Millingen: Klein aber Fein

Hey guys!
It's been over a month now since I've come back,and it's Germany that's now beginning to take semblance of a dream from long ago. Perhaps that's why I've been reminiscing a lot- maybe a bit too much.
This is a good post for reminiscing though, my [rather broad] topic being the setting for the second half of my exchange year, in the village of Millingen.
I moved there in February, even before our Mid-Year Seminar in Weimar. However, this switch wasn't due to any problems with my previous host family. There's simply a time and a place for everything, and February came with a change of scenery blown in on the wind.
It was a pretty drastic change of scenery, to say the least. 

From Wikipedia

Though still within the bounds of Nordrhein-Westfalen (North-Rhine Westfalia), I moved from the city of Recklinghausen in the Ruhrgebiet (Ruhr-valley), to the village of Millingen in the Niederrhein(Lower Rhein Region). From a large city in an area saturated with history and industrial landmarks and even larger cities like Essen and Oberhausen and Cologne, to a little tiny village with 3,000 residents on a good day, and not even significant enough to warrant its own Wikipedia page.
<EDIT!> I stand corrected! A good friend of mine, Max, was kind enough to point out that Millingen does in fact have it's own page- but only on the German Wiki. Here's the LINK ! :)

Photo from Ausburger Allgemeine

Wikipedia generously describes the Niederrhein's landscape as "mostly flat green grass land with wide views of the horizon." 

It's just flat-out flat.

Taken while on the train, in the spring.

 And while there are admittedly trees, they're about as densely packed as one sad-looking sprout per square acre- if that.
There were more sheep than people.
And more cows than sheep.
And at first my doubts about little ol' Millingen were more numerous than the number of cows there, but honestly?
I came to absolutely love it.

Millingen was one of eight small villages that pertained to the central city of Rees. The others (Haldern, Bienen, etc.) were just as small, if not smaller, and what German schools lack in school spirit, these villages more than made up for with pride for their individual communities- even with friendly [?] rivalries with one another, which was seen mainly through support for each village's soccer team.

Photo from WSV.de

The geography of the place was something I especially adored, once I got used to the landscape. I was living way northwest, right where the Rhine river flowed from Germany into the Netherlands. That gave Rees it's official name, 'Rees am Rhein'- Rees on the Rhine.
The Netherlands was also right there, the border being only a five minute bike ride away. I ended up border hopping regularly [with there being no internal border controls within the European Union, aha], whether to go grocery shopping, take afternoon tea, or bike to Millingen's Dutch counterpart, Millingen aan de Rijn [oh, so that Millingen gets a Wiki page?] to get the best soft-serve ice cream in the world.

Photo by Annemarie Dr.Mrosk

The geography also resulted in some interesting traits. Kopfweiden, for example, are a sort of tree indigenous to the region- so indigenous, that I couldn't find any English articles on them!

Vincent van Gogh- Kopfweiden, 1884

Many fabulous artists have seen fit to include these unique trees in their work, from Van Gogh(1853-1890), a post-Impressionist, to August Macke(1887-1914), a German Expressionist, to more recently, Host Janssen(1929-1995), a prominent German artist- to name only a few!

August Macke- Kopfweiden, 1903

These funny guys are essentially willows, with thick bases and tops that are regularly cared for, their branches being cut every 3-10 years. Going on bike ride through the area, it wasn't uncommon to see rows of them lining bike paths crossing through the many fields. 

Horst Janssen- Landschaft mit Kopfweide, 1971

Now the central city was Rees- city, in the loose sense of the word. It's about 20 km east of Cleves, which I unfortunately didn't get a chance to see, and is the oldest city in the lower Rhine area, being founded in 1228.

Photo by Kurt Brun

It's a gorgeous town, really, and about a twenty minute drive from Millingen. Not much by way of shopping- the nearest H&M was about a half hour away- but there were a couple of delicious ice cream shops, banks, drug stores, grocery stores, and the normal run of small-town joints.

Photo by Hannes1000

Considering the geography, it was also beautifully situated, with the town pretty much built on the river. Apartments and vacation homes, as well as a fair amount of hotels lined the promenade, catering to steady tourism from the Netherlands. The brick walkway was just a short walk from the school, and we'd often go there to eat our lunch or get ice cream during our break.
 As for the school- it was huge, seeing as the campus contained all three types of schools- Hauptschule, Realschule, and Gymnasium.

The Germany system's elementary school is only 4 years. From there, students go to a Hauptschule [Secondary General School] or a Realschule [Intermediate school], both of which lead to vocational tracks and go through 10th grade, or at the highest level, a Gymnasium [Advanced Secondary Education], which is a university track and goes through 12th-13th grade.
Each school had a separate building, and I went to the Gymnasium, however, the size of the campus  definitely lent it an American-high school feel.
You can take a look around my school by checking out this online tour of Aspel! :)

The campus with the three schools grouped into one was the new school though- the old one being a gorgeous old church run by nuns. My host family was kind enough to take me there to check it out- it's too bad the school moved, really! Who wouldn't have wanted to go there for school?:)

Photo by Andreas Strobel

I got lucky, being in Millingen- out of Rees's eight communities, it was one of the three with a train station, the others  being Empel and Haldern. It was a bit ironic, seeing as the main city itself didn't contain one, but I wasn't complaining. It was a five-minute walk from my house, and with transportation being provided for from my organization, I was able to hop on the convenient Rhein-Express that passed through, and travel down the Rhine river, arriving at major cities like Cologne- and even my old Recklinghausen!- within a couple of hours, tops.
Convenient as it was, it wasn't always reliable though, with Verspätungen- delays- that at times bordered on ridiculous. I saw everything but the kitchen sink while I was there- delays anywhere from 25 to 50 minutes long, due to a range of electrical difficulties, technical difficulties, chemicals on the tracks[?], bodies on the tracks [oh dear...], doctors attending to the bodies on the tracks- and once even "ausgebrochene Tiere am Gleis."
That translates to "Animals broken loose on the tracks."

Being in a more rural area, I also got to see a bit more of farm life than I had in Recklinghausen. One memorable trip was with a friend of my host mother's, to a barn with upwards of fifty newborn goats, all bleating and climbing over their mothers. We got to hold the babies [as they bleated their lungs out, jeez], and then sample fresh goat cheese and cow milk at the store.

Ma-a-a-a-a-a-aaaah :D

Lotsss of baking happened with my host mom :) :) :)

Architecture and geography and location and transportation aside though:
I really did love Millingen. I never would have thought to choose a village, let alone such a small one, to stay in- I mean, walking to the [only] grocery store guaranteed me running into half the village, and being the only new face there I couldn't blend in- but it was probably the best thing that could have happened to me.
The community is so close-knit, and I had a blast with both my host family and friend group there, that I found a little saying about the village to be charmingly true:
"Millingen, klein aber fein," translating to "Millingen, small but fine."
And small but fine it was! <3