Round 2

Ok, so rather than make a new blog to abandon halfway through the summer, I'll just use this one again. So this summer I'm going to Munich. Pretty sweet right? Well, it is, and I will write about it approximately twice on this blog because blogging isn't really my thing. I may also write a couple things about politics, but probably won't for fear that at some point in my future career it will come back to bite me.

Anyway, bis bald.

Back to the Blog

I haven't written in this in a long time, and I'm not in Germany any more, but there are still things going on, and I'm still hiking.

School just finished and I am relishing the lack of responsibility for the weekend and then heading back home for some time with family. Gotta love Christmas. Especially looking forward to seeing my brother and his wife coming up from Florida.

OK, so 1 week to do this shopping stuff. No Problem... (sarcastic tone)

Deutsche Gymnasium (German High School)

So the other day I went to school with Max (my host brother) to talk with his English Class. Unfortunately the only way i would be able to find his class was y going with him to the two classes before. This would have been ok, except he hadnt talked with his OTHER teachers about it. So here I am, 9 in the morning in a German 7th grade class, this big ole guy sitting in the back of the room, only knows broken German, waiting for the teacher to come in. Needless to say I was a little nervous. So she comes in and is like "who are you?" and Max proceeded to explain that i was an American there for the English class, so she said it was ok. (but it was still awkward). So i learned the elements of writing for a newspaper in German!
Then I went to Biology and took a quiz in German over the heart (I didn't know any of it. I haven't studied physiology for like 4 years!) but the teacher was really cool and seemed to have really good English. Then we went to English where I introduced myself to the students I had been following around all day, and then every student had to ask me a question in English, ranging from my favorite color, to what sports I like, to what I thought about George Bush, and whether I had a girlfriend. So I had a nice day at school...

a note on german schools:

there is grade school and then students go to one of three schools: Grundschule, Hauptschule, or Gymnasium depeding on their grades and capabilities (and often times their parents). So most students go to Gymnasium, and its like 5th through 13th grade all in one school. So even though I went with Max to 7th grade and was in what we would consider the middle school, I was in the same building with the "high schoolers", which do to the way their system works were actually the same age as me! So a 19 yr old in Germany would just be finishing "Highschool" while a America 19 yr old would already be done with 2 years of University! so it was interesting to see what the kids my age look like and do.

Deutsch Musik (german music)

so german music is pretty jacked up. its like a mix between weird european techno music, current (meaning mostly from the 90s) american pop music, us pop music from the 80s (that no american would recognize today), music from the 50s and 60s? (they were playing du-op at the party last night), and then german music that is kind of trying to copy us pop except theyve only heard random and usually old US pop music, and its all in german so that makes it weird too... its interesting...

Deutches Essen (German Food)

so at first, i thought german food would be really gross, like all gross tasting sausage, or poor quality meat like i always heard england had or something. but german food is AWE'SOME!!! it is soooooo good. they get fresh bread from the backerie, some lady delivers fresh milk, the meat tastes really good, i get to drink beer or wine with everything i eat so that helps, and ... oh man, let me start with breakfast...

Fruhstuck (breakfast):
fresh pastries like specialty schwäbisch pastries, or other german pastries, or french pastries
or brotchen (a roll) with butter and jelly, honey, or nutella
(or cornflakes)
milch or juice

Mittagsessen (lunch):
today we ate at a beer garten on top of a mountain with an old church ruin, and you could see all the land around, it was so beautiful, fields of green and yellow (and they also do hangliding there so...) so i had a bratwurst in bröt (like an american brat bun, but harder) with good moustard, and then pomme fritz (french fries) with mayonaise.
i drank an apple soda because i decided i had had enough beer in the last week
(but then when we were in the town schwäbisch hälle, i had a beer (60 cents) when i was sitting around with the other students by the river in the sun...ahhh)

Abendsessen (dinner):
every night basically my host mother has cooked a really great meal, usually:
a salat with a vinegar sauce
fresh bread
cheese
and something warm, so brats or fish or special local cuisine, it is all delicious!
and sometimes something else like a potato salad or something
thats usually with beer or wine (normally a pils called Heubacher, or yesterday we had this really good local dry light red wine (SO GOOD!!!), and today the grandfather brought me a weiß bier (wheat beer) which is from bavaria

(i dont know the word for dessert, haha)
weve had everything from banana splits to special apple donoughts to tonight we had ice cream and strawberries :P so good...

some of the things are more specialties because im a guest from america, and other things are good because the family im staying with is like super smart, their house is really green (solar pannels, well insulated, the water for the toilet comes from rain!), and they prefer high quality local products, and put an emphasis on food over other things like more toys or something, so its really good. i have a great host family, im really lucky. (i also have a great real family, and am really lucky to have them, more than lucky, im somehow or for somereason unordinarilly blessed with a great family praise God!)

oh, and today i went to a cheese market where i thought the cheese would be horrible cause it smelled so bad, but the cheese was actually delicious! i really need words better than delicious and good to explain the food, but thats what it was.

middle of the night

So its 3 in the morning here, and i cant really sleep, so i decided to go online to see if any friends are online to talk to, but alas, its only 9 in america so nobody is. Germany is so beautiful, and its like everything is the way its supposed to be. theres a city with people actually in it where everything happens, and then there are nice little towns all around it that are safer and have little shops and restaurants, and then theres hills with fields and meadows and flowers and cows and woods and mountains with churches on top in the distance, and i walk from one small town to the other to get to uni (about 15 minutes) and take this little footpath through the town, up the hillside, through the meadows and woods with all the flowers and cows, up to this little university.

Today was free, so i went to Schwäbisch Gmünd (the city in the middle, i live in Bettringen). it was pretty nice. i was with mike first, and then we found a bunch of other students from our group. Then everyone wanted to get gelato, but i wanted to see the church again (yesterday we had a stadt ralle, which means a scavenger hunt in a city to find different buildings). so i got to walk around by myself and take a lot of pictures :) the cathedral is awesome, really big, and while i was reading my Bible therein a group came in and started singing in german, it was like heaven. i found a nice little shop where i can buy a really old german Bible for about 8 euros. and i found a lot of other shops and kneipes. and i went in an antique shop and spoke with the shopkeeper there about michigan and the auto industry (all in german ;). then i met up with the rest of the group and we watched a film in german called "the reader", its an american film, but we watched it in german in this kino-kneipe which is basically both a small kind of indie theater with a bar attached to it so you can drink a beer while you watch.

The whole drinking thing was exciting at first, just because i cant really do it at home, and so for a while all i wanted to do was drink because it was new. the other night there was a "sportpartie" that the athletic dept at the school was putting on, so i went with some friends and basically just got drunk (mom, i know your reading this, dont worry, i didnt get too drunk and i was very responsible, which probably doesnt make you think its ok, but, just so you know), talked with germans, and then walked home. it was fun, but im kind of glad that i got it out of the way. now that ive gotten drunk once, its not like this special thing that i really want to do anymore. in fact i dont really want to do it anymore, i mean its fun, but its nothing special, and now that i know what it is i can be more responsible. i know now how much is enough, and what it feels like if i drink too much, and now that i know i dont really want to do it. i still really like having beer or wine with dinner, or sitting around in a bar having a beer or two, but i now understand the difference between that and getting drunk, and when the latter is appropriate, and when it is not.

i miss you all, and ill have some pictures up soon, and also a phone card and a skype account for instant messaging soon.

bis bald (til soon)

Ich bin im Deutschland! (i'm in germany)

The flight here was a little long, but not bad. I slept a little, but when i arrived i had really bad jet lag. We arrived in Stuttgart at 9 in the morning, and from there took the train to Schwäbisch Gmünd. It's really pretty country with lots of green fields with lots of flowers and farms and old buildings. On the train ride we had a changeover, so me and some other people from my group went and bought our first beers in Germany, they were pretty good, and really cheap. Then in SG, I met up with Moritz and Maja (the two older siblings) and their aunt because my host parents were on their way back from Prague. It was pretty interesting trying to speak german all the time, they offered to switch to english if it would be easier, but i told them no. It was mostly pretty good basic conversation and I understand most of what they say, it's just that usually there's about one word in every sentence that i dont understand and it makes it hard to know exactly what theyre talking about. (the keyboard is a little different, so im not going to use asterisks any more because it takes too long :) So i spent the better part of the day talking with Moritz und Maja, und the other brother Max. They are really nice and helpful, a little quiet, but thats to be expected i suppose, espessially when i dont really speak the language. There were some nice long awkward silences today. Then I took a nap, and when the parents got home we all went to a nice italian restaurant. I had a pils, which is a local beer, and a really good homemade hawaiian pizza (the ham and crust were really delicious). Then for dessert i had tirimissou and a shot of Jägermeister to help me sleep. When we got back I gave them their gifts and talked a little more about america, then they let me borrow the laptop and now im in my room about to go to bed. Its really nice, I have the whole basement to myself with a bedroom, livingroom, and bathroom. The bed is a fold out couch, but its comfortable.

The whole trip so far feels like a dream, like im not actually here. I think its a combination of being a little sick, have jetlag, being tired, being on a different continent, being in a place where everyone speaks a different language, and the beer all coming together. Its weird, the whole time ive been writing this ive been translating everything i say into german in my head.

OK, well, ill have more to say later. Wish me luck and be praying for me, pray that i wake up!