Samstag, 11. Dezember 2010


Yesterday, Friday  the 10th of December 2010, was, in fact, a waiting day. It was a day filled with waiting for trains, buses, gifts, everything. To begin with, yesterday my class and I went to the Friedrich Schiller Museum in Marbach  by train. We left the school at 8:05 and went to the Fellbach Bahnhof where the waiting began. Once we boarded our first train at about 8:15 or so we waited on the train to take us to another connect train station. Once there, we waited for and then missed our train to Marbach at which point our teacher took us over to the train station guy in charge of tickets who was very nice and let us use our old ticket (so we wouldn't have to buy a new one) to go to marbach on the bus. We road the bus to a connecting bus, and eventually made it to Marbach where we then spent 5 to 10 minutes walking to the museum. Strangely, this was the only fuun part of the class trip, because the night before it had snowed about 3 inches and had the perfect consistency for snowball making. So, to the tune of our German teacher protesting our large battle, we gather snow as we walked from empty benches, car tops, the ground, the stone fence-wall things, and the mail boxes and ensured that all of us were thoroughly damp with cross fire before we entered the luxurious large hall of the musuem with it's high ceilings, greek depictions and fancy mosaic floors. We entered into a tiny room, deposited coats and bags and began waiting for the tour to end.
Don't get me wrong, Friedrich Schiller was a cool homedog and stuff, however, when you enter room large rooms with nothing but barely ledgible scraps of paper in glass cases in German, while a woman just talks about schiller and his life, the most interesting parts are hard to pay attention for. The only time I truly participated was when the tour guide asked when Schiller's birthday was. Novemeber 10th (though I didn't know the year) and then she promptly asked me his astrology sign, probably as a joke, but I knew it and told her, of course, scorpio.
Once we were finished with the tour, the snow ball fight reccomenced in the quartyard and lasted until the train station where there were too many other innocent bystanders that could possibly be injured if we continued. We got on the train and waited on the train to arrive in Fellbach, waited for the bus, waited in the bus, and then finally I got home.
The second half of the day was slightly more inventful, as I had to leave at 2:50 for an interview. I was interviewed for the Fellbacher Zeitung, about my exchange and soccer. Many of the questions were about how I liked Germany, what was different about Germany from the USA, what do I miss about the US, and what will I miss when I get back the USA. Then also: When and why did I start playing soccer, why am I a goalie, what is my favorite part about it, which team I play for in the US (YEAH KUTZTOWN), and so forth. It was great because the reporter spoke both English and German. He was very nice and my friend Anni came with as a representative of the regular team. it was great fun, even though it was really fudging cold because we didn't really notice after our cute little heart-warming stories. I do not know when I ´t will be coming out but it shall be before the end of the year (don't worry I'll keep y'all posted).
AFTER THAT we then had the Rommelshausen Fußball Weihnachtsfeuer, which was really just a big fun celebration. We walked out into the vineyards and some people set off fire works. It was a decent walk and we talked the whole way and back. We ate some wurstchen(sausages) and buns and warm cider and sang and got a ball for a gift.
It was cute and the night was made all the better with the fresh snow that had begun as we walked from the building home (even if it was far too cold).

Montag, 6. Dezember 2010

The redhead ate roasted, candied almonds.

Because it's Weihnachtmarkt time!! YAY!
Weihnachtsmarkt is much like an outdoor super market made solely for christmas that happensin almost every city from the 1 of December to the 23!
And I was at my very first one this last weekend.
We went to the one in Esslingen, which isn't so far from where I live, it wasn't the closest but my host family dad said that it would be the most interesting in all likelyhood because it has a medieval section filled with stuff you might see at a renaissance fair. Being smart as we are we went on a saturday night, like everyone else in the world. It was jam-packed with people and was freezing cold but the lights and the candied almonds, the little hand-crafted wooden figures and books and jewelry wereenough to warm you from the inside. the smell of warm cider, or hot food, wafting through the air. Joy. That is the theme of them all and don't we need a little, with such long, cold nights and short, cold days? It was beautiful, and I loved it.
Other things that happened in the last week include: getting back 2 tests that I got 3's on. (!!!!!) And beating the Harry Potter and the half-blood prince video game in one day.. (:
Also today is St. Nicolas TAG! Today is the day all the Germans put their shoes outside their door and St. Nicolas fills them with sweets and small toys. (They have this of course in addition to christmas later on the 24th!) So happy Nicolas Tag and 6th day of advent! Can't wait for christmas!!! (:

The redhead is not a fan of public buses.

Why may you ask?
They are practical, you could say, even convinient. And I understand that. I understand the practicality of public tranportation and I am glad they have it here, and in fact I wish that we had it more in the United States, however (!) I more hate public buses in place of normal school buses for us.
The main reasons include: The public buses are naturally not free because of course they are public, they are for the people at large and the people have to pay for services they use. You have walk to a bus stop to wait for the bus that could be a good amount from your house.The public buses cater, of course, to normal workers as well, making them jam-packed at seven in the morning when everyone is going to school and to work. It is this way here in Germany as opposed to the comfortable American system.
A system that, because of a lack of public buses, especially ones as reliable as public buses here, instead they provide the American grade school student with the life staple of the school bus, bright yellow, ugly sunshine caterpillar that gobbles you up at your doorstep in the morning and spits you back out at 3 o'clock everyday. It used to be a sight, a sounds that churned my stomach and made me groan. It was the roaring promise of another school day in a healthy engine. But I have become wiser.
How convenienced, how blessed I was to be giving a FREE, safe, warm ride 3,5 dangerous miles of winding country road into town to be fill my brain with interesting things. And it was not only free, but guarenteed you a seat, and a comfortably empty-ish bus in which you could day dream for 10 minutes until you arrived. The yellow school buses rarely encountering traffic-jams beside the occasional road-kill deer.
The school bus, where sitting down was not awkward because you already knew everybody and farts were more secretive. Where windows could be thrown down and wind blown inside. The school bus. Oh how I dearly miss you, I will see you next year.

Freitag, 26. November 2010

The redhead is STILL the clumsiest person on the planet.

New mindbogglingly clumsy accomplishments:
Pick up her hoody and knocking over a glass, shattering it into a million peiced simultaneously.
Skipping home from soccer practice and overturning a compost trash can on the way.
Dropping a peice of pumpkin pie covered in whip creme onto the couch (the plates were slippery though!)
(:

The redhead has been a very bad, bad blogger lately...

and she apologizes heartily.
And quite a few things have come to pass. First of all, of course, the seventh Harry Potter film part one has arrived in theaters. And this redheaded geektastic child did not miss it, oh no. This geektastic child went the sunday after it came out with her friend Jasmine. She put on her special crazy stockings, a homemade harry potter t-shirt and her Time Turner (aka harry potter gangster bling-blang) and set out in pouring rain on her bike for the train station about an hour before her train left for Waiblingen.... because she was really excited. However, coming to the bahnhof early wasn't her most fantastic idea because it is outside. And though she had a bench and a little roof to stop her from becoming excessively wet, it was cold. Very, unbaribly cold (such as it normally is in November, go figure). So she read what she could of the her German copy of Harry Potter trying to finish anough that she remembers everything and waited for the train. People came and left, leaving her alone on the cold bench until finally the time came to leave... and the train was twenty minutes late. OF COURSE. But it all went fine. She and her friend walked two blocks to the theater and reveled in the warmth of the cramped theater with it's winding staircase. they climbed up and up to the top most theater, the one by a 1 stall bathroom that later would become an irritation and a relief as the movie ended.
The theater it self was smallish, but cosy with cushy seats and glowing lights hanging from the ceiling as stars. It also had a few strange differences from American theaters. First, when you buy tickets you buy them for specific seats like in dramatic theater and you MUST sit there or you would be breaking rules and system (something very frowned upon by the Germans). And also, each row of seats had a small shelf stuck on the back of it where the row behind could place food, drinks, and candy which I thought was quite better and more ingenious as the american ones. The movie was good as far as i was concerned. It was quite by the book except for of course the Horcrux scene, which featured some radical over exaggerations of things that were both annoying and innopropriate! but everything else was good, at least for Hollywood.
In the midst of the film I found that i had an incredibly full bladder which was annoying but managed to be less important as I became more and more absorbed int he movie, but when it was done and i stood up, I naturally made a break for it and came to the back of a short-ish line. we arrived home safely and I wore my dorky t-shirt (that was in german by the way) to school the next day and my friends of course thought i was ridiculous and crazy (at least I'm a positive American stereotype).
On Monday I got my first english test back which was a 1- (kind of like an A- except kind of harder to get) and all my class mates were very curious as to how the "-" came in. It ended up that due to my unexposure to English class I forgot to use my "formal" english speech and so, when one of the question asked me what the how the boy in the text we read felt about the girl in the text we read I wrote, literally,"He wants to get in her pants". Which isn't wrong but was less favorable as opposed to "He thinks she is beautiful and would love to be her boyfriend" or something like that. (Personally, I like mine better)
All week a bunch of my classes having been absent too because of teacher illnesses. Here, substitute teacher don't really exist. When a teacher can't attend the class because of holiday or sickness you just don't have the class, which is actually nice as opposed to pretending that you are actually learning something fom the substitute.
The really rouch day however, was Thursday of course. Thanksgiving. It is one thing to say you are not seeing your family for a year it is another when days like christmas and thanksgiving arrive where your mother's mashed potatoes and kisses usually fill you up with love and instead of the normal full table and fancy china and pumpkin pie you have a 10 hour day of school and a Physics test to study for. The only thing that was largely a comfort to me was the thought that after this year I will probably never have to be away from family on thanksgiving or the holidays ever again.
GUESS WHO's NOT GOING FAR AWAY FOR COLLEGE?
Deni

Donnerstag, 4. November 2010

The redhead is making pancakes.

And while she was she found it hard to find a few things and thought she would let you know the plus and minuses of eating in Germany....
I've always believed in starting on a bad note and going to a good note, because in the end you're always happy... or at least in this case I will be, you guys might be jealous at the end... whatever, I'm gonna stop rambling now, you get what I mean.

The tragedy of German food:
1. Sweetpoatoes are REALLY freaking expensive here and so we don't have sweet potatoes... ever. At all.
2. Peanut butter, maple syrup, and chocolate chips are all very rare and when you do find them they are also very, very expensive and usually come in very annoyingly small portions.
3. Oreos, otherwise known as "Milk's favorite cookie" are virtually unknown, but are available. However, Double Stuf Oreos do not and the regular kind of oreos only come 16 to a package. Which is not enough AND is an even number.... and If you are a person who must eat an odd number of cookies (like me) you will have severe difficulty accomplishing that.
4. And FINALLY, Reeses peanut butter cups are UNavailable. Everywhere in Germany. Possibly everywhere in Europe. (to the extent of my knowledge)

The successes of German food:
1, 2, 3, &4. There are at least four fresh Bakeries in the vasinity of where I live. FRESH BREAD. EVERY MORNING. NUFF SAID.
5. Two words: Rot Wurst or in German one word: Rotwurst
6. Marzipan.
7. Though I have not tried it, but I know that the Beer is fantastic and definitely has much more variety here than in America.
8. Schnitzel.
9. ALL THE KUCHEN. (:

This has been the pros and cons of German cusine with Deni, thank you for tuning in.
I'm going to go make pancakes for my family for dinner and eat it with VERY EXPENSIVE maple syrup. Have a nice day. (:

Dienstag, 2. November 2010

The redhead is anxiously awaiting the midterm election results.

.... because she is a dork like that.
But I'm not going to talk about politics tonight, I am simply going to say, GO VOTE DUDE (if you haven't already and you can).
But while my fellow american were out standing in the cold waiting to vote or getting controversial robocalls, I was hiking through the Black Forrest, a place complete uncontroversial for it's amazing beauty. (jealous?)
This morning I woke up to the radio singing Alejandro by Lady GaGa. A song which normally would make me jam and sing aloud, but in this case made my roll into a tight ball under my covers and seriously regret reading "five more minutes" (2 more hours) than usual the night before. Once I was reasonably alive enough to function on a basic level, I joined in the frantic frenzy of breakfast eating, lunch packing, and backpack stuffing that preceded our day's adventure. At 8:40 we jumped in the car, clicked in our seatbelts and thundercats were definitely a-go.
An hour or so later we arrived at which point I found out it was really freaking cold and was very proud of myself for having provided in my bag a hand, pair of mittens, and H&M scarf that was amazingly warm and happy. I dawned it all, covering my mouth and nose with the scarf as well, giving my host family a good laugh in the process. In retrospect I'm sure I did look pretty freaking ridiculous and compared to the seasoned, long-sleeved t-shirt wearing Black forrest dwellers I stuck out like a sore thumb. We began our journey, finding the coolest path that took us alongside a creek in a little narrow path giving us much more close surface area to appreciate. And somehow I managed to manveuver a camera WHILE walking (!!!) which I find a great accomplishment considering that 1) the path had random roots and rocks jerking out at odd angles (you know like a normal forrest path should) and 2) I am the clumsiest person alive.
The forrest was vast and tall, it's hundred year old branches reaching out bare to us like arms looking for solace, and we must have looked like living action figures crawling between pairs of giant's feet. The trees grew straight and parallel for the most part to one another stretching so far towards the heavens that the sun probably had no idea where we were. They grew on earth and big boulders with full heads of spongey green, rich alien hair. (German word of the day: Moos=moss.) Mixed in with the tall pines and coniferious trees filling our noses with old book smell where bright Deciduous trees in different shades of orange. they where fire raining down on us with the gentle breeze and carpeting our path and as we walked they whispered the unison lullaby with each of our steps (Swish, swash, swish, swash). Once we made our way to lunch time we had come to a large castle with a beauty of a view. We ate our sandwiches and apples and decided that maybe once we got back to the car we would find a cute bakery and have some cake.
So we did. We made our way back, arrived at the car, packed it all in and drove five minutes to a cute little town with a hard to find bakery that over supplied our cake needs with nine or ten different types of cake making our mouths water. I went with a nice, classic Apple cake and really loved it.
That was my day! Hope you had a great one! Hope you had a great halloween! We just ended up playing board games here and carving a pumpkin or two. But don't go thinking pumpkin carving is popular! Actually we were probably the only ones in our town. We had one trick or treater and she was our neighbor. so halloween wasn#t a big blow out but hey, it's a small price to pay for the experience I'm having here!
Sorry for not posting in a while, I really have no excuse either because I've been on break but regardless, have a great week and drück die Daumen for the 112th Congress!
Machts Gut!
Deni