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 ♥

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!

Paradise

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 :)

Inner Peace

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'!

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!

Dream

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 :)

Time to say Goodbye

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!

You'll be in my heart

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.

Zu schnell vorbei

High School

Oh I like school sooo much here!

Especially Anatomy&Physiology! I just wanted to post some multiple questions from my Mastery Test that I got for the Exam tomorrow. It's on the cardiovascular system and I really enjoyed studying that chapter. We dissected deer hearts and I just love the fact that we do so much things in labs and don't just talk about everything. It's very interesting to actually look at some things :)

Anyway here are the questions:

1. Rheumatic fever damages the...
a) walls of the ventricles
b) walls of the atria
c) membranes that cover the heart
d) valves of the heart

2. The visceral pericardium is also known as the
a) epicardium
b) myocardium
c) endocardium

3. The structures that prevent the mitral and tricuspid valves from swinging into the atria during ventricular contraction are the...
a) cordae tendineae
b) papillary muscles
c) endocardium
d) Purkinje fibers

4. The aortic bodies containing pressoreceptors and chemoreceptors are located in the...
a) ascending aorta
b) aortic arch
c) aortic sinuses
d) descending aorta

5. Venous blood flow is maintained by all but which of the following factors?
a) blood pressure
b) skeletal muscle contraction
c) vasconstriction of veins
d) respiratory movements

My mastery test has 65 questions of these, some are easier some are harder. It would be cool if some people comment and write their answers to the questions :) I will publish the solution with my next post.

Now I will study some more!

High School

This is your life

Actually it's my life but I don't have a lot of time and a hard time to find a better song, but I think this is pretty good (I love it) :)


I just want to post a few pictures with paper sheets I got in school that you get an idea what I have to do here:

My school :)

School Calendar

Volleyball game flyer

Anatomy & Physiology

Again A&P

And again A&P

College Preparation Algebra

Language Arts 11

Health II

I know that all of the pictures are way to small to be able to read them, but if you click on them another tab will open and there you could zoom (you can do that with every picture I post by the way ^^).

This is your life

A whole new world

First school day! It was soooo awesome.

My bus came at about 7:50 a.m (my German classmates would sit in their classroom for 5 minutes by that time :D) and I arrived school at about 8. I went straight into room 110 which is a music and my Symphonic Band room to bring my saxophone and my sports bag in the locker. It's big enough for both of them and I hadn't enough time to go to my volleyball/sports locker as well.

After that I went to the office to hand a form in which I have to send to my German school (no mom I didn't forget that ^^). When I'd done that I had to go to room 717 which is my 'Planning room'.  The school here is 'A whole new world' for me because nearly everything is different than in Germany - but better.

For example the schedule:
I have the same classes every day and only 7 periods and not 10 like some of my classmates in Germany :) Here we have a 6-day-system. That doesn't mean that I have to go to school 6 days a week but that each school day has a number between one and six and some classes aren't on each day (e.g.: Concert Band is day 2,4 and 6). We all got a Calendar which is similar to this one but we have the numbers of the days on it.
Today is 1, Thursday is 2, Friday is 3, Monday is 4, Tuesday is 5, Wednesday is 6, Thursday is 1, Friday is 2,...

I know that is so confusing when you're not used to it. So to get back to the planning room I was 'talking' about: We'll meet every Day 6 from 8:20-8:50. The planning room is new this year but it'll be easier for the teacher to give us informations. It was difficult in the past because not all seniors have the same classes so a lot of teacher had to give them the information during classes and the other students (juniors, etc.) were bored. So I think that's why they changed it. Now they separated between grades and last name. In my room are all students who are seniors and have a last name which starts with Ber-Cal (I think - but doesn't really matter anyway :P).

After planning room I had US History in room 428 (by the way when you have a map of the school - bird's eye view - the rooms are like you have your numbers on a phone. All rooms which start with a 1 are on the left side on the top, rooms like 501 are in the center of the school...). My teacher told us about the class, what we are going to do during the upcoming year, the grading procedure and what kind of rules she has in her room. After that we got our huge and heavy books from the library where I also find out what my ID number is :)

Second period is Anatomy and Physiology which is veery interesting and I think I'll learn a lot of things I could need when I'll study medicine :) We already wrote a little vocab test where we had to connect the Latin/medicine words with their explanations. It was a bit hard because I didn't always understand the English words which were used in the explanation text, but I think I did quite good.
We are going to write our next test on Tuesday and then we'll get grades for it, so I better start learning :)

Next class is College Prep. Algebra which is way easier than I thought it would be, but I feel like it will get harder with the next weeks :D We got a paper with a few little exercises on it.
Here are some examples:

1. a(3b-8) when a=2, b=5

2. 24:8-2
3. 11a+6c+4a-a
4. 2³ (multiply) 2⁴

When I got that sheet I thought it was a joke because it's a class for juniors and seniors, but I think I really shouldn't go to far out on a limb :D (I hope you really use that saying in English... found it on LEO ^^)

Afterward I had Language Art which was awesome! We had to find a partner, got 15 question and had to write down the answer of the partner. After we'd done that we should choose two answers which we wanted to present so that we get to know each other. That was a lot of fun. When we wrote down the answers we listened to music by the way, same for Anatomy and Physiology :D

Then I had Women's Choir where we actually didn't really sing but talk about our summer. Well we practiced scales and stuff like that. However the class was super fun :)

To go on with music my next class was Symphonic Band where we just tested our knowledge about music, like how to read it and how long you have to play a note or what words like 'allegro' mean :)

Last class was Health II where our teacher read two children's stories. We should say what we think about it and what the message would be. It was fun to hear a kids story in High School :P

After Health I which was over at 3:10 pm I had volleyball practice from 3:30-5:30. I was soo hard this time because our coach didn't like the attitude we had yesterday during the came. We lost, same as varsity, every other team (JV1, Freshmen A, Freshman B) won, and we played horrible. So however we had to do our stations - which are about 26 or something and every one takes 25 or 35 seconds. When we would have stopped during an exercise we would have to start over again at station 1 so because we really didn't want to do that we were all very exhausted afterward. Then we practiced hitting, serving and 'communication on the court'. That communication thing is that you shout 'mine' or 'got it' as soon as you want to play a ball. We really need to learn that!

I just noticed that I didn't finished my math homework yet...so I stop that here. I think I wrote enough today and I also think that this is my longest blog post ever :P

A whole new world

We are Family

So now I already have four different families :)

One family is probably asleep right now and lives in Germany :)

My second family and I are just back from a dinner at Bonanza.

The third family is the church and the Youth Group.

And I just joined a fourth family that stands of three girls of my volleyball team at Apollo and me. In the team we were separate in groups of three to five girls. In a group the other girls are your 'sisters' and you are supposed to encourage them before the games and give them little presents. I think that is awesome!

So speaking of volleyball: It was veeeery hard and exhausting ;)

Here is the development of the 4-hour-practice:

1. Run a mile

2. Stations (Sit-ups, Push-ups, squats, box-stepping, sprinting, blocking,...)

3. Warm up for volleyball (Building three groups: serve, pass and  setter. The serve brings the ball over the net, runs over to the other side of the net, pass the ball of the next server to the setter and is then setter himself and has to go with the ball back to the serve line...)

4. Separate in the 'sister-groups'

5. Getting jerseys

6. Workout

7. Practice serving

8. Play a couple of games of volleyball

I was super tired afterward. I brought my report card from my last school year in Germany to the counselor and talked to her again. I was a bit confused because the letter with my schedule, grade, locker number and home room didn't really fit to what we have talked about during our first appointment. I have to go there again tomorrow and I will get my new schedule and stuff :)

So after I saw the counselor a girl of my team gave me a ride home and I took a shower immediately and go right to bed then to take a nap :D

But I'm excited to go there again tomorrow!

We are Family

I want it all

Today Mitch and I went to see the counselor of the Apollo High School to make my course choice. I'm going to be in class 12 so I'm a senior :) Which is super cool ;)
It was sooo hard to find the right courses, because there are so many different options!
They offer 163 different courses so just that you can imagine how hard that is :) I don't know if I will be able to have all these subjects, because some of them could be already 'full'...

So here it is:

Dep:          Trimester 1                 Trimester 2                Trimester 3

LA                    Language Arts 11                 Film Study                             Acting/Theater Workshop
Social               US History                            US History                             US History
Math                College Prep Algebra            College Prep Algebra            College Prep Algebra
Science            Anatomy+Physiology             Anatomy+Physiology            Anatomy+Physiology
Elective            Digital Photography               Health II                                Community CPR, First Aid, AED
Elective            Band                                     Band                                      Band
Music               Choir                                     Choir                                      Choir

P.S.: I don't mean all the things that are said in the song. It's just that I wasn't sure what classes I should choose and I was like 'I want it all' so that's why I picked the song for my title :P

I want it all