Thursday's Waffle.

Okay, so somewhere I heard about this blogging thing where once a week you make a list of ten things, a different list each week. I have no idea where I heard of this (I always forget everything as you well know), but I think it would be fun to do. And I'm going to do it on Thursdays because I've always wanted something called "Thursday's Waffle" and henceforth my list of 10 shall be called that. So here goes:

10 Things I Love To Do (and not just about Germany):

1. Going into bookstores. I love just walking around and looking at all the different kinds of books, the smell of books, reading little sections of the different ones, and the cozy atmosphere. 

2. Going out and having a drink with friends. It is just really nice to be able to meet up with my friends, head to a bar and chill out for a while with a drink or two. Maybe its more fun in Germany than in America, I don't know, but I love it.

3. Walking. Anywhere. Just walking places, instead of taking the usual conventions of transportation. It really nice to just relax and move. I can become really absorbed in my thoughts, I think I think better when I'm walking by myself than when I am just sitting or something else of the sort.

4. Doing things that make people give me funny looks. Its so much fun! Especially now that I'm a foreigner I get so many funny looks. The other day I walked the entire way down from the tallest church tower in the world without shoes on (767 steps for me, but I skipped the last one, there being 768 total). 

5. Thinking. I don't think I've ever done as much thinking before as I'm doing here now, since I can't talk so much. Sometimes I wish I could just think "record" and my brain would record my thoughts on paper for me, since I tend to forget most of my better thoughts. One of the thru-hikers on the Appalachian Trail said that the hardest thing is running out of things to think about, but I don't think I'll have that problem when I do it.

6. Taking photos. I just discovered a recent liking for taking pictures, I'm not quite sure where it sprang up from. I don't mean like documenting my time with people, I quite awful at that, I prefer to live it in the moment and not waste time with cameras. But I mean photos in the artistic sense, but I'm not so good at it. I wish I could have someone teach me about it or something.

7. Cooking. I never realized how much I cooked in America before I came here, I guess its not so normal? And how much I took for granted in cooking, just trying to make chocolate chip cookies here was really hard. I had to make my own brown sugar. 

8. Playing music. I love playing my saxophone in a band when we play good music. Not quite as much here, because in Junge Band the music is way to easy, and in the Musikfreunde I don't quite agree with their taste in choice of music. I'm dying to play music like the stuff we played last year. Also, I wish I could play the guitar and the piano, I think they're essential things to know how to play, but alas, I cannot really play them yet. Yet. I'm working on it.

9. Reading. On a yucky day it is so nice to just cuddle up and read a book. I'm trying not to read in English much though (and that may not be working so well) and I miss reading quite a lot. I'm trying to read a little kids book in German now, but its kind of hard, and not my taste in books. But hopefully I will persevere. 

10. Writing poetry. I know I'm basically awful at poetry, but I do really enjoy writing it. I wish I could be a writer, maybe of just poetry, but I hate most varieties of writing, and can't write at all so that would never happen. Though it would be pretty awesome, choosing my own schedule, just spending time alone in pretty places to think and writing, maybe doing a bit of traveling. Ah, oh well. 

lovee,

em

Kapuze.

The world is such a wonderful place. Where beauty can be found in the most ordinary places. While one might climb a mountain to see a glorious view, one just as beautiful may be found in something as simple as a leaf fallen from a tree.

ethik.

I.love.ethik.

It is definitely my favorite class here, even though I didn't understand much and we've only had one class. there was something to do with philosophie. and I translated a whole story from deutsch to englisch (which I didn't have to do and I bet anyone who finds out will be very surprised I did, seeing how much I care about the other subjects) just because I was very curious about it. I so wish I had had this class in amerika. I don't care if it makes me get out two class periods later on mondays, and that its the only class i don't have with my friends (because, unlike me, they are religious.) I wish I had it everyday instead of once a week. And most of all, I wish I understood it all. 

Ta ta for now,

Em

La Canción: Autobahn by Ohrbooten. Its basically reggae in german. 

Things I Love.

• Deutsches Brot. But you probably already knew that one already.
• The streets, they are so curvy! All twisty, not straight and boring like american ones. Except in my town I still haven't seen a single stop sign... a bit scary...
• How I can see forever on the rolling hills
• Everyone is super nice.
• The heated floors in my house... ahhhhhhhhhh :)
• My friends
• When germans speak englisch... sehr süß!! 
• Laufen in Deutschland, es ist sehr schön
• Being able to legally drink :)
• Beer. German Beer. ^
• Public transportation. I can go places by myself!!
• Serene train rides. (aka NOT the ones on the way to school, haha)
• Schkolade.
• German words, they are all so funny! (especially knee. cuz you say the k. KA-NEE.)
• Solar Panels!
• my familyy
• Klavier und Gitarre
• When a teacher isn't in school we don't have class!! (and don't have to stay in school)
• Getting lost. 
• Scarves!!
• Die Katze.
• the huge hot tubs at the pool... ahhhhh
• the other exchange students :D .... sehrrr lustig!!!
• that i can understand a lot of german when people are speaking now. now i just need to get it so that i can speak it too.

MEIN LEBEN IST GUT!

Brot, Brot, und mehr Brot :)

Deutschland has the best bread in the entire world. There isn't anywhere else that comes close. I'll probably be a balloon by the time I come home, its so good. 

I think that I've probably learned the equivalent of a german one class now, maybe even a german two class (though that might be pushing it). The funny thing is, all the vocab I know is so different from what I would learn at school. I know the word for hydrogen (Wasserstoff), but not the word for white. I can remember words like Thymian (Thyme), und violin schlüssel, but not to know or to remember. Though it is improving slowly and surely, hopefully the speed of my learning will pick up soon. I don't even know all the numbers... but i know a lot more now!

Today was basically an awesome day that had to do with singing in a church, waffles, pirates of the caribbean, and guitars. What more could you want? (Besides being able to speak german of course.)

Ciao!

Em

La Canción: Drunken Sailor. Because one day in Sport Verena and Sarah were singing it, and it has kept popping up and reminding me of them since. (like in my book, Sarah playing it on the guitar, on television...)

Observations on Trains.

I have a love/hate relationship with trains. They just love to baffle me beyond belief, and just when I think I've gotten the hang of one aspect, I'm befuddled again. I am not a fan of riding the train to school in the mornings, it's way to crowded for my taste (I guess that's how people who ride the bus feel). Plus its still dark outside/people block out the windows so I can't see anything. But riding the train home is a different story. I can chill out, look out the windows and watch the German landscape stroll by. The trains rock back and forth a little, which is sort of nice and calming. Just listening to my iPod for a few minutes on it is nice. Plus in the afternoon, there is less than half the number of people on it as in the morning. I just stand up and lean with the train, even if there are open seats. At first it was a real challenge to ride the train standing up, and I kept almost falling, but I've gotten much better. And though I may have been talented enough to miss the train, or fall into some strangers, the train and I are getting along better now. (Plus its pretty cool to be able to take something from my little town into the city when I want to.)

What else have I been up to? Hmmmm... Its been a pretty cool week overall, which had its ups and downs. I think I've made some good friends at school which is really nice, and can't wait to see them tomorrow. Though whenever I do things with people from my town I feel like an awkward tagalong (the story of Oktoberfest), but it's not as bad at school. This week I've been exploring Heidenheim a little on my own, and found a nice little park to sit and read in when I need to kill time. Oktoberfest was basically just a big fair with beer halls and drunks (though the drunks could be quite entertaining I must say). But shopping before in München was tons of fun. I bought a cool sweatshirt-y thingy, and we all tried on the funny bavarian style oktoberfest dresses. 

That's all for now really, tschüss!

Em

Procrastination.

So if you are reading this, you are benefitting from me procrastinating doing my Mathe homework. Its a legitimate procrastination though, because its auf Deutsch and I will have to figure out what the directions are saying. Anyways...

Today I went to a Drachenfestival (kite festival). It was pretty cool, but there wasn't much wind. I think it would have been amazing if there was more wind, there were lots of huge kites that were just on the ground because their wasn't enough wind for them. Then I went to a cave, which was really really long (the longest in southern germany I think). Everyone though it was cold, I didn't, and went in just my T-shirt. (It's warmer here than in NH.) Then on the way home we found out where Reinhard was driving his horse, and went there. Somehow we ended up in some hidden garden with a hidden pond thing while he took some people around. It was like a little quaint party in there, and the people seemed nice. They gave me champagne. Then I went with Reinhard and I drove the cart around for a bit, which was really fun. 

Yesterday I went to a high ropes course with the musikfreunde. It was loads of fun! I ended up hanging out with a 12 or 13 year old for most of the time, Malta, but she was really nice so it was cool. At one point in time I ended up being stuck on the snowboard/skateboard thingy. It is a snowboard with two chords underneath it attached  on each side to a chord (one on each side) running from one tree to the other. Then there is a chord above it that a rope is attached to and swings back and forth with. So I went on it and the snowboard touched the other side before sliding back a bit so I couldn't reach the other side. So I stood there for like five minutes, hanging on to the rope, trying to swing the board forward enough to reach the other side. (Remember, everyone there speaks german except for me, and I was the only one on this specific course.) Then some people from my group on another course see me and shout to me trying to help. Eventually I pull myself forward by putting one foot on one of the chords and using that to pull me forward. After the ropes course we got eis, which is supposed to translate into ice cream, but it really isn't, its more like gelato (actually I think it IS gelato). I was going to go to Sina's mother's birthday party with my family that night, but I stayed home and slept instead. (And I feel like sleeping now, though its not even 8pm yet.)

Friday was also a really good day. I was in two french classes, where I didn't understand

anything or try to, but that was okay. I had Geschichte (History), Mathe, und Englisch that I understood what was happening in. In Physik I sorta understood what was happening, just not exactly. In Chemie I understood nothing, but we watched a tiny bit of James Bond, so that made it better. Plus I was extremely tired by then, so I didn't really care what was happening. Then I had my first Deutsch lesson, and it was really helpful to finally have one. I'm going to have them Montag - Freitag except not on Donnerstag (Thursday). There were two other kids it in both boys, one from Brazil and one from Paraguay. They seemed pretty nice. Then I came home and was EXHAUSTED.

Tomorrow I only have classes until noon, and then four hours between that and my german lesson so I think I'm going to come home in between (I don't know of anything to do in Heidenheim, or how to get from my school to central Heidenheim.)

Tschüss!

Em