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

thanksgiving!

So, I've been having kinda a downer week, for no reason in particular. I knew i needed to cheer myself up, so i've thrown myself whole-heartedly into thanksgiving preparations. Karen and i are co-hosting a thanksgiving dinner on weds. night, and have been preparing for the past couple days. We've been on a supply hunt for specialty items in the grocery stores for about two weeks now (2 hour grocery shopping trips really are quite fun!) We've found most of the stuff we need, with the exception of the things you really can only find in America, like cranberry sauce, pie pans/crust, and pumpkin. We're ersatzing most of the stuff we can't find here, so it should still be quite yummy. I decided to buy turkey breasts instead of whole turkeys, as they are much easier to prepare, and don't require as much space to store/cook. We've been assembling our menu for the past couple days, and i finally put it all together, and have started! I made a brine bath for the turkeys with apple cider and a ton of spices, and the turkeys have been in there since last night. Those are going to get roasted tomorrow. The menu is:

Mashed potatoes with roasted garlic
Pureed Cauliflower with herbs de Provence
Karen's special Salad
Stuffing with roasted chestnuts
Lemon-Rosemary-Olive stuffed turkey
Bacon-Sage-Cider stuffed turkey,
some cider gravy (mmmm)
apple pie
cranberry sauce (ish)
plus, lots of alcohol.

I'm going to be spending most of the next 30 hours in the kitchen, and i can't wait. Sometimes i wonder why it is that i really want to be a chef, and then i remember the feeling i get when i'm in the kitchen, making stuff for other people. Its extremely calming for me to be in control of all the different aspects of preparing something(s), and really centers me. It reminds me of all the time i spent in the kitchen with my mom, standing on a stool (the one with strawberries) so that i could actually see the top of the stove, and "helping" to cook things. Mostly, i was making a mess, and eating ingredients out of the pot. :D I guess doing this whole big thanksgiving feast is the one way i can be close to my family during this season, and stave off the homesickness until they get here in a few weeks. This will be my first thanksgiving away from the family, and its strange to me to think that i'm growing up, and starting to have my own life. (yikes) I'm starting my own traditions, (no more boiled potatoes!!) and branching out, but that doesn't mean that i don't miss the family, or the crazyness that always occurs when we're all together. This thanksgiving, i really will be giving thanks for my family and friends, good and bad memories, big dinners (with family, and college friends) and the people that surround me and keep me happy.
I hope everyone has a great thanksgiving, and enjoys it wherever they are. I will hopefully post pictures after the fact, and look forward to hearing from you all!

-seany:o)

SNOW!!!

YAY!!!! its finally snowing!! its so pretty out right now.. so far its only a dusting, but its supposed to continue snowing all weekend, and accumulate 2-3 inches. i'm so excited. i love the snow.

now, out to play!!

have a great weekend, everyone!

-seany

Put your hands up for.... Detroit?

Sorry I haven’t updated in a while, I’ve been either really busy, or too bored/boring to actually write anything! In the past weekish, I’ve done a lot of fun things- we had our second stammtisch last Tuesday, which went really well. There were about 15 students there from Karen and my schools, and we spoke English and hung out for about 2 hours, which was fantastic. The rest of last week was fairly boring, I spent most of my time either in school, in bed, or grocery shopping for hours, because I had nothing better to do. My schedule is frustrating me a bit, being that I’m not really working much, and yet the hours that I am working are spread out in such a way that it’s impossible for me to do anything in my free time. Not that I’m complaining, far be it from me to complain about being paid to be in Germany, and work 12 hours a week. It just gets a little monotonous. Last Friday, Karen and I went to the Americans/ Democrats abroad meeting. We met at a nice restaurant/bar, and hung out with some old ex-pats for a couple hours, learning about their lives, and telling about ours. They’re organizing a huge thanksgiving dinner the week after thanksgiving, so I’m looking forward to that. On Saturday, Karen and I headed to Braunschweig, which is about 90 minutes away by regional train. We met up with the FSAs there, after doing some touristing of the city, and actually enjoyed it this time, being that the weather wasn’t anywhere near as bad as it was last time. We wandered around the center of the city for a couple hours, got food, and then went out to an Irish pub, and then to a Mexican bar. (yeah, typical German hangouts…) Karen’s birthday was Sunday, so at midnight, we rang in her birthday with a restaurant-wide chorus of “happy burst-day” and a tequila shot. Sidenote: Germans do shots of tequila with cinnamon and an orange slice. Weird. We all had a ton of fun, just hanging out, singing songs, eating, and totally letting loose for a bit. I ended up crashing at Thibaut’s apartment (which took forever to find, being as he was lost, and I don’t know my way around Braunschweig). Woke up fairly late on Sunday, being that I didn’t get to bed till about 530, had a nice breakfast, and then met Karen at the train station for the ride back to Göttingen.
OH! I forgot the reason for the title of today’s blog: On Thursday evening, Karen and I went to the “sportfach” party- a party hosted in the main building of the university by the “sport” majors. There, we hung out, peoplewatched, and got some dancing in. In the midst of all the terrible music (including backstreet boys, MCHammer, 20 fingers, (remember that 20 fingers song, Meagan and Aidan?!?) C&C Music factory, etc, they played this one techno song called “put your hands up 4 detroit.” It consists of: thumping bass, techno beats, and the refrain “put your hands up for Detroit, I love this city.” Echt classy. When Karen and I heard the words, we both started cracking up in the middle of the dance floor… out of any city that a pseudo-english-speaking hip-hip artist could pick, this guy picks DETROIT?!?! No offense to you Midwesterners, but… seriously? So, we danced with our hands up for industrial wasteland, and enjoyed the irony. Then, on Sunday, in the Mexican bar, we were having a nice conversation when all of a sudden, a familiar beat came on the speakers. I couldn’t quite place it, so I ignored it until, just when there was a lull in the conversation, we heard PUT YOUR HANDS UP FOR DETROIT! Karen and I promptly fell off of our chairs laughing. This song has been stuck in my head since then, and it won’t go away. Its remarkably easy to get stuck in your head, being that it only contains ONE LINE OF LYRICS. So yes, for your listening/viewing pleasure, the link to the video is below. Enjoy!

Happy November!

So this week has been fun... last Thursday, I went up to braunschweig for an FSA conference, and got to meet all the other fsas from lower niedersachsen. they were a ton of fun, and we ended up going out to a pub after the thingy, and chilling out for like 3 hours. On Friday, my roommate, some of his friends, and I went up to Bremen to watch a soccer game (Bremen won 5-1 against berlin). It was my first german soccer game, and it was a blast! We stayed at our friend Philipp’s house, and got to hang out with his dad, who used to be in a rock band, and is awesome. We spent Friday night getting wasted with his parents, and then got up at 9 on Saturday to get ready for the game. We went to the game, drinking on the way, got there, watched the game, drank the whole way through, and then went to the folksmarkt, which is Bremen’s version of Oktoberfest. (for the record, yes, this is my third Oktoberfest this year) There, we drank, ate, and sang till our hearts content. After that, it gets a little fuzzy, but we ended up hitting up a few pubs, roadside food stands, and who knows what else. I will post pictures eventually, after a heavy edit. Sunday afternoon was spent in recovery. I was actually feeling pretty good, no hangover, no issues (thanks, BC!!) So mostly I made sure everyone else was ok, as I had been doing all the previous evening. Got back to Göttingen Sunday evening, watched the Formula 1 championship while eating döner.
Monday, I finally got my backup discs from home, and so I went about backing up all of my files onto my external HD, which takes FOREVER. So annoying. I eventually got around to actually re-imaging craptop yesterday, and, so far, it seems to be running alright. There are still quite a few issues with it, the main one now being that it doesn’t seem to recognize the USB ports anymore. Kinda a pain, when you need to connect your external HD to retrieve your files. I’m gonna give it a couple days, fiddle with the settings, and then ask one of julian’s friends, who did comp science, if he can come hit craptop with a really big hammer.