Mid Year Orientation in Ahrweiler!

This past weekend (Thursday Jan. 23 - Sunday Jan. 26) was probably one of the best weekends of my exchange year so far. The remaining 48 out of the original 50 CIEE CBYXer's all traveled from our host families in various parts of Germany and met in a youth hostel in Ahrweiler, a town about 30 minutes outside of Bonn. It was so great to see everyone again and it's hard to believe that it's been over five months since we all said goodbye at the end of language camp. Everyone has grown and changed so much and become considerably more German, so much for some people that it was hard to recognize them at first. I don't know if I'm really supposed to talk about what happened at mid year so it isn't ruined for future CBYXer's who may be reading my blog so I'll just give a basic outline. A lot of our time was spent in meetings with the entire group and meetings with our small groups from language camp. We talked a lot about all the experiences we have have had the first half of the year, the good, the bad, and the ugly. It was really good to hear about everyones experiences and how they compare to my own. On Friday, we took the train to Bonn and toured the Haus der Geschichte (history museum). After the museum, we were given the rest of the afternoon to have free time in Bonn. Katy, Aaron, Ashley, and I had such a great evening. We found a British/American food store and it's safe to say we got a little too excited. After loading up on American products, we went to this adorable Irish Pub for dinner. It was probably one of the coolest restaurants I've ever been too and I wish I had a picture of the entire inside. Basically, it looked like this old library on the inside and it had all these little alcoves with tables. It's hard to explain but it was super cool. Anyways, after a great meal and lots of yummy apple beer at the pub, we went down to the Rhine river. After spending a little while at the Rhine, we headed back to the train station to go back to the hostel. Like us, most people decided to take the last train. Our group were pretty much the only people in that section of the train so everyone was being so loud and crazy and it was such a fun ride. Saturday was out last full day together. In the afternoon, we walked into downtown Ahrweiler and it was such a cute town! It was super old and very typical German. That night all 48 of us plus the five teamers and Julia (the head of CBYX in the CIEE office) went to the bar in Ahrweiler and just had a great time. After going back to the hostel, everyone was running around and staying up so late and just really making the most of our last night together. Sunday, after sad goodbyes we all parted ways and headed back to our host families. Being in Berlin, I had about an 8 hour trip and didn't get back until around 9:30 at night. So all in all, mid year was an incredible weekend with incredible people and it was so nice to have a little "American" break.

Tschüss,
Dani♡

I love my Americans! <3

So much enthusiasm in the British/American store

The Irish Pub with Ashley, Katy, and Aaron! 

Ahrweiler 

Weihnachten und Silvester! (Christmas and New Year's)

The holiday season. It can either be one of the happiest times of the year or one of the most depressing. Usually it's one end of the spectrum or the other, but this year it was a mix of both for me. Obviously, going into my year abroad I knew that I would not be able to come home for the holidays but nothing can truly prepare you for being away from your family on Christmas. Even though it was an extremely hard time emotionally and probably the worst homesickness I have experience so far this year, in the end I think it was a very good thing to experience. By not being able to celebrate Christmas with my family it has given me so much more appreciation and love for the close bond my family shares. When you have the same traditions and ways of celebration year after year, you grow used to that pattern and have fond memories of the special ways your family does things. After 16 years of celebrating Christmas with the people who I cherish most in this world and with the same traditions I think back on with fond memories, suddenly having absolutely everything, even down to the day Christmas is celebrated on (it's on the 24th in Germany), be different is such a hard thing to accept that in a way it makes it not even seem like it's Christmas. At least that's how it felt for me. But however hard it may have been, it turned out to be a very good day! As I said earlier, Christmas here is celebrated on December, 24th instead of the 25th like in the US. Also, Christmas here seems to be much more laid back. In the morning it felt just like a regular day and my host siblings were all out visiting with their friends. In the afternoon, we went to church. I couldn't see much of what was going on because we arrived a little late and had to sit in the back row of the balcony but it was very interesting to experience church in Germany, especially since my family at home is not very religious so we do not go to church very often. After church, we went back to the house and had Christmas dinner. Unlike in the US where there is a big meal, here every family has their own traditional Christmas dinner that they have every year. My host family makes bouletten, which is kind of similar to meatballs, and potato salad. After dinner, we unwrapped presents. Unlike in the US where there is usually an over the top amount of presents, here there is a smaller amount of more personal presents. Everyone gives a present to the other members of the family. Also, there are no stockings. After presents, we all played board games and talked and just enjoyed the rest of the evening. I got to skype with my family and my grandparents who were in North Carolina for Christmas. It was really great to get to talk to them and have a little normality brought back to Christmas. The next day, the 25th, my host family and I headed out for Braunlage, a small town in the Herz mountains, where we stayed for four days. Because of this I was not able to talk to my family at all on the 25th, which was very difficult for me. We got back to Berlin on the 29th, and then on the 31st my best friend from my exchange group, Katy, came to Berlin to visit! That night, we went to the Silvester (New Year's) celebration at the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate) with my friend Alessandro, an Italian exchange student at my school. This is one of the largest New Year's celebrations in all of Europe and it was absolutely amazing, definitely one of the best ways to ring in 2014! There was about 1 million people there and it was absolutely packed! Somehow, we ended up really close to the main stage and were in the front section which was so cool! We left the Brandenburger Tor around 12:15 and walked to Potsdamer Platz. And let me tell ya, downtown Berlin on Silvester was craziest, most fantastic thing I have ever seen. There were so many people that parts of Potsdamer Platz had to be sectioned off and people were setting off fireworks everywhere. It felt like walking through a war zone with all the smoke and noise. For the next two days after New Year's, Katy and I played tourist around Berlin. We saw all the big sights and even though I have been living here over a month, that was my first time seeing everything! We had such a great time and learned so much about Berlin! On Katy's last night here, Katy, Alessandro, and I went to the Hard Rock Café for dinner. It was so great to finally have authentic American food for the first time in five months. The next day, I said goodbye to Katy at the Hauptbhanhof (main train station). It was so sad to see her leave but luckily we'll see each other again in a few weeks at mid year orientation! All in all, this year was definitely the most interesting holiday season I have experienced so far. Instead of being at home, spending time with my family and doing hectic last minute Christmas shopping, I was over 4,000 miles away experiencing the way people in Germany celebrate. Christmas was hard but as my exchange organization says, "it's not good, not bad, just different", and New Year's was by far the most amazing New Year's of my life. So well it may not have been the typical holiday season, it is one that has taught me so much and one that I will definitely never forget.

Tschüss,
Dani♡

The Christmas tree

 The live coverage of Silvester at the Brandenburger Tor

 The Silvester party at the Brandenburger Tor. This is from when we first got

there, somehow we were able to make it to the very front.

Katy, Alessandro, and I at the Brandenburger Tor

 Katy and I at Checkpoint Charlie