Learning Curve

Wow, my year in Germany is very nearly at an end. It doesn’t feel real that soon I’ll be back in New Zealand. As a special leaving gift, the Weather Gods have decided to snow over Germany and apparently this weekend will be -10°. Huzzah.


My time here has been amazing and I have learnt so much. One of the things I’ve learnt is how much random knowledge of how things work I have accumulated in my 19 years and that the five year old Sandy does not know. So I have made a list of awesome things I have taught Sandy over this year:

•The phrase “Pretty gosh darn.” As in: “Look Grace, I’m swinging pretty gosh darn high!”

•How to tie-dye

• “Eenie meenie minie mo.”

♪The Spider-Pig song- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=714-Ioa4XQw&feature=related
•How to play Paper, Scissors, Rock

• “Fish are friends, not food.”

♪The SpongeBob Squarepants theme song

♪The Campfire Song song

•How to pretend to go down stairs, escalators and elevators behind a couch, à la Austin Powers

•“Om nom nom.”

♪The “Jingle Bells, Batman smells” song (This one was an accident, I said it *once*)

•A secret handshake

•Hand signals that allow us to ninja silently and unseen through the house

•Snap, Go Fish, Snakes and Ladders, Gin Rummy, checkers and chess

•Essential dance moves including but not limited to the Sprinkler, the Lawnmower, the Shopping Trolley, the Woodsman and the Running Man

•The Tale of the Three Little Pirates

• “Hey Sands, what’re you up to?” “Nothing much.”


Not a single afternoon squandered...

Berlinerfest!

What a weekend! The plan was to go to Oktoberfest, but my friend Jordie and I decided to save some euros and go to Berlin instead. Jordie has been an au pair in Europe this year as well, in Ireland with FIVE children. Some of her war tales made me glad I only had one rugrat.

We stayed in a New Zealand themed hostel which was kinda neat. Their NZ café didn’t have L&P OR pavlova which was a little disappointing but their burgers and chips were excellent and tasted like home.

Berlin had a pumping alternative culture. There were also an overwhelming number of homeless people who would beg to us in English and German.

On our first day, we met each other at Alexanderplatz, which became our local. Since this weekend was Reunification Day for Germany, there was a big market going on at Alexanderplatz so we ate lots of bratwurst and candied nuts there. As a salute to Oktoberfest, we drank a 1L beer each then crashed at the hostel after a long day of travelling.

15 hours later we staggered out of bed and decided to find the Berlin Wall. Handy tip: Information desk “help” people look at you funny if you ask directions to said wall. We walked in the wrong direction for a few blocks but we were in no hurry and we got to see more of the city. We discovered the wall at last and walked the length of what remains. The East side has been turned into a gallery and is covered in murals. We had intended on a pub crawl after dinner but we ended up gossiping for too long in the NZ Café over our burgers and beers. Oh well!

On the third day we decided to see some sights so we walked to the Berliner Dom, found some churches and an arty market and got a little lost. Never fear, we found the Currywurst museum: a fun little museum dedicated to the traditional German curried sausage. It was rather silly and a tad overpriced but we got a free sample and it was an interesting break from all that culture.

Our last day got off to an early start; after checking out of the hostel, we got a long distance train to see a concentration camp: Sachsenhausen. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sachsenhausen_concentration_camp

Since it was a Monday, all the museums were shut but we got a map and wandered about. There was still loads to see and read and it was all very sobering. We completely lost track of time and were astonished to find that we’d missed our bus, which only came once an hour. We had a little picnic, of German bread and dried meats and made it back to the middle of Berlin with time to spare for Jordie’s train. I wandered about for a little by myself before boarding my own train back to Kassel.

And now life is back to normal. It was really great to hear another Kiwi accent and to talk to someone who knows what I’m on about when I say something distinctly Blenheim. Hanging out with Jordie made me re-realise the little differences which I have become used to between Germany and New Zealand, like the shape of the pillows. Definitely a trip I’ll remember for a while!

Blood

Yesterday was my last day of alone time since the Apells came home today. For my final day off, I decided to head into town and donate blood. Kassel is in the middle of a massive, four day blood drive and yesterday I was one of 1338 donators.

I had a general idea of where to go, so my being directionally challenged didn't pose a problem. I filled in my forms with surprisingly little difficulty, since I forgot my dictionary. I had an interview with a very nice, old doctor. There were a lot of people there so I spent a lot of time standing in queues and I drank some fizzy water, which was on tap along with Coke.

The nurses were all lovely and I ended up telling at least three my tale of coming to Germany as an au pair. They all said that NZ sounds like such a beautiful place and they want to go but... It was great German practise.

Giving the blood went very smoothly. I was completely finished and having the obligatory lie down, and feeling bored since there was nothing to look at. I sat up and was perfectly happy for four of the five sitting minutes, when suddenly I got all dizzy and my vision narrowed in a slightly worrying fashion. A passing man-nurse must have seen something on my face because he asked if I was alright, in a "I know you're not" kind of way. I only said I felt a tad dizzy and lay back down. And suddenly there were three man-nurses with a stretcher for me. It was hideously embarrassing, I got stretchered to a small private room where two doctors fussed over me, taking my blood pressure and other medically things. One decided that my pulse was far too high and put me on a drip. I'm not saying I enjoyed being dizzy but boy was it embarrassing to be put on a drip.

The doctors liked the bow I had in my hair. I learnt some new medical terms in German.

After I ate an obligatory sausage and drank some glasses of Coke, I got a four hour pass to a locally famous spa. I strolled slowly back to my bus stop and was relieved I only had about ten minutes to wait. As I was waiting, a random guy sitting nearby decided to strike up a conversationa dnwas asking me questions like, where do you live? Where's your boyfriend? Let's go drinking? Because of the blooding and the drip, I wasn;t feeling especially quick and couldn't think of any lies, except that I didn't have a phone. Thank Zeus my bus arrived a tad early.

I got home in time to cook my dinner and drink lots of water. Unthinkingly, I had saved my homework for after dinner, I still had to slog through complex German grammar before bed. Bed was slightly uncomfortable because they had stuck needles in the crooks of both my elbows and I like to sleep with my head on top of said elbow crooks.

It may have taken me three times as long as the estimated time and caused some uncomfortable situations, but I like giving blood and am throughly looking fowards to my next Blutspende!

Molto bene!

A few weeks ago, off I set for the train station to get to Frankfurt. I had one changeover but that all went swimmingly, I got to see some German countryside and read all about the life of the Wicked Witch of the West in my new favourite book, Wicked.

Once I got off to Frankfurt airport, I had to find my way through the labyrinth to check in. Since Mum set up my ticket and emailed all the details to me, all I had was an intinerary which I had to magic into a boarding pass. Oh, how I hate machines. It took me a good ten minutes and many muttered curses but I figured the stupid thing out with tonnes of time to spare. I cruised around the shopping and bought a Calvin and Hobbes book I hadn't seen before, which kept me occupied for the remaining hour until takeoff.

The flight was only an hour, so it was a little plane, though bigger than the tin cans we fly in from Blenheim to Wellington. I had chosen a seat right up the back which was right behind a large group of rowdy German businessmen who were flirting outrageously with the flight attendant, who wasn't exactly discouraging them... In-flight entertainment and language practise!
After landing, I was quickly reunited with the family which was lucky because there had been a wee miscommunication about who would be where when but it all worked out. We caught a train from Milan to Lake Como and had a moment of indecision regarding said train so we hopped on and off twice before deciding to see it out. It was the right one. After a few hours, we got onto a very crowded and non-air conditioned bus which was rather uncomfortable. I kept wanting to say things like "Excuse me" or "Sorry for standing on you" but, not knowing any Italian, my automatic reaction was to speak German..

We made it eventually to our little house right by Lake Como. Italians like stairs. Boy was it hot. What a pleasant combination.

We spent about a week by Como which was awesome. The lake was gorgeous, though we didn't see George Clooney. Staying just down the road were some family friends so on multiple occasions we swam down to their house for games of cards and very late dinners. The swimming was brilliant, but the cooling effect of the water was ruined by the inevitable climbing of a billion stairs to get out of the water.

We went to a nearby little tourist town and did some shopping. Us Binnies took a ferry to the other side of the lake for an explore; the others had a car with air con. Trying to squeeze seven grown-up people into a normal sized car was a tad tight, but still better than a bus which we found to be a little unreliable. We kept seeing the same lady who would tell us the buses were on strike, or they weren't going for some other reason. She was very nice but we started to dread seeing her.

Como was very relaxing, it was great in the water. It was almost too hot for walking.

After a week or so in Como, we got a train to Vicenza. We went for an epic trek through the main shopping area directly under the midday sun, dragging all our bags. We got a little lost and we later discovered we went in a big circle all around our hotel without seeing it. Sigh. We got gelatos to cool ourselves and tempers. The room Davy and I shared in this hotel was hot but at least our weak little ceiling fan worked, Mum and Dad's did not. Poor buggers. Davy and I did not offer to switch rooms.

Since we'd had enough of the heat, we went to the pool. It was pretty full but Mum was thoroughly entertained by the big inflatable kid's climbing thing. After less than 20 minutes in the water, it started to rain. So many people left so quickly, we thought the pool was closed. Nope, they just didn't want to get wet... We went from being four amoung a few hundred to four amoung nine. It was grand. Luckily it cleared up by the time we were ready to leave, since towelless drying is difficult in rain. We got a bus back to the hotel but we thought it would go to a different stop and ended up at the end of the line. The bus driver clearly thought we were idiots.

A day trip to Venice! I don't mean to go on, but it was rather hot. We strolled through the streets of Venice which was really neat. Before going there I hadn't fully comprehended that there are no cars because there's no place for roads. The water isn't exactly pure but it was nice and cool- Mum and I dipped our feet in at someone's little port. We were lost and noone was around so it was ok. There was a big crab right by Mum's foot. Thank Zeus Dad knows how to read a map because Mum, Davy and I would've been completely lost on our own.We roamed around for most of the day, looking at touristy things. Mum and I went into the most divine smelling bakery in the Jewish Ghetto. The air con was so good, it was actually cold. I didn't want to leave, but we had to once we'd bought our goodies. Yum. We made it to St Marcus Square which was pretty but we didn't go into the cathedral because of the immense crowds. We got a boat-bus back to the train station which was a fantastic idea. Much cooler than walking, and quicker.

We got a sleeper train from Vicenza to Kassel, but it left at midnight so we had the entire night to waste. We went into the square just by our hotel where we saw three stags nights- the stags were dressed as a caveman, a stag with a quiver of arrows and a gimp. The caveman's friends were particularly mean to him, they had him in a bamboo cage and were accosting all nearby young ladies to try and get them to throw peanuts into his mouth.

There was also a group of people who appeared to be student dancers. They got everyone's attention by standing in the square and doing warmup stretches for an hour while a man we called Tape Man put tape very precisely on the ground in a noughts and crosses grid pattern. When they finally got around to doing anything it was not what one would call "good." It looked like they were making it up as they went and all they could come with was swaying to the static they were using for music.

I'd never been on a sleeper train before. It was air conditioned. But still not an especially good night's sleep what with all the jerking to a halt. After a train change in Munich, we made it to Kassel! We spent the day hanging out with the Apells.

The next day, I showed my family all around Kassel. Turns out everything is shut on Mondays. I see now that research probably would've been a good idea. We had a good wander about anyway. The next day I went back to school and met the family for lunch after and escorted them to the train station. They went off to get their plane to Bangkok and I went home. The Apells went on holiday on the same day so now I'm guarding the house all by myself, and cooking for myself just like a grownup. Love it!

I can go the distance!

"Its an uphill slope,

But I won't lose hope,

Til I go the distance,

And my journey is complete."   

Disney's Hercules: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5jDlLJPz1A&feature=related

I met Hercules today! I walked all the way from home to the crowning monolith of Kassel.  The way there was entirely uphill, but I left super early this morning and since I was in the forest the whole time, I was almost always in shade. I had to be sneaky to avoid the heat. Before I left, the family loaned me a big map which shows all of Kassel and I knew I had to walk in the general direction of left. Other than that I didn't have much of a plan. But it all worked out because I found some signs at the end of the forest and figured out that I wanted to follow the diamond path, so I just had to follow the diamonds painted on occasional trees. Next time I might follow the squiggly line path, it looks longer. After all my trekking, I was a tad disappointed that Hercules himself was undergoing renovations, but I knew that ahead of time.

I was super-speedy; when I returned Martin didn't think I'd actually made to Hercules. The way there was a bit tough, since it was all uphill and I lost my path a few times, but the way back was very quick. I ended up trotting down most of the time because gravity was working in my favour.

It was most enjoyable, to be in the forest at a time when everyone else is sleeping on a Sunday morning. It was completely still. I saw the occasional mouse-creature and a few birds and only two other people. I fully intend on going back up, and taking a 5 cent piece so I can get a souvenir coin!

Das Leben ist kein Wunschkonzert (Life is no Wishconcert)

On my day off, I usually cruise around town or get lunch with people from school, nothing special. However, last week the heat was stifling and I didn't want to spend much time in crowded shops so I went home for lunch. As I ate, I flipped through the paper and found an advert for a dance concert: The students of a local arts' uni were doing a showcase which I thought it looked pretty neat. Manu, my host mum, called the theatre for me and reserved me a ticket, which was lucky since there were only two left! After figuring out the bus route, I went to find the theatre so I would be on time for the actual performance. Good thing too since the tiny theatre was hidden inside a musuem, with an entrance around the back. On the way back home, I made the mistake of reading Dumbledore's death and funeral, and had to restrain myself from crying on the bus. Ha!

After dining with the family, I shot out the door and headed back into town. I had to be early, because they would sell my ticket if I didn't pick it up in time, so it was a good thing I scoped the theatre out earlier. The dancing itself was absolutely beautiful. It was contemporary style- ugly, barefoot ballet. A lot of the pieces were depressing and although they weren't pretty, they were moving. The tiny theatre only had 70 odd seats and I appeared to be surrounded by the dancers' friends although the people in my row all seemed to be Theatre Veterans. As the audience got seated, the curtainless stage was black with two spotlights on two bodies lying curled up with their backs to us. They were two male dancers, wearing only black pants and covered in water. When the music started, they began crawling across the stage on their sides, keeping their backs to the audience and leaving a trail of water behind them. At first, I thought one of the dancers had no arms and was pulling himself painfully across the stage with his shoulders. When they blindly met each other in the middle, they began to dance off and with each other before going in their own separate directions again. The way they danced, it took me a long time to notice that one of the dancers was about as short as me while the other was basketball player tall but the way they danced together, they seemed the same height.

The majority of the dances were clearly about struggles and sadness, although my favourite was a dance called 'A Song of Aging for Him by Her.' There was a female dancer dressed as an old man and s/he was trying with all his might to touch an orange lying on the ground, which was just out of his elderly reach. After some struggles, he fell backwards into a somersault and began to dance fluidly. It was really cool, you could see that the dancer was portraying age but the movements were those of youth. In the end, he got the orange and shuffled happily offstage.
There were two dances which were really rock'n'roll. The first was to manic music and was absolutely wild. The second was clearly at the end of the night and the dancers had abandoned their heeled boots and were lolling drunkenly across the stage. Then one lit up a cigarette and started smoking it and dancing around the smoke. The one of the other two dancers made feeble attempts to take the cigarette and in the end all three were smoking as they danced. It was fabulous, there's no way you would see that in a New Zealand theatre.
After one particularly sombre dance, a flamboyant Asain dancer flounced onstage and started speaking in American-accented English, announcing that it was time for some games. He was joined by a Frenchman with a fabulous accent. Together they raced around the stage, sitting on a toilet they'd placed in the midde and putting on random masks from bags that littered the sides of the stage. Both had put a length of toilet paper hanging from their back pocket and were attemping to steal the paper from the other. When we were waiting in the lobby before the show, the asain guy got everyone to write on a post-it why we like to dance. When he called for everyone to come onstage and stick the post-it somewhere, the Theatre Veterans beside me looked horrified that this young man was destroying the mood. Both the dancers read the post-its as they raced around the stage with their toilet and masks, then they decided their favourites and managed to convince the writer of one to come onstage and do the Macarena with them. It made a fabulous contrast to the sombre dances.

As I was waiting for my bus ( I missed the first one by ten minutes so had to wait another twenty for the next), an 40ish fellow wandered over to me and started saying how he'd like to "get to know me." Shudder. I said, what a shame, I have to go home my boyfriend is waiting for me. Then he spent a long time saying things in German like you never know and he just had to ask ET CETERA. At least I know now I have sufficient German to get myself out of that kind of situation. What an end to a fabulous night out.

School

The ONLY downside to the fabulous 3 weeks holiday in America was missing 3 weeks of school. I did take my books and did a bit of study but certainly not 4-5 hours daily like I would've in Germany. BUT never fear, I acheived "sehr gut" as my final result, which is the highest mark. Stoked. Only my listening comprehension was a bit poor, since we usually accidently reverted to English in America.

So now I'm into my fourth language course, B2. It's pretty neat, there's only 11 people, which makes a lovely change from 20 odd. The focus in B2 is vocab but apparently some of the grammar we've previously learnt is actually a tad different in the real world, sigh. We're also supposed to start using German-German dictionaries, instead of German-English. Tricky! But challenges are good and it's heaps of fun to surprise the German family with fancy words.

America

Well, three weeks of relaxing in America was pretty darn sweet. The German family and I divided our time between Washington and Seattle. It was partially a business trip for Martin, my German "dad," so we went to a few wineries for the grown-ups to do tastings. Returning to being a minor after achieving adulthood was a tad annoying, but Sandy and I played with exciting things like forklifts and other winery machinery.

Almost without fail, the weather was awful everywhere we went. Washington is aptly named as the Evergreen State. We had a lot of rain and I didn't need any of the sunblock I bought especially for the trip. The worst weather was, of course, when we went to the beach. We spent a few days in a small seaside town, called Seaside. We created a fabulous sand castle but then decided we needed a moat. We moved closer to the water. 30 seconds after the castle was finished, a big wave washed up and swept it away.

We went to a Boeing museum which was fabulous. Unfortunately, Sandy was a few inches too short for the tour of the factory, but we had fun in the museum anyway. They had an actual cockpit for people to play in. I knew pilots had a lot of buttons to press, but boy do they have a lot of buttons. The cockpit kept Sandy and I occupied for a good long time. They had a viewing platform which we had to check out, because planes captivate Sandy no matter what they're doing. We went up to join eight old men, looking very serious with their binoulars and notepads. They seemed vaguely unimpressed by Sandys enthusiastic outbursts of, "Look, a plane!" Sandy got a souvenir pilot hat; I was bitterly disappointed the gift shop only had children's sizes. The master plan was for Sandy to wear his hat, along with his pilot jacket, as we went on the plane on the return flight. He got a bit shy, though, and only wore it in the tunnel between airport and plane. The greeting stewardesses thought it was very sweet.

We visited a lot of malls. I spent far too much money. And had a fabulous time doing it. The children's shops we visited were pretty darn awesome too. We built massive towers in a fabulous Lego shop and had heaps of fun in Build-A-Bear.

Since I was in America, I had to eat a Twinkie, to see what all the fuss is about. I don't really see how they got such a cult status.. It was just a sweet candy bar-thing. A little addictive though.

Everyday, after spending the morning at the mall or beach or museum or some other interesting place, we'd come back to the hotel for a relaxing swim. Sandy swims with floaties and can do short distances without them so we did lots of swimming practise. He was very impressed that I could do passable underwater handstands and rollypollies. He impressed the rest of us with bombs and unintentional bellyflops.

The only downside to three relaxing weeks of holidays, was missing three weeks of my German course. I had my books to study from and some real live Germans to practise on, so it wasn't too bad. We arrived home the weekend before the final exam, which is a little nerve-racking. But she'll be right!

die Haare

It's been almost exactly seven months since The Balding and I finally have some hair to work with.

I now have enough hair to put into four little ponytails: one sticking straight up on top of my head, one over each ear and one at the back. With this hairstyle, I look like a four-year-old. Fantastic!

I haven't had any haircuts since The Balding, so my hair has naturally grown into a baby mullet. It's not nearly as red-neck as some of the mullets I see when on the bus. I don't quite have the German to say, "Please remove my mullet." Communication about hair is crucial. So to resolve this mullet situation, I plan on buying my own hair scissors and cutting it myself. How hard can it be?

The scariest thing is seeing hair in your peripheral vision when you haven't seen it for half a year. Only one thing could be scarier: human statues.

The Power of the Simpsons

At school we're learning vocab about culture and cities with lots of cultural attractions. As a 'fun' activity we got to listen to 3 snippets of music and identify which was Bach. Everyone in my class thought one was Bach, but I knew better! I thought I'd have no chance with this exercise but the episode of The Simpsons where Bart is Mozart taught me that the tune we heard was Mozart not Bach. It was a moment of epicness. This is the song, sorry I couldn't find a better one but you get the idea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l15QzwFBWg&feature=related

This only reinforces that anything can be directly related to an episode of The Simpsons.

School

So every weekday I've been here, I've risen at 630am to go to school. It's been a struggle but the total immersion in a classroom where the only common language is German has been enormously helpful. Today was the final day of the class I've been doing, A1. We got back our test results, got our certificates and had a food party with all the other classes. Everyone paid a little fee for the food and all the money we made is being donated to Haiti. There were a few performances: one girl played her violin and two people from my class were supposed to do a funny dialogue. The girl who was meant to be in it was sick and really late so I ended up taking her place. It was rather terrifying performing in German in front of the higher level students, but fun too!

We had a written test, which included listening, reading comprehension and grammar and writing. The speaking test was on a separate day and included introductions, simple questions and a dialogue on a random topic. My partner and I got clothing shopping, which was the best topic we could've got. I came out of both tests feeling simultaneously relieved and apprehensive. After the speaking test, I went for some recreational shopping and ended up using some phrases from the clothes shopping dialogue in a real shop which I enjoyed. My results ended up being awesome, if I may say so. The teacher said that I came top in the class which I did not expect but was happy to hear.

I'm beginning to miss school-school, though. Although this 'term' has just finished, there's no break between the end of this class and the start of the next one, so next Monday morning I'll be up bright and early like any other day.

Holidays

The big day in Germany is Christmas Eve, December 25th is just a day. We had a real tree, which smelled divine and we spent an afternoon decorating it with glass balls, wooden figures and candles. It looked so pretty with the candles all lit up, but this didn't translate well into photos. It started like a regular day, I was playing with Sandy in the morning then in the afternoon some family came over for chocolatey snacks. We opened presents just before dinner and everyone was assisted by Sandy! Sandy has known all his life that Santa isn't real, which I thought was a little sad. On Dec 25th we had a traditional German Christmas dinner of duck with mashed potatoes. It was delicious.

NYE was also a relaxed affair. Again, an ordinary day until the evening when family came over. We had to watch 'Dinner for One' which is a sketch about a rich old lady's birthday dinner which she has every year even though her four friends have been dead for over 25 years. Her butler drinks for all of them. It is played non-stop every NYE and reached cult status so every German watchs it at least once on Dec 31st. For a reason my family doesn't know, it's in English, which was very welcoming to me. We had a late dinner and loungued until midnight when we had a toast then headed outside for fireworks.The sky was absolutely full of fireworks, it was spectacular. There were a number of teenage boys throwing firecrackers into each others yards and I couldn't help but jump every time they went off. I lit one and accidentally threw it under a neighbour's trailer. Whoops. It was the first year Sandy has gone outside at midnight, but it was too loud for his little ears. We spent a good half hour outside, lighting and admiring fireworks before the snow drove us inside for doughnuts. I plan on buying more berliners this year. Sandy made it til 2am before crying with exhaustion. He didn't want to go to bed because he thought we'd be doing exciting things without him. Shortly after he went to bed, I followed suit. Best night's sleep I've had all year. We had a very quiet New Year's day.

I didn't bother with New Year's resolutions, I have a Germany to do list. I've already crossed off make a snowman and eat a berliner, so I think I'm well on my way!