18th Birthday!

18th birthday is a big deal here in Germany. But I had an amazing time! On my birthday, Kerstin, Micheal, and Nele woke me up and sang me a birthday song. Then we have a "birthday table" and I had 18 roses, lots of pictures drawn by Nele, and she made me a lot of flowers. I got a leather jacket, two yoga books, the one that is in German, the yoga poses are shown with cows! It's super funny. Then I have a book in English, about Dresden. I got a card, some chocolates. I got a silver identification bracelet with a heart and it says "Dresden" on it! Super pretty. A lot of people came up to me at school and gave me hugs and said happy birthday! It was super nice. Then we had my host brother come over for dinner, and we had Mac&Cheese (: Then on Friday we had a small dinner party with family friends. They stayed over for a couple hours, ate, and just had a good time. Then on Saturday I had a party with all my German friends! I rented out this small place. A lot of people came, and we had a good time, partied, and just had fun! I'm so thankful that I met so many nice people here that I can come back and keep connections with when I go back home. I had an amazing birthday here in Germany!! <3 

Holiday!

The first week we stayed at home and just hung out. The second week we went to Italy! On Saturday the 22nd, and drove 6.5 hours to Austria. We checked out the Sarowski crystal world. We saw, of course, lots of diamonds. And everything was so pretty! And Sparkly! The next day we drove two more hours to Italy! It was so unbelievable! The Mountains! They were so pretty! It was just so crazy to say that I was in Italy! As soon as we got everything into the room, we got changed to go skiing! We went up so freaking high, it was a little bit scary. It was so warm! I had to take a few layers off. I wasn't in the same room as my family, I stayed with family friends in a different room. After skiing Nele and I went into the outdoor pool. It was so beautiful seeing the Alps while you were swimming. We ran out into the snow and I walked in the wrong place and sunk into the snow so deep that it came up to my hip and it took me a couple of minutes to get out! On Monday it was going really good with the skiing. But on this hill I was going fast and didn't quite know how to control it. So I ran into this little boy, he was completely fine, i just skimmed his ski, but I lost one of mine and got a huge bruise on my thigh and his dad or trainer started yelling at me in German telling me how I could do that and what I was thinking. I lost my confidence after that. We ate and I was just done. But we had to go down a black diamond to get back to the hotel...I was so done after that. I was tired and just felt like i couldn't do anything anymore. So on Tuesday Kerstin, Micheal and I went cross country skiing. And I didn't realize how hard it was going to be! That was about two hours. Then Kerstin and I got into our bikinis and laid in the sun on her balcony. It was about 90 degrees in the sun, and I listened to my music, drank tea, and started at the alps. It was so relaxing. On Wednesday we went back skiing, and we worked on my Technics. I got the hang of it eventually. Just had to gain my confidence back. Then with an hour left for the gondolas, we went bobsledding! We all raced to the bottom, Kerstin won the first round, then Nele and I together won the second. I had snowballs IN MY PANTS from steering with my feet. It was so much fun though! Then on Thrusday we skiied for a little bit but Nele had a small accident so I went back to the hotel with her and watched some movies until dinner. On Friday Kerstin, Micheal, and I did a 7 hour snow shoe hike. Wow that was crazy. It was super pretty and not as hard as I thought. But At the end I had these huge blisters on my pinkie toes taht I actually bled through my socks. But My legs didn't hurt or anything the next day. Saturday Nele and I couldn't do much so we had a movie lazy day. I'll tell you a little about the hotel quick. It was called the Berghotel (mountain hotel) and they always had breakfast, cake in the afternoon, and a 5 course dinner. Everything was super delicious. On one ski route you had to drive, but the other one you could go right from the hotel. There were lots of saunas, and a relaxing room (with water beds!), an indoor and outdoor pool. It was super pretty with an amazing view. I was so lucky to be able to experience something like this. I hope I will be able to come back some day! 

Munich Week!

From the 9th of February until the 14th I was in Munich for a YFU seminar. We were actually in a little village called Possenhofen. It was about 40 minutes with subway. It was so nice to see everyone from the airport in Chicago, to the people I met in the 3 weeks in Flensburg. It's been so long! For most of the week we talked about our host families and our language skills. The first night we introduced ourselves and played some warm up games. That Monday was SOOOO long! We did so much group work. But we got to see the mountains. They looked like someone painted them in the background. They were so unbelievably beautiful. My friend and I stood in the crystal clear water, and it was so freakin cold! I was fine with the group work, but I was getting so tired, and I didn't understand everything so I got really frustrated with myself, and just felt really bad. But things got better, when some of the kids and I started talking about funny youtube videos. I almost peed myself laughing so hard! On Tuesday we went to Munich! We  had only 15 minutes to eat breakfast. We separated into all different groups. My group started with the BMW manufacture. It was super cool because we got a tour, so we actually got to see the machines putting the cars together, and putting paint on them and everything! We had Pizza Hut afterwards...it tasted like home. It was amazing! Then we headed to the Allianz Arena, the soccer field. We got to tour it, and see where the players locker room is and where they chill in a hot tub afterward the games. it was actually really interesting. Then we only had 20 minutes to go through the German Museum. My friend and I ran through three levels and saw everything that we wanted to! After with our little group we went and ate Doener. Yummm! Then we got together as a large group and had a tour of the city. Our tour guide..I can't even explain her. She was weird but not too weird. She was funny at times, and made it really interesting. Wednesday we were back in the city but we were all alone without YFU people. We got into groups and did a scavenger hunt in the city. WE basically got to do what we wanted. We actually got to see where Sophie Schiller and her brother threw the papers in the university! We came back and had a movie pajama party! We all got into our pajamas, and watched a movie! It was really cool. On Thursday we did a little bit of group work, and then we all went our different ways because we were throwing a party for us and we had to get things together. Some went grocery shopping, I stayed back and worked on the slideshow. We had fun looking through the pictures and just hung our for a couple of hours. The party started off with embarrassing stories. My favorite was from Jack, he when to go say Entschuldigung (excuse me) to someone because he accidentally ran into him, but he accidentally said Enchilada, and another woman said "Enchilada? I love that animal!!" Oh my god that was so freakin funny!!! Then we had a little "dance party" where we were just being stupid the whole time. Then my slideshow, and then we played a couple games. First caputre the flag and the sardiens. Then it was off to bed. The week went by so fast! But we see everyone again in May, so it's not too bad! But it was a really good time with everyone!

Tour Guide

Allianz Arena