Pshh I'm an Exchange Student!

Something the world ought to know about Exchange Students; we get away with EVERYTHING. Literally. No train ticket? " I didn't know, I'm an exchange student!" No money? "I'm so sorry, I'm an exchange student, therefore I am very broke." The perfect excuse that works every time..I am an exchange student. You would think people wouldn't fall for it, but I don't think they actually care- they just get a kick out of it, and continue on just to humour you. Well as long as the excuse works, anything goes. I do believe I am getting better at this whole blog thing. AKA I am actually updating this two weeks in a row! Wahoo! Not too much has happened since the last time I wrote. The weekend was pretty boring, because I was on house arrest. I was getting very sick. German weather and I do not agree with each other, and my host father who is a doctor said that there was a great chance that I might get pnemonia. So no going out for Katherine. I stayed in bed all weekend, and watched Pretty Little Liar episodes online. Then my best Brasilian friend Raul came over to keep me company on Saturday night, and I made him sit through Little Miss Sunshine. I love that movie so much, it never ceases to make me laugh and I could honestly watch it a million times and still love it. On Saturday there had been a Rotary function, and unfortunately I couldn't go since I was bed ridden. My Rotary Club (Rotary Club of Oldenburg) went to the local Kohlfart. Which means I was super jealous of Raul and Kristlaug (the two other exchange students in my club) who got to go. A Kohlfart normally occurs in every town in Germany once a year- generally in the winter. Why it happens in the coldest time imaginable, I have no clue. Sometimes Germans are just a little bit crazy. Anyway a Kohlfart is when you walk around the city and at different points in the city, there are stations, and at every station, you stop and take a shot of some sort of alcoholic beverage. This was also something I thought odd- Rotary has four main rules :No Dating, No Drugs, No Driving, and NO DRINKING. So then why would the Rotary club take their Exchange Students on a drinking trip? One can wonder for the rest of their life- these things only happen in Europe! Maybe South America too.. On Sunday I woke up at an ungodly hour and went to watch my host brothers band performance at the local library/cultural center. Rasmus (My host brother) is ten years old, and pretty much the cutest little boy ever. He looked pretty grumpy at having to play on stage in front of everyone. According to my host mom Heike, he's been doing this for a long time. After the concert we went back home, and I wrote in my diary for a bit, and then went and slept. During my time here, I have been keeping up with a diary, and I have been much better with that than with this blog. I try to write every day and if I don't I always try to catch up with what I have been up to! Right now, I am on my third diary. You could say that I have a lot of thoughts, and points to make. I like writing in them, and I've started to reread them. I have to say, it's really interesting to see my thoughts and feelings from when I first got here nearly five months ago, and how different they are now. Who would have thought it! On Monday, I still had praktiukum. If you couldn't tell from my last blog post, I felt that praktikum was the boring, and basically the worst thing ever. Last week I was working in advertising, and now my opinion about praktikum has totally changed. I LOVE it. This week I am working in the broadcasting department of the newspaper, and I am so happy about it, because reporting is something I am seriously thinking about pursuing. So this week I am following the news team, and we drive through the city, and film different segments, make interviews and get different angles, and it is amazing, fascinating and I am so happy that I got this opportunity. The woman I am working with is very nice, and extremely interesting. She speaks German, English, Spanish, and French, all fluently. She was born and raised in Germany, lived in the US for a year, did a study abroad program in Madrid, and lived in Paris for a year. I'm really glad that I was paired to work with her this week. On Monday afternoon, I hung out with my friend Kait in the Schloss Hofe, aka the local mall, and we window shopped a bit, and then headed back to my house. As I was unlocking the door, I remembered that I had a Rotary meeting in ten minutes, so I ran upstairs to get my jacket, and ran back down, hopped on the bike, and rode it to the Bahnhof (train station). The Rotary meetings take place in this building that's attached to the Bahnhof, and is what used to be the waiting room for the royalty when they were waiting for their trains. Pretty snazzy if you ask me. As usual the Rotary meeting was okay and there was good food. At these meetings I normally sit next to the other Exchange students, and we pull faces at each other...often enough a Rotarian will notice and start laughing their heads off. Busted, but oh well! At least we are quiet..for the most part anyway. Today I went with the film crew to a new spa that opened up and we filmed a segment on this new Chinese massage. The owner was all excited and happy, and gave us all a voucher for a free massage at the spa. I know what I'm doing next week! Not only is it the coolest job ever, you get added bonuses like that! Who wouldn't want that! Tomorrow we are doing an actual news segment, and the woman I'm working with asked if I would like to try  reporting a little bit. Hell yes. Pardon the french. But this is amazing. Back to Rotary for a second-my Rotary blazer. We basically attach anything we can to them, and try to beat each other as to who has the most junk on it. Compared to the others, mine has a relatively small amount of things on it. Nonetheless it is getting there! This weekend is a four day weekend and my host family is taking me to the Ferien Islands, and we are doing some sort of bike tour. Wish me luck, because I suck at riding a bike. Not so sure what else will happen this week, but I will keep you informed! I will also be making a vlog for those of you who prefer to watch instead of read. Let's face it, we are all couch potatoes at some point! So once again, I ask for feedback-comments, questions, anything, talk to me! Liebe immer, Katherine

Pictures! Finally :)

http://s1220.photobucket.com/albums/dd453/kag2663/
http://s1220.photobucket.com/albums/dd453/kag2663/Deutschlandreise/
http://s1220.photobucket.com/albums/dd453/kag2663/Spain/
These are almost all the pictures I have taken all year! There are more, but I have yet to even upload it onto my computer, so those will come later! Hope you enjoy, and please leave me comments, or questions, I would love some feedback, so I can answer your questions, or just tell you about anything you want! Liebe immer, Katherine

Praktikum ist LUNGWEILIG.

Praktikum. Something old german men made up so that they don't have to deal with annoying students for two weeks. It's where you go and do an internship for two weeks...generally it could be fun, but all I do here is insert data on a spreadsheet and it's pretty boring. I'm doing my praktikum with the local newspaper in my city, so the first two days it was very interesting, but now, not so much. I'm working in the advertisement section, which would probably explain my lack of interest. Anywho, I am going to Bremen tonight with friends, so I will be saved from complete boredom. This Saturday I also have a big rotary event, so I am kind of excited for that. I should probably stop playing on this computer, but when you sit a teenager down in front a mac book, what else should you expect? Oh well, hopefully next week is more interesting. And I have also changed the format for my blog-hope you like it! Liebe immer, Katherine

Woah! Surprise Surprise!

This is totally abnormal for me; I am actually updating my blog! But instead of blogging, this time I am doing a vlog. The sound quality and video quality is terrible, but nonetheless, I am there! I have also uploaded a vlog I made about two months ago, the information is a little outdated-I ever went skiing or to Egypt, and I am now in a different family. But it still gives you a basic idea of what my life is like-the downside is that it is upside down..one of these days I will get this right!! I will also be uploading a funny video that I filmed in the first couple of days in Germany, where I am in the city center with the other exchange students, and they are doing to macarena...cause well, all exchange students are nuts! Also I would like to point out to my mother, that this post did NOT begin with a so. But I think my videos did...oh well! Much love, and please send me questions and comments, so that way I can answer them on the vlog or on the blog!  http://www.youtube.com/user/kag2663
Liebe immer,
Katherine