My School Burned Down

Something happened this week, and the school were I go for German Class caught fire. It was something with the garbage cans and my teacher. It is still standing, and I still have to go to german class and that sucks.

This week, Albert finally said he thinks I am fluent. A compliment from this kid, is like if someone came up with the cure for cancer. I have a goal tho, Petra and I came up with it. Once her parents can understand my German I am officially fluent. Petra's Parents speak plott or blott(don't really know) German and it really means, they speak with a little hollandish. Good thing no one speaks it anymore because regular German is better.

Petra surprised me this week, she can actually speak english. She always acted like she couldn't. She still can't understand me tho, and that's good.

I learned what worst enemy in German was this week, worst friend. I learned that from the Simpsons. I found that to be true statement. People in Germany are so nice. if you have a worst enemy, then it's really your problem because you are not trying hard enough at your friendship. I have not met someone here, that I hated. The people here are simply awesome. 

Finally, Christmas... 

Christmas here was perfect. I could not of asked for a better Christmas. I am finally a member of the family. Petra and Daniel gave me Wooden Clogs. It has to be one of the greatest gifts ever. I think I will wear them to the airport. Petra's parents gave me a photo book of German and Daniel's parents gave me a german cookbook. My host uncle Thomas got the Steve Job's bio in German and I got it in English. I want to see who can finish it first. I haven't started so probably him.

People in Germany celebrate on Christmas eve. We celebrated with both sets grandparents and a sauerbraten. Then on Sunday it was breakfast with the six of us, coffee by Daniel's family, and finally dinner by Petra's. The second Christmas day (Monday), is Stephanus. Stephanus is a day of drinking. Usually brought on by the family. It is also the name day for Steffan and Steffen, but only old people celebrate that.

I Wanna be a Fire Fighter When I Grow Up!

It's funny how everything in life happens for a reason. This week Yeli's host dad picked us up from school for our Rotary meeting. He was telling us how he had to stop by the fire station in Ahaus to drop off a computer because he is a volunteer fire chief. One way or another, my extensive knowledge of firefighting allowed me to be able to b.s. a whole conversation. Yeli even went along with it, and know we are going to go through firefighting training. I am kind of excited because the course he was talking about sounds pretty cool.

Then my Rotary Councillor was telling us about how her husband has a model of the I.C.E. railroad. Guess who else had knowledge in the world of H.O. scale railroads, this kid. I am just now realizing all the "pointless things" Jack Hadfield has taught me over the years are really paying off. I think this is the third blog in a row, that I have mentioned you. Thanks old man.

Got my ski equipment for Austria this week! I have this weird feeling about Petra paying for everything. This week she paid for my equipment and my german class. Don't get my wrong, I love it, but I feel like I should be helping out somehow. Anyway, I am excited for Austria. I am going to miss New Years with my friends and that kind of makes me sad, but Austria should make it better.

I am starting to become a local, and that's a nice feeling. The lady at the bakery knows how I like my coffee every saturday morning, black. The lady from the deli across the street from my school tells me how my German is getting better. In fact, Yeli and I were mistaken for Hollanders last week. That is better than being mistaken for that American and that other exchange kid.

Last Sunday, when Yeli and I were killing time before the bus home left Muenster, we were walking around the Christmas Mart. Yeli wanted to look for a jacket, but didn't realize it was a Sunday in Germany. An old man (45-50) came up to me and asked me how to get to the Christmas Mart. It was pretty cool because he actually thought I was German or at least not a visitor. I could actually give him directions with street names and building as check points, and he understood me.

Out Germaned a German

This is for Jack Hadfield: I am going to Munich May 18ish. Now you don't have to worry that I will miss it.

For everyone else: I finally found out when I will make it to Munich. I started talking about all the touristy things I wanted to see. Turns out I know more about Munich than my host parents. It's not a surprise because they don't spend a lot of time in Southern Germany, nor will they because only Simon and I are going. Hope I didn't just ruin a surprise. Frau you should consider your job complete. I am kind of excited to go because I learned about Munich for at least two months in school, and I can't wait to actually be able to see it. I doubt that Glockenspiel really exists.

I am starting to feel the Holiday Spirit, or maybe it's that I am feeling the Holiday Cookie Spirit. I have found my new favorite holiday food, and that is "Nussecke." That translates to "Nut Edge (or Corner)." It is a shortbread cookie crust bar with a hazelnut, caramel filling. These bars are then sliced into triangles, and you put melted dark chocolate on one corner.

I don't know if my host family is religious or not because Sunday is my day to sleep in, and I sleep to 11 or 12. They say some kind of prayer before eating, but it is said so fast that I haven't tried to learn it. They have four sets of advents candles, and weird writing over the door (anyone know what 20+C÷M means?), but so does everyone else here. For a continent that is more secular than the US, Germany has some strong christian roots.

I made a huge mistake this week. In Art class we had to take a block of plaster/clay and make it in a figure. In one hour, I was able to chisel away a statue that wasn't bad; the rest of the class was only 1/4 of the way done or not even started. Now I have the art teacher always watching me because I can make art, and I can also form free standing figures without a problem either. I was hoping it would be an easy class, where I can talk with my friends instead of listening to a powerpoint about naked men statues, but nope, I have to answer ever one of his questions and translate information into english to make sure I was paying attention.

This week I noticed my sunglasses were covered in a healthy layer of dust. It kind of made me sad because no one here wears sunglasses, and I am never in a car long enough to leave them there. Which is a crazy thought because I turned the fridge in my mom's car into my sunglass holder, for the one pair I actually wore and the others that I let collect dust (That scares me in retrospect because I am turning into a hoarder.) It's also crazy because I am pretty sure the sun is brighter in Europe. Yeli thinks so too, and I think it has something to do with us being closer to the north pole. If anyone could find a study about this, that would be great.

It could also be that there is less smog here. Chicago is not a smoggy city and neither are the suburbs, but you can't really see the stars. Sure you see stars in Chicagoland, but it is nothing compared to the amount of stars you can see here. It is the coolest thing to look up at 4 a.m. as you are biking home and see all the stars in the sky.

I made my first "Worst Enemy for Three/Four Months" this week. Yeli moved Saturday to Ottenstein to go live with an other Rotary family. I live in Wessum and there are three cities we "don't" like, Ottenstein, Graes (Grass), and Alstätte (Alstätte isn't that big of a hatred but I still count it.) For her going away present, I gave Yeli a half eaten Kit Kat bar; she loved it. European Kit Kats taste different by the way.

 I want to also say a thank you to Alex Portugal, Andrew Knox, and The Antioch Rotary club, that's a lot of "A's". If it wasn't for your awesome time management skills, I would be living in Ottenstein. This week Yeli asked our rotarian how they decide which kids goes to which families. He pretty much said, "Hunter was the first student we received, and the Marpert's had an open room so we figured he could stay there for a year. When we got Yeli's papers, we said,"oh shit what are we going to do?!" Then we just asked around the club to see who has any open rooms.  I want to say thank you because If Yeli was the first kid, my life would be a whole different story. Thank you, you guys are awesome.

  

I Drank Something Delicious

I am not sure what it was, all my Host-Grandpa said it that is was red christmas berry. I am thinking cranberry, but it could of been pomegranate. It was bitter and way to hot, but once you added the rum, it became one of the best none-beer drinks I have had. Best beer tho, goes to Kölsch. It is only brewed in Köln, so you must make a special trip there to get it.

Köln was a cool city. I am not sure if I liked better than Berlin or not. October is the month to see it in because all the trees make the city look a lot better. Köln is known for its churches. They have nearly as many churches as people in the city. The main church that everyone can recognize by the infamous photo of it with the Rhine and train bridge in the foreground. The walk up was a total of 1.066 steps. 533 up and 533 down. I was surprisingly easy. It was a spiral stair case maybe 2 1/2 feet wide, and it carried up and down traffic. Ever try passing some one and the narrow end of a spiral staircase? Its a lot of fun. That wasn't the worse part, to get to the top, you must climb up a cone shaped roof piece. To get up this cone, you must walk up a cheap, metal scaffolding staircase. That was the worse part for me. You were at the top and this staircase isn't attached to the walls and it wobbles to I felt like I was going to fall over. I recommend going in the morning when foot traffic is light. The old city was converted into a pedestrian  zone with an endless shopping center. That was cool except for all the people. Köln is Germany's San Francisco, according to Daniel, but I saw more gay people in Berlin. I was also only in the old city, and I was all over Berlin.

I finely played a full game of Monopoly for once. This week Albert and I have been playing every board game in the house. Is it weird that I enjoyed watching Albert go into debt to afford a stay at the Berliner Strasse Hotel. I found that the trick to winning is to buy the foreclosed properties from Albert and flip them. I need to go spend 150 years in Prison with Bernie Madoff. I was on a winning streak until yesterday when he beat me at some medieval build a city game.

I got spend Halloween, what that's tomorrow Hunter, in Germany's biggest club (Index). It was also the biggest Halloween party in Europe, so that is pretty cool to be able to say. This club was huge. I remember that the one part we were in, I think it was called Tender, had at least four levels and nine bars. Index was pretty much all stairs, and home to the worlds largest Ice bar. I didn't see it, because I wasn't dressed appropriately for it. My flannel would not have been warm enough.

I need to learn to drive manuel because right now I am the equivalent to an old man. That doesn't matter because all old men here have Mercedes so I'll be an old man with my Mercedes.