Off the Island

Hi! My name is Christina, and I am from Long Island, New York. I was selected as one of 250 nationwide recipients of the CBYX scholarship to study abroad in Germany for the 2017-2018 school year. This blog is where I will be sharing some of my experiences. Feel free to subscribe or send me a message if you have any questions!

[offtheisland]

End-of-Stay Camp in Berlin

Hallo!

My time here in Germany is quickly coming to a close, but I still wanted to take a little time to make a post about the visit to Berlin that all AFS-CBYXers made at the beginning of June. As part of our scholarship duties, we had one last orientation for five days in Berlin, where we stayed in a youth hostel, did a decent amount of workshops, a bit of sightseeing, and interacted with a number of both German and American government officials (!!!). Despite the extremely hot weather, we all had a great time exploring the German capital and learning about its history. 

Some highlights included a city tour by bus, where we had the opportunity to get out of the bus for a time to look at some of the art featured in the East Side Gallery! This is an outdoor art exhibit of various murals painted on remaining sections of the Berlin Wall.

↑ One of my favorite murals. Translated, it reads: Whoever wants the world to stay as it is does not want it to stay at all.

We also had the opportunity to visit the Reichstagsgebäude, where the German Bundestag (Parliament) meets. 350 American scholarship recipients sat on platforms above the MPs and watched them giving speeches, discussing, and voting for almost two hours. It was fascinating seeing how the political system runs live and in person!

↑ We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the Bundestag, but here is an official photo. We sat on the stages that you can see in the background, above the blue seats where all the MPs sit.

On the same day, we were invited to the US Embassy for an afternoon of socializing with other CBYX scholarship recipients and the chance to meet and speak with American diplomats in various specialized fields. I enjoyed talking to other Americans about how their years had been and also really appreciated the fact that so many officials took time out of their schedules to speak with us about their jobs and how we could potentially follow in their footsteps, if we wanted :)

↑ In the courtyard of the US Embassy.

And of course, we got a group photo in front of the Brandenburg Gate!

Thanks for reading!

Tschüß!

[offtheisland]

Sweden!

Hallo! This is another post about traveling. At the end of May, I had three days off from school, one due to a holiday and two due to oral Abitur exams being given. Not wanting to waste any opportunities, I decided to travel to Sweden! The daughter of friends of my host family is currently living in Uppsala, a university town near Stockholm where she is doing her PhD, and was kind enough to invite me to stay with her. My journey began on Tuesday morning, when I woke up extremely early and went to Düsseldorf Airport, where I flew for two hours to Stockholm. I left the airport in Stockholm and decided to have a small breakfast of coffee and a kanelbulle, a special kind of Swedish cinnamon roll. The Swedes take these two things very seriously: drip coffee is preferred and always comes with free refills, and the kanelbulle is so popular that Ikea makes them for worldwide distribution in their stores. There's even a word in Swedish, fika, which is a pause/break in the workday to have coffee and a pastry.

I walked around the downtown area of the city before crossing a bridge to get to one of the many islands that dot Stockholm's harbor. This particular island had two museums that I was interested in visiting, the first of which is called Skansen. It's an open-air historical museum with living exhibits, functioning handicraft workshops, animals, and of course old buildings and structures that show how Sweden looked between 150-250 years ago. I really enjoyed walking around and seeing all of the colorful wooden houses, cobbled streets, and historical artifacts, plus the weather was absolutely beautiful!

↑ One of the many streets that runs throughout Skansen, showcasing a Sweden that is no longer truly in existence.

After Skansen, I went to another museum (inside this time) for a few hours to cool off during the hottest part of the day. This museum is called the Vasa Museum, and it houses a giant Swedish ship, the Vasa, that sank on its maiden voyage in 1628 and laid on the bottom of Stockholm's harbor until scientists found it in the 50's, dredged it up, cleaned and restored it, and built a museum to go with it. I don't have any great pictures of the ship since it was so dark inside the building (to preserve the wood) but here is a link to the website.

Then, I decided to explore the old historical quarter of Stockholm, called Gamla Stan. Located on yet another island, Gamla Stan is full of narrow streets and alleyways, tall and slightly leaning buildings, and adorable shops and cafés. Here I decided to have a late lunch of Köttbullar, aka Swedish meatballs.

↑ A narrow street in Gamla Stan.

↑ Köttbullar and gravy with lingonberries, mashed potatoes, and pickles.

I finished the day by walking to yet another island in the harbor, where I got a very scenic overview of Stockholm! I was tired and sweaty after having walked almost 20km, but it was nevertheless a great day.

↑ Stockholm!

Wednesday was my only full day in Sweden, and I was lucky enough to have perfect weather for it. The woman who I stayed with had off from work, so she took me around the Uppsala area the entire day, and it was wonderful! We started by visiting the former estate of Carolus Linneaeus, which is now a museum and park. Linneaeus, also known as Carl von Linné, invented the system of binomial nomenclature that is still used to give every known organism a Latin name. We went for a short walk and looked at the various buildings on the property. I had no idea that Linneaeus originally came from Sweden!

↑ A building on the property, painted red, as is typical for old Swedish houses.

Afterward, we went for another hike through the woods which ended at a lake! We had a picnic on the banks and then went swimming! I recognize how strange this sounds: swimming in a lake in Sweden in May! But the weather was so unusually warm that it was needed, and honestly the water in the lake was not cold at all. 

↑ Me, from the back, enjoying the lake and the traditional Swedish food we had for our picnic. The dog in the photo belongs to the woman I stayed with! 

We ended our day of activities with fika at an outdoor café in Uppsala. I had a cinnamon and cardamom bun (cardamom is used very often in Scandinavian baked goods) and an iced coffee, which is not easy to find in Germany, so I really enjoyed it! I also got to see a laboratory in the university in Uppsala, which was very interesting but no pictures were allowed. However, I also learned that coming to Sweden for graduate work was a true possibility. :)

I flew back to Germany on Thursday morning, drained but having seen a good chunk of what the area has to offer. Even though it was a very short visit, I made the most of my time in Sweden and am once again so grateful for the generosity of others for making a trip to yet another country possible for me!

Thanks for reading! Tschüß!

[offtheisland]

Paris

Hallo! Or should I say «Bonjour»?

Before I begin, I just want to say I’m really sorry for not posting, despite the fact that lots of stuff has happened! As pretty much any exchange student can tell you, the time one spends on exchange goes quicker and quicker the closer to the end of the exchange one gets. I’ve been very busy experiencing lots of new things recently, and this blog has kind of taken a backseat. (Sorry!) As a quick fill in, here are the major things I have done since Belgium.

traveled to Paris (see more below)

visited the UN Campus in Bonn with some other CBYXers

gone on a sailing trip on the Baltic Sea (!!!) organized by AFS. My host sister also took part, and before the trip started and after it ended we stayed a few days in Zingst. The entire week was absolutely incredible and I met so many wonderful individuals, both exchange students and native Germans. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to have phones or cameras on deck, so I don’t have too many pictures, and as interesting as the trip was, I’m not sure how many of you really want to read a gigantic essay about life on a 3-mast sailing ship without any pictures :) So no blog post for my week on the ship! But if you’re really interested here is a link to the website of the organization that runs the ship, and you can always message me personally with questions!

my family from the US came to visit! We spent time with both of my host families and went sightseeing around the area, and it was a lovely few days.

my friends from the US came to visit! We also did a lot of sightseeing together, and caught up on what they had been doing at college while I have been here. 

Now back to regularly scheduled programming.

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to spend a long weekend in Paris! Friends of my host family live in a suburb of the city and invited me to stay “whenever I had time”, so I took them up on the offer in order to visit for the first time. I arrived midmorning on Saturday and left Tuesday evening, and in that time was able to see a LOT of what Paris has to offer, even though I didn’t go into any of the museums. (But that had more to do with the fact that they were closed for most of the time I was there due to weird hours/holidays.) Anyway, let’s crack on with some photos!

Shortly after arriving, we went on a car tour of Paris and made a short stop near the Eiffel Tower to take pictures. Here’s one! ↓

Here’s one of the Louvre, which was closed when we visited. Still beautiful from the outside! ↓

A view from the top of the Tour de Montparnasse, the only true skyscraper in Paris! ↓

Le Jardin des Plantes, on a rather cold and rainy Monday.  ↓

Notre Dame, which is a beautiful cathedral...but I must say, the Kölner Dom is much more impressive. Not that I’m biased or anything. ↓

Sacré-Cœur, which is really difficult to photograph! It’s on a hill, so you can’t get a photo from far away, but once you’re on the hill, it doesn’t fit in the frame. I tried, though. ↓

And lastly, because I can only put a certain number of photos in a single post, a very pretty street corner in Montmartre. ↓

Other honorable mentions that unfortunately can’t get their own photo (c’mon, Tumblr!) were the gardens at Versailles, which we saw on my first day there, the Luxembourg gardens, and the Place de la Bastille. But honestly the entire 3.5 days were spectacular and I could rant for hours about all I saw and did.

And as for the language, I was able to understand around 70% of what was said to me, and for the most part, respond. Responding took more thought and time than I would have liked, but I can forgive myself considering I’ve been focusing pretty intensely on learning German. I was honestly pleased that I was able to respond at all!

So yes, there’s a bit of my whirlwind tour of Paris! I was super happy that I was able to see so much of the city in such a short time. With good planning and locals as tour guides though, it’s hard to go wrong. Needless to say, I would recommend a visit, if you get the chance!

I have two blog posts planned for the very near future, so keep an eye out for those. The goal in writing this here is that it will force me to write and post them now in a timely manner!

Thanks for reading! Tschüß!

P.S. As a short but philosophical side note, the oldest daughter of the family I stayed with had one of her walls decorated with pictures of New York City and a big sign above that said ’New York’...the grass is always greener on the other side, even when you live in Paris!

[offtheisland]

In Bruges (and Bredene, or more generally Belgium)

Hallo!

This past weekend, my host family and I took a very spontaneous weekend trip to Belgium. My host sisters and I were supposed to go to Amsterdam, but the tour that we had booked was cancelled because not enough people had registered, so we had ‘nothing’ to do. A friend of my host mom has a vacation cottage on the coast in Bredene, and nobody was there this weekend, so she said we could use it. The only condition was we had to cut the grass! A good deal if you ask me. So on Friday afternoon we set out for a little weekend Abenteuer (adventure).

The drive was longer than expected due to rush hour traffic, but as a result we got to see lots of European Union-related office buildings and foreign embassies from the car. This was significantly more interesting than it sounds. When we finally arrived in Bredene, my host mom and I took the dogs down to the beach for a walk. It was my first time visiting the North Sea, which was exciting in itself, but I was just thrilled to be on a beach again.

Saturday morning we ate a leisurely breakfast and then drove to Bruges (a.k.a. Brugge in Flemish...Bruges is actually the French name for the city). We spent the day walking around and enjoying the perfect weather. The narrow streets were pretty crowded with tourists and locals speaking so many different languages I lost track, but we were still able to enjoy the beautiful architecture, canals, and overall character of the old city. 

↑ Some of the interesting architecture we saw

One of the best parts of the day was the boat tour that we took through the canals! We had spots right at the front of the boat with a perfect view, and our tour guide was excellent as well. He gave the tour in French and English and I was very proud of myself for understanding about 70% of the French.

↑ Views from the boat tour through the canals!

Other things we did included buying chocolate from what is supposedly the best chocolatier in Belgium, The Chocolate Line. We didn’t know this fact at the time, but a woman who saw the bag in another store we visited assured us that we had made a good purchase. We also ate in a super cute courtyard café where I drank coffee out of what only can be described as a bowl.

After walking for a while (over eight miles!), we drove back to Bredene and enjoyed the sunset walking along the beach. I put my feet in the water just to be able to say I went in the North Sea, and it was only a tiiiiny bit cold.

↑ Sunset on the North Sea

We drove back to Germany on Sunday, fortunately with very little traffic to slow us down. I had a lovely weekend of seeing new places and sights, and am really appreciative of all of the forces that be coming together to make such a spontaneous journey possible.

Thanks for reading! Tschüss!

P.S. I really wanted to make a better reference to the film In Bruges than just the weak one I ended up making in the title of this post, but unfortunately every single quote I could think of was rather...profanity-laced. As consolation for any fellow cinephiles reading, here’s a photo of the hotel where they shot part of the movie, which we saw while on our boat tour.

[offtheisland]

AFS-CBYX Halbzeit-Camp

Hallo!

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to see all of my fellow AFS-CBYX friends for six days in Munich! We had our halfway-through-the-year orientation, so we all traveled down to Bavaria and stayed in a youth hostel. Because it was an orientation, we did spend a significant amount of time doing workshops about how to best utilize the rest of our time here, how to continue to adapt to German culture and learn German, and discussing the ups and downs of each of our years so far. However, we also had a number of opportunities to explore the city. We had a number of guided tours as well as the chance to wander around on our own one afternoon. Munich is truly a lovely city; there are so many historical sights to see sitting directly alongside modern wonders.

On our first day, we had a tour of the city center from a political perspective: the different levels of government, their functions and powers, and a bit of their history. We also got to go inside the Münchner Rathaus, or Munich Town Hall. 

↑ The Munich Rathaus.

Then, we had the opportunity to walk around the Münchner Haus, formerly a palace for the Bavarian royals from Munich. It was absolutely incredible, (especially for an aesthete such as myself); the rooms had all been beautifully restored with period-accurate furniture and decorations that were unbelievably ornate. In addition to the living quarters, there was a more museum like section that housed all of the valuables from the time period: jewel-encrusted church objects, swords, absurdly large crowns and jewelry, porcelain, and tiny detailed household objects crafted out of various valuable metals. While I obviously enjoyed looking at the shiny and very valuable precious stones, I was particularly fascinated by a tiny set of scales and their coordinating weights. They were made out of a gold-toned metal and had tiny cursive inscriptions on them. I have no idea how old they were or what their purpose was, but I just really liked the idea that the entire set could fit in one of my hands! Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of them because they were in a rather dark display case and didn’t photograph well through the glass. But anyway.

↑ The Münchner Haus! The level of detail was unbelievable, and the fact that we were allowed to simply walk though it was also hard to fathom.

On Tuesday afternoon, we had a few options available to us, and I chose to go to BMW Welt (world) and the BMW Museum. It was super fun getting to sit inside very shiny and expensive cars, and I enjoyed learning about the history of BMW, especially its role in German history during the first half of the 20th century. Plus, the museum café was excellent; I ate a brownie topped with caramel, pecans, and dark chocolate pieces and it was possibly the best brownie I’ve ever had.

↑ Lots of expensive cars, old and new. Plus some motorcycles :)

We also had the chance to explore Munich on Thursday. In the morning, I went to the NS (Nationalsozialismus, or Nazism) Museum, which had a special exhibition on display about extreme-right parties in Germany post-World War II. I learned a lot about how the German government works and how it was deliberately set up after the war to prevent another person like Hitler from taking power. However, the laws cannot stop individuals from having discriminatory opinions, and unfortunately there are still many extreme-right supporters living across Germany who commit violent acts against those they deem “other”. The good news is, the number of individuals who are tolerant and kind toward their fellow humans far outnumbers those who are not.

After the NS Museum, we had a tour of the largest synagogue in Munich! Our tour guide was phenomenal: she was very informative and engaging, and she spoke such clear, high German I genuinely understood every single word. I am so happy that AFS scheduled this tour for us, not only because I learned so much but also because it was such a good experience to hear about being Jewish in Germany from someone who lives that life everyday. And the synagogue was absolutely beautiful, no detail was overlooked.

During the afternoon, we had free time to do whatever we wanted until dinner. After getting lunch (and a piece of chocolate-peanut-banana cake) at a very hipster-esque café and taking pictures in front of the Siegestor and sculpture nearby with my fellow CBYXers, I met up with my friend Bridget from high school! She is currently studying in Ireland and was coincidentally in town, so we decided to catch up for a bit. We did a spontaneous tour of most of the churches in the city center, each of which was remarkably detailed, unique, and beautiful in their own way. And of course, it’s always good to catch up with old friends, regardless of where in the world!

↑ The Siegestor.

↑ Pretty sure Bridget and I set a new record for the most churches visited in a two-hour period.

This post is getting long, so I’m just going to close it off with a few other “honorable mentions” of things I particularly enjoyed about the week. In no particular order:

The food at the hostel! The breakfast buffet was enormous and varied, lunches and dinners were both fresh-cooked warm meals, and perhaps best of all, there was a salad bar at lunch and dinner! It’s the little things, ya know?

Getting to see everyone once again after six months was quite nice. I had sort of forgotten how lovely it is to spend time with individuals who have had similar experiences to me, and getting to share the ups and downs of our experiences was genuinely a weight off my chest I didn’t even know I had been carrying.

I’m not going to lie, it was enjoyable speaking some rapid-fire English and using slang with people who can actually understand it! I can communicate quite well in German now, but I still cannot fully convey all of the nuances that I would normally be able to in English. In addition, my personal sense of humor often makes reference to more obscure aspects of English-language pop culture, which is particularly difficult to explain to someone who has not grown up in the English-speaking world. Not only would I have to translate the jokes, but I would also have to explain their origin and why my reference to a specific one at any given time was relevant. And then it’s a whole other thing if the person has not heard of the original source! As you can probably imagine, this is not only frustrating for both parties but also a real humor-killer. TL;DR: I enjoyed cracking jokes with other Americans and realized in the process that I have adjusted the expression of my sense of humor to the language abilities of myself and to the pop-culture awareness of my German peers.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time in Munich and returned home motivated to work harder on my German, spend more time with my fellow CBYX-ers, travel at every opportunity, and in general make the most of my remaining four months here in Germany.

Thanks for reading!

Tschüss!

[offtheisland]

Zingst!

Hallo! Last week was Karneval in Köln, Düsseldorf, and the surrounding areas. The height of the Karneval season is celebrated in North Rhine Westphalia for the six days preceding Ash Wednesday, and the best thing I can equate it to is a cross between Mardi Gras and Halloween. People of all ages dress up in all different kinds of costumes, attend parades and parties, and often, have six days of no school or work. Here's a picture!

But: this post is not about Karneval, because my host family and I were not home for it! Instead we went to Zingst, a seaside town in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, for the week. We had a relaxing week going for walks, looking at the water, going to museums, and generally just taking time to unwind and recharge a bit. 

I personally was thrilled to be by a body of saltwater again, as prior to this year I had never been away from the ocean for more than ten days. I knew that I would miss it, but I severely underestimated how much. So it was nice to see waves and sand in real life again!

↑ A picture of the boardwalk that extends into the Baltic Sea (Ostsee in German). It was very windy!

↑ Another picture from the boardwalk, this time with a few of the building in the town of Zingst visible.

↑ The beach in Zingst, devoid of people because of the cold...the water was 3°C (around 37°F), and you can see the little bit of snow on the dunes on the right. Still pretty, though!  

↑ We also visited the city of Stralsund one day and went to the Ozeaneum, or Ocean Museum. I learned a lot at the museum, and the city itself was very pretty! Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, lots of work has been done to restore old buildings that fell into disrepair due to a lack of resources behind the Iron Curtain. This picture was taken from the top of the museum, where they had a penguin exhibit outside.

↑ On Tuesday, we drove to Rügen, an island in the Baltic Sea. We walked through an ancient beech forest (you can see the edge of it on the right) and came to chalk cliffs, which are called the Königsstuhl, or king’s chair. The water was very blue due to dissolved chalk in the water, and across the sea was Sweden! We couldn’t see Sweden though. Normally there is a staircase that leads down to the beach under the cliffs, but it was closed for construction. I really enjoyed the walk and the cliffs were unlike anything I have ever seen: remnants from the age of glaciers in Germany. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the time we spent in Zingst! It was a great opportunity to see a completely new part of Germany with different geographical features and ways of life, as well as return to the sea after many months!

Thanks for reading! Tschüss!

[offtheisland]

Skiing in Austria

Frohes Neues Jahr 2018! (even though it’s a bit late)

For Christmas vacation, my host family and I spent two weeks skiing in the Austrian Alps. As you can probably guess, it was an absolutely incredible experience! My skiing abilities have improved drastically, and every single day was an opportunity to take in a new and breathtaking view. I don’t have too many pictures from my actual camera because I did not want to take it on the slopes with me in case I fell down. Nevertheless, enjoy some (hoepfully decent) smartphone photos of our wonderful ski trip!

Instead of the slopes being concentrated on a single mountain like they usually are in the US, the area we skied at was composed of multiple mountains with slopes that interconnected by means of lots of chairlifts and gondolas. One had the ability to start at one end of the slopes, ski "diagonally" across them all, and then come back, a process that took quite a few hours. Here’s a link to a larger version of the map above.

Particularly charming were the Almhütten. An Alm is a small house (usually made of wood) often with a barn next to it. They are the quintessential old-timey mountain cottages that one sees in pictures of the Austrian Alps, and there are many that are situated directly next to the slopes that have been converted into small restaurants. One can stop next to the building, take off one's skis, and go directly inside to eat something warm and delicious, ranging from soups to schnitzel to hot chocolate and pastries. I really enjoyed them, in case you couldn't tell :) Here’s the Wikipedia page about the origin of Alm houses, which I found interesting enough to share.

I of course must describe the weather a bit, because if there's one thing I've learned about Germans, it's that they like to talk about the weather. (This is the only sort of small talk they make!) So: The weather the first week was generally pretty good, outside of one day where it was so foggy we couldn't see very well. The second week, we only had two days of really good conditions, the other days were either very windy and snowy, very foggy, or a combination. On these days, sometimes we skied for an hour or two, then headed back in, or we spent the day relaxing inside. And one day, when it was super foggy, we went sledding! There is a trail near where we stayed that had a designated sledding path, so we walked up and sledded down.

Hope you’ve enjoyed some of these pictures! I certainly enjoyed taking them.

Thanks for reading! Tschüss!

[offtheisland]

A German Christmas

Hallo!

I am well aware of the fact that I have not posted for over a month! Sorry about that. I’ve been super busy with Christmas preparations, as well as the move to my new host family at the beginning of the month. There weren’t any problems with my old host family, it was just that they agreed to have me for three months and then I could go to live with a friend from school. So my new host sister is also one of my classmates! It’s like having a twin (kinda). And all is going extremely well with my new host family, we get along perfectly and speak only German with each other! I am so fortunate to have found them and am beyond thankful they agreed to host me. And now I have two ‘home bases’ here in Germany.

Ok, now on to the exciting part of this post: Christmas traditions in Germany! I’ve really been living it up this December and have been trying to experience as many German Christmas traditions and specialties as possible. Without further ado, here are some of the most important things about Weihnachten in Deutschland!

Adventskalender

Pretty much all German kids (and some adults) have an Adventskalender, or Advent calendar. There are tons of varieties in stores, containing everything from chocolate to makeup to candles. My host mom makes homemade Advent calendars every year, and she made me one too! My host sisters and I open ours every morning. Mostly, the bags have chocolate or Haribo candy inside, but we've also gotten a few with travel-sized hand cream, bubble bath, and other cosmetic-type things. Here's a picture!

St. Nikolaus Tag

During the night of December 5th to December 6th, children leave their shoes out so that St. Nikolaus can come and fill them with goodies. Naturally, my host sisters and I left our shoes out! Along with lots of candy, we each got a pair of fuzzy pajama pants from Nikolaus. 

The tradition is celebrated in other European countries as well, but it is always on December 6th because that is the feast day of St. Nikolaus.

St. Nikolaus vs. Santa Claus vs. der Christkind vs. der Weihnachtsmann

Each of these four people are different to Germans! Allow me to explain.

St. Nikolaus: comes in the night between the 5th and 6th of December and fills children's shoes with sweets and small presents

Santa Claus: an American Christmas tradition, made popular in Germany by Coca-Cola advertisements as well as the 'Americanization' of German culture. German kids don't believe Santa comes down the chimney in the night between the 24th and 25th of December to leave presents, but they do recognize him (and know he's American!)

der Christkind: literally, the Christ child–for the majority of German children, it is the Christkind who brings the presents on December 24th. Unlike in the US (where we open presents the morning of the 25th), gifts are exchanged during the evening on the 24th, and most Germans think of Christmas as being on the 24th; the 25th is the "First of Christmas".

‎der Weihnachtsmann: A German version of Santa Claus, the "Christmas-man" is not quite as popular as the Christkind, but some families (especially non-religious ones) say that he brings the gifts on the evening of the 24th. 

Cookies! Very, very important.

Known as Plätzchen, Christmas cookies are taken VERY seriously by the Germans. Every Oma (grandmother) has her favorite recipes, and she makes sheet after sheet of cookies for all of her family members. We currently have two giant containers full of Christmas cookies in our kitchen, and it will probably take until the middle of January to finish them all. Fortunately, the tradition of Plätzchen was not unknown to me prior to this year, because one of my grandmothers comes from Germany. (Hi Grandma! Thanks for making cookies every year!) But I have tried a few new kinds this year which I really enjoyed, and I am definitely going to bring the recipes back with me next year!

↑ Not my picture, but this is very close to what our plate of cookies looks like. German cookies are not as sweet as American ones, and they are typically smaller in size.

Weihnachtsmärkte

One of my main free-time activities this past month has been visiting as many of the famous German Christmas markets as possible. I’ve gone to three in Cologne (the city nearest me), as well as the smaller one that my town has. I also played my flute with the community orchestra at the smaller, local one, and it was lots of fun! 

The Christmas markets are usually set up in a town square or open forum-type area, and are made up of many tiny individual wooden stalls. The stalls all sell various kinds of beautiful, unique items and gifts, a large majority of which are handmade in Germany or Europe. Local producers travel to the markets for the month of December to sell their goods to locals and tourists alike. The Christmas markets are also chock full of delicious things to eat. Some of my personal favorites are Reibekuchen (which are latkes/grated potato pancakes) with applesauce, gebrannte Mandeln (candied almonds), and grilled salmon sandwiches with special sauce. Also available are various kinds of sausage, other candies, waffles, crêpes, and Glühwein (mulled wine), to name a few things! Extremely healthy ;)

Below are some pictures of the Christmas markets in Cologne. They are so pretty, especially at night! And of course, there’s always Christmas music playing as you walk around.

Overall, I’ve been absolutely loving my German Christmas experience! AFS told us that we would most likely become quite homesick at Christmas time, but I have yet to experience that, if I’m honest (sorry family!). It’s hard to be homesick when there’s so many new and fascinating experiences to be had; I’m far too busy to be homesick. And of course, having a super supportive host family makes everything much easier. 

Ok, I’m off to go eat a few cookies and relax a bit, because school is out for two weeks for Christmas break. Hopefully I can be a bit more consistent with my blog posts in 2018! :) At any rate, thanks for reading! 

Frohe Weihnachten und ein gutes neues Jahr!

[offtheisland]

Little Victories

Here’s a list of some “little victories” I’ve experienced in the past week, because it’s important to document the little things in life, especially when on exchange.

In no particular order...

Striking up a conversation with someone I knew from school at the bus stop, and then after he got off the bus, two of my host parents’ friends came over to talk to me as well. It’s nice seeing familiar faces on public transport, and fortunately this happens often because I’m living in such a small town.

Related to this, I’m finding myself able to understand the greater part of conversations occurring around me on public transportation. It’s something one takes for granted in one’s native language, but in a foreign language it’s difficult!

Just today, I said a sentence that used verbs in three tenses and had a weird structure (a Nebensatz, for those of you who know German grammar) correctly and without too much forethought. Then I asked the person I was speaking to if what I had just said was correct, and did a little happy dance when they said yes. I’m enthusiastic, not crazy.

When people compliment me on my German accent (or rather, lack of a significant English accent) it literally makes my day, and this week it’s happened three separate times!

I am a member of the community band in my town, and we had our concert last Sunday. It went well, and I had a lot of fun performing and watching the other groups perform.

At this point, I’ve made a few recipes for my host family, and it’s so rewarding when they enjoy something I’ve made that they’ve never tried before. They really liked pumpkin bread, so much so that even my host dad (who does not cook at all) asked for the recipe.

Lastly, I got a 2- on my math exam! (Quick overview: The German grading system is on a scale of 1 to 6, 1 is best. Each number is also accompanied by a plus or minus, plus is obviously better.) I was so proud of myself, because the exam was 90% word problems and I was able to understand and translate them well enough to solve them. I was also able to write vaguely decent explanations for my work. In my US high school I’d be kind of upset with a grade like this, but here I was quite happy. I think it’s a pretty good example of what being an exchange student is about: trying your best to do well in school, but more importantly being flexible, learning the language, and not stressing too much about a grade that doesn’t really matter. (Did I just write that?!)

This post has been as much an update for you as it is a reminder for me. Sometimes I get frustrated by my inability to communicate exactly the way that I want to, and sometimes I feel like my German isn’t improving fast enough. But then I have little victories like these, and documenting them helps me to remember all of the good that has come out of this exchange.

Thanks for reading, tschüss!

[offtheisland]

Luxembourg and France!

Hallo!

It’s been a while since I’ve written a post, so here’s a long one to make up for it! Since it is currently fall break (Herbstferien) in North Rhine Westphalia, AFS offered some students in the area the opportunity to travel to Luxembourg and surrounding areas for a few days. I was fortunate enough to be able to go along, and it was such a lovely trip! I met AFS students from around the globe, saw some AFS-CBYX friends from Hamburg, and also had the opportunity to spend a few days getting to know my Betreuerin (AFS liaison/mentor), because she came on the trip as well.

The trip started early Sunday morning, when we got on a bus from Duisburg and drove for four hours to Luxembourg City, the capital of Luxembourg. We checked into our hostel and went straight downstairs to eat lunch...I had the biggest bowl of mussels I’ve ever seen, plus a salad, French fries, and a dessert (it was only 10€ for everything!). After lunch, we went out exploring the city for a few hours and bought a few snacks at Monoprix, a famous French grocery store. The cashier who rang me up spoke five languages–Luxemburgish, French, German, English, and Portuguese. Shortly after, we went to bed because we were so tired! I only knew one of my roommates, she was at language camp in Hamburg with me, so it was really nice to see her again! The other two were from Norway and Finland, which I thought was so cool!

↑ A view of Luxembourg from the bridge that was near our hostel.

Monday morning, we woke up early to visit Metz in France. It was my first time in France, and I was so happy to be able to add another country to the list of places that I’ve been! This entire trip was also a great opportunity to practice my French. We saw the Cathedral of St. Stephen and also just walked around the city–along the river and through winding old streets that were quintessential “Old Europe”. At one point, myself and another girl branched off from our larger group and walked by ourselves for a bit...and we discovered a park with a statue of Marquis de Lafayette in it. He left from Metz when he came across the Atlantic to help the American colonies fight for independence. As we are both Hamilton fans, we had a miniature jam session next to the statue performing Guns and Ships from the musical. (We also made sure to check that nobody else was around so we wouldn’t disturb any peace, in case you were concerned about that.)

↑ The Cathedral of St. Stephen from the outside...

↑ ...and a tiny corner of the inside. I just really liked the lighting in this picture.

For lunch, we went to a French restaurant, where I ordered quiche for myself and also ordered everyone else’s meal, because they did not speak French. It was nice to feel useful with a language, for once! Since coming to Germany I’ve had very few moments where I was better at the necessary language than someone else was. We had crêpes for dessert, because when in France...

After lunch, we still had plenty of time before we had to go back, so we went to a pharmacy (because French pharmacies are supposedly the best) and a few other stores. We also went to the cutest little café and had coffee and hot chocolate! I felt very French, even though I know there is more to a culture than its cafés. Just before leaving the café, I played a piece on the piano in the corner. Normally I would never do something like that, but I figured, “Why not?” and I am really glad I did.

↑ Another bridge view! Specifically, a bridge view in Metz.

Tuesday was Halloween! Only the Americans in the group really knew what it was all about, but it was fun nonetheless. In the morning we visited the Bock casemates, which at one point were actually used to defend the city from invaders. People lived inside and everything! Now, they are a UNESCO World Heritage site. They were a little spooky, especially in the dark corners!

↑ Inside the casemates, and a view from one of the “windows” of the casemates. They were partially carved out of rocks that were already there, partially constructed with stones from elsewhere. During World War II, they served as bomb shelters.

After that, we walked around the entire city of Luxembourg...inside the cathedral, past various historic buildings, and even through the luxury shopping district.(Luxembourg is one of the richest countries in the world, so naturally they have a few streets worth of designer boutiques.) We didn’t buy anything, only window shopped, but it was still really fun! And before going back to the hostel for the evening, we went to a bookstore. They sold books in Luxemburgish, French, German, and English. If one lived in Luxembourg, it would be so easy to learn so many languages! I bought a French to English dictionary, and the cashier spoke to me in both French and German. This is normal for Luxembourg though, I have no idea how their brains don’t get mixed up! Mine certainly was.

As it was freezing cold and all of the stores were closed, a few of us decided to have a night in, so we watched Hocus Pocus (a classic Halloween movie!) and ate chocolate before going to bed. It was a pretty successful Halloween overall.

Wednesday was the last day of our trip, so after packing up and eating breakfast, we left the hostel and headed to Trier, the oldest city in Germany, that has been around since Roman times. We passed under the Porta Nigra, a giant Roman gate that is also a UNESCO World Heritage site as well as a few other Roman monuments while walking along the designated “tourist route”. (I figured that was the best way to see as many monuments as possible in the least amount of time!) Even the parts of the city that were not leftover from Roman times were very old, and just as beautiful! The town really looked as though it had come from a story book.

↑ The Porta Nigra.

↑ View from the town square in Trier.

↑ Yep, this is real. It was a palace for one of the old rulers of the region, but now it’s just a historic site. The garden had statues and hedge mazes and everything! It reminded me of Alice in Wonderland.

Our last stop before heading back to the bus and driving home was the cathedral, where All Saint’s Day Mass was going on. I was a bit disappointed that we wouldn’t be allowed to walk around because of the service, but it turned out that we were allowed to stand in the back corner and observe. That ended up being better, because the organ was playing and the choir was singing for Mass! I was completely floored by the sound of it all, the acoustics were unbelievable. A great way to end a wonderful trip!

Thanks for reading this (very long) post, tschüss!

[offtheisland]

A Very Small Part of Düsseldorf

Hallo! 

This week’s post is going to be pretty short, as I have been very busy and am quite frankly looking forward to sleeping! Learning a new language is exhausting, and you don’t realize it until your head hits the pillow at night and you forget to shut your light off. Anyway, two weekends ago was my host grandmother’s birthday, so we spent the day celebrating in Düsseldorf at one of her favorite restaurants.

↑ Here was my meal; it was cod fillets with tartar sauce and a delicious salad. Very colorful, and the atmosphere and weather were perfect!

↑ Here’s a view of the Rhine that we had from the restaurant. On the other bank is a circus tent, a park, and some old houses. The boat even says Düsseldorf on the side, which I thought was quite fitting.

↑ After lunch, we went on a boat tour along the Rhine. They served coffee and desserts on board, and it was very relaxing just taking in the sights for an hour and enjoying the sunshine. It was a great way to get a “first glimpse” of Düsseldorf (and get some cool pictures!).

↑ These buildings are called the Gehry Buildings because they were designed by world-famous architect Frank Gehry. They are relatively new (obviously) and look totally out of place in the best possible way! I thought they were super cool. You can read about them here. 

Overall, I really loved Düsseldorf and can’t wait to go back and explore on foot! I wasn’t able to do that this time because my host grandfather has some joint issues that prevent him from walking too much. However, the train ride from where I live is pretty short and not that expensive, so I will definitely be returning.

Thank you for reading! Tschüss!

side note: The link above is to a website called Atlas Obscura, which is basically an online collection of cool/weird places all around the world. If you have some free time, I would highly recommend checking it out to see what obscurities are located near you. I swear this isn’t sponsored by Atlas Obscura, I just think it’s really cool and wanted to share.

[offtheisland]

Tag der Deutschen Einheit

(Englisch: German Unity Day)

Hallo! As some of you may know, October 3rd is Germany’s “Unity Day”, which is vaguely equivalent to the Fourth of July in the United States. Celebrated since 1990, this day commemorates the official reunification of East and West Germany at the end of the Cold War. It is a public holiday, and in major cities there are often festivities, but there are no specific traditions celebrated on this day. 

I spent the day doing something very unique: hiking roughly 30 kilometers from my rural host town into the center of Köln, to the Kölner Dom! The Dom is a very famous cathedral that will eventually have an entire post dedicated to it. The whole trek, including two stops along the way (one for the bathroom, one for lunch) took myself and five others (one of whom was my host dad) around eight hours to complete. Surprisingly, I was not sore afterward or the next day!

So without further ado, here’s some pictures I took along the way! Note the Kölner Dom gradually getting bigger and bigger.

↑ We started out in the countryside, and the weather was not looking so good! Fortunately, it got better as the day went on. (no view of the Dom here!)

↑ Here’s the first picture I have where the Dom is in view! It’s directly in the center of the photo. It’s difficult to see because there was lots of fog and at this point we were still around 20 kilometers from our destination. I found it so amazing that one could see the city from so far away!

My host dad explained to me that individuals who lived in the town a few generations ago would make this trek a few times a year to get needed supplies from the city. They would have seen a very similar view to what we saw.

↑ This was taken in Köln, along the Rhine River. The Dom is the two tiny little points just left of center, sticking out from above the trees! At this point, we had around 5 kilometers left, and as you can see, the weather improved drastically!

↑ View from a footbridge at the entrance to a park in Köln. This was one of two bridges we crossed to get over the Rhine. There are always barges going up and down the river. The Dom has become two distinct spires...getting closer!

↑ Taken from the park on the banks of the river. There were people on the “beach”, but the current is very strong so no swimmers. I did see a few kayakers, though!

↑ Taken from the end of Köln’s “love locks” bridge, a little more than half a kilometer from the famous cathedral!

↑ We made it! 

I thoroughly enjoyed the hike and would definitely do it again...it was so much fun and I saw so many things I would have missed just taking the train into the city. A good way to spend Unity Day, and very different from anything I had ever done before.

Thank you for reading! Tschüss!

[offtheisland]

Here’s a few pictures from the hike I went on Saturday with my host brother. I find it hard to believe that I live here; it’s so beautiful!

I don’t have too much to add, just enjoy the pictures! Next week will be a longer post about school because I want to get into a bit more of a routine there first before I write too much about it.

Thanks for reading looking! Tschüss!

[offtheisland]

Settling In

Hallo!

A little over a week ago, I said a bittersweet “Auf Wiedersehen” to all of the AFS-CBYX students and our wonderful Betreuers in Hamburg and set out for Köln Hauptbahnhof with all of my belongings and dreams in tow to meet my host family. This past week has been a lot of unpacking, settling in, and new things all at once! It was a little overwhelming, but overall, a really great week! I’m going to just write a little here, because I have the whole year to talk about smaller details of life in small-town Germany!

My host family: I get along with them so well! They speak English and thus have been helping me a lot with learning German! I love spending time with them and am really excited to get to know them better. Plus, my host mom is an excellent cook!

My new house: It’s really a lovely home! I have my own room and bathroom (!!!) and the backyard borders on a protected forest/wilderness region, perfect for hiking (I’ve gone on five hikes so far) and running. It’s in the mountains as well, so there are amazing views. I feel like I’m living on a postcard: my town has mountains, streams, forests, farm fields, small villages of old German style farmhouses. I really love it! (I’m definitely going to take more pictures the next hike I go on, this was just a quick one on my phone!)

My school: It is a small Gesamtschule that around half of the students in the town attend, with the other half attending a Gymnasium that is significantly farther away. I haven’t had any actual classes yet as last week was a “Projektwoche” (project week) for the 12th grade, which I am in. So far, all of my classmates have been really nice to me! They added me to their class groupchat on WhatsApp and have invited me to a few events, to which I happily went. They speak almost exclusively German to me so that I can learn, and I’m really proud of the fact that I can hold somewhat decent conversations with them. I am also looking forward to getting to know them better and explaining to them what life is really like in the United States while simultaneously learning about German culture. TL;DR...school is good and there will be updates to follow!

↑ Last Sunday, a castle in a large town nearby was opened to the public! My host family took me along to see it, as it is rare to see such a building up close. They told me that this castle is not old by European standards, but it is older than the United States, so I considered it pretty old. 

So that is a basic overview of what “settling in” has consisted of for me. I defnitely will write more in-depth posts about my daily life here in the coming weeks and months, so watch this space! Thank you for reading, tschüss!

[offtheisland]

What the Trees Have Seen: Thoughts from a Concentration Camp

On Sunday, we visited Neuengamme work camp, a former Nazi concentration camp. It was not an extermination camp in the way that Auschwitz was, but thousands still died there. I had many thoughts during the visit, and below are some of the more coherent ones, because things like this are important to share. 

Because World War II and everything associated with it happened many years ago, there are not many left who can recall it firsthand. So, we make do with memorials and museums and history books and guided tours and tell ourselves never to forget what happened, in order to avoid it happening again. But despite the fact that I was standing in the exact spot where it had all happened and was being told in great detail about what life was like for the prisoners, I was unable to connect with what was being said in any sort of emotional way. I couldn't even begin to imagine it, because looking down from the top of the staircase outside the brick factory, all one can see is a green field surrounded by trees, and further out, farm fields with corn growing. I did not feel overwhelmed by emotion at any point. Upon leaving, I felt rather heartless for this, but the more I think about it, the more I realize it is okay. There is no way to restore or recreate a place like Neuengamme in any way that would allow individuals today to "feel" what the prisoners felt while simultaneously doing those who suffered there justice--at best, it would be offensive. In addition, I have been fortunate enough to grow up in a place and at a time where to imagine enduring such a thing is literally inconceivable for me, a sign that the world is becoming a better place (albeit slowly, and in parts). Still, Neuengamme is a reminder that horrors of human injustice can happen anywhere if we let them.

My thoughts after leaving were very jumbled, but after time to reflect I am better able to articulate my thoughts, and what I keep coming back to is the trees on the property. Some of them were quite old and conceivably could have been growing there when the camp was in use. They have seen all. If the memorial were to be taken down and history forgotten, it would be impossible to tell what had gone on there. For better or for worse, only the trees would know. 

Your suffering, struggle, and death shall not be in vain.

[offtheisland]

Ausflug nach Celle!

(auf Englisch: Day trip to Celle)

Hallo! This past Saturday, our group took a trip to Celle, a small city about two hours south of Hamburg by train, in the state of Lower Saxony. Thus far, this day trip was my favorite that we have taken together, because Celle has such an interesting history and is so beautiful! The Wikipedia page for Celle can be found here, and I would suggest at least a glance at it, because my description will only touch upon the surface of the town’s history and it is really fascinating! In addition, here is the town’s website itself with tourist information.

After our train ride, we arrived in the city and walked to the Rathaus, or city hall. There, we were met by the mayor of the city himself, as well as a few other city officials. Our arrival in the city was pretty big news and is going to be in the local newspaper soon! The Rathaus was a very old building that had really interesting architecture, as well as many pictures of old British kings, because for a while Celle belonged to the British (read that Wikipedia page!) We had a small welcome reception before being given thirty minutes to walk around and find something small to eat. Fortunately, the farmer’s market was going on that day (as it does every Saturday), so it was easy to find some fresh, local, and of course delicious food to eat. Then, we embarked upon our guided tour of the city. The tour took us around the back streets by really old buildings, most of which dated from the late Middle Ages and that were timber-framed. This style of house is rare now, because most cities that had timber-framed houses in Germany were bombed during World War II. Celle survived only because it was at one point British territory. In addition, we went into a church that had been built starting in 1308, before the Protestant Reformation, so it was built in the Catholic style with much more decoration and ornate detail. It was later renovated to become Protestant by the duke of the city in the Baroque style, so most of the detail remains. The tour concluded at the castle, which also has a long and storied history, as over the years it has served many purposes. My personal favorite building was the church because of all the styles of architecture inside.

After our tour, we had a bit of free time to shop, during which I purchased a verb wheel to help me with conjugating and some yarn in a cute textile shop. Then, we went to a barbecue hosted by a German American football (yes, as in the oblong brown ball) team for dinner. I really enjoyed the food; it was very different from American barbecue food, but it was still delicious! Overall, it was a very exhausting day, but so much fun and so interesting! I would love to go back to Celle at some point, whether it is this year or afterward.

↑ A picture of the window in the Rathaus looking out over the street.

↑ Another view from the Rathaus, this time looking over the timber-framed houses. At the bottom right you can see the start of the farmer’s market, which spanned almost two blocks and the town square!

↑ As you can probably tell from the writing on it, this was built in 1534, and it isn’t even close to being the oldest building in the town. I just really liked the decorations on the side.

↑ Last but not least, here is the view of the inside of the church! All of the white and gold is reminiscent of the Baroque style. Not pictured is the enormous organ that took up the greater part of the back wall. It was built in 1653 and is still in use today!

[offtheisland]

Learning German

Hallo! As of yesterday, I have been in Germany for two entire weeks! In that time, I’ve done and seen quite a lot. We’ve gone sightseeing around Hamburg, Lübeck, and Bremen and done various activities at the hostel on many nights (tonight was a talent show!). But most importantly, I have been going to language school for four hours every week day and practicing my German in the “real world” daily! I think it has improved quite a bit, I know how to conjugate the present and past (we’re doing the future this week) and am learning vocabulary daily by pointing to things and asking “Was ist das?” My other favorite phrases are “Wie sagt Mann [insert English word] auf Deutsch?” and “Was bedeutet [insert German word]?” 

The hardest thing thus far for me has been prepositions, because different prepositions use different cases and some are only used in certain situations. It’s very confusing to memorize all of that. Speaking is also difficult, but I’m getting much better at accepting the fact that I’m going to make mistakes and should just try to say stuff anyway. It’s amazing what two weeks of being surrounded by the language can do, and I’m sure I will improve even quicker when I go to my host family and am not living with forty-eight other Americans who like to speak English when together. (I am guilty of this, not gonna lie!)

↑ Here’s a picture of the town square in Bremen, where we visited yesterday. It is really beautiful, and I even got to see the statue of the famous animal musicians from the Grimm fairy tale. I couldn’t get a picture though, too many other people were crowding the frame to get a good one!

Thanks for reading! Tschüss!