the end is near

Ohhh boy! The month of December was quite busy for me! I'm sorry it's been so long since I've written... I had an incredible christmas time with my host family and lots of adventures! Here are some photos that I will try to describe in one or two sentences (:

This is what I woke up to on December 6th,
Nikolaus filled my shoes
with treats.
(a typical german tradition)

I baked this cheesecake all by myself..
okay, with a little help from my host
mom (:

Seriously, such beautiful sights at the
Weihnachtsmarkts here in Germany <3

My first REAL tree at Christmas!

drove with the top down on CHRISTMAS

Meanwhile, this is the weather back in Utah
on Christmas... ha, looks like I got
lucky this year (:

My dad always cuts our christmas oranges that santa
leaves in our stockings each year, so
I decided to get some oranges for my host family this
year to continue the tradition (:

KUGELN SPIELEN :D It's like bowling,
but ten times greater because
the balls are small and so are the
lanes. And, there's only nine pins.
This is a tradition of my host family to
go with their fam on the 25th..
so fun.

Pool with the fam, also on the 25th (:

Typical European.. Pay to pee.

Ran into this handsome guy
at the movies after
seeing a movie with my English
Class.

Yet another sun rise <3

ICH LIEBE DÖNER

There are cool things at the dump... like a huge
box filled with old tvs and computers... yeah.

My host brother took me on a tour through the
woods... this is a huge fire pit, he said
that when it is lit, it rises about 9 meters...
i think he lied. Cuz, I checked how tall 9 meters is in feet...
it's about 30 feet.

here's a cool cave that you probly didn't
notice in the last pic (:
It's said to have led to the castle just
a 7 minute walk away.

And, here is the Castle (: 

Went to the zoo on the first day of 2014 with
a family from my church. Hannover's zoo
is THE BOMB (:

Yeah.. I was pretty excited.

Turned 18. My host family made it an amazing day,
along with my soccer team, who
showed up at my house by SURPRISE, brought me
cake and champagne, and hung out with me
for a bit (:

Got to go to HAMBURG with my host sis
and Joy to walk around the city
and to see THE LION KING!

IT WAS INCREDIBLE <3 ..even
in german (:

"The Whale" - a church that is made to look
like a whale. I went to this for a Gottesdienst with Joy
and her host parents. Pretty cool!

That was all december... plus a few other things:

- Went to the movies with my family.. it was totally like an old fashioned theater! Soft red seats, red curtains and way cool set up haha

- I helped my friend, Joy, cook Filipino food for our host families... mmmm lecker :D
- I spent New Year's Eve with some friends from my church, we ate some Raclette... Oh. My. Goodness. I had never heard of this before, but it was soooo good! It's pretty much 2-8 mini pans that fit into this mini oven/grill, which sits in the middle of the table. Each person get's their own pan... you fill it with vegetables, cheese, whatever you want, and on the top you can grill meat (: when it's cooked, you slide it off the pan, onto your plate. Then, you make another one. By the time you're done eating the first, the second one is cooked (: Then, you just KEEP GOING CUZ IT'S SO GOOD. Haha, probably one of my new favorite foods.
- I bought a second suitcase... that's right, I bought too many things here in Deutschland... I mean, can you blame me? Everything is so....well... european here (:
- My host mom and Joy joined me for a play that my church put on.. Scrooge. They did great and it was lots of fun!
- About 50 days ago, I made a list of 50 things I wanted to do before I returned home, and I have successfully completed them all....
i guess that means it's time to go...
....I leave Germany in four days... I am already having Deutschland-withdrawal haha. However, I'm very excited to return to Utah and to see my family (:
Thanks to all of you for your support and friendship <3