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

Powder Puff & Senior stuff

Hey everybody!

This week on Monday we have had our Powder Puff game, and it was so much fun! Unfortunately, it was flag-football, so you are not allowed to make contact with the other girls, but I guess nobody followed this rule completely. I think, I would have a lot of fun playing real football, with protection and helmets, so I can just bump into people and tackle them.
We won against the Freshmen- and Juniorgirls, but lost against the Sophomores. The last game against the Juniors was tough, but in the end we won the whole competition. Everyone was very proud. Our coaches, which were players from our varsity football team, told us we did a good job. 

The rest of the week was very unspectacular. We had a quiz in American Government. 
I kind of like this class, not because I am super interested in American Government, but I like the people and it's always funny.
I had to take care of some Senior stuff, like filling out graduation papers and ordering my gown and cap and everything. 

We had a Football game at Central High on Friday, and we lost, but it was so close! Central High is in Independence, Oregon, a town about 30 minutes away. Our players did a really good job, but everyone was down at the end. Next week we have our last football game of the season, and it's a homegame, so I really hope we're going to win. 

On Saturday I met Cathy to take my senior pictures, and we spent hours together. It was a lot of fun, and I think I can use some of the pictures. Cathy used to be a professional photographer, so she has an eye for little details, and it was so much fun being a part of her work. 
After that I went to the 'Spaghetti Factory' with Larry and we had lunch together. We spent two hours there, just talking about how things are going. The food was really good, and I appreciate that Larry took me there, because he knows that I love pasta!

In the evening, the mum from my friend Lily wanted to take us out for dinner. We went to 'Pastinis', This is another pasta place, so I had pasta two times this day, but I didn't care, because like I said, pasta is one of my favorite dishes. 
After that, Lily, Parker and I went to the haunted cor nmaze, which was so much fun! 
It is a maze cut into a cornfield, and people jump out on the paths to scare you. We all screamed a lot,  and it was so funny and scary the same time, and I am glad they took me there. 

All in once, I had a great week, and I hope you guys had some awesome days too!

Love, Malin

Go Seniors!

Special thanks to Cathy for making these pictures possible.

Just because I love kicking the leaves.

'I bet your mum wants to see this place' -Cathy

Hey everyone!

Two weeks passed by since my last post, and some cool things happened.

In the first week, we only had four days of school, and Friday was off. On the one hand this was great, but on the other hand it meant that I had one day less to get all my things done.

I just baked some chocolate chip cookies for my two footballbuddies, but I think they liked them, so it wasn't too bad. The football game was on Thursday, and we won 36:0 even though everyone expected to loose! I was so excited.

 It was pink out, so we all wore pink tutus and pink bows and everyone looked so cute. we had a lot of fun to get ready for the game.

At the end of the week i was kind of stressed out and tired and I was very glad i didn't had to go to school on Friday.

On Friday afternoon a Friend from school and three of my Cheerteamfriends asked me if I want to go to the haunted cornmaze with them. But after we got some food we decided we're too lazy to go, so we all stayed at his house. After a little while a few more people came and we played tabletop soccer, ate some food and just hung around. It was fun and it felt great being a part of this group.

Last week was a regular schoolweek. I had to study a little bit for upcoming quizzes, and I organized my week a lot better than I did the week before, because I didn't wanted to be so stressed again.

On Thursday Martin and Erica came over for dinner, which was fun. They flew home yesterday and it was great to spent time with them.

I did one of my favourite brownie-recipe for my footballbuddies. Rocky Road chocolate brownies. These brownies are amazing, but full of sugar and butter. I think that's the reason why they're so good. 

I think I did a good job baking them, and everyone who tried them, said they're really good. I had fun making them, and Cheerleading is a good excuse to bake something every week. 

We won the game at Woodburn with a score from 55:14, and even though it was cold and rainy and most of the people left before the game was over, it was fun! It was the third game in a row which we won and everyone was kind of excited. 

On Saturday we went on a trip to a small city called Sisters, and I felt like I just entered a Set for a Westernmovie. The city was cute and we ate lunch in this supercute little restaurant called 'The cotton Wood café'. It was delicious! After that we drove to the Lavafields, which was impressive! the whole landscape was grey and full of huge black Lavastones and the trees were mostly burned down. 

I felt like I just entered Middleearth and I have to follow Gollum over the mountains to Mordor where I can destry the ring. It was so cool! the sky was grey and it was rainy and windy, but the whole atmosphere just matched the landscape to well. There were huge dark Mountains at the Horizon and the tops were covered with clouds.

All in once it was a great trip and I am glad my family took me there.

I hope everyone of you had great weeks too and everyone is doing well!

Love, Malin

Pink out

Mr. Sam

Sooo delicious!

If you ever go to Sisters, go to 'The Cotton Wood café'

Welcome to Mordor

Hey there!

It starts to get normal to be here. I have had two quizzes this week and people are starting to treat me not as an exchange student anymore. I mean, I still get to know new people, but most people in school know my name, even when i haven`t talked to them yet. 

It is kind of strange to hear people saying my name, when I don`t know them, but I get used to it. 

Cheerleading goes great. I can do some stunts now, as a flyer and a base, and both is fun, even though being a base hurts a little more. 

On Thursday a friend from school came over and we baked some chocolate-cupcakes together. It was great, because she is a really nice girl and she is great to talk to. 

I baked the cupcakes for my Footballbuddies, because we ad a game on Friday. For everyone who does not know what a footballbuddy is:

Every cheerleader has Two or three footballbuddies from our varsityteam, and she has to do something for them at the gameday. 

I have two footballbuddies, and I don`t know them that well, but they seem to be nice.  I hope, americans love my baking as much as the germans did, buta lot of people said that they want to eat these, so I think I did a good job. (And lilly too!)

By the way, we won the game on Friday! First game of the season!

I got a lot of different questions about Germany and my life in germany, but most of them have something to do with the alcohol-laws in Germany.

Some people also asking me, if i start missing anything. Yes, I do. I miss some people and some things, but I am not homesick. 

I have a lot going on here, so I don`t have much time to think about Germany, which is great.

One of the few things I really miss, is dancing. I love cheerleading, but I miss the music and the choreographies and everything. 

And I miss real bread.

On saturday we had a little Germany-reunited-party at our house. We had a lot of great food, and we had fondue, which is technically from switzerland, but it was great anyway.

Some friends came over and it was really funny.

Yesterday we had our first Powder puff practice. Powder puff is like football fr girls, and it was hilarious.

Why don`t we have something like football and powder puff in Germany? Okay, we play soccer and we are pretty good at it, but Football is so much fun!

Anyway, that was my third week over here, and I still love it! I hope your days went as good as mine!

xxx Malin

These were the cupcaks for Donovan and Nate. 

My uniform and pom-poms 

our German-cake

Happy German-reunited day!