Oktoberfest Time!

Over the weekend, I went to a my city's Oktoberfest celebration with Jonas and a group of friends.  It was a BLAST!  It met all of my expectations (and this isn't even the real Oktoberfest!)  There was a huge beer hall packed full of people wearing dirndls and lederhosen singing along to traditional, "bayrisch" music and sipping one liter beers.

Friends!

All dressed up and ready

 One of the my favorite things about it was that when you sat down at one of the long "picnic" tables, everybody surrounding you (including absolute strangers) instantly becomes your friend and everybody just has a good time.
All in all, it was an unforgettable night filled with having a good time with friends and dancing!

10 days left until I'm at the real Oktoberfest in Munich! Words cannot even begin to express how excited I am!

The dance floor

Breaking a World Record!

The spectacular backdrop and everyone performing CPR!

On Tuesday, I took part of breaking a world record!  All of the students in Muenster's public schools gathered at the city's castle in order to attempt breaking the world record for the most people performing CPR.  In order to break the record, we needed 9,000 people simultaneously  performing it.  In the end we had over 13,000 people, so we had no problem breaking the record!  It was pure insanity as it's nearly impossible to control a crowd this large of students (I don't think many of us actually learned how to do CPR...) But breaking the world record was a big deal in Muenster- a band was performing and the mayor even made an appearance.

Friends and CPR dummies= lots of laughing

 It was a fun activity that I normally wouldn't think of participating in, especially in school. But it was memorable and now I can check off breaking a world record off of my bucket list!

Falling back into the school routine

Now that I've completed now first week and a half of school, I've adjusted and gone back into the school routine.  After the first day of school, reality came back into the picture and I realized that not everyday is going to go as perfectly as the first and that I will be frustrated and struggle at times, but let's be honest, that is inevitable as I am at a new school and I'm in the process of the learning another language.  Fortunately, I haven't had any days where this has occurred, but there have been a few, very brief times where I just need needed a break, but luckily something always perks me back up.
 Socially...
 I've been very lucky to have met some amazing people over the past weeks that have taken me under their wings, making an outstanding effort to help me settle in and have the best possible experience here.  I have hung out after school with some, played sports with others and I even was invited to a party!  It means so much to me that they are willing to help me as I realize that it requires a lot of patience and cooperation.  But many students in my grade have previously studied abroad so they empathize and know what it feels like to be in this situation.

With the language...
MOST of the time I speak German with my friends and when I stumble upon a phrase or word, I tell them in English and they'll tell me the phrase in German.  But a few prefer to practice their English with me and so we'll talk in English (or I'll try responding in German.)
At times when I am in a group setting, I become frustrated because I cannot show as much personality or speak as often, but I have hope that this problem will gradually fade away.  But, my vocabulary is expanding a little more everyday and there has been a significant improvement in my speaking (though the accent could use a little help) and understanding!

School...
School is going well.  I understand a little more of the lectures everyday and the teachers have been very helpful and patient. I am also very lucky to have acquaintances in all of my classes that summarize and simplify key points.  However, the "hack" to understanding my subjects is taking thorough notes in German and writing down phrases or words that I don't understand in the side columns of my notes (then looking them up) so that when I go home and do my homework I can:
a) remember what we did in class (and the vocabulary attached to it)
b) further my understanding of what we did in class
 For example, when I don't understand what what we did in a subject, I can translate my notes into English or Google the material we covered in class
c) build my vocabulary.  Some words I write down, like "Bewusste" (which means "conscious") only relate to that specific subject whereas other words like, "beobachten" (to observe) or "bedeuten" (to imply/ mean) are more commonly used in conversations with friends as well as school.

On a side note, I hope that all of my Rocky friends have an amazing Homecoming!  I can't wait to see all the pictures and hear all about it! :)

 Sorry I don't have any pics! :(

First day of school as an exchange student!

Today was what I've been bracing myself for the past couple of days...the first day of school  Yesterday,I was terrified about starting school and meeting people as I was afraid that I was going to be completely confused and that I was going to struggle to meet people with the language barrier.  However, it's much to my pleasure to say that that was NOT the case!

First day of school at Annette von Droste Huelshoff Gymnasium!

I had one of my best, most memorable first days of school.I biked to school with a neighborhood girl (whom I already met) and her friends and as soon as we walked into school, they began introducing me to all of their friends.  I probably said "Hallo!  Ich bin Kirsten...Ja, ich bin die Austauschschuelerin aus Amerika" about 30 times. It was a very warm welcoming to the school!

My first class of the day was German, one of the classes that I was the most worried about.  However, there were two girls in that class who I met walking into the school who helped me with understanding the teacher and our homework.  Fortunately, the class is reading Greek literature at the moment and I've become familiar with mythology over the years. But it will still probably be one of my most rigorous classes... Our first novella will be "Iphigenie auf Tauris"and there will be some Kafka pieces coming later this semester. The girls I met in this class were eager for me to meet their other friends, so during our break time I did that again and compared schedules with them to see if we had any classes together. Fortunately there were others in my other classes later today so they all walked with me to my classes and invited me to sit with them.

Mein Stundenplan

The other classes I had today were religion, biology and sport.   I spoke with all of my teachers and told them my situation and they were all very supportive and I had people I knew in all of my classes for the rest of the day! Although understanding the teacher in class is a bit difficult, I think that it will come along with time.  I've already found out that taking notes helps me to better understand the lectures.

 Most of my conversations today were in German and everybody was so helpful and patient when I spoke to them.  It seemed like it  shocked a lot of students that there was an American exchange student at their school who actually could understand and speak a sufficient amount of German.  I'm hoping that I am able to continue to meet new people and start to develop friendships with the people I met today in the days ahead!
Tomorrow I have more new classes... Hopefully they go even better than today! :)