Over the past few months, a lot has happened. From a not so thankful Thanksgiving to switching to my third host family, my life has been quite full. I switched host families on December 3 to the Tebbenjohanns, a family of 6, living in Heinde. It was made up of 2 parents, Marrietta and Jürgen, 2 girls, Emilia and Pauline, 2 boys, Felix and Laurenz, and me. They had a big house, and something was always happening. At first, the family was always nice to me. They included me in everything they did, whether it be playing poker, or dancing to poker face in the club. I really liked this family a lot, and was really happy. During Christmas time, life was also good. One cool part about it was buying the tree. Jürgen, Pauline and I went to this forest somewhere, and looked at all these Christmas trees. We then put a tag on the tree, told the people how tall we wanted it to be, and then got it delivered a few weeks later. It was definitely an experience that I won't forget. On December 24th, we went to church at night, which was okay (not great) and then went home to eat a nice dinner of fish and rice. Although I thought it was disgusting, my family loved it, so I decided to play along. After dinner, we went into the living room, and saw all of the presents. They were arranged in stacks accoriding to the person. Another thing that is different in Germany is the lights on the Christmas tree. Due to the huge spaces between the branches, it is safe to put candles on the tree instead of glass lights. And this year, only one house burned down in Heinde!! Back to the presents. From the Tebbenjohanns, I recieved a wool scarf, a nice button down shirt, and a 25€ gift certificate to itunes. Too bad it doesn't work with my American account. I also got Uggs from my parents, lots of shirts, fudge, and socks. All things that I needed. And, I got a wonderful blue wool sweater from Anna! After opening all of the presents, we sang Christmas carols together, and then ate Christmas cookies. It was a truly fun day. The next day, the 25th, a bunch of family members came over, 25 to be exact. We all celebrated, had big meals, sang songs, and just hung out. It was like a family reunion. The celebrations went on until the new year. On NYE, I went with my host family to a party in Heinde, at my families best friends house. After a wonderful meal of roast beef, pork, potatoes and salad, we played charades and shot off fireworks until 3 in the morning! It was a lot of fun.

The next day, January 2, I got on my train and traveled to Oberstdorf, a ski village in southern Germany. It is a beautiful town known for hiking, skiing, and ski jumping. The Alps were in every direction, and it was simply breath taking. I met up with my dad's friend, who have a place there. For the following three days, I went skiing with a ski school, since the friends that were hosting me, were too old to ski. Although I had to stay in a group with other people the whole day, it was still a lot of fun. The first day, I went to a moutain that was only Intermediate slopes. I thought to myself, in West Virginia and North Carolina, I only go down intermediate slopes, so it will be no problem in the Alps. Boy was I wrong. The slopes were extremely steep, and I fell about every 5 minutes. By the end of the day, my whole body hurt so much that it hurt to walk, sit, move, etc. The next day was much better. I went to another mountain with anohter group of people, and it was so much better. I didn't fall nearly as much, and I actually had fun. The next day, I was moved to yet another group, because apparently my skills weren't good enough to stay in the middle group either, even though I thought they were. Although I would have liked more of a challenge, I was happy when the instructor told me I was the best one in the group. After 3 days of skiing, my body was about dead, and I went back to Hildesheim on the 6th. The next day, I had school. Before Christmas break, I was in the 10th grade, but due to my lack of interest, I switched to the 11th grade, where the classes aren't with all the same people, but instead somewhat like America.