XXII. The coolest feelings

   For those of you lucky enough to live in Lititz, you probably received the Lititz Record Express this morning, and you most likely have noticed my article inside. For that article I mostly wrote about how I celebrated Thanksgiving last week, and to spare my fingers, I will not go on about it once again, but I can summarize by saying that I attempted to make a Thanksgiving dinner and introduced foreign food to my host family.

This is proof that I tried. In this picture, I am on the left, my host brother in the middle, and "Vati" (host dad) on the right. My "Mutti" (host mom) took the picture.

XXI. Lucerne and my polka-dotted bubble

   This last weekend I met up with some American friends, and we went Christmas shopping in Lucerne. Shhhhhh!! Don't tell anyone!

The bridges in Lucerne

   Before I begin to indulge you with lot more pictures, I must first say that although I had the best couple of days this last weekend, they did come with consequences.
   My friend Hannah has a Gleis 7 card which basically means that she can travel everywhere in Switzerland for free as long as it's after 7:00 at night and before 5:00 in the morning. Of course she

XX. The realities of reading

   For once, this week was almost about normal as it could be. Living the life as a foreign-exchange student is not, as one might presume, always filled with excitement and adventures. For school, I am stuck now trying to read books in German, and that is SO not exciting. I don't know how my fellow classmates do it because, not only do they have to read German books, but they all have to read multiple English and French books too.

This is pretty much the first and only book that I can actually understand! "Märchenland" basically

XIX. Thinking of America

   As you may be aware, Hurricane Sandy was recently born, combined also with a typical winter storm, and it brought its winds, gales, and utter power onto the Northeast of America. Of course, my American home was pretty much in its direct path, and for two days I constantly sent prayers to God to keep my family and home and country safe. It was practically torture to have to go to school when the sun was shining and to not be able to check the news or even know how my family was doing.

   God must have heard my prayers because my family soon emailed me to say that they were fine, the worst was over, and the only damage was that the fence was a little twisted. They didn't even lose their electricity! I was immensely relieved.

   It is very odd to receive all the news about the US from across the ocean. I keep seeing pictures of New