Mistakes

We all make mistakes, its part of the human nature and it can't be stopped. When learning a new language, of course mistakes happen more frequently but everyone just forgets and moves on.
I make mistakes very often but thats alright, its all part of it. I am going to write about one of the mistakes I made yesterday, it was more of a miss understanding. If you don't get it the first time you may have to read over it again.

We had just finished writing a 3 hour long German test and I was still a bit overwhelmed by it all. The next lesson was biology, not too hard just another lesson where I pretend to understand everything.
 Anyway, the teacher said, "draw a stick man on half of the page". So i drew an ugly man, not too hard I thought. The next thing the teacher said was, "draw the same stick man with closed eyes".  So I thought a little bit about how I would draw it and came to a nice plan in my head. Before i started to draw it, I looked around at some other peoples and they weren't drawing the face on the actual person. The first thought that came to me was, is it really that hard to draw a person with shut eyes? Then I thought maybe it was a German thing to draw stick people like that. I sat there for a little bit and then realized how dumb I really am.

A weekend in Switzerland

A short description of my weekend in Switzerland (1 week late) 

1/5/14

Sitting on the ICE (InterCity express) and watching the mountains and green grass go past in a blur. I won’t complain and say I had to wait for over an hour for this train to come because I was very well entertained. People watching and free WiFi is a fun thing to do for an hour. I really am not German at heart because I didn't mind waiting for an hour.

As I was drinking my four Euro small hot chocolate from Starbucks, I was watching this lady have a conversation with herself. She obviously thought she was really funny because when she came inside she could hardly walk through the door because her laughter was taking over her body. I thought maybe it was time to go before she came and sat next to me.

I arrived in Interlaken Ost (Switzerland) a few hours later and met my dad’s uncle and aunty. They have a holiday house in Beatenberg which looks over the lake and mountains. It was such a shame I had so little time because it was simply beautiful.

The rest of the day was well spent catching a bus to the end of street and walking back. No, it wasn’t just a normal street; it was the longest street in Europe that goes through a village. When we got to the end we walked the 7km back, taking in the beautiful view along the way. 

3/5/14

Bern is a bit like Canberra, not in looks or the way it feels but it is a forgotten capital city. No, Zurich is not the capital of Switzerland and Sydney is also not the capital of Australia.

Bern is a beautiful place filled with lots of life but also very relaxed.  At the end of the main street is a bear enclosure, it was weird seeing bears in the middle of a city but also understandable. I thought it was pointless at the time but I studied a bit about Bern in one of my German assignments... who would have thought it would come in handy?

Bern is definitely a place I will visit again. You could almost say it is a flawless city because the flaws are so well hidden. Switzerland is a ‘must see’ and should be visited at least once in everyone’s life time.   

Bern

The bear enclosure 

The walk along the lake side 

Independence

This is just a thought I had: An example of independence between German and Australian kids and their parents. 

Australia: "You're now in year 9 (or 10) darling, this means you're going to have to start being independent. I will still pack your lunch and morning tea in the mornings. However, Mummy wont be able to pick you up from school anymore, she now has to work full time because you're grown up now. There is a bus that goes past our house but you will have to cross the main road and walk a few metres so please be careful. Now listen to me, do not talk to any strangers and call me as soon as you get home. I will be home from work in the late afternoon so I will leave some afternoon tea in the fridge. OK?" 

Germany: "You're now in year 5 (or 6), this is when you become more independent and don't rely on mummy and daddy as much. I have bought you a train card so you can now travel to school and many other places without having to get me to come with you. I will give you the train times so you will have to work out what time you need to catch the train. There will be a lot of other people from your class doing the same so you wont be alone. I will come home  later in the afternoon so make something for lunch and we can have a warm meal for dinner."