frohe Weihnachten! und alles gut für neues Jahre!

Merry christmas everyone! This will probably be the last blog post before then, so...

Alright, we are now OFFICIALLY on Winter vacations! Today, to kick it off, it's snowing, and I'm going to the movies! Yay! Should be insanely fun!

Tomorrow is the main day of Christmas, on the 24th, which is VERY different than in America, where the main day is the 25th. But that's ok, here we celebrate from the 24th-26th. 3 days of Christmas! How AWESOME!

New Year's is mainly not a family holiday. I should be going out with friends, but our plans aren't set in stone yet. Hopefully they don't fall through! Otherwise I'll be sitting home... alone... on New Year's Eve (called Silverster here, like the cat in the cartoons :] ) But I'm pretty much certain that won't happen!

I wrote a math test on Friday, and I did VERYYY badly. I got a 4,75 which is like, a C- or a D+ in California... But don't worry, it doesn't matter for me cause I don't really get grades! And I couldn't really read the problems, they were in German (obviously) so of course it was difficult. I did much better on this than I did on the last math test.

We watched the Hangover in English class on Monday, and Step Up in Math on Tuesday. It was pretty sweet.

I had a choir concert Monday night and last night (Tuesday night). It went well, I think :] My choir friends and I are pretty cool! We sing in German now, no more English Beatles songs!

So that's pretty much it! I'll update again later, but I gotta eat lunch and then get to the Kino! Oh, our dishwasher's fixed, so I don't have to wash by hand anymore! Whoo-Hoo!

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays everyone!

Until 2010!!!!!

snow is amazing...

Just a short blog post...

Snow is awesome! I LOVEEE it! I had a VERY epic snowball fight with my host brother yesterday. I lost, but you have to remember, I don't have NEARLY as much experiance as him. He's lived in the snow his whole life. I haven't.

So when he started pounding me with snowballs, I just HAD to get back at him. Unfortunalty, I don't have such good aim, and almost hit an old lady casually walking down the street (this caused Kai to laugh INSANLY hard, but I'm sure the old lady wouldn't have found it very funny, had I actually hit her).

There wasn't enough snow for a snowman, or for a snowman, and my jeans aren't waterproof, so I wasn't about to lay on the ground and make a snow angel. Sledding was out of the question cause 1. Not enough snow, 2. I don't have a sled, and 3. I live on a pretty flat part of land. Skiing and snowboarding is out of the question, because I like being all in one piece and not breaking my leg/arm/head, thanks.

But still. Snow was SUPER exciting for a girl from California.

In other news, our dishwasher broke, and guess who's on dish duty this week? ME! Kai is counting his lucky stars that he doesn't have to handwash them. I'm learning how to handwash dishes, and guess when it gets fixed? When Kai has dish duty. UGH!

I'm updating this simply to tell you those two small insignificant things! But you know... I don't update enough, so...

Until next time! BYE!

The adventures of Nicole and public transportation!

Yep, like the title says, I'd finally gotten used to public transportation...... well ok, 2 quick stories....

Once, I thought I was going to Stuttgart but I actually ended up going the wrong way, to Tübingen. So, I figured out (when it said that this was the last stop, and it certainly wasn't Stuttgart, I realized I went the exact opposite way....) And got to Stuttgart. And nothing went wrong since then.

Well, this weekend, I was going to meet with the other exchange students, to go ice skating and shopping in the christmas/middle ages market in Esslingen. WELL, I was walking to the bus stop... and SAW my bus drive away. "Whatever!" I thought, another one came in 15 minutes, and I'd only be about 20 minutes late (the train to Stuttgart (and goes over Esslingen) comes every 20 minutes or so) Well, bus came 20 minutes late, and then the train 15 minutes late. I am now an hour late. Luckily, the two boys from Brazil were nice enough to wait for me! Thank you, Fernando and Eric! Anyways, we ended up going on the wrong train, then waiting to get back, then we couldn't find the ice stadium... So, we get there (2 1/2 hours late) and... everyone's done ice skating. Yep, I drug my ice skates from my house to Esslingen for no reason. It's actually quite a funny story... I think it is NOW, at least (wasn't so much at the time...)

Anyways, then, Thursday, I lost my bus card that gets me all around Stuttgart. I was SOOO afraid to tell my host family, but luckily they just laughed, and I get a new one VERY soon. So no worries. I really do love public transportation though. I can go anywhere I want, whenever I want. It's quite nice, and good for the enviroment. America really needs to get up to speed with it.

So... Esslingen Weihnachtsmarkt on Sunday... with the exchange students.... so fun, but anything with exchange students is fun. I bought something for my mommy, and something for my host daddy. And me and Hayley decided to make candles, which I gave to my host mommy. My first one... sucked. But the 2nd two were AWESOME!

And this week, absolutely NOTHING in school was cancelled. It's the first week in the 3 and a half months I've been here that nothing has been cancelled!

Anyways, we celebrated Saint Nikolas day in Teeniekreis, it was soooo fun! My friend Tobias and I went a little bit crazy. We drank to much Kinderpunch... which has no alchohal in it, by the way, so.... You know, we were just having fun!

Today someone asked me if I spoke English. I guess I don't scream AMERICAN quite as loud as I used to! I guess my accent isn't quite so bad anymore, either, because they didn't notice it. This made me excited, as did the fact that I realized a couple days ago that I was thinking mostly all in German now! And I had my first bilingual dream, in both German and English, but mostly in German, just like my brain. It was really cool, I've finally arrived as an OFFICIAL EXCHANGE STUDENT!

Speaking of exchange students, I hope everyone knows that Wednesday, the 6th of January is International Hug an Exchange Student Day. I am expecting hugs! And you all in America should also hug your local exchange students!

DRK is amazing, I'm actually LEARNING first aid! Maybe I won't be quite so useless at first aid when I get back! Although, my friend Sven and I (yes, his name REALLY is Sven) "killed each other". We both failed epically at saving each others lives. I couldn't STOP laughing.... it was sooo funny. And Sven (when we were demonstrating, and I was laughing) acted like Dr. Frankenstein, looked up at the sky, and said "ES LEBT!" If you don't know what that means, look it up.

Christmas is coming up! I can't wait! I'm so excited! It's celebrated on the 24th of December here, not the 25th. I love that, because it's interesting and different!

It's going to snow again here tomorrow. I love snow, I can't wait! I'm going to a family lunch thing. Which reminds me... I ate fruitcake. Yes, you read that correctly. I ATE FRUITCAKE! Did I like it? Not at all. Did I choke it down for my super-nice host Oma's sake? Yes, yes I did. You outta be proud of me!

Alright, I will try and update more often! Ok? But for now I gotta go! So, until later!

Another update on me!

I actually have a life here in Germany! Isn't that exciting???

Well, I have a couple of interesting things that happened in the past few... days? Weeks? I guess weeks, huh? Well, let me start....

I joined German Red Cross! I can't remember if I already said that in my blog or not, but it's really awesome. I've been having a LOT of fun with it! I've made a good handful of new friends with it, but now it seems like I can't even go out into town without running into someone I know! Which is GREAT!

Also, the youth group thing that I'm in? Sooooo much fun! Last week we played a game where we had to be the other person's arms! My partner and I had quite a difficult time with it... he had to feed me pretzal sticks with nutella and I had to put makeup on him! It was super fun! But he looked HORRIBLE (I guess I'm not very good at doing makeup when I can't see what I'm doing!) and I ended up with nutella ALL over my face. God, it was sooo fun!

The weekend before this one I took the train all alone up to Heidenheim (thats an hour long trip or so!) It was somewhat scary, and I was terrified I would get lost, but nope, it all worked out! I stayed the weekend with Olivia, another exchange student, from Washington. We went to the mall, watched Brokeback Mountain and Shark Tale (no joke) and visited another exchange student in the city, Mitch. It was an exciting weekend, and I came home with a cool new pair of jeans and a rocking hat! Olivia's just might be cooler, though... Just maybe... :]

Then I went to school, did school-like things... Blah blah blah... and thennnnn... I went to see Twilight! New Moon was pretty good, Taylor Lautner is ridiculously hot. I watched it all in German, which was awesome! Cause I understood ALMOST everything. I saw it with a big group of my German friends! They made me laugh, and helped me with the few things I didn't understand.

Then Olivia came and stayed with me this last Friday night. We saw Twilight (yes, I did see it twice!) and then on Saturday we went to STUTTGART! Yes, I do go into Stuttgart about once a week, thanks for asking!

Weihnachtsmarkt starts (like, really starts) in Stuttgart next week, but for today, I went to the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) in Wolfschlugen, the little village where I live! It was really fun, but I didn't buy anything, except for lunch :]

The mat I just finished nicely rolling up from where I slept when Olivia was here Friday night just mysteriously unfolded itself.... This is serious stuff, people. It really did... Yes, I did sleep on the ground while Olivia was here. She slept in my bed. How does that work? I don't know.

Anyways, I just got an email from Rotex saying that we will all meet in Esslingen at 9.30 AM on Sunday morning (next week) and go to the Weihnachtsmarkt there! YAY! Every town has a Weihnachtsmarkt, in case you didn't quite get that. It's certainly not a Rotary weekend, but a Rotary daytrip is pretty awesome too, assuming we all end up going!

Alright, well now you are caught up on the major things I've done in Germany lately!

16th, Rotary Weekend, Stuttgart, and other exciting things that make me love my life

I'm soooo sorry I haven't updated in so long, I've been pretty busy! Well.... Basically, it's been... 2 weeks! Wow! Ok, a LOT to catch up on! Where to start, where to start... hmmm...

Well, Thursday, November 5th was my sweet 16th! It was relatively uneventful. I got many hugs and such from school friends. It was very fun, and now I can officially go to the DISCO! Whoo hoo! This fact excites me greatly, you have nooo idea. I am SOOOO going...

Changing the font a little here, just to mix it up! Then on Friday, I went to Stuttgart and met with Hayley, Fernando, and Andrés and together we travelled to Göppingen for a lovely weekend of exchange students, halloween parties, violent games, and other stuff such as this.....

The weekend started with us screaming, greeting each other happily, Olivia practically tackling me to the ground, and you know, the works. I had seen most of the others the weekend before, when we chilled in Stuttgart for Halloween, but some I hadn't, so that was very exciting. Plus, a WHOLE week is a really long time in the mind of an exchange student. A lot could have happened!

Then we went over the rules. This time, no one translated them into English/Spanish for us, they only said them in German. Luckily this wasn't a problem for me, I understood most of what was being said, and who needs rules anyways? Ahaha... Then we ate dinner and then we were FORCED to split into 3 groups. It's ok, it was only for a little while. We designed shirts for the District 1830 exchange students (thats... umm... us!) and then talked with Rotex about problems we had (trust me, we all have at least one problem) and then we wrote letters to our future selves that we'll get back at the end of the year. My letter is... retarded. I didn't really write anything interesting in it, and the other homies in my group drew on it and stuff... so ahaha... can't WAIT to get that back!

That font was boring me... This one sucks too. Ahhh well. Anyways. Then we had to go to bed, but the others in my room (Olivia, Hayley, and Bryn) and I all stayed up and talked. Then, when I finally started to fall asleep, a knock on our door woke me up. I got up, got the key, struggled to get it to open the door (it seriously took me like, 10 minutes) and saw a couple other exchange students, who then realized they were at the wrong room. I was tired, so I said whatever and went back to bed.

Next day... oh this font is actually pretty neat! Next day we went into Schwäbisch Gmünd and did a scavenger hunt thing where we had to ask people questions in German and stuff. My group (Me, Brianna, and Mercedes) cheated and got most of the answers from the tourist information center! We're just that cool. Then we still had like, 2 and a half hours to kill, so we went to get Döners (really amazing food that everyone should eat) and yep. We should have had 4 in our group, but the other team member didn't stay for the second night, so we were at a disadvantage, but Brianna lives in Schwäbisch Gmünd, so it was all good! We met with a couple of the other groups, gave them the answers, and then chilled like the awesome people we are. Unfortunatly, we did not win this challenge (my group, I mean). We ate lunch, and went to a VERYYY long hike. Then we came back, ate dinner, and had a HALLOWEEN PARTY! We played dangerous games, I was serandaded, and a chair was broken. It was a very fun party. Then I was so tired, I just went straight to bed (as did most everyone else, I believe)

Unfortunatly, all good things must come to an end, so we went home sadly the next morning. I went to school (uneventful) and then yesterday (saturday) I went to Stuttgart (I LOVEEE STUTTGART) with school friends and met with a few of the exchange students, and we "shopped" and chilled and were cool. And yes indeed.

I have many pictures which I will someday put up here, as well as a rather large amount of stories from the past two weekends, but I'm quite lazy, so ask me about them!

Ok I'm gonna go eat bread with nutella now. Byeee!

Woah check out that font! Anyways, ask me about some funny stories from the past 2 weekends, if you really want to! I gotta go eat bread with nutella now (yes, I do have to, thanks for asking...)

OK byeee!

Fall holidays (make me smile internally) !!!

So what I did over my fall holidays....

By the way, Happy Halloween!!!!

I went to the party and it was very very fun, but basically I forgot my camera (as usual) and so now I have no pictures.... And that is sad. But oh well it was still a very fun party I met some awesome people and such and such and yes. Saturday night was very fun.

Sunday, I left Lisa's house at around... 12 or so. And I went to Nürtingen (where I go to school and like, the "big city" near where I live) and I went to this crafts fair thing. It was sooo cute and they had the most awesome stuff and my friend bought me a cute little heart that says Nicole on it to put on my Rotary blazer. It's like the cutest little heart thing ever. I love it, and I used my last saftey pin to pin it onto my blazer. Which reminds me, I really need to go buy some saftey pins (from Müller, which is an amazing store that has absolutley EVERYTHING in it)

Monday, I don't remember doing anything of particular interest. Sorry if I like, saw you Monday or something and forgot. OH that's right I went to the library... And I saw my friend there and he was all, Hey and I was all, Oh hey! And so yep we chilled a little and then I went home, and that's pretty much it....

On Tuesday, however, I went with my host family on a long hike (it was pretty nice, it was a warm day, well warm for Germany, cold for you people in California) and then we drove up to this castle. It was an EPIC castle. I loveddd it we couldn't go inside but we could explore around it and such and basically I went into this nifty little room and Kai (my host bro) locked me in (on purpose but as a joke) and I couldn't get out but he thought I could so he left and I was thinking, lovely, I'm locked in a nifty little room! And then I yelled at him and he came back and let me out but he thought it was insanely funny. Then my host mom took me to a hair cut place and I got my hair cut. And yep it was... scary. I was genuinely afraid I'd come out bald or something cause I would mess up my German, but my hair actually looks pretty good...

Wednesday, my host brother drug my host family and I to the Porsche museum. I will someday own a Porsche 911 GTI. I'm certain of this fact. I decided it in the Porsche museum and when I decide things I normally get them. So. Then my host mother and I went to get food and we went to an Art museum. I have herby declared that I don't understand art. We saw this picture and it was a picture of this red canvas with a blue strip down the middle. And I was like, Ok what is that? Well I read about it and it's apparently super famous and it like, symbolizes the order among the chaos in our lives.... I was like, hmm... I see a blue line on a red canvas. I could have painted that, seriously. Some of the paintings were really pretty impressive, though.....

Thursday... Was... Umm... the day before yesterday, right. Ok, Thursday, I did... nothing. Yayyyy..... actually that's a lie, Thursday I went ice skating... it was very fun, I'm actually decent at ice skating. But I was sooo sore yesterday and I'm still a little sore today, so...

Friday, ahhh Friday... I went into Stuttgart and met up with some of the other exchange students. It was insanely fun, as it always is when I meet up with the other exchange students. We basically did a whole lot of ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Only Rotary kids could have so much fun doing nothing. We chilled in Stuttgart. And yep it was fun! I spent the night in Stuttgart and yep it was fun!

Today, I'm going to a party with my host family. It should be fun, I hope! And I have absolutely NO plans for tomorrow, so it's the first day of holidays I'll have during my fall holidays! YAY! And then school.... blahhhh... Thursday is my sweet 16th birthday! November 5th, baby! I'm pretty excited to see how that ends up going... and then a ROTARY WEEKEND!!! YESHHHH!!!!!!!!! I'm sooo excitedddd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But I don't know if ALL the Rotary kids are going to be there :[ I hope so! And so yep that's my life right now. Aren't you glad you know? :]

Technology hates me........

Well, I have officially decided that my camera HATES me. It's serious. I don't understand why, but it is official. It doesn't want me to put photos on Facebook or on my blog or on the computer even. But I'm working on it.

So tonight I am going to my friend's birthday party. I'm pretty excited to see how it goes! I'll probably take many pictures and such, and put them here and on facebook and such. Be excited for that. And of course I'll write about it here, cause I'm just an awesome person like that.

Today is the first day of our week of fall holidays. That means.... NO SCHOOL!!!! Yeshhhh I'm soooo excited. I have some plans but not as many as I would have if I were in America. On Wednesday, my host brother convinced my host mom to take us to the BRAND NEW Porsche museum! It's suppousivly super cool and awesome and stuff. Thursday I go ice skating with school friends, and then Friday it's back to Stuttgart! Tonight I have a party, and Sunday (tomorrow) is a cool art show in Nürtingen, which I think a friend and I are going to go to! So far, those are the only plans I got.... But hey, they are plans none-the-less, right???

So yep, yesterday my host dad, Andi, taught me how to fix a bike. A seemingly simple repair that should have taken 10 or 20 minutes ended up taking me.... 2 hours. Because I kept doing it wrong. And I don't know the technical German terms for bike parts, and Andi didn't know the technical English terms, and so that was that and yep.... It took a LONGGGGG time.....

In other, exciting news, I went to play badminton with my friend Nadja yesterday. I hurt my left wrist, and now I think I'm gonna have to talk to two of the other exchange students and we might just have to form an "Injured Inbounds" club. Ahahahaaa nah I'm not THAT hurt, it's just pretty sore. Definatly not broken. Sprained, at the absolute MOST!

So here they have these awesome pens (yes, for those of you who know, I LOVEEEE pens and yes, I WOULD write about them in my blog... because I'm just that cool) and I bought

one and yep. It's like a fountain pen and you can erase it and stuff and it just pretty much rocks out loud and I know that you people in America are sitting there like, I wish I had a really awesome erasable pen thing, but you don't cause you aren't in Germany where they have them so nah nah nah nah! Wow yep. I really did just write that. And nope, I am NOT going to delete it..... Ahaha....

Whelp, my pictures are taking FOREVER to upload and it is making me quite frusterated. So maybe I'll put them on facebook now and like, my blog later. Is that ok with you? Well too bad you don't really have a choice in the matter now do you????

Ahaha... Alrighty then I'm gonna finish this up. I promise you I will have MUCHO to write about in the VERYYY near future.... Cause of Fall Holidays and all... So now I leave you. Please don't cry, and check back soon for more interesting (possibly) stories and such. And pictures. I fully intend to get some more pictures up here very soon.

IT IS SOOOOO COLDDDDD!!!!!

Yep. Read the title. Should explain EVERYTHING. Here it is FREEZING COLD outside. Today, the sun was shining, so it might have gotten up to 5 or 6° Celsius. But yesterday it was below 0 the ENTIRE day..... you have noooooo idea..... it was soooo cold it was actually quite ridiculous. It actually snowed a little bit, although it wasn't really snow, it was more like slush. Wet, cold slush....

Which is why I am veryyy glad I went shopping in Stuttgart on Friday! Yep, I officially own European clothing. Mhm, I'm just that cool. Me, my friend Lisa, my other friend Lisa, and my friend Lea went into Stuttgart on the train, since we only had 3 hours of school on Friday. We went to Stuttgart, and the VERY first store we walk into, I fell in loveeeeee with a winter jacket I found. It was 70€, but sooooo insanely worth it. It's black, superrrr thick, with fake fur on the inside and a really cool wool cotten mix on the outside. It's super warm, and super super SUPER cute. I seriously LOVE it! Too bad I'll NEVER need it back home in California... :]

I also bought two pairs of gloves, a scarf, and another not-so-warm jacket at H&M. Seriously, the H&Ms here are ten times better than the ones back home. They rock. And they are really cheap; I got all of the above for 20€ (that's good, for those of you who don't know) And then me and Lea went home, because I spend almost all of my Rotary check (I receive a hundred Euros every month) and Lea had no money to start with.

Saturday was our Beatles concert. We all sounded AMAZING, of course. I felt like James Bond. I had to wear a white button down shirt, and black tie, black pants and a black jacket. Cause that's what the Beatles wore and stuff.... I didn't have a plain white shirt with me, so I borrowed Kai's. I had endless fun with the huge shirt when I got home. I turned on AC/DC and slid around my room like in Risky Buisness. Yep, I'm just THAT cool!

In other news.... I wrote my first class test on Monday (yesterday) It was for English class. So I think I got a very good mark on it :] It's actually only English and Math that I have to write the class tests for. Which is awesome. For now. Later, when my German is better, I will be expected to do more, but for now.... I can just slack off and learn the langauge. Which I FIRMLY believe is ten times harder than ANY school. But still....

I'm seriously considering buying a guitar here. I would LOVE to play, and I could take it home with me as a carry on. I found a REALLY cheap one that's in good condition, although slightly used, and I'm seriously considering buying it with what's left of my Rotary check.... Yeppers. But, like I said, I haven't decided yet.

Well, I should sign off here pretty soon. I think I'll post more pictures on facebook and on here soon enough, but because of the absolute hell I had to go through last time to get them up, I'm half afraid.....

Well, I'll write more soon.... ish..... :] Thanks for reading this! Yep, I did just thank you for reading my blog. I would expect to be thanked for reading someone else's blog, so I'm thanking you. Chow!

I hate thinking up clever titles for these blog posts! :]

You know, earlier today I thought I had a lot to write about and yet here I sit... and I can't think of a single thing!

Does anyone really read this? Ahaha I hope so cause I actually put quite a bit of time into it. Like 20 minutes a week! Ok, thats not a lot of time, but still........ I enjoy blogging though, it's quite fun!

I've never been so cold in my life as I am here in Germany. It's FREEZING! And very rainy and wet! I like the rain, it's cool, and I can't WAIT for the snow! But I'm really not used to the coldddd! I'll adjust! And I'm going shopping in Stuttgart with school friends Friday, to buy warm winter clothing!

Everyone in Germany wants to pick me up. Not even kidding. 2 of the exchange students, 3 of my friends in school, and one of my neighbors, have all had the ridiculous need to pick me up! The first time, when one of the exchange students did it, it was a cute joke. And now I'm just like, "I can walk, people!" It's amusing though! Sehr lustig! (That's very funny in German, for you non-German speakers!)

Yesterday, I went swimming with my friend Nadja. It was fun, but I'm not very fast, which was kind of embarrasing... but not really cause half the people on her swim team aren't very fast either! Ahaha.... But the swim coach was an old fat man with a mustache in a SPEEDO!!!! It was soooo scary! I thought I might have nightmares....

Today, in school, I took a class test. I think I failed, but it doesn't matter, my teacher said she's not gonna grade it anyways. She crumbled it up and threw it in the recycling. I was like, "Oh... Well, ok then!"

I have German friends on facebook now. Who I speak German too. It's sooo exciting! But my Grammar in German is horrible! My friends in school think it's "cute". They say, "Ahh Nicole you're so cute with your little accent!" It's weird for me to think that I have an accent. When people speak English with me here (which they RARLY do anymore!) I always think, "Oh they have an accent!" And then I realize that nope, it's really ME who has an accent!

This weekend is my choir concert! It's gonna be epic! But I'm actually a little nervous! I don't know, singing... in English... In front of a bunch of German people... Ahhh I'm sure I'll survive!

Today, I got a care package. I was sooo happy! It had Oreos in it. I'm going to share with my friends in school! And blank CDs so I no longer have to steal them from Kai! YAYYYY!

Ok... Well... I shall write more later, but it's late and I'm tired. Tomorrow is Wednesday, so I have Mittagschule. Unless one of my classes gets cancelled! Cross your fingers! I also have a youth group thing, called Teeniegreis. It's surprisingly really fun! The other kids are crazyyyy. I'm pretty excited! And I would have badmitten practice, but I'm going to Teeniegreis instead. Yep. Not only am I a hip-hop dancer, I'm also a badmitten player and a youth group-er. I know, I'm so awesome!

Ahaha! Justttt kidding! Alrite, jetzt, ich gehe ins Bett! Gute nacht!

I'm listening to NoFX and typing up my blog.... how much cooler could I get?

Monday, Thursday, same differance... Today, I decided to continue my blog! Cause I'm just cool like that. Anyways... After a successful day of uploading pictures Monday, I got rather bored and decided to completely neglect my blog for like, oh, I don't know... 4 days? At least I got the pictures up! Once again, thank you, Spain! I owe you one!

Anyways... I don't really know what to write about. I'm no good at this whole blogging thing. But it is rather amusing to me, and it keeps me entertained, soo...

Today, I went shopping with a friend from school, Hannah. It was very fun. I purchased.... hair ties, headphones (since I broke my iPod headphones) and two really cool eyeliners. I love eyeliner! :) And some other American recognized my American accent when I was speaking German on the street to Hannah, and turned around and started talking to us, first in German, then in English. It was cool at first... but then he started following us... He was like, I live 3 minutes up the street, I can go home anytime! And I thought to myself : "Then why don't you?" Cause you know...

So on Monday I met these friends of my friends in school. I've grown pretty used to air-kisses and hugs upon meeting new people by now, and they were pretty cool. One of the boy's names is Sven. No joke. I wanted to laugh, but I decided not too. Because that might be considered a bit rude. If someone laughed when I told them my name, I might get kind of pissed.... So I didn't laugh. Until later, when I was on the bus home.... :]

Ok fine. Because you've forced me into it, I'll write about school... So school. School here is VERY different than it is in the states. I have different classes every day. Confusing much? And the rooms for the classes change EVERY DAY! Montags, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, I have mittag-schule (midday school). Monday, I don't get out of school until like, 4 P.M. in the afternoons. I HATE Mondays, because I have an hour of math, two hours of Chemistry, an hour of Biology, two hours of Physics, and an hour of Geography, all in the same day! I have a couple other classes that day too, but still... 3 sciences, math, and Geography. My three least favorite subjects.... ALL in one day...

Tuesday and Wednesday are better. I get out of school around 2 30 or so. I have good classes. But I can't remember what they are right now, and I'm too lazy to look for my sceduale. Wednesday and Friday I get out of school at around 12 30 or soo. Pretty good days! Thursday, I only have school until 11 45 and then I get to go home! YAY!

Okay I'm bored with talking about school. So....

I have some very important things to do now. Like... Watch School of Rock in German. Yep yep yep.

So, bis später! Tschüss!

Oh-Bla-Di, Oh-Bla-Da, life goes on!

Well, today I decided to write some more on the sorry excuse for a website I like to call my blog!

Ladies and Gentleman, here we have some writing on a boring backround that you are currently reading! Since my pictures are being dumb, I can't at the current moment figure out how to upload pics. I think I may have figured out a way, but it's late, I'm lazy and I have yet to try it.

I think today I will write about what I did this weekend! This will cover all extra-curricular activities that I'm doing/taking here in Germany! Well, at least most of them. It will also help you get to know my host family a little bit. Sarah: Someday in the very near future, I shall write about my school and such. That day is not today.

So. This weekend. I guess I should start at the beginning, and work my way until the end. Friday. Friday was a fun day. I decided to test out a Drama class. Oh, how fun that was. The best thing about drama people is that you can look like a complete idiot in front of them, and they think it's pretty normal! This is very useful for me! It is a GREAT place for me to practice my German! So we did some improv and such. It was VERY exciting :) And quite amusing for me! Then I checked out an art class! I think I'll be taking art here in Germany as well!

Oh! By the way, I'm taking hip-hop. Yep, that's right. Hip-hop. Nicole Walker is a dancer! Crazy, no? I suck. But it doesn't really matter, it's really pretty fun! And it's helping with my "cultural immersion", as my host daddy says.

Anywaysss... Friday night my host brother taught me how to use a knife. I don't know why, but for some reason I appear to be knife-retarded. At the Rotary retreat weekend, I couldn't cut a piece of bread. I'm not even kidding. So my host brother, laughing at me, decided to take pity on my lack of knife-using skills (if that makes any sense) and he cut my food for me, then taught me how to use a knife. Well, I still suck. But I don't suck as badly now.

Saturday, I was GOING to go to the Volksfest with one of the other exchange students. My host family approved it, his host family approved it... But due to an unfortunate misunderstanding, it didn't happen. Instead, I went to a choir practice. It was insanely fun, surprisingly. We sing Beatles songs. How perfect is that for me? I met some hilarious people. In fact, I had the most hilarious converstation ever. I don't know how well it would transfer into English, unfortunaly, but if you really wanna hear about it, please, just ask me!

After choir, we got home and ate dinner. Not too exciting. Then my host brother, Kai, decided to play poker with me. My host dad, Andi, joined in too, and my host mom, Anita, decided to watch and laugh. Well, I neglected to warn the two of them about my awesome American poker abilities. Kai is pretty good at poker as well, but Andi tried bluffing one too many times, and went out within the first half hour! So it was down to Kai and me... We got pretty into the poker game, actually. Eventually, Kai lost all his chips and I won. Cause I'm awesome.

Which brings me to a section of my blog titled: My host brother. Kai... most of the time he just completely ignores me. Which is cool. But sometimes, he decides to be hilariously funny and really awesome. And we play poker. Or he teaches me how to use a knife. Which is cool too. End of section about my host brother.

Almost all day Saturday I spoke only German. Yep. I'm just that good! I know, I know. Please applause now :)

So Sunday. Again, I went to choir practice. It was pretty amusing too. Oh by the way, today is Sunday. Anyways. Today I went to choir practice. We sang "Yellow Submarine". As a select few of you reading this *cough* Jessica *cough* know, that song is magical. And brings about strange happenings. Strange things have yet to happen, but I promise you, they will. And when they do, I'll be insanely amused. And be sure to report back to you all.

After choir Andi and I took a long bike ride. It was tiring. And hot. And fun too. And then I came home, at dinner and stole blank CDs from Kai, to burn cool music I checked out from the library here in Wolfschlugen. They have some awesome music, but I can't believe how RIDICULOUSLY expensive blank CDs are over here!

And now I sit here, updating my blog. Hmm... maybe one of these days I will write about school... That day may just be tomorrow. Or it may not be. I don't know, I can't see into the future. Maybe I'll fix the stupid pricture problem pretty soon too.........

Well, that's all, Folks!

Pictures and videos and fun! (Oh my!)

Yep, I know, really lame Wizard of Oz referance.

Anyways....... here are some pictures of my time in Germany (Don't fret now, more will come later :] )

Okay, I'm going to edit this note and try once again. PICTURES EVERYONE! (I really hope this works.... If it doesn't, I will be very very sad and might just give up... We don't what that to happen now, do we?)

Most of these pictures are from the Rotex Weekend in Neherasiem. But some aren't. So. Just read the captions and that should help you figure out what's what.

Ok, I got it to work! Yesss I know, I'm amazing! SPAIN, I seriously owe you one! Thank you! Anyways, this is me and another exchange student, Mitch, in this cave we visited. Pretty exciting, no?

Okay, so this is me in the Steiff Musuem. Yes, dear friends, that is a foot on my shoulder. Why is said foot there? The world may never know...

Sorry these pictures are so small. Maybe if you click on them, they get bigger? I don't actually know. Anyways. This was a really cool window. If you're laughing at me, let me just say this : IT WAS A REALLY COOL WINDOW, OK?

Okay. Again, a picture of the Steiff Factory. These were some awesome Elephants.

Isn't this the coolest cow ever?

Here is the place we stayed for this AWESOME weekend. Isn't it pretty? I think so.

This is me with a REALLY cool... thing... I don't know what it was, but it was sure cool! And German and Alvaro (SPAIN) are looking at me like I'm crazy :)

This is me in an apparently world-famous church that I'd never heard of before! But it sure was amazing!

This is me walking across a tightrope (with help from Brianna and Eric) later that night!

OKAY that was really difficult. Seriously. And by the way, I lied! These are all from the Rotex Weekend!

So, I'll probably upload more later. But for right now, this should satisfy you. Hope you enjoyed!

Bis später! Chow!

Oh my god, I have a blog!

I know it's a little late to set up a blog...

I did get here three weeks ago... but better late than never, as I like to say.... (I don't like the phrase "As they say" because honestly, I don't know who THEY are and I don't wanna be copying their sayings!)

Well, as you all know, my name is Nicole Walker and I'm from California. I've been here in Germany for almost 3 weeks now. Pretty awesome stuff, if I don't say so myself.

School here is next to impossible. I'm not even kidding. They might as well be teaching in Chinese... But everyday I understand a little bit more. I get real excited when I understand a sentance or a word in school, even if it doesn't matter at all, or I still have absolutly no idea what anyone's talking about. Doesn't matter to me! The good news is... My doodles are looking AWESOME! They went from literal doodles in the margins of my paper to being full-blown DESIGNS! I'm serious. I could probably put some of them on clothing, and people might actually buy it!

My host family is insanely nice, which is good, because I may not be switching for the year. I like them a lot, and I really feel at home in their house. Well, I guess it's my house too, now.

Last weekend, I met all the other exchange students. It's funny, almost all of us speak English, but NONE of us speak German :) Rotary Youth Exchange students have got to be the coolest people in the world. We all connected right away. Yep. We're pretty cool!

And this weekend, I went to Volksfest with Mariah, another exchange student (but she's in District 1930, and I'm in 1830) It was pretty exciting. German saftey standards on rides must not be as high as the ones in America. Which made them AWESOME!!!!

I also met my extended host family. That was pretty exciting.... They don't really speak English. But me and my host mom got into a pretty epic game of badmitten... It was awesome... and... I taught her how to play a fun AMERICAN card game. It was pretty cool.

Well, we learn something new every day, don't we? Today, I learned that I was allergic to German band-aids. Must be something they use in them that they don't use in America. But I had a little bitty blister on my foot. Guess what? Now it's a little bitty blister with a red, itchy, burning rash all around it. Hey, are you thinking of sending me a care package? If so, I would LOVE to get some band-aids! Just kidding, I'll ask my mommy for those. If you're gonna send me a care package, and you aren't my mommy, please send me something cooler than band-aids..... :)

Anyways... It's getting kind of late, and I'm pretty sleepy. For you people in California reading this, it's like one in the afternoon (in Germany, that would be 13 Uhr) but over here, it's like.... ten o'clock at night. Gotta get up at 6 AM tomorrow, so I should probably sleep some.

I'm so excited I have a blog! Check back for new updates and such... if you want to!

~ Nicole