do this or have a bad conscience the rest of your life...

READ MELANIE'S BLOG!!! by the way, that's my cool as a cool cat cousin who just arrived in brasil to start off her Rotary Youth Exchange...in campo grande, brasil!! heres her blog:

http://mythinkstoday.blogspot.com/

well, im back.

ok well for those that didn't know, I'm back in the states so i guess my blogging days are over.

sum of the story: the title lived up to itself, that was, the best year of my life.

frankreich...

Ich fahre morgen nach Frankreich, um meine Freundin Mady zu besuchen. Das heißt ich werde wahrscheinlich Nichts schreiben. Hoffentlich ist das bei euch schon okay...weil ich nicht viel Zeit noch habe und ich würde lieber halt die Zeit mit meinen Freunden verbringen. Alles wird jetzt so traurig, aber das Wetter ist richtig geil. Aber hammer schwüll ey!

To make that short...I'm going to France tomorrow, Nantes, to visit Mady, who was last year in Redding as a Rotary exchange student. And I get back next week and may not even post much more because then I will have less than 2 weeks left and so therefor would rather spend time with my friends and people here before I leave....

just a little busy...

ok I have been really quite busy in the lately...sorry I havent posted. My time is kinda crammed full of always having something to do because well ja Im comin home in about 3 weeks. Ok well I havent been that terribly terribly busy, but my camera has also been freaking out..and mom, its working again, i can take pictures, except the display is completely gone...cracked, weird black and white shapes. But i did mess around with photoshop yesterday and made these pictures...one of me taken in amsterdam and the other is of amsterdam, a canal, pic taken on a bridge at night. but ja, there they are..and so i was just droppin in to say hi and that things are good. :)

pictures...

Read the post below first....

the pictures are:

1. Us exchange students after running our city run, in our tshirts

2. ashley and i in front of the cadamaran on bodensee

3. and then us with our bikes and sorta matching shirts, and grrr faces

4. a club in amsterdam, Paradiso

5. On a bridge on a canal in a little down in the Netherlands.

6. Renate and Bruna and I

7. Amsterdam, black and white style

8. Alison and I on some statue thing in amsterdam

9. Central Station

10. central station sillouhette at sunset...sehr sehr schön.

Oh, and germany is going insane because of the world cup...really insane. Germany just beat ecuador about 2 hours ago and the cars are still driving down teh streets honking and people in the city are screaming ''DEUTSCHLAND DEUTSCHLAND!!!'' its soooo funny.....im taking part in the madness.....

this humid weather is making me post

I am so happy because the weather is finally becomeing something normal here in Germany...its been warming up to around 30° c...so not quite 90°F but the Germans are dying. They think its so hot and its quite amusing really....however the one thing worse that they have here that california doesnt have is humidity and the things they dont have are air condioning or swamp coolers. Of courese they dont really need them to that much of an extent...but last week it was 27°C in the house with 70% humidity. DO the math, it was hot. I was vacuuming the dog hair out of the rugs, whihc is quite exhuasting, becasue the dog hairs dont like to come out of the carpet.---..needless to say, i was sweating very much. ewwwwweeeee. Anyway so to catch up on old news....

I went to amsterdam and that was such a cool experience. It was me, Matt, John, and Alison (usa), Bruna and Renate (brasil), Belen (Argentina), Belens host sister (German haha), and Juan (Mexico). We took the Länder tickets on the train to get up there...whihc means, the regional trains that stop often....whihc means I traveled over 14 hours and had to stay the night by another because i live so far south. It was a long time but a lot cheaper then the fast trains. Well we got there in the evening around 9 on a wednesday and it was still waaayy bright outside and wasnt completely dark until around 12.15 int he morning,....whihc is sooo cool. Being so far norht is always neato. We were there until sunday when we took our train out at around 8 int eh morning. The city is very very pretty...its at my favorite with Rome, for europe that is, and prague too. There are canals everywhere and architecture is sooo pretty. Really tall narrow buildings taht are all together but each has a different color and style and roof cutout. I loved that. And good shopping too!! Although I wasnt really aloud to buy much haha because of money and flying home reasons. And many might think that because we were 9 teenagers in the 17-19 year old range, that we would only party and go shopping and that sort of stuff, but no, we also went to museums. Anne Frank House, a huge modern art museum whose name I forgot because dutch is a really weird language, and I also went to a photography museum. The others went to Van Gough but I opted to spend less entry fee and go to photography cause that interested me. And then wandered around the pretty outskirts of the shopping district and took artsy pictures etc. We didnt go to Rembrandt either...well because his stuff is frankly not that interesting to me, and I already saw a rembrandt exhibition in finland. The last day we took a train out to a little traditional Dutch town with the windmills and cheese and canals through the grass fields. Unfortunately the tulip season is already over so we didnt get to see those. The whole time the weather was fantastic. On in the night did I wear pants. And even so, it was still warm.

And being in Amsterdam we had to check out of course, the Red Light District. Alhtough that wasnt that hard...we were living in it. We booked the cheapest youth hostel we found with space...on the internet. Called The WHite Tulip...on one the outter streats of the red light district. Had to walk a block or two in to see the real stuff. But there are soooooo many tourists tho its unbelievable. Much more english was heard than dutch, the majority being from england, but still many americans too. We however, spoke very much german so that they would all think we were german haha and also so that we would all understand each other of course. The amount of tourists tho is one of the coolest thigns about the city though. We met and hung out with people from: Finland, Ireland, Estonia, Mexico, and Australia. It was sooo awesome!!! I love meeting other people! And natürlich, did we also absorb the Amsterdam nightlife, which is one of the coolest EVER. The city is completely dead from about 6am till 9.30am. Walknig to the train station Sunday morning was quite a quiet experience haha. Needless to say the dance clubs were really cool and just hangin out in one of the main squares at 3 in the morning is always interesting. Well on the last night I just sat in the window sill of our youth hostel and people watched...it was a bit melancholy because the city was so pretty and so sad to leave, and so we hung out in there for a bit (plus we were all really really tired), and i just stuck my head out the window (because most european windows doent have screams and swing open), and watched the people. The gay couples there, especially the men, are very open, whihc was cute too. hehe. especially when they are older and wear leather pants and vests and no shirts. But yes, the nights were fun and also pretty, i stopped on so many bridges to take pictures of the light on the water.

Oh and Alison and I took a boat tour too. At sunset which was really pretty. So that was Amsterdam...I wiould definitely like to take another trip back there beacuse that city was just SOOOO cool.

ANd now is when I have the part where I must thank those of you who are reading and leaving such nice coments (especuially grandma!), even though I have not been posting much. Sorry but I have just been really quite busy lately. Im trying to do as much as I can with my time I have left, so not much time goes to computer. Anyway, thanks!! Danke schön!

I was home 2 days and then I was gone again, for the last rotary weekend with the other exchange students in my district. We were on Bodensee, Lake Konstanz (Constance) for th weekend. Arrived on thursday and all friday we were bike riding, from the city Friedrichshafen to Lindau, which is an island city. It was cool and pretty, but not taht tiring sicne we were always kinda made to take breaks...ehhh. The next day was checking out an older city int eh area and particpated in a stadtlauf...city run. there were about 25 participating groups...and we were with rotary. Just run as much as possible in 30 minutes, i got 6 rounds, 6 kilometers. But it was soooo humid...ewwwww. And then Sunday was going home saying goodbye time..whihc was a sad, crying, tearing, weird experience. oh wow...flying home will be even worse. But I ended up going out with ashley from canada and her hose parents out on their cadamaran on the lake, which was cool, and got tan. And then i came home...and here I am...just wanted to post for you all....

weather forecast: blog draught to continue through the weekend

I'm really sorry I haven't blogged...I was gone all last week and have only been home since Sunday eveneing and tomorrow I am leaving again till next Sunday. I promise it shall rain sometime next week. Otherwise I am trying to enjoy the 80 degree weather and go running and swim sometime and then i will blog...

kari

sorry

Ok I'm not dead, I just got a new host family and that is awesome and they are awesome and that is why I have dissappeared. They live in Säckingen and I love their dog! Kinda like a bigger Ozzy. And I have a house key and that's always cool. I have already done so much more with my friends, just because I now ahve transportation, aka niedergebisbach is in the middle of nowhere and the bus never comes there.... i love it with this family. Tomorrow night I'm leaving for Amsterdam, and Ill be home SUnday night. Its going to be fun, with other exchange students. And grandma, I like big earings, but not too heavy, and any color is good...everything. Pearl necklaces are cool too...simply all jewelry, I am kinda beomcing a jewelry finatic here caus I can by such things and they dont take up space like clothes. and thats Lotte, the dog, and she loves apples. she eats them like steak. its quite cute.

continued...

so the Rotex weekend we just hung around a lot. On Saturday we watched a slideshow that Rotex made from the West tour and then East tour for us. There were pictures, music, and videos...RICHTIG GEIL!!! SOOOO AWESOME! All the outbounds, and also some from the West tour, said that the east tour (MY TOUR!!!) looked waayyy better. ohhh yeah! just the people, and our rotexers were really awesome...and we all got a dvd with all the rotex pics and videos...very very funny. We went to the schwimmbad (swimming complex) in the evening and had a little tour of the city, but couldnt have free time because there was a Nazi/anti-nazi demonstration in the city. That was ok though, because then we just stayed at the sport complex place and I played soccer for 2 hours...with most just South Americans. Well throw in a German (rotexer), a swiss, canadian, me, the american, and the rest were: ecuador, mexico, colombia, brazil, argentina...and i was the only girl. RARR feel my wrath. they said i plaid good. i was happy. Ö :) Of course that also meant lots of spanish, then translating from spanish to german, so i could understand what the new rules were.... My train ride back on Sunday was 11 hours long..wow that was long.

Last weekend was the district conference for this district and that was in Säckingen, whihc was cool. I didnt have to go anywhere. We exchange students spoke in front of all the rotarians and i was kinda the leader and organized how we were to do everything so that was also neato.

On Wednesday I met with an exchange student friend of mine from Brazil, Vini, and his family from Brazil. They were making a Germany tour thing and so I met them down here in Southern Germany. Bodensee (Lake Konstanz) is really really pretty...the cities are all right on the lake, its sooo gorgeous. Unfortuneately I just burned the pics onto a cd and forgot to post them first, and now they are deleted. (since I am changing host families on tues....i dont know how long I will be with the next family, hopefully till the end of the excahgne. they live direct in säckingen. voll geil!!).

Yesterday I had my last soccer game and then we had a big party afterwards at the club house, with all the teams (except the little kid teams), and ever plaid soccer in the middle of the night. that was funny. and now im here in the midst of packing...wow brings back stressful memories of my last week at home....

it rained on the blog....

Pictures: the gym on the rotex weekend, the three boys from Ecuador dressed up like girls for our ''Switch party'', ''MONCHINO!!!'' the Brasilien thing where someone yells Monchino (sp??) and everyone jumps ontop of everyone, and then everything hurts...i have been on the bottom several times (that started on eurotour), and it hurts. , Morgan (france) and I after bummin it in the park, Viva Italia! Vini (Brazil) and I sportin the Italy pullis, in the train on the way up north: Jaime (ecaudor) , Belen (argentina), me, and Nunt (thailand), and then me at a party with some friends....a friend of mine had this hat, i think he said it was from australia, and it said whistkeytown on it!!! COOL




It has rained, and the blog is back. Although there was a drought, yes, that is true. And despite your efforts to get a pull going there Mom, to get a post, it only worked on me, however I did not leave my name. And notice another thing, I am typing with proper grammar right now, or at least at this very moment, because I sort of just feel like it. I suppose I can mention something about Dresden, and why and how I was there, as the only thing I remember posting about Dresden were the photos. I was there with a lady whose husband is in Rotary. Most German clubs are only men, although there are some that allow women in also. That is a rather large conflict right now, whether to convert to the modern ways and allow women, or to stay ''traditional'' and only allow men as actual Rotarians...however the women are invited to one meeting every month, and most of the Rotary activities. Anyway, this lady, Frau Schöke, invited me to come to Dresden with her. I met her at the beginning of the year at my first meeting, and starting in November began meeting with her every Wednesday after school to work on German, and she served as my Rotary councelor for me due to the business of my first one, and the fact that he now lives in Austria. Now we just talk, since my German is getting along much better, but I always have qustions to front about grammar, etc. Two years ago she and her husband hosted an AFS exchange student from Latvia, and she is now studying in Dresden, and is the girlfriend of Frau Schöke's son. So we went to visit her because I had no school on the following Monday and got to skip on that Friday...and that was why and how I got to go to Dresden....

And since then...hmmm what has happened. Quite a bit I would say. I have started to really get some good friends, in my class, and now it's quite sad because I have less than 2 months left, hah one day less, exactly. The following weekend I believe I wasnt gone...I went to a birthday party for two girls in my class, and my friend Sandra and I had to walk to the clubhouse on the Rhein where it was at, and that was creepy..hehe. In the dark walking around the outskirts of the monster city of Säckingen haha. It was fun thoughI had a soccer game though, and played the entire time, despite my messed up foot. I don't know what is wrong with it, but since Paris, it's been messed up. Can't run or play soccer or walk too much before it starts to tut weh...to hurt. The following weekend was the Rotex Eurotour ''Revival'' Weekend...everyone from both east and west eurotours was invited, and also all the outbounds from district 1800, the district that put on the eurotour, in the near from Hannover region. We from the south went up early, like always, and took the 11 hour train route (the region, slower trains), so that it was much cheaper. We had a youth hostel booked for all of us, but something happened, and they said that we would have to pay 21€ each, instead of 13, which they had previously said...SO, we were about 30 exchange students, with no where to sleep, and therefor decided that since it wasnt that cold outside (I was wearing some shorts i made this winter and a tank top), we would find somewhere to sleep...aka a park behind the bahnhof, train station. It was quite fun, free, and the police didnt care. They walked by us and siad Hallo and that was it...those sort of things people can just do here in Germany. It's awesome!!! So if you just take a moment to imagine 30 exchange students, bumming it in a park...very amusing..luckily we all had our sleeping bags with us and all was good. I think I slept about 30 minutes, no lie. It became colder and then was quite hard to sleep. But then again, when we are all together, we never sleep a lot...thats just how it is. I then stood myself at about 5.30 in the morning and went for a quick jog to run some blood into my feet...we were in a park near a creek, so it was quite chilly. Then walked the 5 minutes to the bahnhof and got someting to eat an a capucinno. Then it got warmer, and so we all laid in the sun and tanned. Morgan from France and I went into the city, and since I was in need of some comfy flip flops, since I have only a pair of old navy ones that ow give me blisters for some reason, i would buy some. So I did, and tehy are comfy...adidas birkenstock style sandals, with one strap and white. i like them mucho. And of course H&M always occupies time when I see one...that amazing swedish store that is only on the east coast of the states...the cutest shirt, only €3...ohhhh jaaaaaa.

Then we had the actual rotex weekend. We cleaned up our park and then went to the bahnhof and met the rotexers that were picking us up and traveled on to the sport complex where we were staying with rotex. Alltogether we were soemthing like 170 people, it was insane...messy gym. but now I suddenly have to go, so I will have to finish another time.!!

it rained on the blog....

dresden pictures...

changes...

i just realized I made a mistake in the last post. i said he first 7 pics were budapest, but they were vienna and visa versa...i just changed it!! dresden coming soon....

vienna, prague, surprise!

the first 7 are in VIENNA and the rest in PRAGUE....the first is all of us, minus a few I think...and then the next is the famous Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna, then a church...and uhh, ja, that's an order of all a line of different Austrian beers...then Ashley and I doing our kiss..we made kiss pictures at every cool landmark I think I have about 50 of them!! Then the next is a part of the kings palace or somehting in Vienna...or used to be...then Prag...unfortunately the weather was just becoming pretty. Haha and the one with Kathryn and I, the was the Ashley Olsen scene, it was funny. And ja, the others are just pictures in the city. And woohoo! I'm excited because I am going to Dresden tomorrow morning!! Just found out, with a wife of a Rotarian...totally looking foward to it. Unfortunately the weather does not look so pretty as the 75 degree days we were having last week here...but ja, and Grandma Carolyn, thanks for the posts and the emails...I just sent off a letter this mornign to Grandma Jean, so if you happen to be there when it comes, then she could see it. I love you all and well, ja, until later!!

ljubljana, budapest...

the first 5 are Ljubljana, and the rest are Budapest...the view of budapest pic isnt so good because of the weather and whatenot, but thats ok... more to come another time....