Best Day Yet

Today was AWESOME!  I am so incredibly excited to tell you all about it!!! :D

So.  School.  First period was English.  I've decided that I like the teacher (Frau Fügemann).  Today people had to read aloud their papers about Ground Zero and the buildings that are there now.  After every person, people had to give feedback, and everyone's mistakes were corrected.  Even though I actually speak English, I was slouching in the back corner of the classroom thinking don'tcallonmedon'tcallonme!  Luckily, I was not called on until later, when we were reading a story in the English textbook out loud.  Whew.


It's so funny to listen to everyone's German accents!  Really, quite entertaining.  I can't exactly put it into words, but maybe I can demonstrate when I get home. :)

Then Frau Fügemann started reading an exerpt from a book about a kid whose dad died during 9/11.  For some reason, I started tearing up during.  I was asking myself, "Julia!  What are you doing!?  This is ridiculous!  Stop that right now!  Stop it!"  Stupid tear glands.  I have no idea what those are called, but I'm sure they're not actually called tear glands.  Whatever.

After that came the period where you can pick which class you want to take.  The options (that I know of) are Spanish, EGE (I'm not sure exactly what it stands for–it's history taught in English), and bio-chemistry.  Guess which I chose?

Spanish, duh.  There's never a bad time to start a new language!

Just kidding, I chose EGE.  For the obvious reasons.  (The being taught in English, for those of you who didn't understand.) :)

JK Rowling lolz!

Anyway, Lisa takes bio-chemistry, so another girl showed me the way to the classroom.  She also offered to sit in the back with me so I wouldn't have to sit by myself, which was really nice of her.

For the first time, I had to introduce myself.  DUH-DUH-DUH!!!

The teacher pretty much freaked out over how good my German was. :)  The kids were working on projects, and she said I could be a counselor of sorts, helping them with their English.

I sat by two girls from my class who I wanted to be friends with.  They later went down to the library to work on their project, and I came with them.  They told  me that they hardly ever do anything in the class and that the just do it all at home.  I was also informed that the teacher is a little kooky, which I had kind of gotten the impression of myself.

I spent the whol period with the two girls, Laura and Luisa, and I think I made some progress friend-wise. :)  I showed them some pictures of life in Park City, and I think they were very impressed by the moose pictures. :)

Then I ate lunch with Laura, Luisa and the second Lisa in our class, who lived in America for eight years.

On a random note, the girls' names are all so similar!  Argh!  There are two Lisas, and then there's Luisa, Laura, and Lara.  And, of course, others.

At lunch I noticed something.  There are not very many blonde people!  And Germany is supposed to be, like, the land of blonde hair and blue eyes or something!  WHERE DID ALL THE BLONDES GO?!?  OUR RACE IS DYING OUT!  NOOOOOOOOO!

Third period was the best class of all.  It was religion class, and the teacher was super cool.  First we had to learn about the effects of alcohol, and then....

BUM BUM BUUUUUUUM!

Then the teacher took us to go get ice cream.

Yep.  That's right.  Ice cream.

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG

Apparently, our class had won some sort of "Soccer Night," where ever class plays soccer against each other or something.  Apparently the religion teacher had some sort of Minini (the icecream cafe) coupon, so he told the class he'd take them to ice cream.  Luckily for me, he forgot last week, so he promised to take us this week.


So, after some "learning" (really just waiting to go get ice cream), at 1:00, he told us "Okay, let's go get ice cream," and we were all like:

So we all grabbed our things (and some of us grabbed our bikes that they rode to school on) and walked down a street or two to the ice cream cafe.

It was awesome.

All of the girls sat together and talked, and I got the opportunity to sit with them and get to know them better.  It was really great.  And there was, of course, the eating-ice-cream-instead-of-being-in-school aspect of it.

So, after a great day at school, the day only got better.  Lisa invited me to go to the Rathaus Gallerie, an awesome shopping mall.  She needed to get a Mother's Day present, and I wanted to buy a volleyball.  (I ended up not buying a volleyball because it was 40 euros.  Whaaaa?)

At 3:00 we hopped on our bikes and rode about twenty minutes to the mall.  It was great.  There are, as my grandma's friend told me about half an hour ago, 150 stores in that mall.  Lisa and I went to tons of stores.  I bought a pretty, super soft infinity scarf that I'm really excited about.  Lisa bought two shirts and a Mother's Day present.

While we were shopping, I could actually pretend I was in America.  All the stores played American music, and a lot of shirts had English words on them.  Wow, America is just so cool! ;)  It actually is in Germany, though.  Everyone listens to American music and I constantly get asked if I like "Justin Biebah" or "One Dy-wection."  :) German accents are so cute!

Then we passed a store.  No.  The store.  The ultimate store.  The CHOCOLATE STORE!!  It was awesome.  There were things like frogs, soccer balls, beer bottles, iPads, cameras and more completely made out of chocolate!  They also had a big display of truffles and a wall of different types of gummy candies.  It was awesome!  Oh wait, I already said that.  That's okay; it deserves to be said twice!

 Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is made out of chocolate.  And it was less than ten euros.

 More chocolate goodies

 About a third of the huge truffle table.  AHHHHH!!!!

Indeed, that too is made out of chocolate.  I wonder what would happen if I put my foot in it....

I had a great time shopping.  First of all, shopping is always fun. ;) But I got to spend time with Lisa and participate in "bonding time."  I couldn't think of a better name for it.  I felt like we were really good friends, and we could share our opinions on clothes with each other honestly.  It was, essentially, the reason I came to Germany: to make German friends and participate in German culture.

By the end of our three-hour-long shopping escapade, Lisa and I were both incredibly thirsty.  We got a bottle of fizzy lemonade stuff at the huge grocery store at the mall.  Yes, there was a grocery store in the mall.  We sat down and literally just drank the whole thing.  Chug chug chug, pass to the other person, chug chug chug, and so on.  Because we now had an empty bottle, we could bring the bottle back into the store and put it in the bottle recycler machine.  It's pretty much this whole in the wall with a conveyor belt thingie, and you put your bottle on it.  Then you get this slip of paper that you take to the counter, and you get 25 cents!  WHY CAN'T THE U.S HAVE SOMETHING LIKE THIS?  WHY?  And of course I forgot to take a picture of it.  Sigh.

Our stomachs just slightly cramped ;) after drinking so much lemonade, we got back on our bikes and drove home.  The end. :)

A friend of my grandma's came over for a few minutes during dinner.  The only reason I'm putting this in is to tell you, in awe, that she speaks five languages!  She's a native German speaker, took about nine years of Latin, six years of Greek, I-don't-know-how-many-years-I-think-five-or-something years of French, and one year of English.   :O

Overall my day was:

 For those poor people who have never been on Pinterest ;), that is Success Kid

It really made me look forward to my whole stay in Germany.  Yay! :D


The Sunflower Project: Another sprout!  Whoop whoop! :D  The others better get a move on because we've got two months to do this thing!

 I praise thee, O Small and Green One

German word of the day: Schal.  Pronounced SCHAHL.  The meaning is SCARF. :)