Thursday and Friday, October 19th and 20th, my host parents took me to Germany’s second largest city, Hamburg, about an hour and a half drive away, where we were hosted by my host parents college friends. What a surprise it was to see Nancy, new friend and AFS student from China, at the Elbe Tunnel! (Email subscribers, please click here for the slideshow.)
A little more than an hour away, we took a day trip to Lubeck on Tuesday, October 18th. It is located on the Trave river, a World Heritage Site, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%BCbeck . The Niederegger Marzipan Museum was especially amazing! (Email subscribers, please click here for the slideshow.)
Fall break started in Germany, giving students two weeks off from school, October 18th to the 30th. The next three blog posts will share some of my adventures beginning with an Eco-Farm visit on Monday, October 17. Please click here for the slideshow.
While biking the big walking loop trail nearby my home, I see lots of fruit trees, but have noticed a plum tree especially. After asking for my Oma’s Streusel Kuchen recipe and checking with my host mom, I took a bike ride after school on the trail to harvest the plums. I located the plum tree in no time, parking my bike off the trail. I tried climbing the tree with my helmet on at first, but that didn't work at all as the helmet kept getting caught in the branches. There were a lot of blackberry bushes at the bottom which had thorns and a couple of burning nettles, but with less injury than I thought, I hoisted myself up into the tree. The plum tree wasn't really built to hold weight, noted by the way the branches split off but with great care, I made it to the top without anything going wrong. I brought along a little plastic bag and it filled up quite quickly with the beautiful plums. Climbing down was harder because the twigs kept poking me and getting snagged on my clothes, but I made it down only getting one burning nettle sting. With a feeling of success, I headed back home with the aroma of my full bag of plums accompanying me. This is the recipe my Oma has handed down for the Streusel Kuchen: My Oma grew up in Grieteinen, East Prussia (west of the city of Tilsit which is now Sovetsk, Russia) where she lived with her family on a prosperous farm. From her family history book “Faith and Courage: A Story of the Hardt Family” there is a passage where my Oma shared about her Vati (father) planting a plum tree in their garden. She and her siblings shared memories of picking cherries, apples, canning peas, making gooseberry jam, raspberry juice (Himbeersaft), carrying baskets of food and coffee for the harvest workers mid-afternoon Kaffee. It must have been fun to do all those things as a family, enjoying the fruits of their farm’s harvest. When I first started mixing all of the ingredients for the Streusel Kuchen I was a little nervous to see how it would turn out, since my last few baking tries didn’t turn out exactly as expected. We started first by halving the plums which was a lot easier than I thought, which showed they were ripe and ready to use. They were a light green color inside which worried me slightly but they tasted good so I kept going. We covered the bottom layer of dough with cut fruit, finishing it off with the streusel, a beautiful mixture of crumbly and sweet. Once in the oven it was just a matter of cleaning up and waiting for the end results. Soon the timer rang and the streusel kuchen was done! To my delight, the plums had turned a beautiful purple, no green to be seen! We sampled a little and it was great, but streusel tends to taste better once at room temperature. I think this is my most successful baking attempt yet and I hope to have many more!
Did you know it’s almost been a month since I traveled to Heikendorf to begin my CBYX school year with my host family? And to think a year ago I began to complete the online application for CBYX?! When I began answering the application questions and writing the essays, I don’t think I fully realized just how life changing this experience could or would be. But now, as you have seen from my blog postings, I am SO GLAD I applied and am now experiencing life as a CBYX scholar. When I look back over the last four weeks, I can see how the CIEE time together in D.C. and then with the Experiment e.V. staff at Schloss Wittgenstein made it easier to transition into Germany. Before we left the U.S. we talked about some basics, and every question we could think of was answered so we left reassured and ready to embrace our new lives in Germany. The language camp really helped ward off any potential homesickness since we had a full schedule and were always doing something, which also helped reduce the culture shock and confusion. I learned a lot of lessons at language camp that have already influenced my living here in Germany, like try everything, even if you have no clue what it is or how to do it. The support you feel from the 49 other kids and the 10 teamers and teachers is great and the best part is that the support doesn’t end with language camp. Each scholar receives an Experiment e.V. Betreuerin (advisor) who checks in with you and your host family, supporting the positive and listening to the negative. These Betreuerin are usually available via WhatsApp so it’s easy to talk with them whenever you need. I think this support system is one of the best parts of the CBYX/CIEE/Experiment e.V and something that sets it apart from other study abroad programs. I met with my Betreuerin Sunday, September 18, when she came and visited me and the host family. The day before my host mom and I made a carrot cake topped with handmade marzipan carrots which we served along with little cinnamon rolls and IKEA cookies for refreshments. Our visit was pleasant with us talking about general stuff like school and how we’re all settling into a routine. She asked if we talked about house rules yet and, since we hadn’t, we planned a time to discuss with the help of a Q&A packet my host sister received when she lived this past school year with a host family in Texas. We also talked about the importance of open communication, even about simple things like who is responsible to buy shampoo or who pays at the movies. We had a good visit and the carrot cake was just as delicious as it looks in the photo! It’s nice to have someone checking in – both for the CBYX scholar and the host family.
P.S. I hope that if you are reading this blog and meet the requirements, you will consider going online - http://www.usagermanyscholarship.org/apply-ciee/ -to apply for the 2016-2017 CBYX scholarship or share the link with a friend who might be interested. (Submission deadline is December 4, 2015.) |
aboutElizabeth began German immersion at Waddell Language Academy and continued at South Meck World Language Magnet. She is spending her senior year in Heikendorf, Germany as a CBYX scholar. Archives
June 2016
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