Guess what I just got???

!!!A PACKAGE FROM HOME!!!






I'm sooo excited! I felt like crying when I recieved it! AH! SIX BOXES OF MAC N' CHEESE! I'm sooooo excited to eat those! And FINALLY, I have some descent salsa! wooooo :) I can eat it with scrambled eggs now! Thank you so much family for the amazing presents! I don't know what is inside of them yet... but I'm really excited to find out! Best of all were the amazing fotos of our family! It was so cool to see all of the photos that my family took in the airport,my sister going to college,my family camping, my FAT dog, and SNOW EVERYWHERE! The package you sent with the goodies inside has yet to be opened unfortuanately. Christiane is keen on having EVERYONE there when it is opened!


(Coffee packaged in Wisconsin??? sweet! I'm excited to try it!)




I also recieved my report card from the school! I'm really happy with the results!


A 1 is the best.. and a 6 is the worst. I got 1's in Englisch basik and advanced, and Art. I got 2's in Biologie and Math (no idea how i got a 2 in Biologie!). I got 3's in Chemistry and Basik French. And I got a 4 PLUS in Advanced French! Ahh! I know that 4 isn't very good... but French here is So HARD! I always am thinking in German or Englisch! NOT FRENCH! It screws everything up and most of the time I sit silent in class because my brain is so angry at me for having another foreign languages squeezed into my mind. The O.B. things basically stand for "passing." I havn't written the tests for Religion, History, Physiks, and German because they are REALLY hard to understand... so instead of giving me a note they just wrote that!

ANYWAYS.. my spirits are INCREDIBLY HIGH because WINTER HOLIDAYS! WOO! NO SCHOOL! Look... we even have a little snow!



but its nothing compared to back home in Madison-



Happy Holidays All!

The past few weeks I wasn't really sure if it was truely winter time. The sky was always grey, the ground a dirty brown, and the trees dead and ominous. But in the past week it has snowed a total of THREE times which totals up to a whole 1/2 cm or so. I guess that means that the most wonderful time of the year is here! (I'm so jealous of you people in Madison! The snowball fight at Bascom Hill was on the news here!!!)

Last week wasn't anything out of the ordinary. I had a bunch of free hours in school because a ton of teachers were randomly gone- so that was really cool. On friday night I went to a house party with my host brother and got to practice a lot of german there! (while most people go to parties for the sole purpose of have fun- I go there with the mindset of practicing my german... I'm weird like that). It was a really good time. There wasn't a HUGE amount of people there so it wasn't too overwhelming and I actually knew a lot of people there from other parties so it was cool to catch up. It got a little hard to talk with people after someone turned on a fog machine- I couldn't see anything more that was more than a foot away!

So this week was reallly busy. On monday my guestmother and I had a Rotary Christmas dinner with my host rotary club. Before we ate we went to this Evangelical church in the near and sat through a short service made special for us. It was weird. The man had this costume on with this ridiculous looking fluffy white thing around his neck that made him look like a peacock- turns out he became a rotarian that night. After the strange service we went to a resaurant and ate delicious 4 course meal. It was really cool to see how much German I learned since the first meeting. The first meeting I casually said who I was and dreaded anyone asking questions because I had no idea what anyone was saying. The second I chimed in here and there with facts about me, and my life here in Berlin. And this meeting I had a good 30 minute conversation with this nice woman sitting next to me- complete with questions, comments, stories, and even a little bit of humor here and there.

Tuesday was a really cool day. For school I watched a film in German class the first hour. Then had 2 hours free- in which I sat in the "cafeteria" (cafeteria doesn't do this place justice- it is like a café, and has amazing food! Everything from fresh sandwhiches to coffee, to sweet breads- it is amazing!) My englisch class sat there together and just hung out and chatted. It was really nice to just talk together in German and answer/ask questions about life and culture and traditions. The next two hours I watched Matrix in Religion class and discussed the Philosophy incorporated with the film... that was interesting! The last two hours I had Basik Englisch and we watched a Britisch film called "How to Be" that was really difficult to understand even for me!!! (The accents were so sharp) Halfway through we switched movies because it was so BAD! We then watched Finding Forester.

After school, I hung out with a friend after school. We ate, chatted with her family in German- than went Christmas shopping. I must say that the girls here in Germany are a lot easier to make friends with than the guys. I feel like a lot of the guys here are kind of immature- laughing all the time about stupid jokes, making fun of how people talk, laugh, dress, or look, and basking in their "coolness." (of course not all of them). I understand the girls a lot better and we seem to be on the same wavelength as far as maturity goes. They also are way quicker to invite me places so hey- I have no problem with that! Anyways, I ended up getting a few things for the host famly. It's a little bit tough to find things for them because I don't really know what they want, but I did my best and now am DONE with christmas shopping. (can I just add how annoying it is that everything in Europe is so expensive... I am now completely broke woo!)

Wednesday I had another normal day at school! A girl from my school invited me to go to another Rotary Christmas dinner so I gladly accepted and around dinner time met up with her and another friend from school at a tennis club in the Grunewald- area. (took me one hour to get there because I had to take 2 different buses... they were slow) When I got there I greeted people with my stylish rotary blazer (which, might I add, is getting very FULL). Heikki, the exchange student from Finland, also was there so that was a really plesant suprise. The program was a little boring but nice nonetheless. A string trio played, old white people gave speeches, we all ate, and talked!

Today was the last full school day before Christmas break. Tomorrow we have the first hour or two of school than we have a church service, then we become our report cards. I'm really eager to see how they will turn out. I have absolutely no idea what teachers will give me for the classes in which I do not understand! (aka- physik, history, german, biologie, religion). We'll see! I'll let you know how it turns out!

I'm really excited for these umcoming 2 months. I have 2 weeks of Christmas break. My Oma is driving here tomorrow and I believe on Monday we are driving down to Dresden to visit Christmas markets. Other than that, nothing big is really planned which is very nice. I'm hoping to be able to relax, hang out with friends and family, practice german, and have fun! Christmas and New Years should be really interesting! I don't really know what to expect... going in with an open mind.

After break comes my Sozialpraktikum- I will be helping society socially for 1 month, 6 hours a day, instead of going to school! It is now confirmed that I will be helping in an after school type place, where children come to play and do homework. I'm really excited to get started with that! It should be fun and hopefully the little youngesters will help me learn German! (I won't be able to use Englisch because they do now know how to speak it). After my Sozialpraktikum comes 1 week of Winter break, in which I believe I will be going to Austria with my family to go skiing. If all of that works out It should be really, really, really exciting! I've never skiied on real mountain before!

Life is good. I'm enjoying myself immensely! I'm still learning a ton about the language and myself. Some days are really tough and I just want to crawl into a ball and cry... but most of the time my spirits are high. I wish everyone in Madison, Wisconsin, The United States, and wherever else you readers may be- Fröhliche Weihnachten und ein gutes Neues Jahr! Frohe Feiertage :)

One year ago this week, I was sitting in my friends craft room and we we talking about our plans for the year to come. There was talk of being upper classmen, taking AP Bio, AP 11 English, and just about school in Madison, Wisconsin.

There was snow covering the grass, we were inside sipping on hot tea, and preparing for the weekly AP World History test. I remember vividly talking about traveling... and then we started talking about going abroad during the summer time. All of us agreed that we never could do a year abroad because it was too much of a commitement, and it would screw up all of the classes we were planning on taking. Sometime in the conversation, Malina Piatt was mentioned. They told me that she was hoping to go to Italy for an entire year. I KNEW Malina Piatt. She was a student at my school who I ate lunch with every single day. She seemed smart, normal, not really anything out of the ordinary. I couldn't believe that she would throw all of her high school career to be an exchange student. She would have to learn a new language, go to a new school, make new friends, and totally RUIN her high school career. I couldn't believe she was willing to leave EVERYTHING! her grades, and family, and friends...

......and then it happened- I started to THINK. I pictured myself in a foreign country. I pictured myself in a completely DIFFERENT setting, with NEW people, a NEW language, a NEW school... a NEW family. The thought intruiged me. What if I didn't go to James Memorial High School in Madison, Wisconsin? What if I left everyone? what if I went to school in a completely foreign language???

I must say that this day I didn't learn the slightest bit of World History. The only thought on my mind was foreign exchange... I felt compelled to give it a shot. I felt like it was my calling... like I was meant to do it!

When I got home that night I told my family everything. I told them that I was interested in going abroad. They respected the idea. (which I know am soooo thankful for... so many parents are so stupid. The hear their child wants to go on exchange and they immediately reject it... they never think about the benifits, growth and knowledge their son or daughter will gain- all they think about it safety, money, or their own plans for their child... THANK YOU mom and dad for understanding) My parents told me that if I could find information about it, they would consider it. THANK GOD FOR ROTARY YOUTH EXCHANGE! I asked my French teacher the next day and she recommended Rotary... I looked online, got the information, read the reviews, and started the most amazing process of my life.

Right now I'm sitting in my room, listening to a song that I never would have understood one year ago. I'm thinking about the homework I need to do for tomorrow- It's not in English. It's in a language that last year, had heard only a handful of timess. This langauge surroundes me everywhere- at home, in school, in public... everywhere- GERMAN!

I LOVE GERMAN SO MUCH! I alway thought that I was meant to go to France. French was my LIFE! I studied it every NIGHT! I thought it was what I was supposed to do... but after living in BERLIN for the past 3.5 months, my thoughts have changed. I LOVE GERMAN! It works with my mouth. It seems natural. Sure I can't understand everything people say, but I feel like I was meant to be here and speak this language. I now am wayyy better in German than I ever was in French! I can't imagine life without it. My home is here in Berlin. I can't imagine it any other way. Whenever I think about going home in the summer (which is a longgg ways away I know) I just CAN NOT. It seems so weird. I can't and won't imagine it. I've finally got settled into this new home here, I can't even think what it will be like going home.

can you believe that I am 1/3 done with my exchange !!! It feels like just yesterday when this whole process started!!!

WELL.... enough with all of the memories- this last week has been pretty amazing. It's that time of year- CHRISTMAS TIME! and everything seems so festive. sure there isn't any snow, and there are a TON of tourists everywhere, but it is a really special time of year. I finally feel like I belong here. I feels like my home. I can understand the main topics that are discussed at school, and I relate to my classmates and friends here.

This past weekend was REALLLLLY special! My friend Stina Seaberg who lives in Middleton, Wisconsin (5 minutes from where I live) and is an exchange student in the near from Hannover, visited me in BERLIN! It was suprisingly realllly cool to actually talk with somone who knows what UW, Mad-Town, Memorial, Middleton, State Street, and Farmers Market are. It was such a great weekend. We went to a party on Friday with my host brother in the farrrrr east side of Berlin- which was really interesting. We had to follow glow sticks to find it. On Saturday we went all around Berlin, then we went up to Sömmerfeld-Beetz to go to my exchange student friends birthday party. it was a lot of fun as well... Sunday we went back to my house for St. Nikolaus. My Shoes were full of candy and Stina became a cup with chocolate in it. It was so cool! Sunday night, it was really NOT COOL to say goodbye to Stina. I felt like I was back home when she was here... when she left, I was back to my normal life.

Sunday night, the whole family gathered around the table and talked about St. Nikolaus day while eating Chinese food. It was really cool. I was really tired from the weekend, but I felt like a family. It no longer is awkward or weird to refuse something, or say no! Just yesterday I got mad at my younger brother for the first time (because he was being really annoying), and we had a little "fight." Its really weird, but things like that make me feel closer to the family. I feel like we can be more real if we are comfortable enough to disagree with eachother.

Today I found out that the first 2 hours of class were church so I didn't go to school because I had no idea where the church was. At third hour I had Englisch, and got my final back- 15/15 points! A+! That was cool to get :) After that I though we had 2 hours of Religion, then 2 hours of Englisch, but turns out both of the teachers weren't there. SWEET! I had only 1 hour of school today! It was great. I also just feel like German is going sooo well! During the breaks I talk with all of my classmates, and to and from school I talk with the classmates that take the same bus. It feels like th language barriers are falling... soooo exciting!!!

So I better get going pretty soon... cause me and my host mom are going to be driving to an elementary school to see if I can do my Social Praktikum there (instead of going to school in January we need to go to help the community in a social way ex. school, hospital, old folks home) I 've been looking FOREVER to see where I can do my Praktikum, and I'm hoping that a Kindergarten will accept me! That would be sooo fun to work with kids for an entire month instead of going to school!!! I'll let you all know ASAP when I figure out where I'll be for school in the month of January.

Until next time- hope everyone is having a pleasant holiday season :)

This past weekend was Thanksgiving weekend, and I must say that it was much much much better than I thought it would be! Wednesday after school, I took the train up to Neuruppin to meet up with some friends and celebrate Thanksgiving a day early! We spent the ENTIRE afternoon and early evening cooking up a feast! We had a 7,5 kilo turkey (where my friends host mom miraculously found in a market), green beans with crunchies, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas/carrots, home-made stuffing, pumpkin pie, and apple pie! It was SO delicious. We ended up finishing dinner a little bit late and we had no lust to drive back a whole hour/hour and a half back home so we all called our parents to see if we could spent the night. We ALL were expecting them to be like, "no, its a school night" but suprisingly ALL of them had no problem with it! I was dumbfounded. We had the best pre-thanksgiving night EVER! It was so nice to share our tradition with the German family there, and it was a really unique, unforgettable night with friends. (the 1st picture is really funny- hahaha- but there are more of me with the turkey, and I'll put them up once my friend gives them to me)





So on Thursday (real Thanksgiving), we all went back to Berlin and made it back to school for a few hours. I took my Basic French final and it wasn't too bad. I was a little bit tired from the night before, but managed to write a summary and essay in FRENCH! (I got a lot of French and German words mixed up). After school I went home and invite some friends over to eat Thanksgiving dinner at my house. They came, and we all ate a really yummy German-style dinner, with female turkey, round potatoe-dumplings (I don't know the English word for it), gravey, pumpkin soup, bread, and chocolate mousse with cranberry and vanilla sauce. Mmm! I think I gained a few kilos. Best of all, on Thanksgiving night I got to skype with my ENTIRE family! I got to see every single one of them- even my dog! To make things better, the Packer game was going on as I was skyping, and I they scored a TOUCHDOWN (which I saw). It was great to catch up with them and see all of their faces!

So... Friday went by really quick in school. I was late to school because one of my busses came 10 minutes late, but it turned out that my first hour teacher never showed up, so I just sat in the class with some other students and just chatted. We had a Biology final the next hour (which I had no idea about) I felt really awkward because I was studying German Grammar the whole 2 hours, and my teacher thought I was writing the exam, so at the end when I handed in the empty exam, he was like, "Ben you forgot your text" and then I had to embarassingly explain how I didn't understand a word of what they were asking- something about a stress system. But- speaking of language comprehension, even though I can't understand high school textbooks, I really feel like I've gotten over a HUGE landmark in my German skills. I'm able to understand normal day-to-day language really well and can answer pretty well also.

On Friday night I decided to stay home with the family because I've been out a lot lately. My host brother, host mom, and I ended up going to the movies and watching Die Päpstine. It was pretty interesting, and I understood the majority of dialogue which was GREAT! Last night, I went to a party with my host brother. it was on the complete other side of town and we had to go over 20 stops with the subway! But it wasn't too bad because a bunch of his friends were there and we just chatte din German the whole time and they asked a lot of question and one of the girls was in Oregon for a month! The party was pretty cool- it was a really remote house in north-west Berlin with like 70 or so people. Like all parties are, it was a little awkward at first (I'm totally used to awkward situations now, it doesn't really bother me the least bit). I didn't wan't to be hanging on to my brother Max the whole time, so I just kind of mingled, and a lot of his friends recognized me from other parties, so we all started to talk, and it was great because I spoke in german the entire time and recieved a lot of compliments about how my German had improved . A lot of times people asked me if I understood what they were talking about or if the talked really fast if I could understand, and suprisingly I answered their questions without hesitation. I COULD understand what they were saying, and I COULD respond. It was really really really encouraging. So yeah- it was a really fun night!!!

I probably should study for my Advanced French final which is on Tuesday. That should be interesting!

So I finally gathered my thoughts and compared/contrasted the my school in The United State and my school here in Germany. I'm reallllly sorry that it cuts short. I don't know why, but my video only let me record 10 minutes- bummer. The next thing I was going to say after the BUT was, "but sometimes I feel like everything is a little bit too perfect. and I feel like I'm surrounded by cookie-cutter people." After that I was done. I just said goodye, and thanks for watching!

Viel Spaß!

Last weekend I, along with a dozen other exchange students in Berlin, were invited to take part in a flag ceremony for the charter celebration of the International Rotary Club of Berlin. The club is really unique because it is the first club in Germany were the dominate language is English, and its members come from 12 different countries! I was expecting the metting to be really boring, but it ended up being a really exciting night.

All of the exchange students arrived at the Ritz Carlton at 15.00 and we all mingled and waited to get instructions about the flag ceremony. The hotel was BEAUTIFUL! It's the nicest hotel I've EVER seen! hahaha....It was really funny though because everyone was all dressed up all fancy, but all of us exchange students, had our ridiculous blazers on! hahaha... We definately stuck out!

Anyways, we ran through the flag ceremony a few times, then rotary sent all of us to the cinema where we watched 2012. Then we came back, did the flag ceremony, stood with our flags for 50 minutes while listening to the charter, listened to a man play some awesome piano (Rhapsody in Blue), took some pictures, then we got to take part in a dessert buffet. It was delicious! After the dessert buffet I thought that it was all over, but then all of the Rotarians insisted that we go downstairs to the bar with them and have a drink with them. We talked with a bunch of Rotarians for a while, then finally said goodbye. I really liked how the Rotarians didn't treat us like little children- I have nothing but good things to say about the new club.





other than the charter event, nothing really special has been going on. All of last week I was moderately sick, and this weekend it got a lot worse. Today my whole family stayed home from work and school because we all are so sick! We played this really complicated stragey boardgame (like risk)... but it involved discussing with other people, making teams, cheating, double -crossing, etc... I was so confused and had a killer headache.. so I lost in the first 3 hours. (they are still playing downstairs and have been playing for 6 hours or so). I'm hoping that I'll be well enough to go to school tomorrow, because that's where I learn most of my German... but wait- I just realized that tomorrow is Tuesday and I have 4 hours of English class every Tuesday! ehh... maybe I will stay home.

In other news, i'm hoping that I can go to this music school this week with one of my friends. She says that I can rent an instrument for 6€ a month. Thats cool. I also am looking for a German-course to take. There are a few that look promising... there really isn't anymore to say other than I'm jealous of all of the people back home taking part in the musical this year (Wizard of Oz... how fun does that sound) and...I've been living in Berlin for nearly 3 months!!!

It feels like.... home

A year ago today I was daydreaming about the day when I would be able visit Europe. I was fascinated with the history, diversity of culture, and variety of languages. Most of all, I was intrigued by the country of France, more specifically- Paris. Ever since the 7th grade, Paris was the city I longed to see- I wanted to learn about their culture, eat their food, and most importantly... speak their beautiful language!!!

I had no idea that in one short year...I would be in Paris. I would be learning about their culture, I would be eating their food, and I would be speaking.... GERMAN?!?! It still astounds me how drastically life can change in the course of one year. My mind is boggled.

Well, as you can tell from my little introduction there, I just got back from Paris yesterday! I have few words to describe how beautiful and amazing it was. Despite the fact that I was tired, sick, and had really sore back from sitting in the bus, I had a BLAST and got to see so many things I never thought I'd ever see.

We started our journey mid-day on Thursday. I didn't have to go to school so I ended up going to Ostbahnhof (a train station) early to meet up with some friends who live up north. They had never been to Berlin before so I gave them a super quick tour of the Berlin Wall, Hackesher Markt, Alexander Platz, and Potsdamer Platz before getting picked up by my host mom to go back to the train station. Once there, we mingled with all the exchange students who we havn't seen since September in Neuruppin. It was GREAT to see everyone.

After a few hours of waiting for the bus, we finally all got settled and started the 14 hour bus ride to Paris. It took us forever to get out of Berlin, but once we were out it was smooth-ish sailing. Despite the fact that we were with all of our friends it still didn't erase the fact that the bus was incredibly uncomfortable. We also couldn't use the bathroom for some odd reason. We stopped ever 2-4 hours and went pretty fast. I got around 3-4 hours of sleep so that was nice!

The first thing I saw when I got to Paris that I recognized was La Sacré Coeur. I never thought it was so HUGE! it totally dominates a large portion of the Parisian skyline. I had no idea. Anyways, we went to the hotel and unloaded all of our stuff. It was a realllllly nice hotel. I was expecting it to be really cramped and old, but we all had our own bathrooms and the rooms had windows and were clean and spacious. After we got settled in we made our way to breakfast and I had a great buffet breakfast of crouissants, bread, cheese, and coffee.

The first thing we went to was the "new part" of Paris. It's were the big box-shaped building is, and there are a lot of modern developments there. It also was the first time I've ridden Paris' subway. It was way different than Berlin's- Much older, And much, much, much more complicated...







The next location on our list was Champs-Élysée. We were allotted 2 hours of free time, so me and some friends decided to go to L'arc de Triomphe. It ended up being free for people under the age of 18 to go on top, we we all walked up the never-ending spiraling staircase, and saw a SPECTACULAR view of Paris. It was such a nice day and my breath was taken away by the beauty of Paris' exquisite layout. The contrast of the massive and striaght, Champs-Élyesée, mixed with tiny zig-zagging streets, and numerous round-abouts made the city look like a piece of artwork. It was fantastic.





For the next few hours we slowly walked down the famous Champs-Élysée. We ate some Mcdonalds (only thing I could afford... but still ridiculously expensive) I didn't understand why it cost 1€ for a Hamburger, but 2.30€ for a Cheeseburger... I'm still really confused- that means that a slice of cheese costs more money than an entire hamburger... Hmmm? Speaking of food, I also had my first crêpe in France EVER, and it was very delicious. The woman who made it for me was listening to a Spanish song and she suddenly just started to belt out singing as she was making my crêpe and she was suprisingly REALLY good at singing.

We all met at Place de La Concorde (where the Guillotine used to be back in the day). We had to wait for some people because they got lost, but after that, we went to L'Opera and Galleries Lafayette and had freetime there. I was really tired by that point. We then all rode back to our hotel, and got ready to go to diner.




For dinner we went to a little restaurant in Montmartre. It was about a 20 minute walk from our hotel, and was right next to Sacré Coeur. We had a roast type of thing to eat, and had UNLIMITED WATER! I was SO excited for that! It was even CHILLED! First time that's happened in Europe! After dinner we were given freetime until bedtime. Some friends and I decided to go to The Eiffel Tour. We made it there and took some AMAZING PICTURES! It was so beautiful at night. Unfortunately I didn't bring my host-mom's camera with me because it fails to take pictures at night, but I'll be able to get them from them soon. After walking around a little bit, we made our way to La Louvre and looked at the Pyramid by night. It was really pretty! After taking about a thousand pictures, we made it back to the hotel JUST in time... two minutes to spare.




The next day the first thing we did was go to Le Louvre for 3 hours! It was really interesting and cool (I got to see Mona), but I think it was a little long for a group of 50 exchange students. We walked around after that- and saw a bunch of cool places! At Notre Dame there was a "Free Hugs" campaign going on and we got some pictures with them.




After wandering around together, we ate dinner at a steak restaurant, then went on a boatride to see Paris by night! It was so beautiful! The Eiffel Tour was having a special lightshow and even though it was cold, it was a fantastic way to experience Paris. On the way home we made a quick detour to Moulin Rouge and met some peculiar people in the red light district! It was awesome :) (ps- I know my eyes are close in the first picture, but it's the only one I have haha)


The final day in paris we all went to the Eiffel Tour for the majority of the day. It was optional to go up the tower (we had to pay) but it was totally worth it. We took the stairs up the first two stories and I was really freaked out because of my fear of heights. We have made many pictures and than rode the final elevator up to the top.



The final thing we did in Paris was go to Versailles. I was exhausted! It was really cool though!


After Versailles we all piled into Mcdonalds and ate BigMacs and Cola! It was a great way to end a fantastic trip :) The busride back was pretty smooth. I was really tired and ended up being able to sleep for a long portion of the ride. It was nice to be back in Berlin- were everything is familiar, but I miss all of the exchange students very much. They are all so much fun! It's a bummer than I won't be able to see them until March (the exchange students who don't live in Berlin).

So THAT, was my trip to France. It was spectacular. I can't wait to go back in the years to come and experience all the other things it has to offer. I'm still incredibly tired since I havn't had a descent amount of sleep since the night before I left for Paris. I would have slept yesterday but it was the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down, so I went out downtown yesterday night will all of my friends, in the pouring rain to witness the huge celebration. Hilary Clinton and Bon Jovi were there!!! It was so COOL! (despite being absolutely freezing). There were hundreds of massive dominoes there set up around Brandenburger Tour all the way down to Potsdamer Platz , and each one had a mural on it having to due with Freedom and the fall of the berlin wall! It was really exciting to watch all of the dominoes fall down!





Later that night, I met my hostmom and brother at Tony Roma's and had a fantastic American dinner! It was SO late and I was SO tired, but I got to eat hot wings and ribs for the first time in AGES! I ended up getting hope around 12, and got to sleep at 1. It was really hard to wake up for school this morning at 6.30. We also had a klausur (BIG test that happens 2ce a year) in Basic English today. We had to write a summary and essay about these 2 short pieces of writing... I'm not worrying about it :) I totally forgot to say that I got my Math Klausur back and I got a 2+!!! That is like a B+! I'm was so EXCITED!!!

So...There really isn't anything out of the ordinary going on in the weeks to come. Life is completely... normal. Currently I'm having a lot of difficulty with German Articals and how they change depending on how they are used in a sentence... English is so easy in comparison to German... We only say "THE" but Germans use der, die, das, den, dem, AND des. Adjective endings, and other endings in general... are also really diffiuclt! But I know that it isn't THAT important. Nomatter which article you use, Germans understand- they just never tell me when I get it wrong!

Whew... so this is a really long blog post-I better get started on a French assignment! Hopefully I'll be getting more pictures soon!

Also to come- I'm going to be doing a video shortly about the similarities and differences between the American and German school systems (more specifically James Madison Memorial High School and Canisius Kolleg).

Dear Ben,

Your facebook account has been temporarily suspended for security purposes. Our systems indicate that your Facebook account has been compromised by cybercriminals attempting to impersonate you. These criminals often will try to trick your friends into sending them money by claiming that you are stuck in a far away location and need assistance. It is possible that your email account was compromised as well. Please take the following steps to regain control of your account...

love,

-Facebook

SCHEIßE!

If anyone got a message from me via facebook or email saying I was stuck away in a far country and needed money... I DON'T!!! hahaha... I'm pretty everything is perfectly fine. My email has a completely new password, and my facebook is... "temporarly disabled." Hopefully I'll get it back soon!

I'm going to PARIS TOMORROW!!! I'M SOOOO EXCITED! I just went with my host mom to the grocery store to buy food for the trip and we found PEANUT-BUTTER AND HONEY!!!! I can't wait until I get to eat it! I have soooo much food for the trip- it's amazing! She also got me an early Christmas present- a BRAND NEW WINTER COAT! I couldn't believe it! When I got home from school she was like, "Ben, your coat is so nice, but you need one that is fit for rainy Berlin weather." She said something about going to get one, and I thought she was joking, but then she was just like, "we're going to buy one!" So now I have a really warm winter coat that is rain-resistant! I love HER!

Today I went with one of my friend Caitlin to this part of the Berlin Wall that has a bunch of cool murals on it (it took us a while to find it). I can't believe I've been here in Berlin for more than 2 months and I havn't seen this yet! It was SO cool! I thought I would share some photos.










!!! ICH LIEBE BERLIN !!!


ps- 10 days until PARIS

I am officially 1/2 way through my Herbstferien and I don't want it to ever end! I loveeeee break! I get to sleep in, I get to relax, I get to hang out with friends all day... it's pretty much amazing!

From Monday to Friday I was in Bad Kissingen visiting my Oma and strangely enough- it was one of the best times I've had so far here in Germany. Bad Kissingen is a small town in Northern Bavaria and it is a traditional GERMAN town... with lots of old people. My Oma used to own a cheese store and she and her family (my host mom) slept in the 2 floors above it. The cheese store is now a jewelry store, and it isn't owned by my Oma anymore, but she still lives above the shop and it was so beautiful to wake up every morning and see the winding streets below and rolling hills filled with Autumn-colored trees. here are a few pictures. the first 2 are from my Oma's house and the 3rd is what the city looks like.





On Tuesday I went with my family (mama, con, and oma) to a beautiful town about 30 minutes away from bad Kissingen. The name of the town escapes me but it has a college there and a really old castle/village. We walked around all day, visited a museam, listen to my host brother complain about how boring everything is (he's getting really annoying), went out to eat, met up with a girl who is in the extended family, went into about 10 churches... then finally came back home. Here are some pictures. 1st- "the residence" basically museum we went to. 2nd- the castle thing. 3rd/4th- at the castle looking at the city.






On Thursday we all went to the Kreuzberg is a small mountain about half an hour away from bad kissingen. We got to see some beautiful views... and burned a lot of calories walking up and down. We visited a lot of churches there and drank some freshly brewed bavarian beer made from the monk/priests that live there. It was fantastic.






While I was in Bad Kissingen I learned a lot about german culture. I didn't speak any English the entire time I was there, and was totally enclosed in a house where there was NON-STOP German. It made me sooo exhausted. There were several instances when I felt like my head was going to blow up. The biggest thing that I learned (already knew but now I know from experience) is how IMPORTANT FOOD IS! FOOD IS SOOOOO IMPORTANT HERE. At my Omas house, we would wake up in the morning and eat. then all morning she would be preparing lunch and asking if I was hungry, then after lunch we would have coffee and tea, then she would prepare dinner and ask if I was hungry... then we would eat dinner, and an hour late we would break out something sweet... and Oma would ask me yet again if i was hungry... Everything tasted Soooooo GOOD! I ate soooo MUCH! haha... I feel like time here revolves around when we eat here. (speaking of time, I guess today was daylight saving time so we gained an hour...) On Friday when we were about to leave my Oma found out we were not gong to be stopping for dinner so she packed us a FEAST of bread and candy and drinks, and cheese and meat... Ohhh boy! Here's what we had every single morning for Breakfast... mmmm



So yes- Now I'm glad to be back home in Berlin. I loved the south but it's good to be back home. There were a bunch of exchange students here from the south of germany visiting Berlin so we hung out all weekend and it was really fun!!! I plan to just hang out the rest of the week with friends, do my french homework that I've been putting off for 3 weeks, and brush up on my French a little bit because I'm going to PARIS in TWO WEEKS! (my french is HORRIBLE) I'M REALLLLYYYYY EXCITED! I can't WAITTT!