Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Almost a month!

Today Katharina and I went to Voltigieren (vaulting on horses), it was so fun! I got to try and succeeded in standing on a horse while trotting. Katha showed me the different poses and told me the German names for each of them. Unfortunately I won't be able to go again, as I am leaving Habighorst in two days to go to Papendorf, but when I get back to the U.S. I definitely want to learn vaulting. I also learned today how to write German calligraphy. It's hard to read, but it is very pretty. I made a pretty monogram of my initials, which I am quite proud of.

Saturday will mark the end of my first month in Deutschland. I love it here! Learning the language is really fun (most of the time) and I learn so much everyday. I'm really excited to go to Papendorf because I think my Deutsch will get better a lot faster there because I won't have Americans to speak Englisch with. I don't think the language camps (when you stay with a seperate host family and attend German courses for the first month) are a good idea because 1. we are with native English speakers so we often speak English 2. it's really pointless because we would learn all that we have learned in school better and faster going to a Gynasium and 3. it's hard because I just disrupted my entire normal life coming to Germany and now just as I am becoming really comfortable here and life feels quite normal, I have to uproot the little life that I have here, go to a new place, and get used to it all over again. But, at the same time I'm really happy I got to know my present host family and a different part of Germany, I just think that AFS shouldn't do the language camps in the future.

Meine lieblings Dinge im Deutschland (my favorite things in Germany)

* Marzipan!!!!!!!!!!! (I just discovered it last week and it is sooo yummy. It's like an almondy, sweet-but-not-too-sweet, delicious heaven)
* Scho-ka-kola! (also super delecious and is like eating a mocha latte)
* riding on the back of a bike (all the teenagers do it here and yesterday Mary Kate and I tried it and it was so much fun, although really hard to steer)
* die Bröt (bread)  (I know that almost everything on this list is food, but the food is so good!)
* Heißmilch (hot milk)
* the countryside
* the traditional houses!
* Deutsch lernen
* speaking Deutsch with a stranger and understanding and being understood
* when Deutsch comes completely naturally to me
* Voltigieren
* Käise (cheese)
* Müllers (a department store chain in Germany that sells pretty much everything and is very convienient for foreigners)
* Handball (a very face-paced game played in Germany, it's pretty insane to watch, just look it up on you tube and you'll see what I mean)

That's all for now, next time I blog I'll be in Papendorf with my permanent host family!

Tschüs!