Settling In

Well, I know it seems really weird that I am writing a post about settling in given that I have been here for more than 4 months. But, it's true. I am just now settling in. I've been with my new host family for three weeks, but it feels like it has been months. I am finding my place here and settling in to the rhythm of family life. I have started guitar lessons and continue handball, so I have my activities. And I'm finally fulling starting to fit in at school. I understand lessons, participate in break-time conversations and work during the full 4 hours allotted for history tests. And finally, the tide has turned a bit. Instead of it always being me asking my neighbors for help on the notes and exercises, it is my table partner asking me for help catching up with the notes. I mean, I'm sure he would do fine if he didn't spend the class talking, But it's still nice to have someone looking at my paper to catch up during notes, instead of the other way around.

So all in all, I'm finally starting to settle in. Things are getting easier, and I'm beginning to benefit from all of the hard work that I put in during first semester. I can now understand what all of the former exchange students told me when I was choosing between the year ans semester programs. Everyone said, the first semester is hard, and just when you finally start to get comfortable is when you have to leave. To be honest, there was a lot of time during the first few months when I was wishing I had signed up for just one semester. But now that I'm here and realize that some of the first semester kids are probably already back home, I'm so glad I chose the year program and that I get the time to really enjoy all of the work that I put in.

That's the update for this week. Not much new news, but there you have it. No big weekend plans, but I guess we'll see. Life here is full of surprises.