Osnabrück till now.

Ok so my last week of vacation my host family and claire and I went to Osnabrück which is a city far to the west of us. It was about a 3 hour drive. It was in the state called Niedersachsen. Both of Claudia's and Georg's (my host parents) families live in Osnabrück. We went there for Claudia's dad's 75th birthday. Above is a factory and desulfurization plant that my host dad's company owns and works. It is in a town called Georgsmarienhutte which is the home town of claudia and Georg.

The Family. They were all a lot of fun. It is great trying to speak german with the kids. It really helps build your skills because they always want to talk to you and you really have to figure out a way to make it work.

A little bit of Osnabrück. It is a beautiful City i would say about the same size as potsdam. It is really old and has churches that were built in the 6th century. On our 3rd and 4th day in Georgsmarienhutte which is where we stayed with our family, we went into Osnabrück and explored. On the friday I met up with my friend from AFS and we went into Osnabrück together. She lives in the area so it worked out quite well.

So on the last day of the trip it was Claudia's father's birthday party. It took around the whole day but it was a lot of fun because all of the cousins were there. It was at a very big restaurant where we had a whole room just for the party and a buffet for eating. For breakfast we had very standard German breakfast. So it was brotchen (bread rolls) with meat like ham mostly and eggs hard boiled. There should be pictures on facebook soon. we later had some egg soup and very delicous German cake which i should have pictures up on facebook also. Outside the restaurant there was a neat jungle gym with goats that could go under it. It was really cool because we were allowed to go in and play with the goats. Which the little kids loved. We did go to a museum at some point during the day which was at the battle of the romans against the germanic people where the germans miraculously won. The generals were the roman general Varus against the german Leader Armenium. So Osnabrück was a lot of fun. This last weekend I went to a Handball game where my friend Lea's boyfriend played. He is on the second best handball team in germany. It was a lot of fun and i went with Lea, Marcel, and Leo. Handball is a crazy sport that is really aggressive but looks like it is a lot of fun. After the game Marcel and Leo and I went out into Potsdam and ate some and talked and joked around. It was good! German fun facts! Germans also have a thangsgiving in november. It is tomorrow celebrating the fall of the wall. All the milk here that i have ever seen has been 1.5 percent fat or whole milk. The biggest meal of the day in germany often is Lunch. Germany has 16 states. But for some reason when I ask my fellow students if they know what they are they seem to forget. (I know all 50 American states easily). In my school they only have tests on specific days that you know months in advance and we only have 2 or three a year. the only other form of tests are small quizzes that we have every now and again. Ok till next time!

Trip to the zoo

So Monday the 26th My host family and Leo's family and a few friends decided to go to the Berlin Zoo. It was a lot of fun. The berlin zoo is very big and is know to have the most variation of animal species in the european union. We saw very cute elephants playing with each other and we saw lions and tigers and bears. Oh my it was cool. So for the picture above I will give the names from left to right. Claire Macfarlane (The other american exchance student staying with us, my good friend Leo, Philipp my host brother, a gorilla, Lena (Leo's little sister), Valerie (Leo's Friend), me, and Lena's friend. (I forget her name).

Lena is really cute and is a little dämon (demon) sometimes. so i had to give her a lesson by throwing her into the pond.

2 of my favorite people in Deutschland.

Valerie and Leo and Claire. They seem to be enjoying their time at the zoo. We went to the petting zoo part of it and we got to feed the little animals. I felt like a little kid because I had so much fun. Expect my hands were so disgusting afterwards from the food and animal spit. The whole zoo trip was a lot of fun because I got to play with the Lena and joke around and have fun with the other teenagers. My german is a little bit better.