So, I've gotten into the habit of writing about once a month, which I'm not super happy about, but this time I have good reasons.

1 - it's hard to write in English

2 - I switched host families

I don't want to write about the host family change in detail on the internet, but I'll just say that I'm really sad that it didn't work out, but I think and hope that everyone will be happier now that I've switched. I've been lucky enough to stay in the same town through moving in with Pati's family, which, while unconventional, has been working out wonderfully so far.

Let me back up a little bit to February, where I last left off.

2/10 (10.2 for Germans): I took a test in politics about economic theory and Adam Smith and John Keynes. I wrote mostly in German but switched into English (my politics teacher is also an English teacher) when I started to run out of time. I ended up with an A- and Herr Hesse gushing about my English, which apparently was 'like a printed paper.' I don't believe him, because I can barely even speak English anymore let alone write well under pressure. But it was nice of him anyway.

2/12: I went to my first Faschings party. This was Jana's 19th birthday, but since it's Fasching season, we all had to dress up as characters from Märchen (fairy tales). I went as a fairy, complete with wings and a wand I made with the help of Ramona and Maria. The party was all kids from the 13th grade, so it was a good opportunity to meet new people.

2/19: I went bowling with a bunch of friends. It was exactly the same as in the US, and the balls even came from America. I still suck at bowling, but I did get one strike!

2/22: Pati's sister Cathleen and her husband Pedi and their baby son Lazar came to visit from Stuttgart. It was Lazar's first birthday party, and we ate cake and played with him. So cute!

2/23: Pati and I went to see Philipp Poisel, my favorite German musician, in concert in Dresden. Before the concert I met up with Nancy Dano, a friend of my mom's who was in Dresden for a few months. It was very strange to talk in English for so long, but she was really happy to talk to someone from back home and it was nice to see her. After chatting for a while Pati and I headed to the concert venue, where of course we stood outside for over an hour (I think it was somewhere in the 20s Fahrenheit? Maybe colder) in order to get a spot in the front row. The first act turned out to be an American acoustic singer/songwriter named Erik Penny who has been living in Berlin for a couple of years. He was quite good and I talked to him after the show and bought his CD, which he signed for me. The second act was a German female singer songwriter, who was also really impressive.

Then it was time for Philipp Poisel! He's also a singer/songwriter, but he had a full band behind him of drums, a standup bass, piano, and an additional guitar. He was really short and adorable and told rambley stories and was just generally sweet. I think he played almost every single song he has, because the show lasted a really long time and he only has two albums. I was very impressed with the whole show and I had a great time, even though it was very late on a school night. Although taking video was forbidden I managed to get a short clip of his performance. Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Biime9_X6Kg

3/1-3/6: On the first of March I headed to Bad Honnef for my AFS Midstay Camp. I traveled by train from Spremberg to Cottbus, and then from Cottbus to Berlin.... then it got tricky. My train to Köln was delayed and it got confusing and I ended up on a train to Düsseldorf instead of Köln. Which I realized of course after arriving in Düsseldorf... But luckily Düsselorf isn't that far from Köln, and I got a train to Köln easily and even managed to avoid the ticket collector (my ticket wasn't exactly valid for Düsseldorf to Köln...). From there I caught the regional express train to Bad Honnef... and finally, 11 hours later, I arrived at my destination.

As for the camp itself, it was really, really great. It was especially for the Congress-Bundestag kids, so I got to hang out with 24 other Americans and five young German AFS volunteers. We pretty much gave up on German amongst ourselves after the first couple of days... it was just too nice to have a break and to be funny and loud and sarcastic and just to speak English. A lot of us have a hard time expressing our true personalities in German, so as a result people were really loud and talkative and I think I laughed more in the week than I have in the last seven months. I enjoyed the opportunity to get to know the other exchangers.

We spent the days doing workshops about cultural differences and talking about our experiences at school and with our host families, and just in general how our years are going so far. We also took the opportunity to talk amongst ourselves and compare experiences and share stories, which I found to be incredibly helpful.

We also visited the cities of Bonn and Köln. Bonn was the capital of West Germany, so we checked out the (really ugly) old government buildings and we also went to the Haus der Geschichte, a really large history museum. We had free time in the city and I took the opportunity to hit up a Dönerladen with friends (the food at our youth hostel was Scheiße) and we just laughed and laughed and laughed. In Köln we visited a Mosque (one of the major themes of the camp was German/Turkish relations and Islam in general) and I climbed up to the top of the Kölner Dom, a hugeeeeeeee cathedral. 533 steps, thank you very much. I also took the opportunity to deface a public building and write my name on the wall along with the thousands of others (see SmugMug for photos). That night we went to a typisches deutsches Restaurant and then it was time to party. We had the good luck of being in Köln during the week of Karneval, which meant that the streets and bars were completely full of drunk people in costume. AKA, awesomeness. We had free time in the city and our AFS volunteers were pretty cool, so we got to take part in the celebrations. I'll leave it at that ;)

3/11: Pati and I went to see the German punk band Botox in concert with his friend Hans. It was generally loud and stinky. I don't have much more to say about this one, tut mir Leid.

3/13: I went to the movies with Olga and Yasmin. We saw the movie Kokowääh, which was directed by the famous German actor Till Schweiger. He also played the main character in the film. Americans may know him from Inglorious Bastards. The film was really sweet and we all enjoyed it. I would recommend it (with subtitles of course) to anyone back home.

3/17: I took part in the "Kängeru Mathe Wettbewerb" at my school, along with three other people from my grade and four from the tenth grade. It was pretty much like math team in the States, with a bunch of tough geometry/algebra/trigonometry word problems. I was bummed about the lack of calculus and I was never that great with geometry, and that combined with lengthy German word problems made it pretty difficult. But I was glad to have participated in a school event (which are rarities here...), and I think everyone else found it hard too. We'll see about the results in May.

3/19: Olga, Yasmin and I went to the 'Happy Station' disco in Cottbus in order to see the DJ Laserkraft 3D, who wrote the song 'Nein Mann' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBjDZMJUduo). They turned the train station into a disco for the night. Unfortunately the first two DJs weren't very good, and since it didn't start until 11pm, we were stuck waiting for ONE SONG until almost 4 am. At that point we just wanted to go home... but oh well.

3/20: Last weekend Pati and I drove to the Leipziger Buchmesse, which was a huge book fair in the city of Leipzig, about two hours from Spremberg. There were books from all over the world, and I hung out in the USA area for a little while making small talk with the random Americans working there. Other highlights included running away from the strange Anime/Comic convention people, eating Thai food, and getting accosted by a leftist freelance poet who smelled like weed and who wouldn't go away until we bought his self-printed poem book. We also checked out some reallllllly old books and I bought a picture dictionary for the 300 most important German words. Before headed back to Spremberg we attempted to eat at Leipzig's vegan restaurant, but it was all full... Schade.

3/25: So ever since the beginning of the second semester (read: two months ago, ungefähr), I've had history with a new teacher, Herr Berno. Since the teacher switch I've been enjoying the class a lot more, mostly because Herr Berno actually cares about history and teaches it in an interesting and engaging way. We've also finally gotten past the Roman Empire and we're studying absolutism.

Anyway, for the last month or so we've been dealing with original source documents from the Enlightenment (Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Rousseau, Machiavelli, etc). I've been keeping up pretty well and I was understanding mostly everything, so I was thinking that if I studied I would have a pretty good chance of not failing the test. Wrong. After I spent almost two hours with Pati studying the sources we had talked about in class, for the test we received a brand new source and two corresponding questions... and after five times reading it I still had no idea what was going on. Just when I think my German is getting good Louis XIV steps in to put me back in my place. Aber naja.

3/26: Yesterday I went to Cottbus with Olga and Yasmin to see Simon's band, Duck or Dove, formerly known as Light Forever, play at a Rockoff-type art/music contest. We met up with a bunch of other friends, including Daniela, Ewa, Linda, Max, Erik, and Vanni. I had seen the band before at parties in their practice room, and sometimes I even correct their English lyrics per Simon's request, but I was still so impressed by them. They're really great, and you can check them out on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Duck-or-Dove/163857426991977?ref=ts

After the show we hung out 'in der Stadt' and went shopping at New Yorker and H&M. I went in search of shorts but wasn't having much luck, and ended up with a short sleeved shirt and a light scarf. I really wish I didn't have to worry about space/weight in my suitcase...

General developments/comments:

As I said before, I've moved in with Pati's family and I've been there for a little over a week now. It is working out very well so far and I am happy. If anyone wants to send me mail (that would be awesome) you can ask my mom for my new address. I'm now living in Schwarze Pumpe, which is a district of the city Spremberg. It's notable for its power plant, which is, according to Wikipedia, 'the world's first CO2-free coal power plant... The plant is based on a concept called Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS), which means that carbon emissions will be captured and compressed to 1⁄500th their original volume, liquefying the gas. It will then be forced 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) below the soil into porous rock where it is believed that it will remain for thousands of years without exacerbating global warming.' Pretty cool, eh? Pati's parents both work there. I can always find my way home by looking for the 'cloud makers' - the big white smoke stacks letting out hot steam. I am hoping that through this move my last three months in Germany will be the best they could possibly be.

I am happy and healthy socially and emotionally, although I am starting to look forward to going home. I miss the Merrymeeting Wheelers and my parents and my roadbike, and I miss downtown Brunswick and my friends. I miss being in shape. I miss English a little, although I've been reading a great book called Mountains Beyond Mountains and Pati figured out how to get the TV news in English. That helps a bit.

BUT, I may possibly be borrowing a road bike and riding with the old men in the bike club here in Spremberg. I've got a couple of people asking around about extra bikes... hopefully something will come of it. I would be sooooo happy.

I think that's all for now. Hopefully I'll be updating more consistently in the next few months.

Until next time & liebe Grüße,

Dani