ALISIAS BIRTHDAY

Hallo!

  Last weekend I spent once again with my friends, this time it was Alisias sweet sighteen birhtday party (Saturday-Sunday). We basically just spent a girlsnight with Alisia, Fabienne, Vanessa and Ann-Sophie, and made pizza, ATE A LOT OF UNHEALTHY FOOD, laughed, watched TV, told some secrets, and just had a nice time. Since I had woken up that day at 5 in the morning, so you can imagine who was the one who fell asleep in Ann-Sophies arms already at like 9 PM....

 We literally ate A LOT, but in the morning there was still so much food left, and after a proper breakfast we ate our second breakfast - muffins, candy, chips, soda, cake.... After our breakfast(s) Alisia and Fabienne did some yoga, and after Fabienne had left home, the rest of us went to have a walk with Alisias dog, and the view was so beautiful OMG !!! (And afterwards we ate some more food.......).

A-TEAM <3

spot the Estonian, who´s supposed to not to be afraid of cold...

   I don´t even know what to write anymore, my head is just full with ideas that I don´t know how to write down on a plank page... And that´s mostly the reason why my posts have lately been reallly messy, short, and pointless. I guess I´m already so used to my life here, and it doesn´t seem so new and extraordinary anymore. Oh well, lets see what´s gonna happen :):)

HERBSTFERIEN

HALLOOO

Se last two weeks we had our firolid (06.-19.10), and the reason I hadn't written anything during that time was mostly just because I was too lazy, but I also wanted to write about those two weeks together.

I had won a free week to a lady camp, and the first week I mostly spent there with my sister. Like the name reveals, the gym was ment for only women/girls/ladies, and the whole fitness studio kind of looked like a hotell, not like a normal gym, and there were like small waterfalls in the corners, candels in the bathrooms, and after you were finished with a maschine, you had to wipe it with disinfection liquid, so everything would stay clean. During the seven day trial, we tried out almost every course they had, and well mostly we were the youngest ones there.

On Thursday of the first week (09.10), we went shopping with Maxi to Erfurt, and also on that same day I had been exactly 2 months with my hostfamily(!!!) so it was a special day for all of us! :)) And I finally bought a winter jacket, since this genious didn't really think it'd get this cold in October, so until then I had to freeze with the jackets I had with (and of course just when I bought it, the weather started turning better and the next week the temperature was almost 20°C -.- ).

During the holidays I also got together with some friends, and we went a bit sightseeing with my hostfamily also :))) I'm being a really lazy blogger right now, so I think I'll leave it be and let you enjoy some pictures from my weeks.

I reallly apologize about my messy text, and that it takes me always so long to write a new blog entry, but I really hope you guys don't mind. :)))

tschüß :*

FRANZIS SWEET 16 !!

Hallo!

   Yesterday-today night I had my first birthday party in Germany, Franzis sweet 16 !! To be precice, she turned 16 this night at 00.50 and me, Antonia, Alina, Selina, Fabienne, Lea and Sophia got to congratulate her in person exactly at that time (and at 00.00) !!

   We gathered at Franzis house at 18.00, but Fabianne and Lea were late like an hour or so, so our party began by sitting in Franzis new bed and eating candy... By the time the girls finally came we were all starving, so first thing we did was hurry to the kitchen to eat Franzis mamas made wraps (lovelovelovelove), and then headed to their partyhouse(?) to continue eating. The foods in german birthdays are a bit different from what we have in Estonia, first of all they all seem to love these sweet-rice-puff things that are actually really cross... and second of all, there´s not as much food as at the parties at home, quess it´s just for the better. :D:D Also the way german people celebrate is different, I can´t really describe what´s the difference, but it´s more fun and interesting here... The party kind of reminded me of my childhood birthday parties - because of the fun part, not that it would´ve been childish or anything !

   We started counting down from 23.59:50 and when the clock finally hit 00.00 we threw the colourful-paper-things (can´t remember the name sorry) Sophia brought with, and hurried to congratulate her - at first everybody else hugged her all together, and I didn´t really understand what was going on, so I just stood there doing nothing until came my turn to hug her. Also her parents came out to surprise her with fireworks, and you just should´ve seen her face ! She was already in tears, and she looked just overall so happy ! :)) The presents that Franzi got from others were so cute, and you could see that they had planned them beforehand, and gave a lot of effort for her ! (I bought her a book, fluffy socks, candy and made her a bracelet - of course all in her favorite colour - and made her a cake.)

JUST LOOK HOW HAPPY SHE IS !!

   (The pictures are mixed from all of us, and they´re not in the order also, sorry)

 
   All together it was a reaaaallly great night with the best girls to possibly spend it with, and now I just can´t wait for my birthday so I can invite the same sweethearths, and get fat with them. :)

P.S. it´s my second (and last) week of my holiday, so next week I´ll make a post about these two weeks together, I just wanted this one to be dedicated only for Franzi!

   Aber Tschüss, UND EIN MAL MEHR; ALLES GUTE FRANZI SCHATZI ! :*
 

what I think about Germany

   As I promised last time, this one won´t be a usual ´how my week went´-post. I´ve been gathering some thoughts for this, and finally think I´m ready to let you guys know, what do I think about Germany.

   I´ve visited Germany maany times before I started my exchange year, and the ideas that I got from the country weren´t exactly the same as I have now. Of course many have stayed the same - I still think Germany is a wonderful country and it has a lot to be proud of - but I don´t think anymore as the tourist Alina used to.

   First of all, one thing that I noticed on the first-second weeks of school, is that germans don´t tend to prejudge you and they are nice! I do think that Germany is the most anti-racist country I´ve ever seen! A huge amount of people think Germany is still the same it was during the WWII, but in reality so many things have changed - okay, the people have changed, the country´s still the same. It seems like the nation has learned from the mistakes of their ancestors, and turned the country to a loving and a accepting place. You can literally be whatever  you want whenever you want, and you´ll still be accepted byothers. And as I´ve mentioned in my posts before, it´s nicer to go to school here, since other students don´t judge you and you most likely wont get bullied. Okay there are some bullies of course, but it´s not a thing here, and usually the bullies are the ones who don´t have any friends and are ignored by the rest.

   I´m not going to get tired about repeating over and over again, how loving people germans are! They´re just these cute little bundles of love and care! I wouldn´t even mind taking some of them back home with me, and I do think the world needs more of people like the ones, I´ve gotten to know here!!!

   One thing that really bothers me, is that in history we only learn about WWII and natcism. Also in other subjects, there´s some topics that are somehow connected to it. I didn´t even know there was so much to teach about that one particular event, and it´s like the main thing they teach in schools here. Maybe it just seems so to me, since I´m not really used to hearing about WWII nonstop, all the time. Of course I understand that it was a big deal for Germany, and germans should know everything that happened there, but they don´t really go through any other topics, and I´m having a hard time getting used to it. I don´t paritcularly like that era, since it´s a bit depressing and harsh, but there´s really nothing I can do about it, so guess I´m just going to have to not let it get the best of me :))

   Overall I think that Germany is an amazing country, with a lot of beautiful places and views, and I´m just really happy to be here! I had only positive thoughts before I started my exchange year, and honestly, they´re only getting better! Of course I have some times, when I´m really missing home, and would do anything I can to get a quick visit to Estonia/Finland, but there´s nothing more important than to enjoy the moment, and I know things are going great back at home, and my only job is to have the time of my life and not worry about the unknown :):):):)

So yes, I´m sure that my choice to come to Germany for an exchange year, was THE BEST CHOICE I´VE EVER MADE!!! :)))
 
Bis nexte mal, Tschüß :)

SCHULFESTWOCHE

Halohalo!

   This schoolweek was preeetty laid-back and easy, since we had the schulfest woche(?) thing. Our school turned 350 years old, and in honor of that we had different programmes for every day. I already wrote something in my previous post, but I just thought I´d make a new one devodet just for that. :):) And I apologize for not having a lot of pictures, I´ll promise to be a bit more productive next time :)

   Monday: we had a normal schoolday, and it went by just like every monday before  -> Eat-School-Eat-Practice-Eat-Sleep...

   Tuesday: we had our sportsday, and we played volleyball, had the 30min sponsor-running-thing (in which I sponsored myself, woop) and had the Getting Tough competition (= pure hell). It was pretty horrible since in the morning it was SO COLD and just to make things worse, I have all of my winter clothes in Estonia, so I had to take what I could, and freeze my ass-toes-fingers-stomach and everything off. :(( Oh, and just going to point out once again, our class lost the volleyball game AND the Getting Though thing, but it doesn´t really matter, at least we tried :D

   Wednesday: we went to TITK with our class and some other 10th graders, and I´m not pretty sure, but I think it had something to do with fabrics and things like that... To be honest it was a bit boring (actually really boring), and I didn´t understand even half of what we went through (typical Alina), so I just put on a smart face and tried to be normal.

   Thursday: in the morning we went to the police office with our class, and I actually found it really interesting, and I understood most of the whole ,,tour´´!(!!!) We got to sit in the cells, and they showed us different computers and electronic things they had (I didn´t really follow there...), and at the end we watched a video about some police stuff in Thüringen (??) and then the officers did an overview about some drugs etc.

   After the station, we had about 1.5h of free time, so of course we rushed to the grocery store (don´t judge us) and then went to Helens house, and just sat and talked and laughed. Aferwards we had some kind of a historical presentation in some big historical house (I suppose). Once again I´m not pretty sure, but it had something to do with the USA and yeah, some other things that were related to that... :D:D

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(with Helen) we made a cute surprise for Antonia, just because we love her :*
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  Friday: we watched a movie, that was made in our school in 1997 and it had something to do with the students and their dreams(?) etc. Afterwards we went to Schloss Heidegsburg, and had some minitour there, about how some of the people influenced our school (??).  I can´t really tell anything interesting about that, since, surprisesurprise, once again Alina didn´t understand almost aaanything. But I can tell you one thing, the lady looked like one of the characters in ,,ScoobyDoo in Mexico´´!! Our day was reaally short, and we ended already a bit before 11.

We had planned to meet with Alisia at 13-14, so I quickly came home, packed my things, ate a bit, and head back. We did our make-up and hair together (+ate duh), and at around 18.30 her mom drove us to school for our schoolball.

   Schoolballs in Germany are so much more cooler than in Estonia! It was more like a disco, and not even close to the boring ,,all-fancy-tradition´´ we had back at home. Overall I had so much fun, and got a looooot of new friends, and yeah, we had fun :D The walk back home with Alisia was pure pain, ´cause there´s this really long and a steep hill, basically the whole way until her house. Gladly we had our sneakers with us, and we even got to make a little catwalk in the middle of the street, just for ourselves.

   Saturday: our school had the day of the open doors, and every class had different ,,projects´´ for the visitors. Our class was all about the food, and when we didn´t have our 30min working shifts, we got to walk around and explore our school. I even got a cute pink braid from one of the 12 graders workshop-thing.


I know this one turned out to be boring and full of mistakes, but I´m not really in the mood to be creative with anything that´s connected to literature, so you´ll just have to settle with it. :)) I actually have already planned out what I´m going to write about next week, so maybe then I´ll try a bit harder. :D aber bis dann :*

Tschüß ! xoxo

SOMETHING NEW

Hallohallo!

  Before getting in to my usual writing ritual, I just want to thank everyone who pays attention to my little scrappy blog, and take the effort to understand my thoughts in writing. I don´t know if it´s just that germans are so nice or something, but some people from my school have complimented my blog, and that´s reallyreally sweet and heart warming! I don´t know how many of you readers actually enjoy my blog, but the ones who do, thank you so much! :):):)

 
About two weeks ago, me and my hostsister went to a charity concert in Schloss Heidegsburg. Alisia invited us, and endowed us the ,,cards´´ -that was reallyreally nice from her and her family, since one card costed 25euros(!). The concert was put together by Rudolstads Rotary Club, and Alisias mother is a ,,member´´ there, so it was pretty cool meeting her parents and being like ,,hi I´m an exchange student´´. There was also a looooot of food served at the end -actually only four types of pies- and we placed ourselves right next to the buffey, so you can imagine whos attention was only on the food... Overall, the music was good, the food was good, and of course the company was good.

 On that weeks sunday, we made these potato-ball-things called Thüringen Klöße, and eventhough I tried to follow the process, I have no idea how to make them and therefore can´t give any overview on what we did... I can tell you that in the end we had kind of mashed potatoes -from raw potatoes- and rolled balls from them and put them in tho boiling(?) water. For me, they are a bit slimy, but they do taste pretty good!

there´s not really anything else to do during a group project in arts,,,

   Last week, I started rhytmic gymnastics at our local club. To be honest, I had no idea what I got myself in to... Gymnastics may seem like an easy hobby, but it actually demands much more work than you´d think! Every little move has to be perfectly perfect, and every joint has to be in their own places -my explanations don´t really make sense, sorry. BUT I really liked it, and apparently I have pretty feet for gymnastics -perks of doing balley as a kid. I´m really motivated to learn new things there, and at first practice I tried to stretch as far as I can (and more), so the next morning I couldn´t walk good and the whole week my muscles had this really weird pain in them. Next practice I tried to be a bit more careful, but overall my pain was all worth it, since on friday my splits looked much better already! We have only 3 times a week practice, and it fits my schedule perfectly! I have enough time to do different activities with my family, and also concentrate on learning german. 

  The best part about starting gymnastics, is that there are 3 girls from my school, and two of them speak russian (they´re siters) and the younger one goes to 11th grade (!!!). The next day during the bigger break, I joined their company, and there are so many russian speaking girls in the 11th grade! Like wow! It felt really good to get some friends of my own age, and to be able to speak in russian with them, just perfect. :)

   Last weekend we had a YFU-meeting in Erfurt, and we went there a bit earlier to have a little city tour. We ate bratwurst and there was this some AOK thing, and I don´t really know what it was about, but I spinned that thing (last picture) and won a lunchbox (yay), also I got to make two pictures in that chairthing -originally I shoul´ve taken one but the photographer didn´t like the printed version so we made a new one. 

  The meeting was ment for YFU exchange students here in Thüringen, and it was so much more serious than I had initially expected it to be... They divided us in to three groups -exchange stundets, siblings and parents- and the whole point was to go through our first month in Germany, and discuss our problems, plans and etc. Gladly, my first month was really good, and there was nothing to complain about, but there were some students whose wasn´t... Overall I heard a lot of a bit shocking things, and even got some new information. And just like in any other YFU meeting, there was A LOT of food -apparently every family had to bring something, but guess who were the only ones who didn´t know about it. Oh, and I think I forgot to mention, that in Thüringen there are 3 girls from China, 3 boys from Thailand, a girl from Japan, a boy from Indonesia, a girl from USA, a girl from Chile and 2 girls from Australia, and me. Also, one of the coordinators was last year in Finland, and she speaks fluent finnish!

   Also, my ,,support person´´ visited us last week, and he seems reallyreally nice! I didn´t get to know him that well yet, but he seems calm and laid-back, so that´s really good -if I´ll have a problem, I wouldn´t want my support person to panic together with me.

  This week only monday was a normal school day, and the rest of the week we have some ,,special plans´´. Today we had a sportsday, and ohmy it´s different from what we used to have in Estonia... The first half of the day was okay, but in the end we had a getting tough competitionthingie -it´s the thing where you have to go all military training style, and climb over walls and stuff-  and Í kind of expected it to be horrible but in the end, it wasn´t that bad. Okay, yeah we were last, but hey, atleast we finished it!

 Now some negative things to make my blog a bit gray : I´m having some minor problems at school right now, and I think I have to make an overdo with my plans. Since I´m getting graded this year, the teachers are expecting a lot from me, and most don´t get it yet that I DO NOT SPEAK FLUENT GERMAN. I´ve had two tests so far, and lets just say, that they went as bad as they could have went... I spoke with my form teacher, and we came to a conclusion that maybe it´d be better for me, if the teachers would start grading me only when my german will be good enough. Also instead of french -since the whole class has clearly studied it much longer than I- I´m going to propably join some smaller kids german classes, just to help me boost up my german a bit. But, the teacher promised to find out what options I have, so lets see what´s gonna happen... 

I apologize for the quality of the pictures, and that I´m not a really skilled photographer. :)) I hope you enjoyed this one, even though it was a bit too long -next time I´ll try to make it a shorter.

Aber, Tschüß. Bis nexte Woche! :)