Greetings once again! I don't have much to report, but i decided i needed to update before my halloween party, because hopefully i'll have lots of pictures and fun stories to tell. but for now i figure ill fill you in on the intesity of the German Gardening, even in Late October when it's, i dunno, FREEZING. so there's opa in a tree. shall i remind you, he is 71? before he didn't have a ladder, but then petra made him get one, and i didnt get my camera in time. shameso here's our gardening scaffolding. yes. GARDENING SCAFFOLDING. just like in that winterguard show my 8th grade year with the whole shlidabby dee thing. but this scaffolding is here so the trees are EXACTLY cut, because heaven forbid there is one limb that is shorter than another. then there sweeping is oma with her cute little mustach. you can't see it in this picture, though.

So I want everyone to know that the free CIEE XL t shirt they gave me is going to good use as a smock for justus against the terrors of flour all over his nice pants and vest. THANKS CIEE, you save lives! it was fun, though, because we made the cutest little "halloween" cookies. that means we used stars and moons and ducks and such, because halloween cut out things don't exist. awww he LOVES cooking. awww
then i went to Josephina's ballet recital which was boring, of course, so i decided to give the whole not using a flash to take pictures thing a try and came out with these two. those two little girls were the CUTEST they were prolly like 2 and just kind of troddling around everywhere. aw hahaa.

so then we continuted to walk through the sportstudio (there the recital was) because it was their like grand opening or something (whatever is means free champaigne) and so we had to have a little tour of the thing, and we walk through all the sports stuff, the saunas, the swimming pool, then we come to the place where the people drop off their kids when they work out.

thats right

the playground

FOR KIDS. and i came across THIS just like hangin out on a table. i was startled at first then started laughing quite hard. haha anyone else find it just a little disturbing?
on to today. it was a really really good day. in german class we walked into the Stadt (city) and visited with this guy from Bundestag who just so happens to be my Bundestag partner, and that was so much fun. on the way back i talked to this girl for the whole time about politics and such, and i really enjoyed it. it wasn't a goofy convo FINALLY! yay. anyway, so then in math class the teacher called on me to write a problem up on he board, and i did and i got it right and everyone clapped! YAY MY FIRST BOARD PROBLEM!!!!!!!!! i was of course quite excited! so we had to take pictures in the break. HAAA yAY that's me looking quite intelligent with my squeegy.

so then my mom sent me this email with this Job predictor thing, and i typed in my name and it was something with insurance, so fun, but then i started typing in other people's names that i knew, and i got to ben's....

HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
i dunno, i came across this picture looking for pictures to put on my blog, and it wasn't like in a folder or anything! it was just THERE, so i thought that was weird, and it made me laugh quite hard, just because of the fact that this was our german class, i dunno, EVERY DAY! not that im complaining, in fact i absolutly loved it and wouldnt change anything about it for the world. but either way, it brought back good memories and a few laughs.

Naja. on thursday, i discovered something profound. there are sheep in Minden. well duhh, it's Germany, there are sheep EVERYWHERE. but still. i was going running, and then BANG sheep. so of course i thought of my foreign friend waaaaaaaaay in East Germany, so i took a picture! (i of course had to run home, get my camera, and run back- MAAAIIN she's good)Then on saturday i went to a handball game with this girl i met in our neighborhood. we rode mit dem Fahrrad, and minden FINALLY WON. MAN it took long enough, but it was oktoberfest (whaaaat, it's already over, but w/e) weekend for hanball, so there was all this free stuff! it was CRUNK. we got ice cream, drinks, and these random chicken nuggets that weren't chicken but beef. i haven't seen chicken in Germany all that much. so much for wanting to feed my family that chicken rotel. oh well. At the handball game i saw another orange baby, and i laughed so hard because orange babies are so funny. i also saw a 4 year old with his ear pierced and i felt sorry for him. think about it, he had no choice, and im sure he has some punk mom who was like oooh it'll be SO CUTE to scar a little boy for the rest of his life! oh well.

oh yah, and look at this big ugly truck J2 and i saw at the WEZ!! there we got MORE free drinks and a big ball and a water bottle holder. coooool

ok so in Minden, we have this thing called the Kaiser Willhelm (the emporer of Germany or something) and he was in minden for like literally 5 minutes, so they built him this HUGE STATUE memorial thing.

so there it is. notice it's on the top of a very big hill. so i was sitting there with the family, just chillin, when the doorbell rings and it's my neighbor Steffie (she's sooo freaking cool, man!) and she asked me if i wanted to bike there to have a cultural experience. ( naja, about 15 km away) SURE! i say. nothing else to do! so we meet like 5 other people and bike up to the kaiser Wilhelm through this utterly gorgeous pathway. i took a ZILLION pictures, but it's SO gorgeous up there, and plus i got to know a lot of crunk madchen, so i'm excited about that! so for all you out there: Here's Minden at a glance

well not all of minden, but what you can see from the thing. so here's me being my attractive self with this kid who we met there. he's from Quebec and speaks only french (whaaat i thought in quebec they spoke english, too, oder? but no he speaks NO english and NO german) but he's cool, and ive hung out w/him a few times before. so it seems that i only hang out w/exchange students, but thats not the case. its just that the other exchange students are always obsessed w/taking pictures, too, therefore they're more willing to be in pictures. it's true. but he's the student of one of Steffie's friends, and he doesn't hinder my german learning by speaking english, so i figure we're good!

ok so soon after getting there, we discovered that Steffie, Melina, and i all had hoods, so NATURALLY we had to take an emo picture

so it just so happened that we randomly met one of the other exchange students (yes..the same one from the picture above) friends there, who also speaks only french (but knows a little german) and he was SOoOoo cute, so i naturally had to sneak a picture. its kid of hard to tell here, but still i figure it's worthy of including, bc he was speaking only french, and come on, we all know that makes him go up like 15 points on the hottness scale anyway
the view was of course GORGEOUS. HELLo mindennN!!! although there are random people there. move move move but still it's pretty!!
so here's the actual wilhelm or whatever he's called. haaa it's sooo big. anywho please tell me you think that's funny, because i definately do

ok so then our little exchange student friend decided he wanted to climb this huge...thing. AH HUGE haa but it made me laugh. here's the game: its called "try to find the exchange student in the picture!!!" fun fun fun
so here's melina, one of the girls we met before we rode up there, looking out over minden. you cant see much of minden though. but she lives in minden so i figure that counts
ok so that was sunday. tschusie keiser wilhelM! so today is monday and i went to this incredibly langweilig (booooooorring) coffee drinking b/c this girl was babtised and oh it was so boring, BUT something interesting did happen. not only is my host dad THE klaproth of m.e.n.s., not only is the freaking airplane that he made in a freaking museum, but HE TOOK THAT PICTURE ON THE COVER OF THE MAGAZINE. what? AHHh he TOOK the picture for the freaking COVER of a MAGAZINE. ahhhh and he's also inside the magazine, too. AH he never ceases to amaze me...
not only on that page..noooo that wouldn't be good enough, but he's also on THREE others. AH THREE. what. maaaan he's good. so i guess all in all, today was a pretty good day!
ill leave you on this note...

My Classwork for monday:
in History :

In Religion :

In math (AHHH the DUMB teacher) In Chemi :In Chemi :In Deutsch:
This is a "Handful of Questions answered!" study guide ( a populare study guide here in germany)
mine says (translated into english for all of you non- germans out there) the following:
thumb: Is Chemistry Dumb? answer (all the answers were written by a crunk girl who sits next to me, katta) JA
Index: Should there be ONLY a cookie monster, not a vegtable monster (in German sesame street, theres a Gemuse (veggie) monster instead) answer: JA!
Middle: Do you love Herbert (a cucumber from berlin) AND norbert (my hacky sacky's name) answer: RIGHT!
ring: Are cookies yummy? answer TRUE!
pinky: Are you totally crazy? answer JA!
so that's my study guide
in politik:

MAN WHAT A BUSY DAY!

i did, though, like what i wore that day, it's totally phoebe-ish...hahaa- three layers of stockings (2 hose and one leggings) a skirt, three layers of shirts, long socks, and on my way to school--- 2 jackets. YAY GERMANY!

ok, and Justus and Josephine got a puzzle of the US from my mom, and the LOVED IT SO MUCH (aww mom thanks!) and they made it last night, then peter and i started trying to name all 50 states, and we simply couldnt do it, but hey, we had a nice little time though!
then i went to this grassy gnole earlier today (HAHAHA EMILY! aw and all the guard girls- and GUSTAVO! !ouiii i miss that SO freaking much) and i sat there and i opened phoebe's letter and i cried and i was just laying there in the sun in this ranom place near the Wez, and oh it was heavenly, i must admit. oooh i love grassy gnoles, maybe one day i'll make a picnick there one day, too

so there's my last 4 days! oooh they were a blast, can't you tell ;) but in all seriousness, i don't think i'd change a thing. well, maybe a few things, like i dunno being with my friends or something,but still for the whole outlook on life being positive thing, i think i'm doing a pretty good job for these last 4 days.

and i got in some drawing practice. HAAAAA aw mannnnn

Hello friends!

i discovered that "luftballoon" in the living room today.

i went to PW, the disko, again last night. again, it was fun, but i didn't go with holger this time (BOOOO!!!haa) i went with this other exchange student from equador! it was quite a blast, and wee met a lot of people. oui oui

but who cares, in fact, i don't think i really LIKE the disko anyway. it's just that every time someone invites me to do something at night its ALWAYS to the disko. ahh i mean, i dunno i guess it's cool and all, but its sooo loud and sooo crowded and soooo smoky and soooo superficial. oh well, we'll see if i change any at the end of the year.

ok, so FINALLY I WENT SHOPPING! YAY and i actually bought stuff. i said to myself, im going shopping and im NOT going home until i buy something. sooOOOoo i did :-D for example:

these lovely two pairs of sunglasses: on sale at the new yorker for-yah man, A DOLLAR EACH booyah. i got my lovely models to strike a pose for me

Of course, after i took their pictures, they wanted to use my Photoapparat....again....and again....and again

and among a few other things such as long socks, gloves, and a blazer, i bought these two LOVELY (if i do say so myself) outfits to the left, and although i have the skirt with the white pully and the pants with the orange one, you can totally mix and match, because (yay) they all go together anyway! HIP HIP HOORAH. might i add, i also bought a purple shirt AND a purple skirt (they of course can under no circumstances be worn together)

poop on that i took sooo many pictures today, because we went to this little "Lichter fest" thing, and everyone in german class--- remember that song "ICH GEH' MIT MEINE LATERRRRNA, UND MEINE LATERNA MIT MIR!"? well i do!

so there's Justus with HIS laterna- aww he was so cute stinging!
and they actually SING IT! cool, oder? i think so

then i took this picture of opa, and he goes "oh that's a good one, you have to send it to America!" haaaaa awww he's so cute!! so here ya go, America! That's Opa!

and in conclusion, might i add that i have two of the cutest little host siblings in the world. even if they are indeed soooo annoying sometimes, they're still cute. (opa, too!) The end!

So just a few minutes ago, i was standing there brushing my teeth, and i realized i have used up two WHOLE tubes of tooth paste since arriving here in Germany.

like what?

so then i got to thinking again. just exactly how much DO i brush my teeth? i had to break out the TI83 for this one, but don't worry, it's worth it.

"pass auf."

Right at this very moment, it's 10 42 pm on October 12th. I've been in germany for 54 days (TWO TUBES in 54 DAYS!!!!)

more exactly, i've been in Germany for 1294 Hours and 42 minutes

that means, i've been in Germany for 77,682 minutes

I brush my teeth exactly 3 times per day. twice i brush them for exactly three minutes (once after lunch and once after dinner) and once i brush them for roughly 1.5 minutes (in the mornings, when i'm quite rushed to hop on that bike and go to school). I know this because i have a little timer on my bathroom counter attached to the little toothbrush holder with the little german man on it.

therefore, i spent 729 minutes in the last 54 days brushing my teeth. subtract 5.5 minutes, because on the first day i only brushed my teeth after dinner.

That's then 723.5 minutes out of the 77682 that i've been in Germany that i've spent brushing my teeth.

therefore, i've spent .931 percent of the last 54 days brushing my teeth.

BRUSHING MY TEETH

it's all in perspective now.

thank you, TI83, you have served me well for the first time since arriving in Germany, because of course my math teacher is dumb.

because of the obviously great feeling of this particular blog, i'll leave you with a picture that has absolutly nothing to do with what i've typed. considering the fact that i have a picture of neither my tube of toothpaste nor my toothbrush, this shouldn't be much of a problem. this was, anyway, quite a fun night at the schloss- and no worries, i'd take one night at the schloss over a zillion nights at the disko here!

o m george i just had the most fun EVER
EVER
EVER
EVER
well not ever, but since i've been living in Minden
our neighbor Steffi asked if i wanted to go with her to the Box, a club here in Minden, and i went. so first we went to this girls house where i met these awesome 4 girls, who were all so nice and cool, and we ate cake (it was this exchange student from Quebec's birthday..haha he speaks ONLY french, but we managed to get a few words in auf Deutsch, and we're hangin out again tomorrow haaa cool, oder? i think so) anyway, so we drank some beers and laughed and had a good time.
then at ten we walked to the Box, where ahhh it was so fun
my first hanging out with REAL germans (without an exchange student) and in THE box! ahhh it was sooo GEIL! (haha cool, for all those americans out there!)
i absolutly loved it
and i loved the fact that i ran into people at the box that i know! YAH- ME!! o m g it was the best feeling in the world, because i'd see someone, and theyd be like O M G MAGGIE HI!!!! and awww yay
im feelin good right now
or maybe im so incredibly awake from the Energy drink (that might i add was FREE b ecause im a girl woot woot)
aw yay
and yay for tomorrow, too
just because it deserves it
i dont have any pictures, but that's ok.

MARGARET'S COOKING EXPERIENCE...none dead (yay)

So i have officially NOT killed my host family

for those of you who have honestly, GOODNESSTLY tried my cooking, i belive you know what i mean.

so i finally made lunch (lunch is the big meal here...like our dinner) for my family, oma, and opa, and it went a lot better than i thought. naturally, they all said they liked it, but to be honest with you, i just can't really ever tell.

here's me before i started cooking. "YAY IM SO EXCITED. this is going to be SO EASY! yah cooking for 8 people is never hard!" alex- i wore the shirt you gave me...yah, the one that says "GO FOR IT!" haha i thought it was appropriate. now, though, instead it most definatly smells like meatloaf instead of your lecker smell, but whatever. i know you'd be so proud...

ok so then i stepped into the relms of the kitchen where i made meatloaf and cooked bacon for the first time EVER in a skillet. WOOT WOOT let's hear it for figuring it out ALL by myself! i told my host mom she wasn't allowed in the Kitchen. baha. and did you know the German stove doesn't have high, medum, and low? NO it's on a scale of 1 to 10. please tell me, on which number is one supposed to fry BACON?! i chose 8 then went down to 7 then to 5

i wish i had a picture of my meatloaf, because it looked pretty good if i do say so myself, for never having made it before, it also tasted pretty RADICAL. woot woot. so then i decided to make dessert which= banana pudding. ok so the recipee in the US calls for cool whip, sour creme, vanilla instant pudding, bananas, and sandy patties (the cookie). in Germany, they have no cool whip, the sour creme i bought had CHIVES mixed in, and no sandy patties. Therefore i decided on a little variety. instead of cool wip, i made my own Sahne with that milk stuff and a mixer, instead of Sour creme i used QUARK. hahaha quark, and instead of sandy patties i used "Eier Kekse." that means egg cookies, but they're a lot like those little vanilla wafer things, so no worries. LECKER. hahahahahhahahahahhahaa so basically all germany has is bananas. oh well...opa had two servings, and so did everyone else. OH! and opa ate three meatloaf slices (??) so you KNOW thats a good sign! (and sorry for the rapid change of picture size, my computer decided to wig out on me)

so finally, it was time to put it all on the table. then Petra decided to smell it, so that's in the picture, too.
so then we ate, of course, and so now here's a picture of me AFTER the fact..."please, let me shoot myself i never want to cook an entire meal for anyone but myself ever again. when i have kids im getting a maid." BUT HEY let's keep up high spirits for all those moms to be out there...GO GET EM! so anyway, see that thing in the backgroud? that's my project! those are all (well not all but a lot) of the cool cards from Berlin and Pictures of my friends and YAY

so the end. i cleaned up the kitchen, too. i hope they understand my true thanks. but it was also quite fun, something to occupy me for what, like 4 hours?! YAH MAN! crunk.

all right, so today after a long day of not too much-ness, i went to coffee with Tanta marga, she's the same one that we went to her birthday party earlier this month. baha. she's oh so cute. I went up to her and was like HALLO TANTA MARGA! then i find out, that you have to be like told that you're allowed to call her tanta marga, because petra had to call her Frau Regonbon (or whatever it is...) for YEARS AND YEARS...then finally she married peter and she was allowed to call her tanta marga. but tanta marga loved that i called her tanta marga, so POOF-i'm allowed.

So let's play a game called count margaret's relatives in Germany. Psquared (peter and petra), Jsquared (justus and josephine), Oma, Opa, and now...TANTA MARGA! hip hip hoorah

haha so then i started on an art project/ my post cards decorating my room, which was most def fun, because you know when the conversations at a lull after coffee, you can always head upstairs to make a collage.

so then a few minutes later, i find out there's a "culture" fest in the next town over, so petra peter and i go, but it's not really a fest, but i still totally had fun. i took a lot of pictures in the car on the way there, because it was kind of a long drive, so that's that. cooooool...or so i thought. wait not cool-pshycadellic! ok then we ate at firrarris, this old italian friend's restuarant, and i couldn't understand a word of what he was saying, but i definatly just kind of agreed with whatever he said.

ok so get this. not only is my host dad the guy from M.E.N.S famous pants line, but he also freaking has an airplane in a FREAKING MUSEUM in buckeburg. WHAT?!!!! is that not crazy! oh and while we were in the museum, i found a yo yo. i had forgotten about those things. kind of like i'd forgotten about tamagachis. but then emily bought one. ok so i asked, finally, PandP why they had an exchange student...and i must admit, their answer was a wee bit better than phoebe's mom's answer. in fact, i was quite impressed. it's because peter had such an amazing experience in England, he wanted someone else to be able to have a similar experience. CRUNK, man! and they really really like having people over, and they randomly have choir members from out of town stay at their house, and other small exchanges, but here i am, quite honored to be the BIG TEN MONTHS. i also asked them why ten months, because man, that's really long, but petra was like, well actually a year isn't that long at all. you've already been here for what, 6 weeks?! and i was like WOW you're so right. sure, in the grand sceme of things, a year's not that long....but then why does a day seem like a century?