The weird things about Germany (through an American's eyes)

1. Always always always use a knife when you eat. Always.
2. Sparkling water. Everywhere.
3. Hate peanutbutter, but love peanut puffs (Imagine cheeto puffs . . . . but peanut flavored . . . .)
4. Hardly anyone wears contact lenses.
5. Never without a ruler.
6. Faust.
7. Spreadable meat.
8. Not having one specific class text book for the year, but one for this topic and then a new one for that topic . . . .
9. Fruhstuck bei Steffani
10. Their obsession with criminal mystery shows.
11. Radio stations: one second Pop, the next 80's, the next Rock.
12. Teacher's not here = free hour.
13. But sometimes: Teacher's not here = work on the homework they left for you.
14. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day.
15. The doors. I can't explain. They're different. I hate them.

Conversations with my computer #1

Me: Hey, so you've been working pretty well lately . . . .

Computer: Oh, you noticed? Yeah, I've been eating better lately . . . . thought maybe I'd try the whole grain charger diet . . . .

 

Me: Yeah, wow, that's great! You know, maybe we could try to download something bigger today.

 

Computer: Really? That sounds like a great idea! What did you have in mind? Maybe TWO photos?

 

Me: Well . . . . I was thinking . . . . you know I have all these pictures of my new home . . . . and I'd really like to post them for people to, you know, SEE . . . . but it's kind of a lot . . . .

 

Computer: Oh, I see, we're talking like FIVE photos here! I don't know, Hannah, five is really a lot . . . . but I think I can do it. Yeah, let's try!

 

Me: Well . . . . no . . . . it's more like . . . . six . . . .

 

Computer: BRING IT ON!

 

Me: . . . . plus eighty . . . .

 

Computer:

 

Computer:

 

Computer:

 

Me: Um, okay, maybe later.

My schedule

In Germany they have block schedule here, so I’ll just give you the lay out and a few "details" of each class:

(*) means 2 hours

Monday:

*Deutsch - We’re reading the Geothe play “Faust”. I. Do. Not. Understand.

 

*Physics -  Let’s not even go there, okay?

*Geography – Please, please, please, will you write legibly?!

*Deutsch - This was supposed to be French class, but as I don’t know any French at all, they gave me                                                                                                                                    another German class . . . . a seventh grade German class.

 

Tuesday:

Biology – I’m sorry, were you talking about something important? I kinda fell asleep.

History – They should call this historical government class

*English – my favorite class J

*Philosophy – Ummmmm . . . . yeah, okay.

 

Wednesday:

*P.E -  runrunrunrunrunrunrunrunrunrunrunrunrunrunrun JUMP! runrunrunrunrunrunrunrunrun

*Math – Doesn’t matter which country you’re in: math will always be taught in alien language.

*Biology – zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Thursday

Deutsch -  okay, I can do this. I can – crap, what did she just say???

History – what? When did that happen? Oh, wait, I misunderstood. Nevermind.

English – thank God

Math -  nooooooooooooooo

Biology – not gonna fall asleep not gonna fall asleep not…..gonna……fall……a……..

Deutsch – not again!

*Physics – I don’t understand. Do you understand? No? okay, let’s goof off J

 

 

Friday:

Deutsch – whatever. It's Friday!

English – omygod, I’m forgetting English. This is so embarrassing. Everybody is going to think I’m stupid because I can’t speak my own language. Omygod I’m going to be a mute! I’m languageless!

Math – Burst into flames Burst into flames Burst into flames

*History – Huh, everybody’s reading . . . maybe I should try . . . nah.

*Art – So . . . . when are we going to draw? Because I’d really like to improve my doodling skills for History class.

School and food and spiders

So, this blog post might be a bit long and rambley because I’m about to cram three weeks of culture shock into it. You might be thinking, hey, you’ve been here for six weeks, why would you suddenly be experiencing culture shock now? Well, you see, those first three weeks, although I had a lovely time with my temporary German host family, were mostly spent with AMERICANS. And it may have been a German language camp, but we sure as heck weren’t speaking German. So, yeah. Culture shock.

I have now taken up residence in Vietlubbe, a SMALL town in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It’s really really pretty here; there are these giant windmills about a mile away from my house and I see them every time we go anywhere. And the good weather helps too, although, as of yesterday it has turned not so wonderful.

It was pretty awkward when I first got here; I didn’t understand anything and I could only say a few simple sentences. We kinda just ended up staring at each other and then laughing at how awkward it was. Eventually we just started speaking Denglish (Deutsch-English). The second day we went to the Baltic sea, which was very pretty and nice, even though it started to rain . . . . really hard. But it was still cool to see.

And then . . . . school. It’s really not too bad, mostly because I don’t do anything. Usually I just translate the written stuff they give me because there’s no way I could keep up with what they’re saying – even if I were listening :P The worst part is not being able to understand the people around me because I feel left out and stuff, but I don’t want them to speak English because then I wouldn’t be learning German, but if I don’t understand anything then I can’t say anything and then…..yeah. But there are a lot of really nice people in my school, and I feel like I’ve made a lot of good friends already J

In about five weeks from today, I’m going to have to actually start participating and earning grades in class, which I’m totally dreading, but for now I’m really just coasting through school trying to soak up as much German as I can.

Okay, so, food: Usually in the morning I have a roll with homemade raspberry jelly. Then I make myself I sandwich for in between classes. It’s something that everybody does here that I really like. Everybody just brings a bag load of sandwiches or snacks so they can eat them between classes. It’s awesome. Then I eat a warm lunch in the cafeteria. While not the best food it is TEN times better than cafeteria food in America. The first day I was there someone asked me what they have to eat for lunch in my American school. We have 3 options at Coronado school. Salad, something else, or pizza. The something else changes every day but it’s usually not very good. The salad and pizza however, are there every day, so of course, when (NOT EVERY DAY) I eat from the cafeteria I go for the pizza because the salad is soggy and gross. So when this girl asked me what we have to eat in my American school, I told her pizza. Every day.

Now everybody thinks I eat pizza every day.

So much for erasing stereotypes.

Dinner is really good because my host mom makes it, and even if it’s really simple like potatoes and some meat, it’s always really goodJ Also, the bread here has reached and surpassed all the great expectations I had for it. It’s that good.

I’m going to come home really fat J J J J J

Another thing that I find really funny, is that no one believes me when I say I’m from Las Vegas. They’re like “No! Really?? People actually live there? I thought it was just casinos . . .” It’s really funny, but also kinda sad . . .

Anyways, this week was really exciting because we got two more exchange students!!! One is from France, she’s in most of my classes and she speaks really good German and English so it’s easy to speak Denglish around her J The other exchange student is from Turkey, which I think is really cool because I want to go there some day. She doesn’t speak any German at all! I’m amazed really – even I had a Rosetta Stone and my three week crash course. But, as it seems everyone does in Europe, she speaks English. I feel really lame because everyone here is at least trilingual, and here I am, the American, barely knows any German and only had two years of Spanish, which she’s already completely forgotten. It’s funny, but it’s like the German language is fogging up my brain or something because I seriously don’t remember any Spanish at all and my English is starting to sound like the other German student’s English. It is quite aggravating.

Another aggravating/terrifying thing is the SPIDER issue. Really, this issue could be extended to all insects of various kinds, but the spiders are definitely the most common here. And I mean COMMON. Like EVERYWHERE. And Germans are okay with that. They really don’t care. But me?? Well, as my host mother puts it: I have angst. ANGST!!!! I’ve had at least three spider-filled nightmares, and whenever I enter a room I look up to count how many spiders there are. And trust me – they are always there!!!!! They’re not tiny either. Nuh-uh. These are not Vegas spiders. These are big daddy-long-legs-looking-but-not-actually-daddy-long-legs spiders. And then there’s this other type of spider here that’s pretty common, but I haven’t seen any in the house, THANK GOD, because it’s fat and ugly and it looks like it wants to kill me!!!!!!!!

 Yeah. Angst.

Crazy Camp Days

So, where do I begin? Clearly I didn't have the best beginning, but after the first day . . . . okay, after the first week, I've got to say that things really looked up! I'm even a little bit sad on Fridays! Inconceivable. If you've seen the pictures I've posted on facebook then you've probably already deduced that we are a CRAZY group of teenagers who basically goof off all day while trying to grasp the complexities of the German language and culture.
It's a lot of fun :)
Here is an outline of a usual language camp day:
I catch the 7:28 train to Bucholz, from there the train to Hamburg, and from there a subway to the youth hostel where our classes are held. Sometimes I stop for coffee or a delicious german pastry at one of the many bakeries along the way. Yummy. School starts at 9:30 with current events and german history lessons. Then we seperate into groups (advanced and beginners. I am in beginners) for our german lessons. And even though we work hard and have no choice but to learn super fast, we are always joking around and having extended conversations about this and that which is really fun and interesting. At 12:30 we eat lunch and we always sing this cute kindergarten song before we go. I hope I will get a chance to videotape it before the week is over because it is my FAVORITE song! After lunch we play Ninja for about a half hour, or just sit around. Then it's back to class until 3:30 when we get out!

So yeah, that's language camp for yah. I am REALLY going to miss it! It's been so great and fun and amazing and hilarious, and I don't want to leave all my friends. But I've recently found that I have other friends waiting for me at my new school! They seem really nice and they told me what I should buy for school which is, you know, kinda important . . . . and I think I'm ready to just dive into German. Well, okay, I'm not READY at all, but I'm anxious to start and yeah, maybe humiliate myself a few dozen times, but at least I'll be trying! It's hard to practice German when surrounded by English speakers all day, even if it's at a language camp :/

So, some other stuff I've been doing is swimming and biking and badminton! I like badminton a lot. They also have really great swimming pools here! 3 outside and 3 inside with slides and diving boards and everything! I was extremely impressed. I've been to a few music festivals, which are fun. The fireworks here are AMAZING! It was better than Las Vegas and Niagra Falls put together!

I only have two more days here, and then Saturday I am going to meet my future host family! I'm excited. And Monday I start GERMAN SCHOOL.
I'm terrified.

Time waits for no man, woman or child. And neither do trains.

My first day:
 I can't sleep. I miss my train. I find pay phone and call my host mother to tell her I missed train. I try to call my friend that is expecting me on train I missed. I run out of coins. I ask taxi driver for change. He says no. I walk in rain to town to find Anja's work to use her phone to call my friend. I cannot find her work. I find open  convenience store. I get change. I walk in rain to pay phone. I call friend's mom. I wait for train. Train comes early. I do not think it is my train because it comes early. But I ask and they say yes, it is my train. Train leaves with me on it. Isobel meets me in Busholz, my friend's sister. She puts me on another train to Harburg. I meet friends and escort in Harburg. We ride to Hamburg. We get off. We walk up. We walk down. We get on sub way. We get off sub way. We get on another sub way. We get off sub way. We walk up. We get on bus. We get off bus.
We are at school.

After school:
My friends and I go to ice cream shop. I have no money. I get no ice cream. We go to main train station. I go to ATM and take money. I feel better. We go to mall. We find good prices. We do not buy. Friend and I  leave soon. We go to main train station. We cannot find train to Harburg. We find train to Harburg. We get stuck at stop for half hour. We talk.Train moves again. It comes to Harburg. We get off. We search for train to Busholz. We don't find train. We wait. We wait. We call families. Families don't pick up. We wait. We eat. We wait. We get frustrated. We look for help desk. No help desk. We find another train station across street. We go in. We realize it is the right station. We realize we have been in wrong station one hour. We laugh. We scream. We get on right train.
We get to Busholz. Friend leaves. I get on trian to Soltau. Train does not leave for much time. It moves. I do homework. I worry about worried hostparents. I get to Soltau. Anja waits for me. We hug. I tell her everything. We go home. I collapse into sleep.


It couldn't have been better :)

Orientation/Flight

You know, a while ago, when this whole thing was getting started, I went on the Internet to look for a blog post about Orientation. And guess what? I only found one. And it wasn't very good. And I wondered why??????? I want to knooooooooowwwwww. But now I know why. It's because orientation is EXHAUSTING. And fun. And boring. And thilling. And frustrating. But, in a nutshell, it's memorial, memorial, cemetery, meeting, memorial interview, memorial, smithsonian, memorial, memorial, meeting, memorial memorial memorial. So, my advice is . . . . WEAR COMFORTABLE SHOES. Don't be stupid like me and wear brand spanking new ones because they are "cute". They will not be cute anymore when you wake up with fat red blisters.
Anyways, the last night was fun because we all stayed up for our last night in America and drank soda and ate Bugles and took all our blankets and pillows to the elevator so we could sit and ride up and down up and down. It is very fun at 2 in the morning :)
On the flight I didn't sleep AT ALL, which sucked but I had a lot of fun taking funny pictures with friends and acting goofy because we were all so tired. Plus, they had THE HUNGER GAMES! That's right people! Lufthansa airlines let's you watch THE HUNGER GAMES! Be jealous.
Of course, I totally crashed on the train ride from Frankfurt to Hamburg. But I was really sad because my really good friend and some other friends didn't go to Hamburg with me because they were in the Aachen language camp :( I miss them, but us Hamburgers are a great group I think :)
So, I met my temporary host mother and father, they are a very nice couple living in Soltau Germany, an HOUR train ride from Hamburg (not fun to take every day) and they took me to a music festival and the market and the outlet store where I bought an antique box for only 6 euros! Boo yah!
So that's about it. I'm very happy here and I can't wait to start language camp!