I think my family is coping well back home.....Micaela Hadley

School is good, I don't unerstand an awful lot of the language in the classes but often I can follow along given context and drawing on my current vocabulary and previous knowledge. I never thought I'd see the day where math was one of my favourite classes, yet here we are! It's interesting how the schooling compares to Canada. Here no 2 days are the same and some days are shorter than others but I really like it. I have math, german, english, psychology, biology, french, art, communications, chemistry and history. I can't be graded in a number of subjects due to too little data, as I was gone for 3 weeks in an intensive german course provided my school (which was really lovely of them!), however the ones I do have are in english, art and french. They are decent, as I don't fully understand the grading curriculum here I'm not the best judge but from what I've gathered of it I'm doing okay. 

The language is coming well I think. In the house we speak only German and communication is good- they are excellent at explaining. I recently purchased the first Harry Potter book in german- it may take me an hour per page but it's a great exercise. I have children's  books too, however there plot is  a tad boring so I figured I'd challenge myself as well. I find the language more challenging in a school atmosphere as everyone speaks very quickly and they use words I don't understand. However now that I have friends that I feel comfortable around I'm trying to speak all in German and they have agreed to speak german with me so I can learn more. Everyone is really supportive and encouraging and all the positive feedback is really helping! My biggest challenge now is my understanding and being able to translate my proper grammar from writing into speaking. Especially the understanding as I want to have a better grasp of conversation in the school setting. I just need to find more opportunities to speak and be less self conscious of my language skills.

My relationship with my host family is great. They are really lovely and provide me with many opportunities to practice my language and really seem to see me as an adult and treat me as such. My host sister is very sweet, we don't see each other very frequently but she's very pleasant and it's nice because she struggles with english in school so we teach each other. The family is very close and my host step brother is in school for german language but has amazing english so he tutored me for a while and my host step sister have been really amazing and welcoming on the occasions I've met them. Yesterday we went mushroom picking in a German forest as a family and ate them for dinner tonight- it was a cool new experience for me. Very good all round!

Making friends was a bit hard at the beginning as everyone is really pleasant but it is challenging to make close friends with the language barrier and the awkwardness that comes with it. However last week was a project week with school, meaning we spent a week together with just my class and it was the best thing for making friends and I now think I have at least 5 native germans that I could go to, to hang out.

The most fun thing I've done so far is probably a toss up between the exchange weekend in Neurrupin and getting to meet all the other exchange students and put on skits about our countries or the project week with my class. We went to a 'Landgut' in a small community outside my town and had to write scripts for an audio guide about the historical significance of the family (Borsig) that owned it and location on the premises. My group's topic was the Kreisauer Kreis an anti-Hitler group from a variety of different social, economic, political and religious backgrounds who made a plan for after the fall of Hitler- never brought to fruition, but they were a very unique group due to their logical and democratic approach. Unfortunately they were discovered and one of the leaders killed.

I think my family is coping well back home, we've only skyped 2 or 3 times and I think they are numbing the pain of being empty nesters ( ;) )with travelling which is great!
I have met my counsellor and she is lovely! I've attended only one meeting thus far but I hope to attend regularly in the future now that I've got my feet under me. They are very welcoming and I'm supposed to do my presentation in November! It is an excellent opportunity to exercise my language skills so I hope to make it habit.

Ich hoffe du wirst ein gute Monat haben!


Micaela Hadley