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.

My bio and rotary presentations are OVER!
It is a big load off of my chest. Both of them went very well.

In bio I think people were just suprised that I could talk about intellectual things. My German has a very conversational vocabulary.. it is seldom people in class here intellectual things one hears in presentations and things. But this presentation was in English and I really tried to show all of them what I am capable of.

Rotary Presentation was very nice. It wasn't a prepared speech like my bio speech. I has a powerpoint presentation and talked about my life in amerika and then my life here in berlin and the process of how I came here. I was happy that I was able to present for 20 minutes in German, but after doing it, it really shows me how much I can still improve. There are still a lot of words that I don't know- I struggle with descriptions and adjectives, forming ideas, and epressing emotions and and opinions.

it seems never-ending.

Im really busy right now.
I was just informed that I need to do a speech tomorrow in Biology. Everyone else has to just write a poster, but I am a guest speaker I guess. The whole 11th year will be coming and I will be giving a really boring speech about Social Darwinism in English. I hope they understand! (ps- thank you forensics for teaching me how to write speeches so fastt)

Other than that, I have my rotary presentation TOMORROW. I'm not done with that yet... but Im planning on kind of just talking and showing them a lot of pictures on Powerpoint.

Actually, I am supposed to give in this German homework on Tuesday about this book we read- but theres NO way I can do it. It is a practice essay. I am at NO level to be writing essays in German! It is simply undoable at the moment. I wish I could, I really do- And also, we are writing three Klausurs this week- which I am supposed to be participating in, but they ate my HARDEST subjects and it is only essays we are writing... about philisophical things. I can not do them this early in my German-learning career. That is the truth! Im not the person to find excuses to get out of work.

I wanted to mention that I have been mixing up my English and German lately. It is the weirdest thing... It happened to me right in the beginning of the exchange than stopped for a very long time.. and It just started happening again. I'll be talking in German, than half way through switch to Englisch... but not realize it... until the end. Or I will say really short and simple things in English, like "goodbye", or "thank you" but think I'm saying them in German... than 10 minutes later I realize that I had said it in English. I'll even substitute words into phrases ... today I was outside and I said to some people, "wollen wir herein go" (do we want to go inside).

Yes, so I have 2 more weeks until Easter Holidays. I am very excited for that! Now... back to work... I'm a good exchange student- actually doing homework!

ps- it is snowing right now. This has been the worst winter since 20-30 years or so. Arn't I lucky? -__-

Last weekend was the best Rotary Weekend I have had TO-THE-DATE! It was WUNDERBAR!

On Friday morning I met up with Maria (from Mexico) and Chris (from the United States) in Südkreuz train station. We then drove together from Berlin to Hamburg on one of the ICE trains. Once in Hamburg about 50 exchange students met up on the platforms and we all rode from Hamburg to Niebüll (in the near from Denmark) together. It was THE funnest train ride I have ever had!!!

(Map of Germany and the island of Föhr)

Once in Niebüll all of the exchange students from my distrikt (1940) and another distrikt (1890) that we had never met before, met up with one another and drove on a boat from Niebüll to the island of Föhr. The boat ride was very crammed and everyone was a little bit tired... but it started to snow very hard and that made things interesting.

(Boatride to Föhr)
(Boatride to Föhr)

That night, we all mingled together and got to know eachother while eating dinner. It was really fun meeting a ton of NEW exchange students. Later, we just all hung out in the hostel and had fun! I met a girl from Minnesota and she was GREAT! Her Minnesota accent reminded me so much of home! I hope that I can visit her in Hamburg!

(me and minnesota :) Dont-cha-know!)


On Saturday we walked about 5 kilometers along the North Sea. It was very nice wetter but the wind started getting a little bit cold after a while. After walking, we made our way to a swimbath where a lot of exchange students swimmed. I decided not to..(*ehm.. im 7 kilos heavier ehm*) I went with some friends to a hotel and we ate cakes and coffe and hot chocolate. After that we had some time to kill so we wandered aimlessly throughout the city and went on a little expidition!
(Me in front of the North Sea)

(me and two other Americans)

(North Sea)
(walking through the town)

That night we were required to make a presentation on our home country. We decided to sing the song "50 nifty Untied States." After the presentation we had the BEST night ever of just hanging out and dancing and talking! Rotary was REALLY cool. They weren't strict about when we had to be in bed, or how loud we were... they understood that we were almost 100 exchange students together from one weekend in which we are supposed to have fun, stay up late, be crazy... etc. Rotary in Germany is the BEST!


(American's Presentation)

The next day was sad because everyone had to say their goodbyes. We all rode the train from Niebüll-Hamburg together, but me and Maria had a layover there so we stayed with the exchange students from Hamburg for another hour or so, then rode the train back home to Berlin. Being back in Berlin was kind of a drag... I had no desire to go to school the next morning or do ANYTHING... i just wanted to be back with the wonderful people in my distrikt and the new distrikt. To make things worse, right when I got home I recieved an email from my travel agent with my return date information. It isn't that I never want to go home... it was just kind of a slap in the face- WOW this life here in Germany is going to be ending in 4 months!

Yes... so my date that I will be leaving Germany is July 5th. very bittersweet....

(92 exchange students waiting for the boat)

(Trainride back to Berlin)

This weekend brought all of us SO MUCH CLOSER TOGETHER! Before, some exchange students had a bit too much drama, and were kind of stupid about groups and not liking certain people. But after this weekend we all gained an understading for eachother... It is getting me SO SO SO excited for Euro-Tour. I can't believe that it starts in LESS THAN ONE MONTH! 3 weeks touring Europe, with the funnest people everr... will be absolutley FANTASTIC!

So things to come....

-Next monday I have to give a Biology presentation on Social Darwinism... should be interesting
-Next week I will to give a presentationa about my expereince to my host rotary club in German
-From the 31st of March to the 9th of April- I will be on Easter Break
-Euro Tour starts on the 4th of April

:) Ich liebe AUSTAUSCH :)

Berlin... 6 months!!!

It has been quite a while since I last wrote. The reason why- not too much has happend. I've just been hangin out with friends... learning... living!

School has been going very well lately. I don't have so much of a problem with understanding what is going on so it makes it A LOT easier. However, at the same time it is a little bit harder because now that I understand I have to keep up with everything going on... I havn't been learning German my entire life like the people in my class so logically, I need a little bit more "processing time" than everyone else- I have to listen to what the teacher has to say, process it, make sure I understand what they are asking, form an opinion, figure out how I want to say it, than raise my hand to answer. By that point either ...

A. someone alread said what I wanted to say or,
B. we have already moved on to another topic.

I'm really trying though to participate. Lately I feel like I have a good grasp on the German language, but I need to start learning more advanced vocabulary. I know all of the basic verbs that we use everyday to take, to sleep, to ride, to live ect... but I'm really diving into verbs we don't use very often such as to recognize, to reject, to survey, to consider... ect. Also I am trying to make my vocabulary a little more colorful... Adjectives and Adverbs like mysterious, reluctantly, terriffic, indimidating... I want to be taken seriously when people talk to me. I don't want to have the vocabulary of a 5 year old.

There are days when I feel like my German is completely WORTHLESS. When I totally misunderstand someone (usually with my host mom because she uses words I have NEVER heard of... all the time), when I read a text and find about 100 words I've never heard of... or when just completely mispronounce something. But I'm happy with how far my German has come. I have been here exactly 6 months and already can I read a book in German and understand what is going on. Right now, I am reading a book in German that roughly translates to, "Try to make your life" (Versuche dein Leben zu machen). While all of the kids in my advanced English class have to read a English book and give a 20-30 presentation on it, I have to read a German book, and give a presentation on it. My host mom recommended the book to me, and I am very suprised at how easily I can read it. It is about a Jew living/hiding in Berlin during Hitler's reign, and I'm learning a lot. I also had to read Homo Faber for German class. It is a German classic and I found it a bit more difficult, though understandable. Also, the more I speak and read, I am finding so many words that don't exist in English. When I speak in English, I try to find... SOMETHING to substitute the words... but it never suffices. What will I do without these words?

Other than school, I have been corresponding a bit with Amerika. I need to choose my classes for next year, my senior year, but it is a bit hard because I don't know which credits will transfer over from this year. I still havn't been able to choose ALL of my classes, but I have a pretty good idea about what I will choose- it is all resting on how much credit I will recieve for Sport. (I need 1,5 credits to graduate).

I'm really looking forward to traveling to the island of Föhr! It is happening not this weekend, but the weekend after (März 5-7). And until then, I am just living, and learning. I'm finding that the one downside to being able to speak German now is that I have to do homework. blah. I should do that now!

Until later!

A lot has happend since I have last posted. Last Friday I had to go into the city to meet up with all of my fellow classmates and attend a praktikum debriefing session. We met in Sankt Bonifatius Church in the middle of Kreuzberg (a part of Berlin that I really like). I was informed that the session would only be an hour or so- but after mingling with my classmates for a while- they said that it would last the entire afternoon! That was a bummer! Regardless, all of us went inside and discussed how our internships went! Most of the students were in really difficult places to work like in hospitals and old homes- It was a little awkward because they were telling stories of how dreadful and hard it was, and then it came my turn and I was like, "it was really FUN!!!" I went on to describe what I did everyday, and then the teacher kept asking me questions and I got all choked up and couldn't speak German- so I felt super STUPID! Then we had to sit through a service at the church, which put me into a worse mood because I'm really not into Catholic church!!! When I got home, my host family informed me that traffic was too bad so we would leave for Austria in the middle of the night, but I couldn't leave the house just in case they changed their minds... so that left me the entire day to sit at home and do- nothing! And of course, my entire family was screaming at eachother because they were so stressed out about remembering to pack everything... sometimes I think stress to Germans is a form of love.

At 2AM we left the house. It was quite a trip- jammed in the back of a 5 seat car, with 5 people, and PACKED with luggage! I tried sleeping, but it didn't work very well. I got one hour of sleep at minimum. But I was really excited to get there, so it kept my spirits up. We finally arrived at our hotel at 12 o'clock the next day. Everyone was exhausted... we unpacked, walked around the town a bit, chilled in the hotel, and went to sleep!

For the next week I had an AMAZING time snowboarding with my host family. We would get up at 8.30 every day, eat breakfast at 9, get to the ski lifts at about 10, then start skiing around 10.30 or so. We skiied until 3 or 4 than went back to the hotel to the spa. The sauna and steam room were amazing!!! especially after going skiing all day. Relaxing there was a huge highlight to my vacation. The hot air from the Finnish sauna, with a mixture of the sharp mist in the steam room, simply made all of the pain in my muscles disappear. Needless to say, it was also was a very interesting cultural experience... you see- Germans don't wear any clothes in the sauna. That was a bit of a shock to me when I went into the spa for the first time and saw men and woman mingling together without clothes on. But I've been out of the country long enough to simply accept the way other countries do things... "when in rome, do as the romans do!" At 7 or 8 we would all go to dinner and eat amazing 5 course meals!!! The food was so delicious! It never seemed to stop coming!!!... I think I gained a few kilos! After dinner we all just chilled and went to sleep. I had no lust to go out to diskos or anything... I was always DEAD by that time!

The trip was fantastic in general. My host brothers were very annoying at times- constantly throwing snowballs, being really immature, etc... but I can't really complain. Austria was beautiful and I am so thankful to my host parents for taking me along.










Yesterday was my first day of real school since 7 WEEKS! It was a bit of a shocker to go back! My first 3 hours were cancelled (typical). and then I had History, German, and French. It was nice seeing everybody again. There were many new faces in my class. 6 or 7 students spent the first half of the year abroad and now are back. They seem cool- I'm excited to get to know them. However, It also was a little strange being back because there a ton of media people outside our school taking pictures and things. About two weeks ago the Berlin Morgenpost had a huge artical about a molestation scandal from the 70s and 80s at my school that was just uncovered. And this scandal isn't just a few offenses- they are saying 20 cases at least. If you really want to read about it you can find articals about it in the NYT or Washington post... It's a really big deal here in Germany because it's the first major offense from the German Roman Catholic Church. eeeeks. Good thing that it happened over 20 years ago! Here are a few photos in the newspapers of my school... they make it look so ominous!





So yes- back to normal life in Berlin. Life is good. There are many things to look forward to. In March there is a trip with other exchange students to an island in the north of Germany. In April we have Easter Break and directly after that is finished I will be going on the EUROTOUR 2010 for 2.5 weeks. That leaves June... and then comes July. I was just contacted by my travel agent Ed, and I have to have my flight booked by the middle of the month. My mom is taking care of it, but it looks like I will be flying back sometime between the 5th and 8th of July. It looks like I will indeed make the Grand Rapids Conference- my school ends on the 2nd of July! Right now it seems so far away, but I'm already more than half way done, and I know time will fly. I'm just living these days while they last!

Until Later!

Today was my last day of Praktikum :(

It was a GREAT experience!!!

here are some pictures...

me and nico reading-


me, another intern, and 2 teachers


trouble maker!


getting reading to walk to the afterschool!


In the afterschool (where they eat)-


the teachers lounge-


favorite kid :)


reading :)



the best school song EVER! too bad my battery ran out :(



GOODBYE PRAKTIKUM!!!