Gangnam Style

"Like a fairytale"

Since I'm living in a small German town, you'd think I'd be surrounded by German people all the time, but that is actually quite far from the truth. Once again, I'm really happy that I live with a host family because they're basically the only native Germans I have regular contact with besides my teacher! At Goethe, there are obviously not a lot of Germans learning German as a second language and there are almost 30 nationalities among the 120(ish) students this month, including quite a few from Brazil, Thailand, France, and the USA natürlich. It gets pretty funny being forced to communicate with all the other nationalities through a language we are both trying to learn...! While being around so many nationalities, I've decided that Gangnam Style might possibly the most internationally popular song ever... Literally everyone at Goethe knows it, it's my 8 year-old host sister's favorite song and was played for all the deutsche Kinder today at the church's Fasching party, and everyone knew the dance and was loving it last night at the Faschings party! [For my older relatives, the song is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIxm7cuwlSE] :)

At the Faschings party with one of the
 Brazilians from my class. They all
went as cowboys, and I borrowed
Nele's witch costume!

In other news, it has been snowing here almost constantly... I would be annoyed if it wasn't so pretty outside! When we woke up the other morning, my host mom said it was wie ein Märchen and I couldn't agree more. I'm always scared of slipping and tumbling down the steep hill on my walk to the city, but thankfully that has yet to happen! Also, today I got a phone to use here!! It was honestly kind of nice not having a phone at all, but a little impractical nowadays... My host dad gave me his old phone to use and today we bought a new SIM card and 5 whole euros worth of minutes! Sadly I haven't needed to use it yet, but it was still exciting.

Another exciting part about living in Schwäbisch Hall is not having to worry about walking alone anywhere. My walk to the city and back is quite dark at night and about the equivalent of walking alone through the Arb at 2:00 AM in Ann Arbor, something I would NEVER do, but my host parents assured me it's quite safe and after doing it a couple times now, I agree. I also haven't noticed a single police man/car which seems a little odd, but then again it is a small town and there isn't a need for much security like we're accustomed to in America.

Liebe Grüße aus Deutschland! xoxo