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!