Hauptschule

Monday-May 30th

So its 7:50am and theres a knock on the door….We open it to one of our classmates saying that we have to catch the bus at 8:15am….NBD Needless to say I rocked the ponytail and no make up…..cute I know

 

We arrived at the school to realize that we were super early so we chilled outside on the larger than life itself playground!

 

The school actually is the most colorful and largest that we’ve visited…their gymnasium is also large and has a lot of room for equipment.

 

This particular school is a grundeschule and hauptschule put together so there are about 480 students and about half are in the grundschule part and the other half are hauptschule.  This is the first time that I’ve seen diversity of teachers…there are more diverse students in the classroom with race and size/shape….

The PE classes that I got to observe were very interesting! the 1st one the teacher didn’t have ANY control of her class but they played fun games oh and they ran 3 killers( which are like buildup ladders) I didn’t do those until hs in my sports and they were usually for punishment!) lol these 1st graders did them NBD…..

The next class was an indian/african American teacher who had a gentle voice but had complete control of his class….And they began to do track things like sprints, long jump, and I’m sure that if they would’ve been better behaved they would’ve had the chance to do shot put with tennis balls sad day i was waiting like a child on xmas eve waits for xmas morning! lol

All in all it was great day! Then we we went back to the hotel to grab lunch then off to the mercedes benz museum so we get on the train….only to get to the museum to find out that its closed on MONDAYS sooo sad! So quick on our feet we decide that we should go to a dinosaur museum…which ends up also being closed on mondays….So after brainstorming we decide to just go back and get ice cream! Have I mentioned that I prolly gained back all 20lbs that I’ve lost! lol NBD all worth it! I LOVE GERMANY and its WONDERFUL food! lol well truth of the matter is that I LOVE FOOD in general….My clothes still fit…so thats a good a sign right?

 

Ok so I may or may not have given up euros for food and bought the CUTEST maxi dress! it looks SO german! and I’m in love…so much that I will prolly go hungry thursday and friday! lol oops Its all about being a poor college student right?!

 

Well we go back to the hotel grab some money so we could go to the grocery store to pick up food for our picnic at the castle! Who is excited!!!! PICK ME PICK ME!!!

 

We got our picnic(enough for 3 of us) for 15euro! thank you REVE!!! lol that is complete with grapes, bananas, fresh rolls, salami,ham, 2types of cheese, beef jerky, and drinks! (aka H2O)

1/2 of us walk up to the castle while the other take the bus…we meet in the courtyard of the castle where we picnic and later have class with Bettina. It was simply fabulous!

 

Then off to bed bc we leave at 7:30am….ouch thats ok we can do it!

Monkeys!!!!!Lake of Constance

Sunday 29

So we have been on the road for what seems like FOREVER!!! but I am all caught up on my blog! I know I know Everyone is excited! lol

 

oh and side note: no advertisement on autobahn b/c they value their landscape! Like wow Germans have it together! Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Germany???!!!!

 

Ok so before we arrive at the lake, which just so happens to be THE LARGEST lake in central EUROP! NBD! We go to a monkey habitat!

Now before you go judging me and my study abroad planner! It’s probably by far the CUTEST thing besides the fairytale land that I’ve done AND I was literally inches away from the monkeys AND I got to feed them! NO JUDGING!!! Yes I’m still an 8yr old at heart!

 

Just look at the pics and don’t you tell me that you wouldn’t want to cuddle them! oh and surprisingly enough they did NOT smell! I know I know GERMANY is AWESOME!

 

so after the monkeys and other various animals in the preservation CUTE DUCKS!

 

We hop back into the van and off to the LAKE we go!

 

Have I mentioned that we are HUNGRY and slowly fading? We decide to park the car get our stuff for swimming and go find FOOD!

We stop off at this CUTE little cafe and get WONDERFUL food! Despite the waitress speaking NO English we survived and put her mind at ease by speaking what little German we knew! lol All in all it was Fabulous! Now that our bellies are sooo full….We must go put on our swimsuits :/ I mean NBD we all look pregers! lol Hey german boys!!! lol JK

 

Ok so luckily the only naked people we saw were little kids…so No big deal…However there was an older man who was borderline naked….lets just say speedos are NBD here! lol

 

We got to lay out in the “German Sun” lol yes its different and it stays out longer! True story based on Real events!

So we could’ve taken a tour of the stone age village, which would’ve been really cool but ….we could take pics just the same and stay in baking in the sun! we choose the baking in the sun! lol We are about all toured out lol …..then of course standard we get Ice cream on our way back to the van! It was DELICIOUS!

 

Then we drive home…by the time we get home we are all hungry so…we decide to on an adventure for food…In which we go by our STANDARD Doner place! lol but this time I try a lamachun which is tortilla wrap covered in what I can best describe as “pizza roll sauce” and lovely german salat lol all wrapped up in DELICIOUSNESS! lol I have found a NEW LOVE sorry, Doner!

 

Walk back to the hotel and Off to bed

Sommerfest!

Saturday 28th

 

We catch the bus to go back to the grundschule where our students are putting on a festival about their wind,earth, fire, and water.  We were suppose to dance with them but when we got there we couldn’t find our cooperative teacher.  So we just watched they did a great job! They also sang and did fun little skits while their parent video recorded and watched! they were sooo cute! Then after that they put on a play that was soo cute! All in all they were super cute! lol

Then we left and went back to the hotel. Emily and I went for a run (which by the way if you’ve been keeping up with my blog I’ve been running a lot! I’m just saying)

we found a new path BEAUTIFUL!!! I just absolutely LOVE the landscape! Emily had a semi long run today so we parted ways she went more on the awesome path and I turned around walked/ran back to the hotel and stretched and took some time to myself before I went up to the room…It’s nice to have some alone time to soak everything up!

I then went upstairs to my room and waited for Emily to come back so we could go to the street festival that was going on in Esslingen on the oldest street.  We got a great rockwurst! and 2 pieces of cake! lol it was absolutely FABULOUS!

Then back to the room to nap and catch up on hw/blogging!

After we woke up from our nap we got ready for the night…aka we got cute and went to dinner at the cafe in the park! Can you tell that we all love the park?! I got a DELICIOUS salad with ham and cheese! and a colawiezer YUM-Tastes like cream soda! lol

We were then suppose to get together with our German friend Ina….but she was sleeping so we must make our own adventures!

We decide that we should go for a walk and see what comes our way! oh but never did we have this in mind! lol

We walk through the park past the fountain where a group of boys were hanging out….They all began to giggle and say things in german as we passed but it was dark and I didn’t get a good look at them to see if they were worth any of our time…so we kept walking and we saw a swing that we had been DYING to try since we had gotten to Esslingen but all the children had been on it during the day… NOW it was OUR TURN! lol we ran to the swing and began to go back to our childhood days when all of a sudden the swarm of boys from the fountain suddenly were surrounding us!

They turned out to be around 17yrs old…so yes they are boys! lol but they were very funny…one boy who claimed to be turkish was very flirtatious! lol All in good fun tho! they had many good quotes!

lol they had the stereotype of american police they had down from the simpsons! lol and chicago schools are filled with nothing but students with guns…and we still hate england bc we wanted independence! One boy said I LOVE YOU to one of us! lol just randomly blurted it out! lol while another one invited us to the pool where we would wear our bikinis! lol he was very specific on that! oh he was the same one that said that  he was married to all of us! lol

OH what a great time! More adventures to come! Goodnight!

Ludwigsburg-Fairytale garden

Friday- 27th

Today we take the train to Ludwigsburg which is just a 30min train ride! It drops us off at the main station where we can catch the bus or we can walk. It’s nice outside so we decide to walk….The main thing that I absolutely love about the culture is that they value their history the roads are still brick and the houses maybe 100s of yrs old but they are still in great condition and gosh its just so BEAUTIFUL!

We come to the palace and woah! it looks like it was just constructed! but its 100s of yrs old! but wow its fabulous! The inside is just as it was in the past looks like no one has touched it! I truly feel like a princess walking through her palace. Basically I was in HEAVEN! lol

Then attached to the palace are many beautiful gardens one of which is called fairytale garden…or something to that effect..Its sooo cool their was a Pinocchio, Rumplestillskin, and Rapunzel..It was so fun I was like a small child again!

We stopped in the garden for cake and coffee! or a sad excuse for coffee and cake! it was cafeteria style and the cake wasn’t the best not bad but I was also STARVING so I went back and had a salad! Delicious! lol

We caught the train back to stuttgart to get some CREPES!!!! DELICIOUS!!! then shop shop shop! then back home to get some delicious DONER….Do NOT judge me! yes I’ve eaten like 20 in the past 2weeks but I have to get my fill b4 I leave bc these delicious things do NOT exist in the US

Then back to esslingen an to bed we go!

Munich/Dachou

Thursday-26th 

Standard breakfast before we get on the road…We hop into the van and on our way to Dachou Concentration Camp….

On our way there was a traffic jam on the autobahn like WTF? how does that happen? and every lane  that we switched to ended up being the one that didn’t move! lol

 

 

We finally arrive at Dachou…It’s a beautiful day out the sun is shinning and the temperature is beautiful!

 

We walk along this beautiful path through the woods to the “museum” building where we got our audio guide in English.

 

We then walk down a path through the woods to the gate in which the prisoners were dropped off by train and lead into the camp.

Above the gate was “Arbeit Macht Frei” which means Work will set you free….If you stomach hasn’t come through your mouth yet it will when you read that gate.

 

After you pass through the gate, you then come to the part where the prisoners were held to take role you can see the entire prisoner camp from where you stand. All of a sudden the sun doesn’t seem to be shinning and the weather has become cold. You feel a sense of guilt standing there not getting beaten. You can’t help but try to fight back tears of anger, frustration, and sorrow for those who had passed during the time of war.

 

There are only 2 barracks, where the prisoners had stayed that are still standing for museum purposes the rest of the barrack’s foundations are there to show where they had been and there are information boards to tell you what each barrack had in them.

 

The main building is still standing there where the soldiers stayed which is now the museum and there is a small movie theatre inside where they show a documentary type film  each hour in different languages different hours.

 

We saw the film, I won’t go into detail but if the camp hadn’t made you sick the movie will…As you walk through the camp you just imagine from what you’ve gathered from various history books and classes…the movie puts to life and you actually see the truth of the camp.

 

Dachou was the 1st concentration camp that was built, and it was not intended as a death camp in fact the gas chambers were never actually put to use here.

 

However, there was a crematorium that was put to use.  They have two on site, bc the 1st one was to small and needed to be larger.

 

The entire camp, before adding on the concentration camp, the camp was used specifically for training of the SS soldiers.  After the concentration camp was built on the entire camp was  almost half of the city.  People who lived in the town were split into 3 sections, those who knew but profited, those who chose not to know, and those who tried to speak up against it.

There were many propaganda information that would have lead outsiders to believe that the camp was a nice place and that nothing bad was going on. However, even the SS soldiers knew what they were doing was wrong, they all carried poison pills with them if they were ever captured or if by some reason they had been over thrown.

 

All in all one must NEVER forget what had happened and the concentration camp was very informative as well as eye opening.  I encourage if ever one comes to Germany, if you can stomach it, visit a concentration camp. You begin to view the world completely different.

 

ON a HAPPIER note!!!!On to Munich!! 

We drive just a bit further and end up in the heart of Munich. We park the car and roam around the city for a bit. Then  we grab something to eat at an authentic bavarian restaurant. FABULOUS potato dumplings!

Then the rest of the time is for SHOPPING! We saw dirndls! and laderhosen for a pretty penny! they were nice to look at though!

There were many cuckoo clock stores and beir stein places! all for a pretty penny!

It looks like rain and is getting late so we should be on our way back to Esslingen!

 

Kogel (bowling)

Wednesday-25th 

We went back to the Realschule today… This time we met with their student council to get the dirt! lol It was interesting to here what they had to say about the different school systems in Germany and if they liked it…I enjoyed talking with them! They all were great and they had a lot of say in what happened at the school.  They were all trained to be peer mediators as well as acted as a liaison btwn administration and the students.  If a punishment is to harsh the student council can challenge it. How awesome! they actually get a say and their voices are heard!

 

After the meeting, we all went to different subjects…I wasn’t able to go to sport..so I went to an engineer class! it was so cool! it was so neat and tidy also! like NO way would that happen in the states! lol and of course only boys in the class.

Then I went music which was SO AWESOME! They play the harmonica instead of a recorder and they sound so cool! also they do fun rhythm things like clap stomp etc! It was soo fun!

 

The last class that I ended on was a home ec. class! they were making bags, scarfs, shorts, and other crafty things. It was nice the teacher was so awesome! we got to talk to the only 2 boys in the class they Im pretty sure were in LOVE with us! lol no big deal

Then the subject of Rugby came in to the convo and sure enough NEXT WED I am suppose to be teaching RUGBY! how fun right?! I hope their english is better than my german! I’m horrible I know!

 

After our classes we walked to the near by bakery to grab some food while our classmate Emily got her lesson ready.  WE came back to our classroom and she taught us stand up, sit down, listen, read, and write.  Then she taught us some clothing! she is a GREAT teacher and we learned sooo much!

then we came back to the hotel dropped off our laundry, went for a run, put the laundry in the dryer and did abs.

Then we came back quick shower to get ready for german bowling called Kogeling!

We had to take the bus to a small town just outside of Esslingen and we went to this cute italian place where we had our own lane/room.  The lane was at one end of the room and the table at the other and you ordered your food and bowled! HOW AWESOME!

 

Well those of you who know me understand that when I’m hungry I wear out easily and then I go through a quiet phase and then comes STASHA! lol luckily Stasha didnt have to come out but I was quiet/gone crazy! Me and Emily were wasting away!  we ordered bruchetta, gnocci, and gorgonzola pizza! OMG was it FABULOUS! I ate my life away!

 

Then we literally RAN to the bus stop. Bc if we didn’t catch this bus we had to wait like an hour and something! We caught it!

 

Then we went to the grocery store stocked up on chocolate and water lol and went to bed!

 

Realschule – principal-Sport-presentation-Unihorne

Tuesday-24th

We get to the Realschule and walk into our “meeting room” aka a classroom but they had pretzels, pastries, and drinks waiting for us!

 

The principal had been sick the night before but had cleaned herself up to meet with us! Like how sweet right?! she was so nice and gave us really good information and was very honest!

 

Then we got to observe in our subject area and guess what?! this is a SPORT SPECIFIC school! so it was so awesome to observe! they had a track and multiple areas to play. The class I got to observe was on the “tracked” system which means they had 5hrs of PE in a week and they had been picked when in 7th grade that they were athletic enough to go into the “higher or advanced” classes where they are exposed to more games and dont have to wait for those who don’t want to participate! Also I found out that almost everyone in that class was also involved in multiple sport activities outside of school. I was in HEAVEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so awesome!

Then we had lunch in the cafeteria and you could choose btwn salad with chicken or fish.  I choose a salad it was SO GOOD! but my friend got fish and I had to sample it, that to was GOOD!

Then back to our classroom to go over presentations that we had prepared.  I got to present on is there room for PE and Sport in German classroom….OBVIOUSLY!!! lol

After all that we squeezed(literally) onto the bus, and every stop before ours more people got on! One stop some kids got off and started fighting like one kid got shoved into my window…It was scary! the bus driver even came off the bus to yell at the boy who had shoved him! but then we got off the bus soon after….

 

We went for a run this time 2more of our classmates came with us!  I only lasted 20min so me and one of the girls walked a bit but ran more…We all ended up at the park where we stretched and did an abs workout! simply fabulous! I have come to LOVE the park!

 

then we went back to the hotel and showered.  We then got ready to meet with our prof. Bettina. She had made reservations for a wine cellar it was nearly 700yrs old! it was called Unihorne which means One horn aka Unicorn lol It was DELICIOUS and the service was FABULOUS! We had a blast!

FIRE

23rd Monday

So today I wake up and go to breakfast…Run to the bus…get to school but first Emily and I must go to the grocery store bc the class that we are observing today is learning about Fire and they are making a fire and roasting sausages! like how much fun right?

Well we get to the class, they were in 4th grade, they understood more english, however the entire class was in GERMAN and I understood most of it! It was so awesome they learned about the evolution of fire and how it was used and made.  They read a lil story that dealt with fire…OH and to start class I almost forgot! they had show and tell and someone brought in a fireman’s helmet and someone else brought those rocks that you click together and they spark! It was so cute to see the children fascinated by rocks! lol

But then we all went outside and the principal was waiting there with makeshift grills and she told the kids how to make the fire and blah blah…then she let the students try to start the fire….I thought for sure one kid was gonna lose a finger or something.

Each student had brought their own stick and sausages to grill. It was SO CUTE! Dangerous and would NEVER happen in the states but the students were surprisingly really good with it all!

After that was all said and done it was time to go and we waited at the bus stop for our bus……

Well then when the bus arrived we had decided that we wanted to hurry up and get on so there are 2 entrances to the bus, the one by the driver and one at the middle…

 

Well ME being the LEADER that I am I hurry up and hop on the bus…However, I guess the bus driver had other plans….lol He shut the doors on me! but I was just thinking oh well maybe you have to be quicker lol you know how sometimes if your taking your time the elevator doors close…NOPE the driver proceeds to yell at us and I thought that he saw me pull my card out so I just sat down. Well then the bus is just sitting there not going any where….well we send our fluent German speaker aka EMILY up to the front all through a crowded bus to go talk to him…and he made us all come up and show him our cards….I was the last one and I apologized, surprisingly enough he was nice and was like, “well know for next time, I run a tight ship” or something to that effect …it was in german…lol so I’m sure that EVERYONE on the bus was like WTF? Stupid Americans! lol

We quickly exited the bus and went to the hotel and took a half hr nap. Then Emily and I went for a run! yep I lasted 30min at prolly a 8-10min mile pace! it was FABULOUS! we found this cool little running path that took us along the canal and it also connects cities! its cool if I could’ve lasted a lil longer it takes us through the woods! It looked like it would’ve been beautiful but I was ready to die! lol

We found a cool outside pool with LOTS of area to lie out and tan. You could swim and go down the slide if you want! lol

We also found some cool bridges! I know your excited! Next time we go run we are going to do it Yes man style! lol (taking pics as we go)

We did do laundry somewhere in here! which was an adventure in and of it self! lol

We came back showered and got ready for dinner! aka we went to the grocery store and had a picnic in the park! but it was so nice and CHEAP!

Lazy Day

Sunday-May 22nd

 

woke up got breakfast….cleaned my room…bc it looked like a tornado had run through…Organized my belongings bc it looked like I had gotten robbed it was such a mess with everything thrown EVERYWHERE! It was a MESS to say the least! I needed to get work done and I can’t do work with mess and disorganization everywhere?! LIKE FOR REAL

 

My roommate and I decided that we would get stuff done and when we got hungry go grab some food and then head to stuttgart for the day where we would later meet up with my other roommate and another girl that had gone to some horse stable museum thing…I dunno I dont ask questions they love horses and were REALLY excited so good for them! No judgement here!

 

Well outside looks like a storm is a rolling in and but of corse right as we get hungry it storms?! LIKE WTF weather! Hello did you not get the memo? I am VISITING Germany! don’t you realize that you are suppose to be hospitable to me? Storming isn’t polite!

 

but it kinda clears up and me and the rest of the gang are getting grouchy and desperately need food!

 

So we decide to tough it out and walk to get some food….but what of course DONER! lol When in Germany do as the Germans do!

 

On the way there the storm goes away but the sun comes out and we are all dressed for cold rainy-ness and now its 90degrees! like UGH! lol

 

We get to the Doner place and we had the intentions to get some pizza thing that our prof. had told us to try but we couldn’t figure it out so we just went the good ol stand by DONER! lol

 

SO good!

 

We walked back to the hotel and pretty much just did homework and laid around until the other girls came back..

 

The other girls came back and we got ready to go to the near by spa!

 

It was about 4euro…not bad but get this! it had a warm mineral bath and a sport bath and message areas(extra cost) a cafe inside and saunas !!!

 

We went into the locker rooms and the lockers where cool! when we paid at the front desk they gave us a coin we took the coin into the locker room. Then we placed the coin into the locker, locked the locker and the coin had inserted into a bracelet that you wear! like how awesome right? then you walked into the shower area(co-ed) lol oh germans! we showered then walked out to the sport bath (reg swim pool) and in order to get into the warm mineral bath you had to put ur bracelet up to a sensor so it would let you in…The mineral bath was warm and had jets like a hot tub and the best part! had music UNDER the water! so awesome!

 

We stayed in the mineral bath for a while but then had to adventure out! so we took a look around at the different areas and we opened one door to the outside cafe to our surprise was a 60yr old man BUTT NAKED! FULL FRONTAL!!! EXPOSED!!! have I mentioned that we are in Europe? lol yeah we just went back down to the pools and tried to pluck our eyes out! lol jk

 

I swam some laps in the sport pool then went to the mineral bath then to the sauna which no joke i swear was over 300degrees! it was hard to breathe! but then went back to the mineral bath and I got bored so I figured that I should go swim some laps and work up an appetite!

 

So I wait for a lane to open and then I start to swim my laps….Now me being me and being aware of my surroundings I have spotted 2 boys( prolly  18 maybe 20 at the oldest) playing ping pong on the side of the pool just to my right…I mean they have their shirts off and I dont hate it…but they are young and I’m legit trying to get in a workout…

 

I dont think anything of it I’m just workin on my fitness…when I have to stop at the end of the pool to catch my breath I realize that the boys are purposely (or at least it seems like it) hitting their ping pong ball into my lane! haha like really?! so I wait for them to get their ball and swim some more and then when I take my next rest they are at the other end of the pool like they’re going to get into my lane?! Ok for real?! If you wanna talk to me, get my number, make out…I mean whatever you intentions are you need to let me know b/c I’m busy working out here! so GET OUT OF MY WAY! lol

 

I began to swim down there and they moved and then  I left shortly after bc my friends were done with the pool! lol So I guess we will never know what they were doing…but being boys! but its a funny lil story!

 

then we came back showered went to grab some AWESOME ice cream! and then went to bed! Early start for tomorrow!

 

Stay tuned for…..

Monday-23rd Picnic finish up Grundschule

Tuesday-24th STUPID AMERICAN

Wednesday-25th Kogel (bowling)

Thursday-26th Munich/dachou

Friday- 27th Ludwigsburg-Fairytale garden

Saturday-Sommerfest

Epic FAIL

Saturday-21st

So this day started off as an EPIC FAIL bc I was suppose to visit my friends in Paderborn and I waited to long to book my tickets and long story short it became way to expensive to go and I was hoping to stop by to visit my family also…EPIC FAIL oh well here we go!!!!

Heres how my day went

Wake up breakfast

While at breakfast we try to figure out what we would like to do for the day…Seeing how it is to expensive I can’t visit my family or friends in paderborn I will stay with the group and go to stuttgart or we can figure out an adventure near by…

310 STEPS!

Well I talk it over with Bettina and come to find out that some of family lives near Strasbourg, which is in France…So we do some major searching online for train tickets but bc its late notice its going to cost about 80 euro plus a 16 euro charge bc in order to get the “deal” we’d have to b 6 traveling and not all of us wanted to go…Long story short we decided to just stay around Esslingen and our prof. Bettina gave us a scavenger hunt!

It was so fun it started in Esslingen..We had to count the stairs leading to the castle and we had to find all the canons when we reached the castle…then we had to figure out where the oldest house and street.  After We had to get on the train to Stuttgart and find things there like the palace, porsche museum, shopping center, and become familiar with transportation. We did soooo well!!!! lots of fun!

Then we came back to the hotel and PASSED OUT!!! lol like for 3hrs! lol FUN

Porsche Museum!

Woke up to go to the cafe in our park…We had the NICEST waitress EVER! She helped us speak German correctly and we taught her some English! it was soo awesome she was soooo nice! and the food was FABULOUS! I got Jagerschnitzel wit spatzle and salad! SO YUMMY!!!!!!!! Oh and I got a Colawizer (cola/beer) best invention EVER! lol

OH and side note the waitress turned out to be a teacher…lol so of course she helped us! lol

Randomly we saw some lights in the distance and thought we would go on an adventure but on our way we had to go to the bathroom…those of you who know Europe isn’t known for public restrooms you can’t just go into a gas station and use their bathroom! So we head back to the hotel..it also looks like rain so it would be better to head home…on our way randomly this guy comes up to us speaking clear english and asks for a lighter…Apparently he’s visiting from Cali! random right? and His next stop is in Berlin so I tried to tell him some bars but I wasn’t much help bc I couldn’t remember names for the life of me! lol oops! oh well! NBD

Colawizer

Well off to bed! I get to sleep in tomorrow! yay!!!!!