Thanksgiving and Moving to Berlin

First off, I would like to apologize for not having posted in so long! I have had so much going on this past month that I kept forgetting to write a post but I promise from now on I will be updating this blog at least once a week!

This year was definitely one of the most unique Thanksgivings I have experienced. Since it is (obviously) not a holiday that is celebrated in Germany, I had school on Thanksgiving day. Because of this I was not able to celebrate on the 28th, but my French teacher wanted to have a Thanksgiving party in class that day! First, I gave a presentation on America and the history and traditions of Thanksgiving. After that, we went down to the little cafeteria and ate the pumpkin and apple pies I had made for the class. It was really funny to see the German kids in my class try pie for the first time, since there is no such thing as pie in Germany. They kept calling it cake no matter how many times I told them it wasn't which was pretty funny. The next day, Friday, was my last day of school in Riesa. My class gave me a nice little note that they had all signed along with a picture of the class, which I thought was really sweet. I was cooking a big Thanksgiving meal for my host family the next day, so Friday afternoon I baked another pumpkin pie and apple pie and prepared the stuffing. Let me just tell you something about making an entire Thanksgiving dinner in Germany: it is much easier said than done. First off, I have never cooked Thanksgiving dinner before, I have helped but never done the entire thing on my own. Secondly, since Thanksgiving is not a German holiday it is nearly impossible to find some of the ingredients and tools that you need. Pie is not a thing here, so I was not able to find a pre-made pie crust or pumpkin puree. Because of this, pie making was about a three day process. I had to make homemade pumpkin puree, which I accidentally ended up making way too much because I used two pumpkins because I wasn't sure how much it would make. Also, I had to make homemade pie crust, which is apparently a very hard thing to get right on the first try but luckily mine turned out well. Since there is no such thing as a pie pan here I had to use a cake pan but luckily, it all worked out! I am actually very proud of how well my completely made from scratch pies turned out and they were definitely worth all the work because I got to share such an American tradition with German people and it was so great! The only bad thing about it though is that my mom and grandmother have now put me on official pie making duty for the following Thanksgivings because of how well they turned out! Ok, so I just realized how much I rambled about my pie making adventures and struggles, so I'm going to move on to the rest of Thanksgiving now...  On Saturday morning, I prepared the turkey and started cooking it. I had a few hours after that to pack and start to get ready for my move to Berlin the following day. Around 2, I started making all the side dishes. My host mom and I realized that we were going to have way too much food for the five of us (my host family, one of my host grandmothers, and I), so we invited Chacho (the other exchange student from Texas in Riesa) and his host family, who are the best friends of my host family, to come to dinner. Luckily they were able to make it and it was so great to be able to celebrate with them! Luckily, all of the food turned out great and I still can't believe I was able to pull it off, by myself, in a country where there is no Thanksgiving short cuts. The only thing that didn't go so well was my attempt at carving the turkey. Obviously, I had never done it before so it didn't look so pretty but that's ok because I managed to get all the meat off. In total, we had turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, squash (which no one knew what it was so that wasn't really eaten but that's ok), green beans, corn, rolls, and pumpkin and apple pies for dessert. So, all in all I think my first ever time cooking Thanksgiving was a success!

Sunday, the day after I celebrated Thanksgiving with my host family, I moved to my new host family in Berlin. It was very sad to say goodbye to the family that had taken me out of a bad situation and opened up their home to me. I am so grateful for everything they did for me and I will never be able to thank them enough. Luckily, the train ride wasn't that long, only about an hour and a half all together. First, I took the train from Riesa to Leipzig where I had to connect to Berlin. My local coordinator met me at the train station in Leipzig and it was really nice to be able to say goodbye to her. After about a 30 minute wait with Sandra, I boarded the train headed to Berlin. When I finally got to Berlin, I was greeted by my new host mom, my host brother, and one of my two host sisters. We went back to the house and had a nice lunch then after I went for a walk with my host sister Celina. That night, my entire host family, including my 16 year old host sister's boyfriend and my host mom's boyfriend, and I all went out to a pizza place for dinner. So far I absolutely adore Berlin and my host family is amazing! Later on, I'll write a post about Berlin and all the amazing things here! But I think I have written enough for now, so here are some pictures of my German Thanksgiving!

Tschüss,
Dani♡

My pumpkin and apple pies!

The turkey (pre carving attempt)

The table!

Everyday Life

Having now been in Germany a little over three months, things have begun to settle into everyday life. I'm over my "honeymoon phase" and have begun to accept that I'm going to be here for seven more months. Homesickness has been a very big obstacle in this stage of the year, but I've settled into a routine and everything is starting to feel normal again. Except for the fact that I can hardly understand anyone. Adjusting to the language has been much more difficult for me than I expected it to be. Everyday I pick up new words and phrases and I am starting to be able to understand people better but I am still having a lot of trouble speaking. German is such a complicated language and a lot of the time I feel like I will never get the hang of it, especially the grammar. I so desperately want to be able to speak and communicate with the people around me but it is just taking so much more time and effort than I ever imagined to get it would to get to that level. But I'm sure it will get better with time and practice. Anyways, I have two weeks left in Riesa before moving to my new host family in Berlin. There is so much going on in these last two weeks that I'm sure the time is going to fly by. On Wednesday, I'm going to Leipzig with my host family and we're meeting Kevin, a boy from my exchange group, and his host family there. Kevin and I have the same local cordinator who will also be there. I think we're all going ice skating together but I'm not sure. Anyways, it will be really fun. Then, next Thursday is Thanksgiving. On Thursday, my French teacher decided that we're having a little Thanksgiving party in class even though it has nothing to do with French. I'm really excited to share Thanksgiving with the kids in my class and I think I'm going to try and bring in a pumpkin pie and an apple pie for the class. Since Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Germany, we still have school that day, so I will not have time to cook a Thanksgiving dinner for that night. Instead, I'm going to cook a big Thanksgiving meal on Saturday for my host family and host grandparents. So far this proves to be easier said than done. Since Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Germany, it has been very difficult trying to find all the right ingredients needed for the traditional Thanksgiving meal, such as a large turkey, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie ingredients, etc. Hopefully, I will be able to find everything and make it as authentic as possible! The day after this big Thanksgiving celebration, I say goodbye to Riesa and my incredible host family here and head up to Berlin to start the next chapter of my exchange year! It will be very bittersweet to leave Riesa and the people here but I am so excited to go to Berlin and experience life in Germany's capital!

Tschüss,
Dani♡

Herbstferien

So for the past two weeks I have not had to go to school. Why you may ask? Because Germany is amazing and has a two week long fall break called Herbstferien. For the first week of break I didn't have much planned and mostly hung out at home. We were dog sitting for some friends who were on away on vacation and it was so great to have a dog in the house again, I miss mine a lot. I went on a day trip to a place called Festung Königstein with my host family. It is an old fort about 20 miles from the Chez Republic border and the view was absolutely breathtaking. The fort overlooked a river and a couple small towns as well as the mountains. All that combined with the fall colors made for a gorgeous view. On Monday, I took a train to Dresden by myself for the day and went shopping and walked around the city. It was really fun to explore the city on my own. I love public transportation in Germany because it makes it so easy to do things like go to Dresden for the day! A few days later I drove all the way across Germany with my host dad to visit friends in Wiesbaden, a city outside of Frankfurt. We spent a night with them in Wiesbaden and then walked around Frankfurt the next day before driving back to Riesa. That night we went to a party at a the house of the friends we had dog sat for. It was really fun to see all of them and get to know them better! On Tuesday of the second week of break, my host family and I went on a trip to Hamburg. It is an absolutely gorgeous city! The first night we were there, we were walking around a mall because it was rainy outside. We go into this little shop where they sell tickets to all the events in Hamburg. Long story short, we somehow managed to get 4 tickets to the sold out Bruno Mars concert that was starting in an hour. We hopped on the train to get to the arena and got there about 20 minutes before the show started! Sadly, I wasn't allowed to bring in my camera so I don't really have any good pictures of the show but it was absolutley amazing nonetheless! The next day, we walked around the harbor and downtown Hamburg some more. On Thursday, we left Hamburg and drove to Rostock, a city on the Baltic Sea. First we went to a beach town called Warnemünde and walked around for awhile. Then, we went to the friend's house where we stayed for the night in Rostock. The next day, we went into downtown Rostock and walked around for awhile. We then started the long drive back down to Riesa. All in all, Herbstferien was amazing! I got to see so many places in Germany and I had a great time spending time with my host family, I'll miss them!

Tschüss,
Dani♡

The view from Festung Königstein

Wiesbaden

Frankfurt

Hamburg

Warnemünde

Rostock

You Know You're an Exchange Student in Germany When...

• your diet mainly consists of carbs *cough* bread *cough* 
• you drink more apple juice than you do water
• you have fresh bread with an assortment of cheeses and deli meats every night for dinner
• your main way of communicating with people is nodding and smiling when they speak to you in German because you have no idea most of what they said 
• you don't have a clue what's going on in school and have accepted that you probably won't get any credits at your American high school
• you're tired all the time
• you walk/bike/take public transportation everywhere
• you get lost a lot
• all the stores, except some bakeries, are closed on Sundays 
• you have no hope of ever understanding German grammar or ever being able to use it correctly 
• Ritter Sport chocolate is your life
• other exchange students are like family
• the middle of October is as cold as the middle of winter at home and you have still not accepted that it's going to get even colder
• there are pharmacies everywhere, like at least 1 on every street in downtowns 
• people just call you the American
• you still can't get used to being able to drink beer and wine

The list could go on and on and I'm sure there are many things I have forgotten. Also, I have some big news, I have just received my new host family! In December, I will be moving to Berlin! I am so excited! Berlin is the capital of Germany and is also it's largest city (3.5 million people, wow) and it looks absolutely beautiful! I will have a host mom and a host dad and three host siblings, a 16 year old sister, a 15 year old sister, and a 12 year old brother! Even though I am very excited for my upcoming adventures in Berlin it will be very sad to leave the family I am in now. I love them so much and I am so incredible grateful for everything they have done for me. Because they took me in on such short notice they were only a temporary family until December. They have made me feel so welcome and at home here even though it was only for a couple of months and for that I will be forever thankful. 

So Much to Write About

A lot has happened since my last post, the biggest thing being that I have switched host families. I am not going to go into detail about what happened but I have moved on and am now enjoying my new family. My new host family lives in a town called Riesa. It is in East Germany, about halfway in between Dresden and Leipzig. I have a host mom and dad and two host brothers, one is 14 and the other is 17. However, my 17 year old host brother is currently studying abroad in Ireland for the year. I love it here so much and my new host family is absolutely incredible! Because the switch was so sudden, this is just a temporary placement and I am only here until December 1 unless they decide to keep me for the rest of the year. I really hope I am able to stay here because it is so great here and I love this family so much! Too much has happened since I have been here to go through day by day so I will just write about the big things. Getting to Riesa took about 6 hours. It was an incredibly long day of travel and I had to take 3 trains to get here. When I arrived in Riesa, my host brother met me at the platform and then we went outside to meet his parents at the car. That night, I went with my host parents to a birthday party of their friend. It was so much fun and everyone I have met here is so incredibly friendly and welcoming. The party was so great and everyone was just so happy. Some family friends of my host family are also hosting an exchange student this year. His name is Chacho and he is Mexican/American. He was also at the party and it was so great to meet him! We have a lot in common and it was great to be able to have a conversation in English without having to hold back or speak slowly. I didn't have to start school until that Monday, so I had a 4 day weekend to relax and get settled in. The next day, I went with my host mom to get all registered for school and then after lunch I went with my host dad to meet his friend, Kevin Kuske. Kevin is a 3 time olympic gold medalist for the German bobsledding team! He had his medals with him, 4 gold and 1 silver, and I got to see and hold them! It was so amazing to meet him and I never thought I would have the opportunity to hold actual olympic medals! After meeting with Kevin, we were driving through downtown and the Minister of Defense was in town campaigning for the big elections this weekend. We got to meet him and speak to him briefly! It was so cool to be able to meet such an important member of the German government! On Sunday, I went to my host brother's handball match in a town about half an hour away. We had some time before the match started so my host parents and I walked around town and then had coffee. The handball match was really cool. I had never seen handball before and it is a very fast paced game. The next day, Monday, I started school. I am attending Städtisches Gymnasium Riesa and I was put in my host brother's 9th grade class. The next day, I went to Dresden with my class to see a play. It was a really weird play about werewolves and I didn't understand what they were saying at all but it was still really fun. The next day, Wednesday, I went with my host parents and their Lion's Club to tour a brewery about and hour away. Chacho and his host parents were also there, as well as the third exchange student in my town, a boy named Andrés from Ecuador. That was a lot of fun and it was great to get to know them better! That Saturday I went to Dresden with my host family and my host grandmother! Dresden is absolutely breath-takingly gorgeous. We took a horse and carriage ride around the historic downtown and then we walked around! That night I went to a wine fest in a town a town called Meißen with my host parents. There we met Chacho and his host parents. It was so fun and the festival was huge! It took up all of downtown and there was probably at least a million people there! On Monday, I started in a new class. I had been moved up to the 10th grade so that I could be with people closer to my own age. Also, i was put in an 11th grade English class. My new class is so great and everyone is so nice and friendly,  I have already made some really good friends! We only had school on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday because Thursday was the German Reunification Holiday so we had Thursday and Friday off. This is the day in 1990 when East and West Germany were reunified as one country. After school on Wednesday, I went with some friends to my class to a café where we hung out for a while and had coffee and talked. Then we went to a the movies and saw The City of Bones, in German of course. Luckily, I have read the books so I could keep up with what was happening pretty well even though I couldn't understand much of what they were saying. That night, I went to my first German party. However, since I have not been in Riesa for very long I did not know many people at the party so it was kind of awkward, but whatever, it was still fun. Today, Friday, I have just kind of relaxed at home and I went to run some errands with my host mom and then we went to and ice café (ice cream café) and had ice cream and talked for awhile, it was really nice. In a few minutes we are going over to Chacho's host families' house for a bonfire and tomorrow we are all going to a Dresden fußball (soccer) game together. I'm so excited, it will be my first professional soccer game ever! Also, Dresden fans are notorious for being the "meanest" and most obnoxious fans of the Bundesliga, so this will be interesting! In a week or two, I can't remember which, we have fall break for two weeks and my host family and I are going on vacation to Hamburg! I am so excited and I will post lots of pictures! 

All in all, my new host family is so amazing and I am having such a great time with them. I am so thankful that they decided to take me in on such short notice and I couldn't have asked for a better family! Also, I love this beautiful, amazing country with all my heart and I am so thankful for the opportunity to be here!

Tschüss,
Dani♡

Ludwigsburg to Riesa

Meeting the German Minister of Defense!

Meeting Kevin Kuske!

Brewery with Chacho (right) and Andrés (center)!

Ich liebe meine neue Gastfamilie! 

The carriage we took around Dresden!

Dresden is beautiful! 

Last Week of Language Camp and Host Family!

I'm sorry I haven't posted in awhile, I've been really busy these past few weeks but from now on I hope to post at least once a week. So the last week of language camp went by so fast but it was so fun! We did a lot of activities and prepared a lot for going to our host families. On Wednesday, we met the mayor of Bad Laasphe and then had free time in town for the last time, it was really bittersweet. Then, on Friday night we had a talent show that everyone had to participate in. Since I am probably the most untalented person on the face of the Earth, one of my roommates, Mackenzie, and I just went up on stage and ate German chocolate. It was fantastic. Also, my German class went up and sang/screamed one of the songs that we have been singing in class all camp to help with pronunciation. The talent show was so fun and it was definitely a great last night bonding activity for everyone. The next day, Saturday, was the day we left our American bubble to go to our host families. It was such a sad day and everyone was sobbing and hugging each other. I was in the last group to leave so I had to say goodbye to the people who were leaving on the 12:30 train. This included my best friend at camp, Katy. It was so sad to say goodbye to her and I really hope that we find a way to meet up sometime because we are placed so far apart. After the 12:30 group left, everyone that was being picked up by their host families got to meet them in front of the schloss. I was really happy for all of them but it was really awkward just standing there watching everyone meet their families knowing that would be me in a few hours. It was good that I got to see that though because it helped me know what to expect when I met them. A little bit after everyone who was being picked up left, the remaining 15 of us got in taxi's and headed down to the Bad Laasphe banhof. Our train to Marburg didn't leave until 2:30 so we had some time to go to the grocery store and get some snacks for the train. When we finally left, we had about an hours ride to Marburg, where we split up and took our separate trains. My next stop was Frankfurt. There were three other people with me, Aaron, Daniel, and Tyara. In Frankfurt, we had to say goodbye to Aaron so that he could take his train to Mainz. After about a 45 minute layover, Tyara, Daniel, and I got on the train headed to Stuttgart. After about an hour and 20 minute train ride we finally arrived in Stuttgart where we met our host families. After saying goodbye to Daniel and Tyara,  I had to quickly run to the train going to Ludwigsburg with my host family. It was great to finally meet them but it was definitely kind of awkward. That night, we had dinner and then walked around downtown Ludwigsburg. The city is so gorgous and still can't believe I'm going to be living here for 10 months! On Sunday, Lea's best friend, Helen, and her parents came over for a BBQ. It was really nice to meet Helen and to bond with my host family. On Monday, we went to the Pferdmarkt (horse market) in Bietigheim. It was so much fun! There was a big parade and then there was a big festival. After walking around the festival for a little bit, we walked into downtown Bietigheim. It is such a beautiful city! On Tuesday, I went into Stuttgart with my host mom and one of my host sisters. They showed me how to use the train that will take me to school and we also picked up my train passes for the next couple months. Then, we went to my school to pick something up from the office. I didn't get to see much of the school but of what I saw it was really nice! I can't wait to start school on Monday! After that, we walked around downtown Stuttgart. There was a big wine festival going on and it was super cute! Stuttgart is such a beautiful city and it's so big and I'm so excited to be going to school there! It's such a nice change from small town Hillsborough! On Wednesday, I went to Schloss Ludwigsburg with my host mom and my two host sisters and we went on a tour of the castle (in English thankfully). The castle is so gorgeous and has such an amazing history behind it. It was so cool to get to walk around the inside and see how royals lived hundreds of years age. Yesterday, I went to the Ludwigsburg town hall with my host mom and sister to apply for my visa. I have to go back next Thursday to finish everything and then after that I'm good to go for the year! This afternoon, we are going to a birthday party of family friends. I'm really excited to get to meet people and experience my first German party! I am having such a great time even though it has been very difficult and overwhelming with culture shock and the language, I hope once I learn more German and am able to speak it that everything will be a lot better!
Tschüss,
Dani♡

I'm in Germany!

Hello everyone! I have officially been in Germany for a little over 2 weeks and I love it here so much! I have been at Language Camp at Schloss Wittgenstein in Bad Laasphe for the 2 weeks I have been here and I still have one more week here before I go to my host family. Because I am constantly surrounded by other Americans and speak English all the time (except in German class) it still hasn't really hit me that I'm actually in Germany. It's kind of like I'm in a little American bubble. It especially hasn't hit me that I'm going to be here for another 10 months.

So a lot has happened since I last blogged. Our plane ride took about 8 hours. We left D.C at 5:20 pm on August 10th and arrived in Frankfurt at 7:20 am on August 11th. Then we drove about 2 hours to language camp in Bad Laasphe. We were all super exhausted and by that point had been awake for about 24+ hours. When we got to language camp we got all our stuff moved up into our rooms and then we had a brunch and then walked down into town. The rest of that day we just slept and did some simple welcome orientation things. The next day we were all still super tired but we took the language exam and were placed in our German classes based on our knowledge of German. Since I have never taken German before I decided to op-out of the exam and be placed in the lowest level class. I'm really glad I am in this class because my teacher, Tim, started from the very beginning and it has been really helpful, especially in terms of pronunciation and basic grammar. There are 7 other people in my class and they are all really nice and we have a lot of fun together. Language camp is pretty routine for the most part so instead of going through what we have been doing day by day I'll just give you a basic overview of our daily weekday schedule.

Monday, Wednesday & Friday

7:30- Wake up and get ready
8:15-8:45- breakfast
9-12- German class
12:30-1- lunch
afternoon- either we go to the Planum (room in the school) for culture seminars or we have free time, it is usually a mix of both
6:30-7- dinner
night- either free time or small group lessons, sometimes a mix of both
10:15- room check

Tuesday & Thursday
The same as Monday, Wednesday and Friday except we have afternoon class from 2-3:30 instead of Planum or free time. Except on these days afternoon class is usually watching a German movie.

On weekends, our schedules and activities vary. Also, our curfew is 12 instead of 10:15. Last Friday night, the 16th, we all went to the Beer Fest in Bad Laasphe. It was really fun and I had my first ever beer. The next day, Saturday, we went to Marburg for the day. It was my first time every taking a train and it was a really cool experience. Marburg was amazing. It is such a beautiful city and it has so much history. We had the day to do whatever we wanted so I explored the city with some of my friends. We walked all over and found a bunch of cool little shops. Then we went to a cafe for drinks and it was so cute. It was right on a river and we sat in the little garden behind it. However, as we left, we noticed there were Neo-Nazi and anti-socialist posters on the wall of the cafe. So we accidentally had drinks in a Neo-Nazi cafe... awkward. After that we walked up to the Marburg Schloss (castle). It was so beautiful and it was on a hill that overlooked the entire city. I have never experienced anything like it and it was absolutely breathtaking. After that, we walked back into the city and had dinner. Then we took the train back to Bad Laasphe. When we were back in Bad Laasphe my friends Katy, Ashley, Arron, and I went to a bar called Roots and had Apfelwein (apple wine) and talked and just had a blast. On Sunday, we got to sleep in and we had a brunch at the Schloss. In Germany, all of the shops are closed on Sundays so it is a very relaxed day. So instead of going into town we had some culture activities in the Planum.

This weekend, there was a festival in Bad Laasphe called the Altsadt Festival. It started on Friday, so Friday night we walked down into town and went and had dinner. I went to a restaurant with my friends Katy, Ashley, and Emily and we had schnitzel and pizza. Then we went to the festival and walked around and looked at all of the different stands and had some beers. There was one tent where there was a band called the The Henhouse Ramblers and they were having a "Hillbilly Hoedown". They had confederate flags and the Texas and Kentucky flags everywhere and they were wearing western shirts and cowboy hats and boots and playing American country music. It was absolutely hilarious. Yesterday, we got to sleep in and then we had some group activities in the morning. That afternoon we had free time and then around 7 we went back into town for the second day of the festival. Of course, the second we left to start walking down it started raining so we ran up to our rooms to grab our raincoats and umbrellas and went into tow anyway. It rained lightly all night but it was still so much fun! Today, we slept in late and had a late brunch. After brunch, we had a culture/information
session in the Planum about host families. After that we had free time for a few hours and I skyped with my family and my grandparents. Right now I am about to head to dinner and then tonight we have small groups.

Our internet here is really bad here but I hope to be able to post again before I leave for my host family on Saturday. I know this post has been a very basic overview of everything, and I am sorry for that, but we have done too much to post in detail about everything! I am having such an amazing time and I love the other 48 CBYXers so much! (The fact that there is now 48 others instead of 49 others is a whole other story in itself that I may or may not post about but long story short someone got sent home already.) I love Germany!

Tschüss,
Dani♡