Tannenbaum🎄

Guess where the Christmas tree tradition began?! GERMANY! Here you can find facts, legends, and a little more about what the first trees were like. http://www.whychristmas.com/customs/trees.shtml 

German trees are very different then our trees. They are very wide at the base, and the top is a bit thin. The tree we ended up choosing was one of the more full trees.

In germany, it is typical to pick out your tree, then they chop it down. After we made our choice, we had to walk the tree home! My host dad was sick, so it was just me and Ilsa. We did not have to walk very far, because luckily the place was just down the street. I had one of those moments "I never thought I would do this" in the end we felt pretty accomplished us girls could take care of the tree. 

I decorated it by myself, and I have to say, that was very different. They didn't have tiny little lights, instead they were fake candle lights. Then you actually hook real candles to the trees limbs...then they light the candles. I was a bit suprised when they were doing this, but they said it is totally normal! (They couldn't beleieve that we didn't put candles on our tree in Indiana.)

Then I decorated the tree with sparkly purple bulbs...just how I like it! That was our tree adventure for Sunday. 

Yesterday I went to Hamburg with Alejandra. It was very fun! Luckily I got all of my shopping done, and we were able to check out the Christmas market. It was raining the whole day! But that made it more fun.😄

Tommorow is christmas here...I will tell you all about it. 

December: Christmas

I am sorry I have not posted in a while. After being given the evil eye from my dearest aunt patty, I suppose its about time. Fact: my computer is possessed and works when it wants. Fact: That has been my excuse.  So now I am blogging on my phone...and yes that is set in german. So I  shall apolagize for this weird non corrected English at this time.

Ok so Christmas is in only 3 days!! Ahh. Time is so fast. The Christmas tree is not up yet here. That is very normal, we will go and get it today. Then you keep the tree up until middle of January. 

The trees are very different here, instead of being tall and "picture perfect" they are short, and very wide. They have a lot of character. Here is a photo of a tree I saw in Lübeck. This is very typical. Trees here all have those fake candles on them I think it is really cute. 

Interesting shape!!

Christmas here is celebrated on December 24th instead of the 25th. My Hosties  said that they go to church, exchange gifts, sing around the tree, and then eat wurst and potato salad. (It sounds very german!) 

Tommorow I will go into hamburg for the day and do some Christmas gift shopping, and then go to the Christmas  market with some friends. The Christmas market here is a very big deal. People all get together and drink this special drink it is called gluhwine. It is like punch with wine and it is served warm. They also have those almonds covered in sugar, and pretzels and wurst. It is very fun!!

Tuesday we will go Luneburg, it is a special Christmas market about 1 hour and 30 minutes away. For Europe, that is considered very far away! They all are really suprised when I talk about driving to Florida. They think americans are a little crazy! :D

Yesterday, I went to a play in Hamburg. It is "Backbeat: Die Beatles". The play was three hours long! But it was all about how the band started and there time in Hamburg. The play was over when they left hamburg but it was very interesting. I think that everyone was proud that they got their start here.  The play was all in german, and I understood all of it! When you reach the point of understanding, the direct translations can get a little hilarious.

For example, when introducing someone, instead of saying "oh hello this is my wife sue" instead they would say "oh hello, this is my woman sue." I thought this is just hilarious. 

A weekend ago, I had an Exchange Student conference. It was very fun. We went to Lübeck. It so so beautiful there. We want to the famous christmas market, and had a tour around the city. It was so fun! 60 exchange students barging through the streets is just a sight to see. I think we may have freaked out some people. : D

On the tour we went to some very beautiful churches!

Lübeck is famous for these little passage ways and in them are tiny streets to houses on the sides of buildings.

Until next time! 

Kenzie

Hello November.

Hello! I know what your thinking. KENZIE. Why have you not blogged. I have been quite busy!  I just switched host familys, so now I am living in the next village over. I am now in Jersbek, the country side! I am glad I get to expierence this, I have always wandered what it would be like. Across the street from where I am is a   "little"  castle. Next to the castle is a nice forest. I really like it. It has besutiful nature and it reminds me a lot if Indiana forests.

I am only 3 kilometers from Bargteheide so I am still going to school there. Every morning instead of taking my bike, I ride the bus. 

It is rather interesting, here they do not provide busses for school. You must get a city bus card to be able to ride it. This ends up being about 40€ a month. I feel like I took those free busses back home for granted! :)

So far school is going well, but it has been rather boring. During the day I study my german, or read. The school I am in is a Gymnasium so all of the students are very focused. It can be sometimes diffacult because of this, but I al really glad they all care so much about  school.

My new host family is great! I am really enjoying my time with them. I think they are a wonderful fit for me. I am the only kid in the house, there son is on an exchange. They are a very musical family and this is a major part of both of our lives. They also have an adorable dog. Its so cute.

The weather here is getting colder and colder. It is ridiculous that the sun sets at 5pm! It starts to set at 4, and it is totally dark at 5. This I am not yet used to. There is no snow on the ground, it is not cold enough for that just yet. I have heard about all the snow back home, that must be crazy!

All is well here, until next tome! Xoxo Kenzie

This is at 4:15pm :0

This is Curry Wurst the most delicious food you will eat in Germany.

I really liked this quote. 

Fall Fun

I am officially done with the two week fall holiday...oh but wait a minute. No school for 2 more weeks? That's right. I HAVE A INTERNSHIP. 

So my mom could tell you, I definitely am too obsessed with college. Im going to be honest its one of my favorite topics. When im bored, I actually Google acceptance rate statistics and compare them to sat scores etc. Im pretty sure this is actually a nutty thing to do. But I don't care. I have always wanted to do something elaborate. Like International Law, or Business Management. But deep down, the serious black and white business world just seemed a little "unfun" for the wholeness of life. I most likely will walk down one of those fields some day...but I will always say "Hey! I can always be a kindergarten teacher" and fellows and lads...thats Just what I am doing these next two weeks.

I will be working at a bilingual kindergarten. Today was my first day! In the school, kindergarten is from age 3-6. When the child is over 6, they move on to another school for 1st grade. So technically these kids are in Kindergarten for 3 years. Teachers are only allowed to speak English to the kids. I think it is quite  impressive, these kids are learning German, as well as English at such a young age.

The strange thing is, in this school there is no direct teaching. Students learn while they do activities. So in the morning learning a new song, (packed with English words) they get new vocabulary..But they don't really know that they are.

Today I colored, sang songs, and played outside. It was actually quite fun! Most of the staff at the kindergarten come from English speaking countries. So the teacher I worked with grew up in South Africa. It is very interesting to hear of all of the teachers lives, and what initially led them to living in Germany. The typical reason turned out it be there husband or wife was German. 

Talking with many of the children, I was learning quite a bit of German from them. Them being so young, they couldn't really form direct sentences. They knew basics like numbers and colors but not really much else. We communicated in "germlish" and it was surprisingly educational for both of us. 

Today while I was outside with the children, I saw a boy sitting alone digging a hole in the sand pit. I went over to him saying "hello, what is your name" and he was really shy. I figured he would give me the confused look I had been getting all day, but he answered in great English. I was so surprised. This kid was only 3 and knew more than the older children. It turned out, his mother was from California, and his English was better than his German! From then on we became very good friends!  I am excited for what I am going to learn at the Kindergarten. It has been quite fun so far. 

With Halloween coming up, I carved a pumpkin, and roasted the seeds. Although it is not so common to do anything for Halloween in Germany, I had to have my own fun! 

My hosties wanted scary, but we settled for cute and scary 😁.

Norway!!

Last week I went to Norway!! We went to the city of Oslo, by Cruise Ship. We passed Sweden, and Denmark on our way there. We left tuesday afternoon, and we arrived Wednesday morning. 

The boat was very nice, it had tasty restaurants, shops, and entertainment in the evenings. Going to the entertainment was very fun, they always sang American songs. One night, they had a Cowboy themed show. So it was Norweigen people, using a southern american accent. Imagine that! I found it quite funny.

In Oslo, we took a bus tour so we could see all of the sights in the time we were there. We saw a boat that went to the north pole, a beautiful garden, the parliament building, and an Olympic Ski Jump. It was all very unique and interesting. 

I really enjoyed hearing the Norweigen language being spoken. It is really a beautiful, quirky language. I challenge you to listen to it on google translate.

Norways thing is Trolls. They have them at all of the tourist attractions. Before I left, my grandma showed me a troll she had from Norway, so grandma if your reading this I got yours a friend! I don't know what the story is behind them, but I think they are great!

The ship we took was ran by a Norweigen Company. So many of the meals accomidated germans, but also Norweigans. We had som great Scandanavian "danishes" and breads as well as cheeses. The food was delicious!

I had a wonderful time in Norway!

The garden was by far my favorite. It was created by a poor artist, and in exchange for creating the garden the city of Oslo fed him and payed his rent. The theme of his artwork is the many different generations of life.

Here is the boat that went to the North Pole! It is called Fram.

Here is th famous bridge that connects Sweden and Denmark. 

Here are my Trolls

Call me Queen

This past friday was a Holiday in Germany. Everyone got off of work and school! It was the Reunification day of Germany.  Although it is a big holiday here, there were no celebrations. It is celebrated as much as we would presidents day. The people here feel as though if they get too prideful of there country, they will be looked down upon by the other European countries. In time the mood will change. It really suprised me because they said it is comparable to our thanksgiving. 

On friday my hosties took me to a Castle in Schwerin! It took 1 hour and 30 minutes to get there. Considerably a long time for Germans by car. The castle was sold to the government, because the royal families no longer were living there. In 1918 after the forst world war, the "royal power" ended. ISINT IT CRAZY not even 100 years ago there were princesses and princes?! I was sort of a little too excited about this.  As little kids we read stories of royalty, and we are set to think that all of it is fantasy, or has been taken place centuries ago. But to think not so long ago it was really real. 

Walking through this beautiful castle, you could feel the magic. The design was just georgous. Spirling marble stair cases, oak floors, and satin walls. It was just ridiculous. They had a winter room, library, dining room, smoking room and much much more.  My favorite room was the library. Instead of what you would imagine, the room had what was a sort of cabinet for books. So walking in you would not see any books. It kept the room looking "more classy". The most interesting thing, was that the well known private collection to the castle had been missing since WW2. The library had NO books in it! It is a bit of a mystery.

Walking through this castle, my mind was set loose. I could imagine the life of a royal, what had happened in the castle. The beautiful balls, dinners, walks in the great garden. I knew royalty was real, but I didnt really realize it until I was there. 

It made me a bit sad no one was actually living there. I was so glad I was able to see it. 

Mom, Dad, forget college I am going to be a Queen. Much love, your soon to be royal daughter. ( I will just take over the vacant castle no worries) ;)

Unfortunately I could not take any photos inside, so I pulled some off of the web. However all of the outdoor photos I took. 

The garden!

Staircase

A walkway

They built caves out of rocks!

Im having a great time here, much love.

Kenzie