If you ever wanna eat a Sauerkraut sandwich again take your Wiener Schnitzel lickin' finger and point out on this map what I wanna know.

Well! I've arrived! I am in Groß-Gerau, and I am going to school tomorrow. Also, I turn 18 tomorrow... it should be an exciting day. I am, however, very, very nervous.

The last few days in Bonn were bitter-sweet. I was excited to leave, but it was a little hard. I miss all the other Americans a lot. It was nice hanging out with them, and not having to worry about making German friends ;-) But now that time is over.

My family here is super nice. The dad is retired, the mom works as a landscaper for the city. My older host brother is 27, he is currently in Shanghai with a friend visiting the friend's family. My other host brother is 26, and he goes to the University not far from here... not in Frankfurt, but I'm not sure exactly what the town is called.

Their house is pretty large. Three floors, a nice size yard, a garage-ish part. I have a large room, with a loft (but no ladder yet...) and a nice balcony. I really do love it.

My first day here was very chillaxed. I had breakfast after waking up at about 10:00 and then went to get my hair cut with my host dad. He brought me there and helped me explain what I wanted. I didn't get EXACTLY what I wanted, but it doesn't matter, because nothing got lost in translation, thankfully, and it looks pretty good... I think :-D

There is a cat here at this family. I haven't had a reaction yet. It stays mostly outside, but has snuck into my room a few times. I lost track of it once, and found it sleeping in my suitcase. Naughty, naughty...

Tomorrow is my first day of school. Again, I am super nervous... hopefully I am worring for nothing, but yeah... I also can't wait.

I am going to make mango salsa tomorrow for my party! Weee. I hope it comes good. :-D

A small part of me wishes I were going to college with everyone else still, but that time will come before I know it. I also wish I knew where I was going to college... for sure. Again, the time will come.

On Saturday, when I got here, I went to the movies that night with my host brother, Anton. We saw Inglourious Basterds. Quintin Tarentino is a crazy-ass. I liked it, but not as much as Kill Bill. Duh.

It is very hot here. I went yesterday with my host mom to a lake about 7 km from here, by bicycle. It was such a long ride... taking into account the heat and the fact that the bike I was using was pretty old and slow... and my host mom is a bike pro... she rides so fast sometimes...

Then, last night I went to dinner at Anton's friends' house. A few of them live together and study at a few various schools or even work already. Apparently they went to elementary school all together. They were all older than me by a few years, but were all really nice. Hopefully making friends and talking with people my age is just as easy.

German is getting easier, sometimes I think of a sentence in German, or the German word pops into my brain first... I hate it when I am talking to my mom, for example, but other than when I am trying to speak English, it is great.

Everybody wants a thrill!

Well, it has been quite a while since I posted last.

Our lessons now take place in a new building. It is actually closer to my house... I think, but I still need to leave at the same time because the next bus after the one I usually take comes too late.

We have been on so many excursions, and been to so many random castles, cities, and cool places... it is exausting!

I can't believe I only have one week left here in Bonn. A week from today I am going to Frankfurt, and three days later I have my first day of school and I'll turn 18!

Last weekend we went to Düsseldorf to see a soccer game. The team there is not in the highest national league, it's in the second highest one, Zweite Bundesliga, but it is still super popular with the local people. The team, Fortuna Düsseldorf, won three to zero. It was so exciting! Then, random, sometimes drunken, people were celebrating throughout the city's downtown. It was great.

School has started back home, and everyone is leaving for their colleges and my sibilings and younger friends are going to their schools too. It made me a little upset not to be there and visit people/teachers/marching band, and see my friends off. The time will come soon enough when we are all together... I can't wait to share experiences with them!

I really want to go to school in NYC... it is often on my mind.

We went career researching two weeks ago. It really stressed me out. I really dunno what I want to do anymore. I have too many options; too many interests... it is going to be so hard for me to decide.

Today we visited a castle in a town called Braubach. I missed the original train to a town further south, where the other group first went. There they took a boat tour on the Rhein up to Braubach, where I met them. There we had lunch, and then climbed a pretty big hill to get to Marksburg (St. Mark Castle). I am exausted. I can't wait sleep in tomorrow...

That's about it for now :-D

Microsoft... Word.

FINALLY!

My computer has been down for nearly a week, and just yesterday I fixed it with the help of the German Army Computer Guy who lives right below my family's apartment.

AVG decided that I didn't need some necessary Windows files and deleted them. I am now running on Windows XP Professional German edition until I can replace or repair my normal Windows XP Home.

I have been so busy this past week! Where to begin?! I'll keep it short, I promise... I still have a little bit of homework :-)

Last week, and again today we visited two different groups of German students from all over the country who are doing some seminars about the US. All of them are very interested in the US, its people, and its culture. Many have already studied for a little while, if not a few months to a year somewhere in the States... and those who haven't really want to. They all have good English, so we spoke English with them to enhance their cultural encounter with Americans. It was a very good time. We played frisbee with them!! It was an AWESOME GAME... I love when you balance the teams out just right; the game pace and play is so much fun.

We visited Cologne again last week. There we saw a museum all about Cologne... learned about its history and saw some historical items. The tours are fun, but I brought my laptop with me... long boring story; basically I was just looking for help from anyone... so it was a drag to have to carry it all over with me.

Today, as a lesson, we had AIB Olympics! It was awesome... our team lost overall, but we had a few good wins. The last event was awesome. We were given two apples, and had to split our team in half and try to barter/trade with townspeople/businesses to come back with either something more valuable than the apple or very funny. My group tried to trade the apple for some books, but the booklady didn't want it if it wasn't an organic apple... we weren't sure if it was, and didn't want to lie, so we kept going. We then traded it for a pretty good sized sunflower. No one would trade us anything for the sunflower at all... we tried people on the street, and businesses... we even tried trading it for bones from the butcher, and go for the funny points... no go. We decided to go back to the booklady who was so happy we returned that she let us pick out one book each. We returned to school with four books, expecting to win at least the most valuable prize, but we picked out pretty funny books anyway; one had a super creepy lady on the cover, and the book is called, "Playing with small children and babies." We lost, but it was an awesome time.

I can feel my German getting better and my English getting worse. It is awesome sometimes, and horrible at others... like for instance when I am writing a blog entry :-D

That's it for now... I need to do homework... I will post pictures tomorrow if anyone's interested. As always they will be on Facebook and only the good ones will be on here :-)