Hello friends! I returned to Germany last Monday from my trip to Ohio for the job interview. Just so you all know – didn’t get it… 😦 boo!
My trip to America was STRESSFUL because I was supposed to fly from Stuttgart Germany to Newark, however, we had an emergency landing for more fuel in Goosebay, Canada. Wherever that is! (it’s VERY North in Canada). We were on the ground for 2 or 3 hours there because it started to storm and then they had to de-ice the plane! Well, my layover was just over three hours, so needless to say, when I arrived in Newark I was FREAKING OUT! Because I didn’t have much time to go through customs, get my bags, re-check my bags, go through security again, make the train to my terminal and make my flight. It was extremely stressful, but I was helping a German man who was coming to America for the first time and he didn’t really know what to do and where to go and his connecting flight was 15 minutes before mine. We ran to catch the train and once we got on it, IT BROKE DOWN! Of course it did. Why wouldn’t it when we were both desperate to make our flights? The train started going again about 7 minutes later (which seems like an eternity when you’re trying to make a connecting flight). I told him to continue to stick with me and we made it through security by my asking if we can cut to make our connecting flight, so we got to use the employee only entrance through security, which was great, because the security line was probably a one hour wait, if not longer. Then we cut a few more people once we got up to the checker-thingies. He gave me a huge hug and thanked me, which was great because Germans don’t really hug – that’s an American thing. Germans are more likely to shake hands, so it was nice that I was able to help him. I told him to go in front of me at the security line since his flight was sooner and also told him to not put his shoes on, but to just RUN! haha. I don’t know if he made his flight or not, but I sure hope so. He had, like, 1 or 2 minutes by the time he got through security and his gate was close, so I hope so! I made my flight to Ohio. Thank goodness, because I was so ANXIOUS to see my mom and dad! 🙂
My weekend was a blur as I was interviewing with jet-lag. It was interesting, to say the least. My flight back to Germany was uneventful. I made it to Stuttgart in time to get a train a few minutes later and get to school on time for lunch. Thank goodness, because I was hungry! I went strait from the train station to school, so I was also tired!
School was the same as usual last week through Thursday. Then, on Friday, we left for Nürnberg, which is the city where Hitler held the big Nazi rallies and wanted to make the largest stadium in the world, etc. It was a beautiful city with so much history, so naturally, I was in love. It’s my favorite city that we’ve visited so far.
On Friday, we went to the city museum. I really enjoyed this museum, as it showed the history of the town and how in 1945, the town was in complete ruins. It was VERY interesting and the man working there was very nice and answered all of my questions!
Then we broke into groups and my group went to the DB Museum (Deutsch Bahn). It was the train museum. It was definitely not the most exciting museum, in my opinion, but it was interesting to see how the train systems changed around 1945.
That evening, my friend Ella and I decided that we didn’t just want to sit in the hotel, so we decided to go walk around the town (don’t worry, mom, it wasn’t that late). We wound up at an Irish Pub, which was pretty fun. We hung out there for probably an hour and a half before we made our way back to the hotel. I was actually pretty proud of us because we were just going to walk around by our hotel and ended up find the main city area where we were that day. It wasn’t far by any means, but we took the train to our hotel earlier, so we didn’t know how to get there. But we found it! We’re big kids now. 😉
Saturday morning we went to the area where Hitler built all of those huge monumental buildings and the stadium. That was very interesting, because the building he wnated to build as his government building is now used as a museum and commerce building. It was HUGE. But that was his goal – to be big and intimidating.
We also went outside and walked over to the stadium area – also huge. He wanted it to be the biggest stadium in the world. We also walked on the grand street, where they would hold the Nazi parades and stuff. It was interesting, but I also felt kind of guilty climbing all the stairs that slaves to the Nazis built and stuff… weird. But historically, cool? (hopefully that doesn’t sound bad!)
After the museum and walking around, we had free time. A few of us walked around the main part of the city again. We found the city’s castle and walked around there for a while. It was cool. And people still live in it – like, it’s been turned into apartments – cool! We walked around the city till it got dark. It was seriously SO beautiful at night! It was dark out, but the lights in the church were still on, so the stained glass looked beautiful, the river looked beautiful, etc. It was just so lovely. We found some interesting things; fountains, buildings, stores. It was nice to just walk around the town and see everything. After an hour or so, we decided to go back to the hotel. We all hung out, played some cards, and then decided we’d go back out. 5 of us went to a bar in the city. Again, it was just fun and relaxing and we weren’t out too late and we got to sleep in on Sunday! So it was a nice evening.
On Sunday, we got up, enjoyed our breakfast (which, side-note: continental breakfasts here are SO GOOD! Oh mannn!! Tons of fresh fruits, yogurts, meat, cheese, spreads, juice, coffee, tea. Okay, so that sounds the same, but it WAS NOT! Like, seriously, there were SO many different fresh fruits. Not just apples and bananas, but pineapple, kiwi, peaches, pears, oranges, bananas, and lots more. And several different types of meats and cheese. It was good, okay?) Anyway, after breakfast, we went to the German National Museum. There were some interesting things in the museum (including the oldest globe on earth, which excludes the Americas because those ‘didn’t exist yet’), but it was a little bit too big. It was very intimidating and VERY easy to get lost. Luckily, I stuck with my pal Zach and we didn’t get too lost…
After that museum, we went to a brewery for lunch/dinner. It was underground, which was cool. It was super busy too, because it’s Fasching weekend (Carnival). So it took a very long time to get everything, but we had the time, so it was okay! After, we walked around a bit and then hopped on the train and headed home.
Monday, we had a typical day of school.
Then, yesterday, Tuesday, we went to Rottweil, which is well known for it’s Fasching celebrations. It is, like, THE city to go to for traditional Fasching celebrations. It was soooooo interesting. And by interesting, I mean weird, but in a non-insulting way..? Hundreds and hundreds of people in masks and costumes. We went for the parade, but hung out for a while before. Everyone had these HUGE bratwursts – probably at least 12″! And they also had some Glüwein, or mulled wine. I didn’t, because I couldn’t eat any of the stuff and wasn’t going to have wine with no food… But it all smelled good! 😉 (I smell peoples’s food when I think I want to eat it but can’t because of the gluten thing). Back to the costumes: there were some people dressed in these feathery costumes and they had poles with cow tails attached to them which they would rub all over people’s faces, which traditionally means that they are blessing them with fertility. If that’s true, I’ll probably have lots of babies some day because there was A LOT of cow-tail in my face… ha! The cow tails smelled weird too. Not like gross, but they perfume the heck out of them, but it was definitely not my favorite perfume… But still a fun thing to experience. Again, we took the train home at the end of the day and I pretty much crashed once I went to bed.
Until next time…
keelygoshia 