Tomorrow ó.Ó

Oh goodness, tomorrow is the day of days! School starts.
I'm sooooooooooooooooooooooooo nervous! New school, new people, new teachers, new rules. Even though I studied a lot, I don't feel perfectly prepared. Right now the nervousness still keep its limits, but when I think about tomorrow, whenever my mom or dad will drop me off at the school, and I'll have to get out the car, into a school I never really visited, find a room I've never seen, and meet new people - I feel sick.
Destination: International School of the Hague. Even though I really, really wanna go to this huge school with lots of students, and I think it will be so interesting with all different cultures, and I (finally!!) get to know some people here, I'm still a little worried.
I hope I won't forget anything.
Wish me luck! I guess I'll see ya tomorrow evening

- At least if I survive this day.

♥

California

The Grand Canyon.

So we're back from our trip to California. It was great! It's probably been one of the best holidays ever! We've been to Los Angeles, Las Vegas (Nevada), the Grand Canyon (Arizona), Death Valley, the Yosemite, and San Fransisco. Everything was great! I loved Las Vegas especially. The architecture of all the hotels is so well-done! And I loved the Universal Studios in LA. I got to see the Wisteria Lane of Desperate Housewives, my favorite TV show. ♥ It was so cool! The Santa Monica Pier was really pretty too. San Fransisco was beautiful, even though it's exhausting walking for a long time, because of all the hills. I loved Pier 39 with all the seals and, of course, the Golden Gate! The Grand Canyon was really amazing. It's huge, and with the Colorado River inside it just looks so fantastic. I would've loved to do river-rafting in the Grand Canyon, haha. Death Valley is the hottest place of whole America. It was so hot that my eyes burned so bad, I thought they'd be just burning away! In the end of our trip we were driving down the N° 1 from San Fransisco back to LA. The sea in California looks so pretty! What I loved the most are the surfers! Surfing must be so much fun. I wanna learn it now. My first lessons are today ó.ó I am sooo excited!! I've also been to a musical in Las Vegas called ''SURF'', with songs of the Beach Boys. It was a really good musical.
Well, I guess that's it for now - Here are some photos:

                                                                     

                                                                            Los Angeles

Universal Studios ♥

                                                                                Las Vegas

                                                         San Fransisco

                                                 Bye Bye From California ♥

California, here we come! ♥

Yap, this is where I'm heading tomorrow :)) My my best friend Isabel, our mothers, my uncle and aunt, and I are having holidays in California - Home of the rich & famous ... And Schwarzenegger :D
Haha, I am suuuuper excited!!
I won't bring I laptop since we won't have any wifi there, so I guess I'll c ya'll in four weeks when I'm back here!
Love you ♥

The Week In Germany

"The Taming of the Shrew"
- Alice, Joelle, me, and Friede (from left) 

The past week I've been back in Germany. The main reason for that was studying a bit of chemistry with my old tutor but it was also a great opportunity to meet my old friends ♥
It felt so good to meet all of them again! On Wednesday, the 4th of July (American Independance), I went to an american diner. It was good!
On thursday I finally saw most of my best friends again - The drama presentation of their play "The Taming of the Shrew" by Shakespeare. It's kinda mysterious that almost all of my best friends are in the drama club. It was a really good time!
On friday I visited my old school. Surprisingly nothing had changed... Not even one hair color.
I realized that I really missed doing stuff with the most crazy people ever. In the morning, before the first lesson, Steffen was like: "Anybody want some tea?". I figured he had prepared tea in thermos bottle, but well, I forgot that it's Steffen. He actually brought five cups, hot water and different tea bags with him - He's crazy. I also visited the school newspaper's group. Nothing changed there either.


Christian and me in Cologne :)

After school I went to a café with Alice, Friede, and Ilayda. I guess the last two names are hard to pronounce for americans, haha :D Anyways, it was a good time. I basically spent the weekend with Alice. I love spending time with Alice. This girl is amazing! For real, you could tell her anything and she wouldn't get mad. Well, maybe she just doesn't show it, but either way works out for me :D On Saturday I also had lunch with my grandmother and her sisters. They're pretty crazy. And they are the masters in complaining. - If it's my hair color or my weight. Yap, they are the best.
On sunday I went to my old church in the morning. In the past I helped there in the children worship. We've been a lot of people back then. Now there were hardly a few there, which is kinda sad but I still enjoyed it.
On monday I went to Cologne ♥♥ Aaah, city of my dreams!! I just love Cologne. The only city comparabale to Cologne is London. There I met Christian. Yaaa, Christian. The exchange student thaat has been at my school in Somerset. Oh goodness, that was a great time! I think I've never done so many things on one day in Cologne. We made a tour on the Rhine, ate at the Hard Rock Café and walked up the Dome Ó.Ó 533 steps! But it was great. The view was awesome! I had a lot of fun 

My Grandmother

there. On wednesday I met with Isabel again. We watched "Nightmare on Elm Street". That's a really good movie!
Even the tutoring was fun. Probably more than it should have been! But still, it was good and I think I learned a lot! My tutor Marvin is probably one of the smartest people I know. At least in maths and chemistry!
Most of the time I stayed at my grandmother's house. She's so sweet. I love my grandmother. ♥ I also stayed at Isabel's house one night, and at Joelle's (another friend of mine) house another night. When I went to Cologne I stayed one night with Steffen. He was there for his traineeship. So well, everything worked out good! 
The main difference betwenn the USA and Germany is probably the transportation. In the USA it's really hard to get somewhere if you don't have a car. Right now I could easily get to Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, wherever right now!
Yap, I love Germany. And Europe. Even though the people are really hectic around here, but that's all right by me. :)
So I guess, I'll c ya'll soon!
xoxo

Back "Home"

Five days have passed since I got off of the plane in Düsseldorf. The first thing I got was a culture shock in Munich. Actually a worst one than when I arrived in Somerset...
Oh my Goodness!! All of the people were looking super busy and oh my gosh, the shoes the men were wearing were awesome *___* You know, these extravagant designershoes with a matching suit. Oh wow, I didn't see these for months! Not even in Chicago!
That moment I realized that if I ever marry, it's going to be someone with shoes like that. Most of the time you find men wearing shoes like that next to the newsstand wondering which of the newspapers they should take. Since I missed the flight in Munich because the plane from Chicago was too late and I had to wait about two more hours I had enough time to keep watching them, haha :D Furthermore it was super clean! Everything looked way more pure than it did in America. I was the only person wearing flip flops... I guess I have to say goodbye to them.
Anyways, in Germany my parents, my grandmother and our dog Daisy was awaiting me. It was way less awkward than I thought it would be. I was really nervous and excited before but it was all right! Yeah, it was kinda great to see them again! They had ballons and a stuffed animal (Penguin) as a present for me.

Watching the game.

Then we first went to my grandmother's home for a little. Then we picked  up my best friend Isabel. She's living in our old appartement now. It was a little awkward in my old room with all her stuff, but well. Then we went to my favorite restaurant Maredo in Oberhausen. I love it! Their Chicken Wings are the best in the whole wide world! Afterwards we watched the UEFA Germany against Italy semi-final. It was kinda cool with all these people. Isabel's mom joined us later too. And even though Germany didn't win it was a great evening! I guess they were just super afraid and under pressure because they never won a game against Italy... But well, none of them would've been winning against Spain in the final, they are just awesome!
So well... I don't know what to say. It was Germany, haha. A lot of germans, celebrating Germany.
After that we went home. I was super tired.
The next morning my mom and I went shopping a bit. Gelsenkirchen didn't change at all. But that's ok by me (:
Then we drove to my new "home". It's really awkward for me because our new house is huge, and our apartement in Germany was tiny compared to this.
I've done all kinds of stuff here... Finished the rooms, cleaned them up, skyped with Whitney ♥
Man, I miss this girl!
Anyways, on sunday my grandmother from my dad's side arrived. She's going to stay with us for a few weeks. She's kinda cute, even though we can't really talk to each other, because she can't speak either german or english.
One of the best things about living here is that it's so close to the sea. Ten minutes with the bike. It's awesome. The best feeling on earth is feeling so small when you're standing next to the sea. ♥
It's wonderful.
Tomorrow we'll drive back to Germany because I need some help in chemistry.
And I'll see Steffen, my best friend, after six months. Yaaay, so excited. :D
So well, c ya!

Bye Bye, Kentucky.

So well, I guess this is it.. I'm sitting in the airplane from Lexington to Chicago. It must be about 6:40 pm. I can't believe I'm already leaving Kentucky, home of all rednecks, horses and the BIG BLUE ♥  It's awkward leaving the place I was so excited to live at six months ago. Kentucky is looking so green from the sky. So my host family is on their way home right now. There'll be a few presents awaiting them there. When they walk upstairs they will look at all the pictures of Whitney on the wall. It's like a "Whitney-Shrine". There's one picture frame on the top of the stairs though and there's no picture in it. I always wondered why. Maybe they save it for her graduation picture... Anyways, I taped a picture of me on there and it's saying "Finally! Somebody broke the Whitney-Shrine! hahahaha :D ". They'll probably crack up. Then Michele and David will go into their room and they'll find a picture frame with one of our easter pictures in it... I chose my favorite one ♥ Whitney and David had some issues with his tie on there... Furthermore they'll find a letter adressed to them.
When Whitney goes into her room she'll find a bunch of stuf on the ground (I couldn't put it on her bed 'cause it's too messed up). Also she'll find two picture frames with pictures of us in them. My two favorite ones. One of them is at Animal Kingdom at Disney with our faces painted and the other one on the camping trip with Lacy. Then there'll  be the stuffed annoying orange and it can speak!! Also there'll be two posters; one of a church evening when we compeeted in a drawing-without-looking competition against each other and the other one is from the day I got her. They made a poster saying "Welcome to the USA". I love these but couldn't take them because they are too huge. Then there's a small note and a loooong letter telling her how much I love her! But the best thing (in my mind) is a bracelet. It's saying "sis". I got the some one for me just that I got flowers as a charm and she's got an elephant and a cloverleaf.
Yes, I love this family. I had so many great moment with them! The best one with Michele was definitely one time at diner. Whitney was talking about something gross. Then:
Michele: "Can we please change the topic?"
Me: "Let's talk about cows!"
Michele: "Cows?"
Me: "Yeah! Did you know they have four stomachs?!"
Whit: "Oh yeah! And they always throw up their food and chew and swallow it again!"
Michele: "-.-".
Haha, that was a good time!! The best moment with David was definitely the first Merit Trip. The bus the students drove in broke down a few times. In the morning the commode in our bathroom had broken and I was kinda panicked about how they'd react. I wanted to tell them at diner, whenever we're back home. So David picked us up from where the bus had broken down.
David: "So what happened?"
Me: "I don't know! I didn't do anything!!"
David: "You didn't do anything?"
Me: "No! I swear! Nothing!"
David: "Well... Ok."
Me: "Really! I didn't touch anything!"
David: "I didn't expect you to be driving the bus anyways..."
Me: "The bus?"
David: "Yeah, the bus broke down... Remeber?"
Me: "Oh my..."
Hahaha, I was talking about the cmmode. That was so odd, haha. I had so much fun with him and his jokes! :D
And Lacy? Well, I wanted to marry her, but it didn't work... ;)
So today I saw the three greatest people of Kentucky for the last time until they'll visit Munich next spring. Before they got me to the airport we went to Bob Evans for diner. Really funny since the first time we went to a restaurant together it was Bob Evans too. - And both times Whitney and I had fun with the straw paper, haha. 
Then we went to the airport. When I hugged David, Michele and Whitney goodbye I just kept crying. I went through the baggage-check, looked back one more time, Whitney was waving. The people working there offered me tissues. When I got upstairs I bought a pink "Kentucky"-Shirt and put it on. I cried for about half an hour I guess. It was super hard!! Harder than I actually thought it would be. I can't wait to see them again!

-

I'm sitting in the plane to Munich nw. It's about 9pm. I met two other exchange students who are sitting next to me (one from Austria, one from Germany) and a guy from Hungary.
I'm just so thankful for the time I spent here! So thankful for everything right now! I will never ever forget these six months! The best six months of my life, spent in Somerset, Kentucky. ♥♥

My very favorite picture.

Last Post from Somerset

The day I got here.

We're leaving to the airport in about thirty minutes... I can't believe how time flies.
So I guess this is for now and probabky a longer time my last post from Somerset, Kentucky.
When I look around the room now, I'm just super sad that I have to leave this house, Lacy, my family.
There's this song by "Owl City" called 'Fireflies' and there's one part I consider being so pretty:
"To ten million fireflies, I'm weird 'cause I hate goodbyes.
Got misty eyes as they said farewell.
But I'll know where several are, when my dreams get real bizarre,
'cause I saved a few and I keep them in a jar.
I like to make myself believe that planet earth turns slowly."

Saying goodbye is a little like storing marmalade in the fridge. After saying goodbye, you still store the memories in the back of your mind, just as you store the marmalade, and you always got the opportunity to take the marmalade out of the fridge and say hello again, even though it never tastes exactly the same.

Our first picture together with the poster they
made for me saying: "Welcome to the USA".