Snow

It is -12°C and snowing in Fürstenwalde, Deutschland.
I walked to the bus stop this morning with snow up to my anckles only to wait for the bus another 30 minutes.
They never cancel school for snow here. Not really at least. If the busses don't come then there is not many people that can go; otherwise the weather doesn't change it.
I'm actually in school right now.... but my teacher isn't here, so I figured I could use my time wisely.

Yesterday, Dju and I were invited to go to a Chistmas card making session by my Music teacher. We went to the room and there peered in the window and everyone looked so serious that we thought it was another class. I'm not sure if it was correct or not, but we didn't go as to not interrupt. I don't really want to explain it all though. It was a good day none the less, we went shopping for warm things, and bought four pairs of wool and fuzzy socks.

When I got home I was alone for a few hours. I really like time to be home alone, I find it really relaxing once in a while. I just made myself something to eat, listened to music, and relaxed. When everyone else got home my host mom gave me the homework of reading and understanding a section of the newspaper, then we watched a movie that was on tv. 'The Diary of Bridget Jones', one of my favorites, it was also good in German.

I really need to get more after school to do, like a real activity. A lot of the other exchangers have a private German course or soccer to go to, but I only have a theater practice on Saturday. I really want to start taking a spanish language course. Silly, beuing in Germany and wanting to learn Spanish now. It's true though, most of the other exchangers, over half, speak Spanish, and I'd love to learn it. My German is going pretty alright. I can usually convey what I want to say, but sometimes I still have to use charades. I had a private course two times, then I didn't hear from the teacher about when to come back for my next lesson, so I have been mostly learning on my own.

The friends situation is going well, I have a couple really close friends at school, and then the others which are the sort we are sort of friends, but don't do anything out of school together (yet?).

Thanksgiving was really great with my host family. We had my host mom and dad, my two host sisters, the othder one's boyfriend, the uncle, grandparents, and me. A total of nine. We started cooking the pumpkin and apple pies the night before after we came back from Frankfürt (oder).
Sidenote: there are two Frankfürts. The first is well known, Frankfürt am Main, the second is an hour from my town, Frankfürt Oder.
We went to Frankfürt Oder to get shoes for Laura, my host sister, but she didn't get them that day anyways. I think it is really cool though that while she and I were looking for Winter boots, my host parents walked to Poland to buy cheap Cigarretts.
Anyhow, when we got home, my host mom volunteered to help me back the pies. We made Apple and Pumpkin and of course tasted along the way. The hard part was the crust. She buttered the pand because she didn't trust my cooking just yet, and the crust fell apart a bit. It was also just that the pans were meant for casserole, not pie. The pumpkin pie turned out more pudding-like. We ate some of them, but now that I think of it, I don't know what happened to them. We didn't eat all of it and it is no where to be seen.

The next morning we started prepping the Turkey at 8 to have it ready by 14 (2 PM). It was a 7 kilo Turkey and my host dad was really into helping, I basically just told him what to do for the Turkey and he wouldn't harly let me do anything. They were really excited for this Holiday.
Once the Turkey was in the oven, we sat down for a nice breakfast, then got back to work on preparing the cranberry sauce.
It turns out that fresh Cranberries are really hard to find in Germany. My host mom told me that the second she saw them in the store that she bought two packages of 200g each in case we didn't see them again. The cranberry sauce was really simple to make and really delicious. That is also mysteriously missing. I think they don't keep leftovers or something.

The whole meal was served on porcelin dishes, with the Turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and pie and ice cream. We were all really full. Later we took naps and all headed to the Weihnachts Markt (Christmas Market), which are beautiful.

This weekend is going to be really busy. Today is Thursday and after school I go with Marcus and Dju and Mikee to make pottery, we do it every couple weeks, it is one of my favorite activities here. Tomorrow is the school's Winter Ball, but it is being held at a bar, which I find a little strange for the school to be encouraging. I plan on going to help set up around 17 (5 PM) then stay for the first hour of the actual dance, to be picked up at 23 by my host dad on his way home from work. I am a little nervous for this. My best friends are in the 13th class (Dju, Marcus...) then as I am in the 11 and the 12th class it is a little harder to make really close friends there because having 2 there are so many people to try to get to know. So This dance with my classmates I am looking forward to as an opportunity, but I'm still slightly anxious as my really close friends won't be there.
Saturday will be the bussiest of all. That morning we go to cut down our Christmas tree and vbring it home, then I go to theater practice, then to a movie and Christmas Market with a friend from my class, Katja. She invited me to stay overni8ght too, but I am not sure yet if I want to. If it goes late then yes, I don't want to trouble my family here though, I am not going to treat their home like a hotel, so if it is not late then I will come home so I can be here for the Sunday morning breakfast. Those are always nice.

It really confuses me in a way as to how much a part of the family I am. I am not their daughter, they will not love me unconditionally the way they do the rest of the family. I am a part though, I am with them all the time and I take part in family events, do my chores, and never argue. It is interesting. It just stings a little when I see my host parents give their child a hug or kiss, because I know I can't have that.
Those are some of the little things that make me miss home.

Skyping home doesn't happen very often I think. More, I will skype with the other exchangers and we will speak Denglisch together. I spoke with my family on Thanksgiving day for a good hour or so, the again the next day for about 10 minutes just because we were both online. They said we were talking too often. That hurt. Sometimes it is nice to get a glimpse of home, and yes I know we can't talk often and it is weird to speak flat out english, but I think now and then is importent. I don't want to go home in 8 months to not know my parents anymore.

I realized the other day that I have been here 3.5 months. That is almost 1/3 of my exchange. Time is going too fast. I don't understand  it. This is the fastest, most confusing, amazing year. Everything is different.