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.