Ruins, Reptiles, Riding and Rowing :)

I've had an eventful couple of weeks since I last wrote.
And by weeks I mean weekends really....
During the week I go to school, or actually right now I have a community service project in an Elderly Day Care Center.....
The weekend after I got back from Mid-stay Karlsruhe had other Mid-stay students. We all went to meet one of Karlsrhe's Mayors together. It was surprisingly much more fun than expected.
Karlsruhe at night :)
I was very proud becuase even after I talked he thought I was German :)
I then, however, informed him I'm infact American.
Later in the weekend my host mom, Oda, took me and Nehle and Rebecca (friends) in the Pfalz. We went for a "hike" and saw some really cool ruins of an old castle.

Madenburg 1176Rebecca and I

Then we went into Landau, a relatively small city in the Pfalz.

Then we went to a reptile house. It was sooooooooooo cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anaconda
Boa with mouth open (sorry it's blurry, didn't want to disturb all the creatures with my flash)
Chameleon
Meekah on the way home :)
Then this past weekend I went to France!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was so excited! It was fun! We saw other really cool castle ruins there!!!
Underground (or now underground) Passageway

The steps we had to climb up
Old rooms
The well

And then walked around Wissembourg.
Almost the whole ride back I could see where I row, which is in Germany.....
Speaking of rowing I spent the whole last Saturday at the rowing club. We had practice in the morning as usual and then we had lunch together afterwards. Then we had some time in which we (those of us around my age) used for sleep/figuring out what our spring training schedule would be like. Then we had practice again. Then we had some game time. Then we had dinner, and then watched a movie. It was really really enjoyable. It's very seldom here that I just spend a whole day with the same group of people (other than when I'm in school).
Riding has also been going well, and I can't wait until the weather is good enough that we can go outside for lessons :)
"My" horse, Kalidor

Witch hunts, Crabbing, and Fashion Shows...

Last week I had midstay camp with other CBYX students here in Germany.
We were staying in Bad Honnef, which is near Bonn.
We spent two days in Bonn. One day in Köln (Cologne), and one day just hanging out at the Youth hostel.
It was soooooooooooooo much fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can not even describe how much I enjoyed it.
At the beginning of the week, in all honesty we(as a group) did not get along with the liaisons. They thought we were hard to motivate and that we weren't really very interested in what they were doing with us.
By the end of the week, however, we were all very good friends with the liaisons, and the liaisons even said that we were really interested in what we were doing (even if we took some time to show it :p).
It was really really inexplicably nice to see all the people that I hadn't seen since September at our prep. camp in D.C.
In Bonn we took a walking tour, which was rather interesting. Then we went in the "House of History" in Bonn, which was also interesting.

Our second day in Bonn we went to the BPB, and found out where we could find good information about Germany. Then we had some freetime in Bonn.
The group of people I was with and me went to a cafe(I still can't find accents on this keyboard). Then we decided to find the Beethoven House. It was unfortunately closed. That did not deter us. We decided to just take pictures in front of the door :)

The next day we were in Köln, it was sort of a day off for us (no CBYX workshops). We first went to the Cathedral. We also wanted to climb the Church tower, but that unfortunately was also closed. I don't think we would have seen too much anyways, the one downside to the week was the weather was TERRIBLE. Anyways afterwards I went to a Chocolate Museum. It was interactive which I LOVED.
Then we had the choice of going to an Olympic Sport Museum or having freetime in the city. I would have liked to see more of the city, but it was really so windy and rainy I didn't want to be outside. Plus, I was interested in the Sport Museum. The Sport Museum was amazing! It was also interactive, it had a weight you could try to lift, a long jump you could try, a pommel horse, a balance beam, and a boxing ring you could play in. It also had a rowing section, which I naturally enjoyed.

Saturday, we stayed at the Youth hostel. We started off our day with talking about the week. Then we were given free time. It was the one day with nice (partially sunny) weather. A bunch of us went out and played soccer. The liaisons played with us too, and then even some other Germans who were staying at the youth hostel too.

Then later that night we had a talent show. It was very very very funny. I normally Irish Dance at talent shows, but I didn't have any music. So the other Maryland kids and I decided to give a shortened explination of how to crab. It turned out actually to be rather funny. There were a number of singing, dancing, playing instrument acts. The Massachusetts group of kids decided to a "Massachusetts History" including: landing at Plymouth rock, Witch hunts, Boston Massacre, and the Boston Tea Party. Then there was also a pajama fashion show.

This is the imitation of our liaisons, and the new AFS rules.So this is the witch hunt....
Crazy Bavarian dance
Pajama Fashion Show :)

We ended the night with a dance party. Just an overall really good last night of Midstay, and a really good week at Midstay!
We played lots of games, learned lots, and all with very little sleep!! :)
And at this time I would like to send all our thoughts to those people who have lost someone close to them in school shootings this week. Especially, to those people in and around Stuttgart.