Monday, February 25, 2008
Hemholtz Ball
I only have 7 minutes until my Philosophie class starts, so I´ll have to finish this blog entry later. Short version: There was a school ball (formal dress) on the Saturday after Valentines day. I met up with two of my friends, Franzi and Constanze before the ball to get ready, and afterwards we slept over at Franzi´s house. Loads of fun! We made a chocolateish-hard-to-describe-perhaps-russish-cake, chocolate chip banana nut pancakes, fruit salad, scrambled eggs and smores. An international feast. There was also much to do with dresses, make-up, hair, accessories, and so on. At the ball itself, everyone had an assigned table (you didn´t actually have to say there, but it was more so that everyone had a seat), there was a dancefloor in the middle and a stage at the front. Most of the time we danced (diskothek, diskofox, salsa, waltzer, etc.) but there was also entertainment such as a belly dancer, a dance pair, a dance group, a lotto (tambola), and a King and Queen. Pictures and a better not so rushed explination to come.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
So, a little more than two weeks ago, I was invited to a Mormon baptisim (I wasn´t the one being baptised, of course, but it was more just like a way to "introduce me to the church"). So, I went, seeing as though I had never witnessed a Mormon baptisim before, so why not? I was actually quite interesting. Two people were baptised (both adult men). They wore all white, and so did the people that baptised them. It was a full submersion baptisim, so that means that they walked into a little pool like thing and went completely under the water. There was a long mirror above the pool stratigically placed so that the people in the back of the crowd to see it too. After that, they changed out of their wet clothes so that they could enjoy the rest of the service of course. It was intersting. I have also recieved a couple little lessons about the book of Morman. Frankly, I´m not a really religious person, but its neato to hear someones point of view. They (the Mormon people I have talked to) really like their religion, and talking about it. Alot. One of the best parts about it is that they believe in free choice. It´s not like: join us or be damned. It´s more along the lines of take a minute to hear what we have to say, then do what ever you want. No pressure.
On a completely different note, my school is having a ball this friday, and I need to find a dress. Unfortunatly, all of the stores are closed today. It´s Sunday. I´ll have to go shopping later this week then.
Have a great week!
On a completely different note, my school is having a ball this friday, and I need to find a dress. Unfortunatly, all of the stores are closed today. It´s Sunday. I´ll have to go shopping later this week then.
Have a great week!
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Praktikum
So, I haven´t written for a while, so I thought it would be a good time to start up again.
Last week and this week are, for everyone in the 11th grade at my school, Praktikum. That means that we have two weeks to do a manditory internship. It doesn´t really matter what you do as an internship, but is makes sense to do one at either a job that you enjoy or are interested in in the future. I´m currently doing my internship at a German course. I take a German course in the evenings, but for this internship, I´m helping out with the beginners course. The people in the class have been taking four hours of German a day for the past 4ish months, so they aren´t exactly beginners. I absolutly love these German classes because it brings together people from all over the world, from every contentent (except antarctica of course), with a similiar goal: to learn German. I think I may have already said that in an earlier blog.
Last friday I visited the beginners beginners course they had only been learning German for a couple of weeks). That was quite interesting. The students gave me a little interview, and some of the questions we standard, like where do you come from, how old are you, what brought you to Germany, etc. They asked if they could ask me personal questions, and I was a little suprised, but I said it depended on how personal the questions were. Then the same person asked me, as an example of a personal question, if I was married. Personally, as an 18 year old, I don´t find that question very prying. I was also asked if I was christian, which I thought was interesting.
One of the people there is an morman exsoldier from Iraq. I found that really intersting, seeing as though Elmyra isn´t far from home. At these classes you always meet new interesting people with their own stories.
Yesterday I worked a little with a woman about the word "obwohl" and how it is the beginner of a dependant clause, so the verb has to go on the end. After about 15 or 20 minutes, we got it! Out next goal is understanding "trotzdem". Plus, on Thursday, I´ll be helping a woman out with the past tense (ich habe ... ge(verb)). Fun! It´s too bad that Praktikum is just two weeks long.
Last week and this week are, for everyone in the 11th grade at my school, Praktikum. That means that we have two weeks to do a manditory internship. It doesn´t really matter what you do as an internship, but is makes sense to do one at either a job that you enjoy or are interested in in the future. I´m currently doing my internship at a German course. I take a German course in the evenings, but for this internship, I´m helping out with the beginners course. The people in the class have been taking four hours of German a day for the past 4ish months, so they aren´t exactly beginners. I absolutly love these German classes because it brings together people from all over the world, from every contentent (except antarctica of course), with a similiar goal: to learn German. I think I may have already said that in an earlier blog.
Last friday I visited the beginners beginners course they had only been learning German for a couple of weeks). That was quite interesting. The students gave me a little interview, and some of the questions we standard, like where do you come from, how old are you, what brought you to Germany, etc. They asked if they could ask me personal questions, and I was a little suprised, but I said it depended on how personal the questions were. Then the same person asked me, as an example of a personal question, if I was married. Personally, as an 18 year old, I don´t find that question very prying. I was also asked if I was christian, which I thought was interesting.
One of the people there is an morman exsoldier from Iraq. I found that really intersting, seeing as though Elmyra isn´t far from home. At these classes you always meet new interesting people with their own stories.
Yesterday I worked a little with a woman about the word "obwohl" and how it is the beginner of a dependant clause, so the verb has to go on the end. After about 15 or 20 minutes, we got it! Out next goal is understanding "trotzdem". Plus, on Thursday, I´ll be helping a woman out with the past tense (ich habe ... ge(verb)). Fun! It´s too bad that Praktikum is just two weeks long.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Pictures: Part 3
A close up of our christmas tree (candles, spheres, and chocolate ring things)
The carp (the flash makes it look a lot paler than it actually was).
The heiligen Abend dinner table (host dad cutting fish, host grandpa on right)
My heiligen Abend plate (a sampling of everything)
Christmas: first day. Preparations for second big dinner (duck). On far left (redish): Rotkohl. The circle things are Klosters (kind of like potatoes), and in front is the gravy and my host grandmother
Pictures: Part 2
The first carp.
The insides (on newspaper: what not to eat, in bowl: what can be eaten later)
Holger replacing the candles (real).
Our christmas tree
Pictures: Part 1
On the last day of the Christmas market in Potsdam, I went around and took a couple pictures. Here is one of the sweets stands (with gingerbread hearts and candied nuts. yum.). The whole main shopping street is lined with these stands (sweets, wurst, shoes, toys, candles, perfume, etc etc etc).
Yet anonther stand at the Christmas market.
One of the ends of the Christmas market (in the background: Brandenburger Tor).
Some of the more old fashioned stands by the giant blue Christmas tree above.
The poor carp that wasn´t quite dead yet.Weihnachten in Deutschland ("Christmas in Germany")
Christmas in Germany. Well, first off, Christmas in Germany is not only one day. It´s three. there is the heiligen Abend (the 24th), when people go to church to see the nativity play. They also open their gifts that evening. Then, the following 2 days, the 25th and 26th, are the first and second days of Christmas. That pretty much means time with family and big fancy dinners. The house was pretty full for Christmas. There was the whole family (host mom (Karin), host dad (Peter), host brothers (Harald, Holger, Oskar) along with Harald´s girlfriend (Lena) and Holger´s girlfriend (Sarah), host sister (Irene) and her boyfriend (Daniel), and my host grandparents. Not everybody was there the whole three days, but it was still a cozy fit. The whole atmosphere was wonderful. The nativity play was a little embarrassing (not for me, but for the young actors and actresses) because the kids who were acting weren´t really into the parts and one of them forgot his lines. All in all though, it was wonderful. Oh Christmas.
My host mom has had carp for heiligen Abend every year of her life, and my host dad has also had a long tradition of carp on the 24th (a strange coincidence). Therefore, I got to watch the preparation of carp (it´s not that difficult, just remove the insides, wash, and cook\bake). I missed out on watching the first carp, but the second one (that´s right, we had two huge carps because there were lots of mouths to feed) was most definitely interesting. When my host dad but his hand on it to cut it open, it squirmed and flailed its tail. That´s right, it moved. Normally, when a fish moves, it is not dead. That just proves that the fish was really fresh. We waited a little while for the fish to calm down\die, then he cut it open and removed it´s innards. Even after that, the fish moved once in a while because it still had active nerve endings (like automatic responses) even though it was not only dead, but also organ-less. An interesting experience.
My host mom has had carp for heiligen Abend every year of her life, and my host dad has also had a long tradition of carp on the 24th (a strange coincidence). Therefore, I got to watch the preparation of carp (it´s not that difficult, just remove the insides, wash, and cook\bake). I missed out on watching the first carp, but the second one (that´s right, we had two huge carps because there were lots of mouths to feed) was most definitely interesting. When my host dad but his hand on it to cut it open, it squirmed and flailed its tail. That´s right, it moved. Normally, when a fish moves, it is not dead. That just proves that the fish was really fresh. We waited a little while for the fish to calm down\die, then he cut it open and removed it´s innards. Even after that, the fish moved once in a while because it still had active nerve endings (like automatic responses) even though it was not only dead, but also organ-less. An interesting experience.
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