Weekly Post #20

Hey everybody!

So sorry this post is coming a day late, I kept thinking yesterday was saturday. It was just one of those days. Sadly I also don't have much to report on this week either because I was sick again. I have been sick three times in four weeks. I am really done with being sick. I have heard some of the other exchange students are also getting sick more than normal. Hopefully it's not just me. The road to recovery is going fairly quickly, I hope to be better to enjoy all Christmas has to offer here. Thus I do not have much to report on this week. I will report up until sunday because of it.

13. December 2014:

Saturday was my mom's birthday. She also has a twin sister, so we went over to Verana's for lunch. I got to walk their huge dog Leo. Everytime Leo sees me he runs up to me and buries his head in my lap. I took Leo for a walk through the neighborhood. Verana lives in a neighborhood with hills and a bit of farm land. It is really beautiful. It has been raining a lot lately, so the path that I take him on was muddy. Germans have a dislike for dirty shoes. I see dirty shoes as somebody with adventures. I should probably try to keep my shoes more clean in the future. We celebrated my mom's birthday that night in the basement, a ton of people came over. It was fun but that was the day I started getting sick, so I turned in early.

15.+16. Decemeber 2014:

On Monday and Tuesday my brother, mom and I were all sick. We took a huge materess and put it downstairs in the living room. That was really fun and made being sick a bit less terrible. We all went to the doctor and got medicine. Luckily we all had the same cold so we really couldn't get each other any more sick than we already were.

19. December 2014:

On Friday I went to see a doctor again. My cold had progressed. I had no voice and it hurt to talk or eat, I was also not catching our family cat. This would be the first day to my permenant recovery.

20. December 2014:

On Saturday I felt two times less sick than before. Although my voice has not completely returned I can eat and sleep now. Today was also Natalya's birthday. I got to talk with almost my whole family. Kimblerly, Natalya's friend, told me she was replacing me. Kimberly is always keeping things real. I got to talk to my nana and mom too. It was nice to talk to everybody over there too. I guess when I talk with them I start mixing up my words without even knowing it. They pointed one out to me. I would have never known I said it poorly. I think that is so cool. YFU warned us that we would feel more homesick around the holidays. I wouldn't say I feel homesick, but the traditions here are somewhat different than the ones at home. There is no snow on the ground and it is raining all the time. Having a small brother who believes in Santa makes things more tricky because I haven't had to live with that for several years now. But it is Christmas in Dortmund. That night I started to catch Puppi, the cat, again. As I came back into the living room with her my dad said, "She's healthy again!" That's my thing, I am the master cat catcher.

21. December 2014:

On Sunday I felt even better. We went to visit Katja in the evening. When we got home Justus went straight to bed and we were able to wrap his presents. I was never really been a good present wrapper. Im more of a bag person. This year I love to wrap presents. I have no idea where it came from, hopefully my new talent stays.

Merry Christmas

Sandra