"Did she get to know my boyfriend?" , "Yes... Actually, she kissed him!"
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Trip to Germany
This weekend I went to Cologne, GERMANY to stay with the Steltzner family. Their daughter, Heike, is living at my house in America. I met her parents, Harald and Brigette, her brothers, Martin and Flo, and her boyfriend Jo. Infact, I got to know them so well that I kissed both Martin and Jo! LOL!!! (I'll explain later)

Heike went to America with the GAPP program for 3 weeks but her and one other student decided to have an extended stay for 3 months. For the first 3 weeks she was in America she stayed with Ashley Wolley's family, I think, but after that, she came to stay at my house with Laurie. She is returning to Germany on December 20th. I can't wait to meet her!! We have a lot of brownie eating and partying to do!!!

On Friday night, Harald and Brigette came all the way to Belgium to pick me up. (It is about an hour and a half drive from where they live in Pulheim) For that first night it was very hard for me to break my Belgian habits. *giggles* It is natural for me to respond in French all the time, so when the Steltzners talked with me, they spoke in English and I would start to respond in French! LOL! Plus in Belgium, when you greet someone, you give them a kiss on the cheek, so when I went to entered the Steltzner's house I said "Bonjour" and leaned over and kissed Martin on the cheek. I was about to give Flo a kiss too when I realized that the culture is different in Germany!! *giggle giggle snort*

The week or so before I arrived, they had worked some on their English (Flo has only been taking English for 3 months!) so when I arrived, and I was speaking french, they didn't know what to make of that!! LOL!

Friday night after dinner, I made American brownies with Martin and Flo. All of the measurements are in "cups and half cups" but the problem is that they don't have regulation measuring cups here, so I just guessed... "Yeah, that looks about right...uh, yup." And if I've ever told you about my past cooking experiences, then you know that this is NOT a good thing! Surprisingly, they turned out pretty good! Then we hopped in the HOT TUB for a little while!! *ahhh soo great* :-)

Saturday morning we went to a town an hour from Pulheim where they are in the process of having their "weekend" or "vacation" house being built. It used to be a horse barn but they are turning it into a house. The construction began in July, I think, and they believe that it will be finished in a couple more months! They didn't know if that would be boring for me to see, but I told them I want to be an archetect, and it is much more interesting to me then they think!

We left that town and went to a christmas market in Pulheim, maybe... I get confused. Yeah, Pulheim sounds good. They got me an oil lamp shaped like a wizard with a wick comin out of each hand and when u fill it with oil and light the wicks, he holds fire in his hands! Oh he is too cute!

In the evening we went to a "football" match. (Soccer match) because soccer is all the rage here. I tell people that I play soccer in America and they seem pretty impressed. (Because here girls don't often play unless they are reeeeeaallllllllllyyy good.) ... (I haven't mentioned to them yet that I am only a bench warmer... hehe) Jo (Heike's boyfriend) met us there and when I met him I said "Bonjour" and gave him a kiss too!!! (on the cheek) lol. So there you have it. I was in Germany for 3 days and I already kissed Heike's boyfriend and brother! She is going to have second thoughts about me coming to stay with her later this year if I keep this up! O:-) LOL! The team we were cheering on won 2-1!! woooowoooo

Sunday morning we went to the "Dom" (German for Cathedral) in Cologne. There are well over 100 different cathedrals in Cologne, but we visited the most important one. When we first arrived there was a service going on but people were still allowed in to climb the belfry, so that is what we did. (I've climbed the Eifle Tower, and I've climbed the Belfry of Brugge... but the Cathedral of Cologne, I climbed in high heeled boots!) I didn't get any photos, but besides the insane cold, it was postcard perfect!

After the descent, we waited for the service to get over in a nearby pub that is very famous and well known because it is sooo old and it has its own brewery there at the location. I tried some good local beer and a special German dish of raw meet, served on bread with onions. I ate it with some salt and couldn't taste the meet at all. It was pretty good!!

When we returned to the cathedral, Harald introduced me to one of the more important church members. He explained that I am originally from America, but I am living in Belgium as an exchange student for a year, and I am temporarily with them for the weekend because their daughter is in America, living at my house. He was so inspired by this that he whipped out his wallet and showed me a picture of him with someone from America...

It was Bill Clinton!!!

WooooOOOooooow... I was more than just a little impressed!

From there, we went on to see the Chocolate factory that sits on the edge of the Rhine river, in Cologne. (The Rhine River is the biggest river in Germany.) Saw how the pros do it, ate some good chocolate, and then rushed off to see Flo's soccer match.

Flo is soo good at soccer! (Better, by far, than even Corentin... and I think he's younger!) I think Martin must be really good too, even though I've never actually seen him play. We won by 14 points, or something crazy like that!

We celebrated by going to KFC (which, dissapointingly, they do not have in Belgium) and I got to enjoy some real American fast food!! Then dropped Martin off at a birthday party and we returned to the Steltzner's house. From there nothing very eventful happened; we ate dinner and at 9 I was returned to the Dor's...