Weihnachten~Schokoladenmarkt~Gluhwein

So my dear friends- I have made and executive decision. I will commit to writing two blogs a month.
I didnt write much since Oct.
Here is what happened from Oct 17 on-----
Oct 23 I had a birthday party, it was amazing. I celebrated it with my dear friends and my wonderful roommates. We had a pizza party of sorts and drank a lot of beer/wine. This was followed by going to a student bar called kukuks. Upon arriving at the bus stop via the bus aka the limo that holds thirty people- I got sang to. It is a German tradition apparently to celebrate ones birthday the night before, so that at midnight they can be wished a happy birthday and sang too. Wishing someone a happy birthday before midnight is rather bad luck. I think this is rather interesting, and well quite smart too. I as well went on an adventure to see a friend in another city that is near mine. I had a really nice time there and got to see the city a tad too.

Next was halloween, I got to carve pumpkins with my friends from OR and we went to the student club but it was not as much fun because it was so utterly crowded.

Lady November then creeped upon us, all. Not much really happened, except well thanksgiving and seeing the epic Harry potter movie. Thanksgiving was celebrated in Tubingen, and on this night we all welcomed the first snow by walking 40 mins to dinner, since the buses werent running. It was slightly annoying but fun too. It has been snowing here ever since. This means that sometimes the buses come really late, or not at all. Its a new game I like to call guess if the bus can make it up the mountain!!!

Now December is here. Which means one of the most coolest traditions hits Germany like leparosy everyone is suddenly infected with the christmas spirit and the urge to drink yummy warm "Gluhwein" and be all merry. Christmas Markets spring up all over Germany! These lovely contraptions are called Weihnachtenmarkt. I personally like them and find them rather charming. You can get christmas presents such as oranments or candy or maybe cards, and other crafty homemade goodies. These markets feature the Gluhwein, which is a german wine/orange-ish/cinnamon-y drink which is warmed up and served in cups that are unique to each christmas markt. In Tubingen we have not only this epic Weihnachtenmarkt, but we have Schokoladenamarkt. This other market is the chocolate market, the reason Tubingen has this is because their sister city is Perguia Italy, which is renouned for their chocolate. This chocolate market is pretty awesome I have to say. I went there today and found out that there are such things as chocolate beer, chocolate named Jungle Christmas and Carribeanean Dream. I think I've fallen in love with chocolate market a tiny bit because well I love chocolate! its so interesting all the different kinds of chocolate you can purchase or try there.
My Next Adventure is.....
 On December 22 I get to fly to Bergen Norway to spend Christmas with my best friend Caroline and her family~ I am so so excited to get to see them and I can not wait to share this holiday with them. I hope everyone in Oregon and elsewhere in the US is having a great holiday and enjoying their time with their families.
Bis Spater!

its been a bitsy....

Well since I last wrote it has been a while. Yeah I am lazy and not as committed to blogging as I should be. I will try more. Anywho...  a bunch of things have happened
1. I went to the famed Oktoberfest.
2. I went to Gera, Erfurt and Weimar
3. I got my visa
4. I start school on monday.

1. I decided to go to Oktoberfest, on a whim. It was a lot of fun. However the journey there was well less than pleasant. The trains were packed with drunk people and my friend Chris and I missed our fast train and got stuck on the train ride from hell. What should have taken an hour took two and a half hours. There was lots of singing, beer, smoke and entertainment along the way. Once I got there I went off to the festival with a friend of mine, Tiffany. We found our way through the crowds of lieder hosen and lovely drindels. We drank some beer, ate some KFC and then went home. It was a long day, but well worth the effort.

2. I went to see a friend in Gera. He is training to become a policeman. Which is really cool, that he doing something he really enjoys. He showed me around his new city that he will call home for a short while. He as well took me to his old city Erfurt. Erfurt was interesting because they had statues of Cartoon characters everywhere. The bridge was interesting too. The city had put these like little islands into the river for the birds to rest on. Kinda cool. The architecture was lovely too. Weimar is where the Goethe and Schniller statues are. It was so nice to see an old friend, after having so much new in my life. It felt really great to be with a friend who knows me.

3.I finally got my visa for Germany. I can stay till sept 2011. Woo

4. I start my first class tomorrow at the university. I'm kinda nervous, but also really excited. I love to learn !

5. This upcoming weekend is my 23rd Birthday! woo
That is all for now.
I will try to be more regular in my posts ;)

sequins and rocks

All right blog time, it’s been about a week, since I have really well committed to writing anything except my German papers. It has been rather interesting two weeks. I went on a few adventures. I went with my group to this rad old church up on a massive hill, which by the way caused me to get two matching blisters on the backs of my ankles. We then went to dinner at my director’s house; southern German food is pretty good. After dinner we went to a one-man show of the” taming of the shrew”. I don’t really understand Shakespeare in English so German mind you was a challenge. Pretty much it was entertaining, the guy played each character and made funny faces, which were awesome. He also had an assortment of lamps turned into makeshift character props. The makeshift characters consisted of wine bottles and clear glass lamps with feathers and sequins. You can only imagine my excitement. This week however has been overloaded with hmmm the stress Olympics. Look I know I am kind of venting here, and I shouldn’t be, like hey Susan, you are in Germany quit whining. If you know anything about German homework you would be whining too. I love Germany but the home not so much. I went to the Mercedes Benz museum and the History Museum in Stuttgart. This was fun had I had more time to really enjoy the stuff I was seeing. I like the Mercedes Benz museum a lot, as I was able to wander and plus cars are awesome. Friday was pretty fun minus the stress. My class had the opportunity to have dinner with our teachers. We did a progressive dinner and we each brought food items. It was really fun getting to know our teachers and just spending time together. Not to mention our teachers make fabulous food! I have never had such amazing pumpkin soup or apple strudel in my life. This weekend hmmm well I have been doing papers and I got to see a soccer game FINALLY at an Irish Pub. Thank you Germany for having decent Guinness for me to drink. Today is Sunday now and I have finished my papers and am currently taking residence in the kitchen. This upcoming weeks should be stressful but in a good way. I get to see the Stuttgart ballet and go wine tasting so it really could be worse right?

Some photos of where I live......

This is the building I live in....

This is the bus stop where I have to wait all the time....

The view out of my room....

more photos to come....

Wünderbar

Alright so I have been in Germany for a few days. The flight I took was super. I watched a bunch of movies, counted my crackers, ate weird vegan airplane food and met a cool computer person from Chicago. I got to see Frankfurt airport which is not so bad, just a lot of walking around in circles and a bit of construction. I got picked up at the airport by a friend, who was kind enough to help me with my luggage and took me to my hotel. I am so grateful for his help. I even got to go bowling, which I am so bad at, and I had really bad jet lag. But it was a great time for me to see some people whom I havent seen in about 2 years, and for this opportunity I am very happy.
Still I am adjusting to life in my  new little corner of the world. I have had the joys each of you have may have encountered whilst living aboard. I think buying household items and then having to take them on a bus is rather entertaining. Here I am on a bus with a hair dryer and towel and oh Juice boxes. Not to mention Germans love to stare so I gave them some eye candy look at I suppose with all that stuff. I have been super busy with taking tests, moving, eating, pretending to sleep, cleaning, and paying for stuff. Plus its rather rainy so it seems to take longer to do all these fun things! I must say I have had some fun already. I had a great time with some new people I have met in my program drinking beer and seeing the new city. I have as well seen some of the city and walked around a bunch.
Today was my first day of class. It was hmmmm.......class? Kinda boring, but how do you really make grammar super fun? I am really glad I have the opportunity to learn the backbone of the language, and to get a stronger grasp on it. After all that is what I am here for, but I just wish it was easier for me to remember and more fun. I wish I woke up with like grammar cereal and inhaled all the knowledge I needed to know. Alas this is not possible, but a good idea prehaps.
Tomorrow is another class day, more registering and maybe a day to buy a reading lamp.

I got me some plastic baby.

Saturday... Plastic compression bags- wow I can fit so much stuff into my suitcase its crazy. Literally I packed all my clothes in 20 mins and I still had room for more stuff. Despite the fact I feel kinda weird about my clothes being in plastic bags, I managed to pack all my stuff up for a year. woo. I think that it is a great invention none the less though. I have a bout 5 days left till I bounce out of the USA across the atlantic. I was reviewing my flight, and I found out I have a 15 hour flight of fun ! I can not wait haha I am going to watch so much tv on my laptop it scares me- oh and the itty bitty airplane food meals ! I am soooooo stoked haha. If you have any trashy show suggestions for my fun filled flight please let me know :) or games or ideas for activities that I can do willst on this adventure let me know.

cheerio!

transit

Here we are again. Planning a short jaunt over the ocean. I have about a week left till I have my magical flight over the continental US and the Atlantic Ocean. Right now I am in process of trying to stuff everything into two bags and remember everything in between, while a person at the coffee shop who is really sick, blows their nose and when said person coughs sounds like the big great dane I saw at the vet yesterday. The cough is so LOUD it is disturbing my peace and my ears hurt. If you are sick don't go out in public, nobody wants to be within well, 50 to 100ft of you. STAY HOME, coughing and sneezing in public equals gross. Do the world a favor and keep you germs to you.

Anyway........

Back on course....

The last time I was in Germany was a little over a year ago. Wow! so far yet so close...

I can not wait to go back, I love Germany. I am not quite sure why , maybe its the pastries or trains or everything? hmmm, still trying to pinpoint that idea. I am sure it is the long magical flight over there is what I really love hahaha. One thing to about airplanes, I like the window seat. Okay? I like to see the big ocean outside my window and look at fluffly clouds, as well as being squished up against the plastic wall of doom. Look people just because you like to be by the aisle doesnt mean you get my leg space to counter balance your aisle needs, its like people who sit by the aisle automatically think they get like at least half of the other peoples bag/leg space. Well I am here to tell you that will not be happening this time, and I will not sit next to a person who looks like a sea creature and takes up half my seat space with their out of this world butt - thank you. If you want more than one seat can offer, plain and simple get two seats! duh. thanks. I know I'm being rather harsh, but I guess I just don't feel bad about it anymore. Oh and another thing, people with small children either let them run free on the plane or zonk them out, no two year old wants to be on a plane sitting still. I dont even like sitting still that long. Another thing aisle person let us people who sit by the window and the middle ones out to use the bathroom without cursing at us in three to five different languages. thanks.

Well I feel better now that I got that off my mind.

Off to packing I go.

cheers~