Language Camp Highlights: Weeks 2-4

    Way too much happened at Language Camp for me to document everything on here. For the weeks 2-4 I will post only a few of my favorite activities and excursions. I recognize I am leaving out so much of this experience and only giving a narrow window into AFS language camp, but if anyone wants more stories please feel free to message me. 

August 20th, Tuesday- Consulate

    After lunch we were met by our Betreuer Team (Betreuer/in - responsible person/liaison... we don't really have a word in English but the team lived with us in the hostel, helped us deal with problems, enforced rules, took us places etc) and were taken to a party at the American Consulate in Hamburg. We were welcomed by many people, including staff from the consulate and German students preparing to leave for exchange in the U.S. At some point a group of my friends and I were standing around eating the customized "Hamburg Consulate" Dunkin Doughnuts, when we fell into conversation with Consul General who took 20 minutes out of his day to talk to a small group of high schoolers about our lives in America, our program, our time already in Hamburg, and to teach us all about the Consulate. 
     We learned that the Consulate in Hamburg was established in 1790, making it one of the first U.S Consulates anywhere in the world and that the “White House on the Alster” (the nickname for the current consulate buildings) was used by the Nazi Party as their Hamburg headquarters from 1933 to 1945. He also explained the subjects of several portraits around the room, the history of the first few Consuls and told us how recently the Consulate (actually the same room where we were dancing to German pop music played by a band of refugees from a local youth organization) hosted a dinner party between President Trump and members of the South Korean government where they arranged the Nuclear Summit in Singapore in June. 
      The AFS CBYXers wrapped up the party by hijacking the piano and filling the Consulate with a sing-along of an eclectic mix of American Music.
               

Outside the Consulate 

August 26th, Sunday - Fish Market

 Sunday morning we were given the option of going to the famous Hamburg Fischmarkt. We woke up at 5:00 and were on a train by 5:30, and ferry by 6:00. The market was filled with everything anyone could want. There were sections dedicated to fruit, sections for fish, sections for meat and cheese, and sections for clothes and souvenirs. The warehouse by the entrance had live music and a dance floor. Fishermen were shouting and haggling. Vendors were auctioning off mystery baskets from the beds of trucks. Groups of people, kicked from clubs and bars at 5:00 am closing, stumbled drunk through the crowds in body glitter and mini skirts. Everywhere we looked something was happening. 

      Even though it was mid-August it was way too cold to be on the water without a jacket so the first thing we did was buy hot chocolate, and then Fischbrötchen. Maybe eating a 3/4 inch thick piece of pickled fish isn´t everyone´s idea of a good time at six in the morning, but it was honestly one of the best things I have ever eaten. 

      A friend and I pooled our money for a large bouquet of figs and went in search of a little slice of the stinkiest cheese we could find. We ended up in almost forced possession of a very large slice of something I would hesitate to call edible and the vendor described as ¨very old.¨ 

     Even though we had to get up ridiculously early, even though it was freezing, even though we only stayed an hour or two, the Fischmarkt is one of my fondest memories from Language Camp.

August 29th, Wednesday - St. Nikolai Memorial 

    Wednesday we went to a Planetarium after language classes. I enjoyed the show and understood far more than I was expecting to, but what really stood out about this day was the two hours we had between finishing lunch and meeting at the planetarium when a group of my friends spontaneously decided to stop at the ruins of the old St. Nikolai church.

      Because of the importance of Hamburg's shipyards the city suffered catastrophic damage during WWII. In July 1943 allied forces attacked the with one of the largest firestorms in the war, killing almost 43 thousand civilians and leveling much of the city. The steeple of St. Nikolai church was used as a point of orientation for allied bombers and although the steeple was largely unharmed and today houses a small museum, the rest of the church was mostly destroyed and never fully restored. Today the church stands as a memorial against war.  

      My friends and I decided to pay the entrance fee to the museum and it was absolutely worth it. 73 meters up the steeple there is a viewing platform which shows pictures of the destroyed city taken from that spot by a Nazi Propaganda Agent in the immediate aftermath of the bombings. These pictures are accompanied by short texts describing the suffering of the citizens of Hamburg but were also careful to frequently call attention to the cause of WWII and lay all blame on the Nazi Party. 

      I was really impacted by this tiny museum. As an American I am used to treading on eggshells when it comes to discussions about the darker periods of American history. It was very interesting to see the easy balance this museum found, mourning the destruction of the city and the loss of so many lives without pointing fingers or condemning the Allied Forces in any way. 

September 5, Wednesday - Miniatur Wunderland

     Hamburg is home to the Miniatur Wunderland, the largest model railway exhibition in the entire world. The Miniatur Wunderland is a compilation of incredibly faithful, incredibly detailed, incredibly small reconstructions of real locations including Hamburg, Las Vegas, Rome, Venice, The Baltic Sea with actual water and a fleet of ships, and the Knuffingen Airport, with actual arrivals and departures - including, on occasion, the Millenium Falcon. 

     In total the Miniatur Wonderland is 1,500 square meters, nine themed "worlds," 15,000 meters of track, 4,000 buildings, 11,000 Trains and traincars, 200,000 thousand figures, and 400,000 LEDs (numbers rounded from the MW website). 

     A few hours in the Minitaur Wonderland was quite an experience, especially walking through the detailed reconstruction of cities I have visited, including the city we were currently in (Hamburgception).  I also appreciated that most of the computers and control boards are visible to visitors and the operators were extremely friendly and willing to talk about their work and explain what was going on behind the scenes. Similarly one has the option of exiting the exhibition through the workshops and watching people (including what had to have been a twelve-year-old boy) meticulously building and painting new pieces for the ever-expanding display. 

    I was too busy looking at everything to remember to take pictures. 

    

Details

Hostel Kids

   Because we lived in a youth hostel we were constantly surrounded by local kids. There was a small football pitch behind the building and most free evenings groups of CBYXers would end up in an intense game of Fußball with a mix of people 10 years old and up. I never played but I spent a good amount of time watching the games, often cheering for the middle schoolers who could grind those silly Americans into the dirt with their fancy German footwork. My friends and I took these games, and the constant presence of curious kids, as opportunities to talk in a broken German/English mix to everyone we could. The conversations, especially with the preteens, usually went something like this... 

   ¨Hallo! Wie heißt du?"

   ¨Insert Name. Woher kommst du?"

   ¨Aus America!¨ 

   ¨Kennst du Fortnite?" 

I had to explain to dozens of German tweens that ¨Yes I am an American. No, I do not play Fortnite.¨ 

   One of my favorite interactions over the weeks was with an eleven-year-old called Sami. Sami spoke pretty good English and attracted quite a crowd of CBYXers with his mixed German/English sass. He took it upon himself to guess all of our names and explain why he guessed each name, we gave him hints and he got mine pretty fast, but he insisted that one in our group should be called ¨Dolphin.¨ He also attempted to guess our ages, and, for some reason, our shoe sizes. Most of us weren't exactly sure about our European shoe sizes so that was a bit of a dud.

    I remember this conversation particularly well because even though the conversation was half in German and the more advanced speakers in our group primarily dominated the conversation, I realized I could understand 80% of what Sami was saying, and even got a few words in myself!

Keep your eyes peeled for a post, probably primarily photos, from our day trips to Celle and Bremen. 

Lübeck

       During language camp we took Saturday trips to other cities near Hamburg. Our first excursion was on August 18, our first Saturday in Germany. We got up early and took a train to Lübeck a city 200,000 in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany. Lübeck was officially founded in 1143 and became the leading city of the ¨Hanseatic League,¨ a coalition of merchants and market towns that ruled the Baltic maritime trade for three hundred years along the coasts of Northern Europe (thanks wiki). The first impression of Lübeck is a lasting one. The western entrance to the altstadt is marked by an enormous town gate called the Holstentor. 

¨Field Side¨

¨City Side¨

The Holstentor is inscribed on both sides. On the city side it reads ¨SPQL¨ for ¨Senatus populusque Lubecensis¨ and on the field side it reads "Concordia Domi Foris Pax" or "harmony within, peace without." The inscriptions date back to 1871, the time the gate was restored. The exact date the gate was built is unknown but is accepted to be sometime between 1464 and 1478 (the inscription on the city side reads 1477 but this date is now contested). Even after many trips to Europe, it is still strange to be constantly surrounded by buildings and cities that predate the discovery of the American continents. After a quick tour through the city, we were allowed to split up into small groups and explore the Altstadt. One of my favorite things to see in any city is street performance and street art, and Lübeck had plenty, including chalk art, sketches, an unbelievable rendition of ¨Ave Maria¨ on a trumpet and a portable Piano, and a tap routine on another portable piano.

      One thing that really stood out to me was the juxtaposition of the age and tradition of the city and the modern life of contemporary Lübeck. In the courtyard next to the Rathaus the city was setting up for the pride parade. Everything was draped in rainbow flags and several trucks were blaring club music which mixed oddly with the Piano and Trumpet 20 feet away (though it is important to note that neither group appeared to care - or even notice, that the other was there). 

       Our free hours in the city were a great deal of fun, I went to several churches, walked by a few rivers, browsed through a little bookshop, climbed a big tower overlooking the city, ate Marzipan (a Lübeck specialty) and took way to many photos of beautiful buildings and beautiful friends. 

 

      

       After leaving the city we went to a beach even farther north (so far north I could have hopped on a boat we saw leaving the harbor and sailed directly to Sweden). Although we couldn´t swim we spent a few beautiful hours by the water enjoying the sun and the classic German beach chairs (the beach chairs made me feel like an extra in a Wes Anderson film), before heading back to Hamburg and the hostel that was already beginning to feel like home.

       The trip to Lübeck was a wonderful experience but it was also a wakeup call to the language learning process. I tried to use as much of my limited German as possible but failed several times. Someone tried to talk to me in the bookstore and I may have panicked and called a friend over for help. Later while getting food at the beach I tried to order for myself and for a friend, failed (even though ordering food is the easiest thing to do in a foreign language), didn´t notice, and then ended up sharing because we were running short on time. Lübeck was perhaps where I realized just how difficult certain aspects of this year are going to be, and how long a process learning a new language is.

Gateway Orientation and First week of Language Camp!

Servus! Bodo here, 

  My first month in Germany was spent in an intensive German Language camp in Hamburg. I recognize that I am VERY late in posting about this incredible experience so thank you for your patience! I will try to gather my thoughts and photos from Language camp in a series of several posts in the next week or to before I move on to my current situation. I would like to have some sort of rhyme and reason in this endeavor. Please Enjoy!

Thursday, August 9th: Arrival at Orientation - Airport Hotel Washington D.C 

A short day filled with many goodbyes tons, of new people, a lot of information about Germany, and some very intense games of Egyptian War. 

Friday, August 10th: 

     The day started with a trip to the German Embassy. We got to listen to a German and an American diplomat share their stories. They told us how they became involved in diplomacy, about the highs and lows of their work, about the importance of youth exchange, and even shared a few personal opinions on current global politics that we were instructed not to repeat. As someone who is interested in pursuing a career in politics and plans on majoring in International Relations, it was a great opportunity to hear about my one of my possible future careers directly from people who have been doing it faithfully for years. 

AFS CBYX 18-19 

    Here we are with our program coordinator, a few alumni and the ambassadors in front of a piece of the Berlin wall at the embassy. Our cell phones were taken away upon entering the embassy so was not able to take any pictures.

    After leaving the embassy we made our way to Capitol Hill to meet with staffers from the offices of our representatives. Our bus was a little late and dropped us a good ways off from our buildings so those of us with early meetings had to sprint to get there on time. I´m sure it was a funny sight, fifty teenagers in business casual sprinting past the capitol buildings, it was definitely a funny experience even if we arrived at our meetings out of breath, a little sweaty, and despite our best efforts, late. 

     I had an early meeting and after talking up the program had a few hours to kill at the train station before heading back to the hotel for more workshops. Only the second day and I already really started making friends with the other AFS students! 

Saturday, August 11: International Departure!

    A very typical, very smooth travel day, the highlights including, an emergency exit row seat and lots of leg room on our first flight, a hilarious game of BS spanning the majority of a three-hour layover in North Carolina, finally leaving America, airplane food, and seven hours (I know I was shocked too) of blissful sleep over the Atlantic Ocean. 

Basic Exchange Student Passport Photo

Sunday, August 12th: Arrival. 

      Finally in Germany! After many applications, countless personal essays, fast approaching deadlines, nerve-wracking interviews, and frustrating rejections I am finally a State Department Exchange student! Walking through the Frankfurt airport with 50 new friends, being welcomed by actual Germans, hearing actual German... everything was a little overwhelming and I promptly went back to sleep on the floor of the airport lounge while waiting a few hours for our busses to arrive. 

Generic Airplane Window Photo

    Perhaps a five-hour bus trip immediately following a nine-hour flight doesn´t sound like your idea of fun, but, even though the toilet on the bus didn´t flush, and even though we only stopped twice for the bathroom- it was actually a great deal of fun. A group of overly exhausted, overly excited teenagers can cover an astonishing number of topics when trapped in a small space for five hours, and although we didn´t quite figure out the meaning of life, I think we got pretty close.

Arrival at AFS Language Camp!

Our Hostel

     For the four weeks of Language Camp we stayed in a youth hostel in Hamburg. The hostel was a pretty nondescript building in a pretty non-descript area outside the city but it didn´t take long to become home. I had five wonderful roommates (I miss you guys) and one of only three rooms that opened to the communal balcony. The balcony that soon became a center of AFS life (everyone else had to go through the ¨big room¨ to get to the balcony [as the weeks went on people would also just use my room but that is neither here nor there}). The hostel food was great even if it was a little monotonous. I am a huge fan of the German approach to breakfast and dinner (lunch being the primary meal of the day). We had salad and a selection of fresh rolls and slices of different meats and cheeses twice a day, sometimes accompanied by pretzels, croissants, or tomato soup.  

My Roommates and Our Balcony

Language School 

     The primary purpose of language camp was an intensive four-week language course in the center of Hamburg. The Language School we attended was about 45 minutes from our Hostel and we had to take a bus and two trains to get there in the morning (I will make a post about public transport here in the future, it´s wild). Our classes were on the sixth floor of a building that also houses the Botswana Consulate, and had a wonderful view of a canal, and the Hamburger Tanzen Türme. I was placed in the highest beginner level (A1.2) and had an incredible experience with a fantastic teacher every day. We had class from 8 am to 12 pm every weekday but my teacher kept everything fast-paced and interesting throughout our time with her. After class we would walk or take a short train to a different hostel for lunch. 

Far Away View of Language School

Hamburg: 

     Hamburg is one of the three German city-states (along with Bremen and Berlin), Germany's second largest city, and the third largest port in Europe (18th in the world). Every day on our way too and from Language Classes we had a gorgeous view of ships coming in and out and could watch work going on in the shipping district across the bay. On Thursday of our first week we walked through the Elbe tunnel. 1,398 ft long and 80 feet under water, the Elbe tunnel was opened in 1911 as a pedestrian and vehicle tunnel to get from one side of the bay to the other. 
     After resurfacing on the other side of the bay we had the opportunity to explore the waterfront and take pictures. One of my favorite things to see (and later visit) was the Elbphilharmonie (the large wavy building in the right of the first picture) one of the Largest concert halls in the world. The building caused a great deal of controversy while it was being built because it cost 600 million dollars more than its estimated 200 mil.  Hamburg is a beautiful city and my only regret from language camp is not seeing more of it, I suppose that means I will just have to go back one day...

Elbphilharmonie Building

                  


     

          The week of August 11th-17th was a week of firsts for me. Obviously the first week of language camp, my first time traveling without at least one member of my immediate family, my first German class, and my first time using a laundromat just to name a few. It was truly an incredible week and things only got better from there! Stay tuned for more language camp posts in the coming week.

Tschüss, 

Bodo 

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