Photo Summary part 1

In an effort to jump back on the blogging train, I am including here a brief photo summary of my 2 month break. During this long stretch, I was able to visit Warsaw, Scotland (including Edinburgh, Inverness and Dundee), Dublin, Cologne, and Lake Constance. I was also overwhelmingly blessed by visits by Gillian and my mom! As you can imagine, these past few months have been incredibly rich with new experiences and great time with friends old and new. Hopefully it is true that a picture is worth a thousand words, so that you all can understand just a part of this time that I treasure so much. Enjoy!

Here are the 4 PH students in Warsaw - my lovely travel companions, Amy and Isabelle, and our dear friend and tour guide (as well as Warsaw native) Ewa. You may or may not be able to tell from this picture that it was unbelievably cold there...but well worth the trip. We were also blessed with more sunny days than cloudy - a huge blessing in February!


Much of our time in Warsaw centered around food. I think it is quite possible that I gained about 5 pounds in Warsaw alone...all of the food was absolutely delicious, plentiful and dirt cheap!

This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip - the three of us in front of the "Kulturpalast" in Warsaw - a gift from Stalin to Warsaw in the 50s - a prime example of Communist architecture and just one of many examples of the living and continuing history of this incredible city

This is one of my absolute favorite monuments ever (being a history and memory freak, I pay attention to stuff like that - how and why history is remembered tangibly and intangibly) This is a memorial to the citizens of Warsaw who led the uprising against the Nazis in 1944, completely without allied help - they wanted the uprising to be something that they themselves, as residents of Warsaw and captives of the Nazis, did themselves. A huge percentage of the population died in this attempt and the memory of this event is still fresh and quite sensitive in the hearts and minds of Warsaw residents to this day. A friend of Ewa's, when asked if she wanted to come with us to the recently opened museum memorializing this uprising, replied that it was all just too sensitive and emotional and that she couldn't bring herself to go there because it is just too sad. This memorial, near the center of Warsaw, has such movement and purpose to it - I was incredibly moved by this great sculpture.

I loved this outdoor ampitheater in the park of the summer palace - If I remember correctly this is a sculpture of the composer Chopin (native of Warsaw) and it was absolutely beautiful in the snow!

This isn't where we are, is it?

**this post has been in process for a couple of weeks now...sorry for the delay. Gillian came to visit and then I left for another little trip, but I am trying to get back on top of things before my mom gets here. This is part one of a multi-part series chronicling my travels and adventures of the past few weeks. Enjoy.

The title of this post is a quote from none other than yours truly, and illustrates quite aptly what a whirlwind adventure I just completed. I'll clarify: what I *meant* to ask was if our bus was coming to the stop where we wanted to disembark, however due to exhaustion, a little bit of sensory overload and a lot a bit of language confusion, I asked instead: "this isn't where we are, is it?" to which of course the answer is, always and forever, yes. This is where we are. We are, in fact, where we are. Which is good news, as it turns out. 

I'll start from the begining. I am one of those weird people who has really wanted to travel to Poland for quite awhile now. I have rarely met anyone who shares or even understands this desire, which is also understandable. I can say with conviction, that Warsaw in every way exceeded my expectations and I would recommend a visit to this city to anyone. Amy and Isabelle (my travel companions) had no real burning desire to go to Warsaw and decided on this stop only because a good friend of ours grew up there and offered to show us around the city and introduce us to her family. They loved the city as well. A trip to Warsaw is worth your time and money, I heartily recommed it! We arrived there mid-afternoon after leaving Karlsruhe at 5:30am (not my favorite part of traveling...) and promptly found our hostel and saw a bit of the old town. Honestly, the 3 days we spent there are a bit of a blur on this end of things, so I will save you the play by play and just give an overview of highlights (in no particular order)

1. Dinner with Ewa's family was maybe my favorite couple hours of the entire week. Her family was so friendly and really pulled out all the stops to introduce us to (a LOT of) Polish food and culture. Her mom even prepared one of the dishes gluten free for me. Their hospitality and the humor of cultural interactions is best illustrated through the following incidents. First of all, they put the food on the table and everyone started serving up food. Not realizing that this was just the first course, recoginzing that there was a lot of food on the table, and being quite hungry, Isabelle and I filled our plates. Only to learn 2 minutes later that that was just appetizers. Very very delicious appetizers. So, by the second course, we were both pretty full. Oops. We stuffed ourselves full with the rest of the food anyway. It was all delicious. Anyway, the second incident went as follows: Isabelle, after finishing her glass of juice, reached for water to refill her glass. Ewa's father jumped up (speaking mostly Polish with a few German and a few English words mixed in...) and communicated that she should not drink water, but that she should try this other kind of juice. Ewa and her sisters, after recovering from their embarassment (good to know that dads all over the world embarrass their children...haha!) explained that water is seen as "not nice" or not fancy somehow, and was only on the table for the family. In Poland, it is especially important for them to offer their guests only the best...in this case, juice. At any rate, their hospitality was a generous display of familial love for which I am very grateful.

2. A visit to the musuem for the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 was absolutely wonderful. The museum is quite new and does a great job of combining interactive elements with displays to effectively memorialize the brave actions of the residents of Warsaw in their 1944 fight against the Nazi occupiers. This memory is still very fresh in the minds of all Warsaw residents, Ewa's own family was torn apart and deeply marked by this event, as were all families at the time. It was amazing the way that visiting this museum opened up so many different conversations. Ewa shared how her great-aunt waited for 50 years (until the day she died) for her husband who disappeared during the uprising - his fate is still unknown. Isabelle shared her perspective of being German in a world so marked by Nazi atrocities and illuminated the difficulties of German self-identity, even a few generations after Hitler scarred Europe and the world. 

3. Polish food. I have never eaten so much good food for so little money in my life, ever. We ate so much good food we decided we all probably gained a few pounds (hence our founding of the "Polish diet" for those looking to put on the pounds as fast as possible!). Delicious soups, sausages and ribs are just a few of the amazing things we ate, all for just a few euros - amazing! We were also quite thankful for the hot wine and beer that was available to help ward off the below freezing temperatures (every time we went outside, I had about a 5 minute regimen of wrapping my head and neck to protect from the bitter cold...brrr!)

4. Summer palace and gardens. The parks in Warsaw are beautiful, also when they are covered in snow! We fed birds (they would really come land on your hands) and toured the summer palace of Polish royalty. The most interesting fact that we learned was that people in times gone by would sleep sitting up due to a fear of contracting illnesses and dying in their sleep. A lesser motive was to preserve the elaborate hairdos of the times. After years of touring palaces and wondering at the extraordinarilly short/small beds, it was interesting to learn that it is not because people back then were that much shorter (as I had always assumed) but rather that their method of sleeping was so different. 

All in all, Warsaw was definitely the high point of our trip for me. The people were so incredibly friendly, helpful and hospitable, the city is a treasure trove of historical sites, and the feeling of a city that has such a long, complicated and beautiful history lends to the whole place a mysterious granduer that should not be missed. 

After three days of snow, sunshine and freezing temperatures in Warsaw, we bid Ewa goodbye and headed to the airport in Lodz to travel to our next destination: Scotland.

Pause

Well, I have officially made it to the (eternally long) semester break...huzzah! As of a week ago, I have no classes or any real obligations until April the 20. I bet you all wished you were studying in Germany right about now. To be fair, most of the German students are relatively busy during this time, taking big exams, writing long research papers, and participating in internships. For those who conduct their entire education in Germany, this time can be quite stressful (and useful, for the block internships in schools and ample research time) however, as an exchange student, I am given a lovely chunk of time all for my own. I am not complaining.

So far, I have wrapped up loose ends from the semester, cleaned (ok, to be fair, I only cleaned a little bit...), did laundry, ran misc. errands and slept. On Wednesday, however, I leave for an 8 day trip to Warsaw, Scotland and Dublin with Amy and Isabelle. Ewa has been kind enough to offer to play tour guide for us in her hometown of Warsaw and Isabelle studied last year in Scotland, so she will be showing us the insiders look into her life there. I am clearly very excited. My only real concern is that I am still not at 100% from the mono fiasco, but I'm sure it will all work out. I have to promise to look after myself and *not* end up in the hospital again, or Thomas won't let me go (as if he could stop me...ha!)

So, now that I am in the semester "pause" maybe I will have more exciting things to update the blog with...although don't hold your breaths! I am almost certain I had a great mental list of amusing cultural interactions to share with you, my faithful readers, however I seem to have misplaced it in the chaos of my brain. Sorry to disappoint. The sad news of the day is that my favorite cafe (where they know my name and my favorite drink...) is closing at the end of the month. I am devastated. Amy and I spent a lovely evening there a couple of weeks ago, drinking cocktails with one of the owners and chatting away. I am in complete denial that they won't be there for me anymore. I find it such a shame that a place that has the names, dates and birth weights of all the regular customer's babies written on the wall, a place where they make such an effort to know everyone who comes in, where they support local artists, play great music, and make great coffee is going under in this time of financial hardship. Karlsruhe is losing a great meeting place for community and I am deeply sad. 

In other news, Thomas and his roommate Bastian just bought a foosball table. Thats right, folks, I am being catapulted onto the path of greatness by my boyfriend's love of foosball and determination to train me to be good enough to humiliate some grown men. Go me. Or something like that...I'll keep you posted (or you could just watch the news...I'm sure you'll see my rise to greatness chronicled there)

Thats all for now, I am off to a goodbye party for 3 of my friends here who are leaving in the next few days and weeks. As always, I am missing and loving you all from afar. I trust that you are well taken care of in the arms of our Father. ~love~

Authentic

Authentic, that is what Amy and I made the super bowl party we attended at midnight Sunday night. Apparently. The formula for this "authenticity" included nachos (without salsa or guacamole), popcorn (salted, not sweet...the Germans weren't all that certain about that decision), corn bread, and our combined knowledge of the rules of football. ha. I was a "football expert." for a night. In Germany.

A good friend of Thomas' is (for reasons still unknown to me) a big fan of all American sports. He follows all of them much more avidly than I do. It is somewhat astounding to me how much he knows, actually. So, anyway, Stefan informed me that he and a few others would be watching the Super Bowl and I was welcome to join them if I wanted. After weeks of thinking that I would be not watching the Super Bowl for the first time in my life, I was overjoyed and, surprisingly, willing to begin watching the game at midnight! Amy of course wanted to join, and I told Stefan that we would bring some "Super Bowl appropriate food" (much to his delight!) We only stayed for the first half (and until Amy and I stopped singing along with Journey at the top of our lungs) and here are my observations:

First of all, I love nothing more than watching the confusion/discomfort of Germans when I tell them that you eat nachos with your hands. In a country where everyone eats pizza with knife and fork, nachos are a strange concept. (all Mexican food is very very foreign to them, much to my dismay) I think it is hilarious.

Secondly, I never realized how complicated football was until I explained it to a bunch of people who have never ever been exposed to it (even a little bit).

Along those lines, explaining how you play football and all of the rules in German makes it that much more complicated. 

I don't think I have ever watched a football game in which more fuss was made over the tackles than the plays.

The Super Bowl feels just like a regular football game without the commercials. I missed the commercials.

I really enjoyed my evening of American Football with the Germans (many of them were quite disppointed to learn that it was the last game of the season...I think we did a good job of creating a few football fans) As usual, this new cultural encounter left me laughing hysterically and once more thankful for this place where I am, people who I am blessed to know, and all the experiences that I am blessed to have. 

As always, I send my love. I carry you all in my heart and miss you daily. ~love~

Christmas in Pictures part 2

now on to the exciting second installment of my wildly popular previous post: Christmas in Pictures part 1!

The Schulze family's Christmas tree - they cut the top off of one of the trees in their yard this year - I found that pretty impressive. Apparently they used to use real candles on their trees, but with their two cats, the danger outweighs the allure of ambiance and tradition. (an understandable trade) Also, this nativity scene belonged to Thomas' grandparents and was made shortly after World War Two - very cool.

We set our gifts under the tree on the day of the 24 and opened them that night (Heiligabend - holy evening) after Thomas and I went to the Christmas concert at church and we ate dinner all together. Thomas' mother rang a bell, and we all hugged one another and wished one another a merry Christmas, then everyone opened presents all together. It was definitely different, but interesting and fun to celebrate German Christmas. For the record, I saved my stocking for Christmas morning and opened it with Thomas before we went down for family breakfast - so I got the best of both worlds, which was fun. 

This little scene was set up in Schluchsee and added a lovely festive air to our afternoon walk. Thomas was sick (with what we now presume to be mon0) so I went for a walk with his parents around Schluchsee. Despite the bitterly cold wind, it was a beautiful day! (and of course I always enjoy seeing such a blue sky!)

Christmas morning we woke up to a couple centimeters of snow which really freshened everything up. Being so high up in the mountains, there was naturally a lot of snow there, but much of it had melted before we arrived due to a few days of warm weather then a few days of rain. The light dusting of snow made my dreams of a white Christmas come true!

The view of Schluchsee from a tower atop a mountain above town is just breathtaking. We hiked up there one day and I captured this beautiful picture of part of the town and the lake - what a charming getaway! (See is the German word for lake, just fyi)

So, there it is...a short photo-journal of my Christmas away from home. It was much quieter than I am used to, but really restful and wonderful. I love and miss you all, thanks for your prayers and support through the holiday season! ~love~

Christmas in Pictures part 1

If I were as fun and cute as Calli, I would have sent you all Christmas cards this year. However, I am not quite so on the ball (as I think you are all pretty well aware...) So, here you are, folks, my Christmas card blog post.

Amy and I are all about the self-portrait (and traveling together, and just generally being together) so here is a picture of us at the ice-skating rink outside of the Karlsruhe mall one cold December evening. Luckily we are sufficiently bundled, and quite cheerful - infected with the highly contagious holiday spirit that comes along with the Christmas market, ice skating rink, and festive lights all around town. 

I discovered that getting pictures of the Christmas Market is quite difficult, but here is the best I have to offer you all. The market is made up of a lot of little stands (like the one behind Amy) where they sell all sorts of goods (of varying quality) and of course food and Glühwein (hot spiced wine, perfect for keeping warm in this chilly weather) A little tip that Amy found out the hard way: don't get the German version of egg nog, unless you actually enjoy the taste of raw eggs in a thick, hot drink. Once sip and I just about tossed my cookies! 

On this particular night, a brass band was playing Christmas carols from this balcony above the Christmas market - it was so festive and just wonderful. I am definitely a fan of this German tradition.

Now on to Schluchsee - This is Thomas' family home where we spent almost a week for Christmas. Located in a beautiful tourist town in the mountains of the black forest (click on the link, if you go to the bottom, and click on fotogalerie, there are pictures you can scroll through, if you are curious - I know the site is in German, they don't have an English version, sorry!) Anyway, Thomas' family was so kind, generous and accomodating, it was really the best Christmas away from home I could have hoped for. They were especially great about making sure that I had enough gluten free food - I was so blessed by their generosity and hospitality!

The week in Schluchsee was a lot of fun and gave me a chance to meet a few of Thomas' friends from high school. It was fun to get a look at his life and his childhood by being with his family in his hometown and getting to know his friends (and seeing old pictures!) I would like to add in regards to this picture, that Germans (maybe Europeans in general) have a thing about not smiling in pictures...I have no idea why. I promise that Thomas is a very happy person who laughs and smiles all the time (and makes me double over in laughter every day!) but this is the closest I got to a picture of the two of us in which he is almost smiling - intercultural relationships are such fun! This picture was taken on the mountan overlooking Freiburg (the closest city to Schluchsee) where we took a day trip one day. 

My NEW new year's resolution

So, normally I'm not really one for new year's resolutions - its just too depressing to think about all the things people resolve to do and then give up on after a few days/weeks/months. I've always thought that a constant sense of seeking to grow is preferable to a specific day of the year when everything is suddenly supposed to change. Anyway, I threw that out of the window this year (well, sort of, I still stand by my philosophy) after having two conversations in short succession with Thomas and Amy about my difficulty with punctuality. So, I bravely announced to Thomas (Amy was in England, so I had to wait to tell her...) that I was resolving to work on being more punctual. And, for the record, I have done rather well thus-far.

Fast forward 3 days and you have my new new years resolution: to not end up in the hospital anymore. Yep, here you go. Here is the story of how I spent 10 days in 2 different hospitals in Germany...aka, how I was barely able to spend time with my good friend who came all the way here to visit me...aka, how I spent my boyfriend's birthday in the emergency room...aka, how to improve your working vocabulary of German medical terms. 

It all started 2 days after Shawn got here for a lovely visit. The day he arrived we took it pretty easy, just walked around Karlsruhe a bit. The second day we enjoyed the only Christmas market still open in the area (a Christmas and New Year's market...quite convienent). That night I was freezing. Looking back, I must have had a pretty high fever, regardless, the next morning I woke up completely miserable: sore throat, high fever, aching skin and bones, headache...yuck. So, Shawn bravely set off to see a bit of Karlsruhe on his own. The next day I was even worse - Shawn went to Heidelberg with my friend Jonathan and we ate new year's eve dinner with my Italian friend (I think I may want to celebrate every new year's the Italian way...the food was just to die for!) . The next day, I was maybe a bit better, but my eyes and neck had somehow become a bit swollen - Shawn and Jonathan went to an art museum here. I resolved to get better because the next day was the much anticipated day of our trip to Berlin - my very favorite place! (ok, honestly, it has dropped in the running a little bit, partly because of the problems with their hospital system, but I still love Berlin)

I got up feeling good - I hadn't had a fever in a little while and my sore throat was gone. I was convinced I was on the up and up. Thomas, however, insisted that if I did come to Berlin, we would go straight to a doctor there before it was the weekend and too late. We arrived in Berlin, went to the doctor and I learned I had a double ear-infection. Lovely. We got my antibiotics, pain medication and were on our way (and I felt much better to know that I had an infection and just needed some antibiotics) We saw the Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag and walked down Unter den Linden that night, enjoyed a traditional German dinner, and arrived in the hostel frozen through and through (did I mention that Germany is having the coldest winter in 100 years...sounds like my first winter in Boston, lucky me!).

 After warming up and sleeping, I woke up and took medicine for a pending migraine the next morning. I was feeling good and ready to go. We visited the Holocaust memorial and the accompanying museum, went to Checkpoint Charlie, and were dazzled by the goods in the KaDeWe (Berlin's equivalent of Harrods in London) 

We went back to the hostel for a nap before Thomas' birthday dinner and when I woke up, I knew something was wrong. Really wrong. Things were not getting better, they were getting worse. After talking for a long time, we decided the wisest thing to do was to go to the hospital (they definitely talked me into that...and I am so thankful they did) We took a taxi to the hospital where of course we spent a really long time sitting around waiting for doctors. I met with the first doctor, explained everything that hurt, and he decided that the most important/worrisome thing was my head (I tried to explain that headaches are pretty normal for me, but he was convinced I needed to see a neurologist) So, he drew some blood for tests then left us to wait 2.5 hours for the neurologist who then proceeded to tell me that there was absoulutely nothing wrong with me besides an ear/sinus infection. (she recommended that I go see an allergy specialist since she was fairly certain my infections could be allergic reactions of some sort) I of course started bawling (always the first sign that I am actually really sick...) She got my papers and was about to send us on our way when Thomas (my hero) asked if anything showed up in the bloodwork. She went to go check and came back and sheepishly explained that something did in fact show up in my bloodwork and that I was probably going to have to stay the night (convienent, since it was already well past midnight) So, I met with another doctor who told me that my blood indicated that there was something wrong with my liver and that they were going to admit me to the hospital. I got a room and Thomas and Shawn finally got to go back to the hostel to sleep. Without going into details, (haha, well, as many as I could) the hospital in Berlin was not great. I didn't see a doctor or a nurse until at least 3pm the next day, I couldn't get anything to eat (gluten free was too tricky) and when I finally did see a doctor, every one told me something different. We decided to sign out (against doctor's advice...I feel like such a rebel) and go home with the train tickets that we had already bought for our return trip to Karlsruhe. So, I left Berlin with a yellow-ish, pale, very swollen face (not to mention very swollen liver and spleen) please note: I chose the smiling picture to post on the internet, even though I wasn't all that happy (well, I was actually very happy to be going back to Karlsruhe) because even though I looked horrible all through my illness, who willingly puts really really horrible, ugly pictures of themselves up on the internet for all to see? well, not I. (you all are lucky you got even one...)

After making it to Karlsruhe, everything was much less complicated and a lot better. Thomas brought my computer so I was able to watch movies (in between my long naps), I got my cell phone charger so I could talk to my poor, worried mother, I got much better care, and I got lots and lots and lots of visitors. (actually, I'm kinda surprised they didn't hurry everything along a little more for me in the hospital...I think they got a little tired of me having dozens of visitors every day...well, dozens, or, like 3. or 6)

So, for the first 2 or 3 days in the hospital in Karlsruhe, before they had definitively diagnosed me with mono, they wanted to make sure that it wasn't anything really really contagious, so all of my visitors (doctors, nurses, cleaning ladies, everyone) came in looking a little like Thomas in this picture! Masks, gloves and gowns, but at least I could still have visitors! Luckily there were only a few days of this, and I do appreciate the caution that they took. (although for Thomas, who had been with me every step of the way, I did find it kinda hilarous and a little over the top...if I was that dangerous, they might as well have just set him up in a bed next to mine!)

In a few days they informed me that I definitely have mono (German: Pfeiffersches Drüsenfieber) which I had pretty much known since Berlin (thats what they thought there too) I also was informed (thanks to Thomas' internet research) that I belong to the approximately 5% of people who react really really badly to mono (figures, right?) and that I probably got it from Thomas who probably had it over Christmas (he had all the symptoms, they were just mild) After I was diagnosed, it was just a waiting game (of a week!) until my liver and spleen showed enough improvement (they are still swollen, I have to go get blood drawn again tomorrow, lucky me!) and until my fever went away. I had on and off fever for at least 2 weeks, with temperatures reaching rediculous levels (104 and probably a little beyond) but after I started receiving daily infusions of fluids and regular doses of medicine, my body was finally able to normalize a little and I was allowed to come home on Tuesday. To welcome me home, Thomas got me these beautiful tulips (my favorite! he got lucky on that guess-he handed them to me sheepishly and said, here, I got you flowers, I have no idea what kind they are, I've never bought anyone flowers before...which of course made me laugh a lot)

So, the moral of this (very very long) story is: I resolve to not go back to the hospital in 2009. In order to do that, I need to actually follow the doctor's orders and lay low for at least another week (meaning no classes, not a lot of walking around - ha, like that's easy in Germany with no car, and not doing anything too strenuous) My appetite has returned (thank goodness) and I need to continue to drink a lot of liquids to make sure my fever doesn't return. Thank you all for all of your prayers, love, and messages...I am overwhelmingly blessed, even from afar. And now with all of this time in which I am not going to be doing anything strenuous, I will post soon pictures and stories of Christmas - a much happier theme! I hope this helps you all understand and feel a little more in the loop. Take heart in the knowledge that I have so many good friends here looking out for me, I can hardly believe it. Also, I was fortunate to recieve really great care at the hospital here - all of the nurses were simply fabulous and my doctor was kind, patient and understand. I am so thankful that I received such great care. I love and miss you all, and I apologize for the worry that I caused you all! ~love~