The Trials and Tribulations of Learning a Language

Language will always be a mind boggling concept to me. The fact that a different series of sounds can mean something to one group of people and then mean something entirely different to another is fascinating. Often times when I am sitting in class, I will listen to everyone speak and at first it will sound like they are having a conversation, but then as I focus more on the sounds they are making, I understand everything! Just kidding. I wish. In reality, to me they sound like they are crazy and just making random noises. But then, on very rare occasion, I actually understand what they are saying! The feeling of actually hearing a conversation between other people is extremely comforting. It doesn't matter if it is a simple, "It is so cold in here!" Just the fact that I am starting to comprehend the language makes me feel better. It is like I am finally being let in on a big secret that everyone else knows. I can not wait to be able to understand more of the puzzle that is called German. 

The Little Things..

It's strange what you miss when you leave home. For me it's the small things. I miss arguing with my parents, holding my dog hostage in my bed, my brothers eating the rest of my food when I can't finish it, hugs, my Mom's cooking, and even my older brother's painstakingly slow driving. When you leave home you would never guess that you would miss arguing with your family. I mean who in their right mind thinks, "I will miss yelling about stupid things that don't matter in the long run!" So far, this exchange is teaching me to appreciate the small things in life. I know this isn't a super upbeat post, but I just thought it was interesting what I actually have ended up missing the most. Also, no, nothing is wrong, I am still having the time of my life in Germany. I am just a little homesick.

Just Another Day..

I have been in Germany for almost two weeks now and I am head over heels in love with my life here. No, not everything goes perfectly, but I wouldn't change where I am for all the wealth in the world. I don't know how I will be able to leave here.. For those of you who were worried about the age difference between my classmates and I(Mom), it has not been a problem. Everyone in my class is super nice. Today Cedric took me out for lunch (I had classes from 8-12:10, then more classes from 2-5:15) and we met up with a bunch of guys from class at an outdoor restaurant. The restaurant was called "The Rock." At this restaurant you can order food named after famous singers such as Jennifer Lopez and Greenday. I personally ordered the Conchita Wurst. For those of you who don't know, Conchita is a singer. He/She/It won Eurovision last year. Eurovision is a singing contest that is really popular in Europe. The Conchita Wurst was actually very good! It was chicken, cheese, tomato, and bbq sauce wrapped in a toasted tortilla. Although I have only really talked to guys here(Dad I know you're reading this and please don't have a heart attack), it's all good. I've only been in school for 3 days. I have a whole year to make friends. For gym class today (we have it once a week and it is the last class of the day) I chose football(soccer for all the Americans reading this). I was THE ONLY girl in the entire class. I don't think any of the guys had ever even seen a girl before. The teacher made us run in the forest and it was awful. But I needed the exercise, as Cedric said(he's in the class)I worked off that Conchita Wurst. After running we played a mini football game. I am absolutely awful. I have the skills of a 2 year old. It's okay though because I'm foreign. Anyways, I am having a great time here.

Love living in "Farmville"

Lunch today

Selfie with Conchita Wurst (featuring the guys in my class)

This is Conchita

First Day of School!

Today, September 15th, 2014, was my first day of school. They put me in grade 13 with my host sister, Isi. Everyone in that grade is at least 2 years older than me! This guy in my class is 20 years old. I am 16. School started at 8:00 am and Isi drove us there. My school is so big and confusing! Once we got to school Isi saw all her friends in the class and they started speaking German very quickly so I just sat on a table awkwardly. I felt so antisocial. I could tell that everyone in the class was looking at me like "who is this strange person sitting over there?" Finally people started talking to me. I was so thankful because it was incredibly awkward. I sat next to a guy named Cedric for home room. He was very nice and spoke english very well (he was an exchange student to Virginia 3 years ago). My next class was Chemistry. I sat next to Isi and I understood nothing. My next class was economics, taught in english. It was so funny to read what the teacher had written in english because most of it didn't even make sense to me! He kept calling on me to ask about words and I felt so bad when I couldn't remember the english word. That class lasted 2 hours long and I sat next to Cedric again. My last class of the day was Religion. I was so surprised that they had a religion class! That is not allowed in America. For religion class you separate into 2 groups, Catholic and Protestant. I have no idea what happens if you're atheist. That is when Isi and I went our separate ways, she is Catholic and I am Protestant. I followed Cedric to the Protestant class. Religion class is by far my favorite. All we did was sit at our desks and sing as our teacher played guitar. He described the way we sounded as being "like angels.. on drugs." We sang Read All About It by Emeli Sande. It was sooo funny. I think I will enjoy school here very much. Sometimes I just sit there and think about how I can't believe this is my life. I am so thankful for my parents supporting me in this. I am having the most amazing time. I am in love with Germany. Update on the food: I am getting used to it and even starting to like it!

My German Mom makes the best bread ever

First Few Days

In my first few days I have realized how much of a struggle this year will actually be. Only other exchange students can truly understand what it is like. I do not understand anything. I am so confused all the time! I am fairly nervous for school too(it starts on Monday). What if everyone thinks I dress funny! More importantly, I UNDERSTAND ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Most of the time I just smile and nod. But I think everyone knows that I really have no idea what is going on. It is very lonely and hard to not be able to interact with other people. Yes, most people speak english. But when people are in groups they all speak German and I sit there and wonder what everyone thinks is so funny. It's like one big inside joke that I can't even begin to understand. Also, when people approach me in German I just smile and say "Ja" because I feel like I'll disappoint them when they find out that I'm actually American and have no idea what they're saying. As the hashtag on Twitter goes, the struggle is real. Another one of my problems is getting used to the food. Oh how I miss my Mom's cooking! Germans eat a lot of sausage. In America, I refused to eat sausage because it looked disgusting and I didn't like the taste(I wasn't a big meat eater). So you can imagine how I felt when suddenly it was on my plate at almost every single meal! But I will eat it! And I will learn to love it! They have so many different types of sausage and to me it all looks so gross... But I am an exchange student in Germany so I will eat it all. I know it sounds like I am complaining too much... but I am having the best time! I swear my host family's goal is to make me fat! They feed me chocolate all the time and I wonder how some of this food qualifies as lunch! I would classify it as dessert. Don't get me wrong, I'm totally fine with eating dessert for lunch, but I don't know if my clothes will fit me if I continue eating like this! However, they say that if you don't gain weight on exchange you're doing something wrong. Last night all of Leonie's (would be host sister but she's on exchange in Sitka, Alaska) friends came over and met me. They were so funny, at least they were when I actually understood what was happening! They all speak so quickly and they speak in slang terms. My host family is great. My parents are so nice and my sister is really cool and my little brother... well... we have some serious language barriers! Till and I have the funniest conversations. Sometimes I just give up and have him type what he's trying to tell me. I'll say something in english and he'll look at me funny and then I'll remember that he doesn't speak english. It is hilarious. Anyways, I'm having a great time. We went to the castle in Donzdorf yesterday and it was so pretty! I'm absolutely in love with Germany. I can't wait to be able to speak the language! Best choice I ever made.

Journey to Germany

On Thursday at 5:30am I left my house for the biggest adventure of my life. I had absolutely no idea that what was supposed to be a smooth 21 hour journey would become a very stressful 26 hour journey. My flight to Seattle from Anchorage went very smoothly. The lady who sat next to me was very nice and that was a relief. Once I got to Seattle I had a 2 hour layover. During that layover, I met Morgan (I have previously met Morgan, he is from my same district in Alaska) and Gordon, from Canada. We formed a "posse" and hunted around the airport for icecream. We ended up getting frozen yogurt. As we were boarding our flight, we saw the flash of another blazer. The girl saw us at the same moment and raised her arm and shouted "I see you!" Then we all boarded the plane. Once on the plane, we learned that all of our seats were super far apart from each other. We kept waiting for the plane to fill up with people, but hardly anyone else boarded! There wear probably only 20-30 people on that flight. So I ended up asking if I could move seats to be next to the other exchange student girl. The flight attendant said yes and Morgan and I picked up all of our stuff and scrambled around the plane to get to Gordon and the other girl (we didn't know her yet). I sat next to the girl and Morgan sat next to Gordon. Once the flight took off, I learned that the girls name was Kierstin. We talked the whole flight(4 hours) and became friends. Once our flight landed in Detroit, we realized we only had 30 minutes before our next flight took off. We hurried and got to our gate and met a whole bunch of other exchange students. We then asked them to watch our stuff as we ran through the airport to Mcdonalds to get some lunch, seeing as this was the big flight across the Atlantic to Amsterdam. The "posse" ended up ordering 20 chicken nuggets for us all to share. Once we got our food, we sprinted back to our gate just as they were about to close the doors (the other exchange students were freaking out). We made it on without a second to spare. Once on the plane, Kiersrin and I asked the men who we're sitting next to is if they could switch seats with us so we could sit together. They said yes and we thought we were in the clear. Wrong. The other delightful people on the flight had used up every single overhead bin. All the other exchange students were able to make theirs fit but mine wouldn't. So I was frantically asking the people on the flight if they could move their purses (why they needed to be in an overhead bin I will never know) under their seats that way I wouldn't have to pay $100 to check my bag. The people on the flight seemed insulted that I would even ask them that! I was extremely appalled at how snobby, difficult, and selfish the people were. It was a tiny purse! If I moved it over my bag would fit in the bin! There I was. Running around the plane practically begging people to make a little extra room and I was nearly in tears and it was so stressful and awful. Then an angel appeared in the form of a flight attendant. A kind man in the first class had seen me panicking and had  volunteered his overhead bin that was completely empty. The flight attendant took my bag away, and with it my stress. Until another thing happened. We spilled all 20 chicken nuggets on the floor. The lady flight attendants were 100% done with us. That flight seemed to last forever. But at least I had Kierstin! All the other exchange students had to sit with other people that they didn't know. A poor boy from Wisconsin sat in the last row of the flight with an Asian woman who didn't say a word the entire time. I was only able to sleep for an hour during the 7 hour flight. As we flew over the Atlantic Ocean there was a lightning storm and there was lightning all around us and really bad turbulence. It was really cool but really scary at the same time. Once we reached Amsterdam, (it was beautiful by the way) the two other exchange students and I realized that we only had 20 minutes before our flight was scheduled to take off. We booked it all the way through the airport to where we went through customs and then another security check. After that we only had 7 minutes until take off. Still hopeful we would make it, we ran to our gate and walked up to the counter only to hear the 4 most hated words in exchange student history: "Your flight has left." Immediately the stress sweating kicked in and it was extra bad because we were all in our heavy blazers running around. We were 4 teenagers, stranded in a Amsterdam. I asked the lady at the desk what're should do and she directed us to the transfer station to transfer our tickets to a different flight. That went smoothly. I went to text my host parents, then I realized: I lost my phone. The panic began again. I had Gordon (he was still waiting for his flight to board) watch my stuff and I ran back to security in hopes that they had my phone. I saw another angel on disguise that day. In the form of a Dutch airport security lady. She handed me my phone saying "I hoped you would come back." If we had made the flight I would have left my iPhone in Amsterdam. Exhausted from 21 hours of travel and immense stress, I sat on a couch in the transfer area with the 2 other exchange students headed to Stuttgart. We then waited for 3 hours for our flight out of Amsterdam to Stuttgart. We got to our gate an hour early just to be sure that we wouldn't miss our flight. I went and tried to buy some water, only to discover that my card was declined. I ended up paying with USD. I then took advantage of the free wifi and texted my dad asking him to call the bank and ask why my card was declined. He called them and apparently the shut off my card because they thought my 3 in flight wifi purchases during my flights across the US (worth it) looked "suspicious." Who are they to judge what I buy! After I got the whole debit card thing figured out, I opened my water to take a drink, only to notice that it was carbonated. It was absolutely disgusting. It tastes so wrong on so many different levels! All I wanted was regular old normal bottled water and I ended up with some crazy fizzy water. Finally our plane to Stuttgart started boarding. I was asleep before the plane even took off. That's how exhausted I was. I didn't wake up until I heard "In 10 minutes we will arrive in Stuttgart." I was so confused because it went by so quickly! One minute I was awake in Amsterdam and the next I was about to land in Stuttgart. Germany was amazing from above. There were so many farms and cute villages. Once we landed, we all went as fast as we could to get to baggage, that way we could collect our luggage and meet our families. I got my bag and I said goodbye to the other 2 exchange students and walked out and was immediately greeted by my host family. They made me a sign and everything! It was so great. They asked me if I was hungry and I said yes. I hadn't eaten since we flew over Canada. They took me up through the hills (there was a castle on top of one of the hills!!!) to a restaurant that served traditional German food. I had my little brother, Till, order for me since I had no idea what anything was. I also ordered water and it was brought to me in a big glass bottle with what looked like a mini wine glass. I was so confused! My sister, Isabel, and Till ordered sprite and it came without ice. Till ended up ordering me some schnitzel. It was soooo good. It's kind of like fried chicken except its pork and everyone judges you if you eat it with your hands. I also tried German potato salad. It's a far cry from American potato salad. It tasted so bitter! I must say, their food will definitely take some getting used to. After dinner we drove along a winding road leading through various villages. My host family has a big green Volkswagen van and it is the cutest thing ever. We finally reached my house and it is also super cute. They had a big American flag hanging up and it was so nice. My bedroom is AWESOME. It's on the top floor and has a skylight and a balcony. The balcony is next to an apple tree and there are fresh apples hanging from it. I love how the church bells ring to mark every hour. It is so beautiful. I think I will enjoy living here very much. Today my host parents took me to a plane show. It was very entertaining. Please enjoy these pictures and thank you for reading!

Making my way to the plane

Last mother daughter selfie; in line to board

My view once we took off in Alaska

Morgan and I found Shamoo in Seattle

Kierstin and I

Flying over the Atlantic, towards day light

My first meal in Germany, schnitzel 

My water in a glass bottle

One Day Left

1 day left in my wonderful home state. Last night I had my last home cooked meal: barbecue chicken and potato salad. It was absolutely delicious. I will miss my Mom's cooking. I also ended up seeing Harper again! She had a dress of mine that I let her borrow back in May.. So we drove to her house and picked it up. This goodbye was a little sadder and I actually teared up. I also said goodbye to Kelsey, my friend since the 4th grade. However, the saddest goodbye is yet to come; leaving my dog. I will miss my Lucy so much. I wish I could put her in my suitcase and bring her with me. Speaking of suitcases, I have probably packed and unpacked everything 6 times. The first time I had everything all packed up and then I went and weighed it and it was 60 lbs. That's 10 lbs over the allowed amount.. So obviously, instead of going through and taking out stuff, I just put all 13 pairs of shoes in my carry on. We'll see if it's still too heavy... If it is, I guess I'll just have to wear lots of layers on the plane. After all, no shoe left behind! It still doesn't seem real that I'm doing this. I don't think it will hit me until I'm on the plane taking off. I'm so excited! But I still have so much left to do! Today I have my last Rotary meeting with Anchorage East. I love going to them because it helps me stay connected with the club and the food is the bomb.com. Lukas promised he'd come so we could say goodbye. Will he actually come..? I don't know. Even if he doesn't end up coming, it will still be great to say goodbye to the people who have given me such an opportunity. I doubt I'll get any sleep tonight... Well anyways, this might be my last post until I've actually left. So please pray that I have a safe flight!

All packed!

Lucy, my dog

Last last best friend selfie with Harper

Saying goodbye to Kelsey