Boise High Students in German!

Hey! So, I've noticed that a lot of you are showing up here from Frau Burkholder's website, and I just wanted to urge anyone who wants to exchange to Germany to check out this scholarship.
http://www.asse.com/united_states/cby.htm
Its the one that I got to come here and it is very excellent. Your chances of getting it are pretty high due to Idaho being a smaller state and less kids applying here.
And if any of you have questions, please comment on here and I'll be sure to get around to it :)
In fact, I'll talk to Frau Burkholder about maybe doing a skype session to the school to answer some of yo questions, maybe I'll make a video.
I don't even know if anyone reads these things!!!
Anywhoo, I got a soccer game to get to, greetings from Wedel!!

September!

And September starts busily!! Last week we went to the Klettern Garten, which is an awesome ropes course, and although you can't really tell in the pictures because of the trees and such, its super fun :)

 And my mom's birthday was yesterday!! We had a most excellent party :)

 And today we went to a little fest on a farm for my mom's work. It was super cute and farm-like and reminded me of Idaho...
Never again will I resent living in a farm state ;)

 And the corn maze!! Not quite as extensive as the one in Boise, but still lots of fun!

 My super cute Oma, who calls me "Kleine Maus" or little mouse :)

Its getting colder and the air is so clean and fresh and suddenly I'm feeling more integrated. Part of the family, kind of part of the town, still working on being part of the country :) One step at a time!

The Month Mark (and school)

Four weeks ago today, I arrived in Wedel at the Kless's house. Since then, I have seen and heard and misunderstood many things. Its very surreal thinking about how its been a month. While it seems like a long time, its really flown by, but still in a slow like manner. I can't even describe to you how weird time passes by, maybe its just a German thing ;)

But I'm extremely happy, I feel very at home with the Kless's and I look very forward to the ten months ahead of us. 

Culture shock has set in oddly. It took me awhile to get used to being in public, the train system, and table manners, but I'm finally feeling a bit more integrated than before. 

Ten more months to go now! My set home date is June 20th for those of you who are curious, but we have all the time in the world to think about that. 

In terms of school!

I started school this week, and while frustrating and asldkfjas;ldfkjaw;co in the beginning, now that things have settled down a bit, I think I've got a hand on it. 

English class is a nice breath of fresh air :) My schedule is looking pretty good, and the only issue now is understanding everything else being said. 

Whoof. Its frustrating, but my brains aworkin' :)

In terms of the language!

Conversationally, I'm understanding almost everything. It's become a lot easier to string sentences together, and I have no trouble getting the gist of a conversation. 

Speaking wise, I am slowly inching my way towards improving. At first I was really shy to speak with natives, but now that school has started, I've been speaking more. I think by the end of these next few months, I'll be conversationally fluent. 

School wise, I'm having a harder time understanding whats being said because there are many words that I simply don't know due to the context of the class. Hopefully, this will start to becoming easier, but until then, I'll sit through and try my best. 

Greeting to all y'all in Idaho :) I miss you! Hope the school year got off to a good start! 

And again, many billions of happy thank-you's to my family and Armin and Julie :)

Fußball!

My first soccer game! My mom, Katja, is the doctor/physical therapist for the local men's team, and today we won 4-2!
Yay Wedel TSV!

Agent K on duty!!!!

 :)

The weather here is changing, always changing. From wind, to warm, to rain. Unpredictable and awesome :D

Last days of camp...

Tomorrow marks the ending of language camp. This Monday I start at my local school and all my American buds are moving out of Hamburg. 

While I'm really excited/nervous/anxious to start school, I am going to miss these guys I guuuuuueeeesss ;)

I thought I would throw in a few fun photos for the heck of it because camp has been fun (to an extent) and I've made some fantastical friends so far. 

 probably the best picture ever.

I love Wedel! I love the clouds, I love the sun, the beach, the people. I'm so excited for school (Ahh! So nervous!)

Hamburg Rahthaus!

The Hamburg Rahthaus (city hall) is an absolutely gorgeous building that I visited today with other exchange kids. Its not as old as you would expect, only 115 years old. It was built after a huge fire to symbolize that Hamburg was back up on its feet and hardly got damaged during the Allie bombings. Its an absolutely wonderful building :)

 Dina :D

 James and Bennnn

 A whole view of the outside of the Rahthaus.

 Random Budha in the center....(my awesome pigtails)

 Tons of amazing iron work on the gates and even inside as well

 Me, being a dork and taking pictures of the ceiling

 Some awesome paintings in the rooms. I'm still a horrible photographer, especially on guided tours, so forgive me for my random pictures of little things that I liked.
But hey, thats what blogs are meant for right?

 This and the doors below were hand crafted by small children in school (apparently not child labor because some of the kids got paid and its educational?)

 THE PHOENIX ROOM. Very cool :)

 A center chamber in which we weren't aloud to enter.......but still an excellent photo :)

 Idaho babes!!!!

And the fountain outside! Yay!