Germany, Round 2

Here I am, in the small city of Prenzlau, near the border of Poland and Germany, about an hour and a half east of Berlin. It’s Sunday morning… well afternoon since I slept in and I finally have a moment to reflect on the past week. It has been completely exhausting, but a lot of fun. The whole staff, including our truck driver Michael, was hosted in a really sweet hostel called The Uckervelle. It’s much more like a hotel- except we have bunk beds! It was a lot of fun, but we spent most of our time together working, rather than just hanging out, but that’s okay. I guess that’s why I’m here- to work. It was still fun, but we didn’t get much sleep. We did some fun stuff this week with the cast, but I can’t write about it because I don’t want to ruin anything for our sister cast- Cast C- which is in the US now. They will probably do similar things soon and you never know who reads the blog, so I will try to remember to write about it later, once they’ve had their fun. Other than that, I did some community service where I got to make a mosaic- that was cool, because I really don’t have an artistic bone in my body, but this project allowed me to make the art without really having to be that creative. On Friday, the cast took a trip to Berlin where we had a bus tour to show us the major sites. We went to where the old Berlin wall was- there is still a small strip left to remind everyone what once was. It was pretty impactful to see this amazing piece of history. I also went to a Holocaust Memorial which was very interesting. There are no words or even signs telling visitors what it is. But, once inside the memorial you just get it. You know what it represents- it is very chilling. We also learned a lot this week about the immigration conflicts, especially surrounding Germany and Poland. Although with all the problems Germany has with immigration, you never hear any talk of building a wall or a fence around their borders. Hmm… I guess they learned their lesson with the first wall. It’s still amazing to me that people think that a wall between the US and Mexico would help solve the immigration problems. Anyway, I’m digressing here. Berlin was very cool- in fact, we are going back today on our free day. Our cast manager, Jörn, is German and lived in Berlin for several years so he is going to take us to where he used to live and show us some stuff. Last night was our show- it was packed- we ended up having to add another 400 chairs to fit everyone in. The cast had amazing energy- it was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. The crowd loved it- during many songs they were rocking along with the cast or waving their cell phones in the air. We ended the night with a champagne (well questionable German sparkling wine) toast to celebrate the end of Germany, the end of this intern round and all-over great week. Tomorrow, we head to Dronten, The Netherlands. I can’t believe we’ve already been in Europe one month. The time has absolutely flown by. And in just two weeks we will be off to The Philippines!!! I am so excited.

Sorry no pictures, kept forgetting the camera this week.

welcome to Germany!

We arrived in our first city in Germany (third city in Europe, 14^th city total) after a travel stop in Freiburg, Germany. We got to Zell am Harmersbach (you can just call it Zell), a cute little town of 8,000 people in southwest Germany and had a small reception with champagne and food with the mayor of the town. It was very nice. I went home with my lovely host family- father Gehard, son Marco (11), daughter Christin (10) and my roommate for the week, Yuri from Japan. The mom, Babel, met us at home later after her ballet class. We had the local drink of half orange juice/half sparkling water and went for a walk. The weather was unusually warm for this time of year so we decided to enjoy it. When Babel got home we had a nice dinner of bread, cheese, meats and of course, beer J. They are a very lovely family- the kids are very smart and well behaved. Gehard and Babel both speak a little English, and the kids not much, but it is okay- we learn to communicate anyhow- lots of smiles and gestures. No internet this week, so just typing this up and hope to get to post it in Prenzlau. It’s okay not having internet- I get more sleep! I usually get online only after my host family goes to bed, so now when they go to bed, I read a little and then go to bed too. I shared a bed with Yuri this week- but it was a very comfortable, warm bed and she is a wonderful roommate. I am very glad I got the chance to stay with her.

We had a very busy week in Zell. Community impact on Tuesday- I went to an elementary school and did cultural interaction. Again, the kids didn’t know much English (the children here learn French, because France is so close) but we had a lot of fun trying to communicate. We played a lot of games, drew pictures and had recess with the children. We had an odd show day this week- Wednesday. The show was very well received- a great audience- it was a lot of fun to perform this week. We did a German song, “Was wir Alleine”, which was a popular song at the World Cup, held in Germany last year. Thursday and Friday were our educational/regional learning days. We did so much! We did a lot of hiking, saw a castle, an old farmhouse museum, went to a ceramics factory (where we each got a mug painted with the famous Zell chicken and our names!) and learned about poverty and hunger. I really love the education time with the cast- we learn so much and in such a unique and fun way. The education staff does such an amazing job. Saturday we had a community fair with different booths like music, face painting, international foods, trivia, etc. It was super cold outside, but the cast did a great job. My favorite memory of the week is probably from Friday when we had a long hike up to an old farmhouse and we ate traditional foods and danced and sang to accordion music. It was just one of those random fun times where you sit back and say “I’m in Germany, dancing to accordion music with people from 19 different countries- wow”. Good stuff. Our evenings were spent with our host family, eating a lot of great food, looking at pictures and talking. I am really going to miss this family. On our free day, Sunday, they took us to France! The city of Strasburg is only 60 km from Zell, so in less than an hour we were in another country. One of the benefits of the European Union- crossing the country borders is like crossing the state borders in the US- just a small sign to welcome you. Strasburg was great- we wandered around ‘Petite France”, took pictures and had a lovely French meal (the menu was in French, German and English!). It was funny seeing all the signs in French and hearing the language, as we have been in German-speaking countries for two weeks. I am surprised at how much of my high school French I remember- I wish I knew more. When I get home I really want to study French and German- French because I already know a little, and German so I can move to Switzerland some day. I am sad to leave Zell, but I am really looking forward to next week. I can’t say why, but I just am!

On a totally separate note, I am totally stoked the Rockies are going to the World Series. It starts in a few days- I would love to see a game, maybe when I’m in the hotel in The Netherlands I will be able to find an American Sports Bar to at least see some highlights. GO ROCKS!

the most beautiful place in the world...

at least that I've seen so far. I love love love Switzerland. I was in Lucerne 2 years ago for just a few hours and loved it then and I'm so happy I was able to come back for a whole week. There isn't really much I can say about Lucerne, I think the pictures can do the talking. I really want to live here someday. This week I was hosted with an American family and it was cool to see how well they've adjusted here in just 9 months. They have a wonderful house on the lake, a huge dog and good jobs here. I don't know what I could do here, but I think it would just be a dream to live here. Briefly what we did this week....
Tuesday- Regional Learning Day- went to Mt. Pilatus, rode world's steepest cogwheel train, a boat, a gondola, a toboggan, a cable car and a bus! Amazing views, good times.
Wednesday- Community Impact- went to a farm to sand windows, comb cows, pick apples and cut branches. Hard work and a lot of fun. Great dinner at a vegetarian restaurant with the host family
Thursday- another CI day- cooked lunch for the cast and did promotion in the afternoon. In the evening we had "expression session"- kind of a crazy talent show. I did a fun skit with the staff and also showed off my old cheerleading skills with Sarah, Lesley, Andrea, Tiffanie and Laura. Such a fun night! Also went to a Swiss bar with about 20 people from the cast. Drinks were expensive- 13 frank (10 dollars) for a vodka tonic!
Friday- Internal Education Day- Lots of good stuff- speaker about public speaking, education time about teamwork (we had to do the 'figure out a way to drop an egg from 20 ft without it breaking thing- ours didn't!!). Ate the traditional dish "Raclette" with the host family. Yea for cheese, wine and chocolate!
Saturday- busy, long show day. Performed in the show- great crowd, had a wonderful time singing our country song "Buraburli" (totally spelling that wrong).
Sunday- my best day in a long, long time. Great host family day with Gretchen and David and roomies Vanessa and Amanda. Slept in, good coffee, then off to the mountains. Hiked 7 kilometers (about 4 miles) and saw the most gorgeous scenery- fall leaves, glaciers, waterfalls, cows, sheep, pigs, etc. Ate a fabulous lunch and slept on the way home in the car. Packed my stuff tonight and then as I was sitting on the couch, surrounded by great company, a glass of red wine in one hand, a piece of dark chocolate in the other and a book on my lap, I thought- could life get any better? Not at this moment, that is for sure. Okay, well we have a travel day tomorrow to Zell, Germany so its off to bed. Thanks for reading and enjoy the pictures!

more from Milano

Okay, I know I already wrote a post on Milan, but there is so much more to say. We had a great free show on Saturday night. I watched the show with two of our biggest supporters in Milan- Simone and Marco. They both work at a local University for an international organization. In addition, Simone’s family has a pizzaera and they donated all of our delicious meals for the week. They were totally instrumental in making our visit to Milan a success. We had a lot of fun singing along and dancing in the aisles. I think they are our new UWP groupies. I had a great talk with Marco after the show and he gave me his perspective on Italy and their culture. He has lived in Milan his whole life and is very educated and intelligent (not to mention beautiful!) I wish I could have taken notes on what Marco was saying- he gave me a lot of Italian history and explained that Italy is struggling because there aren’t a lot of young people or opportunities available. It was very interesting. After we were done with strike (about midnight) we went back to the hostel with Marco and Simone, drank some red wine and continued our conversations. I wish we could bring these guys on the road with us- they are amazing! However, I think they are coming to visit us this weekend in Lucerne which is cool.

Sunday was probably my best day in Milan. It started by sleeping almost 12 hours- much needed to finally get over the jetlag and busy week. We (Jörn, Gabe and myself) finally drug ourselves out of bed, hopped on the train and went downtown. We wandered, shopped a bit, drank cappuccino and ate gelato, went to the Duomo again and found an amazing restaurant for dinner. It was a Mozzarella Bar. Yes. Cheese. Good. Other stuff too, my entrée was a bed of arugula with smoked salmon and avocado. Aunt Barb, is your mouth watering yet? After dinner we realized the last train to our station left at 8:53 so we literally ran (well the boys walked fast, I had to run with my short little legs) to our train. We got there just as the doors closed and they wouldn’t open for us. What a bummer. We eventually figured out we could take 2 other trains to get home so it worked out okay. But, we almost missed the first one- Jörn had to hold the doors open for Gabe and I with all his German might. Good times. I am on the in Switzerland now. We made a travel stop in Lugano which is an Italian town in Switzerland [UPDATE: I've just been informed by an Italian, that it is not an Italian town, but "it's a Swiss city in Switzerland, but there are some cantons where people speak Italian] and are now on our way to Lucerne. I’ve been here once before, when I did my Contiki trip, but it was only for a day, so I am excited to stay here longer and with a host family. Ciao for now!

So, I have too many great pictures to post so you have to check them out at my web album- updated to Italy and a bit o Swiss. http://picasaweb.google.com/samantharoman7

Milano, Italia

Bojourno! I am currently sitting in our show facility for Milan, Italy as the cast prepares for their first European show. I haven’t had access to internet this week and I’m not sure when I’ll get this posted so I wanted to make sure I got my thoughts down while they are fresh. So, after a long travel day from Seattle to London to Milan, we arrived in Milan a little before midnight on Tuesday. Jorn, Christine, Gabe and I were staying in the staff hotel this week, which was actually a hostel. It consisted of 2 bunk beds in about the space of my freshman year dormroom at CU. Cozy. Shared bathrooms, tiny towels, interesting people. It’s an adventure. On Wednesday we slept in a little (9am) and headed to meet the rest of the cast for brunch. It was a great first Italian meal of the trip- I’ll post a picture, it was delicious. After we got ourselves organized we headed to downtown Milano to the Duomo for a scavenger hunt. We didn’t find everything on our list, but we had a lot of fun and saw some amazing sights. And, of course, I had amazing espresso and gelato!! In the evening, after getting lost several times, we finally made it to dinner at a wonderful restaurant. We had anitpasta and red wine and I ordered a Pizza Rustica! Bellisimo! Thursday was our Community Service Day (although an interesting side note, you don’t call it Community Service here because that is what criminals do, we call it volunteer work). So the cast did a lot of cultural interaction with children and seniors, while Patrick, Matt, Tiffinie, Clara and myself went to a university to do promotion/admissions. It was a good time, even though I wasn’t feeling very well. We (of course) got Gelato on the way home and took 3 different types of public transportation- a tram, a subway and a train and we walked a lot! Hopefully that will help burn off all these gelatos! In the evening, we had dinner with a family that was unable to host, but really wanted to have some Viva la Gente (Up with People in Italian) people over for dinner. It was so much fun and the food was amazing. They were a really sweet family from southern Italy who now live in Milan- a mom and her two sons. Only the older son spoke some English, but he was able to translate for us and it was very nice. I love the Italian culture it is so open and warm. So, we have our big show tonight in the area of Curnusco and then we have a smaller show in Cusano, which is the community where many students are living and where we have been working with a local church. It is a really cute area and the people are so wonderful. I’m not sure what I want to do on my free day, but it probably involves a little bit of sleep, shopping and of course eating as much Italian food as I can get! Ciao Bella!

P.S. The men here are gorgeous!!

Update: We had our show last night and it was amazing. Even though our cast was very tired from a challenging week, they put a lot of energy and heart into this show. It was completely sold out- standing room only and the crowd loved us. We performed 3 songs in Italian and Armando, the fabulous CRC, did the MC’s in Italian. He added a lot of flair to our show- it was great!! When the show was over the crowed started clapping and didn’t want to leave. It was great to see the faces of the cast as they realized the crowd wanted more. They all ran backstage and performed a short encore that they have been working on for a few weeks. Tonight we have a smaller show here in Cusano. It is a free show for the wonderful people of this community so I’m sure there will be a great turnout. Ciao!