Summer sunrise

Went to my friends’ in the countryside,  it’s gorgeous out there. We stayed up all night and watched the sun rise at about 5.30 am. Loved it!

Exchange student meet up Munich

Hey guys! Went to Munich with other exchange people some time ago, but never got around to putting up the pictures!
We checked out the sights in the city, including the big Allianz Arena,  it was pretty cool and the people were really fun. Also went to schloss neuschwanstein!!! The hostel where we stayed was pretty … Disappointing,  let’s put it that way. Great trip though!

At the end of the trip, i met up with my host family in Gersthofen,  a koncert hall, where my classmates and host sister,  who are in the school orchestra, were performing for the “Klasse klassik” concert together with professional musicians from the BR Orchester. It was really beautiful!

Cabaret

Heey
Went to Augsburger Puppenkiste this week with my host family to watch cabaret. I wasn’t very excited,  cause mostly cabaret is a sort of satirical play, commenting on what the politicians are doing, etc., so i was pretty sure that i wouldn’t understand a word they said.

It turned out to be not one long piece, as I’d thought it would be, but rather loads of small skits, which was actually pretry funny. Since the skits were performed by dolls on strings, they had small pauses in between acts so that they could change the dolls. During that time the theater would be pitch black and some guy would tell jokes over the loudspeakers. The jokes weren’t really that great, most of them were old and more importantly not funny. But the other people there seemed to enjoy it.

Anyway, the coolest part was that afterwards we were allowed to go behind the scenes and see how they set it all up, just like that scene in the sound of music where the kids and maria put on a little play for the baroness, uncle Max and their father.

Since i didn’t quite get most of the skits, it wasn’t as funny as it could have been, i guess. Oh well, it was an experience!
Have a great day! ♥
Bianca xx

Just gonna add this prettaaaay picture here, cause she hates when i put pictures up of her haha - host sisters best friend

Carnival in Germany!

So Saturday I went to the Faschings party at the firefighters’ … Sunday was different though. The small towns in the countryside have various groups, kind of like scout groups, but at the same time totally different. Anyway, my friend was in a group called the ”Biberhexe” – The witches from Biburg. I joined them this year, got a mask and was ”baptized” and everything. (They cut off some of my hair, threw it on the fire, made me smooch a guy and sprayed champagne on me. Did I somehow join a cult by accident??)

Anyway, the ”Faschingsumzuge” (Carnival / Parade) are very well know around here and people stand all along the parade route and sing and clap as we walk by with our wagons and stuff. All in all there were over 60 parade wagons (floats?), which is pretty good, considering the fact that we were waaaay out in the German countryside. It was all very festive, the music very loud, and the people were very happy. Since our group was wearing masks we got to run after little kids (and adults) who ran screaming away. (We gave them candy afterwards, though, so it was okay!) It was super, super fun! 🙂

One of the other wagons did Alice in Wonderland 🙂

Our witch-wagon 😀

😀 Aren’t we pretty – I’m the one in the right side of the pic

Afterwards, the Biburg witches drove back to Biburg and partied on in the little club house in the town. It was more of a shed than an actual hut, but it was cozy enough. People danced and sang and drank and ate. Boy, it was weird, but an experience after all. I mean, I like parties and stuff, but it was weird partying with someones grandparents, and their children, and their grandchildren…

The Fasching officially ends Wednesday at midnight, where someone gets thrown into a big sack and people pour all the leftover alcohol over that person. I can faintly hear the Danes screaming: ”WHAT, you pour out the LEFTOVER ALCOHOL?!”

Well, yes. Because here, since most people are Catholic, they normally fast from Thursday until Easter. It’s a tradition, I think. My host family is doing it as well, and I think I might join them. (Not that we aren’t going to eat. My host parents just won’t drink any alcohol, i.e. Wine with dinner, and my host sisters and I wont eat any candy etc… So I guess we could drink the alcohol and they could eat the candy … 😉 ).

Top left: All the floats were “pulled” by tractors. Top right: The witches kept on lifting som of the smaller witches up with their brooms. It was kind of “our thing”, and people would clap afterwards. Bottom right: Friend in her beautiful dress :’)

Witches’ masks

Pheeew, it was a long evening, and most of the country-folks party every night, from Saturday until Wednesday! I wouldn’t be able to handle that, but then again I didn’t grow up drinking beer with my dinner…

People kept saying: ”Wow, you guys don’t have any carnivals in Denmark?”, and I honestly couldn’t think of any other parades than the annual Gay Parade we have in Copenhagen. They all looked and me and went: ”… Well… It’s not quite the same…”.

(They found the fact that gay people get to dance around in the streets dressed in mankinis and feathers was really weird and quite disturbing… But the fact that the 50 year old married drunk woman was making out with a 20-something year old man in the corner of the shed was totally normal and okay …  Again, ”Fasching ist nur ein Mal im Jahr!”… )

Anyway, we sang sooooo much, I’ve got some horrible German schlager songs by Helene Fischer and people like that in my head… (”Aaaaatemlos, durch die Nacht…. !” – YouTube it… ). German people really love their Schlagers. And beer. And making out with their neighbors.

:’) Sometimes I miss the Danes – But German people are pretty great too, haha.

Anyway, enjoy your week!

Loads of love, Bianca xxxxxx

Faschingsball

What’s up, party people?!

Hope you guys all had an awesome weekend! I, at least, had a lot of fun. As I’ve mentioned earlier, we have ”Faschings ferie”, which is a time for carnivals. The whole carnival thing is not so big in the city, but in the countryside it gets pretty wild, I’ve heard. My friend from class lives … Well, in the countryside, and she invited me to do Fasching with her and her little town.

Saturday the little town, Biburg, had their annual ”Faschings Party” in the Volunteers’ Firefighters’ clubhouse. We dressed up real nice (I was Cleopatra and she was a pirate) and went to the gathering with her mother. Basically the entire town was there – and as they say, ”Fasching ist nur ein mal im Jahr!” (Fasching/ Carnival only happens once a year!), so people really go all in with the costumes, etc. I actually wanted to be Snow White, but my friend and I decided Cleopatra was cooler. (I discovered that short hair does not suit me, and that Cleopatras’ face definitely was less broad and round than my face. You kind of need defined cheekbones to rock her style. But whatever, it was fun anyway! 😉

My accessories 😀

My friend and I ❤

So basically, at these events, everyone just hangs out and talk and dance and drink and dance some more. It’s actually too bad that we don’t have stuff like this in Denmark, cause it’s pretty chill and cozy. (Although often people drink a liiiiittle too much and stuff happens. Soooo many people out in these small towns ”met each other at a Faschings party” and now they’re married and have kids and everything.)

They had a whole program set up with entertainment, including loads of dancing girls, and a performance by the prince and princess of the dancing club in town. Pretty sweet. They also had a big bet that the fire department couldn’t gather all 7 mayor candidates (it’s currently voting time in the area), dressed up as the wolf and the seven little kid goats, singing some German Schlager song. Considering that none of them were there, and most probably either at home or at some other event, it was a pretty hard bet, and the fire department lost in the end, as they could only get 5 of the candidates to come. Pretty entertaining nonetheless.

It was a really interesting experience and I’m glad I got to go. Who knows, maybe I’ll even swing by next year!

Alright, have a great day!

Bianca xx

Gymnasium bei St. Stephan – My school, pt. 2

Hellooooo and welcome back to my mini-series about my school here in Germany, St. Stephan!!

(Could we get a round of applause, please?)

Anyway, lets get to work and take a look at a typical day here at my fabulous elite school. (Haha.) (No, it really was, and still is known as an elite school).

Since I live in a part of Augsburg called Haunstetten, I take the tram every day at either 07:22 or 07:27. It takes about 22 minutes to get to school and most of the time the tram is overcrowded and you don’t get a place to sit. For me, if I do get a seat, this is a time where I will either: a) Finish some homework that I should have done yesterday, b) go over my notes i took down the last time we had the coming first period (i.e. I go over what I wrote down in the previous Geography lesson, if that’s my first period, so I’m prepared for any questions that might come my way*), c) talk to people I know who manage to squeeze themselves into the tram with me (forcing me to come out of my much enjoyed bubble of solitude and important studying)(just kidding)(no really, tram-time is me-time).

^You may have noticed I put a little star by the questions part, I’ll get back to that.

It’s obligatory to be in your classroom at 7:55 so the lesson can start exactly at 8:00. Surprisingly few people come late. Not because it’s at all accepted in Denmark to come in late … Buuuut it kinda is… They expect it in Denmark, at least. Not here.

All lessons – all of them – start by all the students standing up for the teacher. The teacher then says: ”Good morning everyone!”, and the class answers in a pretty monotone chant: ”Gooood-mooorning Mr. / Mrs. X!” and then the teacher looks exhausted because really the greeting is less cheerful than no greeting at all. Then he / she asks us to sit down, but by then we’re already seated. Then, depending on the teacher, we either listen to a 45 minute long monologue about some ”interesting matter”, whereafter they write the gist of the lesson on the blackboard, which we then copy into our notebooks (for quick read-throughs the next morning or whenever on the tram*), or we read through some stuff in our textbooks and do the exercises that go with it.

FOUND A PICTURE OF THE MONKS!

Okay, no, not all teachers are like that. We’ve actually been a super lucky class, we have so many young teachers who aren’t totally sick of their jobs yet. You can really tell the difference between someone who still finds their subjects exciting and challenging, and someone who’s held the same speech 20 years in a row now. When the teacher looses the joy of teaching, the students don’t learn anymore.

The thing about the youngsters that sucks, though, is that they’re only in the final stages of their educations, which means they only get to work at one place for half a year at the time. For us, it means having to get used to a totally new teacher (again) after we get our half-year evaluation. This also means that you have to, yet again, show this new teacher that you’re a good student and worthy of a good grade.

Normally we get this ”problem” sorted out within the first half year of our education in a new place – I’m going to do it again when I start gymnasium in Copenhagen in August – You work super hard the first couple of months, so your teachers like you (very important), and then later it’s okay if you slack a little (read: a lot) – they know what you can and most of the time it’s easier to get a good grade when they like you and have seen what you are capable of.

Anyway, let’s finally get to that star of mine… * = Okay:

In Denmark our school system is very much based on homework, I think, especially in the Gymnasium. The homework we get is mostly writing – we get big projects, and loads of them, in all subjects – several essays to hand in every week / two weeks. Basically a lot of time at home with physical evidence of what you’ve been studying.

In my German school, on the other hand, they don’t have as much homework at all. The system here is different. The teacher begins every lesson with a so called ”Ausfrage” – basically, they pick one student in class who get’s quizzed for 5-8 minutes about what we learned in their previous lesson. This means all German students do a lot of ”lernen” – which basically means learning, but that doesn’t really make sense. (Cause when students then say ”Ich muss lernen.” – I have to learn – It doesn’t quite cover it.)

”Lernen” is basically practicing, repetition, going over the stuff you have been told in school and learning it by heart. That’s it! Learning it by heart.

(I could talk for a long time about what I think of this system, and comparing it to the danish system – maybe I should do a post about that? – but I’ll just try to keep it short here.)

Since they have to do so much learning by heart for all the subjects, they get very few actual things to hand in, physically. This also means that you can also simply not do the whole learning by heart thing, cross your fingers and hope the teacher doesn’t pick you for the Ausfrage.

The teachers sort of figured that not all students do the learning by heart thing, though, so they do small, unexpected tests every now and then, called Ex’s. (It’s short for some Latin word).

The scores from the Ex’s count in your final score as well, so you really don’t want to screw them up as a student.

This post has gotten a bit long, so I’ll continue it in the next post … Talk to you later!

Love, Bianca

*Okay so I realized that ”lernen” means to study, which also makes sense. Study is a perfectly good word, but I just wanted to underline that it’s not just studying, it is really learning by heart. They write a phrase on the blackboard, you quote that exact phrase right back at them, and they give you an A.

PS. Here’s a link to my school.

Concert in Munich

What if I told you one of my recent adventures led me to a dark alley in a big city in the pouring rain, surrounded by long black leather coat-clad, older electro-metal fans, almost a thousand kilometers away from home?

My friend asked me a while ago if I wanted to go to a concert with her – she had an extra ticket, another friend was coming along too, and the friends mom would drive us to Munich. This friend of mine loves One Direction just as much as I do, and even though I didn’t know the band we were going to hear that night, I thought it couldn’t be that bad, right? I mean, when we both like One Direction, this other “Eisbrecher” band must be okay as well.

I was so wrong.

Now I have nothing against listening to music genres other than pop. (Okay I might dislike hard rock and punk and stuff, but I think I’ve embraced Techno, House and Country pretty well, haha). I can listen out of politeness for a while if it’s really necessary, but rock / punk stuff just really isn’t my thing.

And these Eisbrecher guys, it was just … Soooo not Pop. Noooot at all.

My friend and I headed over to her friends house in the evening, I met the parents and everything was normal until we went out to the car. (The car was normal and perfectly safe, don’t worry) The thing was that both the parents went with us. I found it a bit weird, cause honestly I thought the friends’ mom would just be our chauffeur, and maybe, possibly also have a ticket to the concert, but that she’d most likely find it boring because adults don’t normally like the same type of music as their kids.

I was very wrong. (Again). Turns out the parents had actually been fans of this band first, and that the kids became fans as they grew up. I started to get a bit nervous.

As we arrived at the venue I thought: “Oh great, the concert hall looks big and warm!” Turns out I was looking at the wrong building.

We walked a little down the street, turned a corner and walked down an alley in the dark (!!!). We stopped by this great big broken down wall, the “entrance” to the courtyard where we were supposed to wait in line. It wasn’t even a gate, it was a hole in the wall. The inside of the courtyard was only lit up by a few fluorescent lights, it was raining and the whole thing was honestly starting to freak me out a bit.

I’d been told to wear black, and maybe some eyeliner. I did, cause I kinda found the eyeliner looked a bit fancy (haha don’t judge) but standing there I realized it was a part of the fans’ uniforms. We were surrounded by people in black, thick rings of eyeliner around their eyes and dark eye-shadow on, with long leather coats and dyed black hair. (And bald men with chunky boots)

So I’m standing there in the pouring rain, freezing and wondering how I managed to get myself here. I love my friend and all, but at that moment I would so much rather have been in bed watching Friends or something. The doors finally opened though, and the queue slowly started moving forward. The venue was actually pretty nice on the inside, some sort of old factory type production hall I think, cause it was full of old steel pipes and stuff. The parents met with some of their friends (!!) and I looked around; almost everyone looked like they were at least 30 years old if not more. Except this one guy who looked extremely similar to a guy I know from back home on Amager. But that’s a different story.

Emma, guess who?

The warm-up band got on stage (A Life Divided – That really reminds me of H&M for some reason, don’t ask me why.) and they were very … Different than what I normally listen to. Finally the actual band/ lead singer got on stage and the crowd went wild. They were all pretty drunk, I think, and it’d gotten really hot in there so they’d shed their long leather coats. I actually found the lead singer very sympathetic and I liked him because he seemed to be funny. But then they started singing, and although it was a good show, I’m just not a fan of this genre.

Apparently their genre is called “Neue Deutsche Härte” (did not know that was a genre to be honest), just like Rammsteins.

It describes a crossover style that is influenced by German rock, industrial metal, alternative metal, groove metal, and hard rock combining it with elements from electronica and techno.

(Wikipedia)

If you know me at all, you can probably tell by the Wikipedia description how much I liked it. But the people I went with are honestly so nice and friendly, I’d love to hang out with them again, if I get to pick the music. But I think it’s good to try new things. (I would never have done this in Copenhagen. Hard rock concert? Never in a million years.)

But I’ve discovered one thing that I didn’t know before (because I didn’t even really bother to listen to the lyrics when these songs were played on the radio or where ever): They are actually singing about the exact same things as the pop artists. About love, and girls and broken hearts and broken dreams. About choices and life and hard times. About “breaking through the ice” and finding yourself and stuff.

To me it always just sounded like angry German people screaming into a mic, but now that I can understand (parts of) it, it makes more sense. Not something I’d put on before I fall asleep though, but at least I understand them a bit better. (Although almost three hours of that stuff is a reaaaaally long time…).

Well… At least I’ve tried that now! 😀

Hope you guys continue to have a good time! Do something new this week, okay? And then tell me about it afterwards!

Loads of love,

Biancaaaaa xx

Hahaha we took this in the bus on the way over to my friends friend, and she edited it afterwards :’)

Gymnasium bei St. Stephan – My School, pt. 1

Hallöcheeeen!

As you know, I go to a German school, but I don’t think I’ve introduced you to my school properly. I’m thinking I’ll do a mini-series featuring it. (BE EXCITED!)

So people… Meet St. Stephan:

‘

Just for you, daddy. Also, punpunpunpun because Stephen^^^^

The Gymnasium by St. Stephan, also know as Gymnasium bei St. Stephan in German, is a school located centrally in the city of Augsburg in Bavaria in Germany. Originally it was the St. Salvator school, an earlier Jesuit college, but was turned into St. Stephan Gymnasium in 1828 by King Ludwig the first. The benedictine abbey of Saint Stephan was then given the responsibility to run the school, but if I’ve understood it correctly, the ”control” was later given to the state of Bavaria, which means it’s now a public gymnasium.

Despite being a public gymnasium, the school of St. Stephan is known for being one of the elite schools around here – a Harvard of Augsburg, so to say. (Haha.) In 2009/2010 the school became one of the only eight schools in Bavaria to have a ”Hochbegabte Klasse” – a class for the specially gifted students.

To me, being recognized as extraordinarily gifted sounds pretty cool, but I know one of the girls who used to be in that class (the class for the specially gifted dissolved for some reason, I don’t exactly know why, I’ll look into it), but she is surprisingly embarrassed about having been one of the extraordinarily gifted students. They were only around 10 people in the class and got the best teachers in the entire school. Apart from that they were also given the opportunity to participate in special extracurricular activities that other students in the school didn’t get to do. They basically had less hours of the classes they were good in (like math and physics) and used that time to do fun stuff instead. (No, math teacher, I’m not sorry.)

It may seem unfair that the best students then get the best teachers and special treatment, but I guess I can understand the Principals – You have to take good care of the things that give you fame. Those ten students really gave St. Stephan extra status.

St. Stephan used to be an all-boys (boarding) school, but just recently opened up to girls as well. (Around 17 years ago). Apparently all the rich people of Augsburg sent their sons there, and a lot of the former students later have become pretty prominent people. (Politicians, lawyers, musicians etc.). Although the school is now owned by the state, (who doesn’t spend a whole lot of money on the school btw…. ) the abbey of St. Stephan still works with the school – many of the monks are teachers there. My physics teacher, for example, is a monk. They’re all really nice and pretty cool, actually. At first it was soooo weird, being taught by an elderly man in a long black robe, and seeing monks walking up and down the halls, but funnily enough it’s almost become normal to me now – the school would not be the same without them at all.

St. Stephan is a Catholic school, which is pretty clear especially because of the monks. But that’s not the only thing. Every morning we (or the catholic students, that is) turn to a mini crucifix Jesus on the wall by the door and say a prayer. (Often times followed by a little bow). Being a protestant and coming from a country where Christianity is encouraged, yes, but rather hidden in the schools, this was totally absurd for me in the beginning, and it’s still a bit weird to me, but I’m glad that religion is also a part of the education here. (I know, I know, it’s obligatory education for a year or something in Denmark, but here it’s actually a pretty big part of their entire school life.)

The evangelical people aren’t totally left out here, though. Every grade has one class for the evangelical students (I think we’re 14 students in my year out of around 100), and there’s also the possibility to choose the class ”Ethics”. (Only one guy in my year has it, though, so he just get’s a period off whilst we have religion)).

View of my school from outside, that’s the hallway between Neubau (New building) and Altbau (Old building).

Anyway, hope my school doesn’t sound as boring as it looks (sorry, school – but as I said, apparently the state doesn’t really spend a lot of money of the building + interior), I actually like it more than I thought I would and I’m looking forward for you guys to meet again.

Have a great weekend!

Love, Bianca

The Andechs Abbey

A couple of weeks ago, during the Christmas vacation, my host family and I took a trip to an abbey close to Augsburg. My host family loves going there, cause you have to climb this mountain (45 minutes!) in order to get to the top where the abbey is. What makes this hike worth it, is the amazing food they serve up there. The Andechs is located right beside the Ammersee, this big lake. They don’t have a lot of ocean down here (haha), but people love to go to the lakes in the summer for water skiing and hanging out at the “beach”.

Ammersee

Being from Denmark, surrounded by water all the time, I really miss the sea. It sounds weird, but water is sort of calming to me, haha. Apparently people in Germany also really enjoy the water, cause all the properties located around the lake (and the Andechs) are some of the most expensive in this area.

Flood measure thingyyy … And the seeeeaaa

yaayyyy

Even though I don’t particularly like hiking and stuff, it was actually really nice. The weather was beautiful and the food really was delicious. My host dad and sisters and I ordered Schweinebraten and my host mom had Weißwurst (a special Bavarian white hotdog). The whole place seemed like one of those old pubs that you see in the movies. It was really cosy.

Eating in the Andechs

Schweinebraten

HUGE Breze (Pretzel)

Besides eating there, we also checked out the Abbey itself. They told me that most of churches in Augsburg were just as beautiful before the 2. world war, but after the bombings, most of it was ruined. A lot of places in the forests you can still see big craters from the bombs.

Inside the Abbey

In the evening we also took a walk in our local forest (7 Tables forest), and visited this little cafe. It was sooooo cosy, with fairy lights hanging in the trees and a camp fire and little wooden benches. We drank hot chocolate and enjoyed the evening. They said there are normally live bands there in the summer time. I’m looking forward to it! 😀

Hope you guys had a great day!

Love, Bianca xx

The view from the mountain – It’s even possible to see the Alps in the distance

Skiing in the Alps

Living in Denmark without any mountains around me, skiing is something you do in the Winter Vacation with your family, or something you do during your time in gymnasium with a bus full of drunk happy teenagers in Prague.

In Bavaria it’s a little different, though. With under two hours to the Alps, and all of Austria’s and Switzerland’s amazing ski resorts just waiting right there, skiing is something you’ve been doing since the day you learned to walk. A week of skiing camp, sometimes two, is obligatory in school, just like your English or Math exams. People here don’t rent skis. They own them. I guess for them it’s kinda like going to the beach – except they don’t really have any. (Don’t come to me with your Ammersee or whatever, okay guys? It’s a lake. We go to the beach by the sea.)

The SMV (a school organisation thing in Bavaria), the school council President and his team organised a ski trip for everyone over 15 (or was it 16?) and I love skiing, so of course I came along. We drove in a rented bus to a ski resort in Austria called Axamer Lizum. Since I haven’t been skiing the past two years, I wasn’t really sure if I actually still could ski. I mean, as far as I remembered, I was pretty good, but compared to all the pros down here, I wasn’t so sure.

We were loads more in the bus, but these were the people I mainly skied with

My little group of people and I had all agreed on “warming up” on a blue hill, just to get it back in our system, but somehow we ended up going on a red hill first, without even realizing it. It wasn’t hard at all, even though I was still a bit insecure, cause this guy Schumacher crashed not so long ago, hit his head on a rock, and his situation is uncertain. Not that I normally worry a lot. I’m just being careful (want to see my parents again someday haha).

So I’m a little weird, but we all knew that 😉

I was sooo afraid of dropping my phone but you gotta capture the moments, right?

We skied from 9 am till around 3:30 pm, the weather was incredible and the people were amazing. I think I crashed about a gazillion times, but it was all good fun, and I didn’t get hurt. The bus trip home was super entertaining, people were all really tired and just talked. Too bad we only went for one day, I would have loved to go to obligatory ski-camp, but it’s only for the 7th graders.

This is called Skiwasser (ski water), it’s a really sweet lemonade and it tastes like summer, basically 😀

Weird pancake soup, tasted really good but I forgot the name of it. Something with an F

Some of the peeps in my group

Vicki and I ❤

The Alps are breathtaking, really, I mean you see pictures and you hear about it, but it was just so beautiful. We were standing at the top of a mountain at one point, and could look down upon the surrounding mountains and the valley. This sea of fog was covering the small towns down there, and it kind of felt like you were standing on the top of the world.

Anyway, school’s back on tomorrow, got two tests this week, yay. Hope you guys had a great weekend as well!

See ya!

Bianca xx

Skiing selfieeee

Hey – It’s 2014!

Normally it’s always really weird for me when the years change – I can never really believe that yet again it’s a new year. I remember last year at this time I was thinking: “Wow. Next year I’ll be in Germany.” I kept wondering what it was going to be like, but as soon as I started picturing it, my mind just went blank – I had no idea what to expect. The thought of going away for a year was so super abstract. And yet here I am – another year has gone by and it really is 2014.

I’ll be back home in six months and a half. Weird. It feels so normal here, even though I do new things every week. I spent New Years Eve with people I’ve know for four months. Only four months, but still they almost feel like family. It was the first time I’ve been that close to fireworks. My host sister asked me if I wanted to try, and I’m not normally afraid (not really, okay), but since I wasn’t even wearing protective goggles, I didn’t want to risk it. We hear so many “horror stories” in Denmark about people, especially kids, that get their fingers blown off, or stuff that explodes in their faces and blinds them. I don’t want to be blind.

Fav pic of my host sister hahahah, she was afraid of the little sparklers

So I didn’t fire any of the firework this year. It was still nice though, watching the night light up in a million different colors.

My host parents and the neighbors’ parents got a liiiiiittle drunk, but it was fun, and I video chatted with my family back home as well.

 

For dinner we had Raclette, which is, according to Wikipedia:

Raclette is also a dish indigenous to parts of Switzerland. The Raclette cheese round is heated, either in front of a fire or by a special machine, then scraped onto diners’ plates; the term raclette derives from the French word racler, meaning “to scrape,” a reference to the fact that the melted cheese must be scraped from the unmelted part of the cheese onto the plate.

My host family has a modern electric raclette grill, it was pretty cool, and I don’t mind waiting for my food, but honestly I’d probably like normal fried vegetables and meat better.

We all had our own little pan which we’d load up with various greens and a lot of cheese, and then we’d wait and talk until the cheese had melted. The top part was like a pan, and whilst the meat cooked, the meat juices kind of sprayed all over the place. Not something I’d eat with the queen, anyway.

 

Also, GOT MAIL FROM IRELAND! 😀 My sister and I made a really good friend at summer camp, she lives in Ireland and was kind of famous at the summer camp because of her accent. I enjoy sending people Christmas cards, and sometimes I even get one back! Yay 😀

That was all for this time, I think. Notice how I’ve been a super good girl and uploaded very often this year? I’m going to keep my new years resolution as long as I can! It’s not like I don’t have anything to write about, I just don’t have a lot of time.

School has started again, you see, and it sucks cause it feels like we never even went on vacation. Got a music exam on Friday, physics and German exams next week and I’m noooot really ready. But it’ll be okay. I’m fine.

Have a great day!

Love, Bianca xx

 

 

My neighbor and I on New Years 😀

Christmas time in Germany part TWO – Plätchen

Christmas has it’s traditional food in all countries. In Germany, they like to bake cookies, known as Plätchen. Basically they’re flat butter cookies in various shapes, all decorated nicely.

My host sisters and some of the girls from church decided to bake Plätchen with the little kids / actors in the Christmas play. I’m sure it was great fun for the kids, but it became pretty tiring in the end for us “big kids”.

We ended up making 5 different types of dough, and the kids stuck out the cookies with cute christmas cookie cutters. The decorating part was the most fun for them, but also the messiest.

The cookies and cake were for after one of the sunday services, where we would sell it all and hopefully earn a lot. I even made Drømmekage, cause people here love it, even though they don’t actually have the right sugar (I can’t find any “Brun Farin” anywhere!).

Messy, messy, messy

I also baked “Drømmekage”

Lisa – hard at work. Also, don’t be confused by the ketchup – we had sandwiches for lunch.

Host sister and friend – not so hard at work

My two little helpers

German cookies are good, but I’ve gotta say, nothing beats danish cookies. (Except for American Chocolate Chip cookies, maybe ….).

My host family and I also went to a little Christmas market in our neighborhood, Elisabethmarkt, were we drank punch (I’ve never had punch before?!) and it tasted really weird, I didn’t really like it. My host parents both got a  “feuerzangenbowle”, this punch type-a-thing, with a spoon full of sugar and alcohol, and it burns into this weird, sweet drink. It doesn’t really taste that great either, but it was pretty cozy anyhow.

Feuerzangenbowle

Be ready for the last part of “Christmas time in Germany”! 😀

Love, Bianca 🙂

Christmas Eve

Heeeeey 😀

Didn’t have time to post about Christmas Eve on Christmas Eve, so I just ended up not writing it, and we can’t have that, now can we? Anyway, the next few posts will be “Christmas in Germany” – related.

My host family waited until the 23rd of December to put up their Christmas tree – I don’t know why. Normally we always put up our tree as soon as we get it, you know, to get the most out of the money we spent. Anyway, after almost destroying a box full of special ornaments, I just sat down and watched my host sisters and host mom decorate the tree. They have a huge box, big enough to fit a grown person, just full of Christmas decorations. The tree was pretty big as well, and soooo pretty, it was the total opposite of our tiny plastic tree at home. (Our plastic tree is not our main tree… But still)

Since I told them we don’t really have any fancy decorations at home (which in totally fine with, btw.) they decided to give me a nice ornament, just to “start my collection”. (Haha) But it was nice of them and it’s super pretty – I’m just afraid it’ll break when I go back home.

The 24th of December was pretty chill in the morning – first around three in the afternoon did things start to get a bit hectic. I’d prepared rice porridge in the morning, so it’d be cold for dessert (I was making Ris ala mande, this special danish dessert that sounds french, but I’m pretty sure the danes were just trying to be fancy).

At four my host mom and I went to church – my sisters were already there, cause they were in charge of the Christmas play and had to rehearse with the little kids – I was the photographer during dress rehearsal, and all the actors got a little picture of themselves as a Christmas present. I should start putting copyright marks on my pictures, haha.

It turned out pretty funny, actually, cause the little guy playing the nice hostel owner was supposed to say: “I’m sorry, I have no space – but I can see you are in urgent need of a place to stay. You can sleep in my stall, it’s not much, but at least you’ll have a roof over your heads.”

They’d rehearsed and rehearsed, but I guess it was stage fright or something, anyway, he ended up saying: ” … You can sleep in my stall, it’s not much, but at least you’ll have a head over your roof.”

Since it was church and Christmas even and a lot of people just go there because it’s the obligatory thing to do, not many were actually paying that close attention (I’m guessing). Only a few people slightly smiled. The thing was, though, the little guy then realized his mistake and went: “Uhm … No, I mean – A roof over your heads!”

People then realized as well, and a quiet, chuckle slipped from a few people. I myself was trying really hard not to laugh, but my host sister Lisa was supposed to narrate straight after the nice hostel owner had spoken. She found it so super funny, and things are normally funnier when you aren’t supposed to laugh – She began speaking into the microphone: “Maria and Joseph then went to …” But the Joseph came out really strained and it was so clear that she was trying not to laugh, the audience started laughing as well, and then Lisa just couldn’t hold it in any longer and broke down, laughing into the microphone, and the entire church laughed as well. The best part though, was that the pastor, who was sitting up front, bent over laughing and tried to hide behind his pulpit.

The little guy was so embarrassed and it was so sweet – The fact that they were all catholic made it much more amusing for me, mostly because I’ve always found them much more traditional and very serious in church, and to see them suddenly let lose like this – it was the best :’)

After the Christmas play, around five in the evening, we went back home. My host dad had stayed behind to prepare all the meats for the oven. In Denmark we normally open the presents after we eat, but here we opened the presents first. I was really nervous about my present, that they wouldn’t like it, cause it was kind of weird (I gave them a blender, you know, for smoothies and stuff). But they didn’t have one! And everyone needs a blender, right?!

Anyway, it was really fun and cozy, and although I missed my family, it wasn’t that bad. I got a mug (just because I kept using my host mom’s favorite one, haha), tickets to two football games, a One Direction book, another book that I’d mentioned I loved when I was younger (very sweet that they remembered) and wool + crochet needle so I could crochet my own Augsburg FC hat. Oh and a FCA scarf.

First try at a family picture – Haha 😀

Sadly this was unfocused, but it’s the best I’ve got 🙂

My hat and scarf

The best part was when we three girls opened the present from my host dad – 3D glasses. We went: “You know we can get these at the movies if it’s because you want to watch a 3D movie with us…” But then my host sister suddenly said: “Unless…” She turned around and opened up the TV cabinet and there it was – A brand new very large, 3D TV. I think my host sister nearly died of happiness.

They don’t have a 3D DVD player though, so we can’t actually use the 3D effects, buuuut whatever.

I made danish “Brown potatoes” – basically sugar coated potatoes – and they turned out good! We had Schweinebraten and cabbage as well. After the awesome dinner I brought out the Ris Ala Mande plus the cherry sauce, and everyone loved it (Except my younger host sister, she’s allergic to milk). After the food it was nearly 10 in the evening, so we cleaned our selves up and headed to church for the late christmas service. It was actually a pretty nice way to end the evening.

Ris ala mande

Making the sugar coating for the potatoes

Cat wanted to join as well

Potatoes are don! – Oh and we aren’t allowed to open presents before that bell has been … rung… (Tradition)

Christmas Eve ended outside as we were walking home from church. No snow this year, sadly, but they say it’ll come in March or so.

Hope you guys had a great Christmas as well! And sorry once again for the late update 😀

Love, Bianca xx

Köln / Cologne

Bonjour mes amis! ♥Haha 😉

Hope you had a great weekend! I did, anyway. Met some really sweet people, it’s too bad that we didn’t get to stay longer.
I was in Cologne / Köln, just to meet the other people in my exchange student organisation. I knew that two guys from Denmark, that I’d previously met at orientation camp in Copenhagen,  were coming as well, so I was so excited to finally see people who speak danish again. And people who understand my love for milk.

I arrived in Köln around 6 pm, and our contact people were super sweet. We ended up picking up one more student, he is from Thailand and his German isn’t as good as mine, probably because Thai and German are so different. As it was a youth hostel,  I had to share a room with a girl I didn’t know. She turned out to be from Stuttgart and was on intro camp for New Zealand.
Some guys from further down the hallway joined us as we explored the hotel and they were really nice as well.



Saturday morning the two contact people, the thai guy and I went back to the central station to pick up the rest of the students. One of the danish guys came first and it was super nice to catch up with someone in danish. Turns out the kids in Berlin,  where he lives, are kinda different from the ones in Augsburg. Berlin is just bigger,  I guess.



The other dane showed up, and a
couple of Australian girls and a guy, a girl from Ecuador and a girl from Chez Republic (? I think that’s what it’s called), Prague, anyway.
We checked out the cathedral of cologne, various Christmas markets and almost went ice skating,  but ran out of time. For dinner we went to an American burger restaurant.
It was so interesting hearing what others had been experiencing and knowing that you weren’t alone, and that other people are in the same situation as you.




I feel like I made some pretty good friends and it’s weird that I’ve only just met them.
Most probably I won’t see half of them ever again. It’s so sad, but at the same time I’m glad that I’m sad to see them go. That just means we had fun, right?
Oh well, good thing Mark Zuckerberg invented Facebook. Don’t know what I’d do without it.

Breakfast♥

Also, sorry for all the pictures. I tend to go a little overboard. This trip is no exception.









The only bad thing is, that I have a math exam on Tuesday and I just haven’t had time to study. Tomorrow is a long day, and I have to practice a music piece with my host sister too!
Oh well… As everyone in my class always tells me – my grades don’t count anyway…

See ya!
Love, Bianca
Ps. HAPPY 1ST ADVENT! Christmas is coming ahh! 😀 ♥

Rollin’ away

Throwback Tuesday (I know it’s really supposed to be thursday but whatever): My friend and I in London this summer ❤ Miss her… Happy birthday!!

Hey guys!

Stayed home from school today, cause I didn’t feel well. I’m better now, but it really made me realize how boring it is to not be in school. (Not that I particularly like school, I just miss the people there. Also, I think we got some of our tests back and I’m kinda excited to see how they turned out.)

I didn’t do much over the weekend, it was spent mostly relaxing and appreciating my free time. I went to the movies with a friend, and watched ”Fack yu Goethe” (yes, it means what you think it means – i think they were trying to write it the way they pronouce it). It’s number one on the movie hit-list here in Germany, and I’ve gotta say I really enjoyed it. (Yeah, I enjoyed a German movie!!) And I’ll tell you why: In the rest of the world, when we watch ”german movies” they’re always, ALWAYS, about Hitler, in one way or another. Especially in school, when your german teacher brings a movie to watch in class, it’s about Hitler, or the 2. World War, or about Jews, and it’s all super boring.

😀

This movie, though. It was a nice surprise. I don’t know if I would say I learned anything from it, or if the storyline was even that great, but it was funny and I really felt like i needed to see some comedy (that wasn’t super political and intellectual) from the Germans. (I do enjoy political and intellectual comedy, it’s actually some of the best – yup, Jon Stewart – buuuut my german isn’t quite good enough to actually understand all the puns and stuff so…. )

My workarea

 

Keeping ’em warm in the oven

The bottle was full when i started frying ….

 

Other than that, I helped my host mother in her catering service this past Friday. It was pretty cool, although kinda hard to wrap and fry 260 some springrolls in 2 1/2 when you’re really just one person. (I did most of it, cause my host mom – well she hasn’t had as much experience with rolling springrolls, let’s just say that… ) Actually, whilst rolling, this lady came into the shop and saw what I was doing and was all: ”Uh, springrolls, that looks delicious, can I buy some?” And me, being basically a noob at making springrolls (compared to real chinese people), was really surprised that anyone would actually want to buy those lumps dough and veggies.

(I had to make them vegetarian cause the people we were catering for came from all over the world – some were muslims and some were jews and some were just plain old vegetarians, so my hostmom thought it was better just to make them without meat alltogether.)

Did I mention that we were catering for a Bavarian State meeting thing? Yeah, we drove to the Ministry of Bavaria and it was really old and posh! Too bad I smelled like an asian fastfood resaturant, or I would’ve poked around a little more.

Got a super short peek into the conference room

The Bavarian, German and European flags

A veeery unclear photo of me on the fancy stairs… Sorry, my host mom isn’t used to my phone 😉

Also while I was standing in the kitchen of the shop, rolling, I heard a customer talking to my host mom. She was just doing small talk, like usual and happened to mention that her exchange student was making springrolls in the back.

Host mom: ”Yeah, she’s Chinese and she’s excellent at making springrolls. Good to have some real professional people here, with all their now-how, you know?”

Customer: ”Oh wow, you’ve got a real Chinese person back there? Cool!”

-.- Yes we are indeed a very rare species.

Alcohol freeee!

Congrats guys!

 

Anyway, we also celebrated my host parents’ 25 wedding aniversary. It was nice. 25 years is a lot.

Aaaaand my friend just turned 16 yesterday. Congrats!! Your present is comiiiing!

Skyped with another friend in the weekend. It was really nice, and even though we didn’t talk about anything special, I really started missing Denmark. Well, actually more the people I left behind in Denmark. I think I’m gonna bake a cake. A real danish one. A drømmekage!! 😀

Miss you guys! Have a great vote tonight!

Tomorrow is a Bavarian-wide holiday, something about praying I think, but since this coming weekend is Cäcilia, or translated: Concerts in our school performed by the students in honor of saint Cecilia, the protector and saint for music. It’s a really big deal here. Some are going to play in the big school aula, some are going to play in ”The Golden Hall”, a concert hall in the city. My little music group and I are just going to sing at the school, but since I’m in the choir as well, we’re going to be opening and closing the whole concert (Thursday and Sunday evening) in the Golden Hall. It’s going to be pretty cool, I think. I’ll see if I can get someone to film us.

 

Anyway, going to bake that cake now!

Have a great evening!

 

Love, Bianca xx

Had some quality late night time with my host sisters, tea and mini cini’s (cinnamon flavored breakfast cereal!!)