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

First Days of School

Yesterday was my first day of german high school! Apparently I'm attending the biggest Gymnasium in North-Rhine Westphalia. It has about 1,600 people, and I come from a school with 128. Wow. It was pretty overwhelming,  but good. There's another girl from American (Pennsylvania), a girl from Brazil, a boy from Thailand, one from China, and one from Azerbaijan. They all seem nice, and I'm glad to have them around, since we're all in similar situations. The first day, wednesday, I had a meeting with a school counselor who helped me pick out my classes. Germans take a lot of classes, just sayin', but they don't have them as often. Also, instead of having, say, a study hall instead of a class, you can just leave school for a while. A lot of kids go to the nearby bakery, or just hang out, as long as you're back in time for class. The school seemed very chill about everything. The counselor basically said that I was here to learn German, so the completely understood that my grades would be lower than usual. Especially since I don't actually speak German yet. I'm picking up a ton already though! I'm pretty sure I seem socially awkward right now, since the language barrier is pretty brutal, but I've already made friends. Also, apparently I don't have to take the exams because I'm an exchange student. I'll have to talk to my school in the U.S. about it, but that would really make life easier. I'm in the tenth grade, by the way, like I would be in the U.S. I was going to be with my host sister in 9th, but I think it's good that I'm not. I'll get to meet more people this way. The way that German schools work is that up until 10th grade, at least in my region, everyone stays in the same classroom and teachers come to the class. In 10th and up, though, you move around like in the U.S. Anyways, after the meeting I went to English class, and that was good. I helped other people out some, and I think we'll be doing some pretty interesting stuff. After that I had a break (I tried to make fiends, which kind of failed) I had music. It was all pretty average until the teacher threw music books at us and told us to open to page 7, aka Country Roads by John Denver. Let's just say off-key is a GREAT word to describe how that went. It was hilarious. I also noticed that "here" had been changed to "there" in the lyrics. Then, school was over, because the teacher for my last class was sick. Yeah, that's how German schools work :) After school, which ended at about 12:30ish. I think, my host mom picked my host sister and me up, and we went to look for a bike but with no success. I'll need to keep looking for one that fits and isn't too expensive. Then we went home for a while, and then I went to Fußball (soccer) club. I met more people, which was great. We all laughed at how terrible I was at soccer. In Germany, sports aren't a part of school. You go to sports clubs instead. I'm really glad I signed for that.

Today, I woke up at 5:45, as I did yesterday. I have to be on the bus (a public bus, there are no school buses in Germany. I have friends who take the train to school) at 6:45. that's when I wake up at home, but I'm adjusting to the earlier schedule well. Tomorrow my first class is at 9:30, so I get to sleep in! This is new. Anyways, I took the bus to school, like yesterday. Then I had geography, followed by chemistry. Both were equally traumatic as I had no idea what was going on. I've learned to take out pencils when everyone else does, and listen for the world "pause" (pronounces p-ow-suh: It means break). I know that it will get easier, so I'm just going to keep trying! Oh, and I get to go to London on a school trip this fall, so I'm really looking forward to that. Anyways, after chemistry, all the other exchange students and I met with the counselor, and that went well. Then we had spanish. I liked it but man, that was tough. I was thinking in English, listening to German, and speaking Spanish. There was a lot of awkward GerSpanGlish going on in my head. I'm glad I'm taking this class, though. I've forgotten SO much. I had to introduce myself in Spanish and even that was hard, but like anything else, it'll get better. After class, The exchange students from Thailand, Brazil, and the other from America went to the bakery with me. I had my first Berliner, which is a jelly donut. It's famous because JFK accidentally called himself one. At least, that's what I've heard. After that, I took the bus back to Groß Reken, and then to soccer again. It was a different group of people, and I'll play in games with this group. I liked both a lot. A girl asked me if I had played soccer before and I tried to say "last spring" but accidentally said "last breakfast". Mistakes happen, and I'm glad I can laugh that kind of thing off easily. :) Then, I played wii with some neighbors, adorable ten-year old girls. They didn't speak any English, and we communicated successfully! I'm proud of myself. I also found an animal park about 5 minutes from my house by car. I wanted to go in but I didn't have any money with me. They have buffalo, moose, wolves, etc. It looks cool. There's also a golf course! I'm already to planning to go out with more friends, and monday I take the train to Essen to meet my Betreuer, or local coordinator. Alles ist gut! Keep in touch everyone, and I'll write agin soon.
Tschüss!

With my Host Family! (Plus what camp life was like)

I meant to post this friday. Whoops!

Tomorrow, I leave Schloß Wittgenstein, and the next chapter of my journey begins. I'll take to train to Marburg, then Frankfurt, and then to Essen where I'll finally get to meet my host family. Tonight, we'll have our talent show, undoubtedly followed by all-night dance parties. Today, the schedule was pretty much as usual. We normally wake up between 7 and 8, or just wake up at 8:30 and sprint to breakfast if you're like me. After a breakfast of bread, nutella, fruit, and more bread, I have 3 hours of German class, with a break in between. We learn a lot in one class, playing games, listening to music, and doing plenty of worksheets. Yeah, there's homework. After class we have about 30 minutes and then lunch, which is inevitably meat and potatoes of some sort. Then, we have some more free time, followed by a plenum meeting. This is when we all meet and talk about cultural differences and such, or do activities and such. I always enjoy them. After plenum we have dinner (something with bread, who would have though?) And then we sometimes have workshops, which could be cooking, card games, sports, pretty much anything. A friend and I taught zumba the other day, which was a blast. Sometimes instead of workshops we have small groups, where we divide into groups of ten formed at the beginning of camp. We have discussions and its sort of a support group for your year abroad. Then we have free time until room check, at 10:15 and then 12:00 on weekends. It's honestly been the best three weeks of my life :)

Post from today:

I'm with my host family!! I arrived Saturday. I have my own room and bathroom, and my village is beautiful!! There's trails in the forest, so I can walk the dog or just go on jogs. It's only day two but I can already tell that running is really going to help me get through rough patches this year. It's so relaxing, and really helps clear my mind even when I feel totally fine. There's not too much to do here, but there are train and bus stations that lead to big cities that are pretty close by. Apparently there's an H&M about 20 minutes away! I still think its so cool that I'm only an hour and a half away from Dortmund, one hour away from Essen, and about twenty minutes from many, many other villages with fitness centers, shops, restaurants, and more. Everything is very accessible, and I'm excited to see the nearby villages. I'm going to try and join a sports club here, probably Fußball (soccer) because there isn't a club for running. Apparently there's a race soon, and I'd love to do that. I'll be completely honest: This is hard. It's really, really hard to keep your head up when homesick but I'm determined! I start school wednesday and I can't wait to meet people. Today was my host mom's birthday, and we had a party. I got to meet some other teenagers from Reken and I had very, very fractured conversations in German. I was so proud of myself though. I'm already picking up german, and I'll only get better.
Tchuss,
Katy