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.