March

It's been a while since my last post, as it always is. In the past 4 weeks a few exciting things have happened. Here are the updates.

3 weeks ago, Agos visited. We had an exciting week full of doener, shopping, and laughing (especially when she fell into a puddle on our way to the mall. :)) We went to Dresden and hung out with some of her friends and saw the Frauenkirche, and we, of course, went shopping. :) We also went to the coolest looking city I've ever seen, it's called Meissen and it's somewhere near Dresden. It was so medival looking and just...cool. I'd love to go back sometime. :)

Atop the Frauenkirche

Meissen

I changed host families two weeks ago. I've got to say, I really, really like this family. :) I have a host mom, a host dad, a host sister, and a host dog. I love how active and family-like this family is. We sit after dinner and lunch and breakfast and just talk, and I like that. And we're always up to something. They seem excited to show me places I havent seen before, which is good, because I want to see as much as I can. And something I think is really cool: My first two families were East German, my new family is West German. So while they're very similar to my first two families, they're also a little different. I'm getting to see how the other half lives. :) On Monday, I'm leaving for EUROTOUR! Very exciting. Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, Prague, Innsbruck, Rome, Venice, Neuschwanstein, Munich, and a few other places along the way. 18 days of traveling, then Easter. :) Which means I'm not going to school again until May. And by then I'll have only 2 months left here in Germany. This year has gone by too fast. So until after Eurotour. :)) Kaite

Short update.

The past few days have been really pretty nice. I'm finally really feeling content here. And it's a really nice feeling. :)
I've been doing a lot of talking it feels like lately, which for the Kaite in America isnt a big deal, in fact, it'd be weird if she was actually ever quiet, but for the Kaite in Germany, talking is something she does too much of. It's not like she's silent, of course, she talks every now and then, but she doesnt ever really have anything to say. But since about Friday that's changed a little. And I'm pretty happy about that because, really, I love to talk.
The weekend was okay. I went to Berlin Saturday and hung out with a whole bunch of exchangers, we basically did nothing the whole day. Seriously. We went to Hauptbahnhof (the biggest train station in...I think all of Europe actually) and were like just walking around and running away from each other and trying not to get separated from the group and yeah. And then we went somewhere else and did some more nothing. And then Sierra came home with me and spent the night. The next day we baked chocolate chip cookies that her mom sent her. YUMMY. It'd been too long since I'd had chocolate chip cookies. Not even kidding. :)
Life here's been pretty good. I like it. I really do. And the weather's getting nicer. It's sunny all day and like 40 degrees outside. I cant wait to see springtime in Germany. :)

Bis Bald,
Kaite

Titles are always so hard to come up with.

Well hello there. It's been a while. Blogs are too time consuming. :)

To update you all on the highlights of the last two months:
-I went to a creepy club with some friends (and it just so happened to be goth night......that explains the creepiness) That day we also went to Ikea and just chilled and ate our Ikea cookies and some flower juice boxes (well, we drank the juice, not ate it. :)) It was a very fun night.
-My host grandparents came for the weekend. My host family had given them tickets for a dinner theater, a "krimi dinner." The theme was wedding in black and the dinner was set in the 60s, and they were expected to dress the part. Their costumes were freaking fantastic, I must say. And we took so many pictures of them, in front of the fireplace, in front of the house, it totally reminded me of homecoming. :) And they got 2nd place for their costumes. Pretty good.
-I went to the Long Night of Museums. Quite cool. It would have been cooler though if it wasnt so cold outside. Buuuut, we did manage to learn some Italian from Julian, our favorite Italian. :) And I exercised my ability to do amazing Italian hand gestures (which he wasnt too enthused about) So now I can swear very nicely in a lovely language. :) And my gestures are PERFECT. :)) After that I spent the night at Sierra's then she came home with me the next day and slept over at my house for 2 nights. Talk about a marathon sleepover. :)
-2 weekends ago my host family and I went to Thueringen, a state somewhere south of Brandenburg to visit some friends of theirs. And on the way back we stopped at Buchenwald, a concentration camp in Weimar. It was just...there are no words. It was a weird feeling knowing that I could possibly be standing where someone took there last breath. That if I had been there only about 70 years or so ago, the circumstances would have been completely different, completely horrifying. But it was also hard to imagine at the same time. Because there wasnt very much left of the camp. And it's hard to really, honestly imagine human being ever being that cruel. Ever.
-Last weekend was our 3rd exchange student orientation. It's crazy to think that my exchange is already more than half over. I'm now and oldie. And the 2011-2012 exchangers are already starting to arrive (well, the ones from the southern hemisphere)
-Which brings me to my latest news. News as of 2 or 3 hours ago: I'm officially coming home on July 4. I know I'm flying with at least 2 other exchangers, we'll see who else ends up coming along. Honestly, I'm not quite sure about how I feel about coming home. I'm excited to come home and see my family and sleep in my bed (or in the guest bedroom :)), but at the same time, I want to see what else will come of this year. And I'll always wonder what would happen if I stay just a few weeks longer. And I like it here, I dont know, it's a strange feeling, thinking about going home.
But for those of you who are curious and/or anxious, here's my itinerary:

July 4, 2011
Berlin 8:45
Frankfurt 9:55

Frankfurt 11:10
Philadelphia 2:00

Philadelphia 4:05
Dayton 5:47

And the jet lag this time is going to be killer. At least on the way here I had an overnight flight, so I could at least try to sleep a little. But this is all daytime travel thanks to the time difference. Here's hoping my family entertains me enough to keep me awake that night until at least 9. :) I'm sure they will. :)

So that's it. Here's some pictures. :)

Ikea cookies!

Exchangers!

Beary finally got his picture with the Brandenburg Gate on the Long Night of Museums. Yes, he went to the Long Night of Museums. Be jealous. :)

Bis Bald,
Kaite

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