Laughing at Yourself is Healthy :)

As an austauch, I make a lot of mistakes while speaking. Thankfully, everyone still knows what I'm saying most of the time, but that doesn't keep them from laughing about it. Of course, I laugh too, but I typically don't know why I'm laughing until someone explains. Any alumni austauch or person who has spent time abroad in general knows that the first quarter of your year is spent doing exactly that- laughing without having any idea why. And nodding, lots of nodding. So anyway, because it's always healthy to laugh at yourself, I figured I'd let y'all laugh with me.

~List of Painlich Sprache Mistakes~

-In no particular order-

1. I attempted to say, "I'm ready!" Apparently bereit (ready) and breit (under the influence) *spelling mistake somewhere in there I'm sure* sound the same to me because I went on to yell aloud "I'm high!!" during gym class. 

2. Tried encouraging a friend to go to sleep...

What I tried to type- "Schlafen ist gesund!"

What I typed instead- "Schlagen ist gesund!"

Yeah, let me translate that for you. I told him that beating is healthy. 

3. Tried to tell Svenja I wanted to cook with her.

Told Svenja I wanted to cook her.

4. For the past month I've been saying "Good nude!" to my family before bed rather than "Good night!"

On the subject of vocabulary and whatnot, I feel as though I should mention that I'm slowly losing English words. I think I already mentioned the Spülmaschine incident where I forgot that it means dishwasher auf Englisch, but you know it's getting really serious when you forget thr English word for Ampel. Caro asked me what it was and I stood there for at least three minutes trying to remember before Hadia finally told us that Ampel is traffic light in English. The best I had come up with was "street light". That's the closest I got.

Basically, you have to be able to laugh at yourself to be an exchange student in a foreign country. It's 100% necessary and should probably be one of the 5000 questions on the initial application.

In other news, I went to a play called Kabale und Liebe with my German class and it was interesting to say the least. I really didn't understand the plot line until seeing the play, then realized it's basically a German Romeo and Juliet. Except in the gGerman version they drank glowing green liquid, died, and then rose from the dead to dance to Rammstein. It was really truly great though, and it was about an hour away so I got to go on my first school trip since arriving in Germany. On our way to the theater we stopped by Dunkin Donuts and ate blue donuts. :) It was so much fun to spend time getting to know a few of the girls better, and I'm definitely grateful they let me tag along with them. Three cheers for new friends!

Miriam spent the week in Munich and Sarah spent the week in London so I had the week alone with my host parents, which was just as fabulous as ever. Monday, unfortunately, I got sick in the morning so I spent majority of the day asleep, but when dinner came around Adelheid made me some rice so I could eat dinner with them and not upset my stomach again (which I thought was super sweet) and thn we watched more Star Wars. It was a sick day, but it was a good sick day. Tuesdy I went with Adelheid to a yoga class she was instructing, which is so cool because, guys. My host mom instructs yoga. I've found that I actually enjoy yoga, so that'll probably stick. Wednesday was the play, and I came home around 2200, I think. That was the day I felt like I flipped my language switch. I had previously depended on English as a crutch pretty often, but since Wednesday I'm pretty sure the only English I have spoken was to my boyfriend. I'm getting a lot more comfortable with the language. But yeah, I came home pretty late and my phone had been dead since the play. I feel as though this is a good example of how important host family/ exchange student communication is. When I told Adelheid I didn't text to check in because my phone had died she said "oh, that's why!" If I hadn't explained that, they may have gone on to think I was irresponsible and not considerate enough to check in, because that was my first time going out without my sisters. It's very important that you go out of your way to explain things as an exchange student, even if they are things you wouldn't have to do back home. (I don't have to check in with Dad. He has people tail me and keep tabs everytime I go out.) On Thursday,  our remote wouldn't work so we ended up watching "Die Show der Unglaublichen Helden." It was one of those game shows where the competitions are sporty and let me tell you; There's nothing to make you feel bad about yourself like a 76 year old woman doing a headstand. Today is Friday and Sarah and Miriam are comng home! Ich freue mich. :) 

We're going to Stuttgart tomorrow and staying until Tuesday. I'll probably post again around that time. Today was my last day of school before two weeks of fall break. I'm hoping to meet up with Isabell over break, a friend that I met before coming to Germany. I'll explain that when I post about our meetup.

I'm planning on making Thanksgiving dinner for my host family, so if anyone (Grammies, Ginnie, Dad) has recipes they wanna share with me or just ideas, let me know! I know some people have had a difficult time commenting on my blog so feel free to email/ Facebook me please!

That's all I can come up with to update y'all on currently. My return date is June 14th, so if anyone wants to plan to send be a Welcome Home dancing songagram, that'd be the day to do it.

Caro and I mit Blau donuts! :)