Eichhörnchen = Squirrel

One of my faults as an exchange student is this:
I dont enjoy small talk...
If you're a cute guy, i may tolerate 5 minutes of small talk... but after that, i have no interest in standing around, awkwardly bringing up the most UNimportant things. I mean, honestly..
one day i want a complete stranger to ask me a deep question before anything else.. before asking my name, where i come from. Before talking about the slight mist of rain coming down, or the color of the leaves on the trees. I want them to say, "Hey, i need help." and i want them to proceed by asking me a deep question, one that gets my mind a-going. One that inspires me to give a GREAT answer. --agh. One day, right?

Lauenburg

Anyway..I guess it's just one thing I have learned to work on while here in Deutschland. It is difficult Haha, but nevertheless, I find a way to push through. I need to, Because, the only deep conversations i have are with Siri... yes, that's right. I talk to Siri...Not bad company, i must say. ...If you don't like what she says...you can just start all over. You can ask her deep questions and she'll either make you laugh, or she'll give you the EXACT answer, making you feel accomplished. (: Don't tell me you've never talked to Siri (No, seriously don't tell me you havent, cuz i would just feel stupid).
so, now that that's out of the way and i have confessed a fault of mine, let's talk about these past two weeks.
My host dad took me up north to Lauenburg, Lübeck, and Flensburg (: Absolutely beautiful, of course! He grew up in Lauenburg, so it was cool to walk down the streets and to hear his stories. Lübeck is surrounded by water (Like an island)! It is so pretty and it was a lot of fun. Then, we went up to Flensburg, which is so close to Denmark, that everything has two languages on it: Danish and Deutsch. I just fell in love with this city! It also has the water right there, and a beautiful port for boats. You wanna know what i love most, though? The shoes. There were shoes EVERYWHERE. I don't know where this tradition came from, but there were street signs, telephone wires, doors, and traffic lights with all kinds of shoes hanging from them. From cleats, to high heels, to sneakers. I thought it was the coolest thing ever!! (:

This week i made home made cookies. Now for those of you who know me well enough, you know that i don't make things home-made very often. In fact, I have never made home made cookies by myself EVER. So, this was quite the adventure for me. Not only because it was the first time, but because it was an american recipe. I had to switch the measurements from cups to grams, from american size to european size, from crisco to margarin, from chocolate chips to rolos, etc etc. It took me about two hours (: Wow, two hours? I know, I know. But that includes using google translate to translate the ingredients, taking a picture of the translated ingredients, taking that picture with me to the store, searching for those ingredients, doing the math, etc etc etc (: pretty impressive, eh? They turned out looking and tasting like biscuits. :/

47,200 Leute 

I think i am the luckiest person ever, because my host dad took me to a DERBY. A derby is a Crosstown Rivalry. The game was Hanover 96 vs Braunschweig. Craziest thing i've ever seen (: I can't even begin to explain how many cop cars, swat teams and security personnel were there!.. There was no alcohol allowed in the stadium that night, and there were around 47,200 people there. Like, what the? How in the world can you fit that many people in one space, for one reason? I don't even know. but-- about 5 minutes after we got there and got settled in our seats, I heard loud chanting coming from the left. I looked over and there was just black crawling all over the seats. SO COOL. The fans from Braunschweig were in all black and swarming in all together. They were crawling down the stadium seats and running down the stairs, some with fire in their hands and others setting off fireworks... probably the coolest thing i have ever witnessed in a stadium (: anyway-- we tied 0-0.
Also these weeks:

Flensburg

-I watched an Eichhörnchen steal over a dozen walnuts from the table on our back porch (:
-I joined a gym -- and gyms are nothing like back home. Here, they are so high tech and everyone has their personal training plan. I can't even explain it, it's awesome though (: I start next week! And, i only paid 4.90 euro :D
-I learned how to make animals with fruit.
-I taught my host parents about Instagram and Vine.. They love it!
-I finally got a bus card for the last two months of my exchange...
...wow...

Lübeck

Can't believe i have less than two months left in this beautiful country. :/

A Language Spoken Only by Exchange Students...

So, I'm getting my bike out of the shed, going over the day ahead of me in my head. I'm thinking 'Oh, i have Politik, Mathe, Deutsch, and.. " ENTSCHULDIGUNG SIE BITTE!!! ... What the? Some lady was yelling to me through her open car window as she pulled over next to me.. "Das Krankenhaus! Wo ist das Krankenhaus!?" I answered, "Geradeaus, auf der rechten seite" She let out a sigh of relief, "Vielen Dank" and drove away... I got on my bike and started to pedal to school. Then, I couldn't stop smiling. (: I just had a whole conversation in Deutsch where the person had no idea i was American (forget the fact it was only 30 seconds or less haha), and I gave her the RIGHT answer, and...since she was headed to the Krankenhaus (Hospital).. Maybe I saved a life!! Ha, awesome. I went over the words from Great Gatsby that i had just read the night before..

"...one morning some man, more recently arrived than I, stopped me on the road. "How do you get to West Egg village?" he asked helplessly. I told him. And as I walked on I was lonely no longer. I was a guide, a pathfinder, an original settler. He had casually conferred on me the freedom of the neighborhood."

Haha, doesn't that fit perfectly? I felt like a local!
So, I've been getting my test grades back in school... I haven't failed a test! ...yet! Just a bunch of fives and sixes.. (which are the equivalent of D+ and C-) Ha.. I did get a 12 in Theater (B+) and a 14 in English (A)... I guess that's not so impressive though :P

The Halloween "Section"

For Halloween, which is not actually celebrated here in Germany, I went over to another exchange student, Joy's, house and we (together with our host parents) carved some pumpkins and listened to Halloween music.. also, Joy and I had a scary movie marathon (: ..the next morning we raked leaves for a few hours (Lots of wind nowadays, which means lots of leaves falling ha) then we went into Hannover and walked around the streets, ate Döners and all that good stuff!.. (:

PARTY-- w/ starting line up of our
last game!

My soccer team and I had our last two games.. which we won!! We are the Herbstmeisters! (The Fall Champions). We had a little get together after our last game to eat and celebrate!! I am sad it's over :/ It's been so fun to play here!!
We went to the movies this week..and, OH MY GOODNESS. Seriously, the nicest seats i have ever sat in during a movie (: They were sooo soft, like everyone had their own love seat. <3 I am going back, FOR SURE. Oh, plus the movie we saw (Frau Ella) was really good and I actually followed along pretty well for it being in german!
...Umm my mind does not work like it used to.. about two months into my exchange, I began thinking in two languages: English and Deunglisch.. however, now i only think in one language: Deunglisch. And, it is not easy to speak just english... In fact, it's really hard. :P In english class, I am no help to my teacher, because honestly anything they say wrong sounds like it could be right. She asks me "Brigitte?.. Does that work?" I stare at her blankly and reply.. "Uhh, well, it -uh.. sure? Possibly, maybe, i'm not positive, but I think so!".... i hope my mind continues to shift, and eventually i will be thinking and talking in german!.. In fact, I had a short dream in Deutsch a few nights ago (: I literally almost cried i was so happy!.. except.. everyone has always told me that once you dream in german, you know it. --But i don't know it allllll, yet.... so, does that mean there's something wrong with me? haha!

Hannover 96 Stadion

our YFU pumpkin and stuff (:

I have taken a new interest in music.. I have always been addicted to music, but now i have begun to make my own music on the guitar (which i have taught myself over the past few years) and the piano (which i have hated since i quit lessons a few years back).. but, my host father has been showing me cool things on the piano and he has a lot of great cds and music sheets since he works for a music company!
On sunday Joy and I went with our host families to the Hanover 96 Stadion to have a tour! So cool. We got to see everything, from the showers (Where David Beckham once showered), to the VIP bar. We were the only ones in the stadium and it was soooo awesome and beautiful!!
Also these past two weeks:
-Joy and I made French Toast for my host parents... they didn't like it very much :P
-I made a headline for soccer in the newspaper!! Cool, huh? (:
-I learned how to eat a Walnuss (walnut)
-I learned some new german games from some friends... (I'm gonna have to teach my family when i get home so i can continue to play them)
-I rode in the back of my host-dad's convertible with the top down (: It was such a clear night and you could see all the stars! So beautiful!
-I filled up my dropbox--like, it's out of space!--Germany is just too beautiful.. I take way too many pictures (:

Random Bench (:

On the streets of Gehrden <3