Back in the U.S.A. (Feb 12th-28th)

February 12th

    Since it is finally my semester break here, I am going home for two weeks.  I brought so much stuff over here, I am using this chance to take back a suitcase-full of stuff that I don't need anymore. It's mainly big coats and winter stuff that I hope I won't need for too much longer. I had an uneventful flight home, with no missed connections or hissy fits at the check-in counter. Mom and Dad picked me up at the airport and we went straight to Chic-Fil-A for some good old American grease. I was super-tired by the time we got home and tried to stay up past 6 pm but didn't make it. 

I slept most of the next day, which was Valentine's day. I lounged around in bed most of the day and watched some movies, which isn't a big change from most Valentine's days for me haha.

 The next day, we celebrated Daddy's birthday. I made him an Italian creme cake that actually tasted okay. It had two sticks of butter and 6 eggs in it, so I hope the calories were worth it. We shared it with our neighbors, Jeff and Jennifer. Also gave my Dad the offset spatula all the way from Germany that he has been mentioning that he would like to have for the past two years or so.

I left after our birthday lunch and drove to Columbia. I got to Mag's room and was happily surprised by a greeting party of her,  Sarah, Lydia, Teri, and Ana. We had a little party where we celebrated all the holidays I had missed while abroad. It was super sweet of them to put it all together and I really enjoyed catching up with all of them. The next day, I went to meet with President Dinndorf and discuss the study abroad program. She was really nice and welcoming and got to meet Cinnamon, her boxer mutt. She reminded me a lot of Zelda. She was not a very good listener and kept coming over while we were talking to get some pats from me. We discussed the Keukenhof tulip gardens in detail and she said I should make a point of going there when we visit Amsterdam in March. Later, I went out to dinner with Mag at CC's, where we hogged down some pizza. We got back and watched Pocahontas in Shannon's room and all enjoyed singing along.

Sunday, February 17^th

 I had dinner at Mellow Mushroom with my cousins, Mike and Drew. It was great to see them and catch up. When they ordered beer, they teased me about still being under 21. However, I got to tell them about all the great German beer and that quieted them down a lot. Afterward, I took some of Chris's stuff to Dr. Ute's house, and I even got a piece of Linzer torte which was amazing. Before leaving for Pageland, I got breakfast at Ihop with Caitlyn. I hadn't seen her in so long, it was great to talk to her. We made plans for her to come visit me in Germany.

Monday, February 18^th 

On the road to Pageland. I went straight to Pizza Hut and ordered a personal pan pizza for Ma-Ma. Then went to Food Lion and got all of her favorites: Lays, Goldfish, and Fig Newtons. I went over to visit her and sat and talked for a long time. I also fixed her bird feeders that mom sent with me so she would have something to watch. I also gave her a box of Whitman's Sampler for Valentine's Day, and she told me to put it with the rest. I said "What do you mean the rest?" She literally had a whole bookcase of unopened chocolate, plus some more unopened stuff from Christmas stashed in her dresser. I thought it was hilarious, and told her she better get to eating. While I was visiting her, my uncle Paul dropped by and invited me to supper at my cousin Kendall's house. Funnily enough, they were planning on having bratwurst, so couldn't really say no. I said goodbye to Ma-ma and gave her a big hug. I went to Kendall's house and had a great meal with everyone. I missed seeing my cousin Ashley, but she was working. I will have to bring her back some Kinder Eggs to make up for it.

Tuesday 19^th Rock Hill was the next stop on my visitation trip, so I got up the next morning to drive there. Leslie was at work when I got there, so I just drove to El Cancun and met her. I even got a specially made nutella dessert thing that Gil made. It was muy delicioso. Afterward, we drove to Leslie's house. We went out to a new pizza place that was decent, but not my favorite. Then we went home and watched a movie. I had to leave the next morning to get back home, but it was a short and sweet visit with my sister.

After I got home, Amber came over and we ordered pizza from Pizza Inn and got junk food from Bi-lo. We watched Haywire just because it had Michael Fassbender in it. It wasn't that great, so I guess there's a lesson in there somewhere. Amber gave me my belated Christmas present as well as an early birthday present. It was so much fun getting to catch up with her, and I gave her the things I had bought for her at the Christmas market in Dortmund.

The next day, I got to have dinner with Jon, Elizabeth and their twin girls, Maggie and Abby. We went out for frozen yogurt afterward. I wish I had had more time to spend with them, but it was nice catching up either way.

On Sunday, I got to see Christen and we exchanged gifts and watched a movie. She got engaged back in October and it was the first time I had seen her since then. We talked about her wedding plans and graduation. She's the first close friend I have that has gotten engaged, and now I'm starting to feel old. Better get used to it, I suppose. 

Tuesday, February 26^th Too soon, I had to pack my things to go back. It was a nice visit home, but I was also excited to get back to Germany. However, I wouldn't be alone in my return. Mom, Dad, and two of their friends, Gail and Martha would be coming back with me. However, we were all separated on different flights.

 It turns out that Martha and I drew the short end of the stick because our flight left last. We arrived at the airport on time but then the FAA inspector showed up and screwed up everything. Our flight from Myrtle Beach to Charlotte was delayed, and then we missed our connection from Charlotte to Düsseldorf. There were no more flights after that, so the agents basically told us to go home and try again tomorrow. Okay fine. I got home around 11 and went straight to bed. I wish I had texted Jeff, who was watching the house for us. I nearly had a heart attack the next morning when I heard someone coming up the stairs. He thought someone had broken in and was checking on the house, and I thought someone had broken in and was coming to murder me. It all turned out okay, but he said "Next time, no matter how late, just text me when you are home." I wish I wouldn't have had to do that, but alas, Martha and I hauled our luggage back to the airport only to be told our flight was delayed again due to maintenance issues. They paid a cab to take us to the Florence airport to try and catch the flight to Charlotte from there. Unfortunatley, their planes were also experiencing maintenance issues. Waiting in line there for the agent to tell us if we could make it on time, I was about ready to cry. I felt so bad for Martha, who was only spending a week in Germany. She would have to make do with four days. So we got back in the cab and drove back to Myrtle Beach with Chuck, the talkative Chicagoan who had invented some sort of water osmosis device or something. At that point I was kind of zoned out in the back and left Martha to do all the talking, or listening, in this case.

We finally got back home and I rememberd to text Jeff. The next morning, I said goodbye to him for the third time and drove once again to the airport. This time, the plane was on time and we made it to Charlotte. We got on the Lufthansa plane for the trip over the Atlantic. We asked to be seated together, but as luck would have it, my entertainment screen thingy was broken. So I was moved toward the back where I watched The Godfather and The Sound of Music. The stewardess was very apologetic and I even got a complimentary business class toiletry case AND two bars of delicious chocolate. A fair trade, I'd say. We made it to Frankfurt and had to wait for our connection to Düsseldorf. Finally there, we were greeted by Gail and Daddy. He had rented a really nice Audi with all the bells and whistles. We got to the hotel, unpacked and got Dönur for dinner. It was nice to be back with everyone, but we were both really tired and hit the sack. I am going to end this post for now, Schüss!!

German Word of the Post: Unglücklich- "unlucky" We were really unglücklich with our flight over, it was canceled twice! 

February 1st-11th

Friday February 1st
 After a long week, I had a girls night with Laura. We drank some champagne and had a bunch of junk food and then watched Sex and the City and some of the sequel. I had never seen it before, but it was really funny and we had a fun time.

On Saturday, I went to Kriztina's birthday party at her house. It was really sweet of her to invite me, and I got to meet all of her friends and see some of her old ones as well. Markus, Joana, and Crissy all came to the party and it was fun to catch up with them, as I hadn't seen them since we went to Münster. We played a few games and looked through their old yearbooks. Her mom had also made an awesome spread of snacks and finger foods that I got to try. It was a really fun party and I got to sing in both German and English. Alles Gut Zum Geburtstag just doesn't have the same ring to Happy Birthday, but  it was still fun singing it.

Sunday, Anni invited me to Iserlohn to attend her choir concert. I got to see her family again as well as go to another Sunday school lesson, and really enjoyed both. Plus, she is an amazing singer and had two solos, and it was really impressive. I know how nervous I used to get before piano recitals, but at least with that, you can make it seem like you know how to play. If you can't sing, then it's immediately obvious and there is no way to cover it up. However, Anni doesn't have to do this, because she knocked the socks off of her songs. Afterward, we went back to her house in Iserlohn and Dieter and Carl came over. We had planned on staying up, ordering some burgers, and watching the Superbowl, but we were all really tired by 10 pm. Unfortunately, kickoff doesn't even start until midnight over here, and there was no way I was going to make it through. Plus, Carl told me they don't even show the American commercials, which is one of the reasons I watch, so it was just a bust all around. Oh well. It was still fun to see Carl and Dieter.

Monday was Opi's birthday. I now have the privilege of having attending both Omi AND Opi's birthdays. Now it's just Anni's and Maike's and I'll have collected the whole set! Jokes aside, it was a really sweet day, with cake (yesssss!!) and Käsesuppe (cheese soup) that is basically the best thing I've ever tasted. I really want to the recipe, even though whatever I try to recreate will be a complete failure compared to Omis. Later, we went upstairs and played MarioKart with Maike. It was really sweet of Anni to invite me to both events, and I enjoyed seeing everyone again.

The rest of the week was spent trudging through more snow, taking my last final, shopping for souvenirs for when I go home, and packing my bags for my visit home.  I am trying to get take home some of the stuff I brought over here so I won't as much in July. That's it for now, Schüss!!

German Word of the Week: das Gepäck-"baggage" I really hope that my Gepäck is not lost on the flight over. 

First Day Back and The Rest of January (7th-31st)

January 7th-11th

    It was a fun winter break, but now I have to go back to school. I am used to starting a new semester in January, but here, it is just a continuation of the previous semester. It's kind of odd, but I guess I won't have worry about new classes for a while.

The silver lining is that I got a ton of candy over Christmas break that will tide me over until at least March. It truly was Halloween in December:

On Friday, the 11th, I went to the Folkwang Museum in Essen with Carl's mom, Desi, and Anni. We had talked about the museum over Christmas break and she had already been to the Expressionist exhibit and said it was really worth a trip to see. I am glad we went, as it was one of the last weekends that the exhibit was open. We had to wait in line for a while before we got in, as everyone else seemed to have gotten the memo about the exhibit leaving soon. Once we got in, we got the audio guide and made our way through the museum  It was a really great collection, with a lot of Picassos, Van Goghs, Monets, and the like. Unfortunately, you couldn't take pictures in there, so I had to commit all my favorite ones to memory. My favorite was a sunrise portrait by Edvard Munch, but I couldn't find a print of it anywhere in the giftshop. It would have been a really pretty desktop background.

14th-19th

   This week, I think everyone has caught the same cold. Mike, Chris, Brittney, and a lot of other people are all sniffling. I am trying to drink a lot of orange juice to ward it off, but I don't know if I will inevitably catch it. It also doesn't help that it has snowed once again. It's not really a novelty anymore for me. It's more like a hazard for me to slip on the way to school. But I did make a mini-snowman from the stuff outside my window, and got a really pretty picture of it underneath the moonlight.

On Friday, Chris and I cooked an "American" breakfast for his double, Laura. It involved French toast... so I guess that's a misnomer but it was good all the same. We had syrup and powdered sugar to go on it and also had eggs, bacon, and fruit salad. Laura is from Nürnberg and told us about the city and what she did for Christmas. I'd really like to try and visit it someday, the way she talked about it seemed like it's a fun town.

Saturday, Laura and I (not Nürnberg Laura, Prague Laura) went to see the ballet Swan Lake. Beforehand, we went to eat at Vapianos, the same Italian restaurant that Anni and I tried in Iserlohn. I got the carbonara this time and it was delicious. We made our way to the Opera house and were hoping to get last minute tickets, as they were all sold out online. We happened to get one front row ticket and one in the 12th row. Obviously, we didn't get to sit together, but Laura told me it was okay if I sat up front since I'd never seen it. It really was a great performance and since I was so close,  I could actually see all the muscles in the ballerinas' legs. I never realized how ripped they are. It was intense. Afterward, we went out for a few drinks and then went home. I had to walk through the field to get home, but I forgot that it was covered in snow. I was wearing silver dangly earrings for the theater and I thought that they were going to freeze into my ears since it was so cold. It was really windy as well, so by the time I got home, I had tears pouring down my face and frozen earlobes. Not a fun time, but all worth it for some top notch ballet.

20th-27th

  This week, we had a goodbye party for Gery. He has to go back to Hungary to finish his Master's thesis and leaves in a few days. Chris, Brittney, Mike and I all pitched in for some beers and we watched one of his favorite movies, The Expendables 2. It was a really fun night, but also kind of sad since he's leaving. He told us to come visit Budapest before we go back to the states. We will have to try and plan a trip.

On Friday, I had my internship as usual and also got to meet Hans Breder. It was really exciting, as I've been working in the Hans Breder Archiv for the past 4 months. He was very gracious and answered all of my questions about his work and the archive. I can't wait for the exhibit opening next week, it's really been a fun and exciting experience to see what goes on behind the scenes. Later, I had a girls night with Britney. We painted our nails and watched a few cheesy Gerard Butler romantic comedies. She also has an appreciation for his accent.

28th-31st

On Tuesday, Mike and I went to go see Django Unchained in Bochum. They were showing it in English and it was super-Kino Tuesday as well, so tickets were half price. I though the movie was great, especially Leonardo Dicaprio's Calvin Candie.

Also this week, we had the exhibit opening that everyone has been working on for the past few months. It is called "Kollisions Felder" (collision fields) and features the artwork of the aforementioned Hans Breder. I was really excited to go to the opening, I even had a special invitation to get in! There were a lot of speeches beforehand (all in German of course). I caught the gist of what was going on, but was happy when they released us into the exhibit. Afterward, my boss invited me to get drinks with our colleagues, Hans, and some members of the press. It felt nice to be included, and I had a really nice time with everyone. I got to sit next to Katja, one of the girls I work with and she made me laugh so hard I nearly spilled my beer everywhere. The reason was that she refused to believe I am Southern. We somehow got on the topic of Gone With the Wind and she talked about how much she loved it and went to the museum in Atlanta. I told her I always wanted to go since it's so close and her eyes got all big and she said "But you're not from the South." She just kept shaking her head and saying she didn't believe me because I didn't have an accent. I then put on the countriest back-woods Swamp People accent I could manage. We laughed for a long time after that, and the rest of dinner, she would keep asking me to say words in the accent. I was happy to oblige because I remembered Carl and Anni enjoying it as well. Whatever I can do to make my fans happy haha. That's it for this month, Schüss!!

German Word of the Post:Die Ballettänzerin- "Ballerina" When I was little, I wanted to be a Ballettänzerin, but my calves weren't strong enough.