It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... and I LIKE IT

Hey folks,

I hope you all had an excellent Thanksgiving full of good food and family. Also, to those of you who braved Black Friday, congratualtions on surviving and I hope you found all that you were looking for.

Now the recap of the weekend.

We left for the city of Essen on Friday afternoon. Essen was a very big industrial city and was almost completly destroyed during the war. Anyways, it's about a 2 hour drive west from Hann. Muenden and we arrived around 2:30 in the afternoon. We went to a museum for a while and looked at alot of paintings. Don't get me wrong, I love a good Museum but after a while they all begin to look alike. Perhaps i am just not cultured enough, perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.
After the museum we walked back to Inga's brothers apartment, where we were staying.
They had such a cool apartment. Exactly what i pictured as the posh big city apartment.
We hung around the apartment the rest of the afternoon, had dinner and then went and saw
Casino Royale (the new James Bond film) I thought it was really good and i actually understood alot...so that made me happy.

Woke up Saturday, did some touring of Essen. Visited an old coal factory, which is now a Museum. Then saturday night we went to the Christmas Market, (every city has one, it goes from the end of Nov till Christmas) And i must say this has been one of my favorite things about Germany. There is just alot of small little shops set up and everyone is eating, drinking Gluhwine and enjoying themselevs. I think it is about as typically german as one can get and I loved every minute of it. I began the night by consuming some class curry wurst. I think moved on to the french fry special, which is french frys, ketchup, mayo and onions. After that i sampled some gluhwine before finshing off the evening with a crepe filled with nutella. Pretty much amazing.

Overall it was an excellent and I am so thankful for my host family and all the people who have been so kind and welcoming.

School as usual yesterday and Today. Nothing too much happening on that front.

I have another Rotary weekend this upcoming weekend. Should be fun as usual.

As most of you know this is my favorite time of year and i will greatly miss all of you. But to quote a great song "In a year we all will be together"

Well i think that is all for now. Love you all.

Tyler

It's a great day to be an American.

I am going to be out of town this weekend so this update will include me reaching three months here in Germany and my Thanksgiving update.

First and foremost,
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Today the ol' cliche rings true, "you never know how much you need something/someone until they are no longer there" Well this has occured thousands over these 3 months but Thanksgiving is one thing that I am very sad I am missing out on.
So, enjoy your Turkey and most importantly enjoy the family and friends you are spending it with.

However, despite the fact that I am not in America for this very American holiday it does not mean that all is lost. Thanks do some planning and a little bit of imagination, me and the other American at my school kindly brought Thanksgiving to the Germans.

I invite you to enjoy the photos.

So, as you can see we dressed up and received some very inquizitive and puzzled looks from our fellow classmates. Overall, i think it was a success and something the will not soon forget.

Saturday is 3 months!!!! 3 down 6 to go. Here is a couple observations about the first 3 months.


1. When Rotary said the first 3 months were going to be hard, they werent kidding and perhaps i should have paid better attention.

2. These three months have been very hard but very rewarding at the same time. But despite this change and all that is happened i am thankful for it because i have learned more about myself and i have grown more as a person in these 3 months than i ever thought i would.

3. I miss home alot. But i am thankul for this experience.


I leave for Essen tommorow. So more pictures and another update to come on Sunday.

I love you all and I will talk to you soon.

Good night and Good luck

Tyler


Was wir alleine nicht schaffen. Das schaffen wir dann zusammen

Germany...in case you forgot

Nothing much to report since my last post on wednesday. Life goes on as i am continually settling into a routine and adjusting to life in Germany.

Thursday was school as usual, soccer practice was cancelled so i had a nice relaxing evening.

Friday was really good. As i have mentioned before Ingas mom is her and it was her B-day on Friday. So, we had a fondue dinner and sat around and talked for a while. Then Phillip and i watched some more 24.

Slept in on saturday. did nothing but watch 24 and relax until about 9 o'clock when i went to a birthday party of this girl in my class. Had a lot of fun dancng and talking with people. Got home really late and slept in.

Sunday brought alot of same. More 24. We finshed the third season. Very good as usual.

Tommorow is another week that brings us closer to Christmas. If you can't tell thats all I'm really focused on at this point. Miss all of you and i hope you all had great weekends.

Love,

Tyler

Wed Novemeber 15

Today i woke up as usual, purchased the ever delicious rolls from the local bakery, ate breakfast, left the comfort of "home" and once again went to school. I was listening to Jack Johnson (Banana Pancakes, if you were wondering) when all of a sudden i heard my name as i was getting ready to enter the school. Turning around i was greeted by one of my classmates who uttered the most wonderful words in the german lanuage "fehlt aus" Alone these words mean nothing and have no great significance. But when used in the same sentence as school, something magical happens. These 2 words (atually one but seperated because the german language does that) mean that something was cancelled. And that something happened to be my first 2 periods. Thanking my classmate for this wonderful knowledge, I promptly turned around, smiled, walked home and went back to bed. That's a good way to start the day.

I watched The Man in the Iron Mask last night. I actually understood alot. that made me happy.

Inga's mom arrived today because it is her birthday this weekend.

Phillip and i plan on watching 24 tonight. Can't wait to see Jack Bauer do what he does best.

Half way through the week.

Love you all.

Good night and Good Luck

Tyler

PS. The pictures are not from Germany. I just really like them

And so school begins... (again)

Before i discuss my my first day back at school let me first recap the weekend.

At the grand hour of 4:00 AM on SaturdayI was greeted by the wonderful sound of alarm. Now i know what you are thinking, why would anyone get up at this ungodly hour? The answer is quit simple. Despite the fact that the German train system is supurb, it does not always fit your own personal agenda. So, in order to be in Hannover at 8:00 Luis and I had to depart Hann Muenden at 4:40. Arriving in Hannover we were greeted by pouring rain, cold weather and about 20 other exchange students. Now here are two observations when a group of exchange students get together. 1. For some reason every seems to speak 3 times louder than needed. 2. we stick out like sore thumbs and are about as un-German as one can get. On the train ride to Hamburg I met an exchange student from Australia that has been here since Januray 12th. We had a great conversation and it was very encouraging to talk to someone who is almost finshed with their exchange. Its amazing how quickly you can connect with people.

We finally arrived in Hamburg and once again were greeted by rain and freezing temperatures. Despite mother natures best attempts this did not stop us from completing a tour of the city on foot. (See picture of me with the strange look on my face) Hamburg is a very posh city and has a huge shipping industry. After completing the city tour, we boarded a boat and did a boat tour of the River Elbe and saw where they load the huge ocean freighters with goods. After that some free time and then we headed back "home" I arrived back in Hann. Muenden at 12:30. To say the least I was exhausted.

I woke up around noon on Sunday and did absolutly nothing. Thats one thing that I do love about Germany or more specificaly my family. On Sundays we usually have a big brunch around noon and then we just hang out. I love it.

But unfortunately a wonderful weekend had to come to a close. I woke up monday morning and went to back to school. Well nothing much has changed. I still understand very little, I have superfical 30 second conversations with a few people, I look up german words, think about home and then realize that I still have 3 periods left. Oh well.

6 weeks till Christmas, that is all I am focused on. But nonetheless each day is so bitter sweet. I know when this experience is over I will be so thankful that I did it. I have already learned so much. But each day I miss my family and friends so much its almost unberable. I have the best family and freinds anyone could ask for and I am blessed beyond words. I tell myself everyday to be content and be thankful for a that have here in Germany because I have so much to be thankful for.

I miss you all so much.

Much Love,

Tyler

Just me and James Taylor...kickin it

Thank you James Taylor for all of your music.

Well now that we got that out of the way we can move on to the update.

I finshed my practicum today and couldn't help but smile at the job that i had helped complete. It was 10 hard days of work but I must say this new deck looks amazing. This week was really good for my German vocab because I was forced to learn alot of new words. For example, wheelbarrow, shovel, broom, saw, ect.

As we were driving home today the man I did my practicum with thanked me for my hard work and said that I really helped out alot.
Thats right, changing the "Lazy American" image one person at a time.

Nothing much happening tonight. Phillip and I plan on watching some 24 and just hanging out.

I'm going to Hamburg tommorow to meet up with some other exchange students for the day.
I'm am super excited to see Hamburg. So, after tommorow I will have seen the 3 of the biggest cities in Germany. Berlin, Munich, Hamburg.

School begins again on Monday but only 6 weeks and then Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!

no idea what this should be called

Brent left today. once again i had to say goodbye to one of my best friends. enough said.

Nevertheless i am so thankful for the time we had together. i cannot describe how much i enjoyed our 10 days together. I am humbled beyond belief and so thankful for our friendship and the frienship with all my boys for that matter. You know who you are. Words cannot describe how much i care for them. Maybe thats why our friendship is so special. It goes beyond words and is rooted in something so deep, I'm not even sure we recognize it most of the time.

I begin another week of my practicum tommorow. So, if anyone needs a new stone deck built you know who to call. It looks like Gav and I will be expanding the lawn mowing business to deck building as well. ;)

I played my first soccer game yesterday. We lost. Despite that fact, if felt good to play again.

And so another week begins here in Germany. Sorry this was short. I'm not really in the mood to write. but more to come tommorow. Much love to everyone.

Good night and Good Luck,

Tyler

It's Cold Here...

1. Brent is still here. Words cannot describe how happy this makes. Words cannot describe how much fun we have had. We have had shared so many laughs, had some amazing talks and sampled some German beer. Thats the equation for pure bliss.







2. I started my parcticum this week. I am absolutly exhausted. We are building a new deck for a lady that lives in goettingen. What does this involve? Me hauling bricks out of the backyard and placing them on the street. The getting the new bricks (large sandstone blocks of solid rock) and bringing them into the backyard.

3. It snowed today. It was absolutly freezing. Not a lot of snow but it made me so excited for christmas and winter!!!

4. My soccer game was cancelled.

5. I'm exhausted.

Hello November.

Good Night and Good Luck,

Tyler