Month of Madness

It is fairly safe to say I have a lot to look forward to during the next four weeks. First, I have two weeks off of school for Spring/Easter holidays. This week in school could also count as part of the break too, due to the majority of the class and all of my friends being in Italy for a weeklong exchange. So we poor students left over have nothing else to do but watch films. But I can get over the fact that I’m not lying on a beach on the Mediterranean because in the second week of break I will be flying with Zoe to the UK, and meeting up with the one and only Mary Kelly Spross! My hardest decision right now would probably have to be choosing between being more excited to go to London or to see my old ma. I think the combination will make for an extraordinary week. We will spend a few days in London, taking in my favorite city and checking out a few possible universities for me, because no possibility should be out of the question! Then we’ll head up for Edinburgh for a night, and finish the trip out again in London. The best part is that this would never have been possible if I wasn’t already on this continent for the year; that’s fate, my friends.

The following week, right after I arrive back in Deutschland, I am set up to do a career study/apprenticeship at the global lens and optics company Carl Zeiss. I am incredibly grateful to receive this opportunity, since I have a spot in the international business/affairs office, it will be a great experience to take with me later in life. Every student in the state of Baden-Württemberg has to take part of this ‘BOGY’ week and apply to a company of his or her interest, and the father of a friend of mine who works there helped me find a spot.

To top it all off, the Sunday after my ‘BOGY’, I will leave with my French class on a train bound to Nîmes, France for a weeklong student exchange. It is only a slight problem that since I’ve been in Germany my German has gotten really good, not my French. If anything, my French has gone terribly downhill. I can promise that it will be humorous, because I am probably more comfortable speaking German at the moment than I am speaking both French and English, and I do not know how many foreign languages my host family will be able to understand, but somehow I believe we will work it all out. Nothing is too out of the question for me anymore. They just might be slightly confused when an American comes into their home trying to speak German. It is guaranteed to be a memorable time, especially considering there’s only very few who get lucky enough to be a double-exchange student/exchange student on exchange/ whatever it would be called.

So, things are turning out pretty well. Das Leben ist schön.

Progress

It has already been about seven months since I’ve been in Germany. Ask me how that happened; it’s been such a big and exciting blur. The time between Christmas and now has gone by so quickly here in the Ostablkreis.

In February, I went to a big school-based party at a local nightclub (very fun, especially under the circumstances that that would never happen in America) and we also had a week off of school for Fasching, the southern German celebration of Mardi Gras/Carnival/pre-Lent holidays. Although I did not completely take part in the party-crazy atmosphere, it was still fun to watch the parades and the locals happily drinking before noon. The festivities were bound to fill some German beer-fest clichés, but all in good fun. The rest of the break and most of February was filled with relaxing and skiing. Very posh.

A week or two later, I fell a little ill, and this was around the time that I swore if I just saw a bit of blue sky, everything would instantly be better. We’ve had the longest consecutive winter days without sunshine since 40 years. So just about all of January and February was cold, grey, and pretty generally miserable weather-wise. I would even consider it to have been a little depressing- there was a short time when everyone was mostly down for no special reason at all, and I now really do believe that weather can influence your outlook. Now the snow was nice the first few times, but since we do not get any snow days from school, the snow ended up loosing its charm somewhat quickly. Although last week the sun finally came out and we had gorgeous, much needed and much appreciated spring weather. But somehow along with that came unexplainable, unwanted homesickness. That feeling still seems to come and go from time to time despite how good I know have things here.

I have also been keeping busy as usual by going on loads of day excursions, in places including Baden-Baden, (on the boarder with France) Ulm, (Einstein’s hometown) and Munich again, along with other various local sights. On the sport front: I haven’t honestly been to track/cross country in a very long time, mainly due to the fact that (said in the nicest way possible) I simply cannot stand it. But luckily I found somewhat of an alternative to keep me busy. In Aalen, there are more than 100 types of sports. It’s almost ridiculous-you name it and they’ve got it, except of course for the one sport that I want: good old Floor, Beam, Bars, Vault, so called Artistic Gymnastics. Apparently not to popular around here. So it was recommended early on that I go to the Rhythmic/Acrobatic training that is well known in Aalen, and practice with the girls there. I put off going there for a long time because it’s technically different and more cheerleading-esque because the majority of time spent as a taller girl is lifting the little ones up to hold tricky positions.  I finally gave it a chance. It’s not what I ever pictured myself doing or liking, and not as physically or mentally challenging, but as long as I get to stretch and do some floor elements and not run through dark woods or mountains, I’m content.

Note on my language process: Some days are better than others, I am very confident in my understanding and comprehension skills. By speaking and writing I can still trip over easy words, but improvements are definitely being made. I wrote a text in January, and a few weeks ago I looked back at it and was already able to pick out mistakes and correct myself. It was unbelievably satisfying to see that.