die Geige

I was a bit too into school and activities in things in the States. My life revolved around it and I had a great time, even if it was a rather taxed commodity. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade my high school years at MLWGS for anything. But the amount of free time I have here is a little new and disconcerting. My gymnasium doesn't help much because it has a culture that no longer sustains AGs (German semi-equivalent of after school activities).  So I'm on the lookout for things to do.

I would say I've always wanted to be musical, but that's not exactly true. I was too stubborn to properly learn the piano as a kid just because it wasn't my choice. (Yes, Mom, you were right.) A arrogant band teacher later and the clarinet, along with everything else musical, was history. Or so I thought. I like listening to music. I like being surrounded by music. I just can't make music. Which is sad, somehow.

So, with all the newfound free time, I figured I should do something about it. I found a music school and rented a violin and am now screeching and scratching my way to "proficiency." My real goal is to just be able to eek out a melody that resembles O Tannenbaum (O Christmas Tree) by Christmas.

The guy who rented me my violin used to live in the house next to ours and we had a nice conversation about the village. Small world all around.

The lessons are particularly funny because my teacher and I work on communicating at the same time. He's not German and neither am I, yet we're holding the lessons in Germany in German. His accent is thick Bulgarian and he has (actually pretty decent) self taught English. I have an American accent and I know no Bulgarian. We make it work though and I'm glad I started.

Halloween und Messe

Halloween is not really a German thing. It's the old English pre-All Saint's Day celebration merged with a Celtic holiday, but in the last century or so it's become stereotypically American. My host Oma asked me what it was all about anyways, all she knew was that it came from America because the GIs brought it with them after the end of the war.

That said, my host family has more or less always celebrated it in some way. My host siblings picked it up when they lived in Spain and for years were the only ones in the Dorf to trick-or-treat (Süßes-oder-saures). This year it was just a bonfire in the backyard; cozy and fun.

I'm going to skip through time a little bit here and shoot to last weekend and the Mindener Messe. I went with a group of 10 friends to carnival to just hang out and see the rides. Apparently it comes twice a year, and I'll get a second chance in slightly warmer weather. Although, to be honest, it wasn't that bad. A thick jacket, gloves, and a scarf did the trick.

It was a brilliant evening and when I was on one of the rides, I had an interesting thought. My life is basically a movie right now. It looked like a scene ripped straight from a movie, with the passing music blasting out of the stereos. I was on a carnival ride, whirling around, with awesome friends and the fair lights twinkled in the background while a cold wind brought the smell of popcorn, roasted nuts, and pizza. It's moments like that that make this experience worth it.

Largest transportable Ferris Wheel in Europe

Rügen und Stralsund

One of the churches of Stralsund

One of the days of our vacation, we drove about an hour and a half north to Stralsund, which is one of the harbor cities in northern Germany. It was the first bigger city that I've been in while in Germany. (Driving from the airport in Frankfurt doesn't count). It was really cool, but a little windy and cold.

We went to the Oceaneum, which is a rather large aquarium and ocean environmental museum. It had a bunch of cool fish and sharks and I was able to understand most of the German signage, though there was also an English language cheat sheet right printed beneath it.

I have never eaten so much fish in one day. Its on the coast so obviously there is a lot of fishing, but I was surprised. It was very tasty though. But a pescatarian I am not.

This tank was about three stories tall

From the penguin exhibit on the roof you could see this other church too

But our day didn't just end in Stralsund, we also drove even further north to Rügen, a large island across from Stralsund. Our goal was Jasmund Nationalpark on the very northeastern tip of the island on the Baltic Sea. There are some very impressive white chalk cliffs, like the ones at Dover in England. The one cliff was called Königsstuhl, which means King's Chair, and the legend goes that the ancient Slavs who lived on the island chose their king through a competition. Whoever could climb to the top of the cliff first (without dying obviously) would sit on the top and become king.

View from the Königsstuhl

The Baltic Sea, Sweden is somewhere out there.

We also walked down a 435 step staircase to the beach and looked around. The rocks on the beach were mostly some kind of stone whose name I've forgotten, but it is easily broken into arrow heads and knives and the like. Pretty neat!

The national park also had beautiful forests and it's getting to be fall!

Neubrandenburg + Ost Deutschland + Waaren

As promised I'm going to go a little bit slower and more in depth with my vacation posting rather than posting one giant broad post on it.

Like I said, we were in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, which is one of the former East German Bundesländer (Federal States). At first glance, it doesn't really look that different at all. There are still the same trees and road signs and everyone still speaks German. But there are differences. The DDR (Demokratische Deutsche Republik) was communist, and the stereotypical apartment blocks are still there. My host mom mentioned that, growing up, everyone lived in more or less the exact same apartment. Some people just had two bedrooms, or three, or four.




There are also a lot less people in East Germany. It's actually something of a policy problem for Germany. Up until the fall of the wall, Neubrandenburg had over 100,000 residents. It now has just under 45,000. There just aren't jobs or industry in the Eastern states. It has a lot of complicated reasons behind it and the fault isn't just the communist system, the West German takeover of the economy was rather unfriendly as well.

But anyhow, Neubrandenburg's city walls managed to survive WWII, even though the Cathedral and most of the old city didn't. They were really quite neat, even if somewhat restricting of traffic. Minden tore theirs down a hundred years ago to make way for growth, but Neubrandenburg managed to work around it. There are four gates, one at each of the compass points, and they looked great.

One benefit to not having people in eastern Germany is that the environment is amazingly clean. Neubrandenburg is on the Tollensesee, and you can see straight through it. My host father said that its true even in the middle of the lake, you can see several feet down. And the area around Neubrandenburg is still very agricultural. Nord Rhein - Westfalen, the state where I live, is one of the most densely populated areas in Europe; it was a big contrast.

A car advertisement floating in the harbor

Lots of lakes in the Mecklenburg area and we drove to a town on another lake, Waaren an der Müritz. Just to go around and look and it was really pretty, but a bit stormy and cold.

Waaren and der Müritz

I apologize for the lack of pictures. I kept forgetting my camera and am not used to me phone yet, half of the pictures were upside down!

Urlaub!

So I really did intend on being a little more consistent with my posting here, but then we went on vacation and I forgot.

First off, there is a ton more vacation time here than in America. Well technically not, but it is spread out a lot more. We in America overdose during the summer (for at least 12 weeks) and then work through the horrendous weather of February and March without a single day off (it's how it feels). But in Germany the breaks are more evenly divided. Summer Break is only 6 weeks long, Fall Break is two weeks, Christmas break is four, I think, and then Easter Break is another 2 weeks, and then there are other random holidays too. I hear its a lot more time off in Bavaria. When you're Catholic everything's a holiday! But really.

Anyhow, my host family and I headed east to Neubrandenburg. My host mom was born in the DDR and grew up there and everything, so we were going to visit some family and friends of hers, but also see Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Germany is a large country. I think Americans forget that because European countries look so small squished next to each other on a map. But believe me, it's big. Minden is pretty close to the middle of Germany and it took us four hours to drive within an hour of the Polish border.

Speaking of borders, the old border between East and West Germany is pretty much nonexistent nowadays. There was a guard tower next to the Autobahn, but if my family hadn't pointed it out, I would have missed it. There is a museum and rest stop there, but it looked like the rest stop was more important!

The day we got there was also the last day of Oktoberfest and we went to it, even though we were no where near Bavaria (remember what I said about them?). Oktoberfest has been spreading across Germany and becoming more and more common, Minden even had one for a day, but all the tickets were gone. Originally, however, Oktoberfest was solely the domain of Munich.

The one in Neubrandenburg didn't come anywhere close to Munich, the Virginia State Fair would have dwarfed it, but it was still a lot of fun. It was a whole lot like a carnival here in the US, just with a bunch more beer and colder.

I'll get into the more touristy details in a later post!

Gandalf hanging out in the back!

die (der? das?) deutsche Sprache

My textbooks

Obviously, living in Germany, I speak German. A lot. Actually, for me, English has become almost an entirely non-verbal language. I "speak" English in my English class, but only when I am called on or my teacher talks to me. All my friends just speak to each other in German, so that's what I do too. And when I do speak, I have to speak rather slowly so that other people can understand me. (I didn't pick up on that one until relatively late) On top of it all, the two are starting to slur together and one time my English teacher was having a conversation with me (in English) and I randomly slipped into German and didn't realize it at all or even remember which language we had started in.

But for the most part, I do think to myself in English, which disappoints me a bit. It may be because I write a lot in English and that I just think to much to myself. Either way, it hasn't been getting in the way of learning German, which does become a problem for some people. I'm a bit of an exception in terms of this program because I had some foreknowledge of the language, quite a bit actually. The teachers at Schloss Wittgenstein said that our class was the most advanced advanced class in memory. The details I'm working out are coming slowly.

My geography teacher noted after one of the breaks, that I am becoming more and more confident in my German every week. It is true, I find myself using words and phrases that I don't remember consciously learning. But I still have a long way to go. There will be moments when I am half way through a thought and lose complete grasp of the language and not know what to say next.

I also mix up my articles a lot. In a very typical English speaking way, too. I refer to everything as "die" (pronounced "dee") which is feminine and sounds a lot like "the," but when I am using pronouns for inanimate objects, I use "es" which is the neuter pronoun (i.e. "it"). I am getting better, I'm getting used to saying "I put him down over there" in reference to a coat, although usually it's a she and not a he. Trés compliqué, oder?

So for now, I'm just working on it and reading Harry Potter. So far I'm on the second one, when I finish them all I might move on to something more substantial.

Kaiser Wilhelm und Sommertage

The actual monument

How're y'all? Good I hope? It's been a while, I know, but things got busy and I got out of sync. I've got a few topics up my sleeve, a few pretty pictures and lots of memories. I can't believe it has already been two months! So let's get started.

Way back in the middle of September I went to Wittekindsburg and the Kaiser Wilhelm Denkmal, both on the mountain range that is right by Minden, with my host mom and sister. The mountain is actually the reason Minden exists at all, because the mountain pass was once the only way in and out of Westphalia. Also the site of the post-Roman Germanic seat of power, Charlemagne beat the tribal leader and christianized Germany. All here in Minden. The name actually comes from that time because Minden is Min + Den, which is old German for Mein +Dein, which is German for Mine + Yours.







Here are a few of the pictures from the monument. Much to my mom's dismay, I was the one behind the (really nice) camera and went a bit artsy with it, so there aren't any of me or anyone else for that matter.

Across the gorge is a TV tower. Right is Niedersachsen, left is Nord Rhein-Westfalen.

Minden! The blockish thing on the far right is the Catholic Cathedral, the big brown/white one is the Marienkirche, and that's about all you can see from this view. We live far wester than this picture goes. It takes 2 minutes to walk from the towers to each other.

But anyhow, while we were up on the mountain we walked along the ridge to a Gaststätte (just a small hotel with a few rooms and coffee and ice cream). It was really pretty with a great view of the countryside and a launching pad for hanggliders, who were coincidentally setting up to fly. So we stayed around and waited for them to get ready, even if it did take them about an hour.

It was a really warm and beautiful day and it was only my first or second truly summer days in Germany. A precious commodity, I'll say.

Gandalf, our dog (the big white boxed over there), found a small friend and they ran around and played with each other. Kinda fun to watch.

Wonderful view. The lakes aren't natural, they're from a gravel mine (Kieswerk)

And take off!

I would never do that, I'm deathly afraid of heights, but it was really cool to watch! After that, we went home and grilled some delicious food! It was a wonderful day. Check back soon for some more updates!

Hack & Lack

So last Saturday there was a giant graffiti festival in Minden, called Hack & Lack. No idea why, it just is. The local youth center, the Anne-Frank-Haus, (yes, that Anne Frank, no she didn't live here; I asked) builds a bunch of walls each year, including a replica Regional Bahn car, for people to spray paint and they let them spray pretty much anything on the grounds. It's the largest festival of its kind in Germany and there were spray painters, artists really, from all over Germany. I met one guy from Berlin and heard of another one from Köln. The stuff was really really good and the atmosphere was cool too. It was set up around a large field and there was a DJ in the middle and of course tons of aerosol in the air.

Not a real train car

 I went with my host sister and hung with her friends for a spell, but there were some kids from my grade there as well and I talked to them too. Got some contacts for my fancy new smartphone!(sometimes playing dumb and language skill impaired with salesmen works to your advantage) They'd found a new six year old friend named Mehmet, who was rather skilled at spray painting apparently. There was a kids section where they could have fun spraying cardboard sheets and stuff however they wanted. But Mehmet was a cool character and loved the attention, consequently he wanted to 'tag' us all.

And 'tag' he did!

This reminded me a bit of hipster Richmond a bit; the whole abnormal art. But it takes talent and I really liked most of it. There were a few that I would look at for five minutes and suddenly see the words that were there. It's crazy. Go to my Flickr and check out some more of the pictures I took!

A couple other observations from the evening. I'm spreading the word "swag" around the world and explaining hip hop lyrics more than I thought I would.

One girl from the next town over, who I was talking to, initially thought that I was from Denmark because of how I was talking. Apparently I speak German with a Danish accent? I got that a lot in Bad Laasphe too, "Which country are you from?" I think its funny.

My personal favorite

P.S. All these pictures were taken on my fancy new German cell phone!

Die Schule fängt an!

So I finally started school. Granted it was two weeks ago, but better late than never, right? In any event, the first day for me was a bit of a misfire. My host mom, my sisters and I all drove to the Gymnasium on the first day because my host mom and I needed to set up my schedule, which was great.

We set up my schedule after the 2nd period, when everyone else in Grade 12 got their schedule, and it just turned out that I didn't have class in periods 3 and 4. It also turns out that school ends after period 4 on the first day; so I didn't have school on the first day of school. Would have been great in the US, but I'd have preferred getting to know people. Despite it all, I did have the chance the next day, so it's all good.

Because I'm so "old", the school decided to put me in the 12th grade, so I'd be with people closer to my age. Thing is, that's an Abi-year. Which means that in April/May they'll take the Abitur, which (when mathematically merged with their grades) determines which universities they can go to and which jobs they'll be allowed to pursue. So it's a big deal. Naturally the work is harder and the teachers are stricter in order to best prepare them. They also don't have school after the Abitur. All this is well and good for them and they've prepared for years for it. Ich nicht.

On the one hand, I may be intelligent and my German may be good but passing the Abitur is not something I will ever have to worry about and I still need to be in school through May and June. So at the end of the second day (during which I suffered through essentially a DBQ, for those who know what that is, on Hitler's rise to power. All in German) I switched down to the 11th grade. Awesome decision.

I don't know if I was in a better mood, or if the teachers were in a better mood, or what, but things are just seemed better in the 11th grade. It was also a bit easier, to be honest.

And since I'd been there for three days by then, the teachers were finally aware that I was going to be coming and in their class.

"So you're the exchange student. They tell me you speak good German."

"Yeah, I am. And that's what I've been told."

"Good. So you'll be taking tests and everything."

"Yup!"

History was also pretty great because we are starting with the Revolutionary Period (France /America/ Glorious Revolution) about which, as an American, I've learned quite a bit. So I had an idea of what was going on. Math too, because this is my third year learning derivatives and their first, so I can focus on the German, not the math. English was just cool.

But in all honesty, I do undersand the vast majority of what's going on and can participate. I do know for a fact though, that my grammar is atrocious. But what am I going to do, not talk? Philosophie doesn't make sense to me in English and my classmates said its kind of dull to fluent German speakers too, but I still wish I knew more of what was going on. After two classes, I've figured out that we're talking about egotism and whether it's behind all of our decision or not, and if altruism is real or not.

Beyond the language and the classes, the people are really nice. I think it helps that my school has a healthy exchange culture. I am by far not the first exchange student, even for year long programs, and there are people who have spent years in America, Peru, and Italy. I've noticed they're among the first to come up and say hello. But there are so many great people, I'm going to have no trouble making friends.

Sorry for the smudges!

 So a brief translation: Fach = subject, Raum = room. Words at the top are days of the week.
For the classes:
D = Deutsch (German/Literature)
Ge = Geschichte (History)
(^Those two are my "important" classes and I have 5 hours each week of them, rather than 3)
Ch = Chemie (Chemistry)

Bi = Biologie (Biology)
Ek = Erdkunde (Geography)
Ku = Kunst (Art)
Pl = Philosophie (Philosophy)
M = Mathe (Math)
E = Englisch (English)
Sp = Sport (Gym)

When there isn't any more school, I can go home; and when there isn't any morning class, I don't have to come!

One last thing. Even though people keep telling me my German is great and it is, to an extent, true. I can hold conversations and such. But I rely heavily on context clues and intuition for it. I respond not with what I want to say, but with what I know how to say. There is a large difference. When I read things, like the back of a shampoo bottle, I find myself able to understand the French more than the German simply because there are so many more cognates (plus the minuscule amount of grammar I know). I still have much left to learn and more than enough time for it!

Unterwegs in Minden

So life is slowly starting to find a rhythm and I'm diving into German life. 

One of the streets in the Minden city center

The first or second day I was here, we had to go in to town so that I could register with the town hall as a resident and what not and then go back the next day to register with the federal government for my official visa card and the like. Fingerprinted for the first time! But while we were in the city center I went school supply shopping with my host mom and sisters.

Got a couple of notebooks and some folder type things. Odd note, the hole-punching system is completely different here. In the US we have thee more or less equidistant holes, but in Europe there are almost always 4 holes in the paper, but there only need to be two prongs to set it in. I also needed a bathing suit, because I completely forgot one. (Maybe I didn't pack so well after all!) My host sisters helped me out with that one, because I haven't the foggiest clue what is normal and what isn't here.

My shopping spree

But other than shopping, my family kept me pretty busy in the few days before school started. My sisters and I went swimming a couple of times in the Mittellandkanal, which is only, like, 3 minutes away from the house on foot. We also went to a lake in Hannover on a day that was practically ripped from Virginia. The weather was really hot, apparently it was the hottest day of the year in Germany. But for me, it felt like home during the summer. Not going to be the case in December, I don't think.

We also went water skiing, because my host sisters hadn't had a chance yet this summer and I had only ever done it once. The set up was really new to me; I'm not even sure if we have this type of water skiing in the US. So rather than being pulled around a lake by a boat or anything, there is a ski lift type structure that you can see in the picture below.

You sit at the beginning of the boat house and they hand you a handle, like in normal water skiing, and the handle gets hooked on to a pulley system that goes around the entire lake. It pulls you the entire way around (not that I ever made it that far) and was pretty fun! Every time that I went around I got a little bit farther and by my last round I almost made the entire curve. That was the hardest part, the curve. Definitely worth it and I'm glad I got the chance to do it!

About 3 seconds before I plunged into the lake and had to swim to the side

Meine Familie!

I know almost every foreign exchange student says this, but I think I may have been the luckiest in terms of host families. They are absolutely great!

I'd been Facebooking and emailing them for the entire summer and had kinda gotten to know a lot of facts about them, but hadn't really gotten to know them; so I was still incredibly nervous on the Saturday they came to pick me up.

All the host families who came to Schloss Wittgenstein were in a seminar of sorts from 10:00 until 1:00, I think. And there wasn't any way for us to meet them, even though I was a mere 1000 yards away from the castle. Nerve-wracking is what that was.

With as much of the group as we had (as some had left by train rather early), we walked over to our last meal and ate it in the sun while a wedding party started getting under way. We passed the "parking lot" of the castle which was as full as it's ever been. We spent a few minutes looking at all of them, wondering which belonged to which family and who would be going in them. Side note: Almost all of them were black, I just thought it was kind of odd.

The time finally came, when the host families walked out into the courtyard, and naturally mine was the first out! I recognized them right away and went over to them and was greeted by warm hugs and smiles. Any worry that'd I'd had was pretty much gone by that point. 

There 3 hour drive home passed by so quickly, it didn't feel like a burden at all. Everything seemed so natural. I was totally excited. And we spent the entire ride speaking in German. In fact, I have never had a proper conversation in English the entire time that I have been here. Not that that is really a problem, just an observation.

Overall, I'm just really happy and content, or in German "zufrieden" with my host family and the decision to come to Germany. All the wonderful things that this year is going to be are slowly starting to come out in to the open; it's not quite so unknown any more!

A little dramatic, I know, but I didn't have any better pictures to put here.

Die letzten(isch) drei Wochen

I promise I haven't died. The last two weeks since I started writing this post have been incredibly busy and I'm adjusting to my life in Minden quite well, I'd say. I do intend on catching things up rather quickly, so expect some back to back posts, but don't get used to it.

Goodbye Schloss Wittgenstein

So I've actually been in Minden for about a week now. We're all left Schloss Wittgenstein and Language Camp at various times last Saturday. That last week was so packed, legit.

It was the week of pranks and craziness. Beds ended up outside, in hallways. Underwear was taped to ceilings; furniture rearranged. Toothpaste on the mirror, window, wherever. Chaos. Wonderful, amazing, chaos.

Between class and other scheduled activities, we prepared for our host families and for the talent show on Friday night (and Saturday morning). Our class put together a great German word to Cee Lo Green's "Forget You" and a Foto-Love-Story. Overall, the talent show was one of the best I have seen or participated in. For four+ hours people sang, danced, were crazy, sang more, told jokes, and acted out skits. When we finally finished at 1:45, I was exhausted, but I still didn't want it to end. The night was really magical and as we were walking back to the school, the universe had one more surprise in store: the Milky Way. I've always lived in densely light polluted Virginia and have never seen it; it was surreal.

For us as a group, it was the closest week we'd had yet. I knew that, as a gaggle of 50 people, we would really bond over the three weeks. But the last week, I was surprised by how close we actually became. We bonded over small things, like the walk to Bad Laasphe, and big things like learning to drink properly.

The coolest group of people I've yet known

But now we are dispersing across a country to live with families we've never met. We may not be at each others physical sides to assuage homesickness or loneliness; but I've made friendships that I'm sure will come in handy down the line. I can't wait to see what this year has in store for me and for every one of us. Good luck!

Moving forward on my adventure!

Marburg!

This weekend was a blast; we finally got out of Bad Laasphe! Don’t get me wrong it’s a lovely little town, but it is rather small and it is always great to see somewhere new and exciting. Plus we took the train, which is tons of fun.

In fact, here is the view from the train window

We didn’t take one of the high speed trains because they don’t go to Bad Laasphe and probably not to Marburg either. We were on what is known as a Regional Bahn, the slowest of the three train types. It stops at every “cow pasture” and small town, so it takes awhile. I’d say it wasn’t any better in terms of speed than a highway, but it is so much more environmentally sustainable and comfortable. I enjoy not having to worry about rear-ending the person in front of me and just staring out the window. 

So we get there; and Marburg is beautiful! The Altstadt (Old City) is just like a fairytale. [Fun fact, the Grimm Brothers even lived there for quite a while.] Even one of the German leaders we were with was remarking at “how cute” Marburg was because the streets were so narrow and the buildings were so traditional. The entire country really isn’t like this, but it does exist in a fair many places.

Here’s a cool building near what I think is the old Rathaus

Like any good German city or town, there is a castle on the nearest mountain or hill. And just like Schloss Wittgenstein in Bad Laasphe, it is quite the hill. The view was definitely worth the climb. (Sadly the pictures didn’t quite turn out, but it was so beautiful and I’ve got copies in my mind). 

A view I got later in the day

As a little side note: I really appreciate the freedom that this program affords us. I absolutely hate it when we go around as a group of 50 (or even a group larger than 5), it makes us stick out and we become a burden to walk around. Sneaking around the city in little groups (minimum of 3) is great, but I don’t think any organization in the US would allow us to do that without first signing 45 forms and checking in every X number of hours. Here they just got us to Marburg, told us the times when there will be trains to Bad Laasphe, and reminded us to stay in groups of at least 3. 

Anyhow, on our way down, we made our way into the Protestant Cathedral of Marburg (I never caught it’s name). It was a really neat building, very sparse inside. But the coolest thing was that there was going to be a wedding. You could tell all around. We actually had to walk through one of the bands to get up to the Schloss (there was a marked path). But the pews were adorned with flowers and ribbons and the organist was practicing before the ceremony and that was the most amazing thing. It was so pretty and surreal. We didn’t actually see the couple, but we saw the car. Other groups got different views, one even saw them exiting the church with great fanfare. It was simply neat all around. 

Then the shopping. A lot of us needed to buy some clothing items for a variety of reasons. A few people’s bags were searched and their clothing taken, so those needed to be replaced. Some figured that one pair of shoes would be enough. Nope. Others underestimated what Germans consider “summer” and desperately needed warmer clothing. I didn’t get anything because I was lucky and planned well when I packed, but it was neat to browse H&M in German.

After that we kept “shopping” by going in to all of the shops along the winding streets of the old city. There was a shop designated to wooden brush products. Things like the French-maid style feather dusters, brushes of all kinds, and baskets. Neat. We even saw some American exchange students who are going to be going to university in Saarbrücke. 

Imagine if Broad Street looked like this

It was so interesting and enjoyable that we were all in agreement to take the 6:30 (and last) train to Bad Laasphe. The one before it left at 4:30. Unfortunately for us, everything closes at around 4:30 or 5. But we made do.

We meandered back towards the train station and passed the Elisabeth Church (the Catholic Cathedral) and went in. It, like the Protestant one, was sparse on the inside. Mind you, these are 800 year old structures and they are beautiful in their own right, I was just surprised. 

Speaking of surprise. You walk into the Marburg Cathedral, up to about the altar and it looks normal and like any other church, then you turn around and look up. The organ is magnificent. It is shocking, really. Ultra modern it is literally soaring into the heavens and the stained glass window behind it also gives the impression. Since it was a church, I voted against taking a picture, but wow.

And through a crack in the wall on the other side of the street, we discovered at 13th century pilgrim graveyard. Just hiding behind a bunch of buildings.

Cathedral from the outside

There is so much history everywhere; it’s crazy. Virginia, probably more than any other US state, is blessed with history everywhere. Walk through Denver and you won’t find much historical. In my mind, Richmond and Williamsburg are chalk full of history. Nothing compared to Marburg or most of Germany. Everything has a story. Yes, Marburg Cathedral is 800 years old and the first Gothic church in Germany, but it also played a role in each of those 800 years. Paul von Hindenburg is buried there and there is a gorgeous modern organ. I was just struck by it.

To sum it up, the day was full of shopping, history, and döner.

die Schlossschule

Most of the time, I just blog about random experiences that happen that were fun or important or great; something. They've all been specific experiences with some general thrown in there. That's all well and good and I could have a blog chock full of them, because I have so many. However, I feel like getting the gist of my day to day life is important too. 

And, to be honest, I'm in school. Both literally and the other literal interpretation. The Schloss, while a historical castle, is now a boarding school (Gymnasium and Realschule) with classrooms and dorms in the actual Schloss and in the "Schulgebäude" (School Building).

We're not in the Schloss, though we do eat there and do other things from time to time, we sleep in the Schulgebäude and our classrooms are on the second floor. It's a pretty neat building and the windows are fascinating. I feel like I've probably written about them before. But anyhow, here is how the "typical" day is run.

8:00-ish is when Breakfast starts (8:30 announcements, so you need to be there)
9:00 - Classes start
10:30 - Break
10:45 - Class starts again
12:15 - Morning classes end
1:00 - Lunch
2:00 - This is where it gets complicated. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we have more class, but other days we just do activities and learn about German culture in other ways.
4:30 - Sometimes there is one at 4:30 too.
6:30 - Dinner and Announcements
7:30 - Activity #3! Usually, of course.
9:00 - Begin free time
10:00 - Internet off
11:00 - Lights out

Mind you this is a "typical" day at the Schlossschule. Sometimes the activities are only 45 minute sessions and sometimes they are 2 hours, it just depends. It's all pretty interesting though. Today one of them was about trash sorting and the like (actually rather confusing for an American, even one whose family has always recycled and sorted a few things).

This is the Schulegebäude

But anyhow, you must now be wondering exactly what I do in class exactly. Deutsch. I speak German all the time, but that is just my class. We've been sorted into 5 different groups based on skill. Two of them are for beginners with absolutely no experience whatsoever. I give them total props for being CBYX kids without knowing the language. Far braver than me. But of the remain 22 of us, we're split into three levels. Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced.

Since I've been learning German for four years and went to the Academy, I'm in the advanced class and we speak German. We use it a lot though, we're playing a Taboo/Cranium/Trivial Pursuit type game for a few days and we're tackling word order and verbs with prepositions. The latter two are the most fun, let me tell you.

But really, I love our teacher and it isn't bad at all. The time flies. We'll be in there and suddenly we are at the break in the middle. Takes me by surprise every time.

So that is my school day!

View from my classroom window

Einfach Tanz!

I know I have a lot to cover, I've already started to piece some other "themed" blog posts together so you can get an idea of what my day to day life is like here at Language Camp at Schloss Wittgenstein. But now is not that post, cool things keep happening to me!

I just keep on getting more and more extroverted every day. Never say no is definitely a mantra that I am beginning to live by. To be honest it started earlier this summer when I did crazy, out of character things like going on the giant swinging tower at King's Dominion (against my intense fear of falling). But many curses later, I came down with an exhilarated feeling. The same thing is happening here at the camp.

For example, one of the afternoon activities that we did last week was improv. I don't really act. Or didn't I should say. But I went with it anyway and had a great time. Almost everything was hilarious and it was so much fun to sit there and laugh along. When I finally decided to jump in, some jokes fell totally flat, but if you just smile and move on, you can be the funniest for just a moment. It happens. Whatever to the things that fall flat.

I danced at the Beerfest too. I don't really ever dance. And it was fun. Everyone was so happy, it was hard to stand in the background.

So what do you get when you merge my experiences with putting myself out there by dancing and the Arbeitsgemeinschaften? Capoiera.

Capoiera is a Brazilian fight sport/dance that one of the teachers here knows really well because she spent quite a bit of time in Brazil. We only practiced for half an hour, so I am awful, but it was a total great time.

I can't wait to learn more crazy new things; things I would never have done before. Like Capoiera or improv. I am so ready to take on this year.

Since I don't have any pictures, here is the "best video of capoiera ever!"

Das Bierfest

So, as promised I'm finishing the wonderful Friday that I had last week, with maybe a bit more from the rest of the weekend.

But after coming back from the game and dinner, we went down into town for the local Bierfest (of sorts).

Basically, one of the biggest companies in town is the local brewery, Bosch. And during the months of July and August, they throw parties in the main center of town, Wilhelmsplatz. There is a local band that plays and the ice cream store on the Wilhelmsplatz is open and a lot of people come out to here the band and drink beer.

So we all went down to the party to hang out and have a good time. The band was actually pretty good and they seemed to alternate between English/American rock songs and German rock songs. I didn't know some of the English ones but it seemed like a lot of people in the town knew all the words to every song, so I guess they were all pretty popular.

And now, the big elephant in the blog post. Alcohol. I'm 18, which means all forms of alcohol are technically legal for me here. The CBYX rules only allow beer and wine, for which the legal age is 16. Kind of irrelevant at this point because Bosch is a beer company with a bit of a monopoly. But just in case you were wondering.

Really not a huge fan of the way beer tastes. Handled myself well; a decent first time, I'd say.

Für einen Apfel und ein Ei

Friday and the whole weekend was quite exciting, I must say. Class on Friday was a bit boring and we took a test. It's no more fun in German than in English...

But Friday afternoon was a blast. We were playing a game based on a German idiomatic expression "für einen Apfel und ein Ei" (For an apple and an egg). The basic jist was that each group had an apple and an egg and went down in to town to try and trade them for bigger and better things and then come back to see what everyone else had gotten.

I was in a group of four, and the only one out of us who could speak any German, so we relied on me to do all the talking.

At first we were pretty successful. We traded an egg for a bag of corn chips, and the guy told us how to tell if an egg is raw or cooked. Just spin it and if it spins fast, then its cooked. So that was cool. We tried to go into town hall to see the mayor again, but there was a wedding so we figured the tourist info building next door would work just as well. Not so much... The woman kind of looked at us, and then went back into another room, came out with "Bad Laasphe Water" and traded it for the apple. I'm pretty sure the water was free, but whatever.

Soon we had some tic tacs and a set of eyeglass screwdrivers. Nothing much, and one store owner gave us a really cheap ornament for free. Somehow, though, we got behind some of the other groups and the shopkeepers were getting a bit grumpy. So we were like, where else can we go but this street? The hotel of course.

From up on our mountain, you can see this big building with "Hotel" spelled across the top that is at the foot of the neighboring mountain with Bad Laasphe in the middle. We just walked towards it, but got a bit turned around and we saw these two women talking. I go up to them and ask "How do you get to the Hotel?" The woman gave me this really weird look and asked me if I meant the one on the hill, and I was like "yeah, pretty much."

So we got the directions [there was a path literally ten feet behind the woman] and made our way up to it. After accidentally going into the Assisted Living Home next door, we realized which building it was. The one covered in weeds and broken things. The great hotel with nice staff was in fact filled with an empty pool and an overgrown Biergarten.

Want a beer?

That was loads of fun though. But we realized it wasn't the greatest part of town and headed back down to the old city. Back to our friend in the Russian store.

We waltzed into the Radio Museum in the town too, completely unaware that it was closed. The door was wide open! But the guy was super chill about it. He asked me what country I was from or what language I spoke, I said English, and he asked if I was from England. Apparently I'm not an obvious obvious American. Even though they were closed, he offered to show us around and we didn't have time, but he said he'd let us back in for half price whenever we wanted!

We saw this great bookstore, but no one was in it. Saw an awesome map book and stuff. Really really interesting. Too bad we didn't get to talk to the guy who ran it, he was really nice according to all the other groups.

Our more or less final stop was a free trade store. We go in and I explain our game, hoping maybe the woman has a pen or something. But she started to talk about the store and how it is free trade and all the profits, the 20 elderly women who run it don't make anything, go towards helping people across the world. She was so sweet and asked us about why we were here. She, like the other guy, asked if I was from England. Nope, America!

But she and her friend, who came over after a bit, just kept talking to us (me really) and it was so great. They tried out their English and the one newer woman said that every time her grandkids heard her speak English they told her to stop because it was so accented. It really wasn't awful, she just thought over each word a lot.

But anyhow, she started talking to us about our scholarship and what we thought of Bad Laasphe too. She went on for a while about the important art installation that is in town. It was put together by a Bavarian student and someone else and apparently people came all the way from New York (or would have to, the translation was iffy) to see it. She was super proud and we thought there was only one bit of it, but there was another piece in the river that she told us to go see. Naturally that was pretty much the next and last thing we did that afternoon.

Really really fun. Awesome way to build confidence and extroversion skills.

The Main Attraction

In the River

Much more happened that Friday, but this post is already waaay too long, so you'll have to wait until tomorrow.

Ich bin Einkaufen gegangen

...and a whole lot of other things too.

So I got to Germany about 5 days ago. The date is kind of vague because it was a 36 hour long "day" that crossed six time zones. Lufthansa really gets kudos for that flight. It went so smoothly and I had leg room (by a stroke of luck) and everything was great. The huge excitement high that I had at the time might also have had something to do with it. I had a bit of fun practicing my German on the stewardesses, because they are all bilingual with Lufthansa.

But we got here, I found my room with the roommates I chose in DC. They're pretty cool guys. The view from our window is the side of a mountain so it's really just a bunch of shale. The windows are honestly much cooler. It has this amazing contraption that makes them pull in a few inches from the top if you turn the handle up. If you turn the handle to the side, it opens out like a door all the way, and turning the handle down locks it. Seriously, I'm astounded and I want one at home.

View from my window

But I've been doing fine. We are doing a lot of activities all the time. I know that's super vague, but that's really what they are. I've gone running on the loop around the top of the mountain a couple of times. I'll need to take my camera along at some point, because the views are spectacular. We're in a really rural part of the country it would seem.

We took a placement test of sorts and I scored advanced. (Thanks German Academy and Frau G.!) That means my class is entirely auf Deutsch. I feel like I am getting better and stupider at the same time. These silly adjective endings really will be the death of me. But everyday I learn and remember new vocabulary and realized how much I have remembered from across the years.

There were a lot of amazing moments and I love the people here a lot. I am ever so grateful that I was given this opportunity and chose to take advantage of it. Sadly, I can't write about them all. I have to pick and chose.

On Wednesday we went down to the village (town, really) of Bad Laasphe, next to which the Schloss is. It was a blast! Our rooms didn't have any hand soap, so we had to buy that. I didn't bring any shampoo with me so that needed to be bought. In both places I actually spoke to real Germans in real German! Most of them were super duper nice and helpful. There was only one guy running a shoe shop who seemed to dislike our presence, but that could have been because there were 4 teenagers in his shop.

There was a Russian specialty store! Kalinka, it was called. I really didn't need it, but I had a craving for tarkhyn and I wanted to show the group I was with. It was pretty cheap and I got the chance to speak to the cashier in German and Russian. Pretty awesome experience right there! She seemed both surprised and impressed by the Russian (despite my horrendous accent). I'm not sure what she was thinking. I also noticed a Russian newspaper in the grocery store. Maybe worrying about

On our way back we got super cheap ice cream cones (like less than a dollar) and totally smashed the stereotype about Germans being cold and unfunny (which the Teamers here already did, but they're special). So I was ordering my ice cream and being all polite and timid about it. Basically I asked him "Am I allowed to have a cone of raspberry ice cream?" To which he replied: Nein. Then he got a giant grin and gave me the ice cream cone. Pretty jovial and sarcastic guy right there.

We went down to town again today in order to visit the Mayor (Bürgermeister) and the Town Hall (Rathaus). He and two interns gave us a nice overview of the town in both English and German. Just the basic facts and then we went out in front of the Rathaus to test out the health water of the town (At least, I'm 90% sure that's what was going on.) I even got a picture with the Mayor of Bad Laasphe!

Meeting the Mayor

Washington D.C.

Hey y’all! Like I said in the last post, I haven’t been able to post much or do much here at Schloss Wittgenstein because not only was the internet down, but we’ve been doing so much stuff constantly. However, it’s been great. I’m writing this over a couple of days, pretty much whenever we get some time in the evening.

However, I really wanted to address the two amazing days in DC. 

It was a blast! Exhausting, but worth it.

I drove to DC with my parents after a marathon thank you note writing session. 

I was really surprised by how well we all handled it. There wasn’t any crying and I felt extremely calm. I still do. I think it helped that we both knew I was leaving anyway; either to Germany or to college. I’m also happy and grateful that the last week I spent in the States was one of the best ones that I had with my parents in quite a long time. I’m looking forward to coming back; but not enough to turn away such an amazing experience.

Enough reflection! You want to here the interesting things, like what I am doing with my life. The first day we didn’t do much outside schmoozing for four hours and some sessions. Friday, however, we got up bright and early with the sun to go downtown.

First stop was the White House. I don’t have any pictures because it was a bit of a let down, and I don’t remember if we were allowed to take them anyways. It was really cool to go through security because it was the first time I ‘used’ my passport. The house was just that, a house. The coolest part for me was seeing all of the paintings and portraits of the past presidents. I am a huge fan of Mrs. Bush’s painting. Both the Bush paintings were well done, but hers just looked classy. I think she outclassed Jackie Kennedy actually, but I had a hard time seeing her portrait since it was far away. Another cool part was that a White House aide or someone came out with little gifts for us, a ‘signed’ photograph from/of Obama and a letter. Plus she took our picture. That definitely doesn’t happen to every tour group.

Next stop was the Lincoln Memorial. Pretty pretty pictures, but not a whole lot else for a jaded Virginian like me.

Jefferson Memorial from the MLK Memorial

Then we headed to lunch at the Pentagon City Mall; just a really big mall to me. Then the Holocaust Museum. It was moving, but for some reason the Richmond Museum affected me a bit more. Maybe it was because we were on a time crunch and really rushing through everything. I don’t know, but don’t get me wrong, it was still rough.

Next came the Department of State. The room we were in. O my goodness. It was a huge diplomatic room with official microphones and all. I was so awed. The speakers were interesting but I was so tired I had to fight to stay awake. It did make me consider writing off the diplomatic core. We’ll see where my life takes me. It is so hard to make predictions, especially with Germany and all the experiences that I will have.

The plane ride was wonderful and it felt so short! The following 24 hours weren’t so short. I think the final total was 36 straight hours awake? It was a lot.