The Story of the Schweriner Schloss

    The idea ghost of the palace of Schwerin began when Niklot came to found the first bases of Mecklenburg. The thought of the castle/palace was there. I believe. Until it finally had it's shape of today probably between the 18th-20th century. It was built, burned, has been a Kindergarten and is a museum now. Before all that it was what first attracted me to Schwerin when I'd known I'd live there. schweriner Schloss

    Today and for the first time in five months I got to be inside with the lovely Irmi (a friend of mine who was 16 times in Egypt!). It was a cold sunny Saturday, -6 to -10 C. The Schwerinersee was frozen, just like my hands, ears and nose. I learnt not to forget my gloves.. the extremely hard way, though. 

I admired the ceilings and floor. I don't know which art is that but it's a kind of art when different types of wood are put together, eg the floor. It wasn't also all wood. there was metal added to wood and paper too, I believe. The style was mainly Roman as they said it was a romantic palace. The portraits of those who lived in it made it more interesting. Imagining that those people went through these halls, ate, slept and all that stuff is exciting. I actually thought Friedrich Franz II or III looked like someone I know.

Photos from Today

Floor

Granite stairs

Anno 1616

Mid Point

         156 out 332 days have passed. It's time to make lists, analyse and think. What has happened in the past five months?
I can almost remember every day as yesterday. It went so fast; the Orientation, the long boring lessons, the weekends, Mallorca and my culture shock. I am having a difficulty in realizing it all. Maybe I just can't realize it all now. My past five months were not easy still not so difficult. Naturally, I got to experience homesickness which was not so cool but I survived.

First Five Months View:
1. Progress in my German skills, relatively slow though..
2. First Ballet, Opera shows.
3. living on an island for a week.
4. going almost everywhere by bike. still gaining weight...
5. German Christmas
6. First Catholic liturgy
7. German food.
8. Made hell lot of decisions alone.
9. Adapted to the weather/Survived many days without sun.
10. German School
11. Met so many incredibly nice people that mean a lot to me now.
12. In love with Schwerin.

Places I have been to
1. Lauenburg
2. Schwerin
3. Rostock
4. Kühlungsborn
5. Graal-müritz
6. Berlin
7. Poel (island)
8. Mallorca


My Other 3-Month-Goals
1. Hamburg/Dresden/Köln/Bayern (Bavaria)
2. Article/s for the School magazine.
3. to go with friends in a trip
4. know more and more people
5. share things with my class/ get to be more as one of them
6. jogging
7. forever, better German.. to be able to read a German novel/understand Faust.
8. sleep early
10. to be friends with "..", "..", "..." and ...
9. do sth that I've never done before besides what is already mentioned..

without my host family and my family most of what has happened wouldn't have happened.
Thank you!

Bei Vivi

New Year's Eve

Poel

Der Lieblingshund

Graal-mueritz

Merry Christmas! Frohe Weihnachten!

Christmas is over, 2013 too and soon will be my holiday.I will be back in the every-day life routine soon. 

I lived a totally new different Christmas last year, 2013. I celebrated for the first time on 25 December which contrasts to the date of celebrating Christmas in the Orthodox Church of Egypt, 7 January. I had to enjoy the Weihnachtsmarkt, German Christmas carols/songs, Christmas sale and Christmas presents.. Christmas in Germany as I had lived it is all about food, family and presents. 

We celebrated on December 24. It was dark outside, lit with a yellow light inside. The Christmas tree with the presents looked pretty comfortable.  Firstly, we bought fish. went to church, came back found the whole family already at home. It was nice to see them all together and nicer was it to be with them. Shortly, it was time for Christmas songs, Christmas poems and finally presents. The family were contented with a Vchat with their (exchange student in the USA) son. Finally, there was a fish salad dinner. It started with tee and ended with prosecco. 

On 25th December we ate a duck (typical) from Oma Erika. The next day we ate deer at the grandparents'. So much food in a little amount of time.

Here are some pictures...