Tuesday, December 28, 2010

We wish you a Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everybody - even if I'm a little late ;)

My Christmas was definitely one of the best ones ever!

On Christmas Eve we already got blankets and new sheets (super super soft fleece once!). They are so awesome and incredibly warm, you just have to love them ^^ We all watched 'Elf' and Mitch and I were working on a blanket (he said that we have to make 40 in a week because we'd give them away by the end of the year). Towards/at the end of the movie the boys all got their new blankets with Star Wars, Lego, Batman and Spiderman on them and Eden got a Hannah Montana blanket. And I could just keep the one that we just made. I then remembered that I asked Steph one time if I could make my own fleece blanket (I saw them the first time on our Volleyball Field Trip to Fergus Falls) and she said, 'Maybe we should just wait till Christmas'. It was very cool to make my own present :)

(On the 25th) I got up at 8am and helped Micah finish the pancakes which we all ate at around 8.30. When we were done eating we read the last part of our Advent Story "Tabitha's Travels" and Eden read the Christmas Story. Unwrapping all the presents took a very long time, because we unwrapped one at a time. I think that way is a whole lot more fun rather than just give everybody their presents and be done in 30 minutes, because we all got to see what the others got.

Here are some pictures:

Tirzah

Baby Jesus

Tirzah's first Christmas present this year ;)

Mitch reading "Tabitha's Travels"

Malachi and Josh attacking Mitch after he said it's nap time when we were about to open the presents :D

Micah - what could be in here?! -

Tirzah and her new baby

... a very hungry baby.

One of my first Christmas presents - I love it :)

My present for everybody - a game that my mom sent from Germany

Zeke opening his first present from me

... and the second one ;)

When opened all the presents, we had about 40 minutes left to clean all the wrapping paper etc. up, before Paul, Marilyn and Eva arrived - Holly, Kyle, Aidan, Audrey and Hailey came a couple minutes afterward. We ate, played games and made videos with Elfyourself - it was very, very funny!
So here are some more pictures:

Eva taking a picture of me :)

Eden
The buffet :)


All of my presents (I got very warm socks too but I was wearing them when I took the picture)

My blanket, Reese's shirt, Minnesota shirt and gift certificates for Plato's Closet
Soap and lotion that I share with Eden :)

Here is the present that I was curious about for over a month: the one that I got from my family in Germany. It's a charm (treble clef) for my Thomas Sabo Armband .

I love it!

Best buddies!

I was so excited about the next one! It's the Bible but in German and English. The left side of the page is always in German (Luther Bible) and the right one is the English version (ESV). It is so helpful because I just have to look on the other half of the page - I don't have to look the word up in the dictionary or on the Internet. I've seen this kind of a Bible before, because one of the Korean students in my Bible Study Group has one in Korean and English :)
When we wrapped the presents we just put numbers on them and Mitch had a list with the presents and their numbers. On Christmas we picked one present at a time, Mitch told us who it's for and the person who got it got to choose the next present. When my Bible (Number  60) was picked, Mitch said I probably want to put it aside and wait till the end to open it, because it's the best one of all - I totally agree! It was so awesome to unwrap this:

Best present ever! - Thank you Steph and Mitch!

My gift cards for Plato's Closet

And a flashlight - we got a huge pack with I think 10 lights from Marilyn and Paul.

Thank you everybody for the presents - that certainly includes friends and family from Germany who sent me money so that I can buy my own presents over here! They are so awesome, I love every single one of them.

Friday, December 24, 2010

East to West

From east to west that's how much I love you :)


In this trailer for "Letters to God" (I watched it a second time a couple of days ago) the child and the mom show each other how much they love each other. The mom presses her thumb and digital together and says: 'That's how much I love you' and the boy says: 'That's not a lot.' and then the mom says: 'Yes it is, it starts here (she's pointing at her finger) and goes all around the world and ends here (she moves her arm around the fingers and points at her thumb). I think it is super cute (that part is from 1:49-1:51) and it fits very good to the song of this blog post.

So here's your birthday cake even if you already saw it when we skyped:

The cake still half way in its form and with Mitch's fingers as ears :)

First layer of 'frosting' (Powdered sugar with water)

And the final cake with sugar crystals!


I think it's a perfect Birthday Cake for a 19-year-old :)

Beautiful, Beautiful

Here are some pictures of a beautiful, beautiful day I had yesterday and some other (older) pictures that I didn't post about, yet. 
It was my last school day before Winter Break at Apollo, the vocabulary test that I had in Anatomy&Physiology was okay and I had lots of fun during my band class today - we played games and watched our concert. 
I also visited the German class again because I had open in U.S. History but I didn't talk in German this time, I just told them about our Christmas traditions in Germany. 
As already mentioned it was my brother's/Marcel's birthday. I don't know if it was kind of confusing or not but his birthday is on the 23rd, when I published my You post it was the 22nd here in America so it says 5pm on my blog but it was midnight in Germany so basically already Marcel's birthday. 
We also had a party with some other exchange students (Tim, Julia and Eva from Germany and Julia from Finland) and their families. We had a lot of fun and played (among other things) Apples to Apples and Skip-Bo.


Tirzah really wanted to put on my boots (size 11)

Christmas tree at church
Doesn't it look very nice?
The kids were leading the worship last Sunday :)
Tirzah...
... with awesome hair
... in a veery comfy position :)
Julia from Germany playing 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' with her brother and letting her sister judge :)
Zeke and I - it's too dark though

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

You

... are turning 19 today!

Happy, happy Birthday to my beloved brother Marcel who lives 7 timezones (too far) away
  ♥

I hope you'll enjoy this day with friends and family (and the last day of school before the break!). I will make you an awesome cake when it's your birthday over here to after school and post the picture of it afterward ;)

Feel like I hug and kiss you,
'Schwester-♥'

P.S.: Did you already get a respond after you had your interview?

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Here with us

I got my class ring today :)

I don't like my birthstone color so I decided to go with the school color ;)

Since we don't have class rings in Germany - not that I know of at least... - I thought it would be a great reminder of my High School (Senior) year here in America ;)

School was a lot of fun today. I played Baritone Saxophone because our player in band is not able to play anymore and my teacher asked me if I would like to try it until Christmas break. It was very cool because it's basically a lot easier to play (you don't have to be as tight around the mouthpiece compared to playing Alto). But I got a little headache afterward because it's vibrating kind of because the music is so low :D However it was fun ^^

And tomorrow I will visit a German class (it's their 3rd year) in my 7th period because I have open in US History - I'm excited :)

I love this song (Here with us by Joy Williams)! Steph played it on Youtube yesterday when we were wrapping the presents :)

Monday, December 13, 2010

This is home

Okay, I realized that I never wrote about this topic :)
I really do feel like I'm home! This afternoon for example when I was riding the bus home, I thought about what classes I should pick for next year and then I realized that I already picked them... in Germany.
Right now it doesn't feel like I'm in another country (which is not my home country) at all. It is so cool but on the same time a little bit weird. I try not to think about the fact that I have to go home next year (which already starts in 19 days :O). Isn't that crazy? 

And Christmas is next week. Don't get me wrong I'm very excited about that and it's not like I don't have this 'Christmas feeling': today it was -15°F/-26°C at one time →definitely not summer temperatures, we are wrapping Christmas presents, there are tons of snow outside and lots of very Christmaslooking lights, not forgetting the Christmas/Advent stories :)

Speed of Sound

Wow, time ran so fast! I didn't realize that it's been that long ago since I posted my last blog post ... over 2 weeks, I'm very sorry :(
But not 'just' these two weeks: I arrived on America four month ago, but it feels like it's been maybe about 2 month at most!
My first trimester of American High School is over, too. I really like my two new classes, but the other ones were very cool, too. I have Psychology instead of Health II and Acting/Theater Workshop instead of Language Arts 11, so that's what my schedule looks like right now:

Anatomy & Physiology
Psychology
College Preparation Algebra
(30 minutes lunch)
Acting/Theater Workshop
Women's Choir
Symphonic Band
US History

I also (still) have Jazz Band on Tuesdays before school (7.30-8.10) and 'Planning Room' every Day 6 ;)
I really, really enjoy Acting/Theater! It is so much fun and a very cool change from the classes where we always sit in the classroom. Last Wednesday we went on the stage and did warm-ups and at one time we were supposed to lay down on the floor and close our eyes. We should imagine that somebody pours warm wax in our toe and it goes up into the rest of our body. It was so relaxing I almost fell asleep :D You know this feeling when all the noises are very fare away?! ;)
I am so glad that I can attend in classes that I really enjoy but which probably also help me when I really become a pediatrician. Anatomy & Physiology for example is very, very interesting (but also kind of hard) and it helps me immense to understand the human body and its function better. Health II was very helpful to get to know what happens if you 'do not take care of your own body' and what impact your lifestyle has on your own health and others. I enjoy Psychology also but right know I don't really know what I should write about it since I just started last week ;)

So that would be my report card from Trimester 1: