A birthday party; visiting friends; Das Klimahaus in Bremerhaven; and more!

Me and the Luebben family

     This past weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to take a trip away from Sievershausen (not that it's boring here, but... alright, it doesn't change much, so it's a bit monotonous).  Deike, Hendrik's sister (she is far right in the photo, he is the tall guy in the back), was turning 25, and had a huge party to celebrate.  I was one of the lucky 80 people who received an invitation, so I was more than happy to go.
      On Friday when I got there, they weren't doing anything, just starting to set up for the party.  Some neighbors came over, and we talked the evening away.  Saturday morning breakfast was at the farm.  (I slept at Hendrik & Maren's house)  And, since the party didn't mean that all farmwork was put on pause, Hendrik had to go out to his fields as soon as we were finished to collect round bales.  This is the first year that he's tried round baling the grass silage instead of putting it into the bunker silos.  He's curious to see if it helps milk production, or if it has no effect whatsoever.

The tractor with the attachment to pick up round bales

     In the morning, I rode around with him, and we chatted about how everything is at home (in the US), how things are at home (in Sievershausen), and how things are in general (school, Germany, etc....).  We both enjoyed it; Hendrik had someone to talk to while working, so it went faster, and I got to practice my German listening and speaking.  And it's just always nice to see each other after so long, of course!  There were about 200 bales to pick up, so it took a while.  By the time I left on Sunday, they still weren't done.  In the two hours that I rode around with him, we managed to bring about 30 bales to the farm.

     In the afternoon I helped Deike finish setting up for the party.  We put some decorations on the tables, put up some balloons so people would notice where the party was, and then had to get the bathroom wagon all oriented and set up.  It's funny; instead of port-a-johns, they have little wagons with a mens' and womens' bathroom in it.
     By the time we were finished, the tent had gone from an empty room to a nice, welcoming setting, and I began to anticipate what the evening would bring.  There were still about 2 hours before people would begin arriving, so I read the paper for a bit.  Then I went outside and just enjoyed living on a farm again for a bit.  The little calves were really rambunctious!!  And the cows are just as shy as they ever were =)  I guess I didn't really notice how much I miss the farm.  And even the farmwork.  Here I don't really have any physical work to do.  Which is why I was so set on finding some sport club to join.

     On that note, I read an article in the paper about a man in the Netherlands who is selling perfume that smells like farm fresh air: either cow or pig variation!  I got a laugh out of that when I saw it.  It reminded me of all the little kids who come to Weiss Farm and then say something to the tune of "What smells so bad?!" or "Ugh!!!  It stinks!!"  Well, that aroma that Mom so lovingly called "the smell of money" is now actually going to be used to make money!  Too bad we didn't catch onto that earlier...!
     Anyways.... The party was nice.  Not quite what I had imagined, though.  I couldn't understand too well what all the conversations were about.  It was loud, and with 60+ guests, there were way more than a few discussions going on at once.  For me, it was a bit more than a brain overload, that's for sure.  I ended up leaving about midnight, and I had such a headache from trying to concentrate on one conversation.
     On Sunday Hendrik and I went to Bremerhaven.  We went to the Klimahaus, a museum that recently opened (alright, maybe two or three years ago, but that's recent!  For museums, that is).  It was definately not what I had expected.  I had heard that it was a museum about all the different climates on one line of longitude on the Earth.  And it was.  But it had a twist; all the places you went to were places where a man from Bremerhaven actually was.  He followed the 8. 34' degree east line of longitude around the Earth, meeting people and climates all the way.  And his experiences are shown in this museum.  It was awesome!  Every room was heated/cooled and humidified/dehumidified so that you got the feeling that you were actually in the climate.  For instance, in Niger it was really hot and dry.  In Camaroon, it was hot and humid.  In Antarctica, it was cold, dry, and there was a wind coming from somewhere or other (and there was ice all over!).  Not what I had expected, but way better than I had thought.
     And then I left in the afternoon, got on the train, and headed back here to Sievershausen.  But it was a nice break from the normal day-to-day life I've settled into here.

Niger in the Klimahaus

     Today it's been two months since I left my family and said farewell!  Strange thought...  I'm not gonna get into that now, though.  It's 11 p.m. and I've got school tomorrow.  I probably should've cut this whole entry shorter, anyhow.

My days are starting to fill up and get busy

     Well, this past week sure was a busy one.  On Tuesday I went to the soccer club for women over 16 years old.  They had a game on Wednesday (I didn't play there, since I had just started practicing with them), and I went to go watch.  We won, 2-1.  It started raining after a bit, and so it was a bit less than wonderful.  but it was still really fun.  They play well, but not so well that it's out of my league.  Well, after I practice a bit, that is.

      On Thursday morning I went to an 11th grade Math class to see if I could understand anything there.  What we're doing in the 10c (sine and cosine graphs) I learned this spring.  Since that is the only credit that I need yet to graduate from FHS, Mama and Papa (that is, my German host parents) want to make sure that I'm taking a challenging enough class that my principal will take the credit for the year.  So, I sat in on this other class to see if I would be able to take that class as well as the Math class from the 10c.  Unfortunately, I didn't understand what was going on.  After class I talked with the teacher, and he said that in the second half of the 10th grade we will learn some new stuff, and that's what the 11th class, of course, built onto.  It felt really good for me to come back to my regular class. I didn't realize how much I have gotten used to the people there!  I already kinda know who I hang out with, and I know everyone's names.  Having to start all over made me really grateful for the class where I know peoples' faces.   

     On Saturday there was a Kinderbibeltag.  Basically, it was Vacation Bible School.  Except that it was only one day.  I came as a late volunteer, so they didn't really have a place for me to go.  So I sorta just tagged along and checked out what all the kids were doing, and helped out when I could.  We made candles (pic at left), played games, and then we had a "last supper".  We cut up vegetables and fruit, and had some bread with that.  There were some tables set up in the church, and the lady pastor talked about how Jesus gave the diciples bread and wine as a sign of the new covenant.



Imke, Inga, and I at the concert



     After VBS, I had about an hour and a half to relax.  Then Imke's dad drove Imke, Inga, and I to a concert at the university where he teaches.  I didn't really like the first band, but the second was awesome!  It was the concert band there at the university, and they had lights and everything while they played.  All of the songs had some text with "stars" or something to do with outer space.  And, except for two of them, they were all English.  I couldn't quite understand all of the lyrics anyways, but I recognized some of them from the tune.

     And now I've got to get ready to go to JuRa (short for Jugendraum, the teen Bible study/ hang out that I go to).  It's a great way for me to start the week!

The concert band

(Insert title here. I can't think of anything interesting.)

     In case you were starting to wonder, yes, I am still alive.  I've been settling into my new school, meeting new people, and that's been keeping me pretty busy.  Now I'm waiting before we go to church at 2 p.m. and so I thought I'd quick type something up.
     School has been nice.  I'm starting to get to know a few of my classmates, so that makes it easier for me when I'm there.  And class is actually relatively easy.  I'm in the 10th grade (can't remember if I said that already, so I'll say it again) and so I've already learned most of the material that we're learning in class.  Like, in Biology, we're learning about cells and why the nucleus is so important.  And in Math, we're doing sine and cosine.  It's nice, 'cuz then I can focus on trying to learn the language, and not have to worry about learning new stuff AND language!  This picture here is an example of something that I do actually have to work on--Erdkunde (ummm, Geography?  But we also learn about weather patterns in the world and economies in different countries. So... not Geography).  After Herbstferien (fall break) in October we're going to have a test over all the countries of the world.  We'll have to be able to give the name and capital of each when we're given a blank map.  So, I'm studying for that!  'Cuz I don't wanna embarass myself and make it look like Americans don't care about the rest of the world (some people have already asked me stuff like "So, when you said you're going to Germany, did a lot of people ask you where that was?")

        This is the bulletin board in my room.  I put up some pictures I brought, and some that my host family had received earlier that they gave me so I have something to hang up.  I've also got stuff on my shelves, but it's actually not too much...
        On Friday I ran a 10K race.  59:06 was my time.  Not too bad, considering I only had one week to train for it, I thought.  Though I wouldn't have complained if I got something around 50.  Ah well, I shouldn't have expected too much, I suppose.   I had to run it alone, 'cuz I couldn't find anyone else who runs and who wanted to do 10K.
        Yesterday Papa, Mathilde, Jonathon, and I went sailing again.  There wasn't any wind, though, so we ended up paddling most of the time or swimming.  It was nice though.  I was really sore from the race, so it was great to have an afternoon to just relax.
       Today after church there's a church garage sale, and I'm helping out there.  Mama kinda volunteered all of us.  I guess that whenever there's something going on at the church, she's usually the one who helps organize it and who is in charge of finding volunteers.  But I like volunteering, so...  it'll be nice to be doing something again.
     You can't begin to imagine how hard it is for me to type so much.  I've begun to spell things wrong, and I start typing a wrong word or something.  Sometime I'll have to just type and not use the backspace, then you can see firsthand how bad it's gotten to be!!!
     Mathilde really likes playing Sequence.  She can't pronounce the name, though, so she calls it "das neue amerikanische Spiel" (the new American game).  Sometimes I get sad while I'm playing 'cuz it reminds me of sitting at home and playing with Margie, Scott, Mom, and Dad.  It's so strange to think that we won't play it together again until next summer!!!
     Well, now we're about to leave for church.  So, until next time!  It might be a while, because now there's really not too much going on, it's just day to day life.  And I don't think you're really too interested in hearing the same story all the time.