a) Actually go to church. Yes, I found this awesome church in Braunschweig called the Friedenskirche, and it is absolutely just what I needed. I actually have a story on how I found it and how I miraculously got to the place, but that might be for another post. I definitely like this church better than the Jugendkirche, because I feel like it is more God-centered while still retaining the fun and helps me meet more Germans.
b) Just learn to let things go. Really, I've realized that if I don't learn how to do this, I'm just going to end up being a depressed exchange student. For example, just this past week, I had asked my classmates what they were doing on the weekend and if they wanted to hang out. Well, they said they had too much homework to do, etc. Later, I get a message on Facebook from this same girl, asking others if they want to do something for the weekend. She had accidentally included me in the email list because I had the same name as one of her friends. When I saw that, I was a bit annoyed--for the most part, Germans are known for being straightforward and truthful. If they don't want to hang out with you, then they won't, as another exchange student put it. However, I wished they would have just told me that they had other plans, or something like that. I feel like there are a lot of people just using me as an English crutch, which is really sad. I'm a human too, and I'm an exchange student, not an exclusive language tutor or assistant.
Now, onto my bolded recaps as usual:
New Years/Eve
New Years is really a huge holiday here, like Christmas. Only, it's with a TON of fireworks, and the cool thing is that they buy their own and set them off in front of their house. This year, I went to a Chinese person's house and ate dinner with them, as well as set off fireworks :) It was tons of fun. Later, I went back to my house (my host parents also had guests over), played board games, and set off more fireworks. My host siblings were out at the disco (they came back from uni, and brought their boyfriend/girlfriend with them, and I didn't want to kill their precious time together by asking to come along). Perhaps my New Years isn't as crazy or eventful as some other people's (man, you need to see those stories posted on our CBYX Facebook Wall..some people would definitely be sent back to the US...).
Birthday Party
I forgot if I posted about this already, but on Christmas night, I was at my host sister's birthday party. Her birthday was on Christmas, and unfortunately, I didn't know, so it kind of sucked that I didn't have a second present for her. But we had lots of fun as well-- ate a simple dinner (baugettes with spreads, chips, punch, fruits, etc.), and chatted for a really long time with her other German university student friends. There was another girl who was also an exchange student twice to Italy, so I spent most of the night talking to her--exchange students just click with each other :) Later, we played this new board game that some guy had gave as a present--3D Tetris. Man, was that game hard. I really liked my host sister's friends; they all seemed extremely nice.
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| Hi, birthday girl :) |
More English Class Stuff
I find that my English class has a very unique structure, and I love it. They meet outside of school for activities together, and I think it really helps me in bonding with the other students in the class. They are going bowling on the 17th I think, but I can't go because AFS' Halbzeit Camp is from the 15th-20th. We are also planning a trip to London, which is awesome, because I need to use that scholarship money somehow :D (CB pays up to 500 Euros for you to go on a class trip). Oh man, British English is really impossible for me :)
Note About Last Post
I've just been reading through my blog, and have realized that my last post didn't come out right. I'm sorry if it offended anyone--I guess Germany is making me more direct, isn't it?
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