The Start of my Study

Hey Readers (I know you're there!),
Check out this sunrise, it was my first morning in Celle. I couldn't have thought to make it any more beautiful.

Thanks Maryann and Mom for your input! The title of my story is the ‘Grandma’s aren’t so nice’. You can see at the bottom I included some pictures from the week spent in Washington D.C. that I never got to show.

Here’s the story.



I go to Oma’s (Grandma’s) for the competition; I can’t help it I’m a competitive person. I can run fast alone but I prefer to race so I can cross the finish line first. I don’t compete to be first, I compete to find out my limits. That doesn’t mean when running a hundred kilometer sprint, I don’t thoroughly enjoy the gap behind me and my competitors. At least once a month Nadia and I visit our Grandparents. Nadia goes because Grandma always buys her favorite chocolate and cooks her favorite soup. I go to talk with Opa (Grandpa) about ‘the old days’ and play board games with Oma. Her sister lives in the same village as her, so when we wipe the dust off the board game box we invite her over to play too. I included a picture of how the board looks in a December post but I’ll show another one.

Here are the rules if you’re ever to come across this game. Each player gets a dice, whoever rolls the highest number starts. The starting player can roll three times; you need a 4 to remove the blocker chip. You can place the chip anywhere on the little black circles (where the players go), but when beginnings it’s more fun to put it directly in front of someone’s house. Next player, same story but if they have the chip in front of their house they need a one to get out. After the first round of each player (maximum of 4) rolling three times, it starts from the first player and they are only allowed to roll one. When he/she rolls a six, they're allowed to roll again but have to use the six first. If all of your players are blockaded by the chip you have to forfeit your turn. The point of the game is for all 5 pieces in your house to make it across the board, and through the Door, without being knocked out from when another player lands on you.

After coming home from Berlin, I packed my bag in five minutes and rushed out the door to drive to Grandma’s with Nadia. For dinner we had warm milk with a piece of bread torn up and thrown in (first and last time I will eat that). With full bellies we all took our seats (Grandma’s sister too).  Two pots of ‘Relaxation Tea’ later, Nadia and I had only two players left in the game, and the two Oma’s had all of theirs. When the game starts it’s funny to land on people and to send them back to their house, but after four hours of playing and the rules begin to change then we’re not laughing so much. As the game develops we insist on new rules such as ‘when it is a players turn, no other player is allowed to talk or they have to sit out a round’. Nadia made this rule because I would always overlook a turn to knock Nadia out and Grandma would give me advice. Grandma makes it appear like she wants to win, but she just enjoys sending everyone’s players home. Tante Hedwig (Aunt Hedwig) Oma’s sister, has only one time ever gotten a player through the Door, so she plays for the company. Nadia plays for the chocolate that the Oma’s bring.

 It was Nadia’s turn, two 6’s and a 4. She wasn’t able to land on Oma’s player that was standing two spaces away from the Door. She went to move another piece but I recounted her steps, nope she couldn’t land on Oma. I rolled my dice a millisecond before Nadia was done, a 5. Everyone, except Oma, concluded it didn’t count because I rolled too early. I rolled again, one 6 and a 3. I could land on Oma! As I reached for my player she screamed ‘stop, stop, stop’ over our laughter. She was so happy before she had one player almost free! Before I could knock her little blue piece over in sweet success, with a brush of her arm she cleared the board completely. Tante Hedwig was laughing, and Nadia stared at her with a ‘what?!’ face. She insisted that I should have sit out a round because I recounted on Nadia’s turn. But the rule was that I didn’t say anything, and I didn’t. I thought it was hilarious. Here’s this little Oma with her perfect circle glasses drinking her tea, and she in a frenzy practically flips the board over. ‘I guess I need to buy some stronger Relaxation tea, huh?’ she said and we all broke out into laughter. We ended up talking until 1 a.m. and eating a fruit cocktail mix. I always leave my Grandma’s with a sore side from laughing so much.

The pictures! For any desperate CBYXers who made stumble upon my blog and want to read how the Washington Week went, I'll write a complete blog on that later.



Arriving in Washington D.C. from Connecticut
Hallway or dance floor? Hahah, hallway.



Day after flying out from D.C.
All exchange students in Frankfurt, Germany Airport
At least people from twenty different countries were present



















Next Sunday six AFS exchange students are coming to our school for two weeks as a part of a ‘Midyear ‘program. Another AFS’er from South America is coming to finish the year with Chiara, Claudia, and I in our school. As for me, a new semester has started which is a fresh beginning. When I arrived at school I was over a month behind which made it extremely hard to do homework. But not that we’re starting with new topics I can do the homework with more success. I’m excited to go to school again!


Roof of the Washington D.C. Mall
Last place where you can find pumpkin chocolate before landing on German soil
They make almost nothing with pumpkin here!!

  

In front of the Cannon Building after my meeting with
the representative of Joe Courtney, we talked for two hours!

Time's starting to fly quickly. Some of my classmates are alreading wearing floral print, which means Spring is around the corner! It feels like yesterday I was sitting in my Geometry B math class, staring out the window thinking about how cool it would be to go to Germany.

I also downloaded a Bible research program. It includes Commentaries, the Bible in multiple versions, the Greek dictionary, and the Hebrew dictionary. There are a million other helper tools, it is incredibly phenomenal and FREE. Here is the site:
http://www.e-sword.net/support.html

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)

to God be the Glory,
Genevieve



The Art of Slowing Down

This post is a little bit different than the others, rather than explaining what I did I want to share a concept that I learned and talk a little bit about the language learning process. I also included some pictures throughout the entry with little captions so you can have a visual!

Forest of birch trees near Oma's (Grandma's) house. For you mom :)

This week was the first time that I did not have an orientation or tour of any big city in my surrounding area. Which means it was my first real week as a resident. I never had the chance to come to terms that I would be away from my family and friends  when I was America, time passed to quickly. Now that I have said my goodbye’s, met with dozens of people from and with AFS, took a plane across an ocean,  landed in Frankfurt Airport, stayed in Lower Saxony for a month for a language camp, and moved four hours away to where I currently live…have I realized what has taken place. I think this happens to a lot of us, we get so involved in our lives that somehow our minds don’t actually process what happens.

I am moved to consciously live, I do this by writing what I learned every night. I don’t want a day to pass and I don’t learn something, big or small, as long as each day I am advancing.  I also every now and then stop and take a deep breath. It seems to bring my focus back to the present, which can so easily escape us sometimes. My focus is normally very sharp and keen, but I have found during the time here my mind is very quick to shift to autopilot. I am so grateful to say that I can understand about 85% of the conversations going around me at all times, but it comes with a price. After school I need an hour of sitting (literally just sitting with my eyes closed) to slow my brain down. I am twenty four hours a day, seven days a week translating. I am dreaming now in German.

Each day the headaches come less often and without such intensity, which is a step in the right direction. As I was talking and waiting for the train to Hamburg with my friend Nadine and her sister, the question arose why can I understand so much and speak so well with such a small background of the language. Here is the truth with becoming bilingual in a cultural submersion experience against what one would normally expect. One would think, ‘I hear the language all day every day, read it in the newspaper, hear it on the radio and TV, the language will come with time’. I agree, the language will come with time but to excel the learning process and exceed expectations one must be diligent. I have an inch thick notebook of words that I have heard, looked up in my dictionary, wrote down and read before bed. It is a demanding process, but there is a sweet victory every time I hear or read a word that I didn’t know the day before. Because that means I am one word closer to becoming fluent, one word closer to better communication.

Last week I gave a presentation about the American governmental system in 1781 to my history class, I cherished every moment of it. Yes I made grammatical mistakes, but both the teacher and the students were enthralled with the context and the extent of my vocabulary. They don’t know that behind the presentation I practiced with my host parents, wrote the information with my host sister, and spent hours flipping through my dictionary. This mentality or mindset, to give something your everything comes from a childhood experience. I was cleaning my room, which means stuffing everything under my bed, and my mom walked by and somehow knew exactly what I was doing and simply said ‘when you do something, anything..do it as if you’re doing it for the Lord’.

After applying this scripture to my life, I’m glad to say that it has brought unbelievable amount of benefits. I am accomplishing something right now that I never dreamed of doing in my life and enjoying every moment of it. The point is that you don’t have to be in another country to experience what I’m feeling, you can live your everyday for God. Sing with all you have, play and create with all that is within you, and take Sunday’s off J. Let me know what you guys think about the pictures, and if you have any questions feel free to ask!



Fresh oven baked bread with salami and mild cheese sauce, at the Christmas Market.



First and last time eating these.... noodles.



View from the ferris wheel at the Schwerin Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market)

Finished baking Nadine's 18th birthday gift! Yum yumm.

Sonneausgang (Sunset)









Sonneaufgang (Sunrise)

Italian boat at the Hamburg Harbor

Picked up my cello at Cello & Co., in Hamburg

Until next time!

Genevieve

Wonderful World

Last week started with a home-cooked spinach garlic noodle omlette with Russian soup. Russian soup can also be served with whip cream, and somehow I am strange for suggesting banana bread? In any case, I have yet to eat something that doesn't utterly delight me. Gabi has a wonderful sense of just how much seasoning to put into a dish. Sometimes I help in the kitchen and we work side by side dicing potatoes which I am proud to say is a skill I am acquiring. Most days afterschool I go for a walk through a nearby forest. I call it my place of sleepy trees that are tired of holding their leaves. As each day passes by it has gotten colder and the sky is more barren with its loss of autumn color. Everyday is a 'warm tea, fuzzy socks, cute shaped chocolates, and Bible reading' day for me.

Naturally, cuddly days need really busy days so they seem more cuddly. I took a couple pictures of one of the 'busy' days in our resteraunt. It started with an early breakfast and peeling potatoes. As I was dicing, there was a quick buzz at the door. 'Cake is here!' hollered Gabi from outside. As I helped her pack six or seven hand crafted cakes from the car into the kitchen freezer she explained that all of the grandma's in the village made a dessert for the party. I'm not sure if Gabi could see my face (eyebrows up, eyes wide, and open mouth) but she reassured me I would get a taste later. It was a thirty guest birthday party from noon to six p.m., we cooked unbelievable amounts of potatoes, sauerkraut, red cabbage, carrot salad, sticky potato balls with bacon on the inside, ham, beef, schnitzel, green beans, brussel sprouts, wedding soup, and fresh steamed vegetables.  I enjoyed hearing the warm laughter from the kitchen as Gabi and I chit chatted over the differences between the US and Germany. (She was in the US for a month to visit Marcus (her son) who did an exchange program two years ago). Somedays it seems that I'm living in another state in America because it seems so familiar, and some days it feels like I flew to another planet instead of Germany.

Speaking of planets, this is a picture taken from the Hamburg train station which is beginning to decorate for Christmas! I went with my friend Nadine to help her find a birthday dress for this upcoming weekend. Unfortunately we didn't find one, but I did get to see Hamburg before Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market), which is 'shoulder to shoulder packed' Nadine said. Below is a picture of the train station  in the afternoon, it seems people from all over the world ride into Hamburg. I have never seen such a variety of cultures, styles, and hairstyles in my life. I visited a nearby Starbucks, but was disappointed at the lack of merchandise and the more than usual expensive coffee prices. Between savoring every sip of my high priced coffee and a saxophone player lullabying the market with the song Amazing Grace it was an incredibly relaxed atmosphere. There was a balance between bustling shoppers, communing friends, and  leasurely couples both young and old. I couldn't help but hum to myself Louis Armstrongs's Wonderful World song. Normally, it's hard for me to travel into the city because it is too much for my mind to comprehend all at one time. But I prayed in the morning, and ended up having one of the most sentimental days here yet. Praise God for turning my fear into joy everytime I call on His name. Without Him renewing my strength, and changing my perspective daily I would not see this world and His glory so wonderfully. Not to mention, He has blessed me with incredible company for friends. I will be visiting Hamburg again in the following weeks with Nadine to buy Christmas gifts and keepsakes for when I travel back home. If I had to compare Hamburg to anything, it would have to be Time Square. But of course, time square doesn't have hand made chocolates from Europe :)

 

Until next week...Genevieve!

A Week of Firsts

Hello All,

A lot has happened over the last week.

I visited the castle in Schwerin,

 bought a winter jacket,

had my first kiwi sundae (phenomenal),

took my first math test in another language

missed the bus to school

 took the wrong bus home

played and lost my first german board game

got bitten by an insect while I was sleeping

 had my first sick day from school

climbed my first apple tree

found my hang out spot at a nearby park near this lovely big tree

ripped a new skirt playing with my host sister

 made apple/chocolate/walnut/banana bread (not worth a picture)

redeemed myself from last week with this pumpkin spice bread

and pumpkin soup with bacon (not together with the banana bread)

Thats my week in a nutshell with some photo graphs...now in a little more detail.

There’s not too much to say about the castle in Schwerin because I didn’t get a tour or stay too long inside. It was incredibly beautiful outside but yet I was outvoted in my host family and ended up shopping the whole day. Which was great because now I have a winter jacket, but I will definitely be visiting the castle again because it is:

Older than America

Very, very big and pointy

Across from an art museum, and a theatre that is playing Summer Nights Dream this month.

Nevertheless, here is an incredible picture of the street lamp outside of the castle.. just to give you an idea how detailed the whole castle is.

Since my last blog (my birthday), I had four more free days from school vacation days. Two of which I spent at my host grandma’s house, knitting, taking pictures of my neighbor's horses, and taking long walks/bike rides around her dorf (very small village). I was inclined to do so much physical activity because I wanted to see the fall scenery…and I am gaining kilograms! 1 kg = 2.2 lbs. kindof freaking out over here. But how can you say no to grandma’s home made apple sauce? And home made mashed potatoes? You simply can’t. But I’m working on cutting my portions in half (which is hard because I hate to see people throw food away) and hard when you have home fries and bacon or curry chicken noodles or fresh fish and potatoes or schnitzel for dinner. Ahh jahh what a hard life I live over here.

School is getting better, but I tend to get quite a lot of headaches during class. I have no problem with the language but I’ve found my brain has its limits. The last six people in my class 11c came back from Michigan last week and I got to meet them all for the first time. Very nice. We were discussing in English class (in English) the trip and doing a little Q&A with me. I asked what did they eat during their stay and the answer was fast food. Come on host families, let’s not be typical Americans! A little salad, carrots, avocados or sprouts how hard is that now? Which preluded into my class asking…

‘what is your favorite fast food restaurant?’

My answer, ‘I hate fast food...’

‘what is your favorite drink? Mountain dew?’

‘I don’t drink soda, and my favorite drink is avocado/goat cheese smoothie’

I wish you could have seen their faces (I get the same face in America for the favorite drink question), holla for breaking American stereotypes!  

All in all a wonderful week. I'm still totally grateful everday for the opportunity both God and CBYX allowed me to be here in Germany. Naturally, I miss home but each and everyday I'm starting to feel a little bit more at home here.

Blessings, Genevieve!

My First Entry

Well Hello!

I'm sure not too many people will read this but I promised myself if I won the CBYX scholarship, I would make a blog to illustrate my journey. My name is Genevieve, I'm from Connecticut and I am apart of the 2011-2012 CBYX finalists, (yay!) I will be going for my senior year of high school. For those that made it congratulations, and those that didn't-try next year. Either way, the suspense was awful for the both of us. Not to mention the interview. So in lieu of procrastinating my stoichiometry homework..let me fill you in on what has happened so far.

I'm taking a German class already, so I'm learning the basics. Dative, Accusative, Nominative, Genitiv, Masculine, Feminine, Neutral, Past Participle blah blah blah. So, one day she has a pamphlet for this opportunity and recommends it to the class. I really think that my classmates must have been sleeping because they all seemed quite lifeless (school starts at 7:20), whereas I jumped up and grabbed the first one. I started that night. There are about five or six essays that have to be 250 words long, which was pretty hard for me because I like to talk talk talk. Anyways, I completed the general forms and medical stuff then waited back to hear if I was a semi-finalist. I was! Now what? Another email- a continuing medical form and teacher recommendations. I ended up having to get a couple shots to check for something, but ew! Shots! So, we sent those in and waited once again. I don't remember how long it was until we heard back that I had an interview in NYC. My mom and I made the reservations that night and were totally stoked. 

Time passed, then the weekend was here. My mom boarded onto a bus for the long ride up. In order to distract myself from being TOTALLY NERVOUS, I wrote a paper for an engineering class I was in. The bus ride wasn't bad, but the city. Oh the city. My town is on the rural side so I'm Never prepared for city congestion. We had to do some last minute shopping once we got settled because I had left some stuff in my room (oops!). (Simply dealing with NYC salesman is a totally new blog in itself, maybe another time). After a long day of shopping and wandering around, we were more then ready to sleep in our cozy hotel beds. 

(I'm getting butterflies just writing this!) The morning of the interview arrived (the next day), apparently I was so nervous my mom and I assimilated a fake interview session so I would be more prepared or something. It calmed my nervous enough until I got there. It was a huge looming building, and the security guard freaked me out so when he told me the buttons to press for the elevator (which is common sense) I pressed this big lit up sculpture thing on the wall... yep.. a nervous wreck. For the sake of time, and I'm getting tired- the interview went kinda well I thought (they were all super cool and relaxed). Now was the worst part, the wait! I prayed about the decision, saying God if its your will allow me to go, if it's not I will be more than willing to stay at my high school- as long as its your will. ALMOST TWO MONTHS LATER, we hear back and I'm in. We were expecting a phone call or Something, but nope- only an email saying Congratulations! 

Now I'm here, writing this blog I promised myself I would make. Even if it's next year and you applicants want a word of wisdom on the whole process let me know- I definitely could've used someone to help me through it. The only website I could find was this really long blog that I couldn't understand. And if you're a winner/finalist get in contact with me too! We'll be meeting at some point. 

Until next time, Just Genevieve!