Hey guys! I've been up to quite a bit lately, and as usual that resulted in a decreasing amount of posts posted by me. I had written a post about going to Munich at the beginning of the month, but then halfway through the post I had to leave the page... and it got deleted. I got discouraged, and then I got busy, and here we are now, exactly a month after my last post. Whoops. Maybe I will try and re-write the Munich post after I post this one, but right now I want to write a post about what just happened - Christmas and the new year! For Christmas, my host family (who are Polish) and I went to Poland to celebrate with extended family. I wrote a daily journal for my time there, which was an amazing time the whole way through. After the daily journal entries that I am including here, I will write a bit about new years, or Silvester as it is called in Germany, which just happened last night! I will include a photo album of the trip and last night in the next post (which is hopefully tomorrow). I have a feeling that this is going to be a fairly long post, so hang in there! Day One - the Drive to Poland: Merry Christmas, everyone! By the time I post this, it will be after Christmas, but at the moment it is the 22nd of December. My host family is amazing for many reasons, but one of them is that their home has so many cultures in it. They are a Polish family, in Hamburg, Germany, in which all but one of the children have gone on exchange to the USA, and my host mom has a passion for Italian cooking. There are cultural influences from all four of those countries in my host family's home, which I find to be great! But since my host family is from Poland, that means that the majority of their relatives are still in Poland. So we are, as I write this, driving to their grandmother's house, where we will meet up and stay with a large portion of the family. The problem is that they, for the most part, don't speak English or German (from what I know). And I definitely don't speak Polish. During the car ride, I have spent a little time studying some important words and phrases, but I don't know if I will be able to memorize them. So I am a little nervous about how communicating will go. My host siblings have said that they will help translate for me, but they can't - nor can I expect them to - translate everything for me, which is why I am worried. But I am sure it will go fine. I am under the impression that they are all very nice. The car ride hasn't been bad though. We had to take two vehicles, because there is so many of us (me, two host sisters, three host brothers, the girlfriend of one of my host brothers, my two host parents, and the dog). We have listened to a lot of music and overall it has been pretty nice. As I write this, there is only 2 minutes left until we arrive! I will probably pick this up and continue the post later on with how it goes, before going to sleep. *** Things went a lot better than I had expected! I was worried (as earlier said), but it was unnecessary. Only the grandmother was there today, and although we can't say much to each other, she is very nice, and we use the language of smiles - as I like to call it - which I hadn't realized until now, but have been having to use it less and less as my German has improved. I don't know when the rest of the relatives are coming, but they're not here yet, which is kind of nice. I am excited to meet them, but it is nice to have a small (well, as small as possible with such a large family (: ) group for the first night. The evening was really fun. We all had supper (Bread, butter or margarine, and cheese or tomatoes or cold meat), and tea. We also made plans for tomorrow - visiting Marek's parents, and going to Gdansk, a nearby city. I had a lot of fun, and it was a good way to end the day - with good conversation and laughter. Now, with it being 11:36 pm, I think I'll sleep. Day 2: I'm writing this the day after. This was a good day. We all got up on our own and had breakfast (bread and tomatoes or cheese or ham). Then all of us (aside from my host mom and host grandmother) piled into the cars at 11:30 and headed off to my host fathers parents apartment. There, we hung out with the grandparents as well as my host aunt and cousin I met in Denmark. The grandfather was really nice to all of us. He seems like such an alive person, if that makes any sense (it probably doesn't, but it is the only way I can think of to describe him). He was constantly offering everyone drinks and food, and smiling at everyone. At the beginning, he gave everyone a present which was Polish currency. In Poland, the currency goes a long way, so his gift was extremely generous. Some of my host siblings left a little early to get some pizza, and me, my host dad, and the rest of the host siblings caught up with them later on. After that, my host father took us all around the city in the family van, giving us a tour (cool!). THen we went back to the house and ate supper - something that I don't know the name of, but is basically a Polish sauerkraut (to me) and potato salad that had other vegetables in it as well, with bread. After that, me and my host siblings went upstairs and played an assortment of different games. We played a game that I taught them from Canada (Picnic, where one person makes a rule about the type of item a person can bring with them to an imaginary picnic, and the group takes turns guessing what they can bring with them to the picnic, until everyone has figured out the rule). We also played a game called Psychologist, which I can't explain entirely or it would ruin the game, but there is one 'psychologist' (although it is more like detective, really), and everyone else in the group has to pretend to have a common ailment - which is both really simple and really complicated at the same time - and the psychologist needs to guess what it is by asking the others in the group questions. We also played a few other games too. All in all, it was a really fun end to the day. Day 3: Today was pretty quiet. It was also Christmas Eve, which is treated as just as important as Christmas Day(s - yes, there are two days of Christmas in Poland, and Germany as well). I went for a walk through the small city/big town near my house here in Poland this morning, and took a LOT of photos. Then I came back to the house and had breakfast, immediately afterwards going back into the city with my youngest host sister [Note from Jason that is writing this out in blog format: I should really ask my host siblings if they are okay with my using their first names in these posts... it would make this sort of thing a whole lot easier to write]. We went shopping at a local supermarket for some food that we wanted for lunch, and then came back. It was pretty fun, just to hang out with my host sister. I bought (not so) spicy noodles, Passion Fruit flavoured Fanta (side note: it feels weird to call passion fruit that - I had only really learned of passion fruits when I came to Germany, where they are called ((German)) maracuja. It just feels more right. Anyways, that is off topic). When we got back from shopping, the cousins arrived, and I got to meet them for the first time (they are all very nice). Then all of the kids just hung out together, waiting for Christmas Eve dinner to be ready, getting dressed up for the meal. In Poland, on Christmas Eve, it is tradition that you can not eat meat, but that you can eat fish. So we has a many course meal with a lot of fish. I surprised myself and like a lot of it to some degree (normally I really dislike fish - but it is my policy to always try something once, so I gave the fish a try). After that, we all (well, except for me and my one host brother's German girlfriend who also doesn't speak Polish) sang Polish Christmas carols, and then it was present opening time. That was really cool, because the youngest cousin handed out the gifts to everyone, who would take it from her and then open them. After a point, it got really quick, so I was not able to see my host siblings reactions to what I gave them as they opened their gifts, but it was still a nice time. I'm very happy, not only with the gifts I was given (which were all very thoughtful - and some of which I had actually been needing), but also with the moment in general. After that, the whole family played a game where you pick a famous person and everyone says to one person who they are, who writes down these names and then reads out the list two times to the entire room, and then everyone guesses who is who. When you guess someone correctly, they have to join into a group with you, and you work together to continue guessing the other people. The first round, I went with Emily Dickinson - and that was not entirely smart of me, because I think I am one of the only book/writer geek-y people in the room, so the connection was immediate, and I was one of the first people guessed. The next time, though, I went with a more anonymous choice - Bob Marley. This time, I think I was among the last third of everyone to be guessed, so I was quite happy with that success. Now I am writing this. Day 4: Today was a great day - and, it was also Christmas Day! I was really worried that I would be sad - and maybe this is a bad thing, but I wasn't. Today I went for a walk in the morning. I had only intended for it to be an hour or so, but it accidentally lasted for two or three hours. My host family had started to worry for me (which is actually very nice of them), and my host mother called me, and I went back home to eat a late breakfast (which was more like lunch, since it was almost one in the afternoon). I think they were partially worried because, although I do enjoy going for walks, a lot of the time when I go on a walk it is because I am sad, worried, angry, or confused, and need to clear out my head. But I had simply lost track of time, not really thinking at all, taking a lot of pictures of what I was seeing on my walk. We had earlier spoken about what the plans for the afternoon were, which were to go to a beach nearby on a peninsula in North Poland. The cool thing about this peninsula is that part of it belongs to Poland, and the tip of it belongs to Russia. So when we went to the beach there later on that day, I got the closest I have ever been to Russia. Once we had driven the vehicles to the road near the beach, we wandered some trails in order to find our way to the beach. In doing so, we also hiked through a really nice forest. The colour of the green trees and the stark contrast with the reddish brown dirt was beautiful. After that, we emerged from the forest onto the beach - and the beach was beautiful. We took a lot of photographs of each other and the beach there, and we searched for (and found!!) amber in the sand of the beach - so I now have Polish Amber! Once we all decided we were finished at the beach, we headed back to the car. My host uncle and I were a little slower than everyone else, since we were talking with each other (he speaks English!) and we lagged behind. We accidentally took a wrong turn somewhere along the line and ended up a little bit lost, but in the end all was good. Our detour was actually a really beautiful one, and I think by the time we caught up with the others by the road, they had only waited ten minutes for us - so we could not have been that lost. Then we headed back to the house, and ate a ginormous Christmas Dinner with duck (my first time eating it. I don't really know what I think of it, to be truthful) and chicken and potatoes (and more) and a dessert of many cakes and many cookies. Towards the end of the dinner, my parents called from Canada, and we got to wish each other a Merry Christmas and talk for about five minutes, which was really nice. Later on, all of the people who don't have children (I don't know how else to put it - there are so many of us, and only a few of us were actually kids) went upstairs and hung out, listening to music and playing a fun game galled Werewolves. So I had an amazing Christmas - but in Poland (and Germany) there are two days of Christmas, so I have another one tomorrow! Day 5: Today was also a pretty good day. Despite writing a daily journal, though, I hadn't realized just how fast the days were going by. Today we all slept in until fairly late (I know I needed it) and had brunch. After that, we said goodbye temporarily to the cousins and their parents, who went back to their home, and went to my host dad's parents house. We visited with family there, and ate cake and oranges. It was very nice. The grandfather was, just like last time, very nice and exuberant. He couldn't really talk to me (and I could not really talk to him either) so every once in a while when he walked by me he would ruffle my hair or something along the lines. The family get-together was almost entirely in Polish, so I will be honest and say that I got a little bored, but everyone was very nice. Some of my host siblings were also bored, so we made a quick run to a corner store. When we came back, we said our goodbyes and went to the home of the cousins for supper, which was great. But it was during this meal that I was suddenly reminded that my host family and I are heading back to Hamburg at eight in the morning tomorrow. After the meal, we headed back to my host mom's mother's house, and began packing. Then I hung out for a while with some of my host siblings, and now I am going to catch some sleep - it's 10:15 pm, I'm tired, and there is a lot to do tomorrow in the morning. * * * And that is it for the journal! I didn't really write anything about the car ride the next day because not too much happened - we drove. I always enjoy long car rides though, so it did not bother me at all. Now I am going to just skip a few days - which mostly involve accidentally staying up late and then sleeping in (well, as much as I can sleep in - eight a.m. is usually the latest) the next day. Yesterday, however, was also a really cool day. It was Silvester, the German celebrations for the new year. The morning was not all that eventful, however the afternoon leading up to it was full of preparation - mostly preparation of food. We ate a lot of food. There is this thing in Germany, and I don't know if it exists elsewhere. Maybe it does, but nonetheless, it was my first time with it. It is called Raclette. Imagine a grill that you can put on your dining room table, and grill food on it while heating up more food with cheese on top of it in spatula sized pans beneath it, and then you basically have a Raclette, from my understanding. That was really nice. My host family and I, around a table heaping with lecker (delicious) food, having nice conversation. Then most of us watched a film together on Netflix, which left us with only half an hour before midnight. We tuned in to a station on the television which was broadcasting a live countdown concert from Berlin, and waited. Then, about thirty seconds before the clock struck midnight, I, my youngest host sister, a friend of hers, and my host parents ran outside, just in time to see the beginning of the lighting of fireworks by our neighbours. The sky was lit up with fireworks, and it was not long before a "fog" set in all around us, which was smoke (that didn't smell) from all of the fireworks being set off. It created this effect that seemed surreal, like out of the movies, with the bursting lights above us and the thickening fog surrounding us. The fog was so thick that when I crossed the road halfway, I could not see either side of the road (and roads generally seem to be smaller here in Germany than in Canada). I loved it. It was a great way to ring in the new year - 2016!
It is late now, so like I said at the beginning of this post, I will make another post tomorrow. I am having trouble getting the pictures from my phone onto my computer right now (technology is never seeming to act in my favour, isn't it?) anyways, and I am thinking that this post is probably already long enough. I am really tired, so please forgive this post of any spelling errors or word choice errors (or so on), as I did not get the chance to look over it once more before posting - and I really want to post it today. I hope you guys all had just as great of a Christmas season and New Year as I did! Talk to you soon, -Jason Hey everyone! I have no clue how long this is going to be/is since I'm writing this out on my phone (the internet and my computer just don't combine anymore), and I'm just going to be talking until I don't feel like talking anymore (pretty much how all my posts are, honestly).
I have never really mentioned this before, but it is big in the news for the last while, so I feel like I should mention it: refugees. Right now refugees are flooding into Europe by the masses, and Germany is getting a lot of them. When I first came to Germany it was big in the news about how many refugees there were, and I knew it was happening, but I didn't see it a lot. It was there, and I saw it often, but not to the amount that I am seeing the refugee situation now, or the Fluchtlingskrisis, as its said in German (translates as refugee crisis). I think Germany has a lot of space, and maybe we can fit more refugees, but especially coming from a lowly populated area of Canada, it feels like Germany is a sponge, and it is getting saturated. also like with a sponge, maybe Germany can take a whole lot more, space wise, I don't know, but I ask definitely noticing their presence a lot more everywhere I go. I live in Hamburg for this school year, if you didn't know, and now when I go to Hamburg Hauptbahnhof (Hamburgs main train station) when I step out it is like I'm swimming in refugees -there are just so many of them, waiting for food or taking shelter or waiting to be moved somewhere else. I live in a small subdivision/town on the edges of Hamburg, and to be honest I had never thought the refugees would start coming here to my town, but now they are. and maybe that is a sign of just where the "Refugee Crisis" is. My town has a main shopping centre that I can walk to from my house (which is pretty awesome). If I was walking there a few months ago, there is a small bridge I would have to walk over, and I would find myself in the shopping centre and I would not see anyone other than fellow shoppers. Now, if I walk there, when I walk over the bridge, on the other side three out of four times there is a female refugee there (not always the same one), begging for money. I am a person who likes to help out people who are being by putting my spare change into their cups, whatever I can afford, when I walk past them. But I can't do out as much as I would like to - I would be broke in a less than a days worth of wandering, if I did that. Everywhere I go, there are people begging for money, most of whom are refugees. For example with the one by the bridge in my town, I can't give money anymore, and I think she is very understanding. I always smile at her, at whoever is there, and they are always friendly and smile back, even when it is obvious that they know I can't give them money. This seems to apply for most people that I see who are being in Hamburg. These refugees aren't bad people, just people who got in a bad situation in their home country and got out of it. I think most people, at least in my area, are completely fine with the influx of refugees, but there are also a lot of prejudices and bad feelings - a hatred, it seems - that a small portion of the population has against refugees that the majority is fighting against. I think this is a big point in history, and I'm very lucky to be here for it. Something that is not so lucky, though, is that I've been sick for the last week. I'm technically still sick, but I'm pretending I'm not because it is getting plain ridiculous now. I don't even know what it was - a bit of everything, I suppose. A migraine, a cold thing, a flu thing, a full body ache along with pains in both of my legs and my lower back were all part of and only the beginning of the list of symptoms of whatever it was. The first day I had it I came down hard, really feeling sick - and I went home an hour early, because the idea of staying for an extra hour was horrible. But through this sickness I've actually gotten to learn a lot about Germany (once again!) which is definitely a plus. My host mom wanted to take me to the local doctor right away, that first day, but I learned that most doctors practices aren't open past midday on Wednesdays, and it was just my luck that it was a Wednesday. I also learned that in Germany, as long as you are legally not an adult, you can go to a children's doctor (so as long as you are 18 or under... apparently all of my host siblings that are 18 and under go to a children's doctor, and it is not an unusual thing). When we did get to the doctors the next day, I found out that there was nothing exceptionally wrong with me, so we went to the pharmacy next door and got a nose spray for the cold. But nonetheless it was an interesting experience, and waiting for the doctor for almost two hours was not as bad as it normally is, since there were a million super cute and amusing children running around, all of which were just as sick as, if not sicker than, me, so I didn't have to worry about making them ill. There was one child who was pretty cool and kept finding puzzle pieces and giving them to me. By the end of my time waiting, I had a lap full of puzzle pieces and Lego like pieces, and a child trying to give me more. That was plenty of fun. Each time he gave me something I would say something along the lines of "A gift? For me? Thank you very much!!" which he seemed to appreciate and like. our was cool. One last thing before I get on to a serious deep down in the emotions topic: last month was November. You may have noticed that as usual I didn't post very much, but less so. That's because November is NaNoWriMo, our National Novel Writing Month, which is a month which challenges writers and aspiring writers alike to write a certain word goal in a month, and I decided for some reason that I had the time. Since I was in the young writers program, my goal was 30000 words (which I'm very proud I managed to do). Hopefully this explains my quieter than normal posting silence a little. Okay, I lied, one last thing before the deep personal stuff: The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part Two came out a while ago and one of my host sisters and I went out to see it on its second day of release - in German!! - which was really cool! It was great movie, and I've read the book quite a few times which was definitely helpful in my understanding of the film - at times I was explaining things to my host sister, which is cool since she speaks German (the language of the film finds) and I'm still a learner. Alright, time for that deep down personal stuff I've been talking about talking about: Being on exchange is a great experience that I would never change for the life of me - I'm so glad I am here in Germany - but it is so far turning out to be far from the experience I had hoped for or expected, in certain aspects. And I had always promised myself before I came to Germany that I would have this blog be a perfectly honest blog, showing right into my life so as to honestly depict what it is like and not be a "I went here and I did this and I did that and I like it" blog, but deep and personal. And that is hard to do, and I don't think I've quote been living up to that, but what I'm about to say is right along the lines of the sorts of things that I'd been hoping I'd reveal. So here goes: I don't feel like I have many or possibly any friends here in Germany, which I find to be extremely difficult. Up until a week ago, no one outside of my host family had ever invited me anywhere to do anything (last week I was invited to go with my class on an official class function to play soccer - so I don't know if it counts, since I was supposed to know about it anyways but didn't. But it was the first, and possibly the worst, day of my sickness which made it feel traffic because there was absolutely no way I could go in the condition I was in). I hand out with my German learning class in school mostly (which is largely composed of refugees and immigrants, which is cool), because I at least feel like they don't mind my being there, and I can occasionally talk with them. Whereas with my "normal" German class I don't feel any connections, and I always feel pushed aside in conversations once the "hello, how are you and how was your weekend?" portion of the conversation is over. I feel ignored in my regular class, and outside of it, too. Sometimes people say "hello" or they wave, but that is all. And ny German is not very good, which I find makes communication hard. I don't know what to talk about, and I don't know how to make small talk in German yet, and when I speak in English I either feel burdensome or like I'm doing a disservice to my German learning. After school is done, I go directly home, and no one asks ne to do things with them - ever. I've been here in Germany at school for three and a half months, and no one has asked me to do anything after school. I say yes to hanging out with anyone - but no one has asked. It is very much lonesome. And I know that maybe this is partially my fault - but I have no clue who to ask, since no one has seemed to give ne a serious clue thag they'd be willing to hang out, and I am not from here, so I have no idea of where to go to meet people or where to invite people to go with me. So that is the main thing on my mind right now. And in result of the seclusion, I've been experiencing a lot of highs and lows in how I am dealing with it. Sometimes I feel fine with it, more often I feel horrible about it, or some large range of emotions in between. I have the email of my local coordinator, and I am hoping to email her for suggestions as to socoal activities or volunteering in the area that I can take part in, but I am not going to do so right now, or four the next week, really, because it is going to be super busy and I don't have time to get started on anything this week. I'm heading to Berlin on a day long class trip with the entire grade ten (all three of the grade 10 classes are going) tomorrow. Then the day after I am heading to Munich (!!) with my exchange agency and some other fellow exchange students to explore the city until Monday, which I'm super excited about. It will be so much fun to see Munich, and to meet some other exchange students. I've been talking with one of them on Facebook a little, and he seems really nice. I can't wait to meet everyone! And although those two things maybe don't seem like a lot - it is a lot. Just to make sure things are clear after the "deep" part of the post: I love it here in Germany, I love Hamburg, and I'm so glad that I am here on exchange, and wouldn't want to be anywhere else in any other city or with any other host family (all of that is perfect and I would not want a single thing changed). But things are not 100 percent as expected with some things, and I just wanted to make sure that was perfectly obvious here on my blog. I will try to write more in future posts about other things add they come up or I think of them. Anyways, it's getting later here and I need to get up early tomorrow to make sure I have everything I need for the day in Berlin. I am going to leave this post here - and I'm going to be honest, I don't have time to check over the past, so I hope everything is clear and understandable to at least a minor degree I hope all is well with all of you guys, and I'll try and post again soon! -Jason Hey guys! I just wanted to do a quick post to say "hey, I'm alive!"and talk about what I've been up to the last few days, and what I will be up to soon.
Things are for the most part good for me. It's a little tough going right now, but it's okay. Maybe I'll write a post about that in the future. Anyways, I'm definitely overall having a good time here in Germany. On Friday I went shopping for some clothes (growing is a pain) and I saw a Thalia bookstore on the way between two clothing stores. It was huge, and beautiful, and I wanted to go in, but I told myself not to. And then I went in. And then I told myself I was only looking around to see what it was like, since I've been wanting to go to a Thalia bookstore ever since I came to Germany. And then I went up the escalator. And found myself in front of the English books section. And found myself at the cash, book in hand. And bought that book, Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher. I've already read it before, liked it, and have been wanting to buy a copy for a while now, and so I have no regrets whatsoever. And just yesterday I went to the cinema with my host sister to see Mockingjay Part Two! That was super fun, and the movie was great, too! We watched it in German, but me being the book geek that I am, have already read the book two or the times, so I always knew what was happening - and I was able to understand a good amount of what they were actually saying, which was great! At some points, I was actually clearing things up for my host sister, which I found cool. I also went on my own earlier in the day yesterday to a local aquarium (you're never too old, in my opinion), and ended up sitting in front of and staring at one particularly beautiful fish tank for more than an hour. Whoops. But it was worth it. I had a good time. I'm writing this post on my phone, so I'll try to include a photo, but I have no idea if it will post or not, or how it will post, so please bear with it. I have a lot coming up soon, by the looks of it. The first two weeks of December will have a lot going on, but I'm super excited for it. First I'm going with my class for a day trip to Berlin to see the more political side of Berlin (which we didn't go too deeply into when we were last there). Then only the day after that, I will be heading off with my exchange agency and some other exchange students that I haven't met yet to Munich for the weekend, to see what there is in Munich! I can't wait, it seems like it is going to be so much fun! And I'm particularly excited for the Christmas Market in Munich, which we will be seeing while we are there! And the day after I come back to Hamburg from Munich, I will be probably going with my German Learning class in school to a theater, which will also be awesome. Overall, I'm excitedly anticipating the beginning of December - it's only a week away! I bought a unlimited train pass for the next week, and I'm looking into buying one for the month of December, so hopefully I'll be getting around to doing a little more. I hope all is well with you! Talk to you soon, Jason |
JasonFollowing a sixteen year old Canadian in Hamburg, Germany for a year on high school student exchange. Archives
January 2017
Categories |