Family & Friends

Hey there! 

I hope all of you are doing great! We finally have winter break for two weeks, which was hugely  desired by everyone! One thing I absolutely dislike about school here, is that they have so few breaks during the school year...

This week felt really long, I was tired the whole time, and then on Friday we didn't have school, because the river was flooding. We were super excited and I was so happy, because so I had the time to clean my room, bake, wrap presents and just relax. 

On Saturday we had our secret santa gift exchange from the cheer team, and it was super fun! I bought my secret santa a pair of super fuzzy socks with Aloe, and personally I love them, and I hope she likes them as much as I do. 
On Saturday we went on a trip to the coast, and I was so happy to see the ocean! There is just nothing more beautiful than the sea, besides the sky. It started raining and storming later and the water was rough and busy, but still so beautiful. We ate dinner at 'Local Oceans' , a restaurant in Newport, and it was super delicious! I am so thankful for that day!

So, and now I thought I will introduce you to some important people here: My host family and three of my friends. These are the people I spend most of my time with, and I wish you could all meet them in person, because they are just great! I asked all of them what are their three favorites are and then I asked everyone some different questions. 

I have four more family memebers, My host dad Jim, my host mum Christine and my two host sisters Ruby and Iris. They are a great family and they welcomed me so warmly and I am so thankful for being a part of this family for my year here! I couldn't wish for a better one. So here we go: 

Jim 

Animal: Red pandas

Food: Ice cream

Color: When I was little it was purple and nobody ever let me forget it... Alright, I'd say green

Christine

Animal: Zoey! Not dogs, but Zoey (Zoey is our dog)

Food: Thai red curry

Color: green

Ruby

Animal: dogs

Food: Burritos with Valentina (Valentina is a hot sauce)

Color: blue. like a nice blue, like the color of people's eyes

Iris

Animal: Hippos or manatees

Food: Pasta

Color: preiwinkel, thats a color between blue and purple

And now, my friends. These three people are the ones I spent most of my time outside of school with. They are all super nice, polite and generous. 

Lily 

Animal: Elephants

Food: Reese's fastbreak

Color: green

How would you describe the German stereotype?

Uhm, a lot of beer... and I know that sounds really bad, but I think about yodeling and shoes with a curved tip, like elves. And beer.

How would you describe the American stereotype? 

Fat and eating at McDonalds. Thats not true, I know, but I just think that everybody outside of the US must think that. 

And, yes, her eyebrows are naturally that way!!

Saul

Animal: white tigers

Food: chicken alfredo

Color: red

What's the best thing about America?

The freedom here, but that you still have rules, so controlled freedom (I still don't know what exactly he means)

What's the worst thing about America?

People have labels on them, and they are classified by money and they are put in a caste and it's hard to move up. That's easier in Mexico. 

Parker

Animal: Pugs

Food: Pizza

Color: blue

If you could change anything in America, what would it be? 

I would probably change how we do prosecute people in court. Some people go to prison for way too long for stupid crimes so I guess I would change some laws. 

What did you thought about Germany before I came here?

I thought people from Germany were grumpy, super classy and serious people.

How did I change your picture from Germany?

Well, you showed me there are funny and awesome sides to anybody no matter where you're from.

           

Alright, so now you have a few impressions of the people I hang out with and who has become important to me over the last couple months. I wish, you could meet them all in person, because spending time with them is so much fun! 

Next to these people are my cheer girls, who are all talented and super nice and a great team! 

Ans now here are some pictures from the ocean. The Oregon coast is dark and full of rocks and the sand is super hard at some spots, but it is so beautiful!

I hope you all are great and as excited for Christmas and the holidays and New Year as I am! 

Love, Malin

USA - Germany

Hello! 

I had a great week.  It went by so fast! Basketball season started, and during December we are cheering for the girls, and when the boys start to have home games in January, we cheer for them. It is so much fun cheering for basketball, because it is way faster and more intense than football. The game is more likely to switch at the end, which makes it more exciting. 

On Friday we had a short mini- day; that means, all classes are just 20 minutes long. We don't do much in class, but I enjoyed it anyway, because I got home at 12:45, which was very good. 

Christine´s best friend came on Thursday night for a visit, and to help a little, since Christine had a foot- surgery. She is super nice and I am looking forward to see her again during winter break. 

I spent Saturday with Lily, which was great. We made homemade macaroni-  and- cheese  and filled strawberries. In the evening, we went to a poker game with her mother and her fiancé. It was fun, and we did a really good job playing, even though we didn't win. 

Below I have listed some differences between America and Germany, or better some facts, since I am here, and I just want to share them with you. Not all people in America are like this, but just to simplify this, I will say 'Americans'. I don't mean to offense anyone. I hope you enjoy it! :) 

                                  1. The serving sizes here are much bigger

                                  2. They don't use knives while they eat, they cut everything and then eat

                                  3. Fast- food restaurants have very few vegetarian choices

                                  4. They have ice in every drink

                                  5. 'Bread' is very sweet and very white here

                                  6. You can fill your drinks up as often as you want

                                  7. Water in restaurants is free

                                  8. Water in supermarkets costs more than coke

                                  9. They cool everything down, everywhere

                                10. They just have roll- deodorants

                                11. They have flags everywhere

                                12. College athlethes are treated like celebrities

                                13. They have a lot of cars and drive a lot

                                14. They can give their babies weird names

                                15. Shops are open on Sundays

                                16. They think a german accent sounds good

                                17. They are willing to drive an hour to get lunch/ breakfast

                                18. Football coaches are the highest public paid employees

                                19. They think a 100 year old house is old

                                20. They don't have christmas markets !! 

                              

So, these are my 20 facts about America, maybe you have learned something new or at least were entertained :)

I hope, you all had a great week, and you are enjoying the Christmas season 

 lots of love, Malin

Lily's christmas tree

We had so much cheese for our macaroni

High school (musical?)

Hello there!

I have been in High school for 12 weeks now, so I thought I would talk a little bit about the big mystery of 'high school'. All the teenage- and chickflick movies set up expectations, and I am so sorry to tell you, that most of it is not true :)

So just to be clear: high school is not quite like this : 

Unfortunately there is no singing and dancing in the hallways or Sharpay rolling into the parking lot in a pink Capriolet. 

It's also not like this, but actually, we're getting nearer to reality: 

And High school might look like this for a few people, but I can tell you that  it is not that bad:

To be fair, this movie is hilarious, but it also doesn't come close to how it really is.

Ok, but enough joking around. So High school.... It is actually not a lot different than school in Germany. I was expecting more groups, or cliques. And I mean there are some groups, but it is not super obvious. 

The school system is quite different than in Germany. The students have to earn a certain amount of credit during the four years of school, Some classes will bring you more credit, some less. They have a lot more different classes, and they can decide which they want to take. Some classes, like English, science and math are required but other than that, they have a lot of freedom  to take what they want to take. The school year has two semesters. Some classes are all-year classes, some aren´t, so the sudents have a slightly different schedule in the second semster. We have odd and even days here, that means that we have all our odd classes Monday and Wednesday and all the even classes are on Tuesday and Thursday. Friday is an all-day, that means we have all our classes, but they´re just 45 minutes long. 

The teachers have their own classrooms, which means, that the students have to change the room,  not the teacher. That makes it easier to find a teacher, because they're always in the same classroom, but it is harder to find the classroom for your next class... 

The relationship between teachers and students is a lot more personal than in Germany. In Germany we don't ask how their weekend was, or how they spent yesterday. It is all about learning. Here it is different. Here you can chit-chat a little bit and they don't mind at all. 

It feels like the students don't mind to go to school much. I mean there are so many things which make school more attractive, like all the after- school- activities, like the sports, or clubs. And then there are school dances and sport games, and so many people show up! It's amazing how much the students support their teams. And when we have school dances, a lot of people come and they really like it. It's great. In Germany, we don't have school dances or extracuricular activities. We don't have this school- spirit, which connects all the students. I am so happy to have the oppotunity to experience all that! 

Our cafeteria

My psych teacher´s classroom

 So, and now enough about school... It's December, so everyone is thinking about Christmas! In our neighborhood there are so many house which are decorated with so many lights, that they light up the whole street. As soon as Halloween was over, people unpacked their Christmas stuff. But what is a little disappointing is, that they don't have Christmas markets here. Christmas in America is intense, but Christmas in Germany is just beautiful. It is so great, walking around a christmas market, and the air smells like cookies, sweet treats, glühwein and punsch. I miss that. But I´m doing my best to bring it to America, by baking cookies. Thanks to my parents, I have an adventcalendar with little recipes for everyday during December. Unfortunately, they don't have punsch here, but tea does the job too. We already bought our Christmas tree and I have my own stocking! I was so excited! Today is Santa- Claus- day and we had some presents in our wooden shoes. I am so thankful for that! 

Our HUGE Christmas tree

some Christmas cookies and tea next to the tree = well spent time

Santa is coming to town

I hope you all enjoying the Christmas season and that you had a lovely weekend! I also hope you guys liked this post and it was at least a little entertaining and you learned something you didn't know before. 

I hope you're all doing good!! 

love, Malin

Thanksgiving

Hey there!

This week we just had a two- day week becuase of Thanksgiving. I spent Tuesdayevening with Lily, before she drove up to Seattle to visit her family. 

On Wednesday we all spent the day cleaning and decorating the house and cooking and baking for the Thanksgiving lunch. Ruby and I made two pies, one blueberry- sour cream pie and one french silk chocolate pie. They were so delicious. But really sweet. 

On Thursday the whole family came over for lunch. I had met a few people before, like Jim´s sister and her family, Christine´s parents, and a few cousins. But more than half of themI didn't know, so it was a little overhelming to meet them all. They are all super nice and sweet. It was a pleasure to meet them all. 

The food was really good. They had a big Turkey, but also plenty of vegetarian choices, like mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, roasted vegetables and salad. And of course, lots and lots of pumpkin pie for dessert. It was around 5:00 pm, when everybody needed a pause from food. We played games, talked and then every once in a while, somebody went to grab some more pie or an extra tablespoon of whipped cream. 

I didn't eat too much, so I didn't feel gross for the next couple days. On Friday, it was Christine´s birthday, and we planned to drive up to Mary's peak, but unfortunately the road was closed, so we just walked a little bit. Christine´s parents weren't prepared for a 7 mile walk, so we made our way back to town. 

Christine wanted to have sushi for dinner, so Jim, Ruby and I made california rolls and spring rolls. It was challenging, but fun and even though not every roll was perfect, they all were delicious. 

On Saturday we bought our Christmas tree!! So Christmas is finally coming! Today we decorated the tree, and decorated the house, while listening to christmas songs. It felt like christmas eve will be next week. Unfortunately, we still have three weeks of school.

All the Thanksgiving days were about being thankful. So here it what I am thankful for:
First of all, I am more than thankful for my parents and my family in Germany, for being so supportive and loving and letting my go my own way. Then for Martin and Erika and Erika's parents for all their effort to help me, and last but not least all the people here: My Host family, for welcoming me so warm in their family and for treating me like I am family, and for my friends I have here, that they don't think I am the weirdest person on earth. 
All of these people have helped me to make this long- time- dream of mine reality and all of them have added something to make me feel welcomed, comfortable and make this year to one of the best experiences in my life so far!
Thank you all so much!
I hope everyone of you had a great week, a lovely Thanksgiving and I hope you can start December as happy as I am. I am really excited for Christmas, and for my next few posts, I hope you'll like it!

Kisses, Malin

It is kind of a thing here to take special Family- pictures every year for christmas cards

Blueberry pie with a marple- leave crust 

Who wants the last bite of Pumpkin pie?

beautiful nature

Just some little things

Hey Everybody!

I am sorry I didn't post anything last week, but I was ill for a couple days, and nothing really exciting happened. I had a lot of stuff going on in school, which took a lot of time to take care of, but luckily we have a two- day week next week, because of Thanksgiving, so I can relax now. I have two upcoming assignments next week, so I had to study this weekend. 

I still don't know what excactly to tell you, because the last weeks were a little boring, but I want to keep my one- to two week rhythm and next week is Thanksgiving, so you can expect a long post and lots of pictures :) And you can tell me if you are super interested in something or if I should write about a specific topic you are very curious about. 

However, I recognized I am still getting to know 'new' people in school. I mean I saw them before, but never really talked to them, and that just makes me very happy. Everybody is just super nice and I had the pleasure to meet a lot of amazing people in the last few months.

 

So I´ll just go ahead and tell you what my life looks like here: 

High school is definitely an amazing experience, even though it's school and I have to wake up at 6:30 am in the morning. Jim drops Ruby and me off at school on his way to work and we have to take the bus home. School buses are not quite as cool as they look in the movies, I can tell you that. 

On Monday evenings, Ruby and Iris have choir, so Christine, Jim and I mostly have a talk about some organization stuff and I do my homework. 

On Tuesday after school I have cheer practice. I decided that I am not going to compete, because I feel like that will take too much time. But basketball season starts soon, and I am really excited for that, because everybody says that cheering for basketball is way more intense than cheering for football.

I know who my basketball buddy is, butI haven't met him yet. We are not allowed to make them little treats, like cookies or stuff, because our coach said, that in the past they didn't really appreciated what we do for them, so we will just make posters, That's a little sad, because I had some cute ideas for decorating cookies and cupcakes. 

The rest of the week is pretty much the same, I come home from school, try to do my homework and then just relax. Someimes a friend comes over or I go to a friend´s house. 

I try to work out at least 30 minutes a day, beacuse no matter what i eat, it feels much heavier than the food in germany. But luckily, my host family tries to cook fresh everyday and we also have salad and veggies mostly everyday and I am so thankful for that. 

On Sundays my Hostfamily goes to church, and I come with them most of the time. It is a little different, because all the High schoolers have Sunday school and after church all the people have a potluck- lunch. It is more a community thing for me than church. But sometimes when I have a skype appointment with somebody from Germany or just don't feel like I want to go, then I stay home, which is no problem at all for my host family, and I am happy about that. 

I feel like winter finally arrived here, because we had to scrape ice off of the car this morning. It doesn't get as cold as it gets in Germany, but for me, it's really cold. 

I have made a plan for the upcoming posts, and I´ve thought about some 'Christmas-specials' during December, and I am actually really excited about that and I hope you guys will like it. 

I hope all of you are doing great and none of you is already stressed out by Christmas :) As soon as Halloween was over, lots of people put out their christmas lights and decorated their house. we will start decorating after Thanksgiving. 

Have a great week everybody!

Yours, Malin

Coming home

Hey my dearest people! 

School this week was normal, sometimes boring, sometimes funny, sometimes interesting and sometimes exhausting. But we had an assembly on Thursday. An assembly is a event where the whole school comes togetheter and the students who are in leadership 'lead' the assembly. They explain the school rules.  They introduce the different clubs and sports, and announce upcoming events. The accapella choir sang a song, and the class presidents had to play a game against each other. It was really fun! The assemblies in my school in Germany were so boring and nobody really paid attention.

At the end of the assembly all the exchange students had to introduce themselves. We are five students this year, one from Thailand and from Brazil and three girls from Germany. 

On Friday we just had a half- day, that meant all of our classes were only thirty minutes, so we got home at 12:50pm. 

I was in my room all day and changed it a little bit. I hung up lights and moved my bed and I like it so much better now. It feels cozy and comfortable. 

On Friday night I went over to Lily's and spent the night there. It was really fun. The next day we got up early, because we wanted to drive up to Portland to pick up a friend of her from the airport, who is coming home from a five month U.S Navy boot camp. 

Luckily we didn't get stuck in traffic, so we got there two hours early, but it didn't matter. We went to 'Voodoo Doughnuts' , a famous doughnut- shop in Portland, and it was so good! They had lots and lots of different doughnuts and all of them looked so delicious. 

Then we drove to the airport. I've never met Keila, but Lily told me a lot about her, so I was very excited to meet her. Lily was also excited and nervous to see one of her best friends again. 

The moment when Kaila finally came out was very sweet. 

After we picked up her baggage and got in the car, we drove back to where Keila´s parents live. She didn't told them that she was coming home. She changed into her Navy uniform, and we got into her house to wait for her Dad. 

When he and her little sister came in, they both were so surprise and overhelmed. 

After spending some time with them, we drove her to the place where her mother works. It was a restaurant and the reactions from everybody were just great. A lot of people said 'oh my god, that's so cute!' or 'Wow, this is so perfect.' Her Mum was so happy to see her daughter again. 

She took Keila home and Lily and I stopped at Lily's grandparents house to say 'hi' and then we met her cousin. 

At the end of the day I was tired but very happy. It was a day with a lot of driving and sitting, but it was totally worth it. 

Thank you Lily for taking me with you!

  

I named this post 'coming home' because it was a week full of homecomings. 

I´m really start to feel at home here. The language is getting easier and easier and I don't have to think about it that much anymore. I think I made some really good friends here and I feel accepted. I feel super comfortable with my host family and I am so happy with my room. It's not perfect though, but definitely a beginning!

 I have some things i want to hang up on the walls, like pictures and stuff, but first I need to print them out and take some more!

Then all the moments with Keila and her parents were really exciting. I bet all of you have watched videos of soldiers coming home to their families. Now, I've had that experience. I mean Keila wasn't gone for years, but five months is a long time. It was just great to see how happy her family was to have her back for the next two weeks. After that she will be stationed in Hawaii. 

I hope all of you are doing well and you feel comfortbale with the people around you, and if not, it's not too late to change something, like my german sweetheart Dominique :)

Lots of love, Malin

This is our Accapella choir at the assembly (I hope it works)

'Keep Portland weird' 

So good!

Please listen to the song 'Coming Home' by Rogers & Bos after that or while you're watching this, it totally fits in here! 

Halloween

Hey everyone!

I am sorry I didn't post anything yesterday, but I didn´t have the time. 

Last week we had a three- day-school week and a four- day weekend because our teachers had conferences. Jim and Christine went to my teachers and talked to them. They all said I am doing well in my classes, and my grades are pretty good. Except for math, but if you know me, you know that math was always nonsense for me. Jim helps me with my homework and Lily helps me studying sometimes, so I just tried not to fail. 

On Thursday I met with Pepper and Parker and we carved pumpkins. I haven't carved pumpkins for a couple of years, so I really enjoyed it and it was fun! I made a scary pumpkin face, Parker made a pumpkin which looked like he was throwing up and Pepper made the face from Jack Skellington from 'Nightmare before Christmas' . It was very cool.

On Friday I carved pumpkins with Ruby and Iris and baked some brownies for my football buddies. Carving pumpkins with Ruby and Iris and spending time with them was very good. I made the cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland, Ruby made stars and Iris used a drill to make little holes into her pumpkin, which looks very cute. In the evening I had to go to CHS to get ready for the football game. If they won the game, they could go to the playoffs, so it was a very big deal. It also was Senior night, that means all the seniorplayers, bandmembers and cheerleaders were going to be presented. 

We had to line up with our parents at the field at 6:30 pm. First all the bandmembers were presented, than the cheerleaders. When our Names were called we had to to the field, while everybody was cheering. I was presented as: 'Malin Altenburger with her host parents Christine and Jim'

I was glad that Christine and Jim walked up there with me, but in that moment I missed my real parents. I think, it would have been great if they could have walked with me. 

Then all the players were presented by names and their parents. The cheerleaders made posters and Candy- necklaces for them. 

The game itself was very intense. We played against South Albany, and they started scoring, but we scored too a couple times. The final score was 34 to 36 in favor of South Albany. It was so close!

I really wished we would have won, because it was the last game of the season and the last game for the senior players. Everybody was down and some people cried. It was heartbreaking, and I felt very sorry for the players and their parents. 

I gave the brownies to the coach so he could give them to my buddies, but I said it would be great if they could share these with the whole team, so I hope they did. 

I spent Saturday afternoon with Lily, and we went to her brother´s fraternity to pick him and his girlfriend up for lunch. They are super nice. After lunch we drove to different costume stores, to buy accessoires for their costumes. Then we dropped them off again and hung out at Lily's house. A friend from her old home came over and we went to the birthday party from her mother's fiancè. Then we got ready for halloween. It was much of fun! 

They drove me home at 9pm and I was supertired.

On Sunday I just did some homework and tried to clean my room, but it wasn't very successful. 

In the evening I went to Lily's to study some math. Her mom took us out for dinner to an Indian restaurant calles 'Evergreen'. It was so good. 

All in all my week was lots of fun and I spent my time with some great people. 

I hope you all doing great and you have had some spooky but also fun days! 

Hugs and kisses, Malin

Go seniors! Go Sparts!

Just some Impressions about how beautiful fall here is.

Happy Halloween