HELGOLAND

Hello all! 

HELGOLAND. I spent last weekend at my very first inbound orientation. This is a weekend spent at a touristy location to get you pumped up for the year and meet the other exchange students. We stayed in the town of Heide, but we traveled to the island Helgoland. 

It took about 3 hours to get to the island (by bus and boat) and 3 hours to get back. Although the transport seemed like ages, getting there was the most fun. When you put 50+ exchange students in one confined area..you can expect dancing and singing. Of course we got strange looks from the fellow travelers, but thats just all the fun.

Helgoland has 2 parts. One half is more of a beach setting, and the other half is the actual town. We first went to the beach. There were many seals on the beach! You were not aloud to get close to them though because there are laws on possibly disturbing them. They were still so interesting to see.

We continued walking the beach, until all of the sudden there was no longer sand, but what seemed to be millions of rocks. The rocks were beautiful. It was such a challenge to walk along the beach, but every rock had a different blue or grey tone. 

The town part of the island was very touristy. They had many stores that sold giant oversized candy, beer, and postcards. I even came across a 30 dollar jar of Nutella that was massive. Even the "tourist trap" type of stores are different in Germany.

After we returned from the island, we had to represent our country through a 5 minute presentation. The rotarians suggested we sing a song or dance. Our group settled on doing the song "oh beautiful". After several debates of doing party in the USA we ended up sticking to an old classic.  I played the guitar, and we all sang. But that was not it..we needed to truly represent America. So after we sang our song, we made the kind transfer to doing the dance of the hiphop song "wop". Im sure you can imagine how that went over! DANCE PARTY

Overall, it turned out to be a great weekend! We have a lot of South Americans in our district. I am learning about many cultures! Until next time!

This is all of the exchange students on the beach

The Americans!

My snazzy blazer

The exchange students of Bargteheide in Hamburgs train station

Singing oh beautiful

American Pride

Helgoland!

Boat Ride!!

Labskaus

Hello all,

This week, I had the chance to go to a friends house, and eat a traditional German dish. It is called Labskaus .It looks horrible, and by horrible I mean HORRIBLE.  I tried to keep an open mind about it, but as they opened the can of Corned Beef I could not help but feel a little gag-y. I definitely wanted to keep an open mind about the dish..so I carried on as if there was no issue. The dish itself looks like pink that was banned from McDonalds years ago. The dish itself consists of mashed potatoes,corned beef, and pickles. To make it look tastier people dye it with the juice of Cranberry pickles.

The dish dates back to sailor times, when you needed dinner but you had leftover breadcrumbs and fish. You basically mix together all of the materials that you have laying on board, and you serve it up as dinner. I definitely salute those gentlemen. The dish made it out into the city of Hamburg, and is now well known and quite popular.

Even though it did not look very tasty, I gave it a try! To my surprise, it was actually not so bad. It helped when I closed my eyes and ate it. After a few bites, I really started to enjoy it. Eventually everyone got that I was a little wigged out by the dish..but in the end it turned out to be great fun! I definitely experienced something quite out of my element.

This weekend I will head off to my Inbound Orientation. In my district we have 60 inbounds, so this should be great fun! It will be on an island called Helgoland. I am so excited! I will be sure to keep you updated.

As for now, I will go eat dinner. Then pack, but you know me, I may pack 1 hour before I leave. Lets hope I will be adapting more and more to this german "prepared" lifestyle.

Have a great day!

1 MONTH AAH

Ladies and gentlemen, caution before reading. The author has decided to not care about checking spelling because her computer does not recognize English. She tried however, but judgers may now exit the page. :) Thank you and enjoy.

Ok, so I have officially been on my adventure for 1 month now. Assuming I will be here 10 months I am 10% complete with my exchange. That fact makes me very sad and realize that the next 90% of my exchange will go a bit fast. These past 4 weeks have felt like only one week. I am really in awe of how time passes.

I have now been in school for 3 weeks, and my new class for 2 weeks. I have made friends! I don't really know why I was nervous about this. I am a very social person typically, but because culture is completely different here, I was nervous that maybe they would not understand me when I say things. Now, this happens at least 30% of the time. I will say "Wow, your preaching to the choir on that" and they will look at me so strangely, and then I realize, that didn't go through. This is just a mere example of what it is like. It is probably because the Danglish (Deutsch/English) does not match what I am saying.

Here they are taught British English, so I have noticed that I am picking up on there English...especially in English class. Do you ever speak to someone and they use big complicated words, and you just think "gosh, how annoying you are trying to sound smart" Well they are not trying here, these are just there vocabulary words they learn very young.

Yesterday I was invited to do Pilates with my new friends. In exchange they say to say yes to everything...so I did. Let me tell you, I am that person you don't like in your workout class. I cant do anything they tell you to. I sincerely was trying, really, I REALLY wanted to be able to do the exercises. I have no upper body strength though...and I just fail at it all. I was rolling on the floor laughing, literally. If I didn't have such positive attitude, perhaps I would have cried. It was an ugly sight. The instructor eventually gave up on showing me the correct form. I felt so out of shape. 

The girls here are all so tall, and thin. I feel so out of the ordinary. It is like they are Taylor Swift and I am Beyonce (maybe that was a bad comparison because Beyonce could do pilates) but I think you get the idea. 

After pilates, the group went to a bar for a glass of wine to chat. WHAT.  My mom does this with her friends and usually I am the one drinking milk shakes at steak and shake. That was definitely a major cultural difference. They dont look at ID cards either, it is so interesting.

So lately I have been feeling out of sorts, it has been the feeling like I had a while ago: low blood sugar. IT IS NOT A FUN FEELING. My mom told me to stop eating bread just for a little because the starches may be messing with me. Well, that is nearly impossible. They eat bread so much. I told them I will take a little break from bread and they looked at me like a shattered their fine china. I immediately felt guilt...but I really didn't do anything bad. I am trying this no bread thing! And the bought me salad stuff.. its all good. :)

Also, the real problem may be the chocolate addiction, but there are no support groups for this so I shall continue to feel no remorse.

*update ladies and gentleman...someone else enjoys salad...its all gone.Sorry mom i'm going to eat bread *

I am enjoying myself so much here. I have experienced so many wonderful things. I will be sure to share more and more with you. XOXO . Kenzie. 

I asked them what my German name would be and they said...Claudia. Mmm..lets think on that. 

    

IT IS FALL HERE :)

Also the noodles were my lunch, and are typical German. These photos I took on my run. I keep stopping to take photos which is a funny sight. Here is some motivation :) Go do something new.

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started"                  -Mark Twain