AFS Germany Student Exchange 2016-2017: Weeks #2, 3, & 4- Adjustment

General:

Overall, my experience so far has been pretty awesome. I'm really happy with my host family. A lot of the 'warnings' given to us students going to Germany by AFS haven't been true as far as my family goes. I know that all AFS is trying to do is prepare us for the worst possible situation, but my family really got a kick out of it when I told them some of the things we were told before we left Washington. AFS had a guy come in who was from Germany, and he'd lived in the US for the past 20 or so years. He gave us plenty of 'tips' that I, for one, haven't found even the slightest bit relevant. My family is incredibly laid-back. People here certainly do have a sense of humor. I don't have to wear my clothes any longer than I would in the US. Water conservation is not 'of the utmost importance,' at least not to anyone I've talked to as of yet. The only thing that I was told that I really have had to do is to squeegee the shower after I'm done with it, but there's a perfectly good (and not cultural) reason behind that. (The water has a lot of calcium in it and thusly creates lime stains unless it's cleaned of the metal bits of the shower).

I honestly haven't experienced all that much culture shock- at least not as much as I was expecting to. Sure, the buildings, cars, and surroundings sure are different than what I'm used to, but the people really aren't. One of the things that I was told was that "I'd be lucky if I had three friends by the end of the year,". Maybe the people here have a different definition of "friend" than I do, but I for one think I've already got a whole lot more than 3 friends. I will admit that most of them aren't German- I'm friends with basically everybody in the VKL (immigrant) classes. Don't get me wrong though, I've made friends with a few of the German kids in my classes too. I must say that even though they vehemently deny it, even the people here that "speak no English" speak English very well. It's really quite impressive, the level of proficiency people have. Please ignore how much of a braggart this makes me sound like, but I'm quite surprised at myself with how quickly I'm beginning to understand German. There was a week there where I really didn't feel like I was improving at all, but as of right now, I'm actually pretty happy with how much I've learned. I had to give a short presentation in Art today about the architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, and while I felt pretty bad about it, people told me that they were surprised how good it actually was. Might I say that my English⇒German dictionary is my best friend. School isn't very easy, but that's mostly because I don't usually know what my assignments want me to do. I think in a few months once I can understand it better, I won't have so much trouble in my classes. Right now the classes I have with German students are Math, Biology, Chemistry, Art, Geography, and Sports. I have History, English, German, and Integration with the VKL classes.

Okay, I'm going to be honest here. I knew when I started that this wasn't always going to be fun; there are ups and downs. I'm going to go out and say that right now is one of the 'downs.' I haven't been feeling too great for the past few days, and my initial excitement is really beginning to wear off. It's really quite hard to explain, but I just kind of feel down. However that doesn't mean that I'm not still excited, and I know that I'll be 'up' again sometime in the near future for one reason or another.

Travelling:

Last weekend, we went to Stuttgart and had breakfast at the top of the first telecommunications tower in the world to be made with reinforced concrete, the Stuttgart TV Tower. In the bulb at the top
are multiple cafés, all with very '50s-esque interiors. From almost 500 feet up, you can see for miles around Stuttgart on a clear day. Unfortunately, it was muggy and rainy when we went. Still, it was a really nice view from the top. We also visited the Castle Solitude, a

Castle Solitude. Baroque architecture. Take note, AP Euro Students.

quite pretty Baroque period castle to the West of Stuttgart.

I've also been to two soccer games while I've been here, both of the Stuttgart team, VfB Stuttgart. Almost every major city has its own team, and the cities are divided into divisions depending on how well they've done in the past. Stuttgart is usually in the 1st division (the best one), but this year they're in the 2nd division due to their subpar performance last year. Stuttgart has won both games so far, and the fans can get really into it. There's an entire section of the stadium where all the 'hardcore fans' stand, waving huge Stuttgart flags and singing songs in order to show their support of the team. When a goal is scored, everyone in the stadium- for lack of a better term- freaks out. It's pretty wild, but I really like it.

I'm sorry that I didn't post until now. I want to try to make it more regular in the future. There are some more pictures below, and have a good one.