My Arrival

It took from 9:00 Thursday morning till 6:00 Saturday evening, but I'm finally in Hamburg! Immediately on my arrival I was taken on a tour, and all of Sunday was spent looking at the architecture, bridges, churches, and other distinct qualities of Hamburg. Unfortunately I didn't bring a camera, but not to worry, I have ten months of pictures to take! You can indirectly experience Hamburg's beauty another time.

Writing this blog post is actually quite difficult. I haven't spoken English out loud (except for the occasional sentence that I can't translate into German), and even my thoughts are a mixture of German and English. I think that my mind is actually simplifying itself because I have a limited German vocabulary, and my mind tends to think more in German these days. So when writing this it's sometimes hard to call an English word to mind, and it takes a lot not to write in German. Same goes for grammar (which I just tried to capitalize, Germans capitalize all nouns), so I apologize if there are glaring mistakes.

 There is German all around me, of course, and it takes a lot of focus, effort, and the right mindset to speak a foreign language. People tell me my German is good (for an American, I suspect, or maybe they're just being polite) but I have a very long way to go. I especially need to work on my accent, even for things that aren't real German words. For example, here I'm not Maddy, I'm "Meddy" and "um" becomes a slightly more elegant "em". "Ouch" becomes "oweh", "wow" is "vow" and so on.

My host family and I are a very good fit: so far we've laughed about Neo Nazis and people who don't eat breakfast. They're very talkative and energetic so I can listen to them speak German and try to develop a stronger sense of its grammar and vocabulary. When I don't understand something, I can ask for an explanation, and they'll stop to reexplain with easier words, which is very helpful. Sometimes I feel like a kindergartener, although in reality I am probably on the same level as one. Today my host sister taught me animal sounds, and it shot me right back to my childhood.

Oh, and I brought Dutch Blitz, and they absolutely love it. And they're good at it! They picked it up very quickly and my host sister often asks for a game after supper.

Wichtige Wörter (important vocabulary from the last few days - now you can learn German, too!)

• Die Brücke - bridge. The Elbe River runs through Hamburg, as well as many smaller rivers, and there are bridges everywhere. This word stuck with me on my tour of Hamburg because of the sheer amount of times it was used.
• gucken - to look. Also: guck mal, the command form that was also used a lot on my tour.
• probieren - to try. I tried a lot of new things, especially around meal times. Everything is delicious here, of course.
• reden - to speak. I knew this term, but I used the verb "sprechen" more, which means the same. But here everything is reden, it's a bit strange to say sprechen when you say you talked to someone.