Gestern, ich bin zu ein Festival gegangen. (Yesterday, I went to a festival).
Needless to say, I had a fantastic time. There were beautiful lights, good music, lots of food, and of course a lot of people.. (had my first real conversation with a boy, we're finally getting somewhere!). It was sort of like an American fair, a small-city fair that is. There was cotton-candy and rides and children. However, I think they call it a festival because there were definitely more alcoholic drinks than what you would see at a fair, and more drunk people. I met more people from my school and was able to speak with them a little bit, which made me happy.
Culture Inform:
Here, Germans stock up on drinks. Apfel-Saft (apple juice), Wasser (water), Bier (you should know this), and anything else that they drink often. These drinks come in glass bottles that are fairly large, and when all of the glass bottles are leer (empty), you bring them back to the local beverage store, and they give you a certain amount of euro for each bottle you have, maybe about .25 euro pro (per) bottle. Then they give you another 10 bottles or so and then you go back home. It's rather interesting but a very good idea. It's a better way of recycling.
How It's Going:
For the past couple of days I've been a little down, what with little knowledge of the language. I find it hard to express my ideas and my opinions in German, obviously because my German isn't the greatest. This is a little disheartening if only because people can't get to know me if I can't express my ideas and opinions, and one of my goals in coming here was to make great friends, which I can't do if people can't get to know me. It's a bit of a cycle that will never-the-less be fixed once I learn more of the language.
However, other than the language, everything is going amazingly. I'm having a great time, as it has been since I stepped foot on this beautiful country. I can't explain how great my host family is. My host parents are very understanding of everything and very helpful. I can tell that the language barrier is wearing them out a little bit as it is for me, but they're very patient and kind. My host sisters are very sweet and always helpful as well.
Not to say I don't miss my family and friends back home. I might even miss my home city a little bit (a tiny bit, that is). I've been a little homesick lately, but everything gets better with time.
The other day I took a German-placement test to see what evening class I could take in a college type school. I got a 34 out of 65 (which I don't think is too bad for only being here for a month or so), and placed in an Intensiv Deutschkurs (intensive German course) with about 6-8 people pro class. Sounds great, right? Well, it's also 410 euro, which is about 600 or so dollars, which is quite a bit for one class. I have to see if my program will cover any of it and then I'll see if I can take it. It's not necessary, just a speed-up-the-process type thing.
Well, ich denke das ist alles! (I think that's all).
Bis später! (Until later!)
-Alexandra
P.S. I've been highlighting the German words for you, just in case you were wondering why some words were purple, but I'm sure you figured that out ;)
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
schönen grünen Wald von Deutschland
Hello again! I'm sorry I haven't kept up with my blog quite as much as I should be, although I've been very busy with settling in and becoming used to my surroundings. Yesterday I think everything kicked in a little bit and I started to feel a tiny bit homesick.
My CR (Community Representative) came to visit yesterday in order to check up on how everything was going with school, my host family, etc. , and when I was driving with my host dad to go pick her up from the train station, we stopped at a local bank. For some reason, I started to realize that I don't know where anything is here. I can't even find my way around school, much less the villages! I've been so used to being familiar with everything around me because I've lived in the same town all of my life, and now all of a sudden changing gears to being unfamiliar with everything is a little unsettling. I told my CR this when I went to show her my new room, which is beautiful by the way, as everything is here, and she reassured me that in a couple months I should feel like I've lived here all of my life too. I'm definitely looking forward to that.
As I predicted, the hardest part about being in a foreign country is of course, the language. With the culture, you can easily pick up on what's going on, what to do, what not to do, and so on, because you see the same thing happening over and over again. However, with a completely new language, there are always new words that you haven't heard or haven't learned yet, and it's a lot harder to pick up what everybody's saying than what they're doing. Of course, I do learn at least twenty new words every day (whether or not I remember them is a different story), but there are still thousands of words I haven't heard yet. I do feel like I'm making progress though.
A little bit about the culture, you ask? Well, to start off, the German students like to push you out of their way in the hallways of school. Does anybody care? Nope! I always do a quick anger-check whenever one of my friends gets pushed out of the way, but whenever it happens to one of them, they always have a bright smile on their face as if nothing happened. The best example of this is on the "school bus" (it's really just a public transportation bus, which is a lot different than back home). Most of the students get off after the 6th hour (there are a total of 12 in a day that you can take, although it's rare to have all 12 filled up), and so when the bus comes, everybody screams (literally) and rushes into the bus as if there are free ipods inside. This is only because there aren't enough seats for everybody to have, but I've found it unnecessary. I've decided it best to wait outside of the screaming mass and have accepted the fact that I, indeed, will not get a seat on the bus. Alles gut.
Another thing that I find a little bit funny is that I can always tell when somebody is trying to speak to me, especially in English, because they always start their sentences out with "erhm...", or if they're speaking German to me, they'll say "erhm... Alex" with a cute German accent on my name. I love it! However, I can never, for the life of me, tell when they're speaking about me. I always try my hardest to listen in on the conversations around me and see if I can understand, but when I can't understand, I usually just stop listening and think about something else. However, if I knew that they were speaking about me, I would listen harder and try and join in. I have been very unsuccessful, if only because when they're speaking about me, they don't say my name, and they don't look at me at all, but then somebody will randomly say something like "ehrm... so today, did you want to go to so-and-so with us?". What? Where did that come from? So it turns out to be that they were speaking about me the whole time and I had no idea!
I'm debating with my host parents whether I should take a night-German class, and hopefully that might help. It seems a little expensive though. I'll let you know.
Last but not least, I wanted to share my thoughts on dreaming. I've always thought it to be really cool to dream in a different language. I hear about it all of the time, although it hasn't happened to me yet. You'd think that a little over a month of being surround by a different language, I'd be dreaming in it! But no, I dream in English, and I definitely think it sets me back in the morning. I'll go upstairs after waking up to eat breakfast, and my host mom will say something to me, and I'll just stare (tiredly, of course) and try my hardest to understand what she's saying, especially something simple like "Willst du Kaffee?" (Do you want coffee?). However, I'm still in English mode in the mornings because of my dreams! I need to get on this whole thinking and dreaming in German thing. I think it will help immensely.
I hope you've been able to learn a little more about Germany today. I will of course update you again very soon, and post some pictures of Germany and show you how beautiful it is here!
Guten Nacht!!
-Alexandra
My CR (Community Representative) came to visit yesterday in order to check up on how everything was going with school, my host family, etc. , and when I was driving with my host dad to go pick her up from the train station, we stopped at a local bank. For some reason, I started to realize that I don't know where anything is here. I can't even find my way around school, much less the villages! I've been so used to being familiar with everything around me because I've lived in the same town all of my life, and now all of a sudden changing gears to being unfamiliar with everything is a little unsettling. I told my CR this when I went to show her my new room, which is beautiful by the way, as everything is here, and she reassured me that in a couple months I should feel like I've lived here all of my life too. I'm definitely looking forward to that.
As I predicted, the hardest part about being in a foreign country is of course, the language. With the culture, you can easily pick up on what's going on, what to do, what not to do, and so on, because you see the same thing happening over and over again. However, with a completely new language, there are always new words that you haven't heard or haven't learned yet, and it's a lot harder to pick up what everybody's saying than what they're doing. Of course, I do learn at least twenty new words every day (whether or not I remember them is a different story), but there are still thousands of words I haven't heard yet. I do feel like I'm making progress though.
A little bit about the culture, you ask? Well, to start off, the German students like to push you out of their way in the hallways of school. Does anybody care? Nope! I always do a quick anger-check whenever one of my friends gets pushed out of the way, but whenever it happens to one of them, they always have a bright smile on their face as if nothing happened. The best example of this is on the "school bus" (it's really just a public transportation bus, which is a lot different than back home). Most of the students get off after the 6th hour (there are a total of 12 in a day that you can take, although it's rare to have all 12 filled up), and so when the bus comes, everybody screams (literally) and rushes into the bus as if there are free ipods inside. This is only because there aren't enough seats for everybody to have, but I've found it unnecessary. I've decided it best to wait outside of the screaming mass and have accepted the fact that I, indeed, will not get a seat on the bus. Alles gut.
Another thing that I find a little bit funny is that I can always tell when somebody is trying to speak to me, especially in English, because they always start their sentences out with "erhm...", or if they're speaking German to me, they'll say "erhm... Alex" with a cute German accent on my name. I love it! However, I can never, for the life of me, tell when they're speaking about me. I always try my hardest to listen in on the conversations around me and see if I can understand, but when I can't understand, I usually just stop listening and think about something else. However, if I knew that they were speaking about me, I would listen harder and try and join in. I have been very unsuccessful, if only because when they're speaking about me, they don't say my name, and they don't look at me at all, but then somebody will randomly say something like "ehrm... so today, did you want to go to so-and-so with us?". What? Where did that come from? So it turns out to be that they were speaking about me the whole time and I had no idea!
I'm debating with my host parents whether I should take a night-German class, and hopefully that might help. It seems a little expensive though. I'll let you know.
Last but not least, I wanted to share my thoughts on dreaming. I've always thought it to be really cool to dream in a different language. I hear about it all of the time, although it hasn't happened to me yet. You'd think that a little over a month of being surround by a different language, I'd be dreaming in it! But no, I dream in English, and I definitely think it sets me back in the morning. I'll go upstairs after waking up to eat breakfast, and my host mom will say something to me, and I'll just stare (tiredly, of course) and try my hardest to understand what she's saying, especially something simple like "Willst du Kaffee?" (Do you want coffee?). However, I'm still in English mode in the mornings because of my dreams! I need to get on this whole thinking and dreaming in German thing. I think it will help immensely.
I hope you've been able to learn a little more about Germany today. I will of course update you again very soon, and post some pictures of Germany and show you how beautiful it is here!
Guten Nacht!!
-Alexandra
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Deutschland So Far
So, ich bin in Deutschland. So far, everything is perfectly amazing.
First, I went to language camp with the other fifty or so students. Many adventures occured from that, such as naming stairs or finding a million spiders in your room and being too afraid to do anything about them but scream. (Not me, I was the hero). Along the way I found a few really close friends that I know I'm going to talk to for the rest of my life. I guess that's what happens when you put a bunch of people together that all have one gigantic thing in common.
During language camp, I learnt enough German in 6 hours of class Mondays through Fridays to be satisfactory for speaking with my Host Family and others around me. I learnt how to eat correctly without offending anybody, and how to read city-maps and ride in public transportation without getting lost. We had a "Romantic Night" which didn't turn out to be made for an actual "romantic" night but rather just a night to sit together and listen to music, and we had an exhibition with the local Fire-Brigade and got to spray each other with firehoses, which left us soaking wet and muddy. We had many journeys to the local store, named NP, if only to buy out all of the chocolate. Along with this, we also had two talent shows, in which I sang in the second one the song Arms by Christina Perri with a couple of my friends. Overall, a perfect way to start my 10-month stay in Germany.
On Saturday, 10.9.11, everyone traveled to their Host Family's house, most of us by Zug (train). I traveled to stay with my CR (Community Representative) in a city near where my Host Family lives. They were just coming back from their holiday in Italy and couldn't make it back until later that night. I went with my CR to see Friends with Benefits in German and stayed the night with her.
The next day, I traveled with my Host Family to their house. All I can say is that it's beautiful here. Unlike Arizona, it's green and not burning. There's crisp air that makes you actually want to be outside! My Host Family is incredibly sweet and they always make sure I don't need anything. I love it here.
I started school the other day and all I can say to people when I get really tired is "viel Deutsch", or, a lot of German. It can get really overwhelming to try and speak a completely different language that you've only been studying for about a month, and trying to understand what everybody's saying to you, much less what's going on in your classes. Although, since I've been here, I feel like I'm starting to understand way more than I thought I would for being here for such a short amount of time.
All I can say is that if you ever get a chance to stay in Germany, wholeheartedly, do it.
I will give you more updates on everything's that been happening for the past month or so, but for now, Tschues!
First, I went to language camp with the other fifty or so students. Many adventures occured from that, such as naming stairs or finding a million spiders in your room and being too afraid to do anything about them but scream. (Not me, I was the hero). Along the way I found a few really close friends that I know I'm going to talk to for the rest of my life. I guess that's what happens when you put a bunch of people together that all have one gigantic thing in common.
During language camp, I learnt enough German in 6 hours of class Mondays through Fridays to be satisfactory for speaking with my Host Family and others around me. I learnt how to eat correctly without offending anybody, and how to read city-maps and ride in public transportation without getting lost. We had a "Romantic Night" which didn't turn out to be made for an actual "romantic" night but rather just a night to sit together and listen to music, and we had an exhibition with the local Fire-Brigade and got to spray each other with firehoses, which left us soaking wet and muddy. We had many journeys to the local store, named NP, if only to buy out all of the chocolate. Along with this, we also had two talent shows, in which I sang in the second one the song Arms by Christina Perri with a couple of my friends. Overall, a perfect way to start my 10-month stay in Germany.
On Saturday, 10.9.11, everyone traveled to their Host Family's house, most of us by Zug (train). I traveled to stay with my CR (Community Representative) in a city near where my Host Family lives. They were just coming back from their holiday in Italy and couldn't make it back until later that night. I went with my CR to see Friends with Benefits in German and stayed the night with her.
The next day, I traveled with my Host Family to their house. All I can say is that it's beautiful here. Unlike Arizona, it's green and not burning. There's crisp air that makes you actually want to be outside! My Host Family is incredibly sweet and they always make sure I don't need anything. I love it here.
I started school the other day and all I can say to people when I get really tired is "viel Deutsch", or, a lot of German. It can get really overwhelming to try and speak a completely different language that you've only been studying for about a month, and trying to understand what everybody's saying to you, much less what's going on in your classes. Although, since I've been here, I feel like I'm starting to understand way more than I thought I would for being here for such a short amount of time.
All I can say is that if you ever get a chance to stay in Germany, wholeheartedly, do it.
I will give you more updates on everything's that been happening for the past month or so, but for now, Tschues!
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