foreign viewpoint

Final post

2009-05-23T10:45:00.001-07:00

So, this is my final post now. And as required, I´ll reflect my blogging experience once again.

In the beginning of the school year (or our project ”Blog”) I thought “What the heck, do I really have to do that?”. I couldn´t think of anything to blog about. And even today after 6 months of blogging and 43 post, it´s still kind of hard for me to come up with something meaningfully to blog about. I always tried to not just write some stuff to meat the requirement and be done. I wanted to write something people would actually enjoy reading. If I would have to give myself a grade, I´d fail. I tried but my blogs are overall not very interesting. It was hard for me to find something to write about without giving too many information about myself. Because I still don´t really like the thought that my opinion is out there in the internet and if there was some creeper, who would read all my posts and do some research, they would know quite a bit about me. I guess I am old school with that, but I´m not happy with the general idea of that.

Well, in the end it turned out that my post aren´t interesting enough for anyone to read anyway and I am more than perfectly fine with that.

I also thought in the beginning that no one else would have anything interesting to write about in my class. That everyone would just write their typical teenage stuff, which would bore everyone to the end. But I have to admit, I was totally wrong with that. There are some blogs like that out there, but the majority is really great! Kids have something to say. The bad thing for me personally was just, that I realized how poor my own blog is, when I read some other students posts.

I don´t think that I will keep blogging, but over all and in the end I think it was a good experience and definitely something different and (sometimes) fun.

Post in German

2009-05-14T09:50:00.001-07:00

Okay, once again it’s Thursday, which means it’s blogging timeJ. I always wanted to do this and I hope that my Mr. Teacher is fine with that. I’ll go and blog in German!
Partly because no one can understand it, which means that the quality of my blog does not have to be that great (which is not a factor anymore since my blogs are decreasing in quality so bad, that it is I am just ashamed if I read other students blogs. By the way; Good job everyone!!! Really, I thought in the beginning that the whole blooging thing is a bad idea, but it turns out that I was wrong. I read a couple blogs of other kids and am truly surprised; most of them do have to say something, something interesting. It appears to me that I am one of the few who seem to have fairly extreme boring blogs. But like I said earlier, I don’t want to put the effort into it anymore, I just want to get done with it. Sorry.).

Okay, back to topic: I’ll start blooging in German now:

Also, erstmal muss ich sagen, dass es schon komisch ist wieder mal deutsch zu schreiben, aber auch cool. Ich freg mich ob irgendjemend das hier irgendwann mal lessen wird. Wahrscheinlich nicht. Ich mach das ja auch nur aus langerweile aus. Ja ich weiss, ich bin schon sehr deprimiert.
Also ich habe nur noch 8 Schultage, bevor mein kleines High School Leben hier zu ende ist. Schon ein komisches Gefuehl. Ich muss schon sagen, im Allgemeinen war mein jahr hier schon echt spitze, aber ich freu mich auch schon wieder nach Hause zu kommen. Meine Weissheitszaehne gezogen zu bekommen und mal wieder Brot zu Fruehstueck zu essen. Fahhrrad fahren und nach Mitternacht nach Hause kommen. Klingt doch wie ein schoenes Leben, oder nicht?

Und natuerlich freue ich mich schon darauf bald wieder alle meine Freunde zu sehen, denn ich hab doch schon so langsam die Schnautze voll, von all den Leuten in meinen klassen. Ich bin -und werde auch immer bleiden- ein Anti-Kid.
Ich glaube, das ist es nun, mein Eintrag auf deutsch. Ich werd jetzt den Rest der Stunde nutzten und fuer Stipendien nach Frankreich gucken.

Loosing? Gaining weight

2009-05-12T10:14:00.001-07:00

Summer comes and with the warm weather the wish to look better comes as well. I mean the wish to loose weight in particular.
Before I came to the US everyone made fun of me gaining weight. I was never a very skinny person but with luck my weight was always average. And I actually never cared, if there are 5 pieces of pie and I want to eat them, then I do. My family knows this habit of mine and thought that I would gain so much that I’d be hard to recognize after a couple of months. Isn’t that wonderful loving family?
But I never minded their saying, I was actually more their opinion, even though I thought betting about my weight was a little too much.
Well, it turned out that I actually didn’t gain that much weight. Maybe 2 pounds. I gained some fed and lost some muscle, but overall I’m very surprised. Of course my family still says that I look a bit chunkier, but how do they know, they just saw pictures and even if they would never admit to be wrong.
But why didn’t I gain weight? I think I just got lucky with the people I live here. I NEVER go to any fast food restaurant. I eat fruit salad.
Now so close to the end I realized something else. The worry to gain a ton of weight in the back of my mind prevented me of gaining weight. But didn’t I totally miss the American food culture then? Eating dinner at home every single night is not very American. And I realized that this was my lifetime opportunity to eat as much fast food as I wanted. To try out new things. I had one Dr. Peppers, went to Wendy’s, McDonald’s and KFC once in 10 months. I never ate lunch outside the cafeteria (okay, cafeteria food might be unhealthy enough).
So, now it the last weeks I kind of try to catch up on unhealthy food, but I think I am just too much gourmet to really enjoy fast food. Anyway, I definitely don’t swerve around it anymore, everyone clear in mind tries to loose weight at this time of the year and I just to the oppositeJ.

Why do we live?

2009-05-12T09:44:00.000-07:00

I think every one has at some point in their life this thought of feeling pointless. I mean why are we doing all this?
Why do we study, clean the house, if everything is just temporary. I mean we are actually just ants in the universe, so tiny that even the word tiny is still too big. We are born; we go to school, eventually college, work, have a couple children, marry, maybe divorce, work a little more and die.
Are we doing all of this just for the weekend, for the 20 days vacation? So that we can do something fun then, something that makes our existence valuable?
I personally feel that if you have something you’re pretty good at, then it might be worth it, but what if you’re just average? Average everything, average grades, average talent, average entrepreneurship, just average. Isn’t it extremely depressing to think that you’ll leave the world and everyone will forget about your existence in a few decades?

I am young so that’s my excuse of thinking so deeply, but I think that everyone feels pointless sometimes. I just hope that everyone has a person who matters to them. That’s what I found out for myself, you don’t live just for yourself, you live for another person, a person who cares for you.
Maybe there’s even THE person out there somewhere. But that is a whole other story; I don’t want to get into.

Mother`s Day

2009-05-10T09:14:00.000-07:00

Today is Mother`s Day and I just think that this is a very unnecessary holiday. I think it is just there so that businesses can make more money then all of this is supposed to lead people to spend more money on some stupid “I love you mom”- gifts.

Anyway, if you need a special day to thank your mom, to do something special for her, then you should better not do it in the beginning. I mean if you really love your mom and want to thank her for what she is doing on a day to day basis, then you should do it on a random day. Wouldn´t that mean much more to her , since you realized what she is doing for you WHITHOUT a calendar telling you that it is time to thank your mother.

School, waiting or me

2009-05-05T10:02:00.001-07:00

I have to go back to Germany and finish my basic school education which will take two more years, so I’ll be almost old before I even go to college. The thought that I will have to go to school again in Germany is actually the main point why I really don’t want to go back (I don’t tell that my family, they still think I can’t wait to get back, I just didn’t want to hurt their feelings, if you can understand maybe).
Two more years just seems so endless long to me right now. I am a little spoiled since I just took more or less enjoyable and fun classes over here. But this will have an end pretty soon. I am actually really scared that I don’t make it. School in Germany is a lot harder and I just missed a school year, which means there is tons of make-up work waiting for me over the summer. And I will have to take classes I don’t like and I suck at again something like Chemistry.

It’s weird to think that I could just go to college here now, but in Germany I need two more years of “High School” if you want to call it that. I was even thinking about doing that but than the smarter half of my brain told me that it is just way too expensive here and I could get it for free if I wait a little more. And most things I could do here are not going to be recognized in Germany, which means I would have to stay in the US then. Not cool.

So I’ll go back to Germany and finish school. Period. End of the discussion. My dream kind of would be just going to France next year for a year to improve my French and get to know their culture a little better, but I thing that has to wait until college. And after France South America is waiting on my list J.

Another party

2009-05-05T09:26:00.000-07:00

Today is el Cinco de Mayo. I did not even know about it till a couple of days ago and I just learned today what you celebrate at that day. On may 5th (cinco de Mayo) 1862 the Mexicans (strongly outnumbered 2000 to 6000 against the strongest army of the world at that time) defeated the French who tried to invade their country, because Mexico could not pay their debts back in time. So the super brave Mexicans fought for their land, their country and their love (okay the last part was added by me) and won! This all was in the city of Puebla.
Anyway it is a nice story and a good reason to celebrate. Especially for me since we had once again a little fiesta in Spanish Class with cookie, brownies and tons of chips (yes, I know, this is very Mexican).

This all made me realize how many little celebrations there are in the US. Of course since everyone comes from another country or culture and the American are people very nice, we just celebrate all holidays from all over the world. I think it’s nice since I get to eat cookies in Spanish Class on St. Patricks Day, El Dia de losMuertos (Day of the Death), Earth Day, … as you can see there is always something to celebrate J!
And there are a lot of days I’ve not even heard about and I like to learn what other cultures celebrate and why!

Blogging

2009-05-01T09:41:00.000-07:00

I know I addressed this now several times, but I am just going to do it again. Today is May Day which means that my last month here starts. Or my last real month, I’ll still be here in the beginning of June, but just not in Iowa anymore.
It feels weird and I want to do so many things that I feel like I wasted my time before. No I didn’t waste it, but anyway:

It feels just wrong to me to have to spend my time blogging. I know that I am just complaining and that writing 700 words a week is not too much for an LA class, but still. I wanted to have a good blog, a blog where I actually would say something, something people 9or at least some) would enjoy reading about. Ha! Maybe I dreamed too high in the beginning but I think that’s what you’re supposed to do or not? I mean if you not even dream high how should you ever get high? (Funny, funny, two meanings.) But back to topic:
I don’t want to spend my time blogging, when I can to sooo many other thinks. Things I really want to do.

I not even know why I am doing this. I mean my grades don’t count here, so don’t I just do enough to not fail?! I tell myself that I do it, so that I don’t have to tale finals (I’m considering skipping those), but I know that it is because I just want to do well for myself. I know teachers and parents say that this is a wonderful character quality, but all kids get it right away. It is kind of dump.

So anyway dear Mr. Teacher, I will keep blogging, even though the quality of my blogs is decreasing significantly. If anyone ever reads this, I wonder what you do with your free time. Go and take your dog for a walk! Use your time!

School Lunch

2009-05-01T09:22:00.000-07:00

School lunch. It’s really kind of funny, but in the beginning I thought it was the most disgusting thing ever. Especially the mashed potatoes. It’s just so faked and didn’t appear healthy to me at all. I was even considering to bring my own lunch, but I’m just too lazy to prepare food everyday. I tried out different foot lines at our school, but in the end I got stuck with main line.
Partly because after eating just a burger, I was just as hungry as before and buying chips is not what I consider lunch. And Main Line is supposed to be The healthy line. That more or less just means that you can buy an apple, pieces of melon or strawberry with your meal (I really like that part).
I can say now (after almost one whole school year) I like the food here now. In the beginning pepperoni sub just tasted faked and unhealthy but I Americanized enough to really like it. Isn’t that weird?
I am pretty sure that school food also helped me gain weight, but I nor even care about that anymore.
Another of the latest developments in our cafeteria is that they stopped serving juice. WHY??? I really don’t know why. So now you can just buy milk (which tastes horrible and I don’t like to drink milk with a meal. I doubt anyway that that is actually real milk from real cows). Nice, that means I can spend my money now on buying water.

Midged

2009-04-30T10:11:00.001-07:00

Okay I saw this youtube video about guy from idea who is lifting weights. That doesn’t sound all that exciting, but this 21 year old man is just 2 feet tall. He is smaller that midget!!! His bodyweight is 20 pounds!!!

I couldn’t believe it at first, he just looks tiny. But hey: He can lift 10 pounds!!! Which sounds like nothing but it’s half his weight, and who can do that?

And he seemed very happy. It just kind of stinks that he can’t go anywhere alone. I mean if you’re that short, no one would see you if you try to cross the road. It is just to dangerous, but he is also normal so it must stink to hang out with your parents all the time.

I just thought that it is inspiring how much life energy such a small person can have. He has for sure a much harder life than everyone else, who is ever going to read this.
So if he can handle his shortness than we should be able to handle our problems.

Freedom

2009-04-30T09:39:00.000-07:00

FR EEEDOM

How can it be that I am in the country of freedom but miss it????!?
This is actually one of the only things I’m really looking forward to, when I am going back to Germany. Doing what I (just I) want to do. It’s not that I don’t have to do anything in Germany but …. It’s hard to explain … it’s just different.
I was just raised with having all freedom I wanted and it worked out fine. I would say that I turned out alright. I get good grades, have friends and even some sort of social awareness (if that makes any sense).

Okay, my host family here is really nice and they are not too strict. It’s just that every little bit of not having is really weird to me. Something like “you better don’t hang out with friend if you’re sick” I know that this is probably the right thing to do, it’s just that I always could make my own choices.
It is very good that they understand me though and try to be as loose as they can. But in general kids here don’t even thing about doing more on their own (not everybody but most), like going alone with just friends on vacation. They don’t think about that but everybody is working (something German kids don’t to that much, we’re more spoiled).

I think nearly all exchange students have this little problem. But one thing is sure, I definitely learned through this experience how valuable personal freedom is.
And the whole issue doesn’t bother me that much that I don’t enjoy it here. Because I do.

Reservation Blues

2009-04-30T09:15:00.000-07:00

For a project in La class I have to read a book. It might sound a little nerdy, but I'm actually kind of glad that I have to. i jut to read a lot and even considered posting about books in the beginning. but then since Christmas or something I really didn't read anymore at all. So coming to my point: I am reading Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie. It starts out with Robert Johnson (a famous blues musician) walking with his guitar on an indian reservation. This made me read the book. Something starting out with Robert Johnson and supposedly talking about blues music and Indian (American-Indians) can not be that bad.

And it's not. I really dig it actually and strongly recommend the book. My teacher ranked middle hard to read but I think it's not hard to read at all, just challenging enough to not be boring.

The book is more about an Indian band first covering songs (I would say it plays in the 90’s) but later writing their own little blues and/or rock pieces. It is not like every normal book about some rock band getting famous, it’s much more than that since Sherman Alexie puts this Indian lifestyle, their problems and their view of the world in it.
This made me laugh a couple of times. I am not a professional about Indians but just some descriptions are just so hilarious!

So definitely a book you should read! Just 300 pages which makes it an easy book to read in between. This is the link to the official Sherman Alexie web http://www.fallsapart.com/resblues.html

I loooooove Germany! (Sarcasm)

2009-04-27T15:35:00.000-07:00

As you may or may not have noticed I mention it quite a lot that I love my home country and that it is the best anyway.

I did not really notice not some people seem to be affected by that until a friend told me the other day. So I really want to clarify this: Yes, I do like my country, but I mean it more as a joke. I´m being sarcastic (I know this is the hard part to understand).

I think it just seemed to me as natural that I would mean it as a joke, but I forget sometimes that most people here didn´t grow up in an environment where you have no national proud at all. This may seem weird to you but most European and especially Germans are not proud of their country like Americans. And if then there are most likely not going to show it the way I did (in saying Germany is the best). If this is the case I would definitely double check that it is really meant that way.

I never meant to make fun of the US, because it is a recession or even depression. Germany is too and one thing is for sure Germany is not the place of heaven and if it was I would never have come over here.

So please keep in mind: I am being sarcastic a lot (even if you see no sense just take it as what it is).

Spring, plaese

2009-04-23T10:06:00.000-07:00

This was a long winter. I don’t really know, why I write this, since everyone knows that the winter was long. But I’m just not used to have snow like this. I mean we do have some snow from where I am from, but not like this. And I really like snow, I was excited for every little bit, but in the middle of March is the point reached where I have enough.
And I’m just so desperate for leaves. Really. I wouldn’t mind another snow storm, if we had leaves (that doesn’t mean that I want another snow storm, seriously, I don’t, I jsut want the snow day).
This is probably the first year in forever but Germany is nature wise ahead. Well, maybe it is that way all the time, but I would neither notice nor care. But now. LEAVES. Please.

But well, we are getting there. The grass is getting green and all the little flowers start blooming and it smells just so wonderful. I admit I am a little bit weird, but I just can’t get over it, how wonderful that is. I hope it totally green and always warm in about a week or two. I can’t wait

Mmmm, good chocolate

2009-04-23T09:44:00.000-07:00

My wonderful Easter bunny gave me some chocolate J a week late, but who cares if it’s good chocolate?

I don’t want to run commercials for specific chocolate companies, but I think I have to. You have to understand that I just to (back in the day) eat tons of chocolate. I always appreciated the wonderful taste of it, and also noticed some differences between different kinds, but I just ate it more or less.

And of course did I plan on doing so, when I came over. When I bit in my first Hershey's kiss I had to realize that American chocolate is not the same. (I know this is a very sad story and you better get ready with your Kleenex box, to read the rest of it.) This just sweet sugary, not smooth something has nothing to do with chocolate anymore. So I stopped eating chocolate and replaced it with coolies (not bad, not bad).

So if you really want to have some good chocolate for yourself or give it away go to Wal-Mart or wherever and really look for chocolate.

My favorite kinds are:
- Lindt from Switzerland, very smooth and delicious (on the picture is a lindore ball, my favorite)

- Rittersport from Germany, it is sold in big squares, but their variety here is just tiny
- Milka, also from Germany, it’s mostly wrapped in purple but very hard to find
- Mercy, I think from Germany, a good gift since merci means thank you in French
- Rocher, Germany, little good hazelnut balls

So, as you can see Germany has tons of good chocolate (just as Germany is good at everything ;) ).

Teen Pregnancy

2009-04-16T10:02:00.000-07:00

This may sound really random (oh well, all the stuff I said in the beginning of the term vanished anyway. 3 posts a week is too much to have a good blog overall, which means that I have to write tons of random stuff to fill it up. But anyway:) I felt the urge to write about teen pregnancy.

Of course do also 13 year old girls in Germany get pregnant. I'm not sure if I was just never around people who get pregnant at that age, if I live in the wrong town or go the wrong school. But I was always aware that there are girls that get pregnant, even if I hardly ever saw any.

But here: You can always see about 2 girls pregnant at a High School of the size of 1500 student or more. I really wonder why. Do kinds here not protect or did no one ever told them how, because everyone was so busy telling them that sex before marriage is evil. Or do I just feel like there are more teen pregnancies in the US, because of the different school systems (the German school system is divided into 3 "intelligence" areas, which means you don't interact with too many students from other schools (intelligence levels, as mean as this sounds).

Sampling

2009-04-16T09:25:00.000-07:00

We had to write a paper in English Perspectives about sampling and copyright. I think it is an interesting topic (which does NOT mean, that I enjoyed writing a paper, but it was at least very short).

Sampling is obviously art, so you can not forbid it or anything; the problem is just that you need existing songs to start with. That's like colors for other artists. Just that using other songs is illegal and color is not.

You cannot blame that, but there is just no other way for samplers to produce because no one (except P. Diddy) has the money and the time to buy and fight for the laws. There are actually some web sides out there where you can download a part of the song (free and legal thanks to joint-ventures with some music cooperations) to sample your own song. If you look in you can even produce a little video for you song.
This all sounds very nice, but -as always- there is a little problem. Thinkmusic.net (the website I was talking about) has just 6861 songs, and everyone can imagine that that is not a whole lot. It is not enough for anyone who wants to sample.
But I think it's a great beginning and hope that websites like this (I'm sure there are a couple more out there) advance a little more and eventually have enough songs on day.

Drinking

2009-04-09T09:58:00.000-07:00

I'm actually not sure if I already posted over this or not, but if I did I will just do it again, assuming that no one would read all my post anyway.

This is a topic everyone always asks me about and I dig talking about.

Yes, it is true, The German drinking age is 16 for minor things (beer, wine, champagne, .etc.) and the rest (hard liqueur such as vodka) are legally to drink at 18. Of course once you are able to drink something it is not that a big issue anymore to drink harder stuff. All at once you are able to drink at 16.

This sounds probably in some to all adults and like the perfect country to all teenagers. It is just another culture and it is kind of hard to understand if you're familiar with that culture, but it is more or less like this in all of Europe. I grew up with it. Everybody grew up seeing teenager drink. it is not that a gig deal for us. I was drinking with my parents when I was fourteen. I was not totally drunk but I was drinking and it was fine with them.

I mean we have to face it. The majority of teenager under age here are consuming alcohol. Some every week-end some just occasionally, but about everyone is. So the bad part is that they drink as long there is something to drink or just drink to be drunk and not to enjoy the taste. They drink 8 shots in 5 minuets and pass out. Later they puke for a little bit and are proud of being drunk. What is that?!

They probably even drive home, when they had a little bit, which is just dangerous for everyone. And they just drive home, because they have to be home at a certain time.

Is that better?!

I seriously think that the German or European way is better. I am not saying that we don't have kids who are drinking too much, who pass out or even die, because there are. But one thing is sure, drinking and driving is NOT common in Germany. You drink or you drive not both. And you can normally trust (if not, you better look for better friends) the driver to not drink at all. Not even a beer.

I think this is something the US should be thinking about.

student teaching

2009-04-09T09:34:00.000-07:00

I really thought about that yesterday in my wonderful Spanish 1 class (a shotout to all my freshmen friends at this point). We had a student teacher coming in twice a week, who was more or less teaching us. I really respected her job and honest effort to try, but I am missing respect to her as a teacher. It is just hard for me to see her as teacher. She is 20 years old, which means she cannot drink here, something I grew up with. I could drink with 14 and it was no deal for my family. I don't want to say that just respect someone if they're legally able to drink, but it just felt like I should see my little sister as my teacher.
And then she is teaching me Spanish. I am more than sure that her Spanish is way better than mine (a quick reminder I am in Spanish 1!) and she apparently lived in Costa Rica as well, so she has some experience so far as living in another culture. But still, I am pretty arrogant if it comes to languages. I know more languages than she does and have just a better understanding of language itself. I can even correct her in minor things. And she is just two years older!
I just wanted to point out, how hard it is for students to respect student teachers as teachers sometimes.

I found this whole story actually also kind of amusing. I just want to repeat in the end, that I really respected her job and that I wish her my best luck in the future.

Prom Dress

2009-04-06T13:24:00.000-07:00

I tried not to for a long, long time but I can’t help it anymore. I have to write about girly stuff now. Partly because I don’t know what else to write about (dear Mr. Teacher, I think 3 posts every week are a lot, I just don’t have the time) but also because I really thought about this.

Prom dresses or Prom in general
Of course as part of my year here I’m going to prom. On one side I’m really excited for it, since it’s my only prom and it is kind of a big deal, but on the other side, why is it such a big deal anyway?

I don’t want to spend $300 on a dress I don’t like anyway. A dress I will probably just wear once. A dress I have to ship to Germany, if I want to keep it.
I’m not that a big fan of dresses anyway so I don’t see a point in that. And at the dance itself are just tons of girls with expensive dresses and fancy hair, dancing to bad music. Dancing dirty probably as well. Where is this culture going???

Okay, music and dancing is one thing, but more and more a problem is this freaking dress for me. I do not want to buy one. I also don’t want to wear an ugly one (this both together makes it almost impossible).
There should be a dress market, where you could sell your old dresses and get “new” ones cheap.

So I have about 5 weeks left to find a dress (and an hair appointment, but that should be fairly easy), it’s just not helping a lot, that I don’t want to think about that dance at all, since it is on my last week-end here :(.

Women in media

2009-04-06T12:58:00.000-07:00

Every Friday in Econ is "market Friday" that means you can bring in a newspaper article somehow related to Economics for extra credit. I brought in an article about the G20 meeting that just was last week in London and of course did I take one of a German website. So there was this picture of Angela Merkel (German chancellor, picture).
It is really mean the way media portrays women, especially in politics. I'm not the biggest feminist or anything but you have to admit that this is somehow not fair anymore. When men get older they are "wise". But women just get wrinkly, fed and ugly. So it's okay for men to get a beer belly and lose their hair, but women are not allowed to have the tiniest little bit of grey in their hair?
That is not fair.

I have to say that a lot of pictures of Angela Merkel are really funny. She never seems to smile or be happy. But this should still not affect in any way my view on her job, her job as the leader of a country. But it does. As much as I try not to (and I think I’m pretty good with that), it still does affect my view on her just as it affect everyone elses.
If you still see someone looking dump and weak, how should you ever have the confidence in this someone to be the right person for the biggest job a country has?

I just want to say that women have it so much harder in politics (not just Mrs. Merkel, also Sarah Palin or anyone else), which is not fair talking about equal rights for men and woman.

Watch what you say

2009-03-29T15:31:00.000-07:00

On our wayto Washington D.C. my friends and I (no one was American) ("my friends and me" would be wrong in this case, because you ask for the subject. I´m pretty sure the way I do it is right.) wondered in what state Washigton D.C. is in. So at a stop at a gas station we asked the woman, who worked there. her answer: "Oh boy, you gotta stay in school!".
Nice, so if you don´t know that, you better stay in school. So we told her taht we weren´t from the U.S. and what did she say?!

"Doesn´t matter where you´re from!"

Wow, so it doesn´t matter where you´re from, every one around the world has to know that Washington D.C. is not in any state, it´s in the District of Colombia?!
It craped us up. It was about the funniest thing I´ve heard in a long time.

Sometime you should really start thinging before you speak it out loud. But any help for this lady was too late anyway. She did not even get it after everyone had to start laughing.

Other people, other English

2009-03-29T15:06:00.000-07:00

On my wonderful trip I had the opportunity to meet so many people from so many different countries. That was probably one of my favorite parts, because I just love to hear about different cultures and how they experience life here.

Of course were Germans the majority (we apparently don´t like our country so that we take the first opportunity (an exchange year) to leave it). I was always kind of worried that I would be behind with my English improvement and skills for living in an English speaking country for seven months, since I don´t interact too much with other German exchange stundents. I just noticed that I still do embarrassing dump mistakes (the"v" sound is still hard for me).
BUT: Hey, there are still tons of exchange students out there, with a way stronger accent and worse mistakes :) !
One girl for example always said "same by me" instead of "same with me". Little things, but things you should know. My English teacher in Germany would have killed her for doing the some mistake over and over again, but here in the US people are just too polite. No one ever told her that this was wrong.

People stop being polite, be honest and straight forward!!! Please.
Of course, I hate it if people correct me, but I know that it is to my best benefit and after 2 weeks being mad and them I eventually talk to them again ;)

I also finally came to the point were I could understand what a German accent sounds like. I speak with one of course, but every time someone said "I like your accent." I had no clue how I sounded to them. After listening to Germans speaking English for a week, I can tell what a German accent is: very clumpy, not soft at all, more like stones falling down a table. I think, it´s because we´re more used to use the tongue to speak and not lips too much, that gives everything a sharp sound.
It´s funny, but I know now, when I sound very German :).

An amazing spring break

2009-03-29T14:49:00.000-07:00

We had spring break last week and I went with a whole bunch of exchange students from everywhere to Boston, New York and Washington D.C.! It was awesome.

Because I can kind of figure that no one would be interested in all the wonderful little details of my trip, I just write about a couple of things I noticed and try not to write a journal.

I felt it was just super nice to see finally more of the US (people always kept asking we what I`ve seen so far and my answer was more or less just Iowa) and nerdy as I am I was just really interested in history and culture. Too bad, that I just had a week (this is by the way a suggestion to start a revolution for longer breaks in the American school system).
The east cost is really not Iowa. Believe it or not, but there are actually tries (something I miss in the Hawkeye State) and an ocean (huge amount of salty water)!

Sometimes everything is just dump

2009-03-19T10:06:00.000-07:00

Today I was able to listen to a wonderful little "speech" (of course also a little sex talk) about life in college. It's always interesting to listen to it, but sometimes I just can't stop thinking "This is all dump. This is sooo much better in Germany". All these people here are stupid." I don't know, but sometimes I just can't help it. I try my best to be open minded but some things here (for example the sex talk) are just ridiculous. I sit there, have this huge smile on my face and people keep wondering why I smile all the time. The people, who also don't get my European jokes.

"And people just started growing boobs."

2009-03-19T09:38:00.000-07:00

About two days a ago, I had a conversation with a friend of mine. It was more or less about how we experienced puberty as girls/boys as well as in different cultures. And he just said, without thinking too much about it: "And people just started growing boobs." Just random people. Everyone. Just like that. Just from one day to another.

I thought it was sooo hilarious that I was laughing for at least 5 minuets straight. When I was able to breath and act like a human being again, I kept thinking about his little statement.

He just said it out of a second, but there's actually a lot of truth in it. It just seemed like that to him at that time. Pretty funny.

"And people just started growing boobs." is definitely the statement of the week for me. It's probably on of those phrases newspapers will publish as phrase of the week of a popular person, if my friend ever becomes famous (which is most likely the case).

School massacre in Winnenden, Germany

2009-03-15T18:28:00.000-07:00

On March 11, a 17-year old teenage (Tim K.) killed 15 people (9 students, 3 teachers, a passer-by and himself) at his old school in Winnenden, Germany. He used a gun his dad legally owns (his dad is the president of a local gun club). Apparently was Tim K. known for having psychological problems.
I didn´t hear about that until I walked in my Spanish class room at the same day and everyone asked me, if I heard about it. Later that day my History teacher even gave me an article he found on the internet. How did that happen?
Of course I felt it was my duty as a German to find out what was really going on. So I did some research on German news pages, especially on Tagesschau and read some interesting things.
Everyone was totally shocked in the beginning. How and why did that happen? Why did no one help him before? You have to understand that Germany (smaller than Texas) is not used to his kind of event. People talk about violence at schools and how you could protect students and teachers better. But everyone tries to solve the big question: Why did it happen?
And like all the time, it was because he played video games every once in a while. That´s so typical German! Blame everything on video games and suggest a couple of times that it would be perfect if they were illegal.
But after just 5 days, no one even talks about it anymore. No one even wastes one more second thinking about the families of the shot students and Tim K. . I thing that is very sad. You can not just forget about it until it happens again.

Why did Tim K. do that? Was he just incredibly stupid? Another psycho, nothing special? Not worth thinking about? I was thinking about him a lot (I don´t say that he deserves that) but after a while it just starts making me mad at everything and everyone and I fell pointless.
People like Tim K. just stop doing that. If you do that, you show everyone how stupid you are and that´s most definitely not the purpose of your action.

Spring term

2009-03-15T18:10:00.000-07:00

Okay, spring term started now about a week ago, which means a couple of things:
- last term before summer break started :)
- last term before I´ll go back to good-old Germany started :(

... but it also means that I´ll start blogging again. My wonderful English teacher suggested that we should think about our blogs for a little while, before we just start writing something to get credit for it. This is not the purpose of our blogs (I know, it really surprised me, too!).
So I´ve been thinking about it quite a bit (which means I took my time thinking, which means I didn´t blog enough, which means I´m already behind in credits. And all of this just because I tried to do a good job now).
I decided that I would make my little baby (my blog) public now. I´m still not completely sure about that, but it is kind of pointless to just block for yourself.
I changed the name from "A Life" to "foreign viewpoint", because that describes it better.
I also decided to write good blogs on my viewpoint about everything, because I just realized how different I actually thing about many main topics compared to other kids in my age (if you want to know, what I am talking about, you´ll have to read some of my posts).

So much about Spring Term blogging. I hope of course that everyone we´ll enjoy another term of high school life and that this will be a perfect end to a (not just) perfect year.

Am I happy? Yes, I most definitely am!
I think everyone should ask themselves, if they´re happy every once in a while. I think it´s a great start to be the master of your life, of your luck.

Blogging

2009-02-12T06:04:00.000-08:00

I've been blogging now, since a couple of weeks and I'm still not sure what to think about it. Maybe it's a lack of confidence, but I can seriously not imagine, who would like to read and/or follow my block.
I just don't feel like I have something (not talking about 750 words a week) interesting and with a good quality to say. I wouldn't say that I think blogs are a bad idea, in general I even think that they can be good and useful. Can be. If important people or at least people talk/blog about a topic they are really familiar with, a topic they are so interested in that they have interesting stuff to say every week, than I do like blogs.

I'm not sure if I'm completely right, since I didn't read all or just most of the blogs in this class, so it could be that i'm completely wrong now, but i feel like most of the kids here are not confident enough about one or three topics. And I don't want to be rude, but I seriously doubt that anyone (okay maybe a few creepy guys) are interested blogs about tattoos or Hawkeyes or Twilight. There are just much better blogs than the ones we do. If you but a lot of effort into it, I'm sure that everyone in this class could produce a good blog, but most of the kids (included me) don't feel the urge to do that.

I will definitely keep blogging, but I would mainly say, because I have to. But: I'm still not sure what I should think about so many personal information on the internet (honestly, if you write a blog, you just put more and more personal stuff on there).

If you feel that I'm completely wrong about my opinion about blogs, just tell me, I would love to hear your opinion!

Forgetting a language

2009-02-05T06:12:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my grandpa's birthday. Okay, that is not so world important that I would need to tell everyone, but just wait.
Of course did I call him (like every good granddaughter) to say happy birthday. He was so happy to talk to me for a second and after I told him at least 4 times that I'm fine and not starving he spoke a little bit in a very strong German accent and asked me if I could still understand him.
And yes of course I could. How could you forget a language after just a few months?! But my grandfather seemed to be really worried that I would have problems to communicate with him and spoke just "clear" (as accent less as he could) German.

Can you forget your native language that fast?! I would definitely say no and I even think that you could never forget your mother tongue. Wouldn't it be sad if you forget how you spoke in your childhood or that you couldn't communicate anymore with the people (your family) you spend the first couple of years in your lifetime?

I once met a man, he was about 86, but in a pretty good shape, who immigrated in the US when he was about 16. As soon as he arrived here he stopped speaking German and never picked it up again. So I was talking to him in German and he could seriously not understand me. It made me kind of sad, I couldn't believe it.
Well he didn't seem to care, but I swore myself that I will never forget to speak German.

I probably couldn't anyway since I'll go back in a few months :'(.

February?!

2009-02-03T06:10:00.000-08:00

It's already February and I really can't believe it. Maybe I like winter so much, because I have to leave in the end of spring. It's still about 4 more months, but I feel like it's nothing and everything about late spring (for example prom) makes me freak out and I really try not to think about it.
I fell sorry for my family, because they think that I don't want to go home, which is just partly true. I just feel like my year here just started and I wasted the first half of it. I wish I could just turn the time back and start all over again.

When I was in Germany (back in the day) I went to a couple of preparation meetings from my organization and they tried to give you all the advises for a successful year abroad. Anyway, they talked a lot of nonsense but a few things they said are really true.

They told me for example that a lot of kids really get homesick after Homecoming (kind of true) and especially bad in January. That was absolutely not true for me. Last month felt like the best one so far.

But they also told me, that a lot of kids panic in the end, because they absolutely don't want to go home, which hurts their natural parents a lot (they even said, that I should better not tell them). But that mainly just starts about 3 weeks before the departure.

I don't want to spend my last months here, worrying how to stop the time. I just try to enjoy it as much as possible, but still ... there is this mean little thought in the back of my mind, that I'll have to leave too soon.

Inaururation

2009-01-24T16:01:00.000-08:00

Inauguration (what a wonderful word) was this week and Barack Obama is now president of the United States Of America!

Okay, I have to admitt that these are probably not the giggest new for you, but you can relax I don´t want to write what he nice man he is or from waht historial importance he is. I want to write about my experience of the whole story.

I was in Spanish class, when the inauguration started and we took a test, while watching TV. I was more watching TV than concentrating on the test. My Spanish teacher realized that it is anyway better to watch this and we just had to finish our test. I don´t know, if you saw it, when they showed, how the whole world was looking at the US to welcome their new president (oh ja, you are sooo important). They also showed an Indonesian elementary school class watching the inaugaration. I felt bad. We -in High School, in class, in the USA- were not primary watching it, but a elemtary school class in a far away counrty watched it?!?!?!?!
That´s why the American school system is so bad! Teacher make not even their own students, people who should care about that, watch an inauguration (and I mean any inauguration, not just because of Obama).

Language

2009-01-24T15:37:00.000-08:00

Everybody has a few words they can´t say. You know your word, but you still make the same mistake over and over again. my friend says for example always teléphone (stress on the second e), she knows it, but says it still, just out of habbit. We all (my other friends) know it and tease her with it. Not in a rude way. I mean everyone has those words or not?

I know that I have a lot. In my mother language it´s bad, but in english (a forgein language for me) it´s even worse. Like every German I have extremely difficulties saying "th" and "v". The "v" sound is every once in a while a big problem, because people just don´t understand me, if I try to tell the that I play volleyball or go on vacation.
Also difficult is saying Barack Obama (why isn´t is name John Wood or something easy?!) I just keep saying the president, as if I wouldn´t know his name. A little odd side of me.

It was really funny for me, when I had a French exchange student for the summer living with me. It was soooo cute, that she couldn´t sa "ha"! I taught her some German sayings with a lot of "ha" in it and she and I couldn´t stop laughing, because it was just too hilarious!

This experience helped me a lot to understand how people feel, if they don´t understand me, because of mispronunciation. I wonder how it sounds for you when I speak, just accents wise. I would say (without being egoistic) that my English is pretty advanced (okay, you can make-up your own mind, since you read my text and you can tell, how god my English is), but everyone and still tell right way, that I´m definitely not American. I think it´s is kind of good, since I´m really not American and I like to present my own culture. I just wonder why they can tell right away.

Maybe I am wrong and my English is not that good?!

Wind Chill

2009-01-22T06:13:00.000-08:00

Okay, my research about "how we feel the cold" is not very successful so far, but I found something else really interesting: WIND CHILL !!!

I mean everyone knows at least kind of what wind chill is, but who knows how they measure it? So read what I copied from CBC news (the Canadians should know what they're talking about).

The wind chill factor is the method used by weather forecasters to tell us how much colder the wind makes unprotected skin feel. So why do meteorologists say it's -10 with a wind chill factor that will make it feel more like -18? Why don't they just say it's -18?

The wind doesn't actually change the temperature outside, but the temperature we feel is not the air temperature but our skin temperature. A person will sense that it's colder because the wind steals body heat by blowing away warm air that surrounds the skin. This means the wind chill factor is not a factor for inanimate objects like rocks, cars and snow – they will all maintain the same temperatures no matter how strongly the winds blow.

The new wind chill index adopted in 2001 uses a mathematical model developed at Environment Canada that approximates how skin temperature, especially on the face, changes with various air temperatures and wind conditions.

The math was put to the test in the research labs of the Department of Defence in Toronto. A group of 12 volunteers, six men and six women, went through clinical trials in a refrigerated wind tunnel to see how the model held up in a real-world situation.

Environment Canada also warns of the level of risk of frostbite associated with a wind chill factor. For example, when the wind chill is from -28 to -39, exposed skin can freeze in 10 to 30 minutes.

Before 2001, Environment Canada would calculate wind chill as how much energy (or heat) the body loses per second depending on how much skin is exposed to the wind. Wind chill was measured in watts per square metre, with values ranging from 1,000 to more than 3,000.

But because a wind chill factor of 1,500 watts/m² is meaningless to most people, the value was translated to the temperature it would have to be to cause the same degree of heat loss without any wind. This is called the wind chill equivalent temperature – what you hear when meteorologists say, "Dress warm. It's -10 but with the wind chill factor it will feel more like -18."

Different countries use different formulas to calculate the wind chill factor and the wind chill equivalent temperature. However, they are all based on research conducted by scientists Paul A. Siple and Charles F. Passel in the 1940s, later used by the U.S. army to develop warmer clothing for soldiers. The research found that the rate at which water freezes depends on three factors: how warm it was to begin with, the outside temperature and the wind speed.

Canada and other countries adopted the wind chill index as a public health tool so people could protect themselves from cold-related ailments such as hypothermia and frostbite. This is especially useful for those who are going to be outside for long periods of time, whether snowmobiling or shovelling the driveway.

Hypothermia results when body temperature falls below 35 C. Symptoms include drowsiness, impaired co-ordination and weakness. It can also be fatal.

Frostbite is the result of skin freezing. It causes swelling, redness, tingling and burning. Skin turns white and waxy as the frostbite progresses. Infection and loss of extremities can result.

Frostnip is a condition where ice crystals form under the skin. Chilblains occur when bare skin is exposed to cold water, or when wet skin cools. The skin itches and swells. Chilblains can lead to gangrene.

---------------------

Okay, read it all? Now you can tell all your friends what you just learned and everybody will be impressed!!!

If you want to know more about wind chill, you should check out the Office Of Climate, Water and Weather Service (http://www.weather.gov/os/windchill/index.shtml).

Bitterly Cold

2009-01-19T05:47:00.000-08:00

It was cold last week. Bitterly cold. For me (I'm more used to 40 degrees and rain) was it quite an experience. But I seriously thought that negative 35 would feel worse, that you would feel, like you have problems to breath, would never ever go out and that life would kind of stop, because it's just too cold to move on.
But it wasn't like that, it was more normal. It's hard to explain, but I thought that it didn't feel cold. Maybe it was because of the shinning sun. I don't want to complain, I enjoyed the cold a lot, especially, because we didn't have school for 3 days.
So why does the cold not fell so cold or is it just me, who experienced it as not too cold?
I would say this needs some research!

Okay,I have to say, it wasn't as cold as in the picture.

Eating habits

2009-01-11T13:59:00.001-08:00

Mhhh, who doesn`t like eating (I mean eating, not cooking)?
I love it and I loved it all my life. Thanks to my mum, I never became fat, but my mum is far away and I am in the worst fast food country ever … :/
Okay, fast food is not such a big problem for my, it`s more that I love cookies and (German) chocolate, I also like brownies and muffins and good pies or sandwiches.
I just don´t do a lot of sport, I am too busy to go to a gym 5 times a week. In the summertime I normally walk the dog, but in winter, I honestly don’t want to, it’s just too slippery, icy and cold. Just tell my, what are you doing to stay fit in winter?
Especially after the holidays everybody is trying to lose weight, so what is your magic tip?
Did you know that my family at home bet how much weight I would gain during this year. My family is just lovely. I think this is truly hilarious, but my goal is stay under their expectations, which that I probably need a good died right before I leave.

Shopping habits

2009-01-11T13:43:00.000-08:00

I live in the US since five months and –of course- not just my eating habits (yes, I do eat a lot of junk food and yes I gained a lot of weight) also my shopping habits are getting more and more American.
Maybe it is because I have more money than I ever had, since I am far away from my parents and I use their money and I don`t know exactly why, maybe they kind or forgot that I am a horrible daughter or something, but what I wanted to say is, that they are a lot nicer to me than normally (money wise).
And I am a girl and everything is cheaper here, so it`s even a little bit good, if I buy cloths here and not in Germany. I think, I have to mention, that I arrived in the summer with just one suitcase, with just 40 pounds, which is nearly nothing. It was okay for me, I went on camping trips before with far less than that. But the US is no camping trip and it is common sense here, that you have to have a full closed if you want to be accepted. Of course in the beginning, it is not too important, but after a few weeks you should have about 20 t-shirts, 4 jeans, 4 sweaters, etc.
I never cared too much about shopping (probably because my mum never liked it) but I have to say, it is a nice feeling to do it. I am compared to most other people a good shopper, I look at the price, I don´t shop irrational and from time to time I feel bad for all the little kids in China, who made my clothing.
But one thing is sure, I will fly back with just one suitcase, but I will send at least five big packets.

New Years Post

2009-01-08T06:22:00.000-08:00

Hey,

another year is waiting for us.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

It may sound odd, but -like everybody- I just can't believe that 2008 is already over. I experienced New Year (and especially New Year's Eve) totally different. It seems that American mainly feel like it is a totally normal day (I mean, it is kind of), so no big pressure to find the best party to start with the next year, the year everything will get better, the year you will start to work out more, be nicer, eat healthier and just be a better person.

I am one of the person, who normally come up with some new years resolution, just because I think, it's fun. I set goals of what I want to have accomplished by the end of the year, which sounds like this:

1. Start in the summer some sport.

2. Don't fail any classes.

3. Have a wonderful summer break

4. Visit some countries.

5. Save more money.

6. Play more guitar.

...

So, as you can see, it's nothing special, but at least something, I can accomplish, so that I can say in the end of the year, I did what I wanted to do in the beginning of the year.

So, what are your new year's resolutions? Do they sound like mine?

I think, it's interesting to hear other peoples new year's resolution (I love this word new year's resolution). I mean that it shows what you think your weaknesses are, something you want to improve in. And people, who think they don't need them, are boring, because they don't feel the need to end some bad habits.

Okay, you can always end your habits without a special date to start, but if you have one, it's easier I think.

Ever thought of learning a language?

2008-12-17T06:44:00.000-08:00

Learning a language is hard. I even had problems learning German, my native language, and was my whole life time bad in spelling. Starting to learn English in 5th grade didn't help at all. You may ask you, why I did learn English, if I didn't like it, but I had no choice, it's a requirement. And now, a little bit older and wiser (?), I think that`s good.

I mean in this country nearly everybody has realized that you have to start earlier to learn a language, 9th grade in high school is really late. Let`s just look at other countries around the world. Some start in kindergarten singing songs in another language. In many parts of Africa you need to speak at least 3 languages of your own country, if you want to communicate with each other.

Okay, I can understand the point of many people here, that most of the people here, never go to a country, where they need to speak another language. I mean, sure, if you would have to speak another language every time you leave your state, you would definitely be multi lingual. But try to learn another language, understand how hard it is, helps you a lot to understand people from another nations and they`re trouble, when they speak English.
I really hope, everybody learns at least one language here in the US. And when your on vacation and try to speak to a waitress or whatever in their native language (and if you just say: "hello, how are you?"), they are just happy, that you tried and see that you have a real interest in their culture (language is culture) and I think that`s what Americans really need to do, take a step to other cultures and try to get over the egoistic image!

Germany - History

2008-12-17T06:07:00.000-08:00

Okay I wanted to hide, where I am from, but I changed my mind, because I think, it's important to understand me better. I am from Germany! Uhh, big surprise.

Being from Germany requires some things, when you decide to go to a different country. You have to know a lot about history, in my opinion. Okay, maybe not a lot, but enough to speak quite confident about the German history during the 20th century. Maybe I just think so, because I'm interested in it, but it's for sure helpful. Every once in a while I am asked, if we talk about the 2nd world war at all. In the beginning I was really kind of shocked, I mean how can you not speak about it?

We talk about that and the DDR ( Deutsche Demokratische Republik = German Democratic Republic, for everyone, who's not that confident with history: Germany was splitted from 1949 to1989 in east and west, it was really to cross the border and many people died, when they tried, see also picture) for almost a whole school year in history class.

If I ask students here, what they know about Germany, everyone comes up with: Hitler, killing Jews, with luck sometimes Dirk Nowitzki. But capital is getting harder and that Germany was spilled is new for some kids in my age group. I don't expect them to know, really much about Germany, I mean I also know nearly nothing about the Civil War. But I think everyone should know the basic history of it's own country.

For me it's every time interesting again to talk to people about history, what they think about it, what I think. so if you want to know, if my opinion is, the way it is, then just go ahead and write me!

French Food

2008-12-14T14:46:00.000-08:00

A few friends of mine told me about a French café which I should really visit, because it is sooooo good. And because I always listen to my friends, I went there yesterday. But if I listen to my friends, I should really listen carefully, then, of course, I couldn´t remember where this café was at. After one hour wandering around downtown (that was all I remembered) I found it finally.
The French café.
The café looked French (lot`s of French pitures, French music, French little tables, Fench words all around), the food looked French, so I was really exited to eat good old European food again.
I was once in France, living for a week or so with a family. I loved it, especially the food. I ate never that much (good) cheese in a week before, and I was also able to discover Petit Four (see picture), which are wondeful (expensive) little things.
But back to my French experience yesterday. I was there and saw all the wonderful tardes du fromage, that I thought I could try and say what I want in French. And the woman (she was actually French) could understand me (!) and we had a little small talk, which made me really proud.
I sat down, and got my food. It was like a little pie with sweet cheese. I tasted it and it was horrible. Have you ever tasted sweet cheese? You should better not. I thought I would love French food. It took me 5 minutes to find out that I ordered the wrong stuff (I wanted cheese with onion and salad). She obviously couldn´t understand my high-school french too good. I ordered again (this time in English) and I had wonderful food. My day was saved and I have a new favorite restaurant.

But let`s talk a little bit about Fernch food. Doesn`t everybody like it? Okay, I have to admit, frogs and snails isn`t what you think about good food (me either), but they have such a big food culture, that everybody can find something they love. I will just list a few French dishes I can think of in just a second: crêpes, baguette, craissants, ten million different kinds of cheese (brie, camembert, kiri, etc.), tarde, petit four, french wine, canard d´oranges, ...
If you want to know more about french food, there are lots of websites from people, who really know, what they`re talking about. This is for example a nice one, where you can find everything about french food culture even a few recipes
http://www.france-property-and-information.com/french_food.htm
or this one, if you want to know more about cheese
http://www.frencheese.co.uk/
I, for sure, love the French food culture like the rest for their culture, but that`s maybe also, because I´m just really interested in cultures in general (or because I like food).

What's this blog all about?

2008-12-10T06:09:00.000-08:00

that is a really good question. Like everyone, who blogs for the first time, do I think that I wont follow my plan to good. Maybe you already know a little bit, how my blog will be, after reading my first post, where I also did a kind of introduction in it.

But to make clear, what this blog is supposed to be about, I will rewrite it: Mainly should this be about my experience to live in another culture, but also about books, foot, whatever seems interesting to me.

I go shopping

2008-12-03T06:08:00.000-08:00

hi, guys. I'm trying to start my first blog right now and I actually don't have a clue how to start.
I am from another country and live for a year here, in the US. I live in Iowa and am a junior in High School. And since I'm here, I learn a lot about different cultures and how people react on someone, who's definitely not native speaking. I mean, as you probably notice my English isn't too bad, but I still make mistakes in grammar and pronunciation as well.
I was for example shopping last week. I thought I wouldn't buy much, but when I was in the shop, I found a lot. So I needed a cart. But I already had stuff, so couldn't just go out and get one, so I asked on of the people, who work there, if they could get me one. My problem was that I had a cold, which means my pronunciation was even worse than normally and I didn't know the wort for cart, so i tried my luck with wagon. Bad idea. So I stood there, arm full with cloths and groceries, asking the woman, if she could go out and get my a wagon. The woman answered, after she asked me at least for times to repeat what I said, really slowly:"You can not go out, but I can get you aaa cart." Wonderful, that was all I was asking for. But just because I didn't know, how exactly to say it, it doesn't mean that i am stupid. I know it is hard for everybody to see the differnece between I-help-you and I-make-you-feel-dumb. But there is a difference. You should for example NEVER wait two seconds to say the next word. Try it, if you're alone in a romm, just try it, say :"You can not go out, but I can get you aaa cart." with 2 seconds pause after every word.
And how does it sound? Good? Or made it you fell stupid? It does I beat and i can tell you it makes the people who hear it feel stupid, too. So stop it, even if you talk to someone, who not perfect in your language, two seconds are too much. Maybe half a second is good.