Wie war der Tag, Liebling?

Life is feeling pretty normal (in a good way). Now that school's in full swing, it's back to the grind. Nothing wild's been going on, except that I wake up every morning and still get a little fluttering when I tell myself, "You're in Germany!"

Aw, look at that sibling bonding!

I feel fully engrossed in the routine of daily life here. There are certain things that just happen as if I were on The Truman Show. The Audi Train went by third period today as usual. The same 20-something-year-old dude struggled to stay awake on the afternoon bus. My host parents and I watched the evening news. But the repetition of it all doesn't get monotonous because there are little, random additions every day. 

Today our social studies teacher left us unattended (note the Audis outside).

For example, religion class is a new adventure every lesson. Monday I was pretty sure we'd gone off on a tangent about Star Wars (we hadn't) and today we definitely started talking about the Bible and all the languages in which it's published. We ended up having a big discussion about it, and people were arguing about whether or not the Bible is in Khoisan (the African clicky language). 

History class also tends to take some unexpected turns. Our teacher is really good at using real world examples, but sometimes I get lost in the jump from Bonaparte to Instagram. Today he used this hand gesture that we learned at language camp/support group back in August. It was pretty exciting because it's the first time I've seen it in action.

It's kind of like a wink.

And on a final note, I listen to German podcasts on my morning bus ride to school. There's a wide range of podcasts out there. It's the perfect platform for anyone who can't get radio space but has a lot to say (I would know!). Anyway, there are a few I've found that are good if you're looking to practice German comprehension:

NDR Info - Welt-Wissen This show is NPR-professionalism auf Deutsch. It deals with a wide variety of topics, like where spam emails come from, the sun, and the history of tattoos.

Der kleine Erziehungsratgeber If you want to hear lots of cute little kids speaking German, then this is your podcast. The episodes are pretty short and they address a lot of cultural aspects.

Wie war der Tag, Liebling? This one's my favorite, maybe just because the two podcasters (Anke and Kristian) sound like they'd be awesome to hangout with. They basically just start out by asking each other, "How was your day?" and then talking about random trivia. 

And if you're asking me, "Wie war der Tag, Liebling?" I'd say it was great. I mean, it's currently 25 degrees outside (77 Fahrenheit)! Then of course, here's the fun fact: Bill Clinton was awarded the "Karlspreis" (Charlemagne Award) when he visited Aachen in 2000. Now you know.