MAKING THE BEST WITH WHAT I HAVE

Today we went to Hannover. It is a very nice city, much cleaner and historic looking than Hamburg. We had a tour of the Rathouse (town hall) and went in the worlds only curved elevator to the spire for a better view of the city. The elevator was really weird. The man working it saw me looking up and said "you can look down, too, you know" so I did, and the floor was glass, too! I was like "um, no thank you". It was very strange the way you tip to the side. The top of the tower was amazing, with a beautiful view of the lake in the distance and the pond with ducks and trees and flowers behind the Rathouse. It was very windy, but it was beautiful.
We had about two and a half hours to walk around, so my group set out to wander. One girl in the group was starting to get on my nerve, so I decided to put it past me and have a good time. Eventually we found this small store that sold pastries and coffee and tea and aprons ad cups and amazing cooking and kitchen supplies. Me and two other girls decided to stay and look around for a little while longer. The girl was sort of getting antsy and wanted to leave, so her and the buggy in our group left. The three of us had a great rest of the afternoon, talking about everything under the sun and enjoying our last day instead of fighting stupid battles. You can't get along with everyone, nor is it realistic to try. We decided to go back to the Rathouse 20 minutes early so we could see the pond out back. We fed the ducks with pieced of our lunch that we didn't want, and enjoyed some much needed sunshine. It was nice to just sit there in the sun and be happy about it, not stressed from the girl in our group bossing us around and constantly chattering.
I started packing immediately when we got home. It's sad to be packing up :(. I'm not ready to go back, yet. The people are so amazing. The culture is so fascinating. The language is still so new to me... I packed for about two hours, until we had to leave for the going away party. They set up bowling at a local bowling alley that was small enough for all of us. :) for not bowling in a really long time, I did really well. I got a 131(?) after almost two rounds :) it was a lot of fun. This group of kids is awesome and they made this trip so much better. After bowling, Björns mom took the four of us to McDonalds, where I got a chocolate shake and fries so I could show them my favorite of the weird American things I eat. :) they were a little surprised at first, but I think they all liked it. It was very nice. Before I left the car, Björns mom handed me an envelope and told me that I was a picture from when we watched the football game a few days ago. (I opened the envelope when I got home and found two small bags of gummy bears. I'll probably eat them on the plane.) It was very thoughtful of them. I've really enjoyed getting to know Björn and his family better, too. I mean, we've spent so much time with them! When I finally got home, Jakob's mom went into the dining room area and brought me back some pictures from last night and two CDs with German music. This is all in addition to the enormous amounts of candy they got me to take home. They're so generous. I'm going to miss them.
Choos,
Zoë