JUNE/JULY

So, it's been more than a month now. I think being back home is be a positive thing after all, you just have to make the best out of every situation.
I'm so happy I still talk to the people I was really close to back in Germany :)
For example, my host parents. OMG I skype with them almost every single day! isn't that great? I swear I could've never asked for better host parents than mine. They are SO amazing! Actually my relationship with them is even better than the one I have with my real parents. Being back home was hard at the beginning, because I really didn't have anyone like my host parents. It's weird not having my host parents around, they were always home, my host mom only worked on thursdays and my host dad didn't work at all. My real parents work, both of them, so I just get to see them 2 hours a day and they can't really spend some time me. I don't want to either haha.
I'm glad I still talk to all of my friends (the ones I met in Berlin).

My friends back home are okay, like I said, I'm the weird one now. It's just funny to see how much I changed this year. My friends here love me, they are really nice and everything but I don't think we have the same interests, but we're working on it ;).

What everyone asks me almost every single time they see me is :
MARIA HOW WAS GERMANY? WHEN DID YOU COME BACK?
which is actually kind of annoying, but at least they show some interest right?

They ask me what do I miss the most from Germany too. SO HERE IT IS!
What I miss the most from Germany is being able to move around the city without driving a car.
I live in Puebla, Mexico it is a city with more than 4 million people on it. So you really need a car, unless you want to get kidnapped. BIKES AND BUSSES ARE REALLY DANGEROUS IN MEXICO! don't take a bus EVER.

I think of Berlin pretty much every single day, I know it is going to take me a while to stop comparing cities or countries. My exchange year in Germany definately changed my LIFE. RYE 2009-2010 DAS BESTE JAHR MEINES LEBENS <33

being home :caitlin

so i have been home since june 22nd. its a few hours short of 2 weeks now. being home is A LOT harder then i thought it would be. I had one day off before starting back to work and i have just been really really busy with life. I enjoy being home but I miss all of the freedom and independence i had in Germany. Sometimes i feel like i got younger again! nonetheless i love being home. Today since one of our best friends ben is flying home and probably already home I have been thinking about how close i really was to all of the others. Its so strange when you want to make a joke that only exchange students would understand and you just can't because no one around u understands it anymore! One of the good things about working though is a lot of germans come into my job. I get to speak a few minutes of german every week just to not forget everything. its really cool talking to the germans too because a lot of them think i am german which is an amazing feeling. but yea, all in all its ok being back. This year is germany really opened my eyes to all the opportunities life offers and as my friend ben said, god definitely helped us through it and saved us in all the times we were stupid. I am seriously considering studying in Berlin now for college because it was just a city that i fell in love with from the first time i ever saw it. well i am gonna try to sleep so i can work my 7th day in a row!

ROTARY YOUTH EXCHANGE DISTRICT 1940 2010-11

Life after my exchange year

I've been home for three weeks now. I have really good friends here back in Mexico, but it's not the same as in Germany. People here are so weird now. Well, they aren't, I'm the weirdo now. A lot of things can happen in one year. You grow up mentally, you get used to different stuff, your personality changes. But the thing every single exchange student has to understand is that nothing lasts forever. Fortunately for me, something will, all of the friendships that I made. I know for a fact, that I'm always going to be friends with the people that I was really close to in Berlin.

It's weird not to do the things you have been doing for the last nine months, or doing the things you did not do for 9 months. For example, eating tacos for the first time since 9 months. Wanna know what happened?
I THREW UP ALL NIGHT. I guess I wasn't used to mexican food anymore.
Getting used to Mexico's time zone. I had no sleep for the first week.
WHAT? NO MORE GERMAN BEER? Mexican beer sucks man.
NO MORE BRöTCHEN FOR BREAKFAST? what am I supposed to eat? TORTILLAS?!?!?!
Wait mom, what? why do I have to ask for your permission to go out now?
The list goes on and on.
You also have your responsibilities back and you have to listen to your parents now. You are living together now, not 10,000km away from each other.


A really hard thing to get used to is THE WEATHER.
After living in ''winter land'' for the last couple of months, after living the coldest winter since 1978 (-25°C) and getting used to 10°C on spring almost summer, how am I supposed to get used to 30°C one of a sudden.

I must say, this was the most amazing year of my life. At the beginning it was pretty hard because I wasn't mature enough, I was and I still am really young, if you remember I'm just a 15 year old. I'M JUST A KID.
This year was full of ups and downs but it was totally worth it. Every single moment I was able to spend in Germany was great.
I wouldn't change it for anything.

RYE 2009-2010 THE BEST YEAR OF MY LIFE
DAS BESTE JAHR MEINES LEBENS

FLYING HOME.. WHAAAAAT?

So, I know we haven't wrote anything since March. The time flew and right now I'm back home. Many things have happened this last 3 months. We had this amazing trip called EUROTOUR. It was one of the most amazing experiences ever! It was so cool to travel around Europe with exchange stundents. IT WAS AWESOME! The thing is, I was not that excited for Eurotour, because I knew I was going to fly back home 28 days after it.

28 DAYS LATER.



MAY 26, 2010
BYE BYE DEUTSCHLAND! :/

FLYING BACK HOME!!! NO!!!
It was the hardest thing I've ever done. It was so hard to say goodbye to all of my friends and to my host family.
It was so sad to walk away from all the people that went to the airport just to see you one last time. As I was going through security, I felt my heart stop. I turned around one last time, and took a look to all of the exchange students, all the people I love and all the people that I'm going to remember for the rest of my life.

BERLIN-FRANKFURT. FRANKFURT-MEXICO CITY
After going through security I couldn't stop crying. Everyone thought I was sick, so they changed me to first class so I could feel better. I started reading all of the letters my friends gave me. As I was reading them, my hands were shaking. The only thing that was on my mind was: WHY AM I FLYING HOME SO EARLY? I must say it was a mistake, but I had no choice and I rather be the first one to leave than the last one.

After 12 hours of flight, I was landing in Mexico.
WOW
Even though I was physically in Mexico, my heart was in Berlin. I could not talk. I could not think. Those were the most confusing minutes of my life. But wait, Am I supposed to feel happy? I can't be happy! How am I going to be happy if I left the life I loved behind. SURPRISE! I was devastated.
I only had four things on my mind after we landed.
*What are my host parents doing now without me?
*What is everyone doing back HOME?
*Why is this so WEIRD?
and the most important:
HOW AM I GOING TO BE HAPPY WITHOUT ALL OF MY FRIENDS?

A week apart :[

So, I would say for me and maria everything is going pretty well in Berlin. Other then the usual moments of homesickness we are really enjoying ourselves here. As far as learning German? every day we learn a bit. Especially when we are with our german friends we learn the fun things and slang.

This weekend maria is going to an inbound meeting on an island called niebüll i think. I would be going too but I am going skiing with my school in czech republic. It kinda stinks to miss a weekend with all the exchange students because theyre always interesting to say the least, and of course tons of fun. It is kinda gonna stink though not seeing everyone for a whole week, but skiing should be tons of fun with my school friends!

i love my sister :]

so wut is better then having a best friend? i would have to say almost nothing. yesterday despite maria being soo tired i convinced her to go to the club in neuruppin with me. I would say it turned out good, after all we both made like 2 euros. thank god for pfand!
I can't believe hows fast this year is going!! on the 23rd i will have been here for 6 months, that means i only have 4 left! It's so hard to believe how fast everything goes and before you know it, youre back to the normal life and reality. Theres definitely people I look forward to seeing when i get home and things i wanna do, but its still hard knowing that you gotta leave behind everything that u came to know after the year. Well i guess thats just part of exchange
I went to london for 5 days with my english class. That is one of the most amazing cities i have ever been to! aside from the fact that it was a few degrees warmer and there was no snow on the ground i loved everything about it. But it was soo weird being in an english speaking country after having been in germany for the past almost 6 months. Also, even though it wuz an english speaking country i spoke about 95% german because i was with all germans and why speak english when we dont really have to? Stuff like that always helps my german but it makes it hard to speak english too. More then a few times i ended up speaking german to english people.
Overall i would say everything is going good and hopefully maria will write something soon too :D