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April 16, 2010
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Hello
world! Welcome to my next report.
I am
seriously loving my time here. I can't get enough of it. Literally.
I'm so terrified of leaving and not having wasted my time. As the
end of my exchange slowly creeps up, my thinking of it increases. I
don't know what it will be like leaving this life and entering
another one. Of course I've done it before, but it
somehow completely different this time. In the words of Lewis
Carroll "It's no use going back to yesterday, because I was
different person then". I really feel like I've changed over this
year. More so then the average 15 year old for sure.
I have
Rotary to thank for that. On the kissing-up subject, I would
strongly recommend this program to literally anyone ever. You grow
so much. You meet people from completely different cultures and it's
an eye-opening experience. One of my best friends ever is a Rotary
Exchanger from Nepal. 2 years ago, I would have considered that
an impossibility.
Anyway.
This month has been full of good things. I went on a vacation to the
middle of Germany and visit lots of castle and mines and other fun
things. The really weird thing is that everything was so old there.
It sometimes amazes me how old Germany is. My host grandparents live
in a house that their family has lived in since before 1900. That's
almost inconceivable to me, as an American, but normal to my German
side. I really feel like that side is growing in me. And I feel like
I'm finally grasping this language. My German friends help daily and
I go to movies with them and that helps a lot as well. And, let me
tell you, there is nothing that feels as good as getting
complemented on a foreign language. I have been told my German is
quite good for someone who's been here as long as I have.
My
Eurotour is coming up, and I'm excited to the point where the last
time I've been this excited was the day before I arrived. I hear
stories of past Eurotours and every time I hear someone say those
words, I automatically start beaming. I can't wait.
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March 3, 2010
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This
month was one of the better months in my exchange.
It
started off while I was in Austria on a Rotary Ski Trip. That was
truly an amazing trip. I’ve only skied twice before, and both of those
were for short periods of time over 3 years ago, so it’s safe to say I
wasn’t entirely sure what I was doing. But I learnt quickly. I didn’t
feel it was necessary to enroll in Ski School, like 9/10ths of the
group, so I went on the first day with the leader of our group and the
two other exchange students who knew how to ski (Brazil and New York).
The view from the top was absolutely mesmerizing. The Alps are
probably the most awesome things I have ever seen. And I mean awesome
in the old sense of the word. Like awe-some.
So after
about 3 second of behold the Alps, I began to get terrified. The small
amount of skiing I had done could not hold a candle to this. The lead
of our group was picking the direction we would go, naturally he
picked a black that was especially a 90 degree angle, for the first
run of the trip. The discussion we had after he had picked this trail
amounted to something like this (translated): Matt Botkin: “I don’t
think I can do that. I haven’t skied in 3 years and I pretty sure
that’s beyond my ability”. Ski Group Leader: “Cooommmmeee onnnnn!
You’ll be finnnnnee!”
Needless
to say, I fell. A lot.
Luckily I
was not injured in any other sense but pride, along with everyone else
on the trip. The Leader of our trip’s tactics may have been
unorthodox, to say the least, but they were very effective. Right at
this moment, I am able to say that I am an excellent skier and by the
end of that trip, I was doing that 90 degree trail as a cool down.
All of
that took place in Austria, as I have already mentioned, which isn’t
Germany but very similar. Their German is very hard to understand for
me, but if they spoke slowly and clearly, communication was not a big
issue. It’s like if an exchange student went to the US for 6 months,
learning English then went on a trip to Ireland.
Austria
is a very scenic place, as I noticed driving through, but, as we spent
all of our time skiing in a secluded mountain resort, we didn’t see
very much. I’ll see more of Austria on our Euro Trip, when we visit
Vienna, among other things.
My German
is alright, for a foreigner, and especially considering the giant
complicated mess that is the German language. I was loaned a book by
an American RYE student in my district by Mark Twain, titled The Awful
German Language. The book contains both the English and the German
version, both by Twain and I highly recommend reading it, if for no
other reason than it perfectly explains the confounding riddles of the
German language to a stranger to the language. It’s also really,
really funny. Germany is usually considered to be the most efficient
country, what most people don’t realize is that they have to be, in
order to compensate for their language. No one can make fun of you if
you can build a Mercedes in 15.3 seconds, even if you have 12 words
for the word “the”. Oddly enough, the more a challenge I
find German to be, the more I want to learn to speak it perfectly. A
paradox, I suppose.
Okay,
back to the month of February. My second and current host family and I
are getting along famously. I have only one host sibling, a brother of
16. He and I aren’t exactly best friends, seeing as I have my own
friends and plans and he has his, but I think we match just fine. It
is a little awkward, as I am about 2 feet taller than him, and the
rest of the family, but it’s becoming an inside joke of the family to
call me his “littler brother”. Other than the mild awkwardness, there
are other drawbacks to living with a very small family. Door frames,
for example. My bedroom door has been placed, quite strategically, 3
centimeters above my eye line. By now, I’ve gotten used to it, but it
took me a good while and lots of forehead bruises to do so.
We had a
Rotex sleepover, this month, in a shipping city called Pappenburg.
Normally, these things always take place in a school with some
activity before it. Pappenburg is the biggest ship building city in
Germany so, naturally, we went on a tour of one of their dry docks.
Growing up not far from Port Everglades, I didn’t exactly see anything
I haven’t seen before but it was very interesting to see the German
way of things. To sum things up, life here is awesome. In both
meanings of the word.
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January 5, 2010
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Hey
people! Merry Christmas! And Happy New Year!
I
personally had a great all around December. It started in early in the
month when it snowed. Snow this early in the year is odd, even for
Germany, so naturally every exchange student attributed it to their
being there. I was freaking out. I've seen snow before but having it
come to me instead of vice versa was crazy. Pretending to be
pleasantly surprised while I was actually flipping my lid was quite a
feat. The first day it snowed I had about 8 snowball fights or
"battles" as they're called in German.Oh, and a little tip, snow men
are easier to make on Charlie Brown and such then in real life.
On the
first day of break my host family took me sledding with my friend Puzu,
a Rotary student from Nepal. That turned out to be one of the most fun
things to do in snowed. I can't wait to go to the Rotary skip trip to
Austria in January. It's gonna be crazy awesome! I love to ski and
there's no trip like a Rotary trip.
Christmas
in Germany is very interesting and different from the US. First off,
everyone under the age of 18 gets and Advents calendar, and every
mourning of every day, you get chocolate out of it. They also have
crazy winter foods like Grünkül which is a type of lettuce that
resembles spinach. Not as bad as on might think. They also eat a lot
of deer and goose, both of which are delicious. The old joke goes "In
heaven the food is Italian and the engineering is German, in hell it's
the opposite. I beg to differ.
Currywurst and french fries are my new favorite meal, and I eat it at
least once a week. Anyway, Germans always open their presents on the
day before Christmas, because of some age old tradition. I got lots of
warm clothing, which I desperately needed and money, which is always
nice. On Christmas Day, the only really Christmasy thing I did was
call my parents to wish them a Merry Christmas. Not that I was
disappointed, it was just different.
So that
was that. Oh, the exchange students got together and did a Secret
Santa which was nice. On a more recent note, I switched host families.
And by recent I mean a few hours ago, so forgive me if I still don't
have pictures. They seem nice, but who knows?
Alrightly
then. Peace. |
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December 3, 2009
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This last half a month feels more like half a year
looking back but has gone by so fast I can barely remember it all.
I'll try to make this as chronological as possible but I'm almost
sure my attempt will be futile.
On Friday the
20th several of the American Rotary Exchangers met in Bremen,
the largest city in the area, for Thanksgiving.
Technically we were 6 days early and the reason for that is quite
embarrassing. None of us were sure what day Thanksgiving was and we
guessed it was the third Thursday in November. We guessed wrong.
Whatever.
Despite having it on the wrong day, I think our
Thanksgiving was quite impressive. We found what is likely to be the
only turkey in Germany and
cooked it by ourselves. None of us had ever done it, but it turned
out all right. The stuffing was provide by someone's loving family
member and we pot lucked everything else. I brought a Key
Lime Pie.
It was awesome.
The next day all the exchangers went to a Rotex
funded sleepover in a small town by the Dutch border. They took us
ice skating. It was only the second time I've been, that I remember
and the first time I was about 6. It didn't go well. I mean I had
allot fun but I feel down quite a bit. Whatever. You learn something
new everyday, even more so on an exchange.
After that we all just hung out together and prepared
to give a presentation about Christmas in
our own countries that we'll give for everyone at the next meeting.
The Rotary club here also took us to a professional
soccer game, which was a really unique experience. I had never seen
that level of soccer before and it was quite exciting and moved
quicker than one might think. At the game, they bought us currywurst
which is the German version of a hotdog and may I say it was
delicious.
More recently, I went on a day trip to Hamburg with
my school and enjoyed the city very much. It's very big and
industrial, but neither of those things distract from the beautiful
architecture. I hope I get to go back there one day. Well I guess
that's kinda it.
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November 18, 2009
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SEE MATT'S
RECENT PICTURES
Things are going pretty
awesome around here. My average day has gone reasonably unchanged
since my last update though.
I still have school in the
mourning and language school in the afternoon and it gets pretty
exhausting sometimes. I speak a lot more German in my everyday life
and though it seems like an accomplishment, I still realize I have a
long way to go. I hang out on the weekends with my German friends and
my exchange friends. It took me a while, but I finally found a good
balance between the two.
I have done a good amount
of exciting things in the past months, including my Germany tour. The
tour wasn’t a terribly big one, mostly we went to Berlin and a few
stops on the way. Not that I’m complaining, it was amazing. Berlin is
one of the most captivating places I’ve ever been. The evidence of a
broken Germany and WW2 is still very apparent there. Also the
Brandenburg Gate is one of the more impressive things I’ve seen in my
life. It was really fun hanging out with the other exchange students
too.
My Host Family’s pretty
great. We’re, like, tight and stuff. I’m still technically an only
child, but that actually works fine with me.
There are also some very
exciting coming up. I’ve just signed on for the
Ski Trip with Rotary to Austria. I’m couldn’t be more excited.
Honestly, my enthusiasm doesn’t really translate on the computer but,
I mean it. Legit. I continue to get more and more psyched for
Christmas, mainly because of all the things everyone keeps telling me.
The Christmas market sounds absolutely amazing. It will also be the
first Christmas when it will be actually cold, seeing as I’ve lived in
Florida all my life.
Speaking of which, it’s
totally freezing up in here. Like I have to get new clothes and stuff.
I also have to ride my bike to school for half an hour every mourning,
so that’s a bit of a change. I don’t mean to complain, like seriously,
I love it here. Kudos to Rotary for setting this up. I’m in a language
class (paid for by Rotary) that’s made up mostly of exchange students
from all different programs and at one point we all decided to compare
and contrast our exchange providers and those with Rotary had the best
deal by far. By all standards, not just money wise. And I’m not trying
to kiss up to Rotary either, but they deserve to be thanked.
Homesickness hasn’t really
caught up with me yet, which is good I suppose. Christmas would be
troublesome, one would think, but I believe that the excitement of the
season will override that, at least a little. And as for Thanksgiving,
some American friends of mine with Rotary in Bremen, a city an hour
away by train, are having a dinner, that I was invited to attend. It
can’t make up for not being with my family, but it should help. I
guess that’s kinda it…. Bye? |
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September 8, 2009
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Before I
left, I was warned about not sending reports and told of lazy
out/inbounds who refused to send in their reports. I totally
understand them now. Not to mislead, I intend to send mine in and all,
but I understand why they didn't.
First
off, it's hard to put down into words how seemingly long and eventful
this month has felt. Secondly, I have no idea what's going on half the
time so it makes it even more difficult. All the same, I will try.
Time to start....
Well, I
go to school and stuff. However, my participation is very limited. I
go to language school which is helpful, and fun thanks to the other
exchange students also in my class. There are about 8 others, most
from South and Central America. We usually speak English with each
other, because it’s the only common language, but we’re slowly sliping
in to German.
My Host
Family is totally awesome, but my host brother left for France a
little bit ago, so now I’m an only child. It’s different. The food is
pretty good, for the most part. Not a big fan of Bratwurst. It’s like
a poorly cooked hot dog for me. Also they serve it with curry. Not a
big fan of curry either. But I digress.
I’m
making friends and stuff, with the other exchangers and my classmates.
I feel like this is more of a check up then an actual journal, so I’ll
just talk about stuff I’ve done recently. I went to Sadtfest, which is
a City Festival, but basically one of the bigest parties Oldenburg
throws. It’s hardcore. The streets were packed and bands were playing
in little booths set up on the sides of the pedstrian zones. It was
crazy.
And last
weekend, I went to a German 50th aniversary party, and a pre-party the
night before. The pre-party had about 20 people, and the actual party
had about 80. It lasted from 7 till 1. Well, my host family and I left
at one, after the midnight buffet. Yup. A midnight buffet. Germans
sure love their food. It had a DJ and there was lots of old people
dancing. I had a great time. Seriously, no sarcasm intended. I even
danced a bit. Fun stuff.
Well, I
think that’s a good start for a journal and I’ll do more in the
future.
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