Itzehoe!! (The pictures I promised)

Finally, I have found time to put the ever anticipated first pictures of Itzehoe. I go to school at the SSG, Sophie-Scholl-Gymnasium, and live in Heiligenstedten. I ride my bike to and from school everyday, which is about 6 miles. Nice little town and city.


My new house for the next 10 or so months!!


Here is where I park my new car!

Back patio thing.

Where I, sadly, spend most of my time. But that will change!!

Wonderful! I actually have TV here! Although I mostly watch MTV because it is in English with subtitles, despite the fact that almost every show is trash.

My bed. They even gave me one of those first day of school candy thingies!!

MY TROPHY!!! I got second place in a tennis tournament at my tennis club!

Waiting in line to see HSV vs. Wolfsburg.

Soccer stadium in Hamburg.

Man, those Germans sure love their soccer!

It is random, but this was an "American" frozen pizza. It's name? Hot Dog Style. The bad thing is that I enjoyed every bite of it.

Bayern night!!!

A traditional Bayern meal. My host family threw a Bayern night because I had wanted to go to Oktoberfest, but it was too expensive. I enjoyed this a lot!!!

My first host family

The wonderful family that I stayed with while I was in Bordelum, the Clausens.
Left to right starting with back row: Birthe, Marten, Oluf, Imke, Max, and me.

I really enjoyed my time with them and hope to visit them in the future. They are actually going to America for their fall break. They will land in Chicago, drive to Iowa to go to a major John Deere place, then they will drive from Iowa to New York City. I wish them save travels and all the patience in the world that they will need for that long drive from farmland to city!

It has been a while

Hey everbody!!! Sorry I haven't posted in a while!! Everything has been going great! The weather is starting to get cold, but I don't think that I will start riding the bus until after fall break, which starts next Friday!!!! WOOOO!!! I am really excited! There is a lot that I want to do! I have been somewhat busy lately, but I am excited because I am actually catching up on my homework!! I am also actually starting to apply for colleges today. I am planning on getting that done by next weekend. So that will be a load of my back! I am really excited because things are starting to click with me. I am getting to know my german friends better and am starting to actually talk more. Which might be a surprise to all of you that know me, but I knew that when I got here I would not talk that much at all. Which was really funny because, at the YFU meeting in Kiel, I thought I was the only american in my area, so I was really nervous, which is really stupid. But then, when I got there I noticed to people that looked oddly familiar. Then I realized that they were fellow YFU CBYXers!!!! It was awesome!!! We were the loudest group. I also met some really cool people from places like Romania, Estonia, Mexico, France, Bulgaria, India, Japan, Thailand, and Switzerland. It was a lot of fun and I hope to meet up with some of them during the fall break. I went to a really big club called the Colosseum, but it was really really crowded and you could hardly move. Not really my thing. Crowded, I mean. Anyway..... I can't really think of anything else.... Well I do have to decide soon where I want to go for my mid year orientation. As a CBYXer I get to choose from Munich or Dresden. Any suggestions? There are themes for both and surprise surprise, because I am on a government-funded scholarship, both have to do with politics. fun. I am really jealous, because the other kids get to go to Berlin and the Berlin Film Festival which is really freakin cool!!! :( But I think I will have fun. Tonight my host-family is having a Bayern party. I think it is because I wanted to go to Oktoberfest, but we couldn't because train tickets are super expensive and you have to have tickets to get into one of the tents. I am excited to see what people from Bayern eat!!! Oh, yeah! I forgot. That tennis tournament I had? I got second place and a trophy!!! Pretty cool!! I will hopefully post the weekend before my fall break with my plans and anything that is new or that I forgot to post. But, for now, here are some new pictures!!!