Last post...

Today is my last day in Germany! I can not believe how fast the time went by... In the beginning I was so miserable and I never thought I would make it this far. My flight leaves tomorrow morning already!

Today I have the weirdest feeling I have ever had. Its a weirder feeling that I had when I left home and I cried a lot more today than I did leaving home. I have learned so much here and I am so greatful to have had this oppurtunity. I will see you all soon and thanks for keeping in touch and reading about my year in Germany!

THANK YOU mommy for everything you've done and for trusting me to leave home for so long! I love you soooooo much!!!!

xo

surprise going away party!

So I am pretty sure I have the coolest friends in the world... Friday night I went to Barfüßer with Stefano and Leona. Julian was supposed to come meet up with us there about 30 minutes later. He did, and he brought about 20 people with him. At first I didn’t get it so I just sat there, smiled and said hi to everyone. Then everyone started saying my name and staring at me and just being loud and like expecting me to say something... Then I said, "Wait, what’s going on? Are you guys here for me?"
Then everyone started laughing and Leona told me it was a surprise. I pretty much just freaked out and Julian wanted me to make like a going away speech but I didn’t because he put me on the spot and there were so many people around and I was in shock still lol. Then he took his shirt off and under it there was a Germany soccer jersey and then he turned around and I saw my name was ironed on the back and all my friends signed it. After a half hour or so, a couple people had to go home or other places, and the rest of us left the bar to go to club violet. It was a really good night that I will never forget.
Then on Saturday me and Leona hung out with Stefano in the city and then we went to his house. His mom thanked us for letting her son stay at my house for so long in the summer, and she gave me my favorite perfume ever that I've never had the money to buy myself! It is Dolce and Gabanna Light Blue, pretty much the best ever. Which Stefano knew so he must have told her? I didn’t even know what to say I was so thankful and so I just cried haha.
Leona left this morning so now I have my last week with my host family and friends to myself. I am already done with school so that’s cool.
Now I need some ideas, on how to thank and pay back my host family, Stefano, and Stefanos family for everything they have done. Steff planned my birthday party then threw my going away party too and the Jersey was his idea. My host family gave me love and a home for 10 months of my life and Stefanos mom bought me that perfume and also gave me dinner a lot of times... I dont know how I can pay them all back! Taking Stefano in my house is not enough I dont think! Plus, I am not the one to thank for that, my mom and Larry are!

See you all soon! xoxo

forgot a couple things

Courtney, my first freind I made in Germany, went home on June 10th! That was totally crazy and early, she was here for only a total of about 9 months. Then Austin left 5 days later, and now Erika is my only exchange friend here with me that I am really close to.


I am worried about my senior year because I have been doing like, nothing all year this year. I am supposed to be studying my online US History class right now but I havent been doing that because I have only 2 weeks (exactly today) left and I dont want to spend them studying. That means this summer I'll have to study it and I know I'll regret not doing it now...


Here are a couple pics from Leona's visit!

Me and Leona with GIANT cheese!!!

Me, Stefano, and Leona

Oh and, the boy in the above picture will be coming to America in the summer for 3 weeks. He actually bought his ticket last night finally. No, he is not my boyfriend and I do not like him like that... I know what a lot of you are thinking lol. My friend Julian was supposed to come with him too, but he cant come anymore because he has to go on a family vacation. They only have a 6 week summer so he doesnt have time to come with Stefano for 3 weeks.

hey everyone, just updating a little something because so many people have been asking me to post. ever since euro tour i have been hanging out with friends and stuff, going to school like usual. leona is back in germany again! she has been coming to school with me this week and last week and shes going home again on sunday. then in about 2 and a half weeks ill be home too.
so, i hope everything is going well back home. things are great here and i miss you all and cant wait to see everyone soon!

PICTURES (euro tour and birthday.)

Munich

Vienna

Prague

Berlin

About to get on the boat to Borkum

On the beach in Borkum

Amsterdam

Belgium

Under the Eiffel Tower

In front of the Eiffel Tower

On top of the Eiffel Tower

On a ride @ Europa Park - awesome amusement park in Germany

Grill Party in Switzerland

Court, Erika, and I saying goodbye

EURO TRIP AND BIRTHDAY PARTY.

Euro trip was simply AMAZING. It was definitely the highlight of my exchange year. I made so many new friends from all over the world and had so much fun with them all. My three favorite places were Paris and Prague. Everywhere we went was beautiful and amazing but I had the most fun at those two places. I spent my birthday in Hamburg which turned out to be a really good day. We drove most of the day until about 12, and then we had free time in the city until dinner, which was super good Italian food. We had to dress up nice and go out with Rotary and they sung to me and we danced and it was just a good birthday.
I will start from the beginning which was Fuessen. There we went to Neuschwanstein which was kind of boring because I was already there in the beginning of the year. The next day we went to Vienna which was really pretty, but it rained all day so we had to do our city tour on the bus which was kind of boring. The next day was Prague. Prague is such a beautiful city but the crime rate is so high that we were always scared and stuff. It was beautiful and cheap and there are a lot of homeless people. That night I woke up screaming in my sleep because i dreamt that i woke up and there were three men in my room stealing our stuff but then the next thing I knew, I was really awake screaming and everyone else woke up too. Scary at the time, but really funny now. I don’t remember what was after Prague so now I will have to tell you about things I remember but it probably won’t be in order. We went to an island of Germany called Borkum which was really really fun. One day we rented bikes and rode all around the island and went to the beach and had ice cream. Then later in the day we had a really cool tour guide that took us walking down to like a mud beach thing and we ended up having a huuuuge mud fight for hours just throwing mud and each other and trying to sink into the mud on purpose and wrestling and stuff. Amsterdam was really disturbing but also beautiful. There are sex shops and coffee shops all over the place and in the red light district there are women standing in the windows waiting to be bought. Like every 2 minutes all I could say was, I can’t believe this! I can’t believe this! Belgium was also really cool. We ate really good chocolate and of course fries and waffles and we saw a statue of a peeing boy. Paris was really nice but I didn’t really like the people there or the food. The Eiffel tower was just breathtaking, I felt so lucky to be there because I know it is a dream for a whole ton of people. The last night we were in Switzerland and we got to have a grill party and then we went swimming in the lake which was soooo so cold, but so fun. Those are all the things that come straight to mind, but I am sure I have forgotten to mention a couple places haha.
We got back on Friday afternoon, Austin, Courtney, and Erika stayed at my house that night and then Saturday was my birthday party. My host mom and my friends Stefano and Julian planned it for me while I was gone. We rented a hall type thing and my host mom made a bunch of food for everyone. I think about 35 people were there which made me happy because I never really realized how many friends in Germany I had. About 10 of them were exchange students from the euro tour, but still... Julian and Stefano got me roses and a bunch of balloons. The party was just so much fun but also a little sad at the end because I know I have to leave all my friends soon. Now that the party and the euro tour are over I am so ready to come home! I have about 4 weeks left then I'll be back by you all!!!

HAPPY 17TH BIRTHDAY MEGAN!!

Me again, Laura

Megan called me again this morning!! She mentioned it was wierd not having any type of contact with any family and friends. She woke me up actually at 6 am. She only talks to me like for one minute and then says ok 10 seconds left gotta go.
For those of you that were concerned she made it out of Prague safely!! She was back in Germany when she called me but I am not sure where exactly she was. I think she is going to Dresden and Berlin.

Thats it.. hopefully she calls me again with an update!

Megan is gone...and I have her password!

It is me, Megan's mother, Laura. I have her password so I told her I would update her blog in case anything exciting happens. She probably assumed I was just kidding but here I am! Megan called me this morning from Haufbrau Haus in Munich to ask me if it was ok if she buys a drindl. I guess they are quite expensive so she figured she should get permission first. Of course, I am a push over right now because I miss her so, I told her okay. She told me she could wear it as her Halloween costume next October. I figure I can make her pay for it when she gets home by washing windows!! Anyways, for the next three weeks you will be hearing from me instead of Megan!

leaving soon...

I am leaving on my rotary euro tour on Saturday, and I wont be updating for 3 weeks. So I will try and give you all the best update I can right now! Last weekend I went to a castle with my host family called Schloss Lichtenstein. It was pretty small, but of course beautiful. We parked really far from the castle and then we walked on a trail to it. We thought it was only 4 kilometers but it was really like 6 which was wayy too much for me! That day we also went inside a cave which is the deepest cave in Germany. Then the weekend was over and I had to go back to school. On Monday morning I had to take my mid-term US History test for the online course I am taking. That was a killer. On Tuesday I didnt go to school because it was Austins birthday, and my host parents are awesome and let me skip school to go to Lindau (Austins city) and hang out with him for the day. He is seriously like the luckiest exchange student I know, because he has a rich host family and he lives in a HUGE house right on the lake, and across the lake are beautiful mountains, so he has an awesome view. He even has a trampoline and a hammock and a volleyball net in his back yard! His parents are super cool too, we had steak and potatoes for his birthday lunch. We have today and tomorrow off of school, because May 1st is some kind of German holiday. I'm not even sure why they celebrate it but I am cool with it lol. Tomorrow Erika and Courtney are hopefully coming to Ulm, and then on Saturday all the other exchange students are coming to Ulm and we are staying in a youth hostel with Rotary and then early Sunday morning we are leaving! Some of the major cities we are visiting are Berlin, Munich, Prag, Amsterdam, Paris, Wien, Brussels, Basel... In case you dont know what countries those cities are in, they are Germany, Czech Republic, France, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands. I'm sad we cant go to Italy or Spain, but I am totally thankful for the places I am going. Well, that is all I have to say for now. I will give you another update when I get back at the end of May.

xo

pics.

ok well I was going to post pics from Sunday but it's not working so, I'll try again another day if I remember...

xoxo

This weekend my little host brother Matthias had confirmation. Saturday night I stayed home because I had to wake up early on Sunday morning to go to the church. After the confirmation we went to a pizza place, my host family, and some friends and family of theirs. Then after pizza everyone went back to our house to hang out, and just celebrate. The weather was really nice so we spent a lot of time outside just talking in the garden and playing cards. My host mom made 5 cakes and she wanted everyone to try each kind! But no one was hungry enough to eat five pieces of cake haha. There was a lot of left over cake so she makes me have a piece everyday! I don’t have a lot of pictures from that day because I totally forgot but I have a few...

Only about a week and a half then I have my euro tour!! woohooooo

happy birthday

just wanted to say happy birthday to my daddy today :)

(you need to get an email address so i have a different way to contact you besides letters and my blog!)

This weekend I had to go to a Rotary conference for the euro tour orientation. I got to meet all the new exchange students that just got here in January, and also all the other kids from other districts that are going on our tour. Not all districts have euro tours so the kids need to search for one from another district that they can go on. There are 27 kids going with, all of them from either an english or spanish speaking country. I lost my voice because I spent the whole weekend speaking english. Rotary wants us trying to speak as much German as possible, and we do try, but its hard when everyone has so much to say and there are so many Americans or Canadians or Australians... We always end up switching to English.

Well thats it...bye :)

Just doing a quick update to let everyone I am alive and doing good. Just going to school and the usual stuff. I have been going jogging everyday after school this week because it has been warming up outside, in the mid 50's since the day after my fam went back home. Unfortunately we had bad weather while they were here but whatever...

pictures

visitors!

Sorry I haven’t been updating, but I had some visitors this week and I stayed in the hotel without any free internet. Before that I was just lazy. But enough excuses, I'll talk about what I did with my mom, brother, aunt Kimmy, Katelyn, Hayley, and my grandma. I took the train on Saturday morning to pick them up from the airport. When we got into Ulm we went straight to the hotel and put all their things down and relaxed a little, then we all went to Barfüßer for dinner, I'm sure I've talked about it before because it’s my favorite restaurant. Everyone ordered something different and shared a little bit. I don’t think there was ever a time where someone didn’t like what they ordered, so that is good. On Sunday we went to my host parents’ house for Easter. My host mom cooked all the food, which was really a lot. First we ate soup, and then we had the main meal which was some pork, spätzle, potatoes, and veggies. Then we ate dessert, which was just vanilla ice cream with some homemade hot raspberry sauce. My host parents called that "heisse liebe" which is "hot love" in English. After dessert we all went to a town called Blaubeuren with my host dad and host brother Christian. That is the town I went a few months ago when we all rode our bikes like 8 miles. Luckily this time we drove there. My host dad showed us around the cute little town and then we went back to my host parents’ house just to find more food for us. We had cake that my host mom made which was super good. Then on Monday my host dad gave us a tour of Ulm. First we went to lunch and then we met up with him and we walked all around the middle of the city and he showed them everything he showed me when I first got there. We went to coffee with him and then went back to the hotel and hung out and swum and stuff. Tuesday we went to Munich. We bought a special train ticket because there were 7 people and we could get it cheaper if we bought an all day group ticket. But it turned out that the ticket wasn’t accepted until after 9:00 and we took the train at 8:12. We actually knew that before we got on the train, but we ignored it and planned on acting like dumb foreigners. It didn’t really work so we got kicked off the train after 20 minutes and ended up in this small nothing town. We chilled in a bakery and played cards for two hours until the next train came. We ended up in Munich around 12 and went to lunch there. Then we looked around the city a bit and then went to the Hofbräuhaus. We could have eaten lunch there but we didn’t know that until we got there. We had a couple giant pretzels that were nothing like I've seen before. They were definitely the best pretzels I've eaten in Germany so far. Wednesday was their last full day here but we couldn’t really do anything special. We wanted to go back to Munich and go to Dachau (concentration camp), but it didn’t work out. We would have to take another 2 hour train there and back and pay for another train ticket for all of us. So we stayed in Ulm on Wednesday instead and went souvenir shopping in the city. They got to see a little more that my host dad didn’t show them on Monday. We went out for our last lunch together at Barfüßer again and then out to ice cream. Then we went back to the hotel so everyone could pack up their things and then we went out to dinner with my host family. Everyone went to bed kind of early last night, because we had to wake up at 4:00 and get to the airport. I didn’t get to go to the airport with them, because they took a taxi van that fit only 6 people and their luggage. We said goodbye at the hotel and my older host brother Christian picked me up and I went home. I had to hold back my tears until I got into my room because I didn’t want anyone else to cry and I didn’t want my host brother to see me crying in the car. Goodbyes are always hard, but this time it is only for 3 months and it will go by so fast I'm sure. Oh yeah and I forgot to say that Katelyn, Hayley, and Ryan all got to meet some of my friends because we went out with them a couple nights. Last night Julian, Stefano, Oli, and Chris all came to the hotel in suits to meet my mom, but she was already sleeping because that was the night that they all went to bed early because of the flight this morning. Me, Katelyn, and Hayley stayed up a little later and hung out with the boys but they didn’t stay long. Julian and Stefano really want to come to America in the summer and stay with me, so they decided to try and impress my mom by looking nice so she would let them come. Well, that is all I have to say for now, the muscles in my fingers hurt from typing so much.

xoxo

SUPRISE

I just found out that not only will my mom, brother, and Katelyn be coming to Germany, but also my grandma Homan, aunt Kimmy, and Hayley!!!

REALLY EXCITED NOW!


:)

YAY!

My mommy and brother and cousin Katie are visiting me in 13 days for Spring Break!!

woohoo!

SING STAR

On Friday night I went to my friend Julia's house with a girl in my new class. It was at first going to be an all girls night, but of course all the boys ended up coming because they were bored without us LOL! We played sing star pretty much the whole night... It was so fun! When I get home I need to get myself a play station and buy this game so I can work on my singing skills haha.

stufffff

So, my new class is okay. I expected a lot more when I switched but they turned out to be just like my old class. Which isn’t really bad at all, by the way... They just don’t approach me like I wish they would, because I'm usually too shy to approach them myself. I think that is how all Germans are though, and that’s why I don’t have too many friends.

I forgot to say that a couple weekends ago I met up with a couple exchange students and we went to the zoo in Stuttgart. Max (a boy from Schaumburg in my Rotary district at home), Courtney of course, and Lukas (which is a German boy who was in the Chicago area last year from my home Rotary district).

This weekend was really boring. I was supposed to go to a club with a girl in my new class but it didn’t work out so I stayed home. Saturday I spent the whole day with Austin in the city. Then Sunday I spent my day in my bed watching TV and stuff lol.

Last week I met Courtney’s mom and sister, we went out to dinner to MCDONALDS! LOL. (Of course we took them to have one nice German beer first!). They came to visit her on Thursday and then left on Saturday for Paris. They met Erika and her dad and sister there. I am super jealous of them because they got to go to Paris together with their real families! Like a *dream*

Oh and yesterday marked my 6 MONTHS being here! wooooohoo! My host parents bought me a Titanic CD because they know I love Titanic and we watched it together like my first week being here. They said it is a gift to remember them and my first 6 months being here :)

well that’s it... xoxo!

News

This week I started in a new class. I asked to switch because I didnt have any friends in the other class. All I had was Julian and all of his friends in the 12th grade. I wanted to make some of my own friends in my class so I switched to a different 11th grade class. I couldnt see myself ever becoming good friends with anyone in my old one.

Its been really warm this past week... Well not really warm, but a lot warmer than usual. Its about 55 during the day and one day it even got up to 65. Its realllly really nice!

Nothing else is new... Just hanging out with friends on weekends and going to school during the week of course. Well, thats it for now... Ill update again if something interesting happens.

My week off

Not much happened last week without school. I mostly just relaxed the whole time... Hung out with Courtney a little bit, and also with some of my German friends. The last day of fasching was on Wednesday and there was a big parade in Courtney's city to end it all. It was really good but it ended up raining and all the confetti that people threw just stuck to us.

I havent gotten any news about a new host family yet, my counselor isnt very good with keeping in touch. Now I am back to normal, going to school again... Not very exciting. Only 5 more weeks until we get another break for Easter!

xoxo really miss you all.
Happy Valentines Day on Thursday!

Fasching!

Luckily this week I have no school... I had such a long weekend! Erika had no school on Thursday, so she came to Ulm and I met up with her after I was done with school. Then we took the train together to Ehingen to visit Courtney. We got to meet her new host family and they are really nice. Her host mom asked me to sleep over and told me she would write me an excuse out of school on Friday! So on Thursday night we were fasching in Courtney’s city... I don’t know if I explained fasching yet, but that is the reason we have school off this week. It is pretty much their version of Halloween, they all dress up crazily and party non-stop all week. Friday afternoon, Erika and I went back to Ulm for a couple hours so I could talk to my hosts and get some clothes. Then we took a 3 hour train back to Erika’s. I stayed there on Friday and Saturday night and we were fasching in Switzerland which was really cool. Erika and Courtney both have really cool friends. On Sunday morning we took a train to Lindau, where Austin lives, and we stayed there for a couple hours and watched the big parade in his city. The parade in my city was a couple weeks ago, remember I posted pics? Well anyways, I took the train home from Lindau at about 4 and got home at like 5:30 or something... I took a shower and left the house again for one of my friends’ birthday parties. I was so tired so I didn’t stay out late. Now it is Monday morning and I dont know what I'm doing the rest of the week, but I'll update again before I go back to school. Oh and I'll post some pictures from the weekend within the next couple days.

link about fasching - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasching#Germany_and_Austria

xoxo

p.s. I have been in Germany 5 months today!

UPDATE woohoo

This update is all for you mommy! I'm gonna talk about all the weird things that my mom asked me to that I don’t usually talk about...

School is going okay. I understand what my teachers say now a lot better, but I still don’t understand the lessons they are teaching... They don’t expect me to do anything anyways, so it doesn’t matter if I understand or not haha. The kids in my class still don’t talk to me much, only a select few which are Verena, Julian, and Sibel... All of the others are either scared of me or just not interested. Most of the people I hang out with are either in the 12th or 13th grade, so I feel cool when I see them in school and they talk to me. Then all the brats in my class see that I have friends and I don’t need them! haha I am kidding, kind of...

Most of my friends back home still keep in touch pretty good... I talk to Leona almost every day because she goes out of her way to talk to me at a good time for my time zone. I talk to all of my other friends on myspace or aol a couple times a week at least. They all say they want to visit but I know none of them really will. Except maybe Leona, she wants to come back after schools over because she loved it here so much.

When I was at home I used my cell phone sooooooo much, but here I hardly ever use it. Because it is prepaid, and totally expensive. The first couple months I was using like 50$ a month for the phone, but now I use it a lot less. I just text people when something’s up because it’s cheaper than calling.

Okay so now about the food... My host mom and grandma cook lunch every day, so I come home from school to a warm meal. I don’t even know how to explain the stuff they cook, it is just good normal stuff... Always some kind of meat with rice or noodles or potatoes or something. Oh and there is ALWAYS some kind of gravy or sauce to put on things.

The dog Lucky is still really dumb and he still eats my shoes... He went to the vet the other day and they said he needs to lose 5 kilos because he is too fat. The birds are still really loud but I am getting used to it now. The cockadoo Chica can talk a little bit, but in German of course...

In May I am going on a trip all over Europe with Rotary. Courtney and Erika are going too of course. We will be on the bus for 20 days, driving all over Germany, France, Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. I can't wait for that...

I talked to my Rotary counselor today and he told me he might have found a new host family for me. It is not final yet but I will most likely be moving soon. The family he has for me has a daughter that was in Argentina last year, and that’s all I know about them so far.

I am working on an online American History class right now which is going good. Slow, but good... I get lazy after school and I don’t feel like working on it, but sometimes I'm just in the mood for learning.

I've been eating peanut butter with a spoon lately because I have absolutely nothing to snack on... For some reason Germans have no snacks in the house, and I am forbidding myself from spending any more of my money on food because I've used so much on food already...

Well next week I have no school so I am happy about that... I don’t have any plans yet but I am sure I'll be hanging out with Erika and Courtney at some point because we haven’t hung out in a while!

That’s all the random things for today.. I gotta go to sleep!

xo

Boring weekend.

Nothing interesting happened this weekend. Friday I hung out with a friend at his house all day after school... We didnt go out or anything that night because nothing was going on. Saturday I stayed home all day and night and did absolutely nothing. Today I am still sitting at home with nothing to do. Probably gonna work on my online US History course for a while. Then tomorrow gotta go back to school!

My counselor has been looking for a new host family for me for the past couple weeks. I asked him for a new one because I'd like to have a variety of the German culture. That isnt exactly the reason why I'd like to switch but thats what I want him to think... Usually rotary exchange students are supposed to have 3 host familes during their year and they want me to stay with the Weikerts all year! I was talking to a girl in my class named Verena the other day at school about it, and she offered to host me. She talked to her parents and they want me to come over for a night to meet me and stuff. If they decide yes, then I can tell my counselor and he will have to check them out and make sure all the conditions are right for me to live there. She wants to come to America for a year after she is done with school and I told her she would always be welcome to visit us for a while but I will be in college by the time shes coming so I dont know about her coming to live with us.

okay thats all for now.
xoxo, megan

cool icon!

this reminds me of myself :)

HAHA

xoxo

2 things...

i just decided that i want to go to buffalo wild wings on the way home from the airport. because i really really really miss that restaurant!

oh and thanks for the card mom, just got it today!

Carnivaaaal!

On Sunday Courtney and Austin (exchange student from Kentucky) were in Ulm... We were planning on just hanging out and shopping or something but it turned out that Sunday was the start of carnival in my city. Its like a big festival where everyone dresses up and acts crazy and fun and they call it fasching. I am pretty sure that it will be lasting for a few weeks and we get one week off of school for it in the beginning of February. But anyway, it was sooooo much fun! But I lost my retainer this day which is a real bummer...

Impact Concert

Okaaaay so I am going to try and update more from now on! Even though I have a lot of time to write in here, I am just too lazy to actually do it. On Saturday night I went to my friend Julian's concert. His band is called Impact and they are actually really good. Not my kind of music, but still good. It wasnt like a reeeal concert, because they arent famous or anything, it was just a local thing. Here are a few pictures from that... Julian is the one with the short hair on the guitar.