CBYX German coordinators, Experiment e.V. (http://www.experiment-ev.de/foreign-visitors) have made the past three weeks at Schloss Wittgenstein fly! As you can see from the schedule, each day we have time for study, workshops, classes and fun. I’ll share a few of the highlights from each week.
Monday, August 17 - We all were given German written and oral language tests to be placed in one of the Level 1-5 language groups. Having just completed AP German with Frau Wilson, I was happy to learn I was placed in the top level 5 group (with 8 other students) with Fabian as my teacher. During plenum (basically means group), when everyone meets together, either in the Aula (auxiliary room) or Capelle (another room with good acoustics), we got our schedule for the rest of the week and talked about the Schloss (castle), the town and our classes. Dinner, at 6:15 p.m., offered rolls with cheeses, many meats, cream cheese, butter, cucumber, herb cream cheese and nutella. The rolls were warm, too, so they were delicious. I love the herb cream cheese with cucumbers, it’s so good! After dinner we went to the Aula where I was in Veronica and Matthias’ small group, or, as he calls it, Home Group. He is really relaxed, yet he still gets everyone to talk and be involved which is good. We talked about our first thoughts about the Schloss and our first opinions. Everyone was mentioning the toilets so we started a list about how German toilets are different from American ones. It was a short but fun small group since they are only 30 minutes. Afterward we had Plenum sharing information about room checks. On school nights (Sunday-Thursday) room checks are at 10 pm, weekends (Friday-Saturday) are 12 am. Again I went to sleep pretty early after room check because the beds are so comfortable! They have a fitted sheet, duvet and really big (2ftx2ft) square pillow which is my favorite! I fell asleep in about 5 minutes.
Monday, August 17 - We all were given German written and oral language tests to be placed in one of the Level 1-5 language groups. Having just completed AP German with Frau Wilson, I was happy to learn I was placed in the top level 5 group (with 8 other students) with Fabian as my teacher. During plenum (basically means group), when everyone meets together, either in the Aula (auxiliary room) or Capelle (another room with good acoustics), we got our schedule for the rest of the week and talked about the Schloss (castle), the town and our classes. Dinner, at 6:15 p.m., offered rolls with cheeses, many meats, cream cheese, butter, cucumber, herb cream cheese and nutella. The rolls were warm, too, so they were delicious. I love the herb cream cheese with cucumbers, it’s so good! After dinner we went to the Aula where I was in Veronica and Matthias’ small group, or, as he calls it, Home Group. He is really relaxed, yet he still gets everyone to talk and be involved which is good. We talked about our first thoughts about the Schloss and our first opinions. Everyone was mentioning the toilets so we started a list about how German toilets are different from American ones. It was a short but fun small group since they are only 30 minutes. Afterward we had Plenum sharing information about room checks. On school nights (Sunday-Thursday) room checks are at 10 pm, weekends (Friday-Saturday) are 12 am. Again I went to sleep pretty early after room check because the beds are so comfortable! They have a fitted sheet, duvet and really big (2ftx2ft) square pillow which is my favorite! I fell asleep in about 5 minutes.
Thursday, August 20 - Today I turned 17! I woke up at 5:55 a.m.and quietly Skyped in the hallway with my family where I opened the package sent from my host family – German chocolate and a really pretty hand crafted photograph card. I was really happy that they remembered my birthday! After breakfast, when I returned to my room, there were balloons on my bed, pink and blue, and a gingerbread cookie necklace in the shape of a heart that said “Mine Prinzessin”. My roommates had set it up when I went to breakfast and I didn’t have any idea! It was super sweet of them!
Sunday, August 23 - We walked into town to attend church (http://www.kirchenkreis-wittgenstein.de/ev-kirchengemeinde-bad-laasphe.html) where we sang some hymns with the pastor talking about the importance of reading the Bible and ending with communion. There was an art gallery opening as part of the church and they had that right after the service but we went back to the castle to catch the end of brunch. We had a treasure hunt around 2:30 p.m. We were with our small groups (home group) and had to come up with a team name, flag, cheer and outfits. We decided to go with rainbow, since some of us already had the beginning colored shirts. There were nine stations around the jogging trail that we had to complete and the groups were split up in 10 minute increments. We were going for accuracy, not speed, so that was nice. Station 1 – Complete a quiz about random German things (how many grams in a Nutella jar) 2. Charades with two of the teamers. We did well at the first two and we started to walk in a rainbow line, for our team stuff. 3. Create something - so we made a really cute fairy house with flowers, ferns and moss. 4. Spider Webb- we had to get everyone through the web without them touching the web. We lost 3/10 so it wasn't good but it wasn't bad. The rest of the stations went well with our returning to the castle to make our flag and turn in our packet. Our team came in 1st, winning a goody bag with chocolate and gummies.
Sunday, August 23 - We walked into town to attend church (http://www.kirchenkreis-wittgenstein.de/ev-kirchengemeinde-bad-laasphe.html) where we sang some hymns with the pastor talking about the importance of reading the Bible and ending with communion. There was an art gallery opening as part of the church and they had that right after the service but we went back to the castle to catch the end of brunch. We had a treasure hunt around 2:30 p.m. We were with our small groups (home group) and had to come up with a team name, flag, cheer and outfits. We decided to go with rainbow, since some of us already had the beginning colored shirts. There were nine stations around the jogging trail that we had to complete and the groups were split up in 10 minute increments. We were going for accuracy, not speed, so that was nice. Station 1 – Complete a quiz about random German things (how many grams in a Nutella jar) 2. Charades with two of the teamers. We did well at the first two and we started to walk in a rainbow line, for our team stuff. 3. Create something - so we made a really cute fairy house with flowers, ferns and moss. 4. Spider Webb- we had to get everyone through the web without them touching the web. We lost 3/10 so it wasn't good but it wasn't bad. The rest of the stations went well with our returning to the castle to make our flag and turn in our packet. Our team came in 1st, winning a goody bag with chocolate and gummies.
Wednesday, August 26 - Today Hannah and I went for a run at 6:40 a.m. on the same trail we used on the treasure hunt. In class our worksheet was talking about tenses and then we played a game that had to do with a review of the worksheet. We had six rows (ich,du,er/sie.es,wir,ihr,Sie) and then different words like "burste" or "tranieren" and we had to change it to "wir bursten uns" or "du tranierts dich". Both teams had a dice in the same row and if you landed on the other teams dice you could send them back to the beginning of their row. Katerina and I were a team and we won, but it was pretty close! In plenum today, we got new sheets and learned how to make a bed the German way. Back in our rooms it seemed pretty simple – we used a fitted sheet and then a duvet and pillow with case and cover. The only difference is the sheets are cleaned and pressed inside out so it’s easier to put your duvet or pillow inside.
Thursday, August 27 – During the afternoon we learned a traditional German dance and that song was our “soundtrack”. The dance was actually a more formal dance but it worked ok with the song since it was a faster pace. After a snack of an ice cream bar we went upstarts and had some free time in our rooms. When we checked the time we had exactly one minute to get to Plenum, so we sprinted and barely made it. If you are late you have to sing in front of the whole group, so you don’t want to be late. We learned about the different trains in Germany, what they look like, how fast they go, where they go and how to get tickets. It was a lot of information so I had to write some of it down but the teamers said our host families would help us out with it also. Dinner was super nice because instead of cold cuts we had cheeseburgers, which was kind of out of the blue! For evening group activity I played volkerball until it was time to head to our rooms for the evening.
Friday, August 28 - We left around 5:00 p.m. to walk into town for the Altstadtfest held in Bad Lasphe’s town center. Similar to last weekends Bier Fest, Bosch bier has many stands set up and pretty much dominates the festival. There was only one band at the Bier Fest but at the Alstadtfest there were four different places for a band and each space is filled. We started off where all the German teens were by the bumper cars, game booths and trampolines. The bumper cars were really intense! A lot of the Americans got slight whiplash because you could drive a lot faster and of course ram into people harder. It was really fun taking pictures of people cause they made really funny faces. Some of the kids also jumped on the trampoline, you were bungeed in, and did flips and double flips. We moved on through the streets to see what else there was and after passing a country band (singing German lyrics) and a rock cover band we made it to the DJ tent. You could tell the party was here. Wanna know how? There was a group of about 30 Americans dancing and being rowdy. It was amazing how in about 30 minutes all the American kids and the Experiment e.V. teamers were in one tent dancing and bringing the party. Most of the Germans didn't dance, it's not really a thing. They would dance if they were drinking but they tended to watch over joining in. We danced from about 8:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. without really stopping. The DJ was having a blast too and we were hollering and challenging each other dance wise. Just so you understand that we were really going all out, the plastic on the sides of the tent was fogging up and everyone looked like they had run through a rainstorm. By 11:30 p.m. we all had to go and call cabs to drive us back up to the Schloss, since no one is allowed to walk up past sunset. Cabs cost about €7 to €7.60 and if you squeeze five people in the cab it's not too expensive. We called the cabs and they got us back by 11:55 p.m. before the midnight lockout. A great way to make memories as this is our last weekend together at the Scholss. We all leave for our host homes Saturday, September 5.
Thursday, August 27 – During the afternoon we learned a traditional German dance and that song was our “soundtrack”. The dance was actually a more formal dance but it worked ok with the song since it was a faster pace. After a snack of an ice cream bar we went upstarts and had some free time in our rooms. When we checked the time we had exactly one minute to get to Plenum, so we sprinted and barely made it. If you are late you have to sing in front of the whole group, so you don’t want to be late. We learned about the different trains in Germany, what they look like, how fast they go, where they go and how to get tickets. It was a lot of information so I had to write some of it down but the teamers said our host families would help us out with it also. Dinner was super nice because instead of cold cuts we had cheeseburgers, which was kind of out of the blue! For evening group activity I played volkerball until it was time to head to our rooms for the evening.
Friday, August 28 - We left around 5:00 p.m. to walk into town for the Altstadtfest held in Bad Lasphe’s town center. Similar to last weekends Bier Fest, Bosch bier has many stands set up and pretty much dominates the festival. There was only one band at the Bier Fest but at the Alstadtfest there were four different places for a band and each space is filled. We started off where all the German teens were by the bumper cars, game booths and trampolines. The bumper cars were really intense! A lot of the Americans got slight whiplash because you could drive a lot faster and of course ram into people harder. It was really fun taking pictures of people cause they made really funny faces. Some of the kids also jumped on the trampoline, you were bungeed in, and did flips and double flips. We moved on through the streets to see what else there was and after passing a country band (singing German lyrics) and a rock cover band we made it to the DJ tent. You could tell the party was here. Wanna know how? There was a group of about 30 Americans dancing and being rowdy. It was amazing how in about 30 minutes all the American kids and the Experiment e.V. teamers were in one tent dancing and bringing the party. Most of the Germans didn't dance, it's not really a thing. They would dance if they were drinking but they tended to watch over joining in. We danced from about 8:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. without really stopping. The DJ was having a blast too and we were hollering and challenging each other dance wise. Just so you understand that we were really going all out, the plastic on the sides of the tent was fogging up and everyone looked like they had run through a rainstorm. By 11:30 p.m. we all had to go and call cabs to drive us back up to the Schloss, since no one is allowed to walk up past sunset. Cabs cost about €7 to €7.60 and if you squeeze five people in the cab it's not too expensive. We called the cabs and they got us back by 11:55 p.m. before the midnight lockout. A great way to make memories as this is our last weekend together at the Scholss. We all leave for our host homes Saturday, September 5.