Tomorrow is holloween, and unlike back home where it's usually celebrated the weekend before or the weekend after, here all the celebrations are actually on holloween because November 1st is All Saints Day, and nothing is open on all saints day. Its pretty exciting. I'm probably going to a mass in the Cathedral because there is a choir thing that Lisa invited me to. supposedly it's a really really long mass though, so I don't know how long I'll stay. As for holloween, I wasn't going to dress up this year simply because I didn't want to buy anything and every costume I thought of was either going to turn out super expensive, or just not work out at all. I guess I could have just bought a stuffed dinosaur and gone around going "I'm Gertrude! how do you not know who I am?!?" (kudos to those of you who get this reference... namely, Otto and Russ, because i'm sure you're the only ones). Instead, Peter forced me to buy one of those skeleton onesies they make for little kids at Aldi for 2.49euro. Lets hope it fits... otherwise, i might go as a college student.
Aunt Peg, I know you asked when I'm coming home and I wanted to let you all know that it'll be sometime next august. not so sure exactly when, but it'll be sometime next august. I'll probably travel until I havn't got any money left at all and then come home and see the Star Wars exhibit at the Science museum (theres gonna be a millenium falcon.).
Other than that, things are going much better this week. I had to drop one of the classes I was going to take because it was just to fast for me, but I found a figure drawing class (in the archeology department? strange) for 2 credits, and a lecture for 3 credits that doesn't involve any work. And, Werther seems to be working out great, it's all international students and the teacher is very very clear. The Referate doesn't seem difficult either, which is really nice because Referates have been stressing me out the most.
Before I forget, I'd like to thank all of you who sent me Holloween cards. You'd be suprised how many of my american friends here who don't get any mail at all. Its really nice to get things in the mail. Miss you all!
10.30.2007
10.29.2007
more class
This weekend I've been super busy with things to do. Not only is it the first week of classes, and I still need to finish figuring out what I need to do (the hope is that this one class about German Lit where the only work is taking notes works out). Other than that, I'm definately taking a class on Kurt Vonegut, Goethe's Werther, and German Politics. I've only had two Kurt Vonnegut classes so far, and I'm enjoying it more than any of the other ones. It's partially because the Teacher isn't a native english speaker (the class is taught in english), and she often makes up words. Today, my favorite was "Fragmentaltion".
Anyway, this weekend was a lot of fun. On friday we carved pumpkins and ate a ton of candy, pizza, and french fries while watching Arrested Development. Saturday was even better. At noon, Cameron called me and he, his girlfriend Arwen, Lisa, and I climbed up Schlossberg. It was a really steep climb with a fantastic view. When we came back down, we met up with Janessa and Monika for Tea and Hot Chocolate and the Tea and Chocolate house by the Cathedral. That was everything we expected, right up to the paintings of kittens on the walls. Afterward we went to Migros and found CHEDDAR CHEESE. it was fantastic. I went back a bought a second block today (we ate the first one). We ended up making tacos (mmmmm, mexican) for 8 people and it was absolutely fantastic. I've never eaten tacos so quickly in my life. Then when I went home my room mate came by and told me it was her birthday so if I wanted to eat with them she'd really like that. So I had some Artichokes with my room mates (also, super super good) and they complimented me on how awesome my room looks (which is tottally true. I wish i could bring all this stuff home so my room could look just like this). Then all of us Americans went out to this big club festival, which turned out to be a bust because it was cold and we all elected to wear skirts... that and it seems every 16 year old decided to come out as well for the festival. Sunday, a bunch of us met up for lunch of left over tacos and then went out for Cake and Coffee at Limette down the street. They've got the best cake and coffee. (cake and coffee on sunday is a traditional german thing to do). It was really good. We had cake and coffee last weekend too, wo I think its going to become a trend.
Anyway, this weekend was a lot of fun. On friday we carved pumpkins and ate a ton of candy, pizza, and french fries while watching Arrested Development. Saturday was even better. At noon, Cameron called me and he, his girlfriend Arwen, Lisa, and I climbed up Schlossberg. It was a really steep climb with a fantastic view. When we came back down, we met up with Janessa and Monika for Tea and Hot Chocolate and the Tea and Chocolate house by the Cathedral. That was everything we expected, right up to the paintings of kittens on the walls. Afterward we went to Migros and found CHEDDAR CHEESE. it was fantastic. I went back a bought a second block today (we ate the first one). We ended up making tacos (mmmmm, mexican) for 8 people and it was absolutely fantastic. I've never eaten tacos so quickly in my life. Then when I went home my room mate came by and told me it was her birthday so if I wanted to eat with them she'd really like that. So I had some Artichokes with my room mates (also, super super good) and they complimented me on how awesome my room looks (which is tottally true. I wish i could bring all this stuff home so my room could look just like this). Then all of us Americans went out to this big club festival, which turned out to be a bust because it was cold and we all elected to wear skirts... that and it seems every 16 year old decided to come out as well for the festival. Sunday, a bunch of us met up for lunch of left over tacos and then went out for Cake and Coffee at Limette down the street. They've got the best cake and coffee. (cake and coffee on sunday is a traditional german thing to do). It was really good. We had cake and coffee last weekend too, wo I think its going to become a trend.
10.25.2007
10.21.2007
what to do
Tomorrow, classes start. I have two on mondays, but only because one is twice a week. In the morning I have a Kurt Vonegut class... actually taught in english, but i'm only taking it as a back up because the class I actually wanted was full (or canceled. there is debate because the guy told me one thing, and Hillary something else). Then at night I have an IES center course (in german). It should be ok, The other two classes I'm taking is one on Political and Church power struggles in Germany and one on Goethe's Werther. I'm excited about the Werther one, even if it wasn't one of my first choices either. I am excited because I don't have class on Fridays, but all of my classes are night classes. I hate night classes. I can never motivate myself to sit through class from 6-8pm. it's just too late in the day, plus I'm much more productive if i'm forced to get up early.
Its been really nice here recently, but COLD. fall has definately hit, and it's nice to finally feel like school is really starting. I'm happy to be done with this month of nothingness that i've had to busy myself with.
In happy news, I got a package yesterday full of books from Tim. I'm already a hundred pages into 100 years of solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. it's really good. It's translated from spanish, and I've read other books translated from spanish to english before and they always have the same feel to them. I think there is a tone to spanish books translated to english that is hard to duplicate.
Its been really nice here recently, but COLD. fall has definately hit, and it's nice to finally feel like school is really starting. I'm happy to be done with this month of nothingness that i've had to busy myself with.
In happy news, I got a package yesterday full of books from Tim. I'm already a hundred pages into 100 years of solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. it's really good. It's translated from spanish, and I've read other books translated from spanish to english before and they always have the same feel to them. I think there is a tone to spanish books translated to english that is hard to duplicate.
10.17.2007
katze, oder?
this would be the second time this week a stray cat has wandered into my room howling for attention, jumped up on my bed, rummaged around in my blankets and either fallen asleep or laid down.
... it's a good thing i think there are only two stray cats in this neighborhood.
... it's a good thing i think there are only two stray cats in this neighborhood.
Cards
I bonded with my room mates last night! We played this little kid game similar to double solitare, except without the solitare part. Pretty much you just put cards in order and fight to get as many in the center as possible. I pretty much swept the floor every single time. We must have played 7 or 8 times, and I think I only lost twice. I thank Grandma Elliott for that one, keeping me on my toes, thanks Grandma. It was really nice to play some cards, we learned all the suits in German (Kreuz-club, Pik-spade, Karo-diamond, Herz-heart). We also learned their verison of Crazy 8s, which is called MaoMao. It was fun... I wanted to ask them if any of them played Cribbage, only I couldn't remember the "Ihr" conjugation of "Spielen"... or really the "Ihr" conjugation of anything, so I didn't ask. My plan is to teach Janessa and then leave my board out some day and see if anyone knows what it is.
10.16.2007
photos from ireland! yay!
This first photo is one of the Cliffs of Moher. It's of the O'Brian watch tower there. Its super pretty. I have tons of photos of it, the watchtower is strangely tiny though. You'd think they'd want something bigger, but I guess not. This was the only day It rained the entire time we were in Ireland. Go figure, the day we take a tour and spend an hour running around outside, has to be the day that it decides to rain like mad and drench us. It turned out alright, because we got some amazing photos, and really, whats Ireland without a little rain. We did almost get left behind because we were buying souvineers at the gift shop and didn't keep track of the time. 
this next photo is of a castle where they apparently hold daily mideavel dinners in the summer. It'd be interesting to see, but i'm sure its way expensive, just like everything else in Ireland. I mean really, 20 euro for a hamburger and half a plate of fries? granted, the ketchup was free for once, but not worth 20euro.
this next photo is of a fantastic teeshirt I saw in a window. Apparently they don't like certainty in the UK because Galway - just PROBABLY the best city in Ireland. no proof, jury is still out, can't decide if they like belfast, cork, or dublin more, no, no.
This last photo is of Oscar Wilde and his brother. They really like their writers in Ireland, very proud of their literary heritage. My big question, though, was what's it like to be Oscar Wilde's Brother? Apparently, he was also a writer. But how do you go about your life saying "oh yeah, I'm Oscar Wilde's brother! yeah, he's pretty cool... i'm a writer too y'know... oh, you havn't heard of me? no, i can't get you his autograph." ect, ect.
10.13.2007
Ireland
Got back from Ireland the day before yesterday, and heres a general summary of what we did:
The first day, we had to catch a train to Mainz, and then a bus from there to the frankfurt Hahn airport. We arrived the night before, because our plane was scheduled to leave at 9 in the morning. So, we booked a hostel that claimed it was near the airport, which was not the case. Because it was just cheaper to stay at the Frankfurt Hahn airport hotel than to pay for the room at the hostel +taxi to and from, we just stayed there. Even if we do have to pay for the first hostel, it's still cheaper than taking the taxi out there. Plus, this way we got our own bathroom and a TV.
The next morning, the flight was fine, though Ryanair is a shady, shady flight company... they hand wrote all our names on our boarding passes. I guess thats what you get when you pay a cent/ticket. We arrived in Dublin just fine, and arrived at our hostel (which was bright blue), which was a block from the main street in Dublin. We got settled, and then walked around for awhile. There was this really cool statue of James Joyce right outside our hostel, I got a picture of it (pictures to come in awhile, when i've loaded them) but only with a fake James Joyce in front of it. That day we just walked around town a bit, took some pictures, looked in some shops and came to the realization that if we wanted to eat, it was going to cost us between 10-20euros/meal, unless we went to McDonalds. That night we went to a movie theater and saw Superbad, which I highly recommend to anyone who likes gross out sex comedies with a bit of heart. The weird thing about the movies there is that, while they show commertials like they do in america, the comertials are terrifying. Not so much the comertials, but the Public Service Announcements. There was one for speeding that was just beyond graphic. After that we checked the map and went to find a bar in the popular "Temple Bar" district, hopefully with traditional Irish music. We found one... which played Irish music for about ten minutes and then switched to classic rock (read: "Sweet Home Alabama"). So after eating some free, rediculously good, chicken appetizer things, we went home.
The next day, we did some more shopping, but actually bought some things. I needed to buy a bag because I packed so lightly, that I didn't have any room to bring anything home... or for that matter a purse to carry my wallet in. So, I bought a beautiful plaid green/brown one that was acutally extremely cheap for its size, compared to all the bags that I had looked at previously. Then we went in search of the National Art Gallery, which was near Trinity College. We got extremely lost in terms of where the gallery was, but never in terms of where the hostel was. We found this really amazing park across the street from the gallery with this sweet statue of Oscar Wilde, and play grounds and big grassy areas. It was my favorite place in Dublin that we found. That night, we got all dolled up (we had to, I bought the most beautiful pink heels. They've got this really cool antiqued rose look to them) and went out. We quickly learned that all the bars advertising "traditional Irish music" actually played "classic rock" and were filled with the 45+ crowd. So, we found a club a little more suited to our tastes and watched this random 55 year old man drink in the middle of the room all by himself (the rest was filled with the 20something crowd). We named him "Awkward Dad". We enjoyed a couple guinness, which was good, but beyond expensive and then booked it home.
the day after that was saturday, and Janessa (the girl i've been travelling with) had an appointment to get a Tattoo. We spent most of the day doing that, because it ended up being really big. It's also one of the most beautiful tattoos i've ever seen. It's a Saint Christopher that takes up most of her left side. That day was boring for me, because they wouldn't let me in the parlor to hold her hand while it was getting done. I had to sit in the lobby with the artist's creepy friend, being creeped upon by him until Janessa came out and said it was going to be another hour or so, so I could go do something else if I wanted... So i went to the hostel and took a nap and read some James Joyce. That night we went back to the movie theater and saw The Kingdom, which I wanted to like, but It just left me with this awful sick feeling afterward. We both just felt physically ill after seeing it, so we went home.
On Sunday, we wanted to go to mass in an irish cathederal, but we didn't get up in time, so we just caught the bus to Galway. Overall, Galway was a much prettier and better city than Dublin. It was cleaner, prettier, and just more likeable. Plus, our youth hostel was amazing. it was the best youth hostel i could have asked for. Super well maintained. I would definately recommend it to anyone. When we got there, the guy at the desk said that if we were interested there was a market going on in town, but only for about another hour, so we dropped off our stuff and then booked it to the market... which turned out to be half a block of people selling things out of the backs of their cars. Its ok, though, because we got to see the main pedestrian street.
Monday, we went on a bus tour of the Cliffs of Moher... and we almost missed our bus back to Galway. We were right on time. The tour was super interesting, I wish that we had done more of them. The cliffs were beautiful, but it rained the whole time. I figure, what's Ireland without a little rain, but it's not so much fun to be drenched. We also got to see a ton of O'brian Castles and Tree circles and this old tomb. The Tree circles were really interesting because they're protected by the Faeries of the underworld as the legend goes.
Tuesday, we puttered around the city and discovered this amazing mexican food resturaunt. They don't do Mexican here in Germany, and as U of M students who eat Chipotle and Burrito Loco on a regular basis, we were really excited to get some burritos in our stomachs. Tuesday was really nice and we had a lot of fun walking around town, taking pictures and things (there was another statue of Oscar Wilde that we found. Apparently, Oscar Wilde has a brother - also a writer - who knew?).
Wednesday, we had to check out of our Youth Hostel by 10:30, but we weren't leaving the city until 1:15am on the bus to the Dublin Air Port. I woke up with the worst sore throat and no voice. It was awful. Again, we just puttered around and played some cards with some people we had met at our Youth Hostel. It was fun, but I started to feel more and more sick, and Janessa really wanted to get moving back to Germany, so we caught the 6pm bus instead of the 1:15am one and ended up sleeping on some benches in the Airport. As the day went on, I felt sicker and sicker, and i'm sure sleeping on the benches didn't help. The worst though, was that I had really, truely fallen asleep when a police man poked me and woke me up, asking to see our Passports and flight confirmation number. Of course, it took me forever to find my confirmation number, and it was really scary... and disorienting, having just woken up (and by this time, i'm positive I had a fever). It all turned out Ok. We got on our flight at 7am the next morning, hopped th bus to Mainz, got an earlier train ticket back to Freiburg, met some really nice people on the Bahn and got back by 3pm... at which point I promptly passed out and have been nursing the Flu ever since.
I did go out for pizza last night with my friends, it's so nice to be back in Germany. Leaving Germany made me really home sick for Wisconsin/Minnesota, and coming back to Germany helped, if only to have a group of people around me who are willing to go buy me Ramen(as close to campbells as we can get) and generally help me get over being sick.
The first day, we had to catch a train to Mainz, and then a bus from there to the frankfurt Hahn airport. We arrived the night before, because our plane was scheduled to leave at 9 in the morning. So, we booked a hostel that claimed it was near the airport, which was not the case. Because it was just cheaper to stay at the Frankfurt Hahn airport hotel than to pay for the room at the hostel +taxi to and from, we just stayed there. Even if we do have to pay for the first hostel, it's still cheaper than taking the taxi out there. Plus, this way we got our own bathroom and a TV.
The next morning, the flight was fine, though Ryanair is a shady, shady flight company... they hand wrote all our names on our boarding passes. I guess thats what you get when you pay a cent/ticket. We arrived in Dublin just fine, and arrived at our hostel (which was bright blue), which was a block from the main street in Dublin. We got settled, and then walked around for awhile. There was this really cool statue of James Joyce right outside our hostel, I got a picture of it (pictures to come in awhile, when i've loaded them) but only with a fake James Joyce in front of it. That day we just walked around town a bit, took some pictures, looked in some shops and came to the realization that if we wanted to eat, it was going to cost us between 10-20euros/meal, unless we went to McDonalds. That night we went to a movie theater and saw Superbad, which I highly recommend to anyone who likes gross out sex comedies with a bit of heart. The weird thing about the movies there is that, while they show commertials like they do in america, the comertials are terrifying. Not so much the comertials, but the Public Service Announcements. There was one for speeding that was just beyond graphic. After that we checked the map and went to find a bar in the popular "Temple Bar" district, hopefully with traditional Irish music. We found one... which played Irish music for about ten minutes and then switched to classic rock (read: "Sweet Home Alabama"). So after eating some free, rediculously good, chicken appetizer things, we went home.
The next day, we did some more shopping, but actually bought some things. I needed to buy a bag because I packed so lightly, that I didn't have any room to bring anything home... or for that matter a purse to carry my wallet in. So, I bought a beautiful plaid green/brown one that was acutally extremely cheap for its size, compared to all the bags that I had looked at previously. Then we went in search of the National Art Gallery, which was near Trinity College. We got extremely lost in terms of where the gallery was, but never in terms of where the hostel was. We found this really amazing park across the street from the gallery with this sweet statue of Oscar Wilde, and play grounds and big grassy areas. It was my favorite place in Dublin that we found. That night, we got all dolled up (we had to, I bought the most beautiful pink heels. They've got this really cool antiqued rose look to them) and went out. We quickly learned that all the bars advertising "traditional Irish music" actually played "classic rock" and were filled with the 45+ crowd. So, we found a club a little more suited to our tastes and watched this random 55 year old man drink in the middle of the room all by himself (the rest was filled with the 20something crowd). We named him "Awkward Dad". We enjoyed a couple guinness, which was good, but beyond expensive and then booked it home.
the day after that was saturday, and Janessa (the girl i've been travelling with) had an appointment to get a Tattoo. We spent most of the day doing that, because it ended up being really big. It's also one of the most beautiful tattoos i've ever seen. It's a Saint Christopher that takes up most of her left side. That day was boring for me, because they wouldn't let me in the parlor to hold her hand while it was getting done. I had to sit in the lobby with the artist's creepy friend, being creeped upon by him until Janessa came out and said it was going to be another hour or so, so I could go do something else if I wanted... So i went to the hostel and took a nap and read some James Joyce. That night we went back to the movie theater and saw The Kingdom, which I wanted to like, but It just left me with this awful sick feeling afterward. We both just felt physically ill after seeing it, so we went home.
On Sunday, we wanted to go to mass in an irish cathederal, but we didn't get up in time, so we just caught the bus to Galway. Overall, Galway was a much prettier and better city than Dublin. It was cleaner, prettier, and just more likeable. Plus, our youth hostel was amazing. it was the best youth hostel i could have asked for. Super well maintained. I would definately recommend it to anyone. When we got there, the guy at the desk said that if we were interested there was a market going on in town, but only for about another hour, so we dropped off our stuff and then booked it to the market... which turned out to be half a block of people selling things out of the backs of their cars. Its ok, though, because we got to see the main pedestrian street.
Monday, we went on a bus tour of the Cliffs of Moher... and we almost missed our bus back to Galway. We were right on time. The tour was super interesting, I wish that we had done more of them. The cliffs were beautiful, but it rained the whole time. I figure, what's Ireland without a little rain, but it's not so much fun to be drenched. We also got to see a ton of O'brian Castles and Tree circles and this old tomb. The Tree circles were really interesting because they're protected by the Faeries of the underworld as the legend goes.
Tuesday, we puttered around the city and discovered this amazing mexican food resturaunt. They don't do Mexican here in Germany, and as U of M students who eat Chipotle and Burrito Loco on a regular basis, we were really excited to get some burritos in our stomachs. Tuesday was really nice and we had a lot of fun walking around town, taking pictures and things (there was another statue of Oscar Wilde that we found. Apparently, Oscar Wilde has a brother - also a writer - who knew?).
Wednesday, we had to check out of our Youth Hostel by 10:30, but we weren't leaving the city until 1:15am on the bus to the Dublin Air Port. I woke up with the worst sore throat and no voice. It was awful. Again, we just puttered around and played some cards with some people we had met at our Youth Hostel. It was fun, but I started to feel more and more sick, and Janessa really wanted to get moving back to Germany, so we caught the 6pm bus instead of the 1:15am one and ended up sleeping on some benches in the Airport. As the day went on, I felt sicker and sicker, and i'm sure sleeping on the benches didn't help. The worst though, was that I had really, truely fallen asleep when a police man poked me and woke me up, asking to see our Passports and flight confirmation number. Of course, it took me forever to find my confirmation number, and it was really scary... and disorienting, having just woken up (and by this time, i'm positive I had a fever). It all turned out Ok. We got on our flight at 7am the next morning, hopped th bus to Mainz, got an earlier train ticket back to Freiburg, met some really nice people on the Bahn and got back by 3pm... at which point I promptly passed out and have been nursing the Flu ever since.
I did go out for pizza last night with my friends, it's so nice to be back in Germany. Leaving Germany made me really home sick for Wisconsin/Minnesota, and coming back to Germany helped, if only to have a group of people around me who are willing to go buy me Ramen(as close to campbells as we can get) and generally help me get over being sick.
10.02.2007
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