Fennel Fields, Corn Fields, and the Garden of Eden - Sunday, September 1, 2013

"If you see a snake on the tree, don't eat the fruit."

Hedersleben, the small town I've been living in for the past month, has been seemingly getting smaller and smaller, with nothing left to do. The only good food we've had (the monastery diet consists of potatoes, meat, bread, and more potatoes) is the fruit that we pick off every fruit tree we find in town. There is a huge on right next to the monastery where I rode the horses a few weeks back, and it has helped fulfill my crave for something fresh.

Today a few of us decided to make use of our Free-Time Sunday, and go on a long walk to get out of the place we see throughout the week. We walked in the direction of an another town and saw a huge fennel field while we were walking. Next thing I knew, we were in the middle of it taking pictures; it was such an awesome feeling, and something that I've actually wanted to do for a while. The field went on forever off into the distance. 

We got out of it and continued to walk a few hundred feet down the road the corn field. There was a path that veered off through the multiple corn fields that we decided to take. We ran through the rows in the corn fields; it felt as if we were in a movie. 

We came across a detour path that went directly into the corn field and decided to take it. It was probably the best decision I have made yet. We got to the middle of the field and found this strip of fenced off area. We went through the gate to find a fruit orchard. If you know me, picking fruit off tress is my thing. The apples on the trees were humungous. We found cherries and grapes. There was purple, yellow, and orange plums. The pears tasted as if I just pulled out a Pear Jelly-Belly of bag full of jellybeans. There were Johannes-berry plants, as well as peaches that weren't ripe yet. The best fruit of all though were the blackberries on one small bush. They were the sweetest blackberries I have ever had, and would never eat another fruit again if I could just eat those. This fruit garden went on for so long. My friend joked about it being the Garden of Eden.

We then left and ran through an already harvested corn field. The land went on forever. We ended up going to the base of the wind turbines about a half a mile away. It was insanely windy and so worth it. 

Needless to say, it was a pretty successful and awesome day.

Free Time, Chi Gong, & Horses - Sunday, August 18, 2013

Another insane day in the town of Hedersleben. I finally downloaded a bunch of pictures from friends camera, so this post will be filled with pictures of my recent adventures. 

I wasn't going to write today, but it was an extremely blog-worthy today. On Sunday's we have a total of about 12 hours of free time. All the stores are closed so basically all we can do is explore. It was a good, but extremely long day. 

Let's talk about my Chi Gong (similar to Thai Chi) experience. Our 66-year-old teacher Frau Schaefer was teaching us Chi Gong this morning, and I thought it would be a pretty awesome thing to do. So, I joined her. A small group of us gathered in the auditorium and stood in a circle. Frau lead this group in one of the strangest things I have ever done. Frau is a cute little old German woman who doesn't speak the best Englisch. She talked continuously throughout the lesson in German and I had no idea what she was saying, which made all the movements even more confusing. She started by having us rub our hands quickly together to warm them up, in order to rub on different body parts to warm them up as well. All was going well, until she showed us how to rub her back. She stood near the middle of the circle and started moving her hands down her butt. She then rubbed her hands down her butt crack; it took everything inside of me to not burst out laughing. I almost had to leave the room. It was one of the most hilarious and strange things I have seen in a while. If you know me, if I get in certain mood, I can't control my laughter. I finally started to calm down when she started another movement in which she put one hand on her crotch and one on her butt. She then started to do a movement that was pretty much twerking. I almost completely lost it. Immediately after, she started to do another movement that was very similar to belly dancing. You could see the other younger teacher in the room trying to hold in his laugh. All in all, it was a very good experience.

After lunch, I did one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life. First, we helped the local Bee-Keeper make his honey. A weird, but extremely delicious occasion. After, another girl and I wanted to see the horses that are right next to our monastery. They live on a fruit orchard with some of the best fruit I have ever eaten in my life. Pears, apples, plums, cherries. All so delicious. As we ate the fruit, we fed the two horses. These horses are the biggest horses I have seen in my life. I have never ridden a horse in my life, but have always really wanted to. The horses didn't have any reigns on them, so we thought it would be a little sketchy to hop on. But, we're on a fricken exchange, and life is about taking risks, and doing things you want to do. So, we found a way to get on top of the horses and ride them bareback, and we did it. 

I rode a horse for the first time in my life, bareback, on random horses, in the pouring rain, in a fruit orchard, in Germany. Who in the world can say that? The horse I rode has black and white colored coat of fur, with an awesome design. It looks as if it were bleached. Definitely check out these pictures.

If (but really, you know I mean when) you travel, do not regret not taking opportunities that are given to you, no matter how insane they might seem at the time. Taking risks is truly what life is meant for.

(Also, I have basically no wifi, so I'll post them later.)

Leipzig Abenteuer - Saturday, August 17, 2013

Let me start this post out with a disclaimer: many of the things I say about Germany might not be true completely true, since I've been here less than a week and might misunderstand something. It's what I've observed and learned from the Germans staying with us. Also, this is a long post, so if a part doesn't seem interesting to you, skip it and read towards the end where it gets a little more interesting (hopefully). My mind is going crazy with all this language information thrown on me at once. I'm also not in the best writing mood, but I feel that today needed to be written down.

This past week has been insane, in all the best ways. I have been taking German for a total of four days, and feel like I know more German than I do Spanish that I took three years of. We got our permanent teacher after the second day and left our mixed advanced-beginner class that I mentioned in the last post so that us beginners could get the basics down. Our teacher's pretty young, so when I bring out my "Dirty German" book a friend gave me (basically a slang book, not all dirty) he goes over it with us and tells us what's up to date and what is too inappropriate to say in front of adults. One of my favorite words is "Geil," which is slang for "awesome". But apparently it used to mean "horny", so it's not the best word to use around older adults. This book is one of my favorite things. I truly now know what it means to be foreign, and can't wait to be that foreign kid in school. 

Language class has pretty much been our lives the past week, twice a day for three hours each. I feel like I've been here for a month. Our city has a population of around 1,500 people, and consists of three restaurants, and a grocery store. For free time, we basically either go to get dörner (same workers), go to the store (same cashier), try to talk to random people we see on the streets (there's probably three different friend groups), or go on a walk behind the houses. It's actually pretty awesome.

But we all needed a little break, a new sight. During the weekends we don't have language class. So, we all went on a trip to Leipzig, about a two hour bus drive away from Hedersleben. This all happened today. Leipzig is known as the "City of Music"; probably because it is the home of one of the best musician and composer in Europe, Johannes Bach. First, we went to a church in the city. It was right next to the University of Leipzig, which has some of the coolest architecture I've seen. But holy crap, we walked inside the church and I was speechless. A lot of the churches here have these breath-taking ceilings and art work everywhere that is just too insane to be in front of. There is these huge columns in the first church we visited that have leaves coming out of the top made of stone, and the ceiling drips down into them so it looks as if the ceiling is grown out of these huge tree-like columns. I need to save up to get a nice camera, because the only thing I have is a crappy hundred dollar camera I won from some church event, and I don't even have a memory card for it. So unfortunately I don't have any pictures, but take my word for it, it was insane. 

We then casually walked to the next church, The St. Thomas Church, not knowing what to expect besides more insane ceilings (well, we might have actually been told where we were going to, but our teachers always speak in German to us and I have no idea what's going on normally). It ended up being the church that Bach originally played at for the rich people of the city. Our teacher mentioned that Bach (during this time he had fourteen children) was required to compose a new song each week to play for the men as they sat around and talked together. We walked into the church and his grave was just right there. In the middle of the prayer area. Just Bach. Buried. In the middle of the church. My mind was blown.

After a tour of a nearby museum, we were then allowed four hours freedom. I was so stoked. We got some lunch and then started walking around town. We ended up in an old book store because one of my friends needed a English-German dictionary. It ended up being an antique book store with all these sick books that were decades and centuries old. I ended up buying a German travel-photography book for 2,50 € that translates into The Last Adventure on Earth. But the coolest part about this book store was these miniature books that they had tons of. There about three or four inches long and fit in a shirt pocket. We ended up finding three other antique book stores nearby and all of them had these books. We finally asked one of the cashiers at the store what the purpose was for these mini books, but we couldn't translate well enough to figure out what she was saying (and if I had enough wifi I would look it up). But these were literally one of the coolest things I have ever seen. They had everything from hardback, to paperback, to leather. From German novels, to an English-Russian Dictionary, to strange nude picture books. They were all so old and each had some unique weird thing about them.

Later we walked to the train station that was also a sort of an inside mall. There were literally H&M's everywhere, and I mean everywhere. More than just one on a street, which I don't really understand. But for some reason it was awesome. Riding bikes through the malls is also a thing. One of the German people with us also said that you could probably drive a small car through it and no one would say anything. Europe is just too much awesome. If you come to Germany, try Spaghetti Eis, which is spaghetti ice cream. They force the ice cream through this spaghetti maker and then add chocolate meatballs and strawberry sauce to make it look like spaghetti. It looks insane. 

Get out there and experience things. This life is meant to be lived, so live it. 

"Don't sit and wait. Get out there, feel life. Touch the sun, and immerse in the sea." - Rumi

The Confusion has Started - August 13, 2013

Today was another insane day. I don't plan on writing everyday, but there were many things today that I wanted to write down because I did not want to forget them. 

We started language class, and my group - filled with beginners - was paired with the advanced group because our teacher was not at the camp yet. Good for me, because not knowing any German is very useful when you are in a classroom in which the teacher is speaking to the students in only German. I sat there with the other beginners and listened to him talk, trying to grasp onto a word I recognized to make sense of what he was saying. Later on in the day the teacher had the advanced students help us learn some German phrases and then present to the class. One other good thing, I can't pronounce one of the most commonly used word in any language - Ich, meaning "I". There is one older lady on "Das Team" (yes, I know, it's awesome) here at the monastery that is extremely German who constantly talks to me to help me improve my German. She will literally repeat the same phrase over and over again until I memorize it and am able to pronounce it right, then will find me later throughout the day and ask me to recite her the phrase I am learning. 

If you know me, you know that I have a weird fascination with many Asian countries - the food, the culture, and the people. Something about the drastic difference in our cultures just calls for a good time of much confusion and laughs. There happens to be three girls from Taiwan at our language camp and some others are coming from Thailand. I immediately made friends with the Taiwanese girls and am so glad I started talking to them (Probably because they brought literally hundreds of my favorite candy, Hi-Chew). I think they're insane for doing an exchange year in Germany, and I honestly don't think I could be in their position. During language lessons, they literally have to translate from German, to English, and then to their native language, Mandarin. Talk about one heck of a year. 

Yesterday, I mentioned that the building I was staying in was extremely old. Little did I know, the monastery was built in the 1200's. We also walked down the roads today and did a tour of the town, and it felt as if we were on movie set in Hollywood. The homes and buildings look empty, and they're probably as old as the monastery. We then continued to tour the town and ended up going beyond the houses along a small river next to some untouched fields. I was tired of practicing counting to twenty, so I decided to stop and soak it all in. It was one of the most beautiful sights I have seen in a while. I need to save up for a nice camera, because words literally cannot describe how beautiful this place is (I also need to not use the word literally as much, but I literally mean literally when I say it). Later after dinner, a couple friends and I went back to the restaurant that sells "donor kebabs" and bought some. They were ridiculously good; a must if you ever come to Germany.

If I have at all for some reason inspired you, please read this quote, and let it sink in. If there is one thing I want to inspire you to do, it is to actually do the insane things that you truly want to do, no matter what other people will think of you.

"Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."  

- Howard Thurman

The Eagle has Landed - Monday, August 12, 2013

It still hasn't completely hit me.

These past couple days have been pretty insane. I don't think I know what time is anymore, and I'm not entirely sure what a full night of sleep feels like. My feet are sore from my new winter boots I had to wear to make my luggage lighter. I sweat pretty much all day in my winter coat. We traveled for a good thirty hours or so. There is so many things to complain about, but I couldn't be more stoked on life.

Ironically while at the hotel in D.C., we met an exchange group from Germany that had just arrived in the U.S. and was about to part ways and travel to their host families to start their year abroad. We exchanged advice and warnings of what things would be like in our home countries. The director of their exchange group even corrected some of the incorrect phrases in my Dirty German book (and let me tell you, these things were not typically things you would say around a fifty-year-old man, however he was laughing just as much as the kids - culture shock). 

On my flight to Germany, I sat next to a girl who had been on exchange to the U.S. about ten years ago who is from around the city I am going to be staying this next year. It really is a small world. Even smaller, when we arrived in Germany we met some people from Luxembourg who were traveling to Canada for the rock climbing world championship; they happened to know my brother's wife's cousins who are going to the same championship.

When we got out of the airport it finally started feeling like we weren't in America anymore. The small town I am staying at for language camp is insane. The roads are tiny and there is cigarette vending machines on the streets. I'm living in a monastery for the next month and I don't think I have ever seen so much history in just one building. Old sewing machines, sleighs, and other contraptions on display lines the hallways. Downstairs there is even an old tombstone that is in the ground that the hardwood floor is cut around. 

We had schnitzel and french fries for dinner and then were allowed some free time after a quick overview of what would happen during language camp. We explored the small town around 9:00, and everything was closed except a small restaurant that served kebabs and other foods. The employees knew almost no English, and I pretty much know a total of three words in German. 

This is when things started actually sinking in. I am now the foreigner. No longer am I the one showing people from different countries around. I have to fend for myself (well, for now I have my fellow Americans), use hand gestures, and ultimately just have a good time. I have never been more excited to feel as helpless as I do now. 

Tomorrow we start learning the language. Wish me luck!

I'll leave you with this quote from the book I am reading that gives me non-stop chills. I highly recommend reading One Year Lived by Adam Shepard.

Whether escpaing the mundane or chasing excitement, why do some people talk about their dream to do something anomalous and others actually do it?

The Beginning - Tuesday, July 9, 2013

This is my first blog post. I'll start with an introduction.

Hey there. My name is Caleb Ostgaard. I just graduated high school from El Toro, in Orange County, California. My high school experience was beyond great, and I'm very thankful for all the opportunities and relationships I was presented with.

But I'm ready to change it up a bit. I've wanted to be an exchange student since my freshman year. When my family looked into and saw how expensive it was, there wasn't really any question that my family couldn't afford it. So, we looked to hosting exchange students instead, and woah, what a blessing it was in my life. We hosted a French student named Sacha my sophomore year, and a German exchange student named Yannik my junior year. I can't tell you how much these experiences changed my life and made me the person I am today. Both Sacha and Yannik became like brothers to me, and it was so hard to have them leave, not knowing when I would see them again.

Then I found out about CBYX and other organization that would completely pay for your year abroad. WOAH. WAIT. What was that? I can go to a different country, live there for a year, go to a foreign high school, and not have to pay for anything. I'm in.

After hours of filling out applications for these scholarships along with my college applications, I was exhausted. It was my senior year, I thought I was be going to be smooth sailing. I didn't expect to not have any free time anymore.

But it was all worth it. Between February and March, I got an email. This email would be the email that would change my future:

"On February 15^th, you were one of 134 CBYX students who applied to FLAG for a 2013-14 CBYX academic-year scholarship.  Five CBYX Application Review Teams thoughtfully reviewed and ranked student applications over the past week.  A final meeting of team leaders was held last night to identify the 64 Finalists in this competition.  It is my honor to inform you that you are a Finalist and one step closer to your dream of serving as an ambassador in Germany during the next academic year.  Congratulations, you are a Finalist!"

Holy crap. I had a chance of going to Germany. All I had to do was interview. I knew I had it in the bag; I'd wanted this for years and I finally had a chance to show my passion.

So, it all happened. I interviewed, waited a month, and got my notification. I was going to Germany. I never thought this would happen.

I'd like to leave who ever follows me with a quote from Jon Krakauer's novel, Into the Wild, one of my personal favorites. A lot of people want change in their life, but are too afraid to initiate it. If you want something, go for it. Who cares what others will think. In the end, people will admire you for passion. Do what you want. You have one life, live it well.

"Make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservation, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty." 

- Jon Krakauer