Suzie Reports from Germany

November 16, 2005

Hey Everyone,
  So the last time I wrote, I was on my way to the Netherlands. All I have to say is "Wow!". I don't think I've ever seen a place more beautiful. Narrow winding streets surrounded by trees, canals, and big white houses towering over the streets. We went to a little town in the country side called Thorn. We got up early to meet the rest of the Rotary Club (plus the wives) at Siegerland Halle, where we all piled on a big bus for the three hour drive. As we all got off the bus, the first thing I saw was this huge, gorgeous farm house that looked out of a storybook. It was in the middle of a green field with a lake behind it, all stone. That was just my first impression. As we were driving our huge bus through the narrow streets, I was sure we were going to get stuck. More than once, we got lost in the old, windy lanes, and I learned how long I could hold my breath waiting for the bus to make it around the corner without knocking one of the picture perfect houses down. We made it alive and in one piece without hitting anything though. *sigh of relief. The houses are seriously so....quaint! They are little white two story houses like you see in Disneyworld. I even saw clogs hanging from someone's house! The town itself was so cute. Crystal clear canals and streams ran beside the streets, often right under people's front door. All of these houses had their own bridge to their door, along with a door right on the water where, I suppose, you could just pull up in a, very small, boat. I felt like I had fallen into a fairy tale. After a short meeting with the sisterclub of my Host Club (they were the ones we were meeting in the Netherlands) we all filed up to take a tour of an old Cathedral. This just added to the fairy tale atmosphere; it was built in Gothic style and modeled after an old Cathedral that was destroyed. The entire inside was guilder in gold where it wasn't pure marble. It was so beautiful. The alter was a work of art: golden clouds hanging above a baby Jesus scene. We preceded to the basement where I was appalled to find real dead bodies of people who had buried here centuries before. Not only that, and this must be the Jew in me, but I was really disturbed, once again, by the relics of these ancient saints. This cathedral had an entire humerus bone preserved in a great golden case put on display for everyone to see. Why can't they just pray to the whole person with a picture or something instead of to an arm bone? I understand but it just doesn't make sense to me; I wouldn't like to pray to an arm bone of someone long dead.
     So after a HUGE lunch, we all got back on the bus and headed back to Germany. Life here has really fallen into a pattern: School, German lessons, studying, dancing, and, since recently, horseback riding. So there isn't much to tell about everyday things. I'll just tell the highlights. Halloween came and went. It's really not a big deal here at all. I had my whole room decked out though with skeletons and spiders. When Monday came around, I decided to show my Americaness by celebrated my favorite holiday in my own way. So I dressed all in orange and black and wore all my halloween paraphernalia. I was disappointed when no one could even put two and two together. They just thought I was really weird, they didn't figure out it was Halloween. We had that Tuesday off though, so my friend and I went out looking for a Halloween party. Not finding one, we ended up walking through the entire town, coming back to my house, and watching Ms. Congeniality. It was surprisingly really fun. I also went to my first Rotary Meeting with my host club on Halloween. There I listened to my future host sister tell about her year in Chile and presented the club with a Florida Keys Conch (actually from the Bahamas) and a flag from my Sponsor Club in Marathon.
     I've spent some of my time trying to get to know my other two host families. The entire family (minus my host brother because he had a previous commitment) was invited to dinner at my next host family's house. That was really awesome. We got there and they had the whole house lit up with candles and this really cool stove thingy on the table where we cooked our own meat for dinner over bunsen burners. We had a wonderful evening and my future hostmom even gave me some pins for my blazer. For those of you who don't know: Rotary gives all the exchange students blazers at the beginning of the year. Our job with them (not officially of course) is to fill them with as much pins and junk that we can stick on it. So the exchange students all exchange pins from their home countries and people put flags, keychains, and just the wierdest things all over their blazer. Mine is about half full on the front. Haven't even started on the back yet. Anyways...... I also spent an afternoon with my third host family. I have two sisters who live at home (Helen 18, and Siri 15) and a brother who's studying in Universtiy, so he doesn't live at home (I get his room). We spent the entire afternoon eating cake (their mom makes a mean pumpkin pie, my first since I left home) and playing monopoly while listening to music from Chile. It was so wonderful. This past Thursday, they even took me to a play. It was about a Muslim storekeeper making friends with a Jewish boy who steals from him. The boy comes from a really screwed up family and after his dad dies, the Muslim ends up adopting him. It was so touching and great. It dissolved a lot of stereotypes I had about muslims.
      Dunja and I had an opportunity to go to this great Jazz fest. The city closed down the local mall and set up stands all over the place. It was absolutely amazing. There was this one woman, we listened to her until her act was done, that was absolutely amazing. She was American, and singing a great repetiore of songs with her own flare. She had the entire ground floor of the mall singing along with her and we just had an awesome time. There was German and American music; blues, soul, rock 'n roll, and of course jazz. We stayed there until 12 at night just listening to amazing artists.
     November 6th was my host-brother's birthday. I had the opportunity to see what a real German birthday celebration is like. We all got up early and went to the dining room, where my host parents had set up the entire room with candles, the cake (which I made yay!!!) and all the presents. After breakfast and the opening of presents, we all headed out to a small town where we were meeting my host-mom's uncle, who was also celebrating his birthday. There we had a huge, very German lunch. It lasted almost 3 hours. I was completely stuffed. Everything was set up so nicely in this little in where we were eating. It was awesome. You should check out the pictures when I can send them to the rotary website (thanks alba!).
    I've also started horseback riding. I went to my first lesson last week and left so frustrated. The horse I had WOULD NOT MOVE!! I sat on him for an hour, trying different rein lengths, different ways to put my weight, different ways to dig my heels into him, but I could not get him to stay in a trot let along past a trot! I was so frustrating I wanted to cry. But it was still so much fun. I'm going again this week. :) Hopefully I'll have another horse.
     This past week was also St. Martin's Parade. This is something I'd never even heard about but it's a lot like Halloween, except only for really little kids. Early November, all the Gründschulen (basically elementary schools but younger) organize a night were all the little children meet. In class, they make paper lanterns where they will later light candles. The night of the parade, they all line up behind a guy in a red cape on a horse. They follow him with their lighted lanterns singing songs and trick or treated at houses they pass. It was so cute seeing these little kids bundled against the cold singing songs and swinging their lanterns. The story is that a great noble named Martin was riding on a cold, snowing night through a city when he saw a hungry, cold beggar. He took his sword, cut his red cloak in half, giving half of it to the beggar. Then he gave him his food so he wouldn't be hungry anymore. At the end of the "parade" the kids get things called St Martin pretzels, which are shaped like pretzels but are of a different dough and sprinkled with sugar instead of salt. They also get man-shaped men with plastic pipes. I'm not quite sure what the pipes mean but I intend to find out.
     I've also taken the time to try German hygiene tips. Waxing, uggggg It hurts soo bad. Don't try it. I was practically crying. I had to stop half way through and finish the rest the next day. If you're going to do it, use real wax. I didn't, bad idea. Died my hair red, but it didn't work. Now I just have really cool red highlights instead of a whole head of red hair. It's not permanent but it looks so good, I'm thinking about it.
      Now that I've written you all such a long, tiresome email about the innermost thoughts of Suzie Greenman!, I'm going to bed. Wow, that really was long. Well I love you all and miss you. Please email me!!!! Guten nacht!
liebe, liebe Grüße
Suzie