Germany, I Love You

Of all the things I have to be thankful for, curly hair is definitely one of them. Friday evening, my host-brother’s girlfriend decided she would straighten my hair and braid my bangs back… –shivers- Just no. I met up with my friends afterword, the one who picked me up from the bus stop said he almost didn’t recognize me at first, and the one who answered the door yelled to the others in German, “Hey guys! Leo’s brought a girl with him, and it’s defiantly not our Angie!”

It’s been a rather chaotic week, I moved to my third and final host-family Monday ( I was supposed to move Friday but to make a long story short, I did Monday). The thought of moving was a lot harder than the actual move simply because my second family became my real family. I’ll love the Körfers forever. Isa, Achim, and Julien became blood relatives to me. My new house, while very different, is also nice. My host-mom is the great type of different, and speaks really fast, so we get along very well. She frequently tells me I don’t eat enough, that I need new socks, and a haircut though. To be fair, those are all fair claims. Her personality also reminds me a lot of my Nana’s, so in that sense, I already feel at home.

Tuesday evening I played legitimate badminton for the first time in forever (Alison, be proud) and I cannot begin to describe how much fun I had. The man in charge noticed I had been trained because I “had proper footwork” and invited me to the trainings and matches. I played three mixed doubles matches (so nine games with one boy and one girl on each team) and won all three, and the best part is badminton is twice a week and only a 20 second walk from my house!

It’s getting ridiculous. It used to be when I spoke German, I became unbelievably thirsty because German requires the speaker to use his/her throat so much more than English. Now, on the increasingly rare occasion that I speak English, I feel like I’m drooling all over everything because I don’t have to use my throat for anything and therefore generate 10 times more saliva than necessary.

(Apparently) Sunday I was in the paper (The Press Democrat) in my home town. The article was the same one written for my school paper back in December, and over 15 different people have written me telling me about it. Apparently it’s a rather large article, and I have to admit, even though I’m not actually in the country, it’s exciting to be in my town’s paper! You can read the article online by clicking HERE!

While exchange is by far the best decision I have ever made, it’s difficult sometimes. There are kids at my school who come up to me saying, “America is sh*t and fat” and then walk away, and while it’s unpleasant to be on the receiving end of that, it’s why the world needs exchange students! If everyone in the world was an exchange student, I can say with complete certainty there would be no more war. I might be from California, but I live in Germany, and Germany has become my second home. I feel like I’ve known my friends and host-families my entire life, and I care about Germany and Hameln just as much as I care about the United States and Santa Rosa. Exchange students change the world, they share and mix cultures, they make the world a better place.

This past week, I officially booked my return ticket(no I’m not going to post the date, if I did, every time I reread this post it would just make me sad), which was one of the harder parts of my exchange for me. It reminded me that I have to fly back eventually and that I can’t just live in this fantasy adventure forever.

Ich bin hier!

Ich bin hier, and might I say, if anyone wants to learn their numbers and colors fast, go to your host sisters' friend's house for an evening of Monopoly and Twister! It sure worked for me.

Despite being long (around 28 hours) the travel time was not to horrible and all my flights left and arrived more or less on schedule. Though it did randomly start to poor in Philadelphia despite it being sunny and 85 degrees. Living in California, I'm really not used to spontaneous weather like that.

Hameln is beautiful, and the Autobahn scares me. Everyone here drives unbelievably fast, like it's something everyone is America knows about... but you don't actually realize just how fast it actually is until you experience it. It's also crazy how many people talk on their cell phones while driving, (for those of you who don't live in California) this is illegal where I live so I am not used to seeing it nearly as much.

My home is in "the Beverly Hills of Hameln," a small village up in the hills of the town. I'll post pictures of the view once I have more time, the internet is extremely slow (which is good and bad, I'm not nearly as tempted to waste time away on the computer) .

Yesterday I went into town with my mom and sisters to go school shopping. They have a Build-a-Bear Workshop in the mall, and a 'Forever 18' (instead of 21), it's pretty awesome. xD

School starts next Thursday and my older sister's Chemistry teacher will apparently be showing me the ropes. Apparently on the last day of school last year she told everyone to be very friendly to me and to come up and hug me because "I'm American and that's just what we do" and all the pupils (as my sister world say) looked at her as if she was crazy because German's are nearly as open to strangers Americans are.

(I'll add pictures later when I have better internet)