I never know how to start these posts off, so I figured I would start with that. I think it rains here more often than not, and I experienced one too many walks home from school in the pouring rain, so I decided to fight back by buying an umbrella. Take that, German weather.
Ich bin jetzt einen monat in Deutschland! I have been in Germany for one month! My first month in Germany has had its ups and downs, but I can definitely say that I feel more settled here than say, my first week. Last Monday was weird for me though. That was the first day of school at my school back home, and its hard to explain but I felt really disconnected all day long. That's the only way I can think to describe it -- disconnected. It's the weirdest feeling to know that all of your friends are back home, going to the school you've gone to for the past three years and should be going to this year, but you're not. And this Friday is the first home football game, so I'm sure I'll probably feel that way again. I expected to feel sad during these sort of times back home, but I didn't expect this weird disconnected feeling. But hey, it's just something I have to live with. I knew times where big events back home are taking place would be hard, and I wouldn't trade the experience I'm having right now for the world.
Last weekend was the Rotary inbound seminar for exchange students in my district, something I was really looking forward to. And it didn't disappoint! I had to ride a train by myself to get there though, which was extremely scary. Not because I hadn't ridden a train before, but because I had to switch trains and figure out how to navigate the station by reading signs that I couldn't understand. And I didn't know how to work the ticket machine. A lady helped me but my ticket on the first train, but on the second one I couldn't figure it out so I just sat down and when the lady came around to check tickets I just showed her my old one.... I was sure I was going to get kicked off the train or something, but luckily she didn't notice it was an old ticket. At the last train station I met up with the other exchange students and we rode the last train to Petershagen. After all the initial hellos, everyone pretty much split into groups based off of what language you spoke, as we all enjoyed finally speaking in our native languages again. When we arrived at the youth hostel, we were assigned to rooms, and then after listening to a few speeches about the rules and what not, we were allowed to explore the hostel. There was a zipline, volleyball court, soccer field, swings, dance floor, etc. When it started to get dark out we all split into groups based off of our countries and prepared a skit to preform the next day in front of all our host families. Along with the country presentation, we all also had to take a German test which I was really nervous about, because in the email we received about it they said if we didn't pass we would be excluded from the Germany tour in October. Well when we got to the testing room they told us that it was just to see where we were with our German, but we have to take another test near Christmas that determines whether or not we can go on the Eurotour in the spring. After we took the test, I got to meet all my next host parents, who had come along with my current host parents to listen to a presentation from Rotary about how to be a good host family and all that. The whole weekend was just a lot of fun, and it was so nice to talk to people who are going through the same thing as me. Luckily I get to see everyone again next weekend, at the next exchange get-together.
On Friday my host family took me on a weekend trip to a city called Rothenburg. The town is like a fairytale. I suggest that if you ever go to Germany, don't miss out on seeing Rothenburg. The city itself is separated into two parts, "old Rothenburg" and "new Rothenburg". A giant wall surrounds the city like a haphazard circle, which nestles the old town within the new town while keeping old Rothenburg inside the circle. My host mom chose this particular weekend to go because there was a medieval festival going on, which made it feel like you were living in the past. Everywhere you looked there were people dressed like people from medieval times, and there was always music being played. Over the course of the weekend we watched a firework show, walked along the wall, visited Iris's mom's best friend who lives in the city, climbed a tower to see a beautiful view of Rothenburg, went to the criminal museum, and shopped in the town's many stores.
Okay, I'm going to let my pictures cover anything I've forgotten to write about!
Me with my current and future host families at the exchange seminar :) How weird is it that they're all friends?
Paddle-boating on the Weser with Elias and 2 of my next host brothers!
Work it, Elias.
Can you believe this is the view from the library window? Have I been sucked into a fairytale? Seriously, I ask myself this at least 20 times a day (Except when I'm in school, that's definitely not a fairytale)
Me collecting my absolute favorite thing in Germany, bubbly water.
Elias bought a BVB soccer ball (which is his favorite soccer team) and then promptly went home and changed into this. Gotta appreciate that dedication.
The place we stayed at while in Rothenburg.
A shop in Rothenburg...so German.
Where the firework show was held.
Looking down onto the town square from the tower.
I don't quite understand this, but when the clock strikes on the hour, the two windows to the left and right of the clock open to reveal the famous scene of the governor (or someone, I forget who) drinking a gallon of wine in order to save his city from enemies. What a brave man.
I am told that Bayern (where Rothenburg is) has quite a different culture than other German states. To quote my host mom, "There's Germany... and then there's Bayern". I ate a lot of foods typical to Bayern over the weekend, such as these things called "snow balls", and also soft pretzels and flammkuchen.
All of the Rotary exchange students in my District!
We went on a 40 minute "walking tour" of the Weser over the exchange weekend, which I'm pretty sure it was just a way to get us from the youth hostel to the place where we had to preform our country presentations without having to pay for a bus. Still fun though.
The famous little house you might see if you google search Rothenburg. I think I took a picture of it every single time I walked past it.
I'm famous!!! My next host mom works for Beverungen's newspaper, and she wanted to interview me as a way to encourage people in the area to host exchange students, so I happily agreed. People keep coming up to me at school and telling me they saw me in the paper :) Today my math teacher even said something to me about it (in German), and I was really happy to actually know what he was saying. It would have been really embarrassing if I sat there clueless, because the whole class was watching me to see if I understood him.
I thought that it would be fun for Elias and I to bake chocolate chip cookies to celebrate my 1 month mark in Germany, since the only time Germans tend to eat chocolate chip cookies is if they buy them packaged at the grocery store. I brought the ingredients with me from the U.S. -- yes, the flour, sugar, vanilla extract, even measuring cups. Mom, I should have listened to you when you told me this was a bad idea because I cant cook to save my life. Elias and I quickly realized once we put them in the oven that they didn't look the way they were supposed to. When we took them out, Elias loudly exclaimed, "Das sind deine scheiß Cookies!", which in English is essentially "These are your shit cookies!", to which we couldn't stop laughing about. Although they didn't turn out exactly as planned, Elias and I sure had a good time making fun of them for the next hour.
Elias and I at the criminal museum. I think the sign says that our crimes are littering, and forgetting to clean our chimney. Hm.
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