Fünfte Monat (Month #5), time for yet another post (:
This month has come and gone and brought with it snow, family gatherings, a handful of holidays, and tons more. The months seem to be getting shorter, and December is proof. It feels like last week that I was worrying about Thanksgiving and finding a way to Skype with the fam back home, and now its already 2011 and time is running out... I still don't know what to do when this year is over.
At the beginning of the month, there is a holiday for St. Nikolaus, who is kinda like Santa but not exactly, who brings presents for the children and tells them what is good and bad about them, and also a holiday for the Krampus, which is like a big, hairy devil, and people dress up as Krampuses and beat people with sticks..its like at the beginning of Decemeber is good vs. evil and everyone celebrates. We got together as a family and my father pretended to be St. Nikolo and gave us all presents and chocolate. Then in the middle of the month was another family gathering where we drove out of Vienna and went to my aunt's house and all ate together, the whole family, and just hung out. Then my grandparents came to stay with us for the holidays, and after a couple days my other grandmother came too, so I had to give up my room and now I'm staying with my sister, Jojo, until my grandmother leaves again, but not for long, because then I will be leaving too.
I went to a musical with my mom, called "Ich War Noch Niemals In New York", and it was really, really cool. I am looking forward to going to at least one more before I return to the states.
I will be working to earn money for the EuroTour at the end of the year, and so I will be tutoring children in English, and I worked in a Punschstand near Stephansdom (the wicked famous church in the citycenter), so I earn a lot of money towards the trip, and my Rotary club will pay the rest (: They have been really nice and really generous towards me (other than making me change families :[ ..) haha but I am really happy with how things turned out and that I am in the club I'm in and the other exchange students around me. Close but not too close..we only see each other when we both want to, which doesn't happen as often as it could (: But I am really excited for the EuroTour, because its 17 days long and we'll go to Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Monoco, and Italy. I'm wicked psyched :D
Yesterday I went to my first movie (in a cinema) and saw the Tourist (in German) and understood everything.. I was so proud of myself ^^ My German is coming along really well. We had a German test in the middle of the month, and I was so worried, but then when we actually had it it wasn't as hard as they said it was, and I got the third best score: 31/40 Grammar, 5/5 Writing. We were only supposed to get about 20 of the 40 Grammar points, and the two who did better than I did have had experience with German and can speak fluently already.
There are a couple others from my group who already dream in German, which means that the language is in your head and you can think in the language without a problem. I am still waiting, but I think I'm close because when I try to think in English half of the words are German and I get really confused, often saying things I would say in German but not in English. Even with the other exchange students, when we all talk to each other I find myself answering questions in German just because I happen to be thinking it, and everyone always looks at me like 'What the heck? You speak English too'. A little bit embarrassing sometimes, but whatever, I'm here to learn German.
Soon a new exchange student will be here, Jamie, from Australia, and he will be coming to my family first. So I get bumped and he gets my room, my bed, my bathroom, and my family. He might even get my cell phone...who knows.