Thankful for Thanksgiving :)

I got to celebrate Thanksgiving all the way over here in Germany! On Thursday, I ate with my Rotary club, and the exchange students living in my city! So that means another American, an Argentinian, and a Swedish(an?) haha! It was nice, but definitely NOT thanksgiving. THANKfully, on Friday, I got to go visit my Texan friend, where we would be preparing a TRUE thanksgiving meal... By ourselves... :o It was awesome though. I arrived at around 2, and we didn't leave the kitchen until I think about 7! We prepared a turkey, homemade sweet potatoes, mac & cheese, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy, green beans, stuffing, chocolate pie AND cake. EVERYTHING was homemade. No boxed stuffing, canned sauce, powdered gravy. Not even a frozen turkey! We had to have it ordered to be killed from the farm! I felt like Grandma in the kitchen ;) The stuffing and sweet potatoes were an especially fun thing to make ;) First off; stuffing. Neither Katie or I had ever made stuffing before, and of course we had a recipe.. that was in American measurements. Here is the recipe that WE followed.

ONE WHOLE LOAF of white bread 

4 handfuls of onions and strange white celery

2 sticks of butter

Some chicken broth

Cut the loaf into cubes. You are supposed to leave it out overnight to dry (so it will be like croutons) Of course forget to do that, so put the chopped cubes into a frying pan. "Toast the bread". Remove bread, and add vegetables and all the butter. Cook until tender but not brown. Eat half of the "toasted bread" while waiting. But all the stuff together, pour some chicken broth over it, and stick it in the oven. HOPE AND PRAY FOR THE BEST.

Actually all the Germans loved it. Katie and I knew that of course it did NOT taste like actual stuffing, but it wasn't half bad ;)    

                                                                                                                                    YUM!

Holding our baby! 7 kilos of deliciousness!

Now the sweet potatoes . haha! I peeled and cut sweet potatoes for a good 40 minutes before discovering that ALL of them were rotten. YAY. I mean, I have never actually seen fresh ones before, and the little black spots were everywhere! On every potato  So Katie and I just thought "Oh yeah, weird German vegetables..." haha no! Luckily the very last one I was peeling was ALL black, and thats when I decided something wasn't exactly right with this picture ;) THANKfully, Katie's host dad was able to run to the store and buy some fresh ones :D Of course we couldn't find normal marshmallows  so we ended up with the gourmet colored and flavored ones :p I must say it tasted really delicious! ;)

               Look at all that love ;)                                                             a NOT ROTTEN sweet potato!

All in all I would call it a major success  and an awesome weekend :) I spent the rest of it in Magdeburg, saw a movie, (NEVER ever watch Cloud Atlas in german...) I also got to go to church! Katie has an uncle who knows missionaries in Germany, and just out of pure luck there is one in Magdeburg! They do not do service in English, but they invited us to there house for lunch, and their whole family speaks perfect American english! That was really cool, and I love the family :) 

THIS WEEK;

My city's Christmas market ("Weinacht Markt" Weinacht=Christmas) opens TOMORROW!! :D Ah so excited! On another side, I'm bracing myself for the homesickness! :( Also, snow is expected this weekend right where I live... Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas y'all! :)

These past two weeks have been very different! I have been really homesick on and off,  and I had to move down to the 9th class (my actual grade) for two weeks because the whole 10th class is out of school for two weeks. So it was like the first day of school all over again! Not knowing anyone, being the cool American exchange student that no one talks to because everyone is so shy.. -_- Ohhh Germans ;) Last week on Monday (supposed to be my first day in my new class) I went to the Snow Dome (an indoor slope) with my host sister and her skiing/snowboarding group! It was awesome! I already know how to ski, and I figured since it is only one small slope, and one day, I would give snowboarding a try! WOW. It really is as hard as everyone says..! It wasn't easy receiving instructions in german, while trying (unsuccessfully) to snowboard. But I eventually got the hang of it! The last time I went down the slope I only fell once! :D YAY!

                                          Lookin like I know what I'm doing with that thing ;)

The rest of the week was normal.. German lessons, school, handball, school, piano lesson, school :) haha! AND on Thursday I celebrated 

3 MONTHS IN GERMANY!

WOAAHHHHHHHHH.

I also recived another care package from my mom and dad, and a letter on that day! It was great! I am floored that I have been here for 3 months already.. Really. 

This past weekend I went to Berlin! :) We stayed with friends of my host parents, and I love them! We left on Friday, sightseeing Saturday, and left Sunday. Just a short weekend trip ;)

Brandenburger Tor                                          Parliament house

I saw so many things in such a short time on Saturday. Although I know I barley scratched the surface of Berlin! Jürgen was my very own tour guide, (he is very knowledge able about Berin because he has been there countless times on school trips) I saw the Brandenburger Tor, Victory Staute, Holocaust memorial, the "white house" of Germany, the parliament house, opera house, and a lot of other cool things that I cant remember the name of ;) Just for the record it was freezingggggg! We also went to a Comedy show on Saturday night. Obviously it wasn't the most enjoyable thing for me.. I understood the main concept of the skit, but not enough to find it humorous..  Thats ok, everyone else really enjoyed themselves ;) Sunday morning we ate breakfast then headed back home! 

This week I am going to my Texas friend (in Magdeburg) to celebrate Thanksgiving on Friday! I am making cranberry sauce, chocolate pie, apple pie bites, and cake! Hopefully it all works out with the conversions.. :D I also have a choir concert tomorrow.. haha that should be interesting with our FULL class of 15 people.. ;) Wish me luck!

To Belgium and back!

I went to Belgium for the whole week! It was SO amazing! I really fell in love with the people I stayed with, the food, and the cities I went to! Everything was perfect :)

 
The first day we (Carla, Lena and myself) got there, we met Rachelle's family, and the exchange student from New York they are hosting :) We walked around Liege, and went to a little fair where I bought my first Belgian waffle! You could say it was love at first bite. ;) Liege is considered the Paris of Belgium, and it is so gorgeous! A quick 20 minute drive to get to the house of the Nicolai's, where dinner was already being prepared. Meatballs and french fries! As I later learned, the "french fry" actually originated in Belgium, and they are PROUD of it! ;) So don't get that mixed up if you ever go to Belgium... And just when I thought I couldn't eat any more, out come fresh hot fair waffle's that we picked up earlier! I just couldn't turn it down ;) We hung out the rest of the night, then got some much needed sleep after a long day of travel!

                    Our quick stop in Köln! :)                                          Ready to get going!!

My first Belgian waffle.. Man was I one HAPPY girl! 

 DAY TWO!

More waffles! ;) Today we went on a walking tour of Liege! We walked around with a private tour guide for about 3 hours. At around 5 pm, it was time to leave Liege, and meet the new people we would be staying with! Moni, Udo, and their 7 year old daughter Amelie. They are Lena's kin; Aunt, Uncle, etc. It was really sad saying goodbye to the Nicolia's but because of Rachelle, I knew we would get the chance to see each other again :) It was just another 25 minutes to get to Moni's house. Belgium is so small! We all at dinner together at a traditional Belgian restaurant! I ordereed Wild pig, it was actually really delicious :D                                                                











   

Day 3-     Antwerpen; Today we explored Antwerpen :) By train, it takes about an hour to get there. It is a city a little smaller than Brussels. It is a really pretty place! There I tried my first fresh Belgian praline :)) It was like paradise in my mouth! We went on a sightseeing bus, visited a Cathedral (they are EVERYWHERE in Europe!) walked through a really bad "China Town" and did a little bit of shopping :) We went back home, and I got to meet Lena's cousin, and his wife. We ate dinner together, and it was a great night, a great day! 


                                   Day 4 ; Brugge is beautiful :)
Brugge; Another city, another day! Brugge is defiantly my favorite city that we visited. It is not set up like a big city, but it has lots of little cute streets and SO many chocolate stores! It is all centered around a giant market square, that has fresh flowers, fruit, cheeses and meats daily. Since Brugge is a little small to do a sightseeing tour, we went to the ONLY french fry museum in the world, and a chocolate museum also :) In Brugge there is also the 2nd tallest brick structure in the world! It was a good day of firsts!





Day 5
Today was the Day that you visit your deceased loved ones (not sure if we have that holiday in the states) anyways, so all the stores were closed... So that meant we got to sleep in ;) We ate brunch at home, then in the afternoon we went to the Atomium in Brussels! I had been looking forward to that the whole trip, even since I knew we were going to Belgium! :D It was so big, and gorgeous! :)
                                               
                               Oh ya know, just one of those cool "I'm holding it!" pictures ;)

For dinner we went to a super fancy restaurant, Udo's favorite. I ate a little before, so I couldn't finish my meal... I asked for a to-go box and I thought Udo was going to fall out of his chair! Apparently getting it in a box is severely frowned upon :p haha! Opps!

                                                                       Day 6;                                      
Mannequin Pis!                                                                                         A classic "Brussels" waffle <3

Our last sightseeing day in Belgium! And today was the big day; Brussels! The capital of Belgium. In belgium, there are considered two differnt kinds of waffles; the Liege waffle, and the Brussels waffle. So of course, we had to try BOTH! ;) I must say, it is a close call to which one is my favorite.... If you ever go to Belgium, be sure to try both :D We did take a sightseeing tour bus, because Brussels is so big! I am really happy that we did, because I learned and got to see a lot of the city! We spent the rest of our time walking through the streets, seeing the sights; Mannequin Pis! The Grand Square, Hard Rock Cafe.. ;) The usual touristy things! It stared raining at about 2, and didn't give up the rest of the day. :( Thats alright, any day spent traveling is a good day :))

Saturday/Sunday; Back to Germany for us! The rest of the weekend we spent recovering from our long hard week of travel ;) It will definitely not be a trip that I will forget! <3 I LOVE BELGIUM! (and I'm pretty sure Belgium loves me.... as you can tell from all the food I ate ;) Homesickness is trying to creep in.. Hopefully I can st

Back to school for this girl! After two weeks of fall break I am kind of ready to get back into the swing of things and continue with my German learning, and friend making ;) Homesickness is trying to creep in.. Hopefully I can stop it with school! It hit me pretty hard on Sunday, but i am hoping for a great week :)) Can't wait to see what it brings!