XLI. German bubble

   I'd like to say that the weather in May was way better than in April, as it should be, but it was just the same, if not worse. Rain, coldness, and little sun pretty much sum up these last few weeks. Despite the natural depression that comes with the lack of sun, my time here in Switzerland is still going well.
   I might even go so far to say that my life feels almost entirely normal, almost like I've been living here for longer than a year. I'm going to school and actually participating during class; I'm hanging out with friends and my family; and I'm in the school theater group.
   My English bubble has now expanded to include the German bubble. You could say that I'm pretty much fluent in conversational German, but it's literature and longer texts that really get me. Swiss-German is also not such a problem anymore. I understand most Swiss-German, although it depends who is speaking and what they are talking about. I haven't tried to start speaking it because somehow I think it's just a Swiss thing that no one else can really master it. And I'm sure that if I started trying to speak it, everyone here would think it was either the cutest or most hilarious thing in the world. I get by fine just by speaking High-German.
My host siblings even complimented me today when I said a particularly good and "brilliant" sentence. (I asked if they had noticed my piece of bread that was extremely thick because I sliced it terribly, and apparently I had put the perfect amount of emphasis on the piece of bread. Yeah... I didn't really understand what the big deal was either.)
   Language-wise, this is kind of the point that I had always dreamed of reaching: nearly fluent and confident in all usages of the language. Yesterday I wrote an essay in my German class. Everybody had to, and my teacher said that since I had done so well in a presentation I had done a couple weeks ago (required by my organization AFS), I could try writing this as well. We had two class periods, and in this time I managed to write a page and a half. That, ladies and gentlemen, is an accomplishment. I'm sure I had lots of grammar mistakes, but it was meant to be a rough draft anyway, and I know that I didn't make as many mistakes as I used to a couple months ago. Obviously it also wasn't very elegantly or clearly written either, but I think my German teacher is going to be so happy that I tried.
   Kids are counting down the days to summer vacation, but I'm trying to ignore its looming approach. Yes, I will be happy to go home, but I will be even sadder to leave Switzerland in July. My departure date is still tentative, but it's going to be here before I know it.
   As for other recent news, my host mom had gone to the US for a week and just returned with more peanut butter (I am proud to say that I have now got my host family hooked on peanut butter. Mission accomplished.)
   I also went to an AFS Camp, my last one this year, and it was supposed to get us (exchange students) mentally prepared for our departure. I spent most of the time there learning about other kids' countries though. I was especially intrigued by the students from China and Japan. We hear a lot about China, but it's especially surreal to learn first-hand that students have to go to school for twelve hours everyday and have four hours of homework on top of that. Did you know that the word for the "USA" in Chinese is actually literally translated as "beautiful land"? I just kept thinking how ironic that must be for the Chinese since China and the US are pretty much the two largest world powers, and yet they constantly call us a beautiful land.

A pic of us exchange students at the camp.

   So, that is my update for May, and tomorrow is already June. Wow. Time has wings.