Weekly Post #5

Hey Everybody!

I hope everybody had a great weekend! The weather was finally warm this weekend in Dortmund, because of that I am writing my weekly blog update a bit late. My mom and dad in America have been telling me that all you guys are contacting them to ask how I am doing and when my next blog update will be. My blog has now over 1200 page views. I am so suprised and touched by everybody who is following me, I never would have believed that my blog would be this viewed in little over a month! Thank you guys for reading my story it means a ton to me!

30. August 2014:

On Saturday my family had to cut down a dying plum tree. Apparently a really bad storm had come threw the area of Nordrhein-Westfalen a few weeks before I came. About half of the tree fell over in that storm, because of this the tree was dying anyway. To describe the tree to you my dad said it perfectly. Because of the weight of the many plums and the lack of nutrients, the tree looked like something out of a horror movie. If we added some smoke at dusk and trew in a terrifiying clown we could have made an independant movie. Instead we decided to cut it down with a friend who was kind enough to help us out. We spent most of the day picking the many plums off of the fallen tree. Several neighbors and friends, neighbors, and family came over to help us out. In the end we had about ten large buckets of plums. Luckily we had all those people come help us out because they were also able to take a bunch of them home. Later on my sister and I went to Parkfest. Parkfest is a music festival in the downtown of Dortmund. Unluckily it had rained just before we went so the whole park was mud. Needless to say the shoes I wore are no longer wearable. Luckily the dj we saw had set up a dance floor. The music that is played on the stations in Germany is so different. It's much more techno and almost no rap is played. There are a couple of songs that come on that are overplayed in America, but a lot of the time its the lesser known songs of famous artists. I love that part of the German radio stations. Anyway, while I was at Parkfest I got to meet a ton of my sisters friends. They were all really nice and included me as much as they could. I really hope I get to know them better in the future. Unfortunatly my culture shock tiredness is starting to settle in (basically I am tired all the time from everything being so different), and I decided to leave at midnight.

31. August 2014:

On Sunday my family ate a late breakfast and headed out to a park to play mini golf. The park was pretty big, they showed me where we would be going to Oktoberfest, and this course up in the trees which looked really cool. Right as we started playing mini golf it started to pour. We tried to wait out of the storm but to no avail. Instead we booked it to the car. Of course five minutes after we got in the car it was sunny and not raining. I think thats ok because it took me five hits to finish the first hole...my little brother did it in two. Instead we ended up playing different games like frisbee golf and archery on the ps3. My mom and I made plaumen kuchen (plum cake suprise suprise!), and we had crepes with plums for dinner. My family also tried the maple syrup I brought from Wisconsin and they loved it. After dinner my dad got my phone to work, he had been tring to get it to work with a SIM card since I arrived. Finally it worked, but I found out that only some American phones work in other countries. Tip for the travellers buy a cheap phone when you get to your country. My mom and I played scrabble after dinner as well. I really like doing this because I can really expand my german vocabulary.

1. September 2014:

Monday was my second official day of school because of the project days. The day started off with a German literature class. It was so crazy because the teacher is exactly like, Mr. Mags, a teacher of mine in America. During the class we talked about what we should write for a play that we have to perform at the end of the year. For homework he told us to memorize a german piece of literature to present to the class. It is a good thing I have so many German poems already memorized. During my 5th and 6th class I had art class. Luckily I found out we are starting off with taking pictures. We had to propose an idea for a picture and go out into the woods and take a picture of it. Afterwards we put the pictures up on a projector and analysed them. One photo we analysed was really frustrating. I totally disagreed with what the teacher was saying but I literally did not know the words to use to voice my opinion. Afterwards I learned that there are special rooms to use your cell phones. The teacher was nice about letting me know what the rules but it still really startled me. The next class I had was German this was the cherry on top of the ice cream. German is probably the hardest class for me to understand because we are analysing a book in old German in really fast german with a very large vocabulary. Needless to say this was a super frustrating day. After school my mom, brother and I went into Mengede's little downtown and got ice cream and school supplies. It really helped me to feel better to get out and about after school. When we got home the weather was so nice that we sat outside. My sister came to stay the night so she could help me with the bus system. We ended up looking at phone cases together on Amazon.

2. September 2014:

Tuesday was a much better day in school than monday. I had Socialwissenshaft (sort of like political sociology I believe) with some of my friends who really helped me to understand what was being taught in the lesson. Geography was really interesting because the teacher came in assigned group work and went back down to the teachers room for another cup of coffee. Although when he did come back he made sure I got the books I had been missing for my other classes. In gym class we had to run 3 miles. It was terrible. All of the german bread I have been eating has added up and I died during gym. Hopefully I find a swim class soon to get me back in shape.

3. September 2014:

On Wednesday I only had 3 out of the 5 sujects I was supposed to. Apparently in Germany sometimes there isn't enough money to pay some teachers every day or they just don't show up without finding a replacement. Consequently I ended up having about 3 periods free. In English we talked about the upcoming march for tolerence. It was very interesting to hear how the Nazis are still active in Germany and how people my age react to them holding parades. After school I gave a presentation with two of my friends who also went abroad. One even lived for a year in Oklahoma. Apparently there are several kids who have done years abroad. I have even met a girl who was in America with YFU last year! Right after school my dad and I went to go take my bike to a shop to get if fixed up. Once it is fixed up I will be able to bike two and from school with my friends. Right before dinner my brother and I ended up having a sword fight on our trampoline. That was pretty funny but I was very carful not to be hit hard or to hit him very hard. At the end of each day I can really feel my culture shock tiredness growing. Hopefully in a month it will be gone or at least not as bad.

4. September 2014:

On Thursday I got to sleep in because my histroy teacher wasn't in school. The school day was pretty mediocre, not extremely hard but not really easy. After school my mom and I went to my aunt's house. She lives in some hilly parts of Dortmund which provide some really amaying views. Next time I go I need to bring my camera along. I ended up playing trucks with my two year old cousin and my mom 2 year old cousin and baby cousin went on a walk around the neighborhood. Afterwards it was such a beautiful day again there was no way we couldn't sit outside. While we were sitting out there I found out Natalya had chosen to learn German over Spanish. Of course I immediately told the rest of my family that she was learning German and we celebrated a little bit. While I was sitting there I realized how much I miss all of my friends I knew in Warendorf and how much a part of my new family they are. As I become closer to my new family I learn how important it is to have family that you chose as your family not from birth. By chosing to go on this trip and living with another family it makes me also think about my American family, and family in general in a completely different light that I can't put into words.

5. September 2014:

On Friday I had Art class again. We talked about people and work, we went around the class discussing our ideas of what we wanted our photo to look like. I think my art teacher was really impressed with my idea/knowledge of photo taking (thanks Medved). I really liked this hour of art because the teacher also took the time to ask me if the class was talking to fast for me to understand. Becuase of that I was able to understand almost all of what was being said in class. During one of my free periods the boys in the 11th class stole one of the couches from the 12th class and put it on the window sill in the 11th class study room. That was really funny because it took a while for the 12th class to find it hidden behind the curtins. After school a couple of my friends and I went into Dortmund's innstatt to eat lunch. I was so happy to finally get my first bubble tea of this trip to Germany. It was so amazing I have missed bubble tea so much. It was also super nice to talk to my friends in a setting that was outside of the classroom where I usually ask them to clarify what was being said. After dinner at my house my parents sister and I played "Scotland Yard." This is my new favorite board game. There is this one guy who is bad and the other three players try to find him throughout London by using taxis, underground, or buses. This was super fun and frustrating because my mom kept using taxis which made it impossible for my dad, sister, and me to figure out where she was. She ended up winning that round. By the time we stopped playing Scotland Yard it was midnight and I figured I would call my family in the US. It was really nice to hear all that they were doing and how the new school year was starting for Katerina and Natalya.

Thanks for reading!

Sandra