I thought I could write a post about the things I miss about good old Germany which I took for granted but now all of a sudden it's just missing. :)
ok, Number One: Family and Friends
Of course I miss my parents, brother, grandma, uncle and aunt plus their children, my dog Varus and my rabbits Moritz and Timon, and my friends! I realized that I always took it for granted that they are there and when ever I needed something, whether it's something simple like talking or going somewhere, that I could come to them. I also miss when my family went eating to a restaurant and we sat there for a while and just talked about things that happened the past time.
I miss it so much when Mama came into my room and just told me some news she got that day at work.
Omi who is always so busy and such a lovely person! You're the best!
I also miss my brother Martin a lot. Even though we never really talked and you pretty much always sent me out of your room, I miss you Martin!
I miss Varus so much, too. Especcially when he always came into my room and annoyed me with his toy and wanted to play.. The same with my crazy rabbits Moritz and Timon !
I also miss my friends with which I had so much fun being around them in the months before I left. Our random things we did together were great! Cooking Spaetzle or painting my nails, going for a walk or just talking.
I love you and thank you so much that you exist. Before this I never realized how much you all mean to me and I hope I won't forget it again! :)
Number Two: Freedom
As weird it might seems to miss freedom in America but yes I miss my freedom here. Including being able to say "I want to go outside for a while" without having to say where, until when, whith who, why or asking if I can go. Yes I knew it would be like that but still I miss that.
Number Three: Grocery shopping
That probably sounds very weird but I miss it so much to go grocery shopping with Mama,Papa and Martin! I never, ever could imagine that I would miss that. I mean it's something essential, right? Sometime you need to go shopping to get at least food and hygene stuff, right? Well, but not toghether. Usually just my Dad or Mom go grocery shopping during the week and I don't recognize it and all of a sudden someone walks in with food and things. I miss it so much just going with my parents and brother to go to Kaufland on a Friday or Saturday and buy things for the week. I really never ever though I'd miss that!
Number Four: Busses and a close by mall
I miss it to just walking to Kaufland or a store and not needing a ride to get there. Always having to ask for a ride is annoying.. I also never thought that I would miss that everything is so close by. Or busses! Without a car you're in trouhble here! Without a car you're really lost, everything's just huge :D Fields and fields everywhere!
Number Five: Walking outside
We're usually inside. In the school we don't have a recess where we can go outside and walk around and complain about the weahter or such. Yes in Germany I hated it going outside when it was below 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 Grad Celcius) but somehow I miss that.
Or just saying, "Hey I want to go outside for a bit" I miss that.. Here like I said I'm usually inside and that's not that awesome sometimes..
Number Six: Going for a walk with Varus or someone
In Germany I did that up to 2 times a day. Yes sometimes it was no fun at all, in cold weather or rainy weather having to go outside with the dog, brr. But I really miss those walks where I just could walk and thing about things, it helped me solving problems, relaxed me and gave me strenght for the rest of the day.
Also it was a time where I could some great pictures form my environment, I miss that as well.
Number Seven: Advanced school
A lot of students might think I went nuts now, but I really miss our school system. Not exactly our school but german school in general, where you had to think and not everyone just gave you the answers and you just copied everything. Like " Hier wird alles einem in den Ar*** geschoben" I believe it the german quote. Anyhow, here in America the students don't need to pay attention during the class, they can do whatever they want, talk, walk around, sleep; a lot of student do that... ; or pay attention. they don't need to raise their hands and actually give answers to the teachers. Also the exams and tests are most of the time very easy with multiple choice of matching and just a few essays, haha I can't wait for german tests and exams, ohh. :D
Number Eight: carbonated water ( Sprudel)
That had been preety much the very first thing I missed from Germany. After the 3 days in New York I already missed our carbonated water. Yes indeed I found something similiar here but it has flavor and doesn't taste like the german one.
Number Nine: My doctor
I miss my doctor and medicine from Germany as well. 100 % understnading what to do when you're sick and knowing the medicin is what I miss a lot when I'm sick here. And I'm sick very often, no that's not that awesome!
Number Ten: TV shows
Yes for no really peticular reason I miss german TV shows. GZSZ, Who wants to be a millionaer?, "Wetten dass...?" and all the other ones. Sitting in the living room and watching those shows mith my family is what I miss. I also miss our stupid and way to long commercials, haha. I mean for real, who misses commercials?! Here we just can skip them and continue the movie or show we're watching, no commercials. I really never thought I'd miss them!!
yeah that's it for now. I could bet there are a few more things I miss about Germany but Yeah those would me the "main" ones. Some might can't be understood for those at home or even abroad but those are the thing I acctually miss and now appreciate about Germany.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Happy New Year!
Hello everyone!
First of all :
Happy New Year to everyone!! :)
Yes I know I've promised you guys new posts but so far I just had not time to. And I'm really sorry that I did a lot of such apologize posts lately; I'll try to do my best and upload regularly from now on but I can't promise anything.
Anyhow, Happy,happy New Year to you all! I hope 2013 started good for you no matter where in the world you are at right now!
I really just can't repeat myself when I say that it all goes way to fast. Wasn't it just November? It feels like it, somebody please come and stop the time for a little bit!? It feels so unrealistic being already in the new year and already having school again.
Yes, school started for me on Janurary 3rd, on a Thursday. I can say it was not a great joy going to school on a Thursday, it felt weird and waking up that morning was really hard..
In 2012 I have learned a LOT. And I am very, very thankful for this experience and this year. I know the simple word thank you can't express how thankful I actually am for having this amazing oppunity to be here in Indiana, with this amazing hostfamily which didn't just opened and welcomed me in their home but also in their hearts.But of course I am also extremly thankfull to my parents because without them this wouldn't have been possible as well.
2012 had been a year full of new experiences;
I have become more patient than I probably have ever been. This resulted mostly from my time as a hopee where I was forced to wait until things just happened, the first letter for the AWG, host familiy package, the VBS and of course the arrival in the hostfamily and USA. Sometimes I have the feeling I've become too patient, haha.
Also I've experienced homesickeness, which is indeed not my best experience here in the US. Infact it's the worst. I needed to learn how I can get out of the homesickness, find things to do to keep me busy and talk with my problems to my family here in the US. It's not that easy for me to deal with it but it's also a huge experience for me.
Being so far away from home and experiencing a new culture also caused a culture shock with which I also had to deal with.
I needed to get used to my new environment, the new people I met and still meet constantly.I had to be more flexible and interact with these new people, getting used to the long school days, food, behavior and way of life in my family and getting to know these strangers who have become my second family. All those things belong to my experiences.
In this year I have been in wonderful New York and met a lot of international exchange students and had a lot of fun with them. I've tried playing basketball on an american highschool, had homecoming and homecoming week, was on football games and volleyball games, and of course basketball games and even played (!), I have had revival in church and got to know church in America, celebrated Halloween, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving ( a post is still awaiting), was on the Shipshewana trip and 3 different meetings with our exchange students here in our area which had always been a lot of fun and I celebrated american christmas and new years eve.(also still awaiting)
Yeah 2012 had been full of new experiences for me. I probably haven't written down everything but oh well. I'm very much looking forward to a packed year full of experiences in 2013!
First of all :
Happy New Year to everyone!! :)
Yes I know I've promised you guys new posts but so far I just had not time to. And I'm really sorry that I did a lot of such apologize posts lately; I'll try to do my best and upload regularly from now on but I can't promise anything.
Anyhow, Happy,happy New Year to you all! I hope 2013 started good for you no matter where in the world you are at right now!
I really just can't repeat myself when I say that it all goes way to fast. Wasn't it just November? It feels like it, somebody please come and stop the time for a little bit!? It feels so unrealistic being already in the new year and already having school again.
Yes, school started for me on Janurary 3rd, on a Thursday. I can say it was not a great joy going to school on a Thursday, it felt weird and waking up that morning was really hard..
In 2012 I have learned a LOT. And I am very, very thankful for this experience and this year. I know the simple word thank you can't express how thankful I actually am for having this amazing oppunity to be here in Indiana, with this amazing hostfamily which didn't just opened and welcomed me in their home but also in their hearts.But of course I am also extremly thankfull to my parents because without them this wouldn't have been possible as well.
2012 had been a year full of new experiences;
I have become more patient than I probably have ever been. This resulted mostly from my time as a hopee where I was forced to wait until things just happened, the first letter for the AWG, host familiy package, the VBS and of course the arrival in the hostfamily and USA. Sometimes I have the feeling I've become too patient, haha.
Also I've experienced homesickeness, which is indeed not my best experience here in the US. Infact it's the worst. I needed to learn how I can get out of the homesickness, find things to do to keep me busy and talk with my problems to my family here in the US. It's not that easy for me to deal with it but it's also a huge experience for me.
Being so far away from home and experiencing a new culture also caused a culture shock with which I also had to deal with.
I needed to get used to my new environment, the new people I met and still meet constantly.I had to be more flexible and interact with these new people, getting used to the long school days, food, behavior and way of life in my family and getting to know these strangers who have become my second family. All those things belong to my experiences.
In this year I have been in wonderful New York and met a lot of international exchange students and had a lot of fun with them. I've tried playing basketball on an american highschool, had homecoming and homecoming week, was on football games and volleyball games, and of course basketball games and even played (!), I have had revival in church and got to know church in America, celebrated Halloween, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving ( a post is still awaiting), was on the Shipshewana trip and 3 different meetings with our exchange students here in our area which had always been a lot of fun and I celebrated american christmas and new years eve.(also still awaiting)
Yeah 2012 had been full of new experiences for me. I probably haven't written down everything but oh well. I'm very much looking forward to a packed year full of experiences in 2013!
Friday, December 21, 2012
Basketball
On December 6th I decided to quit Basketball. it was no easy decision at all, I like my team and would have loved to play Basketball but I realized I can't do it, it is just way to hard on me. The dirty thirty "killed" me and afterwards I couldn't participate that well any longer and through that I felt like I left my team down. I am just not as good as they are, still not used to the hard training every day, sometimes Saturday. I don't want to let them down, so the only way I could go, was quitting Basketball. :( Until Spring I have time now to either do nothing after school or maybe a club or something, I don't know, yet. I will see. Through the 2 months of Basketball I learned and experienced how it is to be in a athletic team, the support from the team mates, how far I can go and the improvent I made, the school spirit during a game, the hard practice, was at a Prude game and even took a picture with that team.
Yes, I liked Basketball but now it's over for me and I'm fine with it.
Yes, I liked Basketball but now it's over for me and I'm fine with it.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Shipshewana trip
4 months!! :O Wait a minute.. Seriously?!? I'm here already for 4 months? I almost reached half-time, that's so crazy I still feel like I have just arrived.. But in this post I am telling you a little bit about our Shipshewana trip!
From November 17 - November 18 (day 94; 95) our group of exchange students wereon a trip at shipshewana, a town were Amish people live. Amish people don't believe in electricity or driving in a car but believe a lot in God. I know it's not a very good explanation. But anyhow, we went to that town, called Shipshewana for the weekend.
In the morning at 7 am, Mom brought Rost, Wasilia and me to the school where our local coordinator already waited for us. As we got into the bus there were already some other exchange students from our group. After some time another group joined us. I talked a lot with Heluma (Brazil), Dody (Egypt), Sahya (Israel) and José (Mexico). We drove about 1 hour or so north until we got to Wendy's, where I ordered a burger with coke and French fries, I gave the fries to Wasilia. :D
Our first thing we visited was the chocolate factory. I really love it! As we entered the factory the smell of chocolate was all around us, mmnn! First we went to the store where we got some percent off of everything we brought, I went to the "Almost perfect" section, that is chocolate which is not perfect by looks and so had also some percents off. I brought some of chocolate pralines.
Afterwards our guide talked a little bit about the history from chocolate, from the cacao bean to the final chocolate. (Nathi, that reminded me so much of the KPP, that was scary! ) Then we were split into 2 groups, our group saw the factory first, we first saw huge plates of chocolate, and then we went into another room where they prepared "turtles ", a special kind of chocolate praline, nuts,caramel and chocolate. First the nuts went through machines with caramel and through a " waterfall of chocolate". Before we left the room we all got some samples, yeah! The next thing we saw was the packing station where the chocolate is being packet into fancy paper and boxes, afterwards we had the chance to make our own chocolate lollipop, we spinned a spoon in chocolate which then went into a refrigerator. As we all had finished making our lollipop we could walk through a museum about chocolate. As we left the factory everyone of us got a little bag with chocolate.
After the chocolate factory we drove to Shipshewana. We first drove around the town, the stores looked like houses and some of them had already Christmas decoration on them, it looked just great! Unfortunately I couldn't take a picture of it :/ After we were done with our tour around the town, which like I said was real beautiful, we split into 3 groups. I was in the third one and as we got out of our bus and first searched a bathroom. We found one in Subway. As we were done the group I was with, which had been the second one had to go and I searched for my group. Heluma was in my group and as we waited until I would be our turn we took some pictures on an interesting chair and next to a horse buggy, in the first place we wanted to walk through the town and take some pictures but we weren't sure whether we would be allowed to. The buggy ride was great but also a little bit cold and pur driver was kinda crazy. Once Heluma had to turn right and she moved both hand to the right to make the horse turn right but instead it continued walking straight and Heluma started panicking, until our driver turned. The ride was funny but also real slow.
Afterwards we drove in our bus to a farm. We met there some Amish children which were real cute and our group took a picture with them :D Then we looked at a steam machine for a while and got some cookies from an older woman.
Our next stop was a cheese factory. It was called : "Deutsch Kase Haus". As I saw that I was really astonished by that! In the factory we could buy and try cheese and also different things like chocolate, candy and jelly. Then finally we drove to our hotel.We got our keys and went to our rooms. I was in a room with 5 other girls. The rest of the day we spent walking around in the hotel, taking pictures and once we were in a game hall for a little bit. In the late evening we got pop, popcorn and chips and went into a room and played a game and just talked. We went to our rooms at around 12, there the girls in our room and I talked until almost 1 in the morning. The day had been just great! :D
The next morning we woke at around 8:30 and got ready, packed our stuff and such and then went to go eat breakfast. After breakfast we got slowly ready to leave but before that Wasilia,Dody, a girl from Germany and another girl and I took some funny pictures. Then we went downstairs and put all our luggage into the bus and met all of our group in the reception hall. There we played a game until about 12:30. Afterwards we drove to a museum about Amish people, we could first look through a store and then walked into several rooms to stories or watched movies about Amish people. Afterwards we all got back into the bus and stopped at Subway to eat something. The scholarship students went first, which was almost the whole bus! And then the rest of us could get into line. On our way back home I talked a lot with the students, it was just so much fun! As we had to say good-bye to our new friends I was just so extremly sad. But luckily I'll see them again! :D
Wasilia,Rost and I were back in our town at 6pm. There Wasilia's hostdad already waited for us and brought us back home. At home I was kind of sad that the trip had already been over but also happy being home again! :)
All in all it was a very awesome and funny weekend!!
From November 17 - November 18 (day 94; 95) our group of exchange students wereon a trip at shipshewana, a town were Amish people live. Amish people don't believe in electricity or driving in a car but believe a lot in God. I know it's not a very good explanation. But anyhow, we went to that town, called Shipshewana for the weekend.
In the morning at 7 am, Mom brought Rost, Wasilia and me to the school where our local coordinator already waited for us. As we got into the bus there were already some other exchange students from our group. After some time another group joined us. I talked a lot with Heluma (Brazil), Dody (Egypt), Sahya (Israel) and José (Mexico). We drove about 1 hour or so north until we got to Wendy's, where I ordered a burger with coke and French fries, I gave the fries to Wasilia. :D
Our first thing we visited was the chocolate factory. I really love it! As we entered the factory the smell of chocolate was all around us, mmnn! First we went to the store where we got some percent off of everything we brought, I went to the "Almost perfect" section, that is chocolate which is not perfect by looks and so had also some percents off. I brought some of chocolate pralines.
Afterwards our guide talked a little bit about the history from chocolate, from the cacao bean to the final chocolate. (Nathi, that reminded me so much of the KPP, that was scary! ) Then we were split into 2 groups, our group saw the factory first, we first saw huge plates of chocolate, and then we went into another room where they prepared "turtles ", a special kind of chocolate praline, nuts,caramel and chocolate. First the nuts went through machines with caramel and through a " waterfall of chocolate". Before we left the room we all got some samples, yeah! The next thing we saw was the packing station where the chocolate is being packet into fancy paper and boxes, afterwards we had the chance to make our own chocolate lollipop, we spinned a spoon in chocolate which then went into a refrigerator. As we all had finished making our lollipop we could walk through a museum about chocolate. As we left the factory everyone of us got a little bag with chocolate.
After the chocolate factory we drove to Shipshewana. We first drove around the town, the stores looked like houses and some of them had already Christmas decoration on them, it looked just great! Unfortunately I couldn't take a picture of it :/ After we were done with our tour around the town, which like I said was real beautiful, we split into 3 groups. I was in the third one and as we got out of our bus and first searched a bathroom. We found one in Subway. As we were done the group I was with, which had been the second one had to go and I searched for my group. Heluma was in my group and as we waited until I would be our turn we took some pictures on an interesting chair and next to a horse buggy, in the first place we wanted to walk through the town and take some pictures but we weren't sure whether we would be allowed to. The buggy ride was great but also a little bit cold and pur driver was kinda crazy. Once Heluma had to turn right and she moved both hand to the right to make the horse turn right but instead it continued walking straight and Heluma started panicking, until our driver turned. The ride was funny but also real slow.
Afterwards we drove in our bus to a farm. We met there some Amish children which were real cute and our group took a picture with them :D Then we looked at a steam machine for a while and got some cookies from an older woman.
Our next stop was a cheese factory. It was called : "Deutsch Kase Haus". As I saw that I was really astonished by that! In the factory we could buy and try cheese and also different things like chocolate, candy and jelly. Then finally we drove to our hotel.We got our keys and went to our rooms. I was in a room with 5 other girls. The rest of the day we spent walking around in the hotel, taking pictures and once we were in a game hall for a little bit. In the late evening we got pop, popcorn and chips and went into a room and played a game and just talked. We went to our rooms at around 12, there the girls in our room and I talked until almost 1 in the morning. The day had been just great! :D
The next morning we woke at around 8:30 and got ready, packed our stuff and such and then went to go eat breakfast. After breakfast we got slowly ready to leave but before that Wasilia,Dody, a girl from Germany and another girl and I took some funny pictures. Then we went downstairs and put all our luggage into the bus and met all of our group in the reception hall. There we played a game until about 12:30. Afterwards we drove to a museum about Amish people, we could first look through a store and then walked into several rooms to stories or watched movies about Amish people. Afterwards we all got back into the bus and stopped at Subway to eat something. The scholarship students went first, which was almost the whole bus! And then the rest of us could get into line. On our way back home I talked a lot with the students, it was just so much fun! As we had to say good-bye to our new friends I was just so extremly sad. But luckily I'll see them again! :D
Wasilia,Rost and I were back in our town at 6pm. There Wasilia's hostdad already waited for us and brought us back home. At home I was kind of sad that the trip had already been over but also happy being home again! :)
All in all it was a very awesome and funny weekend!!
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| I found Aldi sued in America! xD |
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| Heluma <3 br="br"> |
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| Deutsch Kase Haus! |
Monday, December 10, 2012
December!
Hey! It's already December!
I still can't believe it! Soon, very soon we'll have Christmas, yeah! I am sorry I didn't write something in a while and it's even a month ago! I'm so sorry about that! I know I still have to write about church, the shipshewana trip, Thanksgiving, Trudy's Christmas party and I some things more I can't think of right now. I'm working on it but I'm just so busy all the time, haha! ;D
Anyhow I just wanted you to know I'm planning to write about some things in the hopefully near future!
Xoxo Clarissa
I still can't believe it! Soon, very soon we'll have Christmas, yeah! I am sorry I didn't write something in a while and it's even a month ago! I'm so sorry about that! I know I still have to write about church, the shipshewana trip, Thanksgiving, Trudy's Christmas party and I some things more I can't think of right now. I'm working on it but I'm just so busy all the time, haha! ;D
Anyhow I just wanted you to know I'm planning to write about some things in the hopefully near future!
Xoxo Clarissa
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
The truth about homesickness
This post is going to be different from my other ones, because I am not talking about what I did the last time it is about how I feel , I want to talk about homesickness.
I have been homesick in the last few weeks and I can tell it is not a great feeling. In fact to me it is the worst feeling ever. It real sucks when you are sitting somewhere and everything's fine and all out of sudden you start missing home, your family, friends at home. Or simply a situation pops into your mind and you start thinking about home and start missing it. The problem about it is that I can't do anything about it. Well at east not that much.
Once I just had to think about Martin because of some reason and got homesick, just a word or a action can remind me of home and make me sad. It can get really worse and I started thinking about home, going home because it hurt so bad. I just miss simple things like talking with my friends not having to think about what to say, being fully understood, siting in the living room with Mama and Papa and just listen to the newest news from Mama, talking about movies and actors with Papa, or just looking out of the window and watching people walking by. But luckily I have a wonderful host family which manages it to cheer me up again when I start missing home and talk with me about it. That makes it a lot easier.
In school I still have troubles finding friends and talking with others, it's not easy talking with someone when you don't understand everything, or don't know what to say. And during the periods you don't really can talk to them because the teacher wants us to be quiet, and after school I also don't have time to meet with friends because I have practice until 5:30 and then homework is still waiting
for me.
I found good friends in exchange students with which it's easier to talk to because they go through the same as I do and can understand what I am going through because they go through the same, we can
exchange our feelings about homesickness, what is strange or new to us. I found good friends in Wasilia and Rost which helped me seeing the good sides again when I was or am sad. When I'm with
my classmates i often feel left out , they don't understand how it is being in a new , foreign country,
how hard it is to find friends, to understand everything or being understood.
Yes it is true and now I finally believe all the returnees, homesickness sucks. But I know it will get better and my homesickness will fade away.
Like you may can tell, I was homesick as I wrote this and still I'm fighting with it but it's getting better :)
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Purdue basketball game
Day 86- 9. November 2012 Friday
Usually Fridays are amazing, the weekend is right in front of me, no school, tests or quizzes, usually no homework and plenty of time with my wonderful family. But this weekend didn't start that great. I used to think, that homesickness would just go away after a few hours or a day but no I was wrong.
This weekend it just came back to me, and this time it was real though on me. It started as Dad's sister came to visit over the weekend. She reminded me so much of Sybille (Nuremberg) and I had to think so bad about Germany and my rabbits. All out of sudden I started crying and couldn't stop for about 5 - 10 minutes. It was bad. But luckily Mom was there and talked with me about 1 hour until I felt a little better.
Day 87- 10. November 2012
This morning looked better then the day before. Even though I had practice I was happy because it just started at 10 am.
Look at my other blog to see the other thing that happened, I won't write it down here, just check the other blog.
Well, we had been at Grandpa's and Aunt Cindy's house to celebrate Justins birthday. But Nikki, Kariden and I couldn't stay that long because we went to the Prudues basketball game in Lafayette. I had to be at the school at 5:15, but I thought I have to be there at 5 and was surprised that nobody was there at 5. Jup the German always in a hurry and early, right? xD
So we had to wait more than 20 minutes until I could get into the bus and finally on our way to Purdue. We all were in a very good mood, listened to music and talked, it was great fun! As we got into the arena I was amazed, the arena was huge! I was so excited. The game was great, too. I whish I could play like they can, the Prudue team even won the game! After the game our team, our basketball team were there to watch it, went to the basement of it and got to the court to take a picture with the team!! I was so excited, that was just amazing! My first basketball game and then THAT! It felt so great, kind of important, haha. Afterwards we got into the bus again and stopped by an ice- cream store and got some ice-cream. The scoopes were huge! It was like 2 scoops in Germany :D. And it was really good! But first I had some difficulties to order because the price was made out of the scoop, the cone and the tax, it took me a while to find out how much it actually was but my team mates helped me. The day had been very exciting and amazing!
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