So, things are pretty much going really well. I don’t think weeks get much better than this one. There’s a lot to say here, so keep all arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times and put your seat is in the upright position until we have reached cruising altitude.
From Nuclear Apocalypse Protected Bunkers to Monasteries.
So, on Tuesday our group went to a Military Bunker that was built in the sixties in case of nuclear disaster. It’s super long and was built over a fairly large period of time, but of course, by the time it was finished, Russia could have blown it out of the water had it wanted to. Not only were their nuclear bombs stronger than ever, but the bunker was not as secret as West Germany thought it was. It’s kinda cool nonetheless, with it’s giant doors and decontamination rooms. Actually it was freezing cold. I’m pretty sure none of us were properly prepared for how cold it would be under there and by the end of the tour I just wanted to go back to the surface.
If you want to visit two completely different places in the same day, I’d highly suggest going to a monastery right after a visit to a military bunker. A serene church ornamented with statues and paintings that show its age is a great place to be after discussing nuclear war. I sat inside the chapel for quite some time, because it was so beautiful and quiet. It was really easy to just sit there, relax, and think for a while, until the organ comes blasting in. That’s right, while I was sitting there the organ suddenly began with “Amazing Grace,” and continued playing other hymns for quite some time. It was cool, just really surprising after the dead silence that came before it.
After that we went to the lake nearby. Some people went swimming, others decided to feed the ducks. I decided to feed the ducks, despite how tempting getting my clothes wet was.
Wedding!!
So, on Wednesday I went to Bremen via train (I love traveling by train by the way. Less stressful than by car, and simpler than by plane. You just get on the train and go.) to attend the wedding of my brother Matt and Talina, my new sister. That night was our “bachelor party” for Matt. Of course we didn’t want it to be a go and get drunk bachelor party, so instead we went Go-Kart racing. There’s a random go-kart place in the industrial area of Bremen in some abandoned parking garage that we took him too. Of course we didn’t know it was in such a sketchy location because my other brother Chris had planned it from America, so when we took him we made him look down so that he couldn’t see the signs. When we finally got up the several flights of stairs he was thoroughly confused.
The race track was on two levels of the parking garage, so the whole experience was pretty intense. It takes about fifty three seconds to make a lap and we had a whole 45 minutes to race after the fifteen minute “qualifications.” It was surprisingly exhausting. I only lasted 25 laps in the race before I started to feel sick (only three or four out of the eight of us lasted the whole time). The turns were really jerky, and the seats were not exactly cushioned, which made for a rough ride, and 45 minutes is a long time. Still, it was super fun; I had a blast. Plus, I had a beer with both of my brothers and my dad for the first time. I’ll have to write that down in the baby book.
Oh, and our presents for Matt: hot sauce, because Talina’s German, and therefore can’t handle anything spicy; Pop-tarts, because you can’t get anything quite so delicious in Europe; and Lego Creationary. Just imagine Pictionary with Legos. Yeah, I know you just drooled all over your keyboard. Don’t worry about it. Keep on reading.
Afterwards we went to this really pretty part of Bremen called the Schlachte. A “Schlachter” is a butcher, so it’s a pretty strange name, but it’s basically a wide cobblestone path with outdoor cafes and restaurants on either side. We went to a mexican restaurant that was quite delicious and I went back to the hotel with a very happy tummy.
Meanwhile . . .
Apparently it is a German tradition for the bride to go out with the girls before the wedding and try to sell something. Most of the time they try to sell condoms or booze or something like that, but in Talina’s case it was muffins. They baked a bunch of muffins beforehand and all of the girls went out into town to sell them while wearing these frilly headband things. They made quite a bit of money too, 62 euros. I obviously wasn’t there, but it sounded pretty fun. Oh, and Talina was wearing a spider-woman costume the whole time. Gotta love Germany.
The next day. . .
Thursday was the wedding . . . part 1. It’s required for a couple to go through a civil wedding that takes place in a government building designated for such a purpose, and then they can get married in a church if they so desire. Basically it was just “Sign here, sign there, here’s some advice about marriage” and you’re done. It was surprisingly quick and easy, but I know there was a lot more paperwork beforehand.
After the half marriage we went to the church in Achim (about 20 or 30 minutes by car outside of Bremen) to rehearse the wedding. The church was built in the 13th century, so it’s super old, and I got to play French Horn for part of the wedding, so playing in there was like playing in a cave. I didn’t need a microphone.
The church wedding the following day went really smoothly. I didn’t severely screw up my part of it, my mom and my brother Chris did an beautiful job of providing music on the piano and guitar to the songs we sang. The wedding was really enjoyable. the colors were a light apple green and white, so I got to wear an apple green bow-tie, which was pretty sweet. Not to mention the bride and groom were actually both wearing Converse sneakers with their formal clothing. Afterwards it rained, which means in Germany that they are going to have lots of babies.
Back at the hotel we partied it up at the reception, played some games, and danced the night away. I got to swing dance for a little bit again. Plus, meeting the Gehring family was really nice. They are a great bunch of people, and I found them all very interesting to talk to.
And finally on Saturday, I got to go walking around Bremen with the Gehrings and my family. Bremen is a charming city. They kept everything looking old, so it has a lot of character. There is an area that we walked through that has thin cobblestone paths with plenty of little shops and cafes. It’s all decorated with statues and fountains, half of which were related to the musicians of Bremen. If you don’t know what that is look it up, it’s a fun little children’s story.
But wait. . . there’s more!
Bochum: Where I thought I would be living. A big city in the middle of the sprawling metropolis known as the Ruhrgebiet. (I’m not sure I spelled that right). Apparently nobody like me there so they couldn’t find me a host family. Ebergoetzen: a small town of 2000 near Goettingen in southern Niedersachsen. Totally different location than where I thought I would be going, so it’s taken some mental adjustments. I’ll be living with a dad and mom that are both on their second marriage, so I have brothers (twins a little younger than me), but they live with their mom elsewhere. They visit often, however. The mom, a trilingual secretary, also has a daughter but she is out living on her own. The dad is a police officer, so I can’t be out too late drinking, darn. They have a big garden and ten chickens as well (you don’t know how excited I am about this fact). Their house looks really cool from the pictures, and I’m looking forward to moving in.
I don’t know what my internship will be yet, but I know a bit about what I will be doing as far a school goes. On one day of the week, I will be attending a class in Oekotrophologie. If you don’t know what that is, that’s because you’re really dumb. From what I understand in the class description (it was in German), it’s kind of like nutritional science. It sounds interesting, so I’m going to just go with it. The rest of the days I’m going to be working at my internship, whatever that will be.
Ende
That’s it for this week. As you can see there was a lot of excitement. I think we might be going to the Haribo factory soon too . . .
Wondering what’s in the German news? During the Love Parade (a massive Techno party that happens once a year in a different city) yesterday, several people got trampled to death because of the massive size of the crowd. There was 1.3 million people in a place meant for only 300,000, so naturally some trampling was inevitable. I’m trying to decide if this is worse than Black Friday. . .
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Thought for Food
What? It’s Sunday? How did that even happen? Honestly, my week went by so fast that I can’t even remember what we did on which day, so bear with me here. It was a weird week full of strange recreational activities, random field trips, and sore legs, but good nonetheless.
Strange Recreational Activities
So my host mom and her boyfriend like to go motorcycle driving. A lot. Not particularly strange in moderation, but when she’s gone for four days, I start to think it a little odd. Four days is a lot of time to be riding around on a motorcycle. Actually they went to some kind of convention or something that was at some place that somehow revolved around motorcycles (gimmie a break, everything’s in German). I guess I’m not the one to criticize. After all, I spent a week last summer doing nothing but playing French Horn. Oh, and next week she’s going to be gone too, doing the same thing for a few days again, but I’ll be at my brother’s wedding then anyway, so it doesn’t affect me (Not gonna lie, I’m super excited).
As a result of all that, I was fending for myself at the end of this week, sort of. I had microwave dinners for a couple meals, but I found ways to get some better food, like going to dinner with my real family who are now living with my brother in Bonn. It was Italian, and it was heavenly. I now know that I don’t really like wine, however.
Not only was my host mom gone, but also my German teacher, except she was going rock climbing. Not just rock climbing, but extreme rock climbing. For a whole week. Without food or water. And without using her feet. No, but seriously she went rock climbing for the entire week while she left our class to do random things that were not learning German. I think we were supposed to learn German, but our sub got sick the second day he was to be covering for her, so we went on random field trips, which brings me to topic number 2.
Bonus Question: What involves beer, man powered vehicles, and a bunch of crazy Kölners? The beer bike of course! Six or more hop on this moving bar powered by the pedaling of the drunk guys sitting on the barstools, enjoying the scenery around them while they move up and down the streets of downtown Köln. Or maybe they’re just enjoying the beer. Only in Germany. . .
Random Field Trips
While our teacher was gone we had this super awesome sub, for one day (just my class of about 8 people). On that day we visited the Federal Center for Political Education which is a place where anyone can go and pick up some information about political stuff. There are tons of books to choose from so that one can be well informed about hot political issues, government organizations, history, and other related subjects. The books are cheap, informative, unbiased (as far as I can tell, they are in German), and cover a wide range of topics. It was created after WWII for fairly obvious reasons considering the position Germany was in after that war, and is, in my opinion, a great way to make reliable information easily accessible for the common citizen. I personally found the material very difficult to read, but I try anyway. I got a book about protest songs that were created from after the war until today. It came with CDs that had the 43 songs on them too, so I was very happy (only six euros, I might add).
The next day our sub was sick, so we went with another guy who works at the AIB, our school, to a modern art museum. Turns out we were there an hour before it opened, so he bought us coffee. Yay! The museum was . . . well. . . modern art. You know how that goes. Apparently the people that make sure nobody does anything wrong there are really anal. They wouldn’t even let me take notes with a pen, only a pencil.
As if that wasn’t already too much standing around and walking through exhibits, we went with the whole group after that to a technical museum, a quite cramped one for 25 people at that. This was actually really interesting. There was stuff like a video of someone’s intestine that had a round worm, a liquid that was magnetic, and an electron particle accelerator. I thought it was fun, at least. At the end of the day, my legs were kinda tired, but I’d actually started getting used to all the walking that comes with the lifestyle here in Germany. Little did I know that my legs would really be put to the test in the near future.
Sore legs
I guess they’re not as sore as I’d like to exaggerate them to be, but I did have a very active couple of days recently. On Friday, our group went south along the Rhein by bicycle to a historical location where a bridge used to be during WWII. The side that we were biking on was pretty flat, so it made for a nice ride, but the opposite side had the Sieben Gebirge and other beautiful hills (or small mountains, I suppose) that were absolutely stunning. It was perfect weather too, the only problem was that Germany doesn’t really have drinking fountains. I brought a bottle, but it soon ran out, so I filled it up at a bathroom tap (it’s usually ok to do that, I swear). Little did I know that that was not entirely the most potable water. It came from the Rhein without being sanitized. It was clear, and looked like it was good to drink, so I drank it unknowingly. After drinking about half of my bottle, I was informed of the sanitation issues it had. Too late. Here I am at home with dysentery. I’m typing this in the bathroom right now, in fact. Too much information? All right, I’m just kidding, everything’s okay. Anyway it was 21 miles round trip, unless I’m mistaken, and I enjoyed every bit of it.
Let’s see, I pretty much walked all day Saturday, too. I explored Cologne, where there are always interesting things going on. A bounty of street performers are ever present. Musicians, magicians, statue people, people that just paint themselves and don’t really look like statues, because it’s too windy, you name it. And then there’s the Beer Bike, but I already told you about that. After Cologne, I had a wonderful dinner with my real family, since my Dad just came into town. It made my tummy happy. Oh, and I got my French Horn back! Hooray!
Ende
So, I guess that’s it. Oh wait, there is something else. I don’t think I’m here entirely legally for the year yet. I need a visa, but since I was born in Germany there were complications. The German government needs to find my papers from where I was born and dig up any records they have of me being in Germany. You know how governments run: really slowly, so I haven’t heard anything back yet. I feel kinda like an illegal immigrant however. Or like I should have some mysterious past that I can’t let the government know about or else they’ll kick me out of the country. Oh well, nothing to do but sit and wait.
Oh, and here’s one more thing that I found interesting and strange about Germany. At least in Bonn and Cologne, they are really not that particular about recycling as I had assumed. I remember in Hamburg all the trash cans were split into parts, but here there are much more regular trash cans and a surprising amount of litter. Nor are they particular about bike paths. As a pedestrian I try to stay off of the bike path at all times in fear of getting run over, but I noticed during the bike ride that a lot of Germans ride on the pedestrian path, which is kind of annoying. Oh and one more thing that I wrongly assumed about Germans here. While they all have little bells on their bikes, hardly any of them use it. I don’t know how many time a bike snuck up on me and passed me, startling me as they passed. Again, kind of annoying, but I’m not one to complain. This country is awesome, and I love it.
Peace out,
Skez
Strange Recreational Activities
So my host mom and her boyfriend like to go motorcycle driving. A lot. Not particularly strange in moderation, but when she’s gone for four days, I start to think it a little odd. Four days is a lot of time to be riding around on a motorcycle. Actually they went to some kind of convention or something that was at some place that somehow revolved around motorcycles (gimmie a break, everything’s in German). I guess I’m not the one to criticize. After all, I spent a week last summer doing nothing but playing French Horn. Oh, and next week she’s going to be gone too, doing the same thing for a few days again, but I’ll be at my brother’s wedding then anyway, so it doesn’t affect me (Not gonna lie, I’m super excited).
As a result of all that, I was fending for myself at the end of this week, sort of. I had microwave dinners for a couple meals, but I found ways to get some better food, like going to dinner with my real family who are now living with my brother in Bonn. It was Italian, and it was heavenly. I now know that I don’t really like wine, however.
Not only was my host mom gone, but also my German teacher, except she was going rock climbing. Not just rock climbing, but extreme rock climbing. For a whole week. Without food or water. And without using her feet. No, but seriously she went rock climbing for the entire week while she left our class to do random things that were not learning German. I think we were supposed to learn German, but our sub got sick the second day he was to be covering for her, so we went on random field trips, which brings me to topic number 2.
Bonus Question: What involves beer, man powered vehicles, and a bunch of crazy Kölners? The beer bike of course! Six or more hop on this moving bar powered by the pedaling of the drunk guys sitting on the barstools, enjoying the scenery around them while they move up and down the streets of downtown Köln. Or maybe they’re just enjoying the beer. Only in Germany. . .
Random Field Trips
While our teacher was gone we had this super awesome sub, for one day (just my class of about 8 people). On that day we visited the Federal Center for Political Education which is a place where anyone can go and pick up some information about political stuff. There are tons of books to choose from so that one can be well informed about hot political issues, government organizations, history, and other related subjects. The books are cheap, informative, unbiased (as far as I can tell, they are in German), and cover a wide range of topics. It was created after WWII for fairly obvious reasons considering the position Germany was in after that war, and is, in my opinion, a great way to make reliable information easily accessible for the common citizen. I personally found the material very difficult to read, but I try anyway. I got a book about protest songs that were created from after the war until today. It came with CDs that had the 43 songs on them too, so I was very happy (only six euros, I might add).
The next day our sub was sick, so we went with another guy who works at the AIB, our school, to a modern art museum. Turns out we were there an hour before it opened, so he bought us coffee. Yay! The museum was . . . well. . . modern art. You know how that goes. Apparently the people that make sure nobody does anything wrong there are really anal. They wouldn’t even let me take notes with a pen, only a pencil.
As if that wasn’t already too much standing around and walking through exhibits, we went with the whole group after that to a technical museum, a quite cramped one for 25 people at that. This was actually really interesting. There was stuff like a video of someone’s intestine that had a round worm, a liquid that was magnetic, and an electron particle accelerator. I thought it was fun, at least. At the end of the day, my legs were kinda tired, but I’d actually started getting used to all the walking that comes with the lifestyle here in Germany. Little did I know that my legs would really be put to the test in the near future.
Sore legs
I guess they’re not as sore as I’d like to exaggerate them to be, but I did have a very active couple of days recently. On Friday, our group went south along the Rhein by bicycle to a historical location where a bridge used to be during WWII. The side that we were biking on was pretty flat, so it made for a nice ride, but the opposite side had the Sieben Gebirge and other beautiful hills (or small mountains, I suppose) that were absolutely stunning. It was perfect weather too, the only problem was that Germany doesn’t really have drinking fountains. I brought a bottle, but it soon ran out, so I filled it up at a bathroom tap (it’s usually ok to do that, I swear). Little did I know that that was not entirely the most potable water. It came from the Rhein without being sanitized. It was clear, and looked like it was good to drink, so I drank it unknowingly. After drinking about half of my bottle, I was informed of the sanitation issues it had. Too late. Here I am at home with dysentery. I’m typing this in the bathroom right now, in fact. Too much information? All right, I’m just kidding, everything’s okay. Anyway it was 21 miles round trip, unless I’m mistaken, and I enjoyed every bit of it.
Let’s see, I pretty much walked all day Saturday, too. I explored Cologne, where there are always interesting things going on. A bounty of street performers are ever present. Musicians, magicians, statue people, people that just paint themselves and don’t really look like statues, because it’s too windy, you name it. And then there’s the Beer Bike, but I already told you about that. After Cologne, I had a wonderful dinner with my real family, since my Dad just came into town. It made my tummy happy. Oh, and I got my French Horn back! Hooray!
Ende
So, I guess that’s it. Oh wait, there is something else. I don’t think I’m here entirely legally for the year yet. I need a visa, but since I was born in Germany there were complications. The German government needs to find my papers from where I was born and dig up any records they have of me being in Germany. You know how governments run: really slowly, so I haven’t heard anything back yet. I feel kinda like an illegal immigrant however. Or like I should have some mysterious past that I can’t let the government know about or else they’ll kick me out of the country. Oh well, nothing to do but sit and wait.
Oh, and here’s one more thing that I found interesting and strange about Germany. At least in Bonn and Cologne, they are really not that particular about recycling as I had assumed. I remember in Hamburg all the trash cans were split into parts, but here there are much more regular trash cans and a surprising amount of litter. Nor are they particular about bike paths. As a pedestrian I try to stay off of the bike path at all times in fear of getting run over, but I noticed during the bike ride that a lot of Germans ride on the pedestrian path, which is kind of annoying. Oh and one more thing that I wrongly assumed about Germans here. While they all have little bells on their bikes, hardly any of them use it. I don’t know how many time a bike snuck up on me and passed me, startling me as they passed. Again, kind of annoying, but I’m not one to complain. This country is awesome, and I love it.
Peace out,
Skez
Monday, July 12, 2010
From a Sleep Deprived Exchange Student
And now the ball is rolling. A really big ball. Like in Indiana Jones, where if I don’t keep up I’m going to die a horrible death. No, that’s not really how I feel, although sometimes everything does seems surreal. It doesn’t quite seem like I’m going to be here for a year yet, but that will come with time, or if it doesn’t than . . . whatever. So, if seems like I’m jumping from subject to subject just trying to fit everything in, it’s because I am.
Anyway this week was my first real week in Germany and with it comes the Denglish. Denglish is a not-so-rare speaking disorder that affects German exchange students everywhere, especially ones that had trouble speaking English to begin with. Symptoms include saying things such as “that is genough Erdberries” and putting verbs at the end of sentences for no apparent reason. I am already experiencing early warning signs, which is grave news.
As with last week I continue to make mistakes (have you ever tried to speak German with a fellow who has a pretty thick Portuguese accent? It’s quite difficult) but not so many this time around. I’ll tell you about them in due time along with all the other lovely awkward moments that I have been experiencing (ok, maybe not all of them. For that you need a premium subscription)
By the way, I divided this blog into sections, so that if you find something really boring, you can skip it. Don't feel bad, I would too.
Monschau
On the Sunday the AIB took us to a quaint little village in the Eifel region called Monschau. It looked like something that you’d see on a postcard. Modest little houses, cobblestone streets, small trinket shops, and the remains of a castle that once loomed over the valley made it look like something that you’d only see in pictures, except I was there, I promise. I forgot my camera so you’ll just have to believe me.
Besides walking around, we visited a mustard mill, which was pretty cool. The mustard there is exquisite (forget everything you know about American mustard and try some. It’s awesome). Tip: Stuffed up? Got pressure built up in the sinuses? Try this: stick your head into a mustard mill and take a deep breath through your nose. It really uh . . . does something. They have 18 or 19 different flavors of mustard there. My favorite was the honey mustard and chili mustard, but I didn’t try all of them.
Bob sledding in the summer = fantastic. This is what I love about Germany. You can start a business that involves giving people the opportunity to go down a metal track on a sled with wheels and a brake. You don’t have to worry about getting sued because there wasn’t at least five feet of cushion on either side (or because of a lack of safety at all). It was so much fun. I went down three times, crashed once, and had a blast. The scenery was absolutely beautiful too. Afterwards we hung out at this somewhat dangerous playground which really topped of my experience in Monschau.
Note: There was a barbecue after that in case you were curious. Good food. I met the president of the partnership between Indianapolis and Cologne and got his card, which was pretty cool.
Schule
School is still pretty lame in Germany. I have German classes during the week from 9 till 1. I made it into the advanced class with about seven other people or so, and we do a lot of reading, writing, and grammar. It’s actually a pretty fun class compared to regular high school classes, it’s just that four hours can be pretty long.
Tours
It’s hot here in Germany. I like tours as well as the next guy (especially when they are about German things), but when it’s 35 degrees or hotter I find it really difficult to have a good time. I really didn’t expect for it to be this hot here, it’s ridiculous. Germans never have air conditioning either, so it’s pretty bad.
Anyway we took a couple tours of Bonn. I pretty much know my way around now, although it’s hard to connect names with places. One of the tours was about Bonn’s history. It was originally a Roman city so there are a lot of Roman ruins beneath the soil, but it’s known for being the capital of West Germany during the cold war. It’s a nice not-too-big-but-not-too-small city, which was one of the reasons they chose it. It’s relatively unimportant and they wanted to make sure that when Germany is reunified there would be no question that Berlin should be the capital. Today Deutsche Telecom is probably the biggest company in Bonn. It’s known as T-mobile in America. Famous people that live there include Beethoven and Schumann. Both have their respective house-museums. We visited the Schumann house and will visit the Beethoven house this week.
Other tours include a tour of a fire station cut short by a fire, the Koelner Dom, and a German modern history museum that was really quite interesting. The Koelner Dom is a huge cathedral in Cologne built in 1248 (but it wasn’t finished until the 1800s) in the Gothic style. It’s pretty sweet. Our guide, Hartwig, knew a lot about it, which made it really great. After the tour we went up the 515 steps to the top of one of the towers where one can get a breathtaking view of the city. Of course when you’re in Germany you need to try all of the pastries, so Harwig also took us bakery testing! Delish!
Ok, ok, here’s a good story. Five other people and I had decided to take an earlier train than everyone else because we wanted to head back to Bonn and get ready for the concert (it’s about a 23 minute train ride and we were going to go to a classical concert from the University). Well, the air conditioning in the train was broken, and everyone in the train was dripping with sweat. Longest 24 minutes of my life. Everyone was sweating gallons (or liters here, I suppose). If I had leaned forward, I would have created a small system of lakes at my feet from my chin drippings. When we finally got back we discovered that everyone else in Cologne was delayed because of a fire on the tracks. Oh well, the concert was pretty good, although only six or seven people showed up initially.
Soccer!
Soccer in Germany is like a religion. Everybody gets together at a certain place and time to watch the game, drinking their sacramental beer. Plus, it pretty much gets it’s own holiday too (or at least there are so many people playing hooky that it might as well be). I went to a bar with some friends on monday to watch the Netherlands v. Uruguay game, and then to a beer garden for the Germany v. Spain game. Everybody was really excited for the latter, which made for a fun atmosphere. Not to mention I had a voovoozella to play with. I stuck my horn mouthpiece in it to make some cool sounds. Good idea. Suddenly, after the game, all these Spanish fans came out of the woodworks. They weren’t there before the game, but they were sure around to gloat afterwards (I’m suspicious). Tip: When you choose a random beer to drink because you don’t know any, make sure it’s not a nonalcoholic beer. Those are just. . . awful.
Host Family
My host family is pretty cool. My mom is single lady with two kids, a girl my age who just finished her Abi (like the SAT except harder), and a boy who’s in his early twenties and lives in downtown Bonn. She has a boyfriend who I met once at a barbecue who also has a daughter, but she’s about 13 or 14 maybe. My host brother and sister are half Afghani, I think. I don’t really know much about that yet, but I do know that they have lived with just the mom pretty much all their life. The sister has a boyfriend that I have also met. He’s also my age and is from Portugal, so he’s pretty cool. I think he speaks 4 languages or something like that already, but not English. The only problem with that is his Portuguese accent while speaking German is difficult for me to understand, so overall it’s hard to communicate. That’s nothing new though.
When I hang out with Germans, I’m mostly with my host brother, David, and his friends. They’re all older than me, but it’s fun to do stuff with them. On Saturday we went (my host mom drove us) to the beach on this inlet from the Rhein river. The weather was so hot, it was quite nice to go. David claimed he needed to work on his tan, even though he’s already very dark skinned. I got a nice tan too that day, playing frisbee and sitting in the sun. David’s the type of guy who wears sunglasses and a chain necklace while swimming and then makes fun of himself for it. It’s great. He also wears sunglasses at night.
By the way, the Rhein is a really pretty river. If you ever go to Bonn and want to do something fun for free, go down to the tiny little beach area underneath the Kennedy beach and watch the day disappear. You can even make a fire there in the beach. When I went there was a thunderstorm coming, so I could see the storm across the river flashing, and it would reflect in the water. Cool, but I inevitably got soaked.
My real family is also here in Bonn, which is kinda weird. Matt has lived here for almost a year already, and it’s the nearest we have lived to each other, if you don’t count him visiting at home. He really is two minutes on the train and a fifteen minute walk from my house, so although I’ve been really busy I can still just meet up with him for breakfast or whatever sometimes. My mom came in on Saturday too, for his wedding in two weeks (in Bremen), kind of unusual for this type of program, but the wedding is just making everything weird.
Ende
Well, I think that’s everything. Pretty busy schedule, so I’ve probably left something out. If I’ve offended you, or you just want to make fun of me, by all means comment below.
Anyway this week was my first real week in Germany and with it comes the Denglish. Denglish is a not-so-rare speaking disorder that affects German exchange students everywhere, especially ones that had trouble speaking English to begin with. Symptoms include saying things such as “that is genough Erdberries” and putting verbs at the end of sentences for no apparent reason. I am already experiencing early warning signs, which is grave news.
As with last week I continue to make mistakes (have you ever tried to speak German with a fellow who has a pretty thick Portuguese accent? It’s quite difficult) but not so many this time around. I’ll tell you about them in due time along with all the other lovely awkward moments that I have been experiencing (ok, maybe not all of them. For that you need a premium subscription)
By the way, I divided this blog into sections, so that if you find something really boring, you can skip it. Don't feel bad, I would too.
Monschau
On the Sunday the AIB took us to a quaint little village in the Eifel region called Monschau. It looked like something that you’d see on a postcard. Modest little houses, cobblestone streets, small trinket shops, and the remains of a castle that once loomed over the valley made it look like something that you’d only see in pictures, except I was there, I promise. I forgot my camera so you’ll just have to believe me.
Besides walking around, we visited a mustard mill, which was pretty cool. The mustard there is exquisite (forget everything you know about American mustard and try some. It’s awesome). Tip: Stuffed up? Got pressure built up in the sinuses? Try this: stick your head into a mustard mill and take a deep breath through your nose. It really uh . . . does something. They have 18 or 19 different flavors of mustard there. My favorite was the honey mustard and chili mustard, but I didn’t try all of them.
Bob sledding in the summer = fantastic. This is what I love about Germany. You can start a business that involves giving people the opportunity to go down a metal track on a sled with wheels and a brake. You don’t have to worry about getting sued because there wasn’t at least five feet of cushion on either side (or because of a lack of safety at all). It was so much fun. I went down three times, crashed once, and had a blast. The scenery was absolutely beautiful too. Afterwards we hung out at this somewhat dangerous playground which really topped of my experience in Monschau.
Note: There was a barbecue after that in case you were curious. Good food. I met the president of the partnership between Indianapolis and Cologne and got his card, which was pretty cool.
Schule
School is still pretty lame in Germany. I have German classes during the week from 9 till 1. I made it into the advanced class with about seven other people or so, and we do a lot of reading, writing, and grammar. It’s actually a pretty fun class compared to regular high school classes, it’s just that four hours can be pretty long.
Tours
It’s hot here in Germany. I like tours as well as the next guy (especially when they are about German things), but when it’s 35 degrees or hotter I find it really difficult to have a good time. I really didn’t expect for it to be this hot here, it’s ridiculous. Germans never have air conditioning either, so it’s pretty bad.
Anyway we took a couple tours of Bonn. I pretty much know my way around now, although it’s hard to connect names with places. One of the tours was about Bonn’s history. It was originally a Roman city so there are a lot of Roman ruins beneath the soil, but it’s known for being the capital of West Germany during the cold war. It’s a nice not-too-big-but-not-too-small city, which was one of the reasons they chose it. It’s relatively unimportant and they wanted to make sure that when Germany is reunified there would be no question that Berlin should be the capital. Today Deutsche Telecom is probably the biggest company in Bonn. It’s known as T-mobile in America. Famous people that live there include Beethoven and Schumann. Both have their respective house-museums. We visited the Schumann house and will visit the Beethoven house this week.
Other tours include a tour of a fire station cut short by a fire, the Koelner Dom, and a German modern history museum that was really quite interesting. The Koelner Dom is a huge cathedral in Cologne built in 1248 (but it wasn’t finished until the 1800s) in the Gothic style. It’s pretty sweet. Our guide, Hartwig, knew a lot about it, which made it really great. After the tour we went up the 515 steps to the top of one of the towers where one can get a breathtaking view of the city. Of course when you’re in Germany you need to try all of the pastries, so Harwig also took us bakery testing! Delish!
Ok, ok, here’s a good story. Five other people and I had decided to take an earlier train than everyone else because we wanted to head back to Bonn and get ready for the concert (it’s about a 23 minute train ride and we were going to go to a classical concert from the University). Well, the air conditioning in the train was broken, and everyone in the train was dripping with sweat. Longest 24 minutes of my life. Everyone was sweating gallons (or liters here, I suppose). If I had leaned forward, I would have created a small system of lakes at my feet from my chin drippings. When we finally got back we discovered that everyone else in Cologne was delayed because of a fire on the tracks. Oh well, the concert was pretty good, although only six or seven people showed up initially.
Soccer!
Soccer in Germany is like a religion. Everybody gets together at a certain place and time to watch the game, drinking their sacramental beer. Plus, it pretty much gets it’s own holiday too (or at least there are so many people playing hooky that it might as well be). I went to a bar with some friends on monday to watch the Netherlands v. Uruguay game, and then to a beer garden for the Germany v. Spain game. Everybody was really excited for the latter, which made for a fun atmosphere. Not to mention I had a voovoozella to play with. I stuck my horn mouthpiece in it to make some cool sounds. Good idea. Suddenly, after the game, all these Spanish fans came out of the woodworks. They weren’t there before the game, but they were sure around to gloat afterwards (I’m suspicious). Tip: When you choose a random beer to drink because you don’t know any, make sure it’s not a nonalcoholic beer. Those are just. . . awful.
Host Family
My host family is pretty cool. My mom is single lady with two kids, a girl my age who just finished her Abi (like the SAT except harder), and a boy who’s in his early twenties and lives in downtown Bonn. She has a boyfriend who I met once at a barbecue who also has a daughter, but she’s about 13 or 14 maybe. My host brother and sister are half Afghani, I think. I don’t really know much about that yet, but I do know that they have lived with just the mom pretty much all their life. The sister has a boyfriend that I have also met. He’s also my age and is from Portugal, so he’s pretty cool. I think he speaks 4 languages or something like that already, but not English. The only problem with that is his Portuguese accent while speaking German is difficult for me to understand, so overall it’s hard to communicate. That’s nothing new though.
When I hang out with Germans, I’m mostly with my host brother, David, and his friends. They’re all older than me, but it’s fun to do stuff with them. On Saturday we went (my host mom drove us) to the beach on this inlet from the Rhein river. The weather was so hot, it was quite nice to go. David claimed he needed to work on his tan, even though he’s already very dark skinned. I got a nice tan too that day, playing frisbee and sitting in the sun. David’s the type of guy who wears sunglasses and a chain necklace while swimming and then makes fun of himself for it. It’s great. He also wears sunglasses at night.
By the way, the Rhein is a really pretty river. If you ever go to Bonn and want to do something fun for free, go down to the tiny little beach area underneath the Kennedy beach and watch the day disappear. You can even make a fire there in the beach. When I went there was a thunderstorm coming, so I could see the storm across the river flashing, and it would reflect in the water. Cool, but I inevitably got soaked.
My real family is also here in Bonn, which is kinda weird. Matt has lived here for almost a year already, and it’s the nearest we have lived to each other, if you don’t count him visiting at home. He really is two minutes on the train and a fifteen minute walk from my house, so although I’ve been really busy I can still just meet up with him for breakfast or whatever sometimes. My mom came in on Saturday too, for his wedding in two weeks (in Bremen), kind of unusual for this type of program, but the wedding is just making everything weird.
Ende
Well, I think that’s everything. Pretty busy schedule, so I’ve probably left something out. If I’ve offended you, or you just want to make fun of me, by all means comment below.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Mistakes to avoid in Germany, Week 1
Hello everyone from back home. Get ready for . . . blog post #1! As you know, I love to make mistakes, or at least it seems like it because I make them so often, so today I’ll take you on a tour through my valley of oopses that have defined my experience so far in Germany (or two days of it at least).
Oops #1: Don’t tell your readers that you’re going to talk about Germany when you’re going to talk about Washington DC
DC was overall pretty blah, minus meeting all the people on the program. About 2000 speeches about culture shock, some tours, 2930 speeches about communication. The speeches were pretty repetitive (although necessary). Tours were great, but the best part was the people. We have a pretty diverse group from around the nation. They’re all really cool and smart people that are excited about going to Germany. Some have taken a lot of German or been there before, some have taken absolutely none, and some are in between. Some people speak fluent Spanish as well, which I thought was interesting. Anyway, great group of people.
Oops #2: When you’re invited to go swimming with your host brother, go even though you’ve only just arrived and haven’t gotten any sleep in the past two days.
When I got to Germany my host mom was at work, so I couldn’t be picked up until five, but my host brother dropped by and said he could take me swimming instead (it’s really hot here). But I said I was tired and I just went to another person’s house until she could pick me up. Well, I was basically just sitting watching German trash TV trying to stay awake for three hours while I was really warm until she came and I thought, “Darn, swimming would be so nice right now.” Oh well.
Oops #2: When your host mom says to you in an email that there is a 22 year old boy that lives away from home, a 19 year old girl who will be traveling, and a 13 year old boy, make sure all of them are people.
So I bought gifts for this host family and my future one that is still to be determined. Turns out I only needed a gift for my host mom because the 13 year old boy was actually a dog. I guess the frisbee would still have worked, but he’s too small anyway and pretty old , although you can’t tell. Oh well.
Oops #3: When you are running low on sleep and jet lagged, alcohol does not help. (even when you’re not really)
Friday evening I went to a barbecue with some neighbors and had some awesome food. I spoke German the whole time and did alright at first. Then the beer and wurst set in and I got super tired. Alcohol is part of the culture here, so we’re not discouraged to drink and my host mom insisted. It was 50 percent grapefruit juice, so it tasted really good and didn’t really have much alcohol in it, but still that combined with delicious weisswurst and polish wurst put me in a coma at about nine and my German deteriorated until then. Oh well.
Oops #4: When you go out for a morning stroll, make sure you know how to get back into the apartment.
My host mom was gone for the morning, so I went for a stroll around Tannenbusch. Tannenbusch is the area in which I live about ten minutes by train to the northwest of downtown Bonn. Over 100 different nationalities are represented in this area, which makes it a very interesting place. (the neighbors that had the barbecue were Polish) I found the train station there and met up with my brother Matt since he’s living in Bonn as well, and we talked while I showed him where I lived (about 5 to 10 minutes from the station). When Matt left I tried to get back into the apartment and I found that the door knob did not turn. Turns out that the key not only unlocks the door but opens it as well. Well, I didn’t know that and kept on trying unlock the door and turn the useless doorknob. Eventually I had the kids next door show me how it’s done. Oh well.
Not Oops: German soccer games are awesome. Especially in Germany. And Especially when they beat Argentina 4-0.
I went to a public viewing with some people from the program on the Rhein. It was crazy. People had been drinking since 1:00, the numbers ran in the 10,000s, and they cheered, sang, and yelled throughout the afternoon game. Every time there was a goal the crowd went crazy, and there were four goals. On the way home people honked they’re horns all the way home and yelled out the window. It was different than anything I have ever seen. Oh, and 50 cent pizza is pretty cool too.
Tschüss,
Skez
Oops #1: Don’t tell your readers that you’re going to talk about Germany when you’re going to talk about Washington DC
DC was overall pretty blah, minus meeting all the people on the program. About 2000 speeches about culture shock, some tours, 2930 speeches about communication. The speeches were pretty repetitive (although necessary). Tours were great, but the best part was the people. We have a pretty diverse group from around the nation. They’re all really cool and smart people that are excited about going to Germany. Some have taken a lot of German or been there before, some have taken absolutely none, and some are in between. Some people speak fluent Spanish as well, which I thought was interesting. Anyway, great group of people.
Oops #2: When you’re invited to go swimming with your host brother, go even though you’ve only just arrived and haven’t gotten any sleep in the past two days.
When I got to Germany my host mom was at work, so I couldn’t be picked up until five, but my host brother dropped by and said he could take me swimming instead (it’s really hot here). But I said I was tired and I just went to another person’s house until she could pick me up. Well, I was basically just sitting watching German trash TV trying to stay awake for three hours while I was really warm until she came and I thought, “Darn, swimming would be so nice right now.” Oh well.
Oops #2: When your host mom says to you in an email that there is a 22 year old boy that lives away from home, a 19 year old girl who will be traveling, and a 13 year old boy, make sure all of them are people.
So I bought gifts for this host family and my future one that is still to be determined. Turns out I only needed a gift for my host mom because the 13 year old boy was actually a dog. I guess the frisbee would still have worked, but he’s too small anyway and pretty old , although you can’t tell. Oh well.
Oops #3: When you are running low on sleep and jet lagged, alcohol does not help. (even when you’re not really)
Friday evening I went to a barbecue with some neighbors and had some awesome food. I spoke German the whole time and did alright at first. Then the beer and wurst set in and I got super tired. Alcohol is part of the culture here, so we’re not discouraged to drink and my host mom insisted. It was 50 percent grapefruit juice, so it tasted really good and didn’t really have much alcohol in it, but still that combined with delicious weisswurst and polish wurst put me in a coma at about nine and my German deteriorated until then. Oh well.
Oops #4: When you go out for a morning stroll, make sure you know how to get back into the apartment.
My host mom was gone for the morning, so I went for a stroll around Tannenbusch. Tannenbusch is the area in which I live about ten minutes by train to the northwest of downtown Bonn. Over 100 different nationalities are represented in this area, which makes it a very interesting place. (the neighbors that had the barbecue were Polish) I found the train station there and met up with my brother Matt since he’s living in Bonn as well, and we talked while I showed him where I lived (about 5 to 10 minutes from the station). When Matt left I tried to get back into the apartment and I found that the door knob did not turn. Turns out that the key not only unlocks the door but opens it as well. Well, I didn’t know that and kept on trying unlock the door and turn the useless doorknob. Eventually I had the kids next door show me how it’s done. Oh well.
Not Oops: German soccer games are awesome. Especially in Germany. And Especially when they beat Argentina 4-0.
I went to a public viewing with some people from the program on the Rhein. It was crazy. People had been drinking since 1:00, the numbers ran in the 10,000s, and they cheered, sang, and yelled throughout the afternoon game. Every time there was a goal the crowd went crazy, and there were four goals. On the way home people honked they’re horns all the way home and yelled out the window. It was different than anything I have ever seen. Oh, and 50 cent pizza is pretty cool too.
Tschüss,
Skez
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