So I write this to you all gazing out of the window looking at the lovely English weather... a.k.a. rain, wind, and pretty much no sun.
Fun, no?
Despite the faulty weather conditions, this week has been amazing. Ok, so I've only been here for three full days, but still... I suppose I'll do a bullet style day-by-day format, as that seems to be the quickest and most efficient way of informing you all what I have been up to. Oh, I'm staying with Bret, Sharon, and their kids... by the way :)
Sunday
We made our merry way to Liverpool, which is about an hour and a half away from Lancaster, where I am currently staying. This, as I hope most of you know, is the "birthplace" of The Beatles, so naturally we went to the only permanent Beatles museum in the world. I found that was completely amazing, and of course, I had to buy a t-shirt and some patches for my Rotary blazer... along with some other things, of course. Also in Liverpool was a Ferris wheel, which was pretty fun, and the Albert Docks, which held many interesting stores, museums, and other sights. We were in Liverpool from lunchtime to about 3.30 pm, as that is when all starts to get dark here in England. All in all, a lovely day.
Monday
This day was a bit more laid-back than Sunday. Bret had to teach, so Sharon and I went into town and went grocery shopping. English grocery stores are so different from German ones -- a bit more warm and friendly. I suppose that's just the difference in the people... not saying that Germans aren't nice, of course, but they're just a bit more reserved. Then Sharon and I went to see New Moon, the latest film release from the Twilight saga. I suppose I should explain my love/hate relationship with Twilight: I think the books are decent, honestly, for teenage girls. They're not great works of art, like Lord of the Rings, or books by Jane Austen. But they are truly entertaining. So we went to see the movie, which I enjoyed simply because it was two hours in which I didn't have to particularly concentrate on much.
Tuesday
Oh man... well, Bret and Sharon and I went to the oldest pub in Lancaster (called The Three Mariners), and had a lovely lunch. I had the BEST double cheeseburger of my LIFE, and the barkeeper was actually rather adorable. I suppose this is definitely helped by the fact that he had a lovely accent. Then, Bret split to go buy coffee and get the kids, and Sharon and I went shopping!! This was especially good because I have been losing weight, and the vast majority of clothes I brought to Germany are getting loose. So, yeah, we shopped. It seems that things are cheaper here in England, which is very good, considering I purchased the following: two pairs of jeans, a pair of (PURPLE) boots, three scarves (VERY popular in Germany), and a leather jacket (also very popular). Overall, a lovely time.
And today is Wednesday... so...
Well, we're prepping for Thanksgiving. Which reminds me, I should go and help! So until the next...
LG
Signe
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Germa-Deutsch-No, Just German.
I've realized recently that one of the most commonly asked questions of me is "How's your German?"
Answer: Pretty good. I can understand the vast majority of what is said to me, and can carry on everyday conversations. In class, I can follow along what is being talked about, and can generally glean the main points from texts. Some days my German is awesome, other days I can barely even form a simple sentence.
But lately, what has been really, really cool is actually thinking and dreaming in German. The only problem is (especially with the thinking) is that I often get confused and will say stuff in both languages. For example...
"Jaah, wir sind nach Hamburg gegangen, which was total toll."
And it's not even like I don't know the German for that, but both languages just get confused.
Oh, and another cool thing. There are two Mexican exchange students in my school, and I've realized that I've started translating what they say in Spanish into German. Cool, no?
My writing skills in German, though, are still pretty bad. My teachers allow me to do a lot of my work in English, and sometimes have me translate it later. One good example of this was from today in my Deutsch class, we read "Kleine Fabel" (Small Fable) by Franz Kafka. Our teacher charged us to write a story with a similar message in the end (Please don't ask me to explain what that is)... so Vedashree and I, somewhat aided by Marcos (Veda is from India, Marcos from Mexico) wrote the following story (I'm posting it because I thought it was pretty good):
He stared around the room... that bleak, concrete cell that he had been stuck in for the past sixteen years. A knock on the solid metal door was followed by a flash of light, accompanied by the warden bringing his evening meal -- the usual; a hard stale roll and tasteless soup. The warden ssettled himself on the one chair in the room and quickly fell asleep, leaving the door open. The beam of light beckoned him to venture outside those cold concrete walls. The thoughts ran through his mind:
"Should I run? Should I risk the little life I have left for a breath of fresh air? Or shall I remain in my place?"
Half-standing, he began to move torwards the door. Suddenly, the warden woke, and seeing him moving, said,
"What are you doing?"
He sank down on the bed, resigning himself to his fate.
-end-
Surprisingly, once it had been explained in German, it got quite a lot of feedback. Apparently, it had some sort of "deep meaning", which I found hilarious, considering Veda and I wrote it in five minutes or so.
Well... that's all for now...
So yeah. Tschüß and such.
LG
Signe
Answer: Pretty good. I can understand the vast majority of what is said to me, and can carry on everyday conversations. In class, I can follow along what is being talked about, and can generally glean the main points from texts. Some days my German is awesome, other days I can barely even form a simple sentence.
But lately, what has been really, really cool is actually thinking and dreaming in German. The only problem is (especially with the thinking) is that I often get confused and will say stuff in both languages. For example...
"Jaah, wir sind nach Hamburg gegangen, which was total toll."
And it's not even like I don't know the German for that, but both languages just get confused.
Oh, and another cool thing. There are two Mexican exchange students in my school, and I've realized that I've started translating what they say in Spanish into German. Cool, no?
My writing skills in German, though, are still pretty bad. My teachers allow me to do a lot of my work in English, and sometimes have me translate it later. One good example of this was from today in my Deutsch class, we read "Kleine Fabel" (Small Fable) by Franz Kafka. Our teacher charged us to write a story with a similar message in the end (Please don't ask me to explain what that is)... so Vedashree and I, somewhat aided by Marcos (Veda is from India, Marcos from Mexico) wrote the following story (I'm posting it because I thought it was pretty good):
He stared around the room... that bleak, concrete cell that he had been stuck in for the past sixteen years. A knock on the solid metal door was followed by a flash of light, accompanied by the warden bringing his evening meal -- the usual; a hard stale roll and tasteless soup. The warden ssettled himself on the one chair in the room and quickly fell asleep, leaving the door open. The beam of light beckoned him to venture outside those cold concrete walls. The thoughts ran through his mind:
"Should I run? Should I risk the little life I have left for a breath of fresh air? Or shall I remain in my place?"
Half-standing, he began to move torwards the door. Suddenly, the warden woke, and seeing him moving, said,
"What are you doing?"
He sank down on the bed, resigning himself to his fate.
-end-
Surprisingly, once it had been explained in German, it got quite a lot of feedback. Apparently, it had some sort of "deep meaning", which I found hilarious, considering Veda and I wrote it in five minutes or so.
Well... that's all for now...
So yeah. Tschüß and such.
LG
Signe
Monday, November 2, 2009
The last... month?
Let's start with Holland.
In Germany, we have a two week holiday in Autumn called Herbstferien. I did a couple of things, but the highlight was definitely going to Holland for a week with my host parents and my host sister Rike. We were at a lovely resort called Hof van Saksen, which was absolutely gorgeous in all respects, and oriented torwards families with smaller children.
My host sister and I are 17 and 16, respectively, but we still managed to have fun, I believe. We rode bikes, swam in the resorts' five pools plus outdoor heated water slide, and watched Prison Break and Scrubs (in German, of course!). We also went to a couple random cities in Holland: Emmen for the zoo, Groningen for shopping, and we were in Assen briefly as well. Pretty sweet.
The food was EXCELLENT, I definitely ate waaay more than I ever should have. Especially with the whole cream puff thing... every night at dinner, there were cream puffs. Every night, I would try to beat my record from the previous night. Can we say seventeen in one sitting? I could have done more, but sadly, the week ended...
Next, we move onto this past weekend. I went to Kiel to visit Jon Norwich, another outbound from my Rotary district back home. This was awesome, because I haven't actually seen anybody from Gettysburg since August (as was expected, of course), so it was nice for that. We ended up not spending so much time in Kiel, but instead went to Hamburg for a Rotex day in his district. I met a LOT more exchanges, which is always a good thing. We basically just walked around the entire day, and ended up on ReeperStraße (or Reeper Bahn, I can't quite remember). This is Hamburg's red light district. I have never seen anything similar to that before, so it was most definitely one of the most interesting things that I have ever seen in my life. I'm not really sure what I can say to keep it all G-rated here, but rest assure I took plenty of pictures to laugh at later.
Other than go to Hamburg, Jon and I basically chilled out and caught up from the past months. Nothing worth repeating there.
And now for a funny story!
It's true. And it happened today.
So I was in gym class today, as I am every Monday morning. Everyone in my class knows that I am totally incapable of doing sports, and we always have a good-natured laugh when I fail. Today was no different. We ran a little, did our fitness stations (which is where people laugh at me the most), and since we had time left, we played soccer. I'm sure some of you readers out there remember my soccer days, and how I would just basically stand there and watch the ball go by. It's no different in Germany. But somehow, the ball landed in front of my feet today, so I closed my eyes and gave it a kick. Guess who scored a goal? And guess whose team won?? Yeah, ME and MINE! My whole class was shocked, I think, and they all cheered when it happened. Best thing that happened on any Monday.
In Germany, we have a two week holiday in Autumn called Herbstferien. I did a couple of things, but the highlight was definitely going to Holland for a week with my host parents and my host sister Rike. We were at a lovely resort called Hof van Saksen, which was absolutely gorgeous in all respects, and oriented torwards families with smaller children.
My host sister and I are 17 and 16, respectively, but we still managed to have fun, I believe. We rode bikes, swam in the resorts' five pools plus outdoor heated water slide, and watched Prison Break and Scrubs (in German, of course!). We also went to a couple random cities in Holland: Emmen for the zoo, Groningen for shopping, and we were in Assen briefly as well. Pretty sweet.
The food was EXCELLENT, I definitely ate waaay more than I ever should have. Especially with the whole cream puff thing... every night at dinner, there were cream puffs. Every night, I would try to beat my record from the previous night. Can we say seventeen in one sitting? I could have done more, but sadly, the week ended...
Next, we move onto this past weekend. I went to Kiel to visit Jon Norwich, another outbound from my Rotary district back home. This was awesome, because I haven't actually seen anybody from Gettysburg since August (as was expected, of course), so it was nice for that. We ended up not spending so much time in Kiel, but instead went to Hamburg for a Rotex day in his district. I met a LOT more exchanges, which is always a good thing. We basically just walked around the entire day, and ended up on ReeperStraße (or Reeper Bahn, I can't quite remember). This is Hamburg's red light district. I have never seen anything similar to that before, so it was most definitely one of the most interesting things that I have ever seen in my life. I'm not really sure what I can say to keep it all G-rated here, but rest assure I took plenty of pictures to laugh at later.
Other than go to Hamburg, Jon and I basically chilled out and caught up from the past months. Nothing worth repeating there.
And now for a funny story!
It's true. And it happened today.
So I was in gym class today, as I am every Monday morning. Everyone in my class knows that I am totally incapable of doing sports, and we always have a good-natured laugh when I fail. Today was no different. We ran a little, did our fitness stations (which is where people laugh at me the most), and since we had time left, we played soccer. I'm sure some of you readers out there remember my soccer days, and how I would just basically stand there and watch the ball go by. It's no different in Germany. But somehow, the ball landed in front of my feet today, so I closed my eyes and gave it a kick. Guess who scored a goal? And guess whose team won?? Yeah, ME and MINE! My whole class was shocked, I think, and they all cheered when it happened. Best thing that happened on any Monday.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)