Where has the time gone?!?

 Well folks, another crazy three months of my exchange have passed by. As my German skills improve and my friendships grow, the time feels as though it is only speeding up. Here are some of my highlights from March! 

On March 9th, Ashley and I met up and went to a couple of pretty awesome Japanese cafes in Düsseldorf. At the first one, we got traditional Japanese lunch sandwiches. One of the sandwiches that we got was actually a bread roll filled with sweet red bean paste. I was pretty skeptical before trying it, but it turned out to be really yummy! I definitely recommend it. At the second restaurant we got Japanese strawberry cake. I try not to take photos of food, but this cake was absolutely too cute to resist. After that we went on a wild goose chase for a "reformhaus" which is sort of like the medford food-coop (for the few of you who happen to have been there). Anyway, after trusting apple maps and walking to two supposed locations which proved not to be the location of any sort of natural foods store, we ended up going home empty-handed and disappointed in our navigation skills (and my phone). But overall it was a very fun afternoon!

The following weekend I was lucky enough to take a whirlwind trip to France and spend 9 amazing hours in Paris! The group of current, future, and past exchange students (mostly Germans and a few of us Americans) left Düsseldorf at 11:45 pm On Friday March 11th. We all had great intentions of getting a full 6 hours of sleep before arriving in bright and early in Paris, but unfortunately for most of us that didn't work out so well. I slept on and off for 15-30 minute stints most of the way there. At 4:00 am we stopped at a truck stop/rest area place somewhere in France, and we were told that we would be leaving again at 5:15 am. All of the stores and food places were closed, but we were able to go into the building for a bathroom break. After that we sat around groggily at some tables for an hour before going back to the bus.

Anyway, by 7:00 am, we finished up with our Stadtrundfahrt and disembarked our bright yellow and pink charter bus to walk towards the Eiffel Tower as a group. As we approached, the entire area was empty, except for 6 or so people trying to sell eiffel tower figurines and a few very early rising tourists. It was quite a surprise to see the area so empty, despite that it was SO early.

Eifel Tower from underneath

Early morning in Paris :)

Arc de Triomphe! 

After walking under the Eiffel Tower as a group, we headed back to the bus and rode up to the Arc de Triomphe. After taking some pics there and looking around a bit we headed started walking back towards the Eifel Tower. We somehow lost sight of the tower at one point (didn't know that was possible!) and stumbled upon a cool outdoor market. We all decided to buy crepes, which lead to our first interaction with a French person. Luckily one member of our group could speak French. The rest of us just smiled and nodded and gave in to the fact that we were going to spend the day being some of the most obvious American tourists around. I've gotten so accustomed to ordering food in German that it was really an odd feeling to have driven 6 hours and suddenly not be in a different country with a whole new language. That'd pretty much be like if us Southern Oregonians drove to Portland and suddenly had to speak a different language. Crazy thought, right?
After eating my amazing lemon sugar crepe, I headed back to the Eifel tower with two others to get in line. We waited for about 45 minutes, bought our tickets, and then it was time to head up! First we took the elevator to the second floor. The view from there was absolutely amazing, and that was only the beginning. After taking a sufficient number of photos, we got in the elevator to the top! It was honestly almost impossible to grasp that I was in Paris, on my way to the top of the Eifel Tower. The whole thing felt like a dream. The top wasn't quite as magical as I had imagined because of course it is much smaller than the second floor, and therefore much more crowded. Still, the feeling of being on top of one of the world's most beautiful cities was well worth it.

From the second floor! 

A glimpse of the amazing view! 

At the top! 

 Once we were back on ground level, we decided to head to the Notre Dame. We saw it from the top of the Eifel Tower and thought we knew what direction we needed to go, but that didn't exactly turn out to be the case. After getting reasonably lost in a residential neighborhood, we decided to stop at an inviting little cafe to sample some more cuisine. Getting lost turned out to be a blessing, because I was able to get a Crem Brûlée and a caramel Eclair for under 5 euros total! A deal if you ask me. :) These two confections are seriously some of the best things I've ever eaten. Really a bummer that I didn't get to stay in Paris longer to try more amazing French foods (and of course explore the city more).
Anyway, after the cafe stop we continued on what we thought was our way to the Note Dame. We finally asked a taxi driver which way to go (he was the only person around at the time). He said it would be a 10 minute walk and that we just had to go around one more corner and walk straight for a bit. Well after following these instructions, we still didn't see the Notre Dame. Probably karma for asking a taxi directions without paying to ride the taxi. Eventually we got to a bike taxi stand, and after a bit of bargaining we got carted to the Notre Dame for 5 Euros a piece. The cart was probably only really made to hold 2 people, but we made it work. The bike taxi trip took a minimum of 15 minutes, so I can't imagine how long it would have taken if we had continued on foot. Once we m
ade it to the Notre Dame we only had to wait for a few minutes before going inside. The feeling of being inside one of Europe's most elegant churches was amazing. There's simply no ancient buildings in the US with comparable architecture and beauty.

Crazy times on the bike taxi! 

Inside the Notre Dame! 

Out front! 

Once we were done at the Notre Dame we walked along the Seine, back towards the Louvre. Due to time limitations we were unable to go in, but just seeing it from outside was amazing. By afternoon we were pretty hungry and exhausted, so we decided to stop at another cafe for lunch. I got quiche lorraine which was soooooo good. Afterwords we walked the famous 1.9 k long Avenue des Champs-Élysées, which is the final stretch of the Tour de France leads up to the Arc de Triomphe. By the time we made it to our bus stop I was so tired that I could hardly wait to get in and go to sleep. Of course I would have loved to have seen more of the amazing city, but that'll be for next time.

The next day, March 13th, I got to go to the Karneval Parade in Düsseldorf with friends from school! I know what you're thinking...Karneval (like Mardi Gras) is in February, right? Well the weather was so bad that they delayed the parade until March 13th! It was actually pretty cool for me because I was gone during the real Karneval and didn't get to experience the festivities.   

Karneval! 

Düsseldorf Marktplatz

From March 19th-April 2nd I had Osterferien (Easter Beak) I'll quickly summarize the highlights of what I did during the break: 

Saturday March 19th: Went to the Creativa exhibition. The Creativa is Europe's largest creative design exhibition (visited this year by over 80,000). There was a huge main hall with a wide variety of craft supplies and crafts, as well as smaller halls for games, gardening supplies, beads, and dolls. We toured the halls for over 4 hours and still weren't able to see everything! I only ended up buying some orange wool for my Kunst LK (art class) project (more on that later). Still it was really cool to see all of the craft ideas.  

Felted keychains at the Creativa

The main hall

Monday, March 21st: Decided to go check out the botanical garden at the University in Düsseldorf! Even though a lot of the plants weren't blooming yet, it was a nice place to walk around. Also there were pretty daffodils all over and the green houses (one rain forest themed, one south african desert themed, and one citrus themed) had lots of cool plants growing in them. Afterwords I went and walked around in Düsseldorf because I absolutely love the city. 

Wednesday, March 23rd: Spent the day with one of my good friends from school! We baked super yummy chocolate cupcakes with marzipan flowers on top. After eating a cupcake we took a long walk and found a few geocaches. It was her first time geocaching and we had a great time! We also got to pick up my friend's little sister at preschool which was nice. :)   
In the evening my host family and I went to the marionette show "Krabatt" in Düsseldorf.

Thursday, March 24th: Went and checked out Düsseldorf Kaisersworth with Ashley! It is a cute historic area a bit outside of the center of Düsseldorf. Despite the fact that it was pretty chilly outside, we started our adventure off with some frozen yogurt! After that, we started on our way to search for the historic ruins which we had heard about. We didn't really know where we were going (typical exchange students XD) but we figured we'd find it eventually. Well after about half a mile, we did come to the ruins! BUT the gate was locked because we were still in the "winter season". But get this: March 25th was the first day of the "summer season". Talk about bad timing. We got a pretty good look at the ruins from outside the fence, so it wasn't a huge deal.

Cache found! 

Friday, March 25th: Left for Prüm, which is a small town in The Eifel. We met up with some of my host family's relatives and went for a long hike (I think like 15 km) and did a 20 state multi-geocache. It was kind of rainy but we still had a nice time.

Saturday, March 26th: This was our only full day in Prüm, and therefore the day for the long hike. We started walking right from the Youth Hostel where we were staying and ended up doing a 20-ish km loop. Thanks to my host mom's good mapping skills we didn't even end up getting lost!

Sankt-Salvator Basilika - Prüm

Sunday, March 27th: Easter!! We were greeted at our seats at the breakfast table in the youth hostel by some yummy chocolate easter treats! After checking out of the youth hostel, we all drove over the boarder into Belgium and parked at the start of a hiking geocache-trail. We spent the better part of the day hiking and finding geocaches. In total we found 25 caches! We actually had some pretty good luck because it only really started raining right after we arrived back at our cars.

Easter chocolate! 

Tuesday, March 29th: Jonathan and I set out to visit Alida and her host family! For a good portion of the beautiful train ride along the Rhine, we decided to speak only German. After a bit, we started discussing when one uses the word "wenn" vs. when one uses the word "wann" in German. After several minutes of discussion, the lady sitting across from us suddenly looked up from her book saying "I can help you with that!". It turned out that she was a German teacher, and therefore could inform us about all of our complicated grammatical German questions. We then carried out a conversation with her, in German, for the rest of the train ride. When we all got off, she remarked how impressed she was that two Americans could speak such good German, and especially that we had decided to speak German together instead of English, which would have been the easier option.
Once we made it to Darmstadt, we were greeted right on the platform by Alida!! From the hbf, we jumped on the U-bahn to Alida's host family's house. There we ate lunch and then set out back into the city to explore! We walked all over and saw the many sights of Darmstadt, including an arboretum with some trees of the Pacific North-West, before going to a cafe for an afternoon Tee und Kuchen Pause (tea and case break). Later we went back to the house where we ate a very yummy mac and cheese dish prepared by Alida's wonderful host mother. We all spent the rest of the evening playing Kuh Handel!

Exploring Darmstadt day 1

Wednesday, March 30th: Our big hike day! We rode the Strassenbahn out of the city to the base of the Melibokus, which, at 517 meters, is the highest mountain in the region. We got a bit wet along the way, but it was all worth it! On the way up we got to visit the beautiful Schloss Alsbach and even found a covered place to get out of the rain for a snack. The view from the top of the mountain was well worth the walk! After reaching the summit, we headed in a slightly different direction down and ended up finding another castle to check out! I'm really going to miss randomly running into castles on hikes. After the fun day we went back to Alida's and helped make pizzas for dinner. :)

castles provide nice shelter when it's raining :)

A bit of cross-country trekking was never a bad idea. 

Stumbling upon castles while hiking is a plus of living in Europe...

We were all soaked by this point but still had a great time. 

Thursday, March 31st: Last day in Darmstadt! After breakfast, we took a walk in an area of dunes that were created when the rhine changed it's path many years ago. The dunes are now home to some donkeys, which we encountered along the way. Before heading to the train station, we went out to an asian restaurant for lunch and then went to a cafe for tea!

Bonus! - Friday, April 1st: Elke and I took a day trip to Oberhausen to check out the nature exhibit in the Gasometer museum. The museum is in a huge 1920's gas tank that was decommissioned in 1988 and converted into museum space. The giant, detailed pictures of animals and insects were absolutely mind blowing, and so was the huge model globe in the middle of the building. The view from the top of the Gasometer was also hard to beat!

The Gasometer

From the top! 

Well that's a summary of my March! I'll be posting an April and May summary and more current happenings soon! As of today I have only have 16 days left which is absolutely crazy. I honestly don't know where the time as gone. I'm heading to Berlin on Wednesday for the CBYX end of year seminar. We will be visiting the US Embassy and the Deutscher Bundestag, as well as presenting projects about our experiences in Germany!

Midyear seminar in Weimar!!

I've been back from Weimar for over 2 weeks now, but with school and overall post-midyear exhaustion, I'm just getting around to making my big Weimar post now.
Before I go into our detailed activities, here's a quick background on what midyear exactly is. Basicially, during the months of January and February, each of the 5 CBYX groups (divided by home region in the US, with 50 students per group) have a big 5-day meeting at a selected location in Germany. The goal of the seminar is to give all of the students a chance to reflect on the experiences that they've had so far with the other exchange students, make goals for the second half of the year, and learn more about Germany through discussion and visits to locations of historical or cultural significance. Our seminar was one of the last ones to happen, so it was actually a month or so after the middle of our time here. But no complaints, it was still an absolutely amazing experience!
Now that I've got that covered, here's a rundown of what we did every day:
Wednesday, February 10th: 
My host mom dropped me off at the S-bahn station at about 7 am, and I headed off on my way to Düsseldorf, where I'd be meeting with a group of other CBYXers who I'd be traveling with. After a bit of confusion and a whole lot of stress, 5 of us boarded the ICE to the Frankfurt airport at about 8:30. Being at the Frankfurt airport once again, the same place where we had set our first steps in Germany, over 6 months ago, was quite an odd feeling. We saw the REWE where many of us had bought our first Kinder chocolate, and spent our first euros. We saw the little cafe "Urban Coffee" where I sat with Erin, Kacey, and Alida, and posted my first blog post in Germany (http://danasdeutschesabenteuer.blogspot.de/2015/08/finally-here.html). We even saw that notorious bahn platform where we waited out a super long delay for our train to Düsseldorf. Oh the sentiments.

Me and Ashley at the Frankfurt Hbf

After reminiscing for a few minutes, we headed to our platform and got on the train to Erfurt. At the next stop, Frankfurt Süd, Alida got on the train with us too! Lucky for us, she brought a super fun game called Kuh Handel, which four of us played for most of the way to Erfurt. Somehow we still didn't manage to finish the game, but we had an amazing time, despite the fact that we probably drove the entire car insane with our crazy Denglish livestock auction.

Kuh-Handel!! Ashley's got the notorious chicken! 

At the Erfurt HBF, we coincidentally met up with a bunch more CBYXers. There weren't a lot of seats left, so we all ended up standing in this weird bike and stroller car just so we could all be together. Once we arrived in Weimar, we had an option to wait for a bus, that would take 30 minutes, or to walk, which was supposed to take 20 minutes. The weather wasn't bad, so we opted for the walking option. I ended up at the back of the group, so I just had to cross my fingers that someone at the front of the group knew where we were going. Luckily that person at the front of the group happened to be Alida, so we did make it safely and without the 10 km detour that I had worried about. The last stretch up the Youth Hostel was this steep trail, which I'm not used to after living in extremely flat NRW for 6 months.

Stopped for a group mirror selfie on the way to the hostel!

Upon arrival, we were immediately greeted by about 15 of the other exchange students who had gotten there before us. The excitement was all around and is absolutely indescribable. Once the hugging and quick conversations with every person we saw was over, we got our room assignments and took our stuff into our rooms. Then, at 3:00, it was time for the coffee break! Drinking amazing hot chocolate and eating cake with some of my favorite people, after 5 months of not being all together at the same time, was absolutely fantastic. Afterwords, we were given a short bit of free time, before being put into groups for a scavenger hunt (very nostalgic of the many Düsseldorf Scavenger hunts we had during language camp). But, this time there was a big difference! Unlike in Düsseldorf, we could actually understand the questions being asked. Mind-blowing. We were in pretty big groups, which made it slightly difficult to all participate, but I still enjoyed it. By the time we got done, it was time for our first dinner in the big dining hall. According to one of our group leaders, one could tell that we were a group of Americans just because of the volume in the cafeteria. I guess Americans just have a way of talking loud...

Tea time after dinner with Ali, Alida, and Ashley :)

After dinner we had a meeting to discuss political topics relating to America and Germany. One specific topic was the current presidential election in America, and how being in Germany has impacted our perspective on it. We also read and discussed an article called "Weimar, America", which compared the current American political situation to that of the Weimar republic. Here's a link to that article if anyone's interested: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/15/opinion/weimar-america.html?_r=0 . That evening, from about 8:30 to 11, we had free time to explore the city a but or hang out in our rooms. I went into town for a bit and walked around, but nothing was really open and it was cold and semi-wet, so we ended up going back to the room to play a rowdy round of Kuh-Handel (this time we even finished the game!!). Between 10 and 11 pm we had to go into whisper mode (it was quiet hour by then), but we still managed to carry on our ridiculous enthusiasm about bidding on farm animals.

Thursday, February 11th: 
Our first full day in Weimar!! Between breakfast and lunch, we divided into 3 groups to have discussions about our experiences, highs and lows, differences between Germany and the US, and a variety of other topics. The entire conversation was in German! I was very impressed with how well everyone did giving their thoughts in this new language that we've acquired over the past 6 months. After lunch, we got ready to leave on our Ausflug (field trip) of the day, to the houses of the famous writers Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller. Not having had much of an education in German literature, I honestly didn't know a great deal about either of these authors beforehand. Nevertheless, touring these 18th century houses was really an amazing experience! There's something that I've always just loved about old houses in general, so visiting these houses was right up my alley. One thing that I noticed was that the doorways (especially in Goethe's house) were downright miniature! I felt like a giant XD. I guess the people back then were smaller back then? Or they had to duck all the time? Or hit their heads multiple times a day? Here's some pics of the Goethe and Schiller houses.

Entering Goethe's Wohnhaus

Goethe's sitting area

Tiny doorway...I didn't think I was that tall.

Tiny doorway pt. 2

Eating area in Goethe's House

Schiller's Desk!

Slightly bigger doorway in Schiller's House

Schiller's sitting area

Small dining area in Schiller's House

Kitchen in Schiller's house

Afterwords, I went to a cafe with 3 of my friends for yet another stereotypical German Kuchen (cake) break. I'm going to miss little German cafes so much. Then we spent some time exploring the streets of Weimar before heading back to the hostel just in time for dinner. Our evening meeting was spent preparing for Friday's trip to Buchenwald, which is the concentration camp that was located very close to Weimar. I spent the rest of the evening was spent playing "Bohnanza" with Alida, Kacey, and Jonathan. This game could be considered the Kuh-Handel of bean farming. Gotta love German games! :P

Friday, February 12th: 

After waking up early and eating breakfast at record speed, we headed to the bus stop to go to Buchenwald. As one of our group leaders told us, in addition to seeing the rich, wonderful parts of German history (such as Goethe and Schiller's houses), it is important not to forget the tragedies that occurred hidden behind the hill at Buchenwald, and at all of the other concentration camps. For most of the bus ride, our group of 48 was loud and chipper as normal. But as we crested the hill and started the drive into Buchenwald, the tone changed completely. I've really never experienced anything like it. Only such a haunting place as Buchenwald would have the power to silence such a lively group. We toured a couple of the buildings as a group, but spent most of the time walking around alone, going at our own pace. I think that the time we spent walking around alone was actually the most valuable, because it enabled us to think, reflect, and contemplate things better. Although the barracks are not standing anymore, just seeing their foundations and walking through the paths created such an eerie feeling. Here are a few photos from the visit to Buchenwald:

Detention cell building

The barren grounds where barracks once stood

A forest cemetery for the 7,113 people killed in special camp 2

Forest memorial site

The fence from the outside looking in

The entry from inside

"To each his own" - words facing inwards, to be read by inmates looking out.

After lunch on Friday, I went geocaching with Alida, Kacey, and Jonathan! We managed to find 3 geocaches in total, and had a great time doing it. One of them was even a "multi-cache", for which we had to solve a puzzle with numbers from the Goethe/Schiller statue. 

Sorry it's blurry, but here's a pic we took with one of the caches! 

Saturday, February 13th:

After an early day on Friday, we were treated to a bit of a sleep-in day on Saturday. After a lazy breakfast, we all met at 9:30 to go to the Bauhaus Museum. We went in 2 groups, and I ended up in the second group. So while we waited, my group leaders told us about the Bauhaus concept. The bauhaus concept was founded in Weimar in 1919. It was a leading edge idea to reinvent the material world, while emphasizing function over form, and reflecting the integrity between art forms. The museum was quite small, but there was actually a lot to see. Ashley gave me a lot of artistic viewpoints on the different pieces, which was really helpful and made me understand/appreciate everything much more. After the Bauhaus museum we took a little walk through Weimar to view some of the Bauhaus-inspired architecture. 

With Ashley in the Bauhaus museum! 

When we got back from the Bauhaus, we had a meeting about our projects that we need to prepare for the end of year seminar in Berlin. Things recommended include speeches, songs, art projects, or other creative ideas. I still don't know what I'm going to do, but I'll definitely post something on here when I figure it out. 

After lunch, Alida, Jonathan, Brianna, and I decided to take pictures on this big rope hammock thing outside of the hostel. That ended up turning into messing around and swinging on the hammock for a while, until a little neighborhood german boy decided to come over and join us. At some point Kian came outside and joined us, and after playing in the hammock for a good long while more, we all kicked a soccer ball around with the little boy until the coffee break. Such a spontaneous and fun time that I'll never forget! This is honestly one of my favorite Weimar memories, and I'll absolutely never forget it. 

After the coffee break, Alida, Jonathan, and I attempted another geocache round. Unfortunately it wasn't as successful as the one on Friday (we didn't end up finding any), but we still had a good time walking around the city. We also found Goethe's wife's grave while looking for the numbers for a multi-cache, so that was a pretty cool discovery in itself. During the walk we ended up translating the song "The Doughnut Man" into German, which probably made quite a scene. Near the end of our walk, we bumped into Juliane and Haley down by the creek, and then we walked back up to the hostel with them. 

Goethe's wife's gravestone

Cool old building in Weimar

After dinner that night, instead of having a meeting, the group leaders decided to let us have free time. At the end, the group leaders remarked that we were the best group that they had had in years, so we were given some extra free time. Anyway, during this free time, Alida, Jonathan, Brianna, and I went on a night-walk through Weimar. It was 50% city, 50% woods, and 100% adventure! Lets just say that we knew where we were most of the time.  We were never lost, and we all knew how to get back the way we came if necessary, but we were all a bit relieved when we ended up at this stone wall that we had discovered on our first night in Weimar. From there, we knew exactly how to get back. At that time, Alida and Jonathan decided that we needed to go back to the wall again the next morning to watch the some come up. After getting back to the hostel, we played a few quick games of cards before bed. 

Sunday, February 14th: After a bit of bribing and convincing, and Alida sending a text in our whatsapp group saying that we would be outside in 5 minutes, I decided to go along on the sunrise adventure. As much as I wanted to fall asleep again, all I could think of was that internet quote that says "You never remember the nights where you got plenty of sleep" (or something along those lines), so I dragged myself out of bed and pulled on some clothes. It was dark at this point (6:30 am) and also pretty cold. As we descended toward the river, it definitely didn't get any warmer. But considering that I was with a couple of my favorite people, in one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen,  it was all worth it! We got to the wall when it was still dark, and watched the day begin over the stream below and mountains in the distance. Although the sunrise wasn't the most beautiful ever (it was pretty cloudy), it is definitely a moment I'll remember forever. 

7:03 am: before it was very light...

7:19 am...getting lighter

7:40 am...beginning of sunrise

The sunrise at it's best (don't have time because Alida took this pic)

Afterwords we packed up all our stuff and then went to breakfast. We had one last group meeting, and then it was time for goodbyes to start. We had a few hours, so Hannah and I went and walked around the city, and got muffins at a really amazing bakery that she had discovered! Here's some pics of the final hours: 

<3 you Mila!!

Hannah!! <3

Düsseldorf squad pic :)

Well, that's all for now folks! If you made it this far, I'm impressed. ;)

Happy March!