Hallo 2014!

Hi there!

If you’re reading this that means you've survived either:

a.)    Forcible entry at the hands of a surly bearded man who proceeded to incentivize good behavior in children via the giving of material goods
b.) Hanukkah. If you don't celebrate Christmas and option a still happened then contact your local authorities and don’t open the presents
c.) The barrage of fireworks that made german cities sound like warzones on new year’s eve. All forms of fireworks are legal in Germany, and people set them off in the streets. You’re Doin’ it right Germans.
d.) The polar vortex briefly shifting from the north pole down to the Midwest, I hope everyone’s staying warm! (here’s a great Hank Green video with his thoughts about its implications?)

Either way I hope that you've been having a great 2014 so far.

Here’s what I've been up to since my last post

Hiked up a “mountain”

So the town where I go to school is in a valley (Freital = Free-valley), and there’s a little mini-mountain overlooking it called the Windberg. So one day when I got out of school early I went and walked up it. It wasn’t that hard but the view was nice, and there was a memorial to King Albert of Saxony which was neat)

Jack’s first protest political action!

It was with the Grüne Jugend who I’ve mentioned before. Our goal was to get people to buy less stuff for Christmas. We went through the Dresden Christmas Markets wishing everyone a merry Christmas and giving out little pieces of paper with non-material gift Ideas on them. You guys should stop giving material gifts too! It’s more personal and saves money, e.x. I gave my guest parents a donation to Kiva, and my sisters a certificate for us to see improve together which I made myself and am suuuper proud of (front, back)

We also had super ironic slogans like: “The world in a shopping cart”, “Buy yourselves happy”, and the one that I got “Konsum Geilheit” which translates to either “Lecherous Consumption” or “Lust for consumption”! We even started chanting “kauf” (buy) at one point! At first I was a little uncomfortable and embarrassed but then I warmed up to it and it was a ton of fun. We made a lot of people smile and started some dialogue, it wasn’t one of those angry complain-ey protests but one that offered solutions and made them seem like a better idea than the status quo. We did get some searing stares from shopkeepers though. It was especially  satisfying because I was the one who originally suggested the general concept of the action in the first place!

I’m really glad that I started going and that I get to hang out with this great, motivated group of people. Meine Igel!

And then I had my 19^th birthday!  We celebrated with an evening of Bowling and cards. I’m so lucky to have met all these wonderful friends here and they really made it the best golden birthday ever.

Weihnachten (Christmas)! Celebrated on Christmas Eve, I got to meet the actual Santa Klaus, although I didn’t realize that he spoke in such a strong Sächsische dialect!  It was really neat how all the presents are from Santa instead of just one per person, and how Santa actually came in and personally handed us our presents from his bag, but only after making Hendrick (Guest mom’s grandson, 6 y/o) sing a song and promise to be good next year and not to interrupt people so much!

For Silvester (newyears) I went with my guest mom’s Son, his wife and their kid Hendrick to a resort in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. We met up with 2 of their friends and their 3 y/o Daughter. Pretty relaxing, and the fireworks were spectacular.

BOOM! Photo explosion:

We went to this massive Strawberry Farm experience store where they have every imaginable product that could be made with strawberries. There's was a restaurant, Ice skating rink, high ropes course, pottery painting activities, and this huge exhibit of bad-ass ice sculptures!

That's Mario, technically my guest brother, certified bamf.
After this photo was taken he would go on to be quite rude to that swan.

Best binoculars ever at a nature museum.
please don't punch me Wheezy Waiter it's not a real eagle.

just us moms chillin while the kids play in a play maze thingy.

And then I napped

and napped some more,
here's me napping in my nap dream: napception

and then I was ever so rudely awoken!

After we got back from “Meck-Pomm” Miranda (YFU-er who I was in Frankfurt with) came to visit me and I got to show her around Dresden. Then I realized that I know this city just as well as Chicago, albeit Dresden is much smaller but still it’s 5 months vs. 18 years! I don’t know when I started feeling like a “resident”, but I’m definitely one now. I recommend her blog (link here) for those interested in another exchange student’s perspective (no 2 are alike!), she lives in Bayern and they do things a little bit differently down there.

Now I’m back in school again. Rehearsals for the play I’m in, “Die Räuber”, are starting up and I joined the school choir! It made me realize how much I missed singing every day and all of the wonderful students and teachers in singing groups back at ETHS.

One of my big projects in the coming months is going to be a Praktikum (internship). German schools really emphasize those, they even give you 3 weeks off of school to do one, and I think that’s great because you get hands on experience and you can explore career paths. I’m in the process of applying right now, so hopefully I’ll have good news by the next time I post!

Thanks for reading!

November & beginning of Dezember

So sorry I haven't posted in a while, I've been really busy!

Everything is going well here, stereotypes be damned i'm spending lots of time with just some of the nicest people! I think it's partly due to the fact that, defying common logic, I'm way more conversational here than at home!
Also got involved in Politics, kinda.

At the end of November I showed up at a meeting of the "Die Grüne Jugend" (The Green Youth), which is basically the 28 and under part of the Green Party (Bundnis 90/Die Grünen, which right now has 10% of the Bundestag).
Just to clarify I'm not really interested in politics, mostly just environmental issues.
And that's been great, I got to go to a climate conference, help organize a clothing exchange, and generally just have great discussions on a weekly basis. I even gave a 90 minute presentation/led discussion this week, all in german of course. Learned that Braunkohle ≠ Braunkohl! (Brown Coal and Kale, respectively)

Other things!

-Weekend in Frankfurt am Main! Museums, Bibimbap, Museums, Delicious Pastries & wonderful conversations with wonderful people

All the tourists are verbally
abusive of our friend here

An Obligatory "Wow we're so european! *whips bangs back pretentiously",
NOTE:  Green Tea Milkshake & Green Tea Sweetbread --> only enjoy slowly
(IImori Haus, Frankfurt)

-It's winter, but no snow-cover yet :(

Jogging through the woods in December!

Heavy fog on the Christmas decorations and random statue that just showed up last week! At the park near my house.

-Thanksgiving happened (I went around educating the Germans about the wonderful culinary opportunities of Thanksgivikuh) , homesickness ensued, partly due to the absence of my Grandma's Potato Rolls.  
-Partook in the German Tradition of Nikolaus Tag, got tickets to a drag queen Cabaret in my boots!

Oh, and melting lead to predict your destiny is a wholesome family activity

And now I wish you all a wonderful holiday season! I'll post again around Christmas!

-Liebe Grüße zur Weihnachtszeit aus Sachsen, Jack

Herbstferien an die Nordsee

So yesterday I got back from a 2 week vacation hanging out with my guest parents, guest ... relatives?, and some of their friends in "Norden" (literally: North) in Niedersachsen on the coast of the North Sea.

Is that Water? A River? An Ocean? No (well, yes) it's a PRIEL

A bit to the left we could see The Netherlands in the distance, accompanied by a big Coal Power Plant (on the coast b/c shipping) that was UPWIND of us.... yeah, thanks. (In all seriousness it was never on b/c Windturbines)

I definitely over-packed for it
I had the idea that it was going to be this frigid, wind raked, desolation, but it was actually really beautiful and warmer than back in Sachsen! That meant I was ROCKING the Chacos and Socks combo (somehow It really worked there).

Don't get me wrong, it was definitely windy, perfect for flying lots of kites!
And there was a huge storm last week that was the worst in the past 5 years or something, trees got uprooted, a historic windmill was destroyed, a handful of people died, not good. The sea's destructive power really impressed me. Growing up in Chicago, there are basically no risks of natural disasters (not counting you Snowpocalypse/-mageddon). And here on the North Sea there are Levees everywhere that have essentially reclaimed lots of land for farms and towns in the past 200 years, it is definitely a very vulnerable area in terms of sea-level rise. Ok enough about the environment, I'm planning on doing a whole post about it later.

Anyways it was really cool, we went to a few museums, saw a few Seals, drank some fancy Ostfriesischen Tee (figure it out people), flew some more kites, I dominated in Mini-Golf, went mucking about in the Schlick & Schlamm during low tide (The North Sea is home to the Wadden Sea, a huge tidal sea and world heritage site. If you time it right/have a guide, you could walk all the way to the coastal islands!), went horse riding, flew kites, went on an awesome bush plane flight around the islands, flew kites, drank traditional and ate LOTS & LOTS OF FISCH.

but we didn't celebrate Halloween.......... OnO       


So now I'm back at home and getting ready to start my regular school routine. Having left my guest home and then coming back to it somehow makes it feel more like home. I've been making friends, my guest parents are great, language is really no barrier anymore. And I found an extracurricular!!!:

-I will be playing the roll of Maximillian, Count von Moor in Schiller's Die Räuber (the robbers) with the school theater! It is not on the scale of ETHS theater (soooo bummed I missed Yamo), but I'm really happy I got a main roll and I can't wait to start rehearsal. Hopefully the Director will allow the Count to have an American accent, but I'm counting on my accent getting much better by the spring.


So enjoy the rest of fall everyone, thanks for reading
-Jack

Here's a lovely fall picture, all the leaves have painted the forest floor and the Beech/Birch trees are strikingly vertical. It keeps reminding me of Gustav Klimt's "Beech Forest".

My view waiting for the Train every morning, I seriously need to get up there and hike around

The Character's on my Guest Cousin's kid's TV show "Mia & Me" Seemed familiar to me. I checked, and that's also inspired by Gustav Klimt! Oh Europe...

First 3 weeks of my new classes

So I've been pretty busy adjusting to my new routine in the 11th grade, I just have to say I love it!

I'm meeting some wonderful people and I love my classes.

So I think I'll just dump photos all over you because I'm lazy, and I don't want to waste your time

(remember, click on them for their full glory)

Ok, so 2 weekends ago another YFU exchange student (Kamila from Czech Rep.) came to visit

The Bards

Host Dad + Ye olde bread bowl

Schwatzen mit einem Paar spitze Bayern

(chatting with a pair of cool Bavarians)  

And for one glorious evening, this was my reality. What you are looking at, ladies & gentlemen, is a hardcore, totally legit medieval tavern called Anno Domini (legit except for the bathrooms fortunately). We're talking all candle lighting, the menu is all pre Colombian-Exchange germany (i.e. no Potatoes, Tomatoes etc.), you got a wooden spoon and a wooden knife, there was an awesome drum/guitar/bagpipe/wooden flute playing duo of bards that played loud, repetitive, but appropriate "songs". And to top it all of, my guest family, Kamila and I had the great luck of being there the same night as some kind of club from Bayern, decked out in lederhosen, completely drunk, singing drinking songs and schuplatting (above photo) on tables.

As for me I ate the shoulder of a pig with onions, leeks, sauerkraut & mustard basically entirely with my hands, drank a Liter of Radeberger, and banged my fists and shouted along with everyone else, YOU GUYS IT'S CALLED CULTURAL IMMERSION.

For the record: Bayern is Germany's Texas, Oktoberfest, Brezels, Lederhosen, Yodeling                       --> all Bavarian Culture (or to a greater respect Alps culture). I live in Saxony so that stuff's not normal at all here, but BELIEVE me they were more than welcome at that restaurant.

Two other things I got to do that weekend:

Kamila and I went hiking with my area representative Ulli. She is like a super cool, friendly, intelligible, physicist and rock climber (ETHS kids, german Doc C), I literally could not ask for a more understanding and involved area rep.

We went hiking through the Sächsische Sweiz (Saxon Switzerland, note: not in Switzerland), and it was majestic.

 
 

I also got to check out the Sächsische Landtag (State Parliament), cool building, later I got to observe sit in the balcony and watch a session of Parliament!!!

Here is some other sweet stuff:

I went with Heidi (host mom) to a Harvest Fair, met the self titled "Kräuterhexe" (Herb-Witch), she laid down some knowledge, that's just my paying attention face.

I went to a Paint Party/Concert with Noah, the other American exchange student at my school. He's here with Rotary. I got to meet some other Rotary students who were there. The party was really fun HOWEVER: I personally would not recommend Rotary because they have a reputation for spending most of their time with other Rotary kids, speaking mostly English with one another, Partying, and the program includes multiple highly Touristy excursions. If that's your thing that's fine, it's just personally not the experience I was looking for.

Anyways here are some pics from the aptly named "Neon Splash"

As you can see, I've been quite busy, but hopefully I can get back to blogging bi weekly because I don't want to keep giving my readers Literary Dyspepsia.

Right now I'm on vacation at the North Sea, It's beautiful, and I'll write about it next week.

DANKE FÜR DAS ABLESEN! (thanks for reading)