Nov./ Dec. Picture Post!!!! Merry Weichnachten!!!

 My November December picture post! To start off, I got to see my lovely Elliese again and we spent the day messing around in Hamburg and eating Kasebrodtchens and loving life, it was pretty fantastic! Glad she is doing so well here :)

 The weather has recently been nothing but rain, clouds and fog.... Which can be a little depressing from time to time, but I love it so much, I'm thankful that I can be outside every day!

 Birthday time! My birthday was about a month ago, so this post is a little late, but ohmygosh I'm 20 years old?!?!? Thats way too old in my opinion, but ok.... I accept it kind of.

It feels really great telling people that I'm 20 years old and having them size me up as if I'm lying about my age or something...
Thanks again to all my neighbors and family who came over and celebrated with me!

 Quick pick of the Toddy man and I on my birthday morning!

 And my present that I got from Tommy and Katja which is a super awesome Advents Kalendar!

Gorgeous blick of the Elbe after a wonderful breakfast with family and friends on St. Nicholas Day!
Quick lesson! St. Nick day is celebrated on the sixth of December and tradition is is that you clean your shoes, put them outside, and in the morning theres candy and awesome stuff in them!
Woo!

 And the christmas tree is up!! Its so much fun to put up the tree with friends and family, two weekends ago we had a tree warming party and got this sucker up! It looks great!

 Random picture of the sun being awesome after five days of rain.

 And the Hamburg Weinachtsmarkt! If you want to do Christmas anywhere, do it in Germany! Christmas markets are the bomb and Hamburg's is one of the best! One of my good friends from Boise High, Deana Jackson, spent a few hours with me in Hamburg checking out almost everything there is to see in Hamburg. It was wonderful to see her and to be reminded that Boise does exsist and I'm not crazy.

We had a really gorgeous evening, had some crepes, drank some awesome Christmas alcoholic drinks (Gluhwein, which the bomb I can't really explain what it is, but its simply the most amazing winter drink ever).

Quick update, I was able to visit my first kindergarten (which actually means daycare, the grade of kindergarten doesn't really exsist in the school system) today to see if I would like to do an internship, which I would love to! I had a wonderful time with the kids, and it was great to feel like I was working again. I have another kindergarten that I'll be checking out in January thats bilingual, which is hopefully also going to be an awesome experience.
Excited for christmas and the ski vacation! Glad that things are slowly but surely coming together and before I know it, I'll be studying!!!
I wish everyone an awesome Christmas and a good slide into the New Year!

Becoming Fluent Plus My Dritte Monat

Almost 90 days since I've gotten here and its strange that I have no return date to count forwards to...
Now that I've just devoured a giant chocolate santa, plus three of his tiny santa friends, I'm ready to give an account of third month here in Wedel.
Germany is and forever will be my home. I can hardly remember two years ago when it was all so new and strange to me, how exhausting it was to only have a basic grasp on the language and the awkward social interactions I encountered on a day to day basis.
In terms of language skills and social interactions, being and living my life in the German language has become instinct. Sure, I stumble through more complicated sentences, especially grammar wise, but for the most part, understanding German has finally been bumped up to a level where its not really understanding it, its just simply speaking. I can't really describe this strange phenomenon of learning a second language outside of your childhood and finally, after five years of studying the language, one and a half of which you were living in a country were it was spoken, you finally feel like you can tell people that you're fluent. I could only wish that everyone would be able to experience such a wonderful feeling, but it takes so much time and dedication if you don't have any background experience with the language. I feel blessed to have the opportunity to really study German in Germany and blessed for all the people who have made it happen :)
While my German skills are great, I'm positive that searching for a job where I'm teaching or working in English is going to be the best fit. Its literally my number one skill at the moment, which is sad because I know my sentence structure has gotten really funky since I got back to Germany. Next week I'm going to shadow in a preschool to see if its right for me, and the bilingual school that my little host brother attends is interested in having me do an internship with their younger classes. Job and study opportunities are so exciting, I can't handle the wait period for these things. After working forty hours a week all summer in Boise, not having a job is so incredibly frustrating. But I have to be patient. The winter has really been getting me down and I am constantly reminding myself that everything will come together...
I really don't have too much to say. Life here is as normal as life in the Kless house could be, which is totally not normal at all, but I love it. The challenges of life as direct and raw which is always good for life lessons and practices.
I'm excited for Christmas, but mostly excited for the ski vacation happening right afterwards!!
Along with the Christmas season (which is really the bomb diggity in Germany, I highly suggest Christmas Markets and the whole shabang if you're ever in Europe) comes a little bit of Heimweh, or homesickness. I just mostly miss my family, aunts and uncles and grandparents and cousins all included. My love goes out to all of them and I hope its an awesome Christmas!
Three weeks ago was my birthday which means I'm now two decades old which is really a strange feeling. Thanks to the Kless family, the Tanner family, and all my friends and neighbors for making it an awesome birthday!!
Pictures of my last month shall be included in the next post!