Post-Eurotour

For those people who never got the full rundown:


Europe Tour:

Wiesbaden
Trier
Brussels
Paris
Versailles
Valence
Avignon
Cannes
Monaco
Pisa
Rome
Florence
Venice
Vienna
Budapest
Bratislava
Prague
Frankfurt

Sylt

For the past month, I have been living on an island in northern Germany.

Sylt is a vacation island full of rich people, big cars, and summer houses. But hidden at the northern tip, settled between the dunes and the North Sea, is a little village called List. List is a nice little place, with a super market, a youth hostel, a kindergarten, a gas station, the odd hotel or two, and right in the middle of it all is the Erlebniszentrum Naturgewalten Sylt.

The Forces of Nature Experience Center on Sylt

I have been working here as an intern for about a month now. It is near the top on the list of Coolest Things in Karen’s Life, right under coming to Germany. Some of the work could be better. I spend a lot of my time cleaning and people tend to laugh at my accent when I start to talk, but the adventures through the mud flats and dune, and the interesting people I get to work with make up for it.

I live in a Wohngemeinschaft (I don’t know a good English word). 6 of us all live together in a building. We all have our own rooms, but we share a kitchen, bathroom, and shower. The bathroom and showers are also used by other people that live in the building, but it works surprisingly well. I’ve never had to wait to take a shower. They are always empty when I want them.

For breakfast and lunch, we all buy our own things and we have our personal shelves in the kitchen and fridges. In the evening, we all get back from work at about the same time. We cook and eat all together and it’s always really nice to sit down with everyone at the dinner table and talk about our days. We also have a Play Station, so we often play together after the kitchen is clean.

My days start at 9:30 when I get to work. I go through the exhibitions and check to make sure that everything is clean and working, or I set up for the school classes and check the bathrooms. Then I either stand at the entrance to the exhibition and great the guests, or I help with the tours for school classes and keep the head phones clean and organized. Talking to the guests is my least favorite part. I love talking to people, but sometimes I get frustrated with my German or people laugh at my accent and start talking to me in English.

My German is also getting better, I think. Sometimes I start stuttering, but no one that I work with has problems talking with me. Tomorrow I’m getting my first school class tour in German. I’ve already done one in English with a group from India, but I’m a little nervous to do it in German. On the bright side, it’s a class from Denmark, so they have funny accents like me. That makes me feel a little better.

I get an hour long break at either one or two o’clock. Sometimes, when it’s really busy, we’re all running around like chickens without heads cut off, and we forget about our breaks. Then we just end up at home at 7pm, starving and exhausted.

My day ends just after 6pm, when all of the guests are gone and everything is clean and ready for the next day. Sometimes there are presentations after we close, but I only have to stay if I’m assigned to, or if they are interesting (I usually stay). I also cook a lot for everyone. We have a menu that we planned for the week, and I can usually get home and start the quickest because I have the least amount of responsibilities in the center (I’m only staying for 7 weeks, and German isn’t my first language), and I love cooking for everyone.

Overall, I really like it here. The weather is nice and cool, and it’s amazing to be on the water again. 10 months without seeing a big body of water was kind of hard. I was meant to live on the coast. I love the water.

More soon (and this time it will actually be soon. I promise).

My host parents

I've gotten pretty lucky when it comes to having great host parents. I have loved all of them. Admittedly, my second family was less amazing than it could have been. But my first and third families have definitely made up for it.

I spent the first four whole months of my exchange talking about how amazing my first host family was, so now it's time to talk about my third family.

My host dad is Jens, my host mom is Miriam, and my host brothers are Michael and Ole. Ole is on exchange in Brazil right now, and is coming home a few weeks before I leave.
They are all so extremely nice. My host dad is the one who helped organize this whole internship thing for me, and my host mom is just the sweetest human being. Whenever I want to go anywhere or do anything, they always offer to drive me to the train station, or to the next town if they are headed that way.
They gave me an easter present too. But, they made me put it in my suitcase and promise not to open it until Easter, because it was during Eurotour. I got my favorite gummies and yummy perfume.
For the internship, my host dad pretty much arranged everything for me, and gave me 300 euros to buy food and stuff.
I don't talk to Michael very much. I'm not even sure if I spelt his name correctly. But whenever we do talk, he's really nice.
Ole is in Brazil right now, but we talk on Facebook often, and we've talked over skype once.
I'm just really happy that me last host family is a good one. But it's just going to make it that much harder when I have to leave.

More soon.

My Host Family

I just wanted to say that my host family is awesome.
I'll explain more later, but they're awesome.

Eurotour

In approximately 20 hours, I'm going on Eurotour!!
I didn't take the time to translate everything myself, because I'm lazy. Here's is Google's best try:



Arrival of inbounds to 15:00 h Orientation to travel, check the papers, etc.
If time allows: Strolls Wiesbaden
Overnight in Wiesbaden

Early departure from Wiesbaden, first trip to Trier, then on to Luxembourg via Brussels, sightseeing
Overnight in Brussels

Ride from Brussels to Paris. Overnight in Paris. Afternoon: Louvre

In the morning: Versailles. Then: Guided walking tour in Paris, including with Eiffel Tower, Ile de la Cite, Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, Montmartre
Overnight in Paris

Ride on the Autoroute de Soleil of Paris via Lyon to Valence - there overnight

Continue to Avignon, then drive to the Pont du Gard. By the Massif des Maures it comes to Cannes, where night

Along the coast it is first to Monaco, then Genoa and Pisa to Piombino. There overnight

Etruria trip to Rome. Overnight in Rome

In the morning opportunity to visit the Easter service at St. Peter's, which is celebrated as a rule by the Pope. Afternoon at leisure. Overnight in Rome

In the morning city tour focusing Ancient Rome, then Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona, Pantheon, Old Town. Free time.
Overnight in Rome

Ride from Rome to Florence, city tour there, then proceed to Ronta Mugello

Drive from Ronta Mugello by the Emilia Romagna to Lido di Jessolo - there overnight

Day trip to Venice - by vaporetto - city guide, accommodation in Lido di Jesolo

Overnight in Vienna

Guided tour of Vienna, in the evening possibility for opera, night in Vienna

Journey from Vienna to Budapest

Tours of Budapest. Overnight in Budapest

Drive from Budapest to Bratislava, first, there stroll. In the afternoon it goes through Moravia to Prague. Overnight in Prague

Guided tour of Prague with the Old Town and the Lesser Town. Overnight in Prague

Drive from Prague to Frankfurt, individual home-travel

I'm a horrible blogger.

I'm really bad a blogging. I always for get that I have a blog, and end up writing once every 2 weeks, or less.

I'm living with my new host family now. I moved here on Sunday evening. It's good so far. The family is really nice.

I'm sitting in my room, and my host brother is playing video games in the room next to me.
This is what I'm hearing, "germangermangerman CANON! germangerman RIFLE! GUN! german german GERNADE! 'ENGLISH SWEARWORD' germangermangerman"
It's pretty funny.

My other host brother is in Brazil. We talked on Facebook on Sunday and yesterday, and he is really nice too. He's my age, and we talked in Portuguese, Russian, German, and English all in the same conversation.
But my absolute favorite things was "So you're my sister now :)" It really makes me feel welcome in the family, even though he is in South America right now.

My host parents are really nice. I gave my host dad a book about Alaskan birds (like a bird watchers guide) when I moved in, and he probably sat there for 20 minutes telling me about all the birds in the book. It was really cool.
My host mom and I are going to the gym together today. She got a thing in the mail for 5 days free, and she can bring someone with her.
So if the snow lets up, we're going later this evening.

And in 10 days, I'm going on my big Europe tour.

Brussels, Paris, Avignon, Cannes, Venice, Rome, Prag, and I can't remember all the others off the top of my head.

More soon.

My Accent

I have an American accent. I had never thought much about it before I came to Germany, but now everyone I meet points it out.
My accent is so strong that it literally defines me. I was in German class, and the teacher told us to pick out someone and describe them using a specific grammatical element.
The lady from Albania described me as "The light-haired, blue-eyed girl with the American accent".
Another time, a kid at school was looking for me in the classroom. I was sitting behind someone else, so he couldn't see me, but he stood up and asked, "Where's the girl with the accent?".

When I was in Austria, I didn't understand a word anyone said. Once, we were sitting in a ski lift with a few other people. They were talking among themselves in something that was kind of like high German. I understood a decent amount, but not as much as usual. I can usually understand everything. Then a guys telephone rang, and he answers and starts talking in a language that I didn't recognize at all. I couldn't understand a single thing he said. Nothing.
Turns out that's Austrian German.

I have a friend from Switzerland who was in Alaska on exchange last year. I recently messaged him to tell him that I was going to his city during our Eurotour. I messaged him in German because we both speak German, right? Oh boy was I wrong. I had to switch to English halfway through because we couldn't understand each other at all.

Then there are the local dialects of German. In the area that I live in, people speak Hessisch. I've been able to learn quite a bit of it, but sometimes when older people talk to me, I can't understand a word they are saying. IT sounds like extreme mumbling. Another time I was talking to a guy that lives farther south from me. He is from Bavaria. I told him that German was really hard and it kind of sucks to learn. He said "I know. I speak Bavarian. My German is really bad".

On the other hand, I have a friend from Northern Germany. He doesn't like talking to me in Germany because I don't speak 'real' German.

Just goes to show ya.

My English is too bad to form any more sentences.

More soon!