Quedlinburg

Group 3
My class for language camp.

Bratwurst!!!

Some views from Quedlingburg.

Hallo, ich heiße Bianca.

I really don't know where to start. So I guess, first off, I am in Germany now in a little town called Hedersleben. There's really not that much going for this town except the Kloster (monastery) hosts CBYX kids with PI every year. There's a sports place with some soccer fields, two restaurants, and a little grocery store. It's different being in the monastery because everything is so old and they have basically artifacts out on display. It's very renovated but it still feels very old.

Classes started about a few days ago. I'm in the beginner class because I've never taken a day of German but I think I'm progressing a bit. We have class in the morning from 9-12 and then another class from 3-6. We have "study hour" at 1pm when we're supposed to look over our vocabulary and do homework and then free time at 2pm. That's usually the time when people go to "town" meaning they go get Döner or buy things from the supermarket.

I'm still very excited about being in Hedersleben but I have the feeling that after this first week, I'll be bored of going to the grocery store everyday and not having much to do. Today I went to the beekeeper and he taught us all about bees and honey and it was really fun. I got to hold a frame of honeycomb and honey. He let us try different kinds of honey and it was so good I bought two jars. One for my host family and one for my natural family.

Speaking of host family..I finally got my host family! The weird thing is I've actually had them since June and in some strange occurrence of fate I just never received their information. I'm so glad I finally have contact with them though because it's so exciting to be finding out about where I'm going to be living and how I'm going to be living for the next ten months. I got a year placement meaning I won't have to switch in the middle of the year so I'm very excited!

I'm going to to be in a little town called Happerschoß in Nordrhein-Westfalia much like Hedersleben but it's 45 minutes away from Köln and 30 minutes away from Bonn. It's like the best of both worlds because I get to be in a small place like I had hoped for but also close to some city life. It's also good that a lot of the kids in my group are placed very near me so if I ever am in need of someone to talk English with it won't be a struggle to get to anyone.

The wi-fi is not very good here, it doesn't work half the time and only works in two places. I'm going to upload pictures later.

Bis bald!!!

Before the Departure

It is 2:02 am and I am in bed in a hotel DC trying and completely failing to fall asleep. I leave for Germany tomorrow and cannot be more excited but also apprehensive. I've spent so many months dreaming about this day and I can't believe it's finally here. I leave the US tomorrow and won't come back for ten months. As cliche as it sounds, words cannot express the feelings that I have towards this moment. I feel incredibly thankful and blessed to have this opportunity. Thanks to everyone's support and well wishes!

My Packing List

Going Away and Birthday Party

July 28, 2013

My Oxford broskis ~

My PK homies <3

My birthday is actually on September 7 but I'm going to be gone so my mom wanted to celebrate it. (:

My parents (:

OC Fair Performance

As you guys may or may not know, I am in a traditional Filipino dance group and this past Friday (the 19th), we performed at the Orange County Fair. It was really fun and I'm really looking forward to next year's performance dancing as a senior. 

The Pinoy Kids aka PK perform at the fair every summer and we also perform at local cultural events, birthday parties and stuff like that. We also carol every Christmas season to raise funds because our group is made up of families just working together. We don't get paid for our performances and we make time to practice. I'm incredibly grateful that I was introduced to join this group because they have honestly become my second family. As an only child, I was always alone but when I'm with them I feel like I have a million brothers and sisters both young and old. (lol so sappy) 

Anyways, I initially wanted to make this post to talk about how busy I was this whole week but then I turned sappy so... I basically spent six consecutive days with these kids for practice and then a party. But before practice, I was at school working on my remaining credits so I could graduate early. (btw I finished on Thursday! :) It was really tiring but I got through it and ended up with ten more stars on my Starbucks card. Yay!

Time is flying by so fast. I can't believe that my going away party is a week from now! I know I alway say this but omg this is cray. And I know in the last post I said I wouldn't write until after my French cousins come but lol I just wanted to mention this.

Here are some pictures~

EDIT: One of the moms uploaded a video so here it is (:

Approximately One More Month

August 11th is coming so close it's crazy! It's still pretty surreal that I'll be leaving so soon to another country where I don't even speak the language.

July has been and will continue to be a pretty hectic month because once August comes, my family will be busy tending to our European visitors and there's a lot of them.

Anyways, college admissions classes started yesterday and it's still a little bit daunting that I'll have to apply for colleges while abroad and also without having visited them. But I hope that when I finish this class I'll be prepared for the college admissions process. Speaking of college, my AP scores came in and I did not do too well in chemistry but whatever. Chemistry and me were not meant 2 be. I got 4s in Language & Composition and US History, though. I'm really happy I passed my expectations for those two classes.

I have also been doing summer school to finish my credits and it's a lot of work. I really have to focus and be self-motivated in order to finish all the work and graduate early. I think that the self motivation will help me in Germany because I won't learn all the German I need in language camp. I still have to work on my German like learning new vocab and grammar. I've been doing Duolingo but I don't think it's helping much because it just tells you that you're wrong and then gives you the correct answer without any explanation.

I still can't believe that a year from now I'll be back home but with a full exchange year behind me. And I'll be able to speak a new language! But before I leave I have to pack for the year and I'm having a really hard time with that. It's incredibly overwhelming to have to pick and choose parts of my life that I'm going to bring in just one check-in bag. I've been postponing starting to pack because it just feels like too much to handle. I'll probably start packing next week, though.

The next time I post will probably be when my cousins from France come. I'm really excited to see them~

Bis bald!