A Look into the Life

    A little glimpse into the daily life of me.

November:

Highlights from November:  

I started white water paddling in a Hallenbad (swimming pool). 

I went to a Kirmes with one of my friends and her family.  It's the biggest in all of Germany, and some say Europe. Pretty much a huge county fair.

Went to Deutsche Bank with my host moms class. 

Got to go in my first German brewery.

 December

Highlights from December:

MY BEST FRIEND LIVED WITH ME FOR A WEEK.

The world didn't end.

CHRISTMAS.

ADVENT.

I got to sing in a church with my school choir.

I went to Frankfurt a lot.

Got to go to a indoor soccer tournament and learn about the different ghettos of my town.

January 

Highlights of January: (I forgot to write everything down the whole month)

I got to travel.

I met my Aunts host sister.

I saw tons of old German and learn some cool history from a different point of view.

I had two days off school to go to the German universities and see how college is and what I would want to study.  I went to Friedburg with a friend and one of his friends.  I now know I don't want to study logistics.

Not a highlight, but a very important event. My best friend of 9 years, K.C. my kitty cat died. 

February

Highlights of February:

FASHING/KARNEVAL!!

I went to the Lindt chocolate museum in Cologne with 3 friends.

Had a fantastic Valentines day with all my exchange and not exchange friends, ending with a huge Mexican food dinner.

I went to Marburg for a day to meet up with all the other exchange students from my committee. It was snowing the whole time, but I was warm running around the city in a monkey costume all day.

Three new exchange students came. Two from Thailand and one from Argentina. I went into town with them one day and showed them around a bit.

Music:

Bushido

Cro

Max Herre

Triggerfinger- Really popular cover of a really popular not German song.

Icona Pop

Aer- He's not actually German.

Mirco Andree- Don't this totally a joke.  No one listens to this, I hope.

Celo

Die Fantastichen Vier- Old school

Trio

Xavier Naidoo

Marteria

Klangkarussell

This guy is a friend of a friend of mine

Essen:

Döner- Turkish kebab sandwich. So delicious.  Usually with: lamb, but the vegetarian version is with sheep cheese, yogurt sauce tomatoes, cabbage, lettuce, onions, love, deliciousness.

Brot-  The stereotype of Germans eat bread and bread and more bread is true.  German bread is really different than American bread.  Firstly it's so much fresher. Usually bought fresh from the baker every 3 days or so.  The grocery store near my house even has this new thing, it's essentially a fresh bread vending machine. 

 Spaghettieis:  Think that's noodles in a yummy tomato sauce?  Guess again!  It's ice cream.  It's actually Italian, but very popular in German.  It was one of the first amazing German things I learned about in the German class in the US.  It took me 4 months to eat my first, and I've only eaten it on other time since then, but it is so delicious. It comes in tons of different flavors and always is delicious.

Kuchen- Germans love their cake. I've talked to some other exchange students, and German people, and it is common for people to have cake every day for lunch. German cake is pretty good, though I often find it kind of dry. They have tons of different types, most involve lots of cream.  Lots and lots of cream.

Spätzle- Typical noodle from southern German, Bayern. It is so delicious, and I'm pretty good at making it.  It involves a few eggs, some flour, salt, water. You make the dough and then over a boiling pot of water, using a spätzle press (pretty much a really big cheese grater) grate the dough into the water.  Let it cook a  few minutes then enjoy the heavenlyness. It's often eaten with cheese which makes it even heavenlier.

Glühwein- Typical drink around Christmas time.  It is lecker, lecker, lecker, seasoned hot wine. It's dangerous though because it tastes great, and doesn't taste like it's alcoholic.  There is also an apple version, even better.

Curstwurst- I'm not going to lie, I'm a terrible vegetarian, but I tried this.  I'm only in Germany or one year, I've got to try things while I can.  It's okay, but through 4 years of being a veg-head I don't really find meat that yummy anymore.  The best part of it is it is drenched in ketchup. It essentially sausage with curry powder and ketchup.

Haribo-  It's not Germany without Haribo.  It's amazing how much cheaper it is here than in the States, because it comes from here.  It also found that out with Evian, it's one of the cheapest waters you can buy, 1,25 euros for 1,5 liters. Back to Haribo, it's Haribo, not much explaining needed. A million different types, all delicious except the bats. NEVER EAT THE BATS. Everyone agrees they are horrible.  They're a combination of licorice and fruity gummy, bad. Other than that mishap Haribo is golden.

They also eat lots of pasta, potatoes, and rice.  My family one of those every night for dinner. Or bread. 

*Note: They are super, SUPER, into organic "Bio" here. Everything is Bio.  Everything.  But it is not a million times more expensive.  Sometimes it's cheaper, but usually the same or a few cents more expensive.

Autos:

Audi- It's Germany.  Germans have money. Germans love cars. Germans have nice new cars. Audi is one of the most popular car companies here. I'm worried when I go back home I won't be able to ride in a car older than 2005 with out fearing for the safety of my life.

Peugeot- French, cool bear thing logo, pretty-ish, fairly popular.

Fiat-  They're just now starting to get popular in the States, so poor poor Americans don't know how awful they are.  Don't ever buy one.  Everything I've heard about them is bad.  They are poorly made and with bad materials. Besides that I think they are pretty cool looking, and logical for the city; and tiny German roads.

Smart-  Smart cars are huge here.  The distances aren't that long, the streets are small, the parking is sparse, Europeans care about the "umwelt" and everything.  I was shocked when I saw my first Smart Sports. 

Tschüss!  Bis Bald.