For anyone who's forgotten, Hitzacker was the Musikfreizeit that we went to over Christmas vacation. Musikfreizeit translates literally to "Music free time", but that's kind of vague... It was basically a week-long music camp. There were about 150 people there, all ages. Probably 30 or 40 were between 15 and 25.
side note: there's a heavy metal band called Mastodon. All of its songs are about hunting whales. I immediately thought of English 11H with Mrs. O.
I've been having a lot of trouble concentrating lately, but it's okay, because then I end up finding awesome whaling bands.
So Hitzacker. Everybody chooses a schedule they're interested in, and they follow that schedule for the week. Everyone starts off the day with breakfast together, and then a Plenum (another word that may or may not be used in English... it sounds greek though. I actually don't even know if it's German. Heck, now that I'm thinking about it I don't even know for sure what it means- the first time I heard it I just thought of the word "plebian" and assumed that ple- has to do with common people... plenum just means a gathering of people? It's kind of cool to be able to dissect words and derive a meaning even when you don't know what language the word is in. That being said, Plenum could just as easily mean something totally different entirely and I just failed. Maybe it means "after breakfast time", but I think not. In any case, language is cool!)
Regardless of what the definition of Plenum is, what it means is basically a big campy meeting. In addition to wake-up-in-the-morning type singalong songs and people that seem unreasonably happy for 9:00, there's also a rundown of important events and notifications. The Plenums were actually very well done, too- by the time they're finished, everybody has ohrwurms and is awake, and the too-happy-for-9:00 people seem justified in their jubilation, namely because everybody is happy.
Ohrwurm is a fantastic word in German that we don't have in el Muttersprache. Ein Punkt fuer Deutsch! It translates literally to "earworm", and it means "a song that is stuck in one's head". It's surprising how often you hear the term.
Following Plenum I went to Jazz Combo. After that was lunch, and then siesta. Siesta ist ein Punkt Spanisch- es ist viel besser als "Mittagsschlafs". After siesta was a standard-dance course, that was cool. I'd like to say that I'm a master salsa dancer now, but that's not quite true. I do know the basic step, though! That's got to count for something.
Next was a coffeebreak, and then chorus, and then Bigband (jazz ensemble). The day ended with dinner and then an evening Plenum.
That's just the day, though. Nighttime is just as important! Hitzacker was basically music by day, party by night, and I think that's a very good way to live. It's good that Hitzacker was only a week long, though, because in the whole week I got about 15 hours of sleep, and that's not a good way to live. Nevertheless, it was really fun.
In my attempt to explain what the week was about, I'm afraid I've missed the main point- Hitzacker was a really fantastic time because of the people there. I'd really like to go back next year and rendezvous with everyone- it was really surprising how quickly and how well everybody hit it off with each other.
Anyway, I've got a few pics (compliments to Mia on most of them- I was bad and didn't take any pictures that week).
My combo, playing Who Shot the Sherrif
the Thema was the Carribean, I think it was well-played.
Yo ho, a pirate's life for me...
Hannes is quite dashing, to say the least.
Jugendchor!
Sinja and me on a treasure hunt!
And more Jugendchor- Basti is to my left, Arne to my right, and they were my roommates. Cool kids.
Bigband
That's all for now, folks!
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