Busy Busy Exchange Student

According to my English teacher here, I do not speak proper english. He lived for nine months in England to study english and for him, British english is more correct than American english. A couple weeks ago Goethe Schule introduced two exchange students from Carlisle, England. They were here for only one week for the second half of the exchange between our school and theirs: two students from my class had earlier in the year traveled to Carlisle. Their names were Emma and Ewa (pronounced Eva). This of course immediately reminded me of our close family friends Emma and Eva Charlesworth-Seiler. Both girls were very nice and we instantly connected through english. That day there was also introduced another student from England. He will be staying for the next four or five months as an english teaching assistant. Ewa was in a different class, so the only two British people were Emma and Ed, the teaching assistant. Emma came a little bit later to class and when she arrived, my english teacher promptly proclaimed, "Wow! Now we have two natural english speakers in the class!" Ummmmm, hello? I've been here all year. My class is very outspoken, so naturally my classmates spoke on my behalf. It was a little awkward.


Here Ewa, Emma and I are standing on the top of the Goethe Schule, arguably one of the best views of Flensburg city (Ewa is wearing the white scarf).

On Tuesday the 25th of February I gave my twenty minute presentation to my Rotary club. My presentation was about my life here in Minnesota and Northfield and then about my experiences abroad. I was extremely nervous, but the presentation went smoothly and I didn't faint. The Rotarians laughed at the appropriate times and seemed genuinely interested. Afterwards I was complimented on my german and speaking skills. One woman even said, "It wasn't boring at all!"All in all I'm glad I went first. Now my presentation is done and I can sit back and relax.

Of course, not that I'll literally be relaxing. If you were to look at my calendar almost every single day has something going on. This will probably be my only blog entry in March and soon you will see why.

None of these events have actually occurred yet, so plans may change.


Here is a brief overview:

March 6th we drive to Hamburg and then on the 7th we fly to Italy. There, along with my host family (Hermann, Julia, Carla and Hermann) and some of their friends we will ski and snowboard in the Italian Alps until the 16th of March. I am, needless to say, extremely excited.

The next day, Monday, I will travel to Schleswig with my classmates to enjoy a theater production. Once I return home I leave again promptly for a new german course.

The german course runs until the 14th of April, Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 5-9pm.

On the 20th of March my classmates and I travel to Kiel to visit the University of Kiel. I then return for my german course.

The 21st of March is the first day of our last orientation. It will take place on the island Föhr and will last the entire weekend. This entire orientation will be based on our upcoming Euro Tour.

On the 27th of March I miss a german course in order to drive to Berlin with Antje and Lorenz, my first host parents. We return on the 30th and then I've got a lot of work ahead of me.

The 31st of March at 6 o'clock I switch host families. Yes, that is a Monday.

Things slow down for the most part after that. I still attend my deutsch course three times per week until the 14th of April.

The 16th of April marks the beginning of Spring Break!!!!! During which, I hope to travel to Stuttgart with Lotta, a fellow exchange student. Our plans are nowhere near concrete yet, but we're working hard to get all the signatures required.

Spring Break ends on the 2nd of May, a Friday. Two days later on Monday all the exchange students embark on a journey of a lifetime, Euro tour. Our itinerary is such:

Prag-Wien-Lido di Jesolo-Punta Sabbioni-Venedig-Florenz-Rom-Savona-Paris-Amsterdam

Not too shabby, ehh?

We return to Hamburg the 24th of May and then my calendar is seemingly blank. My days have been planned out for me up until the end of May. I know I don't write on my blog that often anyway, but I have a feeling we won't really be catching up until June. I hope everyone reading is well and I wish you all the very best over the next three months!

Tschüs!!! Bis nachher!!