You might have guessed from the title that it is raining here in the Eifel. This morning I woke up to a mixture of snow and rain coming down outside my window. I have to confess, it has dampened my spirits a little. Of course I am used to spring rain (being from Seattle), but snow along with it, in May no less, is going a bit overboard.
I am sitting in the Selbst Lern Zentrum (Self Learn Center) at my school. I look out into the courtyard and decide that I am going to miss this place. I'll miss the maze of hallways and the classrooms where one can still see the walls because they are not yet covered with posters detailing the rise of the Ottoman Empire or the functions of the different parts of a cell. I'll miss the Brötchen pause after 2nd period where one can go buy a pastry for 60 cents. I'll miss the orderly ding-dang-dong of the bell at the end of the period. I've gotten used to my life here at St. Michael Gymnasium. I've made friends and improved my self confidence. I am able to raise my hand in class and contribute to the discussions in German. Whenever I try to speak English, I seem to make grammar mistakes and I always want to stick a German word in where an English word must go. I don't mind though...this just shows that I am coming closer to my goal of being completely immersed in the German language.
It's crazy when I think that I only have 6 and 1/2 weeks left here in Germany. The time has gone by so fast. I have been here for 9 months and they have been the fastest 9 months of my entire life. Everyday I have experienced something new and I think that is the reason why the time has flown by. In America, I have a fairly regular schedule...day to day it's pretty much all the same. Here, each day is new and different...I have a different school schedule everyday and I never know what will come when I wake up in the morning. It's an exciting life when one can live in spontaneously instead of with the knowledge that day after day everything is the same. Of course I have nothing against my life in America. It is exciting in its own way and I am never bored there either. However, there is no doubt about it that these two lives are very different and I will have to find a way to balance the two of them when I return on June 23.
Last Saturday, I took the SAT in Düsseldorf at the International School there. I was pretty well prepared and it was pretty easy for me. I hope I did well. I'm planning to take it again this fall, so that is good. The International School in Düsseldorf is a beautiful school on a tree lined street near the airport. I think I would love to go there. There are a fair amount of American students there because their parents are military, government officials, or have business in Düsseldorf. After my test, Ralf, Sven, and I walked along the Rhein and went up to the top of the Rhein Tower in the center of the tourist area in the city. It reminded me of the Space Needle because of its similar design and rotating viewing platform. It's ironic to me that I went up in the Rhein Tower before the Space Needle. Hint hint Mom and Dad!
Tomorrow I am going to Paris for the day with a German friend of mine and her mother. We are leaving Aachen at 8am and driving to Paris in a travel bus (the same company with whom I went to London) and getting there at about 1pm. We will tour the city until 12am when we will begin to drive back to Aachen. I am so excited to see the sights of Paris. I can't wait to see the Arc de Triomphe, Sacre Couer, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, and the Champs Elysees. I never imagined going to Paris, just because I thought that it wouldn't happen for many years, but now I am excited beyond belief.
My last weeks here are packed with more new experiences. Next week, I have Thursday and Friday off from school. On Thursday, I am going to watch the German men's national soccer team play against Malta. On May 24 and 25, we have no school and we might be going to somewhere on the sea in northern Holland. The next week I have no school on Thursday and Friday and 5 days later I will fly off to Berlin with Kayla and Leilani for our CBYX seminar. A week and a half after I get back to Berlin, I will be flying home to Seattle!
I am so happy to be going home, but at the same time, I don't want to leave. I love my host family and my friends at school. I love my soccer team and how happy I am when I play with them. I love Aachen and the narrow cobblestoned streets in the Innenstadt and around the Dom. The flowers are starting to bloom and everything is green again after a long, hard, winter. At the moment, I can't believe that I will be going home. It hasn't registered that in less than 7 weeks I will be sleeping in my bed, meeting my puppy for the first time, and seeing my family again. Weird...
Now that I have probably confused you with all of my grammar and language mistakes, I'll let you go. I have to go to Catholic Religion class anyways!
