What a week!

I have been out of the house most of the time because the weather is so nice and there has been so much to do. My best friend Majo leaves to go back to Mexico TOMORROW so we have super busy with doing fun-crazy stuff.

Last week I wrote my Physik exam and it was really embarassing because I'm horrible at Physik and I just could not answer anything. But I made it through and was able to write down a few things. On Friday me and some friends went out to eat and go into the kino and on Saturday we had a going away party for Majo. It was really nice to all get together and eat and talk! We had so much fun grilling and reminiscing on the year together. That night we decided to go to this fest called Karneval der Kulturen. I had no idea what it was but Boyyyy was I in for a suprise.

Karnival der Kulturen is basically a HUGE hippy fest. On the night we were there, there were roughly 100,000 people from all over the world in this one park. The streets were lined with traditional food from all over the world like Afrika, Mexico, France, USA, India, etc... And there were what seamed like 100s of little stores with all different sorts of interesting gifts. The vibe was AMAZING! It was the first time that I really experienced a laid-back vibe from germany. Normally Germans are really punctual and stressed out about something, but here it was just hippy and peaceful and relaxed and it felt GREAT! There was this huge field with people dancing in circles to drums, and lights hanging in trees, and people singing and chanting... it was great.



On Sunday a good friend of mine came to visit from about an hour outside of Berlin. We all met up in the city at 11 O'clock and made our way to Mehringdam- where a big Culture parade was going to take place that day. We were pretty early and got some seats on the grass on the side of the road and watched at people started to pour into the streets. By noon the entire area was covered in people from all over the world. The parade started slowly and we saw people from all over the world performing traditional dances or other art forms. It was very interesting. The parade started to get a bit slow so a few hours in we started walking in the direction of the starting point and saw it much quicker. I loved the feel of world cultures all around me and I felt really good in this atmosphere. We ate some indien food and enjoyed the musik coming from what seemed like every single direction and had a GREAT time in the sun. It was a fantastic experience. That night we went back to the street fest and had another fun night in the field of hippies. Greatttt times :)


I have no school from Monday-Wednesday so I#m just enjoying the weather an relaxing. Today is my last day with Majo and tonight we are just going to hang out and maybe go to some places where we all share a lot of memories together- Potsdamer, Hauptbahnhof, and most of all- Hackesher! (anyone that hasnt been to berlin probably has no idea what I am talking about) Having my best friend leaving is a huge wake-up call! Its really telling me that I am leaving is just over a month! ONE MONTH! I HAVE ONE LEFT.... one. how the time flies. I can not even explain.

On Thursday i am back to school and will be writing two more exams on Thursday and Friday. I have no idea how to do the Biology one on Thursday... it is about the immune system but I was gone when they learned about it so I am clueless. Im hoping I will be able to do the Math exam on Friday. Im pretty decent in Math but again- I was gone from school during Eurotour so I missed quite a great deal. I'm not sweating it... I should be getting going. I need to get some food into my stomach and then call around to see what people are doing today. until later.

Im sorry I havn't written for a long time. I've been relatively busy having fun lately and have negleted to write. I havn't filled anyone in on what has gone on since I have returned from Eurotour at the end of April.

Tracing back in time...

WAIT- BEFORE I GO ON I FORGOT TO MENTION! I AM AN UNCLE! His name is Carter-Joseph! I'm really excited to meet him! Here is a picture of my family without me.


May has been extremely relaxed and fun!!! The first weekend of I went and visited some good friends in Neurruppin! It was very nice to go up for the day and hang with them all day and spend the night. We went to a carnaval time thing in the city center and it was a great litte-town feeling. School was normal the first full week back after Eurotour. I've realized that I have completely lost my ability to speak in French... but I can understand what everyone is saying and I can read! Its very strange... but i will practice over the summer and hopefully be ready to start that up in the beginning of the school.

The second weekend in May I got the opportunity to go to a professional soccer match in Berlin. It was the last match of the season (Berlin vs Bayern) they are rivals and we all knew Bayern would win because they are the best and we are the worst but it was REALLY fun! A friend of mine from school invited me to go to the game with some other people from school and we ended up having a GREAT time together.



Last week was very relaxing. We only had Monday-Wednesday of school- LONG WEEKEND! However on Tuesday morning the first person in our distrikt returned home for college. It was strange having people actually LEAVING... it kind of hit me fast- "wow, my amazing year WILL come to an end..." I think it really is going to hit me when one of my BEST FRIENDS- Majo from Mexico goes home in 9 days. Im dreading it!

During the long weekend my host sister's (who is abroad in equador) host brother (who is in Germany) came to visit Berlin. It was a really nice stay. He was really chill and we got along really good. The first day we stayed in Berlin and had a great picnik in Tiergarten with my friends then went to an exhibition on Frida Kahlo (famous Meixcan artistin), and after that we went out to Berlin and hung out with friends... but unfortunately there wasnt much taking place that night so he didnt really get to seee NIGHTLIFE in Berlin. The second day he was here we went to Hamburg with my host parents which was a really fun treat. We had a boat tour in the morning, walked around town, went out for food and coffee, visited the Hamburg Dungeon, ate once again, then headed back home. It was a beutiful German city with lots of Water. The third day he was here I had a bunch of friends over, my host brother had a few over, and my parents had some as well- and we all ate together and had a little party for no particluar reason. On the last day we just chilled until he needed to take the train back home. We grilled, had some coffee and kuchen, and went souvenir shopping. It was a really nice weekend.



This week I don't have much planned. I am just going to school, chilling with friends, and enjoying life. I have to write two tests this week which is a bummer (math and physik), but should be okay. This weekend me and some friends are planning on making home-made salsa and indian food then go salsa dancing later that night... I am looking forward to that

Life is ammmazing right now- I love where i am at! Today I spent two hours with a friend from school going out for coffee (i have two hours free every monday) and eating breakfast. It is sooo nice to just talk with people in German and them being able to understand! I am very proud with all the german i have learned and how far i have come. I am farrr from perfect, farrr from a native speaker, but I am fluent. I can express myself, I have a voice, and I understand what is going on... (other than this literature we are reading in German class). Although I am having the TIME of my life... I think in 7 weeks... I will be ready to go back. (wow 7 WEEKS... where has TIME GONE!) I wish I could stay a bit more during the summer- but I have had my slice of heaven and its about time to go back into realität. One of the biggest things I miss is my school system. The system here really likes to me not!!! And of course I miss people close to me. It will be great to see all of those people again!

Like i have said many times before- life just seems completely normal. I don't really feel like I am ON EXCHANGE... I feel kind of just normal at home. I don't have a problem yelling at my host brother when I get mad, or asking my host parents for things, or chilling with friends at school, or really anything. It seems like normal life. Amerika seems like this place far off... somewhere that I don't remember very well. I can't imagine going to high school next year, or speaking english all the time, or doing things american teenagers do! it seems unreal!

I also have been really thinking about my future. I am starting to think about what college i want to go to what I want to study, If I want to study abroad in the future, etc... I think I have my heart set on UW Madison for a college (hopefully I would get in)... but I'm open to see where fate takes me. Theres a huge part of me who wants to do an exchange year in a Spanish speaking country sometime. I know it would be hard, but I REALLLY need to learn spanish- thats one thing I had to learn the hard way! Sure French is beautiful and so fun to learn- but SPANISH IS NECCESARY! I regret not taking it. In my future I can imagine a lot of things for me. I can see myself in so many careers it is not even funny. International Studies would be a really cool thing... and from there I could desperately try getting into Foreign Service and working for the U.S. government... but there's a part of me who wants a different life. theres a part of me who wants to study English Education and join the peace corps, or another organization and travel around the world teaching english in exotic countries like Japan, China, Tailand, India, etc... but theI also have my heart in the arts... it would be really fun to get into writing, film, journalism, etc.. All that I know is that whatever I choose to do in the end... I will give it my all, and I will try my hardest.

Well that is all for now. In the next few weeks I will try to make more pictures of day-to-day life. until later!

ATTENTION- ANY OUTBOUND STUDENT READING THING!!!! I HAVE A HUGE WORD OF ADVICE!

I HIGHLY reccommend buying an electronic dictionary-translator before you leave on exchange. It will save you SOOO much time. It is the only thing that I regret not getting. A lot of time spent during class while on exchange is used looking up words that I hear or read. I have a pocket dictionary and I always told myself to get one but now that I am here I cant bring myself to buy one for 100€ when I know there is a cheeper one out there! GET ONE!!! You will use it EVERY DAY NEXT YEAR!
(*Parents reading this- it is a great going away present!)

I wrote an article for the school newspaper in my American school a while back which was just issued last week. This article was a rough overview about how my exchange has played out so far-

check it out at this link (page number 2):
http://memorialweb.madison.k12.wi.us/files/memorial/S&S7web.pdf