"vacation"

I spent the first 1 1/2 weeks of Easter Break with my guest family in France. France itself was lovely, and the weather was gorgeous. But I found it very, very frustrating to operate so closely with my guest family. The half hour decision making processes (also known as arguments because one member of the family never listened to or respected anybody else's opinion), the endless leisurely strolls through cities just for the sake of wandering around, the delay after delay after delay before we could just leave when we had decided to leave, only because 'we' 'had' to find the perfect cafe to get coffee, which half of us might not have even wanted, were a bit difficult for me to go with. My guest father's way of operating made me want to scream, explode, and swim the ocean back to my own father as fast as I possibly could. These constantly re-occurring feelings (due to my constant contact with him and therefore consistently re-occurring incidents of his infuriating-ness) lead to homesickness and made for a difficult hurdle to jump over in order to enjoy everything else. Which was really good, honestly!

On Monday morning we left late and spent the day driving to Paris, where we spent the first days. My guest sister and I slept at my aunts house. It was wonderful to see her and my cousin again, as well as some other friends I have in Paris. My guest family did a lot of sight seeing and I chilled for most of that time with my cousin.

On Thursday we all piled back in the car to drive to Tours, where we met the older sister and then spent several days with her old guest family in the countryside near Tours. It was beautiful-- they live in a house which the father's grandfather built, and which has been added on to every generation. The old part is like a museum, and it tore my heart strings to see all the beautiful old books just sitting there and rotting in the inconsistant heat and humidity. During this visit I heard so much strange English spoken that I was afraid that if I spoke English myself it would come out that way too: sort of a mix between a French and a German accent, saying the word 'this' instead of 'that', using reflexive verbs incorrectly, giving nouns genders, and mixing up my tenses like there's no tomorrow. I stuck to German and French, for which I at least have an excuse for being bad at.

From there we drove to Clermont-Ferrand, where my elder guest sister studies. We didn't spend long there, just enough time to look a bit around, get a night's sleep, pack the sisters things, find the perfect place to buy cheese, and drink coffee. At around 4:30 we finally left, five of us squished into this little old red car, and drove (almost straight through) to Frankfurt, where we arrived at about 4 in the morning.

I got a few hours of sleep, showered, and left the stress at home to sleep over at a friends house. The rest of vacation I'm just going to get back into the swing of things, hang out with people, do some paperwork for college, and relax. Let me just say, it's good to be back.

Springtime!

I know it's been a while since I last posted-- the time has been literally flying by. As I mentioned last post, the weekend after I went to Hamburg some AFS/CBYX friends of mine visited me in Frankfurt. It was really fun and really nice to see them again. I'm looking back through my diary to see what I've been doing this whole time... I've been shopping way too much. But I had to, really! I really did. Running out of jeans and underwear is not a happy thing, people. I've also accompanied friends shopping for summer clothes, which of course I no longer have money for. (Where does all my money go!?) Food, most likely, but I figure its worth it, especially now that I only have three more months in this delicious country.

Last weekend was an interesting one: I went to a club with some friends, which I was really excited about because it looks so cool from the outside. But to be honest, the experience was a bit of a let-down. I was there with two couples, one of which was off hanging out with other people and the other of which was sort of attatched at the mouth the whole time. And the best friend of the girl attatched at the mouth. So there was this whole attention competition going on, and I was just sort of there... and I convinced the best friend to leave early, because I was sleeping at her house anyways. And riding a bike thats too big for you in the middle of the night is not a lot of fun. Of course I was pretty tired the next day, which was my guest Grandmothers birthday party. I sat in the car for 45 minutes to sit awkwardly with a family which wasn't mine, and have a stomache ache. It was fantastic, and I was about to have a temper tantrum or something when we finally, finally, fiinnallly left at like 11 o'clock at night.

But Sunday was good, because my guest dad showed me the best way to bike into the city. We checked out bikes, mostly for my host mom since she's thinking about getting a new one. We also saw a great used bike, which he (surprise!) bought for me the next day. I was totally shocked, and gave him a huge hug and said thank you a million times. I honestly feel a bit bad that he did that for me, but it's definitely worth it. I've already ridden it so much, and now that it's getting so warm I will hopefully be riding it more and more.

The last week has gone by super fast. I presented my German project, and it went actually really well. I'm proud of it, and we didn't even get eaten out too badly. One thing that I find really cool here, as opposed to in America: after presentations are given or something is read aloud, the peer critiques are real. People say what they liked, but also what they didn't like or what was unclear or could be better. It's not mean or bitchy or snobby like it would be in the US, its just the way it is. After our presentation my American friend and I each got asked a question by a boy in our class, and I went so red answering it but it was alright. A friend of ours was so nice and commented that it was really cool what we did and how well we did it. Everybody ended up clapping and taking pictures, which was a bit funny and awkward but I'm glad to have a record of it.

Also last week was yet again more shopping... On Wednesday I bought a gorgeous spring jacket, shame shame. But it IS gorgeous. And on Friday, after shopping with another friend, the craziest thing that has ever happened to me, happened to me. Read closely, this is the stuff of movies.

The scene: around 4:00pm on the Zeil, the biggest shopping street in Frankfurt, between the U-Bahn Sations Hauptwache and Konstaberwache. After saying goodbye to her friend at Hauptwache, Sorrel walks through the thick Friday afternoon shopping croud to Konstablerwache to take her U-bahn, but is interrupted by a man who runs up behind her out of nowhere saying 'excuse me!'. Sorrel turns around, expecting it to be another one of those random people who ask 'are you from here?' -'no.' -'but from germany.' -'no.' -'oh. okay. nevermind.' BUT no. He says, 'uh, you're really cute, and yeah, I just wanted to.. I'm , whats your name?' I was so shocked, I sort of gurgled out my name and mumbled off that I wasn't really interested. It was obvious anyways that he was too old for me. But we had this whole conversation, what a pretty name I have, oh he was in Massachusets, oh cool I'm from Maine, what I'm doing in Germany, how I get along in school, what amazing german I have, and how old am I, actually? Oh, I'm seventeen? Well, oh, maybe I am a bit too young, but I'm (again) very beautiful, and enjoy the rest of my stay here. I wished him luck finding somebody, we said bye, and walked away. o.o

I. was. in. shock. I called my friend, I called my guest sister, nobody answered. I wrote everything furiously down in the metro, biked in a record 20 minutes back to my house, and told my guest sister. We agreed that it was incredibly gutsy of this man to do something like that, and toyed with the idea that he's just a player who does that all the time, and I know I shouldn't judge people on their looks but he definitely did not look like that type of guy. In any case, if I ever see him again I will say something to him.

That was Friday. That night I slept over at friend's house, and Saturday met up with another friend to go the Music Fair in Frankfurt. It was super incredible... There were so many instruments and so many people who could play them so well. It made me either want to start practicing ten hours a day now, or never begin at all. At some point it will end up somewhere in between. Saturday night I went with my guest family to this tiny concert of traditional classical indian music. The music was beautiful, but the chairs made my poor bum hurt all night, and it was so warm and cozy and the music was so lullaby-y that I just wanted to crawl into bed and fall asleep to it. In the intermission and afterwards I had two completely awkward conversations with random people who were in fact talking to my guest parents which made me feel irritated and as though I'd done something wrong. I swear this man stared at me funny for like twenty seconds awaiting an answer to his completely rhetorical question. Jeez! The walk around the area at 10:30 after this whole ordeal of an evening, which evoked exactly the same feelings in me as the grandmother's birthday party did, made me realize that unless I'm super into it, I shouldn't go anywhere late at night because I just can't handle it.

Anyhoo. It's been so warm lately we've been eating outside on the terrace a lot. I love it, and I love the summer food. I spent all day today getting stuff done, and I'm still not finished. A couple notes about the coming future: just one more week of school and then Easter Break! Next Sunday is my guest sister's birthday, and also the day that we drive to France! I'm excited. It's late now, though, and I still have to read some papers for my dreaded PoWi class. Bye!

Fotos

These are just some pictures taken to and from school. This tree was so beautiful...


At the music fair. Being from Maine and all, the saxophoning moose was sort of a must have picture.

My group for Deutsch class. (I talked about Menschenbild, Oberegesellschaftsschichte)

Taken today-- grilling in the newly terraced garden.



Turn left at the corner and you reach the driveway.


Please don't think that I waste my time in school. These are just two examples of at least fifty possible one of a kind creations that escape my fingers at a time which is, completely coincidentally, during class. I drew this cartoon during two particularly boring hours of PoWi. If you can't read it, it's called Harry Potter und ein Baum. (For any of you who can understand German, please see Harry Potter und ein Stein).
I would love to post every one of the 24 charming little pages of this legitimately sewn and bound book, but that's too much. It's good though, trust me.

Hamburg!

Okay guys I'm posting this late because I had to get permission on some photos. Pretend that it is from the 23rd or something.


I can't believe it was only last weekend, but yes, it was last weekend that I travelled to Hamburg to visit good friends of my parents. I had the most wonderful time, I think I didn't stop smiling the whole weekend long, except when I had to leave. It's been hard just picking out this number of photos. Enjoy...

Speicherstadt-where all goods would be stored, easily accesible

Some of the only old remaining houses that weren't bombed, there at the end of the row

view of the Domturm, and further in the background St Michaelis Cathedral
view of the city from the Domturm, handy gargoil in view
Getting ready for a tour of the harbor and of Speicherstadt!
I thought this photo was a disaster but I think it turned out cool--the wall of the Speicherstadt.
In the harbor


The 'hippie houses'
The Rickmer Rickmers, now made museum, where we also ate a delicious lunch.
still on the Rickmer Rickmers
the Rathaus, the town hall
An elevator with a mirror on the ceiling? But of course!

After such a long day we went home and ate soup and watched Keeping Mum (in German, natürlich!). On Sunday morning there were freshly ground whole wheat flour pancakes, and then the slow way to the train station to go back to Frankfurt. It was a wonderful time, and I hope that I can see this wonderful family again before I have to fly back to the US!

Some general notes about this past week: it's been good, but surprisingly full of schoolwork! I have done one group presentation for French over the history of Algiers, and will soon be doing a group presentation for German over Woyzek, by Georg Büchner. It's definitely something else, trying to work out the finetries (I know that's not a word) of Literature... in a foreign language. I think we've done a good job though, but I'll certainly report back on how badly my German teacher eats me out. He does that to everybody, but that doesn't make it any less awful and mean.

This (week)end is full of celebrating because the written Abitur is over! Woohoo! This weekend I'm also hosting some good friends of mine from AFS, which should be a lot of fun.

So bis nächstes Mal!

Flohmarkt etc

The fleakmarket was great-- we got a bit lost on the way there since we met at a metro station a bit further away, but it was such a beautiful day that none of us were bothered. There was so much, for SO cheap! Because of that, I of course ended up spending way more money than I had intended. Here are some photos...

Here is my Opa Pully-- I love it. Fifty cents.
A watch, obviously. I'm still getting used to how convenient it is...

Cute 5€ leather purse.... looked it up later online and it turns out to be major designer-brand-ness. As in, I managed to find ONE other purse by this designer online, and it costs 95$. Go figure!


The rest of the Saturday was fun too-- at home I packed all my stuff together and put the birthday present into its container. (Check this post again later, I will put up pictures of the present. It's pretty awesome). Then I met up with exchange student friends in the city for a while, and then went to the party. My friend and I were there exactly on time, which was a bit strange, but as the evening wore on it got better and better. We left between 12 and 1 to catch the last S-Bahn, and slept like rocks until I had to get up and go back home to say goodbye to my other guest sister. Today was a lazy day- I procrastinated doing work, and did pretty much nothing at all, and went on a walk later in the afternoon with my host mom and sister. That's it for now, then. Bye!

the sniffles, and other yummy goodies

So, I was sick pretty much that whole week (with a fever of 102, I found out when I later did the conversion!) although Friday I did go to school. The weekend was what is here called Fasching, but what everyon else knows as Karnival. On Sunday I went to the parade in Frankfurt, but there wasn't much going on there. There were a fair number of people, and some were dressed up, but after half an hour every band starts to look the same. That night I slept over at a fellow exchange student's house, and we went the next day to Mainz.

The biggest Faschings parades are in Köln, Düsseldorf, and Mainz, so I was pretty excited. Unfortunately it was not exactly as awesome of an experience as I was hoping for... We arrived between 11 and 12 o'clock, but had to wait at least an hour and a half for the parade to reach us. Everybody else was drunk, dressed up in crazy costumes, and with big groups of friends. We drank nothing, had no costumes (I was rather upset at how that worked out), and were only three. The parade was unbelievably long, I think over 140 floats. I ended up coming home, skipping supper, and going to bed because I was completely wiped. Oh well, I'll have other chances to party even if it's not the same.

Although, just have to add a funny story here: On Sunday as I was taking the bus to take the subway to get to the Parade, a man and a woman got in the bus dressed crazily (normal for Karnival) and the man just started to talk to the whole bus! In English!

"Ohhh hello hello helloo helloo, we're all going to the Fyashings Oomzoog -(Umzug=parade)- yes we are yes we are yes we are! Ohhhh it's a beautiful day yes it is yes it is! Oh, my, yes, what a beautiful day it is! Oh nein, es ist kein normaahlller Arbeitstyaaag, -(kein normaler Arbeitstag=not a normal work day)- no it's not no it's not!" and on, and on, and on he talked, with this crazy ugly American accent.

The wife (who was wearing this godawful bubblegum pink lipstick) just stood there and smiled the whole entire time. I was so curious about these crazy people that as we were going down the stairs to the subway, I said to the woman: "Woher kommen sie?" (Where do you come from). She totally did not understand me, and after repeating it again it was obvious that she didn't know a word of German, so I asked her in English, and the man shouted back an answer:

"Weeehhlll AAhhh come frrrm Virgin-iah, yes I do!" I asked what they were doing here in Germany, and he called back to me, "Weeehhhlll we got maayrried here thirty years ago, and still happily married now-- (to which I replied, that's nice)-- you know how it is, young people, you know, just takes ten seconds and WHOOOP! - She's pregnant!" at which point I decided to terminate our little chat by nodding and walking extremely quickly down the stairs so that I could get far enough away to get into a different subway car. How weird!

Anwayyys, this last week in school has been a pretty good one. We had Monday off because of Fasching, and Tuesday we all got out before lunch, so I hung out with a friend of mine and ate chinese food and tried on silly sunglasses. Wednesday my biology teacher wasn't there so I only had two hours of school. It was beautiful. Last Friday I finally handed in my report on my internship, although I know it was pretty bad. Today I took a French test that I had missed, and I am pretty sure it was a complete disaster! I kept trying to think in French, but everything that popped into my mind was German, and I just know it was awful. I wrote 729 words.

I don't know if I have already mentioned this, but tests here in Germany are actually quite different than they are in the US. Often in the US one will have a test with one part multiple choice, or just grammar fill ins or something, and perhaps a text that you will have to write an essay on or answer questions about. In my French test (which is typical for language classes beyond the very bottom level, I think) I had an actual speach from General Charles de Gaulle which I had to first summarize, then analyze, paying special attention to the historical context and his use of language (metaphores, personification, repetition, etc). Then there was an actual poster made by the Third Reich and put in France, which had a picture of a happy family on it and writing that something along the lines of 'the unhappy years are over, papa has a job in germany!' (dated 1942, during the occupation, hello! Paradox!) which we had to enterpret. After that I had two more hours of normal French class! I was dead afterwards.

But enough of all this school chatter. I am excited for the weekend, starting tomorrow in fact. I am going to the house of a boy in my class to work with my group on a project for PoWi (Politics and Economy class), then my dear american friend is sleeping over at my house that we can prepare the birthday present for a different boy in our class, who is celebrating his birthday on Saturday night. On Saturday, I am meeting up with some friends of mine from school to go to the fleamarket, where they apparently have really great quality stuff for very cheap. Sunday... I'll sleep.

Other bits and pieces: My older guest sister was home this week, which was quite nice. She adds a whole new dimension to the house and I really like it.

The Abitur is on! The first test is tomorrow (biology), and on Monday my guest sister writes Art! People make posters and signs out of paper and fabric for friends and family taking the Abitur, with encouraging messages and so forth on them, and hang them up in and around the school. I made one for my guest sister with my guest mom and other guest sister, which I hung up today on the sort of balcony which is the gym roof. I love to look at all the posters.

Today I had the sniffles horribly badly, it was disgusting. I don't want to get sick again! But, yet another upside, we have had beautiful sunny weather more than ten days in a row, I think! It was really always cloudy during the winter, and now I have the feeling that spring is coming!

I can't beleive I've been here six months exactly, tomorrow. It seems like so long, and yet so short. What is really unbelievable is that I only have four months to go

just a few photos...

There were lots and lots and lots of people...


...with some rather fantastic costumes


here we are, hooray!


The Korean float!

my favorites-- the fat headed people!

Many floats were political. here is Angela Merkel


google street view invades your privacy! yes, this man is completely naked and anatomically correct. welcome to Germany, we're not prudes!


the pope--finally handing out condoms
this guy was just cool


the end!