It has been a long time since I have written in my Blog. I was finishing up my college applications and that took up a lot of my free time. I got them all done on time and now I can't wait to find out what school I will be going to next year.
My Christmas in Germany was very nice. Every little town in Germany has an outdoor Christmas market in the weeks before Christmas. They are so nice. I went to one in a town called Esslingen with Rotex. I don't know if I fully appreciated that one enough because it was so cold outside the day that we went. The other exchange students and I ate some sausage, drank some kinder punsch, walked around a little, and then went to a warm cafe and sat down. My town had a Christmas market of its own, though. It was little, but it was so cute. It was in the street at the bottom of the hill that the castle in my town is on. They even had a donkey and some lambs in a pen just so you could get the feeling of Christmas. You could buy homemade Christmas ornaments and many other things. On the last day of school before Christmas we had a Christmas party. We did a gift exchange, played games, and ate plätzchen. We took a picture with the whole class. It was so nice. I actually feel like I am part of the class now and not just an exchange student. I also went to my Rotary club's Christmas party. It was actually quite funny. Ivanna from Ecuador ended up going to the meeting of the other Rotary club in our town. She called me and told me that she was at the party. She wanted to know where I was. I told her no I am at the party. Then I had to try to explain in German to the president of the club what the problem was, and I found someone to go pick her up. It was so funny. She ended up getting two free dinners, though. She ended up as the lucky one that night. I celebrated Christmas with my first host family. My older host sister, my host grandparents, and an old lady named Gerta came to our house on the 24th. She is a friend of the family I guess. She was really funny. We ate some Christmas cookies. Later, we had a typical German Christmas dinner. We ate sausage, kartoffel salat, green salad, and bread. After dinner, we called my host sister who is on exchange in the U.S. this year. We talked to her for a long. She listened to us open our Christmas presents. In Germany, they open their presents on the 24th in the evening. My host grandma gave me a cookbook that was in German and in English with food from Germany in it. I am really excited because now I can cook all the good German food that I have been eating this year when I get back to states. I gave everybody stockings for Christmas. In Germany they don't have the tradition of Christmas stockings. They all loved them. My host dad kept singing Christmas socks...Christmas socks. He told my host mom that she has to save his and fill it again next year. I put a little cow in my host dad's stocking because he loves cows so much. He named it after me. He was like you know Julia I don't think you are a cow, although I do love cows, I just want you to know that I will never forget you. It was so nice. I am glad he named the cow after me. I went to church with my host parents and my host sister that evening. It felt nice to be back in church again. I have been to church a few times since I have been here, but in the U.S. I went to church every Sunday. It isn't one of the things that you think an exchange student would miss, but I actually do. I really miss going to church every Sunday. Maybe I will try to start going more often here. The next day my host grandparents came over again. We ate some cake and talked in the afternoon. I then went to skype with my family. I ended up skyping with them for about two hours. It was nice. I got to talk to all my aunts, uncles, and cousins. I also watched them all open their Christmas presents. My brother from Germany got a blanket from my aunt with a picture of West Virginia on it and it said almost heaven. I want a blanket or something like that with Germany on it. It was so cool. My cousin was also yelling at my sister because she taped Florian's name over my stocking. I don't care though. I know how much my family loves me and now I just have a lot of new family in Germany. I think I will get to go visit Florian's family sometime this year. My cousin who took German in high school also tried to talk German to me. She asked me what my name was in German, but she thought she was asking me how I was. It was funny. I love my family so much. After I was done skyping, I went down and had dinner with my family. We ate Raclette. Another typical German Christmas meal. It is so good. It is a little bit like fondue. It is this hot stove that you put on the table. You have your own little dish, and you fill it with whatever you want. A little bit of meat or some vegetables and then you cover it with cheese and put it on the stove. The cheese melts all over everything. It is delicious. I want to eat it again. Maybe I can talk my family in the U.S. into getting one. The next day my older host brother who I hadn't met yet and his girlfriend came. My friend from Ecuador named Ivanna also came to spend the night. It was so much fun. We all played games and talked. My Christmas in Germany was very different than how my Christmas in the U.S. is. We did a lot of different things, but overall it was still the same. It was family and friends spending time together. That is what makes Christmas so special.
On December 30th, I changed to my second host family. I really liked my first host family, so I miss them a lot. I really like my second host family, too. Our house is actually in Heidenheim. It is kind of cool. I can see the castle from my window. I wake up every morning to a view of the castle. It is so beautiful. I also have a host dog who I take for walks. It is actually kind of good for my German. The dog only understands German, so I have to speak German to him. I am never afraid that he will make fun of me either. I spend the whole walk talking to him. My host dad is also a surgeon. That is so cool. I think I will get to go to the hospital with him sometime. I am so excited. It is really weird switching host families. You have to start all over again. I think it is almost harder to switch host families than to leave your really family at the beginning of your exchange because you know you will be going back to your real family again, but you don't know if you will ever be with your host family again. It is also good because now I have two German families. They are very different, but I can get along with either one and learn things from them. My first host family took me out to dinner on my last night with them. I had duck for the first time in my life. It tasted pretty good. On the way home, my host dad kept pushing my older host sister in the snow. It was funny.
I went to a party at a friends house for New Year's. We had a snowball fight and climbed a fence to get into a playground. I actually ended up getting stuck on the fence. One of the exchange students from the United States had to help me get loose. Then she got stuck on the fence, and I had to help her get loose. We set off a ton of fireworks on New Year's. In Germany, everyone sets off fireworks. I have never done that in the U.S. before. We watched The Hangover in English, and then we watched Zombieland in German. That was an interesting movie to see dubbed in German. We all stayed up until six o'clock in the morning to watch the ball drop in New York City. It is kind of cool to think that everyone around the world has a new year at a different time.
Now for the updates. What have I been doing for the past several months? My host parents took me to Neuschwanstein. It is pretty, but it is even more amazing to see the Alps for the first time. They are gorgeous. I was in the car asleep, and then I woke up and saw them. I couldn't take my eyes off of them. I could never imagine living in a castle like that. My host family and I ate pretzels at the bottom of the hill looking up at the castle before we climbed up there. It was the perfect German experience. I am so glad they took me. My second host family took me to Wurzburg. We saw some castles and churches. If you love castles and churches, you will never get bored in Germany. We also saw the house that the first x-ray was done in. I think that is so cool. I want to try to travel and see as much as possible while I am here.
Now for some funny stories. One Wednesday, we got to the Rotary meeting early. A man that worked at the hotel where our meetings are started talking to us. He had a funny English accent. He said that his favorite English word is enchanted. I thought that he said hello my name is chad. I was like oh nice to meet you. He asked if his English was good, and I was like yes your English is very good. He was funny. He kept singing songs about the food that we ate at the meeting, too. I hope he is there for the next meeting. He is entertaining. I stayed with one of the other exchange students host family for three days because my host parents went out of town. The first day I was there I had a cold. The next day the other exchange student's host mom asked me if my cold was better in German. I thought she asked where are your host parents today. I was like Munich. Everyone started laughing and she was like no. Then she said it again and I understood her. When you are learning a new language, you make mistakes like that every day pretty much.
My time as an exchange student has really taught me that the world is a good place. There are good people wherever you go. They will try to help you and make your life better. I know that there are good people in the United States, in Germany, in South America, in all of Europe, and all over the world. It will be so hard to leave all of my new friends at the end of the year, but then I will know that no matter where I am in the world I have somebody there if I need them. I am not alone.
