Dog and Hedgehog add to the experience

as most kids would be, I was happy when I got my dog to care care of for 3 weeks. the dog was named paula, and she reminded me a bit of my dog freckles in my past. paula only wanted to go walking with 2 people, 1 was too little. we had our first walk in the rain, and paula was always happy because she always had 2 people with her. we got use to doing things with the dog, we took her to restaurants and biergartens with other people, when we couldnt take her, then i stayed back home and watched her. on some occasions, my friend lalia came over and we both took paula for walks, like Augsburg's freedom festival which my grandparents went to. during the olympics, my opa and i dveloped a bond for watching sports, such as the Brazilian-German beach volleyball game. what do you get when you combine the popularity of volleyball in Brazil, the fact of Germany having never won a gold medal in Volleyball, with an extremely close game that left s breathless? you get cheers so loud that you might have woke up your oma when Germany wins! it was that good. I did get to see other outstanding olympic moments, like Russia's huge comeback to beat Brazil in Volleyball. with Russia being down so much, 1 point from giving the entire medal to Brazil, everyone said, "Brazil has won" yet russia came back and won for an astounding comeback! i could not believe it. молодец россия! я горжусь тобой. just shows how much the Russians can fight and are strong. as i've stated earlier in posts, I earn my stay here by helping around the house, and I definately worked my butt off for 4 days or so, when my Opa had comptuter issues. His laptop (12 years old and ran on XP) wasn't letting him run his emails. so i got my brother ryan on skype and worked for hours straight on fixing viruses and installing protection. in the end, we worked a total of 18 hours, and ended up having to buy a new computer. which I had to teach my opa how to use. for the first time, I was introduced to the Rotary club of Augsburg-Fuggerstadt. the club has decided to make me an official exchange student under them. even though I did not ask for it because then i would be bound by rotary rules, I am still grateful that I can take part in inbound activities now. the first meeting i went to was held by the son of the famous spezi maker, where we taught us how to taste wine (did not taste wine) my oma and opa had to go to nurenburg for the day, so i was left all alone with Paula, who just wanted to sleep. when my grandparents got back, I decided to talk to them to see what they knew about der grosse mann, hanz furgerson (however it's spelled) woodcut, better known as slenderman. I told them the story about how he's a horror relic n the US they said they have never heard about it. which is a good thing i think? soon however, Paula had to go back to her family, and that made our house really quiet, and boring :/, on the same day, I hung with the neighboorhood boy and his friends, we played FIFA on the PS3, a game I cant play, but at least I went down as my Russian sportsclub team, ЦСКА! on the next day, my uncle Michael came by for a surprise visit, he had to go to Munchen for a business meeting to fix a laser, and he needed to bring a worker with him. the next day, I had to live with Paula's family the gerkins for 4 days, because my grandparents were going to see jewish cities on a tour they made. the youngest son, of my age, Andreas, took me to noerdlington where we went to a pub (I drank spezi) with other friends that he had. one of tem asked me why I came to Germany, I said "because i had a year in Russia that wasn't all that good in the beginning and middle, and my grandparents wanted to make it up to me. then all of a sudden the next table over says "you speak russian my friends?" within 5 seconds of an introduction i was invited over 1 table and was chilling with an international group of adults from Russia, Germany, and Mexico. we talke for hours and played card games. i rejoined my group and we went walking around the only full city wall in all of germany to surround a city. then at 12 midnight, when the main cathedral sounded the traditional call, our group yelled back at the announcer for the heck of it. the other days we spent playing games in the gerkins' house, such as a stick throwing game and games in the pool. the family even helped me find places near by where I can play basketball hopefully in clubs. I taught the kids how to play american card games, Egyptian Rat screw and BS. the family was amazing, unlike most people, they actually knew my country, and were big fans of Jon Stewert and the Daily Show, the Colbert Report, The Onion, and knew American football (even Tom Brady!), we even played it on the PS2. at the end, the family said I can come by when I need, they would be happy to have me back. upon my return to Westheim and my grandparents, we rode bikes, and I practiced a bit of my basketball skills in the park, which my Oma had recently showed me. life in Germany is cool, and I cant wait for my trip to Vienna and for school to start, when I will be able to progress much more than right now where there is little to do.

First German Update

So it's been about a month or so since I last updated this blog.. in that time a lot has happened. on the first day after my family left to return to the US after the trip, my grandpa took me on a bike tour to see my school which i will be attending in september.luckily the school is only about 10 minutes from my house. also on that day, i was introduced to the dog i will be watching for 3 weeks in August, the dog looks relatively like a beagel and is called Paula. the next day, I was introduced into my language course for German. the class had people from all different nations, such as Greece (of course),Spain, Jordan, Bolivia, Italy, Hungary, Brazil, Venezualia, the Ukraine, and the US (me).the course was 5 weeks long, and i was knowingly coming into it in the 4th week.even though i came in 3 weeks late, I was one of (if not the) best speaker in the class.living with a native host family really pushes the balance in your favor when all the other students were working and living either with others and speaking their native language all the time or living alone. by the second day, people were already asking me for the correct answers to questions, as the ukrainian woman said to me in russian on my first day "you speak German well, you might be bored here, we still speak bad." tha day i spent the night doing my favorite job, Killing snails and slugs. my hostgrandparents have me kill them because they eat my grandma's plants, and it's a really fun job to do :). soon after, my grandparents allowed me to travel to my language course by myself with the train, which was fun to do for the 2 weeks while it lasted. it was fun to talk with the venevualian guy in my language class. the people in my class had very intersting stories, such as police corruption in the Ukraine, Venevualia, and Germany, how a black guy was beaten senseless by 2 cops and had his house raided by them in Munich, Germany when he tried to get his ID for them. on the weekend, i was free as the language course is only on weekdays. i spent the weekend helping my grandparents in the garden with killing bushes, killing snails and slugs. and my grandpa took me to a martin luther choir service that night and biked through the country side of Augsburg. we were also visited by the brother of my grandma, Jochen. i was also introduced to the boy and girl in my neighborhood, Navid and Michelle. while i havent done much with Navid yet, I have been able to speak with the girl, Michelle more and hang out with her friends also. as she attends the International school Augsburg, and not my Gymnasium, I wont be able to see her in school. we had the Rotary President of Augsburg-Fuggerstadt come to our house for dinner. the Club (to my surprise) will stick up for me to get a valid visa for Germany by claiming i am one of their students, I will be officially included in Rotary events, like trips and parties, even though I arrived unofficially, the Club will still take me as their own, and said possibly I am the first ever 2-time Rotary long term Exchange Student in the world. people only do the exchange once and then go off on their own path after that, nobody has done it once, then gone and done it again. while we can't really know for sure, it still is interesting to consider the odds. 1 out of every 7000 students does Youth Exchange.. how many do it again on the magnitude that Rotary offers? not a lot at most, but again, we can not know for sure. to earn my stay with my grandparents, I help them out when they need. in the garden, or with computer and phone issues. ive alreay fixed issues with my grandpa's computer and got his phone to do the righ things. which really earns brownie point cause nobody likes to deal with a stubborn computer :p. so I went to school in the working soon after to pick my classes for the next year. the headmaster is a member of the Rotary Club, so he knows my opa (gpa) well, the school will put me into the Q11 class, not the 12 because they are busy with exams that year. the german system was recently changed to mimic the American system, and making friends will be easier because the classes are now shuffled unlike in Russia where your dumped into classes full of cliques. 3 classes are held together with your grade, Math, English and German. I have English in the 12th Grade to help them before their exam, and other classes in the 11th. my classes are English, German literature, Math, Chemistry, biology, European Business, and after school I have Basketball (not competition, a class which faces no opponents, just a class). the school wanted me to come for 3 classes to check out the school a bit so i get the feeling one day. after I had my language course that day, my Opa had boought me packs of Gummy Bears and a lot of juice saying "for your emense progress with German" it was nice :) and soon after my Oma let me watch the Simpsons, which she had never seen before. it was good as it was an episode i have seen so i knew the words. and how it's not like In Russia where they dont kill the 1st language sound and you have a mix of 2 languages, in Germany you have 1 language speakng and it makes watching foreign shows much better to understand. in a few days, I went to school for 3 classes and to check out my classmates. I arrived at the school a little bit early, and the kids were wondering who I was. and me, wanting to see who was the most curious and would ask first, cause i'm evil like that with mind games, didn't talk. finally 2 boys came by, looked, smiled, and asked me who i was. When i explained, i was stormed with questions and people's kindness, which was a new feeling having experenced a russian school (on sakhalin) where people could (and do) care less. it was a nice contrast. the 3 classes were spanish, literature, and business. i sat with the guys who first spoke to me and we were able to joke a bit. acceptance by these kids might be easier than in russia it it keeps up this way. we had the last day of language school, which got let out early because the teacher needed the doctor. and afterwards, i was introdced to michelle's friend, Lalia Kaiser (she stole my nickname). we talked for a long time and planned some events to do when michelle leaves us for Spain for 2 weeks. on the weekend, Augsburg had a cultural festival in the city, while my grandparents went to a mozart concert, I went for 3 hours to a cultural festival which did play some Russian music. even after all the bands, German and foreign, Russian Lubeh still is my favorite hands down. i was invited to a rotary party (since i am an Inbound by the club now) i met some outbounds who will leave for foreign lands soon, and i was allowed to help grill (which i cant do). the following day, my Opa (gpa) went with me to the city hall to get my visa work. because he is so well known, he was able to get a 6 hour proess done in 30 minutes. gotta love that. we also went shopping for garden sandals for me.. after 4 stores, we found size 50 (EU) shoes. on the 28th was my oma's (gma's) birthday, and opa (gpa) wanted to make a secret preentation for her, and who did he ask to help? me! of course. i was able to show him how to use microsoft powerpoint and enlarge images. for weeks it was out secret project that we had secret codes for so the oma wouldn't understand when we talked. in the followg day, i went with Michelle's friend Lalia to the city to sightsee. we got gifts (pigs) for michelle (she loves pigs) who was leaving for Spain in a few days. we went to the gummy bear store, had turkish food, and walked with her dogs and listened to music. later that evening, i went with my family to a German Isreali friendship meeting, which my Opa is the head of in Augsburg, germany. afterwards, we drank some drinks for my Oma's birthday, and went to the station to welcome my Uncle and his Wife, Jochen and Beate, to Augsburg. they were coming 2 day earlier to help set up for the party. we stayed up late talking with Jochen, which I enjoyed a lot as Jochen and Michael (the other son, Brother of jochen) are probably my favorite people in the world. jochen was already good as he helped me drink 5 1.5 liters of carbonated apple juice (which i dont like that much) in 3 days. the next day, i went to a church party which made my Russian church friends look super amazing 10 times fold. and after the party i watched the olympic opening ceremony and the parade of nations with Jochen's wife, Beate. that night, Michael and his Girlfriend Ellen arrived. they were to sleep in my room, which i cleaned just for them. i stayed up till 1am, just to see the USA walk in the parade. on the day of the party, i was able to talk with oma's brother who speaks Russian, and his wife who is Russian. they were awesome, and after a few hours when Russian activated again, i was talking just like them, it was nice to speak a foreign language again with people so i didn't feel totally left out. i was also able to talk with zipphora! an indonesian girl who lived with my family in Germany, i guess that makes us siblings? we were able to establish a skype party with the corresponding birthday party of my uncle in America. after the party, people started to leave, my Uncle Jochen and his wife Beate left soon after. Zippo (zipphora) and her husband left after. Michael stayed for another day with us, which was nice cause i was able to spend more time with him. the brother who speaks russian and his wife stayed a few more days. ellen, girlfriend of Michael, left also. i was told that after the party we were going to a time share in the alps. i spent the time before that watching the US olympic team take home many medals. we went to Seeg to relax a bit from the party stress. when we return, i will have a dog to watch after for 3 weeks. while In Seeg, we swam, did a lot of hiking through the Alps, which my scout training helped with a lot. we even had some friend come over and we played mini golf, which my Opa won. soon, I will have my dog to take care of for 3 weeks, we are seeg sadly soon to go back to Augsburg. the time in Germany is going by well. the language is going fine, I'm picking up on patterns much faster then i did in Russia. although I have forgotten the first few months struggles that a person goes through, like language barrier and culture, it still is going a lot faster thanks to Russian and being more familar with language terms and patterns.

Euro Trip Review

I sit here in my bed, in Augsburg Germany, finally ready to start the first day of my 2nd Exchange. after a month long European trip, not only am i tired, but much more anxious to learn this language and culture. this post will be explaining the euro trip that our group of four travelers endured. Day 1: departure I had contracted a sickness weeks before we were to leave for Europe, and the day of leaving, i had a temperature of 103.2 (40 celcius). naturally with no time to see a doctor, we still went knowing i would need medicine to take with me. i had to fly separately from the group because my ticket doesn't take me back like the others. after saying goodbye to my friends, i went through 2 hellish plane rides to get to Frankfurt, Germany. upon arrival, the group met up outside the gate, we were sadly greeted by a neo-Nazi who wanted to take Israel down, and we left rather quickly. on the first train, our mom informs us that we have lost her passport and 500 euros along with 250 British pounds.. about 1000 USD.. great way to start the trip on day 1. we still make it to cologne, the site of the big gothic cathedral, and we tour its archives and climb it to the top, at least 400 steps, no escalator, and with me being sick and having not eaten in 12 hours, jumping sounded pretty good. we went to our next city of Marburg, where we ate our first meal together, McDonalds (tradition), saw st. elizabeth's church, and slept. Day 2: marburg, utrecht we toured marburg for the day, and in the afternoon, we went to utrecht, Netherlands where we met my host uncle, Michael, we ate some dutch colony food, and toured the city on his boat in the canals. day 3: Amsterdam we toured Amsterdam for the day, saw museums, street performers who were break-dancing, and had dinner with michael and his girlfriend, ellen, at his house boat. our mom needed to go to the consulate in Frankfurt to get her passport, while she did this, we prepared to meet my friend, Alexia, in Brussels. day 4: Brussels, London we had to get ourselves up and catch our own train to brussels since our mom had to go early to the consulate. we arrived in Belgium at midday and were treated to an excursion of the city's important parts in only 5 hours. we met our mom back in the eurostar trains to go to London. when we arrived in london, as you would expect, it was raining, it took us 40 minutes to find our hostel 10 minutes from the station.. thanks to kind englishmen, we eventually did find it. day 5-6: london we say the original rosetta stone, british museum, london eye, big ben, westminstr abbey, trafalgar square. took a cruise on the river of the london bridge (not the bridge you think) and even saw Tower Bridge open up, (tower bridge is what people think is London Bridge) we also had the best tour guide ever on the boat. and had the best fish and chips in all of London, along with seeing the tower of london and the queen's crowned jewels. on the eve of the 6th day, we went to Paris day 7-8: Paris, Augsburg? the only thing in Paris i ever got to see was Versailles, my sickness had gotten so bad that my throat had swelled up and became so sore that i couldn't even eat yogurt without it hurting like heck. no medicine in any nation we've been in was helping. so my mom called the only man possible who could help me get better again... DIETER MUENKER! my German Grandpa and my mom's host father 27 years ago. also my host family for my time in Germany. with some train changes, I was on my way on the 8th day to Augsburg, Germany to see a doctor. even though my train was late, Dieter was waiting for me at the station, and told me that the doctor would be soon. doctors are normally closed on Fridays after 12, but dieter got one anyway. the doc prescribed me antibiotics, and said that i did the right thing to come, if i didn't then i could of died near the trip's end due to lack of eating due to emense pain in the throat that was blocking food plus the explosion of new germs in my system from so many nations the only regret i have is that i was suppose to meet my best friend on Sakhalin, the girl i stayed a year with in Russia, Roxane, in Lyon. the price to get healthy cost me the eiffel tower, louvre, my close friend/sister roxane, Lyon, all of switzerland, and florence and verona, Italy. day 9-13: Augsburg i stayed with the muenkers for about a week. i was treated greatly and had awesome hospitality. we decided that i would rejoin the group in Verona, Italy but go straight then to Venice, the capitol. day 14: Venice I rejoined the group with a good welcome, recap on the time with the muenkers, and fully healthy and ready to see europe. in venice, we used the boats like buses, and got to our hotel in san marcos Plaza. day 15-16: venice, vienna, Hungary we spend the days exploring venice, the bummer was that the italian boats went on strike for no reason, just to get an early holiday and take friday off. so we had to walk mostly which was a pain because venice is not made for that. we were able to take a boat to see the famous glass blowing and a demonstration however. when we were trying to leave venice, hell broke lose when the italian rudeness and lack of a good train system combined, and we missed out bus to Vienna, Austria. we the only notification of a change was a tiny paper on one window at a help desk, way to go Italy. we quickly boarded a train to the bus's next stop. only to have to end up chasing it down. luckily the driver stopped and let us on. on the way to Vienna, we met a kid named Bruce, who was traveling by himself around europe. i left venice, calling it my least desirable place all trip. we transfered our bus to a train to Budapest, the capitol of Hungary. and we quickly after the heptic day, fell asleep. day 17: Budapest, vienna we saw a hungarian castle, which included a view of all of budapest. and the shoes of executed hungarians by the nazis or soviets. we boarded a trin to Vienna that evening, arrived, and had the biggest pizza have ever seen in my life for dinner. day 18-20: Vienna we were in Vienna to see my mom's other host family, the kirazas (spelled wrong i know)the father spoke russian which made me really happy. we ate a ton at their house and played soccer/basketbal/hockey (i dont know what it was) with their granddaughters. we toured the catacombs of a cathedral that was full of plague victims' bones. we also went to my mom's host sister's apartment which was huge. there was an entire room with vidoegames like XBOX kinect, smoke machines, and strobe lights. we spend the night eating spaghetti and playing starwars kinect. we also got to see the Kaiser's summer palace, famous for its fountains. we left the next day for Prague, Czech Republic where we saw the famous black light theater only in Prague. Day 21: Prague, Berlin in Prague, we saw the jewish cemetery, astronomical clock and ended up going to Berlin sooner than we wanted because we did enough in Prague. we arrived and were greeted by my host uncle, Jochen, and we went to watch the UEFA game Germany V Italy in a restaurant. the game got intense, we all were hoping for a Germany Victory, and blood pressure spiked when germany scored with 1:23 left on a penalty shot. during the last minute, the german goalie even went and tried to score. but it was of no use as germany lost 2-1.. the capitol was silent that night. but it was nice to spend time with Jochen and his wife. day 22-24: Berlin, Augsburg we saw too much in Berlin to even remember, the TV Tower, the east Germany Museum, checkpoint Charlie, the musuem of checkpoint charlie, reichtstag, the 2 russian memorials of the city, one was HUGE. the place where 500,000 people gathered to watch the game. we even got to see the original Berlin Wall still standing in certain parts. we took many pictures with it, including us trying to destroy it and climbing it. Berlin was a high point of the trip. but it was even better to leave to go to my host city, Augsburg, and meet my opa and oma (grandpa and grandma) again. we arrived in augsburg, and got my mom's passport back. and spend the night killing the evasive species of snails and slugs in the garden. it was here where we learned of a horrible storm and power outage in Ohio. day 25-30: Augsburg we spend the 5 days doing things with Opa and Oma like seeing the city, forcing me to try a surfing video game. seeing the amersee near munich, going to Munich and meeting friends of our group people. (sorry Feli) in munich we saw the olympic garden and ryan and i got to walk on balls in the water, it was awesome. we also saw a rock(?) festival. we toured castes such as neuschwanstein and linderhof, played dice games like lershal (which i won once) and going out for a pizza dinner for our last night together. on the 30th and final day, the group (except me) boarded a train to see another city and return to Frankfurt for their departure back to the states tomorrow. while I stay back and officially start my exchange year in Germany. frankly, im just glad the euro trip ended. my opa has taken every advantage there is to get me into language courses and treat me right, so the same wont happen again. once again i have said goodbye to me friends and family to live abroad. i can only wait for the adventures that await me in Germany and Europe. but no matter how much these foreign lands impress me or intrigue me, I know still that only one is right for me, The United States of America.

Up to bat again

For those of you who are unaware of my current situation, allow me to explain. I am Aaron Lefler, a potential international Businessman who is studying abroad before entering college. last year, I spent an entire year abroad in Russia, and learned Russian. despite some bad experiences and tough times with the natives, I have decided to try studying abroad once again, only this time in Germany. I will be staying with my mom's host family, the Muenkers, in Augsburg in Bavaria. with my fly-out date approaching sooner and sooner everyday, currently being on june the 7th, where i will start my true exchange 1 month after a European trip. I have been studying German as I did with Russian so I can get some basis before the real deal. Unlike when I was in Russia, fewer rules will apply to me. I will have use of a laptop to better blog, store photos, do work, and talk. With High School coming to a close in a little over 1 month, stress is building and i am experiencing mixed feelings, I am assured that what happened in Russia wont happen in Germany. it seemed like only yesterday I left my land, the memories of Russia still live on in my mind, now after less than a year even, I leave my homeland and favorite nation, to experience the world of Youth exchange once more. This blog will be the primary way people back in the US, and maybe even Russia, read about my adventures in Germany for my year.
Wish me the best of luck!
und guten tag Deutschland!