(For those of you who didn’t know me back when I did my first exchange, I will give a brief autobiography of each family as I go along.)
Familie Palm
Father: Claus (Paper Engineer)
Mother: Heidi (Lawyer)
Esther (22, Studying Psychology at the University of Innsbruck, Austria)
Barbara (21, Studying Politics in Mainz, Germany)
Christine/Tini (17, Grade 12 at Türkheim Gymnasium)
I was a little leery speaking German in the first moments after my arrival, considering the little opportunity I have had to speak it in Vienna, however it didn’t take long for the words and rhythm of the language to come back to me. I am also proud to say that by the end of my visit, I was once again “thinking” in German, and I’ve made a new goal for myself to continue speaking German as much as possible for the remainder of my time here (including with my Swiss roommate!)
Surprisingly, there were quite a few changes in the sleepy town of Türkheim over the past three years. Due to the construction of a road allowing travelers to by-pass and drive around the town, instead of through it, many of the former shops are no longer in business. In their absence, many cafés, restaurants and ice cream shops have opened up, and the town council has set-out to “beautify” the town, most likely in hopes of attracting more tourists and day-trippers.
The Palm family has also done some renovating of their own. The once small and cramped kitchen was expanded, and is now much more practical for Heidi, who loves to cook and entertain. Asides from the new kitchen, little else seems to have changed in the Palm household, and it was only a matter of moments before I felt completely at home..this feeling was unanimous amongst the family members, This should probably come as no surprise, as I had the wonderful opportunity to live with the Palm’s not just once, but twice, adding up to a total of about 6 months or half of my exchange. (Exchange students in Germany generally have four host families, but as there was not yet a fourth family set up for me, the Palm’s decided to take me in again at the end of my exchange.) As it turned out, it was only at the Palm’s house that I slept in my “old room”, although I can tell you I definitely slept better in Bavaria than I ever do in Vienna – must be the fresh Bavarian air!
Most of Saturday was spent baking, colouring eggs, and preparing for the evening’s Easter Egg Dinner that the Palm’s were hosting. The Easter Egg dinner tradition stems from Claus’ family, from when he was a child. Each person receives a hard-boiled egg and you then challenge an opponent to an “egg-breaking” competition. Basically the opponents try to break each
other’s eggs, hitting once tip to tip, and then again bottom to bottom. The game gets a little frustrating when you have a strong egg and you start to get a little hungry, but there is generally always someone looking for some competition. The shelled eggs are then cut in half and filled with mustard, oil, vinegar and a dash of salt; apparently this combination allows one to consume an absurdly large number of eggs within an evening. Following dinner, while the adults continued to socialize, some of us young’ns decided to head into Buchloe to a “Spring Break Party” being held in the hockey arena. To my luck, I ended up coincidentally meeting-up with several people from my old school, including my “German best friend” Lisa, whom I had already been in contact with prior to my arrival. We made plans to meet-up again later on in the week for a more intimate catch-up!During my stay, the Palm’s decided that they would try to teach me how to drive “stick”; if I caught on quick enough, they would allow me use of the girls’ Volkswagen Polo for the remainder of the week. I wasn’t very optimistic that I would feel comfortable enough taking their car (or that I would even really need it), but was eager to get behind the wheel and learn! I can’t quite decide if it’s beneficial or disadvantageous that I already know how to “drive”..I just couldn’t seem to get used to using my left foot when we have always been taught to keep it away while driving automatic. The start-up proved to be the most difficult aspect of driving a stick-shift vehicle, and once I got going, shifting gears proved to be pretty easy. Nevertheless, ever the cautious driver, I wasn’t comfortable going any faster than in third gear, and I think my passengers were a little bored! I ended up getting some more driving lessons from Kaufmann’s at the end of my stay, and even made it out of the fields and parking lots onto a “real” road. All in all, I’d say I’m an automatic kind of girl, but it’s always fun to learn something new!
The Palm’s are a family who withhold the tradition of German Brotzeit = “Bread time”. Brotzeit may technically be held at any time of the day: breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner, and the menu consists of freshly baked bread or rolls accompanied by the best assortment of German (and European) cheese, deli meats and fresh vegetables. On the weekends, a breakfast Brotzeit also features an assortment of (usually homemade) jams and marmalades. Generally in Germany, the big/warm meal of the day is eaten mid-day, and the evening meal is a more simple Brotzeit; depending on the work and school schedules of the family members, a warm meal may also additionally (or instead) be served in the evening. No longer accustomed to this pattern of eating, I can say I spent many an afternoon feeling a little bloated ;).
On Tuesday April 7th, the Palm family departed on a 10-day family road trip through Eastern Germany. In the years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, even the Palm parents had not yet had the opportunity to explore a majority of the former Soviet part of the country. Thus for me, Tuesday meant moving day, and I re-packed my suitcase and headed off to visit family # 2 – Familie Thalmann.
Familie Thalmann
Father: Hans (retired, formerly worked for Ministry of Agriculture)
Mother: Renate (homemaker)
Katherine (Teacher & Artist, lives in Munich)
Christoph (Unsure of profession, lives in nearby Marktoberdorf; married in 2007, wife Heike and he are expecting their first child in about a week and are currently building a house in Tuerkheim!)
Johannes (23, In last year of school; has a one-year-old son, Kilian, with his girlfriend, Mira; Johannes, Mira and Kilian are now living in an apartment within the Thalmann’s house
)Anna (21, studying Homeopathic medicine in Northern Germany)
Matthias (20, in grade 13 at a Music Gymnasium in Marktoberdorf) – was on exchange in Argentina while I lived in Germany
Sofia (16, grade 11 at Tuerkheim Gymnasium)
Verena (11, grade 5 at Tuerkheim Gymnasium)
Lisa (8, in grade 2 at Tuerkheim Grandschule)
àYes, this makes 8 kids in total, although only 4 of them were living at home during my stay with the Thalmann’s.
The Thalmann’s picked me up from the Palm’s in their large VW van Tueday morning, and we headed off into the sun for the Bavarian Alps. An hour’s drive brought us close to Fuessen, home of the famous Neuschwanstein castle. We embarked on an easy-sloped trail familiar to the Thalmann’s, and appropriate for a day to be spent with kids and baby’s (Kilian of course); a harness was attached to Kilian’s baby carriage to help pull the carriage on the way up. The weather could not have been more perfect, and the views were just gorgeous..hard to believe these Alps were once more or less the backdrop of my backyard. At the end of the trail was an old
hut and restaurant, which had probably only recently opened up for the season. We settled down for a traditional picnic, complete with Pretzels, and spent some time basking in the mid-day sun.Overall, the weather during the course of my stay was exceptional, and even now as I re-energize for a couple of days in Vienna, the sun continues to shine and the twenty degree days march on. I definitely took advantage of having a backyard/garden to tan in while I was in Germany, and thus also managed to knock off a couple more (German) books from my reading list.
The Thalmann’s were the family that had changed the most in the past three years, an obvious observation considering the ages of the children. The two youngest are now nearly the same height, and only have about a head to grow until they are taller than me. It’s hard to bel
ieve that I had once carried little Lisa, who was then just 5, all over the house..we now have the same shoe size! Verena, now 11, has really transformed from a little girl into a young lady, and it was obvious even in the way she talked and in her vocabulary. I was happy that she hadn’t completely outgrown the need for a big sis, and I at least still remained her favourite hair dresser ;)!One of my most enjoyable evening’s with the Thalmann’s was spent in the “Therme” mineral baths and sauna in nearby Bad Woerishofen – a well-known tourist destination for wealthy, old people seeking a Spa weekend getaway. Hans brought Sofia and I, and we enjoyed an evening sipping tropical cocktails and catching-up on how teenager-hood has been treating Sofia so far.
An interesting aspect of the Thalmann family is their involvement with music. Each of the children play an instrument, generally a string instrument. An advantage of having such a large family is that the older kids can help the younger kids, and additionally that the younger kids have a role model to aspire to be. Laying down in my bedroom for an afternoon snooze, it wasn’t unusual to have the classical music from upstairs bringing me into dreamland. The youngest daughter, Lisa, started playing cello very young, and hasn’t seemed to have taken to it the same way as the older kids have. One night at dinner, she proposed selling her cello for a pony – no matter where you are in the world, kids just say the darndest things!
The three days with Thalmann’s were a blur of activity, as can be expected in such a large family, and soon I was headed “for the country” - to Schlingen, population 800, and home to my third host family, Familie Kaufmann.
Familie Kaufmann
Father: Gottlieb (retired, former accountant)
Mother: Maria (homemaker)
Christian (24, studying something with computers (?) in Kempten)
Toby (21, also studying in Kempten, currently on Co-op)
Michael (20, studying in northern Germany, near Heidelberg) – was on exchange in Brazil while I lived in Germany
Andrea (17, in grade 11 at the Mindelheim Gymnasium)
While my time in Schlingen brought me a little farther away from my friends and school at the time, one can’t help but enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of the “country”. My jogs through the woods in Schlingen were always the most memorable, and I even managed to find my old “route”. The Kaufmann’s are also one of the most generous and loving host families an exchange student could ever hope to encounter, and they remain eager to help out with rides, etc. in any way they can. Their hospitality has now extended to outside of the Rotary family, and they are now hosting an EF Exchange Student, Handsuh from Finland.
I arrived at the Kaufmann residence in time for Easter Weekend, appropriate considering the family’s close ties with the community Church. I opted to attend the Saturday evening mass (the longest Mass of the year in Catholic tradition – although some churches have their Easter service on Sunday morning at 5 A.M. instead, so I suppose I lucked out in that regard!) It is Bavarian tradition for each family to offer a basket of Easter goodies (lamb- or rabbit-shaped cakes, hard-boiled eggs, etc.), to be blessed by the Priest during mass. The Mass begins by candle light, and without organ music, and part-way through the lights and music begin (and the Church Bells begin to ring) to symbolize the rising of Christ. I didn’t attend Mass very frequently during my year in Germany, but I did note that this time around, I was actually able to follow the Mass, and understand what the Priest was saying. After Mass, we headed home (just a few minutes walk down the street), where we cracked into the just blessed Easter basket, before heading to bed (with dreams of the chocolate eggs the Easter bunny would be bringing in our heads, of course!)
Maria is an excellent baker, and as it was Easter, the sweets were exceptionally plentiful over the weekend! German tradition, particularly on weekends, is to have coffee and
cake in the afternoon. It was in Germany that I really began to drink coffee, and now that I am rather addicted, I am quite in favour of withholding such a tradition! Maria is really an all-around excellent homemaker, and after taking care of my laundry, and even removing a stubborn stain out of one of my shirts, she insisted on loading me up with homemade jam and other treats for me to bring back to Vienna.I did manage to meet-up with my friend Lisa two more times over the course of my visit. It was hard to believe that three years had passed, as it was really like old times while we were together. Unfortunately I’ve really only stayed in relatively frequent contact with Lisa and one other girl from my class (who happens to be in New Zealand right now). I suppose this is fairly inevitable, especially when considering how quickly we fall out of touch with some of our highschool friends even here in Canada. It was also interesting to hear how the “cliques” in our grade had changed in the remaining two years of school following my departure. There have been talks of me returning to Tuerkheim once again for the “Abi Ball” or Graduation Dance/Prom for the grade that was below us; it is a popularly attended event, and thus would be an opportunity to meet-up with some of the people I didn’t get to see this time around. I am also hoping that a few of the girls will come visit me in Vienna over the course of the next couple months!
My departures from each of my families were teary, and when I finally boarded the train for my journey back to Vienna, it hit me that I really wasn’t sure of the next time I would be back, and how much more things might change between now and whenever that day may come. It’s amazing the bonds that can be formed between relative strangers and in such a unique situation; taking a young and impressionable exchange student into your home and family is certainly no easy task. My year abroad was an experience never to be forgotten, and now I am proud to say that indeed the relationships and experiences live on, and my “families” in Bavaria will always hold a very special place in my heart, as I will hopefully always hold a place in theirs.
