Dec. 2nd-8th

A Visit from Mom and Dad 

On Sunday, my parents came to visit me in Dortmund. They had been in Germany for a week, on a river cruise down the Danube and came up to see me before going home. They arrived later in the evening, so we took it easy the first night and checked in to the hotel.

Monday, I got to show them around the city. It was bitterly cold, so we had to bundle up. At least it wasn't snowing. I took them around the Christmas Market and showed them the giant Christmas tree. There was, of course, a trip made to TKmaxx. Daddy even documented the occasion:  

We then went to get something to eat. At the Christmas market, there is a lot of food to choose from, but we migrated toward the desserts. My friend Krisztina had told me about a "Germknödel" one day at lunch. It basically looks like a dough ball covered with some sort of sauce. It's actually a type of dumpling and is usually filled with different types of fruit and then covered in a vanilla sauce. We tried the cherry flavor and it was delicious. Here's what one usually looks like: 

Odd-looking... but delicious!

For dinner, I took them to the Indian restaurant that Uschi had showed us. I was not very adventurous, and ordered what I got before, the lamb. It was still just as good. Mom and Dad seemed to like it as well. After dinner, we had tickets for a musical quartet. It was a very tiny venue, maybe half the size of a regular high school auditorium. However, this put us closer to the performers and the acoustics were really good. The ensemble consisted of two violins, a viola, and two cellos. My favorite performer was one of the violinists. He really got into his performance (Brahms, by the way) and his facial expressions were priceless. He also had a habit of shifting his feet and bouncing around in his chair. At one point, we thought he was going to just stand up and continue playing. All of the musicians were very talented, and it was an enjoyable night out.

On Tuesday, we took a day trip to Cologne. It seems that we picked the wrong day to go, because all of the trains were delayed 30 minutes. Once we finally got to Cologne, the weather was really crappy. It was windy and rainy as well. We sought shelter in the cathedral, which mom and dad had not seen. It was very peaceful and a nice respite from the rain. Right next to the cathedral is Cologne's Christmas market, which is a little more traditional than Dortmund's. There were a lot of nutcrackers and handicrafts. Mom and I found a booth that sold Christmas pyramid's and a lot of other hand-carved wooden stuff. She even bought me one for a Christmas present. Here's a video of it in action: 

The tiny candles are real too! 

After perusing the shops, we found a place to warm up and laugh at the people outside struggling with their umbrellas. I saw at least 3 umbrellas snapped because of the wind.  We made our way home and had dinner at Carl's apartment. He and Ann-Kathrin were sweet enough to invite us over and my parents really wanted to meet them, so it was a fun night. We got donür from the Turkish restaurant down the street from Carl's apartment. It was delicious as usual.  I'm glad that everyone got to meet, and I think a good time was had by all. 

My parents left on Wednesday, it was a short but sweet visit, and I was happy to see them before Christmas. 

On Friday, I got to sit in on a meeting for the Hans Breder exhibtion in February. It was really interesting and another behind-the-scenes look at what goes on at a museum. I'm grateful to have the internship and an awesome boss that lets me in on these meetings.

Saturday,  Krisztina was nice enough to invite me to go to Münster with some of her friends. I don't think I've ever eaten so much in one day. It began with breakfast at a Currywurst stand in Bochum. According to Krisztina, this stand is the one that invented Currywurst. It was very good, but honestly, I like anything with sausage and french fries. I also got to meet Krisztina's friend Steph, who was visting from Australia. Then we met up with even more friends, Joana and Markus. We would be driving to Münster together. It was fun to finally meet another Joanna, but even though her name only had one "n," I kept responding whenever someone would say her name. Krisztina suggested they call me Jo-Jo, a nickname I haven't heard since preschool. I didn't mind, and it was a fun car-trip. I had been complaining about the lack of Christmas music.

 In America, they blast it constantly, beginning the day after Thanksgiving. You hear it everywhere- malls, restaurants, sports events, basically anyplace with speakers. I usually get sick of it by the second week of December. But in Germany, it's the opposite. I traded too many Christmasy songs  for none at all! However, Markus and Joana had three CDs full of classic Christmas songs. I was so happy and sang under my breath to my favorites. My quota of Christmas music has now been filled. 

Once we got to Münster, we met up with a couple more friends. Münster has 5 major Christmas markets spread throughout the city. We managed to get to two of them and both were really nice. On top of the Currywurst, I crammed in Reibekuchen (basically a hashbrown that you eat with applesauce), a Krakauer (type of sausage served with mustard on a roll), and a cup of Glühwein and hot chocolate. This was all at the 2 Christmas markets. We then walked to downtown Münster, which was really pretty. There was even a live musical performance along the main road.

As I was to find out, the day was just starting! After we finished looking through the city, we drove to the nearby town of Telgte. We would be attending a Christmas market combined with a type of renaissance  fair. It's called "mittelalterlicher" which basically means medieval. Joana told me that it's a year-round thing, and it travels throughout Germany. I had never been to a renaissance fair, so I guess Germany was as good a place as any to try it out. There was so much to take in. This thing was held in the middle of some woods. No joke. There were torches everywhere lighting the path and a lot of vendors throughout the area. 

There was even a stage for bands to perform. People were also dressed up in traditional renaissance clothing. It reminded me of Game of Thrones. While there, we managed to find even more to eat. I tried a dönur type thing with bits of shredded beef and what tasted exactly like ranch dressing. I asked the Germans and they said they didn't know the name of the sauce, but I swear the lady making these things had a bottle of Hidden Valley stashed away somewhere. We toured some of the stalls, which were a lot different from the city vendors. There was a blacksmith and tanner, and a place that sold bow and arrows! We listened to some of the bands perform (a lot of bagpipes... I don't think I've ever heard bagpipes outside of a funeral, but here, they were used in rousing anthems that had a lot of shouting and foot stomping), and found a big bonfire to sit around and warm up. Then it was time for more food.  Joana recommended an almond hut, where you could get them coated in all sorts of stuff: coconut, butter toffee, and my favorite, Nutella. Then we tried a cheese pretzel. It was the freshest you could get, straight out of the oven and delicious. I stood and watched the man make them for a while as well. Really interesting!   On the way out, I saw some wooden horses that were clearly meant for children to play on. However, I got Steph to take a picture of me riding on one: 

They may take our lives, but they'll never take our FREEEEEDOM!

The cherry on top was the fire-breathing dragon head near the exit. I couldn't get a picture of it in action, but it was still cool nonetheless. It was a long but really fun day, and I was happy to meet some new friends!

Schüss!

German Word of the Week: Bauchschmerzen- "stomachache" If you want to sample all of the food at a Christmas market, you will probably have a Bauchschmerzen by the end of the day. 

Breakfast, Bond, Bombs, and Ballet

Nov. 25th-Dec. 1 

Wow! I cannot believe I've been here 3 months already. It feels like just yesterday I was packing up the car to go the airport. But! I will stop being sentimental and get to the interesting stuff.

Sunday, Gergei had us over for breakfast. He was cooking Hungarian eggs and advised us to bring our appetites. They were very good. Scrambled eggs with lots of different sausages and onions mixed in as well as fried lard. Yes, you read correctly, fried lard. I felt right at home with all the fattiness and cholesterol mixed in to the food. Afterwards, I think my stomach had expanded to twice its normal size, but now I can say I've had authentic Hungarian eggs. It was really nice of Gergei to have us over, I will have to invite him over for some equally delicious and fattening biscuits and gravy.

On Monday, Lena invited me over to her house for dinner. She lives in the city, but I was proud of myself for managing to find it on my own. Of course, I did get on a train going in the wrong direction, but that's normal, right? Lena cooked chicken pasta that was delicious. I could get used to having people cook for me every day of the week. We talked about different Christmas traditions and what we wanted for Christmas. After dinner, she took me down to the Dortmund Christmas market for a cup of Glühwein and a tour of the booths. Glühwein is kind of liked a spiced/sweet wine that is a Christmas tradition. I sipped some of Lena's, but I think I like apple cider better. There were also vendors who had chocolate covered everything: coconut, strawberries, almonds, etc. I got some pineapple that was really good:

Tuesday, I went with a few friends to see the new James Bond movie, Skyfall. We found a movie theater that was showing the film in the original English, but with German subtitles. However, this theater was also located within a train station. It was the one of the oddest movie experiences I've ever had. There was only one screen within the whole theater, but it looked pretty normal. However, every 15 minutes or so, you could hear the trains coming into the station. This was not that noticeable during the action sequences, but it got kind of annoying during quiet scenes, when, all of sudden, there would be the sound of screeching wheels and a conductor's whistle. Oh well.

On Thursday, my boss at my internship invited me to an exhibition opening. It was about gift shops in museums and the phenomenon of buying fakes and souvenirs of famous works of art. There would also be a guest speaker on the subject. It sounded really interesting, and I was looking forward to going. However, I was a little late to the opening and managed to sneak in toward the back. I had been there about 2 minutes when maybe 20 police officers came rushing in. Someone who looked to be the captain made an announcement (in German, of course) and everyone gasped and started getting their things together. I had no idea what was going on, but was a little freaked out. I found someone who spoke English and he told me that some construction workers had found a live bomb from World War II and they were having to evacuate everyone within a 5 block radius. The German word for this is "Blindgänger," which means dud. This 5 block radius included the museum, a lot of residences, and two hospitals. It was kind of chaotic going out on to the street, my new-found friend also told me that the police were going door to door telling people to evacuate. It was like a step back in time. He also told me that they may be able to continue with the speech and exhibtion if the police gave the all clear. I decided that I did not want to stick around one way or the other and made my way to the train station. It reminded me that even though the war ended over 60 years ago, the remnants still remain. It was an interesting and unique experience, one that I can't say I want to relive again. Here's a picture from where they found the bomb, you can see the museum in the background:

Here also is a link to an article about the bomb, it's in German, but you can kind of pick out the gist of what was going on: Blindgänger.

On Friday, I went to see a ballet. My language teacher is also part of the Dortmund Opera House and had a small part in Der Traum der Roten Kammer or The Dream of the Red Chamber. It's based off a 17th century Chinese novel.  It was a lot of fun. I got a discount because I am a student, but this fact also put me in the balcony. I was squinting the whole time trying to pick out our teacher. It was one instance where I really wanted some of those fancy opera glasses.

Oh you fancy huh?

Nonetheless, I really enjoyed the ballet. The dancing was magnificent, and I had a good view of the orchestra pit as well.

That's all for now, Schüss!

German Word of the Week: Die Ananas - "pineapple" Ananas is delicious, especially when dipped in chocolate. 

Week of Thanksgiving!

Nov. 18th-24th

On Monday, I went to Chris's house to watch a movie. He rented City of God from the library and said it was one of his favorites. It's based on a true story about kids in the slums of  Rio de Janero. It was interesting, and had a sort of happy ending as well. (As happy as you can get with these types of things). 

On Wednesday, I made cookies for the Thanksgiving Dinner. The International Office puts together a dinner every year and everyone brings a dish and a present. I spent all last week trying to get ingredients together for my chocolate chip cookies. They turned out to be chocolate chunk cookies, because I couldn't find chips anywhere. I also had to make my own brown sugar (1 cup of regular sugar + half a cup of molasses for those that are interested), since that is also a rare commodity over here. The cookies actually turned out okay. Ann-Kathrin told me they tasted like the ones you can get from Subway, and those are freaking delicious, so I took that as a huge compliment.

The dinner was a lot of fun. Instead of the typical giant 25 lb bird, we had four smaller turkeys. It was just as good as anything I've had before. There was also pumpkin soup, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and mashed potatoes. Everything was delicious and I'm grateful I had a successful Thanksgiving in Germany. After everyone was done eating, we exchanged gifts. It was like Secret Santa, where you just pick out a random present. I got a bottle of wine, which I'm always happy to get. Ann-Kathrin got a  Rubik's cube and we spent the rest of the night trying to solve it. We ended up stopping once we got one side done.

Close Enough! 

On Friday, Mike, Laura, Robin, Chris, and I went out to Sausalito's. It was a nice way to unwind at the end of the week. I spent most of the night learning how to do the last half of the Rubik's cube. I don't think I'll ever be able to string it all together. Mike had to write down the instructions on a napkin, so now I have a sort of cheat sheet. 

Saturday, I went to the K20 Museum in Düsseldorf. For my art history course, we have three museum excursions throughout the semester. We actually get to see firsthand some of the art we discuss in class, which I think is always a nice thing. I managed to find the museum by myself. I looked it up on Googlemaps the night before, but was still kind of worried. I knew to keep the Rhine on my left and managed to stumble upon the place. We focused on the American section of the museum and learned about Warhol, Pollack, and Rauschenberg.

Name that artist! 

 It was a fun way to spend a Saturday, and I'm looking forward to our other excursions. Okay, I'm done for now, Schüss!

German Word of the Day: der Würfel- "cube" The Rubix Würfel is both frustrating and fun.