Swimming

Last night I went to the "schwimbad" with my host dad and 2 host brothers (Daniel and Matthias). A schwimbad is a public pool. It is really nice though, there is more than just one pool, there is a sauna, a hot tub, and a pool that is half inside and half outside. That one is really cool cuz it is really warm, and you can go outside in the freezing cold weather and still be warm. You can see a bunch of steam rising from the water and you can see your breath when you talk. Anyway, they have these public pools all over, because it is very uncommon to have a pool at your house. I didn’t think it would be fun, because I was with 3 boys and at first I was a little uncomfortable. But it turned out to be fine, there was one water slide that we kept going on, we relaxed in the sauna for a while, and in the hot tub. I got to spend more time with Daniel which is good, because maybe he will start talking to me more so I am not so bored all the time. When we got home, we all watched The Devil Wears Prada in German, with English subtitles. At the beginning I was just staring at the subtitles the whole time and didn’t exactly get to see what was going on in the movie. But by the end of the movie, I didn’t have to look at the subtitles as much because I understood a lot more.

Yesterday I was in Ehingen visiting Courtney. We should have been on the webcam at 9am your time, and then again at 11... It seems that everyone missed us though. We walked around the town and looked in some shops. We ate icecream and sat by the fountain for a while incase anyone was watching. We met up with some of her friends from school and hung out with them for a while. I was supposed to go back to Ulm around 5 or 6, but I ended up staying longer for dinner. We went to her host oma and opa's house and ate dinner with them. Courtneys little host sister is so cute! She had her first day of English in kindergarten yesterday, and she learned how to say cat, dog, and my name is Viona. Eating with them was really fun. I took the train home at about 9:30 pm, which was kinda scary, because it was dark and I was alone. Oh and speaking of dark, we turned our clocks back on Saturday and now it is completely dark by 5:30! We were on our way to dinner and I felt liek I was supposed to be long in bed by then. I think I already told you all, but this week is our fall break. Most of my exchange friends are going on vacations with their host families and I am stuck in the house. Courtney is going to Czech Republic, Erika is in the Netherlands, A couple othe rof my friends are in rendom places around Germany like Berlin and Munich... I really wish I could get out of the house. When I have nothing to do with the family, I just read my English books or watch Greys Anatomy (I bought the first and second seasons because I never watched it before I left, and I am becoming obsessed now)... I feel bad because I am not learning any German in the process and my host parents probably are upset about that. But what do they expect me to do? When they are sitting around the house being lazy and doing their own thing, I am also going to sit around being lazy doing my own thing. I guess i could study German all day and try to read German books, but that woould be no fun at all. I have to listen to people speak german and I have to try and speak german every minute of every day! I am already sick of learning this language. This week will be my break I guess, then when I go back to school I will be studying German like a crazy person AGAIN. Now I feel better because I reassured myself that reading watching things in English isnt too bad. Here are a couple pictures of Courtney and I yesterday... I know youve seen PLENTY of pictures of us already, so I kept it short.

I was on the phone with our friend Erika from Cali.



This is the view of the Ehingen webcam from the fountain.
The camera is up by the clock on the Rathaus.

This is the tree we sit under to eat our pretzels =]

ATTENTION!!

hey everyone, I want you all to try out something! Tomorrow I am going to Ehingen to visit Courtney. We are going to hang out in the town and maybe go souvenir shopping or something. Anyway, you can go to a website and see a live view of the middle of town. It’s like a webcam. On MONDAY you can go to the website at the start of each hour and see if you can see Courtney and me. We don’t know exactly what time we will be there, but we will make sure to be there at the start of the hour. So every hour starting at 6am, go to the following website if you want to see a live view of me and Courtney =]. We will be standing on the big fountain in the back. I really hope it works so you all can see us! We will be the only two crazy girls standing on top of a fountain, haha. So check at 6am on Monday, then 7am, 8am, 9am, 10am, and 11am. Eventually you will see us. After 11am your time I will already be on my way home, so you can only see us between the hours of 6 and 11am... Keep a look out. And remember, if you see this post too late and you don’t start looking until 10 or 11, you may have already missed us. Like I said, I don’t know when we can be there. Comment if you see us!

http://webcam.vhs-ehingen.de/cgi-bin/guestimage.html

Host Parents' 50th Birthday

This is my work! I set the tables, and made those napkins look cool =]

Horst and Susi's dance teachers came to dance for the party.

Little host brother Matthias, only 13 years old. Pouring a beer... haha

Daniel and Susi ^

Daniel on the Clarinet, Christian on the Trumpet.

Host Parents dancing... ^

I just finished reading The Guardian. It was such a good book! I feel so accomplished, because I have never read a book on my own. I usually only read books when I have to for school. It only took me 4 days to finish too! Later today I am going to the book store to get a new book. Probably another one by Nicholas Sparks, since I loved the two books of his that I read.

Tomorrow is my host parents' birthday party. They are both turning 50. I am not sure how that is going to be, but I am really hoping I will have a good time. I will have my camera, so you guys can see some more pictures of my host family. I realized all the pictures I post are mostly of friends!

I haven’t been doing much the past few days... Just reading and watching movies and tv. I am hoping to meet up with Courtney and Erika sometime soon. Halloween is approaching and I am kind of bummed I am missing out. It is not very popular here, and even if it was, I probably wouldn’t be doing anything that night.

Love,
Megan

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA HOMAN!!

I LOVE AND MISS YOU SO MUCH!! XOXOXO

Right now it is 7:10am here in Germany, which means back home, it is just past midnight on October 24. That means I am most likely the first person to think about you on your birthday, and also the first one to say happy birthdayto you. Everyone else is sleeping, unless you know anyone else in Europe? I love you granny =]

Yesterday I bought a book in English to keep me occupied after school every day. It is called The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks. I just started, but it is good so far. I bought it because he is the author of The Notebook, and that is my favorite book/movie.

Thursday is the start of "Herbst Ferien". That is our autumn break. We get a break from school for just about every holiday and season, which is nice. So I have Thursday and Friday off, and also all of next week. Hopefully in that time I can meet up with some of the other exchange students I met in Schwarzwald.

Today our math teacher was sick or something, so we had an hour break in the middle of the day when we were supposed to have math class. The whole class walked into the town and we went to Kaufland, which is like German style Walmart. Three boys in my class bought a couple beers, and drank them on the way back to the school. I was so surprised! In the middle of the school day, they just drink a beer like it is nothing. Wow...

A girl in my class, Verena, told me today that she wanted to live in the USA for a year after school. She said she was going to live with me in Illinois, and I said yeah, that would be cool! She then asked me if I thought my parents really would let her. I didnt know she was actually serious about coming to live with me! I dont think she knows it is not that easy. You dont get to pick your host family during your exchange. I told her yes, that we would love to have her in our house... But I know it wont happen. She isnt done with school for a couple more years and I am sure we will lose touch by then. hahah

Well that’s just about all I can update on today...

love, Megan

Aunt Lisa's German Lesson of the day!!!

Januar- January
Februar- February
März- March
April- April
Mai- May
Juni- June
Juli- July
August- August
November- November
Dezember- December

Winter- Winter
Spring-Frühling
Summer- Sommer
Fall- Herbst


I think my little brother is starting to get a little jealous of me. I know that sounds bad, but I do not mean it in a stuck up way. During meals, when my host mother offers me somehting to eat, Matthias gets all mad. He says, "Hey, I want something to drink! Why dont you offer me?"
And after dinner today we played darts in the basement. My host father put a newspaper under my feet because it was cold and we were standing on cement. Matthias said, "Pa, I am cold too! I am still your son you know!"
I think it is pretty funny =]

Nothing reall new...
But keep the comments coming.
I'll post again soon

Love,
Meg

Just updating on the weekend.

I didn't do anything interesting this weekend... On Saturday we finally got our new bathroom finished. My host brother Christain has been working on it since I got here... We only had one shower that we had to share for the 6 of us, but in our new bathroom there is another shower, so now we have two. Maybe tomorrow I will take pictures and post them. It is the only room in the whole house that is somewhat "high tech".

This morning we had our first snowfall of the year. It was very light, but it was still snow in October! I was very surprised and I am sure you all are too.

I don't remember if I told you that I lost my voice the other day. I got to stay home from school on Friday because I had a sore throat. Well my voice is back and I am feeling better, so tomorrow I have to go back to school. Definitely not looking forward to that... It is so boring!

Next week I am going to church with Courtney and her host family. I am really excited, I will be sure to tell you all how that goes :)

Aunt Lisa: I don't know what to teach you! Maybe you should tell me what you want to know... Its hard to think of things to teach, there is so much to learn!

Love,
Megan

Nose bleed!

I forgot to tell you all about my horrible nose bleed I had during my week in the Black Forest. Well I was sitting down with all the other kids and we were playing cards and stuff. Suddenly my nose started bleeding really bad, it was the worst I have ever had. Everyone was freeking out and it deffinately ruined our game. Austin was a lifeguard at home so he took charge and knew exactly how to help me... One boy told me to put my head back while he got tissues but Austin was like "Nooo! Lean your head forward and I''ll pinch the top of your nose! Relax, take it easy Megan, I'm a lifeguard! Are you okay, are you okay?!" The whole time I was crying and asking for Courtney. Blood was coming out like a water faucet for like 30 mins, and the whole time I had Austin holding my nose, another boy wiping my tears and pulling back my hair, another one wiping off the blood from my hands and face. It was the most attention I have ever had from any boy, so when it was over I was bragging about it to al the girls as a joke. Now they all tease me and say that I use bloody noses to get attention from boys. It is all a joke though, that is not at all true. I wish I had pictures to show you all, but that would be kinda gross.

Black Forest Pictures.

Here are a few random pictures of the Black Forest.

The weather was really nice all week, we got lucky!

I wanted to pet the pony but he kept running away. We were sititng on a hill outside of a resturaunt one day and a random pony just walked up to us and the people eating. haha

Ropes course ^





Hiking ^

Nick (Texas), Max (he is German), and I
We were all hanging out and playing Twister one night.

Courtney, Erika, and I

We met a bunch of professional hockey players
and got to ice skate on their ice rink.

Taking a break during our hiking day.

Rotary Inbounds - Germany 07-08
USA, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Australia, Japan

Week in the Black Forest

WOW! I had pretty much the best week ever!

Well it all started out last Thursday. My host mom took me to the train station and I left around 2:00pm. I rode the train for about 20 minutes and then we stopped in Ehingen where Courtney and two other exchange students got on. I was in the last car of the train and i jumped off real quick so that Courtney and the others could come sit by me. But they were all the way in the front of the train and didnt have time to get all the way to the back by me. But they saw me, so they just got on in the front and tried to come to the back once they got on. But in the middle of the train there was a car that you could not walk through. I also tried to go to the front but it didnt work. So at the next stop I got all my stuff and jumped off the train again and ran as fast as I could to the front. Courtney, Micheal, and Julia saw me running with my luggage so Micheal came to the door and helped me carry everything to my seat. I didnt know what to say to them at first because I didnt know what country they were from. So I just said, "Hey do you guys speak English?" They tried to trick me and they replied, "only a little." But then they all started laughing and I found out they were both from the United States. The whole ride we were talking about our families and our experiances here so far. We were all soooo excited for our week in Schwarzwald! When we arrived at the youth hostel we met all the other exchange students in Baden Wurttemburg. It was confusing at first because no one knew each other and we didnt know what language to speak to each other. Luckily I had Courtney with me like my wing woman. It turns out that 9 out of the 15 exchange students were from all over the USA. The others were from Canada, Australia, Mexico, Chile, and Japan. The other people from the USA were from Kentucky, Arizona, California, Idaho, Michigan, Colorado, Conneticut, and Texas. After 1 hour together we were already bonding. Japan and Mexico dont speak English so we had to communicate in German, but everyone else spoke English the whole week. All of the kids are so awesome. After one week of knowing them I feel like I have known them forever. Courtney and I became really close with another girl named Erika from California. They are my best friends here in Germany and I feel like they are better friends to me then some people from home. I have only known Courtney for about a month and Erika for only a week... All the other girls are also really really cool. We had so much to talk about, because we are all going through the same thing. I dont think we went 10 waking minutes without laughing. We talk mostly English with some random German words placed into sentances. The first two days we had to go hiking all over the Black forest. It was so hard and tiring but we made it fun. The other days we went ice skating, sight seeing, we went to museums, we went swimming, and some of us did a ropes course. We had to climb things and walk across thin ropes and stuff and I chickened out... I went across one rope and started balling and I turned around. It was so high and scary even though we were connected and safe. We ate alot of ice cream and junk food all day long, it was ridiculous! In the youth hostel there was a "party room" with a poker table and a ping pong table. We all stayed up really late everynight and just hung out. The couple that chaperoned us has a son named Max that speaks really good English. He was really cool and hung out with us alot during the week. You can ask any questions about my week if you want, because I just dont know what else to say. I just think it is amazing how close we all got in only one week. I seriously consider Erika and Courtney 2 of the best friends I have ever had. Leona and Katelyn of course are my number one best friends in the whole world, but Erika and Courtney can just relate to what I am going through right now. I think that this week has given me more confidence because most of the kids came here speaking no German and they are doing fine. I realized I just need to stop being so nervous and shy to speak because the Germans dont care, they can understand really good even when you make no sense. Now that I have more than just one friend in my time zone, I think things will run more smooth.

By the way, my host brother Daniel is out of the hosptal and he is doing good. I am not sure of the details but I just know he had a very high fever for a while...

I would love it if everyone would comment on my posts so I know you are reading. All you have to do is click "# comments" at the bottom of the post and write your comment. Then click on "other" and sign your name. Thanks!


Miss you all!
love, Megan

INTERESTING...

I thought you all might like these pictures. I didnt post them the last time I updated. These are the many attempts to get a picture of me jumping in the air...

FINALLY!!!