Fall Break

For the past two weeks I've been on fall break (or Herbstferien). In America we have no such thing as fall break. Sure, we have a few days here and there for Columbus day and Thanksgiving, but TWO WEEKS! Wow this is the best! It's been a really enjoyable and relaxing couple of weeks and I'll be sad to see it come to an end on Monday. First of all, being able to sleep in every morning is such a blessing. Second, there have been a lot of firsts and fun things to do.

Firsts:

• I got my first German haircut. You can read about it here.
• I worked in my host family's butchery. My host sisters and I worked in the butchery a few times to help my host parents prepare for the Gallusmarkt, a market/fair that took place in our town for a few days. The sausage that my host father made was going to be sold there so we had to help package it. Later on, I went to the Gallusmarkt with Nina. We walked through the market located in Alt Wetzlar, rode on the Ferris Wheel (which was USA themed and provided an excellent view of the city), and ate bratwurst from the butchery.

  

  The Gallusmarkt!

  
  

  

  A beautiful view from the top of the Ferris wheel

  
  
  
  
• I was invited to go play billiards with friends from school. This is a two for one; it was my first time being invited to do something without my host sister and it was my first time seriously playing billiards. Surprisingly, I didn't do too badly once I got the hand of it (I once even sunk two balls in one shot!)
• I went to Berlin with my host sisters and a friend. It was absolutely wonderful and I'll write a post about it soon. Edit: you can now read about my trip to Berlin here.
• I met up with my liaison and we got ice-cream. Aside from meeting briefly at an AFS event, this was our first time hanging out. She met me at my home and then we walked to the shopping center where there is an ice-cream place. We both ordered ice-cream that looks like spaghetti (apparently that's a thing in Germany). Afterwards we just walked around Wetzlar and chatted for a bit. In Germany, the AFS liaisons are returnee exchange students so my liaison, Lina, is actually a few months younger than me. I think it's a good thing that we're close in age and that she's been an exchange student, this way she understands everything that I'm going through.

  

  You can't very clearly tell that this is supposed to look like spaghetti due to the fact that it's a bit melty and I chose chocolate ice-cream. However, the vanilla version topped with strawberry sauce is quite convincing. 

In addition to all of these exciting firsts, I also did some other fun things such as go to the fitness center with my host family, go to pole vault practice with Nina, take our dog Fee for walks, attend a few 18th birthday parties, make pancakes, etc.
In conclusion, I have immensely enjoyed fall break. I guess not having school for two weeks in October kind of makes up for the fact that I'll have to go to school on Thanksgiving. And after these lovely two weeks, I feel that I can now return to the upcoming weeks of school well rested and ready to learn! Or at the very least I'll attentively sit at my desk and pretend to understand the lesson.