Christmas and Other Things

Well, today is Christmas! Merry Christmachanukwanzaadon to you all!

Christmas in Germany is celebrated on Christmas Eve, with Christmas Dinner and gift-opening taking place in the evening. This means that a) I already opened my presents and got an excellent dinner of cheese fondue and b) It is six in the evening on Christmas Day and I have nothing to do.

My host family chose to celebrate Christmas quite traditionally. This means lots of staying inside and enjoying the holiday with family. Because of this, I got to meet my host sister for the first time, as she came by train from Berlin to visit. Additionally, my host brother is staying with us for a few days as well, meaning that we have quite a full house. So far it's been a laid-back, cozy sort of Christmas. If you know a lot about my parents and I, you might know already that we don't really 'do' traditional Christmases. I actually can't think of one that was spent in my own home. Last year we were in Austin, Texas, staying at a hotel and exploring the city. We spent Christmas morning in a soup kitchen, helping to organize supplies in the back room. The year before, we spent Christmas on a boat in Mexico, which made for by far the warmest Christmas I've ever had. Taking this into account, it's a nice change to sit at home and relax on Christmas (even though by 'home' I mean my current residence in Germany.)

As for a white Christmas, we were briefly tempted by one before it was cruelly yanked away by Mother Nature. We had around four days of snowfall in Roetgen (which is higher elevation than Aachen and the surrounding areas, meaning that I got snow when none of my friends did.) After these beautiful, fleeting days of snow it began to melt off in a slow process that left not a speck of white on the ground for Christmas Eve. Our poor snowman crumpled into a small tuft of slush with a carrot on top. As a Californian I enjoyed my first real snow experience, but I won't miss falling down over and over again while stepping on ice on my way to the bus stop.

To wrap up this mishmash of a blog post, I'll say that I finally was released from school on Thursday afternoon (the day before Christmas Eve Eve) and I will get a full two weeks of vacation, which I am very happy for.

I promise to blog more in the future! I have ideas to write about, I just need to actually put them on (virtual) paper. The fact that my German immersion is ruining my English abilities does not help at all, but I promise to struggle past it and publish a few more posts soon.

My backyard on the first day of snow.

Our Snowman with his proud parents

The Other 'N' Word

Today I'd like to steer this blog into slightly deeper territory, to talk about something that has interested me a lot since I arrived here.

If you haven't guessed it already, the subject for today is Nazism. World War II ended in 1945, but the subject of Nazism and Fascism is still quite prevalent today.

To get started, I'd like to point out the worst thing you could possibly say when talking to a German to the first time. I don't know if the people who say these things believe they're actually funny, or if they just don't have a clue, but I've heard the same story from multiple Germans. That is, upon arriving in the US, they were told things like "Heil Hitler!" or "How are you treating your Jews these days?" or even "How's Hitler doing?" (someone in the world believes that Hitler is still alive... I didn't ask.) This is possibly the most utterly rude thing I could imagine saying, and leads to a downright awful first impression -- both with the speaker themself and the country at large. There's nothing like being greeted with ignorant slurs to sour foreign relations.

Here's the problem: even saying the word 'Nazi' is taboo in Germany. Most every German thinks of WWII as a terrible dark spot in their country's past, and will often intentionally avoid the subject if it can be helped. Imagine, as an American, that you were attacked by a foreigner about certain low points in our own past -- the treatment of the American Indians early in our history, slavery, racial segregation, and so on. Even though you had nothing to do with these atrocities, you might still feel a wave of guilt or anxiety at the thought. This is how Germans feel, which is made a lot harder by the fact that many non-Germans treat the matter flippantly, or even make jokes about it. 

Now of course, this is not to say that no Nazism or Neo-Fascism exists in Germany. Although the country has, for the most part, left the sins of WWII behind them, there are still those who choose to believe in the teachings of Hitler. This is true around the world (we have our own share of Neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers in the US,) but it does seem quite prevalent here in Germany.

One of the most common themes in graffiti (and there is quite a lot of graffiti in this area) is swastikas. They're spray painted on buildings, stuck to signs, and drawn in sharpie on the desks in school. However, I have never seen a swastika that has not been crossed out by a second graffiti artist. For every one Neo-Nazi there is a horde of angry Germans ready to shut them down. In addition to the removal of pro-Nazi street art, there are stickers that read "Gegen Nazis" ('Against Nazis') that have been spread and stuck in just as many places as the swastikas.
There is much, much more to say on the subject (I don't know much about it, but I could still go on for hours,) but I think I'll leave it at that for the day. I might possibly add another post on the subject in the future, as it is quite prevalent and deserves to be discussed.

---For further reading---

"In Germany immediately after World War II, Allied forces and the new German government attempted to prevent the creation of new Nazi movements through a process known as denazification. The West German government had passed strict laws prohibiting Nazis from publicly expressing their beliefs as well as barring them from the political process. Displaying the swastika was an offense punishable by up to one year imprisonment. There was little overt neo-Nazi activity in Europe until the 1960s. However, some former Nazis retained their political beliefs, and passed them down to new generations.

After German reunification in the 1990s, neo-Nazi groups gained more followers, mostly among disaffected teenagers in the former East Germany. These gangs were formed under their dislike of the communist system installed after WWII, then the system collapsed in 1989. Many of the groups that increased their membership this way were new, having arisen amidst the economic collapse and high unemployment in the former East Germany. They have also had an aversion to people from Slavic countries (especially Poland) and people of other national backgrounds who moved from the former West Germany into the former German Democratic Republicafter Germany was reunited. Much of their ideology was similar to Strasserism.

According to the preliminary version of the annual report of Germany's interior intelligence service (Verfassungsschutz) for 2010,^[61] there are currently 25,000 right-wing extremists living in Germany,^[62] including 5,600 neo-Nazis.^[63] Neo-Nazi organizations, related and derivative symbols and Holocaust denial are outlawed in Germany according to the German Criminal Code (Strafgesetzbuch § 86a) and § 130 (public incitement)." 

-- From the Wikipedia article on Neo-Nazism

-- and also This Article on Denazification

((I found this second article quite interesting, and found a lot of new information on post-WWII Germany))

On the window of a local bar

On a street sign near my home

On a trashcan on the way to my school

A Translation of the Newspaper Article

A new life in the country: American Nicole Thompson comes to Roetgen for a year as an exchange student. She is studying hard to quickly learn the German language.

Since 1983, young people from the United States have been offered the opportunity to apply for a scholarship via the Parliamentary Sponsorship Program (PPP) of the German Bundestag, allowing them to study in Germany for one year.  In turn, the U.S. Congress provides young Germans a year of study in America.

To date, some 20,000 students and young professionals between the ages of 15 and 24 have used this exchange program to experience first hand the daily life in the other country, via their stays with host families

Our CDU parliamentary deputy from Alsdorf, Helmut Brand, is also taking part in the PPP, and exchange students have been living with host families in our region since early August.

During the year, Herr Brandt wants to visit every "godchild" in person. In Roetgen he has now met with Nicole Thompson of California. The nearly 18-year-old Nicole is spending her exchange year with host parents Lisa Zellner-Kühnle and Rolf Kühnle.

Before serving as hosts, the Kühnles realized they had extra space in their new house in Roetgen as their own children, 23 and 20 years old, are already off to University. They viewed the thought of hosting an exchange student as a positive, as daughter Hannah had already spent a year in France.  Because of this, and based on the good experiences of friends who’d served as hosts, they recently decided to participate in the PPP program.

Back home in the US, Nicole Thompson has already completed high school and wants to major in International Studies (economy, politics, culture) while in college. Therefore she is especially interested in the study and learning of languages. She has come to Germany without any knowledge of German, so she is temporarily using English to communicate with her host parents, teachers, and classmates in her high-school in Aachen.  There she attends the 12th Grade level, where she enjoys her French class as she is already fluent in the language. However, her German proficiency does not yet allow her to completely follow lessons in more technical subjects such as History or Mathematics. But this should change quickly, since she is attending a twice-weekly German course at the VHS in Aachen.

"This is real work," acknowledges host father Rolf Kühnle, in reference to the syllabus of his protégé.

Nicole is also getting used to life in a small, rural town.  She is from Novato, a town of 52,000 that is situated in the Bay Area, near San Francisco.

According to Nicole: "Particularly on weekends, the restricted bus schedule makes it harder to get around on one’s own”, which also presents the host parents with a challenge, “but it is nevertheless good!”.

In Aachen, her contacts outside the family allow her to socialize, while the Kühnle’s son, David, also looks forward to spending time with his new “sister” while taking her under his wing.

In addition, Lisa Zellner-Kühnle and Rolf Kühnle endeavor to help bring Nicole closer to their host country and people by participating in shared activities. They’ve started this by baking a cake together and are also planning a trip to Berlin, where daughter Hannah resides.

Helmut Brandt has also endeavored to make her feel at home in her new residence. Towards that end, he brought Nicole a gift -- a picture book that details the history of the German Bundestag.

((All credit goes to Ray for the translation. Thank you!!))
Edit: Translation updated.

Meeting with Herr. Brand

I was invited to attend a meeting last Thursday. My host family received a letter about it in German, and gave me a simplified explanation in English. As the original letter was already quite simple, the version I received ran along the lines of "A man from the government wants to meet with us."

That was all I knew.

My host parents arrived at a local restaurant, the location of our meeting, in casual dress and proceeded to find a table for four. My host father mentioned to the waitress that we might need a larger table, as we were meeting with this mysterious Herr Brand, and we were not sure if he was bringing anyone else. The waitress gave him an odd look and said, "Herr Brand? Tonight? He's reserved a table for ten people in the back room." That wasn't all, however. She mentioned that Mr. Brand had stated specifically that there would be members of the press present at our meeting. 

Needless to say, I was starting to worry about the whole evening. I hadn't dressed up at all, and had paid absolutely no attention to my outward appearance, which would soon be plastered on some newspaper for everyone in Germany to see (this, of course, was not true; but I worried about it in any case.)

Herr Brand arrived some time alter with a man who appeared to be his secretary. Both were wearing suits and ties, and graciously shook hands with my host parents and I. They sat down and immediately began asking me questions, in a mixture of German and -when it became apparent that German would not work- broken English. The questions ranged from the simple, "Where are you from? What is San Francisco like?" to the more frightening, "Why haven't you learned German yet?  What do you think of the current German political situation? Didn't you learn -any- German before you came here?" I answered each to the best of my ability, but experienced a jolt of momentary panic each time the man turned to face me. 

About halfway through our meeting another man showed up, followed by a woman who announced herself to be a reporter from the Aachen newspaper. The man was never introduced, and said nothing for the remainder of the meeting, He simply sat in his seat and watched our discussion curiously, then left silently when we were finished.

We concluded the meeting with a picture, some final questions, and the presentation of a rather nice coffee table book to me from Herr. Brand. The book is absolutely huge, and weighs more than twice as much as the laptop I am currently using. It is filled with pictures of Berlin, the German Bundestag and its members, and varied pictures of German history and politics through the ages. It is nice, but it will be an interesting ordeal to bring it home, as I am limited to 50 lbs in my checked luggage. 

The other day my article was run in the Aachen newspaper. I cannot read it completely, but it seems to be about the CBYX/PPP program more than it is about me. The embarrassing part, however, is that -unlike usual local scholarship articles- this one covers half of a page. I have been in a newspaper before, but never with this size of an article. I guess the good part, for my lingering social anxiety, is that I can be assured that almost no one I know will stumble upon it by chance, as I know very few people in the city of Aachen.

To be absolutely fair, the meeting went better than expected, and all seemed to flow smoothly. Herr. Brand and his aides were quite nice, as was the kindly reporter who wished me a good year before returning to write up her article. 

Yeah, I'm kind of a big deal.

Martinstag

Before I start on this post, I'd like to make it absolutely clear that I have no idea what I'm talking about. My host parents told me that there would be a celebration on the 11th of November, and that it had something to do with St. Martin. I knew nothing about St. Martin (a small flaw in my Catholic education,) so I went to the celebration blindly. There is a basic rundown here, if you are really interested in the history behind the celebration. I'd also like to admit that, if you cannot tell, I am writing this blog around nine days too late. I hope to get better at keeping up with my blog in the future.

Around a week before the 11th, my host parents informed me that we would be going to some sort of celebration, something to do with a Saint and a lot of lanterns. I thought this sounded fun - what with being able to learn about German culture and all - so I was really looking forward to it. We showed up at around 4:30 in the afternoon, and found our way to the general start of what would be the Martinstag procession here in Roetgen. Apparently the general set up involves a man on a horse, -dressed as St. Martin (who appears to be a cross between a roman centurion and Santa Claus- a bunch of children with homemade paper lanterns, and a brass band. We walked behind the mounted St. Martin through the Streets of Roetgen as the sun set; surrounded by children who were constantly running back and forth, tripping, and dropping their lanterns. It was all very interesting, but the meaning or purpose to the whole thing was lost on me. Just as I was bemoaning the fact that Germans don't know how to celebrate correctly (fireworks and food, of course,) we ended up at the final point in our journey - the backyard of the local Senior home. We passed a barbecue covered in cooking bratwurst, and stood by the largest bonfire I have ever seen. Whoever was in charge of the procession had found a good deal of scrap wood -mainly wooden shipping pallets- and had piled them about five feet high, thus creating a massive tower of flame that the collected citizenry of Roetgen assembled around. I noted that the ground here is so moist that the bonfire was built on the Senior home lawn, with no fear that the fire would spread away from the original wood pile. In California we would have to use a beach, as just about every other possible surface is highly flammable. In any case, this is where the night ended, and we returned to our cars and to the safety of our climate controlled homes; hiding from the cold German night.

Although I was rather confused about the whole evening, I did really appreciate the beauty of a herd of children, each with a differently colored paper lantern lit from within which seemed to glow more brightly as the night went on. As you can imagine, the fact that I forgot my camera still frustrates me, but I'll insert some pictures I found online to give a sense of what I mean.

The final picture is of a display of Weckmanns -- rolls that are baked specially for Martinstag. They are extra soft and sweet, and perfect to be eaten with jam or nutella. I am told they represent St. Martin, but no one explained the corncob pipe or the jelly hearts that are inserted in some. 

The Netherlands

As previously mentioned, the city of Aachen is positioned almost exactly on the borders of Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. This means that there is very little differentiation between the three in this area. My host Mom, for instance, goes shopping in the Netherlands -- the closest grocery store is in another country.
This also means that it is very easy to go new places for vacation. As my host parents explained, a huge amount of Germans flood into the Netherlands on certain vacation times and holidays. Apparently the two are different enough to make for an exciting trip while still being just around the corner.
We decided to join the rush this year, so my host parents, one of my friends and I piled into the car last Friday and began our three-hour journey to an apartment we had rented on the North Sea. As a Californian, it struck me as bizarre that people would willingly choose to go somewhere colder, windier, and wetter for vacation. My idea of an ideal trip is to somewhere pleasantly warm and calm. However, the trip turned out much better than I could have envisioned.
The apartment itself was the epitome of Dutch architecture -- the first floor was only accessible by a flight of narrow stairs that began at the front door and ended directly at the door of the apartment itself. When you left the house, you had to stand above the door on one of the narrow steps and lean down to the lock, as there was absolutely no room in the stairwell save for the stairs themselves. All the rooms were small, which didn't seem too odd as -as my host parents aptly pointed out- everything in the Netherlands is small. The counters were low, the fridge was minuscule, the steps were too small for normal feet, the ceilings were low... and so on.  The room my friend and I shared was built all the way up into the sloping roof, meaning that one of the beds had only a foot or so of headroom while the other was a little safer (it's rather unpleasant to crack your head on a roof beam after accidentally sitting up on your bed.) Apart from that, it was the usual vacation rental; many of the appliances either did not exist or refused to work. My host parents spent around an hour trying to fix the old-fashioned pull-style toilet, and ended up sticking a cooking pot on top of the mechanism. I didn't ask how that helped.

It was relatively cold, but much warmer than we had anticipated. I bought my winter coat early to aid in my North Sea survival, only to end up lugging it around for most of the trip. The beaches we visited were only as cold as those in Northern California, if not a tad warmer. Although the others thought it was too cold for a beach, I felt perfectly at home. 

Besides going to the beach and generally exploring, we also went shopping a lot as well as trying the local restaurants and food. I don't think I have ever complained about the presence of fried food, but this vacation brought me close. Every single piece of food I ate, apart from our meals at home, was fried. I had fried kibbeling (a local favorite, and rather good for fish and chips), french fries, fried mussels, fried calamari, a fried bratwurst, a fried rice patty, and even a fried banana. By the end of our stay I could have sworn the grease was leaking out of my pores. At home we ate more normally, with the exceptions being local foods that we decided to try. We bought a box of Dutch chocolate sprinkles (to eat on a buttered piece of bread,) lime-flavored yogurt drink (surprisingly good,) and even fat-free chocolate and vanilla swirl-flavored pudding in a carton. I could have sworn it was milk until my host mother glooped some into a bowl for me. We all agreed that, for a fat-free dessert, the pudding was a remarkable success.
And that's about it. We had a nice, relaxed vacation full of beach-going and fried food-eating, and went home early Halloween morning.

Me, riding a cannon on the edge of the North Sea

Food options: Fried or deep fried. This is a combo of mussels, calamari and kibbeling. 

A picture of the beach near our apartment. Unintentionally black and white.

My friend, Phoebe, and my host Father. 

The Dreiländer Punkt

Two days ago my host parents took me to go see the 'Dreiländer Punkt', and we picked up my host brother on the way. The Dreiländer Punkt is the spot at which the borders of Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany intersect. Because of this novelty, a large tourist haven has sprung up to fuel those travelers who want nothing more than to stand on three countries at once while eating french fries. 

This is what the point looks like -- Note: Not my picture

We started the day by climbing to the top of a nearby observation tower -- my host brother and I walked while our parents took the elevator. The climb involved over 200 steps that were both transparent and way to small for human feet. This did nothing to help my phobia of heights. In the end it was worth it, though, because the view from the top is spectacular. You can see for miles in any direction, Germany on one side, Belgium on the other and with a small sliver of the Netherlands widening out int he distance. We chose the perfect day to visit, as the sun was out and it wasn't too cold; meaning that we could see for a huge distance while not freezing to death in the normally unbearable wind.

The Tower

The view -- Germany

After getting a good look at the surrounding countryside we descended again (switching places; we took the elevator while my host parents used the stairs) and waited in line to get french fries. This is, of course, exactly the thing to do when visiting three different countries, one of which invented the french fry. I'm not exactly sure why this is the thing to do, but they were extremely good fries nonetheless. 

If you've never had french fries with curry sauce, I suggest you try it.

That's pretty much all I have to say about that little excursion, except to mention that it was totally worthwhile in my travel geek mindset -- I visited the Netherlands for the first time, stood on three whole countries at once, at a local specialty, and got a squashed penny to prove it. 

Current Events in the end of October

Hello again, blog! It's been quite a while since I've posted something, but I'm planning on posting much more often now. Wish me luck!

To start off, I'd like to give a basic run-down of what's going on in my life right now.

Today is the first day of Fall vacation, a two-week break honored by all the schools in this state. Vacations are done differently here, as we hardly ever get single-day breaks (MLK day, Labor Day, Colombus Day, etc), but instead get three multiple-week breaks from school. I will spend this vacation relaxing for the most part, but my host parents will also be taking me and a friend to the Netherlands, to stay in an apartment on the North Sea. This will probably be the coldest experience of my lifetime, but I'm looking forward to it.

The downside to this vacation is the preceding two weeks worth of class tests. I am told the format of the tests is normal here, but they seemed very odd from my US perspective. The two "LK" classes (these are the advanced courses that each student chooses for themselves) each receive a three-hour-long test. They were held on Monday and Wednesday of the first week, and one could almost taste the fear and frustration in the air in the time leading up to their arrival. As the only two classes I understand (French and English) are my LK classes, the two tests I would be taking were, of course, the three-hour kind. I stayed home on Monday with a painful stomach ache, therefore missing the English test, but I managed to take the French exam on Wednesday.

Imagine that you were showing a new student around school. You would, of course, show them where the bath rooms are and where they could grab a bite to eat. You'd probably introduce them to your teachers and help them with their schedule, too. However, some things are just plain obvious. Why would you have to tell them what school supplies they needed, when all the other schools used the same tools? What about classroom etiquette or the format for math homework? This is exactly the problem I had with my French test. My fellow French students entered the class room and sat down in new seats, away from any other students they could possibly cheat off of. I chose my old seat, as no one was sitting nearby. Everyone began tearing an odd sort of paper out of some notebook-style things tucked into their binders, so I chose to pull out a few pages of binder paper, hoping that would do the trick. The French teacher entered the classroom a few minutes later, held up the test, and barked out some instructions in German. No one translated for me. One by one the students finished their preparations (stacking empty papers and usable pens on their desks, pulling out water bottles, and placing cell phones on the teacher's desk), then began to work. I looked down at the test, which was comprised of a single page of writing and four questions, and began to work. I knew I had three hours, so I assumed that this was only the first part of the test, and that I would have at most an hour to complete it. It made sense to me, and I didn't have any other instructions to go off of. I read the text twice over, looked up a few words in the dictionary that was provided to me (I needed both a French-German and a German-English dictionary, which added complication to the entire process), and began to write my answers. In half an hour I had over a page of writing completed, and had successfully answered the first two questions. The teacher looked up from her work, came over to me, and asked me kindly if I realized that I had three hours to finish the questions. "Yes," I said "but.... just for this?" She looked at me like I was crazy, then nodded and went back to her work. This is when it really hit me that I had no idea what I was doing. I was trained to write five-page essays in class tests that lasted for an hour to an hour and a half -- tops. I remember writing page after page after page for Mr. Kavanaugh's history class. We would do something in the neighborhood of ten pages of true or false, matching, and other objective questions, then five or more pages of essays -- skipping lunch to get it all done. However, this weird French teacher wanted me to spend an hour reading the short text before I even began to write, and -as I found out later- expected no more than a few pages of writing in return. It was a frightening moment, as I had no idea what was expected of me, and was convinced that I would not produce it, no matter what I tried.

In the hopes of cutting off this rant before it gets even more out of control, I'll tell you simply that I finished the test an hour early, and that was with taking much more time than I thought I needed. I had found so many strange, new things about the German testing system that I gave up a good score altogether, and had settled for doing something similar to what I was used to and leaving it at that. We received our grades yesterday, and the teacher handed mine to me with a big smile. For some reason she decided to give me a '2', which is something like a B+ on the US scale. (The grades here go from 1-6, 1 being the highest. Only one person in our class received a 1.) She wrote a note on the test that carefully chided me for my poor handwriting and incorrect use of tenses, but that also said I had a good understanding of the text, and that I had done quite well. It was nice of her, but I could tell that she was just trying to be kind to the poor, lost exchange student, and hadn't actually given me a fair score. As my grades from this school year are completely irrelevant, I think I would have preferred honesty so I could actually know where I stand in respect to the rest of the class.

As French was the last test that I could be expected to take, I was spared from further terror for the rest of the testing period. I had a few classes off while everyone else had testing, sat through a few classes in which the teachers went over exactly how bad the test results had been, and left on Friday for the start of vacation.

Since I will have an ungodly amount of free time for the next two weeks, I hope to write a few more blog posts to make up for my lax behavior. Until then; Tchuss!

On School

This Friday marked the end of my second week of German education. I've been going to regular classes for a very long and confusing half-moth. Because of this, I finally feel qualified to explain the German school system a bit more.

It's normal in Germany to have about 9 different classes. At my school, each class receives three hours of your school week, separated into one single period and one double period of class. Each student chooses two advanced classes, however, and these are given an extra double period each week. 

I chose to two classes that I might possibly understand for my advanced classes -- English and French. English was a great decision, because the class is delightfully easy, and therefore extremely refreshing after a day of German classes. However, French is proving to be a challenge, as I am behind the rest of the class in almost every way. I understand what is going on, but I've been having a hard time matching my speaking ability to my comprehension; an issue which makes me seem a lot more behind than I actually am. Fortunately the teacher understands my position and has been understanding when I get lost and confused.
My other classes include History, German, Math, Sport, Computer Science, Philosophy and Pedagogy. At the moment they are all impossible to understand, but I know I will have particular problems with both Math and Computer Science, as both classes are a year ahead of me in level.
Math is not separated into subjects here, but instead everyone in the same year takes the same general math course. This might end up working in my favor, but at the moment my class is working on somewhat advanced calculus, which I never learned in highschool.
Sport, what we would call P.E, is separated into different types, depending on which sports you prefer. I had the choice between Soccer, Badminton, Volleyball, Step Aerobics and Basketball. I nearly chose badminton until someone alerted me to the fact that the first half of the year is actually spent on long-distance running. Instead, I have chosen to take the step aerobics course. It's been fun so far, especially since each lesson has been slightly different. I've done some step aerobics, but we also played dodgeball, ultimate frisbee and freeze tag.
That's all I really have to say about it at the moment, but there will be many and more things to describe later. Again, I apologize for being lax in posting. 

On Blogging and Communication

For the longest time I've heard about people in my situation who created blogs, but stopped adding to them after only a few weeks. Until recently I could not understand this trend at all, as blogging seems to be a great, dual-purpose form of communication. Blogging informs your friends and family about what you've been doing and allows you to share your joys and pains with them, and it also allows you to keep a sort of a journal for your own use later. It works out for everyone involved.
However, I've recently started to realize why people drop their blogs, and I'd like to explain that. Blogging allows you to feel connected to your world at home; to communicate with everyone you know, but this ability starts losing its appeal very soon after arriving in Germany. For the first few weeks, you are still an American student finding your way in a scary new world, exploring and trying things, then rushing home to tell everyone you know about them. Soon, though, you actually acclimate to your surroundings. You slowly lose your identity as a lost foreigner and assume the role of an average student. You know your surroundings, you have friends, and you do things with your host family. This isn't really the reason why communication loses its appeal, though. The real problem lies in the fact that your new life becomes your world; your only world. Whereas you once lived in the US, had American friends and American parents, and went to an American school, your world has shifted from the US to Germany. Knowing exactly what your friends back home are up to is no longer as important, because they don't factor into your new world. This is the same with talking to your parents and sharing stories, pictures, and thoughts. This affects blogging in a big way, as we no longer feel urged to keep everyone we know up-to-date.... It's just not important anymore. This isn't to say that I love my friends or my family less, it's just that my life exists somewhere else now, and it's hard and dissatisfying to try and meld the two worlds together.
There are a few more reasons why blogging is an unexpected challenge, but I don't think I need to go into those. This main reason dominates not only blogging, but all other forms of communication I could be keeping up with.
As you can probably infer from all of this, I will be blogging less in the future. However, this does not mean I'm quitting. I fully intend to keep updating and adding to this blog, as well as sharing pictures and thoughts through other mediums (e.g. Facebook.)

The start of School

Friday was my first day at my new German Gymnasium. The high school system is separated into three types of schools; Gymnasium, Realschule and Hauptschule. The Gymnasium is full of kids who passed a test after fourth grade and chose the path towards University, rather than vocational training. All CBYX students are placed in Gymnasiums because of the high standards of the program.

My school has around 1000 students, ranging from fifth to twelfth grade. This is a bit disconcerting, as I'm not used to watching for little kids when I walk between classes. For the first week, another CBYX student and I will be shown around the school by two 12th-grade mentors. We'll follow them to classes, to try everything before we decide on our schedules on Thursday. We started this last Friday. I was taken French, History and German classes. Needless to say, I had no idea what was going on in both History and German, although I was comfortable enough in French class.

I'm pretty sure the specific Gymnasium I am attending is different from the others, as everyone I've talked to previously has told me that everyone in the same grade takes the same classes, and actually stays in the same class room while the teachers move between classes. However, I found that my schedule will be quite similar to the one I had in Petaluma (specific classes for each student, with the student walking between classes at the end of each period,) with a few exceptions. The biggest of these is that each student takes 8 or 9 periods worth of classes, which are then spaced out on different days. In my Californian high school I only took 7 classes, and many of my friends in different schools had only 6.

I don't have a lot more to say at the moment, but I will continue to talk about school as it starts making more sense. For the time being I will follow German students to classes I don't understand and try to make my mind up about my schedule. Also, I will be sure to start taking pictures.

My walk

So I've decided that, as  temporary blogger with principles, I should tell you about the bad things of this year as well as the good things... This means I also have to tell you about the embarrassing things, which brings me to the topic of this post.

Today I went into Aachen with my host parents. We went to a great craft market that seemed to cover half the city. After walking around for a while we went our separate ways; I had places I wanted to visit, and they had their own errands to run. I started my trip with an impromptu visit to Starbucks, where I ordered a frappucino (they have those here!!). This was great, because it was very hot outside. This will become important later.
In any case, the real purpose of my visit was to track down an Asian market that my friends told me about. My host brother showed me on the map where it should be so, looking so much like the American tourist, I followed my little map through Aachen and out the other side. I walked for maybe half a mile, but the trip seemed longer, as I was certain that I was going the wrong way (I wasn't) and it was very hot. I did make it in the end, I got what I came for, and I made it back to the bus stop to wait for the bus that would take me home.
I knew exactly what bus I had to get on and when (I plan ahead for these things) but I soon realized that I had no idea when to get off the bus. I waited until the bus arrived in Roetgen, then started frantically scanning the landscape for anything that would tell me what stop was right. I did manage to get off as close as I could to home, and began walking. This is when I realized something else; I didn't know where to go.

I had the basics mapped out in my mind; go downhill here, make a right here, there's a bus stop over there, but I didn't actually know what street to turn onto. However, I have a sense of direction that has never failed me, and I went with my instincts, taking the turn right before a little blue bus stop, like we did in the car so many times. I didn't know it at the time, but there are, in fact, two little blue bus stops on the same stretch of road. I took the road passing by the first one, rather than waiting until the second like I should have.

I was only vaguely concerned at this point. I got the feeling that I was going the right way, but I didn't actually recognize anything yet. I went for a mile or so up a hill, following the road that I thought would take me home. After making it farther up the hill than I had ever intended, I started to get concerned. I knew this was not right. I did know, though, that there was a bike trail that cut through Roetgen, and that I could find my home if I followed it. Just as I began to think that, I saw it right in front of me. I followed this path for what felt like another mile, until I began to get the sense again that nothing was feeling right at all. I was hot and tired and there were blisters on my feet. I finally turned around and headed back to the road that brought me to the bike trail. I got back to the intersection, sat down in the shade, and called my host mother. She told me she would look for me, even though I could only vaguely describe where I might be. In 10 minutes she hadn't showed up, so I called again to ask how the searching was going. I started to feel dizzy while I was speaking to her, so I announced that I was going to ask someone for water and directions.

By the time I stood up and made it across the street to a woman who was doing yard work my hands were shaking. I asked her if she spoke English, and found that my voice was trembling a bit, too. She didn't speak English, but I used what German I knew to tell her I was very thirsty, and to ask where I was. I called my host Mom to tell her the street name, then stumbled onto this lady's porch, where she handed me a glass of bubbly water and brought me a chair. At this point I'd like to make it clear that I can't recall ever being lost before, or even having to ask directions. Asking a total stranger for anything is an almost brand-new experience for me, so I count myself lucky that this lady was so generous. In two minutes my host Mother arrived. I thanked the woman over and over again in German as I left. My host Mother chuckled, then brought me home, making sure to point out where I had gone wrong as well as the proper street to take on the way. I made it home dizzy and weak, and I stood up long enough to drink five glasses of water before crashing on my bed.

I keep trying to blame other influences on all of this, but that hasn't really worked out. The truth is, I stupidly tried to walk too far in the heat (which is a brand-new thing for the Aachen area; I've hardly seen a day without rain,) and without water, too. The last drink I had was a small soda I got with lunch on the way to the bus stop in Aachen. I knew I could ask for help at any time, but I insisted to myself that I knew the way home, which only made getting lost even worse. However, it's all over now and, as my host Mother told me, it will only happen once. Hopefully you can get a good chuckle at my expense. Maybe I will, too, once I'm feeling a little less tired and sunburnt. The first not-so-amazing experience of my entire stay is now done, and life will go on. I even might go to Aachen again, soon. I want to go shopping when I get a chance. This time, I'm sure I won't get lost.

Language Camp

I have something to talk about that's a little off chronologically. I realized that I've never really talked about language camp, so I thought I'd sum it up right now.

Language camp is mandatory for all CBYX students who come to Germany through ASSE, the organization in charge of the students from the North and West parts of the US. The 50 ASSE students, from everywhere between California and North Dakota, met in Washington DC for a few days before leaving for Frankfurt. At the airport we split up, depending on where our permanent host families lived.

My language camp was in Aachen, and had around 20 students. We took classes Monday through Friday for three weeks; meeting in a youth hostile on the outskirts of town. We spent all day there, from 9:30 to 3:30. Imagine an entire school day in which you only take one class. We stayed in the same seats and learned an endless stream of lessons, stopping occasionally for three-minute breaks and for lunch at 12:15. So yes, I did find language camp mildly boring. However, we did learn a great deal. Those of us in the beginner half of camp (one class was beginner, one was advanced) got to learning the past tense by the end of three weeks, which -for perspective- might take an entire year in a high school language course. We learned conversational tools that will be imperative when we start actually communicating, and even got lists of school-based words translated. We each brought in lists of vocabulary that we thought we would need in school, then set to translating them all to German and writing them down. I now have around 10 pages of words that will be useful to me in classes like Math, Science, and even Music.

Thankfully, we didn't have the same German classes every day. We did get to visit Aachen, have a breakfast outside and meet with our area representative, and visit the zoo (as previously mentioned). Although these field trips weren't every day, they were a nice break when they did happen.

One of the main benefits of language camp, from my point of view, is the sanity it provides. You get to spend three wees with other English-speaking students who are having the same problems you are. We discovered differences in culture and language at the same time, and were able to discuss them rather than simply dealing with them on our own. We were supported socially and mentally through the most challenging part of our stay; the move from one country to another; one family to another. For that, I am hugely thankful. Language camp is over now, and we've all said goodbye and went our separate ways. We're now all in our permanent host families, preparing to go to school in different towns and villages. However, we all know how to get in touch with each other, and can at any time speak with other American students when we need support.. or just someone to talk to.

So that's language camp. It's completely different from what I suspected, but great all the same... Although I don't think I'd ever ask to do classes like that again.

German word of the day: Umweltverschmutzung. Literally: 'The dirtying up of the World' or Pollution

Monkeys. Perfect sanity preserver.

My fellow campers enjoying being outside for a change

The view from my chair. Good times in the beginner room.

Settling In

I've been living with my new family for three days now... It's funny how time flies.
I emptied out all of my bags on Friday, which was absolutely refreshing after living out of a suitcase for three weeks. I organized everything and even made the room look nice... we'll see how long that lasts.

A dark but serviceable picture of how my room should look. It doesn't look like this at all anymore

On Saturday I went with my host father to a soccer game. Although I've been to soccer games in the US, this was my first European game, and I don't think anything could have prepared me for it. I've experienced certain levels of fandom before. I've been to football and basketball games at the University of Tennessee -where college sports are basically a religion- and I've met fans who traveled across the world to see a Formula 1 race. However, European soccer fans outdo everything I thought was extreme. The day started out with us hopping aboard an already over-full bus on its way to the stadium. Every single person was wearing yellow and black, the team colors of Allemania Aachen, the local team. My host dad and I stood the whole time, which was fine until we got stuck in an hour-long traffic jam. We finally got to the stadium and raced inside, and were right in time to stand underneath the giant team flag the fans rigged up. You know those huge signs that some fans hold up during sporting events? Well this one was a huge yellow and black plastic sheet that must have covered a thousand people or more when it was fully unrolled. Underneath the fans jumped up and down and yelled along to "We Will Rock You". We found our seats as the banner was removed... Except that they weren't seats. Apparently, to be a true soccer fan you have to stand up for the entire game. I remember a French man explaining that to me once, but I thought you had to be a member of the insane, elite "Ultra" fan clubs that belonged to each team. Apparently not. So we stood at the top of the stadium, peering over other standing fans as men walked by, trying to sell beer from kegs strapped to their backs. There were drums and whistles, and a chant for every possible occasion. It was madness, but it was so fun.

After that we were picked up by my host Mom, who brought us to Aachen for lunch, some quick shopping, and a stop at an 'eiscafe' for ice cream and coffee. I was still recovering after being sick for a little while, so by the time I got home I was in no mood to move, let alone even standing up straight. So of course we took a walk around Roetgen. It was nice, but I only remember bits of it.

Yesterday I slept in and did almost nothing (yay!) until the early afternoon, when we jumped in the car to go to a birthday party. I had forgotten to eat lunch before leaving, so I was somewhat annoyed to find cake on the table when we arrived, tempting me long before I could eat it... However, the tradition in Germany is to  eat the cake first of all, which really shakes my Mom-based belief that eating dessert before dinner will spoil my appetite. In any case, the party was nice except for the fact that I understood almost none of it. The other guests were very kind about that, and occasionally asked me questions in English. However, I chose a polite enough moment and retreated to a seat in the corner where I could read my book and be out of the way. We eventually left at around nine.

Today was my first day of being at home while my host parents worked, so I made my own breakfast (cereal) and had a nice, long, lazy day. It turns out that, just like my home in Aachen, there is a forest almost in my backyard. However, unlike that artificial logging forest, this one is a natural park. This means that the paths are a little rockier, that there are people with hiking gear asking directions in German (I say 'English?' and they get the idea,) and also a herd of boars kept in a huge, fenced enclosure. I've never seen boars before, and thankfully I haven't smelled them either... Well, hadn't smelled. I got a good whiff today as I strolled by and I won't be forgetting it for a long time.

So, that's all for today. I've got a lot more to say, but as I'll have some time in the next few days I'll be able to get it all up later. Hopefully I'll be better about taking pictures. I took my camera to the soccer game and never thought to snap a single shot...



German word of the day:
Kummerspeck : Excess weight gained due to emotional overeating. Literally translates to 'grief bacon'

New family and the events of the last few days

I haven't posted in the last few days because I've been a frustrating blend of tired, sick, and busy. However, this just means I have more to talk about now.

Two nights ago Iva and I cooked dinner for our host parents. This involved a trip to a ginormous wholesale store  and a lot of US-to-metric cooking conversions. I decided to make my Mom's mac and cheese, which I've never actually done before. Iva, on the other hand, went with a traditional Chinese meal that she's cooked many times before. So there the two of us were -one flustered and nervous, the other a little more self-assured- picking through the pots and pans and trying to figure out how to use the oven. Under the circumstances we did astonishingly well. By all rights I should have produced a pot of blackened cheese laced with rock-hard macaroni, but it all worked out quite well. For dessert I produced root beer floats; an unheard of concept in Germany. Although no one in our family had heard of root beer before, I managed to find some cans in the 'USA' isle in a local store (next to the easy cheese, Kraft mac and cheese and barbecue sauce.) I topped it off with vanilla ice cream and swore that there was, in fact, no alcohol whatsoever in root beer.
They seemed to like it pretty well.

The next day we went with our language classes to the zoo. Aachen has a nice, small zoo that has everything from red pandas to a herd of goats. We were given German worksheets designed for middle schoolers, and proceeded to get completely and utterly confused. My small group spent the day alternately staring at what animals we could find and playing on the multiple playgrounds concealed in the zoo. We didn't do any of our homework.

What you normally do at the zoo

I was picked up by my new host family on Friday, and I've been here ever since. I'm living in a village just to the South of Aachen, which means I get the feel of a small town surrounded by nature while still not being far away from a city. My host parents are great, but I'll have more to say about that later.

German Engineering and suchlike

One of the things I've noticed since being here is that certain things just make sense. This isn't to say that they don't make sense in the US, it's just that they're a little more thought-out here.

For example, the windows. These windows are double hinged so that, when the handle is turned one way, they open horizontally like a normal window. However, they also give you the option of turning the handle 90 degrees, this turning the window into a vertical-opening window that will stay open for the occasional gust. This is a tad disconcerting for first-time visitors, as the first tug on the handle causes the window to tilt towards you, making it feel as if the window will fall right on top of you. I've even heard of similar doors, and about a guy who tried to open the door and screamed when the top started coming down at him. I'm now in love with these windows. You can leave them open in vertical tilt mode, then open them horizontally to get more air or to stick your head out the window (if you so desire...)

Another thing I noticed is the inability to open doors from the outside. In the US you can open any unlocked door easily. Here, however, they are -for all intents and purposes- locked the moment they're closed. The handles on the outside of exterior doors don't actually turn, but are instead used to push or pull the door open once you've used a key to move the bolt. Some doors even require a key on the inside, as there is a dummy handle on each side of the door. This is great as theft prevention, as forgetting to double-lock the door isn't quite so bad when the thief can't turn a handle and walk in. However, I suspect it's a bit of a problem if you decide to take the trash out without a set of keys, and the untimely gust of wind shuts the door behind you.

My third example is silly, but it truly blew my mind. If you have ever been to the airport you know about the carts that can carry your suitcases for you. In the US, these are used in baggage claim areas that are connected directly to the outside, so you don't have to worry about stairs. However, the airports are connected to train stations here, so it's not so easy to maneuver without a few escalators on the way (the train station attached to the airport also blew my mind. Talk about ease of transportation...) To solve this problem, the inventors involved made a system in which you'd place the front wheels on the escalator, tug a handle, then roll the rest of the cart on. The handle allows the front wheels to drop down, thus leveling out the cart and allowing it to safely and easily ride down an escalator. Nothing says "Welcome to Germany" more than carefully-engineered baggage carts.

My final revelation for today (although I suspect I'll find more later) are the soy sauce fish. These are truly my favorite out of all of these inventions and doo-dads. Getting Sushi in US stores involves a cheap plastic box filled with sushi and cheap plastic bags of wasabi and soy sauce. If you're like me, you've often caused these bags to explode everywhere. You've also had to find ways of standing the partially-used baggy up so it doesn't leak.. and you've probably failed at that. Altogether, eating store sushi can be a bit annoying (poor me, complaining about difficult sushi...) Well, this is where the best invention ever comes in. In Germany, all sushi comes with a plastic fish, filled with soy sauce, each with a screw-on nose cap. The fish are made of a squeeze-able plastic that allows you to carefully coat sushi with the right amount of sauce, or to fill a small bowl without getting it everywhere. After serving yourself, you can easily re-cap the fish and save the soy sauce for later, without worrying about leaks. To add to that, they're cute. I've started a small collection, and I'm considering them as Christmas gifts for people back home.... I think they'll be a hit.

Brussels

A couple of days ago my host family announced that, in honor of my host Father's birthday, we would be visiting Brussels. As odd as it sounds to plan a quick visit to another country, Aachen is right on the border of Belgium, so the trip was very easy. So Iva and I took the hour and a half drive over the border and to Brussels with our host parents early Saturday morning.
We spent the entire day exploring Brussels. We started off by arriving and leaving our things in my host Father's appartment, then began our tour. Our host parents showed us through Brussels; past the glittering gold-topped Palais de Justice, through tents and barriers marking the location of the Summer Festival, and even by the world-famous Manneken Pis (the original peeing baby fountain). We stopped for lunch in a crowded section of town and got Moules Frites (a bucket of mussels with fries) in a nice restaurant, then kept exploring. It was all incredibly amazing, and all the buildings seemed so beautiful and interesting, but by five my food coma and lack of sleep caught up with me, and I nearly passed out at the table when we stopped for coffee. After a power nap, though, we kept on going. For a little bit of perspective, it was raining nearly the entire time. I walked the entirety of the city juggling an umbrella and a nice camera, trying to find the best way to get pictures without ruining the camera somehow. We were cold and wet, and we were walking all day. We ate at about half past eight, in a restaurant from the 1800s that's been turned into a trendy pita cafe. We stayed up long enough to watch a light show projected on the town hall, get waffles, and walk back home. I finally got into bed at about one in the morning.

Despite all of that, which really wasn't all bad, I loved Brussels. It's beautiful, with an architectural explosion of buildings; brand-new modern style office buildings butting up against centuries-old stone facades. I loved being able to understand people; as the primary spoken language we heard was French (I even helped a fellow American traveler order a waffle from a woman who spoke no English.) All in all it was a great experience, and I was quick to ask my host Parents about the possibility of going back.

Iva and Mr. Schneider in the rain of Brussels

The famous statue

Moules Frites!

Roomies! Incidentally: My hair is red instead of purple now

Waffle options

Brussels has a historical tradition of fine hand-made laces

The Tintin store

Waffles!

The town hall during the light show

Hopefully you can see more pictures here!

Just some things

For the past three days I've been in language camp; a school-day-length set of daily German classes. These will go on for three weeks, and are designed to teach us enough German that we can be confidently lost and confused once school starts. The camp is only 15 minutes away by bike, but I've had to take a break from biking there because of the reaction I received from my knees. (Did I mention that I haven't biked in around 5 years?) In Aachen, it seems like the distance between any point A and point B is  hilly, meaning that exactly half of the ride is uphill and half is extremely downhill. I don't think I've seen a flat surface anywhere nearby. In any case, I will be taking the bus for the next few days which, because of the sheer number of bus stops, takes around 45 minutes.

Today after camp I finally got my hair cut, marching into the salon with my roommate Iva (to translate my English into German). Rather than try to get some point across in my limited German I immediately asked if they spoke English. The receptionist said that yes, they did, but the man who would be cutting my hair did not. However, he immediately asked if I perchance knew French. Anyone that knows me could guess the rest of the story... I spent the entire haircut (after a brief trilingual confusion period) speaking French, with Iva napping unneeded in the corner. I did manage to get a great haircut for a great price, with the side effect that I tried to ask my host mother questions in French when I got home.

In any case, that's about it for now. The excitement of travel has died down, and I'm really enjoying Aachen, camp, and just about everything else. My host family and Iva are downstairs right now watching a soccer match between Germany and Brazil (I quit after an hour and no goals), and we're planning a trip to Brussels soon. Beyond that, everything is as normal as it can be for an exchange student in a scary new country. I'll try to keep blogging; more often if I can. Until then, Tchuss!