Abitur

So i know i have been gone for quite a long time. I do have a really do have a good reason. I have been working on my abitur. I would like give you a slight look into the madness that is the abitur.



(Sidenote: still having issues with my pictures uploading, but i figured out how to get this one!)

So as i said i have been studying to for my abitur. I think for anyone to really follow and understand how i ended up at this point i have to tell you a little bit about myself.

I am 22 years old. I had my son at age 17 and while that undoubtly made things harder, i persisted through (some rather hard circumstance that i may tell about at another date) and graduated high school at age 18 in 2005. That was all fine and dandy. i missed honar graduate by o.5 gpa points and i also failed to achieve my International Baccholorette (sp?) diploma by 3 points though i got all my certifecates except in Psychology (sp?). So even though i wanted to be an honar graduate i did recognize how lucky i was to be graduating at all considering my circumstances

While in high school in my senior i fell in love with my husband. He was an exchange student took my son and i back to germany with him the summer after graduation. This was supposed to be only a 5 week vacation. Well as you can see it turned into a bit more than that. His father asked me if i wanted to stay and learn german for a year and go to univerity here. This was a hard decision. I had a one year old toddler, i didn't speak the language, and i was already accepted to a collage in the USA. I finally decided my decision would come down to one thing: money. Specifically if i got the scholarship i was counting on to pay for my tuition (on top of tuition and books, i was going to have live away from home, pay for an apartment, food, all those associated bills, plus day care.) I ended up not getting the scholarship because of the IB program i did not meet the science requierment and was not allowed to have the scholarship. At the time it was free to go to University in germany and i was looking at starting life with at least $20,000 in debt. I chose to stay.

So I went to apply at the University which was loads of fun. They would not accept my diploma they said it was the equivelent of what german childeren recieve after graduating the 10th grade. My ACT score were also not high enough (i had a 24 i needed a 29 or 30 out of 32 points to get in). They said the only way i could go to unversity here would be to do the Abitur which i believe is truly the equivelent of a collage education in the USA. It is three years long and is more work than i ever thought.

To bring this around to a point. The past 3 or 4 weeks i have been preparing and taking my Abitur exams. My exams were:

English: topic: Utopia. I liked this topic, but i was dissapointed by the text in the examine. It was not well written nor was it like any of the practice material. I definantly do not feel i did my best.

Biology (in English): topic: Genetics and Evolution. I thought this exam was well structured the question were fun to work through, but i almost ran out of time. I really enjoy biology.

Wirtschaft (Economics) (in German): topic: Markt, Preis, Wettbewerb (Market, Price, Competition) and Globalisierung (Globalization). This was a nightmare. Not only were the question about other topics than the ones we were told i am bad in the class anyway. I do not understand it and doing it in a foreign language did not help. I only need one point on the exam to pass. The catch is that i actually have to score three points to pass because they will take of the maximum two points for my german mistakes. Did i mention how bad my german is.

These were my written exams. To point out a few things on the above picture: My beloved pink tea pot that is thermal so my tea stays warm, it is sitting on top of my two biology books and below that is my fuzzy blue phone ( i had to call someone to explain a math thing in Eco to me), my importants notes on princess note paper (i love disney princesses) hanging on my window sill, the candy wrappers really thought all i ate was candy to keep the endorphines coming, Economics for Dummies that book really helped me understand some things, two full binders worth of information that i need to know, my three-eyed-fish blinky sitting in my childhood jelwery box, my thomas kinkade background regaurdless of your feelings about his reasons for painting they are calming pictures and last my oversized belle cup from disneyland paris. those are all my essesntials from studying.

These things are stating to pile up again as i study for my oral exam. The class is World Studies and the topic is South Africa. I am very nervous.

I spent a lot of time over the past two weeks in prayer. Specific prayer for my exams. Please add me to your prayer list that i get my abitur. Also that i have focus and clarity in my oral exam. thanks in advance.

I wanted everyone to know that i have been itching to blog, but i feel so guilty as i have 100 other things to get done. i really need to keep up with this. I really enjoy writing and well i love reading everyone elses. my last exam (the world studies one) is on May 5th. please keep me in your thoughts and prayers then.

lots of love,
amy

Ahhhh....how nice

this little family of three is going away. I have lots to tell everyone, but i will wait till i get back. Our family really needs some time together, just us. This is just a weekend away, but after how the past couple of weeks have gone, it feels like a vacation!

i hope you all have a wonderful weekend. i have to pack now, see you on sunday!

<3 amy

Fasching!

That is the german word for carnival. Desi's Kindergarten celebrated it today. The theme was "what I have always wanted come to kindergarten as". Desi was of course Captian Hook. He was so excited about it.

Here is the over excited pirate eating his breakfast of choice: Ceral with soy milk!

This is the big area in the middle of Desi's kindergarten. More kids in costumes!

Desi's classroom had a huge pirate ship much to desi's delight!

I think this picture is so sweet. This is desi and a little girl from his class named Sogand. She is so cute and so sweet, but you think this looks like a really old and bad wedding picture! lol.

Desi and his best friend Jannis were the pirates of the day!

One of Desi's teacher was also a pirate!

Desi's friend Tobi. His dog even had a matching costume.

Random view of the parents being kicked out. look at all those kids. wow.

Happy Fasching to everybody!

Glasses

ok so this is not the post that i just wrote. I just wrote the one about the snow, but blogger does not like me and killed my post. I will just do that one then next week when i have more time.





Desi just got his glasses today. He really likes them! yay! He is farsighted and has astigmatism in one eye. He had a ball picking out the frames. Here is what he chose! Enjoy:

Thank you to everyone who commented on my last post. I will definantly be using the advice and most likely be rereading those wonderful comments often because I have a feeling this is going to be a battle for a long time. I will update everyone on the situation after we see a speech therapist probably next month sometime after our lives quiet down a little bit.

<3>

I need some advice...

I have held off on posting this week (well last week) because I didn't want to turn my blog into a complaining place.

On the other hand I would like to get this off my chest.

I went to Desi's very first parent teacher conference this past monday. It was scheduled so I knew that he was not in trouble or anything, but I was most definantly not prepared for what I heard.

It strated off well. Desi can cut very precisly with scissors. He is the only 4-year-old in his class that can write his name (kindergarten classes are usually a mix of kids ages 3-7. Kids usually go for 3 years kind of like a preschool setting). He has lots of friends. His shyness is much less now. He works very precisly and concetrated when building or the like. He is very inteseted in technical things. On and on. She did say that during group time Desi tends to not pay attention, but to be honest I remember when I got in trouble for that in the 2nd grade. I still zone out during class for no reason.

The next point was the bad one. She said that Desi's German is not very good. He makes more grammatical mistakes than normal for his age group and she has to repeat instructions several times before he seems to understand them leading her to also think that he does not understand German that well.

This was like nail to my heart. I really didn't know what to say to her.

I think for this to make sense I should back track a little bit. Desi is not Maik's biological son. Come on look at the pictures. For us this is not a big deal. Maik has been in Desi's life since he was 6 months old. Desi was born in the USA. For the first year (and i mean exactuly 5 days after his first birthday we left) Desi heard only English. Maik only spoke English to him, because he did not want to confuse him (that is another story). Anyway after we got here Desi began be BILINGUALLY raised. I only speak English to him and Maik only speaks German. The Germany influence in his life is HUGE. I don't have any English speaking friends here and apart from speaking English to me and watching some English dvd's, Desi's English influence is very small.

So back to this conference. The teacher (who speaks VERY little English) thinks that Desi's English is much better than his German and that the English influence in his life is too much and that I (who can not even pass German at school) should stop speaking English (to my own child) and only speak German to him (so that i can no longer communicate and did i mention that grammar is awful!?!?) so that his German improves.

I still don't know how to respond to this. I read everything I can find on the topic of bilingualism. I read through all the methods, the different types of bilingualism, the effects, the problems, and what good can come of it. In our life it is nessacery that Desi (and all following children) be bilingual. My family cannot speak German, nor Maik's family English. Aside from that Desi is bilingual in the very sense of he has two native languages. From what I have read at this point it would most likely harm him more to take him out of the bilingual enviornment.

My main question is: did I do something wrong? I mean Desi's problem seems to be that the minority language (English) is better that the enviornment language (German). That is not common. I don't know why this is. I would like to point out though: I waited over 2 years to hear my child's first word. I had to wait almost another year to hear his first sentance. Yes Desi did not start to talk until he was 3. I think that what he learned speech wise in the past one and half years is increadable. On the other hand I really cannot say anything about his German. I really don't know if it is that bad, but i can say that his English needs work. He makes a lot of grammar mistakes that I know are from German and I can imagine vice versa.

We plan in March to (once all our testing is done) take him to a speech therapist and have his speech and all that jazz evaluated. Other than this I am at a loss. I could really use some advice. I don't think raising him bilingually is a bad thing, nor do think we should stop what we are doing. I just don't know how to explain that to anyone.

If you read this far, thank you. I would really value your imput. I promise next post will have pictures of fun in this snow!

lots of love,
amy

Model no?

I love my son. I love him more than anything and would never trade him. I must admit though. I really wanted a girl. I think that was because I was afraid of raising a boy. I didn't, don't and probably never will really know anything about boys. Anyway, the point of that was to say I think sometimes the side of me that wishes I had a little girl to dress up takes over and the result is well have a look:

Desi actually liked the outfit too! I really spent about 20 minutes choosing something then another 20 on his hair. All of this just to go to a birthday party. hehe.

Here is a close up on his hair and cute face:

Yes well that was our weekend. We did have a good time at the party. It was nice to see family. I didn't take any pictures though. I wish I would have, the kids were playing so cute!

Something a little off topic. Desi has Handball on mondays. Today when went to pick him up I found out just how German he is!

Today the National German Handball team is playing and all the kids got German flag stamps on there cheeks. Very fitting as Desi and I just got our visas extended for two years today!

<3 amy

A cup of tea

That is exactly what i need to get through this week. ok well the next few weeks. I don't really have too much say. I really wanted to post on Sunday when i had some time to write something nice, but i was at my sister-in-laws house (that Baileys cake was amazing) visiting.

We got to see their new apartment. It is one floor down from the one they live in now, but it is amazing. I love how big it is and the layout. I don't like the tile in hall, but i don't like tile anywhere except the bathroom anyway. The kitchen is a bit small, but i don't think she is that much into cooking. In return they have a huge living room combinded sort of dining room. in other words there is a large archway connecting the rooms. They also have some nicely placed storage space. all in all i like the apartment.

I ended up getting sick. I would just like to say that when i get sick, i get really sick. I still don't feel well, but i managed to go to school today so i guess i am not that bad off. I hate going to doctors or staying home because i am sick. i always feel like i am not sick enough to need to. I felt this way yesterday and found out had i not gone yesterday i would be in bed with over 100° fever. Glad i went.

Just a little bit about keeping my new years resolutions:

• diet is going great! i really recomment myfitnesspal.com it makes it easier to stay on track. I have already lost 4-4.5 lbs in two weeks. i am very amazed and motivated.
• I have been scrapping like crazy (when i have time) I finally finished the Christmas eve pictures and post so if you want have a look, just click on the christmas eve tag.
• I am trying to keep up here and so far so good.
• i forgot the 4th one. oh well.

i am working hard for school and i can't wait for it to be over.

i guess that really sums everything up. i will try for a better post next week. Now i have to start on the the christmas day pictures.