I hiked the Eistobel in Allgäu with my host mom and sister two days ago (on Sunday). It is one of the most beautiful sites that I have seen thus far in Bavaria. It was a really surreal experience. We went at about 11:30 AM and did not return back home until about 6 PM. The trip to the Eistobel took about an hour one-way, but it was so worth it! On a typical day, from where I live in Amberg (near Buchloe), I am able to see a faint outline of the Alps. It's really beautiful. But what I do not normally see are the tinier mountains that are available for hiking. Eistobel was one of those unknown treasures for me. It was also pretty neat that I could look from them and see the Alps quite closer while knowing that they surround Schweiz (Switzerland) and Österrich (Austria); it made me appreciate hiking this particular mountain even more. (One day, my host family is  planning to take me around the lake that hits all three countries, so I'll technically be able to say that I have been to all three countries. Cool, eh? ;)
The Eistobel have a lot of waterfalls and little areas to sit/eat. It was such a peaceful way to spend a Sunday. Aside from actually hiking, Ami, her mom, and I spent about an hour simply skipping rocks. Or, in my case, attempting to skip rocks. Hahah. We also waded in the water a bit, which was super fun, but a little cold.
By the way, all of these photos belong to Amelie. They are beyond amazing!

Meine Gästemutter und Ich. :)

Yesterday and today have been so fun. Last night, Amelie and I went to a camping trip/sleepover at Simone's house in Schwabmünchen for Keegan and Tamara's 16th birthday. Everyone was there, but Asad ended up going home at about 12:15 AM because he had something to do early today. We roasted stockbrot (stick bread), stargazed (there were four shooting stars, holy crap!), drank a bit of champagne once midnight hit (Keegan accidently popped it open earlier), listened to a bunch of music, and talked + laughed. It was really fun. We also stood in the front yard and some attempted to ride a unicycle, which is apparently very popular here in Germany. Ami was able to ride it, and Elsa was too (she is in the Chicago Youth Circus as a gym wheeler). Keegan attempted to ride the unicycle, but he failed miserably. Hahah. By the end of the night (which was technically morning -i.e. 3 something AM), I ended up falling asleep near our makeshift campfire - i.e. a candle.

Once we all woke up (which was about 8 in the morning), we got ready and had breakfast. Tamara's mom brought a cake, but I didn't have any because it was so early in the morning. I just had wheat bread with jam. After that, we all laid down once more, talked, and eventually took down the humongous tent that was up. (No lie, the tent was freaking huge!) Well, it was more like Tamara, Simone, and Elsa took the tent down. Whoops. 

When it was time for everyone to leave, Ami and I dropped off Alexandra and Elsa. Tamara rode her bike over to Simone's house, so she had to bike home. The ride back to Amberg was only about 25 minutes. When we got home, Ami and I attempted to watch Top Gun, but we both drifted off to sleep. I slept on her couch for about 30 minutes to an hour before I got up and went to my bedroom. I did not wake back up until about 5 PM. I made myself a sandwich with salami (pepperoni), turkey, and cheese. It was really good. After I ate, I talked with my host mom for a while about stereotypes of Germany and the US, which was a pretty good conversation.
The stereotype of Germany is that the people are mean and always upset. That is the opposite of what they are really like. Germans (I do not want to generalize, so I am referring to the ones I have met or talked to, but also ones that I haven't...hmm) are very kind. Strangers will say "Guten Morgen" or "Hallo". Germans have a very wide sense of humor; they are always laughing. It's really hilarious, to be honest. Also, Germans smile a lot. If you look confused, alone, happy, sad, anything at all and you make eye contact, they will smile at you. Also, they are always willing to help you. As someone who knows very little German right now, I can tell you that I have not yet gotten lost in Germany because someone is always willing to direct you.
One my host mom and I were finished talked, I went to take a shower because, one, I camped last night/early this morning, and two, we were going to a BBQ at our neighbor's house at 7 PM. After the shower, I finished my laundry, which was now hung up outside to dry. Not too long after that, we arrived at our neighbor's house, we were ushered to the back and given a glass of red wine. This was the first time I realized that, hey, I'm seriously in Germany. Back home, it is illegal to drink anything under the age of 21. In Germany, you only have to be 16 to drink wine and beer and 18 for hard liquor. We greeted everyone as they came (three other families), raised our glasses, and said,"Prost!" which translates to 'cheers' in English. 

We received another wine glass and one water glass for the duration of dinner. We were served white wine, which tastes a bit odd, but I came to enjoy the taste of it. The barbecue as a whole really delicious. I ate a salad with zucchini, mushrooms (I think), tomatoes, and paprika (peppers), roast beef with onions over it and some sauce, a fried blueberry,  rice, and beef mit paprika und beef mit curry. My favorite was the beef mit curry.

Once abendessen was finished, we were able to eat dessert, which was yummy! Since being in Germany, my sweet tooth has come back full force. I've eaten many ice-creams and unnecessary treats. We were also asked if we wanted some Sangria, and I had some. It was really delicious. (Cue Blake Shelton's song, Sangria) While we were snacking on dessert and drinking, I practiced my German with the other younger people sitting near me. It was Annalina, Elina, Karina, and Johannes (plus Ami). They all helped teach me not German, but Bavarian, which is a different German dialect. That was pretty entertaining. I learned about how the Oktoberfest technically starts in September now, but once upon a time, it began in Oktober, which is why it's called the Oktoberfest. And, in Bavaria, it is Wies'n.
Once 11:30 came around  (about an hour + 30 minutes ago here), Ami and I came back home. And now, I am posting this. And yes, everyone is still next door (I can hear them from my room). 

Monday was my first day of OLC/OSK (language camp) in Schwabmünchen.  To start the morning off, Ami and I got ready and drove to the train station, where we took a 7:40 AM train from Buchloe to Schwabmünchen.  Trying to catch that train was extremely tiring because Amelie had to buy her ticket, and she was quickly walking throughout the station. I had no idea where to go while she was disappearing up stairs and stuff; plus, I was wearing my Birks, which made chasing after her so much harder. Haha. But in the end, it turned out to be okay because we made it on the train. We had a ten minute ride.
Once we arrived in Schwabmünchen, we we waited for about five minutes to meet up with Elsa and her host family.  We all walked (a very long distance it seemed like at the time because es war sehr heiß!) to the school where our language camp is being held. For the first day, YFU held a breakfast for the families of the host students as well as the host students themselves. My host mom and dad could not attend because they had to work, but Amelie came. And although I highly do appreciate how much she has been helping me, I can admit that it felt really nice to be able to communicate in fluid English with others for the first time in a few days (Elsa, Savannah, Keegan, Asad, and Daelin). However, I was mostly quiet this part of the day because a lot of German was being spoken, and I was on the opposite end of the table from other English speakers. Oh well. It was still a very nice breakfast.

After breakfast, all of the host families and students introduced themselves.  Then, we put a sticker with our names written on it on a map of Schwabmünchen. After that, our teachers spoke to our families in German before dismissing them to chat among themselves while us students were led away to our classroom.  We chatted about quite a bit, including expectations, fears, and pretty much anything in between.  They told us that today (Thursday or Donnerstag), we are going on a scavenger hunt in Scwabmünchen. Once that was over, we were able to leave school early, at about 1:30 PM because we were done for the day.
Muriel took Ami and I to the train station, where we were waiting for a train to return to Buchloe.  There, Ami began to help me practice my German; how do you say that, what time did your parents get home, etc. Once we got back to Buchloe, Ami took me to LDS to get a prepaid SIM card.  I got a little overwhelmed at this point because of the language barrier.  I did not know how to ask necessary questions, nor was I able to understand much of what was happening. 
Amelie and I eventually went back home, and she made me some pasta strands, and I added tomatoes, peppers, and grated cheese to it. It was my first time eating pasta like that, but I surprisingly enjoyed it a lot.  While I was eating, Ami ran around the house, slapping post it notes with the German names of the object on the object.  We had a lot of fun with her trying to teach me names.  I'm getting there, haha. Eventually, we sat down, and I wrote twenty vocabulary words/phrases that I would like to know by Freitag (Friday). I learned my numbers by doing this. Cool.
After that, Ami and I sat around and updated our contact lists before going down to her room to watch Abduction with Taylor Lautner. We eventually dozed off until her mom came home. We went upstairs, and since no dinner was prepared, we heated up bread, leftover zucchini and potatoes, and my leftover Weiner. We also made a salad and ate outside.
Once dinner was over, Ami and I went to the fishing dock, at the lake.  She fishes there.  I met some of her friends and their family.  t was pretty awkward, and I was getting a bit frustrated because I could not understand anything, bug were biting me, and I was cold.  However, towards the end of the night, when the fire blazed and the moon started to rise, Ami, her friend, and I sat and played Unblock Me, and I was okay.  I still wanted to leave though. It wasn't because I was bored and was upset; I had to wake up early the next morning for my OLC/OSK.
When we were saying our goodbyes to everyone, one man attempted to speak to my in English, which was pretty nice.  I enjoyed the interaction.  I even attempted to speak German to him as well.  Once we left, Ami and I chatted about how we wanted to keep in touch once we separate, and hopefully visit one another.  It was a pretty nice, hot summer day. 

Sunday was a pretty relaxing day. I did not wake up until about noon, and once I did, I went downstairs to find Ami outside with breakfast.  We sat out there, her on her laptop, me grubbing. It was really peaceful. I ate pretzels with Nutella, raspberries, and tomatoes. I drank orange juice.  The atmosphere was very peaceful; I love warm mornings in nature. While we sat outside, Ami's mom eventually came out and we chatted for a while before she had to go and pick up her dad.
After Mrs. Gruẞl left, Ami and I stayed outside for a long time on our laptops. I finished filling out the Common Application, writing a blog post, and reading the news. We listened to rock music he entire time on a low volume, which was really cool. I finally found someone who enjoys that genre of music, like me. Haha. I eventually went back up to my bedroom so that I could get my book that I purchased at Chicago O'Hare: Paper Towns. It. is. such. a. good. book. It is so quotable, haha.
I eventually went back inside of the house so that I could make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. (Turns out, the rumors are a lie. Germany does have peanut butter, however, they do not have graham crackers or Chex cereal, which is what I would have need to make puppy chow. Boo.) Then, Ami and I went to the basement, which is where her room is, and we watched Mockingjay Pt. 1 with Deutsch subtitles. After that movie ended, we watched Pitch Perfect in English and had a mini-singalong. After we finished that movie, I pulled Pitch Perfect 2 up on my laptop (which was surprisingly so easy for a free version). We watched that until it was time for dinner. For dinner, we had barbecue, which was beyond amazing. Germans sure know how to barbecue. Haha. I had a wiener, three pieces of zucchini (yum!), and potatoes. I never imagined that I would enjoy Zucchini, but I do. I also tried Aueergime, but I did not really favor that. I also drank a lot of Sprite; maybe I should switch to Wasser soon? (Water, btw)
After dinner, I helped clean up and then we Skyped with my family back home. It was nice to be able to see my parents, sister, and Granny again.  Also, my sister's friend was over, and I got the chance to finally meet her.  The schedule that we have is to skype every Sunday. I think that will be nice: start and end every week with a chat with my parents.
Soon after we Skyped, Ami and her mom helped me fill out necessary stuff that I needed to get to the OSK/OLC (language orientation). For instance, my train ticket. Yesterday, Ami took me to the train station and we traveled for about ten minutes before arriving in Schwabmünchen, where we met up with Elsa and her host family to walk for about 2.5 km (~1 mile) to the OLC.
Once we finished filling out all of the necessary documents, Ami, her mom, her dad, I took a bottle of wine to a neighbor because it was his birthday. I think that is a very nice and genuine thing to do. Back in Michigan, we don't even know our neighbor's birthdays, nor do we take them a gift. (Funny story: apparently 'gift' means 'poison' in German. Hahaha.) Then, after chatting for a bit, we all went to Buchloe, got ice cream (I got vanilla), and walked around town. Buchloe is a nice, quaint town.  When we were about to leave and go back home, we ran into Ami's dad's old colleague, and it was quite awkward on my behalf.  I could not understand anything, and nobody spoke to me, so I stood there and awkwardly smiled. Hehe.

Finally, we returned home, and Ami and I watered all of the plants, which proved to be a lot harder in the dark. Hey, at least I can tell my Granny when I get back home that I helped to keep up a garden. For the rest of the night, Ami and I finished watching Pitch Perfect 2, which, ironically, ended up being the USA vs. Germany. Cool stuff. 

Holy. Crap. Last night was pretty interesting. I went to the Blues Brothers musical with my host sister, Amelie, and her best-friends, Josca and Dan. At about six o'clock, Josca came to pick me and Ami  up from our house, and then we all went ot pick up Dan.  From there, we made our way onto the autobahn towards Augsburg, Germany.  I feel the need to briefly digress and say one thing about the autobahn: it is extremely FAST! The autobahn does not have speed limits. They have speed recommendations. The lowest recommendation that I saw was about 100 km, which isn't much in miles (62 mph). But most parts did not have any recommendations. Some people were probably going (according to Ami) 200 km, which is about 120 mph. That is something that I most definitely am not used to. Thankfully, Josca did not drive that fast, but cars passing by us on the left were, and you could definitely hear the engines revving and the dust flying past them. (I'm kidding on the latter. There was no dust. The cars were too clean + shiny to even think about that.)

Once we arrived in Augsburg, after some time of being lost because of missed turns and eventually having to use Google Maps, we had to park. Mind you, a lot of cars in Germany are tiny. Tiny, like smart car tiny. Of course, there are also Crossovers and Jaguars and Mercedes and other popular, nice cars, but most of the cars here in Southern Germany seem to be super tiny because the streets are, well, super tiny. Anyways, because of limited parking at the parking garage, it was hard to find a parking spot. Scarily, Josca tried to fit into a kind of non-existent space until Ami realized that the bottom section of the car park was nearly empty, so we reversed and went there. After we parked, we all had to walk a bit of a ways to get to the entryway (Section B) of the theater. I could feel people staring at me because I am, well, not the average German citizen by looks, and two, because I was speaking English. It was really weird, haha. But eventually I got over it, and it didn't bother me so much. Another different thing was that I could legally buy beer or wine. While I didn't, the fact that I could blew. my. mind. 

Blues Brothers musical turned out to be really entertaining. All of the songs were in English minus one or two, but the rest of the musical (the talking) was in German, which was confusing for me. People were laughing, and I either acted like I knew what was happening and joined in on the laughter, or I sat there like a bumbling idiot with no sense of humor. Harhar. Good times. Ami attempted to translate for me at times, but I told her she could stop because the musical was fast-paced, and translating was too heinous. But that was okay because I still understood the plot.  While I did enjoy the musical, I was not as interactive as I wish I would have been. Not understanding a language and having to meet new people who spoke mostly German was tiring. Plus, I am normally quite reserved until I feel comfortable, no matter where I go, so that was also a factor. By the end of the musical, however, I was feeling a tad bit better. Next time I see Josca or Dan (if I do at all), I hope that I will be more of myself. I start my OLC (language camp) tomorrow, so hopefully I will be better improved in my non-existent German. Haha.   

Why can't I be normal? Departing from DTW, I started to think about how my parents and sister are going to leave the airport, drive back home and continue to live their daily lives. Then, the next thought was how my school my schoolmates are enjoying their summers and are preparing to enter their senior year of high school - our senior year.  Without me.  I know that school does not revolve around me being there, but I also do know how my best friend, other friends, and I always talked about how this would "our year".  Senior year was supposed to be everything.

Alas, I am here, in Germany, while everyone is back home in Michigan.  I am with my temporary host mom, dad, and sister, living a new life.  I honestly never expected to be here. Germany. What is Germany? That's how I used to think. Now, I know better. Germany is the place where I am going to learn a lot about a new culture, learn a new language, mature, become more independent, meet new friends, and hopefully find out who I really want to be in life. (Btw: this experience makes my senior year so much more awesome if that was interpreted any other way. Haha. It's just different than I expected.)

Sometimes I wonder why I am so anxious to get out and explore. It seems like I am at the phase in my life where I just want to go, go, go. Last summer, I jetted off to Stanford University for two months. This year, well, actually now, I  am in Germany for double that time plus one (i.e. 5 months and some days). Next year, I am considering taking a year off from university to volunteer abroad or do a semester at sea.  I guess that's why this blog is called Sempiternal Wanderer. I want to wander, explore, and discover as long as I live.  Considering that I am only seventeen, I'd say that I am off to a pretty good start.

I think I've digressed enough. The point of this post is so that I can pretty much word vomit about how although I am missing the beginning of my senior year (gah!), I am being awarded the chance of a lifetime to do something that not a lot of high school students can. Sure, I might be sad for a bit; I might miss my "normal" life in a way, but this is only the beginning. I can foreshadow my time here, and I think it is going to be a good one. There is so much to do, so much to see, so many people to meet. So, hm...I guess it isn't too bad of a thing that I am not as normal as I once wished. Oh well. #wandererforthewin