I Mailed Something

So this week was pretty chill. School is starting to feel less fun and more like an actual education, waking up at 6:30 is no longer working out well for me, and most of my classmates think I'm from Canada, (it’s still a mystery as to why). I ate the world’s largest sandwich, took like 20 naps, and had my first experience with the German postal system. I also found someone to bike to school with, which is awesome and all thanks to my friend who walked around school for 3 days asking people where they lived before she found someone close enough. All in all a pretty successful second week.

School, as I said, was pretty normal. This week I had a lot of free periods, so I have had a lot of time to walk around and explore Ahaus. One of the things I was not expecting about exchange was how much time I spend alone. Part of it might just be my situation, but none of the other students have free periods when I do because they all take more classes than me, so I have no one to hang out with then, and then I come home at either around 1 or around 3:30, and my host parents don’t normally get home until close to 7 or 8. Nevertheless it has given me a lot of time to explore, and I have found some pretty great spots. I’m gonna have to find some sort of hobby or something to do with all my time though. Who knows maybe I’ll learn how to make candles or spin my own cloth something. 

Some of my favorite spots

A Bench Across from the Schloss

On Wednesday, I think I made a friend at the post office, which was nice.  I had to mail a package, so I go in to the post office, and of course I’m freaking out a little because I have to deal with mailing a package in German and that’s kind of scary, so I go to buy the box and I’m struggling with my German, and the woman is getting really frustrated and finally she realizes I’m American and just gives up and starts speaking English to me. While she’s ringing up my stuff I drop all of the change in my purse on to the ground and she just looks at me and decides to not notice and just continues checking me out. Then, I have to come back to actually mail the package, but the box I bought was too small, so its taped shut and bursting, and the poor post office lady looks so done with me and it was so hilarious. And after I did it I felt so awesome about myself because I just mailed a box in German, but looking back on it, it was kind of a disaster, but a funny disaster so it’s all good.

On Friday, I went to my first professional soccer game with my host Dad. He’s a huge Dortmund fan, so I’m glad I got to go to a game with him.  It was Dortmund vs. Frieburg, and I had an awesome time. Dortmund's stadium is the biggest in Germany, and there were SO MANY people there! It was just a regular game, and there were around 80,000 people in the stadium. The atmosphere was so cool. There was so much more team spirit than any sports game I've ever been too. They have like a million songs they sing, and all of these different chants. They even sang Black and Yellow, which I thought was hilarious and my host dad did not understand why.

The Dortmund Stadium

Dortmund won, and after the game all of the players sat down on the field and just watch the "Gelb Wand" (Gold Wall, which is the standing room only seats on one side of the stadium) cheer and cheer. I think they do it after every game, but it was still a really cool thing to see.

Saturday started out with some yard work, and I've never had a yard so it was actually kind of fun. I got to weed things and play in the dirt! After that we went on a whole adventure that involved like 4 hours of driving, a little bit of summer sledding, and waffles (which were delicious). First, we drove like an hour and a half to this Alpine resort place, where they had a ropes course and indoor skiing and something called Sommerrodelnbahn, which translates into summer sledding but is more like a roller coaster with no mechanical stuff. It was very fun, and something I would not have gotten to do at home. It was my host parents and I surrounded by all of these groups of either children or twenty somethings just chilling at the indoor ski lodge thing. The place is in this super industrial part of Germany, and it’s on a big hill, so you have a great view of all of the coal mines and the electricity plants and it was just so funny and such a random thing to do but turned out very fun.

 

After our alpine adventure, we drove to Munster to get waffles, which is apparently something my host family does a lot, which I can totally get behind. And these waffles aren’t just regular waffles. They are giant delicious waffles that the kind people put Nutella and Strawberries and chocolate sprinkles on, and they are, according to the sign, made using the recipe from the best mom in the world.

Post-waffle, we walked around Munster for a little bit, and I am a bit in city-love. There are all these old buildings, and a giant cathedral, and the way the streets are set up there are a bunch of side streets and stuff. And Munster is a college town so everyone is young and all the stores are hip and cute and they have a Lush which I’m very excited to visit. There is also a natural history museum that, according to the advertisements, has a temporary deep sea exhibit. I got to share a few of my lovely fish facts with my host fam, and I think they appreciated them almost as much as my parents do (or they had no idea what I was saying because my German is so bad) After that we went shopping for groceries, and I found Sour Cream and Onion Pringles, which I am very pumped about.

 

Today I went for another run, and when I got home I found out that we were going to a corn maze with the family of another exchange student. The corn maze was HUGE and had all of these games and things in at, and they gave you a card when you first entered that you could get stamped at four different places around the maze and it spells out a message. Sadly, we only made it to two so I will never know what the corn maze wanted to tell me. After the corn maze we all when out and got ice cream, and I went to see a movie with my friends. We saw Nerve, which came out like 2 months ago in the US but apparently just made it to Germany. It was pretty cool because the whole thing was dubbed in German, but I could understand almost all of it. TV and Movies are easier to understand I've found because characters tend to speak better German than real people.

 

So now I'm back home, and once I've finished this post I'm gonna do a little bit of homework and then go to bed. Tomorrow I have my first German lesson with a woman who lives down the street from my host family. She works with exchange students from a different organization, but I get to have language lessons with other exchange students, which I'm really excited about. Tomorrow is also the first day of volleyball, which is good because all of this German food is making me feel very out of shape!

I didn't get a chance to post this yesterday, Sorry!

This is the last time I ever try to use an American Recipe in Germany

My first week in Germany was a pretty full one. The last time I blogged was my first day of school, which feels like a million years ago. I have done so much in the past few days!

Wednesday I went for my first jog in Germany. I have definitely gotten a bit out of shape in the past few weeks, and I ended up just going to a park and sitting on the swings for a while instead of really jogging. It was actually really fun because I got to explore more of my neighborhood. I have been doing a lot of exploring the past few days, and I think after a week I can say that I have biked all over Wullen! I think the whole tiny town thing is gonna take some getting used to :)

On Thursday I had my second German class. Funny story about the class- I needed a very specific book, and so I come in on Tuesday thinking I have the right book, and it turns don't I don't. Its fine, I go to the bookstore with my host dad and we talk to the woman working and we order a new one. I go in Wednesday to pick the book up, and then I bring it to class on Thursday, turns out it is again the wrong book. So I go to the bookstore (by myself this time, I'm very proud) and I order the book. Hopefully this time it will be right. I'll keep you updated. (After I write that it doesn't seem so funny but I promise it was very funny to the lady who works at the bookstore)

Friday I went over to my friend's house, which was very fun. I have been lucky enough to be sort of adopted by two girls who just came back from exchange years in America. They felt bad for me because I don't have any host siblings or a buddy that the school assigned me to show me around, so they came up to me on my first day and said, essentially, "This is sad. You need help" I thought it was pretty funny, and it has been very good to have someone to sit with during lunch and breaks and stuff. It has been interesting to talk with them because they want to practice their English, and I of course want to learn German, so we have been speaking a weird like mostly English with German thrown in hybrid of languages and all of their other friends are always yelling at us to speak German and it's pretty funny.

On Saturday we went fort the first time to the Netherlands. It was so nice to be in a big city again. I miss it after only 1 week, I saw a big building and I wanted to go and hug it. There was a little farmers market in Enschede (the city in the Netherlands we went to) and almost every stand was selling some sort of fried fish, which I have been told is a Dutch delicacy. Almost all of the stalls were also selling something called Matjias, which are essentially raw herring. My host dad apparently loves them, and so he bought some to eat for dinner, and of course made me try them. Now if you've ever had an oyster, you know that the only way to describe how it tastes is "like the ocean". These fish taste like that, except a bit fishy-er and like 10 times stronger. Would not recommend.

Before we left the Netherlands, my host mom wanted to stop and buy some coffee because it is cheaper there than in Germany. So we went to this store, and it's whole thing is that it sells cheaper products like right on the border, and it looks sort of like a very small Costco, which I thought was hilarious. But, the day we were there was the "Truck Sale" where all of these people were selling stuff for cheap like directly off the pallets. It was such a weird combination of stuff like medicine and soft drinks and Hairbo gummys and then the sausage person was also selling headphones. There was also a DJ from the local radio station there and he was playing Drake and Rihanna, but he was like 80, and it was just such a funny experience.

Saturday we also had to make some sort of baked good for my AFS "Survivial Camp" that was today. I found a chocolate cupcake recipe online and decided to use that. I thought it would be simple to just convert the measurements from the American system in the German system. Oh how I was wrong. Lets just say I had to whip out a calculator, only to find out I was doing all of the conversions completely incorrectly. We eventually found a chart that did most of it for us, but the cupcakes still ended up being almost black from all the cocoa powder in them. My poor host dad had to run back to the store twice because we kept thinking we needed way more of an ingredient than we did. They turned out pretty tasty, just a little bit to dark and flat, I think because of a lack of baking powder. Thankfully the people at the orientation still ate them!

Today was our first AFS orientation in Germany, the "Survival Camp" as its called. It was just of few hours of like meet and greet type of stuff, but it was really cool to have everyone from all over the world all together. We would start talking in English, and then people would break out in Spanish and a bit of German. It was just so interesting to watch us all like moving between languages like that. After orientation, my host family and the host family of another exchange student all went to this Restaurant in Coesfeld together. It was really fun, and I the other exchange student's five year old host brother is my best friend in Germany. he calls me an alte Kuh, but I'm sure it's out of love.

All in all it was a pretty good week! I miss you guys back in Baltimore, and I hope you enjoyed this entry. Love you Mom!!

First Day of School

So, as the title of this post suggests, today was my first day of school! Yesterday, my host family ad I went in to the school to talk to my teachers, and I got my schedule and books and so I was all set for school the next day. At 6;15 I woke up and showered, and then I ate breakfast with my host family. During breakfast, my host parents gave me a giant Schultute. For those of you who don't know, a schuletute is a German tradition for the first day of school. Each kid gets a cone that they bring to school, and they are supposed to share it with other kids to help them make friends. It's super cute to see the little kids with their cones, but thankfully my host family didn't make me bring mine to school because I think that would have been embarrassing.

Once I got to school, I found my art class pretty successfully  (I'm pretty proud of myself) and I sat down. I met a really nice girl in my art class who pretty much hooked me up for the rest of the day with someone to walk me from class to class. She even added me to the gorup message for our grade, which was super awesome. I added a picture of the icon our our group message, to try and show you how much dabbing has infiltrated Europe.
                                                                
After my art class, I had gym (Sport in German). It was just as mediocre as in America, and I even got hit in the face with a ball, which is typical of my performance in American gym class as well. After gym, I actually met this girl who had gone on exchange to America last year, and the two of us have a bunch of classes together, so I stuck with her for the rest of my day. We went to the Backerei for lunch after English class and I got a sandwich and an Italian ice type thing for only 1,20 euro, which was very exciting for me. We got of early today because of the heat, so I didn't have physics (it's about 90 degrees here) and we don't have afternoon classes tomorrow or Thursday. So my host Dad just picked me up after I ate lunch. It was a pretty good day!

There are some major differences between American and German schools that I noticed my first day, most of which I actually really like. The first one is that you can leave school whenever you don't have class. There is a Backerei and a Pizza/Doner place right across the street, so most kids go there, but we could potentially go home for lunch and come back, if we wanted too. That's the other big difference. My lunch is now almost an hour, which is awesome compared to my 22 minute lunch at home. In addition to that, I have at least a 10 minute break in between each class, and we can go get food then too, if we want. German schools also work on block scheduling, so I have 10 classes, but I only take 3 or 4 a day, which I'm not sure how much I like yet.

Today was also my first German class at the Volkshule. This is sort of like a community center, and anyone can take classes there. They offer a ton of classes and they are really cheap, and I think it's a really awesome idea. The class is pretty cool because it's a bunch of people who recently immigrated to Germany. Most of them are from Poland, but there is also a couple from Afghanistan, a woman from Bangladesh, and A woman from Mexico. It's kind of cool to meet a whole new set of people that I wouldn't have met otherwise.

That's it for now. I'll try and start updating more on Sunday night from now on. This week I have my AFS "Survival Camp" on Sunday, and so my next post will probably be something about that.

Gateway Orientation

Gateway Orientation

I’m sitting on the plane right now, and I don’t really have anything to do, so I figured I try and do something productive and write a blog post. For the past three days, I have been at AFS’s Gateway Orientation. For CBYX students, this orientation consists of two days of regular orientation stuff, lectures about German culture and what it means to be an exchange student, and “DC day” where we meet with our congressional representative (or one of their staffers- shoutout to Pete) and visit the German Embassy. Then, we fly out together with the rest of the AFS Germany students.

The first day we arrived at orientation was definitely the worst. I had to say goodbye to my family, which I was very sad about, and on top of that, I had to walk in to a room full of kids I didn’t know, sit down, and start a conversation. I walked in to the meeting room where we were waiting, and I had two seating choices. I could either awkwardly join the table with everyone talking, or I could sit at the table that had one girl who was Facetiming someone.  Or I could just walk out, which was another option I was considering. Thankfully someone at the big table said Hi to me, and it was fine from there. The first night, we had a few sessions, mostly talking about how our meeting at the Embassy and with our congress people should go. We also had our first of many buffet dinners, which I sadly forgot to take pictures of, but were the most hilarious assortment of foods. They showed a movie in one of the conference rooms that night, but I decided to go up to my room and watch the office instead, which I definitely don’t regret.

The next day was DC Day. We had to get up at 6:45 to get ready and everything, then we took a bus into DC. That morning, we had an awesome meeting at the German Embassy. That place is so awesome; it literally looks like a ski resort.

The presentation that we were given was done by two employees of the State Department’s Bureau of education and cultural affairs (which funds CBYX) and two German people who work at the embassy. The main speaker described himself as the “Ambassador’s third in command”. Hearing him talk about what it’s like to work in foreign service and all the amazing places he lived really made me want to do what he does.

After the embassy, we went to Union Station to get lunch, and then Ava (one of the other girls on the program with me) and I went to out meeting with our congressional representative. We didn’t actually get to meet Sarbanes at all, but instead met with his legislative assistant, who was super nice and very interested in the program, which was cool. Ava and I then used the rest of our free time to visit the Library of Congress, which was a really amazing thing to see. It was one of the prettiest buildings in DC, in my opinion.

After that, we took the bus home, and had even more sessions about exchange student-ing, and then we had some really great conversations with the CBYX returnees that were volunteering at the orientation. If any of you are going on program next year, I would really recommend using the Returnees. They are great resources, they know most of the answers, and they can answer questions that you might not want to ask the AFS staff people.

The next day was jam packed with a million more sessions, and the AFS Germany kids arrived as well. It was definitely more boring than DC day, but a lot of the sessions are really helpful, and I know I will actually use this stuff during my time in Germany.

Today started out with all 78 of us dragging all of our luggage up two blocks and across the street to a different hotel. Let me tell you, there is nothing fun about carrying 100lbs of luggage across a road that is probably a highway, and then up a dirt hill. I wish I got a video of us all sweating and yelling at our suitcases, but sadly I did not. After our perilous journey, we had a few more little information sessions, and then left for the airport. I thought that getting through baggage check and security with 78 teenagers would be bad, but I am now convinced that Dulles Airport is the most efficient place in the world, because we got from the airport doors to our gate in like 2 hours.

So now I’m sitting on the plane, and they just turned the lights off, so I think I’m going to start trying to go to sleep because I don’t want to be too exhausted when I first land. I am feeling such a weird mix of emotions right now, and I might do another post just talking about what it’s like to be leaving, but I think this post is long enough for now.

I know I said I'd update every Sunday night, but my first few days have been very busy. Yesterday I went to a barbecue at another exchange student's house, and we were gone until later, so I didn't get a chance to post this. I will do another post tomorrow about my first day of school and my first few days in Germany, and then I will (hopefully) start updating every Sunday!

Packing!

Just a little update- I just finished the first day of Gateway Orientation in DC. So far so good! I am all settled in, and I'm getting ready to go to bed. 

I wanted to do a post about packing, because I know it is one of the things that I stressed out about the most going into my exchange. I'll probably do another post  later in the year talking about what I wish I packed and what I regret packing, but for now I'll just talk about what I brought. 

I was allowed to have one checked bag (max 50 lbs.), one carry on, and one personal item. I had a small suitcase as my carry on, and a backpack as my personal item. 

In terms of clothes, here is a list of what I brought:

• 3 pairs of jeans
• 5 short sleeved t shirts in varying colors and styles
• 4 long sleeved t shirts in varying colors and styles
• a canvas bomber jacket
• a Letterman- type jacket
• a corduroy skirt
• a fancy dress
• 5 sweaters
• My winter jacket
• 3 pajama t shirts (ones with writing on them) 
• 2 long sleeved pajama t shirts
• 3 pajama shorts
• a pair of pajama pants
• a pair of sweatpants
• an under armour long sleeve
• a running jacket
• 3 pairs of athletic shorts
• 3 pairs of spandex
• an athletic tank top
• 2 pairs of leggings (one more athletic, the other for wearing)
• a fancy dress
• a ,more formal business outfit (for orientation)
• 2 weeks worth of underwear and socks

I am pretty happy with the amount I brought. I think I was able to cut it down to the more essential things, although looking back on it now,  don't think I needed the amount of athletic/leisure wear stuff that I brought, but I don't know, we will see what I find useful when I get there. 

I spent a lot of time figuring out what kind of non-clothing items that I needed, and I think I came up with a pretty good list of stuff to pack. I'll include all of that here because a lot of the stuff you might not think about.

First thing, host family gifts. I brought local honey, a coffee mug from my favorite breakfast place, a collar for their dog, some black eyed Susan seeds (Maryland's state flower), a book of photographs from around Baltimore, and a book of my family's favorite recipes. I know it seems like a lot, but it's all pretty small stuff that I picked up throughout the summer. My advice on host family gifts would be to not panic and then go out and buy them, but rather to keep an eye out and just gradually buy things you think they would like or that represent home. I also brought a few packs of Reese's (apparently they are a favorite of the Germans) and some small souvenir things like key chains to give to people I meet while on exchange. This is a suggestion that I got from a few youtubers, and I thought it sounded like a good idea, so we'll see how it goes. 

Another important category is cosmetic stuff. Of course I brought travel sizes of all of my shampoos and conditioners and face wash for orientation, but I also picked up 4 sticks of deodorant to use throughout the year, as well as what I think is a year supply of tampons. I brought the deodorant because German deodorant doesn't usually come in the stick form the same way ours does, and it doesn't always work as well in other forms, so I decided to bring it. I brought the tampons because apparently they don't have the same brands we have, and they are very expensive there. I also just don't want to deal with that. 

I also packed a few items for me, just because I thought I'd miss them while I was away. I brought a few boxes of Mike and Ikes and Sour Patch kids (my favorite american candies) and a jar of peanut butter. I also brought a few posters and decorations for my room, including an American flag to hang on my wall. My friend (hey Sicily) made me a super cute poster, so I brought that, as well as a few other things. I think it will be nice to have something to start out with so my walls don't look so bare the first few weeks I'm there. I also bought storage bins, another suggestion from youtube, which I hope will just make it easier to store my stuff out of sight in my room because I don't know how much storage there is. I also bought a shower caddy, because there is only one bathroom in our house, and I don't want to clutter up their whole bathroom with my stuff.

I also bought a few books that I think will be helpful to me. First off, I bought a Lonely Planet guide to Europe, as well as a European phrase book. I know most of this info is online now, but I thought it would be nice to have it all in one place or if my phone dies or something. And I also bought a German-English dictionary, for obvious reasons. The other thing I brought is a Kindle. I plan on reading a lot in English on my exchange, and I thought it would be a good way to easily access books in English because they aren't always available in Germany. 

So that's pretty much all I brought. I know it sounds like a lot, and I kind of is, but it all fit into my suitcases, so I'm happy :) I'm going to end this post now because it's super long, but I hope it's helpful!!