Sachsen Here I come!!!

So I know my host-family now...


Suffice it to say that I'm very excited.

I mean, I've always known that I'd be going to Germany for the year, and have a vague idea of what I'd do there. But this combined with a great YFU National Orientation (go Green Group) last weekend has finally made it feel really really real.

But I guess it should, after all I only have
22 MORE DAYS!!!!!!!!!!

I've begun packing up my room so my little sister can steal it from me, and I'm setting up my $ and Cell situation for over there.

I'm going to live in Kurort-Hartha, Sachsen (Saxony). It's a small town right on the edge of Tharandter Hochwald (historical foresty place) just outside of the State's capital city Dresden.

My two host parents, Heidi and Jürgen, are retired, and they have three small dogs and a cat, SOUNDS GREAT!!!

Honestly I hadn't formed any expectations about what type of host family I'd get, and now that I know that, I still don't know what they're like. But from their email, and from the fact that they volunteered to host me, I'm very excited to get to know them.

I'm wrapping up now, but just as a future qualifier to readers (THANKS FOR READING BTW), I don't plan on being super detailed with this blog as a rule because I want to avoid making broad cultural assumptions or comparisons, or having readers think that I am. This is the main thing I took away from my orientation. I plan on posting at least every other week, or if something interesting happens.

Thanks for reading, once more in the USA, and then in Deutschland.

15 Mile Walks, Rosettas, Open Mics, and Dandelions

Well, Summer has been wonderful so far.


I did a 15.5 Mile walk from my house all the way to the loop last Thursday! My feet are killing me, but totally fun adventure and I got too see really cool parts of the city that I would never have normally seen.
Saw book of Mormon, went to Bea's graduation party. Just did open mic night at Linz & Vail, I've been practicing making latte art, hopefully i'll build some muscle-memory by the end of the summer. I'm house-sitting, and also trying to make time to practice speed-reading.

I AM NOT BORED
      (Maybe it's because my little sister Meg left for camp yesterday and I miss her!)

In terms of German stuff, I'm just watching lot's of ZDFtivi programs, they have lots of full kid's shows online to stream.

My favorite is "Löwenzahn", literally Lionstooth, which is german for Dandelion. It's pretty educational and deals with a different theme each time. 

The next exchange relating thing I have is my overnight orientation in Wheaton of all places.

Now? I'm watching Star Trek Next Generation because I'm just that cool.

Thanks for reading.

Fun Encounter at Work

Here's a short post:

So yesterday I was working at Linz and Vail, I'm getting much more comfortable with it and I even locked up by my self!

Anyway I was working and a big group of like 8 people, like 5 kids and three adults comes in. And the mom starts ordering Gelato with an accent, and then she asks the kids in german what they want. I then proceed to respond to their order in German like it's no big deal, and everyone loves it. I asked what they were doing in Evanston, and they answered but I couldn't quite understand it. Then the Mom asked where I was from, which leads me to believe that she thought I was from Germany and was in fact a native German speaker! I'm sure if I talked to them for more than a minute they could easily tell that my German was lacking alot, but still!

This absolutely made my day, and made me feel way more confident with my German skills. Hopefully I'll find more chances to practice German before I go. If I keep up listening to German kid's TV and looking up the words I don't know I might end up learning more German this summer than all Senior year.

'till next time! :D

Countdown to Germany Begins!

Working at Linz and Vail for the summer! Coffee and Gelato, I've always wanted to learn to be a Barista!


Well this Saturday I had the first of several orientations for YFU Germany.

-btw I got rejected from University of Chicago's wait-list finally, still need to defer from Macalester though.

But back to the Orientation:
It was really great getting to meet other foreign exchange kids, and meet some students from abroad currently on exchange in the US.
Fortunately my friend Naomi showed up, I had no idea she was going to Uruguay, and it was really nice having someone else in the room that I knew.

We talked about general, non country specific, issues, like culture shock, and dealing with general issues like meeting people, dealing with school, and getting along with different structures of Host families.

I met some really nice people, and this guy Ashi who is going with CBYX (jealous), hopefully a lot of us will all meet up when we're there, but then again I don't want to be that American who only hangs out with other American Exchange students.

I'm also getting interviewed by the Evanstonian, my HS newspaper, about my gap year. Which should be fun.

School Stuff coming up: Prom!!! Final AP test (in German), and two awards for Environmental Science and Calculus.

Overall, I'm getting "excited to be terrified" about the whole thing, I definitely need to spend some time studying German and watching some German TV shows over the summer to help prep my listening.

Right now? Coming down from a contact Caffeine high from work and reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Bis Später!!

YFU -Germany!

I'm happy to announce that I've been accepted to study abroad in Germany for a year as part of a YFU (youth for understanding) gap year program! There was almost a cancellation due to a possible age restriction, but it was worked out, that's why there's been such a lag in posts. I've also decided to accept to Macalester College and defer, so class of 2018! It's such a good feeling to know what you'll be doing for the next five years. This blog is meant to be mostly about my gap year stuff.

Here's what I know so far about my gap year:

• I'll be in Germany....  idk where yet or who my host family will be.
• I'll leave mid August-ish and get back summer 2014 sometime.
• I'll be going to a Gymnasium most likely, that's a higher level public high school which has a weekly schedule like a university. Idk what grade though, some schools have a 13th grade, but I'll probably be in a lower grade because I will be focusing more on language comprehension than on keeping up with school-work. I also would want to do an Abitur, which is sort-of an apprenticeship thing, not really sure.
• That's it.

I'm incredibly excited to go on this adventure, I will definitely be blogging about the food, stuff i'm doing, places i'm visiting, the people I meet, and what It's like living here, and of course the fun/weird and subtle stuff I notice.

. 

Schlaf, Ich brauche dich.

Thanks Obama: Click to learn about the Obama administration's efforts to protect the environment. Or Derps. I had no idea that Barry O was so derpy

Here's a link to my final creation, the reason I had to stop blogging last night, feels like so long ago, probably because I'm running on 2.5 hours of sleep.

My Psych textbook

They had no way of knowing. It's better than my dad who buys these energy bar stroopwafels which still have his endorsement on them. #Philmontsnacks