yay!

21.01.10

No school today. The only thing I really have to do is get on a train to Cologne. I met up with Tara, a friend who has the same scholarship as I do, and we got on the train together. The best part of this train ride, is that we bought reservations for some seats (since in Germany, having a train ticket doesn’t mean you have a seat, you need to pay extra if you want to be 100% sure you don’t have to stand the whole time), and then someone was sitting in them! To make it even better, the guy had the exact same reservations that we did, so we couldn’t make him leave, and had to go look for seats somewhere else... but at least we met up with some other CBYX kids on the way. We also met this really interesting man who had lived in East Germany. He writes philosophical books, but according to him, he writes what his heart says.

When we finally got to Cologne, we got to choose our rooms. After we got our stuff into our rooms, we had dinner, then a seminar, and it was basically just us all saying hi to each other again, and sharing funny experiences from Germany. After that, the other kids all decided to walk to the Cologne Cathedral. We totally didn’t make it all the way, because we needed to be back at the youth hostel by 10:30 pm. But at least we made it to the Rhein. We could see the cathedral from there.



I was really tired when we finally got back and went to bed... but my roommates weren’t. They talked until midnight.

22.01.10



Three alarms went off this morning. One was mine. One was from the person sleeping above me. The other one was a watch.

We went to Bonn today, but to get there we needed to catch a train at the Cologne Central Station, and I saw something in a window that I just had never really seen in a window before...



After we got to Bonn we had three hours of free time. I went with Nida, Garrett, and Tara to the Beethoven-Haus, where the composer Beethoven was born, but I didn’t actually go into the part that people had to pay for. Instead I went to this little Chinese shop right around the corner. It was really nice in there, and everything was cheap, and I think it was all really from China... it had a really nice air to it, because it was just a little family business. When the shopkeeper needed change for the money I gave him, he took it out of his own wallet. I also found a book in there in Chinese, and the people were speaking to each other in Chinese... the lady shopkeeper overheard my group and I talking to each other in English, and she told us we spoke English very well xD (she spoke in German).

Then we did some shopping. I believe this is when I bought this amazing jacket that I now have. It was on sale for €7,95 (in Germany, a comma is used instead of a period as a decimal place), and it’s amazing, and beautiful. After that we went to this Döner shop to get food. We were arguing the whole time though abut which one to go into, because there were two right next to each other... then I got ditched right in the middle of ordering, because my friends realized there were flies before I did. That döner was the worst tasting döner I’ve ever eaten. It didn’t taste bad, it just tasted disappointing.

I just realized something... during my time in Cologne I had been taking notes to remind myself of what I did, and I wrote „really nice dress“. I have no idea what I was talking about, but when I got home from Cologne I had asked me host brother if he liked my new dress, so I think I had forgotten for three days that a jacket is not a dress...

Anyways! Afterwards we all met up again, and went to the Haus der Geschichte, the house of history. It was a museum about the history of West Germany during the Cold War, and it was extremely fascinating. The Germans really had NOTHING back then... there was a collection of things people had made right after the war out of the strangest things, just because they really had NOTHING. One of the objects was a dress made out of a parachute. In another area there was also a car where its door was the window shield... the window shield popped up and people got in and out through that. I also bought a book about the DDR (it’s really cute and is a collection of facts and such), and then we found ICE CREAM!

Here's a random picture of a pretty building.



At dinner, Nida wasn’t paying attention. Garrett put all of his fish onto her plate. She didn’t notice we told her.

The seminar we had after dinner was spent by us dividing into the groups we had been in at language class (class wise), and talking about the good and bad experiences we had. It was interesting... I was able to see both similarities and contrasts between my experience in Germany and the experience of the others.

Of course, afterwards I did the only logical thing possible. I went running through the streets of Cologne at night with Hannah and some other people looking for ice cream. We didn’t find any.

To end the night, I played Egyptian Rat Slap/Screw. AND OMG! I was watching Pan’s Labyrinth and writing this, and the first creepy thing started to appear, the one with the hooves. Anyways, the people I was playing Egyptian Rat Slap/Screw with either called it Egyptian Rat Slap or Egyptian Rat Screw, so I guess that last part is optional? Personally, I like the slappy option more. Because that’s what you do. You basically look for combinations in the cards that are being put into a pile in the center, and slap the pile, but then everyone is trying to slap it, so you end up slapping/being slapped.

23.01.10

I woke up to someone saying „oh my gosh, there’s only 15 minutes left“. So, we ended up being technically five minutes late to breakfast. After which, we all walked to the Cologne Cathedral as a group, and had half a day of free time. The first thing my group did was climb to the top of the Cologne Cathedral. I started to feel EXTREMELY sick... I’m deathly afraid of heights. I was about to give up when a really nice German lady stuck me between her daughter and I, and made me go to the top xD. She told me to just ignore my fears and keep walking. And I made it to the top. It was amazingly beautiful. I have a bunch of picture of the cathedral, but that thing was just so big it was impossible to get it all into one picture...





I decided to be a tourist after this, and got the coolest scarf in the world. A scarf with the German colors and the national emblem on it :D. We spent the last of our free time going to the El-De Haus... it was an Gestapo jail. It was under an apartment complex so that no one on the street could hear the people’s screams, but the people in the apartment could... the jail’s water sources and such were also cut off from the city’s, so that no one knew that it existed. The main things being shown there were carvings the prisoners had made into the walls. It was very touching. Most of the writings had to do with love and loved ones, in a variety of languages... many people wrote about missing what it was like to kiss their boyfriend or girlfriend. It was very touching, and so meaningful. But all of these people knew they were going to die. The worst part was the torture room. It was hard to even go there because of the feeling of foreboding...

After lunch we had a seminar about what we had expected from Germany, and tips we could give to the exchange students who would be coming next year. Then we took a language test. I didn’t do completely wonderful on it, I got a 50%, which by German standards isn’t really bad (they have a funky grading system).

At the second seminar of the day, someone asked to be treated older, because he felt like the rules were too little-kid-designed. Then we learned a lot about the program. Because there’s so little interest in the program from the American side, they had to make age exceptions. Originally, only 15-16 year olds could get the scholarship, but now 15-18 year olds are allowed, but only on the American side. The Germans also send 300 kids to America every year, but only 250 Americans go to Germany every year. Six million euros are paid out every year for the 550 students that get to take part in this program, and Germany pays 65% of that. And they wont be any change to our rules.

I ended up talking a LOT to someone else in my program that I never really talked to that much before... I found out she’s rather interesting and really nice ^^.

24.01.10



In case you're wondering, yes, it is perfectly normal to have a car with wings on top of buildings.

The last full day we had in Cologne. I met up with David, the German kid who was at my school in America last year and had introduced me to the CBYX program. We sat around for a while at the youth hostel, and then his parents drove us into the city and we walked around a bit... he showed me some old buildings in Cologne, some market places, and clubs. Just about every other building was a bar. But there were also a lot of Carnival related things... including a shop with a bunch of costumes. He also bought me a piece of cake, a cookie, and he gave me a book, a Kinder (brand of candy) egg, and a box of chocolates :D.

Then we had more seminars and stuff, but we really didn’t do anything... a group of kids decided to go to the movies, because we had some extra free time that night, but I just stayed at the youth hostel with a friend and watched movies on her laptop... I was feeling kind of sick too. I didn’t get to bed until 4 am. But, Micky gave Ann a HUGE thing of Doctor Pepper. He brought a case of it all the way from Potsdam to Cologne for her. I got two cans. And I got to sleep in my friend’s room. Yay.

25.01.10



We went home. No one was sitting in our reserved seats this time. I visited the neighbor’s house with my host mom, because she was going to be gone this weekend to visit her mom in southern Germany, and she wanted me to know the neighbors in case I had a problem or something. They’re really nice. Looking back on my sentence, it looks like someone can interpret it as „my host mom took me door-to-door o get to know all of the neighbors“, but I just met one family. And then I went to sleep.

26.01.10

I turned 16. My host mom baked me a cake with apples in it, and put a big candle in the middle. She also gave me a sweater, a thing of chocolates, a postcard-calendar, and a bucket of flowers.



Instead of school, today my class had Wandertag, where we basically just go on a field trip. My class went to the Museum of Movies and Television. The guided tour was interesting, but we ended up getting to leave early. At first the teacher wanted to us all to meet up again an hour later, but within 10 minutes everyone from my class but one person was in the lobby and wanted to leave... so we got to go early ^^. Then I saw a movie with two other girls. We saw the Surrogates, and it was pretty good, but I didn’t understand these two important conversations, so I was sort of left clueless at one part, and my friends had to explain it to me a little... we also did a little shopping, and then I met up with Tara for ice cream. I also got rid of all of my pocket change by feeding all of my coins to the stamp machine. There’s a limit of how many coins you can put in the machine though, and so I had to try at least four times... and the maximum is 15. I guess I just had a lot of coins.

27.01.10

I only went to school two days this week. This was one of those two.

28.01.10

Gesundheitstag (health day)! I went to Potsdam (a city right outside of Berlin) today on a small school organized trip to a health and fitness center. With a sauna and a water gymnastics area. We were supposed to try out different things, like the sauna, a spinning bicycle, and aerobics. I only got to try the sauna a little and the group massage at the end. The massage part was really nice; we teamed up with a partner and took these spiky balls and rubbed them on our partner’s back. Then we relaxed. I almost fell asleep.

My host mom left for the south of Germany today to visit her mom for her mom’s birthday. I had dinner at the neighbor’s house, and they were really nice. They invited me over for lunch for the next day.

29.01.10

The last day of school before the week of winter break. I only had two periods of classes today, and in the third period my class teacher gave us all our grades. My exchange program asked my school to grade me with A’s, B’s, C’s, and D’s, and my teacher made me a special printout with my Americanized grades on it. I got 6 A’s, 3 B’s, 2 C’s, and 1 D. I was worried about the D at first, since my program wrote in the hand book that we’re not allowed to have D’s, but I talked to my host mom about it, and she had hosted CBYX kids before, and her other host daughter had gotten D’s too. So it wasn’t that bad. Then my class got to get out of school before the period was over.

I found out that the little library where I live now has Brokeback Mountain. And that you can check it out with a minimum age of 12. Yes, mom, I did watch it. It was actually really interesting. The settings involved a heavy suppression of gay people, and even though it is a gay love story, gay-ness was shown in a more negative light, mainly because of the background where the story took place, and through the characters’ own dislike of it.

I went over to the neighbor’s house for dinner, and stayed for a really long time.

30.01.10

I went over my boyfriend’s mother’s apartment and we went to Kentucky Fried Chicken together ^^. Then I talked to my family and my boyfriend through Skype back at the apartment. And she gave me candy, a t-shirt, and a little pillow for my birthday.

31.01.10

The neighbor’s daughter is leaving for her university studies, and I stopped by for a little to say bye. Then I wrote this blog.

I've finally updated on time!

14.01.10

I went to see the movie called „Friendship“ with my host family, and it was really good. I don’t know if it was shown in America, but it’s basically set right after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the main characters are two guys from East Germany visiting America for the first time... and they can’t really speak English either ^^. If it’s also playing in America, which I really doubt it is, I suggest that you watch it.

Friday, January 15th, 2010.

I switched host families. Some problems came up, and well... yeah. I’m going to be staying with my community representative now. Luckily I’m going to be going to the same school. Normally a family change takes three weeks, but I just had some luck.



That's a picture of my host mom and I on the lake. I have a host father who works t of the week in Bonn, so he's not home when it's not a weekend. I also have a host brother who goes to the same school as me, but one grade higher. My other two host brothers are studying at universities; one in Germany and one in New York.

16.01.10

My host mom and I went ice skating together at Glienicke See. It’s really just a frozen lake, but there was so much snow on it that you couldn’t really ice skate, but some people had already brought snow shovels and were shoveling away the snow in areas so that people could actually ice skate.

19.01.10

I have two periods every tuesday in which I don’t have any classes, so usually I would just sit around and do nothing... but this Tuesday, I decided to go to the center of Spandau instead. First I tried to feed the stamp machine all of my pennies and bipennies (the Euro is Germany’s form of currency, and the Euro has 1 cent pieces, 2 cent pieces (hence „bipennies“), 5 cent pieces, 10 cent pieces, 20 cent pieces, 50 cent pieces, 1 Euro pieces, and 2 Euro pieces... from then on everything is in bill form) so that A) I could get rid of my mountain of pocket change (I would feel bad giving a person a billion pennies, ya know?), and B) I sort of need stamps. My mommy always gave me something for Valentine’s Day, and I finally have a boyfriend (that sounds a bit desperate...), so I want to at least send them postcards... sending packages is kind of expensive, but I am very happy with a package I got recently. I very nice person sent me a lot of CANDY. That’s perfect, because I love CANDY. I’ve been eating a lot more CANDY in Germany, but I’ve actually lost weight... ok, I’ve been pathetically trying to fit CANDY into the last few sentences, because I really just wanted to write CANDY xD.

Anyways. I also bought a 4 Gigabyte memory card with a 5 year garuntee for my camera for only 11,99 Euros. That’s like 15 dollars. Beat that! Also, another wonderful amazing little thing about Germany, is that the sales tax is ALWAYS included in the price... and they seperate their trash into different bins to help the environment.

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Ok, so I am leaving on Thursday 21.01.10 to go to Cologne (for a seminar for my exchange program), meeting up with the German exchange student who was at my highschool last year (he also had the same scholarship I do, but just on the German end) on Sunday 24.01.10, coming back to Berlin on Monday 26.01.10, having a Wandertag (basically there’s no school and you go on a fieldtrip with your class) and my 16th Birthday on Tuesday 26.01.10, going to a school-organized spa day instead of school on Thursday 28.01.10, and then having Winter break the whole next week. It’s like everything amazing is happening around my birthday! I am SO happy ^^. Also, another weird thing is that the German school semester, at least in Berlin, ends next week, instead of how ours ends right before Christmas. So, I technically had a week for Christmas and New Year’s breaks, but not the break to split up the semesters yet. A bad thing though, is that the end of the school year is later than the American end... I’m going to end up leaving about a week or two before the school year has actually ended. Maybe then I’ll at least get to miss a test or two ^^.

Weihnachtszeit

13.12.09
I went over my friend’s house. His mother made „Carne Salada“, or something with the word „Carne“ in it, and it had so much meat! I really liked it. I also played Wii with him, then „Singster“ with both him and his mom. I was terrible, and the game was giving the players feedback after they sang a little bit, and I swear it was making fun of me. I even lost to him in chess. I was SO close to winning too! All of his good pieces were gone, but then my brain decided to take a nap. But, it was a lot of fun, and now his mom wants to cook fish for me ^^.

14.12.09
I just had an almost regular, normal day today. After school I dropped a truckload of books off at the library, and bought my host mom something at the Christmas market. I got her a candle made out of folded sheets of beeswax. I think it’s really pretty, and it smells nice too.



16.12.09
I look forward to Wednesdays because that’s when I have my first English class of the week. So, I was waiting with my class in the classroom for the teacher to come. We waited... and waited... and waited... and left. The teacher just NEVER came, so we got to go home early.

After school I went with my friend and his mom to an Italian restaurant to celebrate her birthday, and I ordered Schweinschnitzel mit Fleischsoße, and it was SO GOOD! It was basically a piece of fried swine meat with a cheese and tomato (I think?) sauce. And French fries. I could hardly finish it. Afterwards, we went back to my friend’s apartment, and hung out... and well, now I have a boyfriend. And he’s a lifeguard. And he speaks French.



(Normally he’s not wearing a pink cowboy hat. He just tried this one on at the Christmas market in Spandau.)

17.12.09
„Today, I was assaulted by white balls. They were very small things on the ground, and in the air... I figured they were dew balls or something falling from the plants... but then I realized they were falling in places far away from the trees too...“ behold, my first experience with snow actually falling on me o.O

18.12.09
This was my last day of school. I couldn’t find my teacher for the last lesson of the day, and then I realized there was a huge concert thing going on in the entrance hall. Some of the younger kids were playing instruments and singing, and when they were done, we were released to go home almost two hours early ^^. Then I talked to the Columbian exchange student on the bus. It’s really interesting to talk to him, because I got used to how the Germans are, and now I think he’s kind of different, but in reality he acts sort of like an American ^^. Basically, my own culture is starting to see different to me... ^^.

19.12.09
It was really cold, snowy, and really pretty, and we (I and my host family) cut our own Christmas treeeeee! :D We just sort of drove for a while to I have no idea where, and went to a Christmas tree lot, and cut one down. The biggest question was ‚how are we going to get it back home?’, but eventually, it all worked ^^. At the lot there was a canal, and I REALLY liked it, because... it reminded me of jumping over the canals back in Arizona.

20.12.09



My host parents took me to the Christmas market at Schloß Charlottenburg, and IT WAS SO PRETTY!!!! Despite the cold, I really had a nice time there. The cold itself was pretty cool, because I had just never been THAT cold. I had like five jackets on and three pairs of socks, but I was still freezing. There were also a few dogs that were there, but their owners had put them in little bags and carried them around and it was soooooo cute! There was also these really cool birdhouses, but picture taking was forbidden, so... ya. There was also this really pretty Christmas tree set up, and just as we were leaving, some musicians were getting ready to play. Here’s another picture of the Schloß after it’s gotten a little bit darker.



Afterwards, we were walking back home when we found these street artists who were giving a display with fire. It was actually really cool.

21.12.09
I went with my boyfriend to Kudamm, which is THE shopping street of Berlin. If a business is successful, they have a shop there. It also is home of one of the most expensive malls in all of Germany, the KaDeWe. The whole mall looked pristine, and sooooooooo expensive. You actually aren’t allowed to take pictures in it, so... ya, no pictures for my blog ^^. But believe me, the whole thing looked like it was out of one of those really nice magazines. They also had a very nice Christmas thing going on in this amazingly huge entrance room, and I thought the decorations were really nice... until I realized they weren’t really decorations because they all had price tags on them. Basically, you could buy like everything there. Anyways, then we went to the Europa Center (it had a really cool water display by this little café), and to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtnis-Kirche. The Germans have a nickname for it, which in English is „hollow fang“. Here’s why.



It was destroyed in WWII, and then rebuilt as a memorial to the Catholics who died in the war. It’s really a beautiful church though, and there are even some wall paintings left over from the original.

One last thing, we went to a Döner Shop (a Döner is a Turkish... thing) and I was speaking to Georg, my boyfriend, in English... so the Turkish cashier started to talk to Georg in English, and Georg told him „I’m the German, she’s the American“. Then the guy said „and I’m Turkish“. It was really cute!

23.12.09
Today it was just a lot of getting ready for Christmas... It’s actually tradition in Germany to decorate the tree just a few days before Christmas. So, now our pretty tree is sitting in the living room.

24.12.09 Heiligabend
Germans open their presents today. One day before the Americans. Ha ha, Americans!

But anyways, I had a really nice time with my host family (and my host grandparents that live in Berlin came to visit) during Christmas. And in Germany, Christmas is three days long. The first day is Heiligabend (holy evening), and the next two are basically called „Party Day One“ and „Party Day Two“. What do Germans do to celebrate? EAT!!!!! I felt like I was going to explode the first day, but the food was just sooooooo good. We also set up a little train that went through the living room and under the tree. Afterwards we went to church, then went home to unwrap the presents. My host sister and I divided up the stack of presents between whom they all were sent to, and it was all just really nice. I really had a nice day, maybe I like Christmas in Germany more than Christmas in America. I got some nice presents too; a t-shirt with all of the sectors of Berlin, a pen set (with a real leather carrying case), a calendar with tips in it on German from Duden (this company produces a lot of books on school subjects, including a list of German words (no, not a dictionary, just a list of words with extremely brief notes on each one)), a Donald Duck comic book (in German), CANDY, a cutting block with the Tischregeln on it (table rules for the sloppy American), and lots of other stuff. Including paper (two notebooks, and one set of five really nice pieces of paper with matching envelopes and stamps from my community representative). I know it’s weird, but I was REALLY happy to get paper. I have a thing for writing, apparently ^^. After we unwrapped the presents, my host sister and I started putting together a puzzle she got for Christmas. It was a map of the world, and it had 1,000 pieces.

25.12.09 Erster Feiertag
My host grandparents left today, but not after my host uncle came over and we played games together. I swear I ALMOST won a game of cards. It’s a really weird and sort of complicated game that I totally didn’t understand at first, but it’s SO MUCH FUN! I just realized, I really like playing card and board games. My host family has some really interesting ones. But anyways, the puzzle of the Earth was a pain in the neck, because there were about 50 pieces that were all the same color of gray (a map of Earth is elliptical-ish and the puzzle was rectangular, but the designer decided to make the part outside of the Earth all gray, except for a part that was the flag of every country in the world), and then the ocean is all pretty much the same type of blue, so it was a lot of fumbling around in the dark, but we were able to finish before we went to bed! Well, I was in bed when they finished it, but I could hear my host sister screaming, and figured she had finished it ^^.

26.12.09
There wasn’t as much eating and having fun today, only because my host grandparents, host uncle, and host sister were all away, but I still had a nice day. My host parents went with me to the Neue Museum on Museum Island in Berlin. It had a special exhibit of Egyptian artifacts, and it was really interesting. I saw sarcophagi, a Book of the Dead, and it was overall just really interesting...

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Ok, I took forever to write this, so I sort of forget what happened on what day, and so... To sum it up, I celebrated New Year’s Eve with my host family, and we set off fireworks in the snow. We had a friend of my host mom and her family over, and it was a really nice time. I also went to go see Avatar with my boyfriend, and it was really an amazing film... I liked it so much because most films these days don’t have a real background idea like some books do, such as „Animal Farm“ and such... but Avatar does. To me, it raises the question of what people are willing to give up, or even destroy, to get something material. Then, on January 2nd, I went to the airport with my boyfriend and his parents, and her flew to America for a semester long exchange year.

The school is going really well for me now. I feel like I belong there somehow; like everything’s not so foreign anymore. I’m also hanging out with people more, I went to the Deutsche Geschichte Museum (German History Museum) and the Berliner Bär (Berlin Bear) exhibit with another exchange student from Switzerland. I also hung out with another kid from the CBYX program in Spandau. My host family and I also went to an ice hockey game together, the Berliner Eisbäre against the Hannover Scorpions... the Berlin team lost 3-4.



Anyways, the Berlin Bears are huge bear statues from I believe 144 different countries. I’m not sure how many there are, but the bear is the „mascot“ of Berlin, and artists from all of these different countries were asked to make a bear that best represented their country... then all of the bears are supposed to be holding hands to show global acceptance and cooperation.

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Ok, so I wrote the rest of that a while ago, and didn’t get around to actually posting it until the date stamp on this blog post... but a lot has happened since then. I’ll write about it in my next post.