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"