First week of School

Well I arrive in Gescher on Saturday after a wonderful day of shopping=) Right after I arrived I went to my first party...or disco rather. My guest sister had to work there that night, and so naturally I came along. It was fun, but lasted until 4 am so I was very tired. A friend of my sisters kept teasing me and saying that little girls my age shouldn´t stay out so late...and I would have to agree. haha jk. But the next day I slept until noon and then I dont remember what we did the rest of the day...we might have went to our neighbours house and had cake....anyway the next day was my first day of school!!!! My sister Tina and I road our bikes to the bus station. And ok you must know that Tina has super long legs and they must not have noticed that my entire body is like up to her knee. haha so the seat was very high and I could not touch the ground...stopping was a pain. Then when we got on the bus I opened my water, because I was thirsty and had just eaten a banana. But the water is sparkling water and so it exploded allll over me! and I just thought and said "of course!" my first day in German school something had to go wrong haha good thing it was only water and it dried before I got to school. Then I had to get to class, and lucky me Tina has lots of nice friends that walked me to my class, where I had orientation with the 10th class, where we got our Stundenplans, but then I didnt have one so i went to the office and there I learned my classes, which are all great, but everytime I show someone they all look at it like "aw u poor thing" apparently I have all the awful teachers=) again of course. But I would have to say so far English is my favorite..haha because 1. everyone wants to be my friend in that class so i can help them with their hw haha and 2. I can understand whats going on 3. and I made friends in that class haha..Then history is a nightmare! haha my teacher has already assigned a chapter to read and a paper to write...well I think..if I understood correctly which Im kind of hoping I didnt=) and then Im taking Russian! random! I know and super hard since its two languages in one class I dont understand, so I have to translate from Russian to German to English. But on the bright side I have music and Art as well, which I believe I will enjoy. Oh and might be able to learn to dance here! yay...although it may not be the kind I wanted...but I dont mind I just want to learn to dance=)...I do not think I have anymore interesting stories, well not yet anyway...oh! one of Tinas friends told me that it is tradition that the exchange students must get married while they are here...haha so if I have a ring on my finger when I come home...have no fear...its tradition! haha lol. well I will write later...Im hoping I get better with this whole writing thing with time. lol. but Gue nacht! bis später!
Alyssa

First Week and some odd Days in Germany=)

Well...where to begin, everything has just been wonderful. So it all began in Gescher with my hmom, hdad, two little hbrothers and host little sister. They are all wonderful. The kids are a blast and made me feel right at home when I got there. They absolutely loved it when I gave them Starbursts tho=) I watched my first German movie called Vater noch Vier? I think...but it was hilarious! even tho I didnt know what they were saying. Then for the next three days I slept until 10 or 11 ate until 9 or 10 ( it feels like we are ALWAYS eating! must be a past time here=) and in between that I smiled and nodded as people looked at me and moved their lips and said a lot of  "Danke"s. I kept wondering not what should I say, but what could I say...and so it came "Was ist dein lieblings Farbe?" (what is your favorite color?) in a lull in the conversation, and similar questions. But Alas! Monday came and I was at Language Camp with similar sufferers=) Many said they had stayed in there rooms, sat on facebook, at Nutella or sat in fly on the wall silence to avoid the awkward moments of not-being-able-to-talk-to-your-family lifestyle. Language camp began and I found myself living with my families Oma, who is awesome and very helpful. But the other day I seriously decided she is awesome, we listened to all of Phantom of the Opera in German while talking about Shakespeare, and she said she would take me to a concert!!! Not to sound like a super artsy nerd...actually yes to sound like a super artsy nerd...AWESOME! and she told me about this place where I could learn how to play guitar or the violin! Sweet!...anyway...language camp was cool for the first two days, when we were playing the whats-your-neighbours-name games=) and then...they split the classes!!! so there is the beginners german class and the know-a-little-bit-more german class. We had to start learning. Yipee! So a few days past full of German grammer. Dative, Accusative, der,die, das, who-sits and whats-its going before and after the verb and so on. But I have a great class and great teacher and so I cant complain. Anyway and meanwhile friends were found and made and I went to a sleepover at one of the other exchange students houses. SO FUN! we tried to explain to them the phrase and motion of "awkward turtle" which do you guys even know? and other phrases in English (u american teenagers should know which one Im talking about=) it was hilarious...there were some germans there that started dancing to Soldier Boy (is that how u spell that?) it was great!and we watched shooting stars on the trampoline we saw atleast 14 before the clouds rudely interuppted. Then today I went to a Klettergarten which is like a climbing/zipline/obstacle course thingy in the trees=) it was great and when I got home I got icecream and watched tv, its been a great day=)
Bis später folks!

Orientation

I have been on the computer for awhile and so I need to make this short so they dont think I am getting homesick or something. Well the last few days have been orientation and they have been freaking amazing everyone is so nice and I wish everyone had this oppurtunity. I got the chance to see the White House, the Library of congress, Arlington, I got to visit the washington senator, I have just had an amazing trip. I will tell you on my next blog about my first week in Germany. But it was a 7-8 hour flight and I slept in every position imaginable except upside down...the poor people sitting next to me had (sorry Leanne and nice German lady) me sprawled all over them. But when I did wake up I was so hyper and was in that dilerious state of happiness where everything is funny. Well I got off the plane and we had to wait about3 hours for our train to Dusseldorf, which was an hour and a half. Then I met my family! and when I met them I accidentally spoke English, and then German and then I just went silent..but theey are great people!!! I also descovered that Germans drink carbonated water, Mary Loving told us not to write anything negative on our blogs, but it is going to take a while to get used to, thats all I have to say. But until next time my good friends! Aufwiedersehen!

I leave for Germany in exactly twelve days and now is the time my brain chooses to  feel absolutely terrified, I was so ready for this experience like three months ago?! Now I am thinking about all the things I don't know, the language for example? But have no fear I am beyond excited as well, I mean how can you not be?
Not to mention I keep hearing these things (that may or may not be rumors) about the German culture, for example:
         *The girls don't shave (well I can just mark shaver off my list)
         *They think ice and cold breezes will kill their kidneys or something ( goodbye refreshing water and air conditioning I will never forget you :( )
         * Their mean and blunt ( like if you look like crap you'll know it)
         *They don't have chocolate chips or oreos! (that was almost a deal breaker for me) lol
         *I have been told that carbs will become my new vegetable

          So all of the above concludes that I will return a fat, hairy, dehydrated, rude, german speaking deprived-of-sugar 18 year old. Oh! I can hardly wait!
          I am really excited, don't get me wrong, and I have no doubt that I will learn a lot and grow as a person. There will be a great deal of differences and changes between the cultures. But in the words of Roberts C. Gallagher:

"Change is inevitable-except from a vending machine." 

         I will try and keep this updated, if nothing else, weekly.
         Days until Washington D.C.: 7 Days
         Days until Germany: 12