So its been a while since my last post. probably like 2 months... i dont even remember. the fact is is that it is a lot easier to take a nap or read a book than right these posts but i know that in the future im going to look back on it and regret not righting down what happened here or there so i am getting back on track starting now. instead of writing a extremely long post that takes days and gets really old really fast, im going to do the weeks that i missed, just in the wrong order. and since i probably dont remember every day of the last 2 months they will probably be pretty short but there is at least one activity per week (which i am pretty glad about) so they shouldnt be too boring.
ok so starting with this week. today is Tuesday, January 24, 2012. lets start off with last Thursday, January 19, 2012. My 17 Birthday. The night before i used my two packs of patriotic Pillsbury cupcakes and icing to make 48 white cupcakes with white frosting and red and blue star sprinkles. I got up on Thursday, got ready and when getting ready to go downstairs my host sister came in and was the first one to congratulate me. now as ive mentioned before, when it is someones birthday, germans give hand shakes (or hugs if you are close) and say one of the 5 or so ways of saying Happy Birthday. so after that i went downstairs for breakfast and found a few gifts waiting for me at the table. the first from my host family was 2 free movie passes and a chocolate bar. the other was from Anke and it was a english book called "Before I Go to Sleep". walking to school was quite fun... wind blowing rain in my face and carrying a tub of cupcakes... but i didnt let that bother me i was in too good of a mood. when i got to school i couldnt even get my gloves off before i had a line of people at my desk to tell me happy birthday and shake my hand. Of course there were people actually saying "happy birthday" but i did get one i've never heard before... one kid came up to me and instead of saying "happy birthday", "merry christmas" came out of his mouth. I found it hilarious and laughed extremely loud but i think it kinda made him mad that i laughed at him... its not like i was trying to be mean it was just funny. Then in math class 2 girls came over to me and gave me a card from the whole class saying we would go ice skating together so that i could learn how to. That really was nice considering a few months ago i barley had spoken to more than 12 of them. (today we planned the date... we are going on February 25). After the card, i gave out my cupcakes... they seemed to go over well... i think everyone could handle the amount of sweetness they had. in the first recess, the exchange student from mexico and her host sister found me and gave me a present with a bunch of stuff... some earrings, an orange with a face drawn on it, a giant chocolate bar, and a bunch of other stuff... i gave them the 2 extra cupcakes that i had with me. later in 4th period i was still feeling pretty good and i said "now if only we didnt have gym, today would be perfect"... while walking to gym they told us it was cancelled. so instead of walking all the way home in the pouring down rain and wind, clara's nanny was coming at the end of 5th period to pick her up so i just there for a half hour and her nanny drove me home since it was my birthday. Then i got home, relaxed, ate lunch, relaxed a bit more, and then started getting ready for the party. what was supposed to happen was 8 girls from my class come over and and 3 other exchange students that live 20 minutes away. the 3 exchange students were supposed to take a bus from their school at 4:20 to Wirges (a small village outside of Montabaur) where my host mom was going to pick them up at 5:03. well i was starting to prepare for the party when i texted Taylor to ask if they caught the bus... they didnt ... some how the bus never showed up so i dont know what happened there. so that was a minor setback but Taylor's host mom went and picked them up and drove them here. then after they got here i had made the pancake batter and chopped potatoes and had most things ready to cook downstairs in the party room where there was a stove. now apparently peggy had told me to cook upstairs and then just put everything in the oven to keep it warm. i didnt understand that. i understood that i could cook upstairs if i needed a lot of time to cook and then heat it up, but since i didnt need a lot of time i just cooked downstairs. well my guests go there and i still hadnt started cooking so i was trying to hurry and ended up burning a few pancakes and didnt know i needed oil to cook the fried potatoes so they stuck to the pan and made the whole room smoky. but after those set backs we continued with french toast and they all turned out well. everyone ate and was pretty stuffed. i dont think they were huge fans of the syrup though ... when i poured the syrup over the pancakes and french toast they were like wait you eat that much and you eat it on both of them... i was like yeahhhhhh. and then they were like "and this is how you eat them for breakfast?!". Germans really dont understand the american way of eating. I try to explain to them that for me eating bread for a meal 2 times a day is not normal and they are like "well what else do you eat?" and then when i tell them that some days i dont eat anything until dinner they freak out. after stuffing ourselves, i opened my presents... i got a 43 euro amazon.de gift card and a scrapbook from the movie night girls, another english book "Ruby Red" and 3 of the magic erase pens from clara, a bunch more chocolate and gummies from people, a pair of overknee high socks and a bracelet from Freddi, and a bunch of other stuff. after opening the presents, i taught everyone who didnt already know how to play pit. we had 2 games going and we were all screaming like crazy. i think andreas got a little scared and came down to check on us lol. after 2 or 3 rounds of that i got out the cupcakes and ice cream and everyone moaned. some only took ice cream, some only a cupcake but before i could finish the doorbell was ringing for people to go home. so everyone packed up and moved out and then i finished eating and started cleaning. peggy came down and told me that i cooked in the wrong kitchen and i attempted to make it better by cleaning up after myself but while in the process she took the cloth and ended up cleaning the entire kitchen herself. overall it was a pretty good day. i just felt really bad about misunderstanding peggy and then the next day i couldnt take it any more and had a break down. Andreas's birthday was on friday so he had a party the day after mine. i got home from school and the first thing my host sister says to me is how much i messed everything up and how the party room smells like smoke (even though we left the windows open the entire time during the party and over night) and how i should have asked if i didnt understand something. i was standing there trying to hold back tears thinking " how am i supposed to ask something if i thought i understood correctly?!" but instead of screaming in her face like i wanted to i tried to keep calm and i went upstairs to my room and burst into tears. people dont understand how hard it is to learn a language by being completely submerged it in. i mean yeah its good because you learn fast but you dont understand how many times you mess up and its your fault. after the break down i pulled myself back together only because it was my host dad's birthday. i went downstairs and had cake with the family and grandma and grandpa. thats when it happened. Andreas asked me where my cupcakes were and peggy said she threw them away because they were two days old and looked like they were bad. i dont know if they were bad or not but i still just felt horrible. i mean i cook my american food for people to try i share it with them i make sure there is enough for everyone and then when it gets thrown away without anyone trying it its like them punching me in the face and telling me to go home (the same thing happened with my pumpkin pie and my cheese cake i made at thanksgiving... they got put somewhere where i couldnt find them and when i went to ask where they were no one was home... then when i got home from inbound weekend the pans were washed and given back to me) after that it was all i could do to sit in silence around anyone. at my host dad's birthday party i sat there for 3 hours almost in complete silence only talking and smiling when someone told me happy birthday... until a man got me involved in a conversation and i didnt want to be rude and not talk so we had about an hour long talk and by that time it was midnight so i excused myself and went and took a shower to help me feel a bit better and then went to bed. Saturday im pretty sure i just stayed in my room most of the day. i skyped with mom and dad and john and they BOUGHT THEIR TICKETS! they are flying out on June 28th and we are going home on July 14th... i talked to my travel agent and i am flying home on the same flight as them! When Sunday rolled around i got up after hearing everyone walking through the house at 10 am. so i got up and we ate breakfast together and finished around 11. just as i was about to go upstairs i see 2 cars pull up packed with Andreas's family who live in Northeast Germany. the doorbell rings, andreas opens it and just like a group of christmas carolers they sing Happy Birthday. Everyone one knew about this except for me and andreas... so i am standing there with my hair looking like crap after rolling out of bed, still in my tank top, hoodie, and boyfriend's oversized pajama pants. so after i ran upstairs and threw some clothes on and my hair up, i spent until about 430 talking, playing games with the little kids, and eating hot dogs and cake. Monday i got up and went to school (i still have not missed a single day of school). we only had 4 classes instead of 8 because all this week there are parent-teacher conferences. Chambersburg had a 2 hour delay so i kept messaging john until he woke up at 6 to talk to me and then it turned out that school was cancelled so kind was a little upset about that, but i spent the whole day planning out our train schedule for our trip in the summer. in the course of 16 days, mom, dad, and john fly to germany, come to montabaur for a day, then we go to Luxembourg, Paris, mom and dad go to Lyon (france) while john and i go to a red hot chili peppers concert in Bern (Switzerland), then we all go to rome, venice, salzburg, Munich, Prague, Berlin, Cologne, and finally back to montabaur and then fly home together. From the looks of it so far i am going to be one of the last exchange students around...but a lot of people are going home while i am on my trip so i think we are going to have to have a big exchange student weekend in Cologne the weekend before i leave for my trip. oh and another update... the easter trip is happening. i dont exactly know how many people are going on it but its at least 30... although i have a feeling its only going to be about 30 with as many people as they are sending home. so far 3 americans have been sent home (technically 2 "chose" to go... but one was told he had to take a drug test or go home so he went home and the other couldnt speak a single word of german on the weekend we took our test) and 1 brazillian went home because she had family issues. our newbies from the australia and argentina and a few other places have arrived, but i have only talked to one of them on facebook. Ok so anyway that is about it for now. Friday i have 4 classes again and then i get to come home and start packing for my new host family, which i go to on sunday. they only live a street behind us so it really kills me to have to pack everything and then unpack for such a short distance. the good news is when my family gets here i will know how to pack well enough to pack all of our bags and still have room for souvenirs.. my goal is to buy a "I ♥" sweatshirt in every city we go to along with pins and stickers and everything else lol.
PICTURES OF THE WEEK
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| my cupcakes i made |
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| This was outside of my school on friday... |
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| GAINT SPIDER IN MY ROOM... ABOUT THE SIZE OF THE ONE IN MY BATHING SUIT LAST SUMMER! |
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| Cupcakes and ice cream |
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| taylor was playing around with my camera |
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| Freddi |
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| Linn (Norway - not with rotary) and Carina |
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| from left to right: my arm trying to hand someone a spoon, Jenny, Franzi, Luise, luisa, and Katharina |
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| clara trying to scoop ice cream |
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| i dont know what that was |
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| since we didnt have candles to put in the cupcake, we just sat 2 candles around it and then i blew them out lol |
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| taylor, jenny, katharina, franzi, luisa, luise |
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| me explaining pit |
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| our example round |
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| sorting cards |
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| Add caption |
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| haha what was she doing |
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| my little key chain angle from taylor lol |
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| card from carina |
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| franzi |
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| singing card from taylor |
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| chocolates from carina |
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| katharina and jenny |
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| card from linn |
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| carina and linn and apple juice |
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| my photo album from franzi, charlotte, jenny, luise, luisa, and katharina |
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| i opened this up to find what you see in the picture... really really tiny german print and i was so confused i was like AM I SUPPOSED TO READ THIS! then i turned it over and saw that it was an amazon giftcard and the small print was the terms and condictions |
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| bracelet from Freddi |
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| overknee high socks from freddi |
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| an english book from clara |
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| i couldnt get it open! |
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| from my host family |
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| from anke |
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| from my class |
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| from my class |
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| from amelie (rebound) and Gabriela (from mexico) |
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| all of the stuff from amelie and gabriela |
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| it fits perfectly! |
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| torturing clara in school |
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| clara punched me! |
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| my cake that Charlotte made me... she wrote my name in sprinkles but wasnt sure how to spell it so it ended up saying kathy |
the cupcake process (its backwards but oh well)
