Monday, Monday

Today, I attempted and failed to go to work, failing because my boss at the Goethe sent me home on account of my everlasting (or at the least, everlasting through this past weekend and beyond) cold. Don't get me wrong -- I'm not complaining in the slightest! She's more than happy to let me stay at home tomorrow as well, and I'll be quick to take her up on the offer. I've always preferred to hear the downside of things first, so bad news is that because I'm sick (and I am taking off of work, after all) I won't be able to go to the Culture Matters German-American conference in Tubingen conducted by a Columbia professor. The upside is that I came home this morning to find a cardboard Amazon package on the doorstep, which means that my Holga Starter Kit came! Naturally, a celebration dance was in order. The second part to that upside (wait, there's more?) is that I'm about to go brew some of that tea from Israel and finish Love Actually.

"Un voisin profite de la naïveté d'Amélie pour lui faire croire que son appareil a un défaut: il déclenche des accidents. Comme elle a pris des clichés toute l'après-midi, un doute affreux l'assaille le soir venu. Elle s'effondre devant la télé, accablée par la responsabilité d'un gigantesque incendie, de deux déraillements, et du crash d'un Boeing 747."

The World Through a Plastic Lens

I ordered my Holga today! Ahhhhhh.

Friday Night

One of the many reasons why I love my host family...

After I rambled on about something in a Russian accent
HM: "She can really do that accent."
HD: "You're definitely ready for International Relations."

   "I'm like a freaking quilt."

HD: "That's what you should tell them (college applications): 'I'm like a freaking quilt.'"

           *****************************

Me, talking about someone
HD: "You DO know that if I ever meet him I'm going to beat him up, right?"
HM: "... You want to beat him up?"

       "I feel it's my duty as a hostfather."

           *****************************

And the most epic one, by none other than yours truly...

      
       "I woked up disappointingly early."* 

We're still cracking up about it, as in "I must've woked up on the wrong side of the bed!"



*Disclaimer: I was on DayQuil (my host dad found this ridiculously amusing). 


But I do love these people to death. :)

"Was ist los", you ask?

List formats are easier. Also, I seriously think my brain cells are slowly dying from constantly working on college applications.

1. I'm well into my (second) internship at the Goethe Institut.
2. And it's pretty fantastic, if I do say so myself.
3. My boss spent five years at the Goethe in Paris. And she likes me. And she wants me to stay. Helllo, job opportunities?
4. I'm soaking it in. All of it.
5. I have a million photos of trees. Changing colors, that is.
6. With my limited funds, I'm desperately trying to decide between a new pair of boots or a Holga. It's a girl thing.
7. The Isbitsky's and the Szostak/Isbitsky went on an excursion to Colmar yesterday to visit family friends.
8. It was good. Literally. I mean the food. :)
9. Highlights of yesterday: speaking French again, Champagne from Champagne, good wine, good food and good atmosphere, to generalize.
10. Saturday: IKEA with Anja, the chipped glass and the Family Card, taking pictures of our eyes, Black Beauty and Spiderman, Adam decided to make dinner, I learned how to cut against the grain!, we were all ridiculously cute and best of all -- it was home.
11. I'm probably making things too complicated in my head. Life is an adventure, so what is there to lose?
12. Continuing on that same thought process... I've started to work almost exclusively on my American U of Paris application.
13. I think this past weekend and a culmination of recent events caused a rather large light bulb to go off in my head at 11:30 last night, so the college essay is well on it's way.
14. What I'm not looking forward to is going to Stuttgart to take SAT Subject Tests.
15. I'm getting the travel bug again, I want to visit exchange student friends, I want to go to Morocco, but I'm excited for our England trip. But also, I've come to realize that it's the people that make the place.

Choices, choices…

I'm re-applying to college. Fun in theory (the fact that you're now about to do pretty much what you want to) and not so fun regarding the actual application process. All. Over. Again.

Last year, I was applying to colleges within the United States, except for when I was considering the American University of Paris. This year, I'm applying to colleges on both sides of the pond. Going to school in Europe doesn't seem like so much of a reach anymore, I'm seriously considering staying here and if application decisions allow me, I would go to college in France without much hesitation. I have to consider all my options. I know that. But the possibility of leaving Europe actually scares the crap out of me. Hello, irony.

Unbezahlbar

regiokarte: 34€

latte macchiato: 1,50€

freiburg postcard: 1€

scarf: 9€

comprehending that I'm incredibly lucky to be living here: priceless



And DeutscheBank does it all. ;)

Part Zwei

A continuation of our time in Bonn...

Our last excursion with AIB was a cruise on the Rhine. The day turned out to be perfect, just sunny enough to enjoy being on a boat. Sunny enough to make everyone sleepy, but no matter. Passing by, we got to see the Loreley and a bunch of castles. When we got to our destination, we had lunch and then began the hike up to Marksburg Castle. Niki and I had waited for Kelly to change shoes so we actually ended up taking a different (and probably the wrong) route to the forest. After realizing this, we called Cole, he walked down to come and get us and we proceeded to have a very rushed hike and first three quarters of the Marksburg tour. On our way out, there was a wedding party (certain guests only had to walk about half of the way that we did to get to the castle, but I wouldn't want to experience those steps in a dress and heels) taking photos and we got a group photo with the whole shebang: old school Volkswagen, the couple and all 24 of us. Just one of our fabulous shenanigans! But we never did get to walk around all dressed up with champagne bottles... Berlin in January, anyone?

Our last night in Bonn, AIB held a going away party for us just like they did when we arrived. All the host families were there and that was when I realized how much I had become a part of the Elschner family. We had some of the best entertainment, namely Ryan Knott, Lindsay, Huggs (Kelsey), Bree, Elena and Chris perform 'In The Jungle' from the Lion King (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vl6slaJGhQ), us gifting Cole an iPod which was delivered to him back in the States (he thought the picture of the iPod in the card was just a joke, haha. We are so snazzy) and Joe finally played the doodlesack!
After the party was over, we sat in our traditional Biergarten, drank and talked. And then the goodbyes came... Depending on the region of Germany each of us was going to, we were taking trains at different times that next day so we would only be seeing the people that were going to the same region. It was hard to say goodbye but it was also exciting to finally be able to look forward to living with our permanent host families. At 11:14, Niki, Grace, Mason, Jake, Alex and I (along with our host families) were waiting for the train to Baden-Wurttemberg to come to the Bonn Hauptbahnhof.
At about 3:30 that afternoon, we arrived in the Freiburg Hauptbahnhof to find our host families and our area rep, Duncan Cummins waiting for us. I could see Adam, Anja and Leah right outside my window, they recognized me and then I realized it was them. I must have sounded like a little kid as I was going to get my luggage; you could tell they were excited to finally have me here and I was equally excited, resulting in my laughter and other people on the train giving me these heartwarming looks. It was actually really cute.

Needless to say, the Isbitsky's are simply amazing. I'm treated like family here and have gotten the chance to meet several family members and a ton of family friends. This is a completely serious household full of German discipline ... NOOOOT! I watched Borat with Adam a few weeks ago if that says anything. :)
Dance parties to Lady Gaga (especially the "Disco Stick song"), Cassandra Steen's "Stadt," (Ich baue 'ne Stadt fur diiiich...) and Katy Perry (you're hot then you're cold, you're yes then you're no!) are common. A Chucks-wearing, Lady Gaga-singing, "is this the end of the queueeee?", "Wir sind hier. Shatzy ist gefunden!", International Family, family is "Very niiice, I laaaik!"