I haven't written in a while; we all know that. I told myself I wouldn't let this happen, but I did. Don't worry, that doesn't mean that I haven't been doing things worthy of writing about, quite the contrary.
Anyway, it turns out that exchange students tend to get a bit philosophical towards the end of their exchange year. There's a lot to reflect on and think about. We think about the new things we've learned, the wonderful people we've met, the future, life-after-exchange, and how to make the most of the time we have left. I promise myself an uncountable number of times each day that I'm going to make the best of every single moment I have left in my exchange year.
Lucky for you guys, all of this exchange student philosophy needs an outlet, and today, that just so happens to be my blog.
First, I've been thinking about the reason I gave up on my blog for a few months. I knew that pure laziness couldn't have been the only answer. And though I'd like to think it's because I've been leading such an exciting, jam-packed life that I've had absolutely no time to write, I know it's not true because I often have a lot of down time.
The answer to this question came from a friend of mine. I'd been encouraging her to keep a travel journal for her upcoming trip to Africa. I told her that I always kept a journal while traveling, but I'd admitted that I'd neglected to do so in Germany. Then she said to me, "but Brooke, you're not traveling; you're home." Needless to say, that hit me hard in the feels. But that makes sense. My life in Germany has simply become my normal life. I don't blog about my normal life in the US, and that's probably the main reason I've neglected to do so now.
These past couple of weeks, whenever I'm bored in class, I've taken to writing instead of just doodling. I figure that the former can be put to good use on my blog. Somethings I write turn out to be a bit nonsensical, for example a piece I'd been writing during physics solely for the purpose to keep myself awake. Other things are memories that I'll keep for myself, and still others I've deemed suitable to share with the internet. What I've written above was written during bio last week. And I'll leave you with another thought I jotted down in class (this is kind of where the philosophy comes in).
It's kind of cruel the way time runs during an exchange year. At the beginning, you feel like you have time, but everything else is lacking; language skills, cultural understanding, friends, a sense of belonging. By the end, you finally have all these things. It's not perfect, but it's your new life and you love it and you can't imagine leaving it. But in the midst of all these gains, you realize that you've lost something important: time.
Friday, May 9, 2014
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Bitter-Sweet Feelings on Halfway Day
Today is the halfway point of my exchange year. I've been in Germany for 150 days, and I have 150 days before I return to America. To say that this day snuck up on me would be false, as the thought of this day has been nagging me from the back of my mind for a couple of weeks now. Yet in a way, it seems too sudden. I've been kind of like a kid counting down the days until Christmas and feeling like it will never come, with the exception that today is not like Christmas, and I didn't want it to come.
Despite being a milestone in my exchange year, this day gives me a bit of a sad feeling. Ever since I've arrived in Germany, I've been counting up. First I counted hours, then days, then weeks, and finally months. Now that I've been here for five months, it's time for me to start counting down.
It makes me feel a little bit panicky to think that, from this point on, I have less days ahead of me, than I do behind me. There are so many things I want to do before I leave. I want to travel, hang out with my friends, bond with my host family, and improve my German. There are so many things that I know now that I wish I knew at the beginning of my exchange, namely, language skills, important parts of German culture, and little tips and tricks for making my exchange more successful. I think that if I could start a ten month exchange knowing what I know now, that things would go incredibly smoother. But I can't do that, and exchanges aren't meant to be smooth, and I just have to make do with the time I have now.
It's a shame that I'm only spending a half year with my new host family, because they are incredibly lovely people, and after just a few weeks here, I already feel right at home. This evening my host mom told me that I'm welcome back any time. I don't even have to call, I can just show up at their door one day. And if they aren't home, then I can just go over to a neighbor's house for a while.
I'm glad I can face the last five months knowing that I'm always welcomed back. That's the hardest thing for me about traveling; I'm never sad about leaving home, because I know that home is always there, and I'll be back eventually, but who knows when I'll be back here?
They say that exchange is not a year in your life, but a life in one year. That being said, does that mean I'm having a midlife crisis? Because it feels like I have five months to live. I guess that all I can do now is make the best of the second half of my year. Here's to a good one.
Despite being a milestone in my exchange year, this day gives me a bit of a sad feeling. Ever since I've arrived in Germany, I've been counting up. First I counted hours, then days, then weeks, and finally months. Now that I've been here for five months, it's time for me to start counting down.
It makes me feel a little bit panicky to think that, from this point on, I have less days ahead of me, than I do behind me. There are so many things I want to do before I leave. I want to travel, hang out with my friends, bond with my host family, and improve my German. There are so many things that I know now that I wish I knew at the beginning of my exchange, namely, language skills, important parts of German culture, and little tips and tricks for making my exchange more successful. I think that if I could start a ten month exchange knowing what I know now, that things would go incredibly smoother. But I can't do that, and exchanges aren't meant to be smooth, and I just have to make do with the time I have now.
It's a shame that I'm only spending a half year with my new host family, because they are incredibly lovely people, and after just a few weeks here, I already feel right at home. This evening my host mom told me that I'm welcome back any time. I don't even have to call, I can just show up at their door one day. And if they aren't home, then I can just go over to a neighbor's house for a while.
I'm glad I can face the last five months knowing that I'm always welcomed back. That's the hardest thing for me about traveling; I'm never sad about leaving home, because I know that home is always there, and I'll be back eventually, but who knows when I'll be back here?
They say that exchange is not a year in your life, but a life in one year. That being said, does that mean I'm having a midlife crisis? Because it feels like I have five months to live. I guess that all I can do now is make the best of the second half of my year. Here's to a good one.
Monday, February 3, 2014
Blog Marathon- Day Seven: Success
Yay! I managed to post everyday for a week! *High fives self*
Here's a list of things you can be happy about:
Here's a list of things you can be happy about:
- I've had four people in the last four days tell me that I speak really good German now.
- Tomorrow I'm going on a field trip to Bonn to go to the Haus der Geschichte (House of History).
- I just started reading the second Harry Potter book in German.
- Last week I learned how to solve a Rubik's cube.
- The Olympics start on Friday.
- Friday marks five months and the half way point of my exchange year.
- A French exchange student is coming to live with us for two weeks starting this weekend.
- A Middlebury alum played in the Super Bowl this year. He's the starting kicker for the Seahawks.
- My former host father's birthday is Saturday and I get to wear my dirndl to his party.
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| Here's a picture of me wearing my dirndl |
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Blog Marathon- Day Six: Lazy
I don't feel like writing anything tonight, so enjoy some random photos.
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| Taisy and I :) |
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| John's birthday |
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| New Year's Eve |
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| New Years Eve |
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| Aren't we creative (NYE) |
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| This is how I feel about learning German |
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| I drew this for my friend who was an exchange student in South Africa |
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| Gymnastics fail |
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Blog Marathon- Day Five: Visiting Opa
Despite it being a Saturday, today, I did not get to sleep in (Okay, I did a little bit). But that was fine with me because today we got to visit my host mom's father. In Germany, children call their grandfather Opa, so that's how I shall refer to him here.
Opa lives in northern Germany near the border of Holland. It takes about 3 1/2 hours to drive their. The whole family didn't go, just my host mom, my two host brothers, and I. We packed our breakfast and snacks in a cooler and ate on the road, to save time and to give us something to do during the ride. I also brought the second Harry Potter book and a book for my English class along.
I spent most of the car ride reading the book for English class. It is one that the class had read prior to my arrival in Germany, but they'd been revisiting it in class in preparation for Abitur. Despite it being a fairly thick book, I told my teacher I'd have it done in a week.
We arrived at Opa's just before lunchtime. For which we ate soup and wursts that Opa had cooked.
Opa is a very sweet, old man. He was happy to have me in his home, he treated as if I were one of his grandchildren, and he was very understanding of my broken German. He asked me questions about myself and told me stories from when he was a kid. He reminds me a bit of my own grandfather.
While Opa took his midday nap, I spent some more time reading; the boys played games on the computer and my host mom was watching an old German Western movie.
In the afternoon we ate cake and drank coffee (one of my favorite German traditions). We then watched a soccer game.
We ate dinner just before leaving, and we're on the road be seven.
The trip back home was pretty much the same as on the way there, except it was dark, so that kind of put a damper on reading.
Now I'm home, in bed, typing this, and read to sleep. So one that note, good night. Gute Nacht.
Opa lives in northern Germany near the border of Holland. It takes about 3 1/2 hours to drive their. The whole family didn't go, just my host mom, my two host brothers, and I. We packed our breakfast and snacks in a cooler and ate on the road, to save time and to give us something to do during the ride. I also brought the second Harry Potter book and a book for my English class along.
I spent most of the car ride reading the book for English class. It is one that the class had read prior to my arrival in Germany, but they'd been revisiting it in class in preparation for Abitur. Despite it being a fairly thick book, I told my teacher I'd have it done in a week.
We arrived at Opa's just before lunchtime. For which we ate soup and wursts that Opa had cooked.
Opa is a very sweet, old man. He was happy to have me in his home, he treated as if I were one of his grandchildren, and he was very understanding of my broken German. He asked me questions about myself and told me stories from when he was a kid. He reminds me a bit of my own grandfather.
While Opa took his midday nap, I spent some more time reading; the boys played games on the computer and my host mom was watching an old German Western movie.
In the afternoon we ate cake and drank coffee (one of my favorite German traditions). We then watched a soccer game.
We ate dinner just before leaving, and we're on the road be seven.
The trip back home was pretty much the same as on the way there, except it was dark, so that kind of put a damper on reading.
Now I'm home, in bed, typing this, and read to sleep. So one that note, good night. Gute Nacht.
Friday, January 31, 2014
Blog Marathon- Day Four: The Beauty of a Native Language
These days I'm feeling much more comfortable with my German. In fact I speak it all the time (save for my English and IB history classes which are taught in English). I can fairly easily hold a conversation in German with friends and family, speaking to new people no longer frightens me, and German has replaced English as the common language amongst the exchange students. I will admit, I don't speak perfectly. There are still grammatical errors and mispronunciations galore, and I occasionally have to ask for a translation of a word. But hey, I'm getting there. What's most important is that I'm understood.
After speaking and reading mostly German for the past few weeks, tonight I got the opportunity to speak only in English for a few hours. A neighbor and friend of my host family, attends a weekly English conversation group and she invited me to come with her tonight.
Before and after the lesson I spoke German with the neighbor, but she warned me that the teacher had a strict policy of speaking English only inside the classroom. I was absolutely fine with that. It was a bit strange at first speaking English with these people, and I often caught myself about to say a German phrase every-now-and-then, as it has almost become second nature.
Once I got used to the switch though, it was quite exhilarating. I'd almost forgotten that I do have a native language, and given the opportunity, I can and will talk someone's ear off.
The teacher told me to introduce myself and tell the people about where I come from and she let the class ask me questions. I ended up talking a lot about Vermont. I'd brought a map, a few postcards, and some brochures for Ben & Jerry's, Cabot Creamery, and so on. I shared a bag of maple candy too.
And so I talked and I talked. I talked until my mouth and throat were dry from talking too much. I was completely thrilled with my ability to simply think of what I wanted to say and then say it. This is a luxury I don't often get with German, when I have to worry about how to translate something first. I would compare the feeling to running with weights for a long time, and then finally getting to take the weights off and remembering how easy it is to run with nothing restraining you.
Finally we moved on to the next part of the lesson where each of us was given a prompt that we would then transform into a short anecdote to present to the class. The others had received their prompts the week before and had prepared some notes to help them. Despite my neighbor giving me my prompt a few days prior, I didn't bother to prepare anything. I only read it once and then left it at home. And why not? I speak English. I could just make up what ever I wanted right then and there. That's the beauty of having a native language.
When it was my turn, I took the seat at the front of the class and began to speak. My prompt was about the last time I bought a gift for someone. So I told them all about the Christmas present I'd bought for my host sister. When I was finished, the teacher said it was so good that she wished she'd taped it to use with other classes. No big deal, guys, but it turns out that I'm pretty good at speaking the language I've been speaking all my life. Who knew?
After the lesson, things switched back to German again. Before driving home, my neighbor treated me to some ice cream. There's always a large selection of sundaes you can order in an ice cream cafe in Germany. I couldn't resist ordering one sundae called Kartoffel (potato). Germany known for its ice cream made to look like spaghetti or pizza, but this was a new one for me. The sundae did look quite like a baked potato. It was made of hazelnut and chocolate ice cream rolled into a potato shape and the covered in a fine chocolate dust to give it the look of potato skin. The whipped cream and chocolate sauce on top were made to look like sour cream and gravy. Oh Germany, you never cease to amuse me.
Before I wrap up this post, I would just like to give a special birthday shout out to my friend and fellow exchange student Adriana. Happy Birthday! Alles gute zum Geburtstag! ¡Feliz Cumpleaños!
After speaking and reading mostly German for the past few weeks, tonight I got the opportunity to speak only in English for a few hours. A neighbor and friend of my host family, attends a weekly English conversation group and she invited me to come with her tonight.
Before and after the lesson I spoke German with the neighbor, but she warned me that the teacher had a strict policy of speaking English only inside the classroom. I was absolutely fine with that. It was a bit strange at first speaking English with these people, and I often caught myself about to say a German phrase every-now-and-then, as it has almost become second nature.
Once I got used to the switch though, it was quite exhilarating. I'd almost forgotten that I do have a native language, and given the opportunity, I can and will talk someone's ear off.
The teacher told me to introduce myself and tell the people about where I come from and she let the class ask me questions. I ended up talking a lot about Vermont. I'd brought a map, a few postcards, and some brochures for Ben & Jerry's, Cabot Creamery, and so on. I shared a bag of maple candy too.
And so I talked and I talked. I talked until my mouth and throat were dry from talking too much. I was completely thrilled with my ability to simply think of what I wanted to say and then say it. This is a luxury I don't often get with German, when I have to worry about how to translate something first. I would compare the feeling to running with weights for a long time, and then finally getting to take the weights off and remembering how easy it is to run with nothing restraining you.
Finally we moved on to the next part of the lesson where each of us was given a prompt that we would then transform into a short anecdote to present to the class. The others had received their prompts the week before and had prepared some notes to help them. Despite my neighbor giving me my prompt a few days prior, I didn't bother to prepare anything. I only read it once and then left it at home. And why not? I speak English. I could just make up what ever I wanted right then and there. That's the beauty of having a native language.
When it was my turn, I took the seat at the front of the class and began to speak. My prompt was about the last time I bought a gift for someone. So I told them all about the Christmas present I'd bought for my host sister. When I was finished, the teacher said it was so good that she wished she'd taped it to use with other classes. No big deal, guys, but it turns out that I'm pretty good at speaking the language I've been speaking all my life. Who knew?
After the lesson, things switched back to German again. Before driving home, my neighbor treated me to some ice cream. There's always a large selection of sundaes you can order in an ice cream cafe in Germany. I couldn't resist ordering one sundae called Kartoffel (potato). Germany known for its ice cream made to look like spaghetti or pizza, but this was a new one for me. The sundae did look quite like a baked potato. It was made of hazelnut and chocolate ice cream rolled into a potato shape and the covered in a fine chocolate dust to give it the look of potato skin. The whipped cream and chocolate sauce on top were made to look like sour cream and gravy. Oh Germany, you never cease to amuse me.
Before I wrap up this post, I would just like to give a special birthday shout out to my friend and fellow exchange student Adriana. Happy Birthday! Alles gute zum Geburtstag! ¡Feliz Cumpleaños!
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Blog Marathon- Day Three: Harry Potter
I almost forgot to post today. Oops. For a moment when my laptop said that there was no WiFi connection, I considered not posting today, and instead I'd maybe post twice tomorrow and beg your forgiveness, but anyone who knows me well knows that I'm wicked competitive, especially with myself. That is why I will be posting today, however short this post may be, because I'd really like to go to bed now.
I knew that when I started this blog marathon, I'd have to finish it because I put my goal out there for the whole word to see. Once I say I'm going to do something, I do it. Which is why tonight, I'm going to tell you all about another goal I have.
On the second day of living with my new host family, told them that one day I'd like to read Harry Potter in German. I've loved the Harry Potter series ever since I was little. So I figured I'd love it equally as much in German. When I told my host family about this goal, I imagined it as something I'd accomplish towards the end of my stay, when my German was better. Instead my host mom told me that they owned the first book in the series and I could start reading immediately.
That kind of fought me off guard. My German wasn't nearly good enough to read such a long book filled with tons of words I didn't know. Nevertheless I took the book and began to read the first few pages. I didn't understand all of what I read. I had to skim over large chunks of the text. I could have used a translator or dictionary for when I came across an unknown word, but I knew that attempting to translate a 300+ page book would drive be insane and take forever. So I simply read. Some parts made no sense to me, but I'd read the book before so I know what happens.
I started out slow. The first night I read maybe five pages. But I forgot how captivating Harry Potter can be, even in a foreign language. I was amazed at how quickly the first 50 pages went by, then 100, then 200, then suddenly I had less than 50 pages to go.
Today I finished the first book. I was so proud showing my host parents how quickly I finished it. So this evening my host mom and I rode our bikes to the library so I could check out the next book. There they had the entire series, and my host mom explained that I could check them out anytime I wanted. She told me that she had learned Portugese by reading Harry Potter.
So here's my goal. I'm going to share it with you all, so you can hold me to it. I'm going to read the entire Harry Potter series in German. There. I said it. I mean, I have the second half of my exchange still ahead of me. That should give me plenty of time. And I'll be damned if I'm not nearly fluent in German after reading the entire Harry Potter series. Who knows, when I'm done, maybe I'll read the Hunger Games series too.
I knew that when I started this blog marathon, I'd have to finish it because I put my goal out there for the whole word to see. Once I say I'm going to do something, I do it. Which is why tonight, I'm going to tell you all about another goal I have.
On the second day of living with my new host family, told them that one day I'd like to read Harry Potter in German. I've loved the Harry Potter series ever since I was little. So I figured I'd love it equally as much in German. When I told my host family about this goal, I imagined it as something I'd accomplish towards the end of my stay, when my German was better. Instead my host mom told me that they owned the first book in the series and I could start reading immediately.
That kind of fought me off guard. My German wasn't nearly good enough to read such a long book filled with tons of words I didn't know. Nevertheless I took the book and began to read the first few pages. I didn't understand all of what I read. I had to skim over large chunks of the text. I could have used a translator or dictionary for when I came across an unknown word, but I knew that attempting to translate a 300+ page book would drive be insane and take forever. So I simply read. Some parts made no sense to me, but I'd read the book before so I know what happens.
I started out slow. The first night I read maybe five pages. But I forgot how captivating Harry Potter can be, even in a foreign language. I was amazed at how quickly the first 50 pages went by, then 100, then 200, then suddenly I had less than 50 pages to go.
Today I finished the first book. I was so proud showing my host parents how quickly I finished it. So this evening my host mom and I rode our bikes to the library so I could check out the next book. There they had the entire series, and my host mom explained that I could check them out anytime I wanted. She told me that she had learned Portugese by reading Harry Potter.
So here's my goal. I'm going to share it with you all, so you can hold me to it. I'm going to read the entire Harry Potter series in German. There. I said it. I mean, I have the second half of my exchange still ahead of me. That should give me plenty of time. And I'll be damned if I'm not nearly fluent in German after reading the entire Harry Potter series. Who knows, when I'm done, maybe I'll read the Hunger Games series too.
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