Skiing

1. I just figured out how to switch my keyboard to German! This is super exciting and useful. Now I can use ümläüts, and don't have to think about buying a German keyboard.

2. I went skiing yesterday! It was super super fun but now I hurt a LOT. I had such a good time though that it was definitely worth all the pain.
We left Bad Godesberg around 10, took a couple trains and a bus, and ended up in Neuss at the Skihalle (it was an indoor place) around noon. After crazy amounts of waiting (since there were like 25 of us), we got our skis/snowboards/pants/jackets/shoes. I decided to try skiing (as opposed to snowboarding) because everyone said that would be easier and I'd feel more accomplished at the end of the day. Ski boots are SO HEAVY and once you put them on you can't move your feet or ankles at all, so walking was really hard and awkward. But I guess it makes sense, because it keeps you from doing things like breaking your ankles. Skis are heavy too, but by the time you're wearing them you're on the snow so you don't really have to pick them up and walk.

So the first time I tried going up the beginner slope (after a few runs down the kiddie one, haha), I fell off of the j-bar (pictured) immediately after getting on it, and they had to stop it from running while I crawled to the side and tried to stand up. Happily, things went much better after that, or at least, I learned from all the mistakes that I made. There were a lot of people there when we first started skiing (~1 pm), but by 4 it had cleared out a little bit. I probably went down the beginner slope maybe 10 times? while we were there and after lunch, when Courtney taught me how to actually slow down and stop I even made it down a few times without falling! After 3 times without falling I decided maybe it was time to try the intermediate one (which was just twice as far up the same hill as the beginner one)... that was fun, but may have been a poor choice, as I ended up skiing with my face about halfway down, skidded to a stop in front of a group of people learning how to snowboard, and tried to get up for about 5 minutes before actually succeeding. But I'm glad I tried it! Since so many people are from places where skiing doesn't really exist (Brazil, Saudi Arabia, etc.), I wasn't the only one doing it for the first time, which was nice. Later when we got home we spent probably an hour talking about how much we had fallen and how much dignity we had lost. My legs and abs and shoulders are really really sore today, but I would totally do it again! I should definitely go on Ski Trip during winter break next year.

Today has been nice and relaxing so far. I woke up at 1 pm (yayyy Sundays) and have just been doing emails/Facebook/semi-productive but not stressful things all day. I bought my train ticket to Dresden today... bleh spending money, but yay travel soon! It's going to be a pain to have my suitcases with me, but with the train I booked I only have to change once in Mainz and then spend 6 hours on the ICE the rest of the way to Dresden. If everything goes well I will be there around 6 pm.

Since the last day of class is Wednesday, but I'm not going to Dresden until Sunday, I'm thinking about doing some day trips because I won't be back in this area of Germany for a long time, if ever (at least on this trip). Any suggestions? I'm thinking about maybe going to Düsseldorf for a day, or back to Köln because there's so much there to explore. If there's anything in the Bonn area that I should definitely check out, let me know!

Eishockey!

Yesterday I went to an ice hockey game in Cologne at an arena about as big as the United Center. The Koelner Haie (sharks) played the Berliner Eisbaeren (polar bears), and since the Haie were the home team, there were a looot of fans there. It was different from the Blackhawks games I've been to... for one thing, there was FIRE in the pre-game show (like when they play music before the team comes out, and stuff). It was awesome. Also, when the team came onto the rink, they skated out through an inflatable shark's mouth. And their mascot was skating around waving a flag. An ice-skating, flag-waving shark is probably the coolest thing I've ever seen.

The game itself was pretty quiet; the only noise in the arena came from fans yelling, which they did a lot, but we were far away and up high in the cheap 15 euro seats. It was neat that all the noise was produced by people though; I think it is the sort of thing the Blackhawks people tried to get the drumline to do last year, except they were dumb about it. At this game there were 3 people with drums sitting in the superfan section and they played a lot and the audience interacted and clapped along and stuff, kind of like how we do cheers at football games, but better. It was also fun how into it everyone was; when the team was coming out, the announcer only said every player's first name and everyone in the arena yelled the last name.

After the game we decided to stay in Cologne and go to a restaurant. Cesar, the Peruvian guy, wanted to go to this Peruvian/Latin American restaurant he had heard about, so we tried to do that. It took about an hour to find the place because first we had to get the address, then take the train to where it was, then ask about 5 people where the street was because we had no map, but none of them had ever even heard of the street or the restaurant, and Cesar had to call the restaurant a few times to ask how to get there... it was annoying and we were all getting kind of cranky, but eventually we found it, and it was REALLY good and REALLY worth it. I tried cevice (which is much tastier than its description makes it sound), chicha morada (a drink made from purple corn), and Inca Cola (soda that is apparently canned in the US, but not sold anywhere I've seen) and they were really good, as was my dinner. It's comforting to know that real Mexican/South American food does exist in Germany, because last time I was here I couldn't find any, except the kind that had peas and corn and carrots in it. Which isn't really that Mexican, except the corn, but even that was Germanified. But this restaurant was really really really good.

Today has been nice so far. The sun was out earlier, making today the third day since getting here that I have seen blue sky. So I appreciate it when it happens. I don't really know what else I'm going to do today, because I've already eaten and finished my homework... maybe I'll go wander around town or something.

Tschuss!

Man, it's hard to believe another week has gone by. Time is so fast here! I didn't do as much because I got sick (along with everyone else I hang out with, because we all spend so much time together...), but here is a quick rundown of this week (note - I have class from 8:30-1 every day and then usually nap, buy groceries, or do homework in the afternoons, so this is mostly about my evenings):

Sunday: Saw Fame (auf Deutsch!) with my roommate. We decided Sunday movies are fun because it's a relaxing way to spend the afternoon, there's nothing else to do because everything else is closed, and we hear more German than if we just hung out at home all day.
Weekdays - class from 8:30-1; pretty much all I'll talk about here is
Monday: nothing too much; stayed in and watched Charlie Bartlett with Pat, Monica, and Courtney after I made dinner for everyone. They'd never seen it before, but they liked it, so yay. This was the day everyone got sick, pretty much.
Tuesday: went bowling! German bowling alleys are so much nicer than American ones. After that we went to the Irish Pub again and Marcel taught me how to play darts.
Wednesday: didn't do very much - just went out for dinner and came home, because everyone was sick and tired. Dinner was delicious though; I had curried chicken with pineapple and rice. I'd like to find a German restaurant around here someday though...
Thursday: Went to the history museum in Bonn after class. It's really really huge and covers German history from WWII-present. I think it would have been more interesting if I knew more German, because pretty much everything involved only reading. It was cool though. Lucia (from Spain) made us Spanish food for dinner.
Friday: After school I went with Courtney and Kevin to this cute little cafe down the street from my house that we have been meaning to visit for a long time. Its sandwiches are quite delicious and I will definitely be going back. It was Pat and Mark's last night in Bad Godesberg (since they were only doing the 2-week program) so we had a party at home and then met up with other people from Goethe in Bonn around midnight. I'm going to miss Mark a lot because we always sit together in class and make fun of each other, but now that won't happen anymore :(
Today (Saturday): Woke up around 10, made some pancakes, then a bunch of us went with Pat to Bonn to say goodbye and then go shopping. Shopped til we got tired and then came back home, where I have been uploading pictures to Facebook and talking to my parents on Skype. I don't think there's much of a plan for tonight, but tomorrow I might go to a hockey game in Cologne.

Ich bin muede, aber Bad Godesberg/Bonn/Koeln sind sehr toll!

Man, this week has been long. I'm actually glad I have class in the mornings though because then I have the whole afternoon free to wander around town, go grocery shopping, hang out, etc. I went to Bonn a few times this week, once to go to a few bars with Goethe people and the Zivis (CA-like people who live in the dorms and fix any problems we have), and once (yesterday) to see some of the Sehenswuerdigkeiten of the city, like Beethoven's house, the alte Rathaus, and the university. We walked around a lot, got coffee in the student cafe, and I bought some new earrings. I'm really glad I brought my ridiculous Evanston coat because it's been really cold here and everyone with smaller coats has been complaining about being cold all the time.

Last night we went out to dinner and then into Bonn and ended up at this bar that used to be a restaurant. It was super crowded and kind of expensive, but fun. When I woke up at 10 this morning to go to Koeln I wished I hadn't stayed up so late (not like I went to bed at 5 am or anything...), but I'm glad I woke up early and went. The first thing you see when you get there is the Koelner Dom (cathedral), which is really old and really cool. We paid the 2 euros to get into the treasury, which was totally worth it. There are old shiny religious things dating back to like 1400. There was a lot in the exhibits about the church's history too, like how construction began around 1100 but didn't finish until 1850 or so. That's a long project. Koeln has SO MANY STORES, and ALL of them have sales in January. Things in Germany only go on sale twice a year - in January and July. So everything is like 50-70% off, and it's killing me because I don't have any space to buy anything. I guess at least it is saving me money. I wish we'd had more time there because one day isn't nearly enough to see everything - there are so many museums and so much history. Maybe I'll go back sometime. I'll put up some pictures of Koeln and Bonn soon.

Tonight we are going to stay in and I think the Brazilian girls are going to teach us how to dance, because it's cold outside, snowing a lot, and they are good at dancing. Should be fun!

Erste Tage

Hi everybody! Instead of answering many emails a day about what I'm up to, you guys can just read all about it here.

Yesterday was pretty crazy ridiculous. My plane landed in Frankfurt at 11 after a bumpy flight full of noisy crying children (okay, just one, but he was 2 rows in front of me). I got through baggage claim and passport control at noon, which was kind of a bummer because the nonstop train to Bonn leaves at 11:58 every day. When I went to buy a ticket for the next train, though, the 11:58 train was running 15 minutes late. So I took that and it worked out well, except for the part where I had 2 huge suitcases and all the Europeans judged me. When I got to Bonn I took a cab from the train station to the Goethe Institut in Bad Godesberg (about 15 minutes south) and got all registered and placement tested for class. All the teachers commented on how tired I looked and I didn't do very well on the placement tests, but they might move me up since I explained that I had just flown in from Chicago and hadn't really slept at all. I'll know more after class tomorrow.

My dorm/house is about a 10 minute walk from Goethe, and I think about 10-15 people live here. My room has its own bathroom, which is nice. Last night after the new people got all settled in and unpacked the students who have been here for a few weeks made us dinner and had a party for us. It was a really good time and everyone was really friendly. They got a mini-keg to go with dinner since it was cheaper than bottles of beer and when they tried to open it, it exploded all over everyone in the room... welcome to Germany, here's your beer shower! After dinner we all talked (there were like 15 of us) until about 10, and then my roommate and I were too tired to stay up much longer so we went to bed.

Did I mention my roommate is from Australia? She is. She's really cool. I love how international everyone is here. Last night I met a guy also from Australia, a guy from London, some girls from Brazil, a girl from India (who is 23 and here for an internship with a shoe designer - so cool!! I told her to design some shoes in a size 44), a few guys from Japan and China (they were the ones who made us dinner), and of course some German guys (they work at Goethe). We all felt guilty for speaking English instead of German but whenever anyone would try it was so hard to have a conversation because none of us quite know exactly how to say what we want to say.

Today was the first day of class, which was pretty uneventful. I like German classes because every 1 1/2 hours there is a 15- or 30-minute break. After lunch we went on a walking tour of Bad Godesberg. There's a castle that was built in the 1100s on the hill in the middle of the town, y'know, just hangin out, bein all old and visited. It was destroyed in the 1500s by some Bavarians and never rebuilt but now it's a restaurant and hotel. The stairs were too snowy and steep to climb all the way up, but we're planning on going up there one day. The rest of the town is super cute - there's a Fussgaengerzone like in Freiburg with shops and a movie theater and stuff, and I counted I think 4 ice cream shops while we were walking around. There's also a Tchibo so maybe I'll stop in there and put more money on my phone since there's none on it. There's a T-mobile store right next door so maybe I'll just get a new phone, I dunno (mom and dad - thoughts?).

Tonight the boys at the other dorm (Mark from London and Patrick from Australia) are making everyone dinner so I'll be going over there soon. It's nice not to have to cook but I don't want to go outside... it's coooold. But maybe the heat works over there. It's kind of broken/nonfunctional in this house. Right now I'm wearing slippers, socks, leggings, pants, a sweater, and a blanket, and I'm comfortable but still a little chilly. Anyway. I think after dinner we are going to go out and see if there are any good pubs around... I love Germany. All the people I've met so far are so much fun to hang out with!

We are toying with the idea of visiting Amsterdam this weekend... we'll see if that actually works out or not. I think it'd be a lot of fun and it's so close by train. If we don't do that, there is a trip into Cologne for sightseeing and shopping and stuff so that would be fun too. In a couple weeks there is a ski trip on a Saturday so I'm really excited for that since skiing in Europe was one of the things on my list of things to do.

I'll put up some pictures soon, but not right now, since I haven't taken enough for it to be worth uploading them onto my computer yet.

Go 'Cats.