Weekly Post #3

Hey everybody!

So sorry for writing a bit late. I was so busy moving from Warendorf to Dortmund that I didnt have time for my weekly update. I have arrived safely to Dortmund and I am now bringing you my weekly update (I will still only go until friday to stay on track). I hope everybody had an awesome week and is having a fun relaxing weekend.

16 August 2014:

On Saturday our little band of Warendorf Americans ventured to Münster. We hopped on the train for thirty minutes to Münster. When we got there Lina (hey Lina!) gave us each a landmark to leas the group to. I went first and found a church. This wasnt too difficult given the conveniently placed maps around the city. One of the churches we saw had three cages at the top of its tower. In the middle ages leaders of rebellions would be put up into the cages to die. (Pretty gruesome right?) We visited another church down the street which had a courtyard. The corridors surrounding the courtyard looked exactly like those of Hogwarts. Needless to say I 100% geeked out. We grabbed some stuff to eat at the farmers market right outside the church and headed over to one of the palace lawns to eat. Afterwards Venessa, Alberto  (both are Mexican exchange students), Alison, Liam, Sean, Meggie, James, Lisa (the German event planner), and I went to the C&A to try on dyrndels (I know thats spelled wrong) and lederhosen. Alberto had never heard of lederhosen before so he ended up tying the suspenders behindbhis neck and used my belt to keep them from falling down. This was probably the funniest thing I have ever seen. That night Warendorf had a Maria Himmel fahrt celebration. This is a celebration in honor of Mother Mary. They parade the Madonna through the innstatt after dark. My family and I went after everything was dark. It was just amazing. There were lit orange lanterns criss crossing across all of the streets and all of the store windows had special displays about Mary and the Maria Himmel fahrt. There were also nine beautiful arches dedicated to the Mother Mary.

17 August 2014

On sunday my host uncle, aunt, and grandpa took me and Geva to two castles. The first was completely round and surrounded by a moat. This schloss (castle) was pretty interesting. Even though it looked cicular on the outside the inside was completely hollowed out to make a court yard. I believe this schloss was used more for protection than it was comfort. The second schloss we went to was the exact opposite. This castle was so huge that it was actually turned into a university. This one had horse pastures on the side many forest walks and a huge garden with a pond on the back. The garden had many statues of animals and people. The castle was made completely out of brick which made it look even bigger anf more grand. Afterwards we we ent into Münster to have dinner and ice cream.

18 August 2014

On monday I began my last week of the OLC schooling. In school we learned about what Germans do in their free time and how history affects all the cultures around us. Monday was also Liams birthday so we sung to him in German and English. Later at lunch the Mexican exchanges also sang to him in Spanish. School ended at lunch today and we had some time to kill before Liam's birthday party. We hiked all the way over to the D&M (like a walgreens) and then found Anna's school in Warendorf. By the time we finished it was about time to head over to the bus. We arrived at Liam's aunts house and there were so many gifts on the table. We all thought this was absolutely amazing because half of these people had never met Liam before and those who had, had only known him for 2 weeks. Liam opened his presents, he opened the one from all of the Americans last and it turned out to be one of his favorites. We all pitched in to get him the german collectors edition of the Hunger Games. His face was absolutely priceless. After that we ate cake and all went for a walk. On our walk we found a playground with a mini zipline which we all played on for about half an hour until it started to rain. It only rained for 5 minutes but we were already on our way. By the time we got out of a short wooded area the rain had stopped and the sun was shining through. We saw a double rainbow and all freaked out because it was so special. Of course we then had to take a picture underneith it. I hope this was a super awesome birthday for Liam.

21 August 2014

Thursday was our last day with our culture teacher, Lina. We spent most of the day with her. We talked about what we had done in the past 3 weeks of clas, what we wanted to take with us, what we wanted to leave behind, and we wrote letters to eachother. In the afternoon we went to James' house to prepare for our going away party. We prepared The Cup Song, bought flowers, and made special gifts for each of the teachers and Lisa. We all ended up really sad when it was time to leave but I know I will see every one of them again.

22 August 2014

Friday was my last official day in OLC Warendorf class. We spent the day playing games, making a scrapbook for Lisa, and laughing. We got out after lunch and were invited to go horseback riding with Liam's family. We rode around on horses and watched his little cousin run around with the little Shetland pony (by far the cutest thing I have ever seen). By the time 4pm rolled around we were all done. This was time to say goodbye to everybody. We all promised to meet eachother in München for the winter YFU meeting. Even though I know I will see them again it was a sad event and I will really miss all of them. When I got home some of the family friends came over and we did mini grilling in the house which was super fun. We stayed up until 1am laughing and talking.

Zukunft:

On saturday I will say goodbye to my Warendorf family and begin my year long adventure with my Dortmund family. I am so glad for these past few weeks. I have gotten to know so many wonderful people who I will never forget. I have gotten to meet my Warendorf family, Dana and Geva, and my OLC teacher and classmates. I want to thank them for all they have done for me and I hope to see them in the future. I look forward to begining school in Dortmund with my new sister, Hannah. I know I will have an amazing time in Dortmund with my whole family.

Thanks for reading!

Sandra