I realize that I probably say in every post how fast the weeks go, but I'm going to say it again here. I cannot believe I have already been here for almost 2 months. I have just over 8 1/2 months left here in Germany. I don't know why the days and weeks go quicker here. Maybe it is because I am always experiencing something new or because every day at school is different. In America, I basically do the same thing every day; I go to the same classes, go home at the same time, have about the same amount of homework, and go to bed about the same time every night. Here, I have different classes everyday, different homework, and I live a different life.
So much has happened in the past 2 weeks since my last post and I wish I could write everything, but there is not enough time for that! So I will try to give some highlights.
Last Saturday, my host family and I went to the Starlight Express musical in Bochum. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlight_Express
All the singing was in German, but the music, roller-skate tricks, and costumes were AMAZING. It was pretty expensive (38 Euro=56 dollar) but it was a once in a lifetime experience that was truly worth it.
This past week, we were working on group powerpoint presentations in Geography. All the groups were assigned either wheat, grapes, coffee, or bananas and we had to make a presentation about how they grow, their history, what they need to grow, and the world market. My group was assigned wheat from the Great Plains of the United States. It was great though, because I was able to participate. Meike helped me write the introduction to the presentation, and I introduced our presentation to the whole class. It was the first time I had actually spoken a fair amount of German in front of a large group of kids, but I was really proud of myself. After our presentation was over, my teacher was really nice and complimented me in front of the whole class on how well I did and then all the kids knocked their fists on the desks for me (instead of clapping)...so that made me feel really good.
Other good news is that I finally got my passport back with visa in it about 2 weeks ago. It took about 7 weeks in all from my first day here in Germany when we picked up the paper work until the day I got my passport back. A tip to anyone who ever needs a visa: Do NOT procrastinate and wait until your automatic 90 day visa is up. If anything happens and you get stuck without your passport (main form of identification) and your visa (allowing you to be in the country) that could be very bad. In addition, if you are planning on traveling somewhere, it is not very helpful when you don't have your passport! So plan in advanced when you are going to get your visa, and plan that it will take awhile. In addition, I made the mistake of paying for a 90 day visa to come to Germany. One reason was because I thought I would be able to get my permanent visa here in Germany faster if I had a 90 day visa. As you can tell, that is not the case. So my advice is to save your money and if you are an exchange student like me or are going to be staying in the the country for longer than 90 days, wait until you get to Germany to get your permanent visa. Check out the link below for more information.
http://www.germany.info/Vertretung/usa/en/04__Legal/02__Directory__Services/01__Visa/__Visa.html
Another thing I have found helpful here in Germany is making a list of all the money I spend. I had no idea how much I was spending until I saw everything together on one sheet of paper. I have not spent a lot of money, but the necessities I have needed to buy really add up. For example, I had to buy special shoes for P.E. that have non-color soles. In the gym, we are not allowed to wear black soled shoes because they scuff the floor. So there went 30 Euro ($43). A couple of weeks later, my soccer shoes were kaputt so I had to buy a new pair and there went 40 Euro ($58). So you can see how expensive things are here in general compared to America.
I've got to go back to school now for math, but I'll try to post again soon about Zillertal!
I miss all of you guys so much and I love reading your comments and blogs (Kaitlyn and Andrea :)
Love
Carrie
