The Past Week...

For all of you who have been wondering, the past week of language camp has been a bit difficult seeing as she almost always talks in German and we do not always understand her. My host family has also been trying to speak more German at home, which is a good thing, if frustrating at times. My host brother Thierry won't speak English with me, even though I know he knows English. You start to feel a bit stupid when everyone has to speak English for you and you think you should know how to say something in German. Unfortunately, few of us really know anything more than simple greetings. Yeah, learning which noun takes der or die or das is important, but not very helpful in conversation. On occasion, we actually understand something, usually when we are not tired, and then we don't know how to respond in German. This is going to take some work.......

On Thursday, I went with my host sister Kim around Bern and we saw a lot of it. I finally saw the bears. I've also realized that if you head in any direction you will arrive at one of two things; der Bahnhof (the train station) or the Aure (the river in Bern). From there, you can get anywhere in Bern. Bryanne and Helena (the other Brazilian exchange student) joined us later on it was fun.

On Friday, everyone from my language camp stayed in Bern for lunch, with the exception of two people. The boys decided to take off, so us ladies got ice cream and found the make up section of a store unintentionally. That would have been fun, if I actually cared about make up and painting my nails. After that, I slept over Bryanne's house. Christina, Stefan, Brigitta, and Kurt all had a party to go to, so they made these arrangements. It was a lot of fun. We made our own pizza at about 10 pm. Bryanne taught herself a song on the piano so I got to hear some good music. I was telling her about my latest story and she gave me some good ideas.

The next morning we got up at 11 and went to Murten, which is this cute little town by a lake. It was really nice there and we saw a giant chessboard. I liked it a lot. When I got home I actually went in the pool. It was a good day.

My Welcome Orientation was Sunday. There were way too many people there. Lots of exchange students which was nice, but it was very crowded. We got into groups and went over the rules and presented our rule to everyone there. Mine did a skit on sexual harassment.

Today was my first Rotary meeting. I think it went well. I had to introduce myself in German. At the end I was invited to a classical music concert in Luzern by a Rotarian on Wednesday, so that should be fun. It's formal and it's the premier of this piece. Then I came home and studied German before going to Bryanne's house (again) for a party. I met a Rebound student named Yuri. He was in California last year. It was interesting.

Sorry, no pictures this time. I have some but I really need to go to bed so they will be put up at another time. If you have any comments or questions or something, please, please write it below. It's hard to tell how many people are reading this blog if no one leaves any comments.

Tah Tah For Now (TTFN)