Hannover!

     I just got back today from the most insane, crazy, amazing weekend ever. There were over 70 inbounds, rebounds, and Rotex, and from the moment we met up in the bahnhof it was one huge party. Just like last time, we slept for about 3 hours a night, so Im not really looking forward to school tomorrow. But it was completely worth it.
     Exchange students are the craziest people I know, myself included. We are loud and probably everyone else finds us obnoxious, but none of them have as much fun as we do (you dont see them dancing in the streets.) Ill say now that Im extremely tired, so this post will probably be all over the place and wont make much sense.
     Friday I took the train to Hannover with Katharina (a rebound who spent last year in Mexico- she lives in Helmstedt and also goes to Julianum), Ana, Karla, and Emily. Ana-Brazil, Karla-Mexico, Emily-Indianna. We all are hosted by Rotary Club Helmstedt. We met up with all the other inbounds in the Hannover Hauptbahnhof (bahnhof is the train station). Katharina is very nice, but because there are lots of Latin Americans in my district from Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil, she would always forget that Im American and start talking to me in Spanish. I just respond "Katharina, kein Spanisch!"
     A funny thing here is that the music that Germans listen to is mostly American, but there are lots of American songs and artists that Ive never heard of- they arent popular in America. I like hearing all the songs in Spanish and Portugese because theyre fun to dance to. Thats why we stay awake so much; we dance all night long.
    So my last post was obsessive about Feodora, but Im not going to buy it anymore because I found something even better! We had an hour of free time Saturday nachmittag, so I walked with Anton (Australia) Julian (rebound, went to Texas last year), Sarah (Alaska), Sarah (Ohio) and Katharina about 3 kilometers through Hannover to a Lidl because the boys wanted to buy redbull. I found delicious dark chocolate for 0,29€! Thats insanely cheap. Feodora is 1,25€. This might be a bad thing though, because it just makes it easier/cheaper for me to eat junk food.
     All right, Im about to pass out, so Ill try and write more later this week. Gute Nacht!

My Chocolate Love Affair

      Guten Tag! Have I mentioned that I am completely in love with Feodora chocolate? Seriously, when I come back to America Im going to fill a suitcase with it. The superior semi-dark chocolate bars are to DIE for.
     While Im on the subject of choclate, the other day when I was coming home from Magdeburg I stopped at the Marktkauf to see if I could find the Feordora bars there instead of always going to the Chocolata Confisirie, a specialty choclate chain store. Marktkauf is a grocery store thats right next to my bus stop and two blocks from my house. I didnt find it, but what I did discover is just is good, if not better. But this needs a back story, so here it is.
     I dont know if every family in Germany does this, but my family, the Wickes, have brötchen and croissants every morning for breakfast. My host siblings and dad always put nutella on theirs, my host mom uses marmalade and Ive been using peanut butter with bananas. I cant eat nutella, because if you dont know, Im a vegan. Anyway, I have been very jealous of the choclatey goodness being consumed for BREAKFAST every day. For breakfast! Why dont we do this in America?
     So, back to the real story. I found " Brinkers Chocolate Symphony N°2 Dunkel Schokolade". Its a dark chocolate spread, 100% vegan. Know what this means? I can eat chocolate for breakfast EVERY SINGLE DAY!!!!!!!!!! YES!!! I was extremely excited. Still am, really.
      Speaking of edible deliciousness, have I mentioned my love affair with brötchen? Brötchen, brötchen, brötchen. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways... And while we may have rolls in America, they arent brötchen. I swear, they do something magical to it while its cooking. Theres simply no comparison.
    I realize that this post is entirely about food, but I havent done anything exciting in the past three days, so this is it. Next time will probably be after my weekend in Hannover, so Ill have lots to write about.
     Also, if you read this and have any questions, ask me! I will tell you anything you want to know. Or you can just say hi:)
Tschüss!
   

My mother has informed me that I havent been updating regularly enough, so here it is! Another blog post. Sorry if my grammar isnt very good (lacking apostrophes in particular), but I switched my keyboard to German and its taking me a while to figure it out. One thing thats extremely annozing: the Y and Z kezs are switched. So whenever I tzpe something it looks like this. Ive also noticed that my English skills are regressing as my German improves.      On to more interesting news: Today I went to Magdeburg with my friend Eli, a fellow inbound. Magdeburg is in the Sachsen-Anhalt, part of the former East Germany. I live in Niedersachsen, in West Germany, but right along the former border.      Heres the rundown on the train system in Gemany: There are 3 categories, RB, IC, and ICE. RB is the cheapest and the slowest. Im not exactly sure about IC, but ICE is the "bullet train". It makes fewer stops and has a nicer interior. Normally I travel on the RB, but because today was Saturday, the trains schedule isnt as regular as it is during the week. I can navigate the transportation system pretty well by now, but I still get confused sometimes. I accidentally took the ICE but had only bought an RB ticket. There are roving conductors on the trains, and sometimes they check your ticket, other times not. If caught without one its a 40€ fine. "Ich spreche kein Deutsch" is a phrase that becomes an exchange students best friend. Today I got lucky, I only had to pay an additional 7 euros for the correct ticket. Transportation for the day cost me 27€!  Thats why I prefer to travel in the Niedersachsen : There are special offers for groups or a ticket that you can buy that costs 21€ but is good for the entire month. Next weekend (23/9-25/9) is a Rotex weekend, when all the inbounds and rebounds in District 1800 get together. Its a huge party, and this one is in Hannover. Just a coincidence, Oktoberfest begins in Hannover on September 23rd! But more than that, it will be great to see everyone again.      I just realized that 2 of my 3 blog posts are about Magdeburg, but Ive been here for 6 weeks and this was only the second time Ive been there. Normally I go to Braunschweig. Its got about 250,000 people who live there, its cheaper to travel to and theres more of an area to walk around- and the mall is nice as well. Walking through the streets is always exactly like I imagined old European cities were like. I went after school last Tuesday and met up with my exchange friends Laura and Rafael, from Mexico and Brazil respectively. Laura and I were walking around first, and Rafael joined us when his classes ended. This was our conversation trying to describe exactly where we were: " Ummmm, were in an old square, with old buildings, and a fountain....theres a starbucks..." This description could be several places in Braunschweig, or any German city for that matter. A funny thing about Braunschweig: You know how Los Angeles is L.A., or New York City is NYC? Braunschweig is BS. There are signs on lamposts proclaiming "We <3 BS". I started cracking up the first time I saw one.      So its 11:47 p.m. here, and although I dont have any big plans for tomorrow, ich bin ein bißchen müder. Gute nacht!

So I haven't posted for about 3 weeks, but I've had such an amazing time! It's been a little over a month since I got here and so far everything is perfect. I love my host family, they've really played a big part in making me feel at home here. Rotary District 1800 is I think the largest district in Germany, and there are about 70 inbounds. Last weekend was our first Rotex weekend, so we all went to Walsrode and had the most amazing time. It's the coolest group of people I've ever met. Almost everybody stayed with host families for the weekend, but there were 12 of us who RSVPed late so we stayed at the camp in hostel-style rooms. We didn't go to sleep til 5 in the morning both nights.
School here is so different from America. Everyone goes to the same school til the end of the 4th grade, and depending on your grades you either go the Gymnasium, Realschule or Hauptschule. You have a class til the end of the 10th grade, and you have every subject with the same group of students. Teachers are the ones who switch classes here, we only switch for music, science and sport. There aren't many after school activites and no sports teams like in America. But the nice thing is that I usually get out a lot earlier than in America. Mondays are my latest day: I go until 14:45. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I get out at 12:55, and Thursdays I get out at 13:55.
Right now we're going to my Oma's birthday party (she's 74), so Tschuss!