Weekly Post #21

 Hey everybody!

I hope you all enjoyed Christmas. To all of my friends in college, I hope you guys are safely home enjoying your time with your families. The Packers winning against the Lions yesterday was a late Christmas present for all of us Wisconsin fans. To my Lion fan friends, sorry 'bout that (hihi).

22. December 2014:

Monday was my first official day of my two week Christmas vacation. I felt almost back to normal from my cold thanks to the anti-biotics. What did I do my first day of break? College work of course. I don't mind though, now that I know exactly what my plan is. If I went to college last year I wouldn't have been happy going to UW-Milwaukee, because I wanted to go to University Twin Cities. But I really wouldn't have liked Twin Cities, because it's too big. I would have also studied business, which isn't what I find truely enjoyable. All of this would also have been very expensive. Lesson learned: Do what you love always with an open mind. That night after little Justus was in bed, my mom and I wrapped presents. I have always been the gift bag type of person. All of the sudden I have become the master gift wrapper. Maybe it is the German food.

23. December 2014:

On Tuesday we set up our German Christmas tree. In America normally people have a string of 800 lights or more. When my parents pulled out a box of 21 electric candles, I immediately thought, "The tree is going to be so empty!" My family also has enough ornaments to rotate them every three years. Here we only put on maybe 30 ornaments. Besides a green fir tree, the German and American Christmas trees are completely different. Even though they are very different both are pretty.

24. December 2014:

On Christmas Eve my host uncle, aunt, cousin, mom and I went to the church service. When we came home we ate sauerbraten. It's marinated beef in English, but a very German dish. I thought it was very tastey in the way that it tasted different. After dinner my host cousin distracted Justus with the race track that my dad and I built earlier that day. While they played the rest of us set up the presents around the tree. We spent the rest of the evening talking while Justus played with his new presents.

25. December 2014:

Christmas Day my family went to my host grandparents house. It was a pretty big get together as usual. Although they are getting less overwhelming. I think it really helps to know even the names of the people around me. Everybody seemed really happy, outside of the drama of sharing new toys among the kids. It is still hard to always concentrate on what everybody is saying when they are in a big group. I often take 'brain breaks' while everybody is conversing. It is nothing against anybody, I just do it so I don't run out of energy by the time noon comes along.

26. December 2014:

On Friday my family and I built Justus' lego presents. The age suggestion on the box said 6-12, I firmly believe a 6 year old would not be able to build the police headquarters. Although I did have a bunch of fun putting it together. I can't imagine how cool that job is to create these set ups. Lego has so many specialized pieces to make use of all the tiny nooks and cranies. Later that night family and friends came over to help eat the rest of the gyros we got from Christmas Day dinner. We played several games on the ps3 and race car track. It was such a nice night to close off our Christmas celebrations.

27. December 2014:

On Saturday we stayed home to avoid the throngs of people who would be in the city exchanging their Christmas gifts. Later that night Kristina and Marco came and we played this game called Buzz. It was alright, even though it was a mix of German and world music trivia.

28. December 2014:

On Sunday Kristina and Marco met us at Monkeyland. Monkeyland is a sort of into play park thing. The first thing I tried out was a little sky bike thing. As I got off I fell down the flight of stairs. I wasn't seriously hurt, just bruised all over. But I swear December is trying to kill me. Non-stop colds, and a flight of stairs. Needless to say, I am fed up with it. The Monkeyland got me a bit confused though. From what I have seen Germans are super clean, but these indoor playlands are notorious for being germ infested. Are they just kept super clean?

Thanks for reading!

Sandra

Weekly Post #20

Hey everybody!

So sorry this post is coming a day late, I kept thinking yesterday was saturday. It was just one of those days. Sadly I also don't have much to report on this week either because I was sick again. I have been sick three times in four weeks. I am really done with being sick. I have heard some of the other exchange students are also getting sick more than normal. Hopefully it's not just me. The road to recovery is going fairly quickly, I hope to be better to enjoy all Christmas has to offer here. Thus I do not have much to report on this week. I will report up until sunday because of it.

13. December 2014:

Saturday was my mom's birthday. She also has a twin sister, so we went over to Verana's for lunch. I got to walk their huge dog Leo. Everytime Leo sees me he runs up to me and buries his head in my lap. I took Leo for a walk through the neighborhood. Verana lives in a neighborhood with hills and a bit of farm land. It is really beautiful. It has been raining a lot lately, so the path that I take him on was muddy. Germans have a dislike for dirty shoes. I see dirty shoes as somebody with adventures. I should probably try to keep my shoes more clean in the future. We celebrated my mom's birthday that night in the basement, a ton of people came over. It was fun but that was the day I started getting sick, so I turned in early.

15.+16. Decemeber 2014:

On Monday and Tuesday my brother, mom and I were all sick. We took a huge materess and put it downstairs in the living room. That was really fun and made being sick a bit less terrible. We all went to the doctor and got medicine. Luckily we all had the same cold so we really couldn't get each other any more sick than we already were.

19. December 2014:

On Friday I went to see a doctor again. My cold had progressed. I had no voice and it hurt to talk or eat, I was also not catching our family cat. This would be the first day to my permenant recovery.

20. December 2014:

On Saturday I felt two times less sick than before. Although my voice has not completely returned I can eat and sleep now. Today was also Natalya's birthday. I got to talk with almost my whole family. Kimblerly, Natalya's friend, told me she was replacing me. Kimberly is always keeping things real. I got to talk to my nana and mom too. It was nice to talk to everybody over there too. I guess when I talk with them I start mixing up my words without even knowing it. They pointed one out to me. I would have never known I said it poorly. I think that is so cool. YFU warned us that we would feel more homesick around the holidays. I wouldn't say I feel homesick, but the traditions here are somewhat different than the ones at home. There is no snow on the ground and it is raining all the time. Having a small brother who believes in Santa makes things more tricky because I haven't had to live with that for several years now. But it is Christmas in Dortmund. That night I started to catch Puppi, the cat, again. As I came back into the living room with her my dad said, "She's healthy again!" That's my thing, I am the master cat catcher.

21. December 2014:

On Sunday I felt even better. We went to visit Katja in the evening. When we got home Justus went straight to bed and we were able to wrap his presents. I was never really been a good present wrapper. Im more of a bag person. This year I love to wrap presents. I have no idea where it came from, hopefully my new talent stays.

Merry Christmas

Sandra

Weekly post #19

Hey everybody,

I hope everybody's week was good. I have been kind of slacking on my daily journal entries lately, so this week is going to be spotty. I'm sorry for my laziness I will do better next week.

6. December 2014:

On Saturday my friend Maja came over and we baked sugar cookies together. We put only about half the amount of sugar normal Americans do. Germans tend to not like super sweet food. So we only put in half the amount of sugar. I think they tasted even better with less sugar. Even though both of us aren't very good backers I think we did pretty well, and we had a quality conversation.

7. December 2014:

On Sunday I studied most of the day for my history klausur on Thursday. I am learning that many people take advantage of knowing about tests weeks. Some study for tests a couple weeks before hand. Maybe that's why they say American school is easier than German school.

8. December 2014:

On Monday in my art class many people weren't there because of a klausur. This way I got to make up some time for the weeks I missed. My hand also is turning out pretty well. Maybe I will post a picture of the finished product. I hope it is German quality.

9. December 2014:

Empty

10. December 2014:

On Wednesday I got to sleep in even longer because my German class was canceled. I was able to go to the store with my mom before school. When I got to school there was a meeting about Hochschule. A hochschule is the equivalent of a technical college. As I am looking for my future school I always look through the program to see if there is time for a year abroad. I think it would be really cool, and hopefully doable.

11. December 2014:

On Thursday I had my history klausur. The klausur is sort of like the ones I took with Mrs. Nimmer. We had to analyse a political cartoon. This political cartoon was by a Frenchman, disagreeing with Bismark on how he governed, and interacted with other countries. I didn't think the history klausur was as bad as my English one. I guess we will see how much better my grade is. I had such an early school end day that I was able to buy some Christmas gifts by the Weihnachtsarkt. I think the market is much prettier during the evening, but it is always so crowded you can't do any proper shopping.

12. December 2014:

On Friday my literature class went to a children's play, because we are writing a children's play. The play was called The Three Robbers. I could understand almost all of the play, because it was so simple. I thought it was a sweet play for children. After the play Gina, Lotti, Maja, Sarah, and I went to go get hot beverages. I learned that yellow car is like our punch buggy. If they played punch buggy their arms would be falling off.

Thanks for reading

Sandra

Weekly Post # 18

Hey everybody!

Here is my weekly update. I don't really know what to say for my intro this week, so I'll just jump right into my week.

29. November 2014:

On Saturday my family and I celebrated our own little version of Thanksgiving. In the morning my mama and I went to the market and the grocery store to pick up all the needed ingredients to make cookies and two amazing chickens. The chicken we picked up fresh at the market. They ended up being the tastiest chickens I have ever eaten. We stuffed them with celery, onions, and garlic. I also tried making my families sour cream cookies. But I learned baking soda, and sour cream without anything doesn't really exist in Germany. Two vital things for my recipe. So I made a new type of cookie. I'm not quite sure what it was, but it was good. Marco and Kristina came over to enjoy the wonderful food with us. They also brought up an interesting point while about my German. They said my German is so good that people don't automatically realize that I don't know perfect German. I also want to know more Gran so badly that I don't always say when I don't know something. These two are a deadly combination for a recipe of misunderstanding.

30. November 2014:

On Sunday I studied most of the day for my German klausur. I still don't expect to do to well on this one, but I hope to not be translating the whole time. We also had a much easier book to work with that wasn't in old German. I think that really helps to lessen the work load. I think my reading skills are becoming much better. Looking from some of my first worksheets to the ones now there is definitely an improvement.

1. December 2014:

Monday was my German klausur. I only had two periods to work on it. Even so I was able to work through the first point of the assignment. Whether or not it made sense is another question. I also had to compare my "Hiob" book to Franz Kafka.

2. December 2014:

In my sowi class on Tuesday we had a weekly update. I got to read part of an article about Michael Brown. (No I am not going to talk about Michael Brown here) I read the German parts of the sentence in German with German pronunciation. But when it came to the name I read it out in an American accent. Apparently some people in my class thought it was hilarious how easily I could switch back and forth. There are also now officially only 2 people of my learning course who haven't switched families. I am hearing that the switch rate of families this year is double of what it normally is for Americans (50% this year). My theory is that we are now in the internet age, these exchange students have never lived without the internet. A vast thing that has changed every aspect of how we see the world today. This could give reason to why so many of us just don't fit with the families even though we may on paper. After school my family and I went to the Weihnachtsmarkt. I thought the market was beautiful during the day. During the night its like a magical forest of Christmas. There are lights hanging from the trees, the food smells amazing, and there is a band playing on top of the church. The little stands with hot drinks and stars and village pieces are all dressed up with their own holiday cheer. What I think really makes the whole thing is the band at the top of the church playing carols. So well known throughout the world almost everybody can hum along.

3. December 2014:

On Wednesday I got to have an extra slow morning because my mama and Kristina made Christmas cookies. When I got back we invited our neighbor friends, Verena, her daughter, and Elka to come and bake as well. Verena's other daughter Charleen came over. She had just bought a horse and heard I like horses. She asked me whether I wanted to help take care of the horse with her. Me loving horses if course I said yes. We baked a lebkuchen which is really tasty.

4. December 2014:

On Thursday after school I met up with a group of exchange students in Dortmund with YFU. It was really cool to sometimes just sit back and think, we come from different countries, from all over the world, all with different languages. But we have been brought together to one country, all speaking the same language. If we hadn't all learned German, we would have never been able to speak to each other. I think, as an American with everybody speaking English these days, being able to speak German with other non native German speakers who also don't speak English, alone makes my trip worth every penny.

5. December 2014:

On Friday after school I took a trip to see Charleen's horse. Unfortunately there was an accident while we were there which ended up cutting our time there short. Everybody is all right and recovering now. I learned that I don't get too rattled in emergency situations like the one on Friday. I also learned the number for an ambulance is 112 here. I never really thought about different countries having different emergency numbers. After the stable incident. I went back to my house and there was a soccer game that night. Brossia finally broke their loosing streak to win 1:0. Hopefully they are on the road back to the top. *Fingers crossed*

Thanks for reading!

Sandra

Weekly Post #17

Hey everybody!

I hope y'all had a lovely week and a happy Thanksgiving. My family and I made our own little Thanksgiving this past weekend. I hope everybody ate enough turkey for the year.

22. November 2014:

On Saturday I was still feeling a bit wiped out from my cold, so I laid low.

23. November 2014:

On Sunday my family and I went over to my host grandparents house for the evening. I talked a bit with my host grandma. I talked a lot about graphic design, and how I designed some things for my old robotics team. We also talked about how I found a graphic design program that would allow me to come to Germany for a year to study. I think this talk really helped with some of the homesickness I am starting to feel as the holidays come around.

24. November 2014:

Monday was my first day back after my cold. Everybody seemed really happy to have me back. They were all asking where I was and how I was feeling. Its so nice to know I have so many friends and family here who support and care about me.

25. November 2014:

Tuesday was one of my longer days of school. But I notice I am able to understand a bit more in my classes. Especially my German class. Although I believe Sowi and Erdkunde are going to be the last subjects I really get down. I just found out that Sowi is basically politics. Every other word in my erdkunde class is about 30 letters long which makes everything so much harder to understand. I do find it interesting though that I feel less homesick when I am at school. I believe that is one of the places that is the most different. Maybe it is because I am always concentrating on learning that I don't have time for homesickness.

26. November 2014:

On Wednesday I brought cookies to my history class with Anja and Jasmine. I think my history teacher is really neat. She spent a year in Minnesota. I think because of that we can understand each other a bit more. I found out in my English class I found out I got a 2 (B) on my klausur. I guess I was one of the best in the class. That makes me happy considering it is my native language.

27. November 2014:

In English class on Thursday we also talked about how the adjustment to a new culture and language for immigrants is. It's so crazy to think that I am an immigrant to Germany for a year. My friend, Anita, and I made a bunch of jokes about how we have adjusted. Anita came four years ago. Since I have been here we have talk a lot about transitioning. She has really helped me out a lot. I think because of this one fact we have become so close so quickly. I also had my first full dream in German that night. Unfortunately I don't remember what it was about, but I do remember it was in German. That made my day much better.

28. November 2014:

On Friday I had school as usual. No classes were canceled. After school I ran into the Dortmunder innstadt to get a gift for my friend Lyza. On my way in I met up with Gina and we rode together. When we walked out of the underground station I saw the enormous Weihnachtsmarkt. The markt has completely overtaken the whole Dortmunder innstadt. I have been to the one in Chicago. That one is nothing compared to this markt. I only saw a section of the markt. But they have basically three of everything. If you think of it multiple stands have it. Afterwards I ran back to Mengede for the birthday party for my friends Noah and Lyza. (Noah you made the blog! Congrats!) We went out the Chinese which was pretty good. We were definitely all full by the time we finished eating. I was also able to understand a lot of what everybody was saying and join in in the conversation. Afterwards we went to Patrick's garden. There are these things called garden parks where people can have a garden who live in apartments. I think this is so cool. The park looks always super charming as I ride past. It's also near my house which made it easy to get home. I talked a lot with Jasmine who comes from Afghanistan. I think that's so cool she comes from Afghanistan. I've never met anybody from Afghanistan. I talked a lot with Noah and Tim too. We spoke in English and German. We all joked around a lot and I felt so included. We danced in the garden and hung around in the tent until 12. My friend Tim made sure I got home safe and sound. None of us thought it was safe if I walked home alone in the dark. I am so happy I was invited to the party I really feel like I'm starting to gain some solid close friends.

Thanks for reading!

Sandra

Weekly Post #16

Hey everybody!

This weeks blog post is going to be really short. I was pretty sick for my week, so I didn't do very much outside of trying to get better. Because of that I will only talk about the fun weekend, pre-cold.

15. November 2014:

On saturday I headed out in the morning to catch a train to Warendorf. I planned to spend the weekend in Warendorf celebrating Thanksgiving with a couple of my friends. I started off by visiting my old host family in the afternoon. We were really happy to see eachother again. My little sister, Geva, even looks a bit more grown up, even after just a few months. We played a few games, talked, and ate lunch. I also got to see Leo the cat again. He is as big and cuddly as ever. I guess my family is going to try to host another American exchange student next year. I think that is so cool that they are continuing to help my fellow Americans have an experience like mine. Geva showed me a dance that she created herself. For only a short morning of practice and preperation, it was super creative and really sweet. Later on I said goodbye to my Warendorf host family and headed over to my friend, Lisa's, house. I met with Anna and Meggie there. Unlike a traditional thanksgiving we ended up eating noodles and chowing down on several bags of candy. We watched a movie until 2am and had a slumber party in her living room.

16. November 2014:

The next day we had a late breakfast and then it was time for me to head out. On the way home one of my trains ended up being about 20 minutes late. That seems to be the thing of the train, even though Germans always want to be very punctual, the train always seems to be running just a bit late. This makes me wonder how some people who take the train end up being punctual. Unfortunately for me it was a rainy and cold day, so waiting for the train was no picnic. By the time I got home about an hour and 30 minutes later I could already feel my sore throat coming on. And so began my cold for the week.

Thanks for reading!

Sandra

Weekly Post #15

Hey everybody!

Sorry I'm writing so late again. I got sick again. But hopefully I am now on the road back to being 100% healthy.

8. November 2014:

On Saturday my family went over to my host uncle and aunt's house for my host cousin's birthday party. I talked a lot with my cousin and a family friends daughter. They really helped to make me feel included in what they were doing and saying. I thought that was really cool because I haven't really ever had anybody close to my age at a family celebration.

9. November 2014:

Luckily on Sunday we didn't have anything major planned. We were all exhausted from the weekend celebrations. There was also a Dortmund game on Sunday. Dortmund finally broke their losing streak, only because the other team scored on their own goal. I don't think people see that in professional soccer too often.

10. November 2014:

On Monday I stayed home from school. I worked on college things for most of the day. I really wish I had gotten it out of the way last year. But I realise I probably wouldn't have chosen the right school. I am really realising what is important about college, and I would rather do what makes me happy than what makes more money.

11. November 2014:

On Tuesday school only went until 4th period because of teacher training. I ended up just hanging around my house for the day.

12. November 2014:

On Wednesday I ended up thinking a lot about how I would have to go back to Milwaukee. Even though I have know about coming back the whole time it still seems so unreal. YFU always told us how everything would be really similar to how you left it. People would be leading the same lives, having the same problems, and the same daily schedules. But we will come back from a completely different life with different ways of living. I don't think anybody who doesn't do an exchange can fully realise the weight of this. I don't believe I even fully realise how huge this is. In my history lesson we had a debate about how the German revolution could have effected history. Eventually we started talking about how it could have lead to WWII. At first I really thought I couldn't say anything. But the topic continued, I realised if I wanted to participate in this debate I would eventually have to say something regarding WWII. I got to pull out my Hans and Sophie Scholl history. Always keep in mind that there are Nazis and there are Germans. Two separate groups of people who were in Germany. I asked my classmates whether or not I said anything insensitive at the end of class. They said just that, there are Germans and there are Nazis. Never put the two in the same group.

13. November 2014:

During my canceled English class on Thursday, I got to spend some quality time with my friends Anitia, Jasmine, and Anja. They really helped make me feel included in their little group. I also realised how much stronger the word comfortable is. In German its wohl. I think maybe because Americans say it so often just to be polite. But here when you say wohl you really mean it. Many Pepe believe Germans are mean because they are direct. But I love that part about them. There is no doubting whether or not what they said is genuine. At least not as much as Americans.

14. November 2014:

On Friday in my German class I didn't know the word for exasperated. Nobody around me knew what the word for exasperated was. Eventually the whole class was thinking of a possible word for exasperated. One of my class mates was about to jump over a table to see the word. I thought that was really cool how everybody got into my little word search. I often feel like the baby of the class even though I am the oldest. It seems, especially in this moment, that people love to see how I am learning more and more about their culture. Realistically I am still like a tiny kid because I still don't know all the INs and OUTs of the German culture. After school my friend Anita came over. We ended up talking a ton which was really cool. When it was time for her to go home she asked when the next bus came. I said we could take her home instead, just like everybody does in America. Everybody laughed so hard they were almost on the floor. I stood there super confused. Apparently it is completely acceptable for a friend to go home with the bus. We don't have that many buses in America so that's not as normal.

Thanks for reading!

Sandra

Weekly Post #14

Hey everybody!

Sorry this update is coming so late. I got a bit of a head cold over the weekend that wiped me out through monday. But here I am, better again. It was awesome to see the Packers kick the Bear's butts so bad. Sorry to all of my Bear fan friends out there, it was even painful for us at some points to watch you get beat so bad. In other news Dortmund also finally got another win after a huge losing streak!

1. November 2014:

Saturday was Allerheiligen Tag (All Saints Day). There wasn't anything particularly special about this holiday, outside of all of the shops being closed. I still haven't gotten totally used to this shop thing. All of the shops are usually closed by the time 6:30 rolls around. I have also discovered many of the shops have a lunch break between 1-2:30. I am more of a night owl. This means I usually remember last minute what I need late in the evening. The problem here is that nothing is open in the late evening. The shops are almost never open on sundays either. I believe this year in Germany will help me to not procrastinate so much on those types of things. Luckily the parks are never closed. My mama, Justus, and I met up with Kristina and Marco in one of Dortmund's many parks. Justus and I posed on several tree stumps. At one point I was the Statue of Liberty. Justus is getting to the point now where I think he wants to do what I am doing. When I jump on a stump he jumps on right after me. When I tried scaring geese, he tried to scare them with me. It's like what my sisters used to do with me, but it's much cuter now because I'm older and he is so much younger. Later that day I got to talk to KK and my nana. We had a nice chat for about an hour. When I went downstairs there were a bunch of people watching the Dortmund v. Bayern game. As soon as I walked in Dortmund scored against Bayern. Everybody started cheering and saying that I needed to keep walking into the room so we can score more. After the game several of us ended up playing darts together. I never once ended up winning. I guess my dart mojo only lasted for one night. Although I learned that I throw darts more like they are footballs. Now everybody keeps making jokes about me being an American who likes football and can't play darts because of it. At least I can throw a decent football.

2. November 2014:

Sunday was one of the special days before Christmas where the shops are open for the Christmas sales. Here all of the Christmas sales start right after Halloween because they don't celebrate Thanksgiving as big as we do in America. After I realized it, it seemed pretty obvious. Only Americans really celebrate Thanksgiving, because it's an American holiday. I don't think I will ever go into the innstadt on a sunday like this again. It was absolutely packed, there was no space to really look at things that we could buy. It was also really hard to hear the other talk. Overall it was a good learning experience of when not to go into the innstat. Lived and learned. At least I got to use a gift card.

3. November 2014:

On monday I had my art class again. We got to continue working with our hands on our hands. (haha I hope thats not confusing) I really love working with metal. I've had previous experience working with metal through Nicolet FEAR. It's so interesting to be working with a completely different type of metal. Working with tiny details to make my hand look as realistic as possible. Over all I am not very good at drawing or picturing hands, because of this it makes the whole process a bit harder. I think the hardest part of my hand was forming my little thumb. It wasn't really easy to hold down the wire to get a solid form on it. My thumb is also not exactly realistic or normal. These two things combined made it the hardest part of my hand. But I think I made it look pretty realistic. I started covering my metal frame in newspaper. I think it will turn out pretty well. In my English class we talked about cultural identity. This was really cool because I was able to share a bunch of my knowledge that I learned from YFU about cultural identity. I think I will make a special post to talk more about that. Right after school my mom and I found this swim club which is close to where I live. Unfortunately it's only on wednesdays. I am planning to go this wednesday.

4. November 2014:

Tuesday was probably one of the strangest school days of the week. In my first class, Sowi, our teacher was stuck in traffic for half of the period. We ended up talking among ourselves as we waited for her. In my Geography class our teacher told us what our task was for the day and walked out of the class. We ended up talking for most of that period too. During my double period break my gym teacher came in and told us that she had an urgent meeting and gym was cancled. I got to go home and chill at my house for the rest of the day. Later that evening both my mom and I fell asleep during the Dortmund Champions Leauge game. There are two leauges that Dortmund is currently playing in. Bundesliga is the German leauge where only German teams play against each other. We have been completely terrible in this leauge since about my arrival in Dortmund. There is also the Champions Leauge which Dortmund has been doing decent in. In order to be in the Champions League next year we either need to be in the top four in the Bundesliga, or we need to win the Champions League. Champions Leauge is a bunch of teams from all over Europe who are the best in their own country/regional league.

5. November 2014:

On Wednesday my German class listened to several songs in Yiddish. I learned how easy it could be to learn Yiddish now that I already know a bit of German. I'm also realising how many people acutally believe everybody in America owns a gun. To all of my German readers: we do not all own guns. That is an American stereotype. Although it is also interesting to now see the various ways we support this stereotype. It makes sense why so many people believe we all own guns. That night I got to skype with my best friend Lucinda. We talked a lot about her life at Yale and my life here. It's so nice to know that our friendship has lasted this long and even helped get me to Germany.

6. November 2014:

On thursday I got one of my grades for my English class. I learned that I got a 2+ (B+). I guess one of the biggest things that I need to improve on is making my language more advanced. I think when I speak in English class I shouldn't worry about how much people will understand. Then my English will be much more advanced. I thought that was really funny how that was one of the main points for my speaking in class. Thursday was also my papa's and host cousin's, Jannik, birthday. We all went out to dinner together at a nearby restraunt. I got to show Jannik duolingo to help him learn other languages. I heard from my host aunt that he used it later. I thought that was super cool. Papa also showed them a bit of pinterest. My host cousin and uncle are super crafty so I think they will really enjoy that part of pinterest.

7. November 2014:

In my German class on friday I could understand almost everything that was being discussed about the book "Hiob." This made me so happy. I even wanted to add a few points but I didn't quite have the courage to do that yet. Right after school I rushed home because it was my Papa's birthday party at our house. My moms family all came over for cake and coffee. The afternoon seemlessly blended into the evening with a steady flow of friends and family coming and going. Later in the evening several of us ended up playing darts. I never ended up winning again, but I came close. I used some of the tricks my papa taught me earlier and they seemed to work a bit. I really felt with the group on friday that I was able to understand a lot more of what was being said and what it really meant. I have been having a lot of trouble with that, but I think I am finally starting to break my little egg shell to see what all these words and conversations truely mean.

Thanks for reading!

Sandra

Weekly Post #13

Hey everybody!

I hope everybody had a beautiful trick-or-treat.

25. October 2014:

On saturday my mom, justus, and I spent the day at Kathrine's house (a family friend). We spent the day talking with Kathrine and her daughter, playing games on the wii, and playing with plush donkies. We ended up playing candy crush, which I am again hopelessly addicted to, mario cart, and winter olymics. I can't believe how hard the winter olymics game is, even though it's supposed to be for kids of all ages.

26. October 2014:

On sunday I traveled 2 hours to my old town, Warendorf, to visit a few people from my orientation course. I got to see Anna, Alison, Liam, and Lisa all in one day. I loved seeing these guys again. We didn't end up doing anything because it was a sunday. But I felt like even if it wasn't a sunday we wouldn't have needed to go out and do something. I even think it was better that we didn't do anything, that way we got to chat more. We spent almost the whole time around Alison's dinning room kitchen just talking. Luckily I got to visit on sunday because now Alison and Liam are both at least 3 hours away. I never would have thought I would have become so close with the people in my orientation class so quickly. But I guess when you get several travel nerds in the same room in a different place all for the first time, we can bond pretty quickly. We also ended up playing German sorry. Which, I was told, right before we played that it goes pretty quickly and its much easier than the American sorry. Don't be fooled people. The only difference is you can actually roll your own die. It still takes like 5 hours to finish.

27. October 2014:

On monday I finally got to school on time with the bus. I think I have finally mastered the system of public transit to get me to and from my school. It's a huge relief to know I will not loose my way to school any time soon. I also had my math klausur on monday. I definately thought I was more prepared for this klausur than I actually was. I realised with math how much more in depth the German school system goes on each topic covered. I also believe there is a different method for solving problems, which I have about 45% down. Additionally they use commas instead of periods, and their ones look like an upside down v, which always makes me take a step back to think for a moment. I always have to double check my work just for these two things, because I slip back into my American math ways. I art we also started making our hands out of wire. When we were first given this assignment I thought, "man my teacher is going to take one look and say, 'is that supposed to be a ball of string for a cat to play with?'" I actually really like working with wire. I also think my hand will not turn out as a ball of string.

28. October 2014:

On tuesday I finally got the general concept of one of the texts we read in my geography class. I believe it was about sink holes and land slides. Even though I didn't have to be at school until 3rd hour, during my two free periods I ended up falling asleep on our old new break room couch. I do believe this is the first time I have ever actually fallen asleep in school. After school I ended up playing a lot with Justus. He now even has one of my special plush bears to keep him company at night. In return he gave me one of his plush dalmations, and we made a plan to collect 1 million plush animals together.

29. October 2014:

On wednesday I felt like I could understand a bit more in my classes. The problem now is that it's easier for me to zone out in classes. It is so easy to zone out when you have absolutely no idea of what the class is talking about. But now that I have been theire for a couple of months and can understand a bit more, I need to stop day dreaming. After school my mom and I picked up some gyros before we headed over to the animal center. Today we didn't do battle with 11 cats. Instead I got to cuddle with a couple of tiny little kittens. I never realised that a tiny kitten is a stomach with paws, until I picked one up. One of them kept on mewing, and I couldn't resist but pick him up.

30. October 2014:

On thursday I went with my mom to work, because it was take your kid to work day. My mom works for verizon. Which is all over the world, so of course we got to video conference with some kids in Frankfurt, and in Reading, England. I think that it is so cool that wherever the workers my go, they don't necessarily have to quit their job. They either just change offices, or they work from home. We also got a tour of the huge computer system beneith the actual office. One of the rooms was about the size of the room for the very first computer, but now this room contains a whole system of programs and computers.

31. October 2014:

On friday during my free periods I ended up going into Mengeda with Lottif to pick up some things for Caroline's Halloween Party. I got to borrow Maja's bike for the trip. Let me tell you, America is doing something wrong with our bikes. This bike was a breeze to ride. Maybe if we had bikes like this more people would ride bikes in America. Right after my free periods I had math. By the time math was over my head was spinning, because I felt like I right back at block one with understanding. Luckily that evening I got to go to the party at Caroline's house. It was a nice party. A bunch of people were there from my class. They were all really nice and tried to include me as much as possible. I guess the zombie thing is also a huge thing for people to dress up as. Unfortunately I got a headache and ended up going home early.

Thanks for reading!

Sandra

Weekly Post #12

Hey everybody!

So sorry I'm posting on monday. I was travelling yesterday and one of my trains didn't arrive on time, so I ended up getting home a bit later than I intended. Thus I am writing on monday. Also if you didn't notice the new tab right up top labled "Unedited Pictures" that's new. It's exactly what it says, unedited pictures of my german year. I hope to be adding another edited pictures tab soon. There is no set day for when I upload pictures, because I am not constantly taking pictures. I will always notify you guys through facebook, and in my weekly updates when there is a new album up. Right now there are several albums up, I suggest y'all go check them out. Ok now for the week update.

18. Oktober 2014:

Saturday was a lazy saturday. This gave me a lot of time to think about how much this year is already changing me. Sometimes I get the feeling that I completely don't know myself. But that gives me the chance to totally define myself. Sometimes I really love the feeling of the clean slate. But I have already been here for two months, and I am already feeling my year slipping like water through my open fingers. Thus sometimes I feel so rushed to define certain parts about me before I go back to the familiarity of my old town. I know these things can only come with time, but to us exchange students time can be a double edged sword. After dinner Kristina, Marco, and Katja came over. Marco, who lived in Sweden for a long time, told me all about some of the differences between the Swedish and German education and job systems. He described degrees as very important to being able to earn more money in your job. I think this is very comparable to America. Just between a person with an associates degree and a bachelors degree the pay doubles. In Sweden, he said, the work experience counts more than the actual degree itself.

19. Oktober 2014:

On sunday my family and I went into Hamm (it's not pronounced like Ham its pronounced like hum) to visit the zoo. The zoo was alright, but the cages were too small for the animals in them. At least it was a beautiful day outside spent with my family. The rest of the sunday was a typical lazy sunday before school started again. In the evening we watched the movie The Hunter. I would not recommend this movie to anybody who wants a pick-me-up. It's straight up depressing.

20. Oktober 2014:

Monday was the first day back two school after a glorious two week break. This is also when my bus problems started. Over the break the Mengede bus system completely rearranged itself. Because of this I was 10 minutes late to my literature class. Since then I have missed about 5 buses, and taken about 4 wrong ones. Although I think after a week of trial and error I have almost got down which buses I need to take.

21. Oktober 2014:

Tuesday I had my first 10 hour school day. I had to stay an extra hour longer so I could study for my math klausur. By the time I got home I was completely drained. Needless to say I turned in early on tusday.

22. Oktober 2014:

On wednesday I got my histroy klausur back, unfortunately I completely missunderstood the structure of the essay. I also learned that there is special klausur paper that should only be used for klausurs. That is one of the things I have noticed from my stay here. Everthing has a specific place and job and shouldn't be used for something other than it's specific purpose. So of course on the way home I bought klausur paper because I had my english klausur on thursday. It was also wednesday and I volunteer at the animal center on wednesdays. By the time I was finished picking out my klausur paper it was pouring. By the time I got home I was absolutely soaked, and I only had 30 minutes to change, eat, and bike to the center which was 15 minutes biking. Needless to say I was a bit late. At the animal center we battled with 11 cats to get their medication shots. As far as battling cats goes, it was pretty intense. When I got back home my papa and I went to got and get döners. I don't know how I will live in a dönerless world again. I think I will go into withdraw. I also tried to explain to my papa how our jury duty system works. This was so much harder than I initially expected it to be, which made the conversation really interesting and funny.

23. Oktober 2014:

On thursday I had my english klausur. I was more nervous for my english klausur than my german one. My german klausur was more a feeling of the impending doom of failure, but english made me feel the stress of doing very well because it is my native language. We were given 4 hours to complete the assignment. At first I thought this was plenty of time, but I spent so much time planning and analysing I hardly had enough time for my last point. By the time I was finished I felt like my hand was broken, and I was hoping for a 1 or 2. The scoring system here is on a scale of 1-5. 1=A 2=B...and so on until 5=F. After school we went to my host aunt's, Verana, house. I got to play with the baby and Leo, the dog. As soon as I walked in the door Leo was there begging for me to pet him.

24. Oktober 2014:

On friday I took my two free periods to study for my math klausur with the help of my friend Lotti. By the time my math class actuall came around I was brain dead. I thought I was pretty prepared for my math klausur on monday. The funny thing about this klausure is that I learned some of these things when I was in the 11th class. But we only learned the first thing that my class here learned. I think this is the main reason why german school is harder than english school. They go so much more in depth than American schools. In art we were looking at the sculpture of the people by the dont walk sign. This is the first thing I volunteered to comment on in my whole time here yet. I commented that if you stare at the light pole long enough the people look like ghosts. Maybe you guys can see it with the picture I linked up here. That night my mom and I stayed up until 2am just talking and doing chores. I don't mind doing chores here with my mom because I am able to learn so much more and it's a nice bonding moment for us.

Thanks for reading!

Sandra

Weekly Post #11

Hey everybody!

Welcome to the 11th weekly post. I guess it was homcoming this past week. So I would like to do a shout out to my sister KK. Because I wasn't able to tease her about it in person, I get to tease her about going to homecoming with a boy over the webs! Sisterly love there. Anywho I'm here to talk about Dortmund. Also if you have any questions about anything you want answered please put them in the comments.

11. October 2014:

On Saturday my family and I cleaned the house and went grocery shopping at three different stores. Later on Kristina and Marco came over and I learned a new card came and taught a card game. I taught them how to play spoons. Unfortuntately I realised the card deck we were using only had ace, face cards, and number cards from 10-7. But I also learned a game called 31 which is like black jack with a bit of a twist. Playing these games made me think back to the time we did the card game simulation in the PDO in chicago, which I thought was really cool.

12. October 2014:

On Sunday my family, Marco, and Kristina, and I went to Fort Funland in Sauerland. Sauerland is about an hour away with the autobahn. I realized something too about distances with the autobahn here. I realized how fast the German Autobahn is. It is normal to go about 55-80 mph in the USA. In Germany it is normal to go about 100 mph. So even though things may seem super close they are the opposite of the stickers on the sidecar mirrors, things may seem further away than they appear. The drive to Sauerland was absolutely perfect. Sauerland is very comparable to the Kettle Moraine in Wisconsin. Except it is completely covered in fur trees, and has these cute villages living in the giant shadows of these huge hills. That morning before we drove into Sauerland it rained, because it is fall the nights are always colder than the day. Thus fall has many foggy mornings. Combine this fall morning fog with forests of fur trees, huge hills, and quiet villages. It was completely mystical. There were even parts of the autobahn where we couldn't see the road right outside our windows. We got to Fort Funland which is indian and cowboy themed. It was like being dropped into a theme park version of the 1960's The Wild Wild West TV series. There were roller coasters, water coasters, a ferris wheel, and several other entertaining things. We started out with the ferris wheel. The ferris wheel was perfectly placed. Fort Fun is in the middle of a valley, and the ferris wheel was placed at the high point in this valley. When we were at the top we could see a little town below with a hill skyline behind it. After the ferris wheel I got to connect with my former trip to Germany by riding on a Luge type thing. We did several more rides including one of the two water rides. Luckily we didn't get too wet, otherwise the rest of the day would be pretty cold. We took a little break and Justus and I went into a climbing obstacle course play place thing. (Nice description right? But I bet you all know what I am talking about) I used to love these things when I was Justus's age, so I thought, Hey ya it will be loads of fun to follow him around in it. I am like 3x as big as I was at the age of 4 and not close to being as flexable. Needless to say Justus was alway about two floor holes ahead of me. After our break there was a train show. It was mainly for littler kids, and was hard for me to follow along. But I got the gist of what was going on. The classic story of a gang of robbers run in with the sheriff. Of course in the end the sheriff won. I thought it was pretty cute for the kids. As we were getting to the end of our day Marco and I went on this flying ride. It was where they strap you into this hanglider which is hooked up to a line between two trees a good distance away. The waiting up to the ride was nerve racking, but the ride was, as Marco put it, a scene out of a 007 movie. At the very end of the day we all tried the last water ride, which was right by the exit. Thus we figured we might get a bit wet. From what we saw from people getting off, our pants would get a bit damp. But beyond that nothing major would happen. Unfortunately that wasn't the case for papa. Just as we came around the last bend of the ride we all saw it. This decent wave that was heading right for the opening of our tube thingy. But there was nothing any of us could do, because of this papa got completely soaked through. Luckily it was the last ride of the day and we immediately headed home after that.

13. October 2014:

On Monday Anna and Liam from my class in Warendorf came to visit. We went into the innstadt and ate lunch at Vapiano. I highly recommend Vapiano to anybody who wants homemake pasta, pizza, or salad. It's very tasty. It was so nice to be able to see them again and be able to share advice and talk about our experiences here. Shamefully we spoke English for most of the time, but we haven't gotten to the level where we can't talk super in detail in German. I really noticed how much of a Wisconsin accent I have while they were here. My mama also told me how funny and different I sounded when I spoke english with Liam and Anna versus when I speak English with my family. I haven't gotten to the point yet where I know where to put my inflections in German as I do with English. When I speak English with my family I also leave some out to make it more understandable. We also ended up playing 2 hours of the Bubber Ducky 2 demo game. For anybody who is interested it is a super hilarious game.

14. October 2014:

On Tuesday Anna, Liam, and I planned on going out and doing something, but we ended up staying at my house and talking. I didn't even care what we did it was just so nice to talk with them again. After they had left mama, Justus, and I went to play a game of scrabble by Katja. Afterwards I went over to my friend, Maja's, house to watch the movie Soul Surfer. I never knew they made the story of the girl who got her arm bitten off by a shark into a movie.

15. October 2014:

Wednesday was a really laid back day.I ended up watching cartoons in german for most of the day until 3 when I went to go volunteer at the animal center. I became friends with a couple of the dogs. One of them, Gini, a little fluffy white dog with pointy ears, climbed into my lap and buried his head so I could pet him. I also learned that people here need to have a class and license to be able to be a dog walker. I think that is pretty intense.

16. October 2014:

On Thursday my friend Mathilda from France who is also in Dortmund with YFU came to visit. We played some card games and PS3 games. Justus loved watching us play the PS3 games, he would go around the living room chanting the name of which of us he wanted to win. I think its so strange that she lives only several hours away by car, yet her parents can't come to visit her, and she can't go to France with her class for a day trip. Living in America going anywhere in Europe is a huge deal, but here it seems like it's something like going up north for the weekend.

17. October 2014:

On Friday Maja and I took the train into Dortmund to go shopping. I have been hearing that the train workers are going on a strike for more benefits and higher wages. Because of this strike some trains just never show up. This is a big problem for people who use trains to go to work. If your train never comes and you are late for work you are the one who gets in trouble. This also provides a problem for the autobahn. The autobahn is fuller during rush hour which could also make people late for work and cause them the same problem. I don't think I agree with this part of German punctuality. To me it seems unfair. While we were shopping I learned more about the stores and where the best deals for which items where, and which items you shouldn't buy at certain stores.

Thanks for reading!

Sandra

Weekly Post #10

Hey everybody!

I hope everybody had a nice week and a sunny weekend. I have been on fall holiday for the past week so I did a bit more than usual this week.

4. October 2014:

On Saturday I met up with my friend Maja to go take care of her horse. We rode our bikes about fifteen minutes away from my house. The area surrounding the stable is just outside of my neighborhood which is pretty busy with a fast rode and a canal. Even though it is really busy around the stable, it feels like they are on a completely different conitnent. Everything is so peaceful and quiet at the stables. There is a bunch of farm land, and forests surrounding the area. The rolling plain is also dotted with cute country homes with horses and cows of their own. Maja told me her stable holds about 100 horses. We took a friends horse out for a walk on the country dirt road because hers was already in the pasture. It was so funny. The horse kept walking right behind us and nudging Maja in the back and trying to eat her hair.

5. October 2014:

Sunday was a lazy sunday. We didn't do very much. Especially because my papa and I planned to go to Amsterdam early the next day.

6. October 2014:

On Monday my papa and I set out for Amsterdam at about 7 am. We drove on the autobahn for about 2 hours. The distance between Amsterdam and Dotmund is roughly the distance between Milwaukee and Madison, or Milwaukee and Chicago. We crossed the boarder into the Netherlands and switched to a Dutch radio. Dutch in my opinion is a silly and frustrating language. It is silly because it sounds like the Dutch are tripping over their tounges every other sentence. It really reminds me of the Sims PC games I used to play. It is also frustrating for me because it is a mix of German and English. Both of which I know a decent amount of. Even though I should be able to understand both, I couldn't understand a single sentence of Dutch. I would hear a word in English, and then the next one in German. But to make a comprehensive sentence out of it is impossible. When we first got there we took a boat tour of the city. I learned so much about Amsterdam. I learned that the foundation of the houses is set on top of slowly rotting piles of wood. Because of this the houses are slowly tipping over. I also learned many of the houses aren't as big as they seem. Many merchants who, in days of old, built these houses, made them lean forward on purpose. On the insides they would also place mirrors in certain spots to make the room seem bigger. Back then there was also no house number system, so many of these houses have stone carvings over the door to represent, the family, occupation, or defining aspect of who lived there. There is also one building that especially stands out from the rest of architectural theme of Amsterdam: the opera house. When the opera house was being built, many people thought it was hiddeous and not appropriate for Amsterdam architecture. Due to this they named it the stopera. It is still called The Stopera today, even though people don't hate it as much anymore. For lunch I had a huge plate sized pancake with gouda cheese and bacon. Sounds strange right? I thought so too, that's why I ordered it. It is actually really good. I ate almost the whole thing. It was so big I couldn't finish it though. I have also noticed that too. In Germany and Amsterdam, whenever there is anything left on your plate the waitor or waitress asks immediately if you didn't like your meal. I don't ever remember that happening in restraunts in the US. Papa and I wandered around the streets that crossed nine of the Amsterdam bridges. We also went to a flower market which was a perfect spot to get perfect Amsterdam thingamajigs. I also decided to start a flag collection of every city I have been. Afterwards we visited the Rembrandt House. Rembrandt is the Netherland's most famous and beloved artist. He painted, taught, and sold pictures, from himself, friends, and apprentices. Rembrandt also used his house to do all of that. He built his house for an insanely high amount of money, which later made him go bankrupt. He had special rooms just for art dealing, and about 3 of the rooms were completely covered in paintings from various artists. After the Rembrandt House Papa and I went to a hidden garden. If I had been alone or with another American, we would have wandered around for hours trying to find the entrance to this secret garden. The garden is hidden behind a door, which looks exactly like a door which should lead to a house. The only thing that is different is a small gold plaque with open hours. I thought this was the coolest thing ever. The garden/courtyard was surrounded by houses which are still occupied. It has a couple of religious statues and a small church. By the time we got finished looking around the garden, and grabbing a tiny snack, Amsterdam was getting dark and its lights were turing on. Amsterdam, in my opinion is 2x as beatiful at night than it is during the day. Centraal station is right across the square from a large church which are both lit up so perfectly. On the way home I learned a lot about all the different signs that can be found on the German roads. I learned about the no passing sign, speed limit  (or no limit) signs, and different highway numbers and directions. All in all I can say I understand German traffic much better now.

7. October 2014:

On Tuesday mama and I went grocery shopping. We went to the Kaufland. Kaufland is like a Woodman's or Costco gone European. It has shopping carts like at the Aldi which need a chip in order to be taken. There are also almost all German brand of foods. Even though it is comparable to a Woodman's or Costco, it is about the size of a Pick 'N Save. Later on we visited an animal shelter in the next town over. I plan to work there every wednesday for a few hours. The people there seem really nice, and there are no reptiles. Later on I went to the dance club, MOOG, with a bunch of friends. Unfortunately we left early because everybody was packed into a tiny space.

8. October 2014:

On Wednesday I volunteered at the animal center from 3-6. I observed mostly, as the vet went around taking care of sick cats, newborn kittens, dogs, and bunnies. I even got to name a new stray cat, Luna. Another one who was found earlier was named after me. That night Justus taught me all about dinosaurs, from one of his dinosaur books. He knows quite a lot about dinosaurs, even more than I ever learned in school. Maybe he will be an archiologist one day. I also realised I can't even imagine how hard it is going to be leaving my family in July. I don't know if I will be able to do it.

9. October 2014:

On Thursday Katja, Thorstun, and Verena came over to play my favorite board game, Scotland Yard. We also had burgers for dinner that night. I guess it isn't common to eat burgers with barbacue sauce in Dortmund. In all honsesty as well, the burgers here that we ate didn't taste mind blowingly different from the ones that you would eat back in Wisconsin.

10. October 2014:

On Friday Papa and I went to Köln for the day. It was about a two hour ride via train to Köln. As soon as we stepped out of the train station we were in the massive shadow of The Kölner Dom. The Dom is so big, its shadow could probably cover the whole surface of the city of Köln when laid flat. Any appartment with a tiny view of The Dom immediately pays €100 more. The Kölner Dom is so big even standing all the way on the other side of the huge plaza, I couldn't fit it all on one picture. The Dom has been built up from the ground since 1248, and it isn't finished. It needs to be consistantly repaired because it is mostly stone, and rediculously old. The outside is almost nothing compared to the inside. Even though The Dom is so tall, it only has two levels, plus a basement. The inside of The Dom is so big it could hold three services at one time. There are beautiful statues, and paintings of angles, saints, and The Madonna on every wall and in every corner. There are also magnificent stone and marble coffins with the bones of past bishops, in a gated area behind the actual sanctuary. So many times I caught myself just walking around staring at the ceiling and enormous stain glass windows, that I forgot to look down at the mosaic stories on the floor. Papa and I walked the 504 tiny circular tower steps to the very top of The Dom. Once you get to the top you are completely done with steps forever, but the view completely makes up for that. To the left lays the Rhein. Right next to the Rhein is the old city of Köln, which runs a circle around The Dom. Beyond that is the rest of Köln. The Dom also has a treasure room benieth the whole church. This treasure room has so much gold and other ancient items, it could have dug America out of The Great Depression with money left over. In the treasure room there are also discovered remaining parts of the ancient Roman Wall. I think this is so cool. It's literally history built on history, like the layers of a tree. Afterwards we went to the Rhein. The Rhein is really like any other river, its made of water, it's really fast, and it's quiet big. The only thing that seperates it from any other are all the stories and poems behind it. Unfortunately those aren't written in the waves of the river. On the river also lays the Chocolate Factory. I read about this one German guy in history who believed chocolate was the cure for almost all. He believed it could cure colds, stress, and many other things. If only that were completely true, I would eat chocolate all day everyday. We also got to see chocolate being made. The process was so clean, at first I couldn't believe it was the real process. There was also a chocolate waterfall that we got to taste a bit of chocolate from. In the level above there was an artist who painted actual pictures, just with chocolate. How cool would that be for a job? Oh ya I paint with chocolate for a living...You could never say you hate your job. On friday I also learned it is quiet common for Germans to date for several years before getting married. It is also considered relatively fast to get engaged after one year of dating. I thought that was really interesting to see how big the differences can be in the little things.

Thanks for reading!

Sandra

Weekly Post #9

Hey Everybody!

Welcome to the 9th weekly blog update. I hope you all had a nice week and weekend.

27. September 2014:

On Saturday my papa and I went into town to watch the Brossia game v. Schalka at an American pub/restraunt thingy. It was called route 99 which confused me because it's usually route 66 everybody talks about. Whatever I just rolled with that one. It was also really funny because in America we always have these Irish or German pubs, but in Germany they have American pubs. All of the pictures on the walls were either of New York City, California, or the wild wild west. I thought that was also pretty interesting to see that there was really no representation of the USA other than what is pictured in major hollywood films. Before the game I took advantage of the beautiful weather to go and take some pictures in the innstadt. To my surprise I found this group of piano players who would roll their piano around the main street and just start playing. I thought the acoustics were really cool because the sound could carry far enough away to catch people's ears. I also liked the way it echoed off all of the stores and the cobble stone even though it wouldn't be good for a paid concert it really added to the feeling in the street. Unfortunately Dortmund lost to Schalke that night so there was a bit of a glum mood in the streets after the game. Schalke is exactly like the packers and bears rivialy in the sense that they live super close together. Afterwards my papa and I met up with one of his friends and his friends son. Together we went through the innstadt until about 12pm for the 15th annual museums night. We went to the Dortmunder U, which is basically just a museum for local culture. We first went to the very top to take pictures of the city. We could see all the way to the area where our house was. It wasn't much to see by our neighborhood because it was just trees, but we could see the huge IKEA warehouse right by our house. My papa told me that IKEA is so big in Germany because it is realatively cheap and because it promotes the 'build it yourself' method. In the lower levels of the U we saw a weird furniture exhibit. Although I must say it was really cool to play on some of the things I have absolutely no idea why they were there and what some of their purposes were. A couple levels lower we saw a Germany world cup exhibit. I even got to hold the world cup trophy. (Not really it was a model, but I made you guys gasp) About a level down we saw a mean clowns exhibit which also super confused me. It confused me because not everything in there was strictly about clowns. There was also a clown laying face down in the middle of the the room. Now in America there would usually be a live person in there who would jump up about every hour to scare the crap out of everybod in the room, but this was was nice enough to be a dummy. Afterwards we walked over to an old part of the old Dortmund wall. There was also a chemistry show that was going on for kids there. We stopped in and it was acutally pretty cool. Even though I didn't understand a ton of it because there was too much background noise the things that he did were pretty cool. He used dry ice at the very end of the show to make foam in a barrel explode which was really cool. Afterwards we learned about how much chainmail weighed back in the day. This made me think about whether or not they would talk about how much our backpacks weigh today when everything is electronic. At the end of the night we went to a laser show which was pretty cool. The first song they played, One Day by Bakermat, was really intresting because there wasn't a ton of American history laid out there, yet they chose to play a song with the I have a Dream speech.

28. September 2014:

On Sunday my family didn't go out to do too much. We attempted to take a nice bike ride, but ended up getting two flats. My mama and I both got a flat. Luckily it was still a beautiful day so it was perfect to walk. Afterwards I was able to have a nice long chat with my bestfriend Lucinda. It was so nice to check in on how college life is going for her.

29. September 2014:

On Monday because of my flat tire I couldn't ride my bike to school. Unfortunately I had also forgotten what time my bus came. Because of this I ended up missing my bus for school. It wasn't as big of a problem as it would have been in America because its public transit and it comes often. I ended up walking about 15 minutes into town to catch a bus from the Mengede Markt. I actually really liked this because it is started to get that fall chill in the air and it smelled really good as I hurried along to the town. After school my YFU rep came to visit me. It is really nice to have somebody who is right in my area to help me with any problem that may pop up. Although it doesn't seem like that will happen any time soon with my family.

30. September 2014:

On Tuesday I almost ended up missing the bus again, but the bus driver was nice enough to stop and wait for me as a sprinted to my bus. I never thought sprinting with a backpack would be so hard. But as you start running it starts swinging uncontrolably until you fall into a nearby bush. That didn't happen to be but I bet it has happened to some poor unfortunate soul. My teacher for gym in the afternoon had a meeting. That meant that she left us on our own to run around. We ended up playing a bit of soccer and talking for most of the time. I didn't mind this because I feel like I really got to know some of my friends better. We are planning to hopefully take a day trip to Dusseldorf over the fall holidays. After school we spent what should be one of the last nice warm days sitting out in our garden talking with neighbors and friends. After the sun had long set my mom and I played scrabble. I used my dictionary this time. My dictionary helped me much more than google translate.

1. October 2014:

On Wednesday my mama, Justus, and I went to a famiy friend's birthday party. I got to feed their bunnies some grass and dandelions for a little while. I totally understand know why Lucinda used to sit at my house for hours feeding each blade of grass to my guinea pigs. I did the exact same thing with these adorable bunnies. I think sometime in the near future I will start volunteering at an animal shelter. On wednesday night as well I had my first dream in German. I asked why this one person's face looked different, first in English, but they didn't understand. Then I repeated the question in German. Even as I was dreaming I remember realising how cool it was. Outside of that one sentence I don't remember anything.

2. October 2014:

Thursday was my last day before the beginning of my TWO WEEK fall holiday. I was done with school at noon. My mama picked me up from school to go get our hair braided for Oktoberfest that night. I probably had about 50 bobby pins in my hair. But it was totally worth it. Our neighbor friends came over, and my host uncle wore lederhosen that matched perfectly with my dirndl. We met up with our family friends, Cam, Michael, Marco, and Christina there as well. We also ran into some of my papa's coworkers. They were all really friendly and interested in what life is like in America. I later on found out that nobody had ever been to Oktoberfest before, and they all dressed up and went just for me. I really love that they did that, it makes me feel so loved and I hope I can make it up to you guys one day.

3. October 2014:

On Friday my host aunt and host cousins came over with their dog. They ended up playing in the back yard with Justus as my papa and our neighbor repaired my flat tire. Later on in the night I read to Justus. I think this a really good way to improved my reading skills. Know that I have become better in speaking and hearing, I definately feel like my reading skills are lacking. I also found a Winnie the Pooh book on his book shelf. Winne the Pooh is spelled Winnie the Puuh here. I remember I learned to read English with Winnie the Puuh books, it only seems right to improve my reading in German with Winnie the Puuh too. That night my papa and I stayed up until 1am finishing a season of Breaking Bad in German. I really believe we are addicted to this show.

Thanks for reading!

Sandra

Weekly Post #8

Hey everybody!

I hope everyone's week was great and their weekend beautiful. I know The Packers killing the bears today made my weekend even better.

20. September 2014:

On Saturday my family celebrated my host granpa's birthday. We spent the day talking with family, eating kuchen, and watching soccer. I learned a bit about the German healthcare system from my mom's brother-in-law. I thought it was also pretty intresting to hear his view, as a doctor, on the American healthcare system. Later on we had a big dinner with everybody. I really feel like I am getting to know everybody much more.

21. September 2014:

On Sunday my dad and I went to the world's most beautiful coal factory. The coal factory is now made into The Ruhr Museum in Essen. As a coal factory I didn't expect much from the world's most beautiful coal factory. I, honestly, was astounded by how pretty a coal factory could be. Because it was a coal factory and now a museum, there was soot all over the place. The thing is, is it's supposed to be there. Because it is a museum people aren't allowed to clean it up because it's authentic. Of course they cleaned up a bit before it became the Ruhr Museum, but there is still a lot of soot. We ended up taking a two hour tour of the factory in german. This was pretty difficult because our tour guide spoke really fast. But I was able to catch enough of the numbers to know that this factory is impressive. I also learned that this particular factory still runs a tiny bit, because, I believe, if it didn't the water being pumped out of the ground would cause half of the city to collapse into marshland.

22. September 2014:

On Monday I had to finally get up for my Liturature class. I rode my bike to school with a few friends. I can definately feel fall coming, as I rode to school my hands and nose froze. In Lit we talked about a play we are going to put on either at the end of the year or semester. (I'm not really sure) English wasn't as rough today because I ended up talking to some new friends in the back corner of our class. I also had my art class on monday. We are talking about photography of people and work. I keep learning new terms for photo in german which is pretty cool. I also learned about this think called Klausur. I had no idea what it was and people were talking about it but I figured whatever would come would come and it wasn't a big deal. Well I guess Klausurs are a big deal. I learned that Klausurs are big tests that, in the last two years of your study, count in your overall grade for the huge Abitur test. I also learned that my first one would be for German. In Old German. Analysing a text in Old German. I also learned that that test was first thing the next morning, and I hadn't even tried to rough my way through the 100 and some page Kabala und Liebe book by Schiller. That night I read that whole book, but it was in English. As I went along each scene I would write a little summary of what happened so I might actually be able to form a coherent essay the next morning. Needless to say that was a rough evening.

23. September 2014:

On Tuesday I had my first Klausur in Old German analysis.We were given three hours two write the klausur. There were two essays we were supposed to write in that time about a page and a half long excerpt of Kabala und Liebe. One of the questions was on how the language was used in this experpt to expose the underlying meaning beneith their words. I took one look at that and knew I was about to spend the whole three hours translating this old german excerpt from old german to german and then into english. I did just that. I never even had a chance to write a thesis to my essay because I translated the whole three hours. The paper that I handed in was completely covered in pencil marks and summaries of what was going on. I hope that the teacher gives me some points for my diligent notes of the excerpt. After my klausur I had about 5 hours at home to just laze around because of free periods and a cancled gym class. I was so thankful for this after my klausur. After the five hours of rest I had 30 minutes of math and then I got to go home again. (Haha right I know 30 minutes of math after 5 hours) But after math was done my dad picked me up and we ended up planning a day trip to Amsterdam in the fall holiday. We looked at all the intresting places to go in Amsterdam and how much we could realistically do in a day. After we had made some of our plans we took advantage of the early fall breeze to go look at the new camper they had recently bought. There were all of these little inventions that the previous owner had built into it that made it so much more handy.

24. September 2014:

On Wednesday in school I had my history class in which we were preparing for our history klausur. We were also finishing off a text that was pretty complicated for everybody else in the class. I tried to explain it in simple terms for them but I had no idea how I could do that. It was a really interesting feeling. I supposed thats how some people feel when they try to explain something so obvious to me. After school I studied and read about the Napoleonic wars and their after math. I felt like I was back in Mrs. Nimmers history class. I really feel like what I learned in that class helped me for this klausur.

25. September 2014:

On Thursday I had my history klausur which was in English. This Klausur couldn't have been more different from my German one. We were still given three hours to write the exam, but I ended up finishing my paper in about 2 hours. I also ended up being a tiny bit late to my klausur because the german e sounds like an a in english and we flipped back and forth between English and German for a bit so I got confused and thought my klausur was in A20. It was in E20. I ended up running up and down about 3 flights of stairs before I finally found the room.

26. September 2014:

On Friday I had my math class. I expected to be confused as ever as I usually was in math class. There are some symbols in math that are used completely different in english math which makes that class really interesting. But on friday I finally deciphered my way through them to find that we are learning something that I learned about two years ago. I ended up teaching my friend next to me. This, I have to say was really refreshing to try to explain something to another person in german instead of trying to decipher it. After school our family friends came over and we played a few rounds of Scotland Yard again. I got to play a round of the bad guy, Mr. X, I made it about half way only to be caught by them at the 12th turn. At least I made it past the 2nd unlike my first attempt to be Mr. X. I even have my new plan for the next time I get to be Mr. X. This is probably my new favorite board game.

Thanks for reading!

Sandra

Weekly Post #7

Hey everybody!

I hope everybody had a nice and sunny weekend! I know it was raining here for most of my weekend but we got by. It is sunday again which means another weekly update!

13. September 2014:

On Saturday my family and I went to the Brossia Dortmund v. Freiburg game in Dortmund. Brossia beat Freiburg 3-1 which was really awesome. I also learned a lot about the Brossia team and statium while I was there. My dad told me that Brossia Dortmund has the largest standing section in all of Europe. He also told me that FIFA hates the fact that they have 25,000 standing spots because it can become really dangerous. Because there are so many standing spot in the statium it makes games so much more available to people who can't afford to pay a huge chunk of money to attend a game. After the game I was completely exhausted because it was so loud with so many people crowded into one place. Afterwards we hung around our house and laid low for the rest of the day. I showed my dad the video of The First Pitch of FEAR and he was really impressed. I think that's something we will have to watch in march.

14. September 2014:

On Sunday I woke up to go to St. David's Evangelical Church in Mengede with my mom. It seemed intressting but I definately need to read more about it. After church it was such a perfect day my dad and I went on a bike tour. We biked through woods and along the Ems cannal. There was a ship graveyard and a historical channel that we mingled around for an hour or so while I snapped pictures all over. It was really intressting, and the weather was so perfect. We saw a steam powered boat, and I got to take pictures of huge anchors. We are thinking about taking a boat tour in the upcoming weekends, I think that would be really cool. We kept biking and my dad told me stories about what we were seeing, and what had changed over the years as he grew up. Overall we probably biked about 70 km that day (~35 miles). When we got home my mom was sitting in the backyard just enjoying the weather with a few of the neighbors. We sat out in our yard for the rest of the day. Friends and neighbors came and went. It was really nice talking with them and enjoying the day. By the time everybody had left the sun had set and the stars were already out. In Milwaukee you can never see the stars because of all the light polution, but in Dortmund they are crystal clear. It is absolutely stunning. We could see the big dipper right above our neighbors house, which was lit up so sweetly. Because I had been taking pictures earlier I kept my camera with me throughout the afternoon. This was too good not to pass up. The picture is probably one of the best I have ever taken. Hopefully I will be able to edit it and put the finishing touches on it soon to show you all.

15. September 2014:

On Monday I got to sleep in because it was Wanderwoche (field trip week). Apparently a ton of teachers can't show up because of all the field trips, because of that many of the classes were cancled. I had English again. This class has gotten to be somewhat stressful because we keep on detail analysing texts from the Raj. In the afternoon my mom and I sat out with a family friend, Katja. She is super sweet and it really helps me to talk with her. Later on in the day my parents and I watched the recorded Packer game against the NY Jets. Of course they only stayed up for the first crappy half so they didn't get to see the amazing second half.

16. September 2014:

On Tuesday I got to sleep in again. In geography my group had to give a presentation on something. I still honestly have no clue what they were talking about. I also didn't know we had to give a presentation until 5 minutes before we presented. Luckily, my text was in English and it was fairly easy to summarize in German. During my two free periods some of my classmates got into a heated argument about religion. I knew almost all of what they were saying, but I didn't say anything because I knew my German would not hold up in that type of environment. Instead I ended up talking to Anita, she moved to Germany from Niger 4 years ago. Before coming to Germany she knew no German, so she has been a huge help to me in guiding me through school. She told me about her home in Niger. Now if you guys know me at all you should know I have a legit phobia for snakes. She told me in her home in Niger that there are snakes everywhere. They come through the door at night and you wake up with them under your pillow, your bed, in your shoes, and all over. The worst part is that they come up through the toilet drains. Needless to say I will never go to Niger. That night Brossia played their first game in The Champions League against London Arsenal. Of course Brossia won 2-0. This was actually amazing because these two teams should acautally be super close, but Brossia shut them out.

17. September 2014:

On Wednesday I got to sleep in because it was my classes turn to take a field trip. We went to a bowling alley somewhere somewhat far away. I love taking public transport here. At the first glance it seems so detailed and hard to understand, but once you know their method of thinking it is so easy to understand. Just like a magic trick. Although it was still really strange because while we were travelling it never really felt like a school trip. None of the teachers travelled or met us on the train anywhere. There was a huge mass of 98 kids navigating their way around a train station during a school day, without a teacher. The acutall bowling event was really normal. There was glow bowling with lights, smoke, and loud music. Just like in America. I am already starting to plan my two week fall holiday, and my christmas holiday. Hopefully I will end up going to Amsterdam for part of my fall holiday, and spend part of my christmas with all of my new family in Warndorf. I would have never planned this far out in America. Before I came I would have never really liked to plan this far out, but I kinda like having more of a solid plan for big things like that.

18. September 2014:

On Thursday I only had two subjects in school. I got to ride my bike to school today with Maja. It was again such a beautiful day there was no way I couldn't ride my bike. In the afternoon Katja came over again and we played a couple rounds of scrabble. Her son also taught me how to make this special kind of braclet. After they went home my mom and I ended staying up until midnight talking about different things. One of them was religion in Germany. I never realized how different it was in Germany. It is manditory to pay taxes to the church in Germany, and children have to attend 15 church services before they are able to get confirmed.

19. September 2014:

On Friday I had to get a box from America which was stuck in customs. Unfortunatley customs was only open from 8-12 and I had to there to sign that the box was for me. There seem to be several places like this which are only open during these hours. I find this really inconvienent and unrealistic, because it is during school and work hours. But I got my box and now I will be warm for the oncoming winter. That evening it was my host cousins birthday. I thought it would be a decent sized birthday with the aunts, uncles, a few cousins, and the grandparents. My moms family is so big they needed a caterer for dinner. I asked my mom and a few other people if there was a family tree they could draw up so I could remember everybody's names. The looked at me and laughed, that is how big this family is. But luckily with that big of a family one of my mom's cousins spent a year in America a few years ago. I ended up talking to her for most of the time about how it was and what she was doing with her life post exchange year. I know that I have only been here for 2 months, but I am already dreading the day I have to leave everybody here. If I already feel it would be hard to say goodbye now, I don't want to know what it will be like when I actually have to say goodbye.

Thanks for reading!

Sandra

Weekly Post #6

Hey Everybody!

Welcome to my 6th weekly post! So I think my new day for updating my posts will be sunday because I always end up doing something on fridays. I hope everybody's week was great and their weekends were sunny and warm!

6. September 2014:

On Saturday I got up early to go to a school/community parade/rally for tolerence. At the rally there was music, gallaries, food, and information stations. It was finally nice outside. In Wisconsin when it is over 70°F everybody is wearing shorts and a tshirt. I was suprised to find out that in Germany they wait until it is about 80°F to wear shorts. I think that is something that in my time here I won't fully get used to. After the rally my family and I went to go get ice cream at a man made lake. I would have never guessed it was a man made lake unless my dad told me so. Apparently it used to be a huge area for mining steel. Now after all of the jobs were moved elsewhere, the lake has become a spot for high priced condos, appartments, and restraunts. By the time we got home my head was pounding from a bad headache. I think it was a combination of it being so suddenly warm and culture shock. After about a half an hour after we got home and sat in quiet it was gone and my mom and I headed off to St. Michaelis Fest in Mengede Markt. While we were there we met some friends, listened to a band, and ate currywurst.

7. September 2014:

On Sunday my parents and I went to Schloss Nordkirchen to attend a YFU gathering. I thought this was really nice because I got to meet a few of the YFU students in my area. We also took my host aunts dog, Leo, with us which I really loved. Leo is a huge Swiss mountain dog like dog with tons of fur. He is the sweetest dog you could ever meet. Needless to say I can't get enough of him. Even after seeing Schloss Nordkirchen while I was in Warendorf, I was still awed by how awesome it is when I saw it the second time. When we got home my dad and I ended up playing FIFA soccer. Needless to say I got my butt kicked both times. One day I will win!

8. September 2014:

Monday has probably been the worst day of my whole time here. I started the day by waking up in complete darkness which isn't fun even in America. In my first class the teacher ended up being sick, so we had a substitute. We did group work, but I was so tired it was really hard to understand what anybody was saying. The fact that the room has no carpet makes peoples voices bounce which made it almost impossible to understand anybody. In English I gave a group presentation on the Raj in India (British occupance of India). I realised during this presentation how much I hesitate now in English to make sure what I am saying is absolutely right. I thought that was pretty cool that, that has transfered over from my German speaking. By the time I got to my Art class I was so tired that it felt like everybody was talking as fast as the squirrel,Twitchy, in Hoodwinked. On top of my whole school day the shoes I bought on friday were just a bit too small for my feet. Needless to say I was not a happy camper when I got into my mom's car. The first think my mom said was that I looked awful when I walked up. She made sure that I got new shoes that night so I wouldn't have the same problem the next day. In the evening we went to a Shuhcenter in Dortmund. After we got home from the shoe store Hannah showed me a PS3 game called Heavy Rain. In the game you play 5 characters, all of whom are trying to find a criminal called, The Oragami Killer. In the end one of the people you play ends up being the Oragami Killer, but you don't know throughout the whole game. It was a really interesting game so we played it for the rest of the evening.

9. September 2014:

Tuesday was amazing compared to monday. I started my day off with Sowi. Sowi is probably my strangest class I have. There is a perfect balance of knowing what is going on vs. not. I feel like I know exactly what is going on, but on the other hand I also feel like I don't know at all what is going on. This is probably my favorite class just because of that feeling. My gym class was definately not as hard as the last one. It even started out with a really funny moment. In the beginning of the class we were walking out to a field and my teacher had an American football in her hand. Of course I got super excited because I though we were going to play football. We started playing and what we ended up playing was nothing like football. I ended up standing in the middle of the field and yelling "was spielen wir?" (what are we playing?). Everybody just stopped and started laughing, I laughed too just because the whole situation was so absurd. After school I made gyros for the first time ever. This was an adventure because I have never even eaten gyros before, additionally I am no cook like Katerina. I ended up eyeing up what a healthy brown should be and I turned out to be right. (Thats right mom I can now make something other than noodles in college!)

10. September 2014:

On Wednesday I got to sleep in because I didn't have a class until 9:30. This was also my first day riding the bus by myself. Unfortunately on Tuesday the bus app was down so we weren't able to really look at the bus routes. Fortunately that morning it was up and running and my dad found a way for me to get to school. But of course between switching buses I missed the one I was supposed to get on. I quickly looked up on my app which bus I should take to get to school on time. Luckily there was a bus about 10 minutes later that would get me to school just on time. I made sure I didn't miss this one and everything went on as according to planned. I got out of school at two o'clock and I decided to take the bus into Mengede Markt to go to the Rossmann's (It's exactly like a German Walgreens without the Pharmacy part). I probably wandered around the store for about 30 minutes just getting myself used to everything and where it was. Although I have to say their shampoo and conditioner section is definatley not friendly to long thick hair. I think I will have to buy two sets of shampoo and conditioner at a time. After dinner my parents and I made sticky notes and posted them all over the kitchen and living room. I talked to a friend from school who moved to Germany 4 years ago and she said that she still struggles with the articles, (there are about 16 different words for THE and A) just like me. She said that it really helps to put sticky notes all over the house so then you can always look at them. I have to say that trick is already working.

11. September 2014:

On Thursday I finally had my second history lesson. I really like my history lessons because it is in English, that way I can get the full meaing of what they are talking about, and it is so interesting to hear about what other cultures though about different moments in history. Right now we are talking about the Napoleonic Wars. It was really amazing to hear about how Prussia, Russia, Austria, and Germany worked so hard against Napoleon. We also talked about how Napoleon was supressing people of all different nations. At the very end we talked about the difference between nations, liberalism, and nationalism. In the after math of Napoleons downfall people's ideas and ways of life changed from the Prussian national thinking to German nationalistic thinking. In complete contrast to my history class my geography teacher sat us down in a computer lab and left for the rest of the lesson. I didn't mind though because I was able to talk with my classmates and practice my german.

12. September 2014:

On Friday I only had Math and German. In German we read a page of Kabala und Liebe and I was so happy that I understood the basic plot of what was going on. Kabala und Liebe is in old german, which in english is exactly like Shakespeare. My German teacher, Herr Koster, also used me as an example of how it is much harder for non native speakers to understand irony, which I thought was super cool. After school my mom, Justus, and I went to a family friends house. I played with the son on their trampoline which was really fun and sweet. We also played several rounds of scrabble. I really love playing scrabble because I get to learn so many new words in German. It was also fun this time because for every word that was put down I would tell everybody what it was in English. After we got back home we ended up watching a soccer game with some friends. I really like doing this because it is a nice way to get to know people better.

Thanks for reading!

Sandra