Familiar Faces

So, as most of you probably know, my mom places foreign exchange students and has done so for 7 years now. What you probably didn't know, is that 1/3 of all exchange students are from Germany. Put two and two together and there are over 20 people I'm hoping to see this year :-) But...I have had to opportunity to see a few people already, so let me tell you how :-)

Only a few days after I arrived, I got to see Marvin, a friend from the '10 AYUSA Seattle trip...funny story though. As it turns out, I was unable to stay with my language camp family for the intended three weeks so Marvin and his family offered to host me with absolutely no notice! I had three great weeks at their house and it was so nice to have someone to talk to that was fluent in English and had lived in the U.S.A. :-)

Viviane attended Coquille High school my sophomore year and we became fast friends. One of our favorite memories is the amazing Seattle trip we went on for five days--also on that trip was Marvin. As it turns out, Holland was less than an hour drive and I didn't have any plans for the weekend. Marvin was willing to drive, and Viviane met us not too far across the border for lunch and a fun afternoon of chatting, laughing, and reminiscing on memories from the U.S.

While I was at language camp, I was more centrally located...now I'm way down south :-) But I decided to take advantage of the three weeks I had in middle of Germany and so I sent out an email to quite of few of my friends to see if anyone was free. Most people were busy but Steffen came down to Dusseldorf one day after language camp and we had a fun afternoon in the city.

Last but certainly not least, is Hanna. Hanna and I were friends my freshmen year and have kept in touch for the past few years. And as it turns out, she is responsible for the amazing family I'm now living with as when I told her I was coming to Germany, she took it upon herself to find me a family--and not just any family, but the most amazing family she could :-) So now, Hanna and I are neighbors--well, a few streets away but that's beside the point.

I'm so happy that I have already seen some of my friends again and am looking forward to seeing others in the coming months--especially my sisters Miri and Mareike <3 And don't worry, I'm sure you'll hear all about it once I do :-)