Attack of The Killer Birds, All Wrapped Up In Christmas, and Where Oh Where Is My Camera!

Hello reader. I am going to write a short post to tell you about what I have been up to. I'm just going to hit a few highlights. After I wrote my last post Eberhard, Katrin, Mira, and I went for a walk in the dark because the snow was so beautiful. We had this really cool torch thing, but the wind kept blowing out the flame. Too bad, but it still was very beautiful. It was nice to hear the crunch of snow beneath my feet. I had prepared myself not to have a lot of snow when I was here, so I was really excited that it had snowed.

I also watched the old version of The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock with my host family. The ending has got to be one of the lamest movie endings on the planet, but it was still pretty fun. I have to say, that I am now more aware of birds. The movie didn't bother me, but never the less I am much more aware of them.

Two weekends ago, I was in Flensburg with my host family. The trip was organized for a visit to Eberhard's mother. In the evening we were in Flensburg looking for some shoes. I desperately need shoes, seriously. My runners are not in good shape! They are begining to fall apart!

So I didn't really find anything until we went into this one shop and I found the most gorgeous black leather boots! I just about died! They were sooo pretty and they were made in Germany! LIKE OH MY GOSH. They were perfect, simple, but perfect. The tops folded over really cute, but there was just one problem....they had every size, but mine! I KNOW. Painful! lol Oh well this weekend Katrin is taking me to Fulda or Kassel to look for some shoes. Maybe I'll find them again, but this time in my size!

We've been doing some pretty cool things in Drama lately and we are hoping to perform in the middle of March. We have some pretty intense rehersals this month on the 20th, 22nd, and 23rd. They'll be all day rehersals and we should get a lot done.

Oh and in art class last week I drew this really excellent picture! The picture in the book was really beautiful and it wasn't a sketch so I didn't want to immitate it, but just take inspiration from it. It was so perfect that I didn't want to copy it. It was a picture of a black man made up of pieces of paper. So I also drew a black man with his head facing the same way, but I made him a little different. When I get my camera I will take a picture of it. I was really pleased with the way it turned out, especially since I have never taken an art class before, and I have a hard time understanding what is going on in the current art class I am taking. So it's pretty epic!

On Friday I went up to Frankfurt for a Rotary weekend. It was mostly for the German Outbounds for next year. All of the countries had to make two presentations. Since it was only my district there were no other Canadians. So I had to present by myself. I made a really cool powerpoint presentation for the Land Information Presentation. It went over really well. I played Tom Jackson's version of the Huron Carol for the Folkloric Presentation.

I was pleasently surpirsed to see a few friends from the other district there. Not all of the other district was there, but only the people whose country wasn't represented in our district. So I got to reconnect with some friendly faces. We also got to go to the Frankfurt Christmas Market. I wish we could have stayed longer it was sooo cool.

There were all sorts of sweets, food, ornaments, wood decorations, mittens, socks, and all sorts of other things. Some people said that the some of the people who sold their stuff at this Christmas Market spent all year making the things that they were going to sell. It was sooo cool and so big! There were tons of people!! I felt sooo short! It was hard not getting lost in the crowd. Some how Anin and I (a friend from Indonesia) managed to stay together.

I was back at school on Monday and I came home early yesterday because I was feeling really sick. I slept the entire afternoon and got up for a few hours to eat and talk with the family before going back to bed. I slept in pretty late today and I am feeling a lot better, so I'll be back at school tomorrow.

OH! I forgot to mention that last week I made my first German cookies! It was quite fun Johannes, Katrin, and I did this together and we played some German children's Christmas music and my Canadian Mix Christmas CD from Canada. It was pretty cool! Katrin says that we have more cookies to make in the coming weeks!

Also, Katrin has made me an advents calender. It is sooo cute. Every morning on my plate there is a white pouch tied with white ribbon and there is a leaf with a silver number on it. So far I have gotten a small chocolate bar that said 'Somebody is thinking of you. I think of you!' but in German of course! The second day was a package of mints and today I got a small bottle of vanilla hand cream. It is really sweet.

I've been drinking more tea and talking with the Wagner's and I think I really fit in well here. I'm able to practice a lot on my German with them and my confidence is building. It was really neat in Frankfurt, with all of the exchange students because I figured that people would talk only English or Spanish, but I ended up talking half in English and half in German all weekend. Some people were upset that they were losing their English, so they wanted to speak English and others only wanted me to speak to them in German.

I was really proud of myself, because I was able to understand most of what the speakers were talking about on the weekend and I was able to communicate in German to my fellow exchange students. So that was really quite neat. Not to mention my blazer looks so FANTASTIC! OH man when my camera comes I will take pictures so you can see it. It looks SO EXCELLENT!! Words cannot even begin to describe how excellent it looks. I got more pins over that weekend!

Speaking of my camera! I now know what has happened to it. It's not lost, but stuck in customs. Katrin and Eberhard tried to explain to the post office that this is a gift from my parents to me, an exchange student, in Germany and that I will be taking this camera home when my year is over so it doesn't make sense that I pay customs. Well the customs people really want me to pay those 20 Euros and if I went through a load of paperwork I might be able to get it back, but I'm just going to pay it so I can get my camera, take pictures, and upload them on blogger. So pretty soon I should have my camera and then I will snap a bunch of pictures and upload them! So your wait for pictures is almost over!

It's snowing again today and I am in a "Christmassy" mood. Well that's most of what has been going on here. I'll try to write again soon. Take care.