It is actually rather a remarkable feat for my camera, but those white specks you see are snowflakes... in October.
Need I say that I make a lot of mistakes when I speak German? Sure, when I speak, it's not as important, or I just speak really quietly so as not to draw attention to my poor grammar. But when I have to write German, I suddenly become so much more self-conscious. I am currently reading a very easy book of fairy-tales in German (well, easy for German-speakers, but challenging for me), and I am trying to answer questions about it to get credit for reading a book. Actually, reading the stories is about one of the best ways I could do to improve my grammar because now I am learning to recognize the past tenses of various verbs because nothing is in the present tense. For example, I read, "Er stand," and seeing that "stand" looks exactly like an English word, I assume that it is the past tense for the verb "stehen" which means "to stand." There are so many of these "aha!-moments" and they are just awesome.
I had a couple of my classmates edit my answers, and the old me would have cringed at all the mistakes they pointed out, but I didn't expect it to be perfect anyway. The best part however was when I tried out some new grammar techniques that I was never officially taught before, and my new friends didn't even mark anything wrong because I had used it perfectly correct!
Other mistakes in my life would be like not realizing that my family open all the windows whenever we eat a meal in the kitchen to get fresh air (and mosquitoes that bite me during the night). I'm also trying to work out the perfect timing for me to leave the house with the bike and still get to school on time and figuring out what gears are optimal for the distance.
I suppose I have somewhat neglected to talk about my host family especially considering that they are the biggest part of my exchange here.
I am beginning to call my host parents "Mutti" and "Vati", but it still feels a little awkward for me. I'm sure it will come with time though because they treat me like I am one of their children.
My host brother Timon has quickly become my best friend here in Switzerland. It's perfect because I can help him with English and Chemistry (his Chemistry class is immersed in English... jealous), and he can help me with about every single other aspect of my life.
"Wohin geht das?" I ask while I hold up a hand towel that I just folded. (Where does this go?)
"Nein. Wohin kommt das?" he corrects me. (directly translated: No. Where does this come?) That doesn't really make sense to my English brain, but that is how they say it. He alone has probably taught me half of the German that I have learned while here.
Putting all that aside, it is cool to have a brother who is not considerably older than me or built like the Hulk.
Other technicalities: In English we say, "My hair is brown," and "My glasses are black." In German we must say, "Meine Haare sind braun," and "Meine Brille ist schwarz." For those of you who don't know German, I will help you understand by telling you that "hair" is plural and "glasses" are singular in German. It's totally backwards. If you think about it, it is actually very logical, but I have to fight with my brain every time before I talk about hair or glasses. I wish I could complain to Benjamin Franklin.
School is getting steadily better, and I am understanding more about what is going on in every subject. I am still offering my help to others in Math and Physics, and the other day I even answered a question correctly in Economy! I was so proud of myself. My academic ability here is a far cry from how it is in America, but taking everything into consideration, I would say that I am doing pretty well.
You can't see it snowing in this picture, but it was snowing. This also shows a very beautiful view of a typical Swiss backyard. Joking. The construction of the retaining wall is over so now our yard is slowly being returned to its previous flat state that I never saw yet.
Our cat Sindi, who for some reason likes to sleep on my bed even though I hardly pay him any attention. Sometimes he stinks, and I admit that I feel guilty because of my cat at home.
This is our patio and a view of the narrow street that we live on. It is still snowing, but this was taken before I figured out how to make the snow appear on my camera.
View outside from the front of our house. Like the decorations?
It is snowing!
Differences between Switzerland and the US: Oh, great. I think I'm running out of them, or more likely, I'm becoming so accustomed to them that I don't even think about them anymore. Lots of families like mine have gardens in their backyards where they grow vegetables.
Oh, one thing that I have recently noticed, that is actually quite annoying, is to try and browse through a library. We Americans don't really think about it because we have a perfect system. When you lay a book or a DVD down on a table with the front cover facing up, the words along the spine will be upright. Therefore, if you walk through an aisle of books, you can safely tilt your head to the right and quickly scan the titles. Here, however, most of the words on the spines will be up-side-down, and I could get used to that alone, but the annoying part is that about a third of them will face the other way, and then you have to constantly switch your head back and forth just to read the titles.
I haven't really eaten anything drastically new or exciting recently except for maybe a potato chip that was supposed to taste like fondue. My host mom made American pancakes for breakfast this morning from a recipe that another family had brought us from Florida. This family was just there for vacation and also brought back a half-cup measuring cup for baking, and I felt like it was my birthday.
Two months have come and gone already, but I have so much more snow (and other stuff) to look forward to!
As usual, lovely post Larissa! Thanks for sharing your life, thoughts and pics.
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