When the Turks came to Germany

Two weeks of Spring break had ended, and then came the Turks.

This was the second part of the exchange partnership my school has with a school in Izmir. In addition to a cultural exchange, we engage in a week long project having to do with the environment. When we traveled to Turkey, we learned about wind farms. When the Turks came to us, we learned about swamps and marshes. We don’t simply learn about things and then do nothing with that information. We conduct surveys, write reports, take photos, and write blogs that will then get published in the local newspaper. 

Our page in the newspaper from when we visited Turkey. I'm in the red hat in the top photo and also in the group photo. 

One of our activities included visiting a swampland. There we learned about the vegetation, determining the health of the swamp, and how everything functions within the ecosystem. To get us prepared for visiting the swampland, someone came in and gave us a presentation with a general overview so that we would have an idea of what to expect to learn about at the swamp.

During the week, we also had a few hours to work on our assignments.

Because school is not my most important priority here, I missed practically the whole week of school and spent it with the Turks. I went to pick them up and take them back to the airport (not alone obviously). I gave them a tour of our school and our city. I joined them on the excursions to berlin and Potsdam. We visited a couple museums. It wasn’t strange being with them for the majority of the time because I already knew them, and I get along very well with them. I felt like I was gone the entire week. I left for school at 6:50 as usual and didn’t arrive home until 7-8 each night. It was exhausting, but worth every moment.

On Saturday, the majority of the German-Turk pairs went to Berlin to see a famous sight and get some culture (East Side Gallery), and do something they all desperately wanted to do: shopping (Mall of Berlin).

The biggest shock for the Turks while visiting Germany and our region was all the open land. Most of the German students live in a house in a village, whereas most of the Turkish students live in a flat in Izmir. For example, there are cows nearby from where a student in our group lives. She told us that her exchange student was so shocked (in a good way) because so much open space and farm animals simply aren’t there in Izmir. What we see as boring, open fields on our way to school, the Turks saw as beautiful green space.

Another big difference, which I’m sure wouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who has heard any stereotype about Germans or Turks, is the concept of time. Here is the best example that will explain it all. We had 45 minutes of free time while at the Brandenburger Tor. After free time, we needed to meet up to go to the Bundestag for a scheduled tour. The distance between the Reichstag building and the Tor is maybe half a mile and could take a German (or myself) 5 minutes to walk to. We knew from experience how much our group of Turks likes to take their time getting from place to place. We estimated 10-15 minutes to walk there. Of course, we also needed to account for the fact that you have to subtract five minutes from the meet up time to account for those who will show up late. The whole thing became a small joke among us whenever we set a meeting time. I don’t know how amusing the Turks found it, but I don’t think they were offended. Besides, we meant it all with love.

Brandenburger Tor with two of my German friends.

Some more Germans and myself

my Turkish host sister

On the last night, we had an “End of the Week Cultural Celebration.” We had a potluck at our school, watched a slide show of all the photos from the week, and both groups sang typical songs and put on a short, little show. It was hilarious mostly because everything was put together at the last minute and approximately three people knew what was going on at any given time. While we were setting up the food, though, the Turks saw the chalkboards and were first amazed and then occupied. They don’t have actual chalkboards at their school, so they had lots of fun writing on ours.

All of our names.

Group photo in front of the East Side Gallery of those who went to Berlin again on our free day.

Shopping? check.
Ice Cream? check.

The entire week was just selfies selfies selfies.

East Side Gallery

Love these two Turks.

Group photo of all the Germans, Turks, and me before we left to go to the airport. This is in front of my school. 

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As I have said before, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into when my teacher told me about this project in September. Remember that I could barely even speak German at that time. The question was if I wanted to go to Turkey and the obvious answer was yes. I am so glad I took advantage of this wonderful opportunity. It was a learning experience in so many ways: meeting more Germans in my school, meeting Turkish people, learning a little about the Turkish culture, visiting a new country, and of course, learning more about the environment.

I even got two cool, official certificates that I took part in the program.

Shannon

Bavaria

We had returned home from Poland on Sunday night. Two days afterwards on Tuesday morning, my host family and I took off for the 6.5 hour car ride to Munich, where we would be staying until Saturday morning with my host mom’s cousin and her family (they live about 30-40 min from the city). Bavaria is in the southeast of Germany. I have heard Bavaria be compared to the Texas of America: different accents, different traditions, different culture, and different vocabulary. The Bavarians think they are better than the rest of Germany, and the rest of Germany doesn’t really even consider them part of Germany. While there are considerable differences between the two, the whole ordeal is a bit exaggerated in my opinion. Bavaria, I will say though, is how people picture Germany as a whole, when in reality most of it is only in this region. The best examples are Lederhosen and Oktoberfest.

Each day brought a completely different adventure, and my goal here is to give a brief written summary complete with many photos.
We were incredibly lucky with the weather the entire week. I have very high weather standards (thank you, California) but this weather was simply perfect. Each day got better with clearer skies and a warmer sun. It made the trip that much better, considering we were outside for most of the time. 

Day 1: Munich

The city is pretty to walk around, but that is about it. To be honest, the city did not live up to my expectations. The landmark of the city, the Frauenkirche, was under contruction on the outside and the inside looked like any other ordinary church. It let me down. The city isn't actually that big, or at least not as big as I figured it would be. We went to the Olympic park from the 1972 games in Munich. That was really cool and the park is quite pretty.

The park

The Stadium

The Stadium seats

Munich Town Hall

Day 2:  Neuschwanstein Castle & Zugspitze
The castle was beautiful, as expected. Unfortunately, no photography is allowed inside, but there is a reason it is one of the most visited castles. There is a smaller castle nearby that we also did a tour of. It is not as grandiose, but you get to see more of this castle than Neuschwanstein. Our tour was given in German, but our guide of Neuschwanstein was actually an American (I didn't ask, but the accent was a giveaway even though her German was obviously great). Irrelevant, but I thought it was cool. After visiting the castles, we drove over towards the German-Austrian border to go to the Zugspitze, which is the highest point in Germany at 9,718 feet. We rode up the mountain in a cable car, and at the top we enjoyed a panoramic view of the Alps from Germany's highest Biergarten. The view was beautiful: perfect clear blue skies with snow-covered mountains

typical tourist photo, typical Bavarian hat

We found some nice English people to take our photo in front of the castle while waiting for our tour to begin. 

Hohenschwangau Castle: built by King Maximilian II of Bavaria and where his son, Ludwig, grew up. He later became King Ludwig II of Bavaria and built Neuschwanstein Castle.

Neuschwantstein Castle

Eibsee Lake: photo was taken on the way up to Zugspitze

It is a solid 15-20 minute ride in the cable car, and also very steep.

At the top and not even that cold. 

Day 3: Tour through Oberbayern
The last day we spent with our relatives, with whom we were staying. We visited different lakes and cute, small towns in Oberbayern, which is a region in southern Bavaria. For example, we went to the Tegernsee and Spitzingsee (both lakes) and a cute town called Bad Tölz. We quickly drove over to Lake Starberg, which is a popular place for people to come and hang out for the day, go swimming, have a BBQ, etc. during the summer. For those who come from Northern California, it reminded me a lot of Lake Natoma. Fun fact about Lake Starberg: King Ludwig II drowned there although it is unknown if it was suicide or murder; his death was a bit mysterious. This day was probably my favorite because of the amazing weather, the great company I was with, and the beautiful places I saw. 

Don't let the frozen lake trick you...it was very warm outside. This is the Spitzingsee.

Me, my host mother, my host mom's cousin, and her son. We were waiting for the others, which meant the perfect photo opportunity.

Notice how the side with the sun is more crowded than the sun with shade. Whenever there is sun and warm weather, you'll find the Germans outside because of how rare it is. 

Main street in Bad Tölz. This was probably one of my favorite places we visited that day.

Bad Tölz: a cute little town we walked through and got delicious ice cream. 

There is an art in Bavaria that is very traditional and typical. It is called Lüftlmalerei and it is decoration and painting on houses in the Alpine region. Sometimes the paintings are of bible stories, folk festivals, or fairy tales, or sometimes they are simply decorative. 

more Lüftlmalerei

All seven of us

It is a well-known fact to the Germans that know me that I love German cuisine. Needless to say, I was prepared for the different/(possibly) interesting types of food I would be trying in Bavaria. 

White sausage with sweet mustard and a Bretzel: delicious and according to my host mom's cousin, the stuff tourists usually buy is nasty.

I did not take this picture, but this is what it looks like.

Kaiserschmarrn: sweet, but not too sweet. Delectable dessert that is similar to a fluffy pancake but so much tastier. It should be eaten with applesauce and sugar.

My host mom took the photo after we ate it, but at least you can get an idea of it. 

Little sausages with sauerkraut and a Bretzel: bretzel is a soft pretzel, and I don't think they realize that we have this in America. It is pretty much the same thing, though. I had tried sauerkraut before while in Hamburg, which was a bad decision because it wasn't the real stuff. Tried it again at a restaurant while in Bavaria and the whole meal was amazing. It is probably the most stereotypical German thing I have eaten.  

I must say this trip with my host family has been one of my favorite trips I have been on while in Germany. I got to try and experience new things within the country I've been living in for the past 8 months.

Yes, you read that correctly.. I have been here for 8 months, which means in a little less than two months I will be home. It is very sad, but in the mean time I will enjoy every moment until I am on the train to Frankfurt to leave. 

Shannon

Kraków, Poland

Over Easter weekend my host sister and I along with two family friends traveled to Krakow, Poland to visit some of their relatives. We experienced how the Polish celebrate Easter, and I got to learn about a new culture. The first thing I learned about Poland on the drive there was that it is 95% Roman Catholic and the religion is the main influencer of the traditions, society, and even the law. 

The Polish celebrate Easter a little differently than Americans do. On Saturday there is a blessing and prayer service. We all walked to the village church bringing along our Easter baskets filled with bread, sausage, chocolate bunnies, and of course decorated eggs. The priest blesses the baskets and that marks the end of the fasting period. On Sunday of course there is Mass, followed by a huge feast back at the house.

Easter egg hunts are not a part of Poland's Easter tradition, but the weekend was about sharing cultures. My host sister and I hid eggs (at a medium difficulty level because it was their first time, but they aren't children either), and everyone in the Polish family each had to find one egg. It was fun for us to watch, and I think the others enjoyed the hunt as well. 

On Saturday afternoon we drove into Krakow, which is a stunning city. It is a city that wasn't destroyed in the WW11, so everything really is original. We walked into St. Mary's church for only about 30 seconds because there were services going on. I didn't get any photos, but it is probably the most beautiful interior of a church I have ever seen. We also went through the famous market hall, which sells mostly souvenir type items. Outside the long hall was a huge market with food and more things to buy. At the market, I tried a very interesting food. A fried piece of cheese with jam on it. It was different, but it wasn't that bad. We then did a ride through the city in a horse carriage. If that didn't top off the perfect day in Krakow, nothing could.

I was on food overload for three days. The meals were frequent and large in portion. I actually was ridiculed for not eating enough. We had had a late (and large) breakfast 1 hour before and then I was supposed to eat duck with potatoes...insanity.

I get it was a holiday, so food obviously played a large role in the gathering but I have heard the large amounts of food is a general characteristic in Poland. 

Poland is probably a bad place to live in if you are lactose intolerant because it seemed like everything contained dairy. They also put jam on everything. The cool thing was that everything was very fresh: the mother made the jams herself and they bought the cheese, milk, and cream straight from the dairy farmer nearby from their house. The mother also made bread, and it was probably the most delicious bread I have ever tasted (and the Germans make really good bread to, so that is saying something).

It was a bit chilly while we were in Poland, especially in the morning, but generally it wasn't so bad. It also snowed really hard for a solid 15 minutes when we were walking to the center of Krakow, but afterwards it was sunny with clear skies. 

Before the church became filled with people and lined with Easter baskets. 

Our basket with the eggs, but before everything else went in.

My host sister and I on the horse carriage.

St. Mary's church in the main square

At the outside Market

The back side of the Main Market Square

The Market hall with all the little shops inside.

These aren't the eggs I have written about. These were ones to buy at the market, and we were told the flower motif is very common in the region.

Fried cheese with jam...not that bad.

Pope John Paul II is from the area, and that is the window he gave a speech out of when he was pope.

I was proud of how well I hid this egg. Last one to be found, and hints were given as well.

One of the sweetest women I have ever met. She didn't know German or English and I obviously don't know Polish. She would talk to me regardless of the language barrier. When I really could't figure out what she was saying, she would just hug me.