The first weekend was spent in Bad Oldesloe, the 1,2 , and 3 of Dec. Were  spectacular. The exchange students from different parts of Germany go  together to go to Lübeck, a beatiful city with old, beautifully sructured  buildings. We went to Lübeck Christmas Market which impressed us all because  of its size and beauty. Many germans consider the market there one of the  prettiest in Germany.

The farewell this time was different because many of the students from  Australia wouldnt be seen again…for they were returning home after vacation.  There were a bit of tears here and there but in the end everything went  well. And since I am always the type of person that pays a lot of attention,  I took the wrong train home, very funny. The 4th of Dec. I said goodbye to the Rossle Family and to my town  Ahrensburg to open the door to anothe experience; I was leaving for  Frankfurt. Mrs. Rossle was kind and generous enough to accompany me to my  new family. We had to drive 6 hours but the trip was wonderfull for the day  was extremely sunny. I also got to see the river Rhin for the first time in  my life, with beatiful reflections on the water it was all very pretty. With my new family I live in a tiny town of about 1400 people, names,  Dexheim. Its about an hours' drive from Frankfurt. Its a bit dpressing  because it has no schools or supermarkets but it has beautiful landscapes. I  have two younger sisters one of 4 and the other of 5 which dont know yet the  words thenk you or even please but at the same time the are very cute and  funny, though you must oly know the right button to press and they will  either automatically laugh or cry. They have a very nice, big house with a  very green garden. They also have a dog that is funny in a weird way or the  other way around, anyway it doesnt obey me (really funny). I attend a school  in Oppenheim, a nearby town. Every morning I must catch a bus at 7 am and I  arrive about 15 min. later. Attending he school are about 1800 students, more  than the population of Dexheim itself.

In the beginning, it wasnt very easy to get used to my new family, because  everything with the Rossle family had been so perfect. But with time things  started to calm down and I satrted to see the good things from the  experience and from another point of view. I uderstood that I had to give  them a chance like Mrs. Rossle had told me earlier…she was very good at  giving me advice.

Here in Frankfurt, people speak with a different accent than they do in  Hamburg, I think its reall funny to be able to see the difference even though  with of without an accent its still GERMAN Christmas has been very nice ,but a bit cold for my liking. It didnt snow  until the morning of the 26th and "boy did it snow". Everything was left  very white. It gave me pleasure to see it because ever since I have been in  Florida I have not seen anything bearing a slight resemblence to snow, other  then that time I went to a hockey game…but that doesnt really count. The 24th of Dec. The relatives of the may family came to the house to spend  Christmas together. In the morning we decorated a huge tree in the middle of  the living room with all different sors of decorations and toys. At 4 pm,  dinner began, with lots of food for everyone to end up swollen. At 6 pm we  went to mass, taking great care because everything was quite frozen. ;After  mass we returned to the house, but before doing so we each had to light a  candle to leave burning through the night, something that I found to be very  curious. When we entered the house we saw that Santa had  already come and  left bunches of presents under the tree. There were moments that night we I  would get a bit sad because I was not with my family, but all in all I saw  how Christmas was celebrated here in Germany. The 31st of Dec. I had dinner with the family once again but at around 10 pm  I met with a few friends from Dexheim, to ring in the new year together. At  midnight everyone went out to the center of town to light fireworks for a  few hours, everything very noisy but just as fun. We were also able to watch  the fireworks from Frankfurt which were really impressing and nice. It was a  very long night, but it was a good thing that the following days after new  years were for relaxing and well being a bit lazy.

At the end of this month I am planning to visit my best friend, Patricia  Murey, who is in Brussels, Belgium. I am very happy to be able to visit her  for I want so much to see and spend time with her. We have had two weeks of vacation, I still have a few days to enjoy. 

Well I wish everyone a grand year full of happiness and lots of love!
Regards,

Vanessa Clavel