Life.

I moved to my new family, the Kleins, on the 9th January. And before I had even moved, I loved them.

I met the mother, Christine, in Choir. She asked me who I was, and I explained that I was an exchange student. She asked where I was living, and I explained that I needed to change families soon, and was going to go to my counsellor's (also in our choir) house for about three months while Rotary found me a host family for my last three months. To this, Christine exclaimed "That is totally not fair! Almut ALWAYS gets exchange students - I want you! I'm going to ring her tomorrow." She then told me that she had a daughter who was 16 and also in my school, and two boy aged 14 and 12. Well, it turns out that infact she didn't wait until the next day, and phoned Almut that night, with the first thing she said down the phone being "It's not fair! You always get exchange students, I want one and I want Emma!".

Then, the next day I was in German course and my friend from school, Julia texted me. And you know what she said? "Hey, did you know you met my Mum last night??" and that was it - it was settled. After school that day Julia and Christine drove to Almuts and continued to plea to have me, and within two days everything was settled - I was to live with the Kleins until I go home, and I was going on a hiking holiday in Austria with them. To be honest, my first thought was that I was going to be living with the German version of Aunt Liz - the way everything was so quickly organised and settled was incredible!

So, now I have been living with this family for a month. We had our hiking holiday in Austria, and it was amazing ( You will hear about it in the next update!) and we stayed in my host Mum's home town for a week. The family own a supermarket that I more than happily help out in. It is fantastic, as it means that not only do I NOT have to buy any food that I want, but that I can actually make myself feel helpful as well. Christine has also asked for a list of all of the Weekends I am busy with Rotary, as she wants to start booking me up and planning things in all of the free weekends we have. I can already see this next half year flying by!

Christine loves singing and painting and cooking/reading recipes like me, and she comes running with me as well. Stefan, the father is lovely, and we also get along really well. Julia and I sleep upstairs, and have our doors always open so its like we have an apartment to ourselves - we just wander into each others room and as they are right next to each other, we don't even need to speak up to chat to each other. We both also love chocolate, and Julia sings in the choir too. Also, we have our birthdays on the same day and are having a combined 'half birthday' party on the 20th August as we were both sick for our birthdays!Thankfully She will definitely inherit some clothes when I go home! Jakob is 14 and like a typical teenage boy, spends most of his time on the computer or texting, and being generally moody, however we actually get along really well and I am the only person that can talk him around to actually smiling when a photo is being taken. He loves flying model planes, and wants to be a pilot or a soldier. Lukas is the youngest, and is a very fussy eater - for a start he hates cheese. Always interesting when we order pizza - "Hello, erm.. the young man here would like a pizza without cheese, and without tomato." (Lukas knows at times his orders are a little ridiculous, so he always makes his dad order his meals!) Apparently the staff found it hilarious when they were in Italy and ordered this. He is also very fidgety and can't sit still for very long - great when we drive for hours in the car! We also have a black Labrador, called Anton, and he is well...lively. He eats everything. And I mean EVERYTHING.

Honestly cannot express how happy I am here, and hopefully it can only get better! On Monday we are going to Hamburg to go shopping as well - finally, a real Mall!

Oh, and it is incredible how quickly my German has improved in just a month - because there's always something happening, always someone to talk to and they're all so interested in me, I am talking non stop and my German is rather good if I may say so myself! I even managed to read the first two Harry potter books in German within a week!

Everything is different now for me - Michael and Dalton are now back in their home countries, and I am an 'Oldie', meaning I have new exchange students and as I have already been here six months, I am like their guide, or sensei as I like to think. I have not met them yet, but I am planning on making 'Surviving Germany' kits with things inside like Nutella, Milka Chocolate and a colouring book to keep them entertained in school - all very important things! Suddenly I don't have much time at all until I go home, only about 150 days which isn't an awful lot when you really think about it.

I start school again on Thursday, and am staying in the year level that I was 'last year' meaning that the students that were in 11 are now in 12, and I am staying in 11 so I am with new people. This is all part of Phil's plan, as it means that I am in her (and Julia's) level, and she has organised it that we have all of our classes together (hopefully she still gets her work done!) Julia and I also have some classes together, but I don't have as many classes as the other students as I hate maths, physics and PE, so the teachers said that it was absolutely fine with the amount of classes I have chosen! 

Having an amazing time, and love you all,
Em