Mettmann
Mettmann is about 30 minutes from Dusseldorf and 45 from Cologne. The city is quaint and the downtown is called the Kreiss Mettmann. Kreiss means circle, so the downtown is a compact circle including several bakeries, a church, many little clothes/shoe shops, pharmacy's, book stores, cafes, and ice cream places. Downtown is a 5 minute walk from the house and the train is literally around the corner. It is the perfect location and size.It is also home to the findings of the first Neanderthal man.
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| The gift my host family gave me when they first met me. |
Swimming
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| I tried, but it doesn't cover the experience. |
So I have gone swimming several times since I have been in Mettmann. It is still absolutely fascinating to me. I find that I dont even swim.. I simply just people watch. In the big pool.. you can hardly even swim because there are so many old people. They arent swimming either, just kind of bobbing in the pool. I have never seen so many speedos in one pool before. Before you get in teh pool you have to rinse yourself off the in shower. We usually got to the outside pool because since its cold outside... not many people go out there.
Today while we were swimming we went outside.. after a while we decided that it was much too cold so we returned inside. We were sitting in the kids pool and a little girl next to me decided that she wanted to practice her dives. Every time she would dive/cannon ball into the pool she would splash me. So we would move farther away every time she jumped in;however, we noticed that she moved with us. Needless to say we didnt quite escape her dives. I then saw a little girl standing outside of the pool with a lovely little kids wedgie, her brother then proceeded to come up behind her (still in the pool...) and fix her wedgie.. he then bit her butt...
Running
It took a while to finally find a running path.. actually I had my host-dads navigation bracelet thing on.. and I still went the opposite way that they told me! But while I was lost.. I managed to find the perfect running path.. hilly,pretty, and to a neighboring town. It took me a while to complete the loop because I thought I was completely lost.. turns out I should have more faith in my sense of direction.. hmm.
any way.. I cannot believe the insane German slug population.. Ive seen more slugs in the past month than I have since I have been a live I am pretty sure. No, I am positive. It's slightly disgusting but for some reason fascinating. I try to dodge them when I walk/run.. so I think so far I have spared every slugs life..An old man passed me on his bike the other day.. but when I got to the top of the hill he was stopped.. he stopped me saying something in German along the lines of "man youre faster than my bike" I said.. sorry my german is not so good.. and he said ohh not so good.. but then i replied with "ja, aber jezt ich bin mude" (yeah but now I am tired) ... later on he passed me again adn waved.. he reminded me of a toad... and old toad.. like the toad in the books Frog & Toad.
Moth Initiation...or Fruit fly..
Moths and flies have a tendency to invade the house from time to time.. and my host family likes to catch them..it's a slight obsession actually..youll be in the middle of a conversation and SMACK they just attempted to catch the moth flying by..
this reminds me of China.. whenever we would be out to eat with Libbys family they were always commented on our chopstick skills or lack there of..we eventually called it the Chopstick test whenever new family was around.. it became a joke.. "I wonder what they are thinking about our use of chopsticks"
so my "chopstick test" here in Germany.. is that i WILL catch a moth/fly ..quick reflexes.. BRING IT ONNN
Jump Rope for the kids
I went to the grocery store (it's called Rewe) with my host mom.. when we walked in there was some kind of thing to raise money for homeless kids? and you had to jump rope for one minute.. so I jump roped in the middle of the grocery store for a minute.. it was amusing!Banana Runt
Today I got an apple in town (as you see below) I forgot the name of it.. I am pretty sure it's a regional apple. Any way, it tastes like a banana runt..
Titties
Tonight I went to pub/live music hopping with my host family..
on teh way home.. we were all kind of tipsy.. They asked me if I knew what the couple that accompanied us did.. I said no.. and they replied..they sell boobs.. you know..titties... hhah
Ice Skating and pumpkin carving
This morning I went ice skating in Dusseldorf with some friends for a few hours.. after we returned home.. we played Taboo for a little bit then we went to get some pumpkins for their FIRST pumpkin carving!!! and I made them roasted pumpkin seeds.. which were a hit : )they have also never had Smores....so that's next on the list!
A little bit of Turkish:
Today my English teacher wasnt at school so I didnt have class. When I came home my host mom was about to go to work.. teaching German lessons to some Turkish women. I tagged along because.. it's German practice and it would be interesting. It was a lot of fun. They were all really nice and related. Two of them had arranged marriages with Twin Turkish guys.. they married when they were 16.. crazy huh? I cannot even imagine, they are happy though. I learned some Turkish words too. There was a little girl there and she was adorable. It was really funny because she was sitting in her moms lap while she was talking to us and the little girl just puts her hand down her moms shirt..it was a slightly awkward but hilarious situation. They gave us some tea then set out like 10 things of different sweets. It was 10:00am..way too early for things like that. They insisted that I try one of the Turkish candies.. It was a solid marshmallow cube with a pistachio on top---gross. hahah Maybe if it werent 10:00am.. but whew that was too much for me haha.
WOLFGANG.
Wolfgang is my Betreuer for the year. He is about 40-50 and is in a rock band. Any way he wanted to check in and see how thigns were going so we met after my German class last Thursday. He speaks some English.. so we switch between German adn English.. First we got some Gelato (apricot and lemon for me..) we then walked into the Altstadt of Dusseldorf- or the best place. We had a beer in the oldest beer tavern.. it was so cool inside. I am definitely taking my family there(from KY) after that we walked around Dusseldorf looking for stolpersteines. They are golden stones placed alongside buildings and they represent a Jewish person that lived there and was taken to concentration camps.
John Lennon & Yoko Ono
on the train coming back from Gerresheim the other day I swear to god I saw John Lennon and Yoko Ono reincarnated.. it was so bizarre.. so Leonie and I took a creeper picture...
Pigs in a blanket
Leonie and I were going to a friends 18th birthday party and were supposed to bring food.I thought that it would be a great and easy idea to take pigs in a blanket. The Pfisters had never heard of this before..... but they thoroughly enjoyed tasting them. :)
Biggest Apples EVER.
I don't know what the Germans jack into these exremely large Bokstop Apples.. but they are by far the largest apples I Have ever seen or eaten.
Mädels Nacht
Last night Leonie and I had a girls night. We went to the store to get face masks.. and then we got Honig Met (a warm honey wine) and Kirsche Gluewein (a traditional German warm Christmas wine). We had to consume all of the veggies in the house before we left for Fall break so that they wouldnt go bad. We had home made guacamole, green/red bell peppers, mushrooms, lettuce, Celery sticks, steamed Celery and purple Carrots, Grapes from our garden, fresh bread, pineapple,and cucumbers. We put on our masks.. ate some food.. drank some wine (which was interesting tasting..) and we watched Superbad.. AND we had a fire going in the fire place :) mmmm good night.
