More adventures!

Hi everyone!

Have you by any chance been following the Euro 2008, the European soccer Championship? Germany sure has! The country has been consumed by soccer for the past few weeks, and with good reason, as the Germans made it all the way to the final game against Spain. Unfortunately Spain played much better than Germany and won 1:0, but nonetheless it was exciting to be able to be here while the Germans were romping through the tournament! I watched all of the Germany games in the city and got to see how crazy the Germans got after each victory.... see my last post for some photos.

Besides watching Fußball, I've also been exploring the area around Konstanz lately. I went hiking with some other people from my house to Marienschlucht, a ravine on Bodensee (Lake Constance). We actually spent more time hiking there and back home than we did wandering around Marienschlucht, but it was all so gorgeous it didn't matter! See below:

Us taking a little photo break on a tree in the lake.

The ravine---- yes we had to walk up a lot of stairs!

Then, attempting to find a shorter way back to Konstanz (or at least to a bus stop with busses going to Konstanz) we found some horses and a little village. The town had a bus stop, but the next bus didn't come for 2 hours, so we ended up walking to the next town.

I also had my visit to a German highschool as an ambassador from America. My host teacher was so nice! She lives in the town right across the lake, so I took the ferry there and then she drove me about an hour to the school, which is the little town of Messkirch. I visited her 12th grade, 11th grade and 6th grade English classes and her 7th grade German class. In the 12th and 6th grade classes I just answered questions they had about America. Some questions I got from the 12th graders were: Are high schools really like they appear in movies--- are there really football teams and cheerleaders? Does America have laws to protect the environment? What do you think about the practice of saying the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of the school day? Then they sang me a German folk song and gave me a HUGE gift, including honey, juice, jam and noodles home-made in the region, as well as flowers! The 11th grade class took me on a city tour and I compared the sights they showed me and the stories they told me with the cities and traditions at home. The 6th graders (who were only in their 2nd year of English) asked things like: How do you live in America? (a very hard question to answer) What is New York like? Do you like the Simpsons? Do you have a weapon? Does your Dad? Your brother? They were amazed when I talked about how big the US is--- comparing how long it takes to drive from one coast to the other with how long it takes to drive across Germany.

On our way back to Konstanz my host teacher made a stop by her mom's house so her mom could meet me too! Then, when she heard that Mom and Cailie were coming to visit me, she offered to give me bedding or anything else I needed for their stay. She told me to contact her if there was ANYTHING I needed during the rest of my stay here---- just another example of a very friendly German!

I didn't have my camera with me, but I found this picture of Messkirch online. It was a little village with lots of farmland around.

Well, that's it for now. I hope you are all enjoying the warmth of summer, and I will see many of you in about a month! Time is going by so quickly now!