Ooops, took me long enough

Well, it seems as if it has been a month or so since my last blog post....oops. I guess I've just so caught up in all of the excitement here in Germany that I forgot to keep the blog updated, my bad!

So where should I begin? Certainly a lot has happened in the past month, so Ill just try to hit the main points. So here goes!

It seems as if I was in Austria for a week? Yea, kind of a big thing I suppose. Anyways, my host family and I headed down sometime in October, during the school's fall break. All I can say is, the Alps are beautiful and quite a wonder to behold. I ended up renting a mountainbike, and riding every day. If you want to see exactly where we were, google Vandans, Austria and check out the map. But I think I'll just let the pictures tell the story.


And there's plenty of other stuff going on too! I had a great time on halloween, met with a bunch of friends and went to halloween parties and such. Ive been quite busy with school, trying to bridge the langauge gap as fast as possible. Chemistry in German is definitely a swift kick in the rear end. However, my German has become exponentially better! My host dad thinks I'm almost fluent. Thats always a good thing!

I've made so many new friends here, and it seems like there is no shortage of things to do! Every weekend I'm training with my cycling team, or playing rugby, or just hangin out with friends! Instead of writing 8 pages of narrative, I think that it's best to let the pictures do the talking, and in the future I'll break things up into smaller pieces, and not wait a month in between. So enjoy the show!!



































So its pretty obvious by now that Im doing a LOT of stuff here, I'm truly having a great time and cherishing every moment I have here. Naturally, all of this action has left me a bit worn out, so I'll leave y'all with a little evidence of that! Stay tuned for the next entry! Hopefully it wont last as long.

finally, a new post.

Well, sorry everyone, seems as if I forgot to post anything for about a month. There is so muh going on here, Its easy to lose track of things. So this could very well be a blog post of epic proportions, since I've been slacking off for nearly a month.

So where to begin? There's so much...and unfortunately i dont have nearly as many pics as before.

Well I'll start out with my host family here, since everything basically revolves around them. My father's name is Hubert, he is an engineer in a power plant. Usually he is very active, but unfortunately he contracted a leg infection and had to be hospitalized for 2 weeks. Luckily he is ok now, and next week we are all going to Austria to go hiking and cycling. My host mom is Gerlinda, she definitely gets it done, so to speak. Somehow she managed to juggle 10 year old triplets, a sick husband, and an exchange student; meanwhile keeping the entire house in ship-shape. So hats off to her for all of that. Then of course there are the triplets, I think chaos is probably the first thing that comes to mind when describing them. As previously stated, they are absoloutely nothing alike; and like all brothers, they are always arguing or fighting or just not getting along! All three are completely soccer crazed; they all play together on a team, and naturally take it very seriously.

And then there's Pulheim, or is it geyen or Sinthern? or wait brauweiler? no no, it must be Sinnersdorf. Well in reality, I live in Sinthen, a small villiage outside of Pulheim (pause for google maps)....ok and we're back. If you looked at the map, you probably saw the veritable plethora of small villiages outside of the main city, Pulheim. Its always confusing to get around, with all of these little villiages and insane streets. Im lucky to make it home every night! Its definitely very pretty here, we are located right smack dab in the Rhine River valley. The rhine is kinda like the mississipi here in Germany, it is a huge artery for shipping and fabrication. Consequently, the are where I live is the most populated in all of germany.

Speaking of population, haw about Cologne? Im sure most of you know of that city in Germany. It takes about 15 minutes with the German mass transit system (i.e. train) to reach the city center. So far I have been about 4 times, twice with friends from school, once with my family, and I also met with a couple students from the exchange program. The coolest thing in the city is definitely the cathederal. When the entire city was razed by allied bombs during WWII, the cathederal was the only building not damaged.






When I was in Cologne with my school friends (second pic), we ended up climbing all 509 steps to the top of the cathederal. it was a pain in the rear, but the view was amazing.





And then some pictures with my fellow exchange students!



And what trip to Germany would be complete without a little bike racing?



There was a criterium in Cologne yesterday, I raced with my friend Dennis from the cycling team here in Pulheim. Unfortunately I flatted on the 3rd lap and couldnt get back in. but I had a good time regardless!




Right now Im on a two week school break, and next week we are going to Austria!

And there's one more thing! I was on a soccer team for a few weeks, but turns out Im no Ronaldino (good soccer player for all you americans :) ). But we had a rugby coach come to our school during sport class, and we played a game of rugby. Apparently I'm good at Rugby? I dont know, didnt see that one coming. But anyways, Im playing rugby in a city about 10k away. Twice a week we practice, and my first game is on the 17th October!

for anyone interested:

Cycling team- www.radteampulheim.de

Rugby Club- www.huerth-rugby.de

Arrival!

Hey Everyone!
It’s been quite a long time since my last blog entry, but that was because of the hectic move from Hedersleben to Host Family! It’s been quite the past few days, lots of stuff has happened!

So let’s get going,


Since our time at Language Camp was winding down, naturally we had to do a lot of cleaning in order to leave the place as we had found it. Pictured are Nathan and our teacher Rene. We spend nearly 2 days cleaning the Kloster, but we also managed to get a little exploring in!



No it’s not a dungeon (as far as we know), but rather the underground portion of the Convent. During one of our breaks, a few of us went underground to explore the nether regions of our home. It was really interesting to see the stone structure underground, especially after we found out that it was built in 1000 a.d.




Although a few of us were a little frightened….



I guess many of you are used to seeing me in spandex, since I ride bikes. But it’s not often I get all spandexed out to……DANCE! That’s right! We had a dance party last Thursday night, Kloster style!



It was a blast, we got a few of our ipods together, made a bumpin’ playlist, and then had a big party for about three hours. It was a good time, although a little embarrassing looking back on the pictures.


Show some love for the DJ’s….




We also had a final talent show! This time I didn’t do any drumming, because it was too quiet last time on my practice pad. But! I did do a German pop song karaoke thing with a few friends!


There was lots of singing, naturally, and also a few skits too! Many people from the village came to see what all of the hubbub was about.



….But then, after all the fun and games, we finally had to go our separate ways. It was definitely a fun month; I learned a lot of things about the language and culture in Germany. Plus, I made many new friends that I can talk to all over Germany (and perhaps visit) this year. My ability to speak German increased exponentially, mostly thanks to my awesome teacher, Rene. I think the language camp set all of us up for a great year in Germany, even though it may have been a little boring at times. Nevertheless, we were all ready to leave. Which brings us to just that, the departure! Naturally there were lots of hugs and goodbyes and all of that nonsense. Especially for me, because I was travelling by car with another student’s family; not on the train like most of the others. So the 8 of us who were going by car (different places, granted, not all at once) said our auf Wiedersehen’s at the Kloster.









After all of that, I was finally on my way to my host family. The drive across Germany took about 5 hours, but it went by fast (probably because I was crashed out in the back of the car). Once I got to Flurweg 2, which just so happens to be my address, we realized a funny thing. My family wasn’t home! After a little talking with the neighbors, I found out my host mother, Gerlinda, was with the three triplet boys at a soccer match. Yes that’s right, ten year old triplets, quite a handful. It also turned out that my host father, Hubert, was in the hospital. He had gotten an infection in his left leg, it was serious enough that he had to be hospitalized. Luckily he should be coming home tomorrow.




Once we got everything figured out, all was well! Things have been flowing pretty smoothly here over the past few days. I had my first day of school on Monday, and although it is all in German, I can understand a lot of what’s going on. I am shadowing another student for the next week, so that I can get the lay of the land and figure out what classes I want to take, and all has been going well so far!

Outside of school I have been quite busy as well. On Monday, I practiced with the u19 football team from Pulheim, it was pretty intense. The Germans can play some good soccer. Yesterday I rode with some juniors from the local cycling team, covering about 70 km, it was great to finally ride with other people for once! And finally, tonight I have another football practice! So as you can all see, I am pretty busy here; but I am definitely enjoying myself!


More to come a little later on the Family, the Town, and other shenanigans!


Tschuß

Mark