I Think About Words an Awful Lot

Words with cool translations that I have been pondering today:

die Hochzeit
dee Hoksite
the Wedding
literally, the High Time. Ergo, weddings are a very important and celebrated time in German culture.

der Erlöser
dare Ahrlusair
the Saviour
This is a little more iffy, because it's just me. No magical direct translation here.
Löschen means to erase. And er, to me, means error. Like, to err.
So in German, the Saviour is the one who erases our errors.
I like how to-the-point German can be.

'' I'm Cheating '' - the Mormon Subculture

I have successfully moved into my new hostfamily, and I feel like I'm cheating. Because it doesn't feel like I'm in Germany anymore, it just feels like I'm at another member's house. It's crazy-cool. So today I wish to expound on the similarities and differences of Mormonity between here and Iowa.

*For those of you not in the loop: click on the title for more information*

Church

The church building itself is a bit different, since German architecture was involved. During the intermediate song whoever is closest to the windows opens them and then closes them at the end of the song. Also, we always stand up for the intermediate hymn, no matter what.
If you don't get moving onto your next class fast enough people in the hallway snap at you, which makes me wonder when their class starts.
We have the classes first and sacrament meeting after, but we used to do that in Boone too so that's not really that different.
Germans have this thing about going outside all the time! Why can't we just keep all our rooms in one building? They recently acquired some rooms in a nearby building, and they are now housing the Young Men/ Young Women classes, and also some Sunday school classes. It's nice to have the room but BRR!

Bonn Gemeinde (Ward)

Bonn has a lot of international or diplomacy related stuff going on, a by-product of the years when it was the capital right after World War II. So church is never a monolingual occasion, but today was more fun than usual.
We have a Canadian couple who are here for work, and she is taking German lessons but he isn't really because he works so much. She gave a talk today that she had originally written in English and then had had help to translate into German. So I was listening to her read German from the podium when I thought I heard some French - I turned around to see her husband reading the English copy and translating it into French for a new couple. It made me rather giddy inside.
I have a lot of trouble keeping track of which children to speak to in English and which to speak to in German. Also, the water was blessed in Spanish once. That was cool.
Also, I am never sure which language my class is going to be taught in. It's generally a mystery until my teacher opens his /her mouth, unless i know my teacher can't speak good German. I rarely have the same teacher twice - I think they take turns? Not sure.

Home

The same pictures on the walls. That was my first hint.
Our breakfast routine goes like this: we sit around the table, blinking bleary-eyed at one another, and then Regina (my hostmom) passes me a songbook. Then we all sing a verse of a Primary song. Then someone prays, and while we all get breakfast Ingo (hostdad) reads a few verses from the Buch Mormon. Then we eat. Sometimes she doesn't pass me a song book, so I just sing it in English. The boys get a kick out of that, and it often leads to Anna-Lena complaining about how the English version is much better and why didn't they translate it right?

She's kinda cranky in the mornings.

Regina walks around whistling hymns all the time and she gets a kick out of me singing along in English. (I can STILL not whistle.) Don't know the hymns auf Deutsch either, but I've almost memorized some of the Christmas songs since I've sung them so many times!

And I dunno how this could possibly relate to religious beliefs, but some things are creepily the same. Like, my hostmom and my mom react the exact same way when loud noises wake them up from a nap (incoherent sleepy yelling, in case you were wondering). And we have a piano. Is that in the scriptures somewhere? And last Sunday Johannes fell asleep during breakfast and Regina started singing 'Saturday is a Special Day' and I started cracking up because, well, that's the response I was expecting.

So what it all boils down to is what my teacher was saying in Sonntagschule today, during our lesson on fellowshipping: We aren't strangers in the Church. We share commons beliefs and experiences and we need to share them with each other to stay strong.

I'm wondering what AFS would do if they found out. teehee.

Cheesecake Finale - Foto Post

Here is some dessertness!! Please note the awesome Ben Franklin store fanturkeythingy. It was a hit.
That is my cheesecake! I know you've all been dying from the suspense. The bottom was a little wettish and the sides weren't all that pretty, but it tasted just like a cheescake! It was excellent!

Thuy Tien took me to lunch and bought me a bunch of random pastries and stuff. I only wanted the one in the foreground and she bought the rest and said, 'Try it!' and when I did she said, 'Do you like it? Eat it!'
Okay, okay!
She's half Italian.



And then we went to the village where she lived and I posed with the sign. All German towns have these, but I'm not totally sure where Erl's is.

I switch host families this Friday!

Apparently 'Cheesecake is Hard to Make' Doesn't Translate Well

PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE

Crust:
1 1/2 C graham cracker crumbs
1/4 C granulated sugar
1/3 C butter or margarine, melted

COMBINE graham cracker crumbs, sugar and butter in medium bowl. Press into bottom and 1 inch up side of 9-inch springform pan. Bake in preheated 350° oven for 6 to 8 minutes. Do not allow to brown. Remove from oven; cool.

Cheesecake:
3 pkgs cream cheese, softened
1 C granulated sugar
1/4 C brown sugar
1 3/4 C pumpkin
2 eggs
2/3 C (5-fl. oz. can) evaporated milk
2 Tbs cornstarch
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

BEAT cream cheese and sugars in larger mixer bowl until fluffy. Beat in pumpkin, eggs and evaporated milk. Add cornstarch, cinnamon and nutmeg; beat well. Pour into crust. BAKE in preheated 350° oven for 55 to 60 minutes or until edge is set.

Topping:
2 C (16 oz) sour cream at room temperature
1/4 to 1/3 C granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla

COMBINE ingredients in small bowl. Spread over surface of warm cheesecake. Return to 350°oven and bake for 5 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Remove side of pan; chill several hours or overnight.

At least, that's what was supposed to have happened. But Hier ist Deustchland.
So I came home from school today expecting to make some cake from some boxes and, at the most difficult, a pumpkin pie. But Susanne handed me this recipe and said, Go for it. WHAT!

I just want to preface this by saying that I have never successfully made chocolate chip cookies in my life.

The first thing I did was call home, of course. Beth answered and told me that Mom and Dad were at the Hotel working and would be for a few hours. I did not find that acceptable. About 20 minutes later I was talking to Dad, who is perhaps not the resident cheesecake Master but hey, I wasn't in a position for being picky. So with my revisions in hand and my obstinance on full-force, we return to the kitchen.

The Crust

I don't know what she bought, but they were not graham crackers. Luckily they crumblified just fine under pressure, which is exactly what I gave them. Some melted margarine, some sugar, okay good. I was already thanking the Lord for inspiring me to give Erich English-style measuring cups and spoons as a welcome gift. 350°F is 175°C. I don't THINK I burnt it, but I haven't eaten the dratted thing yet. That's tomorrow....

The Middle Stuff

Not all cream cheese packages were created equal. Again a call to Beth to find out how much, exactly, that is. The stuff Susanne gave me was definitely not Philadelphia's Finest Cream Cheese, but I figured it was the equivalent so I just stuck it in there. In retrospect I know they have Philadelphia Cream Cheese here because I remember putting it on my brot a month ago, dang it. I'm pretty sure this was the kind of creamy cheese that comes with stuff in it. Like chives and such.
The mixer in this place is crazy - fast and scared me. Like, this thing's 1 setting is like Mom's mixer's 5 or 6 setting. Holy Baloney!
The thought of using pumpkin from a can was downright hilarious to Susanne. 'What, you mean like the ones that we have in the garden?' Well, not quite. Because those don't involve a can opener. The first one she brought in was kinda rotten inside, which was disgusting. The second one didn't even make it in. Lucky for me, the third one was just fine. Then I realized I had absolutely no clue what to do with the thing.
So I called Dad again.
Then I went back in, scooped out the icky stuff like a pro, cut out a huge chunk out of the side (without even making a face in the thing, I know, I'm an awful American), cut off the outside, diced what I had left, and threw it in some simmering water. I got myself some simmering water, by the way, by putting some water in this Wasserkocher thing and pushing the little button. In less than a minute I had 1L of boiling water. It's Magic!!! To be totally honest, the thing scares me to death. But hot water is hot water, and pumpkins are pumpkins.
And smashing pumpkins is much, much easier than that band makes it sound. I did it to what I thought was rather satisfactory smashed-ness but was, in fact, not.
After putting the pumpkin, eggs, and evaporated milk in the sugar-chipdip stuff I noticed strainy little pumpkin things in there that I certainly would not want to show up in my cheesecake. So, like the resourceful girl I am, I strained the dratted thing. And there was a LOT of extra pumpkiny crud in there. And I know a REALLY good girl would have found a way to beat the stuff to a bloody pulp and then chuck it back in, but I did not. I just tossed it and hoped the ESSENCE of pumpkin would be enough.
Please do keep in mind that it had been over an hour, almost two, at this point, I had had only a sausage-cheese-sandwich thing and some bubbly apple juice for lunch, and Lukas was playing soccer with himself whenever he wasn't hovering. So forgive my lack of pumpkinness.

Also, I was blasting König der Löwen - The Lion King in German - which was keeping me from causing Lukas pain and keeping my vocal chords mostly occupied, but was still kind of distracting. You know how that is.

Susanne had left for a council meeting of some sort, and had left it up to me to see that Lukas didn't starve. Which is really putting more faith in me than I think is really called for. It was about 7, so I asked Lukas,
'Hast du Hunger?' - which means exactly what you think it does -
To which is replied, 'Ja.'
'Was möchtest du essen?' - What would you like to eat? -
'Nudeln.'
Oh, thank you. That's something I can do. But first, now that he knew the food was coming, let's get these last few ingredients in there and get this baby baking!

Roadblock. (Surprised?)
I couldn't find the measuring spoons that I had given Erich. Nowhere. And I SEARCHED, I tell you, I searched! There was also some random frustrated squealing noises in there. If you have ever been near me while I am
1) Doing math homework
2) Doing any kind of homework
3) Waiting longer than I find necessary for a computer download
4) Trying to read a map and drive simultaneously
5) Unable to read my own Music Theory workbook
6) Doing anything that involves the possibility of me becoming frustrated
7) COOKING,
Then you know exactly what this noise sounds like.
So I left the mess of whatever to sit and called Lukas over to ask him what kind of noodles he wanted. He picked some, I don't know what kind, and I did the crazy boiling water thing again (still making me jump) and fought with Lukas over the proper procedure for starting the gas stove. He was all for just pushing down the thing that causes flame and then setting a basket on it. I was all for doing the thing where you let go of them at the same time so that the fire stays there all on its own.
I won.

Before the noodles were finished Susanne came home. I asked her where my teaspoon and tablespoon were. She smiled and pointed at the little spoon lying in front of me.
Yes, I know that technically that is a teaspoon, and the big ones are tablespoons, but I am not my father. The recipe calls for a teaspoon and a fourth, so that's what it is going to get!

I figured I had done quite enough deviation at this point: I'm sure you agree.

Unfortunately we were all unsuccessful at finding them, so I threw in three literal table spoons full of flour. What? Flour? Well, yes. Apparently there is no cornstarch in Germany, which I tend to doubt, but I was not invited to the grocery store and I don't speak German anyway. So Dad and I had decided on flour, and a bit more. Susanne threw in a suggestion for some other corn thing that I don't know about, which caused another call home. This time I actually got my mother, which was not only extremely helpful but good for my nerves. Apparently she was very proud of me for getting even this far.

'Mom, I can't make a cheesecake!'
'Don't worry, I know.'
Gee, thanks Mom.

So I gritted my teeth and just eyeballed the rest, poured it on my crust that I am unsure about, and threw the thing in the dratted oven. Then I went downstairs to veg on the computer for 45 minutes, which I did with vigor.
Fifteen minutes of constantly checking the thing that I have now named George in memory of some other slightly orange thing that was rather annoying, and then I called it done and let it sit. Susanne said to remember to do the topping in the morning, I said fine excellent good night, and went back to vegging my poor brain.

The Top Stuff

About a half an hour ago I realized the recipe says to put on the topping, and THEN let it sit overnight.
So when Susanne came in recently to talk about the topping again, and something else I don't remember, I told her maybe we can just not do it.
'Well it looked rather easy, if you don't do it I just will.'
Which was kinda annoying in a 'I'm not actually listening' kind of way but hey whatever, I guess we're putting a topping on the thing. George, that is.

Phew.

I wonder how this George thing is gonna taste.

Yes, I took pictures.... Forthcoming.

In der Weihnnachts Bäckerei...

November 26 2008. Mittwoch.

6:25 beepbeepbeep SMASH
6:35 beepbeepbeep SMASH

houseshoes, sweatshirt, up the stairs, where IS that lightswitch? OW MY EYES! Cornflakes, bowl, milk, sit. Oh, spoon. Eating... I love Cornflakes. Crud it's 6:45! Bowl in sink, milk in fridge, Cornflakes under the plant. Downstairs.
*giggle* My hair looks downright ridiculous and it makes me very happy - Katie's positive experiences with bedhead have pushed me to give it a try. So far the experiment is successful - I get to wake up later, and since the humidity is going to kill my hair anyway it really doesn't matter what it looks like.
Zahneputzen, Facewashen, Curse this blasted acne - I think it's stress-related.
Today I'm wearing dark green skinny jeans, a Save the Earth shirt from America, my lovely multi-colored scarf, and German Tennisshoes. Also a necklace with a nut from Ghana on it, a bracelet from Thuy Tien, and my classring. I had to switch it from the right hand to the left hand - they wear weddingrings on the right here. Also, my fingers have gotten smaller and my left hand has always been bigger.

7:20 Time to go! Coat on, cell phone in the right pocket, iPod in the left pocket, earphones in, scarf around the earphones, earphones out so they can hang artfully over the edge of my scarf. Doublecheck that I have the right pile of books and my wallet, and up the stairs and out the door! I have to slam it because there's no handle on the outside to pull it closed with. Then I jog lightly down the cobblestones of Ahornweg, then hang a right and down a sloped road to the main road - which is only one lane wide. Then I stand in a line behind a group of German kids with those huge backpacks I've mentioned. My hands are freezing, so once I get my iPod set to the German version of The Lion King, I dig in my rucksack for my gloves. I have discovered that the iPod clickwheel does not respond to gloved fingers, and it is a point of much frustration.

7:27 Bus arrives and we all pour into it. It is a manual, like all vehicles in Germany, so the starting is pretty rocky.

7:44 Arrive at Neutor, and all the Gymnasium kids get off the bus to walk the rest of the way to school.

7:50 Thuy Tien is sitting outside, trying and failing to study for her Deutsch Arbeit in the first stunde. I am, unfortunately, no help - she has too much fun laughing at me.
Not much very exciting happens the rest of the school day, except that I almost didn't go to Chemistry. It was a close one. And my Biology teacher never seems to be there, so the Physics teacher moved the class test up to second period, leaving sixth stunde free.

12:17 Bus 135-Ohlenberg arrives at Neutor, so I hug Mercedes goodbye and get on. Up the hill again, standing again - no way am I going to get into a discussion with a punk-wannabe about whether or not a seat is free.
I make myself a cheese-ham-sandwich thing for lunch and round it off with Mineral Wasser and an orange. Then I take an hour-long nap.

15:01 Bus 135-Linz Bahnhof arrives 4 minutes late, which is pretty typical. Now I'm listening to the Phantom of the Opera soundtrack, which is regrettably in English. I'll have to find myself some more German music somewhere.

15:24 Train RB 27 arrives at the Linz Bahnhof, and I get on. I turn down my music a bit, so I don't bug the nice looking old lady in the next booth of seats.

15:50 Perfectly timed transfer from RB 27 to the streetcar Line 62. Yes! I ride it all the way to the Bonn Hauptbahnhof and then, realizing that I'm cutting it a bit close, I fast-walk past McDonald's into the shopping district of Bonn. I'm almost to the plaza with the statue of Beethoven when I realize it is much more crowded than usual... oh yeah. Weihnnachtmarkt. The whole plaza is packed full of people drinking hot wine and buying German trinkets. I wish I had more time to look around, but I don't. Maybe Sanni will come tour it with me later. I walk around the outside and find my favorite bookstore - Bouviers. I am looking for a sturdy notebook to start keeping better track of my learned German in, and amazingly I find it in the cheapo racks outside. 3€! It's got a cute black and white cover of a German street, with a bright orange Fahrrad in the foreground. I am very very happy. I get in and out of the store without anyone suspecting that I may not actually speak any German at all, which is always my goal.
I'm not sure when the Straßenbahn leaves again, so I start lightly jogging back around the craziness of the plaza.

16:33 S-Bahn 66 arrives, and I get on. Don't let the bright-pink Deutscher Telekom exterior fool you - the inside of this thing is totally ghetto. I'm glad I'm wearing my dark green jeans so if there's anything on the seat, no one will notice.

16:42 I get off at the stop nearest my German class, and see that Fabio was on the same line. We walk to class together, having our typical very basic German conversation that all AFSers have.

'Hey Fabio, wie geht's?'
'Oh hallo Meg, mir ist gut. Dir?'
'Oh, auch gut. Wo sind Matt und Yusuf?'
'Keine Ahnung.'
'Viellicht they're already there.'
'Ja. Hast du die Hausaufgaben gemacht?'
'Nein, wir haben nicht ein aufgabe gehabt, ich denke.'
'Ach so!'

and then it totally fell into English. But at least we good little AFSers always put forth the effort.
Since the German class was shorter than usual we just spent the whole time having a teacher-led discussion all in German. Then she assigned us a few book pages and left her son there to help us. He's about 10 and thinks our pronunciation is the funniest thing in die Welt.

18:25 'Gudi, ich muss zum Bahn gehen. Haben wir Hausaufgaben?'
'*not-understood German, but I picked out the phrase 'Finish the page we were on.'*'
'Okay, Bis nächste Woche!'
'Tshüss!'

18:28 Line 66 again, back to the Hauptbahnhof. Then I walk to Train Gleis 5, and the zug(train) is already there. I sit in it until its 18:47 departure time.

18:53 Zug arrives in Bonn-Duisdorf, and I exit. Quick walk-jog gets me to the church by 7, which is a half-hour late but was my goal so I am still happy.
The elders - we have 6 of them - are playing basketball with Effy, a universität student from Kenya who is getting baptized on Sunday. We are the only ones there for the Family Home Evening activity, because Allegra Bel has to work in the Ski Kellar. I don't know where Anya, Eve, and the others are. There are a bunch of other people in the building, though, working on paperwork or whatever.
It turns out the planned activity involved playing a crazy form of Soccer in the gym with chairs and bases and ... not a good idea for me. So I help Elders Eaton (from Cedar Rapids! Holy Taco!) and Sessions make cookies. Well, mostly I just stay out of the way and tell them when they're doing something stupid, like not breaking the chocolate bars into small enough pieces or not melting the butter first. In reply they ask me what random things are in German and then make fun of me when I don't know.
The cookies actually turned out really good.
Then Elders Williams and Roane, the zone leaders, give a lesson on always reading and praying as the base of our faith. It's very nice, mostly because I have been doing those things. I wouldn't have been as happy about it if I wasn't - cuz then you feel guilty.

8:53 Bus line 632 from Duisdorf Bahnhof to Bonn.Beuel Bahnhof.
I then realize that the next Zug doesn't come until 10:33 and it is approximately 9:50 at this point. Buses are slow, but they go more often than S-Bahns later at night. So I take the line 62 to the McDonalds (a closer one than the aforementioned one), mostly because I have to go to the bathroom. I bought a sandwich so that they would let me, and it is very very good.

10:33 Zug arrives. I go home. Erich picks me up from the Linz Bahnhof and tells me about how his battery died today, so we get into a discussion about Onstar and its German equivilant.

11:30 Shower, journal, BoM, prayer, bed. phew!

Ich Bin Nicht Eine Drama Queen

I am rather disappointed in myself in that I am unable to remember ANYTHING that has been happening when I sit down to blog! But maybe that is because not much is happening? It is all starting to seem a bit routine to me.

This is going to be a very short blog (glance down, you can already see the bottom!) because I am in the midst of switching host families which is not any sort of fun. And that is saying something, because I can make ANYTHING fun. I have become particularly good at making Waiting Twenty Minutes For the Train fun, and that takes some SERIOUS talent.

So, I would like to nudge you in the direction of my dear AFS friend Katie, whose blog is right over there. *points to the left side of your screen* A Year Abroad is her, and she is simply cute. And good at saying things.

Stay tuned for more slightly more exciting things!!

~meg is spelled with an E.~

A Victory is A Victory, An Adventure is an Adventure

I have decided to NOT become a professional blogger. Es tut mir SO leid, y'all.

FROM THE NOTEBOOK:
26.10.08 Sonntag The Birthday of Jens and Yen
No, they're not twins. They're two kids from my class with the same birthday, and similar names! Think, Yen like Japanese money, Jens like the plural of Japanese money. I learned to wrap springrolls and kicked everyone's behind in Singstar, the karaoke equivilant of Guitar Hero. Even on the German songs, since they don't give points for pronunciation :D
Then the general public showed up and Chinese food and Bier for all! Luckily Thuy Tien also didn't drink, so we were sane together. Jens is a friendly drunk, so there was a half hour in there where he was sitting with his arm on my shoulder conversationally speaking German to me. Slurred. I didn't catch any of it.
Luckily Daylight Saving Time ended a week earlier here so I wasn't too tired in church today.

29.10.08 Mittwoch
I did 2 chapters in the New Testament today! I was a little behind ... oops! Also cleaned my room.
In my German for AFSers class we played Guess Who, or Wer Ist Es? to learn descriptive words. Matt got really competitive, crazy American.

31.10.08 Halloween
Susanne und Erich had a meeting and asked me to babysit, so I invited to come hang with me. That turned out to be an excellent idea. Lukas was laughing so hard at me trying to read to him in German that he would never had fallen asleep if Sanni hadn't stepped in! Then we ate a lot of Kinder Schokolade and fruity gummis. Yum.

2.11.08 Sonntag
We had a potluck in church today. I sat by two investigators, from Kenya and China. All my conversations seem to be with non-Germans lately. What up with that?
The new missionary transfer hails from Cedar Rapids IA! So the two of us and the rest of the missionaries had a polite, loving, non-violent FLAME WAR!!!!! And the Hawkeye state professionally kicked the beehive all the way to the Pacific.
High five! Oh, I mean... handshake. Yep.

4.11.08
Yes, Germany OBAMA won. Now, about the weather... rain again, I see.

8.11.08 Samstag
Heute war die/as/er Tag der Öffenen Tür at my school. That's the school's Open House. My class's job was to sell drinks, and I have now mastered opening the metal bottlecap thingys. Schneller! Ah!
I ate a Döner. I want another one RIGHT NOW.

10.11.08
St. Martin's Day celebration! More tomorrow, hopefully.

Tschüss!!

lauren margaret

The Definition of Wanderlust

Vielen Dank to Erika for showing me this wonderful video. The world is a very very different place - those that say to you, 'We're really all the same' are grossly simplifying the matter. We are all the same, partially, in our core. And one of those things that I think many of us have the same is that, when a random American starts step dancing in front of our national monument, we join in.

Giving Thanks In Advance

First, my Internet privacy has been invaded over 500 times!! It's almost as if I'm a popular person!

Second, and mainly, tonight after dinner my host father told me that the family holds a Thanksgivingparty (yes, one word. This is German.) for about 50 of their friends every year, and did I have any hints for them?

Uhhhmmm....

All that came to mind was turkey, that scene on The West Wing when the president calls the Butterball Hotline, pumpkin pie, and kindergarteners running around with construction paper feathers on their heads.

So I am calling on my vast network of Americans - send your favorite part of Thanksgiving, be it an activity, family tradition, or recipe, to me at heavenlydaughter@gmail.com. ASAP! And closer to the day, I will post a compilation of them for your very American viewing pleasure.

Also, I am saving all the very good questions I've received for slower posting times, don't worry, I'll get to them!

If I Were To Own a Castle, I Would Finish It. Day 2

Two-Day Extravaganza!!

10. Oktober
I had to get up early. I really do not like doing that. Fabio from Paraguay, Daiana from Argentina, Matt from Boston, and I got on the bus that was already full of Latinos, Asians, two Americans, two Turks, and two Europeans. We were a pretty crazy looking group, I must say.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Rothenberg Above the Tauber River is a walled city that was founded in 1170 by a bunch of old German people with crazy names. It has been preserved rather well - at least the buildings have. No Tourism Department has the power to keep the locals preserved, which is a shame. I would have been very interested to see the original residents going on about their daily business, instead of seeing a bunch of Germans, Americans, and Japanese people running around with cameras.

This is called a snowball. It's a Rothenberg classic, and involves baking a bunch of tiny waffle pieces together and then slathering the whole thing in something. Mein ist schokolade.



11. Oktober

Kloster Ettal

In Ettal we visited eine Käserei, or a Cheesemaking Factory, and they're right - it smells just like a boy's locker room! Seriously. I felt like I was walking down the Gym hallway during football season. GAG. Did you know those rounded cheese things sit on a shelf getting wiped daily with some formula for five months? I knew there was a reason I didn't like cheese.
The Kloster, or monastery, was gorgeous. All copper roofs and pretty architecture.

Wieskirche

Our last stop of the day was a cathedral that was also very, very, old. This picture is of the organ, which doesn't hold a candle to the Mormon Tabernacle organ, but has rather impressive sound. I could hear it all the way down in the village. All of these buildings are serious Fire Code liabilities - all the doors open in! Remember American History, if the doors open in the people can't escape in a fire! I think the point here was that if the Barbarians come, you can block it from the inside. It's really all a matter of perspective.

12. Oktober

Schloss Neuschwanstein

New Swan Stone Castle is a very appropriate name for this castle - it is only 120 years old! That is really young for a castle. King Ludwig II of Bavaria was rather fond of the works of Wagner, which include Tristan and Isolde, amongst others. The castle is dedicated to him and his operas.
First drawings of the castle were drawn by a theatrical artist, not an architect, to give the castle a whimsical appearance. Each room is covered with designs from different works of Wagner - only a handful of rooms were ever finished, however. At the king's death work on the castle stopped and it has never been completed in the interior, probably because the funds no longer existed.
Visitors aren't allowed to take photos of the inside of the castle, so I have only pictures of the outside. To the left is the facade, and
to the right is a picture of AFSers in the center courtyard. The first row is an American, a Brazilian, a Slovak, a Chinese, and a Japanese! And the back is just as crazy.
I love it.

Austria

After all that, we got the brilliant idea to take a short, hour and a half long stroll to Austria! It was wonderfully pretty - the whole walk was through a forests. Here's me crossing the border. We walked to a tiny village and everyone bought beer - that is, except for me and the Buddhists. We wandered around looking for ice cream. We were unsuccessful, unfortunately. Then we walked back. OW! My feet may never recover.

If I Were To Own a Castle, I Would Finish It.

Zwei Wochen Ohne Schule!!

I think that says Two Weeks Without School, but who am I to know?

Right, so, two weeks is simply too long to go without blogging, especially during my holiday! You can't call it a break here, because that's the name for the 15 minutes between class periods 3 and 4. If you are referring to the 2-week awesomeness period, you must say 'holiday' or there WILL be confusion!!
Silly British English.

But unfortunately, I have slipped. So we're gonna make this a
Two-Post Long Extravaganza!!
In a perfect world there would be chocolate involved, but alas, I have none.


In this post we will discuss all the random things I have done since school got out on the 3rd of Oktober. I am happy to report that there will be no Oktoberfesting mentioned here, since I had none. In the following post will be the really exciting part - my AFS trip to Neuschwanstein, the most whimsical castle in this side of creation!
No, don't ask me where the other side is: That's classified.

3. Oktober
I went to Mila's house! She lives in Euskirchen, which is about an hour west of Bonn by train. Remind me to explain how the trains, trams, buses, S-Bahns, and U-Bahns work. It is absolutely fascinating. We saw Mamma Mia in German. It was absolutely hilarious, but I don't think I would have liked it if I had known what they were talking about. The songs were in English with German subtitles, so I picked up a few new words there. And, as previously mentioned, we played Singstar.
4-5. Oktober
For those Mormons in attendance - General Conference was simply marvelous, wasn't it?
7. Oktober

I met Sanni in Köln. She's another AFSer, hailing from Finland. Except she speaks Swedish. Ah well, to each their own... We walked throught the Dom, which is humongous!! It is so cool. And spiky. The outer walls are black-tipped, presumably from smog. Depressing, but the effect is cool.

On the other side of the Dom were these statues, about 6 all in a row. Very interesting, if not a little odd. Then, someone threw some cents into the little vase, and the statue moved! Ohmygoodness! They were real people.




















Sanni and I got thoroughly lost, and then ate at KFC. Now, I know, I know. Why would I eat American food in Germany? What's wrong with me? But I had to know - was it the same?

No. No, it wasn't.

It smelled the same, but it wasn't. We ordered our food, and we got our drinks, and then the woman behind the counter said our sandwiches would be a few minutes and if we could please sit, she would bring them to us.

What kind of fast food is that?! It was, like, fresh!

And when we were done eating (it was real meat) we put our trays into a big tray cart for someone else to clean up. They take trash way too seriously in Germany to let all these people just toss leftovers in the can on the way out. Very interesting.
We found an interesting store called . I think it's a European thing, because Sanni knows and loves it, so in we went. I purchased my very first and second pairs of skinny jeans - one normal - dark, bottom cuffed rolled up European style - and one dark green, which Sanni said was perfect for me, and they were super cheap. I won't tell you exactly what, because my mother reads this blog...(I love you, Mom).
After much and a lot of searching, I finally found a coat I liked in a store called Pimkie's. All of these stores are little boutique-type things with superhelpful clerks and Schwarzmusik playing on the speakers: hip hop and r&b, that is. Lovely. We also found a super discount store, a scarf was purchased, and I now blend in with the Germans as long as my Converse are on. Success!
What? Black Converse and brown coat? Kein problem, das ist Deutschland, ist okay!

Ich Bin Ein Berliner.

We ended our adventures by paying homage to the great capitol (capital? don't remember) and the American president simultaneously by eating Berliners. JFK ended his speech to the people of Berlin by saying Ich bin ein Berliner: he meant to say 'I am a Berliner', or someone from Berlin. Kind of a 'we're all in this together' gesture. Unfortunate, really, that 'Ich bin Berliner.' is 'I am someone from Berlin.' and 'Ich bin ein Berliner' is 'I am a sugar-coated pastry with jelly in the middle that two exchange students can buy two of for 1 Euro.'

Deutsch plays tricks like that on me all of the time, JFK, don't feel bad.

9-12. Oktober - Neuschwanstein. Stay tuned!!
14. Oktober
I dyed my hair brown, all by myself, with only one mirror. It turned out okay, so my hostdad gave me a ride to the Bahnhof (trainstation) and I went to the monthly AFS meeting in Bonn. I had to take a streetcar from the Bonn-Beuel station to the Bonn Hauptbahnhof (mainstation) and then walk through a tunnel to a restaurant. The pizza tasted kind of like Breadeux. Except I had to eat it with a fork.
15. Oktober
I took the bus to Köln alone, just for fun. All the other AFSers in my area were already back in school at this point because they live in a different state than me. Germany staggers the holidays so the autobahn doesn't get crowded with vacationers. The statue guys were still there. Surely they aren't getting paid well enough for that! Crazy. I had a very successful conversation with a shopkeeper, and then went to my German class.
I decided to switch things up for the return route, so instead of walking to the Bonn-Beuel station, I took the S-Bahn (like a streetcar, but... not?) with Matthew the Bostonian and Yusuf the Turk to the Hauptbahnhof. We attempted to speak German to each other, and got giggled at. I then continued on the same S-Bahn until Rhöndorf, a town I knew had a train to Linz because my train stops there every time. A very helpful businessman pointed me to the Bahnhof, and off to Linz I went! Conclusion: Just walk to Bonn-Beuel. Much faster.
16. Oktober Say, that's today! We're almost done! This has been really long, but when I say Extravaganza!! I'm not joking. Today I bought me some textbooks in Bonn, and also Twilight in German. I've practically memorized the English version, so this should work. I am on page 27, and I still know what's going on! Success.

Stay tuned, if your eyes aren't sore tomorrow!!

I TOTALLY won this contest. It lasted for over 5 minutes.

German Music Sampling

Käsebrot Ist ein gutes Brot : Cheese bread is a good bread.


This song was discovered while playing German Singstar with my friend Mila from Bosnia. We failed the song because we were laughing too hard.

Help?

I am in need of blogging topics and suggestions! If you have been dying to pester me with a question, now and here is the time and place!

What the @*§€ is Wrong with My Fork? and other important questions

Show of hands. Who really expected me to be consistent in blog posting? I sure didn't!! Well, I suppose one day isn't that much of a difference, right?

I am going to chalk my inconsistency up to the fact that I had a VERY interesting weekend. AFS hosted the Late-Orientation Camp in Bad Honnef (no that is not the opposite of good, I think it has something to do with a bath), and it was very time-consuming. All the AFSers from the immediate area chilled for the weekend and discussed much.Texas, Turkey, Iowa, Italy, China, Turkey, Italy, Chile, and Argentina!
Boston (almost:P), Iowa, Bosnia, Finland, and Texas!
Matt, Me, Mila, Sanni, and Ben!
This is my crew, almost. For some reason Emre the Turk isn't in this picture. And I kind of regret that the Americans all ended up together - it probably seems sort of snobbish. But hey, we didn't do it on purpose! We're just that cool!

And that's not even everyone who was there, but I'm too lazy to go find pictures of every single one of them. If someone gets a group foto up on Facebook I'll snitch it for y'all, cuz it was a great group.
We did a bunch of activities in small discussion groups called 'workshops' where we went over what all the differences were in our lives right now. It was hard because everyone was having different differences, since we're from all over the world! And the Americans epically failed the Label German Cities contest. And I regret to say I had to ask someone what Angola was. 'Seriously, Meg? It's a country!' Oops?

The best part was Saturday night when we had a Talent Show. I videoed the whole thing, but I think that if I tried to upload a video to Youtube this computer would cough its last. So I'll work on that later and let you know! In the meantime, a photo teaser. No, the pyramid was not all.


Notice that we are both wearing watches. When in Rome....





America supporting Finland. No metaphor implied.






Matt from Boston can make a loud noise with his fingers, Turkey and Italy have learned new cuss words, and (surprise!) China can play the piano. 'After school I did 4 hours of homework, had dinner, and then practiced the piano for 2 hours. I haven't slept much for the last 3 years.' I fixed the grammatical errors for your reading pleasure.

Then we had a wicked-sweet dance party. And whenever it got too hot for you in the dancing room, you could go outside and smoke! *coughcough* my scarf will never be the same....


And to thank you for once again reading all of my ramblings, I leave you with this amazing picture.

I should so be a professional dancer.

Trains Get My Vote Over Buses

Besides the obvious 'green' advantages of trains, there is just something soothing about the way a train moves. No jerks, no jolts, no uncomfortable speed-ups. If you weren't so worried about skipping your stop, you would instantly fall asleep.

Also, the scenery is much better.

And the schedules are MUCH easier to read.

SCHOOL

The most interesting thing about the students I noticed was that they all have the same backpack.

If you're a young-un,
your backpack looks like this:

Of course there are variations on the style - the little girls all have very very colorful ones that are covered with reflective strips so they don't get hit by the crazy German drivers in their 2-door stick shifts.





If you're older than that, you get choices!!! Yay for you!

Choice 1: Choice 2:

The coolest people of all are the ones who go backpack shopping with their friends and buy the exact same on in different colors. I saw three girls at the bus stop Friday with Choice 2 exactly - all with a different color scheme. I feel really stupid now for not having the guts to dig out my camera.

ALDI

So there's this grocery store called Aldi's. At first I just thought that my host mother was crazy about it - like how some people get with Sam's Club. Honestly, the woman woke me up from a nap one day to tell me that Aldi's had reached the Top 10 of something in Great Britain. *rubrub* "Wha..?"
But it turns out that it is a little revolutionary, as far as stealing from the rich to feed the poor is concerned. Mr. Aldi and his brother are the #1 and #2 richest people in Germany.
Here's the concept, as explained by my host dad: Companies stock Aldi warehouses with their product. Aldi sells the product in their store at the exact same price that they bought it: no tacking on extra Euro at the customers' expense. At the end of the cycle (I think 3 days) the company must come and retrieve all the product that hasn't been sold, at no extra cost to Aldi. Aldi pays them 30 days later for the product that was sold.

So... where's the money?

Elementary, my dear Watson. Mr. Aldi and his brother receive the money the instant the customer buys it in the store, but the compnay that owns the product gets paid 30 days later. The profit for Aldi is in the interest accrued.
Apparently they're kind of jerks to the companies, though. On top of making them pick up their extra product, the companies are often pressured into selling products either without a label or with a non-namebrand label.
The customers win: they get namebrand prices for as cheap as stores get them, and they know it's quality - if any product gets less than an A rating, it's pulled from the stores.

Still - if Mom tries telling me one more time that Aldi is the same kind of store as Wal-Mart and that it will have taken over America by the time I get back, words are going to be thrown. Can someone help me explain the difference between a grocery store that has some school supplies and whatnot, and a Wal-Mart, the ultimate bargain-shopper's paradise? Honestly.

ME

Well that's all fine and dandy, but what about me? I'm the one you're here to read about! (Unless Mrs. Vander Wilt is forcing you to read about me - high five, Señora!) My life has become a very set routine of Cornflakes, bus ride, school, bus ride, Cornflakes, nap, real food, homework, bed. On Tuesdays I may start Choir but I haven't really decided yet. On Wednesdays I take the train to Bonn for a German class with some other AFS kids in theBonn area - including an American boy from Boston, a boy from Paraguay, a girl from Venezuela, and Sanni from Finland. Honest-to-goodness, Kayce, the girl is just like you. It's almost creepy. This wide array of accents all attempting to speak German is rather amusing to me - but they get me back. I'm the only one who can execute a flawless pirate's AARRRR!!!

Because nobody else can make an R sound. Stupid east-coast accents.... thanks Matt.

Some interesting things are bound to happen soon - my school has a two-week long break coming up in October, I have AFS late-orientation soon (we're going castle touring - be sure to check my photo links on the left), and sometime this week I will be receiving a box from home with warmer clothing in it!!

In the meantime, more Cornflakes are in order.

Listening to the Radio When the Signal Isn't Clear

Even the air is different in Germany....

Wilkommen bei Obererl!

That's the higher part of Erl, the village where I live. It just celebrated its 750th
birthday! That's not even when it was founded - that's just when the first record of it is from. It was probably around a lot longer than that.
"But of course none of the houses are that old. This is the first of the new ones," my hostmother explained on our Sunday afternoon stroll. "It's only about 200 years old."
Woah! There weren't even white people in Iowa 200 years ago! Well, maybe, but they weren't building houses. One thing's for sure - if that house is still standing,

{They don't make 'em like they used to!}

SCHULE

starts at 8:00. My bus leaves at 7:20. The classes run 45 minutes long, with a 5-minute break in-between which isn't necessary because the teachers(lehrers) move, not the students(schuler/in). After 3rd class there is a 15-minute break and everyone has to go to the Aula - sort of the schoolyard. There they can buy food, mostly breads with various types of toppings. Then we have 3 more classes and school gets out at 13. That may seem a little late for lunch, especially since I get home at 13:45, but everyone snacks on breads and fruit and drink mineral wasser (bubbly water) in class all day! I mentioned to Yan (a boy, pronounced yawn) that we're not allowed food in class in Iowa and he said, shocked, "But how do you concentrate?" I had to stifle a giggle.
The hardest part to adjust to is that we have different classes every day. Friday, my schedule went:
Italian (free period for me)
Englisch
Geography
Art
More Art (we only have it once a week)
Chemistry

And my schedule for tomorrow is:
Math
Ethics (I could have picked Ethics, Protestant Religion, or Catholic Religion)
Deutsch
Biology
German 101 for Stupid Americans (self-titled)
Italian (free period for me)

My English lehrer is amazing. The whole class is in Englisch, because they've been learning it since 5th year. It's most definitely my favorite class. Friday he had me read an interview of J.K. Rowling with him, and guess who had the long part? The native speaker, of course. Right before I started he said, "Remember to speak slower for them."


Okay, you can stop giggling at the mental image of me trying to read slowly. I don't know if y'all have noticed, but I talk rather fast. And if you were in my Speech class last year, you know when I'm in front of people I talk even faster. So I had to slow it down to normal, then slow it down it German... oh man, I was so tongue-tied. They must think I'm retarded. Also, they use terms like 'present progressive' and 'past participle'. What are those?

I haven't the slightest.

TOURISM IN LINZ

Linz is home to the Bridge at Regamen. Or the remains of it, anyway. After Normandy, Hitler ordered all of the bridges along the Rhein River (get out your maps, that's pretty much the western border of Germany) burned as a defense against the Allied forces.
Except for this one - it wasn't to be burned until after the German soldiers were across. Well, the commanding officer wasn't muchly fond of Hitler - a lot of Germans weren't, they'll be sure to tell you- so he didn't burn the bridge. He and 5 others were court-martialed and executed, but their action caused the war to end 3 months earlier. How cool is that?
Unfortunately, it collapsed on its own a few months later, killing American soldiers trying to stablize it. The blame lies with the constant vibrations from bombing the area, although it never was hit directly.

Have you ever heard of the name Lorelai? If you've seenyou have! Oh man.. I miss fast-talking crazy Americans....
Anyway.
The name Lorelai comes from a rockface called Lorelai - a 'lai' is a rock and 'lore' comes either from the word meaning to lurk or to murmur. The legend I was told goes that Lorelai jumped off the top because of an unfaithful lover (let that be a lesson to you) and then became a siren, luring sailors with her voice. The shape of the rock echos the movement of the water going around it, causing a loud murmuring sound. Also, a large number of shipwrecks are said to have been caused by Lorelai.
How cool is that?