Sunday, February 28, 2016

Seattle no. 2

Hey everybody!

Second semester is going great so far, and I enjoy all of my classes. They are super interesting and a lot of great people are there too. 

Last weekend, Lily invited me to go to Seattle with her and visit her grandparents. 
We left Friiday around noon and took the bus to Portland, from there we transferred into a train. The long- distance trains are slower than the ones in Germany, so it took us about 5 hours to get to Seattle. An old friend from Katie picked us up and drove us to Katie's parents house in West- Seattle. 
The house is super beautiful. It's at the beach in a nice neighbourhood and the way It is furnished  and is very pretty. Lily's grandparents have a pizza- oven, so we had homemade pizza for dinner, which was delicious. I met Lily's aunt and uncle and their partners, and I had to to really get to know her grandparents, which I only met fleeting before. All of them are super nice people.
After dinner Lily and I spent two hours in the hot tub, before we went to bed.

The next morning, Jen, Katie's friend, took us to a bakery to get some breakfast. The bakery won the title "World's Best Bakery" and I must say, it wasn't exaggerated. The food was delicious!
Katie, her sister, her boyfriend and her parents went to a garden show, but Lily and I stayed home, and spent some time in West-Seattle. We went to the beach, Lily showed me the house she grew up in, and we went into some shops and just relaxed. It was a really great day! We bought ice-cream to go and had some time in the hot tub back at the house. 

The next morning her grandfather made "Eggs Benedict" which I never had before, but wow, it was so good! Two slices of toasted ciabatta bread, green asparagus, poached eggs and a home made cheese hollandaise. Yumm!
After breakfast, we had to pack our things, and get ready to leave. Lily's grandparents drove us to the train station, and helped us get into the train. 
The train ride was long and after I was done doing my homework I slept for a couple hours. The last hour of the train ride, I was so ready to get off of the train and Lily and I just hang into our seats. 
Katies boyfriend picked us up and then Lily drove me home. It was such a great weekend, and I was so happy that Katie and Lily wanted me to come with them. 

Last Friday we had our last official basketball game of the season, and it was senior night. That means all the Senior players and cheerleaders were presented with their parents. Jim and Christine walked with me, and I couldn't wish for a better escort. Thank you!

I hope all of you enjoyed your time, and you had a great weekend too!

Lots of Love, Malin



It was really hard to make the dough into a circle.





My first time making a pizza in a pizza oven.





The view from our bedroom.


Seattle Skyline

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Drift Creek Camp

Hey everybody!

Second Semester started! I can't believe how fast the first semester got over and I am kind of scared, the second one will go by even faster. 
I am really happy with my schedule, besides math I only have classes which are super interesting and fun: 

Period 1         Off block
     Period 2         Photography
           Period 3         Creative writing
  Period 4         Algebra 2 
                  Period 5         Painting & Drawing
 Period 6         Sociology
          Period 7         Weight training

Having an off-block for my first period makes Mondays WAY more attractive. I still have to wake up the same time as any other day, but the fact that I don't have to pay attention for the first 90 minutes, is very relaxing. That way I have only three classes every day, and having weight training in my last period was a good choice. That way I don't have to be exhausted and sweaty through the whole day. I can just go home and take a shower. 

This weekend we all drove to Drift Creek Camp, which is a camp near the coast. It is in the middle of nowhere, which first sounds not very appealing, but actually it was great! The creek is beautiful and we hiked around the woods on Saturday and just spent a lot of time in the nature. We played a lot of games and read books. It was a relaxing weekend and it was great to spend time with a lot of people. There were people from church and Franziska, who is another German exchange student in Corvallis and a friend of Ruby's, It was fun to hang out with a them and just talk. 

We have two months of school now until we have a week spring break. This is one thing I don't like about the American school system; They have such a long time between their breaks. In Germany, we have breaks every 6 - 7 weeks. Of course, here they have a two month break in summer, but I like our system better. 

We are going to San Francisco during Spring break and I am really excited! This city just looks so beautiful, and spending a week in California will be amazing! 

I hope all of you are alright and doing great! 

Love, Malin






The Creek


This tree was sooo huge


The Devil's Punchbowl


We stopped at the beach on our way back