Bri, Verstehst du?!

Alright, so socially, all's well. But academically, let's just say I'm not really up to par. Although, true it's not important for me to go to school and learn anything because I'm done with high school at home, I don't want to sit in class and be the dumb one. But oh, lemme tell you that's what I'm doing now. I sit there and pretend I'm listening, or following along, or answering the question, or doing the homework, when really what I'm doing is trying to translate the first thing the teacher said - Lord knows I have no idea what's currently going on - or doodling. You should see my Biology notes...
And when the teachers notice that I'm doing something else, they ask, Bri, verstehst du? (Bri, do you understand) generally I say no, because I really don't get it. Then they get off rambling in German, asking me what I don't understand.. I look to my friends, and normally they just answer for me and say that the teacher talks to fast and I can't understand anything. So in Biology, the teacher slowed down, a ton, so I could understand and I felt really bad because no matter what I wasn't gonna get it, its the vocabulary about coral reefs and etc that I don't understand no matter how fast or slow you talk. So oh well...

Anyways, so I met with my Betruerin (my guide while I'm here, my counselor) last week, and told her my struggles about how school gives me a migraine and she said that after a few months everything would be okay, and I would understand every word. A FEW MONTHS?! Das geht gar nichts. I want to know now. Now of course I can't make myself learn a language over night. What I can do if try to not speak English so much and stay off of Facebook. It's like an addiction, it's actually really sad. I have a friend here, his name is Benny. He was in America last year, OK, and he speaks basically fluent English. I mean that's great to a certain extent. He can translate so much and help me out so much. But for me knowing that he can speak English, I kinda give up stumbling through German when I talk to him. He's kinda the lifeline I need but don't want? Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful to have someone to communicate with and share stories with, and the differences between OK and IL. It's interesting. I come across the world and learn about what I left.

Enough Pessimistic Polly... Social life.
So, people aren't staring so much anymore, they're actually talking to me. The picture at the top is from a birthday party I went to last weekend. It was really interesting and fun. A bit different from a typical birthday party in America and a bit different from the other parties I've been to here. She is Muslim, so she can't drink, so obviously they didn't have any alcohol like the other birthday parties that I've been to. We watched Ghost of Girlfriends Past. That gave me a headache. There's so much American here, it hurts. It's hard for me to watch that movie, or watch "German TV" because it's really just translated English shows, and that doesn't help me. It just makes my head hurt because the people are speaking English, but I hear German. It messes with my mind. So while everyone's laughing at the jokes, I'm like, "Wait, what did they just say, and what language was that in?"... The kids here are obviously used to it.

Oh, culture difference, the taxis here are sa-weet. I took pictures, kinda embarrassing to take pictures and stuff because I live here, and I look really tourist-y when I take pictures of things that are typical. The things I do for your benefit... Anyways, the taxis and Buses are Mercedes Benz, it's so sweet. I feel pretty cool riding in a MB bus...





Speaking of cultural differences. My English teacher is so enthusiastic about me being in her class. She wanted to have a "talk" with me today. She said she wants me to write a speech about the culture shock from America to Germany, and the differences, and my parents' opinion on Obama and the elections... Sweeeeet, except I know the class doesn't care. And they aren't going to understand what I'm saying because alot of them speak pretty good English, but I don't know that they will understand the words I use, because there's a bigger difference between "Queen's English" and "Bri's English". We'll see..