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
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Sunday, September 21, 2014
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
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
Sunday, September 14, 2014
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
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
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Special Post #1
Hey everybody!
This must be a special week because I am posting my first ever Special Post!
I have been hearing a lot about exchange students who do video blogs to accompany their written records of their travels abroad. I would like to start doing a video blog once a month if you guys would all be interested.
The only problem I have with a video blog is what to talk about. I put so much into my written blog that I have no idea what I should talk about or do in a video blog. This is where you all come in! Please if you would all be so kind as to put your ideas in the comments section below, I would love to hear all of them. If you guys also think a video blog is too much please post that in the comments as well.
I look forward to all of your thoughts and ideas!
Thanks for reading!
Sandra
This must be a special week because I am posting my first ever Special Post!
I have been hearing a lot about exchange students who do video blogs to accompany their written records of their travels abroad. I would like to start doing a video blog once a month if you guys would all be interested.
The only problem I have with a video blog is what to talk about. I put so much into my written blog that I have no idea what I should talk about or do in a video blog. This is where you all come in! Please if you would all be so kind as to put your ideas in the comments section below, I would love to hear all of them. If you guys also think a video blog is too much please post that in the comments as well.
I look forward to all of your thoughts and ideas!
Thanks for reading!
Sandra
Monday, September 8, 2014
Weekly Post #5
Hey Everybody!
I hope everybody had a great weekend! The weather was finally warm this weekend in Dortmund, because of that I am writing my weekly blog update a bit late. My mom and dad in America have been telling me that all you guys are contacting them to ask how I am doing and when my next blog update will be. My blog has now over 1200 page views. I am so suprised and touched by everybody who is following me, I never would have believed that my blog would be this viewed in little over a month! Thank you guys for reading my story it means a ton to me!
30. August 2014:
On Saturday my family had to cut down a dying plum tree. Apparently a really bad storm had come threw the area of Nordrhein-Westfalen a few weeks before I came. About half of the tree fell over in that storm, because of this the tree was dying anyway. To describe the tree to you my dad said it perfectly. Because of the weight of the many plums and the lack of nutrients, the tree looked like something out of a horror movie. If we added some smoke at dusk and trew in a terrifiying clown we could have made an independant movie. Instead we decided to cut it down with a friend who was kind enough to help us out. We spent most of the day picking the many plums off of the fallen tree. Several neighbors and friends, neighbors, and family came over to help us out. In the end we had about ten large buckets of plums. Luckily we had all those people come help us out because they were also able to take a bunch of them home. Later on my sister and I went to Parkfest. Parkfest is a music festival in the downtown of Dortmund. Unluckily it had rained just before we went so the whole park was mud. Needless to say the shoes I wore are no longer wearable. Luckily the dj we saw had set up a dance floor. The music that is played on the stations in Germany is so different. It's much more techno and almost no rap is played. There are a couple of songs that come on that are overplayed in America, but a lot of the time its the lesser known songs of famous artists. I love that part of the German radio stations. Anyway, while I was at Parkfest I got to meet a ton of my sisters friends. They were all really nice and included me as much as they could. I really hope I get to know them better in the future. Unfortunatly my culture shock tiredness is starting to settle in (basically I am tired all the time from everything being so different), and I decided to leave at midnight.
31. August 2014:
On Sunday my family ate a late breakfast and headed out to a park to play mini golf. The park was pretty big, they showed me where we would be going to Oktoberfest, and this course up in the trees which looked really cool. Right as we started playing mini golf it started to pour. We tried to wait out of the storm but to no avail. Instead we booked it to the car. Of course five minutes after we got in the car it was sunny and not raining. I think thats ok because it took me five hits to finish the first hole...my little brother did it in two. Instead we ended up playing different games like frisbee golf and archery on the ps3. My mom and I made plaumen kuchen (plum cake suprise suprise!), and we had crepes with plums for dinner. My family also tried the maple syrup I brought from Wisconsin and they loved it. After dinner my dad got my phone to work, he had been tring to get it to work with a SIM card since I arrived. Finally it worked, but I found out that only some American phones work in other countries. Tip for the travellers buy a cheap phone when you get to your country. My mom and I played scrabble after dinner as well. I really like doing this because I can really expand my german vocabulary.
1. September 2014:
Monday was my second official day of school because of the project days. The day started off with a German literature class. It was so crazy because the teacher is exactly like, Mr. Mags, a teacher of mine in America. During the class we talked about what we should write for a play that we have to perform at the end of the year. For homework he told us to memorize a german piece of literature to present to the class. It is a good thing I have so many German poems already memorized. During my 5th and 6th class I had art class. Luckily I found out we are starting off with taking pictures. We had to propose an idea for a picture and go out into the woods and take a picture of it. Afterwards we put the pictures up on a projector and analysed them. One photo we analysed was really frustrating. I totally disagreed with what the teacher was saying but I literally did not know the words to use to voice my opinion. Afterwards I learned that there are special rooms to use your cell phones. The teacher was nice about letting me know what the rules but it still really startled me. The next class I had was German this was the cherry on top of the ice cream. German is probably the hardest class for me to understand because we are analysing a book in old German in really fast german with a very large vocabulary. Needless to say this was a super frustrating day. After school my mom, brother and I went into Mengede's little downtown and got ice cream and school supplies. It really helped me to feel better to get out and about after school. When we got home the weather was so nice that we sat outside. My sister came to stay the night so she could help me with the bus system. We ended up looking at phone cases together on Amazon.
2. September 2014:
Tuesday was a much better day in school than monday. I had Socialwissenshaft (sort of like political sociology I believe) with some of my friends who really helped me to understand what was being taught in the lesson. Geography was really interesting because the teacher came in assigned group work and went back down to the teachers room for another cup of coffee. Although when he did come back he made sure I got the books I had been missing for my other classes. In gym class we had to run 3 miles. It was terrible. All of the german bread I have been eating has added up and I died during gym. Hopefully I find a swim class soon to get me back in shape.
3. September 2014:
On Wednesday I only had 3 out of the 5 sujects I was supposed to. Apparently in Germany sometimes there isn't enough money to pay some teachers every day or they just don't show up without finding a replacement. Consequently I ended up having about 3 periods free. In English we talked about the upcoming march for tolerence. It was very interesting to hear how the Nazis are still active in Germany and how people my age react to them holding parades. After school I gave a presentation with two of my friends who also went abroad. One even lived for a year in Oklahoma. Apparently there are several kids who have done years abroad. I have even met a girl who was in America with YFU last year! Right after school my dad and I went to go take my bike to a shop to get if fixed up. Once it is fixed up I will be able to bike two and from school with my friends. Right before dinner my brother and I ended up having a sword fight on our trampoline. That was pretty funny but I was very carful not to be hit hard or to hit him very hard. At the end of each day I can really feel my culture shock tiredness growing. Hopefully in a month it will be gone or at least not as bad.
4. September 2014:
On Thursday I got to sleep in because my histroy teacher wasn't in school. The school day was pretty mediocre, not extremely hard but not really easy. After school my mom and I went to my aunt's house. She lives in some hilly parts of Dortmund which provide some really amaying views. Next time I go I need to bring my camera along. I ended up playing trucks with my two year old cousin and my mom 2 year old cousin and baby cousin went on a walk around the neighborhood. Afterwards it was such a beautiful day again there was no way we couldn't sit outside. While we were sitting out there I found out Natalya had chosen to learn German over Spanish. Of course I immediately told the rest of my family that she was learning German and we celebrated a little bit. While I was sitting there I realized how much I miss all of my friends I knew in Warendorf and how much a part of my new family they are. As I become closer to my new family I learn how important it is to have family that you chose as your family not from birth. By chosing to go on this trip and living with another family it makes me also think about my American family, and family in general in a completely different light that I can't put into words.
5. September 2014:
On Friday I had Art class again. We talked about people and work, we went around the class discussing our ideas of what we wanted our photo to look like. I think my art teacher was really impressed with my idea/knowledge of photo taking (thanks Medved). I really liked this hour of art because the teacher also took the time to ask me if the class was talking to fast for me to understand. Becuase of that I was able to understand almost all of what was being said in class. During one of my free periods the boys in the 11th class stole one of the couches from the 12th class and put it on the window sill in the 11th class study room. That was really funny because it took a while for the 12th class to find it hidden behind the curtins. After school a couple of my friends and I went into Dortmund's innstatt to eat lunch. I was so happy to finally get my first bubble tea of this trip to Germany. It was so amazing I have missed bubble tea so much. It was also super nice to talk to my friends in a setting that was outside of the classroom where I usually ask them to clarify what was being said. After dinner at my house my parents sister and I played "Scotland Yard." This is my new favorite board game. There is this one guy who is bad and the other three players try to find him throughout London by using taxis, underground, or buses. This was super fun and frustrating because my mom kept using taxis which made it impossible for my dad, sister, and me to figure out where she was. She ended up winning that round. By the time we stopped playing Scotland Yard it was midnight and I figured I would call my family in the US. It was really nice to hear all that they were doing and how the new school year was starting for Katerina and Natalya.
Thanks for reading!
Sandra
I hope everybody had a great weekend! The weather was finally warm this weekend in Dortmund, because of that I am writing my weekly blog update a bit late. My mom and dad in America have been telling me that all you guys are contacting them to ask how I am doing and when my next blog update will be. My blog has now over 1200 page views. I am so suprised and touched by everybody who is following me, I never would have believed that my blog would be this viewed in little over a month! Thank you guys for reading my story it means a ton to me!
30. August 2014:
On Saturday my family had to cut down a dying plum tree. Apparently a really bad storm had come threw the area of Nordrhein-Westfalen a few weeks before I came. About half of the tree fell over in that storm, because of this the tree was dying anyway. To describe the tree to you my dad said it perfectly. Because of the weight of the many plums and the lack of nutrients, the tree looked like something out of a horror movie. If we added some smoke at dusk and trew in a terrifiying clown we could have made an independant movie. Instead we decided to cut it down with a friend who was kind enough to help us out. We spent most of the day picking the many plums off of the fallen tree. Several neighbors and friends, neighbors, and family came over to help us out. In the end we had about ten large buckets of plums. Luckily we had all those people come help us out because they were also able to take a bunch of them home. Later on my sister and I went to Parkfest. Parkfest is a music festival in the downtown of Dortmund. Unluckily it had rained just before we went so the whole park was mud. Needless to say the shoes I wore are no longer wearable. Luckily the dj we saw had set up a dance floor. The music that is played on the stations in Germany is so different. It's much more techno and almost no rap is played. There are a couple of songs that come on that are overplayed in America, but a lot of the time its the lesser known songs of famous artists. I love that part of the German radio stations. Anyway, while I was at Parkfest I got to meet a ton of my sisters friends. They were all really nice and included me as much as they could. I really hope I get to know them better in the future. Unfortunatly my culture shock tiredness is starting to settle in (basically I am tired all the time from everything being so different), and I decided to leave at midnight.
31. August 2014:
On Sunday my family ate a late breakfast and headed out to a park to play mini golf. The park was pretty big, they showed me where we would be going to Oktoberfest, and this course up in the trees which looked really cool. Right as we started playing mini golf it started to pour. We tried to wait out of the storm but to no avail. Instead we booked it to the car. Of course five minutes after we got in the car it was sunny and not raining. I think thats ok because it took me five hits to finish the first hole...my little brother did it in two. Instead we ended up playing different games like frisbee golf and archery on the ps3. My mom and I made plaumen kuchen (plum cake suprise suprise!), and we had crepes with plums for dinner. My family also tried the maple syrup I brought from Wisconsin and they loved it. After dinner my dad got my phone to work, he had been tring to get it to work with a SIM card since I arrived. Finally it worked, but I found out that only some American phones work in other countries. Tip for the travellers buy a cheap phone when you get to your country. My mom and I played scrabble after dinner as well. I really like doing this because I can really expand my german vocabulary.
1. September 2014:
Monday was my second official day of school because of the project days. The day started off with a German literature class. It was so crazy because the teacher is exactly like, Mr. Mags, a teacher of mine in America. During the class we talked about what we should write for a play that we have to perform at the end of the year. For homework he told us to memorize a german piece of literature to present to the class. It is a good thing I have so many German poems already memorized. During my 5th and 6th class I had art class. Luckily I found out we are starting off with taking pictures. We had to propose an idea for a picture and go out into the woods and take a picture of it. Afterwards we put the pictures up on a projector and analysed them. One photo we analysed was really frustrating. I totally disagreed with what the teacher was saying but I literally did not know the words to use to voice my opinion. Afterwards I learned that there are special rooms to use your cell phones. The teacher was nice about letting me know what the rules but it still really startled me. The next class I had was German this was the cherry on top of the ice cream. German is probably the hardest class for me to understand because we are analysing a book in old German in really fast german with a very large vocabulary. Needless to say this was a super frustrating day. After school my mom, brother and I went into Mengede's little downtown and got ice cream and school supplies. It really helped me to feel better to get out and about after school. When we got home the weather was so nice that we sat outside. My sister came to stay the night so she could help me with the bus system. We ended up looking at phone cases together on Amazon.
2. September 2014:
Tuesday was a much better day in school than monday. I had Socialwissenshaft (sort of like political sociology I believe) with some of my friends who really helped me to understand what was being taught in the lesson. Geography was really interesting because the teacher came in assigned group work and went back down to the teachers room for another cup of coffee. Although when he did come back he made sure I got the books I had been missing for my other classes. In gym class we had to run 3 miles. It was terrible. All of the german bread I have been eating has added up and I died during gym. Hopefully I find a swim class soon to get me back in shape.
3. September 2014:
On Wednesday I only had 3 out of the 5 sujects I was supposed to. Apparently in Germany sometimes there isn't enough money to pay some teachers every day or they just don't show up without finding a replacement. Consequently I ended up having about 3 periods free. In English we talked about the upcoming march for tolerence. It was very interesting to hear how the Nazis are still active in Germany and how people my age react to them holding parades. After school I gave a presentation with two of my friends who also went abroad. One even lived for a year in Oklahoma. Apparently there are several kids who have done years abroad. I have even met a girl who was in America with YFU last year! Right after school my dad and I went to go take my bike to a shop to get if fixed up. Once it is fixed up I will be able to bike two and from school with my friends. Right before dinner my brother and I ended up having a sword fight on our trampoline. That was pretty funny but I was very carful not to be hit hard or to hit him very hard. At the end of each day I can really feel my culture shock tiredness growing. Hopefully in a month it will be gone or at least not as bad.
4. September 2014:
On Thursday I got to sleep in because my histroy teacher wasn't in school. The school day was pretty mediocre, not extremely hard but not really easy. After school my mom and I went to my aunt's house. She lives in some hilly parts of Dortmund which provide some really amaying views. Next time I go I need to bring my camera along. I ended up playing trucks with my two year old cousin and my mom 2 year old cousin and baby cousin went on a walk around the neighborhood. Afterwards it was such a beautiful day again there was no way we couldn't sit outside. While we were sitting out there I found out Natalya had chosen to learn German over Spanish. Of course I immediately told the rest of my family that she was learning German and we celebrated a little bit. While I was sitting there I realized how much I miss all of my friends I knew in Warendorf and how much a part of my new family they are. As I become closer to my new family I learn how important it is to have family that you chose as your family not from birth. By chosing to go on this trip and living with another family it makes me also think about my American family, and family in general in a completely different light that I can't put into words.
5. September 2014:
On Friday I had Art class again. We talked about people and work, we went around the class discussing our ideas of what we wanted our photo to look like. I think my art teacher was really impressed with my idea/knowledge of photo taking (thanks Medved). I really liked this hour of art because the teacher also took the time to ask me if the class was talking to fast for me to understand. Becuase of that I was able to understand almost all of what was being said in class. During one of my free periods the boys in the 11th class stole one of the couches from the 12th class and put it on the window sill in the 11th class study room. That was really funny because it took a while for the 12th class to find it hidden behind the curtins. After school a couple of my friends and I went into Dortmund's innstatt to eat lunch. I was so happy to finally get my first bubble tea of this trip to Germany. It was so amazing I have missed bubble tea so much. It was also super nice to talk to my friends in a setting that was outside of the classroom where I usually ask them to clarify what was being said. After dinner at my house my parents sister and I played "Scotland Yard." This is my new favorite board game. There is this one guy who is bad and the other three players try to find him throughout London by using taxis, underground, or buses. This was super fun and frustrating because my mom kept using taxis which made it impossible for my dad, sister, and me to figure out where she was. She ended up winning that round. By the time we stopped playing Scotland Yard it was midnight and I figured I would call my family in the US. It was really nice to hear all that they were doing and how the new school year was starting for Katerina and Natalya.
Thanks for reading!
Sandra
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)