Simplicity

An exchange isn't a year in your life, it's a life in a year.

Frohe Weihnachte

Merry Christmas! I hope everyones holiday were great. and also a happy new years to everyone too :D My Christmas was nothing special, just a nice few days spending together with the whole family. Which is exactly what i wanted. Friday night (23rd) we went to Rosenheim and went to the Christkindlmarkt, its a giant christmas market, where a bunch of local vendors sell crafts and food and good stuff.There was so many people there, and there is where you buy the famous glüweihn, i spelled that wrong. but its like a hot wine, and its verry good on cold winter nights, and its really important in german culture for christmas. But the market was cool and it was a good way to spend the first night of holidays with my family.

Christkindlmarkt

The next day was the 24th, which is actually when most of the Christmas celebrating happens here. We went ice skating together, and then to Church, after we came home. Then we opened presents and had a small meal of weiß wurst and kartoffel salat. (white sausage and potato salad). The next day the 25th we just spent the day together and had a big meal of a roast of some sort, some bavarian beer, dumplings (bavarian), and more potato salad. Was really nice to be together with the family for 2 straight days. Here the Christmas is really celebrated on the 24th like i said, and then the 25th and 26th are the two feast days of christmas. 

Christmas Feast Day no. 1 meal

Today I will be going to an Ice hockey game in Rosenheim with some of my old friends from there. Rosenheim has a proffessional team there. Tomorrow i think i am planning a trip to Wasserburg. New Years i think i am going to Munich to spend the new years with Exchange students. And after that I think i will be going to Frankfurt to visit my former exchange brother Jan. He lived in my house about 4 years ago, and he is from Germany. Cant wait to do that. Have a happy holidays and happy new years

What is life?

Wow, for the strangest reason I have been having some very strange conversations with the most random people lately. Well not strange, but probably something that can only happen while on exchange. Firstly my two  host fathers, Exchange Students from Mexico, New Zealand, Finnland, Brasil, and some random German people that I have met. Everyone of them, somehow results in us talking about life. Like the essentials of it. I have no idea how that happens, is it just a coincidence? I started with politics with my two host dads, and both of those times it ended in a talk about what is to be foreign, and the meaning of foreign. What do you define as foreign? and how do you view it? Why different people think different ways? (i.e. Americans vs Germans vs Chinese) We also talked about what is the meaning of wealth? money? happiness? and i have had very similar questions arise when i was talking with my exchange friends. Its so breath taking to be in a different country and here the thoughts of people from other countries. It really is soo amazing to hear somethign other than what americans think about the world. It makes my mind race. For some reason I have this urge to want to talk about these things all the time, and to ask people what the really want to do in life, what do they find valuable and important. While the people in america are pretty much the same mindset and ideas, I want to hear the voices of the other parts of the world. I am so thankful to be on exchange to be able to do that. This absolutely fascinates me, and it makes my mind truly go crazy. I have been thinking about this one subject for months. I also have for some reason the urge to write sort of a life motto, Maybe a paragraph of my simple thoughts of life, and what I believe. Now that I think of it, when I first stumbled upon this subject and viewed it in an intelligent matter, was last year in my English class. Ill give credit where it is due, Mr. Michalec was really a great teacher, and I am glad i was mature enough then to actually give this subject some thought. To think about this whole overarching goals of life is really fascinating, and I find it even more interesting to hear about the goals and views of people from all over the world.
So far my life motto, is at this. and i think it would of been interesting if I wrote this before I came, and now, and at the end of my exchange but nonetheless, I will start now.
I believe in life, one should strive to acquire happiness, and really do whatever it takes to get that. That is the ultimate thing, and one should not take into consideration what another person thinks of them. It is your life and your only life to live, make the best of it truly. I also believe that one should really just relax in life, and not worry over the little things, and be open truly to everything and anything. While my goals arent that different from the average persons, that of getting married and all that, I also want to be a person that after I pass away in life, that people remembered. I want that I did something worthy enough that people will tell my story.

How to explain this?

Well here will be a post of how I have been. Exchange is exhausting. mentally, emotionally, physically, everything. Simply stated.
 Mentally, Hearing a different language all day, it overloads your mind with so many new sounds and words. Now I am taking Italian in school (They are in their first year of learning it, so I can follow), and that would be language number 4 for me. A bit crazy. And also all the other subjects in school, in a different language. Trying to make plans with trains, and meeting other people, trying to figure out how much money you need for weekends, it all overloads your brain. I am struggling to write this post, haha, to actually think coherently and write a comprehend-able post.
Emotionally, exchange is a rollercoaster, not a fun one. One day you feel on top of the world, you feel like youve mastered german, and that you have so many friends, have a bunch of plans, have money =P, and the next its the complete opposite. All of sudden you feel you know zero german, that you feel really alone, and you cant stop but thinking bad thoughts, and it naturally makes you a bit homesick.
Physically, Well even if I dont go climb a mountain, (which I have already climbed 3) Crazy...I still feel extremely tired everynight, and waking up the next morning sucks. =D
From what I understood, this part of exchange is apparently the worst. The part where you get over the initial hype of everything, the part where you are not yet fluent in your host language, and when the holidays start, where homesickness is suppose to hit hard. Added on top of that to my situation, me switching cities and schools, new people, new friends to make. Well we will see how it goes. But I am ready. But still being an exchange student is not easy at all. easily the hardest thing I have ever done. Not having anyone to really fall back on, well you do, you have rotary, and your host parents, but really essentially you are alone. And at age 16 while it feels extremely liberating to be Parent free in a foreign country, it is also a bit uneasy, and overwhelming at times.
But I wont let you forget, this is also the best decision I have ever made in my life. While I dont go writing on here every single little joyous moment of my exchange, still understand, it is simply put as amazing. The people you meet, the things you see, the places you go, are all once in a lifetime opportunities. And my personal favorite, other exchange students, really by themselves no matter how bad your situation is, make everything better. They are truly the greatest friends on the world, and it makes me soo sad to think I have to leave them in 8 or so months. And also to let you know, the good moments overwhelmingly outnumber the bad ones. While exchange is not always glamorous and fun, I truly believe after you do this, there is really nothing I can think of in life that would be harder than this. I should post a picture also, Here it is with some really good exchange friends, Left to Right, Me, Angi (Ecuador) Julia (Brasil) Victor (Mexico) Bianca (Brasil)

Ich soll etwas schreiben

I should write something really, I have been such a bad blogger recently. Well lets just start anyways. Changed cities. I moved from Rosenheim 100,000 people to Aschau 5,000. It is certainely a change getting used to. Rosenheim is about 35 minutes away by train. My new city is very nice, but soo quiet. I was spoiled a bit with my last city, being as big as it is. I believe the 3rd largest in my rotary district. But nonetheless, I am here now. And my new city is directly located between two mountains, right under neath them. So as you could imagine, skiing is huge here. I look forward to trying that. Also the strange thing is, It is November 23rd, the temperature everyday is usually 0 or below Celsius. ( 32 or below F ) and there is noooo snow. SO strange. There is frost every morning, but never snow. It is soo weird, and also, almost every single day it is foggy, and the sun only comes out for a few hours in the afternoon. I also switched schools in my move. So far so good. My new school is soo big, but in general they seem to be more open towards foreigners. My other school, I developed a group of friends but the other people their seemed to be hesitant towards me. Here every where I go, people are introducing themselves and saying hi. I know the first week, I will be popular, because I am the new kid, and it usually goes away after a week or so, but its still fun. Also this school is not as focused on a sole thing of education, it is a more general school. My old school was focused on music and languages. I also took another trip to Wasserburg, with of course the exchange students there. Was an amazing weekend, hundreds of pictures, and memories that will last a lifetime, and a few souvenirs, was one of my better nights so far here in Germany. Deutsch is coming along well, I speak it everyday in school with people, and most of the teachers, I understand about 50 percent of whats going on in school. And in general conversations with people I understand probably about 75 percent of what is being said. Thats if they are speaking high german. If they are speaking Bavarian, forget it. If you dont know, High German is what is considered as the normal german. It is taught in schools, and is used throughout Germany. But here in Bavaria, there is a very famous dialekt know as Bavarian. It is German with a very heavy accent, slurred way of speaking, and many completely different words. It simply is a different language. But My goal is to learn high german first, and then if i ever can master that, I will start to try and master Bavarian. Well thats whats been going on.
Tschüss

ich bin berliner. I wish...

Well if you havent figured it out yet. I went to Berlin for a week with a bunch of exchange students. and.....It was amazing. simply stated. But why try to artistically and creatively describe it with a bunch of fancy words, when simply amazing is perfectly suited.  I also went to Augsburg again on Sunday afternoon before going to Berlin. And I also was in the beautiful little city of Wasserburg on Saturday evening. Was a pretty fun week. with many things. I learned alot about myself, and everything. When I find myself having the most fun, I also find myself thinking about the values and true meaning of life. I have no idea why this happens, but its kind of cool, and sometimes us exchange students sit down and have a beer, and talk about everything under the blue moon, and sometimes they are actually really deep conversations. These are the little things about exchange that I love. Its not just that your in another country, another culture, different people, and all that fantastic stuff. You explore the meaning of life, and what it means to really live in this world. You find your place in the world, and you discover what kind of person you really are. I have grown more in these last 8 weeks than I have in my entire life. I left a young 16 year old boy that had not a clue what the world was like. Only perceptions of what I thought it was like. While now I am only 7 weeks older, I have a small glimpse of this world, and I want to see the whole thing. I want to go out and really live life to the fullest. I know I am only just starting and this experience is already so amazing. But now I will share what I did for a week, in my favorite city in the whole world.

Brandenburg Gate International Style

First, I always wanted to live in a big city, Now I know I need to live in a big city. Its soo fascinating, the sites, the smells, the sounds. Everythings just captivates me. I love it. Everyday is truly another adventure. Not a single day is similar. Berlin in particular is fantastic because of the amazing history it possesses. It was the center part of most history dealing with WWII. I am a bit of a history buff, and I loved actually seeing where some of the most famous events in world history took place. The Berlin Wall was amazing. Just standing there and picturing what it was like only 22 years ago for people to so divided by a single wall. One wall separated two completely different societies. Its really a magnificent sight. After that going to Check Point Charlie, and the history there.... I could go on and on and on. I love it, all of it. And I think it is so cool to actually be there at look at these things firsthand. We also visited a Prison on the East side of Berlin, and the stories we heard there were amazingly vivid. And it really wrapped it all up nicely together, our tour of the east side. The other days we went to the Brandenburg gate. Was pretty amazing. Some exchange students saw justin timberlake in person. And we took many group photos of course. While we were posing our whole group in front of the brandenburg gate, we had our flags out of course. And randomnly a bunch of other people who we had no idea who they were, started taking our picture. It was pretty funny. After that we did our normal ritual of the Macarena. Hhaha, ever since we had a halloween party in the bar of the hotel, at every attraction we go to, we do the macarena dance for about 30 seconds. Everybody always stares, but its still funny. We then went to the Jewish Memorial from the Halocaust. This was a bit depressing, but the way they constructed this memorial was fantastic. The feeling you get while walking through it, makes you feel a bit uneasy, and this was the intent of the memorial. We also went to the Bundestag. Which is the German parliament building. pretty interesting, got to go to a dome on top of the building which had a nice view of berlin. We also went to a television studio, and got to play around on their set, and film our own miny news segments. We went to a Blue Man concert, that was soo fun and entertaining, I strongly recommend them to anyone who likes to be entertained, haha that would be everyone. ohh what else, we went to Potsdam, were the Big 3 met. and had conferences. That was fascinating as well. Everything was amazingly interesting. Well maybe not all the museums we went to, but that was partly due to the fact of long lasting parties the nights before. As you would expect we didnt sleep much all week. We were in BERLIN, why would we sleep. And also, every night was a party as well. wherever we could find a place to party we did. in the bar of the hostel, on the streets of berlin, in the bahnhof, in a burger king, at the club of course, in our hostel rooms, everywhere. We made the most of everynight, usually going to bed at 5 or 6. But berlin was super, there are too many things to write about and go into detail over, so i think this was a good summary. Very random, and probably not so coherent, but its my blog, and I dont care about grammar or writing rules =D. half of them I forgot, because of German. And if you dont know already German grammar, is a (explicit word)

here is a sentence correctly written in German and then followed by an exact english translation
Ich kann nicht heute abend mit meine freund Computer spielen.
I can not tonight with my freind computer play.   why not    I can not play computer with my friend tonight

But nonetheless. German is coming along, I can read and write pretty well, speaking also. But understanding people is still my biggest challenge. But i am determined, Seeing that 7 weeks ago I didnt speak a word of german, and considering where I am now, I feel like I have been doing a good job. Well next week I switch host families on tuesday, which means new school, new city, pretty much new everything. Its a fresh start I guess, whether I want it or not, I am not sure, but its coming nonetheless.

I am pretty sure I will be going to a Bayern Munich game soon, cant wait. Also this weekend I am going to Freising to spend some more time with exchange students, and then on Sunday I am going to Salzburg to see Hitlers Eagle Nest. Should be fun.

pre Berlin

Going to berlin on sunday with all the other exchange students for a week. Should be tons of fun, and i am sure thousands of pictures will be taken. =D after berlin, i come back and will be working at my host moms art festival which is held at our house.Then i stay 1 and half more weeks with this host family, and then I switch to the Viebahns, who live in a city about 20 minutes away from my current one. So i believe I will switch schools as well. One more thing, I might be going to a bayern Munich game!! Tons of exciting things coming up! life is good =D =D

Are exchange students crazy?? definitely =D

To start, I just want to say I love exchange students. I really do. They are the most awesome people in the world. I have said it before, but as soon as you meet a new one, you automatically have a bond, because you were crazy enough to come live in a foreign country by yourself. But still we are the most diverse and amazingly fun group of people you could ever hang out with. Here is a great poem like thing to describe why we (exchange students) are crazy enough to do exchange.

.-How are you going to know what a dream is...if you've never completed one.

.-How are you going to know what an adventure is...if you never undertook one.

.-How are you going to know what anguish is...if you never told your family and friends "see you soon"

with your eyes full of tears.

.-How are you going to know what desperation is...if you never arrived in a place, alone, without understanding anything the others were saying

.-How are you going to know what it means to miss someone...if you've never been away from home

.-How are you going to know what diversity is...if you've never shared under the same roof with people from all over the world

.-How are you going toknow what tolerance is...if you've never had to get used to something different, even if you don't like it.

.-How are you going to know what independence is...if you've never had to make decisions for yourself.

.-How are you going to know what it means to grow...if you never quit being a child to start in a new

direction.

.-How are you going to know what disability is...if you've never had to urge to hug someone, but the

computer screen got in your way

.-How are you going to know what distance is...if you've never looked at a map and said "Wow, I'm far"

.-How are you going to know what a language is...if youve never had to learn one to make friends

.-How are you going to know what patriotism is...if you've never shouted "I love my country" holding a flag in the hand.

.-How are you going to know what a party is...if you've never traveled hours to go to one

.-How are you going to know what true reality is...if you've never had the opportunity to see many different ones so you can create your own.

.-How are you going to know what an opportunity is...if you've never taken advantage of one

.-How are you going to know what pride is...if you never felt it for yourself when you realize what you've accomplished.

.-How are you going to know what it means to seize the moment...if you've never seen how time passed through your hands with great strides

.-How are you going to know what a friend is...if the circumstances never taught you which ones are real

.-How are you going to know what a family is...if you've never had one that supported you unconditionally

.-How are you going to know what your boundaries are...if you've never passed them to see what lies beyond.

.-How are you going to know what money is...if you never had to manage it to get along.

.-How are you going to know what imagination is...if you've never thought about the moment you get back home

.-How are you going to know what the world is...if you never were an EXCHANGE STUDENT

I really love exchange, and I dont want to go home, I want to live this life. I feel like I have two completely seperate lives right now. The one from back home, and the one I am creating here. All of your mind says to never let go of your home, and the life you left their, but your heart aches to start and develop the new one here on exchange. Its a hard feeling to describe, but I am ready to be completely involved in the new one, and leave the old one behind. But the realist in me knows, that in 8 months, I will have to switch back to the old life. And thinking about that right now, makes me really sad, leaving everything here behind. When I left my old life, I knew it would be there when I come back, but this one, not. Its my one year here and I am going to live it up, completely immerse, no regrets. But dont worry, i am not sad, and moping around, these are just the ideas that I am thinking right now. I have learned to develop a positive attitude for even the worst situations. I also just realized my blog probably does not make a lot of sense to some people, and its also not a typical blog. I actually like to use it to just say exactly what i am thinking or feeling, and that seems to help, and dont worry, I will still post about the things I am doing and so on. But i think the beginning of exchange, puts the most thoughts in your head about life and everything, and I want to write them down, and look back at not only what i did, but how i felt. This is still the best decision I have ever made in my life. =D

The only thing that never changes is that everything changes

Update

I havent wrote in a while. But I have been...just living in Germany. All is good, of course. I have a pretty normal life here. I go to school from 8 to 5 everyday, come home eat supper, spend some time with my family, sleep, repeat. That is usually the week days. With some spontaneous events on week nights mixed in. Weekends I usually have something planned for the whole weekend. Going out with friends, and then usually something with the family. So far my thoughts on exchange are great as a whole. But the whole thing is an up and down rollercoaster. One day you feel on top of the world, the next you want to get on the next flight back home. But when its down, you always know it will get better. But exchange is very exhausting, the language, the mood swings, everything. But it is soo worth it. I feel in just the one month I have been here, I have grown soo much as an individual, and I know it will only get better. This is still the best decision I have ever made in my life, and that probably wont ever change.

Highlights of the Last week and half or so.

Rotary Weekend in Oberstdorf. The Weekend of the 9th and 10th We had a rotary meeting in Oberstdorf Germany. This is a small little village up in the mountains. So it was just about 35 exchange students all in a hut in the mountains for a weekend.. What fun. hahah It was soo great. From the minute we arrived fun started and didnt stop until Sunday morning when we had to leave. Before we left to the Hut, we were waiting at the Trainstation for our rides to the hut. It was about 40 degrees F (8 C) out and raining. I came up with a challenge to see who could stand the cold the longest, wearing only a tee shirt. It was me (usa) vs Ivan (mexico) vs Max (Finland) The funniest thing is, Finland got dead last, and mexico actually got second. Of course USA won, had to represent for the crazy state of Wisconsin. Our competition lasted about 30 minutes, but then I thought I could challenge an Australien (Ryan) to another competition, same rules. Well I only could hold out for 45 minutes more, until I started to feel lightheaded, but he won. *only because i was already out for 30 minutes* haha When we got there it was already snowing, and for me, this is no big deal. I am from Wisconsin, 3 feet of snow, ahh, thats average. But for the South Americans (snow virgins) it was the biggest deal on the planet. It was the funniest thing to see the looks on their faces when they touched snow for the first time. It was priceless. As soon as we got there a huge snowball fight broke out, and this kicked off the weeekend with a bang. The entire weeekend, was pretty much summed up as hanging out in the mountains, we did go for a hike, and that was great, but the best times were inside. Both nights we partied like only exchange students do/can. And overall it was a great weekend.
Quote of the Weekend, my friend Ivan (Mexico), who was a snow virgin, after touching snow, and realizing how cold it is, having never been in temperatures below 50 farenheit (10 C), said. Who the hell believes in Global warming?

On the hike

A weeknight October 12or 13? I forget exactly what day it was, but me and my host brother went with one of his friends to the Movie theatre to watch what they call a sneak. You basically go to the movie theater, and get to watch a movie months before it comes out. Some of these sneaks will make it to the theater for real, and others are to bad, so they never make it. When you go there, you have no idea what the movie is or what it is going to be about, But anyways the movie had a rating equivalent to pg 12 in the us, or something like this. So my host brother thought it would be a little kids movie or something with nothing bad or anything like that. Hahaha he was soo wrong, it ended up being a horror movie about Berlin underground tunnels. It was a decent horror movie but it was still nothing that we were expecting. But i found it weird, that through a lot of the movie people were laughing, like everybody. It was a horror movie not a comedy, but i guess this is just a culture difference. But it was still an enjoyable experience =D



This last weekend, the 16th I went to Traunstein, to visit a friend of mine. She went to my home city in the states for a an exchange year, and i think its pretty ironic, how now i came here to germany, and how close I am living to her. Sorry my english is soo terrible now, but yes, I only live about 30 minutes away. What a small world. But I went to her city, and we hung out the whole day and it was great fun. We went to Salzburg, Austria, and walked around, saw a castle, took lots of pictures of course. But when we were leaving the city, we heard a bunch of loud engines coming around the corner of the street we were on, so we stopped an waited. And then came about 5 ferraris, I am a huge car person, so I was soo thrilled, haha I didnt get any pictures, except the back of the last one, but it was sort of blurry. But it was soo awesome, then we crossed the street, and Laura said to stop cause she heard another one. SO i got my camera ready, and it came around the corner, and it was a Lamborghini!! It was amazing, I love cars, and that car is one of the best in the world. and i saw one, and got a picture, haha. My friends (both girls) didnt understand why it was such a big deal, but i was like jumping up and down and I was smiling the whole way home.

Lamborghini

Sunday, the day after I went to Traunstein, Me, my host mom, host dad, and the dog Cleo climbed a mountain. Not a big deal, or so they made it seem like i would be one. it was quite a challenge, it took about a good 2.5 hours to get to the very top, but it was worth it. Look at the view we had. It was spectacular, and there was a little hut which was a good restaurant at the top, where we ate.Most of the people up there, took the ski lift to get up. But nonetheless it was a pretty awesome feeling being so high up, and accomplishing my first mountain treck. 

View from the top of the mountain

But yeah thats life at the moment. Everyday there are moments that make you wonder, and ponder, and just think about life, and everything that matters to you. I then stop and remember, oh yeah, I am in germany, and I love that: Its just so different, and thats exactly what I signed up for. I love exchange soo far, and I can not wait for Berlin tour. which is in 10 days!!! 

Auf Wiedersehen

Upcoming

Rotary Weekend Tomorrow! yay. Life is amazing right now, and I am living it up. I will post about Rotary after the weekend is over, and it is hard to upload pictures on here, so if you want to see more pictures, add me as a friend on facebook, I have hundreds of pictures on there. =D
http://www.facebook.com/jordan.granquist

Everything Bavarian

Before I came to Germany, I had an image of what it was going to be like. I know that is not a good idea, but its hard not to try and picture what your year is going to be like. Once I found out I was going to Bavaria, I didn't really get excited. I knew this was the very traditional part of Germany. The part of Germany that is very prideful of itself, and has a funny accent. To be honest, I really didn't have the greatest feeling about this. I was really wanting to go to Berlin or somewhere in the North. But Now I understand why they are so prideful of their way of life here. This is the true Germany, and I love it. It is actually a joy to experience Bavaria.

 First the mountains are gorgeous, and there are lakes and the scenery is just amazing. I am not one to be pleased by fancy looking landscapes and stuff like that, but here, It is just so astonishing to wake up every morning and look at the alps. The morning bike ride to school by the river. It is all overwhelming and gorgeous.

Second, People explained to me that here the people are just simply different, and its true! I love how unique people are here, and they are all connected by being Bavarian. It is normal to go out in the city, or anywhere and see people wearing lederhosen and dirndl. They are proud to wear it! Every city has a brewery, and they are all proud of that too. At first when I talked to Bavarians, I thought they came off as a bit rude, because of how very very very proud of their home state in Germany they are. But now, I understand why. It is hard to explain. But this part of Germany is just filled with so much tradition, and I actually think that is really cool.

There is tons of history everywhere. My family points out a landmark almost every time we drive anywhere, and they can explain the history of everything. I enjoy history, and I think it is cool how much the people here understand the history of their home. The food is also traditional with white sausauge, lederkasse, and more things that the locals are just nuts over. There are soo many Bavarian dishes, and I have only tried a few.

I think it is just so unique for people to be so prideful of tradition and not change things, and just to believe in this way of doing things. Everyone in the world now wants to change things, and make it more modern.

This whole thin is such a hard to thing to explain, so hopefully you understood that rambling of random thoughts above compiled together. But to recap: Bavarian People are very prideful of their state, and they have a right to, it is filled with wonderful scenery and tons of traditions and many amazing little things. It is true, People here consider themselves to be Bavarian first, and German second, and I think that is pretty cool :)

Some Bavarian Culture

Today I went to a castle on an island on lake Chiemsee. It is a very very famous tourist location about 30 minutes east of Rosenheim. There we saw the Herrenchiemsee, which is a castle that King Ludwig II built. The Bavarian people here don't even know why he built it. We took some tours of the castle, and I learned that he was actually crazy. He took the throne at the age of 18. He was very into art and music and being modern, and he was boastful of his righteousness. They also explained to me that he would just build random castles, just because he could. He was the King. This castle was meant to be a replica of The Palace of Versailles in France. But half of it is not finished. There are some rooms in it that are complete replicas of The Palace in France, and then Ludwig II built some of his own rooms. He only actually slept in the castle for 10 days, and there was never an event that occurred at this castle. He simply built it because he wanted to. Like I said, He was crazy. I learned a lot of Bavarian culture today, and the castle was amazing. I will post a few pictures, but these are only from the outside, they would not allow us to take pictures on the inside.

Front of the Caslte

Fountain

Fountain

Alles Gute........

The title translates to all is good....but the hesitation is that there are some not so good things to be said in this post. Not to worry I am not going just rant and complain about everything I don't like. And to make this clear, life is perfectly fine and everything is OK, but these are just normal exchange student problems and are a part of the whole experience, and I feel it relaxing to vent in this blog. For those of you who know me, this is not a normal thing for me to do, and write about feelings and yeah enough said. I also wanted to write about some things, for the outbounds who may read this in some months, because I remember being there and wanting to read about peoples exchanges. But I knew when I signed up for this that it wouldnt be easy, and I wanted to read about that and what difficulties lied ahead, but I couldnt find anything. So this is for that purpose as well.

Homesickness, I didn't think I would feel it, but I do. It hits me when I come home after school and we are preparing dinner, and I just miss my family. The way WE did it, it is perfectly fine here, but I miss our way of preparing a supper, or the way we didnt really, and how we would just have pizza and watch tv. They also have a dog, and it only reminds me of my dog, and how I much I miss mine. Also just being at the supper table with a different family then your own every night. My host family will eventually be my second family, but it is in the stage where the newness is worn off, and it still isn't familiar, so an awkward stage almost. But it is still fine, and they are nice. But it always reminds me of home, and I am homesick.

Making Friends. For me, it has been difficult. The language barrier has proven to be the toughest part of exchange for me. I want to be a part of the kids at school, and they talk to me. But i feel separate from them, like I just tag along, and wait for someone to translate something for me. They are nice, and it is definitely not their fault. Maybe mine of just wanting it to be like....home. But exchange students are my best friends, and I think it will be like that always. It just is. I will try my hardest to make german friends, but for this to actually occur and for me to actually be what I consider friends with my classmates, I will have to learn German. Which brings me to my next topic.

The Language. I guess I underestimated how hard learning a completely new language is. I thought, oh yeah well I will be able to pick it up, and within the first few weeks I should be talking mostly in German. I was soo wrong. It is extremely hard, and you have to put in the effort everyday to just keep on trying. I know how to construct some very basic sentences, but I cant really understand whats being said to me. I catch a few words here and there, but it is still very challenging. I have been here for 11 days, so I guess progress is good? It is exhausting and german as well makes me home sick, because I feel like I just would like to be home, where everything is in English, and I know exactly what is going on.

But while I miss home, I do not want to be there. I signed up for this, I want to do it, and I want to defeat these challenges ahead of me. I am ready to do this, and I already feel way more independent here, and I feel like when I come home, I will be completely 100% different, in a good way. I feel this transformation taking place already. Just the way I do things, and how I act, towards other people and life in general. Exchange already is the best decision I have ever made, and honestly I have only had a ok good experience so far. But I know what is ahead, and it only gets better everyday.

So far I have tried some true bavarian culture things. That was a bad way to word it, but I probably shouldnt explain these on here. Some are very..... different. And I am enjoying the new culture and change. I am going to visit some caslte of Bavaria and its for to learn about an old king of Bavaria. More culture, yumm :D And the weekend after that is another Rotary one!!! And did I mention that I went to oktoberfest last weekend. What a blast. There really isnt much to write about it, other than a big beer fest, with a fair mixed in, and thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people. So yeah rollercoasters and and fair food, and BEER. But it is soo expensive, and the tents are crowded, but who cares, because it is AWESOME.

Quick Update

Have been extremely busy with school. I leave at 7.20 every morning by bike, to the city which is about a good 20 minute bike ride from home to my school. I go to a regular school from 8-12, which is extremely boring, and frustrating. I get along with my classmates, but learning German is soo hard, and i give up trying to understand what they are saying about 2 hours in. After that, I go to the downtown part, which is only a few blocks from my school, to find something to eat. I pack a lunch from home, but there is soo many places to eat in the city, and new and different foods to try. So I usually have both. But the last two days, I felt really american, so I went to McDonalds and Burger Kings. At both places I tried to tell them only ketchup on my burger and nothing else. Mit ketchup. kein Gemüse, and then again in english, but they only nod, and i get a burger with everything But ketchup. After I get something to eat I have to go to German school, at Peter's Deutsch Schule. There I learn alot, but it is very long, 4 hours, and quite tiresome. I have learned soo much in the 4 days I have been there, I started this week tuesday. After school is over, I am quite tiresome, and it seems like this everday, and then I have a 20 minute bike ride home. But once I come home we usually have a home made meal in an hour or two, which I love. And there is always dessert in the house. My host sister Anna bakes one as soon as the last one is finished. I love this. But after a long day of hearing German, I usually go on facebook and can use ENGLISH! The days are long and tiresome now, but I am sure they will get better once I know more German. It hurts your head to listen to it all day, but its necessary, but exhausting. This weekend is Oktoberfest though!!! Tomorrow I go with some other exchange students, and Sunday with my host brother. I am looking forward to spending some time with him to get to know him better. We both are busy during the week, so I have not spoken much with him. He also was in France all this last week. He is a former exchange student with Rotary as well. This I didnt know, until a few days ago. But I have been here for one week now, and things are good, they could be better, but couldnt they always? I am starting to make friends at school, and german is slowly progressing.
Tschuss

Snow on the Mountains!!!

This is the view from my house. last night it snowed on the mountains. Winter is coming :)

First Rotary Weekend and School

To start, I am slowly progressing in German, a few more words everyday that i can pick out of conversation and actually understand. I still think it is amazing here. I love it, everything about Europe, The sights of the cities, the smell of the bakeries, the sounds of the city. It is everything I imagined and more. Today it was 40 Degrees Fahrenheit and I skipped my last class of school and walked around the city. I didnt care that it was practically freezing rain, it was still awesome. I have been in Rosenheim before, but only for a few minutes. Today I took a  good hour long walk around the downtown part of the city in nearly freezing rain. I will post pictures the next time I do this, I would of today, but I didnt want to take a chance with the water and my camera.

Rotary Meeting. It was a blast. I first got on a train to Munich, which is soo big. And the train station is giant. Next I hopped on a train to Augsberg. There when I got off I immediately met a bunch of other exchange students, and from that point on it was the funnest time I have had here yet. Exchange Students are pretty much your best friends, and it takes no time at all to get comfortable with them. You instantly have the connection of just being exchange students. We all wondered around Augsburg for a good hour until we finally found the school we were having the meeting at. There it was alright, but it is always funner out in public. At the Orientation we had some meetings to discuss rules and etc. and also we played some get-to-know-eachother games. It was fun, but after was much funner. We then headed to the train stop, but we had to wait an hour for the train. What do about 20 exchange students do at a train stop for an hour? about anything you can Imagine. Pushing people around in a shopping cart, listening to really loud latino music, taking pictures laying on the traintracks when theres no train coming, Climbing on top of the train stop thing, climbing on top of everything, Jumping Rope with an electrical cord being really loud and obnoxious obviously, and yeah thats all I can remember. And of course all the local people just sit there and stare at us and look at us like we are crazy, but thats all the fun. On the actual train we had music playing and some of the exchange students were dancing and singing and I think every one on the train was staring at us, and were mad that we were being so loud, but oh well. Some that were right next to us thought it was pretty entertaining. But how many times do students from Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, France, United States, Finland, Italy, Australia, and New Zealand all get together? Only Rotary of course. Oktoberfest starts this weekend, I think I will go on Friday and Sunday next weekend, should be fun. :)

On top of train stop
(USA, Mexico, Finland)

While I am at it, I might as well write about school, This is going to turn out to be one long post. 

School comparison. To start this is only after one day of school and I will to an update post to this, but I know some people really want me to write about this so I will. I am going to Write all I know about school in Germany and throw in comparisons here and there with American schools.

The Layout of Schools in Germany is similar yet different to America. Here in Rosenheim (pop 60,000) there are 3 different schools. All of these are the Gymnasiums which is the school you go to if you want to go to college. I know very little about the other two types of schools and if there are any in Rosenheim. But Gymnasium is the top level of school. School goes to 12 grade here. Same as America. But all the kids from little kids all the way to 12th grade all go to one school. That is different than US. In my school here there is about 1000 kids, but that is for all the ages. In my highschool in the US, there is 1200 kids for ages 14-18. The school class rooms are similar in the way they look, except that the technology here is very dated. It may simply just be my school here, but all of my classrooms are the classic blackboard and chalk and nothing else. In US. most classrooms, have whiteboards, projectors, and computers in every room. It is a little different but it does not make a difference in how you learn. I did not really learn anything today, because Ich spreche kein deutsch. But it was ok, I have englisch class tomorrow and I cant wait. 

Here in Germany you have a class, like elementary. exactly like elementary. You have a set of like 20 classmates, and you have all your classes with those 20 people all day. Most of your classes are in the same room, and the teachers switch rooms. But for specialty classes like Chemistry, Musik, and Art, you go to a different room. I really dont like this part of German schools. Not that I dont like the people in my class, but I feel so limited to only those people, and there is so many people at the school, and your stuck with the same people all day. In US we switch every class to a different class room with all different people. I prefer this system, and I think I always will. Also here in Germany, every class room is set up with tables for 2 people, and basically everyone travels in groups of 2 and they sit by the same person all day long. The groups of 2 obviously join up with bigger groups when traveling in the school, but it is always an even number of people. I notice this because I am by myself and I am the 21st person in my class. So I either have to make a group of three in classes where possible or I go by myself. I do not like this, it seems very militaristic like to me, to have everything so coordinated. As far as the question goes which school is harder? American vs German, I will not have much of a bias in judging this and it will be ongoing, but I finished grade 10 in US and i am in grade 10 here. But after one day, American school is soo much harder. I couldnt really understand most my classes here, but the Math which is universal, was math that I did in 8th grade and they are doing it in 10th. I am actually suppose to be in 12th grade math at home, so this feels very essential to me. And as far as homework goes, here they give you something, and they say ohhh its due in like a week or two, In the US, its the always due the next day. So the judgement as of today is American schools are much more rigorous than German. 

Lunch here is much different than in the US. Here you get an hour break and you can leave and go anywhere you want to eat, and there are many bakeries and restaurants within walking distance. You can still bring cold lunch but I find it much more interesting to leave and explore the city. In the US you obviously eat in the cafeterias and thats the only option you get. 

Schedules are much different here than in the US. In the US you have the same classes every day in the same order. Here you have different classes every day and different order, and you finish at different times. Today i have to go to school from 7.45 until 3.45. But tomorrow I am done at 1. it varies everyday and so does your classes. I like this aspect of German schools as well. You only have Chem and Bio once a week!  You get a great deal of variety of classes here vs the US. Here I am in, I want to say over 15 different classes, but in America you are stuck with 8. 

Overall School is just the way i thought it would be, this from hearing from other former exchange students. But it is good so far. Life is good in general. You should be looking forward to seeing my mountain shot soon, It snowed last night on the mountains, and I am waiting for a day to get a perfect view of them from my house. Until then 

Auf Weidersehen 

First Thoughts

I do not know any German, a few sentences here and there, but not much at all. So all day I hear German and I sit there trying to understand what they are saying, but i basically sit there and just smile every once in while. My host mom or host dad will translate for me in public and at home they will speak englisch to me. But it is still frustrating. Good news though, I am enrolling in a school, seperate from my normal school, that is simply to teach me deutsch. Its 4 hours everyday, and i will be with a bunch of other students who dont speak German. Wir kein sprechen deutsch. thats probably not even right. So i will go to a normal school (Ignaz Günther) taking subjects such as french, italian, englisch, history, musik, math, sport, chemistry, econ, biology, and ethics. And that is from 8.35 to 12.00 but since I am going to the German school, I will not go to afternoon classes at Ignaz Günther. I will have 1 hour break until I go to my German learning school, Peters Gesurau. My days sound like they will be very busy. I also learned when I switch host families, I will also switch schools. So I already have 3 different schools planned for me! The more the better, I guess. I will make a post about german schools compared to american after the first week.
Rosenheim is such a wonderful city. It is beautiful. It is such a european city as well. I saw it for the first time today, and its probably the nicest city I have ever been to. Once i get a chance to take some pictures of it I will. But theres a river that runs right through the middle of the city, they have stone streets, lots of German looking buildings, a beautiful tower in the middle, and the city is just amazing. Driving is really strange though. First everyone has a BMW, Audi, Volkswagen, Porsche, Mercades, or mini cooper, all the cars are german. The others are Hondas and other sorts of small cars. I probably have seen less than 10 american cars. Everyone drives super fast, and as soon as there is any room in front of them, they put the pedal to the floor, and gun it. Not to mention they almost have to slam the brakes when coming to lights or signs, the car next to you is close enough usually to reach out your window and touch. They all drive really close together and will manouver around things very fast, and everything is chaotic to me. Throw in bicycles and motorcycles and pedestrians wondering around the streets, and it seems to me like we are going to crash every time we drive.
My host family lives in an old farm house (400 years) and they completely remodeled it. They also have many buildings around their house, that is on their land. Here are some pictures

Kitchen

Entrance

My room

Family Room

My home

Building by my house

Bridge

Very old chapel on the yard

Garage? it is an old barn and they park cars by it and there is art stuff inside it

Building attached to my house, My host moms Ceramic shop

There is another building on the land, and i think someone lives in it, but i forgot  who.

Rotary is very different here, in Germany. It is only men, and they all dress up in  suits and ties, not all but the ones who do, you can tell are the important ones. Still it is Rotary, and I went to my first meeting today for lunch. I had some weiner schnitzel and carbonated water. It was....interesting, but it wasn't terrible. I was able to eat most of it. 

Tomorrow is the first Rotary Gathering with the other inbounds in Augsburg. I am really excited to go! I bought a train ticket to get there. I will write about it when i come back.

Tschüss.

Yes..

Well to start I am finally here in Germany!!!! It was a big slap in the face to me. The whole entire thing..actually leaving my family, realizing I won't see them for a year, stepping off the plane and hearing German instead of English, not knowing what is really going on, seeing people bike through the airport. I knew I would get culture shock and all that good stuff. But I guess I really just put off thinking about the details of my exchange, because I always felt like it was soo far away. It always felt like, yeah im going to Germany... later. And then it came and smacked me in the face. Culture shock is real, and especially if you weren't really anticipating it as much as you should of, like me, it can be difficult. The sensation is hard to explain. I believe one must actually experience it to understand it, but it can be described as exhilarating, amazing, thought provoking, tiresome, tingly, and there is many more adjectives to describe it. But so far so good, everything is good, and I really like it so far. I will post soon with some pictures of my city, school, family, home, etc.

Itinerary!

Well it's almost my time. But this is just another step closer. I will eventually get there, even though it seems like forever.

-Wed. Sept 14th
7.16 pm Depart from Wausau, WI
8.18 pm Arrive in Chicago, IL
10.30 pm Depart from Chicago, IL

-Thu, Sept 15th
1.40 pm Arrive in Frankfurt, Germany
3.05 pm Depart from Frankfurt
4.00 pm Arrive in Munich, Germany

Local Newspaper

There was an short article written about me and the other outbound exchange students from our club.
http://www.marshfieldnewsherald.com/article/20110803/MNH0101/108030552/Marshfield-Sunrise-Noon-Rotary-clubs-send-students-overseas?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

Delayed, and some other changes.

I'm now not leaving until the earliest of September 14th. Some of my host families had to switch order. My new first host family the Keller's can not host me until they come back from vacation. This is why I have to leave later. I am a little bit frustrated over this, only because I just want to leave! I understand the circumstances though. Rotary always says, "Blessed are the flexible, for they will not be bent out of shape."

Grand Rapids Conference

Outbounds 2011-2012 District 6250

This last weekend I went to a pretty awesome Rotary Conference. There were over 1000 people present and over 500 exchange students from countries across the globe. The entire experience can not be described by words. The rebounds that were there had just came back from their year abroad. The inbounds all had their last weekend together in America before going home. The outbounds (me) were there to prepare for our upcoming year and also to mingle with the inbounds and rebounds and just gather as much information as we could. The weekend started with a long bus ride to Grand Rapids MI on thursday. The rest of the weekend included attending some very entertaining general sessions, eating with a different person from a different country every meal, dances until after midnight, getting less than 10 hours of sleep all weekend, and all together just a great weekend hanging out with great people. I don't leave until August 31. So I still have a long time to wait and go, but nonetheless this weekend made me even more excited to go, as does every Exchange Conference. Most of the meetings were repeating and the information was basically reworded. I didn't learn anything that really impacted me or changed my expectations or thoughts of my upcoming year. I did learn just a few simple things about Germany that could be helpful. This was my last weekend of Rotary in America. The next will be in Germany!  It was sad to say goodbye to some of the inbounds that I got to know well, and even more sad to say goodbye to my fellow outbounds who I won't likely see until next year. We are all departing in the next few weeks. Right now I am going to enjoy as much of America as I can for the rest of summer until my flight comes. I do not have much obligations to take care of now and hopefully it will go by fast because I really just want to get this journey started. This part has been the hardest for me so far, but I know there will be harder moments. There has been months and months of preparation and many meetings and conferences. I know everything I can possibly know about exchange and procedures and what it is suppose to be like, the only thing left to do is leave. Which i still have to wait 52 days for. The excitement has been building up for months and I probably think about exchange at least 10 times a day if not more. I want to actually DO the things that all the inbounds and rebounds talk about. They all say "you will have fun in Germany" and then I proceed to listen to them tell of their amazing memories and experiences. With the outbounds, I talk to them about what our goals are and what we think its going to be like. I want to go out and actually do this instead of just talking about it. I'm extremely excited and if I could get on a plane in 10 minutes I would go in a heartbeat. Well heres to a good last 52 days in America. I will probably update maybe once or twice more before I leave.
Auf Weidersehen.

Hello!

Hi my name is Jordan Granquist. I am from Marshfield Wi, a small town (20,000 pop.) in the middle of Wisconsin, USA. I have been accepted to be an exchange student for the 2011-2012 year in Germany. I just recently found out my host families and city. I feel like I was one of the last people to find out my information. When I did it only made me more excited to go(obviously) and it made the upcoming experience more real to me. Up until now when I thought of going on exchange it was all a fantasy and I pictured myself living in many different cities and it was always random. Now my destination is set and I am ready to start this journey of my life.


I will be living in Rosenheim, Germany. This is in Rotary District 1840. Rosenheim is a town of about 60,000 just southeast of Munich. Rosenheim is very close to the South Border of Germany as well. I will be attending Ignaz-Gunther Gymnasium in Rosenheim. I have 3 host families set up for me. The first is Benedikt and Ina Veibahm. They have 3 children and actually live in a small town called Aschau which is not far from Rosenheim, and from what I saw on Google Earth, not very big either. The region of Germany that I will be living in is called Bavaria. This region is really close to the Alps as well. 


The only information I had prior to this was my district. So once I got all this information my mind was completely overloaded. I spent about 3 hours on google looking up everything I could possibly find about where I am going to live. This included looking on Google Maps, watching videos on Youtube, and anything I saw that pertained to Rosenheim. This has been the most exciting experience of Rotary for me so far. I knew I was going to write a blog but I never had reason to start one until now. My excitement on a scale of ten is about 18 right now. 


Now to recap how i got to this point. In September of 2010 I applied and was accepted to be an Exchange Student with Rotary. January 2011 I was notified that I got my first choice of Germany. February we had our first Rotary meeting with inbounds and outbounds. I was very overwhelmed with all the new people. April we had another Rotary meeting for outbounds only. It was a informational meeting (boring yet helpful) but I met a really cool and down to earth girl who is going to Norway so it was worth it. May 2011 we had another Rotary Conference with outbounds and inbounds and a few rebounds. This was the best conference because the akward stage of meeting completely new people was over and we were(and still are) friends. Savannah ,the girl going to Norway, and I hung out the entire weekend together and we are really good friends now. And now today- the day i finally received my information.


 For my upcoming plans for rotary. There is one last conference in Grand Rapids MI which should be really fun that is 4 days long and it is suppose to be a blast. All exchange inbounds, outbounds and the rebounds fresh from their exchange, from all over Central States will be there. I am super excited for that. I am suppose to leave for Germany somewhere between August 30-September 7th. School starts on September 13th in Germany for me. I am now excited even more for this journey to begin, and I will continue to write in this blog for my entire exchange. Auf Weidersehen.