10/12 That night we stayed in a Hostel in the alps. Unfortunately for us, the bus was unable to make it up the Mountain because it was too steep- So we got to walk it!! Luckily the Hostel sent down a van to bring up our bags—but still. It was the steepest incline I have ever seen in my entire life. I thought my lungs were going to explode. Whenever the van was coming, someone would yell “AUUUUUUUTOOOOOOO” (which means car in German) because if it were to slow down to pass us, it wouldn’t be able to make it up!

10/12 SCHLOSS NEUSCHWANSTEIN:: After decending the cliff from Schloss Hohenschwangau, we got to walk an hour up a mountain to Schloss Neuschwanstein, better known as the Disney Castle! It was an insanely long and exhausting hike, but it was worth it!! It was a really foggy day, so the view wasn’t all that spectacular, but you could still see the surrounding alps and Schloss Hohenschwangau! This was the castle of Mad King Ludewig, whose family lived in Hohenschwangau. He died before really living in the castle, but there was running water and flushing toilets on every floor (which was very advanced for this time.) Also, he insisted on having no paintings of himself, but of the legends of Germany. It was really beautiful! Oh, I forgot to mention that there’s a rule saying you can’t take pictures inside of almost all of the castles we visited. So, unfortunately you will have to google or something if you’re interested in seeing the insides.

10/12 SCHLOSS HOHENSCHWANGAU!:: Amazing!! It was SO cold here, we were right in the middle of the Alps, and hiked up a relatively small cliff to the Castle and were no longer cold. My ticket number was 136—thirty six. :P It was big and beautiful- there’s not much more I can say! Haha we learned that all paintings in Castles of war never show the blood. Oh! Also, this castle is famous for all of the Swans. There’s a swan in almost every painting, all the door handles, tables, chandeliers, and walls! It was the family crest or something.. haha

10/11 Mainau:: I couldn’t take many pictures here because my camera was dead. This island is literally known as the Island of Flowers. All year long there is a greenhouse filled with palm trees! We ate super wonderful apples from the island too!! I spent most of my time with a girl named Hillary from Arizona (since we got separated from the rest of our friends) We had a lot of fun and good talks as we ate cake and wandered around the island! Oh—Mainau is an island on the Bodensee- better known as Lake Constance. It is bordered by Austria, Switzerland, and Germany, and is right at the foothills of the Alps!! SO PRETTY!! There were swans, butterflies, giant flower-animals, bamboo, a castle, sculptures, several fancy benches—it was simply gorgeous!

So So Sorry!

I know I'm waaaay behind on blogs, but I have a good reason! Unfortunately my internet wifi thing broke on my laptop :( I'm on my Host Dad's computer now so I won't waste time with a bunch of explanations! If you want to see all of my pictures, Facebook is the best option. If you want to see them and don't have facebook, let me know and I can set something up with flickr. I'm contemplating making Vlogs (video blogs) and putting them on youtube until my computer is up and running. That way I can record and upload them waaaay faster. Comments? Oh, and if you see a random J or L or other letter, it's where I put a smile or frown, but it doesn't paste that way sooo, yeah. It's just crazy. I don't know why this is underlined..

10/10 Freiburg:: One of the first things we saw here was a bank or something called “Breuninger” – which is funny because that is the name of my Rotary Contact in the USA! We were looking to go to a Mexican restaurant, but the two there were much too expensive! So all of us were given some free time. My group went to Subway, and were about to go to the Starbucks next door, but we didn’t have time!!! :( After that, we had a tour of the city. There a few funny stories about Freiburg- First, they “accidentally” ended up bombing their entire city at one point! Haha another thing is that it has four gates of entry, the city folk wanted them taken down because they’re about 20 Meters high, so the Lord or whichever person was in charge (I can’t quite remember) built it up another 30 or so Meters!! We went to a park with a beauuutiful garden and there were two drunk men who were bothering each other—it was quite comical! That night we went to a Mexican bar where Rotary bought us each a beer! We all had a lot of fun together :)

I'm Sorry for Taking So Long!!

Okay, so not much happened between my last post and the Deutschland Tour, I went to my Host Oma's birthday party in East Germany.. I'm not sure if I wrote about that before.. if not, I talked about it in the second newspaper article which I've already posted. I will put up some pictures of that crazy weekend as well :)

Let me just say, MY ENGLISH IS GETTING WORSE!! Which is a good for me because that means my German is getting better, but it's not so good for those of you who are reading my articles/blog. haha :)

I think the best way to go about this is to post some of my journal entries from each city, and post the pictures of that as well. I will most likely end up doing this in several different posts, because it would simply take forever!! Oh and also, here is a picture of our basic travel plan so you know about where we were in Germany, we started in Duisburg which is about 45 minutes away from my town here in Deutschland.:

HEIDELBERG::: --> My favorite city up until Rothenburg. It's gorgeous.

We had quite a bit of free time here. I mostly hung out with Santiago, a guy from Mexico. I can't remember if I wrote this before, but Santiago is not only from the came city in Mexico (Pachuca) that my Host Sister is living in, not onlyy are they friends from before he left, but his family will likely be one of her host families!! It's a small world!! Anyway, I mostly hung out with Santiago and Morgan, a girl from Michigan.

We started the day out with a tour around the city. I honestly can't remember most of the facts, but I took lots of pictures! While we were waiting for the rest of the group to catch up to us, Santiago, Morgan, and I ran over to the Build a Bear because we wanted the hearts that they were giving out. Unfortunately, you had to spin a wheel and land on the blue to get one, and we simply did not have that much time. So instead we begged the lady to give us each a heart, and then ran away to find the group. It was pretty epic.

After the tour, we all wanted Pommes Frites (French Fries) so we were on a mission. We finally found a place, and ordered fries with ketchup. Unfortunately, we were not thinking about the fact that this is Germany, and in Germany, the ketchup is not reaall tomato ketchup, it's like.. curry or something. It tastes like tea. Seriously. Santiago decided he would use his bare hands to try to scoop the ketchup off of his fries, and throw away the ones that had been contaminated. Morgan and I were laughing hysterically, and the most I could do was offer him a Wet-Nap (if Lizzie is reading this, a MOIST towelette! :P)

The group reassembled by a huuuge stone bridge. At the front of this bridge, was a very odd monkey statue. It was wearing a mask, supposedly, if you touched the mask it meant that you would have a lot of kids, the hands meant you'd return, and the gong meant something else.. I don't remember exactly what.

After going to our Hostel (which was located by a zoo!!) we returned to the city. A group of us went out to an Irish Pub, and I attempted to order a Strawberry Daiquiri (Non Alcoholic, of course) and the waitress said, "This is an Irish Pub, Honey." Apparently in Irish Pubs they do not sell fruity drinks. So I went with a Red Bull!!

The next morning we hiked up a hill to a ruined castle that overlooked the city. It was BEAUTIFUL! Part of it had been destroyed by the French, and after it was rebuilt, destroyed by lightning. We went inside a part that was still in tact. There was a giant wine barrel, when I say giant I mean the size of a house giant. It was epic!

:)

Epic. This was by our Hostel

^^Where a Synagogue stood before WWII^^

^^Build a Bear^^ (you can see the wheel I was talking about)

^^ Rotary Symbol! :D ^^

^^Oldest church in Germany^^

^^Castle^^

Newspaper Article #2

I forgot to mention that I will be publishing the articles about a week or sow after they have been printed in the paper--don't want to ruin the fun :P

10/5

A Work in Progress

Hallo aus Deutschland! I have been here for over a month now, and am falling more in love with this country every day. I’m also proud to say that my ability to speak and understand Deutsch has improved drastically! (Though it is still a work in progress!!) I have started attending Deutsch lessons in the evening, and am now able to communicate with my family and friends in Deutsch! It still is extremely challenging for me to speak in German, but its all part of the experience. :) My English is already getting worse which is exciting because that means my German is getting better!

This has been a crazy month for me! School is getting easier- I have made many friends and enjoy most of my classes. I am on a soccer team with a couple girls from my school and many girls from a different school who do not speak English. It is very difficult to communicate with them during a game, but we manage! :)

Also, I’m happy to say that I have found the perfect shopping partner- a girl named Julia who is good friends with my Host Sister in Mexico. We have gone shopping twice now in Dusseldorf! We like the same stores, get tired at the same time, and both have an addiction to Frappuccinos from Starbucks!

I went to my first Rotex Weekend from 9/11-9/12. We were in a city called Borken, which is about 2 hours by train away from my city. All of the Rotex Members, Inbounds, and Rebounds were together for this event. We went by train to the Schalke 04 Soccer Stadium, had a tour, and went into the museum. I must mention that nearly all of us Inbounds were wearing our flags as capes- you can imagine the looks we received while walking along the sidewalk! :) After we returned to the Haupschule where we were staying for the night, we ate dinner and then went into the gym for a Toilet Paper Race. The Rotex split us up into groups and assigned each individual a number, and then called out two or three numbers and gave a position. My task was to be carried across a gym by a guy from Venezuela while holding the toilet paper between our noses. It was so much fun! Sadly, a girl had a medical issue, so we were all cleared out to the Cafeteria where we were sleeping. Here we played a Cooperstown Classic- Never Have I Ever! This weekend was so much fun and I made a lot of new friends!

On the weekend of 9/24, my Host Family and I took a trip across the country for my Host Grandmother’s birthday party! It was about 6 hours to get from Wevelinghoven (our village in Western Germany) to Zwickau (a city in Eastern Germany). Eastern Germany is SO different from the West! Here, it is mostly flat. In the East were the largest hills I have ever seen. It was shocking to see cars parked at such a steep angle- I don’t know how they didn’t come rolling down!! On Saturday, I helped my Host Grandmother, Aunt, and Father set up for the overnight party at a Hostel in the woods. We had about 30 little figurines holding each person’s name, flowers, and candles- it was beautiful! I had expected it to be a calm party. It was anything but calm. We started out with a nice dinner, champagne, and relaxed chatter. As the night continued, the adults continued to drink, and then a DJ arrived. We were all given white bags filled with clothing to put on. Some had long white gowns, my Host Uncle had a very tight Disco outfit, one man had a cow suit with a neon green Afro wig, an elderly man had a short plaid dress- it was crazy! I had to wear a maid’s outfit with a black wig. Then we all switched! We were dancing, singing, and all laughing hysterically! It was the best party I have been to in my entire life- even better than the Mulan Party I had when I was 6! :) I never thought I could have so much fun with a bunch of older adults!

I love this country so much, and I have only been here for about a month and a half. There is always something that blows my mind! I am so happy and have so much fun! My friends and family here have gone above and beyond to make me feel comfortable- I can’t thank them enough. We all have so much fun together! I wish the best of luck to all of the students currently applying! I can already tell that my Rotary Exchange Year will be one of the best and most memorable years of my entire life! Tschus!

Newspaper Article #1

For those of you who don't already know, I have an article in the Cooperstown Crier on the first thursday of every month. (the first one went out a little later though) I have decided to post it on here as well. Sooo yeah.. here's the first one! :)

9/2/10

This is My Time.

If anyone has ever told you that Rotary Foreign Exchange is easy, I am telling you they are wrong. I have been here since July 25^th, and not one day has been easy. Nor has one day been anything short of amazing. Houses of brick, gardens, trees, windmills- it is truly beautiful. I have heard many times that Rotary Exchange is like being dropped off in the middle of the ocean. You have a choice to make. You could see only the difficulties- one feels tired often, gets headaches, often times has to do something completely out of the ordinary- and sink. You could try to only look at the positives- deny that some things don’t come as easily as one would expect- and swim- but realistically, no one can swim across an ocean. It is my opinion that the only way to flourish during Exchange is to find an alternative way to make it to shore. Rotary students must be able to swim on their own, but also know when it is time to ask for help. I will admit- I need more help than I ever would have anticipated. It isn’t always easy to recognize that you cant do it all on your own- at least not for me. For those of you who don’t already know, I am spending my year in Grevenbroich, Germany- and I am loving every minute of it. I speak very little German, which definitely makes it more challenging, but it is worth it. I have a host mom, dad, sister, and brother. My host sister is currently on Rotary Exchange in Mexico, but has helped me quite a bit with advice and adjusting to life here. My host brother is 13, and has turned out to be one of my biggest supporters and closest friends. I would like to share with you all a story. After our first day of school, I was exhausted. Johannes said to me “You are boring.” [Strange look from me] “No! No! I meant you are tired!!” HAHA It was quite possibly one of the funniest moments of my exchange. I am the only exchange student at our school, so having a brother to help me and encourage me every time I see him is a great joy. My host parents both speak little English, so we are all becoming very good at sign language! Communication is not an issue, as one would expect. We all get along and have a lot of fun together. They have opened up their home and have welcomed me into their family. I am truly honored to be a part of the Brandmann family. You can read more about my family and my life here as well as see pictures at www.tiffanyslifeingrevenbroich.blogspot.com! To rap up this month’s update on my exchange, I would like to say thank you. Thank you to Rotary for allowing me this opportunity. Thank you to various stores in town for discounts and gifts for my host families. Thank you to my family and friends for supporting me on this journey. Thank you to my host family for making this exchange wonderful. I can honestly say I have never been happier. –Tiffany DeMell

Some from Rotex Weekend! :D