Deutschland, here I come!: Trier

A couple of months ago I took part in an AFS Midstay Camp. This involved moving to another region of the country and living with a new host family and going to a new school for two weeks.

After a 10 hour trip (normally 7 but mine included trains running late and therefore the missing of other trains) I arrived in Trier, Germany’s oldest city, and met the 19 other exchange students who were also taking part in the AFS Midstay Camp. There was quite a smorgasbord of different countries present including NZ, China, Japan, Brazil, Mexico and, sadly, Australia. I had a fellow New Zealander on my side, Liam (pronounced in a sheep-like voice) was all alone in his Austrailianity. A few measly attempts were made to insult us, something in the region of us all eating each other until the British came along and took over, but it was a rather pathetic attempt, especially after we reminded him of his country’s origins!

So we spent 3 days living together in a hotel-like hostel complete with 3 fantastic meals a day, twin bedrooms and cleaners that came every morning and did the rooms. It was so un-AFS-like (refer to previous AFS camp blog) that we thought we’d been dropped off at the wrong place!

Over the 3 days we took part in a UNO course where we were all given a different country to represent and had to solve a problem through discussing and debating. Was a lot of fun but also really frustrating when trying to deal with North Korea who continually declared that he was a dictator and therefore didn’t care that his people were starving to death. Paired with Russia (AKA Liam) they caused America a lot of headaches.

But it wasn’t all work and no play. As is normal when exchange students get together, there were a lot of laughs, a lot of music (usually turned on in the middle of a lecture) and a lot of dancing. On the last night we went into Trier to have a look around and ended up (surprise surprise) at a pub. As we all sat down a weirdly dressed man came up to us with a bucket full of schnapps. He told us he was getting married the next day and was on his stag night. He then said if we gave him our loose change then we could help ourselves. The guy would have made at least 30 euro off us! In Germany, these schnapps are called “Klopfers”. The tradition is that everyone raps the top of the bottle on the table 10 or so times and then opens it, puts the cap on their nose and then drinks the thing without using hands. It’s hilarious to watch and is actually quite difficult to do!

I had a lot of fun chatting to one of the AFS guys who was brought up in a bi-lingual household so he could speak perfect English in a variety of different accents (including German). It was hilarious discussing different things in different accents and then trying to teach the Latino’s the British accent. All in all it was a really good night.

The next day our temporary host families came to pick us up. A family would arrive, a name would be called and a student would be taken away. It was actually a lot like Scotland come to think of it! I was picked up by my host mum’s cousin and her husband who were also hosting a student for the 2 weeks; Daniella from Costa Rica. We ended up seeing each other every other day because we lived so close together and Daniella and I did a lot together because of it.

My host dad, Stephan, and my 2 host sisters, Lea and Lotta, came to pick me up from Kirstin and Michael’s house and then we drove to our house where I met my host mum Alexia. It was so cool to be living in a house with kids and a bit of life in it again! Lotta made it her mission to wake me up in the morning by turning the light on and off and giggling until I move. Then, if I didn’t get up, she would get very frustrated with me and tell me in a very stern tone that I wasn’t allowed to sleep anymore and it was time to get up.

Over the 2 weeks I had to go to school with my sister Lea in the little town of Whittlich. It was so much easier on the first day of school there then it was in the beginning in my school in Ludwigsfelde. Not only were the people so much friendlier and open but also the fact that I could speak German was definitely a big factor. Admittedly (I hope no one from Afs is reading this) I didn’t go to every single class, nor did I go to school every day. All of us who were living in the same sort of area decided to search for a different kind of education, in the form of sneaking off to another country. That’s the beauty of Europe; get on a train and 1 hour later you’re in a new country. Our choice of educational field trip this time was a tiny little place called Luxemburg. After a couple of hours of looking around we came to the conclusion that Luxemburg is the most boring country that exists. It has one city which is called Luxemburg, and is full of rich German people with holiday houses. It didn’t seem to have a speciality in any kind of food and so we ended up at McDonalds.

Some other funny things that happened (yes Michael, here it comes!!) was at a birthday party of a friend of my host family and also Michael and Kirsten. As far as German parties go it was pretty typical; terrible German folk music that helped the older people relive their youths, an indefinite amount of beer on tap and some rather interesting (and more often then not, disturbing) dancing. The most interesting of all was that of Michael. For his own sake I inform you that he had been taking full advantage of the beer on tap and so (I hope) this was not his usual form of dancing. The quality of the video is not fantastic but you get the gist of it. The best moves are at the end, so try to make it through!

THE BEGINNING OF THE DANCING

*Warning, this film may contain moves that just shouldn’t be performed by people over 30. Scrap that, they shouldn’t be performed at all!!*

THE REAL DANCE.

At the party I met an American soldier who didn't speak any German and wasn't even invited, he just saw there was something happening so walked in, got himself a plateful of food and sat down!! Was a bit random but didn't matter. Daniella, the soldier and I created what can only be described as an apartment block for non-human things. It really is impossible to explain so you will just have to check out the photos: