Sunday, October 24, 2010

Czech Me Out!

Lately I've been traveling quite a bit.  OK, not huge amounts, but enough to say that this Sunday spent at home was extremely relieving.  Last weekend I was in Hamburg visiting friends after finishing that terrible exam (which by the way, through some miraculous maneuvering, I managed to PASS!) and then returned Monday for our first week of classes.  I like my classes- I have a finance class and a politics class.  This may sound like a rather light load of classes, but please remember I did 150 hours of intensive German class for the last 6 weeks, and then an additional 50 hours of culture class as well, so I've already accumulated 10 credits towards this semester.  Clearly, I'm doing quite alright.  But yes, I find my classes pretty interesting and not too stressful- the perfect semester I'd say.  But anyways, back to Hamburg.  I spent the weekend at my friend Chris' house with him and his family.  I hung out with Sarah and Patrick this weekend too, and we basically relaxed the entire weekend.  I finally managed to make the journey to my first European Ikea; they're like little villages here.  It's so creepy.  But yet so enticing.  I'm not sure I could really describe it... it's one of those things you'd have to experience yourself.  Here are some pictures from last weekend in Hamburg; we went to a part of the city called "Hafen city" which translates to "Harbor City."  I haven't seen it since I was first in Hamburg 4 years ago, and it has been basically redeveloped and touched up.  I loved it!

Here are the rest of the photos :

On Wednesdays I only have class until 12, so Nichola, Christina, Kayte and myself (my girlfriends from here) took a random train to Heidelberg with our free student passes for the day.  It was about a 1.5 hour train ride in total to reach Heidelberg, and once we got there we found the weather to be absolutely freezing, windy, foggy and raining.  Absolute crap for seeing any of the city.  We still wandered around a bit and eventually got some Chinese food, then made the trek back home to Marburg.  Basically it was a waste of a trip, but in reality we probably wouldn't have done anything at home in Marburg either, and it was free, so eh.


 
The main travel of this blog section, however, was Prague, Czech Republic.  I was there only about 2 years ago in the summer with my family and a school group, however we were given Prague as the destination to our blind booking trip.  A blind booking is where you pay for a flight without knowing your eventual destination and then once you pay you are given a destination.  We got Prague and yep.  I can say that Prague is a city in which you really only need to visit once in your life, but I'm not saying it was a terrible trip.  I went with 5 of my girlfriends from my program here and we stayed in a small hostel right in the old city of Prague.  The Czech People really are not hospitable to English speaking people however.  They're extremely rude (not all, but majority) so it was kind of frustrating.  Our Taxi driver was cursing at us in Czech because we weren't getting out of his cab fast enough and wanted to use a coupon that HIS company gave us to use.  Whatever.  Strange people.  But yes.  We did everything for free; basically walking around and taking photos of the city.  I finally saw a wall which is a tribute to John Lenon.  The story goes that when John Lenon was killed, people would draw tributes to him on this wall and then the police would paint over them.  However, the next morning the tributes would be back up again.  So eventually they just stopped covering them up and now this huge wall of tributes stands there.  It kind of reminded me of the paintings on the Berlin Wall.  Also, I liked the "lock bridge" right next to the wall; couples come to this bridge and put locks on the bridge representing their love for each other and then throw the locks into the river.  It's so cute!!!  I'm running late for dinner, so here is the link to all the photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/113919949355390501172/20101023?authkey=Gv1sRgCM6EpaGvjqTgqgE&feat=directlink

The flights there and back were only an hour, but it was a 2 hour train ride to the airport.  Clearly, with being such a cheap flight, it wasn't the nicest air travel in my life, but it worked.  The landings were all kind of rough, but eh.  Can't complain I suppose.  Well I'm off folks.  6 weeks until I see you all again.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Mein Ohr tut mir Weh!

So I must start out with my most recent adventure: minor surgery in my new not-so-foreign country.  I woke up yesterday (Wed.) morning with pain in my ear, and after wandering to the mirror in my half-awake stumbling, i found my ear to be swollen, red, and pointy.  I seriously looked like a elf straight out of your favorite fairy tales.  Well, minus the American Eagle pajamas.  But, you know, you gotta work with the image I can provide here.   This is what the thing looked like later in the day..

Yeah, disgusting I know.  For the record, it hurt like heck. I decided during my bus trip to school that I should probably go to the doctor, and once I arrived at the school my teacher helped me find a local ear doctor.  I went to the doctors office, only to be told he was operating in a different office across town.  So, being determined as I was, I decided to jump on a few buses and navigate my own way across town via the small map on the brochure provided to me by the nurse at the front desk.  It was so unbelievably cold (it usually is- but I wasn't really prepared to go hiking across town all morning) and I was only wearing my thin fall jacket with a thin sweater underneath.  I believe my thoughts at one point were, "I can't believe I'm going to get pneumonia over this stupid bump."  However, so far so good.  No signs of pneumonia.  I had to hike up some serious hills (this clinic was located on the side of a mountain, kind of like a straight out of Heidi scene where you're off to find some magical medicine doctor or something) and cross some bridges but finally i made it.  Upon arriving there, the receptionist was clearly confused by my American- German accent and just threw a random form at me and before I knew it I was in a German operating room (the tray still had the goo from the guy before Me's nose.. ew?) and the German Doctor took one look at me, told me I need to have a minor surgery to fix it, and that he thought that it was a piece of earring in my ear  (I knew it wasn't, by the way).   He told me he didn't have time for the operation right then, so he told me to call back at 5 to see if he had time later.  I then went and met with my program director who told me she would take me to the appointment.  Turns out he didn't have time at 5 last night, so I had to wait until 7:30 this morning where he stuck me with a HUGE needle for anesthetic and then cut it open to find.. tadaaaaaaa. nooo earring.  So, I won the bet (we made one after I told him I thought it was just cartilage) and he gave me a bottle of champagne for winning.  It was quite the scene.  On a downside though, I now have to return tomorrow to have tissue removed from my ear which is apparently the root of the problem.  I guess there is a ball of tissue which is on the side of my ear and was irritated, then in flamed and now infected, so he has to remove it.  Just great.  Oh well.  At least it won't hurt anymore.  After the procedure this morning I had what looked like a eye patch but on my ear.. and it tied over my head and under my chin.  I looked so... unique.  People were definitely staring on the bus.  Oh well.  A whole new meaning of fashion statement!  I'll put up those pictures later.. I forgot to upload them.

In other  news, I went to Frankfurt!  Basically, if Chicago and London fell in love and had a baby, you'd have Frankfurt.  Originally I always hated Frankfurt due to airport and train station frustrations, but I had never been truly out into the city.  It's gorgeous!  It is super busy of course, but also super Victorian old style.  My program went to a museum about the Jewish history in Frankfurt (super interesting by the way) and then I basically spent the rest of the time wandering around the city with a few friends.  We stopped at a pub to have the famous "Apfelwein" (Apple wine).  I thought it would be just like some apple cider (I had the alcohol-free version) but definitely not.  It was the most bitter beverage I've ever had in my entire life.  If for some reason you find yourself in Frankfurt and are tempted to try the local delicacy, please, just please, refrain.  It essentially tastes like horse pee in a cup.  Just don't do it.  I don't care how friendly your waiter is, how anxious you are to try the local cuisine or how cute the little etched glasses are.  DON'T. 

OK, I'm glad we went over this.  We headed back on the the train around 8 (now that it is October, I have a student's travel pass which allows me to travel through the German State of Hessen for free on all trains, buses, boats, etc) and headed back to Marburg.  Here are some beeeautiful photos :)

Here's the link to more...
http://picasaweb.google.com/113919949355390501172/20101009?authkey=Gv1sRgCLab-sLUktLmcw&feat=directlink

So yep.  Off to Hamburg this weekend!  Today I had my culture course exam, tomorrow the language course exam (kill me now..) and then Wednesday is our speaking exam.  Real University classes start Monday, and I'm pretty excited to see how it all works out.  I'm off to master the cooking of broccoli. 
 

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Pea Soup

Well folks, it's here.  The usual fall cold or, as we call it in German, Erkaeltung.  However, it isn't the swine flu like last year, so I'm quite content with merely having a sore throat, head ache and being tired.  I just finished making myself some pea soup (out of a can; don't kid yourself) and I'm taking it easy all day.  I'm doing laundry and just finished cleaning up the apartment, and the windows are all open; the weather is simply gorgeous today.  Sadly, it will probably be the last day I can have my windows all wide open before the winter cold sets in.  Oh well I suppose.  I went to language class this morning but excused myself at the half-way break to run to the pharmacy and get some medicine.  The teacher told me to take the rest of the day off so here I am. 

Pharmacies here are kind of different than back home, which to me is fascinating considering my background in Pharmacies and what not.  At home, when you're sick, you go see a doctor and they write you a prescription.  Pharmacists merely check the drug and instructions after filling it, they don't prescribe anything.  Even little eye drops and antibiotic creams; gotta see the doc for the good stuff.  However, here, pharmacists are kind of like doctors.  Granted, they don't give out antibiotics or hardcore drugs by their own free will; there is some structure to it.  However, for things such as some little creams and simple cold medicine, they are able to recommend, "prescribe" (in a sense?) and dispense the medication to you.  I had a cut a few weeks back and went to the pharmacy with Senta and I got an antibiotic cream from behind the counter without a prescription.  It was pretty nifty.  I must say, I'm quite the fan. 

It's only a week until my final exam in my language course, and I have to say, I'm panicking.  My teacher, being the unique individual she is, basically taught me close to nothing, so, my apartment is now slowly becoming literally covered in note cards.  We covered so much in short a period of time, and she barely taught it.  But like usual, I'll do my best to get the grade, so next week my social life will basically be non-existent.  But oh well.  Wish  me luck? 

I don't know if I mentioned this already, but, milk is not refrigerated here.  Ok, well, fresh milk is.  But usually when I buy my milk, I have to get it off a regular shelf in the store.  It tastes perfectly fine; Germany just has different pasteurizing methods.  They also drink normally 3.5% milk compared to our usual skim, 1% or 2%.  No wonder Sarah and Manon would always tell me it was like drinking water at my house. hm.  I keep buying weird versions of things because of my lack of attention to the labels.  I mean when I see milk, I assume its milk, I don't try to read the rest of the German mumbo-jumbo on the label.  However, I've now bought lactose-free milk, vegetarian spaghetti meat sauce, sugar free cough drops, etc.  It's just never a dull day here.  Seriously.

In other news, I've now booked a train to Paris.  The travels keep adding up, but it's so much cheaper than you'd think to travel between European countries, that how can you not?  This is my itinerary for travel so far...

Oct. 15- Heidelberg
Oct. 21-23  Prague
Oct. 28-31  Hamburg
Nov. 12-14  Essen (Germany.. going with our Program)
Nov.  18-21 Paris
Nov.  26- 28 Nuremberg (Christmas Market)
Dec.  2-5  Hamburg
Dec. 10-14th Budapest

There is still opportunity for a trip on the first weekend of November, and I'm thinking of visiting a close friend of mine in Norway, or doing another blind booking.  Oh the travels. 

Side note.. I just got my laundry and apparently something in the load or my detergent turned all of my underwear blue.  Awesome.  Again with the daily excitement.  ughhhhh.

Ok well I'm off to get some sleep.  No pictures this time because my Internet is acting up again and the wireless hasn't arrived yet either.  Ohhh Germany. 

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Sorry for the Delay, but my Internet stick hates me.

Oh my goodness.  It has been just over two weeks since I had a chance to update this thing, and so much has happened.  My Internet just decided to be lovely and basically just.. die.. on me, along with block the ability to blog.  Ugh.  Whatever.  My wireless should come tomorrow or Tuesday, so, problem solved.  Good byeee crappy Internet stick.  I'm contemplating throwing it off my 10th story balcony to show my true feelings towards it.  However, I'm still trying to fly under the radar as not the crazy, brash American.  So. Yeah.  Anyways.  Language class still blows, but oh well.  We have a new teacher on Thursday and Fridays named Andreas and he's basically awesome, so the weeks are now slightly more tolerable.  He's funny and can actually teach, so I feel like Thursdays and Fridays will be my not so new, but never the less, favorite days of the week.  I actually skipped class last Friday (sept. 23rd) because I went to.. (drum roll please) HAMBURG!  :)  I was so excited to go and visit my host family and friends in Hamburg; I was like a little kid waiting for Christmas or the tooth fairy or at least something with euphoria attached.  After class on Thursday I literally ran home, grabbed my bags, took a bus to the Hauptbahnhof (main train station)  and caught my 5:50 train to Kassel, and then from Kassel to Hamburg.  Sarah Fuchs was there awaiting me on the platform when I arrived at 9:50 pm.  I felt like I was home, it was so great.  Hamburg truly is like a second home to me; i absolutely love being there.  I was able to see my host family (all of them) for the first time in two years which was great.  I missed them so much, oh my god.  They're hysterical.  My host dad just recently returned from Chicago and was sharing his new found love for American Eagle, the Hyatt hotel, and, wait for it.... Beef Jerky.  He was so excited about Beef Jerky and its magical deliciousness, again with the kid on Christmas analogy.  I hope you're all as excited as I am about this.  I found it hilarious.  Ahhh have to love him.  Awesome.  Maybe I'm the only one who finds it this amusing.  eh.  oh well.  But yes.  Thursday I just watched a movie with Sarah and Timo (host brother) after my late arrival and caught up on the last 2 years.  My other host sister Steffi eventually came home from work around 12 and talked briefly but I didn't see much of her.  She's working a ton at a sandwich shop somewhere in Hamburg, and mostly on the weekends.  So yeah.  But oh well.  Sarah works there too actually, and their sandwiches are amazing.  Hmm.  Anyways.   This is my crazy awesome host family... (minus steffi..)
Oh wait.. here's Steffi...

To keep things short, the weekend basically consisted of shopping, partying, relaxing at home and just catching up with the family after 2 years.  It was really awesome and I can't wait to go back on the weekend of Halloween.  Next time I'm bringing my friend Carissa from the program here with me, and she hasn't ever been to Hamburg so it should definitely be a great time.  Here are some quick photos from the weekend..
Most of the pictures I have from Hamburg are just pictures with people since I've already done the tourist pictures gig twice before.  But if you want to see the whole album.. click here...
I hope that works.  I finally managed to get the Picasa to attach itself to my "online" web albums.. so.. ideally that should show you my time in Hamburg.  Otherwise we're back to the drawing board.

Random note.. French music tends to be amazing.  I'm listening to the radio right now, and all the French "clubbing" music is always amazing.  At the moment they're playing some random Indian music.. its kind of like a chanting.  I'm not sure what its doing on my radio, but I guess I'm all for new cultural experiences?  The radio is really quite diverse here- Music isn't just in English and German.  Kind of awesome. 
Ok so, this last week was kind of dull, not a whole ton going on here.  Just class and rain.  The usual.  But yet the week flew by.  It's crazy to think that I've already been here for 5 weeks, almost 6, and I'll be in home in about 9.5.  Time is flying.  In two weeks (from the 21st through the 23rd of October) I'll be in Prague.  6 friends from the program and myself decided to try a new promotion which one of us had heard of previously called "Blind Booking."  What this is, is one books a ticket for really cheap, however, you don't know your final destination until after you pay.  Sounds totally ridiculous and scary at first, but just let me explain.  Basically, you choose a "package", in which there are approximately 10 cities.  When you purchase a ticket, you purchase one from a package, so you know that you will at least be going to one of those 10 cities; it isn't a complete shot in the dark.  Our package included cities like London, Madrid, Barcelona, Milan, Dublin, Prague, Rome, etc.  We only paid 40 euros for the round trip and we got Prague.  I was at first a little bummed because I've already been there, but, what the heck.  It'll be a blast, and it's one of my friends birthdays. Should be great.  I plan on using the Blind booking for a few more travels in the future.  Other groups got Milan, Dublin and Zurich as destinations.  I'm honestly quite excited for this experience.  I predict it will be something I'll tell my children about; their mother's "flying by the seat of her pants" adventures in Europe.  Yep.  Thrilled.  That is, if I have children.
So, speaking of travels, this past weekend I spent the weekend in a town on the Rhine River named Ruedesheim; part of the main German Wine Country.  It is definitely a tourist destination; no doubt about that.  Souvenir shops and expensive restaurants with "authentic" German music and meals lined all the cobble stoned streets, merely awaiting their victims.  I thought the town was cute and quaint, but I probably wouldn't recommend it to anyone under 50.  Just how I felt I suppose. 


The vineyards surrounding the town were beautiful; I took a cable car ride over the vineyards in the early morning fog on Saturday.  Now that was an experience. One can see for miles and miles up and down the rows of the vineyards, down the Rhine river, over the rolling hills of the country side; it was really quite awe inspiring.  I could have honestly stayed in that cable car for well over an hour and not have been bored one bit.  It was so quite up there that it was also kind of relaxing.  You really just were given a chance to completely take in all the beauty of the area.  Best part was, it was free! Our program picked up the tab for it :)




Other than that though, I felt the trip to be kind of dull.  Oh well, still a life experience.  We went to a medieval torture techniques museum and a museum on self playing instruments (don't those just sound so worthy of traveling across the world to see?... that's what I thought.  no.)  and we went to a wine tasting.  I'm not a huge huge fan of wine, so the tasting was slightly lost on me, but oh well.  Quite a few laughs were shared, and they had some damn good cheese cubes.  Can't go wrong with great cheese cubes.  It was freezing though, so the wine was a slight relief from the cold.  We tried 4 different types of wine; 2 dry and 2 sweet.  All were white wines from the region.  I'm generally a white wine fan, so this worked out quite splendidly for me. 


 


After the wine tasting we went on a 5 hour boat tour up and down the rhine river.  It was pretty views, especially since the trees just recently started changing colors.  I've never been in Germany during the fall so this was a new experience for me.  I had to sit in the restaurant for the majority of the boat ride due to the cold weather and my not so thick and poor jacket choice, but I still managed to get some good photos and enjoyed myself.  There were castles scattered every couple miles along the river, so that was also pretty rockin.  A few were just old rubble ruins but others were such elaborate, archictectual masterpieces that you would expect Rapunzel or Cinderella to pop out on a balcony at any moment.  They were legit.  I'd add pictures of it here, but I have so many, that at this point I'll just post the link for the album. 
 For some reason I ate an ungodly amount of bratwurst this weekend.  Just a random note for you I suppose. 

Oh aren't I just so cute. Anyways, the evening after the boat tour I basically just crashed from being exhausted (in order to get to the cable car I literally had to hike up a mountain and like 800 steps... rocky can kiss my butt after that..).  This morning we visited a monastery somewhere just outside of the city.  It was pretty, but also freezing.  I can definitely tell you, I would never survive being a monk under St. Benedict's law.  That stuff is crazy strict.  Plus they were crazy freezing ALL THE TIME.  Definitely would not work with  me.  The average life expectancy of the monks who lived in this monastery was 30.  Clearly the conditions were quite intense. 

 Kate French Braided my hair in the middle of our tour.  :)



So yes.  You can find more pictures from this last trip at the last link I posted; there are literally like 450 of them.  I know, I know, I need to take a chill pill.  But hey.  I am picture-taking-button-happy, which I don't think most of you would find a problem with.  Now for the random culture points of the day:


  • Germans (and most Europeans) wear their wedding rings on their right hands

  • German mothers (so I'm told through my own observations and a very limited supply of genuine German citizens) generally don't make their children home baked goods such as cookies, brownies, etc.  Then again why would you when there is a bakery on every single corner.  I'm beginning to think carbs are more important to them than vegetables.  Eesh.

  • You can give up on your schooling, your marriage, your mother, your job, and your future, but you can't ever give up on your loyalty for your soccer team. 

  • I bought boots and am beginning to take on a European clothing style.  I'm quite fond of it.  Not that this is a culture point or anything, but I just felt the need to share this with you all.

  • Children's menus are for children.  There is no fuzzy area.

  • Apparently, so I'm told, you don't refer to someone in Germany as "your friend" unless you've known them since you were about, oh, eight.  Now, what I mean by this is, you recognize them as a friend, yes, but when you would introduce someone to someone else, instead of saying "this is my friend Lisa" you'd merely say "this is Lisa."  I hope this makes sense.  To me, it's fascinating.  I keep calling everyone my friend.  I'm starting to be known as the SUPER "friendly" American. haha.  Oh well. 

  • When you buy Internet, your modem and router and whatever come in the mail.  Hence my recent issues.  Thank you Germany.

  • My Grandma and Grandpa wrote me letters!
Ok, I'm so tired.  Only two weeks of language class left and then I begin my politics and finance class.  And then I also begin my traveling.  Extensive Traveling.  Watch out world, here I come.