Month of Madness

It is fairly safe to say I have a lot to look forward to during the next four weeks. First, I have two weeks off of school for Spring/Easter holidays. This week in school could also count as part of the break too, due to the majority of the class and all of my friends being in Italy for a weeklong exchange. So we poor students left over have nothing else to do but watch films. But I can get over the fact that I’m not lying on a beach on the Mediterranean because in the second week of break I will be flying with Zoe to the UK, and meeting up with the one and only Mary Kelly Spross! My hardest decision right now would probably have to be choosing between being more excited to go to London or to see my old ma. I think the combination will make for an extraordinary week. We will spend a few days in London, taking in my favorite city and checking out a few possible universities for me, because no possibility should be out of the question! Then we’ll head up for Edinburgh for a night, and finish the trip out again in London. The best part is that this would never have been possible if I wasn’t already on this continent for the year; that’s fate, my friends.

The following week, right after I arrive back in Deutschland, I am set up to do a career study/apprenticeship at the global lens and optics company Carl Zeiss. I am incredibly grateful to receive this opportunity, since I have a spot in the international business/affairs office, it will be a great experience to take with me later in life. Every student in the state of Baden-Württemberg has to take part of this ‘BOGY’ week and apply to a company of his or her interest, and the father of a friend of mine who works there helped me find a spot.

To top it all off, the Sunday after my ‘BOGY’, I will leave with my French class on a train bound to Nîmes, France for a weeklong student exchange. It is only a slight problem that since I’ve been in Germany my German has gotten really good, not my French. If anything, my French has gone terribly downhill. I can promise that it will be humorous, because I am probably more comfortable speaking German at the moment than I am speaking both French and English, and I do not know how many foreign languages my host family will be able to understand, but somehow I believe we will work it all out. Nothing is too out of the question for me anymore. They just might be slightly confused when an American comes into their home trying to speak German. It is guaranteed to be a memorable time, especially considering there’s only very few who get lucky enough to be a double-exchange student/exchange student on exchange/ whatever it would be called.

So, things are turning out pretty well. Das Leben ist schön.

Progress

It has already been about seven months since I’ve been in Germany. Ask me how that happened; it’s been such a big and exciting blur. The time between Christmas and now has gone by so quickly here in the Ostablkreis.

In February, I went to a big school-based party at a local nightclub (very fun, especially under the circumstances that that would never happen in America) and we also had a week off of school for Fasching, the southern German celebration of Mardi Gras/Carnival/pre-Lent holidays. Although I did not completely take part in the party-crazy atmosphere, it was still fun to watch the parades and the locals happily drinking before noon. The festivities were bound to fill some German beer-fest clichés, but all in good fun. The rest of the break and most of February was filled with relaxing and skiing. Very posh.

A week or two later, I fell a little ill, and this was around the time that I swore if I just saw a bit of blue sky, everything would instantly be better. We’ve had the longest consecutive winter days without sunshine since 40 years. So just about all of January and February was cold, grey, and pretty generally miserable weather-wise. I would even consider it to have been a little depressing- there was a short time when everyone was mostly down for no special reason at all, and I now really do believe that weather can influence your outlook. Now the snow was nice the first few times, but since we do not get any snow days from school, the snow ended up loosing its charm somewhat quickly. Although last week the sun finally came out and we had gorgeous, much needed and much appreciated spring weather. But somehow along with that came unexplainable, unwanted homesickness. That feeling still seems to come and go from time to time despite how good I know have things here.

I have also been keeping busy as usual by going on loads of day excursions, in places including Baden-Baden, (on the boarder with France) Ulm, (Einstein’s hometown) and Munich again, along with other various local sights. On the sport front: I haven’t honestly been to track/cross country in a very long time, mainly due to the fact that (said in the nicest way possible) I simply cannot stand it. But luckily I found somewhat of an alternative to keep me busy. In Aalen, there are more than 100 types of sports. It’s almost ridiculous-you name it and they’ve got it, except of course for the one sport that I want: good old Floor, Beam, Bars, Vault, so called Artistic Gymnastics. Apparently not to popular around here. So it was recommended early on that I go to the Rhythmic/Acrobatic training that is well known in Aalen, and practice with the girls there. I put off going there for a long time because it’s technically different and more cheerleading-esque because the majority of time spent as a taller girl is lifting the little ones up to hold tricky positions.  I finally gave it a chance. It’s not what I ever pictured myself doing or liking, and not as physically or mentally challenging, but as long as I get to stretch and do some floor elements and not run through dark woods or mountains, I’m content.

Note on my language process: Some days are better than others, I am very confident in my understanding and comprehension skills. By speaking and writing I can still trip over easy words, but improvements are definitely being made. I wrote a text in January, and a few weeks ago I looked back at it and was already able to pick out mistakes and correct myself. It was unbelievably satisfying to see that.

‘Tis the Season!

So this year, considering I am no longer in the North Penn district in all reality, I had a loooong-relaxing holiday.

In all honesty, this Christmas season hardly felt like Christmastime to me. Throughout December I kept waiting for that moment where it would finally feel like Christmas was coming. Although this holiday is home to the Germans, the Christmas music and obligatory holiday films were scarce, the decorations very IKEA-esque, and I couldn’t get into the mindset. I was pretty upset, it being my favorite time of the year and all. My aunt who had previously lived in Germany mentioned that Christmas over here is not so commercial as in America, and that seems to be the most accurate description. Not a bad thing at all, just not what I’m used to. It’s a peaceful, family time. But luckily, finally, on Heilige Abend/Christmas Eve, that feeling came.  After a pretty uneventful morning of sprucing up the house, and after the Tannenbaum was up, we walked to the small church down the road. It wasn’t the service I had hoped for, being somewhat general and un-christmassy. But that didn’t get me down. Walking home, the stars were bright, I always notice the stars, and I’ll miss the way they shine over here.

Once home again, we settled down to an intimate supper, cooked by my host ‘papa’ who has yet to make a bad meal. This wasn’t your typical German, American, or any culture Christmas Eve dish, but more of a comfort meal. Schnitzel and French Fries, that is. Schnitzel is pork meat, fried in egg and dough batter. If you ask me, it tastes like chicken, but very classy, tasteful chicken. And throw in the stereotypical Kartoffelsalat too; these Germans are serious about potatoes. Desert was a traditional Tiramisu.

After supper we waited, with the door to the living room shut as presents were being ‘delivered.’ I did protest, saying that presents are to be opened on Christmas morning, not Christmas Eve, but my vote was overruled for my year of all German traditions. We had it all, singing, fire, gift-giving, embracing one another, opening, playing, general happiness. The only flaw to this Christmas celebration is that after all the excitement we had to settle ourselves down for bed right after.

On Christmas morning, I received a letter from Santa, which left me feeling quite loved. Make fun of me, but I’m really just a little girl at heart. I have a very special host sister to thank for thinking of me, and how it wasn’t easy to share a family holiday and something very traditional to me with a new lifestyle. For lunch some of the family members came over for a gut-stuffing meal of everything edible. I missed my big crazy extended family that day, but I didn’t get too upset or homesick like I thought I might, because I was still surrounded with great people.

The 26^th, ‘second Christmas day’, as the Germans call it, but it’s not like they even open their presents the morning of, so why give it such a misleading title? Anway, we ate lunch at Oma Hildagard’s; the one lady whose cooking could arguably be better than my host dad’s, but only because she must have kept a few tricks to herself. We always eat very traditional Schwäbisch dishes, also always tasty.

At midnight on my 17^th birthday, my host mom split a Seckt, or sparkling wine with me, which I found completely ironic, but hey, here it’s apparently what you do, can’t argue. I did not make many plans for the day, because I like to procrastinate with my birthday every year, plus I don’t like the idea of getting older. Luckily my friends saved the day, and they all surprised me by coming over and eating cheese fondue and watching James Bond together. I couldn’t have planned it out better myself.

Another day we made it down to the German/Austrian border for skiing, it was a dream come true. Weather conditions weren’t perfect, but I’ll take the Alps any day over the Poconos Mountains. I even decided to get back into skiing instead of snowboarding, and got lessons by a quintessential Austrian named Sven. At least I think that was his name, it fits better in my memory so I’m going to keep it like that.

New year’s eve, or Sylvester, we went to a party of a family friend, who just so happens to be the pastor at that local church down the street. Again, it was a fun but ironic time, partying and dancing to awful music in a church, but that makes the memory all the better. Right before midnight, two friends and I ran up the street, where almost all of Aalen is visible. We stood there counting down, and at 0.00, the skyline lit up with firecrackers. It was a scene that my camera could do no justice too, and almost better than Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s on the tele.

The rest of the holiday was pretty much laziness, but much needed at that.

Earlier this month I was also invited to swim in the SC Delphin Neujahrschwimm, my host family’s swim team’s local meet. I’m no swimmer, and don’t think I enjoy it enough to ever become one, but I’m glad I participated. But mostly grateful I didn’t have to swim Butterfly or any 100/200 meters. I also got first place in everything, including the family swim alongside Family König, glad I didn’t let the returning champs down.

And for now, I’ve been busy with schoolwork, trying to ace that pain in the arse German grammar, fretting about senior year, and trying to enjoy the rest of my time here. It really does go fast. I already have my home date set, the 25^th of July. A lot later than I had planned, but still sooner than I may be ready. ‘Til then, ‘Merica.

Advent

The last few weeks flew by, and considering that it was also Advent, they went really fast. After our trip to Berlin, I insisted on having a Turkey dinner one night, in celebration of Thanksgiving. It ended up pretty darn good for being the first time my family had even seen a turkey, (Truthahn) let alone prepare it. I got most of the staple traditional foods in, and it was just as good as being home. (And major thanks to my uncle for giving me some pointers.)

December was great; we had two consecutive weeks of snow, which added up to about 1 meter of pure white goodness. I did learn though that here in Germany, where there are no yellow school busses responsible for getting the kiddies to school, that even when there are blizzard conditions outside, you are expected to be at school on time. No snow days, no exceptions.  This made for some memorable, icy, and chilly hour long walks to school, all to be awarded with dripping wet coats and scarves to lug around all day. On the plus side I got to rent a snowboard for a long weekend, and successfully make a fool of myself on the T-bar lifts at the local ski slopes. Embarrassing, but I’m not complaining.

On the first I went for a day trip to Strasbourg, France with the school. Strasbourg has one of the biggest Christmas markets, and is nick-named the ‘Capitale de Nöel.’ It was freezing but wonderful, and I ate a heavenly warm Nutella crêpe. Strasbourg, in the Alsace, was once Germany, as one could note from the architecture and name, but it still holds a very french flair, and as the capital of the European Parliament, I also got the feel that it is a cultured town.  It happens to have a little bit of money too, which is evident when  you look at the shopping district.

On the sixth of December we had a friendly visitor from lil’ St. Nick, or better known to the German Kinder as Saint Nikolaus. We all cleaned our rooms and laid out pretty plates for St. Nickolaus to stop by with sweets and small presents. I would say it was about equal to getting our stocking stuffers a little early. Another big event at Christmastime is the Advent calendar, and not just the chocolate-a-day cardboard box bought from the drugstore, but one with little gifts every day, rotating between my host sisters and me.

I also went with a friend to an ‘Abschlussball’ one night, which is a graduation from the dance school in partnership with the secondary schools in our area. It was quite interesting, in all honesty. Much cleaner than any prom or ball in America, everyone was incredibly formal and jived or tangoed or waltzed around. Everyone asked me how long and where I had my ballroom dancing lessons; I had to respond with not even knowing that such dance schools even existed, which was then proven when I tried to dance.

An interesting week this month was when the exchange students from Nîmes in the South of France were in town. Since I will be going to Nîmes for a week in June, I was invited to go with the group on a few day trips, including the Mercedes-Benz Museum, Christmas markets, and a few other local destinations. I am, after all, an exchange student too. This week taught me two things: I am happy to be in Germany, because maybe it was just this group of kids, but I don’t think I’m really compatible with the French. Nothing against them, I just don’t understand them. The other thing is that I’m feeling really confident with my German, and my French is unfortunately awful. But considering I took German lessons as long as these students have, and I live much farther away from Germany than they do, I was kicking some butt. The most I heard them say was ‘Guten Tag’, with a timid little accent. My German classmates also have amazing French, so that helped a lot with translation.

We spent the rest of our time baking Plätzchen, Gebrannte Mandeln, and other German Christmas delicacies, swimming, and cramming in studying for tests before the holiday break.

And finally, Christmas. Posting the christmabirthdaynewyear festivities after it’s all over and done with, it’s the first thing on my list!

Happy Holidays!

A Short History Lesson

BERLIN, BABY!

I was lucky enough to start off my November in one of the cultural meccas of Europe, the capitol of Germany.

I have to say that I learned a lot more on our trip than I had expected too. Our journey started off with a serious of connecting train rides up to the city. On one hand, it happened to be snowing, which was pretty uncommon for that time of the year, and the scenery was spectacular and something I will hopefully never forget.  There was also a lack of seating on the train, (which actually seems to occur more than often on the Deutsche Bahn system) so we got pretty cozy with our neighbors, and made some interesting conversation. On the other hand, it seemed almost somberly, riding through what was formerly known as The German Democratic Republic, or East Germany.  It was like another country, belonging more in East Europe than West.  I guess that I hadn’t learned much about the Cold War, or even the situation in Germany until this trip. It has been about 23 years since the unification of the German states, but the mark of the GDR is still here, for one example, in the architecture. As soon as we left Bavaria, and started to travel through Thüringen and Sachsen, the buildings started to become more conformed and monotonous.  The same goes to show in Berlin. From the top of the Fernsehturm, the west has a look like any old European city, but the east side stands in stark contrast with white concrete block structures.

What I find to be the most astounding, is that the communistic state of Germany was not in the distant past like almost all history we learn about, but in fact was happening in the time of my parents childhood in America; or to be even more relative, the childhood of all adults in Germany today. I cannot even begin to try to imagine what that life was like.  Everyone here must have a story to tell.

Anyways, we had more than enough time to do all types of touristic things in Berlin, including:

-The Brandenburg Gate

-The Crossing light men, or Ampelmänchen, because in East Berlin they are different than anywhere else in the world.

-The amount of Russian influence in the town, I found that to be pretty cool

-Charlottenberg, where we stayed thanks to relatives of the König family.

-And Mr. Joachim Gauck, the Federal President of Germany, who never receives any credit thanks to Angie Merckel, but he does, in fact, stand in the highest position of the German Government. He is also a great guy, from my understandings.

-Mr. Righter, my 9^th grade history teacher, (and Maddi for reminding me) for teaching us that we are still living in a post-Cold War society.

Berlin had a great vibe, and I enjoyed it a lot more than I though I would, considering I didn’t know too much about the city from the start. Although I am sorry to report that there isn’t much to do on Halloween night up there.

Small Gallery below:

Jewish Memorial

East

West

Iconic

Oktober: Part 2

As far as the rest of the month goes, it’s been fairly good here. Still adjusting to school, still going to fail every test I take.

In my class with my host sister Zoe, there are two other exchange students, which is incredibly rare, since usually the only exchange student in the school is the American from North Penn. One girl is Japanese, and the other is from Ecuador. It’s somewhat nice having two other girls sitting through the same classes not processing what the teacher says, but I can see how that could be frustrating for the teachers and other students. Where as I talk to the other classmates in German, speaking with the other exchange students is always a funny sight, we kind of have a ‘Denglish’ thrown in with a little Japanese and Spanish, whatever works for us. They both haven’t had as much School German as I have, so their German is a little behind mine, but I give them both a lot of credit, because when they’re not speaking German they have to speak English, which is already their second language.

I am forever thankful that the German school system requires much less tests and quizzes, because if I were in the same position I am in now at my high school, I’d be dead. The other day we took our first math test, and I only have three more for the rest of the school year. It’s mind blowing! And not to mention that the German’s are a lot farther ahead than us in math, in class 10 we are already doing what is standard for the 12^th grade in America. (Calculus, how exciting!)

We’ve done a lot of small weekend traveling, including a small town in Bavaria called Nürnburg; Ipf, a mountain where a meteorite hit thousands of years ago, ad an ancient Celtic civilization resided; and Schönenberg Kirche, which would have to be the most stunning and ornate church that I have seen in all of Europe, and all the same, it was where my host mom would go when she was little with her mother to mass on Sundays. Zoe and I also went to Aalen’s very own Römer Tag, or Roman day. Aalen is located on a UNESCO World Heritage site, due to the remains of a Roman emigrant civilisation, and celebrates every year with a weekend fest at the Limes Museum. The event reminded me of The Chronicles of Narnia of all things. The die-hards had tents set up and fire’s going despite the cold and slight drizzle. There was an arena for horses, and the acceptable attire was chain mail, cloaks, and leather shoes.  It was very nicely done, with medieval jousting and the whole nine yards.

Another highlight of October was when I had the chance to meet up with Johannes, our exchange student for two weeks all the way back in 2010. He was nice enough to stay in touch with my family, and when he told me he would be in Aalen for a weekend, it was a perfect opportunity to talk and catch up. It really is a small world, you never know when your life crosses paths with someone again, and things were just like they were for his short visit to America, except the tables were turned, I’m now the one on foreign soils.

And after that I was headed off with the host family nach BERLIN! 🙂

Oktober: Part 1

This month has been quite a busy one, for sure! We started out the month like every one in Germany should, with a visit to Oktoberfest and some sweet Bavarian hospitality!

We had three days off of school in early October, which was the perfect time to make a visit to my personal favorite city in Germany- Munich.

My host mom drove Zoe, her sister Prisca, and I to the city, where we would spend the two nights with their cousin and her husband and son in their apartment. The four of us spent the day mostly at Oktoberfest, and then in the late afternoon we grabbed some food in the English Gardens, the best Biergarten/place to sunbathe right in the center of town.

So I must say, I have never seen with my eyes so much Lederhosen and so many Dirndles. And when I say this, I mean we were literally the ones who looked out of place in our jeans and tee shirts. I’ve never experienced that before, for sure! Nonetheless, the vibes from the people there were great. Everyone was in a good mood, and It was really just a big fair, with massive ‘Beer tents’, or more like warehouses filled with people laughing and chugging pints, and this was all around eleven o’clock in the morning, mind you. On a lower note, there was a guy here or there getting sick, and one man even passed out in the crowd. And I’m sorry to report I didn’t take too crazy with the rest of the Germans or anything like that, not when the families were still visiting, at least. 😉

The next day was just Zoe, Prisca, and I, and we took to the touristic sights. I have to admit I was reminiscing a little of the last time I was there with family. We went through the Viktualienmarkt, old churches, and payed a euro to climb up the steps of the old Rathaus (town hall) to get 360 views of the mountains and cityscape. We spent the rest of the day in the shopping district, which I have to say is pretty impressive. We even got the chance to stop in a department store where the hot item on the shelves was traditional-wear, a.k.a Dirndls. Not being able to pass up such a wonderful opportunity, we stopped to try some on. I admit the dress was comely and comfortable, and I would have happily bought it if it didn’t cost upward of €100!  That evening it started to rain, and as we were waiting for our tram ride back to the flat I saw something that will probably never leave my mind… I just wish I were quick enough to snap a picture. It was right out of a dream–an old man with a protruding waistline and full-out lederhosen matched with a Bavarian cap riding happily on his bicycle in the pitch black and pouring rain, holding an umbrella. It was one of those moments when I wanted to question what my life is, and how the heck did I end up where I am, but I wouldn’t want to change a thing for the world.

On our final day in München we headed to one of the castles in the suburbs to have a look around. We make great use of the public transportation, with the S-Bahn’s and U-Bahn’s here in Europe, but don’t ask me how they work because even in English I can’t read an underground route. We didn’t end up staying too long since it we hadn’t planned on making the day out of it, plus we were lugging around our baggage for the train ride home that night. We were then off to my favorite museum–BMW world! Ever since we were in Germany four years ago, I’ve had a soft spot for BMW’s; they’re definitely my top pick. J It was fun there, I’m still a tad bummed I didn’t get to test drive anything though. We walked across then to the Olympic park, and spent the rest of the day back in the English Gardens watching the surfers and relaxing. I tried some Maroni, or chestnuts since as far as I know there are no chestnut trees in America, so why not? All I can say is that they’re best left of the pretty trees than to be roasted and eaten.

Schubart Gymnasium

Einen Schönen Guten Morgen!

It’s already been a month since I’ve been in Germany. Whew! Crazy to think about. Which means that school has started, and I’ve already completed my first three weeks! And that I’ve really procrastinated posting this… whoops!

So school here’s a lot different than North Penn. For one, it’s only about the size of my middle school, Penndale, with around 900-1,000 students, pretty large for the area, as apposed to the 3,000 students at North Penn High School.  Another huge difference is that the students are from 5^th grade to 12^th grade, 10-18 years old. Its definitely a little strange seeing kids half your size playing and running around the halls, with the older kids not seeming to mind at all. Somehow I think the students at North Penn would have issues with this.

The class that I’m in is considered 10^th grade, the reason being that the 11^th and 12^th grade classes are at a much faster pace to prepare for the Abitur, or German equivalent of the SAT’s, and since I am not planning on taking any Abitur, the 10^th class is a good place for me to be.  Plus I’m with my host sister Zoe, and without her being able to explain things to me I’d be completely lost. So a big shout out and thanks to Zoe!

We are with the same students most of the day, and usually stay in one classroom, and the teachers come to us.  All of the students are friendly, and we also have an exchange student from Ecuador and one from Japan, who also find German an incredibly complicated language.

A big perk of German school is that we also don’t have afternoon classes each day, and for me I have Monday and Friday afternoons free. It’s quite liberating! We also get an hour break when we have school in the afternoon, and we’re free to go into town and buy lunch, or do just about whatever we like.

Most days I ride my bike to school with my host sisters, and riding through the town early in the morning with nobody but the shopkeepers opening up and the street cleaners, it’s pretty surreal.

I enjoy almost all of my classes, despite the fact that I can hardly understand what’s going on. The ones that I find most difficult are Chemistry, Physics, and of course, Math. It doesn’t help that they’re neither my strongest subjects, nor my favorite, and when the vocabulary is completely different, it’s a little hard to comprehend. On the other hand, I love that I have French more than any other subject, and although the classes here are much farther ahead of what I had been learning last year, it’s still enjoyable for me. Except for the fact that I’m swamped with twice the work… the textbooks explain and define everything into German, and I hardly understand that, so I come home and translate it myself. It makes my head hurt, but I really think it’ll be worthwhile.

I also have German, Religion, Biology, Music, Art, Politics, History, and English. I think it’s great that we can have so many subjects, and still have less instructional time in one school day that back home! History, Politics, and English are bilingual courses, which for me means they’re a breath of fresh air: English! Never, ever take for granted being able to understand what is going on!

Lost in Translation

I still haven’t figured out if this is a good or bad thing yet, but because of the language barrier, I can never seem to keep up with the conversation, usually resulting in me not knowing what we’re going to do for the day until we are actually doing it.

For example:  Last Friday I went with my host sisters to their diving practice, expecting to swim laps/watch them dive, but I ended up instead joining right in with them as the instructor very politely tried to show me what to do, even though I understood about 5% of what he was actually saying. Fun, no? Well I actually really did enjoy it, and I’m going to join in with my host sisters and practice twice a week. It ended up that Zoe forgot to tell her coach that I was American, and didn’t understand most diving terms until the end of the first practice, so I must’ve seemed pretty slow… whoops!

Also one morning last week, after eating breakfast, my host mom told me to pack a bag, and we were going canoeing for the day with the girl’s swim team. No problem! It ended up being pretty fun, except I felt petty bad that I couldn’t understand any of the directions being given. But we made it, and then we went rock climbing after a few hours on the water, and had an enjoyable picnic in a park, munchin on fresh picked apples off of the trees.

The next day we went into town, shopping around and walking through the fresh foods market set up in the streets weekly, and stopped at an outdoor café for cappachinos/hot coco/tea. It was my picture-perfect European moment, watching the locals walk through the cobblestone streets while we sat relaxing and conversing. It was pretty surreal, thinking of what I would be doing if I were back home. (Which would be just getting up and ready for school, ick!)

Last weekend we hosted a grill-out in our cute little backyard/garden, which if I heard right, my 18 year old host brother completely remade earlier in the summer. It was really fun, and lots of the neighbours came out to eat delicious German potato salad, brats, and loads of bread.  After it got dark out, Zoe and I joined in with the younger kids to play on the trampoline and numerous rounds of Königfrei, or as I understood it, manhunt.

We also had a bonfire, and did something that I found very strange: Instead of roasting marshmallows and making s’mores, we put a sort of pizza-dough on sticks, and roasted them til they tasted like freshly baked pizza dough, mmmm. I’m tellin you, these Germans sure know how to do bread right! (I’ve got to stay really careful around all these delicious foods!)

At the moment I am reading none other than The Magic Tree House series, (for 1st-2nd graders) but auf Deutsch, Das Magische Baumhaus, of course. I find it pretty crazy that I actually read what I’m reading now 10 years ago, but this time in another language. And the reason for such a silly choice in books, is that I can understand it! Probably not the typical choice in reading for someone in High School, though. I just find it crazy, that the same book in English is probably sitting either on my or my sisters bookshelf at home. Weird. Film-wise, every night at 20.15 (8:15 p.m.) there is the prime-time feature on TV, and we’ve been watching an assortment of shows, German produced, and American, with voices dubbed over. My two most memorable include Friendship!, about two Germans from former East Germany travel across America; very humourous; and Lost in Translation with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johannson, which I found incredibly relatable. (As I watched it in German with Japanese and actually didn’t understand much of it at all, so maybe I’m completely off.)

My first official day of German school was Monday, and everything went well! I’m starting a new post now, or more likely after I translate all of my homework…

Oh! Other exciting news: During our fall break over here we will be heading up to Berlin! Woot woot!!

First week Abroad

From the day I stood changing in swim class, hearing my name being called down to K031 and learning that I was going to be an exchange student in Germany, to 6 days ago, a lot has changed in my life.

I can’t say that there’s a way to truly prepare yourself for when your family walks you up to the security gate at the airport to say the final goodbyes and let you walk off on your own into the world, because that would be a lie. I don’t think anything can really come close to preparing yourself.

So, leaving my family and everything familiar to me was tougher than I thought it would be, and so was coming to realize that I would be here for the next 10+ months, but it got better. When I stepped off the plane, and was greeted by my new family, I already began to feel less worried and more excited about the future. I am very fortunate to have such a warm, friendly host family. Zoe, one of my three sisters is coming to North Penn next year, and I can’t wait to show her around like she has for me.

My family doesn’t understand much English, and they also have a very strong Schwäbish dialect, one of the many regional dialects here in Southern Germany. So that makes understanding them a lot harder for me, but I’m getting better each day.

The first day, after settling in, I rode bikes with my host sisters into town, and we went swimming in a beautiful outdoor pool. It seemed very surreal, being surrounded by mountains and happy German people, just hours after an 8 hour flight across the Atlantic. The next morning, I went again with Zoe and Prisca and Muriel downtown. It is quite picturesque, typical German, but surrounding it is also a lot of newer more modern buildings. We also stopped by my new school, or Gymnasiam, and their grandmother’s (Oma’s) apartment.

The next day we went to a ‘Drachenfest,’ or Kite festival overlooking Aalen. We also ended up going to a beautiful roman bath-like spa overlooking Aalen and the kite festival. There is no real way to describe it, other than the water was very warm and the air was very cold, but it was very relaxing. I also got to experience a Sauna, and walking over stones and wood to keep your feet healthy. Later that night my youngest host sister, who had purchased a kite was eager to fly it, and around dawn in the mist we rode bikes up to open cornfields, and watched a very red sun set in the horizon.

The following day was Sunday, and we spent the afternoon riding bikes through a trail right off of our street. The way there was mostly uphill, but again led to more striking views of the town. Pooka, our dog, came along running by our sides.

On Monday we drove out to a farm and went to a corn maze, much larger and more confusing than any that I’ve been to at Freddy Hill or Merry Mead Farms. We then drove around, stopping here and there to look at Roman ruins. The Romans had settled the area hundreds of years ago and their legacy is still very well preserved.

Today, we had another leisurely morning, and after everyone came home for lunch, (the largest meal of the day, and most important to Germans) my host mother drove me and my host sisters to yet another mountain, this one we hiked up to find Aalbaümer, (don’t quote me on that name) a tower reaching high above the trees to overlook, you guessed it, more breathtaking views of the area. One the way down we took a route that is used as a ski slope in winter, so Muriel could fly her kite, and above us some men were hang-gliding. We also watched ‘Heidi’ today, after I told my family that Heidi is my name in German class. They found it very amusing, and insisted on watching the cute classic. School starts the 10^th, and I’m still missing everyone and the comforts of being back home like crazy, which I didn’t expect at all, but it’s getting better. More to come, promise!