German problem (again).?

Question

Alright, I'm having problem with some German I'm trying to say. I've had 21/2 years of German in school, and I've studied on my own, and I know alot of the basic rules (or I know how to find them), about word order and such, but I don't know how to apply the rules in a broad sense. For example, I'm trying to say "I’m very excited about having the experience of building from the ground up in a new country and experiencing things I never have before." in a letter, but I don't know how to make it work. Basically, I need some advanced German Syntax or something, cause I don't know where to put the excited in the sentence, I don't know if there are any clauses in here (besides the and) and such. I need help with this, but I also don't want someone to tell me what to say, but maybe give me a link or something so I can figure out WHY it's said the way it is. Any help would be great, thanks
Sarah

Answer 1

Here's a link to a German page (all German) put up by a teacher. It has explanations and also examples.
Have a look at "Satzlehre" explaining different kind of syntax.

http://www.poekl-net.at/deutsch/deutschgrammatik.html

In the sentence you gave as example I would use so called "Nennformgruppen" "infinitive groups" where you use the progressive in English (-ing). So as in English start with the "complete" sentence.
I'm very excited - Ich bin bin schon sehr aufgeregt (gespannt darauf)
about having the experience - die Erfahrung zu machen (Nennformgruppe)
No clauses needed but possible as infinitive groups replace "Nebensätze (Gliedsätze)" (dependent clauses).

Try to make shorter sentences that will help as well. I also tend to making long sentences in German (my native tongue) and get troubled when trying to translate them.