FROH NEU JAHR from Georgia

Hallo Lorne.

Wie gehts dir?  I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas time as well as a great time bringing in 2008 and saying goodbye to 2007.  I know that Edmonton was a little colder than Deutschland but I hoped you braved the cold and had a wonderful time at home.

I though that I would tell you what I have been up to lately and how I am finding Germany.  If you choose to, you can pass on what I say to the Rotary Club and let them know I am ever grateful that I have had this opportunity to live in Deutschland.

Christmas in Germany was wonderful!  Lingen has transformed into a movie town, with a bustling market and a skating rink in the city square.  Deutsch Weihnachten begins early in December, with Advent, and ends, like in Canada, on the 26th.  I was lucky to have such a long festive time it left everyone in a festive mood and a break from school is always nice.

I changed to my second family at the beginning of December and am loving it here.  Not only does my (host family) sister have a common taste in music, but we love the same movies, clothes and style.  I felt instantly comfortable here and was within one day teasing as much as my parents and sister.  We do a lot as a family and my host mother has been helping with my language as she is a primary school teacher.

While I was told it would be hard to switch homes right before Christmas, it has actually been the exact opposite.  Christmas here is such a big deal and I couldn't have wished for a better family for the holidays.  I came home everyday to the smell of evergreen, a fully decorated house and quite often fresh cookies.  I went to the Munster market and even cut down a Tannenbaum with my host dad.

Following the Christmas time I had what has to have been my most memorable New Years ever.  My host sister, her boyfriend, and I headed to Berlin where I was able to meet more family and see the city.  Silvester's evening we went to the Brandenburg Gate to see the fireworks along with 800 thousand other people.  There was music and I danced and sang with my sister and friends.  Being an exchangee allows me to meet new people with such ease and had conversations on new years with people from Africa, Australia, France, the Netherlands, Brazil, the USA, and of course Deutschland.  On top of the Brandenburg gate I went shopping, saw some sights, went on a Spree boat tour at night as well as to the Berlin Christmas market.  The entire time I was in Berlin though, there were fireworks and cherry bombs going off.  It was like a war zone the entire time; more than once my sister Julia and I grabbed each other out of shock.  No injuries,though, and it put everything in quite a funny mood.  Even the ride home to Lingen was wonderful, it snowed the last day so our 8 hour trip was toll.  I got to see all the snow which I had been missing.

I have started school again and while it was hard to get back in the learning mood I love being able to improve my language skills.  While I am able to talk to everyone in Deutsch now, on top of understanding everything, its always nice to learn grammatik and the correct way to converse.

In a few weeks I have my birthday and am so happy to begin my 18th year of life in Lingen.  Thank you again for this opportunity and I tell you in ernst (Deutsch for "honestly") I am not letting one second of this exchange go to waste.

Best wishes in this new year.

Lots of Love

Georgia Dewart