Erin’s Journals

November 10, 2024

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

Hallo Alle, Erin Hier! I can’t believe that it is already November! So much happened recently that I need to catch you up on.

On October 20th, we celebrated my host Oma’s birthday. My host mom drove up to Hamm (a town in North Germany) to pick up her mom and they drove back down so my host Oma could stay with us for some time and we could all celebrate her birthday together. The Friday before her birthday, we visited the Heidelberg Schloss and I got to talk to my host Oma a lot about her life and how she grew up in Germany. It was very interesting talking to her and getting to know her life story and the hardships of growing up in Germany during the cold war and after the unification of Germany. She told me a lot about how her dad worked while her mom stayed home and took care of her and her siblings along with managing all the cooking and housework. Talking to her was such an amazing experience because I was able to learn so much and was able to practice my German a lot more (she only speaks German). 

On her birthday, October 20th, my host mom, host sister, and I decorated the house and prepared a typical German breakfast with special candles around her spot at the table. Once my host Oma came down, we all wished her a happy birthday and showed her the gifts and cakes that were for her. My host sister and I had baked a Pflaumenkuchen (plum cake) and my host mom had baked an Apfelkuchen (apple cake). During the afternoon we went for a short Spaziergang and then ate the cake in a little picnic with coffee and tea. My host cousin and host sister’s boyfriend were also there to help celebrate. For dinner that night, we had raclette which is a traditional Swiss. Each person has a little dish that they can put mushrooms, meat, onions, olives, and other things in. You then place a piece of raclette cheese overtop and put it underneath a hot stone (now metal and an electrical plug in) where it cooks everything and makes the cheese bubbly and crispy. 

Every person in year 11 at my school has to do a SozialPraktikum (Social Internship). The theme for this year at my school was compassion which meant working at a kindergarten, old peoples home, primary school etc. For my Praktikum I worked at the Grundschule (primary school) that is connected to my Gymnasium (high school). I started on the 14th of October, and on my first day I was really nervous because I didn’t know what to expect. To start, once I found my class, the lions, I introduced myself to them and they got to ask me a few questions they had. The class is 23 students and the third grade. The teachers switch depending on what subject the class has so I got to know multiple of the teachers at the Grundschule. Many of the questions they had for me included how old I am and where in the USA I’m from. During each school day, I would help their teachers pass out papers, answer questions, and help during lessons. 

It was very interesting seeing all the differences between primary school in the US versus here in Germany, for example students get a long lunch break for around an hour forty minutes where they will have around 30 minutes to each lunch and then have the rest of the time as free time. During this free time, they have different activities they can do such as play on the playground, work on different projects in the workshop, or learn new songs in music. The school I was at is also a bilingual German and English school so around ⅓ of the classes that the students take are in English. I was especially able to help during English (obviously), science (which was taught in english), and math (it translates over easily and I can explain it easily in german). It was a fantastic experience and I got to see so many new things that are part of German culture such as how they celebrate birthdays in school, what they do during their free time, and so much more. I worked at my Praktikum for around a week and a half and the teachers told me I could stop by anytime to visit the students that I became friends with, which would be fantastic.

We had our first trip with Rotary during Herbstferien (Fall Holidays) in late October. The tour was 9 days long and we visited some of Germany’s biggest cities, along with some of the most famous destinations. The trip was not only my district, but another district, 1870, that is located farther north and includes cities such as Düsseldorf and Münster. All the trips run by my district (1860) and the other district (1870) are run by the ROTEX which is really great because they understand everything you are going through and are also similar in age to all of the exchange students. There were six ROTEX on the trip and one Rotary adult who stayed with us for the whole trip. 

To start, we all met at Mannheim Hauptbahnhof so we could load all of our luggage onto our double-decker bus. It was hard to get to know the other district at first because we were never officially introduced, but everyone was just going around introducing themselves to each other which was great! It was hard to get to know everyone though in a group of around 70 exchange students! Once we had loaded all the luggage, we started driving to our first stop, the Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart. We were given around two hours to walk around and look at all the different cars, plus all the history of the museum. It was so interesting being able to see the beginnings or cars up until current day! After we had gone through the whole museum, we loaded back up onto the bus and drove to where we would be staying for the next couple days, München (Munich). 

We stayed in Munich for three days and would take different day trips to the surrounding area to places such as Schloss Neuschwanstein and Dachau Concentration Camp. Neuschwanstein was one of the most beautiful castles I have ever seen and the inside was even more decadent than the outside (sadly you couldn’t take photos inside). 

Visiting Dachau Concentration Camp is a very important part of German history no matter how sad it may be. Our group was given a guided tour through where we got to learn the history behind the Concentration Camp and how it started out as a prison for political prisoners before it was used for other means by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Regime.

Normally in each city we would be given free time to go on our own along with getting a 10 Euro allowance for dinner. During this time, I would normally go explore the city with my group of exchange student friends and we would find a place to get dinner. Even if you didn’t always agree on what you wanted to eat on a certain night you could find a compromise such as getting one person's food first, and then getting what everyone else wanted. This happened one night when me and my exchange student friend from Michigan both wanted Asian food, but the rest of our group wanted pizza. You always find different ways to make it work though.

After our nights in Munich, we drove to Dresden which is known for beautiful architecture. It was such a beautiful city and smaller compared to Berlin and Munich which made it amazing to walk around. Some of the most well known buildings in Dresden include the Semperoper and Frauenkirche. It was amazing to see all the beautiful architecture both during the daytime and also at night.

We only spent one night in Dresden and the next day, we traveled to Berlin where we would spend the next three nights. We were not only given a tour of Berlin by the Rotex, but we also were given free time where we got to explore and visit some very interesting monuments and places such as the East Side Wall Gallery. We also took a day trip to Potsdam to visit the famous Schloss Sanssouci (Sanssouci Palace). After Berlin, we drove to Hamburg where we stayed for the last two nights of our Deutschland Reise. I can’t go into details about everything, but let me tell you there is so much to explore and visit in every city we went to!

Let me tell you though, going back from such an amazing trip to going back to school is a rough turn around. Thankfully, school here is very interesting and I am slowly able to use more and more German in class and when talking to friends. For example, I have to do a GFS in my biology class related to the cell cycle and cancer. A GFS is a presentation done in a class of your choice that counts for a test grade. Related to learning German, I had my first German dream in October! I wasn’t expecting it because learning a language is such a slow and steady process (plus I didn’t really believe that dreaming in another language would really happen). I was so excited and it showed me that I am getting better at German even if it doesn’t feel like it.

Another very interesting event I got to go to with one of my friends from school was an US election watching party. It was held by the DAI (Deutsch American Institute) Heidelberg where they had the news playing, election trivia, a jazz band, and a debate between two US citizens who had lived in Germany for many years. It was very interesting to hear the opinions of the German people there during the debate, because if someone thought a topic wasn’t being talked about a lot they would shout something about it or if one of the debaters said something they agreed with everyone who agreed would start clapping. I also got to meet and talk to Heidi Ramsey, a representative from the US Consulate General Frankfurt who came and talked at the beginning of the party. It was such an interesting experience and it is amazing how interested people in Germany are about US politics.

Tschüss, bis zum nächsten Mal! (Bye, till next time!)