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.