More adventures!

Hi everyone!

Have you by any chance been following the Euro 2008, the European soccer Championship? Germany sure has! The country has been consumed by soccer for the past few weeks, and with good reason, as the Germans made it all the way to the final game against Spain. Unfortunately Spain played much better than Germany and won 1:0, but nonetheless it was exciting to be able to be here while the Germans were romping through the tournament! I watched all of the Germany games in the city and got to see how crazy the Germans got after each victory.... see my last post for some photos.

Besides watching Fußball, I've also been exploring the area around Konstanz lately. I went hiking with some other people from my house to Marienschlucht, a ravine on Bodensee (Lake Constance). We actually spent more time hiking there and back home than we did wandering around Marienschlucht, but it was all so gorgeous it didn't matter! See below:

Us taking a little photo break on a tree in the lake.

The ravine---- yes we had to walk up a lot of stairs!

Then, attempting to find a shorter way back to Konstanz (or at least to a bus stop with busses going to Konstanz) we found some horses and a little village. The town had a bus stop, but the next bus didn't come for 2 hours, so we ended up walking to the next town.

I also had my visit to a German highschool as an ambassador from America. My host teacher was so nice! She lives in the town right across the lake, so I took the ferry there and then she drove me about an hour to the school, which is the little town of Messkirch. I visited her 12th grade, 11th grade and 6th grade English classes and her 7th grade German class. In the 12th and 6th grade classes I just answered questions they had about America. Some questions I got from the 12th graders were: Are high schools really like they appear in movies--- are there really football teams and cheerleaders? Does America have laws to protect the environment? What do you think about the practice of saying the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of the school day? Then they sang me a German folk song and gave me a HUGE gift, including honey, juice, jam and noodles home-made in the region, as well as flowers! The 11th grade class took me on a city tour and I compared the sights they showed me and the stories they told me with the cities and traditions at home. The 6th graders (who were only in their 2nd year of English) asked things like: How do you live in America? (a very hard question to answer) What is New York like? Do you like the Simpsons? Do you have a weapon? Does your Dad? Your brother? They were amazed when I talked about how big the US is--- comparing how long it takes to drive from one coast to the other with how long it takes to drive across Germany.

On our way back to Konstanz my host teacher made a stop by her mom's house so her mom could meet me too! Then, when she heard that Mom and Cailie were coming to visit me, she offered to give me bedding or anything else I needed for their stay. She told me to contact her if there was ANYTHING I needed during the rest of my stay here---- just another example of a very friendly German!

I didn't have my camera with me, but I found this picture of Messkirch online. It was a little village with lots of farmland around.

Well, that's it for now. I hope you are all enjoying the warmth of summer, and I will see many of you in about a month! Time is going by so quickly now!

"So seh'n Sieger aus!"

Germany surprised all of Europe last night and won their quarter-final Europameisterschaft (European soccer Championship) game against Portugal! Portugal was expected to win, but Germany won in a very exciting and fast-paced 3:2 game. I watched the game from the outdoor seating at a restuarant in town (and was very disappointed by the "Chocolate Milkshake" I ordered--- it was literally shaken-up chocolate milk!!). After the game, we made our way towards the bus stop and got swept up in the mass of Germans celebrating in the streets singing "So seh'n Sieger aus!" (translated: that's what victors look like!). It was crazy and awesome to see!! Here are some pictures:


The crowd ended up blocking one of the main streets in Konstanz, and decided not to let the buses through-- there are two barricaded-in buses in this pictures. Eventually the crowd draped a German flag on the buses' steering wheels' and let them pass.


Although the police were standing by, the crowd managed to begin a huge traffic jam by stopping every one of the thousands of cars trying to get out of the public viewing's parking garage. We only stayed about 20 minutes, but I think the police eventually made the crowd let the cars through--- they however looked like they would rather be joining in the celebration than enforcing order! As a new car tried to get through, the crowd blockaded the car, placed a German flag over the winsdshield, and then sang a victory song before removing the flag and letting the car through. You can see a captive car in this picture.


There are very few instances when Germans show national pride (they don't have a flag day, don't usually sing along to their national anthem, don't wear clothing with German flags or display the German flag outside their houses), so seeing all of this was especially amazing.

This is actually a picture from the last Germany game (against Austria) prior to the quarter final. You can see the German head coach, Joachim Löw, after both he and the Austrian head coach were ordered by the ref to leave the sidelines and watch the rest of the game from the stands because they were arguing with one another. He wasn't allowed to coach the quarter final game either! What I found especially funny was that he ended up watching the game in the seat next to one of his players (Schweinsteiger) who had also been exiled from play after receiving a red card. Löw had no doubt chewed-out Schweinsteiger, one of Germany's star players, for getting himself kicked out, only to find himself in the same situation!

Tonight's game between Croatia and Turkey will decide who Germany plays on Wednesday in the semi-final. The Germans are saying, "Wir werden Europameister!" (we'll be the European champion!)--- I'm excited to see how far they will go!

Yeah, I know it's been awhile...

Hi again! I realize it's been awhile since I've posted, but I'm still alive and thriving.

Everything has been getting easier for me here during past few weeks--- the language, the social interactions, and the (still) bothersome beauracracy. Just in time for me to go home in 6 weeks, I'm feeling pretty darn comfortable here; when I arrived, my housemates told me this would happen, and they were right.

I have now completed two presentations in German for my psychology classes, and, as my entire grade comes from these presentations, I am essentially done with two classes. Yay! Both went really well, and I got lots of compliments on my ability to speak German, which made me feel good.

Thursday I got the best compliment on my German I have ever received. I got to my Motivation Psychology class early because I had to give a presentation that day, and a girl sitting in the room started making small talk with me--- it wasn't a lot, but I said at least 4 or 5 sentences. Then, when class began, I went to the front of the class to give my presentation and the professor introduced me, saying that I was from the States. After the presentation, the girl told me that, until I was introduced, she thought that I was German! She didn't detect any accent when I spoke to her, and apparently my grammar was correct!!

In addition to preparing for these two presentations, I have gone for my first swim in the Bodensee (which looks like an Alpine Lake because the Alps tower over the water). I have had a couple more wonderful barbeque nights with my house (despite the frequency of our grilling, we are not especially talented at it--- it took us an hour-and-a-half to start the grill last time) I have attended a German birthday party with Amelia and brought marshmallows to roast (which was a huge hit among the Germans; the whole night we heard, "I've never actually tried one of these before, could I try just one?"and then they'd come back for seconds and thirds....) I have battled my way through the signing-up-to-take-tests beauracracy of the psychology department. I have visited the Customs Office to have a package Mom sent me searched before I received it and then the vitamins inside (the whole point of the package!) destroyed because one is not allowed to send any type of medicine/supplement into the country (possibly because many things we have at home, like multivitamins with 100% of the daily needed value of many vitamins, are illegal here because they are "too strong").

I have also begun volunteering once a week to help elementary school kids in an afterschool program with their homework and to play with them. They are so much fun, and very honest and stubborn for the most part. I had a very lively 10 minute discussion with a 7-year old who was convinced that 10-1=11! The same girl had a very hard time understanding why I grew up in America and not in Germany-- when I told her it was because my parents were born in America and still live in America, she asked why they were born in America and not in Germany. Sometimes the simplest questions are the hardest to answer! I've also learned from the kids that the way I pronounce the German word for '5' sounds a lot like '12' (I'm not quite native yet), and they are quick to correct me anytime I use the wrong preposition. They are eager to speak English with me (although their knowledge is limited to numbers, animals, and colors), and so I've been teaching them some English games--- Simon Says is a big hit!

The European Championship for soccer started last week, and this country is now covered in German flags, which is nice to see as it has only begun to be socially acceptable to display patriotism in the last 2 years. My language class teacher warned us foreigners to not get worried if Konstanz became a bit louder and crazier in the next few weeks and told us it was best if we'd just join-in with the soccer-crazed Germans. Below are a couple pictures of soccer spirit:

Some of my housemates, Amelia and I tried to go over the border into Switzerland (5 minutes from Konstanz city center) to watch the last German game from a huge TV screen projecting the game, but the 4000+ capacity was filled long before the game started. We ended up at the Irish pub to watch it, and drew our national flag as well as the German flag on our faces (hence the pointing at the cheeks in the picture). Germany lost 2:1 to Croatia, but we weren't all that sad because we're not German.

This is a picture of a bus driver who parked his bus (which has a German flag on the side) in the middle of the street during his break so he could watch the soccer game from one of the pub's TVs!

I have also been spending a lot of time in town, just enjoying the hustle and bustle. Cafes, like the one below, are good for people watching!

Yesterday Amelia, Kirsten and I crossed the border into Switzerland because we had heard rumor of a chocolate factory with a factory store.... The chocolate I bought is pictured below because it just looks so good (and because I was excited that I bought Swiss chocolate direct from a Swiss chocolate factory, which is only 15 minutes from my dorm!). It was also really cheap-- three high quality bars for the equivalent of 3.50 US dollars!

And, in closing, a picture of the Konstanz harbor looking beautiful as ever, despite an ugly day, to make you all jealous of me and to make Mom and Cailie excited about coming over here in about 5 WEEKS!!!!