Hailey in Deutschland

An email to a friend has inspired me to return to my good ol’ Germany blog to write about a topic that I believe many a traveler has faced.

Why do we travel?

Most all of us have left our place of birth at least once, either by choice or by default, and can say with certainty that we have, indeed, experienced some sort of travel. Even the most limited of distances can and should be considered traveling. Anytime we step out of our comfort zones and day to day routines we are donning our traveler’s caps and walking sticks and setting out on adventures big and small. My family, for example, is traveling three hours to Orlando, Florida this weekend to experience Disney World with our foreign exchange student. I believe that this is traveling.

I will admit to something. I used to be of the opinion that traveling was much grander a thing as a three hour car trip with your parents to a destination that remained within your state boundaries; especially to a tourist trap and extreme waste of resources like Disney World. (Sorry, Disney.) Traveling involved going somewhere beautiful and far off and a plane ride somewhere in the equation was a must. Traveling was for savvy globe-hoppers with giant back packs and those funny looking, Velcro strap sandals that everyone wears in Georgia and North Carolina. And it had to last for at least a week, or else it would be demoted to the “trip” category.

Amazing what a little perspective will do to a person, eh? I lived up to my very narrow idea of traveling when I went to Germany. It wasn’t until after I returned home, however, that I realized how narrow-minded and egoistic I had been on my views on what constituted traveling.

Vocabulary.com has nailed it right on the head; if you are going from one place to another, you are traveling. Pretty simple, isn’t it? It really strips away all of those mental images of places that appear to be off of NAT GEO Traveler magazine covers and involve expedition-like preparation and equipment. If we all stick to this definition, we are essentially all travelers.

But if traveling is the simple act of going from one place to another, why all the hype? Yes sure, you get to see beautiful places, experience new cultures, and eat weird food. That’s all fine and dandy. Let’s file it away with all of our other cool life experiences. (*NOTE. There is a lot to be said on all of these aspects of travel, and I belittle it here only to make a point.) But what else? WHY do we feel that calling to go out, to see, to hear, to taste, to experience lives other than our own? WHY do we have this intrinsic longing to go away from our “normal” and step off the beaten path?

Evolution may have a scientific answer to all of these questions, but I’m going to look at a more spiritual one. Miriam Bird said:

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.”

I think every traveler can attest to that. Parents of teenage and young adult travelers call it “catching the bug”, but they only paint it in a negative light because they fear what may happen to their children out there in the big bad world. When you are young, especially, this need to travel, to delight in other ways of living to find out how you wish to live your own, it is essential.

You can learn a lot from observation. If you go to a country where you do not speak the language, sit there long enough, a few months at least, and pretty soon you will have picked the basic stuff up. Give yourself a year, and you will be fluent. And if you really work at just observing, you’ll start to pick up on the physical habits of the people around you; the way they carry themselves can show their demeanor; learn what a handshake means, when it is appropriate to hug or to kiss. We are natural observational learners. We were all babies once, after all. But looking deeper into that scenario, why do babies strive to learn so much so quickly at such a young age? They want the interaction with other people. They strive for the attention and affection of others, and the best way to make those connections is by learning the language of your people.

So why do I travel? Here’s what I told a friend:

“I know from my experience living abroad for a year away from family that often times it’s not nearly as glamorous as it looks when you read back through blogs, flip through journal pages, or even simply remember. It’s easy to forget all of the discomforts, loneliness, and boredom when it isn’t happening to you right now. I love travel, don’t get me wrong. But sometimes I feel like we (or at least I personally) travel not just for the novelty and fun and beautiful sites, but to search for people who connect with us, who will love us and be a home, no matter where in the world we are. At the end of the day it’s the human element that makes us happy. Making someone else smile, and having someone there for us when we need to cry. Trying to find ourselves on our own is often counterproductive. I have found that the more I spend time away from others to just think (and think, and think, and think) I think myself into oblivion and become completely cynical of the world and humanity. When I am surrounded by friends that truly care for me and me for them, a person can truly focus on the right now, and be happy in that very moment, which as we know is one of the keys to over all happiness. Somewhere in there is a happy medium. I have yet to find it. “

At the end of the day it’s the human element that makes us happy.

I am not yet old or wise. I haven’t been around long enough to even know what Im good at doing. But I do know this: It all comes down to making contact with others. That’s why I travel, because deep down inside of me there is a longing to find others that I connect with and can call family and friends. The scenery is a perk, too.

It appears that I haven’t updated this thing in almost 5 months. Hmm.

Well here’s a little window into my life at the moment.

As you can see, things have changed a bit since my last post. For one thing, the trees are green again! Yes siree, it’s springtime in Germany, and I don’t think I have ever experienced such a beautiful one. I suppose that after living through my first real, snowy, grey, miserable winter, springtime WOULD seem better. I have also made some wonderful friends in the last five months. In this photo is Hans, Max, Luise, and then me. This was taken on monday at the”Kletterwald”, which literally means climbing forest. It was like a ropes course and so much fun! Im looking forward to more warm weather outdoor activities in the near future!

Round trip train ticket to Copenhagen: 160 euro

Youth hostel for 4 four nights: 1,200 DKK (Danish Krone)

Watching a guy on our train get arressted by Deutsche Bahn employees for having 1 kilo of cocaine on his person: Priceless.

And here I am, standing in front of a castle in Copenhagen on new years eve. As you can probably see from the photo, it was a very cold, gloomy day. However, Copenhagen was beautiful despite the less than satisfactory weather.

I would like it to be know that even though it appears that I haven’t updated this blog in forever, that is not the case exactly. Last week I slaved away over my keyboard, writing an update of epic proportions. I’m serious, it was super long. AND it had three pictures integrated into the text. It was amazing, and I was so happy with it. I just knew that everyone would love it and sit at their computers totally enraptured by my literary skills, completely mesmerized with my ability to set the scene. (That’s how it played out in my head, anyway.) But alas, as soon as I pressed the “submit” button, it was lost. You have no idea the agony I felt as the “This page cannot be found” page appeared onto my screen. I was so put off about all of my hard work being for not, that I haven’t felt up to facing the task of rewriting it. I just know that I could never recreate such a masterpiece. Plus I’m still a bit pissed at my computer/the internet/tumblr/technology. Any way, maybe I will be inspired to write something later tonight, or maybe tomorrow, since I don’t have school. (Yay for snow days!)

Isn’t a strange phenomenon how the holiday season always seems to take us by surprise? Every year I feel like it sneaks up on me. One day we’re carving pumpkins and the next they’re singing Christmas carols on the radio. One thing that I’ve been all to aware of as I have been getting older is that time goes by quicker the older you get. I remember when Christmas felt like it took FOREVER to come. The anticipation was part of the holiday season. It made things more exciting and magical. When you’re a child, you are kept in the dark about the true stressfulness of the holiday season. The children don’t have to rush around buying Christmas presents and what not. It all simply comes together before your very eyes Christmas morning. As we get older, we come to appreciate the holidays in different ways. No longer is the highlight of the season opening up presents christmas morning to discover that mom and dad have bought that doll that you had been wanting all year. Now, we feel more joy when giving to others, or simply being within the company of people we love.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, but I won’t be celebrating it like I normally do. My family is all gathered together in Tennessee at my grandparent’s house like we do every few years. It makes me sad that I cannot be there, but there is a first time for everything. Some exchange students are cooking a traditional Thanksgiving meal for their host families, but I am sticking to the basics and simply asking my host family to talk about what we are thankful for. (I don’t have the stomach to stuff a turkey. ha ha) I hope that we can still experience a little of the spirit of thanks, even without all that food. :)

Despite lacking the Thanksgiving holiday, here in Germany things are really gearing up for Weihnachten (Christmas). Suzi, Farina and I were visiting the beautiful city of Nurnberg last weekend, where the Weihnachtsmarkt was getting ready to begin. Hundreds of little tents boasting the best Gluhwein and various Christmas trinkets lined the market. Everything was so festive and jolly. Here in Stralsund the Weihnachtsmarkt is also set up. At the Straelepark (a large modern shopping center in Stralsund) vendors with yummy Christmas treats are in business. It’s hard to resist buying something as the tantalizing smells bombard you as you walk by. And to top things off, we had our first real snow today! I’m hoping for a white Christmas. :)

On the news front, Suzanne will be leaving us for twelve days on the first of December for a much needed vacation in Greece.  She will be sorely missed here, but Ralf is going to step in and play Dad for a little while while she is gone, so we won’t be totally at a loss. (My first question after her announcement, “Who’s going to drive us to school when it’s raining?”lol)

The week after Christmas my friend Sam and I are taking a trip to Copenhagen where we will be celebrating the New Year. I am especially excited about this trip, since it will be my first time out of Germany in over four months.

I would like to wish everyone back home a very happy Thanksgiving! I love you all and I appreciate all of the support and prayers! :)

Two weeks ago on a Sunday I did something that I swore I would never do again.

I attempted a do-it-yourself hair coloring. Needless to say, I botched the job horribly. I won’t go into details to save my readers from a painful recounting and many “How embarrassing!” comments, but I will say that no, I did not have green hair again. Thank the Lord.

I did however have a very bright blond spot right in the front, about two inches along the hair, before it turned back to my natural darker blonde color quite abruptly. It almost looked like someone had took a paintbrush and plopped it down just there on the crown of my head. I also had uneven, very light blond throughout the upper right side of my head. The left side was left unscathed somehow, so I was able to switch my part over to cover up some of the damage. And that was how I had been going out in public for the last two weeks.

I admit that my main reason for attempting such a risky task when I KNEW what would probably happen was that I was scared of going to a German hair salon. I had been told that you have to wash your own hair, and dry it too. And of course there was the issue of communication. I know just enough German to get by alone in a city, but the vocabulary required for a visit to a salon was not common knowledge to me. Another thing, if you readers had seen some of the hairstyles women and girls sport here, you would have fear too. I mean, those white blond on black mohaws are coming from somewhere, and my best guess was the salons spotted all around the city. And what kind of hairdresser would create such atrocities? Surely it would be the one that I happened to visit, and she would strap me down to her swivelly shiny hair chair and start snipping of my curly blonde American locks before I could utter a “Nein!” 

That was my opinion of German salons BEFORE I messed up my hair, mind you. As I stared at my yellow blob in the foggy mirror after washing out the chemical color solution, I suddenly had a change of heart. I showed Farina my catastrophe and she agreed something must be done. She got a hold of her best friend Luise and we made a date for a visit to the Friseurin. (This is the german word for hairdresser.)

Today Luise picked my up from school on her moped. I donned the incredibly heavy helmet, zipped up my rain jacket and tucked my scarf in tighter before taking a deep breath. All of a sudden, I had more fear for riding on this contraption down an actual road with cars than for going to the salon. It was an old, rackety thing, with wheels that looked too small for the body. I thought, “Is this going to hold two grown people?” However, my priorities kicked in pretty quickly and I decided that facing death on a moped from WW2 wasn’t such a scary thing.

My Friseurin was a really nice girl who made a point of speaking slowly and loudly to me after Luise said I was from Florida. Though people must have thought I was deaf, it was nice because I actually did understand almost everything she said. Luise helped me explain what I thought I needed, and the Friseurin made some suggestions which I understood and agreed to. (Are you guys getting the theme here?? I actively took part in a two way conversation in German. I am understanding enough to make very important decisions in German! Hurrah!)

About an hour and a half later, my hair was fixed, and perhaps looked even better than before I messed it up thanks to the chic layering job the Friseurin did. Oh, and no black and white Mohawk, which was a HUGE releif. Also, I didn’t have to wash my own hair, though having the water vacummed from my head was a bit strange… but I only paid 25.50 euros, which was a TOTAL bargain in my opinion.

In conclusion, a German salon is not a scary place. I will no longer fear my visits for trims, and I will hopefully stop having those dreams where the mohawked Friseuerin is racing after me with a giant pair of scissors. Ok, so I never had that dream, but I won’t ever have to be afraid of perhaps having that dream either. I’ll probably have a dream tonight where a Friseruin is dressed as Superwoman and rescues all of the silly girls who try and color their own hair. She’ll probably be wearing a halo.

Today I decided that I desperatly had to go running. So, I braved the light drizzle, donned my running shorts and rain coat, and headed out. Halfway through my running loop, when I came out onto the open farm land, the “light drizzle” turned into a ferocious downpour. The wind nearly knocked me over and the rain stung my face. My legs were beet red and I couldn’t feel them, which was probably a good thing. Soon, my shoes were soaked through and I felt like I was walking in a pond with every squishing step. I finally made it home and treated my valiant exercising effort to a very hot shower.

And that was my day.

Tomorrow, back to school. Ugh.

Finally it has arrived. A full week of vacation, and I’m starting it off by traveling to Hamburg tomorrow morning to visit a friend from language camp. His host family is letting my stay the night in their extra bedroom, so I get two days in Hamburg. :)

Im so excited to be traveling again. Things have fallen into a routine here in Sommerfeld, and it will be nice to break the cycle for a few days. I’ve been attending school for almost eight weeks now, and am making slow but steady progress in my understanding of the German language. I have also begun extra German lessons outside of school. It is a small class of exchange students in this area, and we will have lessons every Thursday and Friday. Unfortunatly, the lessons this week were cancelled because our teacher is sick, and next week is break…but it will start up again after the holiday.

Last week my class went to the theater (not the movie theater) and watched “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” It was in English, so I thoroughly enjoyed it, though I think my classmates had a hard time understanding the characters’ accents.

My birthday is in seven days! I don’t know why, but 17 seems so much better than 16. Sometimes I still feel like Im 12, and other days I feel a hundred years old.