Winnetou Pictures

 The Stage:

 The narrator arrives in town:

These are the bad guys. The smoke is from the gun fight that just occurred and the other picture is them fleeing the scene:

Left: The good Indians dancing and singing and stuff.

Below: The Opache chief on his horse.

 Right: Charlie Shatterhand defending himself against more bad guys.

Below: Yay here come the English guy!

Him explaining his purpose in the Wild West to the old prospector guy. Of course his trusty butler stands back and listens attentively.

 The rest of his staff-------->

 Bad guys and Old Shatterhand's truelove.

 Winnetou leaping from his horse to come to his sister's rescue

 Fighting again!

 Keep your eye on the bad guy running in....

 Keep watching!

hm... that didn't go very well for him....














Winnetou continues to defeat his attackers------------------->

Below: Englishman singing typical American hoedown songs with the dancing girl

 'Murica!

Falling in love!!!!

 Intense fight between Winnetou and Charlie

After an intense battle, Winnetou pins Charlie with a spear at his throat. Unfortunately at the performance I was at, the spear point broke so instead of looking menacing, it just dangled over Charlie's head, causing all the actors to laugh and some other actor traded spears with Winnetou for the remainder of the show.

/\ Yay! Charlie and Winnetou and now blood brothers and the bad guy is tied to that pole /\

\/ All of the Englanders, cleverly disguised as trees. The butler follows the troop with, of course, a dynamite candle!  \/

 

 

BIG FINISH! FIRE!

The Wild West is everywhere!

(This experience actually happened at the end of my second week here; however, I write about it now because it's still cool.)
My family had prefaced the play we were going to on Saturday night by telling me that we were going to a Western. Of course, I immediately thought of Westerns as they exist in the US: cowboys and Indians, shooting and horseback riding --The Wild Old West, immortalized in film and the creation of a genre dedicated to its portrayal. But then I was like, wait a second. I'm in Germany. Why would they ever show American Westerns? That'd be silly. So I resigned myself to being surprised at what a German Western could be when we arrived at the theatre. I also knew the stage was outdoors so I prayed for nice weather.

Luckily, the weather was gorgeous as I walked with my host father from the car in the grass parking lot and followed the crowds of people to wherever we were going. As I looked around, I noted some extremely oddly dressed individuals. There were a lot of moccasins, suede accessories, and feathers head pieces bobbing about in the hoard heading into town. This was only a taste of what was to come. Soon enough, we had entered a Wild West Village, complete with a trading post, feed stand, teepee, and other cowboy themed merchandising opportunities. The icing on the cake (or so I thought at the time) was the swarms of Germans and other tourists of sort parading around in Wild West gear, eagerly awaiting that evening's show.

Before I get into my experience of the main attraction, perhaps I should actually elucidate where I actually was and what exactly I was going to see. I was at the 2013 Karl-May-Spiele's production of Winnetou I-Blutsbruder in Bad Segeberg. Who is Karl May? Karl May was a prolific German author that wrote Westerns and is specifically known for the Winnetou-tetralogy. He is so well known that every year in Bad Segeberg, the Karl-May-Spiele produces one of his works in play-form. The Winnetou books portray the story of Winnetou and the Apache Indians as he battles the all the evil the world can throw at him. The stories are recorded by a journalist from the east coast that just recently moved west, Charlie Shatterhand. He and Winnetou become blood brothers and Shatterhand inevitably falls in love with Winnetou's beautiful sister (doesn't go well).

Anyways, after grabbing a bite at the restaurant next to the Trading Post, my hostfather and I met with the rest of the family and family friends and starting making our way to our seats. I'm not exactly sure what I was picturing before I entered the theatre (theatre is hardly the right word) but I was entirely shocked by the mini-town that made up the stage. Here, I'll just add a picture.

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the trails where the horses ran through the different levels of the audience but just know it was cool.

And it was full.

I'll add some more pictures in another post but now, on with my story. I'm not going to go step by step through the plot because that's lame but I am going to hit the most intriguing point: watching the Wild West in German. Because really, what is the Wild West without the associated slang?

The production team conquers the lingual barrier with a liberal use of Denglish, text predominantly in Deutsch but punctuated with phrases and interjections in English. The character who spoke the most English was wealthy Englishman who popped up throughout the show to add comic relief.
Here he is:

 

 The experience of a German Old West is definitely a bit difficult to explain but the bottom line is that it was so fun.

A metaphor for you: The context in which someone exists alters their perceptions of everything, like the lenses in glasses.

Just sit for a second on the phrase, "The Wild West". Immediately after reading the words you're filled with images, associations, and stereotypes. At this point, you're already one level back from the actual history. This is your basic lens. You see everything through these basic lenses that your culture, experiences, and context built into you and you need them to attain understanding of foreign or distant topics by interpretation through or association with personal experience. Now let's take another step back. Karl May's books are a portrayal of the American portrayal of the Old West, altered by all the differences that make Germany not the US. Germany is pretty far away from the Old West, so the lenses he adds have quite a heft prescription. The combination of the two lenses is a little trippy but not irreconcilable. Next, his interpretation of an interpretation is taken by a production team and a bunch of actors and turned into something they connect with and audiences will love. The fourth lens is a bit more nuanced than the others. It is the effect of my preconceptions about Germans and Germany. What I expect them to laugh at or when I expect a cheer also affects how I watch and understand the show. This lens isn't purposeful interpretation, it is more of a subconscious self-consciousness about a foreign portrayal of a national aspect. So now I'm sitting there with these crazy glasses on preparing to enjoy whatever the night has in store.

Hopefully that was halfway-coherent because it's actually really cool. Anyways, Winnetou I: Blut Bruder was quite the experience and if next summer's production starts while I'm still in Germany, I'll be there. Maybe my perspective will already have changed between summer 2013 and summer 2014.

A couple of miscellaneous thoughts 3

1) I have seen five wild hedgehogs since I have been in Germany. I don't think I have ever seen a wild hedgehog in the US.

1a) The German word "Igel" is pronounced like the English word "eagle". However, it means hedgehog, not eagle. Talk about false cognates.

2) On the other hand, I have seen almost no squirrels. Coming from the U of I campus and from Kenney Gym (which often serves as a home to confused squirrels), the apparent lack of squirrels is a kind of weird.

2a) "Squirrel" in German is "Eichhörnchen". I have been tested multiple times on my ability to say "Eichhörnchen". It's really not that bad though because "squirrel" is a really hard word for Germans to say so, after they test you, you can test them right back.

3) While at home my lovely blue TI-84 Plus is a run-of-the-mill, assumed part of high school math class, here, my math class uses scientific-ish kind of calculators. It was quite a shock after working all last year to maintain my green bar in C6 or whatever objective tools was in Calc 2/3.

4) Papers/spirals/binders/etc. are not 3-hole-punched they are 4-hole-punched and only the middle two holes are really ever used.

5) No one in my class brings their laptop to school everyday.

6) We use overhead projectors and transparencies all the time in class.

7)The math sequence here is completely different than in the US. When I started in my school, we were working with vectors and doing things I had just learned last year. Now, we are doing integrals as sums of areas of trapezoids.

8) Everyone uses these shnazzy looking pens. I don't really know what to call them but they aren't ball-point or felt-tip. Anyways, they're cool.

WHAT?! I've been here for a month?!

Well, the first month has absolutely flown by. Actually, I'm pretty sure it still hasn't sunk in that I am in Germany and will be until next JULY. So my one-monthaversery with Deutschland means a few different things for me:

1) Sprachkurs and Orientierungskurs are done.
2) I no longer have daily contact with my English-speaking YFU buddies.
3) I have left my first host family.
4) I've just completed my first week with my new host family.
5) I have to go to school.
6) I'm starting to create a schedule here.
7) I can actually understand a fair bit of German and even can talk to people.

Explanations:

1-2) I was in a language and culture course for my first three weeks in Germany with other YFU/CBYX exchange students of similar lingual level in German. In Sprachkurs, we talked about grammar, watched a movie, talked about the news, and whatever other language related questions we had. In the culture course, we talked about the German political system, food, problem solving strategies, cultural difference, stereotypes, YFU's mission, and so many other things. Although at first it seemed like it was going to be a drag, my awesome group of ten students really bonded and had a great time. Basically, YFU planted instant, sympathetic friends for me to ease my transition to life here and it totally worked. Having teachers to force me out my comfort zone and answer my questions as well as peers who could understand my situation and accompany me out of my safety bubble was so so so so so so so helpful. Whoever thought of this is (kind of) a genius (this system is kind of rough in other respects). Anyways, at the end of the course we had an adorable little potluck thing and we thanked our teachers and families and our teachers told us how awesome we all were and we all hung out and whatnot. Finally, after three weeks of class, laughs, and denglish, we tearfully parted with the families that helped us through the wild first three weeks and the real exchange year began. Now, we are scattered all over Germany to have our own experiences to share at the midyear trip.

3) Dang, was that sad. They helped me so much and were so awesome and my limited language ability made it difficult to properly take part in everything I wanted to be a part of. Luckily for me, I didn't move far from them so I could see them during the year.

4) I'm super excited to be a part of my new host family! In this family, I have a host mother and father, a host sister and a host brother (who is going to the US at the end of the week for his own exchange year).

5-6) SCHOOL again... Even though I've graduated...
School here:
I am in the twelfth grade
Uni basically made sure that no high school could have more work.
We have block scheduling.
For the most part, students stay in the same classroom (with the same classmates) and the teachers come in to teach and then go to their next class.
They have so many breaks.
The school day is super short.
On Thursdays, I have two periods of German with the eighth grade and then two periods of German with my class. There is quite a large difference between the two.
I walk to school.
I don't eat lunch at school.
In the Oberstufe, the teacher use Sie with the students.
There is very little homework and the majority of grades are based on class participation.
I'm playing viola in the orchestra, singing soprano in the chorus, and playing piano in the Big Band. 
There's probably going to be more on school in the future but for now, that's enough.

7) More later. Too large of a topic for here.

So, basically, I've survived a month and it's been awesome. There has been so much change in the last month that I'm looking forward to settling in here in Norderstedt.

My first Bundesliga experience

Before I came to Germany, I of course knew that Soccer was extremely popular. However, there is no way that I could have imagined the insanity of an actual game. My host father and I got going early to beat the traffic and arrived at the field an hour before the game. We stopped after we parked the car for Bratwursts, Senf, and Bier. We continued our trek through the sea of Van der Vaart and Adler Trikots until we used these nifty little season-pass credit-card-looking-things to get in. However, we could not simply proceed to our seats, we had to make a detour. Why? Because I didn’t have a HSV scarf. My Gastschwester was kind enough to lend me her jersey but the scarf is actually the most important part of fan gear (as I was soon to learn).

My host family has pretty much the best seats possible. There are two different floors of seats in the stadium and in the second floor there are two sections. We sat in the first row of the third level next to the fan curve (but not in because that is a little too crazy for anyone but the moderately intoxicated hardcore fans). It’s awesome. You can see perfectly, you’re close to the crazy, intense fans, and the roof, overhang thing shelters you from the weather. Although I did not have the foresight to lookup/learn any of the HSV cheers or songs, when the singer (who is coveted but will only sing for HSV games) was raised up on the little platform to sing the Club’s song I got to wave my scarf with the best.

I could tell you more about the club’s history or give a play-by-play of my first Bundesliga game but that stuff you can look up yourself on the Internet and read the facts for yourself. What I want to talk about is fans.

The second half was well underway when I heard yelling. Yes, people were shouting and singing all around me, but this voice cut through the homogeneous roar of the crowd with a different, intense, angry tone. I looked to my left at the group of people gathered tightly together in the curve of the stadium. I had never been so close to a fight, let alone a fight not between silly, scared boys in school or wherever but rather between two grown men (primarily two men --others became involved but they were just bandwagoners) who believe wholeheartedly in their side. Security was called and a team of six Stewards separated the men and led them out. (Quick disclaimer: this like NEVER happens, so don’t be all freaked out. A real fight is a total fluke.)

It was weird, I thought, that an away fan would come all the way from the away section in the absolute farthest point of the stadium to antagonize the losing HSV fans. Turns out, that I was right, that is much to far for an away fan to trek just to be obnoxious. It was, in fact, two HSV fans fighting. At this point, I was shocked by how the electric camaraderie that permeated the stadium’s atmosphere in the beginning of the game and has struck me so much had turned to the scary violence I’d just witnessed.

What I saw at work was the conflict between two types of fan. I’m only going to approach the soccer aspect of the conflict, although it is not really so simple. There are five major types of fans in the stadium at a game. The lowest level of fans is the Dragged-along-fans. These are the girlfriends, dates, and friends that are only there because someone in the group they are there with love soccer and they are being supportive. The next level is the Just-‘cause-fans. These are the people who don’t really care about the team but like soccer, or at least the experience of going to a soccer game and buy a ticket just ‘cause. The middle level is the Once-in-a-lifetime-fans. These are the individuals that honestly really like the club but just don’t have the time or means to go to all the games. Their tickets were given to them as presents or purchased as a special treat. Level one and two are the most intense fans and to the untrained eye seems to be indistinguishable. They both follow every single game and know all about the history of the team. They go to every game they can and could talk for hours about the minutia of their team. They are entirely tricked out in their team’s gear. However, they are not the same. Somewhere, amongst all their Fußball passion, their motivations don’t line up. The best name I can think of for the level two fan is the Die-hard-commercial fan and the level one fan is the Die-hard-tradition fan. The distinguishing feature between the two is that level two appreciates soccer as a business while the level one fans undyingly love their club. Within this distinction the tension lies. Let me try to elucidate the conflict with my experience as the second half of the game became sadder and sadder for the HSV.

The first half ends with the hopeful score of 1-1 and as the team leaves the field for the Pause, the fans eagerly await the newly energized team after a talking to from the coach. However, when they return and the second half gets underway, there is no positive change noted in the HSV. Pass by pass, shot by shot, lost challenge by lost challenge the game slips away from the HSV. As the away team attains total control of the game, the level two fans bemoan the money they wasted on a team that isn’t even there to play and when the ball hits the back of the net again for the wrong team, these fans don’t boo, they cheer. Frustrated with their team they cheer for the opposing team. At this point, the level twoers were cheering for the team that makes the game interesting. When the HSV has clearly lost, level three through five flood out of stadium to beat traffic. They are followed by depressed and angry level two fans. Who is left in the stadium? Livid level oners. These individuals launch garbage, including full cups of beer, from their seats toward the field. This is the only time where I was sitting was not ideal. As the first beer splashed down in the aisle next to me my host father suggested we relocate.

So, the conclusion I have come to is that the fight I witnessed arose out of this misunderstanding between these two types of soccer fans. It was a crazy day but super fun and I can’t wait till my next chance to see a game, although my next game could definitely be a St. Pauli game.

Tradition in the Speicherstadt: Jedermann

Every year, for the past nineteen years, der Hamburger Jedermann play by Michael Batz is produced outside of the Zoll Museum in the Speicherstadt in Hamburg. My second weekend here, my host family took me to Hamburg for the first time to see the classic play in the famous Speicherstadt. Being unsure of what either Jedermann or the Speicherstadt was, I rode along quietly in the back seat and pondered on what was to come. Turns out I could not have even begun to imagine either. I am going to try to explain it all; first the Speicherstadt, then Jedermann, then my night.

The Speicherstadt, literally meaning "storage city", is the old warehouse district along the Hamburger Haffen. It is built on a wooden support system and is the largest warehouse district with this unique feature. The architect, Andreas Meyer, built all of the storage blocks out of red brick in a neogothic style. A canal system runs between the 1.5 km long rows of building allowing ships easy access to them. The Speicherstadt had a rough time in WWII but after the war, all rebuilding projects were done in the original style of the district. Now, the Speicherstadt is not completely used for storage but  also houses the Hamburger Dungeon, a bunch of Museums, office complexes, a parking garage, (in the near future) a hotel, the Miniatur Wunderland and, of course, the Jedermann. Boat trips through the canals of the Speicherstadt are also a common tourist attraction.

The most famous production of Jedermann has taken place in Salzburg every year in front of the Salzburger Dom since 1920. Although the 92 (soon to be 93 later this week) showings in Salzburg and 19 showings in Hamburg may seem impressive, the text from which the play is based comes from a completely different era. Jedermann is actually based of a 15-century English morality story called The Sumonyng of Everyman. This allegorical piece (originally adapted by Hugo von Hofmannsthal) follows the journey of the main character, Jedermann (literally meaning "every man"), through realizing mortality, to the end of his life and judgement day. You can read about the original yourself if you want, I'm just going to talk about Hamburg's.

 The play in Hamburg is seriocomedy, employing some comedic elements in the overall dark, morbid play. Along with the original subject matter, each year, a playwright mixes in humor or satire about current events, life in Hamburg or new wordplay to liven up the work. In the show I saw Jedermann is a successful man, with wealth, power, and love and after Death tells the Devil that Jedermann is going to die soon, the Devil is determined to acquire his soul. When the Devil meets Jedermann, the Devil offers Jedermann the whole Speicherstadt for just his soul. Shocked that the Devil wants no money for the land, Jedermann quickly agrees and gladly signs away his soul. However as death starts to take Jedermann, the Devil returns and demands his soul. Jedermann scoffs is incredulous at the Devil's glee in a soul so the Devil tells him to try to live without a soul. Jedermann finds, to his surprise, that he can't feel. He can see and act but he feels nothing. As Jedermann is struck with the weight of a soul he never knew he had, he begins to realize his mortality. Alone and powerless, Jedermann looks for friends to accompany him on the road to death. To his despair, all of the things he believes he can take with abandon him. He looks for comfort in material goods, rules, physical love, and family but they all fail him. Even Knowledge must leave him as he leaves the physical world. All he has left at the end of his life are Good Deeds. They stand by him as Death takes his hand and leads him off stage.

There was some crazy German allegory at the end there so I apologize for the rough summary at the end but I hit the high points and that's what I got out of it all. What is especially interesting about the Hamburg production is that each year the play is different and chock-full of Hamburger inside jokes (only some of which I understood). In Hamburg, they take an old text and transpose and reapply it to modern day and modern scenarios. It illustrates the timeless struggle to accept mortality and morality -- classic, man versus temptation and physical versus spiritual. Finally, the allegory becomes all too real as the actors and patrons become normal people again and walk through the old Speicherstadt (whether they bother to notice), across one of the old bridges (and wave to a passing tour boat) and think to themselves about death, mortality (probably not theirs) or maybe, about how much cleverer they are than their neighbor because they got every ounce of allegory that Michael Bratz walked across the stage.

A couple of miscellaneous thoughts 2

1) In movie theaters in Germany, general admission is not a thing. You pay different prices for the various regions of the theater. Also, the seats and super comfy.

2) It feels odd to speak German to animals.

3) Another pizza update: I had a pizza that had lettuce and tomatoes on it and it was dipped in ranch dressing.

4) Bäckerein sind THE BOMB. They are full of warm, delicious bread and sweets and they are super cheap. When in Champaign I'd stop by McDonald's for a snack, here I buy a beautiful fruit tart instead. Truly lovely and you can never tire of bread when there are so many sorts.

5) Dog groomers aren't really a thing here. People wash there dogs when they need washed and cut their hair when it needs cut.

6) Watching actors I know, when they are dubbed with different German voices is funny but watching TV I already know in German is very helpful.

7) German reality TV is just as good as American reality TV. :)

Eine ganze Woche ist schon vorbei

Wow, I can't believe my first week is already over. I was told before I got here that days seem to go by slowly, weeks run by, and the months fly but I had no concept of how true that is. Right now, school takes up a good portion of the day. I wake up at 6:30 (which is extremely early for me...) to make it to Orientierung und Sprachkurs at 8. My school schedule is as follows:

8-10: Sprachkurs
10-12: Orientierungskurs
12-1: Sprachkurs
1-2: Mittagsessen
2-3: Sprachkurs

With 5-10 minute breaks every hour or so.  I should explain that this isn't real school. It's just and orientation-y thing that comes with the CBYX scholarship, so I am not yet integrated into real German school. I mean, we are in a Gymnasium but my class is nine other Americans (from the Midwest-ish) and myself, who are all here for the CBYX scholarship. Although getting a ton of homework my first week in Germany was not fun, having a three week orientation with other Americans in the same, somewhat terrifying position as myself is really nice and we definitely have fun. I would say that the most shocking thing about going abroad is that, all of a sudden, you have nothing of your own to do. (I just wrote a whole other paragraph about this but cut it, deciding to write a separate post for that topic.) Everything you do is you tagging along on your host family's life, which is awesome, because they are awesome, but you can't be entirely dependent on them all the time. Anyways, what I'm trying to say is that you have to make friends to live a normal life but at this point my language isn't good enough to casually converse with any German on the street, so the language course allows me to have make friends in English. They are friends who can relate to your situations, help you with German, give you a break by speaking English, and tell you tons of funny Deutschland stories. I hung out with my own friends on Thursday and Friday and it was pretty great.

Another thing I must comment on is the public transportation here in Germany. Gott sei Dank for the public transportation in Germany. I take a bus and then the S-Bahn to school and back and it is fast, easy, and on time (most of the time). I can go wherever I want whenever I want even though I can't drive. That must be so hard for European exchange students in the US because they always have to ask for rides to go places. I can meet up with my friends from school without disturbing my host family. Once you figure it out, it is a truly amazing asset AND CBYX paid for my first month's pass, so that's pretty cool. A couple things you need to remember while using öffentliche Verkehrsmittel in Deutschland:

1) Have your pass ready to go when you get on the bus.
2) Buses going forward and backwards on routes have the same number so the only way to tell them apart is the side of the street you're on.
3) In the S-Bahn, the stop displayed on the little screen is the last stop in the line. Some trains do stop and then SWITCH DIRECTION and go back (which I discovered with some friends on Friday).
4) If you are going to try to stop the doors using some part of your body, you must be very committed.

Anyways, back to my schedule. After school, I come home, do something before dinner, eat Abendbrot, and sleep. In general, I am SO tired at the end of the day here but the level of totally exhausted that I am is mostly contingent on how much German I speak. The more I sleep, the more rested I am and the more rested I am, the better my German is. However, the better my German is the more I speak and the more I sleep the tireder I get. The result: sleeping a lot to keep up with all the things I get to do during the day.

Overall, my first week has been amazing and overwhelming. I can't explain all the change and growth and learning that has taken place around and in me in only this first week. It's been crazy, busy, exhausting, humbling, but mostly, intensely fun. It flew by and I pumped to continue here (especially as my German improves).

A couple miscellaneous thoughts

1) I heard a real German person say "gesundheit" and it was surprisingly exciting.

2) My host family and I went to a GIANT fireworks show called Pyro Games at this theme park kind of place. They were insane! I've never seen fireworks like that in Europe and honestly they were way better than any I've seen in the USA as well.

3) I switched my keyboard to German mode which means I incessantly hit the z-key for y and always have to search for the punctuation...

4) Stables are pretty standard worldwide.

5) There are, in fact, mosquitoes here. They are called Mücke and are TEENY in comparison to those of central Illinois.

6) There is a heatwave here (getting up to the mid-eighties) and a cold-front at home.

7) Pizza was eaten with a fork and knife.

Why gap year?

My decision to take a gap year was executed in three parts. The first was the realization of my somewhat logistically irksome younger age, due to my skipped seventh grade year. The footsteps of so many other Uni students led me to taking a gap year as a completely viable option. The logistical advantages to taking a gap year were furthered once I found a few appropriate and convenient programs. As my interests fell into place, I also recognized the intellectual opportunities associated with a gap year. The prospect of becoming fluent in a foreign language through the exciting and effective (although terrifying) method of total immersion was extremely alluring. Although at the time, I thought that these two pieces were enough, as departure date approached, I became aware of the third, final, and most important factor in my decision.

I can't quite think of a nifty, little heading (like logistical piece or intellectual piece) for this part. I was going to call it the experiential part because that is close to what I mean but even that doesn't quite cut it. Instead, I'll just talk about it a little. It has something to do with proportion and self-worth. Uni (my tiny little high school) makes many of its students feel big. The small building and student body and its much larger reputation make the individual feel seen. Students feel like they are known for something, whether it be music, athletics, academics, or being a gamer. You build a name and persona at Uni and you feel big. As the new ranks of graduates leave Uni's safe, enclosed space each May, the vast world is starting to creep up on the unsuspecting rising Seniors. It isn't really the world though; it's that all-American college application process. All of a sudden, the applicant feels small. He or she becomes a data point in an admission statistic and seventeen or eighteen years of life are reduced to 50-500 word essays. I wanted to go away from home for college so I could have a new perspective. I grew up a Midwestern kid but I wanted to grow up gaining perspectives, not just strengthening old ones. So my college search took me all over the Midwest, South states, and East coast. In my final two, I had a southern school and an east coast school. Surely, I thought, between these two places, I can get the education I want to prepare me for the real world. So I made my decision and went to the admitted students weekend at Brown. However, sitting in a room of brilliant students who will be your classmates for the next four years, doesn't actually make you feel bigger. It kind of makes you feel smaller because everyone there is all special and smart and stuff. Then the admissions counselor gets to the admission stats about international students. The guy next to me leans over and asks me, "Why would you want to go to college abroad?"and I finally had that "moment" that everyone talks about with gap years and college searches. Super cheesy, I know, but it actually happened to me with gap years! I got that realization that would keep me going through the hardest days and academic struggles.

So here it is: I want to be part of a global community. Everyday the internet and technology makes the world a bit smaller and I think that being able to navigate more than one culture prepares me for the impending globalization of... well everything. Even though I'm only in one other country, and only for a year, potentially, I can become a part of so many communities. A gap year also arms me with a score of skills not taught in school. This experience helps me stand out in a room full of amazing people. I know that I can bring new perspectives to the table in anything I work on.

As suggested by my YFU group leaders, I wrote myself a letter reminding myself why I chose to do this. I can read it if I need inspiration when everything seems impossible in German. Although I wouldn't have gotten here without pieces one and two,  my letter is about the third piece because logistics and intellect aren't going to get me through a hard day. As of yet, I can't quite speak to the effectiveness because I've only been here two days, but I'll keep you posted!

Gap year overview

Hello! I am, in fact, attempting to keep a blog over my gap year in Germany. I came to Germany with the Congress Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) scholarship program and Youth for Understanding (YFU) organization for exchange years. I left the USA on August first and arrived in the Frankfurt airport the morning of the second. I then flew to Hamburg airport and was picked up there by one of my host sisters. In the Spring, I took a language placement exam through YFU that placed me in the Hamburg language camp for the first three weeks. During the language camp weeks, I am staying in Harburg, which I am told is basically the southernmost point of Hamburg. After language camp ends, I am moving to the opposite side of the city, Norderstedt, with another host family. There, I will be attending Lessing Gymnasium for the year. I believe I will be taking two trips with my fellow CBYXers, one at the midyear mark and one towards the end. Although I am still a bit fuzzy on the details, I do know that I will be in my USA home again next July eleventh.