Bri Coleman: Month Two Report Card "The Perks of being Blöd."

Funny Sign, translated it says: Perfect Pair, for a beautiful butt, it's a Reebok ad. It's just funny. PS when you want to see the pictures bigger, just click on them.

Today, a party. One Month in Hamburg, officially, and two months in Germany. I hesitate to say, "I've loved every minute of it". I've loved maybe every other day, or a week on, a day off, of it. At this point I'm frustrated, simply put (einfach). But, that's to be expected and I can't let it really get me down. My German is exponentially better than when I left Everswinkel a month ago, and that makes me really happy.

School is still a joke, a really bad joke. And this is where the Perks of being Blöd (Dumb) comes into play. Now, normally on a regular day at Kurt Körber, I understand gar nichts (absolutely nothing). -except math the other day, that was really exciting- Anyways, now it sucks to sit in all my classes for 90 minutes and understand nothing, I mean get real, we all know how bad my ADD is, and this is just a cake topper. But I've been getting through it and piecing some of the Unttericht (lessons) together, I'll figure it all out eventually. But I notice, that me not knowing anything is a God-send sometimes, because when I don't understand what's going on, I don't know when the class is getting yelled at, or I can pretend not to know when for example, my German teacher would be yelling at the class and pointing me out, I can simply say, "Wie Bitte?" (Pardon?), like I understood nothing. And at that point the teacher's so heated, it never gets "explained to me". hahah oh well. ♥
Along with school, I'm gonna do another breakdown of how these classes are going:

English.
Naturally, an easy class. But I don't like being asked so many questions about America. (i.e. American History) I hated American History, or history in general before I left, and haven't gotten any sudden desire since I've been here. And when they ask, what's typical for your family, I don't really know what "typical American food" and things are. Like, my family eats pasta, that's Italian, we eat hamburgers sometimes, I guess that's American, if you asked Chris, he would say we eat hot dogs everyday, but really "Wurstchen" is German. America's such a 'melting pot' I don't know if we have any real things to ourselves.

Math.
I'm starting to understand with the help of Wikipedia, another exchange student, a German that was an exchange student in America last year, and friends from home. It's not so bad, I just have to learn the vocabulary more than anything.

Chemistry.
I quit. I don't mean that figuratively, I really dropped the class, no point in stressing myself out.

Dance.
I love it, the teacher's really funny. But we choreograph our own dances, and learn things, it's so much different than Dance Fitness at west, we actually dance. And let me tell you, these German girls have rhythm like I've never seen before.

Religion.
Every interesting. This class is like a constant debate. So many different kinds of people, Muslim, Christian, Atheist. And the all have strong opinions and are ready to voice them.

Robots.
It's really as difficult as it sounds, we're doing Lego robots right now. And I don't mean the legos that your 2 year old brother is playing with I mean like a robot robot, from scratch, and now we're writing a program for it. Luckily the program is in English, so I can actually contribute with my group, finding websites and cheat codes :]

Biology.
I think I'm quitting. It's really hard, same situation as Chemistry. all this vocabulary that I don't know at all, it's just not worth all the work and stress, I'm basically here to learn German, and these words gefällt mir nicht.

Geography.
I understand absolutely nothing. I hope to start understanding because I really need to learn Geography, I don't know anything, at all. I'm so sheltered.

German.
I sit and tittle my thumbs, and pray that "Old German" naturally comes to me, and that no, I don't really have to focus, like I do to learn "Old English"...

Spanish.
Probably in theory my hardest class, or at least my busiest class, I don't really know how to put it. All I know is that all of this translating gives me a headache. For homework, I have to translate it from Spanish to German, because my tests are Spanish/German, then German to English. Then to answer the questions, back to Spanish, generally. It's a challenge, but I'm up for it. Foreign Languages above all else, is what I'm passionate about, obviously, hence the whole, moving to a foreign country thing.

Art.
Of Course I had lower expectations for this class, meaning I wanted us to solely finger paint. We do sketches, and take turns being the model, and stand funny and have people draw us, it's almost fun, except I really can't draw to save my life. And yeah, I know, Why take art then, if you can't draw? Well, 1)Because I am creative, and I like to think that helps alot, so if the picture doesn't look like it should, my creativity comes into play. and 2)Because it was that, or Theater, which would be okay in English, but I can't memorize lines in German, I can hardly do that in English, and I hardly speak German...

Overall school is frustrating because I want so much to understand more, but honestly in the last week, I would say my German's really getting better and my English, is all over the place. But even if my German's alittle better, I can get more help from friends, because they don't have to stumble through English to try and explain something to me, they can do it in German. That's a good feeling. I'm doing better not relying on English as much with my friends, which is hard, because so many of them understand so much English, especially at my level, because they've had it for so long. But in my opinion, if they have to have English 4 hours a week, and struggle through English to talk to me, who am I to only speak my Muttersprache with them...?

I've also been able to ween myself away from the computer a bit, I play FarmVille and Sorority Life on Facebook, when my friends aren't there, but I'm using SchülerVZ more and more, it's like German facebook, so I can do what I love, be on the computer, and communicate in German, which is really good for me to learn. It also helps so I don't speak so proper, because that makes me really stick out, when I'm speaking Book German.

Germany Makes me Fat
This is a sub-blog. I have had my own issues with gaining weight in Germany, I expected it, but it's the last thing I wanted, I've only gained like 3 pounds, I say that so simply because it's been 2 months already, and that makes me happier than the potential 20ish for other German exchange students I've heard of. So to get on top of all this, I made a diet plan, not so specific, but daily guildelines, and I run with my host dad every Saturday morning, and that's the motivation I needed. We did the 5k last weekend, and I ran and walked. Probably half and half, but I was proud since I really haven't done much physical activity since I've been here, and the times leading up to me leaving. But, on a lighter note, I feel alittle less American everyday because I'm walking everywhere and not complaining about it. If you know anything about me, you'll understand this is a big deal. I walk everywhere, and it doesn't phase me. I know walking's not really a big deal, but it takes away the "Bri drives everywhere" part of me, and college campus walking won't be life and death. I say that now, but when winter hits, I'm almost positive I'll be praying for a personal portable heater.

On the health note, for all of those who have been worrying about my shoulder: My host mom, real mom, real mom's small group and I have been praying, and the pain is manageable, I don't think I'm dying anymore. Hallelujah ♥

And for those of you who haven't heard my wonderful Language Blooper to celebrate my One Month being a Coleman-Milla:
Eltern: Bri, wie weit ist das von hier?
Bri: Um, ich glaube drei Monate in das Auto."
Eltern: Drei Monate? Wohnt sie in Australien...?
hahhahhahaah.. so funny, and for those of you who aren't so good with Deutsch:
Host-Parents: How far away from here does she live?
Me: Um, I think 3 Months, by car.
Host-Parents: 3 Months?! Where does she live, Australia...?
hahhaha, oooops, I totally meant 30 minutes, but couldn't explain until I stopped laughing...

great time.