just some stuff

I realized I haven't updated my situation in a while.

So for the first couple of months, I stayed with a Welcome Family in Seevetal, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony). There are different reasons as to why one stays with a Welcome Family. Some families don't know if they can commit a whole year to hosting so they want to try it out for a couple months, and in my case, the organization just needed a little more time to find me a permanent host family. As much as I loved living with Brigitte, I had no problem with switching because I knew it just meant a new adventure for me.

Ok, packing all my shit was a bit of a nuisance, but I managed to get everything together. I moved in with Family Storbeck on December 5th. We live in the "marshlands", in a part of Hamburg called Bergedorf. If you look on a map, I'm pretty much directly across the river Elbe from where I lived before.

My new family consists of my host parents: Aurelia and Rainer, and my 2 little host sisters: Kaja and Scharija. We also have a lovely cat named Emmi, who enjoys sweets and scratching on the furniture when no one's around. Kaja and Scharija are 12 and 10, respectively. As the youngest child and only girl of my family, suddenly having two younger sisters was definitely different for me.

It's really weird being the older sister and the exchange student simultaneously. At times I feel I have a responsibility with my sisters. I help Kaja with homework and let her vent about school and normal pre-teen problems. I play with Scharija and teach her how to put on makeup. At other times, I need them to explain things to me multiple times and follow them around the house because I have no idea what to do with myself. But I've been here almost 2 months and really feel at home. My family taught me how to build a snowman, brought me to see Rocky: The Musical, and take the time to make sure I understand important concepts such as the proper way to cook Spaghetti Tacos or gently kick a cat when she's filing her claws on the sofa.

I also switched schools, which was a little bit heartbreaking. I loved Gymnasium Hittfeld and my friends there. The school was situated on a hill in the middle of Kuhdorf and one of my favorite things to do in class (besides paying attention and being on task, of course) was looking out the window and seeing miles and miles of trees and little cottage-esque houses.

My new school is Gymnasium Lohbrügge and resembles my high school in California a lot more. The kids in Hamburg are a lot more "street", for lack of a better word. As tradition on the last day of school before Winter Break, a majority of the school crammed themselves into the main hallway and sang Christmas Carols. It was all incredibly wholesome, there were many a drunk and we moshed to Jingle Bells and Gloria. Afterwards there was a small "Parking Lot Party".

List of Other Cool Stuff I Did

• went to Italy with my uncle and his friend, saw the Statue of David (from every angle possible) and almost had a heart attack climbing the Duomo
• stayed in Copenhagen on a 2 hour layover and ate a 15 dollar chicken sandwich
• visited Hannah Montana and acquired several bruises from a round of tractor sledding
• spontaneously met other students from Argentina and Australia at the train station
• watched Pitch Perfect in German and understand things
• joined a 5th grade German class
• THIS