„I’m feelin‘ sexy & free!“

Heyyy guys!!

First off: HAPPY NEW YEAR ! May this year be better than the last one but not better than the one’s yet to come!

I know I haven’t updated this in forever – but that’s because my daily routine has kinda settled in and I hardly ever have spare time and if I do, I spend that time resting or getting’ homework done. (Or watching Castle.. bahaha.)
Anyways, I just saw that I wrote a blog entry like 2 months ago, but I never posted it. Don’t ask me why. So I’m just gonna include it right here and then continue this blog entry. (:

Helloo, hellooo from Oklahoma!

I will seize this opportunity to tell you about my trip in Colorado as I promised before.

When we got there we basically just put our luggage in the house and settled in a little bit. So nothing special.

The next day we went to a Halloween store (SUPER cool haha), to several other stores and then finally went to eat at an Italian place. (which was super yummy!) At the end of the day we just took a walk near the canal. Everything looked really beautiful by night and the lights added to the atmosphere nicely. It was pretty cold, though.

On Friday we went to the “North Pole” which was a family amusement park in a Christmas style. We rode the rides, went to several stores, ate and made pictures. The rides were so fun – not that they were big, extreme rides, rather family rides – but we still had a blast!

In the evening on our way home we drove by the liberty point, which is kind of a cliff with an amazing sight. And oh my god, this was probably one of the most beautiful sunsets and views I’ve ever seen! It was amazing, seriously. We just got there when the sun was about to disappear and it simply was the PERFECT time. Here are some pictures:

 

We went to Canon City on Saturday to look at the canyons. There were many activities you could do; pet some animals, ride down to the canyons – you could even swing over them!! It was really fun – but kinda hot! We all had expected it to be kinda cold in Colorado – but it wasn’t at all! Just in the evening it got colder.

David Lee (my host brother) and my host dad (also David haha) were kinda scared because of the heights, it was hilarious. When we left we were all kinda starving. So after we’d had a debate about where and when to go to eat – we even had to stop to discuss, haha; but I guess that’s normal with about 8 people in one car – we went to eat, to Walmart and then finally home. In the evening all of us played a dance game for xbox together which was absolutely HILARIOUS ! I had such a good time and it was fun dancing and competing with everybody haha! Having burned some calories, we spontaneously decided to go out to eat ice cream. So we went to “marble slab” where you could pick a kind of ice cream and then mix something in it. I got red velvet cake ice cream with Oreo pieces & cookie dough – seriously, the BEST ICE CREAM EVER.

The next – and last - day, Sunday, we had to leave which we did pretty early. David, Stephanie & the kids (Peyton and Jaxon who are absolutely adorable!) gave me some gifts from Colorado when we left – thanks so much again, I loved everything!!

On our way back we stopped by an inactive volcano and actually drove up there! It was funny how scared David was haha. We all went into the middle of it and Kacy & I also went to its edges – the sight was absolutely breathtaking up there! Here are some pictures:

 

So there ya go, haha!

Besides that, I had the privilege to spend my birthday, which was on November7th, in Oklahoma! & my host family surprised me with a trip to Texas the weekend before my birthday! and guess where exactly: Burleson !!!  (that’s Kelly Clarkson’s hometown; I’ve always wanted to go there!!) I WAS SO EXCITED !

We stayed at a Hotel in Burleson and the first day we got there, Saturday, we went to “Midieval Times” in the evening. Midieval Times is kinda like just a place where you have dinner with a group of people, but in a medieval style and while eating, you watch knights fight. It was interesting to watch & the food was GOOD !

 

The next day wen drove by Kelly’s Primary School & High School. And Texas lives up to its expectations: Everything really is bigger in Texas! The campus of Burleson High School was GINORMOUS! But it did look pretty, don’t get me wrong!
On our way to Dallas we drove by a German Deli and met some AWESOME people & bought some AWESOME German food (Which was like 4 times the prize, though. Really?!)

Eventually we went to that gigantic mall in Dallas – all in all we spent 4 hours in there and hardly got halfway through it! LOVED it, though.  I found some super comfortable jeans! And ate the best mango chicken ever.

 

 

 

At the end of the day – and after 3 ½ hours in the car – we were all super exhausted but I was overall content! (: Irony seems to kinda chase me in America, though – Kelly visited her hometown exactly one week after WE were there. Suuucks :] AND. I won 2 tickets for a private concert of hers in Germany. Well, only problem? I am in America. Lol!! So my mom went & she even met up with Anna & Maddi, who went, too, and had a blast apparently! I was thriving when my mom called me during the concert! Gotta love concert calls! I even got to hear my 2 favorite songs, Sober & You Love Me <3

Sorry ‘cause of random Kelly talk – I know, I am WAY too obsessed. :]

So then, on November 19^th, Emma and I went to see.. GRAHAM COLTON (Kelly’s ex-boyfriend) in concert!!! And he even wrote me on facebook and talked to me and hugged me and wkeufhvwlfv he was SO sweet! And absolutely fantastic in concert! Front row, baby (: Then he signed the CD’s I bought “You can pay whatever you wanna pay <3”, and I took a picture with him. Love him! Additionally, Emma and I met some other fans that were awesomesauce! Love you guys! (Brenda, if you read this, we have to meet up at Starbucks soon!!!)

 Awesome people!!!

Graham & I <3

November 24^th was Thanksgiving, hence: food, food, and even more FOOD !!! 3 dinners within 2 days, sureee, NO problem [: everything was delicious, though!!

Here are some family pictures:

Kacy & I

 Kylie, Leah & I

Early in December we had a Exchange Student Christmas party at our house & it was pretty fun! We played Dirty Santa and I got the best ornament ever! 

 

The last couple of weeks in December were pretty stressful since we had our finals. AND. I auditioned for our musical!!! AND I ACTUALLY GOT IN !!! I am in 2 of the dance/sing/act groups and I’m so happy & proud! We will start practicing on January 17^th and I am absolutely pumped! Y’all should come see Willy Wonka in March!

And poof, all of a sudden it was Christmas already! Didn’t feel like it at ALL ! I skyped with my mom and in the evening we hosted one out of three Christmas dinners, the other 2 were on Sunday.

When I woke up on Sunday Santa had brought me a guitar case, picks & strap and some candy! I was SO happy & still am! In addition to that I got two SUPER cute scarfs, perfume (that smells insanely good!), earrings, an adorable Christmas card, candy, candy-canes jewelry etc. from a couple of my friends. THANKS again!!! [: OH, and I was the happiest girl when I also got a small envelope from Germany – Isi, you made my day and I LOVE YOU ! also thanks to my mom for the cookies & the gifts!! Miss you & Kati!

Here are some pictures I took on Christmas Eve:

haha, gotta LOVE those kinda pictures! :D

There ya go, a "nice" one :'D

 

On Wednesday, December 28^th, my friend Victoria turned 18 and Tasha, Victoria & I went out >> girls’ night!!! (:

At first we went to Pho’s – a soup place – and it was delicious! We had a hard time eating, though, since we were laughing throughout the whole time we were there. And we just couldn’t stop. I’m happy the soup didn’t fly through the whole restaurant, haha! But, well, why do they have to put eyes in their soup?! ;]

Afterwards we went to Pinkitzel, a cupcake place in Oklahoma City – when we walked in we wanted to be trapped in there for a night (and not gain any weight while eating, lol).

The cupcakes were stunningly delicious and the candy we bought at the end for the movies was, too!

At one point a gal was rushing in and asking for a chair because apparently an old lady just broke her leg IN a limo. How can you break your leg driving in a limo?!?! Haha!!

Anyways, we then went around in Bricktown (I FREAKIN’ LOOOVE BRICKTOWN, it’s SO pretty, and even more stunning by night!) and eventually made our way to the movie theatre to watch “The Sitter.” Hilaaaarious movie! Seriously, if you’re lookin’ for a fun night, go see it!

The rest of the night we spent having the best time drivin’ ‘round town and goin’ to Walmart. I hadn’t laughed that much in just one night for ages! Thanks for a great night, girls!! <3

Pinkitzel cupcakes !

 

The next day, Thursday, Emma, David and I went to OKC, ate at Irma’s (deliiiiiciousness!) and then went to go see the memorial. We started off going inside of the building and reading information, watching videos and seeing pictures. I had been in a fantastic mood that day and after perceiving all of what happened I seriously just wanted to cry. The stories and pictures were SO sad and heart wrenching. The memorial itself, however, was pretty and I would love to see it by night! Here are a couple of pictures from that day:

Bricktown!

SOO sad :(

<3

"Survivor Tree"

Me in front of the memorial (:

 

Later that day we just did a little bit of shopping and eventually went to visit Victoria at work. She works at Yogurt Bliss, hence we ate ICE CREAM !!! [: Emma came with us to eat we just hung out for a little bit.

Friday the 30^th of December Victoria & I met up for lunch & went to McAllister’s and we laughed so hard! Seems like we’re having the weirdest conversations and I love it! Then we went to Walmart to buy.. pretty much nothing, drove by an ancient and fairly scary cemetery, found our house alone (which is really not easy when you live that far out there!! :D) and finally ate German & Norwegian chocolate and talked at my house. We had so much fun!! Love you, girl!

HAHA, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THAT PICTURE !!

 

Then, over new year’s, we went to Red River, New Mexico to go ski with Kacy, Logan, David, Stephanie & the kids. I had much fun & everything was so pretty!

When we got there on Saturday we basically did nothing but unwrap presents. (Yes, Christmas presents.) & I don’t think I’ve ever got sooo many presents! My whole lap was filled with wrapped stuff! And I absolutely LOVE all of the gifts I got! Next to the guitar case I got from “Santa” (haha!) I got, for example, a scarf, shirts, jogging pants, some gift cards, perfume, THE CUTEST KOALA BLANKET EVER, jewelry, a purse, house shoes, aaaaaand.. I forgot the rest. Here are some pictures:

ISN'T IT THE CUTEST THING EVER?! :D

 

Skiing was EXHAUSTING, though. Everybody was sore after 3 days of working out, haha! And sitting in the car for 10 hours afterwards didn’t help, lol.

I didn’t even fall once!!! I’m proud of me (: Especially because I didn’t think I would remember anything I learned on our class ski trip a few years back, but I really did, and I don’t think I did too bad; I could even keep up with the boys! (most of the time, at least. Of course I wasn’t nearly as good as them!)

We went skiing from 8:00am till 12:00, then we ate, and then we skied more or less also in the afternoon. (Unless or skis got stolen, HAHA!)

At 4pm we went tubing with the kids; I’d never tubed before. Being pushed over the edge seemed kinda scary, but it was so much fun!!! [: In case you don’t know what tubing is, GOOGLE it. ;]

Here some pictures of Red River/New Mexico. :D

 

Concerning my activities and my daily routine, a normal school day of mine looks like this:

5:50: getting up. -.-

6:30: leaving the house for the bus

7:30: arriving at school

8:10: School starts: Drama, French (Drama & French are my two fave classes!), American Studies, Biology – Lunch – Algebra, English.

3:02: school ends >> bus.

4:00: arriving at home. (YES, it does take me an hour to get home EVERY DAY.)

& then I do all of my activities (:

I’m in Drama & French club, and as I told you I’m in the musical, too!

Every Tuesday & Thursday I do zumba (most of the people I’ve told this didn’t know what zumba was, so as an explanation: zumba is basically just a dance workout. Means TONS of fun PLUS burning calories!! [: ) Throughout the last couple of months I really fell in love with it and I have so much fun doing it!!! I love Ashley (my zumba teacher) – she’s super sweet and has got a great taste of music! Since pretty recently we’re even dancing to What Doesn’t Kill You (Stronger) by Kelly ! (If you haven’t listened to that song yet, GO DO IT. You won’t regret it, I promise!)

 

..or here the link for people from Germany:

http://www.clipfish.de/musikvideos/video/3710599/kelly-clarkson-stronger-what-doesnt-kill-you/

be sassy! (:

 

Every Wednesday I go to church in Moore (my school’s town) and I enjoy it SO much! All of the people are amazing and I love every single one of ‘em! We always have much fun and I enjoy the way of worship here much more than in Germany. I feel like America has brought me so much closer to God and strengthened my faith. It amazes me how much faith in God some of the people here have and how incredibly they thrive in it and confidently show it – especially concerning younger people! Europe should reaaally, really work on that!!

Coming here has given me a lot in general already. Yes, I did gain weight, and no, I do not like it, but honestly? I am fine with it. I feel comfortable in my skin just the way I am. And I am happy that I’ve got to that point where I can say that. I feel so much more confident today than I used to back in Germany. Probably because there’s a bigger range of weight here than there is in Europe (not intending to offend anybody!!), but that’s also emphasized my opinion that weight is not everything even more.

Y’all probably didn’t even want to know that, but whatev’s (:

I am gonna go to a Kelly Clarkson on February 10^th and I am SO lookin’ forward, and I think I deserved it, after having so much bad luck with KC 2011, lol. To list all of the irony that’s been chasing me:

2 weeks before I got here, KC was in Oklahoma. I won tickets to a private KC show in Germany, and there was another show – both just 1 hour far from Hofheim. For my Birthday we went to her hometown, meanwhile she was in Germany. One week later she was in her hometown. Around New Year’s Eve she spontaneously joined Miranda Lambert on stage in Oklahoma, and she celebrated NYE in OK. Exactly during that time we were in Red River. If I hate irony? Heckles yea, I do. [:

Buut! I’m gonna go on a trip to California (from L.A. to San Francisco) in March!!!! It’s gonna be SO great [:

Anyhow.. having written wayyyy too much already I should most likely come to an end now.

I love my life here and just the thought of leaving makes me cry already. Well, luckily I’ve still got 6 months to go and I will savor them!

Don’t think I don’t miss Germany & especially all of the people there, because I do. When I think about it, I’m in a lose-lose situation. Because now I will always miss somebody/something, no matter where I am!! :(

 

…

Much love to Germany, America, or wherever you, who reads this, is located!

Anja <3 xoxo