Okay, so I realized I have wayyyyyyy too many pictures to put up, so I've started a photo website in a addition to this one.
the site is
http://freshbakedbread.shutterfly.com/
So you should go look at what I've started, there isn't much there yet in comparison to all the pictures I've taken, but they take a while to load on this end. They will all be up soon. I hope.
In other news, Luzern is awesome.
Yesterday we took a walking tour around the city and saw the sights, we also took a boat tour around the harbor, that was nice too. There aren't too many exciting things that are typical Luzern that are worth mentioning. Today we went up to the Glacier Garden museum park hall of mirrors sight seeing tower thing. That was a lot of fun. We also went to this shady History museum that was just a bunch of crap that you got to scan with this reader thing that would give you information about whatever you scanned, it was weird.
Other things we encountered: a parade for Luzern's Olympic gymnast that passed us while we were eating dinner last night, it consisted of a marching band of guys in scary person/lion costumes, followed by the girl in a bike taxi and then like 200 people walking behind her. Weird. Then there was the steel drum band that was playing across the street from our hotel in an outdoor concert hall. They played all American classic rock, that was pretty awesome too.
With all this stuff we just keep happening upon, I wonder what we are missing!
The weather here has been absolutely beautiful, as has everything else.
I'm really enjoying this break, it's been nice to get out of Schwaebisch Hall for a few days.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
And on the 46th Day, God said, let there be Mexcian food
You'll never ever ever guess what we had for dinner. Okay you might, but yeah, Interlaken, Switzerland has 1 Mexcian food restaurant, and now my taste buds are happy that they finally got some deliciously spicy food in the form of enchiladas and chips and salsa. So, I am now completely and utterly content. Oh Mexican food, how I missed you.
Anyway, on to a much more boring note. Switzerland is freaking amazing. We started our trip in cold, rainy Bern as you know, but now we are in Interlaken. Yesterday when we got here we went out driving around and literally stumbled upon a cavern inside of the mountains where all the glaciers melt and flow down through the mountains into the streams you find everywhere. That was really awesome. I can't even find words to describe it, maybe walking around inside of a cool natural bridge caverns but with waterfalls and pools of water everywhere? Not really, but that was really something. Then we drove a bit further down the rode and took a cable car up (rather 4 cable cars) up into the Alps and ended up on top of a mountain above the few clouds there were looking out in every direction on mountains, valleys, green and snow, small towns and lakes and so on and so on. That was also something, it was such a beautiful and clear day you could see for kilometers and kilometers. That phrase doesn't work as well as miles and miles, but when in... Switzerland. Anyway, that was one heck of a things to see day.
Today was pretty cool, but it wasn't quite as clear as yesterday so we didn't get views of the same caliber as yesterday. We mostly just drove around for a while, then we found another cable car and took it up another mountain but this time we hiked about half of the way back down before we got back on the cable car. That was a lot of fun, we hiked through some cow pastures and through some really pretty mountainy countryside (I think that contradicts itself, but it makes sense to me) and got really annoyed at all the cows with bells around their necks. And well, some other less interesting stuff happened after that, like sleeping and shopping, but the best part of the day was the Mexican food. That's sad, when food makes my day and I'm in Switzerland? But, oh well, it was delicious, and I'll leave it at that.
Anyway, on to a much more boring note. Switzerland is freaking amazing. We started our trip in cold, rainy Bern as you know, but now we are in Interlaken. Yesterday when we got here we went out driving around and literally stumbled upon a cavern inside of the mountains where all the glaciers melt and flow down through the mountains into the streams you find everywhere. That was really awesome. I can't even find words to describe it, maybe walking around inside of a cool natural bridge caverns but with waterfalls and pools of water everywhere? Not really, but that was really something. Then we drove a bit further down the rode and took a cable car up (rather 4 cable cars) up into the Alps and ended up on top of a mountain above the few clouds there were looking out in every direction on mountains, valleys, green and snow, small towns and lakes and so on and so on. That was also something, it was such a beautiful and clear day you could see for kilometers and kilometers. That phrase doesn't work as well as miles and miles, but when in... Switzerland. Anyway, that was one heck of a things to see day.
Today was pretty cool, but it wasn't quite as clear as yesterday so we didn't get views of the same caliber as yesterday. We mostly just drove around for a while, then we found another cable car and took it up another mountain but this time we hiked about half of the way back down before we got back on the cable car. That was a lot of fun, we hiked through some cow pastures and through some really pretty mountainy countryside (I think that contradicts itself, but it makes sense to me) and got really annoyed at all the cows with bells around their necks. And well, some other less interesting stuff happened after that, like sleeping and shopping, but the best part of the day was the Mexican food. That's sad, when food makes my day and I'm in Switzerland? But, oh well, it was delicious, and I'll leave it at that.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Getting Lost in France and a Rainy Switzerland
Hey all!
So the last week of classes wrapped up nicely, it just sucks to have to say goodbye to almost everyone. I met some really amazing people and it just sucks to think that I will probably never see them again. Anyway, I'm sure there will be plenty of cool new people around next month to meet.
So the parents showed up in schwäbisch hall on Thursday and Friday we left to come to Switzerland. We took the scenic route along the Rhine and through France to see Strassbourg on our way here. And as you may have guessed got lost in France, not too bad, but enough to make me hate France. That and the signs aren't in German, so I was useless. Now I know what it's like to be the parents in Germany and now in Switzerland. Anyway, we went to the Strassbourg Cathedral, it was soooo beautiful (uh oh, here we go with beautiful again) probably the prettiest one I've seen yet. Go look it up.
We finally made it to Switzerland, it has been cold and rainy today and yesterday, but tomorrow it's apparently supposed to be sunny. But I like it here, it is different enough to tell I'm out of Germany, but still really green and surprisingly artsy feeling. Right now we are in Bern, tomorrow we head out to Interlaken. There isn't much to do here as the only reason Bern is even popular is because it's the capital. There was a market today and we walked around with our noses stuck in the Rick Steves guidebook. I'll remember to start uploading pictures again someday, I'm just not on my computer.
Hmm, I had heaven in a skillet today, it was hashbrowns covered in ham egg and cheese, its called something like Röseti, its practically everywhere, I think I know what I am having the rest of the meals here!
I hope all is well back home and you guys aren't getting too much rain from Fay. I sent some postcards the other day and the guy at the post office told me he couldn't send them because there was a hurricane in the way. That's the first German I have met who actually tried to be funny! anyway, miss you all lots.
Take care, send me emails and let me know how you are doing!
love and Röseti
Ann
Almost forgot, anyone else as excited about Joe Biden as I am????
except I signed up for the Obama text and didn't get it. There was no disclaimer about international phones! Totally not fair. The parents think it means Obama doesn't love me or care about my opinions and so I shouldn't vote for him.
So the last week of classes wrapped up nicely, it just sucks to have to say goodbye to almost everyone. I met some really amazing people and it just sucks to think that I will probably never see them again. Anyway, I'm sure there will be plenty of cool new people around next month to meet.
So the parents showed up in schwäbisch hall on Thursday and Friday we left to come to Switzerland. We took the scenic route along the Rhine and through France to see Strassbourg on our way here. And as you may have guessed got lost in France, not too bad, but enough to make me hate France. That and the signs aren't in German, so I was useless. Now I know what it's like to be the parents in Germany and now in Switzerland. Anyway, we went to the Strassbourg Cathedral, it was soooo beautiful (uh oh, here we go with beautiful again) probably the prettiest one I've seen yet. Go look it up.
We finally made it to Switzerland, it has been cold and rainy today and yesterday, but tomorrow it's apparently supposed to be sunny. But I like it here, it is different enough to tell I'm out of Germany, but still really green and surprisingly artsy feeling. Right now we are in Bern, tomorrow we head out to Interlaken. There isn't much to do here as the only reason Bern is even popular is because it's the capital. There was a market today and we walked around with our noses stuck in the Rick Steves guidebook. I'll remember to start uploading pictures again someday, I'm just not on my computer.
Hmm, I had heaven in a skillet today, it was hashbrowns covered in ham egg and cheese, its called something like Röseti, its practically everywhere, I think I know what I am having the rest of the meals here!
I hope all is well back home and you guys aren't getting too much rain from Fay. I sent some postcards the other day and the guy at the post office told me he couldn't send them because there was a hurricane in the way. That's the first German I have met who actually tried to be funny! anyway, miss you all lots.
Take care, send me emails and let me know how you are doing!
love and Röseti
Ann
Almost forgot, anyone else as excited about Joe Biden as I am????
except I signed up for the Obama text and didn't get it. There was no disclaimer about international phones! Totally not fair. The parents think it means Obama doesn't love me or care about my opinions and so I shouldn't vote for him.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Nurnberg and American Politics
So while I sit here and wait and wait and wait for it to be two am, so that I can watch the religious forum here on my computer with all the other weird Americans who are into politics, I thought I would tell make a post to kill some time. This week was pretty uneventful, Monday we made baklava, it was pretty good, not quite as good as Austins moms, but still good none the less. The weather got pretty cold and rainy here this week, it's been nice that it's not really hot any more, but it's August, it shouldn't be so cold yet! I've had to wear my fleece jacket to stay warm the past couple of days. I started looking into the classes I want to take in Vienna since I have to decide that soon. I'm trying to decide betwee taking a couple of Econ classes, one I need to take and another on the European economy, perhaps a math class, a sociology class, waltzing and I'm really tempted to take a class on Luther's theology, there are like 10 times the amount of classes to choose from than at AC, but the hard part is figuring out what I think I'll be able to understand in German.
So every weekend there is an excursion offered by the Goethe Institute to another city somewhere nearby, this weekends was to Nurnberg and I actually went! I was so traveled out after the first two weeks here that I didn't want to go to the other two, one was to Stuttgart the other to Wurzenberg. But today was a lot of fun. We had a really good tour guide, who I actually understood lead us around the city and give us the history. We ate some Nurnberger Sausage, probably the best sausage I've had since I've been here. We went to a toy museum too, that was pretty neat, there's been one in every city and we finally decided it was worth it to go when I wasn't the one paying for it. It wasn't the best thing ever, but it was still neat to see the progression of toys.
Classes end here on Wednesday for this semester and then the parents come back on Thursday so we can go to Switzerland for 10 days before the next month here at the Goethe Institute.
Time is just flying by here like you wouldn't believe, I can't believe the first month here is already just about finished, it seems like it just started yesterday!
I miss you guys,
take care
Ann
So every weekend there is an excursion offered by the Goethe Institute to another city somewhere nearby, this weekends was to Nurnberg and I actually went! I was so traveled out after the first two weeks here that I didn't want to go to the other two, one was to Stuttgart the other to Wurzenberg. But today was a lot of fun. We had a really good tour guide, who I actually understood lead us around the city and give us the history. We ate some Nurnberger Sausage, probably the best sausage I've had since I've been here. We went to a toy museum too, that was pretty neat, there's been one in every city and we finally decided it was worth it to go when I wasn't the one paying for it. It wasn't the best thing ever, but it was still neat to see the progression of toys.
Classes end here on Wednesday for this semester and then the parents come back on Thursday so we can go to Switzerland for 10 days before the next month here at the Goethe Institute.
Time is just flying by here like you wouldn't believe, I can't believe the first month here is already just about finished, it seems like it just started yesterday!
I miss you guys,
take care
Ann
Sunday, August 10, 2008
1 month mark!
Hey Everybody
So this week has been pretty relaxing. I didn't do too much exciting, well you know, other than learn german! whoo! Anyway, I'm still having a really good time here, I might actually have some pictures for you guys soon, maybe, let's hope. Anyway, this week was pretty much filled with reading the 4th book in the Twilight series. Which I successfully ordered in German, so there was some German involved in that. I played some soccer with a whole bunch of kids the other day, that was a lot of fun, I mean I totally sucked compared to everyone else, but it was still a lot of fun.
mmmm, today we went for a long long long walk around the countryside and ended up 3 towns over. We had fun and it was good to see the countryside.
Anyway, this is we are going to see a swing related musical, I'm pretty stoked about that.
I'm still loving it here, the weather is getting better every day, it's actually tolerable now, well more than tolerable, it's actually beautiful, I could spend all day outside, oh wait, I did.
Anyway, Much love from Germany. I miss you all.
Ann
So this week has been pretty relaxing. I didn't do too much exciting, well you know, other than learn german! whoo! Anyway, I'm still having a really good time here, I might actually have some pictures for you guys soon, maybe, let's hope. Anyway, this week was pretty much filled with reading the 4th book in the Twilight series. Which I successfully ordered in German, so there was some German involved in that. I played some soccer with a whole bunch of kids the other day, that was a lot of fun, I mean I totally sucked compared to everyone else, but it was still a lot of fun.
mmmm, today we went for a long long long walk around the countryside and ended up 3 towns over. We had fun and it was good to see the countryside.
Anyway, this is we are going to see a swing related musical, I'm pretty stoked about that.
I'm still loving it here, the weather is getting better every day, it's actually tolerable now, well more than tolerable, it's actually beautiful, I could spend all day outside, oh wait, I did.
Anyway, Much love from Germany. I miss you all.
Ann
Sunday, August 3, 2008
A really long update
So, I finally found some time to fill you guys in on what I’ve been up to! So I guess I left off from Salzburg. From Salzburg we went to Munich, which I enjoyed a whole lot more than Salzburg. I was used to being in much smaller cities and being in a large city was weird and I was starting to miss the quiet atmosphere that comes with smaller cities. But Munich was really enjoyable. We got there and took a bus tour around the city to get acquainted with it. They did the tour in both English and German so it was fun to listen to the German and see how much I understood when they repeated it in English. After the bus tour we went to have some sausage, because at that point we really hadn’t actually had any yet. But in the middle of our dinner it started pouring down rain, and then it started hailing on us! It was so weird! The next day, we went back to several of the sites we saw on the bus tour: to Nymphenburger Palace, the Olympic Park from the ’72 Olympics and the BMW museum. Munich is a really cool city, and absolutely beautiful, there were a lot more trees, parks and flowers than there were in Salzburg and it was just all around a nicer place to be.
After Munich, on our way to Rothenburg, we went to Dachau, the first concentration camp. I could have spent a much longer time there than we did. The museum was so interesting- it had a lot of information on the history, to personal stories, and there was a film about the camp also. It was really eerie being there, just knowing what had previously gone on in that place. It made me really uneasy most of the time I was there. Walking through the living quarters, the prison, and the crematorium, really just being there in general was difficult.
Rothenburg was really cool. It’s a medieval town, still “preserved” from the 1400’s. By preserved I mean, after WWII the parts that were destroyed were reconstructed to resemble what the town looked like 500 years before. It was a really beautiful city- we didn’t do much there, we took a tour with the night watchman, who was this funny guy who dressed up as the night watchman and took us on a tour of the city from “his eyes.” It was pretty funny, we walked around the city wall, had some delicious ice cream, really just enjoyed the scenery.
Then on Sunday night we came to Schwabish Hall- we tried to find the Goethe Institute and had dinner and pretty much just crashed. Monday was registration, so once we finally found the Institute, the parents left to head to Frankfurt so they could go to Stockholm for their cruise the next day and I had like 3 hours of German testing. I had an interview, a multiple choice grammar section and a writing section to figure out what class I should be in. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, in fact it was a lot like what we did in class at school. Truett actually did some good teaching! Anyway, I am in the 6th of 11 levels.
I really like my class. It will definitely help to improve my grammar skills and really already has. It’s like everything I’ve ever learned how to do in German is finally being explained to me so that I can reproduce it for more than just the in class exercises, like with Truett. One of my friends who is in the Vienna program with me, and lives across the hall is in class with me. Our teacher is from Turkey so the other day we went and played backgammon for a while, that was pretty awesome.
My roommate is pretty cool, can you guys believe it- I finally have a good roommate! She is from the Ukraine. We get along really well and are learning a lot from each other. There are 6 of us on the floor, My roommate, Lilja and I, the boy from my program Anadin and his roommate Alex who is from Romania, Pelle who is from Sweden and an older woman named Svetlana who is from Russia. We all get along well and spend most of our time together. Anadin has been cooking a lot for us, so it’s been good to get some homecooked meals again.
My days have pretty much been about the same everyday, I get up at 6:30, that’s right before most of you go to sleep, I have breakfast at the institute, have class from 8:15-12:45- we have a break ever hour and a half- eat lunch at the institute, the usually take a nap because it’s too hot to do anything else, do my homework, make dinner and then after that we have done something different every night. One day I walked around the city exploring some, another day we went and played pool, another we had a small get together sponsored by the school, another day we went to play backgammon, and yesterday night there was a big dance party offered by the school.
I’ve really been enjoying myself here, it has been really cool to get to meet and learn about people from all over the world. It’s been interesting trying to acclimate to the German culture, from figuring out what is on a menu, to checking out at the grocery store, to water bottle returns for cash, there’s something new everyday that I learn about the culture that I had no idea about before. It’s really cool to get to experience something that in a lot of ways is completely different than what I am used to.
Phew, I’m sorry that is so long and that it has been so long since I have posted something.
I love it here : )
Miss you all,
Love
Ann
After Munich, on our way to Rothenburg, we went to Dachau, the first concentration camp. I could have spent a much longer time there than we did. The museum was so interesting- it had a lot of information on the history, to personal stories, and there was a film about the camp also. It was really eerie being there, just knowing what had previously gone on in that place. It made me really uneasy most of the time I was there. Walking through the living quarters, the prison, and the crematorium, really just being there in general was difficult.
Rothenburg was really cool. It’s a medieval town, still “preserved” from the 1400’s. By preserved I mean, after WWII the parts that were destroyed were reconstructed to resemble what the town looked like 500 years before. It was a really beautiful city- we didn’t do much there, we took a tour with the night watchman, who was this funny guy who dressed up as the night watchman and took us on a tour of the city from “his eyes.” It was pretty funny, we walked around the city wall, had some delicious ice cream, really just enjoyed the scenery.
Then on Sunday night we came to Schwabish Hall- we tried to find the Goethe Institute and had dinner and pretty much just crashed. Monday was registration, so once we finally found the Institute, the parents left to head to Frankfurt so they could go to Stockholm for their cruise the next day and I had like 3 hours of German testing. I had an interview, a multiple choice grammar section and a writing section to figure out what class I should be in. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, in fact it was a lot like what we did in class at school. Truett actually did some good teaching! Anyway, I am in the 6th of 11 levels.
I really like my class. It will definitely help to improve my grammar skills and really already has. It’s like everything I’ve ever learned how to do in German is finally being explained to me so that I can reproduce it for more than just the in class exercises, like with Truett. One of my friends who is in the Vienna program with me, and lives across the hall is in class with me. Our teacher is from Turkey so the other day we went and played backgammon for a while, that was pretty awesome.
My roommate is pretty cool, can you guys believe it- I finally have a good roommate! She is from the Ukraine. We get along really well and are learning a lot from each other. There are 6 of us on the floor, My roommate, Lilja and I, the boy from my program Anadin and his roommate Alex who is from Romania, Pelle who is from Sweden and an older woman named Svetlana who is from Russia. We all get along well and spend most of our time together. Anadin has been cooking a lot for us, so it’s been good to get some homecooked meals again.
My days have pretty much been about the same everyday, I get up at 6:30, that’s right before most of you go to sleep, I have breakfast at the institute, have class from 8:15-12:45- we have a break ever hour and a half- eat lunch at the institute, the usually take a nap because it’s too hot to do anything else, do my homework, make dinner and then after that we have done something different every night. One day I walked around the city exploring some, another day we went and played pool, another we had a small get together sponsored by the school, another day we went to play backgammon, and yesterday night there was a big dance party offered by the school.
I’ve really been enjoying myself here, it has been really cool to get to meet and learn about people from all over the world. It’s been interesting trying to acclimate to the German culture, from figuring out what is on a menu, to checking out at the grocery store, to water bottle returns for cash, there’s something new everyday that I learn about the culture that I had no idea about before. It’s really cool to get to experience something that in a lot of ways is completely different than what I am used to.
Phew, I’m sorry that is so long and that it has been so long since I have posted something.
I love it here : )
Miss you all,
Love
Ann
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