Germany Birthdays & Small Town Lovin'!!!

Hallo All,
My first day with my 3rd host family was my (& my twin-Laura's) 23rd Birthday!!! I was going to downplay it or perhaps not even mention it...but, to my surprise I was awakened on August 12th with the beautiful soft sound of my 2 little host sisters singing me Happy Birthday (in German, of course)! It was still a moment that I will remember forever and that wasn't all! They guided me upstairs where the family had breakfast ready in the dining room and tea candles lit in the number 23!!!! I was smiling from ear to ear from the point at which I awoke till the end of the day I think! Anyway, I blew out the candles in one go and after breakfast the parents of my host father Matthias were taking the girls and I 'somewhere.?.' So, I got ready and we left with 'Oma & Opa' for the unknown!!! How exciting!!! Then, we drove about 45 mins. to the hills near Thale and went to an open-air theater to watch, "The Jungle Book!" The view was AMAZING, there wasn't a bad seat in the house. So, it was one of my lovely geburstag (birthday) gifts! The performance was ALL in German, but that didn't really bother me, since I have 2 younger siblings and I was once young myself...I have seen the movie enough to know the story pretty much by heart!!! It was loads of fun and Oma even had a sandwich (brötchen)for us to snack on during the show. The girls and I loved it and I couldn't get over the view! When the show ended, we drove to Thale and ate a delicious lunch at a local hotel. It reminded me a bit like 'The Shining' because there was NOBODY else there besides our party and the waitress!!! LOL (Gina, I know you will appreciate that!!!)
Anyhow, we made it back to Nelben where another surprise was awaiting me, my host family threw a BBQ in my honor and invited the 2 other U.S. IFYES (Ashley Watson & Sarah Snyder) that are in the same area to come with their host families to celebrate with me. It was utterly fabulous! When I first saw Ashley, I couldn't speak for a few moments because it was a real shock!! They brought me flowers and enough chocolate to feed the 5 thousand!!!! So, needless to say it was an exceptional birthday! I want to thank everyone who was a part of it!!! :)

Now, onward to other things...
I have seen many beautiful places here in Sachsen Anhalt so far! My first trip was to Halle with Ashley's host family...(it is great being so close to other ifyes because we can go together and our families don't always have to take us everywhere, they need a break now and then to). Halle is the second largest city in Sachsen Anhalt and was a very friendly city. We visited the Marktkirche St. Marien and the Rot Turm Clock Tower as well as the Beatles Museum! I was surprised that they had a Beatles Museum, but they were REALLY popular, so I guess it isn't that odd. The rest of the day we spent walking around, looking in shops and I tasted my first ever Döner (Turkish) fast food and I couldn't get enough of it! Delicious! So, that was a great trip.
Next, My host mother Martina and the girls Johanna & Marie took Ashley and I to Köthen. A small village where Bach composed and performed his beautiful music. We went into the church of St. Jakob and visited a two museums. The Historical museum of musik & schule (music & school)and then the Naumann-Museum, which had a large bird exhibit. The girls fed the ducks in the shlosspark and it rained the whole time so we were actively using our umbrellas.
On the 16th of August, Sarah's family (host mother Beata, host sisters Louisa & Charlotte), Ashley & I went to visit Leipzig! We went into St. Nicholas Church and what do you know, there was a wedding going on and we were lucky enough to see the beginning entrance and first paragraph by the pastor. So, that was neat! We had lunch at a cute outdoor cafe, Bacon Crepes...what a meal!!! Then, right in front of the museum we were going to there was a fabulous brass band performing! We are just getting so lucky with all this activity. Anyhow, we visited the Forum of Contemporary History (mainly focusing on the Berlin Wall & the separation and state of East and West Germany). I learned many new things, but was a bit disappointed that I couldn't take pictures to share with you all...strict museum. We visited another church and the organist was playing, there were many people there and I can't blame them for the music was incredible!
My next adventure, was to Quedlinburg with Sarah, her host family and mine! The village is a good size and the houses were wonderfully ornate. It seemed that all the houses were unique in their own little way and I kept finding ones that I wanted to capture on camera. We wandered the streets for a while, then hiked up to the Schloss, it was being renovated so we didn't go in, but the view of the town was exceptional! So after several pictures I decided to entertain the younger kids and we played a game of 'hide & catch,' sadly I was the seeker...so, quite exhausted and ready to leave when we descended! We walked around the circumference of the schloss and it ended up being a great idea because we saw the most beautifully situated set of houses in the village as well as some fun rock climbing (small rocks, we have kids with us don't forget)!!! My only disappointment as we walked back to the car, is that I didn't get a good picture of the castle. But, for my birthday my host family gave me a book on Sachsen Anhalt and it has the Quedlinburg schloss in it, so I guess that will have to do!
So, that sums up my activities here at my third family so far...but, there is definitely more to come. Next week the kids start school and all the host families of 'us IFYES' will be busy with work and school, so they have given us the opportunity to take the train together to Berlin for a 2-day sightseeing extravaganza. We are in the process of planning that trip. Well, that is all for now...I have FINALLY gotten up to date with my slide shows, I decided to do one per family so far and hope you enjoy! Thanks! Tschüss!

Sachsen Anhalt -August 11th-Present-(Host Family 3)!

Hessen Slideshow July19-August 11th, 2008 (Host Family 2)!

IFYE Orientation & Reinfeld, Germany (Host Family 1)!

Hot in Hessen!!!

Guten Tag,

I am doing well here this week, although the heat has been pretty extreme the past few days. I miss AC SOOOOOO much! I am staying in the 4th floor of the house and it is even worse up there in the tower. Oh my, I lay there wishing I could live in a cold bath or stand in the cold shower all night, but...as this is a farm and there are many, many people who stay here I would/should feel guilty about using up all the water. So, I suffer in silence...well, almost silently...I am complaining on here I suppose. But, this to shall pass and I know that I will return to the AC capitol of the world (USA) in December; by then I know I won't need AC, but it will be comforting to know that I have it just in case! ;) I have been with my second family for 9 days now and in that time period I have been to 7 BBQs, they really know how to kick back and party! But, they work, work, work first and then, party...which is the correct order of things I suppose! My Host Mother Charlotte took me to see a few sights in Mannheim today and one is the Wasserturm (water tower), this is Mannheim's landmark and we also visited the Schloss (castle)...Mannheim University in the palace. Of course we took a break for 'Eiskaffee' (ice coffee), which was lovely considering the extreme heat of the city! I have included (because I just learned how) pictures of both the water tower (left) and schloss (upper right) for your viewing pleasure. That is all I have to report at the present, I hope all of you are doing well and it isn't quite as hot there as it is here...and if it is...crank up your AC and think of me here suffering! (HAHAHA, just kidding!) Es ist sehr schön hier!! (It is very beautiful here!) Bye for now, Tschüss!

New Faces, Spaces and Places!!!

Hallo, Guten Tag....I have discovered that dialects are extreme around here in Deutschland! I am living now with a family in Hessen, in the town of Hofheim. Every town in Hessen...or pretty much every town has the ending of "heim," such as Manheim, Lampertheim...etc. So, I write to you from this location, which took me around 7 hours on the train. I changed trains 3 times and was on one train for over 6 hours...boy that was a long, LONG day!!! Enough of the travel details, the important thing is that 'I made it!'

Now for the fun part! I have been in Germany for 4 & 1/2 weeks and am having a great time! My first host family (Familia Röhr) lived in the North (between Hamburg & Lübeck) in the little town of Reinfeld. I lived with them for 20 days and I enjoyed every single day! During my stay, I went twice to Lübeck, the Marzipan Capitol and was enchanted with it's old buildings and surrounding Trave River. I also had the pleasure of learning how to make Marmelade and I was introduced to "Horse Beans." That is the direct translation and they are basically very large snow peas!!! I saw the local 'little castle,' Stiftung Schloss in Ahrensburg...a lovely white castle that even had a moat. I swam in the Baltic Sea on another beach adventure...although, it cost me 2.60 Euros for that pleasure...(yeah, I know...I couldn't believe that they charged for going to the beach either!) In America, we could make a fortune!!! One of my host sisters goes to University in Oldenburg, so I spent one weekend with her there...experiencing the 'German College Life,' which isn't much different to that of U.S. students except that we took bicycles to the pub and back on Friday Night!!! :) I took in the Deutsches Auswandererhaus (German Emigration Center) in Bremerhaven with my host sister Gesa during my stay with her and it was a lovely museum...partly for the information that I took in during the audio-tour and partly for the simple and utterly fabulous fact, they had it in ENGLISH!!! Ahhhhh bliss!!! I never thought that I would get such an uplifting feeling by hearing those words, "Yes, we have it in English!" A taste of the many delights I had with my first family.

So far with my second host family (Familia Bär), I have participated in 3 consecutive BBQ's that began on the first night I arrived...a great start! I have tasted many, many delicious wurst! I have learned the popular Nordic Walk skill...basically you have two ski sticks...except you are walking with them on roads instead of with skis on snow. LOL. Here in Germany it is very popular!!! I must say it does work out the arms quite well! On Sunday we went to Kurpfalz Park, which is an amusement/wildlife park. It was mainly geared toward children but I had a blast on a paddle boat in the shape of a swan and an entire bird exhibit in German, but the man who was giving it was SO active and excited about these birds that it was a great show...even if I didn't understand more than 5 words the entire hour! ;) I am learning to just 'roll with the punches' here in Germany...I think it is an IFYE requirement! One woman at a cookout told me that I must be a very brave woman to be participating in such a program, I was flattered...but have overcome many an obstacle by using my humor. I believe that the key to any language barrier is laughter; I am extremely glad that I had a little of that before I left the states...but I tell you I am gonna have a heck of a lot more when I return I think. So, those of you who I am in close contact with, BEWARE!!!!!

Amsterdam, Hamburg & Kiel...Oh my!!!

Finally able to write my first entry from Germany, wohoo! My internet access has been interesting and until now it seems I didn't have the opportunity. Now on with my story. I have been in Germany now for 1 week and already I have seen so much and done even more. I think I will break this up into sections:
1.) Points of Interest:
My plane departed from Detroit 30 minutes late and as a result my plane from Amsterdam to Hamburg had already departed; so I had to reschedule and the ONLY available seats were on a flight at 4:50 p.m. At this time it was 7:10 a.m. so I thought to myself..."Heck if I'm going to stay in the airport all day," so I took a train into the heart of Amsterdam. I decided to walk for a bit to see if perhaps I would discover something "off the beaten track." I was able to visited Dam Square, Rembrandt Square, Old Church, and Waterloo Square (open-air market) as well as to get my fill of canals, boats and some pretty sore feet. So, I suppose you could say that my little plane "mishap" was to my tourist advantage. I caught my evening flight with time to spare and everything went smoothly from then on!

IFYE Orientation Week:
I went with one of the German IFYE Coordinators Bettina Heinemann and 2 other USA-to-Germany IFYES (Ashley Watson-Colorado, Sarah Snyder-Michigan) to Kiel for the "Kieler woche," (literally-Kiel week!) which is a large festival along the harbor, quite similar to a large fair in WV with the exception of being on the water. There are many, many ships displayed at this great event and bands playing as well as some wonderful food and super bier (beer). Germany is broken down into parts, similar to our counties and one thing that I found interesting is the festival and it's music was separated. The two distinct divisions were the North and South; since Bettina is from the Northern part, we settled ourselves at a table to listen as devoted "Northerners!" My highlight of the evening was when I heard the european "techno" version of "Country Roads," at first I didn't even recognize it...but Bettina drew it to my attention. It was very comforting to me to hear that song, however different the versions melody was at the time. The next interesting journey started at 5:00 a.m on Sunday morning, Bettina drove us to Hamburg to see the open-air Fischmarkt (Fish Market). This happens every Sunday morning early until about 11 a.m. So, when we had parked and caught the subway train into the center of Hamburg it was about 7:30 a.m. It was crowded, but an interesting sight, sound,smell and taste. I never thought that a sour fish sandwich in the morning and coffee could taste so good! :) Everyone was yelling to try and sell all of their fish, candy, fruit etc...before the other people. Anyway, it was very enjoyable and I even got a few souvenirs out of the bargain!!! Sehr gut (Very good!) Also, we went down into the Elbtunnel (this is a tunnel under the river Elbe originally used for horse and carts to be able to travel to the other side of Hamburg relatively easily, now it is a tourist attraction and is open to small cars). These are the major cities that I have visited so far and is just the beginning of my experiences in Germany.
2.) Odd little Differences:
I am eating very different meal combinations here than I have had in WV. The usual breakfast and dinner here consists mainly of bread, cheese, slices of meat (i.e. turkey, ham, salami), cucumbers and tomatos. Most of the water that Germans drink has gas (bubbles, carbonation) in it, which is an interesting sensation. :) Also, unless it is raining all of their cloths that have just been washed go outside on the line. Germany is doing MUCH better at conservation and recycling than the USA. Everything is put in a different place and when they are finished with their plastic bottles, they rinse them out and take them back to the store and guess what?.?...the store even pays them some money for each one they take back...isn't that cool!!!! Also, the keyboards are different here...so, it's REALLY hard to type...therefore, if I have the letter "z" where really a "y" should go in a word...then, you'll know that's because they are switched on a German Keyboard.
3.)Lastly, not all adventures are completely enjoyable-before dinner one night when the IFYEs and I were at our orientation with Bettina, Ashley Watson and I decided to take a bike ride around the countryside. This, at first, was SO wonderful...we were in the country with the fields of grain and glorious blue skies above with the wind at our back, which were probably a few of the reasons why we kept biking and biking. As all travelers in a strange land realize after a few hours of bliss, that there is a flip side that isn't so felicific...the two hour ride back! Well, I don't know what we were thinking, but instead of turning around and going back the way we knew/came we decided to ask someone the quickest way back to the wildlife park (right next to the place where Bettina lives). Amongst their broken English we managed to "think" we knew what they were talking about and went on our merry way and after another hour of biking we asked another person and another...until we FINALLY got back to Bettinas. This "little blissful jaunt" of a bike ride ended up taking us 5 hours and many, MANY miles (km) in length over so many hills and dales that when we returned home I gave Bettina a BIG hug in celebration of our "sheer dumb luck" and managed in my exhaustion to participate in a little of the "midsummer night BBQ/Bonfire," before I collapsed into my bed for sleep. This was the night, I might add, before which we had to get up at 5 a.m. to take part in the Fischmarkt extravaganza...so, not exactly the smartest move on either of our parts...but, now we can say we had a cross-country biking experience in Germany! But, by the end of that ride it felt like we had just biked across Europe!!!!
*That's it for this entry and as I said I hope to write on this weekly, but I don't think I'll be able to stick to a particular day/time...so, my advice to those eager readers, just keep checking back and maybe, just maybe...you'll catch me on a blogging day!!! :) Also, if there is any particular questions/topics that I haven't covered that you would like to know, just post a comment and I will answer them to the best of my ability!!! Tschuss!!!! (chow, goodbye)!!!