A New Year!

It's 2011. So hard to believe.. Another thing that hasn't really sunk in yet is that in a couple of days our family of 5 will be 4, then when I leave again it'll only be 3. It's funny how over a 3-4 months people can go from total strangers to brothers, just something I was thinking about when while contemplating the past months away at school. It's been so good to have a couple weeks to relax, think, get some stuff done and just have fun with friends I haven't seen in a long time. I don't really have anything big to say, heading back to the wintery land of Germany in less than a week.

Oh yeah, winter pictures will be up today. Working on uploading and posting them now..

Home...

Well, once again I apologize for taking so long to post something. Several times I started but I never finished and then finals came and life got really busy, but now I have a 6 hour plane ride to write.

I really don't know where to start, so much has happened, in the past weeks and since I started my adventure of boarding school. I suppose I could start with today and work backwards..

Snow!

Happy Thanksgiving! Well if you’re American, for any Canadians, happy belated Thanksgiving. Time has seriously flew by! it's hard to believe that in 2-3 weeks I’ll be back in the UAE! I will be so glad to be back in the heat, it’s already started to snow here! Quite a bit has been happening recently..

Last week, at the encouragement of my Biology teacher, I joined the wrestling team.. I only lasted a week. The first couple practices weren’t too bad, they went from the end of school (4ish) to about 5:30.. but by the time I got back to the dorm it was about 6. Then there’s extra practice on Saturday.. from 10 to 2! This past week I’ve been sickish.. a cold and cough etc.. so I didn't go to all them. This Monday I decided that it was going to be too much to continue on with wrestling so I quit.


Last night (Thursday..-if I can post this,which evidently I didn't..) it started to snow for real, it was raining,hailing and sleeting on Tuesday and Wednesday. -well a couple weeks later and I TOTALLY forgot to post this..




P.S. I'll be going on a photo excursion so check back for those pictures.-I'll put them up with another post that's coming soon!

Pictures I

I went on a photowalk the other day and here are some pictures I took..

hit the jump for the photos.

Sorry For the Wait?

Sorry for the long wait, hopefully someone out there actually cares that I haven't posted in awhile. :) But wow. It's really been a long time since I've posted anything. I've finally found time to write, my homework is done and I am in the mood to write! A lot has happened in the past two months! It really feels like it's only been a couple of weeks. I'm finally adjusted to the schedule and flow of the school and dorm life, it hasn't been too hard.. but lots of stuff has been going on. It's really hard to be bored here! There's always something to be doing, or something that you could participate in.

I really don't know where to start.. For one thing, my schedule is reealy different than last year.. I don't stay up till 2AM or sleep in. Bedtime is officially 10:30 for Underclassmen.. I'm usually in bed by then. Some nights I have so much homework I'm up till 12. I wake up at about 7, 6:45 or so on Fridays because I help with sound at chapel. School starts at 8:50 and ends at 3:50. That's a typical day at school..

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Lots of Stuff Happening..

Wow.. it's been a long time since I've written anything.. well LOTS of stuff has been going on. Most recently, our internet has been down.. again! I've been doing lots of homework and haven't had time to do anything on here, answer any emails or check facebook..

I can't believe it's been over a month! On one hand it feels like I've just gotten here and on the other it feels like I've done so much stuff that it couldn't be only a month..

I really dont have time to write anything more than this right now, I was supposed to be working on an essay.. But I'll definatly write a more detailed post soon!

So Seniors get to go to Rome for a week and Juniors get to go to Normandy/Paris for half a week.. Freshmen get to go to WWI trenches and us Sophomores get to go to a concentration camp from WWII.. I think we get the worst deal out of everyone.

First Month..

It's been a while since I wrote anything.. Mostly because I didn't have access to a computer, but I'm also really busy with school and everything. I had my birthday on the 5th. Here at Maugenhard, the tradition is to pie them (with a cream pie) then "creek" (throw you into a creek that runs through and around town). But this year they decided to start a new tradition and "pond" me, the pond is a nasty body of parasite infested algae water a couple minutes away. I was the guinea pig and since I survived, that's the new birthday tradition. A couple other guys have also had their birthdays too. School is going good, German is pretty hard, but you defiantly learn it! It's been like a month or so and I can say my name, my address, where I go to school, where I come from, how old I am, how many brothers/sisters & cousins/grandparents I have and I can count to like infinity.

The town of Kandern is pretty small, apparently it's the smallest city in Germany. There's 3 grocery/supermarkets and a couple restaurants, but no gas station. Maugenhard is on the edge of the town, it's on a hill so we have a great view of the town and the surroundings. Everyday I walk to school.. rain or shine.. I'm not really looking foreward to walking in the snow though. It's cool to finaly see distinct seasons, leaves are turning yellow and red and it's getting colder.

The other week we went for an overnight camping trip to a place called "Sausenburg" the hike was about 2ish hours uphill. We camped at this tower place that was once a castle or compound of some sort.. There was a tower and some old walls. Climbing up the tower was toatly worth the view.. you could see all the surrounding towns and villages. That night, we had 2 chickens, bread and a couple dozen brotwurst to eat, there were only 12 or so of us, so there was alot of food.. I think I had 7 or so brotwurst. It was really nice, the stars were so clear and beautiful but it was really cold! In the morning, there was alot of mist/fog so it looked like we were on an island of land in an ocean of mist. Walking back we passed some fruit trees and everyone got either an apple or a couple of plums, we also refilled our water bottles at a fountain place. I love how there's literal (drinking) water fountains scattered around. We came home to a huge breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast and hashbrowny things.

We had a long weekend this week, yesterday some of us went to the nearby city Freiburg. We went for Ikea, Subway and Starbucks. I had a good time walking around with a couple other guys. I wanted to find a poster store, because so far, I don't have anything on my walls.. My room is the only one with nothing on the walls, so it's plain and boring.. Today (Monday) we had a game of (American) football with one of the other guy dorms (HBR). A lot of other people from other dorms showed up to watch, it was funny because no one in our dorm had ever played before so we were totally unprepared. I didn't really get into it that much, I did play defensive linesmen a couple of times.. Last year they played rugby and a couple people had to go to the hospital. This game wasn't too violent, it ended up as a tie even though there's some dispute over that. I don't really care, it was fun and it was something to do.

Study hours are over for tonight and I want to get a good sleep, so I'm done writing for now. I'll make sure to update soon!