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!