Germany Day Five

Day five, is the day i think, that captured my heart more than any other day that i had been in Germany this time, we went back to a little area which was another part of Herkules but this time it was like the little forest nearby to it. Walking along a little path all i could hear was the delicate noise of water falling, i don't mean the Niagara falls, i mean literally just a little gentle noise, a peaceful kind, that feels any one's heart with hope...Janine led me up some steps and i turned to see the most beautiful sight i have ever witnessed in my entire life, there was this amazing little water fall, nestled in amoungst the trees, across the little stream was small rocks to use as stepping stones, it was like a complete back to nature experience and it was perfect :) I don't think that there was ever a moment where i put my camera into my bag, because there was never a moment i spent there NOT seeing something beautiful that i wanted to take a photo of, i took over a hundred that day !. I felt free, sitting on a large rock looking down to a beautiful waterfall and stream, NATURE everywhere and i never wanted to leave, i could have sat here for the entire day if i was able to...just wow...simply wow...After sitting taking in the peace and entire freedom of this beautiful place (thanks to me maybe for a little bit longer than everyone else wanted)we decided to go for a walk though the trees, which of course, for me, meant making friends with them! I have a tree in England whom i try to go and visit alot of the time and to give a hug to, i know most people think i'm insane i know that because of the looks i get! but i really do believe that the trees feel that, and they feel love and it makes them happy! After all the they have to be loved, if it was not for them we would not even be able to breathe! I saw this tree and more than any other tree i felt drawn to that one! and sat wanting to hug it for hours, so now, that tree, is my tree in Germany, i now have a reason to need to go back to this beautiful place often and hug this beautiful part of the earth! I was actually fairly said to leave despite being there for so long!

After popping back into Kassel for even more ice cream (yes again it is just so yummy!!!) and after also having an allergic reaction to this tiny bit of chocolate (wonderful), i was asked if there was anything else i wanted to do as it was my last full day in Germany, i said, i wanted to hang out with some horses, soooo we went back home for abit so i could take my medication to help bring my breathing back to normal, i felt so lucky it was only a little bit! oh chocolate if you had ruined my stay in Germany i would have killed you! Then my wonderful friend Nadine knocked on the door i was so freaking happy to get to see her one last time let me tell you! it practically completed me to a point where there was no going back, i wanted to cry, i was trying so hard not to cry, it was perfect.! Ok well after that we hopped in the car and drove to this beautiful little yard not too far from where we lived, the second i opened the door i got greeted by a beautiful little dog called Luna who was all over me saying hello, i thought it was so cute! And as for the horses...well! they were wonderful! there is something about being around horses that puts this smile on my face to a point where i cannot feel sad, and this was certainly how i felt being here, there was this beautiful little four month old foal who was so interested in everything, i went to give him a little stroke on his nose and never left!!! bless his little heart he kept me there for about an hour! everytime i tried to walk away his beautiful little eyes, chocolate color but deep at the same time drew me back, he kept giving me little kisses, including my face and arms, so in the end i was totally covered in all this wonderful baby horse slobber, then i was over with this cute little tiny pony who also decided he wanted to suck on my face so i had all that wonderful slobber too! but you know what i really didnt care i was just so freaking happy....this day well...it was just perfect, i think maybe althoghter with my camera and my dads camera we took about 500 photos...certainly a fair few of them are going to be printed off for my bedroom!

Germany Day Four

After last night i was totally pooped as was my whole family, so we spent the day sleeping in late! After waking up we sat down for breakfast, (again German food is very yummy and i must have eaten SO much haha) we decided to just have a lovely day hanging around together and taking. Our mom went into town and loaned out a few signstar games whilst i stayed behind and had a shower, and so by the time she came back i was in my pajamas laying on the sofa with a good book and green tea! I actually love singstar! Spesh when you are singing German songs, and songs you do not know, literally it get hilarious. Some of the things that we sung well...it helped me concrete my proof that i really am SHITat learning German and reading it even!

After our evening meal we jumped in mom's car for the 15 minute drive to pick up Tessa so she could stay the night with us aswell :) Mom calls us both her 'homestay daughters' so i feel totally at home and at peace there and I love how Tessa just fits right in because she is crazy too! So Tessa was going on about that face she needed to take a shower and Jan was at the same time going on that he wanted for to sing, I, have never sung in front on Tessa before so i was like OOOOHHHHHH MY GOOSHHHH!!!!! trust me when i say i cannot sing, i literally have never heard anyone as bad as me in my entire lifetime!!! So i told her to go take a show while i sing, otherwise she would sing with me, so there i was singing ( a very bad) version of Adele, which kind of frustrates me because i love her music and her and i feel bad for ruining her music! When i finished i turned around and saw that Tessa was sitting on the of sofa like 'woooo!!!!' so i could have killed her...i raced after her to grab her and forgot i had socks on and on the floor nearly went flying, when i finally reached her she had locked herself in the shower...DAMN! I actually loved every moment of this evening, it was just like a night in with my mom, dad, sisters and brother and It was literally perfect...it didnt matter that we were not out, and the we were not spending money, because i was with the people i loved and cared about! I actually love Germany way too much!!!

Germany Day Three

So today was the only day i was dreading in Germany, and the only day we already had plans for so we couldnt do anything else. Months and months back the Young Americans said they were going to be doing a dinner theatre in Germany, and at the time i was a little excited, i mean that i had always wanted to see the show in Michigan but never had the time nor money to get over there, nor would i survive the flight without freaking out, so this, then, seemed a good opportunity, so many of my friends were asking if i wanted to go with them. Then something happened a little before i was going but by then i already had my ticket which was 69 euros, plus my entire host family's tickets...it was alot of money to just throw away because i didnt want to go, i coundlt do that to my host family and quite honestly i didnt even get the guts to bring it up till the night before where i was panicking so much i didnt have a choice but to come clean!

ANYWAY, the dinner theatre was in this beautiful town called Bad Karlshafen, which i have always wanted to visit, so that made me excited a little. i had a friend there who i would be seeing at dinner theatre, so the whole idea of this made me happy, We spent the day looking around the Town and taking pictures, we were at one point going to swimming but thanks to my wonderful hair still turning bright orange and leaving bright orange streaks everywhere when wet, we decided against that! When it came to getting ready for dinner theatre we popped into the toilets of the spa, to get dressed then headed back out into the parking lot like idiots to get our make up done :) My host family went camping alot so they had a huge camping mirror in the back of their car, thank god! because i think that otherwise i would have literally died! Half hour later my make up was on and i was in a bad mood because i was having a really ugly day and looked uglier than ever, so i decided that i would just breathe, and get my hair done...my hair is naturally curly so i brought some moose with me, a little of that and bang my hair is up, only it was actually hairspray, and i didnt have time to wet my hair and dry it...so i got my straightens out and went to head back into the spa and beg them if i could use them to re go over my hair because it was looking awful and i couldn't curl it, then i realised that i didnt have adapter plug and literally burst into tears, i took this as a sign that the rest of the day was going to go just as bad...

When we walked into the dinner theatre however the whole atmosphere totally made me feel better, this wonderful guy called Sam came over and asked me if i wanted a drink, after he handed me the menu i realised how scared i actually still was because i was shaking so hard, i said 'oh just get me champagne' not realising that i would actually not be able to hold that i was shaking so much, even though my fam thought it was funny..!!! A friend of mine/aquatince whatever, then came over to me, and for the first part that was sufficiently awkward because i didnt exatly know what to do.. (i get like such a klutz in some situations) and i previously thought they had not wanted me there so it was hard for me, but i think after a few glasses of chamange i was ok again :) I was still shaking so hard when i went outside to smoke, still a little scared and realised just how many cigarettes i had got though in that day, i felt awful it was a crazy amount and not like me at all, ever!!! I guess its because i was always trying to have a cigarette in my hand so i didn't have to go inside. I'm happy i finally calmed down though, because the show was fucking amazing, and defiantly worth every single penny (or cent in the case) that i payed for it. I could have literally gone back every night and seen it over and over again and I dont think i would have got bored of it at all. I would recommend the show to anyone even if you are not into the performing arts because you would actually love it! I felt blessed by the end of the night, but tired, and i think because of how stressful the whole day had been, i got a huge headache....i slept in the car the entire way home (with a pit stop the throw up (classy) ) then got into bed and slept again, but it was a wonderful day...my host family said we are 100% going to do the same next year so another blog to come in a year or so!!!! :)

Germany Day Two...

I woke up this morning feeling more excited than i have ever been before in my entire lifetime! I have this wonderful friend called Nadine and i have known her since 2006, in 2007 she was meant to be coming over to stay at my house in England with another beautiful friend of mine Ines, and she ended up in France at the time...so you can imagine, this was a pretty exciting moment for me and i was freaking out ohhhh just a little bit :) We spoke on the phone and decided that we would meet at city point in Kassel...so again this made me even more excited because i had wanted to go there for ages! It was so amazingly hot this day so we decided as we got there early to have a little walk up the street before going for a cool drink somewhere nice :) Tessa got a call from behind and her mom was walking up with her little baby sister, i literally was SO happy because i wasn't planning on getting to see her yet, and let me tell you, that she was the cutest baby i have ever met in my entire life. That kid never stopped being happy and the smile never went from her face it made me heart smile even more, looking back on the pictures of me holding her..well the smile never once goes from my face, that baby was adorable..it's babies like her who gave whitney the reason to quote 'i believe the children are our future'.

So anyway, after (sadly) having to give that wonderful little baby back to her mom, we went on to find a place to get a drink, we were actually amazingly lucky as we found a beautiful little place right outside where Nadine and I were meeting, a little open cafe :) it was peaceful to sit there and the fountains, they remind me so much of dancers, free and flowing.... Then i saw Nadine, i could not be happier, finally seeing her, well my heart was leaping all over the place and going crazy :) We had a little look around the shops and bought some beautiful matching braclets :) then when Tessa rejoined us we went and bought something to eat and sat on some steps in the sunshine talking about life, moments and memories that have been important. :)

We then ate some more of the wonderful German ice cream, ( i literally had it every day btw just to warn you in advance im that obsessed) before getting into the car and driving to visit Herkules, when we pulled into the parking lot i actually couldn't see anything, and i thought it was something (in my dumb child way of thinking) to do with the Disney movie and that we were going to watch it on a big screen or something, however when we came to the top of the hill i was met with the most beautiful sight of my life, i remember many of my friends saying that this was one of their favourite places in the world and now i could see why, i didnt know what it was called at the time, but i had saw enough pictures to recognise it, i must have spent maybe two hours just walking down this monument, just to stop everywhere and take pictures, from every angle there was a new and beautiful photo opportunity and i just loved it so much :) I think that because there was not much rain recently the pools only had a little water in them, so i was able to take my shoes off and climb in and take more photos, i felt blessed to be in this place, feeling the water between my toes and looking out to the entire city in the horizon. MAGICAL!

When we reached the bottom there was a little restaurant where we stopped to grab a little something to eat and drink before making our way back up again, and ok so that bit was maybe NOT as fun, i felt like i was dying haha!!!!! but oh my gosh what a wonderful day. I was happy to have also got to spend it with Nadine aswell :) Yayayayay

KASSEL GERMANY

So yesterday i flew back home after one of the most wonderful weeks of my life, i cannot believe how beautiful Kassel is and that i have never visited that part of Germany before. I am quite lucky because i have a few friends living in this area so i can really bunk down with any of them, as they are always offering me places if i need a place to crash anyway!

This time though i was staying with the beautiful Falkenau family in Hessen, when my flight touched down in Dortmund i was completely exhausted and also a little nervous as i'd only met this family once before and i was scared they would end up changing their mind about having me stay. The instant i walked though arrivals though i knew i had nothing to be scared of, i was greeted with warm and smiling faces and a hug, I got told, 'Welcome back to Germany my beautiful daughter' i couldnt have been or felt anymore happier if i had actually tried...on the drive home (160km oh man) i thought i would fall asleep but i felt so awake and was able to laugh and joke with the family, despite there being a language barrier. The best thing was arriving at their house to find they had decorated it all up for me, i had been given my own room, my own computer, and a little table full of yummy things to eat and drink! I instantly felt a part of their family..! We all sat around to a meal which my wonderful host mom had cooked and they asked me what it was i wanted to do that week as apart from friday we had nothing planned, and i remember that all i could think was, I AM IN GERMANY! I DONT NEED ANYTHING ELSE!!!! Then we had to go to be because it was really late, but i know i was laying there for hours, having to pinch myself that this was real...it felt just too good to be true! I have too much to write in one blog so i will actually do this over a few blogs :) one for each day :)