As of today I've officially been in Germany for one month! The time has completely flown by. So for this entry I will recap the last week and then do a little reflecting on the month that has passed :)

Highlights:

-Frau Rennert still thinks my name is Debbie.

-I finally got my package from my parents, complete with my winter coat, hat, and gloves along with Orbit gum, Tom's of Maine toothpaste, American pancake mix, Kraft and Annie's mac and cheese, granola bars, part of the Times Record newspaper, the book I had been reading about the Roma, and a nice card from my parents. :)

-I finished Die Gewehre der Frau Cararr by Brecht. I think I want to read it again to make sure I caught everything... but still, I read a real German work of literature!

-Frau Rennert's birthday was on Wednesday and we surprised her in German class by all standing up and singing Happy Birthday (the same song we sing here, in English with adorable German accents).

-I biked to school for the early hour of Biologie on Thursday in near darkness. It was incredibly serene, with no cars and just nice cold fall air.

-I had a moment of near perfect clarity in German class when I realized that they were talking about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and that I could understand almost everything that was being discussed.

-I spent multiple lunch periods and free hours with friends in the cafeteria talking about the US and American high school (and how it actually has a lot of resemblance to the movie Mean Girls, which is called Girl's Club here). It's really fun to talk about prom, football teams and cheerleaders here. And also about driving to school and the differences between the North and South and politics and meeting Obama. My German friends are generally enchanted with the idea of American high school and after school clubs, as it's pretty much something out of a movie to them. Almost magical, even. I really enjoy sharing it with them.

-I gave my presentation to my Politik class about American political parties and the upcoming November election. I had prepared a three page German handout, and talked in German and English about the system. Luckily my politics teacher is also an English teacher so he could help me translate things when I needed it. One of the pages of the handout included the photo of me and Obama, and the reaction of the class was absolutely priceless. You could literally see a ripple effect through the room as they saw it, and everyone thought it was a wax figure. Really, really funny. :)

-The weather this week has been totally gorgeous and as such I took a bike ride through the town, fully intending to just wander and get lost and try to find my way home. I didn't even end up needing the map!


And now for the weekend! This weekend I went to my AFS Late-Orientation Camp in Berlin! I was a little skeptical about it since I didn't really enjoy the orientation we had in America, but it turned out to be really, really fun. I took the train there and met up with all the other exchange students and an AFS volunteer at the Hauptbahnhof in Berlin. From there we took multiple street trains and subways to Osloer Straße, where we were staying in a youth hostel. That Friday night was the Germany vs. Turkey soccer game in Berlin, which was qualification for the European 2012 championships. Germany has a very large Turkish immigrant population, particularly in Berlin, so this game was especially intense. It so happened that the youth hostel we were staying at was located in the primarily Turkish section of Berlin, so on the trains there were a ton of Turkish guys with vuvuzelas and giant flags and they were all wearing red and white and generally being excited and extremely loud. It was really interesting to see. We couldn't actually watch the game since the hostel didn't have TV, but Germany ended up winning 3-0. But apparently 2/3 of the stadium was Turkish fans! So much for a home game, haha.

The orientation itself was so much more relevant now that we're actually in Germany, and I also got to meet people from all over the world! There were people from Russia, Norway, Hungary, Costa Rica, Bolivia, Venezuala, Colombia, the USA, Thailand, China, Japan, and Hong Kong. The whole weekend was conducted trilingually in German, English, and Spanish, and at times it felt like we were the UN. We did a lot of workshops about our feelings and our experiences so far and our host families, but we also got to do a scavenger hunt in Berlin at Alexanderplatz! We were split into groups of four and then we had to find about ten different things in the area and do random tasks like draw the entrance to the Berliner Dom or count the statues on a certain bridge or take a picture with a random person wearing a red jacket at the Neptune Well. It was very difficult but really quite fun, and my group came in second.

I definitely spoke way too much English during the weekend, but it was nice to have a break where I could finally feel truly funny and intelligent again. That's What She Said jokes and subtlties in tone just don't translate... Also, the weekend actually made me realize how much German I actually know compared to most of the other exchange students (THANK YOU Frau and Jeremy!). A lot of times they would conduct a workshop in English (as it was the most common language among everyone there) forgetting that Dorina (from Hungary) couldn't speak it, and I would end up translating for her. And also, whenever they would give an instruction in German (before translating it into English and Spanish), I had no problem understanding, unlike most.

I guess that's a nice transition to a reflection of the last month, so here goes. I'm really happy here. I feel at home with my host family. I can communicate and understand without much difficulty. I have great friends at school who consistently think to include me in their plans. I can understand some of my classes. My German has gotten so much better. Sometimes I miss home, but it's usually just specific things or people or foods (like Sheer Punjab.... god I miss Chana Masala), and I definitely haven't ever felt like I actually wanted to go home. I'm looking forward to spending time over the two week Fall break with friends and doing a little traveling with family. On Friday night I'm going to Yasmin's with Olga and Daniela for pizza and wii, and then on Saturday and Sunday I'm going to Berlin with my host family for my host brother's birthday. I'm just so excited and lucky to be here.