| France |
[Jun. 16th, 2008|01:08 pm] |
So, before we get into France, I must discuss my first German movie theatre experience.
Stephanie decided weeks ago that we wanted to go and see Sex and the City when it came out in Germany. So on Wednesday we went out and found the movie theatre. Neither of us had been to a German movie theatre and were a little confused when they wanted to know if we wanted to sit vor or hinter (front or back). As it turns out, you have assigned seats, like you were at a concert, plane or stadium. Like row 35 seat 16. We decided to ignore this rule and sat down where we wanted. We moved three times because people kept coming and saying "Das ist mein Platz". Finally we settled in an unreserved seat and prepared to watch. The movie theatre was pretty empty, there was only about 30 people in a 100 person theatre, so it was funny that it wasn't first come first serve. Oh and yes, you can take a beer to the movies, or a cocktail of course.
The movie was dubbed in German, there were 15 minutes of commercials then another 15 of previews. Needless to say that by the time the movie was actually on, we were almost ready to walk out. We sat there with our ears pricked in order to at least catch a little of the story line. Luckily, it wasn't that difficult. For one, it was pretty apparent what was going on, it was also apparent that it was a pretty bad movie. Although, the numerous sex and the city sex scenes as well as the clothing made up for the lack of comprehension or interest. We kept turning to eachother and were like -"did you get that?"...-"um no" -"neither did I, damn!". All in all, besides the weird Germanness and not understanding it, it was a lot of fun. I understood a lot more than I thought I would.
The next day after classes I headed off to France.
I took my trip with Ryan air. This means: it's cheap but almost so much trouble that you'd rather pay the extra money. Pretty much if you want to fly on a Friday or Sunday it's really expensive and you must also fly at ungodly hours. This is after taking a twp hour bus out of whatever city the airport is supposed to be in and ending up in the middle of nowhere.
After leaving Kassel at 130, I arrived in the Frankfurt Hahn flughafen at 1800 and prepared to go through customs.
I keep forgetting about that whole liquids in a ziploc bag rule. Same goes for the no water bottle rule. I had a 1L bottle of sprizzy water with me and when I went into the line up, the guy told me I had to either throw it away or drink it. I ended up (miraculously) downing it in 2 minutes. The burps lasted for much longer. Going through customs with my liquids was also fun. I had put my face cream and sunscreen in minature ziploc bags because the original containers were bigger than 100mL. The German bag-searcher guy looked at me like I was completely demented when I told him what was in there and why, but let me go. This was after I told him that "mein Deutsch ist schlectlich" (terrible). Perhaps now he equates terrible German with slightly insane British girls (I was flying with my British Passport).
It was a long trip, but it was fabulous to finally see Eva at the other end. Her and her chum (boyfriend) Francois picked me up in their car and we drove back to their small but lovely apartment near downtown and the aquaduct. There we proceeded to speak French, drink beer all while Francois (who is a cook) whipped up an amazing French meal.
It was pretty impossible at first to get all of the German words out of my French. For some reason it was impossible for my brain to figure out that aber (but) and shöne (nice, pretty, cool, excellent, beautiful, -yes the Germans overuse this word) were NOT French words. For some reason Francois thought this was exceptionally entertaining and teased me.
We had this amazing dinner of Organic roast pork with potatoes and white daikon radish. It was really excellent. Oh and salad and goat cheese, a bottle of red wine and appetizers. For dessert we had this egg custard fruit dish. Around 1am, the pulled out the futon for me and we all headed to bed.
The next day, I slept in until 11 or something ridiculous like that. We had some breakfast and then headed out to shop. I bought this shirt that said "insupportable" on the front and "mais indispensable". This is all very fine as in French that roughly translated out to "You can't live with me...but you can't live without me". Unfortunately, in English, having "insupportable" emblazoned on your chest implies something different. Maybe I should have realised that before I bought it...
That evening, Francois offered to take us to the beach and also have us come eat dinner at the restaurant that he worked at. We wandered around there for a few hours and I bought a purse covered with strawberries for 6euros. I fell madly in love with it, it doesn't quite stand up to my Sophia Loren and Jane Mansfield one, but comes close.
So we were for dinner at the restaurant. It was all seafood. We started with fish soup, salad and muscat (sweet aperitif wine). Then I had this kind of Boullabaise and Eva had a Pierrad. This is where they bring this really hot slab of rock to your table as well as a plate of raw fish or meat and vegetables. There you cook your own food at your table. It was all very delicious and there was far too much food.
After the meal, we went home and were in bed by 11. The next morning, we went to a French Saturday market. This means there's about 20 different booths of meat, cheese, olives, clothes, jewlery, vegetables, fruit...etc...etc... it was amazing and there was so much to see, smell and taste. I bought some saucissons and goat cheese as those were the things I miss the most about France.
Eva introduced me to Helmut and his wife Annie. He was German and she was Chinese. They had spent that last 30 or so years sailing and living around the world and homeschooling their two children. He had been all over Vancouver Island and owned a place in Nelson. He told me about his time in Campbell River and wanted to know where I lived. When I told him I came from a small Gulf Island, he said " Oh, Saltspring?" and I was pretty sure that he (like everyone else, including those people from Parksville) had never heard of Lasqueti. But, when I told him, his eyes lit up and he said, "Oh the best pot, and do they still have acid parties?" It turns out he'd spent some time there about 25 years ago when that was in full swing (not that it still isn't, but...).
We spent the next few hours discussing Canada in general which he said was his favourite place; homeschooling; life; boating etc... His two children were 16 and 18 I think and both working like mad on finishing their highschool as they hadn't had much instruction of the legal paper kind and couldn't get into UBC. Him and his wife were lovely and he reminded me of most of the 60ish Lasqueti men that I've known forever. It was really nice to meet someone who has some idea of where I come from and how different where I am is.
He ended up inviting us to do some kind of natural herb drug with him and his wife...I've heard of it but can't remember the name now...something Chinese perhaps. He also wanted me to come hom and meet his two sons. Luckily or unluckily, I was leaving that evening and was unable to attend. At this point, a slightly horrified Eva dragged me away from him and went home to drop off our purchases and have a bit of lunch.
After that we went into the centre of the city to see the Gay Pride Parade. I had never been to one in Canada, but I doubt they could outdo the enthusiasm and flamboyantness of this parade. There were all kinds of people dressed up in the most amazing outfits. There were all these signs in French that I didn't completely understand. Eva showed me the place where I could find the crossdressing prostitutes. Then we wandered home.
By the time we returned from the parade, it was almost time to leave. They drove me to the Montpellier airport where I proceeded to wait for a few hours. It was a little worrisome as it was crawling with uniformed men with these huge machine guns. It didn't make me feel safer, just more like sitting quietly and not doing anything suspicious. I'm not sure why they needed them as only Ryanair and Airfrance fly into there and only maybe 4 times a day at that. I guess people who take Ryanair are a little more suspicious and broke.
While waiting in the airport I bought a few cheap French tabloid magazines as well as a smutty book in French that I have yet to read.
The flight was alright as I tried to look pretty weird (wasn't too hard) so nobody sat beside me (unlike German movie theatres, Ryanair planes are first come first serve). I ended up sleeping across the three seats I had to myself.
I arrived in Frankfurt Hahn (airport in the middle of nowhere) around 10pm and waited to catch a bus to the city of Frankfurt. As soon as I boarded the bus, I promptly fell asleep.
My awakening and further adventures to follow soon...
bisous, m |
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| Where were we...? |
[Jun. 14th, 2008|03:55 pm] |
Okay, today it's raining. A perfect day for catching up on two weeks of happenings.
So after only three hours of sleep, I arose feeling a lot less worse than I thought I would. I spent the remaining few hours in Berlin wandering around trying to remember how long it takes from one to crash after sleeping so little...
At noon the group of us who were going to Hamburg met at the Jugendherberg and found the Berlin Hauptbahnhof. We sat down on the train and then the fun began. It was roasting, swelteringly hot. We were pretty sure we were going to melt, well at least I was. It must have been above 30 in there. I'm not sure who came up with air conditioning, but obviously when this train was made it didn't exist. Being a little food obsessed, I had brought along a snack. A warning: gorgonzola and the hot sun are not a good combination. The smell was...amazing...feet...
Luckily the heat made it easy to sleep and I passed out for a while. Then I proceeded to pour water on myself and eat the huge cucumber that I'd also packed (I'd bought it more for entertainment value, but it was good to eat too).
We finally arrived in Hamburg and couldn't figure out how to get to the Youth hostel. About an hour later, we found it and realised that we'd taken the extra long, slightly backwards, circular route.
After collapsing there and sneaking the extra person into our room (we were 7 but only had 6 beds), we headed off to explore Hamburg.
We explored a whole bunch and obviously should have bought a guidebook as we couldn't really find anything. There was water though, and lots of shopping. We found a little cafe and proceeded to have dinner/lunch. After eating, we wandered around some more and found this open air theatre. Well it wasn't really a theatre, it was this big square with this huge movie screen set up. They were showing Die Teufel tragt Prada (Devil wears Prada). We decided to join the huge crown that were sitting on the ground picnicking with blankets, dinner and wine. I had my first Proseco in a champagne flute full of strawberries. It was lovely.
The movie was all in German and though the atmosphere was excellent, our bums soon got sore, and us exciting partiers were back in the youth hostel by midnight sleeping.
The next morning was a bit of a mess. Everyone thought everyone else had set an alarm. It ended up with us not getting out of bed until 9 and then it took forever for 7 people to shower with only one shower. We ended up checking out and wandering to the train station to put our bags in a locker. After doing that and buying a shoene wochenende pass we drank beer and proceeded to a donair shop. note: the weekend pass lets up to 5 people take a train for 35 euros (all together). The catch? Instead of taking the fast trains, you take the really slow trains and change trains a lot. So if you don't mind a lot of time on the train and some musical chairs, it's an awesome deal.
The beer for breakfast was excellent but by the time we hit the donair shop we all needed a little food.
My main recollections of Hamburg are that there was water and that it was hot. Very hot. I kept trying to go and die peacefully in the shade, but someone always found me and made me continue the death march. Oh and we also came accross every Hamburg church in existence...
The day ended with us all sunburnt and in dire need of cool drinks. We found a Starbucks and shamefully all imbibed. It was airconditioned...it was...amazing!
Then the rich people who could afford the 50 euro train ticket back to Kassel left and us poor people who only paid 11 euros for our train stayed for another hour.
We only changed trains 3 times and drank a lot of beer. Every time we stopped, we would replenish our supply. Unfortunately, all we had to open the beer with was a key...after the 4th beer, the key broke. Yves then had to call home and tell his host family that he'd broken his key. Unfortunately for him, he got the word for key (schloessel) and castle (schloss) mixed up. So he called his host family and told then not to lock the door because he had broken his castle opening his beer. I think they gathered that he was drunk and losing his mind but an agreement was reached in the end. The Germans across from us had been watching/hearing the whole thing and thought it was hilarious(as did I). But, in the end, they helped us open the remainder of the beers.
We arrived in Kassel at 930pm and went our seperate ways...
So this was two weekends ago and I am shamefully behind on my journal writing.
Activities that I have yet to write about include:
-France
~my exciting visit to what I thought was Frankfurt
-Class presentations
-Bacharach am Rhein
~partying
~getting banned from the youth hostel ~Boppard
~Schiffahrt
soon! m |
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| More Berlin... |
[Jun. 4th, 2008|01:38 pm] |
The teachers put on a bunch of tours and you could choose which one (if any) you wanted to take part in. The first day, I didn't go to anything, but the second day I decided to go to see a concentration camp (Sachsenhausen to the N. of Berlin). At 9 am the group split and one half went to do something or other and the rest of us piled into a bus.
The ride took just over an hour and Ryan who had been partying a little too hard the night before, threw up on the bus. Katie was completely traumatized as she was sitting next to him. It was vaguely disgusting, but besides Justin's comments (he was sitting beside me), I managed to pretend that the whole thing never happened. When we arrived at the camp, Ryan had to be carried off the bus. Ick.
We went into the main office and were given pamplets as well as these portable things with numbers on them that you could type in the number of the monument you were seeing and it would tell you all about it. Audio tours pr something like that...
We got lost trying to get to the camp. Apparently no one thought to look at a map... We ended up somewhere outside of the camp. The warden had to come find us.
We walked along this long road and then there it was. There was a museum and some monuments as well as a gate that said "arbeit macht frei" on it. We went through the gate and into the camp. It was a swelteringly hot day. I kept having to reapply sunburn for fear of getting burnt.
There were some reconstructed buildings along with some original buildings. There was a wall covered in stories and pictures. I got half way through the wall and couldn't handle reading anymore. I actually stopped reading half way through a gruesome sentence as I really didn't want to find out the conclusion. "They used a particularly cruel kind of punishment where the prisoner was...".
We wandered throughout the camp, the barracks, jail, morgue, lodging etc... There were monuments for homosexual prisoners and another for Dutch prisoners. There was this big group of people in front of the Dutch monument who were having minutes of silence and sang a song in Dutch.
Personally, I found the energy there exceptionally unpleasant. I didn't/couldn't go into any of the buildings. I took three photos in 4 hours. I was entirely traumatized by the whole thing. It took me several days to get over it.
Luck would have it that my group presentation is on Sachsenhausen (the concentration camp I went to). I find it terribly disturbing and am having a bit of trouble researching it. Hopefully I won't be able to understand what the others are saying in their parts of the presentation.
-
We arrived back in Berlin around 2 and I went to downtown in search of some shopping. I ended up buying yet another H&M tank top in a yet another different colour.
That evening, we went to a real German Opera. We saw the Magic Flute in German. It was impossible to understand, and our seats were so far up that we couldn't see part of the stage. That said, the visual effects were amazing! They had some kind of projection screen, and the stage split into different sections that would raise and lower. It was a truly amazing opera house. It was a pity there was no translation and several people fell asleep.
After the opera, we went back to the youth hostel and while on the bus, I recieved a call from Lutzie (I'd left her a hasty and slightly confused message in English a few hours before). I hadn't seen her since she was 11 (about 10ish years ago). Luckily she still speaks good English and we arranged to meet later that night.
We met at a metro station and luckily I told her what I was wearing because she has changed soooooo much! Though, throughout the evening I saw a few glimpses of the 11 year old. She took me to the neighbourhood she grew up in. We sat on a bridge with some of her friends and drank cheap beer while she rolled cigarettes like a pro. We chatted and she showed me photos of her school work. She's becoming a makeup artist and wow, it's pretty amazing what one can do with makeup.
I got back to the youth hostel at 4am. There were other people up who hadn't yet made it to bed and as far as I know, never did.
I fell into bed and woke up 3 or 4 hours later...
Ok, the last few hours in Berlin + Hamburg will be forthcoming.
m |
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| Berlin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
[Jun. 3rd, 2008|02:38 pm] |
The next morning in Berlin I woke up at 7am because there were so many German boys running around in the corridors. I got out of bed and went for a disappointing German breakfast. I thought this country did nothing but eat. Apparently I was misinformed.
I grabbed my pertinent information together (bus pass, red Berlin welcome book, guidebook etc..) and headed off to explore Berlin.
It was about 8:30 in the morning and I wandered from the hostel through something that I found out later is called the Tiergarten. It was this big, terribly beautiful park. Everyone was riding through it on their way to work. It was strange to see business men fully clothed in their fancy suits on bicycles. It was also strange to see such a big park in a big city like Berlin.
Once on the other side of the Tiergarten, I came upon the German equivelent of the parliment buildings. I took a few photos and made a mental note to scour the internet to find out what I'd seen. Then I found a sign that told me (in English) what I was beholding.
From there I headed towards the main part of Berlin and found an H&M. I waited with a flock of other women for the aforemention H&M to open. At 10am, we rushed in and started shopping like deprived maniacs. I didn't stay long, as there are H&Ms in Kassel too.
From there I headed for a church that I could see above the rooftops. Not knowing much about the famous Berlin monuments, I was on the look out for anything monument-like. At the church, I stopped to have a little lunch and found a bush to pee behind. I had no idea where the bathrooms were and 50cents just seems like a little too much to pay when you only have to pee.
Lunch was interesting.
For lunch, we made our own sandwiches and they gave us mushy apples, flat water and yogourt. They also provided us with bags that break when you've been walking for 10 minutes. The yogourt that you have to end up eating because you can't fit everything in your purse ends up splattering you from head to toe. Needless to say, I ended up getting bocconcini, salami and a litre of tomato juice at a grocery store.
After lunch, I realised that my Berlin adventure needed a theme. So looking through the pages of the guidebook that I'd marked before, I endeavoured to find my way to the Botanischer Gartens.
After experiencing some serious confusion about the Berlin transit system, I found the right metro train. -in Berlin, they have an S-bahn and a U-bahn. The S-bahn is above ground whereas the U-bahn is underground. This can be a bit of a pain when changing trains and especially when you didn't understand the distinction before you ended up standing in a confusingly signed, underground metro station trying to find the S-bahn.
In the end, I made it out to the gardens and for only 2.50 euros because of my little red Berlin welcome book discount, I went into the gardens. It was like being in a garden on Lasqueti in the middle of summer. There were plants from all over the world. They were labelled in German and thankfully Latin. Though my German plant knowledge is improving, I still know the Latin names better. I wandered around for 2 hours barefoot in the grass taking numerous photos.
I then found the green houses. These green houses have plants from all over the world in them. Each one is kept at a different temperature and humidity level. I saw one full of cacti, one with African plants, another with New Zealand and Australian plants, then there were Hawaiian plants. One was really muggy and tropical, one was roasting hot, one was very dry. I saw Jasmine, Coffee, Macadamia nut, ferns, teatrees, hibiscus, Venus flytraps, banana, kiwi, papaya,...it was...amazing. I spent about 2 hours in these green houses and was about to melt into heat exhaustion. My camera was also over the top full of photos.
I wandered back into Berlin and met up with a few people and had some beer.We headed back to the youth hostel for some dinner and then planned out our party scheme for the evening. All our noble plans turned into going to the grocery store and buying bottles of wine. We sat in front of the youth hostel and drank them. As the night wore on, we went out for pizza. Well the others did, I just watched. Part way through the night, I was getting bored with the group's activities...or something of the sort so I took off on my own.
I ended up walking along this main Potsdamer Platz Strasse that was lined with hookers. They were amazingly dressed and business was booming. As I walked briskly along the street, I was proposition by this fellow from his car. I kept walking and found myself at a metro stop. At this point, I decided to find my group as I didn't know where the youth hostel was located. Luckily I had a map and was able to find them. Around midnight, we ended up back in the hostel. I thought it was an hilarious experience.
Ok, I am dying of beer-thirst and must head back home and upload some photos.
more later,
m |
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| Where were we... |
[Jun. 3rd, 2008|02:01 pm] |
Alright, so last weekend a group us us went to see Mozart in a big old church. A Mozart symphony that is. It was quite lovely and had a beautiful sounding choir. We also went out to a German Restaurant and had dinner. Though there were 5 of us, none of us knew all the words on the menus. Thus it was an interesting surprise when we finally got our food. Who knew that Spiegelei means fried egg in German. I got potatoes with a huge chunk of pork on top and it was topped with a fried egg. It was very good and pretty cheap.
We also drank this corn liquor that is completely disgusting. I might compare it to vodka, but I'm pretty sure vodka tastes better. It's dirt cheap and probably might make you go blind or perhaps just kill you if you drank too much.
After the concert, we went to a Kneipe and drank beer until midnight. We followed this with a trip to the donair shop. We were all a little in our cups, but had some amazing donairs. I don't entirely know if one can get these amazing things in Canada, but we should import them if we don't. I'll probably die from food poisoning cuz the establishments are run by creepy looking Turks and never look like they've ever heard of the idea of food poisoning or refrigeration. Either way, it's worth it.
Donairs are these big kind of Naan bread wraps with meat that they cut of a revolving stick, then they add cucumbers and tomatoes, cabbage, a kind of tzaziki sauce and onions. Donair shops are superb.
The following week, we had our midterm. It was far easier than Canada and I didn't feel too bad about it. We only had two days of school this week as we headed to Berlin on Wednesday.
The evening after our midterm, a bunch of us met up in Vellmar to go to a Kneipe. We ended up going to a supermarket and bought 3€ 6-packs as well as provisions for the following day. We sat in a square/plaza drinking beer and carrying on. I had to get up the next morning, so I stumbled onto my bicycle around midnight. The others stayed out far later.
The next morning we headed off to Berlin. The others had managed 2 hours sleep while the rest of us got somewhere between 4-7 hours. We climbed aboard and sat at the back of the bus and tried to sleep. This of course was rather fruitless and after the rest stop, we opened the alcohol we had purchased the night before. I brought 4€ Vodka and Coke that I had pilfered from my hostfamily and Heather brought OJ. The party was on!
I started mixing drinks and as Ami well knows, my mixed drinks are no ordinary mixed drinks. In fact, they aren't mixed at all. The mix is just for colour...
Somehow through this pouring I managed to land OJ, Coke, rum and a touch of vodka on Yves lap (it may be the last time he chooses to sit beside me). Unfortunately, I the bus wasn't bumpy and I was sober (at that point) so my clumsiness is the only explanation.
Nathan had brought an Ipod with speakers and some girls started dancing to the music. It began to feel like we were on some crazy party bus. By the time we reached Berlin, we barely made it off the bus. -the next day I looked at the photos I'd taken and was not surprised to see how they decreased in quality with the passing time-
We got to the Youth hostel and chose roommates. Then a group of us decided to check out the town. We walked into the main part not entirely sure where to go. After some stuttering meanderings, we found the Brandenburg Tur and a Quebecois flag flying randomly from a building. At this point some of us wandered away from the group and after a bit of aimless wandering, we ended up at the Lustgarten. Yves promptly passed out on the grass while I took in the scenery. Somehow we made it back to the youth hostel. Yves had very little recollection of the journey to the Lustgarten, and kept protesting that we were going the wrong way. When we got to the youth hostel, he wouldn't believe us that it was the right youth hostel.
That evening we went to a Simphonie of some composer or other. It was pretty good and I've honestly never seen such an enthusiastic conductor. He pranced around and waved his fingers and hands and legs and head. He was probably a traffic director until he found his true calling. I've never seen someone conduct with their entire body before.
At this time, most of the group went out. Due to the fact that I'd already partied that day and was suffering from a lack of sleep, I stumbled into my hostel bed around 10pm.
The rest of my exciting Berlin trip to follow. Some teasers include:
-wandering around Berlin
-My traumatizing trip to the concentration camp
-My accidental visit to the red light district
-Seeing Lutzi and partying German style
-Almost melting from heat on a train to Hamburg
-The highlights of Hamburg
and last but not least: the ride home.
Stay tuned for further updates.
m |
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| Two posts in one night, feeling verbose perhaps... |
[May. 22nd, 2008|09:35 pm] |
So the highlights of this week have been:
1. excessive homework
2. naked bath house participation
3. making new friends
4. touring Kassel (both the sites and the Kneipes (pubs)).
5. a presentation for school
6. Thursday off due to Corpus Christi (dead people rising I think...Fronleichnam in German)
We are reading this complicated play for school that no one understands. The teacher makes us all take parts and read it outloud in class. Our collective German outloud-reading abilities vary from passable to bad to atrocious. I think I fall somewhere in the bad to atrocious category. I keep trying to speak with a French accent and it's really hard to read something outloud when you have one, never read it before, two it's in German and three have no idea what you are actually saying. The reading outloud tends to be a painful, halting, monotone affair with the teacher getting all excited. I wince as I butcher the poor German language.
Sunday night, Gabi invited me to come with her to the sauna. She said it was a huge bath house with many different pools and saunas. I thought it sounded pretty interesting and was eager to attend. That's when she informed me that no would be wearing clothes. She paused to gauge my reaction. I quickly answered with a "oh, where I come from, no one wears bathing suits to go swimming". She found that very comical and told me that her other Candian students were rather horrified by the idea.
The next night, I skipped the symphony that the program was doing and instead went with Gabi to the bath house.
It was AMAZING, I have never been so awed.
There was this huge salt water pool that was both indoor and outdoor (there was a open door/window thing connecting them). There was also this HUGE water slide that Gabi and I screamed down several times. Then we sat in the jacuzzi for a bit. Then we headed into the naked portion of the complex. According to Gabi, you weren't actually allowed to wear clothing in that area. There was a bar and some beautiful oriental decor.
We took off our bathing suits and went into a sauna. I was immediately confronted by 20-ish varying versions of my father and his friends completely unclothed. There were about 12 women also. We sat on our towels and started to sweat. Then the very thing we came for started. A man came in and poured herb-infused/essential oil water onto the hot rocks. Then he waved the towel around to spread the hot steam. It was amazing and I felt like I was going to faint.
Then we all went outside and were given scoops of salt into our hands. This we rubbed all over our bodies and preceded back into the sauna. The herb water and towel waving continued. Then we all showered off and had icecubes with a chunk of frozen peach in them. Gabi and I then went into the pool that was 23 degrees Celsius. It was brisk but lovely.
We then proceeded to the tanning beds. There were about 10 of them. It was my first time tanning, so I gave it a try. It was very bright and unlike Canada, there were no goggle things.
When the tanning was through, we headed back to the sauna for the next treatment. The same things happened as before, but this time we rubbed honey on ourselves instead of salt. It was very tasty and Gabi and I kept licking our fingers.
My skin felt amazing after that and after another quick cold shower and dip in the cold pool, we went to the Lavender sauna. It was terribly relaxing and I almost fell asleep.
There was a citrus steam room, an amethyst sauna, a Snudel (rhymes with noodle) (slang word meaning to chat) sauna, a sauna with lights that changed -blue for relaxation etc..., there were also several other rooms with different scents and appearances.
At this time, our two hours were up and we headed back to the change room.
It was the most amazing experience and cost something like 10 euros. It was great to be there with Gabi because she is very open and friendly. She was discussing her confusion about the no-pubic hair fad, except she didn't know the word pubic, so she was telling me that people of all ages were not wearing any hair. I looked at hear like she was crazy until it dawned on me what she was trying to say. The German people seem a lot more open about everything. It's refreshing.
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On Tuesday, we went on an interesting tour of the city. I wasn't going to go originally as I had a presentation on Wednesday that I'd barely started on. But procrastinating is great for making even the best laid plans go awry.
The tour of Kassel was in English and very interesting. The man doing it started with the bronze age and discussed the development of trade and Roman invasion, -all the way up to WW2 and present. It was a really fascinating way to look at a city. He showed us maps of how it used to be, how big and where it was located. Then he took us through the old, medieval part of town.
When this was over, a few of us, including Stephenie and I all went out for a beer. Once in the restaurant/bar, this Turkish guy who couldn't speak English nor German and didn't seem to know where Canada was came and sat with us. The only thing he knew how to say in German was "keine problem" (no problem) and "Prost" (cheers). He repeated these two phrases about 50 times each in the next hour. He made us promise to come drink Raki with him at 7 and then we made up a homework story and left to find another bar.
We took the tram and found a bar on the way to Vellmar. It was completely deserted and music-less. There was a jukebox and for 1 euro it would play two songs. I think Stephanie spent more money on Celine Dion and Elvis that on beer.
It was heading on to 9 o'clock when we realised we hadn't eaten. We headed back into town and found this lovely Turkish restaurant. I had quail which was weird. It was little bony bird bodies that were kind of charred. There was amazing baklava for dessert that I no doubt shouldn't have eaten. There was sweet chai tea and yogourt. There's a large Turkish population in Kassel, so it was pretty authentic. This was confirmed by Stephanie who had spent her honeymoon in Turkey.
By this time, it was getting rather late, so we all headed for home.I made it home around 11:30 and crawled into bed. It was that time that I realised that I hadn't done any work on my presentation. I woke up at 2am stressing about it.
The next day, we had class and then after class we had presentations (we were behind so we couldn't do it during class time). This worked very well as it gave me a few hours to tie the loose ends of my presentation together.
We were supposed to have a poster or handouts, but I couldn't figure out how the printers work here. Instead, me and my non-existent drawing capabilites conquered the whiteboard.
The presentations in spefic and general were almost as much as a joke as reading the play outloud. Everyone used vocabulary that neither they nor anyone else in the class understood. The accents ranged from terrible to worse and the attention of the class on the presenter was very minimal.
My presentation was the last one, and I figured that less talking and more gesturing and illustrations would help get my point accross. I drew and gestured like crazy with very limited vocabulary. I was presenting on Waldmeister which is Woodruff in English and used in everything (beer, icecream, juice) to give in a lemony flavour and green colour.
After the presentations, I went home to do laundry and had a nap in preparation for the night to come. It was Corpus Christi so we had the next day off. The partying was far too wild with which to sully this journal.
Speaking of accents, there's a group at school that has taken great enjoyment in pronouncing all German words like they are speaking Texan/Lousianna English. ih-mer turns into eeeey-mer and weiß (why-sss) turns into why-Buh. It's attrocious, but entertaining and we get some good looks out of the Germans.
This weekend looks pretty low-key, but next Wednesday morning, we are heading to Berlin for 4 days. It should be a lot of fun! The midterm I have on Tuesday will probably be less fun.
Alright, I am 100%, to the moment caught up on the latest happenings of Germany and Mikaila.
I hope you all are well and I'll ttyl,
m |
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| The first week of school |
[May. 22nd, 2008|08:47 pm] |
Alrighty then, I will now try to remember (with event calendar in hand) what on earth I've been up to since the last time I posted.
Well, school started and we got sorted into classes, two 200 classes, two 300 and a 400 level. I ended up with 14 others in a 200 class taught by two different German women who were sharing the job. The provinces were well represented, B.C., Nova Scotia, Alberta (a little over represented), Ontario, Quebec... probably one from the praries, I'm not entirely sure. I've been meeting roughly 59 people in the last few weeks and I can't keep them all straight. I ended sitting beside Caitlin (who has dark brown, straight as a pin hair down to her bum). She seems to know what was going on, so I felt I had made a good seating choice.
The first week of school and Germany was a little overwhelming. I have a 5 minute walk, followed by a 5 minute bus ride followed by a 10ish minute tram and then a 5 minute walk to class. I have to get up at 7 and leave by 7:40ish to catch the bus. The early mornings do not agree with me and neither do the small, cornflake breakfasts.
That said, there are 5 others that catch the bus with me and 7 of us who catch the same tram. School goes from 8:30-10 then we all go for a 15 minute break to the little cafeteria. This usually involves a few plans of mutiny (they can't start class if no one shows up). There's also a lot of smoking (cigarettes are so cheap here that 1/2 the group has taken up smoking) and coffee drinking being done.
Speaking of coffee and other beverages, Germany does the strangest thing. If you are at a Stadtfest, you have to pay a deposit to be able to take a glass or bottle away. It's about 50 cents. At the Mensa (cafeteria), the coffee cups come with a 1 euro deposit. So one buys a coffee and it's terribly expensive. Then we caught on to the cup returning thing and coffe became much more affordable.
At 12pm they let us out and we go to the big Mensa. It has 5 meals to choose from, desserts and salad. I usually eat salad as I have no idea what anything else is and that can be scary. It's really cheap though, 1.50-2 euros for a huge lunch.
Oh, the first day, they got all of us 200 levels together in a circle and we each had to say "Hi my name is _________and I "insert favourite hobby here". We didn't say the hobby, we had to imitate it (charade playing piano or whatever). Then the next person had to repeat it, so you would have to say "Monica {imitate dancing}, Evelyn (imitate singing) and my name is Mikyla and I (imitate sleeping), this went on with each person. There were about 30 of us, so by the time it had reached 25, there was a huge quantity of names and activities to remember. It was a lot of fun, but I was third, so it was pretty easy to remember.
I found the first weeks pretty overwhelming and by Friday, I was sitting moping under a tree trying to cheer up because I wanted to go shopping with Katie. Ole (OOooolaa in German or Oh-lee in English) came up to see how I was and when I said I was having a bad day, he picked me a dandylion and confided that he was finding it rather overwhelming too. It improved my day greatly. Ole is in the other 200 class, he's from Saskatchewan and has spent time tree planting. He's hilarious and dramatic, quite a lot of fun.
The next day, we went to a Fussball (football - soccer) game. They loaded us onto a bus at 10:30 headed for Dortmund. We were to see Wolfburg against Dortmund. I was planning to get a ride with Katie and her Host-Opa (grandpa), so I got on my bike and headed to her house. When I arrived on the street where she lived, I realised that I didn't know her house number. I had never been there before and hadn't brought my Handy (cell phone) with me. I wandered around calling her name and being annoyed with myself for awhile. Then I realised that if I didn't leave, I would miss the bus. So I headed to the tram station, chained up my bike and leaped onto the next tram.
As we drove along, I stressed as I had no idea what time it was or how long it would take for me to get there. Luckily I arrived with about 2 minutes to spare. Feizel (teacher) was on the phone to my host mother to see if I was dead. Luckily I wasn't, but I was one of the last people on the bus. Ole showed up moments after I did. He was quite hungover along with the majority of the bus. I apparently had missed a good party. I sat beside Ole and he said he'd been up until 3 singing and dancing and laughing.
Unfortunately I suffered from the hangovers too. It was a two hour bus ride and Ole beside me fell asleep promptly. I was left with the scenery to entertain me. Luckily it was beautiful. There are flowering Canola fields everywhere and you can actually see the yellow from the plane. There were also these ENORMOUS windmills. I'm not sure how tall they are, but 50 feet might be a little bit of a small measurement.
We stopped at a little restaurant/corner store place to buy lunch stuff. I wasn't that hungry as I had packed a sandwich. I did get some strawberry, yogourt Rittersport which is horriby cheap here and also a Faxe. Faxe is a Danish beer that I often drink in Canada. It's 8% and comes in tall can. It knocks off your feet very quickly. In Germany however, it's 10% and comes in a 1L can. After securing a promise from some of the guys to help me drink it, I paid my 2.99 euros and headed back to the bus. Everyone on the bus was drinking beer, because it's Germany and as long as you aren't being loud and stupid, you can drink anywhere here.
Between me and my assistants, by the time we arrived in Dortmund, the beer was finished and we all stumbled off the bus.
In a merry state, we headed for the Stadium. Katie and I bought scarves that were yellow and black which were the colours of Dortmund. Our teacher said we should support them, though in afterthought, I'm not sure why.
After wandering around trying to find some cheap beer (they were charging 3.40 euros for a plastic cup - this is rather teuer (toy-er) (expensive) in Germany), we succumed to the outrageous prices.
The stadium was huge and the program leader said that there were 80,000 people there. I'm not good at judging huge crowds, but I don't think she was exaggerating.
I sat next to Ole because we'd been sitting beside eachother on the bus and were given tickets beside eachother. He didn't know anything about sport either, unforunately.
When in started, I thought that there were children playing in the field, but apparently football players are short and if you are sitting in the 66th row, they appear rather small. There was a lot of enthusiam and I can see why people are so into sports. It was annoying though as every time the ball went out of bounds (read: every 5 minutes), the referee had to show his flag and then a certain player from a certain team had to stand in a certain place and throw the ball. This was rather dull. Besides that, it was rather entertaining to see a bunch of guys chase after a ball.
The game went on for 90 minutes and Dortmund was quite well beaten by Wolfsburg. The game ended 2-4 and quite frankly we weren't impressed. It was a fun experience and I'm glad that Caitlin (from my program) who doesn't like sports either convinced me to go.
The bus ride home was long and my seatmates were sleeping yet again. I did have a long chat about the barge, in German to Feizel who is from...Uganda. I'm not sure if he got what I was trying to say. My German is really terrible. Improving, but terrible.
When we arrived back in Kassel, a bunch of us left the group and we headed to eat and go to a Kneipe (bar). Once in the bar, we waited forever to be served and then finally left. The standards of serving in Germany and a lot lower than in Canada. They also don't have Squirrel which I imagine might be part of the problem. I ended up leaving early with Michael from UBC as we live in the same area of town. This skeevy guy from Saskatchewan wouldn't stop hitting on me and every other thing with legs. It became a little tiring. He spoke gutter Quebecois French and had definitely spent a little too much time living in a trailer park.
That concludes my latest update.
I hope all is well with you all. :)
m |
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| Trying to cram as much Germany details as my poor brain will allow |
[May. 16th, 2008|11:21 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | germany | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Deutschland!!! | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | determined | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Hoten Hosen! | ] |
Okay, so trying to catch up on everything that has been going on here.
There's been a lot, so I will try to cram as much detail into this as my tired brain will allow.
So the first night I was here, my family took me to Stadtfest. At night it was this huge sea of people. There were three stages and everyone was dancing. We went to a stage that had this band dressed in what looked like those white plastic suits that one would use to cover themeselved while painting a house.
We bicycled downtown and it was lovely, nothing like biking in the warm summer evening. We met up with some of Gabi's friends and we all danced. I went up right to the front and enjoyed the pounding of the music. Photos are on facebook. I also took some videos with my camera, but am not sure how to facebook post them. Will get on that soon.
We drank beer and partied until around midnight. Gabi etc... were still going strong but when asked if I was tired, I said yes and we headed for home. I was still completely jetlagged, and fell into bed.
Sunday I stuck close to home, eating and sleeping. In the afternoon, Katie called me, desperate to get out of the house. She came over and Gabi queried if she had been to Stadtfest. She hadn't, so Gabi insisted we go. She gave us a timetable of busses home and even drove us into downtown. She left us saying, "call me if you need to, any time is ok".
So we got some beer, started dancing and ran into a whole group of people from CSSG. There we danced in a writhing sea of teenage bodies. It was like a highschool dance without chaperones. As the night wore on, things got crazier and crazier. I ended up dancing with a German dude, but he was getting very friendly so Alex grabbed me (he's 6 foot something and would make a good football (American) player) and said "Das ist meine Frau". The German dude looked incredulous, but backed away.
Around 2, we realised our last bus was leaving. Then we somehow got on a tram going the wrong way. At this point, I started to speak in my best drunken French to Yves who is from Quebec. I apparently understood him, though don't quite recall the subject matter. The last bus left, so we tried to call a taxi. As you can imagine, that doesn't go to well when one doesn't know really where they are or how to speak the language the person on the line is speaking.
Eventually, we found a taxi-van, and all piled in. There was 5 of us all going to Vellmar, so it wasn't too expensive. When they dropped me off, I found myself standing apparently on my street (I showed the driver my address card), with no idea which house was mine. Luckily, after a few mistakes and another look at my address card, I located my abode.
At this point, it was 3am, and after a few skype conversations, I stumbled into bed.
The next day is really not worth mentioning, as I would rather forget exactly how I felt. At 1:30, I finally crawled out of bed and looked for a hole to crawl back into. Unfotunately, I could no longer hibernate as I was headed for the train station.
I arrived at 2:15, 15 minutes late to pick up none other than my dear friend Ivy. It was fabulous to see her and was very strange. It was right person, wrong place kind of thing. We got on a tram and discussed the latest life details.
I was a little...under the weather so I made her try currywurst and then we wandered home for a nap.
After a good sleep, we had a sumptuous dinner and drank heated sambuca with coffee beans in it. We also roasted dough wrapped around hot dog sticks over a fire. It was a little weird as mine was buckwheat, but the others' looked a lot less like excrement on a stick.
We tried to go to Stadtfest, but things were winding down, so after some serious girl-talk, we spooned and feel asleep.
I'm sorry for the lack of amazingness of this post, but will endeavour to do better...next time!!!
Will update on school and my daily life in the next post.
Bis Bald!!
-m. |
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| Finally talking about my first week in Germany post! |
[May. 14th, 2008|05:46 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | germany | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Germany | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  bouncy | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | kein | ] |
OK, so finally getting to writing about my actual stay in Kassel.
Hopefully I have not forgotten as much of the details of the last few days as I have forgotten my German. I swear I learn 100 words a day and forget at least 50 of them. Ah well.
So where was I, oh yes, the morning. We woke up and had breakfast. At 10am, we threw our luggage into a van and they herded us onto yet another bus. This one was bound for Kassel. The bus ride took about 40 minutes. As we drove, we started getting more and more nervous. They were driving us to meet our hostfamilies. We stumbled along trying to speak enough German to communicate. Personally, I wasn't doing so well. Especially in comparaison to Bekka (300 level) who was sitting beside me (I'm in 200 level).
We finally arrived at the Kassel train/bus station and stumbled off the bus. I, being a total wuss ran over to get my bag from the van that held our things. It was buried under everyone else's bag at the very back, but I waited until they got it out. All the while surreptitiously looking out for my family. Just as I got my bag, I spotted Gabi's flamboyant hairdo.
I gathered my courage and ran (ok, walked) as fast as I could lug my 16.3kg duffel bag along with me over to them. Gabi said hello and I tried to mumble out "nice to meet you" in German, but blanked at the last second. I guess Freut mich (Froyt meesh) doesn't stay well in nervous brains. Gabi grabbed my bag despite my protests at it's weight (I was glad to put it down actually). We piled into their mini van with her husband (Bernd) and the two girls (Selma und Marlena).
They drove me through the city and past the church where I would be going to school. I tried to utter some of my halting German, but Gabi's English was excellent and I soon gave up trying to force the German. Soon enough we arrived home, they showed me my room and gave me a tour of their spacious house. There was two bathrooms, an attic nook that was bigger than most people's bedrooms, a huge living room, nice kitchen, back deck, huge lawn, dining room, foyer, basement, cellar and their wing of the house.
I unpacked quickly so I could be social. Though first, I put the photos and postcards I had brought with my about the room. I had brought several homey things with me as I found it really helps you feel more at home when you have some bric-a-brac (is that English?) lying around (dustcatchers).
I wandered down the winding staircase and found them sitting in the garden having breakfast. It was noon, but as it was a Saturday, they were eating late. We ate cheese and bread (crackers for me), jam, maple syrup, hardboiled eggs, butter, cottage cheese, creamcheese, coffee, tea, juice, water...it was quite the spread.
Gabi asked me if I wanted to come with her to the Supermarkt. It a beautiful day and I was eager to get to know the town and of course my host family. After breakfast was cleaned up, Gabi showed me my bike (yes, my bike) and we left with backpacks to go to the grocery store.
It was my first time riding a bike in a town or really anywhere besides the back roads of Parksville or Lasqueti. We made to the Supermarkt and we chained up the bikes. Except, here they don't chain them to anything, they just lock up the backwheel, so you can't ride it or roll it away. I guess people here are more trusting or just didn't think of the possibility of someone just carrying into their car and driving away or something.
The Supermarkt was more like a mall. We went into the healthfood store for wheatless rolls, then we went to buy me sunglasses (they are green and beautiful). Then we wandered into the shoe store (how I've missed shopping in Europe). We also HAD to stop at this little clothing store. Gabi tried a bunch of things on and I bought a bright pink skirt with little white polka dots on it. She was very worried about clothing making her look like a Mom and wouldn't even look at anything with flowers on it (I'm not sure how that makes one look Motherly, but so it was).
Lastly, we headed into this big grocery store where we bought vegetable, jam, cheese, yogourt and these chocolate covered marshamellow thingies. There was so much food and it was very cheap. So much stinky cheese, I was in heaven! Gabi asked me if I liked anything in particular, but at long as she wasn't serving chicken or pickled beets I really didn't care. I think she wanted me to profess love for some foodstuff, so I proffered and she bought me apricot jam.
We loaded everything into our backpacks and headed for home. Soon enough, I found myself following Gabi into traffic. It was terrifying. I've never ridden a bike in traffice, let alone in Europe. Let alone where I had no idea about the laws of the road when it comes to bicycles. Somehow though, we didn't die, though I did feel a heart attack coming on for a second there.
When we arrived home, my heart was pounding and I was a little shaky. Gabi was surprised especially when I informed her that in Canada, people hate cyclists and generally have fantasies about running them down.
Gabi does traditional German folk dancing, and was going to perform at a 50th anniversary party. She wanted me to come along, I thought it would be very interesting, so along I went. Two of the dancers picked us up and drove us there. They were all in the traditional dress and from the calves of the men, I can see that bicycling does one's legs wonders.
The dances were very lively, and a lot of fun. Everyone really enjoyed it and we were invited for tea and cake. We ate a bunch and I tried to at least kind of follow what was going on (acutally, I tried to leave, I missed the whole part about being invited for tea and cake). They had amazing cakes and I was very sad that I couldn't eat most of them.
On the ride home with Harry and some other nice fellow whose name I have forgotten, I was quizzed about my life in Canada. I tried to describe Lasqueti with the limited German I had. Harry turned out to be a French teacher, so I quickly changed languages and told him all about it.
Unfortunately, I am having a lot of trouble seperating the French from the German. Apparently, my brain thinks that all second languages should be grouped in the same compartment. I'll say things like Es ist là or Ich ne glaube pas (clue: là, ne, and pas are all French words). It will get better, but if I even think about speaking French or France, I switch back.
In the evening, we went to the Stadtfest, but this is already long enough and I am wanting some dinner.
I will write more later.
I hope everyone is well. I will be writing more hopefully tonight.
Unforunately, I have to learn some new German grammar and read a few pages of a play in German.
Ick.
love m |
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| In Melsungen |
[May. 11th, 2008|12:53 pm] |
So, when we finally arrived in Melsungen where the Youth hostel is (Jungendherbergen) (I think...). I sat up and attempted to unsuccessfully decrink my neck. Unfortunately, bus seat sleeping will do that to you. They unloaded us and we took our luggage to the main courtyard. There, they handed out keys to groups of 4, girls and boys seperate. Katie, Stephanie from U of A and Sharon from Hongkong & UBC and I shared a room. I got a top bunk! :)
Then we tried to stay awake until dinner which was in an hour-ish. We took advantage of the showers and some checked out the comfy beds. In Germany, they all sleep with down comforters and big, 3 foot square pillows. Unfortunately, you wake up in the night with your head in a flat spot. They are a little too fluffy.
Dinner was delicious, sausage, cheese and meats, boiled potato, salad, cooked veggies, tea and Sprudel (sparkling mineral water). They do drink non-spearkly water, but it's amazing, so I can't see why one would drink anything else. They also served beer, but it was expensive, like 3 euros or something.
After dinner, a group of us went to the grocery store to buy wine/beer/champagne. We wandered around a bit in the city and then showed up at this kind of outdoor amphetheatre near the youth hostel. There we drank champagne and beer and chatted. Us being one of the Adam's, one of the John's, Sharon and Stephanie, Katie and I. They all left and we had a good chat with John. He looked terribly German with his bleach blonde mohawk thing and his tres (or sehr) European clothing. In Canada, he would be labelled as a flaming queer. In Germany, he fits right it. They don't really have the scruffy logger type here. (He had been in Germany for two weeks preparing his "look"). He tried to convince Katie and I that he was an amazing catch, but we were not fooled. His German is excellent though and he's very useful. Unforunately, you can't ask him too many questions or he'll think your after him. He has an I'm too sexy for my hot European pants thing going on. The group calls him Heissen Hosen (hot pants).
Katie and I stumbled off to bed at 9. I felt quite accomplished as I had originally planned to try and stay up until 7. I only woke up once in the middle of the night.
Then next morning, I was wide awake at 8 and wandered down for breakfast. There was bread, nutella, jam, butter in flower shapes, cereal (three different kinds)(I even managed to ask if it was puffed wheat rice -in German), milk, oj and marshmellow stuff -it was green (like lime jello) and tasted like marshmallows (it was a drink), I didn't like it. There was coffee too, but it was kinda what you'd expect for a youth hostel.
They made us sit in the dining room and chat with a partner, then we had to go up in front of everyone and introduce eachother. It was terrible. I can't speak German. Well I can, but mostly it ends up with me speaking French instead. I interject French frequently into every sentence. They also gave us maps and a list of where everyone was living. Thus I found out that Katie was a few blocks away along with 6 others. (I'm in alittle suburby thing from Kassel (10 minute bike ride) (Vellmar -pronounce Fellmar). They told us about the yellow cards we would receive if we were caught speaking English. They also explained that a few people's families would come to Melsungen to pick them up, while the rest of us would go by bus to Kassel.
Then they served us lunch which was spaghetti with the usual, meat, cheese and salads. Water and tea too.
Then we were free until our 6pm dinner.
Us 4 room mates wandered off around the city, somehow managed to order icecream. I had Staciticella or something like that, I'd had it before and liked it. We kept bumping into other people from the program. Then we wandered into a big group and Katie and I wandered off to eine Bier Garten with Matt (from German100b) and Adam also from Uvic. We tried Hombacher, a beer of the region, but after two beers, the waitress started to ignore us and wouldn't serve us. I'm not sure why. Eventually, we just had to leave our 5 euros (for two huge pints) each under the coasters and leave.
We showed up at the youth hostel again and fell into bed, though not with eachother. I slept for a little bit and then we went down to dinner. It was spaghetti which I found very dipleasing. There was bread and cheese and meats again too with salad. After dinner, I went to sleep and around 8 I think Katie dragged me out of bed and we went with the other to Foxy 7, a disco. Unfortunately, because of the long weekend (Stadtfest) (cityfestt), it was closed. So we went to the Kneipe (pub) around the corner. (The server did a neat thing, she wrote tallies on our coasters to keep track of how many beers we had drunk -new approach). There I had one normal beer (pilsner) and had a headache and was exhausted so I wandered home by myself. It was a small village and poorly lit. I took the trail through the woods back home and I couldn't see a thing. Though I did encounter some type of animal that sounded something like a pig crossed with a goose. I'm still not sure what it was.
I fell asleep and only woke up when Katie came in at 430 am.
We are off to wander about the city, so I will write about yesterday and today later.
Hoppe all is well!
gros bisous,
mmmmmmmmmmmm |
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| Germany |
[May. 11th, 2008|12:30 am] |
Okay, it's past midnight here and I am tired. But I also am going to forget everything that has happened in the last four days if I don't get some of it down soon. I have switched the keyboard to English and am touch typing. Only the z and y are opposite. The symbols are weird too.
So, Ami drove me to the bus station in Victoria very early (7:30) and PIa saw me off. The there was the loooong bus/ferry ride where the bus driver said that if we didn't have our tickets when we got back ont he bus after the ferry, we'd have to bribe him. When we got back on the bus he said |tickets or bribes please". it was very entertaining. I arrived at the airport too early to check my bags, but soon enough Dick arrived to keep me company. We had a lovely time sitting by the big Haida statue eating, drinking tea and carrying on. It was completely fabulous to only spend two hours instead of four waiting!! Then I checked my baggage, took Mom\s advice and filled up on Mojitos. Chatted with some guy from Uvic until I was about to fallof my chair. Then I paid this bill and really did fall off my chair. I didn't realise two drinks could cost that much. They were really excellent though and made me horribly outgoing. I recognised a girl who went to a German Klub retreat in January with me. Thus I gathered the 6 of us Uvic students who were going and we sat and chatted.
The flight was amazing. The food was...terribly, horrible, disgusting, even the free booze was not enough to make up for the shocking tripe they choked us with.
I called James just before I got on my flight and he said to get an interesting story out of whomever I sat beside, even if they had to make it up. My luck would have it that I have a very interesting story to tell about the person sitting next to me. She was Romanian and in her 60s. She spoke no English, but somehow got the impression that I spoke Romanian. She spent the entire flight trying to talk to me. When we took off, she held my hand and crossed herself. When there was turbulence, she took my hand again. When we landed she almost cut of circulation to my finger and started crying (I will admit it was a pretty rough landing, but her hand crushing took my mind right off of it).
We arrived in Germany and my legs were in agony for sitting for so long. We met and went through customs together then sat for a bit after we found the meeting place. Then it was decided that we were to go wander about for the longest time. Jessica luckily wanted to go sit down, so I gladly joined her. We arrived at 11 and had until 2 to wait, so we chatted a lot.
Then I wandered in for a pee and the entire group appeared to have arrived. I went to say hello and she immediately scolded me for not speaking German and collared me with a nametag. I ran outside to Jessica and though I had known her only several hours (16 if you count the plane ride) I told her I needed a hug. German is a very traumitizing language.
Then the group of us sat there, stealthily speaking English. There were about 30 of us and the numbers were rapidly growing.
I started to chat to this girl from San Francisco named Katie. She appeared to be really interesting and outgoing. She was a UBC student. We were all pretty jetlagged and unhappy. I was introduced to a lot of ppl whose names I soon forgot.
At 2:30 they finally herded us onto a couple busses and we pulled out of Frankfurt airport. After putting my headphones on to loud techno (to block out the really bad 90s music that was playing) (yes, English 90s music: NIckelback for the most part, but there were others...Bryan Adams perhaps) I promptly fell asleep and missed my first 3 hours out of Frankfurt airport. So yes, my first real three hours in Germany I spent drooling onto my backpack. Ah, a good start to an amazing voyage.
I did sporadically wake up, change sides and fall back to sleep (the drool puddle kept getting lake like and almost drowning me).
The rest of the story will follow when it's not almost 1am *4pm your time).
The best to all and ja! Das ist gut!
m |
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| CSSG |
[May. 1st, 2008|07:43 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | canada | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | James' | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  excited | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | none | ] |
Hello everyone,
It's been ages since I've been keeping a blog, but my wanderlust has been scratching at my foot yet again.
I'm off to Germany for the CSSG (Canadian Summer School in Germany). Sixty of us are going to Germany to live with host families and take intensive German classes. Hopefully we'll come back speaking some German. In my case, probably a mixture between French, German and English with a dash of Double Dutch thrown in.
As we speak, I've given up my apartment and am residing in a 5 X 12 storage locker. I have whittled my non-storage locker belongings down to 2 garbage bags of clothes a (large) box. I'm trying to sort through what I have left, but having a limitation on my possession of clothes is a little unfathomable to me.
I've been trying to see everyone before I leave, but there are so many everyones and only a limited time in which to see them.
I'm only gone 6.5 weeks but I imagine it will be the perfect amount of time. I plan to visit France, possibly England and Prague. We will also be doing many excursions in Germany with the program.
Anyways, there's a run down of my next adventure. Check back as I will do my best to garble out a brief narrative of my travels. Although, I must warn you; make sure you have a good online dictionary for translated the aforementioned blatherings.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm |
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| Paris, finally...do I remember any of this... |
[Oct. 11th, 2006|06:15 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | paris | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Canada | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | cheerful | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | la vie en rose | ] |
So left Ireland, took a flight direct from Shannon to Beauvais. It was this little airstrip out in the middle of nowhere. I was herded with the other passengers through the waiting room. Then we had to buy tickets at the bus station, 12e or something. Then we got on a bus. Completely full. I was shoved into some seat all travel stained. Of course I ended up sitting beside some Frenchies that were probably from somewhere else, but seemed to have perfected the Paris snob. They were definitely above being exhausted and/or travel worn. That's about all I remember, I dozed off pretty promptly. When I next awoke we were just arriving in Paris. Somewhere on the outskirts. I got all lost trying to find a metro station. Ended up going into some Irish pub and asking directions. Some poor displaced Brits/Irish from my busride were there and they directed me to my destination. Once on the metro (one of the only simple things in France) it was easy enough to find my way to Robspierre where Raph, Valerie, Angel and Emma lived. They were still in the middle of moving. After a little cold shower (because they were moving there was no hot water) I called Eva. We agreed to meet at le Nation.
Le Nation just happens to be the biggest metro station in Paris... We tried to meet up...for 2 hours I think. I was already exhausted. She had a cell phone and I did not. Basically I ended up in tears asking people if I could use their cell phones. Amazing how accomodating people are when you're at your wits end. Somehow in the end we ended up meeting up by accident. Of course, we went to Mcdonalds and ate that comfortable food. People were so nice helping me being lost. France is terribly easy to get lost in, so maybe they were understanding from experience...
The next day, Eva and I site saw. We went to the louvre, agreeing to meet at Robspierre to save confusion. Being a Sunday, the louvre was free. You can just imagine the line-up. Mostly tourists of course, I saw several Canadians (with big flags on their backpacks) in touques looking terribly unfashionable amongst the glass pyramids and ancient architecture. Eva and I had been in France for 5 months and understood how things worked. We quickly budged line (much to the abject horror of all the polite tourists) and made it in there in 10 minutes flat. Which I must admit is good for a 40 foot line-up.
There were maps in every language. And as it was Sunday, everything else in France is closed so the security was very lax. We took quite a few photos under the NO-PHOTOS signs. Or perhaps it's just la libertie francais. We saw Venice and the statue with no head and no arms and then the one with just no arms, and then la jaconde (mona lisa). Mona Lisa looks just like she does in all the photos, so there's no need to go to le Louvre to see her. The other statues I mentioned are no doubt famous but I didn't know then and I still don't know who they are by etc...
Then came the paintings. Let me tell you, there is only so long you can spend looking at gruesome Christ paintings. Especially when they are 25 X 25 feet. The last supper, on the cross. They didn't look happy! Then we wandered off to look for a nice pub.
We tried the Irish one where I got off the bus, but there was a big Rugby game going on and it was far too intimidating. So we got lost for a bit then went to a busy area and asked some attractive French men where we could find a pub. Mistaking our desire for sightseeing/and or our financial resources, they sent us to the most expensive quarter in Paris. You've no doubt seen that Piccasso painting that's of a cafe. I believe that was the place they sent us. 9e for a drink. So we wandered around and didn't have any more luck. After enquiring with some French boys they told us everywhere was very expensive. So we got the brilliant idea to look for a convenience store. After stopping and procuring a bottle of mousse and one of red wine, we proceeded to find a nice quiet street where we began to bush. (see bushing from previous Ireland post).
Next post will deal with how we managed to get these bottles open without a cork screw using a pair of nailclippers...
:) |
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| I can't believe its taken me this long to do this, but anyways: Ireland |
[Mar. 31st, 2006|12:42 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | ireland | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | CANADA | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | :P | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Regina Spektor | ] |
I set down in Shannon, it was marshy and flat. Cold too! I managed to rush through customs and get the first bus to Galway. I met a woman going to the same place and we chatted the majority of the journey. The ride was long and winding, very long if I remember correctly. But I was too excited to sleep. I arrived in Galway around 6pm and I was either early or they were late so I (painfully conscious of my accent) asked directions to a payphone and reached Orlaith's Mum. Orlaith and her aunt No-leg came to pick me up. I'm not sure how it's spelt, but Nuleg said the Americans when she was in NY called her Noleg, but it's a little more of a subtle pronounciation than that.
I met Orlaith's family in a rapid succession. We ended up staying in and watching tv and eating. Orlaith's house reminded me of Lasqueti and home. Unfinished and a little messy and full of people of course. The next evening we went out and had Guinness at a pub, it was so much better than English Guinness! This pub also had a Trad(itional music) going on. It was great. We also say a movie actor there from a big performance that was going on in Ireland at the time, on TV.
The streets in Galway were all cobbled and it looked like England but prettier. Orlaith also took me to walk the prom(enade) which went really quite far, Orlaith didn't know how far and got mad when I told her she was a bad tour guide :). The ocean is really pretty there. Yes I took pictures and I even found the software to upload them onto the Internet:).
That evening, we went bushing followed by clubbing. Bushing is when you go drink in alleys or on the beach or in the woods. Usually it involves getting very dressed up. Instead we all got dressed up in party clothes and went to a pub afterwards where I danced a lot and had great fun. We bought a bottle of stuff that tasted like that lemonaide coloured Koala with vodka in it. YUM! We also drank this supposedlt famous Galway stuff that tasted like cough syrup. It was called... hmm something that started with a B, I'll have to ask Orlaith and add it in next time. It was pretty vile. We also got a Naggin (mickey) of vodka. The different names were hilarious. I got so confused but then used to it again. Strange how you can speak the same language but still not know what the other is saying. This was a Saturday night and Galway being a student town, EVERYONE was out and partying. Stumbling through the streets and the girls kept getting their heels caught in the cobbles.
Orlaith's Mum, Trish drove us to Conna mara (sp?) it was gorgeous! We also went to the cliffs of Moher and visited the Barrens and a ruined church. We also saw this standing stone thing which I have also forgotten the proper name for. Considering this all took place in the beginning of February, one can hardly blame me. Sorry to make this all so rushed and brief. I imagine the photos will fill in anything I've missed or forgotten. On Sunday morning I left Ireland. Trish and Orlaith drove me to the airport. The night we went clubbing and bushing Orlaith and got home at around 5. Then we talked until 6:30. Got up to leave at 8. Was very tired.
I have never had such amazing hospitality and Orlaith's dad and brother were really nice as was her auntie. I hope I can drag a few of them to come visit me! Along with the rest of Europe!
That's all for now. My next entry will be Paris and the voyage home. :D In another month when I get around to writing it...
Yours Truly,
madame M. |
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| After a month of silence I emerge from the goo |
[Feb. 21st, 2006|10:10 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | england | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  mooo | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Capercaillie | ] |
Hi everyone,
Sorry for taking so long to add to my journal. Photos are coming too. I had a great time with Eva and we had some fun silliness. We made plans to meet up in Paris after my travellings.
Went to Paris and stayed with Raf and family. That was fun, perusing the metro. Then I took a train up to Dieppe and ferried to Newhaven. They really don't know how to do ferries over here! Small, no outside, grimy. It was the worst food I've eaten in my life!!! Fries, veggies and lamb. It was the type of overpriced meal where you eat 2 bites, but even though it was expensives, you can't bring yourself to eat it. Uncle Alec picked me up from the ferry terminal and we made it alive back to his place. He was a great host, spoiling me rotten. We went to an old feudal village and I had a ploughmans lunch. Kind of like those big plates of food that Dad makes when we have guests for lunch. I had my first Shandy, 1/2 lemonaid, half beer. All the buildings in the village were made with flint, so I brought some with me. I'm going to be broke after paying the overweight charge!!!
On Saturday I took the train up to London. I bought an double decker, topless bus tour pass and got on and off the bus all day and saw lots of the sights. I also shopped until I almost dropped at oxford street. You need at least a week in London to just get a taste. There is so much to do. I could have shopped all day or just seen things.
Uncle Alec and I shared bottles of wine and he kept insisting that I have these ample whisky nightcaps which made me very silly. We had many very interesting conversations!
On Sunday I caught a bus to Wiltshire to go visit Mia in Wooten Basset (pronounced: Witten Basset). She was in the middle of moving so I helped her with that. She has a very nice British boyfriend and is working a quaint little British Pub. On Tuesday morning, I caught a bus to Gatwick. I ended up spending several hours at Heathrow changing buses. I used the Internet there for 2 pounds for 1/2 an hour. Outrageous but I needed to know when I was going to meet Orlaith in Ireland. My planning seemed to be happening spontaneously. Much more expensive than planning months in advance.
Went to Mcdonald's in Gatwick. It constantly amazes me how Mcdonald's tastes the same in any country. Then I lifted off onto the very cheap, Irish run Ryanair. A rather lumpy flight commenced and I woke up to an announcement saying that we were touching down in 15 minutes. This was when I started to realise that I was starting to be able to sleep almost anywhere (the flight was 1.5 hours long)(cramped and uncomfortable). This proved true all the way to Ireland and back, but I'll leave that for another entry.
Good evening ladies and gentlemen,
Mikaila |
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| Finally, the gruesome truth comes out!!! |
[Jan. 20th, 2006|07:00 am] |
Goot evenignk laydeez andt gentlemens!
Alright:
My french family found out that I was thinking of leaving them before I came back to France. They accused me of some rather untrue, dreadful things and then said I had 2 days to leave. Naturally I called my lovely friend Eva and left the next morning. I have since received an email from the family apologizing. Since Monday the 16th I've been living with Eva in her bachelourette appartment. Very amazingly generous of her as it is very small and we spend 18 hours a week in school together. But we've been studying for the massive amounts of exams together and thats going well. But yes, the exams are all day Saturday, plus an hour on Friday. I'm really not sure what they were thinking, Exams on a weekend seems a little babaric!
The plan after this is to go to Paris on Sunday to visit Sylvain's friends that I met in Canada (Rafael and Emma). After that I'm going to England to visit Uncle Alec and Ireland to see Orlaith. Then I will decide whether to stay in Europe and work or go back to Canada. Not sure what I'm going to do yet, but I plan to have fun whilst I'm deciding. I decided not to go to Germany. If I was that miserable being an aupair in France, I doubt Germany would be any better.
I'm not really sure what else to add... I'm so much happier living here with Eva than I have been since I've lived in France.
I tried to repack my bags. After jettisoning some stuff at the house, I still had a backpack, my huge suitcase and my smaller one. Plus 5 bags of stuff (small garbage bags). I rolled and shoved and got it down to 2 bags extra. Went through wrenching agony and gave a bunch of my clothes to Angela from Columbia. She was very sympathetic and understanding as she knows the clothes obsession well. The other bag may have to be mailed to Canada, or I may become pregnant for the ride home.
On Saturday after the exams, Kim (U.S.) is having a soiree at her house. Everyone is bringing a dish from their country. Her house is very small and I think a lot of us will come. So it will be crowded but there will be good food!
But en y va for more studying. I hope everyone is doing well! I'm going to see Mia in England and wear some longjohns, so it will be just like back home. Except that when I talked to Mia, she seemed to have taken on a British accent. So it will have a flair of Brit...
So excited to be going to Ireland!
Ok talk to you all soon I hope,
miss Mikyla |
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| The voyage |
[Jan. 10th, 2006|10:34 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | return to france | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  dead tired | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Bloody Sunday, U2 | ] |
Hello,
Finally I have gotten my act together to do a journal entry. More photos are up on the mikailal one.
I'm really dead right now because for the past 4 days in a row I have been waking up at 6:30am. Being back in school is deadly! I'm so I glad I only have another week and a half!!! I'm giving my 2 weeks notice tomorrow. Wish me luck!! I'm leaving for Germany on the 28th and I now have the address there, so if you want the address, then email me.
My voyage from Canada was terrible. I got up at 6am and was awake long before that due to Jasper and Nettie trying to kill imaginary burglars at 3am. As we left for the airport I tried to take a nap on the kitchen floor. After a half hour plane ride from Qualicum to Vancouver, I had to wait 30 mins for a shuttle, only to find the my flight to Chicago had been delayed an hour. I was a little worried, because I only had 1.5 hours to make my connection (had to ask Eva (from Taiwan) how to spell that word. English is her second language.) the guy assured me it would be ok. Then I fell asleep waiting for my plane. Once we landed in Chicago, there was a plane in our parking spot, so we had to wait for 25 minutes. By the time I got off the plane, I had 10 minutes to make my flight. As I ran, my backpack exploded all over the place. When I finally got to my plane, the guy was doing the "this is the last call for flight ... to Paris". On the plane we waited for another hour while they put my luggage on it.
I ended up sitting next to a girl whose class was going to Paris for 4 days to learn about interior design. We talked most of the trip.
When I finally got to Paris I got to wait for 4 hours. Then once on the train, I slept on and off for 3 hours. I got to Nimes and Muriel was 30 minutes late picking me up. It only take 30-40 minutes to drive from Garrigues to Nimes. I wasn't impressed.
I slept like crazy and had terrible jetlag! But by Sunday I was feeling alright, so I went and hung out with Eva. She made me Chinese food for lunch and then we went to Sete and explored. There were huge waves. I'll post the pics soon!
But that's my exciting life to date! Will post more later!
A bientot!
-m. |
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| Back in France again |
[Jan. 6th, 2006|02:36 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | bif | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | thirsty and tired | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | I wanna see you belly dance -Red Elvises | ] |
Hello everyone,
After a fabulous Christmas, I arrived back in France rather jet lagged. My voyage was rather eventful, but I'm going to leave that for another day, because my class is starting soon and I haven't even been in back in France for 24 hours yet. But the main reason I'm writing is because I'm leaving this French family and moving to Bavaria to be with another family. So in other words, don't send me any mail until I get to Germany and have my new address. I'll include more details in my next email!
Hope everyone had a great holiday,
wish I was home,
XOXO,
Mikaila |
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| home sweet home ick anohter cliche |
[Dec. 17th, 2005|06:26 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | Jetlagged to hell | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Rolling down to Old Maui -Stan Rogers | ] |
Hey! My flight went alright. 9 hours from Paris to Chicago and a 5 hour wait in Chicago then and other 4 hours to Vancouver. 26 hours without sleep. It wasn't all bad though. In the airport while I was waiting (in Chicago) I saw these guys with big Canadian flags on their backpacks and went up and sat by them and made friends. We talked for the next 5 hours and they had spent the last 5 weeks backpacking accross Europe. We played I spy with my little eye and complained about/compared travelling experiences. I took a picture of them in their toques which I will put in my photos as soon as I get to a non-internet cafe computer.
Having a girl's weekend in Vancouver which is going great! It's wonderful spending time with all my siters and mom. China town and gallavanting! But ahh my time is running out more later!!!
See you all soon!
-mikaila |
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| All my bags are packed, I'm a ready to go! (A cliche, but hey it's a French word!) |
[Dec. 10th, 2005|09:53 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | last b4 home | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | happpppppy! | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Homeward Bound -Simon and Garfunkel | ] |
Hallo,
Moo, this will probably be the last entry before I arrive in Cannady! Been getting broke buying xmas presents and fulfilling a terrible, addictive shoe fetish! This weekend, tonight actually Orlaith is coming to stay and we are going to an International student party with my class and others at a club it should be a lot of fun!!! On Tuesday night we are having another class party, we are going to 'faire le fete HARDCORE' (to make/do the party). So on Wednesday I will catch my train in a rather dazed, tired and (likely) hungover manner.
Then I shall arrive in Paris where my 2nd cousin Vanessa (on my father's side) will meet me. Then I'll spend the night in Paris and catch my flight the next morning. The I fly for 9 hours and 40 minutes. Arrive in Chicago and wait there for 5 hours and 45 minutes. THen I fly for another 2 hours and 34 minutes. Then at like 11 pm I arrive in Canada dead tired and cranky.
Things are going a bit wonky here, but I'm sure you'll hear all about it when I get back home.
I'm sure I must have something else to say, something exciting must have happened to me in the last week since I wrote. Oh yes I went shopping with Jennie from Sweden on Monday and on Wednesday I went to Nimes and went shopping with Angela from Columbia. I didn't buy anything either time which could be the reason I'm crazily rushed trying to find some last minute gifts.
Beautifully sunny here, no doubt I'm going to be freezing when I get back to my country of coldness. Good thing I brought my longjohns with me, even if they'll only be useful for the return trip!
Miss you all and can't wait to see you!
a bientot,
mikaila |
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