Thanksgiving and more...

Nov. 26, 2010
Before Thanksgiving
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! Yesterday was very nice. The day was typical, but in the evening my host family and I met with Yvonne, the local agency contact here in Stuttgart. It was a very nice evening. I was able to talk to her some about the differences of this country. She was also an au pair as a young adult, so she understands what I am going through. I told her that the most difficult thing in Germany, and even in this family some times, is how blunt Germans can be. They dont sugar coat anything!! Haha, my host mom, Anja, said that there is a Bulvarian expression that if a German is not yelling at you then that is praise enough. Yvonne was saying that she had an American instructor come in to do some teaching at her work and after everything had been done all of the Germans said that the instructor had done ok. The poor person was like, "what did I do wrong???". Yvonne explained that to Germans saying it was "ok" is like giving it an A to A+, were as saying you dont like it would be a B. So I am learning that communication is very different here, and I am trying to adapt as much as possible.
Tim, the little boy, is so much fun to be around. I am pleased to see how dedicated and loving his parents are to him and how really well they have trained him.
We finally got our first snow!!!! About one - two inches, so everything looks like winter wonderland which makes me happy :) And we will be having a Thanksgiving dinner Saturday evening, so again, I am happy :)

December 6, 2010
Since Thanksgiving
I decided it was time to catch you all up on what has been going on. Since Thanksgiving we have had snow on the ground. It is very beautiful, but I am having to learn how to dress warmly while still retaining some "style". The Saturday after Thanksgiving we had a Thanksgiving dinner which was yummy!! That Monday I had my first language class. It was rather difficult, but I think I grasped the concept. It has been nice to meet the people in the class as well. I am really finding that I need social interation outside of my host family. Theweek went by smoothly, and on Friday we left for Aachen which is near the Belguim and Netherlands boarder. In fact, I was in the Netherlands for about 5 minutes this weekend :D