Two Years Later

Almost exactly two years ago, I packed my bags, shed my tears, and left Germany. I had no idea when I would return. In my two years back in the United States I've attended two separate high schools, hosted a German exchange student, and left the country several times. Though the past two years have been full of adventures, I still wanted desperately to return to Germany but, for the most part, had no idea when I'd be able to go back. Well, that day is THIS SUNDAY! After months of saving and planning, I'm finally headed back to good ol' Deutschland and I couldn't be more excited. This blog is a bit dusty to say the least, but I'm curious to see how everything will be different and figured I might as well share what I learn. I'm thrilled to be returning, but also a bit nervous. How rusty is my German? Am I still as good at navigating train stations? Will I still feel right at home? Of course, I won't be able to slip right back into the mold of "U.S. exchange student" that I fit while abroad two years ago with CBYX. But my friends and host family are all still there, and no matter how much has changed or how well I fit in, I couldn't be more excited to return to my second home. 

Good Bye

This was written before I left Germany

I meant to write more. I meant to write about Amsterdam, end year seminar, eastern Europe, so much more. But then, I found myself here: Four days from leaving the country that I've lived in for the past 10 months and learned to love. My suitcase is partially packed. Several goodbyes have been exchanged, several tears have been shed. Thursday will be my last day of school and friday I'll say goodbye to my host family and take a train down to Frankfurt. Saturday, I fly home. I knew I would have to leave, of course. I knew all along that it was coming. But suddenly, it's not January and I don't have months and months left. It's tuesday. I leave Saturday. 

This year has been so many things. It's had its rough times, when all I wanted to do was go home because I was so homesick and lonely. But there were also times that I realized I was the happiest that I'd ever been. Whether I was with other American exchange students or new-found German friends, there were so many incredible times. 

This year also changed me. Everything I experienced, the good and the bad, shaped me in some way. I took something away from each day. I learned a lot about myself. I figured out a little more what I want to do with my life.

Here's the thing about exchange: You leave everything you know behind. Your familiar friends, family, school, and town are thousands of miles away. You start a new life. A new family, a new town, a new language, and completely new people. Then, with the realization that ten months actually isn't all that long, you build an entirely new life for yourself only to know that you'll have to leave it all behind. It's not easy, but it is so worth it. 

I'll miss this place so much. My host family will always be a second family to me, and my german friends are some of the most amazing people I've ever met. It's somewhat heartbreaking to realize that it's truly ending. It's also a really weird feeling. It's strange to think that this time next week I'll be at home. I'm also a bit excited, of course. Chick-fil-a. the dollar, and my family await. But there will always be a part of me back in Germany. This isn't 'goodbye', it's 'until next time'. I know that this friday will be hard. I know that saying goodbye to my host family will be very, very difficult. But like I said, until next time. I'll be coming back eventually.

Thanks for reading, everyone.
Tschüss,
Katy 

The Netherlands/I Attempt to Make Up for Never Blogging

Hello All!

Since my blogging skills have been going downhill at an alarming rate, Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah. Two blog posts in one week. Also note that this post doesn't have strange highlighting like the last one! Huzzah!

This weekend, my friend Dani (the one who I talk about a lot on here) came for the weekend from Berlin. A seven hour bus ride proves true friendship, I think, especially since it's only four hours by train. We spent the day in Münster, one of my favorite cities, only a train ride away from Coesfeld. 

Here's the Schloß (castle) in Münster at the university, complete with an artsy pose. After touring the Altstadt (old town), we shopped a little and then met up with some of my friends for dinner at a delicious pizzeria with painfully large portions. It was when we got our tab that we realized that two Starbucks drinks and a sticky bun cost almost as much as a pizza, brochette, and two waters (Water isn't free with dinner here) which was slightly scary. We both pledged to cut down on Starbucks, which will probably fail. Anyways, after a train and a bus back to my village, we went to sleep.

The next day, after breakfast with my host family, Dani got the supreme bike tour of Velen. The castle is under construction, which is disappointing, but it was nice nonetheless. 

We returned home, and after getting our purses, drove to Coesfeld to catch a train to Enschede (that's in the Netherlands, just by the way) No passport needed, no customs, just a train ride. I'd been to Winterswijk a couple times, another small town. Dani hadn't been out of Germany though. So, after a 50 minute train ride, we saw this: 

And were exposed to the *interesting* Dutch language for the first time:

 There are lots of double letters. Lots and lots. Anyways, everything was open despite the fact that it was Sunday. This, I discovered, was because almost all stores in the Netherlands are open on the first Sunday of each month. This weekend was also Frühlingsfest in some towns back in Germany, meaning that stores were open there as well on Sundays. This sort of thing doesn't happen often but it is nothing like Oktoberfest, unfortunately. Anyways, Dani and I explored Enschede for the day. It has about 150,000 people, so there's plenty to do. The town square was adorable. 

Welkom op de Nederland! (Thank you, google translate, for your contribution)

We also saw the other, er, perks of the Netherlands. Everywhere.

**SIDENOTE: Of course, nothing was consumed. Don't worry, Mom.

There was also a street market going on, selling everything from antiques to 1€ makeup to the very famous "Speciale Pommes" Which are french fries with ketchup, mayonnaise, and onions. We stuck to regular ketchup pommes though. Unlike many germans, I'm not a huge fan of Mayo on my french fries.

Note the Dutch flag. There were also interesting fast-food vending machines, which we did not get to try.

There was a kitchen on the other side that placed hot food in boxes. When money was inserted, one of the boxes would unlock and you would get your meal! However, we stuck to Cafe Extrablatt, always the go-to restaurant when indecisive. Afterwards, we listened to music in a little pub called Molly Malone, pictured above. The crowd was very enthusiastic about two songs in particular: The first was "Country Roads" by John Denver and the second was "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding. It was hilarious! So unexpected and made for a really great day. 

As our day in the Netherlands came to a close, we headed back to the train station. There, we saw another exchange student from our organization, Adriana, who just happened to be in the Netherlands at the same time. We waited for the train together. And waited. and waited. Until, 40 minutes later, we realized it wasn't coming at all for some reason. The others waiting were just as confused, and we eventually had to catch another train, switch trains and wait a bit longer in another town. So figuring out how to get back to Coesfeld was entertaining. But eventually we were back, and then back in my village. It was a very, very full weekend to say the least, and Danielle left early the next morning

Monday, (oh wait. That was yesterday) was overall normal, except for 5th grade English. Yes, I help out with a 5th grade english class, and I completed my ambassador's project, something required by my organization. This involves a presentation of some sort that helps to share american culture with germans. This could be singing american songs for a retirement home or baking american food for a kindergarten. I made a slideshow for the 5th graders. I talked a bit about the U.S.A, then showed them pictures of my town back home and my school. We finished off with a quiz. I was a bit nervous beforehand, as my German grammar is far from perfect, but it turned out to be awesome. After every sentence I said the students all burst into applause until the teacher encouraged them to stop, as it had taken about three minutes to say 10 sentences. But anyways, that's all that's going on in Germany at the moment. Spring break is very, very close, and I've got major plans that I couldn't be more excited for. So, of course, I'll write about them afterwards. Thanks for reading, everyone, and feel free to comment below. Until next time!

Tschüss,

Katy

Lots of Things (featuring horrible grammar)

It's official. I'm becoming a horrible blogger. Since my last post, I've been to Bonn for my midyear seminar and back to Berlin, and then to PARIS, but haven't written about it. Props to my friend Lauren, who's a current CBYX applicant, for reminding me to actually update this draft I've had for ages and ages. Okay. So over 2 months ago, I went to Bonn, which is a bit south of Cologne, for my midyear seminar. It's the former capital of Germany and birthplace of Ludwig van Beethoven. All 48 kids from the south-eastern United States met in a village called Ahrweiler on the outskirts of the city for four days. Seeing everyone was amazing. There were plenty of dramatic reunions, of course, and seeing how much everyone had changed was great. "Wow! You look so German!" The first night, after lots of hugs and dinner, we met for Plenum. This took place in a large activities room in the hostel, and it felt so much like language camp. So many people in our group, myself included, knew only words and phrases before the year started. Now, many of us speak German to near fluency. The more German I learn, however, the more uncertain I am of what "fluent" really is. Anyone who didn't speak German and heard me talking would probably consider me fluent. I still consider myself far, far from that, however. Definitely conversational, but I still don't know a lot of words and I have to think pretty carefully about everything I say. (grammar, forming sentences, all that) Anyways, back to the Midyear stories. We talked a lot over the next days about many things. What had been hardest for us during exchange, what had been the best parts, and, most importantly, what we had learned. Everyone was so much more mature. When you face problems alone, you grow up so quickly. Here's the thing about exchange: It is without a doubt, the best year of your life. It's also, however, the worst. I can honestly say that I have never been happier in my life than I have in the past five months. When I was homesick back in October, I thought I was insane for ever wanting to leave home. But I faced it, and in the process became a very different person. This was the kind of thing we talked about; reflecting on what had happened and talking about what was left to come. Of course, the entire seminar wasn't just plenum. We went to Bonn the second day and spent several hours at the Haus der Geschichte, or House of History. This was a large museum on Germany's extensive history, exhibits focusing on WWII to present day. Afterwards, we all went out and explored the city. Aaron, Dani, Ashley and I found an old Irish pub in an alley, and decided to stay there for dinner. Our booth was lined with books, like a make-shift library. I ordered a burger and was ecstatic to find that it had real, American-style bacon on top, something that's very hard to find here. Afterwards, (or it might have been before, I've forgotten) we walked to the center of the town. A farmer's market was starting to close up and so we bought two cartons of strawberries. They were finished in about two minutes flat, as they were the first strawberries any of us had had in a loooong time. Then, after a walk on the Rhine, we headed back to the hostile. When you take a small train and put 30 or so Americans on it, things are bound to get interesting. 

The next day, we had a lot of mini group time and more plenum. Mini groups are fairly self-explanatory. There are five, and each is lead by a teamer. It's a place where we can share things that we wouldn't want to share with the whole group; it's more personal. I'm writing this post in March (update: it is now April) and I am pretty unhappy with myself for waiting so long. I've forgotten so much! Anyways, we also played a German trivia game. There were five teams (each of the mini groups) and 50 circles of paper, each with a number from 1 to 50, were hidden around the hostile. There was a word on the back of each sheet and when pronounced correctly, the team could role the dice and then search for the piece of paper on the square they had just landed, after answering a difficult trivia question about Germany. It's a bit hard to explain. My group won, and the prize was candy, which we were all very happy about. We also took a walk into the center of the town, and I've completely forgotten if that was the same day. The town center was absolutely adorable, to say the least. That night we went downtown to a bar and enjoyed each other's company before we parted ways once again, heading back to our separate villages and towns for the second half of the year.

Several weeks laster, in late February, I went, once again, to Berlin. I love that place; it's so diverse and so, so cool. I went with my host sister on a trip organized by my organization. We took the train, and 4 hours later (give or take) we were in Berlin. The first night was a short orientation with rules and such, so we  just stayed in the hostel. It was pretty late, anyways. The next morning, we all woke up (There were 30 of us, students from all over the world and 2 host siblings as well). After breakfast, we went on a three-hour long walking tour of Berlin, starting in Potsdamer Platz. I'd seen some of the sights before, in January, but not all of them. Brandenburger Tor and Alexanderplatz were two of many, many stops on our tour, which I found overall fascinating. Afterwards, we had free time for the rest of the day. We tried to go to a Brazilian restaurant with the Brazilian exchange students in our group, but it was closed. However, we continued to KuDam and went to the Hard Rock Cafe shop, followed by ice cream. Danielle met up with us, and we shopped around a bit. We finally headed back to the hostel for our second night in the hostel.

The next day, we had free time until about 5pm (I think). And so we spent another day exploring the city. Danielle and I went to the Canadian embassy (It is a very long story) and we climbed to the top of the Berliner Dom. I would highly recommend that to anyone headed to Berlin. It was a bit cloudy but nonetheless a cool thing to do. Adriana and I also found fabulously touristy hats with the colors of the German flag, and we made sure to get a few pictures with them in front of Brandenburger Tor. At 5, the group met up at the Reichstag building. After we all went through security, we headed up the steps of one of the most famous and iconic buildings in Germany. We had a guided tour of the Reichstag. Our guide spoke seven languages (That was his estimate) and he was very well-informed to say the least. Fun fact: The giant eagle often associated with Germany (Picture below) is not, in fact, an eagle. It's a bird with an Eagle's head and a chicken or turkey's body. It wouldn't be able to fly. Afterwards, we went up into the dome of the Reichstag and got to see Berlin by night. It was incredible. Afterwards, dinner was at a small restaurant (Turkish, I think) a it out of the way. However, it was absolutely incredible! Do I know what I ate? Well, I know it had chicken and rice. That's about it though. But it was amazing and a great last dinner in Berlin, as we left early the next morning and went back to our host cities.

Let's fast-forward about a month. My school back home was on spring break the third week of March, and about 20 people went on a trip to Paris and Madrid. I realized soon after hearing this that Paris was only 4 hours away from Essen by train, and so, simply put, I went to Paris for the weekend! I woke up at 5:15 am on March 22nd, leaving my house at 6 for the almost hour-long drive to Essen. From there, I took a train down to Cologne, where I transferred onto the Thalys. *angels sing in the distance* Thalys is another train company that, as far as I'm concerned, has trains throughout Belgium, France, The Netherlands, and some of Germany. Let me start of by saying that it had pink seats. PINK. (Well about half were red, but that is so irrelevant). So I found my assigned seat quickly and sat down (It was not pink, aka a huge disappointment) on a chair that made me wonder if I had accidentally been placed in first class. The train stopped at Aachen, Germany, and then continued to Brussels, Belgium, and another large city before arriving in the Paris North train station. I met up with one of my teachers on the class trip, and we toured a bit of Paris together before meeting up with the rest of the group. In that time, I got to experience a bit of the Paris fashion, got a picture with Notre Dame, and saw the most famous lock bridge in the city. We walked by the oldest university in Paris and got macaroons, which at almost 2€ a piece are considered a delicacy. Either way, they were delicious! Then, came the best part: meeting up with my classmates. I hadn't seen many of them in 10 months. (Side note: They didn't know I was coming. Überraschung!) The meeting point was by Fontaine Saint-Michel. There was a big reunion in the middle of the square with my best friends (awww) and we got a quick group photo in front of the fountain before heading out on a river tour. It was an open-air boat that led us down the river Seine, allowing me to get a glimpse of the iconic Eiffel Tower. This was my second time in Paris. The first time I was seven or eight, so I'd forgotten quite a bit. The hotel was a train or two away with the use of the slightly confusing Paris underground system. The hotel was very nice, however, and after an hour or so to unpack and relax, we headed out with the wonderful(ly complicated and confusing) subway to Sacré-Cœur. It sits on top of one of the largest (and only) hills in Paris, giving you an incredible view of the city by day or by night. We ate a a local restaurant nearby where we were served a deliciously fluffy ham and cheese quiche. This was followed by beef stew with mashed potatoes, and the dinner was finished off with an incredible mousse (And it was pink, so it was instantly amazing). Afterwards, we went inside the church. There's a beautiful mosaic on the roof of the church. I've heard that the glass windows are gorgeous in the day time, but it was dark when we went. Before heading back to the hotel for the night, we got a bit of free time. My friends and I went into some touristy shops and then some art stores. However, we headed back to the church at 9:00. Every hour on the hour, for 5 minutes, the Eiffel Tower sparkles. Lights flash all over the structure and it's really cool to see. So we saw that, and at the same time were able to appreciate a procession going into the church for Mass. People carried candles and sang a French song that none of us knew, but it was the perfect ending to my first day in Paris.

The next day, after a traditional french breakfast (yum) and, at 9:30, we started our day in the city with a subway ride to the heart of the city. Our first stop was the Louvre gardens. We didn't go into the actual museum, but we got photo-ops in front of the glass pyramid, an obvious must for any tourist. Fun fact: If you looked at each work of art in the Louvre for 3 seconds each, it would take you 3 months to complete the museum. And that, ladies and gents, is why we didn't go inside. We did, however, go across the river to another, smaller art museum. It's called Musée d'Orsay, and was once one of the central train stations in Paris. Now, it features artists such as Monet, Degas, and van Gogh. We spent several hours there. My friend Laren and I went to an exhibit about the suicide of Vincent van Gogh, complete with letters to and from his brother, along with many paintings I'd never seen or heard of before. 

After the museum, we headed back across the Seine as it started to rain, and ate lunch underneath the iconic glass pyramid. I'd been there before, when I was seven or eight, but had forgotten that there's a swatch store and even an Apple store, all right at the underground entrance to the museum. We ate a quick lunch after choosing from the huge assortment of food court restaurants, took the obligatory group photo, and headed out once again, on the wondrous maze known as the Paris underground. Our ride was short, however, as we reached our next stop: the Paris Opera House. I could practically hear the phantom of the opera playing his organ from the sewer when I saw the magnificent building. For those of you who are unaware, The Phantom of the Opera was my favorite movie for many years in elementary school. We even watched it at my birthday sleepover once when I was eight(ish).  I was a very dedicated fan. Anyways, fulfillment of childhood dreams aside, it was a beautiful building. Only several operas are preformed there annually due to how expensive they are, and just how large of an undertaking one is. Entire sets, full-out costumes and makeup; it's much, much bigger than a typical play or musical. A few costumes were also on display throughout the opera house, and the chandelier above the audience was one of the many, many breath-taking features this place had to offer. All too soon, however, I saw that I only had an hour until my train to Essen left. Due to the fact that I was new to Paris and can say nothing in French besides "Je ne parle pas français" ("I don't speak French" - oh the irony), I decided to head back to the train station in order to give myself enough time to find the platform and all. Paris underground? Oh no. I was finished with that. I also didn't want to get hopelessly lost, so I took a quick taxi ride instead. When I got to the train station I discovered that there were actually only two platforms it could leave from, and the specifics were to be announced twenty minutes prior to departure. So, I relaxed and waited. My train left without any problems and I was in my village five hours later. It was exhausting, I'll admit, but it was all an incredible trip, no matter how short it was. If you have an extra weekend and don't know what to do, go to Paris! It is truly unforgettable.

In other news, spring break is just around the corner. I'll write about my travels afterwards, but it may take a while. After all, I'm writing about Bonn in April, and the trip was in January. Better late then never, right? I've also been to Münster several more times, shopping with friends or just relaxing by the lake. Life is wonderful here, and it's hard to believe that I leave this amazing place in just under 75 days. I'm making every day count, and I can't wait to see what's next to come!

until next time,

Katy 

The German "Eagle"

Paris Nord

Notre Dame

The Art Museum

The Louvre

Paris Opera House

On top of the Berliner Dom