Hello from your favorite Blog-Slacker

Hello everone!

So sorry you haven't heard much from me lately. The internet at my host family's house has been acting up, so I haven't been able to use it as much for entertainment purposes as I would normally like to. But here is a long-awaited update...

The last two/three weeks I have been primarily preoccupied with my language practicum, my apartment search, church activities, and hanging out with my host family. So...

#1. The Language Practicum.
It's going rather well. Had quite a character of an instructor for the first half (that is, up to today - we change instructors next week). She was nice and... a character. All that really means is that I found her personality entertaining. I also first heard from her the Berlin dialect, which basically means that the word "gut" (which means "good") is pronounced "yoot." Totally awesome. At first the practicum was a little frustrating because it didn't seem to be quite as stuctured as we'd hoped, but as things went along the goals of the course became clearer and I feel like I am learning a lot. Every day I think my German gets a little better, and it's really quite exciting.

#2. The Apartment Search.
Up until a couple days ago my only comment on this subject would've been, "Ahhh!!!" The apartment search is definitely a frustrating process, particularly because for some reason it is really hard to find people to live with who are close to my age. A lot of people here go to college later in life, and a much smaller percentage of the population actually goes to college, and somewhere in the middle all the 20-year-olds vanish and then don't reappear again until they're 26 or older, still studying something random and living in WGs (a WG is basically an apartment in which individual rooms are rented out) with a cat or two. Yeah... that basically summarizes my problems: no one my age, no one who particularly struck me as a fun and exciting person to live with, and no one who didn't have a darn cat! (I'm allergic, in case you didn't know.) I have visited 6 different apartments to date (and emailed or called at least 20) and I only liked one of them, and I didn't get it, they picked someone else. But, no worries... I am going to visit one tomorrow, and I've been in touch with the girl for several days and she's 20 years old and sounds really friendly, and she's given me the impression that if we meet each other and like each other, I can have the room. So, cross your fingers for me! Time is ticking away, and the majority of us still don't have apartments.

#3. Church Activites.
Ummmm AWESOME. I love the people at this church! I also had the incredible blessing of getting to spend time last week with a group of seminary students from Hessen (another state in Germany) who were at our church for two weeks doing sort of a practicum with our pastor slash mission project. They put on a series of evening talks/discussions with worship music, which were intended for believers and nonbelievers alike, and they invited me to sing with the worship band. I had so much fun! They were the nicest and most hilarious people (mostly guys) and I absolutely had a blast. They made me feel so at home here and we just had such a good time. All of their talks were awesome too and God has been so faithful to answer my prayers to be able to understand sermons. I was so blessed. I'm a little sad that they're gone now, but through the events I also got to know more people at the church better, and that's been awesome. Super awesome.

#4. Host family.
My host-dad is really cool. He seems to absolutely love taking me around to random places in Berlin and having all kinds of thoughtful conversations, often about politics but also other stuff too. My host-mom and host-sister are nice too, but I especially enjoy the dad. And I've had some pretty cool meals here. Last night we had tacos for dinner and I thought, "Tacos in Germany? Yeah right!" but they were actually amazing! I also had some great pumpkin soup, this really tasty casserole type dish with green beans, pears and bacon (sounds weird but it was awesome!) and some other stuff too... they get such good fruit and vegetables here. Yum.

Okay, I have to go now because a group of us are going to see a movie. More updating soon! And PICTURES too!!! Love to all!!!