Hey guys!

First post ever! I'm sure what I just wrote is along the lines of what every blogger starts with. Anyway, Germany rocks because I've had 3 days of school already, I love my host family (Pamela, Thorsten, Anna, and Paul), and I'm one quarter finished with the chess set I'm making, if you don't count the actual board.

I decided to make a chess set when I was in Norway a few days before I came to Hamburg/Pinneberg (the city I live in that's next to Hamburg). I had started widling a stick that I had picked up in the woods there in Norway and thought that I wanted to do more with wood, but also something that was actually useful. How great would a big walking stick be in the city. I've kind-of wanted to make a chess set since 7th grade, when I tried making a ceramic one. It was a flop. But I'm so excited because this is the farthest I've ever come. I've made 8 pawns so far!

It's really surprising to feel this excited about school. Woodbridge was also cool, but this is different. It's all in German, as I'm sure you all knew, and the people are as nice as any. So far I've had Political Science, Biology, History, Sports, and German class. Normally we would have nine school hours, which each last 45 minutes, but we only have six on this first week. I love the political science and history teachers, the Sports and German teacher is cool too, but I don't really like the bio teacher that much, and maybe it's not fair to just base that fact off of a sense, but whatever. The classes, except for sports, have relatively the same feel to them, those ones feel totally normal, like classes should feel.

Sports, of course, is different because we're doing something physical. Today was that class and first we jumped ten times with a jump rope, ran to the other side of the gym (about 50 meters), ran back, and that was 1. We did that 10 times. Then we rotated doing different strengthening excersises, which were exhasting after a whole summer of doing nothing but walking a lot. After that I played soccer with nine boys and no girls. After the first five minutes of trying offense, I figured I was just getting in their way so I was goalie from then on. And they were playing really rough. Openly shoving and kicking each other, but it wasn't at all hostile, just competitive.

I've only had a bit of homework so far, mainly just reading a page of something or other that the teachers handed out. The history paper had so many complicated words, I only understood about twenty total, and those were the shortest ones. I felt pretty stupid after that. The German paper was about a guy who wanted to live in South America because it was too cold where he was and had once had a relationship with this woman in his church choir, and they have kids. I didn't need to look up anything to translate that.

There were these two girls I had been emailing and vise versa during the summer, Ophelia and Isabel, and I met them on my first day. Ophelia is really nice but I haven't had much contact with her. Instead, I've made friends with this other girl in my class called Kira. She is part of a host family for this other exchange student (a girl) who I think is British but might be American.

As far as German goes, it's pretty frustrating so far, but I also like this familiar feeling it's always given me. It's also fascinating to think that this is the same language people spoke hundreds of years ago. I don't really notice that with English but with a foreign language, it's kind-of apparent. And everyone says that I'll learn it really fast but by my standards, 2-3 months isn't fast, although I'm sure it'll seem to be after those months pass. I won't go into all the things I don't like about the language, and spare you guys an unessecary headache. But don't get me wrong, it's better than any other foreign language cause I already know some.

I also see good things about the language day to day, and I've been wanting to learn it for years. Something that kind-of annoys me, though, is when people say "Du sprichst gut Deutsch." Translation: You speak good German. I can wholeheartedly say that I do not speak good German at all. I speak OK German. No offense to any people reading this who have said that to me. Let's just say that wasn't a pet peeve of mine when you said it to me.

I absolutely love my host family! Pamela, for one, is always really patient whenever I ask her what this or that word means for the hundredth time. There's this group of frequently occuring words that I keep forgetting, and that's primarily what I ask her about. Thorsten is really nice all the time and he dresses cool too. Anna is five and she laughs so often, she's really bright, but sometimes she's hard to understand because kids speak differently than adults even if they all speak the same language. Paul is 2 and he is so cute, especially with his glasses. He's super tickalish. :)

I love the room and the bike and everything else that they've given me. They're house is so nice, too. I feel really comfortable here. I also met Pamela's parents again, I think I'd met them last time I was here but, no wait, I did, but I didn't really remember much from the first time. They're awesome too, and Pamela's mom is a really good cook. Pamela's dad likes to make things out of wood too. He reminds me of my great uncle Verner. He has also discovered the wonderful combination of wood and creation.

Yum.

That was ramdom. Anyway, another exciting thing that Pamela, her mom, and I did is go see West Side Story last night. A few years back, I was totally in love with that play, I knew all the songs and the lines, I went to all the rehersals of the students showing it at the college that my dad teaches at. I redescovered its splendor last night. It was wonderful! The actors were just as good as the ones I had seen at the college, but these were proffessional ones. The actor of Tony was the best. He was a fabulous singer but he didn't quite manage to make the love scenes not cheesey.

The actress of Maria was a bit better at that, and also a beautiful singer but was a bit too energetic for even that character, the innocent, excited little girl who fell hopelessly in love with her people's American rival. You guys may preceive her differently, but that's my knowledge on the overall character of that characer. :) Now I've changed my mind, the actress of Maria was the best, but the actress of Anita wasn't as prominent as I'd hoped she'd be. Rip and Bernardo, the gang leaders, as well as the other members of the gangs, including the women, met my expectations but didn't surpass them. Except for one Shark girl. She was excellent. The best dancer in the entire show.

I'm loving it here but missing you guys as well. Do your best to imagine me loving you guys so so much, I'm doing the same.

Love, Hanna