Greetings from Holland!

This weekend was full of cows and wind mills. We went to Holland! My mom had a TPRS conference planned so I got to come along and spend the time boating on cannals and visiting historic wind mills. Oh, and most importantly, eating lots of cheese. Check out the awesome pictures below. What an amazing weekend, huh?

After learning three languages you'd think my brain was full enough but I've (almost) learned my fourth. Watch the movie below of me in Holland. I'm saying "Hi from Holland" in Dutch, German, Spanish and English.

Bikes and Carrying Capacity

When you think of Germany, what do you think of? Most people would say beer or Oktoberfest, but I think of bikes. Everyone here owns a bike and everyone is able to ride one. Children older than 3 are proficiently riding a bike without training wheels. For some (including us) it's the only vehicle they have and they use it rain or shine. It might be tradition or just plain instinct but it sure gets the young, old and healthy people out-- especially on sunny days.

One weekend, a month ago, we decided to join locals and tourists around Starnberger See for the day. It was beautifully sunny and warm so naturally everyone was out. We popped our bikes on the S-Bahn for the first time and headed off for a day of enjoyment.

And what a day it was! We expected to be the only bikes on the train but we were completely wrong. It was so jam- packed we barely had room to squeeze ourselves in let alone two big bikes. The scenery was amazing. We were right on the edge of the Alps, on the huge lake near Garmisch Partenkirchen.

Riding, swimming, eating and sun bathing were our activities for the day. Oh, and most importantly, bike watching. When eating at a restaurant or enjoying the view,

we watched the people go by on all different bikes. Most people were just out for a sight seeing ride but others were going to work in their suit and tie and some were really hard core training kids who flew by at lightning speed. Another thing we noticed while sitting there was the carrying capacity of the bike. If you have a bike, you have a basket, there's no doubt about it. And in your basket, you (of course) have stuff. Now just what kind of stuff we were looking for? Below is a list of all the things you can carry on a bike. (Things we have actually seen.)

Bike baggage.............

1. Suit cases- jumbo size

2. Matresses- or rather matress covers

3. Food- especially long bread rolls

4. Flowers-freshly picked

5. Dogs- alive ones in cages

Did you notice the last on the list? If you didn't check again. Yes you were right, it says dogs!

Having seen two poodles on the back of a bike and one wiener dog I have proof. People are crazy enough to take their dogs on their bikes. I would too though because when they are in the basket they are too adorable. Maybe people don't learn to ride their bikes at 3 years old for nothing........

Drop your shorts....Americans must be tortured: My first experience with the German medical system

I arrived in Germany a little over a month ago with a sore lower back after the long plane flight.  I figured this was normal after sitting in a cramped space for so long and thought I could manage the pain with yoga, stretching, and Mari’s massages.  For the first two weeks after our arrival, I spent over an hour each morning doing exercises to relieve the pain enough to get through the day’s activities.  Unfortunately, the pain seemed to be getting worse and by the time the school’s health insurance kicked in on August 1, I was feeling fairly crippled.  I asked around at the school about doctors in the area and everyone assured me that the local practice in the small town of Haimhausen was great.    

I went to the clinic without an appointment during their open visitation hours, paid 10 Euros co-pay, and waited just 15 minutes to see a young female doctor.  She checked me out, asked some questions, did some manipulations, and wrote me a prescription for pain medication and physical therapy.  I walked across the street from the doctor’s office to the pharmacy, paid 5 Euros co-pay and got the prescription for pain medication filled in 2 minutes.  Then I walked next door to the clinic for physical therapy and made 6 appointments to fill my physical therapy prescription.  The whole experience from the walk to the doctor’s office to the physical therapy clinic and back to our apartment took just an hour.  I was feeling pretty excited about the convenience and ease of the system.

Three days later, however, when I had my first physical therapy treatment, I experienced a bit of culture shock. The receptionist took me back to a treatment room and had me take my top off to lay on a ‘fango pack’ (a pad filled with heated, crushed lava rock) to warm up the muscles.  She covered me with a sheet and left the room.  If felt my whole body relax into the heating pad. Twenty minutes later the doctor arrived in the room, shook my hand, told me his name, and asked me to stand up.  Since I was covered only in a sheet, I wasn’t quite sure what to do--hold the sheet over my chest or let it drop when I stood?  I figured it must be a cultural thing, so I just stood up.  Then he told me to drop my shorts.  (Of course we were speaking German.)  Again this kind of direct command seemed a bit  abrupt in comparison to the manner of American doctors.  I noticed the doctor’s accent and darker skin and knew he wasn’t native German, either, so I figured it might be the way things worked in his culture.  After looking at my back, having me bend over, and walk, he asked me to get back on the table and positioned me on my side.  I had no idea what was about to happen next and did as I was asked to do.

In the next moment, he leaned over the table put his knee on one side of my thighs, wrapped his arms around my upper body and brutally cracked my spine in several places.  I was taken completely by surprise, as I’d never been adjusted before and he hadn’t warned me about what was to come.  When he had me roll onto my belly to adjust another part of my back, I thought I’d try to connect with him to make the experience a bit less shocking, so I asked where he was from.  His answer did little to ease my discomfort.  “I’m from Palestine,” he responded.  “And you’re from America, right?”  Gulp.  I felt completely vulnerable lying on the table as he was popping vertebrae.  “Yes,” I responded hesitantly.  As he took my head in his hands to adjust the atlas (first vertebrae), he said, “Well, Americans must be tortured.”  Then he quickly twisted my head in his hands and adjusted the atlas as I gasped in shock.  I think he must have laughed all the way home about his little joke.  As I walked away from the clinic, I already felt 100% better.  The next morning, I had terribly sore muscles as if I’d been working out too hard, but the sharp pain in my lower back was gone.  Relief washed over me.  The Palestinian doctor in the German clinic wasn’t a quack after all.  Actually, my back is now feeling great, and the last few prescribed treatments have been pleasant massages.  What started as a torture session has ended in a spa treatment. 

Bavarian International School: First Day

There are 150 new middle school students at Bavarian International Schoolthis year. I was one of those many students sitting in the school auditorium on August 19th, the first day of school. Everything was so exciting and new. By the end of the first week, (really just two days) my mind was full to the brim of new information, opportunities and ideas. I was well ready for the weekend. Today, Monday, was the real first day of classes. It felt a lot different to switch classes and have a teacher for every individual subject. Another big switch is that lunch for middle school is at 1:15 instead of my usual 11:30. Even with a snack break my stomach is grumbling all morning.

Today I had Drama, Homeroom, Science, Technology and Design, Spanish, Humanities and German. My schedule is a little bit confusing because I don't have every subject every day so I have not been to every subject yet. Overall the most different and new class for me is Technology and Design. It is new to the school, so everybody is just learning how it works. The subject itself deals with problem-solving through computer design and hands-on building. Our first project will be to create something useful for our school out of recycled materials. We will get to design, plan and create it. During the year we will be doing wood, plastic and metal work and on the computers, 3-D design. I'll learn how to work with Computer Aided Design (CAD). I am also looking forward to drama which I haven't done much of in the past. I'm really enjoying Spanish class and interestingly enough my Humanities teacher is also my principle!

It's been a great start and I'm really happy to be able to be at BIS this year.

Notes on my napkin

German food flash! If you're ever in a German restaurant you might experience the following:

1. Drink apple juice in a beer glass.
2. Order just water and get sparkling water.
3. Always eat with the fork and knife.
4. Eat soft pretzels with Nutella.
5. Eat Schnitzel often.

Note: If you order water beware, it is more expensive then apple juice.

(Noticed and written by Mari)

Bread in the local bakery. Yum!

A day of sunshine and fun

This week has been filled with many adventures and discoveries. My favorite discovery was Heigelweiher and the day of sunshine. If there is ever a sunny day in Germany you have to take advantage of it. You have to go swimming while it's warm. That's exactly what we did on Sunday the 1st of August. Our first day of bathing suits was great. After about twenty minutes of walking along a beautiful forest path, we ended up at a lake full of laughing and shouting kids. They were trying to get a rope swing down from where it was tangled in a tree. I jumped into the water ready to go and help. My mom was more reluctant because the water was pretty cold. We swam as fast as we could over to where the kids were, unsuccessfully trying to get the rope swing down. Luckily we had my mom's very tall friend to help us. He got it down and we started to swing. While they were waiting for a turn some of the kids even climbed up the tree and jumped from the top into the water. My German was good enough to communicate with a girl who was too scared to swing in. I finally got her in and by the end of her turn, she had a big smile on her face. I even got my mom and her friend in too!

Below is a movie of us at the Heigelweiher rope swing. Check it out to put a smile on your face.

5 things that Americans wouldn't do

You know you're in Germany when you see....

1. Teenagers drinking beer in public and sometimes while riding a bike.
2. People smoking outside of every building and shop.
3. Modern art graffiti on every concrete wall.
4. People bowling in Lederhosen (traditional, old fashion, german clothing)
5. People wearing black socks with sandals.

(Noticed and written by Mari)