Wait.. Is that English?

Last weekend I took a trip with my English class to London. It was a pretty big trip (7 hours on a bus both ways and a ferry ride,) but so much fun! I didn’t really feel like getting led on tours the entire day (I was already in London Summer 2011 with People to People.) So I ended up having a shopping spree in London! Doesn’t get much better for the shopping scene, the entire vibe of the city is so modern cool, I may perhaps want to live one day in London, I just love it. They also had a really amazing and efficient transportation system which we all took advantage of. We went out again at night and looked at all the Christmas lights, and the entire thing felt pretty magical. The whole trip is pretty much reflected in the song “Good Life” by One Republic. Booya ;)

You've been in Germany for a while when...

·     -You wouldn’t dare leave the house without your big, blanket infinity scarf.

·     -You eat all your meals with both a fork and a knife.

·     -When you do have the chance to speak English, it’s completely broken and your sentences are formed with German grammar.

·     -You’ve forgotten what it tastes like to have normal water with ice cubes.

·     -If you’re going to wear a skirt, you wear tights under it. Even skin colored. 

·     -You still fold your pillows into odd contorted shapes at night to add more density.

·     -If your lounging around the house, you make sure to see your house shoes on. Don’t want any cold feet, right?

·     -If you’re going to eat bread or toast, you’re going to eat it with butter.

·     -Every meal is an elaborate feast with all the options you would want in your meal already on the table, especially at breakfast.

·     -You stop ignoring all the annoying differences between German and English and accept that it’s just going to be a pain in the butt to learn, and start studying.

·     -You’ve accepted that it’s totally normal for you, you little Aüslander, to walk into the wrong classroom on a regular basis or find out you just didn’t have class that day. Take a seat and practice some German with other people that have off. Life is full of surprises. 

-   -You would never disobey the little green man that says you can walk before you cross the street. 

-  -You finally figure out what that song means that you've had stuck in your head this entire time, and boy is it weird!

Thanksgiving in Germany

It was a bit odd walking into school on Thursday the 22^nd and realizing that I would usually be waking up to the smell of Turkey in the house and the Macy’s Day Parade on TV. It was also my sisters 18^th Birthday, so the day was extremely busy with presents, family, and lots of cake. In a way I still got my Thanksgiving feast, just completely German style. I also went all out and baked a pumpkin pie for my host family which we later enjoyed on Sunday when all the birthday partying had died down a bit. I’m pretty sure my host mom thought her kitchen would never look the same (I make quite the mess everytime I cook anything,) but everything turned out well and the pumpkin pie was delicious! And… turkey wasn’t completely lost. I have a friend here in Herne from Michigan that works as an O’Pair, and she was fortunately brave enough to throw together an entire Thanksgiving meal. I went over by her house on the weekend and it was a great time enjoying a good old turkey and mashed potatoes meal. Thanksgiving also gave me a chance to think about all the things I have to be “dankbar” for here. Two great families, truly great friends across the globe, and an amazingly, challenging, life-changing opportunity at hand. I was happy to be able to bring a part of Thanksgiving to Germany and share a special part American culture with my host family and friends. 

Perception Is Everything

I suppose it’s time for an update, but it really feels like not much has changed! Everything has just gotten easier. I’m still not anywhere near fluent, but school is insanely better than it was before. I often understand what the teachers are saying and I am now able to have full conversations in German. I’m at the point where I barely speak any English, even in my English class and Bilingual History class all my conversations with my classmates are in German. I catch myself thinking in German, and sometimes have the occasional dream auf Deutsch. My German classes are still pretty confusing, but I wrote my first test this last week in one of them. Brace yourselves; it’s a real thriller. A one-page story based off of some German newspaper article, about a cat, in Japan, who after going hunting for a sparrow found a plastic bag, which contained 12,000 Yen.  It will most definitely be interesting to see just what my teacher has to say about it!

Swim teams going well, I usually go a few times a week and am yelled at for talking too much while I should be swimming. There are just some things that will never change…

Being an exchange student makes you really consider life and force you to change your view on the world. Now being almost three months in, and two months in with my host family, I can see just how much this trip has changed me and how much I still have to go. At home, I am pretty much always talking; where as I tend to be more quiet here. It’s definitely a general exchange student thing, and is lessening up as my German vocabulary expands. But I cannot express enough what it does to a person when they are forced to be quiet constantly. I cannot explain it. It just, makes you change your look on life. It challenges you to see things the way you did before and consider what is really right and wrong, not just what you were taught as a child. I honestly can’t even remember who I was before compared to who I am now. I’ll go and read an essay I wrote only a year or so ago, and think to myself, how could I have looked at the world that way? I also think about things I thought were hard before, and realize what a breeze they were when I had a full grasp on the language.

Let’s see, what else is going on? Last weekend I went on a bike ride with my host dad for a few hours to a nearby city called Essen, and despite the cold and rainy ending, it was really beautiful. I went to see Skyfall last Wednesday with my host sister and a few friends, and it was really hilarious because I thought I understood the whole movie and was later told by Valerie that really it had this entire twisted plot that I had no clue about the entire time. Last night I went to this clubbing disco event, and that was sweet too! Pretty big difference from The Grizzly Rose… ;)

And sooner than later it will be my birthday! I wouldn’t say that it feels like times going by super fast, but it’s crazy just how far into this exchange I am already. 

Don't Forget Your Rain Jacket, This is North Deutschland!

Shortly after getting home from our last trip, Ina, Hanna, Valarie, and I took a trip up to Northern Germany to visit Ina’s parents. And naturally, it seemed like we could be in a completely different country from where we live in Herne, or any other city I’ve visited so far. All the regions here have their own distinct culture, and their own distinct German. Here, you say “Moin,” as hello, where as you say “Hallo,” or “Guten Tag,” in other regions. In Bavaria, we said “Servus.”

Being next to the ocean, Northern Germany has a certain “sea vibe.” When you walk along the streets, the cobblestone usually has lots of puddles from the almost constant rain. Everywhere are bridges where you can see shrimp boats when you look out. The architecture also has a distinctive “sea vibe.” Perhaps I can just let the pictures speak for themselves. It can be crazy cold and rainy here, but it’s so beautiful that it’s worth 5 layers of clothing and enduring the wind.

Today we took a ferry out to an island where we walked along the beach for a few hours and then went into a cute and cozy restaurant to warm up from the cold while enjoying tea, cake, and coffee. The beach here definitely has a different feel than Mexico or Hawaii. The sand is spongy and the tide has a very large range. It’s almost always raining and it tends to be pretty windy too. Everyone walks along very bundled up in jackets and scarves. There were no cars on the island, just bikes, horses pulling carriages full of sight-seers, and a train going from the Harbor to downtown. I felt like I was in a Harry Potter movie walking around the little island.

Yesterday we went to a pool with water from the North Sea, and following that, we had just about the best dinner ever. MEXICAN FOOD! And to my surprise, it was good, and almost completely Mexican! I could even understand virtually the entire menu between the use of German and Spanish. Score! ;)

North Sea :)

It’s been an amazing fall break; I’ve been able to see so much of Germany already in the short amount of time I’ve been here. Everyone we’ve stayed with has been so hospitable and happy to help me with my German. Right now I’m sitting in a cozy chair next to a warm fireplace, typing away and watching Grey’s Anatomy with my host sisters. On Monday I’ll have to get up, attempt to understand school in a language that I’ve been speaking for two months, and get back into the routine, but right now, in this moment, everything is just about perfect. 

Just a little bit too chilly for swimming...