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. 

A Tour of Prague (January 2nd-6th)

January 2nd

       We had to get up super-early in order to catch our flight from Düsseldorf to Prague. I'm talking, leave the house at 2 am. I decided to not sleep at all and stayed up packing and watching movies. I was super excited about this trip. It would be me, Chris, Mike, and Mike's doubles, Robin and Laura touring around Prague for four days. First we had to get to the airport and wait in line for an hour. The counter wasn't even open and when a representative finally came out, we had to re-queue for no reason. We got through and found our plane, something my parents call a "puddle-jumper." It's a tiny plane with propellers. Like this:

We made it there fine, despite a lot of rattling. After a quick cab ride through the city, we found our way to the hotel. We dropped off of our bags since our room wasn't ready yet and went exploring. We went to the Charles Bridge, one of the most famous sites in Prague. It's a foot bridge over the Vltava River. Usually it's really crowded, but since we were there early in the morning, we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Plus the sun was rising and it was really beautiful.

We spent the rest of the day exploring the city. We went by one of Prague's major churches with a really cool clock on the side that's been in use since the 17th century:

Laura and I also went shopping in one of the swankier parts of the city. It was more like window-shopping, as some of the stuff was really pricey. We still had a great time. That night we went down to our hotel's bar/restaurant. It was decorated kind of oddly. It reminded me a lot of TGI Friday's at home. Just random stuff nailed up on the wall. We sat next to a suit of armor and on the other side of the table, there was a portrait of Bill Gates. Go figure. The food was good, a even better, the beer was cheap, so we spent most of the night there.

January 3rd

     We got up early to to go the castle in Prague. It's one of the largest castles in the world and we spent most of the day going through it. There were a lot of stairs to actually get to the castle, I felt like Rocky once we got to the top. It provided a really nice view of the city too.

They also had guards at this castle, and we caught the changing of the guard and snapped some photos with them as well.

He looks happy

Afterward, we ate at a little cafe. I tried the goulash, as apparently that's the thing to eat while in Prague. No offense to Praguians (Pragonians? Praguvillians?) but it was not my favorite. Maybe it was just a mixture of the spices, but I couldn't finish the dish. Oh well, at least I tried it. We also went to the spa in our hotel. We had it all to ourselves and tried out the sauna. I'd never been in one, but it was a lot of fun and refreshing. We also had a hot tub to marinate in. All in all, a relaxing end to a busy day.

January 4th

     Today we made our way down to the Frank Gehry building in Prague. I've posted earlier about his building in Düsseldorf and how he's kind of like the Dr. Seuss of architecture. This building was no different. They call it the "Fred and Ginger" because it looks like the two buildings are dancing together. Unfortunately it wasn't open for touring, because they actually use if for offices, but it was still fun to see.

We also went to the National Gallery. Unfortunately it was under a major restoration, so only part of it was open, but the part that we did see was impressive. After we were through with that, we went to the Alfons Mucha museum. He was from the Czech Republic and produced a lot of really beautiful advertisements for plays as well as illustrations. His stuff is really recognizable and popular. While there, we learned that when his posters would be put up around town to advertise something, within the next day, they would all be taken down by people who wanted to display them in their own houses. Here is one of his more famous pieces:

The prettiest cigarette ad I've seen

Later that night, we went to the largest club in central Europe. I know this because they had it in neon lights on the side of the building. I don't know if it was true or not, but the club was pretty big. It had five floors of different music. It was really interesting because if you got bored with the music on one floor, you could just move somewhere else. We tried out all of them, including the 70s/oldies floor that had a light-up checkerboard floor. There weren't a whole lot of people our age there, so we went to the pop/club songs floor and stayed there. I really enjoyed it there, because there was a glass ceiling so you could look up and see people dancing above you. It was an awesome night, and I really wish there were more clubs like this where I live. Oh well. The beer there was also interesting, my favorite had a goat on the front of it:

January 5th 

     Today we went to a performance of The Nutcracker and the National Operahouse. It was a lot of fun and the building was very pretty as well. 

The performers were very impressive, but it was a different version of The Nutcracker than I've seen before. It was like they combined it with A Christmas Story because there was definitely and Ebeneezer Scrooge character who was transported to the land of the sugar plum fairies. There were very few nutcrackers to be seen, but the music was recognizable, so I guess it wasn't a total loss. 

Afterward, we went back to the bar in the hotel. We had to leave early the next morning, so we didn't stay up too late. It was a really fun trip, and I would love to go back sometime. That's all for now. Schüss!!

German Word of the Week: Die Brücke- "bridge" Die Brücke across the Vlata River has a lot of statues on it. 

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.