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