I guess it’s about time that I posted again. I mean language camp is already over. Okay so after a super fun first weekend with my host family, Language Camp started. I’m not gonna lie, I was really excited for language camp, because I just was yearning for some American interactions. I mean I had a wonderful time hanging out with my host family for the first 4 days, but I guess I was just a little homesick for something familiar, or maybe just for some kids my own age. Anyway, the first day of language camp was a little boring. We didn’t do much german, and I just kept thinking “Can we do German now??” We did play a game though that was pretty cool. It was just a standard game of Moa, but there were different groups and each group had slightly different rules. Oh and one key part of this game- no talking. After a couple rounds, some people had to switch to a new group and figure out how to deal with the differences. Then after a couple more rounds, I had to switch to a new group. At one point Levi played a wild card, and was trying to say he tried he wanted the suit to be clubs, so he just starting making a beating motion and I was seriously confused for a couple seconds but finally figured it out. Also, in my previous group, 7’s meant skip one turn and in my new group it meant skip 2 turns. That caused some confusion, but I kinda just went with it. The whole activity was to illustrate how there are going to be cultural differences here, and there are different ways to deal with it, even if we can’t communicate very well.
The next morning, I had a bit of bus issues but luckily Mama was there to help me. I was going to try riding the bus to the Jungendherberge, but I learned a very valuable lesson instead: the bus could be the right number, but still be the wrong bus. See, I wanted to take bus 220 going toward Aachen, but I accidently got on the 220 going away from Aachen, so that was fun. Luckily, Mama was there to rescue me, and drive me to language camp. At camp, we separated into Advanced and Beginning groups and had our first German lessons. I was placed in the Advanced group (Thanks Herr Case and Frau Young :D). After camp, I successfully took the bus to Aachen along with everyone else, but then the bus to Julich didn’t leave until 4:10 so we stayed in the city for a little bit and got Eis (Zitrone Eis is honestly the best invention of my life, and we need it in America!!!) and looked at the Dom. Tristan, Jon, and Grace also introduced me to a game called What are the Odds. Basically, they ask “What are the odds you *insert outrageous dare here*?” and then the other person says 1 in *insert number here* and then they both shout out a number in that range and if they shout out the same number the person has to do the dare. Anyway, not a very good explanation, but basically the guys did a bunch of stupid stuff in Aachen.
Wednesday morning of the first week, I had bus troubles yet again (this will be a reoccurring theme in this post.) We thought everything was good, we looked at the schedule beforehand. Mama drove me to the bus stop and we were a little bit early and everything, but then we realized that the bus we looked up didn’t go straight to Aachen, it stopped in Eschweiler and I would have to take a connecting bus. I made the connection in Eschweiler alright, but then once I got to Aachen it was already 9 and I had to be at the Jungendherberge by 9:30. Also, in the Aachen bushof (which is pretty large btw) I wasn’t sure which bus to take- I knew it was bus 2 but I didn’t know which direction I should go in. Also, to make things even better, just as my bus got into Aachen, so did the number 2 bus. I could’ve made it if I ran, but since I wasn’t sure if it was going in the right direction I didn’t. After another 20 minutes, another number 2 bus came, and I decided to get on even though I wasn’t 100% sure if it was the right one. Another complication, my phone wasn’t working! I went to call Host mama to ask her which bus to take, and my phone just decided it wasn’t up for making phone calls so that was fun.
Anyway, this is taking way too long and I only have 10 months here so I better get a move on 😄. Okay, so basically what it boils down to, I had and continue to have bus struggles, and I may never get used to this whole public transportation system. Now moving on…
Language camp was a really fun time. Like REALLY fun. Every day was a party. Everyone was really awesome and cool and funny and talented and it was really great to spend the month with them. Also, Nina, one of the teachers, was freaking hysterical!! We often got sidetracked during class and went on random tangents. For example, curse words in German, or shower therapy, or cows, or electric fences, or strippers, or you get the picture.
So the typical language camp day went something like this: I would take the bus at 7:30 with Levi and Grace to Aachen, where we would meet a bunch of other people and take a bus to the Youth Hostile. We’d get there around 9 and then we’d do news reports (a short presentation on a German current event) and culture reports (a short presentation on some aspect of German Culture). Then we would split up into our different classes and “learned” about German things, either culture things or grammar things or vocab things. Then lunch would happen. Lunch was always a hot meal, and it was usually pretty yummy. I would eat with Grace, Hailee, Tristan, Jon, Levi, ect. We always had an hour for lunch (:D) and so after we finished eating we would always walk down to the park, and mess around and do crazy, stupid teenager things. It was always a good time :D. Then we would have more classes, you know, so we could learn German (at least I think that was the purpose) until 3. Ooh, also on Fridays we watched movies in the afternoon which was great!! Then after class, we would take the bus back to Aachen, at which point we would usually get Eis. Let me tell you… the germans know how to do Ice Cream! Zitrone (lemon) Eis is the SHIZ!! Spaghetti Eis is also pretty darn spectacular!! We would explore Aachen and do normal people stuff like try on Dirndls and play What Are The Odds, which I don’t feel like explaining right now, but it basically means we dared each other to do a bunch of stupid stuff :D. It was a really, really fun time, and now I’m best friends with everyone from language camp :D
We did a couple fieldtrips throughout the 3 weeks of language camp. We went to the supermarket and learned different food names. And we went to Aachen and did a scavenger hunt thing. And the last week we went to Bonn and visited the Haus der Geschichte and the Haribo factory, and Kӧln and climbed up 500+ steps to the top of the Kӧlner Dom. It was WAYYYYYYY cool!!
Also in the past few weeks, I’ve visited the Dreiländerpunkt, where Holland, Belgium, and Germany meet. That was also really cool. Basically, I’ve been doing a lot of really cool things :D And the other day, my host family and I went to this charity event which was like a fair kind of. There were live bands, and food, and a firetruck, and people selling things, and a mechanical bull, and it was a fun time :D.
Anyway, and I have school tomorrow so I’m going to go to sleep now, and hopefully I’ll update y’all again soon. Gymnasium has been a rough time, but hopefully I’ll adjust soon. Anyway, good night and I’ll have to talk about school at some later date.
The next morning, I had a bit of bus issues but luckily Mama was there to help me. I was going to try riding the bus to the Jungendherberge, but I learned a very valuable lesson instead: the bus could be the right number, but still be the wrong bus. See, I wanted to take bus 220 going toward Aachen, but I accidently got on the 220 going away from Aachen, so that was fun. Luckily, Mama was there to rescue me, and drive me to language camp. At camp, we separated into Advanced and Beginning groups and had our first German lessons. I was placed in the Advanced group (Thanks Herr Case and Frau Young :D). After camp, I successfully took the bus to Aachen along with everyone else, but then the bus to Julich didn’t leave until 4:10 so we stayed in the city for a little bit and got Eis (Zitrone Eis is honestly the best invention of my life, and we need it in America!!!) and looked at the Dom. Tristan, Jon, and Grace also introduced me to a game called What are the Odds. Basically, they ask “What are the odds you *insert outrageous dare here*?” and then the other person says 1 in *insert number here* and then they both shout out a number in that range and if they shout out the same number the person has to do the dare. Anyway, not a very good explanation, but basically the guys did a bunch of stupid stuff in Aachen.
Wednesday morning of the first week, I had bus troubles yet again (this will be a reoccurring theme in this post.) We thought everything was good, we looked at the schedule beforehand. Mama drove me to the bus stop and we were a little bit early and everything, but then we realized that the bus we looked up didn’t go straight to Aachen, it stopped in Eschweiler and I would have to take a connecting bus. I made the connection in Eschweiler alright, but then once I got to Aachen it was already 9 and I had to be at the Jungendherberge by 9:30. Also, in the Aachen bushof (which is pretty large btw) I wasn’t sure which bus to take- I knew it was bus 2 but I didn’t know which direction I should go in. Also, to make things even better, just as my bus got into Aachen, so did the number 2 bus. I could’ve made it if I ran, but since I wasn’t sure if it was going in the right direction I didn’t. After another 20 minutes, another number 2 bus came, and I decided to get on even though I wasn’t 100% sure if it was the right one. Another complication, my phone wasn’t working! I went to call Host mama to ask her which bus to take, and my phone just decided it wasn’t up for making phone calls so that was fun.
Anyway, this is taking way too long and I only have 10 months here so I better get a move on 😄. Okay, so basically what it boils down to, I had and continue to have bus struggles, and I may never get used to this whole public transportation system. Now moving on…
Language camp was a really fun time. Like REALLY fun. Every day was a party. Everyone was really awesome and cool and funny and talented and it was really great to spend the month with them. Also, Nina, one of the teachers, was freaking hysterical!! We often got sidetracked during class and went on random tangents. For example, curse words in German, or shower therapy, or cows, or electric fences, or strippers, or you get the picture.
So the typical language camp day went something like this: I would take the bus at 7:30 with Levi and Grace to Aachen, where we would meet a bunch of other people and take a bus to the Youth Hostile. We’d get there around 9 and then we’d do news reports (a short presentation on a German current event) and culture reports (a short presentation on some aspect of German Culture). Then we would split up into our different classes and “learned” about German things, either culture things or grammar things or vocab things. Then lunch would happen. Lunch was always a hot meal, and it was usually pretty yummy. I would eat with Grace, Hailee, Tristan, Jon, Levi, ect. We always had an hour for lunch (:D) and so after we finished eating we would always walk down to the park, and mess around and do crazy, stupid teenager things. It was always a good time :D. Then we would have more classes, you know, so we could learn German (at least I think that was the purpose) until 3. Ooh, also on Fridays we watched movies in the afternoon which was great!! Then after class, we would take the bus back to Aachen, at which point we would usually get Eis. Let me tell you… the germans know how to do Ice Cream! Zitrone (lemon) Eis is the SHIZ!! Spaghetti Eis is also pretty darn spectacular!! We would explore Aachen and do normal people stuff like try on Dirndls and play What Are The Odds, which I don’t feel like explaining right now, but it basically means we dared each other to do a bunch of stupid stuff :D. It was a really, really fun time, and now I’m best friends with everyone from language camp :D
We did a couple fieldtrips throughout the 3 weeks of language camp. We went to the supermarket and learned different food names. And we went to Aachen and did a scavenger hunt thing. And the last week we went to Bonn and visited the Haus der Geschichte and the Haribo factory, and Kӧln and climbed up 500+ steps to the top of the Kӧlner Dom. It was WAYYYYYYY cool!!
Also in the past few weeks, I’ve visited the Dreiländerpunkt, where Holland, Belgium, and Germany meet. That was also really cool. Basically, I’ve been doing a lot of really cool things :D And the other day, my host family and I went to this charity event which was like a fair kind of. There were live bands, and food, and a firetruck, and people selling things, and a mechanical bull, and it was a fun time :D.
Anyway, and I have school tomorrow so I’m going to go to sleep now, and hopefully I’ll update y’all again soon. Gymnasium has been a rough time, but hopefully I’ll adjust soon. Anyway, good night and I’ll have to talk about school at some later date.
My first vlog type thing :)