AMD 1 - Skyping with German Relatives

For my first AMD, I decided to use my German cousin's recent birthday as an excuse to finally sit down and Skype with her. We did a three way call with my mom, who also speaks German, with my cousin Lil who's from Hamburg. When she answered the call, ich habe gesagt "Alles Gute zum Geburtstag!" She didn't know that I had started to learn German, so she was very surprised and excited. Then we talked a lot about Lil's plans to go to medical school. It was interesting to hear her talk about it, because the way her school is set up, she's been on a track for medical school for quite a long time. She made that decision around the same time I began high school, and then was streamed into a pre-med type program. I always find it interesting to compare European/American education systems, so that was pretty cool. Of course, after letting Lil practice her English, it was my turn to practice German. So the three of us tried to have a semi-conversation using some of the new vocabulary from Kapitel 7. We talked a lot about sports and then we all pulled up a map of Ann Arbor so I could practice my direction-giving abilities, and virtually show Lil around my new town! It was pretty successful. After practicing some of the newer stuff, I went back and we talked in the past-tense about what I had done this weekend. I wanted to say: Ich habe zu viel Bier getrunken (which is the truth)! But instead I just told them: Ich habe meine Hausaufgabe gemacht, und ich habe Kaffee getrunken. I think my mom probably liked that version of my weekend better anyways :)

Overall, I felt like I got a lot of good practice, plus it wasn't that stressful since they're my family. Hopefully I'll be able to do it more often, or better yet - maybe I'll just fly over to Hamburg and practice in real life!