Berlin Seminar

Hallo Freunde und Familie!
The other participants of the CBYX program and I had our 5-day mid-year seminar this past week. It was a really exciting couple of days (unfortunately for us, too short). It was so great to see everyone from Bonn again. All 23 of us stayed in a nice hostel right in the middle of Berlin. In the mornings we ate breakfast together at 8:00 and then went directly to our seminars. We had presentations on subjects like Germany before and after WWII, the divided city of Berlin before the wall fell, the European Union, and the persecution of the Jews in Europe. We also had some guest speakers that we talked to in kind of a Q and A format. They were all very well done and fascinating. In the afternoons we went on various excursions around the city. It was extremely cold this past week (- 20° C!!), so we did not get to do as much walking around as we would have liked. The president of Israel, Shimon Peres, was giving a speech on Wednesday, so there were a lot of police and military tanks everywhere. That also made it a bit difficult, but we still got to see plenty. We visited the Parlement (Reichstag) and climbed all the way up to the top of the dome and had a great view of the sunset and the rest of Berlin. That was probably my favorite little trip we made.
In the evenings we had free time and most of us threw some money into a pot and went to the grocery store down the street and cooked together in the hostel´s kitchen. Living with them was really like an episode of the Real World, except it was realer than the Real World. The best part is that we all have really different personalities, but we get along so well. No drama, just fun. I don´t think I´ve ever laughed more in one week.
I got to know the public transportation pretty well in Berlin. It is really quite amazing. It is probably one of the best systems in the world. Everyday I become more and more used to all this great public transit in Germany, that I think I am going to be hit hard when I come back to the US. Especially since I have no intent on purchasing a car. That needs to be changed.
So all and all, a wonderful week in Berlin. There is a chance that when we have our end-of-year seminar in June, we will get to meet the Chancelor of Germany, Angela Merkel! Pretty exciting.
Miss you all and always love to hear from you.
Elena

Neue Gastfamilie

Hallo Freunde und Familie!
Agh, again I am terrible at writing on a regular basis. Bare with me.
The transition to the new host family has been extremely easy. I felt at home from the very first day. We have gotten into a routine now and everything is running smoothly. I work pretty much everyday with my colleague from the enviromental protection center on a paper conservation project. We go to different elementary schools and middle schools and teach the students about where paper comes from and how it is recycled (and hopefully convince them to conserve it). After about 10 days of this project, I feel like quite the expert on paper. I am becoming more confident with my german and I am now able to answer most of the students´ questions. It is really fun and I look forward to doing it everyday. Maybe kids aren´t as bad as I thought...
Last weekend my argentine friend Samuel came to visit me here in Göttingen. It was a really fun couple of days that included ice skating, building snowmen and a snow turtle, playing tennis, seeing a play and sledding. He is now back in Düsseldorf where he finishing up a german class he is taking there.
The other program participants and I are meeting up in Berlin this Sunday for a week-long orientation. We will probably be discussing our experiences and learning about the relationship between the US and German governments. Hopefully there will be time to shop around and have coffee in one of Berlins 100s of indie/alternative shops and cafes. This may require some prior planning! I should read that Berlin Guide Book for Young People that our program director gave us....I can´t wait!
So, short blog entry today. Mum and Stephen (brother) are coming in mid-February. I´ll probably get around to writing the next entry after their stay. Until then! Tschüss!

Christmas/ New Year

Dear friends and family,
Happy belated Christmas and New Year! My father informed me recently that I have quite a few more than 11 followers on my blog, so I will be extra careful not to make gramatical errors. I will also try to make it a little easier to read. I have not written in a while, so this entrywill be a bit long. A lot has happened since Decemeber 15th.

GOOD-BYE FELIX KLEIN GYMNASIUM
My program works as follows: Half a year in a german high school to learn german and get to know some german students. Half a year with a new host family working as an intern in a vocational field. My verdict for the first six months is: First two months in Bonn--awesome. Next 4 months in high school again--not so awesome. My host family has been absolutely wonderful. I have had only luck with host families through my entire Argentina/Germany exchange experiences. The fact is I was completely done with the whole high school scene and I was in no mood to try to break my way into the tightly-formed groups of german school girls. The last day before the vacation, I performed "Ride the Chariot" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" with the school choir during the school church service. It was a little chaotic, but everything seemed to get pulled together in the end. I passed out earrings that I had made out of Sculpy to some friends the female students who a least bothered to introduce themselves to me and say hello to me in the hallways. Even though a good portion of the students have done an exchange program at some point or another, very few of them cared one bit about making the exchange students in their own school feel welcome. Luckily my fellow foreigners are always there for me. Despite the negative tone of this paragraph, I am walking away from the experience with some very nice memories.
CHRISTMAS
This holiday is celebrated a little differently in Germany. First off, the actual festivities take place on the 24th. My host family and I spent the morning tidying up the house and relaxing before the guests came at three. My "host aunt and uncle" arrived punctually, as is typical for Germans, along with Oma, my 89 year old "host grandma". We had Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake)and chatted for a bit. Then we sang some Christmas songs and read a Christmas story (Grandma recited a poem--it was the most adorable thing)and then we opened gifts. I got some nick-nacky things and some really useful things like a warm scarf, warm stockings and a travel mug. Afterwards we ate dinner constisting of 2 different types of potato salad, red beet salad and some bratwurst for the meat-eaters. I found it very strange that they do dessert, then real food. I was not at all hungry for dinner. At 11:30pm my host sister, host mom and I walked in the freezing cold to midnight mass at the evangelical church in our village. It was very well done I thought. Not too long, good music and a thought-provoking homily. The next day was just a chill-out day where supposedly most Germans visit family members, but we packed for our trip to the Canary Islands and left at around 3pm.

FUERTEVENTURA
I was very lucky to have my host family take me to Fuerteventura (strong wind in spanish) with them. It is one of the Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco.They have been going there for Christmas break for about 20 years now. The weather is very dry and hot there, but it is a wonderful break from cold, wet Germany. We were there for 10 days and had an absolutely marvelous time. A regular day there consisted of breakfast with the fam, laying on the beach and reading, swimming in the crystal clear water (no fish, no sharks!)participating in some hotel activities (archery, riflry, beach volleyball) and then dinning with the family at 6:30. The second day we were there I had to climb the mountain behind our hotel. This picture is a view from the top. On New Years we ate a big meal and watched fire works on the beach. My New Years resolution for 2010 is to read a least one book a month independently. I think it is one I can actually accomplish.

INTERNSHIP/MOVE
I am starting up my internship with the Biologische Schutzgemeinschaft and the BUND (Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland)next week. The first project we are jumping into is a paper conservation presentation for elementary students. We will be going to the elementary schools to teach the kids about paper and where it comes from, how it is made and try to make them aware of how often we use paper and how we can conserve it. I am pretty excited about it but I feel really unprepared! I will be moving to another family so that I can go with my new hostfather/coworker to work everyday and get to know a different german family. I have already met them and they are really nice. They have a daughter my age who is now an exchange student in Utah and a nephew who is also an exchange student in Arizona. Luckily they will be back from the US a few days before I leave so I will get to meet them!

There are many things happening this month. 2010 has hit the ground running and it doesn´t look like it will slow down for a while. I hope the time doesn´t fly by too quickly! Hope you all had a great holiday. As always, I love to hear from you, even if you were only in english class with me sophomore year, I still read your comments/emails/facebook messages. :) Until the next entry! (sometime soon???)
Elena