So, like I said, on Monday, I had my first German lesson with Frau Stuber, which was actually fun, for a German lesson. She doesn't have us use books or anything, it's more just a conversation in German, and the other two exchange students worked on this presentation they have to do about their home country for their exchange organization. We have a three week break because the next two weeks are Herbstferien (Fall Break) for Germans, so no one has school, and I'm going on vacation with my host family.
Normally in America I never come right home after school, I always have some sort of activity, like a sport or club, or I go and do my homework with friends or something. One of the things I've been struggling with in Germany is that I don't know what to do after school, but on Wednesday I decided to go to my homework in a Cafe. I sat down and ordered a Spagettieis (my fave) and just did my homework alone, and it was so nice and relaxing. Also there is great people watching in the little pedestrian zone, and if you know me you know I love some good people watching. So I came home after doing my homework, and I told my host Dad where I had been, and his reaction was so funny. He looked at me like I had three heads. Apparently it is not normal to sit in a Cafe by yourself and do homework in Germany! (Is it gonna stop me? No. I don't play by the rules. I'm a real Maverick)
Thursday was normal, I had my German course and then I went home. The weather was a little rainy for the first time since I've been here though. Friday was very fun. I talked to my parents and then I went to my friends house. Advice for other exchange students- people invite you places, which is very good, but always make sure you talk to the person hosting the event before you go. My friend invited me to the party on Wednesday, well she invited me to what I thought was a party but turned out to be just four people eating pizza. I felt a bit bad for crashing their little hangout, but they were cool with it and it turned out to be very fun, and I felt like I got to know the other 4 people better, which was good, and we spoke only in German, which was also good.
I had to get up at 7 the next morning for what I thought was going to be a breakfast with another exchange students family, but turned out to be 2 hours (OK more like 45 minutes) of manual labor. We had to move an entire truck full of firewood from the truck to our backyard, and we had 6 people doing it, so it actually wasn't that hard and didn't take that long, but still, I had to touch firewood (a first for me) so it was labor. Then we got to eat breakfast, and thank god we did because I was famished from all that work :)
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| Sausage with pictures in it is a thing here (this is a tractor) |
Saturday night was the birthday celebration for my friend Anika, which was held at the fabulous Ahaus Mongol, a giant Chinese food buffet that rivals any American equivalent in both size and MSG usage. It was hilarious and delicious and I smelled so much like fried food after that I needed to shower, so all in all a success I think.
We had Monday off, so the other exchange student to who I am always referring stayed with us on Sunday night. ON Sunday we went to the Ahaus Staadfest. It was a pretty small festival, just a few food stalls, but Olivia and I made our way to almost all of them. Below is a photo diary of everything I ate while there...
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| Waffle on a stick (Delicious) |
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| Pastry that was like a huge cream puff (also delicious) |
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| Fried fish, apparently a Dutch specialty (yes I ate them in this order) |
I also ate Latkes but there's no picture of that. Sorry.
We also got a chance to go inside the Schloss Ahaus, which I was super pumped for because I thought it would be all done up in like 18th century style, but it turns out it was just a small art gallery as well as classrooms for one of the schools. A little disappointing. But the we found the tiny Schulmuseam, which was all about old schools in Ahaus, and it was so cite and I talked to the man who was working there and his kids went to my school and it was kind of awesome, so all was right with the world after my crushing schloss-disappointment.
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| The lovely Schloss from up close |
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| The art from inside the Schloss |
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| Statues also inside the Schloss |
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| Die Schulmuseam! |
We got caught in the rain walking home from Ahaus, so we decided to duck in to the only store near us- the Garden Center. Little did we know that in doing so we were leaving our world and entering a crazy universe where it is totally normal to have your Christmas decorations up on October 3rd. I absolutly love Christmas, so I am all for this new way or Christmas thinking. I actually asked my host parnets about it cause I thought it was so weird, and they said that it's actually pretty normal for a lot of German stores to have their decorations up this early. The whole rest of the day felt really weird like it was almost Christmas though and it messed with my brain.
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| Christmas Decorations at our lovely neighborhood Garden Center |
Monday was the Tag der Deutsche Einheit (the day east and weest Germany reunified) We had off of school and my host parents had off of work, so we, along with everyone else in Germany, headed to the Netherlands to do a little shopping. I bought a few things, and there was another market for Oliva and I to eat our way through. It was another fun day.
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| My new love, giant warm Stroopwafeln |
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