6 Weeks in Deutschland!

With Tim Lobinger, a famous German pole vaulter, in Aachen on my birthday (it was his birthday too!)
Liege, Belgium

At the meeting point of Holland, Germany, and Belgium

Lammersdorf Kirche

(this is where my bus stop is)

At the highest point in Holland

Thursday marked 6 weeks in Deutschland for me! The time is going by so fast. Two weekends from now is October 3, which is Tag der Deutschen Einheit, or German Reunification Day. Also on that day, the CBYX kids in and around Aachen and their host families are meeting up in Aachen. It should be a fun day for everyone to see each other again and for host families to get to know each other. Three weekends from now is the beginning of the two week Herbst Ferien for Nord-Rhein Westfalen. So much is happening!

On Monday, I had school periods 6, 7, and 8. German 6th period and Chemie 7th and 8th periods. German is an ok class because while I don't understand very much, there are a couple of girls in the class who help me out and translate things for me. Chemie is also very difficult. I have never taken any sort of chemistry class, but I can usually follow what is going on if the teacher demonstrates an experiment or something. This week, the kids in Chemie were giving presentations on alcohol (they made alcohol with fruit juice and yeast as an experiment). Some of them talked about beer, others about wine, and one or two groups haven't gone yet. Our teacher is not going to be at school this coming Monday, so we won't have Chemie. That means I will only have one 45 minute class on Monday (6th period) and then I go home. Monday evening, I had soccer practice, which was fun, but the weather wasn't too great. It was cold, grey, and really rainy. Sounds a bit like Seattle sometimes huh?

Tuesday, I had Politik, Kunst, and Sport. I was supposed to have Mathe, but my teacher was sick. I don't know if I mentioned this, but for the Oberstufe, classes are canceled when the teacher is gone...as far as I know, we never get substitutes. We still had some math problems to do, however. I was hanging out during the two free periods with a couple of girls from my class and one of them had to go into the library/study area and write down the problems for us to do. A little different than sitting in class with a substitute and having a 40 problem worksheet to do! After school, Meike rode Amadeus and I ran along with them. It was way easier and more fun than running by myself! Plus, I got to see lots of cute cows, horses, sheep, and baby chicks :)

Wednesday and Friday I had soccer practice for an hour and a half each. Normally I have practice 2 or 3 times a week and one game on Sundays. I can tell that I am getting more in shape, which is good. Before I came here, I hadn't played soccer in 4 or 5 months!

Things have been going really well lately. I get a little homesick sometimes, but usually I am so busy that I don't have time to dwell on that. I am making friends at school and at soccer and my German is getting better.

Today, my parents and sister are getting our new puppy. It's hard for me to think that I won't see her in person for at least 9 months! :( But I can't expect everything to stop and remain the same while I'm gone. Life goes on, whether you are there to experience it or not.

Tonight I am helping Ralf make lasagna for dinner. Should be fun!

Hope you like the pictures. Let me know if there is anything you would like to see or hear about and I will try to post it.

Ciao,

Carrie

School

Well I haven't exactly been very good at updating my blog regularly, but I am going to try harder. Right now I am sitting in my bedroom looking out at the rain and the wind blowing all the trees around. It's 8:35am and you're probably wondering why I'm not at school. On Mondays, I don't start school until 6th period! This morning I didn't sleep in, but it will be nice in the future when I am really tired.

School is going pretty well. I have 8 classes and most of the German kids have 12 or more. I take Politics, Math, English, German, PE, Chemistry, Geography, and Art. Each class period is 45 minutes and after 45 minutes there is a 5 minute passing period. I have about half block classes and half regular classes. The kids are all really nice and they are very helpful when I need something translated or explained because most of them can speak fairly good English. The school itself is pretty big and is split into separate buildings that are connected by hallways. It is a little confusing, but I think I've got the hang of it.

Since I am in the 11th year, we get a few perks. There is a room called the Oberstufe Raum, where all the kids in the 11th, 12th, and 13th year can hang out, play pool, do homework, or sleep :). So when I have a free period, I go there and read, listen to my iPod, or talk to kids. Also, when a teacher is sick, or for some reason can't come to school, the class is canceled. Every morning before school starts, all the kids go look at a piece of paper that says all the classes that are canceled for the day. There is quite the celebration when a teacher is gone!

My school is made up of grades 5-13, but there are supposedly only 800 kids. Year 11 has 80 kids, which seems like hardly any compared to the number of juniors at MSHS! I think I am older than most of the kids, but I'm not sure. It's pretty much like at home, where I am on the old end.

This is kind of a short post, but like I said, I'm going to try to write more often, so there'll be more soon.

Bis bald,

Carrie

My First Three Weeks in Deutschland...for real!

Ok so I didn't realize that when I posted last weekend that I really hadn't been in Germany for three weeks. I had been gone from my house for three weeks, but not in Germany. But now, as of August 27, I have been in Germany for three weeks.

This week was my last week of Sprachcamp in Aachen at the Jugendherberge. I am really glad it is over, but overall, I think it was important. I may not have learned a lot of new things, but there was a lot of good review and it gave us a chance to talk about adjusting to our host families and the German culture. I will miss the Jugendherberge though. That may sound a little weird, but I really liked it. It was on a very nice residential street in Aachen and was up on a small hill. There were a bunch of really tall trees all around it and all the people there were really helpful and nice.

For our trip with the Sprachcamp this week, we went to the Aachener Dom. I had been there once, but just into the entrance. The Aachener Dom is a Roman Catholic Church in the middle of Aachen's Altstadt (old town). Surprisingly, it was not damaged during World War II, even though much of Aachen was destroyed by Allied bombings. It is the oldest cathedral in northern Europe and was the church used for the coronation of 30 German kings. The church is about 1200 years old, but pretty much all of it has been replaced multiple times. Inside the church lies Charlemagne's shrine (containing many of his bones) and a shrine for the Virgin Mary (containing relics from her life). In addition, Charlemagne's throne is in the Church and is the only object in the church that has never been moved. It was so amazing to see these parts of history. America definitely has its own fair share of interesting history, but Europe goes back so much farther and to see these sites and shrines that I have learned about in AP world history was great. Also, the Aachener Dom is a UNESCO World Heritage Site...the first one ever in Germany!

Wednesday was Meike's birthday. Sven was on his class trip in Paris, so Ralf, Karin, Meike, and I went to Duren to go shopping and then out to eat. I had my first ever Doner (spelled with an umlaut o, but since I have an American laptop, that's a little difficult). Ralf and Karin saw them in Florida when they were there once on vacation, but I have never seen them in the Northwest! If you don't know what a Doner is, it's a big piece of bread (basically a pita) with a hole in the middle (like a pocket). Inside, there are usually thin slices of lamb (sad, I know, but delicious), some sort of sauce (hot, joghurt, sweet) and a bunch of vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, and other things. Usually people eat them with pommes frites-french fries! Really though, if you ever see a restaurant that says it has Doner, please please please go inside and order one. It will probably be one of the best things you have ever had! Thank you Turkish people for coming to Germany after WWII and making the Doner an integral part of German cuisine!

Well I have to be in bed by 10:00pm...it's a school night! Hope all of you are doing well and I miss everybody! Thank you for reading my blog and commenting on it! I love reading the comments!

Guten Nacht
Carrie

My First Three Weeks In Deutschland

I can't believe I have already been in Germany for over three weeks! Sometimes it seems like I just arrived and still have a lot to adjust to, and other times I feel like I have lived here forever. I know some of you are wondering what exactly I do everyday, so I'll give you a little run down of my daily life.

7 am: Karin wakes me up. Ralf, Meike, and Sven have already gone off to work and school so it's just the two of us. I have breakfast; usually one or two pieces of toast brot (basically American sandwich bread, but a little different) with peanut butter (hard to find here!) and jelly or Nutella. Nutella is pretty much the best thing ever...you just have to remember not to look at the nutrition facts!

7:15am: Karin leaves for work and I have the house to myself. I usually go get dressed and get my bag packed for the day. When I go to the Jugendherberge, I bring my iPod, German dictionary, money, bus pass, hand sanitizer, gum, pen, and notebook, all in my ASSE bag.

7:50-7:55am: I leave for the bus. The bus stop is about 5 minutes away walking, so it's nice. It's right at the church in Lammersdorf. I like walking to the bus at that time because I get to see all the little kids going to school at the Grundschule (kindergarten to third grade maybe??). They are so cute!

8:09am: This is what time the bus is supposed to come...of course it is always about five minutes late. It's weird though, because I'm the second or third stop...so why should the bus be late? I ride the SB63 to Aachen Bushof. In English, that would be the express bus to the main bus station in Aachen. I ride the bus with Kayla, another CBYX girl who lives in Simmerath, but in a different neighborhood. I'm glad she's there because then I have someone to talk to! She will also be going to St. Michael Gymnasium with me. It's funny though because we are the only ones on the bus in the mornings who talk, and on top of that, we're speaking English. So I think the other riders think we are kind of weird.

9:03am: The SB63 arrives at the Misereor stop in Aachen. Kayla and I get off and run across the street to the Misereor stop for buses going the opposite direction. A couple minutes later, the number two bus to Preuswald comes and we get on that. Usually there are a couple other CBYX kids on it heading to the Jugendherberge for Sprachcamp.

9:15am: Hopefully this is the time when we finally get to the Jugendherberge and start our Sprachkurs for the day...Kayla and I have missed the number 2 bus at 9:05am twice and haven't gotten to the Jugendherberge until 9:35am. Since the class is supposed to start at 9:00am, that isn't so good.

noon: We get an hour and 15 minute break for lunch! Haha it's one of the highlights of the day. The Sprachcamp is good, but it's too long and can get really boring. We get 10 minute breaks every hour which helps some though. We get a hot lunch from the Jugendherberge...it's usually pretty good. A lot better than what we'd get at a youth hostel in America!

1:15pm: Our Sprachkurs starts up again and we continue until 3:00pm.

3:00pm: Everybody goes down to the bus stop and catches the number 2 bus...which probably annoys all the riders. A bunch of loud American teenagers all speaking English...yay. I get off the bus at Misereor and a couple minutes later I catch the SB63 to Simmeratch Bushof. The bus is not fun in the afternoon because it is very hot and crowded and it's a long ride.

4:15pm: I get home and hang out with whoever is around. Sven and Ralf are home and most of the time Meike is too. Depending on the day, I will have soccer practice around 6 and I will get home around 9 or so. My days are busy, but that's good I think. I don't have a lot of time to talk with my friends from America which is sad, but I haven't gotten homesick yet...probably because I am so busy doing other things! I still think about you guys everyday though. I know it seems like I never update anything, but I'll work on it.

Now for some very different things I have come across here in Germany:
1. ALL the cars are stick shift. The only ones that aren't are the big vehicles like trucks and vans.
2. Awesome window shades that come down over the windows at night or whenever you push the button. They completely black out the room and almost everyone has them.
3. No one drinks tap water. People go to the store and buy bottled bubbly water...or in my case, bottled still water!
4. The Germans think Americans eat lots of food and in big portions...in my opinion, Germans eat way way more food and in larger portions than Americans! I was told that I "eat like a bird". Not true!
5. Soccer. Germans get their shorts, jerseys, and socks for the games when they are at the field. Each team has a Kabine (locker room) where they get dressed. After the games and practices, we all go in and take showers and, if it's a gameday, pile up our socks, jerseys, and shorts. Very different than in the States!

Two days ago, when I arrived back at the main train station in Aachen (Aachen Hauptbahnhof), Sven and Ralf picked me up and we went to the Netherlands and Belgium. First we drove about 10 minutes to Holland and got gas. Then we drove up this hill to the highest point in Holland...and also the Dreilanderpunkt. Germany, Belgium, and Holland all come together at the top of this hill. I put one foot in Holland, one foot in Germany, and one hand in Belgium! Then we drove down the hill and went shopping in Belgium for some junk food and stuff for Sven to take on his class trip to Paris (he leaves at 5:45am tomorrow).

Today, Ralf, Karin, Meike, and I went to Liege, Belgium. It definitely wasn't a beautiful city (at least the part I could see), but there was a nice river flowing through it, and we went to a gigantic outdoor market. It was insane. People were selling everything from whole cured pigs to knock off designer bags. I guess it's the largest outdoor market with in 100 km in each direction. Which is pretty far when you're talking about Belgium. We also went to Spa, Belgium...the town that made thermal springs famous. It was pretty, with lots of flowers and fountains. Very popular with tourists (there's a casino and lots of other attractions) and next weekend there is going to be a big Formula 1 race there.

Tomorrow marks the beginning of my last week at language camp. After that my last connection with Americans pretty much ends. Of course Kayla and Leilani will be at my school, but who knows how often I will see them. I'm looking forward to this huge party in Cologne in September though. It's for American exchange students in Germany, German students who have studied in America, and host siblings if they want to come. I heard it's pretty cool, so hopefully I'll meet up with lots of kids!

I've got so much more to say, but this post is already long enough! Hopefully you didn't get too bored. I'm sorry if you did! I have not been posting pictures on here because Facebook is easier...hint hint Kaylee you should get a Facebook!!!

ciao
Carrie

Where am I?

Some of you are probably wondering where I am in Germany. I am in Lammersdorf which is kind of like a borough of Simmerath. Manhattan:New York City as Lammersdorf:Simmerath. Hope that helps. There are 4, maybe 5 more ''boroughs'' in Simmerath. The nearest small city is Aachen and it is about 30 km away. It takes about 15-20 minutes to get there by car (my host dad, Ralf, drives very very fast :). By bus, it is quite a bit longer but that is how i will get to my language camp most of the time so it's ok.
Ok, now back to the beginning. We landed in Frankfurt around 7 o'clock on Thursday morning after leaving Washington D.C. at 5:15 the previous night. It took about 15 seconds per person to get thru security. All the customs officer did was look at my passport, stamp my visa, i said danke, he said bitte, and then i was off to the baggage carousel. After getting our bags we had to haul all of our stuff what seemed like a half mile thru the airport until we got to the train station. We dropped off our luggage at the platforms and went off to get something to eat since the airplane food was nicht so gut. My first ever purchase with Euros in Germany was an Apfel Lift (carbonated apple juice) and a croissant with Schokolade. I even ordered in German, which I was very proud of. After waiting for 3 hours for our train, the ICE (inner city express, i think) to Köln finally came. After we got to the station at Köln, we had to drag our suitcases around the station a bit more until we got to our next platform. It was especially hard because everyone had at least 2 suitcases and 1 or 2 small bags. And we were all pretty much dead by then from being so tired. We got to the Aachen Hauptbahnhof around 2:15. It was nice because everyone's host family was there and we were allowed to just leave and we didn't have to hang around or anything.
Basically the day I got here, i went and bought some sandals because i got really bad blisters in D.C. so I couldn't really wear close toed shoes. We had dinner (Bratwurst und PORK STOMACH) I had pork stomach because I didn't know what it was until the end, but it wasn't that bad, just really chewy.
Yesterday, Meike taught me how to ride the bus to Aachen for my language camp. It is pretty easy and i don't think i will get lost. After that, Ralf picked us up in his blue VW cabriolet golf and took us to the wedding of Meike's old teacher. Here in Germany, everyone must go to a special place to get married before an official and then they can go to a church or wherever and get married in front of their family and friends. We only went to the building where the brautparr get married officially. We stood outside with roses and when the bride and groom came out, we handed the roses to the bride and said ''herzlichen glückwunsch''...i think its kind of like ''congratulations''.
I'm really tired but I want to write so much more. We are going to Herne tomorrow to pick up Sven from Oma und Opa's house. It will take 1.5 hours to get there so not too bad.
I will try to post again tomorrow. Ralf installed wireless today so using the computer is a little easier.
I'm getting better at my German!

<3 Carrie

Washington D.C.

Actually, it's Silver Springs, Maryland, but nobody is getting technical so who cares. I woke up at 4:45 this morning and we left the house at 5:15. My suitcases were all completely packed and both of them weighed just under 50 pounds each! It was really hard to roll them through SeaTac, but once we checked them, it was fine. It was really hard to say goodbye to Mom and Dad and Sally, but we've already got a phone call lined up for this Sunday! The flight from SeaTac to Dulles was shorter than expected, but still long! I had a window seat which was great...I saw the area where I live, Chief Kanim Middle School, and Mount Si High School. The views flying over the Cascades were beautiful. Landing at Dulles was really fun...the surrounding area was beautiful and green. After we got to the airport, Ciara, Calvin, and I (two kids from Seattle) waited for our bags at the carousel. After that our whole group got on the big charter bus and drove about an hour to our hotel here in Silver Springs. One of my roommates, Rachel, got to the room before me, and Kaitlin arrived a little later. Rachel is from Folsom, California and Kaitlin is from Eagle, Idaho. We both love Brundage!!:) Our other roommate should be here soon. Well we have to meet in the lobby at 7:15 so I'd better go! Love ya...Carrie

Visa

I finally got my passport with visa in it this morning! I've heard lots of different things about visas. Some people say to start the process as soon as possible and others say to wait until arriving in Germany. I'd advise anyone who needs a visa to start early! My mom and I began filling out the paperwork and everything in April and I just got my passport with visa inside back today! So it definitely takes a long time...longer than you would expect.
The nearest consulate is in San Francisco, so that's where I had to send my passport and paperwork. It really helped that we went to an honorary consulate on Mercer Island who helped expedite the process by stamping and signing the papers.
One thing I have to say about the visa is that it is really cool looking. It has rainbow coloring and this shiny stamp of the world on it. Also, there are so many little designs on it that keep people from trying to produce counterfeit visas. My visa lasts for 90 days...obviously I am going to be in Germany longer than that! Once I get to Germany, I have to go to an Auslander office where they can give me the permanent residence visa or whatever I need to stay for the entire year.

On another note, I only have 1 day of school left!!!!! And only 40 more days until Washington D.C. and 44 more days until I arrive in Germany!!!!

It's really happening...:)