Beryl is completing her 13th year of high school and living with her family. Her mom, Beate, studied abroad in Canada so is fluent in English, but it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that every person I talked to in Germany is also entirely fluent, as well. I don't know what Germany is doing differently than Italy, but it's working. Beryl's dad, Ralf is a math teacher at one of the high schools, and he's a funny and super friendly guy. Her brother, Yannik, is a few years younger, and immediately started treating me like his sister. They were all so friendly and welcoming! They have a cozy house and eat nice normal meals together and drink tea. I loved it.School in Germany was more like America than Italy. It's not comparable to Truckee High much, but it could be closely related to other high schools t
hat don't use the block schedule. Sometimes I went to class with Beryl, and other times it was prearranged for me to go speak in different English classes in her school and the neighboring school. We usually spoke about schools in America, did some Q&A, or sang Christmas carols. :] One of the classes I went to had kids that were only about 10 years old, and it was amazing to see how fluent even they were at English. Every class was always fascinated at the idea of foods and leadership classes... I guess we're spoiled, huh?On the 6th of December, Saint Nicholas is celebrated. Everyone puts their shoes out the night before, and in the morning they're filled with candy and treats. That was a pleasant surprise. :] I also went to Rotary's Saint Nicholas party in the middle of the woods with Bea, the exchange student from Venezuela. At the meeting I also met Manot from France, along with some local girls who are daughters of Rotarians. Everyone just chatted
and hung by the fire and drank hot chocolate and ate treats for the first couple of hours, and then we all went on a walk in the forest for a while. When we came back, we sang Christmas carols and Santa came (yes, Santa, not Saint Nicholas, which was a bit religiously incorrect) from "across the pond" and passed out presents to us all! He told me he had been in Italy looking for me earlier and couldn't find me... hardy har har... anyway. He gave me a book about The Rhine river. Thanks, Santa. :] By the by, the target audience of this event was all of the Rotarians' little kids, and Santa somehow "knew" things to say to them like "Sebastian, did you jump over the fence at Kindergarten and explore the city? Did you know that the police had a hard time finding you?! ...Did you have fun?" before giving them their presents... and the kids reactions were so adorable to watch! Poor Sebastian was traumatized. After all the present-giving was finished we all had dinner at a winery, and I got flags from the Alzey Rotary club to bring to my hosting and sponsoring clubs. :] They also informed me of their three-week Euro Trip later on this year, so I may be able to go with them, since my district in Italy isn't planning one for us. Hurray!
Beryl was a wonderful tour guide. We went to all corners of her town, Alzey, and also travelled to Bad Kreuznach, Gau-Odernheim, Hahn, Lorsch, Mainz, Mannheim, Wiesbaden, and Frankfurt! Every city in Germany has a Christmas market filled with booths selling hot sausages and drinks and little knick-knacks and treats, so it was always so marvelous to see those! The market in Frankfurt was huge, and hosted the tallest Christmas tree in Germany, standing at a staggering 31 meters tall! And we got some classic sausages, too. Stupendous. I also got to go to a prom-type thing put on by Beryl's dance school that she both 
attends and works for, which was great. Seriously, almost everyone in her city has at some point taken these dance lessons and knows how to Discofox and Tango and ChaCha. Pretty impressive. We also babysat one night, so I now know how to count to 10 and say "we're coming!" in a German game of Hide & Seek. And if you know Beryl, you know how much she raves about it, so of course we made it to Ikea for dinner one night. And had kebabs a couple times, which, as Josh promised, were delicious. And don't worry, Truckeeites, Josh and Beryl are getting married 
soon, on the arrangement that they open The Döner Party, a Kebab Restaurant, and she gets her American citizenship. She even put that in her yearbook under "Future Plans," and announced it during French class when the teacher asked what everyone was doing after they graduate. Ahaha.It was so hard leaving Beryl and her wonderful family and Alzey as a whole. But they invited me to come back in April when it's warmer and Beryl had graduated, so maybe I can work that in. And for now I'm back to writing in my journal during
hours of Greek and Latin. Yaaay. We have school for the rest of this week and Monday the 22nd, and then we have almost two weeks off for Christmas break.Oh, last night I went to pizza with Hilary and Steph and about 30 other foreigners to Sassari. It was put on by the Italian lessons they all go to. It was cool to talk to everyone. Most of them were from Senegal, and then some from Russia and the Middle East. Everyone was very friendly! It was fun. And the locals that were there invited me to their "American Breakfast" on Friday at the Science school for a pancake party, so maybe I can go to that!
I now own a calligraphy pen, thanks to Beryl. :] I never knew writing could be so fun.
