As soon as I arrived, I had a full schedule. For the first week, I probably left my room around 9a.m. and came back around 11p.m. One thing nice about Bamberg is that you can walk everywhere or take the bus. The first week I was in Bamberg, I had to take a German test so they could assign my to a class. I love my class! Right now I have met many international students, but very few German students since they are still on their summer vacation. On my hall, I have a few Spanish students, who are quite interesting. They can speak no German and very little English. Their communication with people is typically whistling and clapping. However, they are great people to know, because they have a party about four times a week. Because of them, I can do the flamingo dance...haha! I have met people from France, Italy, Hungary, USA, Czech Republic, Ireland, Greece, Thailand, Poland, and Canada. I was amazed to find out what people thought about Americans. The students who have visited did not get much out of the USA and were greatly disappointed. They felt Americans were dumb, lazy people. For example, this one guy from Germany was referred to as Hitler in New York. Another guy from Ireland was asked by his host mother in Nebraska, "Does your mother make your clothes?" It seems like many stereotypes that Americans have of other countrys are not true.
This is an amusing story from my friend Pierre, who is from France. He studied abroad in Ohio for a year. He said the family drove pick up trucks and listened to a lot of country music. There wasn't much to do, but the corn fields were a fascinating attraction. Before he left the US, he was given a goodbye gift which was....a GARTH BROOKS CD!
The other Americans here are from Colorado, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Georgia, and West Virgina. We have been speaking a lot about how different the parties and music are in Germany. The classic 'white trash party' was brought up, which now all the international students want us to throw one. If you don't know what a white trash party is, let me explain. Basically you wear a white t-shirt, preferrably a 'wife beater,' and dress up as white trash. Then at the party you take markers and right on everyone's white shirt. It's a fun, theme party! It will be interesting to see how that goes.
School wise, it is going pretty well. Right now, we are going over a lot of grammatic stuff, which I needed because German grammar is so different from English grammar. A couple days ago I had to give a 10 minute speech in German of course; I spoke about 'Wicked.' I think it went pretty well. This weekend should be fun for I will be attending Oktoberfest! I will be sure to take lots of pictures!