Happy (almost) Thanksgiving!

I may be turning 18 Friday, but I will ALWAYS be a little kid a heart. Not necessarily a little girl, seeing as I never did like to wear dresses, but always a little kid. Last Saturday, as a present for my 18th birthday, I went to the Build-a-Bear workshop in the mall in Hameln with my host-parents (and my host-grandpa! )and I made a teddy! His name is Wolfgang, and he is just about the cutest thing ever. He has a pirate hat and a German flag. My host-mom thought I should name him “Bobby der Pirat” but I thought a German name was more sufficient. Though I am quite sad because my host-mom has been holding him hostage all week because I’m not allowed to have him until my actual birthday, but once I have him, you can be assured he won’t be leaving my side for a long while.

So I have been here for almost 110 days, and I am still not used to turning the faucet to the right for cold water. I think something is seriously wrong with me. Or with German plumbing. Seriously, of all the things in the world not to make universal!? My life would be so much easier sometimes if the plumbing systems we’re the same, then after a freezing cold day, I wouldn’t walk into the bathroom only to splash my face with freezing cold water.

Back in September, I was out with my school friends and somehow we came across the topic of Thanksgiving, and my best friend pinkie-promised (and we all know, there is no going back on a pinke-promise!) me we would have a Thanksgiving, so he and I spent all afternoon making lists and buying/preparing food, and tomorrow we’re having about 15 people at his house (his family included) to have a genuine Thanksgiving with turkey and everything! I am so excited!

My German has progressively been getting better, it’s nice to actually at least sort of understand what’s going on. That being said, this picture perfectly depicts my (and every other exchange student’s)German skills.

My schedule is still in the process of being changed, but I am taking Bilingual American History which is really interesting because not only do I understand the class, but I learn German at the same time. Not to mention it made my day last week when one of the students was talking about “sweatshops” but he pronounced it “sweetshops” and didn’t understand why there was such a big difference between the two.

99 Days in Deutschland!

New Favorite Pass-time: Telling Germans I eat peanut butter and jelly… together. They react as if I just said I regularly eat human babies for lunch. At first, they think I’m joking, but when they realize I’m not, the reaction I get is priceless. It’s even better once I mention that PB and J is one of the most common lunch sandwiches. I really wish I had discovered this sooner, it didn’t just make my day, it ‘made my month.’

As of the past week, my schedule has been changing so that I will be only in the 11th grade, as compared to 11th and 12th because all my friends are in the 11th grade, and the 12th grade is very focused on abitur (graduation). It’s been difficult though because last week, the teacher who helps me with my ‘studenplan’ (schedule) was sick, and during the beginning of this week, I was sick.

*English Class*

Angie: "What's the name of your art teacher?"

Leo: "Well.. she's not really a teacher because she's a girl."

Angie: "What? So girls can't be teachers now?"

Leo: "No!!! What's the English word for female teacher!?"

Saturday I went to the field in my village with my host-brother/dad and we took Senior Pictures for my yearbook back in California because I never had the chance to while I was there. It was quite entertaining because my host dad kept making really odd animal noises to try and get me to have a genuine smile for the photos, and after my brother and I watched endless movies, as we seem to do every day now.

Now, a majority of my day is spent dressing and undressing. When I wake up, I put on leggings, pants, a long sleeve shirt, a turtle neck, 1 (sometimes 2!) pullovers, my winter coat, a scarf, gloves, 2 pairs of fuzzy socks, winter boots, a hat and sometimes even ear muffs, and I’m STILL cold. Guess what!? It’s not even ‘winter’ yet. You probably think I’m kidding about the layers… I’m not. I can barely move with all that plus my school bag. And it’s so frustrating because you wear all this, go into class and take half of it off, then put it all back on before leaving again. It takes FOREVER! When I first got to Germany, my first host-sister told me my school had no air-condition and I thought it was the funniest thing, coming from sunny California, but now I understand why. The school would maybe use it one day of the year, if that, and even then it wouldn’t actually be ‘hot’ in comparison to temperatures I have lived through.

Finally, it’s entertaining. As I previously mentioned, there is a German expression “Someone's thinking about you” whenever someone hiccups; however, seeing as half of my host family is French, my host-mom used to say the French expression “An older man wants to kiss you” until I mentioned to her that my boyfriend is 3 days younger than I am… so now she says “A younger man wants to kiss you.”

*Note: For all entries if you want to see the picture better, click on it and it will enlarge. *

3 Months Today!

I don’t know what it is, but for some reason, I randomly hiccup… just once… all the time. My first host mom would always say “Someone is thinking about you” (as the German expression goes), and seeing as my second my mom is now French, she says the French expression, “An older man wants to kiss you.”

Last week I was blessed with nice, warm 50 degree Fahrenheit weather, but this week it has been in the low 30’s and winter jackets are coming out. I feel like I’m going to die. My feet are ALWAYS cold (to be fair, they were always cold in nice, warm California too, but here it’s 1000 times worse).

Last Thursday I only had two lessons (one class) because my other one’s had been canceled (German school: when a teacher is sick or busy, class is just canceled and you’re free to do what you want) so I went to Ith (pronounced like “eat”) to go climbing with my Rotary councelor again. It was really pretty…. that being said, we didn’t climb for very long because our fingers were to cold to move.

Now, the weekend. It was an interesting weekend. Friday evening I went to a Guy Fawkes Day celebration with my school friend Leo, my host-brother, Julien, and my Rotary Youth Exchange Officer’s family. It was really cool, they had good food and the fireworks were really pretty! Though, it was quite weird, everything was in English because it was a British holiday/event, and it was like mini-culture shock to hear all the English. Leo and Julien thought it was really weird that everyone was speaking English, and after they asked me what it felt like to be able to understand everything going on again. It was honestly really, really weird. Afterwards, Julien and I stayed up late watching movies. The Saturday, three exchange student friends (Jordan, One, and Ryan)from the Gifhorn/Wolfsburg area came and visited me for the day and I showed them Hameln and we had a blast doing seemingly absolutely nothing. Though I do seem to remember us taking an abnormally long time to decide what type of cheese we wanted to buy for our lunch sandwiches, and we met a very interesting homeless man and had a nice chat with him about recycling in German for what felt like forever. Then, in the evening my school friends invited me out, but Julien and had plans to go to the movie theater because I have never been, but when we got there we weren’t allowed to see the movie because Julien and I are both 17 and the movie ended after 12 and Germany has curfew laws for the youth. So we went and got popcorn (which mind you, is VERY difficult to find here) and stayed up late watching movies again. Finally, Sunday, my host mom left for Barcelona for the week for an “intensive Spanish course” so I went with my host dad to drive her to the airport, and after we went sight-seeing as well as too the ‘Schillat-Höhle’ which is essentially a nifty underground tunnel. I think I might have permanently blinded the tour guide with the flash on my camera, but she was still nice to me nonetheless.

The other day, a boy in my English class came up to me and said, “Hey Angie, I have a joke for native English speakers…what do you call a deer with no eyes? … No eye-dear!!” I don’t know why, but it was the funniest thing at the time, I miss world plays that I actually understand. That being said, my German is getting better daily and people (for some crazy reason) seem to be impressed with how much German I speak/understand.

Ohh! And today is “Martinsinggentag” so little kids keep coming up to the door singing songs about a man who gave a dying man his jacket to get candy. It’s kind of like a strange take on Halloween.

For anyone who has read/been reading my blog for awhile, you know I had issues with German plumbing because it’s the opposite of American plumbing. Well guess what. Three months in, and I’m STILL turning the faucet the wrong direction when I want to brush me teeth. Some habits are clearly impossible to break.

Finally, I have a haircut tomorrow… it’s well needed, but I’m scared. I have had more bad haircuts than imaginable.

Exchange Student Pride

I don’t think anyone knows what exchange student pride is until they have walked through the center of town wearing their Rotary Blazer (FULL OF PINS) at lunch time on the busiest shopping day of the year with a smile on their face. Seemingly everyone I saw was staring at my blazer, and it was the first moment I was truly proud to be an exchange student.

“Chaotic,” is the only appropriate word to describe what this week has been.

Last Friday I moved to my second family, and I absolutely love them, my host brother and I get along amazingly well (which I already new because we were friends before I moved), and I really like how my host dad only speaks German because it makes more anxious to learn it. I started German lessons with my host mom last Wednesday and it’s really cool, because I’m learning the rules behind all the German my school friends have taught me, only it makes more sense because my host mom teachers me the reasons why things are said a certain way, whereas when I ask my school friends they say, “Because it’s German.”

At first I was sad to miss out on Halloween, but then my host parents decorated the house with pumpkins and skeletons, we had pumpkin soup for dinner, and I stayed up until 3 a.m. watching horror films with my host brother, so even though Germany does not have Halloween, we made it happen.

Saturday I traveled with Rotex 1800 and all the other inbounds to Hamburg. I LOVE Hamburg, but it made me miss good old San Francisco. The city is huge and has the third largest port in Europe (if I’m not mistaken) and I had a great time seeing all my exchange student friends again. It’s amazing how we are all so different, but we all have a connection because we’re all crazy enough to leave behind everything we have ever known in search of something new for a year.

It literally happened overnight. I actually understand German now. I don’t know what changed, but in school I know what’s going on, I understood the speech at the Rotary meeting (about District 1800’s plans for the year from the District Governor himself!), and I understood almost all the dialogue in the movies Julien (<- my host brother)and I watched despite them all being in German. It’s amazing. That being said, when trying to describe California Halloween traditions, I mixed up marijuana (cannibus) and pumpkin (Kürbis) and school (Schule) and gay (Schwule) so I ended up saying “Yeah, we would carve marijuana and eat the seeds, and then I would go “trick or treating” with my gay friends.” Gotta love having an accent.

Amusement Parks, Climbing,Vorabiparties, Oh My!

First and foremost; a Vorabiparty (pre-graduation party) would be my high school principle’s worst nightmare. At a vorabiparty, all the upperclassmen go to a club, and dance the night away. Everyone dresses up and it’s a pretty big deal, it’s vaguely similar to an American ‘homecoming dance…’ the only difference being everyone drinks. The club serves alcohol and because 16 is the legal drinking age for beer, you have to be at least 16 to be allowed in (which is why it’s an ‘upperclassmen party’). I had a fun evening with my school friends, but all I could think about was how this would NEVER be acceptable at my high school in California. Even if my principle had heard about the party, he would go and put a stop to it because the flyer advertising the party has the prices for drink specials. Not to mention even though it’s a ‘high school dance’ people of all ages from anywhere can come. As long as you stay with a group of friends it’s a safe environment and the ‘security guards’ do a really through job… that being said, this would never be acceptable where I’m from. It’s hard for me to watch teenagers go to a grocery store to buy a case of beer without trying to hide it, just because that is so unacceptable in California. 

We’re on holiday for one more week here in Germany so I have been doing different things everyday. Last Sunday, I went to the Heide-Park Resort with my Rotary Youth Exchange Officer’s family (Vielen Dank Familie  Vogeley!)where we watched pirate shows, rode roller coasters and had a lovely day overall. I am really lucky because several years ago, my Youth Exchange Officer went on exchange to America so not only does he speak fluent American English, but he understands American culture a lot better than most Germans because he has lived in it.

Monday, I went rock climbing with my counselor here. Usually Monday evenings we go climbing with my school friends in the climbing hall, but because we’re on holiday and it was a nice day, we went climbing outdoors at Ith (pronounced like “Eat”). While walking to the rocks, we noticed there were lots of nuts on the ground and my counselor said when were are lots of nuts, it means we will be in for a harsh winter. Afterword we had a lovely German bratwurst in a discrete shop. I have no idea how the place stays in business because it’s in the middle of NOWHERE, but the food was really good.

You Know You’re in Germany When…

• NOBODY has heard of Dr. Seuss.
• everyone around you is speaking German.
• trucks are not allowed to drive on the freeway on Sunday mornings.
• all the cars are abnormally small.
• meeting someone who does not drink is shocking.
• public transportation actually functions.
• bread rolls are a common meal for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and for a snack.
• vending machines carry things other than food.

• wearing leggings under your jeans is very necessary in October.
• you take your shoes off before going into anyone's house, no matter how long you will be staying.
• no house has a front yard, but everyone’s backyard is huge.
• it’s normal for a house to be three stories.
• it’s normal to “live in a village.” 
• it’s seemingly impossible to find wifi in public.
• 65 degrees Fahrenheit is ‘too hot’ for a lot of people.
• everyone dresses like they are going to be in a fashion show.
• it takes longer to put on your raingear in the morning then it does to do your makeup.
• Starbucks virtually does not exist.

  Angie: Do you know where the Starbucks in Hannover is?

  Erik (from Sweden): What’s a Starbucks?

• everyone swears in English, whether or not they actually speak it.
• classes are cancelled when a teacher is sick or has a meeting.
• school usually gets out around 1.
• there are several types of “special parking places.”

• it’s normal for teenagers to get home from a night out by “taking the first bus back” at 6 a.m.
• teenagers go clubbing.
• DVD cases don’t have the movie rating on the back.
• everyone wears a watch.
• asking “how are you?” as a greeting is a foreign concept.
• bakeries fill the streets.
• there are bars in the train stations.
• scarves are not only a fashion statement.
• amusement park rides are based on height and age.

• grocery stores are part of the malls.
• all the cashiers sit in big comfy chairs behind the checkout counter.
• chocolate and beer are really cheap.
• it’s normal to see a group of 16-year olds walk out of a grocery store with a case of beer.
• bus drivers stop in the middle of their route for a ‘smoke break.’
• you have to pay FOR EVERYTHING (even things like shopping carts and going to the bathroom in public).
• Fabia and Felix are extremely common names.
• cutting potatoes with a knife and eating with one hand under the table are improper dining etiquettes.
• Nordsee is EVERYWHERE.
• it’s perfectly acceptable for dogs to be on the bus/train, on school campuses, and in the mall.
• it’s considered impolite for guys to stand while peeing in people’s houses.

• McDonalds is a huge deal, and sometimes even a ‘sit-down service’ restaurant.

You Know Your From California When…

• Everything on the Germany list is a foreign concept to you.

(Friends in California)