Today I went with one of my friend Caitlin to this part of the Berlin Wall that has a bunch of cool murals on it (it took us a while to find it). I can't believe I've been here in Berlin for more than 2 months and I havn't seen this yet! It was SO cool! I thought I would share some photos.










!!! ICH LIEBE BERLIN !!!


ps- 10 days until PARIS

I am officially 1/2 way through my Herbstferien and I don't want it to ever end! I loveeeee break! I get to sleep in, I get to relax, I get to hang out with friends all day... it's pretty much amazing!

From Monday to Friday I was in Bad Kissingen visiting my Oma and strangely enough- it was one of the best times I've had so far here in Germany. Bad Kissingen is a small town in Northern Bavaria and it is a traditional GERMAN town... with lots of old people. My Oma used to own a cheese store and she and her family (my host mom) slept in the 2 floors above it. The cheese store is now a jewelry store, and it isn't owned by my Oma anymore, but she still lives above the shop and it was so beautiful to wake up every morning and see the winding streets below and rolling hills filled with Autumn-colored trees. here are a few pictures. the first 2 are from my Oma's house and the 3rd is what the city looks like.





On Tuesday I went with my family (mama, con, and oma) to a beautiful town about 30 minutes away from bad Kissingen. The name of the town escapes me but it has a college there and a really old castle/village. We walked around all day, visited a museam, listen to my host brother complain about how boring everything is (he's getting really annoying), went out to eat, met up with a girl who is in the extended family, went into about 10 churches... then finally came back home. Here are some pictures. 1st- "the residence" basically museum we went to. 2nd- the castle thing. 3rd/4th- at the castle looking at the city.






On Thursday we all went to the Kreuzberg is a small mountain about half an hour away from bad kissingen. We got to see some beautiful views... and burned a lot of calories walking up and down. We visited a lot of churches there and drank some freshly brewed bavarian beer made from the monk/priests that live there. It was fantastic.






While I was in Bad Kissingen I learned a lot about german culture. I didn't speak any English the entire time I was there, and was totally enclosed in a house where there was NON-STOP German. It made me sooo exhausted. There were several instances when I felt like my head was going to blow up. The biggest thing that I learned (already knew but now I know from experience) is how IMPORTANT FOOD IS! FOOD IS SOOOOO IMPORTANT HERE. At my Omas house, we would wake up in the morning and eat. then all morning she would be preparing lunch and asking if I was hungry, then after lunch we would have coffee and tea, then she would prepare dinner and ask if I was hungry... then we would eat dinner, and an hour late we would break out something sweet... and Oma would ask me yet again if i was hungry... Everything tasted Soooooo GOOD! I ate soooo MUCH! haha... I feel like time here revolves around when we eat here. (speaking of time, I guess today was daylight saving time so we gained an hour...) On Friday when we were about to leave my Oma found out we were not gong to be stopping for dinner so she packed us a FEAST of bread and candy and drinks, and cheese and meat... Ohhh boy! Here's what we had every single morning for Breakfast... mmmm



So yes- Now I'm glad to be back home in Berlin. I loved the south but it's good to be back home. There were a bunch of exchange students here from the south of germany visiting Berlin so we hung out all weekend and it was really fun!!! I plan to just hang out the rest of the week with friends, do my french homework that I've been putting off for 3 weeks, and brush up on my French a little bit because I'm going to PARIS in TWO WEEKS! (my french is HORRIBLE) I'M REALLLLYYYYY EXCITED! I can't WAITTT!

Right now it's 13.43 and I'm still wearing my PJ's because I'm too lazy to change- I am officially in Herbstferien-MODE (aka-Fall break). I have 2 weeks of no school and I am ready to indulge in sleeping-in, eating, relaxing, etc... I NEED A BREAK. Even though school isn't academically challenging (because I can't understand the curicculum) it causes a lot of fatigue!

Its a typical Sunday afternoon in Berlin- cloudy, and brisk. It is definately Autumn here!!! When I'm on my way to school every morning I have to wear a sweatshirt and a jacket because the temperature is so low. I really like the atmosphere though... It feels like the city is smaller when it's cold, because there arn't as many people walking outside. The house is quieter than normal because my host brother left yesterday to go to Egypt with his friend. Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow I'm driving down to Bad Kissingen (close to Frankfurt am Main) with my host-family to visit my Oma. We'll stay there for a few days then drive back up to Berlin. My host parents are still unsure if we can go to Budapest... but if that doesn't work out I'm fine with staying in Berlin.

Nothing really big has happened since my last post- I'm starting to get excited for Paris!!! I should start to brush up on my Französisch... but thats going to be difficult though because my mind is swimming with DEUTSCH!!! speaking of, I think it's safe to say that my spoken-German is better than my spoken-French now. But I can read and write better in French... That's EXCITING! Yesterday I went to a party with only German people and I realized that I could understand a TON about what people were saying!!! I'm almost to the point where I can start to actually contribute to conversations... (other than answering questions)...but not yet!

On friday I had a 2-hour math test (Theres only 2 of them every year). I was worried that I wouldn't be able to understand the problems and that I wouldn't do very well... but I actually think I did really good! I answered all of the questions... finished with 30 minutes to spare. I ended up re-writing half of the test because I didn't want to get points off for sloppyness like I did last test.

After school on Friday, I met up with another exchange student and we decided to get our hair cuts... but for CHEAP! So we set off looking for a cheap hair-salon... hopped onto a U-bahn and crossed our fingers that we would find a place. After much looking, we didn't find a single thing... so we decided to walk to the S-bahn station to drive back to where we started... and as fate would have it, RIGHT when we were waiting outside the station we turn around and RIGHT there was an express hair salon. It was a little bit sketchy (the women working there had crazy mullets dyed yellow and pink) but ended up getting our hair cuts there for only 10€! It was really funny trying to communicate with the people there! GREAT EXPERIENCE!

Well... I don't really have anything else to say. I'm kind of bummed that I don't have a camera right now because there are so many instances that I want to take a picture of something... bummer. Oh and I think I'll post up another video soon because I feel like it's more personal!

I really should take a shower now!

Here's a really old pitcture of me from my first week here... I just found it.

Another random video about life in Germany.

The title of this blogpost is pretty self explanitory!

- things are getting tough! -

I really should not be complaining AT ALL, because I live in a wonderful city, I have a wonderful host family, I go to an awesome school, and I have amazing friends...
BUT.

exchange is NOT easy.
exchange is NOT a vacation.
exchange is NOT a year off!

...exchange is difficult...

When I tell someone that my German grades are not transfering over to America- only credits... they usually respond with, " you have it SO easy," or "your SO lucky" ... THAT IS SOOOO aggrivating to hear, because I don't have it easy! Do they have any idea what it means to be an exchange student??? People act like this is a game! Like I'm here on a little adventure for a year, having the time of my life, and everything is easy, and I just get to slack off and do NO work!... boooyyy are they wrong! It is SO hard to sit through school everyday and TRY to understand what is going on. It is SO difficult to get a piece of paper and not be able to read it. It is SO difficult to sit there in class, watching everyone speaking perfect German, while I try to make sense of German grammar in a stupid grammar book! I feel SO STUPID! I feel SO LIMITED! YES-LIMITED... that is the perfect word there is! I've never felt so limited in my life! I've always been able to do things socially very well, but now that I have this whole language issue I can't. I have to THINK before I speak. It's not just random shit coming out like I do in the United States. I actually have to think, process, filter, decide if it's really important, think some more, make sure it is correct, then speak.

This has been the most difficult one and a half months of my LIFE! I feel like I've learning more in this month than in all of last year- in all of high school maybe! So many things are just streaming into my head all the time! IT IS SO EXHAUSTING! I feel like my mind will never slow down! Always, there is something new! Not so much new places or foods or scents... but new WORDS!

... don't even get me started with language! I could complain for hours! Did anybody ever mention how hard it is to learn a langauge by immersion??? It is so difficult, so humiliating, so embarassing, so stupidddd... I've heard of students who just pick it up super quick and everything is good and they don't have to do a lot of work, but me? NO WAY. I am working! Whenever I hear a word a couple of times and still can't figure out what it means, I write it down in a book and find out the definition by asking a native speaker. Like I mentioned before, I bought a German Grammar book and I read and do excersizes in most of my classes. German grammar is really tricky so I can't just read something and then know what it is... I have to do it over and over and over again, and then I have a small grasp on what I'm reading. Whenever I think I'm doing really well with the language, I learn a new rule, or tense... and it seems like I'm just as bad as when I started.

Okay I really need to break away from my moment of pity.

Things could be SO-SO-SO much worse! I'm trying to be optomistic about as many things as I can, because in reality, nothing BAD is happening. Things are just difficult. I'm out of my comfort zone. I'm surrounded by a foreign language. I don't have my parents or friends back home to support me.

I really think everyone should go on exchange in high school. I know that's impossible, but if one of you out there reading this, is a little confused about life in general, is trying to figure out who they are, and is up for the challenge, I really recommend exchange (through rotary of course). I have yet to regret it! It is exactly what I need in my life.

I'm realizing that that I'm kind of starting to ramble, but I have a lot of random stuff to say... so to make this post even more random, I want to talk about French class a little bit.

Ohhh French class... where to start! In the United States, French was my favorite class (yes I'm a dork). It was a very interactive class, and the teachers I had were really awesome! I was facinated by French and I loved speaking, reading, writing, and learning about French/France. Unfortunately... things have changed! French in Germany is my LEAST favorite class! The class is pretty difficult, but that's not the reason why I don't like it. I feel like every time I go into French class, my I'm messing up my German. Whenever I walk out I feel more behind in German because it's too much to be thinking in 3 languages at the same time. I am in Germany right now. I want to be learning German - NOT FRENCH! All we do in French is read stories and learn vocabulary and Grammar. I guess it's a good thing that I'm in French because I really want to be fluent in the future, but for the time being I just want a break. As luck would have it I WILL have a break! NO FRENCH FOR 1 MONTH!!!!! My french teacher is leaving for 2 weeks to go to Lyon, so I won't have french class for that. Then, the next 2 weeks is Fall-break, so I won't have french for that either! I'm really relieved because I feel really pressured whenever I sit in his class. He always asks me questions about how to say stuff in English, and only 1/2 the time I know! The class is pretty advanced... and I'm struggling to keep up. (explanations are in German).

... Speaking of French, I'm going to Paris in November! And my rotary club is PAYING FOR IT! Ahhh! I'm so excited! All of the exchange students in my district are taking a bus there! It's going to be so much FUN!

speaking of exchange students... I havn't seen Kate IN SO LONG! Kate is another exchange student who has been living outside of Berlin for around 9 months now.
!!!!KATE IS MY ROCK!!!!
The person I turn to! She's who I call when I'm having a bad day, and she always makes me feel better even if we talk for only 1 or 2 minutes. I really don't know what I'd do without Kate. She has made my "settling in" phase SO much smoother and I love her for that. I feel like she's the one person I can be real with. I can go to her for anything. I don't want to face the fact that she's leaving in January :(




well I best me going. I've rambled for much too long, and me and my host brother have to go to the the wayyyy east of Berlin for a party tonight. Hopefully it will be fun!

I just found this video I took of me and some other exchange students 1.5 months ago, right before we met our host families... I wish I would have kept it rolling longer, but you get the idea.