Fotos: Meine Letzte Woche in Bordelum :(

The two really cool Thai girls from my OSK on our way to Hamburg!



My first train ride!!! It wasn't rought at all or anything!



One thing that is ridiculous. In the train station are Water Closet Centers. You have to pay about the equivalent of one dollar to use the bathroom.



Some building in Hamburg. Pretty spectacular, isn't it?



There were a lot of street performers, but this one was my favorite! I think he is really talented!



The handball game. It was a lot of fun! It was Hans Christiansen's last game, so it was more of a fun game!



Both OSKs in Kiel. This is the capital of the state, Schleswig-Holstein, we were in. Most of them are in different states. I, however, am still here!



The OSK classroom. It was our second-to-last day! :(



Halbblut. The open air theatre was really big!!



The entire stage was really awesome!

It was a lot of fun!

Ganz Viel Ist Passiert

So, I have now realized that it has been quite a while since my last post and a lot has happened. Let's start with the last week at my temporary host family.

The friday of the third week, both OSKs in the area went to Kiel to learn a bit about the history and government of Schleswig-Holstein. It was probably one of the best days I have had in a while!!! It was pretty interesting, and I bought a couple of cool things!!

Then my OSK went to a Karl May open theater production. It was really big and a lot of fun!!!! It was really weird, though, because it was all cowboys and indians, but in german. It was really sad, though, because the next day was my last day in my OSK. I will really miss those guys!!! But we did eat Thai for lunch. It was quite spicy and a nice change of pace from the rather.....um.....repetitive taste of german food. That night I cooked my host family, what I was told was, an american meal. I made them BLTs. It was pretty lazy of me, right? But they all enjoyed them, and I sure did! We finished the night with some pretty intense Phase 10 playing!!! It was fun! I really enjoyed my entire time with that host family and will miss them!

The day that my new host family picked me up, we went to my host grandma's house and had a BBQ. I enjoyed the food, but, really, it has nothing on good ol' American BBQ. Which I am really starting to miss!! I have, however, found out that I really enjoy curry ketchup!!! It is different, but good! The day after the BBQ I went to my hostdad's soccer team's final game thing. They played not bad, better than I ever could, but unfortunately lost 0-7. However, the team that they played was two levels higher than they were. After that, we came home, picked up some Döners, and watched Two and a Half Men in german. I was glad that I could understand a lot!!

So, then came my first day of german school and MAN! was I nervous!! The first hour, the teacher talked about a lot of technical new things.... I think. I honestly did not understand anything that he said. But then another teacher showed me around the school and talked about the classes. The rest of the day was a lot more fun! I actually got to know a couple of people!!! Cool! I am actually a little bit excited about school tomorrow! And I cannot wait until I understand enough to actually participate in class!

Later today, I also went to a fair in town. It was pretty fun, but they didn't really have to many rides. They did have one, called Breakdancer, that was really awesome!!! Anyway, that is about it that I can think of. We'll see how the rest of the week goes!

Bilder von meinem zweite Woche

Beautiful sunset on the Nordsee.


Spaghetti Eis. Enough said.




This is a Döner. It is a German/Turkish food that is absolutely amazing!! But very hard to eat without making a mess.


Yes, there is McDonald's in Germany. But I did notice that they were healthier, offering a Veggie Burger.

Schland, Oh Schland

Third week almost finished. I really cannot believe that in less than 10 days I will be with my permanent family and starting German school. I am pretty nervous about the school thing, but I have been told that I should be fine. This past week has been fairly calm. At school we are reading "Der Kleine Mann" which is a children's book, but fairly easy to understand. On Tuesday, the two YFU groups in the area took a little trip to the Nordsee to participate in Wattwandern. It was a lot of fun and I learned a couple interesting things about the area. Wattwandern is walking though all of the mud that is left whenever the Nordsee's tide has left the area. Then, Wednesday was my host-grandfather's birthday. It was a lot of fun! We went over to his house and just ate a lot of good food and played really fun games! Other than that, everything has been the usual. However, I am really excited because tomorrow I am going to Hamburg with some other YFU kids, then that evening I am going to one of my host sister's friend's summer party!!! I can't wait!!!

Deutschland - Woche 2

I have already spent two weeks in Germany, and I can tell you that it honestly doesn't feel like it. I can't believe that in only two more weeks I will be going to my permanent host family and starting actual german school. I do have to say that my first two weeks here have been great!!



The school is fine. Not too hard, but definitely not too easy. I rode a bike for the first time in a very long time and I am sore in all the right places to prove it! Even though it was an eye opener of just how out of shape bike riding wise I am, it was a lot of fun. A fellow CBYX kid and I rode to Bredstedt which is about a 4-5 km bike ride. However, there was a very helpful bike trail the entire way!!



Once in Bredstedt, we decided to check out all of the stores in the main market area. I bought a backpack for school and some socks that are not white! We also got some amazing as always ice cream!!



The next time that I was in Bredstedt was to pick Marten up from the train station. We also decided to eat out. At McDonald's. It was one of the weirdest experiences I have had so far. First of all, it was a very small Mckey-D's. Second, their menu was nothing like ours. I had to actually say what I wanted instead of just a number. Third, no ice in the drinks nor free refills. Fourth, everything tasted very different. The burger tasted a bit better, but the fries were almost too salty. Also, they serve the fries with ketchup, which also tastes different, and mayonnaise. Finally, I got a Smartie-McFlurry. Don't freak out. Smarties are the German M&Ms. And the McFlurry was about half the size of the ones we get in the States. The food was not bad, don't get me wrong. Just different. Very different.

I would just like to say that I love Fridays at the language school!!! This Friday we went to the Markt in Bredstedt. We had to buy something that was from this region, which I bought potatoes. And the people that I bought them from were really cool and let me try one of there cherries, which were amazing!!!! During the lag time between buying something local and the next event, I went back to the place where I got my backpack and bought myself a European wallet, which is just a wallet with a place that can hold coins. Then we got our picture taken for a local newspaper. And the reporter is going to come back to our class this week and ask us questions. Then we had another scavenger hunt to do. This time throughout Bredstedt. Which is a bigger city than I thought! But my teammate and I had a lot of fun!

After the scavenger hunt, we were all ready to eat! So we went to a nice little Turkish place and I had my first Doener. It was very good, but very difficult to eat without making a mess! Afterwards we went to an ice cream place and I got an always good Spaghetti Eis. Then we went to a park and let our food digest before biking back to Doerpum.

Saturday we went to Sylt. Which is an island off the coast of Northern Germany. We ended up driving through Northern Germany, into Denmark, and then to Danish island. There we ate a hot dog, which was great, hung out on a beach that actually had sand, and played Wikinger. Then we drove to the harbor and boarded a ferry that carried our car to Sylt. Once there we had a little bit of seafood. Mine was King Crab on a roll. Then we drove through Sylt, which is very apparently home to a lot of very rich germans. Almost every other car was a Porsche. We stopped by a beach to just take a look. It turned out to be an FKK Beach. Which is german for clothing-optional. Needless to say, we didn't actually go onto the beach, we kept a good distance and instead went to a restaurant that was right there and got a drink and some ice cream.

Then we drove to the train station and boarded the Autozug back to the mainland. The Autozug is a train onto which you drive your car. Then you sit in your car the entire time the train is moving. It gets to the station, you drive your car off and then leave. So it was my first time riding on a train and riding in a car on a train. After we got home, we decided to go out to eat at a Greek restaurant. It was, besides the fact that it was really salty, a very good meal. Max kept freaking out and trying to cover up the privates of a miniature Statue of David like thing that was sitting right behind where we were.

Overall, this was a great week!