-This is the official start of my blog for the last half of my exchange.
The very fact of this blog makes me sad that so much time has flown by, and that my year is already half finished. But by no means does that mean my year has been half wasted. I have grown more than I could ever have had I remained at home, and this exchange has been the single most important event in my life concerning my development as person in general. I have seen, experienced, and lived through so many different events from my time here in wonderful Germany that it would have been impossible for me to remain an unchanged person. The fact that I have changed (in my opinion) is something great, because it entails that I have learnt, grown, and adapted to life. Everything changes, it is a fact of life.
-So, where have I been all of this time?
I am sorry for the long delay of my blog, there is no excuse for not maintaining it. To be completely honest I am every time afraid (I don't really know which word to use in this context) to write in my blog, so I have been always pushing it a little farther back. 'I'll do it tommorow, or the next day, maybe next week' because it reminds me just how fast everything is flying by while I am here on exchange. I am loving everyday, and am experiencing so much, making sure to take pictures, but to sit down and write about what I had done makes me unexplainably sad (which I have just attempted to explain). But now I know I can not keep running from this blog, and so I am now running towards it (so to speak).
-Englisch, with a c.
The mother language of every exchange student is the bane of the exchange year. The more immersed you are in you host language, the better your exchange. The more you use english, the worse off you are. Sounds simple right? Just tune out englisch, you are not even in a English country. Factually, you could go the entire year in Germany speaking only english. Almost everyone in Germany knows a little bit of english, and many are fluent. Most of the music on the radio is english. English is everywhere, and to be able to completely remove it I would frankly have to sew my ears shut. It is by far the most difficult thing I have ever done, and I have to say that I have not been able to completely remove english, it is a fact. Sometimes I need english to keep me sane, and I think that is okay, but too much is bad. Sometimes you need a little bit of your mother language to keep you balanced, but you need to be carefull not to overtip. And even when you try speaking German, where ever you may be, some people would insist on trying their english. It is the most frustrating occurance in my entire exchange year. If you walk into a store, or a restaurant and speak in German (with my apparently think accent, so I have been told), the clerk or server or whomever will switch to english. And then I say, 'Oh, no thanks, German is okay (In German) and then 2 sentences later in German and then BAM. English again. This can repeat up to 30 times a day, sometimes 5 times in a conversation, while I have been speaking in German. One of the greatest things I love in Germany is the saviours that come to my aid and say. 'Stop speaking english, he's here to learn German'. It is a great feeling to have someone help you out. They have also helped me, because sometimes I do, when my concentration lapses or because I am simply to frustrated or unable to express myself, or feel simply dumb because I can comprehend but not answer, switch to english and they remind me to keep with german (in a nice way) and everything begins to work out.
-An End to An Intro
I will be continuing my posts about my year, covering Christmas, New Years, Sports, Youth Groups, and all the madness in between that is my life. I apologize before hand for my slightly less than stellar english (which is full of mistakes I am sure) but I have been living and thinking in German, so even in writing this blog, sometimes I think of the German word before the English even comes to me. I am even starting to forget vocabulary. Maybe that is a good sign. Once again I look forward to sharing my adventures with you, and hope that you enjoy my blog. Maybe reading about how I have changed will help change something in you.
