Finally settling in

Hallo everybody.
I have been in my new home for over a week now and it has been great. I get along really well with my new family and I have a fixed schedule of classes and activities. I meet with a group of "Ausländer" (foreigners) for a little while on Fridays to hang out and talk about our week (in german). I really enjoy my classes in school, although I understand very little. My head is so full of new words and phrases at the end of the day that I sometimes feel like they are all trying to escape by pushing on the inside of my skull. I keep them in there though by reading german text that I don´t fully understand and listening to the radio. I noticed that I am not as embarrassed to make grammatical errors when I speak here than I was in Argentina. It is easier to be a foreigner the second time around.
Another challenging thing is making sure that I do not lose my spanish while I am here. I have spanish class in school here which is pretty intensive, so I think I´ll be ok. My host family is also taking me to Spain for Christmas. I am so excited!
Bad news is that I think I need to get my wisdom teeth out while I am here. Good news is that my insurance pays for it. I am going to wait a bit longer and see how they are.
Ok, now for some cultural things I have noticed.
>Germans don´t understand the concept of one´s "bubble" and not popping it.
>Germans are very honest. They don´t intend to be mean, they just say what they think even if it comes out a little rude to Americans.
>Germans are more conscious about the environment. Everyone bikes, saves water, and separated garbage. I will write more about this in a later blog.
>Germans love American music, as does the rest of the world
>There are a lot of Turkish immigrants in Germany. Most native Germans resent the fact that a lot of Turks refuse to learn German, which I think is justified.
>Weird cloths are looked down upon.
>Most Germans do not wave the German flag for fear of appearing nationalistic.
>German universities cost next to nothing
>German schools are much harder than American schools
>Most Germans speak at least decent english.
>Germans love to travel

I think that is enough for today. I will try to get pictures up for the next entry--I cannot find a functioning USB port on this computer! Bis dann!

Last weeks in Bonn

Hallo alle!

The last couple of weeks have been absolutely wonderful. I am now in my new house with my new host family in a small village near Göttingen and I cannot believe how lucky I am to be here. I will write about them and my new home in the next blog though.
So, last entry I ended with the trip to Berlin. That feels like ages ago. The AIB (Akademie für Internationle Bildung) students and I visited the mountain of Drachenfels. There are many legends about this place and there was a castle that was used for teaching socialism pre-WWII, but it was completely bombed. Luckily it was rebuilt and we were able to take a tour inside. There are ruins of an older castle at the top which we climbed up to. We had to do a mini scavenger hunt while we were there. It was a lot of fun.
The next big excursion was a boat ride on the Rhine river. We started in this old medieval town called Bacharach then rode two hours down to Marksburg, which is now a historical museum. There are so many old castles and so many legends about the Rhine. The tour was awesome. We got to see the old armor, the bed chambers, the torture chamber, the herb gardens, and so many other cool things. There was a wedding going on while we were there, so of course we took a picture with the couple and their sweet car.
Next was the visit to the United Nations Campus in Bonn. We listened to a long lecture about it, but I found it really interesting so it wasn´t that boring for me. I am now seriously considering working for the UN. It seems like they would have a perfect job for me with my interest in the environment and foreign languages.
SILENT FILM FEST in Bonn! A few others and I went to a free outdoor showing of some American silent films. There was a live pianist and so many interesting people there. The films were so simple, but they were so funny and it made me so happy to see and hear the emotions from the audience.
I am going to skip a lot of important things only because there is no room and no time to write about them! Friday was our last day in Bonn. We ate breakfast together as a class, then worked on our performance pieces for the farewell party that evening. A group of 5 other students and I sang the song 'In the Jungle' acapella and it got rave reviews from the audience that night, so I guess we did pretty well. I had to sing a verse by myself! I was so nervous, but once we started singing I was completely relaxed. Another group did a rap in German that they wrote themselves, and another group did a dance while someone played the bagpipes. The other students and I were like a big family at the end of the 2 months. It was a very sad but very nice evening. I will be seeing them all again in Berlin for an orientation in November.
My german continues to improve everyday. I can have daily conversations without a problem. Deep discussions are still difficult. I'll get there though. I'm not worried. I think my german is way better now than my spanish was at the two month point. Tomorrow I start in the real school. I am really excited and I will let you all know about in my next post. My new address is:
Elena Krajeski
Südekumweg 6c.
37120 Bovenden
Germany

Please write me! I love snail-mail.
ps. Sorry there are no pictures right now---I will add some later!
pps. There are so many english words used in German. The funniest one I have heard has to be ´dissen`which means ´to diss` or insult someone or something. For example: Ich habe dich gedisst = I just dissed you on that one.

Berlin

Last weekend my hostmom and I went to the capital city of Berlin. It is a lot more modern than I had expected but it was still fun. We met up with some of Helga´s old colleagues the first night and we went out to eat. The next day we took a 2 and 1/2 hour boat tour on the river that runs through the city. Next was Checkpoint Charlie and the downtown area. That night I went to a club with one of the collegue´s daughters and her friends. I had a great time and got to know them really quickly (they all spoke english extremely well). On Sunday we visited "Gardens of the World" which was fun but hard to enjoy because I was hot and starving. I particularly liked the Arabic section of the park. There were many fountains and exotic flowers. In the afternoon we hung out with another one of Helga´s old colleges on the more residential side of Berlin. We took our flight home at around 6 that evening. I was so tired from all the activity. So overall I would say I liked Dresden better but I´ve heard there are a lot more fun things for young people do to in Berlin. We´ll see when I visit again for a CBYX reunion in December!

Monday--ugh back to school. I am starting to get annoyed with some of the immature male students in my class that distract the teacher from teaching us. I really want to learn german but we spend most of the class time listening to their pointlessly drawn-out stories. I just study on my own to make up for the lack of schooling I am getting during class. In the afternoon we went to have dinner and hang out with some german students. It was refreshing to talk to some new people.
Tuesday we had classes in the morning like always then had a 2 hour lecture on the German and American political systems. I tried hard to pay attention because I know it is an important topic but there is only so long you can hold the attention of a group of 18 years olds. Luckily we had the afternoon free the next day. Three other girls and I went to a lake about 45 minutes away and had a great time. I think I actually got a little color. I was trying to avoid tanning because of the red hair, but it´s been fading so I think it could work.

Thurday was our last tour of Cologne. We visited the Gastapo headquarters and saw the tiny rooms where people were held prisoner and tortured. People had scratched messages into and drew on the walls-it was really depressing. You could just sense how much suffering their was in that place. It was not like Buchenwald at all. After that we saw the orignial 4711 cologne shop. It smelled so good! but it was a bit expensive so I didn´t get any. Then came the best part, bakery testing! My favorite was this strawberry rubbarb cake. It was delicious.

I only have 2 weeks left here then I go to my permanent house in a small town near Göttingin. Bis netsche wohen!