I've had a busy week! My weeks are already quite full, but with a college interview, Thanksgiving holiday and an AFS mid-stay camp, this past week was nonstop. Now I have just enough time to take a deep breath and write a blog post to update you all on my most recent endeavors.
The first big event was my interview with Middlebury College. Before I left Vermont I applied to Middlebury College by Early Decision, meaning that if I am accepted I must attend the school. That, of course, is no problem because Middlebury is definitely my number one choice. Like most prestigious universities, Middlebury offers optional interviews with every applicant. A couple of weeks ago a Middlebury alum in the Burlington, Vermont area contacted me by email to say that if I would like to have an interview with a Middlebury representative to talk about myself and add anything to my recommendation, she was the person who would facilitate it. Through a series of emails I explained that I currently lived in Germany, but still would like to interview. There was only one place I could interview and that was Wiesbaden, a city about four hours south of Celle. So this past Tuesday I made that train ride down to Wiesbaden, met with a very pleasant woman, Middlebury alum Frau Paige-Pfennig, over lunch and talked about who I am, what I would contribute to the school and answered a few questions. After the interview I crossed the Rhein River to visit the city of Mainz where Middlebury has one of their two study abroad campuses in Germany. In Mainz I received a great tour of the city and the campus of Johannes Gutenberg University. I hope I'll have the opportunity to spend a semester there in a few years. Overall, I think the interview went great. I am optimistic, but with a school as competitive as Middlebury one never can be sure. There are so many highly qualified applicants applying for a very small number of spots. I find out whether I am accepted, denied or deferred on December 8th, a day before my 18th birthday. Wouldn't that be a great birthday present?!
Two days after my interview I celebrated Thanksgiving. However the only similarity between my celebration here and the holiday in the United States was that I watched football. Instead of turkey, I ate a hamburger and chicken wings. Instead of gathering with my family, I celebrated with my German friends of my American football team in Hannover. This party with my entire football team at a restaurant that literally borders our field was a whole lot of fun, but it wasn't a real Thanksgiving meal. Germans have no clue how important Thanksgiving is to us and accordingly don't celebrate this wonderful day. This was probably the first time I wished I was back in Vermont, but only for that day. You can't blame me for feeling that way when all of my family is together and they are eating a wonderful assortment of food including, but not limited to turkey, pork stuffing, boiled potatoes, pearl onion casserole, green beans, pumpkin pie and pecan pie. Mmmmm...
The final event of my busy week was my second AFS camp. This camp, with other AFS exchange students living in the Hannover area, was titled "Mid-Stay" camp. Why this camp, designed to be half way through the exchange, was only a quarter of the way through MY exchange I'm not sure. Anyway, I took a train to Wennigsen, a small town south-west of Hannover, on Friday. The camp was okay, but nothing spectacular. It was nice to see how other people in my situation are progressing in their language acquisition, but also boring at times when we talked about topics that we had covered in excess during the first orientation camp. In regards to language acquisition, everyone was very impressed by how quickly I have picked up the German language. Some people are still struggling to speak anything, when I can already hold a conversation pretty easily. That made me feel really good. My hard work is paying off.
Finally, I would like to post a few videos to German songs I have discovered that I really like. The first song is "Easy" by Cro, the second is "Lila Wolken" by Marteria, Yasha and Miss Platnum and "Schau nicht mehr zurück" by XAVAS. It's a very cool experience when you begin to understand the lyrics of songs that aren't in English.
No comments:
Post a Comment