puzzle pieces

Well, hello there. We're coming up the end of February and hopefully the end of winter. I've been with my host family for two weeks now. Once again, I've become accustomed to the every day routine of a new family. I go to volleyball training with my host sister on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm not very good, but it's fun. School is as it always is, but last week was a bit different. I had three days to visit an elementary school in Augsburg because a Rotarian is the director of all of the schools in that area. St. Anna Grundschule is a bilingual school and it was so interesting to learn about it and the kids. They have half of their classes in English and the other half in German starting at 1st grade. I think it's awesome. Some of the kids are the children of ambassadors or international relations correspondents. I helped out in a couple of English classes and also in Sport classes. Thanks to my camp training, I had a plethora of fun games up my sleeve. I am now Fräulein Sarah. The biggest difference was sitting in the teacher's lounge for break! Going to the school was a great experience- it definitely taught me more than sitting in class and reading for five hours everyday. It was good to find a different opportunity in my days here. In other news, we had our Inbound/Outbound Orientation in Augsburg this past weekend. Our group was doubled and it was unbelieveable. I had fun getting to know the new Inbounds although it was shocking to think that I was in their shoes only 5 months ago. Time flies... We were all sleeping in a sport hall. It's different when we can get ready before going to breakfast, but this time we were waking up right next to eachother- I guess it's the best way to get to know everyone. On Sunday, when we dispersed, the English speakers chose to spend the rest of the day in Augsburg. We had a lot of fun eating and we went to see Gulliver's Travels which I'm kind of sad I spent 8 euros on. Our next official meeting is for the D-Tour in April. However we are trying to make plans to meet next month for my friend Torrington's birthday and have a little fun in Munich. Everything else is just going. After a month or two without snow, it has showed up again, much to my dismay. I am quite ready for spring to be here. I miss the sun. And so, with all these puzzle pieces that make up my life, I'm pretty content. Let's cross our fingers for Spring, shall we?--sjinternational

starting over

Not really, but kind of. The month of February brought my first family change. I have been with the same family for 5 months, so it was a big leap to start all over with the 'getting comfortable in my own house' thing again. Normally, exchange students have 3 or 4 families in their year. I am special. I have 3, but go back to my first one in between the next 2. Follow me? It's confusing, I know. I will stay with this family until my Germany tour in April and 2 months, as I've figured out, is not really a lot of time. Once again, I learned the basics of the household- laundry, food, chores, where the toilet paper is. You may not think about it, but that is one of the most important things to learn about a new house. I have a host mom and dad, and I also have siblings this time around. Both daughters have been on exchange; the older one, Claudia, went to Mexico, and Verena just got back from a year in Argentina in July. Claudia doesn't live at home anymore, but she is here this weekend, so I got to know everyone. I get along with the family really well. Along with our shared love of Disney movies and good books, we understand eachother because they have all been through this exchange process before and I am going through it now. We play card games and joke around. It's been a lot of fun so far. I, of course, have to go back to school on Monday, so not everything has changed. It will be interesting to have had one part of my life completely changed and the other remain exactly the same. That's how my exchange is going, nothing is ever better or worse, just different.--sjinternational