Europe Tour

Hey everyone! I recently came back from my Europe Tour with my district here in Germany! We went through a program called "Belo Europe travel" and it was an amazing experience! I'll post a short play by play of how the trip went!


First off we went to Amsterdam which is only three or so hours away from where I live here in Germany. We had a bike tour of the city, had a picnic in the park, toured Anne Frank House and ended the day with a boat tour of the famous canals!

The next day we went to Brussels for the afternoon. We just walked around the city, got waffles and french fries! Then we got back on the bus and headed to Paris!








                                                                                     

 The next two days were spent in Paris! We had several walking tours of the city, saw all the popular monuments, ate lots of food, lounged in the sun in front of the Eiffel Tower, saw the Louvre Museum and got plenty sun burnt!

                                                                                     

The next day we hopped on the bus and drove to Geneva, Switzerland. We had a tour of the UN office and hung out in our fancy Five-Star hotel. The next morning we walked around the old town, shopped a bit, walked by the lake and then went on the bus to head to our next city!

 



















After a long 11 hour bus ride from Switzerland ( thank you traffic in Milan) we finally arrived in Venice! The next day we had a walking tour of the city, ate fresh fruit at the local market, rode on the gondolas and toured the glass making on the island Murano!

The next day we stopped in Postonja Slovenia and had a tour of the caves. Then we got on the bus and arrived that evening in Budapest! The next morning we had a tour of the city, the big hill, castle hill, the palace and that evening we went to the thermal baths and had a traditional dinner with the local people who performed a traditional dance!  












































Then we headed off to the city of Vienna! We had a picnic in the park, had a tour of the palace and the city, a tour of the library and we went to the Sounds of Vienna show!

                                                                                                                                                           

Then we went to Prague! On the way there we stopped in Bratislava Slovakia and had a tour of the castle and city. Then we went to Prague and had dinner! Which consisted of half a duck and a large portion of potatoes... The next day we had a full day tour of the city and palace. We ate lots of ice cream and walked until we had plenty of blisters. That night we threw a Rotary appropriate party. The next morning we woke up bright and early and went back to Germany!






































If you have any questions or comments please feel free to ask away in the comment section! Sorry for not posting so much but you'd be surprised how busy and fast exchange life can get! Thank you for reading!

December...

 Hello! I know i've gone MIA for the past month and a half but I will do a summary of what's been going on! For each picture I will add a caption and date, as you might have noticed, the formatting on blogspot is not the easiest to control so please bear with me! 






December 2-3, Oldenburg Rotary Meeting

We had a Rotary sleepover with all the inbounds and made cookies, painted bags and baked waffles! We got Christmas presents from our Rotary Santa and got the information on the Europe tour! Later that night it snowed for the first time and many of the students ( Brazilians) had never seen snow before! The next day we went to a charity bowling event and raised money for UNISEF. Then I took the train back to Leer and worked at the Christmas market for my Rotary club. We sold grog and poffertjes! This is a picture of me, my counselor and our Leer Rotary President. 

 December 8, Leer

I went with my friends and host brother to the Christmas market in Leer for some Kinderpunch and Pommes! It was really cold and snowy but lots of fun! The market was very lively at all times of the day but it was always a bit crazy at night! The stands served beer, sweets, french fries and more! Christmas is very big in Germany and it was cool to see the whole town decorated!

December 10th, Leer

We went and picked out a Christmas tree! The trees are already cut and stored on pegs so you can just pick it up and leave! Unlike the grueling task of finding, cutting and carrying the tree across and open field. It started snowing so we went to the Christmas market and walked around for awhile. Then we went to a cafe and got something warm to drink! It was so snowy I felt like i was in a wonderland with all the lights and festivities! 

Host brother Henri, me, Host mom Sandra and Host dad Christoph. 

This is the outside of my house!

For Christmas we celebrate on the 24th and we went to church and ate some very good food! That night we opened presents and ate some sweets! On the 25th we met with the extended family at my host grandmas house. It was nice to meet everyone in the family and share traditions.

December 26th

It was a nice day after Christmas so my family took me up to the North Sea! It was very windy and cold but super pretty! We stopped and got tea and cake.

 On January 6th I moved to my second Host family. They live in another town called Collinghorst. I take the bus for 20 minutes into Leer for school and back. My Host parents and brother are very nice! We have two parrots and four horses! I love living here and since my host mom is an a amazing artist I'm improving on my art skills! 

 

If you have any question feel free to comment! Sorry for this taking so long but I hope you enjoy!

Moin Folkes

Hello there everyone! I took a smallish break for the blog for November. This month is the month named the hardest for exchange students when dealing with homesickness. And I can pretty much agree with that but, let me catch you up on some small things that happened this month!                       First off here is a beautiful picture of some nice German food my host mom cooked! We have sauerkraut with ham              ( Schinken) and bratwurst! And in the small dish is some fried onions ( Röstzwiebel) . Not pictured is mashed potatoes ( Kartoffelpüree)! I thought I'd show you the German words as well! My host mom is an amazing cook and I am very thankful for her skills.

 Then after school one day I went with my host brother ( Henri, the blonde boy) and his friends to get lunch which consisted of Currywurst and pommes or what Americans call french fries. It was very good and I got to watch people in the town start to put Christmas lights on the streets! Since people in the rest of the world ( besides Canadians) don't celebrate Thanksgiving, the Christmas decorations go up EXTRA early. I'm not complaining though because who doesn't want to see pretty lights for a whole month longer?! The other guy pictured is Fabian and the small girl in the red scarf is Isabel! ( She's cool because we share the same name(; )

Later this month my friend Ambra came up to Leer and spent the night at my house! She's on exchange in District 1850 and is from Telluride Colorado! We spent Saturday walking around Leer and going into all the shops! Then we took a long bike ride out past my house and found a dairy vending machine where you can buy milk, cheese, yogurt,  ect... It was so nice to see a friend and an American! I had so much fun climbing up all the dykes and possibly chasing sheep... We also got caught in some hail storms throughout the two days which were quite fun!   


Well that's all I have for this month so far but this weekend District 1850 exchange students are having a sleepover in Oldenburg which will be plenty of fun! And on Sunday I'm working at the local Christmas Market for my Leer Rotary Club! Let's just pray I don't freeze to death!

Deutschlandreise 2017 Rotary 1850

So, I don't have too many pictures of the surroundings from the Germany tour, but I will post what i have with descriptions! (If you would like further detail or have any question please feel free to comment or email me!) We recently had an exchange student trip with my Rotary district 1850 and they generously took us on a short 6 day tour of Germany! We went (in order) to Köln, Frankfurt, Bad Homburg, Eisenach, Weimar, Berlin and Wolfsburg! We saw so many amazing things and I can't thank my district enough for putting this all together for us! and not to mention that it was free! Also a huge thanks to my Rotary district 5050 back home for giving me this opportunity to see and experience the wonderful German culture and history!

We first went to Köln and visited/ toured the famous Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and we got to take a quick tour of the city by foot. We walked along the Rhine and toured the gorgeous stain glass of the Dom. Later that day the seemingly "always sunny city" as Germans like to say,  opened the flood gates and well, we got drenched... But it cleared up in time that night for us to go walk along the Rhine at night and go to one of the many bridges ( there are seven in Köln) and take pictures! Although, it wasn't clear the whole night and we got drenched yet again on our way back... In the picture left to right is Ambra from Colorado and Quinn from South Carolina. The next day we got up early and headed out to Frankfurt.

 Pictured above is what I think was one of the highlights of the trip! We were all going to take a picture in the square in Frankfurt when a group of guys just walked right over and took the picture with us... It was so funny and made for a great look at how friendly the people in Frankfurt are! We spent the afternoon on the tarmac at Frankfurt International Airport with a long, slow tour of the planes and airport. Then we headed into the city for free time! We walked around, danced on a bridge, drank Starbucks coffee and of course spent some money on pretzels and souvenirs! I think Frankfurt was my favorite city, it was very similar to Seattle! That night we headed to a nearby town called " Bad Homburg" and spent the night walking, talking, exploring, and eating amazing gelato! The next morning we headed out to Eisenach and Weimar.

We got to Eisenach in the afternoon and finally saw more elevation than sea level!! We went to Wartburg Castle where the famous Martin Luther was writing the new Bible in German and spilled his ink when scared by the devil. We took pictures on the tower with our flags and headed down the hill, back onto the bus where we left for Weimar. We got in when it was dark but our Rotex leaders set up a scavenger hunt of rotary symbols around the city. It was super cool to walk around the city at night and we all took a picture in front of some street art! Some of us stopped at an " American Diner" for some milkshakes that were superb! We stayed at the nicest hostel by far. In the morning we drove in the fog to the nearby concentration camp " Buchenwald". It was shocking to see all the history and horror that was there. We had a full tour and solemnly headed back to the bus on our way to the big city of Berlin.

We spent two days in Berlin. We had a fun night at a teenage disco and got some good Chinese food at some small hole in the wall! The next morning we had a tour by bus of Berlin and got to walk along the wall! We took so many pictures I had to choose just a few. We also stopped at the Brandenburger Gate! Then we had around five hours of free time to walk around Berlin and see whatever we wanted! We went to bakeries, museums and the Jewish Memorial. It was cool to see some bullet holes left on buildings from WW2 and to see the cobblestone path of the Berlin Wall that zigzagged all of the city ( if you weren't aware already, the Berlin Wall is not straight at all). We went to some popular churches on Museum Island and then went to the Parliament building and got a tour! Sadly I didn't take any pictures but if I find some I will make a separate post! That night we got another four hours of free time and wandered the city, buying gifts and good food! Some of us went to the Brandenburger Gate again and watched a light show for the freedom of Germany! We all went to bed veryyyyy late since it was the last night we were together. We wanted to make it last!
                                                                             

The last day we all passed out on the bus until we arrived in Wolfsburg at the VW factory! It literally felt like i had walked straight into the future with all the shiny towers of cars and perfectly landscaped surroundings. We spent several hours looking at all the new and future models of cars. Our tour guide was very nice and led us around everything! It was so cool to see this place and the people were very friendly! It made for a great ending to an amazing trip with people that will be my lifelong friends! Huge thanks to Rotary District 1850 for putting this free trip together and showing us exchange students how cool our new home is!! Also thanks again for my district 5050 back home for putting all their faith into me and sending me to the best country!! Thank you, and just comment if you have any           questions!!