Hans the Hamster

I got an early birthday present today and his name is Hans and he's a hamster! Bettina, Joe, Emmi and I all went to pick him out and then Emmi and I carried him (it was a tiny box, but Emmi really wanted to help) and sang all the way to the checkout "Wir haben ein kleines Hamster!" (We have a small hamster!) and told the little kid behind us too (he didn't care). Then when we got home everyone helped to make his cage ready, with his wheel, house and a platform. And then we all watched him for a good 10 minutes..now he's next to my bed (making a lot of noise) but he's very cute and cuddly! 

I asked Emmi to help me think of a name, and first she said hamster...and I told her no were not naming the hamster hamster. Then she said Schmetterling which is the word for butterfly, so she wanted to name the hamster butterfly...which I said no to also. Then I suggest Hans, a stereotypical German name to Americans, and she thought for a minute and said okay! so that is how Hans got his name. 

An American-German-Belgian-Irish Thanksgiving

Last Saturday I celebrated Thanksgiving with my host family and friends. The weekend before my host dad, Emmi (little sister), and I went grocery shopping and tried to buy everything. However, some things can't be found here, for example, cranberry sauce or actually even fresh/frozen cranberries don't exist. On Friday I didn't have any school because it was parent/teacher conference day, which worked out really well cause I basically cooked all day with a friend who came over to help me. We made apple pie, mini gluten free apple pies for Bettina, mashed potatoes, stuffing with hazelnuts, apples and dried cranberries, cranberry sauce from dried cranberries (I was worried how it'd turn out but it was actually really good), shrimp and bacon Mac and Cheese (the other American insisted Mac and cheese is something you need at Thanksgiving but I disagree) and of course pumpkin pie (it was actually maple pumpkin pie and gluten free!). Saturday morning I made sweet potatoes with brown sugar and marshmallows, which everyone besides the two Americans thought it was really weird and wondered why you would ever put marshmallows on sweet potatoes...then Bettina and Joe helped make the turkey, the gravy, biscuits and grilled the squash. By then it was around 12 and three of my friends were already here (they were Grant, the American, Louis, Irish, and Yoann, Belgian) and there wasn't really that much to do, so we all went to the Christmas Market and met Jill, a friend from school there. German Christmas Markets are amazing...they're so pretty and have amazing things. For example, there's a chocolate hut with chocolate hammers, shoes, bolts, roses and they're incredibly detailed and look way too good to eat. Then there's huts with beeswax candles, little music boxes, hand carved wooden things and of course food huts with Glühwein, which is basically mulled wine but apparently it's deadly (I've stayed away from it...I prefer the hot coco with whipped cream). Then we went back to help with the grand Thanksgiving dinner and another friend came, Marlene, from lacrosse. Everything was so incredibly good and I stuffed myself so much until I just wanted to curl up and sleep....but instead we watched a movie then went back to the Christmas Market until everyone's train left. However, the conductor almost didn't let Grant and Yoann in the train cause the closed the doors as they were walking up to the train, and they closed them early. But there was a lot of other people who wanted to get on too so they made it! 

Essentially, Thanksgiving was a success. I got my American Thanksgiving with all the typical food and ended up spending it with good friends and my host family and we all had fun! 

From left to right: me (obviously), Yoann, Jill, Grant and Louis

The view of the Christmas Market from the Ferris Wheel 

My favorite thing about America

Well it's not my favorite. But it's up there with the things I either miss, took for granted, or realized Americas better than Europe at. 

It's a car. Not just any car, but a big huge SUV (like an Audi Q7) that gets driven everywhere. Everyone takes trains, buses or cable cars here. While that is convienent, I still love taking a car everywhere. Here, even if you do take a car, it's most likely small and definitely not the size of an Audi Q7. 

I like the fact you can take a train to anywhere in Europe, but trains and I have a love hate relationship in general. I'll always be almost late, or just plain late, and supposed to miss my train...but then turns out the train is late (trains are always late. Always.) So while I hate the amount of pushy people and just the fact there's a lot of people in general and seats are usually hard to find...I somehow have only missed one train and then I managed to get an even faster train like 10 mins later...and then my next train was 15 mins late so I made that. I make the train...but I may not get a seat  or just be crammed in with tons of people but hey at least I make the train. 

Basically, I like my big huge cars because they're more convienent for me (it's selfish I know), quieter and have way less people because even though I'm a people person, that many people is just not my cup of tea. At all! 

A whole bunch

I've been really busy, meaning I haven't had time to post anything. But hey that's a good thing cause it means I have a good life here! My host family and I spent the weekend in Hamburg for Bettina's (my host moms)  friends 40th birthday party. I saw family friends on Saturday and we got breakfast which was croissants with jam and butter and fresh fruit then coffee, so a perfect breakfast for me! Then we walked around Hamburg and went into some shops, saw the Rathaus then had dinner with the dad and Robin who had just taken his SAT (it reminded me of how much those sucked). After that the mom and I went to get coffee again after walking a bit and then I went back to my host family and we all went to the party. It was in this little restaurant and there were about 20 people and the owner was Ethiopian (I think). The food was sehr lecker (very delicious) and it was green and red lentils (the red ones were spicy), chicken legs in some sauce and then spinach which was also super spicy. I also learned that when your mouth is on fire from spicy food, sparkling water is not a good idea cause it just makes it seem all that hotter from the bubbles! Sunday we drove back to Bonn, except there was traffic and raining then at one point it started hailing. Thankfully, we were in Burger King when it started then just waited until it ended. Towards the end of the car ride, which was from I think 11:30 to 7, Emmi started to get hyper (as any 3 year old would do and she was good a lot longer than I would've been at 3), but I was watching a movie, Les Choristes, on my iPad and she leaned over and whispered "hey Sarah. In a little bit, I get your iPad! Yeah? Yeah?" And I just kinda looked at her like uhhhh....no. Needless to say, she got the iPad about 10 minutes later. 

Today, I didn't go to school cause I didn't feel well and went back to sleep until about 12. The I went to tutoring cause I felt a bit better. It was sunny then as soon as I got to the experiment office (my exchange organization where I also have tutoring), it started to pour and became really windy and nasty. So at the end of tutoring Paulo and I got Experiment ponchos! And then I had to help Paulo buy AldiTalk so his phone would actually work. So we went looking for an Aldi...in the pouring rain and wind. Thankfully we found one and the trip was successful and Paulo now has a phone. 

A lot more has happened than that but I'll write more later!

Hey guys I'm in a German article

This article is a summary of our game last Sunday against Dusseldorf. It mentions that I made a goal and an assist. "Ein tor von Sarah Treger" (a goal from Sarah Treger) and "mit einem Assist von Sarah Treger in der 34. Minute" (with an assist from Sarah Treger in the 34th minute)

Never underestimate the power of fuzzy socks

Germany is freezing already and it isn't even winter yet! Well, I think it's freezing cause it's always cold, rainy and grey then I also just get cold easily. My feet are always cold, even when I'm inside, cause heat is expensive in Germany so we don't use a lot. Which means I'm always wearing my fuzzy socks to keep me warm  (I also have my fuzzy blue blanket I brought over from the states). 

Other small differences I've seen so far:

No girls wear dresses. Or skirts.  Unlike Saint James where dresses and skirts are usually worn more than pants, here it's blue jeans with a sweater and scarf. Pretty basic with little variation meaning most of the teenage girls here look the same to me. 

Germans wear wedding rings on the right hand ring finger. I don't know why, Bettina made a joke about it having to do something with the practicality of Germans. However, most other countries in Europe wear the wedding bands on the left hand, Bettina and Joe couldn't think of another country that wore them on the right. 

German trains are always late. When I was in the states, I always heard the German rail system was punctual and just good in general. They have the departure times down, a train will say it departs at 3:01 (I really don't get how that one extra minute makes that big of a difference) but chances are it won't leave right on time (sometimes it won't even be at the track when it's supposed to me departing). That doesn't just apply to trains either, the cable car is not usually late but there was one time it just didn't come. At all. I was waiting at the stop, early for once, and it said the cable car was coming...but it just didn't. Which then I missed my train....as you can tell, I like cars and the fact Americans are lazy and always take cars everywhere! 

Just more stuff

I had my lacrosse game last Sunday and we were tied with 10 seconds left when the other team scored making the score 7-8. We played against Dusseldorf, and Cologne and Dusseldorf are rivals for pretty much everything, especially Karneval, so losing to them wasn't good. Unfortunately, the lacrosse game made me sicker because it was cold and rainy so Bettina and I went to the doctor and the doctor said no school Monday or Tuesday and no lacrosse the whole week. Then of course on Monday I got my new lacrosse stick, but I can't use it until next week. 

So yesterday and today I've been doing nothing but sleeping, watching tv and reading to get better. 

I did help make dimmer yesterday though and Emmi and I made spätzle which is one of my favorite foods! It's German (obviously) and is made out of spätzle flour (some kind of special flour), eggs, water and a little nutmeg. I also had a craving for baked apples so I made some for me, Bettina and Emmi. 

Also last weekend, friends came over and they had a one year old and three year old and I was home cause I was sick. The baby girl decided she liked me, so she'd crawl over to the couch, pull herself up then bounce up and down trying to get my attention. I tried to just ignore her, but was unsuccessful when Bettina said I think she wants to get up there with you! Then when she was on the couch, all the parents were laughing cause she was just laughing and smiling and I was just looking at her like what do I do with this baby? 

 

Spätzle

An old pic from vacation on the island Sylt.