January 21-23, 2016 the CIEE and Experiment e.V. staff met with 50 CBYX students at the Ahrtal-Jugendherberge.for the mid-year seminar. I traveled to Hamburg where I took the ICE and then a regional train where I met up with fellow CBYX friend TJ, allowing us to catch up on the last part of the trip. We walked to the Hostel together, enjoying chatting with everyone as they arrived from their various locations across Germany.
It was great to get together having the opportunity to see everyone again. A lot has happened for all of us since our three weeks spent together at Schloss Wittgenstein August, meeting and getting to know each other. The mid-year seminar allowed us to share about the first half of our year as well as discuss what we plan to do in the second half of our CBYX year. It helped to hear everyone else’s stories, to reflect on our experiences and then talk about making the most out of the rest of our year, finishing strong. One activity had us write out ten things we want to do before we return to the US, then we had to assign a month next to each activity. I really appreciate having these simple tools to make life planning not seem overwhelming but instead seem easy. Other activities included:
- A big group activity with big sheets of paper with different topics written on them. We rotated around and wrote out problems or things associated with the topics (school, friends, free time, family, etc.).
- Leaving little notes for other CBYXers using “sugar cubes” which are basically envelopes used as mailboxes. It was fun leaving notes for friends.
- Small group time where we talked and revisited some of the activities we originally did at the three week language camp.
- Playing a game of “Egg, Chicken, Monkey, Dinosaur” which was fun! It's basically Rock-Paper-Scissors but a bit more competitive. We started off all as eggs and if you won against someone else you moved up to the next animal. But you can only challenge the same animal as you. If you are a monkey and challenge a monkey and lose, you are now a chicken, but if you win, you are a dinosaur. After you win as a dinosaur you are a teamer and stand on the edges until the rest finish.
- In the evening we had a skit night with the theme of “Exchange Life in Germany”. We had been telling funny, embarrassing and awkward stories in our small groups earlier so we demonstrated a lot of those stories in our skits. Each of the five small groups had two short skits or one longer one, and they were HILARIOUS! It’s even funnier because it’s like a big inside joke that we have all personally experienced or seen in our first half of the year here in Germany.
- An afternoon trip to the local town square for coffee and cake
- Finding a dent in our bathroom tile and transforming it into a car
We also took a group trip to Bonn, riding the train together. It was very picturesque. There we visited Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn where we received a guide book with questions and could find the answers in the exhibits. We also explored the city, especially happy to shop at the Haribo store and share dinner at a nice burger lounge. It was nice to sit down after the museum and the food was delicious!
Afterward we did some sightseeing, visiting a few stores before returning to the train station to head back to the hostel. On the walk back to the hostel we had to be careful because the sidewalks were partially coated in a super thin layer of ice. It was fun to slide along, but not if you lost your balance or footing.
I really enjoyed getting to see everyone again, talking with them about where they live with their host families and their experiences during the first half of their CBYX year. Now to make the most of the remaining 146 days in Germany!
I really enjoyed getting to see everyone again, talking with them about where they live with their host families and their experiences during the first half of their CBYX year. Now to make the most of the remaining 146 days in Germany!