Happy New Year 2011

Hey,

first of all. A happy new year! I woke up pretty late. It was 8:30am when I ate my oatmeal for breakfast. I didn't eat the regular one. The other kinds are really, really bad. You can't eat oatmeal with cinnamon. That's not fair for the oatmeal. It has to be pure. ;)

The toilet, the cold, and the cabin. None of these things is bothering me. I'm not that girlie than my host family expected me to be. My German buddies know that. It was actually more than great to be out their. I walked with Tom in the morning. It was fun! I love to try to walk as silent as possible in the high grass or on stones. We didn't see anythhing, but he had time to explain a few things to me. He showed me tracks, the food they eat and how they like to act or hide. That was really interesting. We met the other. None of us got a deer, but Adrian and Bill saw one and got a chance for a shot. Bill had the chance for the shot, not Adrian ;)

[Everything is so dry]

Back at the cabin the three showed me how to shoot a pistol and a riffle. They all three watched me all the time, gave me advices and gave me a many, many time to feel confident with a weapon in my hand. I started with the pistol and Bill was always there for me. I think I could call him my shooting mentor. He held my ears the first time, and than I shot without any ear protection. First you can't hear anything and than a long beeeb tone bothers your ears, noises around you become louder, and than they're finally louder than the beeeb and everything is normal. I like the pistol, but not as much as I love the riffle. It's just awesome. I love the scope, the sound, the weight of the riffle. I have no clue about the diffrent kind of riffle. How big they are or whatever. I just know that I shot with something like twenty and the other one was a bigger one with 30-30 patrons. I love to shoot with the riffles, and they said I wasn't bad for my first time. I hit the 10 area 3 times and placed five others on the target. I didn't make a picture of my final score, but I made a picture. I think the picture is missing my last shots.

[Okay for the first time ;)]

We went out to the windmill after the shooting and lunch. We all had turkey sandwiches. Anyway, we drove down their ans saw a crippled deer. Tom got a shot and killed the deer. It was horrible. The front leg was surrounded by a wire and the deer was walking on his front bone. The hoof fell off. I'm glad that we saw this dear and shot it. So it didn't have to suffer. Tom stayed their with the deer while I walked with Bill.

It was a really funny and enertaining walk. We saw two deers, but they were to far away for a shot. Bill showed me his favourite place, and we walked trough a forrest. It was so beautiful. I found my second part of the deer antler walking with Bill and the first one walking with Tom. We didn't see anything else and walked back to Tom and his deer before the sun was going under. Bill started to cut the deer. Tom already put all the organs out and hung up the deer. Honestly, I was fascinated by the organs. I never saw them in real. It looked like everything in the biology books. The color and everything. That was really cool! I held the flash light for Tom.

[The deer]

I found two parts of a deer antler today, I got a pocket knife, the tail of Toms deer, the bullet shell, and a bullet. Tom and I practised playing guitar, looked old photos and I started to read my book. That was an awesome day! I just like hunting! That are a lot of things I like combined, and honestly shooting isn't bad. It makes fun, and I'm glad they led me try it, and I'm really thankful they took care of me.

Sonja