Hi, I'm still alive.

Well hello there,

Sooooo soooooo sorry for not posting in the longest time. But it's all been very, very busy.

A quicky about school.
I talk a lot more German in class. For one in German I have to work in this workbook that I bought that's boring as hell but the teacher knows and he also noticed that my written German is worse than my spoken German but a lot better than before. So there have been improvements. In Bio we always do these cool experiments so there's more doing than there is talking. In religion I mostly listen because I can understand mostly all of it. When I do talk it's because the teacher makes me read. The first time she made me read it was very, very embarrassing but now I've gotten used to pronouncing German words with a German accent so it's not so hard anymore.

Math is as understandable and the teacher is still cool. I HATE POWI. I wish I could make that into a shirt and wear it to school. It's the most horrible class ever. I don't even know what they do in it. I don't understand a single thing. And the worst part is the teacher. I hate everything about that class. Gym is alright because most of the people suck at volleyball. They prefer kicking the ball than hitting it. But we took a gym test (which is, by the way, the stupidest thing I have ever heard of) and apparently we're doing gymnastics for the rest of the year. o.O

English and Spanish are dandy. Though I must say I get really bored sometimes. Art is amazing, I love my teacher. He's so awesome. History is a lost cause. Chemistry is naturally hard, but there's no pressure. One thing I that is a bit awkward is that my Physics teacher grades me as if I've been speaking German for my whole life and understand every word he's saying. Which is not a bad thing because he's a really cool teacher and let's the class do a bunch of stupid shit, but sometimes I stress out 'cause honestly I feel like him grading me like a normal student means that he knows I can do it, or least has hope in me. And I suck. I took a test and got a horrible grade. But he wasn't upset and neither was I, he said exactly what I was thinking, "At least it wasn't a zero."

My friends are cool and my betreuerin is annoying as hell. But the people here are honestly great.

What I've been upto... 

Well, it's been a little over a month and you must be wondering what I've been doing. A little after I wrote my last post AFS took us on a trip to the Brauerei, the place where they make beer. Everybody talks about German beer and whatnot so I guess it was a good place to go but really all you get to see are a bunch of ginormous cylindrical containers that are said to be filled with what will in later stages become beer. Of course we also got to drink some afterwards. As much as we wanted, and we ate sausages and pretzels with the beer. Two things: Legal drinking age for beer, wine and champagne in Germany is 16. I am now 17. And the other I am a vegetarian so I didn't have sausages. Nor have I eaten bratwurst, something Germans are also very known for. Anyway, regardless of the legal drinking age I think beer tastes like crap.

All that is beer...

This is David! A fellow American!

Someime after in that same week I went to Dresden. Dresden is in the east of Germany and was, naturally, on the east side of Germany during WWII. So, it was former DDR. The thing is, people say that east Germany is less developed and not as nice as the West. However, I loved it.

It's really hard to describe and even when I try to remember what made it so awesome it's really hard to come up with a reason. It's really full of history. They have this huge wall of the kings in that area and there's this gigantic church called Frauenkirche, and there was the Christmas market, and there was a castle. It was like talking a walk in the past since there was just so much of it around. During WWII Dresden was one of the cities that was bombed so nearly all the historical buildings I was seeing had to be reconstructed. Either way I was in complete awe.

Frauenkirche.

Dresden. :)

The wall with all the kings.

The first one in line.

Dresden skyline.

 

 

On the 5th of December we cleaned our boots and put them out and in the morning look!

St. Nikolaus! 

Then somewhere near that day I baked cookies with the AFS- Giessen committee. The cookies didn't exaclty taste amazing but it was fun making them. And then in the next week it was my birthday. Honestly, I wasn't expecting anything but when I went to downstairs for breakfast there were presents on the table from all of them! I really love my host family. They're just awesome. And no matter how weird I tend to be sometimes and how much I complain about something the whole time they have accepted me and treated me great. I love them for that. <3 I turned 17 and I got a lot of hugs and lots of congratulations from people at school. It was the best even though I didn't make a ginormous party.

Being out here in another country, having to repeat who I am, where I'm from and all that nonsense to all the people I meet really makes me think about me. About who I am, where I'm from and my customs, what I like and why, and who I want to be. It makes me really think, because here I can say who I am but I no one really knows me like everyone back home. And I guess what I'm trying to say is that I feel more myself here, I've been able set the boundaries that clearly define me. I've been able to see myself from another perspective, more clearly. Because although my environment has changed there are things about me that haven't, or things about me such as interests that have grown or gotten smaller or have completely disappeared. In some cases even my behavior has changed, for the better. Sometimes it's scary but in a way really cool because when I sit and think, "I'm in Germany," it pretty much makes me feel really good about myself and whatever it is I want to do, no one can stop me. :)

Thanks for reading, sorry for not updating in the longest time, and soon Merry Christmas/Holidays and Have a Wonderful New Year!!

"They've got me on the outside looking in." -Jeremy McKinnon
Enjoy this wonderful song by a wonderful band. :) Sensitive eared people, please have caution. By the way the ending is a completely different band... I dunno why it's there.