Time is running out...

Can't believe this. I'm really going home. It can't possibly be true. Everything is so surreal. I don't even know what to do with myself. My emotions are unexplainable....just everything mixed together.

My host family, my life here in Germany was so perfect. Everything I had expected happened, and more. It really couldn't have been better. I'm so very grateful for how blessed I am.


My family:

Now I have to go through Reverse Cultural Shock. That'll be an interesting experience...

Neverlands? no...not quite

Netherlands!!!

I had so much fun this past weekend with my host family. We spent four days in Westkapelle, Netherlands.


We stayed in a hotel on the beach. It had a heated pool, which was good cause the ocean was supercold! (But that didn't stop me from swimming in the ocean. And naturally I made Laura go with me...or perhaps I dunked her...)
And I had lots of fun playing with Sammy. She loves playing in the water.



Weather was fabulous! Lots of sunshine. (I have a wonderful tan to prove it.)

We also visited Middelburg, a city nearby. Tons of sailboats and ships everywhere. Also lots of old buildings. It was beautiful.

And check out all this cheese! The Netherlands are famous for their cheese.

Saturday night....dream come true
Yep, we rode horses on the beach. Galloped through the water! So AMAZING!


I loved this past weekend. It was an great finish to the end of my year here in Germany. I'm so grateful for my wonderful host family. I couldn't have had it better. :D

Great picture of Heidi and Dieter. They are awesome people!

And of course Laura and I...

The reason why ich bin dicker geworden

(this post is especially for my Papa...)

Essen (Food) in Deutschland

The typical breakfast on Saturday or Sunday.

Heidi cooks some pretty amazing food. Here are some of my favorites:

Zuericher Geschnizltes
(no idea how to translate that, but it is chicken and onions in a very tasty sauce.)

Pfiferling Spagatti
(chicken and mushroom sauce)

One of my very favorites: Kaiserschmarn
(comparable to something like pancakes covered in powdered
sugar and eaten with applesauce)

Spätzle mit Huhnchen und Piltz
(Spätzle with chicken and mushrooms. Spätzle are typical egg noodles served as a side in Germany)

Spargel Sauce mit Kartoffeln
(White asparagus sauce served over potatoes...)

Eier, Kartoffeln, und Spinat
(Sunnyside-up Egg over Potatoes and Spinach)

Now to those typical foods:

Bratwurst
Check out the huge long wurst in the tiny brötchen....so normal

Currywurst und Pommes

Leberknödel Suppe
(took me a while to get used to....didn't realize until last month that Leber=Liver. No wonders I didn't like it particularly.)

Döner
I love these things. So good.

Käse (Cheese!!!) - Heidi discovered in the first two months that I love different types of cheeses. And let me tell you, they have quite the assortment of cheeses here in Germany. DELICIOUS!



And of course:

German ice-cream

Spagatti Eis

So that was just a little overview of the types of foods I normally eat here in Germany. It's going to be weird having to eat American food again.

The Best Ever

I just have to say...

...My host dad is the best ever!

Today he came home from work and made the most scrumptious chicken salad I have ever been privileged to eat. I've eaten a lot of different chicken salads, but this one was by far the best ever! Not only did it taste good, but it also looked splendid. Unfortunately, he wouldn't allow any pictures to be taken...

(okay, I'll own up to the fact that since I've been ill the past few days, I've hardly eaten anything...so I was pretty famished... but still it was extremely tasty food.)

Perhaps you ask why he made dinner? Well, Heidi is currently in Wien, Österreich (Vienna, Austria) with a friend. So Dieter played Mr. Mom. He's amazing!

Nürnberger Dialekt

Nay, ich weiß es net. Ich habe es nimmer gemacht.

I really do enjoy the dialect/accent in Nürnberg, and it's funny to hear my host parents slipping into it as they chit-chat. Well, I had a wonderful weekend in Nürnberg with my host parents. Unfortunately, Laura wasn't able to go with us, and Matthias is...well... is Matthias. So, it was just me with Heidi and Dieter. (and did they spoil me? OF COURSE!!!!)
The purpose of our trip was to join in on an uncle's 70th birthday celebration. However, Heidi was super sweet (as usual) and decided that I needed to see Nürnberg and surrounding area. So we extended our stay for a few days, which were filled to the brim with awesomeness.

Friday: Drive from Bad Honnef to Nürnberg. Left at around 9pm, arrived at 12am. As usual during our trips to Nürnberg, we stayed with Heidi's parents, who are to be called Oma and Opa. (Both Heidi and Dieter grew up and lived most of their lives in Nürnberg.) I really do love it there, and of course Oma and Opa love to spoil me too. I am a very loved exchange-child and exchange-grandchild. :D

Saturday consisted of Allegra Bel sleeping in until 10am and thoroughly enjoying it. (It was well deserved after a very hectic week of school), and the birthday celebration, which lasted 3pm-10:30pm. The celebration began at the uncle's house with lots of coffee, cake, talking, and drinking alcohol (well, not me) in the afternoon. Then there was dinner at local restaurant, and then nicely ending the evening back at the uncle's house with more talking, smoking and drinking. I finally crashed in bed around 11pm with a massive headache from the strain of trying to understand and comprehend the many surrounding German voices and conversations (of course with that Nürnberg accent). But, yeah, it was a pretty great day full of delicious food.

Sunday was a personal tour for Allegra Bel by the two nicest Nürnberger people (Heidi and Dieter) of the Nürnberg Innerstadt (downtown). We visited the Kaiserburg (Imperial Castle) and walked around the city. I learned all about the history of Nürnberg - a wonderful and old city.

Check out the following slide show for pictures of the castle and other views of the city. (oh, and you can click on the slide shows to see the pictures better)

Monday was '"cave spelunking" day! It was way awesome. We went to two different caves, which were about an hour away from Nürnberg. The first cave, Teufels Höhle, is the biggest one in Germany, and it really was ginormous!

I really enjoyed the drive from the first cave to the second cave. It was typical German countryside. The second cave was also pretty amazing. And my favorite part: it had a harp inside! Check out the pictures.

The pictures are hardly captured the amazingness of the caves. After visiting the caves, we had lunch and then headed to the movie theater/IMAX in Nürnberg. That place was incredible! I believe it's the biggest theater I've ever been to. The whole entire thing was underground, under the city! We watched an IMAX film about the ocean. It was pretty cool.

Yeah, that was my amazing weekend adventure. I really do love my life here in Germany.

Bis später!!!


P.S. I will be positing my Feburary Italian Ski Trip soon.... I'm still waiting on getting the pictures.

My Beautiful Home

I have to admit, I really love just being in my home. Some days I'd rather just stick around my house instead of going out. The Hameyers have such a wonderful home that is always so clean and tidy. I love walking in the door after a long day at school. I'm so blessed to live in such a beautiful place.

Here are some pictures of my lovely home.

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!!!

My Host Family Placement

A very exciting day.....

I was one of the first of our group to receive my host family. We were told by AYUSA that we would probably get our host family sometime in late July or early August. However, I received a fantastic email on May 29th, 2008:

"Dear Allegra Bel,
I have some exciting news for you! PI, our German partner, has found you a Host Family. I am attaching the details of your placement as well as the contact information for your Host Family. Please contact your Host Family ASAP and introduce yourself. Feel free to contact me with any additional questions that you may have..."

Wow, I could hardly contain my excitement as I opened the email attachment, which was one page showing my host family (names, ages, professions, contact info), my local representative (name and contact info), and my school (name, address).

I will be staying with the Hameyer family:

• father - Franz-D. - 50 years old and is an engineer
• mother - Heidi - 47 years old and is a housewife
• brother - Matthias - 18 years old
• sister - Laura - 14 years old
• pets - 2 cats and 1 dog and 1 HORSE!!!! (yay!)

I will be living in Bad Honnef, Germany and attending the school, Gymnasium Schloss Hagerhof. Here are a bunch of cool things I found that relate with my school and area in Germany.

• This is a picture of my school that I will be attending: http://wikimapia.org/2325757/de/Gymnasium_Schloss_Hagerhof
• This is the most amazing information about my school. (It's a super nice private school/boarding school and is well known for it's sports and music... and also get this, it has riding stables!!!!!): http://www.hagerhof.de/englbody.html
• A little information about the city I will be living in: http://www.study-in-germany.de/english/4.22.3.858.html

I'm so excited!!!! I'll be leaving for Washington D.C. on August 9th, and then will be leaving for Germany on August 10th. Then once I arrive in Germany, I will attend a month long language camp in Hedersleben, Germany. Finally I will travel to Bad Honnef to attend school and spend the rest of the year with my host family.