Flower Power

On Saturday, August 17th the Flensburg-Nordetor Rotary Club visited the Emil Nolde Art Museum. There we saw his gardens and home.

Emil Nolde was a famous German painter before WWII and was initially a Nazi supporter. He was later claimed a degenerate by the Nazis and forbidden to paint. He kept painting small paintings however, and they are known as the "Unpainted Pictures."

The tour was given exclusively in German, so naturally I didn't understand a word of it. My host-father explained a lot of what was said though so I did learn quite a lot about Nolde.

Here are some pictures of his beautiful flower garden where many of his works were inspired. Aunt Kathy, I think you would love his garden. I know you would have done it's beauty justice.

                They almost lined up...

 After the museum we went out to dinner at one of the Rotarians restaurants. I had really good Salmon and Martin chose a fish native to northern Germany. Let's just say there were a couple bones...

Sorry it's sideways, but here you can see how Emil designed his garden. The pathways show his and his wife's initials.

Ice in our Drinks

Friday after school, some of the exchange students went out to lunch. We went to a Chinese buffet called China Lillies. The food was good and I got to eat with chopsticks :) Don't worry Kate, I remembered to grab you a business card. After lunch we walked around Flensburg until five. This was fun, but extremely tiring. I had just received all my textbooks and they weighed down my backpack. I also had my tennis shoes and gym clothes so needless to say, my shoulders ached. It was really fun to spend time with the other exchange students though. I met João who has been here for about six months (he came in January). He's pretty awesome.

 Here are my textbooks. Notice anything about the words on the sides? The first three books are my math books, I only use one at a time. They are so small compared to my old books at NHS. I am so glad :) 

I generally only have three classes a day so that means I only carry three of these small books with me to school. I really like this system because students don't break their backs carrying seven huge textbooks everyday. I have eleven classes total each week, which is more than in the USA. 

At five Lotta, Bruno, Martin, Frederico, and I met with Herr Leiner at a café to talk about school, host families, and making friends. We talked for about an hour and then Bruno and I went to buy school supplies. We rode the bus home at 7:30. This was my first bus ride between Glücksburg and Flensburg. I'm glad I had Bruno with me, just in case. There was literally nothing to riding the bus besides getting to the Zob (central bus station) on time.

August 10th

Saturday was the day of the big party. It was to celebrate Antje's birthday and the homecoming of Yoreme. There was a lot of preparation to do before 6:30. There were tables and benches to be set up, cakes to bake, drinks to cool, tables to decorate, tents to set up, food to chill, etc. I think around 85 people were expected to come.

The party started off pretty slow for me because I didn't know anyone and didn't speak German. People were introducing themselves to me, but no one stayed around for a conversation in English. I met a few Rotarians, and they were more open to conversation. I was grateful when Eduardo arrived. He is another exchange student from Brasil. I hadn't met him yet, but I recognized him from Facebook. I hung out with him and his host siblings for the remainder of the night. It was great to get to know him and his host family. He will also be attending the German course.

The food was delicious! It was all "finger food," but most people used a fork and knife anyway. There were small squared of quiche, meatballs, small fish(?) salads, and a bunch of different open sandwich options. The sandwiches were all on French bread. My favorite was the cream cheese and radish (sans the radish), and the tuna.  I think I had three plates of food, not counting the dessert.




Spectacular Phenomenon!!!!

It is a well known fact that ice is never put in beverages. FALSE!!! Eduardo asked for a Cola and when  it was handed to him, there were two ice cubes floating on top. Both of us got way too excited and I took a picture of the ice cubes. Can you see them?

I should have paid more attention in AP Statistics

My first week of school is officially over. It was exhausting, kidding. My week started on Tuesday. The school wanted the exchange students to come on Tuesday instead of Monday so we could get acquainted with the school and get our student plans. Because I'm eighteen, I was placed in the 12th grade. I chose to be in class A. This means my schedule is more focused on art and language, which I love. I only have one science and one math class. Originally I was to have Biology and Chemistry, but I was forced to choose between Spanish and Chemistry so I obviously chose Spanish. I was also given the choice between philosophy and religion. Luckily I wanted the religion class, because the philosophy class turned out to be full.  Lotta Kallio, an exchange student from Finland is also in class 12a and we have every single class together. We chose our classes and then toured the school. There are many differences between the Goethe Schule and NHS.

1st: One bathroom per gender for the entire school, and they're outside. Yay for winter...
2nd: They have four floors of classes so there are many many staircases.
3rd: The school has two buildings, one is across the street.
4th: Students stay with the same class (students) all day.
5th: Both the students and teachers move from classroom to classroom.
6th: The cafeteria maybe seats twenty people. Lunch costs 2,50 Euros and there is one choice. You can      order other small snacks too.
7th: After every two periods students have a fifteen minute break. Then between the 6th and 7th period there is a forty five minute break for lunch. Needless to say kids don't need to inhale their food like in Northfield.
8th: Only boys have backpacks. There are a select few girls who use them, but overall girls use purses to carry their school supplies, etc.
9th: No sweatpants, ever!
10th: Because the German school system recently changed, some students have to finish school in a shorter time period. This means that grade twelve has ages 15-18.

Mein Studentinplan

Time	Period	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
7:45-8:30	1	Art	English	Spanish	History	Deutsch
8:35-9:20	2	Art	English	Spanish	History	Deutsch
15 Minute Pause
9:35-10:20	3	Biology	Math	Music	English	Spanish
10:20-11:05	4	Biology	Math	Music	English	Spanish
15 Minute Pause
11:20-12:05	5	Religion	Deutsch	SEM	Art	Sport
12:10-12:55	6	Religion	Deutsch	SEM	Art	Sport
45 Minute Lunch
13:40-14:25	7		Politics	Biology*	Math
14:25-15:05	8		Politics	Biology*	Math

*Wednesdays are kind of tricky. Every other week I have biology in periods 7 and 8. The first week I didn't have biology, but the second week I will. I have 8 periods on even numbered weeks. SEM stands for some theater art project thing. I'm not quite sure what it is, and every time I ask I get a vague answer.

Wednesday was the first day I had classes.My first class was Spanish 1 with Herr Leiner. There I met the majority of my classmates (some take French instead). The first person I talked to was an exchange student to Tennessee last year. She was really nice and answered many of my questions. I introduced myself to my classmates and then a fifteen minute question time ensued. Herr Leiner is the teacher in the school responsible for the exchange students, so he made sure that Lotta and I got to know our classmates right away. All of my classmates are super nice and understanding. They all try to speak English with me, and help me understand what's going on in class. One of the girls looks a lot like Jennifer Lawrence. Of course, me being the awkward person I am, introduced myself like, "Hi my name is Mari. You look exactly like Jennifer Lawrence!" I don't think I even waited for her name (Julia). Luckily, she is also super cool and there was only a small awkward moment. Like the other students, she and I have grown to be good acquaintances.

After the first day of school, Anna (former exchange student) and her friend Lisa invited Lotta and I along to a café. We met up with two of their friends from another class, Daniela and Emily. Even though I didn't understand most of what was said, I had a great time. I was grateful to be invited and I got to listen to them talk in German.

I only understand three of my classes so far - English, Spanish, and Math. I thought Art would be understandable, but so far the class has been more art history/appreciation than actual drawing. I don't think I will understand too much in Politics, Bio, and Religion either. I plan to take the tests in the three subjects I currently understand. Maybe as time goes by and I learn more German, more classes will be added to this list.

English Class:

SUPER EASY, DUH. However, they teach British english.

Spanish Class:

Also easy. They speak Castilian spanish instead of Latin America spanish. This means they use vosotros instead of ustedes and the accent is slightly different, like US english and British english.

Math:

I was not expecting to excel in this class at all. I assumed it would be easier because it's just numbers, but I did not expect to already know the material. Right now we are learning Probability and Statistics. Good thing I had a year of AP Probability and Statistics last year. Too bad I didn't always pay attention.

Dear Ms. Hoffelt,

I should have paid more attention in class.

Sincerely,
Mari

Ostseeman

I don't think I could've been more inspired and humbled today by some of the people who competed in this triathlon. The first event was swimming in the North Sea. The total distance was 3.8 km. Though swimming might be the easiest event, it was the event that truly humbled me.

This event has grown immensely over the years. It started off with just ten athletes competing and has grown to over fifty. There were booths around the beach for days before the event, selling Ostseeman merchandise. Thousands of people came to watch and support the competitors, who came from all around the world. Though most were from Europe, at one point the announcer did say that an American was biking past him.

The triathlon begins with swimming 3.8km. It then goes to biking 180km around the Glücksburg streets. This is the longest and hardest event. After biking, the athletes run 42.195km and finish on the beach. Swimming began at seven am and athletes were given until midnight to finish.

At the end there were fireworks and a huge celebration down at the beach.

                                                     Where did I see God today?

At first I thought a man was injured when he stayed in the water all the way up to the beach. Most of the other participants had started running in the water. Then I noticed that he was missing something, a leg. He swam without the lower half of his right leg. He was wearing a pink swim cap too which meant that he intended to participate in all three events. I don't know where he finished placement wise, but I don't care. He swam 3.8 km in close to an hour, something I don't think I could ever ever do.

A few minutes later and I see another man swimming into shore. He is being pulled by two of the life savers for the event. He physically has two legs, but he cannot use either one. He spends his days in a wheelchair and yet he just swam 3.8 km faster than a lot of people with two working legs. He was no where near the last person coming out of the water. He had a yellow swim cap on which meant that he had teammates biking and running for him.