A Late (Late) Post, and a Word on College Applications

Hello, everyone!

I know, I don’t deserve to so casually pop back in here like I own the place (…oh wait…) especially since this post is 6. DAYS. too late, but whatever, I have an excuse! I have spent the last week typing like a MADWOMAN at both my Common Application and my final course to finish high school in America, plus all the emails and frantic messages to my favourite mom and proofreader that came with these very stressful, but also very exciting, things! I need to finish my English 102 correspondence course by November 1st (I know, cutting it close!) as well as my SINGLE DECISION EARLY ACTION APPLICATION TO PRINCETON UNIVERSITY!! I feel like all my dreams are very close to being realised, but also this close to being crushed into a million billion tiny little pieces, so that’s cool too. I submitted my application tonight, so now it’s just a waiting game, and I’m simultaneously glad that I applied early-decision, because I’ll get the decision sooner, and very, VERY worried that it won’t be what I want it to. Aaah, but I’m looking forward- there’s nothing I can do now! As for English 102, I only (only) have a 10 page research paper (draft and final) to finish before I can officially say that I am a high school graduate! I’ve definitely had since June to do it, and I definitely regret leaving it until 4 days before the deadline, but hey, would it even be me if I didn’t procrastinate until it seemed impossible to finish?

On the topic of dreams, I am BEYOND excited to say that Marc (www.marcgoesgerman.wordpress.com) bought tickets to see a Drake concert! It’s February 25 (the day before @Lizard’s birthday- love you mom!) in Oberhausen, and I get to check seeing a concert in Germany off my CBYX checklist! We hit a little bump trying to buy tickets, since ticketmaster.de is a fake hoe and wouldn’t let us get the seats that we wanted, but the ones we bought were a close second, and after some credit card issues on Marc’s end (guess who owes me 95€?) we got everything sorted out and we are definitely going, come hell or high water! If anything, it’ll be something to cheer me up if my dream school of 5 years decides that I’m not good enough, but no, we’re being POSITIVE tonight! On that note, I’ve included a few pictures from our picturesque Princeton tour this summer, in the hopes that soon I will have the opportunity to take many, many more. For all the seniors out there reading this right now: START YOUR COLLEGE APPS NOW IT FEELS SO GOOD TO GET IT OVER WITH!!

Liebe,

Becky

Holland Pic Dump!

So, it’s Saturday evening…. and I’d rather scoop out my eyeballs with a spoon than write anything, so I’m just going to post some basic pics from our week in Holland… we rented/bought a vacation trailer at a camping place in Holland, but it has running water and power, so is that really camping? I don’t think so, but hey. you can’t beat that beach access!

Enjoy!

Becky

The front/outdoor kitchen of our vacation trailer!

Our vacation trailer 🙂

The garden house… it has 2 beds!

Our outdoor eating area- we took advantage of the gorgeous weather and ate here every night!

The garden

The path to the beach!

Marley sure loved the sand and the waves!

In the distance, you can almost see the boats and wind turbines!

Sunset over the sea

A little baby moon over a big, big beach

More sunsets… I just couldn’t take enough pictures of the gorgeous light!

Aus Holland :)

​Hallo, liebe Leute! 

As I write this week’s post, sitting on the sofa watching TV with my host mom in the Netherlands (with my 4G off because the extra roaming data package that I purchased only has 500 MB) I am totally in awe of where I am at this point in my life. Last year, and even the last few months, I had absolutely no idea where I would be right now, how I’d be adjusting, and just what would be happening with me. Sure, I figured I’d be g9ing to school, (duh) living with a host fam (double duh) and I was 95% sure that I’d still be alive (no worries about a zombie writing these blog posts… for now)

There’s not really too much to write about this week… the most exciting think was outlined in my surprise Tuesday blog post, but I’ll try.

I did go to the movies with some school friends on Thursday, and we watched Findet Dorie auf Deutsch… I solidly understood maybe 67% of it, which was better than nothing I guess? I definitely identify with Becky the bird, by the way! After the show, we went to the mall that’s next to the theater, where I met up with Tiffany from CBYX, who (finally) got to meet one of my school friends! I also bought my very first pair of Birks, which I have been wearing with socks the last few days… I guess you either die in battle or live long enough to see yourself become the villain, right? (#stocksandsock5ever)

Speaking of ‘Stocks and socks, I picked up a sock knitting kit and am working on some handmade wool socks to go with my shoes… yes, it is THAT boring here without WiFi or cell service! I bought this sock making stuff while on a solo bike riding excursion through lovely Hoek van Holland… God do I ever hate bike riding, esp. since I always feel like I’m going to get run over in the bike path (old habits die hard) but it’s my only mode of transportation for the next week and a half, so I’d better buck up!

This is seriously EVERYTHING of note that’s happened, plus a lot of stuff that wasn’t worth noting. See, being an exchange student isn’t as exciting as y’all thought! Now, to turn on my 4G forjust long enough to upload this post and keep my promise…

Bis gleich!

Becky

Chalk It Up to the Language Barrier

Now, I know you must be wondering, “Well, what on Earth could make Becky break her carefully planned blog post schedule to write for us on a Tuesday?” Or maybe you just don’t care, it’s whatever to me. (s/o to my mom for being probably the only one who actually reads these! 😉 ) But for those of you that decided to keep reading after my disaster of a beginning, do I ever have a funny story for y’all!

This evening, my darling host mom Ivonne gave me €30 to ride my bike to the grocery store to buy bread for dinner and to the pet store for dog food. Now, I was a little nervous about my first solo shopping run, so I had Ivonne write me a list, which looked something like this:

• 8 stk. Brötchen
• Salami
• Mortadella
• 3 Doz. Hundefutter

I asked Ivonne 3 times, “3 dozen Hundefutter?” and she answered 3 times, “Ja, 3 Doze Hundefutter.” Reassured, I went to the store and purchased 30 cans of dog food. (€30 was not enough for all 3 dozen, so I just hoped it would work) Naturally, the pet store lady looked at me a little funny when I struggled up to the counter with all the cans!

Now for the good part, which probably isn’t that funny as I sit here and type this out, but whatever in the heat of the moment it was! When I got back after my hard af bike ride with 30 cans of dog food in my saddlebags and struggled through the garden gate and back door to place the food on the floor, Ivonne, Zoe-Tara, and Marley just stared at me like I was crazy. As ZT pulled out can after can from the bags, Ivonne asked (translated and paraphrased for ease of reading and typing) “How many cans of dog food did you buy???” and trust me, you could hear the three question marks! I said, “3 dozen” and she said, “That is NOT 3 Doze.” Punchline time: “Doze” in German means can. I thought she meant dozen so I tried to buy 36 cans. We have one small dog who will not be hungry for the next 3 months. ZT thoroughly enjoyed building the food pyramid and holding Marley for my photo op, and Marley’s eyes were the size of the moon when he saw the wonderland in front of him.

We laughed off my mistake (well, they laughed and I chuckled trying to hide how embarrassed I was) over dinner, and OF COURSE Ivonne had to call and tell all her friends, but at the end of the day hey, at least I learned a new German word! The point of this giant word-vomit ramble is this: current, future, and former exchange students everywhere should know how important it is to be able to laugh at yourself sometimes, and know that sometimes a miscommunication is inevitable! At the end of the night, I am very grateful to have an understanding family who was willing to laugh off my mistake, and a hungry little pup who will help to clean it up! #rhymetime

Bis Später!

Becky

Saturday Pic Dump, and other things

 

Alrighty, y’all, my hair is falling out, my skin is a disaster, and I’m gaining weight, but this isn’t a bad thing! No, what all this means is I’M AN EXCHANGE STUDENT, and every day is Monday when you’re in a foreign country! So, what did I do with my 7 Mondays this time around? Well, I spent a lot of time at the mall (free WiFi, yo!), learned a small amount in my classes (I definitely earned that 4/15 on my Bio quiz…) and generally accomplished nothing to advance myself or anyone around me!

This week at school was pretty normal, but a lot of my classes were cancelled due to the other students in my grade writing exams, which I thankfully didn’t have to take! This led to me spending a lot of free time at CentrO, the mall in Oberhausen, doing lots of shopping!

I also got my first care package from my mom this week! I was SUPER excited for this, since it had my new phone which means I can now take and share pictures with you all! It also had chile powder (YESSS FOR SEASONINGS!!!) and gifts for my host fam, even Marley. Holla to my momma for being so sweet and generous! 🙂

Last night, I went to the local Kirmes, or carnival/festival thing called the Königshardter with my host family and one of my friends from school, Alena. We all had lots of fun eating bratwurst and Poffertjes, riding the Beach Jumper (if y’all know me at all, you know I am a MESS on carnival rides, lmao) and dancing the night away!

Today was very low-key and laid back. Below, you can see some pictures that I took while I was on a “run” (quotations because y’all also know how I feel about running) of a gorgeous old church that’s down the street from my house. Later this evening, we went to a birthday party for one of our neighbours. The food was great and… well that was about it. You know those boring adult parties that your mom drags you to and you end up sitting with your phone in the corner for 3 hours on your phone? Yeah, it was like that, but in German. I’m sure you can guess I got out of there ASAP (ASAP was still at 11:45 p.m. but ya know, I tried) and now I’m writing this post while watching T.V. with my host sister. I’m excited to see what my next 7 Mondays look like, haha! 😉

Bis später!

Becky

Fireworks at the 2016 Königshardter Wottelkirmes!

A nearby Kirche that I saw on a run

Kirche front view

Kirche doors

Saturday Seaside… and 6 other days that weren’t as cool.

So, should I start with the boring part or nah? JK, y’all get the boring first anyways because it’s in CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, yo. I’ll start with my week of school, then get on to the neat stuff in the 3rd paragraph, so buckle up for this (vaguely uninteresting, but I’m trying) ride!

So, starting with last Sunday, I met with Liz (another CBYX student!) and Bettina, our community representative, plus Bettina’s two kids for lunch. It was really nice to get to talk to another CBYX student to see just how differently we’re adjusting to a very similar situation. This was a lot of fun, and I hope that we got to do it again soon! This week at school was certainly the most normal one yet. I feel like I’m really starting to get the hang of knowing where/when all my classes are, which is great because the gives me a fraction more brain power to dedicate to completely not understanding any of my course material at all! On Thursday, all of the kids in my grade were taking a test, so I had nothing to do alllll dayyyy, and I really wished that I had just stayed in bed… but I think that I might still be required to go IDEK anymore. Beyond school, Ivonne and I went shopping both at the CentrO mall and in Dorsten (another city nearby that is fairly large compared to Alamosa!) this week, which was really nice, especially since she helped me return the English textbook that I ordered, which was the right editing, but for the wrong Bundesland…. what??? Yeah, they have different textbooks for different “states”. I know this now, too! On Friday evening, I hung out (again) with Tiffany, and I found out the she’s changing CR’s so she’ll have Bettina, too! This means we’ll be seeing a lot of each other from now on! 😉

Now for the good stuff… we went to Holland today! Since it’s only a two hour drive, and I’ve never been before, Ivonne thought that it would make for a great weekend trip. I was beyond excited to get to check off my second European country in only 2 months, especially since we also got to see the sea… the North one to be exact! The weather was so BEYOND perfect today, warm with just a little bit of wind to keep it from being too hot, and Marley absolutely LOVED splashing in the sea water and running all over the sand. We also ate the most delicious french fries (read: Pommes Frites) that I have ever tasted today. They fry them right as you order, and man oh man can you ever tell! Now, I was never one to turn down a fry or two back home, but I would seriously consider selling my little brother (sorry, Thomas!) for a lifetime supply of these back in the States. Seriously, they’re that good! We also ate fried fresh fish (say it 3x fast!) and some super good gelato- I had Kinder Bueno bar flavour, which was wunderbar! If you don’t know what a Kinder Bueno bar is, suffice it to say that it’s like a cross between angel tears, Nutella, and a Kit Kat… no wonder the exchange weight is too real rn. After our late lunch, we went shopping in the town square, where there was live music, plenty of shops, and… Hollandaisisch everywhere? That’s right, folks, Holland has its own language, and while it is similar to German, it is similar to German in the way that someone from Wisconsin talking with a mouth full of cotton balls speaks English. I understood approximately 0.05% of all the shop-keepers’ talking, so thank God that most of them spoke English, too! With our shopping all done, our trip to Holland drew to a close, and now here I sit back home in Oberhausen writing it all!

That’s all for this week, folks! Tune in next Saturday (or maybe Sunday, I’m a lazy girl) for more! Let me know if there’s anything specific that you want to know about, and I’ll be sure to write it in my next post!

Bis später! 🙂

Becky

One Week Later!

And here y’all thought I forgot about my 1x per week promise! But no, I am not so weak as to only last one week on that!

Nothing much exciting has happened this week, to be honest. I’m still getting over my little bout of sickness, which has left me with a nasty cough that I can’t seem to get rid of, every time I have to draw more than the bare minimum amount of air in my lungs (which doesn’t bode well for my badminton career!)

Oh, and speaking of which, I joined a badminton team of sorts! By team, of course I mean a group of my new friends who get together and play badminton every Tuesday, but hey, it totally counts! I am pretty dang terrible at badminton, though, so we’ll see how long they let me stay and ruin their games, haha!

This week, I met with another CBYX student, Tiffany (tiffanychiang.wordpress.com, if you were wondering) and we went to IKEA. For those of you who know me, you know that I love, love, LOVE IKEA, almost more than life itself, so it was definitely a good place for us to meet up and hang out for a couple of hours! 🙂

That’s pretty much the gist of what went down this week- I feel like my German is improving bit by bit every day, so here’s hoping that keeps up! I’m having lunch with another CBYX student and our Community Representative tomorrow, so that should be fun! All in all, things are going well for me here.

Bis später!

Becky 🙂

Oberhausen…

So, I have officially been in Germany for a month, and I have been with my host family for almost one week. Today also marked the end of my FIRST WEEK OF GERMAN SCHOOL! Yay me,  I survived!!! This means that today’s post will be broken into 2 segments: Family and School!

First things first… how is my host family? In one word, great! Since I got here on Saturday, we just seem to click more with every day. My host dog (that’s right, I have a host dog!) Marley is so cute and so full of energy- we walk him at least 3x a day! Yesterday was Ivonne’s birthday, so tonight we are having a little garden party get together for her. I feel badly, though, because I have a gross little cold and I got her sick too… shame on me! My host sister is really sweet, but we definitely have a bit of a language barrier, since my German is so rough… but I think we will be good friends in time. (when I no longer speak like a 4 year old!) I have also gotten to meet several of the neighbors/friends of Ivonne and Zoe-Tara, and they are all so nice to me. I’m sure I’m not too interesting to speak with, though, since all I can really do is nod and smile!

Secondly, just what am I doing in school? To be perfectly honest, not much! My school doesn’t have very many classes that are easy enough for me to handle in German, so I have a maximum of 4 classes per day and the latest I get out of school is 1:00… not that I’m complaining! I am taking Biology, Math, English, Spanish, Sowi (which is like a political sciences class) and Geschichte. (which is like History class in America) My favorite by far is English, because I can actually comprehend what is happening in the class. Spanish, Math, and Bio are all super hard because even though I know most of the material in English, (since I am repeating the 11th grade here) it makes almost no sense in German, but I suppose I will get better! Everyone here is really nice, and most of them default to English with me, which isn’t great because I need to practice my German but IS really nice since I constantly have a headache with all the German spoken around me! I am also taking a German class, but with 5th graders, and I think I’ll need to switch out since they are so small and it feels strange to be in a class with them. Instead, I was planning on taking Pedagogic, which is a child psychology class that I can (maybe) handle. Most of the teachers at my school speak English as well, and they have been very accommodating and understanding of my language restrictions, explaining things to me in English if need be. Oh, and at my school there are three (3!!!) other exchange students: one from Italy, one from Argentina, and one from good ole’ Chicago! This is exciting because we are all going through the same things together, and they’ve been at the school for two weeks already so they help me out a lot.

I believe that’s all that’s really happened since the end of language camp… not so exciting after all! I was really worried to leave Language Camp, which was kinda like our American security blanket here in Germany, but so far all that I have had are good experiences outside of our little bubble- and here’s to more!I’ll try to stay pretty regular with my updates from now on… let’s say once a week? (LBR for a second about how reliable I am, though, so we’ll see!)

Ciao for now!

Becky

 

 

Aus Deutschland!

Hallo!! We have been at language camp for three(ish) weeks now, explaining the three week radio silence on my blog… oops! Not that we haven’t had WiFi (although ~70 people on 1 signal means that it’s not great…), but I’ve been simultaneously too busy and too lazy to write, so here we are! So far, everything has been super cool, and it’s definitely been an experience to remember! The time has absolutely flown by with how busy we are, but here I’ll just post a quick recap. We arrived in Germany on the 9th, and went straight from our 7 hour flight to a 4 hour bus trip from Frankfurt to Hedersleben. The very next day, we started with language lessons, which we have all day Monday through Friday and half day on Saturdays, unless there is an excursion. So far, we have been to Magdeburg (the capital of our state, Sachsen-Anhalt), Leipzig, and Quedlinburg. I shouldn’t have waited so long to post, since there seems to be just too much to write about, but to sum it up, everything has been awesome! For more in-depth analysis, you should probably check out Ash’s blog (www.ashsabenteurindeutschland.wordpress.com ) She’s been super good about blogging once a week, so she cam tell you better than I can!! I’m honestly not sure how well this blog will end up being kept, but I solemnly swear to try my absolute best to keep everyone updated.

Tschüs!

Becky

On a boat tour of the Elbe river. It was cold and windy, but beautiful!

All of us (including 2 German students from Hedersleben and the Thai exchange students!)  in front of Sachsen-Anhalt’s main government building, the Landtag.

A group of us dancing to the music of a visiting brass band in the Kloster’s courtyard! (I’m out of the frame on the far right)

 

Aaaaahhhhh!

The title on my post is based on the fact that I HAVE NO OTHER WORDS FOR WHAT IS HAPPENING! This time tomorrow, I will be in Germany with people that I met less than 72 hours ago. I feel like I’ve already grown so close to them, if for no other reason than we’re all taking this crazy leap together. Today was a whirlwind of orientations, and I feel like a sponge just soaking up all the information that I can. After speaking to 2 CBYX alumni tonight, I’m no longer in denial but soooo excited for all of the things that they told us about. We have an early morning, and a big day afterwards, tomorrow, so I’ll keep this pretty brief. To sum up, my whole brain right now is just a supernova of nerves and excitement. I can’t wait to write my first post from language camp, but until then, I’ll just have to write down everything that happens in my journal.

Until next time!

Becky