Hello friends and foes! (Do I've any foes reading my blog???????)
I could pull a blog owner's cliche and say "Sorry I haven't updated my blog in a long time!" But I shan't succumb to such petty apologies!
So, I’ve been on "Herbstferien" (or Fall Break as us Americans would call it, if we had one…) for over two weeks now, so the whole getting used to school thing will basically have to start back up all over again when school resumes. The rest of the students at Gymnasium Plön (the actual name of my school) have two weeks of break, but I have three because my fellow 12th graders have "Praktikum" which is more or less a week-long internship at some business in the area: bank, pharmacy, grocery store, etc. The students I asked about it said they picked were they did because they couldn’t think of anywhere better to do so, and it had nothing to do with what they actually wanted to do for a career. Because like ME and most other young people I know, they don’t really know what they want to do yet.
Alright, so what else have I done this Fall break?
My host mom, Uli, took Pauline, Jakob, and I to Mallorca, Spain (an island of Spain) the first week of break. Right around our hotel, it was a huge tourist trap (pretty depressing at first), where everyone spoke English(tourists and workers alike), cheap plastic souveniers made in China were crammed into the shops on every street, and there was an entertainment stage next to our hotel room blasting Disney songs all night as people in creepy costumes danced to it. BUT, Uli utilized her Mallorca book and map from the library well, and we managed to escape with bikes and busses into more authentic areas of the island. We visited an outdoor market where we bought local cheeses and fruits and then we rode our bikes into this secluded area in between big canyony rocks next to the ocean, and we swam and had a picnic all day. Very nice.
After Mallorca, we went to my host GRANDPARENT’S house, which was FANTASTIC – the house itself was a goldmine, completely German in every way. I think I’ll dedicate an entire post to their house and one specific room and a funny scenario that took place there sometime soon (no, REALLY!). But Uli’s parents, Wilhelm and Ursula, treated me so well, really like a granddaughter, and I just kept thinking, I’m just this strange American girl that you’ve never met before and can’t speak your language, how can you see me as your granddaughter to readily?! Wilhelm, who I felt compelled to call Opa (grandpa in German), brought me to a museum about the Bridge at Remagen (bridge in his town that was destroyed during WWII) and then to another museum nearby that contained actual ruins of a roman mansion that was covered up by a mud slide, then found years later. And THEN to this community of houses surrounded by some old Roman wall that even used to have a moat around it, and these houses were SO beautiful, all uniquely painted with little designs, flowers, and otherwise – really great. Really, Wilhelm and Ursula were so great and still really sharp.
Ah! Very quickly, on Friday, I had my birthday party with my Canadian exchange student friend, Marie Pierre (yeah she speaks French), with all the kids in our grade. It was really fun to set it up, because it was Halloween themed, and Germany rarely celebrates much for Halloween. I dressed up as a gnome. Just as a side note, in 8th grade, I was voted "Most Likely to Own Her Own Lawn Gnome Superstore". I was, and still am, quite proud. Maybe pictures later.
And I also want to explain, that although I can't fluently speak or understand German, I find it interesting that I can still understand what a person is like, as if the majority of a person's character isn't verbal or something. Haha, but watch me be completely wrong, and once I understand what people are saying, I'll have an entirely new perspective of them. ACTUALLY, that's already happened, with my host brother. I guess at first I sort of thought he was just a regular 12 year old kid, sort of a trouble maker, not too interesting or bright, maybe, but we've started speaking English together (at Markus' request, because Jakob needs help with it) and Jakob is actually REALLY clever and halarious... Yeah, just thought I'd let you all know.
And now, it is 10 thirty, I ate breakfast as I typed this, I’m sitting in the computer room, no one is home, and I will soon go to Plön by train, without buying a ticket, hoping I don’t get caught by the ticket checkers (they normally don’t come by to check, but my luck will run out soon, I think. The penalty is 40 Euros… a lot!), and I will buy several Euros worth of stamps, and maybe begin to ask strangers on the street, with my broken German, what cool things there are to do in Plön.
BIS GLEICH! (literally: UNTIL SOON… err),
jennyg
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Wear Sunscreen
INITIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS:
1. I know that I don’t update my blog regularly, so if you would like, you should leave a comment here with your email address. That way, I can send out mass-emails whenever I update my blog. I know that some of your computers don’t let you leave comments, so you can also email me your email addresses. My email address is: jennygoodwine@gmail.com
2. I get bored here a lot on weekends. If you don’t mind, I’d like to hear what all of YOU guys think I should do with my extra time. Of coure I COULD think of things on my own, but it’s more fun if you guys give me suggestions!! Leave your suggestions in the comment area ;)
Tommorow is already October! I can’t believe it. I was sitting at the lunch with the fam an hour ago, and I randomly said, looking off into the distance, “…..Morgen ist Oktober…..” (Tommorrow is October). Markus (host dad) looked at me blankly. Then nodded sympathetically. Hahaha. Then Jakob (host brother) said, “noch neun Tage bis dein Geburtstag!” (still nine more days until your bithday!) Aha! And then Markus asked me if I’d like to have a party for my birthday – I hadn’t thought about it, and the thought made me a bit nervous for some reason. I said to him, “Das weiss ich nicht” (I don’t know), and then he went off talking about something else. I realized – “HEY, I’ve got to say something now, or else it’ll be difficult to bring it up again later!” So I say to Markus five whole minutes later, “Meinst du, eine Party mit euch oder mit Freunde?” (Do you mean a party with you guys, or with friends?). I’m pretty sure my family thinks I’m spacey because of my sporadic mentioning of off-topic things, but he said “mit Freunde” (with friends). SO, now I’ve got a party to plan! I’ll tell you all how that goes; we’re thinking we’ll do it on my actual birthday – October 9th – because I’m going to be in Hamburg with Rotary upcoming weekend. Hopefully people will come on a weekday…
Last night was my friend Mareike’s birthday party, and I had a pretty good time. German parties are sort of lame in a way because they are always exactly the same: drinking, dancing, sitting, and socializing (did you notice that nice alliteration?). No games, no bright areas to actually see who you’re talking to (these parties are always dark and at night) and no quiet areas to actually hear who you’re talking to (the music is always really loud). Haha, but they’re still enjoyable because I do really like the people who are there. The social situation in my school here is so different from what I’m used to. There seems to be absolutely NO social heirarchy; everyone is friends with everyone. Even the really odd people are never left out. There’s one boy in our grade who is sort of socially awkard and strange, reads newspapers for fun, corrects the teacher during class, even sporadically puts his feet behind his head– I think that characterizes him well enough. But everyone still hangs out with him and talks to him – I mean, they realize how weird he is as they hang out with him – but they don’t ostracize him at all! See, at Centennial (my school in Illinois), someone like this guy would definitely be left out of social groups. I have to conclusions to this:
1. Either young German people are much less exclusive than in America (because my other foreign exchange friend from Rotary that live in other parts of Germany ALSO say there’s not much social heirarchy)
2. OR, it’s just because the German school I go to is very small. It’s harder to build exclusive cliques when there are so few people available.
Anyway, my point is that at these parties, no one has a huge ego or anything. So I can easily go up to someone I don’t know and just start talking to them – it’s no big thing. There’s no feeling of “That person’s too cool for me to talk to!” It’s really great and I feel really lucky for that. Maybe the American high school stereotype of “jocks-hang-out-with-jocks, nerd-with-nerds, etc.” is more true than I had thought – or at least compared to this German school.
Also, because I’m America, I often get asked interesting things:
1. When I went to my German class (with the 10 year olds) for the first time, a young boy kept sneaking glances at me with a smirk on his face ALL during class. Finally, when class was over, he pranced over and giddily asked, “KENNST DU STARS IN AMERIKA???” (he basically asked, do you personally know any stars in America?) I didn’t understand what he meant by “stars” at first, so then he said clarified you know, like singer or actors!!! And then, “Wie Fifty-Cent oder Eminem?!” (Like Fifty-Cent or Eminem?!). “OOOOh” I said, like famous, Hollywood type of “Stars”. I then told him I met Britney Spears once, and his jaw dropped.
2. Last night at the party, I was taking a video of my friend with my camera, when another guy said, “HEY! Take one of me.” And then he explained that he wants me to get him his own show on Comedy Central, using the video I was about to take of him. “Of COURSE I can do that, I AM American after all”, I said. Haha, and then I film him introducing himself as a German who wants a show on Comedy Central, and then talks about a hilarious situation he had when he was an exchange student America. He does this with English grammar and a vocabulary that are probably better than a lot native English speakers, hahaha. It’s somewhat sickening how well so many German teens can speak English…
3. Two people have asked me if the whole high school stereotype of "the jocks date the cheerleaders" is true. I always say that it’s difficult to speak for all of America, but it’s not VERY true in my school, only a little bit...
On Friday, I endured my first German school exam. Don’t worry – it was an English test. I was actually sort of bitter about when my teacher told me that I HAD to take it, even though I don’t need grades here; but I just was NOT in the mood for taking a test that day. And it annoyed me that she said, “And it’ll be interesting for me to read your test (since I’m American, etc.).” So she made me endure this FOUR HOUR LONG TEST for her own sick amusement… Someone asked me if tests were ever as long as this in America, and I said n-e-v-e-r. Haha, ok, ok, I’m maybe overreacting, because the test was actually interesting. Here’s how it went: Frau Doser (the teacher) played Bruce Springsteen’s song, Sinaola Cowboys, for us twice. Then she handed us a paper with four tasks on it:
1. Summarize the song.
2. What do you think about the story told in the song? Relate your ideas to the American Dream. (We’re studying about the American Dream in class)
3. Imagine you are a journalist. What would your news report look like if you were to cover the story told in this song?
4. How do you think the story will end? Write your own appropriate ending.
I was really dreading this English test because since English is my mother language, everyone expects it to be good. So I had some bitter sentiments and anxiety over it. But I made myself ignore their expectations and do it for myself, and NOT for them; it was really relieving to me. So I made it fun for myself. I actually enjoyed #4 a lot. I never really tried to write a story before, but it turned out interesting…
Oh, and I threw in some EXTRA difficult and obscure words for my English teacher for when she grades it, just as retaliation ;) Haha…
And also on Friday, I was obligated to approach my former Art teacher, Herr Surkao, about leaving his class for a different art class, which I was sort of dreading also. I explained the situation to him in German, but here’s the English version (sort of odd and ultra simple because my German isn’t very fluid): “I must tell you that I now have Herr Buchholtz because he speaks a bit of English for me. Oh and I made you a card.” He’s not a very emotive guy, and he looked a little strained or something, very indifferent, but sort of like he was disturbed by me approaching him as he walked to class. Maybe it was because I hadn’t been to his class in like two weeks, so he was wondering why I bothered telling him NOW. Anyway, I made him a card (see earlier post) and he awkwardly and sort of confusedly accepted it. And that was the end of that. I feel much more clean now and felt proud of doing two things that I really didn’t want to do. But I forced myself! Because actually the day before, I listened to a song that said, “Do something every day that scares you.”* And that reminded me of a quote I read once by Mark Twain that said, “Do something every day that you don’t want to do. That is the golden rule for easing pain for doing things later that one doesn’t want, but must, do.” Or something like that. No, wait, I just looked it up. It’s actually, “Do something every day that you don't want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.”
Until next time,
jennyg
* The song I listened to is called “Wear Sunscreen” by Baz Luhrmann. I suggest you all LISTEN TO IT here on youtube! Please!!:
click here
It’s really a great song with wonderful advice. I’ve gotta thank Meizi Mao and Phoebe Barkan for introducing me to it ☺
And here’s the column by Mary Schmich, which apparently inspired the song:
this
If you actually do listen to it, you should tell me! I'm interested about what you think!
1. I know that I don’t update my blog regularly, so if you would like, you should leave a comment here with your email address. That way, I can send out mass-emails whenever I update my blog. I know that some of your computers don’t let you leave comments, so you can also email me your email addresses. My email address is: jennygoodwine@gmail.com
2. I get bored here a lot on weekends. If you don’t mind, I’d like to hear what all of YOU guys think I should do with my extra time. Of coure I COULD think of things on my own, but it’s more fun if you guys give me suggestions!! Leave your suggestions in the comment area ;)
Tommorow is already October! I can’t believe it. I was sitting at the lunch with the fam an hour ago, and I randomly said, looking off into the distance, “…..Morgen ist Oktober…..” (Tommorrow is October). Markus (host dad) looked at me blankly. Then nodded sympathetically. Hahaha. Then Jakob (host brother) said, “noch neun Tage bis dein Geburtstag!” (still nine more days until your bithday!) Aha! And then Markus asked me if I’d like to have a party for my birthday – I hadn’t thought about it, and the thought made me a bit nervous for some reason. I said to him, “Das weiss ich nicht” (I don’t know), and then he went off talking about something else. I realized – “HEY, I’ve got to say something now, or else it’ll be difficult to bring it up again later!” So I say to Markus five whole minutes later, “Meinst du, eine Party mit euch oder mit Freunde?” (Do you mean a party with you guys, or with friends?). I’m pretty sure my family thinks I’m spacey because of my sporadic mentioning of off-topic things, but he said “mit Freunde” (with friends). SO, now I’ve got a party to plan! I’ll tell you all how that goes; we’re thinking we’ll do it on my actual birthday – October 9th – because I’m going to be in Hamburg with Rotary upcoming weekend. Hopefully people will come on a weekday…
Last night was my friend Mareike’s birthday party, and I had a pretty good time. German parties are sort of lame in a way because they are always exactly the same: drinking, dancing, sitting, and socializing (did you notice that nice alliteration?). No games, no bright areas to actually see who you’re talking to (these parties are always dark and at night) and no quiet areas to actually hear who you’re talking to (the music is always really loud). Haha, but they’re still enjoyable because I do really like the people who are there. The social situation in my school here is so different from what I’m used to. There seems to be absolutely NO social heirarchy; everyone is friends with everyone. Even the really odd people are never left out. There’s one boy in our grade who is sort of socially awkard and strange, reads newspapers for fun, corrects the teacher during class, even sporadically puts his feet behind his head– I think that characterizes him well enough. But everyone still hangs out with him and talks to him – I mean, they realize how weird he is as they hang out with him – but they don’t ostracize him at all! See, at Centennial (my school in Illinois), someone like this guy would definitely be left out of social groups. I have to conclusions to this:
1. Either young German people are much less exclusive than in America (because my other foreign exchange friend from Rotary that live in other parts of Germany ALSO say there’s not much social heirarchy)
2. OR, it’s just because the German school I go to is very small. It’s harder to build exclusive cliques when there are so few people available.
Anyway, my point is that at these parties, no one has a huge ego or anything. So I can easily go up to someone I don’t know and just start talking to them – it’s no big thing. There’s no feeling of “That person’s too cool for me to talk to!” It’s really great and I feel really lucky for that. Maybe the American high school stereotype of “jocks-hang-out-with-jocks, nerd-with-nerds, etc.” is more true than I had thought – or at least compared to this German school.
Also, because I’m America, I often get asked interesting things:
1. When I went to my German class (with the 10 year olds) for the first time, a young boy kept sneaking glances at me with a smirk on his face ALL during class. Finally, when class was over, he pranced over and giddily asked, “KENNST DU STARS IN AMERIKA???” (he basically asked, do you personally know any stars in America?) I didn’t understand what he meant by “stars” at first, so then he said clarified you know, like singer or actors!!! And then, “Wie Fifty-Cent oder Eminem?!” (Like Fifty-Cent or Eminem?!). “OOOOh” I said, like famous, Hollywood type of “Stars”. I then told him I met Britney Spears once, and his jaw dropped.
2. Last night at the party, I was taking a video of my friend with my camera, when another guy said, “HEY! Take one of me.” And then he explained that he wants me to get him his own show on Comedy Central, using the video I was about to take of him. “Of COURSE I can do that, I AM American after all”, I said. Haha, and then I film him introducing himself as a German who wants a show on Comedy Central, and then talks about a hilarious situation he had when he was an exchange student America. He does this with English grammar and a vocabulary that are probably better than a lot native English speakers, hahaha. It’s somewhat sickening how well so many German teens can speak English…
3. Two people have asked me if the whole high school stereotype of "the jocks date the cheerleaders" is true. I always say that it’s difficult to speak for all of America, but it’s not VERY true in my school, only a little bit...
On Friday, I endured my first German school exam. Don’t worry – it was an English test. I was actually sort of bitter about when my teacher told me that I HAD to take it, even though I don’t need grades here; but I just was NOT in the mood for taking a test that day. And it annoyed me that she said, “And it’ll be interesting for me to read your test (since I’m American, etc.).” So she made me endure this FOUR HOUR LONG TEST for her own sick amusement… Someone asked me if tests were ever as long as this in America, and I said n-e-v-e-r. Haha, ok, ok, I’m maybe overreacting, because the test was actually interesting. Here’s how it went: Frau Doser (the teacher) played Bruce Springsteen’s song, Sinaola Cowboys, for us twice. Then she handed us a paper with four tasks on it:
1. Summarize the song.
2. What do you think about the story told in the song? Relate your ideas to the American Dream. (We’re studying about the American Dream in class)
3. Imagine you are a journalist. What would your news report look like if you were to cover the story told in this song?
4. How do you think the story will end? Write your own appropriate ending.
I was really dreading this English test because since English is my mother language, everyone expects it to be good. So I had some bitter sentiments and anxiety over it. But I made myself ignore their expectations and do it for myself, and NOT for them; it was really relieving to me. So I made it fun for myself. I actually enjoyed #4 a lot. I never really tried to write a story before, but it turned out interesting…
Oh, and I threw in some EXTRA difficult and obscure words for my English teacher for when she grades it, just as retaliation ;) Haha…
And also on Friday, I was obligated to approach my former Art teacher, Herr Surkao, about leaving his class for a different art class, which I was sort of dreading also. I explained the situation to him in German, but here’s the English version (sort of odd and ultra simple because my German isn’t very fluid): “I must tell you that I now have Herr Buchholtz because he speaks a bit of English for me. Oh and I made you a card.” He’s not a very emotive guy, and he looked a little strained or something, very indifferent, but sort of like he was disturbed by me approaching him as he walked to class. Maybe it was because I hadn’t been to his class in like two weeks, so he was wondering why I bothered telling him NOW. Anyway, I made him a card (see earlier post) and he awkwardly and sort of confusedly accepted it. And that was the end of that. I feel much more clean now and felt proud of doing two things that I really didn’t want to do. But I forced myself! Because actually the day before, I listened to a song that said, “Do something every day that scares you.”* And that reminded me of a quote I read once by Mark Twain that said, “Do something every day that you don’t want to do. That is the golden rule for easing pain for doing things later that one doesn’t want, but must, do.” Or something like that. No, wait, I just looked it up. It’s actually, “Do something every day that you don't want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.”
Until next time,
jennyg
* The song I listened to is called “Wear Sunscreen” by Baz Luhrmann. I suggest you all LISTEN TO IT here on youtube! Please!!:
click here
It’s really a great song with wonderful advice. I’ve gotta thank Meizi Mao and Phoebe Barkan for introducing me to it ☺
And here’s the column by Mary Schmich, which apparently inspired the song:
this
If you actually do listen to it, you should tell me! I'm interested about what you think!
Saturday, September 29, 2007
KUNST (art)
Dear steve (goodwin(E)),
I have been bored all day, it is a Saturday, and so I have made some pieces of art for you. But since I can't give them to you (you are in America and I am in Germany), I will take their picture and then throw the art all away into the garbage can.
ok ok, actually I lied. It wasn't all for you, steve. I've been making things all day because I get sooooo bored, and also because it is my host dad's birthday as well as my good friend Mareike's (german friend from school) birthday. And you, steve (my REAL american brother), wanted to see them!
i made this small mobile for my friend Mareike's birthday today. It's made out of rocks I found at an island I went to, wire I found in a drawer, and also a cool paper star I found... I wish'd i'd also made that star.
I made this card for my (german) art teacher, Herr Surkau, because I felt bad after I abandoned his class for another Art class... I sort of started skipping Herr Surkau's class because they never made art and only lectured the whole time IN GERMAN = boring and not what i want in an ART CLASS. So I started going to Herr Buchholtz's class because he speaks English and MAKES (not talks) art. But finally sorted it out the right way, and told Herr Surkau the deal and also made him this card. He didn't seem to care at all, not even a smile for the card. I think he was confused by my bad german.
This is the card I made for Marieke's birthday, amongst the CHESTNUTS that I have collected since I've been here. These "Kastanien" are everywhere, and i love them because they're so smoooooth
This is the inside of Marieke's card - which i wrote in GERMAN..... aha!! If you actually take the time to translate it, you might be confused because there are a lot of inside jokes.
This is the card I made for Markus' birthday. Don't worry, he appreciates the pink flower because he's a GARDENER. And a cook. AAAANNNDDD an opera singer. Yeah, he's breakin' the boundaries! you all could learn a thing or two from him ;) . I made it for him this morning out of the following materials: the pretty, silvery inside of a milk carton’s cardboard (found in the recycling bin); construction paper scraps of primary colors (found in the waste basket); and scissors and a glue stick that I took from school. Recourceful, no?
I have been bored all day, it is a Saturday, and so I have made some pieces of art for you. But since I can't give them to you (you are in America and I am in Germany), I will take their picture and then throw the art all away into the garbage can.
ok ok, actually I lied. It wasn't all for you, steve. I've been making things all day because I get sooooo bored, and also because it is my host dad's birthday as well as my good friend Mareike's (german friend from school) birthday. And you, steve (my REAL american brother), wanted to see them!
i made this small mobile for my friend Mareike's birthday today. It's made out of rocks I found at an island I went to, wire I found in a drawer, and also a cool paper star I found... I wish'd i'd also made that star.
I made this card for my (german) art teacher, Herr Surkau, because I felt bad after I abandoned his class for another Art class... I sort of started skipping Herr Surkau's class because they never made art and only lectured the whole time IN GERMAN = boring and not what i want in an ART CLASS. So I started going to Herr Buchholtz's class because he speaks English and MAKES (not talks) art. But finally sorted it out the right way, and told Herr Surkau the deal and also made him this card. He didn't seem to care at all, not even a smile for the card. I think he was confused by my bad german.
This is the card I made for Marieke's birthday, amongst the CHESTNUTS that I have collected since I've been here. These "Kastanien" are everywhere, and i love them because they're so smoooooth
This is the inside of Marieke's card - which i wrote in GERMAN..... aha!! If you actually take the time to translate it, you might be confused because there are a lot of inside jokes.
This is the card I made for Markus' birthday. Don't worry, he appreciates the pink flower because he's a GARDENER. And a cook. AAAANNNDDD an opera singer. Yeah, he's breakin' the boundaries! you all could learn a thing or two from him ;) . I made it for him this morning out of the following materials: the pretty, silvery inside of a milk carton’s cardboard (found in the recycling bin); construction paper scraps of primary colors (found in the waste basket); and scissors and a glue stick that I took from school. Recourceful, no?
Monday, September 24, 2007
Na ja....
::notice: FIRST, this post was written four days ago; so much has already changed. also, this post was originally much longer and wittier, etc. but somehow i DELETED it, to my IMMENSE displeasure (i spent over an hour writing the original one, then probably an hour more REwriting it.. the things i do for you!:::
THEY HAVE SLUGS AS BIG AS YOUR HAND.
EVERYWHERE.
In other news, things are normalizing for me here in Deutschland, I suppose. Honestly, these days are passing frighteningly quickly. That’s not to say I’m keeping busy doing much. Quite the opposite, actually. I’ve talked with other foreign exchange friends of mine in Rotary, and they say the same: they’re often bored and lonely. That’s true for me in varying degrees. I’ve got a lot of free time because I’m taking gradually fewer and fewer academic classes in school. I have joined a few clubs, though. Having clubs within the school is a new concept for them, I guess. But these past two weeks, my friends invited me to Basketball club and I also found out there is a Photography club by myself. During basketball, it happened that I fit the stereotype of the Great American Basketball Player, hahaha. To be honest though, that’s not saying much amongst these folks :X. I was top scorer in our CO-ED scrimmage! It was a bit of an ego-boost. And I realized how much I miss basketball from my St. Matt’s / Coach Welch days… I became increasingly nostalgic, and I think that set off a whole realm of nostalgia ☹
But anyway, photography was great. The teacher, Herr (Wolfgang) Buchholtz is weird and friendly, probably the friendliest teacher I’ve met so far. I told him about how I didn’t take art anymore because it was all (German) talk, NO ACTION – as in: no art-making. So he said that I could join his class and he’d speak a little bit of English for my sake. But for people like Betsy and Colleen, I’ll explain what we did in photog a bit more: we made those “photos” where you take a bunch of random objects, put it on photo paper, put all that under the projector light for a few seconds, and then you get the shapes of the objects in white on the black background. But I memember you made those in Adv. photog, Lena. Yeah, I made a few of those with an extremely friendly and hyper girl, Nina, who speaks really good English (bad thing). Lately I realize that I’ve become too dependent on English; or maybe other people are too dependent on speaking English to me. Either way, I’ve started to tell people to speak more German with me. I feel like my German learning has reached a sort of plateau; either that, or else I’m just too focused on wanting to learn ALL German in one fell swoop that I ignore the gradual progress I make. But right now I can’t imagine that I’ll ever learn all these weird verbs and super long nouns.
Bahumbug……..so, the other day my new “tutor”, Frau Dose, (who helps me with my schedule) told me that my schedule needs yet another change. We had just changed it so that I took more German courses with the younger kids, and less 12th grade academic ones – or so I thought. But Frau Dose told me today 12th grade teachers have asked why I’m not showing up to class, to which I said, “uhhhhhhhhh, what?” That’s a change, because back when I did go, most teachers asked me why the heck I was there – “You understand nothing, you’re wasting your time!” Now Frau Dose and Herr Rolloff (principal) want to put me into 11th grade classes, which I do NOT understand. I can’t imagine that would solve any problems; I don’t see how I’d understand much more in a grade only one year younger. And all the friends I’ve made are in the 12th grade, man! I hope that I can express my thoughts on this idea…. djkflas; MISCOMMUNICATIONSSSS!
Oh! But I love my these 5th grade German classes (are 10 year olds in fifth grade?). The German in these classes is slower and simpler, so I understand so much more. I also somehow managed to choose the right seat in this class – right next to the coolest and nicest kids: Miles and Jakob. Really, these kids are so patient with my German and so friendly and helpful. Yesterday I found two dimes in my backpack and presented the glorious American Coinage in the palms of these youth, and they ate it right up.
Miles closely inspected his dime for the rest of the hour (Herr Pasch to the left):
Was noch….. My host dad has been in Norway for a week, so Pauline and I are here alone. HAHAHA, story: Yesterday I was getting a bike from the shed, hoping to go for a nice ride, but the key to the door of the shed that leads to the street would NOT turn. I fiddled with that for maybe 3 whole minutes, so determined, when all of a sudden I hear an angry man’s quick-speaking German voice on the other side of the door, addressing me. I froze. Then I went back inside without saying a word. This was partly because I was startled and I was too exhausted to explain the situation to him in German. Also because I am a coward. So I get inside and a few minutes later, I hear a man’s voice calling, rambling:
Man: WER IST IN DEN HAUS? (WHO IS IN THE HOUSE?)
Me: (I decide to approach the voice) Hallo, entschuldigung, ich kann nicht viel Deutsch verstehen. Kennen Sie English?
Man: (in very broken English) Ah, English then. I am the neighbor and I thought the man was gone for a week. I work in my garden and I just hear noises. I thought, it had been so quiet house, but then I hear noises so I come to look. Who are you?
I realized halfway through the conversation that he was holding an open knife; I assumed he intentionally brought it over from his gardening business in case I was a threatening thief. Instead he found a small, blonde, pony-tailed and frightened American girl.
Oh yeah, one more thing. The other day Ulrike (host mom – love her a million) and Mario (her boyfriend – really great guy) took me to Eurtin, a nearby town. In this town there’s an Oak tree in the middle of this forest where apparently folks come to find love. See, people are supposed to write letters to the address of this tree, the letters are placed in a hole, then people climb a ladder and pick one out. Viola, you’ve found the love of your life, easy no? My (real) mom says someone should stick in a letter that just says “eharmony.com”
Ulrike and Mario at the café beside the enormous winding lake in Eurtin…. (The weather was so perfectly fall-like)
LOVE,
jennyg
P.S.
What a weird way to welcome walkers into your shop (oddly situated mannequin in front of a shop in Eurtin)
THEY HAVE SLUGS AS BIG AS YOUR HAND.
EVERYWHERE.
In other news, things are normalizing for me here in Deutschland, I suppose. Honestly, these days are passing frighteningly quickly. That’s not to say I’m keeping busy doing much. Quite the opposite, actually. I’ve talked with other foreign exchange friends of mine in Rotary, and they say the same: they’re often bored and lonely. That’s true for me in varying degrees. I’ve got a lot of free time because I’m taking gradually fewer and fewer academic classes in school. I have joined a few clubs, though. Having clubs within the school is a new concept for them, I guess. But these past two weeks, my friends invited me to Basketball club and I also found out there is a Photography club by myself. During basketball, it happened that I fit the stereotype of the Great American Basketball Player, hahaha. To be honest though, that’s not saying much amongst these folks :X. I was top scorer in our CO-ED scrimmage! It was a bit of an ego-boost. And I realized how much I miss basketball from my St. Matt’s / Coach Welch days… I became increasingly nostalgic, and I think that set off a whole realm of nostalgia ☹
But anyway, photography was great. The teacher, Herr (Wolfgang) Buchholtz is weird and friendly, probably the friendliest teacher I’ve met so far. I told him about how I didn’t take art anymore because it was all (German) talk, NO ACTION – as in: no art-making. So he said that I could join his class and he’d speak a little bit of English for my sake. But for people like Betsy and Colleen, I’ll explain what we did in photog a bit more: we made those “photos” where you take a bunch of random objects, put it on photo paper, put all that under the projector light for a few seconds, and then you get the shapes of the objects in white on the black background. But I memember you made those in Adv. photog, Lena. Yeah, I made a few of those with an extremely friendly and hyper girl, Nina, who speaks really good English (bad thing). Lately I realize that I’ve become too dependent on English; or maybe other people are too dependent on speaking English to me. Either way, I’ve started to tell people to speak more German with me. I feel like my German learning has reached a sort of plateau; either that, or else I’m just too focused on wanting to learn ALL German in one fell swoop that I ignore the gradual progress I make. But right now I can’t imagine that I’ll ever learn all these weird verbs and super long nouns.
Bahumbug……..so, the other day my new “tutor”, Frau Dose, (who helps me with my schedule) told me that my schedule needs yet another change. We had just changed it so that I took more German courses with the younger kids, and less 12th grade academic ones – or so I thought. But Frau Dose told me today 12th grade teachers have asked why I’m not showing up to class, to which I said, “uhhhhhhhhh, what?” That’s a change, because back when I did go, most teachers asked me why the heck I was there – “You understand nothing, you’re wasting your time!” Now Frau Dose and Herr Rolloff (principal) want to put me into 11th grade classes, which I do NOT understand. I can’t imagine that would solve any problems; I don’t see how I’d understand much more in a grade only one year younger. And all the friends I’ve made are in the 12th grade, man! I hope that I can express my thoughts on this idea…. djkflas; MISCOMMUNICATIONSSSS!
Oh! But I love my these 5th grade German classes (are 10 year olds in fifth grade?). The German in these classes is slower and simpler, so I understand so much more. I also somehow managed to choose the right seat in this class – right next to the coolest and nicest kids: Miles and Jakob. Really, these kids are so patient with my German and so friendly and helpful. Yesterday I found two dimes in my backpack and presented the glorious American Coinage in the palms of these youth, and they ate it right up.
Miles closely inspected his dime for the rest of the hour (Herr Pasch to the left):
Was noch….. My host dad has been in Norway for a week, so Pauline and I are here alone. HAHAHA, story: Yesterday I was getting a bike from the shed, hoping to go for a nice ride, but the key to the door of the shed that leads to the street would NOT turn. I fiddled with that for maybe 3 whole minutes, so determined, when all of a sudden I hear an angry man’s quick-speaking German voice on the other side of the door, addressing me. I froze. Then I went back inside without saying a word. This was partly because I was startled and I was too exhausted to explain the situation to him in German. Also because I am a coward. So I get inside and a few minutes later, I hear a man’s voice calling, rambling:
Man: WER IST IN DEN HAUS? (WHO IS IN THE HOUSE?)
Me: (I decide to approach the voice) Hallo, entschuldigung, ich kann nicht viel Deutsch verstehen. Kennen Sie English?
Man: (in very broken English) Ah, English then. I am the neighbor and I thought the man was gone for a week. I work in my garden and I just hear noises. I thought, it had been so quiet house, but then I hear noises so I come to look. Who are you?
I realized halfway through the conversation that he was holding an open knife; I assumed he intentionally brought it over from his gardening business in case I was a threatening thief. Instead he found a small, blonde, pony-tailed and frightened American girl.
Oh yeah, one more thing. The other day Ulrike (host mom – love her a million) and Mario (her boyfriend – really great guy) took me to Eurtin, a nearby town. In this town there’s an Oak tree in the middle of this forest where apparently folks come to find love. See, people are supposed to write letters to the address of this tree, the letters are placed in a hole, then people climb a ladder and pick one out. Viola, you’ve found the love of your life, easy no? My (real) mom says someone should stick in a letter that just says “eharmony.com”
Ulrike and Mario at the café beside the enormous winding lake in Eurtin…. (The weather was so perfectly fall-like)
LOVE,
jennyg
P.S.
What a weird way to welcome walkers into your shop (oddly situated mannequin in front of a shop in Eurtin)
Thursday, September 13, 2007
photo update!
my flickr account has been updated! maybe sometime soon i will actually organize them and put up captions... UNTIL THEN:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17214992@N00/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17214992@N00/
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Jenny Goes to School VIDEOS!!!
SURPRISE
you get more cool media forms from me! now you can know for certain that i AM alive and kicking here in germany.... for presented before you is A VIDEO of me getting to school - NOTE: this is only my WAY to school; NOT me at school.. yet. unfortunately, these take over an hour to upload, so i have only ONE up FOR NOW. i will continue uploading the rest of them (there are four) within the next few days (as time allows).
"Here is Part 1/4 of "Jenny Goes to School." This includes a look at my town, me starting off using incorrect grammar ("This is the doors..." yeah, yeah I HEAR YOU TIM), you getting motion sickness from my unsteady hand, German women talking, and sunflowers with hidden cameras. All that in ONE VIDEO!"
Jenny Goes to School 1 from jennyg on Vimeo.
you get more cool media forms from me! now you can know for certain that i AM alive and kicking here in germany.... for presented before you is A VIDEO of me getting to school - NOTE: this is only my WAY to school; NOT me at school.. yet. unfortunately, these take over an hour to upload, so i have only ONE up FOR NOW. i will continue uploading the rest of them (there are four) within the next few days (as time allows).
"Here is Part 1/4 of "Jenny Goes to School." This includes a look at my town, me starting off using incorrect grammar ("This is the doors..." yeah, yeah I HEAR YOU TIM), you getting motion sickness from my unsteady hand, German women talking, and sunflowers with hidden cameras. All that in ONE VIDEO!"
Jenny Goes to School 1 from jennyg on Vimeo.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
PHOTOS!
hi! i don't have too many YET, but here is a link to my first set of photos from Deutschland:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17214992@N00/sets/72157601818297830/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17214992@N00/sets/72157601818297830/
Thursday, August 30, 2007
As of 9 pm August 29th... [school talk]
August 29, 2007
CAUTION: ANOTHER LONG POST AHEAD
"I am tired
I am weary
I could sleep for a thousand years
A thousand dreams that would awake me…
Different colors made of tears."
-Velvet Underground
My god am I exhausted. My head hurts. I’m so pitifully frustrated. I have a chronic cough. I blame my German school and its mandatory socializing…..
HERE BEGINS VERY DETAILED SCHOOL-TALK:
I started school on Monday (it’s now Thursday), and let me tell you: it’s DAMN hard to be a foreign exchange student. To start off, the first day Pauline and I rode our bikes to school, about six miles away, uphill both ways, in the snow! (Uh, nix the snow part. ((Luke, I wrote that and then realized those exact words came from you. ARGH MY SUBCONSCIOUS))). I guess I’m pretty out of shape, because I was EXHAUSTED half way there, but Pauline seemed fine riding so far and so quickly and so… uphill. My God. (By the way, on the way to school, she asked me what a baby horse was called in English; I answered “Uh, baby horse?” And then ten minutes later, I correct myself, “PONY!” Chris, maybe you should make me those flashcards of animal names.)
Pauline brought me to principal Herr Roloff, who spoke less English than she did. Somehow we managed a schedule for myself in five minutes, but that wasn’t the end of it. Apparently, we only chose my classes and teachers, but I had no actual specified hours or room numbers yet. These were posted on a bulletain board in the front hall, where crowds of students were gathered for SO LONG. Once we got to the front, Pauline had no idea how to read the 12th grade schedules – and guess what, neither did I. BUT she did ask a girl, Elisabeth, to help me out – which she did. A lot. And she STILL does. We’ve become fairly good friends and she’s incredibly helpful and friendly – she’s also in several of my classes and her English is okay. After about a half hour of standing in front of this small piece of paper, my schedule is written out by Elisabeth, albeit with several empty spaces and some classes without room numbers (such a head ache). I never thought I’d say it, but Centennial is more organized than this school. This GERMAN school, no less! So much for the stereotype of German efficiency…
Every one of my Day 1 classes (we have a different schedule every day a.k.a. head ache #2) had curmudgeons for teachers. All were disinterested in me, and kept speaking flowing German to me, despite my words, “Ich bin eine Austauschschulerin aus Amerika” (I’m a foreign exchange student from America) “Und ich kann nicht so gut Deutsch spechen oder verstehen” (Und I can’t speak or understand such good German). I complain, but I’m very lucky because there’ve been so many helpful students there: Jessica (SO nice, came over to sit by me in Mathe Kurs so I wouldn’t be alone, she said, and she also translated the old man teacher’s words to me) and Elisabeth and Henni (she invited me to her birthday party on Friday! I hope it’s not dancing… :/ ) and Merle (also extremely friendly and helpful) and Annika (very sweet). Basically all of those people have translated teachers’ words QUITE often for me.
Also, you may all be entertained to know that I have German class with 10 year olds. I do not lie. My head is a foot above theirs and my knees hit the underside of the table. BUT, this is also my favorite class. Everyone’s so nice there ☺. But it’s really awkward, because there are 16 year old students who sit in the back of the room to help out with the cute little kids… and with me. Please entertain this visual in your head for a bit. I try to put aside my pride, but, you know, it’s difficult to do so when I have to look off of a 10 year old’s paper to see what we’re supposed to be doing. Luckily, the 16 year old helpers seem down to earth and don’t make fun of me ;) One of them, Ruben, is very friendly and he told me he lives two houses down from mine…
Overall my classes are very awkward in the beginning because my teachers don’t know I speak only a little German – so I give my friends a confused and pitiful look when teachers speak to me and they try to translate. The students pretty much know that I’m an exchange student from America now. It’s a pretty small school. Most of them are passively interested in me, a few are friendly enough to say hi, and some don’t care one way or the other. A lot of them actually speak English really well, but I think they’re shy about it.
The most awkard was actually my French class, LEVEL SIX FRENCH;. and I have had only one and a half years of French, mind you. The (unsympathetic/unfriendly/unwelcoming) French teacher talked to me in fluent French at first and when I tried to speak it back, it came out as an incredible French/German/English hybrid. Learning a language (French) on the side of another, more intensive language-learning (German) is mindblowingly DIFFICULT. My mind treats all these foreign languages the same now; for instance, I said something like “Je vais nach Ascheberg pour ein Jahr.” There is so much wrong with that sentence, I’m embarassed thinking about it…. Anyway, the second day I came into class, that French teacher asked me why I was still there. She then told me to go enjoy the day… outside. So basically I got kicked out of that class because I was wasting my own time, and so I went outside and napped. It’s way too daunting of a task to try to fill in that hour with something else, so I may just leave that hour free…
Oh, and my first English teacher was a pretentious jerk. I think he felt that he needed to prove himself to me or something, but he just came across as arrogant.
Here is an excerpt from our dialogue:
Sir G-something: (in his perfectly british accent) You know, you look far too young to be among this group of students.
Me: No, I’m 17... In one month, I will -
Sir G-something: (interupts me, looks at the class and not at me, and loudly mocks me with pretentious laughter, saying) HAHA so you’re SIXTEEN, you’ll be 17 in one month.
Me: NO, YOU JERK LET ME TALK. I will be 18 in a month.
Sir G-something: (no reponse; he shuffles his papers like he’s doing something better and isn’t really concerned with the conversation)
I may have deviated from the truth in that second to last line… But honest, the rest is verbatum.
Yeah, and I also really don’t know any of my teachers names. It gets lost among their German-speak. I know that guy is Herr (Mr.) Gesteht or something, I don’t know. I don’t care too much, either.
Also, Art class was really bad because there are only 5 students, and the teacher lectured the entire time. Svea (friend) whispered to me, “You can leave” because she saw that I was obviously bored and lost. I think we’re going to the Museum next time – I don’t’ really know though, because I don’t speak German ;)
HERE BEGINS OTHER VARIOUS OBSERVATIONS:
1. I noticed such a shift in my mood after school started. Saturday and Sunday, I felt so incredibly peaceful and my mind was clear and I was loving everything and everyone: my town, my family, etc. But once school started, I was instantly EXTREMELY and constantly fall-asleep-any-second type of tired and I felt on the verge of despair and extreme frustration. I think that is all due to the fact that up until school started, I was amongst people who understood me and my situation. They already knew I didn’t speak German so I didn’t have to explain anything to them. Once school started, I was among people who didn’t know me in the least, who I had to try to explain my situation to, who didn’t care about me, etc. So this unfamiliar social situation and the language and the confusing schedule and the unsympathetic teachers and the mostly indifferent students and my JETLAG (i think) have really taken a toll on me, my mind, and my body…
2. I also notice that in this stressful state, I haven’t been able to apprecaite the beauty of where I am and what I’m doing. I see such BEAUTIFUL shops and homes and landscape everywhere. I realize I’m so lucky to be doing what I’m doing. But I already take it for granted, it seems like. As dissapointing as it sounds, I feel like I’m just too tired to be impressed or to appreciate these things right now.
3. Yeah, yeah I know this is all just a passing phase, yadda yadda yadda. And it’s an odd sensation to realize that:
Right now, I see these students in front of me but I’m not close with them at all. But soon I KNOW I will be.
Right now, I cannot communicate in German. But soon I KNOW I will be able to.
Right now, I’m mildly miserable. But soon I KNOW I’ll never want to leave.
It’s an odd sensation, because there’s no way I can skip to that next step, even though I KNOW it will come. I just have to wait and endure this chaos first before it all makes sense.
But man. It’s all so mentally straining.
4. I also wanted to explain how different transportation is here. I realize that teens and just the general populous of Americans REALLY take their cars for granted (at least compared to what I'm observing here...). Truly, there are nearly one hundred bikes parked at my school daily. EVEN WHEN IT RAINS. I know only one guy who drives to school. When I told my friend I was taking the train home, she said, "What, are you too lazy to ride your bike?" I think THAT remark sums up the situation well. But really, Germans walk or ride their bike SO much more here - it's just natural to them. They'd say, why take a car when you could just as easily walk and enjoy outside for a little while? I get to school either by bike (very hard), by bus (must walk a bit), or by train (must walk a little further). ALL the options require physical excerise (a good thing). I think I'll consider walking/biking much more when I get back to the USA.
PEACE,
jennyg
CAUTION: ANOTHER LONG POST AHEAD
"I am tired
I am weary
I could sleep for a thousand years
A thousand dreams that would awake me…
Different colors made of tears."
-Velvet Underground
My god am I exhausted. My head hurts. I’m so pitifully frustrated. I have a chronic cough. I blame my German school and its mandatory socializing…..
HERE BEGINS VERY DETAILED SCHOOL-TALK:
I started school on Monday (it’s now Thursday), and let me tell you: it’s DAMN hard to be a foreign exchange student. To start off, the first day Pauline and I rode our bikes to school, about six miles away, uphill both ways, in the snow! (Uh, nix the snow part. ((Luke, I wrote that and then realized those exact words came from you. ARGH MY SUBCONSCIOUS))). I guess I’m pretty out of shape, because I was EXHAUSTED half way there, but Pauline seemed fine riding so far and so quickly and so… uphill. My God. (By the way, on the way to school, she asked me what a baby horse was called in English; I answered “Uh, baby horse?” And then ten minutes later, I correct myself, “PONY!” Chris, maybe you should make me those flashcards of animal names.)
Pauline brought me to principal Herr Roloff, who spoke less English than she did. Somehow we managed a schedule for myself in five minutes, but that wasn’t the end of it. Apparently, we only chose my classes and teachers, but I had no actual specified hours or room numbers yet. These were posted on a bulletain board in the front hall, where crowds of students were gathered for SO LONG. Once we got to the front, Pauline had no idea how to read the 12th grade schedules – and guess what, neither did I. BUT she did ask a girl, Elisabeth, to help me out – which she did. A lot. And she STILL does. We’ve become fairly good friends and she’s incredibly helpful and friendly – she’s also in several of my classes and her English is okay. After about a half hour of standing in front of this small piece of paper, my schedule is written out by Elisabeth, albeit with several empty spaces and some classes without room numbers (such a head ache). I never thought I’d say it, but Centennial is more organized than this school. This GERMAN school, no less! So much for the stereotype of German efficiency…
Every one of my Day 1 classes (we have a different schedule every day a.k.a. head ache #2) had curmudgeons for teachers. All were disinterested in me, and kept speaking flowing German to me, despite my words, “Ich bin eine Austauschschulerin aus Amerika” (I’m a foreign exchange student from America) “Und ich kann nicht so gut Deutsch spechen oder verstehen” (Und I can’t speak or understand such good German). I complain, but I’m very lucky because there’ve been so many helpful students there: Jessica (SO nice, came over to sit by me in Mathe Kurs so I wouldn’t be alone, she said, and she also translated the old man teacher’s words to me) and Elisabeth and Henni (she invited me to her birthday party on Friday! I hope it’s not dancing… :/ ) and Merle (also extremely friendly and helpful) and Annika (very sweet). Basically all of those people have translated teachers’ words QUITE often for me.
Also, you may all be entertained to know that I have German class with 10 year olds. I do not lie. My head is a foot above theirs and my knees hit the underside of the table. BUT, this is also my favorite class. Everyone’s so nice there ☺. But it’s really awkward, because there are 16 year old students who sit in the back of the room to help out with the cute little kids… and with me. Please entertain this visual in your head for a bit. I try to put aside my pride, but, you know, it’s difficult to do so when I have to look off of a 10 year old’s paper to see what we’re supposed to be doing. Luckily, the 16 year old helpers seem down to earth and don’t make fun of me ;) One of them, Ruben, is very friendly and he told me he lives two houses down from mine…
Overall my classes are very awkward in the beginning because my teachers don’t know I speak only a little German – so I give my friends a confused and pitiful look when teachers speak to me and they try to translate. The students pretty much know that I’m an exchange student from America now. It’s a pretty small school. Most of them are passively interested in me, a few are friendly enough to say hi, and some don’t care one way or the other. A lot of them actually speak English really well, but I think they’re shy about it.
The most awkard was actually my French class, LEVEL SIX FRENCH;. and I have had only one and a half years of French, mind you. The (unsympathetic/unfriendly/unwelcoming) French teacher talked to me in fluent French at first and when I tried to speak it back, it came out as an incredible French/German/English hybrid. Learning a language (French) on the side of another, more intensive language-learning (German) is mindblowingly DIFFICULT. My mind treats all these foreign languages the same now; for instance, I said something like “Je vais nach Ascheberg pour ein Jahr.” There is so much wrong with that sentence, I’m embarassed thinking about it…. Anyway, the second day I came into class, that French teacher asked me why I was still there. She then told me to go enjoy the day… outside. So basically I got kicked out of that class because I was wasting my own time, and so I went outside and napped. It’s way too daunting of a task to try to fill in that hour with something else, so I may just leave that hour free…
Oh, and my first English teacher was a pretentious jerk. I think he felt that he needed to prove himself to me or something, but he just came across as arrogant.
Here is an excerpt from our dialogue:
Sir G-something: (in his perfectly british accent) You know, you look far too young to be among this group of students.
Me: No, I’m 17... In one month, I will -
Sir G-something: (interupts me, looks at the class and not at me, and loudly mocks me with pretentious laughter, saying) HAHA so you’re SIXTEEN, you’ll be 17 in one month.
Me: NO, YOU JERK LET ME TALK. I will be 18 in a month.
Sir G-something: (no reponse; he shuffles his papers like he’s doing something better and isn’t really concerned with the conversation)
I may have deviated from the truth in that second to last line… But honest, the rest is verbatum.
Yeah, and I also really don’t know any of my teachers names. It gets lost among their German-speak. I know that guy is Herr (Mr.) Gesteht or something, I don’t know. I don’t care too much, either.
Also, Art class was really bad because there are only 5 students, and the teacher lectured the entire time. Svea (friend) whispered to me, “You can leave” because she saw that I was obviously bored and lost. I think we’re going to the Museum next time – I don’t’ really know though, because I don’t speak German ;)
HERE BEGINS OTHER VARIOUS OBSERVATIONS:
1. I noticed such a shift in my mood after school started. Saturday and Sunday, I felt so incredibly peaceful and my mind was clear and I was loving everything and everyone: my town, my family, etc. But once school started, I was instantly EXTREMELY and constantly fall-asleep-any-second type of tired and I felt on the verge of despair and extreme frustration. I think that is all due to the fact that up until school started, I was amongst people who understood me and my situation. They already knew I didn’t speak German so I didn’t have to explain anything to them. Once school started, I was among people who didn’t know me in the least, who I had to try to explain my situation to, who didn’t care about me, etc. So this unfamiliar social situation and the language and the confusing schedule and the unsympathetic teachers and the mostly indifferent students and my JETLAG (i think) have really taken a toll on me, my mind, and my body…
2. I also notice that in this stressful state, I haven’t been able to apprecaite the beauty of where I am and what I’m doing. I see such BEAUTIFUL shops and homes and landscape everywhere. I realize I’m so lucky to be doing what I’m doing. But I already take it for granted, it seems like. As dissapointing as it sounds, I feel like I’m just too tired to be impressed or to appreciate these things right now.
3. Yeah, yeah I know this is all just a passing phase, yadda yadda yadda. And it’s an odd sensation to realize that:
Right now, I see these students in front of me but I’m not close with them at all. But soon I KNOW I will be.
Right now, I cannot communicate in German. But soon I KNOW I will be able to.
Right now, I’m mildly miserable. But soon I KNOW I’ll never want to leave.
It’s an odd sensation, because there’s no way I can skip to that next step, even though I KNOW it will come. I just have to wait and endure this chaos first before it all makes sense.
But man. It’s all so mentally straining.
4. I also wanted to explain how different transportation is here. I realize that teens and just the general populous of Americans REALLY take their cars for granted (at least compared to what I'm observing here...). Truly, there are nearly one hundred bikes parked at my school daily. EVEN WHEN IT RAINS. I know only one guy who drives to school. When I told my friend I was taking the train home, she said, "What, are you too lazy to ride your bike?" I think THAT remark sums up the situation well. But really, Germans walk or ride their bike SO much more here - it's just natural to them. They'd say, why take a car when you could just as easily walk and enjoy outside for a little while? I get to school either by bike (very hard), by bus (must walk a bit), or by train (must walk a little further). ALL the options require physical excerise (a good thing). I think I'll consider walking/biking much more when I get back to the USA.
PEACE,
jennyg
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Day 1 - Day 3
[NOTE: You wanted a post, you GOT A POST! A damn long one at that….]
Ich glaube, dass ich in den Traum bin.
I’m sitting on a hammock outside my German house admist Pflaumen (Plum; a new favorite word), Pfirsichen (Peach), and Äpfel trees. I’m looking at beautiful German houses that have small yards and big gardens. There are cows (!!!) mooing behind me (HOLSTEINS?), but I can’t see them. Neighbors are speaking German (mhmm, of all things) to my left, and to my right, my host brother, Jakob (Ya-cub) and his friend are sneaking around the yard watching me. Der Himmel is blau und die Sonne scheint (HA! This was the only German phrase I could say a few weeks ago… It means: The sky is blue and the sun shines). The temperature is about 60 F, absolutely schön. People pass by on bikes every few minutes – there are MANY more bikers here than in Champaign. My dad would hate it… There are even bikers on the Autoban!
I really cannot believe I am here. I think I’m in a dream. Although, it may just be the jetlag that has me in a daze.
…
SO, two days ago around 10am Ascheberg time (3am Champaign time), I walked out of Hamburg Airport’s baggage claim with my Rotary students and co-travelers, Allison and Barbara, to see American flags waving and a sign from afar reading, “ALLISON”. But then I look directly in front of me to see Pauline squint at me, then give me huge eyes of recognition. THEN I see Pauline hold sign for me: “WILLKOMMEN JENNY!” with Blumen (flowers) drawn around my name. I had been debating beforehand whether to hug or shake hands with my new Host Family (I hear Germans aren’t very prone to hugs) and which few German words I’d mutter… But I ended up frantically repeating “Hallo! Hallo!” and offered hugs. Pauline and Jakob gave me unsure, loose hugs first, so I did the same to Markus – my host dad – only to receive an incredibly tight one from him! He then got the car while Pauline, Jakob, and I silently and awkwardly stood outside waiting. Smiles were all around, though. I took several photos with them. Ja, ich kann nicht so gut Deutsch sprechen!
My huge bags barely fit into the trunk of Markus’ TINY car (a stickshift, Besty! That was the first German word I asked about.. But I forget it now). The ride home from Hamburg actually looked a lot like Champaign: lots of flat land, corn, regular old resaurants, some buildings – just a normal city, only the streets are much narrower. The ride home was also my first experience with German speaking… Luckily (and unluckily), my host father insists on speaking ONLY German to me; he has Pauline and Jakob do the same, even though they all speak fairly good English. They don’t follow this rule completely, though – they often have sympathy for me and my bewildered face.
Yesterday Ulrike (my host mom who lives in another town), Markus, Pauline, Jakob, and I went to the Baltic Sea a.k.a Der Ostsee. It was just like Lake Michigan’s beach, only the water was WARMER, a little bit salty, and, oh yeah, there are also JELLY FISH SWIMMING EVERYWHERE. Jakob threw one at me!!!!! I had never touched a jellyfish before, but I hope to do so again very soon… It feels like a slimy plastic bag with water inside. I was a little freaked out at first because Ulrike said, “Only the red ones are poisonous.” But low and behold, the very first jellyfish I see is a red one!........
I actually feel very comfortable with everyone already. My impression of Markus from Pauline’s emails was that he is very busy, regal, and impersonal, but that is so far from the truth. She called him “verplant”, which I now understand well – he is VERY organized. The house is spotless and he explained that everyone helps out around the house ZUSAMMEN (together). Things are done very meticulously around here, but not impossibly so. This procedure is just very different from my own home ;). Love ya, Mom. But anyway, Markus is actually VERY playful, friendly, and informal: when we were at the Baltic Sea, he built a sand castle by himself, and chased around Pauline and Jakob. He also insists that I call him “du” (informal) instead of “Sie” (formal). He’s very energetic and he also looooooves to cook. Steve, I haven’t asked him about the German recipes yet – mainly because I don’t know the word for recipe ;). He gardens and listens to (loud) music… It’s American, I think, but it sounds like bad 80s tunes.. :/ I wake up to it every morning, haha. It’s funny, though, when he was explaining some things to me, he said “You can listen to music, but please not too loud. Actually, I listen to music, and when I do, I like to listen LOUD. So you can too.”
Pauline is very sweet and she speaks VERY FAST German… It’s difficult to hang out with just her because we can’t really communicate. But today her two friends, Hania #1 and Hania #2, came over and I hung out all day with them. First we rode our bikes to a small store to get FOUR cartons of ice cream… Hania #1 and I both rode on the back of two separate bikes (a flat spot where baskets normally go.. very uncomfortable, VERY fun) while Hania #2 and Pauline drove the bikes. Later we went swimming in a large lake in my town. The weather was pretty cool and cloudy, but they didn’t seem to think twice about it. The two Hanias are both really cool – they’re very patient with my bad German and Hania #1 is actually the most helpful person yet. She’s SO nice and thoughtful of how I’m feeling in a situation – actually more so than Pauline. She also corrects me a lot, and guides me slowly through sentences, like: Wir raufen sie immer “Puppy” (We call her always “Puppy”) – They asked me about my dog’s name…
The language! Everyone has been extremely patient with my lack of understanding – no one really gets irritated. I have my token phrases such as:
Was bedeut ___ auf Deutsch? (What means ___ in German?)
Wie sagt man ___ auf Deutsch? (How does one say ___ in German?)
Ich verstehe nicht. (I don’t understand)
Langsamer, bitte. (Slower, please)
My family usually always speak German to me, and I normally use the above phrases to guide myself through their sentences. When I’m with Pauline and her friends, they tend to offer me some English sometimes, but still fairly rarely ;). I can form sentences with present tense, simple past tense, and very limited vocabulary. But I’m afraid they’ll soon find my inability to understand German quite old, and will stop talking to me in general. Like on the way home from Kiel today, Pauline was talking to her friends in the back seat, and I was sitting quietly with Ulrike in the front. BUT, on the happier side, I think already I can understand more German – with context, hand motions, and overall getting used to hearing it. ALSO, even though it’s only been two days, my English is already bad!!! I tried to talk to an American today, and I couldn’t think of words like “seagull”, and just my normal English flow is now corrupted…. So much for writing college essays while I’m here :/ So if I word something oddly in here or my grammer is bad, now you know why.
Food! For breakfast we eat DELICIOUS bread (Brot) with jelly or nutella or peanutbutter, lots of water (Wasser), juice, and LOTS of fruit (Obst) from outside (Draußen). Lunch is the biggest meal of the day – we’ve had pasta/vegetables, potatoes/meat/peas, and home-made pizza. Tim convinced me that I’m going to get FAT, and he may be right, because Germans eat A LOT and very FAST. But the thing is, almost all the food I’ve eaten has been SO healthy! It’s been only fresh fruit, fresh bread, jams, all home-made meals. I haven’t had ANY sodas while here, not even juice. I’ve only drunk water! Also, even the desserts are fruit-centered: home-made apple mousse, home-made plum cake… And there is always dessert after lunch, and there are many other dessert times during the day. Recently when I was merely picking at a piece of plum cake instead of going right after it, my host father said I didn’t have to eat it if I didn’t like it. I said I did! I’m just so full….. And that was the truth, man. Also… the cheese is delicious ;).
My town! I had been a bit concerned about the small size of my town before, but now I am absolutely in love with it. I went for a walk by myself yesterday, and there are open green fields everywhere, cows, a windmill (!), and father away there’s a windfarm (!!luke!!). We went to Kiel today, a big city, and it just is not as beautiful as a small town. In my Ascheberg, you can ride your bike everywhere: to the nice little food shops, two different lakes, or just enjoy the scenery around. I really really really really love the aesthetic of my town – just the sight of these close-together German neighborhoods make me melt. There is a lot of orange, I notice: the brick sidewalks, the orange roofs, the orange brick houses, orange flowers… Ja.
Sleep! My jetlag really wasn’t that bad. I mean, on the first night, I went to bed at 6pm and woke up at 9am. Other than that, my sleeping schedule has been fairly regular, and I feel that I’m already used to the time change. Maybe my fatigue just hasn’t caught up to me yet, though.
School! I start school on Monday, and I think I’m signing up for classes that morning at 6.45. They know that I’m done with high school in America, so I told Markus that I want to take “Spaß Klassen” (fun classes!). So basically that means: german, english, french, geography, art, and history. They don’t have many electives here, I guess. Also, I met my Rotary counselor today (Mom, it changed from Olaf Hahn to a man named Hanz Smid – he also said that I don’t need to do anything about my alien registration or insurance. I promise! But then again, he doesn’t speak any English….). With Hanz was his former exchange student, Ryan, who’s from Michigan. Ryan said that Plön (city I go to school in) has a lot of great activities – he took sailing. But I can’t imagine learning to sail without learning German first…
I was only homesick the first day when I tried to nap – all I could feel when I closed my eyes was slight panic and a disconnection with everything I knew. But that quickly passed once I socialized more with my NEW family…. Sorry, Goodwines ;) Also, I think Ulrike helps me out a lot, just by giving me a hug every time she sees me. It reminds me of my own mom. Yeah, I can see that sheepish grin on your face now, mom…. ;)
Oh yeah, and one weird thing here is that my sense of cardinal direction is off, I think. But it seems to me that the sun rises from the opposite side than in America, DOES THIS MAKES SENSE?! I don’t want to appear stupid, but honestly it feels that way. When I wake up, the position of the sun makes it feel like 4:00pm, not 10am…
Um and it’s nice here also because it’s very acceptable to wear the same close more than one day in a row ;) Which is good for me because once I de-packed everything (told you my english was bad), I seem to have much less than I thought. And remember for next time, it’s better to bring along PRACTICAL clothing items, instead of clothing items that are stylish…. :/ Did I just call them “clothing items”? Do people say that? Ugh… I don’t even know anymore.
Yeah, yeah I know: too much detail. And I’m sure you think I couldn’t have forgotten anything, but there’s still much more to say. I guess I’ll save that for another day, though. If you have any specific questions, leave a comment, and I’ll try to address that subject in another post! I love and miss you all!!!!!!! MUAH!
Viele Grüße,
-jennyg
Ich glaube, dass ich in den Traum bin.
I’m sitting on a hammock outside my German house admist Pflaumen (Plum; a new favorite word), Pfirsichen (Peach), and Äpfel trees. I’m looking at beautiful German houses that have small yards and big gardens. There are cows (!!!) mooing behind me (HOLSTEINS?), but I can’t see them. Neighbors are speaking German (mhmm, of all things) to my left, and to my right, my host brother, Jakob (Ya-cub) and his friend are sneaking around the yard watching me. Der Himmel is blau und die Sonne scheint (HA! This was the only German phrase I could say a few weeks ago… It means: The sky is blue and the sun shines). The temperature is about 60 F, absolutely schön. People pass by on bikes every few minutes – there are MANY more bikers here than in Champaign. My dad would hate it… There are even bikers on the Autoban!
I really cannot believe I am here. I think I’m in a dream. Although, it may just be the jetlag that has me in a daze.
…
SO, two days ago around 10am Ascheberg time (3am Champaign time), I walked out of Hamburg Airport’s baggage claim with my Rotary students and co-travelers, Allison and Barbara, to see American flags waving and a sign from afar reading, “ALLISON”. But then I look directly in front of me to see Pauline squint at me, then give me huge eyes of recognition. THEN I see Pauline hold sign for me: “WILLKOMMEN JENNY!” with Blumen (flowers) drawn around my name. I had been debating beforehand whether to hug or shake hands with my new Host Family (I hear Germans aren’t very prone to hugs) and which few German words I’d mutter… But I ended up frantically repeating “Hallo! Hallo!” and offered hugs. Pauline and Jakob gave me unsure, loose hugs first, so I did the same to Markus – my host dad – only to receive an incredibly tight one from him! He then got the car while Pauline, Jakob, and I silently and awkwardly stood outside waiting. Smiles were all around, though. I took several photos with them. Ja, ich kann nicht so gut Deutsch sprechen!
My huge bags barely fit into the trunk of Markus’ TINY car (a stickshift, Besty! That was the first German word I asked about.. But I forget it now). The ride home from Hamburg actually looked a lot like Champaign: lots of flat land, corn, regular old resaurants, some buildings – just a normal city, only the streets are much narrower. The ride home was also my first experience with German speaking… Luckily (and unluckily), my host father insists on speaking ONLY German to me; he has Pauline and Jakob do the same, even though they all speak fairly good English. They don’t follow this rule completely, though – they often have sympathy for me and my bewildered face.
Yesterday Ulrike (my host mom who lives in another town), Markus, Pauline, Jakob, and I went to the Baltic Sea a.k.a Der Ostsee. It was just like Lake Michigan’s beach, only the water was WARMER, a little bit salty, and, oh yeah, there are also JELLY FISH SWIMMING EVERYWHERE. Jakob threw one at me!!!!! I had never touched a jellyfish before, but I hope to do so again very soon… It feels like a slimy plastic bag with water inside. I was a little freaked out at first because Ulrike said, “Only the red ones are poisonous.” But low and behold, the very first jellyfish I see is a red one!........
I actually feel very comfortable with everyone already. My impression of Markus from Pauline’s emails was that he is very busy, regal, and impersonal, but that is so far from the truth. She called him “verplant”, which I now understand well – he is VERY organized. The house is spotless and he explained that everyone helps out around the house ZUSAMMEN (together). Things are done very meticulously around here, but not impossibly so. This procedure is just very different from my own home ;). Love ya, Mom. But anyway, Markus is actually VERY playful, friendly, and informal: when we were at the Baltic Sea, he built a sand castle by himself, and chased around Pauline and Jakob. He also insists that I call him “du” (informal) instead of “Sie” (formal). He’s very energetic and he also looooooves to cook. Steve, I haven’t asked him about the German recipes yet – mainly because I don’t know the word for recipe ;). He gardens and listens to (loud) music… It’s American, I think, but it sounds like bad 80s tunes.. :/ I wake up to it every morning, haha. It’s funny, though, when he was explaining some things to me, he said “You can listen to music, but please not too loud. Actually, I listen to music, and when I do, I like to listen LOUD. So you can too.”
Pauline is very sweet and she speaks VERY FAST German… It’s difficult to hang out with just her because we can’t really communicate. But today her two friends, Hania #1 and Hania #2, came over and I hung out all day with them. First we rode our bikes to a small store to get FOUR cartons of ice cream… Hania #1 and I both rode on the back of two separate bikes (a flat spot where baskets normally go.. very uncomfortable, VERY fun) while Hania #2 and Pauline drove the bikes. Later we went swimming in a large lake in my town. The weather was pretty cool and cloudy, but they didn’t seem to think twice about it. The two Hanias are both really cool – they’re very patient with my bad German and Hania #1 is actually the most helpful person yet. She’s SO nice and thoughtful of how I’m feeling in a situation – actually more so than Pauline. She also corrects me a lot, and guides me slowly through sentences, like: Wir raufen sie immer “Puppy” (We call her always “Puppy”) – They asked me about my dog’s name…
The language! Everyone has been extremely patient with my lack of understanding – no one really gets irritated. I have my token phrases such as:
Was bedeut ___ auf Deutsch? (What means ___ in German?)
Wie sagt man ___ auf Deutsch? (How does one say ___ in German?)
Ich verstehe nicht. (I don’t understand)
Langsamer, bitte. (Slower, please)
My family usually always speak German to me, and I normally use the above phrases to guide myself through their sentences. When I’m with Pauline and her friends, they tend to offer me some English sometimes, but still fairly rarely ;). I can form sentences with present tense, simple past tense, and very limited vocabulary. But I’m afraid they’ll soon find my inability to understand German quite old, and will stop talking to me in general. Like on the way home from Kiel today, Pauline was talking to her friends in the back seat, and I was sitting quietly with Ulrike in the front. BUT, on the happier side, I think already I can understand more German – with context, hand motions, and overall getting used to hearing it. ALSO, even though it’s only been two days, my English is already bad!!! I tried to talk to an American today, and I couldn’t think of words like “seagull”, and just my normal English flow is now corrupted…. So much for writing college essays while I’m here :/ So if I word something oddly in here or my grammer is bad, now you know why.
Food! For breakfast we eat DELICIOUS bread (Brot) with jelly or nutella or peanutbutter, lots of water (Wasser), juice, and LOTS of fruit (Obst) from outside (Draußen). Lunch is the biggest meal of the day – we’ve had pasta/vegetables, potatoes/meat/peas, and home-made pizza. Tim convinced me that I’m going to get FAT, and he may be right, because Germans eat A LOT and very FAST. But the thing is, almost all the food I’ve eaten has been SO healthy! It’s been only fresh fruit, fresh bread, jams, all home-made meals. I haven’t had ANY sodas while here, not even juice. I’ve only drunk water! Also, even the desserts are fruit-centered: home-made apple mousse, home-made plum cake… And there is always dessert after lunch, and there are many other dessert times during the day. Recently when I was merely picking at a piece of plum cake instead of going right after it, my host father said I didn’t have to eat it if I didn’t like it. I said I did! I’m just so full….. And that was the truth, man. Also… the cheese is delicious ;).
My town! I had been a bit concerned about the small size of my town before, but now I am absolutely in love with it. I went for a walk by myself yesterday, and there are open green fields everywhere, cows, a windmill (!), and father away there’s a windfarm (!!luke!!). We went to Kiel today, a big city, and it just is not as beautiful as a small town. In my Ascheberg, you can ride your bike everywhere: to the nice little food shops, two different lakes, or just enjoy the scenery around. I really really really really love the aesthetic of my town – just the sight of these close-together German neighborhoods make me melt. There is a lot of orange, I notice: the brick sidewalks, the orange roofs, the orange brick houses, orange flowers… Ja.
Sleep! My jetlag really wasn’t that bad. I mean, on the first night, I went to bed at 6pm and woke up at 9am. Other than that, my sleeping schedule has been fairly regular, and I feel that I’m already used to the time change. Maybe my fatigue just hasn’t caught up to me yet, though.
School! I start school on Monday, and I think I’m signing up for classes that morning at 6.45. They know that I’m done with high school in America, so I told Markus that I want to take “Spaß Klassen” (fun classes!). So basically that means: german, english, french, geography, art, and history. They don’t have many electives here, I guess. Also, I met my Rotary counselor today (Mom, it changed from Olaf Hahn to a man named Hanz Smid – he also said that I don’t need to do anything about my alien registration or insurance. I promise! But then again, he doesn’t speak any English….). With Hanz was his former exchange student, Ryan, who’s from Michigan. Ryan said that Plön (city I go to school in) has a lot of great activities – he took sailing. But I can’t imagine learning to sail without learning German first…
I was only homesick the first day when I tried to nap – all I could feel when I closed my eyes was slight panic and a disconnection with everything I knew. But that quickly passed once I socialized more with my NEW family…. Sorry, Goodwines ;) Also, I think Ulrike helps me out a lot, just by giving me a hug every time she sees me. It reminds me of my own mom. Yeah, I can see that sheepish grin on your face now, mom…. ;)
Oh yeah, and one weird thing here is that my sense of cardinal direction is off, I think. But it seems to me that the sun rises from the opposite side than in America, DOES THIS MAKES SENSE?! I don’t want to appear stupid, but honestly it feels that way. When I wake up, the position of the sun makes it feel like 4:00pm, not 10am…
Um and it’s nice here also because it’s very acceptable to wear the same close more than one day in a row ;) Which is good for me because once I de-packed everything (told you my english was bad), I seem to have much less than I thought. And remember for next time, it’s better to bring along PRACTICAL clothing items, instead of clothing items that are stylish…. :/ Did I just call them “clothing items”? Do people say that? Ugh… I don’t even know anymore.
Yeah, yeah I know: too much detail. And I’m sure you think I couldn’t have forgotten anything, but there’s still much more to say. I guess I’ll save that for another day, though. If you have any specific questions, leave a comment, and I’ll try to address that subject in another post! I love and miss you all!!!!!!! MUAH!
Viele Grüße,
-jennyg
Monday, August 20, 2007
Two days left and counting...
Howdy, everyone! Oh - too American of a greeting, huh?
Unveiled before you is the new blog that I plan to update while living in Germany as a Rotary exchange student for one year. If you'd like, you can bookmark the web address: www.jennygermany.blogspot.com and stay updated on my journey...
For the next several months, I will be living with the Hahn family in Ascheberg, Germany (population: 5,000); four miles away, however, is Plön (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plön) where I will be going to school as a Senior. My host family consists of 14 year old Pauline, 12 year old Jakob, and parents Ulrike and Markus. My host-parents are actually separated: the mother lives in Plön and the father in Ascheberg. Their 16 year old daughter, Katharina, will actually be in Indiana for one year as an exchange student as well. My family, specifically Pauline, is already EXTREMELY loving toward me, sending me emails and photos - Pauline's easily accepted me as her older sister already and Ulrike has emailed me, calling me her "American daughter", and inviting me to go to Spain with the family in October!! - So much for Oktoberfest...
I leave tomorrow evening for O'Hare; my flight leaves at 1pm on Wednesday, the 22nd. I go from O'Hare to St. Paul to Amsterdam to Hamburg, and unfortunately I have virtually NO experience with airports... so wish me luck! Fortunately, I think I'll be meeting up with a fellow Rotary student who has the same travel plan I do - all the way to Hamburg.
PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS! They'll give me motivation to keep writing. In order to do so, click on the link under my text that reads "0 comments" with the little pencil next to it and it'll bring you to the comments pages.
Also, if you'd like my Host Family's address, please email me at: jennygoodwine@gmail.com
PEACE!
jennyg
Unveiled before you is the new blog that I plan to update while living in Germany as a Rotary exchange student for one year. If you'd like, you can bookmark the web address: www.jennygermany.blogspot.com and stay updated on my journey...
For the next several months, I will be living with the Hahn family in Ascheberg, Germany (population: 5,000); four miles away, however, is Plön (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plön) where I will be going to school as a Senior. My host family consists of 14 year old Pauline, 12 year old Jakob, and parents Ulrike and Markus. My host-parents are actually separated: the mother lives in Plön and the father in Ascheberg. Their 16 year old daughter, Katharina, will actually be in Indiana for one year as an exchange student as well. My family, specifically Pauline, is already EXTREMELY loving toward me, sending me emails and photos - Pauline's easily accepted me as her older sister already and Ulrike has emailed me, calling me her "American daughter", and inviting me to go to Spain with the family in October!! - So much for Oktoberfest...
I leave tomorrow evening for O'Hare; my flight leaves at 1pm on Wednesday, the 22nd. I go from O'Hare to St. Paul to Amsterdam to Hamburg, and unfortunately I have virtually NO experience with airports... so wish me luck! Fortunately, I think I'll be meeting up with a fellow Rotary student who has the same travel plan I do - all the way to Hamburg.
PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS! They'll give me motivation to keep writing. In order to do so, click on the link under my text that reads "0 comments" with the little pencil next to it and it'll bring you to the comments pages.
Also, if you'd like my Host Family's address, please email me at: jennygoodwine@gmail.com
PEACE!
jennyg
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