Schedule

This week is the first week of official classes here in Bonn, so as requested, I am adding my schedule to this blog to inform everyone what I will be studying here. So the schedule above is a work-in-progress, because a lot of these things will be changed and moved around. Basically the items in blue are classes that I am taking out of the "Auslandsamt" meaning that I am taking them with other non-native German speakers. These classes include Vocabulary and Conversation, German Economics and Trade, and Phonetics. The items in red are more subject to change because they are the classes I will be taking in the University with people who are native German speakers. So far these classes include Germany in Europe 1949-2011, Culture and Social Structure, Region-Building; Regional Integration as a Worldwide Structural Characteristic of International Relations, and The "long" 19th Century: Germany from the French Revolution to the First World War. Two of these classes will probably be dropped, I am seeing which ones I like the best. Then I have signed up for soccer, but this will probably change too, because I am now going to try to play for Ippendorf, which is a local team where I live. Also I have an interview tomorrow with an internship in the area to teach English to kids 7 and below, which will also affect how much classes I will be able to have in my schedule. So I will keep people posted if they are so interested.

This afternoon I watched Shutter Island, Modern Family, and Arrested Development with Bruna and Miguel in German. Arrested Development, believe it or not, was by far the hardest to understand because it was so fast. I find that it is very weird to see german dubbed films, because I know how Leonardo DiCaprio should speak, and when a german voice comes out it is quite weird. Sundays are very lazy because nothing is open, and the weather is also getting bad, so I feel like I have been in hibernation all day.

Plans in formulation for Paris and Amsterdam, hopefully have them figured out by the end of the week.

Also, as I may have told some people, I now have a host family. I was supposed to have dinner with them last week, however the dad had to be taken to the hospital (for what I am not sure) so it has been postponed to a later date. 

Had my first Berliner yesterday, and it was all that I would have expected out of Germany. Fresh, flavorful, not over-the-top. I didn't know until one of the Polish girls told me that American doughnuts are the only ones with holes in them, I did not fact check this, but it seems plausible. People here know funny things about American culture based on what they see on TV. For example during the parade, there was an American-Football team (like the sport, not a team from America) and they had their own cheerleaders who did a lift right in front of us. All of the people who I was with looked at me and said "ohh it is just like the movies." I told Bruna she will have to watch Toddler's and Tiaras sometime to get a true taste of America. Her and Miguel had never heard of Modern Family, so that was fun to watch in German, because it is rather slow and easy to understand.

I have been getting a lot more compliments on my German and my vocabulary. I was telling people that I am kind of proud that know when people hear me speaking German they ask if I am from Great Britain, which I think is a step in the right direction. Hopefully this Phonetics class will help. Any topics that people are curious about here in Germany, ask me on the comments section.