Monday, 12 November 2007

  • Memory’s back!

    That’s right.  Memory’s back and kicking with a new keyboard!  It’s a little bulky to carry around, but at least I can type again.  I’m sorry to say though, that it’s been an awfully long time since I could write...  So Zell and Prenzlau may seem a little rushed.  In fact, I don’t really remember much about Zell at the moment, so that might be very rushed. 

     We arrived in Zell, only to say good-bye to our wonderful yodelling bus driver (yes, he was a yodelling bus driver.  It was awesome.).  We weren’t too sad though, cause the major’s reception had pretzels and wine. We learned some really interesting things about the history of the city from the major and then went in search of our host families.  The host family code was different types of food...  That we had to find out by sticking our hand in a box!  Yeah, it was weird.  Especially since my code was dog food.  Our host dad, Joseph, tricked us though, by have some dog jerky as a cane. 

     My roommate for that week was Christine (vocal).  We had lots of fun trying to survive a tiring week together, lol.  I don’t really remember much about the show or the CI’s, but I’ll talk about the education session and hike we had. :stare:

     The education session for that week was a Hunger Banquet.  We started with a trek up a hill (on foot. :stare: ) to the ruins of a castle (while it was raining off and on).   There we learned a little bit about the history of the castle and what the different parts were for.  After that, we all gathered in the court yard of the castle and had a session on hunger and poverty in the world (in the rain!).  The ed team started off with a pop quiz and then spread a few 10 cent coins all around the ground.  Then, several people were either blind folded or hand cuffed to simulate those with disabilities in the world (to which Jessica asked if she had to be blind folded too. Silly Jessica, trixs are for kids... ).  That’s when the staff said “Go!” and we all had to get as many coins as we could.  I managed to get two on my own, then offered one to Tiffanie.  I ended up sharing the remaining coin with Saiyuri as payment to stand under her umbrella. :XD 

     Then, naturally, the staff said we could share the coins if we wanted to.  Oops.  I got another coin from Gigi and we all ended up with at least one coin.  So then we were given a “personal history” from Ellen, telling us what class we ended up in and how our life was.  I was a middle class woman from Tennessee who hadn’t finished high school.  But she started turning her life around and is now able to support her family.  Yay. 

     After a trek back down the hill (which we took an alternate route from the rest of the cast.  Kristina and I decided to follow Matt’s “trail” that he found though the woods...  We did get down a couple minutes before everyone else, so it was all good. ), we headed to a monastery to have a lecture given to us by one of the local monks.  Then we were invited to “dinner” for the Hunger Banquet!

     We were divided into three groups according to class.  The upper class got to sit at a table with candles and all that jazz.  We of the middle class got to sit in chairs while the lower class had to sit on the ground.  Jared started his power point on poverty then, since that’s one of the things he’s really passionate about.  I was actually really impressed with the amount of information he had researched about it.  If you’re reading this Jared, you’re totally awesome (just to let you know). :XD About half way through the lecture, the high class was brought out their meal, cooked by the staff. :XD It was like, a full three course meal too, lol.  The other classes didn’t get to eat until the lecture was over.  Then the middle class only got rice and meat, while the lower class only had rice and salt water (and no eating utensils!).  We were challenged not to eat anything else afterwards either, to be able to understand how people in poverty went to bed every night.  It was a really great session, all together.

     Next up, our hike through the Black Forest!  Exciting though the Black Forest might be, hiking was not all that fun.  A lot of it was up hill and Memory wasn’t the happiest panda around.  It was some great scenery though and there was an accordion player at the top, so it wasn’t all that bad.  Besides, we didn’t have to walk back down.  Though, Christine and Leo decided to anyway, since neither of them had actually walked up. :stare: I did get to tease Christine an awful lot about that night however, so I mind all that much, lol.  Leo was our CVC for Zell, btw.  He’s a really nice guy too. :XD Actually, when we were without a host family for our host family day (our host dad had to go to his sister’s wedding and stay the night), he and Sophie came to pick us up and took us to a glass factory.  We got to see Vanessa, Lysan, and their friends blow glass. :XD

     Oh!  We did get to tour a ceramics factory too, with the rest of the cast.  That was totally wicked.  Not only did we get to tour a famous coffee cup factory (and get pictures of Matt, Lesley, and Yuri painting their own coffee cups, lol...  Matt’s had probably seen better days...), but at the end of the tour, the company gave everyone in the cast cups with their names on it!  Yup, I’ve got a rooster cup with Amanda written on it. It was really cool, to see all the cups sitting there waiting for us. 

     Aside from visiting a glass factory on our free day, we also got some Malaysian food!  The super nice family up stairs said they’d take care of us while our host family was gone, so we got even more of a cultural experience.  Good food, that it was. :XD

     And...  I think that’s about all I have to say about Zell.  Next up, Prenzlau!

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