 Claire's DiaryI haven’t written for a while, as most of you probably know, but I’m finally writing again. It’s getting close to the end of the year, very close, and I’ve been thinking about the things I’m going to miss the most. Well, first of all, I’m going to miss my friends. I’ve made so many good friends this year, and I am going to miss them sooooooo much. Second, no car. When we first came, I was dreading having to walk everywhere, but I’ve actually enjoyed biking, taking the U-bahn, tram, bus, and even walking around Munich a lot. I hope I will be able to continue biking and walking a lot when we get home. Third, the food. Sure, I’m excited to get back to eating hamburgers, lemonade (which they don’t have here), Chipotle and Chinese food, but I am really going to miss Wienerschnitzel, Apfelschorle, Späzle and Wurst! Fourth, not having to worry about getting grades! That will probably be one of the biggest changes next year. This year, I sat in class, tried to understand, but really it didn’t matter because I was a guest student and I didn't get graded! Well, enough of Germany. There are also a lot of things I am very excited to come back to! First, I am soooooooooo excited to see my friends again. It’s going to be so exciting. Second, understanding EVERYTHING people say!! This year at school, I was always pretty shy, because I couldn't express myself very well. Next year, I think I will be a lot more talkative! Third, my house. My own room. Ooh, I’m looking forward to that! Oh, and I can’t wait to see Winnie! I miss her! This is going to be my last entry, but I will see you all soon!!! ~ Claire Ps. We’re getting a puppy in the spring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here's me with some of my friends:  November 17, 2004  Our Trip to Heidelberg Hi everyone! Sorry that I haven’t written for a while. My parents gave me the job to write about our trip to Heidelberg, so here goes: We packed and left our house on the 12th. Dad had left the night before, so just me, Mom, Sarah and Simon left that night. We went on a train. I had never been on a train before, or at least not from what I remember. It was sooo luxurious! Me and Sarah sat next to each other, and were obsessing over everything- The comfy seats, big arm rests, no seat-belts, and even the little foot rests! There were also really big eating tables, so we did a lot of drawing on those. The only bad thing was that the only food they served was not free. The train ride was about 3 hours long. Dad met us at the train station with his friend, Peter Comba, a professor at the University in Heidelberg. They kindly invited us to dinner at their house and it was very interesting. Peter played the Didgeridoo (a native Australian instrument with a really cool sound) for us and we were very impressed. Then we went to our hotel. I couldn’t believe that me, Simon and Sarah’s room was bigger and nicer than mom and dads!! It was cool. The beds weren’t amazingly comfy, and there wasn’t any room service, but it was still pretty nice. The first real Heidelberg day started with a regular (not good/not bad) hotel breakfast. Then we bundled up in our winter jackets and hats and walked to a very cool medieval castle. I had never seen a real medieval castle before, so this was a very cool experience. Me, Simon and Sarah were inspired to play an imaginary game with Sarah being the Princess, me the servant and Simon the knight. It was really fun. Then we went on a very muddy hike up a very large hill to a very lame restaurant. You can tell that I enjoyed it a lot. Then we walked along a fun pedestrian street with many cool shops and cafes. We stopped at two shoe stores, one to get Simon shoes and one to get me and Sarah shoes. We also stopped at a café and got coffee and cakes, and a good bargain store where we got many things including pens for school and string for friendship bracelets. (only for one euro each!!) That evening, Mom and Dad went out by themselves to try to find a good restaurant for dinner. When they got back they told Sarah, Simon and I that they had found a restaurant but they weren’t going to tell us where or what kind of food it was. We were just going to have to find out! Sarah and I had fun trying to figure out where they were leading us. We finally got to a Chinese restaurant—it was delicious. Unfortunately, we didn’t buy any dessert :-(. The next morning, after we had our second (and last) breakfast in the hotel, we set out for our last few hours in Heidelberg. We walked up a very steep path up one of the many colorful hills, and ended up on Philosophers Walk. It was really pretty. We looked in all the little private gardens and tried to think like philosophers. Then we ventured down the hill again to the bottom and walked across an old pedestrian bridge. We wanted to play “Pooh Sticks” (a game where you throw a stick in the water and see who’s comes out the other side first), but we couldn’t find any sticks. Then we ate lunch in a Bavarian (like we don’t get enough of that food already) restaurant. Yum. Then we walked home, got packed, and got back on the train again to Munich (another relaxing ride). Then, it was back to school again. I thought that this trip to Heidelberg was gorgeous, even prettier than our trip to Paris, and I wish we had stayed there longer. I hope you enjoyed my entry! Miss you all. -Cleo October 10, 2004 (unedited from version submitted directly by Claire) Hi everyone! Things are getting better for me in Germany. I have made more friends, and have been understanding more in class, or at least I thought I was, because yesterday, 10/9/04, I went ice-scating with some american friends that are also new here, and was amazed by how many friends they envited! I have friends, but I wouldn’t say we are friends enough to envite each other to parties. 2 days ago was MY party! We went to a really fun Italian resturant, ate, opened presents, and had a delicious dessert! Unfortunatly, Dad couldn’t make it to the party, but he said that since he couldn’t, he would send me extra presents!!! But that was my party. My real birthday was the day before. We opened the presents that had come in the mail, and watched The Day After Tomorrow. It was really scary, and afterwards, I kept looking out the window, expecting a tidal wave to appear over our apartment. In school, my farorite subjects are math (can you belive it?), and art (kunst). I like math only because I can understand most of what the teacher is talking about, and I like art because I don’t really need to know what the teacher is saying; I can just paint. (And I love to paint.) I think that school in a way is a lot like at home, because there are some girls that are friendly, goofy and open to everyone, and there are some popular girls,who are nice, but kind of clique-y, and not so friendly. The people I have gotten to know the best so far are mostly the goofy ones, and their names are, Nikole, (or niki,) Isabel, Simone and Jenny. The boys, on the other hand, are totally different than at home, not entirely by how they act, but by how they interact with the girls. At home, we are way more obsessed with the boys than they are here! They are pretty much sepperated. The teachers are nice, but I wouldn’t be able to really say, because I mosly can’t understand what they’re saying!! You would think that my favorite class would be English, but it’s not, and I can tell you excactly why: My English teacher is fat, ugly, and very smelly, and I would know, because he stands by my desk for the whole class! He found out that I was a guest student on the first day, and asked me to be his “helper.”It is really embarrassing. I think I would prefer him not to know. I hope you enjoyed this little page of wisdom! Talk to you next time! ~ Cleo
September 14, 2004 Hey everyone! It’s 9:00 at night and I made it through my first day of school. I was so nervous this morning I could hardly eat my breakfast. Then as I was waiting outside in the courtyard for school to start I saw a whole bunch of other kids my age who looked just as nervous as I felt. At that moment I didn’t feel so nervous, but that was probably partly because mom was waiting there with me. For most of the school day I sat at my desk and listened to my teacher blabbering on in German. I felt completely stupid sitting there pretending I knew at all what the teacher was saying. When I got home, I felt relieved that the day was over, but now it has hit me that tomorrow will be just as bad! Well, at least now I know what to expect. Wish me luck for the rest of the year!! Ciao, Cleo August 14, 2004 Hi everyone!It's 7 hours later than in the US, and I am a wreck from all the jet lag and time change. So right now it feels like really early in the morning, but it's actully pretty late in the afternoon! Our apartment is pretty nice, and we've been hanging out and being bored a whole bunch. Last night we went to a bier garten 4 dinner.We had a little trouble ordering our food, but otherwise, we've been doing ok! The plane flight was long, but I slept most of the first long flight. Then we got off the plane, went through all the custums again and got back on ANOTHER flight!!!! It stunk. And that flight was worse! The smaller flight was only 1 hour and 5 minutes, but the plane was smaller so it was a REALLY bumpy ride! Plus it was a really windy day, so that made it even bumpier!! Whatever, we're here so that's all that matters!I really miss everything and everyone in the U.S, but I’m loving it here in Germany so far!  Here I am with my family and luggage, ready to go to Munich. |
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