PICTURES PICTURES PICTURES

Again this is just going to be a quick one. I still haven't recieved pictures from the play, BUT on the school website there are a bunch and I am in a few of them so CHECK THEM OUT!!!

This is the direct link:

http://www.jgs-rof.de/bildergalerie/2009/2009_0313_rosengarten/album/index.html
If for some crazy reason that doesn't work here is the school website home page and you'll be able to find them from there.

http://www.jgs-rof.de/

All of the performances went really well and all of my guest families came and saw me. I was so touched. I'm pretty sad that it's over, but it was a wonderful experience. We are going to all get together again after the easter holidays to watch our video and the real DVD at our directors' hause. Pretty cool. I am so excited. (I also shared some Canadian love with all of them and gave them some Canadian presents. They were pretty happy.)

I'm still sick, but now it's more coughing and sniffling than anything. Other than that I am doing good, but I am going to wrap up my computer stuff and call it a night early.

I'm sending all of you hugs. =)

I beg your pardon. I never promised you a rosegarden! Along with the sunshine there's gotta be a little rain sometimes. (song lyrics)

This is just a quick one. I wanted to show you the poster for our play. Our last performance is tonight. I've been sick since Thursday. I stayed home from school. On Friday I was well enough to go to school and perform than we all went to one of the girl's houses and hung out late. So my ears are plugged and I'm sneezing and my voice is a bit scratchy. My also had the worst headache ever from Thursday until Saturday, but luckily that's over now. (Although my voice is better today.) I'll write more later on this week, hopefully when I am feeling better! 2 weeks until my Euro Tour BAHHHH! OH and random fact of the day I've been waking up at 5 am every day since Wednesday. I have no idea why, but after that I can't really sleep. So this is the first time I've been sick here in Germany, not bad considering how long I've been here.

Take care!!

The title of this blog are some lyrics from a song that really should be in our play, but isn't. Sweet eh?? Here's the whole song. The most famous version is by Lynn Anderson. Enjoy and feel free to sing a long. =)

I beg your pardon,

I never promised you a rose garden.

Along with the sunshine,

There's gotta be a little rain sometimes.

When you take, you gotta give, so live and let live,

Or let go.

I beg your pardon,

I never promised you a rose garden.

I could promise you things like big diamond rings,

But you don't find roses growin' on stalks of clover.

So you better think it over.

Well, if sweet-talkin' you could make it come true,

I would give you the world right now on a silver platter,

But what would it matter?

So smile for a while and let's be jolly:

Love shouldn't be so melancholy.

Come along and share the good times while we can.

I beg your pardon,

I never promised you a rose garden.

Along with the sunshine,

There's gotta be a little rain sometimes.

Instrumental break.

I beg your pardon,

I never promised you a rose garden.

I could sing you a tune or promise you the moon,

But if that's what it takes to hold you,

I'd just as soon let you go,

but there's one thing I want you to know.

You better look before you leap,

still waters run deep,

And there won't always be someone there to pull you out,

And you know what I'm talkin' about.

So smile for a while and let's be jolly:

Love shouldn't be so melancholy.

Come along and share the good times while we can.

I beg your pardon,

I never promised you a rose garden.

Along with the sunshine,

There's gotta be a little rain sometimes.

To fade.

This and that.

So all of you who left comments pretty much rock my world. =) I was thrilled to find so many there today. (I haven't been on the computer for awhile.) So I'll update you on my life. Last weekend I had my first real weekend together with my host family. My host mother and I went to a mueseum in a Monastary near by, stopped for Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake), and also visited my host mother's Grandmother. Who just so happens to be 98....wow...Other than that we were at home.

After school on Monday I baked Brownies for my German class. (The real Northamerican kind. The brownies are definetly taste a bit different here.) Marion called while I was making them and asked if I was available to go to Rotary. I said OK and threw my brownies in the oven. Between checking the brownies I frantically got ready. (I only had an hour.) My brownies ended up taking a long time to cook. The middle was raw and I was becoming a little panicky! When Marion arrived I took them out of the oven and they were done. THANK GOODNESS. It practically gave me a heart attack. Felix told me I had put it on the wrong setting. Oh man... So now I think I have this oven's settings figured out. Luckily the brownies tasted good.

I went to Rotary and we visited one of the Rotarians dental practice. It was a very handsome office with a large cylinder fish tank in the middle. It was nice talking to Marion again and it was really cool that we talked only in German. When I was living with them we talked more English because I didn't know a lot of German back then.

Yesterday I went with my host father's class (he's a teacher in a nearby city) to the Opel Car Factory in Eisenach. It was interesting, but the guide was very unfriendly. As I'm sure you've heard Opel is having problems. Their mother company is GM in the U.S.A.

6 American exchange students have come to Rotenburg for 2 weeks. I had a chance to talk to one of them really briefly. It was nice talking in English to someone.

Tuesday evening was our 2nd performance. It went pretty good. I think it was better on Friday, but we still did a good job and Herr Meyer recorded it. A few more students were there too which was nice. We only had one or two students on Friday. So we have two more peformances. It's been so much fun. I can hardly believe it is almost over.

I leave on my Euro Tour on April 4th BAHHHHH!!! I am SO excited. It's going to be so much fun. I have a lot of fun trips coming up with Rotary. Well that's all I really have to report. Take care.

Rockin' the German Theatre Scene!

So tonight was definetly one of the best days I've experienced here in Germany. It was amazing and get this it was even Friday the 13th. The sky was half blue and I went for an hour long walk in the nature outside of Rotenburg which was glorious. School was short and gym was bareable even though we are still playing handball.

Drama was FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC! BAHHHHHHHH!!!!! You have no idea how nervous I was....like OH MY GOSH...it's nerve wracking enough performing a play for an audience when you are fully compitent in the language. You can always cover your mistakes and your language skills don't completely disentigrate when you are flustered. But you'll be glad to know that we absolutely ROCKED IT. The energy was great, the failures were small and insignificant, we only had 5 empty seats out of 50, I didn't mess up, and we had a very tight show. Katrin and Eberhard were there (Johannes is sick at the moment so he wasn't there) they loved it and it was great talking to them. I have had more hugs today than I have probably had since my birthday here in Germany and I am so proud of myself!! OH and get this...this is absolutely rich! One of the audience members thought that I was a German student keeping up an English accent the whole time. How hilarious and sweet is that! He said that he thought wow she can really keep up the accent. Hahahaha sooo funny.

Not to mention lots of pictures have been taken which I hope and WILL have access to. Many of them were taken by the local newspaper and my new host mother is a reporter there, so I have an in. Also Herr Meyer told us that next weekend we will tape it. WOOOHHOOO. You can tell that I am on cloud nine, but I promise any drugs.

So my day was AWESOME, I hope yours was too. Thank you reader and goodnight. (bows dramatically)

And PS thanks for the comments on the last few posts. They always make my day! =)

I just wanted to let you know I'm OK.

So as some of you have probably heard there was a school shooting here in Germany yesterday. I wanted to let you all know that I am OK and I'm far away from the town where this happened, so it hasn't affected me personally. I would have written yesterday, but I didn't have a computer.

I watched a lot about it on the news and it brings up a lot more questions than answers. It's shaken me a little, but it hasn't affected me personally. I don't understand how some one could do that. I know that hurt people hurt people, but I cannot fathom making a choice like that. 16 are dead, 3 teachers and the rest of the victims were mostly girls. It makes me a bit sick thinking about it.

There was a note outside our school today talking about what happened although most of us had been glued to the news last night. The headmaster had written the note and it was well written. He also asked us to think about the victims today and to be kind to one another. I thought the atmosphere would be different in the school today, I can't say that it was, but I did talk to Caroline a lot about it on our way to school.

So I just wanted to let you know that I'm OK. I hope all of you are well and safe too. I'm sending you all hugs and I hope you know I love you.

And I've worked so hard to acheive this moment.

I just got back from Drama. We had a rehersal from 6 to 10 pm. It was our last rehersal and our first performance is on Friday. I think we have a play. BUT what's even more wonderful is that after we were finished I asked how well Herr Meyer could understand me. I was a bit unsure. He is always telling us to speak clearer and I'm always nervous with my accent in German that the audience might have a hard time understanding me. He told me that he was able to understand every word and I only made two small errors. Both of which were the wrong endings on a few words. It has to do with the German cases. German grammar is complicated and I'm too tired to try to explain it so you'll just have to trust me. Anyways other than that it was perfect. No harm done I'll fix that for Friday.

Two people watched us peform the play today and one of them told me that she understood me quite well. I was thrilled, because she hadn't read the book or heard me speak in German. So that was great news. I've worked so hard all year, and for what you might ask. For moments like these. I'm in a theatre piece in another language and I can be understood. I can participate in a group and I can now understand everything that is going on when we rehearse. I am no longer the girl who walked into the first rehersal who had no clue what was going on and was stumbling over the few senences I knew in German. I have come such a long way and tonight I'm damn proud of myself.

Tick Tock Tick Tock....Tick Tick Tick Tick (AHHHHHH!!!)

Sorry that I haven't written earlier, it's been a really crazy week and this one is just as crazy if not crazier. I do have a few pictures for you though, so I figured that would make you happy. The move was hard, and I cried, but it was inevitable. Mira also understood what was going on. When I left she looked at me with these huge sad eyes. It was hearbreaking. I recieved a text message from Katrin which said, "Sleep well Marita. Love, Katrin." Of course that was incredibly sweet. I can't say I slept well, but that was mostly because the clock in my room ticks REALLY REALLY loud. I've actually taken the battery out of it, because I can't sleep otherwise!

Being in a new family is also quite mentally and physically exhausting. So I'm even more tired lately than usual. I'm just starting to get the hang of where the light switches are and Renato taught me a trick so I can get out of the bathroom. (He was living in this family before me.) The lock is a bit tempermental, so I've gotten stuck in the bathroom a few times. However with Renato's advice I can always get out!

My host sister Franziska isn't home. She's in Chile right now. Felix and Christopher were home when I first arrived. Felix is still, but Christopher left on Wednesday for a week to go to Spain on an exchange. He's back this Wednesday. Christopher is 16 and Felix is 15. Before Christopher left he told me that he hoped everything went well for me while he was gone. Then he gave me a hug. I was pretty much struck speechless. I'd only known him for 2 days and people here in Germany don't seem to be very huggy. So that was really shocking, but sweet.

My host parents Gudrun and Horst were gone for the weekend, so my guest Omi (grandmother) came down and took care of Felix and I for the weekend. We talked a lot. She is really open, friendly, and has travelled a lot. She has even been to Canada! So she showed me her pictures. I also met one of our neighbours for the first time. She is a really sweet lady. The Omi and I went with her to see Der Vorleser (The Reader) in the cinema. It was well done and apparently it's a German novel. I need to read the book. Kate Winslett did an amazing job.

I was rehersing all weekend in the school. 10 am to 6 pm on Saturday and 10 am to 7:45 pm on Sunday. We got a lot done and I think we will be ready for our first performance on Friday. We also did our first run through. It went well and luckily we managed to do it in under 2 hours!

I also ate the best döner of my life this week. There are döner shops everywhere here, but I've definetly discovered the best one here. Sooooo good. Yum. My stomache growls just thinking about it.

My German course is still going good once the play is over I can go twice a week. I'm still working hard in my other German book and I'm making more and more progress. I'm feeling very comfortable at the stage that I am now, but I still want to keep learning!

I'm hoping to get my Art project back on Wednesday or Thursday. As soon as I do I will post a picture! Renato is now in ma Art class because he switched into the 12th Grade. He was in the 13th Grade but they are taking their diplomas in a week and then they don't have to go to school. Of course he still has to, so now he is in my Grade, but we only have one class together. It's really nice having more time to talk to him now. We're both in the same boat.

It was really funny! One time we were in Art class and we were talking. (We were talking in English.) He prefers to talk in English and he is the only person I speak to English, so that was OK by me. Then a guy in our class comes over and says keep talking. He wanted to listen to us speak English. He also introduced himself and I feel bad, because I can't prononce his name!

We're also reading this strange book in German class which I found an English copy of on the internet. It's called Der Sandman (the Sandman) and if you are interested you can find the text on the web. It's rather creepy, but it's well written and the translation is also good.

In Music class today we started singing Happy Ending, by Mika. The text is rather unoriginal, but the music is really cool. We'll be performing that sometime in the future. In Gym class we are still playing Handball and we had to do these throwing dives. So my knees hurt! Handball and Volleyball are just not my thing. I liked Badminton better!

It's getting warmer here although it still rains a lot. Spring is on it's way yippe!

So remember people to leave comments. It can be as simple as read your blog. I just need to know you are reading this, because if people aren't than it's difficult to motivate myself or to find the time to write. It takes awhile to write a blog and even longer if I put in pictures. So remember to comment please. Miss you, love you, and take care reader.

This is a picture of my second host family the Wagners. On the far right is Johannes, in the middle Katrin, and on the left is Eberhard.

On my last day there Katrin and I made these special cookies that I wanted to make. Technically they are Christmas cookies, but what ever. Doesn't that look awesome.

Here are the cookies when they were finished. They didn't quite work out, but they look great!