Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Sorry about the delay

Sorry about not posting last night. I was exhausted. There was so much stuff to do and so little time and I had to get to bed to get up for school in the morning. Ok so...where was I? Second day of school? Yes I believe so. I met Mr. Rose at the beginning of school because he had my schedule. The first class period I had to be with him as he taught 6th grade English. My German class wasn't ready for me yet because she was preparing and I would have just been in the way. So I helped him teach the 6th grade English. It was the cutest thing. They could only speak in simple sentences. So he had them go around the room and each ask me a question. They thought it was the coolest thing ever that I'm from America. I learned something too. I learned that 6th grade German boys are very attracted to me. I was hit on several times by the little ones. They were all nervous to talk to me, but made it very obvious they thought I was pretty. One whispered to his friend that he wanted to ask me if I had a boyfriend. A big group laughed because he didn't say it as quietly as he thought. But by the end of the class I think they liked me because they asked if I could come back more often. After first period Mr. Rose asked me if I wanted to go to his second 6th grade English class that day and help again or if I'd rather go to the German class. I went with him because the German class isn't my German lessons. It's just like how Americans take English. I wouldn't be learning anything. The second class I didn't like as much because there were two boys in the front that were bigger than the others. The same age, just matured faster. They took an extra extra obvious liking to me and were constantly asking me questions such as...what is my favorite color, astrological sign, etc. One thought he was being funny and asked for my number. I told him I didn't have one. They kept staring at me and it was uncomfortable. I liked all the other students. It was just those two. You know how when someones staring at you and you can't quit checking to see if they're still doing it? Then you meet their eyes and it's way weird. Well that's what kept happening with these boys. Except worse because I think they saw it as encouragement. I was glad to be done with the class. But over all I liked helping to teach the kids. Then I had tutoring in German. After that singing and then free period (I have nine free periods a week). Then math was my last subject that school day. I went home and almost got on the wrong bus, but Benjamin saved me at the last minute. At four I went to the bank and got my account set up. At seven was the rotary meeting. I had like three dinners that night because I ate some before the meeting, during the meeting, and after was Hartmut's party. I didn't realize they would be feeding us at the meeting so I ate before to tide me over until dinner after at Hartmut's party. It was really boring, the meeting was. They had this huge slideshow of a 60 million dollar boat. I have no idea why. I was sleeping with my eyes open. Then I left, came home, socialized for an hour, showered, wrote to you, and slept. Today was alot simpler. I got up. I went to school. I made a new friend at school named Jasmine. She is very enthusiastic that I'm an American. So she introduced me to all her friends and they were nice too. Theres a few kids in my classes that are starting to recognize me. Everyone says cool when they find out I'm from America. So I spent my free period with her today. My classes were boring. I had English today though, normal English. And I had to be their walking dictionary. I also had to read an article out loud about President Obama taking our troops out of Iraq. It was from the New York Times. Then I had to explain all about that subject and September 11th and such. It wasn't a fun subject. I didn't realize there are German and Australian troops out there too! The American news doesn't tell us much about this. Only about the American out there. Then I had my other classes and my free period and went home. And this is where I've been. Nothing going on tonight except Benjamin's birthday is tomorrow and Philip's dad's is tonight so Hartmut and Sofia are going over there. I'll make another entry for my schedule. It's complicated. ttfn

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Long day

Today has been a long day and I must get some sleep. I will blog in more detail tomorrow. Everything is good though. I'll probably nap tomorrow after school and then I'll blog. In much detail for your pleasure. Good night!

Monday, August 30, 2010

Oh i forgot

So today I was going to try and look my best. I was gonna straighten my hair in the morning because it was getting late last night. After plugging it in and seeing that it was normal, I did my make up and went back so it could warm up. I noticed the little light was off. It was supposed to be blinking when it warmed and plain red when warming. Never off when it was turned on. I couldn't get it to warm up or the light to come back on. I hope its not broken forever and just with the German plugs. So I had to wear my curly bed head to school. Oh well. It looked on purpose at least. So I'll just have to borrow my host sister's straightener. Sorry mom. Germany might have broken your straightener even with the converter.

pictures

I'm having a few issues uploading pictures onto my blog. So I've uploaded them to facebook. I'll keep doing that until I can figure out how to simply put many pictures on here at once. I havent taken pictures of everything. Just the outside of the house, my room, the street, and the yard. If I took pictures of everything I would look like a tourist.

Success! (imagine a dexter's laboratory voice)

I finally got the door open today! woo hoo! I can work the lock now. Theres a couple tricks to it, but I got it. Last time I was stuck outside at night for 20 minutes just trying to work the lock. They have no doorknobs here! I don't remember if I wrote this, but Rebekka and I made pizza last night and it was delicious. It wasn't like american pizza though. There was no crust. Like no bread sticking out at the edges, only underneath. We made it all from scratch like we make everything here. Our bread didn't rise for some reason though so it took forever to roll it to the right size. There were many things on the pizza. There was tuna, ham, peppers, tomatoes, pineapple, and cheese I believe. Maybe more. It was really thick lol. School is totally weird here. It really is more like college where you just sign up for the classes you want and show up when you have them. And they rotate weeks, so I have and A week and B week. With a different schedule each week. The classes don't really have much homework because the teachers work really hard to get everyone active in the class so everyone understands instead. They don't have the same grading system either. They have a number system instead that I don't quite understand yet. But they aren't grades, they're called marks. I don't get any marks being an exchange student. But that's awesome for me cause I have no idea whats going on :D! Half of your "grade" is based on participation. In every class. I not only will be taking the classes I wanted, but about a billion others. Wierd ones like catholic religion (more a religion philosophy class), education (for kids), Literature (which is like drama), English, Singing, Music, Mathematics, Physics, German, Exchange student tutoring, and much much more. I can't remember it all. When I get my official schedule I'll post it. It took my entire first day just to figure it out and it will probably change because I still have alot of free periods. Alot. As in I have no classes on mondays until the 5th period. Then another free period and then two afternoon classes. Most people don't have afternoon classes. Theses are extra so usually I will get out of school at about 12:50. The first class starts at 7:30. I also get to come in late on fridays. If I have an afternoon class or two then I would get out of school at 2, 3, maybe 4. There are two 15 minute breaks after 2nd and 4th period. Otherwise we have 5 minutes. No lunch break. You can leave the school whenever you want. It's your decision whether you attend class or not. If you have a free period or on breaks you can walk into town and get food or drink or whatever. Most people just bring bread from the bakery and bottled water and eat on the breaks. If the student wants to smoke then you are not allowed in the school building, but can in designated places outside or right outside the doors. I thought this was beyond weird but whatever floats their boat I guess. After awhile of reflection I've decided I think I like the school. It's very strange and different, but I like it. It's pretty easy and simple to get around. I made friends with the Australian girl Meghan. She showed me around and stuck with me the whole day pretty much. She now speaks German and says I can expect to understand it in a couple of months and speak it fairly well in about 6 months. Since it took all day to arrange my schedule, I was sitting outside almost the entire school day. I only attended one class. Physics. Theres only four girls in that class including me. It was boring, but I think I got the point of the class because of the interaction. Tomorrow is Hartmut's birthday party (my host father) so I'm glad I get out of school at normal time, 1, so I can be here for that and I have to run by the bank to make my German bank account tomorrow at 4. That way rotary can put my monthly allowance in it. It's free for students to make a bank account here. Turns out that the rotex weekend is actually at my school. So I'll be spending the night in my gym that night. The australian girl Meghan is actually from rotary too, so I got alot of info from her about things tonight. Like how much the tours are and how long and where we go and etc. The German tour is two weeks long and we go everywhere lol. The Euro tour is also alot of fun she said. And that one is three weeks long and we also go everywhere. 13 major cities and at least two nights in each city. All over Europe. I didn't get the price for that one. I'll ask tomorrow. The rotary meetings are the first tuesday of every month, so I'll be going to those. I don't think there is anything else to do tonight besides eat dinner so that's why I'm blogging now. Hope I'm doing ok. I've never blogged before and I've never been much of a writer.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Oh I forgot

I went to a horse competition today! It was my first time ever being at one. There were more horses than I've ever seen before. They were jumping and stuff. I love the way the riders looked and how graceful the horses are. Rebekkah trained a girl that was in it and the girl placed! A different girl that was in the competition had been injured before. She almost died in an accident. She was recovered and competed today, but her mother was very worried. Turns out she was right to be because after a jump, the girl fell of her horse and the horse stepped on her. I saw it all almost in slow motion. She was injured and it looked bad, but her mom called later and said it wasn't as bad as it looked. Poor girl. Such a trooper. She tried to get up, but clutched her midsection and fell down again. God help her.

My first Sunday

There was a beautiful rainbow today. Actually two right in a row. It hailed earlier! Its summer! I'm wearing my north face jacket already. This will be fun...grr. I'm excited for school tomorrow. A chance to meet new friends. haha christoph and philip found me on facebook and thats why I corrected thier names. I now have a solid sleeping plan. If I follow my own studies of the bible at home and wait until I know more German to attend church, my host parents go to church until about 11! I can sleep in one day a week! woo hoo!!! I slept in today and I feel soooo much better. Alot more like my old self. I feel terrible when I know I look this bad. I knew it was worse than I thought when I was showing pictures to christoff and a few other ppl at the table pictures from home and they were completely shocked at how I look on a normal day at home. Good shocked. Meaning they thought I was way prettier then and I probably look like a completely different person. That is so wrong. So I'm determined to look normally now. If I shower at night and do my hair all at night, then I can get up a little later on school mornings and get sleep, but still look good. Tomorrow I will get up at 7 for school because I don't have to get there until an hour later being a new student. All the rest of the year I'll get up at 6. And that is sleeping as late as possible with breakfast at 6:15 or 6:30. Then I have to catch the bus at a quarter till 7 on a normal day. Not fun. Wish me luck!