i've never been so overwhelmed.

Coming to Germany has been a brand new experience for me. I thought I was pretty good at German, but once we arrived at my grandparent's house and my ENTIRE family was waiting there for breakfast, I realized I knew barely anything. I don't really understand much, and when I do, I only catch a few words and phrases and I try to piece them together to make sense of it. When I understand a question someone asks me, I try not to use that many words. It's very overwhelming, and when they're making fun of me for not understanding (I can understand when people tease me better than I can understand meaningful stories, for whatever reason), it can get a little tough, but I'm determined to make it through these two weeks and come out of it having learned something.

This little village is my dream town. All the family is in the village, or the village next to it, and even in this cold weather, people opt to walk or ride their bikes. Even though there's always cars driving, even in the middle of the night, they still don't use their cars to go everywhere. I wish I had the choice to walk or take the bus or ride my bike everywhere, especially if it was just to go down the road, take a right, and head right into the bakery. I'm very jealous of how my cousins get to live their lives.

My grandmother is super endearing. She's only learned a few English words and phrases ("fine" and "I love you"), but she always uses them at the right moments. She had red hair like mine when I was her age, and she understands the "chic" fashion that all the "hip" people wear. When I bought a leather jacket from H&M, she wouldn't stop talking about how "cool" it was. I don't want to leave her, or her fantastic cooking.

And of course, I love my grandfather to bits and pieces. He speaks the dialect, so I hardly understand him at all, so I just smile and nod and try to understand. When I saw him at the airport and hugged him, I cried. It was embarssing, but I couldn't help myself. I missed him a lot, as if that wasn't obvious enough. I wish I could speak better German so we can actually hold a conversation.

Overall, I'm not excited to leave. I'm super content here, and I like not having to worry about everyone back home. All I need is my cats here, and I'll be good to go.