Rain

It did that a lot this weekend. Mostly on Saturday while I was on a tour of Augsburg with a group of Italian Rotarians. Well, the guests were from Italy and so, much to my dismay, the whole tour was in Italian. I could actually pick out some of the words due to my two years in Spanisch, but mostly I hid beneath my umbrella, looking at my soaked through jeans. I believe one of the largest lessons to learn in youth exchange is to grin-and-bear-it. We do that a lot as exchange students, even in the rain. There was a reception at Schloss Friedberg (the castle) where I met all the Rotarians deemed "important". They all seemed very interested in me and happy that I'm learning German. A child of one of the Rotarians asked me, "If you're American, why can you speak German so good?". I just smiled and thanked him. The other kids liked taking words they found interesting in Englisch and making them into sentences. The all-time winner: "That squirrel's a weird creeper!". Well, it's my last week in Konradin Realschule before I start my German course in Augsburg and to tell you the truth, it's a little bittersweet. I like the friends I've made in school. With the help of Facebook and visits in town, I'll talk to them a lot. The wireless has been down so I haven't written in a while. Here is an excerpt from my notebook that I wrote during school last week:

"I'm in Chemistry, or Chemie as it's called here. This class is okay compared to the others. Herr Gerkhardt usually has something boiling and I can ball-park estimate what's going on. Most of my classes, however, are painfully boring. I've never doodled so much in my life. Today I drew a roller coaster. Riddle me that! Anyways, I talk to some of the girls in my class and we have short spurts of conversations in broken Englisch or Deutsch. I need to start dominating this Deutsch. In the wise words of my mother to her ever procrastinating kids, 'It will get done because it has to.' Contrary to what I've read or heard, I haven't noticed myself changing that much yet. I'm quieter, but that's bound to happen when you can hardly speak to anyone around you. My classmates at Fremont High School may laugh at the fact that Sarah Jane McGinn is not a teacher's pet here in Europe. I feel like the teachers dislike me because I do absolutely nothing in any class other than Englisch and Sport. Let me tell you though: it's a good thing I mastered facial expression in the early years of my life. They've helped a lot in the communication process!"

Well, there you have it, straight from my hours of doodling. Until next time, when I share my adventures of Skype and my Sweet Sixteen!-- sjinternational