Day 28

It feels so unreal, I'm leaving in three days! I am going to miss Germany a lot.  It is a wonderful place.  This morning, I woke up from the tent and came back inside because it gets very light outside extremely early.  After I woke up for the second time, we had breakfast and hung out the rest of the day.  It was a nice break.  For dinner, we had pizza.  Afterwards, we went to the public viewing again.  It was sooo much fun, and Germany winning was great. It was a nice relaxing day here.

Day 27

I'm leaving on Wednesday which is very sad, so I only have a few more days left on this exchange.  Today, we went the pool, but it isn't like a normal pool because it looks more like a really small water park.  They have a few slides and a couple different pools including a wave pool.  Pia, Jil, and I went. I think we all had a great time.  I know I did!  Afterwards, we came home and hung out for a while.  Jil and I pitched a tent that we slept in later.  We had a nice bbq, then we watched some soccer.  Jil and I went to bed in the tent, but didn't get much sleep. Since they practically live in the main city, it was very loud.  It was really fun camping in the backyard though.

Day 26

Today, I went to school with Jil.  She had an English class that I got to participate in which was fun.  After school, we had lasagne that her mom made.  It was sooo good.  For the rest of the day, we just hung out.  For dinner, Jil and I had döner, which we found out is turkey and not lamb like I thought.  After dinner, we suprisingly watched some soccer.  It was a very good night.

Day 25

So most everyone left this morning, but I know I will have a good time without them.  They were delayed for four hours!! School was rough today and I followed Pia around for the day.  I was very tired the whole day. Today was a long day for Pia, so we had lunch at a Pizza place that was near by.  We went with her friends, so that was fun.  Then, we came back to school and had Chemistry.  Afterwards, we came home and I took a nap.  For dinner, her mom made this weird toast with meat sauce and cheese on top.  It was pretty good.  We watched some more soccer tonight and then went to bed.

Day 24

This is my last Wednesday here in Hamm and the others are leaving tomorrow morning.  We went to school today and our teachers let us walk around and go to the mall if we wanted to to get last minute items to bring back home, so I went to the mall with Azlee and Riley.  We had a great time.  Then we came back to school and went home.  We had lunch at her grandmother´s house.  Then we went to an airfield to go flying over Hamm.  I flew with Pia and Jil.  It was really fun! Then we went to the mall again to get supplies for the public viewing of the soccer game.  We had homemade pizza that was great.  Then, we went to Britta's house to get ready for the game.  It was very fun to go the public viewing! Everybody was cheering and having a great time.  We left at half-time because it was a school night and watched the rest at home.  Today was a great day!

Day 23

This was our last day trip with the group.  We went to Soest and Lake Möhnesee.  We went on a boat that went around the lake.  Then we came back to Soest and walked around there for a while.  It is a very pretty city.  We came home and watched soccer.  Russia and Poland were playing, so that was fun to watch.  For dinner, Pia´s mom made pizza and it was amazing!! They also have this special olive oil that has been infused with chili peppers, so the oil is very hot and amazing.

Day 22

It is most of the Americans last Monday in Hamm.  We spen the day hanging out in homeroom, then we went to eat ice cream and döner.  The was the first time I had döner, and it was really really good! All the Americans had a great day.  After school, we went to their German court house.  It was a beautiful building.  The had lots of modern architecture inside. For dinner, her mom made this really really good dish.  I am not sure what it is called.  I will have to ask.  It didn´t seem to complicated to make, so maybe I will attempt to make it at my house. 

Day 21

Another lazy Sunday here in Germany.  I got up sort of early and went to Jil´s swim meet.  She did a great job.  It was very interesting seeing a swim meet in Germany.  They did things very differently.  I don´t think they have as many swimmers per team as we do in the USA.  They were lots of teams there, but it wasn´t too crowded.  The way the whole meet is set up is so different from what I was use to seeing when I swam a few years ago.  After the meet ended, we came back home and I hung out with Jil for the rest of the afternoon.  Pia was studying the whole day, so I didn´t see her too much.  I had a great time talking and hanging out with Jil.  She is so funny and crazy.  We took pictures and messed around.  Then I skyped my parents for a while.  For dinner, we went to a Pizzeria, and I had a pizza with salami.  I don´t really like the pizza here or at least the type of pizza I had at this place.  I mean it is ok, but I don´t prefer it.  The Pizzeria I went with the Americans to was a lot better than the one we went to for dinner tonight.  We rode our bikes home from dinner.  Because they only have four bikes and they are five people, Jil sat on the back of Pia´s bike.  It is very funny to watch.  Jil almost fell off so many times.  After we got home, we all sat in the living room and hung out.  We talked about roundabouts and how you are suppose to spell them and some other things.  It was a pretty nice day.  The other Americans are leaving in a few days.  Soon, I will practically the only American here.

Day 20

Today, we went climbing which is like a ropes course.  Pia and I went with her boyfriend, Britta, Britta´s boyfriend, Ryan, and Britta´s little sister.  I think we all had a great time.  I talked with some of the guides in English, so that was exciting.  Also, I spoke a little Spanish with a lady from Portugal.  The ropes course was very hard, but very exciting.  Afterwards, we all headed to Pia´s house to watch some soccer.  Some of Pia´s parents´ family friends were at her house when we arrived.  They were watching the Netherlands vs Denmark game.  The family friends´dad was from Denmark.  We had a barbeque in between the soccer games. After eating, we watched Germany beat Portugal.  The family friends also spoke English, so I talked with them a little bit about America and what not.  It was a very good day.  Today had to be one of my favorites.

Day 19

We woke up, and Pia and Britta went swimming in the cold water.  After breakfast, we went hiking in the woods.  It was very pretty.  Then we just hung out for the rest of the day and drove home.  For dinner, Pia´s family took me to a Greek Restaurant.  I had sheep cheese and a bunch of other new things.  It was very good.  We came home a watched Germany´s Next Top Model Finale.  It was cool watching their Next Top Model because America´s Next Top Model is so different.

Day 18

We had another long weekend starting today.  We went to Britta´s lake or some sort of vacation house that was thirty minutes away with Britta, Ryan, and her boyfriend, Eric.  We went sailing with her father.  Then we had lunch and hung out for a while.  We had dinner at a local Restaurant.  It was very good.  It was a pretty good day.

Day 17

We went to school today. We blogged for a little while.  Herr Holl was back for the day.  He let us go get ice cream for a period.  After that, we went to classes.  I had a great time going to the classes.  Then, we came home and had lunch at her gradmothers as usual.  Pia had to go to some church function, so I stayed home.  Then, I went to Jil´s swim practice.  It was interesting to compare the two swim practices.

Day 16

Today, we went to school and blogged.  Then, we were allowed to go to the mall while our exchange students were in school. After school, we had lunch at her grandmother´s house.  Lunch consisted of corn, rice, and some weird meatball shaped things with sauce.  It was very good.  Then we went to Maxi Park with everyone from the exchange program.  It was very fun! We went into the glass elephant building.  Then we walked around the park and looked at all the different playgrounds.  After that, we had the chance to climb trees.  That was very fun.  The playgrounds were very fun! We went on a few spinning things and the guys did some dangerous things which is typical of them.  Then we went to a zipline and lots of people fell, but it was really fun.  I didn´t think going to the Maxi park would be as fun as it was.  For dinner, we had some weird dough balls filled with plums, I think.  I tried it, but I didn´t like it.  So I had a salami sandwhich instead.  It was all in all a pretty good day!

Day 15

We traveled to Münster by train today.  It is a beautiful city! At first, we walked around the city with one of the teachers from the school in Hamm.  We went to a University Garden.  The garden was gorgeous.  They had all different kinds of plants and flowers everywhere and different gazebos placed throughout the maze like area.  We went inside a few churches to look at the architecture. I really like Münster.  We met lots of people that spoke some English, so that was nice.  The city is so very pretty.  There were tons of bikes everywhere because Münster is the Bike Capital of Germany.  The whole city is just very serene.  We were going to go to musuem, but it was closed today.  Instead, we got three hours of free time to mill around Münster and shop.  I really like seeing all the different stores with all the different styles of clothes inside of them.  We got home early, so I went to the grocery store with Pia and her mom.  Then we had pizza for dinner.  It was a very good day here in Germany!

Day 14

Today was a lazy Sunday for me.  I got to finally sleep in (which I definitely took advantage of). I woke up and had some breakfast which consisted of Nutella and bread of course.  Then I read a lot and chilled on Facebook.  I really needed a lazy day because from day one we have been always going and going. For lunch, her mom made these heart-shaped waffles that were flavored differently than ours.  Also, we went to the Cinema to see Men in Black 3 with Pia and her boyfriend, Tim.  As usual, I could not understand anything that was happening, but it was very interesting to see the Cinema in Hamm.  The Cinema was not a big as ours, but there were definitely more people inside of it.  They sell more snacks and what not also.  You can even buy coffee or a beer which I thought was really weird.  When you bought your ticket, they gave you an assigned seat.  I am not sure, but I think you could pay more to get a better seat.  This seems like a pretty cool thing they do here because if everyone buys a ticket together you are guaranteed to be able to sit with your friends or if you are going to a midnight premiere you are guaranteed a place to sit.  After the movie, Pia had to go to her church for some sort of confirmation meeting, so I walked home by myself.  For dinner, we had tacos.  They were a lot different from ours, but they were still pretty good. 

Day 13

This was our first short weekend, Pia, Britta, Jil, Ryan, Tim, and I went to Movie Park Germany a few towns over today.  It was great!!! We woke up early and rode the train there.  The park was a lot smaller than the normal amusement parks we have; nonetheless, I had a great time.  We rode mainly all the rides.  My favorite rides today were the Transformers, Van Helsing, and another one that I do not know the name of, but it was very exciting.  I got to know everyone that came along a lot better.  We had lots of jokes and laughs.  Even though the day started out a bit rough, by the ending of the day I´d have to say it was my favorite day here!  For dinner, we had a cookout in Pia´s backyard.  It was very yummy!

Day 12

Instead of going to school today, us Americans went to Duisburg to see a fake roller coaster and to do the Tour de Ruhr.  To get to the "roller coaster," we had to climb up a few hills, so on the way back down the hills I fell two times.  I think I fell because I didn´t have the appropriate shoes on.  For the Tour de Ruhr, we went to and old Iron Works that had been turned into lots of different things like a museum, concert ground, rock climbing course, a scuba diving training pool, and much more.  It was very creepy there because of all the old rusted buildings, but it was oddly very beautiful.  We climbed the stairs to one of the buildings to get a good view.  It was raining a good bit that day, so the stairs were wet.  On the way back down, I fell down a flight of stairs, so that was the third time I had fallen.  After we got back from our day, some of us went to one of the girls who came to America´s birthday party.  I got to meet more Germans that weren´t from the school. They all tried out their English with us which was very funny!  I had a great time today--except for falling three times!

Day 11

Today was a rather boring day.  We went to school, but didn´t really go to any of our exchane partners´classes because we were suppose to go to english classes.  There weren´t enough english classes for the whole group to go to if we were only suppose to have two or three in a room.  Mrs. Stricklin and Mr. Poss I guess didn´t realize this.  Oh well!  We all had fun talking about our experiences with our excahnge students.  Since we couldn´t find any classes to go to, some of us went down the street to a Pizzeria and enjoyed that new experience having to order in German and figure out the different menu items.  Today, Pia had to stay longer because she had Chemistry, so I stayed and went with her.  It was actually really fun.  I think her friends are beginning to warm up to me which is nice.  Her teacher is really funny.  He reminds me of Einstein.  I also got to share some of my culture by showing the class what we do in America.  For dinner, we had more of an American meal that consisted of chicken nuggets and fries. It was a pretty fun day!!