Achso

Despite the fact that I have been back in California for over a month now, almost two months at that, I still speak German daily. More importantly, I speak German daily at the least helpful times imaginable, such as during my Spanish course, or in my Speech course. While certain German words try and sneak into my vocabulary, the phrase, “Ach! Achso!” has simply actually become English according to my brain.

Angie: “Ach! Achso!”

Daniel: “Angie, what does ‘Achso’ mean?”

Angie: “It’s like… ‘Oh, I understand’ for lack of better wording…”

Daniel: “Oh. It sounds like a**hole. “

School has really gotten into full force, hence the extreme lack of writing here on this blog, I’m taking 19 units this semester. For all of you who aren’t familiar with the American University System, that means I am in school for 19 hours every week (a ‘full time student’ is someone with 12 units) and the ratio is 1:2 so for every hour in class, I’m supposed to have two hours of homework. It takes up a lot of my time. Not to mention I’m a German tutor this semester and I have a second job at a retail sports store on the side. If only there were Germans coming in, though conveniently enough my manager (at both of my jobs actually) is in fact German.

(This is my best friend Rita and myself… if there is one nice thing about being back, it’s getting to see Rita again.)

I’m currently pursuing an International Relations degree (isn’t every ex-exchange student? ) with a major/minor (I have yet to decide) in German and/or Spanish. I also joined the Political Science Club, the Honors Society, and the Rotaract club at my college today, so I’ll (hopefully!) be able to stay up to date on events around the world and I’ll be staying up to date with Rotary projects through Rotaract!

Summer could not come sooner… if everything goes as planned, I’ll be headed back to Germany!

Deutschland, ich liebe dich!

P.S. My camera has mysteriously disappeared… it’s quite sad.

Auf Wiedersehen Doesn’t Mean Good Bye Forever

It’s hard to think. It’s hard to breath. It’s hard to fathom that this year, this experience, this lifetime has to come to an end. I was born August 9th, 2011. I couldn’t speak, I didn’t know what was or was not acceptable, but I grew up. I grew old, and will die tomorrow, July 19th 2012. However Germany will always be a part of my second life. I’ll use the hottest summer my hometown has had in years to my advantage by hanging my washed clothes outside on a clothing line like I did all year in Germany despite the constant rain, rather than just using the dryer. I’ll ride my bike *assuming I still even have one* around town, and speak English with awkward German expressions that make no sense when literally translated. I have indeed, been Germanized.

The past week was a week full of way too many goodbyes. Goodbye to my wonderful host-families, goodbye to my exchange student pals, goodbye to my German friends, acquaintances, and teachers alike. Even my history teacher got teary-eyed when I told him I was leaving, and told me he will miss his walking dictionary. But don’t worry Germany, because you can bet, I’ll be back.

Saturday my friends through me a going-away party for me where we had yet another scrumptious Thanksgiving feast. Unfortunately it is literally impossibly to find a full turkey in Hameln this time of year, so we managed with four legs and a turkey breast that we got at a market. Thankfully, it wasn't nearly as dry this year as it was last year. And afterwards, I couldn't really say what we did because the time flied, we joked around, wrestled, took silly group ‘photos, went to Burger King around midnight and got 10% off our meal because of my friends works there. It may not sound like the most exciting of events, but it was one of my favorite Germany memories, just because all my friends were together (even if they weren't all there for the group photo! :p ).

There are few German words that I will have no choice but to incorporate into my English vocabulary. (Those of you who personally know me in California, I apologize in advance.) Amongst others, these words/expressions include, ‘bescheuert,’ ‘tanzen auf der Nase,’ and ‘heyho.’ Now, please let me explain.

Bescheuert: The German word ‘bescheuert’ (pronounced like bee-schoy-ert') means something like silly or crazy, hence the phrase “Bist du bescheuert?!” (Are you crazy?) being a common phrase to hear on the street. Not only do I simply like this word, but if you look up the meaning on www.leo.org (the most popular online translation dictionary in Germany) the definition will not be something simple like ‘silly’ or ‘crazy’ but rather ‘one beer short of a six pack.’

Tanzen auf der Nase: I don’t know what it is with German, but it seems to have lots of wordplays involving noses. This one in particular translated to “they’re dancing on the nose” and is often used to describe someone whose being fussy or misbehaving.

Heyho: Heyho, one of the most common greetings amongst the youth of Germany is a TERRIBLE greeting for a person to use while speaking English. This will be extremely difficult for me not to use when greeting my California friends and family before I explain the word, so please, do not be offended if it seems like I’m walking up to you and greeting you with “Hey slut!” Really, that’s not at all my intention.

Rather than describing my last day of Germany with boring old words, I’m going to end this post with a series of pictures from my last afternoon where I visited friends and host-families for the last time this year, because after all, a picture is worth a 1,000 words.

It still hasn’t hit me that I’m flying back tomorrow, aside from all the “see you laters” (Note: Not ‘goodbyes,’ but see you laters) and the special things my friends and host families did for me, it felt like just another normal day in paradise. I’m not flying home, I’m just flying back. While California may be where I come from, and will always influence my behavior because I spent the first 17 years of my life there, home is where the heart is. And my heart, is in Germany.

A Normal Week…? Not Even Possible

Take a look at these words and tell me what they make you think of:

• Schatz
• Süße/Süßer
• Hasilein
• Zuckerschmäuschen
• Kaninchenzipfelchen

Now assuming you don’t speak German, you may take these words to be insults, or horribly infectious diseases, but no, quite the contrary actually. These five (well six if you count the feminine/masculine form) words are examples of German pet names. I don’t think anyone wonders why German isn’t considered the “language of love.”

 

Sunday I switched host-families and am now living with my fourth (and hopefully final!) host-family in Fischbeck, a village on the outskirts of Hameln. I almost went through culture shock all over again simply because I went from a family with essentially no host-siblings, to have three little brothers ages eight and (the twins are) five. Not to mention my host-mom is from Canada and therefore speaks French with the children. Before I moved here I would have said my French is about as good as my Chinese (a.k.a. non-existent in the slightest), but considering how much my host-mom has to repeat herself when speaking to the boys, I have learned some useful French phrases such as, “Be quiet,” “Sit down,” and “Watch your manners!” Of course, I cannot pronounce any of these phrases (they are in French after all!), but at least I can understand them. I also now bike a whopping 7.4 km (so about 4.6 miles) to and from school everyday and therefore have been eating huge portions during meal time (my second and third host-moms would be so proud! They’re both convinced I never eat). The distance doesn’t bother me at all… however, I generally come home soaking wet from the rain.

 

Speaking of the distance, my host-dad and I made a € 10 bet against my host-mom/brother (from my third host-family) that my fourth family lived further away from my Gymnasium (high school) than my second family. My mom and brother were so convinced Fischbeck was farther, while my dad and I were absolutely certain Groß Berkel was farther, it was a very intense bet, all until we checked “Google Maps” and found out they are both EXACTLY 7.4 km from the school. Talk about an anti-climatic outcome!

 

Thursday evening I played Poker with my best German friend’s family (and Jasper!). I didn’t do very well… but every time I beat my best friend’s step dad, I simply felt overly victorious because always picks fun at me. It might have something to do with the fact that I have a teddy bear with the same name as him… but that was just a coincidence!

 

The Germans have this… thing they do with their eye when someone is lying. For example, “Where’s Konnie?” “Oh he’s sick. *weird thing with eye*” The first time I saw it, I thought maybe he had pink eye or something and the eye thing was a strange form of sign language. Just another thing I learned this year, though I must admit, I always find it funny when my host-mom does it.

 

I really must me off, I’m trying to register for classes for university and the server is being a complete and total pain, but until then, have a great week and remember:

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!

The Weeks Go By To Fast

Most things are different, but German microwaves are just plain weird. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that I’m used to the ‘super-high-tech’ U.S. version that has nothing to do with grams and has actual words as compared to oddly drawn pictures… but that doesn’t change the fact that I have difficulty using it every time. I still find it funny when baking with my friends and they hold something up and say, “Does this look like 300 grams to you?” “United States customary units” may be completely out of whack, but it’s what we learn in the U.S. and what I know how to measure in… though I have finally adapted the Celsius temperature scale if nothing else!

Exchange students are generally loud people, therefore when gathering 140 of us together for a weekend, we generally have to be secluded from the public because we draw too much attention to ourselves which is exactly what happened this past weekend. All the inbounds and next years outbounds met up in Celle for the weekend where we had a we wandered though Celle scavenger hunt style, toured (yet another) castle, got POURED on, and had a Pirate party and were simply louder than imaginable, but I guess that’s to be expected when 140 crazy teenagers gather together. Honestly, if your willing to leave behind everything you’ve ever known for a year and go alone to a country where you don’t speak a word of the language… I’m pretty sure you can be deemed ‘crazy.’ I felt very helpful, while I was switching trains in Hannover, a British man came up to me and asked me in broken German if I speak English. Of all the people he could have chose to ask, he happened to pick the exchange student from California. I helped him find his train to the airport and then we chatted for a bit, and I think it’s the first time I’ve made ‘small-talk’ in months. Germans don’t do small talk.

Andres: “I’m Angie, and I’m angry with the life.”

And sometimes when it simply gets too loud, I like to hide in a corner (with my friends of course) and read. Of course, this brings my Mexican friend Andres to think that I’m “angry with the life.”

Saturday night, I was actually quite disappointed when we had a glorious feast… I was in the mood for pizza, which lead me to texting my best German friend, telling him we’re making pizza Monday, which is exactly what we did...two of the most delicious (olive infested! ) pizzas I have ever tasted at that. He also decided to try a new fashion statement… shorts, long socks and low-cut shoes. I hope he’s learned his lesson about letting me take pictures of him now. 

Last night I got home from hanging out with my friends around 9 p.m., just in time to catch the beginning of the Bayern München (Munich)– Real Madrid (the team Hannover 96 lost to a few weeks back)‘half-final’ soccer game, and of course I had to stay and watch the entire game, the over time, and the penalty kicks with my host-dad. (I find it funny how penalty kicks are called ‘the 11 meter’ in German. It just doesn’t sound nearly as intimidating.) He almost had countless heart attacks from getting so excitedl; it made me think of my dad when watching the Superbowl back in California. Not only did both Spain and Germany play a great game, BUT THE GERMAN TEAM WON which means they’ll be playing in the final in Munich on May 19th! Even if you don’t care about soccer, be sure to catch the ‘11 meters’ here. It really was amazing!

Penalty Kicks – Spain vs. Germany

I’d like to wish my best friend in California a happy birthday (well, it was yesterday, but this still counts!). To quote my 7th grade science teacher, “Some things just never change.” and that applies to Rita and me. This morning I got up EXTRA early for her to talk to her before going to school because it was still her birthday in her time zone and this was the first year since we’ve been best friends (coming up on seven years) that I wasn’t there for her birthday, and to use the German expression, “That just doesn’t go.” She had me laughing to the point of crying this morning for a majority of the conversation, and I was even late to Biology, but I don’t think my teacher minded.

Happy 18th Birthday Rita!