September and October

 The past two months have been filled with so many fun and amazing experiences! My host family have been the most kind and welcoming people! Sandau is small, with only 600 residents, but beautiful. Havelburg is a bigger town 5 kilometers from Sandau, and that is where I attend school. School is very different, but my classmates are nice! They all know English very well, so I am able to communicate and talk with them! It's hard to understand much of what the teachers say, but I try😂. I have been studying hard to learn German! Here are some pictures from my time here so far!

The past week I have had fall break, which is 2 weeks long! During the break so far, I have got to Wolfsburg, a city about 2 hours from where I live, with my AFS chapter to go to a science museum and then explore the city. My AFS chapter meets up once a month. The museum was very cool and the city was nice!

I also met up with my new friends from school to bake! I don't have any pictures of the finished products, but we made delicious pumkin muffins and brookies. It was so much fun! They are the nicest girls and I can't wait to have many more fun times with them.

                   

We also recently went to a Strawberry festival near Berlin.

 

The food here is so delicious!!

Probably the most German thing you'll ever see... a vending machine for sausages.

I also made friends with another exchange student from AFS from Hungary! She can't speak good English and I can't speak Hungarian...at all.... so we mostly only speak in German. We went to Stendel which is the closest city about an hour from Sandau. We got sushi and explored the city!

Walks in Sandau!

I also go on runs along the dyke in Sandau. So beautiful! Sometimes I see farm animals out. So many sheeps and sometimes horses.

As I said, Sandau is pretty small!The one thing it has is a church. Although to everyone who lives here, it is normal and maybe boring, I still think it is beautiful!

Here is Havelbug! Havelburg is along the Elbe river and has around 6,000 residents.

 

This is where I wait for the bus every day after school. It is right next to a water tower. 

My host family and I traveled to the Czech Republic to visit their last year's exchange student. It was such a fun and amazing trip. We were near the city Brno, and visited the city almost every day of our trip.

We visited a cave which was one of the most awe taking things I have ever seen! It was very long, and at one point we had to take a boat along a river that led to a beautiful spot! The pictures don't give it justice, it truly was incredible!

Always calling with my friends from language camp! It is so nice and relatable to catch up. We are going through the same things and have a lot of laughs together! So greatful.

Also always hanging out with these ones! We love to bake together and play board games all the time. They really help me learn German because they don't know any english. 

                                     

                                                                 Turtle! 🐢     

Overall, my first 2 months here have been so good! So many new experiences. It definitely is challenging, but all worth it and I am SO grateful and excited for the year!!

💕💕