Paris!

Well, I just got back a few days ago from Paris. The city was really pretty. Definitely a city everyone needs to see at least once in their life. but i have to admit, Paris wasnt really my style. for one, it's so busy, all hte time, everywhere. it's also really expensive. seriously, a sandwich there costs around 8-18 euros. that's just a crime! and paris has a very international feeling. i was constantly surrounded by so many different languages (and that's not just because i was with exchange students :)) but even though everyone was speaking every language but french, all signs, menus, cashiers, and whatnot were all completely in french. i thought it was kinda strange since paris felt so international.

so i left konigs wusterhausen at about 12.30 on saturday. i took the train to berlin and met the other exchangers at the tration at 1. basically we stood around for an hour and a half before we left at 2.30. we walked to the bus which was parked down the street, loaded up our stuff, and got on. then we began the long drive towards paris. we we started driving, we were told hte rules of the bus: seat belt on, no getting out of your seat, no using the bathroom. oh, and no eating cookies or chocolate. which was of course pretty much the only thing i brought to snack on. just my luck. :) basically most of the ride was spent talking, watching movies, eating smuggled cookies and chocolate, and waiting for the next "pause" when we'd stop at a rest stop and stretch our legs or buy food or use the bathroom. we stopped somewhere in the very west part of germany at around 9ish and picked up about 10 exchangers from district 1900. then we made our way into belgium (HATE BELGIUM ;) just kidding, i couldnt hate belgium [regardless whether or not htey started the first world war] their waffless are just too good! adn i'd know, i had one there. :)) then we finally made it to france and before we knew it we were in paris. so at 7.00am we went to our hotel. there were only 2 of our rooms available right then (which is really crazy considering we probably had over 25 rooms) so all the girls put their stuff in one of the rooms and the boys put their stuff in the other. then we went to breakfast. Croissants! after that we got ready, headed to the metro, and went out to see the city.

our first stop was at the rectange building with a smaller rectange cut out of it. it has a name, but it's french and i dont remember. from this building we could see the arc de triomphe and eiffel tower in the distance, which was incredibly exciting at the time. then we got back on the metro and went to see the arc de triomphe up close. it's so big, and really pretty. and it's on like an island in the middle of a giant roundablout. so the road is super dangerous to cross. luckily there was an underground tunnel that led right to the arc. OH! and you can go on top of the arc, which is pretty cool. it was packed with people (i didnt go up, but i could still see the people even when i was really far away) after the arc we had freetime, so we wnt walking down the streets, went into a few stores (louis vuitton!) and basically just hung out. AND WE GOT CREPES! i love crepes. :) when we met up with everyone again we took the metro to the eiffel tower. i was crazy expensive to go up, so i, being the cheapsake i am, didnt go up. instead i stayed underneath the eiffel tower and got annoyed by the guys selling mini eiffel towers. ugh. :) after the eiffel tower we ate, and had some freetime, which we spent eating some more crepes and souvenior shopping. then we went to bed.

and now i'm getting sick of typing. so i'm just going to type the brief version. if you want more, tell me and i'll come in and edit this later and include more details.

day 2: we got up, ate. then we headed to the louvre, saw the mona lisa and stuff. we went walking, saw where princess diana was staying right before she died. we had some freetime, ate, and then went on a ferry ride. it was really cool because it was at night and the eiffel tower was lit up. and every now and then it would sparkle. then we headed back to the hotel, walked through moulin rouge in the processs, did some souvenior shopping, ate some more crepes and then went to bed.

day 3: we got up, ate. got on a train headed in the direction of notre dame. we saw notre dame, had some crepes and some freetime (more souvenior shopping!) then we got on a train to versailles. we walked around versailles. it was crazy crowded. stand room only. literally. then we went to mcdonalds where we ordered soooooo much food. then got on hte bus at 7pm and headed back to germany. we were back in berlin by 10.30 or so the next morning. from there i caught my train back to konigs wusterhausen (making 4 euros in the process. the machine wouldnt take my money, but it did give me some. :)) and that was it. that was paris. pretty cool, but i have to admit that i like berlin better. :)

pictures will come in the next post because it's easier that way. :)

Bis Bald,

Kaite

Ostsee, Ostsee, and more Ostsee (actually not, only twice:))

So, as you can tell by the title of this post, I've spent a lot of time on the Ostsee (Baltic Sea) the past 2 weeks. Trip #1 was with my school class and trip #2 was with my host family. So I'll tell you about them one by one, starting with the first one.

Trip #1

I left last Monday for a city called Markgrafenheide. We stayed in cute little bungalows not too far from the beach. If it weren't October it would have been perfect. :) Day one we just went grocery shopping (lunch wasnt provided and we had cute little kitchens in our cute little bungalows). The rest of the day was free time. Day 2 we went to probably theeeee scariest place ever. Just a tip: if someone ever mentions the word "Kletterwald" RUN FOR YOUR LIFE! I'm not even kidding. It's like this place and theres trees and cables and your attached to the cables and you glide from tree to tree....while 8 meters in the air.....and nothings holding you there except for a clippy thing or two. Actually, I dont think it can even acurately be described in words. Let me find you all a generic picture courtesy of google.

This is actually the actual one we were at. So as you can see, you climb to the top of the tree and swing on the cables to the next tree. And sometimes you just hold onto a rope and swing like tarzan. It's crazy and scary and Kaite is NEVER doing it again. :) Day 3 we rode our bikes about 4 miles to a strange strawberry place, hung out there for a few hours and rode 4 miles back. Day 4 we walked about 2.5 miles on the beach to a city called Warnemuende or something like that. On the way we saw a seal, which was cool. The city was okay. There wasnt much to do though. Day 5 we packed our bags and headed home. And that's the brief overview of my class trip.

Trip #2

I got home on Friday from my classtrip. On Sunday, my host family and I left for yet another Ostsee adventure. :) This time we went to a place called Koserow on an island somewhere on the Ostsee. When we got there we walked around and explored and did a "mini" hiking thing. (Their version of mini and mine differ quiiiiiitttteee a lot.) Day 2 we got bikes and rode soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo (the number of o's I put after the s doesnt even acurately describe just how far we rode) far. I just looked it up. 22.6 km ONE WAY. Insane. But we went to a musuem, Historical Technical Museum of Peenemuende. Yeah. Then we rode alllllllllll the way back. Day 3 we went to Poland! Yes, so we went to Poland, which was just like driving to a different state because there was no border patrol just a sign that said "Welcome to Poland" or the Polish equivilant of it. And we went to a Polish market which was pretty darn cool if I do say so myself. :P Day 4 (today) we went to another museum, a cool one, kinda like COSI but not nearly as cool, but still pretty cool. And then we drove home.

And that concludes my post on my Ostsee trips. Enjoy the pictures that follow and stay tuned for my next post about PARIS!! (I leave in 9 freaking days!!)

Polish Market (Trip #2)

They went swimming. :) (Trip #1)

Strawberry place with giant table (trip #1)

strawberry place with the cool bear (trip #1)

on the beach (trip #1)

Okay so we might have lied just a tad. :) At some comments book at the historical technical museum (trip #2)

That's it.

Bis Bald,

Kaite

Neuruppin

So this past weekend was spent in Neuruppin, a city just north of Berlin...I think, at my first inbound orientation. I woke up on Friday at like 8:30 (yes, that means no school for me!! :)) and yeah, ate and hung out and stuff. And then I went to the train station and bought my ticket and hopped on the train. Honestly, it was sooo scary. I was soo stressed that maybe I wasnt on the right train and maybe I wont be able to find my next train and oh no oh no oh no. It was crazy. I'm such a worry wart. But anyways, so I didnt have any problems with the train and I got to Neuruppin (about 3 hours later) in one piece. And I even met an exchange student along the way! :) Rotarians picked us up from the trainstation and took us to the "jugenddorf" where we were staying. It was right on a little lake and so we went down there and hung out a while. But basically we just sat around and talked for the entire day. Oh! And we had chicken nuggets and french fries for dinner (mmmmmm....:)) They were yummy. :)

Saturday we got up (waaay too early), ate breakfast, and got on a ferry to go to Neuruppin (like the city part). Once we got there we took a picture of all of us on pretty much all 43 exchange students' cameras. We were standing there for quite a while. And then we split up into two groups (english/german and spanish) and went for a tour of the city. I got to see what I think was a real German church. I think they said it was built in the 11th century, but they had to rebuild it in like the 1700s or something. And yeah, we walked up 8 gazillion stairs to the top and just looked out the windows and stuff. Then we went through the rest of the city, stopped for lunch and a brief orientation and then were given 2 hours of freetime to explore the city on our own......but it was raining and cold and all the shops were closed. But I got some yummy ice cream (I love the ice cream in Germany! :)) and then went on a search for a bathroom with another girl. We ended up sneaking past a gate and using a portapotty (well, she did, I decided I didnt have to go anymore when I saw the portapotty). Then we went to the "disco" that Rotary was throwing for us. We sat there and had some soda (Germans are really big on hydration) and did little country presentations. And then we ate (bratwurst, some meatloaf-like stuff, chicken, and potatoes) and then just hung out until like midnight. Then we went back to the jugenddorf.

Sunday we had breakfast, traded pins and cards, took too many pictures, and then went to the train station where most of us rode together to Berlin and then caught our connecting trains. And that was the weekend. It was pretty fun, very exhausting, and really awesome. :)

Oh, and our next orientation is a month from now in Paris!! :)

And now for some pictures:

Me and my roomies. :)

Neuruppin.

The girl I found on my way to Neuruppin. :)

Americans. :)

Isnt it cute?

District 1940. :)

On the ferry.

The church.

That's all.

Bis bald,

Kaite

1 Month

I hate blogger. I had a very nice post typed, pictures included and went to post it and it errored and wouldnt post it. grrrrr..... So now you get the short reduced version. Sorry.

Yesterday officially marked 1 month in Germany. Totally crazy, the month has gone by so fast. Jule and I spent yesterday in Berlin visiting a giant mall called Alexa, the Ampelmann shop, ritter sport, and the ampelmann restaurant. and we found our rocker outfits (i'd tell you the story, but i dont remember it. but trust me, we NEED rocker looks.) and i tried on a dirndl! (and i wanted jule to try one on to, but she wouldnt. she's such the party pooper. :P) the ampelmann store was packed, so we it was as enjoyable as it could have been, but it was still super awesome. after the ampelmann store we went to the ritter sport store. one word can sum up this experience. yum. :) i bought some chocolate (500g to be exact) and some sweet (pun intended) bags. after that was the ampelmann restaurant, which i must admit, was SOO ghetto. but it was ampelmann so it was cool nonetheless. after the ampelmann restaurant we came home. and later we went to a concert thing in KW. and that's how i spent the day. overall, it was a totally perfect way to celebrate one month in germany (even though i didnt really realize that it was my 1 month anniversery with germany most of the day.) so yes, pictures now, with short captions, and that's all you'll get because i've already typed all this once and am very annoyed that i have to type it again.

Our rocker look. :)Ampelmann in action. :)Me, Jule, and Ampelmann. (the ghetto one at the restaurant :))

I got my picture with Ampelmann! :)Ritter Sport (oh how i love chocolate. :))Isnt it super cool?! You dont even have to answer because I already know. It is. 1000000% cool. :)

And that's all.

Bis bald,

Kaite

I hate Mondays...

If I've learned anything from my exchange it's that school is boring no matter which country you attend it in. Getting up at 6:30ish five days a week is such a drag. And then the weekend comes and goes in blink of an eye. As you all know, I need a good 12 hours of sleep a night at least in order to function properly. :) And there's no way I'm going to bed at 6:30. That'd just be silly. :) But in all honesty, school isnt that bad. It's just exhauting and slightly frustrating. Not being able to speak really sucks. Maybe tomorrow I'll get lucky and wake up perfectly refreshed and not tired at all at exactly 6:30 with a perfect German vocabulary. :) Oh that'd be soo great.
But in other news...this weekend was spent superbly. I yesterday Jule and I went to a party for her class last year. And it was actually pretty fun. Some good conversations were had. :) I love talking about stereotypes, they're always so funny. :) Apparently I'm supposed to be blond and a cheerleader. And I'm supposed to date a football [player] (haha, Jule. :)) And I come from a family that includes a mom, a dad, and 2-3 kids. We live in a fairly nice, suburban home. And yeah. That's how my American life should be. As for the German kids I was talking to, their lives should go as follows: They wake up in the morning and throw on one of their many pairs of lederhosen. Then they go downstairs for breakfast. Breakfast consists of sausage, sauerkraut, and beer, just like all the meals they eat do. All Germans are mean and grouchy and impatient and punctual. And they all have no sense of humor (something that everybody laughed at when I told them. :)) And yeah, that's how a German's life should be. :)

And other than that I have nothing really to say. Actually, I didnt really say all that much in this post. It's just kinda meaningless rambling. Which you all will of course enjoy thoroughly. :)

Bis bald,
Kaite

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