Rotary weekend in Soltau

Hello everyone.
It has been a little bit since my last post but all is well here in Germany. This past weekend we had a rotary trip to Soltau (dont ask, i still dont even know where it is) There was about 50 exchange students student from all over my district here in Germany. Luis and i took the train at 1:05 on Friday afternoon and met up with some other exchange students in Gottigen. Then we took the train from Gottigen to Hannover and met up with alot of other exchange students. We had a blast on the train but i think everyone else hated. You see when Germans ride the trains it is very quiet and not alot of people talk. So, we kind of stuck out. Well we finally arrived in saltau and met the Rotarians who would be hosting us that weekend. My family lived on a fully functioning pig farm. They had about 1,000 pigs and believe me you could tell by the smell. But they had an amazing old house with a couple barns and a good amount of land. They were so welcoming and nice. After dropping our stuff off at their house we drove to the meeting in Saltau. It was in this old barn. We ate, talked danced and had a great time. We got a ride home from our host brother in Soltau who was 18. When we were driving home he was like "are you hungry" So i said i was and he said we would stop and get something to eat then. Lo and behold we pull up to the local Mcdonalds. I thought i had left American fastfood! But i was very hungry and i was not going to pass up a little grease. I ordered a Big Mac with Pommes (fries) and a cola.

We woke up the next morning and i walked down to breakfast and was greeted by a wood burning stove, cold weather and a typcial German breakfast. I must say, i half expected Laura Ingalls to walk around the corner. After breakfast we went to the Sud-see Camp, which was a camp ground just outside of town, which is one of the top 10 campgrounds in europe. We mini golfed, did archery, ate, talked. It felt so good to speak english again. I felt like i actually had a personality again. It was so nice.

We got up on sunday and went to another old barn and had breakfast, took pictures and said out goodbyes. We will see each other next weekend for another rotary event but it was still hard to say goodbye. On the train ride home i met this amazing girl from Namibia. She was an Au pair in southern Germany on her way to Frankfurt to visit her sister. We had an amazing conversation about life, faith, philosophy, our impressions of Germans. It is so crazy how you meet people sometimes. Well i have to go. i have to go back to school for sport, which for me is Soccer. Then i am going to Gottigen with my host brother Philip to go to a Mexican resteraunt. Yes, you read it right, a mexican resteraunt. I will keep you informed on that experience.

So to sum up my time in Germany thus far...I am eating Mcdonalds and Mexican food. Weird? Ya i think so

Go to this link to see pics from the weekend

http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2000105&id=1076310090&l=8ec43



Cheers,

Tyler