Weekly Post #14

Hey everybody!

Sorry this update is coming so late. I got a bit of a head cold over the weekend that wiped me out through monday. But here I am, better again. It was awesome to see the Packers kick the Bear's butts so bad. Sorry to all of my Bear fan friends out there, it was even painful for us at some points to watch you get beat so bad. In other news Dortmund also finally got another win after a huge losing streak!

1. November 2014:

Saturday was Allerheiligen Tag (All Saints Day). There wasn't anything particularly special about this holiday, outside of all of the shops being closed. I still haven't gotten totally used to this shop thing. All of the shops are usually closed by the time 6:30 rolls around. I have also discovered many of the shops have a lunch break between 1-2:30. I am more of a night owl. This means I usually remember last minute what I need late in the evening. The problem here is that nothing is open in the late evening. The shops are almost never open on sundays either. I believe this year in Germany will help me to not procrastinate so much on those types of things. Luckily the parks are never closed. My mama, Justus, and I met up with Kristina and Marco in one of Dortmund's many parks. Justus and I posed on several tree stumps. At one point I was the Statue of Liberty. Justus is getting to the point now where I think he wants to do what I am doing. When I jump on a stump he jumps on right after me. When I tried scaring geese, he tried to scare them with me. It's like what my sisters used to do with me, but it's much cuter now because I'm older and he is so much younger. Later that day I got to talk to KK and my nana. We had a nice chat for about an hour. When I went downstairs there were a bunch of people watching the Dortmund v. Bayern game. As soon as I walked in Dortmund scored against Bayern. Everybody started cheering and saying that I needed to keep walking into the room so we can score more. After the game several of us ended up playing darts together. I never once ended up winning. I guess my dart mojo only lasted for one night. Although I learned that I throw darts more like they are footballs. Now everybody keeps making jokes about me being an American who likes football and can't play darts because of it. At least I can throw a decent football.

2. November 2014:

Sunday was one of the special days before Christmas where the shops are open for the Christmas sales. Here all of the Christmas sales start right after Halloween because they don't celebrate Thanksgiving as big as we do in America. After I realized it, it seemed pretty obvious. Only Americans really celebrate Thanksgiving, because it's an American holiday. I don't think I will ever go into the innstadt on a sunday like this again. It was absolutely packed, there was no space to really look at things that we could buy. It was also really hard to hear the other talk. Overall it was a good learning experience of when not to go into the innstat. Lived and learned. At least I got to use a gift card.

3. November 2014:

On monday I had my art class again. We got to continue working with our hands on our hands. (haha I hope thats not confusing) I really love working with metal. I've had previous experience working with metal through Nicolet FEAR. It's so interesting to be working with a completely different type of metal. Working with tiny details to make my hand look as realistic as possible. Over all I am not very good at drawing or picturing hands, because of this it makes the whole process a bit harder. I think the hardest part of my hand was forming my little thumb. It wasn't really easy to hold down the wire to get a solid form on it. My thumb is also not exactly realistic or normal. These two things combined made it the hardest part of my hand. But I think I made it look pretty realistic. I started covering my metal frame in newspaper. I think it will turn out pretty well. In my English class we talked about cultural identity. This was really cool because I was able to share a bunch of my knowledge that I learned from YFU about cultural identity. I think I will make a special post to talk more about that. Right after school my mom and I found this swim club which is close to where I live. Unfortunately it's only on wednesdays. I am planning to go this wednesday.

4. November 2014:

Tuesday was probably one of the strangest school days of the week. In my first class, Sowi, our teacher was stuck in traffic for half of the period. We ended up talking among ourselves as we waited for her. In my Geography class our teacher told us what our task was for the day and walked out of the class. We ended up talking for most of that period too. During my double period break my gym teacher came in and told us that she had an urgent meeting and gym was cancled. I got to go home and chill at my house for the rest of the day. Later that evening both my mom and I fell asleep during the Dortmund Champions Leauge game. There are two leauges that Dortmund is currently playing in. Bundesliga is the German leauge where only German teams play against each other. We have been completely terrible in this leauge since about my arrival in Dortmund. There is also the Champions Leauge which Dortmund has been doing decent in. In order to be in the Champions League next year we either need to be in the top four in the Bundesliga, or we need to win the Champions League. Champions Leauge is a bunch of teams from all over Europe who are the best in their own country/regional league.

5. November 2014:

On Wednesday my German class listened to several songs in Yiddish. I learned how easy it could be to learn Yiddish now that I already know a bit of German. I'm also realising how many people acutally believe everybody in America owns a gun. To all of my German readers: we do not all own guns. That is an American stereotype. Although it is also interesting to now see the various ways we support this stereotype. It makes sense why so many people believe we all own guns. That night I got to skype with my best friend Lucinda. We talked a lot about her life at Yale and my life here. It's so nice to know that our friendship has lasted this long and even helped get me to Germany.

6. November 2014:

On thursday I got one of my grades for my English class. I learned that I got a 2+ (B+). I guess one of the biggest things that I need to improve on is making my language more advanced. I think when I speak in English class I shouldn't worry about how much people will understand. Then my English will be much more advanced. I thought that was really funny how that was one of the main points for my speaking in class. Thursday was also my papa's and host cousin's, Jannik, birthday. We all went out to dinner together at a nearby restraunt. I got to show Jannik duolingo to help him learn other languages. I heard from my host aunt that he used it later. I thought that was super cool. Papa also showed them a bit of pinterest. My host cousin and uncle are super crafty so I think they will really enjoy that part of pinterest.

7. November 2014:

In my German class on friday I could understand almost everything that was being discussed about the book "Hiob." This made me so happy. I even wanted to add a few points but I didn't quite have the courage to do that yet. Right after school I rushed home because it was my Papa's birthday party at our house. My moms family all came over for cake and coffee. The afternoon seemlessly blended into the evening with a steady flow of friends and family coming and going. Later in the evening several of us ended up playing darts. I never ended up winning again, but I came close. I used some of the tricks my papa taught me earlier and they seemed to work a bit. I really felt with the group on friday that I was able to understand a lot more of what was being said and what it really meant. I have been having a lot of trouble with that, but I think I am finally starting to break my little egg shell to see what all these words and conversations truely mean.

Thanks for reading!

Sandra