Dieses Mal etwas anderes

In diesem Post wollte ich versuchen, zum ersten Mal auf Deutsch zu schreiben. Ich weiß, dass meine Familie und Freunde in der USA kein Deutsch können, aber ich glaube manche deutsche Leute lesen auch, und vielleicht auch andere Austauschschüler in Deutschland. Also wenn ihr Fehler oder sowas findet, bitte sagt mir Bescheid :)

Die Fragen, die Leute mich am meisten gefragt werden, sind, "wie findest du Deutschland? Ist es sehr anders als die USA?" Eigentlich allgemein finde ich es nicht so anders als mein Heimatland. Mindestens, nicht so anders als wenn ich nach Thailand oder Brasilien gehen würde. Die Leute hier grüßen nicht mit Küssen, die essen mit Gabel und Messer, essen nicht extra scharfes Essen oder Insekten, und fahren an der linken Seite der Straße. Ich habe hier nicht wirklich "Culture Shock" erlebt.

Aber trotzdem gibt's viele Unterschiede, besonders beim Essen und der Schule. Wenn ein Deutscher isst, er isst mit der Gabel in der linken Hand und dem Messer in der rechte, und wechselt sie nicht. Er liegt auch die Hand auf dem Tisch, wenn er sie nicht benutzt, eher als auf die Beine. Mittagessen ist normalerweise das große Essen, und nicht Abendessen wie in der USA. Ich finde, dass Frühstück und Abendessen sind ganz ähnlich hier, und manche Leute essen Brot und so für beides. Ich habe auch gemerkt, dass deutsches Essen allgemein gesunder ist (was nicht wirklich überasschend ist).

Bei der Schule gibt's die meisten Unterschiede, die ich gemerkt habe, weil da bin ich am häufigsten. In der USA haben wir immer die gleichen Fächer um die gleiche Zeit, jeden Tag. Also wenn man in der ersten Stunde Physik hat, hat er immer Physik dann, Montag bis Freitag. Wir haben auch kürzere Schultage, und die meiste Schule fangen um 8 Uhr an und sind um 15 Uhr fertig. Nur die Schüler wechseln die Klassenzimmers, und die Lehrer bleiben. Wir haben auch viel mehr "Spirit", und sind stolz, ein Schüler in unserer Schule zu sein. Ich habe auch über die Unterschiede der Schule in einem anderen Post geschrieben, früher im Jahr.

Eine andere Frage, die mich gefragt werde, ist was ich von meinem Heimatland vermisse. Es gibt tatsächlich nicht zu viel in der USA, dass nicht in Deutschland gibt. Natürlich vermisse ich meine Familie und Freunde, aber ich glaube es gibt eigentlich mehr in Deutschland, dass nicht in Amerika existiert. Wir haben kein Döner (das macht mich traurig) und die Schokolade hier ist so viel besser. Wir haben auch Ritter Sport und so, aber es ist teurer. Der öffentliche Verkehr ist auch viel besser. Bevor ich hierhin gekommen bin, bin ich niemals mit der Bahn oder dem Bus gefahren. Ich vermisse aber komische Dinge, wie Wäschetrockner und Türknäufe, die sich drehen. Ich will auch so gern Auto fahren!!

Ich habe jetzt richtig viel geschreiben, also ich glaube das ist genug :P Vielleicht schreibe ich irgandwann nochmal auf Deutsch, weil ich schon viel gelernt habe, durch diesen Post schreiben. Aber bis dann, tschüß!

Ich bin wieder hier!

I'm back to blogging! I didn't mean to take such a long break between posts, but a lot happened and I got lazy. I don't intend to go into the details of everything that happened in the last few months because this post will be long enough as it is, but here are the major things:

• I celebrated Thanksgiving with my host family
• I went to a YFU Weihnachtsaktion in Heidelberg
• German Christmas!!!!
• I went to Italy for a week
• Faschings (carnival) happened!

Celebrating Thanksgiving here was kinda weird, partly because we did it on a Friday, and accidentally a week early (I've failed as an American). The food turned out mostly the same - there was less of it, of course - but it felt really strange. The weirder part was actually having to go to school on Thanksgiving day!  

The Weihnachtsaktion in Heidelberg was great! I'm the only exchange student at my school, so it was really cool to finally spend time with others. We made Christmas cards and cookies, went to the Christmas market (which was incredible), sang songs, did a Secret Santa exchange, played games, and had a lot of fun! I made a lot of friends, and I can't wait to see them again.

Getting to and from the meeting was a nightmare, though. I was planning on meeting Ian, another exchange student, at the Heidelberg train station, because we were planning on arriving at the same time. Somehow I got on the wrong train and didn't find him, and ended up going in the complete wrong direction. An hour later I was back where I started at the train station, and had to ask a stranger for help. After getting on the right train, I wound up at a smaller train stop and finally found Ian. We didn't really know where we were going, because the map YFU gave us wasn't too detailed, it was dark, and the train stop was basically in the middle of nowhere. We relied on Google Maps and the flashlight on Ian's phone, and climbed a tiny dirt path up what felt like a mountain, suitcases and all. I was sure I was going to fall and die. Apparently if we had walked a little further, we would have found stairs up the mountain. 

Getting back was just as hard. A guy from Japan and I needed to take the same train, so we went together. Most of the group went back to the Christmas market, but we had to leave because our train left earlier. The problem was, we didn't know how to get back to the train station. We asked four or five different people on the street and tried using Google, but we were still pretty lost. Eventually we wound up at a bus station, and an old lady told us we could take the next bus to the station. Except our train left at 12:40, and the next bus came at 12:45. When we finally made it back to the train station, we found some of the other exchange students, who had stayed at the Christmas market. We had to wait another hour for the next train, so we hung out at McDonald's and had lunch. 

Christmas here in Deutschland was amazing. A lot of my classmates were shocked to find out that we don't really have Christmas markets in America, and that most people have plastic trees. Here, basically every city, town, and village has a Christmas market, no matter how small it is. Almost everyone has a real tree, and they don't put it up and decorate it till a few days before Christmas. Christmas is celebrated on the 24th here, and all the presents are opened that evening instead of Christmas morning. There are two Christmas days - the 25th and the 26th! 

A few days after Christmas, I got on a bus to Milan! Last year my school in America had an Italian exchange student, Elena. I went to visit her for a week, and Doris came too, because she and Elena had the same host family in America and they're friends. One of Elena's friends has a house in the mountains near France, and we went there with them for four days! The house was pretty small and there were eight of us, but we made it work. We ate toast from a Mickey Mouse toaster (it even played the song), ate lots of pasta and polenta, fit six people on two pull-out couch beds, and had our own New Year's party. When we went back to Elena's, we spent the rest of our time ice skating, eating, and at Ikea. It was one of the best weeks ever, and I'll definitely go back again if I have the chance :)

Last week carnival was celebrated here! I've heard that different regions in Germany celebrate it differently, but here's it's called Faschings. It's a little bit like Halloween, except not scary. There's parades where people dress up, and little kids get candy. There's music and people are dressed up at witches, monkeys, goblins... basically anything ridiculous! We got a week off from school, and the last Thursday before vacation (we got Friday off) was called Schumutziger Donnerstag. There was a party in the evening in town, and I went with my host sister. Most of my class and my sister's class was there, and it was really fun!

I've found that my German has really improved over the last few months, and I'm not as scared of talking to strangers or on the phone anymore (even though it still sucks). I've mostly been listening to German music (thanks Spotify), and even reading German books that aren't meant for 10 year olds! I recently took the German placement test for MSU, and placed into German 300 - the highest level you can test into. It's definitely not perfect, and I still have trouble expressing myself and understanding, but it's noticeably easier. I even watched Pocahontas without subtitles the other day and understood all of it! I've also realized that I keep forgetting English words, and my grammar has gotten terrible.

That's mostly how I've spent my time here since my last post. My host family and I are planning a trip to Munich during the Pfingsten break in May, and there's the possibility that I miiiiight go visit Doris again. Next month I have my mid-year seminar in Dresden, and I can't wait! I'll try to write some more; the next post will definitely be sooner than this one was. 

Bis dann!