Tschüss, Deutschland

So, now it's time to go back. :) I know what you're all thinking, 'I thought she was going home in July?' This is true. I have moved my flight earlier and I couldn't be happier.

I am sad that there are certain things or people I may not be able to see now, but I know this is for the better. I have had a lot of different experiences this year that I will learn from, and now I'm really ready to take everything I learned, and move on. I will never forget this year but I have too many things to look forward to right now.

This is only the beginning.

Auf Wiedersehen, Deutschland.. bis nächstemal =)

You can take the girl out of the city, but you can't take the city out of the girl.

I went to Berlin with my host family yesterday, and I have to say... It was SO nice being in a big city again. Even if we were only there for a few hours and I was just there as a tourist.
I really enjoyed Berlin. I am definitely planning on going back so I can see more of it. I got to see most of the main tourist attractions while I was there, and I even got to see the zoo!

Es ist geschehen, und folglich kann es wieder geschehen. Darin liegt der Kern dessen, was wir zu sagen haben.

Ich kann nicht alles tun, kann ich nur träumen.

Na... Was träumst du?

The choice is simple, will you take it?

We are all entirely free to choose whatever we want. The power is in your hands now, and you are the one who chooses how to use that power in your own life. You can choose:

To have a happier life today, or put it off until tomorrow.

What feels better? You choose.

Leider, ist Leben so.

What have you all learned in the past 8 and a half months?

It's a little bit weird/funny to go back through all these posts and see 'wow I can't believe I've been here for ___ months!', and see the numbers growing each time.

I've been asked, and personally asked others myself, lately about how I've changed. I can't really say because I can't remember the way I used to do everything. I can only know what I have done and what patterns have changed in living life. In whatever way I have changed, I know it's all for the better. "I've got nothing to prove and nothing to lose."

Point of this post? I have abandoned facebook for a while and apparently no facebook turns into thinking about myself and what's going on with me instead of the 200+ "friends" I have on my list. I really have to say, I enjoy this much better. :)

Now, let's live our lives.
It's time to live for yourself, no one else.

Ich sage: Europa, Ihr sagt: tour!

Wow. Never thought I could learn so much in three weeks.

Upward and onward.

Do you ever stop and think, "Hey, my life is awesome!"?

I do.

Getting ready for Eurotour 2010!

So, I've officially been here now for 7 and a half months. :S Seriously, what the heck! We leave on friday for eurotour and I CAN'T WAIT!!! After we get back I will have two and a half months left of my exchange, very odd how fast time goes by when you're in another country. At times it's felt like it was the longest time of my life, but when looking back, it has gone by fast, and I know that after this the time will only go by faster.

I think I have bought everything for eurotour, but who knows.. I may get to Hannover and realized I've forgotten a bunch of stuff, but it's all part of the adventure!

Wish me luck!

Rotex Wochenende. Hundisburg!

This weekend we were in a castle, I don't really know exactly what was up there, but we were staying in a small area with rooms (very nice change) and it also had a tv room! Very good for lazy exchange students that like to watch tv. Saturday we went to the border and looked at where the wall that used to be separating eastern and western Germany. That night we had a costume party!


Two weeks and two days until Eurotour. Pleaseeeee, hurry!

February

Well, unfortunately I don't have too many crazy stories to tell, but I will inform you about some things that I find quite funny/interesting.

Apparently in Germany, it's extremely hard to find a job as a teacher, and once you have that job, it's very hard to get fired. Because of this fact, I often have tons of classes 'fall through'. AKA the teacher is sick and they don't have substitutes so we just get to sleep in, or go home early, and the teachers won't get fired for it. Now, as a student I find this very frustrating, but as an EXCHANGE student, it's not all that bad :)
Another thing that is confusing to me about German schools is that we have a different room on the odd occasion. Now this can be very confusing for an exchange student who doesn't know how to read the board where it shows the classes that fell through and the ones that have room changes. (But thank God I finally figured it out). One day during chemistry class a while back, we all met at our 'new room' for the day, just in time to find out that someone else was already in that room.. we walked around the whole school (which is seriously huge) for a long time before realizing that there is no room for us. We then go into a room with tables, sort of like a cafeteria-like area and make camp there. We all squished at a little table (there were probably only 15 of us anyway) and two of the girls went to get coffee and hot chocolate for everyone, on the teacher! Talk about cozy classes..

I don't know about everyone else's view on Valentine's Day, but I'm just NOT a fan. Therefore, I met up with Brittany and we watched Sex and the City Movie and ate lots of sweets before going out for Chinese food, a good way to forget about the fact that this day is supposed to be for couples!

Yesterday in my English class, a lady who is originally from Hanover, raised in Northeim, exchange student in Ohio, studied in Goettingen, then did a university exchange in North Carolina, finished her degree in Goettingen, then moved to North Carolina to 'further' her degree (aka go to school so she could get a visa) and get married to another German man who had taken about the same path and has now lived in North Carolina for twenty years, came into my class to talk to us and let her ask us questions. She did a demonstrastion that I found very amusing.
One thing you will notice if you come to Germany is that the people like to stand VERY CLOSE to each other. This lady asked everyone to say their names, and so she found out that I am an exchange student from Canada. She was planning on doing this 'demonstration' anyway, and the fact that I was there made it even better. She had myself and one of the German girls go up to the front of the room. She said to the other girl 'ok let's be German, and say hi to each other as we're walking by each other', then she did the same with me, but being North American (of course we weren't acting, she was just saying that for more emphasis on the point). After she finished it, she asked if anyone noticed a difference in body language.. She had stood a normal close to the German girl and a normal far away for me, but no one really noticed so she did it again, but this time coming as close to me as she did to the other girl.. of course my reaction was to back away, so that's just what I did (without thinking) and it definitely amused everyone in the classroom! I'm secretly hoping that the people in the class took it as a hint and will stop standing so close to me while they are having a conversation with me! (Or even when we're not talking, I feel like people are always standing irregularly close to me)... Now here's a picture of me and a funny fish statue!


P.S. It's still cold (well, relatively), and apparently snowing tons for what is normal in Germany. And trust me, I haven't heard the end of this 'We're having a long winter.. and there isn't even snow in Vancouver for the Olympics.. AND THAT'S CANADA!' Note to the world: Canada is not ALWAYS cold and snowy. :) Enjoy the rest of February everyone!

P.P.S. FREUNDSCHAFT!

Rotary Meetings

What a joy! I don't really know why my club decided to change the meeting this week, but they decided we would go for a walk in forest, in the cold, then go eat some delicious food. We started by meeting at one of the member's house. From there we took a walk up the 'mountain' for about a half hour or so. Once we got to the top, we stopped and two members had driven up with their cars. They open the back, set up a table.. bring out the alcohol! We drank some gluehwein and some people drank beer. Not really my type of idea of fun, but hey! Whatever works! After we were done that we walked back down and went back to the house we met at and had gruenkohl which is my favorite german meal ever! Don't judge by the picture.. you must try it. :)

P.S. Today is exactly 6 months since I left Canada. Where is the time going?

=)

5 and a half months down, 5 and a half to go. Can't wait to see what happens.

Skiing, Madi leaving, and a Basketball game

So I went skiing on Friday for the first time again in god knows how many years! I have to say.. I'm going to be totally pro one day. At least pro bunny hill skier! I was with Carla and her host dad and sister. They both know how to skii quite well. We went skiing in a hall (that was interesting!) somewhere between Hannover and Hamburg. When we first looked at the hill and saw the bunny hill I knew that was meant for me! I told her host dad we had to go there first and I'm glad we did! I couldn't remember how to ski at all. Once we did it a few times we decided to go for the big hill (well.. as big as it can be in hall). That was just too funny! Carla and I were pretty close to each other, along with her host sister.. Carla came up behind me and then... BAMM! Of course we crashed! Her ski hit mine and she just went flying, one of her skis fell off, then mine went flying too.. I don't know exactly what happened but I was on the ground and I look and see Carla rolling down the hill in front of me! At least it didn't hurt, it was actually pretty funny, our skis were sort of all over the place and we were just laying on the ground laughing our butts off! We ended up skiing for a good two hours or so.. We took a break in the middle to get some food... Bratwurst.. yes!! I love Bratwurst so much.. I seriously have no idea what I'm going to do without it! All and all it was a fun time skiing, unfortunately I have some very unpleasant bruises on my calves now.. but they'll go away soon enough I'm sure.

After skiing we went back to Madi's house.. We said our goodbyes and Carla and Krystal left. :( Then I was staying at her house and going to the airport with her and her host family.
I can't believe you're already gone, girl! I miss you so much! Love you! Have fun back down under... you'll always be my favorite Australian person ever!! But we will see each other again :) :) "ich sage nicht tschüss, nur auf wiedersehen."

That night Carla and I went to a basketball game.. Unfortunately neither of us like basketball.. we left early and went to burger king.. we're basically exchange student champions. Yeah baby!

Back to School!

Well everyone, the holidays are officially over. :( It was fun and now it's time to go back to school! Can't say I'm very excited, but who is ever excited to go back to school? I'll try and make use of my new years resolution to be optimistic and try and make the best of it! Good luck in the new year at school everyone! :)

Hello 2010!!

I had an amazing new years eve, that's for sure! I went to a party with some people from my school, I am going to be very honest and say that I did want to spend it with some other exchange students but I decided to force myself to hang out with German people and I am SO glad I did! I had a blast. Not exactly like a party at home, there weren't tons of people over flowing the house we were in like all parties at home, but a reasonable amount of people. At 12 we all went outside to count down and everyone gave everyone else hugs and then time for FIREWORKS!!! For the next hour, everywhere you looked there were tons of fireworks going off! I know that at home you can buy packages and some people set them off, but here it looks like EVERYONE does! I swear there was no where you could look and not see them going off. :) It was really pretty!
The party ended a little bit early because I guess people were tired. Four of us decided to share a taxi and one girl had pre ordered it, but either it just didn't show up or we think some other people at the party took our taxi, and we ended up waiting two hours (until 5:30 or so) and then ended up calling a friend who drove us home!
I'm super glad I decided to go and it was an amazing start to 2010. :)
Happy 2010-ing everyone! Good luck this year!