Mein Deutsches Leben mit Familie Friese (My German life with the Friese's)

Viele Grüße!

I can't wait to tell you all about this month! It's been a crazy month, but I absolutely love it! The typical "blues" that strike exchange students in November didn't resonate with me. In fact, November might have been the best month of the program yet!

Arved and our
puppy, Austin

Here's "the latest":

Be prepared for 10000
pictures of Christmas markets!!!

A little over a month ago, I changed host families. My prayers were answered and I was blessed with a wonderful family. My  host brother, Arved (12), is our little German movie star. He's currently playing the lead role of Timm Thaler in Timm Thaler (in German theaters Dec 22, 2016). He's absolutely adorable and a ton of fun to be around. My post parents, Jenny and Hilmar, are also wonderful. We quickly bonded over a passion for skiing (we're going on two ski trips to Austria this year!) and over love for talking quality politics. On the weekends, we nerd out and read the newspapers, then discuss the articles and politics behind the articles. We also discuss a lot of American politics (i.e. Donald Trump and guns) and let me tell you-talking American politics in German can be a challenge. It's made my German really  improve though.

View of the Christmas Market from our hotel room

Adventskonzert
at the Frauenkirche

A pic at a Christmas market

Over the past couple of weeks, I've done a lot with my host family and have really bonded with them. We went to Dresden for a weekend to attend an the Adventskonzert at the Frauenkirche (a beautiful cathedral recently rebuilt entirely from private funds.)  While there, we went to a black tie event and toured a museum at midnight, ate our way through Dresden's Weihnachtsmärkte (Christmas markets that look like tiny villages within a city. They are my absolute weakness) and even visited our recently born Australian Shepherd puppy, Austin! I also went on set with Arved for a day and explored the world of cinematography. It was fascinating seeing how movies are filmed and how many takes it takes to nail a scene. I have mad respect for the                                                       system. 



                                                          Gossip Girl- German Edition









Last night, Annika and I joined Arved and his friend at a circus premier. It was a riot! We sat front row and some of the animals (lions, tigers, but no bears, oh my!) were at a arms length away from us. With my luck, I was called on to be a volunteer in an act that. I had to do a little dance and shake my booty and completely roll with whatever the clowns wanted me to imitate (I am also slightly terrified of clowns.) Oh, I forgot to mention, this was in German in front of an audience. My host brother, Annika, and I just about died of laughter. It's one of those strange "one time, when I was in Germany..." stories my friends are going to quickly grow sick of at home. But hey, it was probably on of the craziest nights and guess what? I got to ride a CAMEL! My life = complete! 

Ice skating at a Christmas market
with Annika

From the Berlin Bitches to you,
Merry Christmas and from Noah- Happy Hanukkah

This month was also the first time where I truly feel like I've settled into my German life and established a routine. I go to my internship where I work with three incredible, inspirational women and work on managing their social media, developing their marketing plan and have started working on proposal writing. I'm learning a lot about how the "real world" works. There's a lot off trial and error, but I'm glad I'm learning that now. After work, I meet up with the "Berlin Bitches" and go to the gym to start burning off the German pudge! After that, I normally head home and veg out with the host fam and watch the Royals or Netflix. I introduced them to Netflix and there's no turning back now...On the weekends, I usually go out with my friends or travel. There's never a dull moment.














The holidays are right around the corner. To all my college friends- enjoy pulling those all nighters studying for finals. I'm glad I don't have to deal with those for another year! :p To everyone else, Merry Christmas! I hope you have a relaxing, fun-filled holiday season. :)

Deine Kirsten