Goodbye German Adventure!

Merinda woke me at 3:45 am to eat breakfast and get dressed.  It's 4 am and we're leaving for the airport.  Goodbye German Adventure!

Wednesday June 19

Today after school, I went to Tom's house to go swimming in his pool.  I was really excited because I would be able to see Tom before I go, and I would be able to swim too!  It seemed like forever before we got in the car but it was less than five minutes!  Even the short drive there seemed to go in slow motion, I must have been jumping out the window of the car with excitement!  Finally, after what felt like hours, we were pulling into his driveway, and I was ready to spend as much time as I could with Tom.

Tom and I almost reached the speed of light running to the pool!  His sister and her friend were already there so we had a fun time jumping in and splashing them until we were all even more wet than the water in the pool!  Then we took two diving rings, threw them, and swam after them.  When we all came up, Tom had one and his sister's friend had one, so we all started wrestling one another to gain possession of both rings.  After about a half of an hour, we all got out to dry and rest.

Tom started showing me more magic card tricks.  It was amazing to watch cards disappear, then reappear, then go back into the shuffled deck only to be drawn out again.  He even taught me a few but I failed most of the time and dropped all the cards or something like that.  After that, we went upstairs to play Mine-craft on his computer to show me his house he made.  All too soon, it was time to go home, but not before getting his Email address!

Tuesday

On Saturday, after the birthday party, I found out that I am coming back to America on Friday!!!  It was a bit of a shock when I realized I was leaving my new family and my friends, and Friday is so soon I do not have enough time to say goodbye to my friends, to satisfy me!  But then, I thought of my American family, friends, and home and I was excited to see them.  Now, today, my heart is torn between staying here in Germany forever, dodging police my whole life if I have to, and coming home Friday!  I know I do not really have a say in the matter, but I can still dream!

Last night, I made a card for each of my Tuesday teachers.  I still have to get one to my Art teacher because I do not have her again this week and I did not have any of the cards ready on Monday.  And today my Philosophy teacher was gone and I do not have him again this week so I will have to get his card to him sometime this week too.  I hope I can reach them before Friday because they are really nice teachers and I would hate it if they did not get a card.  If I can not get to them before Thursday, I will have to give them to my friends to give to them or something like that.

There are reminders everywhere that I am going on Friday.  The biggest one is that my stuff is quickly disappearing into my suitcase.  Before I know it, I will not have anything left except my underwear!  But I have to at least, put most of the stuff in my bags.  That is fine with me because Merinda organized my stuff for me so I only have to put it in my suitcase.  How nice of Merinda to do that and make it easy for me.  Still, it is another reminder that I am leaving my new home.

Sunday June 16

Today was probably my favorite day this whole trip!  We went to visit the Eltz castle, which is said to be the most beautiful castle in all of Europe!  I would not be surprised if it was the most beautiful castle on earth, even though it was not big, it seemed to hold a majestic area around it.  I could not believe my eyes when we rounded a sharp corner and there it was, shining and sparkling in the sun as if to say:  come to me, explore my rooms and halls, come and live in me forever and that is all you will ever need or want.

It seemed like the blink of an eye before we had to go and I think none of us wanted to leave the amazingly, magically, beautiful castle!

Check out this video on YouTube about Burg Eltz:

http://youtu.be/mnaTBf2Izaw

Saturday

Today was Simon's birthday party at last!  I got up, ate breakfast, got dressed, and Merinda took me to the bus stop.  The whole way, I was giddy with excitement!  He had said in the invitation that we were going "summer sledding".  I had heard of these bobsled-like things that go down a small track but I had never been on one and did not know how fast and how safe they were.  When I got to the school, I waited for everyone else to come and last of all, Simon and his dad drove up.  But it was only Simon, Mark, Lukas, and me because Resul, Denis and Yasin could not make it.  Too bad, they really missed out!

When we got to Simon's house, we did gifts first and faster than you can say "Jack Robinson", we were driving to the summer sledding.  When we got there, we bought tickets and got in the bobsled.  There was a big stick between our legs on each bobsled, this was the brake when pulled back and the accelerator when pushed forward.  We went countless times down and then getting pulled up two-hundred meters (one thousand feet) by a chain.  We even found a camera hidden just off the track taking photos of us going down and started waving at it, making funny faces at it, and even just sticking our tongues out at it!  We all had a lot of fun and hardly wanted to pause to eat we were so excited to go again, but it was too good to last.

When we got home, Simon got out a pack of strange looking cards.  These were apparently cards to a game called Werewolf.  After several rounds of Werewolf, we decided to go outside and play with the water guns Simon had given us.  I was on a team with Lukas and we ran off as fast as we could to find a good hiding place while Simon and Mark counted.  It was fun to run around without shirts squirting each other when they least expected it.  I am glad I went and we all had tons and tons of fun that will stick in our memories forever!

Friday

Today I did not get up with Kyra to go to school again.  Jörg was planning to take me to see the office, this time with copies of my parents passports so we could apply.  But then, he got called into a meeting before he could take me so Merinda dropped me off at the bus stop to go to school.  If we had known Jörg's work would call before he could take me to the office, I might have caught the first bus with Kyra!  But I am not complaining because I got to sleep in and not to mention read a few chapters of my book!

After school, Duncan came over and Liam automatically suggested that we play with his cars.  But a little later, he wanted to practice karate with Kyra and me.  So we all went outside and stayed long after Kyra went inside again.  We found our wands and set out on an amazing journey trying to keep evil wizards away from the Fire Staff.  We also picked up a lot of friends along our quest, facing betrayal and gaining information;  false and true.  It was a ton of fun and I reluctantly let him go when his mom came but it sounds like we hopefully will get together. 

Thursday

Today when Kyra's alarm clock went off, I got up and started to get dressed.  But she stopped me and said that I would miss the first part of school to go to the office again.  So I got back into bed to wait for Jörg to wake me up to go.  A few hours later, Merinda came in to wake me up and gave me a list of things to do including:  eat breakfast, brush teeth, do a page of math, and change my bed sheets.  By the time I had done all that, we were about ready to go.

When we got there, I was so nervous but I did not know why, these people could not hurt me.  Jörg talked to them for a while saying some things.  I recognized things like "Das ist schade!"  (that is a shame or what a pity).  I was giddy when we got out of there.  If Jörg was saying "What a pity", that probably did not mean good news.  I was right.  We could not even register because we did not have a copy of my mom's and dad's passport.  No wonder Jörg was saying that.

I finally got to the last two hours of school.  I got off the bus just as one of my school friends Resule got on!  And when I stepped on the pavement, I came face to face with two other girls from my class!  What was going on, were they ditching class?  Then they told me that the last two hours had been canceled because Mr. Horn was making a big test for SL and the homework hour had been canceled too (for some odd reason).  So much for catching the last of school!

Wednesday

Today, Kyra and I did not have school but Synja did, so while we slept in, Synja got ready for school and Merinda got ready for work.  Eventually, Joerg got me up so I could eat breakfast and get ready to go talk to some people to see if I could stay three weeks longer than the 90 day limit.  We quickly got in the car to go to the office but realized half way there that they would be closed when we got there.  Oh well, we will just have to try again Friday after school of course.

When Synja got home from school, we all went outside to ride bikes.  At first, I could not find my helmut so I could not do a lot except chase them around.  When I finally found it, I was ashamed at how obvious it was:  It was on top of one of the scooters in plain sight!!!!  After that, I had a lot more fun because I could now ride my bike.  When we decided to go into the garden, I memorized where I put my helmut and cleaned up the bikes.

When we wandered into the garden, we found our sticks we used as wands and immediately started saving people from the bad witches.  And after saving all the people from one witch, we would put them to sleep for seven minutes and then they woke up to find themselves good witches instead of bad.  Then, they would help put the next evil person to sleep so they would wake up and be good guys with us.  Liam seemed to like this game as much as the rest of us and to make it fair, he gave the bad guys the same power as us so now we were constantly being turned from bad to good and back again.  I think we all enjoyed most of it and I did not want to come in for dinner at first!

Tuesday June 11

Today in PP, the dentist came in.  After explaining a few things she started calling us up one at a time while the rest of us did a worksheet she gave out.  When she called us up, she smeared this stuff on our teeth and it would highlight the unwanted bacteria on our teeth.  I had just eaten a bite of apple before school started because Merinda had put two kinds of apples in and I wanted to taste the difference.  So I had what I called an embarrassing amount of gunk on my teeth compared to how much I had after I had brushed my teeth.  It was a relief when it was time to go.  I will need to keep track of when the dentist comes in the future!

A few days ago, my friend Simon invited me to his birthday next Saturday.  So after school, Kyra took me to go get him a gift card for ten Euros (the Euro is German money).  I thought we were done and were going to wait at the bus station until the bus came again but then Kyra took me by surprise and bought me an ice-cream!  We sat at the park to eat them and when we were done, we still had enough time to visit the Abby that had closed about a year ago.  Kyra and I just took a quick peak at the gardens and then left.  We still had plenty of time to kill and so she gave me a short tour of a small part of Siegburg and the most indirect way to the train station to catch our bus there.  I thought that was really nice of Kyra to show me a little bit of Siegburg, not to mention the ice-cream.

When we got on the bus and talked a little about the Abby and Siegburg, I guess the guy in front of us heard us talking in English because he turned around in his seat and said in a flat tone:  "Hi, velcome to Germany.  Ve are on a German bus going to ze bus station."  And then he asked, "kannst Du Deutsch sprechen"  Kyra said "Ja, ich kann" (yes I can), so he explained in German he was a comedian but then said "it was a joke" in English.  He continued making funnier and funnier jokes through the bus ride, some about the bus driver's driving, some about his English, and even just saying that we were in Germany on a German bus, and surrounded by German people!  It seemed like two seconds until the bus ride was over and I almost (if not almost, then I really was) reluctant to get off!

Monday June 10

Today we had a grammar test in English.  It was about the two forms of verbs in the past tense.  For example, "see" is the verb, "I saw" is one version and "I have seen" is the other.  This test, I am sure I did good in because we learned this in first and second grade, but you have to give these kids credit.  They started English in third grade and that was just a little vocabulary and already, they are so far!  If a German exchange student came, even at age twelve, they would be able to talk to us in English and we most likely would not know more than a word of German.  Lucky them!!!

A few hours later in Art, most of us finished our mazes.  However, some of the students had missed Art 1st week, so they still had a little while until they finished.  When most of us had finished, our Art teacher hung an example of a colored maze on the wall.  It had been done by a student and our Art teacher explained that we needed to color our mazes, but not just any way we wanted, we had to choose three different shades of the same color and she gave an example of how to slightly overlap them so the maze would slowly get lighter and then fade slowly dark over and over.  It had a cool effect when done correctly and it made me think of a maze of tunnels with an occasional torch here and there along the secret passage way.  But the bell rang before we got to try to do it ourselves, so I will have to wait until next week.

When I got home, Merinda let Synja, Liam and I go outside.  We found sticks to use as wands and started protecting the baby crocodiles from the bad guys.  We yelled nonsense words and waved our wands around.  This caused the bad guys to fall into a deep sleep and when we woke them up, they were nice guys again.  This game continued for a while until Merinda called us in.  It was fun and Liam enjoyed it too.  Usually, he wants to run from the bad adult crocodiles which is fun too but I am glad Liam agreed to do something different.

Sunday June 9

Today was the neighborhood flea market.  There were a lot of booths just around the house to look at but I did not go more than a few feet off the property line.  We had a small booth with a few items.  I did not see if anyone bought anything because I mostly stayed in the garden reading.  Synja came and joined me and we both just sat and read and read and sat.  It was very pleasant to lay in the sun, not really doing anything.

But then the wind started to pick up and the temperature began to drop.  Soon, it got to cold for me and I went inside to read.  The flea market ended then and everyone else came in.  Kyra turned on High School Musical for us.  I liked it more than I thought I would and I did not complain when Kyra turned on the second one.

I am surprised at how much I want to go to school tomorrow.  I cannot wait to see my friends again even though it has only been two days since I saw them last.  I just feel so comfortable at school now.  But sometimes, I wonder if I were a German citizen going to the same school and knowing German, would my friends be the same friends I have now?  Would I even be in the same class?  I guess I will never know the answer to that question. 

Sunny Saturday June 8

Today Merinda announced that Tom and his sister would be coming.  At first, I did not know who she was talking about and I had to think for a minute or two and when it came to me, I realized it should have been obvious who Tom was and I felt a little ashamed.  Later, Merinda asked why I had not been excited when she had said he was coming and I explained that I had to think before I remembered who he was and she laughed at that.  I guess Tom and I had not seen each other for too long.

When Tom finally came, he brought a deck of cards.  It was definitely not a trick deck (I know because he let me sift through it) and he had short sleeves so he could not have slipped a card up his sleeve.  How then, was he able to pull off such amazing card tricks!  He made cards disappear, he made them switch places, he even pulled a money joker off the top and put it in the middle, then shuffled it twice and let me shuffle three times.  Then I held the cards out face down and he chose one and guess what?  It was the money joker!!!  It was incredible!  I even searched the deck but found no other money joker.  How he did it, I might never know.

After the Amazing Magic Man Tom, we worked on the house frame that Jörg, Synja, Kyra and I started several weeks ago.  Tom seemed to have a fair amount of experience with tools we used.  We were able to replace the skinny posts holding up the roof for bigger, stronger beams.  We also fit an opening where the door would go.  However, we still have a long way to go.  We still need to cut the bamboo in their yard for the walls of the playhouse.  Our work was made short because it started to rain so we all went in.

Inside, Merinda had set out origami papers and books so we could do origami while the rain slowly cleared.  Tom seemed to know every model in the book and he even turned a house into a with a few swift folds.  Kyra was intrigued by the models and tried a couple herself.  She got her folds of her first few models better than I did on my first time ever.  Finally the rain stopped and we went outside to work again.  We got a little more done but then Tom's mom came to pick him and his sister up.  I hope Tom and I can hang out again sometime soon because we really had a ton of fun. 

Thursday June 6th and Friday June 7th

Yesterday I had karate after school.  Kyra and I got there and waited for the others to come.  When everyone that was coming had arrived, the teacher told us to follow him, so we ran after him once around the gym but then he ran into the hall, in and out the boys changing room and finally outside, down one block, and onto the grass of the park!  We practiced for a while, then we gathered around a willow tree and started fighting it!  If only it were the womping willow from Harry Potter.  But soon after that, we had to go in, to continue practicing.  It was still fun though.

Today in English we had a vocabulary test.  I was not prepared because I thought the grammar test was today and the vocabulary test was Monday, so I did not study the German English words I had written down for homework.  I only got three and I do not know if those are right or not.  I hope I got those right because I will need all the points I can get.  I will need to pay better attention to the dates of my tests.

If you want to be an exchange student, it is not as simple as just buying a plane ticket and going to school.  In Germany, there is a law that says people can only stay as a tourist for ninety days.  We thought we could register me for longer after I entered Germany which we can, but it is a lot harder.  The longest I will be able to stay is one day after school ends IF I am lucky.  I might have to leave within the ninety days length which ends in a few weeks.  That is a big bummer. 

Wednesday June 5

Today my Math/P.E. teacher switched Math with P.E. again.  I am starting to think it is permanently Math twice first hours and P.E. at the end of the day.  After Math, I had Bio twice where my class went into the lab next door.  There seemed to be a little bit of every animal in the world!  In fiction books, you read about pickled eyes and stuff in the creepy attic or something like that.  Well,  it turns out they were not lying, there were slices of muscles in jars and reptile skins and tons of bones!  It was disgusting, cool and interesting all at the same time.  I cannot believe that things like that are found in schools.

In the break, we played "cops and robbers".  I was a cop so I partnered up with Luke and we patrolled the back of the school.  We did not see anyone after three rounds so we went inside and chased a few but only caught one because they saw us first.  I guess we were not sneaky enough to fool them.  It was fun but we were all tired from running around the school.

After school, Merinda let Synja and me go outside so we paced a football back and forth.  Then, we came in to eat and then started on our homework.  We got it done as fast as we could (which was not very fast because we kept getting sidetracked thinking about what we would play outside when we finished).  The minute we finished, we rushed outside to "play Quidditch" .  We took a ball and used bamboo for our broom sticks and threw the ball at each other trying to make a goal.  It was fun, but we should have known it was too good to last.

Tuesday June 4

Today all of my classes were doubles, Politics twice, English twice and Music.  In Politics, we had a substitute.  She was really strict and would not even let us drink from our water bottles!  I was glad when we moved on to English where we read a story and did the vocabulary for it.  Then we talked about the two ways you can say a verb in it's past tense form; for example "go" would be "went" and gone".  It was a fun day and all in six hours!

When Kyra and I got home, we ate lunch and Merinda let Synja, Liam, and I go outside before homework.  We started pretending we were circus performers and needed to earn enough money to buy orange juice and Nutella (a kind of chocolate spread similar to peanut butter) for our bread.  And then we started using money to buy the stuff to make pizza and selling pizza while we performed!  Liam even started selling ice-cream to Synja and me!  We all had a lot of fun until Merinda called us in for homework.

I am surprised the homesickness has only whacked me over the head really hard once.  Maybe it is that I always have something to take my mind off it.  Like homework or playing with Liam are some of the things that would distract me.  There are very few times where I have felt or had time to feel homesick.  Which is a good thing because I do not want to feel homesick or sorry for myself.

Monday June 3

Today was a long day at school but it felt like a short day.  In English, we talked about past tense and how that changes the noun.  It was a nice refresher and reminded me of my grammar class, even though the teaching method was different.  I guess it is good to have it taught to me two different ways.  It reminded me that there are many ways to teach one thing and if one does not make sense, another probably will.

When I was waiting for Kyra's last class to end, the grounds keeper who does not speak English invited me to play foosball on the foosball table with him.  I thought "he doesn't stand a chance so I'll let him score once". Well, not only was he really good, he was almost impossible to beat! That one goal I allowed him, transformed into another and another until the score stood:  3 (me) to 10 (the old grounds keeper)!  The next game I got to 5 before he caught up and the score stood 5 (me) to 10 (the grounds keeper).  Ouch!  I will have to practice before Thursday so the scores will switch to favor me!

I now feel like I know the school almost top to bottom.  Me and my friends will often wander aimlessly through the halls and corridors talking.  Because of this, I now feel comfortable alone in the school although I am glad I have my friends to look after me.  I would not be this far if it were not for my friends and their help.  My friends have prevented a great deal of homesickness from getting to me.

Saturday June 1 and Sunday June 2

Today, after breakfast, Synja and I went outside to fly paper airplanes.  The wind was blowing so hard that when we threw the planes into the wind, they often flew backwards!  It was cool to see the loops and rolls they did.  I am really surprised that none of the planes got lost, even though we threw them really high.  It was cool to see how the paper airplanes were effected by how we folded their wings, how hard the wind blew, and the shape of the airplane. I think airplanes are amazing machines.

Yesterday, we had a party with some friends of Merinda's.  They all spoke really good English because they had all been to America at least once.  We had a fun time talking and eating.  After brownies, cherry pie and nut cake, we went for a long walk.  It rained on us half way through the walk but we were all having so much fun that we did not care!  Nothing could have dampened our spirits that night.

When we got home, Kyra made pizza and we all had apple juice and bubbly water.  They talked about all the places they had been and the things they had seen while traveling.  Liam put on his viking costume and was fighting imaginary dragons while we laughed and continued talking.  Finally, when we could not eat another bite, we all said goodbye and went to bed.  I hope we have more parties like that.  I really had fun.

New Photos!

We added photos to Colman's post about the visit to the museum (from Sunday May 26) ... so be sure and have a look!

Holliday in Holland (Thursday May 30)

On Thursday, we had a quick breakfast and then faster than you can say "Jack Robinson", we were in the car driving to a place called "Three Points Corner".  

"Dreiländerpunkt" is German for "Three Countries Point"

Not really sure where I am

... we all are ...

Three Points is the place where the corners of Germany, Holland, and the Netherlands all meet.  There was a small circle and a solid stone post that I sat on, then I walked around the circle and as I walked into each country, I muttered the name of that country.  








Right next to Three Points was a park.  We all had fun running and jumping until it was time to go. Then we got in the car and we were off again.

The next few hours, we spent in Holland.  We drove around for a while looking at the city and all of its buildings.  Then, we all felt hungry and we needed to go grocery shopping anyway so we went to the store.  We got some chips to snack on while we looked for a restaurant to eat at.  We quickly found one and ordered french fries and enjoyed a great lunch.

Eating the famous "French Fries" which actually were "Belgian Fries" made in the Netherlands.

By the time we got home, we were all ready for bed so we brushed our teeth and hopped into bed.

I thought it was interesting to see the differences in road lines between Germany and Holland.  Many were the same, but some were very different.  For example, the stoplights were striped black and white, and they had stoplights and intersections for bikes on the bike path.  Is that cool or what?  Even countries right next to each other have some differences!

Wednesday May 29

Today I would normally have P.E. twice, Bio twice, German, Break, and Math twice.  But today, Kyra had piano lessons so I left after break, that means I really had the first five lessons and break.  The teacher for P.E. (the teacher for Math and P.E. are the same) so I had Math instead of P.E. along with the "short" day.  In Bio, we watched a movie about wings and people that are trying to make robot birds.  It was interesting even though I could not understand it.  That will just motivate me to learn German even more.

I think the most different thing about Germany and America is the language.  Even though there are a lot of words that are similar, there are also a lot of differences too.  For example:  in English, everything is an "it" unless it is alive, then it is a he or a she.  But in German, everything, even if it is an object, is male, female or neutral!  If the object is male, they say "der", and if it is female, they say "die", and then the object, and for neutral, they say "das".  Der, die and das all mean "the", and there is not a rule for the sex of something, when you learn a noun in German, you have to learn the sex too!  I think it is fascinating how even language is different from country to country.

I am surprised at how fun school can be.  Even though I can understand very little of what is said.  I am finding a few ways to participate in class and the classes I cannot participate in, I just read my German Made Simple book when the teacher is not talking.  When I talk to my friends, I often add a new word I have learned in my sentences without noticing.  But I know I still have a lot to learn.

Tuesday May 28

Today I had six hours of school:  Politics twice, English twice and Music twice.  In English, we talked about past tense and how the verb changes.  Then we did a worksheet on that same subject.  When we finished with that, some of the students were called out to talk to the teachers.  I do not know what they talked about but they all seemed very pleased after, so I assume it was something good.  It was a fun class period and the teacher did not give us homework even though it was a short day.

In Music, we continued working in groups on a radio program to present to the class.  My group's theme is how children make pocket money.  I wrote about how kids in America usually work to make money.  Then we translated it to German so I could practice and present it!  I see it as a fun way to learn German.

It is amazing how much time has gone by since I got off the plane two months ago.  I think part of it is that having work to do, takes my mind off the time.  It just hit me that I lost track of the days and never noticed until now.  Another part is having good friends that I can trust to help me get through school and family that keeps me from thinking about home and homesickness.  I hope it stays like that forever no matter where I am.

Monday May 27

Today I had lessons:  French twice, German, English twice, break, Art twice.  In English, we talked about topic sentences.  Then we had to write about a tourist attraction next to where we live.  I did mine on Yellowstone National Park.  I am glad I can participate in English.

Art was really fun too.  We were drawing the labyrinth that the Minotaur is said to be in in the Greek Mythology.  I could not believe it, I pride myself on my mazes so it was no sweat!  But what the teacher wanted was for us to draw each wall as a four centimeter thick line.  This changed things a little but it was still no sweat.  I cannot wait to finish it and see how well my classmates can do it.

Germany and America have more than just classroom differences; for example, in the morning it is rude to not say "good morning" to someone the first time you see them that morning.  Also, if you're talking on the phone or to someone in person, you not only say "good bye", but you also say "tell the family hi" or something like that.  And if you were to go to someones house, and if they serve food while you are there, it is impolite to put one hand in your lap or under the table.  Not only that, you cannot use your hands to eat if you can help it.  Bread, you can eat with your hands but usually not pizza!  Some of these things sound weird to us, but our manners might sound just as weird to them.

Sunday May 26

This morning, we got up at eleven o'clock.  After Frühstück (breakfast), we got ready to go somewhere.  When we asked Merinda and Jörg, they would not give us an answer that satisfied us.  Then we were in the car going to a museum - but which museum?  What did it show?  We soon got an answer to all our questions.

When we got to the museum, I was so excited, I could hardly sit still!  I was not disappointed.  They had the original Neanderthaler bones (that are 42,000 years old) and some very old pots and tools.

Some pots could hold a six year-old child, others were made of gold!  There were weapons and tools of every shape and size and even stuff like hairpins, earrings, necklaces and bracelets.

But after the Neanderthaler and Bronze Age things, we went to the Roman section.  There were rolls of parchment, keys of every shape and sizes.  Chests and coins, even handcuffs and jail window bars!  I thought the keys and locks were the most fascinating in the Roman section.

There were wooden keys, metal keys, keys that had rings on the end, and keys that looked like ship anchors.  It was all amazing and cool beyond words.  All too soon, we had to leave but I hope we can go again and see the rest of the museum!

Building a bamboo play house

Yesterday we went outside and started building a small playhouse. At first, Jörg would only speak German to me and I was totally lost! But then, he switched back to English.  

We almost had the frame done, but when I looked at the wood we had left, it was not enough to make the walls!  When I asked Merinda, she said we were going to cut down the bamboo in their yard to make the walls!  I cannot wait to finish the house because it will be one of the few forts I can stand up in.  I hope we work on it more soon.

The grass we planted on the small slope in their backyard has sprouted.  (If you don't know what I am talking about, see blog post: What a Fun Weekend).  But it is not ready to mow yet.  I cannot wait to be able to walk on the new lawn.  It will double our play area and give us even more room to run around!

Several weeks ago, Synja started reading Harry Potter.  I was already reading Harry Potter but I was on the fourth, so I challenged Synja to a race:  I would continue with the fourth, but I would also start the first one.  Who ever finished the first book to the seventh book first would be the winner.  Synja is already on the fourth book!!! I am on the fifth and the third but I think she will still win!  She is just inhaling the books at light speed.

Friday May 25

Today I had a short day of school.  The lessons I had were German (twice), Politics, French (twice), and English.  In English, we corrected our tests and talked about when to drop the y and add the ie on words like fly to flies.  Then our teacher gave us two work sheets for homework.  It is cool that the school teaches English and French or Latin.  The kids choose whether they take French or Latin.

If you were taking a trip to Germany, here are some places I would tell you to go and things I would tell you to do and see.  If you were to go to school here, you should expect to be frustrated with not knowing what people are saying.  I quickly found that if my friends are talking, they speak in German only, even if I am listening.  If you were going to Germany with your parents or children, I would tell you to go and see all the castles or cathedrals you could.  There are some amazing ones in Germany!  You would also need to know that the roads are a lot smaller, the road that leads to the highway would pass as a one way road!  And on the highway, one and a half lanes is one American highway lane!!!  You can see and do a lot of things here that you cannot do in America.  I am finding that to be true more and more every day!

I cannot believe how much my school friends have accepted me!  I feel like I am still going to Teton Jr. High.  The only thing different is how big the school is here!  My classmates make sitting in a classroom and not understanding the teacher feel as easy as doing Math homework.  Without them, I would be as lost and confused as a fish out of water!

Thursday May 23

Today I had a long day at school.  My classes included Math twice, Politics, History twice, break, SL and homework hour.  I am not sure what SL is.  Our Math/P.E. teacher comes and teaches if not math, something else.  I will have to ask Kyra what SL means.

After school, I had to go to karate.  Kyra needed to study for a test tomorrow so she didn't come.  I would rather go to karate like I did than study for a test.  But if I had a test the next day, I would study for it.  I am lucky I only get English tests here!

I have noticed even more differences between America and Germany!  One of them is:  in the classrooms, there are no pencil sharpeners!  You have to bring your own.  And another one that I noticed early on is that every class period when the teacher walks in, we all stand up and say "Guten Morgen Frau/Herr ... " which means "good morning Mrs. Mr. ..." (even if it is afternoon)!  I hope I am not giving the teachers in America any ideas!

Wednesday May 22

Today, Synja had school and Liam had kindergarten.  However, Kyra and I did not have school!  I woke up to find a note from Merinda telling me to do a few pages of a workbook she left me.  The workbook was all in German and had ja and nein questions about a story similar to Hansel and Gretel.  After I finished that, I followed the notes instructions and practiced the piano.

When Merinda came home, she checked my work.  Out of nine questions, I had three or four correct.  Ouch!  So then, she had me translate six sentences of the story to English using my German/English dictionary.  It was hard but I got it done eventually.  I hope I do not have to do that again for a while!

Here we get so many holidays, I would not be surprised if I were to add the number of school days here and find they were almost the same as the number of school days in Teton Valley!  We just get a lot of school days off here in Germany.  I am not complaining though.  I do not mind!  Merinda says that the breaks are coming to an end and we will go a long time without a school day off.  Oh well, at least I will be around my school friends more!

Tuesday May 21

Today I went to an outside kindergarten that Merinda works at.  (Kindergarten is a German word and means:  Kinder=children and Garten=garden).  They walk down to a forest and play by a small creek.  I made little boats to float down the creek.  All the kindergarteners were so cute.  They were riding their bobby cars around.  Merinda and I became toll booths for the kids.  It was really fun even though I could not understand the kids even if they spoke a word I would usually know because they spoke quietly.

After "clean-up time", we all sang songs that had tunes that I did not know.  After everyone had their backpacks on, we started to walk back to the road.  The kids all seemed like they did not want to leave kindergarten because the grownups are always so nice to them.  But they all got in their cars and left to go eat lunch.  I hope I can go again sometime soon!

At three o'clock, Synja and I went to Duncan's house.  Synja played with Duncan's twin sister Emma.  We all had fun on their swing.  I pushed and when it got high enough, I jumped on.  Sometimes we fell off and other times we all slipped of on purpose so we landed on our hands and knees letting the swing go over us once and then we would run to safety.  It was really fun and I did not want to leave!

Weekend plus Monday May 20

This week we have the the weekend and Monday through Wednesday off!  Saturday, we slept in later than usual and had lunch for breakfast and then went to Siegburg.  First, we went to the "meatsy-man" for a pizza and fanta (a German fizzy drink similar to coca cola but tastes like oranges and has no caffein).  Then we went to the park where Liam, Synja and I made trains on the slides.  It was really fun and cool because the slides went up a small sand hill so we would run up as fast as we could trying not to slip down again.  After an ice-cream each, it was time to go home.

Sunday, we worked in the garden and flattened some lumps in the yard.  After we flattened them, we planted some flowers and grass.  Four hours later, we had everything set up, lumps flattened, seeds planted and a pole standing up to scare the birds away.  It was hard but fun.  But I was ready for bed after it!

Monday started out with us cleaning the upstairs.  My job was vacuuming the bathroom and main hall.  I also vacuumed under the table downstairs.  Then Synja and I were free to read or play with Liam.  Later that day, Kyra turned on the Neanderthaler movie which said on the cover that you could change it to English.  But we quickly found this to be false, however, I still enjoyed it.

Thursday and Friday (May 17)

Yesterday, I had karate after school.  We practiced several kicks that involved complicated foot movement.  It was really hard.  Especially when we lined up and went down the line each of us counting to ten.  With each number, we had to punch.  I had to count in German to ten at top speed while punching the air!  I guess it is good to practice in learning German and karate.

Today we had German twice, Politics, French twice and English.  In German, I think my class mates were studying Greek myths, which I do not know how that is related to German grammar.  In politics, I had to switch where I sat with my friend Yasin so I sat next to a kid who was eating sunflower seeds behind the teachers back.  That is not very good!  Then came French and English.  In English, we had a substitute teacher who did not give us any homework!  All in all, it was a good school day and it only got better after that!

Several weeks ago, Merinda hooked me up with another kid named Duncan.  Duncan was very excited to see me again after so many weeks.  He showed me his Gangnam style dance and we both had fun jumping around to it but after three rounds, we were out of breath!  Then we went and played Penny Racers on the playstation 2.  It was really fun to go the wrong way or crash into each other.  After that, we did Origami and I taught him how to make a fly catcher which he really liked!  Duncan is a really wild guy but in a good way!

Thursday May 16

Today was supposed to be a long day but because of parent/teacher conferences, we had half hour classes so we got out of school earlier than we usually would.  I did not know that, so I was wondering why all the classes seemed so short.  At hour break, my friends told me why it seemed so short and we continued to play tag.  After that, we only had one class period until school got out.  By the time school ended, it was only 12:30!

Math sounded cool because they seemed to be playing a math game about the area of parallelograms.  The kids kept whooping and groaning as their team won or lost points.  Then came Politics which was not as exciting as Math but still was fun.  In History, everyone gave a presentation while I studied my German Made Simple book.  It was a fun day and I think my classmates would agree.

Because of the short day, Kyra and I had to walk home from the bus stop.  I really enjoyed the walk because it reminded me of how I used to walk home from school.  It seemed so cool to walk through German countryside.  Especially when we had to climb a small hill and I could look over to my right and see a small town so far away it looked like a toy set!  It was the perfect picture for a postcard.

Wednesday May 15

Today I had P.E. twice, Bio twice and German.  I was supposed to have Math twice after that but Kyra had piano lessons so I went home early after German.  The math teacher and the P.E. teacher are the same so for some odd reason, he switched them today.  That means I had math twice instead of P.E. twice!  I think that is just weird but he must have thought differently.

In Bio we talked about birds and how they have adapted to their habitat.  The two main birds we talked about were ducks and seagulls.  We talked about how they get their food, where they live, how they take off from the water.  My friend Simon translated some of what they were saying.  I thought that was really nice of Simon and I am glad he did that.

In Germany, they say "Wie heisst Du?" which means "How called you?" or "What is your name?"  They also say "Ich habe hunger!" which means "I have hunger!" or "I am hungry!"  So I wonder if they say "I have sick" or I have happy/sad".  We Americans think that sounds funny but if you think about it, I am hungry sounds just as weird!  That is the cool thing about languages.

Tuesday May 14

Today I had Philosophy for two hours and English for two hours and Music for two hours.  With everything doubled it felt like a long day.  But English was fun because we started reading about a pair of twins visiting their grandma and grandpa.  Some of the British English is hard to understand.  For example, a flat is an apartment and trousers are pants!  Luckily I can understand most of the text in our book.

In Philosophy, we had a substitute.  I got out my German book and started to read.  After one chapter, I looked up and saw what looked like four leaved clovers with names in them drawn on the whiteboard.  I asked my friend Deniz what they were for and he said if one of us made the teacher angry, she would write our name in one of the leaves.  It didn't seem to be effective because several people had their names on the board more than twice!

Last was music where we continued from last week working in our groups to make a radio station with a topic of our choice.  My groups topic was children and how they get, spend and divide money.  I wrote a few sentences on how most children in Idaho do just that.  I got it done right before the end of school and gave it to my group to fit into our radio station.  I am not sure what this project has to do with music but it is still fun.

Monday

Today, I went to school alone because Kyra needed to go to the orthodontist.  I got on and off the bus ok, and quickly found my French room but realized I had forgotten my German Made Simple book so I had nothing to do for three class periods.  Then came English, where we did a few questions on a new story we are listening to.  The teacher started making an announcement in German so I continued working but it turned out she said that the last three hours of school were canceled.  When I found out, I realized that I didn't have my phone so I couldn't call Jörg to tell him everything so I called from the office.  After that, Jörg came and took me home and it was all fine until Merinda said that Kyra had gone back to school when she didn't have to so she could go home with me!  Oh NO!

There are some interesting differences between America and Germany.  For example, in Germany they don't have drinking fountains!  So, if you forget your Wasserflasche (water bottle), you are out of luck!  Also, in America, we eat our "warm meal" for dinner; here, we eat our warm meal for lunch!  There are some really cool differences in the world!

Lately, the weather has been cold and rainy.  After homework, I don't feel the urge to go outside for more than a few seconds.  Oh well, at least I am surrounded by cool relatives and friends.  I think homework is harder when it is rainy outside than when it is sunny.  I wonder why I feel like that ... when it is sunny, I think it would be harder to concentrate on homework but apparently not!

Holiday!!!!

Wednesday through Friday, we did not have school!  We picked up my uncle Ashley who came to Germany on Wednesday to do some work here.  Then, Thursday, we all, including Ashley walked to the Naaf river and made wood boats and a small stonehenge!  It was a lot of fun eating and playing at the Naaf.  Jörg even made me an Aikido stick to play with!

Saturday, we went to the Neanderthaler museum.  Neanderthalers were men like people who lived in Europe during the Stone Age.  Most Americans and Europeans have a little Neanderthaler DNA.  It was very interesting and the posters they had were in German but had English translations underneath!  I wish there were more museums like that.

On Wednesday, Ashley challenged me to a contest:  Who can speak the most German by Sunday.  He has been studying while I have been reading!  The score 
is (at the moment) three to three.  The scoring goes like this, we each come up with three sentences and three questions.  I so far have two sentences and one question.  I think Ashley has three sentences.

Settling In

May 7, 2013

Monday was another long day at school. It is very hard to sit in a classroom for so long and not understand a possibly interesting subject but if I complain, it only feels worse! I am feeling more at home in the school than at first so I am settling in. My core group of friends have welcomed me with open arms which helped my confidence a ton. They make me feel equal to them even though I do not speak German.

Tuesday is luckily a short day and it sped by quickly. Music is not the same as in America. It is not a band, instead, we learn about the instruments. We never get to play them which I think is kind of sad, but it is fun and the teacher is nice to us. Music is my favorite class we have on Tuesday.

Note: If you commented in previous posts, go back and look because I answered most if not all.

Life is Good

Saturday we spent the whole day moving closets and rearranging a lot of stuff. It was hard for Jörg, Merinda, and Kyra but Liam, Synja and I had it easy. All we had to do was watch. We were planning to continue working in the yard but didn't have enough time. So we did it the next day.

Sunday we went to the Freilichtmuseum in Lindlar and we saw a big loom.

 It was hand cranked and only made ribbon but it was as cool as it was big.

We also saw some (and tried out) old toys like stilts and a game similar to horse shoe but instead of horse shoes to throw, there were small rings!

Then it was time to go home and work even more on the hill but next time, we will probably plant the grass to extend the lawn. (If you don't know what "the hill" is, look in the blog archives at "What a Fun Weekend".

First Month Checkpoint

Monday was Kyra's 15th birthday. The school here is too strict to let us pull her out to do something fun. However, we still had a great time. Kyra got two books and the Hobbit which came out on DVD here so she was very excited! One birthday family tradition Jörg's family had growing up was to make a ring of stuff (usually sweets) around their plate, made of things they like. Kyra had flower petals, gummy bears and chocolate!

Tuesday, we played a game called ??? at break (one, two, three)! The catcher counts to twenty-five and the rest of us hide. Then, if the catcher sees you sneaking around, he runs to an object that was decided before and says "one, two, three" and if you do the same before the catcher, you wait for everyone else too. The game was really fun and I made it to the object most of the time.

Wednesday I played with Tom again. He taught me several origami models. One was "Prince Charming", a talking frog. We played with them for a while but then he showed me the pig model. The pink paper reminded me of Pablo! Some others he taught me were a howling dog, a talking bird, and one he imagined himself! But all too soon, I had to go. I hope to get together with him some more soon because I have a ton of fun.

What a Fun Weekend ;)

Merinda had set up a playdate for me and a boy named Tom. Merinda claimed he spoke good English and I quickly found that to be true. Tom spoke amazing English!!! Tom taught me to make exploding envelopes out of paper! He had a tree house and a trampoline and even a pool!!! We had a lot of fun running, jumping, and just talking. I hope our friendship lasts because I had a lot ... let me say that again, a lot of fun with Tom.

Sunday was a mix of fun, hard, and full of work. We spent a little time cleaning the house. I had to vacuum the upstairs hall and bathroom and Uncle Jörg fixed a floorboard. I felt like vacuuming was easy compared to Synja's job of cleaning the bathroom sinks and mirrors. Kyra cleaned the bathtub while Merinda cleaned the toilets. It was an in-the-house cleaning for an hour.

After the house was clean, we went outside to work. We then leveled out the small slope in their backyard.

The reason for our "fun" weekend!  We set up the trampoline.

It was hard work but we got a lot done in the four to six hours we worked (at least it felt like that much). Merinda burned the wood, bamboo and spiky vines we had chopped and cut the week before. After all that, I was ready to welcome food and bed!

My Second Week of School

My first normal week! No one followed me around screaming "this is this in German"!!! No one asked me "what's your hobby" (for the one hundred and fifty-sixth time)? Or even asked "do you like me as a friend?" All of these questions came up a lot and it was annoying. Until one day it stopped and I went a whole week where people seemed to forget about me which was kind of a relief. I still have friends though. Otherwise, I'd be lost and unhappy.

With the normal week came homework. English homework is weird! The instructions seem unclear in my opinion and the exercises are like: "write an e-mail to so-and-so about such-and-such in English. Sometimes if I'm lucky, the teacher gives an assignment that I can't do because I don't have the work book! And I only have English homework and that's it!!!

It's hard to sit through six to eight hours of school and not understand anything. Sometimes I feel like someone made the clocks go in slow motion! I try to figure out what the kids and teachers are saying. It is really hard but I keep trying because it's worth it. But I just can't wait to be able to talk to my German friends in German (or Deutsch as they call it).

My Weekend: Karate, Elbows, Cheese, and Work!

Saturday was the best with a capital B! I had karate and learned that I have a habit of not keeping my elbow tucked in. I'll need to work on that. Then we went to the market in Siegburg and saw cheese of all shapes and sizes!

So many cheeses, so little time!

There were round, short, tall, square, heart shaped and even one a meter in diameter!!! Some looked like cakes and pies and some smelled foul! And still others had holes in them or flower petals!!! Isn't that just plain crazy!!! Over all, it was cool and exciting to see such a variety of cheeses in one place at one time.

Now that's a cheese platter!

 But all too soon, we had to go home; however, not before going to the park and getting some ice-cream though!

Then came Sunday and with it came the sun and birds! And work. It was fun though we had to level out a small slope so it was not as lumpy as it went down. As hard as it was, I am excited to get it done.

Manacled to the 'flogging post' in the old town square.

My First Week of School

My first week of "Schule" (school) was a success! I already have at least three people I consider my friends and a few more are on the way to friendship. At Schule, there isn't a set lunch break, we just walk around eating between classes and in the breaks. Every day, we stay at Schule for a different amount of time. For example, Monday, my class has eight hours: French (a double hour), German (for natives like we have English at home), Biology, an hour break, Art (double hour). Tuesday, I have six hours: Philosophy (double), English (double hour ... as a foreign language), Music (double).

We have a set class! We don't switch around, so Im always with the same group! Schule is hard and the kids speak very little English, but its fun and exciting! But I still can not grasp the fact that Im in another country; my imagination just fails when I think of the ocean between me and America.

My First Day of School

Monday came too soon. Kyra and I had to get up at 6 am to eat, brush teeth, and pack the last few things for my first day at school! We hadn't been able to contact the lady to tell us what sixth grade class I was in so I had to go with Kyra to all her (9th grade) classes. I got along well even though I couldn't understand anything. The school was a lot bigger than all of Teton's schools together!!!

At the beginning of each class, we had to stand up and say: Guten Tag Frau (or Herr) ....... but when class is over, we just leave. Today was supposed to be a nine hour day but the last teacher was not there so Kyra and I got to leave early. Every school day is a different length for different grades because we don't have the same schedule every day. The school buses come and go multiple times each morning and afternoon.

Visiting "Freilichtmuseum" Lindlar

Today we went to the Freilichtmuseum in Lindlar.  The museum had rebuilt several old German houses and furnished them for people to come and see.  They seemed to have a whole town including the blacksmith, the baker, the cloth mill, the weaver, and the citizens!

When we went to the baker, we were able to sample their bread which tasted awesome!  Then at the blacksmith, we saw a lot of weird tools for making stuff like horse shoes, hooks and even doorknobs!  At the cloth mill, we learned how the water wheel turns to power the rest of the tools.  The wheel turns, spinning a big pole with gears on it to make the machines do their job.

Visit to Siegburg

Today we went to get the last of my stuff for school (a fountain pen) in Siegburg, a really old city with a cool market. We also got Liam's Mack Truck (from the movie Cars), at a toy store in Siegburg and I took a lot of pictures!

I'm very excited and nervous for school to start. The teachers sound strict from some people and nice from others so I don't know what to expect!

April 4, 2013

Today I went to karate and learned assorted punches, kicks, and blocks! This time it was better than the last time because we played Basket-Ball for warm up! and I worked with other White Belts so it was easier than last time. I am enjoying karate and wish I could go almost every day!

Reflections on the first week

After getting on the plane, I sat down and nervously waited for Take Off.  Then we were in the air and I relaxed a little and, hours later, I began to feel sick so I tried to go to sleep. But it just would not come.  We finally landed, which was the scariest time because the pilot swooped and dived over and over again for the last hour before we landed!

Then it was time to get my bag so I waited until it came on the belt.  After getting my bag, I had to go through customs.  I found the NEU (non European) and a grouchy German checked my passport.   I went to the exit and found my aunt Merinda, my uncle Joerg, and my cousin Synja.

Over the next few days, we spent time making bow and arrows or building army bases with link-in logs and even just sitting around reading.  Kyra took me to Karate where I learned to block and punch!!!!  I am going to continue going (twice a week) for the rest of my trip.  We made the bows from small, cut trees that we shaped, cut carved and notched until they shined like gold!

I have already read Pirates of the Caribbean book 2 and have started Magyk book 1!  We also went to see the Kleppe family.  They were really nice and gave us pie and treats like chocolate!

Today I tried German bread.

I am glad that the homesickness has not set in and I hope I can stay busy.  I am both excited and nervous for school to start and I will keep you posted!

Note from the editor:  Colman and Merinda are typing with a German keyboard that is set to type like the USA keyboard so we see the German symbols but have to remember where they are on the USA settings.  for example, y and z are in each others spots.  In case you have NOT noticed, we have NOT yet found the apostrophe so we can NOT write cant and havent correctly!!!!!!

April 2nd was fun because we were able to finish the bows. However, we need to get the string but that is it. 

I played koob again and my team won! Then, when Liam and Synja were in bed, Kyra and I watched the news. I could not understand anything but my aunt Merinda and uncle Jörg helped me figur it out.

Day 5

Today, my uncle started making a bow'n'arow for Synja and me.

My uncle did the rough first step - and we had to do the fine parts.

Then we went to a friend's house and we met a lot of people. Most of them were German but knew English. We played a game called koob and my team lost. The object of the game is to tip over the enemy's blocks by throwing sticks at them.