|
|
John's Last Report May 14, 2006 |
|
I really can’t
believe it, but today is my last full day in Now
we can start with the updating. It
will have to be rapid fire short summary style, because the last few
months have been blissfully filled with all kinds of amazing experiences.
With my last report I left off with January.
That brings us to February. February
was mostly characterized by FASCHINGS.
FASCHING MADNESS!!!! Fasching
is the German version of Carnival, and it is a really big deal in my small
town. Even though in my memory
it is somewhat glorified and over exaggerated, it seems like for the whole
month of February, my small town gave up normal life and broke down into
Faching mode. If not for the
whole month, then definitely for the last weekend.
This was when every Fasching club in town and the surrounding
villages pulled out all the stops for their biggest Fasching Premiere of
the year. When one counts all
the village clubs, there have got to be at least twenty.
A Fasching premiere is a long show that can sometimes last for over
three hours. It includes
comedy acts, dance routines, and dance routines from last year’s
Faschings premiere followed by more comedy acts.
Every song and dance routine is done twice, and three times if the
audience really likes it. I
will have to say that when I saw my first Fasching premiere in November, I
really didn’t like it all that much.
I was amazed that a show that a bunch of people put on just as a
hobby could last that long and seem so important.
“And is it really necessary to sing every song twice?!”, I
always wondered. Thankfully,
this time, I would say that I was really able to get into the spirit of
it. When one accepts Fasching
for what it is intended to be, then it starts to make sense.
One has to realize that it serves no purpose other than to be
something wholly ridiculous…..and thus fun an amusing.
When once accepts that fact, then Fasching suddenly isn’t so hard
to understand and can even be easy to enjoy.
Wearing a ridiculous costume including brightly colored wigs or
sequined bowler hats is essential. For
the close of the Fasching season, I attended four Fasching premieres, in
my town Apolda and the neighbouring villages of Niederoßla, Pfiffleback,
and Kleinromstedt. Who would
have imagined that one day I would have not only heard of all these
places, but also have attended three hour long slapstick comedy and dance
review shows in all of them. Going
through this experience was something that really made me feel like I was
deeply a part of the local life in my town and its surrounding
villages….quite an interesting experience that I will never forget….
March was the beginning of a two month
period of almost continuous travelling.
It all began on March third, when I travelled through Germany to a
small town near Hanover to attend my first Rotex weekend.
Rotex is made up of former exchange students who organize
activities and orientations for the current exchange students, and their
biggest task is organizing a three week Euro tour.
My district is rather small and doesn’t have that many exchange
students, and therefore no Rotex organization.
Because of that, I joined in with District 1800 near Hanover.
When I went up there, I was amazed at how different the feel of
their district was from mine. My
district provides us with two orientations, both of which I might describe
as being small and rather modest…. For
example, our “fun” activities included visiting a curative salt water
bath complex and singing folk songs around a campfire.
I do not want it to sound like I am complaining about the types of
activities that my district organizes.
Actually, I enjoyed both of our orientation very much, and I look
back to them as some of the places where I learned the most about German
culture. I just think it is
very interesting to see the different feel and focus that can exist among
different Rotary districts. So,
not that I have given some background information by describing the feel
of my district’s orientation, you all can understand the sense of
contrast that I felt when I first arrived at the district 1800
orientation. Suddenly, I had
stepped into ROTARY YOUTH EXCHANGE NON STOP EXTRAVAGANZA!!!
Uncle Bruce’s U-hauls full of food from Costco would not be out
of place. This is a summary of
the orientation: over fifty young people from all over the world crammed
into one tiny youth hostel in the corner of an abandoned castle for a
weekend. The “Rotexers”
tried to recreate the circumstances of a disco whenever possible.
Wonderful chaos and spontaneity reigned.
An infamous fixture of these orientations is the “Friday Night
Food Buffet.” All of the
exchange students are asked to brink “food.”
All of the food is laid out on the table, someone yells out the
German equivalent of “Have at it!”, and within an hour or two, it has
all been devoured. Amidst this
somewhat grisly scene was where I first met up with fellow district 6990
outbound Catherine, and we had a great long conversation about everything
that had been going on throughout our exchange.
Our concoction from the massive table of random food ingredients?
A classic: Peanut
butter and marshmallow sandwiches. There
was, of course, a worthwhile and educational part of the orientation.
During the day, we went to visit a checkpoint on the border between
East and West Germany. It was
especially meaningful for me, because I have been living in former East
Germany throughout my exchange. The
remains of the border checkpoint made all the unfortunate circumstances
that defined the lives of my host families for so many years under
socialist rule seem much more real. The
orientation ended with one more jerry-rigged youth hostel disco/ Fasching
party, and the next morning, everyone left with new friends and much
excitement for our Euro Tour….only three weeks away!
Before
Euro Tour, however, I still had one more very exciting travel opportunity
to look forward to. I left the
orientation and went straight to Hannover where I jumped on a night train
to Switzerland. There, I met
up with my mom and uncle’s former host brother for a week long ski
vacation in the Swiss Alps. Needless
to say, Switzerland was amazing. Not
only for the history, but also for the fascinating mix of cultures and
languages. I spent all of my
time in the German speaking part of Switzerland.
However, the dialect is so strong, that the first time I heard it
being spoken on the train, I couldn’t decide whether I was hearing
Russian or French. To add to
the confusion, I had a long conversation in German with a woman from the
French speaking part of Switzerland. What
was funny was that at the beginning of our conversation, she tried
speaking French with me, and later told me that she thought my accent in
German made me sound like someone who spoke French as their Native
language. Sadly, I haven’t
found anyone else who says that my accent when speaking German sounds like
a French person, but at that time I considered it a triumph, being able to
successfully speak a European language without being immediately
identified as an American or English speaker.
The rest of my week skiing was amazing.
On the days when we had good weather, I enjoyed great snow with
views of mountains like the Jungfrau and Matterhorn off in the distance.
When I was younger, it was always my dream to see snow.
Back then, I never would have imagined that I would one day be able
to enjoy skiing in the amazing beauty of the Swiss Alps!
Just as great as the skiing was the time that I spent with my
mom’s host brother and his family. By
the end of the week I really felt like a part of the family and it was
quite difficult to leave to head back up into Germany.
As
we read about in Suzie’s report, this year in Germany we have had one of
the longest winters that anyone can remember. Thankfully,
I had my anticipation for Euro Tour to get me through those last two weeks
of endless cold and grey when it should have already been spring.
I can summarize Euro Tour much like I did that first orientation
weekend: Imagine 46 young
people from all over the world, crammed into tiny youth hostels in twelve
major cities across Europe. We
took in the sights and culture in Brugge, Brussels, Paris, Geneva, Nice,
Florence, Rome, Venice, Ljubljana, Budapest, Vienna, and Prague. That’s
Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, Austria, and the
Czech Republic. What was
amazing was how fast one can travel between these countries, and how
quickly the languages, culture, and currency can change.
As long as one is travelling in European Union countries than there
is no longer even a border crossing, a symbol of how united Europe is
becoming and how much has changed over the past few years.
There are many wonderful memories from these three weeks, but right
now I will relate my two favourites. The
first one revolves around the weather.
I will never forget the blissful feeling that we all shared when we
first reached Southern France. To
see full blue skies once again! And
the warmth of the sun….. In
Nice I marvelled at the Orange and Banana trees, and the rocky beaches
were a paradise. Even though
it was still as cold as our winters, I couldn’t help but feel a
comforting sense of home. The
next memory is from Vienna, where two friends and I broke away (with
permission) from our sometimes too large group.
We had read in a guidebook that by waiting in a special line, one
could get three euro standing place tickets for the Viennese Opera.
We found the line, spent an hour waiting, and after running back
and forth across the old town of Vienna firs to meet our group for dinner
and second to change into somewhat nice clothes, headed out to the Opera.
We missed the first half, only taking in the second two hours, with
the thought that four hours of standing room only opera might just be a
little too much….. I will
never forget the first look when we walked through the doors into the
theatre. Our standing places
were actually pretty good, being right in the center of the back of the
main floor. Anyways, that
first look was comprised of an enormous set with an ornate Baroque set,
and some character was in full operatic swing complete with period
costume. I never imagined that
three teenagers could just so easily walk into such a traditional and
cultural setting as simply as we did.
I feel like so many Americans dream of experiencing European
“sophistication and culture.” We
chase after that dream all over the place, and so often end up getting
overwhelmed by the crowds and commercialism, but on that Wednesday night
in Vienna, we were just able to walk right in.
After Euro tour came one more great memory/ travel experience.
I met up with my parents in Amsterdam.
After being home for only two days, I jumped back on the train for
an eight hour ride up to Amsterdam. My
parents and I decided to meet there to take in the museums and special
exhibitions that have been set up to celebrate the artist Rembrandt’s
400th birthday. The
exhibitions were amazing, the city was beautiful, and my parents and I had
a great time together. On the
last night we met up with cousin /
fellow outbound Chip and some of my mom’s old German friends, all of
whom I had stayed with earlier this year.
It was wonderful to see everyone again, and we just had such a fun
time together. Suddenly
I had said goodbye to my parents and only had three weeks left in Germany.
Like the rest of my year (or ten months) they went by fast.
Before I knew it, I was going through a chain of enjoyable but
bittersweet farewells. I have
spent the last three nights enjoying long farewell dinners with host
families and friends. Every
one of these dinners seems to be a microcosm of all of the things that I
will miss when I go back to America. I
feel like German households are just so comfortable in a way that ours
sometimes aren’t. It seems
that here, people take more joy in the small things, all kinds of ordinary
little things that we might never stop to notice.
Sometimes I can’t even describe it, but it’s a feeling that I
will definitely miss. To use a
German word, it’s the feeling of gemutlichkeit….
I am extremely interested to see how my perspective will be
different when I come home. Here
I have gotten used to everything being slighty smaller….cars, houses,
kitchens, grocery stores, amounts that one buys food in, the amount of
trash that one generates…. Living
in another country that works harder at environmental friendly living has
helped me see how in America, we really are the world’s biggest
consumers…..something that we definitely need to work on.
I just have so many thoughts like that one, and I am so interested
to see what role they will play in my life in the future.
Hopefully, it will be a prominent role, and I will have my time as
an exchange student to thank for it. One
of my best farwells took place on Friday, when I visited one of my
teachers at her house. She had
helped all three of us exchange students a great deal with our efforts to
learn German. We sat in her
garden and just talked for over an hour.
Her Garden was beautiful, and one could see that she had put a lot
of care and time into it. She
told me about how she had grown up in this small town, and except for a
year of study in Russia (the only “study abroad” allowed in DDR days)
she had always lived here and been a teacher in this town.
She told me that she loved her life, that she was satisfied with
it. During this year I have
met many different people who live their lives in many different ways.
Overall, I have just seen something different.
I have experienced life in a small town, both what is nice about it
and what is not so nice. But
experiencing these differences has been so valuable, and it has given me
so many new perspectives. All
I have left to say is that I want to sincerely thank everyone who has made
it possible. | |
.jpg)