08.02.10

My first day back at school after Winter Break! I got a new schedule, and now I get out of school at 12:25 every Wednesday! I also have no more geography, instead I have history.

09.02.10

I started taking free art classes every Tuesday in a renovated Citadel. Basically, I get to go to a room almost whenever I want Tuesday after school, and throw paint around or draw. And I actually mean it when I say „throw paint around“.



I don’t really have any skills at all with painting though, and my first painting is well... extremely ugly. It’s like a splotch of brown with orange. But also, there IS a teacher there, but he’s really only there to help you... the class really just let kids explore their own talents, and what they want to do. I want to throw paint :D.

10.02.10

I went over a very nice lady’s house with my host mom. The lady is my host mom’s friend, and she is also an artist. She even has her own art supplies shop that she runs with her husband, and her home is FILLED with paintings, and not just her own, but also from just random sources I believe. She gave (or let me borrow, I’m not sure) a novel, then gave me a book about painting.

11.02.10

I wanted to go ice-skating with a friend, but when we got there, the skating arena was going to close in half an hour... so we just walked around, found really good deals on Coca-Cola at the Euro Shop... and I think she ate a Döner.

12.02.10

No school today!

14.02.10

I went to Carnival celebrations with my host mom. You might know this event by the name of „Mardi Gras“. It’s celebrated in Germany, mainly in the southern area (especially in Cologne), with parades and other celebrations. And on TV, it seems like there’s nothing but constant footage of some guy making a comedy appearance, speaking in the German version of a Southern Drawl, standing in front of a bunch of people in outrageous costumes. And that’s a HUGE part of Carnival; the costumes. My host mother used to live in Bonn, a city close to Cologne, and there it is normal to come into work during Carnival with your fingernails all painted different colors, and something in your hair. You actually look out of place when you DON’T dress up.



In Berlin, that’s not really the case though... my host mom doesn’t like participating in Carnival in Berlin, because the spirit just isn’t there.

17.02.10

I went shopping with a friend, and found a really pretty dress for €13 or so, and earrings for only €1 per pair :D (they’re more like a bead glued onto an earring holder thing, so that sort of explains it... but they’re pretty!).

18.02.10

First, I met my community representative after school in the Florida Eis Café, and I ate ice cream. Second, I used that pretty dress I bought the day before. I went to my school’s „Valentine’s Ball“. The dress code was „glamorous“. Someone was talking to me a day later about the ball, and the first thing they said was, „I heard everyone got drunk“. He/she/it (I can’t remember) was sort of right... one of the first things I saw after getting off the bus to go to my school was guys drinking beer. A little bit before the school, the friends of a different exchange student stopped me, and asked me where I was from, and... well, they were acting like idiots. I assume they were drunk. And then a little later, in the school, someone was telling me that I can’t learn German without drinking beer. So, this was all surprising to me, but... well, it’s sort of normal in Germany. Alcohol isn’t so taboo, and you can start buying beer at 16. And then on the way home, I was wearing sandals and stepped on a beer bottle (they were ALL over the place)... yay!

But seriously, the party was fun. And it was more of a party than a „ball“. There was NO slow dancing when I was there, and there were strobe lights, and those lights that flash on and off REALLY fast, and well... it’s what I always thought a club was like ^^. But it was a lot of fun. Everyone was dancing, and they made like circles (to the best of their abilities, the whole dancing group was packed together like a sardine can, even though not the whole dance floor was being used) of friends, who were all like... dancing sort of, together. It wasn’t real partner dancing, just sort of moving ^^. And German club music was being played, but there was also some soldier boy ;). And people stepped on my feet. I seriously have a bruise from where someone stepped on my foot... but, I was dancing half the time with these girls I don’t know too well, but then I found my friends and was dancing with them until 10:30pm almost. I was really tired, so I went home early, even though the dance ended at 11pm. Also, there was artificial smoke in the room too, to add to the light effects, and there were SO many people! Their sweat and everything... ew. It was like, as soon as you walked into the dance room, you were covered with a layer of people-exhaust. You actually needed to go out and take a break from it every 15 minutes or so... but then the people-exhaust leaked into the entrance hall, and people were going outside into the snow filled outside world, without jackets, just to cool off.

19.02.10

I actually didn’t have any school for the first period, because of the dance last night ^^. So cool xD.

Hallo! Ich heiße Charles.

Good news! For me, at least. The Euro is losing its value, and so in comparison the US Dollar is slowly rising in worth. I started paying attention to my allowance recently, and within two weeks it rose by four Euros. Yay!

Also, I was talking a lot with another English speaker, and he told me that I use the word „thingy“ a lot... I only use it because I have forget what the word is called in English.

And my mom sent me a box of candy! ^^

I have also been thinking about starting to post in German as well as in English... sure no one would read it, but oh well ^^.

31.01.10

I know I wrote about this day before, but I didn’t mention that my host mom came back from the south of Germany this day.

01.02.10

A Monday, and the first day of February! I was walking to the Topography of Terror (an outside exhibit about the history of the area where it’s now situated, more about that later), when I saw a very nice looking building. I was a bit nervous at first, because there was a cop patrolling outside of it, but I walked inside anyways. Here's a picture of it from the inside, rather elegant, isn't it?



I found out it was the building for Berlin’s parliament. So basically it is where the Parliament of Berlin meets to do those things that parliaments do. And it’s also just for the state of Berlin (Germany has 16 „Federal States“, and Berlin is big enough to be its own state), not for the other areas of Germany. It was really cool inside, but mainly because I thought it was the meeting ground of the actual national German Parliament (Bundestag). But, I did find a nice little cafeteria inside.

Right across the street was the Topography of Terror. It’s a collection of pictures with information about the area. The area is so important because it used to be the headquarters of the SS during World War Two. In fact, the government of that period was mainly headquartered in that area, not just the SS. There was also a Gestapo prison there in the cellar. In the war the SS-headquarters were extremely damaged, and instead of rebuilding them, the Germans tore them down. And then built the Topography of Terror exhibit where the SS headquarters and Gestapo prison used to be. Here’s a link to the actual website, in case you want to know more.

Topography of Terror

Afterwards I found a souvenir shop where I could buy 10 postcards for €4. I of course took advantage of this deal. The postcards in Berlin are really nice, in fact this guy I met from England thinks the best part of Berlin is the post cards. Speaking of which, I slipped on the ice outside of the souvenir shop, and this guy who was walking by with his nose buried in a map asked me if I was ok. I asked him if he needed help finding something, and then I walked with him to a holocaust memorial. That is how I met the guy from England.

02.02.10



I went over the neighbors to cook with them. We made „Rouladen“, a traditional German food where you basically beat up the meat before you cook it. The end result is a rolled up thing of meat with seasonings, or basically whatever the cook wants, smeared on the inside side of the meat strip. To make it though, you need to first take a mallet and hit the meat so that it has the same thickness in all areas, and it will also become wider and looser. Then we smeared mustard on the inside, sprinkled bacon and onions over the mustard, and then rolled them up and cooked them. We also made an orange flavored cream, and „Spätzle“ (a type of noodle).

03.02.10



I met up with a friend in a café in a store by my school. Then we realized neither of us wanted to actually eat or drink anything, so we walked to the Luftwaffen Museum that’s behind my school. The planes were really cool there, but it wasn’t too informative... but I believe that’s only because I’m not really into planes. But it was definitely nice to see all the different kinds there ^^.


Afterwards I went home and my new community representative came over. I was assigned a new one because my old one is now my host mother, in case someone missed that ^^. But, she’s really nice and just started going to college last fall, and offered to show me her university. I’m the first exchange student that she has had to look after.

04.02.10

I met up with the British guy again at the Siegelsäule statue in the Tiergarten. Here's a picture of the statue.



Then we walked to the Kaiser-Wilhelm Memorial Church. Afterwards I lead us in circles looking for a Döner shop I had eaten at one time with my boyfriend. I found it like a half an hour later. I felt bad for dragging him all over the place... but then we went to Museum Island. We reserved a time slot for us at the same museum I was at before with the Egyptian collection, the Neues Museum. I got something to drink before it was actually time to go in, and then we looked at the museum ^^. It was a lot of fun though, because the museums were all free (except for two because they had special exhibits) on the island, and we ended up really just looking at all of them we could get into for free ^^. We weren’t really studying every exhibit... if we were, then we wouldn’t have been able to see them all in one night. But then we went to the Altes Museum and looked there. Then the Bodes Museum. The last two weren’t as interesting as the Neues Museum, but one of them had a very nice (and HUGE) coin collection.

To end the day, we walked towards his youth hostel, and found a restaurant to eat at. The English guy had his eye on a traditional German good called „Eisbein“, and we ate that. It was pretty good, but there was so much food! The only bad part is that it’s basically a pig leg with some side-food, and the leg still has the outer layer of skin on it.



Then, I kind of freaked out because I didn’t really realize that my options on getting back home were limited, and I was sort of in the middle of Berlin... my host mom had said it would be ok if I started heading back at 10pm, but I had planned on taking this one bus that didn’t run anymore because it was too late, and la la la la. I basically didn’t get home until midnight. My host mom looked up on the Internet how to get home for me, and she told me to take this one train, and it was really late... I was waiting for I don’t remember how long. But then I got to Spandau, and she picked me up from there ^^.

05.02.10

I dragged myself out of bed rather early, and got on the subway system to Oranienburg. It’s a really small, sort of out of the way town. Or, at least I believe it is small... and I had to take some crazy subway connections to get to it. But, I was going to meet up with the English guy there, but the information I had given him about how to get there from his hostel wasn’t so up-to-date (sometimes there are last minute changes on which platform a train will go to), and he ended up needing to take a different route and being an hour late. It wasn’t his fault though, so I didn’t mind so much. I walked to a bakery and ate a donut. Then I walked to McDonalds and ate a cheeseburger. I was rather hungry, because I didn’t really eat that morning, since my stomach had been hurting me.

Anyways, he finally got there, and we starting walking. And on the way, I swear one sign said „Sachsen Hausen 2,0 kilometers“, and the next one said „Sachsen Hausen 2,6 kilometers“ :(. But, as you might have figured out, we were walking to Sachsen Hausen. I doubt any of you know what that is. Or maybe you do. It was used as a concentration camp by the Nazis, and as a „special camp“ by the Soviets. It was one of the major concentration camps in Germany. And did you ever hear of that one plan the Nazis had, where they were going to counterfeit an enormous amount of British (I’m not sure if they had been planning on counterfeiting a second country’s money as well or not) money, and then drop it into England to super inflate, and destroy, the British economy? Well, they succeeded in making a crapload of money. And they did it at Sachsen Hausen.



At first, we were just walking by ourselves, but then, I heard something. Another American! And he was leading a tour group! Of course, we followed them. I thought he might get mad (since technically, people were supposed to pay for a guided tour), so we drifted off for a while, but then we found him again, and I flat out asked him if we could follow. And we could ^^. It was definitely interesting there. And extremely sad. Without the guided tour though, we wouldn’t have understood what most of the stuff was, so if anyone goes there, do NOT go without a tour guide!

But, in the end... I can definitely say that it was awful what the Nazis did. It’s one thing to read or hear about what they did, and it’s another thing to actually stand there and see the remnants of what they did.

Afterwards, it was getting late, and I took the English guy with me to Spandau and showed him around a little. I showed him the local church, the Rathaus, the huge shopping mall, and marzipan. And I also spent five minutes talking to a salesman for him because he wanted to buy some German sausage ^^. Then, I showed him how to get home, and got home myself.

06.02.10

I really can’t remember if I did anything productive. I was just so tired...

Oh wait, I washed my clothes!

07.02.10

I watched the beginning of Shrek 3 with my host mom, and then she and my host dad walked to a restaurant, while my host brother and I left an hour later for the restaurant (we took the bus). We got there and had really nice meals. I had little pieces of chicken with rice in a curry sauce. The same restaurant has special events going on sometimes. They have a back room where it’s all decorated like a medieval castle, and people are allowed to eat in there once a week ^^.

Then I walked back with my host parents, while my host brother walked a little bit, but then got the bus to go back home. My host mom and I went to walk over the river in this one area, when I made this picture.



Just one last question. Do you like green cheese? I do!

Köln!

I’ve been writing letters to the Bundestag (German parliament), and I’ve had my host mom look over them... I realized I make fewer mistakes when I write in German than I do when I write in English. Whenever I make a blog post, I always have a bunch of mistakes that Microsoft Word finds, but only two or so when I write to the German Parliament... yay!

21.01.10

No school today. The only thing I really have to do is get on a train to Cologne. I met up with Tara, a friend who has the same scholarship as I do, and we got on the train together. The best part of this train ride, is that we bought reservations for some seats (since in Germany, having a train ticket doesn’t mean you have a seat, you need to pay extra if you want to be 100% sure you don’t have to stand the whole time), and then someone was sitting in them! To make it even better, the guy had the exact same reservations that we did, so we couldn’t make him leave, and had to go look for seats somewhere else... but at least we met up with some other CBYX kids on the way. We also met this really interesting man who had lived in East Germany. He writes philosophical books, but according to him, he writes what his heart says.

When we finally got to Cologne, we got to choose our rooms. After we got our stuff into our rooms, we had dinner, then a seminar, and it was basically just us all saying hi to each other again, and sharing funny experiences from Germany. After that, the other kids all decided to walk to the Cologne Cathedral. We totally didn’t make it all the way, because we needed to be back at the youth hostel by 10:30 pm. But at least we made it to the Rhein. We could see the cathedral from there.



I was really tired when we finally got back and went to bed... but my roommates weren’t. They talked until midnight.

22.01.10



Three alarms went off this morning. One was mine. One was from the person sleeping above me. The other one was a watch.

We went to Bonn today, but to get there we needed to catch a train at the Cologne Central Station, and I saw something in a window that I just had never really seen in a window before...



After we got to Bonn we had three hours of free time. I went with Nida, Garrett, and Tara to the Beethoven-Haus, where the composer Beethoven was born, but I didn’t actually go into the part that people had to pay for. Instead I went to this little Chinese shop right around the corner. It was really nice in there, and everything was cheap, and I think it was all really from China... it had a really nice air to it, because it was just a little family business. When the shopkeeper needed change for the money I gave him, he took it out of his own wallet. I also found a book in there in Chinese, and the people were speaking to each other in Chinese... the lady shopkeeper overheard my group and I talking to each other in English, and she told us we spoke English very well xD (she spoke in German).

Then we did some shopping. I believe this is when I bought this amazing jacket that I now have. It was on sale for €7,95 (in Germany, a comma is used instead of a period as a decimal place), and it’s amazing, and beautiful. After that we went to this Döner shop to get food. We were arguing the whole time though abut which one to go into, because there were two right next to each other... then I got ditched right in the middle of ordering, because my friends realized there were flies before I did. That döner was the worst tasting döner I’ve ever eaten. It didn’t taste bad, it just tasted disappointing.

I just realized something... during my time in Cologne I had been taking notes to remind myself of what I did, and I wrote „really nice dress“. I have no idea what I was talking about, but when I got home from Cologne I had asked me host brother if he liked my new dress, so I think I had forgotten for three days that a jacket is not a dress...

Anyways! Afterwards we all met up again, and went to the Haus der Geschichte, the house of history. It was a museum about the history of West Germany during the Cold War, and it was extremely fascinating. The Germans really had NOTHING back then... there was a collection of things people had made right after the war out of the strangest things, just because they really had NOTHING. One of the objects was a dress made out of a parachute. In another area there was also a car where its door was the window shield... the window shield popped up and people got in and out through that. I also bought a book about the DDR (it’s really cute and is a collection of facts and such), and then we found ICE CREAM!

Here's a random picture of a pretty building.



At dinner, Nida wasn’t paying attention. Garrett put all of his fish onto her plate. She didn’t notice we told her.

The seminar we had after dinner was spent by us dividing into the groups we had been in at language class (class wise), and talking about the good and bad experiences we had. It was interesting... I was able to see both similarities and contrasts between my experience in Germany and the experience of the others.

Of course, afterwards I did the only logical thing possible. I went running through the streets of Cologne at night with Hannah and some other people looking for ice cream. We didn’t find any.

To end the night, I played Egyptian Rat Slap/Screw. AND OMG! I was watching Pan’s Labyrinth and writing this, and the first creepy thing started to appear, the one with the hooves. Anyways, the people I was playing Egyptian Rat Slap/Screw with either called it Egyptian Rat Slap or Egyptian Rat Screw, so I guess that last part is optional? Personally, I like the slappy option more. Because that’s what you do. You basically look for combinations in the cards that are being put into a pile in the center, and slap the pile, but then everyone is trying to slap it, so you end up slapping/being slapped.

23.01.10

I woke up to someone saying „oh my gosh, there’s only 15 minutes left“. So, we ended up being technically five minutes late to breakfast. After which, we all walked to the Cologne Cathedral as a group, and had half a day of free time. The first thing my group did was climb to the top of the Cologne Cathedral. I started to feel EXTREMELY sick... I’m deathly afraid of heights. I was about to give up when a really nice German lady stuck me between her daughter and I, and made me go to the top xD. She told me to just ignore my fears and keep walking. And I made it to the top. It was amazingly beautiful. I have a bunch of picture of the cathedral, but that thing was just so big it was impossible to get it all into one picture...





I decided to be a tourist after this, and got the coolest scarf in the world. A scarf with the German colors and the national emblem on it :D. We spent the last of our free time going to the El-De Haus... it was an Gestapo jail. It was under an apartment complex so that no one on the street could hear the people’s screams, but the people in the apartment could... the jail’s water sources and such were also cut off from the city’s, so that no one knew that it existed. The main things being shown there were carvings the prisoners had made into the walls. It was very touching. Most of the writings had to do with love and loved ones, in a variety of languages... many people wrote about missing what it was like to kiss their boyfriend or girlfriend. It was very touching, and so meaningful. But all of these people knew they were going to die. The worst part was the torture room. It was hard to even go there because of the feeling of foreboding...

After lunch we had a seminar about what we had expected from Germany, and tips we could give to the exchange students who would be coming next year. Then we took a language test. I didn’t do completely wonderful on it, I got a 50%, which by German standards isn’t really bad (they have a funky grading system).

At the second seminar of the day, someone asked to be treated older, because he felt like the rules were too little-kid-designed. Then we learned a lot about the program. Because there’s so little interest in the program from the American side, they had to make age exceptions. Originally, only 15-16 year olds could get the scholarship, but now 15-18 year olds are allowed, but only on the American side. The Germans also send 300 kids to America every year, but only 250 Americans go to Germany every year. Six million euros are paid out every year for the 550 students that get to take part in this program, and Germany pays 65% of that. And they wont be any change to our rules.

I ended up talking a LOT to someone else in my program that I never really talked to that much before... I found out she’s rather interesting and really nice ^^.

24.01.10



In case you're wondering, yes, it is perfectly normal to have a car with wings on top of buildings.

The last full day we had in Cologne. I met up with David, the German kid who was at my school in America last year and had introduced me to the CBYX program. We sat around for a while at the youth hostel, and then his parents drove us into the city and we walked around a bit... he showed me some old buildings in Cologne, some market places, and clubs. Just about every other building was a bar. But there were also a lot of Carnival related things... including a shop with a bunch of costumes. He also bought me a piece of cake, a cookie, and he gave me a book, a Kinder (brand of candy) egg, and a box of chocolates :D.

Then we had more seminars and stuff, but we really didn’t do anything... a group of kids decided to go to the movies, because we had some extra free time that night, but I just stayed at the youth hostel with a friend and watched movies on her laptop... I was feeling kind of sick too. I didn’t get to bed until 4 am. But, Micky gave Ann a HUGE thing of Doctor Pepper. He brought a case of it all the way from Potsdam to Cologne for her. I got two cans. And I got to sleep in my friend’s room. Yay.

25.01.10



We went home. No one was sitting in our reserved seats this time. I visited the neighbor’s house with my host mom, because she was going to be gone this weekend to visit her mom in southern Germany, and she wanted me to know the neighbors in case I had a problem or something. They’re really nice. Looking back on my sentence, it looks like someone can interpret it as „my host mom took me door-to-door o get to know all of the neighbors“, but I just met one family. And then I went to sleep.

26.01.10

I turned 16. My host mom baked me a cake with apples in it, and put a big candle in the middle. She also gave me a sweater, a thing of chocolates, a postcard-calendar, and a bucket of flowers.



Instead of school, today my class had Wandertag, where we basically just go on a field trip. My class went to the Museum of Movies and Television. The guided tour was interesting, but we ended up getting to leave early. At first the teacher wanted to us all to meet up again an hour later, but within 10 minutes everyone from my class but one person was in the lobby and wanted to leave... so we got to go early ^^. Then I saw a movie with two other girls. We saw the Surrogates, and it was pretty good, but I didn’t understand these two important conversations, so I was sort of left clueless at one part, and my friends had to explain it to me a little... we also did a little shopping, and then I met up with Tara for ice cream. I also got rid of all of my pocket change by feeding all of my coins to the stamp machine. There’s a limit of how many coins you can put in the machine though, and so I had to try at least four times... and the maximum is 15. I guess I just had a lot of coins.

27.01.10

I only went to school two days this week. This was one of those two.

28.01.10

Gesundheitstag (health day)! I went to Potsdam (a city right outside of Berlin) today on a small school organized trip to a health and fitness center. With a sauna and a water gymnastics area. We were supposed to try out different things, like the sauna, a spinning bicycle, and aerobics. I only got to try the sauna a little and the group massage at the end. The massage part was really nice; we teamed up with a partner and took these spiky balls and rubbed them on our partner’s back. Then we relaxed. I almost fell asleep.

My host mom left for the south of Germany today to visit her mom for her mom’s birthday. I had dinner at the neighbor’s house, and they were really nice. They invited me over for lunch for the next day.

29.01.10

The last day of school before the week of winter break. I only had two periods of classes today, and in the third period my class teacher gave us all our grades. My exchange program asked my school to grade me with A’s, B’s, C’s, and D’s, and my teacher made me a special printout with my Americanized grades on it. I got 6 A’s, 3 B’s, 2 C’s, and 1 D. I was worried about the D at first, since my program wrote in the hand book that we’re not allowed to have D’s, but I talked to my host mom about it, and she had hosted CBYX kids before, and her other host daughter had gotten D’s too. So it wasn’t that bad. Then my class got to get out of school before the period was over.

I found out that the little library where I live now has Brokeback Mountain. And that you can check it out with a minimum age of 12. Yes, mom, I did watch it. It was actually really interesting. The settings involved a heavy suppression of gay people, and even though it is a gay love story, gay-ness was shown in a more negative light, mainly because of the background where the story took place, and through the characters’ own dislike of it.

I went over to the neighbor’s house for dinner, and stayed for a really long time.

30.01.10

I went over my boyfriend’s mother’s apartment and we went to Kentucky Fried Chicken together ^^. Then I talked to my family and my boyfriend through Skype back at the apartment. And she gave me candy, a t-shirt, and a little pillow for my birthday.

31.01.10

The neighbor’s daughter is leaving for her university studies, and I stopped by for a little to say bye. Then I wrote this blog.

I've finally updated on time!

14.01.10

I went to see the movie called „Friendship“ with my host family, and it was really good. I don’t know if it was shown in America, but it’s basically set right after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the main characters are two guys from East Germany visiting America for the first time... and they can’t really speak English either ^^. If it’s also playing in America, which I really doubt it is, I suggest that you watch it.

Friday, January 15th, 2010.

I switched host families. Some problems came up, and well... yeah. I’m going to be staying with my community representative now. Luckily I’m going to be going to the same school. Normally a family change takes three weeks, but I just had some luck.



That's a picture of my host mom and I on the lake. I have a host father who works t of the week in Bonn, so he's not home when it's not a weekend. I also have a host brother who goes to the same school as me, but one grade higher. My other two host brothers are studying at universities; one in Germany and one in New York.

16.01.10

My host mom and I went ice skating together at Glienicke See. It’s really just a frozen lake, but there was so much snow on it that you couldn’t really ice skate, but some people had already brought snow shovels and were shoveling away the snow in areas so that people could actually ice skate.

19.01.10

I have two periods every tuesday in which I don’t have any classes, so usually I would just sit around and do nothing... but this Tuesday, I decided to go to the center of Spandau instead. First I tried to feed the stamp machine all of my pennies and bipennies (the Euro is Germany’s form of currency, and the Euro has 1 cent pieces, 2 cent pieces (hence „bipennies“), 5 cent pieces, 10 cent pieces, 20 cent pieces, 50 cent pieces, 1 Euro pieces, and 2 Euro pieces... from then on everything is in bill form) so that A) I could get rid of my mountain of pocket change (I would feel bad giving a person a billion pennies, ya know?), and B) I sort of need stamps. My mommy always gave me something for Valentine’s Day, and I finally have a boyfriend (that sounds a bit desperate...), so I want to at least send them postcards... sending packages is kind of expensive, but I am very happy with a package I got recently. I very nice person sent me a lot of CANDY. That’s perfect, because I love CANDY. I’ve been eating a lot more CANDY in Germany, but I’ve actually lost weight... ok, I’ve been pathetically trying to fit CANDY into the last few sentences, because I really just wanted to write CANDY xD.

Anyways. I also bought a 4 Gigabyte memory card with a 5 year garuntee for my camera for only 11,99 Euros. That’s like 15 dollars. Beat that! Also, another wonderful amazing little thing about Germany, is that the sales tax is ALWAYS included in the price... and they seperate their trash into different bins to help the environment.

+++++

Ok, so I am leaving on Thursday 21.01.10 to go to Cologne (for a seminar for my exchange program), meeting up with the German exchange student who was at my highschool last year (he also had the same scholarship I do, but just on the German end) on Sunday 24.01.10, coming back to Berlin on Monday 26.01.10, having a Wandertag (basically there’s no school and you go on a fieldtrip with your class) and my 16th Birthday on Tuesday 26.01.10, going to a school-organized spa day instead of school on Thursday 28.01.10, and then having Winter break the whole next week. It’s like everything amazing is happening around my birthday! I am SO happy ^^. Also, another weird thing is that the German school semester, at least in Berlin, ends next week, instead of how ours ends right before Christmas. So, I technically had a week for Christmas and New Year’s breaks, but not the break to split up the semesters yet. A bad thing though, is that the end of the school year is later than the American end... I’m going to end up leaving about a week or two before the school year has actually ended. Maybe then I’ll at least get to miss a test or two ^^.

Weihnachtszeit

13.12.09
I went over my friend’s house. His mother made „Carne Salada“, or something with the word „Carne“ in it, and it had so much meat! I really liked it. I also played Wii with him, then „Singster“ with both him and his mom. I was terrible, and the game was giving the players feedback after they sang a little bit, and I swear it was making fun of me. I even lost to him in chess. I was SO close to winning too! All of his good pieces were gone, but then my brain decided to take a nap. But, it was a lot of fun, and now his mom wants to cook fish for me ^^.

14.12.09
I just had an almost regular, normal day today. After school I dropped a truckload of books off at the library, and bought my host mom something at the Christmas market. I got her a candle made out of folded sheets of beeswax. I think it’s really pretty, and it smells nice too.



16.12.09
I look forward to Wednesdays because that’s when I have my first English class of the week. So, I was waiting with my class in the classroom for the teacher to come. We waited... and waited... and waited... and left. The teacher just NEVER came, so we got to go home early.

After school I went with my friend and his mom to an Italian restaurant to celebrate her birthday, and I ordered Schweinschnitzel mit Fleischsoße, and it was SO GOOD! It was basically a piece of fried swine meat with a cheese and tomato (I think?) sauce. And French fries. I could hardly finish it. Afterwards, we went back to my friend’s apartment, and hung out... and well, now I have a boyfriend. And he’s a lifeguard. And he speaks French.



(Normally he’s not wearing a pink cowboy hat. He just tried this one on at the Christmas market in Spandau.)

17.12.09
„Today, I was assaulted by white balls. They were very small things on the ground, and in the air... I figured they were dew balls or something falling from the plants... but then I realized they were falling in places far away from the trees too...“ behold, my first experience with snow actually falling on me o.O

18.12.09
This was my last day of school. I couldn’t find my teacher for the last lesson of the day, and then I realized there was a huge concert thing going on in the entrance hall. Some of the younger kids were playing instruments and singing, and when they were done, we were released to go home almost two hours early ^^. Then I talked to the Columbian exchange student on the bus. It’s really interesting to talk to him, because I got used to how the Germans are, and now I think he’s kind of different, but in reality he acts sort of like an American ^^. Basically, my own culture is starting to see different to me... ^^.

19.12.09
It was really cold, snowy, and really pretty, and we (I and my host family) cut our own Christmas treeeeee! :D We just sort of drove for a while to I have no idea where, and went to a Christmas tree lot, and cut one down. The biggest question was ‚how are we going to get it back home?’, but eventually, it all worked ^^. At the lot there was a canal, and I REALLY liked it, because... it reminded me of jumping over the canals back in Arizona.

20.12.09



My host parents took me to the Christmas market at Schloß Charlottenburg, and IT WAS SO PRETTY!!!! Despite the cold, I really had a nice time there. The cold itself was pretty cool, because I had just never been THAT cold. I had like five jackets on and three pairs of socks, but I was still freezing. There were also a few dogs that were there, but their owners had put them in little bags and carried them around and it was soooooo cute! There was also these really cool birdhouses, but picture taking was forbidden, so... ya. There was also this really pretty Christmas tree set up, and just as we were leaving, some musicians were getting ready to play. Here’s another picture of the Schloß after it’s gotten a little bit darker.



Afterwards, we were walking back home when we found these street artists who were giving a display with fire. It was actually really cool.

21.12.09
I went with my boyfriend to Kudamm, which is THE shopping street of Berlin. If a business is successful, they have a shop there. It also is home of one of the most expensive malls in all of Germany, the KaDeWe. The whole mall looked pristine, and sooooooooo expensive. You actually aren’t allowed to take pictures in it, so... ya, no pictures for my blog ^^. But believe me, the whole thing looked like it was out of one of those really nice magazines. They also had a very nice Christmas thing going on in this amazingly huge entrance room, and I thought the decorations were really nice... until I realized they weren’t really decorations because they all had price tags on them. Basically, you could buy like everything there. Anyways, then we went to the Europa Center (it had a really cool water display by this little café), and to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtnis-Kirche. The Germans have a nickname for it, which in English is „hollow fang“. Here’s why.



It was destroyed in WWII, and then rebuilt as a memorial to the Catholics who died in the war. It’s really a beautiful church though, and there are even some wall paintings left over from the original.

One last thing, we went to a Döner Shop (a Döner is a Turkish... thing) and I was speaking to Georg, my boyfriend, in English... so the Turkish cashier started to talk to Georg in English, and Georg told him „I’m the German, she’s the American“. Then the guy said „and I’m Turkish“. It was really cute!

23.12.09
Today it was just a lot of getting ready for Christmas... It’s actually tradition in Germany to decorate the tree just a few days before Christmas. So, now our pretty tree is sitting in the living room.

24.12.09 Heiligabend
Germans open their presents today. One day before the Americans. Ha ha, Americans!

But anyways, I had a really nice time with my host family (and my host grandparents that live in Berlin came to visit) during Christmas. And in Germany, Christmas is three days long. The first day is Heiligabend (holy evening), and the next two are basically called „Party Day One“ and „Party Day Two“. What do Germans do to celebrate? EAT!!!!! I felt like I was going to explode the first day, but the food was just sooooooo good. We also set up a little train that went through the living room and under the tree. Afterwards we went to church, then went home to unwrap the presents. My host sister and I divided up the stack of presents between whom they all were sent to, and it was all just really nice. I really had a nice day, maybe I like Christmas in Germany more than Christmas in America. I got some nice presents too; a t-shirt with all of the sectors of Berlin, a pen set (with a real leather carrying case), a calendar with tips in it on German from Duden (this company produces a lot of books on school subjects, including a list of German words (no, not a dictionary, just a list of words with extremely brief notes on each one)), a Donald Duck comic book (in German), CANDY, a cutting block with the Tischregeln on it (table rules for the sloppy American), and lots of other stuff. Including paper (two notebooks, and one set of five really nice pieces of paper with matching envelopes and stamps from my community representative). I know it’s weird, but I was REALLY happy to get paper. I have a thing for writing, apparently ^^. After we unwrapped the presents, my host sister and I started putting together a puzzle she got for Christmas. It was a map of the world, and it had 1,000 pieces.

25.12.09 Erster Feiertag
My host grandparents left today, but not after my host uncle came over and we played games together. I swear I ALMOST won a game of cards. It’s a really weird and sort of complicated game that I totally didn’t understand at first, but it’s SO MUCH FUN! I just realized, I really like playing card and board games. My host family has some really interesting ones. But anyways, the puzzle of the Earth was a pain in the neck, because there were about 50 pieces that were all the same color of gray (a map of Earth is elliptical-ish and the puzzle was rectangular, but the designer decided to make the part outside of the Earth all gray, except for a part that was the flag of every country in the world), and then the ocean is all pretty much the same type of blue, so it was a lot of fumbling around in the dark, but we were able to finish before we went to bed! Well, I was in bed when they finished it, but I could hear my host sister screaming, and figured she had finished it ^^.

26.12.09
There wasn’t as much eating and having fun today, only because my host grandparents, host uncle, and host sister were all away, but I still had a nice day. My host parents went with me to the Neue Museum on Museum Island in Berlin. It had a special exhibit of Egyptian artifacts, and it was really interesting. I saw sarcophagi, a Book of the Dead, and it was overall just really interesting...

~~~~~~~~~~

Ok, I took forever to write this, so I sort of forget what happened on what day, and so... To sum it up, I celebrated New Year’s Eve with my host family, and we set off fireworks in the snow. We had a friend of my host mom and her family over, and it was a really nice time. I also went to go see Avatar with my boyfriend, and it was really an amazing film... I liked it so much because most films these days don’t have a real background idea like some books do, such as „Animal Farm“ and such... but Avatar does. To me, it raises the question of what people are willing to give up, or even destroy, to get something material. Then, on January 2nd, I went to the airport with my boyfriend and his parents, and her flew to America for a semester long exchange year.

The school is going really well for me now. I feel like I belong there somehow; like everything’s not so foreign anymore. I’m also hanging out with people more, I went to the Deutsche Geschichte Museum (German History Museum) and the Berliner Bär (Berlin Bear) exhibit with another exchange student from Switzerland. I also hung out with another kid from the CBYX program in Spandau. My host family and I also went to an ice hockey game together, the Berliner Eisbäre against the Hannover Scorpions... the Berlin team lost 3-4.



Anyways, the Berlin Bears are huge bear statues from I believe 144 different countries. I’m not sure how many there are, but the bear is the „mascot“ of Berlin, and artists from all of these different countries were asked to make a bear that best represented their country... then all of the bears are supposed to be holding hands to show global acceptance and cooperation.

~~~~~~~~~~

Ok, so I wrote the rest of that a while ago, and didn’t get around to actually posting it until the date stamp on this blog post... but a lot has happened since then. I’ll write about it in my next post.

Late-Spät

05.12.09 (because in Germany, we write our dates with the month second, which is rather logical actually)



So, I haven’t really updated in like a long time times two. But I have a slightly good excuse! I took the SAT Test, and so I didn’t feel like writing my blog... but, lots of things have happened since I last updated! For example, I am now pregnant. (Not really, but I wonder how my mom reacted to reading that)

Anyways, my host father and I went to the East Side Gallery to look at the paintings. It’s essentially a really long piece of the original Berlin Wall, but with paintings on it. Beautiful, inspirational paintings.





Then, last weekend, my host family and I went to Nürnberg for a weekend and stayed with my host father’s cousin. His cousin and her husband were both really nice, and they showed us a lot of places in the city. The Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) was really cool, and I even translated for some Americans that were trying to buy something ^^. I also bought a bunch of books on Napoleon Bonapart, because they were all together 6 Euros :D. I also bought some presents for my host family, since you know... it’s like Christmas or something soon ^^. Speaking of which, my host family strung up a bunch of gifts on the staircase as our advents calenday... so far I got a little thingy of lotion ^^. Also, the SAT Test was a lot easier than I expected it to be. I hope I get a good score on it, and I think I will. I totally have just about nothing to say about the last few weeks.

Well, my community representative gave me this book called „Der Vorleser“. I’m really surprised by how easily I can understand it, especially because I expected it to be harder, since my CR said it would be. I was reading it on the train to and from Nürnberg, since it was like five hours both freaking ways. For English class I’m supposed to present about how intercultural communication affects one’s concept of a country... my CR told my host family I’ve learned German rather quickly, and that I must have a gift for languages (THIS MADE ME SO HAPPY!!!!). She also said that I should probablly do something with languages as a job. And to be honest, I had been thinking about that for a while. But anyways...

I ALMOST FORGOT! So, in Nürnberg Hitler built a collesuem to be used during the thousand years of peace or whatever that he planned to bring about. I went there, and it was really farmilliar looking. But here is where Hitler once stood to deliver speeches.



There were no seats in the collesuem. According to I forget who, Hitler believed that the German people should be strong; too strong to require sitting while enjoying a game.

I also went shopping with the Swiss exchange student. I had a hard time finding shoes, because ya know.... my feet are like their own planets :D. But, I finally found some nice ones with my wonderful, amazing host mom ^^. She was so excited, she even dreamed of shoe shopping the entire night before we finally went shopping (she didn’t actually enjoy the dream :D). I got these 60 or so Euro shoes for only 20 Euros, if I remember right...

08.12.09
The world hates me. Every subatomic particle in this world decided to join the „I hate Caitlin“ club. (Insert more hyperboles here). Anyways! I had to buy a new cell phone, because my American one decided it wanted to pretend that my highly expensive America SIM card, and my not so expensive German one, doesn’t work. Yay. At least a very nice German person decided to go to the store with the American. And he will probablly read this. And he will know who he is (hello German :D). My Mathe PK teacher wasn’t there Monday, so I decided to hang out in an English PK course. It was absolutely thrilling! Well, not really. It was actually the complete opposite. But, a lot of people had been asking me why I didn’t take an English PK course, so at least now I can say I tried it and didn’t like it...

The second part of the world against me happened today. Please note that I decided to be retarded and leave my American credit card in my wallet while I went to school. For no reason. Just to have it, apparently. Then I left it on the bus. Because I am so smart. Seriously though, a part of me is happy this happened, because now that I know what it’s like to lose a wallet, I’ll try SO much harder to make sure it never happens again. But, the person who found my wallet was really nice, and didn’t steal anything. She didn’t even accept a „gift present thing“ as a sign of appreciation. But, I think I met her before. When I had my funny hat... maybe not, but she was as nice and young as the other lady, and they both had a boy and a girl of the same ages with them... but, I am in a sort of badish mood right now, because I’m really tired. And I’m really tired because I decided to walk all the way from Heerstraße/Wilhelmstraße to Flatow Allee. I really don’t know how far that is, but it’s 12 minutes by bus, in Berlin, where there’s traffic and the maximum speed on that stretch of road is like 50km/h (30 or so miles per hour).

12.12.09
I just have one more Klausur (German word for the type of test I am taking) left, and then it’s Christmas vacation ^^. Last night I went with a friend to the Christmas carnival/fair/market thing. Basically it’s a bunch of shops that only show up around Christmas time. In Nürnberg there weren’t any rides, but at the one in Spandau there was. My friend made me go on the ferris wheel. I am scared to death of heights. I was freaking out at first. Then it wasn’t so bad.



Ya. I think I look retarded. But then we went onto THIS.



It was really fun. It basically tried to make you go around so fast you couldn’t breathe. Then we watched very pretty fireworks. After that we basically just walked around. We went through a park, and then we walked along a stinky river to go look at a thing (I think it’s called a water ladder?). Then, I went home. Originally we were going to go go-karting, but the track was totally booked until 10 o’clock, which was my curfew. Anyways. The other day, I was up really early when it was still dark, and I saw something in my host mom’s shoe. I thought it was a tree branch. I ignored this. Later, I went down with my host family to eat breakfast. There was a tree branch in all of our shoes o.O It turns out that instead of having stockings as part of our gift assembly at Christmas, in Germany they stick stuff in your shoes on „Nikolaus“ Day. Mainly candy. And pieces of pine trees :D. My school also had an event for the day, where the students could send each other „Nikolauskarten“, which were basically cards saying „merry Christmas“, with a huge candy Santa. I got one card, but two candy Santas ^^. Today I cut off my candy Santa’s head, and stuck it into some muffins I made with my host sister.

I forgot to mention earlier that I had gone to my hostsister’s Christmas concert at her school. It was really good, actually. I had really liked it ^^.

My tests are... well... a little bad. The SAT Test was ok, and I will know my scores on December 22nd, but my German tests are like. No. Awful. I think. My exchange program sent me and my school papers for my teacher, and they will grade me based on wether or not I take part in class, wether or not I made advances in speaking German, and wether or not I sort of get what’s going on. I already got an A in English class. Who would’ve guessed? I mean, it’s not like I speak English or something... right? o.O

One last thing. My mommy sent me Christmas presents for me and my host family :D.

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.


°°°°°°°

(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“.

°°°°°°

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.