A German girl from staff named Annelie and I have become pretty good friends over the last few days. She's eighteen as well, just graduated and is doing this as something called a "German Social Year" that's paid for by the government. Next year, she will go to college to become either a movie translator or a newscaster. Today was her day off, so we decided to spend some time together.
We took a long walk to the local store called Kaulfland, and talked about everything from snakes to jobs and the differences between breakfast foods in Germany and the U.S. (they don't have pancakes here!!) She speaks English very well even though she thinks she's bad at it.
This is the first time she's ever needed to apply what she learned in school or actually speak it out loud at all! I guess most of what they learn is American politics and history in English, which i think is odd.. Her final was to translate a page out of the New York Times. Impressive. It's fun when she doesn't know what a word means, trying to explain it to her. Yesterday, I had to try to explain "pie" without using the word "crust" or "pastry" because she doesn't recognize either of those words. ...Turns out they don't have pie in Germany!
Her sister had just come back from the U.S. and brought her peanut butter (they eat Nutella here instead), and since her favorite movie is the Parent Trap, we decided to try peanut butter on oreos, the first time for both of us. Delicious. Try it. Seriously. Leave your computer this very instant and go out and buy yourself some oreos and try it! Haha it tastes like those peanut butter chocolate girl scout cookies (also difficult to explain to a German: girl scouts). I told her to try it on an apple too, but she didn't like that quite as much.
Afterwards, we went to her flat nearby and she couldn't believe I never paint my nails, so I let her paint them for me and now they feel weird, but they're colorful and make me smile=)
She was so surprised to find out that I've been to Hawaii and wants to go someday.. We've talked about travelling a little bit and since she says Berlin is her favorite city in Germany, I think she and I and a couple friends will try and make it up there for one of the travel weekends and have a German-speaking guide! She even invited me to come stay with her family when I'm travelling after school is over. That's something I've noticed here is that people are a lot more naturally hospitable, they'll offer tea and chocolates and bread when they invite you into their house, which they do quite often.
Annelie is so sweet and fun and our personalities are a lot alike, so it's so nice that we've gotten to know each other. Especially as I don't quite move at the speed a lot of the students here do, it's nice to talk to someone a little bit more relaxed. I feel blessed that God has brought her into my life.
Philemon 1:7
"Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people."
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