Far too much...

I know, I know I haven't updated in ages, but before you start freaking out on me I have a damn good reason, and quite a few things to cover in this post, and possibly more.

First Day Of Schule #1
Written Aug. 28


 First day of school was interesting. Of course I was scared beyond belief, so nervous I was shaking for a good portion of the morning, almost threw up as I got in the car. My host mom took me to class and stayed with me outside the door until the teacher showed up. I walked into class and was instantly the shiny new toy.

We all sat in a circle and had MMK which is basically a big meeting to plan the week and stuff, I guess, I'm not really sure, a few people came in late. They figured out pretty quickly that I don't speak German, which was a bit of a shock to some of them. They struggled through going around the circle and saying their names and hobbies for me. I caught 2 names out of 21. Then they had a big discussion about Mallorca vs. London for a class trip. After that we had double biology. They have 45 minute classes here, and a double lesson is when they have two of the same in a row, so it's a 90 minute lesson. After the first 90 mins is a 15 minute pause, and then after another two is a twenty to twenty-five minute pause.

Turns out staring is different here, I found quickly that German's stare at you and they don't hide it, have no shame in doing so, and no matter how long you stare back aren't prompted to look away, where I am anyway. That was a fun discovery.

Half my class was too freaked out to talk to me, a third was so enamored with me that they are either always staring at me, calling my name (everyone pronounces it differently, and most people can't even say it at all), or giving me the third degree. It's quite entertaining to say the least. Finally the last third who are a group of girls that I follow around and who are very nice. They were the first to help me around, and they translate sometimes if they can. Turns out that for the guys my name is a song. At least twice during/between classes I hear "oh heather" being sung to me from a few seats over, or from across the hall, it's really strange cause they literally sing it, it's quite funny though. It's Peer's (a guy in my class) way of hiding that he can't say my name right, others have picked up on it and use it as well. I don't mind.

My school is the only one on the island, a little over 1,000 kids go there, Every single one of them knew who I was when I walked into the building, it was really freaky. Like EVERY kid grade 5 + knows me. So weird.... Everyone in town knows I'm the exchange student too, they all watch me while I'm walking down the street with that look, I don't like it.

Anyway back to school! In Englisch I've become the teacher's 'assistant' which I really don't like having the title of, but I'll put up with it. My chemistry teacher doesn't speak Englisch, neither does my math teacher, or my physik teacher. My other teachers have a few sentences but that's about it. Mostly they have just introduced themselves said hi, then basically ignored me. That leaves the 'guys' as I call them, to explain it to me, which only words a third of the time. My klasse is great though, very fun, very funny, and highly entertaining. Turns out I'm older than all of them, the opposite of what I'd originally thought. They're all very outgoing.

I get out of school at 1 in the afternoon can you believe that! I have to get up at 6:05 every morning though which is kind of a bummer, but I'll survive. On Tuesdays I stay till 3 because I have sport, a class I'm quickly learning to despise. I never did like gym. I have to take the bus home everyday, about twenty minute ride where I'm not guaranteed a seat. Nobody has asked me to hang out yet, but tomorrow I'm gonna put a thing on facebook, everyone in my klasse has friended me now, maybe someone will wanna hang out. I dunno.

I found out today that in November the ONLY movie theater on the island closes for 4 months for winter, and most of the stores close as well. That was a little hard to hear. I'm really wanting to make friends and hang out. I dunno... I might join an art workshop this painter in town gives. That should be fun. I'm looking for clubs to join but there aren't many. It's a little lonely having an entire afternoon with nothing to do. All the homework so far has been huge chunks of text with words my little dictionary doesn't have in it and google translate doesn't know. Plus the teachers just kind of ignore me in a lot of cases so it doesn't matter if I actually do it or not since they don't check it. So far I've just been copying everything they write on the board and translating it as best I can at home. I did the English homework though! Very proud of that. Turns out they don't even get much homework at this school, it's really weird. I'm ok with it though.

I NEED PEANUT BUTTER!!! and more schocolade...


At the Inselschule Fehmarn the classes I was taking were:
Biology
Chemistry
Physics
History
Wipo - Politik
Deutsch
Englisch
Movie class - can't remember the word
Sport - 2 different classes (normal, and step aerobics - it's required)
Music
Math
Geography

Schule was great for the two weeks I was there. I had friends, people talked to me, I even hung out in Burg with a few people some days after schule. I went to bellydance every friday night at 8. It was great, my host family was wonderful, I got along with them really well.

Then on September 2 my whole world came crashing down around me in one simple sentence. You have to move, the family doesn't think it's working out. When my area representative first said it I couldn't comprehend her words. Couldn't add them up right in my head to make any sort of sense. When it finally sunk in all I could do was cry.


Will be continued in another post, it's very late at night and I'm exhausted.

--
Sorry I'm so late.

Train Tracks *posted 4 days late; written sunday*

Saying goodbye is always hard. I cried my eyes out on the plan to DC leaving my mom, and I cried on the train leaving my first family.

As bad as this sounds, it was harder to leave my first host family than it was to leave my mom. Now before you start thinking I'm a terrible person, see it this way. I left my mom knowing I would see her again in exactly one year. I left my first family not knowing when I would see them again.

It's so much harder when you know how difficult it will be to get back to see them. I know I will fly back to the states in a year and I will go back to school as 'usual' and I will see my mom every day. I will have to seriously work to see my first family again before I leave for the states, and they're only 6-7 hours away by train.

As you can guess Friday night, und Saturday morning were terrible. It was so hard to say goodbye and get on that train all by myself. But I did it.

I got on the train with my little suitcase with the package for my mom strapped to the outside, my backpack, and my little plastic bag with a pound of chocolate my host family gave me, and a blanket. I found myself a seat and stayed there for the next hour and a half to get to the Frankfurt station.

At Frankfurt I got off the train and hauled myself through the bookstore almost crying when I saw something in English, then changed my mind and hustled myself to the other side of the station where my next connection was, an ICE to Hamburg.

Turns out YFU reserved me a seat on the ICE. Wagon 1 seat 77. I never did find that seat... I got to wagon three and I was so tired of hauling my self down the entire train that I just stopped at car 3 and sat in seat 31.

Three hours to Hamburg, and the train was 20 minutes late. I only had a 31 minute gap at Hamburg so you can imagine my state of panic when the train was so late. Everyone said 'oh Hamburg is easy, hamburg is easy' well no, it most certainly is not easy. I got off the train to a wall of people. Maneuvering through that I got myself up to the platform after much trouble, and many stairs, then made a mad dash for platform 7b.

By that point I didn't even know which train was mine, I just got on the one sitting at 7b that said Lüdbeck on it and hoped it was the right one. It was thankfully. I sat for another 40 minutes, sweating to high heavens, with an aching shoulder from my bag and weird looks from those around me. Finally my stop came. I grabbed all my stuff and stepped off the train right in front of my very excited host family holding up an American flag scarf, I was wearing a German flag scarf around my neck.

We all, minus Jonny who was fishing, went to the car and started the hour drive to Fehmarn. The bridge was sooo long. It's really beautiful here. Perfect weather too.

I share a room with my host sister Sarah, and both of us share a bathroom with Jonny. We have the top floor, the middle floor is the main floor, and my host parents bedroom is there, and the bottom floor is the 'mudroom' and front door. I only have pictures of my room right now, but others will follow soon!

Now I start school tomorrow so today I'm off to get school supplies in the city.

--
Train Savvy ;)

Leaving/Arriving:

Cooking Fiasco

It's safe to say that when I cook I'm usually winging it. That's exactly what I did on Wednesday.

With the lack of Velveeta, or cheddar cheese I ended up using three little packages (very little) of those single slice pieces of cheese. It wasn't terrible.

I made the pasta first, then added a bunch of milk and put the cheese in, adding butter and milk as it melted. It was soooooo creamy and sooooo cheesy, and probably a thousand calories. But my host family liked it, and I liked it so it was deemed a success.

--
American Chef ;)

Sigh...

Food. It's pretty great right? It brings people together, 'breaks the ice', fills your stomach and gets it to stop growling. Well in Germany they like food, a lot. Which is great, because so do I.

The YFU staff always told us 'oh host families love it when you make food from your country for them!' So I decided to make a very American dish, good old mac n' cheese. This would have been much simpler if:

A. I had measuring cups with me.
B. Could cook.

Turns out I won't need measuring cups. Why, do you ask? Because I won't be needing to measure cheese, because much to my surprise, Velveeta isn't a thing in Germany. And they don't have cheddar cheese. This is quite problematic.

No worries though because it's processed food to the rescue!! Dun da da dun!!! On Wednesday I will be attempting to make mac n' cheese with those Kraft single wrapped slices. Very American right. ;)

Wish me luck! I hope this works! Pictures are sure to follow after this whole event.

--
Non-Chef Wisher

Pen & Ink

With all this German surrounding me I can't help but find myself beginning to loose some of my English. It's not a bad thing, it's just frustrating because as I'm loosing English I haven't really been gaining German to take it's place. I'm starting to feel like I don't have a language anymore. Sure I can speak English, and a little very broken German, but neither really feels like it's mine. More that it's just a passing tool in communication with the world around me. I'm not sure if that made any sense but I can't better explain it than that.

This wouldn't be such a big deal if it wasn't for the aching fact that I'm a writer, and what do writers do best? They write. Not having a language that I can control and mold to my story is really starting to take it's toll on me. That constant itch to write is coming back stronger than ever and as I haven't really a language I'm finding it difficult to scratch that itch.

Not to mention that as I've been told time and time again, it's difficult to be learning a language and still using your native tongue so much. I don't want to be making it harder for myself...but I have to write.

--
Coo-Koo bird

Chocolate & Solar Panels

Germany is know for it's chocolate isn't it? Well it's also known for it's green energy solutions. Did you know that Germany has more than half of the world's solar-power generating capacity and has invested over $14 billion in green technology last year? I didn't either when I signed up to come here. Sure I knew Germany is among the leaders of technological advancements, and that it has a fantastic recycling system. But I was not at all prepared for the number of solar panel "fields" as I call them, and turbines that litter the countryside. It's quite beautiful actually, that so many people are using green energy.

That brings me to wonder if the chocolate bar I'm currently eating was made in a factory that uses green energy... It probably wasn't, but it would be cool if it was. On that note it's quite alarming the amount of chocolate I've gone through in two weeks, and the number of digits my weight has not gone up, but rather gone down. It's quite a peculiar set of events. I'm eating more bread here that I ever had in my life, and not that normal bread. This is nutrient packed, grainy, thick bread that tastes amazing with a slice of Gouda, and some butter. Mmmm I'm hungry thinking about it.

I'm quite curious what my physical situation will be at the end of this year, I feel like I'm eating more than ever, and doing anything active even less that normal. Yet I'm loosing weight. How can this be? Well I'm done asking stupid questions, I'll just enjoy it while it lasts!

That's all for now folks! It's like 11 and I'm exhausted. Long day of language school ahead of me tomorrow.

--
Contempt Chocaholic

Cologne vs. Koln

So as you might have already guessed I went to Cologne on Saturday (Yesterday). It was about a two hour drive and both of my host sisters and myself fell asleep in the car on the ride there, AND the ride back.

We set off at 8 sharp in the morning and after about an hour were on the autobon. We were going 130 km/h and I was having a small heart attack as we dodged cars. I have a picture to prove it. After a while I was finally able to relax, my host family thought it was hilarious. I did not agree.

Cologne was hot. The parking garage under the city stretched on for over a mile, it was crazy. We first got on what they all called a 'bimble-bong'? I have no idea, it's one of those little trains all the tourists take that shows you the city. We got off at the Dome, which is so beautiful. Inside was even more beautiful. I lit a candle for my grandfather, and my father. Ironic isn't it? In some sort of twisted way.

We went down into the treasury and say all the really old statues, cup things, and the scepters the pope had. It was pretty cool, but we couldn't take pictures which was irritating because the elevator was really cool.

Then we went shopping. I swear to god it was like being in NYC. The street stretched forever, and shops lined the sides of this really narrow little street. Stores I've never heard of,  to H&M we went in almost every single one of them.

For lunch we went to Micky D's and boy was it different. First of all it was packed, and I mean packed like you had to scope out who was leaving and time it perfectly to get a seat. We got a booth thanks to Lena's keen eye and speed walking. It tasted so much better than in the US, or maybe that was just me embracing American fast food...I'm not sure. Either way I got a special edition Olympic glass Coca Cola cup out of it, which I will be sending home to my mom soon...ish.

After that we walked around some more did a little more shopping and the like. I bought a Berliner (which is a little doughnut like thing with marmalade in the center and it's COVERED in sugar, and I order it all in german. I was very happy, the guy behind the counter was really kind of done with me after I said the first word. hahahah it was amusing though.

After that little snack we headed over to a costume shop, of course, and I'm pretty sure we spent and hour and a half inside hahahah. Anyone who knows me, is aware that this is not unusual.

After that we made our final destination the chocolate museum, which I have to say was a bit disappointing. I was expecting to be able to eat more chocolate. You didn't get to.  But it was still cool.

The ride back was long as well and in the car we were all exhausted and beyond. All in all it was a fantastic day.    :)

Oh an by the way. Over six hours of shopping in Cologne, I bought 2 things. And they were both from the costume store!

--
Kitty Cat