Saturday, January 29, 2011

Walking Marathons and Finding new Apartments

The last few days have been quite relaxed, yet quite full.  I am not sure if you all know, but the apartment I'm renting now is only for the first semester, and I needed to find a new apartment from March through June.  I thought it was going to be quite a challenge; it's a short amount of time and rather specific, the odds of someone needing someone to fill their room for those requirements wasn't looking good.  However, while on a website like the German facebook, but for Marburg Students, I found an add for an apartment exactly for the dates I was looking at.  I met up with the guy renting his room out for the 3 months on Wed, saw the house, met the roommates, and decided to accept the room.  The location of the apartment isn't as central as the last apartment, but it isn't terrible either.  It is just on the other side of town from where I live now.  There is a grocery store somewhat near by, and it is near where I had classes last semester, so I dont predict a huge problem with location.  The apartment is actually a house, and I will be renting one of the 5 bedrooms in the house.  I have 3 girl roommates and 1 boy (There usually are 2 guys, but I'm renting the one's room while he is in france for the semester) and they all seem really great.  They don't speak a ton of English, which excites me even further.  This will be a great chance to improve my German speaking skills, including slang terms.  When we all met, I spoke mostly only German and we all got along great, so I don't predict a problem there either.  The house is up on a huge hill, so there are like 50 steps from the road up to the house, but I am not one to mind a little excercise.  Our house has a nice patio balcony and 3 levels of yard; one has a fire pit!  My room is quite large and he is leaving his stuff for me to use, like bed, couch, desk, closet, etc., so I won't have to buy any of those things myself.  The apartment people are all really artsy, especially when it comes to photography.  Some of the photos they have in their rooms are absolutely phenomenal; the guy roommate kayaks around the world and takes photos in places like yemen, norway, ehm.. .all over.  And they're breath taking.  Hopefully they'll share their skills with me along the line.  Unfortunately I don't have a photo to show you now of my new digs, but I expect to move in the room in the end of March, so sometime after then!

In other news, I've been doing a ton of walking.  My friend Nichola and I got tired of sitting around our apartments and being lazy, so we deicded to go walking every day; usually new paths and new distnaces every day.  On Thursday we clocked in around 10 miles minimum, the others always around 3 or 4.  And after our walks, we're always off walking around town for errands and such, so my legs are definitely feeling the burn these days.  These are some photos I took of the town during our adventures..




Those are all views of my town, and the bird graffiti says something to the effect of "I love colors" "I detest Uniforms."  The sport fields are my university's sport fields for the teams, but our program really doesn't use them.  The one time I went for volleyball we played in a building near there, but otherwise we're never there.  The castle there is the center of town, and I never truly get over how gorgeous it is.  Tomorrow Nichola and I are off to Sweden.  I'm so excited!  I've never been anywhere in Scandinavia before, so this will be a totally new experience.  I also have no knowledge what-so-ever of the swedish language, so I'm sure that element will also be exciting and a new challenge.  So yep.  Until Wednesday!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Cool World Culture Facts!

Ok so I was seemingly bored this morning waiting for the sun to come out, and I found these cool/weird facts about the world and some cultures.. so I figured I would share them.  Some aren't all that special, but some I found pretty intriguing.  Here we go!
  • Topless saleswomen are legal in Liverpool, England -but only in tropical fish stores.
  • California has issued at least 6 drivers licenses to people named Jesus Christ.
  • The glue on Israeli postage is certified kosher.
  • In India, people are legally allowed to marry a dog.
  • Antarctica is the only land on our planet that is not owned by any country.
  • If the population of China walked past you in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction
  • The Hawaiian Alphabet only contains 12 letters: a, e, i, o, u, h, k, l, m, n, p and w. Every word ends with a vowel
  • There is a city called Rome on every continent.
  • Portuguese fishermen paint eyes on their boats. They hope that the eyes see where the fish are.
  • Coffee is the second largest item of international commerce in the world. The largest is petrol.
  • It is illegal to be a prostitute in Siena, Italy, if your name is Mary.
  • Atilla the Hun is thought to have been a dwarf.
  • It is a criminal offence to drive around in a dirty car in Russia.
  • It is illegal to play tennis in the streets of Cambridge.
  • Some Eskimos have been known to use refrigerators to keep their food from freezing.
  • Iceland is the world's oldest functioning democracy.
  • Between the two World War's, France was controlled by forty different governments.
  • Dublin is home of the Fairy Investigation Society.
  • People in Siberia often buy milk frozen on a stick.
  • The Matami Tribe of West Africa play a version of football, the only difference being that they use a human skull instead of a more normal ball.
  • The national flag of Italy was designed by Napoleon Bonaparte.
Ok, so some of them were funny, others just facts, but I found them kind of cool.  Today I am going for a walk in the mild version of sunshine that we have today, and then later I am going to check out a new apartment! The girl who I am currently renting from is coming back in the end of March, so I need to find a new apartment to move into by then.  This one that I found looks pretty nice, but we will have to see. 

Random, but, attention all women readers.. please read Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.  I have been reading the series for about a month now and they are probably the best books if not in a long time, ever, read.  Seriously.  I have told some of you to read them before but.. I must re-emphasize this now.  DO IT! haha.  Especially if you have a long plane ride coming up.. The one I was reading made my 8 hour flight feel like 4 :)  I think if I set this up right, you can just click on the name of the book where I wrote it and you can read the summary of the book or whatever. but read it.  seriously.  I just finished reading mine for 2 hours and felt the need to share their amazing-ness with the world.  Read!!!

Ok enough of that.  Im off on my walk and then to the new apartment.  Tschuesss!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Managing to Circle the World in Words and Other Adventures...

Earlier this week I was quite shocked upon logging onto my blog. According to my blog's statistics (which I just recently discovered and never checked prior to now), apparently my blog has been read approximately 2700 times in the last 4 months.  This isn't a huge number compared to major websites like Google or Facebook clearly, but dang.  That number basically stopped me in my tracks.  And to think I had originally thought only my parents, a few select friends, and uncle were reading this!  I was expecting something under 1,000, so dang.  Quite stunned.  I then checked the statistics of where my readers are in the world... Guess what.. they're all over it! I have no idea how my blog is reaching the far corners of Alaska, Russia, Canada, Romania or Utah.. but hey.  I am not complaining.  It is kind of exciting, and I feel like my words are literally stretching across the entire world.  It is quite empowering.  Perhaps I should update this thing more often.  As you can all see, I made a few edits to the layout and what not.. maybe I'll hit 10,000 reads before I leave here in June.  Hey, a girl can dream!

First off, for all of you NOT from my hometown of Green Bay, Wisconsin... our NFL team, the amazing Green Bay Packers (don't let anyone fool you, we are clearly the best in the league, always) is going to the Superbowl.  Heck yes much?  I am so excited! But it figures that the year they finally make it into the Superbowl, I am half way around the world.  I had tried to watch the NFC championship game here (game to decide if they would make it into the Superbowl) but unfortunately there were no streaming sites which I could appropriately access.  Boo.  But I was able to constantly refresh the score on an ESPN ticker, so I was kind of in on the action.  The game started at 9 pm my time here, so by the time the fourth quarter came around, I was way past exhausted.  I went to bed with about 8 minutes left in the game (we were up 14-0 at that point, so I figured I was safe to pass out) and didn't have time to check the final score before leaving to catch my train the next morning.  Upon arriving in the train station, out of the corner of my eye I caught an image of a green and gold something tackling a blue and orange something else.  My neck almost snapped due to the extreme swiveling of my head to the image. The headline read "Packers Out, Bears in, Bears to Win Superbowl."  I felt my heart fall to my toes, roll out of my body and get kicked and trompeled on by the masses passing through the train station.  Apparently, the German news papers had got it wrong, but at that moment I wasn't aware.  After seeing the paper, I threw myself into the International News section of the news papers, rustling through USA news, New York Times, etc.  They were all only advertising the game as occuring, no outcomes.  I must admit, I probably looked pretty darn strung out, but hell, you would be too if you thought the Chicago Bears were going to the Superbowl instead of your hometown team.  It's the bears.  Lets be real.  They suck.  After seriously 15 minutes of running around, frantically searching for a different newspaper which would prove the other wrong, I found a small clip of a paper (seriously, one printed page) with a minor corner dedicated to the score.  Packers 21- Bears 14.  Relief flooded through me like the bursting of the Hoover Dam, and I almost melted to the floor.  And then excitement started pulsing through me like an electric shock, and all the intensities of my emotions left me with the goofiest, large-as-life smile on my face for a good portion of the morning. So, in 2 weeks, you can bet your bum I will be completely devoted and zoned-in on whatever media device is providing me game updates.  After all, following the packers is like following a religion; one must be utterly devoted! Go pack go! I"ll be rooting from so far away, but hey, you know what they say; Distance makes the heart grow fonder! 


In other news, the rest of my week in Hamburg was pretty fun.  The cocktails on Friday with my host siblings, their cousin and our friend were hilarious, and ridiculously cheap! Margaritas were two for four euros, decently sized, and far too delicious.  Needless to say, the night was full of good laughs and memories.  The bar was named Einstein, and if you are ever in Hamburg, I highly recommend it.  It is a super classy restaurant/bar with reasonably priced food and amazingly priced cocktails.  Love, love, loved it!



This last picture is a shot which Sarah and our friend Chirstina took.. it is called Sambuca.  It tastes basically like peppermint schnopps, but they have coffee beans in it.  I thought it was so weird, but it turns out, it is quite common.  Instructions are as follows: take said shot and then chew said beans to rid oneself of the imminent intensitiy of taste.  Interesting tradition, isn't it?

Saturday I spent sleeping off my margaritas and then skyping a bit.  In the evening, Chris and I met some friends of ours at a local restaurant for cocktails (yes, it is a common Friday and Saturday night activity) and some food.  Our one friend brought her dog, which is a concept which I am not sure I will ever grow completely accustomed to.  Here in Germany, one can bring their dog in stores, restaurants, public events, etc., unless there is a sign on the door saying "no dogs."  Clearly, this is quite different in the USA; animals stay outdoors unless at a petshop or your own family home.  It boggled my mind when the waitress came over with a bowl for the dog as normal procedure.  My dad would have a heart attack.  But I guess, in another aspect, their dogs seem far more behaved here.  I guess since they have different laws, they probably have to train them to make them more calm in public situations, whereas we just have to train ours not to eat the leg of our couch or the crotch out of our grandma's Girdels.  It's a whole different world over here folks, and I love it.  But no cocktail dates for awhile now; I'll be sticking to Cafes'...  



I ended up coming home early on Monday morning, and now I am back in Marburg watching the weather have it's usual temper tantrums out my window.  Today it can't seem to choose between rain, partly cloudy, or sleet.  Joy.  And to think I woke up early to go for a walk this morning.  I think it is time to curl up with a good book and eventually unpack my suitcase (it is still sitting here.. only a few articles have been retrieved for wearing purposes).  Sweden Sunday!

Friday, January 21, 2011

Guess Who's Back?

Well folks, I'm back in Europe.  I must admit, leaving the Appleton airport last Friday, I didn't really look forward to coming back.  The comforts of home had kind of taken over my sense for adventure, and I really enjoyed the freedom of driving my car- or should I say the convenience of not spending half my life waiting for a bus, train or boat.  But I think in bare basics, I was dreading coming back to the cold, overcast skies and snow of Germany (the sun will seriously only shine like twice in the winter..). But.. upon my arrival.. the sun was out, there was no snow, and there were temperatures of.. wait for it.. wait for it.. FIFTY FIVE DEGREES.  I felt like I was on a mini spring break vacation.  To heck with the winter boots! Tis but flip flop season!  (OK- I stuck with my normal weather boots, but I must admit, I did wear flip flops for the 2 minutes it took me to take the trash out, just to spite myself..).

After a brief overnight stay in Marburg, I bought a ticket, jumped on a train and am now in Hamburg visiting with friends for the week and slowly re-emersing myself into the culture.  I went for Chinese food the other night.  I was pretty skeptical; I mean Chinese food can kind of be sketchy in the States, and now here I am in Germany where if the menu was confusing at home, now it has turned into a full out guessing game.  But turns out, Chinese is amazing here.. especially the sweet and sour chicken.  I don't know if in the states its ever like this, but here they serve you a breaded type chicken thing with the sauce on the side, and you kind of.. mix it all together.  But the chicken is in like huge filets.  It's so good.  Oh my god.  And turns out way less sketchy than Subway.  Yes, I mean the sandwhich shop, not the public transport system.  Although same goes for both I suppose.

As for travel adventures, I am starting to meddle them all out.  I mean, clearly, there are far too many places on my wish list to see compared to my realistic bank funds and time tables.  But, next weekend, don't bother trying to skype me, seeing as I'll be chilling (quite literally, since I'm much closer to the Arctic circle than  generally appreciated this time of year..) in Stockholm, Sweden.  It was a spontaneous choice- I saw the round trip flight for 40 euros online, called my friend Nichola from Texas, checked my schedule (oh gosh- it's completely free!), checked hers, consulted, and then booked.  So, we are now going to Stockholm for 3 days.  After some further research we have decided to hit up some museums, local bars, cafe's and their music scene (maybe...).  Turns out Stockholm has a large music scene that I was until this week quite unaware of, but it will probably be something unique to check out.  Or it will result in one of those stories that I will write about later in life in some sarcastic, half-fiction, one-quarter elaboration and one-quarter fact novel about my travels in Europe as a college student.  I envision something about crowd surfing in stockholm, or some relatively similar catchy chapter theme.  Ok, I am getting ahead of myself.

No photos for this blog post unfortunately- My camera battery is close to dead and the charger is sitting in Marburg.  Additionally,  I really haven't done much than chill and come off jet lag this week.  Now my big task for the day is about to commence: I am off to the grocery store down the street to get some quality German Lipton Peach Iced Tea.  You have no idea how badly I've been craving it.  Later tonight I am going for cocktails with my host family, the Fuchs.  Well, the kids anyways.  And only two of them.  And their cousin.  Ah.  Whatever.  Until next time!  Oh and dear mom- have you seen my umbrella?