Out Germaned a German

This is for Jack Hadfield: I am going to Munich May 18ish. Now you don't have to worry that I will miss it.

For everyone else: I finally found out when I will make it to Munich. I started talking about all the touristy things I wanted to see. Turns out I know more about Munich than my host parents. It's not a surprise because they don't spend a lot of time in Southern Germany, nor will they because only Simon and I are going. Hope I didn't just ruin a surprise. Frau you should consider your job complete. I am kind of excited to go because I learned about Munich for at least two months in school, and I can't wait to actually be able to see it. I doubt that Glockenspiel really exists.

I am starting to feel the Holiday Spirit, or maybe it's that I am feeling the Holiday Cookie Spirit. I have found my new favorite holiday food, and that is "Nussecke." That translates to "Nut Edge (or Corner)." It is a shortbread cookie crust bar with a hazelnut, caramel filling. These bars are then sliced into triangles, and you put melted dark chocolate on one corner.

I don't know if my host family is religious or not because Sunday is my day to sleep in, and I sleep to 11 or 12. They say some kind of prayer before eating, but it is said so fast that I haven't tried to learn it. They have four sets of advents candles, and weird writing over the door (anyone know what 20+C÷M means?), but so does everyone else here. For a continent that is more secular than the US, Germany has some strong christian roots.

I made a huge mistake this week. In Art class we had to take a block of plaster/clay and make it in a figure. In one hour, I was able to chisel away a statue that wasn't bad; the rest of the class was only 1/4 of the way done or not even started. Now I have the art teacher always watching me because I can make art, and I can also form free standing figures without a problem either. I was hoping it would be an easy class, where I can talk with my friends instead of listening to a powerpoint about naked men statues, but nope, I have to answer ever one of his questions and translate information into english to make sure I was paying attention.

This week I noticed my sunglasses were covered in a healthy layer of dust. It kind of made me sad because no one here wears sunglasses, and I am never in a car long enough to leave them there. Which is a crazy thought because I turned the fridge in my mom's car into my sunglass holder, for the one pair I actually wore and the others that I let collect dust (That scares me in retrospect because I am turning into a hoarder.) It's also crazy because I am pretty sure the sun is brighter in Europe. Yeli thinks so too, and I think it has something to do with us being closer to the north pole. If anyone could find a study about this, that would be great.

It could also be that there is less smog here. Chicago is not a smoggy city and neither are the suburbs, but you can't really see the stars. Sure you see stars in Chicagoland, but it is nothing compared to the amount of stars you can see here. It is the coolest thing to look up at 4 a.m. as you are biking home and see all the stars in the sky.

I made my first "Worst Enemy for Three/Four Months" this week. Yeli moved Saturday to Ottenstein to go live with an other Rotary family. I live in Wessum and there are three cities we "don't" like, Ottenstein, Graes (Grass), and Alstätte (Alstätte isn't that big of a hatred but I still count it.) For her going away present, I gave Yeli a half eaten Kit Kat bar; she loved it. European Kit Kats taste different by the way.

 I want to also say a thank you to Alex Portugal, Andrew Knox, and The Antioch Rotary club, that's a lot of "A's". If it wasn't for your awesome time management skills, I would be living in Ottenstein. This week Yeli asked our rotarian how they decide which kids goes to which families. He pretty much said, "Hunter was the first student we received, and the Marpert's had an open room so we figured he could stay there for a year. When we got Yeli's papers, we said,"oh shit what are we going to do?!" Then we just asked around the club to see who has any open rooms.  I want to say thank you because If Yeli was the first kid, my life would be a whole different story. Thank you, you guys are awesome.