Sun and Shield

Hi Readers!!

Woof. Our neighbor got a new dog!

Passing by blooming flowers.
I was a little confused how the flowers are so beautiful...
but there's no grass?

Last Wednesday was the last day of school for our seniors. On the ride to school I noticed how gitty all the little kids on the bus were. As we pulled into the school parking lot I saw why. Each senior was lined up with hair spray paint where the buses dropped us off. We were sitting ducks. I guess on their last day they’re allowed to spray us with waterguns, colored hair spray, and write on our faces with lipstick. Everyone got marked, there was no escaping it. One senior was at every entrance of the school. Luckily, my friend Nadine wrote on my first to spare me from others who drew inappropriate things. German High School Seniors don’t write SAT’s or ACT’s, they write a six hour test for the main subjects and two by choice. Every student graduates from High School, but your allowance into college relies very heavily on the results from the Abitur.

After the first hour. Then came the onion spray bottles.
So not funny.

People I never talked to sprayed me with musty perfume, wrote on my forehead, and sprayed me with onion water. A couple students were drinking. They came into our first class, the teacher left and they threw candy. After the first half hour, I got annoyed and would only respond in English. No more for Genevieve. Through the terror we heard a voice over the intercom that told us to go outside. We reluctantly sauntered out the door where we were sprayed again. The teachers were put in a ‘cage’ (fenced area) and were only allowed to get out when they won a game against another teacher. Here is a picture of them playing ‘Spit the Cherry into the Bucket’. The principal played too, but most teachers were coincidentally ‘sick’ that day.

I was really suprised the Princpal participated,
afterwards there was a dress up contest.
I never thought I would see my economy teacher,
with a pink poodle umbrella in a tutu. Oje.

The day after, I joined the American Exchange students in their tour of Boizenburg. I have lived here for six months, and have never been to the top of the church or knew that the history stretches back to 1100 A.C.. I am tempted to get a tour of New England when I get back. It’s funny how we conduct our daily life, without every being aware of our surroundings. Afterwards, we visited the local Elementary School. We played games with the first and second graders, sang songs, and gave out American Peppermints. They looked at us like rockstars. And did I mention they could only speak in English because the Ami’s didn’t know a lick of German? Although the topics of conversation were limited to color/relatives/name/age I was thoroughly impressed. We also met with the town Mayor who gave us goodie packets. Each packet had a handmade tile that was the main good that was produced in our town, and some candies from a local candy factory.

At the top of the Boizenburg church,
that's our little village!!

Here's one for you mom. Super old door in the church!!

With the kids! They were so fantastic. I'll add more later in the week.

A lot has been on my mind lately. God prompted me in November to memorize one Bible verse every week. Last week’s verse was Psalm 84:11. For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly. After memorizing this verse, I have encountered many situations where I needed the strength from these words. I would recommend verse memorization with the help of Jesus, to have Him confirm it in your Spirit. I don’t have much time to write, because 1) The Bavarian soccer team is playing and 2) I have to memorize a poem called Osterspaziergang, which means An Easter Walk. Oh and real quick, I got a bunny, he is all gray!

At the bottom of the VERY NARROW stairs,
leading up to the church bells.

God Bless, Until next week!!

P.S. I made the cookies with my host sister. First time EVER eating chocolate chip cookies.

Couch Potatoe Christians Can't Run

Hey readers look, I'm on time!

Sunday sunset.

Since the group of twelve American exchange students arrival, I have been busy participating in activities with them. My German high school has a partner school in Michigan. The Germans went to America in the fall, and now it’s turn for the Americans to come to Germany. The Americans don’t know any German, because it’s not an offered language at their school. On Saturday, the students, teachers and host parents enjoyed a small brunch at our school. I received a rescue bag of Skittles, Starbursts, and Reese’s. I gave out the Skittles, and Starbursts but kept the Reese’s for me! One of the American teachers brought me a cookie mix to make classic chocolate chip cookies for my host family. I’m so excited to make them, considering all of my recipes have been a disaster, except for the fact that I ate the bag of chocolate chips…so my host family will be getting sugar cookies! The American students thought that I was a German student, that could only speak 'ok' english. They were shocked, totally shocked, when they found out I was from the States. After brunch, the students and their German partners all took the train to Hamburg. It was the first time ever riding a train for the most of them.

We mostly wandered around the city, like all over-sized tourists groups do. It’s hard to ever accomplish anything worth taking note of, unless you travel with one or two friends. Big groups move slow, and fail to ever have a set of destinations. Nevertheless, our last stop was the Hamburg Fair which I had never been to. French fries, arcade games, chocolate covered fruit kebabs (I had to Google that word), small rollercoasters, and people trying to convince you to buy their stuff. It was all there. I went on a small rollercoaster,  that started off like a kids ride then turned into a chiropractor’s nightmare. At least I can check off rollercoaster on my list of things to do in Germany.

Chocolate Kebabs. I had a pineapple/apple/banana/grape one.
Mmmmmmm.

Mime Man in the center of Hamburg



Win an overstuffed animal! I saw a young girl win a monster sized
chihuahua. It was so big her mom had to carry it for her!

The next day, I went to church service with a school friend and his American exchange partner. I ended up translating the entire sermon for the student sitting to my left. It was hard because 1) the speaker didn’t give any pauses 2) German is complicated to translate, it involves reforming entire sentences and 3) I didn’t understand some parts myself. At the end of the service, a sister of one of the members gave a short speech. She was from a small village in the mountains (I didn’t catch the exact name). She spoke in her native tongue, and her sister who has been living in German translated for the audience, and I translated from German to English. It was quite a moment to be talking about God’s glory in three different languages.

After service, I went back to my school friends’ house to enjoy lunch with his family. His mom prepared curry coconut soup, meat with a yummy sauce, and a strawberry yogurt dessert. As we were driving home, she asked if I had a minute to take a short detour. Before she finished her sentence, I said ‘Ja!!’, which means ‘yes!!’. Apparently, there is a small village called Heidel that has a completely different landscape. You’ll be driving through green country side, then all of a sudden its hilly, the shrubs are dark purple and there are patches of electric green moss. I ran to the top of one of the hills and I guess you can see a small part of Poland on the Horizon.

Sitting in the green moss.

The next stop was a ‘throwback’ village. That’s not what she called it, but to me it made sense. After this village, there is another that’s house architecture is exact that of England’s in the late 1800’s. A whole block of houses are built completely different from normal German houses. This was during the time of the German Industrial Revolution which was very close entwined with England.

I believe this house was built in 1878,
can you imagine how much it would cost to heat??

When I got home, I was surprised to find fifteen of our baby birds hatched and already fuzzy. They are extremely curious little birds. If you tap on the side of their box they’ll all come running over and start tapping where they hear the noise.

I have yet to name the little guys. They're staying in a crate in our livingroom
until it begins to warm up outside. I play my guitar for them everymorning and they all
try to crow along!

The next day was Monday, the first day of school for the Americans. Instead of going to history, my teacher encouraged me to go to breakfast with the two American teachers to share experiences. When we got back to the school, the principal was waiting for us to give the welcome speech to all of the exchange participants (including a newspaper guy taking notes on the side). I turned to leave, and he asked me to stay and translate for him. He told me he couldn’t speak English very well, and I told him I can’t speak English very well. The standard of ‘speaking well’ to a German, is grammatical perfection. I turned to leave, but he insisted that he needed me so I pulled up a chair. After all of the students were quiet, he began speaking for a minute then looked at me.

‘He said that he is very excited to all have you here at his school. He knows that the Germans have made a lot of preparations to make your stay comfortable…and because I was busy translating the first two sentences I spaced out on the second two, so I’m going to let the English teacher do the second two!’ The room filled with light laughter. She translated what I missed, but I did the rest of the speech. After he was done and awarded with his thank you gift, I couldn’t help but smile too. I was honored that he allowed me to do that for him, and also that I was able to do it.

Bed of flowers in the woods behind my house.

Come Monday night, I was exhausted. Exhausted. One minute English, one minute German, then back to English, and then back to German. My head was spinning. So, I took today off to calm myself out. After sleeping thirteen hours, I woke up and had a much needed slow breakfast. The sun was shining and the wind wasn’t ice cold, so I decided to go for a run. The day before, I had a conversation with my history teacher about running. We agreed that you can think of ten different excuses not to go running, before your about to go running. Your mind thinks of how strenuous it is for every muscle, and how painful side cramps are. The couch calls out your name, and the warm blanket says ‘come, let’s take a nap!’.  If you can get past the island of syrene’s, calling you to be lazy and actually go running, it’s worth it. She told me, not until she gets home and takes her shoes off does she realize how fantastic she feels. The same goes for me. Sometimes, even during my run I consider stopping and walking home. It was a fun conversation, but later during my prayer time a Bible verse from Paul came to mind about what we had said.

2 Corinthians’ 9:24 ‘Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.’

And Timothy 4:5-7 Paul writing to Timothy ‘But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith’.

Sunset from a hill.

Paul exhorts us to run. But the truth is, that too many of us don’t get past the couch that is calling us to sit and relax, to actually put our sneakers on and go running. Here are some thoughts on a physical level of running. We think of how painful it could possibly be, and how much energy it would require. And isn’t the couch just so comfortable and easy? I don’t have to go out of my comfort level at all! Apply these to the spiritual level now. Many think of how painful living for God could be, how many Sunday’s they would have to ‘sacrifice’, how many gallons of gas they would use up and how much energy it would all require.

For a couch potato, those are legitimate excuses. But couch potatoes won’t get into the Kingdom of God. How can you win a race if you never started running? How could you be more than a conqueror, if you have never fought a battle? There is no better time to start studying the Word of God than now, no better time to give your life to Him than this moment. Another verse that may be haunting for some, is a question posed by one of the disciples to Jesus. Luke 13:23 ‘Lord, are there few that be saved? And He said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.’’ The words ‘strive’ and ‘seek’ are essential in this verse. According to the Greek and Hebrew dictionary, strive means to struggle or fight and seek means simply to look without actual intent of pursuing.

Sitting on the bench, giving myself time to be still and listen.

Many people are bystanders of the Christian life, many merely seek. Jesus came to give us life , and life more abundantly. But we have to run the race, in order to win. And we have to fight so that God can be victorious through us. Like I said, we won’t run if we never get running. You can’t enter the Kingdom of God by simply looking, you have to strive to enter in. I was thinking about it on a totally basic level. Would I want to allow someone into my Kingdom so easily? Would I accept someone that never proved they really wanted to come in? We have got to want this more than anything, because we only have this life to prove we really want in.

Your fellow runner, Genevieve

Eleven

Hello Readers!

Our last big vacation before summer just ended.

There's eleven weeks left for my adventure,

loving every day when its not rainy.

I included some picture with captions underneath,

hope you enjoy.

Most of them are group pictures.

As an exchange student, you learn quickly

how to cluster as a group and take a picture.

Sunset at Grandma's

Watching the dew evaporate

Group of Celle students
We all went to the language camp for 4 weeks together

Bunny that I almost got.
On Easter Sunday my family woke up early to go to the flea market
and animal market (bunnies, guinea pigs, birds).
Next week I get to pick one out, but a baby!
Sadly when I leave 'es geht in das Topf'
which means, it's going in the cooking pot.

Group of Celle-AFS Chapter with Michael our leader!

Group of AFS students from Survivor Camp

In my orientation group

Again with the Celle group!

That's all folks!

Until next week, Genevieve!

Strong Roots in a Changing Tide and Wind

Hey Everyone!

Some vegetables, fruits and spices are grown in our own garden and used for the
restaraunt. We get our potatoes from Gabi's parents, the meat from a local hunter and we raise our own chickens for poultry. When our chicken is done laying her eggs, she stands in front of the barn window until someone comes to pick them up, see her there? In a couple of weeks, we're going to get forty baby chickies. I got to pick out the color they would be, I chose a mix of yellow, brown, and black birdies.

Like last week's blog, I’m going to share my thoughts and a couple pictures with a describing text underneath.

I hope you like the new changes. If anyone has Facebook you may have been confronted with the choice to change to the ‘timeline’ setting. Google also has many ‘updates’ and forced them upon their users, or at least me. One false click and I had a different background and set up. I tried to go back but Google wouldn’t allow me, so let’s make some lemonade out of these lemons and try to enjoy the change.  Once again, I was late writing my blog. As I mentioned, it is a process to upload the pictures, write the text, and format everything so it is pleasing to the eye. The entire website is reformatted so I had to dedicate my whole day to write this blog today, but I labor in love for you all. And in my opinion, it is all worth it. Thanks to the new changes, I was able to see that my blog viewers not only come from my home country (including Alaska), but also Russia and South Korea.

Once again I have vacation! I have this week until next Thursday free, woohoo! So far, I have went to a birthday party, visited my grandparents, and went hiking. Going to my grandparents is always a blast; I can expect good home cooked food, lots of sweets, and a friendly atmosphere. The entire seven months, as of today, has led up to one big revelation that is essential for exchange students and people in general. Self-confidence.

Cows at Opa and Oma's Farm. Moo!

Moo.

If, as an exchange student, you lose weight in the first month you’re doing something wrong or are suffering from malnutrition. I think the first dozen times I went into a grocery store it felt like Christmas or my birthday. Everything was packaged differently, different shapes and colors, everything was new! Breakfast was a rainbow of jellies and fruits, lunch was a colorful palette of sauces and cooked vegetables, and then two hours later we would all gather again for coffee and cake! And don’t forget dinner! More sauces, potatoes,  meat, and vegetables. Then as if that wasn’t enough, if we watched a movie together we would munch on gummy bears. Naturally on the weekends you drive to a café in the country, or meet friends after school for an ice-cream, or on the weekend for ice cream. And that seems to turn into the routine; somehow humans find it very bonding to eat together. Which is great for the photo album, but consequently bad for the waist line. It seems like a big banquet until about, well the seventh month when you step into your favorite dress and can’t zip the zipper.

Buying Bread at the Bread Truck

Standing with Oma (Grandma)

You know what I’m talking about exchange students. I’m pretty sure we’re all feeling the same things.  When you go to the grocery store you know which candies taste good, and which ones give you stomach aches. When you go to your grandma’s and can say no to cake because you have already tasted it. When you go out with friends and don’t have to buy ice cream (because you’ve tried them all), around this time you should be feeling settled in and at home. I don’t regret all of the big slices of cake and tortes on the weekend at my grandma’s, not one bit. I can say no to cake or candy’s when I don’t want them, but what I can’t say no to is the ‘normal’ food that I’m expected to eat. My diet at home is almost all vegetables; except for bacon I would consider myself a vegetarian. (Feel free to cackle at the irony!). France has their baguettes and croissants, China has rice, Italy has pasta, and Germany has BREAD. It comes in every shape, form, taste, color, and size you can imagine. Whole walnuts, hazelnuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, white, brown, gray, raisins, cranberries and the list goes on and on and on. Its carbohydrate heaven for those who aren’t gluten sensitive, like me.

This picture was staged. I didn't eat all of that
pasta, and our serving bowls are much
smaller. But that's how I view
dinner in my mind. With HUGE bowls
of deadly carbs, that are somehow
oh so yummy.

If I choose to enjoy a slice of pumpkin dark baked bread, I have to prepare myself for the stomach pain to come after. The ‘typical’ German diet consists of a bread roll for breakfast with jelly or cereal, between breakfast and lunchtime most snack on another bread roll, for lunch some sort of meat with a sauce and potatoes, and for dinner bread with sliced meat and cheese. My family is untypical in that we eat a warm dinner; most families will only eat one warm meal a day. When I was at my Grandma’s I had two slices of bread for breakfast, eggs in a mustard sauce for lunch, white bread with raisins and coffee, then spaghetti with cinnamon and sugar for dinner. As I was lying in a carbohydrate coma after lunch, I heard a bell ring outside; I peered out the window and saw the baker truck parked outside our driveway. Nadia grabbed my hand and I waddled slowly outside. When you don’t live close enough to a baker, they come to you. I closed my eyes, what a nightmare! More bread! Nadia ordered bread cheese sticks with bacon. I say this in all honesty, if I didn’t ever have to eat one slice of bread in my life again, I would be more than okay. AFS told us we can expect to gain weight, I haven’t, but such an extreme change of diet kind of messes with your stomach and your head.

Which brings me back to my revelation, self-confidence. My friends have told me that my German is improving, but I still feel at times incapable of expressing myself to the extent that I want. When you first arrive in a new land, you are like a baby. Logic helps but for the most part you, or at least I was clueless or overwhelmed. Bus schedules, train schedules, labels on food or personal products (I think I washed my hair with body soap the first week), washing machines, coffee machines, light switches, key locks, grocery carts, and the list goes on. It can begin to ware on your self-confidence when you have to ask for help so often, or when your favorite dress is beginning to be too small for you. I remember sitting in my frustration, and feeling pretty low about myself. You can bet who was there in a millisecond to assist me in my self-pity. The devil had me in a matter of minutes in tears, willing to count the days until I would be back home in my ‘safety zone’.

Enjoyed lunch with a friend Lena, I met her at the birthday party.
I cherished being able to play with her sister's son, Eleziah.
It reminded me how much I enjoy playing with the lovely girl I babysit at home.

I recognized the attack, and the words from Dr.Jeffers came to mind in his sermon ‘Healing on the Jericho Road’ (click on underlined text for link to sermon). ‘If the Devil can take your identity, he has got your protection’. If you don’t know the story about Jericho, click on the link. The story starts at verse thirty, but I would read at the beginning of the chapter.  What spoke to me the most from the story, and Dr. Jeffers preaching is the emphasis on our identity. In Biblical times, what you wore defined what rank you were in society, and was also your protection from dust storms and cold nights. The thieves, who represented Satan, had power over him because they had power over his identity. When it comes to identity, it is not a laughing matter. I have to be so deeply rooted in God’s love, wear His armor, and know that I am His daughter. Notice, the world doesn’t hesitate to form and shape us. Many of you are familiar with the analogy that we are as clay in God’s hands. We are formable and easily influenced by everything around us, if we don’t know our identity. I really emphasize watching this sermon to explain this issue better.

A purple flower I rescued from the still sleeping brownish
winter landscape. The shades of whites and purples are unbelievable.

Identity is also very closely related to confidence. If my sense of identity is poor, you can bet that my self-confidence is not shooting through the roof. Let’s look at what the Bible says (click on underlined text for a list of Bible verses that speak about confidence).

Situations, difficulties, and even the good times are all factors that shape us. When we submit all of our ways before God, we can be sure that everything is working for our benefit. In two days it is Easter. Bunny stickers are plastered onto windows, and chocolate bunnies are being sold left and right. As I was munching on the ears of my sweet chocolate treat, I asked myself why bunnies if Easter is to celebrate Jesus’s resurrection. Then I realized, like Santa Claus and Christmas, people will choose anything as a second option so they don’t have to believe in truth or in God.

Do I need a caption to say that this a picture of the sky? Haha. A picture of the sky on my way to Chiara's.

The silver-lining in the new updates, and blog format is that I can now add videos, which for me is the cherry on top of a super cool blog post.

God Bless You this week, and let me know what you think about the changes.

Genevieve

A Planted Seed

Hello Readers, Happy Spring!

View of passing airplanes over our town

I know that I wrote only a couple days ago, but you can believe me that I do enough to write three days later. The pictures I added have a short description beneath them but they don’t necessarily have a connection with the text. Sometimes I can’t connect the pictures directly to the content. So, I want to start this blog off with saying that I believe the Bible in its entirety.

Contrary to what I have heard in the last couple of weeks, I do not believe that the Bible is just a history book or has ‘further developed’. The Bible is many things. It is the Word of God, the history of mankind, and contains the prophecies that are being fulfilled to the end of mankind on this earth. I take it literally, Jesus said ‘blessed is he who is not offended in me’ (Luke 7:23). I have noticed many people are offended by the Bible. It tells them to change their ways, which makes them feel uncomfortable. Or they read a verse and isolate it so that they conclude the Bible is contradictory to itself and impossible to be taken literally in this modern 21^st century. One verse cannot be isolated because it has a second ‘reference’ or ‘key’ verse that opens more understanding and confirms the Word through His Spirit.

Windmill in the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Countryside
I went for a bike ride that turned out to be twenty miles
and I drove into Niedersachen (nee-der-socksen), another state! Had to turn
back because I didn't have my Visa with me. Oöps!
Maybe I would have needed it, I turned around rather than find out the hard way.

The Israelites were oppressed for over four hundred years. God brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand, signs, and wonders. They walked by a column of fire by night. Bread fell from the sky every morning, enough so that every man had his full. And as if that wasn’t a miracle enough, the people then had the nerve to complain to Moses. They accused him that he brought them into the wilderness to starve. The people cried for meat to go with their bread and because God is so loving, He blessed them with meat as well. They saw the patience, strength, grace, mightiness and fierceness of God firsthand.  I can’t understand why the Israelites walked after other gods time after time after time. I can’t imagine how they could disobey His Word, it seemed as if they had forgotten everything He had done for them. But Moses was wise to the heart of Israel, and warned them. He said ‘Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons…’ (Deuteronomy 4:9).

Svenja's (my friend) dog, waiting for us to start our
Spring Vegetarian Barbeque
It was a BYOB party
Bring Your Own Beef. They're vegetarian!

I’m sure many Christians say to themselves when they read the story of Israel, ‘I would never disobey God’s Word if He did all that for me’. I’m sure some people shake their heads too when they read that Peter denied Jesus three times within a period of hours. But I realized if it could happen to the people of Israel, and to a personal disciple of Jesus then it could happen to us too, and it does. Too many times I have suffered through days with pounding headaches. The thought of laying my hands on my head and praying healing seems to fleet by, and I would trudge through the day. I act as if I had forgotten God has healed me from not only headaches, by Lyme disease as well. Somewhere in the human heart, we have the innate capability to forget.

Succesfully drove to Svenja's village, a good
eight or nine mile trail through the woods.
Also proudly wearing her moms wooden clogs

Here is how they stack their wood.
Not only does it help drying it out,
but is also decorative too!

In my deepest desire to be in perfect harmony with the will of God, at times when I fail, I remember I am human. Being human is not an excuse to throw everything to the wind, but to stand up and start the race again.

Spring is almost in full swing here. The flowers are all planted, and I myself planted spinach in our garden. I learned that if you want a truly good product, first you have to turn the soil then sift the rocks out. As I was kneeling down by the garden bed with my finger nails full of dirt, I realized that is what God does with us. He turns seemingly our whole life, or aspects of it, upside down and sifts the rocks out. His Living water feeds our roots, and with time and the Son we grow into a strong tree by the riverside.

Beautiful blooming trees on a trail behind my house

I hope you all have a wonderful week,

God Bless. Genevieve!

It's Going to Take Time



View from my window.

Hello Readers! Long time no see.
Grab a cup of coffee, this blog is going to be long. This last Tuesday I was in Berlin, which is why I didn't get to write. This week and a half was jam packed full so sit down, and enjoy it with me! The blog has pictures and an explanation will be given beneath or above.



Okay, here's a picture with a story. But first to clarify, that's my Class Teacher Frau Ortmann. Frau means Mrs. in German, so Mrs.Ortmann. Starting from the fifth grade I believe, each grade is seperated into three groups. Each group has  a 'Homeroom Teacher' that they can go to for problems or help until the year they graduate. When they go on field trips, the 'Class Teacher' is responsible for the students and the students know they always have someone in the school to talk with. I like that about the German school system. Another point, in the German school, you always have your main classes German, English, Math, and History with the same people. This creates a group of kids that you hang out with and can also count on. It's different than in the US where every class has different students.

Now the story, first you may be asking yourself why my school has banners hanging with grafitti and a band setup in the background. Every year the Senior Class has to organize workshops or an event that would inforce their 'A School of Courage, Against Racisim' motto. This year they had multiple people from the German Parliament and other social help orginizations. Students could sign up for the workshop they wanted to attend such as 'Can Israel be Cool?' or watch a play and have a discussion afterwards. It's one of the biggest days for seniors, except for their exams. This was on a Thursday. On Monday, Nadine, one of my friends in the senior class called me to ask if I could do her a favor and show a little presentation about the USA. I gladly agreed. Wednesday rolled around and as we were sitting on the bus she asked me if my project was done. I looked at her a little confused and titled my head back to look at her with suspicous eyes.

 'Done?' I said. 'I have until next week..?'.

'Nope, this Thursday.' she said as she waved and I got off at my bus stop.

I have done four or five presentations since I've been here and I do it gladly. I will normally bake something so my audience has something to munch on. So I looked up a turtle brownie recipe and began to melt the caramel. It took me three or four hours to sift through pictures in Facebook so I could show my home highschool. I made a twenty slide Powerpoint about my school, church, family, and me then picked out some slightly dressy clothes and went to bed. I was running kind of slow the next morning, my eyes were strained from staring at the computer screen so long the day before. My sister ran past my room to catch the bus and I grabbed a pair of shoes. As I got to school, I thanked God I grabbed heels. The front of the school was hung with banners and there were parking people directing the traffic of parents and people from our town. Before I could even get to the door, Nadine ran to my side and asked if I had everything ready. She brought me to a room to drop my backpack off, and then we flew up the four staircases to room 410 where my students were waiting. I opened the door. Forty-five seventh graders were all seated and staring at me. Simply by being looked at with ninety eyeballs I turned lobster red. I laughed and asked her if I was being punked.

'No you're not being punked. They are going to be split into three groups, three of fifteen. You will have one group for one hour and fifteen minutes then the next group will come. Try to be done around noon.'

I looked at my watch, 7:40. I still had to print something. I wouldn't say I was stressed, but as I walked through the hallways to the printing room, people were running by me. Running up the stairs, down the stairs, out the door, back inside, dropping boxes off and picking them back up. The franticness (is that a word?) began to rub off on me as Nadine found me and rushed me back to the room where my students were waiting. The first two groups went by really quickly, the kids were intrigued and asked questions. Did I mention I'm a ham? The last group was a little restless, but what can you expect after three hours of hearing different presentations?

It was noon and I had a headache. I opened the door and went into the foyer where music was litterally BLASTING. Think NFL Superbowl. I shut the door and pressed my fingers to my forehead. I took a deep breath, went out and found a place next to my friends. I kind of fell asleep with my eyes open while the hour long 'thank you' speech was given. I was almost in La-La land until I heard my name called. Lobster red again. The school and guests turned to where I was sitting on the balcony. I looked to the stage where my senior friend Jesse was holding flowers. I quickly ran downstairs and onto the stage, smiled, and waved while the audience clapped. They called out the next group. Flowers! As horrifying as the day was at first, I now had flowers. (See picture below.) The day was simple insanity, but I have learned not to let the situation affect my calmness. Praise God. 

In front of my school with flowers and my history teacher,
 Frau Obermeit.



The day after was Friday, Ivan's 18th birthday. We celebrated at his host moms house. He is from Colombia and is also going to our highschool. It was a suprise birthday which is why you can see me saying 'shhhh!'. I made him a brownie cake and wrote 'Happy Birthday Ivan!' on the top. From left to right; Tatiana from South America, Chiara, Me, Claudia, then an exchange student from Turkey (can't spell his name!) a host mom with her child, and way to the right is Paco (his nickname) also from South America. It was really, really hard to keep us all quiet!

We celebrated into the night with snacks, music, and pizza. While everyone was dancing I looked for someone to converse with. He was the boyfriend of my friend Kerstin, and he had just gotten back from Africa. I was fully intrigued, and he was fully passionate to answer all of my questions. The part in Africa that he went to was very poor. He expected that the family dynamics would be stronger than in Germany. He figured when they didn't have money, they would realize that family is more important quicker. But that wasn't the reality, the people would rather have a cellphone than shoes. He was the only white person in the village, and was asked everyday for money from the people. He said 'Their concept of money is totally different than ours. Because I was white they asked me for it, without thinking that they would have to work. It was all about the money for them.' Here is a picture of all of us at the dinner table. The conversation left me with a lot to think about. But I never had time to really think, because on Monday I was leaving for the class trip to Berlin.

Berlin was intense. The history is dark and I dare to say that the reality is sometimes too. The wall was built in 1961 and stayed for twenty-eight years until 1989. We had a city tour and also a tour of the Secret Police Jail center. Our tour guide was an inmate for eight days, he greeted us by saying that 'The freedom and liberty that you have now was given to you, it is a gift. My generation fought, and many died for it.' The three hour tour only got more heavy as the time passed and we walked through the cells. The picture below is of my left foot in East Germany, and my right foot in West Germany. The wall in West Germany was filled with grafitti and many people planted gardens directly to the side of it. Whereas in the East there was a hundred foot perimeter that was called the 'dead mans zone' where one would be shot immedeatly if trespassed. The wall was about a foot and a half thick.

Here is a picture of the Berlin Fernsehturm. It is a large tower that was the glory of East Germany during the time of their separation from West Germany. For many years it would be the tallest building in the world. Millions of East German dollars would be spent building this tower. At the same time many churches were demolished. A church was almost always the biggest building in a German village. A tour guide during my tour of Berlin last summer said that the government wanted to show that they had the most control, and that they had the most power. That is why they built this monument. To their surprise after the tower was done being laborously built, they saw that everytime when the sun began to shine..that a perfect cross would form on the reflecting plates. They tried many methods like differenet glass, or painting the glass over but everyday at around noon the large cross would reflect over the capital of Germany. What they thought would be their glory...turned to be God's. You can't see it in this picture because it wasn't sunny or noon, it would reflect on the ball part at the very top. Its made out of glass.

The second day in Berlin we went to see a musical in Potsdamer Platz. The play was about a girl who was seperated from her love because of the Wall. The play lasted about three hours, but was totally intriguing. Some of it was true, but some parts had to be fiction (like her brother floating over the wall with a balloon) so the audience would stay intrigued.

This picture doesn't really have a story, I asked a couple students from the 10th class to make some goofy faces with me. I am in the eleventh grade, but was invited to go to Berlin with the class beneath me. My school is really good with providing me with opportunities like that.

Here is our tour guide and some school mates in the newly built church monument. It was in honor of a church built in the early 1900's that was demolished in order to create room for the Wall.

Picture from the top of the German Parliment building. There always seems to be cranes and reconstruction going on in Berlin.

Germany has a very different style of art than the US. Almost all of the apartment complexes are painted with random pictures...like this astronaut.

And finally, we have a picture of donuts. I wondered when I was with my friends why they were beyond excited to go to Dunkin' Donuts. I would always stay outside when they went inside to order their drinks. I'm a Starbucks person, DD is not for coffee lovers but for milk and sugar lovers. If you want coffee, go to Starbucks. But this time I went inside, and LOOK! No wonder why. These donuts were insane. DD is an American owned company and we don't have these, but internationally they sell totally different products.

From left to right; Me, Chiara and Claudia. I have mentioned them in previous articles but rarely included a picture. Last week it was 65°F and sunny. I got a picture before we went roller-blading by the Elbe River that runs through our town. Just to clarify again real quick, Chiara comes from Neapel, Italy and Claudia comes from Slovakia. They are both exchange students with AFS, we are all staying until July 6th. I am so blessed to have exchange students nearby that I can share funny stories that only an exchange student would understand.

I am so blessed. Thank you for reading, and I hope your cup of coffee was a good one!

God Bless you today! Genevieve