European Solidarity

The first notice anything's happened comes a week later:
We participated in this.
The announcement came over the loudspeakers a few hours beforehand, commenting that as many people were injured as there were students in the school. We, along with surely much of Europe, stood our silent two minutes.

Wednesday kind of dragged on by. I don't have too much to say about it, really. It was just another old school day. There was one interesting part, in French class, where they were watching a movie about some kid reading a book. Excerpts from the story he was reading were continuously being interwoven into his own plot-line. At one point, the main character meets and talks to a giant turtle; this being dubbed into French, I for some reason could hardly contain my laughter. It was utterly ridiculous. We also went shopping. I bought some presents. I couldn't find any Refused or Hives, guys, but I WAS able to find CDs from the greatest band to ever grace Europe - Pilos Puntos - so you'll forgive me if you get those instead ;)

Today = Thursday. Today I received two projects. In German, the class is working on some poetry; the teacher asked me and the French foreign exchange student to translate one into our own languages, not literally but so that they also made a poem of sorts. Furthermore, she asked for a one-page essay about my trip, including my expectations and experiences. Later on, the History teacher asked me to prepare a 15-minute presentation on "where I come from," most likely including school, the area, and all whatnot. If anyone has a really good gallery of Brainerd, you can post it here. I'll be bringing in pics on a CD.

Graded on in-class participation:
I'm not sure what's up with the camera, I didn't even notice anything about the dates. Maybe it got confused and thought it had time travelled when that awesome pic of Geli and I was taken. lolz. Also, I didn't say I don't eat meat, just not in giant slabs (the one on top isn't the one we eat :P )
Again. I'm sure I wasn't drunk. Though I probably wouldn't tell you if I was, knowing how some people that happen to be female and live in the same house as I do tend to overreact about things. But I wasn't intoxicated.
Anonymous. I'm sure lots of people know who you are. But I'm not like other people. My bank of possible people has been essentially empty for about a month now... but keep 'em coming.
I don't believe I ever said I wasn't homesick in the least. There are occasionally things that I miss, especially when I read through e-mails or blogs from back home. However, all in all I'm glad I'm here.

Ich hab' meinen Kommentar gelesen, und vielleicht glaubt ihr, weil ich "man kann besser 'ne Fremdsprache sprechen wenn er getrunken ist" gesagt hab, daß ich besoffen war. Vielleicht stimmt das Sprichwort, aber daß ich besoffen war ist überhaupt falsch, und eine dreckige Lüge obendrein.

"My philological studies have satisfied me that a gifted person ought to learn English (barring spelling and pronouncing) in thirty hours, French in thirty days, and German in thirty years. It seems manifest, then, that the latter tongue ought to be trimmed down and repaired. If it is to remain as it is, it ought to be gently and reverently set aside among the dead languages, for only the dead have time to learn it."
- "That Awful German Language," Appendix D of A Tramp Abroad

How true that is. A number of people told me that they took French before English because it's so much harder; they're probably as fluent in either, even though they've had French for two more years. Really, all that's tricky is pronunciation and spelling; those are essentially the only two easy things in German. Also verbs aren't *usually* too bad, with (naturally) a few exceptions.