Weekly Post # 18

Hey everybody!

Here is my weekly update. I don't really know what to say for my intro this week, so I'll just jump right into my week.

29. November 2014:

On Saturday my family and I celebrated our own little version of Thanksgiving. In the morning my mama and I went to the market and the grocery store to pick up all the needed ingredients to make cookies and two amazing chickens. The chicken we picked up fresh at the market. They ended up being the tastiest chickens I have ever eaten. We stuffed them with celery, onions, and garlic. I also tried making my families sour cream cookies. But I learned baking soda, and sour cream without anything doesn't really exist in Germany. Two vital things for my recipe. So I made a new type of cookie. I'm not quite sure what it was, but it was good. Marco and Kristina came over to enjoy the wonderful food with us. They also brought up an interesting point while about my German. They said my German is so good that people don't automatically realize that I don't know perfect German. I also want to know more Gran so badly that I don't always say when I don't know something. These two are a deadly combination for a recipe of misunderstanding.

30. November 2014:

On Sunday I studied most of the day for my German klausur. I still don't expect to do to well on this one, but I hope to not be translating the whole time. We also had a much easier book to work with that wasn't in old German. I think that really helps to lessen the work load. I think my reading skills are becoming much better. Looking from some of my first worksheets to the ones now there is definitely an improvement.

1. December 2014:

Monday was my German klausur. I only had two periods to work on it. Even so I was able to work through the first point of the assignment. Whether or not it made sense is another question. I also had to compare my "Hiob" book to Franz Kafka.

2. December 2014:

In my sowi class on Tuesday we had a weekly update. I got to read part of an article about Michael Brown. (No I am not going to talk about Michael Brown here) I read the German parts of the sentence in German with German pronunciation. But when it came to the name I read it out in an American accent. Apparently some people in my class thought it was hilarious how easily I could switch back and forth. There are also now officially only 2 people of my learning course who haven't switched families. I am hearing that the switch rate of families this year is double of what it normally is for Americans (50% this year). My theory is that we are now in the internet age, these exchange students have never lived without the internet. A vast thing that has changed every aspect of how we see the world today. This could give reason to why so many of us just don't fit with the families even though we may on paper. After school my family and I went to the Weihnachtsmarkt. I thought the market was beautiful during the day. During the night its like a magical forest of Christmas. There are lights hanging from the trees, the food smells amazing, and there is a band playing on top of the church. The little stands with hot drinks and stars and village pieces are all dressed up with their own holiday cheer. What I think really makes the whole thing is the band at the top of the church playing carols. So well known throughout the world almost everybody can hum along.

3. December 2014:

On Wednesday I got to have an extra slow morning because my mama and Kristina made Christmas cookies. When I got back we invited our neighbor friends, Verena, her daughter, and Elka to come and bake as well. Verena's other daughter Charleen came over. She had just bought a horse and heard I like horses. She asked me whether I wanted to help take care of the horse with her. Me loving horses if course I said yes. We baked a lebkuchen which is really tasty.

4. December 2014:

On Thursday after school I met up with a group of exchange students in Dortmund with YFU. It was really cool to sometimes just sit back and think, we come from different countries, from all over the world, all with different languages. But we have been brought together to one country, all speaking the same language. If we hadn't all learned German, we would have never been able to speak to each other. I think, as an American with everybody speaking English these days, being able to speak German with other non native German speakers who also don't speak English, alone makes my trip worth every penny.

5. December 2014:

On Friday after school I took a trip to see Charleen's horse. Unfortunately there was an accident while we were there which ended up cutting our time there short. Everybody is all right and recovering now. I learned that I don't get too rattled in emergency situations like the one on Friday. I also learned the number for an ambulance is 112 here. I never really thought about different countries having different emergency numbers. After the stable incident. I went back to my house and there was a soccer game that night. Brossia finally broke their loosing streak to win 1:0. Hopefully they are on the road back to the top. *Fingers crossed*

Thanks for reading!

Sandra