BERLIN

Hey everybody!

Sorry that I haven't updated very soon, but... I have no excuse. :)  My goal is to post once a week for an update, so I will try to follow that!

So, from the 24th to the 28th I went to Berlin, and it was AWESOME! :) We had a tour about the Berlin Wall, went to the parliament building and had a tour, a city tour, went the the Brandenburger Tor, and went to the new Holocaust memorial.

A lot of people ask me what I am missing the most in Germany. Of course, the number one thing I miss are family and friends, but I know they will still be there when I get back. For your entertainment, here is a list of things that I couldn’t live without, and therefore I have brought with me to Germany. (And one thing that is killing me because I don’t have it.) My next blog post will about what I won’t be able to live without when I go back to the US. Trust me, most of it will be food. :)

1) My calculator. This sounds stupid, but I couldn’t live without it. We are doing calculus in my math class right now, and while I already know the topic because I took the same class last year, I am REALLY bad at simple math. My calculus class ruined it for me. I know, that is backwards, but I cannot do it. My host mom always makes fun of me when I try and do math related things.

For example--
Me to my host mom: Aren’t you excited?! Your birthday is in 13 days!
Host mom: No, it isn’t.
Me: Of course it is! Today is the 30th, and your birthday is on the 13th!
Host mom: Try that again.
Me: Oh.

I blamed it on not knowing there were 31 days in October, but I knew. Oh, I knew. It was a moment of shame.

2) Peanut Butter M&Ms.
Okay, I could definitely live without these things, mostly because I didn’t eat them a whole lot before I got here, but if I didn’t have them, I think my host sister would kill me. :) She REALLY likes them. I brought them mostly because of the peanut butter thing (Europeans aren’t as into peanut butter as we Americans), but they are actually quite good, if you didn’t know. I shared them with my host sister and now she wants to eat them all! And I brought 5 large bags of them with...

3) My IPad.
I never thought of myself as one of those dorky IPad owners, but after my mom bought me one as a generous going away gift/graduating from High School gift (WOHOO! Thanks mom!) I LOVE it. It is perfect for those moments where I really need to look up a German word, and then I can pull it out of my bag and quick look it up. It was really useful when I got the words to kill (umbringen) and to bring (bringen) mixed up.

4) My Watch.
I think that watches here are much more popular. In the US I always just looked at my phone when I needed to know the time, but I am so glad that I bought a watch with my awesome friend Kelsey before I came. This way counting down the minutes until Informatik is over is easier.

5) BATH AND BODY WORKS HAND SANITZER.
Let’s get real. I would die if I didn’t have this stuff. It is like crack. Clean, floral-smelling crack. I filled my suitcase with the stuff before I left because, unfortunately, they do not have B&B here! I know-- they are crazy. :) I also like to watch people’s reactions when I slather on Apple Lavender. Normally they just sniff a few times, and look around wondering where the delicious smell comes from. :)

6) Chipotle.
Lastly, my one true love. It kills me a little inside that there is no Chipotle here. I have an honest addiction to the stuff and I am going through some serious withdrawals. I got the Chipotle shakes. This was my last meal in the states, and will surely be my first when I come home again. If you’ve never had it, think of it as Mexican Subway. :) I went to a theme-park with my host family, and there was a Mexico themed section. I persuaded them into eating here, and I got a burrito. It was heaven. My nowhere near as good as Chipotle. Chipotle-- I miss you.

Okay folks, that is all.

I will update soon! (I hope!)

Beth

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.

St. Goarshausen

Some old photos of the fireworks in the town right next to mine. :)

Sprachkurs!

Hello all!

I know, I know, it has been a long time, but I have been busy, I promise!!

I have been at a language camp for the past one and a half weeks! And it has been quite fun. The language camp is organized by Rotary to help the exchange students with there german. Because the camp is two weeks long, I miss one week of school to be here. (The other week is part of my fall vacation.)

Here is the layout of a day at the camp. We get up around 6:40..... Then we get up a second time at 7:000 (I am not a morning person) we get ready to go, and then we go downstairs in the hostel and have breakfast. Then we take a bus to the train station. Then a train to a neighboring town: Gemersheim. We then walk 15 to a university.on the first day we were bombarded with questions in German, and our reactions placed us in our respective classes. We have three different level classes.

When we arrive at the camp sego straight to our classes and learn from 9:30 to 11:00. We have a fifteen minute break and then continue until lunch, at 12:45. We eat lunch for forty five minutes and then go to homework time until four or so.

It is a long day.

After classes there are sometimes events planned. For instance, yesterday we went on a tour of the town Speyer, and we received a tour of the Dom in Speyer. It was interesting. Other days we go to museums, or karaoke, and today I think we are going to another museum! It is pretty fun.

The people here are awesome. It is all other exchange students from the area. The thing about exchange students is that there is no awkward getting to know you stage. You are just automatically close. Notice, I don't necessarily say friends. But there is no awkward official questions to ask. :)

I really do like everyone here but I mostly hang out with a girl from the US and a girl from Finland. They are great! It is fun to teach the Finnish girl American slang. :) and to learn about Finland.

By the way, everyone here speaks Spanish and Portuguese. At the language camp that is. And I really want to learn Spanish. So if anyone wants to give me lessons... Haha. :)

But right now I am working on my German. And it is going alright. I really wish I could be learning faster, but It is hard to balance hanging out with people, talking to people back home, and studying German. But I think it will balance out in time. In a way, I think my german has gone backwards from when I got to German camp because we speak so much English here!! Everyone is always speaking English or Spanish or Portuguese and I only understand the English, so of course I speak that. I think I have spoken more English here than I have the past month in German. But I guess I have all year to speak English!:)


I hope that is a good enough update for now. (I am typing on my iPad so please excuse spelling mistakes. :D)

Tschüss!