A birthday, a bond, and a book thief.

Well now, it's already almost hump day! I love how that happens. So. Saturday was the bond (see title). Or I'd like to think of it as so- I really don't know but it started with a b and I needed something to alliterate with. Anyhow, another CBYXer and I met up around noon and spent the entire afternoon just talking about everything that came to mind. We found out we had a TON in common and so I'm definitely hoping we get to hang out more! We'd both rather sleep than party, we consider nutella to be a gift from the gods, and think it's ridiculous how many meanings the word "doch" has. And a whole lot of other similarities too but I won't go into them and bore you out of your skull. I had a lovely Saturday though, and we walked for quite a few kilometers because we wandered for so long "trying" to find the shopping center, while really just rambling on in conversation and occasionally looking at what direction we were headed in, that when it was time to go we were several kilometers away from the correct bahn station. So I was feeling quite well-walked by the end. On Sunday I panicked a little because no one told me it was a German state holiday and all the stores were closed, and I'd been planning to get a birthday gift for Sebastian. Luckily Daniela had told me about an Import-Markt, so I went to that instead. I took the S-Bahn on a very pretty route to a giant industrial area- apparently it was inside the Internationale Congress Centrum. So there were all these cool unused rooms labeled as "Sydney" or "Instanbul". I really would love to see what it looks like during the week. Anyway, the main halls were full of tables and booths full of imports from all over the world. It was pretty fabulous, and I got to barter a little with an African guy. I was rather sad to end the weekend, but Monday was fun (even though I had to take a test in Chemie where I had NO idea what I was doing) because when I came home, I had a couple hours to myself while Sebastian and Daniela went grocery shopping for the big shebang. When they got back I helped Daniela set up and make the table pretty, and then both sets of Omas and Opas arrived along with Clara from rowing training. Having all the grandparents together is always pretty funny, in my opinion. But generally it feels inappropriate to laugh at such gatherings unless everyone else is laughing, especially in Germany, so I kept my mouth shut. After a dinner of soup made with fish and beets, the Omas and Clara and I played a game that is just like Trouble except without the obnoxious dice-popping thing (we had normal dice instead- it made for a much more pleasant experience). The grandparents left at around 10:30, and then we cleaned up a bit and relaxed in the Wohnzimmer (living room). I read about a book thief (part 3 of my title)! I believe I wrote that I'd bought my favorite book, The Book Thief (by Markus Zusak) in German, and was waiting to read it until my German was better. Well, I don't really feel like my German is all that much better, but I picked up Die Bücherdiebin anyway, because 1) I am out of English books, 2) I want to improve my German and a volunteer told me that one of her biggest regrets was that she didn't learn to read Italian very well, only to speak it, and 3) because I can't bear to read another word of Kabale und Liebe so I'm going with the next German book on my list. I find I can understand a lot of it, but I think that's probably because I've read it over five times already. It's still good though! One of my favorite lines in the first chapter or two: "Ich persönlich mag einen schokoladenfarbenen Himmel. Dunkel Bitterschokolade." (I personally like a chocolate-colored sky. Dark, bitter chocolate). Plus it sounds better in German, I think. :) Let's see.. today was pretty bland. I had to take a test in Sozialkunde (ha,ha,ha) but the teacher sort of realized how hopeless I was and so just had me do the graphing part, which was basically finding the data in the text and making a pretty graph. I think I did pretty well with it. After school I had my second orchestra rehearsal! It was sehr schön. All the wind instruments joined us, so we had a much bigger sound that was really fun because I've played in a large band and in a small group of violins, but never played with both together. Plus the teacher told me my Deutsch ist sehr gut because I knew the difference between wissen and kennen, which are two different words for "to know", but you use them in different ways. Wissen is used more for factual knowledge, whereas kennen is used for knowing a person or knowing of or about something. So yes, that's been my last few days... not dreadfully exciting aber mein Leben ist schön, so ich bin glücklich! Til next time...