Dog and Hedgehog add to the experience

as most kids would be, I was happy when I got my dog to care care of for 3 weeks. the dog was named paula, and she reminded me a bit of my dog freckles in my past. paula only wanted to go walking with 2 people, 1 was too little. we had our first walk in the rain, and paula was always happy because she always had 2 people with her. we got use to doing things with the dog, we took her to restaurants and biergartens with other people, when we couldnt take her, then i stayed back home and watched her. on some occasions, my friend lalia came over and we both took paula for walks, like Augsburg's freedom festival which my grandparents went to. during the olympics, my opa and i dveloped a bond for watching sports, such as the Brazilian-German beach volleyball game. what do you get when you combine the popularity of volleyball in Brazil, the fact of Germany having never won a gold medal in Volleyball, with an extremely close game that left s breathless? you get cheers so loud that you might have woke up your oma when Germany wins! it was that good. I did get to see other outstanding olympic moments, like Russia's huge comeback to beat Brazil in Volleyball. with Russia being down so much, 1 point from giving the entire medal to Brazil, everyone said, "Brazil has won" yet russia came back and won for an astounding comeback! i could not believe it. молодец россия! я горжусь тобой. just shows how much the Russians can fight and are strong. as i've stated earlier in posts, I earn my stay here by helping around the house, and I definately worked my butt off for 4 days or so, when my Opa had comptuter issues. His laptop (12 years old and ran on XP) wasn't letting him run his emails. so i got my brother ryan on skype and worked for hours straight on fixing viruses and installing protection. in the end, we worked a total of 18 hours, and ended up having to buy a new computer. which I had to teach my opa how to use. for the first time, I was introduced to the Rotary club of Augsburg-Fuggerstadt. the club has decided to make me an official exchange student under them. even though I did not ask for it because then i would be bound by rotary rules, I am still grateful that I can take part in inbound activities now. the first meeting i went to was held by the son of the famous spezi maker, where we taught us how to taste wine (did not taste wine) my oma and opa had to go to nurenburg for the day, so i was left all alone with Paula, who just wanted to sleep. when my grandparents got back, I decided to talk to them to see what they knew about der grosse mann, hanz furgerson (however it's spelled) woodcut, better known as slenderman. I told them the story about how he's a horror relic n the US they said they have never heard about it. which is a good thing i think? soon however, Paula had to go back to her family, and that made our house really quiet, and boring :/, on the same day, I hung with the neighboorhood boy and his friends, we played FIFA on the PS3, a game I cant play, but at least I went down as my Russian sportsclub team, ЦСКА! on the next day, my uncle Michael came by for a surprise visit, he had to go to Munchen for a business meeting to fix a laser, and he needed to bring a worker with him. the next day, I had to live with Paula's family the gerkins for 4 days, because my grandparents were going to see jewish cities on a tour they made. the youngest son, of my age, Andreas, took me to noerdlington where we went to a pub (I drank spezi) with other friends that he had. one of tem asked me why I came to Germany, I said "because i had a year in Russia that wasn't all that good in the beginning and middle, and my grandparents wanted to make it up to me. then all of a sudden the next table over says "you speak russian my friends?" within 5 seconds of an introduction i was invited over 1 table and was chilling with an international group of adults from Russia, Germany, and Mexico. we talke for hours and played card games. i rejoined my group and we went walking around the only full city wall in all of germany to surround a city. then at 12 midnight, when the main cathedral sounded the traditional call, our group yelled back at the announcer for the heck of it. the other days we spent playing games in the gerkins' house, such as a stick throwing game and games in the pool. the family even helped me find places near by where I can play basketball hopefully in clubs. I taught the kids how to play american card games, Egyptian Rat screw and BS. the family was amazing, unlike most people, they actually knew my country, and were big fans of Jon Stewert and the Daily Show, the Colbert Report, The Onion, and knew American football (even Tom Brady!), we even played it on the PS2. at the end, the family said I can come by when I need, they would be happy to have me back. upon my return to Westheim and my grandparents, we rode bikes, and I practiced a bit of my basketball skills in the park, which my Oma had recently showed me. life in Germany is cool, and I cant wait for my trip to Vienna and for school to start, when I will be able to progress much more than right now where there is little to do.

First German Update

So it's been about a month or so since I last updated this blog.. in that time a lot has happened. on the first day after my family left to return to the US after the trip, my grandpa took me on a bike tour to see my school which i will be attending in september.luckily the school is only about 10 minutes from my house. also on that day, i was introduced to the dog i will be watching for 3 weeks in August, the dog looks relatively like a beagel and is called Paula. the next day, I was introduced into my language course for German. the class had people from all different nations, such as Greece (of course),Spain, Jordan, Bolivia, Italy, Hungary, Brazil, Venezualia, the Ukraine, and the US (me).the course was 5 weeks long, and i was knowingly coming into it in the 4th week.even though i came in 3 weeks late, I was one of (if not the) best speaker in the class.living with a native host family really pushes the balance in your favor when all the other students were working and living either with others and speaking their native language all the time or living alone. by the second day, people were already asking me for the correct answers to questions, as the ukrainian woman said to me in russian on my first day "you speak German well, you might be bored here, we still speak bad." tha day i spent the night doing my favorite job, Killing snails and slugs. my hostgrandparents have me kill them because they eat my grandma's plants, and it's a really fun job to do :). soon after, my grandparents allowed me to travel to my language course by myself with the train, which was fun to do for the 2 weeks while it lasted. it was fun to talk with the venevualian guy in my language class. the people in my class had very intersting stories, such as police corruption in the Ukraine, Venevualia, and Germany, how a black guy was beaten senseless by 2 cops and had his house raided by them in Munich, Germany when he tried to get his ID for them. on the weekend, i was free as the language course is only on weekdays. i spent the weekend helping my grandparents in the garden with killing bushes, killing snails and slugs. and my grandpa took me to a martin luther choir service that night and biked through the country side of Augsburg. we were also visited by the brother of my grandma, Jochen. i was also introduced to the boy and girl in my neighborhood, Navid and Michelle. while i havent done much with Navid yet, I have been able to speak with the girl, Michelle more and hang out with her friends also. as she attends the International school Augsburg, and not my Gymnasium, I wont be able to see her in school. we had the Rotary President of Augsburg-Fuggerstadt come to our house for dinner. the Club (to my surprise) will stick up for me to get a valid visa for Germany by claiming i am one of their students, I will be officially included in Rotary events, like trips and parties, even though I arrived unofficially, the Club will still take me as their own, and said possibly I am the first ever 2-time Rotary long term Exchange Student in the world. people only do the exchange once and then go off on their own path after that, nobody has done it once, then gone and done it again. while we can't really know for sure, it still is interesting to consider the odds. 1 out of every 7000 students does Youth Exchange.. how many do it again on the magnitude that Rotary offers? not a lot at most, but again, we can not know for sure. to earn my stay with my grandparents, I help them out when they need. in the garden, or with computer and phone issues. ive alreay fixed issues with my grandpa's computer and got his phone to do the righ things. which really earns brownie point cause nobody likes to deal with a stubborn computer :p. so I went to school in the working soon after to pick my classes for the next year. the headmaster is a member of the Rotary Club, so he knows my opa (gpa) well, the school will put me into the Q11 class, not the 12 because they are busy with exams that year. the german system was recently changed to mimic the American system, and making friends will be easier because the classes are now shuffled unlike in Russia where your dumped into classes full of cliques. 3 classes are held together with your grade, Math, English and German. I have English in the 12th Grade to help them before their exam, and other classes in the 11th. my classes are English, German literature, Math, Chemistry, biology, European Business, and after school I have Basketball (not competition, a class which faces no opponents, just a class). the school wanted me to come for 3 classes to check out the school a bit so i get the feeling one day. after I had my language course that day, my Opa had boought me packs of Gummy Bears and a lot of juice saying "for your emense progress with German" it was nice :) and soon after my Oma let me watch the Simpsons, which she had never seen before. it was good as it was an episode i have seen so i knew the words. and how it's not like In Russia where they dont kill the 1st language sound and you have a mix of 2 languages, in Germany you have 1 language speakng and it makes watching foreign shows much better to understand. in a few days, I went to school for 3 classes and to check out my classmates. I arrived at the school a little bit early, and the kids were wondering who I was. and me, wanting to see who was the most curious and would ask first, cause i'm evil like that with mind games, didn't talk. finally 2 boys came by, looked, smiled, and asked me who i was. When i explained, i was stormed with questions and people's kindness, which was a new feeling having experenced a russian school (on sakhalin) where people could (and do) care less. it was a nice contrast. the 3 classes were spanish, literature, and business. i sat with the guys who first spoke to me and we were able to joke a bit. acceptance by these kids might be easier than in russia it it keeps up this way. we had the last day of language school, which got let out early because the teacher needed the doctor. and afterwards, i was introdced to michelle's friend, Lalia Kaiser (she stole my nickname). we talked for a long time and planned some events to do when michelle leaves us for Spain for 2 weeks. on the weekend, Augsburg had a cultural festival in the city, while my grandparents went to a mozart concert, I went for 3 hours to a cultural festival which did play some Russian music. even after all the bands, German and foreign, Russian Lubeh still is my favorite hands down. i was invited to a rotary party (since i am an Inbound by the club now) i met some outbounds who will leave for foreign lands soon, and i was allowed to help grill (which i cant do). the following day, my Opa (gpa) went with me to the city hall to get my visa work. because he is so well known, he was able to get a 6 hour proess done in 30 minutes. gotta love that. we also went shopping for garden sandals for me.. after 4 stores, we found size 50 (EU) shoes. on the 28th was my oma's (gma's) birthday, and opa (gpa) wanted to make a secret preentation for her, and who did he ask to help? me! of course. i was able to show him how to use microsoft powerpoint and enlarge images. for weeks it was out secret project that we had secret codes for so the oma wouldn't understand when we talked. in the followg day, i went with Michelle's friend Lalia to the city to sightsee. we got gifts (pigs) for michelle (she loves pigs) who was leaving for Spain in a few days. we went to the gummy bear store, had turkish food, and walked with her dogs and listened to music. later that evening, i went with my family to a German Isreali friendship meeting, which my Opa is the head of in Augsburg, germany. afterwards, we drank some drinks for my Oma's birthday, and went to the station to welcome my Uncle and his Wife, Jochen and Beate, to Augsburg. they were coming 2 day earlier to help set up for the party. we stayed up late talking with Jochen, which I enjoyed a lot as Jochen and Michael (the other son, Brother of jochen) are probably my favorite people in the world. jochen was already good as he helped me drink 5 1.5 liters of carbonated apple juice (which i dont like that much) in 3 days. the next day, i went to a church party which made my Russian church friends look super amazing 10 times fold. and after the party i watched the olympic opening ceremony and the parade of nations with Jochen's wife, Beate. that night, Michael and his Girlfriend Ellen arrived. they were to sleep in my room, which i cleaned just for them. i stayed up till 1am, just to see the USA walk in the parade. on the day of the party, i was able to talk with oma's brother who speaks Russian, and his wife who is Russian. they were awesome, and after a few hours when Russian activated again, i was talking just like them, it was nice to speak a foreign language again with people so i didn't feel totally left out. i was also able to talk with zipphora! an indonesian girl who lived with my family in Germany, i guess that makes us siblings? we were able to establish a skype party with the corresponding birthday party of my uncle in America. after the party, people started to leave, my Uncle Jochen and his wife Beate left soon after. Zippo (zipphora) and her husband left after. Michael stayed for another day with us, which was nice cause i was able to spend more time with him. the brother who speaks russian and his wife stayed a few more days. ellen, girlfriend of Michael, left also. i was told that after the party we were going to a time share in the alps. i spent the time before that watching the US olympic team take home many medals. we went to Seeg to relax a bit from the party stress. when we return, i will have a dog to watch after for 3 weeks. while In Seeg, we swam, did a lot of hiking through the Alps, which my scout training helped with a lot. we even had some friend come over and we played mini golf, which my Opa won. soon, I will have my dog to take care of for 3 weeks, we are seeg sadly soon to go back to Augsburg. the time in Germany is going by well. the language is going fine, I'm picking up on patterns much faster then i did in Russia. although I have forgotten the first few months struggles that a person goes through, like language barrier and culture, it still is going a lot faster thanks to Russian and being more familar with language terms and patterns.