Augsburg and this past week

All of the girls at the train station who went on the field trip

     Sooooo....  Sorry I haven't been able to write something in the last week.  I've been pretty busy with stuff here.  I'll start off where I left off: last Wednesday.  The whole group had an Ausflug (relatively translates to "field trip"), and we went to Augsburg.  In this city, just about every building has a history to it, whether it's about something that's happened there or about how it was built.  Since it was school related, each of us students got one of these stories (each one is called a Sage), which we read, summarized, and then told to the group when we came to that building on our tour.  Mine was about a statue of St. Micheal and the devil, where the creator decided to make Michael move so that for every stroke of the bells (on the hour) he would stab his lance into the devil's throat.  Yeah, not particularly my favorite genre for reading, but...  homework is homework.
     After we finished the tour, we had four hours of freetime for us to do what we wanted.  Us girls decided to go shopping (yeah, not particularly my favorite pasttime, but... we'd decided to stick together, and that's what we did).  There was a huge shopping center near the old town, so we walked there and spent the remainder of our time wandering around there and puruising the stores.  We all got matching T-shirts that we're going to wear to the Farewell Fest on Thursday.

     Then our time was up, and we began the long trek back to the Bahnhof (train station).  Then, after a 45-minute ride, we were back in Mindelheim.

Gingerbread hearts and Apfelschoerle....  what a great combination!

      Friday night, we had a Bayrish Night at a local restaurant.  They put out a buffet of all-you-can eat Bayrish food!  And there were a ton of decorations- everywhere you looked, there was something or other that had the Bayrish flag pattern on it.  As soon as we came in the door, we were asked what we wanted to drink.  And then, as soon as we sat down at a table, we were given a gingerbread heart.  This, apparently, is pretty traditional for the region, and at every festival you can find them.  The whole evening there was Bayrish/German music, and there were more than one games we played.  The winner of each game was awarded a Bayrish hat, and in some cases, a little trophy to go with it.  Unfortunately, I never managed to claim one of these prizes, but I had a lot of fun trying!  Nearly everyone there was dressed in a dirndl or lederhosen, and I felt really out of place.  I left mine at home in the USA, because I figure that I'm only going to be here for four weeks, and I should use that space in my Koffer (luggage) for something that I can use the whole year.  I've heard that no one in the North wears the "traditional" German outfit, that it's just a stereotype Americans have of them.  Hahaha, I don't have a comment on that!

     This weekend my family and I went to a flea market.  It was huge!!!  At least 150 different people selling random stuff, and probably closer to 200!  I didn't find anything I really needed, but it was still fun to go see it.  We also went to the Deutsches Museum in Munich, which I found really interesting.  They had a lot of information to read, and it was, of course, all in German, so after a while I didn't read anymore.  Instead, I just looked at the exhibits, and when something confused me about what it should be, I would stop and read it.

Sarah tries her hand at one of the games!

     Yesterday I had a Fiertag, which meant I didn't have to go to school.  Don't ask me what the holiday was, because I didn't listen close enough.  At any rate, it was a day off, so I didn't really care!  We all went to the waterpark in Ulm, where we went a few weeks ago.  The day was sort of cloudy, and sometimes it would threaten to rain, so we spent the whole day at the waterpark.  It is mostly indoors, with only a part outside, so the weather didn't bother us at all.

     All in all, the whole week was exciting.  And now I've only got this one week left, and then on Saturday I get on the train and head up to my next family!!!  I can't believe that it's already been four weeks here...  That it's been a month since I left home at 4 a.m. and jumped on the plane headed for D.C.!  But that also means I'm 1/12 of the way done with this exchange, and I'm already excited to come home and tell everyone what I've done here!