ich bin sat!

This week was a good week. By 'good week', I mean I always had something to do. The first exciting thing took place on Wednesday. I was the closest to having tee with royalty as I ever will be. This is how something like this happens: I have an exchange friend, who has a host mom, who's the vet of a duchess' pets. Connections are good in life. We drove to Schloss Kircheim in Baden-Wurttemberg to meet Angela, a duchess who still inhabits one of Bayern's castles. She answered the giant door in the garage bigger than my house wearing jeans, a flannel shirt, and a vest. That's when I decided I was going to like her. He two dogs, Othello and Sirius, were named after two of literature's great works: Shakespeare's 'Othello' and J.K Rowling's 'Harry Potter'. While the vet checked out the dogs, much to their dismay, we had a private tour of the castle. You know those thick ropes that forbid entry in castles or museums? We were allowed to go right through them. I loved being able to see the ins and outs of the castle. I couldn't believe that she still lived there! Who has gold trim and 400 year old paintings in their office?! Angela. After the tour we had tee with a duchess. I just like saying that. She is a past governor for Rotary, so she was very interested in us and how we like exchange. She spoke great Englisch and complimented our German. She was really funny and used so much facial expression I had the flashing image of me being her when I'm older (without the title, of course). That night, my Kindle arrived! My mom and I decided that my tearing through books and her sending me more was a ridiculous idea, so she bought me a Kindle, which I named Luka. He is wonderful and I spent the next afternoon playing with him. On Friday, I went home with my friend Marisa, who is living in Augsburg. Her host mom and Oma cook so well that I was very excited to have lunch. We had a wonderful lasagna. Then we watched 'Wall Street'. Instead of them putting it in German with Englisch subtitles for Marisa and I, which would have made sense, they put it in Englisch with ENGLISCH subtitles. I've never understood the language they speak on Wall Street, but I got the jist of it. I have no idea how the others fared... Saturday was the highlight. Manuela and Henner took me to Munchen! We saw the main points of interest for tourists: churches, government buildings, breweries. It was a gross day, weather-wise, but the city was beautiful. One of my favorite things I saw was a memorial to 'Die Weisse Rose' by the Bayern Parliament building. 'The White Rose' was an organization of students in Munich who stood against Hitler and were killed for it. I couldn't have imagined how much I'd be affected by the significance of the act until I saw it. It's something I'll never forget. We wandered through the city and stopped at an Italian cafe where I was practically eating my hot chocolate, it was so thick. By the time the Sun burned through the clouds, it was a sunset. We headed to Jetzendorf, where Manuela's sister lives, to celebrate her sister's birthday. I was able to keep up with parts of the conversation, which made me feel really good. Also, the food was magnificent. The last time I was that full was my last dinner in the USA, but at that time there was a knot taking up half of my stomach telling me I was crazy for embarking on this journey. This time, it felt much better accompanied with laughter and happiness. There was so much laughter that I couldn't help joining in, even if I didn't really understand the jokes. They could have been laughing at me for all I know, but it was funny! It was a very satisfying night. I love my German family and they remind me a lot of the people I love back home. Hopefully today I will be riding a horse! Our neighbor, Norbert, has two horses and he's invited me to ride, but we've had to put it off all week. Flexibility is a wonderful thing to learn as an exchange student. Things are always changing right under my nose and it's good to just roll with it. Well, I have one more week until I'm with my distrikt 1840 exchange friends again for our Berlin trip and I can't wait! Until then, ciao!--sjinternational Tee with Duchess Angela Die Weisse Rose memorial: der Widerstands= 'resistance' Munchen Rathaus: Imagine a town hall like that!

With my host mom, Manuela in the Rathausplatz

'Ich bin sat!' = 'I am satisfied!'