Fall Break

The past two weeks have been fall break. Two weeks off of school in Fall is a concept I could get used to! I'm not going to get to sleep in on Monday... my body may be slightly shocked. I told myself that I would get time to write blogs, a new Gazette, and finish scholarship applications during break. But I didn't. I've been out and about almost constantly.

To start off vacation, I had my first swin golf experience. Frank, Ginette, and some family friends took me out to spend a lovely Sunday afternoon playing 18 holes of this strange variation of golf. It's the exact same concept except there's only one club. This club is three-sided with a driver, pitcher, and putter. The balls are slightly bigger and soft, and the holes are much bigger. It was a lot of fun! After the first nine holes we took a break for lunch (which is actually eating at about 3 here). The golf course raises ostriches and uses the meat in their restaurant. I had a delicious salad with marinated ostrich meat. That was new. I was also quite surprised to see a wallaby at the golf course too. "Kangaroos in DEUTSCHLAND!? WAS!?" All-in-all, it was a great day!

My next big adventure was a trip to an art park outside of Wuppertal. It was very modern art. I've come to the conclusion that you can call anything art. And usually calling it that somehow makes it appear cooler than it really is. This concept is now a running joke between Ginette, her friend Gabriela, and me.

The other day, Ginette took me to tour Zons. It's an old medieval fort/castle right on the Rhine. There isn't a bridge to get to it, so we had to take a car ferry. It was fun. The little town is under the German equivalent of the Historical Society, so the surrounding wall and towers and houses are required to stay how they were in the 1300's. It was neat to see the look out towers and the little alleys.

Those are three of the major events of my fall break. I've also enjoyed doing some cooking with Ginette, meeting new people, seeing Duisburg Harbor, shopping, and spending time with friends and my host family. It's been a great vacation. In about an hour I'm going English style horse-back riding with a friend, and tomorrow I'm going to visit Holland for a day of shopping with Ginette and Kolja! I'm having too much fun on break! I'm not ready for school to start again!

Check out pictures at www.getjealous.com/cultural.cultivation