Krankheit

Since Friday, I've had a bit of a cold. It sucks, but I'm surviving. Hopefully, I'll get over it soon.

On Saturday, my hostsister and I went to this mall in Bremen called Waterfront (yes, it has an English name). It's pretty cool. It sits right along the Weser and is in the shape of a triangle. It was fun to spend a bit of time with my hostsister, and I bought some new clothes, which is always nice. However, part of the way there was not so fun.

The weather was pretty warm that day, and for part of the trip, we had to ride the bus. The bus was packed with nowhere to sit. It even warmer than outside and had no fresh air. I had to hold on to handles on either side just to not fall because there was a lot of starting and stopping and sharp turns. Eventually, that all got to me. It started to be a bit hard to see, hear and concentrate. Thankfully, my hostsister looked after me and got me into a more open area. Once we got off the bus and onto the street train where I could sit, things got better. I'm really glad my hostsister was there to help me (Danke!)!

On Sunday, my hostparents and I went to this nearby town where there was a small festival going on. This festival was showing how life was like living on the moor. It was really pretty interesting. There were some reconstructed buildings from the time and a lot of artifacts, too. There were also demonstrations of how some work was done then (washing clothes, smithing, baking, etc). Under the main tent, live music was being played. The whole atmosphere of it reminded me so much of our little Oktoberfest. I'm a bit sad I have to miss that this year, but I think getting the chance to live in Germany for a year is worth it!

Sunday night, I skyped with my family in the States. They were at my grandma's place. It was such a nice surprise to get to see her again! I had fun catching up with them, and it was nice to see that not too much has changed, yet. However, I did notice that it was kind of hard to think of how to say something in English. A couple of times, I thought of the reply in German first, couldn't figure out how to say it in English, and just went with the literal translation. I don't think they really noticed.

Today, I stayed home from school. A combination of a bit of homesickness, being sick and really not wanting to do gym (which has so far involved just a ton of running) when it's already hard to breathe made me really not want to go in. My hostmom was really understanding, which helped a lot. After I had breakfast, she took me on a walk to the postoffice. We took a path through a small woods and a field or two. Along the way, she helped to clarify some German grammar. She also told me I don't have a strong American accent, which is always nice to hear. After the postoffice, we bought some pastries, took a look at the town's cemetary (which is really different from any I've seen), and then headed home. We ate our pastries and then I listened to and read along with a children's audio book. After that, we ate lunch, and now I'm resting up a bit before dinner. Things are looking good!

I had the thought to either do a comparison between either Germany as a whole to the US, or between Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony) and Thüringen (Thuringia) in my next post. Let me know which you'd like to see and if you have an topic ideas.

Bis später!