The Days Simply Fly By

Five months ago today I flew into Germany. Five months ago today, I barely spoke a word of German. Needless to say, a lot has changed in the past five months. While my German is nowhere near perfect, I can speak with strangers on the street without missing a beat, and now I can even understand my friends. All that being said, I speak German with an accent that “sounds like I’m from everywhere in the world at once” and like a teenage boy. This makes sense seeing as most of my friends are teenage boys, I live with a teenage boy, and I am, and have always been, a tom-boy… but the only problem with it is I am, in fact, not a teenage boy.

*Speaking German with a friend in an English based class*

Teacher: “Angie, do I need to remind you of all people that English is the language of this classroom?”

Me: “Sorry...”

Friday afternoon I received a package from one of my best friends back in California, Alison. Inside the package, there was a “Senior” shirt from my high school, the school newspaper (there is an article in it about my exchange year), a bottle cap elmo neckless, a dressed up badminton bird, glow in the dark beads, three letters, and more stickers than I will ever know what to do with. I also received a letter from my old boss on the same day. After seeing this, my host-mom said I get more mail than the rest of the family combined, and more than any of the other exchange students she has ever hosted. To be fair, I live on the other side of the world now, but that being said, I think I have received more mail in the past five months, than I have in the other 17 years of my life combined.

Friday evening before making dinner, I was emailing a friend from California when he excitedly asked, “What are you having for dinner tonight?! Schnitzel!?” Oddly enough Friday was the first night we did not have ‘traditional German food’ but rather made tacos for dinner despite them virtually not existing in Germany because my host-brother misses tacos since he spent his year of exchange in Mexico. After eating my brother said, “That was the worst taco I have ever had… but it was the best you can get in Germany!”

Saturday night I went to Johannes’ house along with my group of friends where we watched movies and played cards. To get to Johannes’ I have to take two busses, but of course the first bus was late, so I missed the second bus, and Leo, being the good friend he is, waited for me, so we walked across town in the pouring rain. Despite wearing all my water/snow proof winter clothing, I was still soaked from head to toe by the time we got there. I was so wet that if I were to take a shower, I would not have needed to get my hair wet before putting shampoo in it. (Of course I forgot my camera memory card or there would be evidence.) However, during the evening I dominated at cards so my mood was greatly improve.

*Standing on the bridge looking over the beautiful Weser River*

Stranger: "Hey, is everything okay?"
Me: "Yeah, just waiting for a friend."
Stranger: "Okay! You never know!"
Me: "What... ohh.. I probably look suicidal right now, don't I?"
Stranger: "...Just a little. Have a nice night!"

That random guy completely made my day. Not only was he being nice, but it is so incredibly rare for Germans to talk to people they don’t know on the street, that it was simply extra special. It was oddly convent that just that morning I learned the world for “suicidal” in German after watching a movie. Strange how quickly it came in handy.

Monday night, (after waiting for him on the bridge) Johannes and I went climbing in the sport hall. Not only do I enjoy climbing, but I have met so many interesting people there, such as an Italian man who lived in California for 12 years and a man who lost a couple of fingers after climbing in Peru. Especially now that I understand German, they always make for interesting discussions.

As my German gets better and better, I will NEVER underestimate the power of languages, or being able to understand someone ever again.

Happy New Year!

Where did my Ferian(break) go!? The past two weeks went by way to quickly with the family here. Christmas/New Year are supposed to be one of the most prominent times for homesickness amongst exchange students, but my host-family has become my family. I’m right at home here.

We have been in the middle of a HUGE storm for about a week now (or several huge storms, I’m not really sure). Today though it was technically 38 degrees Fahrenheit, the weather said it “feels like it’s 16 degrees fahrenheit.” Brr!

In German, New Years Eve is called “Silvester” though to be quite honest, I haven't a clue as to why. This ‘Silvester’ I spent with my host-family, as well as my host-brothers girlfriend and my host-sister’s boyfriend. To be honest, I was dreading my sibling’s significant others spending the week here because I thought it would make me miss my friends in California more, but it turned out to be an excellent week. Silvester, the entire neighborhood set off fireworks at midnight and despite it being freezing cold and wet, it was absolutely beautiful. Fireworks were made illegal in my hometown a few years ago, so it was a lot of fun to be able to set them off again. We watched “Dinner for One,” (a German Silvester tradition) a short film about a crazy old woman who is almost deaf and quite delusional. The strange thing is, everyone watches it in English even though most people don’t understand it, but they still find it funny.

Monday (New Years Day), we drove to Hannover and went ice skating. The ice arena has a roof, but no walls so it is only open during winter, and I told my family about the Snoopy’s Ice Arena in my hometown, and they thought it was crazy that California has ice arenas, which is ironic, because that is what my town is famous for because of Charles Schultz and his Peanuts cartoon.

On Tuesday afternoon, I had my Rotary presentation about “California, My Life, and Germany” in German. I love going to the Rotary meetings because Rotary Club Hameln is prominently a group of older men (I think there are three woman in the club and about 45 people total)who all wear dark suits… and then there’s me, an 18-year-old girl with the only splash of color in the room. I also presented the banner from my club in Santa Rosa (Rotary Club Valley of the Moon) to Rotary Club Hameln, and as a token of gratitude, the club presented me with a lovely box of chocolates.

Tuesday evening I went to see the “Puss and Boots” film (Der Gestiefelte Kater) in 3-D with my host-brother, his girlfriend, and my friend Leo. It was only fair to drag Leo to the “child’s film” because a few weeks back he dragged me to Twilight. The film was based on American Nursery rhymes (think Jack and Jill, Jack and the Beanstalk, Humpty Dumpty) and as soon as the Humpty the egg entered the plot, Leo said he thought it was dumb that they had an egg playing the roll, after the film I told him all about the nursery rhymes and I think the plot made a lot more since all of a sudden. After, Leo and I watched Monsters Inc. because he hadn’t seen it and it made me sad. At the end of “Monsters Inc” there is a blooper where Mike says, “Go ‘head, go throw up” instead of “grow up,” which led me to telling Leo about the time my best friend and I were bored in English in the 8th grade so we tried to think of all the different ways to say “throw up” (we came up with nine different words off the top of our heads). Following that conversation Leo constructed this list:

All the ways to say “Puking” in German

auswürgen, barfen, brechdurchfall, brechen, briggeln, bröckelhusten, bröckeln, Brocken lachen, das innere zum vorschein bringen, den mock rauslassen, den porzellangott anbeten, die inneren werte zeigen, die Speisekarte faxen, die suppe nochmal würzen, eine unbekannte masse herauspoltern, einem das Essen aus dem Gesicht fallen, engstermann, erbrechen, exkorporieren, flatschen, geiern, gerrit sehen, göbeln, gulpen, halbverdaute nahrungsreste unter einer magenreizung, verursacht durch zu schnelle nahrungsaufnahme,, jürgen würgen, Kloschüssel umarmen, kotzen, kübeln, Lebensmittel Auswurf, Mageninhalt oral entleeren, Mundstuhl machen, nach dem ulf rufen, nach Melk telefonieren, ne Pizza legen, nochmal durch den kopf gehen lassen, pabsten, pizzieren, Rachenfasching, reihern, reziproke Speiseröhrenperistaltik, rückwärts essen, rückwärts frühstücken, sich mit der Klobrille unterhalten, sich übergeben, speiben, speien, sporadischer (nahrungsmittel) auswurf, spucken, Superschluck, über die Zunge scheissen, uebergeben, ulf anrufen, Ulfen, Villeroy & Boch umarmen, vomieren, würfelhusten, Würfelhusten

Today was surprisingly an excellent day! I wasn’t looking forward to going back to school, just because break has been really nice, but today was the first day I understood everything said by my teachers and friends, and I could respond to everything. I have gotten so used to simply not understanding what’s going on, that it was actually weird to have a clue again. Up until about a month ago, I did not particularly like the German language simply because it can be really frustrating and difficult, but now that I speak it, I really enjoy it. Not to mention, it’s convenient to speak the most spoken language in Europe.