A couple Days

Sooo yesterday, we got up pretty late because it turns out I've been going to bed at 4:30am everyday. We went to MC's favorite coffee place from when she studied abroad. It was called Pottery Cafe and waited forever for food that was out at first, but it was worth the wait! We had this AWESOME coffee . . . well I had it, it was mint cafe, which just meant regular coffee with milk and mint flavoring. so good.
Then we went to the Egyptian Museum. There I saw real mummies for the first time. Nothing like a rotting corpse to start the day right! It raised a lot of ethical questions . . . but it was interesting to see. Other than that, there was so much authentic egyptian burial related stuff that you can see in other places, but was so much cooler to see in the heat of the heart of Egypt. The museum was somewhat poorly laid out, although apparently it's getting better. It reminded me of an old treasure filled basement that you sort of roam around in. I enjoyed it!
Next we took some crazy pictures out in the sculpture garden outside, followed by a grocery shopping trip. Other than MC knocking over a glass jar of expensive coffee, that we had to pay for, it was uneventful. We bought ingredients to make a delicious vegetable sauce to put over pasta, as well as a summer salad with corn, coriander and tomatoes, french bread . . . it was a great meal. Later we went out on a falucca ride on the Nile, which is a big wooden boat with a sail that a man in a galebaya sails for you. It was wonderful and i got to meet a lot of other Americans living in Cairo.
Yesterday (Friday, our Sunday), we went to Korba with Mostafa. This is a really European area of Cairo where there are beautiful facades and really nice shops. After that we headed to Mostafa's house where we had a really traditional Egyptian dinner. Then we visited Mostafa's aunt and had dessert with her. It was such a cool day because I got to really experience family life and see two different real Egyptian apartments. Afterwards we went to the Khan market, which is like the Kho San Road of Cairo. I got souveniers for all my family members there thanks to Mostafa and MC who bargained for me the whole time. On the way home we picked up delicious fruit juice. Mango!! It was so delicious.
Today we went to see the pyramids!!!!!! I couldn't believe it. First, we went to Saqqara (zakara), which is where the oldest pyramid and only step-pyramid is. We hired a guide, who gave us some interesting information, got to see some cool tombs, sat on a camel, roamed about . . . i was thrilled. Even better was going to the Giza pyramids where I climbed up to the top of the Great Pyramid of Giza (from the inside) -- probably the coolest thing ever. It was exactly like the computer game we used to play. Then we took pictures in front of it and saw the other smaller pyramids around it. After that we went to the Sphinx, which was amazing!!! i just can't believe i was so close to where Aladdin flew on the Magic Carpet with Jasmine. Thanks, Disney.
Anyways. Now we're sitting around skyping with MC's whole family and later we'll watch Harry Potter 5. Woohoo!

Things of Note

-Citadel was amazing! It has the Mohammed Ali Mosque and the military museum. So the day involved my first time in a mosque, which was really pretty exciting and interesting and my first view of pyramids!! I can't wait to see them up close.
-Driving in Cairo is probably the most terrifying experience one can have. It's like definite death, except you end up wherever you needed to go. Thank goodness Mostafa is a good driver!
-Only thing scarier than driving is crossing the street . . . with no traffic lights and certainly no cross walks, you literally just walk out into traffic and hope they stop.
-Lunch in an amazing park near the Citadel. It was incredibly beautiful and the salad/sandwich/ice tea were delicious. Fantastic talk with MC :-)
-Watched "The Onion" movie at Mostafa's apartment, which was funny. We had tea, macaroons and this other dessert that was like a light wheat meal cake soaked in honey and possibly rose water. It was absolutely incredible, I can't wait to make this at home.
-We went out to the 2nd biggest mall in the Middle East called Star City. It was HUGE and magnificent. There are starbucks, costa coffee, Johnny Rockets a Rainforest Cafe and so much more.
Very excited for tomorrow and downtown Cairo, the Egyptian Museum and a falouka party!

Cairo Arrival!

So after having left at 6:45am on Sunday, July 12th, I finally arrived in Cairo at 8:45pm on Monday, July 13th. It was a longggg day. But all of my flights were on time, I met interesting people and everything, so that was as good as it could have been. It was fantastic to get to see Maryclaire again and to meet her boyfriend, Mostafa, about whom I have heard a lot in the last 2 years. Even at 9:30pm, Cairo was really really warm, probably like 80 degrees or something. There were tons of cars driving (relatively) wildly and honking quite a lot.
My body had no idea what date or time it was, so I actually wasn't tired on arrival. We stopped at a kiosk called "on the run" to get me some water (yay!) then at a sandwich shop called "prego" to get Maryclaire a sandwich and then went over to Mostafa's house where I met his parents. Mostafa's mom was really worried that I had the swine flu, and it was sort of the first sign of what a different world I was in. We got there and went into his beautiful, spacious apartment full of these beautiful couches, pillows and light fixtures that you picture in middle eastern homes. His parents were incredibly nice and so welcoming to me. His father and I talked as best we could about Germany and America. We had some brownie sundaes, and then as we left, he told me that he and his wife would invite me back at least 2-3 times for dinner before I left. This was an amazing gesture of hospitality and I really thank them for being so open to me.
After a trip back to Maryclaire's apartment, we set up curtains in my room and I went to sleep. The next morning (Tuesday) I woke up to tea! wonderful. MC and I talked a lot over breakfast about the different cultures we'd been living in and then we headed out to Coptic Cairo. The Copts are the Egyptians who practice Christianity and make up about 10% of the overall population. The Copt line technically is descendant from the ancient Pharaohs. The Coptic Museum was incredibly beautiful and it was so interesting to see the many influences on the artwork of the religion, especially given the different phases of Egyptian occupation. Then we got to go to some Coptic churches that were near the museum, including the Hanging Church, which is built over a church that tradition has Mary & Joseph staying at when the passed through Egypt. They were beautifully decorated and it was interesting to see how another sect of Christianity deals with their religion.
Later we also found a Jewish section of Cairo, inside the Coptic section. The Jewish population here numbers about 200 . . . so to have stumbled upon a little area of it was a great opportunity to ecounter it. After that we went to a jewelry store to buy crosses in the coptic style, which means they are symmetrical on all four sides. We both found one that looks sort of like a snow flake in silver and bought them! I'm very excited for my new purchase. Then we headed back to Giza, where MC lives and went to a salon where we had our eyebrows done and got a little face mask, it was great. haha. We came home for little naps, then headed to the Duty Free store (becuase only there can Egyptians legally buy hard alcohol and I had just arrived).
At 7pm MC and I headed to a panel dinner on Great Women Leaders for the USAID Peace Scholarships to the US. It was at the Pyramisa hotel. The panel was three egyptian women and one American woman who have all had really successful careers. It was fascinating because they ranged from a 70+yearold egyptian with gender roles completely engrained in her mentality, to a much younger egyptian running HR at GM whose kids are being watched by a nanny. Then participants who ranged from wanting to know more about how people made their choices, to one boy who asked the younger woman if she wasn't selfish for sacrificing her duties as a mother and announced our society would crumble if all women acted like her. Fascinating! And a little scary.
Dinner was delicious, though, and I found this new amazing desert (the name of which I can never remember) that was sort of like ambrosia or baklava except in a finger. OH! that was the name, the arabic word for finger. It was delicious. I also tried 10 other things, all good. After dinner we went to a party at MC's friend's apartment for her boyfriend's birthday. I met some interesting people, but we were really tired so we headed home. I had an interesting discussion with Mostafa about education in Egypt and then went to bed! I didn't fall asleep until 3:30am or so (booo) but i got to sleep until now, so that's good. :-D

Liverpool Forgotten

Forgot to post pics for Liverpool :-/ woops! Here they are!

Singing in the Rain

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I've written. Since Nenagh, we went to Dublin where we hung out with Karen (the other, a fulbrighter to Dublin). It was a really nice time and Dublin had its own sort of charm . . . but I really much preferred Galway. The best part was the Trinity College and the Book of Kells. It was so beautiful and it's really too bad the library isn't used for real things anymore.
The next week I finished up with most of my 2nd rotation classes and switched over to some new classes. They are fantastic! The 5th graders absolutely adore me and clamor to talk to me and the 7th graders are so sweet and anxious to speak English. Plus I get to work with my 6th graders again, who I love. They were so cute, when I surprised them by showing up at their class (at 7h50) they got to ask me questions . . . first one, "why did you leave us??" aww :-)
The next weekend I went to visit Nate in Bonn, another Fulbrighter, John, in Koeln and Paul in heidelberg. Nate and I also took two day trips. The first to Burg Eltz (one of Professor Resler's favorite castles), which is set on top of a mountain in the middle of other mountains. It's about a 1.5 hour hike to get there and so worth it. It was a great day. The second was to Koblenz to see the Deutsches Eck where the Rhein and Mosel meet. It was beautiful. Then Sunday we watched Paul and Amber run the Heidelberg Half Marathon (that I was supposed to run!) I was really sad, but it was a great experience.
The weekend after that I went to Heppenheim in Southern Hesse to visit Eileen. We had a great first night and morning full of coffee and talking. Saturday Eileen showed me around Oberhambach and the Internat school at which she works, it felt a bit like summer camp, but it was beautiful. Best part of the morning was going to visit this produce stand on a dirt road where the grandfather, father and son come every weekend to make fresh bread in a stone oven that their family has owned since the 16th century. They also sell fresh-pressed apple and holunder juice, honey, potatoes and cake. We bought some bread and cake and went to catch a train to Stuttgart. Stuttgart was really beautiful and different than I had expected . . . lots of classy shopping and really beautiful buildings. We thought the art museum was open late and it was but at the cost of 16euro so we didn't go. Instead, we found this cool mexican restaurant and had delicious guacomole.
Sunday, we went to a little town south of Tuebingen to hike up to Burg Hohenzollern, which is an amazing castle set atop a cone shaped mountain. This is storybook stuff. We hiked up to the castle, took a tour, and then it started pouring and it turned out there is only one bus down to the train station per day and we had missed it!! We ended up having to call a taxi. I stayed through Monday morning and got to see Eileen's school in action, which was cool and then headed home.
Now it's this week. I had a pretty easy week! We watched A Time to Kill with Stammtisch on Tuesday and I had a great conversation with Gabby. Then Sean and I watched Da Vinci Code, which is always a good time. Wednesday we went to the new American Bar (oh, we found a new american bar) for some cheap cider / guinness, american magazines and puzzles. Then we met up with Philipp to go see the new Star Trek movie. It was hilarious, but also really cheesy. Thursday I chillaxed the whole day and then went to see Sean sing in Pop and Classics, which was more or less a singing-based German variety show. Without much variety. It was really good at moments, slow at others, but overall really fun. Then we tried to watch the new Indiana Jones, but we fell asleep so I went home.
Start today.

MY BIRTHDAY!

Today, April 16, 2009 was my birthday in Ireland. In Rohan's Pub, Nenagh, County Tipperary, Ireland, we celebrated Karen's (2nd) 22nd birthday. I got a place of cheese and gummies, 5 Bulmers Ciders, an Irish Jig, many a jig, Irish ballad and kisses on the cheek. Quite possibly, this was the best night of my life. I had an absolute blast with the irish girls (caoimhe, maria, orna, deirdre, sarah, ciara, noreen). Other than that, we went to Kilkenny and had an amazing dinner of ham & cabbage & potatoes with caoimhe's family :-) I'll be sad to leave for Dublin later today.

Dingle, Blarney, Cork and Nenagh

We started off yesterday with a 3.5 hour drive to Dingle, on the gorgeous Dingle Peninsula. It was our first major driving experience, and it went really well! We drove around the Slea Head Drive on the very tip of the Dingle Peninsula over the Atlantic. The roads were one lane (with cars going both directions AND pedestrians) and practically on the cliff's edge. But the views were spectacular. You can really get a sense of the Emerald Isle. At night, we drove up to Tralee where we had booked a hostel. We went in search of food and found almost everything closed for the bank holiday. Finally we ended up in a pizza restaurant, where I paid 8euro for a hamburger that was smaller than the bottom half of the bun it came on. And a baked potatoe. It is seriously seriously expensive here. A pizza was 13.50euro . . . around $20 for 6 slices!! Anyways, then we went out to a locals pub where everyone stared at us (for not being locals) had some cider and went to bed. Oh yeah, we got a silver cute little stick shift rental car and we play awesome american pop on the Spin SW radio station. It's awesome.
Today, we started off about 2 hours away in Blarney. Here we went to the Blarney castle and kissed the Blarney stone . . . i know my writing is consistently less eloquent than it would have been last year, but if you hear me speak . . . boy oh boy. I could charm your ears (or whatever) right off. ANyways, that was really fun. Except for the terrifying "lean backwards into a crevice 1000 feet off the ground to kiss a stone that people used to pee on, upside-down" thing. Then we drove on to Cork, which we didnt really like. No really reason, just didn't like it. Then we drove to Nenagh, in the middle of Ireland, to meet up with Sean's friends from the Cape last summer. THey are awesome!! We had a delicious dinner at (phonetically) Quevah's house and then went out to a pub on this gorgeous lake with all the girls. So much fun.

Ode to a Flip Flop

Stratford Upon Avon / Oxford / London
Stonehenge & Bath
Belfast & Giants' Causeway
Galway & Cliffs of Moher

On Thursday, we flew to Ireland. I was in fine form, being that we left at 4:30am with no sleep. On top of that, I got to Belfast airport and discovered one of my flip flops had fallen out of my bag. My mommy bought these flip flops (blue with a darker blue border, Old Navy) when i went to college as my shower sandals. And now one is lost. Forever. I was not pleased. We got to Belfast, it was freezing, windy and rainy. So we started walking around and walked up to the Titanic docks where the Titanic was built, finished, launched etc. It was a long walk and it was cold, but I thought it was totally worth it. Sean. Not so much -- he was not pleased. We stopped for coffee, met the barista who was cool and bused back. Walked around somemore, took a nap, went to dinner with Melissa -- Sean's cousin who he hadn't spoken to in 15 years. It was awesome! Went for some beef stew -- just like mom's!! And then to a former IRA pub, which was amazing. Melissa also told us our street is one of the most militant streets in Belfast. Awesome. What was really interesting about Belfast is that it seems like it's trying to be cosmopolitan . . . it has a London Eye, a Big Ben, a Reichstag dome, but it fails. Cool though: it did have cadbury cream egg mcFlurrys.
Friday we got up super early and headed to the Giant's Causeway way up on the North Coast. The Causeway was supposedly formed when the famous Irish Giant wanted to fight the Scottish giant, but realized the Scottish one was too big so his wife hid him as a baby and told the Scottish one that the dad must be 100xs bigger. So then they tore up the causeway. I don't know, the story didn't make sense to me either. In any case, it is these beautiful rocks that are in columns with sides of 5-8. Really really beautiful with cliffs and oceans. Then we went back to Belfast and hopped our bus to Galway, which took forever. Finally we arrived, got to the hotel and I got to see EMILY TODD!! WOOHOO!
Saturday, we basically just walked around Galway. Galway is amazing. It is the perfect town. Pretty much no chain stores, all these local family owned pubs where real Irish actually hang out. It is right on the Atlantic, overlooking the mountains and islands of other Irish counties. We just had a great day catching up, walking around in the sun light, sitting by the ocean, listening to Irish music . . . really wonderful.
Sunday, Easter, I got up really early and went to mass in the Cathedral. It was really really nice and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It was a little sad to be alone and it was my first Easter without an Easter brunch, but I made do by eating a nice breakfast, coffee and reading Portrait of a Lady while I waited for the others to wake up. Then, we got on a tour bus for the Cliffs of Moher. If you look at no other pictures . . . PLEASE look at these ones. It is just absolutely beautiful there. I could have stayed there for a really really long time. Anyways. We ate dinner in Galway at this cute little french place where I had an amazing salad and now we are chilling out watching the Island. Off to the Dingle Peninsula tomorrow!

I blew a circuit breaker in the shower . . . !!!!

In order to visit Stonehenge, one really must have a healthy sense of humor. Yes, on the one hand, it is really really cool. It is so old, architecturally almost impossible and clearly of some kind of import to an earlier peoples . . . however, it did feel a bit like the Mona Lisa or Angkor Wat when seeing it in real life. I highly recommend a visit and the pictures really say it all.
After Stonehenge, we headed to Bath, the home of Jane Austen. We were meeting up with our former London hosts, Elaine and Tyler, but i jetted off rather quickly to get to the Jane Austen Centre. It was great. It chronicled her time in Bath and I really learned a lot about her, the influences on her writing and about the city itself. It was funny though because a lot of couples came into the museum and the men all parted from the women in the gift shop where the women bought tickets to go inside and the men slunk away back into the city. The gift shop was neat too because it sold rare copies of Austen's books . . . including one called "The Watsons", which has one of my new favorite quotes. Thanks to Will, I have all new copies of my favorite Austen novels so I am excited to read them when I get home.
When we got back to London, we headed out to a local pub and watched the end of the Arsenal game and chatted with Morgan and Chris (our new hosts). Then we went to bed.
Today, we were supposed to go to Cardiff. This didn't happen. I got up, got out of bed, went to go shower and I blew a circuit in the shower after shampooing meaning I got no more water so I had to complete my shower under the bath faucet. Oh yes, you read correctly, I blew the shower circuit. WTF!!!! This is a civilized country! Why, how is a circuit in any way shape or form related to the shower!!! In any case, we got a late start to Ariel's (friend from BC) where Sean made delicious pancakes and we quatsched for 2.5 hours. Then we were still going to try to make it to Cardiff, but ended up stuck in the Victoria Tube Station for almost 1 hour because the cut off connections on the Circle and District lines from there to Paddington because of a Signal Fire that had happened hours ago . . . even later in the day the service was disrupted. It is unbelievable. This would never happen in NYC. So instead, we prepared for Ireland, got some fish and chips and went on the Eye at dusk, which was great. Then we went in search of Cadbury Cream McFlurrys, failed, and went down to Wimbledon to hang out with Philip Altong (former German study-abroader at BC who was in my HR Management class but whom I never knew -- think Basti) and had a great time. We had to leave early because of the Tube and because we are leaving in 4 hours for Ireland. Woohoo!! bis dann

Whirlwind

After Liverpool, Sean and I headed down to Stratford-Upon-Avon where we spent a lovely 2 hours (after a botched train experience) exploring the teeny town in which Shakespeare was born. It really was very beautiful, and perfect weather, but not reallllly that much to see. Following this, we headed to Oxford where we ate at this cool restaurant: Nandos. Really good. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the university and the river and the castle. And we ate Krispy Kreme donuts --- soo good. Then we got to London where we met up with German Fulbright-alumna Elaine and her American boyfriend Tyler. We went out for drinks, which was great, and then quatsched in the kitchen over brie and sandwiches for another few hours! Lovely.
Saturday morning, we slept in and then met our friend Ariel Goldberg at the Borough Market for lunch. The market was all food, SO cool and very delicious. We sat there for a few hours and caught up . . . a really nice afternoon. Then, we walked along the Thames to the Tate Modern and hung out for a while. Saw the Eye. Ariel had suggested a movie at the Gay & Lesbian Film Festival so we went to go see Japan Japan and, certainly, it more than met my expectations. Which, as I have come to learn, is only a good thing depending on what the expectations are. After, we headed out for some dinner at a pub on the Cut that served Thai food. It was great and we had a lot of fun.
Sunday we headed for Palm Sunday mass in Westminster Abbey. It was 2.5 hours of standing and Sean was less than pleased. One of the many things he's had to put up with from me during our trip so far. (:-/) It was a cool experience, though. We met Ariel for coffee and then walked through Sloane and Eaton Squares, the Saatchi Gallery, Picadilly Circus, National Gallery (where I saw another Rembrandt, woohoo!), National Portrait Gallery, St. Paul's Cathedral, Monument, Bank and then headed over to Soho to get tickets for a show that Sean wanted to go to, but unfortunately, it didn't exist. So we ate delicious Indian food and headed home where we talked with Elaine, Tyler, Elaine's roomie Sunny and her friend.
Monday, today, we met up with Sean's friend Whitney at Southwark and walked along the Thames to the Globe. Then we headed across the river to check out St. Pauls and then into Soho for lunch at a cute italian place with her friend Kirsti. We walked around a ton more, ended up at a coffee house called the White Flat and met Wish's friend Morgan. Then we headed over to another pub and then another and then a restaurant and then back to Morgan's apartment for a whiskey sampling because it is Wish's last night. It was a fantastic day!

The Lake District

Really, the pictures say it all about this day trip . . . only story I can add is that we found a little second hand book store in Windermere in which i found a copy of Wordsworth and Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads -- composed around here -- from the 1920s. It was so amazing to read the poetry while in the landscape that helped inspire it. Other things of note, we took a boat cruise on the lake to Ambleside and did some hiking. It was a wonderful day.

Glasgo(w) or GlasNO?

The morning started off wonderfully. We slept in, chilled out . . . visited Vroni where she works at the Ediburgh Cathedral à St. Giles. She gave us a personal tour and we saw incredible things like the Thistle Chapel where the knighthood is bestowed on Scottish knights. Told us about the famous North windows dedicated to Robert Burns etc. etc.
Then we decided to go to Glasgow. It was fine, but definitely nothing exceptional. There were a lot of pretty old buildings in one of the districts, lots of universities and definitely a lot of shopping . . . but it was nichts besonders. We actually did have tea and scones/cake in a very nice tea room called the Willows Tea Room. That was thoroughly enjoyable . . . but from getting lost in a bad neighborhood to my Cadbury cream egg dropping on the ground to the Barclays ATM being out of service . . . Glasgow was pretty disappointing.
Tonight, we went out to dinner with Vroni, James, Matthias and Katarina (the latter two being German friends of Vronis). It was really nice and then we hung out at Sandy Bells for some music and came home to do research for tomorrow. We are heading to Windermere and the Lake District and then Liverpool for the evening. I’m very much looking forward to it!

Stirling, of the Castle Variety

Today, instead of going hiking in the Highlands because it was far too far, we went up to a town just North of Edinburgh called Stirling. The major sehenswuerdigkeit here is the castle, which sits on a hill and is really quite lovely to look at. Plus, it’s a medieval town, which is always nice. On the train there, while writing postcards, Sean and I met an American (Philip) and a Liverpool-ian (Joy) and started hanging out. They were awesome! Philip did some LA and Broadway dancing and is now a member of Urban Poets, a group I once looked at for a CC Conference. Joy is part of a performance company that helps the inner-city kids deal with tough teenage issues. In any case, they were super and we are probably going to be meeting up with them again in Liverpool and Belfast.
So, we explored the castle, had lunch in the Porticulus restaurant where we met a cool waiter. Then Sean/I bused over to the Wallace Memorial near Stirling University. What appeared to be a long hike was, in fact, only 20 minutes or so and we got a super view of the city. Then we bused back to the town, explored a little bit and had coffee in this fantastic Old Towne Coffee House on Spittal St. (we think) run by this Western Canadian who moved to Scotland to be with her Scotsman. She was really sweet and the café was fantastic. Two earl Greys and Carrot Cakes later, we went back to Edinburgh.
There we met up with Kathi, a teacher at my school in Goettingen, who assistant taught near Edinburgh 3 years ago and came for our easter break (like we did!). She also ran into this German guy who had been hiking the West Highland Way for the last five days and wanted some company. So we all met and went to the Bad Ass Pub for Haggis and cider. This you should look up. It was delicious, but I definitely paid for it later in the night. Then we tried to meet up with Vroni in Sandy Bells, but ended up just chilling out to some music and heading home.

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

It was an absolutely perfect day today in Scotland . . . sun was shining, little wind, pretty warm . . . so we went to St. Andrews aka the definition of “prep”. It is a gorgeous medieval town on the East Coast of Scotland, right on the ocean. Lonely Planet said there were only three sites there, and there were, but they were all SO worth it! First there are incredible ruins of the ancient St. Andrews Castle built in the 1500s or something. Amazing – and even better if you look at them from the jetties or the pier. Then there is the ancient Cathedral, which is completely ruined. However, the remnants of the foundation and some pretty cool random pieces still exist. So you can, essentially, walk through the cathedral and imagine how it used to be, even though it is all out in the open and on grass. Also cool is that the graveyard (which is huge) still stands and there are these beautiful Celtic crosses there. Awesome pictures. Last but not least is the ancient golf course – where golf was invented. It is really green and beautiful and dotted with silly wooden benches that, in no uncertain terms, declare themselves to be for “members only” . . . did I mention the royal princes went to school here??

Other than these three things, the town is charming to walk around. Lots of little shops, bookstores and cafes. We stopped in one Imbiss-type-thing for fish and chips (delicious!) and then in another later for tea. Plenty of people walking around in kilts – so amusing! One huge difference I notice from Germany is that the houses here are stone and in Germany they are wood, which is pretty interesting. But also, the brands and what is sold in stores are very very much more American than in Germany. It’s really interesting. Everyday, though, just how different English can be is reinforced. I actually cannot understand some of these people. It’s unbelievable.

Scotch without the Rocks

Today I woke up completely exhausted and still sick L after grumpily getting out of bed, throwing on an inordinate amount of BC gear and shoes, I went down to breakfast: muesli-ish cereal and toast. Worse-yet : instant coffee! I tried to be social, but this didn’t work. Our aim was making the 11am free walking tour, so I quickly dressed and Sean and I headed out. On the way we stopped at T-Mobile because Sean wanted to figure out a UK sim card. This experience was made more interesting by people dressed in “HELLO I’M PINK” T-Mobile outfits and Sean’s locked phone.
We made it to the Free Tour (PICTURES) just in time to find some kids we met at the hostel and headed out. The tour was really pretty good and lasted about 3.5 hours, showing us almost everything in Edinburgh. Or, I would think. But, of course, if they didn’t show us, I wouldn’t know it was there so I guess I don’t really know. Oh yeah, I ran in to a girl from BC at breakfast in the hostel. It was really random . . . but cool!
After the tour we did some tourist shopping . . . some of you will be receiving the post cards I bought. Then we headed to the Scottish Whiskey Experience and learned all about Scotch (in between coughing fits) which was cool. We got to sample it at the end and got a free Scotch glass. Yay for free souvenirs!! After this we met up with Vroni and James at a cute little pub called Sandy’s Bells or something – they will be hosting us starting tomorrow night. Then I went to mass and met up afterwards with Sean for dinner . . . at Pizza Hut. In Scotland, apparently, this is a sit-down, table service experience. Good pizza, though.
Following dinner, we walked around the Old Town of Edinburgh and headed up to the castle to get some night pics. We got there just in time for Scotland to participate in the G20 “turn the lights off on famous monuments for some length of time” event . . . which meant we got a few good pics of the castle just before all the lights went off. Cool to be a part of, but bad for being touristy. This was followed by about 1.5 hours of walking around looking for a pub to chill out in – but being unsuccessful as a result of the Scotland v. Holland World Cup qualifier. OH well. We pooped out a the hostel. I forgot how tiring being in a country where they speak a foreign language is.

Pelvic Exercise

Yay! So we arrived in Edinburgh, Scotland today. This required us waking up at 4:25am, finishing packing, catching a 5:02am train to Hannover where we sat for 1 hour and had coffee etc., then taking a second train to Bremen, where we arrived 30 minutes prior to the check-in closing. Bremen, however, is still not Bremen Flughafen (literally: flight harbor) . . . so we decided to hop a Taxi instead of risking missing check-in by taking the tram. The airport was probably the sketchiest operation I’ve ever encountered, but we got checked in (my bag was only 10kg . . . 3kg lighter than Sean’s and 5kg under the limit!! Woohoo!) and our flight took off only 10 minutes late.Edinburgh is probably the windiest place I have ever encountered. Just stepping of the plane we encountered gusts of wind unlike anything. At around 1pm, we checked in to our hostel (Caledonian Hostel), which is this really cool wanna-be-new-age-hippie place and got freshened up. We headed over to a pub recommended by Arne and the hostel lady called “Standing Order” . . . I had Buffalo wings and Sean had a burger. It was really good and super cheap.
Then we decided to climb Arthur’s Seat, which is the biggest hill in Edinburgh (around 250km). It was absolutely gorgeous and everything I expected Scotland to be. Windy, green, patchy grass, little dirt and rock paths winding through the hills, cliffs . . . there are so many incredible and beautiful pictures. The top of the hill provided absolutely incredible views of Edinburgh, the ocean and the surrounding environs. We also discovered ruins of an old St. Anthony’s Chapel form the 15^th century. So so cool. All in all, it was around 4 miles of hiking and pretty steep climb – so I consider it my pelvic exercise because it was painful.
Afterwards, we walked back through Edinburgh – a town that appears (in many ways) to be frozen in the 16^th century. It is all stone, khaki-colored and very low to the ground. We walked through the Prince’s Gardens, which were beautiful and already in full bloom. Finally, we arrived back at our hostel. We hung out in our 40+ bed dorm with some Irish guys who are absolutely crazy and then went with them to the hostel bar’s “happy hour”. I was already exhausted by this point so I didn’t engage in any “fun” activities besides hanging out. At around 8:30pm Sean and I went for our first real fish & chips, which were delicious but super greasy and I ended up accidently eating a piece of my fork.
I feel like that should end the entry. I ate a plastic fork.

Take Me on a Trip I'd Like to Go Someday

I had the awesomest experience yesterday. I was walking to school in a freak blizzard, 20-ish minutes completely covered in snow, my adductor tendon was throbbing, listening to awesome music on my Ipod, about to work for 45 minutes (my entire workday) with my 10th grade class that I love . . . and I just realized how absolutely incredible my life is.
In about 6 hours I am leaving for a 3+ week trip through the UK and Ireland with Sean and now Em, about which I am thrilled! I can't believe that all of this is actually happening. OH! another cool experience . . . I argued down bank charges in german the other day. Did I write that in my last entry?? I don't know. But it was awesome in any case.
Here are some pics from Budapest and Berlin
More to follow shortly from Edinburgh . . .

Brolin 2009 . . . Open Bar, Dude!

I know i haven't posted in a while, but I have a good excuse. Three weeks ago now, after having sucessfully completed my first 6 mile run in a stunning time, I ended up with a pelvic stress fracture and tendinitis in my adductor. I couldn't walk for a few days and even now it's painful to do many things. I spent 2 weeks on crutches and now I can finally walk, but putting on clothes and raising my left leg upwards is painful.
Besides this, two weeks ago, Rebecca Bradshaw came to visit, which was awesome! We toured around Goettingen for a few hours and had delicious cake at Cron & Lanz before I had to take off for my big trip to Berlin. I headed there Thursday afternoon and met up with Basti. We had a nice dinner, although he was sick and sort of busy. The whole weekend went sort of slowly, but it was intermingled with good conversations. Plus, I got to see my friend Ansgar and I hung out at a brunch with some really cool people . . . so that was nice. I was supposed to meet up with Susanne but that never happened, which was a bit sad. Saturday Basti and I went to a Hertha BSC v. Leverkusen match. We sat in the fifth row of Olympiastadium and had a great view of Hertha's win. I thought it was really fun.
Sunday I arrived at the conference in the Park Inn Hotel am Alexanderplatz (a five star amazing hotel) and immediately started reconnecting with these friends I haven't seen since November, for the most part. The opening dinner was at a club/bar place and a lot of wine and talking was involved. The core group of "bros" sort of solidified the next day -- Nate, Paul, Jim, John, Sam and I -- so we all hung out and did everything together. The Welcome Dinner involved an awesome speech by this german guy who was actually a Nixon advisor and he made this joke that a european is actually an american who didn't have the guts to get on the boat. He made a lot of friends at the conference! That night we went to Kulturbrauerei and partied in the Alte Kantine . . . it was fun, some interesting situations, but it all ended well. The Fernsehturm made its debut as the shining beacon of hope for all drunk Fulbrighters on this night. Tuesday was St. Patty's day and we celebrated all day, which was awesome. The Fulbright music gala was that night, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and then out to Kilkenny's at Hackescher Markt with pretty much every Fulbrighter. It was fun, but drama ridden. Finally, Wednesday was more hanging out, a little city walking and then the closing celebration at Franz Kklub or something, also at the Kulturbrauerei . . . it was an absolute blast and we definitely planted some seeds.
Leaving Berlin on Thursday was actually really sad. We had all gotten pretty close and really enjoyed spending time with each other. Plus, we were used to the fantastic hotel and free food/drinks. Sooooo. Nate/Paul/Jim/Tim (Goettingen Fulbrighter) then boarded a plane to Budapest (dudapest -- our name) for the weekend. We were all a bit worn out by the time we got to Dudapest, but it was really beautiful and a very different type of city than what we had been used to. It was nice to enjoy some really delicious 3 or 4 course meals for less than 10 euros and to really see the contrast in the way of life from east to west. It made me appreciate my way of life even more than Germany does. The best part of the time with all of was going to the Hungarian baths on Friday . . . 2 or 3 hours in natural hot springs . . . jacuzzi. It was amazing. Also cool was meeting up with Nate's next door neighbor Kati, who lives in Budapest and showed us around. After Nate/Tim left on Saturday, we tried to go to Bratislava, which failed miserably through no fault of my own. We ended up in a tiny town called Gyoer, which was cute, but not our intended destination. After hours of frustration we ended up back in Dudapest. I napped for a few hours and then at 11pm or so, we went out walking around the city and took pictures of the sites at night. Dudapest is broken into two cities separated by the Danube . . . Buda (which is up on a hill) and Pest (which is more modern) and so we climbed up to Buda and looked down and it was just so cool. THen we got hot cocoa and went home.
It was so sad to again finally leave Paul and Jim on Sunday . . . what a great great week.

Ich hab ne Zwiebel auf dem Kopf, ich bin ein Döner

WELL. Was fuer ein tolles Wochenende! I went to Koeln for Karneval this weekend along with Sean – there we met up with Mathias, Eileen and eventually Paul and Nate. After the 5.5 hour ride on the slow trains, we got to Mathias in Aachen and had some nice cake and donuts while we got caught up. Then we headed over to Koeln, where Sean and I dropped our stuff off at the hotel and put on our Dirndl and Lederhosen and, in Eileen’s case, toucan mask. After walking forever, we finally found Mathias again and his two friends from Koeln. We thought we’d go out on the famous bar street Zuelpicher Str., but it was too full so we went to Cubana in Barbarossa Platz instead. It was awesome. Really really warm, but so much fun! We danced the whole night to traditional Karneval songs, which I will post when I find them all. I guess they aren’t so funny if you don’t know the words. But in German they are hysterical. I was very much loved by the Germans and the bar tenders all wanted to dance with me . . . got free drinks from a Sailor . . . it was great. We got home at around 5:30am I think, happily exhausted.

We slept until only 10am because I insisted that we eat the free hotel breakfast. Everyone was a little grumpy at first, but they all thanked me later when they ate the delicious American bacon or granola. Yum! We spent the whole day in the Sauna and pool . . . experienced European Sauna-nakedness, much to my dismay, and then got ready to go out again. Around 5pm, we met Mathias in Koeln for coffee and cake, which was delicious. Then we walked around the river district a bit before picking a traditional Koelner restaurant for dinner. Eileen and I had Himmel und Aed for dinner à blood sausage and mashed potatoes with apples. It tasted delicious, but about an hour after dinner Eileen and I were both sort of grossed out. Over dinner, we had a really nice conversation that went from faith – sustainable energy – economy . . . and it was really fun.

We went out afterwards in the river district and eventually met up with Nate and Paul, went barhopping and dancing. It was really fun, but not quite as fun as the first night. Sunday, we got up for breakfast, Sean ran to his train, Eileen and I went to mass in the Koeln Dom . . . it was a slow day. Then I headed to Duesseldorf to see it for the first time, and it was really beautiful but also crazy with Karneval stuff. Duesseldorf and Koeln are huge rivals and are the two main places for Karneval celebrations. So it was interesting to say Koelle Alaaf in the morning and then Duesseldorf Helau in the afternoon. Exhausted I boarded the train for the 4.5 hour trip home at around 4:30pm.

Other highlights included Tuesdays going out to Thanners and then Barracuda. For the first time I hung out with the guys without Sean because he had to leave to take care of his friends Charlotte and Michael from Stuttgart. What happened? I ended up in Julian's jacket with the hood pulled tight being led out of Barracuda. Last time I try to be funny. Also had Rac or Julian tell me it's sexy to have a little fat, after poking my abs . . . Philipp told me that whomever had said it, said it "weird" and that they meant "nobody wants a girl who is just skin & bones". I remain skeptical. Tried to run 6 miles today -- did not go well beause of knee pain. Uhoh! I've been icing them. One of the 10th graders blew me a kiss today, I'm pretty sure that is out of bounds. We're going out to Martin's today, should be fun.

PS - Pictures!

Look for albums:

01.18.09 Erfurt, Weimar and Goettingen
02.02.09 Bremerhaven
02.14.09 Wuerzburg

:-)