I was welcomed by the wonderful Mehl family: Birgit, Guido, and Maximilan, and they told me all about Ansbach, German traditions, and their family. Birgit is my host mother; she is full of life and loves to try new things. She studied economics at University, and currently teaches a class of people trying to find work or need a to change careers. We talk a lot together about the differences between the U.S. and Germany, the traditions of her family and Germany, her job, and plenty of other things too. Guido is my host father; he is very nice and works hard. He owns a newspaper and radiostation, and has a lot of work to do in his company. He loves cars and trains. Finally, my little brother, Maximilian, is a cool boy. He plays the guitar, loves to draw, plays golf, and plays with his friends.
We went on a day trip to Castell for a wine tasting with Guido's auto club. The winery was huge. We took a little tour, a man described how they make the wine, and then he took us through the halls where giant barrels were fermenting, until we reached the end of the underground tunnels. There we all received a glass of wine, and the man talked about how it was made and why it tasted the way it did. So everyone was sipping and smelling and swishing the wine, and listening. I go to take my first sip and I swallow it the wrong way. For the next ten minutes I was choking and coughing and gasping for air, while the other people from the auto club were enjoying their wine and trying to listen to the man over my gasps and coughs. It wasn't embarrassing at all. Then we went to a legal document library where there were deeds for property and other purposes. They were written in beautiful calligraphy and had a big circular gold plated metal crest attached to the paper with a string, and then the documents are kept in boxes on shelves. After our visit to the library, we went to a quaint restaurant 
and ate typical Deutsch dishes: red craut, brat wurst, and various cold salads. Everything was delicious, and the autos were sleek. After that we went to a living museum; houses from all over Deutschland and from different centuries were moved here to create a collective presentation of how people lived and how life evolved over time. The houses were interesting and beautiful. Inside the first house there was a woman spinning burlap. And all of the houses were furnished in the way they would have been in the actual time period. I had my Late Orientation Camp in Ludwigburg, Baden-Wuerttemburg. This orientation was similar to the pre-orientation, except we could talk about our host-families, and our experiences in Germany to this point. The students were from all over the world! I met Honza from Czech Republic, Zita from Hungary, Gunaar from Norway, Timur from Russia, students from Latin America who taught us all how to salsa, and I got to know the other Americans better as well. We had a talent show, and I sang Star Dust because I love that song, and others danced, belly-danced, sang, and played the ukilali and guitar. It takes a certain kind of courage or personality to be able to say, "Yes, I'm going to live in another country where I don't know the language, and have an adventure!" So when all these people are together, it's a lot of fun because all of us are interested in each other's cultures and traditions.
I went to Crailsheim, the next town over, to visit Honza and Alejandra, who were in my L.O.C. in Ludwigsburg. Honza met me at the Bahnhof and he showed me his new town, and where he and Alejandra go to school. I got to meet their German friends too. The next day, we cooked typical Czech food, it took the whole day, and it tasted so good. We made a vegtable, mustard, lemon sauce, meat, and knuedeln, hand made noodles. In between all of the cooking we told each other about where we come from, and how it was like growing up in our home countries.
In the fall break my family took Margherita, the Italian exchange student who was my neighbor, and me on a road trip to Paris! We spent three days in the city and we saw Notre Dame, Champs-Elysees, Arc d'Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, and Sacre Couer, the church on the hill. The trip was absolutely lovely, and the city has gorgeous architechture. Margherita and I ate macaroons, walked around for half an hour on the Champs-Elysees trying to find a post office so we could send some post cards, and completed our mission to find I heart Paris T-shirts. We climbed a ridiculous amount of stairs up the Arc d'Triomphe to see Paris by night. The Eiffel Tower was lit up and sparkling, and we could see the entire city from here. We ate dinner in the most typical French restaurant; it was cute and cozy and the food was delicious. On the way home we drove through Champagne, France, where my host parents bought some champagne for the holidays. Champagne was charming with the vineyards covering the hill sides and the little towns are nestled in the valleys below. It was a beautiful trip.I went to Stuttgart to meet up with the students from the L.O.C., and go to the Mercedes Benz Museum. This museum was really interesting because it didn't just have exhibitions about cars, it put a historical context behind the development of the automobile, and it told us what was going on in the world when these cars were on the road.
I played the Bach Cello Suit No.1 Prelude in a Krystallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass) memorial ceremony. On November 9th, 1938 in Ansbach, all of the windows of Jewish residences and places of business were shattered by German police. They wanted to burn the synagoge down, but the buildings in the city center were too close together to safely burn the building down. Instead they smashed the windows, and made a small controlled fire inside, put it out with water and moved on to the next building. Because of this, the synagoge is still in good condition, it's decorations and red marble survived this awful night. I played my solo inbetween readings and other student musicians that performed as well. This was the first time in my life that I played without a single nervous feeling in my heart. I just played. The ceremony was powerful and profound. I will never forget this.My host mama, Birgit, took me to Dinkelsbuel and Rothenberg. Going to these towns was like walking into a fairytale. They have old buildings that are painted pretty colors, the shop names are written in an old script, and they both have a stone wall around the whole town. Rothenberg has an all-year-round Christmas store that just keeps going on forever; it's a Christmas Narnia! She told me every year the whole town of Dinksbuel goes back in time to celebrates the city's surrender to Swedish Troops during the Thirty Year's War. This reenactment is played out by many of the town's residents. It features a whole array of Swedish troops attacking the city gate, and children dressed in traditional garb coming to watch the event. Paper cones full of chocolate and candy are given as gifts to children. This historical event is called the "Kinderzeche". The legend is that a child saved the town from massacre by the Swedish Troops during the surrender. It says that when the Swedish army besieged the town, a teenage girl took the children to beg the general for mercy. The Swedish general had recently lost his young son to illness, and a boy who approached him so closely resembled his own son that he decided to spare the town.
I visited my friend Maddie Conway in Bonn, where we went to the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) together with her brother, Chad. We had enjoyed looking at the unique candles, pyramides, and toys that the people were selling. We also tried, schnee balls, which are pie crust strips bunched together and covered in chocolate, gebrannte mandeln (roasted almonds), Gluehwein, Eierpunsch, and Kakao (hot chocolate). We also went to Ludwig van Beethoven's birthhouse and museum; it was amazing, we took a tour with audio-guides. Then we went to Cologne and saw the Dome, which is the biggest and most beautiful cathedral in Germany. After that we went to Maddie's house in Voerde, and her host family is very nice. The next day we went to Duesseldorf, which is home to Carnival. It's an artsy city that has funky and unique architecture, especially around the harbor. We went up the Seiko Tower, that has observation decks and a rotating dining room at the top. Then I took my train home along the Rhein river admiring the towns and castles in the hills.
This past week I learned how to play golf, gave a presentation to my English class about Thanksgiving Day, I went to Nuernburg for shopping and seeing the Weihnachtsmarkt with girls from my class in school, and I went to the Rothenburg Weihnachtsmarkt with my host mama, brother, and their neighbor friends. Another beautiful week in Deutschland, and the first Sunday of Advent we went to church together in the morning. Then we toured the Ansbach Castle that was unbelievably ornamented and preserved. Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed. |
| We are visiting the Weihnachtsmarkt in Rothenberg. |
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| Anna, Jana, and I at the Nuernberg Weihnachtsmarkt. |
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