The Home Stretch:)

Soo I have exactly 8 weeks and 4 days. Then I will be back in the USA:) Not gonna lie im pretty excited! but i still want to stay here. What would be really good if somehow both of these wonderful places could just be like.. 1 hour away:) Anyways... life. Well the rest of Easter Break was good, Pretty relaxing. Sarah had her birthday party so i accompanied a bunch of little children to an indoor play park. Crazy. I learned how to do a flip on a trampoline. Noww if I can just learn how to do it off the diving boards...!! A friend that used to come to the neighborhood, Vivi, moved here so its nice having someone my age on the street! 
school. I think its a mutual feeling around the world. no one really wants to go. Just saying..
I had the wonderful treat of skyping with Elle, Haley and Becky! so nice to see their faces again!!! I forget how much i miss them until i talk to them. Ill get back and think to myself... how the hell did i survive without these people! 
I had to give a history presentation on the American Revolution. That teacher had A LOT of creativity eh?  
Had another German culture shock when I went to the 1.FCK soccer game. 1.FCK is like in the national league... so the NFL of germany soccer. So it was really cool! All the people were singing, dancing and drunk. The best was the train ride home. No space to sit or anything and the people were still singing hahaha:) it was a classic!
 Then onto the weekend. There was a "handkäsefest" i think thats how its spelled. Well like it says its a fest for hand made cheese. It smelled really weird so i didnt try that.. haha But it was fun, just everyone being there together having a good time!
 Our p.e. class went roller blading on the rhine river. Soo i guess i can cross that off my list of things ive done that i havent thought of that turned out to be extremely fun:) 
a friend from the school, Kevin, turned 18 so of course we celebrated! In like 3 months ill be 18. wow. funny. and in a year Ill be graduating. Crazy. 
Butttttt until then I will be in Germany for the last 2 months!! 

and guess what.. in one week i will have been to LONDON and back!!!!! and I will be meeting Simon for the first time. He gets back on Monday too! AHHHH im excited!!!

Anyways. I have a big case of Spring Spirit:))!!!!!

SOoo until next time! 
tschüssie!!

Just smile. Its something most people dont take offensively. :)

Heyy!!

Wow. Ok. so letss see. Hows everyone doing? uhmm I think its just about time to get this whole thing updated. No worries ill catch yall up but we gonna have to go back like a month...

So I spent a weekend in Bocholt visiting Lukas. It was actually quite fun! I met some of his friends, got to see where he lives, met his parents and all that jazz. I even went to one day of school!  It was nice to see him again here in Germany. Crazy how lives cross paths one place and another. But then after the fun weekend I had to go back to Germersheim.. But i didnt stay long because I took off a couple days later to Halle.

But the day of school I did have was Abistreich. So the graduation class throws a surprise party for the school, With Karaoke, Teacher volleyball, no school. Just basically a big party. Traditionally no one knows when it is. They just go to school and all of a sudden everyone is dancing and singing. :) Kinda a good idea!

So then I was off again... This time Halle. Its in East Germany. a little south of Berlin.

I spent 2 weeks there. The first weekend was a workshop about the area we were going to be staying in and such. It was pretty fun. Meeting other foreigns never gets old. Its like ok.. People from across the world are all sitting in this room, laughing,  having a good time. Its just kinda... crazy. Halle is actually not the prettiest town but.. every other town in the area is gorgeous. Like Dresden or Leipzig. Just look. I mean honestly. Nothing in Prettier. The Frauenkirche. breathtaking. I even ended up one day in the Czech Republic!! My Host family there was amazing. It was a bigger family but that just means more happiness.:) They took me all over to see all the sights there so it was cool. There were 5 kids living there plus one out of the house. But the last one is a little baby foster kid. Hanna, She was soo cutee!!!!! Anyways I really hated going... . they were great. I will have to say the highlight of the trip was going to the zoo and seeing A LION!!!!!!!!!!A real live lion. I even got to see him eat. There were also 2 other female lions. It was definitely a wonderful moment in my life.

So I then took my nice long train ride back to Germersheim... Elke picked me up and when we got back to the house my host dad was in the street with a camera.. i was like wth?! then I looked up and my friends were there to give me a welcome back suprise greeting. :) So thank you Sophie, Ollie, Eileen, Issy, Julia and Leonie!!! it was really great to see all my friends again:) So then I spent the next day at Julias with Eileen, Issy Sophie and Issy. Girls night:) The shopping with leonie the next day where i bought a new spring wardrobe! and yea. This past week I have been shopping a bit with Vivian, and Elena. I also went to Heidelberg with Eris. So beautiful. I will be going back. I have to. It was gorgeous. No way I am leaving Germany without seeing it again. :)

 So thats just a little scoop on my life right now. Its sad. 3 months left. I have something planned almost every weekend. I would like to know where the time went. Ill be back in the good ole states before I know it!!

Tschüssie!! 

Cliché.

here i am again! A month later.. hehe sorry. ill fill ya in no worries.
 not gonna lie it was another busy month. I am suprised I find time to even breathe anymore!!

So here it is. the run down of the last month. 

Went to a Greek island museum in Karlsruhe. I really didnt understand. There were hundreds of little figures and they all looked exactly alike. no lie. exactly. but i survived and after we went to an American Diner to eat. It was good. No as good as Dad's hamburgers but still. a little taste of home. 

Superbowl?! Given that kickoff was at like 1 in the morning i kinda slept. I woke up and saw 2 minutes but i was pretty exhausted after the weekend so yea. Im kinda sad i missed it. 

I officially reached my halfway point. wow. 

Straßburg. in France. ok. wow. Well lets start with the train.. the bathrooms there i guess go straight onto the tracks. ew.ew.ew.ew.ew. never walking on train tracks again in my life. never. then when we were walking around there was dog poop literally everywhere. all over. so dirty. But besides that it was good. beautiful. The big cathederals and cute houses by the river, i saw a house that is older than the United States. nbd. So Im sure Ill get back to France before I leave. wasnt too impressed this time. theyll have to step up their game next time haha. 

We got a puppy!! Alma:) shes really cute. Shes gonna be HUGE. Shes a Lab, Bernese Mountain dog and Austrailian Shepard mix. So ya she keeps things entertaining!!!

FASCHING!!!!!! how to describe fasching...... uhhmmm hmm. A huge party. day and night i guess, with crazy costumes and huge parades. Its actually pretty great. So many people all singing and dancing. I even learned a couple songs!! anyways I really enjoyed it. I didnt get pictures because its kinda frowned upon to take pics when people are intoxicated... But thats ok. It was something Ill never forget!! If you want pics Im pretty sure you can just google it. 

New foreigns in the House!!! So the kids from South America got here this past week so I got to meet them. Its crazy to think that I was once in their shoes. All scared, tired and homesick. Wow does time fly!

This weekend I went Shopping with Annina:) Nothing feels better than buying organic cotton socks.. just throwin that out there... 

Cliché. 
So heres a cliché tid bit about what i miss. I mean if you are a blogging foreign exchange student i guess its kinda a requirement. here it goes.. i summed it up in 9. 
  9. Country Music. on the radio. I mean I have a little on my iPod but what is better than gravel jamming with a little static and autopart commercials. I dont know.. I just miss it i guess.. 

 8. School Spirit. "Its a great day to be a bulldog!" friday comes and the Fight Song doesnt come on. Its kinda sad. There are no school sports here so you have to join a club. I miss how just being a bulldog automatically unifys everyone. (cliché alert!) and also the motivational posters in all the classrooms!! here the walls are blank white. Somedays I feel like im in an insane assylum. literally. Anyways just school in general. I know youre all sayin  ewwww school but really. i miss it. 

 7. The streets. Here they are all winding and twisting. I have no idea where i am... 75% of the time. I mean if i can get lost in Franklin County with all the straight, alphabetical, numerical streets, can you even imagine how i survive here. You should see them here. Im pretty sure there is not a straight street in this town.

6. boots. What makes you feel bigger and badder than walking around in a pair of justins? Ill tell ya. Walking around in a Pair of ARIATS!!!!! I just wanna slip a pair on and go.

5. Driving. I havent driven in almost 6 months now. I suggest to stay off the roads the first week i get back. I would also like to warn everyone now... when I get back im gonna hijack a big ole Diesel. mark my words. I know who has em! 

4. Mojo bars, Fruit snacks, Ritz toasted chips, Vitamin water, Moms homemade Salsa, mexican food in general, STEAK. 

3. My animals.. i never thought I would miss waking up to that dumb ole turkey gobblin. but i do. and sandy. and my chicken George, and of course them heifers and cows:)

2. Friends<3 they define who you are and who you want to be. You have them around because you want them around. They support your choices and comfort you after mistakes. Without them life is dull. (Cliché alert!!)  But really I miss them all. tons. 

And here is the biggest cliché thing of all... ready?


MY FAMILY. 
I have never wanted to cheer Charlie on in a game, see what Frank got hunting, go shopping and shananigans with Tessa, Babysit my little nephews, Hug my mom or just sit in silence with my dad watching the sun go down more than i do in this very moment. I know this is all expected and such but really. Whoever said "You dont know a good thing til its gone" had something right. 


Ok. well thats enough for this cliché post. hope it was worth your time! 
Tschüs! 

If you cant change the world, let the world change you.

So I didnt come here to change. Really. I wanted a new perspective on the world but I, me, Ellie, didnt want to change. But Ive been told I have. Im not entirely sure how to feel about it. I mean no one says how.. just that I have. I dont think I have. But who am I to judge that? Soo I know its been awhile since I opened up this ole blogger thingy. So here I am so heres a little how my life went this past month. :) 

I was in Hamburg. 
I went there on the 4th of January. It was my first time on the ICE which is the second fastest train in the world. Second to China that is. So I got there all excited and all and I see Kendra Curry. Ya know the girl that picked me up at the D.C. airport, that is crazily awesome and all? Yes. Her. So I see her and literally we like do this epic Running reunion. Pretty sure there were people staring. Then we were in the Hamburg main station. Now its huge. HUGE. Kinda scary at first sight. Then to find Caroline who I can still not say correctly.. sorry bout that.. I just yelled and she came ha. We spent the next couple days shopping, (a wonderful sale at Urban Outfitters found a cute bag:) We also found matching sweaters in the little boys section in H&M. but for 6 euros you cant go wrong. Really. I also saw the Lion King boat. the actual boat that takes people to the play which is on an island!:) It was amazing. nough said. We walked on this little cute beach.. and saw the harbour at night.. and found Pussy Deluxe showcat purrrfume. no lie. google it. we literally died laughing in the store. So thats basically all that happened there. OK so there was a lot more but it was just basically nice to see those two! I really cant wait to see em again!

I came home to find Christmas Letters.
I cannot say how happy it made me. Like honestly they were amazing. So heres a shout out to those who wrote me: 
Elle. Kylie. Macy S. Jenna S. Sarah N. Cassy K. Meg. Mitchell V. Liz. Jessica B. Kenzie B. Tara Bartz. and Ruthie! And not to forget Mt. Brian Johnson, the Prantner Family, the lovely office ladies and Mr. Hoffman. It really meant a lot that you wrote to me!!:) Thanks a bunch! 

Ashvini went home.
:( So heres to Ashvini, from Malaysia, who was here for 10 months too only she came in feb last year. I had many great times with her. She definitely helped me whenever I needed it and somehow always managed to call when I was in the shower:) Im going to miss her tons! germany wont be the same without her. 


School. 
Yupp. I guess school was a given but I guess Ill mention it.. so its still going pretty good. Im understanding more each day which is good. There is always something to do. Always.

Neighborhood Fun.
Everyone came over for a little Flammkuchen and yes it was really great. I got to meet some new wonderful people in our neighborhood. I introduced a couple card games like poker or 21 or BS or spoons. and we played those for quite awhile. We are all going to meet up again this weekend.:)


Choir trip.
3 days. last week. So the whole choir goes on a little 3 day trip to a near by town where we focus on improving our vocal skills. Ha. Its basically just a time where people have fun and sing some songs. Stay up late. Go downtown and just chill. So yupp it was really fun!


Midstay camp.
this past weekend. 3 days. So lets just start by saying it was nice to see everyone that was at my first camp in september or october.. I dont exactly remember. Anyways it was nice catching up with everyone, and someone said there "no one understands me better than another exchange student" so true. well so heres the thing. I was supposed to do this workbook cd thing about how to adapt to Germany and make friends.. 30 little projects like.. draw your room, or draw you host families family tree.. well I didnt do it. Why? I have really been busy and when I do have free time I like to spend it with my host family because I feel I might be gone from home a little too much. And i have had no problem finding friends and all that. In fact I am quite well adapted :) That and I found them completely childish. Im spending a year abroad. I dont want to search the Internet for cool facts about germany. I want to go and actually see them. So yes. No im told I have to get 60 in in the next half year. I was told this right after they informed us we will have absolutely no free time in the last months. Ha. whatev. Ill be talking to some people to get it all sorted out. Then I wasnt supposed to speak english. and I did, to another american. Its almost like a reflex to talk english with them. They were gonna punish me by making me write BIMBO on my forehead. hell no. so that mad me even more aggravated. I ended up with it on my hand. But seriously? Its like preschool er somethin. We were also doing energizers. no thankyou. Not a huge fan of rolling around on the street screaming at the top of my lungs. Yes I realize im somewhat of a buzzkill, but in this case being a buzzkill was worth it. The others can go ahead and sing all they want. Im gonna step back and laugh. OK? ok.  so that was this past weekend. ENough of that. 


ALMOST HALFWAY THERE! 
So Feburary 11th is my offical 1/2 way point. 5 months. wow time really flyss. 
so thats all i gots for you now. :)

The Christmas Story of Ellie in Germany.:)

Imm Backkk!!! Ohh my ladies and gentleman. I gots lots to say. I´ll try to keep it short:) 
Sooo.. Christmas is already gone.. Wow.  So letss see where to begin... where i left off i guess is a good spot! 
 I cant remember if my last blog was before or after the Christmas concert.. eh ohh well. So. Christmas concert was very fun. my favorite was the O Christmas Tree which everyone sang a verse in a different language.. like 10? crazy. So that was all good. my beautiful voice was unfortunately drowned out by all the others. haha 

So I think i mentioned the advents calender before... guess what shape the chocolate was on the 16th? A LION!!!!!! I was soo happy. like you have noo idea how happy i was. A LION!! 


Dec 21. CHRISTMAS BREAK!!!! so on the last day of school heres my highlight: my politics class had an advents calender also that we had been doing for the last month. a partial face would come on the screen and you Had to guess the politician. Pshhh like i had a chance. so then i decided to just yell OBAMA everytime. He was bound to come on sometime. i mean seriously. Annd I was right! number 24. Obama. i was a champ.:) 

my first impression of the north sea...

the beach with sarah and annina!

on the 23 we left for Baltrum. A little island in the North Sea in Western Germany. Google it! Ohh myy It was so pretty there. with the beaches and all but it was cold and windy. Not gonna lie was rather afraid of the big waves. But really you cant just throw this land-locked iowa girl on a little boat on the north sea!!!! so the first days I kept a good distance away. I gradually got a little better. I even collected sea shells!! I also took more pics than you wish to see. We stayed in a guest house. A family lived in the basement and they rent out the top two floors. They were very nice!! the family took me to many places and showed me all around it was great. Christmas was nice. Just being with my host family ya know? I even ate fish! i think I ate more in that week alone than my whole life combined. literally. So then on the 31st we went home. Having spent the rest of the week exploring the island, walking on the beach, playing an endless amount of card games and Phase Ten. It was wonderful. 

I couldnt make a snow angel.. so I made a sand angel:)

The "sisters" :))

So we drove for about 6 hours or so. I got back to Germersheim at 11 at night. Just in time to make it to Julia's to celebrate New Years Eve or here Silvestor with Ollie, Eileen and Sophie. At midnight the sky here was completely full of fireworks. Everyone is allowed to set them off. It was great! I set off a couple small things. Bottle rockets and such. we went to bed at what 7? after watching the ball drop in New york! (i made them) :) it just wasnt new years without that!

Tomorrow I leave for Hamburg!!! to visit Kendra and Caroline!! Cant waitt!!! Hamburg!! The lion kind Broadway is there!! ahhhh!!! ok i should calm down.. 
I found out that I will be going to Halle for about 3 weeks from march to april! ok google it:) now. Im excited for that!!! 

So thats basically all I did. Now how do i exactly feel about it all... Well I came to a realization. "its just not the same." youre probably thinking.. well no shit Sherlock! but really. christmas was great, new years eve was a blast. but its just not the same as with your life-long friends and family. I wouldnt change this past holiday season for the world.:) it will just make the holidays to come just that much more special. Ok that was a bit sappy. deal with it. 

Soooooo nowwww... I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas season and I hope your new years is off to an excellent start:) Those reading this in school heres a shout out to the teachers! Oh and I saw some hampton- dumonts formal pics.. I LOVE THE SPARKLY DRESSES!!! and all the boys were lookin sharp! Cant wait to see all the prom pics:) but that isnt for a while. Ok thats all I got! Tschüss!! 
-ellie

:)

Hello All!! Guess What?! Its christmas time!! :) Im listening to Christmas Music, Sleigh Ride to be exact. Well I am home sick today. :( But Im feeling better so dont worry! Wow. where do I start....

 Ok well Imma just start rambling about everything Christmas. I hope you are able to follow along... Its amazing here with all the towns having christmas decorations. Many houses have lights and decorations also. The stores all have their variety of Christmas Spirit. The "Weihnachtsman" Christmas man comes to stores so Children can say what they want. Everyone goes to a couple Weihnachtsmarkts. So far Ive been to 4? Yea Sounds about right. Ohh my tons of food there. Crepes which are basically really thin pancakes but you can fill them with a whole bunch of delicious fixins. Also Dampfnüdle? well its like this delicious biscuit but its kinda salty and then they give you vanilla sauce with it. Oh myy its delicious. Then theres like 100000000000000 different types of bratwurst, wurst, langwurst. literally a ton. And the chocolate. Nope cant forget about that! And theGühwein. Its wine but Hot. Im not a huge fan. But anywayss you get the pic. Tons and Tons of food. And thats just at the market. Away from that there is a whole array of delicious candies to eat and look at. and I mean look at because here even looking at the food makes you gain weight. AFS Another Fat Student. Cant say as if a I wasnt warned. But really I havent gained that much. Soo thats enough talk about all that. Im gonnna make myself sick again with all this food talk. 


What else have I done in the last 2 weeks. OH! I know. Ok so I went to the movies with Julia, Kathi, Luisa. Breaking Dawn. Before there was, what i thought, to be a commercial for a reality show or something. I didnt understand everything. Well come to find out he was asking his family where the best place to propose is. they all say paris, rome and such.Hes like well why not the movie theatre? so the video shows him driving to the movie theatre we were at. So he walks in and then What hes on the stage!  He calls his girlfriend down, proposes, she say yes and it was all wonderful! Then the movie came on and in the first 5 seconds you get to see Jacobs abs. And the evening was complete:) 

St. Nikolaustag. Love! So basically its like pre- christmas. anyways the moral of the holiday.... the children get a ton of candy. like TONS: I got 2 chocolate santas. a handful of truffles, and 3 bags of various cookies. If i dont develop diabetes in the next month.. i never will. 


So basically everyone here takes dance classes. Like legit waltzing and tango and others. In the end they graduate er something. and theres a huge ball. Well I went. I only danced once though. pretty sure they just gave up on me when my waltz was more like me just shufflin. hahaha so maybe ill take the class in the spring. maybe. 


Well I have probably bored you all to sleep. But anywaysss byeee for now!! :) 
Tschüss
-ellie

Happy Thanksgiving!!!! ...What's that?

Ahh.. there´s always something going on!!! But that´s a good thing! Im having the time of my life:) 
Sooo letss see where did I leave off.. ok so Friday. the 18th. Stufenparty!! So the whole 11th grade had a party together. It was quite fun! Im sure you can all imagine what a German party is like haha! Saturday was all good. I got my sleep and then went to Ashvini´s for coffe and cake:) She´s a good cook! Sunday was good family bonding time. Bike rides and such


The next week was basically filled with getting up too early for me.. going to school. Going to arobics. and then BAM! I got mid-stay papers!!!! So let me explain. These papers let me go to another part of Germany for 2-3 weeks!!! And there were soo many options I didnt know what to choose or where to go! But I have to wait a while to see if im accepted and where Ill go. I´ll keep you updated! 



So you might be wondering how the big 'ole turkey day is celebrated here. it isnt. Let me explain. There were no Native Americans helping the Pilgrims in Germany. :) So instead.. I went to school from 7.40 til 5. buzzzzkilllll. I even said happy thanksgiving to everyone but no one understood. Many had heard of it but really had no idea. But thats ok because on Saturday night I hosted a thanksgiving for my family and a few friends!! Everything went good! No one was visibly sick or disgusted by the food. If they were they hid it well:) 


But the night before that I went to the opening ceremony for the Germershiem Weihnachtsmarkt! It was very small but very cute. All the decorations and such. I listened to Vanessa sing and drank some kinderpunch:) 


Over the weekend I learned a valuable lesson.. well kinda... ready for this..? sooo after Thanksgiving I let the 6 girls cut and dye my hair. Problem: Mahogony turned a little more red than I would have liked. But I really cant say anything because I had picked the color. But on the box it wasnt soo red. Good: they did a wonderful job on my haircut:) So lesson? A little red tint on the box = lots of red on your head. Hey! It rhymes!!


But anywaysss thats bout all I got to say. Oh!! I am thankful for those who read this:) Thank-you!! 


Tschüss!

Ellie


p.s.OMG!! George Strait Christmas music on the online radio right now!!!! best.thing.ever.