Hey everyone!
It is definitely autumn here now and it is quite chilly! The colors are not as beautiful as in New
England, but it still has that same smell of crisp air and dead leaves that I love. My host sister and I are on our two-week fall break and all my classmates in school are in Barcelona until Wednesday, so I have just been finding things to amuse myself at home. I have been biking around a lot lately, checking out the small surrounding villages and visiting parks and exibits on my own. The picture is from an outdoor art exibit in a place called Northardenberg. The statues are called "Alltagemenschen" or Everyday People. There are a bunch of statues doing things that people normally do: carrying grocery bags, sitting on a park bench, dancing, getting a haircut, etc. It was cute.
Reality is starting to set in now. The excitment of being in a new country is wearing off and now I have to start building a new life here. It is not really a huge deal for me because I am quite used to doing it. The building of my life has been knocked down plenty of times before, but I always seem to forget how complicated it is to make the foundation.
The last days of September I returned to Bonn for a quick visit. My hostsister had a returnee reunion there from her exchange last year in California, so I tagged along. It was really nice to visit my old city and see my old hostmom, Helga and some friends. That Saturday night Helga and our friend Monica went to a salsa club. There were so many good dancers! (For those of you who have seen Dirty Dancing Havana Nights, I felt like I was in La Rosa Negra ) It was a lot of fun and I now have confidence on the dance floor.
I skyped with my mom and brother the other day for the first time. It was pretty neat to see them and hear their voices. I got to see my fat little puppy Opal too. Homesick is not quite the word I would use to discribe how I´ve been feeling lately, it´s more like I wish I could have the experience of living in Germany without leaving my life in Rhode Island behind. Make sense? I hear about how all my friends back home are living on their own now, working, studying, and doing so many other cool things. I wish I could be there with them, but at the same time I want
to reap as much from my experience in Germany as I can. So ist das Leben as the germans would say.
October 3rd was the 20th Aniversary of the Falling of the Berlin Wall and the reunion of East and West German. Surprisingly, there were no festivals, no parades, no nothing. It was just a day off where everyone slept in and stayed at home. Very strange, I thought at first. But then I remembered how Germans are very hesitant to show any kind of national pride because of their history. It is a shame I think, but it makes sense.
There is a good german movie coming out this month called "Die Päpstin". It is about a german woman during the early middle ages who disguised herself as a man and later became Pope for a few years. There is not a lot of evidence that the story is true, but there are still references to a female pope in some old religious texts. I think it will be worth the 6.50 euro it cost to see a movie here.
Here is where I sign off for now. Let me know how you all are doing back in the States!
Viele Grüße,
Elena
It is definitely autumn here now and it is quite chilly! The colors are not as beautiful as in New
England, but it still has that same smell of crisp air and dead leaves that I love. My host sister and I are on our two-week fall break and all my classmates in school are in Barcelona until Wednesday, so I have just been finding things to amuse myself at home. I have been biking around a lot lately, checking out the small surrounding villages and visiting parks and exibits on my own. The picture is from an outdoor art exibit in a place called Northardenberg. The statues are called "Alltagemenschen" or Everyday People. There are a bunch of statues doing things that people normally do: carrying grocery bags, sitting on a park bench, dancing, getting a haircut, etc. It was cute.Reality is starting to set in now. The excitment of being in a new country is wearing off and now I have to start building a new life here. It is not really a huge deal for me because I am quite used to doing it. The building of my life has been knocked down plenty of times before, but I always seem to forget how complicated it is to make the foundation.
The last days of September I returned to Bonn for a quick visit. My hostsister had a returnee reunion there from her exchange last year in California, so I tagged along. It was really nice to visit my old city and see my old hostmom, Helga and some friends. That Saturday night Helga and our friend Monica went to a salsa club. There were so many good dancers! (For those of you who have seen Dirty Dancing Havana Nights, I felt like I was in La Rosa Negra ) It was a lot of fun and I now have confidence on the dance floor.
I skyped with my mom and brother the other day for the first time. It was pretty neat to see them and hear their voices. I got to see my fat little puppy Opal too. Homesick is not quite the word I would use to discribe how I´ve been feeling lately, it´s more like I wish I could have the experience of living in Germany without leaving my life in Rhode Island behind. Make sense? I hear about how all my friends back home are living on their own now, working, studying, and doing so many other cool things. I wish I could be there with them, but at the same time I want
to reap as much from my experience in Germany as I can. So ist das Leben as the germans would say.October 3rd was the 20th Aniversary of the Falling of the Berlin Wall and the reunion of East and West German. Surprisingly, there were no festivals, no parades, no nothing. It was just a day off where everyone slept in and stayed at home. Very strange, I thought at first. But then I remembered how Germans are very hesitant to show any kind of national pride because of their history. It is a shame I think, but it makes sense.
There is a good german movie coming out this month called "Die Päpstin". It is about a german woman during the early middle ages who disguised herself as a man and later became Pope for a few years. There is not a lot of evidence that the story is true, but there are still references to a female pope in some old religious texts. I think it will be worth the 6.50 euro it cost to see a movie here.
Here is where I sign off for now. Let me know how you all are doing back in the States!
Viele Grüße,
Elena
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