Midyear, Petition & What I Wished I'd Known

Sorry about not updating in a while, I started a Sprachkurs and so I have basically no free time Monday-Friday. I’m writing this in the 30 minutes I have between school and Institute (a church group I go to in Germany) so it might be a little hurried and I don’t even want to think about the grammar mistakes, please just bear with me. I wanted to write a post ever since our Mid-year Seminar in Bonn, and was reminded of the fact on Tuesday when I saw an email from Julia.

So first of all, Mid-year was awesome! I was able to see all my friends from Language Camp, and catch up a little with everyone. The one thing I found the most comforting was that almost everyone had very similar problems, and it’s so true that when you read people’s blog posts, FB posts, tweets or Instagram pics that you assume everything is going well for them, but those posts and tweets really just reflect a small part of their actual lives. I realized that I wasn’t alone and I had all these people to talk to about my problems, who would definitely be on my side and give me comfort and advice. I was also able to see Bonn!!! I had Sushi (I know it’s not German, I was just craving some good Asian food)! And visited an English shop (it had Hershey’s and Reece’s and Poptarts, prob the most awesome store I’ve gone to in Germany). Saying goodbye was hard, but for me it was easier because I now know what to expect when I leave and I know I have an awesome host family waiting for me in Mannheim :)

Now on to the email we all got from Julia, there were several important things that she mentioned. First of all, Congratulations to everyone that made Semifinalist!! It’s a huge achievement and you’re now one step closer to your goal of studying abroad in Germany! The second thing was that it reminded all of us about how Congress cut the CBYX budget by half and if not for the German Bundestag’s generous donation of 2 million dollars, the CBYX program would not be able to run on full capacity for 2015-2016. The CBYX program has really helped me gained an understanding of who I am and who I want to become. It gave me opportunities for self-improvement and I can say that I’m one step closer to becoming a global citizen. I am very grateful for the opportunities that the CBYX program had and will give me as I continue my journey in Germany. So I would like to take this opportunity to ask all of you that might read this to go to http://savecbyx.org/ to sign the petition to restore Congress funding to $4 million.

Lastly, we were asked by Julia to send her a few sentences about what we would have found helpful to know before heading to Bad Laasphe and I would like to take this time to write a couple of things I would have found helpful to know before I left. The thing I would have wanted to know, and that might have saved me some trouble with my last host family, was how real the interview questions actually were. I mean I took the time to think and formulate a response during the interview, but I didn’t really take the time to think about them more and now I wished I had done so. So semifinalists, pay attention to the interview questions, because they are relevant and you’d wish you had a great answer when that particular problem arises. I also would like to have known that doing an exchange is actually very difficult at times. I think that I had this perfect image in my head of how my exchange year would turn out, and my time here so far had not only not fulfil that image, but it has also shown me how idealistic and naïve I was at the beginning of my exchange. I remember alumni telling us at the interview and at the departure seminar that some days were so hard for them that they didn’t even want to get out of bed, but they always end with how it was the best year of their life. So I think I sort of I my head just cancelled out the challenges they mentioned, because if the year really was so great, then how bad could the “bad” be? Now that I’m experiencing the exchange, I can say that the bad could be just as awful as the good was awesome. But no worries, it’ll still be the best year of your life. I just wished I’d even the smallest idea of how hard this year would actually be, but also how rewarding it has been.

Congratulations again Semifinalist! And I wish you the best luck with the interview, if you have any questions you can comment below or email me.

p.s. I won't be updating for a while (again) because I'm not really satisfied with my German progress, even with the Sprachkurs, so I'm trying to just use German for the next couple of weeks and see how that goes. 

Possibilities

I’ve recently started a book called, “Komm, ich erzähl dir eine Geschichte“(Come, let me tell you a story) by Jorge Bucay (I technically got it a little while back, but my German was still too bad to really understand it, but now I can read it with a little bit of help from my dictionary) and it really got me thinking about the things that I limited myself to.

The book contains a series of short stories, and the first story, titled “Der Angekettete Elefant” (The Elephant in Chains) is about a psychiatrist telling his patient a story of when he was a little boy and loved the circus, especially the elephant. And in the story, the little boy wondered why the elephant doesn’t escape, because to the little boy, it is clear that the elephant is stronger than the stake that is holding it in place. Adults tell him it’s because the elephant is trained, but cannot answer his next question “if the elephant is trained, why chain him to a stake at all?” He found the answer to the question years later, and the answer is that the elephant had been chained to that stake since it was very little, and when it was little, it wasn’t strong enough to break free, and it tried and tried until it finally gave up. But when it grew up, it never went back to test its strength again.

The psychiatrist then related this story back to his patient, and told him that all of us are just like the elephant; we chain ourselves to countless stakes, “we live thinking "we can't", making mountains of things simply because once, a long time ago, when we were small, we tried to do something and couldn't. We do the same thing to ourselves that the elephant did, we etch into our minds this message: "I can't - I can't and I never will"”

“I can’t and I never will”

I’ve never really thought of myself as someone who has this message etched into my mind and I’ve never realist how subtle this message really is until I read this story and have been an exchange student for 4 months. As an exchange student, I have many opportunities to try things, old and new, simply because I’m in a different country and even the things I might have done before seem new because I’m experiencing them differently. And it really isn’t until I’ve branched out a little that I realized how much I limited myself to in the U.S., how many things I’ve told myself that I’m not going to try again because I didn’t like it or because I failed when I did it before, or because I simply thought it was impossible for me to enjoy it or succeed. I, like the elephant, have the thought “I can’t and I never will,” but unlike the elephant, I have the ability to change that thought into “I couldn’t, but I might.”

And I think everyone has this ability, so if you think that you will never be able to study abroad (or any other thing, but right here I'm trying to convince you to apply to the program if you want to, but simply think that you aren't able to) because your parents wouldn’t ever let you, or because of the cost of studying abroad or some other reasons. Think again. Or at the least, try, and if you’ve tried before, try again.  Applying to the CBYX program is a great way to leave the “I can’t and I never will” mindset into “I couldn’t (or haven’t), but I might.” It’s never too late to try (well, before the deadline anyways)  

For those that have already started their applications or submitted their applications, I wish you guys the best luck in getting them done and making finalist! Just keep in mind that if you do make finalist and come to Germany, you will having some of the best times of your life!

And for my other readers, I wish you guys the best luck in freeing yourselves from various other stakes that might be holding you guys back :)

Dec 1st

Sorry for not updating in a while, things came up and I never got to finish the post I was writing. Just a quick summary of things that happened, first, I went to Frankfurt and had Chipotle!! It was soo good, the best burrito I had in a while (I really miss queso though). Then, I changed host families. I have to be honest and say that my last host family just was not a good fit for me. There weren’t anything wrong with them or me, but there are billions of people on earth, of course we’re going to meet people that we don’t get along well with. It would be impossible to like everyone you meet. But I just want to impress that communication is super important, one of the reasons we didn’t work out is because when I try to communicate, they misunderstand, and they either don’t communicate with me or I don’t understand what they are trying to tell me (they would say it in a way that is not clear because they don’t want to hurt my feelings or sound critical).

But I have to say that I still learn a lot from them and am very grateful that they were willing to host me for the time that they did. And without them, I would never have met my host family now, so it really was a blessing in disguise. I ended up living with my local coordinator for almost two weeks before moving to my new host family, and I just want to say that having a great local coordinator makes life so much easier. So for future participants, I would recommend that you establish good communication with your local coordinator as soon as you get to your host family.

Now that I’m at my new host family, I feel more at home in a week than I did at my last host family in two months. And even though I am learning much more German and enjoying myself more, I wouldn’t trade the time I spent with my old host family for anything, because it was that experience that made me a better person, and helps me better appreciate my new host family. This couple of months had been hard for me, but again, I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world, because they made me a stronger, more appreciative, and open-minded person. My mom always used to tell me that we wouldn’t be able to really appreciate the good things in life without the hard things that help us grow, and that’s why we have stumbling blocks that slows us down so we can really look around and be grateful for what we have, and not always focus on what we want or are missing.

I’m only 4 months into this exchange year and I’ve already learned so much and met so many wonderful people. I cannot imagine what else I could learn and how many other people I can meet because the possibilities are limitless. And that’s why, if you’re hesitating about whether or not to apply to the CBYX program, I would tell you straight up that you’re missing a once-in-a-life-time opportunity if you don’t even apply. You never know what life could bring. I didn’t know that I would be in Germany and having the time of my life now at this exact time last year, but I had hope then that I would be, so I took the time to apply to the CBYX program, and I have not yet regretted where I ended up being. So act now!

Schloss Neuschwanstein

Schloss Neuschwanstein was THE castle that I’ve definitely wanted to see in Germany (I mean, I only made it my main blog photo…) and I finally got to see it on October 10^th 2014!!!! After this post I’m going to change my blog photo to the one I took when I was there with me in it, lol)

I actually got to see Schloss Neuschwanstein as part of the Munich tour, at first I decided not to go because it was quite a bit extra, but changed my mind in Munich, and it was definitely worth the money. Not only did I get to see Schloss Neuschwanstein, as part of the castle tour we actually saw Schloss Linderhof also. We also stopped in a town called Passionsspieldorf Oberammergau on the way to Neuschwanstein. The town is famous for its Passion Plays and also fairy tale houses.

Schloss Linderhof was very beautiful also, but it was a lot smaller and a lot more ornamented on the inside than Schloss Neuschwanstein. We weren’t allowed to take photos of the inside of the castle, but I did buy postcards with pictures of the inside to remember what I see J ) Once we got to Schloss Neuschwanstein, hiking up the hill was probably our biggest challenge. But all is well cause we stopped half way up to eat. After the tour inside Schloss Neuschwanstein, we (Lyndee, Maygen and I) went up to Marien Bridge to take pictures (this is where people take pictures most of the time) 

Pictures:

Schloss Linderhof

A Fairy Tale painted house

Side view of Schloss Neuschwanstein

Schloss Neuschwanstein (back view)

The view from behind Schloss Neuschwanstein 

Schloss Neuschwanstein side view from Marien Bridge 

Front view of Schloss Neuschwanstein 

Schloss Hohenschwangau

Side view of Schloss Neuschwanstein from Marien Bridge!

München (Munich)

     I think a new thing Experiment e.V. (German partner with CIEE) is currently trying is having touring trips in major German cities for its exchange students in Germany. Everyone was invited to attend a 4-day-3-night trip to München (or Munich), but only 20 of us decided to attend (the trip was on the slightly expensive side, but I thought it was very worth it).

     I got to München HBF on Wednesday (Oct. 8th… I know, this post is very late, will explain later) and I was a hour early, so I just went around the HBF looking at the little shops and the book shops, then I discover two CBYXers were at the Starbucks, so I went and joined them and had a nice talk before we had to go to the meeting spot. Then!!! I discovered that Sarah (the teamer from language camp) was one of our teamers in München!!! I was super excited to see her again (and now that I’m writing about her, I remembered that I haven’t contacted her yet.. ops)

     We then went to the hostel that we will be staying at for the next few days and had a nice German dinner (Spätzle, I got the vege version though, they ran out of meat…) then had get to know you activities since not all the people there knew each other (there were like 8-9 CBYXers though). After that we had time to unpack and get the bed sheets, etc.

     The next day, we all had breakfast, got our bus tickets and maps and headed out to München City center. We saw Marienplatz first, then had a guided tour through the main city. We learned about the origin of the city (monks lived here, grew because of salt export), saw St. Peter’s tower, Hofbräuhaus, Frauenkirche and the marketplace. After the tour we had free time for lunch, and Charlotte, Lyndee, Olivia, Maygen and I decided to go to the Hard Rock Café for lunch and because they wanted to buy a shirt. But… we forgot that in Germany, the servers take their time with the order, and the food takes its time to arrive cause most of the time if Germans go out to eat, they spend a couple of hours talking and eating, but we didn’t have a couple of hours, we had about one hour to for eating, but we didn’t get our food until 5 mins before we had to leave, so we had to wolf down our food (we also felt bad about confirming American Stereotypes instead of getting rid of them).

     Then we got to go to the Deutsches Museum. I think any other time I would have enjoyed the Museum, but by the time we got there, I was already a little exhausted from all the walking (and because we went to bed really late but woke up really early) I mainly sat in one of the exhibitions and stayed there most of the time. The museum is a science museum though, so a lot of the stuff you really need to have some knowledge about the topic to find it interesting.

     After the Deutsches Museum we went to see the Parliament building, then had free time for dinner. We actually got to meet up with another CBYXer that lives in the area (Kali) and we went to a couple of shops (one of the friends got two dirndl, which is a traditional German dress) then got some food (well, I got an Ice Shake... haha no real food for me) 

Pictures:

Marienplatz

Devil's Foot inside of Frauenkirche

no explanation needed ;)

Carbon car inside of Deutsches Museum

Deutsches Museum from a distance

Parliament Building (I think)

Marienplatz

My Chocolate Ice Shake in Munich! (& Olivia)

Holiday Park, Laser Tagging and my first non-alcoholic CocktailSp

So the reason I haven’t updated in a while- I really haven’t had much time between school, learning German and trying to integrate with my host family. But I have done some fun things I would like to mention. My host family and I and another family went to Holiday Park last Saturday, it wasn’t much different from the last time I went, but I did try a couple new rides (water rides) and it was relaxing and fun. Then, I went with my neighbor and her friends to a nearby laser tagging range to play some laser tagging! I’ve never played laser tagging before so it was really exciting for me to try.

After we drove to the address provided on the website (for the laser tagging place), we actually had to search around to find the right building. We were actually the only ones at the time that wanted to play, so instead of playing in teams, we all played against each other (there were 4 of us total). We got our vest and gun and were told that we have 99 lives total, and there’s only three places that you can hit and “kill” someone (two in the front, close to the shoulder blades and one in the back (dead center)) and that after you lost a life, you have 5 seconds of immunity that gives you the chance to run and hide.

We ended up playing two sessions (one session is 20 minutes) and it was a lot of fun. But a little too much for me, I think I would do it again, but would have to call it quits after 1 session next time. By the end of the 2^nd session I was ready for it to end (I was sweating and nervous that someone’s going to pop out of nowhere and kill me (which actually happened several times already)) It was a great relief for me when I notice that my gun stopped working (only happens when the session ends) and I walked to the entrance of the range to meet my friends. It was really no surprise for me that I was the lowest scoring one out of the four of us, although I did improve significantly after the first round.

Then… (dramatic music) we decided to go to McDonald’s first to eat (which was actually the first time I had McDonald’s since coming to Germany) because the Enchilada place/bar/Mexican restaurant is pretty expensive and I think they wanted to spend money on cocktails instead of food, which is understandable. So I got my first Big Mac in Germany, and it was sooo delicious (although it was a little dry). I was actually kinda glad to eat a McDonald’s too because a couple days ago I was thinking that I really miss American food, and American food was what I got at McDonald’s (well, sort of…) So after dinner, we all drove to the Enchilada place to actually meet two other people and I got my first non-alcoholic cocktail! I have no idea why I waited so long to get one, it was really delicious (basically awfully good mixed juice that you can’t really get anywhere else). I was really surprised that most of the people I was with actually got a non-alcoholic beverage too (I think Germans are much more responsible when they’re the designated driver, probably because driver license actually costs a small fortune).

Spring Fever

All in all, I had a very good time, even though I got home pretty late and had to wake up at 7 to go to church… lol  

First week of German School!

Sorry about not updating in a while, but I just started school here in Germany, and it’s a lot more work than I previously anticipated (so I haven’t had time to sit down and write a blog post). But, today I have one of my short days, so I have a couple hours of to do what I want instead of homework. First of all, I want to say that even though school has been a lot of work (translating mainly, since my German vocab is pretty limited), my class mates had been super welcoming and helpful, and I really love school. It’s really one of the things I enjoy the most out of my day (which sounds a little weird… but it is what it is). I have been placed in the 10^th grade so all my class mates are younger than me (but that really doesn’t bother me at all) and the good thing about that is that I’ve taken most of the classes before in English, so it’s not like I’m trying to learn new material in another language (except in politics, but more on that later).

My weekly schedule (just in case you were wondering)

	M	Tu	W	Th	F
1	Chem	Bio	Spanish	Physics	French
2	Politics	French	Spanish	English	Math
3	English	Art	Math	German	Spanish
4	German	Art	History	German	Spanish
5	Math	Geography	German	Sport	Religion
6	Religion	Music	English	Sport	Music
7	Choir	Lunch break		Lunch break
8		Math		Politics
9		Physics		Bio
10		Chem		French
11				History

I have school till 4:20 on Tuesdays and 5:10 on Thursdays so I have to eat lunch at school, and this has led me into trying some new yummy food! A couple of my classmates would always take me to the bakery or the cafeteria (where the food is actually pretty good and they sell bread and donuts and crepes) or the Dönner shop. Oh, I forgot to say that I don’t have to take French, because all my classmates had 6 years of French already, and there’s no way I could learn 6 years of materials in 1 year, so instead I have extra German lessons, which is really helpful because I really need to learn German grammar.

I have to take Chemistry, Physics and Biology at the same time though, and I have to be honest and say that I’ve forgotten a lot, so I’m glad I got to do some review. Math is really easy (we were talking about functions… so it’s like what I did in 8^th grade), English and Geography are both not very challenging (both I have in English, Geography is only once a week though, which is kinda sad) but really helps my German because I have vocab in German and English. 

Politics is really challenging because the teacher decided to do an experiment. The politics teacher is also our German teacher, so he decided to do politics instead of German for 2 weeks, then all German and no politics for 4 weeks. This had made the class move super fast, and since my German vocab knowledge does not extend to politics, I have to literally translate every word. So it’s hard to keep up. History is by far the most challenging for me because it’s boring… (the teacher is very old, and the textbook hard to read (my classmates told me that they have a hard time reading the textbook too)) I might switch out of that class to an English history class, but I’m not sure if I want to do that yet (since I’ll be with 9^th graders, I think it wouldn’t be a bad idea because then I would have English and German history vocab lists instead of having to translate everything myself)

But aside from school- I also hanged out with some friends last Friday in Mannheim, which was super fun and I had some really good curry! Forgot to take pictures though… will have to do that later. Then on Saturday I went on a biking trip with my host family and their friends, 11 people in total, and I expected it to be an hour of biking and then food. But I was wrong, it was so hard to get to the place we wanted because we literally had to climb a mountain (it was easy going down, but def wasn’t going up) on a bike. It was fun overall though, got to watch my host sisters play mini golf on stone (I didn’t know that was a thing) and then we went to a little carnival on Sunday and I finally had some waffles (I missed them).

All in all, life is pretty good here in Germany, and I’m learning a lot, having lots of fun, and sleeping a lot. Until next time!