8 days skiing in Austria in the Alps was absolutely incredible.

So time for catch up. The last week was so much fun. Skiing everyday! The normal day was waking up between 7 and 7:30am, getting ready, eating breakfast, putting on all the warm clothing, walking down to the ski kellar, putting on ski boots and skis, then skiing down to the first lift. There we would meet the Pokorny family (family friends) and get on the lift. Then we would ski until around 12pm. Then we would go to the lodge, eat lunch and relax for a little. Usually after us kids (Fabian, Lena, Laura and me) were done eating, we would play “Bloody Knuckles” or “Uno”. Then after our lunch break we would ski for a few more hours until 4pm.
After the 2nd day, skiing got much better for me. I could ski for longer periods and not be tired and I began to have lots more fun. I fell quite a few times, but it was always laughable.
The views of the mountains and valley and everything was astounding. We got some amazing pictures. :D


Check out the slide show (click on it to make it bigger).




Happy New Year everybody!!!

5 days left of school!!!!

You have no idea how happy I am for Winter Break. :D

I seriously can't wait to be out of school. I mean, school isn't horrible, but it's not exactly ideal either. I am often so lost in classes cause my German isn't superb yet, or I'm zoning out cause I'm just too exhausted to concentrate on understaning German. It's crazy how much energy is sucked out of you when you're trying to understand the world in a different language. It's also just awkward to be in class. I can't participate, or if I try then everybody stares at the American girl trying to speak German. They all say that I speak good German, but I feel quite the opposite.

Last week in my Religion class, the discussion was about why people believe in God and about the different beliefs of creationism (I think). Then suddenly my Religion teacher, who often completely ignores me, turned to me and asked me something about how religion is taught in schools in America. I was caught completely off guard. I wasn't even sure if I was understanding what they were talking about. So hoping that I was understanding right, I pretty much told him that that we don't have religion classes, and that we only learn about evolution in Biology. Sheesh, every single person staring at me as I struggled to explain this in my not-so-good German. Then my Religion teacher politely smiled, thanked me, and continued talking about something or other. I don't know if I had understood correctly or what. Ha...oh well.

Yep, so only 5 more days. Friday evening I'm going with my host parents to see Laura perform in the school musical. Then right after that we are leaving for Austria. I'm so excited! We're going to be gone for 10 days, and 8 of those days are skiing!!!

Life is still good.

So life has been pretty normal lately, and I absolutely love it. I feel like I'm finally getting adjusted to the German way of life.

Last week, I cooked a Thanksgiving dinner with help from my friend, Anya (she's from Utah and is here in Germany for a year working as a nanny). The dinner turned out really good, and my host family enjoyed it. We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, broccoli, cauliflower, rolls, and a cranberry drink. Then for dessert, we had two delicious apple pies and a ice cream pie topped with the best homemade hot fudge ever! Yum yum. :)

Oh and then the next night after Thanksgiving, I went with my host family to dinner at their friend's house. It was apparently a traditional French meal with a course served every hour. We didn't start dinner until 8:00pm and didn't finish until 12:30am. This was the longest dinner of my life, and I was so tired...

School is getting better, but I'm happy that Christmas break is only two and a half weeks away. Then I leave for a week with my host family to go skiing on the Alps in Austria. I'm super excited!!!

My Harp Life

Okay, now the huge update on my harp life.

Before I came to Germany, I was very worried about how I would be able to continue my harp studies during my time in Germany. I looked into the option of shipping my harp to Germany, but it was too expensive and risky. Then I looked into renting a harp in Germany, but I didn't find much because I didn't know where to look or how to contact people, especially because of my lacking German language skills. So I came to Germany with only hopes of being able to get a hold of a harp...

Then my wonderful host parents searched around for a harp for me. They contacted different harp stores in Germany and a music school in Bonn. Then while in Nürnberg on October 4th-6th, visiting my host family's relatives, I got a small harp! Yay!

The following is from my journal:

"So the harp isn't exactly what I was hoping for, but it was definitely better than no harp at all. It's a lever harp (35 strings) from a harp store, Glissando, in a small town 20 minutes away from where we were staying in Nürnberg.
This place had so many harps. I've never seen that many harps in one building all at once (I'm guessing there were between 50-70 harps there). It was awesome.
So anyway, Dieter drove me there first thing Saturday morning, so we could look and find out if there was any option of renting a pedal harp. Actually the lady who was helping us was very willing to rent me a pedal harp, but she would only do it if I paid 20% of the purchase price, which was anywhere from 4000-8000 Euros. So ugh, that pretty much made it impossible (okay more unrealistic than impossible). The lady then suggested that I just go with a lever harp. (I really didn't want to do this, because I'm planning on continuing harp in university, and I need a pedal harp to be at the university level for harpists.) She told me how there are so many songs I can play on lever harp and still advance my level. She also pointed out the reality of prices...and a bunch of other things that I've already been weighing out. Also I can return this lever harp anytime I want (esp. if I find a pedal harp)....so it seemed like a win-win situation.
So since everything just felt right, I went for it."

So more about this first rental harp (yep I say first... just wait until I tell you about the next). It is really pretty, even if it is plain. It's made out of this really cool African wood. It also has an amazing sound for being so small, and with a straight soundboard. I don't like the bass that much, but the middle and upper range are very Celtic sounding...


So I was pretty satisfied with this harp. I was so happy to have my fingers back on a harp---something I didn't have for 3 months! However, my host mom felt like I really needed a pedal harp. She literally spent hours and hours for two weeks on the phone and internet, contacting every source she could. She went from harp stores to music schools to harp teachers and other harpists....and just anywhere that would have a possibility of renting a pedal harp. She found places in Berlin that would rent me a pedal harp for 200-300 Euros a month, but that was still really expensive for me. She also looked into the different insurances for pedal harp, whether it was better to pay more for house insurance, or buy specific harp insurance. Sheesh, she is amazing, and did everything. So, after lots and lots time spent with phone calls, a harp teacher gave Heidi the phone number of a French family living in Bonn.

And this family had a daughter who plays harp. She is currently studying at a university in France, and is unable to take her harp with her. So her harp was just sitting in her house being neglected. She was more than willing to rent the harp out because really wanted the harp to be in good hands--- where it would be played often, instead of collecting dust at her house.

So on November 2nd, I had a huge, beautiful pedal harp sitting in my room. It was very crowded in my small room with two harps, but I didn't care. (The lever harp has since then been returned to Nürnberg.)

This harp is simply amazing. It's a Camac Athena, which is the same harp maker as my harp. However, this harp is a full size concert harp, making it bigger than my harp which is a semi-grand. Seriously this harp is a foot taller than me. I love it!

Oh and then - also there is an elderly harpist, who is well-known in Germany, and she wants to hear me play harp. If I'm talented enough, she will give me free lessons. So in the next few weeks, I'll be playing for her. (NO pressure!)
Anyway, it's so amazing how things have worked out with being able to continue harp. I could have been satisfied with the little lever harp, but no, things just get better and better. :D

Snow!!!

Yesterday, I was walking around Bonn (the big city, 30 minutes by train from my house). It was pretty cold and was spitting rain. But then all of a sudden out of nowhere, it started snowing and snowing. The snowflakes were huge! It started so quickly, lasted a good 10 minutes, then ended leaving the sky clear like nothing had happened. It was so cold! But awesome!
Then today, it snowed again. Sadly, the snow melts right when it hits the ground, but it's still fantastic. I haven't seen snowfall for a long time, cause it doesn't snow in San Diego, California or Phoenix, Arizona.