What I've been up to

This post is a bit long, but you will all get to know some of the things I've been doing. Hopefully that makes up for not posting last week.

I started back at school a few weeks ago after three weeks off with a new rejuvenation to participate in class more, actually do some homework, and try to not let my mind wander in class. I am comfortable doing this now because I now feel more confident since my German has improved. Now that I have at least a basic understanding, I know (from experience) that if I apply myself at school, my German will get even better faster.

The past couple weeks I've had quite a few days off because the 12th grade have had these practice exams for the Abitur in May. I have used these days off to overall relax, read, finish up all my college applications, watch TV/movies, and generally just getting things done that I need to do. In my defense of all the TV, it really helps my German listening comprehension. I also really enjoy going on bike rides. 

Earlier in the week, I got a letter in the mail from the representative in the Bundestag (Germany's national government) for the area where I live. It was inviting me to meet with him at the Bundestag, get a tour of the Bundestag, and eat lunch there. I am very excited, and my host mom and I called and made the appointment for late January. Meeting with your representative is just one of the many perks of the CBYX scholarship I'm here with, besides studying abroad in Germany for free, of course. 

On Wednesday, I got my hair cut in the morning (I only got a few inches cut off), then I went to my friend's house. She cooked me this 100% natural and 100% Vietnamese dish called Pho. It's basically noodles with some chicken, coriander, onions, and green onions. Then you put this liquidity soup over it, and it was delectable. I even ate it the proper way with chopsticks and a spoon. We hung out for the day, and we also went into this Russian store. It's a small store in the main plaza that sells food and little gifts and trinkets. We got some chocolate, and it was quite yummy.

Last Thursday, my host family and I went on a cultural outing in Berlin to see the Blue Man Group perform. It's basically these three men who are painted blue who don't speak and they do different pranks and activities. They also play the all these different types of drums. Very messy and loud, but it was seriously so great. It was super funny and wildly entertaining. 

Saturday I spent the day in Berlin. I walked from central station to the Bundestag, Branderburger Tor, and the Holocaust Memorial to get some photos (I've already visited these places, I just wanted to snap some pictures). I continued on my way to Potsdamer Platz to meet up with my area representative from my program and another exchange student who lives in Berlin. Afterwards, I took the metro to Checkpoint Charlie and then walked to a museum called "Topographie des Terrors" (I assume you can all figure out what that means). It was a museum about the SS, the police, and their institutions before and during WWII and their crimes throughout Europe. Where the museum stands was actually the headquarters of the Secret State Police, Reich SS Leadership and Security Service of the SS, and after 1939, it became the Reich Security Main Office. In layman's terms, it was "Terror and Persecution HQ of Nazi Germany." It was very interesting and I definitely learned things that I didn't know before. The best part; however, was that I was alone because if there is one thing I truly despise, it is going to museums in a group. Someone is always waiting on someone and it is virtually impossible for people to go through the museum at the same pace. Unless said museum is about Art, then I'm that person who is taking her sweet time and reading everything. Naturally, I feel guilty for being slow, but I also don't want to feel rushed. Moral of the story, this is the second time I've been to a museum alone (well, the first time I ~half~ consciously separated myself from the group, so not sure if that counts), I don't know how I'll ever be able to enjoy museums in a group. Sorry for that digression. Anyways, I wondered around the city, successfully mastered the metro station, and then went back to Potsdamer Platz where I met up with my host sister (she had been in Berlin for the past few days for a MUN conference), and we took the train home. I had a wonderful and eventful day by myself, where I was able to tour and explore the city at my leisure. 

On Friday, I leave for a week long trip to Turkey that I have mentioned in previous posts. It is a joint research project between Turkey and Germany on the enviroment and our topic is Wind Energy. I only signed up because it was a cheap trip to Turkey, but there is a lot of research and work involved. I'm nervous not only because of the workload and seriousness of the project, but because the enviroment, energy sources, and all that science stuff are all topics I know very little about and to be frank, have low interest levels in (sorry Germans, please don't be offended by my lack of passion for the enviroment). Regardless of all that, I know I'll have a great time, visit one of the largest cities in Turkey, and learn some of the Turkish culture by living with a host family. I'll do this all while learning something about a topic I had little previous knowledge in, a wonderful added bonus. 

Because I will be gone next week, there won't be a blog post on next Monday. 

Please enjoy these photos.

Shannon

The blue man himself and me

Bundestag

Brandenburger Tor

Holocaust Memorial. Fun fact: it was designed by an American

Trabi Car, typical symbol of East Germany

an old part of the Wall near Potsdamer Platz

Food

Oh Yes, I do have an entire post dedicated to food. My rationale: food is a big aspect of culture.

For breakfast during the week, I usually have a bowl of cereal because it's the fastest for me. On the weekends, I have Bröcthen, similar to a bread roll, but so much tastier. One half has butter with Johannesberre jelly and the other has Nutella. I had to look up what a Johannesberre is, and the Internet says its a red currant berry. I still have no idea what that is, and I had never heard of it nor seen it before coming here. That would make sense, though, because the Internet also says its native to Western Europe. This will be one of the foods I bring back to the U.S. because it's a favorite of mine. The taste is pretty tart, too. Occasionally, I will break from routine and have a pastry from the bakery. 

Lunch during the week: the large majority of students at my school bring lunch from home. It's pretty similar to lunch food in the US. For example, I usually bring a meat and cheese sandwich, apple, banana, red peppers, and hard boiled egg. An interesting thing with the sandwich, we buy a legitimate loaf of dark bread and slice it with a powered bread slicer. It's like a ham slicer, but for bread. It is very cool, and it can be adjusted for how think to slice the bread, too! Most Germans have this idea that Americans ONLY eat white bread, ie Wonderbread, when that is not really the case. Lunch on the weekends is a large meal usually consisting of potatoes, meat, and vegetables. Red cabbage is a prominent vegetable, and just as you may suspect, sausage is a prominent meat here.  

Dinner during the week is typically smaller than dinner in the US. Typical foods might be salad, bread with salami, cheese, or some type of spread with vegetables such as peppers and cucumbers, pasta, or meat (but not too much). Dinner on the weekend is even smaller because of the big lunch and is usually the bread thing I just talked about. 

I'm not saying those things I mentioned are the only things I eat, but those are just typical foods. 

I haven't had a single meal that I haven't liked. The food isn't really that strange for me. It really is a lot of meat and potatoes. One thing that I tried since I've been here is mixing my foods. I used to always eat my food item by item on my plate but here, they mix everything together. You start by mashing the potatoes to cover the plate, then you put on the meat, then the vegetable, then the gravy type sauce. It's actually pretty good this way. 

Meal times are pretty much the same in the US. 

Something that is different is that most Germans drink carbonated water, and there are actually different levels of carbonation. At home I drink still water, but when I'm out or at another person's house, carbonated water is fine for me. I'm not a huge fan of it, but it's whatever. The biggest thing for me is that it is the opposite of refreshing, so I can't imagine exercising and then drinking carbonated water. 

I know a stereotypical German food is Sauerkraut, and I have eaten it a few times here. It's not bad, but it has a very strong taste that I think not everyone would like. I wouldn't eat it by itself, but mixed in with other foods it's fine. 

Also different here: Germans don't really like the mint-chocolate combination. That means no mint chip ice cream. I've asked a few people to see if it is a general thing and they all say that Germans generally don't like it. I did find it once in Hamburg, but it didn't taste that great. 

Bread is an all day everyday type of thing. Fresh bread all the time. I would say it's similar to rolls in the US except there are so many types here and it's 10x better. 

Döner: a Turkish food that pretty much all German people and I are in love with. I've heard that it's not really in Turkey, but I'm actually going there in a couple weeks so I will report with my findings. Döner is strips of meat that go inside this bread that functions as a holder for it all. Imagine a soft taco shape except there is only an opening at the top and way bigger. Then they add vegetables of the costumer's choosing such as onions, lettuce, and cabbage (white and red). Cream based sauces are added and it is delicious, although it can get messy.

Here's a funny story. A typical food here is schnitzel, which is a breaded meat that you fry. Well, one time my host mom and I made it together so I could learn, and I really messed it up... One turned out fine, one was merely  okay, one had too much pepper, and the other had too much salt. I felt so bad! But I have since redeemed myself (luckily for my host family, haha). I made it again and I got raving reviews from my host family! This is a dish I could definitely make in the USA.

Shannon

Baltic Sea

About 36 hours after I returned from Belgium, my host family and I left for a 4.5 hour car ride to a cute little beach town on the Baltic Sea. However, not before throwing up that morning because somehow I got some type of stomach issue. Yes, I was sick for most of the trip, but it mostly meant my stomach couldn't handle food, which was a shame because we went to some great restaurants. After a few days, I got some medicine, which worked, so it could have been way worse.

Here was my favorite part! On the first day, we immediately went to the beach, where it was incredibly windy so my host sister decided to get a kite. It was the first time I have ever flown a kite, and it was so much fun! It was pretty easy to do though since the wind was particularly strong. I had a great time. 

Let me clarify the whole going to the beach thing. This was not the warm, lay on the hot sand with the sun shining down on you type of beach that my California based readers might think of. This place is in Northern Germany and next to water, so warm isn't an adjective I'd use. This place was pretty cold for me, with temperatures averaging in the mid to high 40s Fahrenheit. 

One thing that was pretty cool was went to this sand sculpture exhibition, and it was basically the bible in these huge sand sculptures. 

We also did this train tour of the surrounding towns because they also have some historical significance. 

There was a house and everything was upside down. It made for some pretty cool photos. 

To make up for the fact I had all of 10 photos in my last blog, I'll make this one mostly photos of my 

trip instead of talking about it.

Baltic Sea in German is Ostsee, and Ahlbeck is a town.

Flags represent countries that lay on the Baltic Sea

Any still moment is a photo opp with my host mom. I sat down for a sec and then I'm told to smile

Very exciting for me

The kite...

We went inside an old Russian Submarine

A lot harder than it looks...

...and it's gone

Look at the bottom of the ramp and there are two little snails. When I saw it, I thought it was hilarious and a fun touch. 

Germany/Poland border 

Poland

This is a lake not the Baltic Sea, by the way.

Brussels

There was no post last week because I was on vacation with my host family, and I forgot to mention that in the previous post.

Another piece of information: about 30 seconds ago as I write this, I deleted almost all my photos from Belgium (I had almost 100). I could feel my heart sink. We're going to work with what I have; however, that is not a lot. The pictures posted here are pretty much the only ones I have.

Now that that is cleared up, let me tell you about my trip to Brussels. 

We were thirty students from the 11th and 12th grades who embarked on a 10 hour bus ride to Brussels (we stopped 4 times for about 30 min, its a law).  We did so much during the day, then during the evening we were let free to go get dinner and hang out. 

Okay, onto all the cool things I saw and did while I was there. 

I'll start with my favorite activity: going to the European Parliament. We had this hour long presentation (in German, of course) given by a Czech, and he was absolutely hilarious. He works in the Cultural Affairs department, and he educated us on the European Parliament. He explained to us the different things they do, the countries in the EU, and the different things that are currently going on in the EU. While I personally don't find this topic boring, I'm sure many people might, so he made sure to keep us engaged, make us laugh, and be light-hearted. By the way, when I say laugh, I mean a busted up, uncontrollable laughter. He even made all three of the teachers cry from laughing so hard; however, that particular joke I didn't really understand. He speaks perfect German (along with 12 other languages he knows fluently), and because German isn't his maternal language, I was able to understand him pretty well. The best part was when he was speaking German and then every few sentences he would switch accents. For example, he went from Russian to Italian to Dutch to French, and when he went to a new accent he would make a light-hearted joke about that country and its stereotype. He then took us to the big and official Parliament room where everyone meets (I don't know the official name for it).

We also went to the Grand Place, or the Central Square of Brussels. It has the town hall, a building named "The King's House," and two other buildings that are incredibly beautiful on the outside, but I'm not entirely sure what is on the inside. The Grand Place has an interesting history, but what I found the coolest is that one edifice is architecturally Gothic while the another is Baroque even though they were built at the same time and place.

Brussels Town Hall

In Grand Place

This is the example with the Gothic architecture next to Baroque

We went to Waterloo, where the famous battle was. Honestly, I didn't really know much about it, but they have this film at the visitor center to watch and I was able to learn all about it. Then there is a huge grass hill with 226 steep steps to climb with a huge lion on top. Once on top of the hill, you can see what were the battlegrounds.

We visited the Atomium, which was built in 1958 for the Brussels World Fair. There is an elevator to the top sphere where one can see a panoramic view of Brussels, then escalators through the tunnels that support the spheres take you to a series of exhibits, mostly art related.

This is taken from the internet because mine was deleted

Another of my favorite activities was visiting the NATO headquarters. We met with our guide, whose German was so slow, clear, and annunciated, I wasn't sure at first if he was actually German. We then went on a tour of the military base, which was really like a miniature city because it had everything a person could need. And here is something cool, the families that live on the base have the flag of their native country hanging outside their house so people can know where they come from. Then he gave a 1.5 hours long presentation, which similarly to the European Parliament, could be boring to some, but I enjoyed it and found it interesting to learn about. The hardest part was all the German, which I could understand when I kept my mind focused. The moment I let my mind wander, if was difficult to jump back in and pick up where he was in the presentation. 

No picture here because it's was prohibited to have cameras and cell phones at the headquarters. 

On our last day we drove to this town called Bruges about an hour away, and it was absolutely enchanting. It was the business, financial, cultural, and commercial hub of Europe during the Middle Ages. The square today has lots of shops and restaurants along with a landmark church, naturally. There is also a Historium with an audio guide tour that takes you through this fictional story but portrays life at that time through themed rooms. It was super cool. At the end, there is an exhibition with more information, and then you go out to the balcony to get a panoramic view of the city square (I had a beautiful panoramic photo but it got deleted). Afterwards, we had 3.5 hours of free time to eat lunch, go shopping, explore, and have fun because it was our last day.  

Here is a funny "lost in translation" story. The night before we left, we had a group pow wow and the teachers told us the plan for the morning because we were going to get up early, etc. I though I had understood the instructions pretty clearly but apparently not. I was curious as to why the others in my room were up so early, but I just went about my business. Then the time rolls around that we were supposed to be out of our room, and I magically make it out with all my stuff in 30 seconds. Luckily I had packed the night before, but it really was a miracle I made it out of there without looking completely like that one person who was late. When it was all said and done, I turn to my friend and tell her that I had no idea we were supposed to be ready at this time. She just kinda laughs, and it all worked out. 

I had so much fun on this trip, and the great part is that I was able to hang out with my friends for a week and get to know more people from my school!

Here are a few more photos:

This statue is super famous, although I'm not sure what is so spectacular. He is peeing into a pool of water

Here is a photo that we got together for in 1.5 seconds, but I really like how it came out.

This is funny because my friend said to get in for a photo and we other 3 immediately started doing our hair...and the photo was taken anyway :)