A Winter Post

As I write this blog, it is negative eight degrees Celsius in the village of Roetgen. The snow has fallen, leaving thin blanket upon the fields, the homes, the roads. Now it is too cold for snow, and the sky is clear and blue. The sun is blinding, but does nothing to help warm me up. As a child of the Bay Area, the snow strikes me as equal parts beautiful, cool, exciting, and frightening. I love watching it glisten in the sun, and taking walks (when it isn't too cold,) but I am terrified of the hill that separates my home from the bus stop, where I catch a bus every morning to school. I know that one day I will fall on the shiny patches of snow left on the sidewalks -compacted by footsteps until they're nothing more than treacherous puddles of ice. I only know this because it's happened twice already. I'd like to think that I've developed tactics to prevent ice-related injuries, but one day I'll prove myself wrong. I'll make sure to upload pictures of the resultant bruises.

This wave of snow also marks the first snowfall in the city of Aachen, as well as in Kornelimunster (where my school is located.) The Americans are generally ecstatic about the development, while the Germans are anywhere between mildly disgruntled and utterly furious. I've enjoyed watching the snow fall outside the school windows, as well as seeing the white sheet that has settled on the roof of the otherwise ugly school building. Besides that, however, the news is not so good. As I have already mentioned (I think,) there is a second hill that separates the bus stop near INDA to the actual school building. This, too, is covered in icy patches. My morning routine involves half-sliding down a hill, getting on a bus for around 45 minutes, then getting out to carefully hike up a steep and treacherous snow-covered incline. This all repeats in the afternoons, but backwards. It's definitely an adventure.

To quickly cover other news, I'll mention that I recently finished my German language course. This course was free as part of the CBYX scholarship, so I signed up for classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 6:30 to 8:00. I was never given an entrance exam, so the community college where I took the classes had no idea what level I belonged to. I chose the beginner class that was specially designed for fast learners, thinking it would be perfect to improve upon the knowledge I received at language camp. The first few classes were great - I was in a class with a huge blend of students; part American exchange students and part foreign immigrants and travelers. They came from countries including Italy, Serbia, Poland, Spain and Mexico.
We started to learn quickly -- we were going over all the stuff I had learned at language camp, but it seemed like we'd soon get into new territory. However, the class eventually stagnated, leaving me in a class that seemed a little bit slow, and often redundant. In the end, I am thankful that I took the course, and all the more thankful that I am finished with it.

More to come later. Again, I apologize for my reluctance to upload new posts, but it seems like life is on fast forward here. Every time I look up another month has gone by.