College Courses: Almost Over!

First of all, let me say thank you for following my blog and leaving me comments. It makes me feel special, and like I'm not just talking to myself! xD

I have just 4 more math classes, and 2 more career and personal development classes, then I am done with collge courses for the summer! I want to spend more time at the food bank during the next month of summer, I am starting to miss people, and want something to do...

As for my German exchange, I didn't write anything about the conference call that I had on June 12, 2009 yet. It wasn't very informative, and most of it was going over a list of clothing items we need to bring, which had already been sent to us in an e-mail. Having a Visa card was suggested for use instead of money, that way we don't need to be carrying around as much money. We were told to bring a German thesaurus, English - German dictionary, backpack, 2 weeks of toiletries, and presents for our host family. We were also told that we need to adjust to our host families, not have them adjust to us.

Culture shock was also touched on. Symptoms are stereotyping the host country, homesickness, boredom, and excessive sleeping/eating. The solutions were to overcome this by interacting with your host community, exercising, reflecting on why you wanted to be an exchange student, and thinking positive instead of negative. The stages were described as follows,
1 Honeymoon - everything great and interesting
2 Focusing on differences
3 Comfortable in new environment
4 Able to function in a new culture
5 Re-entry shock - coming back to America, where everything that was once so comfortable is suddenly so strange

One of the alumni was on the conference call, and said that he was able to function in October, but not able to carry on a conversation until May. He wanted to be away from school because he felt like it was alienating him, and he felt like he couldn't have friends because he couldn't communicate. Being patient was strongly suggested for almost every problem that you have as an exchange student.

I've ammassed enough toothbrushes for my whole exchange year (thanks mom), enough toothpaste for a really long time, more deodorant than I've used in my entire lifetime, a really nice new backpack, an even nicer pair of gloves, and a rainproof jacket thing, as well as a new, and bigger, suitcase. I can't even remember the other things I have, but they're all invading a section of my room, where all of it is stacked on itself. I also have had some trash in that area for about a week now (I couldn't find my camera charger and started cleaning my room), but my mom still hasn't really noticed, even though I went as far as putting a sticky note labeled 'trash' in front of one pile... I should probally clean that up before she reads this blog. Other than that, my mom also bought presents for my host family. She got Arizona themed socks, two weird pens, and an Arizona shirt. She also got me a cross necklace, which I want to bring with me to wear in Germany. I'm going to be scared to death in a foreign country, and I want a reminder I'm not alone...

I cannot wait until school starts again! I want to take every single piece of work I get back from my college math class, and show it to Mr. Henrion. I got 101% on my last test in that college class, but I got a B in both semesters of Mr. Henrion's lower level class...