Well, about 8 months in and I'm still not satisfied with public transportation. It's one thing that I should probably stop expecting to get any better anytime soon. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't so cold at night, or so late, so maybe when it's warmer I'll stop being so crabby about my taxi being 15 minutes late and making me think that I don't have a way. Okay, breathing.
I guess a lot has happened in the past couple of months that I haven't had a chance to tell you yet, so I'll just try and sum up everything short and sweet. First of all, I went to a seminar in Cologne and met up with the other foreign exchange students for five days. While it was nice to see everybody, I didn't feel quite satisfied with it when it was over. Maybe my expectations were too high. I came in feeling lost and expecting to leave with an energy boost of good thoughts and optimism, but I came out feeling just as, if not more, lost. I guess I just expected all of my problems to be solved, but they weren't. By the way, my English isn't doing so well. I'm trying to correct mistakes as I go, but if I miss a few and spell sum as some, you'll know why.
Moving on a couple of weeks after that little low point after the seminar, things started to come together for me. I started to realize things about the culture here that I like, such as the common courtesy everybody has for eachother, well if you're going into somebody's house at least. The other day I was getting on the bus, and had entered from the back instead of from the front because I knew I already had a ticket and didn't think it was a problem. Anyways, I ended up being called to the front and yelled at by the bus driver because I didn't enter from the front, even after I showed him that I had a ticket. I told him I was American and still trying to figure out how things work, and he said it didn't interest him. Okay, lesson learned. Anyways, I mean there is a great amount of courtesy in more comfortable atmospheres. I have also recently gotten a hang of the language and prefer to speak it rather than English.
Things are also going well regarding the people here. I have made a lot of friends in school and am getting along great with my host family. During my low point I felt it hard to communicate with the people around me and I think I was introverting myself a little bit because of that. Now it's a lot easier to say what I need to to describe how I feel and why, so I'm being more social. I guess a language can do that to you. Looking back on it, I think that if I had known the german language better than I would have been better off at the start. However, on the other hand I feel like I made a lot of friends because I was forced to ask what was going on around us so it gave us a good ground to start off on, if that makes sense.
Something that I was told before I came here was to try and finish all of my stuff with college before I came here. What amazing advice that was. I don't know if having to deal with college while I was here could be avoided, but if it could have, I would have done it in a heartbeat. Trying to find the motivation to fill out applications, to contact people who needed to be contacted, to write essays, and to get everything done on time along with dealing with things here in Germany and trying to keep in contact with my friends in family back in the US was, and still is, incredibly difficult. It will be nice when it's over with.
So I figured I just give you a short update so you knew I was still alive. I'm alive! And besides being a little frustrated from public transportation, doing well. I love you all and will be back home in 3 or so months! I promise you'll receive a new update before then ;)
