Weekly Post #4

Hey everybody!

Boy has my week flown by! I can't believe it's friday again. I hope your week has been just as enjoyable as mine. It's friday for the fourth time so that means a fourth update. I hope you guys are ready, because my week was just packed. I also appologize in advance for any word choices that aren't the best I have already been forgetting some words in English.

23. August 2014:

Saturday was my last day in Warendorf. My Warendorf family and I tried to go to the innstatt for a last hurrah, but murphy's law kicked in. It rained all morning just until it was too late to make it worth it. Instead Geva and I made a Seepferdchen (seahorse) out of beads. I also gave my mom the picture of me and Geva in front of one of the castles we visited the week before. Needless to say I was pretty sad to be leaving all of my new friends and family in Warendorf. But I knew I had a new family and more friends waiting for me in Dortmund. My Dortmund family came for me at about 2 pm, and my Warendorf family and I said goodbye with a couple of tears in our eyes. We drove about an hour and 30 minutes to my new home in Dortmund. On the way my brother woke up from his nap. I have wanted a brother my whole life (no offense Katerina and Natalya I still love you both!). Even though I had to wait 18 years it was totally worth it. He is so cute and easy to understand. I love goofing around and plying with him. When we arrived at my home my sister, Hannah was waiting for us. She is really sweet and I can't wait to get to know her more. My new house is so beautiful. I have a room of my own and we have a gorgeous backyard with a trampoline. That evening a Dortmund soccer game was on. Some neighbors and friends came over to watch it with us. Sadly they lost 2-0. The spirit of the Dortmund soccer team fans is comparable to that of the Packers. Afterwards my family and I were flipping through music and I found out my dad and I both like bands like Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys, and Arctic Fire. I thought that was pretty cool.

24. August 2014:

Sunday was my first full day in Dortmund. I learned at breatfast that morning that holunder vanilla marmelade is my favorite marmelade. We also had brot, meat, and bubbly water. After breakfast my mom, brother, and I made an apple, cherry kuchen. (It was pretty different from the ones dad makes in America) Later on in the day my host family came to visit. We ate kuchen, talked and played games. My host aunt even brought her dog which I got to sit and pet for awhile. After everybody went home I tried to teach my parents about american football. But it was a pretty bad match up even for the preseason so it wasn't that interesting, even for me.

25. August 2014:

On monday my mom and I dropped my brother off at kindergarten. He was so excited to introduce me to everybody at his kindergarten. It was really sweet. Afterwards my mom and I had to go to the innstatt to get me to be a registered German. Unfortunatly we were unable to do so, instead we ended up walking around the innstatt. Dortmund's innstatt is very different than Warendorf's. From what I saw in Dortmund many things seem to be newer than the very old innstatt of Warendorf. Afterwards we picked up my brother from kindergarten via bike. We got spaghetti ice and I got a Dortmund shirt. My mom also showed me the book store which looks really nice. When we got home my brother and I ended up having a tickle fight which I think was the silliest thing we have done so far. My mom and I made pasta for dinner. We made buttered noodles with pesto sauce.

26. August 2014:

On tuesday my mom and I went into my new school, Heinrich Heine Gymnasium, to figure out my schedule for the year. Finally after three hours I got all the details of my schedule worked out. I am in junior year with German and History as advanced classes. After all that was done we had to go back to the rathaus (city hall) to get me registered as living with my new family. Before we did that we had enough time to go to get something for lunch. We went to this one place that started with a V. It was so good I had Ratatouille, it was honsetly one of the best pastas I have ever had. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is in Dortmund. Later on after dinner my mom showed me the way to a swimming pool. I tried out for a swimming team there but it ended up to be too much of a work out schedule for my short year in Germany. Even though that didn't work out I got to learn about Dortmunds transport loop.

27. August 2014:

On wednesday I had my first day of school. This has probably been the scariest thing so far for me. I have never moved outside of my school district so this was a completely new experience for me. My first class was regligion. I sat down next to a nice group of kids. They ended up have most of the same classes with me. Luckily they were able to lead me around for the whole day. I am so glad they did because my school makes absolutely no sense. On top of that there is construction everywhere which makes it even more confusing. In the first day I had Religion, German, History, Sociology, and English. By far German was the hardest. We were analysing a book in old german, I had no clue what we were talking about at all. After school I was so exhuasted I stared at the TV for about 45 minutes until my brother came home with a friend. I ended up jumping around with them on the trampoline. That was super fun and they are really cute. I also met our backyard neighbor and his guinea pig. They both seem really sweet, I can't wait to get to know them more. For dinner we grilled out with some of the next door neighbors who were all super nice.

28. August 2014:

On thursday we started a project day. This was pretty boring because we spent four hours talking about slogans and mottos for respect. In addition I didn't have anybody from the day before in my class. Luckily this project only lasts two days. After school my mom and I went over to our next door neighbors house because it was her birthday. It was one of the nicest days since I got to Germany so we ended sitting outside the whole afternoon. After dinner my mom found a dirndl in our house and it fit me perfectly. We are already planning to go to Oktoberfest.

29. August 2014:

Today in school we made posters for the respect mottos. I ended up drawing a lot which is funny because my drawing skills are at most primative. After school (which got out yesterday and today at 1) my mom, brother, and I went to a swimming pool. It was super relaxing and I liked it, although I don't think my brother did too much because it was too cold for the outdoor slides. After dinner some neighbors, friends, and family came over to watch the Dortmund game. I got a chance to wear my Dortmund shirt, they won 2-3.

Thanks for reading!

Sandra