Kein Sex mit Nazis

Ive officially been in Germany for a week. A week seems like such a small increment of time compared to a year and though Ive had to time to think about it, I still cant imagine what a year here would be like. But Ive gotten more and more comfortable in my surroundings and I started school on Wednesday.

Oh yes, school. I never particularly enjoyed school in America ( so much work inside and outside of school) but here its a bit different in both good and bad ways. For example, theres a lot of freetime inbetween class here and you have 2 hours off everyday for lunch. Although in the future Im sure ill appreciate this time, being a new student who cant speak the language and has to find something to do for two hours is a bit...blah. Whatever, hasnt been a problem yet. The kids are really nice and humor my German. I cant understand the teachers one bit and sit and class translating the papers I'm given. My host Mom says I dont have to do the homework or the tests until my Germans good enough. The sucktastic part of school is that I have two trains and two separate buses to get to school so I have to leave at 6 in the morning and wake up at 5. My Germans not very impressive at 5 in the morning.

Food- The food here is okay. I like the sweets and have become addicted to Haribo (its like gummy worms but ten times better). The actual food isnt fantastic but its not bad either. I expected there to be truck loads of meat here but Ive only had one meal with meat in it since I arrived. I also have been introduced to German drinking, which is both frequent but not obsessive. I never drank in the US, but here its a social thing and Im fine to drink when offered at parties or family functions. I just refuse to be the dumb American who gets trashed and ends up embarassing their country and themselves. Oh yeah, and let me say that a dietician would be absolutely bedaffled by the Germans being that they eat ALL the time and Ive hardly seen a slighly overweight person since Ive been here. Its a medical mystery.

Language- I indeed got a nice kick in the butt at school. My German isnt bad, its just sentence structure that I often stumble on. I have a German tutor and I will hold back my opinions on how big a jerk she is. Plus she doesnt speak English. But I digress. I have my good and bad days with language but I am told Im better than when I arrived. I want to buy some books here so I can read in German instead of English. But if I cant even understand my teachers Im not sure if I could read a book. The sucky thing is that my family had a foreign exchange student before me who by the time she left had perfect German. People keep telling me that and I feel like if I dont have perfect German by the time I leave then Im somewhat of a disappointment, especially since the other exchange student started off with no German.

My Town- My town here is really interesting. Its in the former GDR and on the Polish border. But when I say Polish border I mean ON the border. Down the street from my flat is the checkpoint into Poland and everyday I run along the Polish border and if I went a few yards to my right would be in Poland. Whats surprising to me is that my family hates Poland. They think they are cheap and theifs and they refuse to go into their country. In my mind, I expected the countries to be best friends. Its sad for me, because I have a good friend Karolina in Poland and Im not sure my family would support me visiting her. Also surprising is that my family has no problem with the Turkish population. The town has all cobblestone streets and former GDR buildings. On every lightpost theres a poster for the neonazis which is kind of freaky. Im also not allowed to go outside alone cause my family says its too dangerous because the Neo-Nazis dont like "auslanders" or people from other countries.

I would post pictures, but its so freaking time consuming and I still dont understand how to work this computer. So maybe later when Im not so lazy.

Oh yea, and to explain the title. Theres a fair on the street outside my flat right now and the headline of it is "Kein Sex mit Nazis" which is "No sex with Nazis". Im determined to take a picture of this and figure out why this would be their slogan.

By the way, tonight Im going to see Inglorious Bastards with my host brother, kids from school, and my friend Mili whose an exchange student from Australia. Prima.