Saturday, July 4, 2009

Life in Germany

I realized that I had become so wrapped up in posting photos or partaking in blog activities that I have overlooked just random updates about my life in Germany. I need to work on creating more of a balance. 

Today is the fourth of July, I always find the American holidays to be the hardest. That is not to say I do not miss my family and friends during Christmas and Easter, but I still see the holiday all around me. But it is the strictly American holidays when I truly realize how far away from home I really am. I am looking forward to talking to my family (my mothers side) tonight on video chat. I have not seen them since Thanksgiving. 

As for me I am doing well. I am about 1 month into my government mandated integration course. That is 6oo hours of German language instruction, and 45 hours of history and culture. My German has already improved significantly. I would say Rosetta stone is good for teaching vocab and basic understanding of the language, but highly lacking in the grammatical approach. I have learned more in my few weeks in the class then a year with Rosetta stone. I am able to at least have basic conversations now.

In other news I am not looking forward to having dental work done next week. I have a cavity under a filling so I have to have the filling extracted and replaced. Yuck. 

I am getting more used to the food. But I still miss my American food. I was super excited to find an American food sale at our local discount chain, I will be posting a blog about that later.

I am finally getting out and meeting people. I have one friend in Heilbronn I have gone in and had lunch with, all by myself yeah me you can read about that here.
I also finally got a chance to meet up with the group of English speakers in Heilbronn and attend the Bad Wimpfen Talmarkt, more to come on that as well.

T is doing well. He is doing great at work. Actually solved a very significant problem with the digital system between the hospital and the German retirement agency (who pays patient bills). They had said if the problem was not fixed they would stop making referrals. A email was just forwarded to the head of the hospital congratulating T on a job well done, and stating that the Retirement agency can now move forward with the digital system they have been trying to implement for a few years. 

He is also currently blinded as we are waiting to go pick up his new glasses. He is getting new classes set into the old frames so he has been walking around blind as a bat for the past three hours. Rather amusing I think. 

Well that is all for today. I will work on posting more regular updates in between my barrage of photos.

Keep an eye out for the following upcoming blogs:
American food in Germany
Talmarkt
Castles (I know you have been waiting a while)
5 favorite things
Signs you have been in Germany too long 

To my friends and family: I love you and miss you. Enjoy some of that awesome BBQ for me. 

3 comments:

Unknown said...

My kids love reading about other countries. Keep posting away :) The boys are asking about the money. And how it compares to the US dollar. If its 5 Euros.. How much is it American dollars? And well they just want to know what goes on in Germany since you don't have 4th of July.

Lost in Translation said...

Well the current ratio is 1 Euro = 1.396 USD. So 5 Euro is equal to 6.98 USD.

I would be more than happy to do some posts about life in Germany such as the holidays and differences, if they would be interested.

I also have a whole bunch of photos from castles with the metal knight armor and some really cool things, like middle age toilets. *)

There is no 4th of July in Germany. However the Germans have really picked up on the concept of BBQ. So this past week and the week before two major grocery stores have done American themed food sales. And some of it is pretty funny like hot dogs in a jar. I will be posting a blog about that next week. So a lot of Germans were BBQing today. There are also quiet a few 4th of July events as there are many Americans (especially with the US bases) in Germany. Unfortunately non in my area.

Unknown said...

They would love that. We don't know if we are even gonna get to see fireworks. Its raining. We will see.got about 2 hours. So HOPEFULLY it ends and they go ahead with the plans. Kids want to pop fireworks. But technically they are illegal for us to even have, more or less set off. We hope to take them out next weekend to a family members where they aren't illegal to do.

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