an awesome weekend :)

 Sooooo :) this weekend was pretty much epic :D

 Friday I went to this drama thing which was boring (told you bout that in my last post)... But Saturday was so much better! :) My best friend Johanna came over at 6 pm to drop off her stuff, cause she stayed over night, and later Sarah and Verena came too. We went to the concert which was 5€ to get in. We had some time to chat which was fun! :) It wasn't as cold yet so we were waiting outside for the concert to start :)

 The first band was "Helden ohne Heimat" - Heroes w/o a home :D They were definitely the best band that night.

Me, Verena and Sarah

Verena and Me :D

Sarah and Verena

  Yeah... Mainly funny pictures :D It was hilarious :D

  Johanna and I got back around midnight. We pretty much went straight to bed :D

  In the morning we woke up early but fell asleep again and then had some breakfast in bed and talked for like 2 or 3 hours! It was nice! I love her! :)

Johanna was a little bored :D ha

  Later that day I went to my grandmas who had baked a chese cake! It was soooo yummy!! :D

  In the evening we ordered some Italian food  for dinner. It was soooooooooooooo delicious! :) I just LOVE good Italian food! :DI saved some left overs for tonight and it was even better! :D

  Well... Tomorrow I'mma go to school for one hour (so actually 45 min) of Philosophy -.- It sucks... But I get to sleep in so I'm not going to complain :D I'm gonna get really spoiled haha :D

  Anyways... I'll talk to you all later!
  Love you and Happy Birthday Briana!!!! ;) Love you! <3

Eileen

weekend. :)

  Today was such a loooooong day! I had 3 hours of Latin (no fun), 2 hours of Literature (we finally decided on one play!) and an hour of History. But I also had 2 free periods and Lunch.. It felt like this day would never end...

   When I got home I checked my emails and then went upstairs to read a little but as soon as I lay in bed I was sound asleep. :) That nap was one of the best ones I've had in a while! I didn't get rid of my headache though so now it's kind of at the point where it's starting to become a migrane... no fun :(

  I just got back from a Literature thing. It was a mixture of singing, reciting and acting. It was about a German writer who died in 1959 or so.. It was sooooo boring! But I hope the ones who were there are going to get some extra credits :D haha

  I would post some pictures but I'm a little too lazy right now... sorry :D

  Tomorrow I'll have some pictures for you guys. I'mma go to a concert here in town with some friends. It's gonna be fun. :) I love these small little concerts with unknown bands.

  So I'm thinking to go to bed.. :D Talk to you later guys!

  Love you, Eileen

Somewhere over the rainbow

  This song is definitely my song of the week:

  Somewhere over the Rainbow - IZ

  This song just makes me happy. And the video sad. He was obese and died at 38. In the end of the video they show how his ashes was poured into the see. I usually start crying when I watch the video. It's a pretty big loss because he made such great music! He died in 1997 but still.

  Well just wanted to tell you my song of the week ;)

Love, Eileen

hugs and friends

  Today was a rather boring day. I had two classes, because English was cancelled since our teacher was gone on a fieltrip so we got the first two hours off. It was good to sleep in. I took the train and walked with a guy in my class to school. We actually never really talked to each other. He's kind of a jerk but today I realized: He IS a jerk but still a human being and he CAN be nice. Also I started reading "Dear John". Savannah is kind of a role model. She never thinks bad of anybody. That's how I want to try to live my life. I'm not sure if I'll get to the point where I can say: This is how you are now. But I want to at least try. I sometimes catch myself talking and thinking badly of someone and then later that day  feel bad about it. So I'll keep you updated on my progress ;)

  Do you know that feeling when you really need a nice, looooong, loving hug from someone you love and miss? That's how I feel like right now. I don't really know why. It's just sometimes there. It usually comes with some melacholy and mostly ends the next day. It's not a bad feeling and I'm not sad or anything. You can't always be euphoric and excited and out-going etc. Sometimes you need to calm your feelings and think rationally.

  Enough written, love you guys, Eileen :)

PS: this is what we also do during free periods and lunch :

sleeeeeep ;)

long day, heavy bag, books, books, and books and nice talks :)

  Today I had 4 classes but all for 90 minutes so the day didn't actually feel as long but it definitely was! I was so exhausted in 6th hour! Then I ate some candy and I was feeling better :D haha sugar is the best ;)

  During Lunch some friends and I first walked over to the main building to check out when we have our first exams but there were too many people standing in front of the list that I didn't really feel like trying :D haha... I know that I have to take the Latin exam before fall break... that kinda sucks. But oh well... I'll hope it'll all work out.
  I took some pictures during lunch so here they are:

my school.... they're remodeling it

Katrin, Maike and Svenja during Lunch :)

Maike and Svenja in front of our school.... looks horrible right now :D haha

  So that's what we do during Lunch... not always tho.. sometimes we just hang out in the cafeteria chatting, doing homework and stuff :) 

I also saw this: 

randomness

                                           

  After school Svenja took me to the train station because I wanted to meet Kathrin (the one that went to the yard sale with me). At the station in the neighbouring town I saw this: 

it's a non-smoking station !!!

 

NON-smoking :D 

  I had to pick up a really stupid book for German class at a bookstore and we also wanted to make christmas-book-wish-lists. I found a few good books that I want to read. Luckily I don't have to wait for Christmas to read some of them, because Kathrin has a few :D

  We have to do this again tho because we didn't have as much time as we'd hoped because our tickets only last til 6pm... later we would've had to pay more..

  So now another totally awesome thing: I am going to a Needtobreathe concert in Cologne next month!!!! I am sooooooo excited! I'm going with a couple friends and maybe my sister. My mom is driving us. She's the best!!! Mom: I love you!! <3

  Tomorrow school starts at 10:35 for me and I only have two classes.. Lucky?! haha sometimes life is just good!! :D 

  I'mma go to bed...

  Love you guys and have an amazing day and a good night! :)

Night, Eileen

City Festival

  Where to start? This weekend was full of everything: studying, laughter, fun, friends, family, good times and some lonely times that where still good. I sometimes need that :)

  First of my parents where gone for the weekend so I stayed at my grandparent's. I went home Friday night to watch a movie and fell asleep... So I didn't spend the night and my grandparent's :D I watched Twilight. I've watched it like a million times but it was still good. I liked being home alone having the house all to myself and listening to the silence when I was lying in bed. It felt good. Of course you always have the fear that someone's gonna break in just the night nobody's there but the good feeling was greater than the fear.

  I slept til 11 am ... Actually it was 8 but I stayed in bed and fell asleep around 9ish again. It felt sooooooooo good! This week was just really exhausting and so I'm glad I got the chance to sleep in and relax a little bit. I love that. I was usually a morning person before I got to the US but since then I LOVE sleeping :D I don't even know why. It's probably the time difference and that I took a lot of naps when I didn't have anything to do which is definitely not bad :D haha

  Anyways... Back to the topic. Saturday I studied for a while and at 4ish my grandpa took me to Aldi (a discounter chain) and then we went to my grandparent's house. On Thursday I'd decided I wanted to bake a cake and that's what I did Saturday. It's (or was by now) an Apricot Cake with lots and lots of whipped Cream. It took me like 4 hours but it turned out great! Not the way it looked on the picture in the book but that was my first "difficult" cake so I won't complain.
Here are some pictures:

Actually Vanessa took this one :)

  My back hurt a lot after those 4 hours of baking but it was so much fun! I loved it :)

  In the evening I went home again to watch some American Football and do some more homework. And again I fell asleep so I stayed at home again. I loved watching Football again. It's a lot of fun especially hearing all the English and stuff. Feels like home ;)

  So today I met with my friends Kathrin, Vanessa and Johanna H and later Johanna J joined us. The fair was in our town (it's really really really tiny since my town is really really tiny) but Sundays there's a lot more to do because we also have a yard sale in the whole city center (like 3 streets :P). I love yard sales and I regret that I never went to a real American yard sale last year. It's definitely on the list! :) I bought a cooking and baking book with lots of great recipes and a cassette (like an MC). They're really popular here with the stories and stuff. Not music. I used to listen to them every night, my mom, my grandma and lots of my friends and my mom's friends listen to them in the night. Probably sounds childish to you guys but you didn't grow up with it ;) Anyways. You might know the movies of the three investigators whose symbol are the three question marks. You know the three boys Justus, Peter and Bob who solve tons of cases. That's what I usually listen to but there's also another version of that with 4 kids (3 boys and a girl) who solve cases too. So that's what I also bought. :)

  After spending an hour at the city yard sale we went back to my place because we'd already seen everything and it was really cold and nothing except a bakery was open yet. So we bought some breakfast at the bakery and walked back. We talked and talked and it was lots of fun! :) We decided we had to hang out more often. :)
Around noon we went to my grandma's to eat some cake. We took some silly pictures and I promised I'd put them online (although noone really liked that promise :P) so here they are:

Kathrin and Vanessa

well... me :D

Johanna H

Kathrin

 

And an empty plate with a fork ... must've been good :D

  Kathrin left at 1ish and Johanna J came and we talked a little more, Vanessa and Johanna looked at my scrapbook that I got from my host mom as a going away present. They hadn't seen it before. Johanna also looked at my Yearbook and I showed her a guy that looks a lot like one of my friends here. Hilarious. He has like a billion look alikes now :D

  Later we went to the fair again and had some pizza, pasta and crepes and I had to ride one of the rides with my sister... Then we went back and watched some tv and at 4:30 ish pm everyone had left, my parents were back from their trip and I fell asleep while reading a book for German class :D It was an awesomely busy weekend :) I love weekends like that although I don't need them that often.

  Tomorrow I'll have school til 3:30 pm and then I'll meet Kathrin in Guetersloh, a bigger neighbouring town, to go to their book store. We want to make some Christmas-book-whish-lists. :D I'm excited!!! Haha I could literally LIVE in a bookstore. At least as big as it is in Guetersloh. It'll  be a fun day again ;)

  So I'm gonna go to bed now. :)

 Lots of love and smiles
Eileen

Skype - it wasn't just a dream. :)

I have to apologize for not blogging for a while. I was just so tired in the evenings and nothing really special happened (except tuesday night and wednesday morning) but school is still school so nothing important happened ;)

It sometimes feels like the whole past year never happened. I got used to my old/new life so quickly! Everything sometimes feels so unreal. I sometimes even have to think if I have to talk in English or German.... very confusing. Anyways... On Tuesday night Briana came online on skype (which she finally got ;)) and then we skyped for almost an hour! It felt sooooooooooooooo good to see her and talk to her! I miss her so much and skyping was like christmas, birthday, easter, new year's all together at once! :)

Then the next morning I was just making my breakfast and getting ready for school when I heard the calling sound of skype. Bri was calling me again but I didn't have the time. Then she said that Jarett and Amanda were there and wanted to say hi! So I hurried sooo bad to get ready (forgot half of my stuff at home but oh well) and I talked to them for like 15 min before school! I was soooooooo happy! It was amazing! I couldn't help smiling! It was insane :D haha.... My friends were kinda annoyed after a while cause I was so happy and constantly smiling! :D 

So now it really feels like the whole last year happened and I remembered so many things that I haven't thought of for a while! It was amazing! Gosh I never thought I could be even more happy than I was already! :D 

Marching left, right, left, another step. Keep smiling as you go.  

--> my motto for today and the week and the month and the year ... :) 

Keep smiling! :)

Eileen

music is pure joy :)

In my last post I totally forgot to tell you what my favorite song of the week was.
I figured it would be nice to have a fav song of the week because music is soooo awesome and means so much! there's always some song that totally fits your situation or your mood! you just have to find it! it's not only the lyrics but also the melody. I sometimes don't agree with the lyrics but totally love the melody and the other way around.
So this week my favorite song was "The Outsiders" by Needtobreathe. I love listening to this band since Jayanah told be about them one day in March I think. They have so many different kinds of songs and I kinda like the fact that not a lot of people (especially not in Germany) know this band. It feels a little as if this is YOUR band and they're singing their songs only for you. A little weird but oh well ;)
Anyways. So I don't really know what they're singing about in this song although I understand the lyrics but sometimes it's just really hard for me to interpret english songs since I'm not a native speaker. But I really like the line

Cause if you're not laughing
Who is laughing now

I see it like this: if you're not in a good mood and smilling and laughing and happy who will be? You can't always count on the others to start something. You have to start it! So that's kind of how I try to live my life. To smile at someone and make them smile back and maybe brighten someones day. It doesn't matter if you know the person or not but you can still do something nice for them even if it's just a smile :)
It wasn't even hard for me to smile and be happy because I was so happy and joyfull these past 6 - 9 months. I'm just so blessed with all the people that are in my life now. Americans as well as Germans. And I'm just so thankful that my life is so good right now!

So: start smiling guys! It's not only worth it but it also makes you happy when someone smiles back! :) Go out and brighten someones day! If you won't start than who will???

:)

Lots of love and smiles,
Eileen

:)

Guess what I'm watching on tv right now??? - Right: Football on ESPN!!! :P Dang I'm sooo excited! I LOVE Football!! :D So the Dallas Cowboys are playing against the Washington Redskins.
This makes this week even more perfect.

My High was definitely the rather short but good open-air concert in GT with Vanessa. We had lots of fun watching and listening to the bands and after that talking for like 2 hours or more :D

My Low was that I had a bad dream the other night. I dreamed that we took an exam which I forgot to study for and then I totally panicked and  I freaked out and then I woke up shaking really bad... So now I'm kinda scared of the upcoming exams but that's hopefully silly ;)
Anyways... I'm also really tired and exhausted these past two weeks. My schedule and my classes kinda wear me out because I'm not used to having 11 different classes anymore and I'm at school until late in the afternoon. But I guess it's just a matter of time until I get used to it again ;) Always being optimistic ;)

So I also went to this photography class on Saturday and Sunday. Here are some pictures I took... They're not very good but it was fun ;)

yeah ... had to take picture of my toms ;)

We were supposed to take some pictures of a fountain I like this one a lot. :)

I took a bunch more but they pretty much suck :D haha

I studied bio for like 2 hours today which is probably a record for me.... And I actually understood it!! That makes you feel so good :D haha I love that feeling when you understand something all by yourself and you know you did something for that! It's kinda like sports... You go on a run and everytime you can run a little farther it makes you feel so euphoric! :D haha that's kinda how I feel right now ;)

Have an awesome day and an awesome night!!!
Love you lots,
Eileen

a full week

I'm really sorry that I didn't post anything for so long but I wasn't online pretty much the whole time.
I was really busy with school because I get out so late and I had lots of homework and I was just so exhausted by the end of the day that I didn't really feel like blogging anymore...

Nothing interesting happened anyways...

Wednesday I had PE and I played V-ball again. It was soooooo much fun!!! I just LOVED it! My knees really hurt afterwards from falling and I still am so sore but it was totally worth it! :)

Last night I went to a concert with Vanessa another best friend. It was pretty short, just an hour, but the bands were cool! The pre-band is from Guetersloh (a neighboring town where the open-air concert was) and the main act is from Paderborn which is like an hour away from here. Both play mainly rock and aletrnative and they were really good! I really like the small concerts with unknown bands.
After that Vanessa and I walked back to her car and on the way we met Aljosha, a friend of us, and we talked for at least 30 min :D Then Vanessa and I talked and talked for ever which was really awesome cause we didn't talk a lot since I got back to Germany. Even when we got to my house we stayed in the car and talked :) I love that :D

Well today there was this photography class that Opa, Darleen and I went to. It was really hard to understand cause the guy wasn't really good at explaining :D But it was pretty fun. I learned some new things.
Tomorrow we have another class (it's just two days).

So as you can see there's not a lot that happened this week...
Guess I'll talk to you later :)

Have a good day and a good night,
Eileen

life is good

So I realized that I am so happy I guess since the beginning of the year or a little after that!
I mean you always have days where you just feel like life is so hard or you feel sick or you're sad or whatever... But mainly I was happy. I mean truely happy! It's a good feeling especially since I'm still happy although I still don't really know if I can stay in my grade or if I have to go back....

But I had so much fun these past 7 to 9 months!

I feel so blessed to be able to say that I have family and friends all over the world! I mean: who can say that about themselves?

When I think back on these past months then I realize that I was mostly smilying! I was sitting on the train today and this woman was sitting next to me (she must've been 35 to 40). We didn't even really say anything but we just exchanged looks and smiles. There was that man coughing and sleeping in a really weird position opposite from us and we looked at each other and smiled and knew we were thinking the same thing. That happend a couple more times. I just love that when you don't even know someone but you have this weird "stranger-connection" :D I've been having been able to "connect" to so many more people since this year. Probably because I "had to" learn how to make friends.
And you know what: Every friendship starts with a smile :)

Oh and I also realized that it's extremely hard to translate from English to German and the other way around... I know the words and I know what they mean but then I can often only explain them (either German or English words) and I just can't think of the translation! That's driving me nuts! :D haha

Well... I think that was that for today (or tonight actually...) :D

Have a good day and a good night!
Eileen

PS: I think we should try something.... Smile at 5 people tomorrow (or today for the Americans ;)). I bet it'll make the person happy and especially you :)

summin up the first week

This week was pretty awesome all in all.

School started and I got to meet tons of awesome, new people! Still it's hard because I have to catch up a lot.
In math I'm really behing because I didn't learn hardly anything my class did last year... I had some homework due tomorrow which my friend was supposed to help me finish but she couldn't so I freaked a little and my mom said I should ask someone else and Andi did help me do the paper... So: Thanks Andi! :)
I didn't really understand everything but I hope I can study with Johanna Tuesday.

All in all my really long school days went by really fast! Most of my teachers and classes are awesome! I thought it would take forever to get used to everything and everyone again but it's actually really easy.

I also had an awesome talk with mom on Thursday so that was my high of the week I guess. And also that I got to hang out with another Johanna, a good friend. We had some cokes and then a beer at my place and we talked a lot. I didn't really see her since I got back only at school and once with some others so it was nice to have some "girl talk" ;)

My low was that I started out the week feeling sick but it's gone now so the low is not a low anymore :D haha

Saturday (yesterday) we had a BBQ at our place. With good German salads and Bratwurst :D I love it!! Bratwurst (especially my dad's) is the best! :D It was fun and the kids of our friends are so cute!

Tonight me, my sister and my dad ate Döner! That was soooooo goooood!!!! All you Americans definitely miss something in life cause I think you can't get that in the US! :D

Tomorrow I have Math the first two hours which kinda sucks... But then I'll have 4 free hours in a row and an hour lunch so I'll go home. Then 7th and 8th per. German. That's gonna be fun again :D

Well I think I'm gonna go to bed because I am sooooo tired!! I already went to bed at 9 last night! That's so weird! I usually like staying up long! But it was a long week...

So have a good day and a good night!
Love you guys!

Eileen

Today was an OK day.... I still didn't get rid of the stomach ache and the sickness tho.

I had two periods of English again. That was fun :)

After that I had German class. The teacher talked for the whole period about how he's gonna grade us and that we have to study a lot cause otherwise we'll blow our diploma...

After that I had two hours of Philosophy. We split up into groups and each group had to discuss a different topic. So I had 5 "chill" classes in a row :)

Then I had Math and I realized that I suck... Or at least I didn't understand like 95% of it. But Johanna is gonna help me Sunday. I'm so glad she's a genius in Math haha :D

After that I had Latin. That was fun cause the teacher is really cool. But I think I have to study a lot for that too but it's gonna be easier cause I already had all that stuff and I was pretty good at it. We're a really small class like in social studies which I had after that. We did some group work as well. I understood everything a lot better than yesterday. I won't have social studies Monday because the teacher is gone and we usually don't get subs anymore because we get more work that we have to do at home. But I'll have 4 hours and Lunch where I don't have any class so I'll go home and study or sleep :D haha

I love that classes often get cancelled because then you have  more free time and not always more work. Tomorrow History got cancelled and it's my last class for the day so I can leave earlier and we didn't get hardly any homework. So it's a good start into the weekend :)

Well.... I gotta go.

Have a good day and a good night,

Eileen

what a start...

So... My start into the new school year was rather adventurous.... Or let's say it wasn't the best way to start out because I felt so sick the whole day and in 3rd hour it was just horrible.... I had a stomach ache as well and the headache started just a little later... My mom picked me up after 4th hour and took me to the doctor... guess what kinda drugs he gave me?? Right: He gave me stuff too loosen my muscles in my neck because they're so tight and sore -.- he didn't even say anything about my stomach just asked if I was still feeling sick -.-

Well but all in all the school day was good. Started out with two hours English which I loved because I miss speaking English so much! My teacher is nice. He's pretty young but that's often better :D My class is cool too. Tons of people that I like.

After that I had a free period (3rd hour) in which I hung out with friends. There was this exchange student from Romania sitting with us. She is really nice! She's gonna stay for two weeks because she is visting her uncle who lives here. She still has summer break over in Romania.

Then I had Philosphy. I have a new and pretty young teacher like in English. He is nice too and I'm sitting next to my best friend so that's great :) I think it's gonna be a cool class cause there a mostly fun people in that class.

Well that was fourth hour so I missed my first Bio class. But it was OK. I had it today again and I know the teacher. She expects a lot but she's cool. I was really scared that I would never ever understand anything which kinda was the case today but like 95% of the class didn't understand it either so it's OK :)
Mom: don't worry I'm still gonna study cause I want good grades and it's cooler to understand the stuff before others do but it makes you feel a lot better :D That was 7th and 8th period.

The first two periods today I had History again sitting next to Johanna my best friend. It was weird cause we had to put events in order and name the dates but like nobody was able to do it... I guess we're kinda dumb :D haha
but the teacher is nice and I had her before... she's really cool... I was actually really lucky with all my teachers :D haha practically all of them are young and cool :D

third and fourth hour I had Economics/Social studies. I have the best teacher ever! He is awesome. I didn't understand a lot either cause I never had that class before like the others cause I missed last year but I'll work it out. study study study :D It's an interesting class tho! You have to think your way through it cause it's mostly just hypothetically and you use tons of words no normal person knows but I like economics and stuff like that.

I also had literature today which I thought would not only be acting /Drama but it is. I don't like acting tho... But the teacher looks nice and there are lots of fun people in that class as well and a few of my closer friends. and one of my best friends is gonna transfer to lit. too ;) And there's always lots to do off stage ;)

Well after that we had lunch for an hour and after that I had Bio which I said before.

Then 9th and 10th I had PE... We played V-ball and I realized I still suck lol :D but it was fun. I love V-ball no matter if I'm good or not ;)

My mom picked me and a friend up from school which was awesome!! (Thanks Mom!) Cause otherwise we would've had to walk to the train station and wait til 5:43 pm (we get out at 5) til the train comes.So we'd be home by 6! Kinda sucks... I have one day on which I'm gonna be home at 2, all the others at 4ish and wednesdays at 6. But it didn't really feel that long anyways. I have way more friends now cause there are all the new kids who are so nice and I'm friends with them already after just 2 days! Like I said the other day: It feels like home :)

I talked to Hanna today who spend a year as an exchange student in the US as well (just the year before me) and visited them this summer. I really wanna come back next summer too!! I hope it's gonna work out! ;) So keep praying :)

I feel kinda bad cause I didn't read my bible or prayed the last few days at all... Yesterday I felt too sick and today I probably won't have the time cause I still have some homework... But I'll try to work on it.

Talking about homework I should really get going on it. it's already 6:45 pm :-S

Well have a good day and a good night :)

Eileen