Back to my School Here

After I was all done in Kiel I went back to my town area. I stayed with a classmate and friend of mine named Gesine. Things were a little bit calmer when I got there than they were in Kiel and that was good. In Kiel I was always doing something and on the move and at Gesine's house it was a lot calmer. And I managed to get a package sent off to a friend and some other things accomplished.

Soon after I got there we had our own Abigag (in Kiel this was Abistreich). We met on that Tuesday evening to go over the Abisong and the Abidance. Kiel and my school both did the same dance for the Abiball. The abisong was written by one of my old classmates. It was really good and to the tune of Ramalang (spl.?). Our theme was RockABIlly. Also a few of my old classmates told me that I had to participate in everything. OK, so I did, except for a few minor things.

Then we met early on Wednesday morning with water guns and water balloons. We then got all the students wet and rounded the teachers up in one corner. The teachers were a little annoyed with us as we got all the students wet... Then we had a stage where we had a dance contest with the teachers and students and then an air guitar contest.

In the afternoon we made our Abi monument official. It is a table with die and card suites on the stools. A photo will appear on this webpage later. We also sang out song for everyone and we sounded good I think. We also had a singing contest, but unfortunately it was hard to hear the voices over the music.

On that Friday was graduation. The 12th graders (there are 13 grades) put on a buffet afterwards for the graduating class with a Hawaiin theme. They came and performed a song for everyone during the graduation and it was really good. Sektfrühstück (what the 12th graders did) was really good. The graduatioin ceremony went off with no problems and that is a good thing. :-)

Afterwards was something called Sektfrühstück. Basically that is something the 12 grade puts on for the 13th grade and the song the 12th grade performs during the ceremony is part of the theme. Their theme was Hawaii and they did a very good job with the theme. I am going to have to look around and see if I can find any good photos of their decorations, because I didn't get any good ones. The food was really good and it was also just a great time to walk around and talk to different classmates, friends from that year and teachers.

That afternoon Germany had a game for the World Cup and so first Isabel, Alex (her brother), her father and a friend name Christian and I went to the town square because they had the game on a big screen down there. The problem with that was the screen was hit on directly by the sun and thus you could not see anything. So that idea got scratched quickly and we went to Isabel's father's hotel and watched it there. It was an enjoyable group there and I learned even more about soccer! :-) I am a pro on it now, come on, ask me questions, I may know the answers. It was a good time and Germany won that game! I don't remember who it was against though... Hmmm... Maybe I should look that up.

On Saturday the 1st of July was Abiball for my class. The biggest problem with Abiball was the place they selected to have it in. There was an Abiball from a different school in it the night before, so it probably heated up then, there was no air conditioning (which is normal in Germany) and hardly any windows to get some air circulating... Yeah, it was incredibly hot in that room, so I spent most of the time outside. ;-) It was good to see everyone for the last time this summer and I had a lot of good conversations. Herr Burfeind (my physics teacher 3 years ago) was probably the most sociable of all the teachers and he is really nice. My class and I will never forget my first day in class I think. Herr Burfeind is the tallest of all the teachers and he speaks relatively slow and deep. So he came over to where I was sitting and kind of towered over me and then asked me "Wer bist du denn?" ("And who are you?"). It wasn't anything too out of the ordinary I guess, but just his size and manner of speaking made that memorable. When I was back several old classmates mentioned this occurance to me, something I hadn't thought about in literally years. At Abiball I did the Abidance with everyone and it was just a ton of fun to be asked to participate in everything.

Then the next day Isabel and I went to the beach with some friends and just kind of hung out. She managed to get a glass piece in her foot (at the end), but oh well, she still lives today, so nothing too terrible. Isabel tried to convince me that entire day that I did not want to leave on Monday and that I did indeed want to stay until at least Tuesday, if not longer. But alas, her arguments did not work and I left on Monday for Düsseldorf.

It was a really good time in my old town. Though a bit of culture shock at how small it is. My town in Iowa is a lot smaller, but as far as Germany goes, that town was really small. I guess I get used to Millwaukee and things being right there and then going to a small town is a bit of culture shock again.

Kielerwoche

So, I haven't typed much in the last several weeks. The time has been going by soo fast! I will try to recap in sections, starting with Kiel! When I get home next week I will work on loading photos onto my blog.

Kielerwoche was a lot of fun and it was really good to spend more time with Lisa. Almost every night from the Friday that I got there until the Monday that I left I was at Kielerwoche except for the night to Kielerwoche except the second Firday night that I was there and I went to Lisa's Abiball with her family.

There was a lot of stuff going on at Kielerwoche. Nights were good for going out with friends and drinking a beer. Daytime had more of what Kielerwoche is all about. Sailboats! There were sailboats everywhere and concerts throughout the day. One one thing they had was for the little kiddies. There were games for the kids, mud pits for the kids and crafts for the kids. They built a large octapus with the children, using wood and nails. Then they painted it. There was also a section with plastic tiles that they painted and then used to make a maze.

I went out with Lisa and her friends. At first the were a little reserved around me, but by the end of the week they were soo sweet!

On the Monday that I was there Lisa and I took the convertable and went north to Denmark. I got a nice sunburn and Lisa found shoes for Abiball. That was amazing, about every person I have stayed with has been on the hunt for shoes and Lisa is the first one that I was when when she found shoes! We looked all around Kiel on that Saturday or Friday (can't remember which now..) and didn't find anything and when decided what the heck, let's go into this store here in Denmark and maybe she will find something. Five minutes later she had a pair of shoes. I also tried my first authentic hot dog from Denmark. And it was good!

Tuesday we went Sailboating. That was fun. I went sailboating for a week with my class as I was here in Germany for a year and I just loved it. It was really great to have the opportunity to go again. We watched Germany's soccer game on the boat. That was cool.

They had a wonderful Abistreich, that is a prank so to say, that the graduating class does to the school. Many times the graduating class with pull everyone out of class and do something outside (my gymnasium still does that), but many times it also ends with the people just leaving after a little bit... Then it gets to be a bit boring. This year they weren't allowed to take the students out of class at Lisa's school. So instead they disrupted class the entire day. Just short little interuptions. Like a band that wandered from room to room. Or giving the teacher coffee or tea. There was a group of groupies that followed teachers around. Newspaperboy, grilling outside of a classroom, cleaning ladies and much more. Very well done. They even made it look like they camped in the school over night! A lot of fun it was I am sure, though I wasn't there...

Abiball was also great. They had a song the whole class danced to and then they walzed, yada yada yada. Showed a slide show and a video of Abistreich. The whole atmosphere was fun. They had a buffet with good food and everyone seemed to be in a good mood. It was a good time! At the Abiball I managed to talk to a Mexican (the boyfriend of one of Lisa's classmates) in Spanish (oh and it worked too!) and to some of Lisa's classmates that I hadn't met yet.

On the Wednesday that I was there we went and picked up Maren, Lisa's sister, from the airport. Maren was in Michagan for a year and really enjoyed her year. She was very enthusiastic about her experience and it was interesting for me to see another person in their first few days after the exchange, I already know how I reacted. :-)

Saturday morning, after Abibal, Lisa left for her graduation trip with her class. They all went to Denmark for the week. I left with Lisa's parents to go to a friend's house (friend of her family) to watch the sail boat parade. During that time I met a student from my future university for a semester here in Germany and also someone who works in that town and grew up there. So that was really cool. The sailboats were also very interesting. I would love to do more with sailing in the future if I can swing that!

Then on Sunday I went to a Motorcycle Church Service with Lisa's parents. That was really interesting! There were around 1,000 motorcyclists there if memory serves me properly. Most of the people were outside of the church during the service and caught everything over the speakers. We sat inside. Lisa's Dad rode with as the Doctor of the group. I do not envy the motocyclists, it was a very hot day outside! It was really interesting to see and I will put photos of that up later.

That evening we went to an aunt from Lisa to watch the fireworks. I met her cousin and his wife there. His wife is originally from Spain and so we spoke a little bit of Spanish as well. That was really interesting. In that week I managed to meet two native spanish speakers! It was a lot of fun.

Sometime maybe I will make it back to Kiel, but on Monday my trip went farther...