Ich liebe Deutschland!!

So, I am a terrible blogger. I created this so I could let me know what I'm up to over here, but I've only written one blog. So I apologize to those of you who check this regularly!! So I have been extremely busy seeing the world, and have been loving every single minute of it. When I first got here I was super afraid of everything, and though I was going to get completly lost, and never understand anything. But it's totally different now. I'm starting to understand german a little bit better (i still suck at speaking, but its getting easier!) and I know my way around my city. I absolutly love where I live. Oldenburg is like a college city, and is clean and fresh and is old and modern at the same time. I think I was placed in the best city in my rotary district! There is always something going on! School is going pretty well....at first it was really interesting, because it was new, but now, not so much, and it's especially hard because I can't really follow what their talking about. So I normally write in my diary, practice my german vocabulary, and more often that not, I sleep, which drives my classmates crazy. The kids in my class are super nice, and they speak to me in a mixture of german and english. A couple of weeks ago I went with them to the biggest festival in my town, called krammermarkt, and had the most amazing time! they talk to me a lot, and ask me lots of questions, and i absolutly love how close my class is. In germany, the same kids are with each other pretty much all day, so they know each other and are really good friends! My school is really old, but i still love it <3 My host family and I get along really well. They are kind of annoyed at me, because I can't speak german yet, but this past week i kicked my german up a notch and their happier about it. My host sister Hanna, is the most adorable person ever! I love her to bits, and its like she is my little sister. We joke around and tease each other, and sometimes she will drive me up the wall, but i always return the favor. I live in the country and sometimes in the morning when I wake up I can hear a rooster outside my window. Since my family lives 30 minutes away from my school, they drive me in the mornings. Both Kathrin and Dirk work in Oldenburg, so its no problem for them. A couple nights a week, I will walk about two miles, and meet Kathrin at her dentistry at like 7 and she takes me home. The other nights I take the train from Oldenburg to Bad Zwischenan and then they pick me up from there. I take the train A LOT. And I love doing it! they dont have trains in Bluffton, but they should because they are so efficient. Since train tickets are expensive, and I use it so much, I have this youth pass, that costs 15 euro a month, and it lets me ride any train i want, as many times as I want, within my state. On mondays, tuesdays, and thuresdays I have to go to this school called AGO and take german lessons with the other exchange students in my town. And we always hang out afterwards. They are so amazing, and I love each and every one of them. They are my best friends here. We talk for hours, and are with each other on the weekends too. We normally go into the center of the city, which has some amazing shopping and we walk around, or we go sit in a cafe, or we go to the mall and sit inside after grabbing something to eat from the supermarket. Another thing-I feel like all I do here is walk, and then eat. I eat so much here it isn't even funny! But the good thing is, that I walk so much here, I haven't gained weight-yet. Its the same with the other exchangers. Here I get out of school at 1:15 except for Tuesdays and Wednesdays when I have long school until 3:45. But I have 45 minute classes, and then every other break is 20 minutes, and I get an hour for lunch, and I'm allowed to go to the center for it. I'm excused from afternoon classes on tuesdays because i have german lessons. Also another thing that i love-when the teacher is sick, and they dont come to school, there are no substitutes, so the class is cancelled. So like tomorrow my french class is cancelled, and its right before lunch, so i have like a three and a half hour break! the weather is getting colder and colder....i wear scarves, whereas in Bluffton i never would have! and during breaks at school i go stand as close as possible to the heater. germany is soo beautiful, and im so happy i ended up here :) i have been uploading all my photos onto photo bucket, so when they are all up, i will send the link :)
Liebe immer,
Katherine