Dienstag + Mittwoch

We have been doing a lot of things despite all the snow and the cold weather!! I have really gotten used to public transportation and FRÜHSTÜCK :) yummmms.
Ok. Well on Tuesday I slept in until noon and then we went ice skating with her friends. It was a little funny when we were renting out skates because I couldn't out what size I was in the European sizes! The ice skating was outside and there was a lot of people there and they played European disco music and Lady Gaga and stuff. It was fun. I like all her friends. We drank Glühwein which is really hot wine. It's a Christmas time thing to do in Germany! It was good. I also taught them the word 'Zamboni'. hahaha
After that we went on the bus with all her friends and then Charlotte and I went site seeing in Chemnitz. I got to see the giant head statue of Karl Marx, the Opra house, the Museums (from the outside) and the old Church. I also saw a lot of grafiti and learned about the culture.
We went home and had dinner with the sisters and then we went out in the niiiight. hhaaha. We went to the Schauspielhaus and saw a play called 'Woyzeck!' We read the play in german class, so I knew what it was about. But it was WAAAAAY modern and they made it really abstract and added weird characters and made it sooo dramatic. When Woyzeck killed his lady friend, instead of stabbing her like in the play, he threw buckets of blood on her!!! hahah. I could not understand what they were saying and I fell asleep for a bit...ooops. haha
Later we walked through this creepy park that remembers those her were victims of Fascism. There were these really scary graves of people who died and I was freaked out in the night times and I yelled SPUKE!!!! (Ghosts)
Then we finally got to our destination to a resteraunt called 'Esperanto.' We met up with more of her friends and played games. It was so interesting because you got to order what games you wanted to play off a menu. Haaa. We played the german version of 'Sorry' which is called 'Mensch, ärgere dich nicht.'
Then we went home and went to bed!! yaaayyyy
The next day was our TRIP TO DRESDEN!!! We took a train there and it was an hour long ride. I got window seat and it was SOOO BEAUTIFUL!!!!! All the snow and the little villages and hills and forests. Oh man. I took pics, of course.
We got to Dresden and of course it is 20 degrees or colder and we were FREEZING, OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But it was ok, because all the sites were amazing. We walked through this crazy shopping area that had everything. They even had American Apparel! ha. Then we got to 'die Altstadt,' the old city. We saw 'die Frauenkirche,' which is amazing. It was bombed in WWII and they rebuilt it and it is just beautiful. We went inside, but they were having services..haha. Also, they had the traditional german 'Wiehnachtsmarkt' which is like a little market with food, Glühwien and pretty lights everywhere. There was a medieval one too, which I thought was cool. We saw all these crazy old buildings and walked along die Elbe river. We found the Dresden Snynogogue and there was a Holocoust memorial for those who died and a stone menorah monument for where the old snynogogue was destroyed. We saw the museums and the Martin Luther monument and then we got to see a giant wall with all the Dresden royalty from the past. Then we went to Zwinger, which is this giant courtyard thats really lavish and the King Johann built it. Pretty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I loved all the architecture. AP Art History peeps would've been in love. I took a lot of pictures, so I will show y'all.
We were so cold, and so we went into a Resteraunt in the train station to warm up and eat. We got celery apple soup, which was actually really good!
I slept the whole train ride. We listened to the new Ruby Suns, Dirty Projectors and Broken Social Scene on the train. :)
At home we ate pizza and got Kinder eggs with toys inside. Then we watched the Kanye West movie and hung out with the sisters. Then the rest of the night Charlotte and I played guitar and exchanged music and listened to music and talked and looked at pictures....and ate american candy.
Today we will go on another trip, but this time with all her friends to her friend Elie's village. We will get a tour of the town and the church and then go sledding. More train times! I'm excited.

Bis dann!!

Chemnitz, Saschen, Deutschland

Hello y'all! I am once again in Germany! I am so excited because instead of being stuck in the boarding school all day I get to live the way germans live and see the culture from east Germany this time. I am staying with Charlotte and her family which consists of her sister Theresa and her mom and her two other sisters, Sara and Lisa, are here for the holidays.
Ok. Well, I will first explain my trip. I got to Philadelphia without any problems. And it was Christmas, so I got chinese food at the airport for lunch! hahaha. But our plane had a million gazillion techincal difficulties, so for some reason we ended up leaving at 10 instead of 6:30. Scheisse. I found a plane buddy from Ralleigh NC named Melissa and we traveled to Leipzig together. We met these boys that were in a punk band going on tour in Europe. They hung out with us for a bit in the Philly airport.
In the Leipzig airport I called Charlotte and told her I was going to be late. :( But I got a nice lunch in the München Airport! Pizza with salami and long banana peppers!!! oooooo
So I FINALLY got to Charlotte :) We took a train to Chemnitz and then took a bus to her street.
I met all her sisters and we ate a traditional german meal that her mom made of cabbage, potatoes, and a lil beef thingy with onions rolled inside. LECKER! and I gave them the bread from Great Harvest and they gave me a book in german and it is called 'Als ich ein kleiner Junge war,' which means when i was a small boy. hehehe. We watched TV and hung out with all the sisters which was fun and reminded me of my rainey sister friends. hahaa
Today we had a realllllly good FRÜHSTÜCK (breakfast) with cheeses, bread, cold cuts, fruit, tea... but then I felt sick and slept all morning until 2. Everyone in this house is sick :(. oh well. We went to Charlotte's grandma's for her birthday. We had tea and cake and there was a lot of old people and little cousins. I had a good talk with her aunt. Then we took the U-Bahn to the middle of town and went shopping for a sec. I got a shirt from H&M! hahah then we came home and at this soup that had lentils and carrots and wurst. like german gumbo, i guess. YUM
I took a disco nap, and then we went back into the city on the bus and met up with her friends at a bar. They are all really nice and funny and wear cute scarves haaha. Then we walked all the way home in the snow.
I forgot to mention that there is SO MUCH SNOW!! More snow then I have ever seen!!! but it is very beautiful and my coat is soooo warm that it doesnt bother me. tomorrow we will go ice skating with all the buddies and then in the evening me and Charlotte will go to the Theater and see 'Woyzeck!' YAYYYYYY
I love Europe. :)

i will write again later!!!
viele liebe,

Hannah

International Night went really well!! This is what the USA childrens did: we ran on the stage while 'Born in the USA' played. soooo funny. and we explained how america is diverse by greeting the crowd in different languages. i said shalom of course. then we explained baseball to everyone by it acting out!! i was first base. hahah. then i explained the impotance of barack obama. i talked about how he gives hope, or hoffnung. haaaaa. then we RAPPPPPED our rap about america and i beat boxed and it was sooooo funny. OH MY GOOOOD and then we sang the national anthem and gave out s'mores that we made earlier that day just for the occation. we were really proud. it ruled. the other countries were REALLY GOOOOOD. ´sooo many dances, songs, foods, and slideshows. it was a really fun night. seeeee in the picture all the different cultures??? hahah me and my plaid shirt.



We had a Dassel scavenger hunt where u had to take pics of things that it described and ask people on the street questions and other stuff. a lot of nice old peole germans helped us! yayyy! here is a pic of the front of our school that i had to take for the rally. i think the question was: 'how do u say welcome in other languages' or something. i actually was really angry the whole time because my group was made up of mostly the asian kids and me and my mexican friend Abi were left out because they wouldnt talk in deutsch or english! ahhhhhh wat evs. we didnt win, but i still got a PASCH bag and some candy. hahah they are really in to the 'everyone's a winner' thing here. it was a really cute program thought. later that day i went back to dassel with my two boston friends and that was funnnnn. Then that night was DISCO again. it wasnt as wild and crazy this time, but there was a theeeeme. it was black and white. so fancy. i took some pics. i had funnnnnnnnn. but i went to sleep SO LATE but on sundays u get to sleep in till whenever u want to that was good. and then me and my friends played some basketball and played cards, and i made a necklace in one of the beading activities. and that night me and my teacher Nina and Charlotte starting writing a song for the course. theres a verse for every country. its really funny.

TODAY was good because we went to Einbeck again and saw HARRY POTTER UND DER HALB BLÜT PRINZ!!!! hahahaha it was good. i tried to understand it all, and i kinda did, kinda didnt and i got so tired while i was trying to get what they were saying and i fell asleep in the movie!!! then i woke up and dead people were attacking harry potter!! hahah i had fun though.

tonight is the badminton turnment. my friends are playing. i guess i will go. i also need to finish the song......
TOMORROW WE GO TO GÖTTENGIN!!!! very excited. and thursday is HANNOVER!!!!!! even better!!!!!!!!!

bis später, y'all

next week we will go to Hannover and Göottingen, two major cities. i thought we were going to see a castle but really we didnt. i was sad. maybe later. we went to a museum about the fall of THE WALL and the DDR and such. i took pics, but it was very boring. nobody had much fun. haha. i had my big exam today and yesterday. we had to read, write, listen to german, and speak german. i think i did well! my german is improving! the reading writing and listening took me like an hour and today i went in a room with some teachers and had to talk about myself, ask questions and answer asked questions and describe pictures they gave me. today we also went to the SWIMMING POOL!!!!! i had a lot of fun. it was sooo cold. the pools in germany are a little different. first of all there was SOOOO many people there. it was a hot spot. and lots of naked little children and men in speedos and such. but the pool was surrounded by grass and less concrete then the pools i've been to. it was sooo nice. me and my friends just laid in the grass for a while.

tomorrow is culture night. us americans are going to teach everyone how to play baseball, (duhhhhh boston and stlouis kiddiessss) sing take me out to the ball game and the national anthem, possibly make a s'more and have a rap battle about america. hmmm hopefully it will go well. i am excited to see what the other countries are doing. i know my irish friends are doing a dance...

the weather is AWESOME. i cant wait to travel more. ohhh we have really funny evening activities, like salsa dancing and south african dancing. i did the south af and it was INSANE because it was like ballroom dancing except fast and fancy and modern and i u have to be with a boy and girl. hahah it was fun. we also took a reallllly long hike and it was soooo beautiful. i was really upset that i didnt bring my camera. the trail was like two mintues from campus and it was veryyyy long. it was awesome. i also have been doing all the theater and improv activites which are really funny. uhhhh also every night our HAUS i mean dorm has a meeting and we all talk about what was good and what we want. everynight we say WE WANT HANUTA which is this awesome chocolate stuff and we beg to see the new harry potter, which is possibly gonna happen! YAYYY

gute nacht!!!

Diene,

Hannah

My Dormmates!!! in the common room. EINBECK!!! soo pretty

Let me tell yall about my CLASSES!!! in class we learned about the recycling system in germany, and we researched Einebck and Vollksburg, and we made presentations about it. Also, i wrote a whole paragraph aboput how i am environmentally friendly in stl, and how it is important to recycle and such. that was my favorite project. my teacher, Nina, is soooo nice. i really like her. also, everyday in class, the kids from each individual country teach us some phrases in there language in german. so like, Hallo in Kyrgisch is Salam. So far we have learned Krygisch, from my friend Zhamiila from Kyrgisistan and Afrikaans, from the South Africans. We also have another class called Projeckte, and i am in the Movie one! But there is newspaper and fairytale projekte, too. In the film one we are making a knock off reality tv show, and in it we have teams and we do diff challenges at the boarding school. i am with this Krygisch boy named Bekulan, and he is sooooo nice and i played special passenger for him and he LOVED it and we translated it into german, and are gonna sing it in the movie. ahhahaa

last night was the DISCO AND IT WAS SOOO FUN!! we danced for like 3 hours and all these kids were going INSANE!!! they were like dancing on tables and we madea circle and had dancing competitions. ahahah oh well. we all dressed up in dresses and danced to all this crazy european techno musics. also, in the afternoon we went to VOLKSBURG and went tot he volkswagon cray cray park where we saw lamberginis, audis, volkswagons and it was HUGE!!! it was beautiful and there was sooo much to do there. it was like a disneyworld for car lovers. me and charlotte were like EWWW but we had fun anyway. on the way there and back on the bus we shared my ipod and listened to allll the animal collective albums. it was soooo relaxing looking at the germ countryside while listening to FEEEEELS and SONG TONGSSS. oh man.

today we got to sleep in until whenev we wanted. it was soooo nice. i am going on a hike today with some of my classmates. i am excited!!! this week me and my friends are gonna try to speak ONLY german, but i dunno if that will turn out so well for me. tonight they are gonna play a movie, but i dunno if i will watch it. i need to get to dassel soon to buy some stamps!

last night me and my roomate discussed harry potter in german for like 30 minutes! ahahah

well, everything here is amazing. i love it. and i love and miss YALLLLLL

i have pics to post later. tschüsssssi!!!

this is me, zhamiila and marcella in DASSEL. so little and cutesy. DESTROY FASCISM! hahah

SO big news. I FOUND A GUITAR AT THE SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've never been so happy to see a shitty baby nylon stringed guitar in my life. i played for a long time. and now i can practice everyday during our break in the middle of classes, so i am sooo happy. yesterday i tried to learn how to juggle, i hung out with my german firend charlotte for hourssss and we talked about music she introduced me to a lot of bands. also, we watched a movie in german called 'knocking on heaven's door.' hjahahah. bobby D lives in deutschland. hahah

its been raining a lot here. but it is soo greeen and sooo prettttty. theres fields and hills and forests and i can see cows in the distance when we play beach volleyball. everyday for breakfast we have the SAME thing. its like cold cuts and cheeses and lots of diff breads and then yogurt with oats and fruit. today i ate vanilla flavoured jelllo. weird

my irish friends are starting to get an american accent and hats really funny. also, my accent is a little different and i speak in simplier sentences. hahahaha

i am having SOO MUCH FUN!!! i have to go now because we are going to Einbeck, a bigger town with SHOPPING!!! so exciting.

tschüsss! bis später!!

tuesday and monday

my frieeends!!! marcella from brazil, niamh and maebh from ireland, zhamiila from kirgistan, emily from STL, philip from ireland and meeeee

yesterday i took a speaking test and a written test and i scored ok. there are four classes and i got in one of the middle classes. yesterday(monday) i made A LOT of friends. my new bestest pals are from ireland and they are really cute and funny. i also befriended these south african kids and the two german girls that are here. they are SO nice and one of them likes likes beck and björk and regina spektor, so we immediately became friends. yesterday we went to Dassel and visited the city hall and met the mayer. today was reeealllllllly fun. first it was our first day of actual school. deutsch deutschhh i am gettting better at it. the calssrooms have HUGE windows and they overlook the forest and the sweeeet campus. after lunch me and my friends watched michael jackson videos in the dorm on german MTV because it was raining. then we walked into town and walked around for almost two hours. it has a lot of old buildings from the 1300s!!!! also a lot the houses look like gingerbread houses. it is really funny because there are hardly any people in dassel. and they all ride on bikes and arent very friendly. haha. but the town is really pretty and cute. after that me and my roomate FINALLY talked for a really long time and got to know each other. her name is Alena and she is SOOO good at german and cant speak english, so it is hard to communicate but she is sooooo nice. after dinner me and my friends had signed up for tennis and i learned how to play tennis in german! hahah it was really fun. we also say YUP DIGGA! hahaha. THENNN allllll these kids went to the beach volleyball court and we played for a long time. and then me and dormmates listened to music on marcella's computer and it was really fun.





this weekend we will get to see a CASTEL and the volkswagen factory. bleh. hahah. also we are gonna have a 'disco.' which is like a dance. wooooooo. hahahah





ok, it is sooo late. gute nacht!