4 Weeks Later...

Hey Everyone,

Sorry I did not post two weeks ago, I was not motivated enough to finish it. I believe I am going to write about ever 3-4 weeks from here on out because 2 weeks is just too often. Any ways, these past four weeks have been decent! The first week everyone that was out in America was back in school, including my politics teacher. By Wednesday I was rock climbing with my Liaison, and Friday hanging out with some friends from school. On the weekend, I went down to my, host Grandma's for her birthday. On the second Monday, I had an extremely lucky day. On Wednesday, I was back down in Ulm for an AFS meeting. Last week was full of tests and by the next week, I was skyping on Thanksgiving.

My politics teacher, who was in America as well, was actually nice enough to bring back some Altoids for me. Now because there was plenty to go around the class, we passed them around. And oh can I say the expressions on everyone's faces was hilarious. Everyone was cringing and blahhing, even the teacher stated, "Yummy, it's like eating toothpaste..." I personally like Altoids because these mints are stronger than normal mints, however others did not share the expression. The rest of the day went by like any other day with finishing out with Handball in sport and not fully understanding what everyone was saying.

Wednesday came around, and so did school. I went to school like any other day, and tried to pay attention and see what the teacher was trying to teach. Then went home just to turn around to go to dance class. It didn't seem like a long time before I was heading home again. All the dancing, and messing up, and occasionally the awkward pairs that you are forced to dance with, had caused me to a have a wonderful time. However, when I was able to go rock climbing with my liaison, there was not really a better way to finish out the evening. I experienced something called lead climbing for the first time, which was exhilarating. Since I really didn't know how to do it, my liaison helped me out after I watched a few times. It was a different feeling not always having that safety line above you ready for your fall, but rather having to drag the rope all the way up as you went. It was a very enjoyable evening, along with meeting a few new people, whereas by the end my arms were good and tiered. They were also adding a new bouldering room and wall to climb on, and because they nearly finished, we were able to try out the new bouldering room. By the end of it, I was already tiered and needed to bike home, uphill, in the rain, which was not the most fun of all things.

Not much else happened the rest of the week. I got to go down to a nearby town with some friends from school to hang out. I was even able to teach some parkour to one of my friends. On Sunday, my host family and I went down to my host Grandma's for her birthday. Birthdays in German are a bigger deal. In the US, you may find that after you hit a certain age, all you seem to do is maybe go out with your family and/or friends to lunch. Here, you have a larger party with all of your family, and then a separate party with all of your friends.

On Monday, One of my luckiest days came around. While abroad, you know you will have those good days, and you know you will have those bad days, but you will also have lucky days. So on Monday, I had set my alarm 30 minutes early to get up and do my homework that was due that day. Well, I woke up, turned off my alarm, and went back to sleep. I woke up again close to an hour later, which is about when I needed to start heading to school. I quickly packed my backpack, raced downstairs, and rode my bike to school. Along the way, I noticed that I had forgotten my phone, and wallet, and keys, and still didn't have my homework done. Well, I didn't really think much about it until I locked my bike up. I had skipped breakfast, didn't have money for lunch, and was going to probably get marked off for not having my homework. Well, my first class began and my teacher didn't check the homework. Not much longer and my next class came around, and my other teacher didn't check my homework. By the time the lunch break came around, I went in town with a friend to grab lunch. Because I had forgotten my wallet, I couldn't buy lunch. Well I crossed paths with my host mom and she gave me some money to go get lunch. It was not much longer after getting back that I noticed I had also forgotten my clothes for PE. By the time PE came around, I just walked down and waited for the teacher to tell me I couldn't participate. Well, as long as one has sporty shoes, which is what I always wear, they can participate. After sport, I walked home because I didn't have the key for my bike nor my wallet with my bus card. After getting home, there was no one there. A neighbor, one of my host sister’s friends, noticed me and asked if I wanted to come in to their place and wait. After having a glass of water and talking for a while, I checked to see if I could get in the house. I had luck this time and my host parents were there to let me in. So even when you set yourself up for a disaster, you still might have luck and have a great day instead.

            After dance class on Wednesday, my host mom and I raced down to Ulm to meet up with the other exchange students. There was another option to go rock climbing, but I have always enjoyed these simple get-togethers with the other students. This one had a different atmosphere though. One of our most outgoing, friendly, and funny AFS friends was not there. Instead, he had headed back to Brazil to be with his friends and family again. This left the meeting feeling a little bland and hart felt for the other student who left. The adults talked a fair amount, and so did the students, but it was not the same. I played a couple of table fußball games with the only other guys there, but it wasn’t as fun, it wasn’t what it used to be. After getting home, I went to sleep almost straight away.

            On Saturday, my host mom took me down to her old town for her mom’s birthday. Along the way, we stopped by the Black Forest. Although it was 4°C and foggy, it was still a wonderful place. I even viewed some pocketknives, which is always fascinating to me. There was also a wonderful selection of coo-coo clocks and dolls around. After spending a little time there, we drove down for the birthday party. With no surprise, I talked to a number of people at the beginning, but not long after that I talk with the nonrelatives. The food was good, as always, and the people who I talked to were really nice. It didn’t seem like a long time before we headed home again, but it was still a long time before we got home.

            Last week was many tests in school for me. The tests are different than they are in America because there is not at much in the way of multiple choice. As well, you can normally find the answer to some of the questions by looking at how questions are stated; here they make sure that doesn’t happen. They can give a max of one test a day, and three in a week. This in turn means that they don’t have finals week like a number of schools in the US do.

            As we all know, Thanksgiving was this past week. People in Germany (and Europe) don’t celebrate this holiday as it is mainly an America holiday. The point of thanksgiving is to give thanks to all of those around you that you love. On thanksgiving (yesterday), I skyped with my family and everyone else who was there. My cousins are also a little strange in a way, but I love them so much, because they got their old exchange student that they hosted on face time and let her and me talk a little. I actually enjoyed hearing everyone’s voices and saying hello, even if it was not for very long.

            I still cannot believe that it has been almost three months sense I got here; time has really gone by quite quickly. I am lucky because I still have a fair amount of time left here, however I know it will eventually go away. I just need to make sure to have fun and learn a lot. This is a one in a lifetime opportunity, and I don’t want to waste it.

            I am going to leave it off there, hope you all are enjoying what I have to say. Again sorry for not posting last time, and remember I will be changing from every two weeks to every three or four. If you have any questions, comments, and/or suggestions, please leave them in the comments below and I will get to them in my next blog. 

Thanks everyone,

~ Michael Steiner ~