Two nights ago, I dreamt that I'd won the lottery. The next morning I read about the GIGANTIC mega-millions jackpot. If only my dream could have been prophetic, and my family had won. That'd been pretty cool. I think I had this dream though because I GOT INTO THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND!!!! And it feels like winning the lotto, for sure.
Last night I slept horribly. I don't know why, but it was terrible. I was tired and stressed all day as a result. So...to make things better, here is a list of things that improve my mood.
1) Sunny, balmy weather and long walks.
2) My potted tulips. They are white (i might have to go back and get another color to go with) and they have new buds! It's a really nice plant, and makes my room cheery. I love it when I don't kill plants (I've killed 3 basil plants so far this year. I don't know what I'm doing wrong! Back in the states I can keep basil alive without too many problems!)
3) Spending my evenings in my room with candles as my only light. Back for christmas I received a set of votive candleholders from a teacher as a gift. Now I am using them, and it creates a really nice comfy atmosphere.
4) FREE pizza...TWICE! From two different places...so you know what that means. Yes, it's time for the pizza in potsdam update!
PIZZA IN POTSDAM (or...Stralsund and Zehlendorf, but whatever.)
Sunday, 4th of March
Pizza Isabella, Stralsund (where Jack lives)
I found out that I'd been accepted to Maryland while I was visiting Jack. To celebrate, we decided to go out for pizza. We were walking to a pizza place on the New Market, when we saw a brand new pizzaria we'd never seen before. They had a sandwich board advertising a lunch special of a pizza and a drink for 4 euros--how could we say no?
The restaurant was bright, clean and small. Decoration was sparse, and the walls were a cheerful peach. The service was a little gruff, but friendly. I think it's just a northern germany thing to mumble and whatnot.
The special included your choice of either Pizza Margherita (Cheese), Pizza Salami (Pepperoni), Pizza Schinken (ham), or Pizza Funghi (Mushroom), plus a small non-alcoholic drink. I ordered the Pizza Funghi and a Fanta...since Cola Light is nowhere to be found in Stralsund. Jack ordered the Pizza Salami.
Our pizzas arrived quite promptly (maybe a ten minute wait?) and looked fantastic! The pizzas were 24 cm in diameter (a good size, especially for just one person!) and piping hot. Mine was PILED high with cheese and mushrooms. Literally, heaps of mushrooms! The mushrooms were canned (and we all know fresh is always better) but the generosity more than made up for that. The pizza was very cheesy too. The cheese seemed to be a gouda mix--it was a bit stronger and heavier than your standard mozzerella. Additionally, the pizza had a dusting of dried oregano on top of it--which looked nice, but it didn't add a whole lot of flavor. The sauce was thin, bright red, and tangy, like a cheap tomato paste (but not the dark red sweet kind, the cheaper kind that's almost sour). The crust was on the thicker side, by german standards (about normal by U.S. standards) and crispy. Amazingly, the pizza was cut into slices, but I ate it with a knife and fork nonetheless, to avoid being stared at. The pizza started out great, but by the end I was a bit overwhelmed by all of the cheese. Nonetheless, it was a great bargain, and a VERY filling lunch. Jack's pepperoni pizza was quite average in appearance--the salami used was much larger in diameter than the normal american pepperoni, and thinnly sliced (this is standard in germany). It was under a thick layer of cheese, so...a crispy pepperoni fan might have been dissapointed. He enjoyed it though. Unlike my monster of a mushroom pizza, the pepperoni on his pizza was distributed in normal amounts...though his pizza was very cheesy as well.
The full menu looked quite good, and there were some very unique pizza toppings available (one pizza came with BANANA on it...and it WASN'T a dessert!) In addition to many different pizzas, there was a full pasta menu. The prices were all quite affordable for the food, but the drinks were very expensive. However, most other pizza places we've seen in Stralsund are a bit pricier than this place, so we will probably try it again sometime. The lunch menu was a steal...but next time I want to try the banana pizza! (It also involved onions, pineapple, artichokes...and maybe tuna fish? I don't remember. It was a bizzare looking beast of a pizza).
Moving on to pizza number two.
Monday, 5th of March, 2007
Gabana-Zehlendorf, Berlin
I spent the afternoon driving around Zehlendorf with one of my English teachers. Zehlendorf is the section of Berlin where the U.S. Military was based for their sector of Berlin. It's now got some nice little shops and cute neighborhoods, but is still full of americans, and american things and ways. I'd been helping this teacher prepare an english presentation, and to say thank you she took me out to lunch. She'd been wanting to try a new cafe she'd read about called Gabana.
The restaurant had a very trendy air, and a "fusion" menu that was heavily influenced by the many americans in the area, no doubt. It served nachos and burgers and pizzas and whatnot. I decided to try their "Vegetarian Pizza" (yes, it was in english on the menu) which came with Zucchini, Eggplant, onion, rucola, pine nuts, mushrooms, and "paprika." Now, the description was in german, and normally when you see "paprika" on a german menu, they mean bell pepper, and not the spice. I hate bell peppers, but forgot to ask the waitress to have the peppers held. To my suprise and delight, instead of coming with peppers on it, my pizza arrived dusted with the SPICE paprika...which I can tolerate a lot more than bell peppers.
The pizza was seriously amazing. It had almost TOO much going on. The zucchini and eggplant were perfectly cooked (too long and they get mushy) and the mushrooms were fresh :) I love fresh rucola on pizzas, so that was great, and the pine nuts were an interesting twist. The crust was paper thin and crisp, and the sauce was fresh and tasted like perfectly ripe tomatos. The pizza was a bit spicy, maybe from the paprika, but also because it had a lot of minced garlic on it--very, very garlicky, but that's okay. I love garlic. It was a pleasant pizza, but hard to eat because of all the toppings... I had trouble getting it all onto my fork! The restaurant was pretty pricey over all, but my pizza was a pretty good deal at only 6.50. I've had far worse for that price, and the ingredients used were of top freshness and quality. One down side of the experience was that we waited forever...over a half an hour. That's a long wait for pizza and apple pie alamode (which is what my teacher ordered...it cost as much as my pizza! And again, those american influences...you normally won't find pie in Germany!)
Anyhow, it was a tasty pizza, but I don't know that I'd go back--it's a bit out of the way for me, and the menu was pretty expensive. Plus...I usually hate the german interpretations of "american food" (especially their attempts at nachos and salsa and whatnot...man, so wrong!) and seeing a menu full of that stuff makes me wary. What we had was good though.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Pizza in Potsdam, and TAN!
So I realized that I forgot some important things yesterday. Namely, my weekend.
The band Thunderbirds are Now! played a show in Berlin on Saturday night. As some of you may know already, back when I lived in the coffeehouse at Albion College, I was the booking manager, in charge of booking bands and entertainment events for the house. One of the bands I booked a few times was Thunderbirds are Now!--this was back when they were first starting out. Since then, they've put out a couple of albums and experienced a modicum of success (ex: Rolling Stone listed their newest album among the top 50 albums of the year.) Hence, they were able to do their first European tour. I've managed to stay in contact with them over the years, and we were able to hang out Saturday night, which was really fun. It was good to see them, and I'm happy for them, that they've been able to have these experiences. It wasn't anything I'd ever anticipated--seeing TAN! in Berlin...it was kinda crazy. They used to play in my living room to a crowd of 15 people (not that the crowd was much larger than that on Saturday, but they had played to 200 people the night before outside of Frankfurt!). Anyhow, that was kinda cool and I thought I should mention it here.
The other thing I wanted to mention was my idea that I had...a blogging idea. I call it "Pizza in Potsdam." Let me explain. Here in Germany, Pizza is both delicious and very inexpensive, and one can choose from a wide assortment of toppings, many of which would seem quite exotic to t he american pizza topping palate (artichokes? tunafish? gorganzola or goat cheese? asparagus? mmm) . Here, pizza typically consists of a thinner, chewy crust, light tomato sauce or fresh tomatoes or a cream sauce, and toppings and a light sprinkling of cheese (a wider array of cheeses than the typical "mozzerella" shredded cheese mix we are used to at home). One typically orders a small pizza (8-10 inches in diameter) to eat by oneself, and it typically comes unsliced and one eats it with a fork and knife. Pizza here is, in my opinion, supirior to pizza in the united states. It's lighter, yet more satisfying. It's really quite wonderful. So anyway, here is my plan.
I am going to sample pizza around Berlin and Potsdam, and then blog about my findings. I will try different pizzerias, fresh and frozen, every vegetarian topping combo possible, every price range. And I will blog about it here...or I will possibly start a new blog solely for my dining out adventures. The main theme of my pizza posts will be reviewing the pizza itself, but also the service and atmosphere and price tag that come with the pizza. I may, also, review other types of restaurants too, who knows. Maybe I'll have to branch out and include falafel and kebaps too.
Why do I want to do this? Mostly just for fun. But also to kind of have a record of what I do, where I go. Maybe I will use my pizza reviews as a jumping off point into more location based writing. We'll see where it takes me. And maybe, who knows, some one will do a google search on Pizza in Potsdam and get my blog and know where the best (in my opinion) pizzerias are...haha, maybe I could turn into a guide book writer or somethign rediculous. It could be a start, who knows?
So yes. For my first review, I would like to talk about the pizza I just ate for lunch. I didn't go to a restaurant today, no no. Rather, I went to Kaufland...the supermarket. I wasn't originally planning to have pizza today, but I saw a price tag I couldn't refuse: 63 cents for a frozen Kaufland brand "Pizza Margherita" It came topped with Edamer and Mozzerella cheeses, Red, Green and Yellow bell pepper, and zucchini. It looked like a perfect lunch.
Now, I hate bell pepper, so I had to pick those off before cooking, but the pizza was suprizingly tasty, despite being a frozen discount brand. The crust had a nice chewy consistency, but crisped up nice on the bottom. The toppings didn't make the pizza soggy (as is sometimes the case here with frozen pizzas) and the cheese wasn't too greasy or oily. It was, however, a little saucy, but if you like a saucy pizza, this would be for you. The sauce had a great flavor...not too sweet, too bitter, to salty or too sour--just right. I would have never expected to enjoy a 63 cents frozen pizza so much, but I did. It was better than some of the crappier fresh pizzas I've had (um, such as the "joey's pizza" chain. Don't get your pizza there. Trust me.) So yes, folks. I reccommend the Kaufland brand Pizza Margherita. Plus, it's easy to jazz up with your own toppings. A perfect lunch....and not a "Kalorien Bombe" either! It was small-ish, so it weighed in at about 450 calories. Not bad for a whole pizza!
So yes, next time you're in Kaufland and craving some pizza, look past the pricier name brands and try the K-brand. It's tasty stuff.
The band Thunderbirds are Now! played a show in Berlin on Saturday night. As some of you may know already, back when I lived in the coffeehouse at Albion College, I was the booking manager, in charge of booking bands and entertainment events for the house. One of the bands I booked a few times was Thunderbirds are Now!--this was back when they were first starting out. Since then, they've put out a couple of albums and experienced a modicum of success (ex: Rolling Stone listed their newest album among the top 50 albums of the year.) Hence, they were able to do their first European tour. I've managed to stay in contact with them over the years, and we were able to hang out Saturday night, which was really fun. It was good to see them, and I'm happy for them, that they've been able to have these experiences. It wasn't anything I'd ever anticipated--seeing TAN! in Berlin...it was kinda crazy. They used to play in my living room to a crowd of 15 people (not that the crowd was much larger than that on Saturday, but they had played to 200 people the night before outside of Frankfurt!). Anyhow, that was kinda cool and I thought I should mention it here.
The other thing I wanted to mention was my idea that I had...a blogging idea. I call it "Pizza in Potsdam." Let me explain. Here in Germany, Pizza is both delicious and very inexpensive, and one can choose from a wide assortment of toppings, many of which would seem quite exotic to t he american pizza topping palate (artichokes? tunafish? gorganzola or goat cheese? asparagus? mmm) . Here, pizza typically consists of a thinner, chewy crust, light tomato sauce or fresh tomatoes or a cream sauce, and toppings and a light sprinkling of cheese (a wider array of cheeses than the typical "mozzerella" shredded cheese mix we are used to at home). One typically orders a small pizza (8-10 inches in diameter) to eat by oneself, and it typically comes unsliced and one eats it with a fork and knife. Pizza here is, in my opinion, supirior to pizza in the united states. It's lighter, yet more satisfying. It's really quite wonderful. So anyway, here is my plan.
I am going to sample pizza around Berlin and Potsdam, and then blog about my findings. I will try different pizzerias, fresh and frozen, every vegetarian topping combo possible, every price range. And I will blog about it here...or I will possibly start a new blog solely for my dining out adventures. The main theme of my pizza posts will be reviewing the pizza itself, but also the service and atmosphere and price tag that come with the pizza. I may, also, review other types of restaurants too, who knows. Maybe I'll have to branch out and include falafel and kebaps too.
Why do I want to do this? Mostly just for fun. But also to kind of have a record of what I do, where I go. Maybe I will use my pizza reviews as a jumping off point into more location based writing. We'll see where it takes me. And maybe, who knows, some one will do a google search on Pizza in Potsdam and get my blog and know where the best (in my opinion) pizzerias are...haha, maybe I could turn into a guide book writer or somethign rediculous. It could be a start, who knows?
So yes. For my first review, I would like to talk about the pizza I just ate for lunch. I didn't go to a restaurant today, no no. Rather, I went to Kaufland...the supermarket. I wasn't originally planning to have pizza today, but I saw a price tag I couldn't refuse: 63 cents for a frozen Kaufland brand "Pizza Margherita" It came topped with Edamer and Mozzerella cheeses, Red, Green and Yellow bell pepper, and zucchini. It looked like a perfect lunch.
Now, I hate bell pepper, so I had to pick those off before cooking, but the pizza was suprizingly tasty, despite being a frozen discount brand. The crust had a nice chewy consistency, but crisped up nice on the bottom. The toppings didn't make the pizza soggy (as is sometimes the case here with frozen pizzas) and the cheese wasn't too greasy or oily. It was, however, a little saucy, but if you like a saucy pizza, this would be for you. The sauce had a great flavor...not too sweet, too bitter, to salty or too sour--just right. I would have never expected to enjoy a 63 cents frozen pizza so much, but I did. It was better than some of the crappier fresh pizzas I've had (um, such as the "joey's pizza" chain. Don't get your pizza there. Trust me.) So yes, folks. I reccommend the Kaufland brand Pizza Margherita. Plus, it's easy to jazz up with your own toppings. A perfect lunch....and not a "Kalorien Bombe" either! It was small-ish, so it weighed in at about 450 calories. Not bad for a whole pizza!
So yes, next time you're in Kaufland and craving some pizza, look past the pricier name brands and try the K-brand. It's tasty stuff.
Monday, February 26, 2007
so, i went to italy...
My mom pointed out the other day that I really needed to update this...so I am. I've been writing a lot more on paper these days, but I know that there might be other people out there curious as to what I am doing too, so...here we go.
I went to Italy. I went with Jack. First we went to Rome. Our hostel was decent, we had a dorm style room which we shared with a crazy but fun couple from Argentina. The hostel provided a meager breakfast (breakfast is kind of ignored in Italy...just coffee and cake usually.) and a free dinner, which was nice. The dinner was small--pasta and wine, but it helped keep our food costs down.
Rome itself was overwhelming. I think that's the best way to put it. The history, the art, the culture--that was incredible. There was soooo much to see, and Jack and I tried to see all of it. The Vatican City was very impressive, and it was surreal seeing these famous works of art in person. The Ancient City and Collosseum were also incredibly impressive--though I took a lot of pictures of ruins, and I know that somewhere in those ruins are many famous things, but I cannot tell you which column belonged to which temple and what not. So...I mean, in theory I saw the Roman Forum, but I don't know which pile of marble it was. One thing that impressed me a lot about Rome too was that, even though it's this huge bustling (and polluted and dirty) city, there were PRISTINE and BEAUTIFUL orange trees lining the streets, filled with perfect looking oranges. Oranges just everywhere! You don't expect to see such fruit on trees while walking in the middle of a big dirty city, I guess.
There were things I didn't like about Rome though--and I probably won't ever choose to go back there. It's hard to explain, but the city felt kinda scammy. Like, everyone was either a tourist, or someone trying to rip a tourist off. You couldn't escape the tourism, the street vendors hawking crap you didn't need. As soon as it started raining, you were chased by men trying to sell you umbrellas. I didn't like that. There was also...an unfriendly vibe that we encountered many times....like, I felt a lot that because people knew we were tourists and americans, they expected us to spend TONS of money. And when we didn't do that, they were rude to us. This happened to an extent in Florence too, but it wasn't as bad. Rome was the worst when it came to that. The sights were impressive though, and I am very happy I had the chance to go.
Florence was where we ate well. Our hostel, sadly, wasn't so great. Our room was very, very tiny...it appeared to be a converted laundry room or bathroom, complete with water hookups in the walls, a water heater for the hostel, and tiled walls. It was bad. My bed was broken. It was between the two bathrooms, and whenever someone flushed a toilet, it was VERY loud in our room. We complained, but that's the room you get there, I guess, when you want the cheapest price. I can see why it was so "cheap." Sigh.
But yes, as I said, we ate well in Florence. Great, great Italian food--fresh pastas, riboletta soup (a thick bread soup, sooooo good), bruschettas, and great wine. We found some decently priced places too (everything in Rome had been much more expensive). But the best food in Florence was the GELATO. We went to the famous Vivoli Gelateria, and it was the most amazing ice cream I've eaten in my life--we went twice. First I tried a nougat flavored concoction with candied nuts and chocolate and all sorts of stuff mixed in, and then the next time i had half rice (yes, rice--like a frozen rice pudding but better!) and half chocolate orange--which was maybe the best thing I've ever tasted in my life. The sites were great in Florence too--seeing David, the Uffizi with all of their famous works--like Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" etc. By the end though, we were a little burned out on the church and artwork overload. Thankfully, Cinque Terre was next.
Cinque Terre is probably the only thing that could get me to go back to Italy. It was that beautiful. The Cinque Terre are five small villiages on the rocky riviera coast, near Genoa. The sites were amazing, the people were friendly, and the wine was unbelievable--I'm not even a wine fan most of the time, but this stuff was good. Our hostel was in a villiage further inland, called Biassa. It was a bit out of the way, but a nice hostel. However, we were visiting this area in the off-season--like the beyond Off-Season. There weren't any other guests in the hostel. So, we had our dorm room to ourselves...we had the whole place to ourselves. It was kind of crazy.
In the morning we took the terrifying winding mountain bus ride to the first of the Cinque Terre--Riogammore. It was very pretty, and from there we hiked on a trail to the second of the 5 Terre, Manarola. In both of these two towns, we mostly just poked around a bit. They were sleepy and peaceful, and while there were a few other visitors, it wasn't too lively. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the atmosphere was just right. From Manarola, we took a very short train ride to Corniglia. We'd wanted to hike, but the trail was closed due to a rock slide. So...train it was. From the trainstation in Corniglia, we had to climb up 382 stairs to get to the villiage. The views from the villiage were amazing--on one side you had cliffs and turquoise sea, the otherside, wine hills and lemon groves. From Corniglia, we went to Vernazza, which ended up being our favorite of the villiages, and where we spent the most time. In Vernazza, we ate an aaaaaamazing lunch--Jack had a pesto pasta dish (the region is famous for being the birthplace of pesto and having the best basil in italy) and the fresh fried catch of the day--he'd never had to debone a fish or peel the legs off of a shrimp, so I had to do these things for him at first. Haha. I had another regional specialty--cheese and basil stuffed ravioli, with a walnut cream sauce. SOOOO good. And of course, we washed it down with the local wine--which was white (yay!). After eating, we hiked into the hills for a while, then went back to the marina to have a glass of wine and watch the waves crash against the rocks. We went to the local Enoteche to buy some wine and pesto to take home--which ended up being more trouble than it was worth, since we'd forgotten that you can't carry liquids onto planes anymore. It all got home okay, but caused a slight panic for us at the airport.
Anyhow, the last of the Terre was Monterosso--we couldn't spend much time there, because we had to catch a bus back to our hostel, but Monterosso was, for me, the least impressive of the Terre--all the others, for instance, didn't allow cars inside the villages, whereas there were little cars buzzing all over Monterosso. It had more of a beach resort feel to it than the others did, and was a lot bigger. Some of the charm was lost, I guess.
Anyhow, that is, in a nutshell, what we did on our Italian vacation. Since then it's just been back to the grind with teaching. Things have been somewhat frustrating for me at my school--things feel a bit stagnant, and it seems like more and more often, no matter how hard I try and how eager and willing I am to be involved in classes, the teachers are losing interest in working with me. I oftentimes get the feeling that they can't be bothered with me. And when they do want me to come to their classes, they only want me to do very small and basic things--like sit there and be a human dictionary. It's discouraging and frustrating for me. For instance, I almost don't want to go to school at all tomorrow, because one of the teachers has already told me she needs to give an exam on wednesday and so tomorrow they will be doing test prep and she doesn't want me there for that, and the other teacher I work with hasn't talked to me about anything and probably won't want me to come either--meaning...I will be going in to work tomorrow with absolutely nothing to do. What is the point in that? And when I have these teachers cancel like this, I always offer to the other teachers that I can come to their classes, maybe work with students I don't get to see so often, but they never want that. It makes me feel kind of worthless sometimes. Like, why am I even here then? To take up space in the teachers lounge? To pump money into the coffee vending machine? I'm just a bit fed up I guess. Fortunately my Fulbright conference is in 2 weeks, and hopefully I will get some fresh ideas on how to deal with this, how to spice things up, how to breathe some fresh air into my situation. I hope.
So...yes. That's about all. Exciting, eh?
I went to Italy. I went with Jack. First we went to Rome. Our hostel was decent, we had a dorm style room which we shared with a crazy but fun couple from Argentina. The hostel provided a meager breakfast (breakfast is kind of ignored in Italy...just coffee and cake usually.) and a free dinner, which was nice. The dinner was small--pasta and wine, but it helped keep our food costs down.
Rome itself was overwhelming. I think that's the best way to put it. The history, the art, the culture--that was incredible. There was soooo much to see, and Jack and I tried to see all of it. The Vatican City was very impressive, and it was surreal seeing these famous works of art in person. The Ancient City and Collosseum were also incredibly impressive--though I took a lot of pictures of ruins, and I know that somewhere in those ruins are many famous things, but I cannot tell you which column belonged to which temple and what not. So...I mean, in theory I saw the Roman Forum, but I don't know which pile of marble it was. One thing that impressed me a lot about Rome too was that, even though it's this huge bustling (and polluted and dirty) city, there were PRISTINE and BEAUTIFUL orange trees lining the streets, filled with perfect looking oranges. Oranges just everywhere! You don't expect to see such fruit on trees while walking in the middle of a big dirty city, I guess.
There were things I didn't like about Rome though--and I probably won't ever choose to go back there. It's hard to explain, but the city felt kinda scammy. Like, everyone was either a tourist, or someone trying to rip a tourist off. You couldn't escape the tourism, the street vendors hawking crap you didn't need. As soon as it started raining, you were chased by men trying to sell you umbrellas. I didn't like that. There was also...an unfriendly vibe that we encountered many times....like, I felt a lot that because people knew we were tourists and americans, they expected us to spend TONS of money. And when we didn't do that, they were rude to us. This happened to an extent in Florence too, but it wasn't as bad. Rome was the worst when it came to that. The sights were impressive though, and I am very happy I had the chance to go.
Florence was where we ate well. Our hostel, sadly, wasn't so great. Our room was very, very tiny...it appeared to be a converted laundry room or bathroom, complete with water hookups in the walls, a water heater for the hostel, and tiled walls. It was bad. My bed was broken. It was between the two bathrooms, and whenever someone flushed a toilet, it was VERY loud in our room. We complained, but that's the room you get there, I guess, when you want the cheapest price. I can see why it was so "cheap." Sigh.
But yes, as I said, we ate well in Florence. Great, great Italian food--fresh pastas, riboletta soup (a thick bread soup, sooooo good), bruschettas, and great wine. We found some decently priced places too (everything in Rome had been much more expensive). But the best food in Florence was the GELATO. We went to the famous Vivoli Gelateria, and it was the most amazing ice cream I've eaten in my life--we went twice. First I tried a nougat flavored concoction with candied nuts and chocolate and all sorts of stuff mixed in, and then the next time i had half rice (yes, rice--like a frozen rice pudding but better!) and half chocolate orange--which was maybe the best thing I've ever tasted in my life. The sites were great in Florence too--seeing David, the Uffizi with all of their famous works--like Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" etc. By the end though, we were a little burned out on the church and artwork overload. Thankfully, Cinque Terre was next.
Cinque Terre is probably the only thing that could get me to go back to Italy. It was that beautiful. The Cinque Terre are five small villiages on the rocky riviera coast, near Genoa. The sites were amazing, the people were friendly, and the wine was unbelievable--I'm not even a wine fan most of the time, but this stuff was good. Our hostel was in a villiage further inland, called Biassa. It was a bit out of the way, but a nice hostel. However, we were visiting this area in the off-season--like the beyond Off-Season. There weren't any other guests in the hostel. So, we had our dorm room to ourselves...we had the whole place to ourselves. It was kind of crazy.
In the morning we took the terrifying winding mountain bus ride to the first of the Cinque Terre--Riogammore. It was very pretty, and from there we hiked on a trail to the second of the 5 Terre, Manarola. In both of these two towns, we mostly just poked around a bit. They were sleepy and peaceful, and while there were a few other visitors, it wasn't too lively. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the atmosphere was just right. From Manarola, we took a very short train ride to Corniglia. We'd wanted to hike, but the trail was closed due to a rock slide. So...train it was. From the trainstation in Corniglia, we had to climb up 382 stairs to get to the villiage. The views from the villiage were amazing--on one side you had cliffs and turquoise sea, the otherside, wine hills and lemon groves. From Corniglia, we went to Vernazza, which ended up being our favorite of the villiages, and where we spent the most time. In Vernazza, we ate an aaaaaamazing lunch--Jack had a pesto pasta dish (the region is famous for being the birthplace of pesto and having the best basil in italy) and the fresh fried catch of the day--he'd never had to debone a fish or peel the legs off of a shrimp, so I had to do these things for him at first. Haha. I had another regional specialty--cheese and basil stuffed ravioli, with a walnut cream sauce. SOOOO good. And of course, we washed it down with the local wine--which was white (yay!). After eating, we hiked into the hills for a while, then went back to the marina to have a glass of wine and watch the waves crash against the rocks. We went to the local Enoteche to buy some wine and pesto to take home--which ended up being more trouble than it was worth, since we'd forgotten that you can't carry liquids onto planes anymore. It all got home okay, but caused a slight panic for us at the airport.
Anyhow, the last of the Terre was Monterosso--we couldn't spend much time there, because we had to catch a bus back to our hostel, but Monterosso was, for me, the least impressive of the Terre--all the others, for instance, didn't allow cars inside the villages, whereas there were little cars buzzing all over Monterosso. It had more of a beach resort feel to it than the others did, and was a lot bigger. Some of the charm was lost, I guess.
Anyhow, that is, in a nutshell, what we did on our Italian vacation. Since then it's just been back to the grind with teaching. Things have been somewhat frustrating for me at my school--things feel a bit stagnant, and it seems like more and more often, no matter how hard I try and how eager and willing I am to be involved in classes, the teachers are losing interest in working with me. I oftentimes get the feeling that they can't be bothered with me. And when they do want me to come to their classes, they only want me to do very small and basic things--like sit there and be a human dictionary. It's discouraging and frustrating for me. For instance, I almost don't want to go to school at all tomorrow, because one of the teachers has already told me she needs to give an exam on wednesday and so tomorrow they will be doing test prep and she doesn't want me there for that, and the other teacher I work with hasn't talked to me about anything and probably won't want me to come either--meaning...I will be going in to work tomorrow with absolutely nothing to do. What is the point in that? And when I have these teachers cancel like this, I always offer to the other teachers that I can come to their classes, maybe work with students I don't get to see so often, but they never want that. It makes me feel kind of worthless sometimes. Like, why am I even here then? To take up space in the teachers lounge? To pump money into the coffee vending machine? I'm just a bit fed up I guess. Fortunately my Fulbright conference is in 2 weeks, and hopefully I will get some fresh ideas on how to deal with this, how to spice things up, how to breathe some fresh air into my situation. I hope.
So...yes. That's about all. Exciting, eh?
Monday, January 22, 2007
eww.
Original To Do list for today:
Wake up at 8:15
Print up Posters, go to school
go to bank
upload phone guthaben
class
prep for tomorrow
Updated To Do list for today, as of 8:15 this morning...
Wake up with an intense soar throat/feeling like you want to curl up and die
Stay in bed for two more hours
Drink Tea, Soup, Heisse Zitrone, Water, Airbourne
not be able to deal with going into school on a day off, will go in early tomorrow
eventually go get guthaben and go to class
go to bank tomorrow
sleep. sleep. sleep.
ugh.
I was having second thoughts on going in to school today anyhow, since when I show up unexpectedly, it's hard for people to suddenly magically find the time to help me/answer the questions i have. So it's probably better that I just go in on Tuesday, as normal, anyhow. It's the difference of only one day (though, i did want to get these posters up on Thursday, and that plan was disrupted by the "storm!" and school closing early.)
I just really need to get money on my phone though. And I could try to go to the bank, but I don't know how to ask for what I need, and that's made harder by the fact that my head is threatening to explode any moment now and I have no voice. So....
In happier news...aside from this cold hitting me full force despite all of my prevention methods, I had a great weekend. Jack came down despite the trains being all crazy this weekend, and on saturday we went to Berlin for the afternoon. Aside from that though, we were just incredibly lazy, in a wonderful way. We finalized our plans for Italy--Venice has been cut from the list. We are instead going to Cinque Terre, because it is closer by train to both milan and florence, and cheaper, and looks like a really cool place to visit (It's on the coast, five rustic villiages, hiking, scenery, nice alternative to the tons of museums we will be seeing...) I can't wait. Just two more weeks!
Wake up at 8:15
Print up Posters, go to school
go to bank
upload phone guthaben
class
prep for tomorrow
Updated To Do list for today, as of 8:15 this morning...
Wake up with an intense soar throat/feeling like you want to curl up and die
Stay in bed for two more hours
Drink Tea, Soup, Heisse Zitrone, Water, Airbourne
not be able to deal with going into school on a day off, will go in early tomorrow
eventually go get guthaben and go to class
go to bank tomorrow
sleep. sleep. sleep.
ugh.
I was having second thoughts on going in to school today anyhow, since when I show up unexpectedly, it's hard for people to suddenly magically find the time to help me/answer the questions i have. So it's probably better that I just go in on Tuesday, as normal, anyhow. It's the difference of only one day (though, i did want to get these posters up on Thursday, and that plan was disrupted by the "storm!" and school closing early.)
I just really need to get money on my phone though. And I could try to go to the bank, but I don't know how to ask for what I need, and that's made harder by the fact that my head is threatening to explode any moment now and I have no voice. So....
In happier news...aside from this cold hitting me full force despite all of my prevention methods, I had a great weekend. Jack came down despite the trains being all crazy this weekend, and on saturday we went to Berlin for the afternoon. Aside from that though, we were just incredibly lazy, in a wonderful way. We finalized our plans for Italy--Venice has been cut from the list. We are instead going to Cinque Terre, because it is closer by train to both milan and florence, and cheaper, and looks like a really cool place to visit (It's on the coast, five rustic villiages, hiking, scenery, nice alternative to the tons of museums we will be seeing...) I can't wait. Just two more weeks!
Friday, January 19, 2007
It's a hurricane!!!
So, yesterday school was dismissed early due to a large rainstorm that was approaching. Apparently, this storm, dubbed Cyril, was the biggest that Europe has seen in years. They were calling it a "hurricane" on the german news.
Now, I understand that it was REALLY bad by European standards. I understand that they don't get storms like that here. And I admit, it was pretty windy....but...there was soooo much fear and sooo much hype and EVERYTHING shut down and so I was expecting something huge.
I guess my "huge" standards are far too American. I mean, we get some bad storms back home. Like, really bad storms. Like, way worse storms than what happened here. That said, we are used to such storms too--we know what to anticipate, we have sirens and t-storm warnings and tornado warnings and all of that stuff. Here there are no tornados, no violent storms rolling in off of lake michigan, none of that. They don't know what to anticipate, how to react, etc. So, I get that, to them, it was bad. But to me...I just couldn't get what all the hype was about. Plus, it did a lot of damage, so I am sure it was far worse in different parts of the country, across europe, etc. But when we were let out of school early, I was kind of nervous, thinking "what kind of storm is this?!" and then...it just didn't seem so bad. But I did nap for a while, so maybe I just slept through the worst parts. Maybe? I do tend to sleep through bad storms at home...so...
Anyhow, what else is new? Jack is supposed to come visit this weekend but the Berlin Hauptbahnhof has been shut down since yesterday, so I just hope he is able to make it here. (Yes, they shut down the main trainstation and no trains were running yesterday). He's supposed to arrive tonight. I hope it works.
In other news, the reading game that I am organizing is coming together quite nicely...there seems to be a lot of interest and some excitement about it. I think it just might work! I hope!
And finally, I woke up this morning with what felt like the start of a cold. I hope not. I am taking preventative measures as we speak. MMM...nothing like a meal of soup washed down with a glass of Airborne!
Now, I understand that it was REALLY bad by European standards. I understand that they don't get storms like that here. And I admit, it was pretty windy....but...there was soooo much fear and sooo much hype and EVERYTHING shut down and so I was expecting something huge.
I guess my "huge" standards are far too American. I mean, we get some bad storms back home. Like, really bad storms. Like, way worse storms than what happened here. That said, we are used to such storms too--we know what to anticipate, we have sirens and t-storm warnings and tornado warnings and all of that stuff. Here there are no tornados, no violent storms rolling in off of lake michigan, none of that. They don't know what to anticipate, how to react, etc. So, I get that, to them, it was bad. But to me...I just couldn't get what all the hype was about. Plus, it did a lot of damage, so I am sure it was far worse in different parts of the country, across europe, etc. But when we were let out of school early, I was kind of nervous, thinking "what kind of storm is this?!" and then...it just didn't seem so bad. But I did nap for a while, so maybe I just slept through the worst parts. Maybe? I do tend to sleep through bad storms at home...so...
Anyhow, what else is new? Jack is supposed to come visit this weekend but the Berlin Hauptbahnhof has been shut down since yesterday, so I just hope he is able to make it here. (Yes, they shut down the main trainstation and no trains were running yesterday). He's supposed to arrive tonight. I hope it works.
In other news, the reading game that I am organizing is coming together quite nicely...there seems to be a lot of interest and some excitement about it. I think it just might work! I hope!
And finally, I woke up this morning with what felt like the start of a cold. I hope not. I am taking preventative measures as we speak. MMM...nothing like a meal of soup washed down with a glass of Airborne!
Saturday, January 13, 2007
bout time...
Okay, okay, I will update my blog. It's been too long, I know. I've been busy though... which isn't a good excuse.
So I have a lot of catching up to do.
Well, first off, I finished applying to grad school, and now I get to just sit back and wait. December was a very busy month for me, but, for the most part, it was a good busy. Just as I was starting to get homesick, it was time for me to come home for the christmas holidays, so that worked out well.
Being home was wonderful. My trip home was quite uneventful--one of the teachers at my school drove me to the airport, which was a really wonderful thing for her to do, since i had to be there really early. All my flights and connections were fine as well. No luggage was lost. I nearly cried when I saw my parents at the airport in kalamazoo, i was so happy ( I don't know if they noticed this or not.) I was a little suprised at how emotional I felt, but it was a very good feeling too. When we got home, they had a jimmy johns veggie sub waiting for me! It was great! Also Daphne did a really adorable double take when she saw me. She was happy :) So I ate and then went to bed...and then woke up at 5am. It's amazing what jet lag will do to you. The next morning, christmas eve, we went to church, and I found out it would be my last time going to church in that building because they were tearing it down to rebuild after easter. That made me kind of sad--I've gone to church in that building my whole life! And I get kind of nostalgic. And, I mean, I'd just come home from Europe, where they don't tear down ANYTHING because it's historical. Haha, how different the U.S. is...not that St. Tom's is historical or special or anything--I just mean, in the U.S. the mentality is always "tear it down and build a new one!" where in Europe it's always "DON'T TEAR ANYTHING DOWN EVER!!!!" even if it isn't anything special. I think though that also has to d o with the fact that when ever they break ground to build they worry about accidentally digging up some old artifacts and then having to wait for the archeologists to come in and decide if they are important artifacts or not before they can build--it can take a while...years sometimes. So I guess they just refurbish to avoid that hassle sometimes. I think. Haha.
Anyhow, Christmas Eve was very nice. It was good being all together. We exchanged a few gifts--I got apples to apples from Nick, and we all played together while listening to the Bill Cosby album Nick gave Dad. I went to bed kinda early again. And woke up kinda early again. I did that for almost a week. Then finally adjusted just before I had to come back here. Meh.
I was very suprised Christmas morning--i wasn't expecting any presents, but Mom and Dad had some tricks up their sleeves. First off, they wrapped all sorts of rediculous but wonderful things--six boxes of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, 2 boxes of beans n rice mix, a tube of lipstick and some eyeshadow from clinique (who wraps something like that? It was great!), some nice mittens and a hat, and a nice caraffe and espresso cup set!! That was a great suprise! I felt very spoiled and special this Christmas--it was so wonderful being home.
Since I was up early the following morning, I went out early with my parents for the after christmas sales. It was kinda overwhelming being out, a bit jetlagged and groggy, and in crowds/american stores. I kept saying "entschuldigung" when I ran into people and getting very strange looks. That night I went out with Alison--we went to Tortilla Flats for their 80's night. We weren't out long, but we did dance and have a good time. It was great to be able to see her a few times when i was home. I miss her. I also was able to hang out with Kapil and Hillary a few times and see Lauren and Matt and Ken and Ryan, while they were on their way to Amber's wedding. That was really great. Speaking of Lauren, Matt, and weddings--they just got engaged and will be getting married this coming summer! Exciting!
On the 30th we drove to the otherside of the state to visit everyone. First we stopped in Ypsi to see Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Margaret and the kids. We ate chinese food and I got to learn all about Bratz dolls from Becca. Then we moved on to Flint to see Grammie. I taught her how to view my blog, so hopefully she is able to read this on her own! We also saw Elliot, who was a great dog--I just found out yesterday from my Mom that he died, which I think is very sad. He was such a wonderful, wonderful dog.
After Grammie's we went to see Pop and Karen, and it was great to see them. Karen gave me the book "A Woman in Berlin" which is next in line on my reading list and looks really good. We had great conversation, and I was kinda sad we had to leave so soon, but we had to take Nick to Clarkston to his friend Jeff's house, since they were flying to California the next morning to go to the Rose bowl. It was kinda sad having to say goodbye to Nick so soon, but i think he had a great time in Cali...even though Michigan got their butts kicked in the game (very disappointing.)
New Years was fun but low-key. I just went out with Hillary to a party at her co-worker's house, and it was nice. There was a cute puppy, everyone was really friendly...nothing too special, but good nonetheless.
New Years day we watched the Rose Bowl looking for Nick. Tuesday Mom and Dad left for Toronto and I was on my own. I went out to dinner with Hillary, which was nice. Then that night I slept in Mom and Dad's room with Daphne. Both tuesday and wednesday the two of us took really, really long walks-- tuesday we went for almost 5 miles, i think...by the end she reeeally wanted to go home. I miss my dog. I was happy she slept in the bed with me that last night.
The next morning I ran around taking care of all the little things, mailing my final grad school things, etc. Then at 2 Mr. Wilson took me to the airport. He helped me with all of my things and even gave me a hug goodbye, which was really nice.
My flights all went really well, and I was bumped up to Business Class for my transatlantic flight!! That was AWESOME! Before we even took off (while we were waiting for luggage to be loaded, taxi-ing, etc.) they served us Champagne! The food was really good, we got all sorts of snacks and drinks and treats, we had tooons of space, and our seats reclined fully into beds! We got little travel bags filled with lotions, socks, eyemasks and earplugs...man, it was my first time ever sleeping on a flight to germany! It was seriously the best. flight. EVER!
However, we did arrive in Munich behind schedule, and I only had 40 minutes to get through customs, security, and to the other terminal for my next flight--I practically ran the whole way and arrived at my gate less than 5 minutes before the scheduled takeoff...only to find that the plane hadn't even arrived at the airport yet and the flight was delayed (none of the boards had said so though! So i'd been running around panicking for nothing! It was my workout though, i guess...) Anyhow, I made it to berlin without any trouble, all of my bags made it, and I got home without any trouble. I was back in my apartment by 1pm german time... which was 24 hours after I woke up to walk Daphne the day before. Whew.
Very late that evening Jack got here in Potsdam. He'd spent the holiday in Paris, and flew from Paris to Berlin, then spent the weekend here in Potsdam with me. It was really nice to see him, but man, since I was already exhausted from my flight, I was kinda annoyed that he didn't get here til about 2am! As a result I slept in until about 3pm on Friday, while he just sat around my room bored all morning ( he caught up on his interneting, i guess.) Then Friday night we went out for a nice dinner at an Indian restaurant here in Potsdam. I had a headache after dinner though, I think from all of the weird sleep and jet lag, so we came back and went to bed early. Saturday we went to Berlin and had a great time. We went to Potsdamer Platz to see the movie The Prestige in the original (english) version. It was a pretty good movie. I thought it was going to be all about Tesla, but it wasn't at all--it was about magicians...though David Bowie as Nikola Tesla was in it. It was good though, I liked it. After the movie we went out to dinner and then came home. It was a really great afternoon and kinda like a real date--very cute. It's probably pretty easy to tell reading this blog, but I really like Jack. He's a good guy. And he likes me...so right now things are going pretty good for me :)
After we got back to Potsdam, we sat down and made some plans. You see, starting the first week of February, we both have a week long vacation, and we wanted to plan a big trip together. So after a lot of debating and looking at all of our options (there is a lot of Europe that we want to see!) we decided to go to Italy! So...from February 3rd til the 12th we will be travelling through Italia! I'm very, very excited. We were able to get a great deal on our flights--We are flying to Rome from Berlin for 20 euros! We will stay in Rome for 4 days, then go to Florence by train. We will see Florence for 3 days, then head to Venice and stay there for 2 nights. Then, monday morning we will take the train to Milan and poke around there for the afternoon before going to the airport there. I will fly back to Berlin (again, for only 20 euros! I LOVE easyjet!), and Jack will fly to Madrid, since his vacation is a week longer than mine. Then he will fly back from Madrid to Berlin on Thursday and stay in Potsdam til Sunday, before taking the train back to Stralsund.
We are very excited. It should be a great time, with great company. I promise to take lots of pictures and write very detailed blog entries all about it.
This first week of being home has gone quite well. I was a bit lonely after Jack left on Sunday, but now I am back into the swing of things. School went great this week, and I am working on a big project for my students--I want to set up a sort of English library, and the students can check out books or articles, and for each article/book they read and write a short report about, they win a prize, such as extra credit or a chocolate bar, etc. They can earn raffle tickets to for a grand prize drawing. I hope it works out.
Wednesday night I hung out with yani and nicky and we made dinner together. Then Yani and I went out to the bar for British Jared's birthday party. In Germany, the tradition is that on your birthday you have to pay for everyone's drinks (kinda a lame tradition if you ask me) so we got to have a few beers on Jared, and I got to meet a few new people (conveniently, I met several Italians that night!) . We left pretty early though, since Thursdays I have to get up very, very early for work. Friday, I went over to hang out with Alisha and Yani and we had a game night, which was fun. We decided we are going to try to have german board game nights to work on our german skills. Today the three of us went to Berlin for the day, and caught a movie. We saw a film called "Mein Fuehrer: the truest true story about Hitler" and it was supposed to be a comedy, or at least, that's how it was advertised, but...I really didn't like this movie. The whole point was, it seemed, to make Hitler look like a pathetic man and be comical. He needed the help of a Jewish man, who was taken out of the Sachsenhausen camp, to prepare for a New Years speech. In the end though, this Jewish man (who is killed at the end) ends up kind of caring for/sympathising for Hitler and Hitler is portrayed in a pathetic way that you're supposed to sypmathize with (he was beat by his father, etc...) and... it just...wasn't what any of us expected. The whole theater was very quiet at the end and I think everyone didn't know what to make of it. It made me quite uncomfortable. In ways, the film pointed out how many other men, such as Goebbels, had just as much, if not more, power than Hitler towards the end of the reich, but...it just seemed very forgiving towards Hitler and no one in the audience seemed to really find that funny at all. Or entertaining. In fact...I was downright disturbed by this film. I don't know if there was something I just flat out missed...but...I know I wasn't the only one NOT laughing.
Anyhow, that's what I've been up to. Now I just have to bide my time before Italy (yaaaaaay!) and I also have several other things to look forward to in the coming months-- next weekend I am going to (hopefully, if it isn't sold out) go see Zap Mama in concert right here in Potsdam, then Jack is coming and we are going ice skating on Saturday. Then Italy, then also in February, Jonathan Safran Foer (an author I really, REALLY like) is speaking at the American Academy in Berlin-Wannsee (which is just outside of Potsdam) so I am going to go see that...and on the 24th of Feb, Thunderbirds are Now! are playing in Berlin, and I've already been in contact with them and we are going to hang out---They used to play at the coffeehouse in albion when I lived there, and originally they were going to stay at my place here, but they just found out that their record label is arranging hotels for them (which is nice)...so I just get to show them around Berlin and party with them, and don't have to worry about them sleeping on my floor.
So yes, exciting things here in Potsdam! I think now I've caught up on everything! I will try to keep updated more though--I find I can write much prettier entries when I'm not so overwhelmed by all that I need to update about!
So I have a lot of catching up to do.
Well, first off, I finished applying to grad school, and now I get to just sit back and wait. December was a very busy month for me, but, for the most part, it was a good busy. Just as I was starting to get homesick, it was time for me to come home for the christmas holidays, so that worked out well.
Being home was wonderful. My trip home was quite uneventful--one of the teachers at my school drove me to the airport, which was a really wonderful thing for her to do, since i had to be there really early. All my flights and connections were fine as well. No luggage was lost. I nearly cried when I saw my parents at the airport in kalamazoo, i was so happy ( I don't know if they noticed this or not.) I was a little suprised at how emotional I felt, but it was a very good feeling too. When we got home, they had a jimmy johns veggie sub waiting for me! It was great! Also Daphne did a really adorable double take when she saw me. She was happy :) So I ate and then went to bed...and then woke up at 5am. It's amazing what jet lag will do to you. The next morning, christmas eve, we went to church, and I found out it would be my last time going to church in that building because they were tearing it down to rebuild after easter. That made me kind of sad--I've gone to church in that building my whole life! And I get kind of nostalgic. And, I mean, I'd just come home from Europe, where they don't tear down ANYTHING because it's historical. Haha, how different the U.S. is...not that St. Tom's is historical or special or anything--I just mean, in the U.S. the mentality is always "tear it down and build a new one!" where in Europe it's always "DON'T TEAR ANYTHING DOWN EVER!!!!" even if it isn't anything special. I think though that also has to d o with the fact that when ever they break ground to build they worry about accidentally digging up some old artifacts and then having to wait for the archeologists to come in and decide if they are important artifacts or not before they can build--it can take a while...years sometimes. So I guess they just refurbish to avoid that hassle sometimes. I think. Haha.
Anyhow, Christmas Eve was very nice. It was good being all together. We exchanged a few gifts--I got apples to apples from Nick, and we all played together while listening to the Bill Cosby album Nick gave Dad. I went to bed kinda early again. And woke up kinda early again. I did that for almost a week. Then finally adjusted just before I had to come back here. Meh.
I was very suprised Christmas morning--i wasn't expecting any presents, but Mom and Dad had some tricks up their sleeves. First off, they wrapped all sorts of rediculous but wonderful things--six boxes of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, 2 boxes of beans n rice mix, a tube of lipstick and some eyeshadow from clinique (who wraps something like that? It was great!), some nice mittens and a hat, and a nice caraffe and espresso cup set!! That was a great suprise! I felt very spoiled and special this Christmas--it was so wonderful being home.
Since I was up early the following morning, I went out early with my parents for the after christmas sales. It was kinda overwhelming being out, a bit jetlagged and groggy, and in crowds/american stores. I kept saying "entschuldigung" when I ran into people and getting very strange looks. That night I went out with Alison--we went to Tortilla Flats for their 80's night. We weren't out long, but we did dance and have a good time. It was great to be able to see her a few times when i was home. I miss her. I also was able to hang out with Kapil and Hillary a few times and see Lauren and Matt and Ken and Ryan, while they were on their way to Amber's wedding. That was really great. Speaking of Lauren, Matt, and weddings--they just got engaged and will be getting married this coming summer! Exciting!
On the 30th we drove to the otherside of the state to visit everyone. First we stopped in Ypsi to see Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Margaret and the kids. We ate chinese food and I got to learn all about Bratz dolls from Becca. Then we moved on to Flint to see Grammie. I taught her how to view my blog, so hopefully she is able to read this on her own! We also saw Elliot, who was a great dog--I just found out yesterday from my Mom that he died, which I think is very sad. He was such a wonderful, wonderful dog.
After Grammie's we went to see Pop and Karen, and it was great to see them. Karen gave me the book "A Woman in Berlin" which is next in line on my reading list and looks really good. We had great conversation, and I was kinda sad we had to leave so soon, but we had to take Nick to Clarkston to his friend Jeff's house, since they were flying to California the next morning to go to the Rose bowl. It was kinda sad having to say goodbye to Nick so soon, but i think he had a great time in Cali...even though Michigan got their butts kicked in the game (very disappointing.)
New Years was fun but low-key. I just went out with Hillary to a party at her co-worker's house, and it was nice. There was a cute puppy, everyone was really friendly...nothing too special, but good nonetheless.
New Years day we watched the Rose Bowl looking for Nick. Tuesday Mom and Dad left for Toronto and I was on my own. I went out to dinner with Hillary, which was nice. Then that night I slept in Mom and Dad's room with Daphne. Both tuesday and wednesday the two of us took really, really long walks-- tuesday we went for almost 5 miles, i think...by the end she reeeally wanted to go home. I miss my dog. I was happy she slept in the bed with me that last night.
The next morning I ran around taking care of all the little things, mailing my final grad school things, etc. Then at 2 Mr. Wilson took me to the airport. He helped me with all of my things and even gave me a hug goodbye, which was really nice.
My flights all went really well, and I was bumped up to Business Class for my transatlantic flight!! That was AWESOME! Before we even took off (while we were waiting for luggage to be loaded, taxi-ing, etc.) they served us Champagne! The food was really good, we got all sorts of snacks and drinks and treats, we had tooons of space, and our seats reclined fully into beds! We got little travel bags filled with lotions, socks, eyemasks and earplugs...man, it was my first time ever sleeping on a flight to germany! It was seriously the best. flight. EVER!
However, we did arrive in Munich behind schedule, and I only had 40 minutes to get through customs, security, and to the other terminal for my next flight--I practically ran the whole way and arrived at my gate less than 5 minutes before the scheduled takeoff...only to find that the plane hadn't even arrived at the airport yet and the flight was delayed (none of the boards had said so though! So i'd been running around panicking for nothing! It was my workout though, i guess...) Anyhow, I made it to berlin without any trouble, all of my bags made it, and I got home without any trouble. I was back in my apartment by 1pm german time... which was 24 hours after I woke up to walk Daphne the day before. Whew.
Very late that evening Jack got here in Potsdam. He'd spent the holiday in Paris, and flew from Paris to Berlin, then spent the weekend here in Potsdam with me. It was really nice to see him, but man, since I was already exhausted from my flight, I was kinda annoyed that he didn't get here til about 2am! As a result I slept in until about 3pm on Friday, while he just sat around my room bored all morning ( he caught up on his interneting, i guess.) Then Friday night we went out for a nice dinner at an Indian restaurant here in Potsdam. I had a headache after dinner though, I think from all of the weird sleep and jet lag, so we came back and went to bed early. Saturday we went to Berlin and had a great time. We went to Potsdamer Platz to see the movie The Prestige in the original (english) version. It was a pretty good movie. I thought it was going to be all about Tesla, but it wasn't at all--it was about magicians...though David Bowie as Nikola Tesla was in it. It was good though, I liked it. After the movie we went out to dinner and then came home. It was a really great afternoon and kinda like a real date--very cute. It's probably pretty easy to tell reading this blog, but I really like Jack. He's a good guy. And he likes me...so right now things are going pretty good for me :)
After we got back to Potsdam, we sat down and made some plans. You see, starting the first week of February, we both have a week long vacation, and we wanted to plan a big trip together. So after a lot of debating and looking at all of our options (there is a lot of Europe that we want to see!) we decided to go to Italy! So...from February 3rd til the 12th we will be travelling through Italia! I'm very, very excited. We were able to get a great deal on our flights--We are flying to Rome from Berlin for 20 euros! We will stay in Rome for 4 days, then go to Florence by train. We will see Florence for 3 days, then head to Venice and stay there for 2 nights. Then, monday morning we will take the train to Milan and poke around there for the afternoon before going to the airport there. I will fly back to Berlin (again, for only 20 euros! I LOVE easyjet!), and Jack will fly to Madrid, since his vacation is a week longer than mine. Then he will fly back from Madrid to Berlin on Thursday and stay in Potsdam til Sunday, before taking the train back to Stralsund.
We are very excited. It should be a great time, with great company. I promise to take lots of pictures and write very detailed blog entries all about it.
This first week of being home has gone quite well. I was a bit lonely after Jack left on Sunday, but now I am back into the swing of things. School went great this week, and I am working on a big project for my students--I want to set up a sort of English library, and the students can check out books or articles, and for each article/book they read and write a short report about, they win a prize, such as extra credit or a chocolate bar, etc. They can earn raffle tickets to for a grand prize drawing. I hope it works out.
Wednesday night I hung out with yani and nicky and we made dinner together. Then Yani and I went out to the bar for British Jared's birthday party. In Germany, the tradition is that on your birthday you have to pay for everyone's drinks (kinda a lame tradition if you ask me) so we got to have a few beers on Jared, and I got to meet a few new people (conveniently, I met several Italians that night!) . We left pretty early though, since Thursdays I have to get up very, very early for work. Friday, I went over to hang out with Alisha and Yani and we had a game night, which was fun. We decided we are going to try to have german board game nights to work on our german skills. Today the three of us went to Berlin for the day, and caught a movie. We saw a film called "Mein Fuehrer: the truest true story about Hitler" and it was supposed to be a comedy, or at least, that's how it was advertised, but...I really didn't like this movie. The whole point was, it seemed, to make Hitler look like a pathetic man and be comical. He needed the help of a Jewish man, who was taken out of the Sachsenhausen camp, to prepare for a New Years speech. In the end though, this Jewish man (who is killed at the end) ends up kind of caring for/sympathising for Hitler and Hitler is portrayed in a pathetic way that you're supposed to sypmathize with (he was beat by his father, etc...) and... it just...wasn't what any of us expected. The whole theater was very quiet at the end and I think everyone didn't know what to make of it. It made me quite uncomfortable. In ways, the film pointed out how many other men, such as Goebbels, had just as much, if not more, power than Hitler towards the end of the reich, but...it just seemed very forgiving towards Hitler and no one in the audience seemed to really find that funny at all. Or entertaining. In fact...I was downright disturbed by this film. I don't know if there was something I just flat out missed...but...I know I wasn't the only one NOT laughing.
Anyhow, that's what I've been up to. Now I just have to bide my time before Italy (yaaaaaay!) and I also have several other things to look forward to in the coming months-- next weekend I am going to (hopefully, if it isn't sold out) go see Zap Mama in concert right here in Potsdam, then Jack is coming and we are going ice skating on Saturday. Then Italy, then also in February, Jonathan Safran Foer (an author I really, REALLY like) is speaking at the American Academy in Berlin-Wannsee (which is just outside of Potsdam) so I am going to go see that...and on the 24th of Feb, Thunderbirds are Now! are playing in Berlin, and I've already been in contact with them and we are going to hang out---They used to play at the coffeehouse in albion when I lived there, and originally they were going to stay at my place here, but they just found out that their record label is arranging hotels for them (which is nice)...so I just get to show them around Berlin and party with them, and don't have to worry about them sleeping on my floor.
So yes, exciting things here in Potsdam! I think now I've caught up on everything! I will try to keep updated more though--I find I can write much prettier entries when I'm not so overwhelmed by all that I need to update about!
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