I read an article on Engadget recently that stated that 2/3 of Americans think nanotech is immoral. I'd like to see how many of them know what nanotech is. It's hard for it to be immoral, unlike biotech. Sheer ignorance has caused war before.
(Click the title to see the article)
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
December
At the start of the month, I moved into a new house, a few minutes from my first host family. The family's name is Voßenkaul, the father is Klaus, a Doctor (Ph.D.), an engineer specializing in water purification membrane technology, a field in which he founded a company and patented a product. The mother's name is Jelka, she is an immigrant from Bosnia, who arrived in Germany 14 years ago. She is currently just a housewife, which seems to be very popular in Germany. They have three children, the oldest, Anja, is 12, and she attends a Catholic girls private school. The only boy, Timo, is 11, and attends my school, and the youngest, Pia, who is 9, is in her final year of Grundschule, "Ground School" or Elementary School.
In Germany, the children do 4 years of Elementary School, before being split into "Gymnasium" (top level), "Hauptschule" (medium) and "Realschule" (essentially for kids with severe learning difficulties). As a result, kids from 10 to 19 years old end up together in one school, which has advantages and in the eyes of the "Oberstufe" (Upper Classmen), only disadvantages.
A few days after 
moving in with this family, I left for a week. The first evening was a Rotex meeting of all the exchange students in our district, which took place in Troisdorf, a little town south of Cologne. We essentially consumed our time by chatting and playing little games, since the activities were planned for Saturday. I, however, continued on Saturday morning to meet with another district in Baden-Wüttemberg, where we started off with a tour of a town, Heidelberg, where the Prince formerly lived, before having his castle nearly levelled by the French, and relocating to nearby Mannheim.
Some highlights of this trip through Heidelberg included what wa
s left of the castle, especially two wine casks in the basement. The Prince received 10% of the wine produced in the region, as a tax. As a result, the 700 people who lived and/or worked in the castle received 2 litres of wine each, per day. To store this wine, they had many casks, including the two that still survive, the SMALLEST of which can hold over 200,000 litres (~50,000 US gal.)! Unfortunately, we were informed that we could not sample the region's wine. I have included a picture of (a quarter of) the big one. The other highlight was the town's Christmas Market, which was quite quaint.
The next day, we traveled to Italy for a week-long ski trip. We started off early with a 9 hour bus ride, driving through Austria on our way to Italy. It was a wonderful bus ride, with beautiful scenery. For me, the best part was seeing the reactions of the kids who had never seen snow before! It's always such a strange feeling when that happens! We arrived in our (very cheap) accommodations to a wonderful meal, getting us excited for the week.
The week went quite well, with the mountain being absolutely beautiful! The lunches were always good, but unfortunately the quality of our suppers went steadily downhill. The only unfortunate point, for me, was that all of the snow on the mountain was man-made, which made for often icy conditions. Out of 40 people, only 4 were seriously hurt, only one of whom was a beginner. Two of the others were hurt out of their desire to show off, and the fourth, a snowboard instructor, was cut off on the last day by a skiier, crashed, and nearly broke his collar bone. Besides a week of snowboarding in the Alps, a highlight occurred on my return trip, when I rode the newest model of the German high speed train (a Bombardier design), clipping along at a nice and slow 300 km/h, nearly as fast as a Formula 1 car!
I arrived back in Aachen to my new host family, three days before Christmas. In a very traditional way, the kitchen and living room were locked and only the parents were allowed in for the last week of Advent. Klaus makes a (famously) large Nativity Scene, and in the traditional way, that is the surprise for which the kitchen and living room are locked. The days leading up to Christmas went by quickly, and there were many family-bonding type activities.
Christmas morning,
we viewed the Nativity Scene, which was huge! I will also include a picture of that. Afterwards, we opened our presents. I had the most, since I had mostly small trinkets, compared to the single, quite large, presents of the others. Therefore it took a while to open. My three favourite presents are a Roots jacket, a present from a friend back home, a ticket to the next Cup Match of the local soccer team and a book of photos of Aachen, both from my host family. After opening presents, we went to church for mass. As a side note, this family is extremely religious, but it's not a problem. After the mass, we returned home, where I helped Timo set up his new remote control helicopter, which he'd been wishing for for quite a while, I'm told. That evening, we attempted, and failed, to fly it, and shortly thereafter, Klaus' parents came for dinner. We ate a meal of Salmon, Sauerkraut and potatoes. It was looking like there'd be no turkey for Ben!
The next day, we went to visit Klaus' parents, who live 20 kilometres away. The whole family was there, and they were all very nice. It was here that my patience was rewarded: we had turkey for lunch! It was almost as good as my grandfather's farm fresh turkeys, but I don't think those can be beat. We killed off the afternoon and evening by playing darts, another game similar to Crokenole (the name of which I've forgotten) and singing Christmas songs.
The following day, I spent some time with a friend and we went to see American Gangster in the theatre. I actually understood more of it than he did, which surprised me, but his difficulty was in the complex plot of the 2.5 hour film. Following the movie, which I felt was amazing (and we'll know in two months if it was Oscar worthy!), I packed for my second trip of the holidays.
As a family, we traveled to Switzerland, to Engelberg, near Luzern, in the southern part of the country. On the drive down, we went past Hockenheimring (I missed it on the way to Italy). Hockenheimring is the home of the German Grand Prix in Formula 1, and the autobahn provides a decent vantage point of Turn 1. There were no cars racing, however. In Switzerland, we stayed at a place at the top of the mountain, and it was interesting lugging our gear, a suitcase each and in Pia's case, also a huge teddy bear, up a chairlift. Crazy is what I'd call it. The accommodations were rustic, and a little cramped. A week without internet, however, doesn't faze me. On this trip, I vowed to only touch my phone in emergencies. The food was amazing, and the people running the lodge were extremely friendly. In German, they say "dusager", which means informal, since the German language, as with most languages, distinguishes distinctly between formal and informal. "Du" is informal, used with anyone who you speak with on a first name basis. "Sie" is used in formal situations, and it is extremely offensive to use "du" in place of "Sie", so much that traditionally, when switching from "Sie" to "du", the two participants would drink a beer together, another highly traditional and ritualized pastime.
The week in Engelberg was punctuated by the presence of real snow, with 30 cm of fresh powder falling on the second day, providing a morning of quasi-backcountry skiing, especially when we rode a trail that leads through a forest and ends after crossing two roads, dipping under a third, riding between houses and finally depositing you a short bus ride from the centre of the village. The mountain has a beautiful location, but it has a few extremely narrow points on the trails, which leads to near-collisions when caught behind slow skiiers. I was nearly ran over several times while slowing down for such people. The other disadvantage is the lack of trails to ride. There are two up top, two in the middle, and the side trail that runs to the town. For New Years, there were a lot of fireworks and all of the (other) adults drank considerable amounts of alcohol. On Friday, during a huge windstorm, Klaus and Timo built an igloo, and I helped a bit. There's a picture included. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the stay, and the food. The week was also injury free, until Friday night, when half my right index fingernail and the finger itself mysteriously parted ways. It's a nice place to be, but it wouldn't be the place to go if flying over from Canada to ski, in my opinion.
So concludes my first month with my new host family. Now I'm looking ahead to 3 busy months, I'll try and keep on top of the updates!
Rotary Update For January/Early February
After my return from the Alps, I started doing a social work project with my school. This project involved different work for each student, mine was at a soup kitchen run by a Convent in the downtown area. I went each day from 7:30 until 12:30, the first 45 minutes being for set-up, then we served breakfasts. The breakfasts consisted of bread, tea and juice, along with sweets and cakes later on. If they were willing to pay 50 cents, they received a coffee and four slices of cheese and meat. They were also given butter (not margarine, as was often pointed out!), jam, honey and Nutella for free. At 11 o'clock we'd serve a pot of soup, which often went unfinished, but on one occasion was empty in less than 2 minutes, but it only took that long because one guy came 30 seconds after the line ended. There was enough soup for between 15 and 20 people. At 11:30 all the guests had to leave. We spent the next 45 minutes cleaning up, mopping, preparing things for the next day, setting out butter to thaw, etc.
This schedule was repeated Monday-Friday for two weeks, after which I was required to write a report, six pages, in German. The two weeks was a lot of fun. The two nuns who worked there were really nice, as were the volunteers that came in each day. There is also one paid employee who does all the heavy lifting-type work. At the end of the two weeks, even though the social work went really slow, it was a lot more fun than many days at school and that made it a little sad to be done. It made it kind of funny walking around town when I'd see these people, because the first thoughts through my head would be "Did they actually go for breakfast today", or if I see a panhandler who I hadn't seen coming for breakfast, I still wonder why they don't go. One of the large bakeries in Aachen has a long-standing program to donate cakes and other sweets to the soup kitchen, due to a family member being treated well by the nuns while in the hospital. As a result of this program, they recently had the idea to sell little coins for 50 cents that could be given to panhandlers for a "big breakfast" - the one with coffee, meat and cheese.
The week following the social work, we had a visit from 25 students from the Czech Republic and Leipzig, a town in the east of Germany. Although I wasn't directly involved in this group, most of my classes were cancelled due to my teachers being involved (most classes still ran, just not mine). The organizer let me tag along with the group, which included the students and their hosts. We did a media project, my group made a poster depicting fruit with funny expressions. That consumed Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. On Monday afternoon, I was treated to a free guided tour of the Town Hall (and stood in the room where the 7 Years' War was ended!) and the Cathedral, where we were able to see a part that's not open to those who are just wandering through, the throne of Charlemagne.
On Tuesday, the exchange students were gone for a trip to Bonn, but the Aacheners (that includes me too, apparently) went to (almost) normal classes. This was probably the saddest day of the month for me. In the break during my double period of computer programming, I was talking to a friend about Rugby and iPods. He had the new iPod Nano, I have the original Nano from the day they started selling them, making it almost 30 months old. We were looking at it and a few people commented on how that's almost a year longer than most iPods last. Murphy's law, being the great friend that it is ensured that after I switched buses on the way home, since my friends went on different buses, I pulled out my iPod, to discover that the screen was broken. The LCD was cracked, with only the bottom left quarter still functional. It still plays music, but now it's a big iPod shuffle (with four times the storage). The amount that I've come to rely on my iPod on train and bus rides meant that that moment was not fun. In the evening, we went to a soccer game in a big group. I once again had problems with my ID, they didn't believe that mine is real and accused me of making a fake ID to buy an adult ticket. They were mad at me for paying a higher price that comes without increased benefits, a very confusing situation. They only checked ID because I had an adult ticket as well. They would've checked if I had a child ticket as well, because I look to be about 18. After I finally convinced them that it's a real ID in Canada, I was let in. The game went pretty well, but wasn't played with as much passion as normal (it was an exhibition game). It ended in a 1-1 tie, not too shabby since the other team is first division and Aachen is second division, the equivalent of an AHL team tying an NHL team. Afterwards, some of us went for donairs, then went home rather late.
Wednesday morning involved working on this project once again, and was followed by a visit to the Fachhochschule, which is essentially a trade school. I declined the offer and went home. Wednesday evening involved going out to a pub to get the whole group together and eat cheap pizza that actually tastes good. This was yet another late night.
Thursday was again normal classes, the exchangers were in Cologne for a tour through there. After school, we all met up to watch an original German movie, Keinohrhasen, which means "Hare without ears". It was a funny movie that started out quite good, but unfortunately it ended up being heavily concentrated at the girls. Upon leaving the cinema, a few of us received text messages that a friend was celebrating his birthday and we ended up staying out until midnight in order to sing happy birthday, then we waited another 45 minutes because our bus was at 12:45. Getting up at 6 for school wasn't going to be fun.
Friday was the wrap up day for the exchangers, we finished our projects and presented them, then we all went home. That evening was a pre-graduation party for another school in town. We all went there, but if you didn't have a ticket (like me, since my friend forgot to pick one up for three of us), we had to wait in line until everyone with a ticket was let in. We stayed late, allowing plenty of time for our goodbyes, then took the "last" bus home. The week was a lot of fun, because it really got the people in my school involved and they were doing a lot more socialising than is normal for the German students. They weren't worried about school work for the week, and it lifted the mood a fair bit.
Tuesday the 29th was the third game of the German Cup soccer championship. I received a ticket from my host family for Christmas and we went together. We had seats, which for me was not the best option, but was good for the kids. Most of my friends were in the standing section across the stadium, where there is a lot more atmosphere and therefore fun. The game was pretty good, with Aachen playing strong and showing a lot of spirit. They were leading 2-0 going into the 83rd minute, but had 3 goals scored on them in the next five minutes and lost the game, being eliminated from the tournament. It was truly unfortunate that they lost so late into a good game. The mood at school reflected the result the next morning.
The Thursday before Lent is the start of the street party portion of Carnival. At 11:11, school was let out and everyone headed to the town square. Most people had costumes on, but my unreliable source told me that no one wears their costumes to school. Upon arriving at the square, they searched us to ensure that we didn't have any glass bottles with us, as well as hard liquor, I believe. They were trying to avoid broken glass on the square, which is expensive to clean up, especially since the Thursday event is run by a local radio station. After the afternoon in the square (one of the coldest days since I arrived here!), we went home for supper and met up for the biggest party for youth in Aachen, held in a tent a few minutes from where I live. Friday was another pre-grad party, so we all attended that, also in costumes, keeping with the Carnival spirit.
Saturday, Feb. 2, was a snow day! I'm not sure if they'd have cancelled school had it been a weekday, but it was the first time in 2 years that it snowed in Aachen. To celebrate, we went to my host family's cottage, which is in the "mountainy" district to the south of Aachen, bordering the national park. The national park is a volcanic region that is currently somewhat inactive, but they are suspecting that in the next millenia it will explode again. Since it's higher up in the mountains, it snows most of the winter and snows in greater volumes. There was enought snow to build a small snowman, have a decent snowball fight and go toboganning. We spent the afternoon there, before coming home for a quiet dinner in the evening.
On Sunday, they had the children's parade, which my host siblings were in. We went into town to check it out and it was pretty fun. They threw a lot more candy than at a parade at home and even included foot warmers, boxes of chocolate and other completely random trinkets! Afterwards, Pierre Landry, an exchanger from Cape Breton, came to visit from Baden-Württemberg, in the south of Germany. After an adventurous train switching in order to get to my house, we had supper and talked about life in Canada and Germany. We went to a fundraiser for the Catholic Youth in Brand, a part of Aachen. The party was run by many of my friends, so we felt we should attend. Our bus on the way home arrived 6 minutes late in the middle of town. That's not normally bad, but the bus home had already left, so we were faced with an hour's wait, or a thirty minute walk. We elected to walk.
The next morning, we had a train at 11 am for Cologne. We went there for the parade, which is the biggest one. The Cologne street party is supposed to have over a million participants, which was easy to believe packed along the parade route. In Cologne, we met up with Alana Nafthal, another Nova Scotian, who was up with her host sister from Italy. The rest of our group was made up of a girl from BC who's in my district, and who was hosting Alana (her "host brother" is living with Alana's family in Nova Scotia, who provided the invite to visit), and a friend of hers who's backpacking in Europe. The parade in Cologne was quite enjoyable, they threw complete boxes of chocolates, roses to the girls, and very few sugary sweets. At the end of the evening, we went up to Solingen, where the girl from BC is living. We went out for Mexican food and had a good discussion in english. Alana's host sister was a little lost, but everyone was lost if Pierre, Alana and I decided to try our best to speak like the stereotypical Maritimers/Atlantic Canadians. Pierre and I missed our train back to Cologne, and enjoyed walking around Solingen (with nothing but the Henckel knife factory, which was too far away to see), for an hour, after midnight. Back in Cologne, we went to our hostel and quietly got into bed. We'd left our stuff earlier. The hostel was nice, except for the fact that the lockers didn't lock.
On Tuesday morning, we woke up early, due to the 9 o'clock checkout policy. We had our free breakfast and headed for the train station. We parted ways, and Pierre returned to Baden-Württemberg, and I slept on the train to Aachen. Tuesday evening I had an invite to visit my old host family for dinner. We once again had Mexican food and caught up on everything that was going on in Germany. They also updated me on how their son is getting along in the United States. We ended up talking until around 10, so I ended up biking home in the rain and not getting to sleep early before school starts up again after the break.
There wasn't much happening after that until the 15th, when I went to Liège to visit Jeff MacDougald, from Charlottetown. We enjoyed a Belgian "supper", consisting of Jeff and I eating waffles (traditional sugar ones and the factory-made honey filled wafer style), fries with mayonaise and chocolate. He says that they will normally bring waffles to school for lunch, but the waffles there are smaller than at home, but surprisingly filling. We stayed up rather late speaking with his host family, who were asking us many questions about Canada, as well as how we found the differences between Canada and Europe.
On Saturday, we went to a water park with the Belgian Rotary districts. During the hour-long stopover in Leuven, we took the opportunity to take photographs in front of the Stella Artois brewery. The water park was fun, we started with a presentation on the talent show that the club in Spa (where the famous Spa-Francorchamps Formula 1 circuit is located) hosts. It is a professional done show for the Belgian exchange students to show off their talents. It was at this point where I realised Jeff's district is a lot more involved than mine. We had 3.5 hours in the water park, which was a lot of fun, but probably an hour too long. There's a law in Wallonia that prevents people from wearing swim trunks, a speedo-style garment must be worn, for sanitary concerns. This was not exactly warmly received, but we were told in advance. In the evening, we toured Liège, including climbing over 400 steps up to the war memorial, which provides a splendid view of the city. Liège was curiously built down by the river, with a small fortress being built on the mountain once cannons became common. This is quite different from the traditional method of building on the top of the mountain and just having the port by the river. After an early night, we returned to his village and went to bed. We were both extremely tired, even though it was only 12.
Sunday morning we slept until 11:30, then got up and got ready for a visit from his host-grandfather. After serving for the Allies in World War II, he moved to the Belgian Congo for many years, where Jeff's host mother was born and lived until she was 16. The American student who lived with the family until Christmas also came to visit, and we had a big African dinner, consisting of chicken, rice and a purée of an unknown vegetable, as well as bananas and heaps of spicy sauce. After dinner, Jeff, the American and I went outside to play frisbee and chat. Finally, at 7 o'clock, I took my train back to Aachen, a quick trip. Liège is closer to Aachen than Charlottetown is to Summerside.
With that, we return to the present! I anticipate sending a letter right before my German tour in March, then a big German-tour specific update afterwards.
Ben
After my return from the Alps, I started doing a social work project with my school. This project involved different work for each student, mine was at a soup kitchen run by a Convent in the downtown area. I went each day from 7:30 until 12:30, the first 45 minutes being for set-up, then we served breakfasts. The breakfasts consisted of bread, tea and juice, along with sweets and cakes later on. If they were willing to pay 50 cents, they received a coffee and four slices of cheese and meat. They were also given butter (not margarine, as was often pointed out!), jam, honey and Nutella for free. At 11 o'clock we'd serve a pot of soup, which often went unfinished, but on one occasion was empty in less than 2 minutes, but it only took that long because one guy came 30 seconds after the line ended. There was enough soup for between 15 and 20 people. At 11:30 all the guests had to leave. We spent the next 45 minutes cleaning up, mopping, preparing things for the next day, setting out butter to thaw, etc.
This schedule was repeated Monday-Friday for two weeks, after which I was required to write a report, six pages, in German. The two weeks was a lot of fun. The two nuns who worked there were really nice, as were the volunteers that came in each day. There is also one paid employee who does all the heavy lifting-type work. At the end of the two weeks, even though the social work went really slow, it was a lot more fun than many days at school and that made it a little sad to be done. It made it kind of funny walking around town when I'd see these people, because the first thoughts through my head would be "Did they actually go for breakfast today", or if I see a panhandler who I hadn't seen coming for breakfast, I still wonder why they don't go. One of the large bakeries in Aachen has a long-standing program to donate cakes and other sweets to the soup kitchen, due to a family member being treated well by the nuns while in the hospital. As a result of this program, they recently had the idea to sell little coins for 50 cents that could be given to panhandlers for a "big breakfast" - the one with coffee, meat and cheese.
The week following the social work, we had a visit from 25 students from the Czech Republic and Leipzig, a town in the east of Germany. Although I wasn't directly involved in this group, most of my classes were cancelled due to my teachers being involved (most classes still ran, just not mine). The organizer let me tag along with the group, which included the students and their hosts. We did a media project, my group made a poster depicting fruit with funny expressions. That consumed Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. On Monday afternoon, I was treated to a free guided tour of the Town Hall (and stood in the room where the 7 Years' War was ended!) and the Cathedral, where we were able to see a part that's not open to those who are just wandering through, the throne of Charlemagne.
On Tuesday, the exchange students were gone for a trip to Bonn, but the Aacheners (that includes me too, apparently) went to (almost) normal classes. This was probably the saddest day of the month for me. In the break during my double period of computer programming, I was talking to a friend about Rugby and iPods. He had the new iPod Nano, I have the original Nano from the day they started selling them, making it almost 30 months old. We were looking at it and a few people commented on how that's almost a year longer than most iPods last. Murphy's law, being the great friend that it is ensured that after I switched buses on the way home, since my friends went on different buses, I pulled out my iPod, to discover that the screen was broken. The LCD was cracked, with only the bottom left quarter still functional. It still plays music, but now it's a big iPod shuffle (with four times the storage). The amount that I've come to rely on my iPod on train and bus rides meant that that moment was not fun. In the evening, we went to a soccer game in a big group. I once again had problems with my ID, they didn't believe that mine is real and accused me of making a fake ID to buy an adult ticket. They were mad at me for paying a higher price that comes without increased benefits, a very confusing situation. They only checked ID because I had an adult ticket as well. They would've checked if I had a child ticket as well, because I look to be about 18. After I finally convinced them that it's a real ID in Canada, I was let in. The game went pretty well, but wasn't played with as much passion as normal (it was an exhibition game). It ended in a 1-1 tie, not too shabby since the other team is first division and Aachen is second division, the equivalent of an AHL team tying an NHL team. Afterwards, some of us went for donairs, then went home rather late.
Wednesday morning involved working on this project once again, and was followed by a visit to the Fachhochschule, which is essentially a trade school. I declined the offer and went home. Wednesday evening involved going out to a pub to get the whole group together and eat cheap pizza that actually tastes good. This was yet another late night.
Thursday was again normal classes, the exchangers were in Cologne for a tour through there. After school, we all met up to watch an original German movie, Keinohrhasen, which means "Hare without ears". It was a funny movie that started out quite good, but unfortunately it ended up being heavily concentrated at the girls. Upon leaving the cinema, a few of us received text messages that a friend was celebrating his birthday and we ended up staying out until midnight in order to sing happy birthday, then we waited another 45 minutes because our bus was at 12:45. Getting up at 6 for school wasn't going to be fun.
Friday was the wrap up day for the exchangers, we finished our projects and presented them, then we all went home. That evening was a pre-graduation party for another school in town. We all went there, but if you didn't have a ticket (like me, since my friend forgot to pick one up for three of us), we had to wait in line until everyone with a ticket was let in. We stayed late, allowing plenty of time for our goodbyes, then took the "last" bus home. The week was a lot of fun, because it really got the people in my school involved and they were doing a lot more socialising than is normal for the German students. They weren't worried about school work for the week, and it lifted the mood a fair bit.
Tuesday the 29th was the third game of the German Cup soccer championship. I received a ticket from my host family for Christmas and we went together. We had seats, which for me was not the best option, but was good for the kids. Most of my friends were in the standing section across the stadium, where there is a lot more atmosphere and therefore fun. The game was pretty good, with Aachen playing strong and showing a lot of spirit. They were leading 2-0 going into the 83rd minute, but had 3 goals scored on them in the next five minutes and lost the game, being eliminated from the tournament. It was truly unfortunate that they lost so late into a good game. The mood at school reflected the result the next morning.
The Thursday before Lent is the start of the street party portion of Carnival. At 11:11, school was let out and everyone headed to the town square. Most people had costumes on, but my unreliable source told me that no one wears their costumes to school. Upon arriving at the square, they searched us to ensure that we didn't have any glass bottles with us, as well as hard liquor, I believe. They were trying to avoid broken glass on the square, which is expensive to clean up, especially since the Thursday event is run by a local radio station. After the afternoon in the square (one of the coldest days since I arrived here!), we went home for supper and met up for the biggest party for youth in Aachen, held in a tent a few minutes from where I live. Friday was another pre-grad party, so we all attended that, also in costumes, keeping with the Carnival spirit.
Saturday, Feb. 2, was a snow day! I'm not sure if they'd have cancelled school had it been a weekday, but it was the first time in 2 years that it snowed in Aachen. To celebrate, we went to my host family's cottage, which is in the "mountainy" district to the south of Aachen, bordering the national park. The national park is a volcanic region that is currently somewhat inactive, but they are suspecting that in the next millenia it will explode again. Since it's higher up in the mountains, it snows most of the winter and snows in greater volumes. There was enought snow to build a small snowman, have a decent snowball fight and go toboganning. We spent the afternoon there, before coming home for a quiet dinner in the evening.
On Sunday, they had the children's parade, which my host siblings were in. We went into town to check it out and it was pretty fun. They threw a lot more candy than at a parade at home and even included foot warmers, boxes of chocolate and other completely random trinkets! Afterwards, Pierre Landry, an exchanger from Cape Breton, came to visit from Baden-Württemberg, in the south of Germany. After an adventurous train switching in order to get to my house, we had supper and talked about life in Canada and Germany. We went to a fundraiser for the Catholic Youth in Brand, a part of Aachen. The party was run by many of my friends, so we felt we should attend. Our bus on the way home arrived 6 minutes late in the middle of town. That's not normally bad, but the bus home had already left, so we were faced with an hour's wait, or a thirty minute walk. We elected to walk.
The next morning, we had a train at 11 am for Cologne. We went there for the parade, which is the biggest one. The Cologne street party is supposed to have over a million participants, which was easy to believe packed along the parade route. In Cologne, we met up with Alana Nafthal, another Nova Scotian, who was up with her host sister from Italy. The rest of our group was made up of a girl from BC who's in my district, and who was hosting Alana (her "host brother" is living with Alana's family in Nova Scotia, who provided the invite to visit), and a friend of hers who's backpacking in Europe. The parade in Cologne was quite enjoyable, they threw complete boxes of chocolates, roses to the girls, and very few sugary sweets. At the end of the evening, we went up to Solingen, where the girl from BC is living. We went out for Mexican food and had a good discussion in english. Alana's host sister was a little lost, but everyone was lost if Pierre, Alana and I decided to try our best to speak like the stereotypical Maritimers/Atlantic Canadians. Pierre and I missed our train back to Cologne, and enjoyed walking around Solingen (with nothing but the Henckel knife factory, which was too far away to see), for an hour, after midnight. Back in Cologne, we went to our hostel and quietly got into bed. We'd left our stuff earlier. The hostel was nice, except for the fact that the lockers didn't lock.
On Tuesday morning, we woke up early, due to the 9 o'clock checkout policy. We had our free breakfast and headed for the train station. We parted ways, and Pierre returned to Baden-Württemberg, and I slept on the train to Aachen. Tuesday evening I had an invite to visit my old host family for dinner. We once again had Mexican food and caught up on everything that was going on in Germany. They also updated me on how their son is getting along in the United States. We ended up talking until around 10, so I ended up biking home in the rain and not getting to sleep early before school starts up again after the break.
There wasn't much happening after that until the 15th, when I went to Liège to visit Jeff MacDougald, from Charlottetown. We enjoyed a Belgian "supper", consisting of Jeff and I eating waffles (traditional sugar ones and the factory-made honey filled wafer style), fries with mayonaise and chocolate. He says that they will normally bring waffles to school for lunch, but the waffles there are smaller than at home, but surprisingly filling. We stayed up rather late speaking with his host family, who were asking us many questions about Canada, as well as how we found the differences between Canada and Europe.
On Saturday, we went to a water park with the Belgian Rotary districts. During the hour-long stopover in Leuven, we took the opportunity to take photographs in front of the Stella Artois brewery. The water park was fun, we started with a presentation on the talent show that the club in Spa (where the famous Spa-Francorchamps Formula 1 circuit is located) hosts. It is a professional done show for the Belgian exchange students to show off their talents. It was at this point where I realised Jeff's district is a lot more involved than mine. We had 3.5 hours in the water park, which was a lot of fun, but probably an hour too long. There's a law in Wallonia that prevents people from wearing swim trunks, a speedo-style garment must be worn, for sanitary concerns. This was not exactly warmly received, but we were told in advance. In the evening, we toured Liège, including climbing over 400 steps up to the war memorial, which provides a splendid view of the city. Liège was curiously built down by the river, with a small fortress being built on the mountain once cannons became common. This is quite different from the traditional method of building on the top of the mountain and just having the port by the river. After an early night, we returned to his village and went to bed. We were both extremely tired, even though it was only 12.
Sunday morning we slept until 11:30, then got up and got ready for a visit from his host-grandfather. After serving for the Allies in World War II, he moved to the Belgian Congo for many years, where Jeff's host mother was born and lived until she was 16. The American student who lived with the family until Christmas also came to visit, and we had a big African dinner, consisting of chicken, rice and a purée of an unknown vegetable, as well as bananas and heaps of spicy sauce. After dinner, Jeff, the American and I went outside to play frisbee and chat. Finally, at 7 o'clock, I took my train back to Aachen, a quick trip. Liège is closer to Aachen than Charlottetown is to Summerside.
With that, we return to the present! I anticipate sending a letter right before my German tour in March, then a big German-tour specific update afterwards.
Ben
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
November
We went to a big Halloween party (on Halloween), which was followed up by a four day weekend. The Thursday was a lazy day, however on the Friday, we went to visit Ingeborg's mother in Krefeld. Krefeld isn't that nice of a city, which I was told of before we went. The house, however, was very nice. Ingeborg's mom is also famous for her cakes, so I enjoyed a few pieces of that (my body, however, didn't). We had a nice quiet supper and talked about different things that are going on. She also showed us photos from a design competition her grandson won for Industrial Design, which he's studying in Stuttgart.
Two weeks later, the 12th-16th of November, I had a co-op
week. Everyone in my grade had to do a week of on the job experience. I went to the local airport, where I worked in the maintenance facility. This was a lot of fun, I did various jobs including stripping paint off of a plane (had to wear a gas mask), cleaning a plane (least fun), repairing an engine mount, stripping down a section of a plane, doing daily checks of the fleet and other little jobs. I had a lot of fun that week, making it sad to head back to school.
The next big thing was my trip to Darmstadt, near Frankfurt, to visit Ingeborg's sister. It's a very nice city and the family is
quite interesting. Their son is my age and is also a pilot, so he took me up flying over Frankfurt. It was quite enjoyable! We also checked out his father's Porsche, which is locked in the garage for the winter. It's quite the car! We talked about flying relentlessly that night, while still mingling with the conversation of the women.
Sunday morning, it was raining quite heavily, but we went to Phillip's (the son) school for a small Christmas Craft Fair. He goes to a Seventh Day Adventist private school, however, he is Catholic. The school was really old and quite nice. Following this fair, we drove home and the rain became much much worse on the way back, which made for terrible driving. I however, slept (and apparently snored... Oops!) for most of the drive home.
During that week, Jobst, my host father, was in South Africa on a business trip. He is the press director for Germany's largest (and oldest) Catholic aid agency, and was touring the agency's projects in the country. He bought us each a little trinket from South Africa, Nicolle received the Rugby jersey of South Africa, who had just won the World Cup, Isabelle and Ingeborg received jewelry, and I received a neat little radio made out of Coke cans. It's definitely one of the coolest things in my room!
Two weeks later, the 12th-16th of November, I had a co-op
week. Everyone in my grade had to do a week of on the job experience. I went to the local airport, where I worked in the maintenance facility. This was a lot of fun, I did various jobs including stripping paint off of a plane (had to wear a gas mask), cleaning a plane (least fun), repairing an engine mount, stripping down a section of a plane, doing daily checks of the fleet and other little jobs. I had a lot of fun that week, making it sad to head back to school.The next big thing was my trip to Darmstadt, near Frankfurt, to visit Ingeborg's sister. It's a very nice city and the family is
quite interesting. Their son is my age and is also a pilot, so he took me up flying over Frankfurt. It was quite enjoyable! We also checked out his father's Porsche, which is locked in the garage for the winter. It's quite the car! We talked about flying relentlessly that night, while still mingling with the conversation of the women.Sunday morning, it was raining quite heavily, but we went to Phillip's (the son) school for a small Christmas Craft Fair. He goes to a Seventh Day Adventist private school, however, he is Catholic. The school was really old and quite nice. Following this fair, we drove home and the rain became much much worse on the way back, which made for terrible driving. I however, slept (and apparently snored... Oops!) for most of the drive home.
During that week, Jobst, my host father, was in South Africa on a business trip. He is the press director for Germany's largest (and oldest) Catholic aid agency, and was touring the agency's projects in the country. He bought us each a little trinket from South Africa, Nicolle received the Rugby jersey of South Africa, who had just won the World Cup, Isabelle and Ingeborg received jewelry, and I received a neat little radio made out of Coke cans. It's definitely one of the coolest things in my room!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Birthday/The Netherlands
Well, I'm quite a bit behind in my posting, but since the time of my trip to Usedom, a lot has happened! First, the day after I got back was my 18th Birthday! That means I can legally stay in the Clubs as late as I want (the 16 and 17 year olds must leave at midnight), of course, Rotary says I can't drink and my friends have to leave by midnight anyway, so it makes no difference to me. Since my birthday was in the middle of the holidays, I only had two people over to visit. Afterwards, we went to a huge "Abi Party", a party for the students who finish school this year, and anyone over 16 could go.
The next morning,+007.jpg)
we went to Egmond, in the Netherlands, to stay at Ingeborg's uncle's cottage. Her mother was also there. We saw the beach in the area and the dunes, (again, quite similar to PEI) and toured around the small town. The next morning, we went to Amsterdam (a very nice place, by the way), and toured the city, and we also went on a boat tour during the afternoon. The city was littered with police in riot gear, apparently there was a soccer game against the Czech Republic that night, and they were preparing to disperse any revellers. Amsterdam is amazing, but at times in a moderately scary way. Everywhere you look, there's an advertisement for porn and every second shop sells drug paraphernalia. It's impossible to avoid seeing either one, since it's everywhere. Jobst almost inadvertently led us (with two young girls and one old woman in tow) into the Red Light district (I figured he knew something I didn't. I was wrong) and quickly turned us around. Despite this rough edge, the city still has a lot of charm, and I definitely want to go back someday. That evening, we went to another beach, about one kilometre from the first one. We flew kites, and had some fun, and went for a walk, and then we had supper at a nice restaurant.
The next day, we went to another city, Alkmaar. It was also very nice, and we window shopped all day. I ended up buying a pair of jeans. We then returned to Egmond and had supper at another great restaurant.
The following morning, we returned home, and I was released to enjoy my first bit of time off in a few weeks.
Between then, and October 30th, very little happened, besides going to school, and getting lost about 10 km from my house in the middle of the night, past when I said I'd be home. That's what I get for a) not knowing the bus schedule, b) improper planning, and c) not travelling with a friend.
On October 30th,
I went to a soccer match between Alemannia Aachen (it literally means "the Germans of Aachen," when translated from Latin) and VfL Bochum. The stadium was packed, and the atmosphere was ridiculous. Even if you were at either a packed house in Cahill Stadium (such as the Royal Bank Cup final in '97) or one of those final playoff games at the Wellness Centre, you'd still have no idea what the atmosphere was like. The only similarity is that the visiting team's supporters were relegated to one tiny corner of the stadium. Every single person in attendance (except my host father and I) had an Alemania Aachen scarf, and many also had huge flags on huge staffs, (3x4m, or bigger) supporting the team. Before the game, they play the Alemania anthem, which the whole crowd sings, followed by the Tivoli (the stadium) Hymn, again, sung by the whole crowd, this is without prompting too. The announcer read the first name of each player, with the whole crowed shouting back the last name for him, also out of memory, and at the end, he would shout "Danke Danke!" (thank you, thank you), and the crowd replied, "Bitte Bitte!" (you're welcome, you're welcome).
The whole crowd moves with the players, cheering, jeering, sighing, etc, and intensely following the match. The first goal was scored by Alemannia, however, it was into their own net, a bad head-butt off of a corner kick. However, they came back, and ended up winning 3-2, and after every goal, the crowd went nuts, twirling their scarves, and screaming, and chanting! It's a totally different experience than anything in North America.
Another interesting thing is that after the game, the police block off an entire street, and a column of buses are parked inside of it. The visiting fans exit via a special exit, the entire visiting section was blocked by fences, and they poured into the buses, which then departed, with a full police escort, to the train station, where a platform was blocked off by the police, and they were escorted onto a special train, which won't stop until it gets to Bochum. Supposedly, if the security was any less, there'd be riots.
This brings me to today, Halloween, and a four day weekend!
The next morning,
+007.jpg)
we went to Egmond, in the Netherlands, to stay at Ingeborg's uncle's cottage. Her mother was also there. We saw the beach in the area and the dunes, (again, quite similar to PEI) and toured around the small town. The next morning, we went to Amsterdam (a very nice place, by the way), and toured the city, and we also went on a boat tour during the afternoon. The city was littered with police in riot gear, apparently there was a soccer game against the Czech Republic that night, and they were preparing to disperse any revellers. Amsterdam is amazing, but at times in a moderately scary way. Everywhere you look, there's an advertisement for porn and every second shop sells drug paraphernalia. It's impossible to avoid seeing either one, since it's everywhere. Jobst almost inadvertently led us (with two young girls and one old woman in tow) into the Red Light district (I figured he knew something I didn't. I was wrong) and quickly turned us around. Despite this rough edge, the city still has a lot of charm, and I definitely want to go back someday. That evening, we went to another beach, about one kilometre from the first one. We flew kites, and had some fun, and went for a walk, and then we had supper at a nice restaurant.The next day, we went to another city, Alkmaar. It was also very nice, and we window shopped all day. I ended up buying a pair of jeans. We then returned to Egmond and had supper at another great restaurant.
The following morning, we returned home, and I was released to enjoy my first bit of time off in a few weeks.
Between then, and October 30th, very little happened, besides going to school, and getting lost about 10 km from my house in the middle of the night, past when I said I'd be home. That's what I get for a) not knowing the bus schedule, b) improper planning, and c) not travelling with a friend.
On October 30th,
I went to a soccer match between Alemannia Aachen (it literally means "the Germans of Aachen," when translated from Latin) and VfL Bochum. The stadium was packed, and the atmosphere was ridiculous. Even if you were at either a packed house in Cahill Stadium (such as the Royal Bank Cup final in '97) or one of those final playoff games at the Wellness Centre, you'd still have no idea what the atmosphere was like. The only similarity is that the visiting team's supporters were relegated to one tiny corner of the stadium. Every single person in attendance (except my host father and I) had an Alemania Aachen scarf, and many also had huge flags on huge staffs, (3x4m, or bigger) supporting the team. Before the game, they play the Alemania anthem, which the whole crowd sings, followed by the Tivoli (the stadium) Hymn, again, sung by the whole crowd, this is without prompting too. The announcer read the first name of each player, with the whole crowed shouting back the last name for him, also out of memory, and at the end, he would shout "Danke Danke!" (thank you, thank you), and the crowd replied, "Bitte Bitte!" (you're welcome, you're welcome).The whole crowd moves with the players, cheering, jeering, sighing, etc, and intensely following the match. The first goal was scored by Alemannia, however, it was into their own net, a bad head-butt off of a corner kick. However, they came back, and ended up winning 3-2, and after every goal, the crowd went nuts, twirling their scarves, and screaming, and chanting! It's a totally different experience than anything in North America.
Another interesting thing is that after the game, the police block off an entire street, and a column of buses are parked inside of it. The visiting fans exit via a special exit, the entire visiting section was blocked by fences, and they poured into the buses, which then departed, with a full police escort, to the train station, where a platform was blocked off by the police, and they were escorted onto a special train, which won't stop until it gets to Bochum. Supposedly, if the security was any less, there'd be riots.
This brings me to today, Halloween, and a four day weekend!
Friday, October 12, 2007
Trip to Usedom
I departed for Usedom on Wednesday, September 21st, from Aache
n. This was the start of my date with the German train system. My train, scheduled for 8:39, was cancelled. I was scheduled on a second train, taking the “Regional Express” (aka slow train) at 9:13 to Düsseldorf, and then the “ICE” or “InterCity Express” (fast train) from there to Berlin. Of course, this first train was the subject of car switching, and reconfiguration after reconfiguration, causing a 45 minute delay in our departure from Aachen. At this point, I knew that I likely would not make my next train on time, but I knew I would be closer to Berlin, so I went. We stopped 6 times on the tracks, and that did me in. I arrived 20 minutes after my train left for Berlin. After standing in a long lineup at customer service (the second of the day), I was put on a new train to Berlin, at 12:55. The ticket agent confirmed I'd be at a window seat with a table, (saloon style, I think, is the name) however, when the train arrived, my reservation wasn't at one of those seats. My reservation also was not noted on the seat like it should be, and someone was sitting there. Rather than complain, I found another free seat on the not-so-busy train. Happily in a seat, we departed for Berlin.
n. This was the start of my date with the German train system. My train, scheduled for 8:39, was cancelled. I was scheduled on a second train, taking the “Regional Express” (aka slow train) at 9:13 to Düsseldorf, and then the “ICE” or “InterCity Express” (fast train) from there to Berlin. Of course, this first train was the subject of car switching, and reconfiguration after reconfiguration, causing a 45 minute delay in our departure from Aachen. At this point, I knew that I likely would not make my next train on time, but I knew I would be closer to Berlin, so I went. We stopped 6 times on the tracks, and that did me in. I arrived 20 minutes after my train left for Berlin. After standing in a long lineup at customer service (the second of the day), I was put on a new train to Berlin, at 12:55. The ticket agent confirmed I'd be at a window seat with a table, (saloon style, I think, is the name) however, when the train arrived, my reservation wasn't at one of those seats. My reservation also was not noted on the seat like it should be, and someone was sitting there. Rather than complain, I found another free seat on the not-so-busy train. Happily in a seat, we departed for Berlin. This train ride was fast, and all was going well until some town in the middle of nowhere. We coupled with two other trains (making a MASSIVE train going to Berlin, at least a kilometre long) and then continued as if nothing happened. We made it one town further, and things just went from bad to worse (I would've had 1 hour in Berlin instead of 4) some crazy terrorists held up a Kindergarten (this is all derived from German, the English announcement said “a police investigation will be delaying the train”) and the Kindergarten was next to the track, so the police blocked the track, and we waited at a station. For an extra hour. Luckily, the bar was open for free drinks of anything alcohol free. I indulged without hesitation, considering the cost of my ticket! Finally, we were on our way, with no further delays.
The train is interesting, with a stop every ten or fifteen minutes in West Germany (I use the term for description, because the country is still very much in two distinct halves), but as soon as you reach Hannover, the driver floors it, and you do 250 kilometres per hour, non-stop to the Berlin-Spandau train station. There is literally nothing but forest and open land between the two. You just go. So I met Mariana in Berlin, where the train company handed out more drinks. She was excited to see me, as I was to see her, but we had to run to make the last train for the coast.
Once on the train, we had three hours to kill, so we had a great discussion, catching up, and speaking of art and music festivals to see in Germany. She knows ALL of them, of course. We also discussed many many things about Germany, as well as Canada. When we arrived in Usedom, her father, Hans, met us at the train station. It has also been five years since I've seen him. Her mother, Erika, had supper ready when we reached their house, and both Mariana and I were exploring the house when we arrived.
Mariana hadn't been home in about a year, and in that time, her parents had almost completely remodelled the house. New kitchen, new stairs, new furniture, new entertainment system, most of the house was new, so she was exploring/giving me a tour. She was proud to say that her family had finally evolved from modest East-German era furnishings to ultra-modern “American Standard” appliances and furnishings. I was quite impressed, as it looked like a brand-new house. We all stayed up quite late chatting that night.
Thursday morning, after a long sleep, Mariana and her mom left for the dentist's office, and her father took me to Peenemünde, the home of Rocketry. A short drive from their house in Zinnowitz, the remnants of this formerly vast military base was a great, and very informative museum. The area was a military base right up until 1996, at which point the unified German military closed it down. In its heyda
y, before the largest single-target bombing raid in British history, there were up to 15 000 engineers, scientists, and POWs building the first long range rockets, with the hope of striking London (which they did, with minimal accuracy). As I toured the vast museum, I learnt that this project is believed to be the only weapons project in history where more people died making it (estimated at 20-30 000) than were killed by it (very few). So, after a 3 hour tour, I came out much more informed about the German rocket program. Oh, and Werner von Braun, the guy who ran the American Rocket program (including Apollo) pretty much until his death in 1977, ran the show here during the war.
Afterwards, we went for dinner at a nice little restaurant somewhere on the Island. After this adventure, I returned to see Mariana and her mother again. We spoke for a while, and then Mariana suggested going for a walk to the beach, to see the Ostsee (Baltic Sea). It was quite windy (apparently an 8 or 9 on the Beaufort scale, a Hurricane is 12), and it became windier since that report, so probably 10. We watched massive wave action, and had sand blow in our faces, and then walked out onto the pier in the looming darkness, only to have a huge wave crash over it and soak us! Then we went for a tour of the city, and had supper at a local Pizzeria that Mariana missed dearly. We stayed for quite a while there, and then came home after 10 pm, and then spoke with her father about the German military. Every time I meet someone, the question I am asked is either “Have you completed your military service,” or “When you go back, how long must you serve in the military,” it usually takes a few attempts to get the message across that no, I do not have to be in the military if I don't want to. It's how things work in many countries now. I leave that part out, however.
On Friday, we had a very slow start, and around noon,
Mariana and I went on an exploration of the beach and town. We took pictures at the beach, and then went to look for souvenirs of Usedom. Afterwards, we returned to her house, where her mother had prepared a traditional German meal for special occasions. It was quite good, and I think I overate. Then, we went to a presentation about the town's plans to re-develop a Communist Era community centre (Hans is the Deputy Town Chair or something like that. Like a deputy mayor, but in a small town). There, I met a girl who went to India with Rotary last year, apparently the students there speak English. I would have expected Hindi. Hans was her outbound counselor, and referred her to Mariana for many questions, so they knew each other, and we all hung out for the evening. The girl wrote for the local paper, in a bi-weekly youth section, and asked Mariana and I some questions about our experience knowing each other for an article of hers.
Saturday morning, I went with Hans and Mariana to Poland. Part of Usedom is Polish, because for whatever reason, Stalin decided that the capital city of the island should become Polish, for economic reasons. The only connection to the rest of Poland from Usedom is by ferry, and it all seems quite silly. Regardless, things were quite cheap in Poland, but the quality was high, so I bought a couple Christmas presents for home (yes, I'm already thinking Christmas. I need to send the box home in a month and a half). I spent about 15 euros, and the quality of the products would have warranted a $50 price tag at the very least at home. After the trip to Poland, we returned to Zinnowitz and prepared for a night out. Mariana's friends from some high school group were having a reunion, and it was on the mainland, about a 15 minute drive from her house. We played games and chatted and ate food (this was a very eccentric bunch, by the way), and I learned that in the eastern part of Germany, having kids when you're young is common and socially acceptable, and that the institution of marriage is very different, they do nothing other than go down to the town hall with two friends and sign some paperwork. No celebration at all, and it makes for a completely different atmosphere. So, six years out of high school, a few of her friends were married, and several had children. At about 3 in the morning, I couldn't stay awake any longer, and went to sleep. I'm told the others were up until 7.
Sunday morning, we returned to Zinnowitz to say goodbye, and have one last meal. I boarded my train at 13:09, and off I went to Berlin. I arrived in Berlin at 4 o'clock, and my next train wasn't until 00:28, or 12:28 at night. So, I put my bags in a baggage storage place, and wandered around Berlin. I intended to go to Postdamer Platz, but I got a little lost. I looked at a map when I returned to Aachen, and it turns out I was a couple blocks south of my target. I had a nice supper, and saw some of the sights of Berlin (I was too cheap to go up the big tower), so I headed back towards the train station at around 8 pm.
On the way back, I found out that the Bundestag was open until 10 pm, even though it was Sunday, so I jumped at the op
portunity, and waited in line for half an hour before going up to the glass dome on top. I took a few pictures and read up on the history of the German Government since around 1890. Most of the period when Germany was split up was omitted, due to the fact that the Bundestag was not in use, except to host a few conferences. There was some law that said that no legislative powers could meet in Berlin or something like that, because of the fact that it was in the middle of East Germany. After 2 hours at the Bundestag (I figured Rotary will rush us through in the spring), I went to the Hauptbahnhof (train station) and sat on a bench and read magazines while waiting for my train. The trip back was uneventful, thankfully, and I arrived in Aachen safely, and slept for a while!
Thursday, September 20, 2007
I don't know what to call this
Hello. Finally, I'm going to update everyone, without pictures (they'll come later).
Tuesday, September 11th. Today I had a normal day at school, it's not really interesting enough to say much, except that I've met people. That's all. Seriously.
Wednesday, September 12th. Went to school. Came home. Went to scouts. It was fun. But I don't have much to say about it.
Thursday, September 13th. Went to school, then the Hauptbahnhof (train station), for train tickets for the weekend. Then home.
Friday, September 14th. Went to school. Bought new shoes, (Nike+) and the Nike+ iPod connector. Then I went to Bergheim for Rotary. The train ride was fun, but packed full of people. The bus ride, on the other hand, was just plain scary. I think the driver thought he was in a Porsche or something. Didn't do much on the first night, except stay up late, and realise that there are a lot of Mexicans here, like everyone was Mexican, or Brazilian, with a few Venezuelans and Argentinians to boot. There was one Taiwanese girl, a Japanese girl, a Thai girl, and an Indian girl, 10 Americans, and 5 Canadians. This is out of 50 students... and only one of the North Americans wasn't white.. so much for diversity, I guess. I'll post some pictures here later.
One of the Rotex (the people who run the meetings for the exchange students) girls was in Windsor two years ago for her exchange, so she knew a lot about the maritimes. We had a good chat.
Saturday, September 15th. We went to see a big open-pit mine, with the biggest equipment in the world. It was pretty cool, I'll add pictures later. Then we went to a part of the mine that had been reclaimed (they move the mine constantly, filling in the old hole with the extras from the new hole), which was well forested, and had a nice cabin from the company. You wouldn't have known that 20 years before, that was likely the most disgusting industrial wasteland on Earth! The food was good, and there were lots of alcohol-free beverages, to the dismay of some students.
After the mine tour, we went back to the school that we stayed at. We were told that we had to make a presentation about our country, in English, in six hours. It was to be a skit. One of the Canadian girls spent about three seconds deciding that she'd bail and join the Americans... (she calls herself a Liberal though. Don't they say it's the Tories who do that?) we were offended, but pressed on. We settled on performing the "I Am Canadian" routine, which took about 10 minutes to decide. With lots of time to kill, we went with the Americans to find a McDonalds (they claim they needed a bag for their skit). In true American style, we spent an hour or two finding this McDonalds, and had a snack (well, I had a snack. Can't speak for the others) Then we decided to find a faster way home. So I went online and got a map, and it looked like we were 2 towns over. Not believing the map, we asked for directions. The man pointed at a road, said go left, and then we it ends, take another left. Easy enough. So we walk out to this "road" and realise, it's a highway! We were two towns over! We went two towns for McDonalds! You could justify it by saying we burned a lot of calories getting there... So we got back, and had our presentation. It was good.
Sunday, September 16th. Today we got up, cleaned the place out, and left. We went to a town called Königswinter (Kings Winter), and were 15 minutes late for the meeting there. The Rotex people quickly blamed us, though we waited 20 minutes for the bus, ready to go, but they scheduled it for 9 am (when we should've left already). I wasn't impressed with the statement. The meeting was extremely boring, and it was just repeat #10 million of the Rotary rules and expectations. They didn't even have food there to make it better! After the meeting, Mr Popp (the councilor from Aachen's other Rotary club) and someone else came to pick us up. I went with Mr Popp, as he lives nearby. Madelyn, and Ana Patricia (one of the 4 Mexicans in Aachen) came with us as well. They slept, so I had a chat with Mr Popp, he's an Engineer who builds fancy ball bearings for the gearboxes of EVERY Formula 1 car! He also drove a Porsche Cayenne Turbo, and scoffed at its mileage, so I don't think he was poor. Once we hit the autobahn, he taught me a bit about it, and also showed me that in Germany, the car manufacturers have a "Gentleman's Agreement" limiting speeds at 250 kilometers per hour, though the Cayenne, as he demonstrated, topped out at 240 due to its size. (It still had LOTS of room left to go. It was weird, you put your foot down, and then it leaps from 150 to 240 in a few seconds, and then just stops accelerating!) So needless to say, the open stretches of the trip were, brisk. We stopped at his house for "cake" though it was really pie. Some damn good pie, actually. Afterwards, I went home.
It was also the one year anniversary of me dating Leah, so I called her and said hello.
Monday, September 17th. Went to school, went for a run. Das ist Alles.
Tuesday, September 18th. Went to school, then to Alfredo's (another Mexican) to watch a movie.
Wednesday, September 19th. Went to school, then for a run with the dog. Then Scouts. We made Pizza. That's seriously all that we did in the 1:30 that we were there!
Thursday, September 20th. Today I wished it was Friday so the weekend, and holidays, could start. Pretty boring day. Going to sleep early, as well.
Tuesday, September 11th. Today I had a normal day at school, it's not really interesting enough to say much, except that I've met people. That's all. Seriously.
Wednesday, September 12th. Went to school. Came home. Went to scouts. It was fun. But I don't have much to say about it.
Thursday, September 13th. Went to school, then the Hauptbahnhof (train station), for train tickets for the weekend. Then home.
Friday, September 14th. Went to school. Bought new shoes, (Nike+) and the Nike+ iPod connector. Then I went to Bergheim for Rotary. The train ride was fun, but packed full of people. The bus ride, on the other hand, was just plain scary. I think the driver thought he was in a Porsche or something. Didn't do much on the first night, except stay up late, and realise that there are a lot of Mexicans here, like everyone was Mexican, or Brazilian, with a few Venezuelans and Argentinians to boot. There was one Taiwanese girl, a Japanese girl, a Thai girl, and an Indian girl, 10 Americans, and 5 Canadians. This is out of 50 students... and only one of the North Americans wasn't white.. so much for diversity, I guess. I'll post some pictures here later.
One of the Rotex (the people who run the meetings for the exchange students) girls was in Windsor two years ago for her exchange, so she knew a lot about the maritimes. We had a good chat.
Saturday, September 15th. We went to see a big open-pit mine, with the biggest equipment in the world. It was pretty cool, I'll add pictures later. Then we went to a part of the mine that had been reclaimed (they move the mine constantly, filling in the old hole with the extras from the new hole), which was well forested, and had a nice cabin from the company. You wouldn't have known that 20 years before, that was likely the most disgusting industrial wasteland on Earth! The food was good, and there were lots of alcohol-free beverages, to the dismay of some students.
After the mine tour, we went back to the school that we stayed at. We were told that we had to make a presentation about our country, in English, in six hours. It was to be a skit. One of the Canadian girls spent about three seconds deciding that she'd bail and join the Americans... (she calls herself a Liberal though. Don't they say it's the Tories who do that?) we were offended, but pressed on. We settled on performing the "I Am Canadian" routine, which took about 10 minutes to decide. With lots of time to kill, we went with the Americans to find a McDonalds (they claim they needed a bag for their skit). In true American style, we spent an hour or two finding this McDonalds, and had a snack (well, I had a snack. Can't speak for the others) Then we decided to find a faster way home. So I went online and got a map, and it looked like we were 2 towns over. Not believing the map, we asked for directions. The man pointed at a road, said go left, and then we it ends, take another left. Easy enough. So we walk out to this "road" and realise, it's a highway! We were two towns over! We went two towns for McDonalds! You could justify it by saying we burned a lot of calories getting there... So we got back, and had our presentation. It was good.
Sunday, September 16th. Today we got up, cleaned the place out, and left. We went to a town called Königswinter (Kings Winter), and were 15 minutes late for the meeting there. The Rotex people quickly blamed us, though we waited 20 minutes for the bus, ready to go, but they scheduled it for 9 am (when we should've left already). I wasn't impressed with the statement. The meeting was extremely boring, and it was just repeat #10 million of the Rotary rules and expectations. They didn't even have food there to make it better! After the meeting, Mr Popp (the councilor from Aachen's other Rotary club) and someone else came to pick us up. I went with Mr Popp, as he lives nearby. Madelyn, and Ana Patricia (one of the 4 Mexicans in Aachen) came with us as well. They slept, so I had a chat with Mr Popp, he's an Engineer who builds fancy ball bearings for the gearboxes of EVERY Formula 1 car! He also drove a Porsche Cayenne Turbo, and scoffed at its mileage, so I don't think he was poor. Once we hit the autobahn, he taught me a bit about it, and also showed me that in Germany, the car manufacturers have a "Gentleman's Agreement" limiting speeds at 250 kilometers per hour, though the Cayenne, as he demonstrated, topped out at 240 due to its size. (It still had LOTS of room left to go. It was weird, you put your foot down, and then it leaps from 150 to 240 in a few seconds, and then just stops accelerating!) So needless to say, the open stretches of the trip were, brisk. We stopped at his house for "cake" though it was really pie. Some damn good pie, actually. Afterwards, I went home.
It was also the one year anniversary of me dating Leah, so I called her and said hello.
Monday, September 17th. Went to school, went for a run. Das ist Alles.
Tuesday, September 18th. Went to school, then to Alfredo's (another Mexican) to watch a movie.
Wednesday, September 19th. Went to school, then for a run with the dog. Then Scouts. We made Pizza. That's seriously all that we did in the 1:30 that we were there!
Thursday, September 20th. Today I wished it was Friday so the weekend, and holidays, could start. Pretty boring day. Going to sleep early, as well.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Quick Update
Last week was quite busy, so I will add the post about it in the next 48 hours. Just to let everyone know, I have started exercising, as you may have seen from the Nike+ widget on the right hand panel. I have also made a spreadsheet to record my own data, which I will later add to the blog as well.
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