I eat languages for Breakfast.

Okay people. I apologize that it's been an eternity since I last posted. I thought I'd written about the week after my praktikum but I guess the post somehow got deleted. I find that every time I'm sittin in the bus, I think of a whole Menge (what is the English word? bunch? Gosh am I losing my english!) I think of a whole bunch of things I want to write about on my blog, but as soon as I'm sitting here before the computer, I don't know what to write. So, to combat this dilemma I have turned to my diary, in which I write ungewöhnlich viel (unusually much) and in a mix of languages, which makes later paroozles somewhat more time consuming. But anyways, to try and make things concise, I'm just going to make a little list of things I've done since being back in school.

• gone ice skating with AFS
• had a lovely movie night and chat evening with guest sister
• hung out with international friends- baking, movies, sleepovers etc.
• made an excursion with my Französisch Leistungskurs to the French-German department of the Frankfurter Buchmesse (Frankfurt Book Fair). This was very interesting, and I realized that although I cannot speak French nearly as well as I can speak German, my comprehension ability in the two languages is the same. That is to say, I understand between 95 and 100%.
• found out that my scholarship will pay for my school trip to Madrid in the spring! woohoo!
• bought a new winter Mantel, which is very chic in my opition.
• called my parents, finally!
• done three presentations all having to do with the industrial revolution and work houses, two in english class and one in history.

I also went partying with a friend from my French class and her friends, and met lots of people, which was fun. Last Sunday I went on a day trip with my guest parents to Weztlar, a really beautiful city north of Frankfurt where Goethe's Unfulfilled Love, Carlotte, lived. I was totally taken by the romantic Altstadt (old city) and the watchtower ruin. On Valentines Day Monday I went with my French class to the Theater in Russelsheim, where we saw real French People in a Real Play of Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran. It was very well done and I could understand almost everything. (I came to late in the school to read the book with the others in my class, so I think they understood much more).

On Wednesday I had quite a day. At two o'clock I had my second Korean lesson, which was quite difficult. In principle the Korean alphabet is quite simple, but the way it's actually written is complicated. Lots of letters get stacked upon eachother and I'm never quite sure when. Also, the fact that it is simply completely unfamiliar makes it sort of a brain-full. After an hour we switched, and I helped my 'teacher' with her German. She is improving a lot and is very cute.

At four o'clock I went to my first Hebrew class. It was... quite the experience. There are only four of us in the class: twins, for whom Hebrew is their montherlanguage, and another girl who is just learning. I was very surprised at how much came back to me--I could still read and write, and what little vocabulary I had was taken out again to air. However, what I did find not as nice was that everybody who could speak fluent Hebrew (which is most people there) always spoke Hebrew unter einander (with eachother) when I kneww knewww knewwww they were talking about me! In front of my face! They could have the courtousy to speak in German, I thought. It also seems to be a very strong community there, and everybody kept asking me if I was a member of the Synagogue, and telling me what other classes I could take there, and double checking that I was in fact, in my school, in an Ethik course. It was just very strict. But I think that under all that the people are also very nice, and the Hebrew class is good so I'm going to stick around.

So, here is my language learning schedule:
Mondays: German, Spanish.
Tuesdays: German, French.
Wednesdays: German, Korean, Hebrew.
Thursdays: German, French
Fridays: German, French, Spanish.

Today I took a Spanish test (for which I studied!) and I think I did quite well. I also noticed for the first time how much people cheat here! Somebody asked me afterwards if it went well for me, and I said yes, and you? and she answered yes. Well of course! She had a sneaky little piece of paper with vocabulary and stuff printed out in negative 10 pt font hidden in her pen or who knows where! Gosh!

Also, I think I'm going to have a bread attack. Sometimes I could just scream, I'm so tired of bread, bread, bread. Breaadd for breakfast breeaadd for lunch, breaaad for snacks, breeaadd with dinner. So much bread! Brown bread that takes half an hour to chew, crunchy white bread, the crusts of which scrape your gums, thin bitter bread that I don't know why anyone eats, just so much bread! I'll go crazy! So I'm eating fruit, and müsli, and yogurt, and fruit, and vegetables, and other things, but sometimes there is simply nothing else in the house to bring to school except bread, meat, and cheese. Which means for me, bread and cheese.

But other than that, everything is really really well. I finally have the feeling that I have good friends here, and I'm always connecting with more people. I feel totally comfortable in school (and Biology class is so soporific that I really do fall asleep sometimes) and in general everywhere else too. I'm happy with my activities, i.e., two choirs and five foreign languages, and things with my guest family are good too. So, I've now finally reached the end of this monster post, which is good because the computer is beeping at me because it's out of battery. Goodbye!