Happy Christmas.

No matter what the calendar may say, it doesn't fell like Christmas here. No mater how many times I walk through the markets or see decorations and trees, it just doesn't feel right. There's just something about opening presents on the afternoon of a sunny, 60 degree December 24th that doesn't feel right.
Also, I haven't been here for very long at all. It still feels like it should be August to me.

Apart from the weird feelings about this time of year, Christmas was really nice. And the weeks leading up to Christmas were really nice too. I spent a while in Frankfurt, walking though the Christmas markets and seeing all the decorations on the streets. That was so amazingly beautiful. The first two times I went was at night, and it was unbelievably crowded. I was body against body at one point, and you had no say in which direction you went. There's was barely enough room to move your feet.

I went a one with my family too. I was still early in the day so it wasn't as crowded, and it was so much fun. Everything was really pretty and well decorated and there was so much to see. The market was huge.
There were interesting foods like roasted chestnuts and German sausages. There was also a lot of Glühwein. I love it. It translated to "Mulled Wine" (if that means anything to you). It's a sweet, dark red wine that's served very hot. It's great for warming up if the evening is cold.
The rest of the market was really great too. You can buy anything there, and half the people are tourists who speak English. It's fun to walk around and occasionally translate for people. That's always a lot of fun.

Here, we celebrate Christmas on the 24th. The family went to church together and then we opened presents and went to my host aunts house for dinner. We had chili which made me so happy. My family in Alaska always eats chili on December 24th. Every year. I'm glad I didn't miss that this year.

My host family got me some nice presents. I got soap, gift cards, and chocolate, and my host brother and his girlfriend payed the entrance fee for the New Year's party that we're going to. I bought them all similar things, with some additional Alaskan presents thrown in.

Today is Christmas day. Actually it's midnight so I guess it's the 26th now. That's why my writing in all over the place, but I know it's going to be hard to make myself find the time to sit down and write during the day.

Today I just hung out with my little host brother. We started building the big lego kit he got, and I think I might be having more fun with it than he is.

Well, I really need to go to bed, but I promise my next post will come soon.

Frohe Weihnachten.
Happy Christmas.

My New Family

It's been a long time since I have had time to sit down and write in my blog. I have had SO much going on. 

I'm currently living with my second host family. It's so different. And it's so strange not to wake up to the Kappes family. 

I'm slowly adjusting, though it's strange to be home all alone and not have any idea where anyone is. 

This house is so big. Such a change from my last family. Before, we all shared one bathroom and we were always close together in the flat. Now I have a whole floor of the house just to myself. There's 2 balconies, and I have my own HUGE bathroom. But it's lonely up there all by myself. And cold. It's so cold in my room, but my host dad insists and the heat be turned off and the window opened for fresh air. I don't need fresh air in the middle of winter, but whatever makes him happy I guess. 

I take the bus to school now. It's not so far, but it's good to not have to walk half an hour in the cold winter mornings to school. I still see my old host family all the time. I see my old host brother at school all the time, and I still go to dance and volleyball with them. 

There's always those certain people that you'll remember for the rest of your life. My first host family are definitely some of those people. And they are always welcome in Alaska. I couldn't have asked for more.

I'm sure I be perfectly happy in this new family too, it'll just take me a while to get used to things. 

I now have a little brother and an older brother. The little one is 10 and the older is 20. The middle child is my age and she is currently on exchange in Ecuador. I have spoken with her once, and she seems very nice, though I don't know if I'll ever get to meet her. On Monday, I spent time doing homework with the little one. I was helping him (a little) and he was helping me (a lot). It was a lot of fun. I had a blast. So for now I'm hanging in there and just getting accustomed. :)

More soon.

Culture Weekend

This weekend was culture weekend. All of the exchange students (Inbounds) from Hessen met in a youth hostel in the middle of Frankfurt. The future exchange students from Germany (Outbounds) and the people who had already gone on exchange (Rebounds) as well as Rotex and adults from Rotary. We met of Friday afternoon and it was great to see everyone again. There are people from the southern hemisphere that come in January (Oldies), and people from the northern hemisphere that come in August. I know all of them because we meet up occasionally, but this was the first time that we had all been together in the same place at the same time. Friday we spent a lot of time listening to the guy in charge talk. We all introduced ourselves to the new Outbounds and they introduced themselves. We had to say why we were doing our exchange, and it was really hard because no two people were allowed to loose the same word. By the time my word came around, every word in my German vocabulary had already been used, but everyone had already started repeating things, so I was okay. In the evening, we had a "Question and Answer" session with the Outbounds and then we sat around and played guitar and sang. There was a couple people who were interested in going to Alaska, which I was really excited about.
On Saturday we presented our countries to the Outbounds. We all did Powerpoint presentations and some people had videos. I wasn't really happy with the America presentation, because we never really took the time to make it really nice. I tried, but I can't do everything by myself. I'm just glad that it's over. Later we got to show dances from our cultures. The Latin Americans all had really cool dances, but America's dance was by far the best. We did Cotton Eye Joe. We used the original dance, and mixed it with a couple of other line dances that we knew, and it was a lot of fun to dance and to teach to the other people.
The weekend came to an end way too soon. Sunday was a very sad day because it was the last time we were all going to be together. The people that came in January have all come to the end of their year hear, and they are heading back to their home countries. By the end of the day, we were all sobbing and hugging each other. The funniest part was that we were all crying and hugging each other right then, but half of us were still going home together. A couple of the exchange students even live in my same house, and I have my German course with 3 of the Oldies.
All in all, it was a really fun weekend, and I'm glad I got to see everyone.

More soon.