Meine Herbstferien

It actually has been over a month since I last posted..... I really do mean to update more often, and I don't have a good excuse for not doing it. But anyway, this gives me lots to write about in this post :)
     For the last two weeks of Oktober (at least in the Niedersachsen) German schools are closed for the "Herbst Ferien"- Autumn break. I swear, this is the best idea in the world- America needs to start doing this. The first week I spent on the Insel Fehmarn in Ostsee (Baltic Sea) with my host family and my host dad's family- his parents and sister's family. It was absolutely gorgeous. Our house was set back from the water, but the only thing between the two were fields of rosenkohl. Living right on the water is one of the biggest things I've missed about America, so I felt right at home. We stayed in a small village, but the main town was only a 10 minute drive or a 7 kilometer bike ride away. I took plenty of long walks on the beach (this sounds like what people list on dating sites) with Monty- my host family's dog. He turned 1 year old about 2 weeks ago, and he is the cutest, most energetic puppy ever.
     Because the European countries are all so close it makes it really easy to cross borders. Apparently alcohol, and everything in general, but mostly alcohol, is very expensive in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Fehmarn is only a 30 minute ferry ride from Denmark. On the northern coast of the island there's a ferry dock and a huge ship- not cruise liner huge, but still pretty big. The ship is called the Bordershop, and it's 4 floors of alcoholic beverages and 1 floor of chocolate. The Scandinavians take the ferry to Fehmarn, and go to the Bordershop to stock up on cheap supplies. We browsed and bought a few things, but for Deutschland the prices were a bit expensive. I wish we could have taken the ferry to Denmark, but we didn't have time.
     That brings us to this week: Sunday I did nothing, but that isn't new, because nothing is ever open on Sundays. Monday I went to Braunschweig and met up with my friend Laura before her Deutsch lesson. That evening I went to my hockey practice, but only 6 people showed up so there really wasn't much we could do. Tuesday I went to Bremen with Sarah- originally there was supposed to be a group of 5 of us, but in the end nobody else could come. We went with the Niedersachsen ticket, because you can take that to Bremen for some reason even though it isnt in the Niedersachsen. It costs 25€ for 2 people, and stupid me, I paid for it with a 50€ bill- the machine only gives change in coins. I really don't like breaking big bills because 1) it sucks carrying 25€ in coins all day and 2) it makes it so much easier to spend the money-not a good thing when I have a limited amount and can't just ask my parents for more.
     Heres the route: First, a bus from Schöningen Lorenzkirche to the Helmstedt bahnhof (20 minutes). Then wait (10 minutes), train to Braunschweig (30 minutes), wait (40 minutes), train to Hannover (45 minutes), wait (10 minutes), train to Bremen (1 hour and 20 minutes). Alltogether = 3 hours and 55 minutes- oh, plus the 5 minute walk from my house, so it ends up taking an even 4 hours. Then there's the same thing on the way home, so I spent 8 hours on trains/waiting for trains. But we had fun in Bremen, even if I am the worst tourist in the world- I didn't look up any tourist attractions or reasons why the city's famous before I left. We just wandered around, and ate, and spent money. And sat in a park and by the river and talked about Harry Potter-oh! We went into a Thalia's, a bookstore chain thats big enough to have an english section, and found Dobby! Coolest thing ever. We made plans to go to England someday and visit everywhere related to Harry Potter and The Beatles, and I'm gonna have to add Jane Austen to that list too. We found a festival in the street, and ate delicious nuts, and Sarah tried the crepes. There was a group of 2 girls and 1 boy that we walked past about 5 times, and every time we heard them speaking English. The last time Sarah stopped them and asked them where they were from, and sure enough, one of them was an exchange student. The boy was from Ghana, he's in Germany with AFS (another exchange program). The girls were German. I make sure to always carry around some of my Rotary business cards, but of course I forgot to hand them out. Theres a statue that Bremen is famous for, it's a chicken on top of a cat on top of a dog on top of a donkey. Weird, I know. We looked for it but couldn't find it and didn't feel like trying too hard. I can't remember what it stands for right now, I know taxes had something to do with it. Since we ran out of things to do we decided to take the train back to Hannover an hour early and hang out there for 1 stunde while we waited for our train. Interesting fact about the Hannover bahnhof: It's missing platforms 5 and 6. It also has tons of shops, and the promenade that runs under it goes on forever, it's under the streets as well. We spotted a McPaper shop and Sarah said we had to go inside, then we spent half an hour drooling over the school supplies and didn't buy anything. By then I was starving, and had a craving for McDonald's American fries- the most amazing fries ever. Idk why they're called American fries, cause McDonald's in America doesn't have them. They're more like thickly sliced, season potatoes. We decided not to stay in the McDonald's in the bahnhof, and instead ventured out into the cold to walk 3 blocks to the one in the city. Hannover's bahnhof is really nice, not just inside but also in the fact that it's right in the middle of the city. In Braunschweig you have to take the Straße-Bahn to get to pedestrian/commercial area. Then we took the train to Braunschweig, where Sarah went home, because the next day she had to be up early to leave for vacation in Bayern, and I met up with Summer and Laura, who then came home with me for an exchange student slumber party. The next day Laura had to leave early for her Deutch class, but Summer and I carved pumpkins for Halloween, which really isn't a big holiday here. My pumpkin turned out pretty good if I do say so myself (you should have seen Summer's, add to the fact that hers was green and it was really scary looking), and I only cut myself once. It's all right now, but I sliced my index finger of my right hand open and there was a lot of blood. At first we couldn't find any bandaids, but luckily I had my mini-first aid kit :)
     Then we had to bring Monty to dog school in Wolfenbüttel at 4:30, which is coincidentally where Summer lives and the same time that she told her host mom she'd be home, so we gave her a ride. Up until now I've had German class on Wednesdays so I'd never gone to the dog school before. In Germany, all the dogs typically well trained so they're not always on a leash. There was one male dog, not in the class, who spotted the young female puppy and decided that she'd make a pretty good mother. Interesting, to say the least.
     Today I went into Schöningen with Emelie, my 10 year old host sister to buy birthday presents for 2 of my German friends- it's really nice to be able to say that. Friends, I mean. Then we made lunch und nachtisch with my host mom, and Emelie and I carved more pumpkins- no casualties today. This evening we went to our elderly neighbors house to play rummy (the card game). Tomorrow I'm going to my friends' birthday party in the evening, but I have to leave early because Saturday I'm going to Hamburg- it's a Rotex day, so all of the exchange students in Distrikt 1800 are going together. Sunday is a small party for my young host cousin's birthday, and then Monday is school :(
     I'll try to update once a week from now on (operative word being try). I've also got some stories about what happened the first 2 weeks in Oktober (Oktoberfest in Hannover!) so that might motivate me to post sooner. For now, tschüss!