This is me

Hey there,





Happy New Year!

Here´s a little update for you guys so you´ll know what I´ve been up to since my last entry. A century seems to have past since back then! I apologize... Life rushes way too fast!



My family and I went up to the mountains already four times this season. We went to Winter Park, which is a beautiful Wintersports resort circa 2 hours from Parker. I took my first snowboarding lesson and had such a great time! I learned how to get onto and off the lift without getting killed, losing my board, or run over poor innocent people. I was really proud :) Whoever of you say me doing sports at one point in time, knows why! The view was incredibly beautiful and the snow was way beyond comparison. It was -18°F and freezing cold. I wore 3 layers of clothes, plus snowpants and coat, and even my face was totally covered all the time with a hat, goggles and my scarf over my mouth and nose. I bet they wouldn´t have let me into a bank like that! My hair actually froze! Can you imagine that? It was so much fun though; I learned how to turn and slow down and how to fall on my butt. Last weekend my family and I stayed one day in Copper Mountain, which is a very very pretty ski resort. Kaylah and I went up to the top of the mountain and soon recognized that we weren´t ready for that yet. We had a blast though. We were practising riding on toe- and heeledges (I just try to sound professional) and in the end our legs were so sore, we just sat on our boards and slid down a blue run.

The next event that came up was CHRISTMAS of course! Awaited for a long long time, I almost couldn´t believe it when it was finally there. On Christmas eve, my family and I went to the movies to see Desperaux, which was just the cutest movie! After that, Emma and I had a little, fun photoshoot. We were all dressed up and had curly hair and Emma just looked like an angel. In the late afternoon we went to church. It took us double than the usual time to get there, because the parking lot and the streets were so crowded! It was incredible. Once we arrived, everybody received a candle from the church staff and we went inside. It was a great service and I knew all the songs. On the last song, the lights went off and people started lighting their candles. After a short time, the whole church was shining with all the pretty candles and it was such a touching moment I started crying. It gave me goosebumps. Once we got home, we got the dinner ready and baked reindeer - cookies for Santa Claus. After dinner we unwrapped two presents each. One was the traditional Christmas pyjama (mine is red and green and soooo soft), and I got an other set of PJ´s from my mom´s parents. That was just so sweet, because I never thought I´d get a present from my "host - grandparents", so it was very surprising. The next morning, Emma woke us all up at 7 o´clock and we went downstairs (after lovely sleepy pictures were taken) and - YES - Santa had been there! The milk and cookies were gone and were exchanged with full stockings! In my stocking I even found German chocolate with marzipan, and even a little jar of Nutella, which totally made my day. I got so many wonderful presents I can´t even list them all. But I need to mention the highlights. First, Santa (!) gave me a pink nano iPod for Christmas! I still can´t believe it! Oh and then, Zak and Kaylah got me a Troy from High School Musical made of paper. It´s hilarious. From Dad´s parents, I got a great sweatshirt, that is white and red and it says Canada on it. Now I can finally fit in with my family and their Senators jerseys and I am canadian shirts.
After Christmas we´ve had pretty funny weather - one day it is in the 60s and 70s, and the next morning I´m wearing a T- Shirt and come downstairs in the morning and our backyard is covered in snow. It is exciting.

New years eve was a hard time for me. I always get very melancholic at New Years and this time I was sad because of two reasons: That I couldn´t celebrate it with my German friends and family - and that I have to leave the US already in - now 4 1/2 months! That little crisis lasted for 12 hours probably. =)

My second semester classes are so much fun, but also lots of work. I have been practising a lot for Choire, especially in the shower, and Public Speaking and Theatre. I will give my first speech tomorrow in Speaking. I´m very excited! School is going really well. In every class of mine, I have friends and it is just so great to spend time with them. In the spring, my friend Sydney and I are going to start running again, and keep up our Cross Country training. Then, soon the auditions for the play Pride and Prejudice are going to start and I am going to try out. I´m so excited.... please cross your fingers for me!

I´ve also been at a YFU sleepover. It was the mid- year orientation and really fun. I met all these cool people from all over the world and I also met some students that are comingt to Hawaii with me in February. That´s so soon!!! You can´t believe how excited I am. But on the other handside it is sad for me to count the days till Hawaii since it gets one step closer to returning to good ol´ Germany again.

Last Wednesday something horrible happened - a boy from my school died. He was in my German Club and involved in an exchange student program, so I knew him pretty well. The police is saying it was an accident, but unfortunately they are not allowed to give out any further information. This was a horrible experience for me, and especially for my friend Steph, who is an exchane student from Berlin, who was really close friends with him. On Wednesday we will go to his funeral together. It is really hard for me to understand all this, because it came so all of a sudden. I´ve just been talking to him last Monday. It will take all of us some time to get over this, but I´m very lucky to have great friends that support each other, great, understanding teachers, and a wonderful family that is
so loving. And of course an amazing Mama that talks patiently to me when I called her on Wednesday - crying - at her time 3 am.


Ich liebe euch und ich vermisse euch. Ihr bedeutet mir so viel, das könnt ihr euch gar nicht vorstellen. So ein Austauschjahr macht dir wirklich bewusst wer deine wirkichen Freunde sind und welche Freundschaften wertvoll sind und über 1 Jahr und viele viele Kilometer hinweg bestehen bleiben.

<3 vielen Dank

Love and Kisses

Insa