Looking forward to Spring!!

Mitlerweile hat der Schnee Gott sei Dank angefangen zu schmelzen. Ja er geht mir jetzt nur noch bis zu den Knien und nicht mehr bis zur Huefte und an manchen Stellen kann man sogar den Boden sehen. Nach dieser langen Zeit, in der man nichts anderes machen konnte als im Haus sitzen, bin ich echt froh dass die Schule wieder losgegangen ist. Letzte Woche erst einmal mit einem 2 hour delay, aber diese Woche koennte echt die erste Woche in diesem Jahr werden ohne delay or snow day.

Am 13. kam ich das erste mal so richtig aus dem Haus raus. Ally and I went shopping. Do you know how exciting it can be to cross counties. :D And we were successfull. I got my stupid business outfit. It's actually not that bad, but I just hate black suits, which my marketing teacher loves soo much. The good thing was that I safed $50 cause Ally looked up some cupons on the internet with her iphone. Then we went to Macy's where we let one of the sellspersons do our make up. So we got a probably kinda expensive (estee lauder) make over for free. At night we were invited to a valentines party. Yeah I got an opportunity to wear my homecoming dress again :D Well the party was the worst party I ever went to but thanks to our spontaneous plans the night was awesome. We left the party and went to eat and later walked through Berryville to Adam's. It was soo cold. Us girls in our short dresses. We just changed our shoes. I tell you short black dresses with rainboots or tennisshoes is the new trend for 2010! :D Later Ally's mom got us and us four girls slept over at Ally's. When we got there we made chocolate cake (american baking mix with a lot of iceing!), which we attacked with forks while watching a movie. Even if we couldn't even eat the whole cake, we all felt kinda sick the next day.

Last Sunday we went to a dressage show. I was so happy to ride again. I haven't ridden in like a month because of the stupid snow. (I'm so done with it!. And they're calling for more snow in March.) So we decided not to do the test but just use their indoor arena to ride. The next day I actually was sore cause of that :D

The whole week over I managed to make dinner almost every night for Sarah and Scott. I'm proud of me :P And I have to say it kinda reminded me on home cause it does taste different wheather you cook things on the stove or just put them in the oven or microwave. I did the cooking part because Patrice was in Haiti. As a nurse she went there to help the people. Today she got back with a lot of storries to tell and a lot of pictures to show. It's pretty amazing how they live there... That's probably another thing you have to see to believe.

the never ending snow

Ja ich muss mich korigieren. Die Schule ist nicht Freitag, Montag und Dienstag ausgefallen, sondern Freitag und diese ganze Woche!! Naechsten Montag ist soweit ich weiss auch keine Schule auf Grund von irgeneinem Feiertag. Gestern hat es naemlich wirklich noch angefangen zu schneien, wenn auch nicht so doll wie vorhergesagt. Dafuer ist es heute extrem stuermisch, sodass sich das ganze Schneeschieben nicht wirklich lange gelohnt hat...

Falls ihr eine Idee habt, was wir hier machen koennten (ausser Putzen und Sachen fuer die Schule vorbereiten)bitte melden!! Wir haben schon so ziemlich jede dvd geschaut and are bored to death!!

officially snowed in

Den ersten Schnee gabs letzten Wednesday, wo dann auch gleich die Schule ausgefallen ist. :D Sarah und ich haben den Tag ueber dann Dvds geschaut und einen underschoenen, kugelrunden, weissen Schneemann gebaut, der leider nur ca 3 Stunden gehalten hat und dann aus unerklaerlichem Grund zusammengebrochen ist. Abends waren wir dann beim Basketballspiel in der Schule. Meine Herausvorderung war ein perfektes Foto zu schiessen. Ich kann immer noch nicht nachvollziehen wie die Jungs so hoch springen koennen...

Thursday waren wir dann ganz normal in der Schule und Friday ging der richtige Schneesturm dann los. Schule ist natuerlich ausgefallen und Ally ist zu mir gekommen. Wir waren der Meinung zusammen eingeschneit zu werden is gonna be more fun! We watched a bunch of movies, while it kept snowing and snowing and snowing and snowing .. Even though it still seemed kinda unreal to me when Patrice told us that the state Virginia called out the "state of emergency". Then Patrice got a phone call that she should be prepared to get picked up by the national gurads. As a nurse she was supposed to help other people. She said that has never happend to her before. We were so excited. It didn't seem real to us. It was just a bunch of snow. These newed kinda scared us but and the other hand we wanted them to come cause it was so exciting. Well, in the end they didn't. Instead it kept snowing.

The next morning we realized that it was a good idea for Ally to stay with us this weekend. She got a message that her parents didn't have any power in the house. Everyone and everything was totally snowed in. In the morning we went outside and the snow came up to our knees. It was really challanging to walk in there. Well, the question was how to take care of the horses :D













Scott spend the whole day plowing the driveway (and got stuck with his truck). When we came back out later in the evening there was even more snow. It came up to our hips!! But at least it had stopped snowing and the driveway was free. I've never seen so much snow before! I took a ton of pictures and even videos but you won't be able to get the whole situation. For this you have to be here. I've heard that they had this blizzard on the news in Germany. Apparently they were talking about the blizzard in the area around Washington DC. Okay for Germany this information is probably enough but I can tell you. Patrice said that Berryville (Yes the small town I live in!! Not the area!) got the most snow in the country! Apparently we got 10 more inches of snow than every other place.












On Sunday Scott was done plowing the driveway, but kept plowing. Ally got picked up by here parents, but as soon as she got home she texted my that she regrets it since they haven't had power in her house the whole weekend.

That was my weekend. Watching dvds and the falling snow. By the way, school got canceled on Monday and Tuesday and they're calling for more snow...

An excinting week!

Our Pax tour (with all the exchange students, our local coordinator and some family members) this months was going to D.C. last wednesday. So I slept over at Amaia's house cause her host mom came with us and could drive. I was really looking forward to this day and it was awesome. First we went into



to see the red, green, blue and many other rooms. I couldn't believe that they actually still use these rooms when they're open to visitors. But when there are no visitors the carpets get rolled out and Obama can welcome guests and give speeches. They sill had the stage there from last monday. So this and the fact that some American visitors said that they've seen these rooms on the news before made me believe that they still use some of the rooms we saw. But I couldn't take my camera with me to take pictures. The situation reminded me on my visit of the US consul in Berlin to get my visa. You can't take anything with you and there is no storing place.
For lunch we went to the old post office where we also went on top of the bell tower to get a great view over D.C. Yeah I got an opportunity to get my camera out of the car :)




After that we got tickets to get on top of the















(okay i help you with that - washington monument)
So we got a second amazing view ofter the capital of the United States. We were told that usually it is really difficult to get tickets cause it is not open all the time and if you'd have to wait in line forever. Well, we didn't. Probably cause it was really cold an windy outside, but the sun was still shining. It was just awesome :) and we had so much fun (and no school).



When I slept over at Amaias the night before one of the movies we watched was "Freaky Friday". Some of you might konw it and I've seen it in Germany before. But know as I've been here in America for about 6 months I recognized different things. That was even funnier. The scantron tests, the attitude in class and the family has the same car than Nelsons have. :D

Thursday was the second exciting day of the week. Again with out school. From my markting class (DECA) we had district competitions this day. Last week we had to take a multiple choice tests and today we went to the mall where we had the second part of the competition; role plays. I participated in the category for the new students: "Principles of Marketing" which included the categories customer relations and economics. Everyone had to dress up in professional clothes. We were soooo nervous. And when I went with Leah to the store were our role play was supposed to be, the store was closed. We were almost freaking out! In the end we started 40 min late but the positive side of that was that I had to wait so long that I wasn't even nervous anymore when it was my turn. But I couldn't stop smiling :D When I got my paper to prepare I was abit confused cause I had no plan at all what half of these stupid business-marketing words ment. Also the situation in the roleplay was completely different from the situation we had praticed in class. Instead of letting me presenting my stuff the judge kept asking me questions. I felt kinda dump cause he kept asking the same question just reworded over and over again. So I thought my answer was wrong but I thought it was just logically and had no other idea. In the end his last question was: "What country are you originally from?" :D My accent! But even though he confused me with his strange questions he must have liked me since he placed me second for the rool play (out of about 16 students I think). I didn't expect that at all. The award ceremony was at 4 pm so we spent the whole day walking through the stores. Some of my friends moved on to stated cause they came in first, second, or third overall in their category. Well I wasn't one of these in my category and at states they don't even have this category.
But the next day continued even more surprising. During the morning anouncements they called about 10 students to the room of my marketing teacher. There she told us that we're going to states. We didn't qualify directly the day before but we all placed 4th overall in our category so they take us with them for the team competitions. She is so into this whole DECA thing that she doesn't even really give us an option not to go. I was really unsure about the whole thing but also Ally and Stefanie, who qualified the day before, expect me to come with them. So I think I might do that. Now I just gotta get more professional business cloths cause for my teacher even khaki dress pants are not professional enought. She's really conservative about that. But Patrice is so excited about that that she'll go shopping with me and I might be able to borrow some cloths.

Last night Ally, Becca and I went to ihop to eat dinner together. All you can eat pancakes :D I love it! But please don't compare American pancakes with the German Pfannkuchen. Tomorrow we might go and see a movie. Do you have the movie "When in Rome" in Germany?

Wieder eine Woche um

Da ich ja versprochen hab mit meinem naechsten Eintrag nicht so lange zu warten kommt kommt hier die naechste Nachricht aus Berryville. Ja der Alltag geht weiter und das Wetter spielt verrueckt. Die letzten Tage war es hier echt extrem warm. Heute bin in ich nur in Shirt und Pulli geritten und am Samstag war ich laufen und hatte nur meinen Under Armour an. (Ich wollte jetzt betonen, dass ich keine dicke Jacke mehr brauchte. Hose hatte ich natuerlich trotzdem an.)
Am Samstag hab ich bei Amaia uebernachtet und wir haben viele verschiedene Disney movies angeschaut. Hier will man mir immer gar nicht glauben, dass ich nie Disney movies geschaut hab. Das hab ich dann ja jetzt erst einmal nachgeholt. Die Storries kannt ich dann z.T. aber schon, da Maerchen wie Aschenputtel, Schneewitchen etc doch bekannt sind.
Ja auch Schule geht weiter, auch wenn immer wieder Tage ausfallen. Ja, das was ihr euch in Deutschland gewuenscht habt bei dem Schnee, ist heir Wirklichkeit. Insgesammt hatten wir nach den Weihnachtsferien schon 2 gecancelte Tage, 1 Tag mit delay und dazu kommen dann noch 2 freie Tage wegen Martin Luther King Jr. Day und Teacher Work Day. Also 4 freie Tage in 3 Wochen Schule :P

Dann wollte ich eure aufmerksamkeit noch auf meine Liste mit "103 things about my America" lenken. Ich habe die alte Liste erweitert. Eig wollte ich ja auf 100 kommen. Naja es ist dann doch mehr geworden und ich bin sicher ich werde noch Sachen hinzufuegen koennen in den letzten 5 Monaten. Ja ob ihr es glaubt oder nicht es ist schon Halbzeit. Ich bin schon seit guten 5 Monaten hier. Die Zeit vergeht echt ziemlich schnell.

Der Alltag kommt

All die Feiertage und Ferien sind vorbei und ich bin schon seit 5 Monaten hier. Ja Alltag ist echt was langweiliges. Also nehmt euch in acht, wenn ich wieder in zurueck in Germany bin werde ich euch alle nerven iwas spannendes und neues zu unternehmen :D , sodass es nicht langweilig-alltaeglich wird. Dann ist auch Sommer und es sollte etwas einfacher sein.

Ja das Wetter hier ist echt verrueckt. Es ist soooo kalt!! Allerdings hab ich schon gehoert, dass die Kaelte welle auch Germany erwischt hat. Hier sind diese kalten Temperaturen zwar nicht ungewoehnlich, aber dass es ueber so einen langen Zeitraum konstant so kalt ist ist auch hier historic. Deshalb liegt hier der Schne con dem Schneestrum vor Weihnachten immer noch. Mit der Kaelte aber nicht genug, dazu kommt noch Wind, der das ganze erst so schlimm macht. Dank den Schnee und der kaelte hatten wir aber auch schon einen Schultag gecancelt und einmal one hour delay.

Von daher konnten wir in den Ferien nicht so oft wie erhofft reiten. Wir haben hier zwar unser eigenes Gelaende und auch einen Reitplatz, aber keine Halle. Die letzte Woche war dann aber doch ganz ok und ichkonnte relgelmaessig reiten. In bin so stolz auf Rosalie. Die kleine Fuchsstute wird immer besser und hat sich seit Sommer extrem entwickelt. Ich glaub hier sind die immer wieder erstant, dass sich das kleine verschreckt-durch-die-Gegend-rennende Pony so entwickeln konnte. Sie ist jetzt viel ruhiger und ausgeglichener und hat sichtbare Halsmuskulatur bekommen. :) Ok hier hoere ich jetzt auf mit der Beschreibung, sonst hat der Grossteil von euch wahrscheinlich ueberhaupt keine Ahnung mehr wovon ich spreche und hoert ganz auf zu lesen. ;-) Und keine Angst Svea und Sandra ich hab Ballerina und Snippy trotzdem noch total dolle lieb und vermisse sie.

Einigen von euch hab ich letztes Jahr ja schon erzaehlt, dass ich auf all eure Silvesterparties neidisch sein wuerde, da hier Silvester nur in den Grossstaedten gefeiert wird. Umso stolzer war ich dann, dass ich Silvester nich zu Hause verschlafen hab. Ich war mit ein paar Maedchen bei Stefanie und wir haben ziemlich viel Gossip Girl geschaut und das neue Jahr mit dem Wort ’HAPPY’ (von happy new year) und cheesecake begonnen. Also war mein Silvester hier zwar anders als es in Deutschlad gewesen waere, aber trotzdem toll! Am 1. war ich dann abends bei Ally’s reschuled Christmas party. Und letztes Wochenende hat Ally hier uebernachtet und wir haben Bride Wars geschaut. Der Film ist soo lustig! In den Ferien war ich noch shoppen um meine giftcards auszunutzen. Somit fing mein neues Jahr ziemlich gut und mit ziemlich viel junkfood an.

Schule ist hier am 4. Jannuar wieder losgegangen und am 6. + &. Mussten wir dann noch unsere rescheduled exams schreiben, da vor dem Ferien die Schule ausgefallen ist. Environmental Science war open notes, dafuer waren diese multiple choice questions aber extrem bescheuert und in meinem (Freshman) Biokurs wurde meiner Meinung ehr Allgemeinwissen abgefragt, sodass einem das Lernen ueber pH, populations, ecosystems, macromolecules, enzymes, etc nichts genuetzt hat. Ja das lernen die her in der 9. Wenn man das wirklich haette koennen muessen, waere der Kurs anspruchsvoller als Bio fuer die 9. in Germany. Photography war wie erwartet total easy und selbst Mathe war nicht schwer. In meinem IB Mathekurs lernen wir uebrigens nicht Bruchrechnen, wie es in manchen Vorurteilen heist. Mit Vectors habe ich dieses Jahr sogar schon was total neues gelernt und wie mir aus Germany von Marie-Christin berichtet wurde hatten wir hier mit Probability und Statistic als Thema sogar German Oberstufenniveau. Also wie ihr hoeren koennt ist der Schwierigkeitsgrad extrem unterschiedlich von Kurs zu Kurs.

Viele liebe Gruesse niach Germany und ich verpreche mit meinem naechsten Bericht nicht so lange zu waren, da selbst dieser hier unerwartet lang geworden ist. Das koennte euch wahrscheinlich einen vorgeschmack geben, was ich zurueck in Germany alles zu erzaehlen hab, wenn ich vor diesem Eintrag der meinung war ich haette nichts zu erzaehlen. :D

My American Christmas

When I woke up on Dec 24th my first thought was: “Lets take the next flight to Germany. By the time we are there we can open our presents.” But even here in America this day was fun, preparing the stockings for the animals and hanging them in front of each stall, picking our outfits for church :) and going to church. Yes we even could make church not boring since I tried to sing ‘Silent Night’ in German. Unfortunately I failed because I couldn’t really remember the lyrics. After church we changed into much warmer clothes and drove to D.C. to see the Christmas lights. Each year they put a huge tree up in front of the White house with 56 small trees around. One for each state, D.C. and the colonies. But none of us really liked the lights and Sarah and Patrice couldn’t get over the fact that the lights were just boring white and not colorful.


Christmas was the most wonderful day ever. Yes, we had a white Christmas! Everything was so exciting. I think American Christmas is our Christmas Eve and St. Nikolaus day combined. They have presents in the stockings hanging at the fire place and a ton of presents under the tree. Seriously, the Americans take the whole gift giving part way more important than we do. I have never seen so many presents! I’m not kidding!!! And what I’ve told you before about the many presents was nothing. On Christmas morning there were even more presents than the days before. And it didn’t just look like a ton because they put every little gift card in a box so it looks even more, we spend about 1.5-2 hours opening presents. After that Sarah and I went feeding the horses and preparing Scotts main presents, a small motorcycle. It was hidden in the old small horse trailer. Scott had to follow a string of yarn, crawling under tables and walking through the snow to find it. It was a perfect surprise and he took Sarah and me on a fist tour. By the time we got back in the house it was lunchtime and we finally got our breakfast. Later we let the dogs in to give them their stockings and putting Santa clause hats on their heads to take pictures. Sarah and I spend the whole entire day watching Harry Potter and trying to figure out how Modern Warfare and Photoshop work. At night Patrice’s sister and Sarah’s cousin came over for dinner and afterwards we watched ‘Little Miss Sunshine’.


This was my special American Christmas 2009.

Now the snow is melting and we can finally ride the horses again. But it is still really uncomfortable because it is still cold and windy. So we have to decide what is more important to us and what we wanna do.

Yesterday we went to a football game in Washington again. Redskins vs. Cowboys. This time it was even more fun than last time and I'm surprised that we did't loose our voice cause of our "Indianergeheule" :D This time I have to show you pictures of our sets. Be impressed and jealous. ;)