The Week of Halloween

Monday, Oct 29th- Nov. 4th

   I had a really nice week. Though the title of this post includes "Halloween,"  I didn't really do all that much for the night of fright. Apparently, Halloween has only recently gotten popular in Germany, and even then it's not that widespread. The kids don't get to dress up and get free candy (a travesty, in my opinion), but there are costume parties around town. However, this is only one costume shop in all of Dortmund, so they can basically charge whatever price they want. Without a costume, I decided to stay home for Halloween. I didn't want to be that one person that shows up with no costume and then awkwardly stands around for the rest of the party while everyone else secretly talks about them and their lack of creativity or Halloween spirit.

I decided to watch a scary movie and eat some candy instead. In hindsight, this probably wasn't the best idea since I am a self-professed scaredy-cat. My roommate was also out of town, so I was alone to cope with my fear. I chose to watch a classic, Friday the 13th. Even though I watched it with all the lights on and the volume turned down really low, I was still scared by the end of it. I decided to just go to bed (lights still on, of course). Around 1 AM,  I heard a knock on the door. I immediately resolved to not open the door. I've seen what happens when you answer the door, alone, on Halloween night! Whoever it was must have found someone else to creep out because they went away after I didn't answer.

The day after Halloween is a holiday in Germany. I got to spend most of it with Ann-Kathrin. She brought me along to the open house of her mom's adorable boutique/florist. I even got to meet her grandpa, grandma, and aunt as well! They were all super nice and welcoming, and we had all the delicious cider and fresh waffles we could eat. I also bought a really pretty Christmas ornament and candle.

Yay for Christmas ornaments!

After the event was over, we drove home. However, Ann-Kathrin stopped at Carl's house on the way to pick up a package for him. While we were there, I got to meet his family as well. His dad recommended some of his favorite museums in the area and his mom and sister invited us to New Year's. We also discussed the different Christmas traditions in Germany and America, and I was excited to recognize we shared some of the same ones. The proper name is a "pomander" but I usually just describe it as an orange that you stick cloves in, and it smells awesome.

It usually looks like this:

It was such a fun day, and I can't wait to see both Carl and Ann-Kathrin's families again.

On Friday (Nov. 2nd), I also spent the day with Ann-Kathrin, along with her friend Laura. We went to Movie Park, a theme park that stays open later the week of Halloween, and has people dressed up as monsters to scare everyone. They even have several haunted houses set up throughout the park. The purpose of the trip (besides having fun!) was actually for a class. In my British horror class, instead of writing a standard essay, we have the option of writing an essay about a trip to this theme park. However, since all three of us are easily frightened, we decided to get to the park early so we could enjoy most of the rides in the daylight. We rode a lot of them, but my favorite by far was an old wooden roller coaster, which we rode three times.

I also had to laugh at the names of the rides. The park used to be owned by Warner Brothers, but was later sold to MGM. However, the rides are still Warner Brothers themed. For example, we rode a time travel ride thats name was "Back to the Movies." It even had the same logo as Back to the Future. For some reason, it was narrated by John Cleese (?), but it was fun nonetheless. There was a museum of movie props as well, and we got to take pictures in the boxing ring from Rocky.

They also had some really cool props, like an Indiana Jones whip and a sword from Lord of the Rings. However, I was really excited to get a photo with one of the costumes from Kill Bill

At 6 pm, the park shifted into scary mode. People in costume were walking around the park, and they had fog machines set up to make it difficult to see. We probably made easy targets, since we all linked arms and flinched our way through the park. However, once you were scared by the ghost/zombie/vampire/other, you could take a picture with them! We got a group picture with Dracula and Ann Kathrin was even brave enough to take a photo with Jason.

We only went into one of the haunted houses. Most were rated 17 and up, so we decided the one with the 12 year age limit wouldn't be that bad. We were wrong. I don't know if I've ever been more scared in my life, I just held on to Ann Kathrin and Laura and rushed on through. I kept my eyes half-closed most of the time, so I didn't see much. I am sure a more experienced horror buff would have scoffed at this haunted house, but it was enough for us and we left the park as soon as we made it through. All in all, it was a great time, and I would love to go back to ride some more roller coasters.

That's it for this week, Schüss!

German Word of the Day: Der Nebel- "fog" Der Nebel makes haunted houses 10 times scarier. 

Third and Fourth Day of Class!

Wednesday, Oct. 10th 

Today I only had one class. It was taught by Selma (my boss). In addition to taking her class on Culture and Technology, I am also taking a course with her about progress narratives in American literature. I've got even more reading to do now! Luckily, I'm familiar with most of the stuff we are will be reading. I was kind of bummed out that we are covering The Great Gatsby. I mean, it's a great book, but I had a class last semester where we  discussed it in depth. This is in addition to the two months we spent on the book in 10th grade. So yeah, by the end of this year, I will be a Gatsby expert (and will probably not want to ever hear about it for another 10 years). 

We are also looking at The Yellow Wallpaper and A Rose For Emily. Guess who had a short story class last semester that dealt with these two? If you guessed "Joanna" then you are a correct! Guess who also covered these stories their senior year of high school? If you guessed "Joanna" you are correct again! Good guessing! Oh well, I shouldn't complain, at least the stories are interesting, and I will have a lot of background knowledge/experience to bring to the discussion.

After class, I was free for the day. So, naturally, I went to the TKmaxx. I wasn't really looking for anything, I just wanted to browse some more. I was also in town collecting souvenirs to take home. I'll only be home for a week, but I am catching up with a lot of people, and I don't want to show up empty-handed. 

I also sampled some more German cuisine! Right next to the waffle stand, there is a Kamp's, which is a major bakery chain in Germany. I had passed this place many times, and it was time to try something. I spotted a a beef sausage wrapped in a cheese covered preztel. This was what I decided on, it was listed as a "Bobby," I'm not really sure who or what that is, but it was delicious nonetheless. 

That's it for today, Schüss!

German Word of the Day: Der Honig- "honey" I like my tea with der Honig, but some people prefer sugar.

Thursday, Oct. 11th

Today I had my first discussion group. It was at 8:30 am, so I had to be up a little earlier that usual. My class only has 7 people in it, so it's manageable. Selma told us that the course was more popular in the Summer Semester, and we could have up to 30 people in our groups! So this is a nice preparation for that. We only had to do Icebreakers today, and I think they all enjoyed it. The point of the groups is to discuss what was taught in class that week, but the main objective is for them to practice their English.

For their icebreaker, they were supposed to interview their neighbor, and one of the questions gave them trouble. It said to describe yourself in three words. Only two of them actually came up with adjectives. The rest left it blank and told me it was "hard to limit someone's character/life in just 3 words." Wow. These are some deep thinkers here. They also didn't like the question that asked who you would choose to be if you could be anyone else in the world. I don't think a single person came up with a response. They said "Why would I want to be someone else? I am content with who I am and don't think you should spend your life wishing you were someone else." Wow again. I thought it was an innocent enough question, but apparently not. When it was my turn I told them that I'd like to be Homer from The Simpsons or maybe Indiana Jones. They laughed and I felt better about them loosening up.

We got done early (since they skipped two of the questions), but Selma told us to try and avoid letting them go super early. So I had to stall. Which, by the way, is not all that easy when no one talks back. I asked them what their preconceptions about America were and the only response I got was "spring break." I couldn't get them to tell me what their dream jobs were either. One boy did respond, but didn't know the right English word for it. He finally got fed up searching for the word and said "I want to destroy things!" It made me laugh so hard (he laughed too, so I didn't feel bad for laughing at him). I asked if he meant like a building demolition person. In the end, we figured out he is studying to be an engineer that tests the strength of materials like steel and plastics used in airplanes or other industrial objects. In order to test this strength, eventually the steel or whatever is destroyed. It sounded like a really cool job, if I had any math or science skills, that's the type of engineer I would want to be. After successfully stalling for 10 long minutes, I finally let them go. I think it was a good first session, everyone participated and seemed to get along.

After this, I had my class on British Horror. This, along with the Fantasy Bestsellers course, was the class I was most looking forward too. Ann-Kathrin is also registered for this one, so I got to sit next to her.  The teacher was really high energy and you could tell he was passionate about his subject. We will be watching a lot of horror films in this class. I don't really care for scary movies and usually only watch them in the daytime with the volume turned way down, so it doesn't make a lot of sense for me to be taking this class.

However, I really like horror and mystery novels, so maybe it will balance out. Ann-Kathrin isn't so big on horror movies either, so at least I will have a fellow scaredy-cat to commiserate with. There are also two 15-page essays due throughout the course. I was not so excited about this, but the teacher said one of the essays could be substituted with a field trip. The field trip would be a to an amusement park that opens at night during the month of October. It's very similar to Scarowinds back home.  I didn't know what to think. A field trip? Instead of an essay? Um, yes please! Of course, we have to write a short paper on our trip to the amusement park that relates back to what we have learned in class. Either way, I am super-excited to try this out.

When class was over, I had some time to kill. I decided to change sections of the language course since I only have one class on Thursday. Plus all my friends from the beginners course were in the Thursday section, and I missed all of them. It's not that I didn't learn anything in the engineering section on Tuesday, but I just felt more comfortable in this class. I showed up and was lucky enough to get an open spot.  We covered the past-perfect tense today. It was intense (another pun!), and I will definitely have to look over my notes a few times to remember everything.

It was a long day, the language class lasts until 8 at night, so I think I will wrap it up. Schüss!

German Word of the Day: Gestern- "yesterday" Gestern, all my troubles seemed so far away.