A Week of Firsts

Hello All,

A lot has happened over the last week.

I visited the castle in Schwerin,

 bought a winter jacket,

had my first kiwi sundae (phenomenal),

took my first math test in another language

missed the bus to school

 took the wrong bus home

played and lost my first german board game

got bitten by an insect while I was sleeping

 had my first sick day from school

climbed my first apple tree

found my hang out spot at a nearby park near this lovely big tree

ripped a new skirt playing with my host sister

 made apple/chocolate/walnut/banana bread (not worth a picture)

redeemed myself from last week with this pumpkin spice bread

and pumpkin soup with bacon (not together with the banana bread)

Thats my week in a nutshell with some photo graphs...now in a little more detail.

There’s not too much to say about the castle in Schwerin because I didn’t get a tour or stay too long inside. It was incredibly beautiful outside but yet I was outvoted in my host family and ended up shopping the whole day. Which was great because now I have a winter jacket, but I will definitely be visiting the castle again because it is:

Older than America

Very, very big and pointy

Across from an art museum, and a theatre that is playing Summer Nights Dream this month.

Nevertheless, here is an incredible picture of the street lamp outside of the castle.. just to give you an idea how detailed the whole castle is.

Since my last blog (my birthday), I had four more free days from school vacation days. Two of which I spent at my host grandma’s house, knitting, taking pictures of my neighbor's horses, and taking long walks/bike rides around her dorf (very small village). I was inclined to do so much physical activity because I wanted to see the fall scenery…and I am gaining kilograms! 1 kg = 2.2 lbs. kindof freaking out over here. But how can you say no to grandma’s home made apple sauce? And home made mashed potatoes? You simply can’t. But I’m working on cutting my portions in half (which is hard because I hate to see people throw food away) and hard when you have home fries and bacon or curry chicken noodles or fresh fish and potatoes or schnitzel for dinner. Ahh jahh what a hard life I live over here.

School is getting better, but I tend to get quite a lot of headaches during class. I have no problem with the language but I’ve found my brain has its limits. The last six people in my class 11c came back from Michigan last week and I got to meet them all for the first time. Very nice. We were discussing in English class (in English) the trip and doing a little Q&A with me. I asked what did they eat during their stay and the answer was fast food. Come on host families, let’s not be typical Americans! A little salad, carrots, avocados or sprouts how hard is that now? Which preluded into my class asking…

‘what is your favorite fast food restaurant?’

My answer, ‘I hate fast food...’

‘what is your favorite drink? Mountain dew?’

‘I don’t drink soda, and my favorite drink is avocado/goat cheese smoothie’

I wish you could have seen their faces (I get the same face in America for the favorite drink question), holla for breaking American stereotypes!  

All in all a wonderful week. I'm still totally grateful everday for the opportunity both God and CBYX allowed me to be here in Germany. Naturally, I miss home but each and everyday I'm starting to feel a little bit more at home here.

Blessings, Genevieve!

A Perfect Autumn Birthday

Today, wraps up my 17th birthday and my first week of school! This weeks is vacation which made it perfect to have a small get together with my host family and friends. First, I want to talk about school then my splendid party.

Hay stacks (I call them mini wheats) in a field across from my house.

First day of school, how can I say...nerve racking? I was thinking over my feelinngs and the thought, or revelation occured 'what is the worst that could happen?'. It is not in my character to be fearful of the day, for this is the day that the Lord has made, I will be glad and rejoice in it. Nowhere in that scripture does it say I am to fear, so I don't. So my anxiety turned to excitement, and that was only the beginning. It started with a two hour meeting between the assistant principle and I discussing my classes (Chemistry, Biology, Art, Music, Economy, History, Math, English, German and two more that I forgot). She was very pleased that I was able to understand and speak so much German. Which was a great prelude into my History class! Where the teacher insisted that we sit in a circle and play a name game, which at the end I had to repeat the name/hobby/pet questions for 16 people. Mmmhm, so my homework that night was to learn the names and say them all on thursday. That went well, really! So I got all my books (about 15), my complimentary bag from the school (thanks!) and headed on home (hostdad picked me up, first day of school and the public transport system is too much in one day lets be real). As I was looking back in admiration of my really fantastic first day of school, I realized that I would have to do it all over again..tomorrow, the day after that and the day after that and the day after that. And what if the people who talked to me today dont talk to me tomorrow? Then started the anxiety...but once again I remembered my mentality from the early morning. That the day is made to profit me, not tear me down. Alles gut. So the rest of the week flew by, it was filled with many many moments of 'huh?, can you repeat that? oh okay! wait....huh?' and I wouldn't do it again, but I'm glad that we got the first week of school over because................... I MADE FRIENDS!

Five of them which attended my BIRTHDAY PARTY today! Not really a party party, more exactly a kaffee und kuchen (coffee and cake). I thought it was very fit to make a pumpkin cake, oh yeah from a pumpkin. Which brings me to my most important point, cutting a pumpkin is very dangerous. I prayed the whole time that I would finish that experience with all of my 10 fingers and my two eyeballs (which I succesfully did!). I don't know if you know anything about the pumpkin process, but it consists of hacking it in half, ripping out the insides, chopping it into smaller pieces, boiling, and scooping out the meat. With a half hour until the guests started arriving, I assembled everything together and was about to pour it into the form when I decided for kicks to try it. I dipped my finger into the phenomenally smooth, creamy orange dough and I gagged. I sauntered into the livingroom and asked if maybe the baking powder in germany is VERY VERY salty, and the answer was no, taste like flour. My host mom proceeded to follow me into the kitchen and shreaked when she realized I used two cups of salt instead of two cups of sugar. The cake was ruined, no pumpkin cake as promised for my guests. Did I cry? Yes a little bit. Nevertheless, it is was just a cake and I'm making one tomorrow and one on Sunday night to bring to school to redeem myself.


The party lasted about 5 hours, an hour of cute akwardness between the young generation (my friends) and my host grandparents and their friends. It was a time of laughter, smiles, and 'huh?'. I have to admit after awhile my mind was done with German and thatswhen I procided to zone out. Something I noticed that was different between America and germany is that when you get a gift, the gift giver tells you what they get you before you open it....so I guess using wrapping paper is a bit redundant no?

The party was an aboslutley perfect way to end a beautiful week in school and a beautiful day of celebrating being one year older.

Praise God,
Genevieve

Last Day in Celle, Germany.

WOW! What a month. First off, I'm very sorry that I haven't posted yet, it was a mix of no time and not knowing how to make a new blog entry on a German computer.

I was in Celle for 4 weeks to take lessons at a grammar school, volkshaupschule. Everyday from 9-12:15 we had lessons, I biked 4 km to school (but apparently have gained weight!) There were 10 of us, all CBYX students, all from America...so we spoke english. Which is natural because its comfortable, but in retrospect that was not a good idea. I spoke with my hostmom only in german, and my hostfather wanted to speak english which in restropect was also not so great. He helped me with my german homework, and I helped him with his English homework (he works for a german-american partnership company). We had about 10 pages of homework everynight which was fantastic because as I would be looking up words in my dictionary, I would hear it on the t.v. and in converstations! Its frustrating when I realize how much I don't know, but then I think that I am one word closer to being fluent. You have to stay optimistic.

Is the language hard? Yes and no. More than anything the most difficult things is pronunciation. What I didnt expect was for this experience to be such a blow to my confidence in communication. I find myself thinking very often how strange it is that people can communicate in a completely different way from other people. I also find myself thinking, wondering how I got to be sitting in an Eiskaffee in Germany!

The food? Excellent. Bread, chocolate, cheese. Repeat. The last week I switched from the whole bread for breakfast and dinner thing to yogurt for breakfast (taste like greek yogurt) and salad for lunch. Bread makes me more hungry. I wilol post pictures of the city at a later time, I am leaving for my next family in half an hour! I will be living in Dersenow, Mecklenberg-Vorpommern. (say that 10 times). I have a host sister who is 13, she has red hair just like mine, and a older brother who is 21. He speaks fluent english, but I, from this day on am only speaking German. I will be going to a Gymnasium in a neighboring village, yes village. And will post more later with my new laptop that is phenomenal (thanks mom xoxo).

Am I homesick? Yes and no. Everyday is a complete new animal, which is fun when I feel like exploring but hard when I need something familiar (someone send me a teddybear). The Germans are incredibly outgoing, friendly, and warm-hearted especially the Pallett family. They did an incredible job of sharing their life with me, which I am honored to have.

Praise God for keeping me safe and under His guidance,
pray for revelation in my situation, I am coming to realize how brave of a decision this was.

Until next time,
Genevieve

P.S. exceuse me for my bad english, this is the first time typing in a awhile.