MAKING THE BEST WITH WHAT I HAVE

Today we went to Hannover. It is a very nice city, much cleaner and historic looking than Hamburg. We had a tour of the Rathouse (town hall) and went in the worlds only curved elevator to the spire for a better view of the city. The elevator was really weird. The man working it saw me looking up and said "you can look down, too, you know" so I did, and the floor was glass, too! I was like "um, no thank you". It was very strange the way you tip to the side. The top of the tower was amazing, with a beautiful view of the lake in the distance and the pond with ducks and trees and flowers behind the Rathouse. It was very windy, but it was beautiful.
We had about two and a half hours to walk around, so my group set out to wander. One girl in the group was starting to get on my nerve, so I decided to put it past me and have a good time. Eventually we found this small store that sold pastries and coffee and tea and aprons ad cups and amazing cooking and kitchen supplies. Me and two other girls decided to stay and look around for a little while longer. The girl was sort of getting antsy and wanted to leave, so her and the buggy in our group left. The three of us had a great rest of the afternoon, talking about everything under the sun and enjoying our last day instead of fighting stupid battles. You can't get along with everyone, nor is it realistic to try. We decided to go back to the Rathouse 20 minutes early so we could see the pond out back. We fed the ducks with pieced of our lunch that we didn't want, and enjoyed some much needed sunshine. It was nice to just sit there in the sun and be happy about it, not stressed from the girl in our group bossing us around and constantly chattering.
I started packing immediately when we got home. It's sad to be packing up :(. I'm not ready to go back, yet. The people are so amazing. The culture is so fascinating. The language is still so new to me... I packed for about two hours, until we had to leave for the going away party. They set up bowling at a local bowling alley that was small enough for all of us. :) for not bowling in a really long time, I did really well. I got a 131(?) after almost two rounds :) it was a lot of fun. This group of kids is awesome and they made this trip so much better. After bowling, Björns mom took the four of us to McDonalds, where I got a chocolate shake and fries so I could show them my favorite of the weird American things I eat. :) they were a little surprised at first, but I think they all liked it. It was very nice. Before I left the car, Björns mom handed me an envelope and told me that I was a picture from when we watched the football game a few days ago. (I opened the envelope when I got home and found two small bags of gummy bears. I'll probably eat them on the plane.) It was very thoughtful of them. I've really enjoyed getting to know Björn and his family better, too. I mean, we've spent so much time with them! When I finally got home, Jakob's mom went into the dining room area and brought me back some pictures from last night and two CDs with German music. This is all in addition to the enormous amounts of candy they got me to take home. They're so generous. I'm going to miss them.
Choos,
Zoë

WE SHOULD HAVE WON THE SCAVENGER HUNT

Today, the 17th, we went to school with our students for about two hours. It was really fun. Jakob had history first and they were learning about denazification. The teacher spoke a little bit of English and was able to come over and explain a little bit for us. He had one of the real papers that people had to fill out to prove that they weren't nazis. It was really cool, actually. For most of the class, though, Lauren and I doodled and kept quiet. They get a bunch of little breaks throughout the day. It's really cool, actually. They took us outside for one of the breaks and we walked around their soccer field.
After class, we walked to the middle of their town and were given a scavenger hunt to complete. They told us to go in our blogging groups (who we worked on the class blog with), and I was really excited because I got to work with my friend, Andre. We technically won the scavenger hunt. We went to every single place and found all of the information, while the team that won asked one person for all of the answers. Thats the only reason that they turned it in so quickly. But we won. We got this chocolate car that we are going to have to find a way to split it. :) it was actually really fun and we worked really well as a team and getting all of the information. I was proud of myself for using German to talk to people, too. I'm picking up a lot of the language, actually. The languages structure is very similar to English which makes trying to understand it a lot easier. Ive learned a few phrases and words that are very helpful. :) I love learning their language.
The rest of the day was slightly boring. We saw Checkpoint Alpha and a piece of the wall that separated east and west Germany. I liked the history, but our tour guides' voice was pretty monotonous.
Once home, I took a nice hour and a half nap. (I fell asleep in the back of Björns mom's car... Oops. Not like totally konked out, but a light slumber). I was exhausted. We had dinner with Björns family and it was really nice. Both families together, enjoying a nice meal and cracking jokes. :) I am going to miss both families. I've gotten to know both really well. They are such nice, friendly, caring, generous people. I have absolutely loved spending time with them. Well, I'll post more tomorrow! We're going to Hannover! :)
Choos!
Zoë :)

A VERY LARGE CHURCH THAT I ALMOST FLEW OFF OF

Today, the 16th, was our second and last day in Hamburg. We woke up promptly and made it down to breakfast in time. The hostel's breakfast area was packed with travelers around our age. It was cool to see so many students traveling. After that, we walked around town and eventually made our way to the boat tour on the Elbe River. I thought that it was an okay ride. I liked that the woman spoke in English and German, but I didn't really think there was much to see. (Shhh don't tell anyone but a few kids fell asleep). Hamburg is a very industrial looking port city with not many flowers or trees or anything pretty (well, except for the gorgeous half timbered houses, but even most of those aren't very old because Hamburg was bombed pretty badly).
Anyways, after the boat tour, we split up and walked around to find a place for food and just to walk around and explore. Me and 8 other kids had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe right near the port and it was so much fun. We all had a great time listening to the music and talking about the trip. I really like this group of people. They're so friendly and nice and I hope we can all stay friends.
Next, some people went to the shopping area while others went to the top of the St. Michaelis church. There was a very large elevator that brought us to the top where we were able to see a lot of the city. I couldn't help but think of the Galata Tower in Turkey and how, from below, things were pretty ordinary, but from above, everything was clearer and more beautiful. (When I say that it was "ordinary" in Turkey, I mean that it was hard to get a big picture. Turkey is beautiful and I miss it every day). The top of the church was very windy and I felt like I could blow away from there. It was an incredible view, though.
So on Tumblr, a blogging website that I am on, I saw a picture of this bridge with locks on it. Lots of them, all of which had names written on them. Interested, I read the description, only to find out that they were called Love Locks. Lovers write their names on a lock and attach it to a bridge, throwing the key into the river so that they can never undo the lock. I thought this was absolutely the most adorable thing I had ever heard. THEY ARE EVERYWHERE IN HAMBURG. I ABSOLUTELY FREAKED OUT I WAS SO EXCITED. I think I took 20 pictures of different places with locks and the individual locks themselves. They're so cute oh my goodness. :)
When I got home, Jakob asked if I would want to go watch the football (soccer) game with Björn, Richie and Lena. Like every other time he's asked me to do something, I had ten minutes to get ready.  It was a big game, apparently, and the boys were very excited about it. I thought it was interesting, actually. Dad, you'd be proud of me for watching it. Haha I actually paid attention! I think that soccer is more fun to watch because its very fast paced and the shots on goal are so incredibly ridiculous. I'm not even sure how they get the timing right for the tricky shots. Anyway, it's late.
Choos!
Zoë :)

THE TALE OF THREE ICE CREAMS IN ONE DAY

(Monday, continued)

After Bergen Belsen, we got back on the bus and went into Hamburg. Our reservation at the Miniatur Wondurland was at three and we had about an hour and a half before we needed to go, so they let us wander around. Natalya, Alex, Sydney, Leah I wandered around the area to do a little souvenir shopping. After hunting for ice cream for a good 45 minutes and time running short, we went to the meeting spot. Of course, that was where we found Gelato. Shocker. It was actually so great! It was a food truck with ice cream and each scoop was 80 cents! I don't think it's possible to eat bad ice cream here. Really, every flavor I've had has been delicious. 

The Miniatur Wonderland was really really cool. Better than I we expecting. It's basically a giant room with thousands upon thousands of mini people and scenes and moving planes that actually take off and a Ferris wheel that moved and pretty much anything you can imagine. My favorite frozen scene was of a man being chased up a hill by a velociraptor into a very scary looking house. Some of the things that were hidden in these set ups were so incredibly random. They gave us a scavenger hunt to do with 20 scenes to find, and my friend and I found 14 of them. Some were really hard to find. If you want to see what I'm talking about, go here (because I'm doing a horrible job trying to explain how awesome this was): miniatur-wunderland.com

After that. We checked in at the hotel (it was just a nice hostel owned by a hotel company), and checked the wifi connection. Mr. Darlington led us to the square down the street and gave us some time to go find dinner and look around. We found a small Italian sit down bar in the middle of the mall (there were a bunch of sit down bars there. It was really cool) where we ordered gnocchi with tomato, mozzarella and basil. Yummy! While exploring the mall, we found a pet store and went in to check it out. There were a lot of bunnies, two Degus, some birds, and a lot of cool reptiles. The weirdest pets we saw were leaf bugs and GIGANTIC gold fish. We met up with some of the other exchange kids and found a gelato stand in the mall. Of course, not passing up an opportunity to taste the deliciousness, I got some. I had lemon with fresh mint in it. Sort of a palate intermezzo.

We returned to the hostel to drop off bags and grab coats for a walk around the area of the city we were in. We walked up this huge viewing deck with at least 6 sets of stairs with 15 steps each. And it was pitch black. With a light on every other stair. And Natalya and I raced up them. Let me tell you, this was so incredibly hard to do and I hope I never have to do anything like that again. It was a really nice view of the harbor once we were on top, though. After walking about two miles at 9 at night, Mr. Darlington gave us the offer of getting ice cream or going back to the hostel. I chose ice cream. Surprise, surprise. :) the mall was closed so we went to Burger King and got ice cream sundaes. :) I was pretty happy with my sundae and Burger King crown. 

Our hostel had a small tv in it, and we were able to find CNN pretty easily. We actually turned it on just as background noise while we were settling in, so it was still set to that channel when we turned it on again at night. Our teacher had gone to college in Boston, so he gets updates by text from the school. That's how we heard about the bombings. We must have watched the live coverage for an hour and a half. We all texted family and checked in online. It was pretty scary to hear that in our hometown, there were bombs going off. I'm glad that everyone associated with Hudson High and their families are okay, and I'm very sorry for those who were injured. 

Choos

Zoë 

YOURE LYING TO ME. THOSE CAN'T BE PEOPLE.

I'm really not sure where to start with this. That was an experience that I don't think I'll ever forget. All of the names and the faces and those eyes... It's very difficult. I thought that the museum was very well done, though. The first movie was just a general introduction with names, pictures and videos from survivors. There were a lot of display cases with information and an overwhelming amount of pictures. Scattered throughout were videos from survivors and their stories. I listened to one video where soldiers from the Italian army shared their stories from trying to care for the other prisoners that were sick. More pictures, more videos, and then another movie. The movie started off pretty mellow, with prisoners or guards stating their names and occupations and what the date was. A lot of them were working in the camps as doctors, but some were prisoners. I was shocked that they were all smiling and well fed. It honestly confused me. But soon, the style of the videos changed. They were videos taken by British army men when they liberated the camp in April, 1945. These videos were so brutal that I eventually had to leave. They showed British guards moving bodies (it immensely bothers me that they call them bodies and not people) into mass graves. These were not people anymore. They had nothing. These emaciated bodies were carried -violently- into the graves and left there to rot. The next reel of film said that they had given up moving bodies one by one, so they used a bulldozer to move them. I had to leave. I don't think I could sit in there for much longer. I explored the upstairs and tried to read the Hebrew in the Jewish sections. The teachers told us we only had a half hour left so we went outside and I saw the mass graves. It was unexplainable how eerie it was on such a sunny day. I went the other way and saw the other memorials.

Before I left, I asked my mom to bring me a rock from home. I didn't tell her why. Well, mom, here's why: I wanted to leave it at Bergen-Belsen. In Judaism, leaving rocks on gravestones are a sign of respect and a sign of remembrance that lasts longer than flowers. I left my rock at the Jewish memorial set up by the Central Jewish Committee, British Zone. The inscription said "Israel and the world will remember thirty thousand Jews exterminated in the concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen at the hands of the murderous Nazis. Earth conceal not the blood shed on thee!" It seemed like a fitting place to leave my rock. A lot of the kids in my group left rocks on the memorials too. They saw it as a sign of respect, but it seemed strange to me because I knew it as a symbolic Jewish gesture. I also saw a lot of dying flowers which was strange to me because the rocks are what I was expecting. Anne Frank said "whoever is happy, will make others happy, too." So I'm choosing to take this experience and change the world.  

PRO TIP: WATCH AND LEARN

The most important thing I've learned to fiting in with the natives of any country is to watch and learn. When eating, see how much they serve themselves, watch the speed at which they eat, and pay attention to which foods should be eaten together. I've been doing this a lot. I pace myself so that I'm never the first one done eating, but I'm never the last one, either. I've learned a lot from this, actually. It's almost like studying my host family, which is sort of creepy, but I think it's important to do as they do. It's only respectful.
Today is Sunday. Again, like yesterday, I woke up late... I guess old habits are hard to break. We had another large spread of breakfast, and had some time to relax and hang out. At two, we met Björn & Richie, Timon & Corey, Luca & Alex, and Lena & Lauren at the indoor water park in a city called Wolfsburg. It was awesome! We went on this really dark slide with flashing lights that confused me very much, a wave pool, a lazy river, the "hot tub" (it wasn't very much hotter), and the regular pool. In the regular pool, we found a Finding Nemo beach ball and we hit it around, trying not to let it touch the water. We must have done that for at least an hour. It was such a great time. I'm having an amazing stay here.
Tomorrow we visit Bergen-Belsen and then we stay in Hamburg overnight. It should be a great experience for all of the Americans to do some bonding. I'm nervous, but excited to see the concentration camp. It's going to be a rough day. I don't know what the wifi situation in Hamburg will be, so Ill check in when I can. Choos!
Zoë :)

A CHOCOLATE BAR WITH POPCORN IN IT

Today is Saturday! I woke up to the sound of shuffling in my room, only to look over and have my host mother standing in front of me. "We're waiting for you for breakfast" she says. I felt so bad for sleeping in so late (10:30) and making them wait. They served a huge breakfast with bread and cheeses and meats and jelly and chocolate croissants and it was very yummy. I had some bread with Nutella. I don't think it's possible to pass up Nutella. :)
We finished up and Jakob and I got ready to go to the mall with the other exchange kids. It was really fun. It was a lot like Boston in that it had a large outdoor section, and a big indoor mall (I'm talking 6 story mall, big) with a lot of really nice stores. The town that it was in is called Brunswick, the same place where I had dinner a few nights ago. We spent a lot of time there. I didn't buy anything because it was too expensive, but I did get some gelato that was so incredibly good.
After the mall, and taking the bus, the train, and walking home, we discovered that Jakob's house was locked and we had no way to get in. We asked his neighbors if they had a key, none of them did. Finally his next door neighbor let us go inside his house. They have a son that looks about a year younger than Jakob and me. We played table tennis and I didn't do as badly as I thought I was going to. Jakob's parents came home within a half an hour.
Jakob's parents took me to the grocery store and, because we brought them so many gift, they made me pick out some candy. I got a chocolate bar with crackers on top (it's actually so good, Björn had it the other day), a CHOCOLATE BAR WITH POPCORN IN IT (oh my goodness what even), Haribo snails, Haribo fruit things, and Mowam hard candy things. It was very generous of them and I thanked them profusely.
Next, Jakob and I met up with some of the other exchange kids and hung out. It was a great time. They ordered each person their own pizza. We were all shocked. What didn't surprise me was that the boys took the whole pizza, folded it in half, and ate it. Typical boys. It was a really fun time and I liked getting to talk to some of the other German students. :) tomorrow we are going to a water park!
Choos!
Zoë :)