Changes (a very long post)

Okay so everything for me has taken a one-eighty spin. But didn't I sign up for that too? Well so far so good. My host family is really nice and they are trying their hardest to make me feel at home. Stendal is an interesting little town with tons of untainted history behind it. The other day my host brother and I were riding our bikes when we went past a Russian cemetary. He said that there was a battle with the Russians against Hitler, and it was put up in their memory. And downtown we went into a Cathedral built in the 12th century, and in my opinion it was much cooler than Notre Dame. Only because it wasn't used for tourism. There were no glass barriers, or ropes that were sectioned off. Everything in this church was real, there wasn't a gift shop, or a guide to tell you about the history. The only sign I saw in this church was a handwritten piece of paper asking you to please not touch the walls/paintings, and to not use cameras. All of that is understandable, I know that cameras with a flash damage or helps deterioate the walls/paintings. We drove past a section in town from were Stendal had been bombed in WW2, and as we continued to drive I saw several more buildings that looked quite old, I want to learn more about them later, maybe when I can understand what people are saying.



I start school on Thursday; I don't remember all of the classes I signed up for but they go along the lines of: Geography, German, English, I think I am taking gymnastics also, Math, Biology, and a few more I can't remember. I met a lot of the kids that I will be going to class with, so far they are very fun and out going. Learning German so far has been going pretty well. I can understand more and more about what they are saying. But I can't yet respond to their questions yet.



I met with the Rotary here for the first time and they were all very nice too. There is one more exchange student here with me, her name is Poliana, and she is from Brazil. Her English is perfect, she says she has been studying English for 10 years. She doesn't speak any German either, so we are on the same page there. And I think she will be in the same class as me also. I study my German books whenever I get the chance to, but I feel like that still doesn't help very much...



OKAY, so my host family is taking Poliana and I to Oktoberfest!!! So very exciting!! They also asked where all I wanted to go i.e: Hamburg, Munich, Hannover, places like that were I can see other parts of Germany with them. My host parents haven't traveled much and they are going to see many places with me for the first time also.



And that is all for now I am sure I will think of something more later, but until then.

~Amanda