City tour attempt

Today I went with my dad to look around the Altstadt, "Old Town", downtown Regensburg. We went to eat Doener, which were absolutely delicious, and then we went sightseeing. But even though we had a plan of the city, we got hopelessly lost in the winding roads and ended up on the other side of the Altstadt than where we wanted to go. But we found an ice cream store with really good Italian ice cream and a big TV where world cup games are played on. We watched a while as we ate, and then moved on. In the day we saw the Alte Kapelle, a beautiful white church with a lot of murals and gold on the walls, the Regensburg Dome, the Jakobstor, a gate to downtown built in 1301 as the only way you could get into Regensburg, and the Steinerne Bruecke, the first bridge across the Donau River for 800 kilometers.

Today, Dad came with me to soccer practice. I thought the whole team and I played badly but Dad said I did great and the team looked awesome. The training is a lot more serious than ours in Durango and everyone there wants to play and probably had a choice of whether they wanted to come or not. Also, every player has skill and can pass the ball, so play doesn't get held up by one player all the time. I need to cherish my last practice with a good team before I go.

Germany vs. Australia

Sorry about all the World Cup talk, but there's nothing else for me to write about. Germany have had a hard series of injuries to vital players who would surely make the starting 11. First, national keeper Robert Enke committed suicide in November. Then Simon Rolfes, Rene Adler, and Michael Ballack all went out with knee injuries. Finally, a few days before the world cup, Haiko Westermann picked up an injury in a friendly. Despite all this, the Germans put on a great show of patient, precision passing and great goalscoring abilities. Their defense was well organized and they only made one mistake back there in the entire game. But their offense was amazing. They would work the bgall around the middle for a while and then pass it wide to Mueller or Podolski, who would either cross or lay it back to a forward, which almost always resulted in a goalscoring opportunity. But I think that my favorite thing about this game is that Miroslav Klose broke his 13 game goalless streak with a powerful header, putting him in a tie for the 2nd top German World Cup goalscorer of all time.

USA vs. England

Today we went to Frankfurt with the ICE train. When we got there, we watched USA play England in the3 World Cup on TV. It was a great game and USA went out happy with 1:1, a great result. England scored in the 3rd minute and it looked like USA didn't have a chance in this world cup. But then Mert Can, a friend of the people we are staying with, said that it would be the goal of the century if a goalkeeper had the ball in his hands and then let it go into the goal. He got his wish in the 40th minute, when Robert Green fumbled an easy shot by Clint Dempsey, the 1:1.

Match highlights:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr95zZu6G64

Dad's in Germany!

Today my dad came into Germany. He's right there next to me as I'm writing this post. Funny thing is, every time I think about my dad I think of soccer. This connection is growing stronger because Dad came in 3 hours before the first game of the World Cup 2010, which we are looking forward to watching.

Today I again narrowly avoided my first F in Germany. My class has had 3 years of physics. I haven't had any. We had a huge test which I understood almost nothing of. Luckily, I answered all the questions that were just reasoning and not calculating right and came away with a D-. How much longer can I hold out?

German assignment

Today I narrowly 'avoided' my first F in Germany. The German teacher handed back my essay with red pen wherever I made a mistake. My essay was hardly visible underneath the deep red blob of 'Rechtschreibung'. But he's a nice guy and, instead of giving me the obvious grade I deserved, he said on the back: "I know it's hard to write in a foreign language. Good job in trying your best."

In Biology I had a boring experience. Our teacher is probably the worst teacher I've ever had, so we weren't looking forward to class. As we wrote the title of the chapter, "Bacteria and Insulin", a classmate of mine piped up: "What's insulin?" The teachers reply was a 20 minute discussion on how insulin is so great and can cure diseases and diabetes and there's 2 types of diabetes and one's inherited and the other can happen when you get overweight so don't eat too many potato chips, kids and I feel like I'm writing a pretty good description of how the teacher went on and on and on and on and on and on and on and am I repeating myself?

By the time she ended her sentence class was over.

Ardeche Info

More information on the river itself. A truly beautiful place.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ard%C3%A8che_%28river%29

Our campsite:

http://www.campingdelile.com/accueil.htm

Kryptonite: Learned!

As we came back from the Ardeche I was very bored in the car so I listened to Kryptonite (Song by 3 doors down) over and over again and decided to learn it on the keyboard when I got home. I have the entire guitar part down but can't seem to get the vocals sorted out. I'll put a video on youtube or here when I have it.

Zurich

3 days ago we left the Ardeche campsite for Zurich. We came into Zurich at 11:30 in a thunderstorm and were about to start setting up the tent when Heidrun (Jonas' grandma) saw some lights in the distance. We went to look there and found an RV park. The man there said that the campsite was full but that we could sleep in the dorm on mattresses. We quickly said yes at the prospect of sleeping in the rain. He led us to the dorm. We were the only ones there and the mattresses were really comfortable. The man was very nice and made us a great breakfast the next morning. Then we went into Zurich.

We were only there for 2 hours but we saw quite a bit. The Zurich Lake goes right through the middle of the city! There are many beautiful domes and spires and churches around Zurich, but we didn't have time to look into any of them.

A few times on my trip to the Ardeche I went with Jonas to a place where a cliff is about 8 feet above the Ardeche and jumped in the river a few times. Jonas did lots of tricks, including a frontflip. I didn't do many because I was scared that my contacts would fall out in the water. One time they folded in half and I had to unfold them while swimming in the water! Also, the water was pretty cold in the Ardeche, about 60 degrees fahrenheit. The picture is of Jonas jumping headfirst into the water.

Thursday Dinner

On Thursday we had the famous 'Thursday Dinner' at the Ardeche campsite with all our friends. This has been a tradition since the Pfingstferien of 1971, when my mother was 5 years old! We feasted on delicious lamb and a buffet with a special dish from every family. It reminded me of Thanksgiving. Fun!

Boules tournament

Today we had a Boules tournament at the campground. This is a tradition at the Ardeche campsite and hads been held for at least 5 years annually. Boules is a French game where a small wooden ball is thrown at least 20 feet away and the players try to get as close to the ball without touching it with metal balls. We played our tournament so that teams of two played against each other to 13 points. The players on the winning team got points for a win, the losing players for a loss and the top 8 in wins went on to the semi final.

Unfortunately I placed 13th and didn't get into the semi final. The 8 finalists were also on teams of two, so two people won the 1st place prizes. Interestingly, the draw put out two teams with people from our 'corner' of the campground where the Germans camp, and two teams with people from another part of the campsite. One team from our 'corner' advanced to the final and so did one team from the other part. The final winners of the boules tournament were Joe and Winni from our part of the campsite. Prizes were given to all the finalists and the 'Lucky loser', the winner of the game between the two worst Boules players.

Madeline's grotto (Le Grotte de Madeleine)

Today we went to Madeline's grotto, a series of caves winding into the mountainside, filled with stalactites, stalagmites, and columns. We had a guided tour, but our guide spoke English with a French accent and I didn't understand her too well.

I took a few pictures as well:




The cave was discovered in 1887 by a shepherd looking for his lost goat in a thunderstorm. He followed the goat's cries and found a cave in the mountainside. As he walked for a while, he came to a huge chamber filled with stalactites and stalagmites, the biggest measuring 30 feet tall and 10 feet wide!



But the entrance he found is not the one we used because it comes out on a cliff face 150 feet above the river. In the 1950s the caves were opened to the public as people found a series of navigable caves while dynamiting.

Klettergarten ('Climbing Garden')

Today, after a few days relaxing at the campsite, I went to the Klettergarten, or climbing garden, with Jonas and my campsite friends Thomas and Christopher. We had to swing from tree to tree and go over various obstacles with carabiners and a pulley. The ropes which spanned from tree to tree were marked with green or red. On the green ones we fastened our carabiners and on the red ones we fastened pulleys. The courses were marked 1 2 3 4 5. After the practice course we moved from course to course and I finished the entire garden with Jonas. The first couple were very easy, the hardest obstacle being a shaky bridge. We soon learned to fasten the pulleys onto the wire and slide down to the next tree on the course. At the middle of the fourth course, Christopher went down from the tree on the 'Bail out ladder' as Jonas and I went up to about 45 feet above the ground to a pulley slide. We finished the course exhausted but unhurt and moved on to the last course. We climbed 20 feet up a 4 inch wide ladder to a platform and swung about 40 feet on a rope to the next tree, where we had to climb a net with the rope tugging at our backs. We finished this and pulley-slid to the next tree. Then came the hard part. 30 smal woden swings, 4 feet from each other, spanned to the next platform. Jonas and I couldn't step from swing to swing so we turned backward and pulled ourselves along the rope where we were fastened until we were close enough to the next swing. We finished with our arms burning but continued anyway. The next obstacle was a trapeze - monkey bar contraption and didn't know what to do so we just shimmeyed along the rope where we were fastened. Lastly, we slid at breakneck speed into a pad on the last tree. I hit with my chest first and it hurt alot, but then it was easy to get down to the ground. In all, a great experience and well worth the time there.

Pfingstferien in France

Today I am leaving for a one week vacation in France. We have pentcost vacation, Pfingsferien. We are going camping and kayaking on the Ardeche in Southern France. I will blog about it when I get back.

Today I had art class. We finished up a project we were doing, drawing and designing cars. The teacher took people who were finished with their cars to the side and explained the next project to them. He took me to the side when I told him I was finished. He talked very fast so I didn't understand him. After asking him to repeat himself a couple times he asked:

"Are you retarted?"

"No, I'm just an exchange student from America." I replied.

"So, if you're retarted, why are you going to Middle School and not to a mental facility?"

After this I decided to ask one of my classmates about the project.

Today at soccer practice we had a new coach. He was very good at coaching and taught us a lot of new things, but he was a little bit tempermental. The last 4 people to arrive at practice had to move all the goals into position for the rest of the team! What's more, the coach would yell at us about how badly we played soccer and then immediately switch to praising us!

After a tough practice and a lot of push ups for the losing team, the coach yelled at us for a good 5 minutes nonstop.

"Come on, you wimps! My grandma can play soccer better than you! Your positioning was terrible, your ball control stinks! This must have been the worst practice I've ever seen!"

And then:

"But I truly enjoyed it. I look forward to seeing you guys again."

Bayern Munich, the champions

On Saturday, Bayern Munich won the final of the Deutscher Pokal(German cup) 4:0 against Werder Bremen. I didn't get tickets because it was in Berlin, but I watched it on TV. With the Pokal and the League in hand, Bayern approaches Inter Milan in the Champions League final next week. It's going to be a great game to watch, and for anyone that is interested, I think it will be on at 12:15 Durango time.

The coolest thing about the Champions League final this year is that Bayern has the chance for the Triple(Cup, League, and Champions League) and so does Inter!

Among the excitement of Bayern fans is also sadness as Germany's captain Michael Ballack will not be playing in the World Cup this summer.

Bayern vs. Bremen highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqJ-uMO8TXE&feature=related

Michael Ballack injury: http://www.myfootballnews.co.uk/news_jump.html?player_id=1528&story=72093

World Cup theme song(gotta hear this one): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kYQaXx-L6w

10 Kilometer Run

Today I took part in the Regensburg Marathon's 10 kilometer race. I've never run for more than 10 minutes straight, so this was pretty hard for me. I ran with Jonas and his friend Lenny. The first kilometer everyone was cheering for the runners so Jonas clapped and waved and hooted as he ran, a pretty dumb waste of energy. At kilometer 7 Jonas couldn't run as fast as Lenny and I so we ran ahead of him. I was so tired by the last kilometer that I couldn't walk because my legs wouldn't go out of running mode. In the end, Lenny and I ran the distance in 54 minutes 10 seconds. Jonas made it in 56:26.

People from Kenya were there and got 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the Marathon, Half-marathon, and 10 Kilometer. They can run a whole marathon without stopping! One of them was Kenya's 'Iron Man' winner. The 'Iron Man' race is 5K swimming, 180K biking, and the a full marathon. They also have double iron man, triple iron man, and iron man through the Sahara Desert. THEY ARE INSANE!!!

After the marathon, we got a massage, went swimming, and ate spaghetti for lunch.

Dult

Today I went to the Regensburger Dult again with Jonas and his friends. This time, we rode bumper cars for quite a while. Jonas, four of his friends, and I all teamed up on a chubby kid who would throw his full weight against the front of his car when ramming people to try and hit them harder. We all came from different directions and simultaneously slammed him so hard that he flew up out of his chair! After this, the kid started yelling that we were being unfair to him. After this, Jonas and his friends went on Topspin and High Energy, the two craziest rides in the park(see photo and video). I didn't go with them because I get dizzy pretty easily and the rides are pretty rough.





After Jonas and Co. were done with the crazy rides, we went on a ride called Breakdance, a ride where chairs spin around a platform which spins on another spinning platform, making the rider very dizzy. At the end, the chairs spun and jerked around so fast that I almost threw up! I had to sit down a few minutes before I could go on another ride.

Lastly, we went to a shooting stand and had to shoot moving little metal rabbits with a pellet gun. This was very hard and with 12 shots Jonas and I only hit 4 rabbits, but the person at the stand gave us 5 dult-points to buy prizes with. Last time we were at the Dult we bought an airsoft gun with our points, but this time we only had enough for a lighter. Another fun-filled day at the Dult, but I've already spend 40 dollars on rides and stuff there and I don't really want to run out of money here.

DÖNER!!!!!

On Wednesday I went to a Döner stand with my friends from school and ate my first Turkish Döner. It was delicious! Two giant rolls of pork spun around on a spit and the people there shaved the pork off into thin, perfectly roasted slices. Along with salad, ranch dressing, tomatoes, onions, and tomato sauce the meat is put into a pita pocket. Definitely makes the top 5 things they have to eat here in Germany.

Things they have in America and not in Germany:

Donuts
Mexican Food(at least not much)
...

Things in Germany and not in America:

Schnitzel
Spätzle
Pretzels
Döner
Good sausage
Krapfen (wannabe jelly donuts)
...

Maybe I'll continue this list, but that'll take a while.

Happy Fathers Day!

Antje just told me that today is Fathers Day! If you don't believe me, look at google.de! Apparently they celebrate Fathers day in May in Germany, either the first Thursday of May or the 13th. So happy Fathers Day, everyone!

Unfortunately for my Dad, he will be in America for Germany's Fathers Day and in Germany for America's.

Growing Slaves?

Today in Geography we were talking about Latin America, pretty much South and Central America. Our teacher asked us a question, namely 'What do you think is grown in South America?'
Answers:

Bananas
Coffee
Tofu
Gum
Soybeans
Cocoa beans
Slaves

How the Spanish Conquistadores would manage to grow slaves in fields is still beyond me.

English test

Today I had a small English test. I had to read German sentences and translate them into English. At the end of the class when everyone was finished, the teacher read us the right answers. Unfortunately, I got almost all of them wrong because I wrote the most common way of saying the sentences instead of how the class was taught. For example, I wrote down "They were running out of food but still didn't want to try lobster." and the right answer was "In spite of shortened rations on board, they preferred not trying lobster." I can't imagine anyone talking this kind of English!

Regensburger Dult

Yesterday I went to the Regensburger Dult, a big fairgrounds with tons of rides. I didn't do most of them because they involved being drenched with water while spinning around upside down, which would probably make me throw up. But when we go back on Thursday I'm going to bring a camera and ride 'Break Dance', a rapidly spinning platform with smaller spinning platforms on top and cars which jerk back and forth, creating a lot of force.

The hardest rides to withstand are Topspin and High Energy. They are really hard to explain, so I'm going to right more on Thursday with pictures.

Thinking in German

Now I've been here for almost a month and my German is getting really good. So good in fact, that I think in German as I'm speaking it. I can also think in English as I'm reading or speaking it. So, when I'm reading an English book and Antje asks me something, an odd mix of German and English comes out while my mind switches to German. For example, "Ja Antje. I'll gehe to the Bäckerei in five minuten." The weirdest is, I can't say this sentence unless I've been forced to quickly switch languages.

Soccer at SV Burgweinting

For the last couple of weeks, I've been playing with the A team of the local soccer club here, SV Burgweinting. Some players are 2 years older than me! At first, I couldn't play as well as them because my new cleats were bugging me and I was a bit jet lagged, but now I am playing pretty well with them. Their game is a beautiful one with one-touch passes most of the time. I played a defensive midfield position yesterday and got the ball a lot. Because the other players are faster and more skilled than me, I need to play the ball very quickly to avoid losing it. Their game is also very physical and I got slide-tackled a couple times. Once I almost fell into the goal post! All in all, a very fun experience to play with these guys. I think I'll be a much better player when I come back from Germany.

Greek Letters!!!

Physics here is utterly baffling. We need to be able to calculate how much energy in Jules it takes to melt and boil any material! What's more, in the couple weeks I've been here, I thought that the Greek letter Theta(a capital N with a loop on the top which means temperature) was just the German's cursive N (what the heck is N to the 'water'th power?)! Good thing that my grades here don't count, 'cause I'm going to get a whole lot of F's.

Old sax?

Lars will like this one. Today, I asked our neighbor Jeremias what kind of sax he played. He answered "Alter Saxophone", in English "Old Saxophone"! It took me a while to figure out that he meant an alto saxophone. I may have found a mistranslation in the German language.

Bayern Munich vs. VFL Bochum(continued)

After each of the goals, the commentator would say "Goal by Thomas," and the crowd would say "MÜLLER"
"Thomas" the commentator said again.
"MÜLLER" the crowd chanted.
"Thomas"
"MÜLLER"
"The score after this goal: Bayern"
"ONE"
"Bochum"
"ZERO"
"Thank you"
"YOU'RE WELCOME"
Interestingly enough, the commentator said nothing after the Bochum goal.

Before the game, at the train station in Munich, we sat down to eat lunch. Every few minutes some drunk Bayern fans would walk past us, belting out all the cheers they could think of. After lunch, we followed these fans to the subway station which would take us to the game. Our train was completely packed with people, and the fans were so drunk that people kept falling over when they couldn't find something to hold on to.

We arrived at a subway station a ways away from the stadium. Bayern fans filled the space all the way to the huge stadium. Little specks of blue, the Bochum fans, were spread across the vast landscape of red. So many people had Bayern jerseys on that I saw the entire starting 11 of Bayern on the back of people's jerseys.

In the Allianz Arena(see http://gpsmission.com/media/16297256.jpg), we sat in the middle of the Bochum fan block. This was no big deal, because half of the people there were Bayern fans looking for cheaper tickets. Down on the other side of the stadium were the hardcore Bayern fans behind the goal. They didn't have seats, but they didn't need them because they were jumping up and down yelling for Bayern the entire game.

Before the game, Bayern and Schalke were the two top teams in the Bundesliga, tied in points and 9 points ahead of other teams. If Bayern won against Bochum and Schalke lost to Werder Bremen, Bayern would be first in the Bundesliga this season. Seeing the importance of this to the Bayern fans, a Bochum fan listened to the radio broadcast of Bremen vs. Schalke. When Bremen shot the 1-0 goal against Schalke, he spread the word around our block. Almost everyone shot out of their seats and cheered for the goal. A few minutes later, the goal was broadcasted throughout the stadium and the rest of the fans cheered.

Towards the end of the game, Bremen shot the 2-0 against Schalke. After the goal was broadcasted, Lukas sang "Who are champions? Only FCB. Only FCB. Only FCB." A few minutes later, the hardcore fans sang "Who are champions? Only FCB."

After the game, Lukas and I were on the subway to the train station. The subway was packed with drunk hardcore Bayern fans, singing their hearts out on every Bayern chant in existence. One fan even did a solo chant which lasted for about two minutes! Although the fans never sang with each other in time or pitch, it was great fun and I even joined in on the cheers I picked up.

Match highlights: http://www.mysoccerplace.net/video/bayern-vs-bochum-3-1-highlights-1-5-2010

Bayern theme song(Stern des Südens): http://www.myvideo.de/watch/1586805/FCB_Stern_des_Suedens

FC Bayern vs. VFL Bochum

Champions! Today FC Bayern Munich secured their place at the top of the table with a 3:1 win against VFL Bochum. And I got to see it all firsthand! Both of the teams came out of the dressing rooms greeted by a roar of applause from the fans. First the commentator said the Bochum players names very dryly. About 75 people yelled their support out of 69000. Then the commentator came to the Bayern players. He yelled the first player's name out. "The number 1, Jurg" and the whole stadium called back "Butt", the goalie's name. This happened equally enthusiastically for each player on the Bayern team.

The goals:

Thomas Müller(18.): Passing the ball around the middle of the field, Bayern was clearly the better team at this point. They had quite a few chances to get a goal in the first 10 minutes, but didn't capitalize until the 18th. Arjen Robben received the ball at the edge of the box. He passed it outside to Phillip Lahm, who took it inside and hit it past the keeper and across the 6 yard box. The ball came to Müller, too low for a header and to high for a kick, so Müller chested it into the goal.

Thomas Müller(20.): Again, Arjen Robben recieved the ball at the edge of the box. Thit time, he dribbled inside, faked a shot, and played a beautiful chip ball to Lahm. Lahm hit a long cross to Ribery, who volleyed the ball across the 6 yard box. Again, Müller was at just the right place for Ribery's cross and headed it past the keeper right into the corner.

Thomas Müller(69.): Hat-trick time! Thomas Müller, always in the right place in the right time. Lahm played the ball to Müller at the edge of the box and Müller took it around 3 Bochum defenders before slotting it coolly past the keeper. Not bad for a 20 year old!

Sorry, but I'm done writing for today. More on my experience tomorrow, not necessarily the game, but the fans!

A few days ago I went climbing with Jonas and his dad Stefan. It was a lot of fun and the walls were really big and hard. At the place where we were climbing, one person would hold the rope and the oter would climb. Stefan held the rope for us because he doesn't like climbing very much. As I neared the top on my first time up the wall, I heard Stefan yell 'Up'(The german word 'Ab' is pronounced just like 'up'). I kept climbing. He yelled again. I climbed faster. 'Up Tony! Down!' Now I was really confused. 'Let go!' he tried. Now I finally got what he meant and was gently lowered to the ground. I've still got a ways to go on my German.

Munich(continued)

We then went to 12:00 mass at the 'Old Peter' church. It was a beautiful white church with murals of different scenes of Jesus in it. The mass was only 30 minutes long and felt really rushed.

After mass we climbed to the top of the tower on 'Old Peter'. It was very long, about 1500 stairs. We had a view of all of Munich from up there! I'll post a picture of the view later.

Then we ate lunch in the Marienplatz. We ate Weisswurst there, a delicious dish of cooked white sausage, a traditional bavarian breakfast. My mom told me that Weisswurst is a breakfast because, before refrigerators, they wouldn't keep fresh past the next morning.

After this we went to the German Museum. It was amazing! First, we went to this special electricity presentation. The employees put two metal apparati about 2 feet apart. Once turned on, a bright beam of electricity flowed from one to the other. Next, they put a glass plate between the apparati. The electricity flowed around the plate in a spiderweb-like pattern. After this, one of the employees got into the Pharysian Cage, a big round metal cage which was lifted about 20 feet off the ground. 5000 volts were run through the cage, but the man could touch the sides without being electrocuted! Lastly, the employees simulated lightning strikes. Static electricity was built up along a huge tower and then let out a narrow funnel. The result? A very fast and very loud lightning strike. After a few times hitting power lines and church steeples in a miniature town, a string was strung from the funnel to a piece of wood, simulating a tree. The lightning strike hit the tree, and splintered the wood but didn't fell the tree, just like in real life! This was the end of their presentation.

The other really cool thing in the German Museum was a mine exhibit. Instead of having informational signs all over the place, dummies of miners were shown doing all the things done in a real mine. One place even showed a flooded mine shaft with a miner drowning inside! In the beginning of the exhibit, miners were shown with pickaxes, like they used a longer time ago. But then mine carts came along, and dynamite. By the end of the exhibit, miners were inside a tunneling machine and wood covered the roof. The structure of the mine also changed, to more high-tech ways of holding up a wall to prevent collapse. Towards the beginning, nothing was holding up the walls, making a collapse more likely. All in all, a very cool experience.

That just about sums up my day in Munich. I did so much that I can't believe I only spent a day there. Munich is a great city, not to mention my birthplace. I'm going back there this weekend for a Bayern Munich game.

Munich

Today I went to Munich all day with my mom to sightsee. I saw a ton of really cool things, of which I will post some pictures later in my blog.


We boarded our train at 8:44 in the morning and got to Munich at 10:30. At the train station we ate Krapfen, jelly donuts without a hole. Walking out of the airport, we boarded the Straßenbahn, a train which rides on rails on the street. We got out at the Athens square, full of magnificent Greek-style buildings. It was built for a German king who liked the buildings of Greece when he went to visit.



Then we went to the Alte Pinakotek, a building containing gigantic 14th century paintings. There was a painting by Rubens stretching from ceiling to floor, at least 20 feet tall. It was filled with people falling from Heaven to Hell, and not a single one of them had hands.

After this we had to hurry to the St. Peter's church for mass. On the way we saw a crowd of at least 30 people craning their heads over a bridge. We looked over the bridge and saw surfers! They were riding on a big wave in the middle of a small river. The surfers would go back and forth a couple of times and then attempt an aerial and crash into the river and swim for the shore.



To be continued tommorow...

Today I had English class at my school, and the teacher asked a girl in my class a lot of questions about U.S. history. Sometimes it seems like they learn more about our history than we do in America! One of the questions was: "What was the hardest season for the English settlers?"
"Death." the girl answered.
"No. Seasons!"
"Oh! Cinammon?"
"No."
"Salt?"
"No."
"Um... Ginger!" the girl exclaimed. Frustrated, the teacher asked another student, who immediately answered "Winter", the correct answer. Germans again!

German Food

So far I've had traditional Bavarian food a few times here. But the kids here eat about the same food as we eat here like McDonalds and KFC. But I prefer German food. Here is a list of my favorite things I've had on my trip:

1. Butter pretzel: A giant pretzel hot out of the oven and smeared with butter at a local bakery is absolute paradise. The crunchy outside of the pretzel contrasts beautifully with the soft and chewy dough in the middle. The butter gives it flavor, making it the perfect quick snack.

2. Spätzle: A dish of miniature dumplings cooked to perfection in boiling water. I find it best with mushroom sauce. Although I've had Spätzle a few times at home, we never had true Bavarian Spätzle, which are longer and, in my opinion, better.

3. Wienerschnitzel: A truly wonderful food. Fine pork beaten down to a centimeter thick and breaded. In Germany it is served with lemons and a sauce of pig fat and seasoning, which combined were DELICIOUS!

4. Spargel: Giant, albino asparagi. Best served with butter. You can only get them in the springtime in Germany, so they are really a delicacy.

5. Lebersemmel: I don't like these quite as much as the others, but they're very cheap and you can find them almost anywhere. A pork liver patty wedged between two sesame buns and slathered with mustard, lebersemmels are a great after-school snack.

Deadly Strawberries

Background information: Strawberries and Earthquakes are very similar in German (Erdbeeren, Erdbeben). Today at school, some of my classmates did a presentation on Apocalypses. They presented lots of information, including many predictions of Apocalypses, three by Martin Luther. They were reading from a powerpoint presentation projected on the wall. One slide read "Some signs of Apocalypses are tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanoes". The girl reading said "Some signs of Apocalypses are tsunamis, strawberries, and volcanoes." The entire class burst out laughing. These Germans!

Still or Sparkling?

So far I've been to quite a few restaurants in Germany with my mom. Every time I go, I have to ask for 'tap water' so that they don't serve me sparkling water. Apparently, in Germany they aren't usually asked for tap water, because when I ask them, the waiters look at me like I'm insane and then bring me a tiny, 5 ounce glass of tap water!

Today at school in History class, the teacher was lecturing us on a war that happened in the 1700s. A man named Otto von Bismarck wrote a two page letter to the French king. It had very long words in it and was incredibly confusing, using triple negatives (I don't not not want to...) and the teacher read very fast. The teacher said "Confused? You should be. It's diplomat language for 'Piss yourself and shut up' (German, 'Verpiss dich und halts maul)". Best lecture I've ever had.

English class with the Schoppa's

Today, Antje was teaching Nomi English past tense. So Antje would say the word 'Swim' and Nomi would say 'Swim, swam, swum'. As she got to 'Lay' Nomi said 'Lay, laid, laid'. Antje said "I've laid the table" as an example. I thought she said "I flayed the table" and neither of us could figure it out without my mom.

Mass at the Regensburg Dome

Today, we rode our bikes to mass at the Regensburg dome. We entered the 900 foot tall church through the side. Luckily, we were relatively early and got a seat near the front. The Regensburg Kids Choir was there, but it wasn't the regular group, but an older group of kids. The mass was normal, just like in America, but the building was amazing. The walls were lined with 150 foot tall stained glass windows, each painstakingly made to depict a different scene of Jesus. The ceiling towered above us, and organ pipes reached up almost to the top. Even though the building was very beautiful, it was very dark and the organ sounded like something from a horror movie. Not the atmosphere you look for in a church!

Iceland volcano ash cloud, all airports in Germany closed

My mom couldn't fly back to Durango, all airports are closed. Here's the link http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-1266269/Iceland-volcano-airports-close-7am.html

Today we are going to mass at the Regensburg Dome. I already posted a picture of it, but I only went inside for a few minutes. The Regensburg Dome is a giant, centuries-old church, decorated with rows and rows of stained glass windows inside. The cornerstone was lain in 700 A.D., and construction wasn't completed until the 1870s. At the mass we are going to today are the famous Regensburg Kids Choir, the Regensburger Domspatzen who sing at Sunday masses. I'll post some pictures after the mass.

Today at school I had music. Instead of singing or playing on instruments, we got a worksheet about "The science of music"! It was about Pythagoras, and how he used the science of sound to create different sounds at different frequencies and amplitudes. How this is supposed to help someone learn music is beyond me.

I also had chemistry. We learned about the property of salts, and I didn´t understand one of the terms and none of the other students knew how to explain it. The teacher comes over to me and asks me "Whhhaaatttt iiiiisssss yyyooouuur nnnaaammmee?" really slowly, so I told her that I could speak German. She said "No! WWWWhhhhaaaat iiiissss yyyyooouuurrr nnnnaaaammmeee?" I told her again that I could speak German well. She explained again, this time with hand gestures and I told her. "Oh," she said and then walked away. She didn't even tell me the vocabulary term!

Please send me Comments

I changed the blog to English and now you can comment easier (without having to sign in first). Let me know how you like it and what you would like to hear about.

German biking rules

Before I start, I need to thank my friend Jeremy. Without him, I´d probably be roadkill. I bike to school with him every day and am subject to the biking rules of Germany. Today I learned many things. First, you can´t stop on the bike path. I stopped at a streetlight with Jeremy and a biker checked me with his wheel and shouted "You can´t stop there you a**hole". Second, turning left is hard on a 6 lane intersection. We waited in the middle of a huge road for a good couple minutes, waiting for cars who had the right of way. Third, you need to wave to somebody to J-walk. Jeremy went across the road first and waved at a car that was turning right. The driver let him by and smiled. A few seconds later, I went across and didn´t wave, and he flipped me off and honked at me.

Well, sometimes you need to learn the hard way.

My first soccer practice today was disastrous. First, my cleats were all bent out of shape from sitting at the bottom of my luggage. I couldn´t take a good touch for the first 30 minutes. Second, the team was totally out of it that day. No one wanted to be there, and they showed it by lazily letting everything by them. There was one kid who played pickup soccer at the park with me who played hard and well, but everyone else did terrible. Third, there was only one coach and 16 kids and whoever the coach wasn´t yelling at started messing around. The coach got totally fed up and ended practice half and hour early.

On a better note, the players play well together and all have good skill, so I look forward to better days than today.

Tony in London on way to Germany

Regensburger Dom

Here is the Dom, it is only a 10 minute walk from my school. My mom picked me up and we walked over to downtown.

My new family

Here are two of my new family members, Antje, my Gastmutter and Jonas, my new little brother. There is also Nomi, my big sister and Lukas, my big brother. We are having lots fun.

Today, I learned that "affisch" means "poster" in French.

I also learned that some Germans microwave their cereal.

1st day at school

Today was my first day in my German school, the Goethe Middle/High school. After a tiring 5 mile bike ride to school, we went inside and started. Like our middle school in Durango, they have 45 minute periods. Unlike the Durango schools, students stay in one classroom the entire day and the teachers walk from class to class. This puzzled me because the teachers seem less powerful if they save the students from walking from class to class.

In German class, the teacher was discussing a movie they had seen before spring break. "Red on white," he said. "Very powerful colors. Can anyone tell me what importance red on white has?" A student answered, "The advertisements on the TV." A second said "When a character was shot in the chest while wearing a white T-shirt." And a third said "Bayern Munich" and the entire class burst out laughing.

Otherwise, my day was pretty dull except in English, where I had to explain what "Starstruck" meant.

Showering problems

After church I went into the bathroom with the prospect of a nice, warm shower. In the shower I found 2 knobs. One, as I soon found, turned the water on and off. The other had a list of numbers on it. I saw that the highest number read 45, which I assumed was the temperature of the water. Unfortunately, I didn´t know that it was Celsius, so I thought that the Germans took really cold showers. I turned the knob to 45, anticipating freezing cold water. As I got in the shower, I was blasted with 113 degree hot water! Quite a surprise.

The German Church

Today, I went to Church for my first time in Germany. I stepped into the church, expecting something like my Durango church, but the inside was totally bleak and looked like the inside of an egg. Mass began, totally formal, no joking around for them. The priest prayed for the Polish president who had died teh previous day. Then the organ player started playing too early. Instead of just laughing it off like they do here, the priest looked up at the organ player and made a face. Then time came for communion. In America, two neat lines are side by side, ready to get the bread and wine. During communion in Germany, the entire church ran to the front to get to the bread first. It´s like a free-for-all, contrasting the formal mass entirely.

Today I saw a German soccer team play. Afterwards I talked with the coach and I have tryouts on Tuesday. They were really good and played good passing soccer, but their coach said that they needed to try harder.

I hope my German gets better pretty quickly, or I´m in trouble. Antje (The mom of my friends I´m staying with) corrects me every time I say a sentence(not that this is a bad thing)! Jonas seems to understand me pretty well, though.

German kezboard

Today I realized that typing on a german keyboard isn´t very easy. I´m writing this post from my friend´s laptop, and everytime I type a y it comes out a z and vice versa. Making it even more confusing is the fact that the keyboard looks like an American keyboard but functions like a German one.

Flying to Germany

I had a long and tiring flight to Germany today. We started at 4:00 pm on Thursday in Durango. We got to Denver at 7:00 and left at 8. The overnight flight took about eight hours, but because of the time difference between here and Europe, we didn't get there until about noon London time. When we came down we saw 4 soccer stadiums! I think I saw Stamford Bridge (Chelsea's home stadium). We stayed in the London airport for about 3 hours, then got on our flight to Munich.

Our flight to Munich was pretty boring until my mom explained Sietzen and Dutzen to me. Sietzen and Dutzen are two different ways to address people. Sietzen is like using 'thou' instead of you. You're supposed to use this when addressing your teachers and adults. Dutzen is like 'you'. Saying this is offending to adults but not to children. I'm going to have to get used to saying "Canst thou please help me with this problem".

This is a picture of my last time skiing with my family this year. We are at Durango Mountain Resort on Easter Sunday.

Welcome to Tony's blog

Welcome to my new blog! I'm Tony Williams and I'm going from Colorado to Germany for 3 months. Today I played a soccer game and refereed a game. Tomorrow is Easter sunday and I'm going snowboarding at my local resort for the last time.