Saturday, December 31, 2011

Something Beautiful

So here it is - later then I expected - my blog post about December 25th.

On the 25th we did our gift giving at about 1pm instead of doing it on the evening of the 24th. Usually that's how you do it in Germany, but since my mom is a nurse and had to work that night we just did it on the 25th.

This is what I got for Christmas:

  • 5 pair of tights
  • 3 books
  • 2 DVDs
  • a gift certificate for a jewelry store
  • chocolate
  • 2 rolls of film (black and white) that I need for an Art Project
  • a gift certificate to our 'local' book store
Here are a few pictures of the gift giving :)

Our Christmas tree
The presents

Four candles for Advent
Unwrapping my tights :)
dad unwrapping his first present
Got 'To Save a Life' on DVD - Love that movie!!!
Eating my chocolate Santa
My jewelry store gift certificate :)
Loved Christmas!
Post about the 26th comes soon, but now I have to get ready for New Year's Eve :) Guests coming in an hour ;)

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Power of the Cross

Christmas was amazing!

My mom had to work on Christmas Eve and I thought we should do the gift giving on the 25th like I had it last year in America :) So for Christmas Eve Mama, Papa and me first went to church at 4pm, then we ate at my grandparents house (the ones who live right next to us) and after that my mom left for work and me and my dad headed to my aunt and uncle's. We had a fun night with them, my cousin and my grandma! We played 'Who am I?!' where everybody gets a post-it note (with a persons name on it) stuck to his or hers forehead and you then have to ask question about 'yourself' that the other people can answer with yes or no.

For example on my note it said 'Joan of Arc' so I was Joan of Arc, but because it was on my forehead I didn't know that, everybody else could read it though, So when it was my turn I asked questions like:

  • Am I a person? (yes)
  • Am I still alive (no)
  • Did I die more than 100 years ago? (yes)
  • Am I female? (yes)
  • Did I live in Germany? (no)
  • Did I come from America? (no)
  • Was I from France? (yes)
Then you just have to go on asking or try to guess who you are. Joan of Arc was the only female, dead woman that I could think of that lived in France so then it was pretty easy... My dad was Bruce Springsteen, my aunt Angela Merkel (our president), my cousin was Galadriel from Lord of the Rings, and my uncle was Steve Jobs. I really like that game :)
After that we talked for quite a while and also my other aunt and uncle (my dad's brother and his wife) came over for about an hour or so... Then we played 'Black Stories' for a while. It's similar to 'Who am I': one person draws a card and reads out the title and short sentence about the story from the first side of the card. He himself then reads the back of the card and the other people have to ask him questions that he can answer with yes or no until they know what happened in the story.

I guess it was around 1am that dad and I left and we then went to bed pretty quick :)
I will post about the 25th and 26th soon - with pictures :D

Friday, December 23, 2011

Without you

Post number 100 goes to my big brother :)

Happy Birthday Br♥di

Hope you are having a fantastic time in Ecuador and - besides your birthday - a nice Christmas and a Happy New Year :)

I love you so much and I'm really, really proud of you - for mastering all the hardships over there in Ecuador ;)

Looking forward to celebrating your next birthday WITH you!

Monday, December 12, 2011

Say, Say

Does anyone know any good books?

It's so inspiring and fun to read my bible right now. Sometimes I just don't feel like it at all, but I really enjoy it recently and I thought it would be great to combine reading the bible with another book. So far I enjoyed reading 'Lies young women believe' and 'Your scars are beautiful to God' in small group but apart from that I never really found another book that inspired and touched me the way those two did.

So if you have any that you would recommend reading PLEASE comment or email me ;)

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Don't stop

My blog got a new design :)

I like it a lot and I really hope you do too and will continue reading my blog.
I thought it could use some new color and gadgets so that's why it's green now and has "What I'm writing about" at the right side. I also like it better when the Archive is on the left side and the main blog posts in the center of the blog. If you have any other recommendations about how I could make it look even better, just comment this post or email me ;)

I realized that I don't write really often so I also decided to at least try to change that.
Hope I will be able to do that :D

Oh and I forgot, I also added labels to my posts, I didn't get through all of them yet but I'll finish that as soon as I can... I thought it would help to bring some structure into all of this :)

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Kisses and Cake

Happy Birthday Steph!

I wish I could give you that cake :)

Hope you have a FANTASTIC 29th (!) birthday with a different cake. If you got my packet already, enjoy the chocolate, if not.. well I hope you don't have to wait much longer! 

Say hello to everybody over there!
Love and miss you incredibly much,
Number 11 ♥ 

Sunday, November 20, 2011

You are holy

I went to church again today!

The church is called 'Christian Center Bielefeld'. It's really close to me and I went with a friend (my brother's best friend's mom Brigitte who we will also be celebrating Thanksgiving with next week ^^). We both felt so welcomed right away and it was such a great community and sermon :) I decided to buy a German Bible, since the only German one I have so far is the German-English one Steph and Mitch got for me on Christmas (there's a picture) and since it's both English and German it's pretty heavy to carry around every Sunday. So now I have a smaller one. Also they asked in the beginning before the sermon if there is anybody new that was there for the first time. We then both got a little packet with a welcoming letter, some information about the church, two gift certificates for coffee at the little coffee bar they had there and one gift certificate to get a free New Testament. When I payed for the Bible and got the free New Testament, I also got another book for free. Then when we left the church with the friend who invited Brigitte and me she both gave us a book called 'Jesus unser Schicksal' (in English: Jesus our destiny). So I left the church with four books even though I only bought one :)

I was so excited and now I am so incredibly happy that we were able to go.
I'm also listening to Louie Giglio's 'UnThinkable You - Journey with God' right now.




We watched 'How great is our God', 'Fruitcake and Ice Cream' and 'Indescribable' during Youth Group before and I just found 'UnThinkable You - Journey with God' yesterday. Here is a link to a short video about the different sermons.

Wow, there are a lot of links in this post and here is the last one for today :)

Monday, November 7, 2011

You're Beautiful

Today one year ago - November 7, 2010 - I was baptized!

I can't believe it's that long ago already! When I look at pictures (for example my profile picture here) it feels like it was last weekend that I gave my testimony to the church!

It was such an amazing day and I know that I won't forget it!

I love the song! It's so true and really encouraging for me ;)

    Sunday, October 2, 2011

    All I Have is Christ

    Wow, I'm back in Germany for more than two months already and today was the first time that I went to church since July 24! I decided I wanted to check out the church I went to with my family - that would be once a year: Christmas - before I came to America, but I kept finding 'excuses' why I couldn't go.

    I got so mad at myself because I didn't do anything, I think in the last 2 months I read my Bible once completely on my own - I listened to the sermons from Calvary that are online so I read a few passages along - so I did quiet time once. I don't even know why I think it's so hard, it really isn't! Back in America I thought it would be so though to find a church that I would like to go to and stay confident in my faith.

    I didn't go to church the first Sunday because we took my brother to the airport (he went to Ecuador do to voluntary work for a year) and after that I just found a whole lot of reasons why I didn't go.

    Last Monday me and my mom visited my Godmother, because it was her birthday, and I talked to her daughter for quite a while! She asked me if I wanted to borrow a couple of books from her and she gave me "When God Writes Your Love Story" by Eric and Leslie Ludy. I started reading it yesterday when I took a break from studying for my drivers license test and I really like it - I'm only on page 48 though... I am a really slow reader. Anyway, when I read it I realized how much I pushed God away the last couple of month and I started watching Fireproof, knowing it would remind me of the greatness of Him! I felt so good when I went to bed last night :)

    Then this morning I woke up at 8.45am to get ready to BIKE (I usually hate biking, I'm just not the biggest sports fan, but it is so nice outside and my parents were still sleeping...) to church. It is so cool that I went this Sunday because it was the best sermon I ever experienced in Germany! The church has a sister church in Ghana and works together with a missions organization. They had a choir from Africa come to our church and the songs were so beautiful. Plus it was a very long sermon (2 hours) compared to the usual ones (45 minutes) so it was a lot closer to what I am used to from Calvary :) And another awesome thing: they translated most of it in English for the choir. I know it sounds weird but I still understand English way better than German. There are a couple of old words that are used quite often in church that I don't know so it was nice to have the English translation :D

    My school offers a retreat for 10th grade (my grade) every year to a former monastery. They take 30 people every year. Here in Germany we have Religion class in school, but if you want to you can pick Philosophy instead beginning in 9th grade. If there are more than 30 people signed up for the retreat they'll prefer the students that chose Religion and if they still have to many, they will draw the names. I'm really excited for this and hope I'll be able to go.


    I love all of the Animation videos from Sovereign Grace Music, but this is definitely my favorite one so far.
    It is so incredible and almost always makes me cry.

    Please pray for me that I take my time to read God's Word more often and trust in Him!
    I miss you guys ♥

    Tuesday, September 27, 2011

    Paradise

    School started :)

    Actually it did about 3 weeks ago already (September 7th), but I didn't find the time yet to write a post about it!
    Since our school system is a little different, we don't have the same schedule every day, so this is mine:

    Monday:
    1. Geography
    2. Geography
    3. Social Science/Economics
    4. Social Science/Economics
    5. Biology
    6. Biology
    7. - LUNCH BREAK -
    8. PE
    9. Religion
    Tuesday:
    1. English
    2. English
    3. - OPEN -
    4. - OPEN -
    5. Social Science/Economics
    6. Biology
    7. - LUNCH BREAK -
    8. - OPEN -
    9. Math
    Wednesday:
    1. English
    2. Art
    3. - OPEN -
    4. - OPEN -
    5. History
    6. History
    Thursday:
    1. German
    2. German
    3. Religion
    4. Religion
    5. PE
    6. PE
    7. - LUNCH BREAK -
    8. Math (extra lesson because I just don't get it xD)
    9. Chemistry
    Friday:
    1. Art
    2. Art
    3. Math
    4. Math
    5. Chemistry
    6. Chemistry
    7. - LUNCH BREAK -
    8. History
    9. Geography
    10. German
    We start school at 7.45am and our breaks between class aren't all 5 minutes long, so here are the times to my schedule:

    1. Period: 7.45-8.30
    2. Period: 8.35-9.20
    3. Period: 9.40-10.25
    4. Period: 10.30-11.15
    5. Period: 11.25-12.10
    6. Period: 12.15- 1.00
    7. LUNCH BREAK for 1 hour
    8. Period: 2.00-2.45
    9. Period: 2.55-3.40
    10. Period: 3.45-4.30

    My school - Niklas-Luhmann-Gymnasium

    That means I get out of school at 3.40pm on Monday, technically 3.40pm too on Tuesday but I have saxophone lesson right after so I'm not home before 4.45pm. On Wednesday school ends at 1pm for every student because the teachers have conferences and on Thursday I'm out at 3.40 again and Friday it's 4.30pm...
    School days are sooo long, but occasionally we get some periods off when teachers aren't in school because they are sick or on a class trip. Because my English teacher was gone last week I didn't have to go to school till 11.25am :) That was nice. I miss being able to sleep long in the morning because school doesn't start until 8.20 - I miss Apollo!

    Well anyway it feels good to be back in school after my super long vacation this year (from May 26-September 7... my classmates only had from end of July to September :D).

    I'm also repeating my year that I 'missed' in school here while I stayed in Minnesota. Turns out to be a really good decision, because a lot of other exchange students I know that are continuing in their old grade are struggling already! My new grade is awesome even if a lot of my classmates are about 2 years younger than I am - I got into 1st grade with 7yrs., most kids are 6 :)

    I talked to 8th and 9th graders and their parents about doing an exchange year on our annual information night about exchange programs and it was sooo much fun sharing a couple stories.

    Well anyway I'm a little busy too now with getting my driver's license so I don't know when I'll be able to post again...
    Hope it'll be soon though!

      Tuesday, September 6, 2011

      The hardest part

      So now that I got the Family Trip post out of the way I still have a lot more to catch up on!
      At first I really had a lot of stuff to do so that I didn't get the chance to blog more but then I also didn't really want to finish the post, because it made me a little sad thinking about everything again!

      I had so much fun on our trip and the whole rest of the year so that it's really hard to just finish it up like that.

      Anyway. 'The hardest part' was going back to Germany, not knowing when I come back to America (it's definitely a 'when' and not an 'if' though!).

      I was pretty busy with packing my 3 suitcases - which I started doing about a week before I left. And even though there were 3 suitcases with lots of room I still had tons of clothes I gave to Holly and Hope because I just couldn't take them with me :)

      My last Sunday at church and Youth Group made me pretty sad. I asked Josh if I could come up front during Youth Group to thank everybody and say goodbye. When I did that everybody gathered around me and prayed for me and that already made me cry :(
      Thinking about it again right now makes me wanna go back right now - especially with school starting tomorrow :D

      On Wednesday we had a Goodbye Party for me which was pretty amazing! I have no clue how many people came to say goodbye but there were a lot and it was so nice to see everyone ones more before I left!

      That night I finished up packing everything while Mitch was playing XBOX 360. I asked him when we will leave and he really freaked me out when he said 8 AM. We ended up leaving at 7 and that was totally enough time but still made me worry a little that I might miss my plane which took of at 10:56AM (you now being there 2 hours earlier made it 8:56 plus driving for about 1 1/2 hours is 7:26 and then usually you should plan with traffic so I would have left at 6 xD) Anyhow we were just fine and not that I would have complained if I missed it and would have had to stay in America a little more :)

      I felt a little sick that morning and like I would throw up every moment (probably because of all the emotions...) so I decided to sleep on the way to Minneapolis.

      Arriving at the airport I checked in my suitcases and then we still had some time to take pictures - which you can see on Steph's blog :) Then it was time to say goodbye which was definitely the 'hardest part' of the day and the worst goodbye I ever had! Not knowing when you see your family again really isn't fun at all!

      When I walked down to my gate I was crying pretty bad and a airport person even asked me if he could help me somehow. I was so messed-up I forgot to go through the security check correctly: I left my shoes and belt on, didn't take my laptop out of my bag at first, didn't empty out my pockets...
      Oh dear I made some people mad :)

      I bought an 6-hour-energy-shot because I forgot to buy one earlier. It's good to have when you have such a long way to go and don't want to be sleepy when you arrive :)

      Then I went to my gate (E6) and waited till it was boarding time. I sat next to a woman who was really nice and we talked a lot about being an exchange student etc. It was nice talking to her and it kept me from being to sad. She had EarPlanes and said she would give me her extra pair if I wanted it. It helped so much and I was really glad she gave them to me.

      In Chicago I went straight to my gate because I was afraid to miss my flight like I almost did coming to the US. I met another exchange student from Germany who was there with Rotary and a missions group who went to Ukraine for 3 weeks.
      In the airplane I was sitting right in front of the 'wall' between the business and economy class so I had a lot of room for my legs :D I wasn't able to watch the movies or anything because we didn't have a screen in front of us but I just watched a couple movies on my iPod :)

      Arriving in Germany I had to wait a little long to get all my suitcases and my saxophone but once I had it I got to my family really quick! My parents, my brother and my aunt and uncle picked me up and it was a fun way back home!

      Well now I'm home for over a month already and it's weird thinking about heading back to my German school tomorrow. I also started having driver's lessons so I can get my license as soon as possible. Fun times!

      Again I will recommend Steph's blog post about me leaving on July 28th! 

      Thursday, July 21, 2011

      On the road again

      Our trip was awesome!

      The first stop was visiting Mitch's grandma in Yuma, Colorado. It was really cool with all the open area around. Steph said: 'When anybody tells you again the world is too populated tell them to go to Colorado.'
      I won't write really detailed in general just because I have so much to post about otherwise and I don't want to sit here for four hours and write everything down. Steph did a really good job describing what we did during our trip so I will just link her post. So this is her blog post about Yuma.

      Eden's and my room at Grandma Lungwitz' house
      So much wide open space in Colorado :)

      After Yuma we drove to Estes Park in the Rocky Mountains (still Colorado). There we had the Theis family reunion with about people. It was the family from Mitch's grandparents (his dad's parents) and down. Steph's post
      It was really cool to meet everybody and get to know 'my whole family'. I'm so glad I decided to extend my stay for a month because otherwise I would have left on June 23 and wouldn't have been able to meet all of them.

      After the family reunion we left to go to Yellowstone Park in Wyoming. It was incredible! Here are Steph's Blogposts: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3.

      Well okay originally I wanted to also upload my pictures from the Rocky Mountains and Yellowstone, but I don't have enough room on my laptop to even have a preview of my pictures when I double click on them so it's really hard to post them... sorry. Maybe I will eventually when my laptop is fixed but I can't promise that... we'll see I guess :)

      Anyway the song was Mitch's idea. He told me about it while we were driving to Yellowstone and I like it a lot!

      Tuesday, June 28, 2011

      The Little Things

      ...that will happen soon!

      Tomorrow at 4am we will leave to go on our big family trip to Colorado where we have a Family Reunion! We will also travel around after that (Yellowstone, etc.). I am so excited to be able to see more of the US before I leave!

      Three days after we come back I will leave for Sonshine (July 13-16), a christian music festival where Skillet, Switchfoot and lots of other cool bands - all in all there are 100 I think...

      I'm very excited for all that!

      Alright I have to pack the rest of my stuff for tomorrow now!
      "See" you in July.

      Give me your eyes

      Operation St. Cloud was great!

      I'm really sorry that I didn't post about it earlier, but I just never felt very motivated to write everything down. If you read Steph's Blog you already know that it was a really great idea. It was basically a missions trip but we did all the ministry work in St. Cloud. We stayed about 20 minutes from town in the Riverside Resort in Richmond, Minnesota.
      The five girls of our team, Kenna, Kaitlin, Katie, Rachel and I, stayed in Cabin 14 and the 7 boys, Jordan, Will, Darris, Colton, Trey, Caleb and Josh stayed in Cabin 10.

      We left on Monday at 11am from Calvary... well actually that's when we met there to pack everything up so we probably didn't left until 11.45. We head out to go on a Prayer Drive - we stopped at the Dream Center, Downtown in front of the Court House , Federal Building and Catholic Church; St. Cloud Hospital, Place of Hope, and at Southside Park where we did the VBS. We then also walked around and handed out flyers to kids for our Vacation Bible School. We then went to our Cabins where we unloaded everything, played volleyball (lots of fun!), ate, took showers, talked about the next day: what we would do for VBS etc., and we had Devotional Time and a Camp Fire.

      A 'normal' day looked kind of like this:

        7.30am Getting up and ready
        8.30am Breakfast
        9.00am Devotional Time
      10.00am Prepare Lunch Bags
      10.30am Leave the Resort and drive to St. Cloud
      11.00am Set up for VBS
      11.30am Go out and ask kids to come
      12.00pm Start playing with the kids
      12.30pm Do the craft and snack after that the drama and lesson
        1.00pm Pack everything up and drive to Lake George for Lunch
        2.30pm Leaving the Park and going to the Dream Center
        6.30pm Heading back to the cabins

      What we did at the cabins kind of changed in time every day but we basically discussed what we did so far and what we wanted to do the next days.

      I really enjoyed the whole 'Operation' :)

      Thursday, June 9, 2011

      Everything Burns

      First of all the lyrics don't really fit, but the title totally does!

      I have a huge, very bad sunburn on my legs and arms :(
      I decided to go outside to read my book Wuthering Heights (thanks Laura for borrowing it to me), because it was only about 75°F - compared to the 100°F from Tuesday - I thought it wouldn't be so super warm that I would get a sunburn... well bad thinking.

      I think I had about 2 hours total of sleep last night because I can't sleep on my tummy, but my sunburn is mostly on the back of my legs so sleeping on my back wasn't really comfortable either.

      It's burning a lot and it's really, really, really red :(

      I tried taking pictures, but they don't look anything like it really is. I also wasn't really motivated to keep taking pictures until I have a "real" one :D


      Tuesday, June 7, 2011

      Glorious Day

      Last Friday and Saturday - so two glorious days actually - I stayed at Laura's house.
      Mitch took me over there at around 5 or 6pm and pretty soon we walked to Dairy Queen because it was so hot outside! It was great!

      When we were home we started watching Mamma Mia! and later on The Lake House. We had so much fun and I think we finally fell asleep at around 1.30am :D

      The next morning she had a hard time waking me up ^^ She said she let her alarm ring, put it on music, she played music on her phone and hold it next to my head, and then she eventually poked me and I woke up. It was funny because I just put all her other waking-kathi-up-attempts in my dream. So when she played music, I was listening to it in my dream and when the alarm clock went of I just dreamed that some random alarm clock went off - but definitely not mine :) I told that next time she should just start playing songs from my cell phone because those are the ones that I use as an alarm and I will be up right away.

      Anyway, we had breakfast (outside!) and we then started to work in her garden. It was fun! I watered all her flowers and sprayed water on her too :)

      It is so incredibly hot lately and there are way too many Minnesota State Birds around! It's always somewhere between 70°F-95°F (21°C-35°C).

      At about 12.30 we stopped and took showers and got ready to leave and go downtown. We rode the bus which took us about 4 minutes. We walked around and stopped at a couple antique stores - I just love them they always have so much fun stuff!

      Anyways at 2 o'clock I had an appointment with Jodi to get my hair cut. It just got to annoying - to long, so super warm around my neck now since it's so warm, but still to short to be able to put it all up in a pony tail!
      I told Jodi that I want it short and she asked me 'How short?'. I told her to just cut it really short :D She said 'Okay, I like that that's so much fun.' (just cutting, she said it's more art that way.) She is so funny.

      I really like this new haircut! My last one was exactly 3 months ago (March 4) on Saturday.

      I tried to take pictures of the new haircut but I really don't like them so you'll have to wait until there is a good picture :D

      Monday, June 6, 2011

      Inner Peace

      Okay Sally, since you decided not to pick up your phone and didn't let me talk to you, I will have to write this blog post for your birthday!


      Happy Birthday Japaner!

      I enjoyed our time together at Apollo sooo much. It is just so funny to be around you. You are one of the best friends I've ever had and I want to thank you for being such a great person :)

      I will never forget the time that we spent together:

      • all the Pep-Band events
      • going out to eat with Tony
      • concerts
      • band rehearsals
      • A-lunch during Trimester 2
      • the car ride to the school and home
      • Graduation
      • the Graduation Party
      • the different dances
      • Kung Fu Panda 2
      • and all the time that we will hopefully spend together before I leave :)
      I'm so glad I got to teach you some German and I just love listening to your German talking! I'm proud of you for learning sooooo quickly it was just crazy how fast you picked everything up and started talking to me in German so that I couldn't answer because I already forgot my German :D
      I hope you'll have fun with my German dictionary!

      Deutsche and Japanerin :)


      Stay as awesome as you are my little Panda!
      I know I will miss you a lot so don't you EVER forget me - you promised to come visit me in 3 years!

      Ich liebe dich :)



      P.S.: I promise you, you are good enough to sit in THAT classroom, you won't have to watch everybody through the windows and wait to go to the dummy classes with the scary special teacher ;)
      P.P.S.: I love the way you pronounce the German 'ch'!

      Friday, June 3, 2011

      Hope Always

      The pictures that the photographers took at our graduation are finally online.

      I wanted to order the plaque and put a Bible verse on it. Now I have a maximum of 60 characters that I can use, so a lot of my favorite ones are already out. I try to only take part of the verse, but it's not really working.

      For example, I really like Psalm 32:10:
      Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.
      For that one I would be able to put "But steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the LORD" on the plaque.

      Or Hebrews 13:6
      The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?
      For that one "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear what can man do to me", would be what I can put on it...

      Well there are a couple of others and I thought it would be fun to make a poll about it :)
      So I will do that and in case you have any other ideas, PLEASE comment on this post!

      Thanks!

      Saturday, May 28, 2011

      On my way

      Graduation was awesome!
      In case you couldn't watch it and you really want to you can click on 'alt play' on this page :)

      I can't believe I'm done with my high school year now! It was so much fun getting to know all these people and to see what school in America is like.
      It's also really weird to already have summer vacation now since they start in 2 months in Germany and I'm really not used to getting out of school this early :D

      Anyway, the graduation ceremony was great and I totally love the speeches!


      The senior speaker Adam Logeman


      On Thursday morning we all met at Apollo at 8:20 for the senior breakfast and the slideshow and we then went to the Civic Center to rehears the ceremony - how we were supposed to walk, what order, what to do at what point of time, stuff like that. When we were done it was about noon and Tony, Sally and I went to have lunch together at an Asian restaurant. It was so much fun! Since Tony is an exchange student from Japan and Sally's mom is Japanese, Sally and Tony usually talk Japanese to each other and it's just so funny to guess what they are talking about :D

      We then went back home and at 7pm we had to meet at the Civic Center again to line up. The ceremony actually started a little late I think and lasted about two hours. Each person had a card with their name on that we handed the teacher that was supposed to read our name. I crossed my real name out and spelled it KAH-TA-RINA BOH-NEN-CAHMP (instead of Katharina Bohnenkamp) so that she knows how to pronounce it :)

      Giving her my name card
      Receiving my certificate (instead of a diploma)

      Since I am an exchange student and by far didn't get enough credits to really graduate I got a certificate instead of a High School Diploma :)
      After that we all met outside in a different hall (were we lined up alphabetically before the ceremony) to congratulate everybody and to take pictures.

      Caleb and I after the ceremony
      My certificate
      And again!
      We got a very pretty case for the diploma and certificates with "St. Cloud Apollo High School" on the front, then when you open it Apollo on the top and the certificate/diploma on the bottom. My certificate says:
      This certifies that
      Katharina Bohnenkamp
      has earned a total of twelve Senior High School Credits as prescribed 
      by the Board of Education, and in recognition thereof is awarded this 
      Certificate
      In Witness whereof, our signatures are hereunto affixed.
      Given at St. Cloud, in the State of Minnesota,

      This month of May, 2011

      Elle and Kim came :) SO nice to see them there
      Jillayne :)
      Sally - my funny half-japanese friend :)
      Tony - my full-japanese friend :D
      Tony, me and Sally
      Melissa, Jillayne and Allison
      Savannah and me
      Kenzie and me
      And my choir teacher :)

      After that we drove back home so I could change clothes and Mitch then took me to Apollo for the Senior Lock in. It was soooo much fun! When you arrived they gave you 10 tickets and 10 'Eagle Bucks' (our school mascot is Eagle...). With every ticket you could play games to win more 'Eagle Bucks'. Every 'Eagle Buck' brings you 10 tickets but you also could buy a raffle ticket for 10 ' Eagle Bucks' or prices. I bought about 22 different raffle tickets and a $5 gift certificate for Crafts Direct (that was 10 'Eagle Bucks'), a bracelet (20 'Eagle Bucks') and 2 "Free Pancake Dinner with Beverages" gift certificates for Perkins (20 'Eagle Bucks').

      At 2:30am the games and karaoke stopped and they gave away all the prizes, we played Deal-or-No-Deal and there was a Hypnotist Show. At 5am it was over and Sally gave me a ride back home. So I was home at 5.30am and I eventually fell asleep at 6.20. It was crazy but lots of fun :)

      Wednesday, May 25, 2011

      Dream

      I have a great surprise for everybody!

      Since we only get 7 tickets per senior for the Graduation, I don't have enough tickets to invite all the people I want to :(

      BUT Apollo will have a livestream of the Graduation Ceremony online!!! :)
      So everybody will be able to watch me ^^
      The Graduation starts at 7:30pm local time (Central Time) so it would be 2:30am in Germany!
      I know it's super early in Germany but I think I know that at least my mom will watch it... if she doesn't have to work :)

      The Apollo Website has the link to the video too but just in case here it is on my blog too now :)

      Have fun, I hope I won't fall, that would be very embarrassing!

      Time to say Goodbye

      Today was my last school day :(

      I will go back tomorrow for the Senior breakfast but officially I'm done with all my classes. I'm planning to visit some teachers/classes next week though, but I'm not sure if that's possible.

      We got our Yearbooks last Friday so I already have a lot of notes from people in there for me that make me quit emotional!

      I decided to post a couple of them just to give you a hint of how great my friends are... and the teachers that signed it too :)

      From my Anatomy&Physiology teacher:
      Kathi - It was such a pleasure having you in Anatomy! Your work ethic & dedication were such great examples for other students! I wish you all the best in you future endeavors. I'm honored to have had you as a student! Please keep in touch!
      A friend from Band:
      Kathi! Loved having you here! You were so much fun in band... and as always I love your shoes! I'm going to miss you so much next year... keep in touch! You're an amazing sax player as well as a wonderful friend to have! I'll never forget you!
      Another friend from Band:
      Kathi! It's soooooo nice to know you! You are always so happy and you make people around you happy too!!! ♥ I'll miss you!
       A friend from Choir:
      Kathi! You are awesome + I'm gonna miss you so much! When I was feeling sad I would see you + be happy! You are always so happy! Stay beautiful! ♥
      Another friend from Choir:
      Ooo, BLANK PAGE ( - the whole page she was going to write on was blank ^^)! Haha well to Kathi! You are such an awhmayzing singer. Like honestly when you sing I'm in 'AWH'! Haha I'm awhmayzed by you. Another thin I absolutely ♥ about yo is that your smile is oh so beautiful! I'm going to MISS that the most! You're an awhmayzing person and don't you ever forget that! I hope you enjoyed your time in the United States! Well I love you, and any time you need someone to talk to I'm here :)
      My choir teacher:
      Kawtie ( - I love the way he spells it ^^) - always love having exchange students in my classes - especially from Germany! You have been such a wonderful addition to the choir and I know I have learned much from you. Your energy, professionalism and personality have made you so vital to us - and your willingness to try new things is simply admirable. I am so happy and proud of your solo - not many exchange students do this! So - you're awesome!! Always remember your Apollo family and we will never forget you! Congratulations on a really incredible experience. Have a wonderful summer and last years of school in Germany! Stay in touch and always remember to smile!! Bis später, mein Freund! ~ the choir guy! =)   (He was in Germany for a 5 week exchange and went to Germany last summer so he knows quit a bit of German... he wrote 'See you later, my friend!')
      From the Japanese Exchange Student at my school:
      ありがとう
      I'm not sure if I found this right on Google but what he wrote means Thank you :)

      I am so glad that I decided to buy a yearbook even though they are pretty expensive. It is just so cool to have all your friends sign it... another reason why I don't want school to be over, not everybody signed it yet xD

      I will miss everybody sooo much! Love you all :)


      Saturday, May 21, 2011

      Dancing Queen

      Prom was on Saturday!

      Here are pictures from the Grand March taken for the St. Cloud Times :)

      The whole day was so much fun! I made dough for (German) pancakes before I went to Laura's house where we got ready together. I think I arrived at around 1pm and I took a shower right away :D Since our water heater was broken I wasn't able to take a shower on Friday! After that we both started to do our hair - Laura had already started to curl here hair when I came and I twisted my hair (strand by strand) and used bobby pins to put them up. That way my hair got even more curly :) I sprayed them again with water and put a towel on my head so that I won't drip on the floor.
      After that I put lotion all over and started my makeup.

      We were ready to go taking pictures at 4pm but we visit Laura's neighbor very quick to show her our dresses.

      Here we are with her neighbor :)

      Because it was raining a little Steph had the idea to go to the library instead of Munsinger Gardens. The library has huge windows - we would get a lot of light - so that's why we went there. Steph wanted to take our pictures but Obadiah started crying while she was getting my flower (corsages) so she stayed home. Laura's mom had a lot of funny ideas for the pictures:

      • 'Normal' ones in the entry way where they have big blue peaces of glass with very pretty pictures on them (they kind of matched our dresses)
      • in the glass elevator 
      • us sitting at the desk, working with the computers and having big headphones on
      • sitting in the reading corner on very comfy couches, legs on the table and reading books that - again - were matching our dress color
      • in a corner between the glass front and a bronze looking wall, me leaning at the glass and Laura at the wall
      • walking down the stairs

      Normal in front of the glass things
      And a little further out so you can see the dresses better
      "Working" with computer
      It was funny :)
      And again with the books
      Leaning at the window and wall
      A little closer
      After that we went back to Laura's house so she could get her car and we then went to the Grand March together (her mom and brother stayed home and came a little later so they don't have to wait there forever).

      Her dress is sooo puffy :) She said it was very hard to drive!

      There we met all the other people already waiting in line.

      Jillayne and me
      Jillayne and Laura
      After that we went home to my place very quick where Steph took some more pictures and we also picked up dough to make German pancakes at Laura's house. Steph posted the pictures on facebook!

      So then about 5 minutes later we went back to Laura's house changed out of our dresses and into comfy stuff to make the pancakes so that out dresses don't get ruined!

      Laura's room - just a little chaos after our 'attack' :D
      The pancakes were great! We had berries, applesauce, sirup, granola, fruit with yogurt and cinnamon&sugar with them!
      Because I love sweet stuff pancakes is basically the only thing that I ever cook when I'm hungry so I memorized the recipe and prepared the dough before I left to Laura's house, but I forgot it at home so we stopped by to pick it up :) Our German pancakes are a lot thinner than American ones and in general look more like crêpes. Here is a picture that I found online that looks pretty close, we didn't take any :D

      After that we got ready again and Laura's mom took us to the dance.

      Sally and Laura

      It was so hot in there that my lens was all foggy - that's why I didn't take a whole bunch of pictures...

      It was sooo much fun getting ready with Laura! We listened to 'Mamma Mia' almost the whole time, so that's why I picked Dancing Queen as a title :)

        Sunday, May 8, 2011

        A Message

        ... to the two best mom's on earth!

        Mom kissing me on our last vacation together
         My mom ...
        • ... is always there for me
        • ... knows me very well (sometimes maybe a little too much :D)
        • ... is a very good person to go shopping with!
        • ... is amazing
        • ... is generous
        • ... is sometimes a little selfless
        • ... is very far away right now
        • ... does a lot of things for me for which I never really thanked her before
        So here it is: Thank you for all what you have done for me! For supporting me in everything I do, for understanding when I don't want to do something. For loving me no matter what, for telling me you love me. For being proud of me and counting down the days until we will see each other again :)

        I love you so much for who you are and what you've done for me!

        Steph sitting in the living room

        My (host) mom...
        • ... is admirable (just read the next couple things and you will get a clue why!)
        • ... just had her eighth child 
        • ... is doing daycare
        • ... is "29" years old :)
        • ... likes her iPod and camera a lot
        • ... taught me a lot of things
        • ... opens her house for a lot of people (e.g. Patrick, Hope, me... ^^)
        I would like to thank you, too. For letting me be "No. 11/Goldberry" of your family. For opening your house for me. For always reminding me to do things when I forget it (turn in forms for YFU etc.). For supporting me throughout this whole year. For giving me a ride whenever I need one.
        I love talking to you about medicine and "Creation vs. Evolution".

        Thank you so much, for who you are - Don't let other people judge you!


        Thursday, May 5, 2011

        You'll be in my heart

        That applies to my blood :D

        ... and it's a great song, and I love the musical, the music too so this song just had to end here eventually!

        Okay to come back to my blood. My mom could never tell me what my blood type was, she just wasn't sure and I always forgot to ask the doctor when they were checking my blood. Today we did our blood type lab in Anatomy and Physiology (I just love that class so much) where we poked our finger - well Mrs. Handahl did it for us so that nobody passes out :) - and mixed the blood together with Anti-A, Anti-B and Anti-D serum.

        I am A+ :) So my ABO blood type is obviously A and my Rh-factor is positive.

        It was so interesting to finally find that out and to see how that works!

        Sunday, May 1, 2011

        Zu schnell vorbei

        First of all here are the answers for the 5 Mastery Test Questions I posted last time:

        1d)    Rheumatic Fever damages the valves of the heart.
        2a)    The visceral pericardium is also know as the epicardium.
        3a)b) The structures that prevent the mitral and tricuspid valves from swinging into the atria during ventricular contraction are the cordae tendineae and papillary muscles.
        4c)    The aortic bodies containing pressoreceptors and chemoreceptors are located in the aortic sinuses.
        5a)    Venous blood flow is maintained by all but which of the following factors blood pressure.

        Now then my report about our Scrapbooking Sleepover :)
        Karla picked us up at the mall at 5pm on Friday and took us to her house in Kimball where we had the Winter Fun Day too earlier this year.


        Karla also took me to the Fire Department - her husband is a fire fighter - where we picked up some tables for the scrapbooking.

        That was in front of the building

        The Fire Department of Kimball

        Star Spangled Banner and POW-MIA Flag

        A picture that they have in the building

        Just in case you couldn't see it -there is German!

        And she let me put on a fire fighter outfit. It was her husbands since he was out of town and they wouldn't need it in case there was a fire somewhere. We took a lot of pictures and it was a lot of fun. So here for my daddy in Germany who is a volunteer fire fighter himself a couple pictures of your little daughter :)

        Me putting the shoes and pants on
        With the jacket on too
        ... and the helmet :)
        With one of the fire trucks
        The oldest truck they had - they don't use it though
        And the most interesting truck for me - the ambulance

        Well I didn't take any pictures while we were scapbooking but it was basically as messy as last time :D We had a lot of fun and I got 16 pages done - makes a total of 31 super heavy but beautiful pages ;)

        Here are some pictures of the pages!

        Page about being Student of the Month (Note from Principal, Letter and Certificate)
        Schoolpaper on the right and Schedule, notes and Report Card left
        Whole Year Schedule, School map, Name tag left and Assignments right
        Family pictures from October - Tirzah, Malachi, Josh and Zeke
        More family pictures - Caleb, Eden, Micah and Kathi
        Steph and Mitch, Family picture
        The day we took the family pictures
        And more of those
        Just to show you how big it is already - Christmas, Easter etc. missing!

        I think it is very big already and I didn't even start with the pages about Christmas, TCX, Blizzard, Easter etc.

        When we were too tired to continue scrapbooking on Friday night (about 3am) we laid down started watching Centerstage. It's one of my favorite movies so I watched it about 15 times already and was way to tired to focus. I think I fell asleep about half way through the movie :)

        Doing all this scrapbooking I always realize how fast time is passing... that's why I picked "Zu schnell vorbei" as a title which means "Over too quickly" or "Gone too quickly". I really like Clueso's music.