Last Post of 2010

So since today is officially the last day of the year, I've decided I should probably do an update of what I've been up to for most of December.

I've been on break since the 23rd. I went to Berlin that day to do some shopping. Then the 24th we left for Dresden to spend Christmas (which is 3 days here :)) with my host mom's family. Christmas was pretty okay, but it's definitely just one of those holidays that dont feel quite right if you're not with your family. In Germany, Santa comes on the 24th in the evening, when the kids are still up. But he didnt come to our house. So I have yet to see Santa in my lifetime (with the exception of the Santas at the mall. :)) We ate quite a bit that weekend. Waaayyy too much. And I ate deer (Bambi's a deer, right?) Oh gosh, I'm glad I didnt know that when I was actually eating it. Because I didnt figure out what it was until right before I was about to eat it as a leftover. And once I knew what it was, it didnt quite taste right...

Anyways, the next day (Christmas Day) was just like a normal day. It was weird because it's like actually actually Christmas, but it felt like just a normal day. Which kinda sucked. But that's just how it is here. The only thing somewhat Christmas-y was the fact that we ate a big meal, midday, just like in America. Goose...or duck, I'm not quite sure, but both are better than poor, little Bambi. :)

The 26th is really when Christmas dies here. Like, technically, it's still Christmas here, but they dont really do anything. We got up, had a nice, big breakfast, and then headed back to Konigs Wusterhausen.

And that was my Christmas. I have to say, I prefer American Christmases. But probably because I'm American myself. It's amazing how things you think are just ordinary and nothing special are the things you miss the most. Although Christmas is special, but I never thought our way of celebrating was particularly special.

And yeah. My host family still had to work this week, so I was home alone. Which was nice, I like being alone. Everybody's always worried I'll be lonely or bored, but really I have absolutely no problem being alone. I quite enjoy it actually. So yeah, and then Wednesday I headed to Berlin and met up with Sierra. We went to two museums. The national art gallery or something and then the Neues Museum. At the art museum we made a new Australian friend. And we were talking about how it's currently summer in Australia and how (We dont really know her name, we couldnt really hear her, it's either Leah, Mia, or something else that ends with the ee-uh sound.) she was studying in Dusseldorf and Sierra got all confused and thought Dusseldorf had summer break right now and yeah, it was pretty funny. At least I think so.

The Neues Museum took us only 20 minutes to go through (that includes our potty break :)) We were distracted talking about other things. ;) So afterwards we had like 3 hours until I had to catch my train so we wandered aimlessly through Berlin. Which is pretty darn awesome. I love wandering aimlessly through cities of international importance. :)

And today is New Year's Eve. My host family is having a little shin-dig (I totally sounded that out, so dont count on that being spelled right). So that's what I'm doing tonight. We'll see how it goes. :)

Oh, and while I was in Dresden, we went to a castle! It was pretty cool. It was on an island and stuff and just awesome. :) What a way to spend Christmas Day, visiting castles. :)

So to end this lovely post, I'd like to wish y'all a very Happy New Year, and a belated Merry Christmas. :)

Bis Bald,

Kaite

Snow. :)

well, I typed this up a while ago, but for some reason never got around to posting it. Woops. So the dates are acurate, but just ignore that, the rest is okay...I hope. :)

It's now officially December here in Germany (and in all other parts of the world too. :)) And we've got snow, which normally I'd be thrilled about because I love snow, but right now I hate. For lots of reasons. A.) I cant ride my bike to school, which means B.) I have to get up earlier to catch the bus and C.) I have to stand out in the cold for what seems like forever to catch the bus back home after school. And D.) Did I mention it's COLD?! Like 10-14 degrees every single day. Crazy cold. But at least it looks pretty outside. :)
December also means that I get to open up a little slot on my advents calendar everyday and eat a piece of yumminess (also known as chocolate. :)) But I have 2 calendars, so that means 2 pieces everyday. yum. :) I like this tradition. I'm bringing it back to America with me. :)
So what have i been up to lately? nothing much really. Sierra and I (successfully) celebrated Thanksgiving last weekend. Pretty awesome. we used absolutely no measuring cups, spoons, or anything of the sort, and yet everything turned out pretty darn awesome. we were very happy. and everyone seemed to really like it. it was a very nice feeling. :)
this weekend i was with friends. friday we made brownies, which didnt taste (or look) like any brownies i've ever had before. but they were good...well the one pan. the other pan was a little burnt. :) the next day we went to "markt der kontinente" at some museum in berlin. it was cool. very cool. very colorful and pretty and just cool. :) it was fun.

That's it.

Bis Bald,

Kaite

It's been a while...

A very long while. Well, actually only a few weeks, but I still feel the need to update this thing again. The thing is, I hate updating it. For a lot of reasons, but mostly because: a.) it's annoying having to type everything i want to say. it'd be soo much faster (and easier) to make a video (there's an idea...:)) b.) it's boring talking about how i spend my days. really, i feel like i'm constantly saying the same things over and over. c.) blogger hates me. and i hate blogger. But anyway, because i'm such a nice person, I blog for you all anyway. :)

So to start off, I changed host families about 2 weeks ago. I really, really like my new family. And I really like that I can spend time here alone. I'm the kind of person who enjoys alone time every now and then. :) Oh, and I have a suuuupppppppeeeerrrr cool new room (thank you Nathalie :D). And a cat......but really this cat is probably the strangest cat I've ever met. It's so social. Almost like a dog, but still a cat. :)

The first weekend i was here, Nathalie's host sister in Argentina came to spend the weekend. Which was nice. We went to berlin and showed her the sights. we threw a little party and Agos and I talked most of the night to a 10 year old-Tom-completely auf Deutsch. :) It went surprisingly well. woohoo. :)

The next weekend I went to a concentration camp called Sachsenhausen somewhere closeby with Rotary. It was definitely not what i was expecting. Most of the buildings were recreations, which i think is really weird. Why on earth would someone want to recreate something like that? Even if it is so people can understand, i dont know, i just think it's kinda wrong. but whatever, it was really interesting. we found a tour guide who was american (we could tell by his awesome accentless english...i miss that.) and he was totally enthusiastic and really knew his stuff. so we followed him around quite a bit. :) what else? i started my volunteer work today. i'm helping out with a computer class every thursday for little kids (like 8-10 years old). yeah. and then on monday I'm helping one of the girls with math and english. i'm excited. :)

and oh my gosh, i am sooo sick of rain. it's literally been raining here nonstop for the past week or so. i'm ready for the snow to come.

so that's all for now.

bis bald,

Kaite

German Halloween :)

Well, Halloween was the other day. It's actually probably my favorite holiday. It's like the only day when celebrating Randomness Day is socially acceptable. :) But I was totally let down by Germany's version. It was just so.....odd. First off, you have no idea which houses you can ring the doorbell at (actually you dont ring the doorbell, you push the button on the gate) because nobody's lights are on. Secondly, not everyone has candy to give to you. And if they dont have candy they'll do one of two things: a.) go searching in their house for something they can give you, whether it be oranges or half eaten bags of cookies (yes, we got both of those :)) or b.) they'll just give you some money (i got enough to pay for my train back from berlin. :)) but those who do have candy never have very much. maybe just one normal sized bag of candy that you buy at the store anytime during the year in the candy section. we also did more trick or treating at store than at houses. and when we went to the stores, they'd just take things off the shelves or open up the cash register to give you something. strange... but i spent halloween in berlin with my american exchange student friend sierra. her host family went all out for halloween, it was so cool. they made spider web cakes, carved pumpkins, had a little party, the whole nine yards. it was very cool. and sierra and i made last minute, make shift costumes. Cats! :) we had green ears, which we scribbled on with a sharpie so they'd look somewhat black and we safety pinned socks to our butts for the tails and we used eyeliner to make whiskers on our faces. very awesome. :) we had a good time. :)

in other news, i move to my second host family's house tomorrow. i'm excited. change is always a little bit exciting. :) and yeah...i dont have anything more to say than that really. :)

bis bald,

Kaite

Paris (picture post)

on a vent near moulin rouge moulin rouge

vent again

before the ferry ride. our usa picture.

cookies! (i honestly have no clue) :)

in the louvre

versailles

all of us. :)

louvre

me and mona :)

notre dame

versailles

crepes=amazingness. :)

eiffel tower

eiffel tower

arc de triomphe

bear and the eiffel tower while on the ferry ride. :)

rectangle building.

Paris!

Well, I just got back a few days ago from Paris. The city was really pretty. Definitely a city everyone needs to see at least once in their life. but i have to admit, Paris wasnt really my style. for one, it's so busy, all hte time, everywhere. it's also really expensive. seriously, a sandwich there costs around 8-18 euros. that's just a crime! and paris has a very international feeling. i was constantly surrounded by so many different languages (and that's not just because i was with exchange students :)) but even though everyone was speaking every language but french, all signs, menus, cashiers, and whatnot were all completely in french. i thought it was kinda strange since paris felt so international.

so i left konigs wusterhausen at about 12.30 on saturday. i took the train to berlin and met the other exchangers at the tration at 1. basically we stood around for an hour and a half before we left at 2.30. we walked to the bus which was parked down the street, loaded up our stuff, and got on. then we began the long drive towards paris. we we started driving, we were told hte rules of the bus: seat belt on, no getting out of your seat, no using the bathroom. oh, and no eating cookies or chocolate. which was of course pretty much the only thing i brought to snack on. just my luck. :) basically most of the ride was spent talking, watching movies, eating smuggled cookies and chocolate, and waiting for the next "pause" when we'd stop at a rest stop and stretch our legs or buy food or use the bathroom. we stopped somewhere in the very west part of germany at around 9ish and picked up about 10 exchangers from district 1900. then we made our way into belgium (HATE BELGIUM ;) just kidding, i couldnt hate belgium [regardless whether or not htey started the first world war] their waffless are just too good! adn i'd know, i had one there. :)) then we finally made it to france and before we knew it we were in paris. so at 7.00am we went to our hotel. there were only 2 of our rooms available right then (which is really crazy considering we probably had over 25 rooms) so all the girls put their stuff in one of the rooms and the boys put their stuff in the other. then we went to breakfast. Croissants! after that we got ready, headed to the metro, and went out to see the city.

our first stop was at the rectange building with a smaller rectange cut out of it. it has a name, but it's french and i dont remember. from this building we could see the arc de triomphe and eiffel tower in the distance, which was incredibly exciting at the time. then we got back on the metro and went to see the arc de triomphe up close. it's so big, and really pretty. and it's on like an island in the middle of a giant roundablout. so the road is super dangerous to cross. luckily there was an underground tunnel that led right to the arc. OH! and you can go on top of the arc, which is pretty cool. it was packed with people (i didnt go up, but i could still see the people even when i was really far away) after the arc we had freetime, so we wnt walking down the streets, went into a few stores (louis vuitton!) and basically just hung out. AND WE GOT CREPES! i love crepes. :) when we met up with everyone again we took the metro to the eiffel tower. i was crazy expensive to go up, so i, being the cheapsake i am, didnt go up. instead i stayed underneath the eiffel tower and got annoyed by the guys selling mini eiffel towers. ugh. :) after the eiffel tower we ate, and had some freetime, which we spent eating some more crepes and souvenior shopping. then we went to bed.

and now i'm getting sick of typing. so i'm just going to type the brief version. if you want more, tell me and i'll come in and edit this later and include more details.

day 2: we got up, ate. then we headed to the louvre, saw the mona lisa and stuff. we went walking, saw where princess diana was staying right before she died. we had some freetime, ate, and then went on a ferry ride. it was really cool because it was at night and the eiffel tower was lit up. and every now and then it would sparkle. then we headed back to the hotel, walked through moulin rouge in the processs, did some souvenior shopping, ate some more crepes and then went to bed.

day 3: we got up, ate. got on a train headed in the direction of notre dame. we saw notre dame, had some crepes and some freetime (more souvenior shopping!) then we got on a train to versailles. we walked around versailles. it was crazy crowded. stand room only. literally. then we went to mcdonalds where we ordered soooooo much food. then got on hte bus at 7pm and headed back to germany. we were back in berlin by 10.30 or so the next morning. from there i caught my train back to konigs wusterhausen (making 4 euros in the process. the machine wouldnt take my money, but it did give me some. :)) and that was it. that was paris. pretty cool, but i have to admit that i like berlin better. :)

pictures will come in the next post because it's easier that way. :)

Bis Bald,

Kaite

Ostsee, Ostsee, and more Ostsee (actually not, only twice:))

So, as you can tell by the title of this post, I've spent a lot of time on the Ostsee (Baltic Sea) the past 2 weeks. Trip #1 was with my school class and trip #2 was with my host family. So I'll tell you about them one by one, starting with the first one.

Trip #1

I left last Monday for a city called Markgrafenheide. We stayed in cute little bungalows not too far from the beach. If it weren't October it would have been perfect. :) Day one we just went grocery shopping (lunch wasnt provided and we had cute little kitchens in our cute little bungalows). The rest of the day was free time. Day 2 we went to probably theeeee scariest place ever. Just a tip: if someone ever mentions the word "Kletterwald" RUN FOR YOUR LIFE! I'm not even kidding. It's like this place and theres trees and cables and your attached to the cables and you glide from tree to tree....while 8 meters in the air.....and nothings holding you there except for a clippy thing or two. Actually, I dont think it can even acurately be described in words. Let me find you all a generic picture courtesy of google.

This is actually the actual one we were at. So as you can see, you climb to the top of the tree and swing on the cables to the next tree. And sometimes you just hold onto a rope and swing like tarzan. It's crazy and scary and Kaite is NEVER doing it again. :) Day 3 we rode our bikes about 4 miles to a strange strawberry place, hung out there for a few hours and rode 4 miles back. Day 4 we walked about 2.5 miles on the beach to a city called Warnemuende or something like that. On the way we saw a seal, which was cool. The city was okay. There wasnt much to do though. Day 5 we packed our bags and headed home. And that's the brief overview of my class trip.

Trip #2

I got home on Friday from my classtrip. On Sunday, my host family and I left for yet another Ostsee adventure. :) This time we went to a place called Koserow on an island somewhere on the Ostsee. When we got there we walked around and explored and did a "mini" hiking thing. (Their version of mini and mine differ quiiiiiitttteee a lot.) Day 2 we got bikes and rode soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo (the number of o's I put after the s doesnt even acurately describe just how far we rode) far. I just looked it up. 22.6 km ONE WAY. Insane. But we went to a musuem, Historical Technical Museum of Peenemuende. Yeah. Then we rode alllllllllll the way back. Day 3 we went to Poland! Yes, so we went to Poland, which was just like driving to a different state because there was no border patrol just a sign that said "Welcome to Poland" or the Polish equivilant of it. And we went to a Polish market which was pretty darn cool if I do say so myself. :P Day 4 (today) we went to another museum, a cool one, kinda like COSI but not nearly as cool, but still pretty cool. And then we drove home.

And that concludes my post on my Ostsee trips. Enjoy the pictures that follow and stay tuned for my next post about PARIS!! (I leave in 9 freaking days!!)

Polish Market (Trip #2)

They went swimming. :) (Trip #1)

Strawberry place with giant table (trip #1)

strawberry place with the cool bear (trip #1)

on the beach (trip #1)

Okay so we might have lied just a tad. :) At some comments book at the historical technical museum (trip #2)

That's it.

Bis Bald,

Kaite

Neuruppin

So this past weekend was spent in Neuruppin, a city just north of Berlin...I think, at my first inbound orientation. I woke up on Friday at like 8:30 (yes, that means no school for me!! :)) and yeah, ate and hung out and stuff. And then I went to the train station and bought my ticket and hopped on the train. Honestly, it was sooo scary. I was soo stressed that maybe I wasnt on the right train and maybe I wont be able to find my next train and oh no oh no oh no. It was crazy. I'm such a worry wart. But anyways, so I didnt have any problems with the train and I got to Neuruppin (about 3 hours later) in one piece. And I even met an exchange student along the way! :) Rotarians picked us up from the trainstation and took us to the "jugenddorf" where we were staying. It was right on a little lake and so we went down there and hung out a while. But basically we just sat around and talked for the entire day. Oh! And we had chicken nuggets and french fries for dinner (mmmmmm....:)) They were yummy. :)

Saturday we got up (waaay too early), ate breakfast, and got on a ferry to go to Neuruppin (like the city part). Once we got there we took a picture of all of us on pretty much all 43 exchange students' cameras. We were standing there for quite a while. And then we split up into two groups (english/german and spanish) and went for a tour of the city. I got to see what I think was a real German church. I think they said it was built in the 11th century, but they had to rebuild it in like the 1700s or something. And yeah, we walked up 8 gazillion stairs to the top and just looked out the windows and stuff. Then we went through the rest of the city, stopped for lunch and a brief orientation and then were given 2 hours of freetime to explore the city on our own......but it was raining and cold and all the shops were closed. But I got some yummy ice cream (I love the ice cream in Germany! :)) and then went on a search for a bathroom with another girl. We ended up sneaking past a gate and using a portapotty (well, she did, I decided I didnt have to go anymore when I saw the portapotty). Then we went to the "disco" that Rotary was throwing for us. We sat there and had some soda (Germans are really big on hydration) and did little country presentations. And then we ate (bratwurst, some meatloaf-like stuff, chicken, and potatoes) and then just hung out until like midnight. Then we went back to the jugenddorf.

Sunday we had breakfast, traded pins and cards, took too many pictures, and then went to the train station where most of us rode together to Berlin and then caught our connecting trains. And that was the weekend. It was pretty fun, very exhausting, and really awesome. :)

Oh, and our next orientation is a month from now in Paris!! :)

And now for some pictures:

Me and my roomies. :)

Neuruppin.

The girl I found on my way to Neuruppin. :)

Americans. :)

Isnt it cute?

District 1940. :)

On the ferry.

The church.

That's all.

Bis bald,

Kaite

1 Month

I hate blogger. I had a very nice post typed, pictures included and went to post it and it errored and wouldnt post it. grrrrr..... So now you get the short reduced version. Sorry.

Yesterday officially marked 1 month in Germany. Totally crazy, the month has gone by so fast. Jule and I spent yesterday in Berlin visiting a giant mall called Alexa, the Ampelmann shop, ritter sport, and the ampelmann restaurant. and we found our rocker outfits (i'd tell you the story, but i dont remember it. but trust me, we NEED rocker looks.) and i tried on a dirndl! (and i wanted jule to try one on to, but she wouldnt. she's such the party pooper. :P) the ampelmann store was packed, so we it was as enjoyable as it could have been, but it was still super awesome. after the ampelmann store we went to the ritter sport store. one word can sum up this experience. yum. :) i bought some chocolate (500g to be exact) and some sweet (pun intended) bags. after that was the ampelmann restaurant, which i must admit, was SOO ghetto. but it was ampelmann so it was cool nonetheless. after the ampelmann restaurant we came home. and later we went to a concert thing in KW. and that's how i spent the day. overall, it was a totally perfect way to celebrate one month in germany (even though i didnt really realize that it was my 1 month anniversery with germany most of the day.) so yes, pictures now, with short captions, and that's all you'll get because i've already typed all this once and am very annoyed that i have to type it again.

Our rocker look. :)Ampelmann in action. :)Me, Jule, and Ampelmann. (the ghetto one at the restaurant :))

I got my picture with Ampelmann! :)Ritter Sport (oh how i love chocolate. :))Isnt it super cool?! You dont even have to answer because I already know. It is. 1000000% cool. :)

And that's all.

Bis bald,

Kaite

I hate Mondays...

If I've learned anything from my exchange it's that school is boring no matter which country you attend it in. Getting up at 6:30ish five days a week is such a drag. And then the weekend comes and goes in blink of an eye. As you all know, I need a good 12 hours of sleep a night at least in order to function properly. :) And there's no way I'm going to bed at 6:30. That'd just be silly. :) But in all honesty, school isnt that bad. It's just exhauting and slightly frustrating. Not being able to speak really sucks. Maybe tomorrow I'll get lucky and wake up perfectly refreshed and not tired at all at exactly 6:30 with a perfect German vocabulary. :) Oh that'd be soo great.
But in other news...this weekend was spent superbly. I yesterday Jule and I went to a party for her class last year. And it was actually pretty fun. Some good conversations were had. :) I love talking about stereotypes, they're always so funny. :) Apparently I'm supposed to be blond and a cheerleader. And I'm supposed to date a football [player] (haha, Jule. :)) And I come from a family that includes a mom, a dad, and 2-3 kids. We live in a fairly nice, suburban home. And yeah. That's how my American life should be. As for the German kids I was talking to, their lives should go as follows: They wake up in the morning and throw on one of their many pairs of lederhosen. Then they go downstairs for breakfast. Breakfast consists of sausage, sauerkraut, and beer, just like all the meals they eat do. All Germans are mean and grouchy and impatient and punctual. And they all have no sense of humor (something that everybody laughed at when I told them. :)) And yeah, that's how a German's life should be. :)

And other than that I have nothing really to say. Actually, I didnt really say all that much in this post. It's just kinda meaningless rambling. Which you all will of course enjoy thoroughly. :)

Bis bald,
Kaite

Berlin!

Yesterday my host family and I headed to Berlin. It was probably the best day I've had in Germany so far. I loved every second of it. We took the train (since I've never ridden in a train before) which was cool in itself. And then we got to Berlin (which was even cooler.) We started off at the Reichstag I think then headed to the Brandenburg Gate, the American Consulate, some other consulates, the Holocaust Memorial/Museum, then to McDonalds, Potsdamer Platz, the Sony Center, the TV Tower, and a whole bunch of other places. It was all really cool to see, it was as if I'd stepped into a postcard, really. But the highlight of the day really wasnt seeing all the sights, my day was so INCREDIBLEY awesome as opposed to just totally awesome because of one man. His name is Ampelmann and he is my true love. I first came across him while passing the Ampelmann store (at which time I unfortunately hadnt realized his awesomeness, so we didnt go in...next time though, for sure. :)) But I fell in love with him at a souvenior shop. He was standing there looking oh so nice on the postcard rack, and I just had to have him. So I got two postcards, a pin for my blazer, and later an ampelmann tote. I love him so. :)

But yes, in all seriousness, Berlin has to be thee prettiest city I've ever seen. It's like the perfect mixture of old and new. The buildings are all so pretty and the city has so much history. I was kinda surprised to find out that you can still tell where the Berlin wall was. We were crossing the street and kind of in the middle of the street was like a row of bricks on the ground (you know, like a brick road of sorts) and it ran down the street onto the sidewalk and that was where the wall had been. It was really cool. It's crazy to see that I, just some random girl from Ohio, have seen a city that has so much history. And not just boring, not so important history, but real, huge history. I've seen the city I've spent years sitting in school reading about. Berlin has been through a lot, a lot a lot, but it's withstood it all, it still stands, and it's still absolutely freaking gorgeous. :)

Picture time!

Reichstag Building

Brandenburg Gate (my eyes are closed, woops. Just ignore that. :))

Holocaust MemorialBerlin WallTV Tower

Beer Bike!And last, but most definitely not least, AMPELMANN!! I love him soo much. :)

Yep, so that's all. Again I remind you, comment box at the bottom. Comments would be nice. :)

Bis Bald,

Kaite