Just a Second-To-Last

After getting back from Croatia, I feel like the time has just been zipping by. This is my last week of school! WHAT?! :( I can’t believe I only have 2 weeks left in Bielefeld and 3 left in Germany.

I feel like this last month has been the month of “lasts”.

One of the “lasts” this month was my last German class. We’ve had one, four-hour class a week and it has been really fun. Our teacher was really eccentric and made class unforgettable. In our last class she had us all hoId hands and feel each other’s energy and send each other good vibes… ;) I am pretty pleased with most of my German, but of course there’s things I want to improve. I really hope I can keep using it and learning (somehow) in Juneau.

Some goodbyes have started. The only other American I know here, Chase, left a couple weeks ago and this week the goodbyes have been piling up. :(

Before I get too negative though, this month has also been full of random adventures and fun times!

I…

…had Felix’s parents in Bielefeld for a day during “Nordrhein-Westfalen Day”, a huge even in our state that this year Bielefeld hosted! I showed them around Bielefeld and got to play tour guide auf Deutsch, which was…hopefully helpful, haha. I tried :D

…Went to Holland again for a Saturday market in Enschede, a city that we students can get to FOR FREE with our semester tickets! I went with one of my wonderful friends I met at my English-speaking church here. We bought some pretty flowers that I then brought to Felix’s mom when I…

…Went to the world’s largest Schützenfest in Hannover! Every shooting/rifle club was in a big parade that went through the town and ended at the same grounds where we went to Oktoberfest. It was similar to the Oktoberfest but much bigger! There were so many rides, so much food, and many giant beer tents and bars!

…Made Russian Pelmeni with my Russian friend Maria and my flatmate Kari! AHH I have loved pelmeni ever since I ate it in Juneau and to make real pelmeni from scratch was so fun and tasty!

…Went to Felix’s graduation from gymnasium (high school) and Abiball. Graduating from a gymnasium here is technically like graduating from American high school, except (in my opinion) the German system is much harder and is probably equivalent to at least the first year of college. Their school system is much more complicated, and to finish at a gymnasium means you get the highest possible high school graduation, the Abitur. The students take rigorous tests and grades from the last 4 semesters are factored into it. So it’s really exceptional to get it and something to be proud of! Students who get the Abitur are guaranteed acceptance at a university. Graduation was really nice, it started with a quaint church service and then we all walked over to the school. I couldn’t understand everything because some of the speakers spoke really fast, but it was a small class and it was fun to hear their teachers talk about them. They sang a song together as a class, “Hoch auf uns” (A Toast to Us” or “To Us”), a popular song here and I thought it was really fitting. I knew a few of the other kids in his class from my times being in Laatzen, I was really happy for all of them! After graduation, we had champagne together with the other parents. But AFTER that, we went to a nice restaurant to celebrate Felix. :)

And then the next day was Abiball. I had always thought it was like American prom, but it’s totally not! For starters, the  Abiball was much more about the families and it was formal. Felix’s Abiball was held at a dance studio (the perfect venue!) and had a really nice dancefloor and terrace. The families all accompanied the graduates, most had their grandparents and even siblings there. Everyone was dressed nicely. Teachers were also there.  There was a nice buffet dinner and we all sat and drank together. They voted for a “king” and “queen”, even though Felix said they usually didn’t do that. One of the students was a professional Latin dancer, so there was even a bit of a show! There was a parent-graduate dance, and then an open dance floor. Everyone, graduates, parents, and grandparents, danced the standard dances, like disco fox or jive. It was SO much more fun and classier than the usual American prom where students generally grind on each other. After the family part was over, at 11, the “After-Show Party” started, where friends joined the graduates and it was like a typical dance party, except everyone was still dressed nicely and still actually dancing (even if a bit drunk).  I really like how grinding is totally not a thing in Europe. It’s not my thing anyways, but even if I did, I think people in a club would look at me like I’m crazy.

All in all, I thought Abiball was much nicer than prom because it was more formal and family-oriented. The best part of prom for me, anyways, was always the dinner and activities like pictures with the families before prom and then afterwards doing something fun (Valley Hotel waffles, anyone?). So Abiball was all of that! For the cost of tickets, Abiball was worth much more than the overrated, overpriced prom tickets. I had a great night and a great time celebrating with Felix, and I’m so thankful I got to experience this part of German culture!

…watched the World Cup while being in Germany and it was SUPER DUPER fun!! Nobody in America even seems to really care (or at least in Alaska) but Germany was pumped. Whenever they won, everyone drove through the streets honking their cars. I’ve become good friends with a couple boys from my German class who are also really into soccer, so we watched most of the games together, which was really fun! We got together a few times to play soccer at a nearby field. Every time we played, more and more people we didn’t know would randomly show up and join, it was so fun! It was always just guys, but they still let me play with them, haha.

AND Germany WONNNNN! :D I saw the final match in the “VIP” section of the public viewing in Hannover (Felix is so wonderful). When Germany won, fireworks went off in celebration! Such a fun atmosphere and it was awesome to be in such a large, excited crowd!

…On the last day of school, the international office organized a farewell dinner for us. What a sad/happy dinner! It was so good to see everyone, but also know that this might be another painful “last”. UGH.

Before I went to the farewell dinner, I had coffee with Anne, the fantastic  fellow-ISEPer friend who picked me up on my VERY FIRST day in Bielefeld. We only met once in the year (IKEA trip, yayyy) and saw each other in passing a few times. Talking with her about the whole year and the experience gave me a chance to reflect and I felt a few pangs of nostalgia already?!

 After the dinner, my friends and I went to a really nice spot in the forest that had big open fields and a perfect place for a fire. We made flower crowns while roasting bratwurst and drinking (I was eating cookies, for the record…very me, haha), and listening to the music the others made (people brought guitars, a flute, a reed instrument that looked like a tiny clarinet, drums, and a rainstick! And some were fantastic singers!) It was such a wonderful evening and sunset, I could have stayed there all night, but I couldn’t because in the morning…

…I went hiking in the Teutoburger Wald on the organized trip with the International Office! We hiked about 7km between two famous landmarks in Nordrhein-Westfalen. We started at Hermanns-Denkmal monument outside of Detmold and hiked to Externsteine, which is also outside of Detmold. It was an all-day trip , including transportation to and from Detmold. At Hermans-Denkmal, we climbed to the top of the monument and looked out over the region. They said on a good day, you can see the Sparrenburg in Bielefeld! The hike itself also had some really nice views. Along the way, we went through some adorable hill villages where I’m 100% sure I want to retire when I’m old! It reminded me of Bavaria, with the “mountains” and little traditional villages. We also came across patches of berries along the way, so of course we had to make a couple detours! At the end, the Externsteine was really cool, we walked out of the forest and the suddenly, these giant rocks were just there! Our international office leader said that they are believed to be formed from a glacier long ago, but that they don’t reaaaally know. It was a great, long day.

 

Hermanns-Denkmal

Externsteine

And now, I’m writing this on a train…IN BELGIUM! Felix and I are spending this week travelling in Belgium and Amsterdam. I am SO excited to see Amsterdam again and, of course, explore Belgium. I have my laptop with me juuuuuuust in case I decide to start my 5 final papers, haha. Or at least I’ll try to brainstorm ;)

I can’t believe my time here is almost over. I got a little emotional while filling out the evaluation/survey for exchange students returning to UAS. It was hard to put into mere words how much I’ve learned and experienced. Since I’m travelling this week, I’ll miss the last days of some friends, and saying final goodbyes was a really weird feeling. “Have a happy life” just doesn’t sound right to say to people you’ve experienced the roller-coaster of exchange student life with. I felt this last semester too, and it was hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that I’m saying goodbye to people that I might very well never see again. I experienced this during March, when I travelled that month and met so many people that I shared once-in-a-lifetime experiences with, and it made me indescribably sad to think that maybe I’ll never see them again in my lifetime.

But for now, this is not another “last” ;) I’m aiming for one more blog post before this journey is over, a “last” to talk about such things, and we’ll see how much I have to say about Belgium and summer-time Amsterdam. :)

 Bis zum Nächstes Mal!

P.S. DEUTSCHLAND WELTMEISTER 2014!!!!!!!!

A Story Best Told in Pictures: Hrvatska

It’s summer time!

Kind of. Germany’s summer so far has proved to be a lot like Alaska’s: mostly cloudy with some really nice days that lull you into a false sense of security before the next cloudburst. The weather is okay though, since I probably wouldn’t be able to resist playing outside in sunny weather instead of going to class, anyways J

Luckily, I got to spend a week in a country that has BEAUTIFUL summer weather- Croatia!! Thank you RyanAir ;) 

One of my closest friends here, Tena, is Croatian and invited me to visit her during a mid-summer visit home, and it was AMAZING.

I could dictate the entire roadtrip, but honestly Croatia was so gorgeous, pictures tell it best.

All the trains going to Düsseldorf on my actual departure day were really inconvenient since my flight left at 9am, so I decided to just sleep in the airport. However,trains also weren’t going late from Düsseldorf to the actual airport (RyanAir has super cheap flights, but their airports are in the middle of NOWHERE so in the end it was a major inconvenience) so I decided to try my luck with a carsharing website, BlaBlaCar. I’ve heard both good and sketchy stories about carsharing, but it was one of my only options next to sleeping in train stations (sketchier than sleeping in an airport) and switching trains all night. I was lucky and the guy who drove was a really nice student from Bonn. We got to the airport without any problems and I thought it was really fun to hang out with a nice stranger for an hour and a half.

I flew into Zadar the next morning. Sunny Croatia greeted me with a beautiful seaside flying in and I was absolutely stoked for the week to come.

Tena met me in the historic city center (somewhat miraculously, since my phone was dead) and we spent the first day exploring Zadar. She’s been there before and was able to give me a little tour as we went. There is a university there that we walked by and it sits right on the edge of the sea- how perfect?! One class was having class outside! The old part of Zadar wasn’t so big so after eating and walking, we sat in a really nice café that was perfectly summery with little fountains and outside tables that were built into the faces of big rocks. Zadar was so lovely!

The University!!! Next to the seaside!!

At our wonderful cafe!

In the evening, we took a bus to Pag, the small island where Tena’s family has a summer house. The bus ride was entertaining because we sat by 5 guys from London who were just, so…British. Again, I enjoyed talking to nice strangers. The sunset as we drove to Pag was beautiful, a great end to the day as we arrived. We got settled in and ate dinner while watching TV. I learned that unlike Germany, Croatia doesn’t dub all their TV shows, so I got to watch TV in English for the first time since being here (with Croatian subtitles).

I could go on forever about their perfect seaside house! I loved that they had a little outside area that was covered by grapevines (the grapes weren’t ripe yet) and a barbeque pit- it was so perfect!

Looking out to the street from the house

The next day we laid on the beach and swam all morning. Seaside life is rough ;) Tena’s boyfriend, Filip, met us in Pag with the car we would use for the week. We napped in the afternoon ( after our exhausting morning and lunch, haha) and then headed back to the beach…where we laid some more. J That night there was a random little festival with food from different parts of Croatia (how perfect is that?!), music, and dancing. I ate grilled squid, which I loved.

Pag! 

The beach at Pag

The next day our roadtrip began!

We were driving to Filip’s family’s summer house in Vodice, but spent most of the day at the incredible Krka National Park. We hiked around and swam in the river that the waterfall was pouring into. I was blown away by the beauty of the park.  It was funny, Tena and Filip found it so strange to swim in non-salty water, but to me it had been weird in Pag to swim in salty water!

Krka National Park!! SOOOOO BEAUTIFUL 

We swam here!! :) 

We ended the day with a quick tour of Sibenik, another small seaside town on the way to Vodice. It was a little harbor town built onto a hillside/cliff. Finally, we arrived in Vodice where we would spend the night.

It was really, really hot in Vodice. We were at the beach again and were able to cool off but when we walked around the actual town, I felt the heat getting to me. Fortunately, we went back to the beach after walking around ;)

We packed up in the late afternoon and headed to Omiš, where we would spend the next two nights at Tena’s family’s (other beautiful) summer house. We arrived around sunset and climbed up to the old pirate fort overlooking the town. Her house was nestled underneath the fort, so awesome!

View from the living room window!

Looking down from the pirate fortress

Floating Lantern and the sunset! :)

We did a day trip to Split from Omiš. Split is Croatia’s second-biggest city. The old town is basically the remains of the palace of the Roman emperor Diocletian and the surrounding area. We had a tour through the palace and spent the day just walking though that part of the old town, it was really small but really old and pretty!

After our days in Omiš, we headed inland to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia where Tena lives with her family. On the way, we stopped and spent the most part of the day hiking at the Plitvice Lakes National Park, which had these gorgeous waterfalls and lakes. The water was unbelievably beautiful and blue!

We arrived that night in Zagreb exhausted and ready for pizza.

The time in Zagreb was also wonderful! Tena showed me around the city, and it was great to have a local with me! Zagreb has this wonderful, long street of cafes, SO MANY CAFES, where you can sit and have coffee for hours. If I lived there I would definitely go to all of them.

We went to a lake in the city with all of these swans and the water was SO WARM

One evening we went to their countryside house, an old house they have outside the city in a little town, and had a barbeque there. It was a really old house and Tena’s family used to produce wine there. They grew so much fruit on the property, we just walked around eating it from the bushes! I loved the traditional grill-food, which was mostly different meats and kebabs. Yum :)

On my last day, after 8 days of gorgeous sunshine, a thunderstorm came out of nowhere on my last day there. Luckily, we were “trapped” inside a traditional Croatian Štrukli restaurant, which was this delicious dish of baked cheese and streusel. I HAVE to try making it sometime!!

On my last night, the World Cup started, and the opening match was Croatia v.s. Brazil!! Everyone was going crazy and we all were wearing checkers. At one point, Croatia was beating Brazil, and it was absolutely mad!! Croatia played so good, even though they lost, and the atmosphere was so much fun!

And then, it was back to Bielefeld. I’m sooo thankful to Tena and Filip for sharing their country with me, it was unforgettable and I LOVED Croatia. It’s the kind of experience I would never have gotten to have if I hadn’t gone to Germany and met Tena. Love the doors that exchange can open :)