Even more pictures

These are from Lake Constance and Meersburg 

The church where Bettina and Joe got married 

Meersburg 

New palace

Old palace 

And then there's Hans who climbs his cage when he wants a treat...

Pictures to go with everything

Domburg

Typical sarah face isn't it?

Spätzle making

The wonderful rack of ribs I ate one night

(I miss bbq a lot)

The three kids captivated by Lady and the Tramp

Fireworks on New Year's Eve 

People actually surfing...

The New Year's Day swim 

My great presents from my aunt!

Emmi figured out it's hot chocolate and really wanted some...

Frohe Weihnachten! (Very late)

So Christmas in Germany certainly was different, but it was good. Germans open their presents on the 24th, at night, instead of the next morning like Americans do. Anyways, we went to church (the kids service for Emmi), then came home, opened presents and had fondue (except it was the fondue with meat, not chocolate like I'm used to). Emmi and I were in the kitchen when we heard Christkind (Christ child) ring the bell signifying he brought the presents, and Emmi got really excited but then started crying because she didn't get to give the Christkind a high five...but then she realized she had presents and cheered up. In Germany, the Christkind is the figure that brings presents, but traditionally also sets up the Christmas tree the days before Christmas. My host mom told me about how when she was younger, the living would be closed for about two days before the 24, so the Christkind could set up the tree and deliver the presents and the children were forbidden to go into that room. However, in my host family, we got the Christmas tree early, carried it back to our apartment (we literally carried the tree down the street to our apartment) then decorated it earlier than most traditional Germans. Then the next day was Christmas, where we went to church again, except I woke up to late so Bettina and I just stayed at home and we all had a lazy day. Christmas was also the day for my birthday dinner, which was very good steak and spätzle (my favorite food). 

Then the next day was my 19th birthday! It was still a holiday in Germany, so I celebrated it with three of my friends and we all went out to dinner with my host parents. 

On the 28th, we left for Domburg in the Netherlands, which is a small seaside town where we stayed with two other families. It was a nice vacation and we took a lot of walks along the beach, drank a lot of hot chocolate. On New Years Eve, at 12, tons of fireworks went off everywhere. It's not like the states where the major fireworks are in one place, but everyone was shooting off tons of fireworks so it was extremely loud and everywhere would light up. Those lasted for a full hour, until one, and then as soon as they stopped I fell asleep. Then on New Years Day, people go into the ocean for a New Years swim, and they're just wearing bathing suits in the freezing cold wind...but it was interesting and funny to watch for me! We headed home on January 4th, then school started again January 8th for me. 

The next weekend my host family and I went down to Lake Constance to celebrate the grandmothers (Bettina's mom) 70th birthday. It was a brunch on Saturday morning which was really really good food, and a lot of German which was overwhelming at first but then got better, even if some people spoke so fast to me I could only shake my head while trying to process it. 

Hans the Hamster

I got an early birthday present today and his name is Hans and he's a hamster! Bettina, Joe, Emmi and I all went to pick him out and then Emmi and I carried him (it was a tiny box, but Emmi really wanted to help) and sang all the way to the checkout "Wir haben ein kleines Hamster!" (We have a small hamster!) and told the little kid behind us too (he didn't care). Then when we got home everyone helped to make his cage ready, with his wheel, house and a platform. And then we all watched him for a good 10 minutes..now he's next to my bed (making a lot of noise) but he's very cute and cuddly! 

I asked Emmi to help me think of a name, and first she said hamster...and I told her no were not naming the hamster hamster. Then she said Schmetterling which is the word for butterfly, so she wanted to name the hamster butterfly...which I said no to also. Then I suggest Hans, a stereotypical German name to Americans, and she thought for a minute and said okay! so that is how Hans got his name. 

An American-German-Belgian-Irish Thanksgiving

Last Saturday I celebrated Thanksgiving with my host family and friends. The weekend before my host dad, Emmi (little sister), and I went grocery shopping and tried to buy everything. However, some things can't be found here, for example, cranberry sauce or actually even fresh/frozen cranberries don't exist. On Friday I didn't have any school because it was parent/teacher conference day, which worked out really well cause I basically cooked all day with a friend who came over to help me. We made apple pie, mini gluten free apple pies for Bettina, mashed potatoes, stuffing with hazelnuts, apples and dried cranberries, cranberry sauce from dried cranberries (I was worried how it'd turn out but it was actually really good), shrimp and bacon Mac and Cheese (the other American insisted Mac and cheese is something you need at Thanksgiving but I disagree) and of course pumpkin pie (it was actually maple pumpkin pie and gluten free!). Saturday morning I made sweet potatoes with brown sugar and marshmallows, which everyone besides the two Americans thought it was really weird and wondered why you would ever put marshmallows on sweet potatoes...then Bettina and Joe helped make the turkey, the gravy, biscuits and grilled the squash. By then it was around 12 and three of my friends were already here (they were Grant, the American, Louis, Irish, and Yoann, Belgian) and there wasn't really that much to do, so we all went to the Christmas Market and met Jill, a friend from school there. German Christmas Markets are amazing...they're so pretty and have amazing things. For example, there's a chocolate hut with chocolate hammers, shoes, bolts, roses and they're incredibly detailed and look way too good to eat. Then there's huts with beeswax candles, little music boxes, hand carved wooden things and of course food huts with Glühwein, which is basically mulled wine but apparently it's deadly (I've stayed away from it...I prefer the hot coco with whipped cream). Then we went back to help with the grand Thanksgiving dinner and another friend came, Marlene, from lacrosse. Everything was so incredibly good and I stuffed myself so much until I just wanted to curl up and sleep....but instead we watched a movie then went back to the Christmas Market until everyone's train left. However, the conductor almost didn't let Grant and Yoann in the train cause the closed the doors as they were walking up to the train, and they closed them early. But there was a lot of other people who wanted to get on too so they made it! 

Essentially, Thanksgiving was a success. I got my American Thanksgiving with all the typical food and ended up spending it with good friends and my host family and we all had fun! 

From left to right: me (obviously), Yoann, Jill, Grant and Louis

The view of the Christmas Market from the Ferris Wheel 

My favorite thing about America

Well it's not my favorite. But it's up there with the things I either miss, took for granted, or realized Americas better than Europe at. 

It's a car. Not just any car, but a big huge SUV (like an Audi Q7) that gets driven everywhere. Everyone takes trains, buses or cable cars here. While that is convienent, I still love taking a car everywhere. Here, even if you do take a car, it's most likely small and definitely not the size of an Audi Q7. 

I like the fact you can take a train to anywhere in Europe, but trains and I have a love hate relationship in general. I'll always be almost late, or just plain late, and supposed to miss my train...but then turns out the train is late (trains are always late. Always.) So while I hate the amount of pushy people and just the fact there's a lot of people in general and seats are usually hard to find...I somehow have only missed one train and then I managed to get an even faster train like 10 mins later...and then my next train was 15 mins late so I made that. I make the train...but I may not get a seat  or just be crammed in with tons of people but hey at least I make the train. 

Basically, I like my big huge cars because they're more convienent for me (it's selfish I know), quieter and have way less people because even though I'm a people person, that many people is just not my cup of tea. At all! 

A whole bunch

I've been really busy, meaning I haven't had time to post anything. But hey that's a good thing cause it means I have a good life here! My host family and I spent the weekend in Hamburg for Bettina's (my host moms)  friends 40th birthday party. I saw family friends on Saturday and we got breakfast which was croissants with jam and butter and fresh fruit then coffee, so a perfect breakfast for me! Then we walked around Hamburg and went into some shops, saw the Rathaus then had dinner with the dad and Robin who had just taken his SAT (it reminded me of how much those sucked). After that the mom and I went to get coffee again after walking a bit and then I went back to my host family and we all went to the party. It was in this little restaurant and there were about 20 people and the owner was Ethiopian (I think). The food was sehr lecker (very delicious) and it was green and red lentils (the red ones were spicy), chicken legs in some sauce and then spinach which was also super spicy. I also learned that when your mouth is on fire from spicy food, sparkling water is not a good idea cause it just makes it seem all that hotter from the bubbles! Sunday we drove back to Bonn, except there was traffic and raining then at one point it started hailing. Thankfully, we were in Burger King when it started then just waited until it ended. Towards the end of the car ride, which was from I think 11:30 to 7, Emmi started to get hyper (as any 3 year old would do and she was good a lot longer than I would've been at 3), but I was watching a movie, Les Choristes, on my iPad and she leaned over and whispered "hey Sarah. In a little bit, I get your iPad! Yeah? Yeah?" And I just kinda looked at her like uhhhh....no. Needless to say, she got the iPad about 10 minutes later. 

Today, I didn't go to school cause I didn't feel well and went back to sleep until about 12. The I went to tutoring cause I felt a bit better. It was sunny then as soon as I got to the experiment office (my exchange organization where I also have tutoring), it started to pour and became really windy and nasty. So at the end of tutoring Paulo and I got Experiment ponchos! And then I had to help Paulo buy AldiTalk so his phone would actually work. So we went looking for an Aldi...in the pouring rain and wind. Thankfully we found one and the trip was successful and Paulo now has a phone. 

A lot more has happened than that but I'll write more later!