Adventures!

Agagin, I was tired this morning! I have to start going to bed earlier, but there's just so much to do! And I'm not even involved in any outside activities yet! I think I just feel busier than I am because everything is still so new and I have to adjust to it all.

Class was pretty hard again today and I had a little bit of trouble understanding exactly what we're doing. I have learned all of this stuff before, but never completely in German. It just doesn't make much sense to me so I really need to just sit down with it in my room and try to make some sense of it. Frau Heckmann said that there would be frustration and that we may feel like our German is getting worse. I TOTALLY FEEL LIKE THAT. The first few days I felt like my German was pretty good and that I was learning a lot. But now I just feel like I can't even speak anymore! I don't know what's happening! But apparantly it's normal!

Instead of going out for lunch today, I went back to my apartment and ate the tasteless pasta we made the night before. I added some pepper and it tasted better, but not the best. As long as I didn't spend anymore money on it, it works for me!!

After lunch we had the option of coming to Dr. Tracy's lesson about traveling. It was really hard to understand everything he was talking about, but I think I got the gist of it. Pack light. If you want to go to Ireland, don't go through London on RyanAir. Know that Frankfut-Hahn airport is in another state and that even though the plane ticket might be cheap, getting to the airport may not be. I think he gave us about 10 sheets of paper with all kinds of different information on them.

I needed some groceries so I went to a little place called City Markt. I bought four little baguettes, some deli meat and cheese, yoghurt, popcorn, waffles, nutella and pretzels. I figured that would give me quite a few meals over the next few days! Then I went back to my room for awhile and tried to take a nap. I had so much on my mind that it was hard to sleep and then when I fell asleep I was woken up by Keith and his friends. I had things to do, so I wasn't really upset.

I decided to go on a little adventure after that by myself. I needed some alone time because I hadn't really been alone (aside from sleeping!) since I got here. It was so nice to just do as I wanted in silence. Of course my mind was racing in German and when I would think of something/see things I would try to figure it out in German. No wonder my head hurts! So on my adventure I found the coolest thing! A BEAD AND SCRAPBOOK store!!! Actually, it's just a little craft shop, but it has two of my favorite things! And it's right by where I live! I was so excited! For some reason, I thought I would be brave and asked a lady who works there how to say beading in German. She just stared at me and told me to wait a minute because she didn't know. I really didn't need to know the word, I was just wondering for the sake of knowing! So then this other woman comes and I ask her too and she takes me over to the wall of supplies and tries to explain what I need in order to make jewelry! It was so hard for me to convey to her that I already knew how to do it, but was just wondering what they called it! So then I asked her if she spoke English, but she said only a little bit. I told her that it really didn't matter for me to know the word, but she walked off and went to ask someone else! When she came back she said she was sorry but didn't know. I'm wondering if there is even a word for making jewelry. I mean, I would think that there would be, but it seems to not be the case! Wouldn't you think that if you worked in that kind of store that you would at least know what the craft you're selling is called? I was going to buy a few things, but after that I decided to forget it and come back another day. Wow. Somewhat discouraging, but good practice I guess since she didn't know English!

So on I went. I saw a little fresh vegetable shop and thought I might come back later. One of the purposes of my adventure was to find a halogen light bulb. The word light bulb in German is Glühbirne which literally means "glowing pear." That is Frau McCullough's favorite German word and I can see why! How cool. So yes, that is what I was looking for because the lamp I bought at the flea market needed it. I wouldn't have bought it if I knew it needed something so specific! I asked Frau Heckmann what I needed for the light earlier and she told me how I could get to the store that sells that type of thing. I was so confused when she told me that I thought I might never go looking for it! But when I decided to go on my adventure, it seemed like the perfect time! I saw all of the things she told me about, the McDonald's and the Crowne Plaza, but nothing called Bauhof. I didn't want to ask anyone and decided I might as well walk around while I was down there. I found a really nice grocery store. They had a much better selection and the isles were much wider than the small ones on the Hauptstrasse. When I was here last time, Katha and I drank Kaba (chocolate milk) a lot in the mornigns. I found the same kind we had and bought it along with two Braeburn apples. You have to ask for a bag when you shop and usually have to pay for it. I forgot to ask and felt like a real European. I would have loved to have seen myself. I didn't have my backpack, so I put the apples in my purse. Mind you, I also had my umbrella in my little purse so I couldnt't shut it and the apples were sticking out. And then I'm carrying this huge glass bottle of chocolate milk. I walked all over town with my bottle and then remembered that I wanted to go to a bookstore to buy the Notebook in German. I found a few other books by Nicholas Sparks, but not that one. So instead I found Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants! They didn't have the first one, so I bought the second since I've also read it. It's called "Eine für vier" aka "One for Four." I'm really excited to start reading this! I asked for a bag when I checked out so I put my choloate milk in there! After this, I thought I should go back to my apartment so I could refrigerate my milk. After all that, I didn't want it to go bad!

Heidi and I have been talking about how we want to go to the Philosophenweg to watch the sunset. The best view of the castle is from here and the weather was nice so we met up at 6:30. We both brought a little something for dinner and waited to eat it until we got up there. I had read about doing this online and knew a little about it and how long it would take. The walk there was really steep but everytime we stopped, our view of the castle got better and better. We knew we shouldn't complain aobut the walk since there were people running and biking up the steep hills! We couldn't believe it! There were benches up there and the view was gorgeous! We could see people taking pictures of the city from the castle and thought that was pretty neat. It was nice because we got to talk a lot. I like one-on-one time the best so it was really nice to be able to relax and enjoy the view. We stayed there until it started getting dark. We had homework to do and didn't want to walk all the way back home in the dark. We found a shortcut with never-ending stairs that took us all the way down to the river! How perfect! Now we know the best way to get up there for next time! I am definitely going to go back there!!!

On our walk home we saw another girl in our program, Charis. I really like her. We all decided to do our homework together, so we went back to my place. Keith and his friend were cooking dinner and it smelled so good. Nothing like the "dinner" we coooked the night before. Definitely put us to shame! So we went to my room and did our ridiculously confusing homework. I was happy to hear that they were also confused because then I knew that I wasn't the only one. But they still understand it better than I do. I will need to work really hard to learn this stuff because I don't like being so confused. It doesn't help that the book explains the grammar in German, but I will keep trying! They left before we even finished all of the work because it was around 10. Our brains were all too fried to think about it anymore and Charis has to take the bus to where she lives. I'm so happy that they were able to come over!

The friend that Keith had over was the girl we met the night before who is from NC. She's nice, but so loud. When we were doing our homework, we heard her telling him that she's not like other girls and that at home she usually hangs out with guys. She kept going on and on and we just laughed in my room because it was so funny. I just hope she won't be coming over all the time. So after my friends left, I talked with Keith and his friend for awhile. Then I tried to finish the rest of my homework. Erika and I talked briefly on Skype, but I was so tired that I really didn't have too much to say. I think it's better when we don't talk for awhile and then can talk again because we have more to say and it makes it so exciting. Even though we didn't talk long it was still nice to hear her voice. I talked to Spencer briefly and told him that I had seen a guy earlier on my adventure who looked like a combination of Matt and him. He had Matt's eyes and Spencer's hair. Too funny!!!

I have to write on this blog everyday in order to remember what I did! There is so much going through my mind and so much German in my head that there isn't much room to remember much else!! Ahh!

Ich gehe jetzt ins Bett! (I'm going to bed!!)