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.

Just Like in the Movies.

Today. I literally ran to catch a train. I jumped on just as it went to take off. It was a perfect movie scene except it wasnt for anything special. Just to go and see Antigone, the play, in Ludwigshafen. I ended up not understanding anything except whether the actors were happy or sad. Wow. Well to start the day off we had one period of class then the whole 11th grade was to go to the main train station to catch the train to the theatre. Well I, along with some others, decided to take a train that went by the school to the main train station. It was all good except that one very important train... decided not to come. Leaving me and the others running to the train station. I ended up in a group of 4 who took the wrong way. By the time we got there we were last and we also made the train late. But all ended up ok. I made it home safe and sound. 

So as you may have noticed I finally had the patience to upload pictures. They are all out of order so pay no attention to that... Well this past week and couple days have been very wonderful! Friday was St. Martin´s Day. I went with Sarah and Wolfgang to her kindergarten where we met with all the others then walked a little around the neighborhood singing songs. All the kids had little lanterns. It was a very cultural experience to say the least! St. Martin... Ohhh I dont know how to explain him.. google him? He was a nice guy who gave his coat to  someone I think... After that though I went to Julia´s house for girls night! Fun!! Saturday I slept the whole day basically.. haha On Sunday I met with Vivian and we had a nice walk. And I skyped home!! Awwww my little boys are growing up:( Lane is walking and Parker´s favorite animal when I asked was Winn Poo:) I also found out Jeremy has made national news with his mayor election. Psh and they say nothing ever happens in a small town... 

So Tuesday. I got a story for ya. OK not really more like an adventure. Soo was out of school pretty early. like 11:30. So My host mom suggested I go to Speyer for the afternoon. So I did. I got a little shopping done.. (Hello new hat, gloves, scarves & jacket!!) I also got to see the beautiful Cathedral there! It was very nice. I only got lost once but a nice old lady got me back to where I needed to be. All in all it was very nice..:)

I CANT WAIT FOR CHRISTMAS!!!! In Speyer they were setting up for Weihnachtsmarkt. Christmas vendors galore. the street was filled but they werent open yet. That just gives me any excuse to go back:) Anyway Im listening to Christmas music noww!! Love it! But I have to get past Thanksgiving before I can get to much in the Holiday Spirit. This may be a challenge because.. I have an announcement... I am preparing Thanksgiving meal. Not completely alone. My host dad and mom will help but yess. A turkey adn all the finxins! Im excited!! 

Tomorrow.. Friday Friday.. Im going back to Speyer now that I think of it. Wolfgang is taking annina to horse riding lessons and I am going to shopping for Thanksgiving ingredients.:) And we also have Stufenparty. The whole 11th grade goes somewhere.. to a club for instance. Cant wait!! WooHOo! Ok wellll tschüss! Bis Später!

 -Ellie

Picturesss. Finally.

The Alps. I hiked up there. Soo worth it:)

Medieval canon. nbd.

Soo... those are all vineyards. simply fantastic.

The Girls!! These are a few of the other foreign exchange students in the area! Left to right: Eris (Turkey), Elena (Italy) me, and Ashvini (Malaysia). These girls have been great! Ive had some great times with them!:)

Well this is before I left. In the hotel where our orientation was. Now all these ladies are scattered acoss Germany!

Caroline & Amy!

In Stuttgart with my new friends:) Angela, Isabella, Sophie, me, Jana & Eileen!!

My Host sisters Annina (older) & Sarah (younger)

Schloss Neuschwanstein. still not 100% on the spelling but its still beautiful!

And the World Keeps goin ´round

well well well, what do we have here... Just another post:) so. I know its been two weeks but hey. Things are slowing down. Im getting into a routine and honestly. I bore myself reading some of my posts. So too eliminate that just skipped a week. ok. 

so fact number 1 about the last two weeks. I kinda want to get a tattoo. Ya know just a small one maybe on my foot? Ill have to convince mom and dad... Just something to say Hey! remember that one time you were in germany?! I still need to think on that. Tessa once told me "Don´t do anything I wouldn´t" WelllI  I have definitely debated and asked myself would she... I dont know Tess Would you?! 
Ok
fact numba 2. I like to sing. Bahaha that sounds so weird for me.Ok so not all songs the half Latin / Italian song isnt my favorite but White Christmas is pretty chill. Even though I barely sing it isnt too bad.. maybe I´ll join choir when I get back.
okie dokie smokie
Fact nummer 3. My host sister Sarah likes to eat my clothes?! She runs up like shes gonna give me a bear hug and then I look down and she is suck on the sleeve of my sweatshirt. Hmm... Good thing I figured out how to properly use the washing machine! ( I wrote down the directions so I wont forget:)) But I really do enjoy having Sarah and Annina around. Im still not entirely sure what being the Big Sis really means and all I am supposed to do but the job hasnt been taken from me yet:) So I guess thats good.
Okeyyyy(insert liz hilsman´s voice)
factual fact number four. I really like the people here. Especially the ones who make school worth going to. Even though the level of my understanding is barely above the ground in some classes... I do enjoy them.  English class: the teacher has probably been studying English longer than I have been alive. So naturally she should know more English. Right?! Well thats probably the most humiliating thing. When she asks me what words mean or something about sentence and I dont know.  Ouch. But what can I say?! Im not a walking dictionary!! Anyway. I have read other blogs and the students are doing great in English. Naturally. Not here. Im actually just average. Not the worst thankfully but not the best. I should get an English credit. I think Ive said that before... Sorry!!!
Fact 5. Hiking is good. Actually I think its just being in a forest that is so great. When you drive here you are out of a town for what... 2 -5 mins? and you are in another town. And I thought Latimer was really close. three towns would fit in between Hampton and Latimer. 
#6. This blog is now finished.


Nawwww... Im joking I wouldnt leave you, my reader, just like that. But really.. Not much more to say. Everything is good. Life is good. Im having the time of my life here. Not that I dont miss home. I do. Really. But Ill be back in 8 months because....
the most wonderful fact #7. Today is November 8th. I have been away for exactly 2 months!!! exactly.:) 
So Tschüssss!!!! 
ellie:)