Changing the World, One Exchange Student at a Time

As much as I love my host-mom, I feel a little bad for her. Having three sons, she was of course thrilled to hear she will be getting a daughter for an exchange student… but she got stuck with me. I am probably one of the least girly straight girls on the planet. I don’t dress up, or wear makeup, I generally wear my hair curly and down in my face, and above all other things, due to my friends, I even speak German like a teenage boy. My host-mom says she’s going to turn me into a girl though, she has a little under five months… let’s see how far she gets.

Host-Mom: "Angie, you're my daughter now, and my children say please and thank you to everyone. Everyone, except me. If you say thank you one more time, you're going to have to sleep in the car tonight."

Now that I actually live IN town (as compared to a random village in seemingly the middle of nowhere that I cannot pronounce the name of) it feels like I have unlimited options. The center of town is about a five minute bike ride away, as is school, and badminton is a 20 second walk so now I play every Tuesday and Thursday and of course, I drag my German friends along with me. I love how they are tall, athletic boys, but they can’t play badminton to save their lives. When playing, they look like ballerinas spinning and jumping around the court.

Friday night I went out to a Vorabiparty with my new neighbor, Frederike, as well as her friends and it was the first major dose of estrogen I have gotten in awhile. We actually had quite a good time though. My school friends have heard me speak English because they met me back in September when I didn’t speak German, but whenever I met someone new, they always ask me to say something in English and it’s entertaining because everyone knows I’m from California and that English is my first language, but everyone seems so shocked when they hear me speak it just because I always speak German now.

Apparently I’ve lost my “American” accent when speaking German and simply sound foreign now. However, when I speak English I have a German accent. On the note of English, it’s so strange, I can fluently write and read in English, but speaking it is a total pain, even in my English and Bilingual History lessons, my teachers have to remind me to speak English to the class sometimes.

Speaking of my English teacher (no offense to any past English teachers who may read this blog), Herr Franke is my most favorite English teacher… ever. He makes side comments all the time, and I’m not sure if he does it simply because I’m in the class, or with the hope that somebody else will understand, but he’s hilarious. For example, on Monday we were discussing the class book and he said, “Now, we have a 10 year old girl on our hands… and not that I have ever been a 10 year old girl or anything but…” He also told my friend Leo that the drawing of a dinosaur on his arm looks like a ‘prison tattoo.’Whenever Leo and I get bored in or out of class, we draw faces on each others arms… only this time, I decided he should have a dinosaur… but of course, I’m incapable of drawing so it looks a bit like a dog.

Have a great week, and if you haven't already, check out the KONY 2012 campaign, it’s been devouring my Facebook wall feed the past few days!