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!