it sure has been a long week. Monday nothing special happened ... i only had 5 classes so i came home early. Tuesday i only had 4 classes so came home even earlier. Wednesday i went to school and the last class of the day was geography and guess what... its in english again so i have another class to do stuff in besides english... could be a good thing considering then i have less time to draw and waste the ink of my markers and could be a bad thing considering i have to do work and its less time to do german but then again it gives me a break from german which i sometimes desperately need. i dont think that the people around me understand how exhausting it actually is to go to school and only do german work the entire time and speak 90% german and then come home and only speak german to my family. peggy always tells me that i chose to do this and yeah i did but its exhausting. its like when you know a language you can sit there and have a conversation with people and barely be paying attention but when you dont know the language you have to play attention to every word, every sound, every pause or you dont understand. half the time when i am with my host family they are talking and my mind is just so exhausted from everything that i just zone out and dont pay attention the when it gets quiet i look up and everyones looking at me and i'm like "what?" and they "ahhh, Katie!". Wednesday night i made Pumpkin Bread (Pillsbury from a box) and then took it into school for my class for thanksgiving. I went down to make the bread and i told peggy that i needed bread pans.. which considering almost every german cake that i have eaten has been made in a bread pan i thought that she had one but she didnt... so i used the spring form pan with the bunt pan insert. so i took it in on Thursday to english class and told everyone a little bout thanksgiving and then gave them the pumpkin bread... everyone really liked it and several people asked for the recipe and i was like umm its a box... and they were like well have your parents send more lol... i told them i would try to find a recipe and see if they have the ingredient here in germany. we had gym too and for once it wasnt all that bad we played volleyball and i did pretty well... better than alot of people but i think next week we are going back to basketball (eww).  after school i went home and skyped with the family... they set up the webcam pointed at the Tv so i could watch the Macy's Day Parade :) friday i went to school and did german all day and then i had 6 classes and NO GERMAN LESSON! again! its been like this for 2 months ... theres just no winning here. then i came home and did pretty much nothing except take a nap. i was going to make the pumpkin pie that night but i was just too exhausted and i dont even know what from. i was kinda homesick that night too.. i dont know if its because of all the thanksgiving things running through my head or if it was just that its friday night and im sitting in my room alone with nothing to do... that gets really old really fast. Laura (my host sister) is always out doing stuff at parties or whatever and i just sit here. i dont think that laura and i will ever get alone like "sisters" or "best friends" like a lot of people do with their host brother/sister. we walk to school together every morning and dont say a single word to eachother and i am usually following behind her like a little puppy dog trying to keep up, we live in the same house and we only see each other at meals, i talk to her "archenemy" at school more than i actually talk to her. at first i thought it was because i was kinda like a 3rd wheel (when we went anywhere because she would always be with friends or her boyfriend) or that i couldnt speak very good german / she couldnt speak very good english but now my german is fine and we still haven't connected at all. the only time that we are alone together and could talk one on one is when walking to school but she puts her headphones in before we even walk out the door so..... i would like to have a better relationship with her i just dont know how. so anyway... saturday morning i got up and had breakfast with peggy and andreas then took a shower and got ready and started my baking. i started off with the pumpkin pie, then made the deviled eggs, then the cheese cake. after i put the pie in the oven i just went upstairs and got my laptop and took it to the kitchen and called mom on skype so she could help me out here and there... i didnt know how long i should boil the eggs for deviled eggs and some other stuff. so i skyped with her until i got the eggs done then went on my own after that. after the cheese cake i went with peggy, andreas, and toby into town to see the christmas market... its nothing compared to koblenz and i am afraid to see one in a big city lol. i like the chistmas markets though they are cute and very traditional... of course when you go to one around 5 pm half the people are drunk but thats germany for ya. so we walked around the christmas market for like a half hour didnt actually look at anything just walked  then went home. once home we got the turkey in the oven. we were lucky to have a turkey at all... it was hard for peggy to find a turkey breast any where. so mom told me to just simply rub it with butter and then add salt and pepper... they wouldnt let me use butter (which gives it the flavor) they used sunflower oil and salt and pepper. it turned out ok though just not as moist and flavorful as normal. so we cooked the turkey,made the mashed potatoes, made the stuffing (which is completely foreign to them), warmed the corn, and warmed the gravy (also completely foreign). we sat down and ate and they liked most of it i think. especially the stuffing and gravy. we had a pretty nice meal. we then had dessert. toby didnt try any, everyone tried the cheese cake, which was a jello no bake cheese cake that came with a cherry sauce. they liked it but the cherry sauce was too sweet. only andreas tried the pumpkin pie... no one else i guess liked pumpkin i dont know. he could only eat a half a piece though. i explained to them that we normally eat around 1 pm and then we eat again at like 7 or so. they found that funny which was the purpose of telling it. we had enough food for today too peggy just made giant tader tot triangles for a side instead of mashed potatoes. whats left i will take to school tomorrow for lunch since i have 8 periods. Today started Advent. no one will really explain to me what it is they just say we light a candle the 4 sundays before christmas and then when you light the 4th one the christmas child comes. so today they lit one of the candles on the advent thing... its a platter with a wreath on it with 4 candles and decorations (see pic) (i dont know the exact name for it). on tuesday theres a christmas party for Montabaur rotary club and im going... looking forward to that. then friday starts the Inbound-weekend looking forward to that even more... need my exchangers fix. then the friday after that i am going to Bonn to the German History Museum. then the next day i am going to Andreas's sister's and theres some sort of party... havent got much detail on that they just told me about it tonight. ok well i think thats  about it ... i hope everyone had a good thanksgiving and a safe black friday lol (btw i am very displeased that these greedy stores opened at 10 pm ON THANKSGIVNG! whats that about i am ashamed to tell people this!)

Forgot to do noticed of the week... ill try to pay more attention this week

my present for john and i's 1 yr anniversary : a lock to hang on the Cologne bridge

NAZI poster in a german classroom

so i am actually attempting to get this entry done today, sunday... i usually start it on sunday and it gets finished around tuesday or wednesday. my last one didnt get done until late wednesday night which was really unusual. so thursday i went to school and finished my turkey picture (4 days in the making) then we had gym and we had to perform our dance again even though we never actually practiced it all together except for the 15 mins she gave us at the beginning of class. we got a 2- which is pretty good its kinda like a b. when i got home from school i ate lunch and then went for a walk with merlin. then i came home and got around a little later and went to town. i took money out of home account and put in in this account here, then i paid for johns present by asking for help from one of the bank workers and i cant believe how well it went it took a few trys for him to understand what i wanted but it got through then he helped and all is good now. i then went shopping for toiletries and also box a mixed box of chocolates (that are extremely small) that way when i need my chocolate fix i am not eating all that dad brought me from home... theres already a lot gone. then i walked home and peggy had to work late so everyone just ate on their own... peggy didnt get home until like 10:30! i also looked at clips from finding nemo in german on youtube... pretty funny. i had a conversation with one of my friends from school back home in german too... its kinda discouraging when a kid that was at the same level of german when school ended last year as you can now speak at the same level as you... when you have been in germany for almost 4 months and he has 45 minutes of german 5 days a week in school... but never the less i am exploring europe and hes sitting in a classroom so i win lol.  friday rolled around and i went to school.... actually did german most of the day. i made a chart of all of the endings and now i am going to focus on memorizing it and applying it to my speaking... i am getting pretty good at learning something and quickly applying it to what i say... the hard part is trying to get your place in a conversation... when you are talking to more than one person you have to try to understand what they are saying then you do and you have something to say but by the time you figure out what they said and work out what it is you want to say they have already moved on to another topic... its like come on give me 3 seconds to think please. friday we also had... you guessed it ... only 5 classes and i had german lessons after the 6 class so i had to stay... again. we had 3 weeks in a row without a 6th period on friday, then last week we had 6 but my german lesson got canceled, and then this week 5 lessons with a german lesson >.>                so in the german lesson Frau Thelen brought me a practice test book  so i can start to work on some tests to prepare for the one i have to take the 1st weekend in december at the inbound weekend. after the lesson i walked home... as i was leaving the school i saw a group of kids standing in a circle in the entrance to the "schoolyard". there was one guy sitting on a crate of beer and everyone else was passing about 4 bottles of alcohol around the circle... then there was the little compact car with subs in it that probably are bigger than the backseat that was blaring music....... so partying on school property... pretty sure that you would be arrested for that in the US lol. so after i got home i ate lunch that was way too much for me but i finished it because i didnt want to leave just a little  that wouldnt be a meal. then i went up stairs... changed into my red pj pants, my reindeer toesocks, and my elf shoe slippers, then went to my computer, turned on MIX95.1 (my home town radio station) online and jammed to the christmas music that they started playing that day and thats how i spent the rest of the night. saturday i got up and ate breakfast then i baked cookies for my host family and for the movie night later that day. then i took a shower and did hair and make up with perfect finishing timing for being picked up by Luisa, Jenny, and Katharina. we left then we drove to koblenz and we walked around there for 3 hours and looked at all the christmas market... its basically a bunch of little hut things that kinda look like cottages or cabins and each one has a different vendor, usually of some sort of christmas stuff but sometimes it had nothing to do with it lol. so we walked around and looked at everything and theres some pretty cool things there and i took pics of almost everything and then we went and got pizza for lunch then we walked around more and went to 2 clothes shops and then we went and bought crepes .. i had nuetella and bananas in mine it was so good lol...then we saw the german santa - "Weihnachtsman". then we went to get hot chocolate/ cappuccino... i got cappuccino to give me energy. then we went to claras for the movie... there was me, jenny, clara, katharina, Luisa, Luise, and Franzi.... and we had homemade doeners and then i almost threw up from eating so much and then we had icecream with a warm raspberry sauce and i almost threw up again.... i fell over and couldnt sit bak up lol...then we went and watched "as good as it gets" with jack nicholson. clara is one of those people that are extremely ticklish so while watching the movie i would poke her side or neck and she would have a spasm on the floor... quite comical. so after all the food i ate that day we then had my cookies, a giant box of sour gummies, a bag of sour gummies, a box of mixed mars chocolates, a bag of other chocolates, chips, popcorn, and other stuff but i just ate the sour gummies to try to give me energy...so then when the movie was over which it was like 3 hours long we talked a while ... this was one of those conversations where i just sat there because i couldnt get a word in ... but when it comes to 6 girls and gossip no one can get a word in so.... then i was the last one to get dropped off... and i really felt like i was going to throw up (there were a million speed bumps on the way home)... i got home and watched tv with my host family for a few hours... started out with a music show then it was 1000 ways to die in german (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and then it was some movie with a sex scene in it and andreas told me to close my eyes and i didnt know if he was being serious or not so i kinda laughed a little and looked away so i covered all my bases then it was another music show before we decided that midnight was late enough and we went to bed. Sunday (today) i woke up and went and ate breakfast then sat and talked with toby, peggy, and andreas for a little with Merlin sleeping on my lap. then we got around and went to a furniture store... most of this furniture cost more than what it did for me to come to germany! we spent a good 2 and a half hours looking at all 4 floors of this store and contemplating whether or not the entertainment center would match the couch or not... then we walked back home which was all uphill ... even though i am in alot better shape then i used to be the hills still kill me lol... maybe by the end of the year they wont...

sorry no noted of the week ...

merlin was helping me write my blog today :)

my finished turkey

my wall of art :) soon there will be santas and snowflakes and gingerbread men and snowmen and reindeer and everything else

everyone singing along to the end credits song... i didnt even know it lol

clara trying to hide

claras icecream on the left jennys on the right.... they both asked for a tiny bit... i think claras  mom didnt  really care what clara had to say lol

ohhh can you tell i was bout to throw up

eating doener

the sugar covered donuts are called "Berliners" but are just jelly filled donuts... the sugar covered dough shaped like a man is supposed to be for st. martains day like the pumpkins and the pretzels

the german santa... "der Weihnachtsman"

eating my banana and nuetella crepe :)

santa shaped gummies

chocolate covered apples

chocolate covered: apples, grapes, bananas, and strawberries

ANGRY BIRDS HAT!

cooking tons of sausages

candles and holders

glass figures

glass figures

hangy thingys

dried fruit

hats

candy

candy canes

CANDY!!!!!!!!!!!

donut ball things

wood stuff

wooden nativity scene

fur guy

i made coooooookiessss

baking em lol

i was dressed for the occasion on friday

"answer for you chance to win a green card for the USA. Who is the president of the USA?" lol

poster at school encouraging people to be host families

the apples wont fall off of this tree!!!