The past 2 weeks have been extremely busy, therefore I have not written in a while.  Let's start out with the weekend after Walsrode.  After school on Friday, I went home, had a nice German lunch with the fam, then was driven to the train station so that I could catch a train to Hannover, where dance school is.  Once arriving in Hannover, I met up with all the other dancers, and we danced our way over  to the dance studio.  We hit the dance floor, the lights were turned off, the disco ball turned on, and we danced the Rumba.  There's nothing to get you pumped and excited quite like the Rumba.  It truly is magical.  After an hour of dancing various Latin dances, we were dismissed, and we all meandered back to the city, where we hung out for a while.  One hour, and one overpriced ice cream shop later, me and a girl from the dance class got on a train back to Nordstemmen, near where my 3rd host family lives.  This train ride was very interesting to say the least.  I didn't feel like buying a ticket for the train for 2 main reasons.  One, I do not like to spend 6 Euros on a 1 way train ticket, especially since they are hardly ever checked.  Two, I thought that even if I was checked, I could get away with it, since I am American and if they tried to talk to me, I would just say that I didn't understand.  I used this tactic often, and most times it worked like a charm.  But this time, luck wasn't on my side.  I kept on looking up and down the aisle of the train to see if there was anyone coming to check tickets, and after about 15 minutes, one came strolling down the aisle.  I thought that I could get away unseen if I just went downstairs, being that it was a 2 story train.  So, after hurrying downstairs, I found another seat and stayed there for a while, until my friend game and got me, saying that it was clear.  Little did we know, we were not clear.  The lady came back down the aisle, and noticed that I wasn't there the first time that she came through.  After scolding the girl that I was with, she left, without making me pay the 40 Euros that I was supposed to.  Thank goodness! Anyways, we left the train soon after, and walked 2 kilometers to the Tödters.  When I got there, I was served steak and sausages, and some German beer.  It was a very good dinner.  After talking for a long time, the guests left, and I stayed and talked with my soon to be host family.  I spent the night that night, and then went back home the next morning.  I had planned on going to Hannover with my the Schiedecks that day, but I arrived back home too late, and they had already left when I came back.  Therefore, I spent a day alone relaxing and sleeping and studying.  The next day, Sunday, Uwe took me, my host sister and her friend to the Ideen Expo in Hannover.  It was a big exhibition for businesses to come and show people about how their companies work.  It was kind of interesting, but I wasn't able to understand much, so I got bored.  2 hours later, we went home, and did nothing for the rest of the day.  

The next weekend turned out to be very fun.  After dance class on Friday, I got on a train in Hannover, and got on my way to Celle.  Celle is about 30 minutes from Hannover, and is the hometown of the Flicks.  When my mom was an exchange student in Germany, she had a host sister and that was who I visited in Celle.  My real family and I had visited them before, but it was 8 years ago, so I didn't remember much.  Upon my arrival, I met up with Gitti, and we walked back to her house, which was about 20 minutes.  We talked about our lives and such, all in German of course, and it was very nice.  Once we got to the house, she showed me around, then we ate dinner, then went for a walk.  We walked around Celle downtown and saw all the old buildings and traditional architecture.  It was very pretty.  We then went to a bar and had non alcoholic drinks with Tabea the daughter.  After all of this, we went back and went to bed.  It made for quite a fun evening.  The next day, the three of us went to Braunshweig, a city about an hour away.  It is about the size of Hannover, and just as pretty, if not prettier.  In Braunshweig, we got to see the old buildings, a farmers market, Angela Merken, the president of Germany, and an exhibit about Otto IV.  It was very interesting AND fun.  We also went to Starbucks which was delicious.  After a busy day in Braunshweig, we went back to Celle, and rested.  Later that night, Tabea and I went to a party where I met lots of Tabea's friends and even made some friends myself.  I got invited to lots more parties, and had an overall great time.  At about 1, we went back to the Flick's house, and went to bed.  The next morning, I slept in until 1130 and it was so nice.  When I finally woke up, we had breakfast, and then 1.5 hours later, we had lunch.  After lunch, Gitti showed me some pictures of vacations and such, and I showed her some pictures of our family vacations.  It was good to catch up.  At about 2, Gitti drove me to the train station, and I went back to Hildesheim.  Once arriving in Hildesheim, the Schiedecks took me to a Handball match.  This was a very fun and different experience.  Uwe's company sponsors the city's handball team, so he has seats in the VIP section, which means free drinks and free food.  It was very nice.  After a very intense game, Hildesheim won, and we went home, and played a board game as a family, a great bonding experience.  After playing the game, we all went to bed.

The next weekend was also very fun.  On Friday, I had dance class again, which was fun like always.  We learned the dances: Jive, Salsa, Waltz, Rumba, Disco Fox.  On Saturday, I had a Rotex day in Hamburg in the north of Germany.  It is a beautiful city that is know for its big port and upper class people.  We arrived at around noon and immediately took a tour of the city, seeing the important land marks and buildings.  It was a very very beautiful city that I wouldn't mind living in.  Apparently it is called the Venice of Germany.  After a few hours of looking around the city, we went on a boat ride in the harbor and saw all the boats and barges and cranes, and such.  It really was not very nice looking.  Most of what we saw was just cargo and big boxes.  Nothing really nice.  After an hour on the boat, we we allowed 1.5 hours of free time to wander around the city.  I hung out with some people from America, and we just walked around and talked about our lives in Germany.  It was fun.  After our freetime was over, we got back on a train, and returned to Hannover.  This was probably the most fun part of the day.  There were no free seats on the train, so a bunch of people were standing by the doors, and just talking and hanging out, having a grand old time.  The train ride was 2 hours long, and by the time we arrived in Hannover, we were all pretty tired.  Once in Hannover, we all said our goodbyes, and got on our respected trains.  The next day, My host mom and sister took me to a city called Hameln, which is 42 kilometers from where I live.  Hameln is a spectacular old city that is known for one thing:  Der Rattenfänger.  This is a story about Hameln, and you can buy this story at any shop in the city.  Here is what the story is about:  There is a big infestation of rats in Hameln, and they are eating all of the food, so the mayor calls in the Rattenfänger to get rid of the rats.  He is told that if he gets rid of every rat, that he will get money.  So, he plays his flute, and leads all of the rats into the fiver that Hameln is located on, where all the rats drown.  So, he goes to the mayor and asks him for his money, but the mayor doesn't give it to him.  So he leaves the city, angry.  But one day, he comes back, and plays his flute again.  This time, he leads all of the children into the forest, and leaves them there, where they die, just because the mayor didn't pay him for dealing with the rats.  And that right there is what the city is based on, and all it is known for.  After walking around for a while, we went to a restaurant that was built in 1620, and had some delicious crepe like things.  Mine had mushrooms and cheese, and was delectable.  After lunch, we went to the river, where we took a boat tour.  It was a pretty river, but the boat ride was somewhat boring.  It was just an hour long ride down the river a ways, and then back the same exact route.  Not very much variety.  After the boat tour, we returned backed to Hildesheim.  

 

I am sorry that I haven't written in a while, but it is because I have been so busy with life! The last week and a half have been really stressful and busy due to online school, real school, and just life and general.  As usual, the Monday-Thursday after the Hannover weekend were pretty average.  It's weird how I don't really feel like a guest anymore.  The original honeymoon period has settled, and I feel like just any other family member.  After a relatively boring week of school, I went to Walsrode for a Rotary weekend.  I had known about Walsrode before, because Beate, my host mom is from there.  Anyways, after 1.5 hours on a slow train, I arrived at the Walsrode train station and was greeted by Herr Fischer, my host dad for the weekend.  The ride back to his house was extremely awkward due to the fact that it was just him and me, and he kept on speaking German to me, most of which I didn't understand.  I tried to take the easy route and say yes to everything he asked me, but it didn't work out so well when he asked me to repeat what he said.  When I admitted that I had no idea what he was talking about, he gave up and spoke English.  After about 20 minutes, we arrived at a beautiful ivy covered brick house on a big piece of land with fields and horses all around it.  I have to admit, Walsrode is much prettier that Hildesheim.  Once we got to the house, I unpacked, and awkwardly walked around the kitchen until we sat down with the host mom for some sugar cake and tea. My favorite!  2 glasses of tea and 4 pieces of cake later, we got ready and left for the rotary event that night.  Since my host dad was in rotary, we had to get there 2 hours early to help set up. Luckily, more exchange students arrived soon after, providing me with an excuse for not cleaning the dust and cobwebs off the benches and chairs that hadn't been used in what seemed like decades.  After about an hour of standing in a nice garden freezing our tails off, the "Party" started.  Once everyone had been sitting down for what seemed like eternity, we were finally allowed to eat.  At first glance, the paella wannabe might have looked good, but once you tried it, it was awful.  Unfortunately, the "paella" and stale pita was all there was to eat.  I went hungry that night.  After dinner was when the really party started.  The 50 year old DJ put on some Black Eyed Peas to get everyone pumped up, hoping that people would dance.  It worked, and there were a select few that did go to the open area and start to dance, but I wasn't one of them.  I did not dance the entire night due to the fact that there were rotarians sitting in the back of the barn which we were in, just watching all the kids dance.  It was awkward and strange, and I would take no part in it.  Luckily, there were some other kids that were turned off from the idea of dancing/grinding to rap songs in front of old men rotarians, so I hung out with them.  A little while into the disco, Breanna from Ohio and Stina from Wisconsin and I decided to go for a walk.  We hadn't gone 200 yards when we ran into a most peculiar animal. There was a hedgehog just chillin in the middle of the street.  It scurried away quickly, but luckily, we caught up to it, and were able to get lots of pictures with it.  After we felt that we had scared the hedgehog enough, we went back to the barn to watch people dancing.  After the disco ended, we went back to our respected homes, and went to bed.  

The next morning, I woke up to a wonderful breakfast of scrambled eggs, brötchens and Nesquik.  This pleased me quite a bit.  it was the first time that I had had scrambled eggs since my arrival here, and they were quite good.  Not nearly as good as my mom's back home, but they were acceptable.  After a nice breakfast, we got in the car, and my host dad drove me to the bus stop where we met up with other exchange students.  10 minutes later, we got into the bus, and drove for about an hour to sudsee camp, south lake camp.  It was raining at this point, and very cold.  We reluctantly got off the bus, but once we finally did, we found a dry spot to stay on a porch by a restaurant.  After waiting around for a while, we were shuttled to a tent in a strange tractor like vehicle that "every kid in Europe has to ride once in their life." So, since we fit the bill, we got to ride it.  After a cold rainy ride, we arrived at a tent where we played games for a while, and learned a strange Spanish song.  The lyrics are as follows: Cow, Cow, The same cow.  And thats the whole song.  Once we learned and rehearsed the dance for a good 20 minutes, we left the tent, and went to a room to eat lunch.  We had rolls with tomato soup and fruit.  It was surprisingly delicious!  Once we filled up on bread, soup and cake, we left the room, and walked on the lake's beach to a big field where we did team building activities....and archery. The archery was fun, but the team building part was kind of lame.  We had to put everyone through a net type thing, without touching the rope.  It's hard to explain, but it's very difficult.  Since Stina and I were opposed to going through nets, we borrowed some BMX bikes, and rode them around a dirt track with hills and jumps.  In my opinion, it was astronomically more fun than the net.  Once everyone passed through the net, we went back to the room, where everyone decided what they wanted to do.  The options were to play soccer, swim, or just hang out.  All the South Americans played soccer, and a few people swam, but most people hung out on the beach, myself included.  After about 2 hours of free time, we went back to the eating room, and had a wonderful BBQ.  After everyone finished eating, the lights went out, and the "disco" started.  I took part in this disco because the rotarians were not there to watch. About an hour into the disco, everyone had cleared the room and had gone to the beach, where we all sat and talked.  It was nice.  At 10, it was time to leave, so we hopped on the bus, and went back home for the night.  

The next morning, I woke up to more scrambled eggs and brotchens, always good.  After a nice fulfilling breakfast, I got all packed up, and left with my host parents to go to the horse stable. It was a very nice stable on a very big piece of land.  There were about 100 horses roaming around in a field eating grass, most of them being warm blood Hannoverians.  We had brought an apple for their horse, a very beautiful brown one with white on its nose.  After the horse ate its scrumptious apple, we headed out for yet another barn, which the rotary meeting was to be held in.  When we got there, the Walsrode Rotary Club president gave a very strange speech to us, and then we went outside to practice the cow dance.  After 2 practice rounds, everyone came outside and watched us embarrass ourselves.  Once the song was finally over, we went inside and had a nice lunch of sausage.  After lunch, we all packed up our stuff, and went to the train station.  The train ride was very long, but luckily, all the other exchange students were on it. Also, one of the Mexican girls gave me what seemed like a nice watermellon lollipop, but oh was I wrong.  In the middle was a special surprise...CHILI POWDER.  No joke, the Mexicans LOVE chili powder.  I had to throw it out though due to the sores that were forming in my mouth.  After a long hour, we arrived in Hannover, where I caught a train back to Hildesheim. Uwe picked me up, and then drove me back to the house, where I went into my room and took a nap.  Later, we had dinner, and then went to bed.  

So, I have decided that I will not be writing about Monday-Thursday, because nothing ever happens during those days.  BUT, if something worth writing about does come up, believe me, I will post it.  Gute Nacht meine Freunde.  Pictures will be added soon. Don't worry, or as the Germans say, "Don't care"