My 2 weeks of Osterferien (Easter Break) is finally here and I am happier than ever! Last week I had three Klausuren (2 hour long finals that are at random times during the year). On Tuesday I had Religion, but it was too confusing so the teacher let me leave ;) (I was translating one text for 1 hour and there were at least 10 words that were not in my dictionary!). On Wednesday I had my Advanced-French Klausur and it went ok. We had to summarize a text given (it was from Le Petit Prince! I think thats what they read this year in my school in America), than we had to write 2 miny essays on questions given about previous stories we had read. I know that my grammar was horrible- and I used very basic French vocabulary- but it could have been a lot worse. Thursday was the day I had been dreading for a while- I had to write my German Klausur! Last time I didn't write it because.. well how do you expect me to write an essay on German when I have only been learning German on my own for one year? Anyways a while back my German teacher told me I had to make it with this time- so it was an essay on this book called, Homer Faber. Well, my german is good- but it can't compare with the people in my class who have been learning it their entire lives! I'm very happy that I did this test with! It was my first essay I have ever written in German and it was 4 pages long :) There were some times that I couldn't say exactly what I wanted, and it was pretty lousy for a REAL essay... but I wrote one and it made me happy :D

SO anyways- I am here now! Most students start their holidays is 2 days on the 31st, but my school's break started last Friday! The weather is warm, the snow gone, flowers are beginning to bloom - I am so happy that Spring is finally here!!!

My Oma has been here for the past week looking over the home (aka- making sure no one throws a huge house party haha). She left yesterday and a family friend and her son from the near from Saltzberg are staying for 2 weeks to house sit. When my Oma was here I felt really stressed ALL THE TIME because she gets upset really easily. She is the sweetest woman EVER- and when we were alone, and she was just telling me about her life in Berlin during the war- it was AWESOME- but... a lot of the time, I felt like people were constantly fighting and just being mad at one another. I really didn't like that. It made me just want to be out of the house as much as I possibly could be. Well she's gone now, and it is definately a bit strange having another family here. I have become to used to the Meyfarths (and I miss my host parents in Equador!) and now there is a family out of the south and they do things a little bit differently. Nevertheless it should be an interesting 2 weeks with this family.

I have nothing very big planned for this easter break. My friend Chris had his birthday 2 days ago and we had a lot of fun celebrating. I'm planning on meeting up with some friends from school and hang out sometime before I go on My EUROTOUR! IM GETTING REALLY EXCITED FOR EUROTOUR!!!! It happens the day after Easter Break and I will be traveling Europe with 50 Exchange students for 19 days! Very exciting :D

So the weather is rainy right now and everyone has school so might as well go into some detail about what I've been feeling inside recently.

Recently I have been really feeling a development in my character. Exchange is like a "GROW UP" crash course. We are forced to grow up- FAST! We can't visit parents at breaks, we can't go to them when we have problems... we have to learn how to do that on our own. I feel like no one except other exchange students really understand how INFLUENTIAL an exchange year is. People just think that its some vacation to another country to study some language- but it is soooo much more than that. It teaches you how to live life, and how to be who you are. I feel sooo independant, which is good, but also a little bit bad. It's good because I feel like I can live on my own, that I can provide for myself, and that I can solve problems that arise. However, the one downside to gaining so much independence is the realization that I am still only 17. Though I feel like I am an adult- I am not. The reality is that I still have one more year of high school, and one more year living with my parents... It should be an interesting backwards transition. I'm planning on just taking advantage of it! One more year of free food!!! :D


One other thing that I really wanted to achieve when I came here was to not be worried about how other people thing about me, and not be such a people-pleaser. When I came here I morphed into a thousand different people just so that certain people would accept me as their friend. Over the months I have learned that yes I should be polite, and respectful, and friendly... but the most I can be is myself. I can do things for people, I can pretend to be someone I'm not- but that is just a silly show. The people who will really be there for me are the people who know and love me for who I really am! I'm done pretending to be someone I'm not. I'm ready to just be Ben.

With that thought in mind- I probably should take a shower- I smell. I wish all of you a very Happy Easter.