Berlin... 6 months!!!

It has been quite a while since I last wrote. The reason why- not too much has happend. I've just been hangin out with friends... learning... living!

School has been going very well lately. I don't have so much of a problem with understanding what is going on so it makes it A LOT easier. However, at the same time it is a little bit harder because now that I understand I have to keep up with everything going on... I havn't been learning German my entire life like the people in my class so logically, I need a little bit more "processing time" than everyone else- I have to listen to what the teacher has to say, process it, make sure I understand what they are asking, form an opinion, figure out how I want to say it, than raise my hand to answer. By that point either ...

A. someone alread said what I wanted to say or,
B. we have already moved on to another topic.

I'm really trying though to participate. Lately I feel like I have a good grasp on the German language, but I need to start learning more advanced vocabulary. I know all of the basic verbs that we use everyday to take, to sleep, to ride, to live ect... but I'm really diving into verbs we don't use very often such as to recognize, to reject, to survey, to consider... ect. Also I am trying to make my vocabulary a little more colorful... Adjectives and Adverbs like mysterious, reluctantly, terriffic, indimidating... I want to be taken seriously when people talk to me. I don't want to have the vocabulary of a 5 year old.

There are days when I feel like my German is completely WORTHLESS. When I totally misunderstand someone (usually with my host mom because she uses words I have NEVER heard of... all the time), when I read a text and find about 100 words I've never heard of... or when just completely mispronounce something. But I'm happy with how far my German has come. I have been here exactly 6 months and already can I read a book in German and understand what is going on. Right now, I am reading a book in German that roughly translates to, "Try to make your life" (Versuche dein Leben zu machen). While all of the kids in my advanced English class have to read a English book and give a 20-30 presentation on it, I have to read a German book, and give a presentation on it. My host mom recommended the book to me, and I am very suprised at how easily I can read it. It is about a Jew living/hiding in Berlin during Hitler's reign, and I'm learning a lot. I also had to read Homo Faber for German class. It is a German classic and I found it a bit more difficult, though understandable. Also, the more I speak and read, I am finding so many words that don't exist in English. When I speak in English, I try to find... SOMETHING to substitute the words... but it never suffices. What will I do without these words?

Other than school, I have been corresponding a bit with Amerika. I need to choose my classes for next year, my senior year, but it is a bit hard because I don't know which credits will transfer over from this year. I still havn't been able to choose ALL of my classes, but I have a pretty good idea about what I will choose- it is all resting on how much credit I will recieve for Sport. (I need 1,5 credits to graduate).

I'm really looking forward to traveling to the island of Föhr! It is happening not this weekend, but the weekend after (März 5-7). And until then, I am just living, and learning. I'm finding that the one downside to being able to speak German now is that I have to do homework. blah. I should do that now!

Until later!

A lot has happend since I have last posted. Last Friday I had to go into the city to meet up with all of my fellow classmates and attend a praktikum debriefing session. We met in Sankt Bonifatius Church in the middle of Kreuzberg (a part of Berlin that I really like). I was informed that the session would only be an hour or so- but after mingling with my classmates for a while- they said that it would last the entire afternoon! That was a bummer! Regardless, all of us went inside and discussed how our internships went! Most of the students were in really difficult places to work like in hospitals and old homes- It was a little awkward because they were telling stories of how dreadful and hard it was, and then it came my turn and I was like, "it was really FUN!!!" I went on to describe what I did everyday, and then the teacher kept asking me questions and I got all choked up and couldn't speak German- so I felt super STUPID! Then we had to sit through a service at the church, which put me into a worse mood because I'm really not into Catholic church!!! When I got home, my host family informed me that traffic was too bad so we would leave for Austria in the middle of the night, but I couldn't leave the house just in case they changed their minds... so that left me the entire day to sit at home and do- nothing! And of course, my entire family was screaming at eachother because they were so stressed out about remembering to pack everything... sometimes I think stress to Germans is a form of love.

At 2AM we left the house. It was quite a trip- jammed in the back of a 5 seat car, with 5 people, and PACKED with luggage! I tried sleeping, but it didn't work very well. I got one hour of sleep at minimum. But I was really excited to get there, so it kept my spirits up. We finally arrived at our hotel at 12 o'clock the next day. Everyone was exhausted... we unpacked, walked around the town a bit, chilled in the hotel, and went to sleep!

For the next week I had an AMAZING time snowboarding with my host family. We would get up at 8.30 every day, eat breakfast at 9, get to the ski lifts at about 10, then start skiing around 10.30 or so. We skiied until 3 or 4 than went back to the hotel to the spa. The sauna and steam room were amazing!!! especially after going skiing all day. Relaxing there was a huge highlight to my vacation. The hot air from the Finnish sauna, with a mixture of the sharp mist in the steam room, simply made all of the pain in my muscles disappear. Needless to say, it was also was a very interesting cultural experience... you see- Germans don't wear any clothes in the sauna. That was a bit of a shock to me when I went into the spa for the first time and saw men and woman mingling together without clothes on. But I've been out of the country long enough to simply accept the way other countries do things... "when in rome, do as the romans do!" At 7 or 8 we would all go to dinner and eat amazing 5 course meals!!! The food was so delicious! It never seemed to stop coming!!!... I think I gained a few kilos! After dinner we all just chilled and went to sleep. I had no lust to go out to diskos or anything... I was always DEAD by that time!

The trip was fantastic in general. My host brothers were very annoying at times- constantly throwing snowballs, being really immature, etc... but I can't really complain. Austria was beautiful and I am so thankful to my host parents for taking me along.










Yesterday was my first day of real school since 7 WEEKS! It was a bit of a shocker to go back! My first 3 hours were cancelled (typical). and then I had History, German, and French. It was nice seeing everybody again. There were many new faces in my class. 6 or 7 students spent the first half of the year abroad and now are back. They seem cool- I'm excited to get to know them. However, It also was a little strange being back because there a ton of media people outside our school taking pictures and things. About two weeks ago the Berlin Morgenpost had a huge artical about a molestation scandal from the 70s and 80s at my school that was just uncovered. And this scandal isn't just a few offenses- they are saying 20 cases at least. If you really want to read about it you can find articals about it in the NYT or Washington post... It's a really big deal here in Germany because it's the first major offense from the German Roman Catholic Church. eeeeks. Good thing that it happened over 20 years ago! Here are a few photos in the newspapers of my school... they make it look so ominous!





So yes- back to normal life in Berlin. Life is good. There are many things to look forward to. In March there is a trip with other exchange students to an island in the north of Germany. In April we have Easter Break and directly after that is finished I will be going on the EUROTOUR 2010 for 2.5 weeks. That leaves June... and then comes July. I was just contacted by my travel agent Ed, and I have to have my flight booked by the middle of the month. My mom is taking care of it, but it looks like I will be flying back sometime between the 5th and 8th of July. It looks like I will indeed make the Grand Rapids Conference- my school ends on the 2nd of July! Right now it seems so far away, but I'm already more than half way done, and I know time will fly. I'm just living these days while they last!

Until Later!