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!