Waaaaaaaay to Fast

I don’t care what your calendar says; it’s not June. Because you see, not only have I not seen sun since the 31st of May, but if it were June then I could truthfully say, “I fly back to California next month.” and that thought makes me want to do nothing other than cry (which if you know me at all, you know that means a lot). I may have had the hardest, strangest, most challenging year of my life, but it’s also been the most interesting year… the most rewarding year… the best year. I don’t even say, “I’m flying home next month.” but rather, “I’m flying back/to California.” because Germany has become my home.

Yesterday was the day that flying back soon really hit me because I went to my first goodbye party. I went to see my best Finnish friend Akseli because he leaves June 12th.I ended up traveling about seven hours throughout the day just to see Akseli for three hours, but it was totally and completely worth it. Anne and I went together and we reunited “Triple A” (Angie, Anne and Akseli, the left-handed American/Canadian/Finn) one last time before our unofficial road trip across the U.S. that will hopefully take place sometime before we all die. Anne wrote a contract on my German flag in permanent marker and we all (unknowingly) signed it, so I guess it simply has to happen now.

Random Person: “Where are you from?”

Me: “California.”

Random Person: “Woah! You have such great German!”

I’ll never understand why I “have such great German” after telling someone my name and where I’m from. I mean honestly, I’ve lived here for ten months… I would hope to have learned AT LEAST that much.

Last Sunday my extended family (this time from my host-mom’s side) was in town and we all biked about 40 miles to the “Frühlingsfest” (“The festival of Spring”). A lot of the major roads were closed for the bikers and the day is supposed to celebrate biking and the good weather… while we did see lots of bikers, good weather was rather nonexistent. It rained harder and longer than I’ve ever seen before, but of course, we were troopers and toughed it out! By the time we got back, I was so soaked that it looked like I decided to take a bath fully clothed. But we still had fun and enjoyed the concert.

I think the only thing I won’t miss about Germany is the German opinion of Americans. I have learned (and strangely enough, I also heard this from a friend’s grandparents before leaving for Germany) when I say, “I’m from California,” I’m just about the coolest thing since sliced bread. Everyone excitedly asks me about the weather and San Francisco (which I live about 45 minutes from), but if I say, “I’m from the U.S.A.” I often get death stares. I’ve even been told I couldn’t possibly be American because 1) I don’t have a strong foreign accent, 2) I’m too intelligent, and 3) I’m not fat. People look through pictures of my friends and say, “Wow, did you Photoshop these photos? None of your friends are fat!!” I cannot begin to describe how much that (for lack of better wording) completely pisses me off! I’m sorry to disappoint, but not EVERYBODY in the U.S.A. is overweight. There are even people who are underweight (shocker there!), myself being the perfect example.

  Really American woman? Come on, lets change how people see us!

On the note of German stereotypes/prejudices, this guy has an interesting opinion.

This past weekend my friend Mathis was in town so we all got together Friday and Saturday evening, whether it was to play foosball, or darts, or watch a random live Acoustic artist… whatever it was we did it was fun. Not to mention somehow or another, before my Europe tour Mathis and I randomly decided we would get married… which is funny because not only does he have a girlfriend, but of all my German friends he’s the one I see the least because he goes to university somewhat far away. Nevertheless, every time I failed miserably at darts (so… pretty much every time) Mathis would say, “Come on I have faith in you! My future wife can do anything!” and of course, whenever I wanted something to drink, he would get it. ^^

I once read:

1. The United States of America, commonly called by its last name America, is the most powerful and influential country in the world. Therefore, it is also the most hated.
2. Most ancestors of Americans are immigrants with more than half from Europe. Europeans seem to forget this part and just think that Americans have no ethnicities in order to make them as distantly related from them as possible.
3. America has a porn empire. But unlike Germany's, it's not going to make you vomit.

I have to admit, the third comment made me laugh. Germany seems to be known for having soft porn on the normal television channels and in the newspapers/magazines and unexpectedly seeing it always activates my gag reflex. It probably has something to do with growing up in a different culture.

P.S. I don’t remember if I mentioned how sunburned I became on the Europe tour, but just to give a visual aid, this picture was taken after I had had the burn for three days.

 

P.P.S. My little brother is 13 today! Happy Birthday Nickie!

Not All Who Wander Are Lost

Come on people with American IP addresses! According to my “flag counter” 1,031 different German IP address have visited this blog while only 1,011 (U.S.) American IP address have! The Germans have 20 IP address on you USA! And while this blog is open to everyone, it was originally intended for Californians, so come on Californians, let’s get “Angie’s Odyssey” out there!

Germany has been in the mid to high 60s all weekend (we had a lovely four day weekend), which of course means that I have been putting my one pair of shorts as well as my bikini to good use by going to the ‘kiesteich’ (like a small lake) for a majority of the weekend. We also had my ENTIRE extended family on my host-dad’s side over for the weekend… it was very fun finding 17 extra ‘beds’ around the house… and it was fun to meet them all. They met a couple of my friends, and we even set up ‘the pool’ in the backyard. Even though my host-mom slept in until 12 the day after they left, it was nice to be around a big extended family again.

Saturday was simply not my day. While my German actually is pretty good, I somehow managed to ask my uncle if he wanted a kiss instead of a pillow, ask a friend if he meant he almost hit me in the balls or another (male) friend, and best of all, instead of shouting out “Woah mushey!” when the ground in the lake suddenly became soft, I shouted out “Woah! Vagina!” and clearly got some unwanted attention. As much as I love German, it definitely makes my life ‘the bad type’ of interesting at times… Especially in English class when I have to switch my brain from German-mode to English-mode… that’s never a fun task.

Sunday I went with my family on a weird biking adventure. Only pictures can describe these strange bike…things but if nothing else I got lots of exercise, yummy ice cream, and I shocked my host family by telling them organic foods DO in fact exist in the USA. Who ever would have thought?!

“Grillen” (or BBQ) in Germany is a big deal because the weather has to be warm enough for someone to be willing to stand outside long enough to grill the food, and because the weather was so spectacular this weekend we got the special treat of BBQ both Saturday and Sunday night. Even the newspaper said in the weather section that it was perfect “grillenwetter.” And speaking of the newspaper, there was an article about my exchange and my mini-internship with the police on Thursday. I was looking at train tickets at the train station when someone pulled me to the side and asked if the person in the newspaper was me because we looked so similar. Turns out it actually was me. ^^ (Thank you random stranger for bringing that to my attention.)

*For those of you who can read German, clicking on the photo of the article will make it larger*

A friend of mine has postcards all over the wall in her bathroom, and I saw this one and it simply made my day. I just might have to steal it from her next time I go over (or ask her where she got it if nothing else).  

Man: “Excuse me Ma’am, one of your breasts is hanging out.”

Woman: “OH MY GODD! I LEFT THE BABY ON THE BUS!!”

Oh, and we mustn't forget how lovely my German friends are. Last Wednesday I went to my best German friend’s house and we made pizza and afterwards I was tired so I took a nap on the couch. Rather then pulling his little sisters away from playing with my hair (amongst other things), he took out my camera and took pictures of them doing it. (Hab dich auch lieb Leo. )

P.S. In Germany, you can get cheep alcohol ANYWHERE. McDonalds and movie theaters included. I think it’s funny how even this ice cream menu has to specify what dishes DON’T have alcohol.

P.P.S. Congratulations to all the Maria Carrillo 2012 graduates! I miss you all!

EUROPATOUR!

(I apologize in advance when this post is abnormally long, but to be fair, I do have to make up for all the lost writing due to the strike. )

So where to begin? Well, with nothing other than the beginning of course! After miraculously getting to the train station before the train left at 5:20 a.m., I realized the ONLY thing I forget to bring was nothing other than my camera memory card; but no worries, I somehow had the luck of meeting a girl the very morning the tour began (THANKS KENZIE!) who brought an extra 8GB card along with her which she let me use for the trip. Now, how I’m going to choose 10-15 photos out of the 1000+ that I took is a little beyond me…

I had the pleasure of not only making a new best Canadian friend for life, but a new best Canadian friend who speaks French. She defiantly made France a lot easier to get through, and with the Spanish that I speak, the only country we really had no clue what was going on in, was the Czech Republic.

So some highlights of the trip include watching the gay French performers do awesome flips and then make out in Strassenburg, France, meeting a really cool guy from Libya in Switzerland… not to mention feeling like I was in a postcard the entire time I was in Switzerland and exploring the third biggest caves in the world (also in Switzerland), getting stared at/talked too/checked out by/followed by almost every Italian man who saw Anne and I(-quick story, two guys were eating dinner and even ran outside to continue watching us walk down the street!-), regaining my tan/blonde hair in a matter of two short weeks (my German friends even told me I look a lot tanner and that my hair looks lighter xD), walking to McDonald's numerous times for milkshakes with only slippers, riding in a gondola in Venice, seeing the Schönburn Schloß in Vienna and only being able to think of my amazing 9th and 10th grade history teacher the entire tour –yes Mr. Emery, I clearly mean you!-, and last but probably my favorite memory of all, going to the club in Prague.

Anne: “I’ll have 2 strawberry milkshakes please.”

McDonald’s Employee: “Oh are you on a diet?”

Anne, being the kindhearted Canadian she is, agreed to get my milkshake while I went to the bathroom… the employee there however didn’t seem to see her act of kindness.

Being the strange person I am, I took a picture of every meal on the trip (mainly because it felt like something my mom would do actually) so I’m sure at some point there will be a ‘Special Post’ dedicated to just the food, but until then, there was one special salad that my newfound best Finnish friend Akseli decided not to finish in Italy where it’s considered rude to not finish your meals because it’s seen as insult to the chef’s cooking. Akseli put the salad bowl in the middle of the table, and not only did the waiters refuse to take it away, but they continued to all give him death stares at every meal for the rest of stay in this particular hotel. The funniest part of the story is it was Anne’s salad to begin with that she gave to Akseli.

Touring Europe with a group of people I met the day the tour began was a little strange, but I wouldn’t have it any other way… I have so many memories and new friends I’ll never forget, and through the whole tour, despite how much fun it was, I couldn’t help but feel more and more thankful that I’m having my exchange year in Germany. Germans may be cold at first and have to knock you onto your feet before they say “Excuse Me,” but that doesn’t change how much I love Germany and how thankful I am to be living in it.

Getting back into the swing of things, especially enough to be motivated to write a blog post(and especially ESPECIALLY after having a five day weekend on top of a two week Europe tour) was a bit harder than I expected,  but words cannot describe how happy I was to be back in Hameln at the end of the tour. I remember sitting on the final train to Hameln, almost squirming with joy that I would soon be back in my little, beloved town seeing my family and friends again. If I was like that after only two weeks, I can only imagine what a year or two away will be like.

P.S. Look what the post did to my Cheese-It’s!?!?

And now, a few of my favorite photos:

And a special congratulations to all of California’s Seniors who are graduating tonight! Sorry I can’t be there with you, guys!

STRIKE STRIKE STRIKE!

Seeing as it's a strange week when I DON'T see or a hear about a strike, I figured I'd go "European style" and have a little strike here of my own. That's right, Angie's Odyssey is on STRIKE for the next two weeks. But don't worry, once this strike is over, I promise there are going to be lots of fun pictures from magnificent places such as Switzerland, Italy, France, Austria, and the Czeck Republic. I'm hoping English is widely spoken in these places, because aside from Switzerland where German is also spoken, I'm kinda screwed.

Of course, I originally intended to do a normal post for this week and THEN go on strike, but we all know how 'intentions' don't always work out quite as planned and seeing as I need to be on the train tomorrow at 5:20 a.m., I'm kinda thinking getting some shut eye might be a good idea. However, while I'm here, I'll do a 'quickie' post, then the strike can officially begin.

So, the first of May in Germany is Labor Day (so the first of September back in the U.S.) and therefore EVERYTHING is closed, and at least in my beautiful town of Hameln, it’s tradition to get a couple hundred people in the town together and  go ‘wanderen’ with beer in hand until we get to the ‘Kiesteich’ (basically a little lake). I feel like everybody thinks I’ve been lying to them when I tell them I’m from California because I got so badly sunburned while most of my German friends (despite not wearing sunscreen!!) didn't. I’m going to fly back this summer, burn like a crisp, and then melt down into oblivion from the heat.

I really have to say, I have a serious issue with underwear shopping here in Europe. I don't know if it's a Europe thing, a Germany thing, or simply a Hameln thing but I cannot find 'normal' underwear to save my life. "Normal underwear" being defined as underwear that doesn't make at least half my butt hang out, and what's even more annoying is the less fabric there is, the more expensive the underwear becomes... I really don't understand that. I have nobody to show my underwear too and I generally avoid stripping down in front of people (well, at least when it can be avoided) and therefore I would honestly be much happier with normal underwear that actually 'covers' so to speak. Not necessarily 'granny-panty' status, just a LITTLE BIT more than nothing. And honestly, even if I did have somebody to eagerly show my underwear too, hopefully 'said guy' would like me for me and not my underwear. Just saying. 

Also this past week seeing as the sun no longer ceases to exist in the beautiful country called Germany, most everyday a group of friends and I have been getting together and sitting on the Wesser Riverside simply enjoying the sun. It's pretty sad that I can wear short-shorts in 55 degree F weather now and still be too warm, but in California I wouldn't even wear them with 85 degree F weather.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was my rant for the week. Tune in next time to hear all about the Europe Tour and until then, LET THE STRIKE BEGIN!

P.S.Look what I found on the way to a friends house!