Host Familie Adventures

(Dr. Wasser, this is also for the week of 1/30)

Being here in Germany has definitely opened my mind to many things. For example, as soon as I get back home I'm going to push my younger brothers to learn other languages, get involved in more extracurricular activities, and definitely aim on studying abroad. Why? Because European kids do this everyday and much more! Living with my host family and seeing how they all know 4 languages, play instruments, are involved in school, and still manage to have family time has made me feel pathetic. I feel like I haven't been living to my potential. Therefore, I will bully my brothers to do so. :)

On Saturday, I was invited to my host sister's musical. She's 12 years old and has been admitted to the youth Opera here in Bonn. The play was fantastic! I had so much fun and loved the story. Of course, it was in German, but since my host mom had given me the general outline I was able to follow along. The musical was called Eloise and it's a children's story or fairy tale. The evil witch was definitely my favorite. She was too awesome to explain in words and sang beautifully yet creepy. The picture shows her group of evil girls who made little boys cry! Muahaha!

The funniest part about watching this play was that I attended it with my new host sister, Clara. She's a French exchange student in my host sister's class that is only here for 10 days. She only speaks French and is learning German. I, on the other hand, only speak Spanish and English, so communication around the house has been extremely entertaining. My poor host family has had to juggle 4 languages every day and has now resumed to only speaking German for the benefit of everyone. Saturday was the first time Clara and I had ever been left alone and speaking German to each other is easier said than done. She definitely put me to shame since she was able to ask me a few things perfectly (so I think) in German, but I could not answer. I'm getting better at understanding, but forming sentences is another factor. We both ended up just laughing at each other because for the entire play we couldn't hold even the simplest of conversations. We resumed to silence and smiles.

Yesterday, we all went out to eat at a Spanish restaurant here in town. The place was small, cozy, and cute! "La Loca" is definitely a place I would like to visit again. So far, I have to say my host family is awesome. I hope the adventures continue!
Tschuss!