hello!
i’m sitting in my bed right now with a little stand of peppermint tea, a cut up pear, home-squeezed orange juice, a glass of water and a packet of tissues next to me. WHY? because i’m sick.
yes, sick.
it’s aggravating, because just the other day, i was boasting to a new australian exchange student at my school, Rebecca, how i never get sick. then she told me, “well i see you riding your bike to school with wet hair. the quick change in temperature in your head should normally make you sick.” the next time i rode my bike to school with wet hair, i got this bad cold immediately after. AH. just because she told me that piece of information, did i get sick. it’s all psychological!
anyway, as miserable as this situation is, i tend to see the orange juice glass as half-full, not half-empty (although, in reality, my orange juice glass is pathetically 1/18th full, i just measured); so even though i’m stuck in bed today, that means i’ve time to fill you guys in on my wild and crazy journeys as of late.
school. unfortunately, today, i’m missing my English test over MACBETH! you heard right, my german english class is reading shakespeare. shows you how advanced this class is. the “Klausseur” (test) is normally FOUR school hours long.
but for my other classes, things are alright; the other day, my WiPo (Wirtschaft/Politik = Economics/Politics) teacher said, “Ya know, Jenny. I think your German is good enough now that you can be a REAL student.” but honestly, things haven’t changed much in that class; i try to listen, understand the majority of a sentence, but one or two words i don’t understand, i look them up, and then in doing so i miss the next few sentences.
this same teacher told me the other day, as i walked out of class: "weiss du was, jenny? ich glaube wir werden dich vermissen, wenn du gehst." (ya know what, jenny? i think we're going to miss you here when you leave." aw, shucks.
well, i had been planning on offering/teaching an English Conversational Class that meets once a month in Ascheberg, through the “Volkshochschule” (community school), but the administrator of all the classes (and our neighbor), Susan, came over yesterday to say that only ONE or TWO people signed up for it. that means, at least this first month, no class.
i’d like to blame this lack of excitement over my class, on the fact that Susan misspelled my name on the Volkshochschule Class Flyer:
“Jenny Winegood aus Champaign, Illinois, USA”…
had they known my last name was Goodwine, not Winegood, they would have realized the pleasant joke of my last name (DO YOU DRINK GOOD WINE??), nicely set off by the fact that i’m from Champaign, another alcoholic drink, and consequently gladly signed up to my class. unfortunately, “Winegood” may have two familiar words in it, yet it doesn’t make much coherent sense. oh well, PESCH!! (too bad!)
in other news, i was invited last Monday to a “Kaminabend” (Fireplace Evening) by my Rotary Club; they sent me an email, saying it’ll be a nice dinner at the home of a Roary member, afterward a relaxed conversation, where they’d like me to talk a little bit about the presidential election and my impression of germany. fortunately, older people (which is what Rotary members mainly consist of) like to hear themselves talk more than listening. so, i luckily didn’t have to do too much. it was actually a really pleasant evening; there were 8 people, one woman was particularly friendly, reminded me of my grandma; we ate salad, shrimp/rice, then a fruit geletain for dinner (and even though Rotary is supposed to enforce the rules of “no alcohol for foreign exchange students” the prominent Rotary man, also the host, kept filling up my wine glass, haha! this IS germany, remember.)
the man i sat next to, very friendly, would explain some things being said at the table, or explained to me his view on certain political issues like the immigration of more Turkish people into Germany, or about his children who took exchanges into the US. the table yelled at him whenever he began speaking english to me.
after dinner, they served strong coffee in nice, tiny china with Merci chocolates (really really good chocolate you can get here in Germany – i should have sent that back home for Christmas instead of Marzipan, ew). and the host addressed the everyone and said now was time for me to explain a little about my time in germany. maybe i should have just started talking about anything, but i had them ask me specific question – which they got tired of really quickly, because after 10 minutes or so, they gradually began talking to eachother, and then in tinier groups, to the people next to them. funny. i didn’t mind, because all eyes weren’t on me, and there was a guitar conveniently to my right…
oh, and this Rotary group invited me to Denmark in a few weeks!
and i’ve got a steady flow of hobbies here now:
-yoga on Tuesdays (expensive – 6.50 euros each time, but i get it for 5; the teacher is young and friendly and a typical-looking yoga instructor; it’s usually 5 older women plus me, but it’s really relaxing and nearby and small and nice.)
-photography club on Mondays (with Herr Buchholtz (his last name is “Bookwood” in english – he signs his artwork as that) he’s weird and energetic and makes corny jokes and barks at doors when someone knocks)
-painting club on Tuesdays (with Frau Kok; she’s young and laughs really oddly; we just finished making our own canvases)
-i’ve picked up guitar and piano again; i’ve made a few songs, or tried at least (i made a song about me being sick in bed!)
-i found a UNICYCLE in my host family’s garage; i’m still working on mastering it, but i think i’ll be able to do it soon; more people do it here in germany than i’ve ever seen in the US; can’t wait to randomly ride it around on the quad next semester)
two weekends ago, i think, my Rotary District (not the Rotary men in my town, but all the Rotary foreign exchange students in all the surrounding cities) took a big charter bus and rode down to the middle of Germany, to see The Harz, which is a big mountian range. the weather was beautiful, but we actually didn’t see the mountains, haha. i guess it wasn’t in the plan; we were just in the REGION. instead, we went through a big old mine, went through a big shopping area with lots of traditional looking houses, and then went to the VolksWagon headquarters, which was EXTREMELY HUGE and impressive.
it was like a mini city, one main building which was sort of museum-like, very interactive, lots of art, food, etc. and then behind it were several more buildings outside, with hills and creeks and cafés and several art galleries all around - with references to their actual cars not very emphasized. it was really creepy somehow, really utopian-looking, really aesthetically pleasing, especially with employees in every random corner, reminding me of Big Brother is watching you sorta thing. example: a few of us decided to sit down on a nice green hill outside, after walking around for so long. maybe TWO minutes later, a guy with black sunglasses and a bald head came out of nowhere, kneeled down all friendly, saying, “hey guys! look, we have benches just a little bit away!” and he waited there until we finally got up and moved. yes, it was friendly, but it just shows how monitored this seemingly open and happy place is. by the way, ALL the employees were nice, TOO nice and TOO happy… very fake. it really really weirded us out. can’t say i enjoyed this place too much… a little too perfect, ya know?
oh, and the weekend before, i think, i went with my exchange friends, Allison and Barbara, to a German rendition of an “American Prom” as it was called. it was ALL wrong though, haha:
-there was an actual live band
- there was actual DANCING! and absolutely no “grinding” (all the adults reading my blog, go do some reasearch on this word)
- there was also alcohol served, haha. germany, figures.
so. actually an improvement on the American prom, i’d say! it was nice.
alright, that’s enough for now.
until next time.
i hope i write again soon.
PEACE,
jennyg
