And So The Rest Of The Story Begins

My trusty bicycle and I. One last ride.

I need to write a very important post...a post that needs to be written right now while the feelings I am feeling are still fresh within me. You have been officially warned. What I am about to write is worthy of the Lifetime channel and I am about to get a little "Oprah" on you. I am gonna be sappy and emotional and if you don't like it then YOU should probably live in Germany for a year and see how you feel when you are about to leave. A post like this can never really be written after the fact; the feelings one experiences are almost indescribable at the time and almost fully impossible to describe afterwards. I am, of course, talking about the fact that it is my last day here in Magdeburg and my second last day in Germany. Where has the time gone? It seems like only yesterday I was in Radolfzell thinking to myself, "Wow, only one month into this journey. I still have almost 11 more months to enjoy in Germany. That is so much time!" Well one month turned into two, two into four, four into ten, and ten into almost twelve. Now I am writing one of my last blog posts in my almost empty room in Magdeburg. All of my things are packed up, save my trusty computer.

When I first arrived in Magdeburg, it seemed I would never reach this place of feeling sadness when leaving it. At the time, that thought was unthinkable. As soon as I arrived in Magdeburg, the weather started to turn cold and all the friends I had made in Radolfzell had somehow been removed from my daily life. I thought that Magdeburg had nothing to offer me...when really it had more to offer me than I could ever imagine. Let me explain...

When I lived in Radolfzell, I lived in an absolute paradise. I lived in a picturesque little town nestled right on the largest lake in Germany. On a clear day, you could see the Alps and in 30 minutes I could set foot in Switzerland. This was the Germany I had dreamt about and wanted to experience. In those two months, I had gotten everything I had expected. When I moved to Magdeburg, I experienced a huge reality check. Magdeburg is a part of former East Germany. It was almost completely destroyed in WWII and was rebuilt under Soviet influence. Because of being rebuilt under Soviet influence, the buildings are all very plain, flat, and industrial looking. The streets are wider than you ever thought a street should be and the land itself is very flat which makes the plain buildings the only thing you can see when you are standing in the city. I found myself almost immediately opposed to living in Magdeburg but told myself, "Clayton, are you really that shallow? Just because Magdeburg isn't 'pretty' it doesn't mean it is a bad place to live." I tried to suck it up and prosper but I always found this sadness creeping into me...at times I even felt envy. I felt envy towards the other people in my program who were placed in, what I considered, attractive, lively places to live like Berlin, Munich, Cologne, or anywhere else really. The one thing Magdeburg had going for it was my awesome host family and my good friend Joe. Magdeburg doesn't have much to do and I found myself getting pretty darn bored. It turns out, however, that I am not the only person in Magdeburg who feels this way. Many of the students who study at the University in Magdeburg leave when they are finished with their studies because they do not want to live in Magdbeurg or Sachsen-Anhalt (the state that Magdeburg is in) for that matter. This is creating a serious problem for Magdeburg. The city has a decreasing population and all those smart, educated kids that get their education in Magdeburg leave and take all of their bright, new ideas with them and benefit other cities in the West. Magdeburg, and most of former East Germany are still recovering from DDR times. Time stood still during DDR time and former East Germany was not able to grow with the rest of Germany when it was separated for all of those years. They need those kids to stay with their education and new ideas. I hope, in time, this difference between East and West Germany will diminish and ALL of Germany can move towards the same future.

So there I was, feeling sorry for myself because I didn't get the Germany that I wanted. I traveled on the weekends to visit other program participants and that made things a little bit better. Traveling reminded me, however, that, even though I was not in my ideal city, I was still in Germany and had so many wonderful things to see. This was probably the beginning of the turning point for me. I started to realize that Magdeburg was not my favorite place in the world but that it was still a part of Germany. Before I left the states I thought to myself, "Get to know Germany Clayton. Experience as much of Germany as you can and embrace it." Well guess what? To embrace something wholeheartedly, you have to embrace the good and the bad. I love Germany and to truly love and embrace this country, I had to embrace all parts of it. The cities I do like and the cities I don't like; it's wonderful present and future but also its dark past. These things all make up Germany and I was beginning to realize that.

As many of you know, my program consists of studying at a Germany University for 5 months and then interning at a German company after the semester portion. During the semester portion, I kind of just went to class and didn't really take much in because I was sad about where I was living. I would travel on the weekends and slowly started to realize that I was still in Germany and that I could still see and experience lots of things while I was in Germany. By the end of my semester at the university I was not quite fully there to totally embracing Magdeburg and still did not like it. My internship search in Magdeburg was turning out little results. In my defense, former East Germany has less dynamic, interesting jobs than the West (for now at least) because of all the kids running away from it. So I was unable to find an ideal internship match for me in Magdeburg. I had met someone whose father was a professor in a city called Aachen some time before my internship search. When I couldn't find anything in Magdeburg, I contacted her and asked if her father had any internship spots available. Long story short, I ended up getting an internship offer in Aachen working with a Biology workgroup at the University in Aachen. After some emails and conversations with some supervisors in my program, I was approved to move to Aachen. I would be lying if I said I wasn't excited to experience a new part of Germany. Aachen is as far West as you can get in Germany. It is literally on both the borders of Belgium and Holland. I was of course sad to be leaving Magdeburg, my host family, and Joe but happy to have gotten a good internship in an exciting new city.

Aachen was great. It was hilly with little streets to explore and the city is a University city. 50,000 people out of 250,000 were students. It was a cool vibe and I really liked it. I lived in an apartment with two other guys. They were really cool and it was neat to be able to speak German with them on a daily basis. They were my age so we had some of the same interests. We even made Bloody Marys one night. My internship in Aachen was okay...a bit boring at times. They set me up making Excel spreadsheets of information a lot of times but it was okay. Once, I got to go into the woods for 10 hours and helped look for woodpeckers with a radio that played woodpecker noises. Aachen was great but I did miss my host family and Joe back in Magdeburg and I had this overwhelming feeling that I didn't "belong" in Aachen. I kept thinking to myself, "Clayton, you were placed in Magdeburg not Aachen."

One day in Aachen, I checked my email to see an email from a professor at the University in Magdeburg. Something had panned out with an internship there that didn't pan out before I left for Aachen. I was offered an internship in Magdeburg at the University. It was an internship that was comparable to the one I already had in Aachen. What was I to do? I now lived in a German city that was exactly like the German cities I had envisioned but now had a good internship offer in Magdeburg when the only reason I left Magdeburg in the first place was because I couldn't find a good internship. I could just not tell my program about it and stay in ignorant bliss in Aachen. However, ever since I left Magdeburg, I kept feeling like I had given up on something...that I had ended something too soon. The going got tough so I got going...I quit Magdeburg when I never really gave it a chance. Not to mention that I had a host family back in Magdeburg that signed up for this program just like I did and wanted to experience another culture through me just how I wanted to experience another culture through them. I did not want to cut that experience short for them. I have never considered myself a quitter before and finally realized that Magdeburg was the right place for me to be even if it wasn't the easiest place for me to be. So, after living in Aachen for almost exactly one month, I packed up all of my belongings once more and headed back to Magdeburg to finish what I started.

In the following months, I realized that was the best thing for me to do. My internship was really good for me. I got lots of lab experience. I worked in a lab that studies cow samples (cow poo) and worked towards making methane production more efficient. Methane is a renewable source of energy and can be used to power things instead of using coal or gasoline. Not the most glamorous job I have ever had but working towards a goal like that, that could help the planet, made me feel really good. I gained lots of practical lab skills. I am now a master at using micropipettes and can label even the smallest plastic tube with my hand tied behind my back.

Outside of work, I was beginning to see Magdeburg transform. The weather was getting nicer and Magdeburg was really turning into a beautiful city. The parks in Magdeburg are really great and Magdeburg is a cyclist's paradise. The flat terrain allows you to bike easily through the city and the wide streets allowed for plenty of room for bicycle lanes. I started to ride my bike to and from work everyday and the fresh air and green landscape helped me appreciate Magdeburg. By the near end of my time in Magdbeurg, I actually played hookie at work so that I could ride my bike around the city and take pictures all day. I was also beginning to realize that Magdeburg really had given me everything I wanted to get out of this experience. I wanted to learn more about German culture and I wanted to improve my German. I accomplished both of those things by living in Magdeburg. In fact, I would almost say that my German was better than it would have been had I lived in another city. Since Magdeburg was not what you would call a "tourist hotspot" not that many people know amazing English and there are very very few native English speakers in the city.

During my time in Magdeburg, I got to hear some very interesting stories about how things were in former East Germany and got to have a truly unique experience. There are very few Americans in Magdeburg. It is just not the place that people consider when they decide to study abroad. Because of that, I got to have a German experience that very few people will ever have. I am truly grateful for that. I always considered myself a pretty strong, resilient person before this program but Magdeburg really put that to the test. I experienced untold personal growth during this year. I am still not 100% sure of all the things Magdeburg has taught me that I will be able to use in the future but I am pretty sure even 20 years down the road I will be using what Magdeburg has taught me without even really realizing it. What's really special about Magdeburg is that it is ugly...on the outside. Now hear me out on this one. If you look really closely though and I mean really closely, you realize just how beautiful Magdeburg is. In fact, in order to appreciate Magdeburg's beauty you have to look so closely at and so deeply into it that you end up looking deep inside yourself and discovering things about yourself. I mean honestly. Really what makes you happy? It's not having mountains, old churches, or a beautiful city to look at is it? If it is, then you are a pretty darn shallow person...I must say, however, that I was that person at the beginning of my time in Magdeburg. I was so torn up about what Magdeburg did not have that I did not appreciate what it did have to offer me; a great friend, a wonderful host family, and a truly unique German experience. My first week in Magdeburg, I went on a very small, very short city tour. We came across the statue in the center of the city that basically represents the city. I was not able to fully appreciate it at the time but now can fully appreciate it and even relate to it. The statue is of two horses pulling one ball in opposite directions. The ball is actually a vacuum and the statue represents the experiment that Otto-Von-Guerricke (the university is named after him) conducted during which he discovered and proved the existence of the vacuum. Yes, the vacuum was allegedly discovered in Magdeburg. What is special about this statue is that one side looks like a traditional statue and the other side is open so that you can see the framework inside that supports the statue. This statue represents that  everything has a purpose and that even beneath a seemingly beautiful outer shell, there lies a less beautiful support system but, without this support system, the statue would most likely fall or be quickly damaged. Functionality is not always beautiful but it is needed. You need function AND beauty. In Magdeburg, the functional part is way more apparent than the beauty (wide streets, plain industrial buildings, and a flat landscape that lends itself well to agriculture and wind energy production) BUT the beauty is still there. You just have to look!

The pretty side of the statue.

Other side that shows the functionality.

So, is Magdeburg my favorite city in the world? I would probably say no...BUUUUT because of all the things that Magdeburg represents to me and has given me, it is very special to me. I learned so much about myself and about Germany in Magdeburg and I got to live with the best host family anyone could ever ask for and I got to experience the crazy city of Magdeburg with my very good friend Joe. I think it is safe to say that our 9 months together in Magdeburg has made an unbreakable bond that only people who have lived in Magdeburg can really ever understand. The city makes you go a little crazy...in a good way.

With all that said, I think you can understand why I am sad to be leaving Magdeburg. It has been the definition of a passionate experience. The lows were really low and the highs were pretty darn high. I can safely say that Magdeburg has become a home for me so leaving it will not be easy. Leaving Magdeburg and Germany is almost harder than when I left the states. When I left the states, I knew that in one year's time I would be returning. Sure some things will have changed by the time I return but, for the most part, the life I left in Wisconsin is waiting for me. Leaving Magdeburg is harder because I do not know when I will be able to return and, if I do, it will probably not be for very long. Magdeburg is a dear friend of mine that will probably never again be a part of my everyday life even though it is so meaningful to me. Sure, Magdeburg and I will share the occasional letter or phone call and even the not so occasional visit but it will never again be a part of my daily life as it was for the past 9 months. It is really something that only someone who has sudied abroad for an extended period of time can understand. I have tried to explain it the best I could but I know a website that can do it much better. Recently I saw a Thought Catalog entry going around on the internet that pretty much perfectly explains what it is like. It would be silly for me to try and replicate these thoughts in my own words when they are already explained so well. The entry was written by a woman named Chelsea Fagan who is a writer living in Paris. Here is the link to her entry:
Thought Catalog What Happens When You Live Abroad

Once you have lived away from your home for as long as I have, you can search and search the house you are leaving abroad looking for things you may have forgotten to pack. This attempt is futile...you will never ever be able to pack up all of the things you have in your home away from home. I am not talking about tangible objects or even things you can ascribe a name to...you will always leave something behind that you can't quite put your finger on...a feeling...a piece of your heart...a memory. This is not to say I will walk through the rest of my life feeling like half a person. I will will have many moments of 100% fulfillment, but, as Chelsea's article mentions, with every accomplishment, celebration, or memory I will have in the United States, I will forever wonder what I am missing back in my second home in Germany because a piece of me will always reside there...the piece of me that I looked desperately for while packing but also the piece that was never meant to return home with me. It would have been really easy to title this last post "The End" but that is so out of fashion and entirely too final for me. At the risk of sounding wayyyyy too predictable, I really do need to say that the end of this year is not an end but only the beginning of the rest of my story. When I started this program I thought to myself, "This is 'it' Clayton. This is the most important year of your life. Live it up since you probably won't have a another year like this. Make it count." I realize now that I was partially right. This year will probably remain one of the most important years of my life but this is not "it" whatever that even means. This will not be my last time in Germany and this year has really only opened countless doors for me. The only issue for me now is deciding which one of the wonderful paths before me I want to take.

Zu Familie Dulz, (Sonja, Konrad, Christian, Andreas, Katrin, und Oma Ruth) herzlichen Dank für eure Gastfreundshaft und für die Offnung eures Hauses zu mir. Meine Zeit in Magdeburg war etwas ganz besonderes für mich. Es ist meine deutsche Heimat. Ich bin echt ein Magdeburger Kind.

Euere Spatz,
-Clayton-

To my family back home (Michael, Brooke, Dad, Danni, Lilly, Jolene, Nana, and all the others that are too long to name), thank you for being so supportive of this journey of mine...or should I say ours. You guys have been with me the entire time and thank you for patiently awaiting for my return. It is almost here. Love you guys.

-Clayton-

Abschluss Seminar

So I just recently returned from a week in Berlin. My program had a mandatory end of year seminar there. Normally the word "mandatory" would denote something boring, stuffy, or unenjoyable. My week in Berlin was anything but that. It was one of best times I have ever had. If you can survive waking up early for what my program had planned for us, then you can have a ton of fun in your free time in Berlin. Now, I am no stranger to Berlin. I have been there countless times while living in Germany. Besides the people who actually live in Berlin, the people who live in Magdeburg (like me) live the closest out of anyone in the program. Lucky us! But having the other 73 participants in Berlin together gave it a new light for me. We all arrived on Tuesday and basically just checked in to our hostel. I was lucky because my last name falls at the end of the alphabet so I only had 5 people in my room as opposed to 7 or 8. Shortly after checking in, our program took us to a nearby restaurant and we got to eat dinner fo free! After dinner we got to do whatever we wanted. A bunch of us decided to go to this wine place where you pay 2€ for a wine glass. You can then drink as much wine as you want and pay only about 2€ per glass. The thing is, this place does not keep track of how many glasses you drink. It is the honor system so you pay what you think you should at the end. Dangerous huh? We had a fabulous evening and really enjoyed each other's company.

Wednesday was pretty uneventful in the morning. We attended an intercultural seminar where we got to reflect on our year abroad and do group activities. Later that night, there was a big soccer game. It was Germany against the Netherlands. Okay, so when there is a big soccer game like that, there is what is called a Fanmeile (Fan Mile) by the Brandenburg Gate. So we got to watch the game on huge screens in the street in front of the Brandenburg gate. Yes, you heard me right. I got to watch the soccer game on a huge screen...in the street...surrounded by crazy German fans...IN FRONT OF THE BRANDENBURG GATE! How fricken cool is that? If that was the only interesting thing I did this whole year abroad I would have been happy. It was so cool and, on the way into the Fanmeile, we all got a bunch of free swag. I got a Thomas Müller T-shirt, a Thomas Müller scarf, and a leis with German flag colors. When I left to go to the game, I had no indications on my person that I was rooting for Germany...by the time I got into the Fanmeile, I looked like a fanatic German. It was so cool! Germany won, of course, and the celebrations continued throughout the city of Berlin. I guess, whenever Germany wins a big game like that, Kudamm Straße basically shuts down because there is just a huge gathering of people there. Kudamm Straße is short for Kurfürstendamm Straße. So that is where my group headed and it was basically a big mosh pit with crazy people. I, of course, joined in the insanity for about 5 minutes and then safely walked away. Before you gasp and fear for my life after reading that I was in a mosh pit for five minutes, please remember that I survived New Year in Berlin when drunk people were lighting fireworks off in their hands in every direction at street level. If I can survive that without a scratch, I am pretty sure I can survive anything. You also forget, that living in Magdeburg has given me mad street cred.

Me and the gang decked out in our free swag! The Brandenburg Gate is on the background!

My awesome Thomas Müller T-Shirt. His head is on the inside of the shirt so that you can flip it up when he makes a goal. Thomas Müller is a very well known soccer player in Germany. He plays for FC Bayern. This is my favorite shirt of all time.

Thursday we were treated to a 3 hour long boat tour of Berlin. I actually really enjoyed it what with the fresh air and all but it did get a little boring after the first 1.5 hours. It was also pretty chilly out that day so we were all a little cold. It was on the Spree river in Berlin. I got some cool picks but mainly just saw some pretty cool graffiti on building and the Berlin wall. That night, however, something amazing happened to me...one might even say life changing. Our program treated us to a live performance called LOFT by Seven Fingers. I was kind of "whatever" about the whole thing at first. Being a retired thespian myself, I can appreciate live performance but I couldn't help but wonder what else I could be doing that night. Boy am I glad that our program took us to see that performance. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen...ever. It was like Cirque du Soleil on crack with really good music. There are seven performers and they all did at least one performance of their own where they either hang from the ceiling by ribbons, juggle like 10 balls at once, contort themselves, or do something else completely unbelievable with their bodies. I was in awe for 2 hours and I would watch that show on repeat for the rest of my life if I could. I have never seen human beings make art with their bodies like that...not to mention you can't stop thinking about what amazing athletes they are to do what they do. I literally told someone afterwards, and I quote, "It was like they were entertaining my soul."I stand by what I said...it was that good. Okay, I am rambling. That was my life changing experience. Here is the link to the show LOFT. The show is currently playing in Berlin but keep an eye on it to see if they will come to the US. I am sure the other shows put on by Seven Fingers are also amazing so if anything by Seven Fingers is ever being performed near you, GO TO IT! After the performance, we all headed back to the hostel because we had a very important day the next day. We were gonna go to the German Bundestag! The Bundestag is the German equivalent of congress.

Okay, so Friday we all went to the German Bundestag. We had to wake up ridiculously early in order to get through all the security and still be able to see the Bundestag. The great thing about this day is that it was a CBYX day. What I mean by that is there were people from my program for young professionals AND people from the high school program. You may recall that I mentioned that there are separate college and high school programs within the CBYX program. Participants from the separate programs rarely cross paths simply because we are all doing our own thing. You may also recall that I applied to the high school program when I was in high school and got REJECTED so it was weird to see those kids standing where I almost stood. I am glad that I got rejected from the high school program though. If I hadn't, I would not have met all the amazing people I met this year or have experienced what I did. So we got to sit in on a Bundestag session which was about some kind of renewable energy. The room was very warm, I was tired, and the topic was less than thrilling so my eyelids got real heavy for the half an hour we were listening to the session. In my defense, I never actually fell asleep but oh man did I want to. There was also no opportunity for coffee that morning since we had to be on a bus so early. After the session we got to have a Q&A with some of the big shots in the Bundestag including the American Ambassador to Germany. It was cool. Some of those high schoolers were speaking pretty awesome German...and some of them were just plain acting like...ummm...high schoolers. After the Q&A, we got to eat an amazing lunch complete with Magnum ice cream bars that were served to you by a waiter on a platter. Did that really happen? After that, we got to have an open air meet and greet at the American Embassy across the street. It was lovely weather and it was great to speak English so freely. At the American Embassy we basically learned a lot about the Foreign Service and how to get a job in the Foreign Service. We also had some fun. There was a competition to see who could come up with the craziest German word that is actually used by Germans. Someone from my group won with "Schweinsteiger" which literally means "pig mounter" but it also happens to be the last name of a very well known soccer player for FC Bayern. I would have submitted my word but you had to submit through social media and I had no internet access on my prehistoric phone. My word was "Beuteltier"which literally translates as "bag animal" but actually means "marsupial". How crazy is that? Those Germans have some of the most literal words I know of. After the embassy we were free to do what we wanted and we enjoyed our last night in Berlin.

Saturday we had a very short presentation in the morning and then it was all over. As soon as we started the seminar, we were finished with it. I don't think 5 days has ever gone by so fast. I chose to stay in Berlin for a couple of hours longer with some other people. I had my heart set on going to the Ritter Sport store in Berlin. If you don't know what Ritter Sport is, shame on you. They are these amazing chocolate bars that are made in Germany and have a gazillion different varieties. My family has gotten to know Ritter Sport very well because I send Ritter Sport bars home as often as possible. You can buy Ritter Sport in the states but you can only find 3 or 4 varieties. There are so many varieties and even seasonal winter and summer varieties. The big seller right now is white chocolate coconut. At this Ritter Sport store, you can make your very own Ritter Sport chocolate bar. They have all of these fun ingredients to choose from and you can pick out up to 3 to put into your chocolate bar. I made two very fun chocolate bars. I made a dark chocolate bar with chile and pepper. The spicy ingredients are supposed to go well with dark chocolate. I also made a white chocolate bar with marshmallows, sprinkles, and gummy bears. I know the spicy one will be different but how often can you say you ate a piece of chocolate with pepper and chile in it? It is an experience. I can eat "normal" chocolate whenever I want.

That's my white chocolate bar she is making with gummy bears, sprinkles, and marshmallows!

So many ingredients!

So after Ritter Sport, I headed to the train station and headed back to Magdeburg...and so ended one of the best weeks of my life. It was amazing and too short but I am so happy to have had it.

Awkward Convo

When you get lost in translation, a lot of awkward things can happen. This particular awkward conversation put a smile on my face the entire day. It was between me and one of my coworkers. I went to lunch with some of my coworkers and we got to talking.

Coworker (to me): Machst du einen Sport? (Do you play a sport?)


Me (to coworker): Nein, nicht wirklich. (No, not really.)


Coworker (to me in English for some reason): Oh, I thought you would have played football or something because of how your body looks.


Me: Danke? (Thanks?)

In his defense, what he said was grammatically correct and perfectly okay to say but it just happens to not be something we would ever say to someone in English because it is...you guessed it. Awkward! We might say "build" instead of "body". It was very funny and I am laughing about it even now as I type this post. I enjoy biking a lot and the occasional long walk but I have no idea why he would say I look like a football player. Hmmmmm I wonder...

Frankfurt Mid-Year Seminar

So the CBYX program has an orientation, mid-year seminar, and end of year seminar for all the participants. I can't believe the mid-year seminar is already over. It was from the 16th to the 20th of January. That means I am over half done with my year in Germany. Sad face. The mid-year seminar was really fun though. It was in Frankfurt and the program paid for participants' travel expenses so we all basically got to go to Frankfurt for free. I had only ever been to Frankfurt when we landed in Germany but we were all quickly swooped away to our dorm building in the woods for our orientation seminar. So it was nice to be able to really see Frankfurt. It is the only city in Germany with actual high rises even though it only has a couple. Even Berlin does not have high rises. We had to arrange and plan our own arrival but we all had to be at the hostel at 3pm at the latest. We stayed at the Haus der Jugend in Frankfurt. It was a pretty nice hostel and it was probably the only one that could accommodate all 75 of us at once. The building looked like it could hold a lot of people. It was four to a room so not what you would call private but it was clean and we all had our own bed. The hostel was also very close to the nightlife. Haha not sure if the program planned that or not. My guess is not.

Frankfurt is so cool. The Main river runs through it and there is an island in this river that is home to all these geese, ducks, and swans. It was so cool to be in the middle of the city and to be able to fall asleep to the distant honking of the geese on the island.

The seminar takes place so that the employees in charge of our program can touch base with us. The first night consisted of a welcome and an Italian dinner. The Italian dinners in Europe are better...just want to put that out there. The next morning we were split into 3 groups and we basically had a sharing circle where we all shared where we were living, where we were going to school, and if we lived with a guest family. We then got stickers and we got to rank different aspects of the program and then we discussed why certain things were maybe better than others. Overall, we were all having a positive experience with the program. Once were were done with that, we had the rest of the day to do what we wanted. I opted to just walk around a bit. That's what is so nice about going somewhere you have never been before. A simple walk is so interesting and fun...and it's free. This particular hostel was also capable of providing breakfast, lunch, and dinner so we didn't even have to worry about meals.

Wednesday we were split up into 3 predetermined groups. Art and Media, Transportation and Finance, and Politics. I chose Art and Media because I really did not have interest for the other two groups. My group got to go to a museum dedicated to film and photography that was walking distance from the hostel. The museum was really interesting. We got to see all the different developments that the world of film and photography went through. We even got too see one of the original costumes from the Alien movies and a mock up of Darth Vader's helmut that was used in the original Star Wars movies. The museum also had this really cool installation. It consisted of 3 projection screens that all played a different movie clip at a time. All 3 clips had a unifying theme. For instance, if it was a dancing theme, all three different movies had characters that were dancing to the same tempo so if you played appropriate music it would look like they were all dancing to the same music. Super cool. Later that day, the Art and Media group went to the ZDF studios. ZDF is one of the biggest German television stations. They also go by 2DF because ZDF stands for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen which means "2nd German Television" so they have the liberty of swapping the Z and 2 since they stand for the same thing and look so similar. Technically this television station was in Mainz but it was very close to Frankfurt. ZDF has stations all over Germany but they are based out of Mainz so it was a real treat to go the the main station. We got to see some stages and control rooms. ZDF's motto is "Mit dem zweiten sieht man besser" which means "with the 2nd, one sees better". So they are saying you see more with their station. Also, while you are saying this you have to hold your middle and pointer finger over one of your eyes. I know it sounds corny but it was pretty cool. Check out the video below if you want to know what I am talking about.

ZDF is also known for these little people called Mainzelmännchen. Between the commercials and the shows on all ZDF stations, they play a little 5 second clip of these little guys doing silly things. The Mainzelmännchen are named so because they come from Main and "männchen" means "little people". They have been on the television station since 1963 so many Germans remember growing up with them as a child. They have grown and evolved through the years but one thing has still remained the same...they are silly little buggers. It is also worth mentioning that I have NEVER seen a Mainzelmännchen clip twice. Never. Take a look below.

A studio at ZDF.

This is where they draw the lottery numbers. So cool!

Me and Det at ZDF. Yes, the name of this Mainzelmännchen is Det. Mit dem zweiten sieht man besser!

On Thursday, all 75 of us got to see the GIZ tower in Frankfurt. You see, CBYX is the name of the program in America but GIZ handles everything on the German side. GIZ stands for Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit and it means Society for International Cooperation. They handle hundreds of foreign relation programs and the CBYX program is just one small part of what they do although they treat it with great importance. While at the GIZ tower we got to see some presentations on what kind of work GIZ does and we also got to hear a member of the American Foreign Service speak. She talked about what her job was like and what she had to do to get a job with the Foreign Service...it does not seem easy at all to get a job with the foreign service. If you don't know at least two languages fluently, you basically have no chance of getting a job. You also need to know an obscure language like Hungarian or something. It sounds so hard to get hired by the Foreign Service.

When we left the GIZ tower we went back to the hostel for a short while. That night GIZ organized for us to see a musical at the Englisch Theater in Frankfurt where all the musicals were in English. It was "The Who's Tommy". If you have never seen it, it is super weird. All the songs are from The Who. It is basically the story of a boy who witnesses a murder and internalizes it but becomes deaf, blind, and mute as a result. It was so strange but I love musicals so I enjoyed it. Here is a clip from the musical where they use the song Pinball Wizard.

As soon as the seminar started it was over. Friday morning we were done and we all headed out. Some people like me headed home and others went on little weekend trips.

Day of Democracy

"Tag der Demokratie" This means "Day of Democracy". It is a day in January that Magdeburg has every year where local organizations and business who support democracy can set up a stand on the street and you can visit them. The day takes on a different role, though. Me and the other Magdeburgers started to call it Nazi day because it is the day that neo-nazis choose to demonstrate. If I learned one thing from this day it is that Germans haaaaaaaaaate nazis. They HATE them. I would to if I was part of a country that was trying to amend its dark past and certain people were ruining that for everyone. Most of the neo-nazis that take part in the demonstration aren't even from Germany. They are foreigners from neighboring countries that are demonstrating in Germany. The town was full of police officers that were there just to make sure nothing happened. I was told that there were over 2,000 police officers and that they were policemen from all over Germany. The neo-nazi demonstrators don't have a very big following so the same neo-nazis have to travel from city to city in Germany if they want to demonstrate there. The policemen follow suit and simply follow them from city to city making sure there is peaceful demonstrating and no violence. I actually had quite a bit of fun this day. It was really cool to see all the interesting ways people advertised against nazis. Some were cool and some were really weird. What I liked most about the day was that the streets of Magdeburg were filled with people. Normally there is not much going on in the city and it was nice to see the city wake up. I personally did not see any neo-nazis that day. I was told that they were all gathered at the university which is the one place I didn't go that day. I was a little disappointed to tell the truth. As someone from a small town in Wisconsin, I have never really seen a neo-nazi and I was curious to see what one looked like. Would they all be skin heads with piercings and tattoos? Maybe not. For all I knew they were all college graduates wearing argyle sweater vests. I have noooooo idea what one looks like. Some people might cringe at the thought of someone wanting to see a neo-nazi but curiosity is a natural human attribute and closing your eyes to a problem like this does not help the situation. My host family is also very open to talking about stuff like that and they had no problem that I was so curious about the events of this day. Some people who live in former east Germany think that all Americans think they are all nazis. I personally did not think this before I arrived in former east Germany and I really hope no one else from the US thinks this. It is not true. There are neo-nazis in the US and there are some in the former east but that does not make everyone there a nazi. I also like how fitting it was that the neo-nazis demonstrated on the day of democracy. Even though I completely disagree with what they stand for, I think it is good that people can openly express their beliefs in Germany no matter how crazy and wrong they are. If the police had prevented the neo-nazis from demonstrating it would have been a step back for progress. Freedom is being allowed to freely express your beliefs no matter what they are and allowing people to make up their own minds as to whether or not they agree...the pictures below show that the German people overwhelmingly disagree with neo-nazis...and how wonderful is it that they were given the opportunity to make that choice.

Someone throwing the swastika away...very nice, very nice.

It reads something like "The risks of the nazi marches; read a history book or ask your grandparents."

It says "Colorful against Brown." Brown is the color that the nazi party identifies with so these people are saying we need a future full of color (many different ideas and beliefs) and not just brown (one set of beliefs like in WWII). This was actually a game where you could win prizes by popping the balloons with a dart. This person was clever and filled the balloons with paint to also make the game an advertisement against nazis.

It is hard to see because of the glare, but the swastika on Hitler's arm has been replaced with a heart and it can clearly be seen that he is wearing pink. His fingernails are also painted on the hand beneath the gloved hand and he is wearing lipstick. This particular sign meant to say that Hitler may have been homosexual. I personally do not know if Hitler was or not and some people might take offense to that. I don't think anyone should take offense to the sign because the greater meaning of the sign meant to say that Hitler was a hypocrite. Hitler also wanted to do away with homosexuals along with many other types of people (handicapped, Jewish, etc.) so this sign was calling him out as a hypocrite. Whether or not he was gay is irrelevant. Hitler was a hypocrite but, more importantly, he was a horrible, evil person.

The streets of Magdeburg full of people!

"Bunt Statt Braun"
"Colorful Instead of Brown"

Even more interesting than the message itself is how they painted it throughout the streets in Magdeburg. They made a special bicycle wheel with the message on it and rigged the bicycle with a bucket of paint to paint this message on the sidewalk as it was wheeled throughout the city. Ingenuity at its best!

Not really sure what this was or what it was trying to say but I simply HAD to take a picture of it. It looks like a hybrid between a turtle, octopus, and praying mantis. So weird.

Konstanz

I never really did a nice post about Konstanz...this will somewhat rectify that but not really since I visited Konstanz when it was already dark. Me and Adam visited while we were in Radolfzell since it is only like 15 minutes away from Radolfzell by train. While we lived in Radolfzell, we got train tickets that allowed us to ride as far as Konstanz for free whenever we wanted...those were the days. Now, I can't even get 5 minutes outside of Magdeburg without shelling cash out. Me and Adam decided to visit Konstanz because we had never really visited the church there. I am glad we did because it really is just an amazing church. I highly recommend it if you are ever in southern Baden-Württemberg. You could explore the crypt of the church a little and the church is very ornate. The church even had little sitting areas on the side for multiple saints. It was like a little prayer room for each individual saint. Even the doors were over the top. They were solid wood with really intricate detailing.

Creepiest photo in a church ever!

We also paid a visit to the Statue of Imperia. The statue is a huge statue of a voluptuous, scantily-clad woman holding two men in her hands. The two men represent Pope Martin V and Emperor Sigismund and the story behind the statue is a harsh satire of the Catholic clergy's morals. In the story, Imperia (who is a prostitute) seduces cardinals and princes and holds power over them. The statue actually spins at a speed of one turn every four minutes and it is located at the end of a dock in the Bodensee.

While we were walking back to the train station, we stumbled upon a procession. It actually came upon us quite quickly. We had to take shelter in a doorway so that we did not disrupt the procession. We later realized it was a Fasnacht procession. Not really sure if the fact that is was Epiphany had any significance or not but Fasnacht is usually a pre-Lent celebration to prepare for Lent. The parade consisted of some very cool costumes...some interesting...some scary. It was cool that we just stumbled upon it by accident.

Return to Radolfzell

A return to Radolfzell was always in the works and I will probably still make one more trip there before I head back to the states. It is just so wonderful and it will always be my first German home. Me and Adam arrived late in Radolfzell Thursday night after our ill-fated Rothaus excursion. We woke up Friday morning and decided we would just wander around Radolfzell for the day. We didn't really have any plans besides making a visit to my old host family to say hello. So we walked around town and passed by all the old familiar places and saw how things were different or the same. I also took pictures of the inside of the Radolfzell church for the first time. I can't believe I didn't take pictures sooner. The church is beautiful. We also got to see that the local Volksbank had been turned into a giant Adventskalender for Advent. We were visiting after Christmas was over but the giant Adventskalender had not yet been taken down. All the windows at the front of this bank were decorated and each was a "door" on the Adventskalender. We, of course also visited the Bodensee to say hello to the water and the swans. After we were done wandering around the town we made our way to my old host family's house. Me, Adam, and the Bottlangs just talked over coffee and cake. My room there had been empty the entire time I was gone and was only going to be occupied with a student that Sunday. It was crazy to think that the best room in all of Radolfzell was unoccupied for so long. It is 2 minutes away from school (walking) and it had its own kitchenette and shower. I guess only very special people like me get to stay there. We, of course, went to the Kaufland where all the CBYXers went during almost every break and lunch we had at Carl-Duisberg Centren. I also visited the restaurant where I had my first Döner. We also went to the market on Saturday like we did almost every Wednesday and Saturday while we were in Radolfzell. We both bought flowers for our host families and dropped them off as a thank you for everything they did for us while we lived with them. Saturday afternoon we headed home. It was sad leaving Radolfzell but it was also a little sad being there without the other original 16 Radolfzellers. It just felt wrong being on the Bodensee without them so, although I am glad I visited, I don't think I could ever live there again because I would just think about all the people that I would be missing.

This is one of the things that I miss most about Radolfzell and southern Germany in general. The natural beauty. The fact that you could just be walking along and stumble across a little creek with a duck in it.

You may recognize this photo as the profile picture for my entire blog. I just couldn't resist taking a similar photo almost 3.5 months later.

Radolfzell church. 

The Radolfzell Volksbank Adventskalender. 

That used to be my front door!!!!   :( 

Friday was Epiphany so that meant the three kings were walking around greeting people. Lots of German cities do this.

My Bodensee with more ducks and swans than I ever saw in summer. 

The Saturday market.

Saturday afternoon me and Adam departed from Radolfzell and headed towards our respected homes. The trip was so loooooong because we were using a special discounted ticket that only allowed us to use regional trains that are slower. The trip was long but we did save a ton of money and I am all about saving those nickels and dimes.

Rothaus Death Excursion

Having one beer does not make you an alcoholic but if you risked your life for that one beer, then does that make you an alcoholic? You will soon learn the reasoning behind this question. Read on. So me and my friend continued our Christmas break trip through Germany. After we left Freiburg we decided to go to Radolfzell am Bodensee. You should remember this place since that is where I lived for my first 2 months in Germany. It is my first German home and a place surrounded by breath-taking natural beauty. Adam's old host mom their offered to put us up for free for a couple of nights so there was no way we could say no. Since Freiburg was so close, we had to visit. On the way to Radolfzell me and my friend wanted to visit the Rothaus brewery. Rothaus is a very Baden-Württemburg beer. It is brewed in the Black Forest and it is served everywhere in Baden-Württemburg. I really wanted to visit the brewery and take a tour. We called ahead to make sure they were giving tours. They guy said there would be no tours that day since no one had called earlier to have one. This should have been our first sign that this was an ill-fated trip. We decided we would go to the brewery anyway since we could still look around the shop and watch a 30 minute video on the brewery. Since this brewery is somewhat secluded in the Black Forest, we had to use a train and two different buses to get there. That already made me nervous since it was already around 2pm by the time we started our trip to Rothaus. I was nervous because I did not like relying on so many links in a chain. What I mean by that is we had to count on not one but two buses and a train in order to get us to the Rothaus brewery and then repeat the entire thing again to get out of the brewery and to Radolfzell. I told my nerves to shut up because I have a history of worrying too much and being nervous about things that I shouldn't be nervous about. So we hop on our first train that is heading in the direction of Radolfzell but goes through the Black Forest. 20 minutes into this train ride we sit on the tracks and don't move for almost 30 minutes because a tree or something fell onto the tracks. It was starting to get windy. By the time we started moving again it was full on raining. This was January rain...very cold rain that really should have been snow. We were unable to get all the way to Seebrugg (our last stop on the train) because the wind had gotten so bad that it blew trees onto the tracks further up the tracks. So we have to get off the train in a different city. We then had to wait another 30 minutes for a bus that would take us in the right direction and to Seebrugg which also happened to be the major stop for all the buses in the area and is situated right on the beautiful Schluchsee (although it wasn't too beautiful when snow and wind are blowing in your face) . By now, my nerves were telling me to just get on another train and go straight to Radolfzell. "Forget about the Rothaus brewery Clayton. It is getting late and the trains are already messed up because of the weather." Once again I told my nerves to shut up and that I was nervous for no reason. So we hop on this first bus and it takes us to this little tiny train station called Seebrugg. Halfway there the rain turns to snow  because our elevation increased so much. We hop on another bus and it takes us all the way to the Rothaus brewery. I did not have boots with me. When I packed for Germany I figured I would use them so seldom that they were not worth it. I was right since it really didn't snow very much at all in Germany this year. On this particular trip, however, it would have been nice to have them because I took one step out of that bus and my feet were soaked. The rain/snow mixture made it so that all the sidewalks basically had a thick layer of slush that was too thick to run off the pavement but fluid enough to soak your feet. me and my friend ran to the Rothaus brewery as fast as we could because now the snow had turned back into really cold rain. We run through the doors and we are basically the only people there. We were greeted by looks from the employees that seemed to say "Why on earth would you go through all that trouble to get here in this horrible weather?" We put our stuff down and took our jackets off. We walked around the shop a little and watched the informational video in the viewing room. Every brewery in Germany has an educational video and they are all pretty similar (but equally cool). By the time were were finished we walked back out to the lobby and asked them if the trains were going through Seebrugg anymore. They said they were not going through Seebrugg but that we could take two buses that would take us to Waldshut. Waldshut is on the Swish border. They said, from there, we could catch a train to Radolfzell. The guy printed out a sheet of times and stops for us and even pointed out the window to what bus stop we needed to be at. The bus was not coming for another hour though so we could kill some time. At this point I had a false sense of security. I had a Fahrplan (trip plan) in my hand and I knew what bus stop to wait at. We were gonna be okay after all. So we decided to relax and have a Rothaus beer straight from the Rothaus brewery. We got to sit in this really cozy restaurant area and enjoy a beer. Outside the weather had turned to snow again and the building was very quiet because we were the only non-employee people there.

Just having a beer with Jesus.

This is also a really good time to mention that I didn't actually drink a beer. Not a real beer anyway. I had something called a Radler. It is basically half beer and half lemonade. Haha so it only has 2.5% alcohol and it tastes like lemony beer. Please don't judge me. I know I know. I should be able to drink beer since I am from Wisconsin and we are all beer drinkers. I never really liked the taste of beer but decided to work on it in Germany. What better place to train yourself to like beer? I started with Radlers and will hopefully work my way to real beer. I think Radlers are delicious so maybe there is hope for me yet.

The view from the bus stop.

So after having that false sense of calmness and enjoying a beer with my friend, me and him go outside to catch our bus. We go out there 7 min minutes early just to make sure we didn't miss it in case the bus was running early. On the way out my feet got soaked all over again. We wait and wait and wait. The bus finally came but it came super late. I was really confused at this point but we get on the bus and take it a couple of stops until the Seebrugg stop. When we start to get off the bus, the bus driver asks us what bus we are getting off to wait for. We tell him. He pauses and then shakes his head. He tells us that that bus is done running for the night but that if we wait at the Seebrugg stop we can use a different bus to get to Waldshut but that we would need to change buses once on the way. It was already like 7pm at this time and German public transportation can switch to the late night transportation as early as 8 pm in some places. The false sense of calmness had long left my body at this point and fear was kicking in. To make things clear, we were basically in a very sparsely populated area of the mountainous Black Forest, it was dark, freezing, and windy as hell. So many things were running through my head. It was so late already and we are supposed to use 2 buses just to get to a train station...and even if we get to the Waldshut train station will trains be running from it because of the bad weather? And even if we can catch the first bus in this crazy bus/train combination who is to say the 2nd bus won't be late or maybe it is just not running anymore at this hour. This was not an area that I was familiar with because I didn't live there so I was not 100% sure how the local transportation worked. I was basically taking people's word for it and the guy at the Rothaus brewery had already led us down the wrong path. We didn't really have a choice but to wait. The Seebrugg stop is a tiny train station located in the middle of nowhere in the Black Forest. It was the train stop that our train was originally supposed to let us off at on our way to the Rothaus brewery but couldn't because of fallen trees. So even though we were at a train stop no trains were coming through. Luckily there was a ticket machine there so that I could at least verify that the train station we wanted to get to (Waldshut) had trains entering and leaving it. Waldshut was fully functional that night but we just needed to get to it. It was dark, very windy, the snow was staying snow, and my feet were soaked. I was getting super worried. The bus we were waiting for was really late. A different bus driver even came up to the bus plan and verified that it should have been there already and that he didn't know what was going on. We were waiting there for at least an hour with about 6 other people (all German). Four of them were all together and the other two girls were friends. Eventually the group of 4 called a friend and had them pick them up. My friend and I did not have the luxury of calling a friend with a car. It was just me, my friend, and the two girls waiting at this train stop in the middle of nowhere for a bus that was really late and was probably never gonna come. I had lost feeling in my toes at this point. And because the first bus was so late, I didn't even think we would be able to catch the second bus we were supposed to use to get to Waldshut train station. At this point I started to get super worried. Where were we gonna sleep if this bus never came? Would we die? Who would die first? I thought that Adam would die first because he has much less body fat than me and I started to ask myself if I would eat him in order to survive? At this point, I knew how crazy I was becoming and my fear filled me with courage so I walked up to the two girls that were also still waiting there for the bus that was never coming and asked them (auf Deutsch) how they were planning on getting home. The one said that she had called her dad and that he was coming to pick them both up. Just then a white car pulls up. My eyes meet the girls eyes and there was a silent understanding of what I was thinking. She ran up to the car and asked her dad if he could give us a ride. A big burly man appears out of the car and tells us to throw our stuff in the trunk and hop in. Yay! I didn't need to eat Adam anymore!

So this really nice guy, who we have never met before, drove two strangers almost 30 km all the way to Waldshut where the weather was completely calm and trains were coming and going unaware of the nasty storm me and Adam had just emerged from. On the way we made a little conversation with our savior but mostly just soaked up the warmth of the car and prayed to God that this man did not come to his senses and drop us off on the side of the road. We offered the man money (gas is not cheap in Europe) when we arrived but he turned us down and said "Grüße nach Amerika" which means "greetings to America". It was my first experience with over the top unnecessary kindness in Germany and the fact that that man did that for us made me almost thankful that me and Adam had almost died...almost. So I have to ask the question. Since I risked my life for this one beer (Radler), does that mean I have a problem?

Two hours later we were sleeping in Adam's old host room from our days in Radolfzell. We had gotten something to eat already and we were warm and safe. I drifted off into sleep and awoke the next day greeted by the Bodensee that had previously welcomed me during my first week in Germany.