Friday, March 4, 2011

Letter #36 from Germany

This letter comes from Marie in Germany.She was actually born the day before my sister.She has been to the US before as an exchange student in North Carolina.She said it was sometimes hard being here since it's so different than Germany.She remembers her host family would eat from paperplates,which in Germany,they only use paperplates for eating outside or at parties.Also,in her country,school lets out at 1pm and you eat at home as opposed to eating lunch at school.She also noticed that people over here never walk to their destination and that everything was bigger here,including the streets. :)

Another difference she notes is that in Germany,not many people go to the University,but enter  career training to become nurses,mechanics,etc.She says the Univeristy is a lot cheaper there,about $650 per semester,but not everybody can afford it and it's not common for people to take loans.

She loved travelling so much that she moved to another city to attend medical school.She lived in Auchen,which she says is very beautiful.It is a very old city with lots of history.It lies in the west of Germany at the border of the Netherlands nad Belgium.It also has a technical school there and a cathedral,which is part of UNESCO.The cathedral began construction during 792 and is a Roman Catholic Church.Charles the Great was the one who built the cathedral,he was an emperor who ruled over much of Western Europe

In March,Marie will beginning to work as a doctor in internal medicine...congrats Marie!

Marie shared some info with us about her grandmother,which she called Oma (I think that's a cool name!) She was born in 1909 and lived to be 96 years old.She said she survived World War I as a child.She also worked as medical technical assistant when not many women were allowed to work.During World War II she had to take care of her mother and work in another city.She would have to follow the train tracks to get home because the trains did not run during bomb scares.She also tol us about how her grandfather made the Nazis mad by inviting his Jewish friend over for coffee since people were not allowed to invite Jews over or be friendly with them.She says it's very important to learn from this and keep this horrible event from happening again.I agree!Marie says she is so thankful that her mother shares so much of the family history with her,she's glad to know about her relatives and how they lived.

Marie has shared a wealth of information with us,but too much to type.I hope you did enjoy the parts I did share with you all.She sent an amazing letter!Thanks Marie for the amazing letter that we really enjoyed reading!She also shared a general map of Ubersichtskarte,a postcard that shows how each city's sign looks when you enter the city and a postcard of her favorite children's author ( I would love to find a book by him) and a wonderful candy bar that we are thrilled to try!Thanks so much Marie for everything...it is really appreciated!Thanks for taking the time to share so much with us!

*Update,I did have her letter uploaded,I just had to go through tons of pictures to find it.Please enjoy her goodies below:

2 comments:

  1. I'm not sure of this, but somewhere in the far recesses of my brain I'm thinking Oma is a common grandmotherly name; the German equivalent of our Grammy, Meemaw, or Nana.

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  2. Yes, Speck is right about that - "Oma" means "Granny". The diminuitive of it is "Omi". :)

    Some people also call their grandmother "Großmutter", but this is much more formal.

    There is also a difference in pronunciation between some parts of Germany: In northern Germany, "Oma" is pronounced with a long o, like in bored. In western regions the word is more likely to be pronounced "Omma", with a short o and "longer" m (like in yummi) which usually confuses those from the long-o group since there (in Northern Germany) "Omma" can be used in a slightly insulting way, to describe an ennerving old woman (the sort of poking-others-with-their-walkingstick ones). Hope, I didn't confuse you! :D

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