So. Sorry, I don't really have any applicable pictures to add to this post, so you'll just have to be happy with text to read. But that's how life goes! Not all the time is it the most interesting, right?
In case you're wondering what I'm doing with my time.... Today, for instance, I went to Jugendchor, the choir for kids between ages 12 and 16 (alright, I don't fit the criteria, but there are only ten or so kids, so they were happy to get another voice). Although I sometimes wonder if I wouldn't better fit somewhere else; more than once I feel like just telling the other kids to knock it off and focus! But yet, in the adult choir where I also sing (one of the new things I picked up here in Germany is singing, obviously), I definately don't fit either. Usually I want to bring a bit more action and energy to practice, but the "oldies" don't really appreciate my attempts, I think! So maybe I'm just best off singing on my own or something. Or I've just got to suck it up and live with it, right?
Next thing I love doing: reading the newspaper. Most of the time I just skim the headlines, and if something sounds interesting, I read it. But I try to at least keep up with topics that are pretty important these days (I decide that something is a major discussion if it shows up within the first four pages for about a week in a row). This is a vielfaeltiger Vorteil (many-sided advantage???); I know what's going on, so I can participate in discussions in Politics class, I can discuss these issues with others I meet and see what they think of the topics, and I'm improving my German at the same time! Yeah, it's such formal German, but that's helpful for tests and such.
So, now I have a (better) idea of what's going on in the world these days than I had before! For instance, the debate about Julia Timoschenko (oh yeah, I didn't even need to go look up the name in the papers, that's how on top of it I am! I'm so proud of myself), her treatment in prison, and how Germany, the European Union, and the world should react.
There are also a lot of political debates, of course. One of the most recent ones was about Betreuungsgeld, whether stay-at-home parents should receive money from the government just to look after their kids themselves. I find this discussion very interesting, because I can understand the viewpoint of both sides. On the one side, some parents may not have enough income from only one job, and the bit of extra money may just be enough to help keep them on their feet. But on the other side, there's the argument that this encourages parents to keep their kids at home until they go into first grade (Kindergarten is like preschool here; it's totally optional and is for kids about 3-4 years old). This is very important to Germany as they try to solve the problem of immigrants who inadvertantly keep themselves separate instead of mixing in with life here (not learning the language, only hanging out with people of their own culture). When the children of such families remain at home until they are required to attend school, this "aloofness" is passed to the next generation. The decision in the government was "no" to this suggestion, but the debate continues on.
On to less heftig topics. The weather here has taken a turn towards summer! Today it was 25 degrees Celsius and sunny. The whole weekend it was nice as well. It's almost too dry--normally there's a lot of rain with the heat as well, but this year it's not. Which, of course, is not as pleasant for the crops... And for the risk of fires. But while the sun shines, it's just a bummer that I've got to sit in school for most of the day... Ah well, I knew that was coming when I signed up for this exchange!
School is going great! I fit in really well in my class, my classmates are all really friendly, and the teachers know me well enough now to know how to react to me in class. We're going to start taking tests really soon, because there are some different rules in school about how often tests can be taken; only one per day, and a maximum of three per week! But they're a lot more difficult than tests in the USA. And time is starting to get a bit short-- we've got quite a few days off because of holidays in the near future, and when you consider that we only have subjects once a week... It's a bit tight!!!
So. There you have it. I'm still alive. And doing well! And that's that for now.
