Back to Kindergarten I go

I've got my backpack packed and I'm ready to head back to kindergarten!.. Well sort of.
Lately I have been feeling very bored in school, and like I wasn't getting the full experience sitting there every day. So I spoke to some people from my club to see what I could get involved with on Monday and Thursday when I have my long breaks in school. There were a lot of options put up but the one that caught my eye the most was helping in a bilingual kindergarten. I went and visited this kindergarten last week and decided this is a perfect way to make the week go by a little bit faster.
The way the kindergarten works for being bilingual is that every class has two teachers; a German teacher, and an English teacher. For the English teachers, English is there first language, and most of them come from England, and they only speak English with the children. Since the class has both an English and German teacher already I get to do a bit of a mix. I think the nicest part about working with children so young while trying to use a language, is they aren't going to laugh at you, and they will probably understand you better than anyone else. Who knew that the best way to perfect a new language was to hang around 3-5 year olds.
Needless to say I'm pretty excited to head back to kindergarten and get to just play with blocks and color again.

Half way there

"We can't really know what a pleasuer it is to run in our own language until we're forced to stumble in someone else's." This is a quote from the book Shataram by Gregory David Roberts that I feel any exchange student, or foreigner in another country can relate to. However I also feel that it can related as well to living in someone else's culture, and country. We never know what we have, and how lucky we are until we leave it. We'll I've been away from home and living in a country the complete opposite from mine for over five months now, and I can easily say I know what Mr. Roberts is talking about. It's hard to carry a conversation in another language that you aren't perfect in and not misunderstand things, or wonder if things are being lost in translation and they meant something completely else.
I personally believe that the youth exchance is a program that allows us to realize how lucky we are, and to really appreciate the things we have back home. I am grateful so far for all the experiences I have had, the ups and the downs, for I know they have made me a better and stronger person. These first five months have been rocky, however I am looking very forward to the next five; I have plans on visiting my old echange student; JP, in Paris over my spring break, then two weeks after that I head off with the other exchange students for a three week Euro trip, and then my mother coming at the end to go visit her extended family in Croatia.
These first five months have taught me a lot and given me the opportunity to see plenty, but I can say that these next five will be the highlight of the exchange and I can not wait for all the things I will get to. So keep reading I will try to keep everyone as updated as possible and post plenty of pictures.

Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday, Happy New Years!!!!

It's easy to say I had a packed Christmas holidays and have seen lots, and it is only half way through. I celebrated Christmas with my host family in Southern Germany near Munich, then headed to Zurich Switzerland to celebrate my 18th birthday and New Years. Then I head home for a few days, and am back on the road for a shorter trip to Kiel to say goodbye to some of exchange students who leave this month.

Christmas was a weird time; I mean this in the sense that it did not feel like Christmas to me, and I wasn't really excited like I usually am. At home I am still five years old around Christmas time; christmas music palying constantly, making wish lists, buying presents, counting down days, and always the first one awake on Christmas. What can I say I'm a sucker for presents, and not just getting them, I love buying them too. Well this year I didn't do any of that, none of my usual traditions so Christmas wasn't really Christmas for me. Here in Germany they celebrate on the eve of the 24th, usually after Church and dinner they open presents. It was nice to see how someone else does it, but I can't lie I missed my traditions, and eggnog!

On the 26th my host family took me into Muich to catch my train to Switzerland, luckily we had some time before my train left and got to see some sites. The thing i am most happy is that I get to check another item of my wish list of things to see. On our way to Munich we stopped at Dachau, to see a concentration camp, this is the concentration camp that I had really wanted to see but didn't think would be possible since it was so far away. I did get to see it though and it was amazing, but sad at the same time. I'm hoping to go back again, since it's something I don't think you can see all of in one day, especially not in winter when it's so cold out.

We also drove around Munich for an hour or so to see some of the main sites, and it's official I have fallen in love with Munich, especially the University, too bad you have to be the next Albert Einstein to go there.

Next I headed to Zurich to stay with a friend of mine and her family, who happen to live on lake Zurich. This was an amazing time I got to see a lot of Zurich, old and new. It was amazing, sadly the weather wasn't the best and my camera was back to not co operating so I didn't get too many pictures.

After Zurich we went out to the familys cabin up in the Swiss Alps near a town called Lenzerheide, and I think it's easy to say this was my favorite part of the whole trip. It was absolutely gorgeous and exactly what I expected of the Alps. Sadly I didn't get to do any skiing but just being out there was enough for me, hopefully I'll get another chance to get out there.

Now I am currently waiting in Zurich to head back home, I'm sad to go but it will be nice to sleep in a bed to myself again. I hope everyone had a good Christmas, and Happy New Year!!!

Christmas

In the past couple weeks christmas has been coming in full fource, we had our rotary christmas dinner, visiting plenty of christmas markets, and baking cookies.

The Rotary party was in one of the big hotels over looking the harbor in Hamburg, sadly there was too much fog to see anything outside the windows. The party started on the top floor in the bar where they were serving champagne. After we went down to the restaurant where there was a five course meal, sadly I can't say I enjoyed to much of the food, except the desert, that was delicious!

Also been spending a lot of time in Hamburg at the christmas markets, there are about 3 different ones set up though the center of Hamburg. The christmas markets are absolutely beautiful and smell amazing! There are plenty of stands for candy, chocolate covered fruit, and roasted nuts. It's going to be sad when they close down.

This week me and some of the other exchange students got together to bake some christmas cookies, it was pretty fun and even though it was difficult to find some aingredients they worked out really good. Might have to make a couple more batches soon.

Merry Christmas to everyone!!

Karmen enjoying the snow

Moving

I have now been living with my new family for just over a week now, and so far so good. It was hard to move and leave my last host family, but it’s also nicer to be in town now. Instead of always biking and getting rides everywhere I’m able to walk just a few minutes to get to a store. This is also the family I will be spending Christmas with, down in Southern Germany, near Munich. I’m really excited for this since I will be able to see a lot more of Germany, and actually also get to see some of the things on my bucket list, including skiing in the German Alps.

Here is a few photos of me with my first host family.

 Freddy, Me, and Charlin

 Harald, Me, Dagmar,Charlin, Freddy, and Lesley

 Manfred, Me, Dagmar, Freddy, and Harald

Dagmar, and I making Christmas cookies

Ich liebe dich alle

I have almost been in Germany for four months and over that time I have lost contact with many friends from back home. Many of these friends were ones that I thought I would be in contact with the most, but things change, and so do people. However I have also been fortunate enough to gain 53 new friends, ones who I know will always be there for me, and have been like family lately.

Orientation weekends; that is one of the things I am so grateful that rotary organizes for us. It is just a weekend where we all get together, these exchange students have become my family here in Germany, and I love them all.

I just retured from my second orientation weekend where we spent the weekend in Bad Oldesloe and Lubeck. There is no youth hostel in Bad Oldesloe, therefore members from the rotary club were kind enough to open there homes to us. I was hosted my a woman who is part of the inner wheel I believe it is called. She made me feel right at home even though I was only there for three days, and gave me her number to call if I ever have any problems. It still shocks me to see this kindness from complete strangers, but being part of this exchange i've been fortunate enough to see plenty of it.

Friday was just the welcoming day where we had supper with some of the families, then proceeded over to a youth center to have a little party. I love how they can just put us in a room with some music and we will find the most random ways to keep ourselves entertained. I had always thought that was something you could only do with small children, but I guess it also works with exchagne students. It was a fun night of playing games such as charades; which is even harder in a language you aren't fluent in.

The next morning we woke up bright and early and took a train to Lubeck, where we took a short tour throughout the city. Right now is also when all the Christmas markets are set up, but sadly we only got to take a fast walk through them and not enjoy them; lucky for me I'm close to Lubeck and will be able to return. The Christmas markets are absolutely amazing, and were also the top thing to see on my bucket list, so I can officially cross it off. After the tour we ate at the famous restaurant called "Schiffergesellschaft" that was built sometime around 1530. To finish of the day in Lubeck we went go carting, it was pretty fun, but I think it was more fun to watch all the people from the latin american countries that had never seen go carting before.

I forgot to mention we had a first snow, nothing like Canada but it's enough to keep me happy, but also to make our day in Lubeck very cold. Winter has finally found me :)

Today was a short day where we just met in a school and had some presentations from all the countries about what Christmas is like for them. I joined the Americans in singing Rudolph the Red nose Reindeer for everyone.

It felt as if this orientation was shorter than the first since we weren't staying in a hostel and staying up all night, but it was still just as good. This one was a bit sadder since we had to say goodbye to 8 of the exchange students who will be leaving before the next orientation. It's never easy saying goodbye, but here it's even harder, these exchange students become your family.

Miniatur Wunderland

Who knew it was possible to see everything from Las Vegas, to Mount Rushmore, to Switzerland to Hamburg all in one day, within the same building. Well here in Hamburg it is, you can see it all in the Miniatur Wunderland. I had been told about it before but I hadn't been interested in seeing it, and didn't think it would be very interesting. Well was I ever wrong, it was amazing; there are so many details, and it all looks realistic. Here are some pictures that will show you the miniatur wunderland and also what Hamburg looks like.