So it's been a very up and down kind of week. On the 30th of November Paula, one of my best friends from exchange, went back to Argentina. The day of her departure it felt weird because she's been on my whole exchange and she's become such a normality that I couldn't imagine exchange without her. She was leaving at 4pm for her flight so at 1:30 Esteban, Taina, and I went to Paula's house just to say goodbye and hangout one more time. It wasn't as sad as I thought it would be. We talked about all of the things we've gone through in our 4 months together and watched internet videos and actually sang a few songs in spanish, english and portuguese. But of course the inevitable had to come. We all walked to the car and said goodbye and hugged and all. However it was not as sad as I thought it would have been because it didn't feel like a goodbye it felt more like an 'I'll see you soon.' Then the car drove away, but I already know I'll see her soon. But the rest of the week really without a hitch. On Friday Esteban came over because he was sleeping at my house because there was a rotary meeting the next day by Bremen and it's easier from my house to the bus station. Once we finally got all of our stuff together, it was 12 and we went straight to bed. We got up at 7 and my mother actually was up and offered to take us to the train station so of course we accepted. Our train left at 9:23 so we were there at 9:10 so we could get good seats. Unfortunately, the loud speaker said there was a 10 minute delay so we were frustrated but then it said a 5 minute delay so it wasn't as bad. 5 minutes later the loud speaker said a 10 minute delay but then again only a 5 minute delay then 10 minutes again. It couldn't make up its mind but finally it said 10 minutes and that was the last time.
When our train finally came it was FULL. There was not only no places to sit but there was almost no place to stand. Once we found a good standing area we set our bags by our feet and just passed the time. When we got to Delmenhorst we were talking about something unrelated then Esteban asked a lady when we got to Ganderkesee, the city we were going to. The lady said we had to get off IMMEDIATELY. So we rushed the the already closing doors and somehow made it off the train in time. Now we had 30 minutes to wait for our train and this train station was not fully closed so it was quite cold even inside. But our train came and we found seats and we took our laughable 6 minute ride to Ganderkesee. Once we got there we found out that we were 8km from where we had to be so we couldn't walk it and we were the only exchange students there that early. So we had to wait an hour for the others to come and then rotary got us all taxis. The meeting was really cool we sang songs from our countries and talked and it was a jolly good time. However, after the meeting most of the exchange students were going to go to Bremen and party. I had, thankfully, already figured out where I was staying and had everything worked out. I'm glad I did because I didn't want to sleep in the freezing cold train station again. But we went there and it was a lot of fun. The person I was staying with was named Immo and he wasn't coming until later so I was actually one of the last people there which was weird. But I went to his house no problem, we stopped at McDonalds of course, then I went to bed. I woke up the next morning, ate breakfast, and hopped on the first tram back to the bahnhof. Now, I came with Esteban and I had to leave with Esteban because I was his ride home. I called him back when I was at Immo's house and said to be there at 12 and he said "of course." I was there at 11am and decided to get some lunch and just relax until he came. He called me at 12:30 saying he wouldn't be there until 2pm. I got very infuriated, but I couldn't do anything about it. So when he finally got there at 2pm we had to wait 50 more minutes for our train. When we finally got home it was close to 5pm. I went immediately to bed because I didn't feel very well. I think that I'm starting to get too used to everything in Wiesmoor. During the week I can't pick out one exciting thing that happened except one day a teacher was gone so we got that class free. It's all too normal now, thought I always remind myself that I'm a world away in Europe. But really nothing happened during the week.
Friday I went to Leer after school and it was raining so it wasn't too enjoyable, then on saturday I didn't do anything because again I felt sick. On sunday I went to a museum in Bremerhaven that is all about the emigration from Germany to the United States and south America. It was really cool and had a lot of interesting things. When we got to the end there was a place to search for your ancestors and see information on them. I tried for easily an hour and found absolutely nothing. It was kind of anticlimactic but I still got to see how he would have traveled over the atlantic. After the museum we went to a weihnachten fest which was small but was a lot of fun. I tried Glühwein which is wine that has been warmed and usually I hate wine but it was actually really good. Then the rest of my Sunday was pretty relaxed. So upcoming events are the weihnachtsmarkt in Wiesmoor starting on monday and next weekend I think I'll be out more than I am at home. So bis dann!
