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. 

Back Home

Saturday, Oct. 13th-Sunday, Oct. 21st

Yep. I got to go home for a whole week. The main purpose of the trip was to present at a conference, SECAC (the Southeastern College Arts Conference). Over the summer, I worked on a paper about Flannery O'Connor. She's mostly known for her short stories, but she also contributed cartoons to her high school and college newspapers. I examined the relationship between the two. I had a lot of fun researching and writing this paper and was excited to present it. However, that would happen in the middle of the week, Thursday, and I had a few days to relax at home and see some friends and family. 

My flight over was not that bad, I just remember being excited to get home. I only had one connection as well, so that made it a lot easier. After hugs from my parents, they asked if I was hungry. I had one thing in mind: Bojangles. We stopped on the way home and I was happy to be reunited with some Bo-rounds and biscuits.

In all of their glory

I mostly slept for the first day, but was pleasantly surprised by my sister, Leslie, who came to visit me. I was so happy to see her and a bunch of my other friends as well. On Wednesday, I drove to Columbia to meet up with my professor who would take us to the conference in Durham. It was nice getting to network with professors and students alike. 

Since  I won't be home for Halloween, we tried to cram in all the stuff we could. We made popcorn balls, decorated the house, and sort of carved a pumpkin. (I say sort of because we really just drew a face with a Sharpie and called it a day). It was really great to see everyone, but after a week, I was excited to get back to Dortmund.

Luckily my flight back over was the best one I've had. I flew United this time, and the plane was only about half full. I actually got to stretch out over three seats and sleep! The movie selection was pretty good as well, but I spent most of the flight sleeping and reading. What did make me laugh was the safety video they showed. I was flying into Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, so the video showed once in English and then again dubbed over in French. However, the second time it was shown, it was a lot shorter. All they covered was turning off cellphones and no smoking on the plane or in the bathroom. It made me giggle.

After I debarked, I had to navigate CDG airport. My parents had already warned me that it was a confusing airport. I think that's an understatement. I just followed the crowd to customs.  After I got through there, I had no idea where to go. There were absolutely no monitors showing what gate I needed to get to. I chose to follow the crowd once again and finally found a screen. However, everything was abbreviated (and in French of course) and I couldn't tell what column had the gate number. Was it A2? U33? Maybe the blinking 60-66. Then of course, there were buses transporting people to terminals. By this time, I was slightly panicking. What if I got on the wrong bus?

So I found someone official looking and asked. They kindly took my boarding pass and told me the right gate: 60-66. They also pointed me in the right direction. No buses, just an elevator down two floors and a lot of walking. Once there, I had to go through security. I got a proper pat-down from a French lady. I'm just going to wear a bikini next time, since I manage to get felt up every time I go to the airport. After I got through I had to find my gate. However, there was no 60-66. I took it to mean one whole number. However, I realized later it meant my gate could be the number 60 through 66. Lightbulb! That was really helpful since this terminal was spread out. I had 30 minutes to spare, so I spent it patrolling from one end to the other looking for my flight (of course all of the screens were blank). I'm sure I looked suspicious (especially since I passed Ms. Patdown several times) but I was determined to find it. After a lot of worrying, I finally found it, (62 for those that are interested). I still had 20 minutes until boarding so I decided to sit and cool my jets (j'aime puns!).

My flight to Düsseldorf was uneventful, and I was happy to find that my luggage made it as well! Then I boarded a train to Dortmund. Luckily it wasn't very crowded, so my giant suitcase didn't cause a problem. By the time I finally made it to my dorm, I was exhausted. However, I had made it back in time for two of my Monday classes. Though I would have much rather passed out on the bed, I went to my fantasy bestsellers class. I couldn't tell you what we talked about (I have an idea it was about the genre of fantasy bestsellers). I then trudged to my american art class. I was so tired by then that I couldn't remember how to spell my name on the attendance sheet. Luckily the teacher just lectured the whole time and didn't try to get any answers out of me.

At last I returned to my dorm. I managed to stay up until 9:00 pm and then slept. I was happy to have a mini-vacation home, but I'm also happy to be back. That's it for now, Schüss!

German Word of the Day: Die Stiefel- "boots" Die Stiefel are great for squashing bugs.