Say What

There are some many differences here in this great country!

1: Wires

In the US, I bet it is no big deal to see wires strapped all around the streets. But, here in Germany everything is buried underground. I did not even notice this until recently. I was having a conversation about Amish people (they don't have them here). I told them you cant even see the wires out on country roads...and then it occurred to me you can see any here!




2: Caller ID
Caller ID? Nope that one does not exists here. So then you may assume there is a lot of prank calling..but surprisingly not. There are actually a lot more phone stalkers.People who breath, dont talk, or just call and hang up. There are many campaigns here that encourage you to blow a whistle into the phone.Apparently this completely distorts on the other end. ...Am I too young to know something like this or is it just German? (I heard this also works for telemarketers...eeek)

3: Homeschooling

ILLEGAL. Thats right, that is not allowed here. The government requires that you must bring your child to public school/private school. It is a bit opposite because here public schools are considered better, and more prestigious.
. Green

People here are very green oriented. You MUST shut off the lights if you are not in the room. You must also absolutely separate all of your trash. I had a hard time adjusting to that one...but it makes total sense to me now. It would be great if the rest of the world did it too.  They separate, paper-plastic-Bio-Cans-Glass.

5. Dinner Time? Nooo

Typical families eat one hot meal a day, and that is at about 2pm. It is not necessarily considered Lunch, but rather "mittag essen" afternoon food. People eat breakfast, and then bread at about 11, Mittag Essen at 2, and then what they call evening bread at about 8 or 9.

6. Movies

Do you remember when all of the movie stores went out of business? That never happened here, and redbox does not exist. Netflix just arrived to Germany in October, movie stores are still thriving. It is definitely like hopping in another time zone.

7.  Sacred Sunday
On Sunday, you had better not have plans to mow your lawn, or have a party..because Sunday here is sacred. Stores are closed, and you are expected to keep quiet. (Random fact 24 hour places do not exist...and there is no fast food in my city) It is the relax day.


8. News

With the recent plane crash, Germans have access to information faster than the US news gets it. When the US breaking news comes in,it is about 5 hours behind mine. I think it is the fact checking and translating. I am sure its just the other way around when it happens in the US. What I found very interesting,is that German news is very modest. They did not show the faces of the family members on TV. They kept there a distance. I realized US news is a bit more aggressive, in capturing everything. Which is not a bad thing, but very different and interesting to see the differences.

9. English?

Everyone here can speak it..everyone. It is totally crazy, great at some points when you may be totally lost in a train station, but bad when people want to practice.

10. Cars

I take driving for granted!! Here the age to get a drivers license is 18. I have to ride my bike to school 2 miles everyday..through country roads. It is actually a great experience, and nice to be outside everyday.  But totally different to what I was used to.


11.FEET OF A COW.
That just tasted like deer. But still a horrifying, gratifying, once in a life time experience.

12. BLOOD WURST
Lets just all take a moment and cry, because that is what I almost did. It actually tastes like blood. I don't know what I was expecting.

Germany is treating me well! I am having a great time. :)))

Bayern!

Servus!! Yesterday I left the North, for a week of good old southern Bavaria. It is my Hosties holiday break, (he is a school teacher in Hamburg and has a different break than I do) So I am fortunate to spend an extra week exploring Germany. 

The city I am in is called Gemünden. It is a small city outside of Würzburg. It is a really cute town, with a big river flowing through it called "Mein". We are in this part pf Bavaria because my Hostys brother lives here.  Yesterday we had dinner with them. It was a picture perfect german meal. For all of you who do not know, Bavaria is what Americans think the whole of germany is like. Here they actually wear Dirndls, eat wurst, and drink LOTS of Beer. Because I am living in the north we actually do not have Dirndls, or eat as much wurst. The north is more fishermen. 

It is really funny to me, because Northern Germans think Bavarians are really strange, and Bavarians think the same right back. Also, the bavarian accent is much different. It sounds like german mixed with a thick irish accent to me. I love it.

So I am so excited to be trying all of this! It feels like a whole different country.

So let me get back to dinner, it was picture perfect. We ate this meat thing, called "leberkase" which translates to living cheese. But the funny thing is that it was not living, or cheese. When I asked the wife of the brother (her name is Grenada, and he is Heins-Otto, very german) she said "ohh das ist fleisch" meaning "well thats meat". "Yes, but what exactly?" (I was speaking all in german) She told me it was a mixture of cow and pig. Thoughts in my head (RUN. RUN FAST, fast and far and get out of here) but on the outside, at least I think, I looked pretty calm. But I cant control my face, so perhaps a problem. It tasted like. hotdog. 

Then we had pretzels, sweet mustard, potato salad, and beer. Like a true german. It was all suprisingly really delicious! After dinner I tried on there daughters Drindl. I was really feeling german then. 

A very famous wurst in Bavaria is called "Weiß Wurst" like white wurst. I will eat that soon. But Otto was saying how Bavaria is "bordered by a white wurst equator" figuratively speaking of course...and that the worlds greatest humans live under this equator, and all the weirdos live above it. This is the humor they use to separate the two parts of the country. I love it. 

Today, I went to the city of Gemünden. We walked the 3km to the center. There is this castle at the top of the city, so we checked that out, and then went to have coffee and cake afterwards.

It was wonderful!! Tommorow we will go to another castle, and to a year round christmas food store. Also......pray for me...because I will be eating COWS FEET. feet. feet. (it just echoes in my brain), then....blood wurst...yes, blood. GULP.  I was going to eat Cow Brain as well, but we are not so sure we can find it. So, gulp. You will get another post soon, if I survive. :)

Leftovers from Yesterday, with a fried egg on top.

The lovely Apple Cake and Coffee

Gemünden (Amira, the lovely host dog)

This lovely Dirndl.

This is the castle, they do outdoor concerts here, and vecause it is the top of a mountain/hill/thing the music föows down to the city!

Whered Repunzel? This was built in 1342!!

Me sporting the "I just climbed up a mountain, tired Tourist look". It was crazy!  Suddenly after climbing up this steep mountain thing was a huge add for Beer.

These hilly things, what  are they called in English. This has become a struggle, they are called Bourgs in german.

Here in the Butchers Shop

Foot. :0

Interesting door handle. 

This morning at breakfast, my hosty put jelly on cheese and it looked really weird.

Ok Thank You for reading this forever long post!! I am loving Germany, every second of it! (Even if I am eating parts of animals that shouldnt be eaten ;) )

*As usual I cant check the spelling on this, so deal with it you grammar freaks! ;)*

KARNEVAL

I had the wondedful opportunity to expierence a german Karneval. This is for those who do not know germanys take on Mardi Gras. Essentially, it is a big party and parade in the street. I attended Karneval in Mainz. It is one of the most famous celebrations in Germany. 

Since halloween is not really a thing here, Karneval is that one time a year people in Germany dress up as crazy things. I saw ghost busters, The Simpsons, Fuzzy Animal Onesies, and many "mexicans". I even saw "uncle sam". 

As we would usually celebrate "Fat Tuesday" here they celebrate it on Monday. So this was when the big crazy parade would be. 

The Mainz tradition is to yell "HAYLOEEE" to the people passing out candy in the parade. You yell this while doing a backwards salute. This is pretty crazy but it is meant to be F-*&! You.  Children, grandparents, Parents and teenagers are all screaming HAYLOEE and doing the backwards salute. And unless you do this you will not get candy.

Wanderlust; my thoughts of the day.

I have learned so much during my exchange so far. Here are just a few of my thoughts:

1: You learn to appreciate where you come from, what you have, and what some americans may call "boring" the comfort/normality of what makes the United States home. Everyone has massive blessings in there life, but they may not be really seeing them.

2: You get to learn about the rest of the world. When you get the chance to leave the country, (for more than a week, and outside of tourist zones) you get to see what the whole world is really like. You get to understand the differences in culture, and especially the things that are similar..the ones that bring us to the point that we are all human. No matter religion, skin color, hair, education, we are all made the same. It is just our Environment that makes us different. 

3: In the start, you are mind boggled  by the differences. You are fixed on the treasures that you didnt see, but now do that you had at home. But then after time, you learn the great treasures of the new environment your in. One of my favorite parts of Germany, is that in these people..work is not everything, nor is education. Working is something you do that you enjoy...and when you come home, life is a party. They live to the fullest, and make free time fun time. Not so much rest time from the tough work day. 

4: You come with a soft heart, but you learn to grow tough skin.  I am not saying that Germans are rough people, but the  embarrassing moments, misunderstandings, and expectations that all Exchange Students go through eventually make you tougher. You become a stronger, more mature person, and that in itself is priceless. 

Everyday, I get to wake up and expierence something new, something I didnt know the day before. Everyday is an adventure and I have a case of Wanderlust :). 

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.