Greetings from Deutschland/Germany! After two plane rides (my first time taking a plane!), a train, and multiple car rides I arrived in Germany and now I've been living here for about ten days. I've been extremely lucky to have the opportunity to experience so many new things. This is my first time leaving the United States/Canada so it's really exciting for me to see all of the differences in a foreign country. This is going to be a long post, so please bare with me! If you would rather skim the update, that's fine too. I don't know how often I'm going to post updates here, but if I do post something I'll try and share it on Facebook/Instagram as well. Hope you enjoy the post. :)
Day Zero & Day One - Airplane
On Thursday, July 31st I arrived at the Chicago O'Hare Airport. I checked two suitcases (48 lbs & 49 lbs respectively - really close to the 50 lb weight limit....) and brought my carry on to my terminal where I met up with the other students flying to Frankfurt, Germany. I spent a few hours walking around the airport. This was my first time flying, so the whole experience was surreal yet amazing. Since they don't have root beer in Germany I ordered root beer floats with a few of my friends. We had a one hour delay at the airport, but other than that everything went pretty great and the plane started for Germany!
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| The view outside of the window at 4 AM. |
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| I feel so fancy when they bring out the drink cart! |
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It actually tasted pretty good... :D
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During the plane ride we had dinner (pictured above) and a "light breakfast snack" (a croissant with fruit salad). Beforehand I looked up how to use an airplane toilet on YouTube to see what it's like, but it was still strange using the toilet on the airplane. It was so loud when it flushed. Luckily I didn't get stuck in the bathroom. ;) I didn't sleep at all on the airplane, but I haven't really experienced any jet lag in Germany. I do get pretty tired since it takes a lot of work to hear and speak German, but I didn't have any problems the first few days.
When we arrived in Frankfurt we broke into groups based off of where in Germany we're spending the first three weeks for our orientation. Three of us had a second flight going to Leipzig, Germany so we went through Customs together and waited for our domestic flight. When we got on the airplane they gave us complimentary German chocolate. So gooooood! Once we arrived we took a two hour ride on the Deutsch Bahnhof to meet our host families.
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| Our plane - Two stories, seats about 250, and has seven bathrooms! |
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| The view from the bahnhof/train. |
After that we met up with our host families. My host mom met me at the station with her friend. Once we got home I set my luggage in my room. It's very popular to have a hot meal for lunch and have sandwiches for dinner. For dinner I got to have my first Br
ötchen (aka German bread rolls). Perfect with Raspberry jam! The same day I arrived, my host family got a new dog. He's 8 months old, but really big. After saying hello to him and getting to know my host family I fell asleep since it was such a long day.
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| Franz loves Spaghetti! |
Day Two - My First Real Day In Germany
On Saturday I woke up early (for what I'm used to) at 9 am in the morning. I figured out how German electrical plugs work, and charged my laptop. (So proud of myself for not accidentally frying my laptop!) I got to see a German McDonalds as well. I ordered a Tomato Mozerella Baguette. It tasted like Bruschetta, and was surprisingly healthy. The McDonalds has two different sections inside the restaurant here. One is a cafe where you can get Donut and Coffee, and the other one you can use if you're hungrier and want to order a meal. After that we took a drive through my town in Germany. The district of Harz is really beautiful.
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| A lake near my house. |
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| I wanted to go swimming, it was so nice! |
Day Three - Wernigerode Castle
On Sunday my host family brought me to see the castle that's in my town. It was huge... So hard to imagine that people used to live in there. Now there are apartments right next to the castle that people live in. On Sundays all of the stores are closed in Germany - minus cafes and bakeries. But we stopped at a pretzel place at the castle to get "Pizabrezels". They taste a lot like Auntie Ann's pretzels, but even fresher. Following that we also saw the zoo in my town. #GermanAnimals
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| Wernigerode Castle! Stealing this picture from Caitlin. Hope she doesn't mind. ;) |
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| The view from the castle. |
Days Four through Nine - Language/Orientation
On Monday through Friday I had my first week of orientation training. We have school from 8:30 to 3:30 each day. In the morning we focus on improving our German (I came to Germany knowing roughly 50 words, since then I've at least tripled the amount of German I know. I can't spell all of the words, but I'm able to do introduce myself and get simple points across now.) In the afternoons we focus on one aspect of German culture. So far we've covered subjects such as school, transportation, and family.
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| A building nearby my school. |
On Monday after school I got to go shopping at a German supermarket. They sell McDonald's ketchup in big bottles. (Anybody want me to bring some back to the United States when I come back?) There were also three rows of chocolate. One of them was dedicated to Kinder chocolate. <3
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| So much Kinder chocolate... |
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| 'Murican BBQ Flavour! Is this now in the USA too? I've never seen this before. |
On Tuesday after school I went downtown. I went to an Eis Cafe to have Spaghetti Ice. It's vanilla ice cream made to look like Spaghetti: topped with strawberry sauce and ground up white chocolate. I also got to see the Rathaus in Wernigerode. I'm going to put the picture of it on Instagram (Username: joeyajarv). :D
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| The Rathaus in Wernigerode. |
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| Eis Cafe |
Wednesday was another busy day. I had my first D
öner at lunch. It was pretty good, but I think it is a little bit overrated. Berliners on the other hand.... So good. Will talk about that later. After school/lunch I decided to go jogging with a few of my friends around town. Including a stop to see what the price is at the local waterpark, we took about an hour. Here in Germany exercising seems to be very important. Every day I walk at least 5 km - whether it's to go into town, walk the dog, or just to do something with friends. Hopefully it burns off all of the calories from the chocolate and spaghetti ice. ;)
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| Lunch with Roxy |
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| More German scenery from when I went on a walk. |
Thursday was Hasser
öder Ferienpark - an indoor waterpark in Wernigerode. Caitlin and I got a group together to go to the waterpark. Caitlin is pretty dang awesome. She's from Alpena, Michigan and is also on the CBYX program. We took the city bus from our language school to get to the waterpark. Public transportation here is so amazing. You can take a train or bus to get anywhere, and it's definitely a sense of freedom that isn't present in the USA. In Michigan if I wanted to get somewhere I would have to take a car. On a similar note, if you take the bus to/from school you use the public transportation system. There isn't a "schoolbus" that you use. The waterpark that we went to was pretty cheap as well. Since we have student passes, it only cost us 5 Euros (7 dollars) for entrance to the waterpark. There aren't any lifeguards here, so when you use the waterslide everyone can go down together. It's amazing.
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| Lazy river and waterslide area of Hasseröder. |
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| A bridge that goes over the pool. |
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| A big swimming pool area - they add a lot of water features in this area. |
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| With Caitlin at the bus station. |
The last day of the school week was Friday. I went on a 7 km walk through the Wernigeroder Maerchenweg. It's a hiking trail that is themed like the German fairy-tales. (Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel & Gretel, etc.) I got lots of great pictures and got to try a R
ötkappchen (Little Red Riding Hood) themed ice cream sundae as well. Besides the walk I also bought a few things downtown. (Here you have to buy contact lens solution from the pharmacy, they don't sell it at a normal supermarket. I bought a few different types of fruit that you can't find in the USA. Pretty interesting stuff! There's also a model of early Wernigerode in the town square.
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| Fun fact: Rapunzel means Corn Salad in English. :P |
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| So much for burning calories during the walk. ;) |
Day Ten - The Capital (Berlin)
So... We got free tickets to go to Berlin. So Yesterday we decided to take the 7:38 am train to Berlin. The whole trip was overwhelming. The train ride was about 2.5 hours each way. The first thing I bought when I got to Berlin was a Berliner at the bakery. They just finished baking them, and she handed me a fresh one. It's kind of like a polish Packzki - but the inside has a texture that is like a croissant. It's so flaky and fresh tasting. Probably not healthy though. ;)
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| Berliner in Berlin. Raspberry flavored. America needs to make these! <3 |
Following my trip to the bakery, I got to see where Angel Merkel lives & the Brandensburg Gate. Along the way we passed many memorials of those who died trying to cross from East Germany to West Germany. That along with memorials of those who died during the Holocaust. It was a very humbling experience. In the USA you can only read about what happened during these events. It's so hard to describe getting to see such a thing in real life.
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| German Bundestag (Government building) with Caitlin |
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| Brandensburg Gate that separated East & West Berlin 25 year ago. Hard to believe it was so recent. |
Soon after we took Europe's fastest elevator to get a view of Berlin. Panoramapunkt - a 360 degree view of Berlin. Also a thing to be noted - German public bathrooms. Should always bring around spare change when going through Germany. Usually there's a fee to use the bathroom. Sometimes there's a little coin slot (much like one on a vending machine) to use the bathroom. This money is used to keep the bathrooms clean. Between every use, the bathroom is disinfected. It's really nice, and I have yet to see a dirty bathroom in Germany.
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| The view of Berlin. |
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| The honor system is also really big in Germany. This was for the bathroom in Berlin. |
Another humbling experience: seeing the Berlin Wall. As mentioned before, many died trying to cross this wall that separated the two countries. Now the Berlin Wall is the world's largest open air gallery. Many of those who crossed it in 1990 paint murals on the wall, and I got to meet two of them. One was retouching his because of the grafitti that gets put onto the walls. I got to meet him and he described the emotions and confusion of when he crossed it in 1990.
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| Meeting one of the artists - He is pictured in the bottom left of his mural. |
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| The Berlin Wall in 1990. |
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| A memorial painting to those who died or survived from 1961-1989. |
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| Lady Gaga is popular here as well. A lot of music on the radio is English! |
*Quick Note: Just as a thank you note for reading my blog, the first two people to comment "Postkarte" on the status when I share this post on Facebook along with the first two people to comment "Postkarte" on my Instagram picture of Germany will get a free postcard from Berlin! Just send me your address by messaging me.*
Days Eleven - Sleeping & Another Hike
Since today was Sunday, the stores were closed again. I slept in until 11 am. Don't take sleeping for granted. Exchange students don't have time to sleep. Haha. My host family went to see some relatives for lunch, so I went with them. Family is really important in Germany, and as a result many families live in the same city. (Children, parents, grandparents, uncles/aunts, cousins, everyone.) Following lunch we went to a nearby reservoir. It was really muddy, and my host aunt got stuck in the mud and had to be pulled out. Oopsies! It also started to pour rain today. (Thunderstorms are extremely common here in the fall.) The rain got so bad that we had to park the car and wait because nothing was visible on the road.
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| A German house along the river. Such a peaceful place to live! |
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| Some "Birken"/Birch trees along the river. |
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed reading my blog update. It's been really busy, but also one of the best experiences of my life. If you have any questions, please let me know! Please keep in touch with me. Sounds like everyone is having a great summer. Tschüß! :)
