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