After 14+ hours of travel, I'm safely back in Germany with my host family. So how was England? Awesome. I was there for two weeks, as the only American Jürgen Matthes, which is over 30 years old, has ever had. I stayed with a British host family, who was great, and went to English lessons daily. (heh). Anyways, it was wonderful!
Sunday: We arrived after 14+ hours of traveling at probably about 11am, but I'm not positive. We were all picked up by our host families, and there were no planned activities. Marlene, the other Jürgen Matthes student in the family, and I went for a hike, got really lost, and found our way back home after probably an hour. We had actually been about 50 meters from the house the whole time. The hike was absolutely beautiful though. Then, my host dad took us down to the town center. There's a store that my host family helps out with that sells, wait for it, American candy. Poptarts, Gobstoppers, Twizzlers, Nerds, then throw on the 10% friends and family discount and I'll be good to go for a couple months. I also had my first Starbucks in well over a month. I have to admit, holding that pumpkin spice latter really made my day. I also had my first KFC in probably years, which was another memorable moment.
Monday: On Monday we all met at the pier, bright and early, for a sight´seeing tour. We drove by the downs, which are chalk (I think) cliffs near Eastbourne. One in particular, Beachy Head, is internationally famous as a suicide point. I thought that was interesting, I suppose. Anyways, after the bus tour we had some free time. I bought a Union Jack umbrella which turned out to be very handy during the stay. Later was a JM meeting, which involved lots of strobe lights, lots of of German that I didn't understand, and a lot of papers. We got our bus passes and such, and soon after the meeting we had a scavenger hunt. We were also given 25+ JM hats, which we passed out to random members of the community. It was great. If I remember correctly, we had a JM party that night. There were a lot of JM parties.
Tuesday: We had out first day of school. I was in a minigroup, so there were only four other students and we went to the teacher's house each day. I learned some new British English vocabulary, which was cool. After class, I think this was on Tuesday, we had the choice of bowling or laser tag. Naturally, I chose laser tag. I was horrible at it but it was really cool, medieval themed with lots of neon paint and black lights. We had to wear these huge vests with guns attached. I go pretty into is.
Wednesday: If we had signed up, we had the option of going to London and going to the Harry Potter studios, the Lion King (the musical), and I think the other option was going to a stadium of sorts. I had signed up for The Lion King, so I didn't have class. It was absolutely amazing. I saw the show when I was about seven with my family, but then again, I was seven so I didn't remember too much. We took the train back home after some quality chicken McNuggets and then went to a JM party.
Thursday: We had class, and then an excursion to the nearby town of Brighton. Well, everyone else went to Brighton. I couldn't find anyone at our meeting point and ended up getting KFC and then walking on the beach and taking photos. So it really wasn't so bad.
Friday: Okay now my memory is getting foggy. We had class, Then I actually have no idea. Then we had, wait for it, a JM party.
Saturday: We had class, but afterwards had the choice of several things including mini-golf, bumper cars, and swimming. I went swimming. It was in a large indoor pool with what seemed to be the world's slowest slide, but every ten minutes there was a series of waves, which was really really neat. Not to mention a human-sized dryer for only a euro.
Sunday: We woke up painfully early, and waited for the bus at seven o'clock, and then it was off to London for a sight-seeing tour. We drove around the city, taking blurry pictures out the bus windows of Big Ben, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, everything. We drove over the Tower Bridge and then went to Madame Tussauds. I took plenty of pictures with various wax celebrities, and there was a haunted house that I went through. My friends were really amazed by how loud I could scream. Here's the thing - it was dark and foggy, and in between strobe light flashes it was impossible to tell who was a real person and who was a wax figure. After that traumatic but fun event, we went on a ride in the museum called The Spirit of London, and you got to sit in little miniature british taxi cabs and see London's history. After Madame Tussauds, we drove around the city some more, and then I got to meet up with a friend who I haven't seen since I was nine. We spent a couple hours at the British Museum and got to see the Rosetta Stone, which is currently housed there, along with plenty of hieroglyphs. It was awesome seeing her! We had tea and talked in the museum cafe, basically filling each other in on what had happened in the past six years. It ended to quickly though, and I met back up with the group. Then we all headed back to Eastbourne...for a JM party.
Monday: We had our usual three - three and a half hours of school, and then, if I remember correctly, had a tennis/volleyball/soccer tournament. However, due to the fact that the first hurricane since the 1980's was passing through, well, it really turned out to be a less-than-mild storm of sorts, thankfully, but it still made Monday very cold and wet though. I went with the intention of playing volleyball, which I have never played in my life, but there was no one playing so i sat inside watching people play tennis. I got a third-place medal. I didn't even touch a racquet. Man, I wonder how well I would have done if I'd actually played! Anyways, after our failure tennis time, my friend and I got Starbucks and then went to Claire's in search of outfits for a bad taste party that night. Then, to complete our shopping trip, went to Primark and tried on animal pajama onesies. No shame, I ended up buying one. No shame. It's a tabby cat and it's fabulous. Anyways, we had our bad taste party, to which I wore a weird spider headband and made my hair really strange.
Tuesday: London, round three: shopping. Once again, there was no class, and we boarded the bus at a painfully early hour. Then, it was off to London once again. Those who had booked it ahead of time went on the London Eye, and I wasn't in that group so I started shopping with some friends. We also saw some guards and horses, who we took pictures with, and continued on our way. London had pretty much every store imaginable; from Chanel to Urban Outfitters to H&M. There were plenty of touristy "I <3 London" shops and then, of course, Harrods. I wanted to go but to be perfectly honest, six hours is not near enough time. I went when I was younger though, so I wasn't too disappointed. To get back to the JM meeting point, my friend and I took the London Tube which is always an adventure. Then, after an exhausting day, we headed home.
Wednesday: Our last day of class! Slightly sentimental. Then, we had a photo session followed by a scavenger hunt, which I didn't participate in. I did go to the photo session though. That was it for the day.
Thursday: Our final day started off with a JM meeting, where we were given plenty of JM pens and papers. We watched a slideshow from the two weeks, followed by an awards ceremony and final goodbyes. Then, that evening, we had a Halloween/Pajama party. I sported that oh-so-fabulous cat onesie, which was very uncomfortable to dance in but was worth it. My host family also had a small Halloween party with games like dunking for apples and pinning to tail on the cat. It was a great Halloween.
Friday: There were no planned activities. At 3:30 we got on the buses, and 14 hours later I was back home!
Updates from Germany:
I'm now assisting with a 5th grade English class every Monday, which I love. All of the 5th graders asked me if I spoke American, which made my week.
There are advent calendars here with beer. Wow.
I'm go to my first Fußball game on Saturday!!
In less than two weeks, I will be one-third through my exchange year. How is this possible?!
There's probably so many more but look at this long blog post I've just written. I'll try to write another post before December but no promises.
Big Ben!!
I took this from the ferry as we left France. I feel somewhat accomplished as a photographer
Have a Ferry Merry Christmas! Get it? *Ba-dum-ching*
One of the first things we saw in England - a castle. This was in Dover, where the ferry arrived. 
Eastbourne is lovely!
The pier in Eastbourne
That time I "hattified" Eastbourne, as I mentioned earlier - basically, during our first scavenger hunt, my group was given over 25 JM hats. We didn't need any, so we passed them out to people. The bus driver, the janitor, the woman behind the counter at the supermarket: anyone who would take one. The people in this picture promised to wear them to a party. 
Selfie with a guard. He's not the smiling type.
Seeing Astara!!
All of the JM students had group leaders, and here is my group's picture. 