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