Afterwards we tried following the words along with a CD of The Magic Flute performed by another group, and found that even with words in hand, it’s extremely difficult to follow the female singers. No problem at all following the men, but this probably proves my parents’ assertion that I will not understand everything sung in German by this time next year. I’ll still try to find another opportunity to watch it live next year, though. :)

On a related note, my sister and I attended a piano concert at the San Francisco Davies Symphony Hall starring András Schiff on April 13. He is currently going through the entire collection of Beethoven piano sonatas in a series of concerts. Our night included Sonata No. 12, No. 13, No. 14 (Moonlight), No. 15 (Pastoral), and a Bach piece for the encore.

I’m extremely lucky to have such opportunities, but I definitely don’t appreciate them enough. My usual pattern is to be extremely reluctant about going (it’s expensive, takes time, and so on), and enjoying it in the end anyway. Both of these performances were great experiences and if possible I’ll be attending more operas and concerts in Germany. These are a few of the things I want to see live in the future, in no particular order:

• Piano Concerto No. 2 (Rachmaninoff)
• Symphony No. 9 (Dvořák)
• Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)
• Andante spianato et Grande Polonaise brillante (Chopin)
• Liebesträume (Liszt)

If you’re so inclined, you can click the links, scroll down, and listen to the pieces. :) The file qualities aren’t very good, but I’d say the performances are.

After being accepted on March 6 (time is flying!), I did the logical thing in this digital age and made a Facebook group for CBYX 2008-2009 participants. The group is only three weeks old, but as of right now we’ve grown to 19 members, and two of the exchange organizations have yet to finish notifying their finalists. It’s pretty exciting, and everyone there seems to be really friendly. You can check out the group here, and if any of you reading are CBYX participants this year and not in the group, join up! =)

You can request the ASSE brochure by emailing ASSE, and you could probably get the other brochures that way as well. The brochures have information that is mostly already on the websites, but they do have new stuff as well. Enjoy!

ASSE Brochure

CBYX Brochure

CBYX Poster

Me: 100 pounds is about two suitcases right? And the carry-on?
Dad: No way would they let you bring 100 pounds. It’s 70 max. Probably one suitcase.
Me: One suitcase?!

Well, since it’s (sort of) a new year, I decided apply some feng shui by decluttering my closet and get rid of old and/or unused clothes. It’s a lot easier (and less guilt-inducing) to get rid of clothes with the knowledge that you won’t be able to keep/bring most of it anyway.

Giving away:

Recyling:

Keeping: (excluding underwear, socks, and shoes)

Conclusion: I might not actually have enough stuff to fill up a suitcase + carry-on. The question is, does this give me an excuse to go out and buy more clothes? (The American Way: Yes.)

Anyway.

The point is, CS, as Cultures-Shocked is lovingly abbreviated to (no Counter Strike jokes please), is the #1 place on the web to gather information about exchanges, get different perspectives, meet new people, and generally waste time losing sanity and sleep. Even if you’re not an exchange student or planning to be one yourself, take a look, and if you are one that has never been to CS, definitely check it out and introduce yourself! It’s a beautiful little site with no ads and lots of people ready to help and encourage you.

However, you don’t always get your first choice country. This may or may not be very important, but many decide to go through another organization because of this, even with a $7,000 bump in price.

Rotary tends to be more selective than other programs, depending on the area. In San Jose/Cupertino (District 5170), exchange is not very at all big and thus this isn’t a big issue. It does make RYE a more attractive choice for students concerned about college apps…getting into a semi-selective program looks a lot better than just dropping 10k.

Aaaaand there are many other differences, including:

• multiple host families throughout the year, instead of only one
• each district (area) is apart of Rotary International, but still mostly autonomous
• exchange students get a monthly allowance that varies from $50 to $150

Summary: Definitely recommended program.

Google.

Long answer:

I am a geek. Thus, starting in eighth grade (or perhaps even earlier), I browsed site like Princeton Review’s for information about high school, college, and beyond. Or, I was bored. Doesn’t matter.

Through random internet browsing, I learned that in high school you shouldn’t exactly spend your summers lazing around if you want admission to Ivy Leagues and other selective schools. But, traveling was acceptable! So being ever the enterprising middle schooler, I researched summer study abroad trips…and came up with the conclusion that most colleges and universities considered these expensive ventures that rich parents used to try and impress admission committees. BUT, a year-long exchange could be a way to stand out among cookie cutter applicants.

Being a typical thirteen-year-old with a ridiculously short attention span, I completely forgot about all of this. I would occasionally remember during random moments when my dad would mention that his coworker’s son was studying in Japan, or my German cousin was coming to the United States, and so on.

Fear not, the story does not end here! For during Sophomore year I came across those old exchange student websites again, not much changed from before, and became interested again. The clincher was that I found not only that Rotary was completely affordable, but there was a full scholarship for Germany. That’s it.

And now?

I really don’t care about college admissions. But I’m still a geek.

Germans…

1. ..are obsessed with soccer (Fußball). Considering the World Cup was hosted in Germany, this makes a lot of sense.

2. ..are inflexible, blunt, and rude. I’m guessing this might apply less to the younger generation, but I have heard from many people that Germans are very to the point when speaking.

3. ..Germans are extremely efficient.

4. ..are insecure about their history and have no national pride. But admit it guys, WWI and WWII were the best parts of World History.

+1. ..drink a lot of beer. The drinking age is 16. Hitler first attempted a coup in a beer hall. Definitely could be true, though I’m not sure if I’ll partake in any of this at the moment.

Source:
http://www.tobsy.de/?p=32

• Some of these are mutually exclusive.
• Are they all necessarily negative?
• How do you stand up?

Americans…

1. ..throw money around. They’re wealthy, superficial and wasteful, purchasing large meals, houses, cars, and breast implants.

Guilty as charged. Well, not completely. I definitely want to be a typical American consumer, buying expensive computers and such, but I actually like smaller homes and cars. Easier to clean and maintain!

2. ..are loud, rude, informal, boastful, insensitive, immature, obnoxious, snobby, self-centered, stingy, disrespectful, arrogant, lazy, obese, and on, and on, and on. They eat lots of fast food and their meals are always huge. Oh, and they’re promiscuous.

Loud, yes. Lazy, maybe. Obese, not at all, though I do enjoy the occasional meal at KFC and bag of Gardetto’s though. The rest, hopefully to not any extreme extent.

3. ..are ignorant of other countries and cultures. They’re racist. Despite being uninformed about politics, they think the US is better than any other country. They’re religious nut jobs* obsessed about celebrities.

For the first part, I might be, but probably less than the stereotypical American. And I’m trying to fix this! I am reasonably informed about politics, but not as much as I ‘should’ be. I’m not religious, but I admit that I’m probably too interested in the ongoing Spears drams.

4. ..are fanatical about their personal appearance. Women wear a lot of make-up, and are either unusually fat or unusually thin, never of normal build.

I go shopping about three times a year, so probably not for the first part (somehow I’ve managed to find boyfriends anyway). I would consider myself on the slim side, but that’s more of an Asian stereotype.

+1. ..drink a lot of beer. What? No, those are Germans. Which brings us to..

Tomorrow: 4+1 German Stereotypes, which will be the end of the 4+1 series.

*http://www.tobsy.de/?p=30

2. Prostitution is legal. And widespread, and it’s taxed. However, every city has the right to zone off certain areas where prostitution is not allowed, which could include virtually the entire city (Munich). I’m not sure what to think about this.

3. Anti-smoking bans were just implemented on January 1. They bar smoking in bars, restaurants and cafes. This is in a country where a third of the population smokes, compared to the U.S., where 20 percent of people smoke. Not surprisingly, there has been and will be a lot of opposition to this law. Personally, I’m rooting for it; I couldn’t even stand waiting in front of the DMV Friday for my mom to pick me up. It seemed that every time one smoker left, another one appeared. Yuck!

4. Germans are two inches taller than Americans on average. Not good for a 5’4” Vietnamese girl, though it does create the interesting possibility of taking a picture of me with a bunch of tall white guys titled “Sarah’s Harem” (credit to Tiffany Chen).

+1. 1 out of 1,000 citizens are Vietnamese. I wasn’t able to find the percentage of Asian citizens in general, but I think it would be safe to say around 1 out of 900. Thus, a school the size of Lynbrook (about 1,800 students) would have a grand total of two Asians.

Sources:

http://www.radio-d.com/dw/article/0,2144,1604308,00.html

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23002336-663,00.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_in_Germany

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_height

http://www.inwat.org/eurfactsheetgerman.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_Vietnamese

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/gm.html

http://www.lungusa.org/site/pp.asp?c=dvLUK9O0E&b=39868

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4559