Versuch mal!

Well in January, I felt like my life was falling into a pretty typical routine. I have school and fencing on Mondays and Thursdays. But I've noticed that I get bored very quickly if I'm not doing anything. And I've been trying to avoid going on Facebook all the time. And well...Facebook is for me...too addicting.

But what could I do differently to amuse myself? Well I borrowed this book Nothing for Ungood from my English teacher. It's written by an American who lived in Germany and it's opinion and perspective on the quirks of the German culture. I found the blog in English too, if anyone is interested. Nothing for Ungood I got the book over 2 months ago, and I finally started to read it. And I'm happy to say I understand a whole lot more now than when I tried to start reading it when I first got it. I began a week ago, and I've been enjoying the book quite a bit! I haven't been too much a reader, EVER in my life, but I'm kinda focused on still building my vocabulary. In fact, I still walk around school with a huge 130,000 dictionary. The Godfather (and Sun Tzu originally) said, "Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer." That's why I keep the German language always by my side.

And so now to jump to a completely different point: learning German. I'm sure I've written this before, but you cannot learn German in three months! I had three years of German before I came here, and I'm still learning new words everyday. And then I feel like I forget a few of them a few days later. But don't interpret me incorrectly, you can make a lot of progress in learning German and understand most conversational things in three months...but on the other hand, it feels like the German language has many more words than the English language. All-in-all, this has not been as easy as a year that I had expected...to start off language-wise.

But to skip back to the first topic...what else could I do? Well now that the horrible German winter (I know I didn't have the worst conditions) is over, I can ride my bike more! And in general, spend more time outside. That has more pros than cons...I think I will be able to finally say good-bye to the few pounds that I've gained this year. And further, if I don't want to look as skinny as a pole, I can still watch TV in German...which is contrary to me in the USA. I used to (at least I thought) watch a lot of TV, and here I don't watch much at all.

But sometimes I've forgotten how enjoyable the simple things are...and they tend to work out much more smoothly than complex plans and agendas. Or even trying something new can get you out of the lull of being bored. The title means "try something"...or "give it a try" is the translation that sounds better to me. And fortunately I feel like I got through my period of depression after spring break...at least I'm going to have to knock on wood for that one. But I'm still evermore curious how I'm going to bring my new experiences home with me? I've learned a whole lot and adapted quite a bit...so I'm imagining I won't be totally the same when I go back home? But it definitely won't be extreme that I left a good student and person (I always tried to do the right thing) and return Goth...that won't happen. But I'll have to wait and see a little bit longer, but that time will perhaps come quicker than I would like it to.

And so to complete this somewhat random blog entry...I tried something new! A map of all the places that I've visited this year! And the total as of now is 48 cities...more than I realized. I'll consider that I've been so enormously blessed to have been able to experience everything that I have thus far!
YOU MAY HAVE TO ZOOM IN OR OUT AND MOVE USING THE ARROWS TO SEE THE CITIES!

Where I've Been 2009-2010 CLICK LINK ON THE LEFT OF THIS SENTENCE TO SEE A LARGER MAP
YOU MAY HAVE TO ZOOM IN OR OUT AND MOVE USING THE ARROWS TO SEE THE CITIES!

Tomorrow I'm going to Mainz to visit Domi at her university!

Schönes Wochenende!
Matt