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...