Update

Woah okay so I haven't posted on my blog in a while. Sorry I have been pretty busy. Today I'm going to the German authorities to get my Visa since I didn't have to get a Visa before I came. Im in the third week of the language school at CASA. Next week will be my last week. I have learned a lot. The course is pretty hard because the whole lesson is in German. Someone will say "What?" and what does the teacher do? Explain it more in German ;) Lots of fun haha. But I really have learned so much in a short amount of time. I have my first German test in the course this Friday so I have kind of been freaking out because I honestly have no idea what to expect. My class has eight people in it. The class has people from Australia, the United States (a girl from California and I), Iran, Brazil, Italy, Argentina, and Spain. Its so cool how even in that class there are people from so many different countries and continents. I love getting to know everyone and learn more about their culture. Today the class is going to a Mexican restaurant so that will be fun.

Today I will also get to watch my two neighbors Johann and Liah who are five years old and seven years old. They are moving, so while their parents move everything into their new house my host mom and I will do activities with the kids. Johann and Liah are so cute. Whenever they are outside playing I normally go out to talk to them. Its hard to talk to them because they only know German and Im just learning German so most of the time I just say "Uh-huh" and smile :-) They had a going away party and they invited us, so I made them a cake that said Johann and Liah on it. They really liked that.

This weekend Im going to Oldenburg which is about forty minutes away from my house and that is where the first Inbound Orientation will be. All of the exchange students in District 1850 will meet up and have a big sleepover in Oldenburg. Im very excited for it. Getting to meet all of the exchange students (we have about 80 total) will be so fun. Also getting to trade pins will be so cool too. Ah I'm very excited!

After the last week of language school at CASA I will go to a real German Highschool. Im excited and nervous for it. Excited to meet everyone, but nervous of how school will go with my level of German. Its getting better, but obviously still not fluent in 3 weeks at the language school. Im more excited than nervous though.

Also on October 10th I have to go to Oldenburg again and I have an oral German test given by Rotary. I have also been really preparing for this, and I hope I do alright. I found out the dates and cities for the Germany tour. Normally you have to pay for the Germany tour, but my district is nice enough to pay for us. Our district is one of the only ones that do that. Im so excited. They split the district into two different tours. Im on the second tour which is October 24th to the 29th. On the tour we will go to Cologne, Marburg, Eisenach, Warburg, Weiman, Bucehnwald, Berlin, Wolfsburg, Autostadt, then return back to Bremen. I think the tour will be so much fun. Getting to get closer with the exchange students on the tour while touring amazing cities. The exchange students say during the tours you get so close to everyone.

Okay so thats a little update of what I have been doing and will do :-)



This was in Oldenburg at an art garden, and they opened the gallery at night and lit everything up.

Also in Oldenburg

Taking selfies with my selfie stick. Caroline my host sister

I finally got film for my polaroid camera so of course we had to take a picture!

This was at an open air orchestra concert in Bremen. Every year they have it and they sell the big candles and during the concert you light it up and the money goes toward the orchestra. The concert was so nice even though it was raining. They also had fireworks at the end with the orchestra playing.

Some of the German that I practice

3 weeks in Germany

I have been in Germany for a little over three weeks. I have had so much fun so far and I have also learned so much in these past weeks. So I decided that on this blog post I would do a little update and some differences between Germany and the United States that I have noticed.

This past week I went with my host mom to Hannover and Luneburg. It was my first time riding the train and I really liked it. Hannover was so pretty I really liked it. In Luneburg we visited my host mom's parents and they were so nice. It was so cool getting to meet her family.

Over the weekend I met up with exchange students in Oldenburg for a festival. It was so fun getting to meet some of the exchange students in my district that will be living in Germany for the year. I rode the train for the first time by myself. I was so nervous I would get off at the wrong stop. I had also forgotten to stamp my ticket and of course they came around to check the tickets. The lady started to speak to me in German and I had no idea what she was saying so I said "I speak English". All she told me was to remember to stamp my ticket next time and that if not it would cost 60 Euros. Yikes. I will definitely remember it.

So I was supposed to be starting school tomorrow, but I just found out that instead I will be going to a language course from 9 to 12:30, so I will miss the first 4 weeks or so of school. I think its better because I would be sitting in class not understanding anything, and now I will be learning German so I can understand things. I also got a package from my parents that made me very happy because I forgot my American Flag back home. I have no idea how I forgot that. I seriously bring my flag EVERYWHERE. No joke.

Okay now to the differences between the United States and Germany so far.

BREAD. So many types of bread. In the United States we eat a few different types of bread, but here oh my gosh. There are so many to choose from. A normal breakfast here is bread and you can put cheese, meat, jam, Nutella, or peanut butter on it. Also on the table is fruit and cereal. I normally have cereal and bread.

Paying to go to the bathroom is a big difference. I found that so crazy to pay to go to the bathroom the first time I did it. Its not super common to have to pay to go to the bathroom, but in the train station and on the streets you would normally have to pay.

Small talk. Germans do not have small talk. Last night I even talked with my host family and heard their opinions on small talk. They said it would kind of be considered weird and rude if you were on the train and someone just started a conversation with you. In the United States small talk is totally normal and I love getting to know people from a small conversation at the store or anywhere.

Having to pay for plastic bags at the supermarket. Woah this really shocked me. The plastic bags are harming the area and also killing fish in the sea because of the bags getting thrown everywhere. Most people bring their own bags or backpacks to the supermarket.

No air conditioning. In Germany it doesn't get hot enough to need air conditioning, so no one has it. It is not worth buying for the few days out of the year you might need it. They have heating though because winter in Germany is pretty brutal.

Okay these are some of the differences so far :-)