Playing Catch-Up

OK, so I’ve been awful at keeping up with the blog this past month. I blame it on all of the traveling. Now that I’m back for a bit, here’s a short version of what you have missed.

Cologne for an au-pair meeting that consisted of 20 Russians, 1 Greek, 1 Mongolian, and me. The Ludwig Art Museum. Keyboard (as in the musical instrument) shopping. An infinite number of Croissants. And chocolate. And Eis. Hamburg. The Beatles’ history in Hamburg. Trying to sleep while guys in the same hostel-room as me are spilling lord-knows-what all over my shoes at 4 in the morning. Getting up the next day at 6 to take the GRE. Finishing the GRE!!!!! Eating delicious fish in Hamburg. Meeting people. Learning their stories. Riding trains and reading books on said trains. A lot of Sudoku; I am now an expert. A fair, german-style. Mastering the art of parking in tiny parking spaces. The Netherlands. The freezing cold, but utterly refreshing North Sea. Failing at finding a shark’s tooth at the North Sea. Massively jamming my whole left foot and ankle. Christian pulling me around in a wagon because I cannot walk on left foot. Experiencing the German health care system. A stalker from Cameroon. Desperately trying to avoid shopping. Trip planning and fantasizing.

As far as I can remember, that basically sums up the past few weeks. On October 2^nd, I was officially here for 2 months and they’ve gone by surprisingly fast. I’ve now had time to look and see the biggest of the differences between Germany and America, which are many. I don’t think one is any better than the other; they are just different. One big difference is that Germany has not become as mesmerized by technology as America. It’s almost like stepping back a few years. But I like it, in a way. I’m definitely learning a lot of new skills. For one, when I get back to the states, I will be really good at parking in the humongous parking spaces. I should look for a parking contest when I get back. Whenever I park in a German Parking Garage, I feel like I have to do some Harry Potter magic to make the car slim down and fit in the spot.

Since the above is just a quick overview of my past month, here are some more details about some of the events…

First, the au-pair meeting. Here’s how it went down: the 20 Russians spoke in, you guessed it, Russian, the whole time. So the Greek, Mongolian, and I, the American, spoke to each other in German for the whole trip. They were nice and I liked them. The girl from Greece had actually been to South Carolina the previous summer and loved it. So she was one smart girl in my book. One of the Russian boys told me that he hated America and Americans. He didn’t stop there…he also let me know that we are all full of ourselves. He asked me who won WWII, and when I answered him and started discussing it he just looked at me. He asked me how I knew about the war since he was sure that our schools only taught us about American history and we don’t learn about any other countries (even if that were true, since America fought in WWII, wouldn't we learn about it?). I told him it sounded like he was the one that didn’t learn about other countries in school. After that he was nice and we were friends. I went to the Ludwig Art Museum in Cologne and it was a great day. 4 stories of art. The largest Picasso collection in the world. I’m not a huge fan of Picasso’s art, but I love his story. I think that’s what I love most about art, is the stories that make up the art. I just love stories, period.

I still haven’t made it to the Chocolate Museum in Cologne. But I will go, one day, and then I will write a whole blog about chocolate.

The next weekend was my trip to Hamburg for the GRE (Btw, just yesterday, about 2 weeks after taking my test, the PowerPrep Software, which the GRE people send to you for free to help you study, arrived in the mail.). I arrived late in Hamburg on Friday. I wasn’t sure where my hostel was and didn’t want to wander around aimlessly at midnight, so I took a cab from the train station. I got in the cab, he drove approximately 500 feet and then stopped in front of my hostel. Glad I took a cab. I went (or tried) to go to sleep immediately since I had to wake up early for the GRE. Sleeping didn’t go so well, but that’s ok. I still did fine on the GRE and felt an intense relief at being done. After that, I treated myself to some fish and potatoes, Hamburg’s traditional meal, on the harbor, and explored. I went in a museum of a ship from the 1800’s, which has been restored to its’ original décor. It was neat. I pretended I was a pirate on the ship. The lady and man that ran the ship’s shop were nice to me. They personally showed me around to the different areas. The lady made me take German explanation sheets since she said I was here to learn German, but then the man gave me an English version, too, and told me that would help. Basically, I learned I want to live in a ship; one that is permanently docked at a harbor. The rooms and beds look so cozy.

One of my big goals in Hamburg was to unravel all of the Beatles’ history there, and it was so much fun. I’m not going to go through everything in this blog because there is so much to tell, but the Beatlemania Museum (http://www.beatlemania-hamburg.com/) was one of the best museums I’ve ever been to. Everything was so interesting – I think I’ll write another blog on this, so if you’re interested in the Beatles, I suggest reading it.

After Hamburg, I came back to Moenchengladbach to relax for 4 days before leaving for the North Sea. Christian and Monika had graciously invited me to come on their vacation with them. Naturally, as the beach is one of my favorite places in the world, I tagged along. There are a lot of differences in the way that Americans go to the beach and the way that Europeans go to the beach. Maybe it has to do with the fact that the North Sea is freezing. If that is correct, then maybe it has more to do with cold-water beaches vs. warm-water beaches and not European vs. American. Either way, it was fun and I had a good time. The first full day, Saturday, I hurt my foot really bad, and poor Monika had to drive me all the way back to Germany to go to the hospital. I found out it wasn’t broken, but apparently I had just jammed it really bad and couldn’t walk on it for a few days. Then we drove all the way back to the North Sea. By about Thursday, I could walk OK on it, but even now, it still hurts when I walk or have to press the clutch while driving. Not too bad, but I’m hoping it goes away soon. Anyways, I did basically what I always do at the beach... relaxed, laid out in the sun, read books, ate Eis.

And now I am back in Moenchengladbach. I start my German class next Monday, which will take up a lot of time, but I’m excited to begin and become better at German. I won’t have much time to travel in October or November because of the class, but I’m planning on staying busy and exploring closer cities around me. Plus, without traveling, I’ll be able to keep up with the blog better. I know; you’re so excited. Try to contain yourself. Plus, I’ll be getting plenty of traveling in when my Mom visits for 2.5 weeks at Christmas. Can’t wait!

Better get started on planning… ‘til next time.

Schönes Tag.