1 Month!

Thursday marked one month here in Germany! For me, my first month was very difficult, but now everything seems to be getting better. I am not homesick very often anymore, I have a lot of exchange-student friends (German friends are still quite elusive, but I'm hoping that will change when I switch into class 10 next week), and above all I have more confidence in myself and my own abilities than I ever have before. When I realized I had been here for a month, I looked back at how far I'd already come and felt very accomplished. I had conquered the bus system, gotten through a month of school in another language, improved my ping-pong skills (somewhat...), met a ton of new people, and been pretty much 100% independent.

I have a little story to tell you about a series of mysterious disappearances in Haan. It all started when one day, as I was standing at the bus stop finishing my donut, when I went to throw the wrapper in the garbage. I always throw it in the same garbage can (it is one of those small ones that are bolted to the ground). Well, I look down and there is no garbage can. Where did it go? I thought this was kind of funny, but didn't think anything of it.

The next day, Arturo met me in Haan so we could have lunch together for his birthday. I get to Haan, everything is normal, we eat lunch, enjoy our break, etc. As we head back to the bus stop, Arturo stops walking and says, "What the hell." Slightly panicked, I look up, and see that the entire bus stop is gone. Like, it was there when we got there, and now it was just gone. I burst out laughing at the hilarity and unlikeliness of the situation. At this point, the nice Italian girl that goes to the same German course we do and takes the same bus to Düsseldorf walks up, and explains that they took the bus stop away for the Haaner Kirmes that weekend, a big festival in the town. Ok, so everything makes sense now.

The next day, I am now informed about the preparations for the festival in town and am already expecting some interference with my normal routine. For example, all the benches were gone, so I had nowhere to sit. Ok, no problem, I expected this. So then I start walking towards this big fountain in the middle of Haan, thinking "Oh, they can't remove a fountain." Yep, I was wrong. I get there and there is just a big empty spot where the fountain used to be. How do you remove a fountain?! At this point I was expecting entire buildings to be gone by the next day, so I gave up looking for somewhere nice to sit and just ate my pizza sitting on the ground.

But on Saturday I went to the Haaner Kirmes, the reason behind all these mysterious disappearances, and it was really fun! I went with 5 other exchange students and 2 Germans who were friends with one of the exchange students. It was great. Here are some pictures:

P.S. I just realized you can click on the pictures to make them bigger!

Australia, USA, Brazil, USA, Germany, Germany, India!

The view from the top of the ferris wheel

Düsseldorf in the distance!

Fußball in Dortmund

This Saturday I was in Dortmund for a football (soccer) game with Manuel and his friend Luka. The stadium in Dortmund is the largest in Germany and the third largest in Europe, and holds 80,000 people. It was very crazy and a lot of fun! Here are some pictures and videos so you can get a taste of what European football is like:

Before the game

There were some hard feelings against Dortmund...

Dortmund fans

Busy

I have not posted in a while because I am so incredibly busy! So I thought that, while I have time, I'll show you what my normal day looks like here, and then you will understand why I haven't posted.

6:00 - Wake up, drag myself to the shower, stand there for a while, drag myself back to my room, get dressed.

6:45 - Delicious German breakfast which I have come to love. Various types of bread, meat, and cheese. One of the first things I want to do when I'm back in the U.S. is make a German style breakfast for my family.

7:15ish - Leave for the bus to school

8:00 - 12:00 - School, which is not very fun at all. Think of how hard it is to pay attention in class, then add the fact that they are speaking in a language that you don't understand and basically acts as one of those white noise machines that puts you to sleep, and you'll understand why I absolutely cannot stay awake in school sometimes. As if that weren't enough, I don't really have any friends at school. My class is perfectly nice to me, but that's all. No one makes any effort to befriend me, even when I talk to them and make it clear that I'm not shy or boring and that I really do want to make friends them. It's probably the same way in the U.S., I just don't notice because I already have friends there. What I want more than anything right now is for someone just to come up to me and talk to me, or maybe ask me to come with them during the break or something. Again, my class is perfectly nice and helpful, but they are not very friendly - I think there is a difference. Part of the problem is that my class is very young (I'm in class 9 here, whereas in the U.S. I would be in 11th), so I'm switching to class 10 after the October break. I'm hoping that will give me a second chance to meet people! But this is where I beg any NHS students reading this to please make an effort to talk to any exchange students there! Please!

12:20 - Take bus from my school to Haan.

12:35 - 13:10 - This is my special time! I have to switch buses in a quaint little town called Haan, and I have about a half hour all to myself. I adore this city. It's so humble and perfect. It's not overcrowded or touristy, just genuinely adorable. Here are pictures:

I just love how unpretentious this town is! So, every day I play the "how much food can I eat in 30 minutes" game. I start off by getting pizza at this great little Italian restaurant that I found. They always give me free rolls and drinks and stuff, and their pizza is delicious and perfectly portioned! Then, I scope around the town for other delicacies. Normally I stop at this ice cream place and get something, then I head to a bakery of some sort and get a doughnut or bread or something. At this point I've usually run out of time, and head to the bus stop to go to Düsseldorf.

13:10 - 13:35 - Ride to Düsseldorf

13:35 - 14:00 - Arrive at the bus stop and walk to the Uni, which is really nothing impressive. In fact it's hideous, at least the building I go to, but the walk there is nice so it's ok. I usually arrive at the language course about 15 minutes early, so I say hello to the nice lady from Thailand who is also in my class and who is always there before me sitting in the same spot (everyone has their own routines here), then go out in the small hallway that connects all the different classrooms of the language course and try to not panic about the fact that I'm going to be in this building for the next four hours.

14:00 - 18:00 - Language course. It's so long that it's like I live another life there. I always do the same thing on our breaks: Get something from the vending machine, and sit in front of the window enjoying my chocolate and, once again, trying to not think about how long is still left in the course.

18:00 - 18:20 - Finally, the course is over. I then sit at a nice fountain next to the bus station and wait for the bus to come. I forgot to mention that another exchange student - Arturo from Venezuela - also takes the same language course, so we sometimes ride to and from Düsseldorf together. It's nice because we talk about exchange student problems during the bus rides and try to validate to ourselves why we are on exchange (there have been some low moments for me lately).

18:20 - 19:00 - A very long bus ride to the Solingen Hauptbahnhof, in which I either read a book or sleep.

19:10 - Get on my next bus from the Hbf. to another stop.

19:30 - Wait a little while for the next bus to come, where I normally see the same lady waiting at the same stop, everyday. Lady, if you are reading this, I send you greetings!

19:40 - Finally arrive back home completely exhausted. Eat food, attempt to seem smiley and happy and awake to the host family, then sleep.

Next day: REPEAT, for five days a week, for four weeks (two weeks are already done, two weeks to go).

It's nice to always have things to do, but it's very exhausting. But really, I'm doing well here other than a few small problems!