*Phew...* I’m finally all caught up with my time schedule, classes and German life. The Christmas play I’m in for the church is coming together quite well. I’m a boy named Olly and the entire play is about putting together another play (The Christmas Story). It’s pretty hilarious. I have like 6 lines, but it’s enough for me.
In German class we had to write a Diktat (it’s where our teacher reads aloud an artical or some text and we have to write down what he says, placing the commas and capital letters ((which is difficult in German)) in the correct places. I participated, but the teacher didn’t count my grade because it is really difficult even for the native German speakers in my class. I got the paper back yesterday and I made a lot less mistakes than I thought I would. I only did a little worse than the worst grade in the class. Which is pretty good for only learning a little German grammar, spelling, etc. with a teacher in my German class I go to at nights in the Volkshochschule. Speaking of German grammar, today in German in the normal school we started a section on Active and Passive sentences. And I ended up answering quite a few of the questions our teacher had for us and everyone was quite surprised that I know German grammar “better than they do”. The language is learned naturally for them like English for me. Sometimes I can’t answer some of the grammar questions we have in English class!
Yesterday I presented my 5 minute speech about Iowa. It was fun and very simple. I ended up with a 1 (which is an A).
Ahhhhh Christmas time in Germany. Yesterday Adelheid, my host-mom, hung a snowman, that has lots of pockets on it, on my door. Sven and Saskia each have a Christmas Tree with pockets on their door. Each one has 25 pockets on it! It’s a countdown until Christmas! In each pocket is a different kind of candy and we eat one per day until Christmas.
The other day was my host-family’s great grandma’s 90th birthday. We met up with the family and had a big meal at a local restaurant. It was nice.
I’m on the far left, then it goes (left to right); Adelheid’s cousin, brother, husband (Hermann my Host-Dad), Adelheid, Sven (My Host-Brother), Adelheid’s other cousin, Adelheid’s cousin’s wife, Adelheid’s uncle, cousin-in-law, NEW ROW. Adelheid’s aunt, Grandma (Happy Birthday!), mom. And the two in the front are Saskia (My Host-Sister) and Saskia and Sven’s cousin Tanja.
All-in-all I’ve been having a great time experiencing the beginings of a German Christmas, and I can’t wait to perform with the adult choir I’m in at Bietigheim’s Christmas Market.
Gruß (Greetings),
McKinly
