Exciting newness

Well, my classes start in exactly 2 DAYS!  Ah!  I'm nervous, being that I've always gone to school in the States, but excited to see what learning intense Deutsch will be like.  The classes are around an area called Hackesher Markt, which has lots of shopping and food and stuff so I think I know what I'll be doing when 1pm rolls around every day :)

I have been learning bits and pieces of German every day though.  I learn new words like, for example, I learned Wednesday night that "ohrwurm" literally translates into "ear worm".  If you have a song stuck in your had and you absolutely can not get it out, you say "Ich habe einen ohrwurm," (I have an ear worm.)  So I definitely learn little things every day, which end up helping me to gradually learn the language.

We're preparing for Jesse's 4th birthday, which, is on September 4th.  Yes, it's his golden year!  He's so excited about it and actually remembers when his birthday is if you ask him.  Talya took the older two to get a present just from them for him so I'm home with Jesse.  It's really funny actually because I slept in this morning and so when they were leaving I had just woken up and I heard Gideon yell at Talya "Mommy, are we getting Jesse the dinosaur suitcase?!"  Talya had already gotten it a few days ago and told Giddy about it, but made him promise not to tell.  So Talya responds "shut up!  Be quiet, Gi!" and then Jesse pipes in "Mommy, can you get me the dinosaur suitcase for my birfday?" and she says "umm, we'll see."  hahahahha it was soooo funny!  Gideon can get loud when he needs something or wants to so when he yelled that about the suitcase, it was so funny because Talya was shushing him like she'd never done before.

Last night I went out with one of my friends, Sarah, for the second night of her birthday celebration, and her friend spoke to me in pretty good broken English.  She asked me why I was in Berlin, and I told her and she was like "Wow, I wish I could do that.  Just go to a foreign country for a year."  And then I remembered how privileged I really should feel.  I mean I'm not writing research papers or doing calculus problems every night like most people my age back home that are in college.  I'm just hanging out in Berlin with my sister and niece and nephews, eating bratwurst, dancing at fun clubs, and learning German.  It kinda reminded me to be more thankful, which I definitely don't do often enough.

I have met some new people my age-ish though, which is awesome.  I went to a dinner at Monbijou park, right down from Talya's work.  It was put on by her old church and there was a long line of tables connected with tons of food and drink on them.  It reminded me of the big hall in Harry Potter, hahah.  But it was really cool because I got to see some people that I'd met two years ago but hadn't seen since and I met some new ones.  Unlike growing up in the States, where you pretty much have the same set of friends since elementary school, you definitely have to put yourself out there here.  For me, at least.  I can't just walk up to a group of people and have them know me and tell me things that they know will crack me up.  Well, not yet, of course.  But what I'm saying is, being new to the city, I literally have to just start up a conversation with people if I want to talk to them.  Not everyone knows the crazy Shoups, like in Georgia.  Well, some do but definitely not all.  There's more people here of more nationalities and if I want to befriend people that I think look cool and nice, chances are I have to start talking to them myself.  I'm just glad I'm pretty good at doing that or else I'd be miserable.  But I really like doing it because unlike in Georgia, where everyone's pretty much from Georgia, when you meet people here, they could be from a totally different country, or part of Germany.  They're not just from Ringgold, or Atlanta or even South Carolina.  They're from Spain, Sweden, Great Britain, etc.  It's just really cool to talk to people because you really never know their background.