Since the last note, i have started school and atteneded for 2 weeks. On the first day, i was supposed to have phyiscs first, but the teacher wanst there, so there was no class. i was invited by some people that had been introduced to me as in my class to go out with them and drive around for a bit. when we got back i was invited to a game night at someones house where we played pool and n64. Intorducing myself to the teachers was the hardest part, because they knew class would be that much harder with a non-german speaking person. The second day i had double english and that made me happy becasue the english level taught in the calss is low for me and at least i knew i could pass one calss this year. We are reading "A Painted House" by John Grisham, its not a very good book. My first imperssion of the class is that it was made up of gernerally nice people, who, especially the girls, were extremely nice to me. the second day, i had an off hour, and then the teacher was gone again so these two girls asked if i wanted to walk into town with them.

All this time, i was starting to have arguments with Gudrun. She didnt like my hygenics, like about how often my laundry was in the room (i was not allowed to do my own) or whether i peed standing up or sitting down, i was not allowed to stand up and pee, but i did it anyway because that's just weird. But mostly she was angry with the fact that i didnt speak german well enough. she would tell ne to go study my vocabs all the time, and even though i knew them, iw ould tell her that and she said than why dont you speak german?

The first weekend i was invited to an oktoberfest party at he local disco. it was very fuinny with lots of sterotypical german music playing and weißbeir. it was also one of my friends birthdays, so i gave her a pink hoody that said minnesota statefair on it. I think she liked it.

the rest of the week was uneventful until tuesday when Gudrun came into my room one day and said i dont think we are getting along too well, i called frau flugge (the regional director) and said that i want you to move out of this house. So i went with her to a coffee shop and met my counsilor, Hendrik, and we talked aboot what gudrun said. After that, we went back to the house where we met up with mona (the family director for the region) and went into the house and talked about it. A lot was said, most of it in german, but the end question was mona to gudrun, do you see this working out, and gudrun said no.

the next day, after another argument with gudrun she said that a girl in my class, Romina, said that her family might be interested in taking me. This was great becasue if she couldnt, then i would probably have to switch schools. So i went and spent the afternoon with them, talked about it, and they agreed to host me, but in order to do that they would have to apply and that would take a couple days, so mona and brigit decided that it would be best if i would move out of house dorbrandt as soon as possible. So i went home and packed my things in about 15 minutes, and mona took me to stay at her hosue. they were a very nice family, and monas husband spent a year with afs in a little town in northern minnesota so we had some stuff to talk about. We went canoeing in the rivers and canals in hmaburg, which was fun.

On Saturday, i was given the goahead to move into the new family. That day also happened to be Romina's Birthday, so i went out, got her a present and went to their house. That afternoon for lunch, the invited some of their family for cakes and coffee. That night, we went to a bar with some of my school friends, and her older sister venessa and her boyfriend tobi. At the frist bar i drank a heineken, then my friends found out that they were carding for the hard liquor so we switched bars. at the 2nd bar i had a second heineken an dthen a long island iced tea. When i came home, the parents offered me another drink, which tobi made and was extremely strong. One might say i was tipsy.

Next week is the first holiday, which i think is the harvest. There are 2 weeks off of school. For the first week i have to stay home with Romina and Venessa, but the 2nd week and can go and meet up with the parents and Fiona, the youger sister in a cottage in northern denmark. But ihavent decided if want to go or not. Also next week, i just found out, my friend from sw, ricarda, who was a student at my school is coming to hamburg fro the break so we might meet up.

Here’s some recent photos of good times!

--TOBY