Thanksgiving away from home

Last weekend, several exchange students and I went to Düsseldorf to see Cirque du Soleil. Seeing the show was really an incredible experience. It is like being in a dream. It's very whimsical and colorful, and was definitely worth the 40 Euros I spent to see it - especially so since we somehow got seated in the 100 Euro section, which were front and center. I don't know why we got sat there, but we certainly weren't going to complain about it.

Thanksgiving Skype session - I am in the laptop! For some reason this picture reminds me of "The Last Supper."

The Thursday after Cirque du Soleil was Thanksgiving - but not here in Germany, of course. In the days leading up to Thanksgiving, I knew I was going to be sad, and that the typical exchange student "holiday blues" were really going to hit me. And I was not wrong. Thanksgiving day passed without major breakdowns - I went to school, had a pretty good day there, and later went to a Greek restaurant with my host family (delicious!). When I got home, I Skyped with my whole family before they ate Thanksgiving dinner. It was nice, and it wasn't until after I hung up and went to go to bed that I got really sad. There are some times when all I want is the comfort and security of home, where I have my friends and family and I understand the language etc. etc. But these moments pass pretty quickly, and I get back to enjoying my time here. Which, by the way, I really am having an awesome time here. Especially now that I have friends at school, things are just much easier. But it doesn't matter how well things are going for me, holiday homesick is just an inevitable thing I will have to deal with. So, I just need to trudge through this next month until Christmas is over and try to enjoy it as much as I can, and then I think I will feel much better as I head into the second half of my exchange (isn't that crazy? My exchange is nearly half-way over!).

Karneval and the new piano crisis

Good morning/afternoon/evening, depending on what time zone you are currently reading this in! I have been kept quite busy lately, and time is going by really quickly. It's really good that I don't have much down time anymore, because that means I am becoming more and more involved in life here. There always seems to be something to do with my host family, friends, or Rotary, and the time that I do have to myself is precious. This is the way to live - always meeting new people, always having interesting experiences, always having your mind stimulated rather than going through the normal sleep-school-homework-internet cycle that consumes most teenagers' lives (here, too, I should add).

Last weekend was a particularly busy one! On Friday I went to dinner with friends from school, which was great. On Saturday, I woke up early and went to the open house at Luis' school so that I could see his school and meet his class. His class was selling food to raise money for their ski trip next year, and I made all (or many) of the waffles they sold! I was deemed the "Waffle-man." It was a proud moment. Then I went to Luis' handball game, and later to see Skyfall in the movie theater with Manuel and his friends. I think Skyfall was good, although I honestly can't tell you because I didn't understand much.

Karneval

Sunday, I woke up even earlier (this is after having gotten home at about 12:30am from the movies, mind you) to go to Karneval in Cologne. Karneval is a holiday where people dress up and dance/drink beer in the streets (I'm sure there is more to it than this, such as religious origins or something, but what I observed was like a German version of Mardi Gras). I took the train to Cologne by myself, but then met a lot of exchange students from both Rotary and AFS (another exchange program) once I got there. It was interesting because my normal "crew" was not there, so I got to meet a lot of new people who I might not have otherwise spoken with. In general, it was really fun, although everyone kept getting separated and no one's cell phone was working, so I kept getting lost and spent most of the time looking for people. It was interesting, in any case!

Cory and I representing the U.S. I was a cowboy, and Cory just wrapped the American flag
around himself and called that his costume.

So, the final thing I need to update on is the new piano crisis. As quickly as it was granted (this is a joke, since it took me about a month to get permission), my permission to play the piano during my free time at school was taken away. I was in the music room one day, happily playing away, when someone opens the door. I figured this would happen at some point - someone would come in wondering why I was there, and I would explain that I had permission, blah blah blah. So, I recognize the man that enters as my music teacher from when I was in Class 9. This is slightly reassuring, since he already knows I am an exchange student and may be more lenient (I mean, I did have permission after all!). At first, he just starts walking towards the drum set behind me and doesn't say anything, so I ask, "Am I allowed to play here?"
Him: "Mmm, no actually. How did you get in?"
Me: "I have the key."
Him: "Who gave you the key?"
Me: "The secretary."
Him: "But you need a signature in order to get the key."
Me: "I know. I have one."
Him: "From who?"
Me: "Herr Rust"
Him: "Oh, then I need to talk to him. He shouldn't have done that. You are not allowed to play here anymore."
Me: "Um, ok?" I was really confused at this point, because I had already been given express permission to use the room, so he was he to be telling me I couldn't. "Why not?"
Him: "Because I keep finding things broken in here. See this microphone? I found it broken today. Of course, I don't think you broke it. But because of this I'm not letting kids in here anymore."
After me asking several more times trying to clarify, it was clear: I was under no circumstance allowed to come in this room anymore. He said I could stay for the rest of the bell, and then left.

Well, at first I thought to myself, "Ok, this is ok. There are other possibilities of places I can play." So I kept playing a little bit. But then I started thinking about how I have played piano my entire life, how I have grown up both physically and emotionally around the piano, how this has always been the one thing that makes me special and that I really loved, and now this stupid German music teacher thinks he can just waltz in and tell me I am not allowed to enjoy my passion anymore because some stupid kid broke a microphone. I just kept thinking about how that man robbed me of the comfort, the expression, the beauty of the piano for some trivial reason, and I was so, so upset. Combine this with the fact that the piece I was playing at that moment, Brahms' 2. Intermezzo, sounded like it was mourning the death of my soul, and I was so incredibly sad.

Of course I am feeling better now, but I now find myself once again without a piano, and desperately trying to find one. I am going to write the music school in Solingen about the possibility of taking lessons there and perhaps using a piano there to practice too, so we will see where that leads. And I told my host parents about this, and I think they are going to talk to the school and see what can be done, so the possibility remains that I could continue to play in the school. It was such a heart-wrenching experience, though, and I hope no one else ever has to experience the feeling of their passion, the thing that makes them human and makes them feel alive, being taken away.

Election perspectives from Germany

I have to admit, I was quite glad that I was not in the U.S. during the height of the 2012 election. The hundreds of phone calls from politicians, the mud-slinging T.V. commercials, the never-ending slew of predictions and projections and statistics and numbers, the constant buzz of pundits on television and the radio arguing about swing states and the electoral college and who's lying and who's telling the truth; none of these things were missed by me. However, I didn't totally escape the madness of the election. The Germans are also very invested in who becomes the next president, because, let's face it, the President of the United States is essentially the leader of the free world. And I will tell you that they all wanted Obama to win. I never met a single person who was for Romney. In fact, most of them couldn't believe the election was so close. One person said to me, "It's concerning that half of Americans are for Romney, because that must mean that half of Americans are really dumb." In any case, I still got blasted with news reports about the election, but for the first and perhaps last time in my life, these reports were all in German. I always knew that the U.S. elections were important for the rest of the world, but I really was amazed to see just how much they cared. Could you imagine if the German elections were reported so extensively in American newspapers and televisions? It just goes to show that the United States' role as a global superpower hasn't really gone anywhere. We still dominate the world politically, culturally, and economically, and I really can't see that changing anytime soon (I don't think Germans will wear Chinese flags as fashion statements like they do with American flags at any point in the near future...)