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
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