I was hoping to put up some new pics to accompany this blog, but I am still waiting on them from my friends… unfortunately, my camera battery died while I was out celebrating my 21st! A lot of fun things have happened in the last few weeks, so I will fill you in on some of the best parts :)
First of all I did buy some cute black boots, every girl I’ve seen here seems to wear tall boots, so now I fit in with the rest of them. I’ve also gotten quite accustomed to the coffee house scene; Fiona and I talked for ages and I had my favorite traditional dish-- Wiener schnitzel, with French fries (mayo on the side) and a Beck’s, followed by a delicious chocolate torte and a cappuccino. However, I do frequent the cafeteria as well, where I am always meeting fun, new people.
I met Timo from Hannover and Katarina from Slovakia and they invited me to join them for their European social politics class. Since I have Fridays free, I was able to attend two of the lectures to get a feel for how my classes will be in April. I really liked the way Dr. Zapka teaches, he makes everything relatable and understandable. I know he cares about his students too considering how we talked with him for an HOUR after class!
With Ezgi and a new friend Ayse, I went to a somewhat Turkish party… luckily we could all speak German, but I did learn that merhaba means hello :) It was a real fun time with much dancing and as usual, free drinks. That same weekend, I went and saw “Guys and Dolls” at the Opera House for only 7.50 Euros! The actors sang all the songs in English, but everything spoken was in German. Its amazing how well they could turn their accents off… it was a great show and apparently the theater has a very good reputation. Soon “Cats” will be showing, so I hope we will all go see that as well.
The next weekend, I went to a floor party with Lucy, who is from England, and there I met up with Thomas from Maryland, Jure from Slovenia, and Matias from Finnland who all helped me celebrate my 21st at midnight! The following day I went with the girls to lunch at the spanish Café & Bar Celona in the old part of the city. Fiona and I then went shopping at H&M where I bought a light dusty-rose sweater-dress and a cute flowered scarf. That evening we went out with Jessica and Leanne to an Irish and then an English pub, where we reminisced about our family traditions… it was so nice remembering my childhood on the night of my 21st birthday.
On Sunday the group got back together to celebrate at a traditional German restaurant, where I ate schnitzel with mushrooms, spätzle, vegetables, and of course, a mug full of Paulaner München. Päivi, Ezgi, Ayse, Fiona, Jessica, and Leanne all treated me to supper and then we went to the Ballet, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, where Timo and Dennis surprised me with Jägermeister… they heard that Americans liked it, so they insisted we all take a shot, right in the Opera House lobby!! The Ballet was really wonderful and even had a two tiered stage; the contemporary performance really fit well with Shakespeare’s comedy. Afterwards we all went to an Afghani-bar, where we sat on pillows and drank cocktails. Katarina then gave me Kinderschokolade (my all-time favorite chocolate) and Timo and Dennis gifted me Rotkäppchen, a traditional wine from eastern Germany. I feel so blessed to already have such a close-knit group of friends!
I am also very happy to share that I got my second internship with the Freundeskreis Tambacounda. I was able to visit another lecture of theirs that discussed the racism in the children’s book, Ten little Niggers and how society reacts to the story today. The symbolism was very interesting. My current internship has been quite fruitful as well. I have completed a lot of translation work and have helped with two events: Estonia in the Euro-Zone and a speech concerning Europe’s identity, which was held in the Göttingen Rathaus. For these events, I helped organize an info-booth that provides fliers, pamphlets, and books from our organization about the European Union. I especially enjoyed being in Göttingen, since the Rathaus the event was held in was very old and displayed all of Europe’s former kingdoms’ crests on the wall’s elaborate mural. For these days I worked really long hours (8:30-9:00), but the great food after the events made up for it :)
This past weekend, I was invited to Timo and Dennis’ house warming party and like good Germans, Fiona and I bought wine as host gifts. Apparently, a 2 € bottle of wine is actually good, the priciest bottle I saw there was only 3.55 €! I can’t imagine giving someone a $2 wine as a present in the US… haha. Afterwards, I met some friends in the Silo bar and “danced the night away.” Although there is a lot of techno, and your average American pop songs, right in the middle of it all, a waltz came on! Thankfully, Marcus (from Vancouver) knew how to waltz and we are now looking into finding ballroom dance lessons in the area.
On Sunday I went with Rodrigo (from Bolivia) to a concert in the Markuskirche to see a violinist friend of his play Brahms and Bruckner in the orchestra; there was even an opera piece in the beginning. Considering how Sunday was also the Super Bowl, I went out with my American friends, Ben and Clayton, and Lucy to watch the game live at 12:30 am! The irish channel was playing it at McGowan’s, so although I missed the commercials, I still enjoyed the game with some nachos. Not surprisingly we met other Americans there as well, like Chris from New York.
Ok I will do my best to write more frequently so these posts don’t get so long! Much love!
