Christmas Break so far

sorry guys, this is a big one... I haven't had an internet connection for a couple weeks, but I've been making daily updates on the new comp (YAY) and now I'm posting them, so... be warned!

Thurs, Dec. 18
Last day of classes. I said goodbye to my kids, and the teachers I know, and ran home to pack (of course I hadn’t done it earlier). Packed all my stuff into my hiking bag, and made my way to the train station. Turns out, the train is packed, so I can’t reserve a seat all the way to Ulm. So, I got on the train, find a compartment with two guys already in it, sat down, and promptly fell asleep. The train ride to Ulm was 4 hours long, so I got a nice little nap in. When I got to Ulm, I called mama, and met the girls in the train station. It was really weird seeing them here, it seemed like I was the one out of place, as I’m used to the family being far away. That night, we went out to “barfuesser,” a german microbrewery and restaurant, and had a couple liters of beer, and some kaesespaetzle. After that, we met up with Judith (a cousin of the Marstallers, the girl I met up with last time I was in Ulm) at the Weihnachtsmarkt, had some pflaumenwein, and proceeded to get mama wasted. When we had tucked her into bed, the kids all went out in the city. After a while of indecision, we decided to head to her friend Maxi’s new apartment, for a housewarming party. We all had a lot of fun, the girls all got along well (too well, in fact… scarily…) We stumbled home at about 2, relatively early in German “going-out” terms.
Fri, Dec 19
The next morning, we woke up, and mama and I headed to a little café/pastry shop to get some breakfast, where Judith and the girls met us later. We then made our way through a part of the Markt we hadn’t seen yet, and had some more gluehwein. Judith had to leave, for paris, so we said goodbye, amid promises that she would come visit again after Christmas, followed by a formal adoption into my family. We ate dinner that evening in the Weihnachtsmarkt, some really good wurste. The sisters and I then watched “the Fall,” which I had ordered, and they had never seen. Its amazing, if you haven’t seen it, I recommend it! (oh, also, the fam brought my new mac!!! YAY!! Its so pretty and awesome… I lurve it good. No more craptop for me! W00t!)
Sat, Dec 20
We woke up relatively early, checked out of the hotel, and had breakfast in a little café. We then got into the ugly-ass-rented-Peugeot, and made our way towards Herrenberg. After abt an hour in the car, we were there, and my ass was numb. Checked into the new hotel, and made our way over to Meisenweg, to see the Marstallers, our old neighbors from when we lived in Germany before. It was great to see them again, and we spent the next few hours re-hashing the last 15 years.
Sun, Dec 21
We all went out to Hohenneuffen, a castle in the area that has an amazing view of the alps and the B-W region. The castle is now pretty much in ruins, except for a restaurant that’s still there. It was originally built in 2200 BC, but the “new castle” was built in the 1100’s. The weather was cloudy and gray, as per usual, but as we got to the top of the mountain, it cleared out really nicely, and we were able to see pretty far, and take some great pictures. Both of the cameras my family brought were malfunctioning, so I let Meagan borrow my camera, since she’s a much better photographer than I am, and she took some great shots of everything. Those will be posted later on. Afterwards, we went out to Villa Meineck, to visit Marianne’s mother, Oma. We had tea with her, and sang some Christmas carols around the piano. The house was just like I remember it, and Oma still looks the same. She calls me Sean like the French would say it, i.e, without an “n” at the end. It’s quite funny. After that, we went to Esslingen, to the “Mittelaltlicher Weihnachtsmarkt,” the middle-ages Christmas market. It was really cool, and huge, and the town itself is gorgeous. We then headed home, and relaxed a bit.
Mon, Dec 22
We had planned on going to the Mercedes-Benz museum today, only to be reminded by Marianne and Joerg that museums are closed Mondays. Ugh. So, instead, we hung around, wandered around Herrenberg, and I made some kaesespaetzle. After that, we FINALLY heard from my dad, that he had arrived, and that he was already in Herrenberg, so I went to go pick him up with BUP (big-ugly-Peugeot). Marianne had bought us all tickets to the Christmas circus in Stuttgart, which is a famous circus that comes every year, with the cream of the circus crop. It was my very first circus ever, and it was pretty cool, I must say… pictures of that are also gonna be posted.
Tues, Dec 23
Today has been pretty slow, papa is sleeping off the jetlag, the family is around, doing various things that need to be done. We spent the afternoon making Christmas cookies, and then the girls started doing crafts for Christmas, including paper stars, and other fun stuff. We also helped decorate the Christmas tree that the Marstallers set up in the living room. I made some zimtsterne (cinnamon stars) and some vanillekipferl (vanilla shortbread) both turned out really well, and were promptly gobbled up.
Weds, Dec 24
Christmas Eve, which was lovely, and very low key. The Germans open their presents on Christmas eve, which is kinda cool. We sat in the living room with the Marstallers, around the Christmas tree, and then opened presents. I got a spaetzle board!! (so that I can hand-make spaetzle… mmmm….. We then went to the Christmas eve service at the city cathedral, where marie-lena sang.
Thurs, Dec 25
Christmas day, we spent most of the day wandering around the city, which was almost completely empty, and cooking. I was put in charge of the Christmas goose, my first, and so I spent most of the afternoon cutting, prepping, stuffing, buttering, and basting. It also turned out incredibly well, although in my opinon, slightly overcooked (whoops). We all sat down for a fantastic dinner.
Fri, Dec 26th
Started off for spain, after a tearful goodbye with the Marstallers. We left at noon, and made it all the way to the south side of Lyon, France, before having to pass out.
Sat, Dec 27th
Left early, drove most of the day, before finally arriving in Madrid at around 8pm. We found our way to Dave and Esperanza’s apartment building, parked BUP (now also called the Silver Hornet,) and played around with them for a few hours, before crashing in a really neat apartment in the building.
Sun, Dec 28th
We walked around Madrid with Dave and Esperanza, and also got to go to the Prado Museum, to see a Rembrandt exhibit, which was amazing. We then walked back through Madrid, admiring how well the city is lit up for Christmas (pictures of me hamming for the camera will be posted soon!)
Mon, Dec 29th
We didn’t do too much, mostly played around with Dave and Esperanza and their son Daniel, who is 16. (the last time we saw him, he was maybe 2) I’m slowly getting used to the Spanish tradition of eating lunch at abt 3pm, and eating dinner (or starting to go out) at 11pm. We haven’t really gone out and experienced the nightlife yet, but that will be soon coming, and I will further report on that! I hope everyone had a merry Christmas, or a wonderful celebration of whatever you celebrate!

Talk to you in the New Year!

-seany

LAST CRAPTOP POST EVER!! YAY!!!

Hey guys, this’ll be my last post for a while, as tomorrow afternoon, I’m off to Ulm to meet the fam. Also, this will be my last post EVER on craptop!! YAY!! I’m so excited for the mac to get here… haven’t decided what to name her/him yet… suggestions??
This week has been a lot of fun, actually. Lots of my classes were cancelled, which was annoying, but it gave me the opportunity to hang out in the teachers lounge, and talk with the other teachers, which was nice. I also got asked to go ice-skating with one of the 6th classes, and so I went. We went this afternoon for two hours, with one of the classes that hasn’t had me yet, so I spent the first 20 mins talking abt myself, and answering that yes, I do know I’m tall. The ice was kinda crappy, all pitted and scratched up, but it was still fun! It turns out I’m not absolutely terrible at ice-skating, even after… 3 years?? Rachey which of your birthdays did we hit the mall rink for?!?! I can’t remember anymore… Other than that, I’ve been going to the Weihnachtsmarkt, and been having a good time.
Tomorrow, I’m leaving for Ulm, where we’ll spend a couple days, and then, on to Herrenberg for Christmas, and then after that, france and spain. Altho I’ll have the as-yet-unnamed-mac with me, I don’t know if I’ll have internet, so, this will probably also be the last post of the year. Have a merry Christmas, happy Hannukah, and a great new year’s celebration!! I’ll be back on/about the 6th of January, and then will be hanging out with the fam in Göttingen, as well as showing Meghan and Mariah around!! YAY!! I’m so excited to see everyone!!

-seany

le weekend!

Oooooh, the sun is shining and the grass is green, under the 3 feet of snow, I mean!

Hehe, ok, so there isn’t actually any snow, but the sun is shining!! For the first time in a few weeks, there has been more than 15 minutes of ACTUAL sunshine!! Its amazing! I just spent the last hour walking around Göttingen, with my sunglasses on, enjoying the freezing warmth. Everything is closed today, because its Sunday, other than the weihnachtsmarkt, so I wandered through there, looking for various things that I may or may not need… any requests for Christmas things from Germany? If so, lemme know, I’ll be glad to mail stuff home. Just keep in mind I can’t mail beer, sorry…
This entire weekend has been a blast so far. Thursday was quiet and nice, I stayed in and watched movies and cooked. Friday, there were three birthday parties, so we started off with Mariel’s, then moved on to philipp’s, and then ended up meeting the other birthday party at the bar with philipp’s group. I ended up going to bed around 5ish, and had a fantastic time all night, other than being slapped, and getting my hat stolen. (by the same woman, might I add….) at least I got my hat back! Saturday, I woke up around 1, bummed around for a bit, got clean, got food, ate, and then went with Julian to meet Philipp and his dad and his dad’s gf Anja for a beer at one of the OLD pubs in town. It was the coolest place ever, practically a dungeon- I could barely stand up because the ceilings were so low, and vaulted! It was in the basement of a building, lit mostly by candles, and very quiet and creepy, but awesome! I hadn’t meant to really go out again, but next thing I know, we’re back at thanner’s, and its approaching 4am. Whoops. Oh well, it was still philipp’s birthday! Woke up today, a bit groggy, saw the sun shining, and had to get outside!! As I walked around, I picked up a baguette and some cheese, and so I think that’s going to be my lunch now.
Oh! In other news, mama and the girls have landed safely in München, and are now in Garmisch, sleeping off jetlag, and hopefully having a good time in the snow! I have classes this week, but will be taking the train down on Thursday to meet them in Ulm! YAY!! Its so strange to me that my family is suddenly much closer to me, but that I still can’t see them for a bit…
Have a great weekend!

-seany

the rest of the week!

I realized that I forgot to blog about the remainder of last weekend, and this past week, so, here goes! After the lovely misadventures on Thursday, I decided that I wanted to go up to Hamburg to visit some fulbrighters there, and also attend the Christmas tree lighting party at the US consulate. On the ICE, it takes abt 90 mins to get from Göttingen to Hamburg, but on the FREE regional train, it takes abt 4.5 hours. Being that I’m cheap, the slowtrain it was.. Ended up getting into Hamburg later than expected, and starving, so I met up with Caitlin, stopped by an asian grocery store, and bought ingredients to make some thai curry. We went back to her apt, and I started cooking, while she invited the other FBers to join in. (I still have not figured out how to cook for less than 4 people, btw…) Made dinner, which turned out fantastically, and sat eating and drinking for abt 4 hours, before deciding to go out into the city. We went to stern schanze and St. Pauli, which are two really fun districts in the city, and went barhopping until about 5am. Hamburg is a very alternative city, and so I got to see a lot of things that I’d never experienced. We’ll leave it at that, for the PG rating, and because my mom reads this. The next morning (afternoon,) we got up, and went to the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) and got food and glühwein, and wandered around looking all the different crafts and stuff you can buy. I headed back to Göttingen at around 4pm, and got in exhausted, and pretty much passed out immediately, instead of going to the Niklausparty that was being thrown at the Uni here in Göttingen (which was a ton of fun, Karen reports.) On Sunday, I went with Julian, Philipp, Rac, and Karen to Goslar, which is a medieval town near Braunschweig, and also happens to be where Julian is from. The Weihnachtsmarkt there is well-known throughout Europe as being one of the best, and most entertaining. Every year they put up huge pine trees, clear off the first 7 feet of branches, and attach bar tables to the trunks. You go into this fake forest, which is covered in Christmas lights, buy glühwein, and pretend you’re in a real forest, in the middle of the city. Its really quite lovely. We also tried “feuerzangenbowle,” which is a hot concoction of god knows what, tastes lovely, and almost immediately numbs your body from the cold. We wandered around the town, hot drinks in hand, and took fun pics (which are posted, btw). After a few hours of spatziering and drinking, we went for dinner underneath the Rathaus, and hung out there for a while to warm up. After that, we ran to the train station, barely caught our train, and headed back up to Göttingen. Karen, Philipp, Rac, and I then decided to go to the Irish pub for a nightcap. I dragged Karen back to my apt (see pics,) because her bed hadn’t arrived yet, and she passed out on my couch. Woke up a few short hours later, and went to school, which was uneventful, except many of the teachers asked me how rough my weekend was. This past week has gone by relatively quickly… the only remarkable thing was that the kitty who lives in my building got into my apt, and I took pictures of her as I was trying to shoo her out. Those pics are also posted.
I’ve realized that I use my weeks to rest up for the weekends, which, although not normal, works well.
Today, the fam is arriving in München (minus my dad, who’s arriving on the 22nd) and so I’m waiting to hear from them, and know that they got in safely. I will be posting soon, and will also upload more pics in the near future! Good luck with finals, those of you that have them!

...and now, the misadventures!

So, I’ve blogged about food plenty so far, and now its time for the misadventures to start. Yesterday, Karen and I went up to Hannover to visit the Weihnachtsmarkt, and our friend Andrea. We also needed to make an IKEA run, due to the fact that Karen’s new apartment does not contain any furniture. So, after wandering through Hannover’s Olympic training center, we made our way down to ikea, which is a 10 minute train ride, and then a 40 minute walk. We knew the general direction we were going, and some key street names to look for, which was a great start, especially for us. As we wandered through the really cold rain, we eventually spotted the ikea, and turned down the road towards it. Sounds logical, right? Apparently Germans don’t like logic much. We made our way down this road, which then turned into an autobahn (with no sidewalks, I might add). We saw a little trail cutting through the woods, and figured that this must be the continuation of the sidewalk. It wasn’t. We ended up trekking through the woods for a bit, (ikea sign still visible, of course) and then ended up walking along the autobahn. We had noticed a footbridge a little further down, and made our way towards it. When we got to said footbridge, we then realized there was no easy way for us to get UP to the footbridge. We ended up climbing up the embankment under the bridge, which was muddy and covered in dead brush. Karen aptly described this as “bushwhacking,” and I agree completely. I jumped up onto the bridge, and helped Karen up as well. We could finally make a muddy track towards ikea! Ikea was lovely as usual, and much bigger than the one in Kassel, which is a waste of time, and Karen actually enjoyed it this time, I think… We also THEN found out that there’s a bus that goes from the train station to ikea in abt 10 mins. Convenient. (btw, the ikea trip was karen’s baby… I didn’t really NEED anything from there) So, after paying and getting everything ready, I was starving, so got in line for a hotdog, and Karen decided to check out the bus schedule. She came darting back and mentioned that the only bus for the next hour was leaving in one minute. So much for my hot dog. We sprinted towards what we hoped was the bus station, and got just into view as the bus pulled away. Lovely. Instead of waiting for an hour for the next bus, we decided just to hoof it, and so, made our way back to the train station (on the correct road this time.) As we got to the train station 10 mins before our train was supposed to leave, we noticed on the board that the train was leaving NOW, and so we sprinted down the stationary escalator, once again, just in time to see the train pulling away. Perfect. The next train was in an hour. Is this sounding familiar to anyone else?? We then went to the S-bahn half of the train station, hoping that we could make our way back that way, only to find that the Sbahn station had been closed. We then wandered around the station, looking for a street train, and, just as we found one, saw the train we needed, pulling into it. The only problem was, the station was about 2 blocks away. So, we YET AGAIN watched the transportation we needed pull away from us without us in it. Thankfully this time, we saw that the next train arrived in like 10 minutes. I can deal with that. We met up with Andrea at the Weihnachtsmarkt, and enjoyed some glühwein and other foods. We then headed back to the train station, and eventually got home (after missing our train by about 2 minutes, and having to wait another hour.)
I got some fun pics of the Hannover Weihnachtsmarkt tho, so those will be posted shortly. I’m heading up to Hamburg today, and then going to Goslar with my roomy and a couple friends on Sunday. There will be plenty of pics of those adventures too, and hopefully lots of food, and further misadventures.
Have a great weekend!

-seany