adventures in deutschland

updates

2007-09-25T19:25:00.000+02:00

Well I´m in my last week here in Germany and can not believe it. I´ve had such an amzing month traveling and am about to cram in some last adventures before i have to go. Here are the photo links for what i´ve been up to in the last weeks:

Last minute 48hr road trip to Amsterdam, return to Germany via Belgium and Luxembourg:
http://ucdavis.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2189007&l=ce2f9&id=3206990

Two and a half weeks in Greece with my sister:
Athens and Mykonos -
http://ucdavis.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2189010&l=b688e&id=3206990
Santorini -
http://ucdavis.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2189011&l=ffd20&id=3206990
Crete -
http://ucdavis.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2189013&l=6e840&id=3206990

My past few days in Germany including a trip back to Ludwigsburg, Oktoberfest and Dresden:
http://ucdavis.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2189016&l=7dadf&id=3206990

enjoy!!! can´t wait to see you soon!!

aahhh....summer vacation

2007-09-08T12:46:00.000+02:00

So lucky surprise for me: I got done with work a week early!!! Can you believe it? I couldn't it was such a surprise, that i barley had time to really think about it. It ended up that the kids went to their grandma's houses for the week that was supposed to be my last one. So i went with Sabine and Reimund to take the kids to Augsburg, and then we just had a couple days with just the three of us. I stuck around Monday and Tuesday to make sure that all the washing up got done, and my room was clean etc, but other than that i was done, wow!!

In order to celebrate this and take advantage of the extra days off, i took a road trip with a friend. We went to The Netherlands (basically Amsterdam for a day) then drove back to Germany via Belgium and Luxembourg because I had never been to those two countries. I got dropped off in Frankfurt, so I could take the train to my friends (Shannon and Brian). I was with them for a few days, and it was so great to see them and catch up. After that i took the train to meet my sister at the Munich airport.

We met up on Monday afternoon, and went into town for a couple of hours before our flight to Athens. The fiasco of the trip was that her luggage didn't make it!! So they had to ship it to Athens, but luckily it made it there before we headed out to Mykonos, where we are now. We've been here for about 4days, which was almost just a little too long, seeing as that Laura doesn't like beaches... oh well, we are headed to Santorini next which should provide a little more to do. Anyhow, the weather is beautiful, the beaches are great, and the water is blue so i'm happy :-)

it's over

2007-08-27T18:45:00.000+02:00

Wow! it's finally happened. I am no longer an au pair, and I can not believe it. I am in shock/disbelief/denial. I have been looking forward to this for so long, I don't really know what to do with myself now that the time has actually come... I am kind of excited about what's to come (all my travels) but am really sad to leave my friends here and the family. There is definitely a bond built when you spend as much time as I did with a group of people. It was really unexpected for me to be done already, but as it turns out the kids went to their grandma's houses this week, one to each grandma... I don't know if this was just coincidental, or if they were trying to get me out of the house a little earlier, but either way I am happy to have a little extra time to see things. Though, because it was so last minute, it's a little more surprising. I don't really feel ready to go, yet I have to.

I have been encountering things that make it all the more real how long I have been here. I went to a sort of fest in another little town last weekend, which I went to last year also with the family. I remembered the town, and some of the stalls and locations. It was so weird that when i came i didn't know anything, yet here I am more than a year later and feel totally at home. I think this year has been so great for me. I've learned that I can really do ANYTHING I want to - moving to a foreign country, where I don't speak the language or know anyone; learning a new language, making friends, learning to drive a manual car... I've also developed a great ability to be able to laugh at myself; there were so many times this year, where I just had to stop and laugh because there was nothing else to do, whether it was while stalling the car 10 times going uphill with the car or almost getting lost in the dodgy parts of Budapest, just to see the 'biggest flea market in Europe' (hah, that was a little overstated) being able to step out of the situation and have a good chuckle makes it all worth it. I think I've also grown up a bit, and learned about some things that are important to have in my life, and how I want to live my life. I guess the biggest thing I've gotten while here is perspective... on myself, my life, my country. There's nothing like taking you out of your home and all your comforts to make you think a little harder.

So not that any of my friends here in Germany read this blog... but I just want to say thanks for making this such a great year, full of new experiences, surprises, and most importantly a lot of fun!!

And as far as what's on my plate next... I am taking a little road trip with a friend, and then off to visit some more friends before heading off to Greece with my sister. I hung out around the house today to finish things up, laundry, packing etc... but starting tomorrow evening I will begin my real summer vacation - 5 weeks traveling Europe!!!! (though, really, it's not like this whole year hasn't been a vacation :-)

yay for Sweden

2007-08-20T20:53:00.000+02:00

After Berlin I flew to Sweden to visit some friends. I met Ida at an au pair meeting in Stuttgart one of the first weeks I was in Germany, and she met Sara through her au pair family. They are both from Sweden and Super sweet girls. Sara, was au pairing the year after high school, and she started studying at university this week. Ida is a couple of years out of high school, and came to au pair just for the experience. Anyhow, we hung out here in Stuttgart, and went out a bit together, but not nearly enough, because I didn’t discover the later night bus until it was basically too late :-( So a few months ago when I was thinking about these weeks I had off, I thought it would be great to visit them in Stockholm.

Sara lives in a town that is an hour away from Stockholm, but Ida lives in a Stockholm suburb. So Sara came in for the week, to stay with Ida’s family too. Sweden was really pretty, and actually kind of reminded me of the US…. Well, more of the US than Germany. This is based on seeing 7/11, T.G.I. Friday’s, and EB Games. There is also a lot more space in general in Sweden, due to a huge country with few people, so many people live in houses with big yards, and there was even a HUGE grocery store that we went to. Ida had to work during the days, so it was great to have Sara there to tour around with me… here’s a run down of what we did:

day 1 – shopping around a cute up and coming neighborhood; lunch with Ida; boat tour in the afternoon. The boat tour was great because Stockholm is made up of 14 islands, so there is a lot of water to explore. We got to see most of the famous sights from the water, and see many things we wouldn’t have seen by just walking around on our own.

day 2 – Ida called in sick, and her dad and brother came home early from work (they have their own construction business) and they took us sailing on the family boat. The weather forecast said that would be the nicest day that week, and it was. The eastern side of Stockholm is on the Baltic Sea, and there are two locks there in the city, that separate that from the fresh water lake to the west. This freshwater lake goes deep into Sweden, and is where we went out with the boat. We sailed for a few hours, then parked the boat and had lunch, and layed out in the sun a bit. On the way back, we all went swimming behind the boat. It was so beautiful being in the Archipelago. The trees are mainly evergreens, and there are people on all the rocks and beaches just enjoying the nice weather. They were also saying that in the winter the lake freezes over and people go cross country skiing and ice skating out there!

day 3 – got up early and went to Sara’s town for the day. I got to see where she lives with her dad and one of her brothers (she has 4!!) we had lunch in town, and while there wasn’t a whole lot to see, it was great to see another city there, and where she will be for the next three years studying.

day 4 – more walking around Stockholm; saw the huge park in the city, and a couple other neighborhoods; met up with a few of Ida’s friends that night for dinner

It was wonderful and so refreshing to be there there, and to stay with Ida’s family. With three kids, 23, 21 and 16 their family runs much more like what I’m used to at my parents house. We had a chance to tour around, and just veg out and watch movies… it was the perfect way to spend the last week of my vacation. Since I’ve been back, I have met up with friends, and gone out over the weekend. This week is off to a good start, I just am shocked to think that the year is nearly over!

photos at: http://ucdavis.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2177635&l=33547&id=3206990

Berlin, Berlin

2007-08-20T20:44:00.000+02:00

Berlin is a city that everyone should visit. There is so much history surrounding the city, and there is a lot to be learned about tolerance and people, I think it’s a worth while trip for anyone. We started out our first day with an open top bus tour of the city. Which, granted is really cheesy, but after a good experience with it in Barcelona, I was able to coax my parents into trying it out. I think we were all impressed with the things that you are able to see in such a short amount of time. With a limited amount of time there, it was a good way to get some of the bigger sights in. We got off and saw things up close later on, like the Brandenburger Tor, the site of the Nazi Book Burnings, and Checkpoint Charlie. The second day, we were out for 12 hours, making the most of our last day together. Highlights included the Jewish Museum, and the very cool and trendy Prenzlaurberg Neighborhood, with great café’s, stores, and many East German buildings that had survived it all.

Mom and Dad left Saturday to drive back to Frankfurt (they flew out of there on Sunday) so I hung out in the city on my own. I did some shopping and while in the Kaa Dee Wee (big department store, like the Harrod’s of Berlin) it started Pouring outside. Buckets, huge buckets… so I hung out there a bit longer, but finally ventured out into the wet. I did have an umbrella, thankfully, but that didn’t do much for my feet, which were only in flip flops. So I ran across the street to the nearest U-Bahn (subway) to catch the train back to my hostel, but really, the station was flooded… water coming down the stairs, big puddles on the ground.. good times :-) My flip flops were leather, so that and the water was not a good combination.. the soles of my feet were black for days. Back at the hostel, I took a nice nap, and ended up hanging out with a bunch of Spaniards that night. It started out as 6 or 7 of us, and turned into me and 20 of them. It got to the point, when new people came the introductions went something like this: Bilbao, Bilbao, Bilbao, Bilbao, Madrid, Madrid, Malaga, Malaga, Bilbao, Bilbao, Califonia… so funny, all the people were pretty surprised. I had a couple of conversations in English, and one in German (with an Italian, who spoke German and Spanish as well, wow, being here me feel so unaccomplished!)

Berlin was so great, I think the pictures will explain a lot more. I am so glad that it all worked out to go and to be there with my parents was even better. I think there is so much to be learned from a visit there. It has a lot more diversity than in other parts of the country, and there are so many things going on still to rebuild the city. The variety of architecture is amazing, and it is a city that is constantly changing and developing. It has grown so much in the past 20 years, and I can only imagine what it will be like in just a little more time.

photos at: http://ucdavis.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2177295&l=fe451&id=3206990

just so you know... the vertical ones aren't right side up :-(

it's all happening

2007-08-20T20:37:00.000+02:00

There is so much to report I don’t even know where to begin! My mom and dad came to Europe a couple of weeks ago, and it was amazing. The kindergarten had holidays the first two weeks of August, so while the family went to Denmark, I spent a week with my parents and a about 5 days in Sweden. It was so great to show my parents around Ludwigsburg and Stuttgart. I was able to share things and places I knew in the city, and they even managed to make it to their very first fest :-) The Sommerfest, isn’t really a traditional one, but it was still lots of fun. In the next week together we rented a car in Frankfurt, and spent a couple of nights in towns along the way, while driving to Berlin, rather than give all the details I think a little recap will do:

- I got to drive the first leg of the journey and instill a little confidence that my parents, too, would be able to drive in Europe.

- Saw many castles, and hay fields along the way to Eisenach, where Martin Luther translated the bible into German and where Bach was born.

- Mom drove in a pedestrian zone, after we turned of the navigation system, and none of us saw the signs, really!!

- A night and day in Potsdam, let us see some really pretty palaces, and gardens, as well as a super cute Dutch Quarter (now, just a cute trendy neighborhood, but previously where the Dutch workers lived when they came there)

And then we were in Berlin, a city that deserves an entry all on it’s own. After Sweden I came back to Stuttgart, and was able to enjoy a night and day with the house all to myself. So great, what a freedom!! And now, it’s just the last two weeks of work, then my sister gets here, I can’t believe it!!!!!!

photos at: http://ucdavis.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2177269&l=9211a&id=3206990

people along the way

2007-07-26T13:56:00.000+02:00

First off, I can not believe that I basically only have three more weeks of work!!! Next week, then two weeks of holidays and after that the last two weeks, amazing... I am sure I said some of my first official good byes today at my German class - which was kind of sad. It was the last day, and so we had a little party, and got the results of out end of the year test (nothing official, just to show we where we are supposed to be after this course level) So I thought I would post a pict of our class picture that I edited with everyone's names and countries of origin (you might have to click on the pict to get it bigger so you can read all the names)and of course one with the family too. I finally got a group shot of all of us looking nice for Reimund's birthday party :-)

Freiburg

2007-07-23T16:08:00.000+02:00

Over the past weekend I went to Freiburg to visit a friend. Remember when I went to Lake Constance with friends, and went sailing? Well, the other girls in my boat were all med students at The Universty of Freiburg. So I stayed in touch with one of them and went to visit for the weekend. I arrived at 3 on Saturday, and we took a nice walk all over Freiburg, and I got to see so much. The town is really cute, and some of the residential areas totally remind me of home and the Bay Area... They have tree lined streets with old buildings, it was very reminiscent of Berkeley for me. The vibe of the town in general was really great too. Because so many students go there, it is very laid back, and there were a ton of people my age (something i really don't see here in Ludwgisburg) Anyhow, we met the other girls from sailing for dinner, and got to enjoy part of the street festival while we were at it. Then we went for drinks with a couple of other friends.The next day we took a little hike up one of the hills/mountains that surround the city. There is a tower at the very top to remember the castle that used to be there. There have been so many wars that affected the city, that eventually after one of them it wasn't rebuilt again. We walked to a park after that and enjoyed the great sun that was missing the previous day. I had a little sunburn, which has luckily turned into a tan today, yay! In the afternoon we went on a historic tour led by a guy in costume, and the topic of this particular one was old rulers of the city, and famous people who had been there. It was pretty interesting and I understood enough (well with the help of a little recap from Julia after the stories)

Then it was pretty much time to go after a bite to eat. It was a great visit and I am so lucky to have made a friend and been able to visit! It's in the Black Forest and only 1 hour north of Switzerland and 30min east of France. After doing so much Europeam travel this year, it's finally down to the wire and I have to see the other parts of Baden-Wuerttemberg that I have been missing!

picts at: http://ucdavis.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2166916&l=f67c4&id=3206990

AAAAHHHH...

2007-07-21T12:00:00.000+02:00

I went out last night with some friends. Two au pairs from Canada, and we met several other people at the bar we went to. It was actually a really fun night out in Ludwigsburg, and I got to experience the joys of the night bus, yet again. Why I didn't try taking it sooner, I don't know. Anyhow, at one point the two Canadians were talking to a German friend (who didn't know I was American), and they leaned over and asked "What's the difference between Canadians and Americans" I didn't really have an answer for them, but just as I was about to say 'I don't know' the German says "All Americans like Bush" NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ...that is, really, like my worst fear come true. That people really think that about Americans. I have been really lucky this whole time to be surrounded by pretty open minded people, who give me the benefit of the doubt and don't assume that I am a war supporting Bush lover, but this is really an idea that people have!!! I was just so shocked. I think this year I have made an effort to try to dispel these negative images while I am here. That not all Americans are ethnocentric, not interested in learning other languages, uninformed, war supporting, etc. So then of course, after my cry out in disbelief at his statement, he says "oh sorry (we're all laughing though).... but, really, do you like Bush?" I say No. (and even if you are a supporter, you'd better not let that out while abroad, i don't know if you would have any friends) It was amusing, we were laughing and joking about it, but it was a reality check for me, about how people view America, and Americans.

the simple life

2007-07-17T16:14:00.000+02:00

so there hasn't been a whole lot to report lately, mainly because i stopped taking trips after that last trip to Paris... my wallet was spent and I wanted to have these last weeks before my parents come just to relax and enjoy Germany. But I figured i would just give some highlights of these past few weeks just incase you are dying to know :-)

- 4th of July... I tried to make American flags with the kids, but seeing as both of them can not draw stars, and our flag is significantly more detailed than theirs, they both struggled and ended up making German flags in the end - oh well, i tried. I also made a cake with the flag on it out of blueberries and rasberries, super tasty.

- There were no fireworks for me on the 4th, but the following Saturday there was a firework show with classical music above the palace in town, so that was great to see. It had been so long since I had seen fireworks, and i had forgotten how special they can be - it was so cool!!!

- Last weekend Reimund had a huge birthday party. He turned 40 on th 13th, and he had a joint party with his best friend who had turned 40 earlier this year. There were actually a lot of people I had met before, and I ended up having a great time. There was a dj later in the evening and there was dancing too. We didn't end up leaving until 3:30am!!! The kids were troopers until about 12:30 or 1 and then they crashed, but a couple cushioned chairs and blankets and they were comfy sleepers. The following day I went to a friend's house for lunch (also an au pair and the family was out of town) and we saw Harry Potter at the English Cinema.

During the weeks, i have just been chilling at the house, and going to classes. I only have this week and next week of the class and then i am done!!! I can't believe it. The class and the people have actually grown on me, so i will be kind of sad to say goodbye to everyone. This coming weekend I am headed to Freiburg to visit with a friend, and then on August 3 my parents come! I am so excited to show them around where I've been this whole year, and how far I've come in my German life :-)

poppenweiler

2007-07-02T14:05:00.001+02:00

for as much complaining i have done about living in Poppenweiler, i must admit it's not all that bad. After discovering the night bus, and getting used to things, i'm not minding it as much; especially when there are beatiful things to see like the following photos:

and a silly one thrown in for good measure (a new setting i discovered on my camera):

Midsommar & Stuttgarter Lauf

2007-06-24T19:51:00.000+02:00

I am now in the home stretch of this au pair life... so great about the job, very sad about the life(style). Anyhow, after traveling so much the past several weeks, I am really happy to have the next month+ just to hang out here in Germany and enjoy what I've got going on. This weekend brought some great things, simple sort of stuff, but well worth it.Friday nigth I went out with my Sweedish au pair friends to celebrate the Sweedish holiday Midsommar. I asked for some origins about the holiday, but they weren't really sure. It's celebrated the weekend after the summer solstice, so really a mid-summer celebration. The plan was to go to the Schloss park and drink Sekt (German sparkling wine) and eat strawberries - traditional for this holiday. But the weather was really terrible, and in our search for an indoor place to have our 'party' we came across a Sweedish bank that was offering free Sket and strawberries!! So needless to say, we sat ourselves down and took advantage of this great offer. Getting drunk in a bank... ah the memories, that I will come away with after this year. Anyhow, after that we went to a dance club, and had such a great time. It's not very often that I go out to clubs here, but the few times that i have i've always had a fiasco getting home - paying 40euro for a cab ride, waiting for the first s-bahn at 6am - both NOT good options. But Friday was the first time i managed to take the night bus home, and it was great. One hour and one bus change later I was back in Poppenweiler, with money left in my wallet! Between the free sekt and my free ride home I managed to only spend 6 euro on drinks, yay me. One of the most amusing parts of this is that the bus that took me from Stuttgart to Ludwigsburg had black lights and fance halogen track lighting!!! Seriously, look at the photo. It was like they kept the club going on. I wouldn't have been surprised to find a bar/dj/fog machine in the back; however, no such luck :-)Saturday I spent just lazing around the house, and managed to survive Ikea. I made it out of there in less than an hour and under 10 euro, quite impressive... really I didn't need a whole lot, but it was a fun experience. The family was gone from about 4pm on Sat to Sunday evening, so it was great to have the house to myself.

The most surprising news of the weekend, is that I ran a 7k!! It was sponsored by the Stuttgarter Zeitung (newspaper) and I signed up a while ago with a friend of mine, who was going to run it with her au pair mom. I was thinking it would be a great push to get me out there running, haha. I didn't train for it at all, in fact i went to the gym maybe twice at the most in the past two weeks, and hadn't run outside in over a month, so shock of my life, when i ran the whole thing! Mind you, not fast, but no walking, no stopping. It was pretty cool too because the last 200 m were inside the Daimer Stadium - this is where the Stuttgart footbal team plays and where some of the World Cup games took place. It was very cool to be there on the ground floor. So, I am quite happy with myself, and maybe now that i'm not afraid to run, i'll be able to get back into gear with this, and get back into shape for Greece (haha, i'll believe it when i see it :-)

Paris in less than 48 hours

2007-06-18T17:18:00.001+02:00

Another of my British friends here in Germany is getting married, which meant yet another hen night. We didn't have nearly as much time to plan this one, only since the trip to Barcelona, but things went off without a hitch, and it was a great time. Half the group flew over Friday night, but I couldn't make the flight that early, so I opted for the overnight bus, which left Stuttgart at 9:30pm and arrived in Paris at 7am (real times : 10pm to 6:45am) The bus trip was quite amusing itself. There was another american couple and their 20 something daughter on the bus too, so we had a good laugh together as... we sped down windy roads to a middle-of-nowhere town where we filled up on gas at the random EuroLines garage; side-swipped some bushes trying get out of the town; someone in the back of the bus lit up and the bus driver had to pull over in some forest to tell them that you can't smoke on the bus (flash back to my plane ride back to SF for Christmas) as you can tell the trip was off to a good start, haha.

Good news is that I arrived ontime to Paris, and made it to the hostel ok, only to find out my friends were not away and I couldn't check in til 11 - it was 7am. So I changed, and headed out and walked through an open air produce market under the metro near the hostel, and grabbed a coffee and croissant for breakfast (when in France...) I headed up to the Montmarte area and the Sacre Coure next. It is such an enchanting area of the city. The streets are great to look at, there are lots of trees, cute restaurants and stores. I finally got a call from my friends saything they were up, and to head on back. There were 8 of us on this trip, which was a little more difficult to coordinate with, but we managed quite well actually. We made it onto the metro to head closer into town for a meal, and walked to the Orangerie Musuem. My need to pee and the fact that i would have to pay 7.5 euro to see something I had seen before, resulted in me sitting this one out, but it was ok. We walked to a cafe next and I stopped in the Grand Palais to see the amazing glass ceiling. There was an exhibit going on, but the guard was actually nice and let me walk into the entry area to get a better look and take some picts. On the way to the cafe, it started CRAZY raining which caused a good laugh, and me to think (yes, this is the way my life works, and I love it) Not to mention I was almost run over by a smart car as i was crossing the street because i thought it was parked!! This incident was preceeded 5 mins by my friend saying "If we're hit, it's our time" HAHA. Well, i guess it wasn't my time :-) After that we went to the Rodin Museum, quite possible my favorite in Paris. I went there with my Dad when we took a family vacation to Paris 10+ years ago. That was the day my sister got sick, and I got to spend the whole day with just one parent - Dad in the morning, Mom in the afternoon (little did my sister know that would turn out to be one of the best vacation days of my life, sorry laura :-) As a sibling it's not very often you get to be in a new special city, with just you and a parent. Ok, well back to this trip, the Rodin museum was actually updated since the last time i was there, and they were setting up for some event that evening, but it was still great and very special. I made a point to take a photo in the same position with 'The Thinker' as the first time I was there. It rained more on our way back to the hostel, causing us to stop along the way for an evening drink, and then back to the hostel to get ready for the night. The theme this time (definitely not a US tradition) was Cop and Convicts. My friend Sian and I had made the decorations and were very crafty, so everyone had a 'convict #' on the front and a sentence and crime on the back. Very amusing along with Eleanor (bride-to-be) dressed as a British Bobbie. We did dinner, followed by a stroll down the the Moulin Rouge for photo opts and drinks at a nearby bar. Good times.

The next morning we had to check out by 9am! Amazing that we all were able to get up again after only 5 hours in bed. We had breakfast, and then I separated from the group because I wanted to see some specific things. I went to the Musee d'Orsay, which I had been to before but didn't remember so well. It is such an amazing building with a GREAT collection of art work, specifically impressionists. The views from the roof were beautiful, and there was a student discount to boot :-) After that I went to the Eiffel Tower, way touristy I know, but I hadn't been in so long, I really wanted to see it. My intent was to go up it as well, but the top floor was temporarily closed, and the lines were WAY long, so I settled for some picts instead. It's such a nice area anyway, with lawn areas and a people sunning and enjoying the nice day, it was great to re-visit. I sat down for an ice cream and decided to go to the Champs Elysee. Just walking on the street and seeing all the stores, cafe's, trees is a special experience in itself. Some stores were even open, good for me because it started downpouring. I was in my cute little sun dress, seeing as that the weather forecast did not say rain on Sunday! This is one of the moments I realized the many uses for a pashmina (to cover one's head while caught in a sudden downpour, as a shawl on a cold night, scarf, barrier between one and the airconditioning on the over night bus, cushion on the overnight but between say your knee and the window/chair infront of you, a blanket) yes, it is good to carry one of the multi purpose items with you at all times. So the reason I was walking in the rain was to actually find a covered phone booth get in touch with Johannes, from the past weekend. Because the way my life works is that i got to Paris, made a couple texts, and ran out of minutes on my phone! Anyhow, it all worked up and we decided, because of the weather, a movie would be great. Lucky me that most movies are shown original language with subtitles. Judith came too and we saw Zodiac, which was good, partly because of the SF Bay Area location. After the movie, they metroed with my all the way to the bus station and saw me off. It was great to meet up again, even though only for a short time.

And that was it. The bus trip back, proved to be yet again amusing as the same bus driver took us back to the same small town, not only to fill up on gas, but to wash the entire bus! I'm talking professional portable car washing machine moved around the bus manually. A good laugh again with the couple in front of me who was also on the Friday night ride with me (oh ya, this all took place at 7am when I was supposed to be back in Stuttgart) But I finally made it home and started my week. I think I definitely made the most of my time in the city, and came away with some good stories. I saw the things i wanted to see, and am so happy to have been back.

picts at: http://ucdavis.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2154625&l=b298e&id=3206990

Nice is nice

2007-06-12T17:57:00.000+02:00

This past weekend brought yet another great trip to Nice, Cannes and Monaco of the Cote d'Azur in the South of France. Inspired more than a year ago to come to this area, it was great to finally make it there, and the weekend was very memoriable because it was spent with friends. I booked this trip several months ago, and planned to go by myself, but then a met a friend of a friend who was interested in going to the area with his girlfriend, and they decided to go the same weekend as me. Happened that I met Johannes and Judith in Cologne as well, so we got to hang out a bit more before this weekend. I stayed in a hostel in Nice the whole time, and they did the couch surfing thing, which was great because we were able to meet some great new people.

I arrived Thursday afternoon and met up with Johannes and Judith shortly after checking into my hostel. We walked down to the old Nice area and sat on the beach for a bit, and went exploring the old fort area with some great views of the city. That night we had dinner at the flat they were staying at. The couple hosting them cooked salmon, J&J made salad, and my 'american' contribution was quacamole with chips... oh so good!

The next day we got an early start and went to Monaco. The funny thing about these towns is that there really isn't a whole lot to do there. They are kind of pretty and being on the ocean is great, but really unless you've got TONS of money you can't shop there. But Monaco was great to see, we walked around the harbor, and up to the famous Monte Carlo area and casino.I went to the Aquarium while they went to the palace area, becuase I had heard that it was actually better than the Monterey Bay Aquarium... so NOT true!!! oh well, i did get to see some pretty fish and get a great view of the area. And while the aquarium wasn't worth my 6 euro, I am still glad I went because if I hadn't I would have always wondered if it was really better. On the way back to Nice in the afternoon, we got off the bus in a small town along the way and layed out in the sun for a while. We tried to swim, but there were poisonious jellyfish right there close to the shore, so that didn't really work out. That night we all went for drinks with Ellen and Pascal (the hosting couple) and got to see a little bit of Nice at night.

Saturday we got a later start on our way to Cannes, because another couple had come to couch surf, arriving at about 1am, that morning. This couple was from Brazil (Bhagavan and Marcella) and they were really cool and laid-back. Bhagavan was studing art in Barcelona, and Marcella had come to Europe for a month so they could travel together. The five of us went to Cannes and enjoyed the sandy beach (unlike the other rocky ones).After enought sun, we went walking around the city a little bit. We walked up to the old fort there, where there is still a church. In fact, a couple was getting married in there while we were visiting, how special! After seeing a bit more of the city, we took the train to Antibes to meet Ellen, Pascal and two of his friends for dinner. We had some excellent pizza and headed to a British pub afterwards for some socializing. Antibes has a huge British population because of the harbor and the yachting industry. We intended to catch the last train back to Nice a little after midnight, but there was a strike and the trians had already stopped. We ended up taking the bus to the Nice airport and then another one into town.

Sunday was spent in Nice. I wanted to go to the Chagall and Matisse museums, which J&J weren't that interested in, so I went there in the morning, while they all slept in (which you all probably know, i don't do too well) and then we met up in the afternoon. We just went to the beach and napped and enjoyed the last real day of vacation. Amazingly after 4 hours there none of us were sun burned! That night the three of us went to have some great traditional Nicoise dishes for dinner, and had a couple drinks to end the night.
Monday we met for breakfast and then I had to take off for the airport. Johannes and Judith were continuing to stay with a friend near Avignon for a couple of days, then back to Paris where they are doing a civil service year (though they are both German) It was a great trip, with beautiful weather and awesome people. It definitely was much better than seeing the area by myself, because like I said there isn't a whole lot to do there. I ended up doing a lot of walking to my hostel because it wasn't very close to the fun area of town where the others were staying, but in the end it all worked out and I got to see everything I wanted to, and have a nice, relaxing vacation.

links to the photos:
http://ucdavis.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2152350&l=bae38&id=3206990
http://ucdavis.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2152354&l=ec1b8&id=3206990

and... did you know that you can click on the photos in the blog and see them bigger? I didn't, until last week!

Bodensee

2007-05-29T09:42:00.000+02:00

Bodensee, Lake Constance in English, is so beautiful. It is located in southern Germany and borders with Austria and Switzerland as well. Last weekend I had the chance to go check it out with my Rotaract friends, and the whole weekend was great. There is a relatively new club down in Friedrichshafen, a big town on the lake, and they had an official celebration of the establishment of the club over the weekend. It was a last minute trip for me, and i'm so glad that it all worked out.

I met my friends Friday at 7 in Ludwigsburg and we carpooled in two cars down there. The drive is about 2.5-3 hours, so we got there just in time to catch the last little bit of the welcome party that night. At about 3 we finally arrived at the turnhalle where we were sleeping. It was a big gymnasium with mats on the floor all over, so we just brough sleeping bags to sleep on the floor. The next day we got up for breakfast and a day filled with activities. My friends were doing sailing the whole day, but since i signed up late, i did some sailing in the morning and then went to an art foundation in the afternoon. The sailing was great. We were on the lake for 2 hours, and it was sooooo beautiful. It was way better than i was expecting. The water was so green/turqoise, and it's surrounded by beautiful mountains. There were tons of sail boats around, because it is used for drinking water, there are very strict regulations about who can go on the lake, so basicall no motor boats are allowed. This make for such a peaceful experience and it was lovely! I made friends with the four other people on the boat, and we had lunch afterwards before going to the art place. The art foundation was ok, but it was all modern art/structures, and we had 20 minutes to look around followed by a couple of hours of discussion and explanation with the director... that part wasn't so great for me because it was all in German, but i guess i got some of it. After a nap in the afternoon I was ready to go for the rest of the night.

Saturday night was the big dinner/ball, which was great. The invataion said 'black tie' and i was thinking ok something a little nicer, but didn't really take it literally. My logic was, well we are all 20-somethings, who really had a ball gown in their closet? But they do!!! I would say 3/4 of the girls were in what we would consider a prom dress! I was shocked, but luckily, the girls i was with, were under the same impression as myself, so we were all dressed the same... i guess that's why I fit in with these friends :-) Anyhow, the dinner was held in a local castle, renovated for events, right on the lake. It was beautiful and picturesque, in short amazing. There was a champagne reception before hand, and after each corse of the meal, there was a 6 guy accapella group that performed for us. The night was a great way to cap off the whole weekend. Sunday morning there was a tasty brunch before we left, and it all couldn't have been better.
So... the conversation was in German the whole weekend... I still am really not that great with it. One on one, i think i can do a lot better, but when it's all group conversation, it's a lot harder to follow. They were nice and talked in enlgish to me sometimes too... it all worked out, but it just made me realize that i can get by, but my personality doen't really come out as much in situations like that. I am pretty removed from things, and it just makes for a totally different experience. Oh well, it was still so fun!
picts at: http://ucdavis.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2145867&l=0b4ce&id=3206990

holidays...

2007-05-21T10:44:00.000+02:00

I have been looking forward to spring since i got here, because there are a slew of holidays, which means travel! So last weekend commenced my 4 out of 5 weekends that i get to do something fun. Thursday was a holiday, so i had friday off too, and i headed up to the middle Rhine and Cologne. It was so beautiful and I am so glad that i went, my weekend went a little something like this:

Thursday - took the train to Mainz, had a couple of hours to walk around and have a look. A nice little over view of what the city has to offer. It's really pretty on the river and despite the gloomy weather, I enjoyed what I saw. Train to Bingen, the lower part of the 'middle Rhine' area. The Rhine is a really big river that flows north to the North Sea, and originates from Lake Constance, in southern Germnay. The lake boarders Switzerland and Austria as well. The middle area of the Rhine, is known for castles, small traditional German towns, and the wide river in a beautiful valley area. I had lunch in Bingen, and took one of the ferry boats up north to another town, where I took the train to Bacharach, where i was spending the night. In Bacharach, I had arranged to stay in the Youth Hostel that is the castle of the town. I'm thinking, wow, this is going to be great... a little history, cute, good experience. I, however, neglected to remember that castles are always up high, like on the tops of mountains! so after walking around ALL day, i had to embark up a steep mountain trek to get to the place I was staying. Of course, it was all worth it, and the views were beautiful, but man, i was so ready to be done after that.

Friday - got up relatively early and walked around Bacharach, since I hadn't seen it the day before. Sooo cute! Took the boat to St. Goarhausen, another small town, most known for the Loreley. A rock, that legends has it, a girl with blond hair sat at the top of and would lour sailors into running their ships into the rocks... wait, doesn't that sound familiar? I took the bus to the top, to look at the views, and then walked down back to the town, and crossed with the other ferry to St. Goar. This town, was a little bigger, and a little more touristy, but it had a great castle, a little destroyed, but so cool to walk around. It's crazy to think about people building these massive buildings way back then, and how life in the castles must have been so different. After that, I took the train to Boppard, for my second night. I went to the youth hostel so I could check in and drop my bag off. I had made my reservation about a month ago over the phone and the conversation was pretty amusing. The woman didn't speak english, and I struggled to get the point across, but I succeeded... or so I thought. When I arrived at the hostel, no one answered the door, and finally a little old woman, walked up like she was going into the builing and asked what i wanted, our conversation (in German) was pretty amusing as well.The highlights included her telling me the office was only open on Tuesdays (it was Friday), was i traveling with a boy who arrived that morning, my struggle to explain that i had a reservation, and i needed to stay there.... in the end it all worked out. apparently she worked there, and gave me the keys to my very OWN room for the night! all for 16 euros!! here I thought I would spend the night in a dorm room, with tons of other people and i had a 4-bed room with two sinks all to myself! Amazing... so that night i made dinner at the hostel, and went to the main square, where they were having live music, and beer and wine to drink, and after the sun went down, they showed a movie outside. So fun, and so cute!

Saturday - went to a cafe for breakfast, then headed to the chairlift, that goes up the mountain. It was a little foggy in the morning, but the views were so beatiful, and at the top, it was just a short hike to the view point called Vierseenblick. It is a spot where the river winds around a lot, and is hidden by mountains, so it looks like it is 4 separate lakes. Took the train from Boppard, to Koblenz.Walked around the town. The old town was really great, and the area along the river was really nice as well. The weather here had really warmed up, and it was finally sunny. Koblenz is where the Rhine and the Moselle rivers meet, and the corner there, is nice as well. I was going to see another castle from there, but I was really all walked out, and just wanted to get to my next hostel in Cologne... see this is the great part about traveling alone- no obligations, just what i want to do :-) I took the train to Cologne, and checked into the hostel to rest a bit before checking out the pedestrian zone and doing a little shopping. That night I met up with a friend, who was also visiting friends there. We were going to a club thing featuring a German dj duo called the Disco Boys... mind you this is not disco music, more like house/trans/techno (i'm not so up with the differences) This normally isn't my type of club, but i figured why not?So we walked and walked and walked, trying to find this palace... it's really sort of ouy of the way, along the river, but it was well worth it. It was really fun, and we had a great time dancing and hanging out. The conversation was amusing as well, as i pieced together my german and they all graciously did the same with their english.

Sunday - Forced myself to get up at 10:30 after about 5.5 hrs of sleep, so i could really go check out the city. I went to the Museum Ludwig, which is a great modern art museum, and I lucked out because yesterday was 'Museum day' in Germany, so i got in for free! Walked around the old town, and took the tram to a more student area of the city. There weren't a lot of people around, but it was still nice. The city itself, isn't anything all that great, actually. There's not a whole lot of great archetecture or things along those lines. The Cathedral is about the biggest thing, so I finally made my way to see that in the afternoon. It's HUGE. The Dom in Cologne is the biggest in Germany, and it's quite a sight. Again, just walking through and thinking about all the effort put into constructing that is phenomenal. After that i took the train home, and was happy to be back.

It was a beatiful weekend, filled with a little bit of everything. I would highly recommend it - esp the Rhine Valley part. As usual I have a link to photos, so hope you can get a sense of what it was like, though of course, they never really do nature justice :-)

http://ucdavis.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2143816&l=f5102&id=3206990
http://ucdavis.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2143826&l=fd765&id=3206990

things i will never take for granted again:

2007-05-08T08:00:00.000+02:00

- my car

- having a clothes dryer

- nature nearby, and the beach

- not waking up to the singing/yelling of a
4 and 6 year old

- the ability to buy my own food, and eat meals when i want to

- basically, living on my own!!!!!!!!!!!! well not being an au pair, when this is all done

(though I have to admit I'm pretty excited about moving back in with mom and dad :-) is that weird?)

Smart driving

2007-05-04T10:50:00.000+02:00

Reimund, the dad of the family works for Smart... yes, those cute little two door cars that have been in Europe for while, but that have yet to make an appearance in the US (don't worry, the US launch is sometime early 2008, so soon enough, you too can have a Smart Car) ok step aside from the sales pitch, beacuse the exciting news is that i got to drive one!!! Yesterday he had to go to another city for work, so he took a company car, and had it for the night so i got to drive it. Very cool. It's super small on the outside, yet very spacious on the inside, it's like driving half a car though. You wouldn't know it was any different unless you turned around and saw the back wasn't there :-) One of the special things about it is that is is an automatic, but you can also drive it as a manual, except there is no clutch. On this particular model too, there were paddles to change gears on the steering wheel, so you really didn't have to move a whole lot or anything to change gears. It's also a little futuristic looking on the inside, with some random little features. Example: if you have a can of soda and want to cool it down you can pop one of the AC vents ofhte dashboard and set your can in there to cool it down, haha. Well, that's pretty much it. I probably only drove for about 15-20 min, but when else would i have a chance to do it? Of course there was a little photoshoot as I was about to drive...

Barcelona

2007-05-02T21:00:00.000+02:00

The weekend finally came... the Hen Weekend in Barcelona, Spain. (a hen night is a bacelorette party night in England, seeing as that my party was British that's what you get from me too). We booked the flights in December before Christmas, so this has been a long time coming and it was great. There were six of us who went and we all took the same flight on Saturday morning together. We flew Lufthansa, and two of the women we went with are flight attendants, so one of them buttered up the pilots and I got to sit in the cockpit for take off!!!! Pretty cool way to start my trip! After we landed we found out hostel in the city, and set off to have some coffee before we could check in. I was responsible for finding accomidation and it all worked out well. I found us a hostel in a great part of town, where all six of us were in the same dorm room. It was great for all of us to be together, and get ready together, a great way to go... Anyhow, we headed off for some lunch and shopping around after that. Got to see some of the city, and did a super touristy thing by going to the Hard Rock Cafe in the afternoon for a drink (though I did end up with a free shot glass on it with the location, hehe... i did check with the bartender before i took it) Off for a nap after that, really, i took one every day, it was amazing. That night was the main 'party night' our theme was to have Claire the bride-to-be dressed in white with angel wings and a halo, and the rest of us were in black with devil horns. We did look cute if i do say so myself. We went out for dinner and drinks, and while at dinner the owner of the place brought up two bottles of champagne.

Sunday, Eleanor and I got up early and went to the Picasso Museum. We waited in line for an 1.25 hrs, and at the end there it was truely pandamoneum (which occured at a couple other pointed throughout the trip) We did, however, make it in, and it was really good. I didn't realize that he was actually trained as a fine artist. Seeing some of his earlier work, it's hard to believe that it's the same guy. We then went to the Miro museum, but the line was so long we were going to hope on the tour bus and meet our friends at the harbor... but ends up that they were on the exact same bus we were getting on!!! It's such a small world, and we really couldn't have planned it better. Down at the harbor we walked around a bit, and had some lunch, followed by a nap before another night out. That second night, we did basically the same thing, minus the color coordination, but it was just as fun.

Monday, was absolutely gorgeous. I was expecting rain ALL weekend, so to have more than one day with out it, and a day like Monday, i was one happy girl! Sowe went and saw all the Gaudi stuff from the outside. We took our tour bus part of the way and did a little walking tour part of the way. It was just so nice. So as far as the Gaudi stuff is concerned... I had seen some pictures before, and I must say that i wasn't all that impressed. But to see it upclose and personal is totally different. Also, after I learned when he did all this I became that much more impressed. Most of his works are from the late 1800's early 1900's and considering what other designs were being done then, he was WAY ahead of his time... and still kind of is. So we ended up in Park Guell, hoping for a lie down on some grass, and just relaxing, but there is no grass! We did do a bit of sitting, but caught our bus back so 4 of the girls could check out of the hostel and fly home. Eleanor and I were on our own that night, and opted for a really night (treat myself right for one night) dinner down by the water. We wanted some good fish and got exactly that.

Tuesday morning, we got up early and were the first in line for the Joan Miro Museum an hour before they opened (we brought books). Good thing we had that planned, because the rain finally came and came and came... i was basically wet all day. After that we went our separate ways, and I went inside Gaudi's Casa Batllo... really really great, much better described with the photos linked at the bottom. I basically spent the rest of the day walking around and just looking at stuff. I went to some neighborhoods I hadn't been to yet, and went to a park, and really just enjoyed reading and not doing a whole lot. It was a vacation, and that requires a little bit of vacation time too... Early night to bed that night because I came back pretty early on Wednesday so I could pick the kids up from kindy.

Again, another great vacation, so happy that it all worked out, we had fun, and that we are all still friends. The picts will be just as good as these words so have a look at:

http://ucdavis.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2137683&l=0f260&id=3206990

http://ucdavis.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2137698&l=29aa3&id=3206990

City Mouse vs. Country Mouse

2007-04-27T16:05:00.000+02:00

Since the time I got here I have 'complained' about living in the country. But really, in the country: I see tractors all the time, agricultural fields surround my village on all sides, from which I am only a stones throw away. I have always thought I was a city mouse for sure. When I studied abroad in London, I relished in the city lifestyle: the fast pace, the public transport, the arts, the sounds, basically everything. And coming here and being stranded in Poppenweiler really didn't help the transition to things here. But I must say as I was coming home on the bus that night, that it's really not that bad. I still really don't like having to come home so early when I go out, just so I can catch the bus home. At the same time; however, I realized that I rather like coming home to a quiter community. It's not so bad being able to have the best of both worlds. Now that I think about it, that is why I liked living in Berkeley so much. I was able to frequent the city, and still have my life that was a little bit removed. While at the same time, still having restaurants and shops with in walking distance from my house. Though it would be nice to go out for a night on the town and be able to come home to sleep in my own bed. I will definitely still try my hand at city life at somepoint, hopefully London or San Francisco, and I definitely don't want to live in Poppenweiler any longer than I really have to. But it is nice to become content with what you have and realize that maybe I have a little country mouse in me too.

Fruhlingsfest

2007-04-23T08:21:00.000+02:00

Germans love a good fest, as do I! And now that the weather is nicer, and spring is in full swing, it was due time for yet another of these amazing German traditions: the Fruhlingsfest in Stuttgart. Fruhling means spring in German, so the event is aptly named. It started on Saturday, and I went with the group of my British friends and it was oh so fun. We met in the beer garden in the Schloss Park in Stuttgart for a bite to eat before hand, then walked to the festivities. Again the regular things were there, rides, indulgent foods, games, and of course beer halls. We had a table reserved and a group of about 30+ of us parked our selves for a good round of drinking, chicken eating (the best rotisserie chicken ever) singing and dancing. It was great fun, as expected, and I loved every second of it. Now, I can hardly believe that I will leave for Barcelona in less than a week!! We have been planning that trip since before christmas and it is finally here :-)

leave your modesty at the door

2007-04-22T11:26:00.000+02:00

So... i've been going to the gym now for a couple of months (not that i'm seeing the changes i'd hoped for, but that's not what this is about) and I have taken to showering there too after my workouts, for convenience sake. But I must say that the whole idea of nakedness there is totally open. The sauna, so i have heard, is no clothes and all genders, the changing rooms are divided by gender (they aren't that casual about things) but there are no changing rooms or shower stalls, it's all just kind of out in the open. This took a little getting used to, but if the other women aren't weird about it then why should I be? It was never really that big of a deal because mostly it's just me and one or two other women in the showers, but the other day was totally different... I was done working out at the same time that a class got out, and i was in there with like 7 other women, i think all the shower heads were taken. Just kinda a new experience for me, absolutely not a big deal for them, which i think is good, and it's just how people are brought up here. It's just a little strange to be showering next to one of the moms who I see every day at Ines's ballet class, oh germany!

my world has changed

2007-04-22T10:48:00.000+02:00

The time is here my friends... I have WIRELESS INTERNET at my house here in Germany. I never thought I would see this day, nor be SO excited about it. A little sad I know, but really, to be able to use my own computer with internet is amazing. Just had to share my excitement :-)

happy easter

2007-04-10T12:35:00.000+02:00

For Easter weekend I had two extra days off (easter friday and easter monday) and while normally I would have taken a 4 day holiday to go somewhere else on my own, it happens that this holiday falls between two huge vacations for me (my week long trip to Spain and trip to Barcelona for a bachelorette weekend) So given my lack of plans, I was very nicely invited to go with the family to their Hometown on Augsburg. It is a town on the way from Stuttgart to Munich, about 45 min west of munich. We started the weekend with our usual sit down breakfast, during which we all drew faces on the shells of our eaten eggs. This was a result of a bit of conversation, but in the spirit of decorating eggs durning easter we felt it was appropriate. So here they are from L to R: Tim, me, Sabine, Reimund, Ines:
After breakfast, we loaded up the car and drove to Augsburg. We went to a nearby lake, walked around, had lunch at a beer garden and enjoyed the beautiful weather. I walked with Reimund and the kids to Sabine´s mom´s house from there, so I could see somethings along the way. Augsburg has these canals running throught the city because it is basically on two rivers. Off on the river Lech, is this site for kayaking, and it is where the kayaking events were held for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Here is a pict of it, but you just have to imagine way more water flowing through over these rocks for a very intense kayaking experience. We saw some people practicing, and it was quite amazing to see them do these slolom courses both down stream and up.

On Saturday I went with Reimund, Tim and Reimund´s mom to Schloss Neuschwanstein, which is perhaps the most famous Castle in Germany. I have heard that it is what Walt Disney based his Disneyland castle on. It was a beautiful day, so we did a lot of walking around and walked up to the castle, and of course played tourist like the rest of the people. It is always so strange for me to go to places like that and hear other people speaking English, well to see other Americans. I always forget about them, and just live in my own little world there. We definitely experienced one fellow, who was the definition of the 'ugly American' 20-something guy, beer in hand at 3pm (which is totally normal for Germans done in the right fashion) swearing, talking loudly, complaining, all while walking up the hill to the castle.... Come on buddy, pull it together!!!! Anyhow, I had a great day despite all that. The castle has quite a story and it was well worth it to go on the tour. And, of course, here´s the pict:

Easter Sunday, they didn´t have a whole lot planned, so after breakfast I went on a nice walking tour of old town Augsburg. It´s a lovely old town, with some unique aspects for the time. The main street is really wide, and impressive, especially for a all the old farmers in the 14th century, when Augsburg was THE town to go to.

They also have a great city hall, with a Golden Room, pict below. As well as a huge church which is half Roman and half Gothic. Augsburg was originally a Roman town founded by Emperor Augustus. One other very interesting facility there is The Fuggerei. Fugger was the last name of one of the rulers of the town in the early days. And much ahead of his time, he created a little town with in Augsburg for poor people. There are apartments there, a church, park, communal water... and the idea is that someone could live there for sat 1 Deutsch Mark a year and the Fuggers would pay the rest. People still live there today, many of whom are older and have no family to live with, and cannot afford a lot of rent. After my time in town, I went with Sabine and Ines so Ines could see her Aunt´s horse, and we got to walk around the Augsburg University which Sabine attended and her dad taught for many years.

We left Augsburg on Monday evening after spending the day with Sabine´s Dad and his wife. It was so great to see where Sabine and Reimunds origins are, and the town they speak so fondly of. I had been meaning to go for some time, so I am really glad it all worked out. Just another aspect of German life I get to experience before I go.

Spain pictures

2007-04-03T09:48:00.000+02:00

just found out that I can give out a link again to view pictures on facebook, and you don´t need to be a member, so here you go. There are two albums, enjoy!

http://ucdavis.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2124978&l=4109d&id=3206990

http://ucdavis.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2124979&l=6b86c&id=3206990

lindsay comes to Germany!

2007-04-03T09:06:00.000+02:00

So not more than two weeks after my trip to Spain, my friends Lindsay came to see me in Germany. It was a last minute vacation planned because basically the whole country of Spain takes a week long holiday for Easter called Semana Santa. Anyhow, between me and her other German friends, who she met while they were au pairs in Madrid, she had a lot of people to visit here. She got here Friday night and I was able to pick her up with the car (I am always looking for excuses to drive anywhere :-) . We grabbed a drink in Ludwigsburg before heading home and getting a good night´s sleep. Saturday morning we sat down for the normal breakfast with the family, which is SUPER different from how Lindsay does things with her host family, so I think she enjoyed seeing how my ways of things works. Saturday was kind of sloppy weather, but it was ok, because I had just planned for us to do a bit of shopping anyhow. We went into Stuttgart, and went down the main shopping street, and saw some things along the way. In the afternoon, we sat down for a traditional German coffee and cake. Then we headed back to my house to get ready for the night.

We met up with three of her friends for dinner and going out. They all came a little distance to see her, so it was great that we were all able to get together. We took her out for some Schwäbisch (area around Stuttgart) food, and then went to some bars and clubs. It was so much fun! We ended the night getting a ride home from her friends sister, but not before making an hour detour to take her friend home first, how nice of the sister! Anyhow, we got home around 4, so maybe the night bus would have been better, but at least this way we got to sleep on the ride home :-)

Sunday we had a last breakfast with the family before heading into Ludwigsburg for the day. We had much better weather and spent the first part of the day at the Ludwigsburg schloss (palace) and the gardens. It was so beautiful! The gardens have just been relanscaped and opend for the summer, so it great to walk around and see everything. After that we went into town for a little snack, and went to meet her friends. One of the girls just moved to Ludwigsburg, so it was very convenient. We just hung out for a little bit, then I took Lindsay and her friend to the Stuttgart train station, so they could meet their ride. She was headed off to a town near Munich until Wednesday, so it will be great to come all this way and see a little more of Germany!

It was a wonderful weekend, and it was so great to have Lindsay here. I loved being able to show her where I am and how different Germany is from Spain. It´s so funny that we are basically doing the same thing, yet doing it totally differently. I am now really excited to have my parents come too, so I can show them around too!! Just 5 more months, crazy!

i love to cook

2007-03-27T12:53:00.000+02:00

This should come as no shock to anyone reading this blog. I love to cook and bake. The Foodnetwork was like a dream come true after being slightly obsessed with cooking shows since I was in kindergarten. That´s right, The Frugal Gourmet, and Grahm Kerr were my favorites as I was rubbing my blanket, and sucking my thumb, or so my mom tells me. I don´t know if I am really any good at it, but I love to do it, especially baking. And thought I do have this passion, it is not something that has always been easy to follow. Let´s face it, cooking can be kind of expensive... yah, if you have most the ingredients and spices on hand, it´s not so bad, but having been a college student 4 of the last 5/6 years I haven´t had the best stocked kitchen, not to mention I have moved every year for the last 6 years. Another inhibitor is quantity. Yes, I want to make the whole recipe, be it a casserole, lasagna, cake or otherwise, but who´s going to eat it all? Me and my roommate? Two people for a recipe that is supposed to feed 6-8 is a little daunting, not to mention unhealthy even spread out over a couple of days. However, all my luck changed in coming to Germany.

Here I have a built in family of 5 to cook for, an 'unlimited' budget seeing as that the family pays for food, and the time to try out new things. It is amazing. I have been able to test out a lot of new things, as well as expose my host family to some of the things that I like to make back home. I end up baking a lot more which is oh so fun, and really what i like to do the best. I do this a lot of times with the kids, because it´s a great (learning) activity they can help with, that yealds pretty/tangible/tasty results. It´s all been really fun for me. Last Friday i made homemade soup for lunch, traditional German apple cake in the afternoon, and on Saturday Lasagna for dinner. And yet, I never get tired of it because there is always something new to try.

You know how people ask the question 'What would you do if you never had to work again, but still had money?' and your answer is supposed to be the career you really want to do. Well, that is basically the situation I have been put into, and all I am really doing is traveling, reading and cooking... maybe I should take the hint.

madrid, madrid, madrid

2007-03-18T23:39:00.000+01:00

I concluded my trip in Madrid, because my good friend Lindsay is au pairing there as well. This was my second time seeing her here, and it was so great a second time. I got in Friday mid-day, and we just chilled, got some coffee, and headed to a museum. There was this really cool M. C. Escher exhibit that we went to. His work is so amazing and innovative. It is so cool how all his images come together and flow from one thing to the next. After that we just rested at her house, before our big night out. We went out for dinner with some of her friends (all of whom are au pairs as well, and most of whom I had met on my first trip). Anyhow, we had a delicious Spanish dinner and then went to this club. We managed to get in for free, which made it even more worth is. The disco was huge with 7 different rooms each with different types of music. The highlight of this were the dancers, which I only hope I am able to put a video of on here... such a laugh!!

Anyhow, we didn´t get home until 5 am, so that meant a nice bit of sleeping in on Saturday. After we pulled ourselves out of bed we headed into Madrid and went to the Tyssan (sure I am spelling that wrong) Museum, and say some great more contemporary works, and followed that up with shopping on Madrid´s well known shopping street, and lunch with a friend. That night we went to good bye dinner for one of Lindsay´s good friends who is also an au pair. Her family bought this great Spanish paella for us and it was such a nice night. Sunday was my last day, so we tried to get up a little earlier, and we went to this huge market called El Rastro. I think everyone got some good deals, and we all left with out being pick pocketed (which is super common in such a crowed place) And just as Lindsay and I were thinking that afterwards, I felt a felt something touching my bag behind me, and sure enough when I turned around to grab my bag, there were two girls with maps out, attempting to make a steal. I guess it was a little initiation to Madrid for me, but still really creepy. Don´t worry they didn´t get anything. We were on our way to the Prado, hugely famous museum in madrid, and once there, we did the fastest tour ever... really, like, went around and saw the five most famous paintings there, scanning others along the way. While, I appreciate the fact that it is really famous, I must admit it´s not really the kind of art that speaks to me... Given more time and energy, i may have stayed longer, but I´m not that sad about it. Then it was off to hang out with another of Lindsay´s friends before i left and flew back to Germany.

It was such a great trip!!! Way less exhausting than my first vacation, and the highlights, were definitely seeing friends, and getting a view of the Spanish lifestyle from an insiders perspective. I am happy to be back in Germany though, I definitely think this lifestyle is a little more my speed, or maybe it´s just what i´m used to... anyhow, onto the next adventure!!

on the road again

2007-03-15T14:13:00.000+01:00

Today I am in Cabra. It is a town about an hour and a half away from Cordoba, where my friend Amanda is teaching English. We went to high school and Davis together, so it's going to be great to catch up. So I've just arrived, but yesterday I was in Granada which was amazing.

I arrived in Granada yesterday at about 12. I was supposed to leave Antequera on the train earlier in the morning, but of course the train was delayed and they didn't know when it was actually going to be there. So I headed back to Carrie's for breakfast and got a later bus to Granada instead. I checked into my hostel, and got started right away with a mini city tour. I did a ton of walking and saw some of the well known old town neighborhoods. I had an afternoon ticket for the Alhambra, which is THE thing to see there, so I walked up the huge hill around 2. The Alhambra is the old Islamic castle type building in Granada, which has been amazingly well kept and restored. My first stop was to the Generalife, which are the old palaces gardens. The views are amazing from up there as are the vegetation and buildings. There is so much detail and symmetry involved, that the whole thing is breath taking. I think the pictures will speak better for themselves when I am able to post them. I went to the Alcazaba, which is the old fortress. There wasn't a whole lot to see, but again the views were great, and you got to see a bit of where and how these people lived. Finally I went to the Palace buildings which are the most spectacular of all. The rooms are symmetrical, and have these amazing designs carved into the walls. The ceilings are intricately carved and put together... again all of this will be better explained in photos. That night I was a bit too pooped to experience the Granada night life, which includes free tapas with a drink order, but I was treated to a homemade Thai dinner by the hostel. Oh sooo good, and it was nice to hang out with some other travelers for a bit. I called it a bit of an early night so I could get up this morning and take one last walk through the cute Granada streets before catching the bus to Cabra.

All in all the trip is going really well, and I'm glad I opted for this. I still can't believe that I am in Spain and seeing so much, and I still have a lot of Madrid to discover this weekend. In my times of awe, I just relish in it when I tell myself "This is why I came to Europe to be an au pair!!!"

the adventure continues

2007-03-13T17:50:00.000+01:00

I spent my second day in Malaga, and really that was enoug time to see most of the prettier parts of the old town. I made it into the cathedral, and went into a few stores, but managed to not buy anything, yay me. Then I went into the local market with all the fresh produce and meat stands, which i had walked by on Sunday but it was closed. I picked up some fruit, meat, cheese and rolls to have for lunch on the beach than ran to catch the bus. I had asked for a recommendation for good beach from one of the guys working at the hostel, and he told me about one, that was supposed to have a stop on the bus... but i had been on the bus for a while with no sign of this beach and decided my best bet was to just get off and walk down to the cost, at least i could see the water. I didn't find a beach right away, but i sat on a bench and made my sandwich and had a great view of the water. I wandered around a bit afterwards and found a different beach a little further away than the one i was originally going for. I planted myself on a bit of grass and read my book while enjoying the amazing sun and sounds of tiny waves. The rest of my day was pretty lazy, i made my way back to the hostel and hung out on the roof terrace on a hammock and read a bit. Basically just killed some time before catching the bus to Antequera.

The bus to Antequera left at 8pm from Malaga, so i got there at 9 and met up with Carrie. My friend Darci moved to Washington D.C. at the same time as I came to Germany so we had a little goodbye BBQ a couple of weekends before hand. She had some friends from Uni come one of whom was Carrie, who I am currently staying with. She had plans to come to Spain at that time, so we exchanged info, and when i found out I was going to take this trip I got in touch with her. So last night when I arrived, we went out for some traditional Spanish tapas, which were oh, so tasty and just had some time to catch up and exchange about our experiences so far. Then this morning we had some breakfast, which included me eating traditional churros (deep fried dough) dipped in hot chocolate (but so thick, it really looked like a melted chocolate bar) but hey, i'm on vacation right? :-) We then walked around the town a bit, saw the local out door market and did some shopping before meeting up with her friends for lunch. It's the director of the school she teaches English at and her daughter who is 24, and they made us this amazing Andalucian soup thing for lunch. It is raw tomatoes blended with some garlic, pepper, olive oil, vinegar and bread. It is eaten kind of like soup, and you dip a lot of bread in it as well. There were also artichokes, ham, cheese and chocolate fondue involved, so needless to say we were all happy campers! After lunch, Carrie had to go to work, so I walked around town a bit by myself and went up the hill to the castle area, which has some great views of the city. It has been amazing weather still, and so refreshing to be with a friend and resident of the town. It's super nice to be able to vacation but still kind of feel like there are homes along the way. I am soooo happy to be here.

Málaga

2007-03-12T09:36:00.000+01:00

YAY!!! another vacation! My host family has taken the week off for a ski holiday in Austria, and while I was grateful for the offer to join them, I decided to take a holiday of my own. I booked my flights before Christmas, so this has been a long time coming. I have friends here that I wanted to see, and it's even better because the south of Spain is having wonderful weather at the moment.

Yesterday I got up at the crack of dawn in Germany, so I could catch the 5,30 S-Bahn from Stuttgart to the airport and make my 7,15 flight. Begin a very long day. But, the flight was fine, and i caught the bus directly into Málaga and found my hostel. I headed out right away to make use of my one day here to see museums and such. A lot of that stuff is closed on Mondays. So I went to the new Picasso Museum, which had some interesting works (155 donated from his daughter-in-law and grandson). But just as amazing was the building that it was in. Such details in the ceilings tiles with influences left over from the Moorish rule of southern Spain. I then did some more walking around and made it to this contemporary art museum, which was free and really great. In fact the temporary exhibit they had was by an artist who just recently had an exhibit in Nurnberg in Germany. I had read about it in a magazine and wanted to go, but never made it, and now i still got to see some of her work... crazy how small a world it is. After that I sat in a plaza and had some lunch, and walked to the Alcazaba, old palace here. It was beautiful and open with a lot of vegetation, and it makes me even more excited to see the Alhambra in Granada. I finally went back to the hostel after all that for a shower and some rest, but went out again for another walk, followed my a movie at the hostel. Finally around 10, I decided to should try to see some of the night life, even if it was by myself on a Sunday night. I really didn't do too much on my own, but i went to a cerveceria (brewery) and had a little beer and calamari. Then back to the hostel, to rest up for my next day.

This morning at breakfast, a girl came to join me at the tabel outside, and ends up she's from Germany, but my german was better than her english, so we talked in German! go figure that it takes me going to another country to practice my German, haha. My impressions of Málaga so far is that it is pretty, and just so different from Germany. It has a ton of palm trees, and narrow street with tall buildings. It is very much a little city on the ground floor, but then there are apartments above all the businesses, which really isn't something i see too much in Germany, though it is no new idea... it is also a different experience to be whistled at and kissing noised at on the street. Yes, this is a Spainish steriotype that exisits, it's just kind of funny that that was what i pictured that made me want to go to Germany, and kind of makes me happy that i am living there. More Málaga to conquere today, the last few sights that are open on Mondays, and then hopefully the beach... when i left Germany it was +9C and upon my arrival in Málaga the temperature read +21C - i love it!

HAHAHA

2007-03-08T12:47:00.000+01:00

It seems like ever since I got here, people have been telling me that I need a German boyfriend to help me speak better German.... yes this is an obvious one, though SO much easier said than done. With my limited knowledge of German, and the fact that most of the time when I am out and about I speak English (i know, not good) it has made this task of a relationship a little difficult. I finally had a talk with my German teacher the other day about how I don´t feel like I am benefiting all that much from the class. I need to speak more, and the whole classroom format of learing isn´t the best for me. She´s been really great about incoporating more talking activities into our lessons, but today, durning our coffee break she says to me, "You know what you need to do to improve your German is come to class, pracitce the grammar and find a German boyfriend" My response was "Genau!!" which means 'exactly' however I eaxplained it´s not something you can just go to the store and pick up, haha. So we had this little dialouge and after the break we are all stitting down again and she tells the whole class that they need to start finding German guys to set me up with!!!!! Oh my god, I have never laughed so hard, or been as much shock in my entire life!! It was hilariuos. She then adds, that the need one guy each for Fernanda and Rabbia too (the two other au pairs in my class) but it was still quite a moment. Finally at the end of class she shakes my hand good bye and says that while we are all out at the museum in Stuttgart on Saturday we can look for my German guy... Oh, Frau Eugenia!

nicht mein bier

2007-03-04T16:19:00.000+01:00

Naturally, every country has it’s own way of saying the same things, here is a wonderful example. In most countries the saying ‘It’s not my thing’ would litterally translate. In German one can literally say this as well ‘es ist nicht mein Ding’. There are; however, different country specific ways of saying this with a little more abstract wording. I believe in the states one might say ‘It’s not my bag of chips’ and who knows how many other expressions there are for this one simple sentence; in Germany the saying is ‘Es ist nicht mein Bier’ literally meaning ‘It’s not my bier’ how German J… I LOVE it!

cafés, cafés everywhere

2007-03-01T20:21:00.000+01:00

So I am sure most of you are aware that Europeans live in a café culture. Meaning that they are everywhere and it is really a way of life for a lot of people. They are frequented by people of all ages and it is just a place to relax and have a cup of coffee. There is no pressure here to finish in lightning speed because others are waiting. As with all European restaurants, the waiters are not paid mostly from tips so there is no rush to turn tables for the maximum wage for one night’s work. Patrons are encouraged to take their time and not be disturbed during the meal, and actually have as little, impersonal contact with the wait staff as possible. Which is sometimes a nice thing and sometimes not. However, back to the cafés… I have joined a gym (fitness studio) here in Germany and one of the first things I noticed was that we have a little lounge area at the entrance where you can buy a cup of coffee and just sit and relax after your work out (which to me seems a little counter productive, but flash back to the quote to live by in another country “it’s not bad it’s just different”) So of course they would have a little café set up in the gym. Not only do the fitness studios support this lifestyle for the members, but also McDonalds had jumped on board as well in their European locations with the McCafe, yes it is italicized on the building. I have not yet been to one of these cafés within the McDonalds (Supersize Me will keep me out of that place for a LONG time) but it just goes to show that it is such a big part of the culture here, that a foreign rum company was persuaded to live up to what it’s customers are used to.

Another aspect of eating and cafes here in Germany specifically is eating outside. I think all Europeans practice this a lot more, but being outside is a way of German life. People go for walks all the time on the weekends, when they are alone, or have company. When the weather is good it is basically unheard of to do anything inside. In terms of dining people eat outside whenever possible. Even when the weather is cold, people like to sit outside and use blankets provided by the restaurant, very interesting. It sure makes sense though, and it is such a nice way to enjoy the environment in which you live. I think sometime in America things are too artificial and stale. Just something to think about and take back…

Fasching

2007-02-20T09:28:00.000+01:00

Today is the last day of Fasching, German Carnival. The celebration is a bit different in each city and some places do call it Karnival, but all in all, it is one big celebration. The craziness starts on the Thursday before Ash Wednesday in a ritual where men wear ties and women will go around and cut them off of the man that they ´choose´I´m not really sure where this part of the tradition comes from, and I haven´t seen it happen so I can´t really give you more details... the weekend is filled with parties and various comedical speaches, and everyone gets dressed up. Some people are in all out costumes as we are on halloween, but others are just in silly hats and suits. I watched some of these speaches on T.V. but obviously didn´t understand what was going on due to my lack of German. Anyhow, some towns hold parades over the weekend, and I went to one with Sabine. In the north these are just good old fashioned parades, but down in the south there is more of a pagan tradition to the Fasching celebration. It started when original settlers of Germany would hold festivities this time of year to scare winter away... The people would dress as witches, and wear bells and walk around trying to shout and scare out the winter and bring spring. When Christianity came into play, the thought is that they tried to adapt their holidays in congruence with the exisiting pagan ones, which is why there is an over lap meanings of the celebration. Here are some picts of the parade I went to:

Another aspect to the parades is that they will pull people (most of the time teenage girls) out of the crowd and harass them in a number of ways... paint their faces, wrap their legs in tape, pick 'em up and carry them over the shoulder for a ways in the parade, throw them in a barrel of hay. But the thing is they love it, it is a tradition that all German kids grow up with and love, so it only seems natural that you would still enjoy it as an adult. So here are some girls that showed up looking normal, and half way throught the parade look like this: Fasching continues on Rose Monday and Fasching Tuesday in another slew of bigger parades (in Köln and Mainz) and parties all leading up to Ash Wednesday when the celebration ends and lent begins... you´d better get all the bad stuff out of your system now :-)

--- on Saturday of last weekend I drove to a city that was an hour away, just to walk around and have a look. There wasn´t a whole lot there, but it was a very cute picture-esq German town. That night I had a girls´ night out with my friends who I will be spending a whole weekend with in Barcelona in April for a Hen Party weekend. Here´s a couple more picts:

1/2 way through, and a whole new me to show to you...

2007-02-16T10:29:00.000+01:00

Well I did it! I´d been thinking about going short for a while, and I finally got so tired of the split ends I decided to just do away with it all... I´ve been here for 6 months (well in a week from today) and I figured a perfect point in time to take on a whole new me

before:
after:

This was yesterday, and today was my first time styling it on my own, so of course it doesn´t look as cute as she did it yesterday, but it will just take some time to get there, and I´m still really happy with it

“do you miss it?”

2007-02-15T11:44:00.000+01:00

Someone asked me the above question referring to the SF Bay Area on Tuesday night at the pub quiz, and I must say I was a little taken aback. I don’t really know why, but I had to think about it and my first instinct was not to reply yes…. amazing/shocking leap in the personal development of Emily in Germany! The last couple of weeks have been good. I have not been counting the days ‘til I come home (yes the Bay Area will always be home), I have been going out with friends, meeting new people, and still getting to know the older ones more, the weeks aren’t seeming to drag on as much as they did in the beginning… I went through an adjustment period when I got back from my Christmas trip to the US and it took a good three weeks to sort of fall back into things, but now that I have, I really couldn’t imagine myself anywhere but here right now. I still have trips to look forward to, people to get to know, holidays to celebrate, and 6 more months to postpone my real life :-) But, really, I don’t know that I could have appreciated this as much had I not been asked that seemingly simple question… but it’s not really. Yes I do miss my family and friends, and I still get nostalgic thinking about home, I know I will eventually go back, but the pressing emotional strain in longing for my former life has somewhat dissipated through my time here. I am glad that I had such an extensive time to be back here after Christmas. I think it will do me some good, to be away and hopefully gain some perspective on the things that are truly important to me.

kissing overboard

2007-02-01T11:05:00.000+01:00

Just a quick one this time… Kissing on the cheek is not super common in the US as a form of casual greeting, but sometimes you see people kiss on one cheek upon greeting someone they are very familiar with, but any more than that is very rare. From my experiences, I was familiar with the ‘double kiss’, one on each cheek, when saying hello or goodbye to someone. This is what I do with my British friends, very fine, and totally ok by me. Now with my German friends (the Rotaractors) there is a three kiss requirement. New to me, but ok, you just tack on one more. But really if you think about it, isn’t it a little much. Maybe there is a wanting to make it special for that group, sort of making the tradition that everyone does, just a little bit more their own. Now here’s the real kicker… I was walking down the street the other day, and saw two Turkish 30-something men greet each other with four kisses. That’s right 4 kisses!! Come on, two on each cheek? Isn’t that going a bit overboard? (this is the point where I tell myself “It’s not bad, it’s just different” the motto they taught us the first day while studying abroad in London about experiencing cultural differences)

how do you dance to...

2007-01-29T12:14:00.000+01:00

... ROCK? Really, like, Queens of the Stone Age, Ramstein, System of a Down, Nickelback... well let me tell you, slowly and very awkwardly. So this was the first dance club (disco) that I have been to here. Yes, I know, shocking that it took me 5 months to get out there, but there you have it. A couple of my friends had birthdays last week, so we went out on Saturday night to this club. I thought it was going to be normal pop-ish music to dance to, but I was wrong. I guess the place used to be a country western type place appealing to the American Soldiers in the area, but it developed into what it is now, to keep up with the changing tastes of the customers. Anyhow, it was pretty funny being there actually because while I like rock music on occasion, i would never really try to dance to it. But alas, I made it onto the dance floor with the birthday girl because she loved the song, so we made it work. The thing is that there´s no real fast beat to work with, so you are forced to sort of sway with the crowd as they sing along, air guitar, and really get into the music. There is a second floor with pool tables, and while on the stairs or from up there, watching the crowd was a little scary (ok, not really, jut interesting). Just these people moving to this really angry music, slowly... I don´t know if i have fully conveyed this appropraitely, but i am sure you get the idea. I did have a really fun time out though. I stayed with a friend in the city, so i could stay out later and didn´t have to schlep myself back out to the middle of no where, which is my home. All in all well worth is, and quite an experience :-)

Also, last weekend I saw the Pursuit of Happyness which was amazing. I took my au pair friends from Stuttgart and we all loved it. It is a great story of determination, struggle and love, that is totally worth your $10 at home, haha. Aside from the story, I loved that it took place in SF. I had no idea that´s where it was going to be, so it was a great surprise to 'watch' home for an hour and a half. I was able to tell my friends that I lived right on the other side of the bridge, when the last scene is shot from SF looking past the Bay Bridge. So great!

SNOW

2007-01-25T11:44:00.000+01:00

I had a nice little treat last weekend – a visit from my dad. It’s so funny how he hasn’t traveled for business in ages, let alone to Europe, and now he’s come to Germany twice in the past five months while I have been here. I have been truly grateful to have had him here during my transition periods, there is no one like your parents to make everything ok again. His meeting was near Munich, and since we had already been in Stuttgart together, we decided to spend the weekend together in Munich. We spent the days touring around the city, seeing some things that we had both seen before and some new sights as well, and washing it all down with a couple good ol’ German beers. All in all a great weekend, now if I can just get my mom and sister out here… While my dad was here there was a terrible wind storm, but luckily things were worst on Thursday and Friday and were more bareable over the weekend. He left on Monday while things remained calm, which was good for him because Tuesday (which also happened to me my official 5 months of being here) it started to snow! I officially can say that I live somewhere where it snows. I went to my language class in the morning, came home for lunch, and by the time I went to get the kids from kindy at 2pm it was snowing. It continued to go through the night and next day, and didn’t stop until Wednesday night. Sabine stayed home from work on Wednesday and took Ines to ballet, so I stayed at the house with Tim. We went sledding a bit and played in the snow, all the while I was kept dry and warm by dressing like a The North Face spokes model, haha. It was a fun day, but I don’t know how long my tolerance for it (or late buses) will last. But it sure is amazing what 24 hours of snow will do!

America the Beautiful

2007-01-14T12:14:00.000+01:00

So I hate to admit this, but after spending time away from home, it is easy to develop a negative view of the U.S. Mostly in the sense that if you have spent anytime in a foreign country it is easy to see how others view the United States because, as sad as it is, there is some validity to it; America is viewed as ignorant, over consuming, violent, lazy, unnecessary in starting the war in Iraq… Granted these are gross generalizations, and while you readers as my friends and most of the other people we know don’t really fit this bill, but face it we do kind of, there are many others out there who do fulfill this image.

But recently, I have had a change of heart. Aside from the negative imaging of the U.S., we have a great diversity that you can´t really find anywhere else. All these thoughts started running through my head when I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for my family over here. I tried to explain that that is really the only one holiday in the U.S. where basically all the foods are the same, being that there are tons to twists and variations to some core things: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry… I then followed this up with the fact that at Christmas everyone does something different. I couldn’t really explain it at the time other than that there were no ‘rules’ for Christmas food. Then I came home for Christmas and was watching the Food Network (shocking I know, haha) special on an Italian Christmas, and it struck me that the difference at Christmas time is culture. There are so many different people celebrating it the way their families did back in a country of origin, that there is no way to generalize the foods at Christmas. Thanksgiving being a strictly American holiday doesn’t have any other cultures to draw from for the menu.

So this whole idea I was having about culture in America was reinforced when I was reading my Lonely Planet ‘Germany’ book the other day. I had finished the history and moved on to the culture chapter, and began to realize that all the things I was reading were true. It’s one thing to read these details before you come, when you have no idea how things really are; but to have lived here for a bit and then go back to it, it is astonishing how they have summed up one culture in these pages, and it is pretty much what everyone here does. They eat the same things for breakfast, they all have hot lunches and cold dinners, people are very punctual, they religiously recycle and separate their trash, they have special shoes to wear in the house (stores actually sell ‘house shoes’ that’s just what they are called), they eat strictly three meals a day which they sit down for and eat formally, they bring their own bags/baskets to the grocery store, the list goes on. It wasn’t just reading the book that made me realize these German customs, but also going to other people’s houses and seeing that their families do the same things as mine were quite shocking. I feel like in the states we are blessed with variety and that you could walk into anybody’s home and there is a very strong chance that they will do things differently than how you do them. These strict German rituals have made it hard for me to do things as I like them, which is a bit challenging. The kids question why I ate a salad for lunch and not dinner, the dad tells me that I need to put the small cake forks out to eat cake with, they told me I can’t just throw away or recycle the coke bottle, I have to take it back for the pfand (deposit for the bottle)…

All in all it is a very enlightening experience being here, not only to learn about German culture, but also to reflect on American culture. I think for the first time I am truly seeing how great America is in the sense that there is so much cultural diversity; there is no one way of doing things. People are open to just about anything, and everyone is welcome. Now maybe I feel most of this applies because I come from good ol’ liberal California, and the S.F. Bay Area at that, but even if you don’t get the warm fuzzy feeling of all cultures living in harmony with one another, there is no denying that we have a great diversity in the U.S., and I think this is a great thing. There is also something to be said for having a strong cultural identity as people do here, but to be open to experiencing many, I feel is much better, and something maybe these countries are lacking. I am sure I am overlooking some things and oversimplifying a bit; I would think there are some general cultural generalizations one can make about America, and there are immigrants in Germany, Italy, France, Spain with their own customs and identities, but there is no doubt that America probably has the greatest diversity of them all.

last few thoughts

2006-12-22T09:22:00.000+01:00

Ok, so these aren´t really thoughts rather just a couple bits of info that I would like to share with you all.

First off, in case you had no clue, Germany is stuck a little bit in the 80´s... maybe more A Lot in the 80´s. I´m mainly talking about the music but there are a couple of other things as well. I first noticed this when I was driving into ludwigsburg, and a grown man (like in his 50´s) in a convertable with the top down had Maddona´s ´Material Girl´playing (blasting) out of his sterio. Not only was he not scrambling to change the station, but I swear I saw his head bobbing along! This kind of happened again when I was going to Switzerland one of those first weekend´s I was here. One of the guys we were with requested a radio station stop at another Madonna song and started singing along (this from a man who wore sporty capri pants hiking! - yes, Europe is different) Now that it is Christmas time the Wham! song `Last Christmas´ is not a guilty pleasure, but rather a song I hear played on nearly every radio station. It´s great. Back in the states, I heard the song first when Ali played it for me sophmore year. There was a bit of hiding everytime I played it, but now I don´t have to hide anymore... Yes, I do like the song. Yes, I do sing along to it. Yes, I do embrace the 80´s. Other than that Jon Bon Jovi is another radio regular, along with Phil Collins and Genesis, and Simply Red... got to love it.

The second thing I felt like bringing up was my favorite movie of all time. I watched ´Father of the Bride´with Sabine a couple of nights ago, and it is still at the top of the list. I don´t know exactly what it is, but it just is a great story about family and growing up, and it has been pertinant at all points in my life... Having a great dad myself, makes the story hit even closer to home :) Even though some things in the story seem a little more far fetched than they used to, it still remains on of my favoites!

Well there´s litterally no more time before I go back to California. I leave tomorrow morning, and I still cannot believe it. Sabine and Reimund took today off work, so I am headed into Munich to surpise Erin and her family at the airport as they arrive to celebrate their christmas over here. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

winter wonderland

2006-12-18T09:35:00.000+01:00

Over the weekend I was able to experience some great German holiday traditions. First off, the Weihnachtsmarkts (Christmas Markets) are huge here. Every town/city has one no matter how big or small the town actually is. I have been to the Ludwigsburg one a number of times, and this weekend I got to experience the Stuttgart one. They are both very special, though the Stuttgart one is MUCH bigger. At the markets you can find all sorts of holiday gifts, some nice, some kitschy and hand made, along with traditional foods…sausages in bread, fish cooked over an open fire, candied almonds and nuts, chocolate covered fruit, gingerbread hearts that have sayings on them, damfnudels which are these steamed cakes covered in vanilla sauce… the list goes on and on, but by far the biggest tradition at Christmas is the gluhwein. It is this hot, strong spiced wine that is only served this time of year. The only thing is that it’s not that cold. There is no snow yet, and while we may have had a few frosty nights, the days are still tending to be well above 0 Celsius. People are saying the gluhwein doesn’t taste the same and it just doesn’t feel like Christmas. The weather isn’t so much affecting the Christmas spirit for me seeing as that I am not used to a white Christmas… but I do keep thinking about how the later winter starts the later it will last (I don’t think it really got warm here last year until June!).

Anyhow, over the weekend I went to the Stuttgart Weihnachtsmarkt with the family and we went ice-skating at the rink set up outside. Now I haven’t ice skated in YEARS, but I didn’t fall down once, yay me :) though to be fair I wasn’t attempting light speeds or intense tricks… (pict below) After that I met my group of British friends for gluhwein tasting and Indian food afterwards (see pict above). Every stall makes it very different, and the ones that tasted the best were those that were not too sweet or strong and had a fruitier flavor. Anyhow, it was a fun filled day that was enjoyed with sun and a shocking 15 degrees!!

breaking up is hard to do

2006-12-04T09:13:00.000+01:00

I´ve been here for more than three months now, which officially marks the longest amount of time I have spent away from my home country. As I enter this fourth month of living in Germany and as my first trip back to the states approaches, I feel like I should express my feelings about my time here so far; so bear with me...

I have been trying to find a way to express how I feel about going home. The first thing I came up with is that I don´t feel that I´ve done enough to warrant a trip home, even though I moved half way across the world and have been to 6 countries in the past four months (by the way, how cool is that?). That isn´t just it though, there was something else... and then it dawned upon me this morning that leaving the states was kind of like breaking up with a boyfriend (or girlfriend). The first couple months are hard, and you keep thinking about how it used to be, and feeling like you want to go back. But you have to keep your life moving forward, and somehow it seems to hurt a little less each week. Finally you come to a point where it´s a little awkward because you realize that the person/place that you knew so well, and were at one point so comfortable with, seems more or less like a stranger now; the time and distance has taken a toll on the relationship and you´ve just grown apart. You´ve known all along you can´t go back, but now you don´t really want to.

I realize the expamle may be a little extreme, and I know that I can always go back if I want to, but sometimes a year really can seem like a lifetime. I do still miss everyone back home, and the places too, but the life I lead there seems a little less familiar all the time. What I´m doing now is my life, and I think that is what I am coming to accept. There are still days and entire weeks, where I just don´t think I can be an au pair for 8 more months. But then when it comes to actually think about leaving, I don´t want to give up hope just yet, or the friends that I have made here. I know that I came here for a reason, and I´ve made this big leap, so I owe it to myself to stick it out and see what happens.

With all that said, I am really looking forward to seeing everyone over Christmas, and I know that it will be REALLY hard to leave, but at the same time it might not seem right to stay...

true adventures

2006-11-26T13:18:00.000+01:00

This week has been full of all sorts of new adventures. First off I celebrated Thanksgiving on Thursday with the family... well Sabine and the kids because Reimund was away for a couple of days. I made stuffing, green bean casserole, and pumkin pie. We had a couple of rotissery chicken in lou of turkey, enjoyed the jellied cranberry my mom sent over, and I settled for packaged gravy. Everything came out so good!!! The all seemed to like it too. I think the stuffing was the big winner wtih everyone. Infact, they said it was even better the next night when they had the left overs with Reimund. That was the first adventure, making all this from scratch trying to substitute as much german product as possible, haha.

The next big adventure was taking the car for a day trip! I think you are all aware of my struggles with ths stick shift, but I managed to take it to a town that was an hour away yesterday. I drove on the Autobahn there, and ended up going through the middle to downtown Stuttgart on the way back, because I followed the wrong signs. Anyhow, it was amazing and SO liberating. I definitely might take Sabine up on her offer to drive her car more on the weekends. It was oh so fun!

happy (birthday) travels

2006-11-23T13:24:00.000+01:00

Last weekend was quite simply amazing. I went to Madrid, Spain to celebrate my birthday with Lindsay. I decided after she came to Oktoberfest that we needed to reunite sometime soon, and figured my birthday was the perfect occasion to splurge on a plane ticket. Not only did I get to see Lindsay and meet her friends, but the friends we made at Oktoberfest came for this weekend reunion as well, trekking all the way from London and the US. It was bound to be a great weekend.

I arrived on Friday night at about 10:30pm and Lindsay met me at the airport. We then made our way into the city and arrived at about 11:30ish… now for me this is a late start to the night, but to the Spaniards this is a normal night out. We met up with Matt and Pat and three of Lindsay’s friends before heading out to a couple of clubs. It was so much fun! It was great to meet all the new people and reunite with the old ones.

Saturday was not ideal weather, but Lindsay, Matt, Pat and I managed to get around and see a few of the major sites. Lindsay was an excellent tour guide and it was so great to be in a big city like that with someone who knows their way around. After seeing some of the sites, Lindsay and I headed to her house, so I could see what her Spanish suburban life is like. It is totally different from mine! Well all of her life is totally different. But it was really great to see where she lives and I was able to meet Gloria, her host mom, and Marc and Adrianna, the kids. That night we had an amazing traditional Spanish tapas dinner, and went to a super fun club in the city. I got to meet even some more people and, go figure, practice my German in Spain because there are a ton of German au pairs there, haha.

Sunday was a nice lazy day, not really even starting until the afternoon, but it was beautiful outside so we had to take advantage. We went to the big park in the city and walked around. There were a ton of people, families, musicians, food stands… everyone was just out enjoying the day. We had just enough time to grab a bite to eat before I had to head back to Germany…. It was a whirlwind tour of the city, but it was so worth it. Madrid is so different from Stuttgart and Germany in general. It’s very picturesque, and very much what I think of as European, so it was great to see it. I think more than even that was being able to see how Lindsay’s experience is there. I got to meet the people I had heard about and the experiences I had tried to picture. It is totally different than what I have going on here, not that one is better than the other, but just different….

don´t celebrate it before

2006-11-22T10:42:00.000+01:00

My birthday this year was on a Wednesday. I have my German class on Tuesday and Thursday. I figured the class would be a great excuse to make an American cake with frosting etc. I opted to make the cake with the kids on Monday and bring it into class on Tuesday. Of course, I thought it would make a little more sense to bring it on Thursday, but Monday we had the time, I didn´t want to spend my birthday making my own cake, and there are more people on class on Tuesdays. Anyhow, we made the cake and Reimund came home and was said "Hey, what´s this?" I told him and he said it would have made more sense to bring the cake on Thursday. I explained why Tuesday was better, and while he accepted it, it still didn´t seem like a sufficient reason. I chalked that one up to Reimund liking things the way he likes them, but then I got the same reaction from my German teacher. I came walking up with the cake on Tuesday morning, and she said "Oh, I thought you were going to bring it on Thursday, after the actual day" Are you kidding me? I make cake for the whole class and they aren´t happy with the day I brought it? This was too much. But apparently Germans DO NOT celebrate the birthday in any way shape or form before the actual day. My teacher specifically told me she wouldn´t say happy birthday until Thursday after it actually happened. Really I wasn´t looking for anything other than to make an American cake... oh well, learned my lesson, from here on out you really don´t talk about or do anything for it before hand. whew!

pictures

2006-11-13T09:13:00.000+01:00

I needed to change the way I am sharing pictures with everyone, because the whole Facebook thing is not working anymore. I am going to try Shutterfly for a while, but it takes a long time to load the photos, so there may not be as many. Just go to: emindeutschland.shutterfly.com and that one site will be updated whenever I add photos. So far I have only been able to add the picts from Prague and Vienna... Budapest might happen in a little while.

On a side note: It is full force fall turning into winter now. There´s constantly a chill in the air, and the leaves are beautiful golds and browns. We haven´t gotten any snow yet, but other parts of southern Germany have, so I guess it´s only a matter of time. This little California girl is holding out with my sweaters/fleeces/kneelength parka (many of which are made possible by the old job, haha) Everything else is going well. It took about a week to get back into the swing of things after the holidays, but I´m back on track and looking forward to what´s ahead. I made butternut squash soup over the weekend for all of us, it was soooo good, and the next adventure is Thanksgiving, yay!!!

holidays, part 3

2006-10-30T09:56:00.000+01:00

holidays, part 3

Budapest was the final stop on my whirlwind tour of my three countries. I didn’t really know what to expect there, but it was really beautiful and quite an enjoyable city. I took an early morning train from Vienna, so I arrived at about 9am, and made my way to the hostel. I had to take the metro and the tram, which I assumed had the same tickets, but there was a ticket checker on the tram and he said they weren’t. I have a feeling I could have gotten in trouble for it if there had not been the language barrier and if my stop hadn’t been the next one. Oh well, I was sure to have separate tickets for the rest of my journeys. After I checked into the hostel, my first day was spent walking around, and just appreciating the city. I went to the Great Market that sells tons of fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, bread, and little knick knacky things. I made my way through part of the old town next on my way up to the castle. There is a tram that normally takes you up the mountain up the top where the castle is, but of course it was broken the day I went. Rather than come all the way back another day, I decided to walk up all the stairs to the top. It wasn’t a bad walk though; it was a beautiful area with lots of trees that were all these beautiful golden and amber tones. Once at he top, I walked around the castle area and enjoyed the views across the Danube to the Pest side of the city. Budapest is actually Buda (on the west of the Danube) and Pest (on the east side of the Danube). The castle is in Buda and most of the rest of the city is in Pest. After enjoying the castle and having lunch at the top, I walked back down and went to a park in the city, again very pretty with all the fall colors. I headed back to the hostel for a little rest, and after a bit of contemplation I went back out into the city and saw the Opera house, and walked back from there to get in some more of the city.

Saturday, I got up kind of early and made my way to Central Europe’s biggest flea market (it actually wasn’t that big). It was quite an adventure getting there. I took the tram to the bus, and while on the bus, there were no indications of what the stops’ names were, so I finally had to ask some other people who looked like Americans about it. Just as we started talking the bus stopped, and another passenger informed us that it was the market. Sure enough, there it was, thank goodness for friendly people… I was begging to wonder how it was all going to turn out seeing as that I was in the middle of some random, underdeveloped part of Budapest… Anyhow, I spent a bit of time there, then went back into town and made my way up to the City Park. It was really nice there as well. And the road to the park was just as lovely. It was lined with trees and all these mansions. At the park I sat down and made my sandwich for lunch and went to the Museum of Fine Arts. I went to one of the natural baths there because I wanted the massage, but it was only 15 min, so I decided against it. I really didn’t want to go swimming so I left, and only got back a portion of what I thought I was going to; so essentially I paid $10 to walk in and out of the bath!!! Very frustrating… I really didn’t spend that much money on anything else, except one dinner. For my last night, I went out to eat at this great vegetarian restaurant with two of the girls from my hostel. The next day before my flight, I was determined to get in a little more of the city, but it was raining and I really just felt like having a relaxing morning, so I stayed in an read my book before my vacation ended.

All in all it was a great trip. I would definitely recommend those cities to anyone who is interested. There was a bunch more to see in Vienna and Budapest, and had I planned more time I could have seen it all, but maybe I’ll just have to go back at some point…

holidays, part 2

2006-10-27T15:26:00.000+02:00

I've finished up things in Vienna and have moved right along to Budapest... it's amazing how everyone has internet these days! Anyhow, Vienna was great and I really enjoyed it. The first day I got a really early start because I had taken the overnight train and gotten into the city aroung 6am, so by 7:30 I was walking around. I stopped in a traditional Vienese cafe for breakfast, and headed to the Nachmarket afterwards. It is this outdoor market with all fresh produce and home made foods, it was fun to look at everything. I went to the Belvedere Museum after that to see Gustav Klimt's "The Kiss". It was great to see it in person, so much personality with the gold paint and everything. I made my way into the central walking area of the city next and did some sight seeing, I took a tram around the main road ring to have a look at Parlament, and the Rathouse and some other bulidings. After lunch I took a break and went back to the hostel for a nap because I was pretty beat, but the rest was great because I was able to go back into the city to see a little more that evening. I went to another museum to see a Picasso exhibit from his last stage of work, pretty good. That night I met a couple of people in the kitchen while making a salad and we ended up hanging out for the rest of the night and having a drink together.

Day two started at the Leopod Museum, which has some more Klimt's, as well as a good German Expressionist exhibit and a photo exhibit about the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, which was a nice precurser to my next city. After the museum I walked around town some more and went to another cafe for lunch. I wandered through the festival that was going on too. That day was 'Austrian National Holiday' for no other reason than to celebrate Austria, haha... we don't really have one of those back home. I spent the rest of my afternoon in the park and then went back to the hostel for dinner. I made friends with three of my new roommates for that night, three guys studing in Rome, who were there for holiday. So later that night we ended up going back into town, with one of their girl friend's who lives in Vienna. All in all an enjoyable night getting to know yet some more new people.

I'm enjoying all this traveling so far. I love seeing these traditional European towns, and Vienna was great because it's really a big city. I like having the freedom of being a solo traveler, and only having to worry about myself. It's MY vacation and I can do what I like :) yay. The only thing is, that sometimes you just want someone to share it with. To bounce ideas off of, or to be company at a cafe. It's also strange because all these people you meet at hostels, you are more than likely never going to see each other again. So you spend a night, or however long getting to know each other, sharing stories, etc, then when it comes time to leave, it's like, "Well, have a good life". Very strange how the world works, and how connections with people go. So I guess those are my reflections so far, cheers for reading these details. Budapest update to come upon my return home...

holidays, part 1

2006-10-25T07:25:00.000+02:00

I have begun my fantastic vacation and am already on to my second city. I got into Vienna this morning and am starting to fomulate my game plan, but I was in Prague for two and a half days before this and it was great. The city is so classically European, and was really refreshing after being in Stuttgart/Ludwigsburg for so long. I arrived into the city on Sunday afternoon and walked around after getting situated at the hostel. I walked around a lot and saw some of the sights, and then went to a little performance in one of the older buildings. There are musical things all over the city, a little touristy, I know, but still fun. There was a 9 man string ensemble that played some Vivaldi and Motzart, very lovely. I went back the hostel and hung out for a bit that night, nothing too exciting. Monday I went to Prague Castle, and the Little Quarter on the other side of Charle Bridge. It was all very nice and great to see. I also went to an art exhibit in the old town square that was photography by a Czech artist and of Alfonds Mucha. Monday night, I hung out with some people at the hostel and we all went into Prague together to a couple of bars. It was great to meet some people to hang out with! Tuesday I just had a lazy day, and went to the Jewish Quarter of the city. I saw a bunch of Synagogues and it was very interesting. I went back to the hostel a little early to take a nap, and ended up staying there talking to people for quite a while. I spent my last 100 krown on a movie, which was a great way to kill the time until my night train at 11:30... I took off then and shared my sleeper cabin with two girls from NYU who are on vacation from studying abroad in Ghana. Ends up we are staying in the same hostel too, so we trekked here this morning together. And that about it :) I´m headed into the city today to see what there is to see, and I´ll update again when I get a chance... off to beautiful Vienna!

some pictures

2006-10-18T09:20:00.000+02:00

I take off for my vacation on Sunday, I´m so excited!!! I thought it would be best to share some of the my photos from the last couple of weekends before I take off. They are available at:
http://ucdavis.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2077238&id=3206990&l=e65ac

Enjoy!

just when i was getting used to it...

2006-10-15T12:09:00.000+02:00

Part 1: This weekend I went on a day trip with the Rotaract Club of Ludwigburg. There was a two district conference in a town that was about an hour away, Aalen, and I just joined them for the fun things on Sturday. We went to a museum, about the Limes wall, the old border between the Roman Emprire and the German Empire, and we went to some indoor swimming pools. They were so nice, very warm with lots of jets. I met a lot more people, and am feeling very motivated to speak more German because I don´t like being the odd man out.

Part 2: At play group last week I was talking to a woman about how moderm and industrial Stuttgart is. I also got to thinking about how I am living in such a suburban area. There are houses, and lots of agriculture around. Also, Ludwigsburg is very modern looking. There is the castle which is old, but for the most part, it is not your classic German town. So, from all this I was just starting to think how it actually isn´t that different from being back home, or how maybe I´m just taking my surroundings for granted.

So putting those two pieces together... last night when I was getting a ride home from Aalen I happened to look out out the window, and I saw this castle. It was all lit up from the outside so it just stuck out in the dark night. It was so beautiful, and all I coule think was, 'wow I really am in Germany'. Nowhere in the States would you just look out of your car and see a castle staring back at you. It was very special and just what I needed to get back into appreciating where I am.

When Internet and TV are taken away...

2006-10-11T10:01:00.000+02:00

I knew before I came to Germany that I liked using the Internet and watching TV, but I didn’t know how much time it took up until I came here and had both of those distractions taken away. We have Internet here at the house, but it is dial up and I have to take the computer out, hook it up to the phone line, actually connect, and then wait for things to load. It really not that slow, but it’s no DSL, or wireless, aw, don’t ya love it? Now I’m not complaining, because to be able to use the Internet at the house is fantastic, but because of these different elements of use, I am not on the Internet all the time. I check my e-mail once a day if I’m lucky, and once every couple days if I’m busy. Before I would use it as something to do if I was bored, maybe at night when I didn’t want to go out, but wasn’t ready for bed. Now that is just not an option. There’s also the issue of TV. When I moved to Berkeley, I downsized from digital cable, to a 7-station antenna. Which, after a little while, I realized was fine. They have most of the good shows anyhow, and it just makes it all the more special to watch Food Network, when I go home to mom and dad’s. But here, I get CNN, MTV (on which only songs are in English), and the Euro Sport channel, which announces most of the sports in English. Needless to say, I am not thrilled to sit down and watch TV in the evenings like I was before. So with all this free time, what’s a girl to do? Well, sometimes I go out in the evenings… Pub Quiz on Tuesdays, Volleyball until 10 on Thursdays (I should try going to eat with the team after practice on Mondays and Thursdays too, but I have yet to venture out for that) And other than that I READ. I know many of you have discovered this jem a while ago, but it took being out of college and not being forced to read school books, for me to rediscover this great activity. Not only do I read at home, but the book is always there in my bag to make the s-bahn/bus/waiting time pass a little faster. So, in the time I’ve been here, 7 weeks, I have finished the following titles:

•The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night – eh, it was ok. Read it on the plane over, little weird
•Secret Celebrity – The $1 book Laura picked up for me while working at Barnes & Nobel. By no means fine literature, it was a fun little glimpse into LA lifestyle and culture
•Jane Eyre – It took me a little while in the old English, but definitely enjoyable, and a great story
•Saint Maybe – hmmm… easy read, especially after Jane Eyre, had some interesting concepts, but nothing too exciting
•The World According to Garp – I got a couple of good laughs out of this one, but for the length of the book, not nearly enough. It had some really weird characters and affairs.
•The God of Small Things – still working on this one, very disjointed writing, I feel like I’m not getting it, but I’ll have to see how the next 50 pgs go. May need to reread in a while…

So those are it. If you have any recommendations, send them my way, just the names, or the whole book if you like  There is an English library in Stuttgart, but I have not been to check it out. I’ve been reading the titles I brought, and some of the family’s.

Eating the European Way

2006-09-27T09:51:00.000+02:00

One of the first days I was here eating with the family Reimund told me that the Germans (well Europeans) eat with the fork in the left hand and the knife in the right. For most things they are using the knife all the time, but in the event that they are not using the knife the right hand is kept on the table. American style is to cut a few bites first then just use the fork to eat while keeping the other hand in their lap under the table. Reimund said I could eat however I felt comfortable, but they were teaching Ines and Tim the European way. I tried to do it that way too, but it’s a rather ingrained habit and is a bit hard to change. Then maybe two days later Sabine told me the exact same thing, not knowing that Reimund had already told me about the custom, haha…. So I figured if it was important enough for them to both bring it up I should try a little harder to alter my eating style. I continued to pay attention to how they were eating, and by following their lead, I was able to comfortably eat the European way. After all this, Reimund actually said something about it the other day!!! He looked over and was like, “Hey, you are eating the European way!” I was quite pleased that he noticed my efforts and the fact that he commented on it is even funnier :)

indian summer

2006-09-25T09:56:00.000+02:00

I have been extremely lucky with the weatehr here... It is still very warm here, and I´m crossing my fingers that it holds out for a bit longer. Last week Reimund had the week off of work, so he took me and the kids to do some more fun things. Because it had been hot, we went to a lake on Friday and I went windsurfing. Mind you I hadn´t done this since the summer after freshman year of highschool, but it was still fun. I didn´t really end up going anywhere, but I did manage to get up on the board and pull the sail up, haha. I´m sure it was quite a sight from the lake side. We´ve also been enjoying eating out on the patio in the evenings, and not having to bundle up just yet. Knowing that I have a rough winter ahead makes me even more grateful for the good weather now :)

a run down of what i did last week:

2006-09-12T09:09:00.000+02:00

Wednesday: Ludwigsburg Castle with the kids. So many things for them do to and there were displays made of pumpkins depicting American Cowboy/Indian themes… very amusing

Thursday: Reimund came home early and took the kids and me to the local outdoor swimming pool. It was super cold, but we all had fun. Sabine met us after work and we all had dinner at a restaurant together.

Friday: Went on an hour long run with Reimund. Couldn’t believe I made it that long!! I told them I was into running, and had been going in the mornings myself, so Reimund suggested we go together. We went to the forest near by, so it was beautiful, and nice to have a running buddy as well.

Saturday: Spent the morning in Stuttgart, went to the Market Hall with tons of product/meat/bread/chesse stands… all individually of course. Then went to Daimler Stadium in Stuttgart for the IAAF World Finals for track and field. Very exciting to see all the international competitors. I sat close to the jumping and had a great view for women’s long jump and men’s triple jump. All the better since those are what I used to to.

Sunday: Went to a nearby town called Maulbronn with the family to tour the monastery there. It was pretty interesting and a very cute town, so I was happy to have gone 

gift or Gift?

2006-09-09T18:05:00.000+02:00

Funny thing happened yesterday… Petra, the mom next door, came to tell us some news while I was home with the kids. She tried speaking English, but she can’t speak it all that well, so she told the whole thing to Ines. Of course when I asked Ines what she had said, she said she couldn’t translate, oh well. We broke out the German-English dictionary and translated that the other neighbors had found some rats and were going to put some poison out to get rid of them and the kids shouldn’t go that way. One of the words we had to look up to get this complete story was ‘Gift’. I knew it probably didn’t mean exaclty the same thing as it does in English, but I was not expecting the German word Gift to be POISON. Haha, I guess I had better not confuse the two…

I drove an Audi yesterday...

2006-09-05T09:23:00.000+02:00

So I made it to the Monday night aerobics class all by myself last night J I took Sabine’s Audi station wagon and only stalled twice! (mind you this is the first time that I have actually driven a stick shift with no one else in the car, haha). The driving went pretty well, but as with everything in my life right now, it’s just a matter of getting used to it. But now I know I can do it, so making it to the grocery store this weekend shouldn’t be as much of a challenge.

This past weekend, I was hosted by some very generous friends… my best friend’s cousin lives in Germany with her husband and they invited me to stay with them for a weekend. I finally met them for the first time and we had a great weekend together. We went to a town called Burghausen, with the longest castle in Germany, enjoyed the fest in the town next to them called Regensburg and toured around Nuremberg on Sunday. It was so great to have something to do this with this first weekend I’ve had alone here. The weather is getting a lot better now, so not all hope is lost on having a little more summer. Hopefully I’ll be able to enjoy some more towns nearby before it really turns to winter…

Photos at: http://ucdavis.facebook.com/photos.php?id=3206990&l=b9f74

Social Customs

2006-09-02T10:39:00.000+02:00

So far the Germans seem to be a very direct and punctual people... let me expalain a little. Before I came, I read that the culture tends to be very on time, much to my liking, but you never know how true the book really are. But on my first day here, we were driving in the car, and the kids wanted to listen to their cd. The dad, Reimund, explained it didn't have regular lyrics, but rather they songs about how to behave properly, etc, and of course the first example he gave was "You know, like to arrive places on time" I had a good little laugh inside. Sure enough, since then, I have noticed that kindy gets out at exactly 1pm, the friends arrive exactly at 3pm, when they said they would be there, and the buses/trains are on time... I'm liking this already :)

As far as being direct is concerned, here's another example for you: I was sitting in a cafe having breakfast the other morning. The waitress spoke a little English, and since I really don't speak German yet, that was really all we had to work off of. So I had finished eating, and she came over and just said "I would like the money now, because I am going on break" Well there you have it! I sure didn't mind because I had wanted to pay anyways, and there was no rush for me to leave, but it was just funny how she said it.

I'm thinking this blog will be a great way to share my clutural mishaps and memorable quotes through out the year, so lets hope the good times keep coming...