Nov. 5th-11th

Nov. 5th-11th

This week was kind of dreary. The weather was foggy and damp most of the time. Like this:

My classes were at least interesting. We have started The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe in my fantasy bestsellers class, and we have a screening planned for later in the month, when we will watch the movie that came out a few years ago.

On Monday, Mike, Chris and I went to get Dönur at a little shop on South campus. Apparently, Mike and Chris are regulars there, because the owner brought out free samples of a delicious coconut cake. Score!

On Wednesday, I had a group presentation in my American literature class, and I was a little nervous. However, everyone came well-prepared and the class was very engaged. Thursday night, we decided to make shrimp po-boys. Chris and I did most of the cooking, and it wasn't a Paula Deen recipe! Now, having never tasted an authentic po-boy, I have no way to gauge how good ours were, but  Gergei, Mike, and Britney seemed to like them. It was a fun get together, and we've got a lot of shrimp leftover, so we will have to figure out something else to cook.

Friday, I had my internship as usual and have made a lot of progress in the archive. I spent most of Saturday holed up in the library, catching up on my TV shows and doing some studying in between. The monthly internet limit is kind of annoying sometimes, so I have to use the free Wi-Fi in the library whenever I get the chance.

Sunday, Chris and I went to Cologne for Karneval. Remember how I was complaining about a lack of Halloween costumes in my last post? I found out that Germany just does Halloween a few days later! Everywhere you looked, there was someone in costume. I saw: cookie monster, Batman, Hobbes (from Calvin and Hobbes), Buzz Lightyear, and many many more. What's cool about Karneval is that everyone dresses up, not just the kids. I saw a group of elderly ladies in carrot costumes. I also saw a group of old guys in full-out Braveheart gear. I can't imagine this being the case in America, I kind of wish Halloween would extend past your 20s, like Karneval.

So a panda, solider, Scotsman, and a Native American walk into a bar....

Ghostbusters!!! Their containers were filled with beer. Welcome to Germany.

Unfortunately, I was not made aware that Karneval involves costumes, and made do with a tie-dye shirt and crazy hat. Lame, I know, but it was the best I could come up with. Chris borrowed a skeleton costume from someone and fit right in. We went to a party with one of his doubles, and it's not every day that you get to party with Red Riding Hood, two polar bears, Spiderman and the Hulk, and Alex from A Clockwork Orange. My favorite part was probably the parades. At any given time, there were at least three going on around us. There were marching bands, people on stilts, clowns handing out free pretzels (which were delicious, by the way) and all sorts of other crazy stuff. It was a long day, but I'm glad to have had the experience of Karneval, and I hope I can go again someday-with an amazing costume, of course.

That's it for now, Schüss!!


German Word of the Day: Die Brezeln- "pretzels" Be wary of free Brezeln, unless they are given by a clown.  

The Week of Halloween

Monday, Oct 29th- Nov. 4th

   I had a really nice week. Though the title of this post includes "Halloween,"  I didn't really do all that much for the night of fright. Apparently, Halloween has only recently gotten popular in Germany, and even then it's not that widespread. The kids don't get to dress up and get free candy (a travesty, in my opinion), but there are costume parties around town. However, this is only one costume shop in all of Dortmund, so they can basically charge whatever price they want. Without a costume, I decided to stay home for Halloween. I didn't want to be that one person that shows up with no costume and then awkwardly stands around for the rest of the party while everyone else secretly talks about them and their lack of creativity or Halloween spirit.

I decided to watch a scary movie and eat some candy instead. In hindsight, this probably wasn't the best idea since I am a self-professed scaredy-cat. My roommate was also out of town, so I was alone to cope with my fear. I chose to watch a classic, Friday the 13th. Even though I watched it with all the lights on and the volume turned down really low, I was still scared by the end of it. I decided to just go to bed (lights still on, of course). Around 1 AM,  I heard a knock on the door. I immediately resolved to not open the door. I've seen what happens when you answer the door, alone, on Halloween night! Whoever it was must have found someone else to creep out because they went away after I didn't answer.

The day after Halloween is a holiday in Germany. I got to spend most of it with Ann-Kathrin. She brought me along to the open house of her mom's adorable boutique/florist. I even got to meet her grandpa, grandma, and aunt as well! They were all super nice and welcoming, and we had all the delicious cider and fresh waffles we could eat. I also bought a really pretty Christmas ornament and candle.

Yay for Christmas ornaments!

After the event was over, we drove home. However, Ann-Kathrin stopped at Carl's house on the way to pick up a package for him. While we were there, I got to meet his family as well. His dad recommended some of his favorite museums in the area and his mom and sister invited us to New Year's. We also discussed the different Christmas traditions in Germany and America, and I was excited to recognize we shared some of the same ones. The proper name is a "pomander" but I usually just describe it as an orange that you stick cloves in, and it smells awesome.

It usually looks like this:

It was such a fun day, and I can't wait to see both Carl and Ann-Kathrin's families again.

On Friday (Nov. 2nd), I also spent the day with Ann-Kathrin, along with her friend Laura. We went to Movie Park, a theme park that stays open later the week of Halloween, and has people dressed up as monsters to scare everyone. They even have several haunted houses set up throughout the park. The purpose of the trip (besides having fun!) was actually for a class. In my British horror class, instead of writing a standard essay, we have the option of writing an essay about a trip to this theme park. However, since all three of us are easily frightened, we decided to get to the park early so we could enjoy most of the rides in the daylight. We rode a lot of them, but my favorite by far was an old wooden roller coaster, which we rode three times.

I also had to laugh at the names of the rides. The park used to be owned by Warner Brothers, but was later sold to MGM. However, the rides are still Warner Brothers themed. For example, we rode a time travel ride thats name was "Back to the Movies." It even had the same logo as Back to the Future. For some reason, it was narrated by John Cleese (?), but it was fun nonetheless. There was a museum of movie props as well, and we got to take pictures in the boxing ring from Rocky.

They also had some really cool props, like an Indiana Jones whip and a sword from Lord of the Rings. However, I was really excited to get a photo with one of the costumes from Kill Bill

At 6 pm, the park shifted into scary mode. People in costume were walking around the park, and they had fog machines set up to make it difficult to see. We probably made easy targets, since we all linked arms and flinched our way through the park. However, once you were scared by the ghost/zombie/vampire/other, you could take a picture with them! We got a group picture with Dracula and Ann Kathrin was even brave enough to take a photo with Jason.

We only went into one of the haunted houses. Most were rated 17 and up, so we decided the one with the 12 year age limit wouldn't be that bad. We were wrong. I don't know if I've ever been more scared in my life, I just held on to Ann Kathrin and Laura and rushed on through. I kept my eyes half-closed most of the time, so I didn't see much. I am sure a more experienced horror buff would have scoffed at this haunted house, but it was enough for us and we left the park as soon as we made it through. All in all, it was a great time, and I would love to go back to ride some more roller coasters.

That's it for this week, Schüss!

German Word of the Day: Der Nebel- "fog" Der Nebel makes haunted houses 10 times scarier. 

First Week Back

Tues. October 23rd- Saturday October 27th

Tuesday I had my second discussion group. It was kind of like pulling teeth since no one wanted to discuss. However, after many awkward silences and a lot of  prompting, I finally got some of them to talk. I will have to work on that for next week. After this, I had my Victorian literature class. It was interesting, and I met a really nice girl named Natalie. We discussed some short stories by Oscar Wilde and signed up for presentations later in the year. 

On Wednesday I had my American lit course. We are now discussing The Jungle. It was written in 1906 by Upton Sinclair and was meant to bring about change in business and labor practices in the U.S. However, it's mostly known today for its graphic and detailed descriptions of the meat industry at the time. I don't want to give too much away, but one story is about rats and their involvement in the production of ham. Yeah. There are some parts I just have to skip/skim over.

On Thursday, Chris and I baked a cake for a Laura's birthday. It was a Paula Deen recipe (naturally) and actually turned out ok. It was an "Ooey Gooey Butter Cake" and called for a yellow box cake mix. However, we could only find chocolate, and it ended up looking like brownies instead of cake. It also had the consistency of unbaked brownies as well. Now that I describe it, it doesn't sound all that appetizing, but trust me, it was good. Especially since we added sprinkles to the top. All desserts taste better with sprinkles.

Laura's birthday was on a Friday and we started out at a Mexican restaurant.  I met even more German friends! We were also told by the waiter that we couldn't eat the cake at the table. I was baffled. Apparently if we wanted to eat dessert, it would have to come from the restaurant's kitchens. What is this, a caketatorship? A mutually exclusive culinary circle? We were kind of upset and plotted to sneak bites of it without anyone noticing. We also sang Happy Birthday in both English and German.

After this, we went dancing at a club. That was fun as well. I could tell that most of the songs had English lyrics, but I had never heard of them. They were funnily put together as well. I remember one line repeated about 50 times "Put a jacket on the toad" kept making me laugh. Or maybe that wasn't the exact lyric, but that's what I heard.

The rest of my weekend went pretty smoothly, Bilge came over to watch "The Big Lebowski" and that was a fun time. She'd never seen it before, so I had to explain some parts to her, but in the end, she said she liked it and that her favorite character was Donnie.

All in all, a nice week back, I'm happy I didn't miss too much. Schüss!!
German Word of the Day: Kegeln- "bowling" After a long day, sometimes it nice to have fun and go kegeln.