One Month Report Card

So, it's been a month, roughly. Tomorrow ends my first month of Germany and German living, and Brotchen and etc. I am looking forward to go to Hamburg, but honestly I'm a bit disappointed.

I'm disappointed that my German's not at the level that I want it to be - mostly my fault, i admit - because I wasn't practicing as much as I should have been. Facebook became much more interesting. Knowing what everyone else was doing was a priority.
I realized I had high expectations for how my first month would be, what my German would be like, how helpful my class would be, and I shouldn't have. I realize this, but as of now that doesn't help my frustration.

For example, today. 3pm, I'm getting on the bus, - in the morning I cannot use my month ticket, because it's part of the school day, and Germany hates me and wants to steal away all my little American money so I have to buy another ticket for the morning but after school the month ticket works - and the bus driver kindly stops me to tell me that I cannot use my card, because this was also a student bus. So my options are: buy another ticket, use one of the tickets I have and have to buy another later, or walk home. I chose option 2. Mainly because it was far too difficult for me to explain to this nice man that I am just a little American exchange student, and I do not have a student ID. These are the things that are taken for granted when I live at home. At home I would throw a fit about how I have no money, and I would make that month ticket work. Here, I have two options: continue stumbling through German until the guy just lets me go, or give in and pay (generally the easiest option).

In any case, that's just to give an example of how much knowing German would be helpful. So on that note, I'm a bit nervous for school. I have got to get caught up on everything I think I should have been learning this whole time. I feel like going to the class that YFU organized for me, did me more worse than good, as far as everyday conversational talk, I can tell the difference between the cases in grammar, and that's great, but I can't communicate with the bus driver...
And if I'm able to type this much without a problem, that seems to be bad as well, my German should be so advanced that English is hard for me.

I need to stop having so much communication with home, sorry. I will try my best to update twice a week or so. But not everyday. As hard as that will be for me, because I'm SO addicted to the computer, I have to slowly tear myself away from home a little, so I can get the most out of this expierence.

Now, all the depressing stuff aside, I love it here, I think I'm going to need to buy myself new jeans soon though, because all this bread isn't doing so good for my Southern Hemisphere... But the food's great, the people are nice, and this family was welcoming, warm, and helpful.

The bugs definately suck though. My mosquitio allergy isn't being very helpful. My arms look all diseased some days, it's awful, but maybe my body will get used to it? Hopefully.

I am camping with my other family for the first week, so I'm pretty sure I will be unavailable then, and most likely really itchy... Outside, 5-7 days. Ohhh man, there's a first time for everything. Pray for me...

I hope school is all that I want it to be and my German gets better, and I start forgetting English. As weird as that sounds, that would be amazing for me, because I don't wanna stay here and keep "being American", that's not really helpful. If I wanted to do that, I coulda stayed home and read lots of German books.

Another hope I have is to get more active, I think I'm going to look into getting a gym membership at my other home, because I eat wayyyy too much bread, and I can't read the nutrition facts very well, so sometimes, I dont have a real good idea about what i'm eating. SSOOo, even though I walk more here, and ride bikes alot, it's not as much as I used to do at home. But my other family will help me with that, we have a year to figure it out.

Oh, and my shoulder, if you've seen Facebook, I have a sling. Yes, I'm okay. I dislocated my shoulder three days ago, and I wear it to keep my shoulder alittle more stable. It's a pain when it's so hot outside because it just makes me sweatier. But I gotta do what I gotta do. Hopefully that gets better before it gets worse. I'm fine though, no need to worry. I wouldn't be any better off at home, I can almost promise, cept having my momma to wrap these ankles I keep spraining, and make my shoulder better. hahah. I'm getting by fine though.

This family got a new exchange student from Estonia, she's pretty cool, it's hard to get to know here because I'm leaving in 2 days, but it's neat, because we both have pretty broken German, and trying to communicate is a jokkkke. oh well, it's entertaining.

Welp, I'll try to keep up with pictures. That'll be the easiest, once I start learning the language better, because all this writing will wear me out.

Love and Miss you all!