My 18th Birthday!

So I just recently had my first birthday that was celebrated away from my home and not even in America. Yep, My 18th birthday in Germany. Apparently your 18th birthday is the biggest one in Germany, so that definitely made it a fabulous day.

So my day: I woke up, got ready, and then walked downstairs to the kitchen, where I was greeted by my host family and a beautifully set table with a scrumptious breakfast. At my place was a chocolate cake and next to it colorful, cube candles, each with a letter on it, and they spelled out "Happy Birthday." (I can't believe I forgot to take pictures of it. It was so cute!) Then we had breakfast and cake.
After this I opened my presents. I got a concert ticket to go so some amazing musical and a book from my host parents. Then Laura gave me a cute little notebook and a huge box of chocolates.

After all this, we left to go to a rock climbing gym. That was so much fun (though I'm still slightly sore from this since I haven't been rock climbing for quite a few months...). The rock gym was huge. It had 2 huge rooms with various climbing routes. I think the highest walls were 23 m (around 75 feet) high. It was pretty amazing!

So here are some pictures:

This is Laura and me at the entrance of the rock gym.

I love rock climbing!


This is Laura climbing. You can sort of get an idea of how high the walls were, but you still can't even see the ceiling from this picture.

There was this ladder (the kind you see in the circus) in the middle of the room. That was scary!!! It was so high (somewhere around 20 meters high) and it turned around as you climbed up it. Thank goodness for the harness and rope! But yeah that took guts for me to climb that ladder. I hate heights! I'm okay with rock climbing, because it's a solid wall that does not move around, but this ladder...completely different... (but hey I did it! even if I did only climb up half way...)

This was also a little scary cause it moved around as you climbed up, but it was definitely better than the ladder because it was more solid.

Laura and I taking a break.
I don't know why I didn't get any pictures of my host parents (probably because they were always the ones taking the pictures). But here's a picture of them from another day:

Yep, so I had a fantastic birthday!

My Awesome Host Family

I’m doing pretty well. I’m working very hard on taking everything just one step at a time, and not worrying about how much I still have to learn in German. I’m doing better and better each day with understanding, but however my speaking is only ever so slowly improving. School is the most frustrating part right now. I can’t understand most of my teachers, and translating the texts is nearly impossible. Many times I think of how crazy I am to be here in Germany instead of at college in the USA. However, once I get home from school, all is good and I’m quite content and comfortable. I learn so much more with Dieter, Heidi, Matthias, and Laura than I do at school. And I have fun while learning with them…

So more about my host family:

My first impressions:

• My host dad, Dieter, is a very cheerful kind of guy. And he has happy, smiling wrinkles around his eyes. He’s very excited that he can practice his English with me, but also very willing to help me with my German. (However, I often have to remind him to always speak German to me first, before he can speak English). He wants me to feel like I’m at home, and is willing to do anything and everything that I want.
• My host mother, Heidi, is very loving and friendly. She is kind of shy and worried about the language barrier, so we didn’t speak very much the first evening. But she was sure to clearly lay down all the house rules after dinner (with Dieter’s and Laura’s help in explaining).
• My host brother, Matthias, seems to be the typical 18 year old teenager: somewhat rebellious and argumentative with his parents. He doesn’t talk to me much, unless he has to.
• My host sister, Laura, is overly excited to have me. She showed me everything around the house, explained everything, and showed me how to use things, etc. I think we’ll be very good friends and have lots of good times together.
• Samantha, the 9 year old Husky, is so adorable. She has one blue eye and one brown eye. I love her so much! I’m surprised at how active she is for being so old.
• Puma is a somewhat large, and very friendly orange cat. He is best friends with Sammy, and it’s hilarious to watch them play together.
• Merle is a shy, extremely large and fluffy cat. My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw her; she’s HUGE! But she’s also very, very cuddly and sweet.
• Nagorny is a beautiful chestnut horse who has an amazing personality. He lives about 10 minutes away at the stables right next to my school. I really enjoy riding him.

So yeah, those were my first impressions the first day with my family.

My impressions haven't changed too much over the past three weeks:

• My host dad is as fabulous as ever. I don't see him very much during the week because he's always at work. But he's a hilarious guy. He's always joking and/or teasing.
• My lovely host mother, Heidi. She’s so sweet! She normally cooks meals that include alcohol, or she buys chocolates that have coffee in them. But within the first few days, she discovered that I don’t drink alcohol or coffee. So now, she always makes sure that I know what does or doesn’t contain alcohol or coffee. Also when she's making a cake or soup or anything that includes alcohol, she sets aside a portion for me without acohol. She’s so sweet to do the extra work to make sure that I’m happy. I absolutely adore her and she's a fabulous cook! It’s also lots of fun to go shopping at the stores with her, or various errands. Although she doesn’t speak any English, we can communicate pretty well. I can understand her German better than I can understand anybody else’s German. I don’t know why – maybe it’s her accent or something, but whatever it is…it’s good, because I can understand what she says. :D Also it’s super good, because I learn the most German from her. Everybody else just speaks English to me when I don’t understand. But she can’t, so she uses lots of actions, examples, and simpler German words to help me learn and understand. I love her so much! (Also, I found out that she has been calling around to find information about getting a harp for me… she’s always on top of things!)
• Matthias is friendly to me, but I don't see him often because he's always hanging out with his friends or in his room. He's just the normal teenager boy that doesn't want to do much with his family.
• Laura is so patient with teaching me German and helping me with my homework. She's very sweet and loves to have fun. :D

So overall, I absolutely love my host family! I think I have a wonderful placement (no more worries about all the horror stories of exchange students having the horrible experiences with terrible host families). I am so spoiled in this family. (They gave me a cell phone. My host dad makes sure that I always have a supply of delicious German chocolate in my room. I will be going to Italy, Austria, Netherlands, and France in addition to traveling all over Germany to visit castles and other tourist attractions. The list goes on and on.) My host family is just perfect for me and I love it here in Germany!!!