A lot can change in a year

Exactly one year ago from this very moment I was in Charlotte, North Carolina at my CBYX interview. Now, just a mere 365 days later, I am living in Berlin, Germany and have an entirely different life. It's crazy how much has happened in that time and how much I have changed. It's really weird looking back on how naive and hopeful I was a year ago about the promised wonderful experiences that awaited me in Germany if I was accepted into the program. I, like all other hopeful exchange students, believed exchange to be rainbows and butterflies and smiles all the time. Yes, I had been told it's not all like that and that there will be bad days and homesickness and moments of feeling completely helpless, but in my haze of bright sunshiny expectations I couldn't fully comprehend the truth of those warnings. Now, after living six months in a country and culture that is not my own, with out my family but with multiple other families, a different language, and no friends, I can truly understand these warnings and how incredibly naive I was as I was sitting in my interview 365 days ago. Exchange is the most life changing thing you will ever experience and it is so difficult to put an experience like it into words. Yes, there are the sunshiny, happy days where everything seems perfect and you feel like you're on top of the world and can't even fathom the thought of going home. But then there are those days where you wonder why on earth you ever did this to yourself and you feel like the world is just crashing down around you and you are ready to just pack up your things and get on the next flight back to the good ol' US of A. Other times, you feel neither. You just go through the motions day to day and then are shocked when another week has already flown by. There are so many different emotions that go into an experience like this and they are incredibly hard to deal with sometimes, especially at 16. This is what has shaped me into who I am today. I have dealt with so many different experiences, good, bad, and ugly, that I never would have had in America. I have learned how to deal with all different types of people and how to handle myself in times of conflict. I have learned that it's okay to make mistakes and that you just need to laugh about it and move on. I have learned what it's like to be truly alone and how to accept and embrace it. I have learned how to take care of myself and what it's like to be a grown up. These are all lessons that have truly shaped me into the person I am today and I can't imagine what my life would be like or the type of person I would be if I had never experienced these things. As stated in the title, a lot can change in a year, and it is amazing to look back on the naive little girl nervously anticipating her acceptance into this program a year ago and comparing her to the person I am today.

Tschüss,
Dani♡

Fourth Time's the Charm!

So, I have once again changed host families. Yes, you read that correctly, I am now with my fourth host family. I'm not going to go into detail about why I switched but it just didn't really work out personality wise and there were a lot of miscommunications. However, this was a very stressful switch because my host family was only giving me until the end of the month to stay with them, so I only had two weeks to find a new host family. I really, really wanted to stay in Berlin because I absolutely adore this city and I didn't want to have to change schools again. So, in my panic I posted in pretty much every exchange student facebook page that I could find asking if anyone knew of anyone in Berlin who would be willing to host for the rest of the year. Luckily, a woman who is from Texas and is a local coordinator for an exchange organization saw my post and told me that she hosted a girl from Berlin last year and she would see if they were interested. She got me in touch with Marissa, my now host sister, and it turns out that the oldest daughter is doing a work and travel program in Australia this year so they had an open room. Also, they have hosted before and know what it is like. So, the next day I went over and meet with Marissa and her mom to meet them and see if living with them would be a possibility. Luckily, we clicked right away and they offered to host me for the rest of the year! So, at the end of January, I packed up my things and headed to my new host family. I now live in an area of Berlin called Charlottenburg. It is a little far from my school but I make it work and it's not actually too bad of a commute. Also, I love my new host family so much! I've been here almost two weeks and we get along really well! Best of all, they have a dog! Her name is Bonnie and she's so sweet! I have never not had a pet before so being without a dog or a cat these past five months has been really weird and difficult, so having Bonnie now is so great! Also, we only speak German together. It was hard the first couple of days to make the transition into all German but it's gotten a lot easier these past few days and I'm amazed at how much I have improved in just these couple of weeks. On top of all this, the first week of February was winter break for Berlin so I had a week off of school. It was really nice to have that time to settle in to my new host family. Also, I spent a lot of the week exploring different parts of Berlin. My favorite area would definitely have to be Kreuzberg. It is a very hipster/artsy area and a lot of students and artists live there. During my exploration of Kreuzberg I came upon a market hall called Markthalle Neun. The day I was in Kreuzberg (Thursday) was the day that there is a street food market in this hall. I decided to go and I was definitely not dissapointed. It was such a cool place! Instead of your typical greasy, fried street food it was very classy and gourmet. I had such a great time walking around and seeing all the different stands (it was very international) and on top of that the food was amazing! This market is every Thursday so I'll definitely have to go back sometime! Also, over this break, my friend from my program, Kevin, and his mom who was here visiting him were in Berlin. I got together with them on Friday and it was such a great day! First we went to the Berlin Zoo and it was actually quite impressive. For not a huge land area there were a lot of exhibits and we actually spent most of the day there walking around and seeing everything. Since the zoo is so central, after we were finished there we went to Kurfürstendamm (a.k.a Ku'damm), one of the largest and most well known shopping streets in Berlin, and went to the Hard Rock Café for dinner. After dinner, Kevin's mom wanted to buy a pair of German boots so we went shoe shopping! It was so fun to do stuff like this again since I don't really have anyone to go shopping with or do those types of things with here. After shopping Kevin's mom went back to the hotel because she was flying back to the US the next morning and needed to get ready, so Kevin and I went to a bar for a little while and hung out together. It was such a great day and I am so glad that I got to see the two of them! On Sunday, I went to Potsdam, a city right outside of Berlin, with my host mom and her best friend. We had such a great day walking around and seeing all the gourgeous castles and buildings. I never realized how beautiful Potsdam is and I'll definitely have to go back sometime and explore more of downtown since we spent most of our time in the huge park with all of the castles. All in all, these last couple of weeks have been really great and now that I'm finally in such a great host family who really opened up their hearts to me and have taken me in and given me so much love I am finally starting to have the exchange experience that you're supposed to.

Tschüss,
Dani♡

Artwork and graffiti in Kreuzberg, most of the store 

fronts are painted like this!

Inside Markthalle Neue! 

A polar bear at the Berlin Zoo

Neues Palais von Sanssouci, in Potsdam

Schloß Sanssouci, in Potsdam