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
Monday, October 27, 2014
Sunday, October 19, 2014
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
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
Sunday, October 12, 2014
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
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
Sunday, October 5, 2014
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
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
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