My Last Day of School!

Next week all the kids here have the week off, so today was my last day of school in Germany! It was sad to have to say goodbye to everyone, but I got to say goodbye to everyone I think so that was good. It was a pretty fun week too. On Tuesday Justin Whitten and his exchange partner Simon went with me to Rostock to find German flags so we could get people to sign them. While we were there a lady from the newspaper asked if she could take our picture, and it might be on the front page! I thought that would have been really cool to be in a german newspaper twice, and on the front page too, but a dog with sunglasses on the beach beat us for the front page. Oh well lol. Anywas, back to the flags. Everyone kept saying that it would be really hard to find a German flag, but at the second store we went into we found a bunch of them so it was all good. It was interesting carrying around a German flag today getting people to sign it, because they aren't nearly as patriotic as we are in Canada. For them it is bad to be patriotic about your country, or what they say is 'Nationalist', because when the Nazis were in power there was so much nationalism. Anyways it was good to get them to sign it. On Wednesday I went with Justin and Simon to Neix (where Simon lives) and we played soccer. it was lots of fun, but I was so sore after it I felt like I couldn't move anymore! I was much better the next day though lol. So it was a really fun week. Tonight we are going to go for supper with some relatives, Saturday we are going back out to Warnemünde, and Sunday there is an Easter Market in Rostock so we will go to that, and I will probably get the last of my souvenirs too. I don't know what we are doing on monday, Anna had wanted to come over for a bit but we'll see what happens. I ony have three full days left though so I want to make the best of them!

Trapped on the Autobahn!!

So before I talk about Berlin, on our way home yesterday i was sleeping, and i woke up and we were stopped, and we weren't sure what the holdup was, so we waited for a while, and people started getting out to see what was going on, and it turned out that a car had just stopped working in the middle of the autobahn. Now that normally wouldn't be a big deal, but they were doing road construction, so there were metal dividers separating the 2 lanes, and a metal barrier on the side, so there was no way to get around the dead car. So 2 hours, 15 minutes and 14km of cars later we were on our way again! What should have been a 2 hour trip ended up being close to 4 and half hours. Other than that though the day was really good. We went to the Reichstag Building, which is where the German Bundestag is (their federal government). It was interesting because it is an old building, but everything is newly renovated, and then the glass dome on the top is cool because you can walk to the top and see the whole city! It was also the European Union's 50 birthday celebration that day so they had some things going on, and there were lots of police out! It was funny, when we were at the celebration site I saw this big banner that said "USA applauds the EU's first 50 years" and I thought it was so retarded, we were all like why do we care what the US thinks? Then we realized it was on their embassy so it made a little more sense. We also went to a place called the Sony Center, and the was an IMAX theater and a Sony Store, and a Volkswagen store. At the Volkswagen store there was a driving simulator, so you were sitting in the front half of a "real' volkswagen, but it was all a computer simulation. I found that pretty fun actually, except that we would have died a couple times lol. We also went and saw a part of the Berlin wall that is left. There isn't much to say about it, but i thought it was really intersting to see. But this is my last week now! I'm going to be really sad to leave, the time has just flown by, but I know it'll be nice to get home and see everyone again!

Internationally Famous!!

As you can see us Kanadiers managed to make our way into the Ostsee-Zeitung (the Baltic Sea News or something like that)! I think its just because they knew a President was here lol. Anyways the rest of my week was really good. I got to hang out with Anna (she was in Stettler last year) on Thursday after school for a while, and that was lost of fun. That day was the first time I actually saw an umberella turn inside out, and of course it happened to me! Then on Friday a bunch of friends gave me a call! That was really great to hear from everyone, thanks so much guys your awesome!!It makes me mad, everytime I go to make a post on this thing I forgeteverything thats happened, and then remember it all when I can't go on the computer.... oh well anyways we went to Poland today. It was interesting, because we didn't do any sight seeing there, we went shopping! Everything in Poland is really cheap, and some of the stuff is nics, and other things aren't so nice. The first place we went was right across the border, and it was these three big bildings that were just filled with these little shops that people had set up, and if you even glance at anything they start trying to get you to buy it. That made it even more intersting for me, because they would start talking to me in German, and wouldn't stop, and of course I woulld have no clue what they were saying. It was also really funny because most of the stuff that was sold was clothes, and it would be almost the exact same clothes from one "store" to another. I also found it interesting that they had a 'no guns allowed' sign on the door into the mall, and in some of their little shops they were selling guns!(the one I'm holing was just fake though lol) It was all a pretty sketchy deal, but I found it pretty interesting, and funny too. In a way though it isn't funny because in general I don't think Poland is as wealthy as other countries, like just looking around the city we went to (which was actually a part of Germany before WWII), it just looked kinda run down, and kinda dirty. That being said, maybe not all of Poland is this way, I'm not sure, but from the sounds of it thats how most of it is. It was still really cool to go to Poland though! Now tomorrow we head to Berlin!

Snow!!

Alright, free time!! I've actually been trying to finish some of this schoolwork from home now, and I'm working on my social essay... hopefully i'll have a draft done by next week lol. Anyways, today it snowed! I was so sad, I was hoping I would never see snow here. But to make it worse, for gym today we had to run laps outside for half an hour! It was grose because it was really wet snow and it was blowing really hard, i was soaked by the end! I don't ever even remember running laps in the snow in Canada! Anyways I got to go home after that so i got to dry off and everything.

This weekend we are probably going to be going to Poland on Saturday, and Berlin on Sunday. I am pretty excited about going to another country (even though i am in "another country" right now lol). I'm not sure what we'll be doing there, but it should be interesting.

Here are some more pictures from our trip last weekend. I have tons, but here are a few.

These two pictures are at the transportation muesum.













These four church pictures are from The Church of the Holy Cross.

These two pictures are from The Church of Our Lady.

These two pictures are from "the mountains"

And this is the Turkish Mafia in Berlin....

Updates on the Retarded Computer

So this is being retarded and not letting me put some pictures on, and Jasmin has homework, so hopefully I can put some more pictures on tomorrow. I did update my Dresden and Soccer posts today with some pictures, but I have lots of Dresden pictures so I will put them on tomorrow. Miss you all lots!

Soccer Game!

Yesterday was pretty busy so I didn't have time to upload any pictures onto my last post. After school today I should have some time to do that though so this post and yesterday's post will be updated with pictures later. Anyway yesterday we went to the soccer game! It was interesting to see what the fans are like here, much crazier than for any sport in Canada (except for maybe some people during NHL playoffs lol). Now I was in the fanblock, so everyone has to stand and your just crammed in there, so maybe everyone seemed crazy because you have to be crazy to pay money and stand for 2 hours! They even have a theme song for the team, which was cool/cultish lol. Overall though it was fun, but the game ended in a tie. Hansa didn't play very well until the end of the first half when they scored, and the fans go nuts when they score! Then the second half was ok but no one scored, Hansa had a few close ones but oh well, it was still a cool experience!

Dresden

This weekend we went to Dresden. It is in central eastern Germany, right near the Czech Republic. Most of the city was destroyed during World War II, but they have done a lot of reconstruction on the old buildings. The biggest reconstruction project was on this church which translates to "The Church of Our Lady". There were a couple other churches we saw as well. In the one church we snuck into a tour group so we got to tour through a lot more of the church, and went into the basement where all the old Kings and Queens of Saxony are. When we arrived Friday night we did a little bit of touring around so I got to see the city at night which was really cool! We also went to a transportation museum where they had lots of old cars, planes(just models of those), trains, bikes and ships(just models of those too). It was very intersesting. We did a bit of shopping too, and i bought a German soccer jersey but I didn't have time to buy anything else. That was about all for Friday and Saturday. I really enjoyed being able to see all of that because it is all so old and has so much history, more than anything we have in Canada. On Sunday we went to "the mountains" haha I don't remember what they're called but they were much more different than ours. Where we were at there used to be what looked like some sort of medival fort from the little miniature they had there. All that is left is like the stone floor and you can see the stone steps they had carved out, but the bridge is the main thing that is left. After that we drove through Berlin, and saw a few things but we didn't spend much time there because we're going back next week anyway. Thats about all for my weekend though! Today we are going to a soccer game! I'm really excited!

So nothing new has happened today, but I thought i would add a couple pictures. Thsese are some of the girls in my class, the one on the right is Laura and she'll be in Stettler pretty soon. The picture was taken in the morning so they still thought it was cold enough for jackets, but i'm sure it ended up being above 20 degrees today. And now for a picture courtesy of my paparazzi picture taking skills I present to you the World's Largest Mullet!!!

The Island of Rügen

On Sunday we went to Rügen, the biggest island in Germany. It is in the Baltic Sea, also has the most northern part of Germany on it. The first place on the island we went was Nationalpark Jasmund (national park is together for a reason too lol), and the cliffs that overlook the sea are all made out of chalk, so that was really cool to see. Then we went to this place where it was some sort of ancient grave site, I don't know remember exactly what it was all about, but it was kinda cool. After that we drove to Arkona, I think it was some sort of military outpost during WWII among other things. It had a cool lighthouse, a bomb shelter, and a good view of the sea, but none of the building were open, so all we could do was basically look at them. I t was still cool to see everything though. So that was our Sunday trip. Today it was about 18 degrees outside, it made me so happy, because the sky was completely clear and I finally dind't need a jacket after all the wet windy weather we'd been having. We also went into Rostock to buy tickets for a soccer game next monday. Their team is called FC Hansa Rostock, and they are actually doing really good this year, so it should be an interesting game!

First Full Week

So, I've been in Germany now for a full week, and I've been having tons of fun. The school is good, but the teachers are crazy! If any of your remember George when he was in Stettler, I have his mom as one of my teachers at school, and I can definitely see a family resemblance. So on Tuesday me and Jasmin and another guy they call Kalle (or Kaaaaleeee) and we did some more touring around Rostock. Its surprising cause they're so much to see just in that city, like in this picture you can see part of the old wall that went around Rostock, and then there are lots of other old buildings, so just looking around is cool. The rest of the week was good too, I'm getting some schoolwork done lol, hopefully I'm doing it quick enough! So then on Friday there was a birthday party for one of the girls in my class named Jette (pronounced "Yetta") and that was lots of fun, there were quite a few people there, and it was good to be able to hang out with some of these kids outside of school! And it was fun cause they actually had lots of questions about Canada, especially this one kid lol, so I really enjoyed that. This morning I got to ride in my host dad's Rolls Royce car that he bought the day I arrived, I thought that was pretty sweet.In the afternoon we went to Warnemüde, it is a beach area at the Baltic Sea, with shops and stuff, so we toured around there for the afternoon, bought some fish that I'll be having for supper lol so we'll see how that is! Oh and when we were there one of the seagulls pooped on Jasmin's jacket!! Anyways thats all for now!

I Made it Alive!!!

Hey everyone! So I made it here alive, and I really like it. The flight over was good, but it made me really tired, so I slept from 10 that night to 12 in the morning, and I don't think I have ever slept that long!! On sunday I got to meet a lot of Jasmin's family, her grandparents and great grandparents on her mom's side, and an uncle. We also went to Rostock, and toured around there a bit. Today was my first day of school, and I honestly was a little nervous, but everyone seems to be very friendly, and it was pretty fun (as far as school goes lol). Jasmin's family is really nice, and I'm very lucky to be staying with them, because they like to have some fun kinda like my family. It is hard not being able to understand German, and I don't get everything explained to me (that would be a little much to ask) but no one has had a problem talking to me in english so far so I'm happy about that. Oh lol today in math I actually did their work, and it was just logarithms so I knew what they were doing, but it was interesting trying to have them explain what they were doing so I could match it up to what I knew from our math. Anyways I should go, so I will keep you all updated on whats going on!

(this is us on the Autobahn, we going so fast the picture is blurry lol!)

So I 'm not actually there yet, but I thought I would post one quick message before I left just to make sure this works. I'll miss eveyone a lot, but its only a month lol so I have a feeling it'll go by way to fast!