Oktoberferien

Hallo zusammen!

Apologies that it’s been so long! I hope my blogs have been helpful to learn about being a CBYX student while submitting your applications for this year. You still have until December 1st! Good luck!

I have been a bit sick this week with a cold (Don’t worry! It’s not COVID!) so I finally have the opportunity to write about my Oktoberferien which was during the first two weeks of October. In Germany, the breaks are different than in the US, but I found it quite nice to have a 2-week holiday at this time of year. The leaves were changing and I enjoyed the last bits of summer warmth. 

The first week my host mom, brother, and I headed down to Hessen, where my host mom’s mother grew up. My host mom still has lots of family living there so it was fun to have Kaffee und Kuchen Stunde with them. Germans always bake the most exquisite sweets for these! 

On the way to Hessen, we stopped to see my host mom’s favorite castle ruins. It was quite beautiful and fun to walk through. The reason it holds so much importance for her is because as a child, she was never allowed to visit because it was across the border in East Germany. Now she loves it. 

The main purpose of our visit was to go apple picking on the orchard my host grandmother owns. We spent a whole afternoon there and brought six crates of apples back to supply us for the winter. My host mom has since baked numerous cakes and pies with the apples. Yum!

We spent the rest of our days hiking, seeing the new James Bond movie (Auf Deutsch!), and wandering the town. There were lots of historical sites including a jail cell that once held “witches” and an abandoned synagogue where hundreds of Jewish people from a small town in Germany once worshipped in. 

The whole vacation was very fall-like. I’m not sure how to describe it other than that but the atmosphere and all the activities felt like a culmination of the fall season. I loved drinking tea each morning and afternoon, the fresh brötchen, and having the chance to read for hours in the warm kitchen. 

We left after five days away and headed back to Hamburg. On the way, we stopped at a border museum that showcased artifacts from WWII and from when Germany was divided. The pictures were terribly haunting but I loved learning about the history of the place. A sight that has stuck with me is the grave of a man who attempted to flee from the East to the West. He almost made it but was shot by the border police just before he crossed. Although much of Germany’s history is terrible, I think it’s so important to learn from it, rather than shy away from it. 

It was nice to be back in Hamburg and the rest of my vacation was spent relaxing, reading, and working on my college applications (I plan to post about this process soon!). It was very enjoyable and although I do like my school, it was difficult to go back the next Monday.

Until next time!

Sarah