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!

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?

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)

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/

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.

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/