Being Back

It's so weird to be back. As of now I have been back for two months and a day. 

What I hate most about being back is that I feel as though all of last year was just a crazy very-real-feeling dream. I miss Germany every day, and I try not to be understanding of people around me when they can't or won't understand me. 

I miss being an exchange student. This year I am taking full time PSEO classes (and staying in the dorms) at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, MN. Duluth is about two hours away from my home town, which most days doesn't feel far enough. College life and adapting to it seems like a piece of cake compared to last year. Just the fact that everything is in English makes it one hundred times easier.

As for the German language, I made a placement test two days ago as to where I should be placed. The teacher gave me a written test mostly about grammar and I think I literally failed that, but when we got to talking and having a conversation in German she said that I will definitely place into the higher German Language class. It makes sense, because never have I taken an actual class on German, but learned it just through speaking.

I started the class yesterday and there are only six or so of us in it. I can really tell that I am far ahead of them when it comes to speaking, but as for the grammar I know almost nothing.

Every day I miss my life and my friends and my family that I had in Germany. It breaks my heart to know that the year I had is gone. I can't imagine what my life would be like if I hadn't gone abroad.

Thank you.

Goodbye For Now

As of today I have lived in Germany for eleven months. And as of today I have just 3 days left in Germany. This year has gone by so incredibly fast. The last month I have been waking up and realizing how little time I have left.

I have said way too many good byes recently. The thought of possibly not seeing my best friends again breaks my heart. For a few of them, I know that it is not goodbye forever. Exchange made me realize how small the world is, and how gigantic it is that the same time.

This last week has gone by so slow and so fast. Part of me is so excited to see my family, and friends from Grand Marais again. To be able to drive, see my dogs, go to work, eat nachos again, for that I am really excited. But to leave here? To leave my new home and family and friends? It's really terrible.

I am so incredibly glad I went on this exchange! Countless times through this year I have personally thanked myself for getting my but out of the USA and experience the world. They say that people change a LOT on exchange, and that when they return to their home countries they are very different. I was always wondering when I would notice myself changing. I could never really tell throughout the year, but now when I think about myself last summer... I think I have changed way, way more than I realise.

It seems a little ridiculous, but I am one hundred times more nervous to return to my home town, than I ever was for going to Germany, right from the beginning.

The Little Things

Last night at a restaurant I got up to pay for my food.

The Waiter: And where are you from?
Me: The US
The Waiter: So you are on a vacation here?
Me. No, I'm an exchange student here.
The Waiter: Oh, so that is why your German is nearly perfect then!

:) :) :)

(I really doubt that my German is so close to being perfect, but getting my German complimented on is one of the best things (:  )

Fußball!!

It seems like I will be visiting the airport a lot in these last few weeks. This last year I have gotten so good at hellos and goodbyes. Hello's are my favorites (: It seems so weird to think about saying goodbye to all of these people that I have come to love & care for, and count on them as my best friends, and then all of a sudden we are at the airport saying goodbye until and unknown, possibly nonexistent date in the future.

We have found a very cool building in East Berlin. I believe it used to be a factory but because it was so close to the wall during the time in closed down. Now it's vacant and full of very cool graffiti. We came by one time when the artist was creating this piece and came back later. From the roof there is a very cool view of the TV tower. Everytime we go there, there are always other people there as well, sometimes doing photo shoots, playing soccer, watching films, etc.

This here was made during one of the Berlin Street art festivals. At night there is a car dealership with flags outside ,and one of their lights shines the shadow of a flag right underneath the astronauts hand, unintentionally. It's very cool.

This last Wednesday I went to Berlin to take a Free Alternative Berlin Walking Tour. We met underneath the TV Tower. There were about thirty of us total so we split into two groups. Our tour was in English, and our tour guide was from Rome. We were mostly in old East Berlin. She showed us a lot of street art and graffitti, we went inside some old buildings that were being squatted since the wall fell. 

Last night was a soccer match between Germany and Portugal. I went to the Brandenburger Tor to watch with thousands of other people, and exchange students. Unlike during New Years, this time we were way at the back, having arrived just ten minutes before the match started. I was fine with it though because it was not as crowded. You can see in the picture above, way, way, at the end of the street and people was the large screen where the main thing was, however there were a lot of screens along the way so we could watch from anywhere.

This was unlike any sport event I have been to in the US. The Germans (and everyone else there, German or not) were totally involved in the game. It was too crowded for me to see the screen most of the time, but at one point I had a really good view (for about thirty seconds) and in that time, Germany scored the one and only goal! The crowd went totally crazy! We ended up winning 1-0, which was really nice.

Hamburger Bahnhof

A few weeks ago, I think when I still had more than fourty days left in Germany, a friend in Berlin told me about this museum that was showing artwork from Andy Warhol. The name immediately rang a bell - a friend of mine in the US had had some posters of his and maybe a book or two a couple years ago. So, naturally, I was stoked.

Andy Warhol artwork.

This here was a projector shining light at the wall (or floor) it was really very cool to see. I think the collection was called "Five Minutes of Light" or something similar.

My Parents!

For the week after Eurotour my parents came and visited! It was so nice to see them! And they arrived exactly nine months after the last time I saw them as well. It was so funny watching them try to figure out how to be in Germany. They reminded me so much of myself when I first got here! I was so lost back then!

Half hour or so after getting of the plane at Tegel (:

Me & my dad having bubble tea.

At the Berlin Wall

Us three at the Reichstag.

They stayed for about a week in a nice little B&B in the near from Zoologischer Garten. Luckily they got another bed so that I didn't have to travel to Berlin every day to hang out. My parents arrived the exact day that eurotour ended so I was really pretty distracted  by that. I had this weird feeling of homesickness when they got there, except for Germany.. but I was still in Germany! Anyways, it was really good to see them again (:

It's Been a While

I have been really busy lately, since I got back from Eurotour. We left on the 15th of April. We travelled from Berlin down to Rome, and finally heading back up to Berlin. We stopped in Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Venice, Rome, München, and Regensburg on the way.

Here am I in front of the United Nations located in Vienna. We took a tour which I found very interesting. Future job maybe? As a translator? Hmmm...

 Here are we on a Gondola in Venice. It was such a cool experienc!

On the Spanish Steps in Rome.

Waiting to see the pope. Look at all the people there! And on top of it all, it was a beautiful day! I could feel myself burning as I sat there...

At the colloseum. Something that I have really always wanted to do. It wasn't part of the tour or anything so me and a couple friends went there in our free time! We were smart and used our school ID's and managed to get in free!

Basically, Eurotour was the best 19 days of my life! Although I have never had so little sleep as well! It is amazing how connected I feel to all of the other exchange students on the trip. They are like family to me and  they will always have a special place in my heart <3

Zoo Aquarium Berlin

Yesterday, for the first time in a long time, I did something typically touristy! We were going to go the zoo, but it was chilly and rainy outside so instead we stayed indoors and went to the aquarium. It cost €10 ($12.50) with the student discount, with three floors of fisch, amphibians, and insects. 

'

Some cool jellyfish from the west coast.

The group of us in the rainforest-y part. You can't see it but there are alligators all over (:

In other news, today is the last day of school before our Easter Break, and only two more weeks until the Eurotrip! I feel like I should probably start packing right now... but something tells me I won't get around to it until like the night before, maybe the morning of! 

Yesterday was my 100 days-left-in-Germany mark... Which means as of today I have 99. Holy!

Sloppy Joes

Tonight I made Sloppy Joes for my family (: I have never myself made them so I looked up a simple recipe on www.allrecipe.com (life saver here in Germany). I think they turned out really well! I made so much I  think we have enough for tomorrow and next tomorrow!

Right now you are looking at a really general map of where I will be going to on my Europe Tour. We travel Berlin - Dresden - Meißen - Prag - Wien - Venedig - Rom - Innsbruck - Nesselwang - Schloß Neuschwanstein - München - Regensburg - Berlin. It sounds like it's going to be amazing! Tomorrow is my last week of school before out two-week break, then in two weeks from this Sunday we leave for the Europareise and we will be gone for about three weeks.

Frühling is Here!

I feel like it went from winter jacket-scarf-boots-snowy weather right into leaves & grass and shorts weather!

Leaves! Along with the warm weather the people are out 

and biking, taking walks, and being happy in general (:

The other day I dragged Andrea along with me to Wilmersdorfer Straße in Berlin to look for some gluten-döner that someone had said I could find there at Max & Moritz. I did not, but we had a good time nonetheless.

After school on Friday Andrea & Paola and I took a little detour to a flea market and relaxed in the sun a bit. I bought two old pins, one Russian and one German for my Rotary blazer. I tried to bargain (or haggle?) the price down with the seller, and he just laughed at me (: hahaha

Me, enjoying the sun, and enjoying no longer being sick. 

I got my return flight itinerary in email this weekend. I fly from Berlin on July 6th at 9:30 DE time, and arrive in MNPLS at my time 00:30, MNPLS time it will be 5:30pm. So that will be a long day of flying! It's kind of freaking me out a little bit, not gonna lie! This Thursday I will have only 100 days left in Germany. Wow, the time is going by so fast!

My Picture Documentary of German Things That Seem Normal Now But Weren't in the Beginning

I have been sick lately and been spending way too much time at home. Today I decided to take pictures of things that I find are different. I know I did one like this earlier in the year but this one has pictures. How much more cool! It was fun going from room to room in my house and questioning everything. "Is this normal?" I would ask myself. It was surprising to me how so many things seem the norm now where as seven months ago I would be very confused with what I saw.

 

Typical "dressers" here don't exist. I don't even know what to call this thing here that I store my clothes in. 

The bed sheets here (and pillow) are a comforter and a square fluffy thing (not exactly like a pillow) are covered by sheets. Like a big pillowcase with a zipper at the end, and you wash those.

I know I have talked about sparkling water before, but I just thought it deserved to be added.

The lightswitches here are square boxes that you push. I haven't seen a typical light "switch" here my entire time. Also the thermostat is in Celsius (:

Door handles on the outside are just little knobs that open when you insert the key, automatically locking every time the door closes. I have been locked out a couple times because of that (:

In basically all of the houses here I have been in the clothes get hung out to dry. One house I was in it was a a family of six or so and there was pretty much a whole room designated for cloths drying. Super eco-friendly!

The thing that heats up the water. I still can't figure out how its better than just having a kettle and setting it on the stove.

Many houses here have their little mini espresso machines. Love it! Especially this one, with like ten different varieties, and the milk gets fluffed.

This concept took me a solid couple months to get down. Handles: Down = closed

Sideways = opens completely, like a door.

Handle up = window opens from top and gets stopped after 5 inches or so. Everyone here is always leaving the windows like that, even in the winter!

This is in my bathroom, and most other bathrooms. The signs get pretty creative.

Well, this is a typical German toilet. I haven't come across a toilet handle flush thing once since I got here. Just the little button against the wall. 

That's all, folks!

Orientation Number Two (or three?)

This weekend we had orientation number two... or three, I am not sure if I should count Paris or not?

Well, most of the exchange students from around the Berlin area took the 2.5 hour train ride together, but since my counselor had bought the Fürstenwalde exchange students tickets separately we left two hours later. Luckily for one newbie who missed his train earlier we were there so we could ride together later.

The train out to Greifswald was packed! Me and the newbie from Australien squeezed kitty-corner into a two facing two seater. I was talking to him in Englisch and this lady across from me suddenly rudely says in German "You are in Germany, I don't understand why you speak Englisch with this boy it is obvious he speaks German. You should speak German! That is so dumb!" It was one of those moments when you just pretend that you understand German lol :)

 Greifswald

There was another distrikt along with ours at this orientation, D1890 I think from North in the Hamburg area. Total, I believe there were 120 exchange students! It was so great to see everybody again and I was really hoping that there would maybe be an exchange student in the other district from Minnesota, but sadly there wasn't :(

Us Americans doing our presentation on Easter traditions

On Saturday we went to a nuclear power plant I think. It was kind of confusing because the whole tour was given in German, but it was still pretty cool. That night we had a dance in one of the dining halls. I love orientation weekend (: I am pretty sad because we don't exactly have another orientation after this last one. Of course there's the Europareise but after that my exchange is basically over! I'm avoiding thinking about that...

The (nuclear?) power plant.

Wearing the hard hats

LMFAO

This weekend I went to an LMFAO concert, I think I have been talking about it for a while lol. I rode into Berlin in the morning with Andrea and Paola, who were also going into berlin for some reason. Then I went to a friends house where I would spend the night to drop off my stuff.

We met everyone at McDonalds Hauptbahnhof, there were a bunch of us, and I got really excited cuz some people I hadn't seen for a solid month and a half-  to two months. I was riding into Berlin that day when I realized that in a few hours I was going to a concert, had no idea where it was, I didn't have my ticket (yet) or the time of the concert! Luckily other people new that stuff I forgot to ask about!

I was dressed in kind of normal cloths, and as we walked into the line of people I felt like I wasn't dressed weird enough! But it was fine, there were all sorts of people there. When some of the bands that come on before the big band (my English is failing me right now) warmer upers? Yeah well when they came on a few of us came out of the coat check and somehow managed to get right up in the front!

We managed to stay there the whole time, and there were a TON of people there! Sometimes it was uncomfortably crowded, but I was right up next to a bar so I didn't get pushed around too bad. LMFAO played all my fave songs except for a couple I didn't recognize.

 

LMFAO - Sexy and I Know it

One of the last songs they played was "Champagne Showers".

They showered us in champagne - I got soaked!

It was a great night, all in all.

February!

Hey guys! So it's been a solid two weeks since my last post, that's because over our winter holidays my computer completely just stopped working. It took a while but I finally got it to a friend of my host moms who managed to fix it this morning, and I am so completely happy!

There hasn't really been a lot blog-worthy stuff that's happened since my second ski trip in Austria. Our newbie arrived in Berlin this morning, and I am pretty sure Andrea, Paola, and I are going to meet her tomorrow. This last weekend I met a newbie from Argentina and he had brought Mate to Germany. Mate is similar to green tea (they will tell you its definitely NOT the same) although it is loose in the cup and the straw is special. I first heard about it from some Brazilian exchange students back in the US when they were presenting about their country, and now I have finally gotten to try it!

Ah, my friend Jonah and I were in the park one day when we found Cattails! I was so impressed. However, I still can't figure out where they came from since there were no marshes around... I'm guessing someone must have dumped them there. Unfortunately I forgot how bad they stick to your clothes until we started playing with them haha.

Today I was at Hauptbahnhof and outside of McDonalds they hard this going to raise awareness for blind people - specifically in the train stations. They had a little obstacle course they would speak you through while you were blindfolded. When I was finished I was mostly proud that I'd understood the German instructions!

On the 25th I'm going to an LMFAO concert! I am so crazy excited! The tickets were only €23 so how could I not (:

Skiing in Austria!

So I'm back in Austria for the second time this January! It was interesting getting here and feeling that "familiar" feeling. The accent and the road signs, the "font" of the way things are written. The people in this town I noticed are also much more polite than they were two weeks ago.

Okay, so see the lightpole on the lower left? Our condo is the yellow and white-ish building just a little lower & left from the top of the pole.

Friday night I stayed at my host dad's house because we were getting up and leaving around 5 am so it would be easier for me to spend the night there. There are five of us all together - My host dad, his wife, my host brother, and my host fathers friend. We drove all day and got here around 4 or so. After two hours of driving through the mountains I was feeling pretty car sick and very glad to have arrived. The lady that we are renting our condo from was showing us around and when she was finished my host dad says I'm an exchange student aus America and she said "Ah, we speak the same language!" and I'm just like "uhh.... german...?" Haha turns out she and her family are from England, very nice people.

I've rented a board-boots-&helmet for the week and I have already exchanged my boots twice because I swear they keep shrinking! The mountains here are gorgeous aber the snow is mediocre. I'm really hoping for a good meter of powder to fall overnight but looking at the forecast I'm not so sure thats going to happen.

So today I was being all cool doing some snowboardy tricks on the hill and feeling pretty good, until I landed on my hip pretty hard. Then I didn't feel so good. Luckily shortly after that we called it a day and headed back to the condo, but it still hurts pretty bad. Typical Rose though, going like 1km/hr and of course she destroys her hip... Oh well, hopefully it will feel better tomorrow, maybe it just needs a day to recooperate.

Two days down, four more to go! (:

My host dads friend bought this over the internet. I seriously almost peed my pants when I saw it! Snowbird is a ski resort in Utah that my family and I went to a few years ago. At first I saw the logo and was all like "haha thats funny it looks like the snowbird logo..." and then I saw the rest. So weird!