Thunder n' Lightning

Just some random Torey thoughts on a stormy night.

Faster and Faster and OHNO. WHAT ITS MAY.

Ohmygoodness. Where did the time go. It was October and then it was December and now its May.
Seriously.
I found myself laying in the middle of my back yard today thinking about now. Right now. I find myself so caught up in what has happened this year and what's going to happen when I get back that I have to stop myself every once in awhile, breathe, and think about now.
There is no such thing as tomorrow. There is only today. Today is the only day that you will ever live in.
So live it well!
This last weekend was another exciting one! I got to visit the Hamburg Hafengeburtstag festival, which is the birthday party for the Hamburg Harbor. It was super crowded, but really fun. You see all sorts of different types of people at such festivals in Hamburg, I love being in the mix. I also love schmalzkuchen and Russian sailors!

Woo! 
Und dann!! This last Sunday, I got a big surprise from my host dad, and got to fly in a small plane around Wedel!!! It was super fun and scary because the plane was a bit rickety, but I had an awesome time. I still love planes. They are so strange and cool. Seriously. 
Und dannnnnnnnn later that evening, I got to see the biggest cruise ship on Earth go by on the Elbe as it was leaving the Hafengeburtstag. Yep. The Queen Mary 2. 
It was gigantic. 

And awesome. 

I also got a special treat, and was asked to have my last blog post on the facebook page of ASSE, which was really cool!
I also love both my families a lot. I'm excited for these last few weeks and to be home. Its all quite emotional and troubling, but I feel so accomplished already. Explaining and describing my feelings is so hard to do. I just feel a lot of love for everyone and everything. That's basically all I can say!

I love the Kless's!

T minus 49 days....

About this time last year I had found out that I had won a full ride scholarship to do an exchange year in Germany. I had gotten an email from my host mom telling me that I'd be in Hamburg and that was just about it.
I found this all out a year ago. And I've been in Germany for nine and a half months.
I cringe everytime someone asks me how much time I have left and when I'm leaving.
June 20th. 49 days.
I remember when it was 300 days left. 200 days. 100 days felt like yesterday.
Coming to Germany was tough, but I always kept in mind that I was going to end up back in Boise anyways, so no matter what happened, I'd get through it.
But now, I'm quite anxious to go home because I know I can't simply hop back on a plane and come back here. Germany has become a part of me, or at least, I've become a part of Germany. This is my home, my life, and what I'm used to.
The changes that have occurred in myself may be subtle, but I feel like I've taken giant steps forward in not only my international social skills, but also in myself.
It doesn't sound like a big deal now because this is my home, but when I think about it, I dropped everything I had in Boise and moved all by myself in Germany.
I could be graduated and moved out of my house by now! My diploma is a simple sacrifice for a year in Germany. A year that has set direction to the rest of my life.
I'm rambling a bit, mostly because I've been thinking way too much about all of this these last few days. I decided this morning that with only 49 days left, I'll leaving skype and social media alone for awhile and be in the present as much as I possibly can.
Every time I talk to people about leaving all I get is "Das geht schnell"
And it really does go fast.
I mean heck! I've been in Germany for almost a year now!
A YEAR.
I'm excited to come home, excited to be in Boise...
I'm really really really not excited or happy to leave my host family. I try not to think about it too much because tears instantly touch me the second I think about life without them...
I am excited to wear all the clothes that I left at home.
And I'm excited to finish this journey, say that I accomplished more than I had set out to do or even imagined...
And I'm excited to move forward.
But for the time being, I'm going to stay in the present and be happy with my wonderful friends here, my amazing family, and the best dog on earth.
Watch out Boise, I'll be home sooner than you can say "Alles hat ein Ende, nur die Wurst hat zwei."
:D

Osterferien, März, und jetzt April!

Oh goodness, time flies. I apologize for not updating my blog that often, time seems to only be speeding up and I hardly have time (or batteries) to pull out my camera or a moment to put words together.
I'm on spring break at the moment, which was last week, this week, plus next Monday and Tuesday, so its been quite relaxing. This last weekend was my little brother Tommy's birthday and my Opa's birthday as well plus Easter, so we had quite the weekend!
On Saturday, Tommy's birthday started with a big breakfast and presents and such.

I got him a few of my favorite movies and books! I don't know if I've talked about this, but Tommy is quite fluent in English, and I've been trying to find all my favorite books for him so he can grow up reading those as well. He's quite sweet and I'm so proud of him! Happy birthday love!
Saturday night we went to a big Osterfeuer, which is an Easter thing that we don't really do in America as far as I know. I don't have pictures from the night, but it would look a bit like this.

Something that would probably be super illegal in Idaho is something that happens every Easter! Overall, its meant to kind of bring in the spring and warm up the cold. That was really cool to see, I'll probably never see a fire as big as that in my life, so whoop whoop!
Sunday was basketball (we lost) and Opa's birthday and Easter itself! Tommy looked for eggs and chocolate and we had a wonderful breakfast and dinner.

It was sunny for the first time in months and a really wonderful day :)

My days are numbered (78 as of today I believe). Its strange thinking about leaving...
In June I'll be in Berlin for a few days and then have two weeks left until I leave...aaahhhh. I'm nervous to leave this house, its truly become my home and I can't imagine not being here with my host family. It will be a sad day when I leave, but I still have two and a half months left, so no time to be sad yet!

#germandoors

This will be a short blog post.
So I have this reoccurring problem here in Germany when I'm alone at home.
The thing about the doors here, is that you have to have a key to get into the front door, its constantly locked. There is no other way to open the door from the outside without a key.
I'm still not used to this.
Today I had the day off and was spending the morning in my yoga pants and belly shirt, cleaning, listening to music, doing bits of yoga, and singing to myself. I was taking the garbage and empty bottles outside, having a good old time, when I came back up to the door to find myself locked out.
This isn't the first time its happened.
Now, I could have gone to my neighbors house, but its his birthday today and I knew he was at breakfast. There I was, no shoes on, no jacket, and looking like I had just gotten out of bed (because I literally had).
I checked the back door just in case I had left it open, but alas, I had not. My dog confusingly stared at me as I went from one end of the house to the other, trying to decide what to do.
From inside the shed, I uncovered an old running jacket of my host dad's, which served the purpose of being warm, put on some of my host mom's shoes which are a little too big, and rode my bike to my mom's work (which is like a five minute bike ride).
I walked into the office, too big of coat and shoes on, no makeup and my hair unbrushed, asking for Katja Kless.
The secretary already knows me because this has happened two times already. I think she could tell I was super embarrassed.
I got the key, a hug, and a laugh from my mom, and biked home.
I left the back door open for the rest of the day just in case.
Thank goodness my mom works so close to the house and that there were jackets outside, because I really didn't want to have to walk into the office in my belly shirt.

Silly German doors! :)

Little bits of updates!

Hi! Its March 1st and the year is trucking along at a strange pace. With four months to go, I'm in an awkward place where I know I'm going to miss Germany and my family like the dickens when I leave...but I'm strangely excited to see Idaho again...
Its really odd to watch all my senior friends get towards the ends of their high school days, I'm slightly jealous, but definitely not too jealous. I was able to skype my good friends Jesse and Dean during lunch break the other day, and I can promise you that I do not miss the sound of girls gossiping and laughing in English.

I also don't miss Boise High. I'm contemplating going back there to finish my four credits that I need to graduate. Maybe I'll end up just finishing it all online. All that is still being decided.

Another thing that I forgot to mention a loooong time ago is that the Bundestag member and SPD Representative for Kreis Pinneberg, Dr. Ernst Dieter Rossman came to my house a few months ago to talk with me about the PPP program that I'm in. It was super awesome that he was here and while I was scared off my pants to talk to him in German, I still had a really good time. The Bundestag guys usually try to make it to one of the exchange kid's house to reinforce why the program is so important. The connections I've made through this year seem to have a bigger meaning than I think, and it was really awesome to meet such an important guy.

He is on the far left, followed by me, my dad, my mom, and Julie Harder. I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but I was super nervous the whole time. All in all, it was a nice little meeting and I was fortunate to get his permission to refer to him as "du" instead of "Sie" ;)

I can't wait for spring to show up again, I hope it makes it before June! My days are numbered! I'm excited for the two week Easter break coming up at the end of March. I'll be in Berlin around June 5-8th I believe and then I'm returning on June 20th.
I don't think I'll ever be able to give enough thanks to my German family and all they've done for me. I'm so thankful every single day that I ended up here :)
Have an awesome March everyone! Hope it warms up a bit in Boise as well :)