After Thanksgiving is over

"What are you thankful for?" list from the Americans

     I survived Thanksgiving.  One holiday down, so now I've just got Christmas to survive yet, and then I think I'll be okay.  Well, Easter, too.  And 4th of July.
     As I said before, on Thursday I went to a Thanksgiving dinner with other Americans.  It was in a town nearby, only about 15 minutes away.  The best part (other than the party itself) was that I got off of school for the afternoon to go there.  I was picked up at 3 by the American family that had invited me to come along.


Thanksgiving dinner!



     Once we got to the church (we ate in a hall at the church), we delivered the foods to where they belonged.  I brought chocolate chip cookies (I know, not exactly "Thanksgiving", but... still delicious, and I'm definately thankful for them).  We chatted all together for about a half an hour as more people arrived, and then we all sat down at the tables and bombarded the buffet line.  I could hardly believe everything there was.  All the foods I had forgotten about, all the ones I had subconciously been missing but never realized it!  Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, canned corn....  There was so much that I just had to go back for seconds- I couldn't fit it all on my plate at one time!  And I didn't want to cut myself short of this chance to gorge on familiar foods.  : )  So, that's what I did.  I just sat there and enjoyed the meal, and met a whole lot of people at the same time.

     After I was finished, there was a bit of time left before the rest were done eating.  I guess that growing up in the Weiss Family household has taught me to eat fast while the food is there.  Luckily, there were some coloring pages there that we could color in.  Alright, so they were really meant for the kids, but everyone's a child inside, right?  I colored mine in, all bright and such, and later hung it up in my room.

     Of all the 35 or 40 people there, I'm sad to say that I was the only Lions fan.  A lot of them were Packers fans.  Which was a bit hard for me to swallow, since the Lions played the Packers on Thanksgiving Day.  We tried to watch a bit on the Internet, but the connection was bad and broke up.

      I somehow managed to forget about dessert.  As soon as I saw it, though, I knew that I had made a major mistake in not leaving room.  How could I have left out the most important part to a classic Thanksgiving dinner?!  Pumpkin pie....  apple pie.... pecan pie.... chocolate chip cookies.... (wait, that doesn't belong on a classic Thanksgiving table! haha)  It was terrible;  I was already full from the main dinner, and yet... I wasn't going to get the chance to eat any of these desserts again for a long while.  I'll admit it, I still managed to eat some more.  But you know what?  Thanksgiving comes but once a year.

     Unless, of course, you're living my life in the year 2011.  I had the chance to celebrate Thanksgiving twice!  Friday was the German version of this American tradition.  I didn't know how to stuff a turkey and all, so we changed it up a bit.  Mama had a recipe for turkey in an onion sauce, so that's what we made.  Mashed potatoes to go with it, as well as some pumpkin slices.  Which I'd never had before, never seen before, and never heard of before.  I tried two, but I didn't really like them a lot.  We invited some neighbors over to eat with us and share the memory.  They asked me why we even have Thanksgiving, and I told them about the Pilgrims and the Indians.... you know, the classic story.  I don't know how much truth there is to it, but I like it anyways.  Afterwards we sat at the table and talked into the night.

My favorite from the list of things to be thankful for (no, I
didn't write that on the board)

     In other news, yesterday there was no soccer practice.  In the winter, we only practice on Fridays, and that's inside a gym.  So, I went to choir with Mama instead.  She had heard me mention once that I enjoy singing and invited me to join her at the next practice.  I had a lot of fun!  The choir sings a capella, and it was a bit hard for me to find the right notes.  It was the first time I had sung together in a choir.  Well, not counting the school choirs back at St. Lorenz in 1-6th grade.  It reminded me a lot of Venner, the choir that used to be at Frankenmuth High School.  When I was in 8th grade and watched my brother and sister perform in that group, I had wanted so bad to be a part of the choir.  I never did join, but I still continued to love singing in church and to the radio.  Singing in the group in Haemelerwald was a wonderful experience, and I'm planning to go again next week!

Preparing for Thanksgiving

     Thanksgiving.  Such an American holiday.  The nearest thing you can get in Germany is Erntedankfest, but that's not the same.  First, it's in October.  Second, there's no big feast.  Third, the family doesn't get together, because (fourth reason) it's mostly just a church holiday.  We went to church, then came home and had a normal Sunday afternoon.  Nothing at all like the whole hubaloo we've got in the good ol' USA.  So where do you begin to explain this holiday to people who have nothing similar?  And how do you begin to recreate this traditional holiday when nearly everything is All-American?
     I guess I'd better start off with just explaining what we usually do in my family in Frankenmuth.  Scott and I get up bright and early and go to St. Lorenz Church to play in the band.  Mom, Dad, and Margie come, too, but we have to be there a while earlier, so we drive ourselves.  Once the service is over, we all drive over to Grandma and Grandpa's.  There, we have a huge Thanksgiving dinner, with all the trimmings.  Turkey (of course), mashed potatoes (also a necessity), ham, and corn are just a few of the dishes you can always count on to show up.
     Once we've all stuffed ourselves full, then we migrate to the livingroom and collapse on the couches.  I mean, what would Thanksgiving be without the football game in the afternoon?  Speaking of which, are the Lions playing this year on Thanksgiving?  They usually do, I think... I hear that they're doing relatively well this year.  Hahaha, for us fans that means that we've won a few of the games.  : )  (A bit of humor that is unrelated-- today in school a girl asked me to explain the point of tackling in football.  I basically just said that when one guy has the ball, everyone else just piles on top of him.  I mean, isn't that just about it?  Never really thought before about how pointless it sounds!)  We spend the rest of the afternoon chatting and talking.
     Now imagine that you're overseas.  Here, a turkey is next to impossible to find.  And even if I could find one, I really don't want to have to make one for the first time when I'm here, using all foreign ingredients and measurements.  Mama made a casserole before, when they had a different exchange student from the US.  And, to be honest, turkey isn't the number one thing on my list of things I'm craving right now, so I said that a casserole sounds great.  Pumpkin pie?  My host family tried it back then (with the other student), and didn't like it, so that's a no-go.  So, it's gonna be brownies and chocolate cookies instead.  Oh, and we're having Thanksgiving dinner on Friday evening and inviting neighbors over.  Thursday (tomorrow) I am going with an American family from Haemelerwald to a huge Thanksgiving party in the area.  Which should be fun!  I've been craving some specific foods, and I wonder if they'll show up there (it's potluck style, so there's a good chance it might happen).
     So, I'll be sure to keep my camera on hand and to take a lot of pictures for you!  Then I'll write next time about how it all went over.
     Right now my mind is stuck on Christmas, to be honest.  Because everyone here is already talking about it.  Since they lack Thanksgiving (and Sunday is already the first Advent), Christmas seems to come a whole lot earlier!  And, tonight Mama talked with me a bit about the Klee's family traditions.  I told a bit about how it's all done in my family.  So, I think that Thanksgiving might hardly seem to exist for me; I'm already in Christmas mode!  But that's not a problem, right?  I mean, I hear that 96 WHNN is already playing all-Christmas music already!  That means that " 'tis the season"!  : ) Merry Christmas, y'all!  Oh, wait, forgot about Thanksgiving again.  Ah well, I can't help it.

Klassenfahrt nach Berlin!

     My class took an extended field trip to Berlin on Wednesday.  We went to learn a bit more about how the government works, as well as some history of Germany.  The trip there, thanks to the great German public transportation system, took only a bit less than two hours.  The whole way, the pictures of what I expected ran through my mind.  My expectations were based on a few different factors.

      First, Berlin is (as everyone knows) the capital of Germany.  Alright, so it's gonna be like Washington, DC, right?  Okay, that's cool.  Second, it's also the main city of Germany, and where most tourists feel they need to go (well, maybe a few people would try to argue that they would rather go to Munich for the Oktoberfest, but we're talking in general here).  Alright, so what's a city in the US that all foreigners want to go to?  Uhhhh... That's a no-brainer.  New York City.  Alright, so now we cross NYC with DC....  And third, all German towns/cities/anything have a super-duper old history and are proud to show it off.  So now add a touch of Middle Age/19th century flair, and viola!  Berlin!  Right?

At Dunkin Donuts they're always glad to see you.

     Nope.  Not at all.  As soon as I stepped off the train and looked out of the train station, I knew I had made a mistake somewhere in my magic city-profiling formula.  If you've ever been to NYC, the first things you notice (you kinda can't miss them) are the skyscrapers.  All over.  You feel a bit like a mouse scrambling between trees.  Berlin, with the exception of the Fernsehturm, is relatively short.  Well, in comparison with NYC.  Average building height was 10 stories. Max.  A few were up around 40 or so, but there were a whole lot that only stretched up to 6 levels.  And the traffic was nothing compared to what I had seen in the Big Apple.  Seriously, my friends were so impressed when they were counting taxis and got up to 30!  And that was after an hour of walking around!  That was my first hint that Berlin was going to be something different than I had bargained for.  Whether it would be better or worse I couldn't guess right away.  But it was definately different.


The Brandenburger Tor (from the back)

       Alright, so it's not NYC.  So I assured myself that, although one-third of my guess-timating was wrong, the other two-thirds would surely be right on.  If not, then really close.  So, as to the last part, about Berlin having a sector of the city that was frozen in time around 1815 or so....  I must have somehow forgotten about a very important part of history that happened in the last two hundred years.  Namely, the Second World War.  Berlin suffered over 350 air raids between 1939 and 1945, from the British, Americans, and Soviets.  The result?  Many of the buildings were destroyed or damaged.  And when you're rebuilding a city, why would you build anything other than the most modern?  So, that was strike two.




 Der Deutsche Bundestag

     My last hope was that it would somehow remind me of DC.  Government buildings would be designed to look old, but yet impressive.  Even that was only halfways true.  Although the facades of the buildings sort of resembled my memories of DC, there was definately a modern twist on it.  For instance, when you stand up close in front of the Bundestag (picture at left), all you see are the columns that so often are found on governmental buildings.  But if you back up a bit, you can see the Kuppel (dome) on top of it.  And as soon as you see that, you know it's a modern building.  How?  The dome is completely built out of glass.  And there is not a single part about it that suggests that it is old.

     So, all of my predictions about Berlin were false.  What should I do then?  I really didn't have much of a choice, did I?  I had to keep my mind open and allow Berlin to build its own profile and paint its own picture itself.  Which is what I did.  And let me tell you, I sure am glad I decided to do that!

      Wednesday afternoon and evening we toured a prison that was used by the Staatssicherheit (Stasi) to contain enemies of the state.  A man who had been a prisoner there gave us a tour personally.  Walking around there, looking into the cells, and hearing a firsthand explanation of what life there was like was.... overwhelming.  To think of the ways that the Stasi used to coerce people into admitting to crimes they never comitted...  One thing that really struck me was the solarity in the prison.  You would be kept in your cell for nearly all the time, and when they took you out to shower or exercise, they made sure that there were no other prisoners in the hallways at that same time.  People would literally be there for months and years and never- never - talk with one of the other prisoners.  Just sitting alone that long would be enough to make you go insane!

     After that, we went back to the Jugendherberge, where we had rooms to sleep in.  A Jugendherberge is similar to a hotel crossed with a dorm room.  Rooms had two bunkbeds, a sink, and a shower that was shared with the neighboring room.  Toilets were shared with everyone on the same floor.  I ate some supper, and then my class got together and chatted, played cards, and just laughed with each other until everyone went to bed.

Listening to Herr Miersch.  Notice how much the
American sticks out among all the Germans?

      Thursday morning we met up with Mathias Miersch, the representative in the Bundestag (similar to Congress) from the Hannover area.  He explained a bit to us about how the Bundestag works, what the job of a representative is, and answered questions we had.  Herr Miersch is the representative who is my "sponser" for my scholarship through YFU.  For every exchange student, there is one representative who (you could say) agrees to support the student.  Basically, he supports the YFU exchange program and that there is a scholarship availible to help students get involved.  I also have a representative from the House of Representatives, with whom I met before I left the US.

      After that, we had a few hours of free time to go around Berlin in small groups.  I went with some friends on a city bus tour to all the important things.  For example, part of the Berlin Wall.  Or, the Brandenburger Tor.  There was commentary along with it, and I listened to it in German.  There was the option to listen to it in English, but it was a British style.  That kinda made me figure that I'd understand just as much of it in German (or maybe even more!).  Besides, the commentary was a conversation between two people, and I just thought it would sound better in the original German than in the translation.



Checkpoint Charlie



      When the whole group met up again, we went back to the Bundestag.  There, we listened to a debate about a proposed law.  I didn't understand a whole lot of that.  I think it was a combination of my tiredness, the way that the people talked (seriously, couldn't you sound excited to represent your people?), and the words they used.  Imke told me later on that even she couldn't understand some of the words that they threw around!  Once we stopped listening to the discussion, we all went up into the dome.  From there (because it was all out of glass, as I said earlier) you could see the Berlin skyline.  It was night when we were there, and so there were the lights from the traffic and buildings.  But not near as much as there is in DC or NYC at night!  That's German efficiency for ya.



Me in front of the Brandenburger Tor



     Friday we went to the Stasi Museum.  A lady talked with us for more than an hour about her life living in the DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik, more commonly known as East Germany).  I found that very interesting.  Again, it was scary to think of how the Stasi could get information and how much they knew.  At one point she told us about how the Stasi would sometimes go into people's homes and photograph everything or search for phone numbers the person should not have.  How did they know that the homeowner wouldn't come home while they were inside, you ask?  I asked that, too.  The Stasi had such an extensive system to know everything about a person--sometimes even 6 people on a "team" gathering information about one citizen!  They found out when the person was at work, and when he/she was expected to come home.  And in case he/she did come home early, they had a fireman stand in front of the house and intercept the person.  He would explain that there was a suspected gas leak in the house, and the person was not allowed to go in until it was solved.  Scary how they managed to do all that, huh?

     After that, we had some more free time.  I went with friends to a Ritter Sport store.  In case you don't know, Ritter Sport is a chocolate company.  Someone had heard that there you could make your own chocolate bar, and we decided that sounded like a lot of fun!  When we got there, it reminded me a bit of being at Subway, actually.  You pick out what type of chocolate you want (dark or milk), and then choose 3 from about 30 different ingredents.  I went for a cereal chocolate Tafel (bar) :  Corn Flakes, Honey Smacks, and Cocoa Crispies.  All wrapped up into rich milk chocolate... mmmmm!

     Unfortunately, all good things must end.  Before long, it was time to board the ICE train headed back towards Lehrte.  During the ride I played Ligretto, a card game, with Imke, Inga, and Anna.  Suddenly, we were home.  That night, even though I was dead tired from all the excitement, I still somehow managed to stay awake long enough to tell my family a basic outline of what I did and saw.

     All in all, Berlin was AMAZING!!  I'm already excited for next June, when I'll go with YFU there again.  And now I know the things that are definately worth seeing again.  Which is... everything!  : )

Zurueck zum Alltag

     It's been a while, I know.  I'm just starting to find it a bit difficult to make myself sit down and try to think of something to write about.  Because, in my opinion, there's not really anything too interesting going on.  So, you're lucky enough to get the chance to hear about my everyday (that's what Alltag means) life.  Well, at least about what's happened lately.
     The second week of break was borderline between boring and relaxing.  On Wednesday I got together with one of my friends and we made a pumpkin pie.  Or tried to.  Here they don't have pie pans, and so we had to use a cheesecake mold instead.  So the pie didn't bake all the way through.  It was still delicious, though!  Other than that, I finished a German novel (the third I've read here so far!), worked a bit on scholarships, and even got a bit of a jump on my senior year scrapbook.  And had plenty of time to just relax, go bike riding, or practice trumpet.
     On Saturday Oma came to visit, and I chatted with her for a while.  She stayed here until Thursday morning.  Sunday I helped her make Apfelkuchen.  Sort of a halfways cross between Mom's apple crisp and apple pie.  But yet, something totally different.  Still absolutely lecker (delicious), though!  I can't wait until Christmas, so I can get some recipes for cookies.  And yet, a part of me doesn't want Christmas to come.  I can't begin to imagine a Christmas without all of my cousins!  Without trips to the woods to cut wood, snowmobiling, snow forts.... It'll be strange, that's for sure.
     Tuesday I had an Erdkunde Arbeit (I guess you can say a geography test, if you prefer).  Out of 110 countries, I was asked about 24.  I had to know the name of the country, and the corresponding capital.  I was nervous about it, especially about Africa.  But when I got to it, there were only three countries I had to guess on, and four capitals that I had no clue about.  Which ones?  Ghana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uzbekastan, and Kazakistan.  So you can understand how I might have not known them all.  Still, I was pretty pleased with myself.  I think that if I had taken the test a year ago, I would have done way worse.
     On Wednesday Mama got back from South Africa.  She was part of an exchange with a partner church in Johannesburg.  She spent all of that evening telling us stories of what she saw.
     Thursday at soccer we played Tennis Soccer.  It was really funny!  Actually it was a cross between soccer, tennis (obviously), and volleyball.  For me, it was totally new, but that didn't make it any less intriguing.
     Last night Mama, Papa, Jonathon, Mathilde, and I played Siedler, a board game.  I lost, but it was fun anyways.  Afterwards we chatted for a little while, and then went to bed.  As I fell asleep, I remember thinking we were a (sort of) family.  It was a strange feeling for me.  Though they'll never be able to be quite what the Weiss Family is for me, the Klee Familie is still dear to me.  At that moment, I knew that it's gonna be hard to leave in July.  But until I get to that day, I'm going to enjoy every day I have here.  Because I'm already at more than 100 days in Germany, and I've only got about 250 left to make memories!