WOW!!!

Hallo Leute:)

Wow! Vor mehr als einem Jahr bin ich von Utah nach Hause (?) geflogen. Am 8.6.2014!!
Ich weiß, ich weiß...ich bin eine der schlimmsten Bloggerinnen aller Zeiten;) Ich hab gerade gesehen, dass ich noch einen Post - Entwurf habe von den letzten Schultagen...Oops :D
Falls jemand gerne mehr darüber hören würde - gibt es Leute die diesen Blog lesen?? - einfach in die Kommentare schreiben und ich werde mein Bestes tun:)
Ich kann aber schonmal sagen, dass die letzten Tage nicht so schön waren... Also eigentlich waren sie super-hammer-geil, weil ich viel mit Freunden und meiner Gastfamilie machen konnte.
Trotzdem: Dieser Gedanke daran, dass man nur noch wenige Tage in einem Leben hat, das man oft vermissen wird, ist immer da gewesen und zieht einen zugegeben ein bisschen runter... Es stimmt nunmal, dass so ein Auslands-Jahr nicht einfach ein Jahr in einem Leben ist, sondern ein Leben in einem Jahr!

Diesen Spruch hört man als Austauschschüler sehr häufig. Hauptsächlich von Leuten, die schon ein Auslandsjahr hinter sich hatten (im positiven Sinne) ;) Ich dachte dann immer: "Das ist doch übertrieben!" oder "Man ist doch nur ein Jahr weg..." oder aber auch "Wie dramatisch!".
Tatsache ist: Es ist durchaus dramatisch und man ist nur ein Jahr weg, aber es ist verdammt noch mal wahr!!
Man trifft in diesem Jahr Leute, die man am Liebsten im Koffer nach Hause schmuggeln möchte, und welche die man eher im Koffer ins Weltall schießen möchte.
Man kommt in eine völlig fremde Familie und fühlt sich nach 1 Jahr, als wäre man schon ewig Teil der Familie.
Man lernt Land & Leute kennen und lieben!
Man regt sich zunehmend über Vorurteile über das Gastland auf, bemerkt jedoch auch Vorurteile des Gastlandes über das Heimatland.
Man lernt neue Dinge und erkennt verborgene Talente (und auch Schwächen).
Man lacht und weint - miteinander und auch allein.
Zusammengefasst verbringt man ein ganzes Jahr in einem fremden Land, das nach spätestens 1 Jahr  eine zweite Heimat ist.

Es ist jetzt, wie gesagt, schon  beinahe 2 Jahre her, dass ich in Utah angekommen bin und schon ein Jahr her, dass ich wieder in Deutschland gelandet bin. Ich bin alt. :D
Über dieses letzte Jahr hinweg habe ich viel darüber nachgedacht, was mir das Auslandsjahr gebracht hat. Es ist schwer zu sagen: Man verändert sich quasi komplett aber bleibt trotzdem ganz man selbst.
Das klingt vermutlich sehr merkwürdig und verwirrend..sorry:)
Ich meine, nach dem Auslands-Jahr versucht man beide Leben zu verbinden. Man versucht Traditionen aus dem Gastland aufrecht zu erhalten, will aber nicht Traditionen aus dem Heimatland verdrängen.

Ich weiß gerade echt nicht, wie ich es ausdrücken soll...

Dieses Bild beschreibt das Gefühl am Besten.

Man darf es jetzt allerdings nicht falsch verstehen!!! Ein Auslandsjahr ist das Beste auf Erden!!! Es war die beste Entscheidung meines Lebens (bis jetzt;)) für ein Jahr "auszuwandern":) Ich würde es wieder tun wenn ich könnte...

Diesen Sommer fliege ich mit meiner Familie für 3 Wochen zurück in die USA. Ich freu mich so!! Es ist wie nach Hause kommen;)
Wir gucken uns erst NYC an und fliegen dann weiter in den Westen, nach Las Vegas, und von dort aus klappern wir gefühlt alle "National Parks" ab die es gibt :D Und natürlich fahren wir auch nach San Francisco und LA!
Aber am Meisten freu ich mich auf das Wiedersehen mit meiner wundervollen Gastfamilie - meine Familie ist natürlich auch wundervoll;). Wir verbringen 6 Tage (?) in Newcastle und ich freue mich riiiiesig :)
Vielleicht gibt es dann darüber auch einen Post für euch;) Wenn irgendjemand meinen Blog liest natürlich :D Mal sehen...;)

Ich wünsche euch allen eine wunderschöne Woche mit gaaaanz viel Sonne:)

Charly:)

P.S. Wenn ihr Fragen zum Auslandsjahr generell habt oder auch speziellere Fragen, kommentiert einfach da unten und ich werde mein Bestes tun, um sie zu beantworten!! :)

Spring Break :)

Hey guys :)

Here's a post that I started but never finished.. Sorry about that :)
Its about Spring Break and most of Spring Break was just sleeping, working on our yard and driving around through the middle of nowhere ;)
Here it is:

"Today is the first day of school after Spring Break... But it has been a good day so far ;)
Last week, we only had to go to school on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday we could sleep in and enjoy the nice weather ;P On Wednesday I started to color easter eggs with some friends. Did you know that the easiest way to draw stuff on the egg is to use a sharpie (edding)??? Its way easy and the tip of the sharpie is thin enough to actually draw something pretty ;) On Thursday we worked in the garden. We weeded everything the weekend before, so we could plant some flowers and other plants on Thursday. On Friday we went to St. George, the closest bigger city, and went to the nursery (garden center) again. You could buy a little cup of ladybugs there, so we bought one because they eat the bugs which are bad for your plants. My little host brother, he's 4, was holding the cup and kind of playing with it. Then the lid popped of and he dropped the cup on accident. We were in our car in the middle of the road, trying to get about 200 ladybugs out of our van."

Yep. That was fun...^^ We will never buy ladybugs again, that's for sure :D


Have a great weekend,
Charly :)

I'm not dead, just busy... ;)

Hey guys!!! 

I'm truly sorry that my last post was published about 3 months ago :( That's a quarter of a year!!!! I looked back and saw that I posted something almost every week in November. I'll try to keep that up, since I only have 2 months left... :/

I'm sure many things happened, but I won't remember everything. Maybe the people I told things that I can't remember now, will be so kind and write it down there in the comments?;) 

In March, we went to Disneyland. I don't think that I have to write a lot about it, so let's just move on...

Just kidding!!!! :D Okay. We left on a Thursday, so I missed 2 days of school. We left at 4 in the morning and we (except my host dad, the driver) pretty much slept the whole ride (8 hours). We only woke up once to leave the car for breakfast. We arrived at the beach near Anaheim, California, at noon and spent 4 hours there, playing, digging in the sand, having mud fights and so on... Then we went to "In 'n' Out Burger", which is the typical American fast food restaurant. If you go to America, you have to go to In 'n' Out. Otherwise, you can't say that you've been to America!!! They only have Hamburger, Cheeseburger, Double Cheeseburger, Chicken Nuggets and Fries there. That's it!!! They didn't change their menu since the 1950s. It's awesome (and delicious ;) ). After we were done eating, we went to the house we rented for those 3 days. We spent the rest of the day at the pool and the whirl pool, reading and having fun. At night we played pool billiard. The next day, we went to Disneyland and you can describe it with one simple word: WOW!!!!! I mean...It's freaking DISNEYLAND!!! It looks like a little town and it has all those characters, including Micke Mouse, Chippendales, Goofy, Donald Duck and so on...and you can take pictures with them!!! Then they have tons of shops where you can buy Mickey Mouse ears, hoodies, shirts, stuffed animals (hehe...) and more "necessary stuff". They have lots of fun rides, but most of the rides are for little kids. My favorite ride was probably "Indiana Jones" or "Splash Mountain". After Lunch - we brought sandwiches, string cheese and fruits and veggies - we went to California Adventure, which is a huge amusement park right next to Disneyland. By the way! It's smart to bring your own food because the food there is way expensive!!! Especially, if you have are with a big group ( we were 13 people). California Adventure was AWESOME!!! The best thing is "Soarin' over California". It's like a 4D movie theater, where your seats are lifted up and you see a huge screen which is Iike a globe. It really looks and feels like you're soaring over California ;)

We spent the whole day going on rights and at night, we watched the Disneyland parade, where they have all the parade wagons with the characters. Every "story" has its own wagon.

The next day, we only went to California Adventure. One reason was that 2 of my younger host sisters were performing with their dance group in California Adventure. California Adventure is owned by Disney, so it's practically "Disneyland 2.0". We spent the whole day there and at night we watched the "World of Color" show. It's on a the lake in California Adventure and it has colorful water fountains and the story of Arielle and music and all the awesome stuff!!! Then we went on rides in both Disneyland and California Adventure again and then home. We were home way late, so I struggled setting my alarm for the next day. I felt like a dying person and my phone (alarm clock) was my remedy. I literally tried to crawl over my bed to my phone, but fell asleep (or passed out?) on my way there. When I finally reached my phone, I fell asleep while setting my alarm. Then I started to set random alarms for the next day at 5:43 pm and 8:32 pm and so on... I think it took me about 1 hour to set my alarm. Then I fell asleep with the light on and the fan off...of course!!! So I woke up in the middle of the night after dreaming I was in a tropical forest, blinded by the sun...it wasn't really a dream! My room was freaking hot and humid and the lights were blinding me, so I opened the window and stuff and fell asleep after another 2 hours...It was the best night of my life!! (Uhm...sarcasm...)

The next day, we went to Disneyland again, but only to Downtown Disney, which is a part of Disneyland where you can buy Disney stuff and Build a Bear and you can buy food and smoothies and so on. We headed at about 1 pm. 

That's it!! That was Disneyland!! :) It's an absolute "must seen"!! If you have the possibility to go there, take it!! It's an once in a lifetime experience! First, I wanted to stay home because I didn't want to miss my school's talent show because some of my friends were performing there and one of my best friends was hosting the whole talent show, but it was worth missing it!!!!

The weekend before Disneyland, I went to my first high school dance EVER!!! I went to the dance with one of my best guy friends. First we went on a day-date with 2 other "couples". We went to a park in Cedar City, where we went on a walk first and then had lunch. After lunch we played bocci ball ("boccia") and we had a competition with chalk. No one really knows who the winner is, but...I think that we all won;) After drawing with chalk, we did the funnest thing ever!!! We had a paint slide!! We just took a plastic table cloth and pinned it to the grass, then we put "washable" (haha) paint on it. One by one, we ran and then slid across the painted table cloth. After all the paint was gone, we started to chase each othe, trying to give each other a wet paint-hug and hand prints. Then we threw the little paint bottles at each other, trying to get the last drops of paint out of every single one. After the day date, I went to one of my best friends' house to get ready. Of course, I got an epic sunburn and looked like a lobster on my first school dance..but it's alright :D My best friend covered the sunburn in my face with make up, so you could just see it on my arms;) One of the other girls' mom picked me up and then we picked my date up an went to the other girls' house to take pictures. After taking thousands of pictures, we went to dinner at "Chilis".yumm...:) After dinner, we went to the dance, where we took more pictures (professional) first. They turned out really funny!!! The group picture was cute and our couple picture was hilarious!!:D then we danced until 11:30 pm and went home:) it was a looking day and that weekend was summer savings time, so we got even less sleep :( Worth it!!:)

Yeah...This is pretty much everything I remember. If you guys can think of something that I told you about, please write it down there (*thumbs down*) in the comments :) 

Just like I said at the beginning of this post, I'll try to keep it up to post regularly:)

Have a great week!!!

Charly:)

Soooooooorrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!:)

Hey guys!:)

Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah and a Happy New Year!!! I'm so, so sorry that I didn't write the whole December and during the Holidays:( But it was the busiest time here so far and I have been sick a lot. Ear infection, cold, bronchitis, new allergy... But I'm better now, if anyone would like to know that ;P

So.... Christmas was awesome!!! On Christmas Eve we went to two Christmas parties:o Both were pretty awesome! At the first party, I didn't really know that many people, but at the second one I knew everyone. The second was the best! We played so many fun games, like a game were a lot of people are sitting in a circle and there's a bowl of M&M's in the middle and everyone gets a small empty bowl and a straw. Then one person starts to roll two dice at the same time. If that person gets a pair, he/she has to grab the bowl of M&M's and tries to suck all M&M's with the straw into his/her own bowl. But as soon as anyone else rolls a pair with the dice, the other person gets the big M&M's bowl:) It's way fun!!

On Christmas Day, my 9-year-old host sister woke everyone up at 4:50 am!! She said that she had a bad dream, but I think that she just couldn't wait it open her presents ;) So everyone HAD TO get up and go into the downstairs living room and the stockings were opened before my host parents could even make it down the stairs :D The stockings just had some candy and toys in it. My stocking didn't have that many toys, but about 3 small notebooks because "Santa" knows that I always forget everything;P Then we opened our other presents. I got an iPad mini and I still CANNOT believe that I can really keep it!! I also got a scarf, a New England Patriots blanket and earrings and some gift cards:)) From my parents I got wonderful Christmas cards (Thank you, guys!!!:)) ) and chocolate and I got an awesome Christmas card from my grandma (Thanks, Oma!!!:)) ). The letter from my brother still didn't arrive yet, what makes me kind of sad :(

But Christmas was still pretty great!!:)

On New Years Eve, we - my host family and me - went over to a friends' house to celebrate New Year there. There was also a church party with a dance, but I didn't want to go first. After a little while, everyone pretty much convinced me to go there because I would have a blast and there was no one my age at the friends' house, so my Momma drove me down to the Church. After I spent 1 hour at the Church dance, I realized that I just wanted to spend the last hour of the year 2013 with my "American family":) So I texted my Momma and asked, if she could pick me up. Unfortunately, she has the "Do not disturb" mode on her iPhone activated, so she didn't get my text and also didn't answer, when I called her. By the time, I just wanted to be with my "family", so I decided to walk home. The friends' house is somewhere in the mountains, but I knew the way. I wasn't really sure, if I was gonna arrive before midnight or not, which stressed me out. So I started to walk in my skirt and without a coat through the cold, DARK night.. I got so scared after a while, so I just started to sing some songs and I prayed a few times ;) At 11:45 pm - I was almost home - my Momma finally got my text and told me that she would come and get me. I just texted back that I was on my way and almost there, but she didn't read that text, so she was driving down the road and when she saw me, she was so scared and started to feel bad. I think, at that moment, she really thought that I lost it because I was sitting in the van, smiling like crazy, even though I couldn't feel my legs :D I was just happy to be almost home and the long walk home gave me strength, if that doesn't soon too weird. It was one of those (spiritual) experiences that you just HAVE TO make!! 

When we got home, it was almost midnight, so we gathered around the Christmas tree outside and popped some weird little fake bottles and lametta flew out of them. Then they tried to set the tree on fire, but it didn't really work out. 

But...Yeah...That was the end of my year 2013 and it was one of the best New Year's Eves EVER!!!!:)

The school is still pretty AWESOME, but it's kind of sad that the first semester is over now :(

Here is my schedule for the 2nd Semester, if someone would like to know it:

A-Day.                                              B-Day

1. US History.                                               1. Jr. English

2. Seminary (Mormon religion/church)           2. Mathematics Honors 

~ LUNCH ~                                                  ~ LUNCH ~

3. Human Biology                                         3. Computer Animation

4. A Cappella (Choir III)                            4. Printmaking

That's my super awesome schedule for the 2nd semester:)))

I don't know anymore stuff to write about. Maybe you guys could just ask me something and I'll promise to answer the questions. You can ask in English or German, whatever you prefer because I don't care :)

This is to future exchange students:

If you guys read my blog and you have questions about anything, you can just ask. If you don't want to write it down in public, I'll probably give you my Email address or Facebook name.:) I know what you guys must feel like right now. Most of you probably don't have a family, yet. I wish I could tell you something like "I promise you that you'll get your host family tomorrow", but the sad thing is that I can't - no one can. But I can tell you one thing:" The time that you're spending on waiting for your host family is definitely worth it. You're gonna become more patient and you'll learn so much about yourself. Sometimes you might think:"Why am I doing that? It's gonna take forever!" Don't ever give up!! I got my host family at the beginning of August (August 4?) and my flight was booked for August 8, so it came very rapidly!!! The end of August sounds like a long time, but it's not too bad!:) I know that probably everyone told you that, but it's true: Americans are very, very spontaneous!! And I love it:)) I also know from other exchange students that South Americans are quite spontaneous too, so DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY and enjoy the rest of your "waiting time". It's worth it:)"

I miss all of you guys!! :)

Love,

Charly         

Thanksgiving!!! :).....Finally ;)

Good ev'ning, people!! :)

It's 11:30 at night and "Turkey Day" is almost over. Its way late and I'm kind of tired, but I think I'll have forgotten everything that happened today, by tomorrow ;P 

I woke up at 8 am this morning (that's sleeping in, if you have 4 little host siblings!!) and got ready. After breakfast, my host mum and my host sisters and me made a "Veggie Turkey". It's a vegetable tray, but it looks like a turkey..I'm sorry! I really don't know, how to describe that, so here:

That's our turkey :) We left the house at noon and went to "Grandma Janet's" house and then we started eating at 1 pm after we blessed the food. We had pretty much EVERYTHING!! There was turkey, corn, rolls, mashed potatoes & gravy, yam, ham, salad, shrimps,...and so on!! After that we sat down and watched football, most of the people were just chatting :) Then at 3 pm we had dessert. We had Pumpkinpie, Apllepie and Pecanpie. :) We just ate A LOT!!! ;) After dessert we were talking and laughing even more and we all had weird feelings in our stomachs. I felt like I had to throw up for a second, but after a few minutes I wasn't even sure, if I was hungry or not :D it was just...weird!! And that's what Thanksgiving is all about: Eating, more eating, watching football, sleeping, eating, talking, football, sleeping....eating :D Really, though!!!

We left Grandma Janet's house at 5 pm to go to Grandma Bea's (great-grandma's) house. All the other people were gone and we just picked up the "Squash-pie" that she saved for one of my host sisters :) Finally we went home and just wanted to sleep or give our bodies a rest...because we were eating so much :D..., but then more and more people can and left at 11 pm :)

So...It was a very busy day. :)

I'm just so thankful for my family and friends in Germany, for my American family and friends and just for being here with awesome people that accept everyone and love everyone unconditionally! I love you guys!! :)

I hope you'll have a great weekend and a nice start in December :))

Ciao!! 

Charly :)

Happy Thanksgiving! ;)

Hey guys :)

I didn't really have the time to and didn't feel like writing a new post. I don't really know what's new. 

My host uncle caught a racoon and now he's in a cage in our garden. We have two hound dog puppies and they had to sit next to the cage and they were barking at the racoon the whole time, so they'll get practice. The racoon looks so cute and first I felt sorry for it, but it's a brat!!! It's so dangerous! Two grown-up hound dogs can't even kill it!!! :o 

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving!!! I'm so excited!!! My first Thanksgiving ever :)) On Friday, Clara and me will have a sleepover :) I'm just sooo excited!! 

I'm sorry, but that's basically everything I can tell you guys right now!! I will tell you everything about Thanksgiving in a few days, though :)

So... Take care!

Charly :)

BYU football game, penguins and a sleepy head ;)

Hey guys :)

Another week is over now :( I'm watching the Broncos game right now and decided to write a new post because they're winning anyways! :D They're playing against the Kansas City Chefs and the score is 24:10 for the Broncos ;) 

My host mom had a knee surgery on Friday and my host dad is turning into a "mom" ;) On Friday he vacuumed the whole house and he loved it, yesterday he cleaned the fridge and he made me a huge lunch bag for the football game :D It's kind of scary, though ;P That night I stayed up too late because I went to bed at around midnight and I had to stand up at 6:30 am to get ready for the BYU game in Provo :) On Saturday, we met at church at 8 am and left the church at about 8:30 am to drive up north to Provo, which is almost clear up in Salt Lake City. We had to drive 4 hours and when we arrived in Provo it started to rain. It was super cold!! Then we found our seats and the game started a little while after that. After 5 minutes of the 1st Quarter it started to snow and it became even colder :D After 5 minutes it was snowing so much so that we weren't really able to see the field! And instead of "blue and white"-dressed people, you could only see white-dressed people. We could proudly call ourselves "snowmen" :)

My new coat is the opposite of waterproof. The only dry spot on my body was the part of my head, which was covered by my hat!! The blanket, I brought had dog hair on it, so stank like wet dog after sitting in the falling rain an snow for a while! We left the football game after the first 5 minutes of the 3rd Quarter because we were drenched, cold and just done with the weather. It was kind of funny, when we tried to walk. I seriously wasn't able to feel my legs from my knees down, so I couldn't move my toes or feet. Clara and McKenna had the same problem an I'm pretty sure that we looked like penguins, walking down the stairs. We wanted to run because that's what you wanna do, if your cold, but it wasn't possible because of the following points:

1. We didn't want to break a leg..or two.

2. We didn't want to brae an arm..or two.

3. We didn't want the people to laugh at us.

We didn't want the people to laugh at the "3 drenched penguins, crawling on the ground, trying to stand up" (Synonym: "us").

4. We couldn't really walk that fast.

5. I think that I told you guys enough reasons now! 

Then we had to walk 15 minutes to our car. It was one of the longest walks in my whole life! When we saw the car, we were so excited that we started to run and we figured out that penguins don't really HAVE TO fly because they can run fast when they see the "finish line" (Synonym: "car") ;) The we just sat in the car for a long time. One reaon was the excitement about getting warmer, the other reason was that we couldn't really drive because the driver's fingers were literally frozen! :D After we finally started driving, all of us had to go to the bathroom very bad...apparently ;) So we stopped at the next gas station, but they only had only ONE toilet for each gender!! So two of us had to go to the men's bathroom, which was kind of bad because we all know what men's bathrooms can look like... ;P

After a one-hour-drive, we stopped at "5 Bucks Pizza" where we ordered 30 pizza because the whole day was a Young Women's and Scouts' activity and there was a total of 45 people. Our car was the first one that arrived, so we got the best seats ;) After dinner, we started our journey home. Most of the time we were asleep on each other's shoulders because we were shivering the whole day long and we had a huge dinner! I got home at like 8 pm and I was super tired!! I went to the downstairs living room, where my host fam wa watching Wrestling together my some friends (It was "Wrestling Night"). There was no space on the couch, so I was just kneeling on the ground behind the couch and putting my head on the backrest of the couch. I had my hands under my head and a hand warmer between hands and head. It was so comfy, even though I was kneeling on the ground, that I fell asleep after a few seconds. I woke up 1 or 2 minutes later because my host mom and her best friend we're taking pictures of me, sleeping in this funny position. My host mom just told me that I fell asleep three more times after that. I can't remember that, but I totally believe her because I was REALLY tired! So I went to bed at 8:30 pm an got about 12 hours of sleep before I had to wake up for church :) When I woke up, I was still tired, so I took a two-hours-nap after church. We stayed at church longer than usual today because one of my host cousins is going on a mission next week (right before Thanksgiving :( ) and he had to speak in "Sacrament meeting" and we had a huge lunch after church. After I took a nap I was still tired, so I just blamed my tiredness on the tetanus shot I got on Wednesday ;) And now I'll go to sleep again because it's 11 pm and I'm almost dying!! :)

That was basically everything I could tell you. I hope that you're all doing well in Germany! :) If you have any question, comments or just random stuff that you'd like to say, just write it down there in this comment-section-thing ;)

Bye and Good night!! :)

Charly