Visiting Hameln

One of my friends from language camp, Mariel, only lives about 40 minutes away from Höxter, so I spent this past weekend with her and her host family. She told me before that her town was small, but I didn’t really believe her until I saw it. She said there were only 500 people living in her town, but I couldn’t really picture that. On Friday afternoon, when my host family drove me to Mariel’s house, we literally accidentally drove through the town. That’s when I realized how small her “town” really is. We saw a sign welcoming us to Heyen and less than 30 seconds later, we saw the sign marking that we were out of the town. Needless to say, after seeing Mariel’s town, I am somewhat more appreciative for the fact that my city actually has restaurants, stores, and more people than my high school.

Our host families had dinner together and we all talked about our experiences so far. Mariel’s host family speaks absolutely no English, so the entire weekend I had to exercise my limited German.

On Saturday afternoon, Mariel and I took the bus to Hameln, which is a larger town close to Heyen. We went to the mall in Hameln and ate some really good Italian food; it was interesting to see a new city. Hameln is known for the Brothers Grimm tale of the Pied Piper of Hameln. In honor of that, there are little mice on the ground all around the city.

Mariel’s host family drove me back to Höxter on Sunday, and our host families had coffee and cake together. Seeing a new place (even if it was only 40 minutes away) and hanging out with Mariel was really fun. I’m so happy that I’m still in touch with my friends from language camp because I’m not sure how I would get through this year without their support and help.