Major Updates

I've been really busy recently so I haven't really been able to sit down and write a long, detailed blog post. So here it is.

I switched host families a bit over a week ago. I won't go into detail, but we weren't very compatible and I think a switch was best for all of us. I was picked up by my Betreurin tuesday afternoon and then stayed with another CBer, Emily, until my new host family was ready for me. Actually, it's Emily's host cousins, so we'll be spending the holidays together. On thursday evening I went to my new host family, only 11 minutes away from where I was. I live in a village called Velen and I have 2 host sisters, ages 8 and 15, and an 18-year-old host brother. Plus 2 guinea pigs. I have my own room, and my host family is really, really wonderful.

On Friday I went to my host sister's school with her and shadowed for the day. However, I'm currently in school in the nearby town of Coesfeld. After school, I got to eat my first Döner, which is a turkish food. Basically, it's bread with lamb and vegetables and it's basically amazing. It was the size of my face. The secret is napkins. Lots and lots of napkins. Check out the photo at the bottom. Anyways, after that we watched Mama Mia dubbed in German. Thank goodness the songs were still in English, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to sing along. We also had popcorn with the movie, topped with sugar. Popcorn isn't a salty snack  here, which I found interesting. It reminded me of kettle corn.

On Saturday, I went to the Schulefest, which I'm probably spelling incorrectly, with my host sister. All of the proceeds went to a school in Africa. There was plenty of German food, including waffles, brotwurst, currywurst, chocolate fondue, and more. There were also games. There was a giant spinning table on top of a bouncy-house type thing and...you know what, just look at the picture. It's hard to explain, but it was great. There was also a lift bucket you could go up in to see the school and town from high up, so I did that. There were other activities but after a couple of hours, my host sister and I left and went home. We watched Angels and Demons that night in German, which is a great movie in ANY language, but I have to admit that hearing a voice other than Tom Hank's when he opened his mouth was slightly depressing. I honestly can't remember what we did Sunday.

On Monday, I went and visited my new school. Good news: I can walk to H&M from it. Bad news: I can walk to H&M from it. Resistance. Resistance. Anyways, My school seemed very relaxed about what classes I can take and all that. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning I go to to vocational school for German lessons. The group is very diverse, and in a class of about fifteen I think almost all continents are represented.

Tuesday I went back to work on my class schedule, and wednesday was my first day. Everything went well. I joined the local fußball club and tomorrow I'm going to an amusement park with my host sister.

I've gotten a lot of questions lately. Am I homesick yet? I'll be totally honest here. Yes. It's been a pretty rough week for me, but I think once I'm settled in everything will get better. My german is getting much better. Do I understand what's going on in class? Am I conversationally fluent? No and no, but I can carry simple conversations and communicate with other with much more ease than before.

A little more about my village: It's small, 9,000 people, and features both an old church and a castle. Woo! Pictures included, of course. It's been very hard lately. Homesickness and culture shock make up for a less-than-ideal time, but as long as I keep my chin up and stay positive, I know everything will be alright.

The Shloß

The Church

That other thing

the Lift Bucket

First Days of School

Yesterday was my first day of german high school! Apparently I'm attending the biggest Gymnasium in North-Rhine Westphalia. It has about 1,600 people, and I come from a school with 128. Wow. It was pretty overwhelming,  but good. There's another girl from American (Pennsylvania), a girl from Brazil, a boy from Thailand, one from China, and one from Azerbaijan. They all seem nice, and I'm glad to have them around, since we're all in similar situations. The first day, wednesday, I had a meeting with a school counselor who helped me pick out my classes. Germans take a lot of classes, just sayin', but they don't have them as often. Also, instead of having, say, a study hall instead of a class, you can just leave school for a while. A lot of kids go to the nearby bakery, or just hang out, as long as you're back in time for class. The school seemed very chill about everything. The counselor basically said that I was here to learn German, so the completely understood that my grades would be lower than usual. Especially since I don't actually speak German yet. I'm picking up a ton already though! I'm pretty sure I seem socially awkward right now, since the language barrier is pretty brutal, but I've already made friends. Also, apparently I don't have to take the exams because I'm an exchange student. I'll have to talk to my school in the U.S. about it, but that would really make life easier. I'm in the tenth grade, by the way, like I would be in the U.S. I was going to be with my host sister in 9th, but I think it's good that I'm not. I'll get to meet more people this way. The way that German schools work is that up until 10th grade, at least in my region, everyone stays in the same classroom and teachers come to the class. In 10th and up, though, you move around like in the U.S. Anyways, after the meeting I went to English class, and that was good. I helped other people out some, and I think we'll be doing some pretty interesting stuff. After that I had a break (I tried to make fiends, which kind of failed) I had music. It was all pretty average until the teacher threw music books at us and told us to open to page 7, aka Country Roads by John Denver. Let's just say off-key is a GREAT word to describe how that went. It was hilarious. I also noticed that "here" had been changed to "there" in the lyrics. Then, school was over, because the teacher for my last class was sick. Yeah, that's how German schools work :) After school, which ended at about 12:30ish. I think, my host mom picked my host sister and me up, and we went to look for a bike but with no success. I'll need to keep looking for one that fits and isn't too expensive. Then we went home for a while, and then I went to Fußball (soccer) club. I met more people, which was great. We all laughed at how terrible I was at soccer. In Germany, sports aren't a part of school. You go to sports clubs instead. I'm really glad I signed for that.

Today, I woke up at 5:45, as I did yesterday. I have to be on the bus (a public bus, there are no school buses in Germany. I have friends who take the train to school) at 6:45. that's when I wake up at home, but I'm adjusting to the earlier schedule well. Tomorrow my first class is at 9:30, so I get to sleep in! This is new. Anyways, I took the bus to school, like yesterday. Then I had geography, followed by chemistry. Both were equally traumatic as I had no idea what was going on. I've learned to take out pencils when everyone else does, and listen for the world "pause" (pronounces p-ow-suh: It means break). I know that it will get easier, so I'm just going to keep trying! Oh, and I get to go to London on a school trip this fall, so I'm really looking forward to that. Anyways, after chemistry, all the other exchange students and I met with the counselor, and that went well. Then we had spanish. I liked it but man, that was tough. I was thinking in English, listening to German, and speaking Spanish. There was a lot of awkward GerSpanGlish going on in my head. I'm glad I'm taking this class, though. I've forgotten SO much. I had to introduce myself in Spanish and even that was hard, but like anything else, it'll get better. After class, The exchange students from Thailand, Brazil, and the other from America went to the bakery with me. I had my first Berliner, which is a jelly donut. It's famous because JFK accidentally called himself one. At least, that's what I've heard. After that, I took the bus back to Groß Reken, and then to soccer again. It was a different group of people, and I'll play in games with this group. I liked both a lot. A girl asked me if I had played soccer before and I tried to say "last spring" but accidentally said "last breakfast". Mistakes happen, and I'm glad I can laugh that kind of thing off easily. :) Then, I played wii with some neighbors, adorable ten-year old girls. They didn't speak any English, and we communicated successfully! I'm proud of myself. I also found an animal park about 5 minutes from my house by car. I wanted to go in but I didn't have any money with me. They have buffalo, moose, wolves, etc. It looks cool. There's also a golf course! I'm already to planning to go out with more friends, and monday I take the train to Essen to meet my Betreuer, or local coordinator. Alles ist gut! Keep in touch everyone, and I'll write agin soon.
Tschüss!

With my Host Family! (Plus what camp life was like)

I meant to post this friday. Whoops!

Tomorrow, I leave Schloß Wittgenstein, and the next chapter of my journey begins. I'll take to train to Marburg, then Frankfurt, and then to Essen where I'll finally get to meet my host family. Tonight, we'll have our talent show, undoubtedly followed by all-night dance parties. Today, the schedule was pretty much as usual. We normally wake up between 7 and 8, or just wake up at 8:30 and sprint to breakfast if you're like me. After a breakfast of bread, nutella, fruit, and more bread, I have 3 hours of German class, with a break in between. We learn a lot in one class, playing games, listening to music, and doing plenty of worksheets. Yeah, there's homework. After class we have about 30 minutes and then lunch, which is inevitably meat and potatoes of some sort. Then, we have some more free time, followed by a plenum meeting. This is when we all meet and talk about cultural differences and such, or do activities and such. I always enjoy them. After plenum we have dinner (something with bread, who would have though?) And then we sometimes have workshops, which could be cooking, card games, sports, pretty much anything. A friend and I taught zumba the other day, which was a blast. Sometimes instead of workshops we have small groups, where we divide into groups of ten formed at the beginning of camp. We have discussions and its sort of a support group for your year abroad. Then we have free time until room check, at 10:15 and then 12:00 on weekends. It's honestly been the best three weeks of my life :)

Post from today:

I'm with my host family!! I arrived Saturday. I have my own room and bathroom, and my village is beautiful!! There's trails in the forest, so I can walk the dog or just go on jogs. It's only day two but I can already tell that running is really going to help me get through rough patches this year. It's so relaxing, and really helps clear my mind even when I feel totally fine. There's not too much to do here, but there are train and bus stations that lead to big cities that are pretty close by. Apparently there's an H&M about 20 minutes away! I still think its so cool that I'm only an hour and a half away from Dortmund, one hour away from Essen, and about twenty minutes from many, many other villages with fitness centers, shops, restaurants, and more. Everything is very accessible, and I'm excited to see the nearby villages. I'm going to try and join a sports club here, probably Fußball (soccer) because there isn't a club for running. Apparently there's a race soon, and I'd love to do that. I'll be completely honest: This is hard. It's really, really hard to keep your head up when homesick but I'm determined! I start school wednesday and I can't wait to meet people. Today was my host mom's birthday, and we had a party. I got to meet some other teenagers from Reken and I had very, very fractured conversations in German. I was so proud of myself though. I'm already picking up german, and I'll only get better.
Tchuss,
Katy