So, now I am in another train back westward, late by the way, which means we will probably miss our connection which means we will have to wait an hour for the next train, which means I probably won't get home til 11 freakin 30 tonight. DAMN IT I hate Germany sometimes. Gosh I just get so frustrated, something always goes wrong. Plus somehow there are always LOUD and ANNOYING people on the train that talk extremely loudly on their cell phones or allow their children to scream through the train. Ugh.
But O Dresden, how I love thee! What a beautiful city. It is like the German version of Kraków. Seriously. I don't really want to spend a lot of time writing every little thing we did (I am lazy, plus, its boring), since you can maybe see that in the pictures. Dresden has such an interesting history. On Feb 13 and 14, 1945, the entire city was firebombed and most of it was flat within 30 seconds. The Church of Our Lady (Frauenkirche) partially survived but later collapsed due to 1000° C temperatures from the surrounding burning buildings. The wood inside started to burn and weakened the sandstone causing its collapse. Both the Altstadt and the Neustadt in Dresden are faaaabulous, and whats unique here is that the Neustadt has all the bars in restaurants, whereas its usually the Altstadt in most cities that all of these places are found. Not to mention a fantastic piece of art is located here: Rafael's “The Sistine Madonna”--most people know this painting, however, only partially... the two “thinking” angels below the painting are so often pictured by themselves without the rest of the painting that we all think that the two angels themselves are the painting. I didn't know any of this, so it was exciting to learn it indeed. There are just a lot of fabulous buildings there to see—the Opera House, the Zwinger, the Art Academy, all the churches... basically on Thursday that is what we did—just walked around the Altstadt checking out the buildings. We saw a few museums and exhibitions in the Zwinger. I think the entire city is a piece of art. They had to build it all over again after the bombing and it is so beautiful. There are so many parks and fountains and benches and cafes! I just love it. Definitely VERY high on the list of potential places to work in the future.
I will take a moment to praise and complain about the hostel we stayed in. I booked it because the reviews were all very good. Frankly I was disappointed and had expected a lot more. The rooms were very nice, the hostel itself was very clean and I had no complaints about that. We only paid about €13 per night. They charge an additional €2 for sheets, though, and €2 per hour for internet... on your OWN computer! I think that is the most ridiculous thing. I had expected to pay for their own terminal, but I got there and saw the list of prices and was really angered by it. Plus they don't tell you how to log off, so if you have to interrupt the session to use the bathroom or something your time keeps running. Not to mention there was only one bathroom for our entire floor with one shower and it was not separate, so if someone needed to pee and someone needed to shower, regardless, the door was locked and you had to go down two flights of stairs to the other showers and WCs. Also absurd. But there was always soap and it was always clean so I can't complain too much. The kitchen was also very nice. We saved some dough by having dinner there the first two nights and breakfast there all three mornings. I can't imagine traveling any other way except staying in hostels. But there are people out there who HAVE to stay in hotels and have to eat all meals out. Having a kitchen in the hostel is pretty much the best because it saves SO much MONEY on food. In the New York hostel there is not a kitchen :-( so I hope there is someplace nearby that isn't too expensive. I did survive in Paris for a week without a kitchen, so I imagine a weekend in NY won't be a problem.
On Friday we bought a day ticket for the public transport and rode out to the Moritzburg, a majestic-looking hunting lodge of the former king of Poland (yes, Poland), August the Strong. It was neat. There were hundreds of sets of red stag antlers all over the place, floor to ceiling. After that we had lunch and then went to the German Hygiene Museum which was surprisingly very interesting. We got there a bit after three but it closed at 6pm so we had to leave before having seen all the exhibits. We ended up going to the movies last night and saw an independent German movie called “Alle Alle”, which reminded me a lot of Steinbecks “Of Mice and Men”... what was really cool, though, is that the actors and the director of the film were in the theater with us and did Q&A after the movie was over. Felt kind of bad for them, though, since no one really had any questions. The movie had a lot of slang and drunken mumbling, so I didn't understand everything they said.
Yeah and this morning we had breakfast and walked some through the Neustadt and through the Kunstpassage, a really artsy area with some neat shops. We had milkshakes at a little cafe there before heading back to the hostel for a bit. And now we are on the train that I am trying not to get upset about. I did sleep until 9:30 after all, so I shouldn't be tired getting home at 11:30 at night anyway.
In other news, I am ready to go home. Yes, I said it. I had hoped that by this time I would be and by golly, I am. Next week is my last week in Koblenz. I have to be out of my apartment by 10 am on Tuesday morning. And until Friday morning, when Gaby and Tobi pick me up, I will be living with my Australian mate, Lea. Should be fun. A lot of stuff has to happen next week: I gotta close my Koblenz bank account, let the citizens office know I'm leaving, turn in my cafeteria card, get the Hausmeister to inspect my room (after I clean the place from top to bottom or at least make it look like I did, lol) and get my €400 bond back... and have a great last few days. Of course if the last few days were utterly miserable, it might make it easier to leave. It sure is a heck of a lot of work to get things organized here and back at home. I have pretty much decided that before I do anything crazy in Germany again, I will go home like a good girl and finish my degree...which could happen within a year, even!! And then maybe I won't have to worry about how much money these stingy Germans would pay me for an internship, since I could apply for a real job. Plus, who knows, I might really get a job at Siemens Orlando this year. I had kind of thrown that idea out the window since one of my “in-people” doesn't seem like he wants to help at all. He told me to look at Monster.com to see if there was anything I was interested in, but there are only regular positions there and no internships so that does not help at all :-(. However Mom told me (thanks, Mom) that apparently my uncle is still working on something for me, and although that could mean everything, anything, or nothing at all, it is something. I really hope to find an o.k. job back at home... I would like to continue saving since I haven't been for almost a year. And I don't want to get ripped off like I did at the animal hospital (I still get really mad when I think about having worked there!!!)
But there are a few things I will miss about this place, and there are some that I will not. Actually, I lot of people have asked what I'll miss most when I go home... so...
I will miss:
1. Bakeries all over the place—i.e. Fresh and healthy bread for like $1!
2. travelling without a car (even though the trains are late most of the time) and the fact that don't have to drive thirty minutes to get anywhere
3. my cute Häuschen and living in a dorm with friendly people that come knocking just to say hi (like Rike and Niko!)
4. some of the people I have met here
5. Cafe Extrablatt: namely the cocktails and the breakfast! YUM!
6. Ritter Sport Erdbeer Joghurt chocolate
7. DM Markt and all the great quality, inexpensive stuff there
8. being able to walk places
9. Sightseeing! Everything is so pretty.
10. Döner!!!!!!!!!!! I love it! We need to get some Turks to come to Orlando! They can even live with us, lol
11. Cheese and how cheap the real good stuff is: Havarti! YUUUM!
12. Cream cheese with herbs and garlic!
13. my economical laundry stand that I bought for €5... saved me sooo much money!
14. just speaking German all day every day.
15. Ditsch pizza and pretzels
16. only having one class lol
Things I will NOT miss:
1. the cold, grey winter and (usually) spring.
2. the sheer inconvenience of having to wait on trains, buses, etc.
3. the expensive Euro
4. the rudeness of so many Germans (make that Europeans): I don't mean this in a mean way, it is just fact that a ton of them consider foreigners to be the spawn of Satan and their own country to be the center of the planet, even if it is just Luxembourg, for example. I know Americans can be just as rude but generally are not. At least they ACT like they care, whereas here, most people are quick to show you they don't. At all.
5. paying anywhere from 30 cents to €1,10 to freakin' pee (even at McDonald's!)
6. the fact that there is just a shortage of toilets in general.
7. how expensive using a cell phone is here
8. how expensive it is to get your hair cut
9. how expensive it is, period!
10. never knowing what to wear because its never always hot... at home its always hot so it takes two seconds to get dressed and I can ALWAYS wear flip flops... so I always do.
11. Koblenz itself... it was great for the time I was there, small, quaint, a good way to get used to Germany, but it is too small for me, I think. 2 buses per hour, none after 11pm, and you are screwed on Sundays and holidays. Its pretty there, but there are plenty of other cities that are just as pretty if not prettier with a lot more to offer. Like Dresden, for example. *sigh*
13. all the paperwork and technicalities that go with everything, and the general unwillingness of authorities to help you out (see also #4!)
Things I have learned or changed while here:
I like tomatoes
I can cook chicken. Make that cook, period, and it actually taste good. WITHOUT using a recipe!
I eat bread, cheese, and salami for breakfast and I like it!
I can hold a pleasant conversation in a foreign language. Hey, that was the main goal!
I suppose most of those things will occur to me after I've been at home for a while... but don't worry, I still don't wear socks with sandals... lol... and PLEASE no one get offended by that, it is just a thing a LOT of Germans do.
Caitlin
