The Happiest Life (Aufwiedersehen Deutschland)

'For the happiest life, days should be rigorously planned, nights left open to chance.'

Mignon McLaughlin

'I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.'
E. B. White

‘When offered something, always say yes, because you may never be faced with the same opportunity again’

Unknown

Speicherstadt in Hamburg

           These three quotes from early in my year are all I could really use to describe my methods and my experience. This is what I have been living by for the past 300 days in Germany. Now, I am not only facing the final stretch, but I have my foot on the finish line. It’s too late to turn back or to slow down. My time in Germany is over. School is winding down, the last weekend I have is about to come and then it ends in a series of my least favorite thing, ‘Goodbyes’. Now, it’s all just saying goodbye, to a project and a life which I have had so little time to build up. Then, it is time to enter back into a world which I am familiar with, but which has changed since I left. And even if my year is over, my exchange experience is not, and as every exchange student will tell you, the hardest part is still to come for me, and that is returning and starting over in an old world. But enough for now about my world of two waves colliding into each other around me, because I have a lot of great stuff to write about since the last time that I posted, which seems like just yesterday, even if I have done more than some people do in a year.

Hamburg Alster

           When I last wrote in here it was the beginning of May and I was in a phase where I was looking at my last two months on the calendar with excitement, and looking forward to all of the great things that I had planned. The good news is that I didn’t just get to do all of what I planned, but I got to do more than I had planned! The bad news is that there is still so much stuff that I would love to do and love to see. But first the major stuff that I did, in order of how they happened;

            My first few weeks in May were full of small, single events, like meeting with friends to see a movie of hang out in town, of course my Water polo practices and games every week, and going to Phantasialand, an amusement park, with Trym and the Balds. I had finally reached the point where my whole week was full, and my schedule was planned for every day. It was a full, completed life, with real friends, and a great family. Then, because of the well timed holidays at the end of the year, we had three, four day weekends, which I used to the fullest extent that I could. The first one, ‘Christi Himmelfahrt’, I spent in a fantastic, spontaneous trip to Hamburg, to visit family friends. It was my fifth time in Hamburg, but the first time that I really got a great feel for the city. Not only did I get to roam the city more and do more sight seeing, but I had a rare Hamburg experience, in that I was finally there with good weather; The first weekend where it was true summer. Everybody was outside, sitting in the parks, grilling, playing soccer, and just enjoying the city. The first night I was there I got to go to the Alster, one of the two big rivers that flow through Hamburg, and I got to see a once a year event, the ‘Japanischer Kirschbluttenfest’, which was a big, beautiful event with lots of people gathering to see the fireworks which were shot off of a boat for about a half an hour. It happened to be on the same day as Fathers Day here in Germany, which is not really a Fathers Day like we have it in America. It is more of an excuse for men, both young and old, fathers and non-fathers, to walk around all day with a barrel of beer and just get drunk. One German explained it to me as more of a celebration of being ‘able’ to be a father :) . I was able to walk around one of the richest and nicest parts of Hamburg, though I quickly discovered that almost every part of Hamburg is expensive and nice. The next day, we went through Hamburg, looked at an old tunnel, the Elb Tunnel, which goes under the Elbe, the other major River in Hamburg. Hamburg actually has more bridges than any other city in the world. It has more bridges than Amsterdam and Venice put together. After looking at the harbor and seeing the German horse jumping derby, I eventually had to go back to Wuppertal. It took twice as much time as planned to get home on that Sunday, because my train didn’t end up coming. It happened to be a train which was already full, with no more reservations possible. All of those people, including myself, started jumping into any train heading our direction just to get home, but every other train was just as full as ours would have been. I ended up changing trains four times, with one three hour stretch of just standing and being squished, which was something I never want to have to do again. To make it worse, it was so warm that everybody was sweating a ton, and Germans are not very good at dealing with heat. I finally made it home late at night, and then it was off to school in the morning. That whole next week was full of final exams, meeting with friends, and Water polo games.

Texel, North Sea, Holland

Exchange students from around the world, all on their way back home soon :(

Then on Friday the Balds and I left as soon as school was over to drive up to the North Sea, onto an Island in Holland, called Texel. We had a long weekend off school, and this was possibly going to be our last weekend all together so we, just like many others do in Germany, head directly for the shore to take advantage of the free time. We had a fantastic weekend, full of sightseeing, walks on the beach, sun bathing (and burning :/ ) and even some swimming! It was my first time in Holland which then became the eighth country of my exchange year. Later in the week I also got to go to Venlo in Holland which is on the border to Germany, with my aunt. I didn’t have school because in Germany, instead of substitute teachers, we just have no class in that period, and both of my classes got dropped, so I didn’t have to go to school :) . We had a great time at the Floriade, which is a garden expo which only happens every ten years in a different Dutch city. The next weekend was no break for me, because I had my AFS End of Stay in the Youth Hostel in a town called Velbert. It was so nice to see these exchange students from all over the world who have become some of my best friends, and we really were a sort of family. It was hard to say goodbye, because we all inevitably knew that we could never all see each other again, due not exclusively but mainly to the fact that we all live in different corners of the earth. 

Le Paris :)

After some wonderful sleepless nights that weekend I was just about ready to sleep for a month, but no rest for the wicked; it was off to Paris. We had another long weekend and once again I was making the most of my time, taking an overnight bus to Paris with about 65 AFS exchange students. I had been to Paris in December with Ivan and I loved it so much, that it was worth it for me to go back, even if it was only for one day. After an awesome day of running around exploring the city, we took the bus back overnight, arriving at 4 in the morning. I pretty much hadn’t slept a wink for two days, and when we arrived I had to take two trains and a bus, with a twenty minute walk in the sunrise to finally arrive at the house at 6:30 in the morning, where I promptly crashed on my bed, fully clothed. Once I woke up I ate breakfast and was off to Meschede in the Sauerland, a mountainous, woodsy region of my state in Germany. I took the train there, to be picked up by my wonderful sister Caroline and my Uncle. After nine months I had been reunited a little bit early with my sister! A relative of ours was getting married so we all got nice and dressed up for her wedding, along with about 500 others, half of which were British relatives of the Groom. After a few more nights of only a little sleep, Caroline and I drove back to Wuppertal, where she then stayed with my Aunt for two days. She got to see where I have spent my year and she got to go to the famous Wuppertal Zoo, which even I have never done!

Erich Honnecker and Leonid Brezhnev in their quick Communist kiss. A mural from a picture, at the East Side Gallery in Berlin

Once she left it was no time off for me, because the next day I took a train to Berlin to spend a week with 50 Americans at our CBYX End-of-Stay camp. My scholarship program, the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange, which sponsors 250 kids from America to do a year long exchange in Germany, as well as 250 Germans to America, brings all of the scholarship recipients together at the end of the year, when they are invited to the German Bundestag. The Bundestag is the German Congress, and they invited us to not only sit in on one of their sessions, but we were even allowed to have a conference with some leaders and Bundestag representatives, including the president of the Bundestag and the Vice-Chancellor of Germany. We were allowed to ask questions about anything from financial issues in the Euro Zone, immigration in Germany, the problems in the Middle East, and reunification between the east and west in Germany. After the conference and a lunch in the Reichstag Building, we were invited to the American Embassy to chill with the Ambassador from the United States, who also happens to be from Massachusetts :) . You would think that an Embassy would be boring, but it was not at all. When we arrived, once we got through the security check we had American sodas, chocolates, snacks, and a music play list. We all got to chill on the grass of the courtyard, and we were all just chatting with other exchange students about everyone’s experience in Germany. We danced, talked to foreign officers, and just had a chill time in the walled in patch of America in a bottle. After traveling the city, staying up all night with the Americans, watching Germany kick butt in soccer :) and reflecting on our year, we were all dead tired, and on our way home. Berlin is a refreshing type of city, and not like any other German city that I have seen. With 3.5 million people, it is the only moderately large city in Germany, but it is like no other city that I have ever seen. It is full of history, but so much of it is new. It is not spread out, but not built up like Frankfurt. It is a clash of old and new, just like Germany as a whole.

The Ambassador from the United States to Germany, giving all of the CBYXers a quick speech in the Embassy Courtyard next to the Brandenburger Tor

After the first goal for Germany in the quarterfinals against Greece

          

During the game against Italy, what it looks like from afar. 

           Now the big trips around Europe are over, and it’s down to the last few days in Germany. Now, I am focusing on getting my last few days planned and full, surrounded by the people I care about, and doing the things that I love. Whether it’s grilling with friends or watching Germany play in the European Cup I am doing nothing but enjoying my time and trying my hardest not to think that I am right at the end. Only people who have done an exchange year can understand the feeling of building up friendships and a whole new life, just to all of a sudden be sent back into an old place and old time, and into your future. If my German or exchange student friends are reading this, I want to thank you all, I love you, and you have made my year the best of my life. Es war einfach unnormal wie wohl ich mich hier gefühlt habe. Ich kann es einfach immer noch nicht begreifen dass ich raus gezogen werde mit einem Flug zurück, und damit mein Leben hier verliere. Abschied ist bitter. Ich hoffe ihr vergisst mich nicht, weil ich werde euch nie vergessen. Das beste Jahr meines Lebens. Ich muss euch nochmal danken, weil ihr habt mir geholfen, mit mir geredet, und mir begleitet, und sowas hätte ich nie erwartet. Ich liebe euch!

Wuppertal 2012. 

In Deutschland bin ich zuhause <3 

The Fast Lane (Osterferien and More)

Cafe Niederegger

What I wouldn’t give to slow down time; to have at least another few weeks more. I guess I should get everybody caught up on what has happened since I last wrote about a month and a half ago. The largest thing that has happened is the Osterferien, or Easter Break. In the first week, I got to go up and visit family from all over Germany in Hamburg. I did a day trip to Lübeck and went to a Birthday lunch of my great uncle Hermann. Afterwards, we were invited to go with him to the Café Niederegger, which is the famous home of the best Marzipan in the World for over 200 years. We enjoyed cake and I had, as a special treat for the occasion, a marzipan coffee :). The last time I was in Hamburg I only got to see a little bit of the city, but this time I had a bit more of a chance to walk around and explore. It truly is one of the most beautiful cities in Germany. It also happens to be the second largest city in Germany, after Berlin and before Munich, with 1,786,448 people. It is a harbor city which still today is a trading point for international goods.

Hamburg

After a brief stop back in Wuppertal, I was off again down to my second stop of the vacation, the Bodensee, or Lake Constance in English. An old family friend, who I call an aunt, invited me down to one of the most beautiful corners of Germany to stay with her in her apartment on the lake in Wasserburg. In surface, Lake Constance is the third largest sea in Central Europe and in water mass it is the second largest. It is a huge tourist attraction, water source, and the best part is that it is culturally a European crossroad. The Bodensee borders Germany in Bavaria (Bayern), and Baden-Württemberg. It also borders Austria and Switzerland, and is relatively close to Lichtenstein. While driving through the streets, there are not only license plates from all over Germany and the other countries bordering the sea, but also Italy, France, and from all over Central Europe. But let’s cut the facts and just say that, at least from the German side, the sea is gorgeous because, directly after the water ends, the Alps begin. I did learn, though, that the Swiss had the short end of the deal because they have to look at Germany, which is just flat. It is like living inside of the most beautiful building in an ugly city. The best thing is that you can go from sailing in the morning, to skiing in the afternoon. Many people, who work on Lake Constance, will take a lunch break to hike up a mountain and ski down once, before getting back to the office. Even though swimming in the summer is not only possible, but very popular, I arrived on Easter weekend, and the weather gods decided that they wanted to give us snow on Easter morning, just because they didn’t give it to us on Christmas. I suppose it is too cold to go swimming in early April anyway, but we did have the luck of it being around 68° F (19°C) for our many excursions into Bregenz, Austria and St. Gallen, Switzerland. It was my first time ever in Switzerland!

Bregenzer Seebuhne (Sea Stage)

            I got to see multiple beautiful churches with my aunt, which very much belongs to the culture and special parts of southern Germany. We took a trip through Bregenz and explored the city. We got to see the stage for the Bregenz Festival, which is a festival of Musicals, and the stage is built every two years, uniquely for the play being done. The best part is that the stage is in the Lake, so the background is the sea and the land across the way. Other than that, Bregenz was a low-key, industrial looking city, but we did discover a beautiful church at the top of the town. In the south of Germany, the key is to simply walk into every church in any town you see, because chances are that they will look fantastic with sculptures, art, unique architecture and gold everywhere, as well as being very old. We visited Basilika Birnau, a famous Church, which over looks the sea and the Alps, and we took a tour through Schloss Salem, an old campus for one of the most prestigious European international schools. 

Lindau am Bodensee

            In our day in Sankt Gallen, Switzerland, we went through the city, looked at the ancient library which is literally over a thousand years old, and we looked at the famous Stiftskirche, which may be the most beautiful cathedral I have ever seen. Then, after a few nice days on the Bodensee, it was off to my aunt’s other apartment, in Munich (or München), the third largest city in Germany. I had already been to Munich with my Dad and brother this summer, and with my host family this fall, but it was nice to see the city again, and I can never get tired of the nice cars and beautiful streets of Munich. I only had two days, so we tried to just have a relaxed time walking around in the nice weather. We went swimming a few times in a famous pool called “das Müller’sche Volksbad” which is over one hundred years old and is an architectural masterpiece. In my whole stay, my wonderful aunt always made sure that we were relaxed, had something nice to eat, something nice to drink, and something nice to see or explore. Then it was back to Wuppertal with me.

Stiftskirche, St. Gallen

            On the last Sunday before school started again, I got to do a day trip down to Frankfurt to visit friends of my host family, which was a nice excursion and a good way to spend more time with my host family after being on the road for so long. We bowled and ate and went on a walk through the community there and just tried to have a nice end to the two-week Easter Vacation. 

            I suppose I should fill everybody in briefly on the other things I have been filling my time here with. I took part in the Stadtmeisterschaft (or City Championship) for swimming, which decides who gets to represent their school and go to the State Championships, and maybe even the National Championships. I unfortunately was only allowed to swim in three events, of which two were relays, and the other butterfly (my best stroke). I didn’t stand a chance in the relays, because my other teammates were more recreational swimmer, and a bit younger, but no matter. The individual was on me I guess, because of the cultural difference in the way that they start races. It was the first race I was in, and I had no idea that the whistle means here that I have to start. So I looked like an idiot for a second, getting myself psyched up, only to be a bit later out of the blocks, and lose all of my concentration. I tried my best, and I almost caught the front runner, but ended up coming up a half a second short. Too bad.

City Hall in Munich

            We had a triple whammy of Birthdays in March, where Annika and Max (my host sister and brother) have their birthdays on the same day, and my host father has his birthday one day before that. Three Birthdays within two days! Amazing. I had a few more Water Polo matches, where we heavily crushed our opponents, moving up a seed in both of the teams I am on. I even was one of the top scorers in a few of the matches. I think I am really starting to get a hold of the rhythm of the game. I had to hold a presentation about my life in America for my AFS committee and all of my international exchange student friends, of which there are now five new ones in our committee, from Brazil, Guatemala, Australia, New Zealand, and Thailand. Therefore Sam, the exchange student who came with my host family and I to the Alps in the Herbstferien (see far below) returned to Australia, because he was only in Germany for a semester program.

View from my window in Lindau am Bodensee

            With all of the hanging out with German friends, playing soccer and working out at McFit (my gym) with Trym, and doing homework for school, there hasn’t been much time to write in here or to do much of anything else. I have a lot planned, and I have just realized that I have almost no more free weekends left. I still fit in occasional opportunities for great things such as seeing a Pina Bausch Dance Theater piece, which is one of the famous things that has come from Wuppertal (if you haven’t heard of it, look it up). I still fit in the time to travel to Cologne and Düsseldorf on a regular basis, as well as go and see a movie with Trym or hang out in town with some friends. This past Saturday I attended the Öhlberg Fest, which is a street festival in Wuppertal, which takes place every two years, and has tons of Rock and Reggae band playing on every corner. It was full, to the point where I could no longer move. I was amazed that something so large could happen in Wuppertal. It was a pretty wild night, and getting my ears blasted out by music, bumping up against people with beers in their hands, and breathing in nothing but smoke, was not my idea of a safe place to spend a lot of time, so I ended up enjoying the experience, and carefully leaving before it got too wild. We had today off for International Workers Day, but it is off to school again tomorrow. I am looking forward to the end of the month in one way, because after the end of May, I have no more Tests or Finals left! Also, as a side note, I did of course fill out and follow March Madness. I even entered my bracket against Obama and I beat his Bracket! I picked the winner too!

             I am sure that I have forgotten plenty of things that I have done, but I am also sure that nobody is interested in hearing any more about what I have done. Believe it or not, but the end of my year is flying at me faster than I can believe. I have so much I still want to do and so little time left. It is truly unbelievable. Everybody tells you in the beginning that you should get as much done and enjoy your time, because it will be gone before you know it, but nothing can really prepare you for the realization that there simply isn’t the time to get all of your dreams out in the end of your year. I am trying to enjoy myself, while still working hard, but I truly would have liked the possibility to slow down timed right about now.

            I leave you all with a Happy May Day, and I am excited for the many cool things I have ahead of me; Paris trip, Holland North Sea trip, European Championship, Berlin CBYX camp, and much more. I will talk to you all soon, I hope.

Ich liebe Deutschland

Karneval Fiesta

KÖLLE

ALAAF

Non. Stop. Action.

I am starting to think that in the next few months I will be trying to get so much done and experience so many new things that I won’t have any time to write in here at all. Of course I will try my hardest to squeeze in enough time for a quick post, because otherwise I will lose all of my memories of the most important part of my year; the home stretch. Now I wouldn’t quite say I am in the final stretch of my year, but I am now past half way and all past exchange students say the same thing, the last four months fly by the quickest. I find it hard enough to believe that time can fly quicker than it already has, but with that knowledge, I had better get as much done as I possibly can.

           

It is the end of a long season here, a season which, just like every other German tradition, is well defined by drinking. Karneval (or Faschings) goes way back. It started before Catholicism in this region, under Roman rule. There was a long season comprised of drinking and music and celebration of everything and anything. When Catholicism was spread throughout the Rhineland, they did not want to take away this tradition from the people, so they created Karneval, which is still today, a season celebrated only in primarily Catholic regions. 

The season begins on the 11^th of November at 11:11AM and goes until Ash Wednesday, taking a bit of a break at Christmas. It is a season in the Catholic Calendar, popularly referred to as the Fifth Season, followed by Lent. Unfortunately it is not largely celebrated in Wuppertal, being a primarily Protestant city, but the main region of celebration is along the Rhine River. The three main Karneval hotspots are Köln (Huge, Dangerous, Messy), Düsseldorf (Large, Organized, Colorful), Mainz (Tidy, Political, Organized). I just happened to be in Köln (or Cologne in English) where over 1.5 million people flood the streets to watch the parade and feel the unity in celebration. Of course all tourists who want the ‘real’ Karneval experience go to Cologne for expensive beer, huge crowds, and international partying with dressed up strangers.

I started with a small group of exchange students, and slowly we gained more and more, merged with other exchange student groups, and picked up Germans on the way. By the end we were about 20 to 30 people, primarily Latin Americans, and Germans who spoke Spanish. There was glass, confetti, and garbage in the streets covering every inch. All of the real ‘Kölner’ hide in their own corners of the city, and surrounding the Central Train Station and the Cathedral are the masses of tourists. Everyone is dressed up. There is a parade through the whole city where the crowds made up of kids, parents, and guests surround the bands and wagons and yell ‘Karmella’ which basically means Candy, and the people in the Parade throw candy into the crowd. This parade is on different days depending on where you are, but in Köln, Düsseldorf, and Mainz it is on Rosenmontag (Rose Monday). In smaller cities and towns the parades tend to be on Saturday or Sunday so that they can still attract people and don’t have to compete with the larger cities. On Sunday February 19^th, AFS organized a day trip to Brühl, a town outside of Cologne, where we took part in the parade and threw about two seven pound bags of candy per person into a yelling and singing crowd. We were about twenty-five people, and after about half of the Parade, we were out of candy and it had already been three hours. The people surrounded us and we would throw the candy into the crowds, into open windows, and into the little kid’s bags. All of us were dressed up in the colors and flags of our home country, becoming a sort of internationally representing group. At Rosenmontag we actually attended a party which was underground, below the Train Station, in a decrepit room, which was likely broken open. There was an awesome DJ who set up and made the speakers shake the smoke hanging in the air. The room was stuffed out the door, with literally more people outside than inside, probably about 200 people, who spontaneously were attracted to a broken down room, drawn in by ground shaking dubstep.

On the whole, Karneval was a fantastic experience. I had never been to a party with over a million people, where you can literally not move due to drunken people squished up against you in elaborate costumes, but I don’t think many people have. :)

One of the other important things that have happened since my last post is my CBYX Halbzeitkamp (Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Mid-Stay Camp). For one week, I got to miss school and go to Bad Honnef, which is near Bonn, and about an hour away from me here in Wuppertal, to meet up with half of the 48 or so scholars who I was with in Washington DC before I left. It was wonderful to see them again, and we did day trips to Köln, where I have been many times, as you can tell, and Bonn, which is apparently the city where my Grandparents went to College and fell in love. Bonn used to be the Capital of Germany, as West and East Germany were two separate countries, but now it is back to being Berlin. Bonn is still a beautiful old city, with a lot of important buildings, including a United Nations Center. In both Köln and Bonn we went through museums and had tours in the daytime, and then we explored the city a bit on our own. I even discovered an English Shop, where they sell products from England and America, mainly food and drinks. If people in America saw that a box of Lucky Charms was 10 euros ($13.20) they would probably have a heart attack. I suppose it is a pretty easy way to make money, and the whole area around the store is English, as if all of a sudden when you turn a corner you walked into London with all of the groups standing around speaking English. I don’t hear English very often in Germany, but when I do, it is almost always in Cologne.

Well it has been a nice period of time here in Germany. I have found a rhythm here that I am happy with. My schedule has started to become regular and relatively unchanging, with the weekends always open for the occasional (more like frequent) movie, travel or party. School is settling into a normal place of study, where homework and test are becoming more routine and easy. All I have to do know is resist from buying myself a Döner or a bag of Quark Bällchen every time I have time in the city. I am still discovering new things about the Culture, the society, and the people, and I hope to do a lot of very important things and learn a lot in the next four months. I will be on the plane home before I know it, and I have to continue utilizing my year here, because I will never have these opportunities ever again.

To a Happy, Healthy, Enlightening Four More Months!

Das ist Alemania (Paris, Praktikum, Party)

Ivan and I in Paris, in front of the Tour Eifel

Once again my dearest of friends and family, I find myself in position of having waited far too long to write in here. I have, arguably from a week after my Christmas post, done so much and embarked on so many new adventures that I could have filled a whole post, but maybe it is better when it is boiled down to the important things.

            So I’ll move chronologically, like I have been the entire time, and continue with what I did after Christmas. So Christmas Eve, which is when you open the presents, was spent here with my host family and my brother Ivan from Argentina, and it was a very nice night with good food, but you can read more about that in my last real post. Then the first Christmas Day and the second Christmas Day, and yes, there are two, were spent at the houses of both of my host Grandparents from my the fathers and the mothers side. Both days were pleasant family meetings and we ate good food and exchange gifts, the way Christmas should be. And then, on the very next day it was off to PARIS! My host father, Annika, Ivan, and I all piled into the car at six in the morning and we were off to le France. The drive was only six hours and we got to go through Belgium. I realized in the process that I had never been to a country where I literally did not speak a word of the language. I didn’t used to speak any Spanish, but Puerto Rico is English enough that that didn’t count. So I went into my iPod and learned what turned out to be the most useful phrases:

            “Laissez-moi tranquille!” – Pronounced ‘less-ay mwah 
             trahng-KEEL!’

            Translation = ‘Leave me alone!’

            “Dégage!“ – Pronounced ‘Day-GAZH!’

            Translation = ‘Piss off!’

            “Ne me touchez pas!” – Pronounced ‘nuh muh 
            TOOSH-ay PAH!’

            Translation = ‘Don’t touch me!’

            “Où sont les toilettes?” – Pronounced ‘OOH sohng lay 
             twa-LEHT?’

            Translation = ‘Where is the toilet?’

            “Je ne comprend pas.” – Pronounced ‘ZHUH nuh 
             kohm-PRAHNG pah’

            Translation = ‘I don’t understand’

Montmartre

          As it turned out, I needed all of those phrases at some point or another in my three days in France. I even experienced being craftily robbed by a man from Senegal. He was friendly and even though I told him no about fifteen times, I think its hard to persuade a man that you are not a vulnerable tourist when you are fifteen and taking pictures of Sacre Coeur. Either way he only made off with ten Euros, and therefore I gained much more (I hope) in experience, and how not to get by a heckler. We met lots of colorful strangers in Paris, most with the intention of getting at our wallets. There was a group of Gypsies who were bombarding us to sign some petition, or so we thought. Because the heading was Organization for the Deaf, I thought that this was some innocent petition or good cause, so I wrote down a name that wasn’t mine, and wrote down Düsseldorf as my residency, and then I came to the donation. Ivan had the exact same problem. Both of us came to the money part at the same time, and both of us tried to push away as fast as possible. They were very aggressive, and as I was trying to make my usual case of ‘I don’t have any money’ they started grabbing at my pants telling me that I did have money and that I had to donate now. So we pushed them off of us and bustled down the huge stairs up on the Montmartre hill. But getting bombarded by crooks wasn’t the only thing we were doing in Paris. I owe the fantastic sightseeing to Ivan actually, because without him I would have only seen a third of the things that we saw. I realized that I knew literally nothing about Paris, or half of the amazing things in it. Of course Paris is about THE touristiest (yes, it’s a word) place on earth, but we managed to fit in all of the beautiful tourist spots, and historic locations, as well as places that most people don’t go. In the beginning I told Ivan that there was no way that we would see all of that in two days, but we did it. We went to Notre Dam, The Louvre, The George Pompidou Centrum, Arc de Triomphe, the Dali Museum, Champs Elysées, la Invalides, la Bastille, la Concorde, Sacre Coeur, Palais Royal, and of course the Eifel Tower. We were staying in a nice hotel in Versailles, which, if you don’t already know, is about a half hours train ride outside of Paris, and is the location of the palace built by King Louis XIV. It is an enormous palace and has a huge Garden and grounds with an amazing view. On our last day before we drove back, we took a tour of the huge palace, and explored the grounds, something that people on a normal three day trip to Paris wouldn’t usually be able to do, as it is a bit further away. Therefore, Ivan and I chose to get up at six in the morning, in order to maximize the time, so we took the first train to Paris from the train station, which was already a bit of a walk through the grounds of Versailles, and then we took the last train back from Paris at night. It was, without a doubt, one of the coolest cities that I have ever been to, and a place that I would love to see more of.

           

Louvre

            When we returned it was almost time for New Years, and on the 30^th I went on a trip to Essen with Tram from Norway, and Ivan. While there I indulged in, as I often do, a Döner, which is a type of Turkish-German food that literally outsells McDonalds here. It is a pocket with meat, lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles, and a sauce of your choice. It is perhaps one of my favourite foods here, or was, rather. Unfortunately I ate a döner that was no longer at its prime. As is often the problem with a food that is so competitively cheap, the ingredients were no longer good. I became very sick that night and ended up spending New Years in bed, what a shame, but sometimes you get unlucky. I suppose that that is the price of adventure.

Hamburg Ice Sculpture Museum

            Then, after a lot of short term planning and the nicest offer from a family friend, I headed up to Hamburg for three days. I got to experience the lovely ICE trains that are so known and loved here in Germany, and was up in Hamburg in the afternoon. I visited my Tante Ingeborg first, because she was my main drive for going there, as she is suffering with dementia, and I feel so lucky that I am able to still visit her and talk to her, because as soon as I am back in America, I am simply too far away.  My family here in Germany is very important to me, especially because I haven’t really gotten to know all of my family members here as well as I would have liked to. I suppose a part of the reason that I am here is that I should be finding myself, seeing as I am in a place where my personality is exposed, and there is no more protection from the life that I have already built for myself.  I then met up with another part of my family which I had not had much of a chance to get to know before, and we went together through Hamburg and went to the Hamburg Art Museum. I then took the train out to Itzehoe, where I was staying with our friends. I ate fantastic food there, and they were nothing but friendly and welcoming to me. I slept long and well, and after we had eaten breakfast, I went for a walk into Itzehoe with the family and they showed me all of the things in the pretty old town. I then got invited by Ben, their son who is about my age, to go play pool with his friends. Afterwards, we went to dinner at a delicious restaurant, and I had the best meat I have had since I got to Germany. My last day in the North was spent in Hamburg with the family and after a walk around Hamburg and an awesome ‘Ice Sculpture’ exhibit, it was time to go home. 


           I then started school on the very next day, but only for a week. Then, it was time for my ‘Praktikum’, or, internship. In almost all German schools, at some point, usually between the ninth or tenth grade, you do an internship, anywhere from one to four weeks, depending on the school. I was lucky enough to receive a spot at Wiesemann und Theis, a Micro-Computing Company, for my two week Praktikum. In my two weeks I learned about all of their products, and they taught me how to design an interactive website, which can react and communicate with the devices that they make, for example, I made a mini street crossing, where I stuck lights in a circuit board and melted iron to connect them to one of their devices. The lights acted as street lights, with several sets for the drivers and for pedestrians. I then designed a website that would interact with the device and the circuit board, so that the display would look just like the circuit board, and, using intervals, the lights would light up and change just like a real street crossing. You can watch the video to help you understand what I mean, though you cannot see all of the work that is behind it (i.e. Programming, photo editing, and welding of iron onto the motherboard with voltage control.)  It was a lot of very interesting work, and a type of work that I had never really considered. I was able to not only get to know and experience a work environment, but a foreign one as well! And on top of it all, I was able too see the process from idea and blueprint to finished product and selling, because it all happens in one building.

            Of course I have done a lot more in the past month and a bit, such as the usual travelling and parties with the exchange students and my German friends. I have been ice skating and to comedy events, and have been continuing to play Water Polo, and aggressive, fast moving version of handball in water, though handball is also only played in Europe. I also had my AFS regional Mid-Stay camp, which was a weekend long event at a youth hostel, with all of the exchange students from the region here (i.e. Düsseldorf, Wuppertal, Solingen, Remscheid, etc.). We had a ton of fun, and danced and partied and were able to share our experiences. It was a weekend with kids from all over the world, coming together, and talking about an experience that we are all sharing. 

Ice Skating with the AFS Jugendkomitee Wuppertal

            So after all that hard work, it was time to start school again. It was the last week of school for the first semester, but unfortunately we don’t get any break or anything, not that we have been in school much the last months anyway. No, we were unfortunately only allowed to have one day off, which happens to be today. Today they are working out all of our grades and having conferences with people who need extra help. And how lucky that today also happens to be the exact halfway mark of my exchange year, which happens to be why I am writing. At my halfway mark, I reflect upon my year with the many memories that I have had, and hope that I can continue to experience so much, and learn so much more in the half-year to come.

           

            So, To Good Health, Good Friends, and New Opportunities!