Middle October

Hey guys!

It has been a while since I posted, so here is an update!

After the Sprachkurs I came home for a few days, went to Koblenz once shopping with a friend, and then I went on vacation with my host family! A hiking vacation. It was surprisingly amazing! The only thing is, if you know me, I am a bit of a scaredy cat. Being so tall, it is a long way to ground. When I fall, I fall hard. (hence the cautiousness). But I didn't even think about falling until I had to make my way DOWN the mountain. It was a little precarious, but I finally made down and I only fell twice. :) I loved how relaxed the vacation was. We would get up, eat a HUGE breakfast with a lot of Brötchen and Nutella, hike for the morning, and then stay at home, read, or play UNO until dinner. :) It was just what I needed. It was so fun to be there with my host sister, too. She is so awesome and nice! I am waiting for her to get sick of me or get fed up with my lack of German skills. German learning is going along alright. I am getting pretty good at understanding normal conversation, but a downfall from that is that I have stopped the intense studying every night. Just because I can understand more doesn't mean I should stop learning! Or, at least, that is what I have been telling myself. I am working on it. Here are some photos from vacation:
(By the way, I probably took 200 photos of cows. Not kidding.)

Oh yeah. If you are wondering why I am at home right now, it is because I don't have classes at the moment! I usually have a German Language course every Thursday, but because I don't today I have 5 'hours' free! It is fabulous. I went to school for the first two hours and then walked back up the 'mountain' to my house! This morning was a bit frustrating, however. I pulled a 'Beth'. Considering that is my name, it should be more common, but thankfully it isn't. However, it finally happened. I woke up a little later today and was still very tired. I got my stuff together, ate breakfast and went out the door. I was half asleep on the bus and then all of a sudden we were at the school! I rushed out of the bus and into the school. I looked down and saw that my hands were empty and realized I left my stuff on the bus. Typical Beth move. I was so worried I ran into 5 people chasing after the bus, but of course it didn't stop. Haha. I went to class, borrowed some paper from a friend and sulked for the two hours of class. I called my host mother to let her know and I felt awful. After my two hours of class I walked back home, went up to my room, and to find what? My school stuff. I was so out of it I just neglected to even take my school stuff with me today. HA! Well, there you have it. A day in the life of Beth. Hopefully I don't do that again. :)

Since I have a little bit of time, here are some Germanisms:

Copy money: I don't believe I have said this before, but sorry if I have. Here, you have to pay money for the paper copies you get. I haven't had to do this always, but I have walked into a couple classes and the teacher has said, "Two Euros for copies, everyone." The first time shocked me, but now I see the reasoning.

Chalkboards: They are everywhere. No whiteboards here! And they don't have 'normal' chalkboard erasers. They always wet the board with a sponge and continue to write on it!

Voice pitch: Just a weird observation, but everyone sounds different when they speak English here. In my English class everyones voice becomes noticably higher pitched when they speak English. Just a thing.

Ring finger: here a ring goes on the ring finger of your right hand when you get married. It was a little awkward when my host mom noticed the ring I always have on my right hand ring finger. I have since switched it to the left.

Okay! That is all for today. :) Have a good day!

Beth.