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.