Nürnberger Dialekt

Nay, ich weiß es net. Ich habe es nimmer gemacht.

I really do enjoy the dialect/accent in Nürnberg, and it's funny to hear my host parents slipping into it as they chit-chat. Well, I had a wonderful weekend in Nürnberg with my host parents. Unfortunately, Laura wasn't able to go with us, and Matthias is...well... is Matthias. So, it was just me with Heidi and Dieter. (and did they spoil me? OF COURSE!!!!)
The purpose of our trip was to join in on an uncle's 70th birthday celebration. However, Heidi was super sweet (as usual) and decided that I needed to see Nürnberg and surrounding area. So we extended our stay for a few days, which were filled to the brim with awesomeness.

Friday: Drive from Bad Honnef to Nürnberg. Left at around 9pm, arrived at 12am. As usual during our trips to Nürnberg, we stayed with Heidi's parents, who are to be called Oma and Opa. (Both Heidi and Dieter grew up and lived most of their lives in Nürnberg.) I really do love it there, and of course Oma and Opa love to spoil me too. I am a very loved exchange-child and exchange-grandchild. :D

Saturday consisted of Allegra Bel sleeping in until 10am and thoroughly enjoying it. (It was well deserved after a very hectic week of school), and the birthday celebration, which lasted 3pm-10:30pm. The celebration began at the uncle's house with lots of coffee, cake, talking, and drinking alcohol (well, not me) in the afternoon. Then there was dinner at local restaurant, and then nicely ending the evening back at the uncle's house with more talking, smoking and drinking. I finally crashed in bed around 11pm with a massive headache from the strain of trying to understand and comprehend the many surrounding German voices and conversations (of course with that Nürnberg accent). But, yeah, it was a pretty great day full of delicious food.

Sunday was a personal tour for Allegra Bel by the two nicest Nürnberger people (Heidi and Dieter) of the Nürnberg Innerstadt (downtown). We visited the Kaiserburg (Imperial Castle) and walked around the city. I learned all about the history of Nürnberg - a wonderful and old city.

Check out the following slide show for pictures of the castle and other views of the city. (oh, and you can click on the slide shows to see the pictures better)

Monday was '"cave spelunking" day! It was way awesome. We went to two different caves, which were about an hour away from Nürnberg. The first cave, Teufels Höhle, is the biggest one in Germany, and it really was ginormous!

I really enjoyed the drive from the first cave to the second cave. It was typical German countryside. The second cave was also pretty amazing. And my favorite part: it had a harp inside! Check out the pictures.

The pictures are hardly captured the amazingness of the caves. After visiting the caves, we had lunch and then headed to the movie theater/IMAX in Nürnberg. That place was incredible! I believe it's the biggest theater I've ever been to. The whole entire thing was underground, under the city! We watched an IMAX film about the ocean. It was pretty cool.

Yeah, that was my amazing weekend adventure. I really do love my life here in Germany.

Bis später!!!


P.S. I will be positing my Feburary Italian Ski Trip soon.... I'm still waiting on getting the pictures.

My Beautiful Home

I have to admit, I really love just being in my home. Some days I'd rather just stick around my house instead of going out. The Hameyers have such a wonderful home that is always so clean and tidy. I love walking in the door after a long day at school. I'm so blessed to live in such a beautiful place.

Here are some pictures of my lovely home.

When the rare sun shows his face...

...it equals for a fabulous day. Today, the sun was very bright and shined the entire day. That was a first for a long time. This winter has been one of the longest winters for a long time in Germany, or so I was told. The last few months it has been so dreary and cloudy, and it's rained a bunch. One time it rained for almost 48 hours straight. So that being said, it was so great to feel the sun on my face. I couldn't get enough of it. If only that cold, biting wind were gone, it would make for an absolutely perfect day.

Okay, time to share picture of the Rhine River (especially for Shannon's Grandpa who is from Germany). Enjoy!

Köln Seminar!

Sorry that it's so long! There are pictures at the end. :D

We (the CBYX group) had a blast at our seminar. However, the weekend was not enough time for us. It was super awesome to see everyone, see German language improvements, and catch up on everything that's happened since language camp.

We all arrived at the Youth Hostel Thursday evening around 5pm. My host dad was super awesome (like always) and drove me there.

So here are snippets of the weekend...
Donnerstag/Thursday:
-got our room assignments. I had a room with Jedel, which was very cool!
-huge reunion and tons of talking
-ate dinner
-2 hour seminar (Seminar rules explained and funny experiences shared)
stayed up super late just talking and talking

Fritag/Friday:
-breakfast at 8am
-took Bahn (train) to Bonn. Jedel and I missed the train, because of a misunderstanding. We had thought our group was meeting in the Lobby at 8:45am, but no... we were supposed to meet at the Bahnstation outside, down the road. Oops! So Jedel and I finally figured it out, after looking around the whole hostel for our group. We ran to the Bahnstation, only to see the train pulling away. It was quite funny. Luckily Jedel lives in Köln and knew her way around. I live in Bonn, so once we got there, I knew the way. It was awesome teamwork. We actually ended up taking a different route to Bonn, and we got there about 10 minutes after our group did, instead of 30 minutes later if we had taken the same route they did.
-There in Bonn we split up into different groups and had the Aufgabe (task) to visit several museums. It was lots of fun.
-back at our Hostel in Köln at 5pm
-dinner
-Seminar: Reflection over our day in Bonn, Feedback about our host families and schools.

Samstag/Saturday:
-breakfast
-train to downtown Köln (Jedel and I were the first ones to the train station, we were not about to miss it again...)
-In Köln we broke up into smaller groups and were given free time with the suggestion to visit a museum. We also had to answer a few random trivia questions about the city. My group went to a really cool Köln history museum.
-at 1pm, back at the Hostel and ate lunch
-2pm, Seminar over our expectations versus realities. Then we had the dreaded Sprachtest (language test)...most of us bombed it. Seriously it was unfair! The whole first page was over all the different states and state capitals in Germany. Whatever, it wasn't that big of a deal.
-short break
-seminar again. Talked about our day/experience in Köln.
-dinner
-another Seminar... were talked to about what we can do better as exchange students.

Sonntag/Sunday
-breakfast at 8am
-Free time for church or whatever we wanted to do
-lunch at 12pm
-Seminar: Again we were lectured about what we need to do better as exchange students. Then we talked about our final seminar in Berlin in May. Given strict guidelines about our behavior and appearance while visiting the Bundestag.
-short break
-Seminar: Gave feedback about our weekend and the seminar.
-dinner
-Free Time!!! I went with one of the teachers and 2 other kids to the Köln Philharmonie. It was really really cool. I felt bad for the harpist. She only played for about 5 minutes in the 2 hours, and it was impossible to hear her.
-Curfew at 11:30pm

Montag/Monday:
-breakfast
-saying goodbyes... schon wieder (once again)
-journey back to our host families

The Norm

My life is pretty amazing to say that this breathtaking view is a norm. I just love seeing the sunset on the Rhine River. (Sorry that the trees are kinda in the way, but you get the idea...)

P.S. I promise I'll be putting up a ton of posts soon (probably after my 10 day ski trip in Italy)... I have so much to blog about.