Ulmer Munster

Today I climbed the tallest church in the world with my host brother Daniel. There was like 700 something steps... When I got to the top my legs felt like they were going to fall off. But the view was so beautiful and I can tell that my butt is tighter now. hahaha (joking.)

My host parents - first platform, not that high.

The view of the city from the first platform.

Getting higher now...

Now we're at the third platform, alot higher!

View of Ulm from the highest point we could climb.

Part of the church.

Daniel took a pic of me when I didnt want him to.
It was windy and I was panting cuz I was so tired.

Last night my host parents hooked me up with one of their friends' daughter, her name is Carina. We were supposed to go to a party, but the boy got sick and cancelled it. So, we went to a girl named Carmen’s house instead. Carmen is hosting an exchange student from Brazil. She came here in July not knowing any German, so their main way of communicating is through English. Her German is a little better than mine already, because she was here 2 months before me. But she came here knowing nothing, so I am sure that in 2 months my German will be awesome. She wrote the German meaning of everything in her house on post-it notes and posted them all over. I think it’s a good idea so I am going to buy some post-it notes and do it too. Anyway, we just talked and sat around her house, and then we decided to go to a pub. Carina and I both didn’t have alcohol, because I am not allowed and she was driving. It was really fun though. We dropped the girls off at about 11:30 and went back to Carina’s house. My host father was supposed to pick me up at 1, but picked me up at midnight, because Carina and I were both so tired. I am not sure what I am doing today, but if anything interesting happens I will be sure to update!

BORING

The past couple days have been pretty much the same. I wake up, get ready, have breakfast, go to school, then watch movies and chill with the family for the rest of the day. It has been raining so we dont have much to do. I watch alot of MTV here, because that is the only channel that is mostly in english.

I dont know what else to say, nothing new has happened.

So I'll update again soon... When things get interesting.

Pictures

These are pictures of our "adventure walk" today.
We drove to some kind of park, and took a long walk on a trail.

my host father taking a picture on our walk.

my cute host brother walking on the trail.

lucky, ALMOST the best dog ever.
he doesnt beat bosco or george but hes cool.

the view of my city from far away where we were walking

if you look really closely, you can see an air balloon in the distance.

Pictures of courtney and i shopping last night:

we are princesses! and i dont know whats up with my face...

first german pretzel

me and courtney.

normal good water, and gummy bears.
that is what i live for... hahha

all the pretzels are like this...
doesnt it look like it has a mouth?

i had pretty much the best day since ive gotten here. i was shopping in the city all day with courtney. it all started out with me waiting at the train station for her. i was early and bored so i went to a magazine place, and saw a magazine with zac efron and vanessa hudgens on the cover, so i bought it. i looked through it and came to a page with a free condom, and a whole page with directions on how to put it on... with pictures and everything.it was quite disturbing, but really funny. that made my day. then courtney came and we went and shopped a little. a high school musical song came on in one of the stores and they sung it in german... it was pretty awesome actually. then we went and had a pretzel which was sooo good. then we shopped a little more and then we went out for pizza. after we ate we sat there for like 20 mins cuz the guy never gave us our check. we didnt know exactly how to ask for the check so courtney just kinda waved him over lol. he started speaking in english just assuming we were american by our accents... good guess though lol. then we had icecream and these guys came up to us and we told them we didnt speak good german, and they started spekaing english and it sounded pretty hot. too bad the guys werent hot, just the accents lol. anyway, when they found out we were not 18 they seemed a little dissappointed. what creeps! dont worry, we would know how to handle ourselves if anyything happened. we went to mcdonalds to get some water that wasnt carbonated because we both really wanted a good glass of water... but the lady gave us carbonated water even though we said we didnt want that kind... so we went to some store and i bought a huge bottle of regular water because i havent had good water since i got here. i didnt even know they sold reg water here until today, so im happy about that. then we went and sat in burger king until our parents came.. it might sound boring but i really had funnn. i ate ALOT and drank alot of cola and fanta lol. now i cant wait to sleep and just relax all day tomorow and watch all the movies i bought today :)

pictures will be posted tomorow so check them outtttttttttt

ps. sorry i didnt capatilize or puncuate anything. i am just tired and lazy and i feel like sleeping. and for those of you who dare too old to know, "lol" means laugh out loud. so i say that if i think somehting is funny. hahahha lol :)

goodnight

Today after lunch my host father asked if I wanted to go on a bike ride with him and my two older brothers. I said yes, because I thought it would be short and sweet. I was wrong, we rode our bikes 20 kilmometers to a little tourist town to have ice cream, and then rode 20 kilometers back. I don't know how many miles that is, but I do know that it took about an hour and a half to get there, and then an hour and a half back. It was soooooo tiring, I wanted to go back after 15 minutes! But when we got to the little town (i forgot what its called), we had the best icecream I have ever had in my life. And when we got back home, I was glad that I did it. I took a shower right away and I could hardly stand up, my legs were like jello. We just had dinner and now I am probably going to sleep because I am so tired. Tomorow I am going shopping with my friend Courtney. I need a new lighter coat because I only have a winter one, and it's too heavy. And I also need some movies because I already watched all the ones I brought. And maybe some jewelry because all I brought was earrings. Yeah mom, this is your warning. But don't worry I won't go too crazy.

Hello everyone!
I finally got to use my new hair straightener that Leona bought me. I needed a european adapter which arrived on Tuesday.
Tuesay night after dinner I played darts with my host brother and host father. I am actually alot better than I thought I was. I won 2 out of 3 games! I never relaly played a real game of darts before so I am proud of myself. My host father always wins any game we play, so we made a deal that anytime he loses any games, he has to put 2 euros in the piggy bank and when we get 30 euros in the bank, we go out to pizza with the money.
School is still boring, as usual. In English the teacher always asks for my help if he doesnt know an answer to a question. It sucks when I don't know an answer to a question about my own language. But most of the time I can help everyone, and that makes me feel good because I finally feel superior to the kids. Most of the time I feel so stupid. On wednesday I had Musik class, which is music obviously. We had to sing a bunch of different songs, and alot of themwere in English. At first I wasn't singing beause I suck at singing, but I looked around and everykid was singing so I just moved my lips so that everyone thought I was singing too, haha. Everyone has an accent when they sing, so its really funny to listen to. But I cant laugh, because they dont laugh at me when I speak german. So I just smile and laugh on the inside. Today my history teacher was not there, so I got to come home from school early. It's cool here because if a teacher is gone, their class is cancelled instead of getting a subsitute for them.
Grandma P. sent me these potato stick things that I dip in peanut butter. Its my new invention that I created with food from home, haha. It's really good, you all should try it.
I finally got a TV in my room, so thats pretty cool. Now instead of going on the computer when I'm bored, I just put on MTV or Nickelodeon. Last night I was watching spongebob squarepants in German!! It made the show 10 times more funny.

Today I had a good day. My German teacher got mad at me because I didnt do my homework, but what does she expect? I hardly understand anything she says and even if I tried doing the homework, I already know I would not know how to do it. Then in math, my teacher asked me to do a problem on the board, and i shook my head no. He said something that I didnt understand and then my friend Verena said, "she doesnt understand you or the math!" and everyone was all happy that she stuck up for me and they were all laughing at the teacher. She said that in german of course... In gym class I had to go swimming. It was fun even though I have no idea how to swim like all the other girls do.

When I got home from school I had a package from grandma pilkington waiting for me, and that just made my day. I was so excited to get something from home. I didnt get to open it right away because I had to go eat lunch. We had pancakes, but they were not as good as real pancakes in america. They were flat, and not fluffy. I was dissapointed because when my host mother said we were having pancakes I was really looking forward to it. Anyways, after lunch I opened the package and saw that I got pancake mix from grandma so that made me really happy. I showeed the family and said I would make them american pancakes one time. I got a bunch of other stuff that I love like gum, slim jims, pens and pencils, homemade cookies, a european adapter, and much more. yayyy!

I'm going to stop coming online so much, because everyone is bugging me about having too much contact with home. So I am going to start updating every couple days instead of everyday. So if I dont update one day, then just wait until the next. I'm not forgetting or putting it off, I'm just staying away from the computer. If I dont respond to emails right away then just be patient. I love you allll!! (and miss you all alot too)

I'd like to know more about whats going on with all of you readers too... So email me and tell me how the family is doing and stuff. I dont want to talk about me all the time! haha

my email is Megh057@aol.com

Tschuss!

Courtney, Me, Verena

Me and Court at Kultur Nacht

Today I started off school with English for 2 periods in a row. I love that class because the teacher speaks English the whole time, so I actually know whats going on. Also because he makes the kids speak english too. I really take advantage of speaking English in that class because the rest of the day I feel bad when I speak English because it probably annoys the kids. Then I had math, which is actually really hard. The problems he gives us are really hard, and since I dont understand the lesson, I cannot really learn how to do anything. Then I had Chemistry and then Biology. Both were really boring... After school I had a Rotary meeting which was really stupid because the food was gross and I was sitting in a room with like 20 men with really strong cologne. Now I am sitting at home, and I'm gonna go watch a movie or somehting because there isnt really anything to do today.

AHH TRUMPET!

Today was a very relaxing day. I slept in, ate breakfast, took a shower... Then I read a little, and watched like 6 episodes of The OC. I plugged my laptop in outside because today was our first really nice day since I got here. So I got to watch my favorite show outside in the garden. :)

My little brother is playing his trumpet right now, and it's kinda driving me crazy. He is not very good and its very very loud.

Tomorow I am actually kinda excited for school since I got to hang out with the girls in my class a little last night. My family is so boring so it will be great to get out of the house for school... Even though that is boring too. haha

Well I miss everyone, and I love emails!

Kultur Nacht

today i met Courtney(fellow exchange student from michigan) at the train station, and we went shopping for about a hour in Ulm. we bought were these matching friendship necklaces. then we met up with a couple girls from my school. it felt good that courtney was there because i wasnt as shy or embarassed to speak german. all the girls are alot nicer and cooler outside of school. we walked around, and looked in stores, and went to a couple different resturaunts. a couple of the girls were drinking beer, but courtney and i just had cola with the girl that is only 15. i still dont know what the big "celebration" was for... there was just alot of people walking around the city getting drunk. there wasa concert and a bunch of performers all over. i actually smiled and laughed tonight more than i have in 2 weeks.

welll we had a great time, and now im really tired! courtneys host mother picked her up at the same time as my host mother did, so they got to talk a little. they said we could have sleepovers on weekends whenever we want so thats good. because now i feel better that i have someone going through the same thing as me. she will be like my wingwoman this year and we can help eachother. courtney lives about 20 mins away from my city in a smaller town, so she can bring her friends from school and we can all hangout together again. i also feel better about school since i got to know a couple of the girls better tonight.


well goodnight!
i love you mommy!
and i love evreyone else too of course.!!

Finally doing something.

Last night I went out with my brother Daniel and a couple of his friends, it wasnt all that great because I was tired and none of them were all that interested in me, haha. I tried talking to them in German but it wasnt working out all that well so I just stopped talking.. lol

But a couple girls from school invited me to go to the city with them tonight for Kultur Nacht(Culture Night in english). It is some kind of celebration party thing for the city of Ulm. I decided I will go with them, hopefully that will be fun.

I met a girl on the plane ride here who is also an exchange student. Shes from Michigan. She is living about 25 minutes from here so I invited her to come with me, because that would make me alot less nervous to have another american girl with me. So she is taking the train here in about an hour and I am taking the bus to meet up with her at the train staion. We are gonna hang out for a couple hours before we hook up with the other girls from my class.

This will be the first time going out without my host family. But they are going to Kultur Nacht on their own, so when they are going home they are going to call me, and I'm gonna go home with them in the car instead of going back on the bus. My friend from Michigan, Courtney, will take the train home when I'm leaving.

I will update when I get home tonight to tell you all how it went.



Oh by the way, for those of you who dont know, I only like boneless chicken. But today we had chicken on the bone for lunch and I ate it even though I didnt want to. So you all should be proud... haha

sorry, yesterday i was busy and didnt have time to update.

school is so boring! i just sit there and do nothign all day because i understand nothing that my teachers say, and i cant take notes becaus ei cant read any of the teachers handwriting. its easier to read sloppy handwriting if you know the language that they are writing in...

hopefully this weekend i will actually do something fun. my family doesnt really do anythign so all i do is sit around and read and watch movies all day. that isnt helping me learn the language or make friends... but i dont know how to talk ot them about it because i dont know how to talk to them in germana nd they dont understand me most of the time when i speak english. so we dont really talk much.

im finally used to the time change, and im actually sleeping on a schedule now. before i was just sleeping whenever i wanted since i didnt have school or anything.

i hate how all the drinks here are so carbonated. the water, apple juice, lemonade, fruit punch.. it all tastes so bad in this country.

well i should be getting off the computer now, ill write again tomorow.




miss you alll alot!!!

Classes I had today...

English: Pretty much the only time of the day when I know whats going on. The teacher has a really bad accent and he talks kinda weird but I dont care. I love actually having an idea what to do. Because he speaks english the whole time and tells the students to also speak english. We had to get into groups and work on this sentance structure thing, and everyone wanted to be in my group... They are using me for my english but I really dont care because I need friends, lol.

Music: I figured out today that I am musically challenged. I can listen, but I deffinately can't play. Almost everyone in the class plays some instrument, or they sing. So the ones who dont play an instrument were using these mini drums today, it was actually pretty fun.

French: Well all the kids have been learning french for as long as they have been learning english, so they all speak it really well. The teacher just told me to work on something else during the time of that class, because obviously I have never taken french. So I just sit there and do nothing. I think I got yelled at for chewing gum, but I'm not sure. The french teacher just said something and pointed to the garbage and I could understand a couple words, but not everything so i just got up and put my gum in the garbage hahaha.

Math: Boring.. but at least I can somewhat understand. And I realized today that since I never understand what people are saying when they are talking to people, I just look at the faces they make and stuff and I notice everything about their face. Like if somehting is in their teeth or there is a smudge of makeup on their face. I start to laugh sometimes because I'm focused on looking at their facial expressions instead of what they are saying.

After school Matthias and I went to the bus stop, which was packed with kids. We had to push our way onto the busso that we didnt have to wait 10 mins for the next one...

I miss everyone!!! I've already been here a week!

Just got home from my second day of school. I had math, physics, chemistry, and gym. Math was okay, I can kind of understand because I know all the numbers in german and everything we are doing right now I have already done. Chemistry was also okay too, because I already took it. All the terms and the things on the periodic table are all the same in english in german, so it wasnt that bad. Gym classes here seperate the boys and girls, and today the girls had swimming. We had to walk like 2 miles down into town to get to the place where we go to swim. I didnt participate because I didnt bring my swimsuit to school, I didnt know I was supposed to. I am glad I didnt have to because I have no idea how to swim like those girls do. They have been swimming in gym class all their lives so they know all the special moves, haha. I just swim when I swim, and they all like hardcore swim. All the girls in the locker room get naked in front of eachother and they dont care, its really weird. They just strip down and put their swimsuits on. Ive seen more girls butts today than I would have liked... My friend Sibel (shes from Turkey) is pretty much my only friend. She does so much for me, during breaks she shows me aorund school, she translates what I dont understand, and she lets me copy her notes because I cant read any of the teachers handwriting... She sometimes speaks german but mostly english for me. The school is big but not crowded.. I never get lost because I always just follow poeple that are in my class.

Im going into town now to excange my american money for euros, then im buying a cell phone.

Its weird that I am already home from school, and most of you probobly are still sleeping. Its 1:30 here, 6:30 at home.

First day of school.

My school.

^These people were outside my school trying to hitchhike a ride to Munich.
I thought it was funny so I took a picture while I was waiting for my host father to pick me up.

Today I had school at 8:30, and then after that I had my first Rotary meeting. School was good, I made one friend, but I dont know her name. hahha She said I could sit by her and she helped me alot when I didnt understand. and translated like, everything for me. All the kids know english pretty well. They all asked me a couple questions when the teacher introduced me to them, but then they all acted like I wasnt there the rest of the day. Once I learn better german I will approach them... I only have school from 8:30 until 1:00, its pretty sweet. I have a different schedule everyday, and I am only going to 5 or 6 classes each day. So I have certain classes on certain days; for example I have English on Mondays and Thursdays. (Thats my favorite class by the way). I didnt get to choose my classes, because students take all the same classes together every year. So I am with the same kids all day, and we all move from class to class together. The subjects I am taking are English, German, math (i dont know what kind of math), chemistry, biology, physics, religion (im not sure what religion they put me in), French, PE, art, and three other classes called erdkunde, geschicte, and infomatik, i dont know what they are in english. Like I said, I dont have to go to all those classes everyday. I already took biology and chemistry so hopefully its easy.

The Rotary meeting was good. I met my counselor Dr. Bald and a bunch of other old men. The Rotary Club here is men only, but i am allowed because I'm an exchange student. So it was really boring and the food wasnt even good. They said I could come back to any other meeting i wanted to, but I probly wont do that. Even my host father said "we don't need go back there eh?" I laughed...

Today I woke up and ate breakfast, then took a shower. As usual...
Then I sat around the house, watched The OC in german with Daniel.
My host mother made lunch, which was... weird. but I ate it of course.
After lunch I went to a dance studio with the parents and Daniel.
By the way, Daniel is my favorite host brother. He is 19 and speaks good english.
He is in the Army so he is only in the house on weekends. He just left actually.
Anyway, I watched Horst, Susanne, and all of their friends learn to dance.
Then I came home and played cards with all the boys. Then we had dinner.
Dinner is the same everynight, salad and sandwiches. Its good... haha
Right now my little brother Matthias is playing the trumpet in the other room.
He is actually really good for his age. My other brothers play the clarinet. lol
Tomarrow is my first day of school, im kinda nervous but also excited.

seeee ya!

Fussball Spiel

Today I went to my first german soccer game. It was kinda fun but kinda boring. I went with my host father and my 3 host brothers. Ulm won 5-0. Pretty exciting... After the game we went to McDonalds and I had a hot fudge sunday. It didnt even taste the same, but it was still good. They have cappiccino mcflurrys at Mcdonalds here and beer too.

THE OC IN GERMANY!

Today was a good day, I bought a german book The OC!! I'm gonna try and read it but if i can't, I'll wait a couple months and then try again. My host brother Daniel came home from the army today, he's 19 and pretty cute. We went out to dinner and got pizza with another family. They have a daughter that is 18 and she is really nice. She likes The OC too. Germany loves that show just as much as I do! She speaks good English so that made me feel better. I havent got to speak English in like forever. I also got to talk to my host brother, Dominik, who lives in Columbus Ohio for a year. He also speaks good english.

Random

My house, and the dog Lucky.


Holderweg 30

Random//

- The toilet flushes really oddly. It doesnt spin or anything, you just press this button and it makes a really loud noise and it sucks down and then clean water bubbles up.

- The lights in the house are automatic. When you walk through the hallways, the lights turn on as you walk through them and then turn off when your away from.

- Everytime you walk into the door of my new house, the dog Lucky is sitting there waiting for you. When you open the dor, he will pick up any random shoe that is by the door and give it to you. To make him drop it, you say AUS! hahah

- When you go to the supermarket, you have to pay to get a cart. But I think you get it back at the end, cause you just put in some coin and then when you put the cart back, the coin comes back out.

- All of the streets and cars are really little. There are stoplights just for cross walks too. And the way everyone drives is different too.

- On the German keyboard the Z and the Y are switched, and there are extra keys.

Family Time

I know I have already updated today but I am probably going to update alot in the beginning because I am not too busy, and I dont want to forget anything. Today I went to Aldi with my host mother. We got lots of groceries and such. She let me pick out whatever I wanted but I wasnt really sure what alot of things were and I kinda felt bad... When we got home, twins from down the road came over and my host father got home from work. I had cake and cola and played a couple card games with the two boys and my little brother and my host father. Now my host mother and grandmother are getting dinner ready and then hopefully I can get some sleep.

School

Today I woke up and ate breakfast with Susanne (my host mother) and her mother. Then Susanne, Matthias and I went to the school to register me. We walked 10 minutes to the bus stop and waited, then we rode the bus for 10 minutes and then we had to get off and walk about 10 more minutes to Schubart Gymnasium. Matthias (little host brother, 13) and I have to do that everyday to and from school. On Monday at 8:30 is my first day. On the way home I saw a Pizza Hut and got really excited. On my way home from school I will go there for lunch to see if it tastes just as good here in Germany. I am going to meet two neighbor boys later today that will be in my class. Hopefully they are nice and will help me make friends.

Settling In.

tallest church in the world.

i dont know what this is haha



me in front of Danube river.

SUBWAY!

me and the other exchangees in amstedam.

my room.



view from room window.

my bathroom.

tallest church.

its the second night, and all is good. weather is cold and windy, but thats ok. ive been eating alot of good food. my family speaks little english, and i speak little german so its pretty hard to commmunicate. i went into the city of ulm today, saw my school and alot of really pretty buildings and churches. they have subway and mcdonalds and burgerking here. well, hope you liked the pictures. ill post more later. i have to go to bed, im so tired. gute nacht.

ps. mom, yes i have been wearing my retainer!