My Exchange Year

HALLO ALLE!!!

I have not been on tumblr in so long and I am so bad at keeping a blog up. I deeeply apologize for this and I will try to get back on here even though I am back in the U.S. So here’s a little update:

My last 3 months in Germany were everything I could wish for. I went on Eurotour with my friends, I traveled with my host family, my family visited, and I lived every day like it was my last. I returned to the states on July 8th and am now going to school again in California and it is the weirdest thing ever. I’m having some trouble readjusting and I miss my life in Germany so much. Sometimes it all seems like too much to handle and I wish more than anything that I could go back. But I’m getting through it and trying to reach the level of happiness that I achieved while in Europe :) I am such a different person after my exchange. It’s unbelievable. I’m so proud of the person I have become. Everyone asks me “How was your year?” and I have no idea how to answer in one word. Scary. Wonderful. Crazy. Exciting. Beautiful. THE BEST YEAR EVER. Usually I just end up going with “Amazing.” Because it truly was amazing. I feel so grateful that I have been given this opportunity in life and so happy that I have all these memories of new and breathtaking things to get me through the rough days. Thank you to everyone who has shown me their love and support through my travels!

SIDE NOTE: PLEASE WRITE ME!! I would absolutely LOVE to answer every and any question you may have regarding travel/exchange/even personal issues and struggles. My inbox is always open for everyone <3

Ich bin nicht auf Tumblr in so lange gegangen und ich bin so schlecht ein Blog zu behalten. Es tut mir sooo leid für dass und ich werde versuchen hier wieder posten obwohl ich zurück in den U.S.A bin. Hier gibts ein kleines Aktualisierung:

Meine letzte 3 Monate in Deutschland war alles dass ich wollte. Ich bin auf eine Europareise mit meine Freunde gegangen, Ich hab reisen mit meine Gastfamilie gemacht, meine Familie haben Europa besucht, und ich hab jeder Tag wie es war meine letzte gelebt. Ich bin zurück nach den U.S.A am 8.Juli gekommen und jetzt geh ich wieder in die Schule, und es ist ganz komisch. Ich finde es echt schwierig zurück zu sein, und ich vermisse mein Leben in Deutschland so sehr. Manchmal es fühlt zu viel zu nehmen und ich wünsche dass ich einfach zurück gehen könnte. Aber ich bin ok und ich versuche jeden Tag glücklich wie in Deutschland zu sein. Ich bin echt eine andere Person nach mein Austausch. Es ist unglaublich. Ich bin so stolz auf mich und wer ich bin jetzt. Jeder fragt mich “wie war dein Jahr?” und ich hab keine Ahnung wie ich in ein Wort antworten soll. (ich hatte) Angst. Wunderbar. Toll. Aufgeregend. Schön. DAS BESTE JAHR MEINES LEBENS. Normalerweise, ich sag “Amazing.” Weil es war echt amazing. Ich bin so dankbar dass ich diese Gelegenheit in mein Leben bekommen hab. Ich bin so glücklich dass ich so viele erinnerungen von neue und atemberaubend dinge haben. Vielen dank an alle wer haben eure Liebe und Unterstützung zu mir gegeben durch meine Reisen!

es ist unglaublich dass ich schon in Deutschland für sieben Monaten bin und hab nur drei Monaten noch..Ich erinnere mich als es November war und ich war noch nicht so komfortabel weil alles war noch neu für mich. Jetzt hab ich 3 Monaten und alles dass ich sagen kann ist ich will einfach nicht gehen. Ich bin aufgeregt meine Familie und Freunde sehen aber es macht mir traurig zu wissen dass ich gehen muss. Deutschland ist meine zweite Heimat. Ich bin so beschäftigt den Rest meiner Zeit hier, und ich weiß dass es schnell gehen werde aber werde so spaß und ganz toll sein. Also prost zu meine nächste drei Monaten und nochmal, ich liebe dich Deutschland <3

I think maybe this format is easier for me and possibly it allows me to post more often because I won't be bothered with uploading each photo one by one.

CHRISTMAS AND THE PAST FEW MONTHS

Christmas was really good. Of course I got a bit homesick because I was not with my family in California and it just wasn't the same during the holidays without them, but it was really nice to experience it here. We spent a lot of time with family. My host sisters Josephine and Tabita's birthdays are actually BOTH December 25th, so we celebrated not only Christmas but also their birthdays. We went to Oma and Opa's house and stayed up until 12 then celebrated the birthday. I got different presents like a scarf, and the movie Vaterfreuden (Its so cute and funny), chocolates, and more. But my favorite present was SOCCER TICKETS. I screamed when I saw them because I've been wanting to go to a game and that was on my bucket list for Germany. I saw BVB play against VFB this Friday. It was amazing :) Next was New Years, or Silvester. I was going to go into the city but my host parents wanted me to stay home so I did and it was lovely. We walked to the vineyards (with much struggle on my part because it was icy) and then watched fireworks and set some off ourselves and drank champagne and hugged each other at 12. Sophie was also there which was really great. I felt a lot of love that night <3

I'm now used to the cold weather and snow and I think by now I can say I would very much like my sun back and warm weather and spring and all things involving ice cream and picnics and sundresses and sandals and NO OVERCOAT. However I am proud of the fact that I have succesfully endured the hardest part of the winter and now have the skills to appropriately dress myself for such weather (I couln't do this before) (I didn't own pants) (Ew, pants.) Anyways, once I was in the new year I really started realizing how quickly my time here has gone. I have already posted about this previously- how freaked out I am getting about the fact that I now have almost only 4 months left. WHERE did my time go?! It feels like I've been here for maybe one month. A long long busy month. So yeah that's really been effecting me and my friends. Every time we think about the fact that we will have to say goodbye to each other we have to stop ourselves from thinking about it because it makes us so sad. But apart from that, I've just been doing the normal thing. School, friends, and family. We were just on holidays and my host family took me to a small town in northern Germany about an hour away from Hannover. We went to a Wildtierpark (Wild animal park) which was stunning, and then to Hannover for one day. There we went to an Aquarium and walked around for a bit by the shops and then headed back. The day after we went to another small village where a lot of pottery shops are and bought some different stuff. I got a mug and 2 dishes which are really pretty.

I've been having the time of my life here. I can't believe I've booked my return flight already and am planning a family trip at the moment. Eurotour is in about 3 months or less, and I have a lot of plans for the next few months until then. I am as always busy and enjoying all the love and laughs and amazing moments I get to experience here. I think maybe the next update I will also translate into German but for now because this is a huge catch up I won't bother. Aber ich kann einfach sagen, mein Deutsch ist VIEL VIEL besser als wann ich bin hier gekommen. Ich kann so gut Deutsch jetzt dass ich kein Problem hab. Ich liebe Deutschland und bin so glücklich hier zu sein :)

and Belgium!! Can't forget about Belgium. I have no clue why but all the sudden I just decided i shoul PROBABLY get this done. Goo job Ceara. This is going to be a very spiratic order and I of course cannot inclue all of the photo's I would like to, but this will have to do :)

Copious amounts of Eiffel Tour love

Note: Cafe de L'est is a wonderful place to eat in Paris. It wasn't too expensive and is located REALLY in the area of Charles de Gaulle so if you are staying anywhere close by the main train station, consider eating here. It was hands down the BEST croissant I have ever eaten, and the jam was so good oh god I want one right now. And with OJ and a cappuccino, lets just say I was one happy chica

This was called a "Croque-Monsieur" but I was told they come in different ways and can look different. Trotzdem, es war sooo lecker. This was in a small cafe somewhere (that I have no clue of) in Paris. 

This was my view from the window of the apartment.

Okay, so I will write about Paris right now (Dienstag/Tuesday) and finish this post another day because I will be up too late if I keep digging through my pictures today but at least I got a start on it. PARIS-

As soon as I arrived I was SO EXCITED I couldn't even believe I was in France finally after so much time wanting to go there. My aunt and cousin picked me up at Charles de Gaulle and took me up to an apartment really closeby. I didn't even know we were staying the night there, I had thought we were going to drive to Lille that day but no! We put down my stuff and headed out straght away and got back around 11:30pm. We walked down Champs Elysees (OOOOH CHAMPS ELYSEES, DA NA NA NA NA, AU SOLEIL, SUR LA PLUIE, A MIDI, OU A MINUIT) (I know that was completely spelled incorrectly) (I can't be bothered with checking it right now). We saw the Eiffel Tower, and so much more. My favorite story about France is about the little apartment we stayed in for the night. It belongs to my aunt's partner's friends and is really really small. They own a black and white cat named Marie-Joe. She's really small and 2 days before I arrived she jumped out of the window and they weren't sure she was going to live. She's had surgery by now and is doing magnifique now but she was in pretty bad shape when I was there. Anyways, Marie Joe slept with me the entire night on the ground while I fell asleep to the sound of drunken French people in another apartment singing very loud French songs while my aunt and cousin were crying from laughter in the next bed because my cellphone wouldn't stop lighting up from all the texts I was receiving. The next morning we went straight to Le Louvre, which was AMAZING. We also went on l'arc du Triomphe, and got an undescribable view of all of Paris. The final place we went is called Le Cent Quatre. It isn't really that well known to tourists and a lot of families go to sit outside in the sun and eat pizza and watch jugglers whle inside and around the building there are so many creative people- Dancers, hoola hoopers, soccer players doing crazy tricks..you name it. It is my favorite place in Paris and I could stay there forever. We also went before I had to take the train back home to Stuttgart so I got to spend more time there before leaving France. Anyways, it is safe to say Paris could very well be my favorite city in the world so far.

Lille/Belgium

We drove back to Lille and spent the week there/in Belgium. Lille is a beautiful city that of course isn't as large as Paris but I liked it almost just as much. I tried so much different French cuisine (My favorite being a Gaufre, which is like a very very thin waffle with vanilla glazing stuff on the inside. I have no idea how to describe this.) We walked around and I met some of my aunt's French friends and ate a lot of food. We went to an art exhibit which was wonerful. We also went to De Panne, Belgium which was amazing. That day was FREEZING, so the beach was of course not great but I was so happy to see an ocean. We had a dish that I forget the name of (if someone wants to inbox me what this is called that'd be wonderful) which was interesting. It was like bread on the bottom soaked with alcohol and a TON of cheese on the top. I didn't like it soaked in so much alcohol but I think the idea of it was actually good if that makes sense. I think with not so much alcohol it is better so maybe in other places it is better. My aunt says that they will drive to de Panne just to get the food. They also showed me that the license plates on cars have the countries letters and so you can see where the person driving is from, which I had never payed attention to. It's like a game to find someone from outside the country you are in. Along the border of Belgium and France it is either or usually so it's not that interesting but every once and awhile a truck from the Netherlands or somewhere would pop up. We then went to Bruges, Belgium which was insanely beautiful. I really REALLY like Belgium. Flemish sounds so weird but I kind of like it. Bruges was beautiful and I guess is called "a little Venice" but I'm not sure that is too accurate. There are pretty canals though and it was just a lovely place. I'd really like to return one day. Overall it was just one of the best weeks of my life and I am so lucky to have had that opportunity!

So yeah it's been like 2 months since my last picture update. Yeah I post on facebook and stuff so family reading this, you've already seen pictures recently. However I find that having little captions to explain them is really nice and just nice to have me actually saying everything that I have done or at least trying to. How am I supposed to remember/explain the things I experience here on a day to day basis? My life is craaaazy. Especially these last 2 months have been super duper busy. I'll make a seperate post about the holidays and finally make another seperate post about my previous fall holidays in France/Belgium and hope it doesn't delete on me again. Needless to say I'm gonna be saving this as a draft every five seconds so nothing gets deleted. Los Gehts!

We will start with mein Schatz <3 Ranti ist die beste Hund

A few selected photo's of Azul, Soph, and I. Bubba, Syria, and Soph forever <3 

Heidenheim to see my love Khartz :') <33

die Kinder mit ihren Laternen! (the kids with their lanterns!) for the Lantern night. There is a night in November (I forget if thats correct) where all the children in the kindergarten sing songs and hold their lanterns and walk in the night. We went up to the vineyards and sang. They are so stinkin cute and now I will always remember that song, "Ich gehe mit meine Laterne, und meine Laterne geht mit mir!" voll süß :)

meeting with some exchange students in Stuttgarttt. We went to this lookout point that is above the city which Joho and Caroline apparently found and basically HIKED for forever (it wasn't that bad but for real, we could've taken a bus I'm sure) to get there, but it was really pretty. Before that we got döner bc it's life

KRISTEN GOT STUCK IN THE BATHROOM THINGY HAHAHAHAHAHA

hehehehe :')

Soph and I went to Killesberg park and walked around and got eis and then went up der Killesbergturm (the Killesberg tower) which also looks over Stuttgart and is beautifullll. That was the day of my 3 months in Germany!

Playing darts at Oma and Opas house <3 I lost btw

Sandwiches in the city for like 3 euros bc were broke

Hot truckerlady rocking the socks and sandals style (we were lazy) (we were on our way to Rewe) (to get chocolate)

fav pics of Ranti being weird and cuddly

Esslingen Weihnachtsmarkt for a Rotary day which turned out to kind of be a failure but whateva. It's always worth it to see these weirdos

We went to the art museum in Stuttgart for international club. So that happened ^

Ice skating!

Sophie and I

me sneakin a selfie with Santa

WE DUN MADE THANKSGIVIN DINNER IN GERMANY. It was very successful und war so toll.

Before Sophie went to England :(

Crowded sweaty bus pic. Had to because it is an accurate representation of public transport in Germany at 7:00am.

<333

Lastly, on December 10th Azuli went back to Argentina. I know I have had bad days here, but that was easily one of the worst. I hadn't cried like that since the day I left California. Of course we are constantly still in contact, but it's not the same not having her here. She was the best oldie a newbie could ever ask for. That is something so AMAZING about exchange. You meet people who affect you and change your life in ways you never expected. I can only hope every newbie gets an oldie like that because it helps more than you could know. She taught me a lot, and I miss her so much. But I am so happy you are with your family and friends again poops <3 We wish you could come back bubba

Like I said, I'll write another post from the most recent photo's in the holidays and all that. It will mostly be Weihnachtsmarkts and all that. Christmas was really great and I am so thankful for my host family <3 They make me feel so accepted and loved and that's all I could really ask for. 

As for what I've been up to in a written form these past 8 or 9 weeks or more, I can't even remember, I don't even know where to begin! It's been filled with school and friends and christmas and everything in between! My German is getting better always, and I understand so much now. I do want to make another course though in January. I think it would really be helpful for me. I don't have a lot of time to write so much because I have already taken an hour to get these photos together and make this blog post, but everything is good as always with me. I'm learning so much and growing so much as a person. I LOVE EVERYONE BACK HOME AND HOPE YOUR HOLIDAYS ARE WONDERFUL!! <3 FROHE WEIHNACHTEN :) (Merry Christmas). Miss you all so much. Until next time, tschüss!