Me vs. The Train System

It's officially fall here in Germany! Although it's technically been fall for a while now, these past few weeks the leaves have changed colors and the trees here have started to look gorgeous. A lot of the exchange students who don't have "seasons" back home were really excited to see fall here, but coming from Pennsylvania, I never really shared the excitement. I have to admit that I should have, because Germany's fall is incredibly beautiful (and not nearly as cold, so you can actually go outside and enjoy the landscape!)

The walk home from school.

So starting this past Wednesday, I had quite a lot planned that required me to take a train to various places. And as you may already know, the train system and I don't exactly have the best history together. I forgot to write about this in my last post, but when I took the train back home after Deutschlandtour, I ended up missing my stop because I couldn't figure out how to open the door. But this time I was determined. I figured out how to buy a "fun pass" so that I'm not spending 20 euros every time I have to ride the train, and I printed out all of my train schedules so that I could double check them as I was changing trains.
So on Wednesday, I took the train to Paderborn to meet with my host mom's brother and his wife so that we could drive to Dortmund for a soccer game. And all went smoothly! I feel really lucky to have gone to Dortmund's stadium for my first German soccer game, because it's the biggest soccer stadium in Germany and the energy of the fans was unbelievable. We sat in the Paderborn section, and although I am a Dortmund fan by default (because of Elias), I gladly embraced the change of colors and enjoyed the game.

Iris's brother and I.

For a while I was wondering why there was an entire section between the Paderborn and the Dortmund fans that was completely empty. Well, it turns out that it's there to prevent rowdy fans from getting into fights with each other. Germans don't mess around when it comes to soccer, I'm telling you. (A guy sitting in front of us was wearing a Dortmund scarf during the game, and because he was sitting in the Paderborn section, a security guard came over and told him to take it off)

Since the soccer game ended late Wednesday night, I spent the night in Paderborn and planned to take the train home later in the afternoon so that I could be back to school again on Friday. I was feeling pretty proud of myself for finally figuring out the trains, so I had no worries getting on the train that was supposed to take me to Bad Driburg, where my host mom had arranged to pick me up because she was already there for a meeting. Natalie, Iris's niece, told me that it would be the second stop, so I became slightly concerned when the second stop passed and it wasn't Bad Driburg. My host mom called me and asked me where I was, because she said a train already stopped there but I didn't get off. Figuring I just got on a train that passed Bad Driburg instead of stopping at it, we decided that she would just drive to Godelheim, the nearest train station to Beverungen, and pick me up there. So for a while I relaxed. But as we continued to stop at stations that I didn't recognize, I became increasingly concerned. Eventually, I figured out that I had gotten on a train to Bielefeld, which is almost 2 hours away from Beverungen. I frantically called my host mom, and long story short, I ended up having to stay another night in Paderborn because the train system hates me. No school for me on Friday though!

After finally arriving home on Friday, I got ready, and then took the train again to a town called Lippstadt to meet up with other exchangers there. It probably sounds pretty crazy that I would still willingly take the train after all the stress it's caused me, but I think that it decided to finally take pity on me because I arrived in Lippstadt with no problems. 

 They took me on a "tour" of their town, and as much as I love Beverungen, I have to say I felt a little jealous because their town has pretty much everything you need - all within walking distance. They have an entire street full of shops, an H&M, a movie theater, an awesome park, a train station, ect. (Not to mention that 5 exchange students all live in Lippstadt, and they all go to the same school!!!)

There was a wedding in the town, and since we were standing there curiously watching, they gave us bubbles to blow when the bride and groom came out of the town hall. 

A peace offering from the train station in the form of a sunset.

So Friday afternoon I headed back to Beverungen (yes, you guessed it, by train), to get ready for my next event... pumpkin carving! Laura, Vera, Conny, and I had made plans to carve pumpkins since in Germany it's not a common tradition. 

My host mom and I went to the store to buy 5 pumpkins (one was for Elias to carve too), and I quickly realized how uncomfortable she was with the fact that she had 5 pumpkins in the cart. At first I was really confused, because in the U.S. this would be completely normal around Halloween. But Germans pretty much only buy pumpkins to eat (since I've been here, I've eaten both baked pumpkin and pumpkin soup), which means they would only buy one at a time. As we were walking around the store, it was honestly so funny how many people openly stared at our cart, thinking we were completely crazy. My host mom's reaction was even funnier though, because as we walked around the store she kept laughing every time she looked at the cart. (I also would like to say that we bought out the store's supply of pumpkins. Which was only 5)

 Laura's face when she first put her hand in the pumpkin was priceless, I wish I had a picture of it.

 I had 2 bowls on the table that we put the seeds in, and then afterwards, in between games of Uno, I put seasoning on them and baked them in the oven. Although Germans frequently eat pumpkins, they don't eat the seeds, so I thought it would be good to share this part of the process. Knowing my lack of cooking skills, though, I warned everyone that they would probably taste awful. Imagine my surprise when not only did I NOT burn them, but when they actually tasted good!

And to end a great weekend, Iris, Elias, and I walked through the woods to a platform that overlooks the Weser, which is the river running through Beverungen.

 On the way to the platform, I saw this tree and asked Iris if she would take a picture of me standing in it. Well, when I looked inside it looked like a good place for lots of spiders to hide, so, naturally, I took a picture of Elias standing inside of it instead ;)

I'm currently sitting here trying to think if anything exciting has happened in school that I should write about.... but nothing is coming to mind. That's probably because it's well, German school, which can be quite boring at times (and by "at times", of course I mean "all the time"). Now that my German is better it's nice that I can speak with my friends in German, even if it's really broken. But what's really frustrating now is that I understand most things being said in a group conversation, but I can't add in the way I would in English. Before I process what is being said and think of a way to add in, the topic of the conversation has already switched to something else... but the way I see it, at least I can mostly understand now!

This was written on the board in my history class. The left column is a list of things you need to survive, and I'm not even joking, it says "Sleep, Family, Friends, Water..... and Bread". Bread. Not food, bread. I showed this picture to my exchange friends, and one of them said, "Seriously, I think if you somehow managed to take away all of the bread in Germany, it would collapse". 

Photos from last weekend!

Germany is so cute sometimes it kills me.

 The view from the top of one of the towers.

A market in the grounds of a castle (!!! is this my life?)

Beverungen

The war with the trains isn't the only battle that's raging. One day I went into Elias's room and stole all his guns from him so he couldn't shoot me back. Figuring I was safe, I went into the kitchen to get a glass of water..... and was shot in the head. Apparently I missed one.

And, of course, what's a blog post without an embarrassing picture of Elias? :)