Für eine kleine Ewigkeit

This text is also written in German and is located under the video!  Both text say pretty much the same thing but if you can, I would recommend reading both of them.
Diese Text gibt's auch auf Deutsch und kann unter der Video gefunden werden.  Die Texten sind mehr oder weniger gleich, aber wenn du kannst, würde ich es empfehlen die Beide zu lesen.

So during my last months and weeks in Germany I had a lot of things happening and not a whole lot of time to write a blog post.  As much as I do enjoy writing them, they do tend to take a long time to write.

So just to recap; I spent most of my time with my friends and family.  During the last months everything seemed so perfect.  Going to movies, shopping, playing soccer, biking, going to soccer games, playing games, bonfires, parties, concerts, and the list goes on and on.  Those are the days that I'll never forget.  The trips that I was able to take were also fantastic: London with Christoph, Munich with Johannes, Berlin with YFU, North See with my family, and countless trips to Bremen and Hamburg.  Not everyday was perfect, but just about.  I did all kinds of things that I never would have imagined doing before my time in Germany.

The last months were really the best time in my year.  The feeling of fitting in and belonging was there, plus I understood the language and culture better.  

Now as much as I'd love to give a detailed day by day rundown of the end of my year.....I don't actually have any desire to write that much, or to think that much for that matter.  So I'm just going to tell you about my last two days or so in Germany.

On Wednesday, July 6th, I went to school for the last time in Germany.  During the last hour of school we got together with our (homeroom-ish) teacher and got our report cards.  Afterwards my class gave me some gifts that they had made for me including a book in which everybody had written a page, and a t-shirt with a somewhat notorious foto of me and all of their signatures on it.  Then came the time for me to say goodbye to my friends and classmates.  Which wasn't the easiest thing I've ever done. I knew that it'd be at least a year before I saw any of them again, and I had to face the harsh reality that I would probably never see some of them ever again. After about 30 minutes of hugs and goodbyes we all headed out.  I went upstairs with a few friends and got a copy of my transcript and afterwards spend another half hour or so saying goodbye to the two of them.  It was on this day that I started to regret some things.  I started to regret not doing more with some of the people that I was closest with, and just small things like that, but it's those small regrets that still get to me today.  After school we went to the grocery store and got a few things before heading home.  After lunch I finished up with all of my packing, having to decide which things I was going to bring with me and what was going to have to stay behind and wait for me to get some other time....which is no easy task.  Somehow I seem to have accumulated many books, which are great, the only problem is that they take up a good amount of space in a suitcase and they are considerably heavy for what they are.  So books in German were the first ones in the suitcase, but even some of those had to stay behind.  Then came clothes....well age and condition were the big parts there.  Everything that I bought in Germany came first and then clothes that I had had before that were still in good condition.  The clothes that were a little more beat up were but in a storage bag to be used for music festivals and concerts next year.  I had thought that I would spend the evening doing something with Markus and the others, but somehow it just didn't work out/they were all tired and didn't want to.  That's kind of when the sad feelings hit me.  After half an hour of being sad I put my happy face back on and went with Johannes and Markus to a friend, Simon's, house.  We played a little bit of PS3 ate some chips drank a little bit and just chilled and talked.  Which was actually an awesome last night at home.

Waiting for my train

On Thursday, my last day, I got up early around 8.30 got ready and jumped on my bike.  The others were all gone.  They had to work at an exhibition so I didn't have anything else to do.  I jumped on my bike and rode to Rockstedt where I stopped by a few friends houses and said goodbye to them all for the last time.  It was weird, I still didn't really have that feeling that I was leaving, but I knew that I was.  After biking home I'd eaten lunch, jumped in the shower and by that time the others were back.  I packed my suitcases in the van, then went upstairs to give my family a goodbye gift that I'd gotten for them.  We then all went outside where we took a few family pictures before jumping in the van towards Bremen.  We then walked along the river to an Italian restaurant where we ate our last meal together as a family.  After dinner we walked through the city taking some pictures and reminiscing on all of the good times we'd had together.  We stopped and got some ice cream before stopping to see the Bremer Stadtmusikanten (The Town Musicians of Bremen).  Legend has it that by rubbing the front hoof of the donkey on the bottom, is lucky, and can even grant wishes.  I took a few pictures with them, while Markus complained the whole time (and for the rest of the night) about how he hated his new camera.  We then slowly made our way toward the train station.  After grabbing my suitcases we headed to the platform where I would say goodbye to my family for the last time. Saying goodbye to my Parents and Johannes was the hardest, since I knew that I wouldn't see them for the longest.  Christoph was coming a few weeks later, and Markus.....we had planned on meeting up at some point during his exchange.  So there I stood as the train approached.  I gave everybody one last hug before boarding a surprisingly full midnight train to Frankfurt.  As we pulled a way from the station and I waved from the window, it'd finally hit me.  I was leaving.    Not long after finding my seat I found a card in my backpack that my parents had written me.  I think I needed about an half hour to read it between all of the tears.  After about 45 minutes I was surprised when a friend of mine from Minnesota got on the train.  After the train had emptied out a little bit we sat next to each other and chatted for a while.  At 06.40 we arrived in Frankfurt where we waited for about an hour before checking our bags and going through security and everything.  11.00 am we took off, and with that my year was officially over.  Arriving in the US some of us had had some trouble with our bags, mine showed up at my house about four days later. 

So that's a quick wrap to the end of my year.   Back at home: Christoph arrived on July 19th, and will be staying until September 20th.  My brother got married not long after my arrival.  Christoph and I took a road trip to Florida hitting up St. Louis, Nashville, Atlanta, St. Petersburg, Tampa, Key Largo, Miami, Orlando, Daytona Beach, and St. Augustine.  We did also see many smaller towns in between as well as Disney World and Universal studios.  We did also take a trip to the east coast.  Arriving first in D.C. our plans we disrupted due to an Earthquake that closed all museums leaving us with nothing to do.   After D.C. we headed to Philadelphia, making a short stop in Baltimore along the way, which was good.  On our second day we went to surprise Markus with a visit.  We hung out with him and his host family for the day. It was nice to see the little one.  Christoph and I had a good time, and think that they did too.  Then came the hurricane, due to which we decided to cut the trip short, and fly back 4 days early.  Effectively cutting the New York portion completely out of our trip.  That's about it.  School starts in  a week, and I'm trying to find a job.

With Markus in Philadelphia

I thank everybody who followed my blog throughout the year, and apologize for not writing for so long.  I hope you enjoyed reading this blog.  It's basically a closing, but feel free to check back every once in a while.  I might throw some unplanned updates in throughout the year.


Until next time,
- Der James

Entschuldigung erst mal für das schlechte Grammatik.  Ich hoffe das ihr alles verstehen könnt.

Also...Während mein letzten Wochen und Monaten in Deutschland, hatte ich viel zu tun gehabt und nicht so viel zeit ein Blog zu schreiben.  Obwohl es mir spaß macht die zu schreiben, es dauert auch ziemlich lange.

Nur zu Zusammenfassen:  Ich habe viele meine Zeit mit meine Freunde und meine Famile verbracht.  Während mein letzten Monaten schien alles perfekt zu sein.  Ins Kino gehen, einkaufen, Fußball spielen, Fahrrad farhen, ins Fußballstadion fahren, Spiele spielen, Lagerfeuern, Parties, Konzerte und so weiter und sofort.  Die Tage sind die, die ich nie vergessen werde.  Die Reisen die ich machen dürfte waren auch super: Nach London mit Christoph, Nach München mit Johannes, nach Berlin mit YFU und am Nordsee mit meine Familie.  Die Riesen waren echt spitze.  Aber nicht jeden Tag war perfekt.  Die Meisten schon, aber es gab immer noch welche da zwichen die irgendwie auf irgendein grund nicht sooo Schön waren.  Ich habe in die Zeit viele sachen gemacht, worauf ich wäre nie gekommen, hätte ich kein Austauschjahr in Deutschland gemacht.

Also...die letzten Monaten waren echt die Besten meines Jahres.  Dann da habe ich jeden Tag das gefühl gehabt das ich dazugehörte, und endlich könnte ich alles, die Sprache und Kultur, Verstehen.

Ich würde gern ausführlich erzählen was ich in mein letzten Monaten gemacht habe, aber lust so viel zu schreiben habe ich eigentlich nicht.  Und außerdem musste ich viel zu viel nach denken müssen.  Stattdessen erzähle ich von meine letzten beiden Tage.

Am Mittwoch, den 6., bin ich zum letzten mal in Deutschland zur Schule gegangen.  Während die letzte Stunde haben wir mit unser Klassenlehrerin getoffen und unser Zeugnisse und so bekommen.  Nachher habe ich von meine Klasse ein paar selbst gemachte Geschenke bekommen.  Ein Buch indem jede eine Seite geschrieben hat und auch ein T-shirt mit ein foto von mir und die ganze Unterschriften von den drauf.  Echt tolle geschenke.  Dann kam die Zeit Tschüß zu sagen.  Das fällte mir schwer, denn ich wusste das ich werde die alle mindestens ein Jahr nicht sehen.  Nach ungefähr eine halbe Stunde von Umarmungen und Verabschiedungen sind wir alle los gegangen.  Also eigentlich bin ich zusammen mit zwei Freunden zum Secretäriat hin, denn ich ein paar Beglaubigungen brauchte.  Nachher brauchten wir wieder fast eine halbe Stunde uns von einander zu verabschieden.  An diesen Tag habe ich angefangen ein paar sachen zu bedaueren.  Ich bedauere das ich nicht mehr mit meine Kumpels aus meine Klasse gemacht habe.  Sowas kann man aber nicht ändern.  Nach der Schule sind wir einkaufen gefahren und haben ein paar Kleinigkeiten gekauft vor wir nach Hause gefahren sind.  Nachdem wir Mittags gegessen habe, habe ich mein Koffer mal fertig eingerichtet, was nicht soo einfach war.  Es gab viele sachen die ich leider zurück lassen musste, denn die zu schwer waren.  Ist aber nicht soo schlimm.  Es gibt eigentlich nicht was mir hier fehlt, von die sachen die ich hinterlassen musste. Eigentlich hatte ich es vor den abend, mein letzte abend, mit die Bruder zu verbringen, aber die mussten nachmittags arbeiten und waren abends müde also was machen wollten die nicht so richtig.  Was mir schwer fällte, denn dann habe ich zum ersten mal richtig gemerkt das meine Zeit fast zu ende war.  Nach eine halbe Stunde traurig gewesen zu sein, habe ich wieder mein 'happy face' aufgestezt und bin mit Johannes und Markus zu Simon (freund von uns) hin gegangen.  Bei Simon haben wir ein Bisschen was getrunken und PS3 gespielt und so.  Es war eigentlich ein gute letzte Abend.

Am Donnerstag, mein letzter Tag, bin ich um halb 9 oder so aufgestanden.  Habe geduscht und gegessen und bin mit mein Fahrrad los gefahren.  Zu Hause war ich fast alleine, denn die Andern wieder arbeiten mussten.  Ich in also los richtung Rockstedt gefahren um mich von ein paar Freunen ein letztes mal zu verabschieden.  Ich hatte aber irgendwie immer noch nicht das gefühl das alles echt war.  Wieder zu Hause habe ich Mittags gegessen und schnell geduscht.  Als ich fertig geworden bin, waren die Anderen wieder da.  Ich habe meine Koffer nach unten gebracht und ins auto gestellt.  Wieder oben habe ich meine Familie ein geschenk gegeben zur Verabschiedung.  Etwas womit die immer an mich denken können bzw. müssen.  :D :D  Dann haben wir vor's Haus ein paar Familien fotos gemacht, sind im Auto eingestiegen und sind zum letzten mal los gefahren nach Bremen.  In Bremen sind wir am Wasser gelaufen zu eine Italianisches Restaurant wo wir abends gegessen haben.  Nach's essen sind wir ein Bisschen durch die Stadt gelaufen, fotos gemacht und ein Bisschen an die gute Zeiten reminisziert, Eis gab's natürlich auch.  Bei die Bremer Standmusikanten habe ich auch ein paar Fotos macht.  Und ein Bisschen was gewünscht.  Markus hat die ganze Zeit nur gemeckert das seine neuen Kamera doof war.  Wir sind dann langsam richtung Bahnhof hingelaufen.  Am Gleis habe ich von meine Familie verabschiedet.  Das was das Schwerste.  Ich wusste aber das ich im Sommer wieder kommen wollte, was alles ein Bisschen einfacher gemacht hat.  Von Johannes und mein Eltern mich zu verabschieden war's am Schwersten, denn ich Christoph und Markus bald wiedersehen würdet.  Dann kam der Zug.  Eine letzte umarmung von jeder, und dann ging's rein.  Vom Fenster habe ich gewonken als ich weg gefahren bin, in den Moment habe ich endlich realisiert das alles vorbei war.  In mein Rücksack habe ich eine karte von mein Eltern gefunden, was ich wegen die ganze Tränen und so, eine halbe Stunde gebraucht habe um es zu lesen.  Nach eine drei-viertel stunde habe ich eine überraschung bekommen als ein Freund von mir im Zug eingestiegen ist.  Denn alles ziemlich voll war könnten wir nicht sofort neben einander sitzen aber als alles Leer wurde haben wir uns zusammen gesetzt.  Um 06.40 sind wir in Frankfurt angekommen.  Um 11.00 uhr sind wir los geflogen, und damit war mein Austauschjahr offizell zu ende.  Wieder in den USA haben ein paar von uns probleme mit unser Gepäck gehabt.  Nach 4 Tage ist mein Koffer bei mir zu Hause geliefert worden.

In Florida with Christoph

 Das war also eine kleine Zusammenfassung.  Wieder in den USA.....Christoph ist angekommen am 19. Juli und bleibt bis den 20. September.  Am 23.Juli hat mein Bruder sein hochzeit gehabt.  Ich in mit Christoph nach Florida gefahren....ja gefahren.  Wir sind u.a. über St. Louis, Atlanta, Miami und Orlando gefahren.  Disney world war natürlich auch dabei.  Wir sind auch ans Ostküste geflogen.  Wir haben 2,5 Tage in D.C. verbracht, ein sogar mit Erdbeben.  Dann ging's los über Baltimore nach Philadelphia wo wir ein Tag als überraschung zu Markus hingefahren sind.  Dort haben wir ein Bisschen mit ihn und seine Familie gechillt.  New York mussten wir wegen eine vorhergesagtes Hurricane absagen.  Joa also eigentlich mehr gibt's nicht.  Ich suche gerade ein Job, und die Schule fängt näschte Woche für mich wieder an.

Ich würde auch gern die Leute bedanken die, das ganze Jahr mein Blog verfolgt habe.  Ich hoffe dass es euch gefallen hat.  Entschuldigung auch das ich seit so lange nicht geschrieben habe.  Guck ob und zu wieder mal auf die Seite denn es sein kann, dass ich ob und zu was neues darauf schreibe.

bis zum nächsten mal,
- Der James

Hamburg Meine Perle

Moin!  Long time no write, I know, but I've been busy....

So yeah let's go.  On the 13th of February I was at a soccer game (already in the last post).   Game was fun...yeah, that's about it.    On Tuesday the 15th, I only had 3 hours of school, so that was pretty dang awesome.  Heike and Andreas also left for Berlin.  Tuesday afternoon I went running with some of the Rockstedters, and yeah Youth Group was to follow.  Was a pretty dang fantastic day.  Wednesday I only had 4 hours of school, so that was still pretty awesome.  Wednesday afternoon I put a new rug down in my room, so that's pretty cool.  Wednesday night Heike and Andreas were back from Berlin.  A relatively short trip.  Thursday was pretty normal, not a whole lot happened.

Friday (18th)  after school, I ate lunch and not long after that I was under way again; this time to Bremen with Bjarne.  We checked out the city a little bit and went and saw Gulliver's Reisen 3D (Gulliver's Travels?) After the movie we missed our bus back so we went into the train station and bought some Mt.Dew and then ate some McFlurry.  After arriving back in town, Bjarne came over for about 2 hours and we played some PS3.

Saturday (19th) was supposed to be the greatest day ever, but upon waking up I read that I'd been canceled on.  For Christmas I got tickets to see A Day to Remember in Hamburg.  I was supposed to go with a friend of mine and Christoph.  When I woke up Saturday morning I had an e-mail from my friend telling me that he couldn't come with me to the concert.  Awesome.  So I was on the search for somebody else to come with.  It's not all that easy to find somebody to come with you to a hard rock concert last minute, so in the end Christoph and I went to the concert, with our third ticket going unused.  So yeah.  The concert was super duper awesome.  Greatest, of the few, concert that I've ever been too.  Afterward we drove back home and I went to a party in town (Sportlerball) When I got there, I thought to myself...yeah I can leave now, there wasn't a whole lot going on, but after a while it started to pick up and I ended up staying there with Markus until about 02:15.  All in all the day was pretty great, even though it had a rocky start.

On Tuesday (22nd) I accidentally skipped the first two hours of school.  I thought that they were canceled, but it turns out they weren't.  So yeah, only 2 hours of school. Tuesday night at Youth Group we played Werewolves the entire time.  Which was pretty dang awesome, I was a little surprised that they knew the game.  Oh, and Tuesday is the day the McDouble (or any type of burger with 2 meat patties) became available for purchase in Germany.

On Friday (25) I went bowling with Maarten and Lennart.  It was a lot of fun, we only played two games, but still.  We were all really terrible.  But somehow better in out first game than our last.  Being bad at bowling is half of the fun.  After bowling we decided to play Billards, since the found it cool that I knew the rules.  So yeah we played.  Lennart and Maarten against James, two rounds....and James lost both of them.  Naja, it was still fun. Afterward we went back to Lennart's and watched a few movies.  The typical  North German 'Werner' films, and some German zombie comedy, which was actually super hilarious.  All in all the night was great.  I was, however, excited to be able to sleep at the end of it.

On Saturday I went to the mall with Johannes, Florian Sauer, and a few of their friends.  Didn't buy anything, but yeah still cool.  We also went to McDonald's where I had my first McDouble bzw. McDallas in Germany.  Not really all that cool, but hey.  Saturday evening we went to an A Capella  concert in Zeven.  The concert was tooo long and more for the older folk.  After the concert I went to a friends house for a couple of hours and yeah.   On Sunday (27th) I went with Lennart, Jost, Christoph, and Maarten to Bremen to a soccer game (once again).  The game was a lot of fun to watch.  They played 2:2 (Bremen v. Leverkusen).  After the game we went to McDonald's and since we were 5 people we ended up ordering like 10 McDouble's and yeah, that was somehow some crazily amazingly huge order.  After waiting 15 minutes are burgers were there and we could finally start our "McDouble Party" as the manager called it. 

From Feb. 28th to March 4th, nothing special or interesting happened.

On Saturday the 5th of March (Hauptsache es ist schon März) Lennart and Bjarne came at about 14:00 and we played PS3 until around 15:00 when we left for Ronolulu, a 'water park' in the capital of our county...Rotenburg (Wümme).  Markus was also with.  We were there for about 2 and a half hours.  It was a good time, there weren't a ton of super amazing attractions but still.  It's about the people you're there with, not where you are.  On our way back we stopped at McDonald's and ordered 25 burgers for our "McDonald's party" as the lady called it.  For some reason the people always associate our large orders as having something to do with a party.  The lady also gave us a bag of party favors (flags, ballons, Gummi Bears..etc.)  Then we went back to our house and ate and watched 'Winnetou' which is a series of 16 films about an Apache Indian whose names is Winnetou.  The movies all take place in the  US, although they were filmed in Yugoslavia and are only available in German.  Everybody here was surprised that I'd never heard of them, but yeah now I have and I've started watch the compete 16 part series.

On Sunday our (Markus and James) trip to Dresden finally started; and how did it start?  Well our first train is delayed by 10 minutes, so as a result we missed our next train, resulting in us missing our third train.  Cool right?  So yeah in Hamburg we went to the DB Travel Center and got a new train connection to Dresden and new seat reservations.  While in the train station in Hamburg we visited...you guessed it: McDonald's.  This time was breakfast however.  Then we went and bought some candy and what not for the train ride.  We took our second train from Hamburg to Berlin.  The time went by seemingly fast.  In Berlin we had once again an hour to kill so we thought we'd go into the city for a few minutes and check out the Reichstag (Capital Building)  but it ended up being further away that we anticipated so we just stayed in the train station and went to our Favorite restaurant....McDonald's.  Do you see a trend here with McDonald's?  It's like a law in Germany that if you see a Micky D's you have to stop there and eat.  Back in the train we had our compartment to our selves, which is always cool.   We were supposed to be in Dresden at 14:52 but since we missed our trains we didn't get there until 17:10. We then found our city train and arrived some time later at the Hostel that was actually a ship.  We were the second to last there and after throwing our stuff in our rooms we were soon by our first "Seminar".  After a few greetings we split off into small groups where we played a names learning game and then it was early in bed.  It was pretty dang annoying, already on the first day, how much English was spoken. 

Monday! After breakfast we were back in our small groups in which the topic of discussion was 'Retrospect'.  It was actually really cool, we talked about the differences that we've noticed between the US and Germany and also made graphs depicting our evolution with Friends, Family, School, Language and homesickness.  After lunch we were for the first time in the city.  We were probably 2 and a half hours there and pretty much just checkout out all of the main points.  Afterward we split off into small groups and every group went to a different part of the city.  My group was in the Altstadt (Old City) where we first visited a super cool Cafe at which out table was 'carousel' and spun the entire time.  Then we went to a church in the city, and took the 256 stairs up to the top of the tower for an awesome view of the city.  Then we went and checked out the Shopping Street and stopped once again at McDonald's.  After dinner on the ship we went back into the city to watch a play.  The play was called 'Sein oder nicht sein'  (to be or not to be) it was supposed to be a comedy...and it was actually kind of funny, but it was really long, and yeah, one mustn't see it.  After the play we went to...McDonald's.  Back on the boat Markus and I sat in the dining room and wrote a few postcards, then all of the sudden there was a crying girl there who was having an allergic reaction and half an hour later an Emergency doctor was there to giver her a shot.  It was a little spice in the night.

Skyline - Dresden

After eating breakfast on Tuesday we all loaded up in a bus and drove to Bautzen.  Bautzen is the location of a former Stasi-Prison.  (stasi = State security of Eastern Germany) The prison was really cool.  It was cool to be able to see where political prisoners were held and how they were treated.  After checking out the prison we had some free time to check out the city a little bit.  I went with Markus and Konrad to a mall where we stopped at....McDonald's.  After eating we did a little shopping, before stopping at Subway to buy a cookie.  On bus back to the ship I slept for of the way.  After eating lunch back on the ship we moved into 'school mode' having to read and summarize texts about German history.  Which would've been ok had we not've been walking around for multiple hours before hand.  After dinner we had the option of watching a movie, learning to dance, or playing a game.  After a short time by the 'dance course' I decided that I was tired and went somewhat early to bed.

Wednesday morning we left at 09:00 for the art museum in the city.  After looking at a few pieces we broke off into small groups and did some more work with some texts.  We then moved to some specific pieces and tried to identify the art pieces with our texts.  We 'analyzed' the meaning of the photos, in the context of the era.  After lunch back on the ship we heard a presentation about our Inneres Team (Inner Team) After the presentation, we broke into our small groups once again and discussed the topic in a little bit more detail.  Wednesday night we went into the Neustadt (New City) and went to a really cool Chocolate bar, milkshakes and chocolate cake was on the evening menu.  Afterward we were at a bar that is called the 'Ost-Pol' it was a bar in which everything is exactly how it was during the DDR (Eastern Germany) time.  It was pretty cool, but it was really full, so after about 25 minutes we decided to head back to the ship for the night.  We then ended up playing werewolves until about 02:00.

Me in front of the Frauenkirche

Markus and I

Me with a Martin Luther Statue

Me with Frauenkirche in background

Thursday was the first day on our journey on which we woke to a sunless sky.  After breakfast we were in our small groups, and I'm not really sure about what the topic was.  Afterward we heard a presentation about German history before eating lunch.  After lunch we watched a video about the Frauenkirche in Dresden, and after we went into the Church.  The church is cool.  Upon entering, however, I took one photo and afterward my camera was 'broken'.  Everything that was on my memory card was all of the sudden corrupted data.  I wasn't really all that thrilled to have lost all of my photos and videos that I'd made in the week.  We then went to a small camera shop, and asked the lady there about getting the data back.  She said to try a recovery program.  So I bought a new memory card and was back on my way.  We made, of course, a stop at McDonalds before heading into a few stores.  After shopping for about an hour and a half we went back out side and on our way back to the Frauenkirche we stopped at an 'Euro Shop' although pretty much nothing inside was 1 Euro.  We then made multiple pictures of and with the church and made a quick stop in a foto booth before finally heading back to the ship for the last night of our trip.   Back on the ship 'we' had prepared a few games and contests.  Some of them were a little dangerous, but there was only a small amount of blood that was spilled.  There was a costume contest for which, we had nothing with so it was basically throw on your ugliest clothes and see what happens.  After a few ours the 'party' started to die down and we eventually went downstairs and played werewolves until around 02:00.  

Our Group

Friday was our last day.  After eating we went upstairs and the 'staff' said some goodbyes and wished us a good rest to our years.  At around 09:45 Markus, Ryan, and I left for the train station and upon arriving at Dresden Hbf tried to find some sweets that we could buy for the train, but that was more easily said than done.  We did, however, eventually find what we were looking for.  We were alone in our compartment until we got to Berlin.  Once we got to Berlin there was 6 of us in the compartment, which wasn't really all that cool, but hey, can't do anything about it.  Ryan, also from Minnesota, lost is bag, or rather it was mistakenly taken by another passenger who exited the train in Berlin.  After arriving in Hamburg Markus and I had about 4 hours to kill before our hockey game started so we went to...McDonalds!  Yeah by this time I'd had enough Micky D's to last a while.  We decided that we'd jump in the S-bahn and go a little bit earlier to the Arena.  We also decided that we would get out a few stations earlier and go to visit his aunt and uncle, whose house we never found, considering the fact that lived on the other side of Hamburg.  We then got back in the S-bahn and ended up at the arena around 17:45.  The game didn't start until 19:30, we both had suit cases with, and we didn't have our tickets.  So we waited.  Christoph wanted to come at about 18:30, but didn't end up getting there until 19:00, so we sat outside in the cold for over an hour.  It was pretty......awesome.  So yeah 19:00 Christoph, Maarten, Bjarne, Lennart and Tim arrived and we proceeded to the game.  The game was pretty cool.  Hamburg is a super terrible hockey team, but hey there were a lot of goals.  We ended up losing 3:5.  After the game we made a quick stop at BK, before heading home and going straight to bed.

Saturday started pretty late for me.  Afternoons HSV played against FC Bayern and lost 0:6.  Pretty depressing.  Afterward we showed our pictures from Dresden, and yeah, back into bed. Sunday I accomplished absolutely nothing.  Ended up watching another film from the Winnetou series and yeah, just kind of chilled.

On Tuesday (15 March) I gave a presentation about the US to a class of 8th graders.  It was pretty cool, and they thoroughly enjoyed it.  After school I took a nap, and at around  17:15 I left with Johannes, Florian, and Simon for Bremen to see Beatsteaks live in Concert.  The concert was pretty dang awesome, but it wasn't the greatest thing ever for my ankles.  Doesn't matter it was fun.  Wednesday morning I was lucky enough to be able to wake up at 04:40 to go on a trip to visit a University.  It was a pretty cool day, definitely better than going to school, but I dunno, so incredibly interesting is something that it wasn't.   The highlight of the day was probably losing our guide while eating.

On Friday I had an interview with a guy from the Newspaper....so that was prettyyy cool.  Evenings I went with Markus and Bjarne bowling in Zeven, and afterwards Bjarne came over and we had pizza and chilled for a while.  

Saturday I went to Hamburg with Markus to watch  Hamburg play against Köln.  Before the game we had about three hours in Hamburg so we decided to check out this super cool model train museum; or at least attempt to.  Upon arriving at the museum there was an hour wait, and wouldn't have been able to make it to the game in time so we went back to the train station and ate some Stuffed Crust pizza from Pizza hut before buying a cookie and sitting for about an hour and a half at Subway trying to kill the time.  We arrived at the game a little bit early, but that was good.  The game was super cool.  Hamburg won 6:2.  After the game we came back home before heading back out to the Disco for the night.

HSV v. Köln

Sunday was the first day with good weather.  So we took advantage of it and played a little soccer out side and did some grilling.  That's about all we did.

Today is pretty laid back.  I had 8 hours of school so I'm pretty tired but yeah.

!! Where'd the snow go?

In the last month...and a half... quite a bit has happened! And thanks to my new Journal, I can remember most of it!

So sometime in mid-January, not 100% positive on the date, Christoph, Markus, Lennart, and I went to Hannover to watch our hockey team, The Hamburg Freezers, play.  Which would have been super awesome, had they not of lost 0-5.  Although they lost it was still a lot of fun to go and watch them play an away game.

During the last two weeks of January the house was very quiet.  Johannes was gone on a ski trip in Austria, and a few days before he came home Andreas left for a 10-day trip in Brazil.  It was actually nice to have them gone for a few days, as the two of them are somewhat hectic, but after a few days it was boring here with out them.  So on the 22nd when Johannes came home I was pretty excited to see him again.  We picked him up from the bus station on our way to a party.  As soon as he got in the car I thought to myself "Maybe it was [doch] better with out Johannes around".  After a week of skiing and entire day in a bus back home, he wasn't in his best mood ever.  So we continued on our way to the party.  Finding the house was our first adventure.  Markus and I walked through the 'town' looking for the house, but couldn't find it, so then we asked some random guy that was standing outside, who told us where it was.  'Twas a birthday party for three girls from my class.

The next day  Heike and I went to a YFU get together in Bremen.  As always, it was a lot better than I had expected.  It's actually really cool, I think, to hear the problems that the other exchange students have, becuase then I feel super extra lucky to have such an amazing family here.  For the meeting I made Chocolate Chip Cookies!  And almost all of them turned out, somehow some of them got a little burned in the oven, so they didn't look all that appealing, but you couldn't really taste the difference.  The cookies were a big hit, especially among the former exchange students to the US.

A few days after the YFU get together I booked a few trips.   My traveling plans for the rest of the year are as follows:

• Dresden(YFU) with Markus; March 6th-11th
• Munich with Johannes; April 19th-22nd
• London with Christoph; April 25th-28th
• Berlin (YFU);  May 24th-27th  

My trips should be pretty awesome.  I'm especially excited for my trip to London with Christoph.  He has his last verbal English test the first week in May so we're going to London so he can practice his English some.

The end of January I received the information for my return flight to the US.  I leave Frankfurt at 11:00 on Friday, July 8th and I land in D.C. at 14:00.  My flight from D.C. to Minneapolis is still in planning but I'll most likely be landing at MSP at around 20:45 on the 8th.   The current plan after that is that Christoph will fly in to Minneapolis on July 18th, and they we want to do a little sight seeing before school starts again.

On the 28th I was at another Birthday party, from two guys in my class.  Horst and Tim.  The party was great.  Probably the best party I've been to since being here.

The next day Lennart was here.  We watched soccer and then played PS3 for a while, before the three of us decided to break my video camera out of the case that it's been sitting in for the last 6 months and make some videos.  The videos are actually super funny, but not necessarily something that should be made public.  I also attempted to skype my parents that night but the connection was crappy so the video didn't work very well.   The next day I was up early for a 5,8km run through town, that is apparently in a different town every weekend in winter.  That evening Andreas came back from Brazil.  It was cool to see him again, 10 days is a seemingly long time.

That Monday I started working on my PSEO application(if your not from Minnesota, you don't know what that is), which is no easy task while living in a different country.  I do, however, have a pretty good support team back home in MN that are helping me out with everything.  That evening I went with Lennart, and York (from my class) to see 'The Green Hornet' which I'm pretty sure is one of the worst movies I've ever seen, but it was fun anyway.  It was a little weird though, since Lennart and York didn't know each other, so I was kind of back and forth the whole time between who I was talking to. 

On Tuesday I was up early again as we went to Grandma and Grandapa's for the day.  We didn't leave punctually, but that never happens, so we got there a few minutes late, ate lunch, had some coffee, and then Johannes and I were on our way to pick up the cousins for a day in Oldenburg.  In Oldenburg we ended up just shopping the entire day.   Johannes and I were both on the hunt for a sweater, but neither of us had any luck in finding one.  I did find a shirt though.  Yeah, it was surprisingly exhausting though.  Afterward it was back to Grandma's to pick up Heike, then quick back home to make it to Youth Group in time. 

 Castle - Oldenburg

     On Friday February 4th, I went with my class to Hamburg to see Romeo and Juliet.  I like Romeo and Juliet a lot and I know the story pretty darn well so I was excited about it.  We arrived in Hamburg about an hour and a half early so we were allowed to go into the city and whatnot.  I went with a few kids from my class first to the train station, to which none of them had been beforehand, which I thought was a little weird, then we went into the city, and again, none of them knew their way around.  But I did, so I felt pretty dang cool.  We ended up at McDonalds before heading back to the theater.  The play was pretty good.  I found it a little too modern.  Instead of tights and whatnot, the characters went around in Suits, and superman costumes.  The message was the same, but it was a little strange to watch.  One of the really cool things about the play was that it was  like a 'Deaf Night' so there were a bunch of deaf people there and there were two sign language translators on the stage the whole time, so I basically just watched them the whole time becuase it was really cool!  There was another school class sitting in the row behind ours, but they were really rude, they were talking the whole time and it was pretty darn annoying.  In the intermission I wanted to buy a bottle of water, yeah it was totally 2,50 Euro!  and was only 0,2 Liters.  But it was still a super good water.  

On Saturday I went with Manu, our youth group coordinator, and Miriam(...) to a church festival thing.  So at the beginning there was like a short keynote, and it was pretty good, then there was a expo for religious companies and organizations, that was ok for about an hour but the three hours after that were pretty mind blowingly boring.  Then there were some more speakers and then some more sitting around, so it was actually not all that bad of a day but we were there for like 7 hours, and we totally could've accomplished everything in 4 hours or less.  After that I went with Johannes, Florian Sauer, Lennart, and the others in the Ostereistedt/Rockstedt area to Ta-Töff, the disco in the Area.  The night was pretty dang awesome, probably the best time I've had at the disco so far. 

On Sunday I slept until about noon.  Then I kind of sat around the house all day, without a whole lot to do.  At Midnight on Sunday I went downstairs and watched the Superbowl with Christoph until 4 in the morning!  It was totally worth it though, seeing the Packers win, made up for the tiredness that I felt the next day during my 8 hours at school.  Monday night we had a surprise visitor standing outside our door.  Ate, from the Netherlands, an old friend of Andreas' was here.  Apparently he just kind of randomly pops up every few years and stays for a few days.  So yeah he was here, and he was actually really cool, I'd say he was, in my mind, a typical Dutch person.  On Tuesday afternoon, since it was sunny, I went out side and took some pictures of the little compound that we've got here.  Later Tuesday night Christophs' new Ikea couch was delivered and assembled by two very unfriendly delivery men. 

The Meyer Family Compound

From the top of a Silo

Heika

Today I'm going with Jost and Lennart to watch Bremen play against Hannover in Bremen.  and yeah that's about all that's been going on for me in the last few weeks.  

Oh, and this blog was written specifically due to request from my Grandma and the Z.

Christmas, New Years, and whatnot

So yeah, everybody should take the time to read this article from the startribune.  Click here to read

Christmas Eve.  Started off pretty boring.  I slept in then I went into town and did some stuff (post office, bank, and whatnot) Then we kinda just sat around for a while.  Then at around 6:00pm we went to the teenager service at the church, at which we held a Christmas themed skit.  Johannes played in the skit, and Christoph and I were in charge of building a mock-Elevator.  Then we went home and ate my most despised food, fish.  After we ate we went into the dining room/ living room and we sang some songs and we all red a little something, I read a passage from the bible in English.

Us, in front of the Christmas Tree

After that we started opening presents.  I got: two tickets to see A Day to Remember in Hamburg with Christoph, a Jimmy Eat World T-shirt, a HSV (Hamburger Sportverein) scarf, some awesome knit house shoes, some awesome knit socks, a sweater, a book, boxers, candy, and a ticket to see Tarzan: The Musical in Hamburg.  All in all it was a pretty great Christmas.  After opening gifts, we went back to church, becuase Heike sings in the choir, so it was a big deal to be ale to hear the choir sing.  But it wasn't tooo bad.

On Christmas day I slept in.  Then Andreas' sisters' family came over.  So we ate together, and then we played Monopoly.  And chilled a little.  Andreas' sisters' daughter is currently going to school in Uruguay, and she brought her Uruguayan boyfriend with, who couldn't speak German or Englisch, so they pretty much spoke spanish to eachother the whole day.  Then in the evening, we skyped with my parents while they were at my grandma's so I talked saw pretty everbody.

On the second Christmas day (yes in Germany there are two)   we went to Heike's parents' house at which all of her siblings were there.  We ate, then chilled, then went for a walk, then chilled some more, then ate again, then yeah, they opened gifts, then we went home.  It was actually a pretty good day, but it was seemingly strenuous. 

The next day I was up at 05:30 and out the door at 06:20 for my trip to Hessen.  The trip went pretty smoothly, I ended up being delayed about an hour on the train.  When I arrived we went to lunch, then went home and went for a walk, and sledding, then it was early in bed.  Tuesday I got up and we went nordic skiing (classic) at a golf course, with two feet of snow and no tracks, so it was seemingly difficult, but it was also a lot of fun.  Then in the afternoon we went sledding again for a few hours, then we played Taboo, then it was bed time.  Wednesday I got up and we went for a walk through the woods for two hours on our way to lunch.  Afterward I laid down for a little bit, then I went to Caro's (Organizer of our OSK) and we watched some TV and played Taboo again.  Then we went to a winter festival in town.  Thursday morning I got up and we went for a walk with the dog and then it was to the train station, for yet another day of travel which was filled with more delays, but on Thursday I didn't miss any of my connections so that was good.

Friday was New Years Eve.  I slept in.  Then I got up and got ready for the day, I helped Christoph a little with setting up the party room for a LAN-party that he was having, then I chilled.  Around 10:00 Markus and I headed to the New Years party in town.  It was pretty fun for a while, then at midnight it wasn't so great anymore.  At around 1:15 I headed home, accompanied by Florian Sauer.  New Years I woke up and didn't really do anything, just kind of sat around.  Until that evening when at around 10:30 Markus and I decided we wanted to play darts so we searched around the house for about an hour searching for all of the darts stuff.


On the second, I slept in.  Then I played darts with Markus for a while, played a little PlayStation, and read some.  I also went on my first run of the year.

On Monday the third, my new betreuer (counselor) came over and talked to us for like two hours, it was pretty cool, we talked about Germany and yeah, pretty much everything.  Afterward I went to soccer, at which we had an end of the year party.

On Tuesday the fourth I slept in once again, then I didn't really do anything during the day until 4:00.  At which point we headed to Hamburg to see the Tarzan Musical.  After taking a wrong exit and driving an extra stretch through Hamburg we arrived at the theater.  Me, being the world famous person that I am, met somebody that I knew at the theater, a guy from my class.  So yeah, the show was surprisingly cool, lots of aerial acrobatics and whatnot, I enjoyed it a lot.   Afterward we went to an Italian restaurant in Hamburg, where I ate my first Calzone in Germany.  After that it was a seemingly long ride home from Hamburg as I was totally kaputt.

On Wednesday the fifth was the last day of break and, I was bored out of my mind.  Markus was sick and in bed the whole day, and you can only play PlayStation for so long.  In the afternoon Christoh and I decided we were going to go to IKEA and buy some stuff for his room and he's currently re-doing.  After many hours, and only one hot dog, later I returned home tired and unmotivated to go to school the next day.

Luckily I woke up on Thursday morning, got ready, and was about to get in the car to go to school when we found out that it'd been canceled due to freezing rain!  It was at that point to late to go back to sleep so I played some PlayStation, then Christoph and I started on our task of the day, which was putting up some, crazy curtain things from IKEA.  Everything from IKEA is super cool, but it sucks a ton to put together.  After a couple of hours however we had everything finished.

Friday I went to school, and didn't really do anything else.  Saturday I woke up sick and had to go to the office to help Andreas fax hundreds of sheets of paper (see below) and today, Sunday, I'm feeling a little better but still not 100%.

This week in Germany the news has been about Dioxin in fat, and animal feed.  So on Saturday we got to get up early and fax verifications to hundreds of clients telling them that the feed that they had bought from [us] had been tested and was found safe.


That's my life in the last few weeks!  Until next time.....