I hope all is well for all of you! Things are pretty good for me! Before I start this post, I want to make a side note, almost to hold myself responsible for this: I want to start writing a journal about my everyday. I can't record everything that happens everyday here (it is physically impossible), and so I would like to write a journal to keep track of it. I actually wanted to start three weeks or so ago but never actually started, which is why I am talking about it here. If more people know about it than just me, maybe I will actually do it.
I went with my language learning class the Thursday before last to a town called Bergedorf, which is a beautiful town with a small castle tucked behind an extremely old church (as well as many other things). I guess there really is not much to say about this day, but we had a lot of fun, and I wanted to record that it happened.
Before we went to Bergedorf, we watched a Studio Ghibli film in German (the third one that I have seen, the second I have seen in German) which was pretty cool. Then we collected our things and we went to the centre of our town, where some kids got some lunch. In the centre of town there is a weird (but cool) tower that spirals high above the whole town, and I went up to the top with the exchange student from Thailand, as well as another girl from my language class. It was so high up, it was amazing. And the view of our town was breath taking, for me. To see my town that I had up until this point only seen from the ground from such a different angle, put a whole new perspective on it.
Afterwards, we headed to Bergedorf, where we went to the castle, which is also a bit of a museum on the inside before you get to a section which is set up more like the original castle. We found that we had to wait a bit before we could go in, so we wandered outside the castle (which looks very stereotypically German, in my opinion) and took lots of photos, hanging out and laughing and just having fun. The castle is very square-ish (if that is not a good description, I don't know what is) and it is surrounded by rivers/streams of water, and there are large draping trees lining the perimeter (in my memory), with beautiful garden plots with colourful flowers. It would honestly be a nice place to just be for a day. I might have to do that soon, bring a book or my German Learning homework and a snack and just be, there.
After waiting around outside for a bit, we got to go inside, and the lady at the reception desk was really nice, and told us the rules for being in the museum/castle, and then we were off, taking yet more photos and exploring the different exhibits. The focus of the museum this time (it changes often) was Africa and African wars. It was pretty interesting to go through, but to be honest I do not think we paid too much attention to it, mostly doing things with the interactive parts of the exhibit, like a "label the map of Africa" game and a series of boxes that you can put your hand in blindly to feel the contents. But like I said it was very interesting.
And when we got to the part that was representing the ancientness of the castle, that was really beautiful. I had already been through once in August, with my host mom and Kay, but it was nice to go through once again.
After we had finished inside of the castle, we went to an ice cream parlour which was only a minutes walk away from the castle, and ate ice cream together, just hanging out before parting ways to go home (this had all lasted the whole school day).
It was truly a good day, filled with smiles.
Once again I hope all is good with you guys, and I will hopefully talk to you soon!
-Jason