Right Back At it Again.

^Wow, I never make Day To Remember references... until now, haha.

It feels like I'm just now settling into summer... even though it's basically gone...

If you recall my last post, I was going off to a German hibernation of sorts, hidden from the outside world.  My earlier hypothesis? It would be "either fantastic or really rough".

I'm happy to say it was the latter. Times 100.

Being thrown completely into a non-English environment was cooler than cool, even if it was a bit scary at first. I'll admit, the first week was hard. And I was easily intimidated by all of the fluent or nearly-native speakers.  But it faded after the first week-- I was learning so much. The whole experience made me wish my classroom environment were that awesome....awesome in that we had an enthusiastic group of students who found it cool to speak the language and actually wanted to put effort into creating as close to a full immersion environment as possible...

But it was amazing.  I grew close with so many people (what else do you do when you're around them for 3 weeks? lol) including one of our RA's-- Maria. She's super into theatre (it's part of her major), really cute, (short, like me!), has a great sense of humor, AND she does trapeze for fun/exercise. PLUS her German is flawless (she studied abroad in Heidelberg and I am so jealous). I learned so much from her, and what amount of wanderlust I didn't already have, came from her.  I can't tell you how much I want to go to Germany (or just Europe in general) now. Annnnnnnd those opportunities may come-- my aunt has said words about visiting her brother, and a friend proposed her visiting there and her need for a translator..... :O So we shall see.

I really can't fit all of my experiences into a single post, so I'll just say that we lived, laughed, ate, learned, had drama, all in German. I even started to dream in German, which was totally weird but also very fascinating. The day my parents came to rescue pick me up, I could not English. It was a struggle. And hearing the English of my instructors and RA's for the first time was.... earth-shatteringly weird. Oh, and did I mention I learned Chinese? Only a bit, mind you. Since English

So just because I can, here are some pictures in an attempt to somehow show you guys how epic gov school was.

People + me in a Luray Caverns-- the tour was in German! (left to right: Sandra, peep Dylan, Alexa, Marley, Katie & Me in front)

Me in cave + RAs Mariah and Meredith (left to right.

ME AND LU LAOSHI our Chinese teacher-- he was so sweet, so patient...so amazing.
(Lu Laoshi ist Lieben, Lu Laoshi ist Leben)

A pic with a huge group of people before the last dance of the German Academy.

Our X-treme volleyball team. We were the "Faultier Frauen" ("sloth women", because Allison's fave animal was a sloth) later to be mixed with a group of guys... we compromised on the team name "Faultier Fenster" because they had named their team after the window two guys had broke playing soccer in the dorm halls.... XD

We're fierce.

Wandern! (German for hiking, but it's got an added spiritual element to it-- it's not just your average trekking through the woods experience.

Washington and Lee has some gorgeous forest and water around it :D

...The mountains are gorgeous too...

All of the people in the academy after wandern :D

Dunno why this is black and white, guess my camera was on that mode when the pic was taken, but this is the 4th of July at a street market on the campus of VMI (Virginia Military Institute).  You may not be able to tell but the building looks like a castle prison, and I'm standing with Matt, a good friend I made at the academy. We sang together and he is an insane guitar player. 

Just me with an inflatable dinosaur.

Our attempt to make a star with our bodies on grass. (same day, July 4th)

Found a four-leafed clover that day too

An unconventional 4th of July dinner with the boys in the academy... Bratwurst inside hotdog buns and Kartoffelsalat.. but we managed to have iced tea! In this picture the boys are imitating Lu Laoshi... he taught us our favorite Chinese words "canting" and "chifan", which mean "place to eat" and "eating". We're strange children. 

Not far from the university, they had hot air balloons in the sky (this was also the 4th of July) and I pride myself of this artsy shot with the lamp post right in the middle LOL

The Wiener Cafe!! You could invite your German teacher to this traditional-style eating get-together in the W&L dining hall-- traditional dress was encouraged, and I though all these guys looked amazing, so I snapped a pic :D

....Steve's shorts in honor of 'MURICA day... (he was one of the guys who broke the window, btw)

I love this picture because Haley (the ginger cracking up on the left) is so amazing... Our last week of gov school we had a "Geheimnesfreund", a secret person who we'd smuggle gifts or nice favors to anonymously, and at the end it was like a Secret Santa revealing, and you'd give your last present to the person so they'd know who you were, and Haley gave Calvin (the guy in the chair) a picture of a green penguin she drew herself. Just because she's cool like that. 

The guy in the yellow shirt and white pants was the bane of my existence.  RA named Lenny. He's only 19 but he's.. insane. He fooled all of us with a wig on the first day...

Internationales Abendessen! (International Dinner) with the other academies-- French and Spanish :D The girl behind me spoke excellent French, as did the guy in the red shirt.  The guy in the black is named John, he was another German partner in crime. It was so cool-- English was forbidden (like always)-- we could speak only our languages...I know only a handful of words in French, the French people knew only a few German words... so we met in the middle and I talked in Spanish with a French girl who knew some Spanish (enough to get by). It was such an interesting experience trying to understand each other. 

Left to right, our energetic RA's... Makenna, Leah, Matt, Mariah, Meredith, Lenny.

Marley and Me with a mustache (LOL she hates it when people make that movie reference with her name, but I love her so it's okay).

UNSERE DEUTSCHE FUSSBALL MANSCHAFT! (Our German soccer team!) The last week, we had a soccer tourney against the other academies... whoever won the most games was champion. The Spanish academy scored like, 7 goals... we scored 1 and the French scored none.  But the Spanish were cocky as hell so the French rooted for us when we played against the Spanish LOL