Sorry for the huge delay! I've just started to get really busy with school, friends, and everything. Haha I guess I'm finally getting to that point in my exchange where I actually have a LIFE.
Berlin was amazing! It has been a while since we were all together on that trip, but the memories are still strong :) I had so much fun with all of the other exchange students! It was a great opportunity to bond with my district and see the wonderful city that is Berlin.
On Wednesday we took the train from Frankfurt to Berlin. It was super super fast and got us there in around 5 hours. We stayed in a youth hostel with 7 people per room with only 2 keys... you can just imagine how that worked out hahaha. We saw all the typical sightseeing places such as the Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, a section of the Berlin Wall, the Bundestag, and the Holocaust memorial. It was really cool to see things that you've only seen in history books right before your eyes.
We had some planned activities all together, like a city bus tour and dinner at an Indian restaurant (Poor restaurant. They had to deal with 40 exchange students. Enough said haha), but other than that we had a whole lot of free time. We were allowed to hop on the trains with small groups and navigate around Berlin by ourselves! We went shopping a lot, bought some chocolate, but most of the time just wandered around because we had no idea where we were going or what there even was to do. Wish I could have planned that one a little better haha. On Friday our group took a trip to Potsdam to see Schloss Sanssouci, which was really beautiful. In Potsdam we did even more shopping... ended up dropping the equivelant of 40 USD on a t-shirt, but it was really cute I swear.
Other than Berlin, nothing too exciting has happened to me in these past few weeks. I'm moving to my next host family on Saturday which I think is pretty crazy! That means that I've already been in Germany for THREE MONTHS. Whaaaaaaat? That also means that more than a quarter of my time here is gone! Crazy! Ah! Guess that means I'll just have to make even more of the time I have left.
Liebe Grüße
Anna
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Boredom
Home alone. Not much to do. I got my hair cut today... that was a frightening experience! I didn't know any of the hair cutting terminology in German, so there were some minor miscommunications. Oh well. It looks fine haha.
Yesterday was so much fun! Gudrun took me, Robin, Victor, Michelle, and Raisa on a boat tour of the Rhein from Bacharach to Boppard. It was sooooo cold so we'd go outside and take pictures for as long as we could stand it, then run back inside and drink hot chocolate haha. There were so many castles everywhere. When we got to Boppard Robin showed us around town for an hour before our train came. After that we had to take a ferry back over to the other side of the Rhein to drop Victor off at his house... that kind of freaked me out haha.
Tonight I'm going to see that movie about Facebook in Bad Kreuznach with my host sister, Conny, and some of her friends. Should be funnnn!
Still really, really psyched for Berlin Tour!!! It's basically all that the exchange students in my district can talk about right now. Less than a week now! Get ready for the onslaught of pictures afterwards.
Gotta go for a jog now so all those Brotchen don't catch up to me!
Liebe Grüße
Anna
Yesterday was so much fun! Gudrun took me, Robin, Victor, Michelle, and Raisa on a boat tour of the Rhein from Bacharach to Boppard. It was sooooo cold so we'd go outside and take pictures for as long as we could stand it, then run back inside and drink hot chocolate haha. There were so many castles everywhere. When we got to Boppard Robin showed us around town for an hour before our train came. After that we had to take a ferry back over to the other side of the Rhein to drop Victor off at his house... that kind of freaked me out haha.
Tonight I'm going to see that movie about Facebook in Bad Kreuznach with my host sister, Conny, and some of her friends. Should be funnnn!
Still really, really psyched for Berlin Tour!!! It's basically all that the exchange students in my district can talk about right now. Less than a week now! Get ready for the onslaught of pictures afterwards.
Gotta go for a jog now so all those Brotchen don't catch up to me!
Liebe Grüße
Anna
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Herbstferien + 2 months already??
Hello all!
Today officially marks my 2nd month in Germany. I think. It's the 12th. And I got here on August 12th. So yes. The time has flown by! It seems like just yesterday I had my first day of school... now I'm really starting to get settled. It's true. As my host mom Gudrun wisely put it today, "Dein Urlaub ist vorbei". Your vacation is over. I thought somehow I would beat the exchange student homesickness curve, but it appears as if I'm just the typical exchanger hahaha. Don't worry, I'm not moping around my house or anything like that. But now that nothing here in Germany is really new or exciting anymore it's starting to be more like, well, living.
Right now I have 2 weeks of vacation for Herbstferien (Fall break)! The first night of Ferien all of us exchange students had a party to celebrate Danielle's (USA) birthday. It was awesome! There's nothing I love more than exchange students :) District 1860 is amazing. Yesterday my friends and I went to Phantasialand. It was so much fun! It's not very big, but that means we got to go on everything once... or twice... or three times hahaha. We took such funny pictures on the on-ride cameras... too bad I'm too cheap to spend 5 euros on a copy. In the car home Selena, Lesley, Katha, and I had some serious karaoke time. I tried to take a video but they wouldn't let me. Boooooo. Tomorrow my host mom is taking me, Michelle (Australia), Robin (USA), and Victor (Brazil) on a boat tour of the Rhine.
The thing I'm most looking forward to during Herbstferien is our trip to Berlin! Most of the exchange students from our district are going and it's going to be such a great time. The adventure begins in Frankfurt with a 5 hour train ride to Berlin... super lang aber mit Austauschschülern wird es bestimmt Spaß :D I don't remember exactly what we're doing... but I know that we're going to Potsdam for a day which is where fellow D7350 exchanger Simon lives! I'm so excited for our mini-reunion hahaha.
Ok, I gotta get back to the living room to watch the soccer game! Germany is playing Kazakhstan and it's quite exciting.
Liebe Grüße
Anna
Today officially marks my 2nd month in Germany. I think. It's the 12th. And I got here on August 12th. So yes. The time has flown by! It seems like just yesterday I had my first day of school... now I'm really starting to get settled. It's true. As my host mom Gudrun wisely put it today, "Dein Urlaub ist vorbei". Your vacation is over. I thought somehow I would beat the exchange student homesickness curve, but it appears as if I'm just the typical exchanger hahaha. Don't worry, I'm not moping around my house or anything like that. But now that nothing here in Germany is really new or exciting anymore it's starting to be more like, well, living.
Right now I have 2 weeks of vacation for Herbstferien (Fall break)! The first night of Ferien all of us exchange students had a party to celebrate Danielle's (USA) birthday. It was awesome! There's nothing I love more than exchange students :) District 1860 is amazing. Yesterday my friends and I went to Phantasialand. It was so much fun! It's not very big, but that means we got to go on everything once... or twice... or three times hahaha. We took such funny pictures on the on-ride cameras... too bad I'm too cheap to spend 5 euros on a copy. In the car home Selena, Lesley, Katha, and I had some serious karaoke time. I tried to take a video but they wouldn't let me. Boooooo. Tomorrow my host mom is taking me, Michelle (Australia), Robin (USA), and Victor (Brazil) on a boat tour of the Rhine.
The thing I'm most looking forward to during Herbstferien is our trip to Berlin! Most of the exchange students from our district are going and it's going to be such a great time. The adventure begins in Frankfurt with a 5 hour train ride to Berlin... super lang aber mit Austauschschülern wird es bestimmt Spaß :D I don't remember exactly what we're doing... but I know that we're going to Potsdam for a day which is where fellow D7350 exchanger Simon lives! I'm so excited for our mini-reunion hahaha.
Ok, I gotta get back to the living room to watch the soccer game! Germany is playing Kazakhstan and it's quite exciting.
Liebe Grüße
Anna
Sunday, October 3, 2010
PARIS!
I just had the most wonderful weekend of my life! I am totally and completely in love with Paris. Don't get me wrong Germany, I like you a lot too. But there is just something so great about kissing everyone you meet on both cheeks, eating fancy cheese, and being able to see the Eiffel Tower from virtually anywhere. On Friday night we arrived in Paris after driving for about 8 hours... so much traffic! Michelle and I made good use of the car ride by trying to teach each other our accents. The first thing we did was have dinner at one of the Garches-Marnes la Coquette-Vaucresson Rotary Club's member's house. It was absolutely delicious. First a very nice tomato salad, then clove and honey ham with rice, followed by a cheese course and finished with authentic French tarts. I ate so much this weekend, but it was definitely worth it.
We had the loveliest hosts in Marnes-la-Coquette! The Sagassers made me feel right at home. Anna and Bernd are actually from Germany, so there was no fickle language barrier there. They also happened to serve the best breakfast in the world. Which was a super hybrid of German and French breakfasts. This means awesome croissants, amazing cheese, and the most delicious baguettes ever. Ok I'll stop talking about food now.
Saturday we went on a small tour of Paris. Obviously we couldn't go everywhere in one day, so we just stayed in the area of Notre Dame. Unfortunately the tour was in French (and then translated into very quiet German) so I didn't really understand what we were seeing. Then we had lunch. Michelle and I sat with all the 12-and-under boys which was quite an experience! I even learned how to ask for an iced tea in french (thank you, Thibault). Afterwards we all went on a boat tour on the Seine River. Many photo opportunities. I was totally exhausted during the car ride back to the Sagasser's house and kept falling asleep... kind of embarrassing considering I was with my club president and his wife AND the president of the Rotary Club in France. Eberhard had a good laugh about that one.
Later that evening we had dinner at La Coupole, a very well known Parisian restaurant. The food was very French and very good. A little too good actually, I could only eat half of what they gave me-- it was so rich! We did what we typically do at Rotary functions... listen to speeches, schmooze, and for Michelle and I, pay attention to the kids hahaha. Afterwards the Sagassers took me and the Nolls on a small tour of the area we were in. It was actually a special night in Paris, Nuit Blanche, in which all of the museums are open until very early in the morning. The weather was fantastic and there were so mant people out and about. We went to a bookstore where I bought some very sophistocated postcards (check your mailboxes soon). We also stopped to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up, which really is all that I imagined it to be. It is simply stunning!
Sunday morning I went with Anna, Daniela (our club president's wife), and Max (the son of our hosts in Paris) to Versailles to check out a market. It was bustling to say the least. Max and I took a small tour around the outside of the palace and the actual town of Versailles, which was quite nice. There were sooooooo many tourists around. It's fun to be a tourist in a town, but not feel like a tourist because you're hanging with the locals. I recommend everyone try it sometime!
We finished up our stay in Paris with a lunch together at an Italian restaurant. Michelle and I were asked to say a few words (I said mine in English while Michelle said hers in German, naturally not everyone understood everything haha), just thanking the clubs for making our trip possible. The club president presented us with pins, a Wimpel (I actually can't think of the English word, nothing sounds right! Like one of those flag things, but not exactly. Look it up), and an invitation to come back.
All in all, I got a great first impression of France! I can't wait to come back! And I can't wait to learn French hahaha.
Au Revoir,
Anna
We had the loveliest hosts in Marnes-la-Coquette! The Sagassers made me feel right at home. Anna and Bernd are actually from Germany, so there was no fickle language barrier there. They also happened to serve the best breakfast in the world. Which was a super hybrid of German and French breakfasts. This means awesome croissants, amazing cheese, and the most delicious baguettes ever. Ok I'll stop talking about food now.
Saturday we went on a small tour of Paris. Obviously we couldn't go everywhere in one day, so we just stayed in the area of Notre Dame. Unfortunately the tour was in French (and then translated into very quiet German) so I didn't really understand what we were seeing. Then we had lunch. Michelle and I sat with all the 12-and-under boys which was quite an experience! I even learned how to ask for an iced tea in french (thank you, Thibault). Afterwards we all went on a boat tour on the Seine River. Many photo opportunities. I was totally exhausted during the car ride back to the Sagasser's house and kept falling asleep... kind of embarrassing considering I was with my club president and his wife AND the president of the Rotary Club in France. Eberhard had a good laugh about that one.
Later that evening we had dinner at La Coupole, a very well known Parisian restaurant. The food was very French and very good. A little too good actually, I could only eat half of what they gave me-- it was so rich! We did what we typically do at Rotary functions... listen to speeches, schmooze, and for Michelle and I, pay attention to the kids hahaha. Afterwards the Sagassers took me and the Nolls on a small tour of the area we were in. It was actually a special night in Paris, Nuit Blanche, in which all of the museums are open until very early in the morning. The weather was fantastic and there were so mant people out and about. We went to a bookstore where I bought some very sophistocated postcards (check your mailboxes soon). We also stopped to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up, which really is all that I imagined it to be. It is simply stunning!
Sunday morning I went with Anna, Daniela (our club president's wife), and Max (the son of our hosts in Paris) to Versailles to check out a market. It was bustling to say the least. Max and I took a small tour around the outside of the palace and the actual town of Versailles, which was quite nice. There were sooooooo many tourists around. It's fun to be a tourist in a town, but not feel like a tourist because you're hanging with the locals. I recommend everyone try it sometime!
We finished up our stay in Paris with a lunch together at an Italian restaurant. Michelle and I were asked to say a few words (I said mine in English while Michelle said hers in German, naturally not everyone understood everything haha), just thanking the clubs for making our trip possible. The club president presented us with pins, a Wimpel (I actually can't think of the English word, nothing sounds right! Like one of those flag things, but not exactly. Look it up), and an invitation to come back.
All in all, I got a great first impression of France! I can't wait to come back! And I can't wait to learn French hahaha.
Au Revoir,
Anna
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