it's been almost a month since my last post. I don't know what to say anymore. Everyone is leaving, and it's interesting to hear what everyone does first when they arrive home. I have a little bit more than a month left, and I am not sure what I will do when I get home.
Summer has finally arrived only a few months late. The month of June I was wearing a fleece jacket because it was that cold. Unlike home, we have had enough rain... too much rain.
I am learning to take each day and make the most of it. For example, I was in Enschede on Saturday and it was probably my favorite time in Enschede. On saturday they have a market on in the courtyard in front of the casino, but on Saturday there was some kind of festival, and the city was packed. Just being in the sun with the festival atmosphere was enough to make Saturday a good day.
Saturday was also Yeli's going away party. She leaves on July 15th to go back to Ecuador. It's weird to think Yeli is going to not be here, but I will deal with that in 14 days.
Showing posts with label Foreign Exchange. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Foreign Exchange. Show all posts
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Is This Our Last Goodbye?
I realized this week, that with only a little more than two months left in my exchange, I am not sure if this will be the last time I see some people. Why is it getting hard now? My exchange has been great to this point without the big roller coaster of emotions they said I would go through. I am not sure why now is the time where my low point comes. With the first of the exchange students starting to leave, it is really hitting me that I am leaving, and I don't know when I am coming back. My host family has become a family. Blood doesn't determine whose your family, family is whoever was there to take you in with open arms and never regretted it. The same goes for my friends. My best friends have also become a family. Sometimes I wish Muensterland could be like wisconsin, a place I could visit any day of the week if I wanted to. Unfortunately, my two lives will never connect or understand each other. They will always be on the other side of the pond and a world apart. It was different leaving the US because it was a "see ya later" and not a goodbye. How is life going to change while I am gone? How long will I be gone? These are questions I do not know the answer to, and I not ready to face this. They say a year is a long time, but to me, one year is not long enough...
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Back to Germany for a Quick Update
This week was a party week. Last friday, everyone was out doing something. Petra went to a cool german version of a baby shower. This is after the baby is born. The hostess will make a long bread, like a party sub sized bread, and then decorate the top of the bread with the babies name in frosting. After the bread is made and on a stand, they hang milk and coffee and all sorts of things down the sides. Then after you eat a little bread, you go around the town and knock on peoples doors that you know and you have champagne and other alcoholic drinks. I didn't completely understand the concept, but like every celebration in Germany, you just drink, and you will be fine.
On Tuesday, we had labor day. May 1st. is the German day for labor day. You build a wagon and walk around for a day and drink. This was our wagon. My friend on the right, made the stereo in the middle out of old beer crates and it was one of the coolest stereos that day.
That day, we walked around our town and partied. Then for lunch, we found a cool place in the woods with tables and chairs made from tree stumps and grilled. After that, we walked to the only hill in our town. The hill is actually an old, dismantled hospital that was covered in dirt, and made into a park with a wooden tower built on top. It was a meeting place for most of the kids in our area, because it's centered between Wessum, Ahaus, and Wuellen. Labor was pretty chill, and completely different that the beach days we would have in the U.S.
That day, we walked around our town and partied. Then for lunch, we found a cool place in the woods with tables and chairs made from tree stumps and grilled. After that, we walked to the only hill in our town. The hill is actually an old, dismantled hospital that was covered in dirt, and made into a park with a wooden tower built on top. It was a meeting place for most of the kids in our area, because it's centered between Wessum, Ahaus, and Wuellen. Labor was pretty chill, and completely different that the beach days we would have in the U.S.
Italy in a Week in a Post!
Driving into Italy with the Alps literally coming to the shoulder of the highway (or the highway being carved into the side of the Alps) was really cool. It looked like we were on a tropical island with the palm trees climbing the mountains, and the rocky cliffs are something you would not find on the Rockies.
Padua
Our first city in Italy was Padua, a small city about a half hour inland from Venice. Padua was a nice, and not really touristy, which is hard to find in Italy. We were only there for one night, and on the first night I got my first italian pizza and most likely the best pizza on Eurotour. When we asked for a good pizza place from a local, she said, "Oktoberfest." I thought she was joking around with us because we are german exchange students, but down the street there was Oktoberfest. We went to the restaurant across the street. The weather in Italy was perfect. On the first night, after getting pizza, we walked around the city in shorts and t-shirts. I only know Padua at night, and Padua at night is a quiet, sleepy little town. We found a dive bar, where the owner was so cool, that he gave us a free can of Pringles. Below is a picture of the main square buildings in Padua.
Venice
Venice is one of the biggest tourist traps I have ever been too, and I have been to Disney World a few times. Things are also overpriced on Venice because everything must be imported from the mainland. I liked all the boats in Venice. It made miss mine a little bit. One thing I liked about Venice, is that it smelled like the sea. Later in the day we went to the island
of Lido because Rotex gave us day passes on the boats in venice, that they use as public transport. Lido is an outer island with streets and cars. It was also cheaper. Lido would be my destination, if I ever went back. Venice is nice, but I I am glad I saw it now, so that I don't have to go back. Oh, people in Venice are always conveniently doing Laundry.
Rome
We arrived in Rome on the Saturday before Palm Sunday. Our Hostel in Rome, were cabins in a campsite in the middle of the city. I would definitely stay in those again because they were really nice cabins.
The next day was Palm Sunday, and Rotex decided it would be a great idea to make us get up early and go to Palm Sunday Mass at the Vatican. Tickets are free. A block from the Vatican, between the train station and the Vatican, we saw a couple blown up cars. By the way, Italians can not drive. It was cool to say I saw the Pope, but a three hour mass in the sun and in Italian (even though the Pope is from Germany. Couldn't he speak German.), while the city of rome goes on behind you, it was a little long, and a few people (half our group, including Rotex, were passed out in the crowd.)
After the Vatican, we walked around the city. Rome is beautiful, but there are too many tourist (Americans.) No offense but we have to loudest and sometimes embarrassing tourists in the world. On that day, we pretty much walked through the whole city. The Vatican to the Colosseum. The Colosseum was interesting but way too expensive. I would not recommend going inside, save your money for wine or something. By the way, wine is cheaper than beer in both Italy and France.
On the second day, we went to the Vatican museum and saw the Sistine Chapel. The Sistine Chapel is really the only thing worth seeing. The museum itself was crowded, hot, and smelly. Free time was the best time during Eurotour because we could leave rotex and go out on our own into "real" parts of the city to see none tourist attractions and not have to pay for overpriced things. After getting out of the museum, we walked a little ways out of the tourist area, around the outer walls of the Vatican, to a cafe and drank an expresso in a sidewalk cafe, while watching the normal, everyday life of the native people go by. One of the nicer times in rome.
After that, we got even more free time. This time, we walked up to one of the highest points in italy, about 45 minutes from the Vatican to get an amazing view of the city and have a relaxing time away from the giant group. For dinner that evening, we went to a restaurant by the spanish stairs, and I had a great lasagna.
Florence
Florence was nice, but I think I liked Rome better. On the first night, I tried to do laundry. The whole time, the girls would laugh at the guys because none of us had a clue. I had a general idea, but apparently that wasn't good enough.
There wasn't much to do in Florence, and we just walked around and saw different important places. That night we went to a bar, and that was my favorite part of Florence. There was this DJ, at least 50, and he played cool 60's-70's music.
Pisa
After our day in Florence, we went to Pisa on our way to Nice, France. Pisa is probably my least favorite city in the world. All over Italy, there are African immigrants, most likely illegal, trying to cell you counterfeit or stolen merchandise. As we arrived in Pisa, our bus was surrounded by the "Gypsies." They followed us the entire way to the tower. The tower is also the only thing to see in Pisa, other than that, the town isn't that nice. And to climb the tower, it will cost you 15 euros. I thought that wasn't worth it.
Monday, April 23, 2012
I Didn't Forget About The Blog yet...
I have been gone for the last three weeks touring Europe. An experience that brought us as exchange students closer together as one giant family, and was the greatest vacation of my life, I am not sure how I will split up the cities because there are 11 of them, and I am sure it will too long for one blog post.
I didn't go with my Rotary club on their Deutschland Tour because I wanted to the Europatour, and I didn't have the money for both. (The Deutschland Tour was 800 €; so don't get crazy Frau.) I kind have wish I did do the Deutschland Tour, after becoming closer to people I only knew threw Rotary weekends. Europa Tour was a 22 day Prague to Paris roller coaster of an adventure.
So that brings me to Prague. Prague was one of my favorite cities. In fact I loved eastern Europe in general. I thought I wouldn't like as much as western. There was one thing that I thought was weird about Prague. You are not allowed to drink on the streets, only in bars/restaurants.
After driving the 13 hours from Duisburg to Prague, Prague was exactly what I expected it to be. We pulled into a parking lot under an expressway in a ghetto part of town. After walking a few minutes, we found our hostel in the heart of the old city. Our hostel was in the strangest part of town. It was a completely safe part of town, but next to the hostel was a smoke shop/ liquor store, next to that was a strip club, and on the other side of the street were bars and souvenir shops. The economy from Prague pretty much thrived on Tourist shops.
On what was left on our first day, we got stopped by German Embassy security guards after a ballon went of the fence of the embassy. The best part of that was seeing the male security guard jump more than the female when the balloon popped. Then we did the Czech Parliament.
The second day was my birthday. As we met in the courtyard that morning, Rotex (our tour guides) made me stand on a flower bed while everyone sang, and then they gave me a Czech T-shirt and a card everyone signed. It was a cool way to start the morning. After being shown around the city a little, we got 5 hours free time. We ended up going to a communism museum that was actually pretty interesting. After that we found a beer garden behind the Museum that had two euro liter beer. On our way back to the meeting point we saw this girl literally strip to her bra and panties and strut down the Carl's Bridge. That night Rotex took us to a bar to celebrate my birthday. It was a pretty chill night.
My only regret with Prague, is that I didn't try absinth. I Think I will just do a city a post for now on because they are pretty long. Here's the skyline of Prague.
I didn't go with my Rotary club on their Deutschland Tour because I wanted to the Europatour, and I didn't have the money for both. (The Deutschland Tour was 800 €; so don't get crazy Frau.) I kind have wish I did do the Deutschland Tour, after becoming closer to people I only knew threw Rotary weekends. Europa Tour was a 22 day Prague to Paris roller coaster of an adventure.
So that brings me to Prague. Prague was one of my favorite cities. In fact I loved eastern Europe in general. I thought I wouldn't like as much as western. There was one thing that I thought was weird about Prague. You are not allowed to drink on the streets, only in bars/restaurants.
After driving the 13 hours from Duisburg to Prague, Prague was exactly what I expected it to be. We pulled into a parking lot under an expressway in a ghetto part of town. After walking a few minutes, we found our hostel in the heart of the old city. Our hostel was in the strangest part of town. It was a completely safe part of town, but next to the hostel was a smoke shop/ liquor store, next to that was a strip club, and on the other side of the street were bars and souvenir shops. The economy from Prague pretty much thrived on Tourist shops.
On what was left on our first day, we got stopped by German Embassy security guards after a ballon went of the fence of the embassy. The best part of that was seeing the male security guard jump more than the female when the balloon popped. Then we did the Czech Parliament.
The second day was my birthday. As we met in the courtyard that morning, Rotex (our tour guides) made me stand on a flower bed while everyone sang, and then they gave me a Czech T-shirt and a card everyone signed. It was a cool way to start the morning. After being shown around the city a little, we got 5 hours free time. We ended up going to a communism museum that was actually pretty interesting. After that we found a beer garden behind the Museum that had two euro liter beer. On our way back to the meeting point we saw this girl literally strip to her bra and panties and strut down the Carl's Bridge. That night Rotex took us to a bar to celebrate my birthday. It was a pretty chill night.
My only regret with Prague, is that I didn't try absinth. I Think I will just do a city a post for now on because they are pretty long. Here's the skyline of Prague.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Kind of a Nerd
This week I went to CeBit, twice. CeBit is like CES but with more software and less hardware technology. CES is the annual Consumers Eletronics Show in Las Vegas. CeBit is the Consumer Electronics Trade Fair in Hannover. Both hold the record for World's Largest thanks to the fancy name play.
CeBit was huge. There were 26 different halls to go in, on a 5 acre campus. Tobit was there with the best Booth. They were next to google. They set up a bar that looked like Offsite, Tobit's bar in Ahaus. The bar/booth even included a robot DJ with pole dancers.
To continue with the nerd theme. Albert this week tried telling me that the 6th star wars movie was the best. Everyone knows the 4th (1st) movie was the best. The Fifth had Luke's ugly face when he finds out that Darthvader is his father, The first three were too computerized, and the last had weird tiny animals. I am not a stars wars fanatic, but everyone knows the 6th movie was the worst.
My Observation of this week is that Germans will only go through one door of a double door way. At my school kids will wait to go through one door for two way traffic, when there are two doors available. At CeBit everyone would file in through one door instead of opening the second. It's a little weird, but it's whatever.
Schelle Küche: Pasta with Mushroom Creme Sauce
Servings: 6 Cook Time: 15-20 minutes
Ingredients:
500 g. Mushrooms (Simple white button Mushrooms or Champions)
1 Tbsp. Butter
1 Tbsp. Oil
200 g. Sour Cream
220 g. Heavy Cream
100 ml. Water
1 1/2 Tbsp. Steinpilz-hefebrühe (I couldn't find anything similar in English except Porcini Powder and Yeast flakes mixed)
1 Tbsp. Cornstarch
1 Tbsp. Salt
1 tsp. Pepper
500g. Pasta (Short, Curly Pasta works best.)
Directions:
In a pot of boiling salted water, add the noodles and cook following packaged directions.
Slice the mushrooms about a half inch (2 cm.) thick. In a warm pan add the oil and butter. When the oil and butter start to simmer add in the Mushrooms and sauté until golden brown, and the mushrooms have reduced by half, about 5-8 minutes. Add in the Sour Cream, Heavy Cream, Water, Steinpilz-Hefebrühe, Salt, and Pepper. Let the mixture reduce by half, about ten minutes. When the sauce has reduced, add in the cornstarch and let thicken, about 2 minutes.
CeBit was huge. There were 26 different halls to go in, on a 5 acre campus. Tobit was there with the best Booth. They were next to google. They set up a bar that looked like Offsite, Tobit's bar in Ahaus. The bar/booth even included a robot DJ with pole dancers.
To continue with the nerd theme. Albert this week tried telling me that the 6th star wars movie was the best. Everyone knows the 4th (1st) movie was the best. The Fifth had Luke's ugly face when he finds out that Darthvader is his father, The first three were too computerized, and the last had weird tiny animals. I am not a stars wars fanatic, but everyone knows the 6th movie was the worst.
My Observation of this week is that Germans will only go through one door of a double door way. At my school kids will wait to go through one door for two way traffic, when there are two doors available. At CeBit everyone would file in through one door instead of opening the second. It's a little weird, but it's whatever.
Schelle Küche: Pasta with Mushroom Creme Sauce
Servings: 6 Cook Time: 15-20 minutes
Ingredients:
500 g. Mushrooms (Simple white button Mushrooms or Champions)
1 Tbsp. Butter
1 Tbsp. Oil
200 g. Sour Cream
220 g. Heavy Cream
100 ml. Water
1 1/2 Tbsp. Steinpilz-hefebrühe (I couldn't find anything similar in English except Porcini Powder and Yeast flakes mixed)
1 Tbsp. Cornstarch
1 Tbsp. Salt
1 tsp. Pepper
500g. Pasta (Short, Curly Pasta works best.)
Directions:
In a pot of boiling salted water, add the noodles and cook following packaged directions.
Slice the mushrooms about a half inch (2 cm.) thick. In a warm pan add the oil and butter. When the oil and butter start to simmer add in the Mushrooms and sauté until golden brown, and the mushrooms have reduced by half, about 5-8 minutes. Add in the Sour Cream, Heavy Cream, Water, Steinpilz-Hefebrühe, Salt, and Pepper. Let the mixture reduce by half, about ten minutes. When the sauce has reduced, add in the cornstarch and let thicken, about 2 minutes.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
spain is in my future
I can neither confirm nor deny that statement. My friends this week were talking about a trip to Spain during the Summer break. I don't think I will be able to go tho, because I have to come home sometime. I want to be able to stay till July 31 so I can have 11 months like everyone else. I think if I talked to Daniel and Petra, if the time comes, they would let me stay in the guest bedroom. There are seven bedrooms in this house so there is plenty of space.
The bag of Reeses is gone and I am sad, but German chocolate is better. Petra told me that they are new her new favorite chocolate. I am pretty sure she helped my finished the bag. While I am on the topic of food, seems to be in every blog, I tried German pizza. Tammy's is better of course. Yesterday I brought up Kraft Mac & Cheese; everyone was confused. Petra didn't know Kraft made cheese. I pulled to the Philadelphia Cream Cheese out the fridge to show her. I have not seen it in the grocery store so I think that it is not distributed in Germany.
I am still waiting to gain the foreign exchange 15, like everyone said they did. So far I have lost weight. I am not sure how much because I haven't found a scale, and I don't know the conversion from kilos to pounds. It has been a month and a week since my last haircut and that has to be some kind of record for me. It looks like a mess because I don't know how to style it. I should probably find a fine girl named brandy because i feel by Thanksgiving I will have a Joe Dirt sized mullet.
This week I spent a couple hours in the Borken immigration office to obtain a residents permit. The lady asked me if I wanted to stay for more than a year. I couldn't answer that because I don't know what I want to do. My German is getting better tho, Petra said after Berlin she was surprised how at how well I was speaking. She expects me to be close to fluent by the end of the month.
Everyone thinks that Germans are proud of Hasselhof and that they love him, but you have it all wrong. It is actually Dirk Nowitzki. I get asked at least once a week if I know who Dirk Nowitzki is. I am really glad I got the Sirius XM for my computer before I left because the only thing they listen to here is a mix station, (ranges from Katy Perry to The Cure), I hear the same song, Stay the Night by James Blunt, at least five times a day an it is driving me crazy. I also heard Billy Idol and C+C Music Factory yesterday which kind of made me laugh.
German is also the coldest country on the planet. Last night I spent the night laying of the Hearth of the fireplace watching Golden Eye. It is currently 54℉. I had to learn to use a radiator this week. When I said we that is isn't common to have on in the U.S. I got funny looks, both at school and at home. I tried to describe the furnace and vents but they didn't understand. Its like the idea of a thermostat for an entire house was crazy to them; it's either that or they thought we were extremely wasteful. My host dad couldn't believe that places in Texas didn't recycle. I told them they are the Bavaria of America and they don't represent all of America, it is just where our negative stereotypes come from and he got a kick out of that.
The bag of Reeses is gone and I am sad, but German chocolate is better. Petra told me that they are new her new favorite chocolate. I am pretty sure she helped my finished the bag. While I am on the topic of food, seems to be in every blog, I tried German pizza. Tammy's is better of course. Yesterday I brought up Kraft Mac & Cheese; everyone was confused. Petra didn't know Kraft made cheese. I pulled to the Philadelphia Cream Cheese out the fridge to show her. I have not seen it in the grocery store so I think that it is not distributed in Germany.
I am still waiting to gain the foreign exchange 15, like everyone said they did. So far I have lost weight. I am not sure how much because I haven't found a scale, and I don't know the conversion from kilos to pounds. It has been a month and a week since my last haircut and that has to be some kind of record for me. It looks like a mess because I don't know how to style it. I should probably find a fine girl named brandy because i feel by Thanksgiving I will have a Joe Dirt sized mullet.
This week I spent a couple hours in the Borken immigration office to obtain a residents permit. The lady asked me if I wanted to stay for more than a year. I couldn't answer that because I don't know what I want to do. My German is getting better tho, Petra said after Berlin she was surprised how at how well I was speaking. She expects me to be close to fluent by the end of the month.
Everyone thinks that Germans are proud of Hasselhof and that they love him, but you have it all wrong. It is actually Dirk Nowitzki. I get asked at least once a week if I know who Dirk Nowitzki is. I am really glad I got the Sirius XM for my computer before I left because the only thing they listen to here is a mix station, (ranges from Katy Perry to The Cure), I hear the same song, Stay the Night by James Blunt, at least five times a day an it is driving me crazy. I also heard Billy Idol and C+C Music Factory yesterday which kind of made me laugh.
German is also the coldest country on the planet. Last night I spent the night laying of the Hearth of the fireplace watching Golden Eye. It is currently 54℉. I had to learn to use a radiator this week. When I said we that is isn't common to have on in the U.S. I got funny looks, both at school and at home. I tried to describe the furnace and vents but they didn't understand. Its like the idea of a thermostat for an entire house was crazy to them; it's either that or they thought we were extremely wasteful. My host dad couldn't believe that places in Texas didn't recycle. I told them they are the Bavaria of America and they don't represent all of America, it is just where our negative stereotypes come from and he got a kick out of that.
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