The End (Part 2)

Alright, alright. I'm finally going to finish this off.
To keep it short and sweet, I'll tell you about my very last month in Germany.
About a week before we left, the entirety of the CBYX program went to Berlin for a few days. Upwards of 300 students traveled to the city to meet and do final activities before our return home. The ASSE students stayed in a hostel on the edge of the city, where we spent a lot of our time during the trip. While there, we practiced and performed our Berlin projects to our group of 50.

The Berlin Projects were a required part of our year in Germany. As government scholarship recipients, we were required to prove that we gained something from our time there, rather than wasting the Government's money on nothing but parties and procrastination. The projects had very few guidelines, which was both terrifying and liberating. Besides the fact that each had to be in German, and that no more than four people could work in one group, we had no other restriction. As a result, we got to see a lot diverse and interesting projects; ranging from comedy bits to essays to collages and paintings. Memorably, there was a guy who gave a comedic presentation about how his year in Germany was like a beer -- explaining how each ingredient could be related to some aspect of his exchange trip. As he explained, he pouring fake ingredients into a cup, and later tasted the 'beer' and announced it to be perfect. Some of my friends also wrote a song about being exchange students, which was oddly catchy.

 Two friends and I decided to work together, and met a month before Berlin to plan our project. Initially we had no ideas. We went to get pizza together and discuss it, but left with having barely broached the subject, let alone coming to a decision. Finally we decided that we would make Maiherzen (See 'German Customs' about First of May) for lack of a better idea. The concept was that Maiherzen are only a tradition in the Rheinland of Germany, where we lived. By using them in a project, we would prove that we learned the specific customs of not only our host country, but our specific part of it as well. I was going to make a heart that looked like the German flag while my friend, Andee, made one that looked like the Star Spangled Banner. It was a brilliant idea.

The problem with Maiherzen is that they're difficult to make. The way we made them (which, I found later, is not at all traditional or even easy) involved cutting, rolling, and adjusting crepe paper into flowers and then pinning them with a sort of double needle, or industrial staple sort of thing. Each flower took a great amount of force to adhere to the Styrofoam hearts we had made, and would often slide right on out once affixed. It was infuriating. Still, somehow, we covered our hearts flower by flower until we had two things that very nearly resembled what we intended to make... and a speech to boot!

I didn't have super high hopes for the project -- it was interesting, but other people had cool comedy sketches or songs that they had written, which was obviously so much more creative. To add to that, transporting the Maiherzen we made was a nightmare that could have only ended in doom and destruction for us and our creations. Each time the heart was touched, crepe paper flowers would cascade down the sides, leaving gaping styrofoam holes. Somehow we managed to replace all of these flowers, and even had complete hearts to present to the ASSE group. To add to that, we were somehow selected to present in front of the Bundestag. As you may remember, the Bundestag is the German version of our congress. Yep. I presented a giant styrofoam Germany heart in front of a panel of German politicians, the American Ambassador, the Bundespraesident (like our speaker of the house,) and some 360 or so students and organization leaders. Thankfully I was not the one giving the speech. At the end of our terrifying presentation, we turned around and handed our creations to the American Ambassador and Bundespraesident, the German and American hearts respectively.

Aren't we cute?

Also, we were in the news. Here

Besides following an odd series of events that led to shaking hands with important politicians, I also went to a public viewing of a German soccer game. The European cup was running, and all of Germany was fanatically following each new development. I joined what I can assume was thousands of other people, standing by the Brandenburg gate to watch the game projected on huge screens. Alright, so it's not as exciting, but it was fun.

After Berlin, we went back to our German homes, packed away our posessions and finished up at school. In a few days we got on a plane and, with a few minor hiccups, landed safely back in Washington DC. It was an exciting end to an incredible year, and I'll never forget it.

Wow, that was it, wasn't it? As it feels like I've missed something huge, I'm going to reserve the right to add a post here and there. Maybe I forgot to tell you about the most exciting thing ever... or maybe not.
In any case, thank you all for reading along and supporting me in my year abroad. It meant a lot to me, and I never once felt alone.

I'm now officially a Reed college student; I've finished a week of school and I'm working on my first ever college essay. I tested into German 3, but opted to take German 2, as I've never really learned German in a classroom setting.

 I think I've become that one girl who only has stories that begin "When I was in Germany...."

The End (Part 1)

So finally, here it is. The last blog post. It's been a long time coming, but I'm finally ready to write the damn thing.
There is a lot to talk about, and I doubt I will cover it all, but I'd still like to give you all (and posterity) a basic run-down of what I did in my last few months in Germany.

Besides mentioning briefly that I went to London over a weekend (almost a whole day up, one day to explore the city, and another day to drive back) I'd like to start off with Easter Break.

Easter Break was very cool for me, because my parents visited me. We had talked about it with my host family, and we all agreed that it would be fun if my real parents could visit. ASSE does not condone familial visits, but I made sure that my host parents were comfortable with the situation in every way, and so we deemed it acceptable.
They spent the first week with me in the Aachen area; spending a few nights in an Aachen hotel and the rest in one closer to Roetgen. Together with my host family we visited Vogelsang (a Nazi leadership training facility which was built in the Eifel forest near where I lived,) hiked through the Eifel, and visited the Netherlands city of Maastricht.
The second week was spent touring through Southern Germany and back. We visited Rothenburg, one of the few remaining medieval walled cities, as well as Lindau (on the Bodensee,) and Strasbourg, a city in France  that has switched between Germany and France many time throughout history.
The trip was fantastic. It was great to be able to spend time with my parents, and I loved being able to see all the sights I would have missed otherwise.

Mom and I in Rothenburg

After that was my trip to Prague, with ASSE. It was a payed trip, unlike Weimar, and was completely optional. I went, along with some of my best exchange student friends, and enjoyed every second. Prague is a truly beautiful city with a lot to be said for it. We continually found great food, beautiful sights, and lots of fascinating places to explore. Although my group of friends mostly focused on finding great restaurants and exploring the city on foot, Prague also had a lot in the way of museums and attractions. We nearly visited a chocolate museum, but the pricing was such that we backed out.
We had most of the days of the trip free, but there was one half-day set aside for a visit to a concentration camp. The closest camp to Prague is Therisienstadt. Therisienstadt is fascinating not just as a concentration camp, but as an integral cog in the propaganda machine that was Nazi Germany. The camp was shown to be a happy place for Jewish families to live. We watched a video that depicted this perfectly. The screen showed propaganda footage of people playing soccer, children playing with dolls, and mothers knitting. Everyone was happy and enjoying themselves, and it almost seemed like a summer camp. Every now and then someone would read a letter that went along the lines of "Hello. I am very happy in Therisienstadt. I miss nothing back home. It is wonderful here. I love Therisienstadt." Meanwhile, the narrator of the video read off statistics. He would read the date of a certain trainload of new inmates, the number of people in the train, and the number of survivors. More often than not, he would say "no survivors." It was sad, but also fascinating. I have never gotten used to the fact that the Nazis did so much without people being aware of their efforts, and Therisienstadt is one of the most interesting examples of their techniques that I have seen so far.
The only complaint I have about the trip was our hotel, which was apparently chosen for its pricing. It was far away from the city in a creepy-looking suburban area that was littered with graffiti and, well, litter. Besides that, the beds were less comfortable than the average couch and the food was a terrifying hodge-podge of what I assume was traditional Czech fare, as I've never seen anything like it before. We only ate breakfast at the hotel, but it was a creepy breakfast indeed. There was a whole tray of mystery meat in different styles, oddly yellow mashed potatoes with gravy, green jam, dark bread, oatmeal sort of stuff, strange yogurt and chocolate spread (not nutella, just spreadable chocolate.) I kept looking for simple breakfast food, but found none. For example, there was no normal breakfast meat or cheese, just the array of mystery meat chunks and slices. I ended up compromising on bread with pinkish meat spread and chocolate spread for after.
I know that I've just spent time complaining about the hotel, but I can honestly say that Prague was one of my favorite vacations of all time, and that was in just a couple of days. We saw a lot, ate good food (just not for breakfast) and enjoyed every second of it.

Prague

TO BE CONTINUED....

Links:
Therisienstadt
The Therisienstadt Video

The Elections

On the 13th of May, NRW (Nordrhein-Westfalen, the state where I live) had its round of elections. In essence, the elections were for the next round of representatives for NRW. In Germany you cast your vote for a party, rather than a specific politician. This doesn't keep the streets from being coated in pictures of smiling faces, urging you silently to vote for their party. For a few weeks, every sign post, telephone pole and street lamp had at least one poster. They differed in content, but they all tried to show the relative merits of voting for one party above another. I had a hard time seeing how these could help at all. When I asked my host mom how she would vote, she told me that she switches off voting for the SPD (think democrats) and Grüne (green party) every year; so as to vote for the best option to defeat the CDU (think republicans.) It seems to me that each German citizen has a party they feel allied to, and no amount of posters will change their mind. 

Either way, this election was interesting to me because of the emergence of the Piraten Partei (pirate party.) They're a relatively new political party that advocated net neutrality, transparent government workings, free education and drug policy reforms -- among other things. They've become quite popular with voters of my generation, and are slowly gaining prominence in Europe. If political parties were part of the stock exchange, I'd put my money on the pirates.
The other, more obvious  reason that these elections interested me is the way they are run. Unlike our relatively stagnant two-party system, Germany advocates multiple parties that each have a chance to gain power. The country is not stuck voting for one party or the other, but can choose to vote for third parties like the pirates -- and can even expect to earn representatives by doing so.
The chart below (click to expand) shows the results of the elections. The main chart shows percentage of the vote, with CDU and SPD coming in at the top, as should be expected. The chart on the top right shows -as far as I can tlel- the change in voting behavior as compared to the last round. It appears that the biggest loser is the CDU, who has lost an amazing amount of support, whereas the Pirates scored a huge win over the last round of votes. Finally, the chart on the bottom right shows the breakdown of representative seats. My favorite, the pirates, won a total of 20 seats -- proof that multiple parties can coexist in systems like that of Germany.

Hopefully this political talk hasn't been extremely boring. To me, it's fascinating. I've been wondering about the merits of our two-party system, and Germany's solution is interesting to me. It also intruiges me to see how the people around me think, and to be able to realize that the voters here aren't all that different from my home town. I've crossed the world, and the political sentiments of my friends and neighbors have remained exactly the same.

German Customs

The first of May was just a few days ago, and I'd like to use this perfect opportunity to talk about some German traditions that I was not previously aware of and could not even begin to predict.

To start, I'll go back in time. On the Tuesday before we were released for Easter Break, I was walking the steep hill up to school when I came upon a huge group of teenagers dressed as old people. This wasn't the usual grey wig costume, either. Each was fully dressed in what I assumed were their grandparents' clothes, with carefully color-sprayed grey or white hair as well as wrinkles and the occasional cane or walker. To top it off, they decided that dressing up was not enough. Each was bent over at an odd angle, shuffling along as if their backs were troubling them. Some would wave canes at passerby and shout phrases that I could only assume ran along the lines of "young whippersnappers!" and "Ge' off my lawn!" When I came upon them, the group was standing in the middle of the road, blocking all traffic to, from, and by the school. They acted as if they could not hear the cars, and chose instead to jubilantly harass everyone in earshot.
I learned later that this was the 13th grade at my Gymnasium. But now I have to explain further. In Germany, there used to be 13 grades of school. It is dying out now, but is still existent in some places, especially in the Northern parts of Germany. My school is currently rolling out the 13-year program in favor of a 12-year program, meaning that the 12th graders that I am a part of this year will graduate after their 13th year, and at the same time as the grade below them, who will only have to do 12 years of school. Needless too say, they're not too pleased about the timing of the change. An interesting fact that should be noted is that the amount of material covered must be the same between the 13- and 12- year programs. This means that my grade has fewer hours in the day, and has to study a certain amount less than the grades below them. The reason for their studying is the Abitur. The Abitur (or just Abi) is the test that all German students must take at the end of Gymnasium. The test is taken only once, and the grade you receive will follow you forever. To add to that, I have heard that it is quite difficult. I have also been told that if, for example, you are trying to get into a medical program, you need a certain grade on your Abi. Without this grade, you can't get into the program. That's that. There are ways around this, but they involve extra years of schooling, and require the most dedicated students to pull off. So, as you can see, the Abitur is a big deal.

The graduating class (this year's 13th graders) is called the Abitur class. From what I understand, they have an especially challenging year, as they are continually building up to and studying for their Abitur. At Easter break they are let free from school, at which point they are given time (a couple months, I believe) to study on their own. This is where we come back to the costumes.

The week before Easter break is, therefore, a week of celebration for the Abi class. It is their last year of Gymnasium, of 13 hard years of work. To celebrate, they have Mottowoche. This is a week in which they dress up every day, then finally cap off the week with a huge party; both at school and in the city (at least in the Aachen area, they do.) Our Abi class dressed as old people, construction workers, and then Halloween characters and zombies. On Zombie day, they first blockaded the teacher's room, so the teachers couldn't get to their classes, then gave up and barged into different classrooms -- blasting Thriller on a boombox, shouting, dancing, and turning desks and tables over. On Friday school involved first a huge celebration (three hours of skits, performances, videos, and so on) followed by the rest of the upperclassmen having to clean up for two hours. As an exchange student, I was exempt from the cleaning.
It was a tradition I hadn't yet heard of, so the whole week struck me as odd to begin with, but I reall enjoying living through Mottowoche at my Gymnasium. It was interesting to see how Germans react to the end of school, as well as all the pranks that they pulled on the school at large. Also, it was quite nice to have the eventual class canceled here and there due to a zombie outbreak.

Now to fast forward to this week. The first of May was this Tuesday, and is a holiday in Germany. Everyone is free from work and school. Generally they choose to go enjoy the nice weather (we have been told that it is always sunny on May 1st, but we didn't believe them until such amazing proof. Monday was cloudy, Tuesday was sunny and warm, and Wednesday was rainy. It was as if the weather knew when it had to be nice, but only accepted that much of a break in its usual demeanor.)
The big May Day tradition here is quite German, and might only exist in this country (at least to this extent.) On the evening before May 1st, all of the men are supposed to go and buy birch trees, which they then plant in the yards of girls they like. These trees are wrapped in streamers, and make it obvious who is single and who is not, for miles around in some cases. As a fun fact, a tree wrapped in only white streamers is a shame tree, and a symbol of dislike or hatred. I have not seen one of these. While the men plant trees, the women make hearts out of roses, which they place by the door of their boyfriends' homes. Although both of these traditions seem to be perfect for secret admirers (think anonymous Valentines day cards) I have noticed that the majority are put up between couples who are already going out, and are actually discussed beforehand, as if the effort to put up a tree is absolutely expected and therefore nothing to be surprised about.
As this year was a leap year, the duty of tree-planting fell on the girls. Well, it should have. In reality, the men were still shamed into putting trees up in the yards of their love interests, and the girls still put out their hearts. I can only assume that any man who didn't place a tree, and quoted the Leap Year tradition as a reason, would soon find himself single. In any case, I talked about it with my host brother, and he claims that -per tradition- the girl must stand under the tree after two weeks (or was it two months?) with a crate of beer; thus proving her affection. This is perhaps the single most German thing I have heard all year, although not a word of it surprised me.

On the last day of April a friend and neighbor of mine offered me a ride home from school. On the way we stopped at a farm that was selling Maibäume (May trees) and bought one for his girlfriend. The trees are saplings that I assume are grown for this purpose; set out like pre-sawed Christmas trees on a Christmas tree farm. They were fifteen euros apiece, plus one euro per roll of addition streamers, and were sizable upon request. We cut the tree nearly in half to fit it in the minivan, and then were on our way.
That night I hardly slept at all. At first it was the usual low-level insomnia that I deal with nightly, but then I was awoken from my daydreams due to the sound of music, yelling, and laughter, as well as to the sudden presence of a light flashing in my window. I opened the curtains and watched as a huge team of college-aged guys brought the largest Birch I have seen into a neighbor's yard, then slowly raised it alongside her house. The process took a long time, with shouting and the shuffling of ladders and ropes. They cheered when they were done, and were on their way around 2 or 3 in the morning, leaving behind a tree that still stands -- larger than the house it was placed beside. At this moment the multitude of colored streamers is waving sadly in the breeze, as the whole thing is still soggy from the rain.
And that's about all there is to it. My entire area is now covered in brightly-colored shrubs, branches, and trees that mark the beginning of Spring and a great deal of dedicated (or grudging, I suppose) boyfriends.

As the tree across the street is blocked by a huge oak, I will give you a picture of a Maibaum that I found online. 

The Dangers of Multilingualism

I plan to cover a range of topics with the next few posts, as I've been lax in the past months and a lot has been happening.
To start off with, Saturday marked my two month warning -- I only have two months left in Germany. In some ways the year has felt so fast; leaving me with much to experience in not enough time. In other ways, it has felt long and exhausting; giving me a sense of happiness at finally being able to go home. I have a lot scheduled before I leave. I'll be visiting Prague with GIVE, Berlin with all of CBYX and London with my friends (not to mention side trips to Dusseldorf, among other plans.) So I don't think a second of my remaining time will be wasted. But now to catch up on what I've been doing.

In March I visited Paris with my French class. We left extremely early on Friday morning, and got home just before midnight on Saturday night. The six or so hour drive was done by bus; a boring journey that passed through Belgium, somehow staying in the middle of empty countryside for the majority of the trip. I was excited to see Paris again, as it's one of my favorite destinations from my previous trips. Apart from that, France is always a pleasure to visit, no matter where you go. France is the only place I've ever visited in which the food is always good. You might think that this is a generalization or an exaggeration, but I have not found a single shred of evidence to the contrary. Restaurants do not survive if their food is not great, and I fear for those who try to sell sub-standard fare.

It was altogether a quite normal trip to Paris. We visited Notre Dame, took a tour of one of the canals, visited Montmartre, went shopping and even saw a movie in French. What stood out, to me, was my specific challenges during our visit. I was, of course, in a group of Germans. I was friends with a few of them, and got to talk to some others on the way there. I was surrounded by the German language, and actually feeling quite confident in my abilities. However, we were soon challenged with speaking French with waiters, shopkeepers, and other Parisians. For the Germans, this was fine. They've been learning French for years, and are capable of  conversing in the language if need be. I was, too. However, that was before German. Learning German, living in it, immersing myself in it has seemingly rewritten how my brain communicates. Whereas I once had 'English' and 'French' (a simple enough choice for my brain to make) I now have 'English' and 'Other'. With enough time I can choke out a French sentence, but under pressure my brain presents me with a German response,  often vocalizing it, generally without the consent of my conscious mind. Paris was fun, but also painful. I'd like to say that I learned to separate the languages in my head through practical training, but I think the exercise left me more damaged than improved.

EDIT: I'd like to add an edit here to point out that this problem with French didn't begin in Paris. All year I have noticed that my French is getting more and more inaccessible with each passing week. Whereas I was perfectly capable in my French class at the beginning of the year, I now have a quite difficult time answering questions and participating in class. I'm sure that the problem will become better once I am away from Germany, but for now it presents a massive headache.

New Orleans 2012

It's time I made a post about something mostly unrelated to my stay in Germany.

Anyone who knows me has heard me talk about New Orleans, and the effort my youth group makes each year to make a difference in the area. We spend a week each Summer in New Orleans to rebuild after the destruction of hurricane Katrina. This year will mark the fifth annual trip. In addition to that, 2012 will mark the seventh anniversary of the storm. Although I have been anything but blind to the New Orleans area for the past five years, the amount of destruction still visible is a continual shock to me. It is true that we have seen major improvement throughout the years; each year we take a tour of the city, and we get the chance to see new homes and restored lives each time. However, there is still work to be done. To this day New Orleans residents are living with friends, family members and volunteers; waiting for the day when they can return home. There are empty fields in the Lower Ninth Ward where houses once stood. The government and the rest of the country alike have forgotten about New Orleans. Our attention has been diverted; disasters in Haiti and Japan have replaced what feelings we had for the victims of Katrina. To add to this, seven years is a long time. It is hard to imagine that anyone is still hurting from something that happened so long ago. I believe we have a responsibility to help the people of New Orleans, even to this day.
To this end, I will continue to work to heal the wounds left by the hurricane. For the moment this means donating my time and energy; a resource that is often in short supply. Volunteer groups like ours make a difference by donating labor, which is often the most expensive part of a job. Often the homeowners can afford the resources to rebuild their homes, but they don't have the means to pay a contractor. That is where we come in. In addition to that, groups like ours bring the gift of hope to a city that has been seemingly forgotten. We show the people of New Orleans that we care, and that we will never forget what happened to them.
We can't do this alone.
Today I ask for your support. My goal is to raise $1000 to cover my trip expenses (travel, lodging, and so on.) Anything you could give would be much appreciated, and will go to help people who truly need it. I have placed a widget on the right side of my blog with which donations can be made to our fundraising effort. Donations can be made either by using this widget or through contacting my parents directly.

I'd like to thank you for taking the time to read this post, as well as to thank in advance those who choose to donate.

PLEASE NOTE: when you follow my "DONATE" link above, you will see the following:

1.  You will first see the donation window, with "St. Raphael Church" at the top and "ReNew Orleans" below that.

2.  Enter your donation by typing the amount into the text box and clicking on "Update Total".

2.  After doing this you have TWO donation options:

            a. OPTION ONE: if you have a PayPal account you can log-in directly from this screen.

            b. OPTION TWO: if you don't have a PayPal account, you can donate via credit card by clicking "Continue" on the bottom    left, where it says, "Don't have a PayPal account?" with a strip of credit card icons.

3.  This will take you to the final donation review screen.  It should say "Please review your donation" and "ReNew Orleans".

3.  Just below that is a clickable link that reads: "+ Donating to a specific member?".  PLEASE click that link.

4.  A text box will open; please type "Nicole Thompson" to ensure that your donation is connected to me.

5.  If everything else is correct, click "Donate $xx.xx Now".

6.  Accept my heartfelt THANKS!!!  Feel good about helping another couple of families in NOLA...

A small group I was a part of in front of a house we helped to complete

Another small group, posing with a man who moved back home after they finished his house

Last year's group. Aren't we pretty?

Weimar

I wrote the last post about Karneval from my room in the youth hostel in Weimar, in East Germany. Now I can tell you what I was doing there.
The trip to Weimar lasted from Last Wednesday (one day after Karneval ended) until last Sunday, and was required for everyone affiliated with ASSE. This means that I was briefly reunited with everyone I met in Washington DC.
On Wednesday we took trains from our separate locations and met up at the youth hostel where we spent most of our time. We were introduced to a few program leaders who spoke entirely in German with us, which was both a blessing and a curse.
That afternoon we were given an exercise; to walk into downtown Weimar and find the answer to two questions. My small group was given questions that led us to the Market square, where we found a plaque dedicated to a famous painter (Lucas Cranach) as well as one dedicated to Bach. The exercise was meant to introduce us to the city, which turned out to be quite smaller than I had imagined. Weimar is actually quite beautiful, so I enjoyed running around and snapping pictures, while constantly making sure I did not trip on the loose cobblestone roads.

See? Pretty.

The next morning we walked into downtown to catch a bus that took our group to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Before going in we were given a basic history of the place, as well as warned multiple times to keep a reverential attitude while inside. The weather was cold, with gusts of biting wind that bit at our faces while tried to explore what remained of the camp. Our first view was of the entrance gate, with the camp's motto "Jedem Das Seine" (To each his own.) The motto was built into the gate in such a way that it was the right way around for the prisoners inside of the camp, and not for visitors or newcomers. 

We toured a group of cells and torture rooms together, then were sent on our own to look around. I and a small group of girls made a beeline for the nearest building, where we could stop shivering long enough to get a good luck around. We found ourselves in a small art gallery that was built in one of the old storage and cleaning facilities. The art was, for the most part, made by the inmates and was hauntingly beautiful overall. Some of the artists had already been professional, while some had learned their art during their lives in the concentration camp. The pieces ranged from still lives to portraits of other inmates to sketches of corpses, as well as abstract renditions of pain and sadness. (A small description can be found here.)

We stayed in the gallery for quite a while, then made our way for the crematorium, and then on to other buildings and memorials. I could speak for much longer about Buchenwald, but there are certain things I'd much rather convey directly, rather than through my blog. I can say that, overall, the visit to the concentration camp was interesting, eye-opening and  heartrendingly sad. 

The buildings in Buchenwald are all but gone, now memorials line the paths.

This is the Jewish memorial

We returned to the youth hostel and spent the rest of the day in meetings; talking about our lives as exchange students up to this point. The next day was the greatest test of boredom, however, as we were put in a "seminar" program that lasted from 9 in the morning until 7 at night. We discussed values for the entire day (I'm still not entirely sure why.) To this end we ranked our own morals and values, interviewed strangers, and held a mock debate. The entire day was in German and it was mind-numbing. We were told the next day that this sort of thing would never be attempted with our program again. 

The final full day was spent visiting the homes of Schiller and Goethe, which was interesting but relatively unremarkable (at least for the purpose of my blog.) We were given an extra hour before curfew that night (which allowed us to hang out together in Weimar until midnight,) then we hopped on trains the next morning and went our separate ways again.
All in all it was an interesting trip, and very fun for something that was required for participation in the program. We had to go to meetings, but it was all balanced by a good deal of interesting excursions and fun breaks. As I'm writing this I'm recovering from sickness and sleeplessness as a result of the Weimar trip, but that too will pass (although it might live on in my writing... I hope I did okay!)

Karneval

I have recently survived my most recent German holiday experience. In NRW -my state in Germany- Karneval is celebrated for around six days. The holiday one had actual cultural and historical significance, but has since turned into an extended party, and an excellent excuse to wear costumes and get drunk.

Karneval starts on a Thursday, Fettdonnerstag, when school is either canceled or is let out early. Thus, at around noon, the entire city of Aachen was filled with students. I visited with a friend, and we explored the extent of the celebrations. It seemed like everyone in the city was wearing a costume; from cow suits to sexy police officer uniforms to walking bratwursts. Everyone was partying, and there were alcohol bottles literring the sidewalks up and down the city streets. In the center of Aachen, in the market square, was a large stage from which emanated extremely loud Karneval music (think the Macarena, but in German, and it's an entire genre.) Although alcohol was not permitted in the market square itself, everyone near the stage was already quite drunk. We strolled around, past the hordes of inebriated college students and the moody bunches of police officers, and eventually went our separate ways. I got on a bus at around three in the afternoon, but it seemed like the entire city had already had quite too much to drink -- four o'clock rule or no (there's a saying; kein Bier vor vier -- no beer before four.)
Thus started Karneval - the week of drinking that nearly everyone was looking forward to. I say nearly everyone because I have met a great number of Germans who despise the holiday. Their reasons vary, but the most common I've heard goes along the lines of "I don't need a special holiday to drink; I do that anyways." This doesn't really stop anyone, though. I went to three different parties during the course of Karneval, and also celebrated with everyone else on Karneval Monday; when Aachen had a parade.

Apart from that, I went to a Karneval Sitzung with my host parents on Sunday evening. I'd define Karneval Sitzung, but I have a very hard time even describing the event. It took place in a huge hall, that I assume is used for various concerts and performances. The normal seating had been removed to make way for huge long tables, at which sat a multitude of costumed Germans (everyone at the sitzung had to wear a costume.) Beer and other beverages were served at the tables, and bratwurst was being sold in the lobby. The stage itself had a huge cloth replica of the Aachen Rathaus (city hall.) After we had been seated and served drinks (I stuck with my diet coke) music started up, and one of the most confusing nights of my life started. Soon the stage was full of people in matching brown costumes, and a blonde girl in what appeared to be a cowboy cheerleader getup was dancing around the stage to overly upbeat music. Karneval dancing isn't normal dancing, either. It seems to be entirely composed of cartwheels, high kicks and spins, with the majority of the effort being spent on trying to get your foot to touch your head while grinning insanely. In this opening act I was also introduced to the Karneval tradition of screaming "Alaaf!" I'm not sure what it means, but the audience repeated it after certain things the hosts said, and it was accompanied by two trumpet blasts. Although I can't exactly define the term, it seems to be a general exclamation of happiness and excitement that is only used in Karneval. The host would yell "Oeche!" ('Aachen' in the local dialect) and everyone would repeat "Alaaf!" and wave their right arm over their heads. After "Oeche!" came the names of the various performing groups, each followed with a hearty "Alaaf!" and the same two notes on the trumpet. After the first group came two comedians, a singer, more dancers, a ventriloquist, more dancers, and a comedian who's entire schtick seemed to be standing still and remaining completely monotone throughout his entire act. The only jokes I understood from any of the comedians involved the Greek economy, which garnered a huge laugh from the assembled inebriated Germans. We eventually left for home at around eleven o'clock, which gave me just enough time to sleep before Monday's parade.

The parade is the other great thing about Karneval. As I like to explain to people, the holiday is about wearing costumes, getting drunk, and getting free candy. I'm not sure the purpose of the parade, and I couldn't describe any of the different floats that I saw -- the main focus was the candy. Every group in the parade threw candy at the surrounding crowds. Some floats had small gummies, some had popcorn, some had huge chocolate bars. Everyone who watched the parade brought a bag to fit their catches into, and no one went home empty-handed. I ended up catching multiple chocolate bars, two waffles, a bag of popcorn, a bag of tissues, a circle of printen (the local gingerbread) and various smaller candies. This didn't come without difficulty, though. It was below freezing outside when we lined up along the parade route, and I had completely forgotten to wear gloves. My friend and I would stand huddled together between floats, then bring our hands into the open air only in the presence of candy. We would have to jump, wave our arms and yell "Alaaf!" to get noticed by the candy slingers, and we complied with gusto once we caught on. However, the people on the passing floats were a little overenthusiastic, and large chocolate bars would zip past our faces at frightening speeds, or bounce off of our freezing fingers and onto the ground. I managed to cut and bruise on finger on a king-sized chocolate bar that some kid picked up off the ground while I was busy nursing my wounds. I also attempted to catch a candy that instead bounced off of my hand, and then off of the head of the man in front of me, only to land a few feet away. It was chaos (and this is without mentioning the small alcohol bottles that were too easy to trip over while diving for candy.)
All in all Karneval was an interesting experience, both to observe and attempt to join in on. I enjoyed the fun-loving mentality of the holiday, but I also sympathize with the Germans who can't stand the holiday. A week of partying gets a little old in a city filled with overenthusiastic teenagers, and I think some people will be recovering for days to come. 

An Antifa Demonstration

I know someone who belongs to a group that calls itself 'Antifa', which stands for Anti-Faschismus. They work to oppose the surviving traces of Nazism in Germany, and stand for left-wing values.
Recently I was informed of an anti-Nazi demonstration that would be held in Aachen. It was staged on the fourth of February, which is the anniversary of a local club of reportedly violent neo-Nazis. A couple American friends and I decided to watch, thinking it would be an interesting experience during our year in Germany. I was told that this would be okay, so long as I stayed out of the demonstration itself.
This is how I came to be trailing along after the huge flock of black-clad protesters that wound its way through the streets of Aachen. The main group consisted of youths, dressed mostly in black. They had dark hats and scarves that served to cover their faces from the cold and from recognition, and also to protect against pepper spray. Dotted among these Antifa members, however, were casually-dressed individuals who joined the throng at some point in the march. The protesters marched alongside a van which blasted music when it wasn't being used to project anti-fascist messages. Surrounding this entire chanting, singing and shouting bundle of humanity stood the cops. They were dressed in full uniform, complete with riot helmets and batons.
Police vans had been parked up and down the city for hours; lining the protest route and ready to spring into action if needed. The majority of the police force was put to work escorting the demonstration; keeping both the protesters and the city itself safe.

My attempts at photography were limited and shaky

For the most part, these cops were apparently unnecessary. The protest was peaceful, mostly causing trouble by blocking streets and intersections as the crowd walked by. However, about halfway in someone began lighting fireworks. As I mentioned in my New Year's blog post, fireworks are only legal on very specific days in Germany. These ones, although harmless, caused the police to don their riot helmets and stand at the ready. After a policeman ordered the protesters to stop lighting the fireworks or face arrest, they continued marching on in peace.
After three or so hours of walking in the below-freezing temperatures, the demonstration finally made it back to their starting point. They were using a Antifa-controlled building as a home base, and stood in front of it with their banners and signs. A few protesters lit flares and fireworks, but it appeared that the demonstration was actually coming to an end. Sensing this, and hating the cold, my friend and I decided to leave. I've never been that cold before, and it was nice to finally get inside and away from the frost. However, we judged it incorrectly, and ended up missing the most exciting (albeit possibly dangerous) part of the rally.
Although the demonstration was officialy over, the police refused to leave. They surrounded the building on all sides, and watched the remaining protesters warily. A few people then began to throw fireworks directly at the police, before retreating back into the building. From what I have gathered, this sparked the final conflict with the police, wherein the protesters attempted to get into their building while the police charged in with pepper spray. As I was happily in a warm building by this point, that is the entirety of my knowledge (which might be somewhat faulty.)
Despite the pepper spray and fireworks-filled climax, this was actually quite a peaceful demonstration. 500 or so people marched peacefully and calmly through the major streets of Aachen, spreading their message to all that could see. Many of these sort of protests, on both sides of the issue, involve violent altercations with the police. This is why I was told to stay a good distance away from the protest; an order which I was perfectly fine with obeying. Despite the cold and the long walk, I ended up actually enjoying the experience. It seemed like a singularly German thing to do; to walk alongside a group of people opposed to Nazism, listening as they chanted German slogans for all to hear.

Finally, here is a link to the flickr gallery for the demonstration.
Also, if anything I said is unclear, or if you have any questions about it, please feel free to leave a comment or contact me directly.

A Winter Post

As I write this blog, it is negative eight degrees Celsius in the village of Roetgen. The snow has fallen, leaving thin blanket upon the fields, the homes, the roads. Now it is too cold for snow, and the sky is clear and blue. The sun is blinding, but does nothing to help warm me up. As a child of the Bay Area, the snow strikes me as equal parts beautiful, cool, exciting, and frightening. I love watching it glisten in the sun, and taking walks (when it isn't too cold,) but I am terrified of the hill that separates my home from the bus stop, where I catch a bus every morning to school. I know that one day I will fall on the shiny patches of snow left on the sidewalks -compacted by footsteps until they're nothing more than treacherous puddles of ice. I only know this because it's happened twice already. I'd like to think that I've developed tactics to prevent ice-related injuries, but one day I'll prove myself wrong. I'll make sure to upload pictures of the resultant bruises.

This wave of snow also marks the first snowfall in the city of Aachen, as well as in Kornelimunster (where my school is located.) The Americans are generally ecstatic about the development, while the Germans are anywhere between mildly disgruntled and utterly furious. I've enjoyed watching the snow fall outside the school windows, as well as seeing the white sheet that has settled on the roof of the otherwise ugly school building. Besides that, however, the news is not so good. As I have already mentioned (I think,) there is a second hill that separates the bus stop near INDA to the actual school building. This, too, is covered in icy patches. My morning routine involves half-sliding down a hill, getting on a bus for around 45 minutes, then getting out to carefully hike up a steep and treacherous snow-covered incline. This all repeats in the afternoons, but backwards. It's definitely an adventure.

To quickly cover other news, I'll mention that I recently finished my German language course. This course was free as part of the CBYX scholarship, so I signed up for classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 6:30 to 8:00. I was never given an entrance exam, so the community college where I took the classes had no idea what level I belonged to. I chose the beginner class that was specially designed for fast learners, thinking it would be perfect to improve upon the knowledge I received at language camp. The first few classes were great - I was in a class with a huge blend of students; part American exchange students and part foreign immigrants and travelers. They came from countries including Italy, Serbia, Poland, Spain and Mexico.
We started to learn quickly -- we were going over all the stuff I had learned at language camp, but it seemed like we'd soon get into new territory. However, the class eventually stagnated, leaving me in a class that seemed a little bit slow, and often redundant. In the end, I am thankful that I took the course, and all the more thankful that I am finished with it.

More to come later. Again, I apologize for my reluctance to upload new posts, but it seems like life is on fast forward here. Every time I look up another month has gone by.

Sylvester

I have been asked time and time again, by Americans and Germans alike, why I didn't go home for Christmas. This single fact seems to appall people, as I am spending the best holiday of the year away from my parents. There are two reasons why I did not go back. The first, and most important, is that I signed a contract stating that I would stay here all year, living in Germany until the day we all return home. However, even if I had not signed such a contract I believe I still would have chosen to stay here. One of the most important factors of an exchange trip is learning to understand your host country's culture and traditions, and what better way than to live through all the holidays with them. Holidays are cultural magnets, and are celebrated completely differently in each separate country. Christmas, therefore, was quite an interesting time to be in Germany. I got to experience the Aachen Christmas Market, received gifts on the 6th of December (apparently America is the only country that doesn't do this), and ate pretzels (this is apparently a seasonal thing.)

The Aachener Weinachtsmarkt

    

 Christmas wasn't all, though. I was invited to a New Year's party at the home a friend's host family. We were the three Americans watching curiously as the Germans celebrated. New Year's is called Sylvester (or Silvester) here in Germany, and is the main fireworks holiday of the year. In fact, it might be the only day on which you can buy and use fireworks without a special permit. 

     I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, though. Before the fireworks comes the food. As the guests arrived in the afternoon we were treated to cakes, cookies and printen squares accompanied by coffee, hot chocolate or -for the kids- soda. This is a very common occurence in German parties, where cake always comes first. At any birthday party you will be given your choice of multiple cakes long before dinner. It is polite to stuff your face. When dinner came around the fifteen or so of us that attended the Sylvester party seated ourselves along a long table laden with different food, including potato salad, two types of pasta salad and cheese-stuffed meatballs that the Americans helped to make. The main course was incredible pork that makes me drool to this day. Needless to say, we all ate far too much. Beer was, of course, served to everyone with dinner. As I find the taste rather too strong for me, I sipped at mine, but mostly stuck to my cola. The beer at this party was being served out of multiple kegs stationed in the kitchen. After the meal they were available to everyone, and were quickly emptied.
     My friends and I retreated downstairs after dinner, only to be called back to the table a while later for 'Zuckerhut' (literally translated: Sugarloaf.) I thought this was a ridiculous name, as 'Hut' means hat in German. Not knowing what to expect from the supposed 'sugar hat' my friends and I walked into the dining room to witness the single most alcoholic thing I have ever seen. In the middle of the table sat a copper pot filled halfway with wine (I saw it being filled while rolling meatballs; my friend's host father uncorked and poured two bottles of wine into this thing.) The pot sat upon a fondue burner, and a cone of compressed white sugar was suspended over the pot on a little grate. We all watched as My friend's host parents brought in a bottle of rum, which they opened and began to ladle onto the sugar. After a certain amount of rum soaked the cone they pulled out a match and lit the whole thing on fire. They then continued to ladle on rum, eventually giving the task over to their fourteen-year-old son. This continued until the sugar had completely absorbed into the rum and melted into the wine. (They later had to figure out how to stop the wine from burning, as it was alight with bright blue flames and boiling madly.) The American teenagers were allowed a little bit each, so I can report that the creation was tastier than normal mulled wine. However, I don't really know enough about the alcoholic effects except for the fact that we were watched carefully while sipping our concoctions, and that the adults at the party seemed quite happy after the whole rum-sugar-wine-burning ceremony.

Watch that sugar burn

Cheers

     After that we had a few hours before midnight. Naturally, my friend and I decided that we should try out some of our fireworks, since we had an insane amount stashed in his room downstairs. We filled our pocket with smaller fireworks and grabbed a couple bottle rockets, only to be stopped by the Germans, who seemed appalled that we would begin fireworks early. The celebration was, apparently, for midnight only. Starting early would be a crime. They had a hard time explaining this, however, since we are both pyromania-inclined Americans who had a giant pile of fireworks to go through. Eventually they convinced us, and we waited until midnight.
     I wish I could describe the beauty that was Aachen, Germany at the turn of the year. We all stepped out of the house to witness the largest quantity of explosions I have ever seen. All along the horizon, seperated by inches of sky, were fireworks. They completely encircled us, and seemed to go on forever. Muffled booming came from each direction, and the sky was lit up with all the different colors of this year's firework selection. I have come to the realization that this is only really possible on New Year's Eve as any other fireworks holidays (such as the US' Fourth of July) happen throughout the entire day, meaning that each specific firework show goes off at a different time. As a Californian who has never seen backyard New Year's fireworks, I was in heaven.  My only regret is that I didn't have the foresight to climb the local hill with my camera, as a panoramic view could have been spectacular.
     The final thing I'd like to talk about is unrelated to my experience of Sylvester, but is rather a German tradition of almost inexplicable origin. Germany has somehow acquired the tradition of sitting down on New Year's Eve and watching 'Dinner for One', a British, black and white comedy sketch that no native English speaker has ever heard of. I watched it myself early on in the year to be able to understand the weird quotes I've often heard Germans reciting, always with funny British accents and a great deal of seemingly unreasonable laughter. Dinner for One is actually my main proof that Germans -do- have a sense of humor. If they didn't, why would they laugh so hard at someone saying 'thank you very much, Miss Sophie'? The sketch involves a very old woman who is celebrating her birthday. Her tradition is to invite her best friends to eat a birthday dinner with her but they have all died, leaving just her and the butler. It is never explained if she is blind, senile or just a very good sport, but the butler plays the role of all the other guests while Miss Sophie acts as if her friends are still eating dinner with her. Humorous high points include the butler tripping over a tiger rug an obscene number of times and the butler failing to trip over the rug one time. The most disconcerting thing about the German fascination with this sketch is the quoting, which continues all year and generally happens without cause. Sometimes my host family and I will be eating dinner when my host dad exclaims "Same procedure as every year, Miss Sophie!" and bursts out laughing. This is the one tradition I don't think I will ever understand.
An explanation of the tradition: Here
Watch the Video: Here