Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Berlin
A little late, but I went to Berlin from February 19 to 22 with 29 other students on the exchange program. I flew from Bonn/Koln Airport into Berlin then took the bus to the train station. I was terrified. I have never flown alone before, public transportation is not my thing to begin with, but I took a bus from Bonn to the airport but then didn't really know where to go after that. I asked someone, because I had an idea but everyone else was going to the parking lot, so I asked a business man where to go. Turns out he was going to the same airline, so he just walked with me and showed me exactly where to go which was really good! So I successfully flew alone for the first time! The next day, we had a city tour of Berlin starting at 11, and it was completely a walking tour...I kept seeing tour buses that say "hop on, hop off!" with the price (only 10) as we were walking all around the city for three whole hours! By the time we were done (at around 2:30), we were all starving and decided to go to a Brazilian restaurant so we took the tram 20 mins there...and it was closed. From there two of my friends and I went to White Trash Fast Food (it's not fast food, it's an actual restaurant that my host mom recommended) which has really really good American style burgers (if you're ever in berlin go there!) and a cool atmosphere too. Friday we has the morning off, so we went to checkpoint Charlie, saw a piece of the wall, made our own chocolate bar at Ritter sport (that was really cool too) and the friday afternoon went to the Bundestag for a tour! I really enjoyed that because it was a mix of history and politics, and one interesting thing was you can still see the writing on the walls from Russian soldiers. After the tour, we all had dinner in a middle eastern restaurant in Kreuzberg and then Saturday morning, everyone went home.
Friday, January 17, 2014
Typical sarah face isn't it?
Frohe Weihnachten! (Very late)
So Christmas in Germany certainly was different, but it was good. Germans open their presents on the 24th, at night, instead of the next morning like Americans do. Anyways, we went to church (the kids service for Emmi), then came home, opened presents and had fondue (except it was the fondue with meat, not chocolate like I'm used to). Emmi and I were in the kitchen when we heard Christkind (Christ child) ring the bell signifying he brought the presents, and Emmi got really excited but then started crying because she didn't get to give the Christkind a high five...but then she realized she had presents and cheered up. In Germany, the Christkind is the figure that brings presents, but traditionally also sets up the Christmas tree the days before Christmas. My host mom told me about how when she was younger, the living would be closed for about two days before the 24, so the Christkind could set up the tree and deliver the presents and the children were forbidden to go into that room. However, in my host family, we got the Christmas tree early, carried it back to our apartment (we literally carried the tree down the street to our apartment) then decorated it earlier than most traditional Germans. Then the next day was Christmas, where we went to church again, except I woke up to late so Bettina and I just stayed at home and we all had a lazy day. Christmas was also the day for my birthday dinner, which was very good steak and spätzle (my favorite food).
Then the next day was my 19th birthday! It was still a holiday in Germany, so I celebrated it with three of my friends and we all went out to dinner with my host parents.
On the 28th, we left for Domburg in the Netherlands, which is a small seaside town where we stayed with two other families. It was a nice vacation and we took a lot of walks along the beach, drank a lot of hot chocolate. On New Years Eve, at 12, tons of fireworks went off everywhere. It's not like the states where the major fireworks are in one place, but everyone was shooting off tons of fireworks so it was extremely loud and everywhere would light up. Those lasted for a full hour, until one, and then as soon as they stopped I fell asleep. Then on New Years Day, people go into the ocean for a New Years swim, and they're just wearing bathing suits in the freezing cold wind...but it was interesting and funny to watch for me! We headed home on January 4th, then school started again January 8th for me.
The next weekend my host family and I went down to Lake Constance to celebrate the grandmothers (Bettina's mom) 70th birthday. It was a brunch on Saturday morning which was really really good food, and a lot of German which was overwhelming at first but then got better, even if some people spoke so fast to me I could only shake my head while trying to process it.
Friday, December 6, 2013
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!
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