Weihnachten! (Christmas is in the air!)

Weihnachten!

Christmas, that magical time of the year! The snow falling across the lawn, the old christmas music on the radio, and the candles burning 'o so bright on the Christmas trees. Wait. Did I say candles burning on the Christmas tree?!?!? I did indeed! 



Candles! Something I have only heard about in christmas specials on TV!
It was the real deal. Of course it was a little dangerous, but I was told by my host parents that they have never EVER seen a Christmas tree (or Tannenbaum) spontaniously combust into a pillar of flames. It does not happen (apparently). Danger aside, a Deutsche Tannenbaum is an extremely relaxing and even spiritual image. The illumination of the candles flickering in the halflight of the room is almost hypnotic. The way the shadows move with the Candles is something that can never be captured by the traditional north american electric lights. 

There were also electric lights, so that the candles were only burning in the evenings when the family was there, and the christmas tree is living, not plastic. I have been told there are also many families with plastic trees, but the traditional tree is living, almost exactly the same situation as the traditional Canadian christmas, both with plastic and living trees. But this year instead of going to a parking lot outside of a store that sells trees, I went with my host family to a 'Christmas tree forest', and we cut down three trees for each of the homes (my host aunt and uncle, and grandparents). It was a thrilling experience, because we first had to hunt for the best trees. So we all split up and started walking through this little forest, looking for a tree that isn't to small, but isn't too big (it was actually quite challenging). And when we finally found a tree we wanted, three people would stand next to it, one with a handsaw and two bracing the tree for when it comes free from the cut.

When we were finished with cutting our trees, we hauled them to the back of a cart attached to a car, and then after securing the three trees with ropes, we drove to each of the three houses and dropped off the christmas trees. 

The German traditions are very similar to the traditions my family has in Canada. The season is all about family, and much of the holiday time was spent at the different houses of my extended host family. It was a great experience, and I enjoyed just sitting together inside while it was cold out, drinking tea and eating cookies (German Christmas cookies are great!). 

A Change in the traditions is the actual day of Christmas. In Canada, we celebrate on the 25th of December, but in Germany it is one day earlier, on the 24th! And that is not all that is different; instead of opening presents as soon as you wake up in the morning, presents are instead opened in the evening, after going to the local church. My family and I were in the church in the evening, and we arrived home a little after it was dark. My host parents made my sister, my oma, and me wait outside in the hallway while 'DerWeihnachten Mann' was in the room, delivering presents. At the ring of a tiny hand ball, we were able to spring into the rooms, to find new presents and gifts tucked under the tree. We then started to take turns un wrapping presents and giving thanks, the typical christmas atmosphere all around. I had recieved a packet from home, and inside were treats and candies from Canada, and little personal objects to remind me of my family who sent the gifts... and of course CANADIAN MAPLE COOKIES!!! 

I recieved an amazing badminton racket from my family, as well as a Hobbit calender from my host sister.

I had a fantastic and wonderful Christmas in Germany, and I hope everyone enjoyed the season wherever they may be! And I hope one day you will be able to experience a German  Weihnachten as wonderfully as I have!

Change - An Introduction

 -This is the official start of my blog for the last half of my exchange. 

The very fact of this blog makes me sad that so much time has flown by, and that my year is already half finished. But by no means does that mean my year has been half wasted. I have grown more than I could ever have had I remained at home, and this exchange has been the single most important event in my life concerning my development as person in general. I have seen, experienced, and lived through so many different events from my time here in wonderful Germany that it would have been impossible for me to remain an unchanged person. The fact that I have changed (in my opinion) is something great, because it entails that I have learnt, grown, and adapted to life. Everything changes, it is a fact of life.

-So, where have I been all of this time?

 I am sorry for the long delay of my blog, there is no excuse for not maintaining it. To be completely honest I am every time afraid (I don't really know which word to use in this context) to write in my blog, so I have been always pushing it a little farther back. 'I'll do it tommorow, or the next day, maybe next week' because it reminds me just how fast everything is flying by while I am here on exchange. I am loving everyday, and am experiencing so much, making sure to take pictures, but to sit down and write about what I had done makes me unexplainably sad (which I have just attempted to explain). But now I know I can not keep running from this blog, and so I am now running towards it (so to speak).

-Englisch, with a c. 

The mother language of every exchange student is the bane of the exchange year. The more immersed you are in you host language, the better your exchange. The more you use english, the worse off you are. Sounds simple right? Just tune out englisch, you are not even in a English country. Factually, you could go the entire year in Germany speaking only english. Almost everyone in Germany knows a little bit of english, and many are fluent. Most of the music on the radio is english. English is everywhere, and to be able to completely remove it I would frankly have to sew my ears shut. It is by far the most difficult thing I have ever done, and I have to say that I have not been able to completely remove english, it is a fact. Sometimes I need english to keep me sane, and I think that is okay, but too much is bad. Sometimes you need a little bit of your mother language to keep you balanced, but you need to be carefull not to overtip. And even when you try speaking German, where ever you may be, some people would insist on trying their english. It is the most frustrating occurance in my entire exchange year. If you walk into a store, or a restaurant and speak in German (with my apparently think accent, so I have been told), the clerk or server or whomever will switch to english. And then I say, 'Oh, no thanks, German is okay (In German) and then 2 sentences later in German and then BAM. English again. This can repeat up to 30 times a day, sometimes 5 times in a conversation, while I have been speaking in German. One of the greatest things I love in Germany is the saviours that come to my aid and say. 'Stop speaking english, he's here to learn German'. It is a great feeling to have someone help you out. They have also helped me, because sometimes I do, when my concentration lapses or because I am simply to frustrated or unable to express myself, or feel simply dumb because I can comprehend but not answer, switch to english and they remind me to keep with german (in a nice way) and everything begins to work out.

-An End to An Intro

I will be continuing my posts about my year, covering Christmas, New Years, Sports, Youth Groups, and all the madness in between that is my life. I apologize before hand for my slightly less than stellar english (which is full of mistakes I am sure) but I have been living and thinking in German, so even in writing this blog, sometimes I think of the German word before the English even comes to me. I am even starting to forget vocabulary. Maybe that is a good sign. Once again I look forward to sharing my adventures with you, and hope that you enjoy my blog. Maybe reading about how I have changed will help change something in you.

Guten Tag

One of the best days of my life :D

Showed up early to school, didnt know my class started later, so I walked into a Spanish class my friends had for fun. Learned some Spanish. My school day was awesome.

AND THEN: Air Rifle Range :D :D :D

Shot an incredible amount of pellets and had quite a few good shots, for not having shot an air rifle in a long time. Oh yea, and they invited me back every w...

eek! AAAND, first time was free :D

AAAND THEN: Music.

Walking to my house, and my neighbours were blasting music. AND THE MUSIC WAS CANADIAN :D (Billy Talent, you made my day).

AAAAAAND THEN: Bank

Okay, so you might think a bank is not so exciting... BUT my visa card was not working in Deutschland, and so I was pretty much a poor exchange student who had to beg a lot. But now my card is working! (thank you mom) And I am no longer poor! well... as poor as I was...

Wait!, theres more:

I got Icecream with my newfound old money!!!

Thats it. I had a really awesome day.
Tommorow will be just as great :D

One Month Already?

 It has already been one month?

 The expression 'Time Flies' has never had a more appropriate use, because time has really flown by. I arrived in Germany nearly a month to the day, and the experiences I have had are fantastic.

The beginning.

I flew from the Toronto airport to Amsterdam, and then finally to Bremen, close to my Host City of Achim. This was my first time in Europe, and after I was greated by my incredibly friendly host family, my first remark was 'where is the skyline'. After stepping out of the airport, the first thing that struck me was that there were no skyscrapers or appartments, as I was in a large city in Europe! and that most of the buildings were fairly low to the ground, albiet looking very similar in design. This was the first of many small yet shocking differences for me. From the airport we took the autobahn (highway) to Achim, the city I will be staying at for the year. On some portions of the autobahn, there is no speed limit (marked by a 0 with a cross through it, diagonally), and the autobahn itself looked very nice and well kept, less like a highway and more like a busy and important street, with fields instead of houses on either side. When we arrived to my house, I was greeted by lunch (with bread and meat) and a cake, made by my awesome host sister!

When I arrived at my host house; I had more culture shocks! (believe it or not) The roofs of the houses are more slanted than in Canada, adding a different appearence to them. You would not be able to walk on them without sliding down, and are made of tiles (I think ceramic or similar material) instead of our sheet-like material that can be stapled down to the roof by workers walking on top of the roofs. ALSO, AND THE BIGGEST CULTURE SHOCK OF THE DAY WAS; the windows. Yes, just the windows were enough of a culture shock to last me several hours. They have no SCREENS! The windows can be flipped open at any angle as long as there is a hinge, and you can stick your entire body outside some of them if you wanted to, because there is no screen to stop you. My first thought was 'MADNESS; the bugs will fly in!' And then my second thought was 'Where are all the flying bugs?' This was another big culture shock. I have seldom seen any bugs, which are in abundance in Canada, and so there is no worries about them flying into the house, hence the windows with no screens.

Food
Surprisingly similar to the Canadian diet, or a portion of Canada's diet: because we have many different cultures and therefore many different types of food. The majority of food I have had in Germany has involved bread, and meat. The bread is more gourmet than the average Canadian bread, and the meat is very similar as well, although different in miniscule ways. There are many different types of bread, and my favourite is a kind baked in a wheel of six fist sized loaves, that can be pulled apart. Also, potatoes are common. My observations are that everything tastes good!

They have a chocolate marschmellow treat that comes with decoraive icing. I had a lot of fun makeing mine.

Travel
Very different from Canada, or atleast from what I have experienced, German public transportation is fantastic and well organised. I have taken the trains many times to the neighbouring cities and it is very easy and cheap. For 16€ you can buy a ticket that works for the entire month, allowing you to go after 2:00 any day at anytime (in that month). I once took four trains in a day, and everything was a breeze thanks to the ticket. The bus systems are also very good, and I was even able to take a joined bus (two carriages attached by an axle hinge) for 1€ to school, so that I would not have to bike in the rain. Mentioning bikes, you can go anywhere with yours! You can take them on the trains and buses, or go through bike trails in between cities; bikes are incredibly usefull! I use my bike everday to travel to school, (10 minute bike ride, even longer walk) and then to travel with friends to different events and places. Without my bike, I would have a very hard time getting places without takeing a train.

School
Different yet similar to Canada. School starts at 7:25 SOMETIMES. Sometimes it starts at 8:25. Sometimes it may end after eight classes. Sometimes only after 4. I am still having trouble with the system, so I just follow my classmates around. You have different classes in a time schedual for the week, with some classes appearing three times in your week, while others only happen once. If a teacher is sick, you have that class off, unless your other classes are then changed around so that you have a spare period on another day. It is very confusing for a foreigner (me). I am in a grade ten class in Germany, not grade 12 like I would be in Canada, and I have the same 'core' class for the day, except for english history and french, where the classes seperate based on their course selection. My class is great, they are all very kind and they are incredibly helpful. My German has been getting better and better every day thanks to my class, and they teach me new phrases and sayings so that I can keep adding to my vocabulary. It is like a third family for me (the second being my host family) and I am looking forward to spending the year with them.

Activities.

I have been doing many things in Germany, and here are a few of my biggest examples:

Pathfinders/Rovers, -German Scouts, I have joined the Achim group and it has been an amazing experience for me already, just three meetings in. They are an incredible group and I am blessed to know them. They have taught me common German games, songs (of all genres) and have brought me to local events I would have never known about otherwise.

They showed me a game called 'Riple Tiple'. The players are given a number starting from 1 to the number of how many players there are in the circle. For example if there is ten players, there are players with numbers from 1 to ten, known as Riple Tiples. You must say '  Ich bin riple tipple Nummer (your number, for example 1) eins, mit (amount of ripple tipples ripple tipples auf meinem Gesicht. Und ich wähle ripple tipple Nummer zwei.
---I am riple tipple number one, with (amount of ripple tipples) ripple tipples on my face. And I choose ripple tipple number (and then chose any other player) two. You have to say this sentance when you have been chosen, and if you make a mistake, you get a ripple tipple on your face. A ripple tipple is a black soot mark, made by burning the end of a cork so that there is black residue, and then dabbing the players face to mark them with a ripple tipple. When a player has a ripple tipple on their face, other players must now say 'I choose riple tipple number two, with one/two/ect ripple tipples on their face. This game goes very fast and is tons of fun, because everyone makes mistakes. I made a couple.

Vollyball - On tuesday nights, there is a fun game of vollyball for teachers and students, playing for fun every week to help keep active. It is a fun experience and has helped me make new friends, and stay competetive in sports.

Badminton- On friday nights, my host father is in a badminton fun leage, and he invited me to tag along and play. I quickly learned I am not a very good player, but I try and I have fun. And I am getting better and better! I have also learned that after playing badminton, you cannot raise your arm the next day because of the muscle strain. Good times.

Rifle Range- One of my dreams was to join a rifle range. And it came true! My host mother learned of a local club from her friend, and brought me to the range for the first time. I learned a lot about shooting and aiming, and made some very good shots they said (for a begginer), as well as new friends and a new hobby. And the best part is that it is only 500m from my house!

 Movies!- I went and saw the premier of Resident Evil; Retribution in Imax 3D with my friends. We took a train to buy tickets the morning before, and then came back the next day after school to see the movie. It was a great movie (it is a action zombie movie by the way) and the best part was that I saw it in deustch, and I could understand what was going on! And the voice overs were pretty good, it could have been a German movie. (It is an english movie)

This is me, wearing three pairs of glasses. My regular glasses, 3D glasses, and then the Imax glasses overtop.

Rotary Sleepover: One of my favourite days was the orientation for new exchange students. This was a orientation sleepover in a city within the district, and I was able to meet exchange students from around the world, and make a ton of friends. Some of my friends have started calling me 'My favourite Canadian'. I think thats a pretty good title for just one day.

I would like to thank everyone who has made my exchange year possible (Especially my family, and Rotary International), and I look forward to the rest of my adventure!

Veilen Dank (Many Thanks) Brantford Rotary Sunrise Club for sending me on such a fantastic experience.

Germany!

Greetings from Germany!

 Everthing has been moving fast, and the fact that it is a month since I arrived in Deutschland is hard to believe. It is hard to put into words what I have already experienced and seen, but hopefully a little of the adventure that I have already had, and the adventure I will be having, will be captured in this blog, so that all who read my blog can share in the adventure. It is thanks to many different people; with their dreams and their help, that I am living my dream by spending a year as an exchange student - spending a year in Germany.