Berlin!

Yesterday my host family and I headed to Berlin. It was probably the best day I've had in Germany so far. I loved every second of it. We took the train (since I've never ridden in a train before) which was cool in itself. And then we got to Berlin (which was even cooler.) We started off at the Reichstag I think then headed to the Brandenburg Gate, the American Consulate, some other consulates, the Holocaust Memorial/Museum, then to McDonalds, Potsdamer Platz, the Sony Center, the TV Tower, and a whole bunch of other places. It was all really cool to see, it was as if I'd stepped into a postcard, really. But the highlight of the day really wasnt seeing all the sights, my day was so INCREDIBLEY awesome as opposed to just totally awesome because of one man. His name is Ampelmann and he is my true love. I first came across him while passing the Ampelmann store (at which time I unfortunately hadnt realized his awesomeness, so we didnt go in...next time though, for sure. :)) But I fell in love with him at a souvenior shop. He was standing there looking oh so nice on the postcard rack, and I just had to have him. So I got two postcards, a pin for my blazer, and later an ampelmann tote. I love him so. :)

But yes, in all seriousness, Berlin has to be thee prettiest city I've ever seen. It's like the perfect mixture of old and new. The buildings are all so pretty and the city has so much history. I was kinda surprised to find out that you can still tell where the Berlin wall was. We were crossing the street and kind of in the middle of the street was like a row of bricks on the ground (you know, like a brick road of sorts) and it ran down the street onto the sidewalk and that was where the wall had been. It was really cool. It's crazy to see that I, just some random girl from Ohio, have seen a city that has so much history. And not just boring, not so important history, but real, huge history. I've seen the city I've spent years sitting in school reading about. Berlin has been through a lot, a lot a lot, but it's withstood it all, it still stands, and it's still absolutely freaking gorgeous. :)

Picture time!

Reichstag Building

Brandenburg Gate (my eyes are closed, woops. Just ignore that. :))

Holocaust MemorialBerlin WallTV Tower

Beer Bike!And last, but most definitely not least, AMPELMANN!! I love him soo much. :)

Yep, so that's all. Again I remind you, comment box at the bottom. Comments would be nice. :)

Bis Bald,

Kaite

Some Differences

Because I'm currently not doing anything and therefore have plenty of time on my hands, I thought I'd list some of the differences I've noticed between America and Germany.

-Lunch is the big meal of the day. That's when the warm food is served. Dinner is usually just bread and lunchmeat.
-Germans eat a lot. Breakfast in the morning, packed lunch at school, warm lunch when they get home, dinner at dinner time. Soo much food. Always.
-Bikes here are totally different. And I think it's safe to say that they are definitely one of my least favorite things about Germany. In order to get on and off of them you have to step on the pedals THEN sit on the seat, you cant just swing your leg over the bike and hop on. And to get off you have to stand on the pedals then put your feet on the ground. You cant just stay sitting and put your feet down. I have issues with this. Like today I forgot I was riding a German bike and I fell off of it, kinda into the road. The cars had to stop so I could pick up my stuff, the group of kids behind me witnessed it all. I walked my bike the rest of the way to school in embarrassment. German bikes suck. But they are easier on your legs.
-Bikes sometimes have the right away as opposed to cars, which I find totally weird. I dont understand it at all, so cars are always having to wave at me to get me to go. woops. :)
-At school, you're with the same people all day, like elementary school, except that you've been with these same people your entire school life.
-The toilets have buttons instead of flushers. And the toilets have no backs, they're just toilet bowls connected to the wall.
-Germans wear their clothes a few days in a row before they wash them.
-Germans sort all their garbage. Plastics go in the "gelbersack," paper in the paper trash can, and bottles have deposits on them, so they're taken back to the grocery and put into this awesome machine.
-No speed limits on the Autobahn! I've been in a car going as fast as 180km/hr. Woohoo! :)
-All the cars here are compact. I've seen 0 SUVs in my 15 days here. 0.
-EVERYONE drives stick shifts! Totally strange.
-All the house have gates. Like rich people's houses.
-You can fail gym if you suck at athletics because you get graded on how well you do instead of participation and effort. And gym class is soooo BORING. uck.

I also want to make you all aware that there is a comment box located directly under this post. Just click comment and leave me your thoughts, questions, or concerns (or any combination of these three). I'd appreciate it muchly. :)

That's all I've got for now.

Bis Bald,
Kaite

Just for Mom...

Because my mother complains that I dont update my blog often enough (I've been here less than 2 weeks and have posted twice, apparently once a week isnt good enough...:)), I'm posting yet again. :)

Last week was my first week of school here in Germany. It was pretty overwhelming. Normally I can understand basically what someone is saying when they're talking in German, but with the teacher's lectures it's COMPLETELY different. I understand maybe a dozen words or so in a 45 minute time period. They talk so fast and use all these technical terms....ahhh! And let me tell you, Germans have so of the worst handwriting I've ever seen. I try to take notes in class because I have no idea what the teacher is saying, but I still have to do the homework and stuff, so I try to copy what they have on the board...without success. Foreign language + horrible handwriting= Kaite copying random letters onto her paper and then trying to figure out what the word could possibly be using her dictionary. Soooo much work. Another thing I've noticed with school is that all the kids take super neat, super amazing notes. It's like nothing I've ever seen before. My notes are usually crazy sloppy and I usually cant read them once I'm done taking them. Same with every other American high schooler I've ever met. But not Germans. They're notes are always very neat and clean. They take them in blue ink (blue ink ONLY) and underline the headlines in perfectly straight lines (they use their rulers for this). And when them (very rarely) happen to make a mistake, they use their eraser pens (like you know how some highlighters come with an eraser? Thats what these pens are like.) The ink just fades away and then they write over it. So by the time class is over, their notes are ready to be published in a book. No lie. They're that perfect.

My notes...aren't they pretty? :) Oh, and this reminds me, my favorite pen that I brought all the way from America died the other day. Apparently I've been doing too much doodling. :)

This weekend I went with my host sister to Leipzig to see a sport called vaulting. Honestly it's the most insane sport I've ever seen. Basically there are 3 people on a horse and they do lifts and flips and jumps and dances and all sorts of stuff on it. It's like figure skating moving on a moving horse. INSANE. But it's actually pretty cool to watch. So we left for Leipzig on Saturday morning, watched the competition all day and then got up (toooooo early) on Sunday and watched the rest of it. It was pretty cool.

Me, Jule, and her vaulting team. And we ate Burger King, so we all got crowns. :)

This weekend, I think my host family and I are headed to Berlin to see the city and its sights and whatnot. I'll make sure I take some pictures (especially since I've taken a grand totally of 8 maybe since I've been here. :)) and update you all about it. :)

Bis bald,

Kaite

Random things in Germany

well, since i'm currently writing an email to my brother full of random things that i've seen in germany, i figured that instead of writing the same things twice i'd just copy and paste part of the email onto my blog. enjoy. :)

sooo....... what should i talk about? some funny happenings in germany maybe?
okay! (:
-on the way to their house from the airport in berlin
we were getting off the autobahn. there was a car just stopped in the
middle of the road. when we went around it we saw that it was stopped
because a guy was peeing in hte grass next to the car. definitely a
memorable first impression. (:
-yesterday (i think i told you already on
skype, but i'll tell you again just for the fun of it) we went to the
beach. 2 words. naked people. running around. on water slides. men wearing
speedos. yikes.
-according to my host grandpa, Salt, as in the
movie, is about food. otherwise why would they call it salt?

and yeah, that's all i've got right now. let's see... what else? i
started school today. it's different here. for one, i cant understand anything,
so i really have no idea whatsoever what went on today. i'm repeating the 10th
grade...in german... school was only like 3 hours today. and yeah, since i
didnt understand very much i cant really tell you what happened.

tonight i'm headed to a rotary meeting. my first on in germany.
i'm hoping my host club is hosting some other exchange students, but i
dont think that's the case. shucks... i love exchange students. the ones i
met on my way to germany (in philadelphia, but especially the ones that flew
with me to berlin) were super duper. i'm excited to see them again. i think
our first inbound orientation is in mid-september, so like a month away.
shucks.

And that's all i have to say today. :)

Bis bald,
Kaite

I'm here!

After 21 long hours in an airport/airplane, I've finally made it to Germany! I met some awesome exchangers from 1940 along the way. :) I cant wait until we have our first inbound (!!) orientation to see them again. :) Lets see...things in Germany are...different, to say the least. But I like it. The town is so pretty and my family is so great. :) And I'm surprised by how much I can actually understand. :) But it's still not that much. It'll come with time though, or so I hope.


And now for some pictures. :)



one of my last views of america. in philadelphia with a bunch of other germany/france bound students. :)in dayton, before I left.
So yeah, that's all I'll say for now. :)

Bis Bald,
Kaite

Itinerary!

So, I just got my tentative intinerary. It's soo exciting because now I can count exactly how many days/hours/minutes/seconds I have until I leave. Yes, I'm such a nerd. :) But for those of you interested here it is:

August 17

Leave Dayton: 1:27p.m.

Arrive Philadelphia: 3:00p.m.

August 17-18

Leave Philadelphia: 8:25p.m.

Arrive Frankfurt: 10:20a.m.

August 18

Leave Frankfurt: 12:00p.m.

Arrive Berlin: 1:05p.m.

I'll be traveling almost 24 hours (well, and then you have to subtract the time differences.) And the five hour layover in Philadelphia is crazy and will probably end up seeming like the longest five hours of my life, but it's okay with me. As long as I end up somewhere in Germany...:) It's all so definite now, like it's really going to happen. And we went shopping for a few things I need to take with me yesterday and I've gotten my German-English dictionaries. It's all starting to come together. August 17th cant get here fast enough! :)

Bis Bald,

Kaite

Updates!

Okay. Lots to say. For starters, I HAVE MY GUARANTEE FORMS! (: It's really exciting, well at least it was for me. I got an email while I was on vacation from my country contact with the forms attatched and then when I got home a real copy of them was sitting in my mailbox waiting for me. And I think I sat there and stared at them for like ever. I was amazed by the handwriting. It sounds funny, but really it looks completely...foreign, which is awesome. (:
I've been keeping in touch with my host sister. She's totally awesome. I just know we're going to have a great time together. I've also been contacted by one of my Rotarians in Germany and her daughter who just got back from her exchange in America as well. It seems like everybody is really excited to me to get there, and I am insanely excited to get there as well. I have a feeling next year will be a good year.
This past weekend was our Ohio-Erie orientation. A whole weekend with exchangers, pretty awesome. It was pretty fun, but it definately had it's boring times. But it was just really great to talk about exchange all weekend and meet a whole bunch of people going through the same things I am and who are just as excited as me. And it's totally crazy, but some of them are leaving next week for their exchanges! I cant believe it's all coming so soon! I've been waiting for these days for way too many months. And there finally here. My last days in America. Only 32 of them left. Which reminds me. My travel agent emailed me. I'll most likely be leaving on August 17th. So I have just over 4 weeks left in this country. It's crazy to think about. This time next month I'll be in Germany! Totally exciting!
My next post will probably be when I get my travel itinerary, which should be about mid-July, so possibly next week.

Bis bald,

Kaite