So this blog is being written here in New Jersey. Everything is over, or so it may seem. A week or so earlier I had to say goodbye to my betreuerin, Lea and I cried. That was the moment when everything really clicked in my head, when I realized that in a week I wouldn't be in Germany anymore. I got a bit depressed for like a day. When I went to school Lea wasn't there anymore since she was leaving early to back to Costa Rica (where she did exchange). It felt really crappy. But there are two exchange students from the US that had been in my school for a week and they were staying for a month. So since I was feeling not so happy I invited one of them to come with me to the city and hang out a while. We had a good time and in the end I felt better.
The next day we went to the kletterwald, which the climbing forest, according to google translate. But I don't really know what it's called in english. Basically what it is, is this place in the forest where they have bridges of different kinds between trees and and you have to go across them. Some are easy some are not. For example, the easy one: a plank between the trees that you have to walk across. The hard one: Something like swings where you have to walk on them but swing yourself across. The whole time you are harnessed and secure but still it's crazy. We were 20m high and I'm a bit afraid of heights so it was sdjfasdhla. Anyway we did that and on our ride home I got to talk to the other American who was a really nice guy.
With my school friends I went to the capital of Hessen, which is Wiesbaden. It was a really pretty city and the weather was (finally) beautiful. We ate pizza and ice cream and then took a bunch of pictures together.
Then we all went back to Giessen where we had to split up. I gave them all hugs and started crying on the train, while the girl sitting in front of me looked at me worriedly.
To hurry things up a bit, I attended two more parties. One for David and Ploi, and the Last One. They were both really good, but always with that edge of sadness mixed in with the fun. To say the least on the Last Party, no one wanted to leave and there were tears from everyone. Lots of hugs and the good kind, the one where both of you feel like you'll never let go of one another.
The next morning, Ana came to my house for the last time and helped me close my bulging luggage. I hugged her goodbye and bit back the tears while eating dinner. That night my host parents made my favorite food and then took us out to eat ice cream. We didn't talk much because we all had that bit of sadness on each others' faces. In my case, if I said anything it would have been something depressing or extremely sad which would cause me to start bawling my eyes out... in a public place. So I didn't say much. When we got home I made a few last minute arrangements to my luggage and I ended up leaving a lot of things that I would have loved to have taken with me.
The airport was the worst. My friends John and David were on the same flight as me. All three of us cried. I didn't want to leave and I hugged my host parents many times and thanked them over and over. All I could think about in those moments was, "Oh man, I going to miss them so much. I going to miss everyone. It's never going to be the same again. Oh man, I don't want to go." But, I left. So here I am now in New Jersey. The first days I was fine, peppy and happy.
I was even happy to see people I didn't want to see. Everyone was curious and wanted to know what it was like and how it was and why I went and everyone seemed happy to see me. But after that effect wore off I went depressive again. I just wanted to go back. I missed my routine, I missed my people, the freedom, the fun, I missed everything. I didn't even have homesickness there as bad as I did here. The smallest reminders would trigger tears. And then when people stopped being so interested in what I wanted to say about Germany I felt worse. I felt like no one cared.
I turned to reading. In the month I've been here I'm already on my eighth book. And I will continue. I can't say the sadness has passed completely. It's why writing this took so long. Because just writing it I would start crying. But to come over that I still talk to my host siblings on facebook and I email my host parents. I look through the fotos I took while there and instead of getting sad I remember what those specific days were like and I get happy. I listen to a lot of music and I keep my hands occupied, organizing, cleaning, and like I mentioned previously, reading. Giving my mind a second to think about it just makes me sadder, so I keep moving forward. I figure if I keep it up, enough time will have passed that eventually I'll be able to think about without getting sad.
So here are my last words...
If you are an exchange student: Value your time. Learn something new every day. Accept people, don't fight them. Make the best of what you have. Make great friends. Have fun. Be you. Smile and be positive (even when the going gets tough). Learn from your mistakes. Forget about the language barrier, talk, talk, and talk even if you don't know that much. That's how you make friends and learn more and better. Take risks. Love the country you're in till the last second.
If you are going to be one: Learn the language before you go! Don't take many things with you. If you're brave enough to go to another country then you're brave enough to make new friends. Go out and explore. Ask a lot of questions. Do exercise! Pick up new hobbies. Become one of "them."
If you got back to your country like me, the only advise I can give is: Be strong and don't forget what you learned abroad. Be as positive as possible. Let your mind be flexible, changing languages can be tough. Live the rest of your life with the same spirit of adventure that you had while you were abroad. :)
Whenever you're feeling sad, "Sing about everyone that you left behind. Sing it for the world." -Gerard Way
And as a special bonus here's the link to a playlist which includes (almost) all the songs that have been quoted in this blog. Readers, thanks for reading. And artists, thanks for the inspiration.
LINK TO THE AWESOME PLAYLIST.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Blue in the Face- Part 2
There's not even a month left. Just days. It's almost something I can't believe. I've been here for nine months it's so much yet so little compared to how much I've actually lived. And nevertheless, I want to stay but I have to go. I was reading some of my earlier posts and I can relate to one. It was blogged on October 10th of 2011, titled "I'm Blue in the Face." One of the last things I wrote was "The moment everything starts clicking into place here in Germany, is the
moment I want to go back to what I knew even with my eyes closed."
If I thought that was a complicated way to feel I had no idea what was in store for me. In the beginning of May it was this "I finally get to go home!" kind of feeling, but now it's just like, "Holy shit, I'm going home and who knows when I'll be coming back." And you start to get this feeling of despair because there's nothing you can do about it. And it's not like it was leaving the US because at that point I actually wanted to leave to be here, but now I don't want to leave yet I have to. And even under all of that feeling of not wanting to leave I keep thinking about my mom and my family and friends and finally being able to see them again.
I've changed a lot. While I was rereading my posts I picked up on two things. One, that in the beginning I didn't like beer. But now whenever I hangout with friends it's rare when I don't order a beer. Especially now that I'm soon to leave I take the time to savor it and enjoy it. Second, I was in desperate need of posters when I got here. I finally got some (many actually) and now I'm scared of taking them down. If I take them down when I get home I'll get this sad feeling because it means I'm leaving, and I believe it to be very unhealthy when one feels sad their own room.
Just something I wanted to mention as well as I was reading through my posts. At one point my host sister seemed to be very sisterly but during the nine months that I've been here, the feeling of her being sister-like has been an off and on thing. Some days (many, now that I think about it) we don't talk to each other at all. But it's not like it offends or bother either of us. Sometimes you just don't click the way you wanted to, sometimes we only click when we have these random but rare girl moments. I'm actually a lot closer to my host brother, but he's the wonderful bridge between us. Then there's Lea, my betreuerin (liaison). We two have actually gotten crazy close, ironically, like sisters. We have tons of insiders and I don't depend on her nor does she need to watch after me the entire time but somehow we suddenly started getting along so well. I tell her things that I don't even tell my host sister. But she has become one of the most important people here for me.
And now as promised in last post updates on what I have been up to.
I feel a little better now that I wrote about how I'm feeling but I still get that feeling of despair. There will be so many people here that I'm going to miss sooooo much. I've already been making plans with people when I'm going to see them again. Not only that, but my entire weeks are booked with last minute plans and though it's a bit hectic I will live these last days here to the fullest.
"Who would have known how bittersweet it would taste," -Adele
Linkity, link.
If I thought that was a complicated way to feel I had no idea what was in store for me. In the beginning of May it was this "I finally get to go home!" kind of feeling, but now it's just like, "Holy shit, I'm going home and who knows when I'll be coming back." And you start to get this feeling of despair because there's nothing you can do about it. And it's not like it was leaving the US because at that point I actually wanted to leave to be here, but now I don't want to leave yet I have to. And even under all of that feeling of not wanting to leave I keep thinking about my mom and my family and friends and finally being able to see them again.
I've changed a lot. While I was rereading my posts I picked up on two things. One, that in the beginning I didn't like beer. But now whenever I hangout with friends it's rare when I don't order a beer. Especially now that I'm soon to leave I take the time to savor it and enjoy it. Second, I was in desperate need of posters when I got here. I finally got some (many actually) and now I'm scared of taking them down. If I take them down when I get home I'll get this sad feeling because it means I'm leaving, and I believe it to be very unhealthy when one feels sad their own room.
Just something I wanted to mention as well as I was reading through my posts. At one point my host sister seemed to be very sisterly but during the nine months that I've been here, the feeling of her being sister-like has been an off and on thing. Some days (many, now that I think about it) we don't talk to each other at all. But it's not like it offends or bother either of us. Sometimes you just don't click the way you wanted to, sometimes we only click when we have these random but rare girl moments. I'm actually a lot closer to my host brother, but he's the wonderful bridge between us. Then there's Lea, my betreuerin (liaison). We two have actually gotten crazy close, ironically, like sisters. We have tons of insiders and I don't depend on her nor does she need to watch after me the entire time but somehow we suddenly started getting along so well. I tell her things that I don't even tell my host sister. But she has become one of the most important people here for me.
And now as promised in last post updates on what I have been up to.
- The school party- Well that started off with me being super nervous. There were about 60 (mostly guys) 12th graders eating salad, sausages, and drinking beer when Ana and I go there. Besides Ana I only knew two other people there so we were pretty much chilling together the entire time. I did meet some cool people in the end but since they go to another school and are in another grade I haven't seen them again. In the end the party wasn't so bad, we had loads of fun and bunch of funny stories to tell afterwards.
- Berlin- You hear so much about Berlin and it's history and in your head it becomes a big, great city. But when you actually go to it, it's so modernized that you can hardly believe that there was anything resembling what history books tell you was going on there. In the end it was a bit disappointing. It was just a big city full of tourism. I feel that for me to actually feel Berlin I'd need more than just 3 days.
- Hamburg- This was a city that I definitely liked. It has one of the most spectacular harbors which reminded me of the one in Amsterdam. Plus, I have really cool host uncle that lives there. And I kid you not, he was like one of the coolest 40 year old that I have ever met in my entire life.
I feel a little better now that I wrote about how I'm feeling but I still get that feeling of despair. There will be so many people here that I'm going to miss sooooo much. I've already been making plans with people when I'm going to see them again. Not only that, but my entire weeks are booked with last minute plans and though it's a bit hectic I will live these last days here to the fullest.
"Who would have known how bittersweet it would taste," -Adele
Linkity, link.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
SUPER, MEGA SORRY!
Believe me when I say that I wanted to update my blog. It's just that I've been doing so much! School, family, friends (american and german), vacation, parties, making plans and then taking the time to settle down from a constant moving lifestyle. So last time I blogged it was about German music but before that I was talking about Chirstmas, New Years, school, archery, and a possible concert.
February was as usual, a short month, except this year it had an extra day. Somewhere along the end of February is a German holiday called Fasching. I don't remember if I've already told you guys about it. But it's somewhere along the lines of a German version for Mardi Gras. Here they have parades and throw candy at you and other stuff. My host mom, insisted that she wanted to go to Grandma's because there is no Fasching like the Fasching in the city of Rottweil. No one besides her really knew what it was like and when we got there we were all really amazed. They all have these weird costumes and masks and they like to troll people but everyone is okey with it. And it's fun.
Now imagine hundreds of those parading in front of you. Eeeeshh! But I must say, if they liked you especially they would give you these little alcohol bottles with flavors. Which is legal, so don't freak out on me.
So anyway this is another kind of masked being. He does not give out candy. He has (as you can observe in the picture above) a very long stick. At the end of the stick is a perfumed piece of furry thing. I don't know what it is, but it's soft and furry. In any case they'll single you out of the crowd and rub the thing on your face and won't go away for a while. The more you fight them, the longer they stay. Playing along is the only thing that will make them go faster, unless for some odd reason they aren't convinced by your playing along and will continue to do it. Some when you get hesitant would stick the stick between peoples' legs and make them nervous and super embarrassed. The best part was that I got loads of candy and I got to see host grandma and grandpa and meet more members of the family.
So February ended and March began and in this month I did a lot. It was Ana's birthday. So Ana organized a big group of people, AFSers, people we met here, and host siblings and friends of host siblings. So it was a very big multi cultural group and we all went together to Giessen and ate and partied and we had a blast!
In this month I met some really cool people. One them being the first guy I've met that loves Black Veil Brides as much as I do! So yeah with that said, I'll let you guys know that I went to the concert with my friend from school and one of her friends which was this really cool guy. It was the most awesome thing. It was in Cologne and it was fairly small, but the people there were all there dressed really cool. Most of them had some type of make up or hair thing going on. If you don't know what I'm talking about just google Black Veil Brides and then you'll know.
But it was AWESOME. There were two bands Black Veil Brides and Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows (D.R.U.G.S.). And you must know that I love both. A lot. And well for D.R.U.G.S. the lead singer Craig Owens jumped into the crowd, and he was just plain awesome. If you here his voice and how well he can sing you might think that in person he might not be that good but he was amazing! ^__^
And then there was of course the guitarists. They are both so very talented. When ever the lead guitarist (Jake) played a solo everyone started screaming. And the rhythm guitarist (Jinxx) was as epic as ever and hair was a lot fluffier in person that in is in pictures.
It was awesome. I loved it. I loved them even more than I already do. Both bands were stupendous. I even got pictures with the singer and guitarist of D.R.U.G.S. as well their autographs.
Then in that same week (weekend to be specific) I went back to Cologne. This time I went sight seeing. There I have another host sister and we slept over her house and she took us to places in Cologne and it was a great city.
Here's just a taste of what I saw. It was really pretty and really big. Bigger than I have seen here in Germany. I mean you might be able to say Frankfurt is big but Cologne felt a lot bigger to me. And it was very very beautiful.
Then the week after that I hung out with my friends from school. Somewhere in March Ploi and I dyed our hair blue.
Now we go to April. In April we had two weeks vacation and in the first one I went in a small group of AFSers to Amsterdam! It was awesome. It was definitely one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been to. It had water streets (like in Venice) called "gracht." There were many tiny alleys and just a really alive city. And in that sense it was a bit like New York but a million times prettier.The funniest part was the language. It's like a combination of German and English. And it sounds super funny but I could understand them most of the time.
Now here's just a little overview of what we did there.
Well in any case it was one heck of a city. I really enjoyed it and I didn't learn a word in Dutch except for "melk" which means milk. Everyone there speaks English so it was always easy to order food or ask for directions. We had a great time there. When I got back everyone else continued traveling so I spent the last week watching tv series in German and gaining weight.
And last week guess who came to visit??!!! GELLO!!! I've been taking him all over Giessen, Linden and other places with cool castles like Marburg, which is not so far from where I am but it's full of German culture. He's tried the German beer and sausage and of course, he thought they were both amazing. He even learned a teensy bit of German! Anyway we had a great time and now he's on a train on his way back to France. I'll be seeing him again in two months, that is unless I end up going to France sometime in the next two months.
As for what I'll be doing and how I'm feeling. Well, for starters I was invited to one of these really big school parties by Ana's host brother and I'm a bit nervous because it's a bunch of school people, but not from my school. I'll only know two people there. And then sometime this week I'm going on an AFS trip to Berlin! I'm so excited to finally be able to see the capital of Germany. :D So there will most likely be photos of that in the next post. Also I'm going with my host family to Hamburg so even more excitement and more photos!
As for how I'm feeling... "Wir fühlen wir sind fürs Ende nicht bereit," -Bill Kaulitz
Songsongsongsongsong. Google the meaning of the quote, if you must. ;)
February was as usual, a short month, except this year it had an extra day. Somewhere along the end of February is a German holiday called Fasching. I don't remember if I've already told you guys about it. But it's somewhere along the lines of a German version for Mardi Gras. Here they have parades and throw candy at you and other stuff. My host mom, insisted that she wanted to go to Grandma's because there is no Fasching like the Fasching in the city of Rottweil. No one besides her really knew what it was like and when we got there we were all really amazed. They all have these weird costumes and masks and they like to troll people but everyone is okey with it. And it's fun.
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| These are the candy givers, as well as the ones below. If you sang a Fasching song you would get more candy. If they liked you they would let you pick the candy. :) |
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| Creepy looking, aren't they? |
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| What you see above is a real live troll. Not a mythical troll but the kind of people that are called trolls because they like to troll others. If you could only see his face, they even resemble the troll meme. |
So February ended and March began and in this month I did a lot. It was Ana's birthday. So Ana organized a big group of people, AFSers, people we met here, and host siblings and friends of host siblings. So it was a very big multi cultural group and we all went together to Giessen and ate and partied and we had a blast!
In this month I met some really cool people. One them being the first guy I've met that loves Black Veil Brides as much as I do! So yeah with that said, I'll let you guys know that I went to the concert with my friend from school and one of her friends which was this really cool guy. It was the most awesome thing. It was in Cologne and it was fairly small, but the people there were all there dressed really cool. Most of them had some type of make up or hair thing going on. If you don't know what I'm talking about just google Black Veil Brides and then you'll know.
But it was AWESOME. There were two bands Black Veil Brides and Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows (D.R.U.G.S.). And you must know that I love both. A lot. And well for D.R.U.G.S. the lead singer Craig Owens jumped into the crowd, and he was just plain awesome. If you here his voice and how well he can sing you might think that in person he might not be that good but he was amazing! ^__^
 | |||||||||
| This is Craig from D.R.U.G.S. in all his glory. |
And there was Black Veil Brides. Man were they awesome. The first one to come out on the stage was the drummer C.C. and I flipped out. He did an amazing solo somewhere in the middle and I was left absolutely astounded.
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| Here was one on the only pictures I could get of him. He's so amazing! |
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| Jake (left) and Jinxx (right). AWESOME. AWESOME. |
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| This is the bass player Ashley. Yes, he's a guy. |
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| And here is Andy the most amazing singer evar! |
Then in that same week (weekend to be specific) I went back to Cologne. This time I went sight seeing. There I have another host sister and we slept over her house and she took us to places in Cologne and it was a great city.
Here's just a taste of what I saw. It was really pretty and really big. Bigger than I have seen here in Germany. I mean you might be able to say Frankfurt is big but Cologne felt a lot bigger to me. And it was very very beautiful.
Then the week after that I hung out with my friends from school. Somewhere in March Ploi and I dyed our hair blue.
Now we go to April. In April we had two weeks vacation and in the first one I went in a small group of AFSers to Amsterdam! It was awesome. It was definitely one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been to. It had water streets (like in Venice) called "gracht." There were many tiny alleys and just a really alive city. And in that sense it was a bit like New York but a million times prettier.The funniest part was the language. It's like a combination of German and English. And it sounds super funny but I could understand them most of the time.
Now here's just a little overview of what we did there.
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| This was the Anne Frank house. You're allowed to go in and look around and though it was sad it was also pretty interesting. |
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| Ana and I standing in front of the Amsterdam train station. |
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| Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. |
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| On a boat, sailing through the grachts. |
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| So pretty. |
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| It's known for it's tall, narrow houses as well. |
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| I am-sterdam. Are you sterdam? |
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| I'm pretty sure many of you know the beer Heineken. Well it's from the Netherlands and we went to one of their "brauereis" (the place where they brew beer) and it was pretty epic. |
Well in any case it was one heck of a city. I really enjoyed it and I didn't learn a word in Dutch except for "melk" which means milk. Everyone there speaks English so it was always easy to order food or ask for directions. We had a great time there. When I got back everyone else continued traveling so I spent the last week watching tv series in German and gaining weight.
And last week guess who came to visit??!!! GELLO!!! I've been taking him all over Giessen, Linden and other places with cool castles like Marburg, which is not so far from where I am but it's full of German culture. He's tried the German beer and sausage and of course, he thought they were both amazing. He even learned a teensy bit of German! Anyway we had a great time and now he's on a train on his way back to France. I'll be seeing him again in two months, that is unless I end up going to France sometime in the next two months.
As for what I'll be doing and how I'm feeling. Well, for starters I was invited to one of these really big school parties by Ana's host brother and I'm a bit nervous because it's a bunch of school people, but not from my school. I'll only know two people there. And then sometime this week I'm going on an AFS trip to Berlin! I'm so excited to finally be able to see the capital of Germany. :D So there will most likely be photos of that in the next post. Also I'm going with my host family to Hamburg so even more excitement and more photos!
As for how I'm feeling... "Wir fühlen wir sind fürs Ende nicht bereit," -Bill Kaulitz
Songsongsongsongsong. Google the meaning of the quote, if you must. ;)
Sunday, February 12, 2012
German Music
So I really haven't got much to do now.
On Fridays I only have two classes both double periods. Today the teacher for the last two periods was not there so I go to go home early. So I will take this opportunity to talk about German music.
First there's a lot of music from the US but there's also a good amount of hip hop here. I would know especially since my host sister likes to blast her hip hop when she comes home. I don't really like it but there is one song that I do like. It's called Fremdgehen by K.I.Z. (pronounced freh-md-gee-hen by kah-ee-tset) I will give you the link but I have to warn that the video is a bit.... explicit. So you don't have to watch it, just listen if you want. Song. And if you would like to not watch the video here are the lyrics.
I believe that the website that I gave has a bunch of other hip hop and rap like songs (maybe other genres too, I'm not sure) there in German. So if you want to hear more that could also be an option.
Now moving on to a completely different genre. I have three bands. One of which you probably already know and two that you probably don't.
The first was the first I learned about in about 2008 or so. That band would be Tokio Hotel. Currently I have no idea what they are doing but the last CD they released was completely different to the music they normally played and through it I think they lost a lot of fans. They actually used to be my favorite band in the whole entire world but their music changed and so did my taste in music. However there are good songs from way in the past that I still like and can recommend.
The first song that I learned in German is Rette Mich (pronounced reh-teh mish). All I could find were crappy karaoke versions so this one is live but with lyrics. Beware of the screaming fans in the beginning. Song.
In case you listen to the song and wonder what "rette mich" is, it means rescue me. Then I could also recommend Der letzte Tag (der leh-tst-eh tah-g) meaning "the last day." It's one of my favorites in German. I found the actual music video here, it's flipped though so it's going to look like the guitarist and bassist are lefties but the their not. Also it has Spanish subtitles... so I will also give lyrics. Song. Lyrics. The ending for the lyrics is a little messed up but mostly good. One of their most popular songs which everyone here in Germany happens to know and hate is called Durch den Monsun (doo-rsh deh-n moh-n-zoon) in english "through the monsoon" though the english version is just "Monsoon." Personally I think it's a really good song.
Song. That's the music video from when this song first came out in 2005, I believe. And here are the lyrics.
I'll also give two suggestion from their recent album. One of the best is called Geisterfahrer. There is an english version to it called "Phantom Rider." Recently there have been a lot of internet restrictions most of them on Youtube. So it's hard to find some good videos but here I found one live, just as good as on the CD except he talks a lot in the beginning. For music skip to 1:20. Song live. And of course, lyrics. Through this live video you can see exactly how much not only their sound changed but also their look. And the last Tokio Hotel song I want to share is called Komm (pronouced a lot like the english word "come" koh-m). Again sorry about the strange videos I keep getting. The top half is German the bottom half is Dutch. Song.
Then another band quite famous and, from what I've seen, well liked is Die Ärzte (pronounced dee air-ts-teh). My host dad gave me a CD of them for Christmas. :) So here is one of the songs.
And here is a happier sounding song by them. Song.
And then the last band I would like to talk about is quite special I think. This band is from Giessen. The people that are in this band went to my school in Giessen and they were pretty popular for a time. I have no idea where they are now. They are Juli (pronounced you-lee). One of their most popular songs is this one. Song. Also maybe this one. Song.
Okey, I have come to the end of this post. I hope you enjoy it. I actually started writing it on Friday. Today is Sunday. But yeah, I hope you like it and maybe start looking up some more songs by these people. Also I might be posting a post with only pictures, but then again who knows. But I also might be posting a normal post because soon is Fasching! Which is like this carnival week or day(s). In any case it's pretty important here.
I think I have enough music on this post to be ending it with yet another one.
Byeeeee. :)
On Fridays I only have two classes both double periods. Today the teacher for the last two periods was not there so I go to go home early. So I will take this opportunity to talk about German music.
First there's a lot of music from the US but there's also a good amount of hip hop here. I would know especially since my host sister likes to blast her hip hop when she comes home. I don't really like it but there is one song that I do like. It's called Fremdgehen by K.I.Z. (pronounced freh-md-gee-hen by kah-ee-tset) I will give you the link but I have to warn that the video is a bit.... explicit. So you don't have to watch it, just listen if you want. Song. And if you would like to not watch the video here are the lyrics.
I believe that the website that I gave has a bunch of other hip hop and rap like songs (maybe other genres too, I'm not sure) there in German. So if you want to hear more that could also be an option.
Now moving on to a completely different genre. I have three bands. One of which you probably already know and two that you probably don't.
The first was the first I learned about in about 2008 or so. That band would be Tokio Hotel. Currently I have no idea what they are doing but the last CD they released was completely different to the music they normally played and through it I think they lost a lot of fans. They actually used to be my favorite band in the whole entire world but their music changed and so did my taste in music. However there are good songs from way in the past that I still like and can recommend.
The first song that I learned in German is Rette Mich (pronounced reh-teh mish). All I could find were crappy karaoke versions so this one is live but with lyrics. Beware of the screaming fans in the beginning. Song.
In case you listen to the song and wonder what "rette mich" is, it means rescue me. Then I could also recommend Der letzte Tag (der leh-tst-eh tah-g) meaning "the last day." It's one of my favorites in German. I found the actual music video here, it's flipped though so it's going to look like the guitarist and bassist are lefties but the their not. Also it has Spanish subtitles... so I will also give lyrics. Song. Lyrics. The ending for the lyrics is a little messed up but mostly good. One of their most popular songs which everyone here in Germany happens to know and hate is called Durch den Monsun (doo-rsh deh-n moh-n-zoon) in english "through the monsoon" though the english version is just "Monsoon." Personally I think it's a really good song.
Song. That's the music video from when this song first came out in 2005, I believe. And here are the lyrics.
I'll also give two suggestion from their recent album. One of the best is called Geisterfahrer. There is an english version to it called "Phantom Rider." Recently there have been a lot of internet restrictions most of them on Youtube. So it's hard to find some good videos but here I found one live, just as good as on the CD except he talks a lot in the beginning. For music skip to 1:20. Song live. And of course, lyrics. Through this live video you can see exactly how much not only their sound changed but also their look. And the last Tokio Hotel song I want to share is called Komm (pronouced a lot like the english word "come" koh-m). Again sorry about the strange videos I keep getting. The top half is German the bottom half is Dutch. Song.
Then another band quite famous and, from what I've seen, well liked is Die Ärzte (pronounced dee air-ts-teh). My host dad gave me a CD of them for Christmas. :) So here is one of the songs.
And here is a happier sounding song by them. Song.
And then the last band I would like to talk about is quite special I think. This band is from Giessen. The people that are in this band went to my school in Giessen and they were pretty popular for a time. I have no idea where they are now. They are Juli (pronounced you-lee). One of their most popular songs is this one. Song. Also maybe this one. Song.
Okey, I have come to the end of this post. I hope you enjoy it. I actually started writing it on Friday. Today is Sunday. But yeah, I hope you like it and maybe start looking up some more songs by these people. Also I might be posting a post with only pictures, but then again who knows. But I also might be posting a normal post because soon is Fasching! Which is like this carnival week or day(s). In any case it's pretty important here.
I think I have enough music on this post to be ending it with yet another one.
Byeeeee. :)
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Look who decided to show up.
That would be me. I decided to show up... kinda, sorta. Thing is, it's kinda hard to blog when you have so much free time yet there's nothing really important to blog because you go to school everyday. And weekends aren't always anything big, it's kinda just like plain old living, except here. In Germany. While listening to German 24/7 and speaking it as well. But seeing as the last time I blogged was before the Holidays I suppose there are a lot of things to tell. So we'll take this by stages, as is the norm for me. ;)
Christmas
So It's already February so I don't remember much about how Christmas morning started. It didn't start with opening presents though. Here Christmas is on the 24th and presents are opened at night. I do remember that two days before Christmas we were deciding whether or not to get a Christmas tree. In my head I was flipping out. "WHAT KIND OF A QUESTION IS THAT?!! WHY WOULDN'T YOU GET A CHRISTMAS TREE FOR CHRISTMAS?!!" Where are you going to put the presents?! But then I thought, "Hmm, maybe they do the present thing different here..." So instead of arguing I just nodded and shook my head where appropriate. In the end we got a tree even though both my host siblings didn't want to. Can I say, party poopers?
But we got the tree and we fixed it up nice and pretty and we put actual candles on it, which was pretty awesome and it looked really pretty. Dinner was a disaster however. My host parents decided to try out some new fancy cooking and lets just say it wasn't the best. Truthfully it was tasteless. It wasn't disgusting but it wasn't delicious either. I ate it, my sister and parents ate it. But my host brother decided to be a whining ninny and complain during the entire dinner. I of course felt like asking him, "Really? How old are you? It's Christmas. APPRECIATE." It's not that I don't like my host brother, I really do. But he's like just going through puberty so sometimes he's reeeeeaaaaally annoying. Like a lot. But mostly he's a really cool brother.
Anyway that was the Christmas evening disaster. During Christmas break, which is three weeks long mind you, we went to visit my host grandparents! They live in a city called Zimmern in south eastern Germany very close to the Black forest. I'm sure a few of you have heard of the forest already. In German it's called Schwarzwald (pronounced sh-vah-rr-ts-vah-ld). So yeah we stayed there for like three nights and it was really nice because I really like my grandma. Can't say much about grandpa though. He doesn't have much of a bright personality, he doesn't say much and when he does I don't understand him because he slurs words and he speaks Schwäbisch (pronounced shh-veh-bish), which is a German dialect. It's not too different but that with the slurring makes it hard. I mean, grandma spoke to me in Schwäbisch and I had no problem understanding her.
Moving on, we went through a few towns in der Schwarzwald and it is very dark and gloomy down there. It's very, very foggy. You have no idea. And the cities we went to would be situated in the center of the forest so it would kinda feel like we were surrounded or encased by the forest. It was really awesome though. I really like it, and there was even snow there.
The whole time there was really nice, I stuffed my face with tea, Christmas cookies, and cake because grandma likes to have tea time... everyday...in the afternoon....and after dinner. She also likes baking and she does it really well. But in general if you're reading this and you plan to come to Germany TRY THE CHRISTMAS COOKIES. THEY ARE THE BEST THING EVAR! I am not kidding you.
But after Christmas, I was thinking that something was missing in the way that I was waiting for something that never came. But it wasn't until after it passed that I realized what it was. People in the U.S. make a big deal about the "European Christmas" and that's what I was waiting for this whole time and on Christmas day I was kinda like "That's it?" (even though I did get really nice presents). But then I saw that the "European Christmas" that everyone is talking about was not Christmas day but Christmas time. The entire month of December is what makes Christmas special here. It starts off with the special stands and the city center where they sell the Christmas wine, these pretty stars that you can buy and hang on your window all light up. They have the special cookies, the cakes, they hang extra lights in the city, everyone is starting to look a littler fatter because all their eating. Every class in your school has a small party before the break, you start doing a lot of bringing in and sharing and you feel almost like in a movie, and better yet you feel like you belong. And you feel all around good. That's what this Christmas was about that everyone keeps talking about. I only noticed that after it was over. Because once it was gone, I missed it.
New Years
Honestly I wasn't sure what to expect on New Years. I didn't know how it was celebrated here. I don't know about you guys but in my house me and a lot of other people, mostly family, we watch t.v. and/or listen to music while we wait for the countdown and when it's officially the new year you do a bunch of good luck rituals (eat twelve grapes and make a wish for everyone, bang on pots and pans to scare bad spirits away, the infamous new year's resolution, etc. etc.). In any case here I wasn't too sure what to expect. What we did was I invited my two friends Ana and Ploi (remember them?) and my host parents invited their friends and we ate dinner, dessert, and then we played a German board game. Ten minutes before the countdown we ended the game and crowded around the t.v. waiting with a glass of champagne in hand. Then when the new year came we all hugged each other, drank our champagne and ran outside. Why? Well, this is like the one of those days where you're allowed to shoot fireworks all over the place. There was fire works from my house from the the neighbors, two houses down, two houses down in the other direction, across the street, behind the house. Everywhere! It was very noisy, but quite amazing. I really enjoyed it.The streets were all foggy from the smoke and it was really cold, but there were teenagers jogging in the streets with more fireworks going somewhere and they would wish you a happy new year. Everyone you saw even though you didn't know them would smile and wish you a happy new year. Again I felt that good feeling of belonging and happiness.
What else did I do?
There was an AFS Camp in mid-January. It was the mid-stay camp. The only thing about the camp that was bad was that I realized that in the blink of an eye already half of my stay here is gone. The rest of the camp was nice. We had a better youth hostel, we did really cool activities, we met a few other AFSers and best of all we had really good liaisons there to lead the camp. I met really cool people there and like the last camp I found myself wishing that it was more than just three incomplete days. I say incomplete because when you get there on the first day it's already like five p.m. and then on the last day everyone leaves at like 2 p.m. the latest. So yeah, barely three days of (for the most part) AFS awesomeness. And again like that last one I think everyone left with a twinge of sadness on their faces. I was absolutely not ready to go home. Especially not ready to sit in a train (two actually) for two hours and a half so that I have time to relive the awesomeness of those days in my head and feel sad all over again.
But as it things went that was exactly what I had to do. So when we got to Giessen I just wanted to go home but the train I had just come off from was delayed so I missed the train to Linden. So, I had to wait for like an hour. But since Ploi lived in the middle of nowhere and there were no buses to her city on Sundays and it just happened to be a Sunday she stayed and waited with me so that at my house she could call her host mom so she could pick her up. so we did that and about an hour and fifteen minutes later we were at my house and then Ploi left. And I had school the next day.
School
I think that no matter what most of my posts are going to include a bit about school, because whether I like it or not I have to go there for five out of the seven days of the week. But even so it's not always the same. For starters I can say that the other day I actually raised my hand in Physics class. I was only supposed to give an example of a physic thingie but at least the teacher noticed that 1.) I was paying attention and 2.) I understood what was going on in class. So bonus point for me! In English class we're reading the book Thirteen Reasons Why. If you ask me I think we're over analyzing it a little too much, but whatever. In Spanish class we're watching a movie. In German, I can't really participate because sometimes the assignments are crazy hard, so I read in German. I'm on my second book. The first one I read was a Christmas present, the Little Prince (in German: Der Kleine Prinz) and now I'm reading a goosebumps book. I can't read well enough to read something like Harry Potter. Not yet, anyway. PoWi, believe it or not I read the papers she gives us and I try the assignments only to find out that I did it completely wrong. Sport we're doing Gymnastics and I suck. Everyone is so sporty except for me and three other girls so we just hang back and watch the sporty people and when the teacher tells us we try something and land on our faces. It's not that I'm not sporty, I am, but with completely different sports.
Math is the best class only because I can understand most of the things in this class because we're dealing with numbers. The only problem is I usually don't understand the concept, but lucky me there's this nice, really smart girl that sits right next to me. Then there's Chemistry and Biology. They're both very, very, verrrrry boring because of the teacher (the same teacher teaches both subjects). She's so un-animated. I'm not sure if that's a word, but that's the only way I can describe her. She only has like three different facial expressions, her voice is weak and low and has no emotion and she's horrible at explaining things. Anyway in History I usually don't do anything because it doesn't even count but we just started doing the Medieval Ages
and this is my favorite time in History, even though a lot of people call them "dark times" I like to think if them as "mysterious times." Anyway so I recently started paying attention and talking in class. Art is still as epic as ever and I have good friends there. In religion I also have friends in the class isn't even that bad. I like the teacher too, she looks like Snape but she's really nice and an all around smart lady.
Speaking about friends I have to say that things with my betreuerin are a lot better. I think that in the beginning there was just a lot of tension between the two of us because she was supposed to help me school but both of us didn't really know each other. But now that I have my own friends at school and I don't have to hunt her down if I want to talk to someone, we get along a lot better. It's that kind of a friendship were you laugh at everything because every time one of us makes a mistake we'll burst out laughing and won't let the other forget about it. And not only that but it's easy to talk to her because when I want to say something important or something I can't say in German I can say it in Spanish and it's nice to be able to speak Spanish because I don't see my AFS spanish speaking friends so often anymore. Also more about friends, you know those kids in the US most people would call goth? Yeah well, they get a lot of prejudice because of the way they look and there's this girl who would probably considered goth in two of my classes. But she's really, really, really nice. One of the nicest people I have met and not only that but she's also a Black Veil Brides fan. Remember that they're one my favorite bands in the whole entire world. Well yeah so they're coming again to Germany! And this time a lot closer than the last time and we're planning to go together. Hopefully we can! I'M SO EXCITED!!!
Last one, I promise.
This is pretty awesome. This section right here. It's very awesome. I don't remember if I mentioned it before anywhere on this blog but in my school in the US the only sport I do besides Ice Skating (not figure or hockey, just skating) is fencing. Why? Well, I really like the sound of old weapons. Swords, daggers, bows and arrows. You have to admit that they're just plain cool and if you could handle any one of them you'd feel like a boss. So in the US I joined fencing and I loved it. So here I joined archery and I'M LOVING IT!!! And all the trainers are really great. I have absolutely no arm muscles and no back muscles and I have gotten myself unused to the movement in my arm that I do in fencing but archery you really build your muscles and you posture and your aim and it's just plain freaking amazing. I WANT MOAR. kjdhlkasdfhklasd So cool!!!! Too bad it's only once a week....
But yeah now that I've come to this realization that I'm half way through and that my German is really freaking good. It's not great but it's good. But now that I see these things I realize that if there's anything I want to do I can't hold back because I have no time to waste. But at this moment in my life I can honestly say that everything is really good.
"So forgive me for bragging out lout." -Craig Owens
Here is the song. * They'll be playing with BVB at the concert. It's a bit of a loud one, but listen to it, you might like it. I love it. :)
Christmas
So It's already February so I don't remember much about how Christmas morning started. It didn't start with opening presents though. Here Christmas is on the 24th and presents are opened at night. I do remember that two days before Christmas we were deciding whether or not to get a Christmas tree. In my head I was flipping out. "WHAT KIND OF A QUESTION IS THAT?!! WHY WOULDN'T YOU GET A CHRISTMAS TREE FOR CHRISTMAS?!!" Where are you going to put the presents?! But then I thought, "Hmm, maybe they do the present thing different here..." So instead of arguing I just nodded and shook my head where appropriate. In the end we got a tree even though both my host siblings didn't want to. Can I say, party poopers?
But we got the tree and we fixed it up nice and pretty and we put actual candles on it, which was pretty awesome and it looked really pretty. Dinner was a disaster however. My host parents decided to try out some new fancy cooking and lets just say it wasn't the best. Truthfully it was tasteless. It wasn't disgusting but it wasn't delicious either. I ate it, my sister and parents ate it. But my host brother decided to be a whining ninny and complain during the entire dinner. I of course felt like asking him, "Really? How old are you? It's Christmas. APPRECIATE." It's not that I don't like my host brother, I really do. But he's like just going through puberty so sometimes he's reeeeeaaaaally annoying. Like a lot. But mostly he's a really cool brother.
Anyway that was the Christmas evening disaster. During Christmas break, which is three weeks long mind you, we went to visit my host grandparents! They live in a city called Zimmern in south eastern Germany very close to the Black forest. I'm sure a few of you have heard of the forest already. In German it's called Schwarzwald (pronounced sh-vah-rr-ts-vah-ld). So yeah we stayed there for like three nights and it was really nice because I really like my grandma. Can't say much about grandpa though. He doesn't have much of a bright personality, he doesn't say much and when he does I don't understand him because he slurs words and he speaks Schwäbisch (pronounced shh-veh-bish), which is a German dialect. It's not too different but that with the slurring makes it hard. I mean, grandma spoke to me in Schwäbisch and I had no problem understanding her.
Moving on, we went through a few towns in der Schwarzwald and it is very dark and gloomy down there. It's very, very foggy. You have no idea. And the cities we went to would be situated in the center of the forest so it would kinda feel like we were surrounded or encased by the forest. It was really awesome though. I really like it, and there was even snow there.
The whole time there was really nice, I stuffed my face with tea, Christmas cookies, and cake because grandma likes to have tea time... everyday...in the afternoon....and after dinner. She also likes baking and she does it really well. But in general if you're reading this and you plan to come to Germany TRY THE CHRISTMAS COOKIES. THEY ARE THE BEST THING EVAR! I am not kidding you.
But after Christmas, I was thinking that something was missing in the way that I was waiting for something that never came. But it wasn't until after it passed that I realized what it was. People in the U.S. make a big deal about the "European Christmas" and that's what I was waiting for this whole time and on Christmas day I was kinda like "That's it?" (even though I did get really nice presents). But then I saw that the "European Christmas" that everyone is talking about was not Christmas day but Christmas time. The entire month of December is what makes Christmas special here. It starts off with the special stands and the city center where they sell the Christmas wine, these pretty stars that you can buy and hang on your window all light up. They have the special cookies, the cakes, they hang extra lights in the city, everyone is starting to look a littler fatter because all their eating. Every class in your school has a small party before the break, you start doing a lot of bringing in and sharing and you feel almost like in a movie, and better yet you feel like you belong. And you feel all around good. That's what this Christmas was about that everyone keeps talking about. I only noticed that after it was over. Because once it was gone, I missed it.
New Years
Honestly I wasn't sure what to expect on New Years. I didn't know how it was celebrated here. I don't know about you guys but in my house me and a lot of other people, mostly family, we watch t.v. and/or listen to music while we wait for the countdown and when it's officially the new year you do a bunch of good luck rituals (eat twelve grapes and make a wish for everyone, bang on pots and pans to scare bad spirits away, the infamous new year's resolution, etc. etc.). In any case here I wasn't too sure what to expect. What we did was I invited my two friends Ana and Ploi (remember them?) and my host parents invited their friends and we ate dinner, dessert, and then we played a German board game. Ten minutes before the countdown we ended the game and crowded around the t.v. waiting with a glass of champagne in hand. Then when the new year came we all hugged each other, drank our champagne and ran outside. Why? Well, this is like the one of those days where you're allowed to shoot fireworks all over the place. There was fire works from my house from the the neighbors, two houses down, two houses down in the other direction, across the street, behind the house. Everywhere! It was very noisy, but quite amazing. I really enjoyed it.The streets were all foggy from the smoke and it was really cold, but there were teenagers jogging in the streets with more fireworks going somewhere and they would wish you a happy new year. Everyone you saw even though you didn't know them would smile and wish you a happy new year. Again I felt that good feeling of belonging and happiness.
What else did I do?
There was an AFS Camp in mid-January. It was the mid-stay camp. The only thing about the camp that was bad was that I realized that in the blink of an eye already half of my stay here is gone. The rest of the camp was nice. We had a better youth hostel, we did really cool activities, we met a few other AFSers and best of all we had really good liaisons there to lead the camp. I met really cool people there and like the last camp I found myself wishing that it was more than just three incomplete days. I say incomplete because when you get there on the first day it's already like five p.m. and then on the last day everyone leaves at like 2 p.m. the latest. So yeah, barely three days of (for the most part) AFS awesomeness. And again like that last one I think everyone left with a twinge of sadness on their faces. I was absolutely not ready to go home. Especially not ready to sit in a train (two actually) for two hours and a half so that I have time to relive the awesomeness of those days in my head and feel sad all over again.
But as it things went that was exactly what I had to do. So when we got to Giessen I just wanted to go home but the train I had just come off from was delayed so I missed the train to Linden. So, I had to wait for like an hour. But since Ploi lived in the middle of nowhere and there were no buses to her city on Sundays and it just happened to be a Sunday she stayed and waited with me so that at my house she could call her host mom so she could pick her up. so we did that and about an hour and fifteen minutes later we were at my house and then Ploi left. And I had school the next day.
School
I think that no matter what most of my posts are going to include a bit about school, because whether I like it or not I have to go there for five out of the seven days of the week. But even so it's not always the same. For starters I can say that the other day I actually raised my hand in Physics class. I was only supposed to give an example of a physic thingie but at least the teacher noticed that 1.) I was paying attention and 2.) I understood what was going on in class. So bonus point for me! In English class we're reading the book Thirteen Reasons Why. If you ask me I think we're over analyzing it a little too much, but whatever. In Spanish class we're watching a movie. In German, I can't really participate because sometimes the assignments are crazy hard, so I read in German. I'm on my second book. The first one I read was a Christmas present, the Little Prince (in German: Der Kleine Prinz) and now I'm reading a goosebumps book. I can't read well enough to read something like Harry Potter. Not yet, anyway. PoWi, believe it or not I read the papers she gives us and I try the assignments only to find out that I did it completely wrong. Sport we're doing Gymnastics and I suck. Everyone is so sporty except for me and three other girls so we just hang back and watch the sporty people and when the teacher tells us we try something and land on our faces. It's not that I'm not sporty, I am, but with completely different sports.
Math is the best class only because I can understand most of the things in this class because we're dealing with numbers. The only problem is I usually don't understand the concept, but lucky me there's this nice, really smart girl that sits right next to me. Then there's Chemistry and Biology. They're both very, very, verrrrry boring because of the teacher (the same teacher teaches both subjects). She's so un-animated. I'm not sure if that's a word, but that's the only way I can describe her. She only has like three different facial expressions, her voice is weak and low and has no emotion and she's horrible at explaining things. Anyway in History I usually don't do anything because it doesn't even count but we just started doing the Medieval Ages
and this is my favorite time in History, even though a lot of people call them "dark times" I like to think if them as "mysterious times." Anyway so I recently started paying attention and talking in class. Art is still as epic as ever and I have good friends there. In religion I also have friends in the class isn't even that bad. I like the teacher too, she looks like Snape but she's really nice and an all around smart lady.
Speaking about friends I have to say that things with my betreuerin are a lot better. I think that in the beginning there was just a lot of tension between the two of us because she was supposed to help me school but both of us didn't really know each other. But now that I have my own friends at school and I don't have to hunt her down if I want to talk to someone, we get along a lot better. It's that kind of a friendship were you laugh at everything because every time one of us makes a mistake we'll burst out laughing and won't let the other forget about it. And not only that but it's easy to talk to her because when I want to say something important or something I can't say in German I can say it in Spanish and it's nice to be able to speak Spanish because I don't see my AFS spanish speaking friends so often anymore. Also more about friends, you know those kids in the US most people would call goth? Yeah well, they get a lot of prejudice because of the way they look and there's this girl who would probably considered goth in two of my classes. But she's really, really, really nice. One of the nicest people I have met and not only that but she's also a Black Veil Brides fan. Remember that they're one my favorite bands in the whole entire world. Well yeah so they're coming again to Germany! And this time a lot closer than the last time and we're planning to go together. Hopefully we can! I'M SO EXCITED!!!
Last one, I promise.
This is pretty awesome. This section right here. It's very awesome. I don't remember if I mentioned it before anywhere on this blog but in my school in the US the only sport I do besides Ice Skating (not figure or hockey, just skating) is fencing. Why? Well, I really like the sound of old weapons. Swords, daggers, bows and arrows. You have to admit that they're just plain cool and if you could handle any one of them you'd feel like a boss. So in the US I joined fencing and I loved it. So here I joined archery and I'M LOVING IT!!! And all the trainers are really great. I have absolutely no arm muscles and no back muscles and I have gotten myself unused to the movement in my arm that I do in fencing but archery you really build your muscles and you posture and your aim and it's just plain freaking amazing. I WANT MOAR. kjdhlkasdfhklasd So cool!!!! Too bad it's only once a week....
But yeah now that I've come to this realization that I'm half way through and that my German is really freaking good. It's not great but it's good. But now that I see these things I realize that if there's anything I want to do I can't hold back because I have no time to waste. But at this moment in my life I can honestly say that everything is really good.
"So forgive me for bragging out lout." -Craig Owens
Here is the song. * They'll be playing with BVB at the concert. It's a bit of a loud one, but listen to it, you might like it. I love it. :)
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