hai

Germany was not always one, united nation. During the Cold War, the Russian controlled side of Germany and the French, America, and British controlled sides were EXTREMELY different. So different, in fact, that people would risk their lives trying to get into the Western controlled sector of Berlin, which was in the Russian controlled section, but split between all of the four powers. Monday was the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. There was a celebration at Brandenburg Tor, and it was really nice. There was fireworks, and even Hillary Clinton. I went to the celebrations, putting me within about a mile radius of the presidents of Russia, France, and Germany, the Prime Minister (I think) of Britain, Bill Clinton, and Hillary Clinton. Beat that. Seriously though, I was SO excited. I wanted to go into the section where all of those people were, but my host dad wouldn’t let me, and neither would the police, since it was already overcrowded. So, instead I had to stand by a French news station that set up a tent to report from. Ironically, it was the same news agency as the one my French teacher in America had brought in news for us from. I tried to tell that to one of the reporters, but they thought I wanted to say that on the news... xD I tried to explain myself again, and I don’t know if he understood, but he was friendly, and that’s all that matters =]. I also met a group of Americans, some English speakers on the bus, a French guy, two people from Australia, a girl from Canada, and a girl that was born in Boston, but is now living in London. Or England. I think it was London. My father ended up asking my community representative if it’s normal for Americans to talk to everyone.

But, back to the celebrations. There was also these huge dominoes set up that were from all around the world, and were pushed over to reenact the falling of the Berliner Mauer, which is fancy German talk for the Berlin Wall. And Brandenburg Tor is also fancy German talk for the Brandenburg Gate... but anyways, there was also a rather pathetic display of fireworks. Then a voice came onto the loudspeaker and assured us it was just a warm-up, and that the real fireworks were ready :D. Yay. It was prettyfulls.


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(Here comes the normal update.)

I haven’t updated my blog in almost two weeks I think. Well, Thursday after my last post, I went ice-skating with a friend. He was a REALLY good ice skater, and I sort of just sucked, so... yeah. Ironically, right before we got to the ice skating rink, he said that in Brazil the people that said they could ice skate, could really only just skate a bit, fall down, then get back up again. He didn’t consider that real ice-skating. I was just thinking, „thanks man, that’s exactly what you’re about to see me doing“. Anyways, I fell. I got bruises. To this day, I can still see a little bit of their color. But, it’s not as bad as what he did. He decided to be a total wonder-skater man, and landed on his... I don’t know. I just saw him on the ground and he said he saw stars o.O. Our time at the ice rink ended when I fell on my head. It really hurt.

Then on Friday it was Ladies Night at this store called Karstadt... in German I would say „bei Karstadt“, and I noticed that I am starting to forget which English preposition I should use when I would use the word „bei“ in German. I also start wanting to put commas around EVERY clause. Anyways, at Ladies Night I met Mr. Beautiful and Mitch. Mr. Beautiful was a model who was getting painted in the middle of the store.

Mitch is an American that was stationed here during the war, and never went back to America. I met him while spinning this wheel to win free stuff. I won a pastry. He gave me his card so that when I go to redeem the pastry, I can ask for him too. I will, because he was really nice. And not in a creepy way. Just in a really outgoing person way :D.

Halloween. I dressed up and looked for candy. I also thanked people for donating to the United States of America, and said that we appreciated their support. I swear, some people gave us more candy just because I was talking to them in English. I even sang, „trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat! If you don’t, I don’t care, I’ll pull down your underwear!“ I found it kind of funny, because usually older siblings complain about having to take along younger siblings, but this time my host sister had to take her German-retarded older host sister along with her :D. But, I had a nice time with her and her friend. I went as the Joker, sort of. The Joker’s makeup was made more to make him look cool, while mine more or less... accentuated my cheek fat.

Anyways! Then, Monday, I tried to go to school... then after about just five minutes I left. Why? Because I started to feel like I had to puke. What did I do as soon as I got home after riding my bike through a whole freaking park, in the rain, and falling in the mud? I puked! Then I laid on a heating pad all day, and felt a lot better. So, I decided to return my huge hoard of audio books to the library. Then what did I do? I got off at the wrong stop, and I think I was even in the wrong city...

I was in a bad mood by the time I got back home.

Tuesday, something mind-blowingly amazing happened. Speaking of that, does anyone actually know when we use the hyphen to join words together in English? Because I sure don’t. Anyways, I saw someone. On the bus. It was my geography teacher. So what? So, I saw a TEACHER on the BUS! That doesn’t happen in America! I mean, sure, I use public transportation to get to school in Germany, but still... and I also took pictures of the school cafeteria. The school doesn’t actually serve meals, it’s really just a small room, compared to an American cafeteria, and serves mainly snacks; such as a huge pastry, which is called in English a „pig ear“, that’s bigger than your head. Other than the food serving counter, there’s just like six or so tables...

Wednesday. This day, last week, probably meant nothing to you. But to me, IT FREAKING SNOWED!!!! And you know how when a vehicle is really dirty, the meanie heads will write, „ please wash me“ on the windows? You Arizona people have to write that in grime, but I got to write it in SNOW!!!

Thursday. I stayed home. I was sick. And I concocted a plan. I would get my entire host family sick. And I am trying to think of a really cool sounding result from getting my host family sick, but I really can’t :’(. Besides, I didn’t really mean for them to all catch my cold, but now everyone but my host sister is sick... but, she’s getting a headache too now, so maybe it’s just a matter of waiting.

Anyways, on Saturday I met up with two friends from language camp, and we had a really good time. We went to Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Tor (we also visited the U.S. Embassy there, where we met a VERY cute member of the German police, who said that we couldn’t go into the embassy, because it wasn’t public, and that the building for lost Americans was on the other side of town, because of course I wanted to know where all of the poor lost Americans were supposed to go), the Berliner Turm, the Alexa (big-butt shopping mall), the Reichstag, and the place where Chancellor Merkel works. At Checkpoint Charlie was the last Kremlin Flag in all of... Berlin? Germany? I don’t know. The sign wasn’t too specific. Anyways, it’s all ragged and torn, but it looks really cool. Definitely old.

I also saw some funny postcards, and one said, „ Mei Englisch-Tietscher ist a werry stupitt Idioth!“ If your pronounce it like it’s German, then it sounds exactly like the English would, except for the „ist“ part.

On the way back, I went with the same retarded bus as before, and I ended up a little bit before the same retarded place, and so after walking around Berlin all day, I ended up walking around three kilometers to get back home. And of course, part of that distance is from walking in the wrong direction. And I had a problem with having no bathroom. Let’s just say that nature is now women’s’ toilet too.

The next day, Sunday, we went out to eat breakfast at the lakeside with my host mother’s parents. It was my host grandma’s birthday celebration, since she spent in actual birthday in Prague. But, I met a very adorable poodle that day, and I got to see the almost creepy-misty looking Berlin lake. Well, only one of the lakes. My host family also had a little get together one of these days, I forget when, and we basically just said what we liked and didn’t like about each other’s actions. It wasn’t a pick-apart-the-exchange-student day, it was just for ALL of the family members. I liked it. Then, this last Monday... I had my first big test. On monsoons. I wanted to write about cows REALLY badly, because I had no idea about monsoons, but instead I wrote about the monsoons in America, and the little village near India that has the highest amount of rainfall per year. (I swear, in the context I was writing this, it was all on topic. Even writing about cows would have been on topic. The only question not requiring a scientific knowledge of monsoons asked why the Indian people both love and fear the monsoons.)

Tuesday! It was a day. A really annoying one, really. So, my day at school was really long because I had chess club after, and was teaching the little kids, because no one my age is in the chess club apparently, English while we waited for the teacher. Then, when the 8th period was almost over, we went into the library to get our chess on. And yes, I beat the little kid at chess. Barely. I barely beat the little 11-year old at chess. He even thought I was in 8th grade because he said I looked small :’(. It’s really pathetic, but I was so happy I beat the little kid in chess!

On Wednesday, one of the boys in my class had a heart to heart with me in English class. I told him I’ve never kissed a boy. He told me that because of how I look, I will never get married, have kids, get a boyfriend, or even kiss a boy. He said I need new clothes, a new haircut, and need to go to the gym. And that I need to stop acting to manly, because a guy is never going to care about my personality enough to get past my looks. Quite a gentleman, isn’t he?

Once a week, there’s this really awesome day. Today is that day, commonly called „Thursday“ among the English people. Or „Donnerstag“ amongst the Germans... but when you’re French you call it „jeudi“. Anyways, the point is that today another extremely polite German gentleman told me an even nicer thing than the other one. This one was listening to me talking, which I didn’t like because he always makes fun of my German, so I asked him why. He said he wasn’t listening, and that he only speaks High German (there’s many regional dialects of German, but there’s only one accepted form of German for school and writings, and it’s High German), so he can’t understand what I’m saying because I don’t speak High German. Then he was making fun of my last name because it sounds like a first name... I find it rather pathetic. I almost hope he has to be immersed in another language himself, not out of my own sense of revenge, but just so he can realize what it’s like...

Other than that, I had a very nice biology test. I won’t be surprised if I get a bad grade on it, but I understood SO much more than I did on the geography test... and I finally met a German that likes Slipknot ^^. I went to the Spanish club today, and it was interesting... I have no idea if they were pronouncing everything correctly, but it was NOTHING like what I think the Spanish club at Buckeye is like... we actually were learning and practicing Spanish. When it was over, I walked with the Swiss exchange student to Kaiser’s, bought the two cheapest candy bars I could find, and ate them with her. Tomorrow I am going to meet with my community representative... and in case you’re wondering about how my German is coming along, I heard through some very reliable sources that the Swiss exchange student was jealous of my German, because I can speak it as well as she can, and she has been studying it for five years. That’s the best compliment I EVER got, in my opinion ^^.

Other than that, the only last thing I have to say, is that I had observed a French tour group while in Erfurt, much like I will observe Knut when I finally meet him. If you don’t know who Knut is, remember that Google is your friend. And that he’s a polar bear. Seriously though, I just found it really cool. I also like it that I can understand the Frenchies. I don’t know if I had mentioned this previously, but I also met this German guy who looked like a British guy, and sounded like an American, but was a German o.O IT WAS SO COOL! He was sort of strange though. Everyone in the area I was in had an accent, so I couldn’t understand them that well, and he saw me trying to talk to someone, and tried to make fun of my German as a joke. He totally was NOT being mean, he just found an offensive joke to make xD. But, he was really interested in English, and I appreciated that.

I almost forgot, the terrible, evil boys in my class teach me extremely perverted things in German, then tell me they mean something totally different, and then try to get me to say them. For example, „ich möchte ein Fesserspielchen spielen“. According to my German classmate, I would be saying, „I want to play a certain type of board game“. According to reality, I would be saying, „I want to have sex involving being attached to the bed with handcuffs“.

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I wrote that on Thursday. I didn’t update my blog because of technical difficulties. I had written this blog with some pictures in it, then my computer decided it wanted to listen to me when I was being stupid, and deleted Microsoft Paint. Now I can’t resize the pictures for my blog. I was hoping to be able to post this with pictures, but I waited two weeks already, I don’t want to wait any longer...

Friday I got a test back in PK Biology. I got a +4. In case that doesn’t make sense, I got an 18 out of 32. I can just imagine Antonio reading this and having his world turned upside down. Or the George who moved to the East Coast reading this and thinking I’m lazy. But, hey. I didn’t speak any German three months ago. What do you expect? That’s one thing I really like about being over here, I’ve gotten used to accepting the work I do, as long as I know I’m trying. No one can really set a standard for me, I have to make it myself. I also am learning more about my own values now, and my own personality perks. I had an epiphany today, Sunday... I realized, I thought my culture shock was over, but it’s really not. I also just realized this paragraph is suffering from unconnected ness. But, today I had a talk with my host mom, and I realized this whole time I’ve been sub-consciously clinging to my American life and values. And I need to let go.

That would be a wonderful sentence to end my blog on, but I’m not finished talking yet. I really like my community representative. I had a nice talk with her on Friday, borrowed a bunch of magazines, and she bought me ‚Der Vorleser’, a book, while we were waiting for my bus to bring me home. Saturday, I was trying to finish my mom’s knitted present so I could send the box, but it didn’t go so well. I’m sending it Monday instead. Mailing stuff is SO expensive here... everything is so expensive here... the rest of the day was spent running around with Tara from language camp. And running around is serious. As soon as I got home, I fell asleep on the floor. Right after I showed my host family the funny hat I bought at a second hand shop, right before seeing ‚2012’, the movie, with Tara. The hat has a flap on it, that opens up like one of those brush things on a knight’s helmet. But, it’s the German flag :D. It was only €4.95 or so, but it is going to make me lose all of my friends! For instance, I was wearing it on the bus when three kids from my school walked in... they said they didn’t know me, and ignored me as I tried to talk to them on the bus. But then I talked to this really nice German lady and her two children. THEY liked my hat. Other than that, I just went to Media Markt with Tara, and met Russians. I was walking out of a shop that sold Pokemon things and such (according to Tara it smelled like black market), when the Russians asked me where the „S + U Bahnhof Spandau Rathaus“ was. The foreigners asked the foreigners where something was, and oh did we know where it was.

Today I watched my host father and his team running in a race for Seimens. The track was in the Berlin-Tempelhof airport, which hasn’t been used as an actual airport for some years... it was a really cool building though, and it had been used by the Allied Powers back in the Berlin Airlift. I even got to see a plane there. I was looking around for a way to get into the actual airport itself, but everything was not only blocked up, but creepy too. I seriously would NOT have been surprised to see someone with an ax or something there; I was sort of expecting it... the buildings were extremely huge though. The business offices had ravens carved into them. My host father said it was really special that we got to go into the airport, because it’s usually never open. There were a few stands that people could by sports related things at, including some cheap shirts. The cheapest was for €2. Being entirely brilliant, I noticed one shirt had a sticker on it saying €1. My host mom and I both wanted to buy two shirts, so I took them with me to the register, asked how much they were, and got the €2 reply, then I showed them the one that said €1, and got four shirts for €4. Beat that. The workers were actually annoyed at each other for making that mistake with the sticker machine xD.

I totally and accidentally fell out of my chair in French class.