Hello,
It's been another eventful week!! I'm happy that things have picked up in the last couple of weeks. It got to feeling a bit hum-drum for a while there.
Wednesday night I went to the movies with some friends! We saw a movie called "Our Earth" which was a documentary type film showing a bunch of animals all over the world. The main focus was the polar bear and it showed how one polar bear tried to get some food and the ice melted away underneath him and he swam for weeks and lost half his body weight. He tried to kill a walrus but they overpowered him and he finally lost all his strength and died. It was sad... apparently, if the climate were not warming up, the polar bear would have found some food... *sigh*
After the movie, we went to an Irish pub in the old town... I sang karaoke :-) I chose a song from the first page with lyrics that seemed fitting for me at the moment: Dixie Chicks' "Wide Open Spaces". I've only sung karaoke once before in my life and I got $10 for it, ha ha... this time, nuthin. My friend Anna taped it, but honestly, I'm not going to upload it to Facebook because I sound terrible lol.
Thursday morning at 10am I met some friends for breakfast at the Extrablatt. This was the third time I'd been there for breakfast and it is just SO YUMMY!!! This time I actually paid full price (no 2 for 1 coupon this time, darn) and it is definitely worth it. They really have everything you can think of or wish for or want for breakfast. Amazing. I must again express my love for the Extrablatt!!!!! Although I was saddened to have seen on Thursday that they raised their happy hour price on cocktails from 3,50 to 3,90... still the best deal in town, especially if you order the ones that normally cost 7,90... but still, no one likes to pay more for something!!
The rest of Thursday I did pretty much nothing, lol. No exercise, either. I did 31 miles this week, though :-)
Friday I exercised as usual (6 miles!) and at 1:45 Philipp came and picked me up and he, I, and Fred (Philipp's roomie) headed north... traffic was baaaaaaad after we dropped off Fred in Cologne, and it took us a total of 6 hours or so to get to Bremen. We went to Philipp's youth group at his church; it was pretty neat. It definitely reminded me what it feels like to be the new kid in church, going to youth group for the first time!! Afterward, I helped set tables for a wedding, which we went to today at 2pm. It was really different... the wedding was actually focused on each person equally, not just the bride-- the bride and groom walked down the aisle together and sat in chairs at the altar. We sang 5 praise/worship songs and hymns, there was a short sermon, they did not exchange vows but simply answered "yes" after the guy asked if they would accept each other as husband/wife. There were also no bridesmaids or groomsmen. The little reception afterward was nice, too, a buuuunch of people had brought in cake and there were two cakes on each table and we all just went from table to table eating whatever cake we wanted... it was pretty much a dream come true!!
Anyway, now I'm here...
Love,
Caitlin
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Booze, Soccer, Castles on the Rhine, & Worms!!!
Hello to the faithful!
Well, the last week or so has been pretty packed... I don't think I've had this much to do since I got here! This is how its been going down lately:
Wednesday I got my computer back and went to Liane's where we all had a delicious lunch together. Alex cooked a curry dish with tofu (I think) and it was great!! That evening was Happy Hour at the Extrablatt; we hadn't been in two weeks!! I had a margarita for mom (per her request ;-) ) + my favorite cocktail, but limited myself to two and went home an hour earlier than usual... I really love that cafe; it's become the favorite amongst the internationals here, too. I can't wait to introduce the new internationals to it!
Thursday I wrote the translation for our final exam, and didn't do too much else the rest of the day, aside from my usual workout. The next few days were going to be busy so I decided to chill at home.
Friday I slept in pretty late (felt nice!!!!) and got in 6.5 exercise miles, so about 100 minutes. What a great way to start the day! That night, I went to my first ever SOCCER GAME!!! It was freeeeeezing cold and as hard as I tried to dress warm, I was still underdressed for the weather we had last week: this week, we're in the low 40's during the day, last week, we hovered around 28, even though the sun was blazing away! Afterward, one of my new friends Anna and I ordered pizza and though our intent was to eat pizza and watch a movie, simultaneously, we never got inside her apartment!! Her parents were locked inside; that is, they could not open the door. The locksmith was there for the second time apparently, and it took him over two hours to open the door. They ended up taking out the entire lock mechanism and replacing it, costing the landlord over 500 Euro ($750!). So we ate our pizza in the hallway, and it was GREAT!
The next morning I got up and we went to visit Schloss Stolzenfels, this really nifty looking castle in the mountains on the Rhine. It is medieval in style, but apparently it was built back in the 1200's as some sort of toll booth and then received by a king in the 1800's who was just a fan of that age and had it remodeled to that look. It was also SUPER cold on Saturday!! Saturday night, I went to Cologne to the end-of-semester party one of the professors of the English department at the university was throwing... it was interesting... I didn't get in my workout that day so I was extra tired, plus I ate some chocolate and gummy bears, that couldn't have helped much, lol... the chocolate was amazing, though, I tried a new Ritter Sport variety called dark milk chocolate, with 40% cacao.. it tasted dark, but not gross like so many dark chocolates out there. YUM, chocolate. I think I'm going to try the strawberry creme variety next week (how about one candy bar per week, that works, right!?!)
Well, I didn't get into bed until after 2:30am Sunday morning, so I slept, slept, slept until 11:30, then got up and exercised! That felt good to sweat, sweat, sweat! I went to see another new friend, Christian, who I am helping with pronunciation (English). He made German pancakes, and they were pretty good! Definitely not as good as the ones we get at IHOP at 1am, but hey, we don't have IHOP here!!! I chilled for the rest of the evening...
Some recent pictures have convinced me that my hair has once again gotten too poofy and thick for my likings, so I decided to go get it cut on Monday. Getting a haircut here is EXPENSIVE! I got my hair washed and conditioned and cut for 18,50 WITH a 2,50 discount... that is about $27. I never pay more than $15 for a haircut at home! EVER!!!! The Euro sucks. SO many people tell me "oh I bet it's expensive here for you because of how weak the dollar is"... and I always say "guess what, its just as expensive for you, too!" because it IS! The dollar may be "weak" against the Euro, but the dollar can buy a helluva lot more than the Euro ANY day!! I think people just hear the word "weak" and automatically think negative. Who's paying $7 a gallon for gas?
Monday night I decided quite spontaneously, since I had no plans for Tuesday, that I'd GO somewhere. In looking through my Fodor's Germany 2007 guidebook, I had marked several cities I wanted to check out. I decided that since it was too short of notice to find anyone to come with me (although I did ask a few people), a city close by and not too big would be my best bet. So I decided on the historical city of Worms! This is where Martin Luther was summoned for the Diet of Worms to plead his case before the king, and where he supposedly uttered the famous words "Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me, amen!" Of course I just googled it ("Why YES, google, I did mean...) and apparently he didn't really say that, and APPARENTLY, Martin Luther hated Jews. Some of his statements were allegedly revived during the Nazi movements as propaganda to corral people... interesting.
Speaking of Jews, the oldest and largest Jewish cemetery in Europe is located in Worms. I visited it. It was VERY creepy. All I could say to myself was how glad I was that the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and that I was not here at night, LOL. Tomorrow my only plans are to post pictures on Facebook, so keep an eye out (I'll also post the links here for you non-Facebookies).
The huge romantic cathedral in Worms was, as my guidebook promised, awesome. It was not only huge (and under construction, as have been ALL cathedrals thus far, ha ha), but beautiful, too! I took pics inside, even though I probably wasn't supposed to... there's a crypt downstairs and THAT was creepy. It was barely lit inside (stay tuned for a video on that) and there were about 12 stone boxes and a list on the wall of who was in them. There were similar looking structures placed on the front lawn of the cathedral, but appeared to be nothing but benches. They even had a pressed penny machine in front! I got a smushed 5 cent piece for 1 Euro! Yeah, tell me about it, EVERYTHING's more expensive, even defaced currency! Back home, those suckers cost 50 cents + a penny! Ridiculous. Just in case you're wondering, 1 euro equals about $1.47 at this time.
The other thing I visited in Worms was the Nibelungenmuseum. Before a few weeks ago, I'd never heard of the German epic/saga/poem/whatever the Nibelungenlied. Well, after two hours in this museum, you'll know more than you ever cared to know! Ha ha, it was a cool place, though, really technologically advanced. We all got headsets and you walked around to different areas to hear all about the story. After a while, I got bored. It was neat being in the building itself, though, since the whole museum was built into some old wall and two towers attached to it, renovated for safety of course.
Took a slow train home, missed the bus, of course. I finally got on one, and as soon as I did, this child in the back starts incessantly and LOUDLY screaming its head off. The mother kept telling it to stop it, but alas! to no avail. I was about to get off at the next stop and walk, NOT kidding. Maybe that's why the German overall birthrate has declined in recent years... after a ride like that, I'm not going to question it. Anyway, I can't express how cool it is to just get on a train and go someplace! I love it.
Finally I got home and I decided to exercise after all. Been doing pretty good with my miles; Sunday through Tuesday (today), I've completed 17 miles! Considering my 7 day total last week was a measly 22.5, I think I'm doing great!
Tomorrow I'm going to see the film "Our Earth" at 8pm; before that it is my plan to get in some more miles, then head to campus to add all my new pics and videos. Thursday morning I'm having breakfast with three friends at the Extrablatt...and following with some more exercise miles, LOL. It's an all-you-can-eat buffet, and they have everything. Even the bread is warm... yum! Friday afternoon/evening I'm headed up north to Bremen with my buddy Philipp. I'm really looking forward to that. We're going to do some traveling together.
If you're interested in seeing my future travel plans, check out the list on Facebook--it has dates (though subject to change) of most of my planned trips thus far.
That's all for me for now!
Hugs,
Caitlin
Well, the last week or so has been pretty packed... I don't think I've had this much to do since I got here! This is how its been going down lately:
Wednesday I got my computer back and went to Liane's where we all had a delicious lunch together. Alex cooked a curry dish with tofu (I think) and it was great!! That evening was Happy Hour at the Extrablatt; we hadn't been in two weeks!! I had a margarita for mom (per her request ;-) ) + my favorite cocktail, but limited myself to two and went home an hour earlier than usual... I really love that cafe; it's become the favorite amongst the internationals here, too. I can't wait to introduce the new internationals to it!
Thursday I wrote the translation for our final exam, and didn't do too much else the rest of the day, aside from my usual workout. The next few days were going to be busy so I decided to chill at home.
Friday I slept in pretty late (felt nice!!!!) and got in 6.5 exercise miles, so about 100 minutes. What a great way to start the day! That night, I went to my first ever SOCCER GAME!!! It was freeeeeezing cold and as hard as I tried to dress warm, I was still underdressed for the weather we had last week: this week, we're in the low 40's during the day, last week, we hovered around 28, even though the sun was blazing away! Afterward, one of my new friends Anna and I ordered pizza and though our intent was to eat pizza and watch a movie, simultaneously, we never got inside her apartment!! Her parents were locked inside; that is, they could not open the door. The locksmith was there for the second time apparently, and it took him over two hours to open the door. They ended up taking out the entire lock mechanism and replacing it, costing the landlord over 500 Euro ($750!). So we ate our pizza in the hallway, and it was GREAT!
The next morning I got up and we went to visit Schloss Stolzenfels, this really nifty looking castle in the mountains on the Rhine. It is medieval in style, but apparently it was built back in the 1200's as some sort of toll booth and then received by a king in the 1800's who was just a fan of that age and had it remodeled to that look. It was also SUPER cold on Saturday!! Saturday night, I went to Cologne to the end-of-semester party one of the professors of the English department at the university was throwing... it was interesting... I didn't get in my workout that day so I was extra tired, plus I ate some chocolate and gummy bears, that couldn't have helped much, lol... the chocolate was amazing, though, I tried a new Ritter Sport variety called dark milk chocolate, with 40% cacao.. it tasted dark, but not gross like so many dark chocolates out there. YUM, chocolate. I think I'm going to try the strawberry creme variety next week (how about one candy bar per week, that works, right!?!)
Well, I didn't get into bed until after 2:30am Sunday morning, so I slept, slept, slept until 11:30, then got up and exercised! That felt good to sweat, sweat, sweat! I went to see another new friend, Christian, who I am helping with pronunciation (English). He made German pancakes, and they were pretty good! Definitely not as good as the ones we get at IHOP at 1am, but hey, we don't have IHOP here!!! I chilled for the rest of the evening...
Some recent pictures have convinced me that my hair has once again gotten too poofy and thick for my likings, so I decided to go get it cut on Monday. Getting a haircut here is EXPENSIVE! I got my hair washed and conditioned and cut for 18,50 WITH a 2,50 discount... that is about $27. I never pay more than $15 for a haircut at home! EVER!!!! The Euro sucks. SO many people tell me "oh I bet it's expensive here for you because of how weak the dollar is"... and I always say "guess what, its just as expensive for you, too!" because it IS! The dollar may be "weak" against the Euro, but the dollar can buy a helluva lot more than the Euro ANY day!! I think people just hear the word "weak" and automatically think negative. Who's paying $7 a gallon for gas?
Monday night I decided quite spontaneously, since I had no plans for Tuesday, that I'd GO somewhere. In looking through my Fodor's Germany 2007 guidebook, I had marked several cities I wanted to check out. I decided that since it was too short of notice to find anyone to come with me (although I did ask a few people), a city close by and not too big would be my best bet. So I decided on the historical city of Worms! This is where Martin Luther was summoned for the Diet of Worms to plead his case before the king, and where he supposedly uttered the famous words "Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me, amen!" Of course I just googled it ("Why YES, google, I did mean...) and apparently he didn't really say that, and APPARENTLY, Martin Luther hated Jews. Some of his statements were allegedly revived during the Nazi movements as propaganda to corral people... interesting.
Speaking of Jews, the oldest and largest Jewish cemetery in Europe is located in Worms. I visited it. It was VERY creepy. All I could say to myself was how glad I was that the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and that I was not here at night, LOL. Tomorrow my only plans are to post pictures on Facebook, so keep an eye out (I'll also post the links here for you non-Facebookies).
The huge romantic cathedral in Worms was, as my guidebook promised, awesome. It was not only huge (and under construction, as have been ALL cathedrals thus far, ha ha), but beautiful, too! I took pics inside, even though I probably wasn't supposed to... there's a crypt downstairs and THAT was creepy. It was barely lit inside (stay tuned for a video on that) and there were about 12 stone boxes and a list on the wall of who was in them. There were similar looking structures placed on the front lawn of the cathedral, but appeared to be nothing but benches. They even had a pressed penny machine in front! I got a smushed 5 cent piece for 1 Euro! Yeah, tell me about it, EVERYTHING's more expensive, even defaced currency! Back home, those suckers cost 50 cents + a penny! Ridiculous. Just in case you're wondering, 1 euro equals about $1.47 at this time.
The other thing I visited in Worms was the Nibelungenmuseum. Before a few weeks ago, I'd never heard of the German epic/saga/poem/whatever the Nibelungenlied. Well, after two hours in this museum, you'll know more than you ever cared to know! Ha ha, it was a cool place, though, really technologically advanced. We all got headsets and you walked around to different areas to hear all about the story. After a while, I got bored. It was neat being in the building itself, though, since the whole museum was built into some old wall and two towers attached to it, renovated for safety of course.
Took a slow train home, missed the bus, of course. I finally got on one, and as soon as I did, this child in the back starts incessantly and LOUDLY screaming its head off. The mother kept telling it to stop it, but alas! to no avail. I was about to get off at the next stop and walk, NOT kidding. Maybe that's why the German overall birthrate has declined in recent years... after a ride like that, I'm not going to question it. Anyway, I can't express how cool it is to just get on a train and go someplace! I love it.
Finally I got home and I decided to exercise after all. Been doing pretty good with my miles; Sunday through Tuesday (today), I've completed 17 miles! Considering my 7 day total last week was a measly 22.5, I think I'm doing great!
Tomorrow I'm going to see the film "Our Earth" at 8pm; before that it is my plan to get in some more miles, then head to campus to add all my new pics and videos. Thursday morning I'm having breakfast with three friends at the Extrablatt...and following with some more exercise miles, LOL. It's an all-you-can-eat buffet, and they have everything. Even the bread is warm... yum! Friday afternoon/evening I'm headed up north to Bremen with my buddy Philipp. I'm really looking forward to that. We're going to do some traveling together.
If you're interested in seeing my future travel plans, check out the list on Facebook--it has dates (though subject to change) of most of my planned trips thus far.
That's all for me for now!
Hugs,
Caitlin
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Recovering from Almost a Crisis, and Plans
Hi!
I am a happy, HAPPY person right now.
Last night my laptop suddenly stopped working altogether and I brought it to the computer people this morning who told me that it's likely a hardware problem and that for the amount I paid for it ($300), it's probably not worth getting looked at and repaired... saddened, I began a search for a new computer. Most people are happy to get new computers, but I am not. Why? Because that means I have to learn something new all over again, and load a bunch of crap onto it again, etc. etc. When I have a technical item that I like, I use it until it breaks. I thought that was the case. I purchased the new laptop. At lunch today, I handed my old, supposedly dead laptop to my friend David, who offered to copy my stuff from it (thankfully I had already saved all my pictures onto a USB three days prior!!) onto a disk. Later this evening, I had my mom call to make sure they'd send it out today and I'd get it before I left town next week to travel. They were going to mail it out today. I got a message from David who said that he FIXED my laptop! Turns out, he opened it all up and saw there was dust inside all over the place, which he cleaned off and once he put it back together, it worked just fine! Unbelieveable! Stupified, I had to beg my mom to call the company I ordered from to cancel the order. I really did NOT want a new computer. I even walked all the way home from the store today because I thought I wouldn't get my workouts in for the next few days (need a DVD player). I'm picking up my "baby", as David called it, tomorrow morning, just in time for a workout!!
So that was the adventure for today!!
I went to the zoo on Saturday, here are the pics:
Frankfurt Zoo 1
Frankfurt Zoo 2
Monday I got in a good workout and got to see a friend later that evening. Tuesday was spent, well, you know that already... tomorrow I'm headed to a Liane's for lunch, where our friend Alex is supposed to cook something yummy!! I am excited. Tomorrow evening we're headed for Happy hour at the Extrablatt!!!!! I'm bringing limited cash this time, so I don't go too crazy. Thursday I take the exam for the translation course, Friday I'm going to my first SOCCER GAME EVER, Saturday we're going to a castle, and Saturday night I'm going to a party in Cologne with a lot of kids taking English. The English professor, one of them, is throwing an end-of-semester, and I helped a lot of the students with their projects, so I got invited, too.
Sometime this week I am gonna make turkey burgers :-) Maybe tomorrow night for dinner? I am also gonna take my mom's excellent advice and do some mass-cooking for the week so I just have leftovers in the fridge to heat up and not worry about cooking every night of the week. Since Viktor went to Spain, who was a frequent guest at Cafe de'Caiti, I don't make dinner that often... and since he's not here, I don't have anyone to wash the dishes for me, either... ha ha, just kidding...!!!
Well the last week has been quite a fun and exciting week, I have to admit. I've had more to do than I have in a long time.
Hopefully next week I'll be back to report on how everything went...
Cheerio,
Caitlin
I am a happy, HAPPY person right now.
Last night my laptop suddenly stopped working altogether and I brought it to the computer people this morning who told me that it's likely a hardware problem and that for the amount I paid for it ($300), it's probably not worth getting looked at and repaired... saddened, I began a search for a new computer. Most people are happy to get new computers, but I am not. Why? Because that means I have to learn something new all over again, and load a bunch of crap onto it again, etc. etc. When I have a technical item that I like, I use it until it breaks. I thought that was the case. I purchased the new laptop. At lunch today, I handed my old, supposedly dead laptop to my friend David, who offered to copy my stuff from it (thankfully I had already saved all my pictures onto a USB three days prior!!) onto a disk. Later this evening, I had my mom call to make sure they'd send it out today and I'd get it before I left town next week to travel. They were going to mail it out today. I got a message from David who said that he FIXED my laptop! Turns out, he opened it all up and saw there was dust inside all over the place, which he cleaned off and once he put it back together, it worked just fine! Unbelieveable! Stupified, I had to beg my mom to call the company I ordered from to cancel the order. I really did NOT want a new computer. I even walked all the way home from the store today because I thought I wouldn't get my workouts in for the next few days (need a DVD player). I'm picking up my "baby", as David called it, tomorrow morning, just in time for a workout!!
So that was the adventure for today!!
I went to the zoo on Saturday, here are the pics:
Frankfurt Zoo 1
Frankfurt Zoo 2
Monday I got in a good workout and got to see a friend later that evening. Tuesday was spent, well, you know that already... tomorrow I'm headed to a Liane's for lunch, where our friend Alex is supposed to cook something yummy!! I am excited. Tomorrow evening we're headed for Happy hour at the Extrablatt!!!!! I'm bringing limited cash this time, so I don't go too crazy. Thursday I take the exam for the translation course, Friday I'm going to my first SOCCER GAME EVER, Saturday we're going to a castle, and Saturday night I'm going to a party in Cologne with a lot of kids taking English. The English professor, one of them, is throwing an end-of-semester, and I helped a lot of the students with their projects, so I got invited, too.
Sometime this week I am gonna make turkey burgers :-) Maybe tomorrow night for dinner? I am also gonna take my mom's excellent advice and do some mass-cooking for the week so I just have leftovers in the fridge to heat up and not worry about cooking every night of the week. Since Viktor went to Spain, who was a frequent guest at Cafe de'Caiti, I don't make dinner that often... and since he's not here, I don't have anyone to wash the dishes for me, either... ha ha, just kidding...!!!
Well the last week has been quite a fun and exciting week, I have to admit. I've had more to do than I have in a long time.
Hopefully next week I'll be back to report on how everything went...
Cheerio,
Caitlin
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Anything New in Germany?
Hello Folks,
Well, I've been here over four months, and the time has gone by like a flash of lightning. Does all of life go by this fast? I have a feeling that the next 6 months are going to go by even faster because it's summer soon and I might actually want to do some things that don't involve putting on 10 pounds of additional clothing before leaving. Really, it puts a damper on things! Right now, I'm sitting in my room and it is 9:12am on a Wednesday. I need to go grocery shopping and I don't even want to do that, ha! I suppose having less food in the house makes it harder to eat the wrong things. I don't even have any tomato sauce! I guess after my workout + shower this morning I will pack up and go to town for a bit, get some stuff to eat and such. All I have here right now is rice, pasta, granola bars, bread, frozen veggies, a bit of salad, skim milk, sliced cheese and salami... peanut butter?
Yesterday I spent time just getting stuff DONE... I had a boatload of homework left, well, a bunch of tedious things. Got that all done, washed a ton of laundry, got in a 90 minute super-sweat fest, finished a book, and ate healthy all day! I was happy about that. Viktor left Koblenz on Monday evening, and he's a guy and loves to eat a lot, often. Since he's not here, it's easier for me to eat healthier. I miss him, though. I think I'll go to Spain in April. Fitting in that trip's gonna be tight, that's for sure. It looks like I'll get back from Rome eeearly on a Wednesday morning, have to re-pack my things that night to catch the bus back to the airport at 8:40 the same morning. It'd put me at the airport at 9:50am and my flight doesn't leave until 1pm... maybe I can get a ride a bit later than 8:40 so I can have a little extra, oh, TIME! Ha ha... oh well, it'll be fun and exciting!
Last Friday I helped Viktor with his going-away party at his house. We got a bunch of baguettes and cut them in pieces and in half to make little frenchbread pizzas. We had a bunch of sauces and toppings, like corn, salami, fresh mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, pesto, ham, cheese... set out on his kitchen table and everyone made their own little pizzas. We put them in the oven and let them bake. They were delicious! We had about 12 people or so come in total and were worried that we had too much food, but we barely had any leftovers! It was quite the success.
The next morning we got up before 6am so we could catch a train to Frankfurt! We wanted to check out the city like regular tourists. We made a few little pizzas to take with us for breakfast :-) It was SO COLD in Frankfurt. The sun came out though, eventually :-) Our first stop in Frankfurt was the Senkenberg Natural History museum, which was HUGE and I loved it!! We actually left early without seeing everything there because we were so hungry. We spent over two hours there just looking at everything. I am pretty sure they have a stuffed version of every type of bird that ever existed at THAT museum!! Even flamingos! Every type! Viktor didn't like the bug exhibits, but we looked at them anyway, WOW there's lots of different horned beetles out there. I think one of my favorite parts of Frankfurt was a bit out of the way-- we went to this quaint little English-style park because on the map it said there was a castle there... it took us a while to find the castle, ha ha, but when we did it was worth it. It was a small, house-like castle with a little moat around it surrounded by ducks and lots of shady trees. We also made a special trip "off-the-beaten-path" to the Jewish cemetery. I've never seen a cemetery quite like that one. Jewish people put stones on top of grave markers instead of flowers on the grave, so there were rocks and pebbles all on top of the markers. The markers were very old and tattered looking and the whole cemetery just had a different look to it than others around. I've never seen so many grave clustered together as in that cemetery. The walls had small markers in it as well, each with names, dates, and places of death of Jews that died in the Holocaust. So many of them just said "unknown".
This Saturday, a few friends and I are splitting a weekend ticket and heading BACK to Frankfurt to visit the ZOO! I am psyched because I love zoos. It only costs 4 Euro to get in for students. Tonight I am going to a game night with some friends, and will probably have to learn how to play a bazillion games in German, fun, fun, fun. But it's something to do, right!
Well, time to get started on my day: on today's "menu" is of course, exercise, getting laundry put away, uploading pics to Facebook, and grocery shopping!
Caitlin
Well, I've been here over four months, and the time has gone by like a flash of lightning. Does all of life go by this fast? I have a feeling that the next 6 months are going to go by even faster because it's summer soon and I might actually want to do some things that don't involve putting on 10 pounds of additional clothing before leaving. Really, it puts a damper on things! Right now, I'm sitting in my room and it is 9:12am on a Wednesday. I need to go grocery shopping and I don't even want to do that, ha! I suppose having less food in the house makes it harder to eat the wrong things. I don't even have any tomato sauce! I guess after my workout + shower this morning I will pack up and go to town for a bit, get some stuff to eat and such. All I have here right now is rice, pasta, granola bars, bread, frozen veggies, a bit of salad, skim milk, sliced cheese and salami... peanut butter?
Yesterday I spent time just getting stuff DONE... I had a boatload of homework left, well, a bunch of tedious things. Got that all done, washed a ton of laundry, got in a 90 minute super-sweat fest, finished a book, and ate healthy all day! I was happy about that. Viktor left Koblenz on Monday evening, and he's a guy and loves to eat a lot, often. Since he's not here, it's easier for me to eat healthier. I miss him, though. I think I'll go to Spain in April. Fitting in that trip's gonna be tight, that's for sure. It looks like I'll get back from Rome eeearly on a Wednesday morning, have to re-pack my things that night to catch the bus back to the airport at 8:40 the same morning. It'd put me at the airport at 9:50am and my flight doesn't leave until 1pm... maybe I can get a ride a bit later than 8:40 so I can have a little extra, oh, TIME! Ha ha... oh well, it'll be fun and exciting!
Last Friday I helped Viktor with his going-away party at his house. We got a bunch of baguettes and cut them in pieces and in half to make little frenchbread pizzas. We had a bunch of sauces and toppings, like corn, salami, fresh mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, pesto, ham, cheese... set out on his kitchen table and everyone made their own little pizzas. We put them in the oven and let them bake. They were delicious! We had about 12 people or so come in total and were worried that we had too much food, but we barely had any leftovers! It was quite the success.
The next morning we got up before 6am so we could catch a train to Frankfurt! We wanted to check out the city like regular tourists. We made a few little pizzas to take with us for breakfast :-) It was SO COLD in Frankfurt. The sun came out though, eventually :-) Our first stop in Frankfurt was the Senkenberg Natural History museum, which was HUGE and I loved it!! We actually left early without seeing everything there because we were so hungry. We spent over two hours there just looking at everything. I am pretty sure they have a stuffed version of every type of bird that ever existed at THAT museum!! Even flamingos! Every type! Viktor didn't like the bug exhibits, but we looked at them anyway, WOW there's lots of different horned beetles out there. I think one of my favorite parts of Frankfurt was a bit out of the way-- we went to this quaint little English-style park because on the map it said there was a castle there... it took us a while to find the castle, ha ha, but when we did it was worth it. It was a small, house-like castle with a little moat around it surrounded by ducks and lots of shady trees. We also made a special trip "off-the-beaten-path" to the Jewish cemetery. I've never seen a cemetery quite like that one. Jewish people put stones on top of grave markers instead of flowers on the grave, so there were rocks and pebbles all on top of the markers. The markers were very old and tattered looking and the whole cemetery just had a different look to it than others around. I've never seen so many grave clustered together as in that cemetery. The walls had small markers in it as well, each with names, dates, and places of death of Jews that died in the Holocaust. So many of them just said "unknown".
This Saturday, a few friends and I are splitting a weekend ticket and heading BACK to Frankfurt to visit the ZOO! I am psyched because I love zoos. It only costs 4 Euro to get in for students. Tonight I am going to a game night with some friends, and will probably have to learn how to play a bazillion games in German, fun, fun, fun. But it's something to do, right!
Well, time to get started on my day: on today's "menu" is of course, exercise, getting laundry put away, uploading pics to Facebook, and grocery shopping!
Caitlin
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