Horb/ Ludwigsburg

                                                                    It's true! There is a beer boot!


It may seem difficult to understand how one can live in an environment completely unfamiliar to what they are used to, but it can be done! It’s weird to think that I am living in Germany, far far away from home. I guess it hasn’t hit me yet. It should have, but things don’t seem that different to me. Well, yes maybe, but for the most part, I feel like I am part of the Bok family. Even though we live in worlds divided by language, I understand everything they say to me.  I think we become more aware of our senses and how to tune them in. I understand everything my family is saying to me through their gestures, body language, the tones in their voice, and their animated facial expressions. Yeah, I understand some of the words they are saying, but when you actually take the time to focus on an individual, you may learn more about them than you thought you would. It’s just a matter of engaging yourself to people and your surroundings.  Yes, the architecture and land is completely different, but navigating through the streets, figuring out the public transportation, and conversing with different cultures is quite a unique and easy thing to do.

                                                                 The view from the beer garden

 I started my language program in Horb this past Monday.  Every day I walk with some other students that live in my neighborhood to school. We have two options: walk through the Black Forest or walk along the street. We mix it up from time to time to amuse ourselves. I can take the bus, but it’s more fun walking to school. I feel like a kid again. My host mother prepares all my meals, washes my clothes, takes me on 10 mile bike rides through the country and forest, life it good. Every day I walk around four miles, and sometimes six depending if I go to the beer garden after class. My host mother asked me if I was athletic… I lied, and said I was….. now every other day or so after dinner we take a bike ride through the country.  I pretend like its easy, but I am secretly dying inside. It is very hard, but I am getting a great workout, so I can’t complain. Plus, I am on the all carb diet here in Germany, so a long bike ride from time to time doesn’t hurt.  I like the active lifestyle. I like the simplicity of it all. Sometimes I feel like I am in a movie or stuck in time. The architecture is incredible, and the elder folks dress like they are living straight out of the 40’s. It’s cute.                

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                                                                         This is Horb. I took this picture while walking to class.

I have grown really fond of my host parents. They are so caring and accommodating. Every night Rolf (my host father) and I drink beer together with our meals, and afterwards a shot or two of pear Schnapps. He explains the whole process to me… how to drink it, what it is made from, and the etiquette of drinking. Simone (my host mother) takes me everywhere with her, and introduces me to all of her friends. She is the nicest lady. Whenever I have a problem, she is there to help. And I have had a few problems while living here. Not too big, just inconvenient luggage issues, bank issues, and my camera issues. She has helped throughout this process with a smile on her face. It’s was really nice to have someone help me especially when living abroad. Everything worked out; it just takes time and patience. I thought I could avoid these issues, but sometime in your life, you are bound to have these problems while traveling.

                                                                      Marketplatz

  It is kind of crazy how this program forces you to bond with each other, but it is so easy. I feel like I am part of the family. They only speak German to me, and yet, I understand everything they are saying. I even get the German jokes!

                                                                 Climbing up to church

 Yesterday, I had kind of a rough day. We traveled to Ludwigsburg (look it up, it is amazing) to visit the palace. Life was great. It was a beautiful day until I dropped my camera in water. I thought it was broken forever, but a fellow techie student told me to completely dry it out and dip it in rice. Apparently rice absorbs the moisture. Now, my camera works! So for any of you that are like me, and drop technology in water… dip it in rice. The palace was beautiful, and our tour guide was a lot of fun. She was a German girl from Baden. She had an English accent, mixed with a German flare. I could listen to her all day. After our palace excursion we headed to Stuttgart for shopping. The shopping in Stuttgart was endless. There were like 4 H&M in one street.  I thought the part of Stuttgart where we were at was okay. It was a modern higher pace version of Germany. I think I have fallen in love with the old medieval architecture instead of the modern. With the medieval architecture, everyday is like a fairytale…well only in my mind.

Horb 

The Palace in Ludwigsburg 

I then walked home after our all day excursion and wanted to go to sleep. But there is no time to sleep!! My family is always doing something. My host mother took me to the Beat Parade. Well, we parked and walked around the perimeter of the parade. I am glad we didn’t go inside. It is a rave with thousands of teenagers mixed with weird older middle aged people. The music is techno and the crowd was kinda lame. So we just watched the crowd and made fun of everyone. Again, this was all in German… so I am getting used to the humor of my host mother.  There was an awesome fireworks display from the parade, so it was well worth it in the end. I guess I could say I went to a rave minus the ecstasy and flood pants.

                                                       Simone, my host mother. We go on bike rides through the Black Forest

                                                               Rolf, my host father. German BBQ .

 Today, which is Sunday, are family days. Our schedule is very precise and you have to follow it! Breakfast at 9 a.m. bike ride to the lake at 10, swimming at 11, riding home at 1, lunch,  Fuβball game (soccer) then a Schwäbisch party.  Oh yeah, and I drank with the Nordstetten Fuβball team. Check out the photo below. . . . Mom and dad, this will make you so proud. Wow! I can’t wait to go to the Schwäbisch party. Even though the people speak German it is with a Schwäbisch southern dialect that I can’t understand. It sounds like the words just blend into one another, but the people are so fun and generous. They always want to feed you and give you alcohol. I can’t complain.

 
                               Yeah that's what's up!Rolf and me.Sunday Funday bike rides. Watch out Lance Armstrong!

I definitely think when I return I will be making some changes in my life. Fresh fruit and Veggies every day, more walking, more bike riding to a from the store (I will have to get a good bike with a basket, not a cruiser) air drying my clothes… not machine drying.. it is terrible for the environment.  And eating German chocolate and bread. Germans got those things down. I don’t feel guilty with what I eat or drink, because I eventually burn it off. Body image is another thing here. You accept yourself and who you are. If you are healthy and fit, you are fine. Not everyone has a perfect body, and Germans know that. That’s why people go buck naked at the nude beaches and parks. No biggy if you have stretch marks or cellulite. Germans are very honest, and sometimes blunt. As an American, we sometimes “sugarcoat” things. Both have their pros and cons.  I will also not refrigerate everything. You don’t need to refrigerate everything. Yes, dairy and cold products, but my host mother if there are any leftovers leaves them out. If it won’t parish within the night, then there is no need to refrigerate and reheat. You lose the flavor of the food and nutritional value.

This weekend I will be in Freiburg, so I am sure I will blog about it next week.

 I have an awesome recipe if anyone wants to try it. It might change your life. Whenever you have a BBQ……

1.       Get bread dough and make little one – two inch balls (spheres) and put them on the grill. Let them bake.

2.       Once they have baked, cut a hole in the middle of them and put your favorite candy bar in it. We used a milk chocolate candy bar that had white chocolate in the middle. It melts all over the place and is super delicious and easy.

3.       If you like Nutella and bananas, place bananas on the grill too and wait till they are black. Open them up and smother Nutella all over them  and eat them straight from the peel. If you are not a banana fan, then you probably won’t like that one..because the bananas are kind of mushy. Anywho… these are good simple things to do when having a BBQ.

Well I will keep you posted on my life, and I can’t wait to see your faces either here in Germany or back home. I miss you all and love you very much!

Kisses,

Julie

The Theater

The palace in Ludwigsburg

Drinking at the Sportheim with the Nordstetten Mannschaft

   Walking to the town square in Tuebingen

Tubinger houses

The university of Tubingen

German Beginnings

Deutschland

                I think I just realized how much of an impact this experience is going to have on me. My life has completely changed from start to probably the finish….   and I am loving every minute of it. It’s hard to explain the emotions I am finally feeling. For a while I was cool and collected no worries, no cares. But now, I am starting to transition my life and conform to a whole new one.

                Staying in Berlin with my friend Bettie and Luc was really fun. Berlin is a big city with lots of people. Obviously there is so much history and culture. I liked it up in the north, but I think I like the south even more. There is a rivalry between the north and the south of Germany. Kind of like California. The north thinks that the south is full of hicks and talk really funny, and the south think that the north is rude and unpleasant. So I have lived two different perspectives. The south is so beautiful. There is more of a home feel. It is the quintessential German life style. When you think of the cute German houses and the chocolate and bread plus the beer, think of the south. I am next to the Schwarze Wald (Black Forest), so I will take full advantage of that and go on walks with my host mother.

Yesterday I arrived in Horb, the quaint little town outside of Tuebingen. It is about a 50 min bus ride from my beautiful college town of Tuebingen. I will return there after six weeks of this language immersion program. In Horb, there is a lot of farming and nature. When we arrived in Horb, the students were placed on one side of the room, and the host family on the other. We faced each other like a Mexican standoff, but this was the German version. The students looked at the families with curiosity, because we had no idea who our families were. The host families ( die Gastfamilie) knew who we were because they had all of our info and a picture, but we were clueless. It was a very strange feeling to be staring at the families who were going to take care of us for the next six weeks. A lot of the families were farmers and lived quite a ways from the town, but I got real lucky with my family….

I live within walking distance from the main square. It is a 20 minute walk to school. I will have no car, but my family gave me a bike. School is Monday – Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.  My family is the Bok family. My guest mother is Simone ( you pronounce it Zimona).  She is very nice and speaks only German to me, infact, my entire family only speaks German to me. They think my German is very good. My guest father is Rolf (Rulf). They have a daughter named Larissa (15 yrs) and a son Niklas (13 yrs). They live in a large house with like 3 levels, even though the levels are laid out pretty weird. Today, I will go with Simone to meet her mother down the street. She has fresh vegetables to give us. Later on today, there will be a community BBQ next to the river. I will meet all the people in this village.

All the meals are very good and simple.  Fresh Food!!!! Last night we had fondue German style. There are individual little pans that you fill up with the vegetables and cheese and put it in the mini fondue oven on the table.  The house is powered by solar energy. Every house is powered by solar power and water is stored rain water. I feel like it is very different, but much simpler. You don’t take 30 min showers. You conserve. That’s the way it should be. They grow their own vegetables and fruits, and the meat is very fresh and farm raised. I know, because there are happy cows down the street. Rolf gave me some German wine, and I felt right at home. Then the family played chess. I have never played, so I watched.

I am part of this German family, and they have been very hospitable. They feel comfortable around me to only speak German to me, because they know I understand. I am surprised that I understand, I just am not very good at formulating my words and speaking back fluently.

I stayed in Tubingen for two nights when I arrived in the south. It is a small unique city west of Munich. The buildings are so cute and the town is very simple to navigate through. It is perfect for people who are learning German, because it is not too overwhelming.  I met the other 55 students from all over California. I shared a room with 3 other girls, who are from Monterey and San Francisco. Their names are Megan, Jackie (Monterey girls) and Angela ( San Fran).  There are only two people who were accepted from Long Beach State. For two days the students ate together, drank together, and explored Tuebingen together. Our coordinator Anita is the sweetest German lady. She parties with us, and has also made our lives very comfortable. Everything has been organized for us…our health insurance, bank account, bus tickets, you name it, and they did it.  We went on a Stocherkahn Fahren (river boat ride) down the Neckar  river in Tuebingen. It was so beautiful and relaxing. I threatened the driver , so he wouldn’t tip the boat, because he had a very playful manner about him. In the hostel I met some German students who were preparing to do their service. You have the option in Germany, you can either join the military for a year, or do a service like teaching overseas. It doesn’t matter if you are a student, everyone has to do it

I am very happy to be with my family here in Horb. I am also very excited to live in the city of Tuebingen….it might be hard to move back to the states, because I have already grown an attachment to Tuebingen. I will post pictures as soon as possible. I miss you all !

Lots of Love,

Julie