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....