Bremerhaven

Last weekend I went to Bremerhaven with Julia to visit her family. It was really fun!

Welcome to Italy... this is a shopping mall that's supposed to be completely Italian. It was pretty entertaining.

Welcome to Dubai...

Oh, and welcome to Bremerhaven.

While you're here, have some deep fried cauliflower and garlic sauce.

And some really good cake too!

Food

So.... this is my request for people to leave comments giving me food ideas. I have a pretty standard kitchen with all the usual pots and pans. I've been cooking things like pasta and scrambled eggs. I need things that don't take a lot of ingredients, and things that don't go bad quickly. You know, easy college food. THANKS!!!

My Birthday!!!

So for my birthday, I had class... but only for an hour. I treated myself to breakfast from a bakery on my way to school, and Julia and her friend Britta took me out for pizza in the evening!

My breakfast. Don't ask me what it was. I told the lady at the bakery I wanted "the thing with the strawberries". It was really good though :)

At our "all-you-can-eat" (yes that is the German term....) pizza dinner.... This is me killing a tomato.

Julia and I making somewhat strange faces...

Britta...

Julia...

Me opening my present from Julia, a promise she will show me around the immigration museum in Bremerhaven tomorrow...

Dessert in an ice cream parlor...

My dessert. It's called "spaghetti eis", literally spaghetti ice cream. They put the vanilla ice cream through a pasta machine, and top it with strawberry sauce and white chocolate flakes to make it look like spaghetti.

Cloppendburg

So I know I told some of you this was a pretty dull trip, but I have a few cool pictures I figured I would share...

A nice old windmill, in my opinion showing just how close w are to Holland.

A sample of the capital letters in a very old handwriting. I want to learn to write like this, but no one would be able to read it....

One of the sleep cupboards. Those doors close to either keep in heat or keep out bugs, depending on the season. A bed like this slept five or six people, because they thought they were less likely to die if they slept sitting up. Hmmmm.... uncomfortable???

That was the most interesting part of Cloppenburg. Hope no one was too bored...

Nesting

So today Julia (my buddy.... and best friend, and awesome person while I'm here) took me to IKEA!!! The ikea here is one of the two largest in the world, and was pretty impressive. So this afternoon I finally organized my stuff, can now see my desk, and feel like I'm living in my own space.

Looking at ikea from the bus stop... you can almost see the whole thing...

My TV (not sure how I got that...) and my cupboards and drawers for all the random stuff that won't go anywhere else. And, of course, Ishara... :)

My bed, which is where I comfortably spent the wicked thunder storm at about 2 this morning...

My closet/wardrobe

My desk

So now I feel fairly at home. I'm about a 15 minute bike ride from the University, a little longer by bus because you have to change at the ZOB (main bus station at the train station where every single bus stops). I have both a cell and a land line, so if you want to call me, email me and I'll give you my numbers. Or ask my mom.... she has them.

Talent and beauty...

A one man band. I have no idea how he did it. We actually found a postcard of him after I took this picture, so he must be a regular here.

A nice lake smack in the middle of the city. This park is a really nice place.

Remember the church? That's how close this park is to the city center.

Grocery shopping, and other random thoughts...

So today I moved into my flat. My room is almost as big as I am, but I love it anyway. My first project was to go grocery shopping.... my buddy took me last week, but I had not been alone, and wanted something besides bread and cheese to eat, and I had a better idea of what I needed to make a complete meal here (chocolate anyone?).

To get a cart here, you put a euro in a little slot, and your chosen cart detaches itself from all the other carts. When you re-attach it, you get your euro back. For the most part, finding things in the grocery store is easy. I managed to walk by the eggs twice before actually noticing them, and I guessed completely randomly on a toothpaste I would like, but many of the same brands exist here as do in the States.

One of my flat mates helped me a bit in the kitchen. Told me which burners don't work (the front two), and told me my chosen pan did not have a lid (at first he thought I was asking for oil. We both laughed when he figured out what I was really talking about). I fried up a potato with a few eggs, some pesto, and some cheese. I promise it was better than it sounds.

For those of you who don't know, I'm living in a co-ed flat. Disadvantages: the kitchen is always a mess, and there are sometimes some really awkward moments. Advantages: when your light goes "boom", there are three boys instantly in the room to look at it and decide if, when, and how it should be fixed. What to say to them: "Meine Lampe hat <> gesagt".

My landlord is amazing. I could probably go to him requesting an elephant as transportation and get it....

That's all for now...... I'm going shopping tomorrow with my buddy, so hopefully more pictures and stories on the way.

City Center, Oldenburg

Here are some pictures I took while in the city center of Oldenburg. The church was built after some of the rich people went to Italy and liked their architecture.

Kathryn does a tiny bit of exploring...

Frankenstraße 6, the flat I will be moving into shortly...

A crosswalk... The little side is for bikes, the big side for pedestrians. Notice that the sidewalk is split too. If you walk on the wrong side you get bike bells dinged at you.

Pretty spot in my neighborhood...

Looking down Frankenstraße...

My Temporary Room....

Just a few pictures of my room. I'm not staying here for more than maybe two weeks. But its a cute room anyway.

This is my bed..... the long pillow in front is to keep me from rolling of of it.... :) There is a tine window sort of next to my mattress, where i can spy on the street.

This is my room, as seen from the door. The ladder goes up to my bed, and there is a half bath under the ladder...... And yes, that is my entire room.

Safely in Germany

Hallo Everyone!

I made it safely to Germany.   I don't have a phone number yet..... sorry.....

I'm living in a giant flat... 6 bedrooms.... so I'll have 5 flat mates. I haven't moved in yet, because the person who's room I'm taking doesn't move out until the end of the month. So right now I live a few houses down in my landlord's guest room. Its tiny, but it works.

Everyone here talks really fast. My buddy (the german student assigned to take care of me) sometimes has to translate for me not because I don't know the words, but because they go by so fast..... Julia (my buddy) has been really nice. She took me grocery shopping, kept me awake my first day here, and made me a chart of the bus schedules to get to the University.

I'll update more as things happen. I start classes on Monday, and I'll go to Julia's parents' house next Sunday to celebrate her little brother's birthday and meet her family (he turns 10 the day after my birthday)... I'll try to take some pictures today too. :)

I miss and love everyone! Tschüss!