German Encounters: Family trip, Birthday, Mid-Stay CBYX Style and Italy

Soooooo, three weekends ago I took a train back to Celle, where I spent my first month of Germany in. I went to see my friend Ilana from the US too. She was also in my language camp. I spent the night over her house and we just hung out and caught up on how our life here in Germany was going. It was fun, I really enjoyed it.
Then two weekends ago I was in the Harz Mountains with my host family and families from participators of the Jedermann Sport (Everybody Sport) group. We left Friday after everyone got home from school and drove about an hour or so to the Harz. When we got there it was a big house with a place where we could all hang out and eat dinner. It was warm but it was 10 degrees colder than what it normally would be here where I live. We stayed there until Sunday. We played lots of board games and card games, ate a bunch and laughed a lot. It was a great weekend to spend with my entire family. I had lots of fun, even without the phone reception :p
Then after returning home I had to repack my suitcase and prepare for my week long half time camp for CBYX. March 18th was the first day, I had to take 3 trains and it took over 4 hours to get there. For those of you who know me personally know that March 18th is my birthday. At first I was really bummed out that I had to be on a train and stuff on my birthday instead of spending it with my host family and friends. I got to Hannover and met with Bri and Brennan. They suprised me with cake and cupcakes, along with the apple cake that my host dad baked for me to bring with me. We were on the train from Hannover to Cologne for about 4 hours, and as normal, ICE was late causing us to miss our trains going to Bad Honnef... Meaning we had to wait an hour in Cologne until our next train. When we were in the train we ate a lot, caught up with our lives/exchange year and attempted to play Skipbo. When we finally arrived we were waiting on one more person. Angelica found me and gave me cheesecake she got for me. (I had lots of cakes). Then we started our onward journey to the Youth Hostel. I think it was on the complete opposite side of the city. Thankfully since it was my birthday Brennan carried my suitcase. BFFS 4 LIFE. (for my birthday) It was awesome because it was basically on top of a mountain. I don't remember excatly in order what we did but we went to Bonn one day, when to the place of prayer for muslims, learned about the religion, it was so interesting. Then after the people had made lunch and offered us to eat with them, it was really good food and tasted so gooooooood! Went too museums, did some workshops, watched movies, went to Cologne one day. Had city tours of both cities. We had a bit of free time for lunch in Cologne and I made it to the Love Lock Bridge. It was sooo pretty. The weather was beautiful that week, that I'm very thankful for.
Here are some pictures from Midstay Camp.

Shortly after that it was April, and luckily for me that meant Spring Break was coming up. 3 weeks without school. Niedersachen was very giving this year for Easter. From April 13th-20th I flew with Ilana, another CBYXer, to Italy. We stayed with Eleonora and her family. We flew from Hannover to Milan. It only took 1 hour and 1/2. Her family and her picked us up from the Airport and we drove back to her house in Cassano. The first night we went for a walk around her town, she showed us around. It was very pretty. Eleonora's mom cooked us dinner and lunch every day. It was so delicious. But waaaay to much in quantity. Pasta as an appetizer, then the dinner, fruit as before dessert, and then dessert.. every night. I don't know how everyone doesn't weigh so much! While we were in Italy we traveled to Venice, Verona, Milan, Bergemo, Treviglio, and Cassano. It was very fun, we actually met up with some people from England that was also visiting a girl from Italy, that was a friend of Eleonora. Eleonora didn't have spring break as long as we did. She had to go to school that first three days we were there and then we traveled after. One day Ilana and I went to school with her to see what school systems where like, it was approved by the school for us to come as exchange students for one day and it is completely different then German school systems, and american.
Italian stereotypes that I have heard from Italy are true:
Pizza
Pasta
Gellato
How they talk with their hands
They way I envisioned Italy to be, before traveling there was also right on spot.
Small narrow roads that have buildings on both sides, mopeds, and brick/rocky roads.
It was beautiful and I'm glad it was a place I got to travel too.

The last but funny part about Italy, Ilana and I were in the Bathroom and couldn't figure out how to flush the toilet. There was a string hanging from the wall, and Ilana said she thought I should just pull that. I was like no I don't think so, I think that is an alarm. "no, no" pulls the string, the alarm goes off.How embarrassing. It sounded through the entire building and me and Ilana were just laughing not embarrassed, it was rather amusing. They shut if off and we said sorry. It wasn't too bad, but funny. We left the bathroom and everyone was looking at us. Eleonora and Giulia thought it was so funny too... Opppppsies.

Here are some pictures from it all enjoy: