It’s hard to believe there are only 3 more days until Christmas and 10 days left in 2009! This year has gone by so fast. At this time last year, I had already mailed my CBYX application off to ASSE. At the time, I had no idea that one year later I would be heading off to Austria for Christmas break.
We’ve been packing the car for the past couple of days. Sven and Ralf put our skis in the car top carrier and we’ve got all of our clothes packed in the car. The Christmas presents are waiting on the steps, ready to be taken out to the car. I’m going crazy trying to make sure I have everything packed: camera charger, Austrian SIM card for my Handy, ski goggles…you name it. We’re leaving tomorrow morning after 5th period-about 12:15pm. When everything is normal, we should be in Zillertal around 6:15pm. Can’t wait! We’re also planning to go skiing 5 or 6 days and we have tickets to see ski jumping in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany on January 1, 2010. We’ll drive home on January 3 and start school again on January 7. I’m definitely looking forward to the break!
I’d like to wish everyone who reads my blog a Merry Christmas. I see most of you during the holiday break every year and this year I am really going to miss visiting and catching up.
I’m thankful for all my friends and family who email me and read my blog/comment on my blog. Every time I hear from you it brightens my day!
Fröhliches Weihnachten und ein glückliches neues Jahr!
Carrie
Lammersdorf, Germany
December 22, 2009
22 December 2009
08 December 2009
Seventeen Days!
The countdown to Christmas 2009 began December 26, 2008, but now there are so few days left, that it actually makes sense for one to announce to the world how long 'til Christmas.
I sent my 16.9 kilogram package to America on Saturday, November 21. According to an article in the newspaper the week before, people should send their packages by November 27th if they want them to get to America from Central Europe by Christmas. As of Sunday, my parents had not received the package, but hopefully it will arrive this week. The package cost 65 Euro to send. With an exchange rate of 1 Euro to $1.49, that comes out to a grand total of $96.85. A tip to anyone thinking of sending packages from Central Europe to the U.S.: Make sure to send them well before the date you want them to arrive, and think about sending only one big package the entire year. I will definitely not be sending 3 or 4 more $96.85 packages to America anytime soon! (And that total doesn't even count what I spent on the things in the package!)
So far, I have been to two Weihnachtsmärkte in Germany. My host family took me to the huge Weihnachtsmarkt in Aachen twice, and on Saturday, my host family and I, along with my host dad's brother, sister-in-law, and niece went to the Weihnachtsmarkt in Monschau. The Weihnachtsmarkt in Aachen seems huge to me, but I know there are bigger ones in Nürnberg and other places. The entire square in front of the Rathaus in Aachen and the entire place between the Rathaus and the Dom is filled with wooden huts and vendors selling jewelry, soaps, ornaments, clothing, shoes, roasted nuts, bratwurst, waffles, Reibekuchen (sort of like hashbrowns), pastries...basically every holiday themed thing you can think of is sold at the Weihnachtsmarkt in Aachen. The Weihnachtsmarkt in Monschau is smaller, but nevertheless very popular with bus tourists from England, France, Belgium, Holland, and other parts of Germany. One thing I noticed about the Weihnachtsmarkt in Monschau is that it seems like more food is sold there than non-edible items. I always assumed there would be a couple stalls selling food, but everywhere I looked, there was another vendor selling Glühwein or Lachsbrötchen.
The night of December 5-6 is called Nikolaus in Germany. Check out this link for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolaus#Celebration_in_Germany
Meike let me borrow one of her riding boots to put outside my bedroom door. When I woke up in the morning, there was a bag of chocolate ornaments, a chocolate Santa, and shinguard bands in the boot! I think I am probably a little old for this tradition (just like Halloween) but I loved it, and having never experienced Nikolaus before, it was another experience to add to my list.
This Saturday, we are going to Herne to see Christal and Willie one more time before we leave for Österreich. I love going to Herne and visiting them because it is so different from Lammersdorf. Lammersdorf is up in the Eifel, exposed to the wind and the rain and the snow. It's also a lot of farmland with tractors on the roads and farmers leading their cows to a new pasture. Herne, on the other hand, is made up of 8.4% Turkish people, has an U-bahn, and is in the huge metropolitan area that also includes Düsseldorf, Bochum, Essen, and Dortmund. Many people live in apartments and there is more diversity than in the part of the Eifel that I live in. In addition, Christal and Willie are so nice and I feel really comfortable around them. They remind me sometimes of my grandparents.
Well I will wrap this post up now. I am in the room at school where there are some books and 5 computers (3 that actually work). I wouldn't call it a library, but it is a study room for kids who have free periods.
I miss everyone and I hope you all are having a good holiday season.
Carrie
I sent my 16.9 kilogram package to America on Saturday, November 21. According to an article in the newspaper the week before, people should send their packages by November 27th if they want them to get to America from Central Europe by Christmas. As of Sunday, my parents had not received the package, but hopefully it will arrive this week. The package cost 65 Euro to send. With an exchange rate of 1 Euro to $1.49, that comes out to a grand total of $96.85. A tip to anyone thinking of sending packages from Central Europe to the U.S.: Make sure to send them well before the date you want them to arrive, and think about sending only one big package the entire year. I will definitely not be sending 3 or 4 more $96.85 packages to America anytime soon! (And that total doesn't even count what I spent on the things in the package!)
So far, I have been to two Weihnachtsmärkte in Germany. My host family took me to the huge Weihnachtsmarkt in Aachen twice, and on Saturday, my host family and I, along with my host dad's brother, sister-in-law, and niece went to the Weihnachtsmarkt in Monschau. The Weihnachtsmarkt in Aachen seems huge to me, but I know there are bigger ones in Nürnberg and other places. The entire square in front of the Rathaus in Aachen and the entire place between the Rathaus and the Dom is filled with wooden huts and vendors selling jewelry, soaps, ornaments, clothing, shoes, roasted nuts, bratwurst, waffles, Reibekuchen (sort of like hashbrowns), pastries...basically every holiday themed thing you can think of is sold at the Weihnachtsmarkt in Aachen. The Weihnachtsmarkt in Monschau is smaller, but nevertheless very popular with bus tourists from England, France, Belgium, Holland, and other parts of Germany. One thing I noticed about the Weihnachtsmarkt in Monschau is that it seems like more food is sold there than non-edible items. I always assumed there would be a couple stalls selling food, but everywhere I looked, there was another vendor selling Glühwein or Lachsbrötchen.
The night of December 5-6 is called Nikolaus in Germany. Check out this link for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolaus#Celebration_in_Germany
Meike let me borrow one of her riding boots to put outside my bedroom door. When I woke up in the morning, there was a bag of chocolate ornaments, a chocolate Santa, and shinguard bands in the boot! I think I am probably a little old for this tradition (just like Halloween) but I loved it, and having never experienced Nikolaus before, it was another experience to add to my list.
This Saturday, we are going to Herne to see Christal and Willie one more time before we leave for Österreich. I love going to Herne and visiting them because it is so different from Lammersdorf. Lammersdorf is up in the Eifel, exposed to the wind and the rain and the snow. It's also a lot of farmland with tractors on the roads and farmers leading their cows to a new pasture. Herne, on the other hand, is made up of 8.4% Turkish people, has an U-bahn, and is in the huge metropolitan area that also includes Düsseldorf, Bochum, Essen, and Dortmund. Many people live in apartments and there is more diversity than in the part of the Eifel that I live in. In addition, Christal and Willie are so nice and I feel really comfortable around them. They remind me sometimes of my grandparents.
Well I will wrap this post up now. I am in the room at school where there are some books and 5 computers (3 that actually work). I wouldn't call it a library, but it is a study room for kids who have free periods.
I miss everyone and I hope you all are having a good holiday season.
Carrie
25 November 2009
Newspaper Article
Want to read the newspaper article about Andrea, Kaitlyn, Courtney, and me?
Click on this link: http://snovalleystar.com/category/schools
Carrie
Click on this link: http://snovalleystar.com/category/schools
Carrie
20 November 2009
Holiday Season
It’s official. The holiday season in Germany has officially begun. You are probably asking how I know that. Hopefully with this post I can begin to give you some insight about the holiday season as I see it in Germany. During the next 5 weeks ( I know, can you believe there are only 5 weeks until Christmas!?) I’ll keep posting more about Christmas in Germany-a land famous for its Christmas spirit.
As I was reading the paper at breakfast this morning, I noticed a huge extra section of the paper. I had no idea what it could be. One glance at the cover and I knew the answer. This section of paper contained profiles and information on many of the Weihnachtsmarkts and Adventsmarkts in the area around Aachen and NRW. The Aachener Weihnachtsmarkt, for example, starts today and runs until December 23, 2009. It is open everyday from 11am to 9pm and people come from all over Germany and all over the world to visit the Weihnachtsmarkts in Aachen and Monschau. The Weihnachtsmarkt in Monschau (where my school is) is very famous. Although it runs only on the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, thousands of people converge on the village during the 4 Advent weekends in November and December. Here is a link to the Weihnachtsmarkt in Monschau: www.monschau-weihnachtsmarkt.de.
In America, the Christmas season begins for me the day after Thanksgiving. Every year, we go out to the trees my parents planted and look for the perfect Tannenbaum to cut. By the end of the day, we have a beautiful, fragrant Christmas tree standing in our living room, glowing with lights and decorations.
Yesterday, I got home from school at noon to find the house transformed into a paradise for Christmas lovers like me. Karin has so many beautiful Christmas decorations and everywhere I look, I see another one that makes me smile. We don’t have a large Christmas tree, but we have small artificial tree that lights up. Meike told me last night that we will take it to Austria and put all the presents under it in the Wohnwagen! So, I don’t know if you did the math, but we’ve begun the Christmas season this year a total of 8 days before I do normally in America. But I’m certainly not complaining!
That’s not the mention the stores selling Christmas wares. I noticed holiday decorations and advertisements coming out with the Halloween things! I’m sure there are places in America where this is the same, but I have never really seen anywhere like this.
Now to the other side of the news spectrum.
I took a test in Geography yesterday. There were three parts and it was all writing, no multiple choice questions or short answer! Those were the good ol’ days. Part A of the first part asked me (in German) to describe the climate in Colombia. Part B asked me to describe the climate conditions bananas need to grow. The second part asked me to describe the development of banana export in Colombia from 1920-2000. The third part asked me to decide whether or not banana growing in Colombia is a good economic undertaking. We had a couple of graphs and diagrams from the teacher, as well as an atlas that included climate maps and the locations of banana growing in Colombia. Obviously the questions were not hard. The hard part was writing everything down in German! My vocabulary and grammar skills are fine for speaking in class or in normal conversations, but writing a Geography test is a little different! I think it was a good experience though. I wasn’t required to take the test, but I wanted to take it just to see what it was like. We’ll probably get them back next Wednesday or Thursday.
This is especially for Grandma and the others who are interested in the countryside. I will try to describe a bit of it for you and maybe add some pictures. We’ll see. Right now, the grass is very green, but wet and muddy. All of the large trees have lost their leaves, but some of the small trees have a few leaves left. It is very windy almost everyday and I can always see the windmills (like in Eastern Washington) spinning. The region where I live is called the Eifel. There are all sorts of funny things people say about the Eifel. Some say the weather is almost always bad (not true), others say that in the Eifel, everyone knows everyone else (sometimes seems true, but that’s probably because I have only lived here for 3 and a half months), and I once heard someone say “I’ve got a sore throat” and someone else said “I think the entire Eifel has a sore throat”. Although the Eifel is quite large, the small towns do seem very interconnected. In addition, we are up on a steppe/plateau above the flat land around Köln and Aachen. There are rolling hills here and a lake called the Rursee. A lot of the countryside is fields with cows or horses in them. There are a lot of cows here! Also, a common sight on the roads around here is huge tractors driving what seems to be (in my opinion) very fast. Sure, one might see a tractor driving every once in awhile on 202, but only for a short amount of time and not very fast. I definitely see new things here that I have never seen before everyday.
I don’t know if it is completely obvious in these blog posts, but sometimes I feel like I am losing my English. Not so drastic, but there are definitely some times when my sentences sound juvenile or have punctuation and grammar mistakes. Also, when I talk to Kayla and Leilani, sometimes the three of us have problems saying something in English! Another thing I always laugh about is how often, one cannot always directly translate a word from German into English. Sometimes, there is a word I know in German that would be perfect to use in an English sentence. But if I am talking to my parents on the phone and speak a sentence in English with a German word stuck in there, it would make sense to me, but my parents would be wondering what I just said!
Well I’d better go post this now. Aren’t you proud of me that I wrote 2 posts in one week?
Carrie
As I was reading the paper at breakfast this morning, I noticed a huge extra section of the paper. I had no idea what it could be. One glance at the cover and I knew the answer. This section of paper contained profiles and information on many of the Weihnachtsmarkts and Adventsmarkts in the area around Aachen and NRW. The Aachener Weihnachtsmarkt, for example, starts today and runs until December 23, 2009. It is open everyday from 11am to 9pm and people come from all over Germany and all over the world to visit the Weihnachtsmarkts in Aachen and Monschau. The Weihnachtsmarkt in Monschau (where my school is) is very famous. Although it runs only on the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, thousands of people converge on the village during the 4 Advent weekends in November and December. Here is a link to the Weihnachtsmarkt in Monschau: www.monschau-weihnachtsmarkt.de.
In America, the Christmas season begins for me the day after Thanksgiving. Every year, we go out to the trees my parents planted and look for the perfect Tannenbaum to cut. By the end of the day, we have a beautiful, fragrant Christmas tree standing in our living room, glowing with lights and decorations.
Yesterday, I got home from school at noon to find the house transformed into a paradise for Christmas lovers like me. Karin has so many beautiful Christmas decorations and everywhere I look, I see another one that makes me smile. We don’t have a large Christmas tree, but we have small artificial tree that lights up. Meike told me last night that we will take it to Austria and put all the presents under it in the Wohnwagen! So, I don’t know if you did the math, but we’ve begun the Christmas season this year a total of 8 days before I do normally in America. But I’m certainly not complaining!
That’s not the mention the stores selling Christmas wares. I noticed holiday decorations and advertisements coming out with the Halloween things! I’m sure there are places in America where this is the same, but I have never really seen anywhere like this.
Now to the other side of the news spectrum.
I took a test in Geography yesterday. There were three parts and it was all writing, no multiple choice questions or short answer! Those were the good ol’ days. Part A of the first part asked me (in German) to describe the climate in Colombia. Part B asked me to describe the climate conditions bananas need to grow. The second part asked me to describe the development of banana export in Colombia from 1920-2000. The third part asked me to decide whether or not banana growing in Colombia is a good economic undertaking. We had a couple of graphs and diagrams from the teacher, as well as an atlas that included climate maps and the locations of banana growing in Colombia. Obviously the questions were not hard. The hard part was writing everything down in German! My vocabulary and grammar skills are fine for speaking in class or in normal conversations, but writing a Geography test is a little different! I think it was a good experience though. I wasn’t required to take the test, but I wanted to take it just to see what it was like. We’ll probably get them back next Wednesday or Thursday.
This is especially for Grandma and the others who are interested in the countryside. I will try to describe a bit of it for you and maybe add some pictures. We’ll see. Right now, the grass is very green, but wet and muddy. All of the large trees have lost their leaves, but some of the small trees have a few leaves left. It is very windy almost everyday and I can always see the windmills (like in Eastern Washington) spinning. The region where I live is called the Eifel. There are all sorts of funny things people say about the Eifel. Some say the weather is almost always bad (not true), others say that in the Eifel, everyone knows everyone else (sometimes seems true, but that’s probably because I have only lived here for 3 and a half months), and I once heard someone say “I’ve got a sore throat” and someone else said “I think the entire Eifel has a sore throat”. Although the Eifel is quite large, the small towns do seem very interconnected. In addition, we are up on a steppe/plateau above the flat land around Köln and Aachen. There are rolling hills here and a lake called the Rursee. A lot of the countryside is fields with cows or horses in them. There are a lot of cows here! Also, a common sight on the roads around here is huge tractors driving what seems to be (in my opinion) very fast. Sure, one might see a tractor driving every once in awhile on 202, but only for a short amount of time and not very fast. I definitely see new things here that I have never seen before everyday.
I don’t know if it is completely obvious in these blog posts, but sometimes I feel like I am losing my English. Not so drastic, but there are definitely some times when my sentences sound juvenile or have punctuation and grammar mistakes. Also, when I talk to Kayla and Leilani, sometimes the three of us have problems saying something in English! Another thing I always laugh about is how often, one cannot always directly translate a word from German into English. Sometimes, there is a word I know in German that would be perfect to use in an English sentence. But if I am talking to my parents on the phone and speak a sentence in English with a German word stuck in there, it would make sense to me, but my parents would be wondering what I just said!
Well I’d better go post this now. Aren’t you proud of me that I wrote 2 posts in one week?
Carrie
15 November 2009
My week
I hope this is not a big repeat of something I have already written! (I also hope I am not boring you to death)!
In this post, I’ll try to give you a little taste of a normal week in the life of me in Germany (last week).
Monday: After sleeping in until 8:30am, I get up and have my breakfast of toast and coffee with extra foamed milk. Unlike at home with our good ol’ Mr. Coffee coffee maker, we have here an automatic coffee machine. Push the big cup on the touch screen and 30 seconds later, there’s your cup of coffee, freshly ground. My friends and family know I am not a big coffee drinker, but if I had one of these machines at home, I’d probably be a caffeine addict. Just kidding! I leave to walk to the bus stop at 10:55am and arrive there a couple of minutes early for my bus to come at 11:05am. After arriving at the Simmerath Bushof (transit center for busses), I meet up with Kayla and we get on the bus that goes to the Monschau Parkhaus. By the time the bus gets to Monschau and Kayla and I have trekked up the hill from the village to our school, it is 12:20pm and we are just in time for the beginning of 6th period, our first class of the day. One period of German and two periods of Chemistry later, it is 2:50pm and school is done for the day. After taking the bus from school back to Simmerath Bushof, I get on another bus that takes me home to Lammersdorf. After walking home from the bus stop, it is 3:50pm. Last Monday, Ralf, Sven, and I went to the Alemmania Aachen game against Hansa Rostock. It was a great game because Alemmania won 1-0. Since I now have a season ticket for the rest of the home games, it makes every game even more fun.
Tuesday: I get up with Sven and Meike at 6:00am. After having breakfast and making some food take to school, we leave to walk to the bus stop at 6:50am. Tuesdays are normally pretty good days. I have eight straight periods of school, but two of them are easy (Art and Sport) and the other two (Politics and Math) are also not bad. In the 15 minute breaks after 2nd period and 4th period, my friends and I hang out in the courtyard and try not to get run over by the little kids playing soccer with a tennis ball! After school, I do homework and sometimes go grocery shopping with Ralf and Meike and Sven. Tuesdays are also good days because one of my favorite tv shows in Germany comes on at 8:15pm. The show, Dr. Mertens, Tiere Ärztin, is one of my favorites because it is about animals at the Leipzig Zoo (although fictional) and because it is easy for me to understand.
Wednesday: I have Politics first period, Geography second period, and English third period. My Politics class is interesting, although often hard for me to understand. I always have to be on my toes however because my teacher started asking me questions after the Fall break! Geography is interesting because I have never taken the subject before and it is fairly easy to understand. We’ll see how well exactly I understand soon…I take a test on Thursday. :S English is hilarious. I sit next to a girl, Rebecca, who speaks vey good English and we like to play hangman and make fortune tellers when we are done with the class work. It is a little boring for me sometimes, but I am always impressed with the English speaking skills of most of the kids. After English, I wait for one period and then take the bus home. I usually spend the afternoon reading, doing homework, or hanging out with Meike and Sven. During the evening, I have soccer practice, normally from 7:30pm to 9:00pm.
Thursday: My first two periods of the day are not too much of a wake up for me! I have German and although I try to understand as much as possible and do what the other kids are doing, it is most of the time too challenging. Right now, we are learning about fables and writing our own. In addition, the kids analyze the fables and talk about the morals and lessons learned. I sit next to Rebecca from English class and she is always really helpful in explaining what we are doing. Third and fourth periods, I have Geography is good because I have friends in that class who help me when I don’t understand. I have 5th period free, and then Chemistry sixth period. Kayla and I have Chemistry together which is nice because we can help one another translate from German to English and we also do the class work together. Thursdays comes my other favorite tv show in Germany, Alarm für Cobra 11. It is about two police officers with the Autobahn polizei who are always chasing down the bad guys. Very exciting.
Friday: I have English first and second period every Friday and I have Math seventh and eighth period every other Friday. Not exactly the way I want to end my school week, with two periods of Math at the very end of the day, but my teacher is quite funny and the math is not too hard. I got a 2- on the first test. Speaking of tests, I got a 1 on my English test, so I was pretty happy about that.
Saturday: We usually go grocery shopping, do chores, do homework, and just relax. My host mom gets home from work in the afternoon, and sometimes, we go into Aachen and go shopping after that.
Sunday: Nearly every Sunday I have a soccer game, which takes up a lot of the day. In addition, we do chores, like clean out the rabbit hutch and laundry. By the end of the weekend, I am always ready for a new week and a whole round of new experiences.
My parents are going to call soon, so I’d better get this posted! Have a great week everyone and once again, thanks for all your comments!
Love, Carrie
In this post, I’ll try to give you a little taste of a normal week in the life of me in Germany (last week).
Monday: After sleeping in until 8:30am, I get up and have my breakfast of toast and coffee with extra foamed milk. Unlike at home with our good ol’ Mr. Coffee coffee maker, we have here an automatic coffee machine. Push the big cup on the touch screen and 30 seconds later, there’s your cup of coffee, freshly ground. My friends and family know I am not a big coffee drinker, but if I had one of these machines at home, I’d probably be a caffeine addict. Just kidding! I leave to walk to the bus stop at 10:55am and arrive there a couple of minutes early for my bus to come at 11:05am. After arriving at the Simmerath Bushof (transit center for busses), I meet up with Kayla and we get on the bus that goes to the Monschau Parkhaus. By the time the bus gets to Monschau and Kayla and I have trekked up the hill from the village to our school, it is 12:20pm and we are just in time for the beginning of 6th period, our first class of the day. One period of German and two periods of Chemistry later, it is 2:50pm and school is done for the day. After taking the bus from school back to Simmerath Bushof, I get on another bus that takes me home to Lammersdorf. After walking home from the bus stop, it is 3:50pm. Last Monday, Ralf, Sven, and I went to the Alemmania Aachen game against Hansa Rostock. It was a great game because Alemmania won 1-0. Since I now have a season ticket for the rest of the home games, it makes every game even more fun.
Tuesday: I get up with Sven and Meike at 6:00am. After having breakfast and making some food take to school, we leave to walk to the bus stop at 6:50am. Tuesdays are normally pretty good days. I have eight straight periods of school, but two of them are easy (Art and Sport) and the other two (Politics and Math) are also not bad. In the 15 minute breaks after 2nd period and 4th period, my friends and I hang out in the courtyard and try not to get run over by the little kids playing soccer with a tennis ball! After school, I do homework and sometimes go grocery shopping with Ralf and Meike and Sven. Tuesdays are also good days because one of my favorite tv shows in Germany comes on at 8:15pm. The show, Dr. Mertens, Tiere Ärztin, is one of my favorites because it is about animals at the Leipzig Zoo (although fictional) and because it is easy for me to understand.
Wednesday: I have Politics first period, Geography second period, and English third period. My Politics class is interesting, although often hard for me to understand. I always have to be on my toes however because my teacher started asking me questions after the Fall break! Geography is interesting because I have never taken the subject before and it is fairly easy to understand. We’ll see how well exactly I understand soon…I take a test on Thursday. :S English is hilarious. I sit next to a girl, Rebecca, who speaks vey good English and we like to play hangman and make fortune tellers when we are done with the class work. It is a little boring for me sometimes, but I am always impressed with the English speaking skills of most of the kids. After English, I wait for one period and then take the bus home. I usually spend the afternoon reading, doing homework, or hanging out with Meike and Sven. During the evening, I have soccer practice, normally from 7:30pm to 9:00pm.
Thursday: My first two periods of the day are not too much of a wake up for me! I have German and although I try to understand as much as possible and do what the other kids are doing, it is most of the time too challenging. Right now, we are learning about fables and writing our own. In addition, the kids analyze the fables and talk about the morals and lessons learned. I sit next to Rebecca from English class and she is always really helpful in explaining what we are doing. Third and fourth periods, I have Geography is good because I have friends in that class who help me when I don’t understand. I have 5th period free, and then Chemistry sixth period. Kayla and I have Chemistry together which is nice because we can help one another translate from German to English and we also do the class work together. Thursdays comes my other favorite tv show in Germany, Alarm für Cobra 11. It is about two police officers with the Autobahn polizei who are always chasing down the bad guys. Very exciting.
Friday: I have English first and second period every Friday and I have Math seventh and eighth period every other Friday. Not exactly the way I want to end my school week, with two periods of Math at the very end of the day, but my teacher is quite funny and the math is not too hard. I got a 2- on the first test. Speaking of tests, I got a 1 on my English test, so I was pretty happy about that.
Saturday: We usually go grocery shopping, do chores, do homework, and just relax. My host mom gets home from work in the afternoon, and sometimes, we go into Aachen and go shopping after that.
Sunday: Nearly every Sunday I have a soccer game, which takes up a lot of the day. In addition, we do chores, like clean out the rabbit hutch and laundry. By the end of the weekend, I am always ready for a new week and a whole round of new experiences.
My parents are going to call soon, so I’d better get this posted! Have a great week everyone and once again, thanks for all your comments!
Love, Carrie
03 November 2009
The Last Month
First of all, I’d like to apologize for taking over a month to update my blog. I know I said I was going to try to write a new blog post every week...I was so determined to do that in the beginning. I know you like to read about what I'm doing so my goal is to now do shorter posts but at least once a week. I know it has come to the attention of some who read my blog that it seems like I have a lot of free time. Although I have less school than the other kids and I don’t work, lots of free time is one thing I do not have. Just in case I was sounding like a slacker in some of my posts. :) So now I'll try to give the highlights of the past month in a relatively short post.
October 3: A bunch of the ASSE CBYX kids and their host families met up in Aachen. We had a tour of the Innenstadt which was interesting for the exchange students, but I think some of the German host families were a little bored. Aachen definitely has a lot of history and every statue/fountain/building you come across has a story behind it. Here is the wikipedia link for lots of info in English about Aachen. If you have any more questions about the city, I can also try to answer them for you. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aachen
October 10-24: We left for Austria at 5:30am on Saturday, October 10 and got back to Lammersdorf at 7:30pm on Saturday, October 24. I don't think I have ever been on vacation for two weeks straight, not even to McCall, but it was so nice. Some of the best times for me were:
Border crossings: They don't exist. I know that the European Union has an open border system, but it never ceases to amaze me when we simply drive from Germany into Belgium, Holland, or Austria. The only way I can tell we are in another country is because there is a sign that says "Willkommen in Belgien" for example.
Dirndls: Trying on dirndls at a huge dirndl and lederhosen store in Zillertal. Meike and I went there two different times and we probably tried on each a total of 7 dirndls. You guys know I'm not exactly a dress person, but the dirndls were so comfortable and so pretty. They would be great for Halloween or costume parties. A lot of people here wear them for Carnival apparently.
Camping Platz: The best "camp ground" I have ever seen. Personally, I have never seen anything like Camping Aufenfeld (the name of the camping platz we stayed at in Zillertal) in America, but maybe I have just never looked in the right place. J It is so cool at the camping platz because the whole thing is Wild West themed. Now maybe you are thinking an obnoxiously fake overdone décor theme, but it is actually very interesting. There is a “Western Fort” with “Sheriff Station”, “General Store”, “Saloon”, and “Goldwasch Camp” (where kids can pan for gold). Some other perks include a small turf soccer field, skate park, beach volleyball courts, lake/pond where people can swim in the summer, tennis courts, indoor/outdoor pool, fitness center, a couple restaurants, and a sauna/spa. So basically there is something for everyone. Maybe you are saying right now “oh Carrie, why did you write about that, it’s so boring”. But I was so amazed at the amenities and cleanliness…the whole aspect of camping is completely new for me. Everyone has trailers or camper vans and normally they have tents attached to them to add more room.
SNOW! I saw snow for the first time this season when we got to Austria (that’s not counting when we went to the ski halle…I’m talking about REAL snow J). The mountains were insanely high (or so I think) in Austria and they already were covered with snow on top. The first week were there, the snow fall lower and lower every night until one morning we woke up and there was a skiff of snow at the camping platz. One day, we drove up to the gondola base for the glacier in Zillertal, called Hintertuxer Glacier. I was so jealous of the people in their gear, carrying their skis, and ready to ride up to ski on the glacier. On the Hintertuxer Glacier, it is possible to ski/snowboard 365 days per year. Pretty awesome, I think. In addition, we drove past many other ski pistes in Zillertal. In my previous post, I attached a link to the Zillertal website, so you can get a better idea of how popular skiing is in this valley in Tirol.
Traveling: I am so appreciative of my host family taking me on so many day trips while we were in Austria. They had already been to almost all of the places we went to, but they were so happy to show me around and it really made me feel good. We went to Innsbruck twice, which was both times an adventure. The first time, we walked around the old town and I saw the Golden Dachl, a famous house in the city. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Roof. The second time, I bought a new pair of Salomon ski boots (they’re fuzzy and warm inside and completely amazing). I love them, but they are in Austria in the wohnwagen so I have to wait until Christmas to see them again. That day in Innsbruck, I also got to see the ski jumping facility from the Olympic Games in Innsbruck in 1964 and 1976. I had never seen one before, but it is definitely interesting looking! In addition, we drove over Brenner Pass to Italy one day and saw a bit of South Tirol in Italy. The towns were so pretty and there were a lot of grapes growing on the hillsides. We also drove to a town called Zell am See in Salzburger Land. It was special for me to go there, because my mom also went there when she was 17 and on a trip with her German class. So of course I took lots of pictures for her! All together, my country count after this trip is Germany, Belgium, Holland, Italy, and Austria. Not bad, considering I have been here for 3 months!
McDonalds: Ok this might seem kind of weird, but McDonalds is not that bad here. In America, I go to McDonalds MAYBE once a year, if that. Here, all the McDonalds I have seen are way newer and modern looking, clean, and have more realistic portions. And I’m pretty sure they give you more for your money…like actually lettuce on the hamburger lol.
Last week, I bought a season ticket card for Alemmania Aachen. There are 12 more games left, so now I can go to all of them! I never thought I would like standing and watching 90 minutes of soccer so much, but I LOVE it. The fan energy level is so high and now when I watch games on television it’s just not the same. The only bad part is when the person in front of me smokes….which happens pretty much every time. But I’ve pretty much gotten used to it. I always go with Ralf and Sven and maybe some day I can be as big of an Alemmania fan as they both are! J
This week I got my Math and English tests back that I wrote before the vacation. I got a 1 (the best) on my English test and a 2- on my Math test. I could have gotten better on the Math, but I didn’t understand some of the questions and even so, I guess a 2- is pretty good.
I hope all of you who read my blog enjoyed this post. I’d love to get a comment from you and once again I’m sorry to have kept you all waiting for so long. As always, I want to let my family and friends know that I miss you guys and love you so much!
Carrie
October 3: A bunch of the ASSE CBYX kids and their host families met up in Aachen. We had a tour of the Innenstadt which was interesting for the exchange students, but I think some of the German host families were a little bored. Aachen definitely has a lot of history and every statue/fountain/building you come across has a story behind it. Here is the wikipedia link for lots of info in English about Aachen. If you have any more questions about the city, I can also try to answer them for you. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aachen
October 10-24: We left for Austria at 5:30am on Saturday, October 10 and got back to Lammersdorf at 7:30pm on Saturday, October 24. I don't think I have ever been on vacation for two weeks straight, not even to McCall, but it was so nice. Some of the best times for me were:
Border crossings: They don't exist. I know that the European Union has an open border system, but it never ceases to amaze me when we simply drive from Germany into Belgium, Holland, or Austria. The only way I can tell we are in another country is because there is a sign that says "Willkommen in Belgien" for example.
Dirndls: Trying on dirndls at a huge dirndl and lederhosen store in Zillertal. Meike and I went there two different times and we probably tried on each a total of 7 dirndls. You guys know I'm not exactly a dress person, but the dirndls were so comfortable and so pretty. They would be great for Halloween or costume parties. A lot of people here wear them for Carnival apparently.
Camping Platz: The best "camp ground" I have ever seen. Personally, I have never seen anything like Camping Aufenfeld (the name of the camping platz we stayed at in Zillertal) in America, but maybe I have just never looked in the right place. J It is so cool at the camping platz because the whole thing is Wild West themed. Now maybe you are thinking an obnoxiously fake overdone décor theme, but it is actually very interesting. There is a “Western Fort” with “Sheriff Station”, “General Store”, “Saloon”, and “Goldwasch Camp” (where kids can pan for gold). Some other perks include a small turf soccer field, skate park, beach volleyball courts, lake/pond where people can swim in the summer, tennis courts, indoor/outdoor pool, fitness center, a couple restaurants, and a sauna/spa. So basically there is something for everyone. Maybe you are saying right now “oh Carrie, why did you write about that, it’s so boring”. But I was so amazed at the amenities and cleanliness…the whole aspect of camping is completely new for me. Everyone has trailers or camper vans and normally they have tents attached to them to add more room.
SNOW! I saw snow for the first time this season when we got to Austria (that’s not counting when we went to the ski halle…I’m talking about REAL snow J). The mountains were insanely high (or so I think) in Austria and they already were covered with snow on top. The first week were there, the snow fall lower and lower every night until one morning we woke up and there was a skiff of snow at the camping platz. One day, we drove up to the gondola base for the glacier in Zillertal, called Hintertuxer Glacier. I was so jealous of the people in their gear, carrying their skis, and ready to ride up to ski on the glacier. On the Hintertuxer Glacier, it is possible to ski/snowboard 365 days per year. Pretty awesome, I think. In addition, we drove past many other ski pistes in Zillertal. In my previous post, I attached a link to the Zillertal website, so you can get a better idea of how popular skiing is in this valley in Tirol.
Traveling: I am so appreciative of my host family taking me on so many day trips while we were in Austria. They had already been to almost all of the places we went to, but they were so happy to show me around and it really made me feel good. We went to Innsbruck twice, which was both times an adventure. The first time, we walked around the old town and I saw the Golden Dachl, a famous house in the city. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Roof. The second time, I bought a new pair of Salomon ski boots (they’re fuzzy and warm inside and completely amazing). I love them, but they are in Austria in the wohnwagen so I have to wait until Christmas to see them again. That day in Innsbruck, I also got to see the ski jumping facility from the Olympic Games in Innsbruck in 1964 and 1976. I had never seen one before, but it is definitely interesting looking! In addition, we drove over Brenner Pass to Italy one day and saw a bit of South Tirol in Italy. The towns were so pretty and there were a lot of grapes growing on the hillsides. We also drove to a town called Zell am See in Salzburger Land. It was special for me to go there, because my mom also went there when she was 17 and on a trip with her German class. So of course I took lots of pictures for her! All together, my country count after this trip is Germany, Belgium, Holland, Italy, and Austria. Not bad, considering I have been here for 3 months!
McDonalds: Ok this might seem kind of weird, but McDonalds is not that bad here. In America, I go to McDonalds MAYBE once a year, if that. Here, all the McDonalds I have seen are way newer and modern looking, clean, and have more realistic portions. And I’m pretty sure they give you more for your money…like actually lettuce on the hamburger lol.
Last week, I bought a season ticket card for Alemmania Aachen. There are 12 more games left, so now I can go to all of them! I never thought I would like standing and watching 90 minutes of soccer so much, but I LOVE it. The fan energy level is so high and now when I watch games on television it’s just not the same. The only bad part is when the person in front of me smokes….which happens pretty much every time. But I’ve pretty much gotten used to it. I always go with Ralf and Sven and maybe some day I can be as big of an Alemmania fan as they both are! J
This week I got my Math and English tests back that I wrote before the vacation. I got a 1 (the best) on my English test and a 2- on my Math test. I could have gotten better on the Math, but I didn’t understand some of the questions and even so, I guess a 2- is pretty good.
I hope all of you who read my blog enjoyed this post. I’d love to get a comment from you and once again I’m sorry to have kept you all waiting for so long. As always, I want to let my family and friends know that I miss you guys and love you so much!
Carrie
02 October 2009
8 Weeks in Deutschland!
I realize that I probably say in every post how fast the weeks go, but I'm going to say it again here. I cannot believe I have already been here for almost 2 months. I have just over 8 1/2 months left here in Germany. I don't know why the days and weeks go quicker here. Maybe it is because I am always experiencing something new or because every day at school is different. In America, I basically do the same thing every day; I go to the same classes, go home at the same time, have about the same amount of homework, and go to bed about the same time every night. Here, I have different classes everyday, different homework, and I live a different life.
So much has happened in the past 2 weeks since my last post and I wish I could write everything, but there is not enough time for that! So I will try to give some highlights.
Last Saturday, my host family and I went to the Starlight Express musical in Bochum. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlight_Express
All the singing was in German, but the music, roller-skate tricks, and costumes were AMAZING. It was pretty expensive (38 Euro=56 dollar) but it was a once in a lifetime experience that was truly worth it.
This past week, we were working on group powerpoint presentations in Geography. All the groups were assigned either wheat, grapes, coffee, or bananas and we had to make a presentation about how they grow, their history, what they need to grow, and the world market. My group was assigned wheat from the Great Plains of the United States. It was great though, because I was able to participate. Meike helped me write the introduction to the presentation, and I introduced our presentation to the whole class. It was the first time I had actually spoken a fair amount of German in front of a large group of kids, but I was really proud of myself. After our presentation was over, my teacher was really nice and complimented me in front of the whole class on how well I did and then all the kids knocked their fists on the desks for me (instead of clapping)...so that made me feel really good.
Other good news is that I finally got my passport back with visa in it about 2 weeks ago. It took about 7 weeks in all from my first day here in Germany when we picked up the paper work until the day I got my passport back. A tip to anyone who ever needs a visa: Do NOT procrastinate and wait until your automatic 90 day visa is up. If anything happens and you get stuck without your passport (main form of identification) and your visa (allowing you to be in the country) that could be very bad. In addition, if you are planning on traveling somewhere, it is not very helpful when you don't have your passport! So plan in advanced when you are going to get your visa, and plan that it will take awhile. In addition, I made the mistake of paying for a 90 day visa to come to Germany. One reason was because I thought I would be able to get my permanent visa here in Germany faster if I had a 90 day visa. As you can tell, that is not the case. So my advice is to save your money and if you are an exchange student like me or are going to be staying in the the country for longer than 90 days, wait until you get to Germany to get your permanent visa. Check out the link below for more information.
http://www.germany.info/Vertretung/usa/en/04__Legal/02__Directory__Services/01__Visa/__Visa.html
Another thing I have found helpful here in Germany is making a list of all the money I spend. I had no idea how much I was spending until I saw everything together on one sheet of paper. I have not spent a lot of money, but the necessities I have needed to buy really add up. For example, I had to buy special shoes for P.E. that have non-color soles. In the gym, we are not allowed to wear black soled shoes because they scuff the floor. So there went 30 Euro ($43). A couple of weeks later, my soccer shoes were kaputt so I had to buy a new pair and there went 40 Euro ($58). So you can see how expensive things are here in general compared to America.
I've got to go back to school now for math, but I'll try to post again soon about Zillertal!
I miss all of you guys so much and I love reading your comments and blogs (Kaitlyn and Andrea :)
Love
Carrie
So much has happened in the past 2 weeks since my last post and I wish I could write everything, but there is not enough time for that! So I will try to give some highlights.
Last Saturday, my host family and I went to the Starlight Express musical in Bochum. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlight_Express
All the singing was in German, but the music, roller-skate tricks, and costumes were AMAZING. It was pretty expensive (38 Euro=56 dollar) but it was a once in a lifetime experience that was truly worth it.
This past week, we were working on group powerpoint presentations in Geography. All the groups were assigned either wheat, grapes, coffee, or bananas and we had to make a presentation about how they grow, their history, what they need to grow, and the world market. My group was assigned wheat from the Great Plains of the United States. It was great though, because I was able to participate. Meike helped me write the introduction to the presentation, and I introduced our presentation to the whole class. It was the first time I had actually spoken a fair amount of German in front of a large group of kids, but I was really proud of myself. After our presentation was over, my teacher was really nice and complimented me in front of the whole class on how well I did and then all the kids knocked their fists on the desks for me (instead of clapping)...so that made me feel really good.
Other good news is that I finally got my passport back with visa in it about 2 weeks ago. It took about 7 weeks in all from my first day here in Germany when we picked up the paper work until the day I got my passport back. A tip to anyone who ever needs a visa: Do NOT procrastinate and wait until your automatic 90 day visa is up. If anything happens and you get stuck without your passport (main form of identification) and your visa (allowing you to be in the country) that could be very bad. In addition, if you are planning on traveling somewhere, it is not very helpful when you don't have your passport! So plan in advanced when you are going to get your visa, and plan that it will take awhile. In addition, I made the mistake of paying for a 90 day visa to come to Germany. One reason was because I thought I would be able to get my permanent visa here in Germany faster if I had a 90 day visa. As you can tell, that is not the case. So my advice is to save your money and if you are an exchange student like me or are going to be staying in the the country for longer than 90 days, wait until you get to Germany to get your permanent visa. Check out the link below for more information.
http://www.germany.info/Vertretung/usa/en/04__Legal/02__Directory__Services/01__Visa/__Visa.html
Another thing I have found helpful here in Germany is making a list of all the money I spend. I had no idea how much I was spending until I saw everything together on one sheet of paper. I have not spent a lot of money, but the necessities I have needed to buy really add up. For example, I had to buy special shoes for P.E. that have non-color soles. In the gym, we are not allowed to wear black soled shoes because they scuff the floor. So there went 30 Euro ($43). A couple of weeks later, my soccer shoes were kaputt so I had to buy a new pair and there went 40 Euro ($58). So you can see how expensive things are here in general compared to America.
I've got to go back to school now for math, but I'll try to post again soon about Zillertal!
I miss all of you guys so much and I love reading your comments and blogs (Kaitlyn and Andrea :)
Love
Carrie
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