So my birthday in Amsterdam was pretty incredible. The city lived up to my expectations and I had a blast hanging out with all my new friends for the last time.
I left for Amsterdam at 6am and got there at 3pm to hang out with Judy. We found each other at the train station without having to use our cell phones - always a good thing over hear because it costs so much just to say "Hey, meet me by the sign that says *sounds really long German word out extremely slowly*".
We checked into our hostel, which was quite an experience. The Hans Brinker Budget Hotel advertises itself with the slogan "It can't get any worse than this". Always promising. The entire place smelled of pot and Judy found some lovely tiny hairs covering her mattress, haha. Good times. We had until 8.30pm to wander the city until we needed to meet up with people. We walked to Vondel Park - the park that they want to legalize public sex in - and then went up and down the streets doing some shopping in cool stores. Amsterdam is a big shopping place, apparently. I love their clothes because all of the pants are long enough for me! Dutch people, I believe, are the tallest people (or one of the tallest) by nationality. Perfect! I bought a sweet pair of pants that were size medium - I can never buy pants without a designated length in the states so I figured I definitely had to purchase these. Good call.
Friday night, after meeting up with our group, we headed off to check out the infamous Amsterdam coffee shops. I wish I could say more, but you know the saying: "What happens in Amsterdam, stays in Amsterdam."
Saturday morning we got up and checked out the Anne Frank Museum. I was really excited about going here and it was just as interesting as I thought it would be. The museum is put together very nicely - you walk through the building that housed the secret annex (Anne's father's business's building) and then you actually get to go behind the bookshelf and up into the secret annex itself! So cool! I learned a lot and the whole thing was really moving. There are quotes from her diary all over the walls - very powerful stuff. Perhaps I'll find some time to read her diary sometime.
Sadly, after the museum, I went to take a picture of the building and I dropped my camera. I only dropped it about a foot above the ground, but I guess that was enough to mess it up. Everything works just fine, except the camera doesn't pick up light, so it only takes black photos. Because that's the only thing wrong with it (sounds pretty minor to me) I figure I can get it fixed when I get back home. I went and picked up a disposable camera at a tourist shop that had 27 pictures on it. Sweet. I haven't used a disposable in ages, hah. The running joke was that I only have 27 picture opportunities, so whenever I went to take a picture everyone wanted to know what it would be of because that meant it was one of the top 27 things in Amsterdam. I'm really excited to see the pictures I took - I miss the excitement of going to Walgreens and picking up a roll of developed photos. I didn't use all 27 pictures in Amsterdam, so I will use the rest in Berlin along with another disposable camera. It should be interesting being limited with pictures, but I like the surprise behind it - I'm excited.
We also hit up the Van Gogh Museum, which was pretty cool. The place was WAY to crowded for my liking, but it was raining outside so everyone had the same idea as we did to get out of the rain. The pictures were cool, but I don't know much about art, so I just look at them and move on. Still really neat to learn about his life and see some of his works that I haven't seen before. Good choice to go there.
Saturday night was my birthday, so Laura, Ryan, Dana, and I went out dancing at the clubs. I had a great time and it was really nice to get to spend my birthday with friends. I was worried earlier this summer that I wouldn't have anything to do for my birthday, but luckily everything worked itself out.
Saturday we accidentally slept in and woke up realizing we had to check out 20 minutes ago. We rushed to get all of our stuff together and then were interrupted by some large black man that yelled at us to get out of our room because we were late. Oh, Hans Brinker Budget Hotel, you never cease to disappoint. We eventually got the hell out of there and then made our way to our free tour. New Europe tours are great - they're done off of a tip basis so you only pay what you think the guy deserves. Our guy was really cool and I learned a lot about Amsterdam:
So, turns out that smoking, selling, growing, etc. pot in Amsterdam is actually completely illegal. They have just "decriminalized" the act, so nobody really gets in trouble for it. Like jaywalking. Apparently, in the Netherlands, if the economy can make money off of something that doesn't really "harm" anyone, then it's allowed. Yes, it is also true that they recently passed a law that bans the smoking of cigarettes inside buildings, but you are still allowed to smoke pot in coffee shops and anywhere inside. Apparently the political party in power right now is very conservative so they want to reduce the number of coffee shops by not allowing one to be open that is within 500m of a school or church - that will reduce the +250 coffee shops currently open, to only 8. It should be interesting to see how that goes down... Also, prostitution is completely legal there. We walked through the heart of the red light district and it was pretty insane. Little glass windows filled with women wearing just about nothing lined the streets. All lit up with red lights, of course. It was pretty interesting trying to see them get guys' attentions and stuff, hah. Even the red light district in Paris lacked the glass windows with women in them - so this was very impressive.
Laura and I left about 2/3 of the way through the tour because we had to catch our train back home. It was sad saying goodbye to everyone, but I hope to see most of them again. Canada and New York aren't that far away? Right?
The train ride was a long one, but I got back at about midnight. I always see the craziest wildlife when I walk home from the station! 2 trips ago I saw a wild ferret! Yeah! It scurried across the street - I followed it for a bit because I have never seen a wild one before, but then I lost it in the shadows. Then, coming home this time I saw something walking through the grass - I got close and saw that it was a hedgehog! Yes! A wild hedgehog! I saw me, then turned around and scurried back across the grass, hah. Pretty cool.
My last day of work was today. Not so bad. I finished my experiment and then Annika, my boss, made me clean about +250 test tubes for some other person before I could go. Very frustrating, seeing how it was my last day. Oh well. I thought perhaps she was making me doing this so she could throw together a surprise party for after I finished (why else would she make me do this on my LAST day?), but luckily that wasn't the case. I'm not friends with any of the people I work with, so it's good there was no celebration - I see that being a pretty awkward time. But yeah, working there was pretty cool. I got to see how a real research lab is run and I got to do field work, which I enjoy. Although soil isn't my topic of choice, I think it was a good start and something that I can definitely put down on my resume. Plus I got to explore Europe the whole summer and got paid to do it - what more can I ask for?
I've cleaned most of my apartment now and I'm going to wake up early to finish the last part before I leave. Since cleaning I've killed about 20 little black beatle things. Seriously. Apparently I disturbed their home while cleaning and now they are out and about, scurrying all over my stuff. Disgusting. See, people, this is exactly why I don't clean on a regular basis. It leads to trouble.
I check out of my apartment at 9.30am tomorrow morning then I'm off on a train to Berlin at 11am. Yay! I couldn't be more excited. There were a few things happening at home that I was concerned about the last few days, but the excitement of going to Berlin and then flying home has erased any worries that I had. This weekend will be an awesome way to end this trip and I can't wait. I also can't wait to see everyone and hang out with people for a week before I have to go to work at Tech.
Well, I have to wake up in 5.5 hours, so I should probably work on getting to bed. I don't know how I'll get to sleep between the herd of bugs and all my excitement, but I guess I should try.
Next time I talk I'll be at home! Eeek!
See you all soon.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Munich
So, like any other blog I've tried to keep, this one too becomes more and more difficult to update as time goes by. It seems like the past few weekends have been so crazy that they just keep me exhausted for the entire rest of the week. That's both good and bad, but I don't mind too much.
Munich was pretty awesome. Although the 12 hour travel time was not so hot. I left Cottbus at 11pm, arrived in Berlin at 1am, and then chilled for 3 1/2 hours at the train station trying my best to stay awake. I brought cards so I played quite a few games of solitaire. After I hopped on my next train I took it to Leipzig and then to Munich. My first of those two trains was running late to I had to transfer at some stop along the way, but things turned out okay. I got there at 11am - only an hour late.
I met up with Galina and we grabbed lunch at some outdoor Cafe. Galina is awesome and she lives in Sandy Springs so we plan on hanging out when we both get back to Atlanta. We went to the modern art museum which was pretty cool. I mean, I like looking at cool pieces of art, but Galina is familiar with all the artists so that was pretty cool seeing it with her. I was absolutely exhausted from only getting probably 3 hours of sleep on the train, so after the museum I was about to die. She also took a night train so she felt the same. We wandered around the city and ended up at the English Gardens - really just a giant park. There was a point on the map called the "Nudist Meadow" so we thought we'd check it out, ha. Turns out yes, it's just the place where all the nudists go to hang out. There's a river that separates the park, so one side is naked people and the other is the hangout for young kids. Young kids with clothes. So we hung out there and laid down in the grass for a bit. It looked like it was going to rain so we decided to try and check into the hostel (even though we didn't make the reservations and nobody from our group was there yet) - luckily they let us so we grabbed our room and I passed out for an hour and took a nap. I woke up with Dana and Judy in the room so we hung out for a bit then went to meet others at the train station. Everyone was hungry at that point so we grabbed some food and then went back to the hostel and passed out. Everyone was just too tired from traveling to do anything, hah. Good thing Galina and I got there early to check things out. It was really sunny and hot - even though we're both from Atlanta we were dying. But it rained the rest of the weekend so I guess we were the only ones who go to see sunny Munich. Sweet.
Saturday we went on a free tour of the city that proved to be really cool. Good thing we found this free tour group. The whole thing is done based on tips so you give them what you feel they deserve. It's mostly students that move to Munich from Australia or the US. Our guide was pretty awesome and I learned a lot about Munich that I didn't know before I went on the tour. Turns out Munich was the original headquarters of the Nazi party before they went to Berlin and took over. Munich has lots of little memorials around the city that represent all the people that stood up to the Nazis while they were in power. But, because it has a pretty dark past, the memorials are very tiny and nobody would even notice them if they weren't pointed out - good thing we had our guide.
That night we went to the Hofbräuhaus - the world's most famous beer hall. Munich is a huuuge beer city, so we had to check it out. It's pretty funny - all the other Germans I talk to make fun of Munich and the Bavarians (southern Germans). It's a lot like the south in the States - the southern people are thought of as stupid hicks. They are the "traditional" Germans, or more like the stereotypical Germans that you would see in movies (wearing Lederhosen and alpine hats and drinking huge steins of beer, etc.) So yeah, the beer hall was really cool. All 10 of us ordered a liter of beer each in these HUGE mugs. It was awesome. The waiter brought all 10 liters out at once (5 in each hand) - very impressive. All the waitresses there were dressed in traditional German Dirndls (like all the beer serving women in movies, naturally). It was a lot of fun and good times.
Later that night we hopped on a club bus (a regular city bus with a bar inside and lights and a DJ and everything) and they drove us to the clubs. It was a lot of fun and we all had a great time. They played crazy 80's music - we danced to songs from Grease (the musical), we did the Twist, etc. Awesome. I love European club music. Of course they threw in the new hits from the States every now and then, but mostly it was awesome old music. Good times.
The next morning we woke up early to check out train times and get read to go on a tour of Dachau, the Nazis first and longest running concentration camp. It was the same group that gave the free tours but this time we had to pay a bit because Dachau is a suburb of Munich and we had to take a train to get there. It was pretty intense. It rained the whole day and was pretty chilly so there was an errie feeling while touring the camp. Our guide was amazing and she knew so much about everything. I find German history extremely interesting. The Holocaust is just insane - I guess I find it so interesting because I can't believe that stuff like that actually happened. I guess you can call it morbid finding that kind of stuff interesting, but oh well. I love the museums, the books, the movies, it's all just so interesting. I wish there was a better word for "interesting", but that's all I can really say about it, hah. Oh well. Dachau was really cool and I wish I could have stayed longer. Galina, Judy, and I had to leave the tour early to catch our trains, but if I could have stayed I would. I'm really glad I got to go on the tour - I really really wanted to go to a concentration camp while I was here but didn't think it would happen because they were all so far away. Auschwitz - the death camp - I've heard is a crazy experience to go to, but it's far away in SE poland. We learned that all the death camps aren't in Germany because Hitler wanted to hide the Holocaust from everyone - wanted people to think that the concentration camps were for bad people and they were just like normal prisons. Crazy. I learned so much I just want to type all about it - but I won't. Hah.
So yeah, Munich was awesome. I don't feel I really got to explore the entire city, but on the tour there wasn't all that much to see - it was mostly just a few churches, some smaller buildings, and a LOT of history (but the interesting kind so it was good). Overall I was really pleased and I had a great time with everyone.
Now I'm packing and getting ready to go to Amsterdam tomorrow - eeek! I'm so excited! My train leaves at 6am - getting there early again because I figure I took Friday off from work so I might as well use it all. I've been researching stuff to do there and it's going to be awesome - I'm so excited. So much more than just legal pot and a crazy red light district, hah. I can't wait. My 20th birthday in Amsterdam - SWEEET!
Ah, I made plans to check out of my apartment next Friday. Yay! I'm coming home so soon! Eeek! Here's the plan: since my flight on Sunday is really just too early to leave from Cottbus that morning, I'm leaving Cottbus Friday morning and spending the weekend in Berlin. I've been to Berlin probably 5+ times due to train transfers, but all I've seen is what is out of my window and the giant train station (biggest in Europe, so that's pretty cool at least). I'll have Friday afternoon to tour the city and all day Saturday as well. It will be nice having time to myself and doing whatever I want to do. It's always hard to decide what to do when you have a large group (like Munich - I think most of the time was used to decide what everyone wanted to do). I booked my hostel and it looks REALLLY nice from online. Only 20€ a night, so that's really awesome. Won best hostel of the world in 2004 - sweet. I had a lot of hostel choices and it was hard to decide what I actually wanted out of hostel when I'm traveling by myself - do I want one away from the city in the woods? A small family owned one? One for rugged backpackers? A large one in the city center? Tough decisions. Traveling with a group I just want a place that I can pass out in at night and store my stuff during the day - but when I'm by myself it's different. I finally decided on one I think I'll be happy with - it had the best reviews so I think I'm safe.
Okay, well it's midnight and I still have to make some phone calls, finishing packing, and then I'm getting up at 4.30am. Ugh.
See you guys soon! (For real this time! Ahhh! 10 Days! Ahhhh!)
***Also, check out Munich pictures on the right hand side link!
Munich was pretty awesome. Although the 12 hour travel time was not so hot. I left Cottbus at 11pm, arrived in Berlin at 1am, and then chilled for 3 1/2 hours at the train station trying my best to stay awake. I brought cards so I played quite a few games of solitaire. After I hopped on my next train I took it to Leipzig and then to Munich. My first of those two trains was running late to I had to transfer at some stop along the way, but things turned out okay. I got there at 11am - only an hour late.
I met up with Galina and we grabbed lunch at some outdoor Cafe. Galina is awesome and she lives in Sandy Springs so we plan on hanging out when we both get back to Atlanta. We went to the modern art museum which was pretty cool. I mean, I like looking at cool pieces of art, but Galina is familiar with all the artists so that was pretty cool seeing it with her. I was absolutely exhausted from only getting probably 3 hours of sleep on the train, so after the museum I was about to die. She also took a night train so she felt the same. We wandered around the city and ended up at the English Gardens - really just a giant park. There was a point on the map called the "Nudist Meadow" so we thought we'd check it out, ha. Turns out yes, it's just the place where all the nudists go to hang out. There's a river that separates the park, so one side is naked people and the other is the hangout for young kids. Young kids with clothes. So we hung out there and laid down in the grass for a bit. It looked like it was going to rain so we decided to try and check into the hostel (even though we didn't make the reservations and nobody from our group was there yet) - luckily they let us so we grabbed our room and I passed out for an hour and took a nap. I woke up with Dana and Judy in the room so we hung out for a bit then went to meet others at the train station. Everyone was hungry at that point so we grabbed some food and then went back to the hostel and passed out. Everyone was just too tired from traveling to do anything, hah. Good thing Galina and I got there early to check things out. It was really sunny and hot - even though we're both from Atlanta we were dying. But it rained the rest of the weekend so I guess we were the only ones who go to see sunny Munich. Sweet.
Saturday we went on a free tour of the city that proved to be really cool. Good thing we found this free tour group. The whole thing is done based on tips so you give them what you feel they deserve. It's mostly students that move to Munich from Australia or the US. Our guide was pretty awesome and I learned a lot about Munich that I didn't know before I went on the tour. Turns out Munich was the original headquarters of the Nazi party before they went to Berlin and took over. Munich has lots of little memorials around the city that represent all the people that stood up to the Nazis while they were in power. But, because it has a pretty dark past, the memorials are very tiny and nobody would even notice them if they weren't pointed out - good thing we had our guide.
That night we went to the Hofbräuhaus - the world's most famous beer hall. Munich is a huuuge beer city, so we had to check it out. It's pretty funny - all the other Germans I talk to make fun of Munich and the Bavarians (southern Germans). It's a lot like the south in the States - the southern people are thought of as stupid hicks. They are the "traditional" Germans, or more like the stereotypical Germans that you would see in movies (wearing Lederhosen and alpine hats and drinking huge steins of beer, etc.) So yeah, the beer hall was really cool. All 10 of us ordered a liter of beer each in these HUGE mugs. It was awesome. The waiter brought all 10 liters out at once (5 in each hand) - very impressive. All the waitresses there were dressed in traditional German Dirndls (like all the beer serving women in movies, naturally). It was a lot of fun and good times.
Later that night we hopped on a club bus (a regular city bus with a bar inside and lights and a DJ and everything) and they drove us to the clubs. It was a lot of fun and we all had a great time. They played crazy 80's music - we danced to songs from Grease (the musical), we did the Twist, etc. Awesome. I love European club music. Of course they threw in the new hits from the States every now and then, but mostly it was awesome old music. Good times.
The next morning we woke up early to check out train times and get read to go on a tour of Dachau, the Nazis first and longest running concentration camp. It was the same group that gave the free tours but this time we had to pay a bit because Dachau is a suburb of Munich and we had to take a train to get there. It was pretty intense. It rained the whole day and was pretty chilly so there was an errie feeling while touring the camp. Our guide was amazing and she knew so much about everything. I find German history extremely interesting. The Holocaust is just insane - I guess I find it so interesting because I can't believe that stuff like that actually happened. I guess you can call it morbid finding that kind of stuff interesting, but oh well. I love the museums, the books, the movies, it's all just so interesting. I wish there was a better word for "interesting", but that's all I can really say about it, hah. Oh well. Dachau was really cool and I wish I could have stayed longer. Galina, Judy, and I had to leave the tour early to catch our trains, but if I could have stayed I would. I'm really glad I got to go on the tour - I really really wanted to go to a concentration camp while I was here but didn't think it would happen because they were all so far away. Auschwitz - the death camp - I've heard is a crazy experience to go to, but it's far away in SE poland. We learned that all the death camps aren't in Germany because Hitler wanted to hide the Holocaust from everyone - wanted people to think that the concentration camps were for bad people and they were just like normal prisons. Crazy. I learned so much I just want to type all about it - but I won't. Hah.
So yeah, Munich was awesome. I don't feel I really got to explore the entire city, but on the tour there wasn't all that much to see - it was mostly just a few churches, some smaller buildings, and a LOT of history (but the interesting kind so it was good). Overall I was really pleased and I had a great time with everyone.
Now I'm packing and getting ready to go to Amsterdam tomorrow - eeek! I'm so excited! My train leaves at 6am - getting there early again because I figure I took Friday off from work so I might as well use it all. I've been researching stuff to do there and it's going to be awesome - I'm so excited. So much more than just legal pot and a crazy red light district, hah. I can't wait. My 20th birthday in Amsterdam - SWEEET!
Ah, I made plans to check out of my apartment next Friday. Yay! I'm coming home so soon! Eeek! Here's the plan: since my flight on Sunday is really just too early to leave from Cottbus that morning, I'm leaving Cottbus Friday morning and spending the weekend in Berlin. I've been to Berlin probably 5+ times due to train transfers, but all I've seen is what is out of my window and the giant train station (biggest in Europe, so that's pretty cool at least). I'll have Friday afternoon to tour the city and all day Saturday as well. It will be nice having time to myself and doing whatever I want to do. It's always hard to decide what to do when you have a large group (like Munich - I think most of the time was used to decide what everyone wanted to do). I booked my hostel and it looks REALLLY nice from online. Only 20€ a night, so that's really awesome. Won best hostel of the world in 2004 - sweet. I had a lot of hostel choices and it was hard to decide what I actually wanted out of hostel when I'm traveling by myself - do I want one away from the city in the woods? A small family owned one? One for rugged backpackers? A large one in the city center? Tough decisions. Traveling with a group I just want a place that I can pass out in at night and store my stuff during the day - but when I'm by myself it's different. I finally decided on one I think I'll be happy with - it had the best reviews so I think I'm safe.
Okay, well it's midnight and I still have to make some phone calls, finishing packing, and then I'm getting up at 4.30am. Ugh.
See you guys soon! (For real this time! Ahhh! 10 Days! Ahhhh!)
***Also, check out Munich pictures on the right hand side link!
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Heidelberg. Genau!
Well, this past weekend in Heidelberg was absolutely amazing. I had the best time - it definitely competes with some of my other favorite weekends in Germany.
After the 7 hour train ride that included 3 different transfers, I finally made it to Heidelberg. I met some cool people on the last train into the city and I ended hanging out with them the entire weekend. We followed the giant crowd of American students from the train station to the bus and finally arrived at the hostel. We checked in and found out that the people I met were directly across the hall from me - awesome! They fed us some coffee, tea, and cake while we waited for others to arrive and then bussed us off to the university to listen to people from the research internship abroad program talk. It was really boring and lasted far too long. Oh well, we all felt we had to listen because we're getting paid to be here all summer. If that's the worst thing that happens while I'm here then I guess it's a fair trade off...
After the really lame speech they shipped us back to the hostel for dinner. I skipped out on that and went out to dinner with Uncle Mac and Aunt Melody who just happened to be in Heidelberg during their European tour (what are the odds?). I had a great time with them, naturally, and we ate some delicious food at a restaurant right down the road from the hostel. Good times.
That night we got a group together and wandered the streets of Heidelberg, beer in hand. It was a lot of fun getting to hang out with other students that speak English. I hung out with 5 other people most of the weekend, and as it turns out, out of the 6 of us 3 were American and 3 Canadian. There are definitely more people in the program that are from America, but we just got lucky enough to hang out with Canadians the whole time. We ended up getting back to the hostel at midnight because we all had to wake up early for company visits the next day.
The program split us all up into groups by what we are studying and then each group visited a company that pertained to their area of expertise. The environmental group by far got the best deal. We were the last group to leave (we left at 9am while others had to leave at 6am) and our first stop was a fossil site and our second stop was an organic wine vineyard. Dinosaurs and wine - what could be better?! Turns out there weren't dinosaur fossils at the first site, but there was plenty of wine at the second to make up for it : ) The wine vineyard was amazing - we were led around by this über hippie old woman (she didn't shave her legs, had short grey hair that she dyed green and blue, and talked about how the power of the earth was sucked up by the grapes and is put into the wine). I fell in love with her, really. She cooked us a completely organic (and delicious!) lunch and then let us try all the different types of her wines. We thought we would just be swishing the wine in our mouths and spitting it out - no - she poured us glass after glass of tasty wine that they made right at her house. During lunch the tables were lined with bottles of wine and she asked us to help ourselves, haha. We all think that she just wanted us drunk so we would purchase wine from her at the end. Anyways, it was amazing and I got some beautiful pictures of the vineyard - check them out by clicking on the link to the right!
After the vineyard we were taken to the Heidelberg Cultural Brewery where we were fed a traditional German meal and got to drink home-brewed beer. Damn - the environmental kids started drinking at 2pm and didn't stop until 8pm or so. Go us. The food was delicious and the beer even better. Laura (my new Canadian best friend) and I ordered some Weißbier with banana juice - my favorite. She really liked it too. Everyone thought I was crazy, but once they tried it they realized how amazing it is. Yum.
After the brewery we headed out to the bars and had a lot of fun. It was the 4th of July so everyone was celebrating the best they could. Canada celebrated Canada Day on July 1st so they decided to celebrate again with us that night. Good times followed.
The next day we woke up early, again, and were sent on a guided tour of Heidelberg. As a poor college student, I never take guided tours of any of the cities I visit, so I considered this a real treat. We were led around by an old English woman by the name of Valarie. She married a German when she was in college and so she learned to speak German when she moved here a long time ago. She was so cute and I loved her. One day I hope I love a city that I live in enough to become a tour guide. She was great and took us all around town and to the Heidelberg Castle. It was really neat-o.
After the tour the 6 of us (Canadians: Ryan, Laura, and Judy. Americans: Galina, Dana, and myself.) grabbed some quick food and then set off to hike a nearby mountain that overlooked the city. We took a trail called the "Philosopher's Path" that let us to the top. The path was SO steep! It was insane, but lot of fun. It was literally almost a 45 degree climb for half the way, then it leveled out to become a normal hiking trail. Very cool. At the top we saw a beautiful view of Heidelberg along with ruins of an old church, monastery, and Nazi amphitheater. The amphitheater was built for the Nazis to have meetings and such, but it was never used because the war started. Super huge and super cool.
After ours of hiking we headed back to the hostel to shower, drink, and hit the clubs.
One part of the night included Galina and I trying to see if we could name off all 10 Canadian provinces and 3 Canadian territories to our new Canadian friends. Needless to say, we couldn't. We tried I don't know how many times and could never get all 13 in one sitting. Laura, on the other hand, showed off and named all 50 states in about 30 seconds. Ugh. Even I can't name all 50 states in 10 minutes! Want to try? Click here! Oh well, pretty funny.
Sunday morning we just hung out, checked out of the hostel at 10am, and then went to the city and explored some more. Did a bit of souvenir shopping and ice cream eating. The usual. We all went our own ways around 4pm. Luckily I got to ride halfway back with Dana and Judy. I ended up missing my train in Leipzig because they switched tracks on me and I didn't know - ugh. That delayed me quite a bit and I got home to Cottbus at 3am. 11 hours of traveling to get home. Lame. Oh well, such is life by train.
Overall, this weekend was amazing. I made some awesome friends - some which live close by (Galina is from Sandy Springs) so I'm sure I'll see them again.
I changed my travel plans for the next two weeks to travel with the group from Heidelberg instead of the people I originally had planned to travel with. It works out better this way because my plans to go to Hamburg fell through and I really wanted to go to Munich, so now I'm going to Munich next weekend and Amsterdam for my birthday. Woohoo! It's going to be a blast and I cannot wait.
Good thing is these weekends are going to be so much fun that time is literally going to fly by and I will be home soon in no time. The whole time I've been here I've been counting down the days to go home and see everyone again, but in Heidelberg I had the first sensation of wanting to stay in Germany some more. Most of these people are staying here until the end of August. I'm staying as late as I possibly can because of working for housing and having to go to training, but if I had to choice I would probably stay another week or two just so I could travel with these awesome people. Yeah, they're that cool.
After talking to all the kids I met it turns out that my work schedule is actually very very easy. Haha, sweet. I guess that's what I get for being alone in this boring city - I don't have to work a lot. Lots of other people have 2 or even 7 other North American research interns in their city - jealous! Oh well. Tomorrow, though, I have to wake up at 5.15am to go and pick weeds in our field site all day long. Ugh. Not cool. Perhaps it will be a sunny nice day instead of the spontaneous rain showers that we've gotten the past 3 days. I'll cross my fingers.
Well, I think that's about it at the moment. Check out my pictures by clicking on the link to the right. : )
After the 7 hour train ride that included 3 different transfers, I finally made it to Heidelberg. I met some cool people on the last train into the city and I ended hanging out with them the entire weekend. We followed the giant crowd of American students from the train station to the bus and finally arrived at the hostel. We checked in and found out that the people I met were directly across the hall from me - awesome! They fed us some coffee, tea, and cake while we waited for others to arrive and then bussed us off to the university to listen to people from the research internship abroad program talk. It was really boring and lasted far too long. Oh well, we all felt we had to listen because we're getting paid to be here all summer. If that's the worst thing that happens while I'm here then I guess it's a fair trade off...
After the really lame speech they shipped us back to the hostel for dinner. I skipped out on that and went out to dinner with Uncle Mac and Aunt Melody who just happened to be in Heidelberg during their European tour (what are the odds?). I had a great time with them, naturally, and we ate some delicious food at a restaurant right down the road from the hostel. Good times.
That night we got a group together and wandered the streets of Heidelberg, beer in hand. It was a lot of fun getting to hang out with other students that speak English. I hung out with 5 other people most of the weekend, and as it turns out, out of the 6 of us 3 were American and 3 Canadian. There are definitely more people in the program that are from America, but we just got lucky enough to hang out with Canadians the whole time. We ended up getting back to the hostel at midnight because we all had to wake up early for company visits the next day.
The program split us all up into groups by what we are studying and then each group visited a company that pertained to their area of expertise. The environmental group by far got the best deal. We were the last group to leave (we left at 9am while others had to leave at 6am) and our first stop was a fossil site and our second stop was an organic wine vineyard. Dinosaurs and wine - what could be better?! Turns out there weren't dinosaur fossils at the first site, but there was plenty of wine at the second to make up for it : ) The wine vineyard was amazing - we were led around by this über hippie old woman (she didn't shave her legs, had short grey hair that she dyed green and blue, and talked about how the power of the earth was sucked up by the grapes and is put into the wine). I fell in love with her, really. She cooked us a completely organic (and delicious!) lunch and then let us try all the different types of her wines. We thought we would just be swishing the wine in our mouths and spitting it out - no - she poured us glass after glass of tasty wine that they made right at her house. During lunch the tables were lined with bottles of wine and she asked us to help ourselves, haha. We all think that she just wanted us drunk so we would purchase wine from her at the end. Anyways, it was amazing and I got some beautiful pictures of the vineyard - check them out by clicking on the link to the right!
After the vineyard we were taken to the Heidelberg Cultural Brewery where we were fed a traditional German meal and got to drink home-brewed beer. Damn - the environmental kids started drinking at 2pm and didn't stop until 8pm or so. Go us. The food was delicious and the beer even better. Laura (my new Canadian best friend) and I ordered some Weißbier with banana juice - my favorite. She really liked it too. Everyone thought I was crazy, but once they tried it they realized how amazing it is. Yum.
After the brewery we headed out to the bars and had a lot of fun. It was the 4th of July so everyone was celebrating the best they could. Canada celebrated Canada Day on July 1st so they decided to celebrate again with us that night. Good times followed.
The next day we woke up early, again, and were sent on a guided tour of Heidelberg. As a poor college student, I never take guided tours of any of the cities I visit, so I considered this a real treat. We were led around by an old English woman by the name of Valarie. She married a German when she was in college and so she learned to speak German when she moved here a long time ago. She was so cute and I loved her. One day I hope I love a city that I live in enough to become a tour guide. She was great and took us all around town and to the Heidelberg Castle. It was really neat-o.
After the tour the 6 of us (Canadians: Ryan, Laura, and Judy. Americans: Galina, Dana, and myself.) grabbed some quick food and then set off to hike a nearby mountain that overlooked the city. We took a trail called the "Philosopher's Path" that let us to the top. The path was SO steep! It was insane, but lot of fun. It was literally almost a 45 degree climb for half the way, then it leveled out to become a normal hiking trail. Very cool. At the top we saw a beautiful view of Heidelberg along with ruins of an old church, monastery, and Nazi amphitheater. The amphitheater was built for the Nazis to have meetings and such, but it was never used because the war started. Super huge and super cool.
After ours of hiking we headed back to the hostel to shower, drink, and hit the clubs.
One part of the night included Galina and I trying to see if we could name off all 10 Canadian provinces and 3 Canadian territories to our new Canadian friends. Needless to say, we couldn't. We tried I don't know how many times and could never get all 13 in one sitting. Laura, on the other hand, showed off and named all 50 states in about 30 seconds. Ugh. Even I can't name all 50 states in 10 minutes! Want to try? Click here! Oh well, pretty funny.
Sunday morning we just hung out, checked out of the hostel at 10am, and then went to the city and explored some more. Did a bit of souvenir shopping and ice cream eating. The usual. We all went our own ways around 4pm. Luckily I got to ride halfway back with Dana and Judy. I ended up missing my train in Leipzig because they switched tracks on me and I didn't know - ugh. That delayed me quite a bit and I got home to Cottbus at 3am. 11 hours of traveling to get home. Lame. Oh well, such is life by train.
Overall, this weekend was amazing. I made some awesome friends - some which live close by (Galina is from Sandy Springs) so I'm sure I'll see them again.
I changed my travel plans for the next two weeks to travel with the group from Heidelberg instead of the people I originally had planned to travel with. It works out better this way because my plans to go to Hamburg fell through and I really wanted to go to Munich, so now I'm going to Munich next weekend and Amsterdam for my birthday. Woohoo! It's going to be a blast and I cannot wait.
Good thing is these weekends are going to be so much fun that time is literally going to fly by and I will be home soon in no time. The whole time I've been here I've been counting down the days to go home and see everyone again, but in Heidelberg I had the first sensation of wanting to stay in Germany some more. Most of these people are staying here until the end of August. I'm staying as late as I possibly can because of working for housing and having to go to training, but if I had to choice I would probably stay another week or two just so I could travel with these awesome people. Yeah, they're that cool.
After talking to all the kids I met it turns out that my work schedule is actually very very easy. Haha, sweet. I guess that's what I get for being alone in this boring city - I don't have to work a lot. Lots of other people have 2 or even 7 other North American research interns in their city - jealous! Oh well. Tomorrow, though, I have to wake up at 5.15am to go and pick weeds in our field site all day long. Ugh. Not cool. Perhaps it will be a sunny nice day instead of the spontaneous rain showers that we've gotten the past 3 days. I'll cross my fingers.
Well, I think that's about it at the moment. Check out my pictures by clicking on the link to the right. : )
Monday, June 30, 2008
July ist hier!
I have to admit that I had quite an excellent Monday this week. Very surprising, seeing as how Mondays suck in general.
My boss was out of town so I only had 3 hours of work to do. It did, however, involve putting soil into little bottles, which is not fun, but I got done at 1pm so I'm not complaining.
I've been recycling clothes since I'm out of laundry coins, so after getting out of work early I headed to go buy some more from the Hausmeister. He was busy so I waited outside. A guy and a girl came looking for him and it turns out they were speaking Spanish. I got excited and tried to tell them that the Hausmeister was "there" in another room, but I'm pretty sure I got my prepositions confused and said "here" instead. I was thinking in Spanish, and then it came to me how to say it in German, but that's not what I wanted so I thought really quickly in Spanish and just spit something out. My brain cannot handle switching between languages that fast. They knew what I meant and smiled really politely. The Hausmeister came out and saw me waiting and told me "one minute" in German, but then chuckled and said it in English. So he does speak some English! Ha! This made me happy because up until this point I thought he loathed me. After I purchased my laundry coins I decided to redeem myself with the Spanish speaking people, so I knocked on their apartment door, and in Español perfecto, I told them that the Hausmeister wasn't busy anymore. The guy smiled and thanked me. I was happy.
So my German isn't that great, but I can certainly get by over here. My Spanish is definitely lacking in comparison with my German, but I am impressed that I remember all that I do, having not had any classes for 4 years. Language is still the one thing that I'm the most impressed about over here. I've watched people laugh and joke about a song the like in Polish, and then continue their conversation in German, and then turn to me and tell me what happened in English. I love it! Like I've said before, I really want to continue German classes when I get back to school, but I know that at this rate I will never graduate with all the extra classes I'm taking. We'll see.
Does anyone know if you capitalize the names of languages? Huh.
I found a little coffee shop in the Altstadt that I've been going to every now and then. It's good coffee. The prices are a little expensive, but now that I'm not eating out anymore I can afford good coffee. The same girl always takes me order. The first time apparently she told me "wait over there by the counter" but I had no idea what she said, so I had to give in and admit that my German isn't too hot. I hate when that happens - I do well and then I have to admit defeat in the end.
One thing that I will miss once I get home is all the bakeries around town. I had never gone into them until recently, but now I'm hooked. Ah, there's so many tasty things and just about anything you buy goes excellent with a little Nutella. Yum. I will definitely miss the smell of fresh break where ever I walk and all the yummy pastries that I've discovered in the last few days.
So they have this one liquor (mostly beer, though) store here that has a van called the "Getränke Taxi" (Drink Taxi). It's exactly what it sounds like. If you are too lazy (or too drunk, for that matter) to get in a car or walk down to the store to buy some more beer while you're watching your soccer game, you can just call the Getränke Taxi and they will deliver a case or two to your front door. I've seen it pulled up in front of my apartment building a few times - I find it pretty comical. I'm sure it costs a bit, but when you're running out of your favorite beer you have to get it somehow...
Apparently Germans don't like stick deodorant. Figured that out today when I went shopping for some because I ran out. They like body spray - a lot - and the little roll-on kind. I've always kind of detested body spray. I think it's the memories of the middle school boy's locker room where you could hardly breathe because everyone wanted to smell like a man and sprayed their can of Axe far too much. Yup. That's definitely where it comes from. Well, I sucked it up and smelled up about every bottle on the shelf (most smelled strongly of rubbing alcohol - gross) until I found one that was decent.
It's hot today and I have no AC. Ugh. It would be nice to get back to the apartment and relax in the cool, but no. But I guess we're saving energy over here so it's okay.
Well, I leave for Heidelburg tomorrow morning at 7am and get to enjoy a 7 hour train ride there. But I'm really excited because I will get to meet a lot of people, hang out with the girls I met back in Berlin, and I'll get to see my Uncle Mac and Aunt Melody. Eeek! They're hilarious - definitely the cool relatives. Can't wait. And I got an email saying that on Friday for the "company visits" the environmental students get to go to some really cool site (sorry, but I have no idea what it is - I tried to look it up and don't remember what I found) and then we get to go WINE TASTING! Yeees. I'm pumped. This will be an excellent weekend.
Plus I bought my ticket to Amsterdam for next weekend. Sweet.
Okay - tons of stuff to do to get ready for tomorrow morning.
Happy 4th of July!
My boss was out of town so I only had 3 hours of work to do. It did, however, involve putting soil into little bottles, which is not fun, but I got done at 1pm so I'm not complaining.
I've been recycling clothes since I'm out of laundry coins, so after getting out of work early I headed to go buy some more from the Hausmeister. He was busy so I waited outside. A guy and a girl came looking for him and it turns out they were speaking Spanish. I got excited and tried to tell them that the Hausmeister was "there" in another room, but I'm pretty sure I got my prepositions confused and said "here" instead. I was thinking in Spanish, and then it came to me how to say it in German, but that's not what I wanted so I thought really quickly in Spanish and just spit something out. My brain cannot handle switching between languages that fast. They knew what I meant and smiled really politely. The Hausmeister came out and saw me waiting and told me "one minute" in German, but then chuckled and said it in English. So he does speak some English! Ha! This made me happy because up until this point I thought he loathed me. After I purchased my laundry coins I decided to redeem myself with the Spanish speaking people, so I knocked on their apartment door, and in Español perfecto, I told them that the Hausmeister wasn't busy anymore. The guy smiled and thanked me. I was happy.
So my German isn't that great, but I can certainly get by over here. My Spanish is definitely lacking in comparison with my German, but I am impressed that I remember all that I do, having not had any classes for 4 years. Language is still the one thing that I'm the most impressed about over here. I've watched people laugh and joke about a song the like in Polish, and then continue their conversation in German, and then turn to me and tell me what happened in English. I love it! Like I've said before, I really want to continue German classes when I get back to school, but I know that at this rate I will never graduate with all the extra classes I'm taking. We'll see.
Does anyone know if you capitalize the names of languages? Huh.
I found a little coffee shop in the Altstadt that I've been going to every now and then. It's good coffee. The prices are a little expensive, but now that I'm not eating out anymore I can afford good coffee. The same girl always takes me order. The first time apparently she told me "wait over there by the counter" but I had no idea what she said, so I had to give in and admit that my German isn't too hot. I hate when that happens - I do well and then I have to admit defeat in the end.
One thing that I will miss once I get home is all the bakeries around town. I had never gone into them until recently, but now I'm hooked. Ah, there's so many tasty things and just about anything you buy goes excellent with a little Nutella. Yum. I will definitely miss the smell of fresh break where ever I walk and all the yummy pastries that I've discovered in the last few days.
So they have this one liquor (mostly beer, though) store here that has a van called the "Getränke Taxi" (Drink Taxi). It's exactly what it sounds like. If you are too lazy (or too drunk, for that matter) to get in a car or walk down to the store to buy some more beer while you're watching your soccer game, you can just call the Getränke Taxi and they will deliver a case or two to your front door. I've seen it pulled up in front of my apartment building a few times - I find it pretty comical. I'm sure it costs a bit, but when you're running out of your favorite beer you have to get it somehow...
Apparently Germans don't like stick deodorant. Figured that out today when I went shopping for some because I ran out. They like body spray - a lot - and the little roll-on kind. I've always kind of detested body spray. I think it's the memories of the middle school boy's locker room where you could hardly breathe because everyone wanted to smell like a man and sprayed their can of Axe far too much. Yup. That's definitely where it comes from. Well, I sucked it up and smelled up about every bottle on the shelf (most smelled strongly of rubbing alcohol - gross) until I found one that was decent.
It's hot today and I have no AC. Ugh. It would be nice to get back to the apartment and relax in the cool, but no. But I guess we're saving energy over here so it's okay.
Well, I leave for Heidelburg tomorrow morning at 7am and get to enjoy a 7 hour train ride there. But I'm really excited because I will get to meet a lot of people, hang out with the girls I met back in Berlin, and I'll get to see my Uncle Mac and Aunt Melody. Eeek! They're hilarious - definitely the cool relatives. Can't wait. And I got an email saying that on Friday for the "company visits" the environmental students get to go to some really cool site (sorry, but I have no idea what it is - I tried to look it up and don't remember what I found) and then we get to go WINE TASTING! Yeees. I'm pumped. This will be an excellent weekend.
Plus I bought my ticket to Amsterdam for next weekend. Sweet.
Okay - tons of stuff to do to get ready for tomorrow morning.
Happy 4th of July!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
A quiet, but relaxing, weekend in Cottbus
Well, this weekend turned out to be nothing like I expected, but at the same time it wasn't disappointing either.
A few days ago Paul called and told me that he caught a really bad cold and he probably wouldn't be able to make it to Berlin with me for Christopher Street Day. I got updates from him everyday hoping to hear that he got better, but he never did. I think he works too much on his thesis, but that's just me : P I now know that I never want to write one of those... Saturday evening he called again (after calling once that morning to say that he wasn't going to be able to go) saying that he was feeling better and he could go. The plan was to jump on a train at 8pm, arrive in Berlin at 10pm, party until we caught a train home at 5am, and arrive back in Cottbus at 7am. The plan was completely crazy (although really spontaneous and awesome sounding at the same time) but I wasn't wanting to go partying that bad to give in. We both agreed that it would be too much trouble to go (also because Paul's first train back to Hannover wasn't until 7.30am) so I spend this weekend in Cottbus.
I got to sleep in, which was really nice. During the week I never get to and with all the traveling I've done on the weekends, sleeping in doesn't happen much.
I finished "Twilight", the book I was reading. It's amazing. At the end I found out that there are 2 more books in the series so I set off to find them at the bookstore that I've been frequenting. Turns out they have the 3rd book and not the 1st or 2nd one. Weird. But, for only having a bookshelf the size of one you might have at home full of English books, I was impressed. I know that it is completely wrong, unethical, and despicable in the world of literature to skip ahead in a series, but I consider this a drastic situation. I ended up buying the 3rd book. I figure I'll read the 2nd one eventually, perhaps when I get home. I know I ruined a lot of surprises and I'm lacking a lot of information, but the plot and story line is still there so it's fine. I know I'll read quite a few books before even starting the 2nd book, so I know I'll forget most of the spoilers anyways. All is well.
It rained a bit on Saturday. It poured actually right when I was on my way to the grocery store. Luckily I packed an umbrella but it didn't help much. I ended up getting soaked, but I didn't really mind. It was quite refreshing. I miss not having anyone to play in the rain with.
Saturday was a big day for me, as I reached my running goal for the summer! My goal for the summer was to be able to run 5 miles continuously. I did that Saturday night! I'm very proud of myself. At the beginning of summer I didn't really see it happening, but I worked my way up and finally did it. Unfortunately, now that I know I can do it, I will be forced to do it over and over again. Running, despite the fact that it has become an almost daily routine, is definitely not my favorite thing to do. It is, however, something I feel I need to do. Most of the time the two do not coincide, but what can you do?
Saturday night I fixed myself a very German dinner: potatoes, bratwurst, and beer. It was pretty tasty. Nothing special, but it was better than the turkey sandwiches I typically eat.
Sunday I slept in a good deal. Didn't even set my alarm - that was nice. The weather was really nice outside so I decided to pack my bag and head out for the day. I found this great little green space behind the town theatre that has a giant fountain in the middle. I brought a blanket and my book and read for a while under the sun. It was nice. Then I explored more of Cottbus that I haven't been to yet. I found this nice trail to walk down that led me between all of these houses and gardens. It's a residential area, I guess, but there's no access by car. The path was for biking and walking, and it let through this residential part where every inch of space is covered with small huts/houses, greenhouses, or gardens. It was really cute. I didn't reach the end of the trail so I'll have to go back one day and see where it takes me. It was such a beautiful day outside today that walking along it was very relaxing and I enjoyed myself.
Upon returning to my apartment I realized that I left my key in my room. Ugh. I attach my key to my water bottle when I go running. Last night after running I got online to talk to some people and after that I took a shower and immediately went to bed. I didn't clean up after dinner and didn't reattach my key to my keychain. This morning it didn't cross my mind to make sure my key was on my keychain, so I ended up leaving it behind. I found a girl and asked her if there was a number I could call to get my door opened. We called the number and the line was disconnected. Great. Then I saw a boy entering my building so I followed him in and asked if he knew how I could open my door. He showed me where the "Hausmeister" has a bulletin board with all of the maintenance numbers that I could call. I found a number that had the German word for key ("Schlüssel" - a favorite Germany word of mine) in it (Germans like to make up words by squishing 3 or 4 words together that all describe one specific thing) so I called it. The guy didn't speak English, but I managed to get him to my door to open it for me. Having my door opened cost me 30€! $45! Outrageous. Especially since all he did was pick the lock. I figured I could find a neighbor with a wire coat hanger and manage to open the door myself (plus I would also probably make a friend by asking for the hanger) but I was too lazy. Whatever. I'm impressed that I lasted so long without locking myself out. I always think to myself "Damn, I haven't locked myself out yet - go me!" but it had to happen sometime. Now I will be more careful.
The European Cup final was tonight between Germany and Spain. Spain ended up winning (damnit). I wasn't really in the mood to go watch the game so I chilled at home. No biggie. Soccer isn't really my thing and I didn't have anyone to watch it with so I chose not to be the awkward kid in the corner all night long.
I leave Thursday morning for Heidelberg! I'm really excited. The program I am in is having a conference there for all of the participants. I'm excited to celebrate the 4th of July with the rest of the Americans - Germany won't know what hit them... I've heard that Heidelberg is a really beautiful city filled with tons of culture, art, etc. I'm excited to check it out. Plus the program is sending us on a tour of the city, so that will be cool actually getting to learn about it. Plus I'm planning on visiting my Uncle Mac and Aunt Melody while they are in town. Hopefully I will have a few hours to eat dinner and hang out with them.
That about wraps it up. I'll update the Cottbus photo album with the pictures that I took today. Check it out.
28 more days.
A few days ago Paul called and told me that he caught a really bad cold and he probably wouldn't be able to make it to Berlin with me for Christopher Street Day. I got updates from him everyday hoping to hear that he got better, but he never did. I think he works too much on his thesis, but that's just me : P I now know that I never want to write one of those... Saturday evening he called again (after calling once that morning to say that he wasn't going to be able to go) saying that he was feeling better and he could go. The plan was to jump on a train at 8pm, arrive in Berlin at 10pm, party until we caught a train home at 5am, and arrive back in Cottbus at 7am. The plan was completely crazy (although really spontaneous and awesome sounding at the same time) but I wasn't wanting to go partying that bad to give in. We both agreed that it would be too much trouble to go (also because Paul's first train back to Hannover wasn't until 7.30am) so I spend this weekend in Cottbus.
I got to sleep in, which was really nice. During the week I never get to and with all the traveling I've done on the weekends, sleeping in doesn't happen much.
I finished "Twilight", the book I was reading. It's amazing. At the end I found out that there are 2 more books in the series so I set off to find them at the bookstore that I've been frequenting. Turns out they have the 3rd book and not the 1st or 2nd one. Weird. But, for only having a bookshelf the size of one you might have at home full of English books, I was impressed. I know that it is completely wrong, unethical, and despicable in the world of literature to skip ahead in a series, but I consider this a drastic situation. I ended up buying the 3rd book. I figure I'll read the 2nd one eventually, perhaps when I get home. I know I ruined a lot of surprises and I'm lacking a lot of information, but the plot and story line is still there so it's fine. I know I'll read quite a few books before even starting the 2nd book, so I know I'll forget most of the spoilers anyways. All is well.
It rained a bit on Saturday. It poured actually right when I was on my way to the grocery store. Luckily I packed an umbrella but it didn't help much. I ended up getting soaked, but I didn't really mind. It was quite refreshing. I miss not having anyone to play in the rain with.
Saturday was a big day for me, as I reached my running goal for the summer! My goal for the summer was to be able to run 5 miles continuously. I did that Saturday night! I'm very proud of myself. At the beginning of summer I didn't really see it happening, but I worked my way up and finally did it. Unfortunately, now that I know I can do it, I will be forced to do it over and over again. Running, despite the fact that it has become an almost daily routine, is definitely not my favorite thing to do. It is, however, something I feel I need to do. Most of the time the two do not coincide, but what can you do?
Saturday night I fixed myself a very German dinner: potatoes, bratwurst, and beer. It was pretty tasty. Nothing special, but it was better than the turkey sandwiches I typically eat.
Sunday I slept in a good deal. Didn't even set my alarm - that was nice. The weather was really nice outside so I decided to pack my bag and head out for the day. I found this great little green space behind the town theatre that has a giant fountain in the middle. I brought a blanket and my book and read for a while under the sun. It was nice. Then I explored more of Cottbus that I haven't been to yet. I found this nice trail to walk down that led me between all of these houses and gardens. It's a residential area, I guess, but there's no access by car. The path was for biking and walking, and it let through this residential part where every inch of space is covered with small huts/houses, greenhouses, or gardens. It was really cute. I didn't reach the end of the trail so I'll have to go back one day and see where it takes me. It was such a beautiful day outside today that walking along it was very relaxing and I enjoyed myself.
Upon returning to my apartment I realized that I left my key in my room. Ugh. I attach my key to my water bottle when I go running. Last night after running I got online to talk to some people and after that I took a shower and immediately went to bed. I didn't clean up after dinner and didn't reattach my key to my keychain. This morning it didn't cross my mind to make sure my key was on my keychain, so I ended up leaving it behind. I found a girl and asked her if there was a number I could call to get my door opened. We called the number and the line was disconnected. Great. Then I saw a boy entering my building so I followed him in and asked if he knew how I could open my door. He showed me where the "Hausmeister" has a bulletin board with all of the maintenance numbers that I could call. I found a number that had the German word for key ("Schlüssel" - a favorite Germany word of mine) in it (Germans like to make up words by squishing 3 or 4 words together that all describe one specific thing) so I called it. The guy didn't speak English, but I managed to get him to my door to open it for me. Having my door opened cost me 30€! $45! Outrageous. Especially since all he did was pick the lock. I figured I could find a neighbor with a wire coat hanger and manage to open the door myself (plus I would also probably make a friend by asking for the hanger) but I was too lazy. Whatever. I'm impressed that I lasted so long without locking myself out. I always think to myself "Damn, I haven't locked myself out yet - go me!" but it had to happen sometime. Now I will be more careful.
The European Cup final was tonight between Germany and Spain. Spain ended up winning (damnit). I wasn't really in the mood to go watch the game so I chilled at home. No biggie. Soccer isn't really my thing and I didn't have anyone to watch it with so I chose not to be the awkward kid in the corner all night long.
I leave Thursday morning for Heidelberg! I'm really excited. The program I am in is having a conference there for all of the participants. I'm excited to celebrate the 4th of July with the rest of the Americans - Germany won't know what hit them... I've heard that Heidelberg is a really beautiful city filled with tons of culture, art, etc. I'm excited to check it out. Plus the program is sending us on a tour of the city, so that will be cool actually getting to learn about it. Plus I'm planning on visiting my Uncle Mac and Aunt Melody while they are in town. Hopefully I will have a few hours to eat dinner and hang out with them.
That about wraps it up. I'll update the Cottbus photo album with the pictures that I took today. Check it out.
28 more days.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
London Pictures Are Up!
So, I finished uploading pictures from London and you can see them by clicking on the link on the right hand side. Enjoy!
Now it's time to go to bed - probably shouldn't have taken that nap at 8pm. If only it didn't get dark until 10pm, then I wouldn't be taking naps so late.
Off to Berlin tomorrow to check out Christopher Street Day festivities. Should be quite interesting.
Less than a month until I'm home : )
See you guys soon.
Now it's time to go to bed - probably shouldn't have taken that nap at 8pm. If only it didn't get dark until 10pm, then I wouldn't be taking naps so late.
Off to Berlin tomorrow to check out Christopher Street Day festivities. Should be quite interesting.
Less than a month until I'm home : )
See you guys soon.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Dresden and London
So, it has been a while. But no worries, I'll update you.
Last week we go to go to the field twice for work. Tuesday we went and helped this other PhD student, Ute, fill in 5 of her soil pits. She finished all of her research so we filled in the pits in order to try and leave nature the way we found it. It was hot and that was a lot of work. The pits are 2 meters deep and probably 1 meter across both ways. Oh, and Annika and I took about 6 soil samples - woot. Thursday we went out again to a different mining site than what I've been to previously. It was cool. New pictures from the site are in the Cottbus album. The site is completely artificial but it's cool because they can monitor just about everything because they know all the initial conditions. We also drove to a look out point so I could see the brown coal mine. It was huuuge. They explained how they mine for the brown coal and it was pretty interesting. I had planned on workin' on my hot tan during this trip, but it was cold overcast and windy and I decided to wear shorts. Poor decision, but next time I"ll know better...
Lately I've been running 4 miles each time I run. I'm very impressed with myself. My goal for this summer is to be able to run 5 miles without any problems. First I thought it wasn't going to happen, but now I think I'll get there in the next 2 weeks. Schweet.
Oh, I fell the other day while running. Damn piece of crap eastern European sidewalks. Infrastructure infrastructure INFRASTRUCTURE! Oh, well, I'll give them a break because they are still recovering from that war. What was it called? Oh yes, WWII.
...
Okay, so I just got back from London at 3am this morning. I know it has been a while since my last post, but I've been "busy" and it takes so much time to type all this stuff up. Really, I just have too many stories that go untold so in the end it's my fault. Oh well.
Dresden was awesome. I was there 2 weekends ago. It was my first Couchsurfing experience and I'm happy to report that everything went very well. I found a host, Susanne, on the Couchsurfing website and she was awesome. She picked me up at the train station, introduced me to friends, and most importantly let me sleep on her couch for two nights. Luckily for me there was an annual music festival going on in Dresden that weekend so we went to that every day. It was pretty awesome. She also took me around the touristy part of Dresden and I was very impressed with all the stuff she knew. My own personal tour guide. Overall I had a great time. You can check out the pictures by clicking on the link to the right. I think they basically sum up my weekend.
I only worked 3 days last week, which was really nice. I've been having to measure out hundreds of 10.0000g samples of soil with an error of only .0002g. It sucks. I can do about 30 samples in an hour, but doing that for 3 consecutive hours is not fun in the slightest. I really want to listen to my iPod while doing it, but I still haven't decided if that's appropriate or not.
I flew out of Berlin Schönefeld airport Wednesday night and landed in London around 10.40pm. The flight was only an hour and 40 minutes. I flew Ryan Air, which was interesting. They are the low fare airline - and it shows. The whole inside of the plane is covered in advertisements and every now and then a radio ad comes on over the speakers. Lovely. No free drinks or anything - it all costs a ton of money. Whatever, it was a cheap flight. I got to walk on the tarmac when boarding the airplane, which was cool - I've never done that before. They lead from the front and back of the plane and there are no assigned seats - it's a free for all. Pretty crazy, but I guess it doesn't work too bad. Certainly no Delta.
When I got to London I was thoroughly questioned by customs and was finally allowed to enter the UK. Woohoo! Traveling was a lot easier because I could speak their language fluently, hah. I was so excited to be able to express myself freely in English without having to slow down or choose smaller words. I felt smart and capable - a weird feeling to have when speaking your own language. On the train to the Tube station I sat in a cab with Austrian people who were part of a private english class. They were taking a field trip to London to practice their english. The average age for the group was about 45 or so - it was interesting. They were taking pictures and I asked, in German, if they wanted me to take their picture then they got excited that I could speak German so we talked the whole ride. They were very nice and oh so excited to speak English with me. It made me happy. I ended up running through the Tube station with the rest of the people to catch the last train to the stop I needed. Lucky for me since cabs there are so expensive. That night I met up with KATIE and me, her, and Mario went out to the Mango Lounge and enjoyed some really really expensive cocktails. Curse the continuously lowering power of the US dollar! Everything in London looks reasonably priced, but then you remember that you need to multiply it by two in order to figure out how much it is in US dollars. Then your jaw drops and you kick a rock.
Thursday night we saw Alanis Morrisette in concert! Ahhh! She is absolutely amazing. She played all of her famous songs and it felt like they just kept coming and coming - you forget she has so many hits until the next song starts and it's your "favorite Alanis song". Then she plays another and the same feeling comes over you that it's your "favorite". A lot of fun. We are all pretty sure she was on some sort of drugs the whole concert. She would spin around the stage and jump everywhere - exactly like in Little Miss Sunshine at the beauty pageant. It was funny, but also freaky. Oh well, if she needs some jagged little pills to write such great songs then so be it.
We did so much, all the days seem to run together. I know I'll leave a lot of stuff out, but I'll try my best.
Katie's Mom and brother arrived in London the same time I did. Friday (I think?) we met up with them for lunch and then I hung out with Mrs. Craft while Katie was at rehearsal. Her and Mrs. Barnes are my favorite foster mothers ever. So easy to talk to and lots of fun. I can't quite remember what we ended up doing that night. Mostly it was hanging around the flat that they live in. All the people that are on the study abroad trip with Kate are really cool and I had a fun time with them all.
One night we went to a VIP party that the study abroad professor got everyone into. I pretended to be a kid named Jake Cooper - he was in Paris at the time so I took his spot. The club was okay, but it was more of just a bar with bands playing. We watched one rapper and that was that. We left to go to another club but Katie and I headed off to go gambling instead. Hehe. You only have to be 18 to play at the casinos in London - sweet. The people Katie ordered the Alanis tickets from accidently sent us 2 sets of 3 tickets. We scalped the 2nd set of tickets at the door for 55£. $110. Awesome. We decided because that was free money, we would gamble it all. Seemed like a perfectly logical thing to do. We went around and played slots at all the casinos. Went into a few cheap ones, went into a few really nice ones. I had to register a few of them so I got a membership card and my picture was taken. At one place we decided to use up 10£ each. The slots were 50p or 1£. I used up all my pounds so Katie gave me one of hers. I really wanted to play this shark/fish slot machine so I went over and put my coin in. Within 5 minutes I turned that 1£ into 77£! Ballah! I won 20 free spins, and with those spins I won 20 more free spins. I think that happened a few more times until I got 80 spins total. It was awesome. We had a crowd around us and all the old women were in shock, haha. After the big win we left because we figured our luck at that place had run out. We went to Katie's favorite casino, got a few cocktails, and used up the rest of the original 55£ there. It was funny to think that us drinking cocktails and playing at slot machines is illegal in America. We laughed at the fact that nobody died that night, we ended up doubling our money, and we both got home safe and sound. No harm done, right? Silly America.
Saturday I was adopted into the Craft family and Mama Craft took all of us on a bus tour of London. You hop on the bus, it makes stops around London and you can choose to either stay on and ride, or hop off and stay at the site for a while. Once you're done at one place you just go back to the bus stop and wait for the next bus to come, pick you up, and take you to the next place. It was really awesome. We saw Big Ben, the Parliment, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, the Tate Modern Art Museum, the Tower Bridge, the London Bridge, and probably one or two things I'm forgetting. It was really cool. I should have pictures up by the end of the week so check them out : )
On Sunday, my last day in London, Katie and I hit the shops to spend our gambling money. We spend it on a few things throughout the week, but we both got 35£ to play with as we wished. We checked out H&M, Top Shop (for Katie), and finally headed to Urban Outfitters. Don't know why we thought it would be less expensive that it is in America, but we figured we had money to blow so why not. I ended up getting a cool tweed messenger bag/murse/what have you. Katie didn't find anything desirable so we took the money and decided to save it for later. With only a few hours to go, we rushed to a pub so I could try Pims - a traditional British drink. It was pretty good. Then we stopped at this awesome frozen yogurt place I found, called Snogger. It was delicious. We then took the tube to King's Cross train station and visited the infamous platform 9 3/4. They already had a cart there that was halfway into the wall so we both took pictures pushing it. Hehe.
Overall, my time in London was amazing. I got to see my best friend in the entire world and have her take me around a city that she has been exploring for 6 weeks. I couldn't have asked for a better hostess. I love you, Katie!
My flight home was just fine. I got back later than I originally thought, but it wasn't too bad. At the airport waiting for a train to the Hauptbahnhof in Berlin, I met these two girls that are also doing the same research internship program that I'm doing. They are really cool and I hung out with them all the way until my train to Cottbus left. I ended up decided to skip the first one because I only had 5 minutes to get to it and I wanted to chat more with them and grab a bite for dinner. We hung out for a few hours and talked about our experiences in Germany. I had a lot of fun. They invited me on their trip to Amsterdam in a few weeks which I will probably go on. We will also see each other in Heidelburg in two weeks for our programs conference. I'm excited that I will already know people when I get there.
I ended up getting back to my apartment at 3am. Ugh. I slept for a few hours, went to work, and filled more bottles with 10.0000g of soil. I'm getting sick of soil, but hey, it's paying for me to be here so I guess I shouldn't complain.
I think that roughly covers everything at the moment. I'll work on getting London pictures up in the next few days. Until then check out the Dresden pictures.
I'm home in 34 days. It's going by faster, which is nice. Can't wait to see you all soon.
Until next time.
Last week we go to go to the field twice for work. Tuesday we went and helped this other PhD student, Ute, fill in 5 of her soil pits. She finished all of her research so we filled in the pits in order to try and leave nature the way we found it. It was hot and that was a lot of work. The pits are 2 meters deep and probably 1 meter across both ways. Oh, and Annika and I took about 6 soil samples - woot. Thursday we went out again to a different mining site than what I've been to previously. It was cool. New pictures from the site are in the Cottbus album. The site is completely artificial but it's cool because they can monitor just about everything because they know all the initial conditions. We also drove to a look out point so I could see the brown coal mine. It was huuuge. They explained how they mine for the brown coal and it was pretty interesting. I had planned on workin' on my hot tan during this trip, but it was cold overcast and windy and I decided to wear shorts. Poor decision, but next time I"ll know better...
Lately I've been running 4 miles each time I run. I'm very impressed with myself. My goal for this summer is to be able to run 5 miles without any problems. First I thought it wasn't going to happen, but now I think I'll get there in the next 2 weeks. Schweet.
Oh, I fell the other day while running. Damn piece of crap eastern European sidewalks. Infrastructure infrastructure INFRASTRUCTURE! Oh, well, I'll give them a break because they are still recovering from that war. What was it called? Oh yes, WWII.
...
Okay, so I just got back from London at 3am this morning. I know it has been a while since my last post, but I've been "busy" and it takes so much time to type all this stuff up. Really, I just have too many stories that go untold so in the end it's my fault. Oh well.
Dresden was awesome. I was there 2 weekends ago. It was my first Couchsurfing experience and I'm happy to report that everything went very well. I found a host, Susanne, on the Couchsurfing website and she was awesome. She picked me up at the train station, introduced me to friends, and most importantly let me sleep on her couch for two nights. Luckily for me there was an annual music festival going on in Dresden that weekend so we went to that every day. It was pretty awesome. She also took me around the touristy part of Dresden and I was very impressed with all the stuff she knew. My own personal tour guide. Overall I had a great time. You can check out the pictures by clicking on the link to the right. I think they basically sum up my weekend.
I only worked 3 days last week, which was really nice. I've been having to measure out hundreds of 10.0000g samples of soil with an error of only .0002g. It sucks. I can do about 30 samples in an hour, but doing that for 3 consecutive hours is not fun in the slightest. I really want to listen to my iPod while doing it, but I still haven't decided if that's appropriate or not.
I flew out of Berlin Schönefeld airport Wednesday night and landed in London around 10.40pm. The flight was only an hour and 40 minutes. I flew Ryan Air, which was interesting. They are the low fare airline - and it shows. The whole inside of the plane is covered in advertisements and every now and then a radio ad comes on over the speakers. Lovely. No free drinks or anything - it all costs a ton of money. Whatever, it was a cheap flight. I got to walk on the tarmac when boarding the airplane, which was cool - I've never done that before. They lead from the front and back of the plane and there are no assigned seats - it's a free for all. Pretty crazy, but I guess it doesn't work too bad. Certainly no Delta.
When I got to London I was thoroughly questioned by customs and was finally allowed to enter the UK. Woohoo! Traveling was a lot easier because I could speak their language fluently, hah. I was so excited to be able to express myself freely in English without having to slow down or choose smaller words. I felt smart and capable - a weird feeling to have when speaking your own language. On the train to the Tube station I sat in a cab with Austrian people who were part of a private english class. They were taking a field trip to London to practice their english. The average age for the group was about 45 or so - it was interesting. They were taking pictures and I asked, in German, if they wanted me to take their picture then they got excited that I could speak German so we talked the whole ride. They were very nice and oh so excited to speak English with me. It made me happy. I ended up running through the Tube station with the rest of the people to catch the last train to the stop I needed. Lucky for me since cabs there are so expensive. That night I met up with KATIE and me, her, and Mario went out to the Mango Lounge and enjoyed some really really expensive cocktails. Curse the continuously lowering power of the US dollar! Everything in London looks reasonably priced, but then you remember that you need to multiply it by two in order to figure out how much it is in US dollars. Then your jaw drops and you kick a rock.
Thursday night we saw Alanis Morrisette in concert! Ahhh! She is absolutely amazing. She played all of her famous songs and it felt like they just kept coming and coming - you forget she has so many hits until the next song starts and it's your "favorite Alanis song". Then she plays another and the same feeling comes over you that it's your "favorite". A lot of fun. We are all pretty sure she was on some sort of drugs the whole concert. She would spin around the stage and jump everywhere - exactly like in Little Miss Sunshine at the beauty pageant. It was funny, but also freaky. Oh well, if she needs some jagged little pills to write such great songs then so be it.
We did so much, all the days seem to run together. I know I'll leave a lot of stuff out, but I'll try my best.
Katie's Mom and brother arrived in London the same time I did. Friday (I think?) we met up with them for lunch and then I hung out with Mrs. Craft while Katie was at rehearsal. Her and Mrs. Barnes are my favorite foster mothers ever. So easy to talk to and lots of fun. I can't quite remember what we ended up doing that night. Mostly it was hanging around the flat that they live in. All the people that are on the study abroad trip with Kate are really cool and I had a fun time with them all.
One night we went to a VIP party that the study abroad professor got everyone into. I pretended to be a kid named Jake Cooper - he was in Paris at the time so I took his spot. The club was okay, but it was more of just a bar with bands playing. We watched one rapper and that was that. We left to go to another club but Katie and I headed off to go gambling instead. Hehe. You only have to be 18 to play at the casinos in London - sweet. The people Katie ordered the Alanis tickets from accidently sent us 2 sets of 3 tickets. We scalped the 2nd set of tickets at the door for 55£. $110. Awesome. We decided because that was free money, we would gamble it all. Seemed like a perfectly logical thing to do. We went around and played slots at all the casinos. Went into a few cheap ones, went into a few really nice ones. I had to register a few of them so I got a membership card and my picture was taken. At one place we decided to use up 10£ each. The slots were 50p or 1£. I used up all my pounds so Katie gave me one of hers. I really wanted to play this shark/fish slot machine so I went over and put my coin in. Within 5 minutes I turned that 1£ into 77£! Ballah! I won 20 free spins, and with those spins I won 20 more free spins. I think that happened a few more times until I got 80 spins total. It was awesome. We had a crowd around us and all the old women were in shock, haha. After the big win we left because we figured our luck at that place had run out. We went to Katie's favorite casino, got a few cocktails, and used up the rest of the original 55£ there. It was funny to think that us drinking cocktails and playing at slot machines is illegal in America. We laughed at the fact that nobody died that night, we ended up doubling our money, and we both got home safe and sound. No harm done, right? Silly America.
Saturday I was adopted into the Craft family and Mama Craft took all of us on a bus tour of London. You hop on the bus, it makes stops around London and you can choose to either stay on and ride, or hop off and stay at the site for a while. Once you're done at one place you just go back to the bus stop and wait for the next bus to come, pick you up, and take you to the next place. It was really awesome. We saw Big Ben, the Parliment, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, the Tate Modern Art Museum, the Tower Bridge, the London Bridge, and probably one or two things I'm forgetting. It was really cool. I should have pictures up by the end of the week so check them out : )
On Sunday, my last day in London, Katie and I hit the shops to spend our gambling money. We spend it on a few things throughout the week, but we both got 35£ to play with as we wished. We checked out H&M, Top Shop (for Katie), and finally headed to Urban Outfitters. Don't know why we thought it would be less expensive that it is in America, but we figured we had money to blow so why not. I ended up getting a cool tweed messenger bag/murse/what have you. Katie didn't find anything desirable so we took the money and decided to save it for later. With only a few hours to go, we rushed to a pub so I could try Pims - a traditional British drink. It was pretty good. Then we stopped at this awesome frozen yogurt place I found, called Snogger. It was delicious. We then took the tube to King's Cross train station and visited the infamous platform 9 3/4. They already had a cart there that was halfway into the wall so we both took pictures pushing it. Hehe.
Overall, my time in London was amazing. I got to see my best friend in the entire world and have her take me around a city that she has been exploring for 6 weeks. I couldn't have asked for a better hostess. I love you, Katie!
My flight home was just fine. I got back later than I originally thought, but it wasn't too bad. At the airport waiting for a train to the Hauptbahnhof in Berlin, I met these two girls that are also doing the same research internship program that I'm doing. They are really cool and I hung out with them all the way until my train to Cottbus left. I ended up decided to skip the first one because I only had 5 minutes to get to it and I wanted to chat more with them and grab a bite for dinner. We hung out for a few hours and talked about our experiences in Germany. I had a lot of fun. They invited me on their trip to Amsterdam in a few weeks which I will probably go on. We will also see each other in Heidelburg in two weeks for our programs conference. I'm excited that I will already know people when I get there.
I ended up getting back to my apartment at 3am. Ugh. I slept for a few hours, went to work, and filled more bottles with 10.0000g of soil. I'm getting sick of soil, but hey, it's paying for me to be here so I guess I shouldn't complain.
I think that roughly covers everything at the moment. I'll work on getting London pictures up in the next few days. Until then check out the Dresden pictures.
I'm home in 34 days. It's going by faster, which is nice. Can't wait to see you all soon.
Until next time.
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