Birks, Castles, Cathedrals, Oh My!

Time is really flying by! I feel like every day goes by quicker than the day before. I've settled into my daily routine here pretty easily despite how busy we are kept.

A pic from Schloss Buerresheim

Climbing the ruins at Monreal

A few days ago, we went to the beautiful town of Monreal. It was felt as if we were stepping into a Disney movie. The town is settled in a valley with ruins on the surrounding hills and each house is built and painted in a similar style. Pictures really don't do it justice.

Classes are going well. My vocabulary has significantly expanded, however, I learn the most German when I go home and speak German with my host family. I retain more from hearing them speak and placing words in context than I do from a lecture.

Every afternoon after class, our group meets and does an excursion. This week, we explored nearby landmarks, including a monastery, a 14th Century castle, the Cologne Cathedral, and so much more. These little adventures have really helped us see how beautiful our surroundings are and have also helped our class bond. On my favorite excursion, we did a bakery test and I really wish I took pictures of all the sweets we ate! Everything tasted AMAZING! I probably gained 5 pounds that day!

My friend, Colleen, and I at the Maria Laach Monastery

In addition to all of the scheduled activities we have planned, our group spend a lot of time together. We love going to Alter Zoll, our favorite Biergarten, and to the Hofgarten, a park where all the college students hang out. We've been lucky with the weather, and it feels great to unwind at the park with everyone after class.

After class yesterday, a few friends and I went out to look for the Birkenstock outlet, which is a little outside of Bonn. We were in Birk heaven! To all of my Birkenstock friends-order Birks in Germany! They're a fraction of the price and have so many more models here.  

Shopping was a success!

The Cathedral in Cologne! Can you tell which tower's taller?

Cousin Time!

Jessica and I at the Cologne Cathedral

Just over two weeks in and I got to see a familiar face!

My cousin, who's been studying abroad in England over the past semester, came to visit me in Bonn for the weekend! If you know me well, you know Jessica is practically my sister, so it meant a lot to me that I could see her during our overlapping time in Europe!

We maximized our time together and explored Bonn and Cologne, but we agreed that we'd also like to unwind. So instead of non-stop sightseeing, we took it easy. We went to the zoo, and explored some of the local favs here (Biergartens, the Hofgarten, and, of course, a Döner restaurant.)

Overall, it was great  to catch up and make some incredible memories together!

Messing around at the Zoo!

Guten Abend, Bonn!

Hallo! I've officially made it to Germany and am LOVING it!

I thought that my non-stop on the go summer days would've come to a close by the time I reached Germany, but they most definitely have not. Between my host family, school and friends, there hasn't been much free time! But leave it to me to be round-the-clock busy.

So where to begin...

Host sister's selfie game is strong!

My host family is WONDERFUL! The family has welcomed me warmly into their house and I love coming home from school and spending time with them. The mom's Turkish-German so we eat a lot of Turkish cuisine, which furthermore makes me want to visit Turkey!  The two kids, Jetta (3 1/2) and Eda (1 1/2) are adorable and keep the house lively. They call me "Abla," which is Turkish for sister because "Kirsten's" too difficult to say. It's great to be in a house with small kids because it's definitely benefiting my German...and it's quite humbling to be corrected by a 3 1/2 year old...

The view from a few doors down from my house!

German "boot camp" started last week and it's going well. We have five classes a day separated by coffee breaks that break up the day. The classes have been very beneficial for expanding my vocabulary and reviewing grammar (those adjective endings will be the death of me.)

Our favorite Biergarten on the Rhein

When I'm not at school, I'm normally out with the group. Our favorite meet-up spot is at a Biergarten on the Rheine. When we're not there, we're in the city eating ice cream, shopping or going on spontaneous adventures. All of us have a severe case of Wanderlust. We're all beginning to make plans for traveling around Europe over the next year! For now though, we've been exploring Bonn and Cologne.

Breakfast with the German class

Last weekend, we went to Cologne for Koelner Lichter, a firework festival. The fireworks there put our Fourth of July ones to shame. After that, we explored the night life there and went to a "disko" (which is pretty much a club.) We had a lot of fun and quite literally danced the night away!






One last thing. I found out that after Bonn, I will be spending the remaining ten months in BERLIN! I'm pumped to be in such a big city!

The whole group at a gallery opening! We met some very inspiring people, including a U.S. Vice-Consul! 

Auf Gehts! Germany Round 2

Hey everybody! This is going to be my  blog over the course of this year. I'll be using it to update my friends and family about my travels and experiences while in Germany.

Many people continue asking me why I'm going on a "gap year" to Germany so, in short, this is why...I was selected as one of the 25 students to participate on Congress Bundestag Youth Vocational Exchange (CBYX.) This program is co-funded by our Congress and Germany's Bundestag (their Parliament) to celebrate and maintain a strong relationship between these two countries. For the first two months, I'll be in Bonn living with a host family and attending an intensive language learning school. Following that, I'll by in BERLIN attending a school for a few months and then moving onto an internship in the field of international relations/ business. This experience is going to a) help me become fluent in German b) gain experience working in a field of my interests and c) to make international friends and lifelong memories.

Although this experience will be filled with ups and downs, I'm beyond excited for what lies ahead and I will try my best to keep this blog updated!

Here's the link to the program:
http://www.nacelopendoor.org/exchange-programs/americans-abroad.html

Back in the Alps

I've grown up skiing in the Colorado Rockies, but ever since I watched one of my first Warren Miller Ski Movies, I've had my heart set on one day  skiing in the Alps.  Never would I have thought that I would already have the opportunity to do so.

For the last week of Christmas break, my host family and I went to Kitzbuehel, Austria to ski the magestical Alps.  The Alps are so much more different than the Rockies and I cannot tell which one I prefer because they're so different from one another.  The Alps are lower in altitude, but don't appear so because of their jagged, intense look.  They look similar to the mountains along the Continental Divide.  The jagged look of the mountains contrasted against the blue skies made the backdrop in Kitzbuehel jaw-dropping.  I couldn't believe I was skiing here.

The skiing was incredible the first couple of days.  My host brother and I have been skiing together since he studied abroad with my family two years ago, so we went off on our own and tracked down some sweet, virgin powder.  To my surprise, the terrain wasn't difficult, but the snow made up for that.  It unfortunately didn't snow anymore for the rest of the week, so the snow was skied out everywhere after a few days.   The upside to that was that the weather was warm and we even had the Colorado "blue skies."

But that's not all that made the trip so special.  It was great being spending one last week with my host family doing something that we will remember.  After we would ski, we just relaxed in town, talk and play games, like Uno and Tabu.  It was just a nice way to relax.

We also were away for New Years.  Oh my gosh is New Years wild here.  At midnight, fireworks were going off non-stop in every direction for twenty minutes...It was spectacular but, not gonna lie, it was also terrifying.  Then, on New Years Day, there was yet another, official firework show at the ski resort with the best, choreographed to music firework show (which tops every single 4th of July show I've seen,) a beautiful torch lit run and of course, skiers jumping over fire.  New Years is celebrated so much more here than it is in the States.  Let the new year begin!

An unforgettable Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

I hope everybody's having an amazing holiday season!

Christmas is so similar yet so different here.  But it's not only the fact that I'm in another country that makes things different, but instead it's the fact that I'm celebrating it with another family with their own set of Christmas traditions.  Although I've heard many stories of exchange students having incredibly tough times around this time of the year, that was not the case for me.  I've had one of my favorite Christmas' and felt the closest to my host family.

So I'll walk you through my German Christmas...

Christmas Eve was the highlight of the festivities.  I spent the whole day doing all sorts of Christmas activities with my host family.  We decorated our Christmas tree, went to church, sang carols, opened gifts and then ate a massive dinner.  At first, I thought it was strange decorating our Christmas tree a day before Christmas, but that's what most Germans do.  Our tree was so pretty.  Instead of a fake tree and LED lights like my family normally does, we had a real tree with candles on it.  The tree not only looked beautiful but also smelled really good.  With my host family, I did a lot of typical Christmas Eve activities that I normally do with my family, like going to church playing games and eating a big, German dinner, and that made me feel comfortable.  But what I enjoyed the most were the new traditions.

Our Christmas tree!

Although I hate singing and usually lip sync to songs, I actually accompanied my host family as we attempted to sing Christmas carols, both modern, well-known songs and traditional, folk songs, like "Oh, du froehliche."  It was a ton of fun and I'm pretty sure our singing would of blown your minds away.  I also liked how we opened our gifts on Christmas Eve.  Das Christkind ("Santa") came while we were at church and when we came back, we began opening gifts.   But unlike my family where we all open gifts spontaneously and at once, my host family did it another way, a better way that I want to bring back to my family.  We opened gifts one by one.  One person would go up to the tree and select the first gift they saw under the tree and say who it was for.  Then, while everyone's watching them, that person would open their gift.  And then the pattern repeats itself.  I thought it was such a cool tradition.  It killed a lot of time and it allowed us to talk and share the excitement of each and every gift.  As for gifts, I got a lot of jewelry and "German stuff," like a Muenster tea cup (as I've become addicted to tea here,) Gluehwein glasses, a customized 2014 calendar with pics from my time here, tons and tons of food, and a lot more!  There were a lot of sentimental things and that;'s exactly what I wanted! But I was more excited about presenting my gifts to my host family and friends...I wanted to give them something special, a tradition that they could associate with me and continue down the road.  So I gave everybody a little something very American.  I brought stockings with me filled with all sorts of American treats, such as candies (Hot Tamales, Reece's Pieces and gum) Mac & Cheese, Native American jewelry for my host mom, beer coasters and t-shirts from local, Ft. Collins breweries (specifically New Belgium) for my host dad and brother, coffee from Hawaii, local artwork, Oreos (a special request from one of my best friends here,) posters and bumper stickers with American quotes and posters of CO and Rocky Mountain Ntl. Park, gag gifts, photos, and so much more.

My favorite gift inside of of the stockings though was for my host mom.  I made a hand made photo album put together with pictures and memories from the last couple of months.  It was incredible seeing how much we've done in such little time and I just wanted to express to her creatively how grateful I am for everything she and the rest of the family have done to make my time here spectacular. It was a very sentimental, special gift to both give and for her to receive.

Raclette

Feeding the penguins at the zoo

Another big part of celebrating Christmas here was eating.  Lots and lots of eating and walking.  For Christmas Eve, we ate Raclette, which is probably one of my favorite German/ Swiss dishes.  It's similar to fondue, but better.  You just put veggies, fruits or meat into a dish with a special cheese on top and then let the cheese brown and melt.  It was perfection.  For Christmas we ate something what my host family compared to Thanksgiving dinner with a German twist as we were celebrating the holiday season, we were with each other (family) and mostly because we ate a huge turkey dinner.  But I like the German twist.  We swapped the American mashed potatoes and gravy for Semmelknoedl (a bread dumplings) and pumpkin pie for Lebkuchen and an ice cream parfait.  After eating, we always did something active and outside, like walking. Like I normally do with my family, we all went on a long, Christmas day hike at a nearby nature reserve that reminded me a lot of where I normally go with my family. We also went to the zoo and fed the penguins and elephants (no big deal.)

All of these activities really brought us together and made me feel even closer to my host family.  We were all so happy and spent countless hours with each other at the table just eating and talking.  I felt like I was a part of the family and that's an incredible feeling.  Before the holidays I felt that but nothing compared to the way it feels now.  Our relationship became stronger as more memories were created.  Plus, I spoke a lot more than I normally did, joking around and acting and speaking like I would in English (just simplified and most likely grammatically incorrect.)  I fully stepped outside of my comfort zone and in the end, it turned out perfectly!


Another difference between Christmas here and in the US in general is that in Germany, the day after Christmas is also a holiday celebrated a lot like Christmas Day, which was pretty much just more walking, eating, and family time (playing card and board games, talking, etc.)  I loved it.

This Christmas was by far one of the best Christmas's I've ever had and I will always remember the memories and stories formed during it.  I'm beyond grateful for everything my friends and family did here to help make this so special!

But there's more memories and stories to come within the next week as I'm heading off to Kitzbuehel, Austria for a week to go skiing with my host family! Skiing in the Alp, yet another dream come true!

More pics to come, but my host fam took most of the pics and I need to get them from them!

That would be my host brother...

feeding the elephants!

Final week of school

Farewell Annette Gymnasium

It's a bitter sweet feeling knowing that my time here is coming to an end and that I've completed my last ordinary week with schools and activities.  I'm looking forward to being reunited with my friends and family back home.  But, as I've already expressed, I want to stay here a few months longer.  Saying goodbye simply feels premature.

My biking buddies, Caro and Hannah!

The bonds I've formed by far surpass the amount of time I've been here.  I want this to continue and these relationships to only become stronger, which makes saying goodbye even more difficult.  My friendships will be put to the test as I return home but I'm positive that I will still stay in touch with my closest friends via Facebook, Snapchat, Skype and What's App. There are even a few who are seriously talking about visiting me (while they do au pair work of study in the US!)  So, to be optimistic, I'm thinking of some of these goodbyes as short term farewells and "see you again"s.

Corinna and I

Over the past week, I've been getting all of my friends from school and sports to write a note on my flag for me.  I've also been pretty busy with trying to take photos of everyday life here as I've realized that I haven't taken enough and that I want to remember these kinds of activities the most.  Everybody was so helpful and cooperative which alleviated so much potential stress.  Thank goodness!

My friend group <3

Going into my last day of school, my mindset was to make this the "best last day of school."  Giving it my all and looking back on it, I think I nailed that.  I spoke a whole lot and I enjoyed every second of the day. I went up and talked / thanked my teachers for all of their patience and help over the past semester, I talked with not only my friends, but also to people that I don;t normally speak a lot with and also exchanges Christmas gifts (I gave out cookies that I baked last weekend with my host fam as well as some American candies like Hot Tamales, Mike & Ikes and Reeces.)  Everyone was exceptionally friendly and talkative today because of break, making it easy to spark up quality conversations.  Plus, everyone in my friend group came up to me and had one last conversation and said one last goodbye, which meant a lot to me.  It was perfect and I couldn't of asked for anything better.  

"How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard."

Hip Hop