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!

Aachen and other things

As a jet lag-free ex-zombie, I can actually write a post that is a tad more coherent to tell you about Aachen and so on.

So this is my third full day in Aachen, and I'm really enjoying it. So far I've purchased a new bike (purple!), managed to remember a bit about not falling off of it, walked and biked for miles in loops through the forest, explored the downtown area, and even went to church.

My temporary host family, The Schneiders, are Catholic, so we went to a big Catholic church this morning. As they taught me in Catholic school, masses have the same organization everywhere in the world, so I knew almost  everything that was going on just by the timing. I didn't understand most of the prayers, but my roommate Iva and I chimed in on the songs and on the Lord's Prayer. It was a nice experience, but I think I'll try again when I can actually understand a bit of the sermon. For all I know the priest could have been talking about kittens for half an hour.

The city of Aachen itself is beautiful. There's an extensive downtown area that's mostly cobblestone, with shops ranging from small and pricey to huge drug stores and Macy's look-a-likes. There are a couple of really old and beautiful churches, and I made sure to visit the ones we passed. The town hall looks like a Cathedral, but has infact always been a Government building. It dates back to the time of Charlemagne, but the original building has been replaced a couple times and rebuilt in the same style. In the center of town is the Dome, which is about 1200 years old. Over the years it's been added on to and updated, so it's now a sprawling church with numerous side chapels, each the size of a whole church. The inside of the original, center dome is coated with mosaic tiles that were recently cleaned, meaning that the walls and ceilings nearly glow. According to Mrs. Schneider, there are three holy cloths that hold huge significance for some pilgrims, who make their way through Aachen every seven years. Because of this tradition, the city of Aachen created its own type of bread which would last for a long time without rotting, so they could feed travelers for a long time. It's called Printen, and it comes in flat rectangles that taste an awful lot like gingerbread. The loaf we tried was dipped in chocolate and filed with... something sweet.

In any case, as you can tell, I've been exploring and learning more about my new home. I'm really enjoying myself, and I can't wait to see more, and to start language camp tomorrow! We'll be in language classes from 9 to 4 every day for three weeks, or that's what I've come to understand. I hope that training will let me survive in school!

My first trip to a 'German' restaurant. Everything is expensive, and they don't have frappes here :/

One of the churches connected to the Dome

A side chapel (with me out front!)

A bit of the mosaics. The lighting was quite bad, but I did as well as I could.

The container for one of the holy objects which is removed and shown to the public every seven years

Arrival

As I think I mentioned, I spent the last couple days in DC with a group of CBYX students specifically from the North-West portions of the US. The 50 of us got to meet with aides of our congressmen and representatives on Capitol hill, visited monuments, and generally got sweaty and sunburned in the record-breaking heat. Yesterday afternoon (Was it yesterday? I don't know anymore...) we got on a plane headed to Frankfurt from DC. At the airport we passed through customs and then split into three smaller groups; saying goodbye to new friends in the process. Our new groups are based on the location of our language camps, which are based on the locations of our host families. Since my family lives near Aachen, I am attending language camp in Aachen (with about 20 other CBYX'ers). However, my family is leaving on vacation tomorrow, so I'm staying with a temporary family for the three weeks of language camp. I met with both families today. Me and another girl are staying in the same temporary household, and both of our permanent families visited for a nice dinner after dropping us off here. After saying good-bye to both families, our temporary host mother (see how confusing this can be?) took us on a walk to keep us awake and to show us the area. It turns out that this suburb is concealing a beautiful forest full of paths, ponds, and fields full of cows. She showed us around a labyrinthine set of walkways and paths, claiming the whole way that we couldn't get lost if we tried.... we'll see about that.

On the schedule for tomorrow: Visiting a used bike shop, looking at SIM cards, and figuring out how to say 'haircut' in German

My temporary host mother showing us around the forest in Aachen

"I promise you can't get lost"

My home for three weeks!