Zack zack zack! (Go go go!)

It doesn't even seem possible to me that the last time I posted a blog was over three months ago. It feels like just yesterday I was writing a post about moving into my second host family, and now here I am living with my third and final family. I haven't had time to breathe (let alone blog) in the last three months, but I definitely understand now why people say that the last part of your exchange is the best part of the year. I have been really trying to take advantage of every moment I have left in Germany. It feels unreal that I have so little time left here. I have really come to love this country, its people, the time I spent here, my exchange friends, the language, my friends at school, and everything else in between. It's going to break my heart into a million pieces when I have to leave it all behind. And even though this fact makes me sentimental about unnecessary things (today I honestly almost started crying because I started thinking about how I'm going to miss the park in my town), in these past few months I truly have begun to cherish every moment I have here and make every second count (cheesy, but very very true).

So let's go back to the beginning of April, when I switched host families from my second to my third. (side note: Eurotour went from the middle of March to April 5th. I finally decided that there was no way I could ever describe the best 21 days of my life to anyone through a blog post, so I settled with creating a Eurotour album on Facebook instead. Not that that does the trip any justice either. But it's a start.)

My last day with the Ruethers.

I ended up becoming really close with my two brothers, Ole and Finn. Although I was older than both of them, I definitely got to experience being the little sister that was always being picked on.

I just realized that I don't really have any pictures of my new house or the new fam so I will have to get on that, but for now here's a picture of my favorite spot in the house.... my little balcony. I really feel like a princess in this house, because it's like I have my own apartment. My room is on the second floor, and connected to the hallway is my bathroom, a separate kitchen, the balcony, a sitting room and a dining area. Okay so it isn't really all mine because my brother comes up a lot to play guitar or do homework and sometimes my younger brother will have a friend over and hang out there, but still I love it <3

View from my bedroom window. 

The treehouse/hut my host brother built. (I'm living with 3 brothers now. Karl (13), Paul (16) and Robert (17). Robert is the one who built the hut. He doesn't know this, so I guess he'll find out once he reads my blog, but if I ever talk about him to someone I call him "Golden Boy". Like, he builds tree houses on his own, he goes grocery shopping for his mom, he is always organizing movie nights or something for us and our mutual friend group, he plays guitar, he offered to be the third dancer in one of his teacher's dance groups because she needed another boy..... like????? I don't think I've ever met a nicer person in my life. Except maybe my first host sister who is now in Colombia (Hi Jule!). 

I also have two host cats right now ( 'Kitty' and 'John') and I am really considering making room in my suitcase to bring this one home with me. 

John chillin on top of a car. 

I've been spending a lot of time with both German friends and exchange friends, which brings me to Laura, my crazy little German bff. Her and I are together at least once or twice a week and I'm going to miss her so much when I leave (But no worries, we're already making plans for her, Vera and Conny to come visit me in the U.S!).

Shortly after this picture was taken I reached to get the cow some more grass and ended up clamping my fist around an evil plant in Germany called 'Brennessel' that burns a lot :(

She insisted on "skating" through the town (skating is in quotation marks because she just held onto my arm the entire time convinced she was going to die)....

Now onto the first of may. The first of May is a "Feiertag" in Germany, which means that no one works and all the kids have off school. On the first of May, its a tradition for everyone to meet with friends and hike through the woods. I went with Conny, Vera, Laura, Timo, Nick, Lea and Celine, who are all friends from school. The area that we walked through was so beautiful, and after our 14 kilometer walk (about 8.7 miles) we had a cook out and all hung out together. 

The weekend after that Sofia (from Venezuela), Julie (from Finland), and Lia (from Ohio) all took the train to Beverungen and we went to a music festival in a neighboring town. Really I could sit together with those girls and watch paint dry and we would manage to have a great time doing it. During Eurotour we all got really close, and now we're together any day when all of us are free. We even have a group name, "the Dog Stealers" which is sort of an inside joke that has a lot to do with Sofia stealing many dogs as we travelled throughout Europe......anyways.....

We also met up with some of my friends from school at the festival.

Veraaaa!

We met some really cute puppies that weekend, which Sofia surprisingly didn't steal. But I think she was tempted.

That Sunday I went hiking with both my first and current host families.

Elias doing what Elias does best, running around climbing trees like a crazy person.

Elias (my first host brother) and Karl (one of my current host brothers) are best friends. It's always funny when Elias comes over to visit me and Karl answers the door like "Oh hi Elias what are you doing here? and Elias is like "Oh i'm here to see Lauren...."

Robert aka Golden Boy

So the next weekend I was at another music festival, but this one was in my town. It's my little German town's pride and joy, a three day long music fest called the "Orange Blossom Fest". (The local nickname for it is the OBS fest, but I went around for a while calling it the "OBST" fest which was actually really embarrassing when someone pointed that out because Obst in German is fruit..... eventually someone was just like Lauren it's not the fruit festival what are you even saying....)

People come from all around Germany for the festival and most people tent in a field right beside where the festival is held.

Robert bringing some tenting gear over to the tent of him and his friends.

For the amount of people that came, I was really surprised by how small the area was where it was held. But I was told it all started twenty years ago as a reallllyyy small festival in the backyard of this house (pictured), and although the people who run it have been offered a spot in Berlin to move it to they decided to stay here so I think it's all part of the charm. 

This year's theme was "Welt aus. OBS an" (World off. OBS on.) with a little snail that has a jetpack. The snail I can't really explain to you since I don't exactly understand it myself. Last year it was a flying pig, and the year before it was a fish drinking beer. Oh, Germans.

In Germany, instead of having plastic/paper wristbands that you rip off the day after the festival, they have awesome cloth bracelets that stay on for years unless you cut them off. Getting my band from the OBS fest was a big deal for me because this whole year I've seen last year's band on the wrists of people in my town and I couldn't wait to get mine (but also another reminder that my exchange year is almost over...)

Finn, Ole, and Engelbert (my last host dad)!

 

Uh-oh...

So on the last day of the festival I found out that Tebo, a mexican from my district, was in my town with his host family for the festival! Sadly after we found each other we were only together for a few hours because it started raining and his host fam wanted to head home, but it was still cool to find out one of the people in my district travelled to my little German town for the festival. 

So sometime in-between everything that I've talked about so far, I have become a pro at riding trains. I know, I know, we all never thought this day would come. But it's true -- I've gone to visit my fellow Dog Stealers so often now that the trains and I have developed a friendship. I really am starting to feel German now. 

Sofia, Julie and I

Sofia, the Venezuelan master chef/dog stealer, cooked her and I a typical food from Venezuela called "arepas" one morning for breakfast.

So, what do you do when you're a broke exchange student that can't afford to get your hair cut?

You ask your friend to cut your hair!!!! (Hey I think I did a pretty good job)

Let's see... what else have I been up to....

I ate Chinese food (lots as you can see) for the first time in almost a year with Janina and Laura.

I saw this sticker stuck to a post. (Nazis? No thanks.)

I went to a "cafe in an old cow stall" and had awesome cake.

I ate spaghetti ice cream with Elias.

And I discovered that I am not, in fact, the only exchange student in a 2 hour radius from my town. Meet Rowan, a Canadian exchanger I only just found out about a few weeks ago who only lives 20 minutes from me. We both have spent this entire year thinking we live so far away from the other exchange students in our respective districts, only to find out we live 20 min from someone in a neighboring district. Better late than never.

So, to end this blog I would like to share some pictures from a wonderful week with my family. Although at first it was weird for me to see two "worlds" come together, we really had an amazing time together and managed to fit more into a week that I would ever have thought possible. 

The first thing we did after picking them up from the airport was to head to the tower that inspired Rapunzel.

I think the highlight of the week was the cookout for my dad's 50th birthday with all three of my host families.

My host mom playing "pie face", a game my mom brought for Elias.

Maddy, Katie, me, and my brothers. (from left to right; Finn, Robert, Paul, Ole, Karl, Elias)

I really feel so blessed to have a family that not only has supported me throughout this year, but that came to visit me and meet my host country and families. The week flew by, which I think is a preview of how the rest of my exchange year is about to go.... Until next time...