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updated July 31, 2005  Sarah's DiaryAbout two weeks until we’re leaving Munich, and I’m finally realizing how much I’m going to miss being here. What will I miss the most? Being able to get around by myself on the public transportation. Constantly hearing different languages being spoken, constantly meeting people who speak more than one language fluently. Wienerschnitzel ☺ Being a guest student at school. No mosquitoes. Apfelschorle. The Englische Gartens. Swimming in the “Eisbach,” an ice cold river flowing through the gardens. Living around the corner from Keith, Regine and Aaron. My friends. What am I most looking forward to back home? Being able to talk to everyone in English. Sleeping in my own bed, my own room. Seeing Winnie, my cat. Stores being open on Sundays. High School. Constant warm weather for the rest of the summer. Mature guys. American radio stations. Minneapolis in general. My friends. All in all, this year has been an exciting experience, that I will definitely never forget. I’m going to try as hard as I can to keep up my German, because I can imagine the frustration I’d feel if I came back to Germany in a few years and couldn’t understand a word. I’ll also work really hard to keep in touch with my friends here, so that when I do come back, I’ll still have people to visit. Although I’m extremely excited to be back home, I’ve realized that I’ve made some really great friends this year and I’ll miss them a ton. I hope everyone’s enjoyed reading about my adventures this year and I look forward to seeing everyone back in the states. Always, Sarah P.S. Some pix of my friends:
May, 2005 A ton of things have happened since my last entry! I’ll back up to the end of March. Our family plus Keith, Regine and Aaron and a few other family friends went skiing in the Austrian alps! It was really amazing. We stayed in a really fancy hotel, and although the ski conditions weren’t perfect, I had a lots of fun snowboarding with everyone on the huge slopes. Sure beats Hylands in Minneapolis! Mom and I left a day early from the ski resort to greet our new visitors, Clare Eisenberg and her parents, Peter Eisenberg and Mary Cajacob! Clare and I had a blast. Our family (Dad, Claire and Simon arrived back from the ski trip a day later) showed the visitors a few of the major sights in Munich, but mostly Clare and I had fun sun-bathing in the park, practicing German and eating the german food. Clare came to school with me one day, and except for the paper thrown at her by the immature boys and not understanding a word of what people were saying, I think she had a fun time. That same day, Julia Bither, her mom Kathleen Gavin and her brother Nick arrived in Munich! It was great to see my best friend Julia again after 7 whole months. Clare stayed one more day, the three of us did some more shopping in the city, and then I had to say a sad goodbye to her. On Wednesday, the 6th, my mom and I, Julia, Kathleen and Nick all rode up to Elmau! We had an amazing two days there, filled with hiking, sauna-going, relaxing and most of all, talking. Of course the beautiful weather made it even more enjoyable. Julia and her family left on Monday, and even after the fun weekend together it was still so hard to say goodbye. Fast forward to the next weekend. On Thursday evening, April 14th, after a 7 hour train ride, we arrived in Venezia!!!! For pictures, go here. I was so excited and even after the first view of the Grand Canal, I was in love with it! The next day was even more exciting: my birthday! We had a beautiful day of sightseeing, and I enjoyed every minute of it, especially watching the famous Venician glass blowers at work, going to the fish market and seeing the fresh fish that I would later that evening eat myself, and many other things. But my favorite part of it all was just enjoying the city itself; all the mini canals and alley ways, hearing italien being spoken around me, and looking at all the touristy shops and stands all over the city. The next day was fun too, but the pouring rain and gray skies made it a little less enjoyable. My favorite events that day were our delicious italian lunch and the modern art of the Peggy Gugenheim Museum. Unfortunatly we had to leave beautiful Venice the next day, and the train ride home seemed longer than ever. And that’s about everything that’s happened so far. I’ve also been in school some, although I’ve missed a lot because of all these trips and visitors, but that, as well as Reha’s weekly visits is going well too. Come back soon to read about Amsterdam and Rome, our upcoming adventures!
February 4, 2005 Happy new year everyone! Hope everyone’s winter holidays went well. You can read about mine on my parents’ diary. After our exciting trip to Elmau, everything is back to normal. Actually, we’ve heard from a lot of people that the language starts to really “click” after winter break. So I was pretty hopeful when I came back to school- and it turns out to be true! My German just seems to come easier now-and I can understand almost everything in a german conversation. In classes, it’s a little harder, but I can pay attention and catch every other word or so-enough to understand the main idea of whats happening. I’ve also got some new friends! Nadja, Christina, Alessa, and Leonie have been really friendly and helpful to me. What I really like about being with them is that they act like I’m just a normal person who can totally understand everything they’re talking about (not always true…), and not some dumb American who has to be spoken to in English. Anyways, I’ve gone over to Leonie’s house a few times with that group of girls. If any of you were wondering, German teens do the same things us American girls do: talk, listen to music, eat, talk some more! And surprisingly, I could talk too. It was very cool and now I really feel like I’m part of the community here and at my school. I’m also really excited for these next few months- starting in February we’re going to be traveling somewhere every other weekend!!! We’re also going to start getting a lot of visitors-a few coming in late February, two coming during spring break, and maybe more. I’m also really psyched about that- I love being the tour guide around this city!! I will try to write regularly now about our visitors and our travels. Tschüss!
December 9, 2004 Guten abend! Many exciting things going on at the moment. We have our first visitors (see pictures on my parents’ diary) in Munich as I write!! It has been really fun to be the experts on Germany (for once). First, Claire, Kate, and Kirby went up to Schloss Elmau with their Moms. NOT FAIR! I got to stay home with Dad and Simon…not as bad as I thought, but I still wish I could’ve gone! Then they got back, and we showed them around downtown München. We had a hearty snack (beer for the adults and prezels for the kids) at the famous Hofbräuhaus, then wandered around the Christkindl markt in Marienplatz. I had a ton of fun. Today, Kate and Kirby came to  school with Claire
and I. They went to Claire’s classes, but I got to hang out with them
at Pause. I think they really enjoyed it, especially meeting Claire’s
friends and English teacher. After school today we showed them the
Pinakotek Moderne. Our tourist friends really enjoyed that too.
Also, I’ve been preparing for my freshman year in high school. I’m
applying to Southwest High and I have to write my application way over
here in Germany!! But obviously, it wasn’t a big struggle to look for
something interesting to write about! Besides our visitors and applying
to high school (and a new hair cut), everything’s going smooth as
normal. My german is improving bit by bit, and I’ve made a few more
friends. I speak german to almost everyone now! Thanks for reading,
Ciao!October 22, 2004 Hello everybody! I am so sorry I haven’t written in so long. I’d say everything here is going along smoothly. School is alright, and getting better every day. I think the classes I have the most trouble with, that are actually close to impossible, are German (deutsch), history (geschichte) and biology (biologie). Luckily the teachers of each of those classes know that I am a guest student, and don’t expect me to do the work. My German teacher has actually ordered me some beginner German books for me to work on when everyone else in my class is working on more advanced German. That will be really nice, because then I won’t feel SO out of place when everyone else is doing their work and I’m just sitting there! The classes that I do understand are English, of course (its actually really boring—we just learned “head, shoulders, knees and toes!” in class! It was entertaining at first but now its just plain stupid.), Math (mathe), and French. French is my favorite class because I’m just as much a beginner as everyone else in the class. Plus, my teacher speaks French 95% of the time, and speaks very slowly and clearly so I know exactly what she’s saying. For the 5% of the time she’s speaking German, I either understand what she's saying or ask someone else. Its also good for my German, because when I learn a new word in French, I learn the German translation for it also! Then I’m on my own to figure out the English meaning! So far, it hasn’t been too hard. As for my friends, that’s going well also. Like my mom said in her entry, it’s a little bit unfortunate that everyone speaks English. They all assume that I don’t speak ANY German, so they just go ahead and speak English to me—which ends up in ME not speaking enough German! Luckily people have realized that I do know some German, so a lot of my friends have been speaking German to me now. Unfortunately, my 2 friends I hang out with the most, Nathalie and Raphaela, can’t get out of the habit of speaking English with me! I definitely need to speak more German; otherwise I wont achieve my goal of being close to fluent by Christmas time! I’m getting there though. Tutoring with Reha has also been going great. She’s been speaking more and more German to me and Claire, and now we’ve gotten into the most complicated part of German grammar; “akkusativ, nomanitiv, genativ, and dativ.” Its basically like subject, verb, object, and possessive, but it gets more complicated than that. I haven’t really learned all the rules. But, needless to say, Reha is doing a great job, and Claire and I are learning a ton! Hope you enjoy reading this, and I promise I will try to keep up my writing! And remember: email me! bussi (“kisses” auf deutsch)!!
September 21, 2004 A week of school has gone by, and I’ve survived! I’m sure you’ve read from my parents’ entries about my experience, but you might want to hear it from my perspective. Well, on the morning of the first day of school, I was ready to puke. As most of you know, when I get nervous, I won’t eat, talk…well, I just don’t function normally! I got into my first class, told my teacher my situation, and found out that she was the english teacher! That sure made things easier that first day. She introduced me to the class; told them I was from the states and I didn’t speak much german. A few people came up to me and asked things like, “Where in the United States are you from?” or “My grandma lives in Florida!” or things like that, but the quote that made the most difference was “I’m half american, so if you want to sit by me you can…” this was said by a girl who I soon found out was named Raphaela. All week she helped me translate what the teachers were saying, find my way around, and even where I should shop for clothes and where I shouldn’t. She’s introduced me to all the members of her little clique, and they’re all very welcoming and interested to speak english with me. In a way its kind of a bummer that I haven’t been practicing my german with them, but at least I can communicate! Besides school starting, and going to the Oktoberfest (see my dad’s entry for most of the info—all I have to add is that there were some SWEET RIDES!!!) nothing else big has happened. Thanks for reading…I’ll try to keep up the writing! Bis später! ~sarah  Here I am with my new
friend Kelsey,
another American 13 year old living here in Munich with her family. September 13, 2004 More sightseeing, museum viewing, people meeting etc. has gone on these past few weeks since we got back from elmau, but tomorrow, the real thing begins. I’ll bet you can guess what that is! Yup, tomorrow at 8:00 in the morning I’ll be starting as a 7th grade guest student at Luitpold Gymnasium. I’m pretty nervous, to tell you the truth. Well, wouldn’t you be? It’s a completely german school full of all german speaking students and teachers. It’s a new building and a new set of rules I have to get used to. Me? Scared? Of course not! September 3 We just arrived back from Elmau, and wow was it a great stay! The weather wasn’t 100% awesome all the time, but it was pretty nice; especially the last few days. The highlights for me were swimming/lounging at the outdoor pool, going in the sauna and then running into the ice cold mountain stream, and eating the delicious meals. We went on some pretty nice hikes too. Making friends was tough, being that I couldn’t really talk to the kids my age, but hanging out as a family was fun. It was so luxurious to order “eis,” ice cream, and “spezi,” a mix of coca-cola and orange fanta at the pool, feeling like it didn’t cost a thing (and charge it to the room). It was a great vacation, and I’m hoping my uncle Keith will let us stay in his apartment again!!! Now its nice to be back in München, back in the busy city life. Now that its September, I’m starting to think about school starting (10 more days!!). Going to an all german school with all german kids is going to be a huge challenge. It will also be a huge challenge to be missing out on all the gossip back in Minneapolis! I’m starting to get used to speaking in german, though, and I’m feeling a little more confident. I’m really excited to return to the states fluent in a new language! Bye for now! Ciao!
August 20 I can’t believe a week has already gone by! Nothing huge has happened, besides finding and purchasing bikes, and (drum roll please…) getting a cell phone!!!!!! As you can see, I’m very excited about this, even though I have nobody to call. Some other exciting news: I may have made a friend! There’s a family from the U.S who are also moving here for a year, and somehow we got in touch with them. They have a 13 year old girl named Kelsey, and I’ll be meeting her tomorrow. I’m really excited to finally have someone my age around to talk to and hang out with. Well, I’ll write if anything else exciting happens! Tsuss! August 15 Our second full day here, and we’ve already seen a ton of stuff! Right now everythings going by in a blurr. Yesterday we met with the people who lived in this apartment before us. It was helpful because they told us about a lot of convienient places to go for food, things to do, hair cuts, etc. (they’re from New York so yes, we could communicate with them!). They even showed us a cheap hotel that some of our visitors can stay in. Yesterday evening for “abendessen” (dinner), we went to my uncle, aunt’s and cousin’s apartment-which is only a few blocks away. We had a yummy spaghetti dinner (my favorite!), had a band concert with all of Aaron’s musical instruments, and played with their new kitten. Today, we started out the morning by going over to my uncle’s again, for brunch (lots of nutella. YUM!). Then we took a walk to Simon and Aaron’s kindergarten. Looks really nice. After that little walk we went swimming at Prinzregentenbad… a pool pretty close to our apartment. Everything is so close we don’t even think about needing a car! Anyways, the pool was really nice. It had a high dive, a slide, and a really cool whirlpool thingy that made a current that carried you around in a circle. Another really cool thing we saw today was people surfing-right in the middle of the city!! There’s a part of the river near our apartment that has big rapids, and there were a bunch of guys surfing on it!!! It was really fun to watch and I know a bunch of you would really enjoy it. That’s about all that’s happened, besides trying to have german conversations with each other and watching the olympics in german. We’re about to go check out a restauraunt around here. Tsuss (goodbye)! August 14, 2004 Hi, or shall I say, Guten Tag! We’re all settled in, although I am kinda turned around….but we’re here in one piece! This is what has gone on so far. Leaving was tough. It was really hard to say goodbye to all my friends, and my house too. I’m really going to miss our neighborhood, our school, and all the people who made my life so great in the U.S. We arrived at our apartment at about 4:00 pm yesterday, although it felt like 9:00 in the morning for me!! It’s a pretty nice place, actually. Better than any of us pictured it. Claire and Simon are sharing a room, and I get my own. Its pretty small but definetly livable. I’ve already started putting up posters! After we arrived and got used to our apartment (with tons of help from my uncle, aunt, and cousin), we went on a walk to look around. Turns out, me and Claire’s school is basically around the corner!!! Its REALLY convienient. I’m pretty nervous for school though. Its completely german…I wont be able to communicate with anyone, so wish me luck on that! So anyways, we walked to a bier garden to eat dinner. We had a traditional German meal; chicken and pork and potatoes and beer (for my parents-don’t worry!). It was tough at first to communcate with the people serving the food, but we did it! The whole time, I felt like people were staring at me. Mom and Dad said it was because of the braids (for those of you who don’t know, Julia and I got our whole head cornrowed before we left.) I guess its not a normal thing to wear your hair in braids here! Well, Simon and Aaron (my 5 year old cousin) are trying to beat me up, so I have to go. Ta ta for now!  Julia, Emily, and I on the day I left Minneapolis. |
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