So dinner went great! The food cooled down a little bit though because Isabel had to tutor someone for a bit. Yum yum lecker food!
My first day in northern Germany was crazy like my first day in Germany. This time Isabel was the tired one and not me. I was too excided about seeing everyone again to be tired. Sunday was really laid back and not much really happened (Sunday a week ago that is). We both slept late and then went to bed fairly early.
On Monday Isabel had to get some Abitur photos taken. For those of you not familiar with the german school system, the abitur is a test taken at the end of gymnasium (usually 12th or 13th grade) and my class in Germany took Abitur this year and there will be a lot of "abi" references. They make an Abi-Book and all the photos from the class members are in it. They also did some votes for who is the biggest this of the girl and of the guy and such. Isabel got some of those awards, to be possibly mentioned later, maybe not.
We went and she got her photo taken for the book and then we had to wait until she could take the photo with her male counterpart of the votes. We ate at this new little café in town. It was really good, we also wanted crepes, but we didn't have time so we got ice cream instead. YUM!! ice cream in Europe!! I love the ice cream here! One of my old classmates walked by as we were eating and he lost a lot of weight since I was last here. He looks really good now! I am very happy for him. After that we just got the other photo done and then we really didn't do much.
Actually I am thinking about this now and it is not making sense, because on Monday I went to my host family's house to have lunch and then stayed there into early evening. The photos must have been Tuesday. Sorry about the confusion, I hope you can still follow the post....
So Monday I actually went to my host family's for lunch and I gave Lena and Henrike (host sisters) the scarfs I made for them. Lena, my host parents, and I then went for a walk and Henrike met up with some guys for a run. It was really good to just see them again and to see what has been going on in their lives.
Then back to Tuesday! That evening some friends of Isabel's and me came over for a game night. That was fun. I do have to say, as a non-native speaker of German I was left at a small disadvantage sometimes, but it was very fun!
On Wednesday Isabel and I went into school, she had to talk to some of her teachers about finding out Abitur scores. She is leaving on vacation tomorrow and they do not get their scores until Friday, so that is a bit of a problem. She and her friend, Jessica, got that figured out with their teachers though. It was good to stop by the school, I got to see some people whom I hadn't seen yet. Teachers for example! One of my old teachers recognized the connection between Millwaukee and Harley Davidson when I mentioned Millwaukee. It was good to talk to them and they were all very surprised to see me! My old english teacher from that year spoke english with me then had a hard time remembering exactly who I was, but she remember USA!! While at the school I also got to see some other people that I had talked to frequently, so that was good.
For not really making an effort to make my visit a complete surprise I have! So many people have just had shocked expressions when they saw me and realized who I am. Or when I talk to them I can tell they were completely not expecting me. It is really cool, and has been a lot of fun.
Thursday was Assi's birthday. Thursday my cold was pretty bad, I couldn't talk very well. Isabel woke up and picked up Kordula (we stayed with her in Munich) and she also made the table all pretty for Assi to eat breakfast there when she woke up. It was a very relaxed day, I slept in and then took a bath when I woke up (because I wasn't feeling well), but then the day was good. Isabel and I went and got groceries for dinner and just in general. We cooked out, but the vegetables got a little dark.... The meat turned out well and we ate the potatoes anyways. It turned out that as long as you cut through the potato it wasn't burnt all the way through and they still tasted great! Kordula liked the potatoes a lot because they reminded her of the potatoes she ate in Peru. We wanted to do a bonfired, but that didn't work out... It was a great day though.
On Thursday I called my pastor from the Church I went to during my time here. He gave me a name of a member from the town I was staying in and mentioned there was going to be a fußball tournament on Friday and it would be great if I could make it. So I called the number I was given and they encouraged me to come to the tournament as well. I wanted to go, but I was not sure if it would work out with watching the opening game of the World Cup with Isabel (I really wanted to, it was Costa Rica against Germany and Isabel went to Costa Rica on student exchange). In the end I decided whatever, I will figure out a way to get everywhere I want to go to. So I went with this couple to the tournament on Friday.
The couple was really sweet. They had to do some errands before the tournament, so I went with them on errands. We decided to eat lunch at an italian resturaunt and we all ended up ordering tuna pizza. Yes, Americans, I know, TUNA PIZZA?!?!?!? It tastes really good, before you put it down try it ok? Everytime I mention tuna pizza in the US, someone, or everyone, acts like that has to be the worst kind of pizza known to man kind. It's great though, possibly my favorite kind, with pineapple.
When I was told fußball tournament I was thinking, well, soccer. There is a reason I wrote fußball instead of soccer, because that is what it was. Only instead of being teams of one or two, pushing the miniature men around on the take and flipping them to make them kick, it was life size! I took a photo of it and I need to try to remember to put that on here, I don't really feel like trying to figure that out right now. That was really cool to watch. I also talked to some of the youth from the congregation. It was really just a cool get together at the church and then afterwards they watched the opening game.
It turned out to be a bit difficult trying to find a ride back into town to get together with Isabel. I ended up waiting a bit until after the opening game started. Which, by the way, was really cool at the church. Before hand they had this little comedic act by two men. At one point I turned to the pastor's wife and asked her why the one man had such an american accent, she didn't know. I didn't get a chance to talk to him, but I am fairly certain one of the two men is from the US. He can't form the German "r," but otherwise he seemed to be able to speak German very well. He also made a lot of references to the US and used some English in the act. It was all very interesting. So the pastor's wife ended up bringing me back into town a bit after the game started. That was really nice of her.
In town I met up with Isabel and her friends (most of whom I met when I was here previously). Germany won the game 4-2 and Isabel was excited at every goal made, regardless of which team. That was neat. Afterwards I went to a birthday party from someone out of the graduating class and Isabel went home. At this party I was able to talk to some of my old classmates making it a really great opportunity. One of my old classmates explained to me that he was so surprised to see me because it isn't something they have come to expect from the exchange students. It turns out that most of the exchange students never revisit this school later and there I was suddenly in their midst again, picking up exactly where I left off 3 years ago. Talking to him was great, because I was able to gain a better understanding of how things have worked with exchange students in past years.
On Saturday there was another birthday party, but as I still wasn't over my cold and I wanted to go to church on Sunday morning Saturday ended up being a pajama day. I stayed around the house and took lots of naps, as I was tired.
Sunday I woke up and met up with the sweet couple to go to Church. The wife had to stay and tend to the guest. They run a sort of guest house here, so if anyone needs any tips as to a place they can stay in Northern Germany let me know. Thus they take turns on Sundays. This Sunday the husband went to Church and the wife stayed home and next Sunday it will probably be exactly different. It was such a blessing to be in Church. I can even almost still say the Lord's Prayer in German, but not quite, at least not very well. It was a blessing to be in Church in any case, especially as I missed the last two Sundays. After the service I talked to the missions director at the Church and he mentioned that they are getting very interested in Asia right now.
After Church I went for lunch with the Pastor and his family at one of the member's houses. They were all very wonderful and the food tasted great. It was a very good way to spend an afternoon. The pastor has 6 children, so there is always something going on and I like that. On the way out the door the pastor's wife, Anna, apologized for the hecticness of everything, but I liked it actually.
That evening I went to choir practice at a different church in a different town. Two guys picked me up at the first church I was at that day. One of them was in choir, the other wasn't. Sabastien was the one in choir and Wolf, the director, told me that my cousin spent an evening at Sabastien's house last summer when her university choir was out. The guys were really nice, but they didn't go to practice, swimming instead. According to them the weather was too good to sing. I say, the weather can never be too good to sing! I love to sing! I jumped right into the music with them. The music they practiced was a bit easier than I am used to, but then again they even said it was the easier music of their program. A lost of people remembered me from 3 years ago, though Wolf thinks it was only 2 years ago. After practice I went to grab some food at a local Imbiss with 3 of the choir members as I waited for Wolf to be ready to bring me home.
There was then some confusion as to where Wolf was at. Some of us figured he got distracted and forgot he was bringing me back. But he did remember, just got a little distracted and that is typical Wolf. So then we got to talking about the cds from the choir. I now have 2 cds from the Jugend-Chor Tarmstedt if anyone wants to listen to them. They are great! I am really enjoying them. We stopped in at the gas station that his sister runs and got some ice cream. Then we stopped by Wolf's Uncle's house and they weren't there. Then Wolf decided to try the tv, that didn't work out to well and then as we were getting ready to leave they returned. So we stayed and chatted with them for a while before he brought me back. Anyone who knows Wolf would know how typical of him this was. That's also fine.
It was really great to see a bunch of people again that I had met years ago and it was also a wonderful way to spend a Sunday.
Today was laid back, Isabel and I went into town and got some stuff including the stuff for dinner. I made the typical American potato bake potatoes. As in cheese, bacon bits, sour cream and broccholi. I could have prepared a lot more, but there are only four of us here right now, so it didn't seem necessary.
Now I need to get some sleep so I can wake up and pack up. I am going to my host family's house tomorrow and my stuff is everywhere right now! It's been wonderful to be here though and I am excited to see how it will continue. Right now though I am very tired and it is already 1am here.
