I got my stitches out today. Finally I can smile again. It feels so good! :)

I have four holes in my jaw: one for every tooth they took from me. Last Thursday I got my wisdom teeth taken out. Even though the docotr said it was complicated I slept really well. I'm not in pain at all and my face is much better now. It was swollen the last days, so I spent my days on the couch watching movies.

Even though I wasn't able to make it to the Game last Saturday we beat Bonn 4:1 and Dümpten 8:0.
We are still second behind Münster (Aasee), but only because of the goals.

Next games:
January 14 against Holzbüttgen and Münster.

On Sunday we drove 4 hours to Braunschweig for our first two games against Bremen and Mittelnkirchen. We played pretty well and beat Bremen 1:0 and Mittelnkirchen 3:0.

We are second behind Hamburg/Bordesholm.
Next games will be played on December 18.

Every year November 11 is a huge party in Cologne. The Carnival session is starting at excactly 11:11am and everyone who can afford to miss school or work is dressed up and celebrating in the city. Well I couldn't afford to miss school so my friends and I went downtown around 6pm. It was still a very nice evening.

From Thursday to Sunday we had a camp with the German U19 Nationalteam in Wernigerode (Harz). The days before I had spent in Hanover at my Grandma's and met with Simon. We had a great time. Thursday Grandma and I drove to Wernigerode and spent some time with my cousin Johanna who goes to school there. In the evening I arrived at our 4**** hotel. Berit and I roomed together and it was great to see many of the girls again. The food was amazing and we were ready to get up very early for our first practice in friday. We just practiced some fundamentals, because right after practice we had to move to our next hotel. This time we stayed in really nice apartments. I shared an apartment with Berit, Tanja and Anna. We had a big TV in the living room, a kitchen, two bedrooms and two bathrooms. We ate in the center together with the other nationalteams. There was a big tournament with Women's and Men's teams from Hungary, Poland, Netherlands, Denmark and Germany. The food was awful, they put way too much salt on it. After lunch we had a chalk talk and then another practice. The next we had to get up at 7 am. It was time for footing: Walking around before breakfast.
Then we had a game against the Men's German National Champion. Of course the final score wasn't very good, but we played well and that's what matters. I played starting six and got a few shots and good feedback. It was much fun. After another salty lunch we had another exhausting practice with a lot of running drills. After dinner everyone was very exhausted but we weren't done. We had a video analysis of our game and individual feedbacks. At 10pm I was so happy to go to bed! But there was no sleeping in. 7am: Footing and another practice. But we just had arrived in the gym and changed our clothes when we got a call that we have to clean our apartments. We drove back, got our stuff, drove back to the gym and practice some stick skills. It was a fun weekend and I really love to wear those Germany warm-ups all day :D

It's fall break and from Thursday to Friday five friends from the CBYX program stayed in Cologne. We did a bunch of silly things and had a great time with it :D
After we did the sight seeing (climbing the cathedral and stuff like that) we went to Globe Trotter. That's abig store where you can buy all these sport and survival things. Clothes and stuff like that. They have really funny bathrooms. The women's bathroom is scandinavia style and the men's bathroom is ship style. We wanted to take a group picture on the men's bathroom, because nobody was inthere, but right then a men walked in and he got all mad and called the security :D It was really funny! We slept over at my house and had a way nice time!

Finally the regional season has started and we played our first two games at home.
The first game was against Bonn and we won 5:1. Then we played Berkersheim and beat them 11:1. It was a great day and were are second in Region so far, but we've played two games less then the first. Later that day we watched the 2. League match of the guys between Cologne and Bonn. Unfortunally we lost 6:7 in OT.

Life is good, school is interesting and I enjoy learning new things, floorball season is getting started and I'm busy like always. There are still two weeks left until fall break and the big tests are starting. Today I took my first English test this year (3h long!), Thursday I'll take Math and next week I'll take Biology (4h long!). The weather is cold and two days ago it was almost 32°F cold! Freezing! But at least we didn't have any snow yet (not like Salt lake City..)

My friend Sarah Holmes released her first single. It's amazing!

http://www.reverbnation.com/sarahholmes

I got a scholarship from the Bundestag and Congress to come to the United States. Before I went to the US we had an awesome orientation where I met all my friends. For one year we lived everywhere in America from Alaska to Florida. Together we spent three days in Washington D.C. and now we met again to talk about our experiences and to have a fun time in Berlin, the capitol of Germany.
It was awesome to see all these guys again. They’ve become very dear friends and I love to spent time with them. Friday afternoon we talked about our experiences and expectations. It was very interesting to hear about the challenges my friends had to face and how they meet them and the unforgettable experiences they made. There wasn’t one person who didn’t want to go back to the US. Saturday morning we had a session about “Coming back” and everything that has changed in Germany. Then we drove into the city and did some sight seeing. In front of the Berlin Cathedral was this funny group of guys who carried car doors around. I just HAD TO take a picture!



You can’t go to Berlin without taking a picture of the Brandenburger Tor. It’s a landmark for this city.


Later we met at the Reichstag. It’s the building where our “congress” (Bundestag) meets. Yero and me are both from Cologne.


You can walk on the roof of the Reichstag. There is a big glass dome and you can walk all the way to the top. It’s a great view.

Simon and me and the dome in the background

I can’t wait to see these guys again and even if our program has ended our friendship will never end.

Today I went to a seminar for interviewing. Partnership International, the German agency that chose me over a year ago to go to the United States, taught us how to do the interviews for the next scholarship candidates. It was really interesting, because I remember very well my interview. I was so nervous when they asked us all this stuff about history and politics.