To pick up where I left off, I made it to Hall. Phew. What a trip. At the train stop at Hall, I was supposed to meet my host mother, Frau (Mrs.) Haug. I gathered all of my bags and exited the train with about 20 other people. I set everything down and took a deep breath. After that brief moment of relief, I started to scan the place for someone who looked like they were looking for me. In a matter of seconds, the “crowd” cleared out and I saw a smiling woman approaching me. I smiled and took a step toward her asking, “Sind Sie Frau Haug?” It was indeed Frau Haug, and we exchanged greetings. This was the first time I had to truly test my German, and it was shaky at best. I could communicate, but again, she spoke so quickly. I had a hard time making out individual words instead of just recognizable but meaningless sounds. Frau Haug noticed I had a little trouble keeping up with her and subsequently slowed down her speech. I was very thankful for that, be assured.
We got a taxi back to the house because her son is currently borrowing the car…but more about her children later. My first impression of Hall was: absolutely gorgeous—and absolutely German. Everything and everyone here just looks German. It is very hard to describe if you haven’t experienced something like this. It seems almost cliché to a fault, except it’s not a fault. It is very awesome. If you look at my pictures, you might be able to glimpse what I’m talking about. I’ll talk more about my first adventures through Hall in the next post, though.
Frau Haug told me about her house as we pulled up to it. It was the home of Johannes Brenz from 1522 to 1548. He was a Evangelical reformatory figure and the equivalent of Martin Luther for this region. Yeah I live in his former house. Crazy, right? Why, you ask, do the Haugs get this gem of a residence? Well, Herr (Mr.) Haug is the head of St. Michael’s Church, which just so happens to be the church that is one of Hall’s claims to fame and the church Brenz started. So yeah, I’m pretty much blown away by all of this.
Frau Haug insists that I call her Bärbel (Baerbal), which is short for Barbara for those of you who are wondering. In German, there is a formal tense and an informal tense, and Bärbel insisted I use the informal tense with her after just a few hours. Throughout our conversations, my German is rough at best, and I have some difficulty understanding her. She does know English, but she is not great at it, like me with German. That being said, she is much better at English than I am at German. She can read it just fine, but speaking it is difficult for her—or so she says. She actually speaks it pretty well, but she is unsure of herself and has to ask me if certain things are right. We only speak English, though, when I am having trouble comprehending something. We speak German first always, which I love (and desperately need in order to improve), and then resort to English if I’m struggling still on the third or fourth attempt.
I find myself using the German words I know a lot but then coming up short on one or two words per every three sentences. I have to insert English words in these gaps and then ask how to say them in German. It is a very frustrating experience. I have always felt that a strength of mine was the ability to express myself well. Also, as you can tell from reading this, I tend to be verbose. I can do neither yet in German. I have so many thoughts in my head all at once, but I cannot express myself quickly enough in German. I think a mile a minute, but by the time I have selected the German words to say one or two things, I have lost two other questions or points that I had. That is why I am here though! I need to improve so I can communicate well. Soon, I hope I can let my personality shine through my expressions like I can in English. That will just take time.
Anyway, back to the house. It is absolutely gorgeous and over 700 years old. No biggie. My room is on the second floor (well actually the third—in Germany the first floor is like a “welcome floor” and the second floor is the first floor.). I have the whole upstairs to myself. It is where the three Haug children used to live. My room is Ulrike’s old room. She is the oldest of the three and the only girl. The room is definitely big enough and has a beautiful view from both windows. In the hallway, there is a bathroom which I have all to myself, a lounge with TV and stereo, and the two other bedrooms. All three of the kids are gone at the moment. Ulrike, 30, is studying in Stuttgart. Joachim, 28, is studying in Freiburg, and Martin, 26, is studying in Dresden. From what I gather, Martin is coming back home this weekend with the car.
I settled in to my new room once we arrived, feeling pure excitement, pure exhaustion (I still have only slept “two hours” at this point), and pure anxiety all at once. The first two feelings seem rather obvious, but why anxious? I knew that from here on out my life would be challenge after challenge as I fought to improve and communicate in German. Herr Haug, who insists that I call him Richard, came home from work around 19:00 (7:00 PM) and we ate dinner around 19:30.
Dinner was a very interesting experience for several reasons. First of all, I had to introduce myself to Richard and become acquainted with him. He speaks very good English and seems very intelligent, as does Bärbel. As I mentioned, he is the head of St. Michael’s church, and Bärbel is a French teacher at the university here. Richard studied for years in Edinborough, so he claims his good English on that. The things we talked about at dinner included my education (they seem impressed and surprised at the chemistry and psychology combination); the sports I play; the region of the US I am from and where I go to school (we broke out the maps for this one); and our past travels. A few points:
• There is no rugby in Hall, but it is around Germany. This saddened me, but they mentioned that American football is very big here. The university even has a team. During WWII, American officers stayed in Hall and apparently established a love for football. Bärbel knows one of the coaches and said she will mention that I am interested!!
• The Haugs have traveled to Columbia, Peru, the US, and all around Europe. Richard speaks decent Spanish, he said.
• They visited the US when Ulrike, their daughter, spent a year in high school at Harper Creek High School in Michigan. She speaks fluent English.
For dinner, we had a variety of things to eat. We started with a grainy soup that we garnished with crunchy little balls of some kind of grain. I asked what it was called, but now I can’t remember…it was good though. After the soup, we moved on to the main course. I drank hot tea, as did Richard and Bärbel, and we ate bread and meat. There were several kinds of bread, but my favorite was Preztelbrot. At least I think that was what it was called. It is the consistency of a soft pretzel with a crunchy outside and salt on the outside, too. However, it is shaped like a giant dinner roll. I asked how I should go about eating all of the food, and Richard gladly showed me. We buttered the bread and then put salami on it and ate. I then ate cheese with flat, cracker-like bread. Also, they had this meat that was in a flavored gelatin. It was a rectangular prism with two rows of meat in circles. Filling the gaps between the circles of meat was the gelatin. The consistency and texture of the gelatin was not something I am used to and took some adjustment, but it tasted good. Dinner took awhile because we were talking about everything the whole time. I got so involved in trying to speak German that I didn’t even notice the radishes on the edge of the table. Apparently Bärbel and Richard both ate some, but I was so focused on trying to communicate that I missed that bowl completely.
After dinner we cleared the table, and they said I was welcome to go to bed. I happy accepted the offer, seeing as I was completely exhausted. I brushed my teeth and collapsed into bed around 22:00. What a day!! Well, more like 36 hours…
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