Congrats Grads!

You did it, Seniors!

The last week of school was stuffed with finals and assignments to turn in, so we can all graduate. 

On Friday was the last day of school for me and all the other seniors. After lunch we had graduation practice and then on the weekend people had their graduation parties you could just stop by at and spend a little time.

 On Sunday morning, the church my Hostfamily goes to, did a little service for me, to say goodbye and it was really nice. In the evening, we celebrated Ruby's birthday, because on Monday, her actual birthday, I was occupied with graduation practice. 

I spent the night at Lily's and we went to practice together in the morning. After we were done, we went back to her house, took a nap and then had a early dinner with Lily's Mum, her grandparents, Matt and Sam. Katie took us to Gills colliseum and at 7:30 pm, we all were in our lines to walk out. 

The ceremony took about three hours, but fortunately the speeches were all really good, so it didn't seem to be that long. In the end after we all took pictures, we went to the graduate all night party. That was fun, they had a buch of different things to do there, like an obstacle course from the national guard, free food, swimming pools, rock climbing, henna, a Casino and movies. Lily and I got super tired, so we left around 3 to go home. 

The next day, we went to get my stuff from my house, because I am staying with Lily for the next week and then we went to her grandparents house to eat dinner with them. 

I want to congratulate all Seniors for graduation from High school! I am so blessed to were able to experience a High school graduation with so many amazing ans smart people, and I am so proud of all of my friends! You did it, you are done now!

 

I also want to congratulate all my friend who wre graduating this year back in germany! It's been a couple weeks since your big tests, but in two weeks you guys are done with school too! I am so very proud of all of you, you've archieved so much! 

Love, Malin

getting ready

Lily and me were walking together

Gigi, Me, Boppa

 Larry, Me, Cathy

Me, Anissa, Lily

Prom

Hey there! 

So, this weekend was prom. I think I can say, that every exchange student who comes to America just waits for this one night. It is like the most American high school thing you can do. I remember, that I started talking about prom with my friends, who were also going to go to America, two years ago.

I was really excited.

On Saturday morning, Sierra, Lily and me went to get our nails done and then went to Sierra's house, where we met Georgia, to get hair and make up ready and get dressed. Sierra's mum helped us with our hair and make up, and my eyes. She did an amazing job. 

I didn't buy my own dress, I borrrowed one of Lily's from last year. It has grey lace and grey sparkly things on the top. 

Finally, at 5:00 pm, our dates came to pick us up and we all drove to the country club to take pictures. It was a really nice ambience, but a little overwhelming, because there were so many people. probably around 35 students and all their parents running around, taking pictures.

After we were done taking pictures, 16 of us went to a restaurant to eat dinner. 

The dance started at 8:30 pm, and we got there around 8:45. I wasn't expecting a whole lot, because people kept telling me it will be like Winter Formal, just more formal. 

And it was true. They had fruit and drinks, and everybody was dressed more formal, but the music was the same style. And it wasn't the best kind of music, but we still danced. 

All in once, the experience was great, even though the music wasn't. 

Getiing ready with some friends, going to take pictures, getting hair and make up done and just having fun with freinds, doing something out of the ordinary. I think this is what prom is about. 

Prom always was kind of the last 'big thing' for me,and now that it's over, I am a little scared. This year has gone by so fast. I am lucky to be a senior, so I get to go to graduation, which is really exciting too. And then two weeks after graduation, I will be gone. Poof. Just like that. It is scary, even though I am a little excited to be home again. 

Thanks to my friends who got ready with me, to Sierra's mum, who did my make up and hair, and to my prom date, who was a real gentleman throughout the whole evening!

xxx Malin

Me trying to put Ryan's boutineer on

The white- tux- guys

Ryan and me

Lance, Lily, Me, Ryan

These corsages were troublemakers...

...but in the end we got some pretty pictures

Will's parents are great hosts

The breakfast after prom

Two months

  Hey Everyone! 

I am sorry I haven't posted anything for the last month. The wheather started getting better, so I spent a lot of time with my friends outside. 

I am trying to spend as much time as possible with people, since I only have two more months left. 

Everybody asks me now "Hey, whe are you going back?" , "Are you excited to go back?" and everytime I say the same thing; 

I am going back on June 30, early in the morning. I am actually excited for the flight, I like flying (if the food is good). 

I am looking forward to see my family again, and my friends and to spend time with them. 

I am really excited to eat German bread again, some dark yummy sourdough- bread. 

I can already tell, that I am going to miss the English langauge. Everything just sounds so much better in Englishh than in German. When I read through my creative writing notebook, I can see some improvement in my grammar and use of language. I think I still have a German accent when I speak, but I just hope it is not as bad as in the beginning anymore :)

 We watched the movie "Brooklyn" yesterday. It wasn't the best movie I have ever seen, but it was good. It is about an Irish girl who immigrates to the States, and lives in New York, She terribly misses her family, but after she meets somebody, she starts feeling at home in New York. Then she has to go back to Ireland, because her sister died. She meets her friends, spends a lot of time with them, and sees what she loved about Ireland. An old lady reminds her, that she has someone back in New York, so she has to choose. I don't want to spoil it, but in the end, she goes back to New York.

I felt like I can relate to her. When I got here, I didn't know anybody, I didn't know anything about Oregon or the USA, I just knew what Hollywood movies and the news tell you. I tried to fit in, tried to talk to people, and after a while, somehow I made friends. Now, I have a loving host family I am so grateful for, I have some amazing and funny friends. I am excited for prom in two weeks, and for graduation in six weeks, and for summer in Oregon. 

I already get excited to think about coming back next summer over the summer holidays.

I have learned a lot in the past 8 months. I learned to appreciate whatever is given to you, to make the best out of it and be happy with it, I have learned how to handle difficulties, but what I think is most important; I learned how to appreciate Germany again. I always thought Germany was a little boring, not as exciting as the US, but honestly, Germany is beautiful. German food is delicious and even though Germans sound a little harsh when you first meet them, we are lovely people. I want to show America to my German friends and Germany to my Americans. They would love it! 

I am planning on taking my camera with me a lot more, so I can take pictures of everyone and everything, so I won't forget it. I took some nice pictures when we were down at Mary's River last week.

I hope all of you are doing well, the last month was not too stressful (for all my German friends who had to take the big final last month). 

Lots of Love, Malin

Lance on the jump rope

Lily

Sierra

Aiden, Lily, Lance, Sierra

Lance

Aiden, Lance and Lily flippig stones on the water

Spring Break

Spring Break

We FINALLY had a week spring break, which was very much needed.

All of us were super excited, because we drove down to San Francisco!

We left Saturday morning, and drove to Vacaville to spend the night at a motel, and the next morning, we went to go see the Muir Woods. They were a part of the redwoods, and they were huge. It was super cool to hike around and see these tall, but skinny trees. 

After that, we only had a one hour drive to the city, and then, finally...

I saw the Golden Gate bridge. It was raining, but I still got out of the car, and walked around the viewpoints. After I was done taking like a million pictures, we made our way through San Francisco downtown- traffic, and after another hour, we got to our apartment in the Mission District.

The apartment was really nice, It wasn't in the heart of the city, but we could easily walk to a subway- station, to go places. 

We unpacked the car and after settling down a little, we walked down the street to explore our neighbourhood and get dinner. 

The next day, we had to get up relatively early, because we booked an Alcatraz- tour. 

We took the subway, and walked down to the piers. It was a grey day and a little wet, but seeing palm trees and the ocean I forgot that. 

We took the fairy out to the island, and walked around with an audio- guide in our ears. It was really interesting, even though it wasn't very nice to hear some of the stories about the prisoners. 

We came back to the mainland and walked to the 'little Italy' - district. It was nice, and after we had dinner in a really nice reastaurant with really good pasta, I kinda missed Italy.

On Tuesday, we walked around the Mission- district and saw some murals. Murals are paintings on fences and housewalls, and all of them tell a story. We were lucky and met a class there, so we kind of slipped into their tour and learned more about the murals. 

After that, we went to 'Tartines' , which is a french bakery and we had lunch. It was so, so delicious!

Even though I spoke english, and  was surrounded by english- speaking people, the moment we left the bakery, I expected to be in France, because the food tasted, like it just HAD to be from a French bakery. ( 'Tartine' is a French bakery, but it's hard to believe that there is such good French pastries outside of France)

We took the subway to Chinatown and just walkwd around which was really nice. Old people were playing cards in the park and people were walking around, busy getting their groceries, and sometimes you could hear some sort of melody jingle from the side- alleys. 

We had a really nice Chinese- dinner at the end of the day and then we walked back to our apartment.

On Wednesday, we just went to eplore the whole city a little more. We went to the Golden Gate Park, and saw the botanical garden and the Chinese tea- garden. Ruby and I really wanted to see tiled steps, and fortunately they were really close, so we spent a lot of time, walking them up and down.

We went to go to some small boutiques and bookstores and the weather was finally really nice.  It was warm and sunny and just like how I always imagined Californian weather.

We had dinner in a really, really good pizza- restaurants, which was just so delicious.

On Thursday, we drove to the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge and walked around the Marin Headlands. It was really cool. Ruby and I walked the Bridge (which is about 4 miles round trip) and after our legs were sore when we left. We had lunch at In n' Out, which kind of is the ultimate Californian expererience, and it was good. 

We drove to see some more redwoods, and then we checked in at a hotel. 

On Friday, we drove the Oregon coast back up to Corvallis.

The whole trip was amazing, and I really appreciatee it. San Francisco has been on my bucket list for years, and now I finally saw it and I totally fell in love. It is such a beautiful city, which so much character, and even though the streets were really steep, I could just walk around all day.

I hope all of you had a happy Easter feast!!

Love, Malin

It was a pain to decide between all the pictures, but I don't want to bore you all, so I just took one from the big parts there...

Redwoods

The view was worth the hike

Lombard Street

Just some palm trees

Alcatraz- graffiti from Native- Americans

Chinatown

Tea- garden

I think I found my favorite spot

Really big trees

Coast no.2

Hi everyone!

My last two weeks been really good, I didn't have a lot to do for school and could just enjoy myself. The last weekend I spent with some friends and we had a lot of fun! Even though I have a huge lack of sleep since then, it was great. 

The following week was packed with basketball games. We had to cheer for both our teams,  The boys- and girls basketball teams both went to playoffs for the state championship. 

It was so exciting to cheer at the Gill Colosseum on the campus of Oregon State University. We practiced stunts and dances and it was really fun to be able to stunt again. 

On this weekend the whole extended family of my host family went to a beachhouse in Newport to spend the weekend together. I had met most of them earlier, and the only people I didn't know were Jim's brother and his family, but they are all super nice, so it was easy to connect. 

The house was really cool,  It had a big deck and you could see the ocean from every window!

Ruby and I slept in the "crow's nest", That was a tiny room, with just a bed in it, but windows all around, so we were able to see all over the coast. It was so pretty!

We all played a lot of cards and went on walks at the beach, and even though it was raining and cold, it was really fun!

It was a really nice weekend.

We have one more week of school until spring break, and I am so excited for San Fransisco!

I hope all of you are doing well and you all are enjoying the first weeks of spring. 

Love, Malin

I loved the lighting in the evening!!

And the lighting in the morning too

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

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