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...."
