Amanda's Life: Germany

April ist schon vorbei

2010-04-30T04:05:00.000-07:00

Welllllll...... this blog turned into something completely different than what I had originally planned, turned into a... I don't know what you would say it... I guess my feelings about the other exchange students and exchange in general. But you can read for yourself and see.

Updating a little bit just so that everyone knows I am alive and well : )

It's crazy to think how long I have been here, and at the same time feels like just yesterday that I stepped off that plane. Tomorrow is already May and that blows my mind. My year has come and gone so fast :/

I have met SO many amazing people from all over the world. Everyone asks if I am happy or sad about going home. And honestly its a little of both. Going home will be a happy moment, I will get to see everyone I have missed this past year. But at the same time I think leaving Germany will be harder, because I may not ever see all of these people again. If I do, it will quite a bit of time, and that is harder to deal with because I will see family and friends everyday back at home.

But it is something that every single exchange student has to deal with. It is a part of the exchange experience, and it is safe to say that no one looks forward to parting ways. On our Eurotour we all had huge disscussions on how close we all came in such a small amount of time. In just a matter of weekends we all considered each other best of friends, and had we been in normal circumstances in the USA, that wouldn't have happened. I guess it is just a common thing that we can all kling together because we are Americans and we are exchange students and that we understand each other better than everyone else does.

Rotary had forwarned us not to be just best friends with the other exchangies, but to make other friends too. I have made other friends, but I somehow don't think they can compare to the friends I have made who are also exchange students. I really see them as life-long friends, and I really do see us meeting up someday...

~Amanda

And it has been set in stone

2010-02-23T08:38:00.000-08:00

Well, nothing is really set in stone, but I do know that my return flight home probably won't be changed before now and then. So for everyone wanting to know I will land in San Antonio on July 3rd, 2010 at 6:40 p.m. It was hard to set a date because I cannot fathom leaving right now. But, I have college orientation to get to because as much as it hurts to move on this part of my life is coming to a close...

Anyways quick update on my life at the moment. I am packing once again for my last family change. I have a Rotex weekend coming up this weekend where we will be meeting the "newbies" a.k.a the new exchange students from Australia, Chile, Argentina, South Africa and some other countries that have exchanges from January 2010 until January 2011.

EuroTour is coming up and I AM SO EXCITED!!! We depart on our tour March 19th and I have begun the countdown.

I haven't yet blogged on my first skiing experience in Austria yet, but don't worry it is on its way!

Bis dann,
Amanda

Was I supposed to be in Berlin??

2010-01-06T11:01:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!

I may have already stated before about how much I love the trains here in Germany. They are affordable (with a bahn card), practical, and convenient. I often find this to be my means of transportation between various Rotary, Rotex, and leisure functions. You can go everywhere, this idea of mass transportation is something that I would very much appreciate in the USA.

Sooo you all are probably thinking..."Well that is nice, but how is that relevant to me being here in Germany?" The trains here gave me the biggest scare (so far, but I am not anticipating more) of my stay here in this country. It actually happened to me a while back, but when it first happened I really didn't know what to say, and I didn't want to blog about it because of a combination of embarrassment, and that I didn't want my family back at home to read about it and get scared for me. So, let me tell you what happened so then if you are ever here you will know not to make this mistake!!

I was visiting a friend in Hannover. I bought my ticket the same way, stood on the exact platform and everything. My train always goes from Hannover, through Wolfsburg, through Stendal (were I get off), and ends up in Berlin. So I thought it was a little strange when the train didn't go through Wolfsburg, but I just told myself that maybe it was a little different. The ticket guy that came through looked at my ticket and mumbled something, but I honestly didn't pay attention/couldn't understand what he said. He said something along the lines of Stendal..blahblahblah...Berlin. So, imagine my shock when the train went right past my town! I was so anxious, and a little scared. The ticket guy didn't even care that I had the wrong ticket, so in a sense I got a discounted fare to Berlin, but that was the least of my thoughts then. In the back of my mind I knew everything would be just fine, but it's hard to think like that when you are in that situation.

All I can say is thank goodness my train at least stopped in Berlin, or else I would have been in Poland without a passport... My host parents were surprisingly calm about it, I just told them that I would be home a little bit later than planned..haha. There were a ton of trains that I probably could have taken back home, but at that point I was paranoid beyond belief. I decided would rather wait two hours for a train I knew was going through Stendal. Even before I boarded my train I made sure and asked again if this train would go through my town.

My whole blunder was only about 3 hours, but it felt like forever. And I learned that Berlin is now only 45 minutes away with a fast train (ICE, or IC) -noted for future reference-.

So after having time to thoroughly dissect and go over my mishap, and observing the train systems a little more closely, I realized where I went wrong. My train to Stendal had been delayed that day, so when the next train that came through my platform I thought it was mine and that it had not been delayed as long as it had said. And when you are at the train stations they don't always mention the little stops in-between, just major stops like Berlin and whatnot. So when I heard Berlin on the speakers, I really thought it was my train. So now I triple check everything before boarding trains, and my German is much better now, so that helps too.

Note from Amanda: I had written this blog back on January 8th and just saved it. So it was supposed to be out before this... sorry.

<3 Amanda

New Years

2010-01-02T04:56:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!

2009 has come and gone, and what a roller coaster of a year it has been. Let me put my year into a nutshell for everyone. (I am gonna copy my friend Lisa here and make a list...hehehe, you know they say copying is the most sincerest form of flattery : ])

January: Interviewed to become an exchange student. [I honestly didn't think much of it at the time]

February: Found out I had been accepted, and that I was going to Germany; but still didn't really believe I would do it.

March: I found out which city and district I would be put in. I even started to e-mail my new future host family.

April: Still e-mailed back and forth between my new host family. I got some German books and started to look at the language.

May: GRADUATED HIGH SCHOOL!! State mandated education is finally finished for me, all other education is up to me.

June: Started taking some crash German courses with Mrs. Laumer. Spent lots of time with my family. Saved money through working.

July: Still working and saving money for Germany. Spent the last month with my family doing all sorts of crazy things.

August: Made the biggest move of my life to Germany. And... once again started school...

September: Still getting the hang of German lifestyle, still couldn't really understand what was being said to me.

October: Learning more and more, finally used to school again. I could understand a lot of what was going on around me.

November: Switched host families for the first time. And it is the first time I have ever been in weather so cold.

December: I now understand almost everything!! I am working on my grammar and ability to speak back to people.

^ Me in the snow right after the new year came^

^Some of my friends getting ready for the fireworks^

^Poliana and I, we are still getting used to the weather...^

I had a great time with all of my friends here. I look forward to the New Year!!

I wish everyone a Happy New Years. I have a Skiing trip to Austria coming up in about two weeks, so I really look forward to that. Then I get to celebrate my birthday here!

~Amanda

Dezember

2009-12-31T04:27:00.000-08:00

So December has come and gone; and so alas I must move on...

Well I am not a very poetic person, so you will have to excuse my attempt at eloquent writing.

So December brought cold but very beautiful weather. I was able to have my first white Christmas, and experience real snow! Christmas here was charming and quaint, with tons of German tradition. Starting off the month most people receive "Advents Calenders." You can get some in the US, but there isn't as much variety as there is here. For those who do not know what an Advents Calender is, it is a calender numbered 1-24. And each day in December you open a new little slot or door and receive a gift of some kind. Some calenders are only chocolate, while some had little glass Angels or Haribo Gummy Bears. I saw some that had a different kind of perfume for every day, and for little boys there where Lego calenders. The calender my host family gave to me was an upstanding pole-looking thing with several small hooks. On each hook there was a little packet with different numbers. Each packet was different and the gifts I received each day were different as well. It was a cute tradition, and fun for me to experience.

The next most significant thing about Christmas in Germany was Nikolaustag (I hope I spelled that correctly). On the 6th of December the children put a pair of their shoes outside their doors before they go to sleep. Nikolaus comes at night and puts gifts (candies and such) into their shoes. If the children were bad that year, then they receive sticks and rocks. In my gift I got ski gloves and some chocolate Santas.

Christmas trees don't go up so early here as they do in the United States. I know that my family normally puts up the tree at the beginning of December, well most of the time. Here in Germany it is normal to not put the tree up until the day before Christmas Eve, or even Christmas Eve itself. And gifts that you give and receive do not go under the tree until about an hour or two before you are supposed to open them.

I saw some Christmas lights around the town, but I didn't really see many decorated houses. We in the U.S. put up those aggravating colorful lights, that are so pretty once the hassle of putting them up is finished. It was something that I would have liked to see here, but it is okay, because there were other things that made up for it. Like the Weihnachtsmarkt for example:

Some towns have it longer than others, some have it more grand, but all in all this is something that I wish the U.S. had. It is a little market set up in the middle of the town. And you can buy sweets, and specialty items. It is always adorable, and so much fun to just go through to look at everything.

Christmas Eve is when everyone opens their presents together, and Christmas Day is spent with family. On Christmas day they have a huge dinner together normally consisting of duck as the main dish, and of course some kind of potatoes. We went to church on Christmas Eve and sat through a short sermon. It was sooo cool because this was a really, really old church. (Wooden pews, stone walls, no heaters :/)

The year 2009 is winding down, and I thought I had better post this before it was too late.

~Amanda

P.S. It is Clay's birthday today (December 31st)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLAY!!

In November

2009-12-14T10:50:00.000-08:00

With November came rainy days and colder weather.

During the month of November I switched host families for the first time. The family I am with now also has a son on an exchange at the moment. He is learning English in the great ol' U.S of A, and currently loving it. After being on an exchange I have come to realize that it doesn't matter where you are sent, because you are going to have fun anywhere! Germany was my first choice, but now after meeting all of the other exchange students from the various foreign countries, it makes me think that if by some chance I didn't get my first choice I would have been alright with that.

Unfortunately not everyone gets their first or second choice. But with an organization like Rotary, you will always have the support you need to make sure your exchange goes without a hitch. The program is world wide, and exchange destinations vary depending on your sending club and where you live and what-not. For example my friend said her Rotary only exchanges with Germany, Finland, and France. That these choices where her only choices for Europe. Some Rotaries ask you to pick three countries in order of interest to you, while others ask you to list all of the countries that they exchange with in order of interest to you. One guy I know said that his Rotary didn't even give him choices, that they just placed him based on his interview and personality. Each club/district is different, and the application process varies also. Some clubs only send one person at a time, while others send everyone who applies.

And that is all for now on the technical side of an exchange....let me go back to before I got side-tracked.

I switched host families in the middle of November and so far have been loving it. The family I have now reminds me so much of my family at home. The day after my switch my host mom's niece was having a wedding. I got to tag along and go down to Munich for the wedding. It was awesome, Munich, and Bavaria in general has its own culture. While it is still Germany it has its own dialects and lifestyle. The people where very friendly and welcoming and extremely patriotic. I had a blast in the short amount of time that I was there, but that just gives me more of an incentive to visit again.

The last weekend in November we had a Rotary weekend. We were in the Harz mountains. We got to have a tour of the castle and went downtown in Wernigerode to visit the Weihnachtsmarkt. <--- Almost every town has this market, of little booths, set up for Christmas. They sell all kinds of goods, and it is tradition to have one, or rather it is German culture.

Overall things are still going great, I expect to put up some pictures and more posts soon. Topics may include: German culture during Christmas, what it is really like to learn a language through immersion, and my own very scary, very interesting learning experience.

~Amanda

The rest of October

2009-12-02T08:20:00.000-08:00

Okay so many people probably think I have disappeared off the face of the Earth, and for a while I just might have, but I am back now and ready to fill you all in on my life in Germany.

So, I left off somewhere around mid-October. Not much had really happened in that month, we didn't have any Rotary events nor did we exchangies have any exciting Rotex weekends. Just simple everyday routine of school, and friends, and eating amazing pastries and German Chocolates. <3

I finished up with my German courses at the school and they have improved my German immensely. It is now up to me to learn the rest, and it looks better everyday.

So around mid to late October I decided I wanted something to change about me. Seeing as how I am not one for tattoos or peircings I opted for something a little less permanent. So, yup, I dyed my HAIR!! Dark Brown, and I really like the results. It was a big change for me, but at the same time it was something I knew I could handle.

I went from this ^

To this ^

And then there was Halloween....

They do celebrate Halloween here in Germany, but not to the extent as we do in the USA. I looked around my town and there weren't really any costumes to be bought. The kids go trick-or-treating, but not all dressed up. They might paint their faces or put on a witches hat, but that is about it. My two younger host brothers only went trick-or-treating for about an hour, and then it was over.

As for me, I was invited to a party. It was another one of those combined parties. Three people where celebrating birthdays and Halloween all in one night. It was kind of dress up, but not really. People just wore scary makeup and miss-matched random pieces of clothes. It was totally fun, and you didn't have to feel like you needed to dress up to really celebrate Halloween.

...to be continued

Pictures

2009-10-18T04:50:00.000-07:00

Fernsehturm in Berlin

Berliner Dome

Gate that divided the East and West

Russian Cemetery oustide of Stendal

Haha, me on the Train

Hamburg

Hamburg

Science Museum

Tangermunde; Celebrating 1000 years

Friends and I at the Tangermunde celebration

School Break

2009-10-18T04:26:00.000-07:00

This past week has been the fall break from school here. Everything is starting to get colder and colder, my host brother went to Poland during the break and it was already steadily snowing there. So Winter is coming!!

My host parents took me to BERLIN for a day trip. We saw the Fernsehturm, which is the tallest building in Europe. We went to the top and had a 360 degree view of Berlin. We also went to the German History museum, which had everything you could think of covering German History. Did a little shopping and went home. It is such a grand city that you cannot possibly begin to cover the whole city in a day, but another trip is being planned : )

The next day I traveled on my own to a city called Göttingen, where I met up with other exchange students and celebrated my friends 18th Birthday!! I spent the night with another exchangie (<--- is that a word? If not, I am still gonna use it) who is from Australia. She arrived in Germany in January so her German in significantly better than mine.

The next day the Australian exchange student and I ( not using names here for her privacy) went to Hannover together, we basically walked around the city and just hung out. Not much really worth saying about it, we just had a "chill
day." We later met up with exchangies who lived in Hannover, and she and I were the only ones who spoke English, so now I think it's safe to say that my Spanish is also improving...

For the rest of my break I have hung out with my Host family and just played games around the house. I have worked on my German some also, but not so much, it's getting easier and easier from this point on.

I start school back tomorrow, and my life will fall into a routine again. We don't have anymore holidays until the Christmas break, which for me is from December 19th until January 6th. And then the next holiday is my birthday on the 31st of January : ) hahaha.

Well that's it for now
~Amanda

Two Months

2009-10-01T08:01:00.000-07:00

I have officially been in Germany for two whole months! It has gone by so fast that I cannot even believe it. It seems that my laziness has finally caught up to me...sorry. I am not as punctual anymore about my updates, and it honestly isn't because I am too busy, just lazy.

Not much has happened since my last Rotary weekend in Soltau/Walsrode. My German friends and I went to their "Disko" again, and that was fun.

One weekend my friends and I all traveled to the next town over.(10 km) Luckily this time we took the train. The towns name is Tangermunde, and they were celebrating their 1000 year anniversary, yes you read that correctly. This town has been around for 1000 years, that is really-freakin-cool. It's hard to imagine that because in the United States our history as a whole dates to roughly 300 years in total. So its hard to grasp the magnitude of a thousand years. They had the typical carnival rides that we all know, they had a few of Germany's local bands playing. All in all it was a fun night.

This past weekend the Rotexers had another event planned for all of the exchange students. We all met up early on Saturday morning and together we took a day trip to Hamburg. It was great, Hamburg is a beautiful city and if given the opportunity I would love to visit it again. We had a brief city tour, a harbor tour, and we got to experience some shopping. I had a great time, anytime with Rotex and the other exchange students always equates to a good time.

On Sunday the 20th my host family took Poliana and I to Magdeburg.(The next largest town about 40 minutes south of Stendal.) Where we went through a museum about the History of Science and its progress through time. Definitely a cool place. There were so many models and explanations from the Ancient Romans, Greeks, to Einstein, Siemens, and so many more scientists.

School is becoming easier and less boring as I understand more and more, which is a relief. The weather is now officially fall here, and it is steadily getting colder and colder. They have already started to get out the Christmas decor and festivities. Christmas is a huge deal here, okay it is a big deal everywhere, but especially here. They are already getting ready for the big event and it is just now October!

My host family is planning a day trip to Berlin during our next school break, which starts October 10th and lasts until the 18th. I am also very excited for this, and I will put up some pictures when they are available.

I also got my Eurotour dates!

Day 1: Friday March 19 - Meet in Hannover
Day 2: Saturday March 20 - Hannover to Brugge Belgium
Day 3: Sunday March 21- Brussels, Belgium
Day 4: Monday March 22- Brugge to Paris, France
Day 5: Tuesday March 23- Paris
Day 6: Wednesday March 24- Paris
Day 7: Thursday March 25- Paris to Avignon
Day 8: Friday March 26- Avignon to Nice
Day 9: Saturday March 27- Monaco
Day 10: Sunday March 28- Florence, Italy
Day 11: Monday March 29- Florence
Day 12: Tuesday March 30- Florence to Rome
Day 13: Wednesday March 31- Rome
Day 14: Thursday April 1- Rome
Day 15: Friday April 2- Rome to Venice
Day 16: Saturday April 3- Venice to Berchtesgaden, Germany
Day 17: Sunday April 4- Vienna, Austria
Day 18: Monday April 5- Vienna
Day 19: Tuesday April 6 Vienna to Budapest, Hungary
Day 20: Wednesday April 7- Budapest
Day 21: Thursday April 8- Budapest to Prague, Czech Republic
Day 22: Friday April 9- Prague
Day 23: Saturday April 10- Prague to Hannover

Hope I did all of that correctly! Well that is all for now, I'll have a separate post with nothing but pictures pretty soon!

Slowing down and speeding up at the same time

2009-09-11T06:23:00.000-07:00

So life for me has taken its pattern...finally. I am beginning to feel like a part of the community and not so much a foreigner anymore. People at school are used to seeing me, I have a pattern at home, and life is finally not so hectic, which is nice. But at the same time things are speeding up. September came around and its like my brain decided to turn itself on. And I have really, finally, been learning German. My host parents speak to me now in complete German, and while I might not get all of it, I get the vast majority. My host father gave me some grade level 2 books a few weeks back that I could not comprehend. I looked them over again last night and was able to actually read them, and actually know what was going on!!! I am so excited to finally be on the road to learning, and at the rate I am going I should be able to read novels by December/January. I am trying really hard, and it probably doesn't hurt that I like to read. My friends at school are super patient, and I actually learn the most from them. I have been pretty successful in speaking too. Although I say things wrong, or with a funny accent as they say...whatever, I am trying. I have my own self study program that I have been doing for a good two or more hours everyday, on top of my learning at school, so that could also be a reason as to why I am doing so well. I have my German lessons every Monday and Friday that I always look forward to.

So that's about it on my progress...Last weekend all of the exchange students had a Rotary sponsored event in Soltau/Walsrode. It rained quite a bit, and got pretty cool, but over all I can say we all had fun. They had little "discos" for us on Friday and Saturday night. And on Saturday we had a day of sports playing, food eating, chilling, and just hanging with the others. One of the options given to us was to go to a water park area that they had. Only a few of us went, but I wish more had come because it was a blast. I honestly had the most fun for those three hours we were at the water-park. We all played chicken in the wave pool, or went down this outdoor slide thing about a hundred times. I really did enjoy myself, and on Saturday night we all sat on the beach by the lake and just "hung-out". Our next event is a day up in Hamburg, but that isn't until September 26Th, so now I get to spend the next few weekends with German friends, learning more German!!

I got invited to go to a festival in the next town over with all my German friends on Saturday. So I am looking forward to that, it will just be a day long event. But what I am mostly looking forward to is sleeping in my own bed for as long as I would like. I have been moving at a hundred miles an hour these past few weeks, and I am looking forward to a slow down....right before everything speeds up again..hahaha.

Oh, I have another blog, well a video blog site on YouTube...sometimes I will upload videos with pictures and whatnot there so check it out: www.youtube.com/amandaingermany

First Rotex Weekend

2009-09-01T08:57:00.001-07:00

So I have officially been in Germany for one whole month now! My German lessons with Poliana are going great and I am really starting to pick up the language. I understand the majority of what people are saying in the average day to day conversation. When they start with heavy discussions such as the beginning of life...well lets just say my understanding stops there. My friends and I all played volleyball for about three hours on Wednesday. They all approached me and kind of looked nervous, I asked them what was wrong..... turns out they wanted my help with their English homework, or rather me do their homework....I felt so used. I breezed through it completing it in no time what so ever. The next day in English class they all go in with the wrong answers.( Not all of them were wrong, just enough to make me feel like an idiot.) Although I highly doubt what I wrote down was wrong (because, hello English is my first language and I try my hardest to speak it the correct way) it just wasn't what the teacher wanted. In reality there were probably two or even three acceptable ways to write the sentences, but the teacher wanted a specific way. Needless to say I will not be doing their homework again.

So finally the big weekend I had been waiting for came. I got to see all of the other exchange students from district 1800 again, and it was so much fun. Rotex had the whole weekend planned out and ready to go. I arrived on Friday via train (my first time ever) at Hannover. There we waited at the train station for other exchange students to arrive. We then proceeded to a subway, then to a gym, where we would be staying for the weekend. The first night we did the whole " who are you, where do you come from, where are you living" type of things. We played a few games, and then basically made our own club. One of the Rotexers brought DJ stuff so we danced till like 2 am to European techno.<----It was tons of fun. Got like 3 hours of sleep.

Saturday we woke up bright and early. I woke up at around 7 am because someone had the most obnoxious ring tone go off. For breakfast I had the German breakfast of champions i.e. nutella und brochen (nutella and bread, if you haven't tried nutella, its amazing!! Look for it, we have it in the USA you just have to look hard, its in the peanut butter section) Then we were off, took a tour of Lower Saxonys parliment, had lunch by a lake, watched a soccer game, had dinner at an Italian restaraunt, then headed back to the gym. The theme for Saturday night was a "ball" so everyone got dressed up. We learned a simple ballroom dance, and the rotexers dance. Then we partied all night again. Sunday we all woke up and basically sleeped walked our way to the train stations. Its safe to say everyone had a good time.

But its not all fun and games. When I got back to my host families house my host mom was leaving. Right before she left she informed me that my host father had an accident on Friday playing soccer. I don't really know what happened. He is at a hospital in the next town. He had surgery this morning and we are all hoping he will be able to come home by this weekend. I hope he gets well soon!

Now I am going through the mundane, everyday steps of getting up at 6 am, leaving for school by 7 am, arriving at 7:15 ish am, school, then coming h ome. (or hanging with friends) I am anxiously awaiting the weekend. I have a Rotary weekend this time. We will be having a disco again, playning soccer, volleyball, and swimming. So we will see how it goes.

^ Me at the train station with my Rotary blazer on.

^Other exchange students after lunch

^ A few of us all dressed up for the "Ball"

^Me at Hannover's Parlimentary room, where all the important decisions are made.

Bummer...maybe

2009-08-25T07:51:00.000-07:00

So with my dance class we are going to have a trip to Austria in January where we will have skiing lessons. How cool does that sound, going skiing in the Alps? But.... at the moment it looks kinda sketchy for me. My Counselor/Rotarian/Person who looks over me says that I might not be able to go, he has to talk to the teacher and get the details. I really hope he lets me go, my mom in the USA already gave me the go ahead, and all my friends are going so I really hope he says yes.

Last weekend was pretty fun. We had 3 birthday parties and a going away party all in one. We all spent the night in the next little town in tents. It got really cold at night (well for me) so I ended up getting maybe two hours of sleep? I don't really know, when I came home I crashed for a few hours : )

Oh yeah, I get to sleep in tomorrow..yayy!! My biology teacher (first class for me) will not be there tomorrow. So instead of having substitute teachers they just let the students have free time. There is a board in the hallway that gives you general information about that stuff. There's gonna be blah..blah... after school on Thursday...blah..blah.... stuff like that. And it also says which teacher won't be there. Pretty cool if you ask me.

So yeah, that's all for now.

Week # 3

2009-08-22T03:19:00.002-07:00

And I have successfully completed the 3rd week. I can't say it was as exciting as last week, but I did still have fun. School was....eh..what can I say? I just don't like school, so sue me.

So I was asked by some friends if I wanted to go swimming after school, of course I said yes, I mean why not? So we all met at the town square on our bikes ready to take off, we rode, and rode, and rode some more. Turns out the lake they were going to was in the next town, a grand total of about 25 miles round trip!! That doesn't sound bad because you all have cars back in the U.S. but get on your bike and ride 25 miles in 94 degree weather through the woods and hills, tell me how good you feel after. ( Especially if your outta shape like me!) We get to the lake and the water is waayy too cold for me, so I stayed on land and played volleyball with some of the others who came. It turned out to be pretty fun, and I guess the ride wasn't too terrible, I am gonna have some major leg muscle when I come back. Then on Thursday the school let out at 11:30 and we all went again, all I need to do is run some and I could say I was training for a triathlon.

The Rotary club of Stendal has arranged German classes for Poliana and I. We didn't have to pay for anything, so that was really nice on their part. I get out of some classes at school too, so when is that ever a bad thing? So for the next 10 weeks we will have intensive German lessons, on top of school, and being immersed in the language. So I fursure have no doubt that I will be fluent when I come back.

Tonight (Saturday) there is a huge party that I will be attending. There are like 3 people who all have birthdays within a few days of each other, and my host brother is having a going away party before he leaves for Argentina next week. So they combined all of them for one huge blowout party. I will tell you how it goes later.

Next weekend I have a Rotex weekend in Hannover that I am definitely looking forward to. (Rotex is an organization of people who have already been on exchanges. They help guide us and give us advice and so forth. They also plan out fun things for us to do while in Germany.) All of the other exchange students in the district will be there, so tons of fun heading my way. Only sad part is that my classmates are in a local band. They are having a battle of the bands type of thing on Friday the 28th. I was invited to go and was really looking forward to it, but it turns out by the time they play I will be on a train to Hannover : (.....

I signed up for dance classes here at the school, but I do not like them whatsoever, they just aren't as good as Mrs. Lee's dance classes, but I will stay, because friends are there and in January they are going to Austria for a week. They will be taking skiing lessons in the Alps, so I can put up with some ridiculous dancing for that right? Yes, yes I can...hahaha.

Alright, that's all for now, I'll update some more later. But it looks like I am making this a once weekly update. So maybe that's what I will aim for, once a week updates, lets say on either Saturday or Sunday you can all check an see what I did that week.

Ciao!!
Amanda

Week #2 (Un-edited)

2009-08-16T01:18:00.000-07:00

Okaaayyy, so I have officially been here for 2 weeks, and so far it has been amazing.( And I don't even know the language very well) So that means that if I can have this much fun without much to work on, imagine what a blast I will have once I can speak German?

School has been alright, I have figured out that school, no matter what language, is going to be boring. But for me it has been really, really boring. I opted to not be graded, figuring it would seriously help with stress (worry about my grades on top of everything else would probably do me in). So, I sit in class and pretty much stare at the wall, while the teachers lecture in German. They don't even hand me any work, or expect me to do homework xD. Most of the time I will write down into my notebook everything they write on the board, and they appreciate that I am putting forth effort. I understand all of the math really well, and can do the work for the most part until they start talking about different ways to do the problem in German, at which point I am lost once again. Biology though I like because even though labeling parts of the cell is in German, I at least know what he is talking about, so now I can label the cell in German..haha. I love all of the breaks they take, and they start school earlier, but get out earlier too. I have made a lot of friends, and we hang as much as possible. So that always makes school better.

^ Everyone rides their bikes to school. If they live too far away they take the city bus.

My school is to the right. There are two gymnasium high schools here. At the end of your time in middle school you receive your placement. Depending on how well you did decides what Gymnasium you will go to. Winkelmann is the Gymnasium I attend, then there is Hildebrand, as far as I have been told Winkelmann is the better of the two. The students have to work very hard, their grade points go towards one huge test called the Abitur. That test at the end of their high school determines where they can study and what they can study. Not like the U.S. if you don't do so well on the SAT/ACT (which is kinda like an equivalent) you can still be a doctor. Here if you don't do well you cannot study to be a doctor, you are given no second chance to be a doctor, just at a different college, you don't do well, you have no choice. So it is very stressful, the amount of work and studying they do. And I thought my school was bad. Ha.

This is my school schedule. (click on the picture to enlarge it) They don't have the same classes every day, or every-other-day. What classes they have on Monday will always be on a Monday and so forth. I am fortunate because I get a lot of free time, whereas normal students will maybe have one free time space. In high school the students you are placed with will be the same students for the rest of you High School career, as a result everyone becomes really close. Not all of my classes are with the same people, but German, History, Math, and English are all with those same people.

Last Friday I was invited to go to a "Disco", and my first reaction was " Why would I want to go to a disco?" I immediately thought of the '70's and thought no. Turns out their "disco" is our version of club. I went with my friends and it turned out to be a ton of fun. The club was a lot smaller than I had thought, but it got really crowded, and everyone there was around my age. Stendal only has 4 clubs, but I found out that I am allowed to travel around in my district and will definitely be going to other cities to check out fun sites there.

Here's a bit of cool history. While on our way to Giforn we were driving through a wooded area, and every 50 yards or so there were signs. I couldn't understand the signs, but I figured it must have been something important. Later my host dad said that no one was allowed in the woods there because there were still active Russian land mines, and explosives all throughout the area. I also got to see where the wall separating East Germany from West Germany was put up as I traveled to another state.

And last but not least, I had my first inbound orientation this past Saturday. I got to meet all of the other exchange student from around the world who would be in Germany for a year just like me! We had some people from: Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, USA, Canada, India, Taiwan, Japan, Australia and Chile. It was super cool to be in a room with so many nationalities. My district has so much planned for us, it will be so exciting and fun. I won't say all that we will be doing, because I will blog about them later in more detail.

My second week was pretty cool, I am hoping to top it next week!

Until then

~Amanda

Pictures

2009-08-09T01:56:00.001-07:00

<---- Me at school

<---- Poliana an exchange student from Brazil. She and I are the only exchange students in Stendal.

<----My classmates and I after the first day of school.

<---- The President of Stendal Rotary and I

<---- Sebastian and Felix are leaving, while Poliana and I take their places. Sebastian is going to Argentina, and Felix is going to Iowa.

So my first week in Germany has already come and gone. So far it has been really great, I am still getting used to carbonated water, riding my bike everywhere, German, and the amount of bread they eat here. I go for my first whole week of school tomorrow, so that should be fun

Changes (a very long post)

2009-08-04T12:24:00.000-07:00

Okay so everything for me has taken a one-eighty spin. But didn't I sign up for that too? Well so far so good. My host family is really nice and they are trying their hardest to make me feel at home. Stendal is an interesting little town with tons of untainted history behind it. The other day my host brother and I were riding our bikes when we went past a Russian cemetary. He said that there was a battle with the Russians against Hitler, and it was put up in their memory. And downtown we went into a Cathedral built in the 12th century, and in my opinion it was much cooler than Notre Dame. Only because it wasn't used for tourism. There were no glass barriers, or ropes that were sectioned off. Everything in this church was real, there wasn't a gift shop, or a guide to tell you about the history. The only sign I saw in this church was a handwritten piece of paper asking you to please not touch the walls/paintings, and to not use cameras. All of that is understandable, I know that cameras with a flash damage or helps deterioate the walls/paintings. We drove past a section in town from were Stendal had been bombed in WW2, and as we continued to drive I saw several more buildings that looked quite old, I want to learn more about them later, maybe when I can understand what people are saying.

I start school on Thursday; I don't remember all of the classes I signed up for but they go along the lines of: Geography, German, English, I think I am taking gymnastics also, Math, Biology, and a few more I can't remember. I met a lot of the kids that I will be going to class with, so far they are very fun and out going. Learning German so far has been going pretty well. I can understand more and more about what they are saying. But I can't yet respond to their questions yet.

I met with the Rotary here for the first time and they were all very nice too. There is one more exchange student here with me, her name is Poliana, and she is from Brazil. Her English is perfect, she says she has been studying English for 10 years. She doesn't speak any German either, so we are on the same page there. And I think she will be in the same class as me also. I study my German books whenever I get the chance to, but I feel like that still doesn't help very much...

OKAY, so my host family is taking Poliana and I to Oktoberfest!!! So very exciting!! They also asked where all I wanted to go i.e: Hamburg, Munich, Hannover, places like that were I can see other parts of Germany with them. My host parents haven't traveled much and they are going to see many places with me for the first time also.

And that is all for now I am sure I will think of something more later, but until then.

~Amanda

Last day in the USA

2009-07-30T20:48:00.000-07:00

Alrighty now, today was my last day here before I embark on my journey. I will miss everyone so much and I don't think I realized it until right now. I want to thank all of my family and friends who have supported me throughout everything, without all of you I would have not been able to really go through with it. I board that plane tomorrow, and will update when I have my feet on the ground. I start High School on Wednesday August the 5th. So lets hope that I learn enough German between now and then to not be completely lost (haha yeah right). Oh well...

Today I went shopping with my mother and we bought a few odds and ends for my trip. I have a few tiny more things to pack and then I can say that I am finally done. ( And what a time I have had, its hard to fit your closet into just 3 bags) I am going to try and stay up as late as possible, so that way maybe I can sleep on the plane. My friend who is also named Amanda is leaving tomorrow. She is going to Denmark through the Rotary Exchange also, so I wish her luck, and a safe flight.

Well I am going to go finish packing so wish me luck!

..and the countdown says 5 days

2009-07-25T22:43:00.001-07:00

Soooo, I leave in less than a week. It really doesn't bother me at this point. Everyone today at work was asking me: How nervous are you, are you scared, will you miss us? etc. And the truth is that yes I am nervous and scared, and I will fursure miss everyone, but I am so over being worried about this. If I obsess over it too much then I will over think it, and worry too much and cause a lot of heartache that is really unnecessary. I guess me not thinking about it is my way of not having to worry. Everything is done, and it would be stupid of me at this point to back out. I am going to have an amazing adventure, and I am not going to let over thinking ruin it.

So I have my very last German lesson today. Then I will be officially on my own. I want to thank Ms. Laumer for all of her help, she has been amazing. Helping me to really understand, and things that I will really need to know. Her patience was wonderful. Next year I will visit her and be able to really converse with her in German : )

So I am done packing, well I started a week ago actually. I didn't know what to take and what to leave. It is really hard to fit your closet into three bags, but I managed somehow. I don't really know what else to say... I might post one more blog before I leave, maybe, if not then my next blog will be from Germany!!!

~Amanda

Update

2009-07-14T12:03:00.000-07:00

Alrighty I leave in 17 days, and that is right around the corner. My German tutor has been out of town these past two weeks so no German lessons for me. Actually I was supposed to study on my own, you can probably guess how that worked out xD. Anyways...I got my German visa so everything is done, and ready to go. I just need to buy a few things like a camera, glasses, a German 501 verb book, etc etc. All just menial items.

I have to give a presentation upon my arrival of all the things I wish to do or see while in Germany. So far my list consists of:

Oktoberfest
Love Parade
Castle Tours
Tour of Berlin
Black Forest Visit

...And that is all I can come up with at the moment. I am sure I will get to do many things that will be fun. I guess that is all for now.

~Amanda

Pre-departure Anxiety

2009-07-02T21:10:00.000-07:00

Okay so I have 29 days left before I leave. And right now my decision to be an exchange student doesn't look so good anymore. I am nervous about not knowing the language, about having to go to school and doing well in that school. I am scared about what people are gonna think about me, and whether I will make any friends. I know I will get homesickness, I just don't know how bad it will be. I have sooo many things that need to be done, and it feels like I won't be able to finish it all. I have questions like: Should I bring my cell phone or should I buy one there? What kinds of things do people my age do for fun? Will my host family like me? Will school be super hard, or is it easier than we think? I worry about what my family will do without me, will they miss me? What about friends? Will they still be here for me when I come back?..... Yeah so that's my current inner turmoil, I know that this is (will) be amazing and I am thinking too much. I just spilled my guts, so I think this is a good place to stop.

~Amanda

First Post

2009-06-27T22:50:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this is my first post ever!!! I am still in the U.S. My life at the moment consists of working, sleeping, exercising, and taking German classes. I leave for Germany on July 31st at 2:45 p.m. So that is not long from now, I have 33 and a half days left in the United States... : ) These blogs are for people to read and to know how I am doing, I also have a youtube account setup called AMANDAinGERMANY, subscribe to me and see how my life is going over there! I am very excited and very fortunate to be going, this is a great opportunity. I will be staying in a town about 70 miles outside of Berlin, the population in about 40,000 people. I have to attend high school, and the amount of kids in the high school is about 700. So that is a change for me, we had 514 in my graduating class, so the school I will be attending is a lot smaller than the one I just graduated from... so thats it for now I guess, I'll post again later!

~Amanda