The September 11th weekend began early as Friday afternoon we headed into Kiel to watch the Dragon Boat Races. The races take place in the harbor and are intense! You feel the German pride in athleticism and sport just standing and watching. We sat and watched a few of the races, four boats at a time, and you get an adrenaline rush just observing, it’s weird. The competition is either for the winners of the races or the best costumes. Most of the older kids have simple things like face paint and matching bandanas while the littler kids are dressed up like pirates, unicorns or as other matching characters. Those boats are fun to watch and my favorite was the Smurf boat - they had their faces painted blue and all! Afterward we headed over to the church for “Abenteuer Land” or Adventure Land. Each Friday afternoon elementary aged children come to enjoy Bible lessons, snack, playing games and hanging out for an hour and a half. We learned about the good Samaritan through a slideshow with the illustrations being photographs of Lego people. The kids loved it, asking to watch through the slides twice. Pia had a very creative game that was like soccer where the kids were given toilet brushes (never been used for their real purpose) and a tennis ball they had to hit into the goals on either side of the room. It was harder than it seemed and got pretty intense with the ball flying under couches and tables and the kids diving under to get it, but everyone stayed safe and had a great time. After the last child was picked up, we headed over to a church youth group meeting. We sang some songs, German and English, from a modern songbook and one of the youth played the guitar and the other that box you sit on, it’s like a drum. After the lesson we set up some tables to make one long dining table and we brought in dinner of lasagna that two of the girls, Madita and Toni, made earlier and it was really good. Everyone was just chatting and having a good time - it was great! As we left, I was happily tired after a full day of school, fun and new friends.
Starting the Saturday morning early, I walked with my host mom to the nearby bakery, about three minutes away. We purchased some rolls with different grains and some plain white rolls for breakfast. It’s always cozy and warm in the bakery and the smell of freshly baked bread is great. After that we went home and set up breakfast. This evening we plan to attend a wedding, so the rest of the morning was spent with homework, jogging, meeting up with a school friend. The wedding theme was “Children of God” with the church decorated with white tulle, ivy and golden crowns. The wedding ceremony included music and the pastor pronouncing them man and wife with little kids throwing rose petals in front of them as the newly married couple walked down the aisle. The wedding was well attended with many staying for the reception to congratulate the newlyweds. They served a variety of desserts of which I sampled what looked like a brownie, but it tasted like seaweed so I tried again with a piece of rhubarb strudel and it wasn't all that sweet, but it was good! They also had really colorful marble muffins that had a hint of lemon in them with the kids especially drawn to these colorful creations. It was really cool getting to see a German wedding and comparing it with the American weddings I have attended.
Sunday started later as, due to the Kiel Marathon, church services were moved to 3 p.m. My host parents and brother took me to Laboe to the German Naval Memorial (http://www.deutscher-marinebund.de/geschichte_me_english.htm) since we had the morning open. Usually Germany is shut down on Sunday's, but tourist spots tend to be open since Sunday's are touring days. The museum had a lot of model ships, u boats and displays sharing intriguing stories about men who died on the ships or at sea. Seeing the engraved wall depictions of the number of sunken ships and submarines during WWI and WWII - it was hard for me to wrap my mind around just how many ships and lives were lost. After that we took the memorial elevator up 57 floors to the viewing deck where we got a great view of the farmland, ocean, beach and the local villages. My host mom told me that when she was a kid and sickness swept through the area parents would bring their kids to the top of the tower to get some clean fresh air in hopes that they wouldn’t catch the sickness too.
That evening, following the afternoon church service, we enjoyed a slice of my host mom’s favorite cake- almond cake - which was really yummy! The rest of Sunday was relaxed with us watching a movie "Das Leben der Anderen/The Lives of Others" which deals with East Germany espionage and some of the injustices that were occurring during that time. We had actually watched the movie in Frau Wilson’s German class and it was good so I thought, why not watch it again?
Monday began with my host mom departing with her school trip (she teaches third grade). Pia and I prepared our school snacks before heading out the door. We had a double period of WIPO (politics/economics) where my teacher is advising me with my Praktikum. A Praktikum is a two week period where the students have an internship at a company, school, business, etc. They do not have school for two weeks so they can fully focus on the Praktikum and the paper that is written at the end of their experience. I might do one at a kindergarten or a photography place. After WIPO (vee-poh) we had another double period (two 45 minute sessions with a five minute break in between) of math. It was one of the girl’s birthdays and she brought this really cool cookie cake. The butter cookies are stacked with layers of Nutella filling between. Easy to put together and delicious! We had a double period of biology where we currently are studying translation and transcription of RNA and DNA. During class a girl’s phone pinged and everyone started chanting "Cake, Cake, Cake!!" We have a rule in class that if someone's phone rings/goes off, they have to bring cake. That was a great way to end the class!
As I mentioned earlier, sometimes the teacher’s have other appointments or obligations so when they don’t arrive to class within 10 minutes of start time, they are probably not coming at all, giving us free class periods. Since the History teacher was out, Pia and I took the work the teacher left and went home where we were surprised when the doorbell rang and two little boys a few houses down delivered a vegetable and salad tray with meatballs and cake. I guess their mom knew my host mom was away on the school trip. How nice! Once we cleaned up the kitchen from lunch I had about an hour before choir practice from 3-4 p.m. Choir practice had about 25/30 kids from sixth grade through twelfth grade, so a wide range in voice maturity. We received our music - two cannons, “Siahamba” (which the choir school sang recently), “Killing Me Softly” and “Moonlight”.
Back home, we played a board game called "Incognito" after dinner which is complicated to learn the first time through, but it was a lot of fun. My team didn't win however I did figure out who was who and which pawn they were – fun!
Monday began with my host mom departing with her school trip (she teaches third grade). Pia and I prepared our school snacks before heading out the door. We had a double period of WIPO (politics/economics) where my teacher is advising me with my Praktikum. A Praktikum is a two week period where the students have an internship at a company, school, business, etc. They do not have school for two weeks so they can fully focus on the Praktikum and the paper that is written at the end of their experience. I might do one at a kindergarten or a photography place. After WIPO (vee-poh) we had another double period (two 45 minute sessions with a five minute break in between) of math. It was one of the girl’s birthdays and she brought this really cool cookie cake. The butter cookies are stacked with layers of Nutella filling between. Easy to put together and delicious! We had a double period of biology where we currently are studying translation and transcription of RNA and DNA. During class a girl’s phone pinged and everyone started chanting "Cake, Cake, Cake!!" We have a rule in class that if someone's phone rings/goes off, they have to bring cake. That was a great way to end the class!
As I mentioned earlier, sometimes the teacher’s have other appointments or obligations so when they don’t arrive to class within 10 minutes of start time, they are probably not coming at all, giving us free class periods. Since the History teacher was out, Pia and I took the work the teacher left and went home where we were surprised when the doorbell rang and two little boys a few houses down delivered a vegetable and salad tray with meatballs and cake. I guess their mom knew my host mom was away on the school trip. How nice! Once we cleaned up the kitchen from lunch I had about an hour before choir practice from 3-4 p.m. Choir practice had about 25/30 kids from sixth grade through twelfth grade, so a wide range in voice maturity. We received our music - two cannons, “Siahamba” (which the choir school sang recently), “Killing Me Softly” and “Moonlight”.
Back home, we played a board game called "Incognito" after dinner which is complicated to learn the first time through, but it was a lot of fun. My team didn't win however I did figure out who was who and which pawn they were – fun!