The Beginning of Herbst

Lots has happened since my last post, but I don’t want this to be too long so here are the main events:

School. I’m getting a little better at understanding what’s going on in class. Last week in German I had to read a section of a story out loud. It was a difficult story, even for the Germans, so basically I just sounded out every word since I didn’t know most of them. When I was finished, the whole class clapped for me. It must be funny for them to hear me speak German. The math test that I thought was going to be in English was actually in German, and I’m pretty sure I bombed it. For the biology test, I understood about half of the questions because Chiara’s Opa helped me study the day before. I ended up getting a 5 on it (a 6 is the worst), and I don’t feel that bad about it because two other people in my class got the same grade. And they know German a little better than I do. This week and next week we have Herbstferien (Fall break). I’m going to Munich with my host family on Thursday, and I’m not quite sure what we’re going to do there but it will be cool to see a different part of Germany.

Food. I don’t think I’ve found anything that I haven’t liked. Some of the typical German foods I’ve eaten are schnitzel, currywurst, pretzels, and kuchen. Oh and of course the chocolate and gummi bears. Here in Germany the candy is so much more delicious, I don’t know why.

On Friday after school, I met my AFS friend Astrid (from Norway) in the city. We shopped of course, and ate lunch at Subway because she had never been to one before. By the way, the food is the same there. After I paid for my sub, I grabbed the tray and Astrid looked at me and asked if we were eating at the restaurant because she hadn’t paid to eat there. I was so surprised. Since when do you have to pay extra to eat at the restaurant?! Apparently even McDonald’s charges you for a table. So I put the tray back and just took my sub. Then we found a bench outside where we could eat for free.

I went to the city again on Saturday with a friend from school. I was so proud of myself because I managed to take the right Bahn to the right stop, and then walk to the right place in the city to meet her. We got Chinese food for lunch, then took the bus to the Maschsee, where we were going to go boating. I guess it was too late in the season for boating, so we just sat by the lake for awhile and talked. We went back into the city for ice cream (which is actually gelato). Right when we were about to go home, I got a call from Chiara asking if I wanted to dye my hair with her and two friends. They were somewhere else in the city, so I decided to meet up with them, which required a 20-minute phone call and two different people trying to give me directions. I finally got to the right place and was talked into dying my hair. Here are the before and during pictures (we don’t have any after pictures because Chiara didn’t like how hers turned out):

Helena, me, Chiara

Marleen starting Chiara's hair

In the process of dying Helena's hair

Marleen and Helena doing my hair

Yesterday (Sunday), we went hiking with four other families from the neighborhood. At 9:00 am we took the train to Hameln, a smaller city about a half hour away. We hiked (what seemed like) mountains all day. I was wearing brand new shoes so now I have blisters in addition to sore legs. However, it was nice to get to meet and talk to all of the neighbors. They were all very nice and spoke slowly for me. Once we got to the top of the little mountain, we could see all of the farmland and hills and houses. It was really cool. Then we climbed up a steeper mountain for a really long time, until we reached the top, where there was a little restaurant. I had an order of Pommes (fries), which came with a tiny little fork that I had to use. Also, the little ketchup packet cost an extra 20 cents. Before we left, I climbed up the tower that was a part of the restaurant with my host brother, Luca. The view from there was really pretty too. After walking back down the mountain and finally reaching flat land, we walked for a long time on a path that went through farmland. It was a really quiet area, with houses spread far apart, and was really different than from what I’m used to here in Hannover. We needed to get to the Bahn station, and the path was going the wrong way, so my host dad thought it would be faster to cut through the cornfield. About five of us went with him. We had to walk through three different fields and jump over a muddy stream, and by 5:00 pm we arrived at the station. I could hardly walk because my legs were so sore, but since they don’t go hiking very often I wasn’t the only one.

The kids waiting for the train in the morning

At the very beginning of our hike

Almost to the top of the first little mountain

At the top, on our way to the big mountains, which you can see in the background

Chiara and I at the restaurant on the top of the mountain

View from the tower at the restaurant

Another view

My next post will come after the trip to Munich :)

Lots of Stuff

It’s hard to believe I’ve been in Germany for almost a month already. The days are starting to go by faster as I’m becoming more attuned to my German life. Here are some things that have happened:

Two weekends ago, I went to the Oktoberfest in Hannover. On Friday night we went with the family, and on Saturday night Chiara and I met up with some friends. It was similar to the state fair – food and rides – but it was more centered on beer.

I went to the Hannover Zoo with my family. It’s a really nice zoo – there’s a boat version of the lazy river that runs through it, which was cool because we could see all of the animals and not have to walk around. We also went to the sea lion show, where I just happened to sit next to an American! She’s from Seattle, and her husband is German so they live here sometimes. She was really nice and it was refreshing to have a conversation with someone while actually being able to speak the words I want to say. (Most of my conversations in German consist of having the other person guess what I’m trying to say by asking questions.)

Last week we had really warm weather. What I don’t understand is why I’m the only person who doesn’t wear a jacket and a scarf when it’s like 75˚.

In geography we were studying the U.S. and had many people come to me with questions on the homework. It’s pretty amusing listening to Germans trying to pronounce things like “Illinois”.

Chiara and I saw Jesus on the train, no big deal. There was this man with long hair and a long beard wearing a white cloth dress thing. He was kind of old and skinny and looked like Jesus. Apparently Chiara’s friend has seen him before too so we’re not the only ones.

School is still difficult and boring. In German class I really don’t understand anything, so I read short poems or stories and then write down what I understand. Then Chiara or somebody corrects the grammar and all of my mistakes, which ends up being a lot. Today, I had a biology test. I tried to learn everything last night because I’ve only had biology class once since I’ve been here. Cramming is especially hard in German. Tomorrow I have a math test, which will be hard, but the teacher is nice enough to make an English version for me.

Here in Germany, everyone brings a giant water bottle to school (or Apfel Schorle, which apple juice mixed with sparkling water). I’ve gotten used to drinking sparkling water, but the bottle still explodes every time I open it. I didn’t realize I had the option of having normal water (Stillwasser) until a few days ago. Now I only drink Stillwasser and don’t have to worry about exploding water.

Also, everybody plays soccer here. Not everyone plays on a team, but everyone can play. In gym class last week, we had free time and pretty much the whole class played soccer. I’m definitely in Europe.

I managed to take the train home from school by myself without getting lost. Success.

Last weekend I went to the AFS Late Orientation Camp with 20 other AFSers from all over the world. The place where we stayed was actually like camp – it was in the woods somewhere and we slept in little cabins. We arrived on Friday evening, and left on Sunday around noon. We had workshops where we talked about our expectations for Germany before we left, what we had experienced so far, and what we plan on doing to make the best of our year/semester. There was a lot of free time where we just got to hang out and get to know each other. On Saturday night, we had a bonfire and roasted marshmallows (this was a first time thing for some of the people). However, we didn’t make s’mores. It felt so weird eating just the marshmallow. But I learned the German way of doing it: put gummi bears in the middle. It was surprisingly delicious. After the bonfire, we played ghost in the graveyard, thanks to the other American who was there.
On Sunday we had more workshops and went over more rules. The trip back to Hannover was a half hour ride jam packed in the train with a million people going to the city for the soccer game. I was so exhausted when I got home that afternoon, but unfortunately I did not get to sleep until 4:30 am. A bunch of Chiara’s friends stayed over and we watched like a hundred movies.

Pictures :)

Oktoberfest Hannover!

An intense game of Whack-a-Mole

Chiara, Luca and I on a ride

A typical dinner. Everything is laid out on the table and you can take what you want to put on your bread: butter, cheese, meat, nutella, cream cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, something called Fleischsalat (which translates to meat salad...), and that’s about it.

Sitting around the bonfire: Linda (Finland), Camila, (Uruguay), Megumi (Bolivia), Tatyana (Russia), Guido (Argentina), Danila (Russia), Olga (Poland)

Roasting Marshmallows

Gummi Bear Marshmallows

Pringles and Haribo from my host mom :)

Another bonfire picture: Miguel (Venezuela), Vale (Chile), Camila, Linda, Olga and Megumi

That’s all for now. I will post again when I’ve got something.