Monday, January 18, 2010

Roxana

Reunion in Germany

I woke up in the morning and the sun became to shine. I opened the windows and had some fresh air not knowing at that moment that the sun would join us on our way to Germany, with its brilliant highlights and joyful rise.
I had already prepared my luggage the day before and I also prepared some warm clothes to wear on the trip.
I had cleaned my room the day before , put my books in order, dusted my furniture and mde my bed , covered it with my white blanket . I knew I’ll miss my room, my world , my small paradise.
On the bus to Cluj I had a lot of good feelings about this trip. I was nervous and enthusiastic.
We arrived at a hotel in the middle of the night. It was prepared to offer us all of its comfort. I had a nice sleep in a big bed and, before falling asleep I was thinking about the program , trying to imagine it, discover it in my mind.
We almost missed the plane to Dortmund. I had never flown before. I remember how cold and sleepy I was. While we were checked at the airport , I was thinking : why if I can’t pass because I have something which is not allowed in my handbag, what if…
The plane was on the air. We were 11000 metres over all those small lights on mist . Everything was lighted by those small lights, which were under us.
We had a very fast and silent train to Hannover. I couldn’t wait seeing my hostess, because we were already friends – I had hosted her during the reunion from Romania and we had such a nice time together.
The first day passed in a hectic way, because the city was expecting us with its festive colour. A lot of people from all parts of Germany came to Hannover just for tasting its famous Gluwein and its famous spicy sausages, to enjoy the Christmas Market, to buy presents for their special someone and their families.
We started the program of the project on Wednesday and the Germans really impressed us with a concert presented by the school band.

We had prepared for the “Presentation Day” a film on Baia Mare and three interviews that managed to capture the attention of the participants. Other groups had good presentations too, with nice introduction that presented their hard work of studying the immigration problem , so as the first day of the program really made me be enthusiastic about the next ones.
The next day we participated in a couple of English classes and I noticed how active the students were, thirsty to catch all points of the lesson, doing brainstorming and team working. Also, almost all classes had a video projector, so as the teachers could do more interesting lessons and easy to remember.
I didn’t like the fact that their classes lasted 90 minutes, I think it is pretty hard to concentrate all this time , without a break , every day. But, I guess you can get used with almost everything.
We visited an amazing particular museum of Immigration on the last day, which was not far from Hamburg. There were a lot of mannequins made of wood which were typically dressed for those times and for the zone they came from. Every mannequin had near to it some kind of phone where one could listen to their story in English or German. It really impressed me the story of a 12 years old boy who had to leave Germany for America and in that registration he manifested his feelings about this fact , how sorry he felt that he had to leave his friends . There were also a lot of maps, writings, travel diaries and paintings, drawings. It is there a section of the museum where you can go to the board of the boat “Imperator” ,a boat lighted with faith and fear of all those immigrants leaving. I bought a poster of this amazing boat because it really tests my imagination and I will put it on the wall, near “Pont Alexandre Trois” and “The Athom of Bruxelles “ a poster for wall.
Later, that day , we had a short walk in Hamburg and we saw a Parade on the road, dedicated to Christmas and all what Christmas means .
We had to leave early because we had to catch the train Hannover – Dortmund. We caught it even if we were nervous about it , because when we had to take the first train the fact that the lines of trains changed , wasn’t mentioned in English and we were not able to understand German.
At least, we slept at a hotel in Dortmund, not far from the airport ( lucky for us) and prepared for our trip back to sweet Romania.
On the plane I was very thirsty and I was just happy for a moment because I found on my purse 2 lost euros so as I could buy a tea. But, unfortunately, while waiting the steward, I lost my precious coins somewhere under my seat so, for almost half an hour I was preoccupied to find a way to get my euros back. It wasn’t enough space so I just kept on trying and disturbing the others. When we arrived in Cluj-Napoca the lady who sat behind me found my two euros. So I just put it in my purse back and returned home with some money so as my mother could notice that I can save money when I want to.
It was an important experience for me because it offered me a new perspective and I’m happy that I could spend almost a week in such a beautiful city , for which I will always keep my best thoughts and I’m looking forward to visiting Germany again.

Roxana Serba

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