Catch Up!

        Schönen guten Tag!

    It's been a while. It's crazy how busy life gets!Everything really does start to pick up at the end of the year. So I feel like it's time for an update!

     I have basically been up to everything possible. I go to school during the week, do my homework afterwards and then hang out on the weekends. Somehow that manages to fill up my days. Plus, in 'winter' (since this winter had really been a typical Georgia winter) we don't go outside much, there isn't that much work that needs to be done so we all end up staying inside, doing homework or simply watching movies or TV shows. To be honest, it's kind of nice. I get the feeling of what it's like to live here and actually have 'normal' days. So even when nothing really spectacular happens, I enjoy it.

     In the past weeks, the biggest things that have happend were my trip to Berlin, dreading my hair, going to Essen with my host sister and spending a whole bunch of time in the new spring weather.
    My trip to Berlin is probably the longest story, so I'd like to describe it in pictures. But first, why was I there? My Bundestag representative invited me to go up to Berlin to see what the Hauptstadt from Deutschland ist like. So, we were a group of about 50 people invited to go and tour Berlin. We had a pretty full schedule and we hit all the main politically important things. Since I'm really interested in history, this was just the perfect trip to get the behind the scenes to one history-rich country.

 Day 1, Reichstag 

 Berlin 2014 vs.....Berlin 2012. Time flies and things change. Aber ich freue mich, wieder da zu sein!

 The president of South Korea was there for a visit!

 And the next day, An official from China, hence the chinese flags all around.

 Even with foggy weather, the view from the TV Tower is awesome!

 Inside an old Stasi prison. Very eerie..

 Welcome to the Wall.

 Preserved inside of the Wall

 

    

    The next story, which is kind of odd and doesn't have too much to do with my daily life as an exchange student, is definitely not something anyone was expecting, honestly. I go around to thinking, "Man dreadlocks are cool. I could totally be rocking dreadlocks. I mean, I'm young, I have time and simply, why not." So, I asked a good friend of mine to come over one Sunday so that we could do it together. We spent 11 hours on it with a 2 hour lunch break. Talk about so much work! And yes, I did have sore muscles the next day! But I wasn't even done at that point. Over the next two weeks I worked on making some smaller, tighter or simply neater. And every since then, there's always more work to do. So yes, it's a change, but I'm enjoying every minute of it! Even though it takes so long for them to look remotely normal.

  For example! Yes, they´re still frizzy, but they are really     settling so quickly

    So next on the list is my trip to Essen. My oldest host sister and I took a day trip to the 'Ruhrgebiet' to go to a presentaion of a scent project that some students at a local University did and to have a tour of an old industry area and learn about how it all worked. 

 

 Tunnel up!

 Well, good thing I don't have a fear of heights!

 'Cleanliness + Order = Safety'

 The nature always wins!

 The wind was something crazy!

 I FOUND LUSH!

     So now to spring time! Spring time here is something so beautiful, I can hardly describe it. The air is light, the breeze is perfectly cooling and the sun is just the right temperature. The flowers and trees are all coming back, the green of the leaves against the blue sky (the bet color combo in the world!) and just everything. I could spend all of my time outside and be perfectly happy! So my host sister and I spent a good two hours outside just walking around and taking pictures. So, now some pictures from my lovely outdoor excursion:

 sadly my foot didn't fit all the way on the stump, but hey, everything else did!

Besides all this, break is finally here! And in the break, some people from our partner county in Tansania are coming to visit and get to know Stemwede. So, I'll be sure to explain all the cool things we did with our brothers and sisters from Africa! So yes, stay tunes, more to come in the next week or so!

(PS. Dear Family, my boyfriend told me to give you all a public shout-out. He sends his greetings!)