Hamburg

       A few weeks ago the other exchange student in my city, Leandro, asked me if I wanted to go to Hamburg for the day with him and his sister Micaela who was visiting from Argentina.  Two out of my three classes had been cancelled on that day anyways so my host parents said it would be okay for me to trade in a math class for the cultural experience of visiting Germany's second largest city.  Leandro has been here for 6 months because he's on the winter schedule so I let him handle the German train ticket and before I knew it, I was off to Hamburg on a thankfully sunny Wednesday morning.  The train ride was about 2 hours with a stop over in Bremen.  The official reason for our visit was for Leandro to visit the Argentinian consulate there and I was just tagging along.
       Once the consulate opened and they had talked to some people in rapid Spanish, the three of us walked to a park and it was decided that I could take off to look around the city while Lea and Micaela worked at the consulate because we didn't know how long it might take.  With my camera slung round my neck and my walking sandals on, I headed off toward the city center in true tourist fasion.  A pleasant 30 minute walk along the lake led me straight into the main square of Hamburg.  I snapped plenty of photos along the way and had to restrain myself when I hit the city from taking a picture of every single building I came across.  Wandering around chasing after the glimpse of a church steeple over bridges that spanned the cities many canals, I felt truly contented and fully European.  I even successfully ordered a Döner from a cart without the man switching into English on me! (Granted I think German was his second language too, but it's a start).  I left the cart man and sauntered off with my Döner and new found confidence to a nice spot on the steps leading down to the main canal.   There I enjoyed my giant "Turkey meets Germany gyro sandwich" while watching people feed the swans and thinking about how cool my life is.
       Shortly after I finished, I got the call to meet my friends at the park in half an hour.  With only a slight detour made to find an ice cream cone, I returned along the same trail that had brought me into the city.  We had to go to a rotary dinner ice cream eating (apparently thats a thing here, just to have ice cream meetings.  I'm not complaining, I just wish I had realized it before showing up with an empty stomach...) that night so we had to take the next train back to Bremen.  In the train station we had half an hour extra in which I was able to meet with a friend who used to go to my school in America.  He is in Germany with the CBYX scholarship program and had a few weeks in Hamburg for language school before he relocates to the south of Germany for the rest of the year.  It was strange to see someone from home who I knew just one month earlier had been in my same town and one year from now would be back there!  After our hasty catching up, I said goodbye to Austin and hopped on my train back to Bremerhaven.  I slept most of the way home too, luckily Lea woke me up in time for my stops! (I've learned I'm really good at sleeping on trains)
       
Over all it was a very fun day, I can't wait for another oppurtunity to get back to Hamburg!

And here's a quick photo tour, you can find all the rest on my facebook.

We made it!

Crest of Hamburg

Yay for public transportation systems!

First views of the city beyound the lake

Hamburg Rathaus

Döner <3

Mini Northville reunion in the Hauptbahnhof.  Good luck with those crazy southerners Austin!

 Look for posts on last weekends rotary orientation and the German school system next!

~M

FAQs

       One month in Germany.  It really feels surreal to me.  It's hard to imagine life going on outside of Germany but at the same time when I sit down and count the days, I realize this is twice as long as I have ever been away from home before.  This post is going to focus on the 10 most frequently asked questions I get from Germans.  In order of most asked, here are the questions and my answers!

1. How is your German doing? It's improving so that's encouraging but German is still a hard language to learn.  It's made even more difficult for me because of how excessible Germany is to an English speaker.  You could live here very comfortably knowing only English and the most basic German so I have to force myself to use my bumbling German, but I'm getting better about it and everyone is always encouraging.

2. Do you like your host family?  My host family is very kind and helpful and they have made me feel right at home.  I'm especially happy that I fit here well because they are my only family, I won't be switching like most rotary students.  And yes, I miss having my host sister around now that she has left for Chile but that was always expected and I know she will be having a great exchange year over in South America.

3. Are German boys hotter than American boys? (I told you I was using the most commonly asked questions, not the most relevent)  German boys on average are much better groomed with more attention given to clothes and hair but this is not an absolute rule.  I find this to be a plus but for those American girls who swoon over sweat pants (I never understood that one...) you will be dissapointed here.  But rotary doesn't allow dating anyways so really its a moot point all around.

4. Do you like it here in Bremerhaven? I love it!

5. Wait... really?  Yeah!  Everyone has been so friendly and I think the city is really cool.  I love living by the water and eating brötchen after school and having barbeques with friends.  I like how it's completely normal to see dogs everywhere, like in shopping malls, buses, restraunts etc.  It's also so exciting when I understand German, even if it's just a lady on the bus talking about her day shopping.

6. Does everyone in America own a gun?  No.  I've never shot a gun or seen one shot, though yes my dad does own a gun but it is only good for hunting birds.  There are people who are gun crazy but that isn't the majority of people.  Personally, I support much stricter gun laws, especially when it comes to assault weapons.  Why does anyone need something that can shoot automatically?

7. What's different about the schools here versus in the US?  Well the scheduling of classes is very different, and there isn't as much homework assigned here.  Though when it is assigned, it's usually more thought provoking than just practicing. (I'll have a longer post on school soon!)  Content wise it is hard for me to compare just because I understand so little of the German.

8. Things are more expensive in Europe, right?  On average clothing seems more expensive but there are also places here like H&M where you can buy cheap clothes.  I find the food here to be cheaper, both eating out and just from the store.  It's also really nice not having to tip at the end of a meal!  Though remember that I'm not going out to nice restraunts here, its usually a €3 Döner or asian inspired noodles.  The fanciest meal I've had so far was a plate of nachos so don't try asking me for the prices of couture food.

9. What do you miss most from home? People. Duh. But beyond missing the amazing people I left back in the states, it's hard to pick.  I miss the ease of being able to drive anywhere anytime but the buses and trains are very useful so it's not too big a deal.  I also miss good asian food.  There's asian food here but it doesn't compare.  People seem to talk about a lack of Mexican food a lot but that was never a huge part of my life before so I don't mind.  But I do miss pad thai and sushi that doesn't look like it was shipped in that plastic box all the way from a factory in Japan.  Then again I have German chocolate and Brötchen so I guess that's the exchange I'm making.

10. Were you a cheer leader? Nope, I have never had any desire to be a cheer leader.  I was always a fan of sports that required you to break a sweat.

So ranging from silly to serious, those are my top 10 German FAQs.  I'll try to get a post up soon that covers the exciting things I've been up to for the last month, but that's a rather daunting task because there have been so many great experiences!
Grüße aus Deutschland
~M

First Days in Germany

       That's right folks, I have finally made it to Germany!  There is lots to write about because now I become excited from the simplest of things like what I ate for breakfast, driving down the road, and how the doors lock all because "this is how Germans do it"!  It is hard for me to really compare many of the things that I have seen so far as German v. American because I don't know if it is all the norm or if things I am seeing are unusual by German standards as well.  That is why I have decided instead to give a super speed recap of the last few days without any judgements.

        So after my great 9 hours spent travelling, I finally made it to the Bremen airport.  My family was waiting for me there and there were hugs given all around.  This did surprise me because everyone told me that Germans rarely hug but if that is true, my family must be an acception because I got a hug from each of them and my host sister greets all her friends with a hug.  From Bremen, it was about a 45 minute drive to our house in Bremerhaven.  I told them I wasn't tired but after the first half hour I could hardly keep my eyes open.  I tried to stay awake so I could see all of my city but it wasn't really working so I succumbed to the 5 minute power nap.  Bremerhaven and my house look much different in person than they did on google maps, but only in the best way.  My new house is absolutely adorable.  It has a very  rustic cottage feel to it, everything is made of wood, even the fridge and the dish washer.  There's exposed beams all over and a loft in the living room as well as my bedroom.  It reminds me of my mom's favorite architecure book called Cottage Living or something like that that is all about maximizing space.  I need to figure out how to download my cameras pictures soon so that you all can see because I am in love with how cute it is.

       After settling in and taking a nice long nap, I took a walk with my host sister, Charlotte, and the dog, Waltraud.  She brought me to a really pretty park not too far from the house that I would  love to run in soon and she showed me the neighborhood.  I was introduced to a few neighbors who I can't remember the names of unfortunately.  After a light dinner of bread with meat and cheese, chocolate yogurt, and a salad, I went to bed. (again)

       Friday dawned bright and hot.  The hottest day of the summer in fact!  I spent the morning grocery shopping and buying a very simple pre-paid phone.  In the afternoon Charlotte brought me along into the city to meet her friend Alex.  We saw most of the main attractions of the city like the main church, the large pedestrian shopping street, the Mediterraneo (this was like a standard mall but all the store fronts looked like Italian houses, it was very cool) and I went inside that big glass building that looks like a jelly bean that is in every picture of the city.  After awhile we were summoned home so I could relax because Petra is extra careful with me; it's very sweet.  A couple hours later Helmut drove us back to the harbor where a movie was being shown on a huge screen made of the shipping containers that fill the harbor.  We sat on a blanket on the cobble stones with a bunch of Charlotte's friends and Charlotte translated the whole movie for me, which was so nice because I would have been completely lost without her!  Helmut came and brought us home afterwards.

        Saturday I slept extremely late.  When I woke up my host parents took me to a park that stretches along the dike past Bremerhaven to walk Waltraud and show me the country side, but when we pulled up it began to rain.  We turned around and drove through the industrial harbor where I saw all the giant cranes for moving the containers which are mostly filled with cars.  The road was bordered by huge trains stacked with new cars ready to be taken to all of Europe.  We ended up finding a tour bus in a parking lot there that we hopped onto.  Normally, the tour wouldn't pick people up there but the driver agreed to drive us back to our car afterwards.  He really liked to talk so it took awhile for him to get us back but he seemed nice enough.  He only spoke German so I mostly didn't know what was going on.  At night I went back to the movie festival with Charlotte and some friends but the movie for that night was really boring so we left pretty early and just walked around the city and went down to the dike.  I still don't understand anything in German unless it is said very slowly so I couldn't keep up with the others at all but Charlotte would stop and explain their conversations sometimes so it was fun!  We saw a few shooting stars as well and they showed me a new constellation.
       
      Today I have had an easy morning and soon we will go to meet Helmut's mom.  Tonight we are barbequeing with some neighbors which I guess happens every Sunday.

Over all, Germany is treating me very well!

~M

Ready or Not, Here I Come

        I keep writing up posts that go along the lines of "OMG I leave in XX days!!!! I'm so ExCiTeD wait I'm really nervous but can I just be in Germany already wahhh I love this make it stop!"  Each one is promptly deleted because the tone at the beginning never matches that at the end and the middle bit just makes me sound violently bipolar.
        I've come to realize though that this is just the way I feel right now.  Depending on the day and even on the hour I feel different emotions about leaving and going.  I need to make it clear that these are two very different things.  Going always has good emotions even if there is some anxiety.  Leaving on the other hand slips through my fingers every time I try to pick up on the exact emotion it excites.  I have definitely left any indifference far behind. I am sad to be leaving my friends, but I have their assurance that I won't be forgotten and I know that they'll be here for me when I return as well as emotionally supportive even while I'm away.  My family will be just fine without me no matter what some of them seem to think and there will probably be so many letters home the only difference will be all the extra time available in the shower.  But leaving still isn't all bad because in doing so, I will be discarding any labels that I have accumulated over the years and arriving in Germany with a clean foundation to build myself on.  Though as I write this, I wonder if that really should be labeled as a "going" feeling. You see what I mean by the blog changing directions?

       Well no matter, that doesn't change the fact that I am leaving in a mere 13 days!  That's right, I have my ticket all set for 10 pm on July 31st.  From there I fly to Amsterdam, have a two hour lay over and then an hour flight to Bremen where I will be greeted by my host family at 2:30 in the afternoon on August 1st.  I don't actually fly well truth be told and it just so happens that flying between Detroit and Amsterdam was the first time that I threw up on a plane.

*Skip this story if you are of feint heart or queasy stomach* (okay it's not that bad and you will miss some laughs but skip if you must)

To start with, I get motion sick pathetically easily.  Like say I ride in a particularly fast elevator.  Afterwards I have to sit down for a minute to stop walking in crooked lines. Yeah, it's bad.  So of course there wasn't a single barf bag on my first transatlantic 7 hour flight.  I hardly thought about it though because I'd felt fine the entire time, fully enjoying all that the awesome built in TV had to offer, as well as the new delicacy of "Plane Food" .  Unfortunately, as we started to descend and the pressure changed, so did my brand new opinion on in flight meals.  After about infinity plus 1 hours I felt the longed for bump of wheels hitting the tarmac and I thought to myself, "I'm saved!".  Alas, I rejoiced too soon for I still could not run to the bathroom because the captain hadn't turned off the seat belt sign.  Now you may be thinking that my needs outranked the little glowing light above my head and in this thinking, you would be wrong.  12-year-old Mary had had the authority of seat belt signs drilled into her since the early age of 2.  I knew in no uncertain terms that walking while the light was on would cause the spontaneous combustion and immediate drop of the plane from the sky along with the death of every person on-board.  It didn't matter that the plane was driving around already ON the ground, I was not about to be responsible for the deaths of all those people.  Now I'm not trying to sound like a hero, I only did what any wonderful self-sacrificing person would do.  I leaned over the side of my chair and threw up all over the isle that half a Boeing 747 needed to walk down to get out of the plane.  Within seconds the suddenly attentive Lufthansa flight attendant swooped down from behind and nabbed my blanket from me.  I watched her deftly fold it up and gracefully lay it across the isle were it magically blended into the blue/grey carpeting.  The large man across from me never even looked up from the computer he had just turned back on.  I then sat there and watched the whole back of the plane exit unknowingly over my first in flight meal.

*End story*

So if you read that paragraph, you now understand why I'm not thrilled to be returning to Amsterdam.  For those of you who heeded my warning and skipped it, just know that it involved the red light district, high speed trams, a missing passport, and an uncomfortably large amount of Swiss cheese.  I trust your imagination can fill in the rest for you and now you also know why I'm not thrilled to be returning to Amsterdam.  Luckily, I already found a few other exchange students who I will meet up with for the flight to Bremen so even if I am a little out of it in the airport, I should make it all the way to Bremen.  Less than two weeks seems so soon, next time I post here, I very well might be in Germany!  Crazy ehh?

~M

Central States Conference

       2 weeks until Germany and it still feels utterly surreal.  This past weekend was the Central States Rotary Youth Exchange weekend (CSRYE).  The days were filled with meetings that were decently informative though rather repetitive.  But I'd rather have a rotary that over prepares me rather than under prepares me so I'm not complaining.  Both nights we had dance parties which were wicked fun.  Now I only wish I was headed for Latin America so they could teach me to dance!  I also fell in love with all the Spanish and Portuguese songs by the end of Saturday night, they're just so much more fun to dance to even if I don't know what in the world is being said...

       There was also the traditional "Brasil against The World" soccer game one afternoon.  I was able to play for a few minutes but I had to really fight the boys to let me on.  They'd grown tired of being out played by the all boys Brazilian team so when I swapped on, an athletic inbound ran up and told me to get off the field.  Why he thought that would work, I have no idea.  The next play came down to my end of the field, I carried it straight down the middle for half the field and laid it off in an easy pass to a girl standing wide open at the corner of the 18.  She proceeded to fall over in her attempt to kick the ball.  (Okay so maybe that was the reason why "The World" boys were trying to keep us girls off the pitch.)  Anyways, after that I got high fives from most of the boys on both teams and an almost apology from the kid who had tried to sub me out.  Hopefully they won't count out the girls quite so quickly next time.  I gave up my spot to the next person who wanted to sub in and keeping with tradition, Brasil won the game.  After the game we set up a game of 8v8 that was a lot of fun because everyone was relaxed and just out to have a good time.  This did however make me late and sweaty for the pin exchange.

       I'm afraid I'll never have a super covered blazer just because I'm a big believer in collecting memories and experiences rather than souvenirs and things (being perpetually late might also inhibit my pin collecting abilities, but let's just chalk it up to principles instead) I don't have souvenirs from anything because I always end up asking myself if shopping is really what I want to do while I'm traveling and the answer is always no.  Of course pins are a little different, and some people may argue that a pin is a memory and that trading is an experience to remember but in a mass trade where I don't even know someones name I just don't get as excited as the rest of the exchange students.  I did still trade a fair amount and will be flying with a half full blazer so I will scream Rotary Exchange Student just as loudly as the next blazer clad kid, don't worry!

       I must warn any future exchange students going to CSRYE, there was very little sleep to be had all weekend.  I slept all of 4 hours the first night and then did not sleep again until the car ride home at 10am on Sunday.  There is a strict curfew of course, but only for being inside your dorm building.  I spent all of Saturday night with a fun bunch of outbound, inbound, and rebound students who have all become very good friends of mine. There's something about exchange students, even those of us who haven't left yet that binds us all together.  Maybe it's that we've all had the courage to leave our homes to enter into these great adventures.  What ever it is, exchange students really are the most universally fun group of people you will ever meet.

Basically if you are going to CSRYE get ready for a fun time, and keep in mind that nobody ever remembers the nights that they get enough sleep (;

Tschuess!

~M

Bremerhaven

       My first post after the original host family email was rather brief, so this post will serve as a sort of supplement on the city of Bremerhaven.  I meant to put this up sooner but better late then never!  This information all came off google though so maybe I'll make a comparison post once I actually reach Bremerhaven.

                                                           Tour of Bremerhaven:

This picture comes from a boat festival held annually in Bremerhaven.  Hopefully I'll stay late enough next year to see it!

Boat Parade

This is the main terminal building of Bremerhaven's port.  The city is supposed to be very modern and most of the architecture is post war.

Sunset over the harbor

This is the "Zoo by the Sea" (literally that's what Zoo am Meer translates to) and it's an aquarium plus other animals found near the sea.  I'll definitely check it out

Lloyd Gymnasium This is one of the buildings of my school!

Here's a picture from inside another one of my high school's buildings.  I could get used to this!

A German beach on the North Sea.  It looks just like Lake Michigan to me!

On a rare sunny day, everyone flocks to the beach

Bremerhaven even has it's own beautiful town Christmas tree!

Host Email Part II

        I told you I'd make another post after I got a response from my family and now, several emails later, I finally am getting around to it!  So now I know for sure that I will be living in Bremerhaven with my host mom and dad.  The daughter who is going to Chile will be there for my first month which will probably be very helpful for adjusting, though she won't go to my school.  My host brother is graduating high school this year and next year will be living in Hamburg about an hour away.  I don't know when he will leave for Hamburg or how often he'll come home but overall, I'm going to be an only child!  I admit, this scared me a little at first, seeing as I've been raised with three siblings but the more I thought about it, the more benefits I see to being the only child for my exchange year. Another peculiarity about my situation is that they will be my only family!  Rotary typically moves you around so as to lighten the load on the host and to give you a broader view of "normal" life but it just worked out that I will only have one host family.  I can't say that I'm disappointed by this though, because from all the emails I've been exchanging with my host mom, she seems perfect.  I also have some pictures of their house now and it looks absolutely adorable.  All the flowers are coming up in the gardens now, just like here.

       My host mom also told me that I will attend Lloyd Gymnasium, because that's where all of the exchange students in Bremerhaven go to school.  It's website said that they are a bilingual school which freaked me out at first, but my host mom said she'd support me in getting myself into strictly German taught classes.  Did I mention how superb her English is?  She's been writing most emails in both German and English for me, though now it's mostly just German.  I still write out an English and German version because I'm sure that without an English version to reference, my German would be almost indecipherable.  It's still good practice for me to be writing in German though, and I'm learning that I use "excited" "beautiful" and "very" a whole lot.  I almost hope their spoken English isn't quite as good just so that I don't use it too much as a crutch when the German gets hard.  This was a rather rambling post but I think it served it's purpose.

I hope to add another post that will highlight all the cool things I've learned about Bremerhaven soon!  Get ready for lots of pictures in that!

~M