midstay :)

Yesterday I started to make a list of all the things I still want to do before I leave from home. I have realized there isn’t much time left. It seems like yesterday I had 100 days (knowledge thanks to the countdown of my cousin) and last month I was in St. Louis airport crying my eyes out leaving my mom and my best friend. This past year has gone by so fast. They always say the second half of the year goes by so much faster, but now it seems like its going by a week per eye blink.

In the week of april 19^th, my class was suppose to go to Spain for the week. However our class has extremely bad luck, and we were not able to fly because of the volcano that exploded in Iceland. We ended up not having school that Monday, and Tuesday was all vertratung (all substitute teachers). Then we had to go to school the rest of the week, which was really sucky since all our us were thinking if the volcano had not exploded we would def be in Spain right now. We got through the week, and were still sour, but then we moved on.

The next week ,on april 29^th, I left for my midstay in Lübeck. AFS Germany offers a program where students can pay a small rate and go visit another city for two and a half weeks. I was selected for the midstay die Hanse: Lübeck. Lübeck is a very nice little city. It is in the north near Hamburg. Lübeck is known for its ports. It was at one time the second biggest port in Germany because of its location on the coast of the Ostsee. From that Thursday we stayed in a youth hostel, had seminars learning about Lübeck, and getting to know the other students who were also there. We had an awesome group. We always had fun! Then on that Sunday we were picked up by our host families. We stayed with a host family for two weeks in the area of Lübeck. I stayed in Reihnfeld which is a city in between Hamburg and Lübeck. My host family was A host mom, dad, and two sisters (14 and 17). On the first Sunday there it was the prettiest day I had seen in Germany so far. It was about 70 degrees Fahrenheit the whole day without rain. It was Lusaynne’s birthday (14 year old), so Ann Christin (17 year old) and I went on a bike tour through Rheinfeld. There wasn’t much to see, but it was very nice to go through and see all the nature. The next day we went to school. Another girl in Annie’s class also had a midstayer, Domi from Brazil. We were partners in crime. We always at next to each other, and drew/talked until the day was over. During the midstay I was able to go to Hamburg several times. Hamburg is one of the prettiest cities I’ve been too, but I was missing Berlin. On the first weekend we went to the Haffen Geburgstag. The port of Hamburg had a birthday and there were a whole bunch of ships all over, and it was really cool! The coolest thing I got to do while I was on my Midstay was see the Lion King the Musical! I have wanted to see that for so long, and I was so theatre deprived. I bought a tshirt saying König der Löwen (the lion king) because it was the first shirt I had found with German written on it. Most shirts are written in English here because all the shirts are printed in Asia, and just shipped off to the chain stores. I went with Domi, and it was probably one of the coolest things I could have done while there. The show was amazing! While I was on my midstay it was during the time of the German father’s day. Father’s day in Germany is when all the men go out and drink a whole bunch. They find random spots and carry around huge wagons just full of alcohol. The teenagers usually join in the celebration too. Ann Christin, my host sister, was working on her paperwork to go to the u.s.a. next year. It was really cool for me because I was like wow I know exactly where she is at. I was there just last year doing the same stuff. (I still can’t really believe it’s almost over.) When I left reihnfeld, and had to go back to Berlin, I was really sad, but happy at the same time because I was on my way to my favorite German city BERLIN! Going on my midstay made me realize one thing. There are lots of really awesome, pretty cities in Germany, but Berlin is the best city for sure! I had missed my normal host family while I was gone. I am really happy I went on my midstay!