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
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