A Long Awaited Update...

Okay, I am so sorry I have not written in here sooner. I guess my original promise of writing in here every Saturday was completely false. But now, I have so much to write about because I visited so many places and did so many things.

I'll start with the major thing: the German language. It is so hard. There are six different words for “the” and another six for “a.” There are three genders (yes, apparently having feminine and masculine wasn't enough, they had to throw neuter in there as well) with pretty much no rules to which a noun belongs to. And the word order in a sentence is completely different than in English. For example, “I think that I should go to bed because I am tired” translates to, “Ich denke, dass ich ins Bett gehen soll, weil ich müde bin.” If you literally translate that word for word back to English, that means, “I think, that I in bed to go should, because I tired am.” So you can see where I sometimes get confused. But with all joking aside, I really love the German language. I think I am finally getting a hold of it. I can understand almost everything that people are saying now if they don't speak too fast or if they don't speak in a dialect. I can hold a conversation pretty well, I think, albeit with many mistakes, but people can understand what I'm trying to say. For the past month, I've been going to language class. It's a little too easy for me, but I'm learning more about the grammar and it's good to practice my German. It's so cool because my class consists of mainly adults from all around the world. I'm the only one from the US and there are about 20 of us. Because of that, the class is taught all in German. It really isn't as bad as you would think. I understand everything in class and it's good to learn how to speak German without having to translate it back to English. That way, it's easier and faster to talk and understand. I only have two more weeks left until I go back to regular German high school. I truly think that my German has improved so much since the time I've been here and I'm proud of that.


I have visited so many interesting places these past couple months. In late September, we took a weekend trip to Erlangen, which is in Bavaria, for my host mother's brother-in-law's birthday party. It's a gorgeous city and the forest there is so picturesque. There I met some of the family. They were all so welcoming and nice, I only have good things to say about the experience. The way back, we stopped in an old city called Rothenburg ob der Tauber. All the buildings were so historic, I liked them very much. Everything was so colorful and decorated. Even the original town wall was still intact. The only drawback was that there were way too many tourists, but I guess that's expected when a place is as stunning as that.

A few Saturdays later, I went with my exchange friend from Serbia, her host family, and my host sister to a book fair in Frankfurt. The day mainly consisted of travel because Frankfurt is about 3 hours away from where we live. It was fun, but very uncomfortable because there were way too many people jammed into such a small place. I guess that's due to the fact that it's the biggest book fair in the world. The real disappointing thing was that you actually couldn't buy any books. But oh well. It was an experience.

Another weekend, I had my first AFS camp while in Germany. It was located about an hour away from where I live at a lake called Schluchsee. There, I met a bunch of amazing people from all around the world. It's so cool because at one point I was with three of my friends and we realized that we were all from different continents but we still were able to bond immediately. The world is such a small place and I keep on realizing that more with every new day. Oh, and family, Schluchsee reminds me a lot of Kinzua, it's unbelievable!

The biggest trip that we've taken so far was to France last week. My host mother's sister lives in Normandy with her family so we stayed at their house. Even though I've had five years of French in school, my German is about ten times better because I could barely understand a word. Oops. But other than that, my time in France was amazing. We were near the city Le Havre, which is right on the English Channel. We visited a couple beaches that were breathtaking. It was extremely windy though. Even with my hair up in a ponytail, my hair still ended up somehow in my face. But the water there was a different color, like a bluish gray, something I've never seen before. We visited le Mont-Saint-Michel another day. Let's just say it was interesting. Don't get me wrong, it was definitely one of the most beautiful places that I've ever visited, but there way too many tourists. Way too many. There was no room to eat or to do anything. Nevertheless, I'm so glad I had the chance to see such a awe-inspiring place. Needless to say that it's even more impressive in person. But I would definitely have to say that highlight of the trip was our day in Paris. I am not ashamed to say that I am in love with the city. There's just something about the atmosphere of the place. We went to the top of the Eiffel Tower first thing. If you ever get the opportunity to visit Paris, make sure you do that. It's worth however long you have to wait. At the top, you can see the whole city. Everything. It left me speechless. After that we visited le Louvre. Again, spectacular. To think that the whole entire building is just a museum is so strange yet so, for lack of a better word, cool. Then we went to the Sacre Coeur, which was so inspirational because although there were so many people inside, it was almost dead quiet. All in all our trip to France was amazing. Oh, and I also ate a crepe in Paris. I hate to say it, but I've had better in North America. I guess you can't have everything.

Now about my life in Germany. Right now, like I said before, I'm going to language class. I have to wake up at about 5:45 every day and then leave the house by 6:30 for the bus stop. It's about a ten minute walk to the bus and then it's about a ten minute bus ride to the train station. Then it's about a fifteen minute train ride to the city where my classes are. THEN it's about another ten minute walk. It's actually not as confusing as I thought is was going to be. I'm used to it now and actually kind of like it. My class runs from 8:00-12:20. Then I come home, do my homework, and then the rest of my day is free. What I do during that time differs from day to day. Sometimes I cook or bake, sometimes I play piano, sometimes I just talk with my amazing host family. My life here is finally starting to feel normal and I think I've settled in pretty nicely.


One other thing I've learned how to do here is dancing. Actual pair dancing. Both of my host siblings take classes and they've taught me a little bit. Unlike in the United States, it, at least in my region, is completely normal and many teenagers can do it. It's a lot of fun and hopefully I will keep it up to some extent when I come back to the US.


Of course there are many things that are different between the US and Germany. Here are just a handful of examples that I can think of off the top of my head:

1. I've already explained this, but I use public transportation here a lot more. Most teenagers in the US have their parents drive them to school, or they take the school bus. Here, they take either a public bus, a train, or they ride their bikes. I really like the system because I'm not always dependent on a car here.
2. At least in my German family, our biggest meal of the day almost always is lunch. My host mom stays at home, my host dad is a pilot so he's home sometimes for a few days, and a lot of the time at least one of us kids is home as well from school. Then for dinner we eat usually bread with cheese or sausage.
3. When watching TV, there are less commercial breaks. Due to that fact though, they usually last quite a bit longer. The first time I watched German TV, I was so confused because they just kept going on and on. I kind of like it better that way though. You're not interrupted as much and then you can take your time doing what you want during the break.
4. They recycle a lot more here. In my family, we have three garbage cans: one for organic material like apple cores, one for plastic, and the other for everything else except paper. Even in my school they have that. I'm still trying to learn where everything goes but I think I'm finally getting used to it.
5. People here tell it like it is. If they don't like something, they're not afraid to give criticism. They're not being harsh or mean. They're just trying to help you. For example, if you ask someone in the US if they like your shirt and in reality they don't, they'd still say they like it (obviously not in all cases) because they don't want to seem rude. In Germany, they'd give their real opinion, of course not in a harsh tone though. They're honestly trying to help you when they say things like that. I like it better that way. You know when that when someone gives you a compliment, it's genuine.

So, that's all I have for now. This was a bit long, but I kind of slacked a little bit keeping this going, so I feel obligated to write more. I'll try to write the next time something exciting happens or when I have enough time. I hope you all are doing well back home! And as a side note, it's becoming a lot harder to write coherent English...