Matt
Fayetteville to Germany

Well, hard to believe that it has been three months already and I have not written a journal entry yet. So much has happened and is still happening; always something to do. Hard to know where to start.

Well, I guess as far as the language goes, it is going fairly well. I can definitely get around town, get my questions answered, or order something. The simple things are no problem. But it is still the more complicated subjects that are hard. Though it is going much better. Just last week I had a ten minute conversation with my ethics teacher during the break about abortion. I never imagined being capable of discussing controversial/ complicated subject matters in another language. It was a really satisfying feeling. But there are also the times when I can’t understand a simple joke, just because I haven’t heard the word before. But that is the experience and I value the setbacks and hard moments. It’s really a good thing.

            My school is great. I have taken all of the tests the other students have so far, but naturally not done as well as them. Though they were surprised on my math test when I got a 13 (A-). The funniest thing was when I wrote an in-class essay (the test) over a book that I had not read. I had totally misinterpreted the passage and everything was wrong. But it made the other students laugh and of course the teacher too when she graded it. But I enjoy it. School is a great place to make friends and learn German. I have not always understood everything, but I always take notes and then translate the words I don’t know or the whole passage. It helps so much. English is always really funny too. It is the one time when I get to be on top of things. And the other students around me always ask my help, so that is another great way to interact/make friends.

            My host family is great. My host brother, as it turns out, is only about 3 weeks older than me, so that worked out perfectly. And my host sister is almost the same age as my real sister. So it was a really weird, out of country ‘de ja vou’ experience thing, or however you spell it. And today is actually my host mom’s birthday, so we are celebrating that. And last night my host mom and I made a big Thanksgiving dinner. I also invited my next host family to come and a friend. So all in all it was ten people. It was really nice. We didn’t have all the right recipes from America so it was somewhat of a German/ American mix of Thanksgiving. But still, it was a good time and it was nice to get to know my next host family a little bit more. They seem like really nice people as well. On Christmas, they are actually taking me to see a ballet in Stuttgart, so that will be nice.

            Also, last night we got snow!! We had already had 3 or 4 times snow, but not really all that much. But this was between 15-20cm average, and more in other places. Really pretty and I guess the past couple of years they have not gotten a good snow until late December or so. So that is a good thing. I am looking forward to skiing in the coming months. We have a school ski trip weekend planned in January in Switzerland. That will be really fun. And the other times I think is just around here in the Black Forest. It just takes a half hour or so to get to one of the smaller mountains and we can ski there. But I definitely need to buy some proper winter clothes. Arkansas winter clothes just don’t cut it here. The lows lately have been about 15 or less Fahrenheit and in the daytime about 27 or so. Plus with the wind, it just cuts right through you. But I enjoy it. Hard to imagine this is my third season to experience here already. But I think also it is the longest. J

            As far as popular places that I have visited, I can say Stuttgart, Freiburg, Zürich, the Bodensee, Ulm and just last weekend I walked across the French border with two new German friends I made at a Rotary weekend function. So those were all really awesome experiences. I have been to many more places, but they are not so well known. Although that doesn’t detract any of their value. Sometimes I find the lesser known places are more exciting than the popular ‘touristy’ places. I am actually going back to Ulm though in a couple of weeks to meet up with the other exchange students again. It is for the Christmas Market there, so it should be really awesome. But for me, it has become more not so important where you are, but more who you are with. It is about the family and friends. It doesn’t matter where we are, whether it be my school friends here or the other exchange students, just so long as we are together, we will have a great time without a doubt.

            Well, I need to cut this short because dinner is about to be served. But I wanted to get at least one journal entry in. But just for the record, I tried once before to write one and the computer froze before I had it saved, so this time I wrote it with Word and saved frequently. J But at any rate, I hope everyone back home is great. Everything here is wonderful and I’ll try not to let it be so long in-between the next entry. Happy Thanksgiving and happy holidays!!!

Liebe Grüße,

Matt