Hannover Aktion!

So. Pferd Mädchen arrived on Wednesday. It was great getting to see her again. I was incredibly excited, not to mentioned surprised, when my host parents told me about her arrival... hmm, did I write about that already? anyway. I couldn't remember the last time i had talked to her, much less seen her, so it really was a pleasant surprise. the family has been busy, with the parents having mucho arbeit at the office and the kids starting school again. (I know it seems early for that, but the Germans get lots more breaks during the school year than we do. And not wimpy '3-day-weekend' breaks, either... nice week or 2-week-long things.) So we've had time to hang out and see some of the area by ourselves. Yesterday we went to Celle, which is a sweet little town a bit north of Isernhagen (where our host family lives). We did some shopping and ate. Today we ate with our host parents at this wonderful breakfast buffet in downtown Hannover near Kröpke. I haven't wanted to eat since because we had soooo much great food. (this is strange for me since it is already a quarter past 5!! Usually I think a lot more about food...) Then they took us to a Picasso exhibit at the Sprengel Museum, which was really cool. So many pretty pictures... unfortunately no really famous ones, like Guernica, but still really impressive. Then Pferd Mädchen (who I will now refer to as PM) and I went CD shopping to buy all the cool German music that isn't 'erhältlich' in the States. I got the Silbermond album (they're a lot like Evanescence), the new single 'Troy' from the Phantastischen Vier, and the Dragonstea Din Tei song, if only to remind me of this entire summer (it was all over the radio, along with those two songs from Eamon and Frankie). Of course, I left with yet another Die Ärtze CD. This one is from 2000 and has a cool blue case which is fuzzy. weird band. I restrained myself from buying their DVDs because of the price... but they have no country code, and when am I ever going to be in Germany again??? AND their new DVD comes out Monday, the day I leave. Hopefully I can stop by some store and pick it up before I catch my flight out. It would have been even better to go to one of their concerts. Last week they played in Salzburg, and this week they are taking a break. I am SOOO jealous of the certain Asian kid who went to see them in concert in June. ARRRGH.

Anyway. Oh, and PM and I randomly stumbled across a international youth conference. they were holding some kind of fair and had 85 different countries represented by booths with food samples. The Canadians were nice and gave me a flag, and one of the Brits handed me a candy bar and kindly told me what was going on. the Swiss made me try fondue, and then when I said 'schmeckt alkoholisch', it was then that they told me about the white wine in it. I made sure the bread was on the fork really well, because PM says if your bread drops in the pot, you have to kiss the person on my left. I didn't know who the person was on my left, but chances are I wouldn't wanna kiss whoever it was.

So. Leaving on a jet plane on Monday. I know I will miss Germany in particular and Europe in general, but for now I am just glad to be going home to see my family. and my friends, of course. Stay posted for sad withdrawal posts. _wink_

don't know when I'll be back again