Progress

Well, I was going to finish putting up my photos today, but the school computer won't recognize my hard drive, so it's going to have to wait until tomorrow. Sorry!! I really wanted to get them up today, but even if I went home to get my computer and then came back, it's still dead. I neglected to charge it since Saturday haha. (Something that would not happen to me in the states, I might add haha).

I don't have a ton of time today since I need to buy more groceries (I feel like I'm eating a ton! But I also buy in very small amounts haha) and I need to be somewhere at 7 and it's about 5 now. Plus it takes a long time to get there. So yeah. Very little time.

Basically, I'm going to copy/paste what I already emailed to my parents and then I need to book it back to Charlottenburg so I'm not late. Sorry... I want to put more time into this blog, but it's really hard when I have so many time limits, you know? It's going to be a lot more informal than I generally like to have, but as I said, very little time and regular updates are important to me. (Sorry mom and dad! I don't have to read this twice haha).

Life in Berlin has been nothing but amazing. I really REALLY love being here and all the students are so nice. We really have avoided cliques well, just like our professor asked.

So much has been going on! And since I can't really update online very much, I bought a journal to keep track of everything in. Well, that, and I've been taking lots of pictures. Not as many as I would like, because carrying too much around all the time really hurts my shoulders, so I often accidently leave my camera at home when I go out places spontaneously after school. But still. I'm getting quite a bit. :)

The German is really coming along! I mean, if someone speaks slowly and clearly enough, which most of them do really, I can catch quite a bit. More than I thought I'd be able to. And I can carry on conversations with other students. I even talked to Marion for a little while last night. She's very nice, but she's either always out or busy so I really don't see her much, but I sought her out because I need to talk more. Yay me! lol

Oh man... I have so much to do.

We still don't have German phones. Everyone is rather annoyed by this. We were supposed to get them last Thursday... then today... now hopefully by Wednesday. I'm completely cut off from EVERYTHING most of the time and it drives me completely nuts! Haha. Oh well. I'm a tech-junkie, what can I say? But even so. I hang out with other kids all the time, though making plans is hard when everything has to be done in person and there are nearly 30 of us. Oh well.

I got to practice my French a little today. Not speaking, but there was a group of French trourists at the museum where I was and I listened to the tour guide's explanations. It was pretty cool. It's a museum entirely on the history of Germany and we have to go... 7 times? for Dr. Kelling's class. He's such a sweet old man. We all love him so much!

Anyway I have other things to do and more food to buy. I go through fruit like none other! I eat cereal for breakfast, I generally eat out for lunch with other kids and eat a sandwich or something for dinner, but I eat fruit all the time! And run out very quickly. I don't buy too much at a time though because there's not a ton of room in the fridge. Rachel and I each get our own shelves though! Very nice.

Also, I've taken to watching German TV. It's so helpful! Constantly listening is a very good thing and watching gives it context so I can better understand what's going on. Most of the authentic German stuff (as in not dubbed-over American stuff) is soap-opera like. But hey, I do what I can haha.

And I bought the original Brothers Grimm's fairy tale books! Not that I can read them yet haha. But hopefully soon I can.

I'm so tired all the time. I drink lots of water, eat lots of fruit (I need more veggies though) and get enough sleep. I have trouble with waking up in the night. I get back to sleep quickly enough, but it proably really doesn't help... I don't know. At least I don't get tired during school. I really like school. I can't believe I've been here over a week already!

I freaking LOVE Germany. Can I even say that enough? Haha. It's amazing here.

It makes me want to go back to France to have a better experience there, because now I know it wasn't just because of my own faults or whatever that it wasn't entirely awesome. Maybe I can go again sometime before I graduate (and I mean more than just a weekend to visit Alex, you know?) But we'll see. All this travel is expensive haha.

I'm starting to make a couple friends outside of the school group. Claire is a very nice girl in my class. She's from New Zealand. And Edit is from... Bulgaria? Hungary? I can't remember which right now. One of those haha. I don't see them outside of class, really, since all the kids from our group generally do stuff together and most of the others that are studying here have jobs and things that keep them from hanging out, you know? Plus most of them study a lot more than I do... I feel like I should do more, but at the same time I'm not having difficulty keeping up. Most of the others don't seem to have a lot of experience with German, though nearly all of the non-English natives speak English at least a little (most of them do very well). I don't know. It's strange sometimes. Maybe I'm just hard-wired to understand German grammar haha. :D I love it.

Anyway now I'm running kind of late. I think the German and French blogs just aren't going to happen... it's very sad for me. :( I really wanted to do them, but I was also planning on having the internet at home like I was told I would. Oh well. I'll keep them up anyway and I'll work on them when I can. They're rather time consuming though, and in case you couldn't tell, I'm a little short on time.

More pictures will come soon! I know it makes it all more interesting. Only reading text isn't very fun on someone else's blog.

Anyway, I need to run. I'll update again when I can.

Tschüss!