Great Scott!

Friday, Oct 30

Today's post is sponsored by The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which I am currently reading, and as a direct result you may find in some areas of my writing today a somewhat altered and deliciously British-esque (I am aware that's not a word) quality!

Good heavens, it's been a long time without a post; over a month! I suppose that's due to the fact that I've been, for the most part, quite comfortable here in Berlin, and to be honest, the blog slipped my mind for awhile. Terribly sorry.

Ah, well, there's no use blathering about past negligence; we are in the present after all, and so: Happy Halloween, my dear American friends!! Yes indeed, this is the first notable holiday I'm missing due to my thrilling adventures abroad. Berlin is not primely designed for trick or treating, since most of the people here rather live on top of one another in many-staired apartment buildings instead of in houses in neighborhoods. And because Halloween is primarily an American holiday, I doubt going door to door asking for candy with the underlying threat of a trick would be altogether welcome to most Berliners. Undoubtedly there are probably a good dozen or so public parties going on tomorrow night. After all, it's a fun-loving holiday that happens to fall on a Saturday this year, though it seems that young Berlin is forever finding reasons to party. I think I'll be spending Halloween a quiet evening at home at the apartment with Christian, which to me seems better than being out in that cold at night with disguised strangers in a huge city. :)

The 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall is fast approaching: November 9th. I fully expect fireworks for the greater part of the evening! I'm excited to see what the city has in store for that day.

(aaaaand, switching back to modern English)

School is, overall, going well. I've had over 10 different teachers since I've started there and that is a drawback. Basically, school goes down like this: 90 minutes with one teacher, half hour break, then 90 more minutes with another teacher. So, when you think about it, it's not as though I only have a single teacher and that teacher has changed 10 times. Nevertheless, it gets tiring to suddenly discover this Lehrerin that you've been learning from for some time suddenly is gone the next week and we all have to adapt to a new form of teaching. On the brighter side, I suppose things stay fresh that way. I do think, however, that I was spoiled in my first to weeks there when I had two really awesome and fresh people to learn from.

More recently, my teacher told me she had talked with my teacher from the second 90 minutes and they agreed I would do better in the next highest level. I agreed to move up, but I am pretty nervous that it could be too advanced for me. I'm currently in the middle of B1, and I'll be moving into a class that's more toward the end of the B1 level (the levels of language skills go: total beginner A0, A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2 nearly native). Of course, I was happy that they thought I was making so much progress, but what if I can't take it?! Also, I'll be saying goodbye to the classmates that I've gotten to know over the last weeks. Ah well... I'm here to learn. Wish me telepathic luck on Monday when I join the "big kids"!

Today I'm operating on not nearly as much sleep as I would like to, due to the unfortunate fact that the two radiators in our rooms happened to have been manufactured in Hell! (pardon mein Deutsch) It sounds-- and I don't think I can do it justice --- it sounds like there is something inside the radiators, one in our bedroom and the other in our living room, trying to beat it's way out. But it's not a constant banging, but rather a violent strike quite literally every other second coming from the inside. We woke up at about 2am, and Christian tried fiddling with it but it was useless. The only way to stop the endless noise was to turn the heat ALL the way up for the rest of the night. We were way more than toasty, but it was finally quiet enough to sleep. Our flatmate that mostly handles those kinds of problems is currently in Munich, so we'll have to figure something out for tonight and tomorrow on our own!

(finished on Saturday, Oct. 31)
Christian and I went out with some friends from GLS because one of our old classmates is heading back to England on Sunday. Altogether there were approximately 18 of us, but I only knew about 7 of them. GLS has a lot of students from Switzerland (from the French and Italian speaking parts) who need to learn German for a job or college back home. Anyway, most of the people that were there last night were from Die Schweiz, so they pretty much all knew each other and spoke French and Italian all night at one end of the table, and we got to spend some time with some good friends and have some good conversation on our end of the table. Because it was a Friday night, we had kind of a hard time finding a good restaurant that could accommodate all of us. Finally we ate at a Mexican restaurant. The food was good, but every time I eat Mexicanishes Essen, it really makes me long for Cebollas. I don't know if our Mexican food in the US is more authentic (thought I think it is), but I really miss it sometimes!

Speaking of getting together and food, Christian and I are hosting Thanksgiving at our apartment. If everyone attends who was invited, it will be 10 people altogether! I was a little concerned that I wouldn't be able to find a whole turkey here, but KaDeWe Kaufhaus Des Westens (I think it's the largest department store in Europe) has pretty much every type of food you could want. They sell whole turkeys; granted, they're not as big as you might find back home, but they will most likely get more in as Thanksgiving nears due to the number of Americans living full time in Berlin. You might remember in my previous blog that I said it's hard to come by American brands of food here. I suppose that's not entirely true. The bigger grocery stores usually have an international section and there's usually a little half shelf of American goods. Now, what kinda dampens my spirits (because it further spreads a bad stereotype of America) is that the food there is mostly junk. Candy bars, Oreos, Mike 'n Ike's, liquid marshmallow spread, Crisco, chocolate sauce, cans of Stars and Stripes root beer, buttery microwave popcorn, Cheez Whiz, other liquid-form processed cheeses in hokey bottles, little tubs of cake frosting, boxes of cake, cookie, and brownie mix (5.95 euros a pop! or $8.75), Aunt Jemima's Syrup, pancake mix, pop tarts, and other such things. Come on... I mean, I see all these sections marked from other countries like Sweden, Russia, the Ukraine, Italy, France, Spain, Belgium, Japan, Thailand, Mexico, Australia, and they all contain really cool kinds of sauce, spices, noodles, really exotic stuff and you come to the American section and it's like Chuckee Cheese meets Candy land. The KaDeWe selection of "American food" is much larger than others, and there's even a little Statue of Liberty proudly standing before it all: America! Land of the free and home to the portly! It is somewhat entertaining to see a Reese's 3 pack at 2.72 euro though. Never the less, KaDeWe has a pretty impressive selection of barbecue sauce from the US. There is a German version of barbecue sauce, but I really don't think it compares. Though a 6 oz A1 bottle is gonna cost you close to 10 euros (nearly 15 USD).

Note that these photos from the LINKS below are ones I had to hunt for online since cameras aren't allowed in the KaDeWe, and German authority scares me a little... so I had to find and steal the pictures of people who broke the rules and took photos in the store, lol. I apologize if some of the links don't work (they could be protected).

As for the selection of food in KaDeWe, it can't be matched. Spices from all over the world, sausages of all kinds, meat and not to mention your Christmas-themed meats, more chocolate than I thought existed, plenty of juice (including Sauerkraut Juice! nom nom!) cakes, cookies, cheese, really fresh fish, scary fish, a garden of Eden... and much more.

I'm getting hungry... which reminds me: when my parents were here, we went to a cute little cafe/crepes place and I unknowingly ordered myself a gigantic cup of tea. I must have been about half a liter of tea and it was all in an enormous cup, haha. Then we had some delicious works-of-art made out of crepes with ice cream. Mine was sour cherry with chocolate ice cream.

My parents visit went well. I'm planning on including a description of that along with some pictures of Potsdam in the next blog entry. As I was talking to a friend last night, I realized how lucky Christian and I are to have open-minded parents who have both traveled to the other's country to experience it. I am really grateful for that. From now on, Germany and the US will have a very strong connection in our family, and experiencing each other's countries has lead to a greater understanding between the two. The differences between the two don't seem as big anymore. Anyway, thank you Angelika and Gerd, and Mom and Dad for taking the initiative to experience each other's lives! It really means plenty to me, and I know to Christian as well. :) Miss you Mom and Dad!!!

And finally, I wanted to leave you with a photo of what our apartment building looks like from the front. We live at the top there, the balcony without a roof. It's deceiving because it stretches out behind quite far with two courtyard-like areas. We live in the apartment part of an old cookie factory. Behind the front facade, when you're in the courtyard, you can really tell from the factory-like windows and stone walls that it definitely used to be a manufacturing building. Now, however, it's converted into loft-like apartments and some sort of a blue-collar school in the back.

Well, I hope everyone has a happy Halloween! Be safe and have some fun! ^^

Essen und Trinken

Hey everyone!

It's fall here! Due to Germany being a little farther north than Indiana, we're experiencing temperatures in the mid to lower sixties early in the fall, while I saw the Fort had some nice 73 - 76F all this week! But really it's not bad; the cool air wakes you up in the morning, and it also means the subways aren't as hot and muggy as they normally are in the heat (not to mention the people you stand next to smell considerably better when it's a little chilly out).

The photo above is of my school. Out front and behind the trees you can see the restaurant. As far as "Max" there who supposedly teaches English, I've never seen him once in my five weeks at GLS. I'm beginning to think he's a marketing ploy... The next pic, as I'm sure you can guess, is my classroom, although occasionally our classroom changes (and our teachers too). Not necessarily a bad thing, it keeps things interesting. But yeah the classes are relatively small, 12 people maximum per class.

For those of you who don't know, my parents are going to be here in Berlin in about a week! They'll stay in Berlin for the first week, then for the weekend we'll head to Gera and Christian's village, then Mom and Dad are off on their own adventure to Munich and other places in Germany for the following week. I'm getting excited, not only to see them of course, but I've refrained from seeing many of the normal touristy sights here in Berlin because I knew I would get the chance when they come to visit. Should be pretty neat.

The piggies that you see here are wild boars native to Germany. This is on the edge of Berlin next to one of the city's forests "Grunewald". Christian and I decided to make a little picnic there in the woods some days ago. Since the lake that we were trying to find was a lot farther than we originally thought, a really nice woman gave us a ride there. As you might be able to see, it was already getting pretty dark and the pigs are nocturnal. Long story short, after our very short picnic in the woods at the lake, we decided to make our way home before the woods were totally dark since the pigs can be pretty dangerous if they have babies, and the ones we had seen earlier did. We stuck to this road walking back, which is quite long, and it was getting darker and darker. Except for the occasional car, it was quiet and we were nervous cause we could hear things (most likely boars!) moving in the woods on either side of us. If one of the boars comes after you, it's likely you'll get a couple holes in your legs from the tusks. It ended in us running a little toward the end (it was totally dark) to get out of there faster! So that was an experience, lol.

I thought I would do a little food-blog here with some pictures. The food here really is different, and it took me awhile to get used to not seeing the normal brands of everyday items, like meat, condiments, bread, even junk food, haha. You can click on these pictures to see them larger in another window!

The first picture is of our bread. The type of bread we have every couple of days depends on who went to the bakery or grocery last since we all share the food in the apartment. Pre-sliced, square-shaped bread (what we Americans know as the normal shape of bread) is called "Toast Brot". In my experience here, the bread is usually sold in whole loaves at the bakeries and you simply cut it at home, or I've seen the vendors cut the bread into slices with a machine upon the request of the customer. Our roommates prefer "bio essen" or organic food, so they go to the bio store down the road instead of going to the normal grocery store like Christian and I. I'm usually the one getting the "Toast Brot"... being American and all, I prefer my bread to fit easily into the toaster. But darker, denser breads like these (with seeds in them too) seem to be much more common than the lighter, more flexible toast bread that is more common in the US.

The next photo is the floor in our pantry where we keep things to drink. It's very normal here for almost all juices to be stored in these types of boxes. I think it makes sense, because you can stack them more easily on the shelf here than the bottles. Ok, you Americans back home might be thinking... well why would you need to stack up juice? I've learned that German people don't drink a lot of tap water. It's much more common to drink mainly juice, soda, beer, or at least carbonated water (which interestingly enough comes in three concentrations of bitterness: weak, mild, and strong). When I ask for simply tap water, since I don't care much for the carbonated stuff, sometimes it's almost as if people don't believe that's what I really want. I've even heard the tap water here referred to as "toilet water" (not because it's dirty or anything!) but because it's the same water that goes into the toilets and out of the shower. Anyway it appears more common here to store beverages so that every time you go the grocery you don't have to haul home stuff to drink. ((Segway into a tangent here)) Remember, a lot of people in cities don't have cars and have to (as Christian and I do) walk to the grocery and carry home what you bought in your own reusable cloth bags (they usually never give out plastic bags for your groceries). I don't know if any of you have shopped at ADLI in Fort Wayne, it's next to Cebolla's by the mall. Well, it's a German company, and they don't give out any bags for free either. It's the same thing if you want to use a cart; the carts require you to put in a coin to use them, only returning the coin once you've put the cart away with the others. It makes sense, even though it's less convenient to the customer.
Ok, ok, back to the drinks. By the way, they have every kind of juice you can imagine here: cherry juice, pear juice, banana, grapefruit, pineapple, currant, and any combination of those. Usually it's real juice too, so it's cloudy, not like some juice that is basically flavored sugar water. You'll notice a little box of tomato sauce there, those usually come that way as well. Not very many foods are sold in cans (more harmful to the environment and Germany is, for the most part, a very green country). And of course, there's the milk right there in it's box and unrefrigerated. I love that about milk here. The milk, until you open it, doesn't need to be refrigerated and can be stored for a few weeks just as it is. I've seen people buying cases of 12 milk boxes at a time before in the grocery. The milk is pretty good! I mean, it tastes a little different, but so does everything here. It's not evaporated, which is the only way we can really store dairy milk in the US that I know of.

This picture is our tea and honey and similar items stash for the apartment. Germans like tea! Or maybe Europeans in general like tea. We have SO much tea! And you can, of course, see the Nutella there on the shelf toward the bottom. I read Nutella has different density depending on what country you buy it in. The French and American Nutella is way thinner and creamier because most of the bread in those countries is soft, therefore it's easy to spread. In Germany, the bread is thicker and so is the Nutella... a LOT thicker. In fact, one of our roommates nearly broke her toe from dropping the jar of Nutella on her foot! But she's ok, so it's funny... lol

Moving on to the normal contents of our fridge!

These are our condiments. "Senf" is mustard, and we have three different kinds. The ketchup here isn't as sweet, and we make spaghetti using it as spaghetti sauce sometimes. Just throw half a bottle on, add milk and some Italian seasoning! The stuff that looks like tomato tooth paste is tomato concentrate for making sauces. We have some "Joghurt Mayo" which tastes a lot like Miracle Whip. As far as the green squeeze bottle, to be honest I don't really know what that is, but I'm guessing its like mayo with herbs in it for sandwiches. We also have several jars of homemade jam in there too, but I forgot to include those here.

Next is butter, margarine and yogurt. There's a lot of yogurt eaten here that has no specific flavor. I always thought vanilla yogurt was considered "plain" back in the US. But apparently, that's not true, and it's pretty bitter. I've been informed we have this same kind of plain yogurt back home, but I think its mostly used for cooking, not for breakfast! The "Goldsaft" is syrup made from sweet beets. Don't know if I'll ever try that one. Kerrigold Irish Butter is usually what's in our fridge. The margarine is my doing. Well my wimpy toast bread can't handle the thickness of the Irish butter and margarine is easier to spread!

Moving on to meat. This is all pre-cut meat that is usually put on one piece of bread or toast and eaten as an open faced sandwich. Christian likes to have this for dinner too. German people have their main, hot meal at lunch and have light food for dinner. These are often used as a breakfast food too, and I'll talk about breakfast a little later in this post.
"Paprika" in most cases means "pepper", although the seasoning is still called paprika. The little chopped up meat in the right hand corner can be used pretty much like bacon bits. Christian cooks them with homemade fried potatoes and it's pretty tasty. (Family, you should appreciate my usage of the word "tasty" here... Everyone else, don't worry about it.)

And finally, the remaining contents of our fridge consist of cheeses! I should add that since these photos were taken this morning Christian and I went to a fancy grocery where he got considerably more cheese. What can I say about cheese here? First of all, even though I'm no fan of cheeses, it appears to all be pretty great quality, as far as fresh cheese goes. Cheese is important to the Germans that I've met. I can tell you I've seen more cheese here in Germany than I did when I was at the 'Mouse House' in Wisconsin when I was a kid. Just as with meat, it's very common to use the open-faced sandwich thing with cheese. Sometimes Christian will sit happily down with a plate of bread and cheese and be very very excited about what he's about to eat. Ok, we have here in this photo gouda, brie, bleau cheese, Allgaeuer is a brand of processed cheese, kinda like American cheese, mozzarella and others. "Quark" is like a more liquidy mix between cream cheese and sour cream and you also spread it on bread. Gunter loves quark, and he always has a big bowl of it in the fridge so he can have it for breakfast like everyday. Cheese, cheese, cheese. Of course, there are a lot more kinds of cheese in the grocery, everything from really cheap Allgaeuer to really expensive, hard, and crusty old cheese, to cheese that has things like peppers or fruit mixed in, they have it! Cheese lovers, you belong in Germany!

This next photo was taken in the Rhineland at our bed and breakfast. Just shows you the possibilities of breakfast here! Granted, there is a lot of food here, but this isn't really considered to be out of the ordinary as far as food. Meat, cheese, homemade jam, hard boiled egg, rolls, butter, tea, coffee... Sit down breakfast is usually like this but smaller. Sorry for the blurry. The pic below is Christian's breakfast this morning. He says it's not a normal one for him because his plate consists of no cheese! Just so you all know...


Well, that's all for now, folks! I hope you're all enjoying the Fort in the fall and the Johnny Appleseed Festival! Take care!

German Language School (GLS)

Hey everyone,

Well, I don't want to say how long it's been since I've updated, but if you would like to shame me, you can probably tell from the previous entry that it's been awhile. To be honest, I had the intent for the past week and a half to update, the 'blogger' window has been open on my laptop for that long, and I would always put my computer on hibernate at night to save such precious tabs for the next hopeful day. I have been staying busy what with seeing the city, getting adjusted with school, spending time with some friends and und so weiter...

It's been three weeks in the apartment and it feels like home (away from home, of course). I realized this some days ago when I was coming home and it was a little later in the evening and I was pretty tired... once I got off the U-Bahn at Goelitzer Banhof (the station about a block away from our street and pictured above), I had the nice familiar feeling you get when you're almost home and you see familiar sights that you see everyday; and you know that soon there will be some nice food and a comfortable place to sit or lay down, some privacy, some quiet. Sometimes I think that's really neccessary when you spend time in Berlin. Berlin is always moving, there's always new things around, new experiences, and people, and it's so alive that coming home means that much more. You can really get out and experience Berlin because you know there is a nice place with familiar things where you can finish the day.

The apartment is close to everything we need, grocerie, bio grocery (for strictly organic foods which are popular with our flatmates), 2nd hand bookstore, clothing, bakeries, an indoor pool, and soooo many cafes and ethnic places to eat. Kreuzberg is so multi-kulti. It's the center of alternative living in Berlin. It's also the center of Turkish culture. Back in the day, when Germany was looking for low-cost labor, Turkish workers were granted residence in the country. Where we live, it's totally normal to see store signs posted in Turkish first and then German just below it, or vice versa. My favorite bakery is Turkish and just across from the U-Bahn station.

School is really cool. I'll explain it a little for you. I get up around 7 am so I can leave the apartment by 8. It takes anywhere from 30-40 minutes including walking and the U-Bahn (the underground) to get to school. I really prefer to get there a little early, especially if I stopped by one of the many many bakeries for a Broetchen (bread roll) or something for breakfast. School starts at 9a.m. everyday except Monday when it starts at 10. My class consists of about 10-12 people. This changes every week because each Monday we get new students in our class and other students leave. It all depends on how many weeks you booked with the school. There are four people that I know of who will be at GLS about as long as I: Frederick (an American from L.A, Sarah from Sweden, and Maria who is from Guatemala. I've made other friends that I've already had to say goodbye to, and another is leaving at the end of this week. :( But, what can you do, really?

Continuing on, the class starts at 9 with one teacher and goes on for an hour and a half. Then, there is a half hour break followed by another hour and a half class with another teacher. I've already had 2 sets of different teachers; my favorite being the first pair, but perhaps these other two will grow on me... The classes consist of doing a little grammar, and vocab, usually on one theme or another out of the book, and some conversation. With the first pair of teachers I had, it was mostly grammar and structure in the first bit, and then the next bit was mostly talking and discussion with the teacher and other classmates. It was great. Now, it's mostly grammar and not so much challenging conversation, but I hope it will get better. I feel like I've already learned a lot. (This pic is of my class from last week during our "Goodbye Jeremias {our teacher} Picnic". Such an awesome class!)

I have gone to each of the Monday Stammtisch meetings, and it's been a great opportunity to meet new people. You can't really attend that school without making some friends, and there are so many countries represented. Because our German is not too advanced past regular conversation and questions, we usually use English at the Stammtisch and when we meet new people, though I have noticed sometimes I can't think of the word in English and then have to use German. With David, who always speaks German no matter what, I've had conversations with him where I can't keep up in German, so he'll ask the questions in German, and I'll have to keep answering him in a mix of Germglish. It's really quite cool that with one person you'll be talking English and then the next minute speaking in German without thinking about it, really.

Well, seeing as today is Monday, I have to get a quick shower and then head to Stammtisch to meet up with Frederick, David, Lucie, Maria, and Paolo. I hope all of you that started college back home in the Fort are enjoying your classes! Everyone else, have a great week. :)

Tschuess!

Huzzah!

Christian and I went to get the visa today after finally getting all settled. We waited for about 3 hours total, but after a tribute of 50 euros and the proper paperwork, I walked out with it in hand.



I'm now a student of Germany and allowed to be here until Jan 15. :D

Apartment Pics

The view from our balcony (click on any of the images to make them bigger)


our balcony


our kitchen, our door is the open one on the left. the door on the right is the closet.



kitchen and the door in the back is the little bathroom



kitchen table




bedroom



bedroom windows




the living room with a futon




the left side of the room as you walk in the door





our desks. the left one next to the balcony door is mine and the other is christian's. the door on the far right is the bedroom.

All pictures courtesy of Christian Dietrich Photographic Memories Incorporated TM

yeah, i think we got pretty lucky overall. I hope you enjoyed the pics! now, we're going to find a hip place to eat some chinese and maybe get a taste of the nightlife?

It's Monday

Hello everyone!

Well, today was the first full day in our new apartment. We did a lot of moving in and laundry (still doing laundry actually... I always put that off until I have nothing left to wear except a token shirt or perhaps two that I would never wear otherwise.) The apartment is really cool, the living room is spacious and we have plenty of shelves and closet space for everything. We haven't seen much of our flatmates, only really Gunter, our sort of live-in landlord. I really like having this half of the apartment to ourselves for most of the time (our two rooms, the kitchen and a tiny bathroom). Off the kitchen there is a tiny little elevator that only goes from the floor to our apartment; we have the highest one in the building, 85 steps up! The elevator is tiny and is mostly made of wood, we saw a little plaque on the wall inside that says 1918. Yes that's right, the elevator appears to be nearly 100 years old. I might not have ever stepped inside it again if there wasn't another label that says the date and approval of that last inspection. It's a little jerky, but when we were getting all of our stuff up here to move in, man, I was really glad to have it.

Berlin is really really cool, especially at night. Granted, during the day as we walked to do our errands there is a lot of litter on this part of town and a LOT of graffiti, but graffiti is really normal in most cities in Germany, much much more than what I've ever seen in the U.S. Anyway, we had a long trek to the apartment from the train station, but it gave us some time to take in our surroundings. There are so many cafes and restaurants, it's unbelievable. It makes me wonder how they can all stay in business with so much competition! It was a Sunday night and still the city was sparkling with nightlife and loads of people out and about. I guess I'm used to the early closing times of businesses in Germany, even on the weekend, most malls and stores close at 8.00 pm. I even saw a sign for the mall in Leipzig that said, roughly translated, "Night Owl shopping on the weekend! New hours! Open until 20:00!" (8pm. To all my B & N buddies, join me in a hearty chuckle at that.) My point is that even on a Sunday night, at 9pm, this city still kicks. As you know, after about 8pm on a Sunday in Fort Wayne, you're pretty much staying home for the night. So, you're never really lacking for things to do or see in the evening, which is usually when I get the most antsy.

Let pause here and say it's really great to have clean clothes. I don't know why I wait so long!!

It's hot in Germany! As I sit here at my desk, the sun is down, and all the windows are open, for the first time today there's a great cool breeze blowing in occasionally. I miss the air conditioning, which here is considered a pretty unnecessary luxury. Much of Germany is quite ecological. I see their point, but still makes me think longingly upon entering my own cool house after spending time outside.

Sooooo, the Rhineland! It's taken me a long time to write about this! I sent some of you postcards so you already know the beauty of the place. Christian, I, and his parents went to visit Bonne, Linz (yes, it's a little town named Linz!), and some of the surrounding areas' names escape me.... Anyway, the highlight of that trip was the boatride down the Rhine. We weren't in an area to see a lot of the many castles in that area, but that really didn't take away from the amazing countryside and traditional German houses and rolling hills with grape vines everywhere. I felt quite fancy with Christian floating down the Rhine, taking in the sights with a white wine in my hand.

Speaking of wine, I developed a real taste for it. I never thought that would happen. When we were in the Rhineland, Christian, his parents, and I found a little brewery (literally, it was like we were eating in a really folksily-decorated shed as you can see in the pic) and it was really cute! We stayed for a basic dinner but the reason Angelika and Gerd stopped was to sample a little of the wine made there. Of course, I was given some too. I really loved it. It was a blau portugeiser spaetlicher rosé wine, halbtrocken (half dry). It's a wine made with Blue Portuguese grapes, picked later in the season, half dry. I bought two bottles, one to share with my parents when they come visit in September. The other... I don't know, for a very special occasion. Since then, I've tried several different kinds, when it comes to white, I prefer "lieblich" or sweet. As far as red, I've only tried one with Angelika and Gerd, and I think that was not such a typical one, because it had a very distinct fruity flavor, which apparently isn't so normal. I'm hesitant to try it, because I'd tried it once on my first visit to Germany and really didn't like it at all. Ok, ok, enough about wines, although, I'm pretty excited about it as a little hobby. It seems that finding a really good one is like hunting for treasure. I have a little journal in the back of my Moleskine for the different names of the ones I've tried and how they were. So far, the one from the Rhine stands far out from the rest! Then again, the Rhine area is known for its great wine.

In Bonne, we saw the house that Beethoven grew up in, a little museum with a lot of his own instruments, and original portraits. In the audio guide there was a sample of a composition he wrote when he was 12, and it blew my mind all over. I can't even remember the things I was doing when I was that age, but I know they never had the potential to be so significant. Insane.

Overall, it was a really pleasant experience, I would recommend that area to anyone wanting to travel to Germany, as it seems to be truly as German as it gets!

I start school one week from today, and I'm excited. I saw the facebook page for people who have been there or are there now and there's 900 members of that group. Apparently the school has been around for a long time, there was one entry saying that they went to school there in sprin of '88. There are also a lot of people saying they've gone there for several summers in a row to learn. It's very encouraging to know that so many people have benefitted and loved it there. I suppose I'd had some of my doubts inevitably as the date comes closer. Will I not fit in? Will I hate it there? Is it going to be too overwhelming?? Now I've read some more of what the classes are like and it sounds just like German class at IPFW with Dr. Roberts. All taught in German, with a textbook, and lots of interaction with fellow students, including games. There are even group excursions in the afternoons for people who want to go and explore Berlin.

The school has its own fully functional restaurant which is open to the public everyday from 11am to midnight. Every Monday evening is a meeting time there for GLS students so they can eat together and socialize. Pretty cool, I think. It's still quite hard for me to speak German with people, besides pretty basic conversation, though I understand much of what people say in conversation with each other. I get so nervous (though I suppose that's a little silly) and my grammar is pretty terrible. Usually I can be understood, but it's really a challenge sometimes. Then again, if it weren't a challenge, it would be boring. The school also has a bookshop with some English novels. I'm really really looking forward to that, I want something new to read (without translating all the time!).

Ok, I've rambled long enough. I'm trying to stay awake so I can speak with my parents via Skype, but they won't be home for another hour or two. It's already 10.20pm here! Pics of the apartment and surrounding area as soon as we get things altogether and I don't have laundry drying all over the living room. All right, everyone, take care. Talk to you soon!

Monday Monday

Hello again. I'm still alive! And it's cool that you're apparently still looking at the blog after so long of a silence. As I said before, I'm in Gera at the moment and I really prefer to do the longer blog posts and emails on my own good old laptop (though I am thankful to have internet access here!).
I had a bout of homesickness already, mostly because there were some days when we weren't staying so busy and it pretty much gave me the opportunity to think about how much I miss my family and friends, and the Fort. I even miss working at the B & N! We've stopped by some bookstores here in Germany (I wanted to buy the first Harry Potter book in German but it's still too advanced for me) and I find myself just lingering in there, comparing it to B&N.

Most likely, we'll be moving in on Sunday, Aug 9th. That is going to be a long one, I think. We'll start for Berlin at 7am, three hours later we'll arrive. Quickly move that stuff into the apartment and take the car back to Gera, three hours again. Then, we'll take the bikes to the train station and ride the train for three more hours to Berlin and finally (hopefully) be all set. We're renting from a student who is going to Kansas for the fall semester of school, so since she's coming back in a half year, the apartment is already furnished and decorated. We have two rooms, a tiny tiny bedroom and a fairly large living room. We even have a tiny balcony all to ourselves. Our room is right off of the huge kitchen (almost like a factory-loft-style kitchen). Across the hall is technically another apartment with the main bathroom and our three roommates living in their separate rooms. We share the kitchen and bathroom. I'll put up some pics so you know what I mean, once we move in, that is.

All right, I said this wasn't going to be a long post.. but you know how that goes. Please excuse typos, as I didnt have time to look over this before posting. I'm going to catch up on my emails on Monday, along with another post and pictures. Thanks Joel, Kristy, and both my parents for the emails when I was feeling blue. You really don't know how much they cheered me up. :) Gotta go to Leipzig for a day trip! We're going boating! huzzah! See ya soon!