The German-English dictionary I brought with me is fail. Complete and total fail. It has words I don’t think would ever be needed, like think tank and judgement day. In fact, the English section for J is mostly religious-based words. On the other hand, many important things that I want to say (they are escaping me right now) are missing. I was trying to say something, and Glenn went through it with me, and neither of us could find it.

So I might try to find a better dictionary, if I can find a book store. Or just suffer through it. What do you think I should do?

The day was mostly great. I didn’t sleep well last night. I think my body is still re-adjusting from what little ‘culture shock’ I had. I got about seven hours of sleep, then had to go to school. All the Americans gathered together in our home room, then we went on a short tour of Nagold. There’s a funny story, but because Frau Stubbs tells it so well on the official Cleveland-Nagold GAPP 2009 blog, I’ll just quote it here:

“After the walk around, Petra and Kenney took half the kids to the bank to exchange money and the other half went with me to the drug store. At the drugstore, while I was helping one of the girls find ‘feminine things’, Goofy (name has been changed to protect the innocent [or is that ignorant]; his mom will know who I mean) told his potty partner he was going to the checkout and then disappeared. Meanwhile in the confusion at the bank, two of Goofy’s friends disappeared. Hmm… Coincidence? I think not. After much searching, they returned on their own to the group, big smiles on their faces, pasteries in hand. “We went to the bakery!”"

They then got a stern lecture, and our class realized exactly how controlled Frau is at school. It was kinda scary to see a teacher that angry. Well, excluding Mr. Bixel…

Anyway, after that little incident we went back to school. Michael (the host I’ve been following through school) was taking a test, so we just sat outside the room in the hallway, talking. After school got out, we all split up to our separate houses.  Around 2:15, Sandra came down and told me that I had been asked if I wanted to join Glenn, Maddy, Larkin, Michael and Melanie in going to the swimming pool. I agreed, since I missed actually swimming in the lake yesterday. Sandra took me down to join them (she didn’t stay because she had dance lessons), and then we spent a good two hours playing in the water, and a much better game of volleyball then yesterday. Flat ground definitely helps.

We went to our homes at around 5:15. When I got to my room, I found that my host mother had washed my dirty clothes for me. She had told me that if I wanted them washed I could set them next to the washer, but I had completely missed the part where she was washing them! It was a very pleasant surprise. After some brief attempts at trying to figure out how to say, “Thank you for washing my clothes,” I simply said, “Danke sehr,” and went back downstairs.

I spent the next hour or two on the computer compiling some information, until Sandra came home and suggested I come up for dinner. While we were eating we talked briefly on the differences of the importance of meals (lunch is like dinner in the States, and dinner is lunch) and the fact that I usually don’t eat that much. While I was eating one of the pieces of bread with a small amount of eggplant spread they wanted me to try, I noticed that my mouth hurt. No, more specific than that. My gums hurt. After I finished that piece of bread, I went downstairs to brush my teeth. I hadn’t done it that morning, and I had completely forgotten that the sweeteners in most drinks were, in fact, sugar.

I really, really wish I had my SoniCare right now!

I woke up around 9, I think, and then sat around reading “Ender in Exile” until it was time to leave for a brunch. Sandra, Madelaine, Melanie, Michael, Amanda, Maddy, Glenn, and I all went to Madelaine’s house and had a nice big late breakfast. It was great. After that we showed each other some videos, until we decided we needed to get out of the house.

The first thing that we did was go to a market in Wildberg (where Amanda lives, and I think maybe Maddy) which reminded me a lot of the Saturday Market. The major difference is that this one is open any day of the week (although it isn’t always open, as Michael told us), and it’s a lot smaller. Well, I mean there aren’t as many stands, and the products are less varied. It covered a bit more space, but because of the numbers there it seemed a lot smaller. We saw a juggler who used one of those Chinese yo-yo’s, some fire on chains, swords, the whole thing. We didn’t stay for the whole thing, and I didn’t have my camera anyway (Glenn and Amanda did, and I’ll be bothering them for pictures). We found a place giving out balloons advertizing VW, which were filled with Helium. Sandra mentioned breathing the Helium and speaking in a squeaky voice, which Glenn gladly did. I think we got a video of it, but even if we didn’t believe me, it was hilarious! It doesn’t just work in the cartoons after all!

After that, we decided to go to a lake and go swimming (they don’t like the pool that much). We all got ready, with a picnic to eat there, and spent a very long time there. The weather got too cold to really enjoy swimming, so we played ‘beach’ volleyball and skipped rocks on the lake. When we all started getting tired, we packed up and went home.

@ my mom: I was tempted to call this one the Weekenders.

I’ll keep this one brief, as it is less interesting and it’s already late. The only reason I’m still up is because I’m not that tired yet, which is very annoying. I woke up today around 8 (I was aiming for 9), to find that Amanda had been up all night (Amanda and Madelaine had stayed at Sandra’s house last night, because Madelaine had to be at work in Nagold). After a shower, I went to the computer and did some reading. Some time later I went upstairs to find food. Sandra’s mother went downstairs to wake up Sandra and Madelaine, and then we had breakfast. As we were planning what to do today, a nice thunderstorm rolled through, killing off a couple of the ideas floating around.

Finally we decided that we would go to a chocolate museum, then stop by the mall to pick up tickets for the premier of Harry Potter 6, then get dinner and go home. The museum wasn’t that interesting, but the chocolate selection was! I have on my bed three squares of chocolate, which I will take a picture of before I eat them. In total they cost me €2,22. The others bought a whole bunch (we were with Maddy and Melanie as well), which I believe cost more than  €10,- each.

When we got to the mall we first bought the tickets. Then the girls all saw different clothing stores that they wanted to go into, and because I didn’t know my way around I had to follow. While it wasn’t that fun for me, I’ll put it down as a learning experience. We spent about 30 mintues in the mall before we decided to leave.

I don’t know the name of the place we went to dinner, but it was really cool. I got this turkey meal with some noodles and a sauce I still don’t know the English name of, but it was all great. It did cost €10,60 for the whole meal for me, but I feel it was worth it.

When we got home, Sandra’s cousin and her boyfriend were over. I said hello, and tried to follow the conversation. This turned out to be really, REALLY hard. They were talking so fast, and Sandra only spoke in English twice to fill me in that they were talking about something I knew about. It was also really frustrating to know what I want to say, but not the German way to say it. Sometimes I’ll find the words five minutes after the subject has passed on. But there’s nothing they can do about that. Maybe I should consider moving to Germany, so  I can pick up the language in more of a forced way.

Anyway, this has already taken longer than I had planned. Sunday should be fun. I sadly can’t make it to church until the third week I’m here because of plans, but it should be fun regardless. I really hope I don’t get sick, but I’m not really feeling my best. I blame the food I’m not used to yet.

~John

All right, coming up with interesting titles is getting harder…

Anyway, after I posted my last post, I did some reading, then slept for about 30 minutes. Sandra woke me up at 3:30, and we went to get my money changed out. I had brought $90 in cash, and after the trade I only had €57,07. What a difference! We then met up with the rest of the group (Amanda and Maddy (not Molly) and hosts) and went around Nagold. We went to an ice cream shop, then got to go on the river going through Nagold (pictures coming soon, I swear). I got some great shots of reflections in our wake, and some horrible shots of ducks.

After our time limit was up, we went into the park and just walked around. While we were sitting in a big field there was some thunder and lightning, but no rain. I asked Sandra, and she said this was a common thing. We decided that we should have a small party tonight, and called Michael (host of Glenn) to see if he was interested. He said yes, and it was decided to have it at his house. We split up to go get ready, and just as Sandra and I got in the car the rain started to fall. And it wasn’t just a little rain. Picture last Friday, for those who saw all that rain we had in Portland. Massive sheets of it. And the sky had been blue only minutes before! It was crazy.

By the time we got home it had stopped raining (and we weren’t that far away, so the rain only lasted like 10 minutes before the sky was nice again).  We went in and had a snack, then Sandra went to get ready. I decided now was a good time to give the gifts to the parents (I had already given Sandra and Isabella theirs). At the time, the father was busy, so I just gave them both to the mother. I gave her a big glass globe that could be hung from something, and a book my mom put together. Because Sandra was busy, I had to try and describe the pictures to her in German, which was near impossible. I didn’t know how to say Boy Scout (or the German equivalent) or train. Or convention center, for that matter. But she really liked it anyway, and thanked me for trying. We then went to the back porch and I got the best German lesson I ever had. Because there was no translator, and only my very annoying dictionary, I had to try and put together sentences  that made sense in German. The mother was very patient, and helped me with pronounciations of things. She said that since I’ll be here for three weeks,  we’ll have plenty of time to learn how to speak German well. Isabella came out, and whenever she would say something in English her mother would get upset and say that if people kept speaking English I wouldn’t learn German, which is true. It’s one of the reasons I want to move out to Germany some time, so I can really learn the language. I told Isabella that, “Englisch ist ein Betrug,” which means English is a cheat.

I’m not sure when, but Sandra was ready and we left to pick up Maddy and Amanda (and hosts. I really need to get their names). When we got to Glenn’s and Michael’s house, we played some pool and foosball, listened to music, and ate pizza. It was a lot of fun, and I found myself understanding some of the conversations the hosts had in German (not the words, just the overall meaning). It wrapped up about 0:37, and we got back around 1, at which point I fell asleap.

And now you know the rest of  the story.

Today was interesting. I woke up at 6:10, took a shower, ate breakfast (a sandwich? And room temperature milk?),  and went to school. The first class was economics, although if I didn’t see the money stuff I wouldn’t have known it. They did something with figuring out what percentage of things went into other things, and covered the homework. The teacher came up to us and was ‘upset’ that we didn’t have our assignment from the previous day.

Oh, before I continue, because Sandra has pretty much finished her last year of school, I am going around with another host named Michael. Also going with him are Amanda and Molly (at least I think it’s Molly…), and his own student Glenn.

Now, back to school. The second class was on the computers, so instead of doing the assignment we got to check our e-mail and go online. I talked with my mom about how I wasn’t feeling well, and that the German keyboard was weird. They switched the Z and Y completely, and instead of ;/: and ‘/” they are A and U with the little dots (don’t know how to spell it). Most of the other symbols have moved as well, such as @, #, ?, etc. @ is now on Q, and I really don’t remember the other two. Now I’m getting used tothat keyboard, and I have to keep reminding myself that I’m using the American keyboard again for typing these.

After that there was a speech for the American students (which none of us really understood, but it was just the same kind of, “Welcome to Germany!” Those kinds of things.) We then had the next two periods with Frau Stubbs, where we got to ask questions about things. She told us that we were going as a group to change out money on Monday. I’m going to do that with Sandra in about two hours (we’re waiting for Amanda and Molly to finish with their nap. Hey, not a bad idea…).

After that we went to another computer class. This one looked like it was a writing class (not sure what the other one was, we went to a different lab with open computers). Since it was about writing, I decided it was a good time to pull out my notebook and start working on my story. It was an interesting class, since it was about layout for a specific document (whatever it was, he said Brief a lot, and that means letter or some such thing).

When class let out, I walked home with Sandra, and talked with her mother. Her name is Irina, and she is being very patient with me. She speaks practically no English, I think, so everything I say to her has to be in German. This is difficult when I’m forced to use the past tense, because I can’t remember how to say ‘did’ for things like, “I did,” or, “She did.” I also talked to Sandra’s sister, Isabella. I don’t know this for a fact, but I think she has been learning English for one or two years. She probably knows a bit more English than I know German, but it’s about equal. Sandra’s a great translator.

Lunch was good. We had some noodles, some cut up potatoes, and gulash (spelling, please?). It was really good. When I hadn’t taken that much at first, Sandra’s mother said (in German, of course) that if I didn’t eat, when I got home my mother would say, “My child!”

So right now I’m just relaxing. I’m either going to get the pictures uploaded, or do some reading. Both of those sound good, but reading sounds more relaxing. There’s always more time later to work on the pictures.

Oh, and a special request. Could someone tell me if this is still posting to Facebook?

~John

I managed to stay awake for the barbecue. It was nice, we all got together and ate food. I got to meet some of the other hosts, and find out how everyone is doing.

Sandra is talking about going to Paris, but thinks it probably won’t happen. We are definitely planning on going to Strassburg, or something like that, some weekend. And I heard rumors of a run to an amusement park with a lot of us. And tomorrow I think we’re getting a bit of a more thourough tour of Nagold.

I’ll be adding a photo section for Germany soon, keep posted for updates!

~John