Bitterer Zucker

   An open diary with dry ink. There is a lonely pen not willing to write above it. Again, piano music in the background.

The calendar was just removed as the countdown stopped.

Why, sir? Why was that so fast? I blinked and it was over, that dream. I learnt the meaning of travel, sir. I may have even fallen in love under the stars. It was red and it is still red.. in a different way though. I stepped on the land of home again, the lost country I had left a year ago. Or should I better say the lost me who had left this country a year ago? both ways, there is something lost in between. I am back home they say. Still there I am, on the other side of the sea. There are my beloved ones, however I have beloved ones here too. Distance is what I have to deal with at the moment. 
It is funny how life on exchange evolves.. from wanting to go back home to not willing to leave the new home. Do I have a favorite home? I won't lie I missed the sea sometimes but I had lakes that I have never seen before. Is the sea too wide for me now? I do not know, sir. I have lost many things but gained way more. My mother says I became a rebel. That year in Germany was not in vain, even if I became a rebel.
Cheers!

It’s Playing Red, Wine Red

   Just as the leaves when they fly away, they come back again young and proud as the days of my life. The sun decides. Those sounds, It's a piano in the background.

Time is something that I don't have. I want it. I need it. I just do not own it. Well, sir, I am sleepy, thinking of something to write to inform you about me, about my life in the so called Germany. I looked today at her face and wondered how my life without her would be. I looked deeply in her eyes to keep her face in my memory. I enjoyed listening to them, calling my name. I realized how much I love them. I loved them even before I had known them. Now I do know them. I am not even eighteen. so what if I made it to thirty, sir? Will I forget them?  But.. but I forgot how was it like to be fifteen. It sounds so far away. However, far away is my pleasure. Far away is where I've always been. 
Will you visit me, sir? Will you write me and tell me about your sun? It's shining here, almost everyday. I saw the sun of Dresden and Prague. It was warm. The Earth is so small. They fool us and say it's big. Although, it is so small, I can't move freely. I am a visitor on Earth just like them. It is bitter sweet to ride a plane. The plane target decides.
I was the one in the red dress. I had curls. I danced. We danced. I still hear the music but I am not listening, sir.

The Story of the Schweriner Schloss

    The idea ghost of the palace of Schwerin began when Niklot came to found the first bases of Mecklenburg. The thought of the castle/palace was there. I believe. Until it finally had it's shape of today probably between the 18th-20th century. It was built, burned, has been a Kindergarten and is a museum now. Before all that it was what first attracted me to Schwerin when I'd known I'd live there. schweriner Schloss

    Today and for the first time in five months I got to be inside with the lovely Irmi (a friend of mine who was 16 times in Egypt!). It was a cold sunny Saturday, -6 to -10 C. The Schwerinersee was frozen, just like my hands, ears and nose. I learnt not to forget my gloves.. the extremely hard way, though. 

I admired the ceilings and floor. I don't know which art is that but it's a kind of art when different types of wood are put together, eg the floor. It wasn't also all wood. there was metal added to wood and paper too, I believe. The style was mainly Roman as they said it was a romantic palace. The portraits of those who lived in it made it more interesting. Imagining that those people went through these halls, ate, slept and all that stuff is exciting. I actually thought Friedrich Franz II or III looked like someone I know.

Photos from Today

Floor

Granite stairs

Anno 1616

Mid Point

         156 out 332 days have passed. It's time to make lists, analyse and think. What has happened in the past five months?
I can almost remember every day as yesterday. It went so fast; the Orientation, the long boring lessons, the weekends, Mallorca and my culture shock. I am having a difficulty in realizing it all. Maybe I just can't realize it all now. My past five months were not easy still not so difficult. Naturally, I got to experience homesickness which was not so cool but I survived.

First Five Months View:
1. Progress in my German skills, relatively slow though..
2. First Ballet, Opera shows.
3. living on an island for a week.
4. going almost everywhere by bike. still gaining weight...
5. German Christmas
6. First Catholic liturgy
7. German food.
8. Made hell lot of decisions alone.
9. Adapted to the weather/Survived many days without sun.
10. German School
11. Met so many incredibly nice people that mean a lot to me now.
12. In love with Schwerin.

Places I have been to
1. Lauenburg
2. Schwerin
3. Rostock
4. Kühlungsborn
5. Graal-müritz
6. Berlin
7. Poel (island)
8. Mallorca


My Other 3-Month-Goals
1. Hamburg/Dresden/Köln/Bayern (Bavaria)
2. Article/s for the School magazine.
3. to go with friends in a trip
4. know more and more people
5. share things with my class/ get to be more as one of them
6. jogging
7. forever, better German.. to be able to read a German novel/understand Faust.
8. sleep early
10. to be friends with "..", "..", "..." and ...
9. do sth that I've never done before besides what is already mentioned..

without my host family and my family most of what has happened wouldn't have happened.
Thank you!

Bei Vivi

New Year's Eve

Poel

Der Lieblingshund

Graal-mueritz