Thanksgiving/Birthday

Plain and simply, my 19th birthday was awesome. I was woken up by my hostmom with coffee, shortbread cookies and tea candles. We had breakfast together then went into the city to by some warm boots for this awful german weather. The boots ended up turning into a coat instead. Then we picked up my hostsister and our friend from school and went home to make "Kartoffelpuffer" for lunch. They are basically like hashbrowns but we eat them with applesause! So yummy! After lunch I opened presents. The most awkward part of a birthday for me. I got some really nice gifts and I feel like I cannot express well enough how much I appreciate them. I got a new pair of pajama bottoms, some really good quality art supplies ("So you will stop borrowing mine!" said Maike) a dvd, chocolate and a few other things. Then we hung out a bit and the grandparents came over for coffee and cake. It was really pleasant. At around 5 we drove to my german course where my class surprised me with sparklers hugs and a birthday film. It was so sweet I wanted to cry. Afterwards my friends and I went out for a few drinks before we went dancing. It was just a really nice way toalt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415415847581983458" />

Birthday: become a year older.
The next week was Thanksgiving. I made a small dinner with some vegetarian favs like greenbean cassarole, mashedpotatoes, and stuffing. It turned out pretty well except my stuffing was a little dry from lack of broth. The next day I went to my american friend´s house to celebrate a little more lavishly. There were more people,great music and games, but it still didn´t prevent me from being a little homesick afterwards. :(
These last couple of weeks have been pretty normal except that I got my wisdom teeth out on Monday! It was so quick and painless, I didn´t even realize they were out until the orthodontist said I could leave. I had no swelling afterwards and close to no irritation. LUCKY! The other side comes out in January. Why they do it in two sessions, I don´t really understand.
I have been racking my brain lately trying to think of good Christmas presents. It is hard to buy for people who already have everything! Maybe I will just resort to making something like I normally do...
Hope everyone is winding down for Christmas break. Please let me know what you all are doing! My family and I are flying down to Spain for 10 days. I can´t wait to get some sun and practice my spanish a bit!
Schöne Grüße,
Elena

Come with us to Bremen!

This past weekend my host family and I went to the city/federal state of Bremen and Bremerhaven. We had a really great time. There is a pretty well known childrens´story about an donkey, a dog, a cat and a chicken that take a journey to Bremen. It is called "The Town Musicians of Bremen" Maybe some of you have heard of it? I got to take a picture with their statue! Bremen is a port trading city that started doing really well during the Renaissance. There are so many old, beautiful and quaint buildings! The damage to this city during WWII was not too severe, so almost everything is in its original state. We stayed in this super space-age modern hotel that really didn´t seem to fit with the old -world feel of the city, but it was still cool. On Sunday we went to the Klimahaus which is a really impressive museum on global climate change and environmental issues. http://klimahaus-bremerhaven.eu/ There is no way we could have possibly looked at everything in there in one day!

Two weekends ago I went to see the production "Der Mann in Schwarz " or The Man in Black, a take on Walk the Line and the life of Johnny Cash. I have to say I was a little disappointed, but I suppose I am spoiled by American entertainment. <.<>

I have been working with my future internship co-workers on small environmental projects in the area on Saturdays. It has been a lot of fun. I will be starting my internship with the ´Biologische Schutzgemeinschaft´ (biological protection community) in mid January. It is based out of the Umweltschutz Zentrum (Environment protection center) downtown. I will be involved in many different projects such as the Paper Conservation Project where we go to schools and give a little presentation and teach the students and teachers about what they can do to reduce the amount of paper used. I will also help keep up-dates on the marked trees in the city center. Because of the constant rain and moisture here, a lot of non-native trees in city get bacteria growth on the base of the trunk with makes it extremely dangerous during windy days (trees falling on pedestrians...not good) Another project they are working on is converting this old army shooting/training ground into a public nature reserve. The army had laid out a bunch of random concrete slabs everywhere for whatever reason, so we will probably work on getting those removed. There are a lot of other projects that were explained to me, but I just wanted to give you all an idea of what I will be doing in my internship.

Thanksgiving was a quiet day here although I still had to go to school (not a holiday here). I called my mom, grandma Krajeski, grandma Denton, and my best friend Rain to send some Thanksgiving greetings. It was nice to talk to them. Saturday evening I will be preparing a few small traditional Thanksgiving dishes for my hostfamily and then on Sunday I will be feasting with my american friend, Evisa, at her house. Then next Wednesday is my 19th birthday--kind of a boring year but it is an exuse to bake cupcakes! Hope you all enjoyed the holiday and that no one got hurt on Black Friday! I will try to send Christmas cards as soon as I can so they get to you all in time! >until next post!<

Elena

Hamburg!

This past weekend I went to the city of Hamburg with my friends from my german evening class. Luckily the Deutsche Bahn (German Railways) has a great deal for weekend travelers and we were able to take the train round trip and use the public transportation in Hamburg for only 14 euros a person. It was about a 4 hour train ride there, but it was pleasant because we slept most of the way and chatted a bit. As soon as we got there, my friend Evisa and I walked around the city (it was really wet and cold!) for about an hour while the others waited at the trainstation for other friends to arrive, then we took a boat across the harbor to get to where we were going. The reason for going there initially was to attend a birthday party of a friend of my Salvadorian friend. Crazy, I know, but that´s how Latin Americans are. The more the merrier. The best part was speaking spanish again! Most of the people there were originally from El Salvador, but there were also some Spaniards and Chileans. Of course it was an all-night party with lots of dancing and good music. It made me realize how much I miss Argentina. : (

We did a little city touring, but not a lot. I will probably make it back to Hamburg again before June next year. Next weekend my host family and I are going to Bremen to visit some museums and see some of the old Baroque and Renaissance architecture. I had to do a PowerPoint on Bremen for my german class in school, so I have a little background on the city this time!

All the action happens during the weekend. The weekdays are pretty rutine. School, german, german, german, maybe going out for a drink with a friend every once and a while and some more german. I am not complaining at all though--life needs to be monotone sometimes so you can appreciate the fun times to the full extent. Plus I have a lot of things to look forward to--Thanksgiving and my birthday! Bis das nätsche Blog!

Happy Halloween!

The past week has been just awesome. I recovered fully from the slight homesickness that I had a little while ago and now I have really found my nitch. I celebrated Halloween this year at this international english- speaking café in the city center. I´ve become a regular there now. I´ve gotten to know the owner pretty well and sometimes I run errands for him and he gives me free drinks! The party last night was a lot of fun. I think the German kids are really jealous of kids in the US around this time of year. There was a ´Haunted House`in the basement and the line for the tour went all the way out the door. There were classic halloween movies and halloween tv show episodes playing on the giant flat screen tv, the kids played games and did face paint while the adults drank and checked out some of the english books and DVDs that you can borrow there. I helped out here and there with everything. (My costume got in the way sometimes. :) ) I was a medieval princess, which I´ve already been, but it is such a cool costume that I wanted to wear it again.

I am finally getting underway with my internship. I am meeting all the people that I will be working with and learning about some of the things that I will be doing. I was recently sent some pictures of when we went to do some biological work in a field. We had to clear out some invasive plant species. See if you can find me in this picture!

It is now November--supposedly the most depressing time in Germany. It is rainy and cold all the time and everything is just dead and gray. Maybe we haven´t gotten there quite yet because the weather has been great lately. The colors are beautiful and the air is crisp. This picture here is from the woods near my house. Plus, American Thanksgiving is coming up and I can´t wait to share this part of my culture with my host family and german friends. I need to learn how to explain the history behind it in german first! I´ll work on that!

Fall Break

Hello everyone!


Last week I had a wonderful time visiting ITALY! My american father was there on vacation and I went down to see him. I took a train, so it was an all-day traveling thing, but I got to see some beautiful european landscapes. Austria reminded me a lot of The Sound of Music (which no one here has heard of) with all the high green mountains and clear blue water. Northern Italy was also amazing. There were so many vineyards! Everything was still very green and the weather was warm.


We stayed in a villa in a small town called Monte San Savino with about 20 other people. We took excursions everyday and learned a lot about the Italian culture. The first day I arrived, we just relaxed and I swam in the pool! I tried to soak up as much sun as I can before I went back to Germany where it is cloudy most of the time. The next day we went to Siena and explored. Apparently there is a big horse race there every year in Il Palio which was the main plaza. All of the buildings were very old and very typical italian style. The highlight of the trip was the Duomo in Siena. The details on the exterior were incredible. On Tuesday we went to a smaller city called San Gimignano were climbed one of the high towers and got to look out onto the breath-taking Toscan landscape. We went into a 1,000 year old church and ate gelato at the 2007 World Champion Gelateria. My dad always gets mint chocolate chip but I made him try some new flavors. Where else can you find strawberry and rosemary gelato?? On my last day there we went to Florence and visited the all the famous places like the Ponte Vecio, the Duomo, the Basilica of Maria Novella and some people in our group went to see the Statue of David, but I was not willing to pay 20 euros and wait in a line that was half a kilometer long. I was content with hearing the comentary from them afterwards. The best part of that excursion was the fleamarket. There were hundreds of venders and it must have taken up a good few blocks. It was mostly Italian leather products which the women that we were staying with went crazy over. I won´t deny that I really like the way leather wallets and bags look, but I cannot bring myself to support the leather industry. Luckily when I got home my neighbor gave me some leather shoes that he was going to throw out. Now I can make a wallet without feeling bad. I did buy a scarf though! It was a really long trip back to Germany and when I got of the train in Munich it was snowing! It was a great vacation, but I am glad to be home and starting my regular routine up again.


I only picked up a few words and phrases while I was there, but I am more interested in the practicality of a language rather than how pretty it sounds. A lot of people ask me why I would want to learn german. It is such a harsh-sounding language, isn´t it?? It is true that it is more gutteral than most, but it has some nice aspects to it. Almost all german words are spelled exactly like they are pronounced (unlike english) and you can be very exact with what you say. There is little room for miscommunication in german, but you have to be a patient listener because the verb comes almost always on the end of the sentence! Example:

*Viele Leute sind überrascht, wie schnell dass ich Deutsch gelernt habe.
literal translation: Many people are surprised how fast that I german learned have.

*Bist Du zur Schule mit dem Fahrrad gefahren?
literal translation: Are you to school with the bike driven?

Learning new languages scrambles your brain up sometimes.

Ok, bis nächste Woche dann!



ps. This computer is not allowing me to upload pictures

Autumn in Göttingen

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

How German is Way Greener than the US

This entry is all about the little things that I have noticed in Germany that save energy and just make sense for a cleaner world.

1.) Toilets. Strange, right? Not only do they flush in the opposite direction, but there are also two different flush handles that use different quantities of water. One for little problems, one for big ones.

2.)Bikes. It is so easy to get around on a bike in Germany, and most people do here when it isn´t raining. There is a special lane on the road for bikers, and they must follow all driving rules just like automobil drivers or they will get a ticket. (I am not kidding. I almost got one for riding in a pedestrian only area.) I see business people in suits and nice shoes as well as little kindergarteners riding their bikes everymorning. During the day, the city sidewalks are a sea of bicycles. I have never seen so many before.

3.) Public transportation. Germany I think has one of the best public transportation systems anywhere in the world. There are so many ways to get around without a car. The bus, the street car, the subway, the ICE train, the regular train, shuttle buses, cheap airlines and the list goes on. My question is: What happened to all the trains in America? Why doesn´t the government invest more money into providing more ways to get around?

4.) Separating trash. A very simple thing do that saves an increible amount of trash from going to the wasteland. In all public areas, the trash cans look like the one in this picture. Even at home, most Germans separate everything. There is even a `Biomüll´truck that comes around to pick up all organic waste (ie. vegetable peels, yard clippings, branches, coffee grounds, old leftovers, etc) which is then made into rich soil to fertilize the farm fields.

5.) Frequent food shopping. The Germans are very concerned about their food being fresh. They go grocery shopping about every couple of days to buy fresh cheese, bread, meat, fruits and vegetables. Everyone always remembers to bring their reusable bags because plastic grocery bags cost extra! What a great idea...maybe we should try that.

6.) Unplugging unused electronics. Although you may not know it, but even though an electrical appliance may not be on, if it is plugged in, it is still using energy.

7.) Smaller cars, smaller everything. Does this need an explanation?

8.)Sparing water. Water is a very expensive resource for the Germans, so they are very careful to take short showers and save water whenever possible. A lot of people collect rain water (which there is plenty of here) to water plants, etc.

9.) Hanging laundry out to dry. No energy-hogging dryer. ´nuff said.

10.) Using natural light. In my old high school in Rhode Island, there was a large, beautiful, naturally-lit hallway, but the florecent lights were always on anyway. It really bothered me. Here, if a room is lit by the sun, you don´t turn the lights on. It just makes sense.

I am sure I am forgetting many things that I have noticed here, but I think I got the major ones. I know many Americans are now trying to live a greener lifestyle, but I am really hoping that you all take into consideration the things that I have posted here. America is only a small part of the world population, but we generate 1/4 of the world´s trash. All I ask is that everyone be a little more conscious of the things that they consume and try to reduce it. Every little bit will lighten the burden on the environment and as well as leave you with a little extra cash at the end of the month.