I miss the doggies

Thos are some fun pictures from the gargen. Not such a good one of me, but its funny anyway...I dont care what I look like anyway...I'm in the garden, afterall.

I see the picture of me with Zoe when I log in to blogger and it makes me sad (well not really sad), because I miss Ozzy and Zoe!!! And Hankie too...I want to see them run up and down the hall chasing the squeaky toys and going crazy and I want to see Ozzy howl. mmmm I love those doggies. And a little about German students: they are all very organized. And I conformed to the European way and got a pencil case. I figure that I might as well because I have to bring special pencils for art class and I dont want them bouncing around in my backpack...and then in addition all my other pens. EVERYONE has them here...seriously no one in America did...just a little leather or vinyl case for their pens and pencils and variety of colored pens and rulers and protractors. The German students are perfect...every line under a heading is drawn with a ruler and instead of making a bubble diagram with free hand bubbles, they use one of those little devices that draw perfect circles (what are those called? I forgot since I haven't been in a math class for 2 years), or they make a square with the ruler. And everything is color coded, and they all use quill-tip style pens, and almost always is in blue ink. And then little magic inc eraser pens. And they all have student planners and calendars and write everything down in it. They are super organized...dont see anyone walking around with a binder with papers just thrown everywhere. I find myself pretty organized but compared to them I guess I am a little messy. They mostly only use graph paper, for every class. No matter what kind of paper I write on, it seems like my notes look messier than everyone elses. I don't really like the binders they have here so I bought one of those divider binder things that flip open with a bunch of slots....like what a lot of American students use. The other binders are too big and most of the papers I get from teachers don't have holes in them. So there is my bit about the students.

And to any of you that seem to have thought that I am dropping out of all my classes, I believe you were a wee bit confused. Ther German course I was talking about would have been in addition to regualar school...it was a German as a foreign language class offered on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. The lower level one is only offered on Monday's and Wednesday's, and I am not giving up soccer. I am bound to learn German, now it's just a matter of how long it will take. As for my classes in school there are 11 periods throughout the day, one being lunch. The first begins at 7:50 and the last gets out some time around 5 i think. Each class is 45 minutes long and lunch is 50. Most kids get out at 1pm 3 or 4 times a week and at 3:30 or 5ish the other days. Most have more classes than me too, heheh. But thats ok, I can handle what I got. Afterall, I was actually told in my Rotary interview that I should not worry as much about school as I usually do anyway. muhuahahah!!! This is what I have:

Monday:
1. free
2. free
3. Deutsch
4. '' ''
5. Politics
6 '' ''

Tue
1 free
2 free
3 free
4 English
5 Ethics (kind of a philosophy class too...I wish I understood because I like that kind of stuff)
6 '' ''
7 lunch
8 Sport (PE)
9 '' ''

Wed
1 free
2 English
3 '' ''
4 Math
5 Art
6 '' ''

Thurs
1 free
2 free
3 Deutsch
4 math
5 '' ''
6 English
7 lunch
8 sport
9 '' ''

fri
1 Chemistry
2 '' ''
3 math
4 Deutsch
5 History
6 '' ''

So there is my school life for the next year. Oh and I have 2 sport classes....I guess that is unusual, most only have one. Oh, and here Carhart is a popular name brand. Like kids wear sweatshirts that say Carhart on them like they would say Adidas or Volcom or something. And there are girl carhart clothes too, and some of the jeans are really cute!

Last night I went out with Metina from my soccer team to a going away party for a friend of hers going to Australia for 6 months...to travel...for 6 months!!! Anyway, I was really excited that she invited me to come, and her mom even called to ask Manfred and Karola (I just found out it's spelled with a K), if I could go with her. Most of the people were older than me, but the ones friends with Metina were all really nice and inviting to me. Metina's boyfriend talked my head off the whole night. I asked him to try in German but he insisted speaking in English because he loved the language and wanted to practice. And the mom of the kid going to Australia talked to me a bit; her other son spent a year in the USA as an exchange student also. And they were surprised that I didn't drink alcohol, but were more impressed about it than thinking that it was stupid of me. That's nice to know that they respected me for that. And the only major thing I am not liking about Europe is how many people smoke. Too many...and lots of places too...in public buildings, at school, etc. So I can home last night and I smelled like a cigarette, even my hair (eck). So I sprayed my hood with perfume and put it on. Made for a bit of difficult breathing going to bed. A wee bit of choking...guess it wasnt that good of an idea.

Oh yeah and yesterday Stefanie and I helped Karola pull the carrots and onions out of the garden. That was fun...it gave me sort of a good feeling just yanking the carrotts out of the living quarters (the dirt), to leave a blank space in the ground. Overall satisfaction. It was fun. Lots of carrotts to eat now...or maybe...carrott cake to make?? mmm I already looked up a recipe muhuhhaha.

And today I made tacos and my apple pie. They loved the tacos, and they turned out good, and the meat turned out really good too. And I can say my apple pie is now ''World Famous,'' literally. The family and a friend that was here absolutely loved it. Manfred said it's okay for me to stay now, hahah. For the rest of my life...instead of me going back, Stefanie can go for me and I can stay and cook and bake and sew. hehehe Ah and it tasted so good! I have been making sure to exercise though since my appetite is back, and back in full swing for those of you that know how much I can eat. Yesterday I went running for a good 30 minutes and today for about 40 minutes, in the rain and the wind. Ah its was nice though. I started out running harder, which was weird because then it seemed like I had more energy to keep going. So I think that's it, this was a nice long post. Auf wiedersehen....