INBOUND WEEKEND!!!! ok so i typed monday through thrusday on thursday so that i didnt have as much to do today that way it might actually get posted on time. Monday started out with my normal snooze the alarm clock 14 times routine and continued into school. we had long classes this week, then they had to go and mess with the schedule ... we had biology, french, math (instead of german), english, religion, 1 hour free because for some random reason we had no 6th pd + our 40 minute lunch break, then a double period of math in which everyone took a test.  when they got done with the test they were allowed to leave even if the class wasnt over so i guess i could have left but i didnt want to be like "haha im the exchange student that doesnt do anything in school and i get to go home while you all sit here and take a math test that you all are probably going to fail" so i stayed until the end of school and did german which was good because i wouldnt have done any at home and i didnt to learn more for the test on saturday. That night i just spent on facebook talking to other exchange students (yes sometime in german... shocking huh lol) and then i found this: The Easiest Way Ever to Understand WWIIi think that if my last history teacher (mr. bound) would be allowed he would just give all of his students this link and be like this is the important stuff you dont need to know any more lol. Tuesday started the same way as monday... we had 8 classes.. 2nd period was music - god i hate music the teacher talks to people like they are 5 and makes them run in place and says to act like nutcrackers (what ever that means) and a ton of other extremely stupid things just to warm them up for singing and then they actually have to sing right and get graded on it... thats one thing i dont like about german schools you dont get to chose your classes until your last 3 years and then in classes we would consider "electives" they grade you on how well you can perform. so since this year isnt going to count at all for me (since ive decided just to go into the 11th grade next year) i dont do anything in the class except sit there and she doesnt let me do german work either so mostly its sit there and try not to fall asleep... so this week she asked me like 3 times why i wasnt doing anything and i told her because i dont need it and shes like then why are you here ... all i wanted to say was "i kinda have to but im going to try to get my class changed on friday so obviously i dont want to be here" but i didnt i just stood up and lip-sinked the whole time. the song we sung said "let us break bread together on our knees" over and over and then "let us pour wine together on our knees" so after music clara and i discussion about whether i meant to kneel and break bread/ pour wine or to take bread and literally break it on our knees / pour wine over our knees... so we decided next week we are going to take bread into class and smash it on our knees. we had art on tuesday too.. we are making things with clay... topic: "cowering"... so i started making a person with their legs up and their arms folded on top and their head laying on their arms. not all that original but im not getting a grade so oh well. tuesday night was the Rotary Club's Christmas Party. so i got ready for that and went with peggy and andreas. we got there and ended up walking up and down the street like 5 times trying to find this restaurant and it turned out it was in the same place we stared in just around the other side. so we went in and sat down and we sang christmas carols (2 or 3 in German and then Feliz Navidad - no one really knew both the spanish and english except for me) then we ate. i had a good conversation with the people at my table i spoke in all german and they all agreed that my german is fantastic and that i have really improved. after we ate we sang again and then people started leaving. we stayed a while ... a long while ... like until 11:30. i talked with the president of the club and he said he wants to take me place like Cologne and see the cities and the cultural areas. so i am kinda excited about that because its the first time someone besides anke has offered to do anything with me from the Club. one of the other women told me that there is a christmas museum that she works at and i should come and see it so i have to try to figure out when i can do that too.  the president also told me that the grades in school are not all that important to me ... im here to learn the culture and the language and have the best year of my life... that helps to know that im not the only one that sees it that way.. everyones been telling me that i should do the homework in every class and take all the tests and everything and i cant simply because the teachers speak too fast and theres no possible way to look up every word i dont know and i cant constantly bother clara. so after like 4 glasses of apple juice we went home and i passed out... didnt even take my hair down just wore it the same way for the next day.   wednesday and thursday nothing really exciting happened at school. when i got home thursday i had a package and my Red Hot Chili Peppers T-shirt was finally here! that made my day, plus it started the advent calendar so now we get to open one of the little bags every day and get presents. then i spent the rest of the night packing and everything. friday i wore my new tshirt to school along with my bracelet that matches. i met with frau Thelen (german teacher) in 4th period (got out of german to go to german) and we practiced for my test a little and i told her that i wanted to go to another english class instead of music. she said that it should be no problem she just has to talk to the guy in charge of the higher classes. after school i tried to get home asap and we ate lunch and then i had to finish packing and leave. Taylor's host mom came and picked me up and then we drove to taylors house... from taylors we went to carinas where alejandra was, then ainas host dad came and picked us up. then we all drove to Bergheim (near Colonge) for the Inbound Weekend. friday we didnt do much we all went into these 2 really tiny rooms and we played a "get to know you game" where you pass the mandarin orange and say you name and your country and your favorite thing about Germany so far.... when they said pass the orange they meant hand it off but people threw them across the room so we went thru like 4 oranges lol. we were in a school classroom and there was a chalk board and i noticed that after playing the gave the chalkboard had a huge crack in it like a baseball hit it... or an orange... so we dont know if we did it or if it was already there but someone smelled it and it didnt smell like oranges so we think we are ok lol. after dinner (soup - i had soup thursday and friday for lunch then friday for dinner then saturday for lunch and sunday for dinner! so tired of soup) we got to go to the gym and we hung out there... we played my game, PIT, again and i taught it to more people... but it wasnt as great as the last time when we had 8 people playing and we were all screaming at the top of our lungs and it was in a tiny hallway so it echoed... but still fun. i dont think we went to bed until like 3-3:30 that night and then we woke up at 8 am on saturday. we went and ate breakfast (bread meat cheese and nuetella ..oh and jelly) and then it was time for the test... they split us up into two groups... i was in the first group to take the writing and hearing test. we had the hearing portion first. it was pretty simple and i think i got most of them right except for the last one because i zoned out and missed what the CD said. then we did the writing part it was pretty simple too. i think i was one of the first ones done. after the first part of the test we went and sat in the gym until they came and got us. My partner and i went and i did pretty well... my partner lets not even go there. but i knew everything she was attempting to say and i did the hard part by asking her all the questions and keeping the conversation going. after the test we all left and went to a castel. there we ate lunch (soup) and took a bunch of group pictures. then we went with the tour guide. he comes up and says "oh everyone... id like to be on a first name basis with all of you. my first name is Sir. now moving on." i automatically didn't like him. so we went on an extremely boring tour of a museum of some sort of mine. even the Rotex members were extremely bored. one of the rotexers and an exchange student were walking up behind people and posing for pictures like they were grabbing the person's butt... their goal was 50 pictures... idk how many they got... i stood against the wall the entire time to avoid them. after the museum we got back in the bus (yes we actually had buses this time and not caravans like last time) and drove to one of the mines ... they are like on top of the ground (the german translation is "daily mine" so i dont exactly know what it was and i didnt pay attention to the tour) but it was raining and the wind was blowing so it was quite cold. when we first got there there was a double rainbow and you could actually see the end of the rainbow shining on some nearby houses...so everyone was taking pictures. then we got up to the top of the hill where the outlook of the mine was and all everyone did was take more pictures together. then we went back to the bus and back to the gym. the rest of the day was just spent hanging out together. we actually had something else besides soup .. pizza and they had to have different rounds because they were all home made and so i think we had 4 different rounds of deliveries... i think it would have been better if they would have just ordered the giant pizzas and had them delivered... 7 of those would have been fine for 60 people. so pretty much the rest of the night was dancing and having fun... there was another PIT session with even more new people. we didnt go to sleep until like 5 we stayed up and had fun together and ate spekulatius (german cookies that taste like gingerbread and gram crackers mixed together - best thing on earth for midnight munchies) all night. then the next morning we got up bright and early at 8 am again. then we went and ate breakfast and then packed and cleaned. when everyone was ready and just sitting down and waiting to go home i broke out my "cheek stick" the german flag face paint stick. i think half of us had face paint on and then it was another photo session... i think thats about all we do on these weekends is eat dance and have photo sessions when we are bored. so after the photo sessions Taylors host mom and Carinas host mom got there and we went around and gave our goodbye hugs and then left. it was me taylor and aina with taylors host mom and carina alejandra and Mateus with Carina's (the cars are too small for all of us so we had to take two). i think all of us fell asleep on the way home and i was sleeping on my hoodie and got face paint all through it. we stopped at mcdonalds for lunch and Carina's car was there too so we all ate lunch together. me and taylor said we wanted the Big Mac "McMenu" (instead of value meal) and aina was like i want that too... aina is a very tiny person who doesnt eat alot... like a double cheese burger would be what she normally eats... so taylor and i were like Aina! you want a bigmac! and shes like yeah why what is it then we showed her the picture and her eyes almost popped out of her head lol. but now aina is a true american. she at the sandwich, fries, ketchup, and the drink. we were so proud. Then Andreas and Toby got to mcdonalds to pick me up so everyone let and we headed home. i dont think i did much else that night except sit at my computer (and eat soup for dinner) and then go to bed. Monday was not a good day. i could not stay awake at all in any of my classes and in the 6th period (the last class) the other kids were talking a physics test so i asked the teacher and he let me go home. Herr Bergs ( physics teacher) is  pretty cool and he always tries to speak english to me even though his english is terrible. we will be sitting in class and he will just look up and see me and just switch to english and take 10 minutes to say one sentence. so when i asked him if i could go home the entire time i spoke in german and he kept trying to answer me in english... im like dude i can understand you i just cant understand the humongous words you use when you're teaching class mostly because they are all things to do with engines and electricity flow. so after i got home i came upstairs and passed out for about 20 minutes after i figured out that the internet wasnt working (the living room remodeling started monday morning at 7 am with hammers smashing holes in the wall (and every morning since).... actually it started on friday with the removal of decorations and then saturday with taking down wall paper and removing funature) and then it was time for lunch. so i ate lunch and then went back upstairs and passed out for like 3 hours... i even slept through all the banging and doorbells ringing. Tuesday i actually managed to stay awake through school but nothing exciting happened. i did get candy at school cause it was St. Niklas Tag (st. nicholas day) and the teacher that went on the class trip with us brought us mini st. niklas's (see pic). For St. Niklas Tag normally kids put their shoes outside their bedroom door and st. niklas comes in the middle of the night and gives you money and chocolate and things... he didnt come to my house. i dont think my family celebrates it because the kids are too old but i would have liked to but they told me that it was St. Niklas Tag the day before so its kinda like oh ok well nevermind. Tuesday night we went to grandma and grandpas for dinner and then had homemade "plätzchen" german christmas cookies that are really dry and dont really have any flavor ... imagine a sugar cookie that was turned into a cracker (see pic). After dinner we came home and i worked on this all night until i skyped with mom and rie. riley is getting really mad that i am not home yet and that people keep leaving him. my dad went to India for 2 weeks for work and so now "aunt Kate" is gone and so is "Pa". he is still perplexed about where german is too ... hes only three so he cant wrap his head around the fact that theres more places in the world besides home and michigan. so today (wednesday) i got up and around for school ... walked through the pouring rain, and sat in soaking wet pants, socks, and shoes all day. we only had 5 classes today and when i left school my pants still werent dry. so i got to walk home in the rain again (it had stopped raining until about 15 before 5th period was over) ... against the wind so my umbrella flipped backwards like 4 times and my hood wouldnt stay up so part of the way i just stopped trying until i turned the corner. i am participating in 2 secret santa gift things in school. the first one is with the "movie night girls" and the second one with the people who i stand with outside. the movie night girls one is a true secret santa we drew names and now i have to buy something between 3 and 5 euros for the person (who i will not name because clara might read this and i dont want her to know who i have) and some times leave sweets or something on their desk which i havnt done yet because the only sweets i have are american and they will know who i am immediately. then the last day of school before vacation we are having another movie night at Luise's house (not to be confused with one of the other girls Luisa) and then we will exchange the big presents. the other gift thing is with like 8 other people and you choose the people you want to "buy" for (so i wrote down 7 out of the 8 because i dont know the one person so well) and then we give 1.50 euros for each of the people you want to "buy" for then one person goes out and buys for one other person. i've also got to find gifts for my host family and i have absolutely no idea what to get.... ive been trying to think of american tradition things but they are the "no knickknacks" type of people and so i am at a total loss. it also doesnt help that i dont know how christmas works here so i dont know who all is going to be here or if we will be in this house at all. i dont know if they will even give presents (peggy got a new living room for chirstmas, idk if allllll of lauras birthday presents also count as christmas presents) i want to ask but its kinda awkward i dont know why. i kinda wish i could just draw a snow man and write merry christmas on it and give it to them like when i was little.....

Advent Calendar

Advent Calendar : 12/01/11

Advent Calendar : 12/02/11

Advent Calendar : 12/03/11

Advent Calendar : 12/04/11

Advent Calendar : 12/05/11

Advent Calendar : 12/06/11

Advent Calendar : 12/07/11

my amazing new shirt... the title of the new RHCP album is I'm with you and when you translate that into german you get "ich bin bei dir" and then it says Cologne, germany and red hot chili peppers in the middle (red) and 07.10.11 (oct. 7, 2011 ... european style of writing the date) in the yellow

mwahahahaha

even the trees are confused to why there is no snow yet

so ive been scouting all the cars in the neighborhood that have the hard letters for the alphabet game (where you have to find a word that starts with every letter of the alphabet in order ) I found X

my first kinder Ueberraschung (surprise) .. a chocolate egg with a surprise inside vvv

my surprise from my ueberraschung

plätzchen

my facebook got too confused with all the languages being spoken by my friends

photo from last inbound weekend

dec 5th first snow in germany

all the pins i still have!!!

Katie (texas) , Taylor (flordia), Aina (japan), Carina (brazil)

me, katie, Frank (taiwan), aina

deven (ohio)

my name in Hindi (from anisha) and this is my Chinese name: 美麗 (ma le) (from frank)

Byron (australia), and taylor

frank and taylor who always steals franks camera

SPEKULATIUS - best thing to live off of!

SUVI (finland) ... Ihre Fanne ist Kaputt! Das ist das "SCHEIßE!!!!" Gesicht. .... her flag is broke! this is the "S**T!!!!" face.

me and katie (shes behind the flag lol) and Vivian and Carina (both Brazil)

Paras (India), Vivek (India), Aina (japan), Me, Taylor (flordia), Carina (brazil), Anisha (India), and Talitha (Brazil)

this is the "day mine" thing

aina showed me how to do my hair with chop sticks (and gave me hair chopsticks) and then i did it with my american flags :)

model control thing for the mine... josh (new york)

taylor changing her pants in a sleeping bag...

playing on the carts once again

suvi poured water on this guy and he still didnt wake up lol