okay, so back to the white russians and a short update!!!
long story short with the white russians, we had a big lebowski night at alex's friend, helge's, house. well, we wanted to have a big lebowski night but ended up just drinking white russians while watching a korean film. it wasn't too bad.
the next day we went to a christmas market in the town of Oberhausen. it wasn't as charming as the one in Essen because it was set up in the terrace of a shopping mall. but it was still lots of fun! we met up with some of alex's friends from his university, and i got to drink glühwein for the first time. it literally translates to "glowing wine," and it's warm, spiced red wine mixed with rum and sugar. oooh it's soo good !! we went inside a little wooden cottage that was set upi in the middle of the christmas market, and chatted while middle aged men and women got drunk and sang german christmas folk songs.
i was also able to visit a christmas market in Dortmund! i was glad to visit there, even if it was just for a couple of hours. i met up with my friend, kirsten, and we drank coffee and chatted, and then walked around the christmas market. Dortmund hails the largest christmas tree in all of europe, apparently, but i wasn't too impressed :)
the christmas celebrations were a lot of fun, but i swear i gained at least a few pounds... on the 23rd, alex's sister and me made two different kinds of christmas cookies together. we made a coconut and vanilla cookies, and they were really good!! (but nothing will beat the classic chocolate chip cookie ^_^ ))
christmas is celebrated over three days in germany. first is christmas eve, and that is mostly just opening gifts with immediate family, and eating a delicious dinner. we ate roast chicken, salad, and potatos. after dinner, we opened gifts! i got alex a T-shirt, a little puzzle, and a bunch of beef jerky. alex got me a bunch of different kinds of cookies, some perfume, and best of all, tickets to go to a circus on new years day!
the 25th is considered the "first day of christmas," and that consisted of lunch with immediate family (with sauerbraten, knödeln, and yummy salad), followed by coffee time with other family members. the "second day of christmas"(the 26th) turned out to be one big dessert and leftover day with alex's cousins and aunts and uncles. oh boy, i ate so many cookies :D
although it has not been too snowy lately, the weather has definitely not been great. it has been rainy and drizzly pretty much every day. but after eating so much, it give you a good reason to just hang out at home and watch movies under a warm blanket.
a couple nights ago i went to a club called the Prisma with alex and a few of his friends. i really love german clubs, even the ones considered to be "lame" by the germans. mostly i love the fact that my horrible dancing goes completely unnoticed here because it is in good company. and you never see any bumping and grinding at german clubs. i feel like it is more a place to go and have fun with friends, not just a chance to find someone to hook-up with, like at most american clubs.
so mostly it has been nice to relax and spend time with alex. over the past week he has found a bunch of really interesting documentaries on the internet, and we've been OD'ing on them. i think my favorite so far has been the one about circus side shows :)
unfortunately our new years eve plans to go to berlin fell through :( his friend isabel ended up going to poland to visit her family for new years eve, so we wouldnt've had a place to stay. but we do plan on going somewhere after new years. on new years day we have the circus, and we also are going to have a day in Cologne and go to a science museum, and also a really crazy art exhibit called "Body World." The artist, Gunter von Hagens, preserves human bodies, removes the skin, and displays the body (which is just muscle and bones) in crazy ways. apparently one of alex's friends puked when he was there. so of course, i'm excited :)
okay, well bye everyone! miss you! and check out facebook for all my pictures. i will update soon with sushi night photos :D
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
I am safe in Germany and currently have a belly-full of white russians. but before I talk about the white russians, I will tell a little bit about the events before them!
The first thing that people always ask when you arrive to a foreign country is, "How was the flight?" In a way, I am kind of happy that I have a story to tell about my flights! Before I left, I was stressing out a little bit because my mom realized that I only had 45 minutes in between my flight from Chicago to London. I wasn't too worried about this...until my flight from Des Moines sat on the tarmac at O'hare 15 minutes past scheduled arrival time. Finally when they let us off the plane, I darted from the plane like a bullet from a gun. I am by no means a fast person, so I was pretty worried (one of the reasons I quit playing softball was because of my sloth-like running abilities). I had ten minutes to run through two different terminals. When I was darting though the neon underground tunnel connecting gate C to the rest of O'hare my backpack throwing me off balance, I heard over the intercom, "Gate C18 to London Standstead for final boarding call." Out of breath and barely out of time, I made it to my gate right before the flight attendant closed the door!
My flight from Chicago to London was pretty uneventful, as well as my flight between London and Düsseldorf. I watched the movie Elf in english and in German, and then I watched It Might Get Loud before I got a couple hours of sleep. Being short is definitely beneficial when on a plane...
When I arrived in Düsseldorf after 14 hours of breathing stale air and airline food, Alexander and his sister, Kathy (pronounced like "Kat-ee"), were there to meet me with hugs and kisses. It was great to see them both!
"It's great to see you, Tori!" said Kathy in German, "How was your flight?"
"It was fine," I responded also in German, "But between at the airport in Chicago, it was the Airport Olympics."
.....
That night Alex's mom made a great typical German dinner for us. It had a few different kinds of meat and bread, nothing too extensive but still very hearty and warm. Then Alex and I met up with Thomas, Helge, Fabian, and Liza (some of Alex's friends that I got to know) at a bar in downtown Bottrop. Soccer was on in the background while I "prost'ed"(cheers) with delicious German beer. It felt great to be back.
Over the past months, my German went a little downhill. Well, not completely I'd say. I feel like I know more obscure words, but I forgot so much eveyday conversation so I had to relearn the basics in a way. "How long will you say?" sounds so much like "Since when did you get here?", so i had to re-explain myself so many times.
Before I left, I asked all the Germans I knew about snow in Germany. "Oh, it never gets too snowy in Germany," they all told me. "Don't worry about bringing snowboots, you won't need them." Big mistake. Friday night the snow began, and it didn't stop til sunday night. Although it created a beautiful and picturesque German atmosphere, it was not good for my tennis shoes and cute suede boots. Bwah, my feet were FROZEN the entire time. We went to a Christmas Market (Weihnachtsmarkt) in the city of Essen on Sunday (see facebook photos ^_^), and my feet were completely frozen. But the Christams market was great. There were so many lights, carousels, and umlauts that it felt like i was in a german snowglobe. I got hot cocoa with amaretto liquor and drank it to warm myself up a little. too bad i couldn't soak my feet in it though.
actually, it's three AM and I will finish this in the morning. you will need to wait to read about the white russians..
The first thing that people always ask when you arrive to a foreign country is, "How was the flight?" In a way, I am kind of happy that I have a story to tell about my flights! Before I left, I was stressing out a little bit because my mom realized that I only had 45 minutes in between my flight from Chicago to London. I wasn't too worried about this...until my flight from Des Moines sat on the tarmac at O'hare 15 minutes past scheduled arrival time. Finally when they let us off the plane, I darted from the plane like a bullet from a gun. I am by no means a fast person, so I was pretty worried (one of the reasons I quit playing softball was because of my sloth-like running abilities). I had ten minutes to run through two different terminals. When I was darting though the neon underground tunnel connecting gate C to the rest of O'hare my backpack throwing me off balance, I heard over the intercom, "Gate C18 to London Standstead for final boarding call." Out of breath and barely out of time, I made it to my gate right before the flight attendant closed the door!
My flight from Chicago to London was pretty uneventful, as well as my flight between London and Düsseldorf. I watched the movie Elf in english and in German, and then I watched It Might Get Loud before I got a couple hours of sleep. Being short is definitely beneficial when on a plane...
When I arrived in Düsseldorf after 14 hours of breathing stale air and airline food, Alexander and his sister, Kathy (pronounced like "Kat-ee"), were there to meet me with hugs and kisses. It was great to see them both!
"It's great to see you, Tori!" said Kathy in German, "How was your flight?"
"It was fine," I responded also in German, "But between at the airport in Chicago, it was the Airport Olympics."
.....
That night Alex's mom made a great typical German dinner for us. It had a few different kinds of meat and bread, nothing too extensive but still very hearty and warm. Then Alex and I met up with Thomas, Helge, Fabian, and Liza (some of Alex's friends that I got to know) at a bar in downtown Bottrop. Soccer was on in the background while I "prost'ed"(cheers) with delicious German beer. It felt great to be back.
Over the past months, my German went a little downhill. Well, not completely I'd say. I feel like I know more obscure words, but I forgot so much eveyday conversation so I had to relearn the basics in a way. "How long will you say?" sounds so much like "Since when did you get here?", so i had to re-explain myself so many times.
Before I left, I asked all the Germans I knew about snow in Germany. "Oh, it never gets too snowy in Germany," they all told me. "Don't worry about bringing snowboots, you won't need them." Big mistake. Friday night the snow began, and it didn't stop til sunday night. Although it created a beautiful and picturesque German atmosphere, it was not good for my tennis shoes and cute suede boots. Bwah, my feet were FROZEN the entire time. We went to a Christmas Market (Weihnachtsmarkt) in the city of Essen on Sunday (see facebook photos ^_^), and my feet were completely frozen. But the Christams market was great. There were so many lights, carousels, and umlauts that it felt like i was in a german snowglobe. I got hot cocoa with amaretto liquor and drank it to warm myself up a little. too bad i couldn't soak my feet in it though.
actually, it's three AM and I will finish this in the morning. you will need to wait to read about the white russians..
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Tori in Germany....AGAIN!?
Hello everyone!!
It has definitely been about six months since I've updated, but I felt I had a reason to update again because I am heading back to Germany over my Christmas break! I didn't write much about Alex and me in my last blog (mainly because I broke up with my boyfriend, Dan, like a couple weeks after I got to Germany...i know, I'm really crappy. But that is a whole different blog post, or you can just ask me in person...). While over there, I got reconnected with an old German friend from high school. He was a foreign exchange student at Valley for a year, and we were best friends. We would hang out pretty much every day after school. I have to admit, I had a little crush on him back in high school, but we never dated, nothing romantic, it was great to have him as a friend.
When I studied in Germany in the spring, I got back in contact with him. Turned out he only lived an hour train ride away! After a month and half of being reconnected, we realized there was a spark there and decided to start dating. And then after the semester ended, we struggled with the decision but decided to KEEP dating. Man, long distance relationships really suck. But it was wonderful seeing him back in September when he visited Iowa for three weeks!
Now it is my turn to visit him back in Germany. I am sad I am missing Christmas here in Iowa, but I will make sure to visit everyone when I get back! Plus, I'm excited to experience a German Christmas! My German friends have all been telling me about the beauty of the German Weihnachtsmarkt(christmas markets), and Alex's mom has been hyping me up for a great German Christmas feast! (i can only imagine how many different types of meat she will make, hehe!)
Soo, my flight takes off from Des Moines in about 7 hours (at 6.53 pm) I will arrive in Germany in about 20 hours ( 3 pm Germany time). From Des Moines (United Airlines # 938, if you like checking plane locations), layover in Chicago (United Airlines # 9236), layover in London, and then in Düsseldorf! I'm hoping that I can just sleep on the plane the entire way because it will be an overnight flight...but I might be way too excited!
Anyway, I will keep everyone updated about how my German Adventure 2.0 is going, and I will make sure to post lots of pictures (because my old broken camera got replaced with a new, completely upgraded version of the old one, for free! it's pretty sweet, i'm excited to let her stretch her wings).
So, I love you all! And hopefully my next blog will be saying how easy and uneventful the plane ride was.
Bis nächstes Mal! (until next time!)
-tori
It has definitely been about six months since I've updated, but I felt I had a reason to update again because I am heading back to Germany over my Christmas break! I didn't write much about Alex and me in my last blog (mainly because I broke up with my boyfriend, Dan, like a couple weeks after I got to Germany...i know, I'm really crappy. But that is a whole different blog post, or you can just ask me in person...). While over there, I got reconnected with an old German friend from high school. He was a foreign exchange student at Valley for a year, and we were best friends. We would hang out pretty much every day after school. I have to admit, I had a little crush on him back in high school, but we never dated, nothing romantic, it was great to have him as a friend.
When I studied in Germany in the spring, I got back in contact with him. Turned out he only lived an hour train ride away! After a month and half of being reconnected, we realized there was a spark there and decided to start dating. And then after the semester ended, we struggled with the decision but decided to KEEP dating. Man, long distance relationships really suck. But it was wonderful seeing him back in September when he visited Iowa for three weeks!
Now it is my turn to visit him back in Germany. I am sad I am missing Christmas here in Iowa, but I will make sure to visit everyone when I get back! Plus, I'm excited to experience a German Christmas! My German friends have all been telling me about the beauty of the German Weihnachtsmarkt(christmas markets), and Alex's mom has been hyping me up for a great German Christmas feast! (i can only imagine how many different types of meat she will make, hehe!)
Soo, my flight takes off from Des Moines in about 7 hours (at 6.53 pm) I will arrive in Germany in about 20 hours ( 3 pm Germany time). From Des Moines (United Airlines # 938, if you like checking plane locations), layover in Chicago (United Airlines # 9236), layover in London, and then in Düsseldorf! I'm hoping that I can just sleep on the plane the entire way because it will be an overnight flight...but I might be way too excited!
Anyway, I will keep everyone updated about how my German Adventure 2.0 is going, and I will make sure to post lots of pictures (because my old broken camera got replaced with a new, completely upgraded version of the old one, for free! it's pretty sweet, i'm excited to let her stretch her wings).
So, I love you all! And hopefully my next blog will be saying how easy and uneventful the plane ride was.
Bis nächstes Mal! (until next time!)
-tori
Monday, June 8, 2009
long overdue photos - the UK
The order is pretty much backwards....I accidentally put all the photos in the wrong order!! So start at the bottom and work your way up! But these are also from two different cameras, so the order is messed up anyway. Sooo i guess just enjoy them as you would like!
Crazy girls on our way home.
Me looking lady-like in the tearoom!
Our good friend, Bill, who told us stories, song songs, and told jokes to us for hours.
the wonderful bar in Glasgow. dancing old people!
portobello market.
licking big ben.
me by buckingham palace!
At platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station. some harry potter thing, i guess...
The three travelers!
Another photo of our squat room...i loved it there!
Me with a bunch of bags sitting on a tilted bench by some castle in Edinburgh.
Cute old lady who served us.
Cute tea room!
A glimpse of our 'happy birthady noah' project.
On our way to a museum, we got lost and wandered through the University of Glasgow campus. BEAUTIFUL place!
Cholesterol-overload breakfast.
Our host in Glasgow, Jo, playing HER guitar.
Wendy contemplating on whether or not we should drink these beers that we stole from a nearby table at the London Stansted airport.
The front door of the squat, and Mohit, our new good friend, locking it back up after we left.
One of the living rooms of the squat. The kitchen is on the left.
A glimpse of the party that wendy and i attended. So much fuun!!!
Us walking through...some..important place by the house of parliament? Eeek i forgot!
so british...
Of course we need a photo of us in a telephone booth!
Hummus is yummus!
Our lunch on the River Thames by the Tate Modern Museum our first whole day in London.
The view out our window in the squat...lovely!
Our room in London at the squat. The mess reminds me of home :D
Crazy girls on our way home.
Me looking lady-like in the tearoom!
Our good friend, Bill, who told us stories, song songs, and told jokes to us for hours.
the wonderful bar in Glasgow. dancing old people!
portobello market.
licking big ben.
me by buckingham palace!
At platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station. some harry potter thing, i guess...
The three travelers! 
Another photo of our squat room...i loved it there!
Me with a bunch of bags sitting on a tilted bench by some castle in Edinburgh.
Cute old lady who served us.
Cute tea room!
A glimpse of our 'happy birthady noah' project.
On our way to a museum, we got lost and wandered through the University of Glasgow campus. BEAUTIFUL place!
Cholesterol-overload breakfast.
Our host in Glasgow, Jo, playing HER guitar.
Wendy contemplating on whether or not we should drink these beers that we stole from a nearby table at the London Stansted airport.
The front door of the squat, and Mohit, our new good friend, locking it back up after we left.
One of the living rooms of the squat. The kitchen is on the left.
A glimpse of the party that wendy and i attended. So much fuun!!!
Us walking through...some..important place by the house of parliament? Eeek i forgot!
so british...
Of course we need a photo of us in a telephone booth!
Hummus is yummus!
Our lunch on the River Thames by the Tate Modern Museum our first whole day in London. 
The view out our window in the squat...lovely!
Our room in London at the squat. The mess reminds me of home :D
long overdue photos - netherlands + fußball game
Sorry i am not uploading too many photos! For one, it takes a while to load, and two, lots of them are scenes that you can find by just Googling. I would rather post pictures of my friends and me than other photos that have been done many times before.
BVB Game
The BVB (Ballspiel-Verein Borussia) fans having a few drinks before the game. That is Andreas, Stefan, Vesna, me, Wendy, and Simon. International support of BVB, Germany, USA, and France all represented! 
Their stadium is MASSIVE. Signal-Induna Park holds over 80,000 spectators.
Wendy and me looking cute , decked out with face paint and BVB swag.
Too bad we kept on spilling beer on the people in front of us.. whoops! this was after the first time we scored...
This was the final score of the game. Weee, BVB WINS! (i felt so bad for the guys in front of us! so much of our beer went in their direction!)
The Netherlands
Wendy and I sitting on the side of a beautiful canal in Amsterdam.
Me riding the bike that was originally WAY TOO LARGE for me...until she lowered the seat. then it was managable.
me drinking beer like a hobo on the streets of the netherlands.
We went to a Tulip Festival parade...wow, look how marvelous the "floats" were...
So a few of us decided to drink coffee and eat cake inside a nearby restaurant instead.
BVB Game
The BVB (Ballspiel-Verein Borussia) fans having a few drinks before the game. That is Andreas, Stefan, Vesna, me, Wendy, and Simon. International support of BVB, Germany, USA, and France all represented! 
Their stadium is MASSIVE. Signal-Induna Park holds over 80,000 spectators.
Wendy and me looking cute , decked out with face paint and BVB swag.
Too bad we kept on spilling beer on the people in front of us.. whoops! this was after the first time we scored...
This was the final score of the game. Weee, BVB WINS! (i felt so bad for the guys in front of us! so much of our beer went in their direction!)The Netherlands
Wendy and I sitting on the side of a beautiful canal in Amsterdam.
Me riding the bike that was originally WAY TOO LARGE for me...until she lowered the seat. then it was managable. 
me drinking beer like a hobo on the streets of the netherlands.
We went to a Tulip Festival parade...wow, look how marvelous the "floats" were...
So a few of us decided to drink coffee and eat cake inside a nearby restaurant instead.
long overdue photos - Belgium
A crazy castle in Antwerp. Woopie!
A crazy sculpture in Antwerp.
On top of the tower, and a little scared!
What a view!
Walking up a big tower in Brugge, Belgium. LONG WAY UP!
We bought some Belgian beers that night and walked around the city, but none of us had a bottle opener. I tried to open the bottle on the window sill...no luck :(
The mussels I ate in Brugges. Unfortunately I ate them all wrong! I was using a fork and a knife like a polite person, but I guess you are just supposed to eat them with the shell somehow...oh well!
Brittany, me, and Wendy having an icecream break in Brugges.
Market/junk sale in Brussels.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
the UK must mean "undeniably kind"
once again, sorry i am so terrible at updating. yes, i am alive and well, and things are going fabulously here in germany. but more or less i want to blog about my amazing trip to the united kingdom, because that is on my mind right now.
i doubt anyone has experienced the UK like me and my travel companions did. me, wendy, and diana all decided before we left that we would try to make this trip as cheap as possible. we booked with Ryanair, three flights, totalling 56 € (Düsseldorf to London, London to Glasgow, Edinburgh to Düsseldorf). we also decided to try and couchsurf instead of staying at hostels.
i bet you're asking "what the heck is couchsurfing?" welll, couchsurfing is this website where travellers create profiles, and you're able to search for people who are offering up their floors and couches for travellers to stay for free while they're in town. in return you are also supposed to offer up your place for travellers to stay when you can. none of us had ever done this before, but we were open to the idea of meeting some interesting locals in the UK. (and don't worry mom, it is safe...people need to get verified, and it has millions of participants..we wouldn't be doing it if it weren't safe)
so last week we sent out this email to about 20 girls in london who were offering space for three couchsurfers.
"Hello!
>
>I'm really new to Couch Surfing, so my profile is
>pretty limited at the moment. I'm a 21 year old
>student from the U.S. Right
>now I'm studying abroad in Dortmund, Germany, and some
>friends and I just planned a little trip to the UK. We
>will be in London from this Wednesday (May 27) til
>Saturday (May 30), so three nights. Sorry this is such
>short notice, but I was wondering if you would have
>space for two other female college students and me?
>Even if you had one night available that would be
>wonderful.
>
>Feel free to look me up on Facebook (my name is Tori
>Klein) or to email me if you have any questions.
>
>Hope to hear from you!
>
>-Tori"
after one day we got back about 8 responses...7 unavailable, and luckily one availability! we got a response back from a girl named theresa. wendy, diana, and i were all very relieved to have a place to stay while in london, but there was a little something different about this place. here's the response email:
"Hello,
we have some space at the moment so you are welcome to
come but I'm working on Thursday and Friday and my mum
is coming on Saturday so I won't have much time to show
you around or anything.
There are just a few things/practicalities you ahould
know: I live in a squatted social centre so there are
always lots of poeple around. You might not get very
much sleep but you'll definately meet lots of people.
Although everything seems pretty stable and secure at
the moment there always is the slight possibilioty
that we might be evicted. Sqatting is not illegal in
the UK but it's unlawful and always a bit unstable and
sometimes the police seems to think that it is
illegal...
Anyuway, let me know if you want to come and stay. My
number is 07716510148 so just send me a text or call
(that might be too expensive, I know).
Maybe see you on Wednesday,
Theresa"
wow, squatting? this would be a side of london (or anywhere) that we had ever experienced before. with an email like that, who could deny that sort of call from adventure?
so we arrived in london around 11 at night, and successfully took the #149 bus up to the Dalston neighborhood to meet Theresa. we met her by the kingsland street train station, and her mannerisms and stories eased our minds a bit about staying with a complete stranger. theresa had just graduated from the university of london, but had previously lived in Iran for a year doing charity work, but originally from germany.
when we arrived at the place we would be staying, an indian guy in his 20s met us at the gate of the house. we passed through a gate covered in fake flowers, with two signs posted: one advertising free english lessons on tuesdays, and the other advertising that the place was currently inhabited. when we got through he closed the gate, and then secured it shut with a thick bike lock (this is their security system).
we walk into a large community room filled with bikes and a few tattered couches. the walls are covered in graffiti, but not alarming graffiti at all. it was more artsy and comforting. as we're walking up to the second floor, theresa is telling us about the history of their home. this massive place is three stories tall, and used to be a factory, and then a community center. now there are 20 squatters living there (not illegally, remember...just unlawfully), and they have been living there for about 6 months now without any problems or worries.
i bet you're all wondering exactly what the difference is between illegal and unlawful? well, in london squatting is not a criminal matter, but a civil matter. so the police cannot come in and kick you out right away if you are squatting, the owners need to get an order from the city. and you won't get jailtime, but the owner of the building can take you to court.
back to describing the house. we walk up the staircase to the second floor where there are about 8 college aged people sitting around on large, ripped up couches, watching a movie on a laptop. the room has high ceilings, a kitchen, a few single bulb lamps set up around, and the walls are also covered with art and tapestries. a few different coats of paint have been put up, so different colors can be seen peeking through where the paint has peeled off. as chaotic as this room sounds, it was very comforting and inviting. they even had a little american bulldog running around! :D
we didn't really know what to expect with this place, but we were very glad to find out that they had working water and electricity. but we're not really sure how they get it? when we asked one of the people about how they get this place up and running with water and electricity, they just chuckled and responded, "it's very complicated."
we got to talking with the people who live there, and to my surprise, none of them were bums. petty much all of them had their university degrees, and some even had their masters degrees. one of them was the president of the student union at the unversity of london. not all of them had jobs, but they were all very active in politics and charities. the week that we were there, they were organizing a charity party to help 2 ugandan refugees in canada receive a college education (more about this party later). this place was truly inspiring.
the room we stayed in was very comfortable. it was on the third floor, which was also a very large room, but sections of fence and sheets stretched from one side of the room to the other to create several different bedrooms. our temporary room had two mattresses with bedding and stuffed animals on them, and the floor was puzzle-pieced together with carpet remnents. although chaotic, this room was very warm and comfy. again, the walls were covered in art, quotes in different languages, and colorful tapetries and ribbons.
the three of us felt like we hit the jackpot. it was basically a sorority/fraternity filled with politically active, charitable, earth-conscious, wonderful people...except they weren't paying rent.
then our trip got into full swing the next day. we decided to buy food at grocery stores instead of going to restaurants so we could save money, so most of the days we got large loaves of turkish bread, and different kinds of cheese and hummus. our first day there we ate our lunch by the river thames, and then spent a few hours browsing around the tate modern art museum. it was really really wonderful. it was also fun figuring out the london public transportation system, and the double decker busses make any simple bus trip feel like you're on a city tour. in the evening we were going to go to an experimental indian music concert at the university that the folks in the squat had told us about, but the three of us ended up going to a coffee shop and getting wrapped up in caffeine and conversation for a few hours, so we missed it. then we went back to the flat and just chatted with our temporary roommates for a while, and they gave us a bunch of recommendations for things to see around the city. we also offered to pass out some flyers for their ugandan refugee benefit party.
friday morning we woke up, ate bagels that we had purchased the night before, and then we went on a free walking tour and saw all of the touristy stuff..big ben, houses of parliament, changing of the guards, westminster abby. it was all okay, but we already felt like we were involved in the real, gritty side of london, so all of the touristy stuff felt a quite beneath us, if ya ask me. we ate lunch in the shade by the Abbey, and then went and got lattes before we would head to the National Gallery. me being a klutz, i spilled my lattee ALL OVER myself (on the day that i was wearing a white t-shirt, of course). luckily i had a black tank top on underneath it, so i was able to just take off the white shirt. people were looking at me very strangely when i was washing my shirt in the bathroom sink of the art gallery. we stayed at the national gallery for an hour or so, but then had to go to the University to meet one of our new friends to pick up flyers for the benefit party. diana decided to stay at the national gallery for another hour or so, and me and wendy headed to the university. of course we got lost on the way, but luckily there were so many people offering to help us get there!
an hour later, we met up with diana at the british museum, and then went to a grocery store and bought dinner for ourselves (a very british dinner if you ask me, including something called cornish pasty...basically a meet and onion filled pastry pocket). we then ate our dinner by london bridge, and then went to a pub called the Market Porter for a drink and to pass out a couple flyers.
then we headed back to our place because it was the night of the party! only me and wendy ended up going to the party becuase diana had some school stuff to work on, but it was probably the best party i have ever been to! it was at a church/community center, and it had two different floors of music. there were probably about 400-500 people there, all dancing and chatting. the first floor was the dancable music -- experimental gypsy music, mostly. upstairs there was more chill music -- student bands with people playing cellos, acordions, and violins. we chatted with other party-goers, and met some people who lived at a different squat. we then went back downstairs and met up with paolo, a squat-mate from brazil with a huge afro and passion for dancing, and went crazy on the dance floor with him while the band played some sort of jewish-ska music, complete with the sax player using two saxaphones at once! it was a spectacular night.
saturday was our last day in london. we wandered around the portobello market for a few hours. the vendors had out all sorts of stuff, ranging from clothes, antique jewelry, leather stuff, clocks, dishes...ANYTHING you would want. after buying stuff for myself and some gifts for others, we headed back to our squat because it was time to head to the airport. we were so sad to leave becuase we had gotten to know our squat-mates very well, and we felt so at home there. the parting line from paolo almost felt like a movie -- "next time you won't be couch surfers, you are our friends."
we arrived in glasgow, scotland pretty late at night, so we had just booked a hostel for our first night. the next night in glasgow we had a couchsurfer lined up, so we only stayed in the hostel one night. oddly enough, it was our least favorite night on our trip. the hostel messed up our booking, and we had to go to a different place, and our beds were uncomfortable, and the breakfast was sub-par.
our next host ended up being just as interesting as the first place we stayed. in glasgow, we were hosted by Jo, a 38-year-old Canadian born male-to-female post-op transexual living with her 18-year-old girlfriend. although Jo now had a "designer vagina" (her words), she was still quite androgynous, with short hair and dressed in boots and cargo pants. it was kind of difficult to always use the correct pronoun, because she still looked more like a "he", and even went by a pretty uni-sex name. after we chatted for a little while with jo and her girlfriend, michaela, we went to the nearby grocery store and picked up food for a picnic. we brought our food down to a large park called the botannical gardens where hundreds of people were laying out basking in the sun. we lounged around and ate for a couple of hours and hecked out a pretty greenhouse they had in the center of the park.
then we went down to a public library to check the internet for some travel information, and the cute scottish guy behind the desk gave us some recommendations for where to go. he told us that there was some live jazz going on down the street at a pub called The Three Judges, so we decided to go check that out. it ended up being a BLAST! this tiny bar was filled with grandmas and grandpas, all sitting around laughing and listening to the jazz band play. one really cute tiny old lady wearing all white started dancing on the tiny dance area in between the tables with her husband. and then she pulled me onto the dance floor with her, and the two of us boogied a few steps before i pulled wendy and diana up onto the dance floor with us! our arms and hips were swinging all over, we were spinning circles around eachother, and the whole pub (remember, all octogenarians) was buzzing with excitement and liveliness. a few people even got up and sang songs with the band. one of the women was amazing, and she sang patsy cline's "walking after midnight" (which ended up being stuck in our heads for the rest of the trip). an adorable tipsy old scottish man, Bill, who had sang a song ended up sitting with us and chatting for a couple hours after the band ended, telling us stories, singing songs.
seeing how happy everyone in that pub was made becoming old seem not as bad. the only unfortunate part of The Three Judges Pub was when some middle-aged scottish guy named Andy came and joined our group, and would not stop hitting on me. he kept on reciting poetry, and even said he wanted me to come to his house so he could show me some of his artwork. he then told me, "i like your friends, but i fancy you." how cheesy! it was pretty funny, though. and he was only an inch or two taller than me and i had two friends iwth me, so i wasn't too threatened.
although scottish people speak english, it was still difficult to understand everything people were saying. the accent is very thick, so we found ourselves often having to ask people to repeat what they just said. but the glaswegians (people from glasgow) have to be the nicest people on earth! everyone we met was just so eager to help us and chat with us, it made us feel very welcome. then we went back to jo's apartment, where she sang and played guitar all night long.
monday morning we woke up, and jo cooked us a traditional scottish breakfast complete with 5 different kinds of meat, as well as some black pudding. it was super filling, and i couldn't finish it all. none of us are used to eating that much meat, either, so we felt pretty bogged down and lethargic for a couple of hours. after checking our emails quickly at the library, we headed down to the Kelvington Art Museum, and then went to a wonderful coffee shop nearby, got some caffeinated iced beverages and chatted for a couple of hours. following our coffee boost, diana wanted to get some more schoolwork done, and wendy and i attempted to go to Loch Lomond. wendy and i ended up getting completely lost again, and somehow wandered into the national piping museum. it was very hot outside, so we just chilled inside the small airconditioned room and watched a video with some scottish man describing the history of bagpipes.
when we left, we decided that we were going to do some fun photo project. wendy's fiance's birthday is coming up soon, so i came up with the idea that we make a sign that said "happy birthday noah!" and get as many pictures as possible of people holding this sign. it ended up being a BLAST! we got about 15 pictures of different people holding this sign -- old ladies, nurses, people with funky hair or clothes, so many people... and no one turned down the request (well, one guy did).
we met back up with diana and decided to splurge and get some nice dinner somewhere to celebrate our last night in the UK. we went to a really funky artsy pub called the Drawing Room, and got some delicious and beautiful food. we got three different plates, and kept on passing them around the table to share with everyone. then we split to desserts, and played some of the board games they had available. then we went back to jo's apartment and fell asleep pretty soon after we arrived because we had to get up to take a bus to edinburgh the next morning. we were also exhausted from walking all over the city getting people to take pictures with the sign, so i was sooo ready for sleep.
after the goodbyes in the morning and a nice light breakfast of tea and cereal (no meat, haha), we got on the bus and headed to edinburgh. edinburgh is a very touristy town, but for good reason. it is a very beautiful medieval town that has been very well preserved. there are so many curious allies and streets you could wander around there for hours. we ended up going to a cute little tea-room in an alley that a friend of ours from dortmund had recommended called Forsythe's. we drank tea and ate soup and different meat pastries, and the cute old lady who owned the place even gave us three purple yarn and ribbon braids that smelled like lavendar. it was so quaint!
then we went and saw the outside of a castle (we didn't go in because it was about 12 £ to get in, and we didn't have enough extra money to spend), and then wendy and i went to some spooky tour about a haunted crypt. it was soooo much fun!
we got to the edinburgh airport without any problems, and then spent the entire plane ride home looking at our pictures (which i will get from my friends and post on here ASAP) and reminiscing about how much fun we had.
all in all, the most wonderful week of my life. we experienced so many new and exciting things, talked with interesting people, got a little sunburned (which we weren't expecting in the normally-gloomy UK). also on another wonderful note, our trip was extremely cheap! before we left everyone warned us about the high prices in the UK, but with our grocery store meals and couch surfing we only spent about 240£ each (about $400), including all of our transportation, food, and souveniers over the span of 5 days. i think that's pretty awesome. the whole time we kept on saying that this trip didn't feel real, like stuff this cool was almost like a movie and shouldn't be happening to us. the three of us were also wonderful travel companions, all of us meshing extremely well and complimenting eachother's personalities perfectly. best. week. ever!
soo theres the end of the long post. i will post pictures as soon as i can (don't i say that everytime, though?). i hope you all enjoyed my novel about my UK trip!
i doubt anyone has experienced the UK like me and my travel companions did. me, wendy, and diana all decided before we left that we would try to make this trip as cheap as possible. we booked with Ryanair, three flights, totalling 56 € (Düsseldorf to London, London to Glasgow, Edinburgh to Düsseldorf). we also decided to try and couchsurf instead of staying at hostels.
i bet you're asking "what the heck is couchsurfing?" welll, couchsurfing is this website where travellers create profiles, and you're able to search for people who are offering up their floors and couches for travellers to stay for free while they're in town. in return you are also supposed to offer up your place for travellers to stay when you can. none of us had ever done this before, but we were open to the idea of meeting some interesting locals in the UK. (and don't worry mom, it is safe...people need to get verified, and it has millions of participants..we wouldn't be doing it if it weren't safe)
so last week we sent out this email to about 20 girls in london who were offering space for three couchsurfers.
"Hello!
>
>I'm really new to Couch Surfing, so my profile is
>pretty limited at the moment. I'm a 21 year old
>student from the U.S. Right
>now I'm studying abroad in Dortmund, Germany, and some
>friends and I just planned a little trip to the UK. We
>will be in London from this Wednesday (May 27) til
>Saturday (May 30), so three nights. Sorry this is such
>short notice, but I was wondering if you would have
>space for two other female college students and me?
>Even if you had one night available that would be
>wonderful.
>
>Feel free to look me up on Facebook (my name is Tori
>Klein) or to email me if you have any questions.
>
>Hope to hear from you!
>
>-Tori"
after one day we got back about 8 responses...7 unavailable, and luckily one availability! we got a response back from a girl named theresa. wendy, diana, and i were all very relieved to have a place to stay while in london, but there was a little something different about this place. here's the response email:
"Hello,
we have some space at the moment so you are welcome to
come but I'm working on Thursday and Friday and my mum
is coming on Saturday so I won't have much time to show
you around or anything.
There are just a few things/practicalities you ahould
know: I live in a squatted social centre so there are
always lots of poeple around. You might not get very
much sleep but you'll definately meet lots of people.
Although everything seems pretty stable and secure at
the moment there always is the slight possibilioty
that we might be evicted. Sqatting is not illegal in
the UK but it's unlawful and always a bit unstable and
sometimes the police seems to think that it is
illegal...
Anyuway, let me know if you want to come and stay. My
number is 07716510148 so just send me a text or call
(that might be too expensive, I know).
Maybe see you on Wednesday,
Theresa"
wow, squatting? this would be a side of london (or anywhere) that we had ever experienced before. with an email like that, who could deny that sort of call from adventure?
so we arrived in london around 11 at night, and successfully took the #149 bus up to the Dalston neighborhood to meet Theresa. we met her by the kingsland street train station, and her mannerisms and stories eased our minds a bit about staying with a complete stranger. theresa had just graduated from the university of london, but had previously lived in Iran for a year doing charity work, but originally from germany.
when we arrived at the place we would be staying, an indian guy in his 20s met us at the gate of the house. we passed through a gate covered in fake flowers, with two signs posted: one advertising free english lessons on tuesdays, and the other advertising that the place was currently inhabited. when we got through he closed the gate, and then secured it shut with a thick bike lock (this is their security system).
we walk into a large community room filled with bikes and a few tattered couches. the walls are covered in graffiti, but not alarming graffiti at all. it was more artsy and comforting. as we're walking up to the second floor, theresa is telling us about the history of their home. this massive place is three stories tall, and used to be a factory, and then a community center. now there are 20 squatters living there (not illegally, remember...just unlawfully), and they have been living there for about 6 months now without any problems or worries.
i bet you're all wondering exactly what the difference is between illegal and unlawful? well, in london squatting is not a criminal matter, but a civil matter. so the police cannot come in and kick you out right away if you are squatting, the owners need to get an order from the city. and you won't get jailtime, but the owner of the building can take you to court.
back to describing the house. we walk up the staircase to the second floor where there are about 8 college aged people sitting around on large, ripped up couches, watching a movie on a laptop. the room has high ceilings, a kitchen, a few single bulb lamps set up around, and the walls are also covered with art and tapestries. a few different coats of paint have been put up, so different colors can be seen peeking through where the paint has peeled off. as chaotic as this room sounds, it was very comforting and inviting. they even had a little american bulldog running around! :D
we didn't really know what to expect with this place, but we were very glad to find out that they had working water and electricity. but we're not really sure how they get it? when we asked one of the people about how they get this place up and running with water and electricity, they just chuckled and responded, "it's very complicated."
we got to talking with the people who live there, and to my surprise, none of them were bums. petty much all of them had their university degrees, and some even had their masters degrees. one of them was the president of the student union at the unversity of london. not all of them had jobs, but they were all very active in politics and charities. the week that we were there, they were organizing a charity party to help 2 ugandan refugees in canada receive a college education (more about this party later). this place was truly inspiring.
the room we stayed in was very comfortable. it was on the third floor, which was also a very large room, but sections of fence and sheets stretched from one side of the room to the other to create several different bedrooms. our temporary room had two mattresses with bedding and stuffed animals on them, and the floor was puzzle-pieced together with carpet remnents. although chaotic, this room was very warm and comfy. again, the walls were covered in art, quotes in different languages, and colorful tapetries and ribbons.
the three of us felt like we hit the jackpot. it was basically a sorority/fraternity filled with politically active, charitable, earth-conscious, wonderful people...except they weren't paying rent.
then our trip got into full swing the next day. we decided to buy food at grocery stores instead of going to restaurants so we could save money, so most of the days we got large loaves of turkish bread, and different kinds of cheese and hummus. our first day there we ate our lunch by the river thames, and then spent a few hours browsing around the tate modern art museum. it was really really wonderful. it was also fun figuring out the london public transportation system, and the double decker busses make any simple bus trip feel like you're on a city tour. in the evening we were going to go to an experimental indian music concert at the university that the folks in the squat had told us about, but the three of us ended up going to a coffee shop and getting wrapped up in caffeine and conversation for a few hours, so we missed it. then we went back to the flat and just chatted with our temporary roommates for a while, and they gave us a bunch of recommendations for things to see around the city. we also offered to pass out some flyers for their ugandan refugee benefit party.
friday morning we woke up, ate bagels that we had purchased the night before, and then we went on a free walking tour and saw all of the touristy stuff..big ben, houses of parliament, changing of the guards, westminster abby. it was all okay, but we already felt like we were involved in the real, gritty side of london, so all of the touristy stuff felt a quite beneath us, if ya ask me. we ate lunch in the shade by the Abbey, and then went and got lattes before we would head to the National Gallery. me being a klutz, i spilled my lattee ALL OVER myself (on the day that i was wearing a white t-shirt, of course). luckily i had a black tank top on underneath it, so i was able to just take off the white shirt. people were looking at me very strangely when i was washing my shirt in the bathroom sink of the art gallery. we stayed at the national gallery for an hour or so, but then had to go to the University to meet one of our new friends to pick up flyers for the benefit party. diana decided to stay at the national gallery for another hour or so, and me and wendy headed to the university. of course we got lost on the way, but luckily there were so many people offering to help us get there!
an hour later, we met up with diana at the british museum, and then went to a grocery store and bought dinner for ourselves (a very british dinner if you ask me, including something called cornish pasty...basically a meet and onion filled pastry pocket). we then ate our dinner by london bridge, and then went to a pub called the Market Porter for a drink and to pass out a couple flyers.
then we headed back to our place because it was the night of the party! only me and wendy ended up going to the party becuase diana had some school stuff to work on, but it was probably the best party i have ever been to! it was at a church/community center, and it had two different floors of music. there were probably about 400-500 people there, all dancing and chatting. the first floor was the dancable music -- experimental gypsy music, mostly. upstairs there was more chill music -- student bands with people playing cellos, acordions, and violins. we chatted with other party-goers, and met some people who lived at a different squat. we then went back downstairs and met up with paolo, a squat-mate from brazil with a huge afro and passion for dancing, and went crazy on the dance floor with him while the band played some sort of jewish-ska music, complete with the sax player using two saxaphones at once! it was a spectacular night.
saturday was our last day in london. we wandered around the portobello market for a few hours. the vendors had out all sorts of stuff, ranging from clothes, antique jewelry, leather stuff, clocks, dishes...ANYTHING you would want. after buying stuff for myself and some gifts for others, we headed back to our squat because it was time to head to the airport. we were so sad to leave becuase we had gotten to know our squat-mates very well, and we felt so at home there. the parting line from paolo almost felt like a movie -- "next time you won't be couch surfers, you are our friends."
we arrived in glasgow, scotland pretty late at night, so we had just booked a hostel for our first night. the next night in glasgow we had a couchsurfer lined up, so we only stayed in the hostel one night. oddly enough, it was our least favorite night on our trip. the hostel messed up our booking, and we had to go to a different place, and our beds were uncomfortable, and the breakfast was sub-par.
our next host ended up being just as interesting as the first place we stayed. in glasgow, we were hosted by Jo, a 38-year-old Canadian born male-to-female post-op transexual living with her 18-year-old girlfriend. although Jo now had a "designer vagina" (her words), she was still quite androgynous, with short hair and dressed in boots and cargo pants. it was kind of difficult to always use the correct pronoun, because she still looked more like a "he", and even went by a pretty uni-sex name. after we chatted for a little while with jo and her girlfriend, michaela, we went to the nearby grocery store and picked up food for a picnic. we brought our food down to a large park called the botannical gardens where hundreds of people were laying out basking in the sun. we lounged around and ate for a couple of hours and hecked out a pretty greenhouse they had in the center of the park.
then we went down to a public library to check the internet for some travel information, and the cute scottish guy behind the desk gave us some recommendations for where to go. he told us that there was some live jazz going on down the street at a pub called The Three Judges, so we decided to go check that out. it ended up being a BLAST! this tiny bar was filled with grandmas and grandpas, all sitting around laughing and listening to the jazz band play. one really cute tiny old lady wearing all white started dancing on the tiny dance area in between the tables with her husband. and then she pulled me onto the dance floor with her, and the two of us boogied a few steps before i pulled wendy and diana up onto the dance floor with us! our arms and hips were swinging all over, we were spinning circles around eachother, and the whole pub (remember, all octogenarians) was buzzing with excitement and liveliness. a few people even got up and sang songs with the band. one of the women was amazing, and she sang patsy cline's "walking after midnight" (which ended up being stuck in our heads for the rest of the trip). an adorable tipsy old scottish man, Bill, who had sang a song ended up sitting with us and chatting for a couple hours after the band ended, telling us stories, singing songs.
seeing how happy everyone in that pub was made becoming old seem not as bad. the only unfortunate part of The Three Judges Pub was when some middle-aged scottish guy named Andy came and joined our group, and would not stop hitting on me. he kept on reciting poetry, and even said he wanted me to come to his house so he could show me some of his artwork. he then told me, "i like your friends, but i fancy you." how cheesy! it was pretty funny, though. and he was only an inch or two taller than me and i had two friends iwth me, so i wasn't too threatened.
although scottish people speak english, it was still difficult to understand everything people were saying. the accent is very thick, so we found ourselves often having to ask people to repeat what they just said. but the glaswegians (people from glasgow) have to be the nicest people on earth! everyone we met was just so eager to help us and chat with us, it made us feel very welcome. then we went back to jo's apartment, where she sang and played guitar all night long.
monday morning we woke up, and jo cooked us a traditional scottish breakfast complete with 5 different kinds of meat, as well as some black pudding. it was super filling, and i couldn't finish it all. none of us are used to eating that much meat, either, so we felt pretty bogged down and lethargic for a couple of hours. after checking our emails quickly at the library, we headed down to the Kelvington Art Museum, and then went to a wonderful coffee shop nearby, got some caffeinated iced beverages and chatted for a couple of hours. following our coffee boost, diana wanted to get some more schoolwork done, and wendy and i attempted to go to Loch Lomond. wendy and i ended up getting completely lost again, and somehow wandered into the national piping museum. it was very hot outside, so we just chilled inside the small airconditioned room and watched a video with some scottish man describing the history of bagpipes.
when we left, we decided that we were going to do some fun photo project. wendy's fiance's birthday is coming up soon, so i came up with the idea that we make a sign that said "happy birthday noah!" and get as many pictures as possible of people holding this sign. it ended up being a BLAST! we got about 15 pictures of different people holding this sign -- old ladies, nurses, people with funky hair or clothes, so many people... and no one turned down the request (well, one guy did).
we met back up with diana and decided to splurge and get some nice dinner somewhere to celebrate our last night in the UK. we went to a really funky artsy pub called the Drawing Room, and got some delicious and beautiful food. we got three different plates, and kept on passing them around the table to share with everyone. then we split to desserts, and played some of the board games they had available. then we went back to jo's apartment and fell asleep pretty soon after we arrived because we had to get up to take a bus to edinburgh the next morning. we were also exhausted from walking all over the city getting people to take pictures with the sign, so i was sooo ready for sleep.
after the goodbyes in the morning and a nice light breakfast of tea and cereal (no meat, haha), we got on the bus and headed to edinburgh. edinburgh is a very touristy town, but for good reason. it is a very beautiful medieval town that has been very well preserved. there are so many curious allies and streets you could wander around there for hours. we ended up going to a cute little tea-room in an alley that a friend of ours from dortmund had recommended called Forsythe's. we drank tea and ate soup and different meat pastries, and the cute old lady who owned the place even gave us three purple yarn and ribbon braids that smelled like lavendar. it was so quaint!
then we went and saw the outside of a castle (we didn't go in because it was about 12 £ to get in, and we didn't have enough extra money to spend), and then wendy and i went to some spooky tour about a haunted crypt. it was soooo much fun!
we got to the edinburgh airport without any problems, and then spent the entire plane ride home looking at our pictures (which i will get from my friends and post on here ASAP) and reminiscing about how much fun we had.
all in all, the most wonderful week of my life. we experienced so many new and exciting things, talked with interesting people, got a little sunburned (which we weren't expecting in the normally-gloomy UK). also on another wonderful note, our trip was extremely cheap! before we left everyone warned us about the high prices in the UK, but with our grocery store meals and couch surfing we only spent about 240£ each (about $400), including all of our transportation, food, and souveniers over the span of 5 days. i think that's pretty awesome. the whole time we kept on saying that this trip didn't feel real, like stuff this cool was almost like a movie and shouldn't be happening to us. the three of us were also wonderful travel companions, all of us meshing extremely well and complimenting eachother's personalities perfectly. best. week. ever!
soo theres the end of the long post. i will post pictures as soon as i can (don't i say that everytime, though?). i hope you all enjoyed my novel about my UK trip!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
zwei monate.
yyes, i am sorry i'm such a neglectful blogger! don't hate me, just appreciate this moment.
right now the main drive behind my blogging is procrastination (so not much has changed, hehe). we are currently in our fourth week of classes, and it is so difficult to look on facebook and see everyone back home anticipating their summer plans. i am just planning papers and presentations right now, but hopefully i will be planning some trips soon! right now rome and berlin are on the horizon, but nothing has solidified as of now.
my classes are going very smoothly. pretty much all of my classes are in english, and i don't know how to feel about it. a part of me feels defeated and lazy, because i came here to "mein deutsche verbessern" (to better my german). but on the other side of the coin, i want to be able to understand everything that is going on, and i don't feel like my german speaking abilites are up to german university level yet. i have been going to a newspaper class, and have already written two articles for their newspaper! yippie! unfortunately during the class/planning session, i just sit there and absorb all the fast-paced german speaking going on around me. i have officially become that creepy silent kid in class.
also, i realized that because german classes only meet once a week, i might be able cheat the system and get a whole year's worth of credits into one semester. so i will basically completing all the requirements for my International Studies Major while i'm here. horray!
i'm currently taking six courses, and i think my two favorites are pop culture theories and international media and journalism cultures. in my pop cultures class, we have been talking about different british and welsh culture theorists, and next week we will be talking about marx. i will be giving a presentation about bob dylan in two weeks. we have really only met two times for my international media systems and journalism cultures class, but i really enjoyed my meetings! this class combines my two majors, so i am really excited to really dive into the subject. it is also really fascinating to learn about the different attitudes the german and other international students have towards worldwide media issues.
oh yeah...i almost forgot that i went to the netherlands two weeks ago. it was a pleasant trip to say the least, but i think i had my expectations set too high for a two day trip. the first day, the group and i (4 other girls) just found our hostel in amsterdam and then wandered around the city for a little while, soaking up the dutch scenery.
amsterdam is the city of a million bicycles, so me and two of the other girls decided that we should experience the city the same fashion the locals do. apparently they don't have too many short people renting bikes! the first 10 minutes of my bicycle adventure was terrifying! i could barely touch the ground from the sitting position, and i felt like i was on some sort of oversized novelty bike! i went back to the bicycle store and told the woman working my problem. she told me that the seat could be lowered even more than it already was, so she took out some metal tool, took of the seat, removed a few metal pieces, and then viola! the bike was at least managable. i was still pretty terrified riding in amsterdam, though, because you are literally inches away from moving traffic most of the time. the woman at the bike shop told me not to be afraid, though -- "bikes own this city." (i was still pretty freaked out, though) we rode around alongside the canals, and then found our way to a cute park where there were flocks of college-aged students sitting around smoking marijuana (the dutch way!).
speaking of marijuana, i unfortunately didn't get to experience any coffee shops. at the time i felt pretty apathetic about it, but after we left amsterdam i felt like i really missed out. although i don't smoke pot, i really wished that i could have experienced smoking it legally in amsterdam. perhaps another trip to amsterdam is in order?
so after we returned the bikes, me and one of my travel companions (wendy!) split off and went to visit the anne frank house. it was definitely a very moving experience. they had artifacts, literature, and video interviews set up around the house. at the end there was this video room that had short video segments about different modern cultural debates about freedom of speech, religion, etc...but we unfortunately arrived too late, because the house was two minutes away from closing when we got to that point. afterwards me and wendy sat by one of the canals, and pull out the beer and pistachios we had bought earlier in the day. we laughed, told stories, and acted like hobos as the sun went down.
mid-beer, a man in a boat drove by and informed us that it is illegal to consume alcohol in public in the netherlands (the complete opposite of germany), so we chugged our beers and then high-tailed it outta there back to our hostel.
when we returned, we found ourselves some more heinekens, and brought a scrabble board into the mix. our game carried on late into the evening, even after all of the other travelers had extinguished their joints and cleared the common lounge.
the next day we travelled a short distance to the towns of haarlem and..uhhh...some name that is completely slipping my mind at the moment. one of my travel companions, diana, was very excited to see the Corrie ten Boom house in haarlem. we discovered the tour was free, so wethe whole group decided to join in! we were the only people under the age of 60 in our tour group (*wait, no, i take that back. there was a 40-year-old polish woman translating for her parents). it also turned out to be much more religiously based than i was expecting. the old dutch tour guide kept on switching back and forth between telling bible stories and the history of corrie ten boom. she laid the bible-paste on pretty thick (did you guys know that the berlin wall fell because people prayed?...maybe i need to stop being so cynical all the time) my mind kept on wandering, kind of like when i have to go to church. in between the relgious ranting, it was nice to absorb a little bit of dutch history though.
later we went to the small town of mystery to see a tulip parade. it turned out to be a lot smaller and hokey-er than we had thought, so i was a bit disappointed. i was anticipating it to be like Tulip Time in Pella, except a hundred times bigger because it was ACTUALLY IN THE NETHERLANDS. wrong! there wasn't even any candy (i know! a parade without candy!? WTF?). again, we were amongst the youngest people there, so me and two of the other girls decided to go inside a nearby restaurant and get coffee and cake instead of standing outside with the old people and japanese tour groups. we were still able to observe the parade from the comfort of our coffee and conversation.
now back to reality and the swing of everyday life..
!things that i have enjoyed in the past few weeks!
1) movie club. me and about 6-8 of the other students started a tuesday night movie club. usually we take turns bringing snacks or making dinner, and then we watch a german film.
2) oberhausen international short film festival. lots of short films from different countries around the world. french short films are quite the mind-fuck, let me tell you.
3) tanz in den mai. the day before may 1st, there are lots of parties and dancing at clubs because may 1st is a national holiday. i went to a dance club in essen with alexander and a few of his friends, and i danced into may (until 4 am!).
4) my palm tree is still alive!
5) i recently rediscovered how much i love listening to NPR. before i came to germany, i was working at the smaller java house at the hospital, which is the slower kiosk. i would usually be the only one working, and the radio would always keep me company. i downloaded a bunch of podcasts, and have been immersed for the last few hours in my old friends, This American Life and Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.
6) Döners! i cannot express how much i love these things. Mom, you will fall in love with them, too, when you are here. 7) television. stefan and his parents are letting me use a small TV, so i have been able to watch Spongebob Schwammkopf (which translates into Spongebob Spongehead) and German news programs as i get ready in the morning.
...things i am craving/wishing for/missing...
1) mexican food..particularly Los Portales(my favorite mexican restaurant ever)
2) free drink refills
3) cheetos
4) Thai Flavors (best asian restaurant in iowa city)
5) bethany, kaydee, sarah, lauren, emily, and my family
that is about it. i don't feel like posting photos right now (but do i ever? i think i am the worst blogger of all time!)
right now the main drive behind my blogging is procrastination (so not much has changed, hehe). we are currently in our fourth week of classes, and it is so difficult to look on facebook and see everyone back home anticipating their summer plans. i am just planning papers and presentations right now, but hopefully i will be planning some trips soon! right now rome and berlin are on the horizon, but nothing has solidified as of now.
my classes are going very smoothly. pretty much all of my classes are in english, and i don't know how to feel about it. a part of me feels defeated and lazy, because i came here to "mein deutsche verbessern" (to better my german). but on the other side of the coin, i want to be able to understand everything that is going on, and i don't feel like my german speaking abilites are up to german university level yet. i have been going to a newspaper class, and have already written two articles for their newspaper! yippie! unfortunately during the class/planning session, i just sit there and absorb all the fast-paced german speaking going on around me. i have officially become that creepy silent kid in class.
also, i realized that because german classes only meet once a week, i might be able cheat the system and get a whole year's worth of credits into one semester. so i will basically completing all the requirements for my International Studies Major while i'm here. horray!
i'm currently taking six courses, and i think my two favorites are pop culture theories and international media and journalism cultures. in my pop cultures class, we have been talking about different british and welsh culture theorists, and next week we will be talking about marx. i will be giving a presentation about bob dylan in two weeks. we have really only met two times for my international media systems and journalism cultures class, but i really enjoyed my meetings! this class combines my two majors, so i am really excited to really dive into the subject. it is also really fascinating to learn about the different attitudes the german and other international students have towards worldwide media issues.
oh yeah...i almost forgot that i went to the netherlands two weeks ago. it was a pleasant trip to say the least, but i think i had my expectations set too high for a two day trip. the first day, the group and i (4 other girls) just found our hostel in amsterdam and then wandered around the city for a little while, soaking up the dutch scenery.
amsterdam is the city of a million bicycles, so me and two of the other girls decided that we should experience the city the same fashion the locals do. apparently they don't have too many short people renting bikes! the first 10 minutes of my bicycle adventure was terrifying! i could barely touch the ground from the sitting position, and i felt like i was on some sort of oversized novelty bike! i went back to the bicycle store and told the woman working my problem. she told me that the seat could be lowered even more than it already was, so she took out some metal tool, took of the seat, removed a few metal pieces, and then viola! the bike was at least managable. i was still pretty terrified riding in amsterdam, though, because you are literally inches away from moving traffic most of the time. the woman at the bike shop told me not to be afraid, though -- "bikes own this city." (i was still pretty freaked out, though) we rode around alongside the canals, and then found our way to a cute park where there were flocks of college-aged students sitting around smoking marijuana (the dutch way!).
speaking of marijuana, i unfortunately didn't get to experience any coffee shops. at the time i felt pretty apathetic about it, but after we left amsterdam i felt like i really missed out. although i don't smoke pot, i really wished that i could have experienced smoking it legally in amsterdam. perhaps another trip to amsterdam is in order?
so after we returned the bikes, me and one of my travel companions (wendy!) split off and went to visit the anne frank house. it was definitely a very moving experience. they had artifacts, literature, and video interviews set up around the house. at the end there was this video room that had short video segments about different modern cultural debates about freedom of speech, religion, etc...but we unfortunately arrived too late, because the house was two minutes away from closing when we got to that point. afterwards me and wendy sat by one of the canals, and pull out the beer and pistachios we had bought earlier in the day. we laughed, told stories, and acted like hobos as the sun went down.
mid-beer, a man in a boat drove by and informed us that it is illegal to consume alcohol in public in the netherlands (the complete opposite of germany), so we chugged our beers and then high-tailed it outta there back to our hostel.
when we returned, we found ourselves some more heinekens, and brought a scrabble board into the mix. our game carried on late into the evening, even after all of the other travelers had extinguished their joints and cleared the common lounge.
the next day we travelled a short distance to the towns of haarlem and..uhhh...some name that is completely slipping my mind at the moment. one of my travel companions, diana, was very excited to see the Corrie ten Boom house in haarlem. we discovered the tour was free, so wethe whole group decided to join in! we were the only people under the age of 60 in our tour group (*wait, no, i take that back. there was a 40-year-old polish woman translating for her parents). it also turned out to be much more religiously based than i was expecting. the old dutch tour guide kept on switching back and forth between telling bible stories and the history of corrie ten boom. she laid the bible-paste on pretty thick (did you guys know that the berlin wall fell because people prayed?...maybe i need to stop being so cynical all the time) my mind kept on wandering, kind of like when i have to go to church. in between the relgious ranting, it was nice to absorb a little bit of dutch history though.
later we went to the small town of mystery to see a tulip parade. it turned out to be a lot smaller and hokey-er than we had thought, so i was a bit disappointed. i was anticipating it to be like Tulip Time in Pella, except a hundred times bigger because it was ACTUALLY IN THE NETHERLANDS. wrong! there wasn't even any candy (i know! a parade without candy!? WTF?). again, we were amongst the youngest people there, so me and two of the other girls decided to go inside a nearby restaurant and get coffee and cake instead of standing outside with the old people and japanese tour groups. we were still able to observe the parade from the comfort of our coffee and conversation.
now back to reality and the swing of everyday life..
!things that i have enjoyed in the past few weeks!
1) movie club. me and about 6-8 of the other students started a tuesday night movie club. usually we take turns bringing snacks or making dinner, and then we watch a german film.
2) oberhausen international short film festival. lots of short films from different countries around the world. french short films are quite the mind-fuck, let me tell you.
3) tanz in den mai. the day before may 1st, there are lots of parties and dancing at clubs because may 1st is a national holiday. i went to a dance club in essen with alexander and a few of his friends, and i danced into may (until 4 am!).
4) my palm tree is still alive!
5) i recently rediscovered how much i love listening to NPR. before i came to germany, i was working at the smaller java house at the hospital, which is the slower kiosk. i would usually be the only one working, and the radio would always keep me company. i downloaded a bunch of podcasts, and have been immersed for the last few hours in my old friends, This American Life and Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.
6) Döners! i cannot express how much i love these things. Mom, you will fall in love with them, too, when you are here. 7) television. stefan and his parents are letting me use a small TV, so i have been able to watch Spongebob Schwammkopf (which translates into Spongebob Spongehead) and German news programs as i get ready in the morning.
...things i am craving/wishing for/missing...
1) mexican food..particularly Los Portales(my favorite mexican restaurant ever)
2) free drink refills
3) cheetos
4) Thai Flavors (best asian restaurant in iowa city)
5) bethany, kaydee, sarah, lauren, emily, and my family
that is about it. i don't feel like posting photos right now (but do i ever? i think i am the worst blogger of all time!)
Sunday, April 12, 2009
stranded in belgium
so i bet you're all wondering where the hell the picture updates are? well, unfortunately my camera decided to die, so i doubt i'll have any good picture updates anytime soon. i can steal pictures from other people, though!
i didn't really tell anyone that i was traveling to belgium, mainly because we didn't know where we would be going until 15 hours before we left. we left for brussels at 9.45 am on sunday, and i pretty much slept the entire way, nursing a slight hangover.
we arrived around 3 pm, and found a hostel and dropped our stuff off. most things are closed on sundays, so my travel companions (wendy and brittany) and I just walked around the city for a while, looking at the arcitecture and monuments.
we ended up finding
a realy odd little hookah bar, and decided to venture inside. i swear this place was probably some sort of arab mafia front. they had early 90s hip-hop music playing, and there was some large arab man in a suit smoking hookah in the corner talking on his cell phone. it was pretty odd. we found their hookah selection pretty hilarious. belgium is the country of three different languages, and in brussels, everyone speaks french. their hookah flavors were "pomme" and "raisin," and we had no clue what these meant. in german, "pommes" are french fries, so as far as we knew, they only had french fry and raisin flavored hookah. it was pretty hilarious.
brussels is in general a pretty disgusting city. there is quite a bit of trash littering the subways and streets, and i think i will always be haunted by the putrid smell of the sewer drains. it is the kind of city where you should always avoid touching walls or handrails.
the next day we decided to visit a flea market in the middle of the city. luckily we didn't expect it to be anything too glamorous, because it really wasn't. it was mostly a bunch of people who put a bunch of junk into boxes and onto bedsheets, and haggle with people to sell their trash. there were definitely some fun treasures within the flea market. wendy ended up buying a bongo with some sort of animal hair all over it (maybe it is goat? or horse?).
the second day we ventured to the cute city of Brugge. my initial impression of this city was that it seemed a little fake. everything was very clean and touristy, but it was actually a pretty pleasant contrast to grungy brussels. everything around us was so bustling and picturesque, and we even had a great experience with our hostel. we got ice cream, did some shopping, walked around to some cathedrals, drank some beer. it was great. for dinner i had the regional specialty -- mussels! although i had no effing clue how to eat them, i still loved loved loved it! we ended up tipping our waiter 5 euro, but later we learned that no one tips in belgium. lucky waiter!
the third da
y we went to the city of antwerp to visit one of wendy's fiance's friends, dennys, and his wife, fraya. antwerp is such an interesting city. the people of antwerp don't speak french. they speak one of the strangest languages i have ever encountered -- flemish. it sounds like someone took german, english, and french, and put them in a meat grinder, and out came the flemish language.
we found our hostel pretty quickly, and it turned out that it was right in the middle of the jewish district. pretty much everyone who was out an about was wearing traditional jewish clothing and hair. dennys and fraya showed us some of the famous monuments, parks, and statues around the city, and then we got some dinner at an italian restaurant. something interesting about pizza in europe is that no one shares pizza -- you always get your own (and they're not tiny, either!).
after dinner and a few belgian beers (all for me, haha), we decided to go see a movie. most of us had never seen Slumdog Millionare, so we bought tickets and went in. the movie was in english, but with french and flemish subtitles. i loved loved loved the movie, and i can definitely see why it won best picture of the year!
our last day we went back to brussels. brittany felt like going back to germany early, but wendy and i wanted to stay and check out some of the sights of brussels. our first destination was the museum of musical instruments. on our way there, we walked through a beautiful park (later we found out the park is nutorious for people having gay sex there in the evening, haha). the museum was wonderful! we were given headphones, and you can walk around different parts of the museum and tune into different instruments playing. probably one of my most favorite museums ever.
after the museum we decided to go see the famous statue of the peeing boy. it wasn't anything too spectacular. it was smaller than i expected.
the craziest part of the trip happened when we were trying to get back to germany. we got on our train alright, but when we arrived in our connection city, wendy decided to buy some last minute belgian chocolate at the tiny train station before we left. we didn't realize how little time we had between trains, because we ended up missing our train! to kill some time in between our next train, we went to a little bar/restaurant near the train station.
after a couple of Duvels and some cheese appetizer, we went back to catch the next train into germany. we were waiting for our train at the advertised track, and wendy even asked one of the train controllers if this was the right train to get back to Aachen, Germany.
"the next one," the controller said with a smile. so we waited at the track for the next train to arrive. we got into some deep conversations, and then didn't realize until it was too late that we had missed the train. i also realized that maybe the controller meant the next track over, not the next train. without panicking, i went into the station and tried to ask the person at the ticket booth about train information.
"hi, do you speak english?" i asked.
"no," said the man behind the desk without looking at me.
"umm..." i hesitated a little, "aachen?"
"tomorrow."
ahhh shit. the next train wasn't leaving til the following morning. after weighing our options, we decided to save our money and just bum around the city and the train station til the next train to Aachen, Germany left at 5.57 am. we went back to our favorite bar, ordered a few espressos, and just hung out til they closed.
then we went and sat around the train station for a couple of hours. luckily the men working at the train station were very friendly, and they allowed us to stay in the station while the night custodian worked (and he ended up speaking some german, so we were able to talk to him throughout the night while he cleaned).
when the sun came up, we FINALLY caught our train back to germany and made it back to dortmund safely, 12 hours later than we had expected.
so all in all, it was a very exciting, beautiful trip to belgium. of course when i told my mom about this, she asked, "and what did you learn from all of this???"
and i think the only thing that i learned is that sometimes when you mess up, more fun things can happen.
and sorry i don't have more pictures. like i have said before, my camera pooped out on me. i will hopefully get it fixed soon, but until then i will just have to steal pictures from other people.
i didn't really tell anyone that i was traveling to belgium, mainly because we didn't know where we would be going until 15 hours before we left. we left for brussels at 9.45 am on sunday, and i pretty much slept the entire way, nursing a slight hangover.
we arrived around 3 pm, and found a hostel and dropped our stuff off. most things are closed on sundays, so my travel companions (wendy and brittany) and I just walked around the city for a while, looking at the arcitecture and monuments.
we ended up finding
a realy odd little hookah bar, and decided to venture inside. i swear this place was probably some sort of arab mafia front. they had early 90s hip-hop music playing, and there was some large arab man in a suit smoking hookah in the corner talking on his cell phone. it was pretty odd. we found their hookah selection pretty hilarious. belgium is the country of three different languages, and in brussels, everyone speaks french. their hookah flavors were "pomme" and "raisin," and we had no clue what these meant. in german, "pommes" are french fries, so as far as we knew, they only had french fry and raisin flavored hookah. it was pretty hilarious.brussels is in general a pretty disgusting city. there is quite a bit of trash littering the subways and streets, and i think i will always be haunted by the putrid smell of the sewer drains. it is the kind of city where you should always avoid touching walls or handrails.
the next day we decided to visit a flea market in the middle of the city. luckily we didn't expect it to be anything too glamorous, because it really wasn't. it was mostly a bunch of people who put a bunch of junk into boxes and onto bedsheets, and haggle with people to sell their trash. there were definitely some fun treasures within the flea market. wendy ended up buying a bongo with some sort of animal hair all over it (maybe it is goat? or horse?).
the second day we ventured to the cute city of Brugge. my initial impression of this city was that it seemed a little fake. everything was very clean and touristy, but it was actually a pretty pleasant contrast to grungy brussels. everything around us was so bustling and picturesque, and we even had a great experience with our hostel. we got ice cream, did some shopping, walked around to some cathedrals, drank some beer. it was great. for dinner i had the regional specialty -- mussels! although i had no effing clue how to eat them, i still loved loved loved it! we ended up tipping our waiter 5 euro, but later we learned that no one tips in belgium. lucky waiter!
the third da
y we went to the city of antwerp to visit one of wendy's fiance's friends, dennys, and his wife, fraya. antwerp is such an interesting city. the people of antwerp don't speak french. they speak one of the strangest languages i have ever encountered -- flemish. it sounds like someone took german, english, and french, and put them in a meat grinder, and out came the flemish language.we found our hostel pretty quickly, and it turned out that it was right in the middle of the jewish district. pretty much everyone who was out an about was wearing traditional jewish clothing and hair. dennys and fraya showed us some of the famous monuments, parks, and statues around the city, and then we got some dinner at an italian restaurant. something interesting about pizza in europe is that no one shares pizza -- you always get your own (and they're not tiny, either!).
after dinner and a few belgian beers (all for me, haha), we decided to go see a movie. most of us had never seen Slumdog Millionare, so we bought tickets and went in. the movie was in english, but with french and flemish subtitles. i loved loved loved the movie, and i can definitely see why it won best picture of the year!
our last day we went back to brussels. brittany felt like going back to germany early, but wendy and i wanted to stay and check out some of the sights of brussels. our first destination was the museum of musical instruments. on our way there, we walked through a beautiful park (later we found out the park is nutorious for people having gay sex there in the evening, haha). the museum was wonderful! we were given headphones, and you can walk around different parts of the museum and tune into different instruments playing. probably one of my most favorite museums ever.
after the museum we decided to go see the famous statue of the peeing boy. it wasn't anything too spectacular. it was smaller than i expected.
the craziest part of the trip happened when we were trying to get back to germany. we got on our train alright, but when we arrived in our connection city, wendy decided to buy some last minute belgian chocolate at the tiny train station before we left. we didn't realize how little time we had between trains, because we ended up missing our train! to kill some time in between our next train, we went to a little bar/restaurant near the train station.
after a couple of Duvels and some cheese appetizer, we went back to catch the next train into germany. we were waiting for our train at the advertised track, and wendy even asked one of the train controllers if this was the right train to get back to Aachen, Germany.
"the next one," the controller said with a smile. so we waited at the track for the next train to arrive. we got into some deep conversations, and then didn't realize until it was too late that we had missed the train. i also realized that maybe the controller meant the next track over, not the next train. without panicking, i went into the station and tried to ask the person at the ticket booth about train information.
"hi, do you speak english?" i asked.
"no," said the man behind the desk without looking at me.
"umm..." i hesitated a little, "aachen?"
"tomorrow."
ahhh shit. the next train wasn't leaving til the following morning. after weighing our options, we decided to save our money and just bum around the city and the train station til the next train to Aachen, Germany left at 5.57 am. we went back to our favorite bar, ordered a few espressos, and just hung out til they closed.
then we went and sat around the train station for a couple of hours. luckily the men working at the train station were very friendly, and they allowed us to stay in the station while the night custodian worked (and he ended up speaking some german, so we were able to talk to him throughout the night while he cleaned).
when the sun came up, we FINALLY caught our train back to germany and made it back to dortmund safely, 12 hours later than we had expected.
so all in all, it was a very exciting, beautiful trip to belgium. of course when i told my mom about this, she asked, "and what did you learn from all of this???"
and i think the only thing that i learned is that sometimes when you mess up, more fun things can happen.
and sorry i don't have more pictures. like i have said before, my camera pooped out on me. i will hopefully get it fixed soon, but until then i will just have to steal pictures from other people.
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