Spaß (having fun)

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 ;)