Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Saying Goodbye

When I first found out about our move to Bremen, the first thing I thought about and dreaded the most was saying goodbye to my life long friends, and family. I had lived my whole life in Utah, only moving once to move to a different house, but never really having to say goodbye to my friends. Everything had been so familiar my whole life, life was comfortable and safe, and I was looking forward to going to High School with all my friends.

But, as I learned more about our move to Germany my concerns of goodbyes got higher and higher, thinking it was going to be nearly impossible for me to leave my friends and family and trying not to think about it as much as I could. It was hard to leave and a hard thing to go through, still is, but today my views on goodbyes have changed. I now know what it feels like to leave your whole life behind, your friends and your family, everything you have ever known. Now that I go to an International School friends are leaving all the time, never really knowing how long anyone is going to stay I have found myself to be more open and excepting of goodbyes.

Hearing about friends leaving and moving in my school now is something I have grown to know and except. I think this move has changed me and taught me something important. I have learned that change is hard but happens all the time, true friends are with you where ever in the world you are, along with family is always at your side. These past couple of months have been hard but I have realized that in every negative situation there is always a positive. At the beginning of our move all I saw was the negative, leaving my friends, family, and life, what could be positive about that? Looking back I can now find many positive aspects of our move; traveling around Europe has been a wonderful experience, meeting new friends and being tested on true friendship with one's I've left while learning how strong friendships really are.

Though life has changed in drastic ways, negative times and things have occurred while positive ones are had along with lessons of life and friendship, I would have to say that this experience has been a positive one for me. I have gotten to learn and see so much of Europe that I would have probably never had a chance to see, I have learned more about my friends and friendships have been made stronger by being apart, I have realized how much I really appreciate my family, and I have been blessed with meeting new people that I know I will have contact with for along time. Many days have been full of sadness and wishes to go home, sorrow for family and friends, and tears of memories, but in the end thoughts come up of fun experiences, memories made because of the move, and fun times had, passing by all the sad feelings and sorrow. Because of the move to Germany my family has endured many negative times but through ever negative time has come out a positive memory that we will forever remember through our new experience's in Germany!

Monday, January 19, 2009

Mystery Meat


Day after day my friends and I await our lunch in the long line of kids wondering with fear at what we will be served today! My school is known for its terrible lunches with interesting sauces, desserts, salads, potatoes, and its ever-so-famous 'Mystery Meat'! We are never quite sure what we are eating, all we know is that is sure doesn't taste normal and some days, when it's really bad, we end up saving ourselves at the 'Student Store'!

Apparently my school received a better, 'gourmet', lunch service this year, but from what my friends have said it seems like nothing much has changed from previous years. O well, what ever will we do about our daily little mysteries? I guess it adds some excitement and thrill to the ever so long lunch line, although sometimes mysteries don't taste as good as they sound!

Friday, January 16, 2009

Connection Obsession!

For a while now my friends have been constantly bugging me about Facebook and Myspace, saying I should get it, it's really fun, and a good way to stay in contact with people! Well, I finally gave in and have been consumed and obsessed with it ever since! I do agree though, it is a wonderful thing for staying in contact with people, seeing there photo's, and a lot more, but can distract me from things such as homework and an occasional chore or two!

Today I have controlled myself with them, only checking them a few times and trying to catch up on my blogging (Due to family pressure!) , emailing, and more! But, it is hard not to spend hours on end on the websites! They've pulled me in with "Flairs", tests, "Chatting", and more, its all so overwhelming and fun! Examples below;

A Little Taste of Home...


Ever since I can remember my family has had the tradition of 'Home Made Pizza' every Friday. But that tradition slowly faded as the moving process started near the end of May '08! Friends and family constantly would tell my Dad how delicious his pizza's are and always looked forward to it! I personally have to agree! He is quite the master of the art of pizza making and it was greatly missed during the summer months of our move!

Other complications were brought forward though, all the ingredients we needed would take a while to find at the store, seeing they are all in German! But that's where Google Translate comes into play! Out of all the ingredients we couldn't find yeast so decided to use our handy dandy Google Translator and found it translated to Hefe in German! Now that we knew our word we could find the ingredient for our ever longed for, famous Craig's Pizza! Yummy Yum...

The finished product!

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Baby It's Cold Outside...

Over the past couple of month's my family and I have been surviving pretty well without a car! We have figured out the bus and tram schedule's and have made our way's around with our bikes...But winter has finally come to Bremen, and it's a whole different story!

Every time the door is opened just a crack, chills are sent down your spine! It is so cold here in Bremen that our weekly routine of taking bottles on out bikes to the drink department store down are street and taking the bus to pick up our groceries has gotten harder and colder and a much less exciting and appealing job! There is no snow here but the humid bitter cold forces you to extremely layer up!
I am usually one that is fond of winter. I've grown up with snow and cold weather all my life and every weekend during the winter I would be up at Snowbird or Alta skiing away! But, this cold is different! Bitter, humid, bone chilling cold is not my kind of winter! Bring on the sunshine, shorts, and summer! I've had enough of the Bremen winter!

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Our Visit Home



Our German Christmas Tree




Mom and Dad while we were opening our "German Christmas" gifts



Sophie




Friends Together Again

Game Time!

Fun Times

Christmas Eve Party

Family

My Grandpa and Grandma

Expert Wii bowler

Mom have trouble with the game

Mom and I

Dad on Christmas Morning


Hayley and I


Crazy Girls

Ginny and Sarah

Connor, Andrew, Nate

Sarah and I


Alex

Dance Party

The whole gang on New Years Eve

Mom and her fancy Champagne on the plane back
to Bremen!

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