"But…I don't want to leave…"

Alright, so naturally after having going on vacation, one expects everything to keep better. However, with my luck, things started going a bit downhill.

So my beloved Terno family were just my Welcome Family, so naturally, I knew that I was not going to be able to stay with them for my whole exchange experience. However, I wasn't expecting to be moved into ANOTHER GERMAN STATE THAT IS MORE THAN TWO HOURS AWAY. I was hoping that at least the AFS Gods would be kind enough and hard working enough to find me a host family that was at least in the central Hessen area, if not in Marburg, than at least in Giessen but noooo, Ama has to be moved into a completely new area. So yeah, my new host family was revealed to be located in Remscheid, which is located in Nordrhein Westfalen.

What does one normally do when they find out that they have only about two weeks or so left in a town and with people that they've came to adore? I'm actually really not sure but I basically slowly began telling everyone that I was leaving and wishing that somehow I'd be magically relocated back to central Hessen one way or another. Additionally, for some reason or another, I somehow got closer to people during my final moments in Marburg…Why all of this bonding couldn't have occurred about a month earlier or so, I WILL NEVER KNOW

The most tragic yet amazing day during my final moments was obviously my last full day in school, and in Marburg as a whole. If you haven't realized from my previous post about school, I am in love with the kids in my 5th grade German class, so I got so emotional during my last lesson with them (which also ended up being the day that I had to do my presentation on The Outsiders…IN GERMAN…and when I say it was God Awful, I mean the fullest extent of AWFUL). So let's just say a tear nearly slipped out when they all said "Auf Wiedersehen" to me.

My babies :(

Now on to the evening! So literally my going away celebration was very spontaneous, Clara literally gathered all the people about 4 hours or so before. But we went out with almost all my favorite Marburg people and we did regular teenager stuff and it was basically one of the best experiences I've had here so far. 

Feli and Franzi in the background (:

So the next day Erdmuthe drove me to Remscheid, which took about 3 hours or so each way, so I was very appreciative of that because they could've easily told me to take the train. Okay so here's the thing, I'm really not an emotional person but for some reason I managed to get so attached to these people that I was very sad when I had to leave. I never actually cried because you know I'm not a crier. However when I hugged everyone before we began driving, I actually was so close to full on tears, especially when I embraced Clara and let's not get me started on my wreck of emotions when I hugged Erdmuthe for the last time before she left my new home in Remscheid. It took me about three hours to unpack because I was still trying to not burst out into tears like every 30 minutes. 

Partial view of Marburg by the Castle

Okay so now it's time to get super heart-warmy and Nicholas Sparksy! So I basically just wanna point how grateful I am for everything I got to experience while I was in Marburg. The people I encountered and built some sort of relationship with are truly one of a kind and I promise that despite the distance, I will actually always attempt to stay in touch one way or another! And a special nod to the Ternos for being an amazing family and actually treating me like one of theirs despite how at times I seemed to be reclusive, I promise it's not cause I didn't like you guys or that I felt uncomfortable, I'm just not used to the whole "family time" thing and I just second guess the actions I want to do or the things I would like to say a lot. So I'm sorry if I gave you guys the wrong impression! I know you guys read my blog so I hope you still find my technique of writing interesting! :)

Okay so song of the Post time! 

 Okay so leider, this time the song is going to be sung in English because the album that this song came from was the soundtrack playing in my head during this stage in my exchange. And I am also a sucker for Mayer, he makes me very very happy. 

So here's Slow Dancing in a Burning Room by John Mayer!

“YAY BACK IN AMSTER- darn, is it gonna rain the whole time?”

Guess who got to visit Amsterdam for the second time? THIS GAL!

So back in October, we went to Amsterdam for the first week of the Herbstferien (Clara decided not to come though). So this was my second time visiting Amsterdam, because I was there a couple of years ago. But I certainly did not remember it being that rainy when I visited years ago (granted I went before in the Summer and not the Fall). But still AMSTERDAMMM!

One the first day, we stayed at a temporary hostel because our rooms at our actual hostel weren't ready for us yet. So our temporary hostel was all the way across the city, like probably 20 blocks or so from the Amsterdam train station. But that wasn't an issue cause it was basically like going through a mini tour of Amsterdam to get to our hostel. But after settling in at our hostel, we immediately hit town and went to the Anne Frank Museum. You know how people always say the line for it is outrageously long? Yea, that's not an understatement. Pretty sure it took us nearly an hour and a half to get it. The wait was so long that we actually like took turns walking around the city to pass up time. (Amsterdam is THE city of canals, and when people say that, they're definitely not lying) But once you get in, despite the small size of the museum, I can totally say that it's worth it. It was just as awesome as the first time I went there (but I'm pretty they renovated it, like I don't remember that docu-area from my first time). But since, this all happened like four months ago, my memory is s bit fuzzy, but I'm pretty this day was one of the two days that we ate at Vapiano (If you know me, you know that I LOVE Vapiano like it's nobody's business) 

On the second day, we had to move into our actual hostel, which was on the other side of the city, closer to the Hauptbahnhof. But the location of our hostel had lots of pros and one awkward con....it was located in the Red Light District. If you don't know what that is, then you'll probably too young to be reading my posts. (Kidding, but it's the the XXX section of Amsterdam). But! Our hostel was also like located near the shopping areas and there was this AMAZING place around the corner that made THE best waffles known to man. If you ever go to Amsterdam, don't leave without eating a waffle from one of the restaurants near the Floh Markt (I think that's the name of the area, but it's near  the weighing house). So yeah, I think this was the same day that we went to the Stedelijk Museum! We all like split up and explored basically by ourselves but I'm a museum person so I was ecstatic! (I was mainly excited because I initially thought we were going to the Van Gogh Museum but still an art museum with authentic pieces is what I live for)

 

After we were finished with the museum and when we went back home, we had time to do our own individual things until the time when we agreed to have dinner. So being the person I am, I hitting the shopping area and I found a Forever 21 and I was beyond happy (there's no F21's in Germany). But on my way back to the hostel, I got sooooo lost. I ended up in the sketchy area of Amsterdam where there's barely any street lights and then when I found my way out of there, I ended up in the very red section of the Red Light District and I nearly cried cause my battery died and I was so done. But after my period of over exaggeration was done, I literally realized that I just had to cross one of the canals by the big pink elephant theater to get to the hostel. (I was later informed that this wasn't a movie theater, but rather an X rated theater, yup. innocence at it's finest)

I decided to designate a whole paragraph to the cute reception guy at the hostel. He was that cute, that he deserves a whole paragraph. He came from Texas and I'm pretty sure he said his name was Jake....or Sean....but we hit it off after he made fun of me for saying “y'all”. But he called me Jersey and I called him Texas and we could've been a Nicholas Sparks style romance if I lived in Amsterdam....*super sigh*. No but in all honesty, he was like 23, we couldn't have worked out. R.I.P. to our 2 second relationship.

Okay so my fingers are getting tired so let me sum up the rest of the trip in a couple of sentences/random words: VAPIANO x2. Did you know the original Harlem is in the Netherlands? Yeah, it is. I can fully say after biking from Amsterdam to Harlem and back, I'm not made for biking. Soo many canals. I miss Dutch waffles with Nutella and sugar.

PICTURESSS: 

 

I transformed my huge pancake into a crépe

Harlem

Summary of the rest of my Herbstferien: Surprised Sam by visiting him in Kehl. Went to Gießen to visit Molly and the Gießen kids and then again for Molly's birthday. 

SONG TIMEE:

I chose 'Meine Gang' by Cro because I just remember Ling Ling (Sam's host sister Selina) mentioned something about her and her friends making up a fake gang when they were younger and then Sam and I joked about starting our own gang. So here! Meine Gang von Cro! 

Future Overload of Posts #2

So I'm pretty sure I haven't posted since like October or something and now it's February so it's fair to say I'm awful at this but there's a lot of updates concerning my experience here!

So yeah! You guys are gonna be bombarded with a couple of posts! Sorry! (At least I warned you, right?)

"Are sweatpants really not a thing here?"

Alright, so remember how I said I was going to make a post all about school about a month ago? Yea, I finally just got around to it….SORRY. 

So, first day of school….Deutsch Schule…that was an experience...

First of all let me give you guys a run down of my initial schedule (I say initial cause we chopped and screwed when I started my language lessons so that I wouldn't be too overwhelmed with work, per se. and then I also switched out of some classes):

Mondays:

8:00-9:35: Mathematik

9:50-11:25: Deutsch 12 (it's the equivalent of English class in America)

11:50-1:15: Deutsch 6A (Because nonexistent German language skills)

13:55-15:25: Sport (Swimming! [Badminton in the second semester])

Tuesdays:

8:00-9:35: Politics 

9:50-11:25: Englisch (it's the equivalent of a foreign language class in America)

11:50-12:25: Deutsch 6A

13:55-15:25: Biologie (in English) 

Wednesdays:

8:00-9:35: Mathematik

9:50-11:25: Chemie

15:25-[I actually have no clue when it ends]: Englisch (every other week)

Thursdays:

8:00-9:35: Kunst (Art)

9:50-11:25: Deutsch 12

15:25: Politics

15:35: Biologie (in English)

Fridays:

8:00-9:35: Politics

9:50-11:25: Deutsch 6A

(So when my language classes started, I limited the number of classes down to only 4 classes [only classes I have in the morning]; Math, Deutsch 6A, English and Art.)

Alright, so first day of school. Let me first mention that I have never been "the new kid in school" since 2nd grade when I moved to Jersey, and in second grade everyone is nice and they like the new kid. With that being said, after my first day of school here, I feel for everyone that has ever been a new kid at a school during their adolescent years because it is sort of one of the worst feelings in the world (I know I'm being melodramatic, but let's not focus on my over dramatization of events, okay?). Anyway, being a new kid in a German School is 100x worse than being a new kid in an American school though. The students here have literally been going to school with the same people since 5th grade or perhaps longer, so they already have their group of friends and they're very tight knit and exclusive. So, let's time travel back a bit to the D.C preparation days: In D.C, we were kind of told that in most schools, exchange students usually have a somewhat easy time making friends because they're exchange students from a different country and that's exciting to people. Granted that we weren't told that it was easy for all but still that proved to be a big let down. [Alright, back to "present" time now]. No body at MLS was excited about "the new girl from America" because basically everybody, EVERYBODY, in Marburg has been abroad. Also, there have been lots of exchange students that have been to MLS; there's even a 'guidance counselor' that basically deals with Exchange Students. They even have an exchange program deal with an organization in Ireland and students come from Ireland each year to MLS for a while and students from MLS go to Ireland. Thus, having a new exchange student from America literally means nothing to the students here so no one "flocked over to the new student and instantly wanted to know more about where [I] came from and [my] life".

[I feel like that paragraph made me sound like I'm the type of person that expects everyone to approach me and I sound a bit spoiled or something of the sort, and I swear I'm not so, if I do, then just erase everything I said in that paragraph out of your memory, sorry]

However, not all of the German students are like cold hearted beasts. I actually meet some pretty cool people from this party that I went to during my second weekend in Marburg. I feel bad cause I think I've actually only attempted to talk to like 2 of the cool/nice people that I meet there (for instance, sorry Batur, Jasmine[I finally remembered your name!] and others, you were genuinely cool people, I'm just awkward about re-approaching people!). Also, none of the kids here wear sweatpants to school, like E V E R. In Jersey, everyone was entitled to having at least one bummy day per week where they could wear sweatpants. I live for bummy days, but I can never have a bummy day at school here and that's a bit saddening. 

But the first class on the first day isn't really a class, it's basically just an information session. and I only stayed up until the end of the first period because I had to leave and sign up for my language classes at Volkshoschule. But I did have to go to school for the rest of the day, because I came back before my second class started. When I say that I'm not cut out for these nearly 2 hour classes, I mean it. Back home, my classes are only 45 minutes long and then we have 5 minutes in between to get to the next class, which is a different subject. However, here, the classes are in total basically 1 hour and 50 minutes long, but they're broken up into 45 minute segments with 5 minutes in between. You might be thinking that it's not that bad but I'm not used to having the same subject taught back to back. Also, the stereotypical American trait that I embody is that I have a short attention span so having classes that are taught in a language that I don't understand for long periods of time is not the best time. However, I do like how I don't have the same classes every single day, it's basically like a preparation for college (especially since the German curriculum is 100x harder than the American curriculum [they're learning AP Calculus here and I have never even taken Pre-Calculus so…worst math headache ever]). Additionally, when I first heard that I could swimming as my sport course, I was instantaneously excited because I love swimming, but after my first experience of a German swimming sport class, I realized how out of shape I am after not swimming in years, and I also wish that I decided to take dance instead, I really wish I took dance instead. 

Now let's talk about my favorite classes though. Obviously English is in my top favorite classes. We're learning about America this year, so it has to be the easiest class I have ever taken. But my absolute favorite class HAS to be my German 6 class! They are so tiny and they're like little balls of utter adorableness! And they're so nice! They actually try to help me in class and they're funny and they're cool and they're just awesome; I'm sure if I was their age, they would actually be my best friends.

   

First Picture: Emily and Johanna 

Second Picture: Adrian, Emily and Johanna

Picture Time:

  

First Picture: Sofia (my liaison who also goes to MLS)

Second Picture: Lara (aka only person who actually talked to me on the first day of math)

         

Room where we had math the first day actually turned out to be the same place I have Bio. 

Alright, end of the post song:

I heard this song the first time that I went out into "the German nightlife scene" and it was stuck in my head ever since [I went the second weekend I was here]. So, here's Mindestens in 1000 Jahren by Frittenbude!

First Weekend in Germany!

I know what you're thinking, why just make a post about the first weekend in Germany? IT WAS JUST THAT IMPORTANT, OKAY.

Well, the time leading up to Germany, I was very non-chalant about the whole thing, I feel as though I was the least nervous or hyped up the whole trip. But once I got on the plane, it all got very real! I began vigorously texting all my friends and family that the plane was about to take off and that I would to contact them with that number anymore. I was trying to do all of this before I lost signal and my thumbs have never moved quicker! However, I was seated next to the best flight-mates ever (Shout out to Sam and Audrey!) We were that cool that we synchronized our flight tvs so that we would be watching the same episode of Big Bang Theory at the same time and we shared some Godiva chocolate (They ran out of Toblerone, which still sounds very ludicrous to me!)

So, we basically time traveled! We left D.C at around 5 or 6 pm and we got to Germany at about 7 in the morning and it was only an 7 or 8 hour plane ride! So I basically slept for 15 minutes on the plane so I was a bit tired when we got to Germany but I wasn't going to let my new family know that! But when we finally got into our meeting area in the airport, some people saw their family and I was confused and sad cause my family said they were gonna be there but I didn't see them, so yet again I felt like an orphan….UNTIL we went up the escalator and I saw my family!!

Luckily, they didn't take me exploring as soon as we got there! They gave me about 3 hours to rest cause we did not get home until about 10am or so (They were actually waiting at the airport for 2 hours or more before we came out….) However, we basically went on a tour of Marburg (the city area). We took the bus and Christoph (mein Gastvater) gave me my bus card so that I don't have to pay for any bus tickets for the rest of the year. We first went to the Martin-Luther Schule (the school that I'll be attending with meine Gastschwester, Clara. Then they showed me where I would be taking my language lessons (I begin on Monday, finally!!), it's actually down the street from mein Schule. Then we went to St. Elizabeth's Church. IT'S SO BIG! We actually accidentally sort of crashed a wedding that was taking place there...

             

Afterwards, we meet up again with meine andere Gastschwester, Flora, who went off before to buy new shoes form H&M (I will talk about the wonderful H&M store here in a later post!). We then went to get some Eis because they love ice cream (I ate some before I had the bright idea to take a picture…oops...). Flora then left to go hang out with her boyfriend and we walked up this really big hill to go see the castle (There was actually a really nice view from the top of the castle area. 

                     

Clara, left afterwards because she had to go to work (she works at a café! #DreamJob) So then we wrapped up the day by eating something….I can't remember what it was but I know it was Italian…..sorry guys...

Alright, so Sunday! On Sunday we took a tour of the neighborhood. There's a lot of farms in different areas of towns but we only went into one farm. Being from a town that's nowhere near farms, I was actually really excited. So we first went into the pigs area and I was excited at first because I thought the pigs would like me because I don't eat bacon and pork stuff but nope. I have never been more scared in my life. PIGS ARE TERRIFYING! I took a step in and I just heard pig screams and I almost cried and I'm pretty sure I squealed with every step I took into their stable (barn? pig-stye? room?)

Scary scary Pigs

Then we saw the cows afterwards and we went around more. There was another ice cream store and we stopped for ice cream there also (I didn't get any because you know, ice cream two days in a row speeds up the typical exchange student weight gain process….) Yea, so we ended up back home and ate some Italian meals….yet again…I can't remember what it was for the life of me…I'm so sorry! 

However, I ended my day picking out classes for my timetable with Christoph and then we played a board game. Sorry, that probably sounds really boring but….I can't remember much from that weekend….sorry y'all! 

End of Post song: Prayer in C

The song is extremely popular in Germany right now, or at least it's popular in the places that I go to. For instance I went to H&M and this song was played twice in the 30 minute period that I was there, it's crazy. But it's a pretty good song! 

"Is there a high chance that we'll bump into President Obama on the way to the Bathroom"?

So the road to Germany continued with the Gateway Orientation in D.C. 

So being from New Jersey, there really was no point in me taking a plane to D.C when it was literally a 4 hour drive from NJ to DC. However, this trip was not all rainbows and ice cream, ESPECIALLY SINCE I WAS IN A CAR WITH LEATHER SEATS DURING 90 DEGREE WEATHER. It was so unbearable especially since the air conditioning stopped working half way through the trip, GET IT TOGETHER BMW. 

Any who, when we finally got to D.C., they told us that we could go into the lobby area and say our goodbyes, so being the unemotional type, it was like "business" type of goodbye (SORRY MOM!) (I really suck at goodbyes, I'm too awkward about it). But the girl next to me who was saying good bye to her family was crying and everything and I looked at my mom and my eyes basically said "Should I cry or are we good?" and her eyes basically said "We're fine". Then we took selfies and hugged and all of that good stuff and I went up to my room. When I went to join everyone else in the salon, they were all like in this huge circle and like they looked like they were all close already and it was actually pretty intimidating. But yeah, we did the whole name circle thing and we tried to play a game about secrets but that only lasted for like 3 people and then like everyone decided to break up in the groups of what area we would be going to. I met some pretty awesome people in that group!

So basically the whole time in D.C was full of information meetings about prepping us for being Ambassadors in Germany and our congressional meetings. We began our D.C day by visiting the Lincoln Monument, but we couldn't stay for that long because there was lots of traffic and we had to be at the Department of State office soon.

CBYX 2014-2014 Ambassadors!

So my congressman wasn't in his office that week; it was just our luck that when he was gonna be in Jersey, we were gonna be in D.C. We meet with one of his representatives, Michael Taggart though, who is also from Jersey! He was actually one of the coolest and down to earth type of person ever, and he was a bit funny. It felt more like a conversation instead of a meeting. After the meeting, we had a bit of time until we had to meet back up at the train station, so we walked around a bit (by a bit, I mean we looked at the buildings on the way back to the train station). 

                 

Now on to the AFS/CBYX specific informational meetings. Let me tell you about the coolest group leader ever, Jessica (GO TEAM JESSICA!) She genuinely gave the best advice ever and she was always ahead of the game (I still think it was BS that we got 3rd place in that game, just saying).

Team Jessica (Jessica's in the pink shirt)

Anyway, nothing super exciting happened during the meetings (except for that Supergeil song and music video) so I think I'm gonna end here with the DC post) (OH! I also got some people to try Chipotle for the first time) 

Chipotle Buds

So now it's time for that end of the post song thing again…..

This time, the honor goes to *drum roll*….. SUPERGEIL. The song was literally that entertaining that I had to give it this honor. ENJOY! 

Future Overload of Posts

Sorry guys but I've been meaning to update this blog since I got to D.C about three weeks ago but you know, procrastination and being "busy" is killer. So you're about to get bombarded with new posts in a couple of minutes! 

Whirlwind of Emotions!

Hey, two posts during the same month, I think I'm getting better at this blogging thing! Any who, let me give you a run down on what's happened so lately:

Guess what! I FINALLY GOT A HOST FAMILY AKA MY HOST FAM-BAM, THANK YOU MA'AM! (Granted they're only a Welcome FAmily, so I'll only be with the, for a short period of time, BUT STILL I'M ECSTATIC) I've been waiting THE longest for notice that I was matched with a family, especially since all the the other AFSers from Jersey were already matched. But, I will be living in Marburg with a host mom and dad and three sisters (aged, 18, 15 and 9) (I'm not going to reveal their names because I don't know if they're comfortable with that)! Alright, so I've never had a younger sister, so I don't really know how to properly deal with younger siblings. Like whenever I babysit or when I'm around little children for long periods of time, my facial expressions is mostly like this:

However, whenever I'm around younger kids, they're usually like under 6 years old, so I'm sure I'll be able to get along fairly and not super awkwardly with my little host sister. More on my family, my oldest host sister has actually traveled abroad with AFS to the Dominican Republic in the past so I feel like she'll understand how I'm feeling about being in a new environment. Also, they all speak, or are learning, English and are near fluent, if not fluent (Best Family Ever or what?!). Also, they mainly eat vegetarian cuisine (which is awesome because I've always wanted to fully commit to a vegetarian diet, but my mom was always against it…). They additionally like to go on bike rides and I believe that the two eldest sisters are in a sports club, because I was informed that they enjoyed playing handball. 

Moving on to the location of my family….Marburg. Alright, so here's the thing about Marburg, it's in the heart of Germany, like right in the center of Germany. Do you guys understand what his means? This means that every "city-like" place is at least an hour away, for instance, Frankfurt is an hour away from Marburg. This is a blessing in disguise though, because then the items in the stores in Marburg are not as high priced as they would be in the city! I'm extremely blessed and excited that I get to experience Marburg. From looking at the pictures and from what my host dad has told me, it's a very medical type of town. It's has a rich history and there's lots of churches and it's a place where you'd actually want to talk a walk outside because it seems as though you'll see something new each day. Here's some pictures that my host dad sent me of the town:

          

It looks so pretty! I feel as though perhaps there's lots of festivals in the town center! Also, I start school at the Gymnasium on September 8th, so I'll basically get right into living like a regular German student as soon as I get there. I was also thinking about joining a sports club as an extra-curricular activity! Wish me luck y'all!

Now…we move on to the topic of (dun-dun-dun) my friends (the lights dim low as the audience lets out a huge gasp of relief). Am I being too over the top with my narration? Probably, but let's not mention it. 

Yes, but throughout these last few days I've been doing the routine "see your closest friends and do the awkward but apply goodbye" ordeal. So, I hung out with Vanessa on Thursday and when I said goodbye to Mama Leite, I did it all casually as if I'd be seeing her every weekend during the school. Can I get a time warper so that I can go back in time and re-do my goodbye to her because I will actually miss her a lot (I mean she introduced me to Portuguese novelas, why wouldn't I miss her?!) But Vanessa's finally happy again and it's awesome cause who doesn't like their friends being happy?! Like what? Uhh, no one. But then I hung out with Mae and Sam on Friday and it's was the best final hangout ever! We went on an "excursion" throughout Union and basically took pictures at every place that meant something to me and yea, they're awesome. Oh! And Jenel, my unofficial little sister did the cutest thing and hid a stuffed panda bear in my bag as my goodbye present and it was the best present ever because I actually really love stuffed animals. I was actually pretty sad when I got home because I mean not seeing my best friend for nearly a year is like one of the worst negatives about this. (I actually ended up hanging out with Mae yesterday because friendship clothing reasons and we had a play date with Lucero and "invisible Amanda") 

 

(Sam, left, called Kris, who lives down the street from the high school, just so that he could come and take a proper picture of us in front of the school, sorry Kris.) 

So, packing. I loathe packing with a passion. First, I decided that it would be pleasurable if I put all of my clothes into the laundry, I have a lot of clothes so it literally took two days to finish it all. So then the hardest part was deciding what was worth taking and what was not (I'm still torn up about the items that aren't included in any of my luggage) So, I depart for D.C in about two days and I haven't finalized my luggage containments. All my luggage is packed, but I keep adding items and taking out items, it's like an endless cycle. It's ridiculous. 

However, this is all worth it because how many high school students can say that they spent nearly a year in Germany? NOT MUCH THAT'S WHO! 

Guess what time it is? It's time for the oh-so-important end of the post song! This time around, the song chosen is Burn the Pages by Sia. So, the song overall is not 100% relevant to my emotions but it can be depending on which interpretation you use! But in the song she mentions how the person she's speaking about worries too much and I was worrying too much in the beginning but once I stopped worrying, everything fell into place. (Alright, maybe that was all BS and I just really wanted to include this song so I made an excuse to include it in this post.)

Overwhelmed x 1000 with a side of Freaking Out

Hey guys! So you guys might be thinking that I suck at this whole blogging about my German exchange but that's really not the case. It's just, I haven't made much progress towards my exchange…in a sense. 

So here's a fill in on what's transpired since my last post:

I've been taking my summer classes so that I could finish my high school graduation requirements (cause let's be honest, no one wants to be a super senior in high school). I initially started out taking Honors English, Honors Calculus and Physical Education (keep in mind that English and Physical Education are the only classes required for seniors in New Jersey.) So here's the thing, I've never taken Pre-Calculus in my life, but I thought it would be brilliant to take continue mathematics tracking by jumping straight into Calculus (WORST CHOICE EVER. DON'T DO WHAT I DID!)

Continuing with my bad decision, I stayed in my Calculus class for a while…about 2 weeks. NOW, before you judge me, understand that I was taking a year's worth of class in a matter of a month and a couple of days, so it was extremely hard to keep up with everything! So, concerning my failure, I was extremely upset with myself, but I got over it in about 2 minutes or a month (it's complicated). So yea, I continued with my other classes and I just finished them about last week (I finished with As in both classes, just saying). I only have one complaint to make and it's about the fitness class: In what world do you have to write essays for a gym class?! Furthermore, in what universe do you write about 2 or 3 essays PER WEEK?! This is ludicrous I tell you, LUDICROUS! 

Any who, during that time, I was basically like a vampire. I basically never left my house cause I so overwhelmed with work that I couldn't even hang out with anyone. Also, I went to sleep around 4am or 5am everyday cause I have this thing where if I start an task or some type of work, I have to finish it, or else it will bug me for the longest and I'll just wake up/get back to doing it. So yea, sleeping at 5am meant waking up around 2 or 3pm. However, I did get out of the house when I went to my friends Sweet 17 (Yes, I said Sweet 17. I know how you feel.) (Btw, I was in her court, equivalent to bridal party, and the search for the clothing was the hardest and most agonizing task, don't even get me started on that issue) But yea, that weekend was basically reserved for my friends because I slept over at my best friend's house they day for the party (I'm over there so much that I'm considered their adopted child. They're awesome). 

Also, I planned on dedicating half of my summer to college visits/college stuff in general. However, due to the fact that most of my visits didn't work with the schedules of my family members, I only went on one and it was to Yale University. Okay, so I'm not that big on Ivy Leagues but my family thinks I'll be accepted into them? (I haven't even taken any subjects so they need to quit.) But yea, I wasn't that sold on Yale until I saw the Chipotle. THEY HAVE A CHIPOTLE AND A QUIDDITCH TEAM. PRAISE. But my interview was very chill and funny and pretty great (Sydney, my interview, is probably gonna be in my list of fashion icons now, awesome fashion sense you guys.) 

Alright, now on to AFS-CBYX issues. I still have not received a host family and I leave for the Departure Orientation in exactly two weeks. So I'm kind of in two realms of feelings:

SUPER EXCITED!

AND sad because no German family wants me =(

So yea, patiently awaiting for that info because I can't really buy nay clothing items if I don't know where I'm going to live. Like what if I pack all clothing items adequate for winter and fall weather because I think I'll be living in the North, but instead I end up living in the south, and vice versa. Also concerning AFS, we officially finished all our conference calls (CLAPS AND CHEERS ALL AROUND)! 

So now as I get closer to my whole departure date, I have get lots of things done before:

• I have to get a new suitcase and some new clothing, 
• I have to finish my college essays/applications and make sure my recommendations are still good.
• Visit my counselor and make sure everything is set and hand in my health coursework.
• Try to visit my friends before I leave.
• I HAVE to practice my German because literally, I am at level ZERO (Well, 0.5, I know some words and phrases, Eine Frau trinkt.) 

So continuing on with my whole summing up my posts with music thing, I've chosen Gravity by John Mayer this time. The song helps me like calm down and put everything in perspective and not be so overwhelmed, I guess. So yea, John Mayer, YAY! 

Bucketlist: Go to Germany ✔

Looks like I can finally cross one thing off of my bucket list! It's been weeks since I officiated my decision but I never got around to inform the public, you, of my decision. In April, I officially declined my scholarship to go abroad with the YES Abroad ambassadors in favor of going to Germany with CBYX. No doubt that I am still a bit bummed about not being able to go to Indonesia my senior year, however, Germany is also a great place to go! So since the decision, the only progress that I've had with the process of going to Germany is: 

• I have been informed of/will be attending a Regional Pre-Departure Orientation 
• My application has been sent over to AFS Germany (patiently awaiting my approval and keeping my fingers crossed)
• I have been informed of a Pe-Departure conference call that will take place very soon!!

So yea, life is exciting! I have finished all my AP Exams and school is going to be over in a little more than a month. On a side note, the humidity in NJ has been in the range of 90% and above. Mind I tell you that it was a 100% humidity the other day and the school officials had the audacity to not cancel school that day, thus I had to spend 6 hours in a building with folks that smelled un-heavenly. Never Again! (Just kidding, I can't stay home for a reason as melodramatic as that. Boy, do I wish) Any who, I've been thinking about ending each of my posts with either song lyrics or poetry excerpts, either characterizing my day or whatever song/poem was stuck in my head that day. Good idea? (Seriously, this is a question, please answer) 

"I wanna take all the Saturdays

I wanna stay up late

I wanna stomp my feet on the ground

I wanna celebrate"

A Month Of Saturdays by R.E.M