Moments..

Days like these are absoultely amazing, even though nothing extremely special happened. Every now and then as exchange students, we get these "moments." These days in which we will never forget. Now I'm sure these moments happen to more than just exchange students, but either way it's amazing.What makes these days so amazing are the little things like feeling like you fit in, like realizing "Oh my gosh, I live in Europe," like it finally hits you and it feels amazing. Today, was one of those days.
Like I said, nothing spectacular happened today, it was just a regular ol' Wednesday. Not to mention it hasn't been the best week, but today, today was different. I realized that I'm not just in Germany anymore, this is home. I have almost everything I normally would back home just a little different. I remember when it was so hard, when I had no friends or anything and it feels so good to have somebody call out your name and want to talk to you or invite you to come hang out this weekend. I totally took this for granted back home. I don't know how it is for the rest of Europe, but German's aren't that eager to open up or immediatly want to be your friend. They need time, which is a little frustrating to be honest, but when they finally decide to they are some pretty amazing friends.
These moments are so complicated and confusing, like I start to think about how amazing everything is here and that like wow, I live in Germany. I have a life in Germany with friends, a school, "families," everything and how terrible it will be to leave it. Then I begin to think about all the great things I get to go back to and I get so excited for what I have waiting for me back home. So I'm all excited to leave, but at the same time I don't want to. I really didn't think I would be experiencing this until a month or two before I go, but no...it's here, now.
I wish I could explain this better, but everytime I start writing nothing seems to explain it just right..Hopefully sometime I'll find just the right words so you can understand better.

I miss you all!

Love,
Courtney

Lately

I've been really good. We had another Rotary weekend, but this one was in Ulm it was a lot of fun like I expected. We went to some museums, I missed the bread museum unfortuniatly lol I had some basketball games but we won so that was cool (and apparently there wasn't even bread at the museum, it was just about bread...LAME!) Then we went to Weinachtsmarkt in Ulm it was huge and totally crowded but it was cool. I saw a camel in the middle of Ulm, that was pretty funny in fact I have a picture of it...

Yup, so there it is.. me with a camel and creepy carnie guy, could life get any better? haha just kidding.

Anyways that weekend was a lot of fun. Then on December 6th was Nikolaus day thats the day they put candy in their shoes and all that jazz. I didn't get candy in my shoes though it was in a bowl lol I wasn't very dissapointed about that. Christmas is coming, I'm kind of bummed I really suck at doing things on time so family, you're presents won't be on time, sorry :(. I am so excited to get my christmas packages though lol. I'm even more excited for Betsey to come! I totally can't believe it, like it just seems so rediculous to me lol I don't know why lol. I remember all these people saying "Are you really going to Germany, that's so crazy, I just can't believe it" I guess I know how they feel now. My friends are so excited to meet her, and I'm going to like flip out when I see her at the airport, my host family is going to think I'm a total nut case, but they probably already do so oh well.

I'm actually switching families right after Betsey leaves. They're really nice and they live pretty close so it'll be nice that I don't have to learn a whole new bus routine or anything. Well I'll try to write again soon, I know I always say that but I will lol I promise.

Much love!

and Merry Chirstmas, just in case I don't write again lol

Love,

Courtney

This will be long...

Alright so first things first, Thanksgiving was last Thursday. That was interesting but fun. I cooked my first turkey well and my first Thanksgiving meal, so that was a lot of fun. Megan came over and helped me cook and ate with us. We had dinner with my rotary youth councelor guy and his wife and then my host family and me and Megan. They liked all of the food a lot except for the pumpkin pie that was odd because it was soooo good. We had to teach them how to eat sweet potatoes too which was also kind of weird considering the amount of potatoes these people eat. So that went pretty good. Here are some pics from my Thanksgiving...

Pretty much things are going A LOT better. I can like somewhat speak German, enough to communicate so people understand me it's not always correct or anything but at least people can talk to me and understand what I say back lol. I'm getting more friends, like friends who call me to hang out lol so that's cool. I'm really starting to like things here.

Last weekend was Erika's birthday, same day as dads (Saturday 24. Nov.) so we all stayed at Megans in Ulm again. I love her host family they are so nice. They have all boys so I think Suzi (the host mom) likes having us girls around. They call us daughters 1, 2, and 3...I'm tochter 2...lol we're going there again next weekend for a rotary thing in Ulm and all of the students are staying with familys so of course me and Erika are staying with Megans. I'm so excited for it!

Oh and if you have any ideas about why American christmas is different than other ones, please let me know lol because in my English class we are having a christmas party and my teacher wants me to come up with some things about American chirstmas that we can do..

Ok well I was going to write something else but I totally forgot so when I remember I'll write it down ok

Liebe grüß!

Courtney

So..

It's been a while, sorry. I'm not gonna lie and say I never have time to update this, because well honestly...I do. Lots of it. I've just been kind of lazy lately. I even have things to write about.. I guess I'll start from where I left off, Ferien.

We went to Zwiesel, a little town in Baveria near the border of the Czech Republic. Pretty much we hiked and went up a couple mountains, some museums, and spent a day in the Czech. For the most part it was pretty good. Very different than the sit by the pool vacations I'm usually on lol. Speaking of sitting, I don't really remember how it came about, but just so everyone in my family knows, we're the "sitter" family. In the black forest some how we started talking about stuff like that and I noticed how we sit a lot lol. Outside, in Rome, living room, air ports. That probably really sounds normal lol, but I don' t know lol. It doesn't really matter, so moving on.

The day after we got back from the trip, we went on a 24km hike...that's 15 miles. I was kind of in a bad mood. I really just wanted a day to relax, but I had to go. It was ok, glad I went just because...but still I would've appreciated a day of rest lol. Oh, and I bought a Dirndel lol It's pink. I like it a lot.

So this week has been kind of crappy. A lot on my mind..So lately, I've been watching a lot of Grey's Anatomy lol I love it. I never watched it at home, but I'm watching it here and it's good, really good. I'm also reading a book. I know, very odd for me, but it's very good. This weekend I actually have a life, just for the weekend though. Tomorrow I'm going to Sophia's house and then we're going to a party. On Saturday I'm going to Ulm to see Megan and spend the night there, and Erika's coming too! I'm so excited to hang out with those two again, I love them to death. It's gonna suck when we go back to the states and it's not as easy to hang out...At least Megan's only in Chicago, but Erika's all the way in California! Oh well, we'll figure it out. For real though, we're going to have a blast. We're spending the night at Megans and coming home Sunday...then school again. Schade. (bummer)

Well, just ask if you have any questions, I don't really know what to talk about lol, and I've gotta head out to basketball soon so, Hopefully I'll talk to everyone soon.

Love and miss you all.

Love,
Courtney

Ferien

Ferien is pretty much when we have a break from school. This time it's the fall break and I'm pretty pumped for the whole no school thing. So today Megan came to Ehingen and we just hung out and bopped around town. It was fun of course. We were sad Erika couldn't be here though, she's in the Netherlands for Ferien.

When we were in the city today, Megan and I, this little girl heard us speaking English and asked if we were auslanders (from another country) and we told her that we were exchange students and what not and then she asked if we were from England lol and we told her no, we're from America and she was so cute. Then she gasped and said "Amerika?! Amerika ist ein Traumland!" (America! America is a deam land/country) Finally, somebody who doesn't hate America, it was cool and she was adorable.

So tomorrow I leave for my vacation. We're going to a little town in Bayern that's like 10 km away from the Czech Republic, I'm pretty excited. We're going on like a 24 km(15 mi) hike though, I don't know how excited I am for that, but at least it's doing something. A couple of the days we're going over to the Czech Rep. to go shopping and doing touring and stuff. Apparently things are a lot cheaper over there so I can't wait to go shopping lol.

Sorry there aren't so many updates all the time, not much is happening so there's not much to update on. I'll have probably a really long one after I get back. I'll have 5 days of vacation to report on lol. So, that should be a good one with lot's of fun pictures!

Here's a few from today.

Ok, well I will talk to you all soon!

Miss and Love you guys!

Love, Courtney

My week in Schwartzwald!

It was so much fun. If VH1 knew about me or any of the other inbounds from D-1930 I think we would've been in the running for "Who is having the best week ever!" I have no idea where to even start. On Friday after school I came home and ate lunch with my host mom and sister, after lunch Ute took me to the train station where I met up with Julia and Michael, two other students that live in smaller towns around Ehingen. Then we got on the train to go to Triburg. On the train I was planning on meeting up with Megan but by the time I figured out where she was on the train I didn't have time to go all the way back there and had to get on in the front so at one of the stops Megan ran up with her suitcase which was pretty funny to see..So on the way there we all jus talked about our problems and experiences.

We were the last group to arrive at the hostel. It was kind of weird at first because I'm pretty sure I looked like an idiot trying to figure out if people could speak english or not haha. It turns out the most of us were Americans. I think there were about 9 of us from well Michigan, Illinois, California, Idaho, Kentucky, Conneticut, Texas, Arizona, and Colorado. I'm pretty sure thats all the Americans lol. The other students were from Canada, Austrailia, Chile, Japan, and Mexico. It's pretty cool. I like the change because back home in 6290 we are soo big there are so many of us and here theres only about 15 so it's cool to be a part of a smaller district.So pretty much we hung out for the rest of the night getting to know each other and all that good stuff.
The first two days we went hiking up these mountains. It was a lot of fun, but kind of hard lol. Probably because I'm so out of shape but oh well. It was so cool because I usually don't go hiking or anything like that lol where would you even go in Michigan anyways? So on the other days we got to go touring all these adorable little towns and what not. One day we went swimming in this huge complex place lol I don't really know how else to explain that lol. On our last full day we got to go hang out with some pro hockey team, the Wild Wings lol. So we got to go in the locker room and as gross as it seems I miss the smell of smelly gross hockey equiptment lol. We got some autographs and pictures and then watched them practice for a while. After that we all went ice skating and had tons of fun. In the nights we all hung out and went to some bars a couple of times. All in all, it was fun. If you have any specific questions you can just ask because I don't really know how else to explain it to you other than it was a blast and I can't wait until the next one!
Pics:

All of us Inbounds :)

Erika from California, Megan (Illinois), and me.. They're like my two best friends here.Up on the mountain looking down at the lake. This was my favorite hiking day. It was soo beautiful!

Now at the bottom.

We also got to do this awesome high ropes course, also pretty awesome.

One of the churches we saw on our tour. It was so beautiful.Trying on a mask at the Fasnacht museum lol.Walking to dinner. I love just walking around here it's so, I don't know, perfect.Erika, me, and Megan in one of the little rooms they used to keep the women they accused to be witches!

In the locker room, chillin with the players!Meg and me, Ice skatingAmber, Frank the Gnome, and me. These are for you Grandma! There are little gnome people in the black forest!The girls with the Gnome!

Me and Erika :)Wienerschnitzel mit pommes...meine lieblings mittagessen!Erika(California), Amber (Idaho), and Austin (Kentucky)Me and Megan wiating for the train on the way home.

Well ask if you have any questions I love and miss you all!

Love,

Court

My weekend with Megan :)

On Saturday I had to go to my great host uncles house lol and he was so crazy. My host dad explained to me that he was a really big hunter, you could tell. There were pelts and animal heads and stuffed birds and rodents everywhere. Apperently I didn't even see the "good" stuff in his Africa room because he hunts in Africa a lot I guess. I was a little creeped out. We had lunch there and then went home. It was kind of pointless, but oh well.

Around 3ish Megan's train arrived and I waited for her at the station, then we came back to the house and I showed her around. After we just hung out for a little while we went into town and we explored Ehingen a little bit because even I haven't seen all of it. We went out for pizza and ice cream, that seems to be a reoccuring thing we do everytime we hang out. We went down to the "lake" it's more like a giant man made pond, but I love it anyways. Then we went to the bus stop and waited for like 20 minutes and then realized that the busses stopped coming at like 7. It was only 9 so I figured they'd still be running, but I guess not. We tried to call my host mom, but my phone's battery was dead and Megan didn't have any money on her phone. So we went to use the pay phone and while we were doing that all these kids started talking to us and we could barely understand. It was extremely confusing. When my host mom got there to pick us up the kids knew my host mom, apparently they are friends with Vanessa, my host sister thats in SC. So that was kind of odd. When we got home we ate oreos and made Shells and Cheese, it was soo good. My host sister didn't like it at all, but man it was so good. The next day I went upstairs to ask my host mom what time she wanted Megan to go home and she suggested that I just go to Ulm with Megan on a train and then she could pick me up later when they were done working in their shop in Neu Ulm. So we hung out some more, had lunch, and went to this mall kind of place. It was a lot of fun. We even spoke a lot of German, not all the time because some things we just can't say, but the things we could say we did so that was cool and I think our host families were happy about that so maybe they'll let us hang our more.

These are some pictures from this weekend

This is the lake/pond thing lol. Usually on Mondays when I have 2 free hours I buy a pretzel and come sit down here. I like it a lot.

So yes, that was my weekend and we had a lot of fun. Next week is our Rotary trip to the Black Forest, I'm excited about missing school, but a little worried about all the hiking haha. Oh well at least I will have a friend there and hopefully make some more.

School is still boring and some of my teachers make me read out loud which is a good I guess, but really hard. I stutter and read really slow because it's so hard to pronounce. Usually the kids just laugh at me so I try to laugh with it but I still feel really stupid. Well sorry it's been so long since I updated, there's not much to update on.

Well I will talk to you all later. I miss you!

Love,

Court

Öpfingen

So I actually had fun last night. I went to Öpfingen with some girls from my class. It was an "After-Sunset-Party" is what I think it was called. There was lots of music, and fog. I don't know why, but at all these parties here there's always fog machines and it's kind of funny. Oh yeah, and everytime I go to give the gaurd/bouncer guys my ID they get all like I don't know haha, not as tough. My foreign-ness scares them. Oh well. I really like it when the girls from school invite me to these parties because it kind of gives them a chance to see me, not just the foreign exchange student. I think I said that last time I wrote a blog about a party I went to, but whatever. There were all these guys taking pictures at the party last night and the girls explained to me that they take pictures at parties and then they put them on this website where you can go get them. I thought that was kind of cool.

These are some..

So, over all. I had a lot of fun. Today is Germany's independance day so no school for me. Today is also been exactly one month since I left the beautiful state of Michigan. I keep meeting people who have been to Michigan, I didn't realize that so many people went there. A girl on my basketball team said her sister went to the Northern Lower Penninsula on foreign exchange with Rotary a couple years ago, but she couldn't remember the city. I'm really excited that the weekend is almost here because I am going to get to hang out with Megan and that's always fun. We're going to go exploring Ehingen and eat Oreos. ha.

Well, talk to you later.

Love,

Courtney

Not much is new.

Last weekend I went to the Black Forest with my host family for my host Uncles birthday. It was beautiful, but kind of boring at the same time. I'm glad I got to go though. So that was my Saturday, on Sunday I had my basketball games. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but still not easy. I had to play the entire time, no breaks except for half time which was only like 5 minutes long. Then we had a 30 minute break between games and had to play all over again. The coach told me I did really good. I was one of the lead scorers on the team so that was pretty cool considering I used to never score at home lol. I accidently elbowed a girl in the eye, I felt really bad but I said I was sorry and she said it was ok. I personally would have been really mad at me if I was her, but she was really nice about it. Now I'm insanely sore since I was in no kind of shape for what I did on Sunday.
School is school. Still boring and I still can't do much. I was told the other day that there's no school tomorrow which made me very happy. Apparently tomorrow is the German Independance Day, so thats kind of cool. It feels weird celebrating it because it's not in July, but thats just the American in me that's not used to other cultures. So tonight after basketball practice I'm going to Öpfingen with some girls from my class to celebrate the whole German Independance thing. So I hope that is a lot of fun. It probably will be, the girls in my class are a lot of fun and I'm really happy they invited me. Things go kind of on and off though. Like some days they like to talk to me a lot and others, not so much. So, I guess today was an on day.

Well, I'll write later about Öpfingen.

Love,
Courtney

Tough week..

This week has been pretty tough. I've been so homesick and miserable. I really thought that I would be better at handling this rollercoaster of emtions. When I made the desicion to come on this adventure I had been warned that I would experience my lowest lows and my highest highs.



I took this way too lightly.



I never anticipated the level of misarable-ness my emotions could produce. If any possible future exchange students are reading this, I don't want to scare you because really I do feel incredible to be here, but try to be as ready as possible for that. For real though, it does feel amazing to actually be here. For a year I waited for this year to come, and now it's here and happening..right now. I feel like more of a person. That sounds really stupid and weird, but it's true. I'm not just some 16 year old average girl in Cadillac, Michigan anymore. I've done something, I've achieved something and it feels really good.



I've started learning who are the people who will always be there for me, I like that. At the same time, it's kind of hard to be dissapointed by people you didn't expect to be dissapointed by while going through all of this. That's ok though because I have those people who are there for me to help me through it all. No matter how far away. There are also people that are kind of new to being there for me. Like Ellen and Ruthie. We never really hung out or talked a lot before last year. I mean the casual "Hey" in the hall at school, but not much more. After we all got accepted to the Rotary International program we became a lot closer, and now they will be two of my best friends for the rest of my life. Now I have Megan too. Good thing she lives close by, here and in the U.S. because I love her to death. Those three girls have definiatly helped keep me going. Don't get me wrong, my friends and family at home have helped a lot too, but they're actually here with me and it's a lot easier to talk to someone who is here going through it with me. Thanks guys :).



I don't think my tough week is going to end anytime soon. On Saturday I'm going to somewhere in the Black Forest with my host family for Jannis' (host dad) brother's birthday. That should be interesting. They said the entire side of his family will be there. That might be a little stressful. On Sunday, I have my first basketball games and they said I have to play the entire game. I am in no shape to do that. I have no clue how that is going to happen, and I kind of think it's rediculous of them to ask that of anyone to do. I mean most the game is ok, but the whole game, no breaks. That is borderline impossible for me right now. So I'm kind of worried about that.



Two weeks from tomorrow I have my first Rotary conference in Germany. It sounds pretty exciting, plus I'll get to spend a whole week with a bunch of other exchange students, and Megan too! We're going to the Black Forest. Ok, before I go on does that make anyone else think I'm in a Harry Potter book because everytime someone says "We're going to the Black Forest" I feel like I should stop them because of those really big spiders in the movie. Speaking of spiders I have another story but I'll finish about the Rotary thing first.



So, we're going to the Black Forest. We're going to visit a lot of different towns and hike a lot I guess. I couldn't understand all of what it said, but I think there are some museums and some swimming thing too. I'm happy I have something to look forward to, it seems to help keep me happy.



Alright so about spiders. The other night I woke up to get something to drink, so I turned on my little lamp by my bed and there was a MASSIVE spider on the wall right next to my bed! I freaked out jumped out of my bed doing the silent scream. You know, the one where you are like "Oh my gosh, I can't be loud but I need to scream!", yeah that one. So I ran to the other side of the room. I was so scared. I actually got on my computer and started asking people for help and what I should do. That sounds really stupid, but I was terrified, this was the biggest spider I have ever seen in my whole life and it was just like 6 inches from my face. The most common answer I got was, smash it with a shoe. Yeah right! A shoe is only about a 5 inch extention on to my arm and that is too close to that spider. So then I was actually going to hit it with a shoe and then run away, but while I was approaching it, it fell ON TO MY BED!!!!! Oh my gosh. I almost died. So I ran away again. I spent about an hour and a half trying to find it because I was scared it was going to get on me, so I would pick up a pillow, shake it off and then throw it into a corner far far away from the bed. Once I found it, it was behind the couch, so I moved the couch out and the table out of the way and found a tennis racquet. I was going to squish it with the end of the racquet but when I went to smoosh it, it ran away. This spider was impossible to kill. So at about 3:30 am, I gave up took my pillow and blanket upstairs and slept on the couch. The next morning I had to explain to them what happened and I think they think I'm crazy or something. Oh well. Anyways, that was absolutely terrifying for me. I hope it's not still in here because I never got to kill it.

Well, this is really long, so I will post another some other day. Thanks for reading.

Love,
Courtney.

Austria.

Today I went to Austria. It was the most beautiful place I've ever seen. We went to the Lake of Constance which was amazing. This lake is bordered by Austria, Switzerland, and Germany. It's HUGE! So we rode up on this hanging car thing to the top of this mountain. It was so hot! After we got up there, we walked around and saw a lot of wildlife. Like mountain goats, goffers, cows, wild pigs lol, it was pretty cool. Then we went to this bird show thing where they had this Vulture who had like a 10 meter wing span, it was huge! It flew like 2 inches away from my face and I was freaking out.
On our way home Ute, my host mom, was telling me about this island that has a lot of flowers and beutiful scenery. She said thers this butterfly house where there are like African butterflies that are really really big and she wants to take me there. I really hope we get to go there.

Well I better get to bed, I just wanted to post that real quick about my day in Austria.

My Weekend :)

This weekend has been so good compared to the rest of my days here in Germany. So first I'll tell you about Friday..

So Friday, the girls invited me to go to a party with them and before we went we were all going to Teresa's house. First Sophia came and picked me up and we went to Teresa's house where Elisa was already there. She's so crazy and funny. They all are. So we were there for a couple hours and then went to Kirchen or something like that. Literally it means something about a church lol and I have no clue why. It was kind of weird to me. There was this big room that looked kind of like a gym, but not. There was lots of music and dancing and all that good stuff. It was a lot of fun. When we got there we saw a lot of the girls from my class 11a which made me so happy to hang out with all of them because now I think they got to see a little more of me instead of just the exchange student in their class. They kept telling me about things they want to take me to or show me so thats pretty cool. I can't wait until Monday to see how it will be with the girls knowing who I actually am a little more. So that was a lot of fun.

Today I went to Ulm and went shopping with Megan, FINALY! I got my coat but I still didn't get any shoes, well basketball shoes, but that's it. I got lots of cute clothes and we had a lot of fun just being in the city. First we just went shopping around town. I don't know why, but we found it somewhat difficult to shop in Germany lol. Oh well, we managed. Then we took a little break and sat down outside at some cafe and had pretzels, they were so good. We went inside Ulmer Munster, only the tallest church in the whole world haha. I never knew that until I came here, but it was still really cool. Then we shopped some more and when we were sick of walking around we went and had pizza at some little pizzeria, outside again. We were taking advantage of the nice weather. It was really good and we managed to order in German. While we were eating, there was like a mini Oktoberfest kind of thing going on down the street and I heard them yell TIKI TAKI TIKI TAKI! So I said oye oye oye lol, but really quiet then I told Megan the whole Disney World story and bla bla bla lol. I was just so excited that they actually said it, I was so surprised. Then we walked around some more, went into a couple more stores and stopped for Spaghetti Eis :) It's this ice cream that they put in this machine and makes like noodle looking pieces of ice cream, like playdough, ya know? And then there is strawberry sauce and these little candy things that are supposed to be like the parmesean cheese. It's soo good. After that we wanted some water. It is so hard to find water, regular water here especially if its past 9 o'clock and almost everything is closed, so it took us like a half hour. That's ok because it was way worth it.

So pretty exciting weekend so far. Tomorrow I'm going to Austria, pretty cool huh. We're going to see some lake, the Lake of Constance or the Boden See (Auf Deutsch). So that should be pretty cool.

Good night :)

Past few days.

They haven't been very eventful lol. Pretty boring actually. I go to school, sit there, looking up definitions that go with the lessons in my little dictionary. I did get invited to go to a party with those girls in my class though. I'm pretty excited about that. I was invited to go to Ulm this weekend with some kids too. I hope I can go because it means so much to me to have friends. I've never been with out somebody there to call or talk to and I'm getting pretty lonely. I honestly thought I knew the meaning of friendship and how important it is. I thought wrong. My friends and family mean everything to me and it took this for me to know how much they really meant. It's not like I didn't appreciate them before I left, i just never know how much I do. I miss you all so much, thank you for being there for me when I needed, and I'm sorry for not knowing how much you all really mean to me.

So, enough with being sad, I don't mean to make you feel bad about my homesickness.

So I had my first basketball practice today, it was pretty intense considering how out of shape I am lol, but surprisingly I didn't completely suck. Well towards the beginning I did because I was really nervous and rusty too, but later on in the practice I felt more comfortable and started to play a little better. The coach said he definiatly has a spot on the team for me and that I would play quite a bit as long as the head hancho basketball guy says I can play. So thats good..

My laptop also works now, thank goodness. I like it a lot better because now I can just use my computer and it works a lot faster. So Mom, I can send you pictures throuh kodak now :)

Well time for bed.

I love you friends and family!

Ulm.

Last night was by far the best night in Germany yet. I went to Ulm to see Megan, she's my friend from the plane ride here. She's so much fun, I love her to death! So, I was so happy when my host parents said I could go because I wasn't sure if they'd let me or not. I rode on a train to Ulm at like 5:30ish. I thought the train would go straight to Ulm, but it didn't there were like 3 stops in between. I was freaking out. I was scared I'd get off at the wrong place. After a couple of stops, I saw a sign that said Ulm on it so I decided I'd get off there. Thank God it was the right place! So I got off the train into an insanely crowded platform. I had no clue where to go, I thought I was stranded on a concrete island in the middle of a sea of train tracks. So I just followed everybody else. I walked underground somewhere and then I heard Megan yell my name. I've never felt so releived in my life!


After that, we walked out of the station and to a bus stop and got on a bus to go shopping for a little while. After a couple of stops Megan goes, umm none of these stops look firmiliar to me. Then we see a sign that says Neu Ulm...crap. We thought oh my gosh, we are in a totally different city. So we got off the bus lol. We then got on the right bus as we came to the conclusion we weren't even in Neu Ulm, it was some kind of advertisement. Phew! So after that half hour of confusion and chaos, we went into a little shop, bought a couple of things and then we had to go meet some of her friends at this one staircase. They weren't there yet so we wet to get somethign to eat. I was so excited taht tehre was a BK, so we went there. I really didn't think there were any BKs in Germany, only Mcdonalds.


When her friends got there, we walked around and talked and all that good stuff. Then we went to a little cafe bar kind of thing and we ate Kasespetzle. It's sooo good. Its like some kind of noodle and this cheese stuff, I dont know how to explain it, but its gooood. We talked a lot at dinner her friends are so funny. Then we had to go back and wait for our host parents to come pick us up. It ends up we were waiting in the wrong spot, oops. We felt so bad but our host Moms just laughed and said it's ok, considering we can't speak German and Ulm is a big city. We still felt really bad. So Megan and I are going to start meeting up more and I'll go there, or she'll come here. Whatever. But shes so fun to hang otu with. I'm so happy shes here with me!


Today was a little welcome party for me. It was cool and my friends from school came. Yesterday I had to call a few girls and ask them if they wanted to come. I felt so stupid because I didn't even know if the liked me or if they were just being nice at school, but they came and said that they'd call me to hang out soon or I could call them whenever. That makes me so happy because, I don't know. I've never been with out friends for so long and to find some girls who like me and want to hang out feels soooo good!





:)

Sooo..

I have made a decision. I am going to play on the basketball team lol. I'm pretty pumped too. We have practice on tuesdays and thursdays. Pretty exciting!

I have to go, so I'll write more later.

boring day...

So today was kind of just normal. I went to school. In Sport class today we played this wacked out game. So, there is this whole obsticale course thing and at each station there is a cone. First you throw a ball and then you get through as many obsticles as you can. While you're running, the other team is getting the ball and throwing it to the girl by the hula hoop. Once the girl in the hula hoop gets the ball, she slams it down and yells "Verbrannt!" That means burned! lol. In English when the girls tried to explain the game to me they called the girl in the hula hoop the "Fire Girl" lol it was pretty funny.
So, we did that...my team won of course. Next we did this meditation exercise. That was nice. First we all layed down on mats and they put this soothing music on. Then my friend Sophia ( yes, i spelt her name wrong in the first one, oops) read this thing about clouds and colors and the sun lol. From what I understood it was pretty funny. It was like a big kid nap time. I liked it. Mind you this wasn't like a 5 minute thing. This defniatly took like a half hour lol.
Then we went to eat and it was good. After school I went to the fitness studio with Nini and Vale.

MY fist day of actual school.

So, I came into the 11th class today. I'm in class 11a. Here, they have one class and you stick with that group of kids for the whole day. So I'm ahead of myself...First Mr. Weber came and picked me up and we went to talk to my director, or principal. He was ok. I thought he asked me if I understood my schedule, but he aparantly he asked if I understood everything he was saying..close..but no. I did some how magically understand the majority of what he was saying.
So, next they took me to my class, they were in Chemie (Chemistry if you didnt figure that one out) I wasn't there for long and the bell rang. My class consists of 25 girls and 2 boys lol. At first no one really talked to me.
Then we got to our next class, Mathe and a girl asked me to sit by her! You honestly have no clue how exciting this is for me unless you have been in this situation before feeling like everybody hates you and no one wants to be your friend. So, gladly I took a seat. This was one of the few lessons I actually understood because what I could understand from what he was saying went with what he was writing and so I put the pieces together and it made sence.
So the first girl that began talking to me was Stefie. She's really nice and very helpful. After that, more began talking to me. All of these girls remind me of one of my friends at home. Its so cool lol. Theres Caroline, she is like the Maddie of my friends. Theres Sofia, the crazy Betsey of course. Stefie, the Mckenzie. She's calm and very blunt most of the time, and shes so fun. There's more, but I forget their names lol. I will tell you though when I remember.
So next we had German. This was a little more difficult to understand. I think I was tired of translating everything in my head. So that was kind of boring blah blah blah. Next was Politics. I think he didn't like me so much. This is because he has us read this thing, all in German by the way and then had them make definitions for these words and tell the class so he goes now Courtney, what is that auf Englisch. And I told him I tried to read it, but I didn't really understand what it said, then he tried explaining it to me in his bad English and I tried to answer, but he was just like...uhg, never mind and ignored me the rest of the leson.
Then, the oh so relieving class, English. My favorite class. We learned about Scotland and the UK and all that good stuff. After Englisch class, we went to lunch. The girls asked me to go with them again :) We met another girl, Alise I think was her name, she was like Ruthie when she's crazy hyper lol. We had sandwitches at some place and walked around town. If you looked at the webcam website around about 6 am your time...you would've seen me lol.
After lunch, we had Musik class. That was interesting. It's more like music theory and I we told him what our names were and if we played instruments or not. Then we sang lol. It was an English song so he had me read the pronounciations to the class correctly so they knew. Then was the dredful Latin again...I didn't have to do anything though because I am going to have other Englisch or German classes durring this time.
Next was Physik lol. This class was funny. Earlier the girls told me about their teacher and how she was a cute old crazy grandma type. So she came in the room and Caroline says that is the teacher. So I said, the crazy grandma one?! And all the girls thought it was so funny and now they all call her crazy grandma Leherin. (female teacher) She was pretty crazy too. We did some kind of experiment for no reason lol. I think I will like that class.
I'm happy to be taking physics and chemistry so that when I come back those will be good credits to have. Oh yeah and during politics we had to get in groups and discuss whether we were for or against uniforms and my group was against so we had to write down reasons they were bad so of course we had the individuality one and stuff, but then a girl goes, do you know who Hitler is? lol I go uhhh yeah lol. It just took me by surprise, I thought they were more sensitive about it, guess not. Her point was that Hitlers men work uniforms lol so I guess we don't want that to happen again, so kudos to Anni for her good thinking.

Well, that is all for now. I will have more later.

Ciao

Schoool...

Today I went to school with Valeria as a visitor. Shes in the 9th class so I was much older than everybody. I was only there to see how things work today. Tomorrow I start my classes in the 11th class. So the day started out with some class that I have no clue what it is. I think it's some kind of home room. Then we went to Latin, LATIN! Do you want to know what is harder than German, being taught Latin in German! So I kind of just sat there while the other kids did some worksheet and the teacher was just like, so you've had no Latin training?..uhhhhh no. So then, the good class came. English. The teacher was pleased that I was there. First they played a taboo kind of game and I had to keep score and be the timer in the front because I can speak English...fun...Then she wanted me to give a speach about Michigan and how it's different. So I had nothing prepared or anything. So I just talked about school and the weather and all that jazz. It probably wasn't very interesting. Although they just couldn't grasp that we have the same schedule every day lol. They just didn't understand.
So now I'm freaking out about how I'm supposed to do that tomorrow with out Vale. I'm going to get lost I think. That will suck.
Later Nini, Vale, and I are going to the fitness studio so I don't get fat because all they do here is feed me. We usually go about 3 times a week, so that is good. I really want to go shopping because everybody dresses so cute here lol. I feel so, not cool, I don't know lol. I really really need a winter jacket too! I keep telling them I need to go shopping, but then I just have to use Vanessa's coat, and I don't think she likes that because her mom told me that when she talked to Vanessa she said something along the lines of, she better not lose it.
I also need to go to get my visa before Wednesday because I need to have it within 8 days of my arrivle, but for some reason they keep putting that off...which is bad. So I need to ask, AGAIN to go do that. Things are getting a little frustrating. I'm getting homesick and I can't understand things or speak. Like when we hang out with friends I just wish I knew what they were saying to each other so I could talk back. I miss having friends to talk to and call up just to see whats going on. I just want something firmiliar. That's all.

Kirbe

Ok, so last night was Kirbe it was soo much fun. In the beginning I had to work at the Basketball tent with Vale and Nini that was hard because people kept asking me for things and I had no clue what they wanted, but it got better. Lots of their friends showed up from basketball and they were all really nice. I met one boy who said he lived in Michigan from when he was 5 until he was 8 so that was cool. Carina is Vale's other friend, she came over and spent the night shes really cool too. The family went out ot brunch today, I probably should've gone, but Vale and I wanted to sleep in because we were out so late and she starts school tomorrow.
I might be going with here as a visitor tomorrow just to see what its like and then on Tuesday I will start in the 11th class I think. I'm extremely nervous!!!! Hopefully I'll make some friends.
I still can't believe I'm not coming home for an entire year. It's so weird. I hope the language starts coming a little easier. I can understand more, but still not speak much. I'm sure school will help though.

First week

Ok, so the first week in Germany has been a little crazy. My plane rides went well. On the first one I sat next to a boy named Max. He is goign to a town near Frankfort so...hes far away lol. I slept most of the time anyways. On my flight from Amsterdam to Stuttgart I sat next to Megan and she is in Ulm!! Ulm is only 20 minutes away from Ehingen so that is good. Shes a lot of fun and is in my district :). The first day my family showed me around town and all that good stuff. Later that night my host sister Valeria took me to Casablanca which is a bar\hang out kind of place. We played pool with her friend Nini , shes really funny and cool. the next day we went into town with Valeria's Pa lol her grandpa, and we got Toffiffee...sooooo good! We had lunch at her Omi and Pas house, they're soo cute.
The other day we went to see Valeria's cousin Julious because his exchange student Michael had his birthday. That was a good day. I felt like my German was getting a lot better that day for some reason I could understand and speak more. Still not much, but more.
Some of the weird things I have notices about Germany is that the front door to our house has no handle, to open the door you use your key and turn that as the handle. Its soo weird, the windows are crazy too, but in a good way. The food here is great, but I think all of the differences are taking their toll on me. I was sick today. When I woke up to go to church I was super dizzy and had a massive headache so I stayed home and slept.
Tonight is Kirbe and I'm goign to try to go to that I hope things go ok. Kirbe is a festival in Ehingen where all the clubs have like booths or tents whre they sell stuff. I'm going to help Valeria with the basketball one. Then we will go out with her friends.
I will write more later, but I need to get ready for Kirbe.

Tschuß :)