September 23nd

I was a bit more nervous for today than yesterday. Well, I come to class late and surprise surprise. No French. And later, no drawing. Instead we had something (I have no idea what, but the teacher was a bitch. She was acting like I was the first exchange student in the world to come to a country where I don't speak the language well) and Math. Ugg. Today was good, though. For some reason, I feel like a dog (who called me that? Franz-Joseph? I don't remember.) because I developed a sort of fondness and loyalty for the first person who 'took me in.'

I spoke a bit more German than before and learned a lot. Today was also Catherine's birthday so there was a family gathering which was pretty cool. My favorite part was when I actually carried on a conversation with Astrid, my host-mom. Luckily, I got into the 'German flow' today, which was so great. In class, I don't understand any German. Okay, a little bit, but what's even more disconcerting, is the fact that everyone speaks Swiss-German. Even in the class, though they're not really supposed to. Swiss German is a completely different language, though. German-speakers can not understand it at all. It's amazing. I hope I learn it.

It's fairly aggravating because sometimes people talk to me very slowly and loudly like I'm deaf. It's like first of all, I took four weeks of German and second of all, despite what you may think, putting one minute intervals in-between words while practically yelling them does not help. I swear I'll understand it better when you say it five times faster. This just makes me feel retarded and dislike you. And, 'say something' really doesn't work, I've discovered. Or 'tell me what you know.' There's really no way I can tell you my entire German vocabulary over the course of a minute. No way.

Oh and when people left the house, tonight, there was a little porcupine scurrying across the way! Apparently they're wild here. It was amazing and I took some pictures.