Really Late Post.

On Saturday I went with Tara and Lucas to the Berlin-Spandau train station. There, we met our host families and went off with them. No more language camp! I was sad about leaving, since I was just starting to get REALLY comfortable there, and even the people that had really annoyed me at first seemed to not bother me anymore. I gave my teacher, Evelin, flowers, chocolate, and a card, and she was so happy to get them :D. I also painted a thank you card for the kitchen ladies, and painted an envelope in the colors of the German flag and sent it to America for my cousin’s birthday... I don’t think she got it yet. My mom sent me a package with the MOST motherly things ever; hand lotion, heating pads, cough drops, Airborne (basically vitamins), heating pads for muscle pain, and beef jerky. Evelin cried when all of the kids had loaded onto the bus to go to the train station in Magdeburg and were starting to pull away... she was a really sweet lady.

I’ve had my first days in actual real German culture now. The train ride to Berlin wasn’t the best, I was so tired by the end of it because I had to move my big heavy suitcases all over the place, and down two flights of stairs. On the train, it kind of hit me that I’m really just a little kid. I almost got out at the wrong stop, since there was a train stop that said something like Rathenow-Berlin-Spandau. Of course, it was wrong. Finally, at the right stop I was looking at the crowd for my host family, and I saw them, and some German guy helped me with my suitcases, and then my host parents helped me with my suitcases, and then we were in the car. I also tried Froop. I will probably never try it again. They use so much less sugar in their foods here, and I miss SUGAR!!!! But, then my host parents drove me to our house, and I put my suitcases away, had something to eat, then we walked around in Schöneburg. Berlin has SOOOO many trees, it’s so beautiful! My school is also by a forest, so it has even more trees. Actually, my house is by a forest as well :D. It’s also cold here. Anyways, Sunday we went to church, and I almost fell asleep about 5 times, then we went to Kaffeepause with the other church people because it was raining. Oh yeah, it rains here, not like in Arizona. Then, we rode our bikes back to the house (my host family likes to ride bikes, on Saturday my host dad is going on a bicycling tour, and he even rides his bike in to work). Monday my host mom brought me to the Hans-Carrossa-Gymnasium. I met a girl from my class there, and she showed me the school. She is basically like my babysitter at school right now xD. But, she is really nice. Everyone in my class seems to be nice so far. My first day at school I wasn’t too scared by the fact that I didn’t know much German, because I could still follow what was going on. The second day also went well, and the today I answered a question in math class, and also asked the teacher for help twice, and she told me that she’s happy I’m so good at math :D. She seemed REALLY happy that I was at least trying. I think I am starting to make friends with the kids in my class. They’re all nice to me, but I don’t want to get overexcited or such, because according to just about everyone German friendships take longer to establish. But, one girl asked me to ride home on the bus with her, and these three guys all seemed happy to talk to me, so I think I will make friends. I talked a lot about America in my English class, and the kids seemed really interested in it. The teacher wanted me to bring in pictures of America. Also, apparently I am the youngest person in my Klasse.

My host family is really nice. My host dad designs custom-made engines for Siemens. He’s really funny and has an accent. Someone had even asked me if I had a hard time understanding him, since they know he has an accent. My host mom is really really REALLY nice, and really organized. One of the first things she did was to give me printouts of every bus I will take, the schedule for every day until Winter Break, and also the number to every single phone the family owns. She reminds me in some ways of my own mom. Then, my host sister. She just seems like an adorable little kid, and she really likes to read.

Anddddd, that’s all; other than the fact that I’m really not having too many problems with the language. I think it’s really cool that I’ve had conversations with my host mom where she’s speaking to me only in German, and I’m speaking to her in English :D. I am speaking German every day, admittedly not 100% with everyone, but for someone who has had only 4 weeks of real German courses, I think I’m doing really good. I’m able to have a conversation in German.

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So, I wrote all of that stuff two days ago, and just didn’t get around to posting it until today, and I realized I forgot to mention some stuff. After a week, I’ve realized that German culture really IS different. Something that we don’t think of as important in America could be really important here... and vice-versa. Also, my host sister just gave me a huge pile of books to read to improve my German, I’ve gotten a German SIM Card for my phone, someone invited me over their house, I bought 75 Euro leather boots for only 20 Euros :D, and I bought this really pretty jacket and scarf. I think my French class will be easy, because I already know about 90% of the vocabulary in the test my teacher’s given us (and I was really scared because German school was supposed to be so advanced o.O), I understood my BK (PK classes are like AP courses in America, but BK are just regular level. At my school, you can only pick 2 PK courses) math class since I already learned logarithms, and in my PK biology class we’re going over basic level osmosis (which I already learned). And the math teacher that told me I was so good at math...? Turns out she’s also the principal. My community representative was also told by her that she’s really pleased with me. My CR visited yesterday, and it went well. She seems like a really nice lady, and she spoke REALLY good English.

On the bus ride out of Hedersleben, the bus drive gave Anne a box from Johny, this Hedersleben kid. A ring was in the box. It had John engraved on the inside. Anyways, this kid had a huge crush on Anne, he had even waited outside the monastery in the rain once to talk to her, because she accidentally told him that she was in love with him in German. Apparently, saying “ich liebe dich” (I love you), is only reserved for your lover, and she said that to Johny... ever since then, he has liked her. A lot. A lot a lot. So now, she is going to write him a letter saying that she doesn’t feel the same way, and asking if he wants his ring back.

My first day in P.E. class, we had the Cooper Test. That’s where you run around a track for 12 minutes straight, and then the teacher actually grades you on distance. Art class also goes like that, where if you just suck at it, you still get a bad grade.

The first day I used the Berlin bus system, I got lost. My host mom thought that there would be a chess club after school, so she told me to get on this bus an hour and a half after school ended. It turns out that chess club is only on Wednesdays, and it hasn’t even started yet, so I just went to the bus stop. And sat there. I didn’t realize that the many buses going by me for over an hour could have brought me to the same place as the one my host mom told me to use >:(. Then, when the bus finally comes, it’s late and then it breaks down, every has to get off, and we get onto another bus. When I finally got to the place I was supposed to get off at, it was past the time that the second bus I was supposed to take was supposed to have been there. But, by then I sort of noticed that every bus that had gone by me had the same destination thing written in their digital screens, so I just went to the wrong bus stop and waited there for 20 minutes. I was starting to get worried, and I was trying to call my host parents (none of them had their cell phones on :’(), when I asked this German lady about the bus. She told me it would come in 5 minutes. A bus came in 2 minutes, and before she got on it she did some pointing, and I heard “anderen Bus” (other bus), so I thought she meant a bus would come to that station in 3 minutes, and it was the one I should take... but nooooooo. She meant I was on the wrong side of the road :’(. A bus did come though, and I asked the bus driver if it went to my destination, and then he told me that I was on the wrong side of the road... then I went to the bus station on the right side of the road, and I got home. Then I was happy. I know enough German to not get too lost, hooray.