Goodbye!

I'm leaving in a few minutes. It still does not seem real.

Tschuss!

(Belated) birthdays

Happy birthday to three of our good friends. On August 25th, Jill turned 13, on the 26th, Artemis turned 17, and today, Charlotte is 16. I celebrated Charlotte's birthday with some iced coffee at Arabica this morning. I got her a bar of chocolate, which will be followed with a slightly larger gift (hopefully tomorrow.)

Yesterday was Artemis's annual picnic at Kettle Cove. We took some pictures, but I'm having trouble getting any of them on my blog, due to my dad's fancy camera... I do not know how to convert them to jpegs. It was the last time I will see her until July 2009, since she's currently flying to D.C. for the week.

Other than that, I'm making preparations. I'm meeting with a nice lady from Tom Allen's office named Joleen next week in Washington, to encourage the Americans to continue supporting the Congress-Bundestag program. I'm pretty nervous about meeting everybody in D.C., to be honest.

A title

I think I will change the title of my blog to something more exchange-themed. Currently I'm trying to think of something, but it's difficult since I've gotten so used to "terrible modern."

A successful party

I think the party was quite a success. There was a perfect amount of food, everything was delicious, and no one seemed lonely. I got some gifts from extremely generous friends, including three beautiful journals, a Lonely Planet guide, a copy of Der Prozeß (complete with notes in the margins, my favorite), a hat, and a pair of A.P.C. jeans. Despite how many strange things we put in the pinata (Japanese and Korean candy, ballpoint pens, and third place ribbons) it was a crowd-pleaser, and even Nick, Ava, and Elliot appreciated it. I attempted to put some pictures of the party on my blog, or at least my Flickr, but alas, they claim to be in the wrong format. I know I can figure this out, but I don't have the patience right now.

I realized that lately I've been using a ridiculous number of commas, and I don't know why! What a bad habit.

Party time

Kayla and Veronica are off! They left last Wednesday for the Czech Republic and Hungary, and have now finished their orientations and moved in with their families. Kayla is living in a small suburb outside of Prague, and Veronica in an apartment in the center of Budapest. I have yet to communicate with either of them, understandably, but I look forward to hearing about their adventures.

I bought a nice big L.L.Bean rolling duffel, and this morning I packed it full of stuff. We don't have a scale, but I really hope it's not over 40 lbs. I can hardly pick it up. Later I'll start collecting things for my carry-on.... I have a lot of space, since I'm bringing my Manhattan Portage schoolbag, and I've decided to ship my ukulele packed in bubble wrap. I am a little terrified that I'll forget something critically important, like Claritin, Stitch 'N Bitch, or Kayla's Ambrosia tea.

Today is the big day. 35+ people are coming over to celebrate my "retirement," listen to DanceyPoncey, and smash a pinata. We only realized a few minutes ago how many references to my new music video are included in this party: the pink-and-blue donkey, popcorn, a case o' Moxie, the Happy Retirement sign, and a Thao Nyguen snippet. Plus, there's vegan sushi and croquet in the yard! It'll be fun, for sure.

I'm still not nervous at all; maybe there's something wrong with me! I am just super excited to meet my family and experience all these new things... The only part that I'm nervous about is the orientation, because I am very shy and not very good at "bonding" with other teenagers. I've also been feeling a little insecure about my German abilities. I can make myself understood, but I'm afraid that everyone will have a "why can't we just speak English?" attitude, especially when I'm stumbling for the word for "pen" or whatever.

Today I found out the address of my language school in Karlsruhe, and it's just down the street from two Eiscafes (ice cream parlors), a Deutsche Bank, a brick oven pizza place, and a bunch of cafes! Karlsruhe looks so much like Cambridge. A little college town. I will be going to the Sprachschule for five hours a day, for a month, so I can learn German a little better before starting at the normal Gymnasium.

Getting excited!

Hello, all.

Firstly, Charlotte is back from Senegal! She had so many stories to tell and she isn't going through reverse culture shock (yet), so all is good. She brought me a beautiful patchwork skirt, which I'll post pictures of soon.

This week, our German exchange student, David, is staying with us for a week while his permanent host family is on vacation. He arrived from Germany just the night before last. Today we went downtown and I showed him around the old port -- I took him to Arabica, Bull Moose Music, and the Rogues Gallery store. Here's a photo we took quickly at Kettle Cove before getting back in the car (there were TONS of bugs):


It's kind of a funny picture of all of us, and I'm not really that fat. But no matter. As I said before, it was buggy.

Tonight David, Ezra and I went to Kayla's goodbye party (she's going to the Czech Republic), which was so fun. Devyn was there with her Norwegian sister, Anna, who is really sweet. Tomorrow David and I are going to see The Dark Night with them, which should be great.

Today I got a Facebook message from my German liaison! She will be the person I talk to when I have problems with school, my family, or Germany in general. Her name is Alisa, she's from Karlsruhe, and she's only 18. I am so excited to meet her and my family, after hearing so much about them.

'Llectuals

I figured it was time for a change of template. My old one was looking a little dark and wintery.

I hope you enjoy this weird teen drama parody:

Worst blogger

I figure it's about time for an update, since I have been the worst blogger ever these past weeks! My summer has gone by unbelievably fast, it seems like I still have so much to do before I leave on the 30th. (My plane to Frankfurt takes off on September 5th.)

First of all, Charlotte is currently on a plane coming home from Senegal. I exchanged a few e-mails with her during her trip, which was so nice for me; I can't wait to see her and hear more about her trip. Today I went to the doctor to have my TB test read (it's required to go to Germany), and I'm happy to report that I do not have Tuberculosis. Today I'll hopefully purchase a case for my knitting needles, and we're borrowing a scale to weigh my luggage.

I'm hosting a show on Blunt on Monday. If you care to listen, it'll be on at 7:30-8:30 as usual -- just go to the WMPG website and listen to the live streaming. But I suggest that you don't, because I'm definitely under-prepared.

I've been knitting like crazy! My most recent project was a striped tea cozy from Knit Simple Magazine:



I also made a flickr account to further document my trip. Let me know if you want the address! That's about all. I've realized this blog post reads like a particularly unorganized letter. I apologize for that. They will be more organized in the future.