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 

Also please leave a comment and let me know if you prefer the font size from this post or the last one, Thank you!

Willkommen!

Herzlich Willkommen!

Bodo here! I promised everyone I would start a blog and finally got around to it! I´m going to use this post to explain a little bit about myself, a little bit about my program, and a little bit about what you can expect to see here over the next 9 ½ months I have remaining in Germany (that in itself is crazy. I cannot believe a month and a half went by so fast [please note I also cannot believe I am staying here for 9 ½ more months {also please note that I can still not really even believe that I´m here at all}]).

About Me

Name: Elisabeth (Bodo) Johnson

Age: 18

School: I just graduated in June from Holy Cross High School in Dunmore, PA. I currently attend a Gymnasium in Bavaria, Germany. I am admitted to the University of Scranton class of 2023 where I will be majoring in International Studies and something else as of yet undecided.

Dream Job: Political Journalist and/or War Correspondent

Dream Language/s: Swahili and Arabic

Proudest Moment: Advancing to the final four in the 2018 Pennsylvania State Mock Trial Tournament!!!

Coolest Accomplishment: Receiving the Congress Bundestag Youth Exchange Scholarship! (What is that??? Keep Reading)

                                             

So what is CBYX/PPP? The Congress Bundestag Youth Exchange (Parlamentarisches Patenschafts-Programm in Germany) is a full scholarship study abroad program ¨bilaterally funded¨ (Thank You, Specialist Rachel) by the U.S Department of State and the German Bundestag. The scholarship is spread over five Implementing organizations and offered to a total of 250 American students and 300 German students every year.  

The Scholarship includes placement in a host family somewhere in Germany for 10 months. Recipients of the Scholarship attend a typical German high school, either for academic credit or for a gap year, and learn German by immersion. The Scholarship also includes a month-long Language Camp after arrival in Germany and before meeting host families (probably more on this amazing experience in a separate post), a mid-stay camp, an end of stay camp, and gateway/return orientations with the 50 students from each region. I am currently on CBYX with AFS (unarguably the best CBYX region) and my AFS camps and orientations are in DC-Hamburg-Munich-Berlin-DC respectively.

The CBYX Scholarship is available to anyone who is a U.S. citizen between 15 and 18 ½  at the start of the program, is a current high school student at the time of applying, and has a GPA of 3.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale. Please note the application process is difficult and lengthy so if you are interested in applying (which you should) start now!

Click here to go to the application or more information about the program

What Can You Expect From My Blog?

That’s a very good question… I’m not really sure, but definitely many photos. I took hundreds of photos at language camp that I will try to sort through and edit and upload in the next few weeks. I will (Natürlich) continue taking pictures throughout my exchange, and I plan to do a “Month in Photos” every month. These will vary in length and topic obviously depending on what I do month to month but hopefully they will provide an insight into what my life is like here.

I will definitely try write down my thoughts, talk about my daily life, and share my personal experiences with immersion and learning German. Occasionally I will compile questions I’ve been asked- maybe write tips and tricks for CBYX interviews once that time of year comes around- definitely post stories of culture shock, embarrassing language moments, and anything else I feel like sharing. I’m sure I won’t be the most regular poster but I hope you all enjoy and I hope I can make things interesting enough to be worth sharing

Viele Grüße!

~ Bodo