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.

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!