Week 14! - Beautiful Weather and Being Outside!

Hello again everyone! This week was pretty relaxing. Monday was normal and I had all my regular classes. But on Tuesday we didn’t have school because it was a holiday. Here in Germany the first of May is a holiday that is traditionally celebrated by going for a hike. Because the younger boys didn’t want to go for a long walk, we split up and the girls went for a walk with Renate’s parents and the boys went to a park and played some mini golf. All in all everyone had a a lot of fun. The walk we went on was very beautiful. We passed many “old time” appliances. There was an old hydropower saw which was really cool. Basically it used the power of a wheel that was being powered by a river to saw logs in half. It’s simple technology but still fascinating. There was also an old rope making factory. We got to take a tour of an old house from a long long time ago which was really interesting. The tour guide spoke with a dialect that I couldn’t understand so Renate translated for me. Some interesting things I learned is that obviously, the house was heated by a fire stove. But what was smart was that they stored all their meats in a spot where all the smoke went so that their meat would be more flavorful and store for longer amounts of time. They also had a lot of old machines that were used in that time that were cool to look at. Then at the end of the tour Rahel and I got to use the old fashioned machines to make ropes! They used plastic stuff for my rope, but for Rahel’s rope they used the natural material and it turned out a lot cooler. Renate wants to go back with Noah and Timo so they can have ropes too and hopefully then I can get a natural material rope too haha! After we got our ropes, we started our walk. It was very beautiful with many waterfalls and a cute little trail. It was very steep with many staircases that were almost more like ladders. Overall it was a very fun day and definitely beat a day of school. 

Video of the log saw!

Explanation of how the saw works.

One of the MANY cute little waterfalls we saw on our walk.

Rope making!

Wednesday flew by too because our last class, Religion, was cancelled. Here when the teacher can’t come to work because they are sick, or have an appointment, class is just cancelled. There are no substitutes. I prefer this because usually in America when I have a substitute, it feels like the time is wasted. 

Then on Thursday, our first class was cancelled so we got to sleep in, and because I don’t take Latin and Latin is the last class, I got to leave extra early! 

Then it was Friday which was a normal day, but I still couldn’t believe it was the end of the week! I also really liked Friday because my German class went really well. It’s usually pretty hard to follow along in German, but on this particular day, the bulk of the lesson was to discuss a quote, but on a piece of paper. This made things so much easier for me because the conversation went much slower and it was all written out so I could see what was being said. I felt proud of myself and how much I actually knew. 

Also on Friday Noah had a big presentation I was invited to. Him and all his classmates have been working on a presentation all year that they got to choose. Some kids choose history related topics, but most kids did science. Noah’s was about the stars. I also went to presentations about meat eating plants, lighthouses, the solar system, and Native Americans. I found it all so interesting and I loved seeing how proud all the kids were presenting their topics. I also just found it so interesting how it was all in German. I know that’s not surprising, but I was just in awe that these kids could give such amazing and engaging presentations in German! It was so impressive to me! There was even a girl who gave a presentation and she’s only been learning German for 3 years. It was so inspiring and very motivating. 

On Saturday I was pretty busy. I woke up pretty early (because I’m a morning person) and wanted to go into the city. I ate breakfast and got ready but then I didn’t really have anything else to do so I just left. I took my time riding my bike there, but even still I was way too early. It was already 8 o’clock but almost every shop was still closed. Most of the signs said that they didn’t open until 10 so I knew I had quite a bit of time to kill. I locked my bike and then took a really long walk all around. There were very few people there so it was very quiet and peaceful. The market in the very center of town was busy but other than that it was very still. It was also a very nice temperature so I enjoyed just walking around. Eventually some stores began to open but I still had a long time until the stores I wanted to go to were open, so I bought a bag of dehydrated mango (my favorite food right now) and sat on a bunch and ate some. It was very lovely. Then when the stores I wanted to go to were finally open at 10, the whole city seemed to wake up. The streets were full of people and all the street performers came and filled the streets with music. I love the vibe the city gets with all the music and people. It just makes me so happy. I spent my time just going around to all the shops and looking at everything. It was nice to just take my time and look around. I bought a new book (as I’m still really enjoying reading lately) and also a birthday present for a friend who has a party next week. When I came back to our apartment it was about time for lunch and I was very hungry. Then I read my book and cleaned my desk and left for dance school! Dance school this week was really fun this week! We learned a new dance, “The ChaChaCha” and practiced some old ones too. 

Sunday was also fun packed day. We relaxed in the morning and then after lunch we went to a really big park. We found a nice shady spot under a tree and set up camp for a couple hours. The weather was so nice and I loved just being outside. We played some mini golf (I got 2nd place haha) and we also played a really fun game called Kupps. We just got this game very recently, but we’ve played it a lot. Apparently I’m pretty good at Kupps so whenever we play Timo always wants to be on my team. I love it and think it’s adorable. Basically the game is throwing some wooden sticks at wooden blocks and trying to knock them down. There’s more to it than that, and it’s actually really fun, but that’s the short summary. I also got to just sit in the shade and read my book which was lovely. Then after being at the park for about 5 hours, we went to the city to see who won the election for the mayor of Freiburg. The election’s been going on for the past couple weeks, but today was the final vote. Martin Horn won, but he’s not who we wanted to win because he doesn’t even live in Freiburg, he lives outside of Freiburg and just seemed to want to be a mayor. But I’m glad it’s over because there were so many posters all over the city and it was getting kind of annoying. 

That’s pretty much the update for this week! I hope you enjoyed reading and as always if you have any questions or comments feel free to email me! (I don’t always get comments when you leave them below, it doesn’t always work!) Have a great week!