His Thoughts On Us Are Good and Uncountable

Hello Readers!

I've had a maximum of six hours of sleep per night for the last two weeks. This blog will follow a photo story book format, pictures with descriptions underneath. Before we get started, I'll show you my week in chronological/bullet order so you can get an idea of the insanity.

• Final stay camp in the capital Berlin, Germany.
• Visited the German Bundestag, similar to Congress, click for informational link:  http://www.bundestag.de/htdocs_e/index.html
• Met with Herr Lammert, President of Congress in the Congress Building, Berlin. I would upload a video but his speech was all in German. But it was AMAZING. I will take the time to translate it, when I have time.
• Took a bus tour with the other 46 scholarship winners from the North East AFS Region
• Went out to dinner at a phenonmeanl German resteraunt with scholars
• Went to a famous street in Berlin, renowned for their 'little stores' and strange architecture
• Went to Hamburg with my class teacher
• Visited the Minature Land, which covered Sweden, Old Western America, Austria, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries. Their next project will be done in 2020, we spent three hours there. Will also upload a video. http://www.miniatur-wunderland.com/
• Went to a Coffee Roast house, there were tours where the showed how they specially roast coffee (with tasters in between!) but we didn't have time.
• Visited a church that was built in the 13th century with a MASSIVE organ.
• Had my first goodbye party with a friend in Hamburg
• Printed out a dozen pictures of friends, cut them out, wrote on the back side a personal note or inside joke and put them in an envelope with a United States Postal Service sticker on the front which a friend shipped to me in October.
• Cleaned out my book case, unwrapped the 17 school books I accumulated through the year
• Wrapped presents for teachers
• Wrote a postcard to myself in German
• Wrote two letters to my previous host partner and his grandparents
• Took a part in the 9th grade debate team, I ended up being elected as one of the three Party representitives and won the debate! That was a huge day for me, nine months before I had such a struggle trying to communicate, and now I can formulate pro's and con's of political topics, in German!
• Went to the beautiful, ancient town of Lüneburg with my history teacher and her 7th grade class.  Here is the link: http://www.lueneburg.de/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-1288/ Please take the time to read it. Throughought the First and Second World War, this town was never hit by a bomb. Therefore the town hall is still standing after being built in the early 1200's. It has 260 rooms. Absolutley breathtaking.
• Packed my bags for the 'Golden City' of Dresden, Germany. My host sister and I are driving right after school for the three day weekend, then on Monday we're on the road again.

And people, this all happened in a little over ONE WEEK. So excuse me when I can't write anything in detail at the moment, leave a comment at the end of the post to let me know what sounds the most interesting to you. So, it is already mega late here and I want to be on top of my game for my LAST DAY OF SCHOOL TOMORROW!! Here are the pictures.

Standing in the door way of an old house in Berlin.
This picture is for you Mom, in Berlin with the hairdo
you told me I should always have :D

From left to right starting at the man drinking the water,
the American Embassy Representitive in Germany, (Red Sox Fan! He comes from Mass.),
Herr Lammert (see description at the top of the blog).

Beautiful zoomed-in perspective of  a church in Berlin,
the text says in Old German,
'Those that come with their heavy burdens to this place, shall find rest'.

Funky architecture of Berlin. Its' a street lamp if you can't tell!

Minature Land, my host partner from last year has a smart car,
and I love to joke with him about how small it is.
But look at the detail of the people, it was absolutley insane!

View of a Hamburg (or Minature Land? :) ) from the top of the church,
all of the houses were old, but especially the little row that are all crammed together.
Took a walk through and there were little book stores with nick-nacks,
which is called in German schnick-schnack :)

Organ. Do I need to say anymore? This picture was not taken with zoom.
Taken from three stories below, it was COLOSSIAL.

Nice lake view at my friend's house in Hamburg,
we celebrated the Goodbye party as mentioned.
I met with six other Americans that were all leaving
for home the next day, they're home right now!

If you read the link, you would know that this is Lüneburg.
It was a city built on the trade of salt. They had trade connections
to Asia, Finnland, Austria, Italy...

Larger view of Harbour Houses and Resteraunts

At the town market buying strawberries. :)

Hope you guys enjoyed the blog. Through all the craziness God is giving me His peace.
God Bless You, Genevieve.