Catching up and Eurotour!

     It’s been an insanely long amount of time since I last posted... I really never meant to let it get away like that, but I honestly have no clue where the time went. December feels like both yesterday and a million years ago, if that makes any sense.
     Anyway, I thought I’d better do an update before Eurotour! We’re meeting on Friday (March 16th) in Hannover, and then Saturday morning we leave for Belgium. 3 weeks, 6 countries, and 14 cities with 45 other exchange students- I can’t wait! Here’s our route:

     I’ll be flying home on July 28th, which is later than most exchangers-some people leave in the beginning of June- but it’s still not the last, which I’m actually glad about – I don’t want to be the only one left after everyone else has gone home. The other exchange students in my district aren’t just my friends, they’re my family here, and it’s hard to imagine next year when we’ll be scattered all over the world and unable to see each other at any time.
     By the time I leave I’ll have been in Germany 10 days short of a full year, and I can’t believe that my departure is only in a little over 4 months. It’s hard to explain: I haven’t been in Germany very long, but in such a short time it’s become my second home. It feels like I’ve been here forever but only just got here at the same time.
     To sum up the past 2 ½ months: I switched host families on January 4th. I was nervous about it, since I loved my first family, and I’d lived there for 5 months and didn’t know how things would change. That might have been silly, since they were Ana’s first host family, and she absolutely loved them, which I do now as well. I don’t have any siblings here, my host parents have 1 daughter currently on exchange in Australia, but they are so sweet, and I’d just like to stay here for the rest of the year.
     All of the oldies are now gone, they left in mid January, and our newbies are here! It seems so long ago but it was really only 2 months. Cata, one of the newbies from Argentina, lives in Helmstedt. The other newbies I don’t know very well, because I’ve only gotten to meet them once or not at all, since they all live further away. There are 8 altogether.
     At the end of January I started up with German classes again. Ana and I go to the Volkshochschule twice a week, and in May we’re going to take a government assessment test. Since we had a lot of free time, and didn’t want to be blimps by the time we got home, Cata, Ana, Karla and I joined a gym at the beginning of February.
     Our last Rotex weekend was February 17th-19th, and it was in Hundisburg, which is in Sachsen-Anhalt (I live in Niedersachsen) but since I live right on the border, and Hundisburg is on the western side of the state, it only took us 30 minutes to get there. We stayed in the Hundisburg castle, which was beautiful. Normally we sleep in sport halls, this time we had actual rooms and beds. On Saturday we went to Hötensleben and Marienborn, memorials for the division of East and West Germany. Both are only a 10-15 minute drive from where I live, so I’d actually been there just 2 weeks before with my host parents, but it was still really interesting to see and hear more of the history. It’s so weird to think that that was only a little more than 20 years ago.
     That Sunday we went to Karnival in Braunschweig, the 4th largest carnival in Germany. Karnival in Germany is a mix of a Mardi Gras style party with Halloween costumes. We didn’t dress up, but we watched people and the parade. It was really nice until it started pouring rain and then snowing. We’d been having such nice weather, then that day was just horrible. It’s really nice out now, around 8 degrees, which is much nicer than the straight -15 degrees that we had for 3 weeks straight in January and February. That was freezing. Of course I got sick that weekend, and my cold still hasn’t gone away. I’ve had it for almost a month.
     The last few weeks I’ve been to two ice hockey games with my host parents, which were a lot of fun and a first for me. We went to watch the EHC Wolfsburg “Grizzly Adams”, the first league professional team in my area. They’re 4th in the league and are going to the playoffs sometime soon.
     Last Friday I went to the opera with my host parents in Braunschweig. We saw “The Barber of Seville”, and it was my very first opera. I can’t say that I enjoyed it all that much. It isn’t the music that annoys me, I actually kind of like opera music- which probably makes me weird for my age. The story was just so incredibly boring, uncreative, and plain ridiculous.
     After the Opera I went to Sarah’s house for her birthday weekend. One thing I learned recently is that Germans consider it really bad luck to celebrate your birthday before the actual day. You can celebrate the night before and party into your birthday at midnight, but you can’t wish anyone happy birthday before midnight, or that’s bad luck too. But since we’re not German, and her birthday was on a Sunday, we decided to celebrate beforehand anyway.
     I’ve started tutoring my German teacher’s kids in English once a week, which is interesting. It’s something I’ve never done before, so the first time I was a bit clueless, but the time went really fast and it wasn’t at all difficult.
     Tomorrow I’m going to Leipzig for a book conference, and I’ve heard that it’s one of the largest ones in Europe. Helmstedt Rotary Club is taking us.
     I’m gonna go, tschüss till after the Eurotour!

Advent

     Since once again I've been really bad about updating my blog, here's a not-so-quick recap of what I've been up to for the last month. This will go up until Christmas, and then sometime after New Year's I'll write a post about Christmas, the break, and New Year's.
     25th-27th November: Rotary weekend in Wernigerode! An average sized town in the Hartz Mountains in Sachsen Anhalt, it looks like a place where traditional German fairy tales would take place. We got there on Friday (all District 1800 inbounds), our group from Braunschweig was the last to arrive, we thought they forgot about us while we were waiting at the Bahnhof.  We got to the youth hostel, and after room assignments (I bunked with Annie (Taiwan), Allison (USA), and Karla) and dinner we walked to the Weihnachtsmarkt and got a mini historical tour of the town. On Saturday we were up bright and early to catch the old steam engine train that goes to the top of the Brocken. The view was beautiful as we were going up the mountain sides, some leaves were still on the trees in autumn colors. We got off long before the peak, and the plan was to hike the rest of the 10 km of the way up then take the train back down. But we complained enough until they changed the plan so that we did a big loop, but it still ended up being about 10 km. The rest of Saturday was taken up with our 2nd orientation, and that evening we went again to the Weihnachtsmarkt, this time unchaperoned- it was fun trying to not get lost. As always we played the pony game and then the 2 that we sing in Spanish so I don't know what they're called. There are only ever two reactions from people when they see us: Either they get pissed off, or they think we're really cool and take our picture. Saturday night we had to be in our rooms by 11pm, so of course everybody snuck out and we ended up having a mini party with 15 girls in our room. Every time someone new knocked on the door it was a mad dash to hide in case it was the Rotary people. It started out with Karla teaching Annie, Allison and I how to dance like Mexicans (because they're all really good), and we were being really loud so everyone heard us through the walls. On Sunday we toured the Wernigerode Schloß (castle) then took the train home.
     So far in December I've been to the Braunschweig Weihnachtsmarkt multiple times- it's HUGE, and there are so many booths selling food and little knick knacks-it's really expensive though. We went for the grand opening, and out of the thousand or so people there I ran into my host aunt and cousin. I've also been to the Helmstedt, Schöningen, Bremen, Wernigerode, Wolfsburg, and Uezeln Weihnachtsmarkts.  
 2/12 I went to the Helmstedt Weihnachtsmarkt with Kathi and Ana, and afterwards we saw Breaking Dawn- Kathi was making fun of it the whole time- the only reason she read the books was to laugh at how bad they were. 3/12 I went to Emmi's dance recital, and then on 4/12 we baked Christmas cookies.
6/12 I went to Ana's house after school and before our German lesson, but her host mom wasn't there so we had to make lunch ourselves. Pasta, how hard can it be? Well, first we put in too much pasta, we had to have 3 servings each to finish it because apparently her parents don't do leftovers. We also used a pot that was too small, the water burned and boiled over- but the pasta didnt burn. Then there wasn't enough sauce to go with the amount of pasta. It took us about an hour to make it.
 7/12 I went to the Schöningen Weihnachtsmarkt with Emmi-it wasn't that big, but it was better than Helmstedt's. Bremen was last Sunday (11/12), my host cousin lives there so my host mom's extended family all went there for brunch, the Weihnachtsmarkt, and then lunch. Its about a 3 hour drive from Schöningen. This time I saw the Bremer Stadtmusikanten! It's actually really small and by the side of the building, not at all like I thought it was going to be since it's so famous.
 I went to Wolfsburg last Friday (9/12) with Birgit, Ana and Karla. We went to the designer outlets, where everything is either for sports or old people and way too expensive, and then we walked across the bridge to the Autostadt for the Weihnachtsmarkt and ice skating. It was the first time Ana had ever been, and only the 2nd or 3rd time for Karla, so it was pretty funny watching them try to stay upright.
      We (the 10 Rotary exchangers around Braunschweig) decided to do a Secret Santa this Christmas, because it's fun, and we're too poor to buy gifts for everyone. We exchanged gifts on Friday, but by then everyone already knew who everyone else had. That was the beginning of our Rotex weekend in Uezeln, which was once again A-MAZ-ING.
Friday: There wasnt enough time for me to go home after school and then be back at the bahnhof to catch our train, so Karla and I went to Anas house after school. But we ended up only having 4 classes instead of 6 because Karla's class had the last 2 hours canceled, and Ana was in my class for the last 2 weeks while her class did praktikum, and my class had religion for the last two classes, but they were getting back the test that I didn't take so I didn't have to go. Her parents were going to pick us up at the school at 1, but since we got out at 11, we walked to her house instead-in the pouring, freezing rain. Then, when we got there, Ana realized that she'd forgotten her key. So we stood on the neighbor's front stoop because it had greater roof coverage for about an hour. By the time Ana's mom got home I couldn't feel my legs. Then we had to go first to Braunschweig, and from there it was a 2 hour train ride to Uezeln, but it was direct so we didnt have to change trains again.
     It had been snowing the entire train ride, and our group included 2 Brazilians (Ana and Iara) and 2 Mexicans (Laura and Karla) who had never seen snow before, so when we got off the train they were pretty excited. We slept in the sport hall of the Realschule in Uezeln. Friday night was a buffet dinner, and of course we stayed up all night. Everybody went to bed around 3 except for 6 of us who decided to explore the rest of the school. Saturday we toured a milk/sugar/cocoa factory-I was practically falling asleep, but what I found way more interesting than the way they made their products was the machines that they used to package them. Then we had a talk about Eurotour(!!!!)- I'm so excited for it. That night we went to the Weihnachtsmarkt, then stayed up until about 4 or 5 again. Sunday all of next years' outbounds came, and we presented each of our countries. Then we went home.
     Thats it for now, I'll update again in January about German Christmas, what I did during break, Silvester, and my family switch. Tschüss!

Berlin! Among other things

     As you can see from the title, I spent last weekend in Berlin! We (me and my host family) took the train on Saturday morning and got in around midday. The trip takes about 3 hours, with 1/2 an hour layover in Magdeburg. We spent the night and took the train home yesterday evening.
     For anyone who doesn't know, Berlin is the largest city in Germany (3 million inhabitants) as well as being the nation's capital. Because the city was greatly damaged during WWII, the architecture is a mix of modern and traditional design. Since we were only there for a day there wasn't nearly enough time to do or see everything.
     After arriving at the Friedrichstraße bahnhof we took the U-bahn (subway) to our hotel where we dropped off our bags and then headed out to walk around the city. We headed towards Potsdamer Platz, where we ate lunch and looked around. There was a display of a section of the wall (moved from its' original location) with some of the history and a stand where for 2€ you could get your passport stamped with the original visas from Checkpoint Charlie. Luckily I had my pass with me, because I needed it for Sunday to get into the Reichstags building. Normally I leave it at home. We saw the field of stones, a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust.
     Then we continued on to the Brandenburger Tor, and stopped in the many souvenir shops that line the streets. After this my host siblings started to get tired so we headed back to the hotel to drop them off, then my host parents and I went out again. First we headed to the KaDeWe. It is an extremely large luxury mall (Gucci, Prada, Rolex, Luis Vuitton, etc.) I was able to afford some of the chocolate, but just barely (the cheapest bar costed 3€). Then we headed to the Europa Center, but everything was closed ( it was about 8:30pm) except for the Irish pub in the basement. It was packed and loud, with live Irish music and a staff who were all native English speakers. We sat at the bar and I had a couple of beers with my host parents-first time that that's ever happened. Andre and Birgit tried the Guiness and Scottish Ale, I had Beck's Green Lemon (it's a German girly beer).
     Sunday we left early to be at the Reichstags building at 10 (that's the place with the glass dome roof where the parliament meets). The outside facade still remains, but the inside is completely modern- it was rebuilt after damage from WWII. Berlin is a city that's meant to be seen at street level- the skyline is rather ugly and boring. After that we took the bus- a double decker, turns out that London isn't the only city that has them- to Alexanderplatz, where we walked around and got lunch. After that we took the bus to the area around the Europa center and walked around some more till it was time for us to catch our train. We left at 5 Uhr and got home around 8:30. Today I'm staying home sick.
     So, to catch up with what happened before Berlin:
Friday was Ana's birthday party, so I came home for about an hour after school then headed back to Helmstedt. There were about 15 girls there, all German other than Ana, Karla and I. Oh! I found out about my family switch. During the Christmas break before we go back to school, I will be moving to Helmstedt to live with Ana's current host family, Ana will be moving to Beinrode (the great metropolis...with 400 citizens-where Karla lives now), and Karla will be coming to Schöningen. I'm hoping that we'll switch after Sylvester (New Year's Eve).
     On Thursday after my German lesson Karla and I took the train to Wolfenbüttel, where 3 exchange students live. It was a Thanksgiving celebration, 1 week early. There is a perfectly logical explanation for this. Thanksgiving is ALWAYS the 3rd Thursday of November (or so I thought). I had originally planned to cook dinner for my family, but then Summer organized an International Thanksgiving with the exchange students and her German friends. But anyway, I was skyping with my mom and asked for some typical Thanksgiving recipes, and she wanted to know if they sold bread crumbs, cranberry sauce and pumpkin puree in the stores here, and if not, she would send me some. That was 1 week before the 17th. I responded that 1 week was not enough time for a package to get to Germany, and thus I learned that this year, Thanksgiving is the 4th Thursday. Why? Is it only to confuse Americans abroad?
     Two weekends ago I hiked to the Brocken, the highest point in the Hartz mountains, with Andre, Birgit and Mattis (Emmi had a friend's birthday party). It was 7km up and 7km down-not the most fun thing I've ever done. Part of the trail we hiked was on the old border between East and West Germany, now it's the border between Niedersachsen (where I live-West Germany) and Sachsen-Anhlat (former East Germany). Niedersachsen and Sachsen-Anhalt are 2 German states. Helmstedt is also right on the border. On the way home we got a flat tire on the Autobahn.
     Next weekend I'm going back to the Hartz, to Wernigerode for a Rotary sleepover weekend. Those are always lots of fun. On Thursday I'm going to see Breaking Dawn with a German friend, it's the first day it's in the theaters here.
     Starting today, for the next two weeks my class is doing something called Praktikum. Everyone has to get an internship for 2 weeks to get 'working practice'. Being an exchange student, this is not something I have to take part in. Instead, I'm taking 18 periods of English classes with the 11th and 12th grades, and the rest of the time I'll spend in Ana's class. Karla is doing the same thing, except she's taking Spanish classes (but there aren't as many of those). There are 5 tenth grade classes at Julianum, 10a, 10b, and 10c are doing praktikum the next 2 weeks, and on December 5th 10d and 10e (Ana's class) will be doing praktikum. She's going to take Spanish classes (She's Brazilian, for anyone who doesnt know they speak Portugese, not Spanish) with the 11th and 12th grades, and in the rest of the time come to my class.
     So, I could promise that I'll update again in only a week, but I don't think that's going to happen. It'll probably be more like a month. Tschüss!

Meine Herbstferien

It actually has been over a month since I last posted..... I really do mean to update more often, and I don't have a good excuse for not doing it. But anyway, this gives me lots to write about in this post :)
     For the last two weeks of Oktober (at least in the Niedersachsen) German schools are closed for the "Herbst Ferien"- Autumn break. I swear, this is the best idea in the world- America needs to start doing this. The first week I spent on the Insel Fehmarn in Ostsee (Baltic Sea) with my host family and my host dad's family- his parents and sister's family. It was absolutely gorgeous. Our house was set back from the water, but the only thing between the two were fields of rosenkohl. Living right on the water is one of the biggest things I've missed about America, so I felt right at home. We stayed in a small village, but the main town was only a 10 minute drive or a 7 kilometer bike ride away. I took plenty of long walks on the beach (this sounds like what people list on dating sites) with Monty- my host family's dog. He turned 1 year old about 2 weeks ago, and he is the cutest, most energetic puppy ever.
     Because the European countries are all so close it makes it really easy to cross borders. Apparently alcohol, and everything in general, but mostly alcohol, is very expensive in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Fehmarn is only a 30 minute ferry ride from Denmark. On the northern coast of the island there's a ferry dock and a huge ship- not cruise liner huge, but still pretty big. The ship is called the Bordershop, and it's 4 floors of alcoholic beverages and 1 floor of chocolate. The Scandinavians take the ferry to Fehmarn, and go to the Bordershop to stock up on cheap supplies. We browsed and bought a few things, but for Deutschland the prices were a bit expensive. I wish we could have taken the ferry to Denmark, but we didn't have time.
     That brings us to this week: Sunday I did nothing, but that isn't new, because nothing is ever open on Sundays. Monday I went to Braunschweig and met up with my friend Laura before her Deutsch lesson. That evening I went to my hockey practice, but only 6 people showed up so there really wasn't much we could do. Tuesday I went to Bremen with Sarah- originally there was supposed to be a group of 5 of us, but in the end nobody else could come. We went with the Niedersachsen ticket, because you can take that to Bremen for some reason even though it isnt in the Niedersachsen. It costs 25€ for 2 people, and stupid me, I paid for it with a 50€ bill- the machine only gives change in coins. I really don't like breaking big bills because 1) it sucks carrying 25€ in coins all day and 2) it makes it so much easier to spend the money-not a good thing when I have a limited amount and can't just ask my parents for more.
     Heres the route: First, a bus from Schöningen Lorenzkirche to the Helmstedt bahnhof (20 minutes). Then wait (10 minutes), train to Braunschweig (30 minutes), wait (40 minutes), train to Hannover (45 minutes), wait (10 minutes), train to Bremen (1 hour and 20 minutes). Alltogether = 3 hours and 55 minutes- oh, plus the 5 minute walk from my house, so it ends up taking an even 4 hours. Then there's the same thing on the way home, so I spent 8 hours on trains/waiting for trains. But we had fun in Bremen, even if I am the worst tourist in the world- I didn't look up any tourist attractions or reasons why the city's famous before I left. We just wandered around, and ate, and spent money. And sat in a park and by the river and talked about Harry Potter-oh! We went into a Thalia's, a bookstore chain thats big enough to have an english section, and found Dobby! Coolest thing ever. We made plans to go to England someday and visit everywhere related to Harry Potter and The Beatles, and I'm gonna have to add Jane Austen to that list too. We found a festival in the street, and ate delicious nuts, and Sarah tried the crepes. There was a group of 2 girls and 1 boy that we walked past about 5 times, and every time we heard them speaking English. The last time Sarah stopped them and asked them where they were from, and sure enough, one of them was an exchange student. The boy was from Ghana, he's in Germany with AFS (another exchange program). The girls were German. I make sure to always carry around some of my Rotary business cards, but of course I forgot to hand them out. Theres a statue that Bremen is famous for, it's a chicken on top of a cat on top of a dog on top of a donkey. Weird, I know. We looked for it but couldn't find it and didn't feel like trying too hard. I can't remember what it stands for right now, I know taxes had something to do with it. Since we ran out of things to do we decided to take the train back to Hannover an hour early and hang out there for 1 stunde while we waited for our train. Interesting fact about the Hannover bahnhof: It's missing platforms 5 and 6. It also has tons of shops, and the promenade that runs under it goes on forever, it's under the streets as well. We spotted a McPaper shop and Sarah said we had to go inside, then we spent half an hour drooling over the school supplies and didn't buy anything. By then I was starving, and had a craving for McDonald's American fries- the most amazing fries ever. Idk why they're called American fries, cause McDonald's in America doesn't have them. They're more like thickly sliced, season potatoes. We decided not to stay in the McDonald's in the bahnhof, and instead ventured out into the cold to walk 3 blocks to the one in the city. Hannover's bahnhof is really nice, not just inside but also in the fact that it's right in the middle of the city. In Braunschweig you have to take the Straße-Bahn to get to pedestrian/commercial area. Then we took the train to Braunschweig, where Sarah went home, because the next day she had to be up early to leave for vacation in Bayern, and I met up with Summer and Laura, who then came home with me for an exchange student slumber party. The next day Laura had to leave early for her Deutch class, but Summer and I carved pumpkins for Halloween, which really isn't a big holiday here. My pumpkin turned out pretty good if I do say so myself (you should have seen Summer's, add to the fact that hers was green and it was really scary looking), and I only cut myself once. It's all right now, but I sliced my index finger of my right hand open and there was a lot of blood. At first we couldn't find any bandaids, but luckily I had my mini-first aid kit :)
     Then we had to bring Monty to dog school in Wolfenbüttel at 4:30, which is coincidentally where Summer lives and the same time that she told her host mom she'd be home, so we gave her a ride. Up until now I've had German class on Wednesdays so I'd never gone to the dog school before. In Germany, all the dogs typically well trained so they're not always on a leash. There was one male dog, not in the class, who spotted the young female puppy and decided that she'd make a pretty good mother. Interesting, to say the least.
     Today I went into Schöningen with Emelie, my 10 year old host sister to buy birthday presents for 2 of my German friends- it's really nice to be able to say that. Friends, I mean. Then we made lunch und nachtisch with my host mom, and Emelie and I carved more pumpkins- no casualties today. This evening we went to our elderly neighbors house to play rummy (the card game). Tomorrow I'm going to my friends' birthday party in the evening, but I have to leave early because Saturday I'm going to Hamburg- it's a Rotex day, so all of the exchange students in Distrikt 1800 are going together. Sunday is a small party for my young host cousin's birthday, and then Monday is school :(
     I'll try to update once a week from now on (operative word being try). I've also got some stories about what happened the first 2 weeks in Oktober (Oktoberfest in Hannover!) so that might motivate me to post sooner. For now, tschüss!
    
    

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!