Straßenbahn, ACT, und Freimarkt

Ok so I've got 4 picture frames which hold a total of 10 photos, and they're all hanging on my walls empty, and they've been like that since I've been here, so if you have a picture of me with you and you'd like to send it to me that would be fantastic! 

So on Friday (22. Oktober) we went to a hockey game in Hamburg.  Before the game the Zamboni went out to resurface, they guy was also shooing t-shirts, then he shot one that landed on the ice, which the Zamboni then drove over, breaking it.  So we had to wait 15 minutes while they got a Zamboni from the practice arena. The game was pretty great.  The team is actually really bad, but it's fun to watch.  So at the end of the third period it was tied 4-4, so then it went into overtime.  After which it was still 4-4.  So it went to penalty shots, that was pretty exciting considering it was the first time that I've seen that happen, so we ended up winning 6-4, it was pretty awesome.  At the beginning of the game I noticed that the guy sitting behind me was speaking English, fluent American English.  I decided I wasn't going to talk to him though, so I sat and watched the game.  Then between the second and third periods I decided that I'd talk to him.  So I turned around and asked him where he was from, turns out he's actually Canadian.  He's living in France and works for Airbus, and was visiting Airbus Hamburg for the weekend.  After the game we basically ran to the car so we wouldn't have to sit in traffic (the soccer game, located next to the hockey arena, ended at the same time) we were lucky, we got out just in time.  Then the stupid Autobahn is being rebuilt so it's only one lane, or two but it's not wide enough to drive next to or pass anybody.  The night ended with a trip to Burger King!

Yesterday (Saturday 23. Oktober) I started the day by waking up at 05:15.  That tells you how much fun I had right there.  I had on jeans, and a hoodie, I wore my glasses, and I had a backpack.  When I got the the bus stop my mom asked me if I had an umbrella with, I didn't but I also didn't think it would rain.  So I caught my bus at 6:15 and was in Bremen at about 7:15.  I jumped on the Straßenbahn (Tram, streetcar, trolly).  So I got off where I thought I needed to, according to Google maps, and I started walking where I thought I needed to.  After five minutes, however, I realized that I wasn't in the right place.  So then I turned around and walked in the other direction.  So it took me about 15 minutes but I did finally find where I was supposed to be.  I should've actually gone to the next stop before getting off.  Thanks a lot Google maps.  So, I then found my way the the International School of Bremen where I took my test.  I went on in then we went up stairs and got  situated and whatnot.  There were three of this.  Me (American), and two Germans.  I couldn't understand why they would want to take it or how they thought that they could handle it, I even had trouble with time on the reading and science tests.  I later found out that one had lived in Kansas for a year, and the other in Australia.  So that explains their English skills.  The one had to take it for something that she was doing in Germany, I didn't really catch why.  The other wants to study in the US.  So yeah I thought it went really good.  After I finished the English section I still had 11 minutes, so I'm not sure if that's good or bad, we'll have to wait and see.  Math went pretty good, reading also.  Science, went ok, on the last passage I wanted to just quit, it used a ton of words that I've never hear before, and I just didn't want to do it.  So we'll see how I did there.  Then came the writing, I'm pretty sure that was my worst test.  I hated my prompt so I had trouble answering the question.  Also, before the writing test he gave us a break becuase he had some kind of issue.  Turns out that issue was the fact that he locked the door and went up stairs with us 10 minutes before 8, and the last person wasn't there yet.  So he had him do the writing test with us, and then he let him take the rest of the test, which I'm pretty sure he's not allowed to do, but it's whatever.

After I finished the test I made my way back to the Straßenbahn, this time without any problems.  I rode it on back to the Hauptbahnhof, while I was sitting there listening to my music, I thought I heard English, so I paused my music, and sure enough there were four American teenagers standing in front of the ticket machine on the Straßenbahn in Bremen buying tickets.  I couldn't really think of a reason that they would be in Bremen of all places.  So, upon arriving at the bahnhof I went inside and grabbed something to eat.  Then I met with Dobrina, an exchange student from Bulgaria, and we went around the city for a while, there was a parade and yeah lots to do and see.  Then about an hour later we met with Irina, another exchange student, and we went to the city center(it was then sunny), and watched some of the parade and looked at some of the stands.

  We took a lot of pictures too.  Then we went to the movie theater and saw So Spielt das Leben (Life as we know it).  Afterward (it was now raining) we made our way back to he bahnhof, where we (the exchange students) were supposed to meet at 5:30.  So we got there and slowly we had the entire group there, except for our organizer from YFU, who was supposed to meet us there too.  She didn't show up until probably 6:05 though, then we took a group photo(I think there were 16 of us or so) and made our way to the Freimarkt (mini-Oktoberfest).   So yeah the Freimarkt was really cool.  There was a lot of stuff to see and do, but by this point in the day I didn't really have anymore money, I was wet, I was cold, I had a headache, and I was tired.  So we walked around for a while, then we came upon a roller coaster that we decided we wanted to ride, then I found out how much it cost.  I didn't want to ride anymore; but I did anyway.  It was a super awesome roller coaster actually, the only things wrong with it were that it was raining, and that it cost me 6 €, plus it made my headache a lot worse.  After that we moved a little bit further, then we came upon another ride, that some of us wanted to go on, I didn't want to, I was about to die at this point.  Instead I got some Schmalzkuchen ( little dough things that are deep fried then covered in a chocolate, vanilla, caramel, etc. sauce and powdered sugar) which were really good, but with the combination of headache and cold, I just felt more sick.  So I then wanted to get something to drink, I really wanted a radler, or Alsterwasser, as they call in here in the north; but they didn't have it in bottles so I settled for a beer, after which I felt a little better.  Then we kept moving until we came upon another ride (can you see a trend here?) there I bought a Pretzel, and ate that, trying to find something that would make my headache go away.  I had two choices for buses home; there was one at 8:30 and one at 11:30.  My original plan was to take the 11:30 bus, but at 8 I decided that I wasn't feeling good and that I wanted to go home and get out of the cold and rain that is Germany.  So I made my way back to the bahnhof, got on my bus and was so happy to be able to actually be sitting somewhere somewhat warm.  Then I got picked up at the bus stop and went on home.  My plan was to lay down for a few minutes then get up and converse with people, but that didn't happen.  I ended up falling asleep with all my clothes on at about 9:45, and got up at about 11:45 this morning.  Headache was still there, so I finally took some advil, which didn't really help.  After lunch I went to Zeven and watched a parade, and went through the city center, where there was a bunch of stands and whatnot.  Then, the bottom of my pants now soaked, we went back home, where I had cake and coffee in front of the fire.  Then we looked at pictures from our bike trip, and now I'm writing a blog.  I'm thinking I'ma hop in bed somewhat early tonight, since school starts again tomorrow.  Which I'm not really all that excited about.  It's nice being here and not having school.  I would actually prefer to be here when there wasn't school.  



Side notes about Germany:  
The people here are freaking crazy with dogs.  They take them everywhere!  Like everywhere.  Oh I'm gonna go grocery shopping, hmm, I should probably bring my dog with.  That is the kind of thinking that they have.  I was at a parade to day and people had their dogs with.  I was on the bus yesterday on my way to Bremen and a lady got on with her dog!  What they hell is she bringing her dog to Bremen, on a bus, for?!  It's not really all that big of a deal I guess, but it's just weird!  


General consensus of Exchange students that I talked to yesterday:
Germany isn't as fun after you've settled in to everyday life of school and the awesome (sarcasm) weather, and things like that it's actually more of a hassle to be here.  I'm pretty sure that everyone of them said that they would like to go home.  That's just how it is.  Everything is soooo much easier when at home, where I know the language and the culture and becuase I know where people can and can't bring their dogs.


That's all I've got for now.  


James Sullivan
bei: Familie Meyer
Landstr. 25
27404 Ostereistedt
Germany


jsullivan93@gmail.com

Bike tour, and a day in Dubai?

First off I'd like to say that the application process for the scholarship that I'm here on has been updated so if you are interested in doing an exchange year in Germany for free, like I am, head on over to http://www.usagermanyscholarship.org/ .  If you have any questions you can also feel free to shoot me an email, or a letter or post a comment here.

So last week, on my first week of break, I went with my father and Markus on a bike tour/trip in Bavaria (Southern Germany, the place you think of when you think Germany.)   We left early on Sunday morning, and rode the train for 4 hours or so before arriving at our destination of Würzburg, our starting point.  After a quick stop at McDonald's, we biked up to the castle and took a look, and then we started biking.  We only biked about 20 km the first day, but that was good.  The Youth Hostel that we stayed in on the first night was the old city gate(?) [There used to be a wall, and this was the place where you could go through, and it was tall] so it was like 600 years old or something, it was pretty interesting.  We then went and got some pizza and saw the most boring movie ever made. Then it was back the the Youth Hostel, the worst part about it was that there was a spider on the wall next to my bed and then I couldn't find it so I had some trouble sleeping at first. The next day we biked around 75km, I think.  The Hostel that we stayed in on the second night was a ton nicer, and it even had wifi, so that was a big plus.   Third day we biked around 65 km or so, I think.  We stayed in an old folks home, or rather in a hotel that was there for people visiting the old folks.  Then we went out again for Pizza, and then watched the German national soccer team play.  Fourth day, we biked 60-ish km? Then we stayed in an actual Hotel.   After dinner Markus and I stayed downstairs for a while and surfed the web, then upon going back to the room, I apparently took the wrong staircase, and asked Markus in very bad German where he was going.  It was pretty hilarious.  For the record, the stairs that I wanted to take ended up going to the same place.  Fifth day, we biked 46-ish km,  before stopping at our destination city, we went to subway, then to the Youth Hostel.   We then searched for a very long time, to find a swimming / spa center for old people.   That was pretty boring. ha.  Then we ended up at a Japanese restaurant, and we all ended up ordering duck.  Which was delicious.   Then it was back to the Youth Hostel, for a somewhat good nights rest, plus we were finally able to sleep in so that was pretty nice.  The last day we woke up and ate, then we biked into the city and did some shopping, Markus and I went to one store and Andreas to another, a book store to be exact, where I ended up spending way too much of my time.  Then it was too the train station, and McDonalds, then on the train back home.  On our last train there was this guy who asked me a question, and it turned in to a half hour conversation that everybody in the train car could hear and was very annoyed by.   He was maybe 19 and he was in the army, and we now know everything there is too know about his life.  His brother for example weighs 139kg (306 lb). Haha.

The bike trip ended up being 190 miles, with all of the biking through the city's and whatnot that we did.  It was a pretty good time, a lot better than I thought it would be.  We had really good luck with the weather, it was maybe 60 the whole week and it was sunny pretty much the entire time, so it was perfect.

Sunday, Markus left for a week to do something with church, I think he's like a camp counselor or something... but I'm not exactly sure, it will be a nice quiet week without him.    Oh, and I ordered an iPod for my birthday, and it came, but I don't get to open it until my birthday, so that's kind of a bummer...

I went and got a hair cut on Monday, against my better judgment.  But it's not all that bad.  I was thinking a stripe of blue would look good in the middle, but no body else did. 

Today, Tuesday the 19th, I went to the German Emigration Center, basically the exact opposite of Ellis Island, so I got to see how every thing was for the emigrants, and I was able to search my family's history, and trace it back.

The town that it's in is called Bremerhaven, but I could've sworn that we were in Dubai, there is a clone of the famous hotel in Dubai, in Bremerhaven(photos on Facebook), so that was pretty cool, we were able to go up to the top and look around.  The day was ended with Ice cream in a mall that was designed to look like an Italian city and then the drive home.

On, Friday we will be going to Hamburg to watch some professional hockey.  Saturday, I am taking my ACT in Bremen in the morning, and in the evening I believe that I'm going to be going to a mini oktoberfest thing in Bremen, and if not then possibly to the disco.  We'll see.  I'm not really all that excited for school to start again, I could get used to the sleeping til noon everyday.

I still enjoy receiving mail, I am however extremely lazy in writing back, but be patient a reply will come eventually. 

James Sullivan
bei: Familie Meyer
Landstr. 25
27404 Ostereistedt
Germany

Email: jsullivan93@gmail.com

Moin, Moin!

Moin!  First off I’d like just to say that I really, really enjoy getting mail.  So if you’re bored, and feel like writing me a letter, that would be pretty cool.   My address is as follows (address it exactly as it is!):

James Sullivan
Bei: Familie Meyer
Landstr. 25
27404 Ostereistedt
Germany

So yeah in the last few weeks, (?) I’m not exactly sure how long it’s been since I’ve written on this, not a whole lot has happened but a little bit more than last time I wrote.  But since I don’t write down what I do every day, I forget it pretty quick so I’ll try and recall it…

Well, first off, as you all surely know, I have first hour free on Mondays and Tuesdays, and there is only one bus in the morning so I have to go in at the normal time.  I decided one day last week that I was going to ride my bike to school so I didn’t have to get there so early.  It started out pretty good.  About half way I noticed that my tire was low on air so I called Johannes and asked if he could bring the air pump with so I could put air in at school.   I then continued on my way…. For a while.   It eventually came to a point where the tire was almost completely flat, but I was still a pretty good ways away from school and I wasn’t doing all that good on time so I just kept on going.  I made it into town and I made my first turn, I rode for another 10 meters and then the tire basically fell apart.  So I started to walk to school with my bike, since it was my first time biking I wasn’t 100% sure where I was going but I had a pretty good idea, because we have a crane at our school so I could see where it was.  I took a turn which I thought was correct, but of course it wasn’t so after walking 7 minutes I realized that I was going in the wrong direction so I turned around and went the other way, I did end up making it to school, I was 15 minutes late though.  When I walked in the teacher looked at his watch, than he gave me a weird look.  I just said that I biked to school and my bike broke on the way and he was like “yeah it’s whatever.”  So that was the one time that I rode my bike to school.

I went bowling last week, it was pretty normal, I am, surprisingly, as bad at bowling in Germany as I was in the US.  We played two games and I managed to get the amazingly high score of 52 in both games. 

On Tuesday, September 28th, my class (and the rest of the 10th grade) took a trip to the Kunsthalle in Hamburg.  Apparently Kunsthalle is the name of the museum because they had every other word translated into English, Kunsthalle literally translates to Art Gallery.  It was surprisingly boring.  I thought that it would at least have a possibility of being interesting but as soon as I got there I knew that that wasn’t going to happen.  I tried to pay attention, but it was loud, I was tired, and our tour guide was a little bit crazy.  We were there for 2 hours or so, and I’m pretty sure that we looked at a total of 5 pictures.  It was utterly boring.  After the tour, though, we were able to go in to the city.  So I went with Markus and a couple others to you guessed it, McDonalds, which is conveniently located in the Hauptbahnhof, a whole three minute walk from the Art Museum.

I went once again to a professional soccer game in Bremen.   I’m actually a fan of Bremen’s rival team but it’s still fun to go and watch; it’s better when Bremen loses though.

On September 18th, Johannes had a party for his 18th birthday.  I didn’t really know a whole lot of people there, but at the end of the night I had to of met 30 new people, the names of whom I immediately forgot, but that wasn’t really important.  I went at 10:00 and I left at 12:45, and I was dead, the party didn’t end though until 6:00 or so in the morning.

On September 26th, I was in Bremen for an exchange student meeting with YFU.  At first I didn’t really want to go, and when I got there I didn’t really want to be there, but at the end of the day I was super glad that I went.  It’s really a lot of fun to do things with other exchange students.  We pretty much just played games, ate (I brought brownies), and talked about what we liked and didn’t like about Germany so far, and we also talked about problems if we had any.  It’s really cool to be with 20 people that you’ve never met and the only language that you all have in common is German.  All in all it was a pretty good time, we’re meeting again sometime in the next two weeks for a mini-Oktoberfest type thing in Bremen, I think.

One of my favorite activities in Germany is sleeping!  I could seriously be on a competitive sleeping team.  Every day when I get home from school I eat lunch, and then I take a 1-2 hour nap.  It’s sooo nice, but after my nap I don’t really have the desire to do anything, which is a little bit of a problem. 

So I now watch a lot of Soccer, and I play soccer (badly), and all everybody ever talks about is Soccer.  So yeah I am a fan of der Hamburger SV (Hamburg Sport Association) and I’m the only person in my class that is a Hamburg fan everybody else is a Bremen fan.  I, at the moment, only go to Soccer practice, I don’t have a Player Pass yet, but besides shooting I’m not all that bad.  I’m a somewhat decent defender.  So I’m pretty happy about that, I’m not amazing yet but there is finally some improvement.  I go almost every Sunday and watch our local Ostereistedt team play, and they are actually really good.  At the sport club in town they have wurst and fries and a TV with all of the soccer games.  So it’s kind of a hangout spot in town on the weekends when there are big soccer games.   Oh, so here if you want to watch most of the soccer games you have to have a certain TV subscription, called Sky, and apparently it’s somewhat expensive so before last week we always had to go to the sport club to watch it.  Now, however, we have it at home, so we can watch every soccer game in most of Europe, and we now have ESPN America, and finally MTV, and some other channels which is nice because now I can watch more American shows. 

On the 24th of September my Betreuerin (Counselor) from YFU came.  She sat and talked to us and asked me how things were going and what not, she was actually here for two and a half hours, but it didn’t seem like that long.  I told her that everything was going good, and yeah.  Since I’m here on a special scholarship she has to call or meet with me at least once a month.
At first when I got here, I was having trouble controlling my spending, but there were a lot of things that I had to buy for school and where a lot more expensive than I thought they would be. Now, however as long as I can stay away from McDonalds, Pizza, and the Döner Man then my money lasts pretty good.  It is however tempting to spend it… :)

So in Germany the way we take tests is really weird.  We take usually two tests in a year.  In the last two weeks we’ve been taking all of the first tests, so in Geography we had the topic: America.  I thought that I did pretty good, then I got it back.   In Germany a 1 is perfect, and 6 is the worst, 5 is like a D-.  Anyway, he graded mine different than the others.  I actually got a 5, but since the only reason I did so bad was because of my Language barrier he gave me a 2+.   In art we were drawing.  I don’t draw.  So for our test we had to draw a part of a hand with as much detail as possible.  When she gave them back she said that I actually got a 5, but since I hadn’t ever done it before she gave me a 4.   I think that’s all that I’ve gotten back so far… But I’ve also taken Math, Music, German, and English; I take my religion test on Friday topic: Buddhism. 

On Saturday, October 2nd, I went to Hamburg to meet with Ashley Mikkola, one of the other exchange students that I know.  So I took a bus to a train to get to Hamburg, alone.  I was stressing out about that though like you wouldn’t believe, I didn’t sleep the night before I was so worried about it.  The busses and trains are very punctual.  So I wasn’t sure if I was going to have time to go from the bus, buy a train ticket, and have enough time to make the train.  Luckily I was able to buy the ticket for the bus and the train on the bus, so my stress level went way down after that.  We walked up and down the main shopping street (Hauptstraße) for a while, then we went into a few shops, and I bought a Hamburg Jersey (Thanks mama).  After that we went on a bus tour through the city, which was pretty cool, it was a good way to see the entire city.  Oh, so we went through the Red Light District, which was pretty interesting.  The main street through the red light district is called the Reeperbahn (pronounced Rape-r-bahn).  I guess it’s not a very good part of town, but didn’t look that bad to me and it actually had some tourist attractions.  I’m going to a concert on the Reeperbahn in November with my brothers.  After our bus tour we went to a steak house for lunch.  All I asked the waitress was if there was a bathroom, she said yeah and pointed to it.  Then she brought us menus.  After reading it for 5 minutes I realized that it was in English.  From my one sentence she was able to mark that I was a native English speaker.  I thought that was pretty good, but it also says a lot about my accent.  After we ate we went to Saturn, which is the largest electronics chain in Europe, as I learned on my bus tour.  I bought an Alarm clock.  At this point in the day we we’re pretty bored.  There is only so much you can do in Hamburg when you don’t have that much money to spend.  So we went and got some ice cream and drank some coffee.  Then we left.  My train ride back wasn’t nearly as stressful as the one there.   When I got home I ate, laid down for a little bit and then I went with Johannes to the Disco (the word for club) for the first time.  That was a good time, it was actually really cool, and a lot of fun, but I’m only allowed to stay out until 1:00, so that’s kind of a buzz kill, but at 1:00 I’m ready for bed anyway so it’s really not that bad.

On Sunday, October 10th, Andreas, Markus, and I are starting our bike tour.  We are starting in Wurzburg and we’re going for 5 days but I think we’re only biking for 4 of them.  Anyway we have to get up really early on Sunday to catch our train, which I’m not all that excited about but the bike trip should be a ton of fun. 

I take my ACT on October 23rd, I bought a study book, I have to find some time when I can use it though.  We’ll see how it goes; I’m hoping well, I’d prefer not to have to retake it.

I’m going on Saturday to a birthday party of one of the guys in my class, so that should be a good time, finally able to spend time with people in my class outside of school.

That is my life.  Questions?  Send me an E-mail or even better a letter!