German is much more efficient at describing my moods

This week was long. That's it.






That was a lie. Obviously I have more to say. I guess I'll start with last Saturday, since that's the first thing I can think of that was exciting since I've last written? I went to Gegenwind again, and instead of it being the normal youth group thing, we went to Schwäbisch Gmünd, a town about 45 minutes from here (I no longer judge distance in length, since I can't wrap my mind around km) to this sort of lecture-type thing. It was some evangelical-type dude talking and there was some music too. That part was....well, boring. I tried really hard to listen, but it was too much talking. It didn't help that I was really tired. Plus it was really warm in there. I actually closed my eyes for a little while. It would have been nice to sleep.

Well, after it was over, we met up with the rest of the Gegenwind people (since we had driven up separately) and went to a cafe nearby. That part ended up being pretty good. I met a few new people who seemed very nice. And, of course, it's always nice to be able to have conversations in German. I always feel like my German is so awful (I know, this is a theme in every post), but whenever I meet new people they always say that my German is good, so that makes me feel much better. And, even better, I asked a few people if I had an accent in German, and they all said not really. Well, they said I have a little bit of one, but that it's not obvious just from me talking in German that I'm an American. That makes me feel even better, since American pronunciation is very different from German pronunciation.

And this week, Jonathan came to visit! I didn't find out until Tuesday morning, and he got here on Wednesday afternoon. Luckily he doesn't have to start work until Saturday morning, so he was able to stay all day Thursday and left incredibly early this morning. We didn't really get to do much since I had to work a lot, but it was really great to see him! The kids were sooooo excited for him to get here, and of course, as soon as he got here Johanna started crying (because he's so tall) and Dominik ran and hid (because he was shy). The next day Dominik warmed up to him and they played Legos for a couple hours, but Johanna never really did. I'm sure next time Jonathan's here she'll be better about it. It was pretty crazy though; Dominik can understand English but can't speak it, and Jonathan can only speak and understand English. Jonathan was able to figure out some stuff that Dominik was saying, but it was pretty funny for me to be translating stuff that Dominik was saying to Jonathan. But overall, Dominik had a great time with him and I think he's already looking forward to when Jonathan comes back in a few weeks.

Nothing else too exciting this week. I've been working on a craft project with Dominik and Johanna for their parents for Christmas, and they're really into it. We're decorating some stuff with glitter, so it's quite a production every time we do it, but they've been working really hard and doing a good job. No matter how hard I try though, all three of us always seem to end up covered in glitter afterwards.

Oh yeah, and I got a new digital camera! I bought it a little while ago and had it sent to Jonathan's apartment and he brought it over with him! It's much better than my old one, and of course since my old one is a whopping 2.5 years old, this new camera was actually cheaper than that one. I thought about waiting until I got home to get one, but I figured I'd get it now since I'll be taking lots of cool pictures this year.

OK, let's talk about how everything is SO expensive over here. Especially electronics. The camera I bought was refurbished, and the price including everything, shipping and all, was $170. The exact same camera (not refurbished) in Germany is €280, which is more than $400. Also, the exchange rate is killer right now! It's up to almost $1.50 per €1. Because of this, I've tried to avoid paying for things with credit cards, because it means that while prices here are staying the same, prices in dollars are going up. Sometimes it's unavoidable though, which sucks, especially since I just discovered today that one of my credit card companies is actually charging me an exchange-rate fee! I hope they realize that they won't be getting any more overseas charges from me.