So, it's worth noting that on my last day here in Cologne, I had a conversation with my Host mother. She agreed that her daughter was being pretty terrible and made her stay with her father this past week. That's why the house has been quieter these past few days. I now like my host mom a lot more. Off to Saarbrücken, Auf Wiedersehen!

Wow it's been a while

here is my current living situation, this is my bedroom/their study

here is the kitchen/laundry room/living room in two pictures

Hello again, It has been too long since the last I was able to make a post on here. Life is getting busier and busier, which is a good thing. I look back at these past two months and think to myself, where did they go? I have really improved my German in just these two months. I can speak more comfortably. I can listen to people talk and understand. I can read most things and comprehend the majority of what I read. I still struggle when people catch me off guard or talk really fast. I only have three more days here in Köln and then I will be moving on. I'm sad to leave the city in some ways, I've become accustomed to the public transportation system here. I've developed a routine and I've met some people here to hang out with. But, I'm very happy to move on. To say that my time here in Köln was absolutely terrible would be an exaggeration, but there were several issues with the family I'm living with that have made me want to leave immediately. I'll elaborate:

I have described in the past that the girls are not the most easy to live with. It seems that lately the shouting and the arguing has upped itself to the maximum. They keep shouting at each other until one gives in to crying. It really makes me sad that they can't be a little more peaceful. The oldest girl is the worst. She picks fights with her sister and is overall in a terrible mood all the time. I wake up to the sound of the girls fighting. I do my homework to the yelling behind me. I go to bed with them slamming doors shut. I hope in the future they never host anyone again. Also, they keep eating my food. First, it was the food I put into their refrigerator, which I gave them the benefit of the doubt on. However, lately I've been keeping food in my room just for me, and someone has been coming in and eating it.

even my "American Style" cookies

Another fun experience: for the majority of my time here, the shower drain has been clogged. When they finally got someone to come out and unclog it, surprise! It was full of hair. Well the other day i was trimming my beard because its getting a little too wild. A few hours later one of the girls came into my room and asked me to come look at something. Apparently some of my hairs hadn't made it all the way down into the sink. Now, I can understand for a girl that has never lived with a man in her life, this may be a little gross so I was very sorry. The real problem was what she said to me. She told me I probably shouldn't shave in there because my hair clogged up the drain. Says the girl with 18 inch long thick black hair! I didn't know what to say; I was flabbergasted. She honestly thought my tiny, itty-bitty beard hairs were stopping up their drain. Oh and the number of times I've gone to the bathroom and there was no toilet paper: 7 times.

The Hofbräu Festzelt

Well, in better news I went to Oktoberfest this past weekend. It was amazing! It'll probably go down in my memory as one of the single most awesome events of my life. If you have never been, it is definitely one of those things you should put on your bucket-list. I went with a couple of my American buddies in the program. We took the cheapest train route possible, which had four changeovers and took 9 hours. But, it was worth it. We stayed at a campground which was overpopulated with Aussies and Kiwis. They are a ridiculous sort. The party ended for them at two in the morning and picked back up at five. When we first arrived at the Fest Tents in Theresienwiese, we went to the central tent to see the Bürgermeister tap the first keg. Since it was opening day, a bunch of other people had the same idea and we never made it into the tent. So, we found a place to sit at outside of one of the tents, which turned out to be the best decision of our lives. There were a couple of open spots at our table and a bunch of people were asking to join us. We finally let some people sit down and it turned out to be three people from the Army stationed in Germany. They were super cool and paid for our first round of beers and I got to "share" a half a chicken with them.

me "sharing" the chicken

The next day we decided to go to the Hofbräuhaus which was super cool. After we all had a beer there we decided we would give it a shot and head towards the tents again and see if we couldn't get some more beers. We went to the Hofbräu Festzelt and found a Bierfrau and asked her if she could find us a place to get some beers. She took us over to a table of Swedes and asked them if they would let us order beer from their table. They shouted of course and that we were welcome to join them! After finally getting into a tent and getting that experience I was supper happy. Overall, an amazing journey, one that I'll remember forever.

Ben and I enjoying our beers at the Hacker Tent

Well, I'll be moving here soon. I'll let you all know how that goes and try to keep you updated a little more frequently.

Peace

Amsterdam and other Happenings

Well everyone, I finally have another post after a few weeks. It's funny how busy I can get here, which is nice. It's the days when I have nothing to do that I get the most homesick. Everything is going pretty okay on the home front. The family is really nice most of the time. The mother is extremely helpful and super nice. She cooked me dinner the other night and it was great (steak and potatoes!). The girls on the other hand tend to be a different story. The oldest daughter Lisa is still pretty ornery most of the time. Her boyfriend just left for London, so she compensates by yelling at her mother a lot. The younger girl Lena is really helpful but kinda condescending at the same time. She tells me what I'm doing wrong on a very consistent basis, which is actually really helpful, but gets a little aggravating when a 12 year old treats you like a child. O well, I've talked to some of the other Americans and they have some worse living situations, so I should be pretty grateful that I've only had a few blips:

Times one of the girls left the bathroom with no toilet paper prior to me using it: 5
(P.S. the toilet paper is kept in a closet down the hall rather than in the one bathroom in the house)

Times I have bought my own groceries only to come back home and find out one of the girls ate all of it: 2
(I guess this was really more my fault, I should label my food. The girls don't really know who bought it)

Oh and one of the girls threw my Lou-fa away. I don't know why, it was just gone when I got in the shower the other day.

I have only three more weeks of language classes and then I'm thrown into the wolves. We have a big test at the end of the week that will determine what level my proficiency certificate will be for when I go apply for jobs. Its actually really important to have a proof that you can speak another language. While I'm on the subject for applying for jobs, everything is really different. On your resume you have to have a picture, which I think is outrageous. But, Germans think its necessary. Also, unlike an American resume where you are encouraged to list your accomplishments and how much money you saved a company or your productivity numbers, those are heavily discouraged. They think you're bragging when you put it in your resume. Pretty much all they want is where you worked, how long, and your job description.


Last weekend we took a trip up to Amsterdam. It's a really pretty city with a lot going on. Its kinda frustrating when you've been practicing a language for a month and then you go to another country and don't know anything. Luckily, most everybody in Amsterdam spoke English since its not too far from England. I was able to see the Anne Frank House which was really interesting and the Van Gogh Museum which was overpriced. Everything was really expensive, but that's to be expected. It was overall an enjoyable trip, saw some things that I won't forget!

Well everybody I don't know when the next time I will update will be, but I hope to hear from y'all soon.