Blind Booking! Part 1

 So to begin Raymmah and I decided to do Blind Booking through German Wings. Basically, you pick your departure airport (Stuttgart) and the theme of your trip...we picked "Western Metropolis" and got Vienna. And then adventure begins...

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Tschüss Stuttgart!

 

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St. Marx's Cemetary 

There we were able to see the graves of Schubert, Brahms, Beethoven and a monument build for Mozart. The rubbled tombstones are from the "Alte Judische Graben" and are the remains of what was destroyed during the bombings of Vienna in World War 2.  

 

Frohe Weihnachten!

I have to admit, it was so strange not being home on Christmas, but I was lucky enough to be able to spend it with Courtney and Hannes' family. 

In Germany they celebrate the 24, 25 and 26. On the 24 Courtney and I went to Hannes' for dinner and church. We had wurstschen, potato salad, and salad with his parents and older sister Lea. Theyare all so sweet, and Lea acted as a translator for Courtney but also told us all about her time as an Au Pair in the U.S. After dinner we went to church which is right across the street. It was a good feeling to be there, even though the entire service was in German. 

We went back home to open presents and have dessert, yum. 

It was so nice of their family to get Courtney and I gifts. For my birthday, his mom gave me a German baking book and then for Christmas I got chocolates, tea and a really cute mug...and my favorite: a jar homemade of quitten marmalade and on of quittenmus. Then Oma and the uncle came over and we had baked apples stuffed with four kinds of nuts and vanilla ice cream. It was heavenly!

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I got to skype my mom and Em, Meg and Dani...and they got to meet Hannes' family!

One major difference from the traditions that I am used to for Christmas is that it is normal to go out to parties or clubs on the 24th. So, off we went to Stuttgart joined with Markus and a few more of their friends. The music selection of the night was bands like Linkin Park...interesting, but nonetheless so much fun!

OH...and there were REAL candles on the tree, lit ones. WHAT? I definitely think that was a fire hazard, especially with clumsy me around, but they have a cat too! Weird. I'm still in awe...

 

On the 25th it was my turn to the be hostess. We got a honey ham from the army base in Böblingen, and I made green bean casserole. I had each person bring something to contribute. Tyler and David who are stationed in Böblingen brought beer and the ham, Tricia: caramel apple cheesecake, her boyfriend Chris: mac&cheese, Raymmah: brandied chocolate covered strawberries, Kaiyo: salad, Severin: mashed potatoes and chocolates, and brendan oh wonderful brendan made garlic bread and a delicious white bean soup. We also had an abundance of wines which various people contributed. 

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We spent the night talking and visiting, went on a night hike and at the the end of the day Courtney, Tyler, David, Raymmah and I snuggled up to sleep. 

I think my favorite part of the night was when we all sat down to eat. We each put food on our plates and for a good 5 minutes there was just silence; comfortable, wonderful silence. Everyone was enjoying the food and company and I couldn't help but just smile. 

On the 26th was our lazy day. I woke up to clean and then Raymmah, Courtney and I spent the entire day watching movies. 

The 27th was Court's last day in Germany so I took her to Stuttgart. We wandered around the Königstrasse and had some currywurst. 

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We headed home to Tuebingen with Markus and Hannes from some Mexican food with tortillas from Spain and salsa from California. After that we took Courtney out to a club and then it was sleepy time before we sent her off the airport back to Madrid. 

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Then Hannes felt creative for dinner. 

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Where's the snow?

One of my biggest fears/excitements of living in Germany was the snow. The first week of November, Hannes bet Kaila and I a beer that it would snow in two weeks. Well, Hannes lost. December 1st hit, nothing....the weeks pass...and pass...and then it was December 17th, the Glühweinfest. A group of friends (the Hannes, Markus, Brittany group) has a Christmas party every year complete with snow, fire, Glühwein, schnapps and good friends. This year, Anne and I got to attend. Well, it was just a whirlwind of events. It's in the forest, kind of. So around 7:30 PM Markus, Hannes, Anne and I start to walk through the streets of Nellingen to our destination fire stick in hand. For anyone who knows me, you might remember that i am ALWAYS cold. I wish I took a picture of my outfit because I looked like a marshmallow. I had 2 layers of Underarmour on, a thin jacket, a pile jacket, and my rain coat, tights, jeans, wool socks, wool legwarmers, Uggs, gloves, scarf and a hat (and I was still cold). We lit a campfire, cozied up and drank our Glühwein, fortunately I was able to avoid the homemade schnapps. It was my goal for the evening. We got back to the house in Nellingen around 3 AM and spent the next day sleeping and playing Trivial Pursuit on Playstation (which i ALMOST won in German!). 

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It snowed for one day...

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Then came my birthday..the big 21! First, Courtney flew in from Madrid! We spend the day at the Esslingen Weihnachtsmarkt and exploring Tuebingen. After my film class, a few of us went to X, a burger restaurant in the Altstadt for a celebratory and desperately needed hamburger and french fries. We met up with Hannes, Markus, Courtney, Brittany, Tricia, her boyfriend Chris and Cody and headed to a bar in the Marktplatz. I ordered a glass of wine and was then presented with a rose scented candle and marble cake and got sung to...in English. Although spent with good friends and I couldn't ask for anything different, it was the first time I was truly homesick. 

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Am ende November

I didn't even realize that it had been almost a month since I posted something until little bug, Allie reminded me so! As usual, so much has happened in the past couple of weeks that I don't even know where to begin so I will, once again use my pictures to tell my stories and elaborate a little bit when I find it necessary. Thinking about it now, it very well may be another two-parter! 

So, let's begin. 

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This is Karlsruhe! I went on a day trip here with Kaila, Anne, Cokie, Rachel, Eduardo (our friend from Spain), and Marcel (friend from Germany). We didn't do as much planning as in Strasbourg but still had an amazing time! The train ride is about 2 1/2 hours from Tuebingen, but it was well worth it! This is the Residence Palace, it's now a museum but unfortunately we didn't go inside. Behind the palace is a park with big grass fields, trees and walkways. It was so beautiful and half of our group spend the majority of the day wandering through the park and watching the university students play a drinking game that resembled something like capture the flag. 

Since it was Autumn, we couldn't go without playing in the leaves, but as you can see Marcel got a little carried away...

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After Karlsruhe, Kaila, Anne, Cokie and I went to Nellingen to play "Sing Star" with Hannes, Markus, Brittany, Holger and some of the others we met at the Weißwurst Fruehstuck back in Oktober. 

The weekend following was the California Thanksgiving put on by our program coordinator, Anita and her assistant Jan. We had all of the traditional food, including Pumpkin Pie! It was so nice to all be together again for an afternoon since we really only get to see the people in our classes. 

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This is Kat and I digging in!

After dinner we all went to a WG party in the French Quarter full of Californians, Flora modeling and some good conversation with Miles, Kaila's roommate. 

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Of course the California Thanksgiving wasn't enough, so we made our own at Kaila's! We made turkey, potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, Miles brought the wine, Rachel brought the pumpkin bread and Cokie brought the ice cream!

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That weekend I went with Hannes to the Esslingen Weihnachtsmarkt! It was so beautiful! It was the opening weekend and there were white a few people but it just felt like winter time. We drank Glühwein and ate Crepes ah I wish I had words to describe a German Christmas market. Even without the snow it felt like Winter. 

Good times with friends almost always goes hand in hand with food. What's better than making dinner with friends? Making Mexican food in Germany for someone who has never really been able to experience it...aka Miles. 

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As November turns to Decembber and fall to winter, we will start a new post... :]

 

Es ist Winterzeit!

Oh December, where is my snow?

It's almost scary how warm it has been, and with NO rain. I'm beginning to worry it will all come at once. I'm pretty sure that I am not prepared. 

This weekend was the Tuebingen Schokoladenmarkt, Germany's largest chocolate festival. It took over the majority of our Altstadt, there were booths and people EVERYWHERE. There were so many different types of chocolate and cookies, it was basically overload. Since it was so close we were able to walk through everyday after our classes browsing through the booths and of coure sampling all the chocolate. 

This weekend Kaila's friend Aidan from California came and stayed with her. On Saturday night we decided to show him a little bit of our German day to day life, complete with a Tuebingen Walter Tigers basketball game against Bonn. It was my first German basketball game but SO much fun! The energy in the Sportplatz was incredible and I was surprised by how popular the game is here. It was a close game, we won by only one basket in the last 30 seconds. Go Walter Tigers!

After we went out to a bar in the Altstadt with a large group of pictures and were out until around 2:30 AM. It was really fun getting to know all of the Germans that were at the game with us and just spending time with each other. 

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On Sunday I went back to the Esslingen Weihnachtsmarkt with Kaila, Aidan and Miles. It was a little rainy but it just heightened the experience which was so different from the one that I experienced when I was there in the evening. 

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After the Weihnachtsmarkt and a nap on the train, I went back to the Schokoladenmarkt with Hannes, Markus, Brittany and Holger. We chatted and drank Glühwein while strolling through the rain. Andrew and Erik were playing music in front of one of the stands which I think really added something unique and excting to the market. We went to dinner and then to a bar for visiting. I was really able to see how out of practice I am with speaking German which sounds strange since I live here. It's so difficult since many of my friends are from the California program, or when you meet someone and the recognize that you speak English because they want to practice with you. It's only December, right? I have time? I sure hope so, which reminds me... I should go study! I have my first final on Thursday (even though the semester doesn't end until February)! Wish me luck!

 

Bis bald!

 

Je ne parle pas Français!

I live in a dream! This is a little bit how last week went...

Wendesday: Kaila comes over for dinner and we talked about how we wanted to travel. By the end of our meal we decided on France...that weekend. 

Thursday: Tickets found, hostel booked. 

Friday: 2:15 pm and we're on our way to France!

A mere 3 1/2 hours later we RAN off the train in the beautiful city of Strasbourg in Alsace. Somehow, the two of us were under the impression that we would be fine, because everyone should speak German, since it's you know...on the border. WRONG. Neither of us knew any French and very few of the French knew German or English. It proved for an interesting trip, full of shrugging and pointing (which made it all the more fun). 

Once the two of us figure out how to get out of the train station (since we couldn't read the signs), and after being welcomed into the country by two soldiers at the top of the stairs pointing guns at our faces...we began our mission to find the hotel. Harder than it seemed. We asked for directions in a hotel, got a map and STILL ended up wandering...and wandering. Finally, after asking a friendly young man at the tram stop, we were able to find it, and as it always happens in these situations, it was right under our noses the entire time!

I must go into detail about this "asking" I speak of, if that is what we're going to call it. I walked up to him paper in hand and the BIGGEST, GOOFIEST smile possible. Suddenly remembering that I don't know French, I just point and shoulder shrug. He starts speaking French, and our only response is, "Sprechen Sie Deutsch....oder Englisch??" To our surprise...no German, and a little bit of English. I was still relying on the pointing though.

After taking the obligatory elevator mirror picture and settling in, we set out on the town to explore it in the dark!

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We went to a cafe and sipped some wine, which went perfectly with the Joghurt Milka bar we were sneaking under the table...classy. 

The next morning we feasted on our croissants and cheese (which we brought from Germany) and were out the door by 8 AM. Nothing opened until 9 or 10 which gave us ample amount of time to explore the city without the crowds in the still, crisp, Fall morning, IN FRANCE.

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Then we found a fleamarket/farmer's market 

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Followed by a climb to the top of Notre-Dame Cathedral

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And a boat tour...

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Followed by lunch in the park

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and a delicious dessert

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which we enjoyed on some steps in Gutenberg Platz

right after we found a little bit of French-German culture

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followed by a lovely concert by a band! They were so good, and the singer was from New York! There was a man there dancing the WHOLE time, almost more entertaining than the band. I took a video and will put it up soon! We slowly made our way back to the train station for our 3 hour journey home. It was the perfect trip. I'm still on a little high from being there and it made me want to live in a big city, and learn French! 

Once we crossed over the border to Germany we got our fix of..Doener before continuing home. 

We've also decided we're great people to travel with...

Train ride round trip: 36 Euro

Tram round trip: 3 Euro

Food: 8 Euro

Climb to the Cathedral: 2.50 Euro

1 hour Panoramic Boat Tour: 4.50 Euro

Hotel: 20 Euro

2 Postcards w/ International stamps: 2.86 Euro

Four boxes of Liebig Soup: 3 Euro

Total Trip to France for the Weekend Roundtrip/Person: under 80 Euro (no, I couldn't do the math in my head)

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We'll be here all year... 

 

 

 

Take a deep breath...

This may get a bit overwhelming but I'm going to have to post multiple updates right now because of how many photos I have which need some explanation!

This is Sindefingen. Cokie, Anne and I decided to spend the day there. There isn't much to Sindelfinge; just Ikea and St. Martin's Church. The church is over 900 years old and is absolutely beautiful. The three of us went inside, sat and listened to a woman play the organ for about half an hour. It was a beautiful and cleansing like experience to really just be in our own heads and absorb all that was around us. After our day in Sindelfingen the three of us made our way to Nellingen for a friend's birthday party. It was our first real taste of the way German's celebrate! We ate the tradition Schwäbisch dish maultaschen, and I had schnapps for the first time. After a long a delusional night, we finally got to sleep around 5 AM, slept for a few hours and then had breakfast at 11. After breakfast, a big group of us went for a walk on a trail in Nellingen. It was absolutely gorgeous with all of the fall colors!

Sindelfingen

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All Saint's Day

In Germany, Halloween is not really an observed holiday. It is just becoming popular amongst the really young children. That being said, the DO observe All Saints Day as a national holiday. This year it fell on a Tuesday and meant NO school, so we made the best of it! :]

Anne and I woke up early and went to Stuttgart and met with our friend Markus. We went to the top of the Stuttart Fernsehturm. Built in 1954, it was the first fernsehturm in the world to be build out of concrete. It stands 711 ft tall from foundation to the tip of the antenna and is 504 ft tall from foundation to the observation tower. It was a relatively clear day which meant we could see ALL of Stuttgart and many of the neighboring towns.

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Anne and Markus

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Me and Markus

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Me and Anne

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Views of Stuttgart!

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After the tower, Markus brought us lunch that we ate in the park! 

Since our day just wasn't complete enough...

we met with Brittany and Hannes and went to Rotenburg and looked over at the vineyards...

 

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Me, Brittany and Anne

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Anne, Markus, Me, and Hannes

To make the day even MORE exciting...we went to a Besen after. In German, the word "besen" means broom, but also refers to local, seasonal wine kellers. Besens are open for 4 months out of the year, can only seat 40 people and are like mini-restaurant/tasting rooms for local wine-makers. It's such a cozy enviroment, sitting at tables and having conversations with strangers over a glass (or two) of new wine and a meal of maultashen or wurst. It so easy to sit there for hours, and we proved it by staying for 5 hours. The German culture really values time with their friends and family and good conversation. 

A typical stereotype of Germans is that they are cold and stoic. Here are some pictures that prove they can show emotions and enjoy being a little bit goofy (which I'm sure was pretty influenced by the three California girls). 

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Promise

it'll get updated soon....

 

 

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At last...

the day is ALMOST here. Which day you ask? Oh boy, the day I actually get a schedule of classes for the rest of the semester! The day I begin a routine. The day my brain can stop being scattered since I arrived here exactly 3 months ago today!

Tomorrow at 5 PM the results of my "Einführungstest" (aka placement test) will be posted online, along with the time of my Aufbaukurs, which I have 3 days a week! In addition to this I am also taking, Intercultural Communication, German Literature 2, Landeskunde (which is more like contemporary German society), and a history class on the Soviet Union.

The past few weeks have been tough, this limbo business was getting kind of old. I just didn't know what to do with myself. Some productive things I have done include: joining a gym, buying a peacoat, buying a poster, going to happy hour at a Mexican restaurant, and learning to make spätzle (traditional schwäbian dish kind of likea noodle?) from scratch. Pretty good if you ask me! 

I have also lost my bus pass, got a ticket, bought a new bus pass. Needless to say it's been an expensive month. 

Today I lost a glove, just one. It vanished somewhere between my Mündlichprüfung and a Café in Altstadt. Oh and the new coat I bought? A button fell off, but at least I was home and could save it. I don't think I've ever lost so many things in my life than I have the past 3 months here. 

I have still not been doing too well with the picture taking business, but I've made a step in the right direction, at least I bring my camera places. It just doens't always make it out of my bag...

 

here are a couple randoms I've taken/found...

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The beginning of a night out in Stuttgart with members of a soccer team we met!
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Kiwi, Coco, Cado and Ownie...our relationship in a nutshell at Volksfest in Stuttgart

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Volksfest round two with Rachel

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Gebrannte Mandeln, "sugared almonds" 

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Me, Sarah (a girl we met at Volksfest) and Rachel

4:37 AM

If you are curious about the title of this post, let me clarify it is most definitely 4:37 AM. Why I am awake? I wish I had the answer for the both of us. Unfortunately, I have not had the luxury of getting any sleep tonight/morning. Of course, on top of the lack of sleep, I am sick with a dreadful cough and a full day of classes tomorrow (9 to 2:45 with two 15 minute breaks). Needless to say this is going to be a long day. 

Today, it is also supposed to "slush". I am not entirely sure what this term means, but I have a feeling I'm not going to enjoy the situation walking between buildings in cheap boots and without a coat. 

I have been on quite a mini mission for a coat, but as usual...Miss Sarah Elizabeth is being the most picky individual to set foot on planet Earth. The weather situation has been fine thus far, but if this slushing business is a regularity I could be in trouble...

Enough about the weather...

For the past few weeks I've been trying to get settled in my apartment, by you know making it homey and stuff. It's been a bit of a disaster. The place hasn't changed much since I've moved in and I'm really struggling to make it my own. 7 Provenceweg just isn't feeling like home. I know it takes time, but it's almost been a month and I still feel sneaky when I go into the bathroom in the morning to shower. This is a problem. 

Many of the students in the program (myself included) have been feeling a little down lately. We can't really describe it. We're not sad, a little mopey maybe but there is no real reason as to why we are feeling like this. A little bit of homesickness is definitely a key factor, but as much as we miss our dear friends and family there is no where we would rather be than in Tübingen. When talking to Kaila about these odd emotions, she introduced a perfect word...her and her friends back home call this "scud". It's like the Limbo of emotions.

Don't get me wrong, I am SO happy in Tübingen. Just getting a little worn out trying to find my bearings. Since leaving the host family, every aspect of comfort has been removed from my life. I'm in this vast world of unknowns and I really don't know how to cope. So on Saturday, sick as a dog, I went wandering around downtown trying to find some comfort. Naturally, I navigated to a book store and in the teensie weensie English section I found exactly what I needed, "Eat, Pray, Love". Sure, I'm not thirty or newly divorced or crying on my bathroom floor night after night, but on a certain level my situation is EXACTLY the same. I'm 20 years old, living in Germany trying to learn an incredibly hard language and find myself why trying to experience every aspect of the European world around me. I guess I just needed a little more assurance that I wasn't alone. 

In addition to "Eat, Pray, Love" I had a steal. I got "Pride and Prejudice" for 2.90 Euro. So that's next on the list. My next purchase, "Mary Poppins" in German of course. Nothing like a little childhood when you're feeling lost and lonely. Plus, what better way to learn German?

This whole growing up thing is hard, and as much as I want to hurry up and be done with it, right now I wish it would all just kind of slow down. 

So now it is 4:57 AM and the sleep is still escaping me. Luckily, the cough has subsided, but I don't have class until 9. I hope all of you get a wonderful night's rest and have enough dreams for the both of us.