4 Weeks Later...

Hey Everyone,

Sorry I did not post two weeks ago, I was not motivated enough to finish it. I believe I am going to write about ever 3-4 weeks from here on out because 2 weeks is just too often. Any ways, these past four weeks have been decent! The first week everyone that was out in America was back in school, including my politics teacher. By Wednesday I was rock climbing with my Liaison, and Friday hanging out with some friends from school. On the weekend, I went down to my, host Grandma's for her birthday. On the second Monday, I had an extremely lucky day. On Wednesday, I was back down in Ulm for an AFS meeting. Last week was full of tests and by the next week, I was skyping on Thanksgiving.

My politics teacher, who was in America as well, was actually nice enough to bring back some Altoids for me. Now because there was plenty to go around the class, we passed them around. And oh can I say the expressions on everyone's faces was hilarious. Everyone was cringing and blahhing, even the teacher stated, "Yummy, it's like eating toothpaste..." I personally like Altoids because these mints are stronger than normal mints, however others did not share the expression. The rest of the day went by like any other day with finishing out with Handball in sport and not fully understanding what everyone was saying.

Wednesday came around, and so did school. I went to school like any other day, and tried to pay attention and see what the teacher was trying to teach. Then went home just to turn around to go to dance class. It didn't seem like a long time before I was heading home again. All the dancing, and messing up, and occasionally the awkward pairs that you are forced to dance with, had caused me to a have a wonderful time. However, when I was able to go rock climbing with my liaison, there was not really a better way to finish out the evening. I experienced something called lead climbing for the first time, which was exhilarating. Since I really didn't know how to do it, my liaison helped me out after I watched a few times. It was a different feeling not always having that safety line above you ready for your fall, but rather having to drag the rope all the way up as you went. It was a very enjoyable evening, along with meeting a few new people, whereas by the end my arms were good and tiered. They were also adding a new bouldering room and wall to climb on, and because they nearly finished, we were able to try out the new bouldering room. By the end of it, I was already tiered and needed to bike home, uphill, in the rain, which was not the most fun of all things.

Not much else happened the rest of the week. I got to go down to a nearby town with some friends from school to hang out. I was even able to teach some parkour to one of my friends. On Sunday, my host family and I went down to my host Grandma's for her birthday. Birthdays in German are a bigger deal. In the US, you may find that after you hit a certain age, all you seem to do is maybe go out with your family and/or friends to lunch. Here, you have a larger party with all of your family, and then a separate party with all of your friends.

On Monday, One of my luckiest days came around. While abroad, you know you will have those good days, and you know you will have those bad days, but you will also have lucky days. So on Monday, I had set my alarm 30 minutes early to get up and do my homework that was due that day. Well, I woke up, turned off my alarm, and went back to sleep. I woke up again close to an hour later, which is about when I needed to start heading to school. I quickly packed my backpack, raced downstairs, and rode my bike to school. Along the way, I noticed that I had forgotten my phone, and wallet, and keys, and still didn't have my homework done. Well, I didn't really think much about it until I locked my bike up. I had skipped breakfast, didn't have money for lunch, and was going to probably get marked off for not having my homework. Well, my first class began and my teacher didn't check the homework. Not much longer and my next class came around, and my other teacher didn't check my homework. By the time the lunch break came around, I went in town with a friend to grab lunch. Because I had forgotten my wallet, I couldn't buy lunch. Well I crossed paths with my host mom and she gave me some money to go get lunch. It was not much longer after getting back that I noticed I had also forgotten my clothes for PE. By the time PE came around, I just walked down and waited for the teacher to tell me I couldn't participate. Well, as long as one has sporty shoes, which is what I always wear, they can participate. After sport, I walked home because I didn't have the key for my bike nor my wallet with my bus card. After getting home, there was no one there. A neighbor, one of my host sister’s friends, noticed me and asked if I wanted to come in to their place and wait. After having a glass of water and talking for a while, I checked to see if I could get in the house. I had luck this time and my host parents were there to let me in. So even when you set yourself up for a disaster, you still might have luck and have a great day instead.

            After dance class on Wednesday, my host mom and I raced down to Ulm to meet up with the other exchange students. There was another option to go rock climbing, but I have always enjoyed these simple get-togethers with the other students. This one had a different atmosphere though. One of our most outgoing, friendly, and funny AFS friends was not there. Instead, he had headed back to Brazil to be with his friends and family again. This left the meeting feeling a little bland and hart felt for the other student who left. The adults talked a fair amount, and so did the students, but it was not the same. I played a couple of table fußball games with the only other guys there, but it wasn’t as fun, it wasn’t what it used to be. After getting home, I went to sleep almost straight away.

            On Saturday, my host mom took me down to her old town for her mom’s birthday. Along the way, we stopped by the Black Forest. Although it was 4°C and foggy, it was still a wonderful place. I even viewed some pocketknives, which is always fascinating to me. There was also a wonderful selection of coo-coo clocks and dolls around. After spending a little time there, we drove down for the birthday party. With no surprise, I talked to a number of people at the beginning, but not long after that I talk with the nonrelatives. The food was good, as always, and the people who I talked to were really nice. It didn’t seem like a long time before we headed home again, but it was still a long time before we got home.

            Last week was many tests in school for me. The tests are different than they are in America because there is not at much in the way of multiple choice. As well, you can normally find the answer to some of the questions by looking at how questions are stated; here they make sure that doesn’t happen. They can give a max of one test a day, and three in a week. This in turn means that they don’t have finals week like a number of schools in the US do.

            As we all know, Thanksgiving was this past week. People in Germany (and Europe) don’t celebrate this holiday as it is mainly an America holiday. The point of thanksgiving is to give thanks to all of those around you that you love. On thanksgiving (yesterday), I skyped with my family and everyone else who was there. My cousins are also a little strange in a way, but I love them so much, because they got their old exchange student that they hosted on face time and let her and me talk a little. I actually enjoyed hearing everyone’s voices and saying hello, even if it was not for very long.

            I still cannot believe that it has been almost three months sense I got here; time has really gone by quite quickly. I am lucky because I still have a fair amount of time left here, however I know it will eventually go away. I just need to make sure to have fun and learn a lot. This is a one in a lifetime opportunity, and I don’t want to waste it.

            I am going to leave it off there, hope you all are enjoying what I have to say. Again sorry for not posting last time, and remember I will be changing from every two weeks to every three or four. If you have any questions, comments, and/or suggestions, please leave them in the comments below and I will get to them in my next blog. 

Thanks everyone,

~ Michael Steiner ~

  

2, 4, 6, 8, This is Really Great!

Hey everyone,

To kick off the first week, I took a trip down to Ulm to tour around a little! As the week progressed with school, which has become a norm to me now, I am beginning to understand the concepts in class and my limitations. The clubs I am partaking in are quiet exciting and definitely helping me meet new people. As for Portugal, I am going to go ahead and let the pictures do most of the talking. From Ulm to Portugal and feeling at home, I can begin to relax and enjoy a life here in Germany.

On the first Sunday after my last post, my host parents took me down to Ulm where I was able to see the world’s tallest church. Although I didn't get to go up all 768 stairs, I still had a good time seeing the different parts of the massive church. Not only did I get to see the church but also my host dad took me around the town explaining the different parts. I also was able to see the river where Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria meet, which you could easily see from the old fortress wall that used to surround the city. After the beautiful walk around the city and fascinating history, my host parents took me out for some pastries and hot chocolate. 

As school continued during the week, I have found I am picking up on more German, but even I need to know my limitations and when to ask for something else. For instance in German class we were handed a four page paper what we were expected to read and understand, so I asked for something else that wasn’t that hard. School has become a normal routine; bike to school, go to classes, 'learn' something, write down homework, go home, do the homework and learn what I was supposed to 'learn.' Some of the classes I still don't know what I am learning, such as Ethic and somewhat French, but I should be able to start picking up on the topics more as the year progresses. Although my German has improved, I am still looking for more ways to excel. 

On Wednesday I had dance class again, which can be awkward at times, but is also fun (assuming I have a dance partner). The key thing is not to show up, do what your told, and not talk to the other person, but rather instead show up, learn what your told, and talk to the person. If at times you are having trouble getting a conversation started, don't worry, just keep trying to bring up some sort of conversation. If nothing seems to be working, try telling them that you are from another country and then that might spark something. (I would not suggest this as a conversational piece up front, as you can make a game to see how long you can act as a native.) The main thing is you have to realize that most people don't care about you unless there is something interesting or significant about you. Give the other person multiple chances to get to know you for who you really are, and maybe they will do the same for you. Do not fret over what comes and doesn't come your way, everybody is different, just make use of what you have. By that, I mean if you are having trouble talking to the person, maybe they have a different personality than you, but that shouldn’t stop you from trying to get to know them better.

The following day came along and I had my first First Aid meeting. It was definitely nice to be able to meet more people, especially those who have a similar interest and are more my age. In that day’s exercise, we covered bleeding to different parts of the body. Although I have already taken these classes in the U.S., I still find it fascinating to hear the German explanation. After hearing and practicing the different tasks assigned by the instructors, (which one instructor speak 'schwäbisch' German and is hard to follow at times,) it was time to leave. I can also use this class as a supplement to practice all of the First Aid training that I had learned in the U.S. 

The following day I had school again, but later that evening I had the chance to go to the Aalen vs Bundesliga soccer game. I was invited by my friend from school earlier in the month but was unable to go to the first game due to other conflicts so I asked if a later game would work. A good thing to keep in mind while on exchanges is that conflicts will occur, do your best to compensate and make everything work out in the end. As in my instance, I asked if a later day would also work and allowed me to keep my prior arrangements while still being able to go to a game. In all, everything should work out in the end. Anyway, the game turned out to be a sad loss for Aalen, one to two, but I still had a fun time meeting up with some of my friends from school. 

The next day we began the amazing trip to Lisbon Portugal. Since this post is already so long, I will let the pictures do a fair amount of the talking, but I will also include an interesting story about Lisbon. I also said I would include some German sentences in this post for my host mom, so I will try my best in the captions. I am going to guarantee that they are probably not right, but it won’t hurt to give it a shot either. Also, ignore the dates on the pictures, as my camera wasn’t set to the right day. 

 Ein typische Wohnung in Portugal 

auf dem Flur fünf.

Eine Aussicht von die Stadt. 

Von weit her.

Die Längsten Brücker im Europa. 

Eins von vielen Kirche. 

Im das Aquarium. 

Der Sonn-fisch. Es liegen auf dem Wasser für die Energie von Sonn. 

Now that you have somewhat of an idea of what Lisbon looks like, time for my favorite story of this town. During the 1750's on the 1^st of November, was a 9.0 earthquake that shook this town. This day is also known as All Saints Day. Now if you know anything about All Saints Day then you would know that you light a candle for every person that you have known that has died. Well, if the earth starts moving below you, and remember during this time most people didn't know what an earthquake was, where is the first place you go? Church right? Well most of the Catholics during this time were already headed to or already in church lighting these candles. Now a 9.0 earthquake is strong enough to shake over a church and most every other building. Now that the church is collapsing on you, and the ground is still shaking, where do you go next? The river right? You are probably already know where this is going. When they get to the river, it is down a few meters from that morning. Most of the people are thinking at this time, "God must be extraordinarily mad." Well not to long after comes a 25-meter (82 foot) tsunami. Well anyone who survived the Churches and other buildings falling on them then slammed by a massive title wave. Now remember back to all of those candles, well guess what they were able to all start. Well if you guessed fire, you were right. The fire lasted for about a week before it was extinguished. The worst part about all of this was about 40 percent of Lisbon's population had died and most of the city was destroyed. Now because Lisbon is more of the rolling hills type of city, people on the hills were saved from the title wave. In addition, most of the people on the hills were not religious. This is due to the fact the hills were considered the 'slums' of the city, and Catholics were considered the higher class and lived in the valleys, or the rich part of town. Following this horrific, but yet fascinating event, left many Catholics dead. This in turn left a period of time where Lisbon was not as much religious. The city was then rebuilt and continued to grow with safer and more earthquake proof buildings and Churches. This is probably one of my favorite stories about this town, even though it is somewhat of a depressing story. There are many other interesting and up beat stories from Lisbon, as such from the different kings thrones, but this one sparked an interest in me. 

Thanks again to everyone who has left a comment as I really do like reading and answering them. These comments do mean a lot to me, so thank you to everyone who has left one (or more)! Sorry about posting this one a day late, as you can see it is a little bit longer, and even though I had plenty of time to write it, I wanted to make sure it wasn't that bad. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, leave them in the comments below! Hope you all enjoyed reading what I have been up to!

Thanks everyone,

~Michael Steiner~