Fighting the groove

More and more lately, I've been stopping to remind myself that "You are in Germany right now. You are having an incredible time in a foreign country, and seeing and doing things that so many people don't have a chance to see. Don't take any of this for granted." After only being in Germany for about 3 weeks now, the little things have started to become normal...the way the houses are designed, the different makes of cars and vans, the fact that if you throw a rock, it will hit 3 eateries before it hits the ground. I keep reminding myself not to fall into the groove, to keep trying and seeing and doing and experiencing as much as I can while I'm here, because there are only 3 weeks left on this trip. It will be strange to come back to the states and not be able to grab a kebab from the hauptbahnhof, or even have a hauptbahnhof. I feel like I'm starting to put down roots here, and I have to be reminded that I'm not living here, that I'll be going back to normal life really soon. I guess I'm still in the honeymoon phase, either that or I skipped over the phase where you get tired of everything being foreign and different. I've started using german when I can, and using half-german when I don't know the words, and it's become a little more comfortable. Still, it's intimidating to try and talk to someone who only speaks German, mainly because everybody speaks at mach 10 and has a different dialect. It would be really amazing to be able to speak German, if only because it sounds like such a complex language. I'm glad I prepared myself as much as I did, but there's still so much to learn...I know enough to know I don't really know much of anything. This whole experience has been so incredible so far, but I'll save the day by day details for another blog post. I definitely want to travel in the future, to learn more about new cultures and then experience them. We're starting class now, have to run, auf wiedersehen, tschuss.