Spring Break

     We had our spring break the second week in March.  I was able to go to Germany and the Czech Republic.

Kathy and I at the game

     The first weekend of break I traveled to  Rodgau-Niederroden, Germany which is about 45 minutes outside of Frankfurt to visit a friend.  Kathy had studied at Monticello my senior year of high school, and I haven't seen her since. I took a train which left Arnhem around 5:30 Thursday night and arrived around 10:30.  On Friday I went to a football game with Kathy, her brother and a few of his friends, and her dad.  We saw the OFC Kickers play Rot-Weiss Erfurt. Her brother let us wear some of his Kickers cloths.  It was really fun and the Kickers won, which is the team that my friend likes.  It was interesting though that they serve beer at the game but it basically had no alcohol in it because they don't want people to start fights.  It was really cool being apart of the atmosphere; people had some really big flags for their team and they sang a lot of songs.  I really enjoyed my first football game and I hope to go to one here in Arnhem.
     On Saturday we spent a few hours walking around Frankfurt, which is another beautiful city.  That night we went to a Karneval party, since the weekend I was there was the offical holiday weekend.  This time we dressed up as devils.  First we went over to her cousins house to play a few games and then went to the party.  The party was fun, but it made me feel old because at 16 you can drink so I actually felt like one of the older people their.  (the 16 olds though had to leave at midnight).

Our homemade Kreppel

     On Sunday morning we made our own bread with a Toffifee (Toffifee is a chocolate candy) spread for breakfast which was really good.  Then we went and walked around her town for the afternoon.  When we came back we made our own Kreppel which is a pastry popular for Karneval.  Typically they have a jelly filling in them; ours did not but they were still good. That night we had a movie night with a few of her friends and watched the Hangover. (they were really nice and allowed us to watch it in English)

People in the parade

     On Monday, was the Karneval parade. Kathy and I dressed as football players.  It was interesting that we had to pay to get into the parade, though not much.  The parade was really cool and the people were dressed in really colorful costumes.  They are allowed to drink alcohol in public so it was interesting to see people drinking on the streets and people were even drinking who were in the parade.  
     Tuesday morning I left Germany and headed to Prague.  I took at train from Frankfurt to Nurnberg and from their I took at bus to Prague.  In Nurnberg I was able to exchange currency because even though the Czech Republic is in the European Union, they do not use the euro but instead they have the Czech crown.  Traveling took up almost the whole day and then I meet my friend Emily (from Whitewater) in Prague.  We stayed in hostel in a 4 person room; the first two nights we had the room to ourselves, the next night we had one other guy, then the next night was two guys, then the last night was just one guy again.  Luckily the guys were nice so it wasn't too weird.  Our hostel was in a great location, was really clean and included breakfast.

Astronomical Clock

     Wednesday morning we just walked around on our own checking out all the souvenir shops.  That afternoon we were planning on doing a guided tour around the city. We went and got our tickets but we were the only two that showed up and they said they wouldn't do the tour with only two people so we could come back the next day.  So we just walked around some more on our own that afternoon.  We went to a traditional Czech restaurant for dinner. It wasn't anything too different; I just had some baked fish and mashed potatoes with a sponge cake for dessert.  Afterwards we went to a small bar to have a beer and watch a soccer game on TV. 

Charles Bridge at night

    Thursday morning we did a free, 3 hour guided tour through the city.  We started in Old Town then went to the Jewish Quarter, crossed Charles Bridge into Lesser Town and then up to the Prague Castle.  After, Emily and I went to a small cafe for lunch and then went and saw the Lennon Wall.  That night we had a dinner cruise.  The boat cruise included live music and a dinner buffet. Then we just sat on the upper deck and got to see Prague at night.

In front of the Lennon Wall

      Friday, we walked along the river and then down to the Dancing House.  Then we stopped at a cafe for some coffee and dessert and walked back through new town.  That night we did a pub crawl where we went to 3 bars and then the last one was the largest bar in Europe; it is five stories.  I thought the pub crawl was a great way to meet some more people I meet some people who were studying in Budapest and also ironically, some people studying in Arnhem!  Saturday we walked around and bought some souvenirs. Then we did an hour underground tour.  When Prague was originally built it was about 15 feet lower than it is today.  Prague had problems with flooding so the people buried their homes and built new ones on top.  This tour took us underground where we were able to see some of the old homes. 
    Sunday was our last day.  We walked down Paris street where all the expensive shops are and did some window shopping.  We also did a small tour of a chocolate shop and saw a demo and taste testing of pralines.  We were able to take a shuttle directly to the airport; we flew into Amsterdam and then took a train back to Arnhem.
   It was a really nice trip.  We had enough time to see everything but were not rushed.  It was really hard to get concentrate on school that next day! 

A Very German Weekend

      I had the opportunity this past weekend to go and stay with a family in Nordkirchen, Germany.  Their daughter Pia had came to study for a year in Monticello in 2008-2009.  Even though I was not in high school at the time, she is good friends with my sister so was over at our house a lot.  Then in the summer of 2010, Pia came back to visit and brought her sister Vanessa for five weeks.
      I left Arnhem Thursday night around 5:00 and headed to Deventer where I had to switch trains.  My next train to Rhiene was delayed 15 minutes which caused me to miss my connecting train in Rhiene to Munster.  Luckily there was another training leaving for Munster that left in a half hour.  I was a little nervous about traveling by myself because I still learning the train system, but even with the delay I was able to do everything ok.  Once I arrived in Munster Pia and Vanessa and their parents were there to pick me up.  We went to their house and had dinner of curry soup and bread.

One of the classrooms

      The next day, Friday, I went to school with Pia.  We had to ride bikes to the bus stop which was an interesting experience.  I haven't rode a bike in awhile and never in town so at first I was really bad.  I was really bad at stopping and then starting again quickly. Their bikes are more like the old fashion bikes that you see with the curved handle bars and narrow tires.   Bikes are a popular means of transportation all through out Europe because of how close everything is.  Then we got on the bus which took us to her school.  I attended her English,German and history classes. Their school was a little different than ours.  I was really surprised at the lack of technology in the room.  The rooms were simple with tables and chairs, a teachers desk and a portable overhead projector.  There high school is more like our college than high school.  The teachers did not have their own classroom, instead they moved around.  Also, they do not have each class everyday.  They usually start school around 8 and are done around 1 or 2.  Also, they do not have substitute teachers like we did in high school, so when a teacher is sick the class is canceled.  In one class I was very shocked at the openness of the teacher. They were talking about President Clinton and Monica.  The teacher said something to the affect that instead of the Oval Office it should be called the "oral office." There was a line graph shown on the projector with two high points.  One student asked what events were going on during the two climax points and the teacher said "that one climax was probably Bill and Monica." I couldn't believe that a teacher would say that in a high school classroom.
      Friday night we went to her Aunt's house in Munster for dinner.  I really enjoyed the dinner as it had a very friendly,lively and interactive atmosphere.  The center of the table was this thing that was a grill on top and a warmer on the bottom. Each person got a small triangle shaped pan where you could put whatever vegetables you wanted in it.  They had so many vegetables to choose from including corn, tomatoes, broccoli, spinach, pineapple, zucchini, potatoes, mushrooms, peppers and a few more.  Then once you choose your vegetable you cover them with cheese and put it under the warmer to warm and melt the cheese.  On the top you can grill small pieces of meat or vegetables.  It was really good and was a fun dinner even though they mostly talked German. After dinner we went to a local club which was fun but very crowded.

Ready for Karneval

     The next day Pia and I walked around the center of Munster.  There were many shops and a farmers market, and we toured a Cathedral and church.  We went back to Pia's house had a lunch of meat, mashed potatoes, friend onions and sauerkraut.  After that we went to the stables where Pia has a horse that she had to let out and we played with the puppies.  Next we were able to go visit her friends farm.  They have a thing that burns corn husks for energy.  They milk about 100 cows in a fish bone parlor that holds 16 cows at a time. They said it takes them about an one and a half hours to milk and they milk twice a day.  That night was the Karneval program.  Everyone dresses up for Karneval; Pia and I dressed as cowgirls.  The program was in reception hall and it had a stage and tables and chairs for people to sit at.  There were many skits including singing, dancing, and story telling (though it was all in German).  It was a really fun and lively atmosphere.

Me in front of the castle

      On Sunday afternoon we went and toured a castle that was about ten minutes from her house.  The whole tour was in German, but Pia was able to translate enough for me.  It was a really pretty castle but the weather was rainy and a kind of cold.  For lunch her mom made beef with dumplings and peas and carrots.  One thing that was a little weird is that they drink a lot of carbonated water and will mix their apple juice with the carbonated water. 
       It was a really good weekend and it was nice to see her again.  I think I learned more about Germany in one weekend than I have after a month in Arnhem.  It was really nice to be able to stay with a family who could explain things to me, ate some traditional German food and learned a few words.  I really wish that before the semester started, we could have stayed with a Dutch family for about 2 weeks just to learn our way around and learn about the Dutch culture.  I think its actually been difficult to learn about the Dutch being on our own. For supper we just make food that we are used too; I do not know any typical Dutch dishes.  Also, I only know about one Dutch work which is "alstublieft" which is please/thank you. 

Opposites Attract

After being here for a month now I finally feel settled in and very comfortable here.  There are not really any major differences between here and home, just many small ones.

• Here they use the 24 hour clock instead of our 12 hour clock.  I am still getting used to this and sometimes still have to count on my fingers to figure out what time it is! It helps that my cell phone and the computers at school display time in 24 hours, but when reading a non digital clock I always think of the time in 12 hours.  I tried to change the clock on my lap top to the 24 hour to force myself to learn the time better but I could not find how to do it.
• Here, they write their dates differently.  In the US, we always write our dates as: month/day/year.  In Europe, they write it as day/month/year.  Usually in order to avoid confussion I just write the month out with the date. 
• The US in only one of three countries that do not use the metric system.  I do not know the converesions very well so sometimes when people say a place is only so many kilometers away, or some is so many meters tall, or when food says that it has so many kilocalories, it is hard for me to understand what that really means and to be able to judge the distance, height, etc. 
• Here, they mearsure tempeture in Celsius instead of Fahrenheit.  At first I thought this was an easy conversion because I knew that 32 degrees F was 0 degrees C so I thought that 42 degrees F was 10 degrees C.  This is not correct. The conversion from F to C is F temp.-32 * 5/9.  This is not easy to figure out so usually when I see the temperature in C I have no idea what it really means other than what it feels like outside.
• Even their standard size of paper here is different.  In the US a standard piece of paper is 8X11 I believe.  Here their paper is about 8X12; about an inch longer than ours.
• Here, in numbers, they use the comma and decimal point differently than we do. We use the comma when using thosands and they use the decimal point and vise versa.  So we write 1,000 and here its 1.000 which has been hard to get used to. 
• Another opposite thing is that they wear their wedding rings on their right hand where as we where themn our left.
• The standard business hours here are also a lot different.  I feel that in the US business open really early and are open till really late and some are even open 24 hours.  Here is just the opposite, they open late and close early.  One morning I was walking to class with a friend and we wanted to stop at this bakery quick at grab something for breakfast.  It was 8:30am and it stiill was not open! Last night we were going to a store, that was kind of similar to Target.  We knew it closed at 6:00pm and we got there after class at 5:45 and they had already closed their doors.  Also, most countries have laws governing store hours on Sundays.  Most store are required to be closed, but the tourist shops can be open and some grocery stores will be open for a few hours.  At Whitewater, the university library is usually open till midnight every night and on weekends which makes it really nice to having a quiet place to study.  Here the library closes about 6:00 at night and is not open on the weeknds.
• The only place that is open longer than in Wisconsin is the bar.  In Whitewater the usually bar time is 2:00am here it is about 4:00am.  People here usually do not even go out to the bars till between midnight and 1:00am.  Here the drinking age is 16 instead of 21.  But to get into clubs and bars you have to be 18, or sometimes 18 and under can go in and drink but only till a certain time.  Some bars even require you to be 21, which is weird because they can drink at 16.  I am not sure of the reason behind this. They are also allowed to carry open alcolhol in public.  So many times, students will be drinking a few cans of beers on the way to the bars which is definaly not allowed in Wisconsin.
• The driving age here is 18 instead of 16.  But here driving is not as big as in the US because everything is a lot closer together and they have a much better public transportation system with the buses and trains.  The cars here are also so much small than cars in the US, but they also get better gas millage which is necesary because the gas price here is really high.  It is €1.5 for one litter and there are about 3-4 litters in one gallon. People also bike and walk a lot more and I have finally bought my own bike here! At least they drive on the same side of the road as we do!
•  The money here is similar to the US.  They have 50, 20, 10, and 5 euro bills.  Then for coins they have 2 euros,1 euro, 50 cents,20 cents,10 cents,5 cents, and 1cent.  In Holland, the seem to not use the equivlant to the penny at all. When the price comes out to be 4.97 or 4.99 they just round up or down depending.  Also, the tax is already included in the price you see listed on the shelves which is nice so you know exactly what you are paying.  Another difference with money is that they do not normally tip for services such as waitresses.