Brain = Mush

I have a computer again! Finally. It's all in German, German keyboard, everything. It's fun trying to figure the inner workings of your computer when you don't know much about computers in your mother tongue. Trying in German is quite a fun challenge. I'm actually really enjoying. My vocabulary is expanding purely out of day-to-day necessity.
Anyway, that is really not important. This week was pretty good, pretty normal. It's become crunch time and my head feels kind of like it did after the AP Exams - like my brain was run through a meat grinder and then squished out my ears and then told to function. These two weeks are gonna suck...
Kunstgeschichte got really interesting this week. We're learning about Artists like Joseph Beuys and Andy Warhol and the whole art movement in the 60's. I'm really enjoying. Joseph Beuys was a ridiculous man. Apparently he would give talks to people and during one talk, someone who hated him punched him in the nose and broke it. Beuys didn't react at all, he just kept talking through his profusely bleeding nose and pretended nothing ever happened. Another time, he was in New York for an exhibition and didn't stay in a hotel but instead stayed in a room in the Exhibit with a coyote. Just for kicks. The man was nuts...
Anyway, that's been fun. The other classes are winding down since the semester is almost over. We have class next week and then finals. Oh my god...I have no idea how this happened. How did it get be 2010? How is the semester almost over? Really, the bigger question is, how did I end up in Germany? I know it's a foreign country but it doesn't feel like it most of the time. There are some things that are lacking but mostly, I've adjusted. Sometimes I wake and question where I am and how the hell I got here, but mostly it's just normal. Living in the heart of Europe like this. My German has gotten ridiculously good. Especially in the last two weeks. I don't know why but I feel so much more fluent in the last two weeks than I did before. I really enjoy the feeling.
I'm still really enjoying life here but am ready for the crunch/stress time to be over. Then we go to Italy! It's gonna be crazy! So cool! I don't think I'll realize I'm in Italy until I touch it. In my head Italy is in Europe which is so far away from me, cuz I honestly forget I'm Europe.
I gotta run cuz Jana's over now and I'm going to give my brain a rest. It needs one. Love everyone!
Peace,
Emily

The Computer Saga

Hey peeps. It's finally Sunday, the end of one of the most frustrating/ridiculous weeks of my life. Let me explain.

Tuesday - Computer gives me the blue screen of death. I'm not too happy about that so I go with Josh to Media Markt, where they fix PCs, and ask if it's reparable. They tell me that the amount of money that would go into fixing my old might as well be put towards buying a new one.

Wednesday - The hunt for the new computer begins. My neighbor Andrei helps me find a new laptop online. We find a good one that's not crazy expensive and order it. I chose the next day delivery option and thought that was that. So wrong...

Thursday- My computer got delivered but I wasn't there to pick it up so they left a piece of paper in my mailbox telling me when and where I could pick it up. So at 19:00 I go out to Oberschleißheim (read: middle of nowhere) to find the DHL offices. I see a DHL sign and go inside and ask if I can pick up packages there or just send them out. Turns out, you can send them out from this place. So we have this conversation in German and I find out that you need a car to get to the DHL offices. Of course I don't have one. So I'm SOL. Then the lady helping me says she'll call DHL to arrange another delivery. She gets on the phone, we've been talking in German the ENTIRE time, and she says "I have a customer here who needs a package delivered and I called for her because she barely speaks any German and wouldn't understand you." It was a damn good thing there were people around and a counter inbetween us, cuz I was livid. Who the hell has the balls to say that in front of a customer? And we had been speaking German the whole time and we understood each other. It was just ridiculous. Words don't begin to describe how mad I was.

Friday - After a long day, I get home to wait for the computer to arrive. It shows up, I hold it, look at it, and then go to pay for it. The box is in my room, on my floor, inches away from me. The delivery guy then tells me that his credit card machine is broken so I can't pay with a credit card and do I have that much money in cash? Yes, I have large wads of cash lying around my room. Give me a minute. It's really too bad sarcasm goes over most Germans heads. I had so many good responses and lots of four letter words. He apologizes profusely and then takes the computer away. I literally had it, and then poof! Weg. (gone) This is serious Karma.

Saturday - I call DHL again and ask for another delivery date. Turns out it was too late to deliver on Saturday so I need to wait until Monday.

At this point I am so fed with this shit and it just keeps getting more and more ridiculous that I kind of just gave up and am still waiting for my computer. At first I was sad, then mad, then frustrtated, then livid, then whatever goes past livid. Wütender als wütend. Madder than hell. It was just a ridiculous saga. The dieties must really hate me. I'm just really happy this week is over and hopefully my computer actually successfully gets to me tomorrow.

Blue Screen of Death

I got the blue screen of death yesterday. My computer decided it was going to up and die on me because it felt like it, so it did. I'm not angry so much anymore as frustrated. I didn't lose any files because they're backed up, Gott sei Dank (thank God) but still being computerless in today's world hurts. (In case you're wondering, I'm using Jana's right now.) So I'm just gonna have to wait until sometime next week for my computer to come.
It's really frustrating because I have multiple essays to write and without Word, that is rather difficult. And due to me being lazy and not signing up my email address for LMU (Ludwig Maxmillion Universitaet) I can't access the LMU computers until tomorrow. It's really sad how dependent we are on technology. I hate it but legitimately can't function without a working laptop.
Oh well.
Hope everyone else is doing well. Miss you guys!
Love,
Emily

Back to the Daily Grind

The week after the holidays....so much fun. No one has any desire to do anything homework-related, you're still thinking Christmas type thoughts. It doesn't help that school started on Monday and should have started a week later. But it doesn't really matter anymore. Bygones (new phrase courtesy of Ally Mcbeal)

Monday - Had Sprachkurs but it was just an ease back into things. Would have had Literatur but Crystal (the teacher) was sick so it was cancelled. Hung out that night with Meatro and Jana and went out to Killians. The Snakebite is so good there! It's a good thing Killians is relatively far away, otherwise I would drink one too many Snakebites.

Tuesday - Got up WAY too early to go to Landeskunde. Went to the Patentamt for class (Patent Office - rough translation.) Had nothing else that day, like every Tuesday so I spent most of the day sleeping and watching more Ally Mcbeal.

Wednesday - Holy Three Kings Day, which translates into a holiday for Bavaria. That means we didn't have school, which is why school shouldn't have even started this week. Whatever. Jana and I hung out in Starbucks and planned our two week trip. I'm so stoked! We're headed to Italy (Venice, Florence, and Rome) and Greece (Athens). It will take about two weeks and we'll hit up Venice during Carnaval Season (Mardi Gras) which apparently is nuts! I'm incredibly excited. However, still have 6 weeks til that happens. I can do it....
Anyway, that night was my friend Anna's birthday so we went to Atomic Cafe and hung out with a bunch of people. It was really relaxed, nice environment. I had never been but had heard good things. They are true. It's a cool place. Stayed up too late as usual and had to wake up early for Landeskunde - again. This always seems to happen.

Thursday - Had Landeskunde again. Talked about music. It was alright. I just really wasn't in a class type mood this week. Also had Kunstgeschichte (art history) which I really like. It's always nice but sometimes it goes a little too long. Surprisingly, one can only look at really cool art for so long.

Friday - Ceramics MAD early. Too early. I really like the class and I'm fine once I get there but it's the getting up part that kills me. Our project was an architectural structure with pillars. Our projects are almost always that vague. It's a good class, just totally different from any ceramics class I've taken in the States. Had Kunstgeschichte again but Gerald (host dad) had stuff for me that I left in Chemnitz so he came by to drop stuff of and we got coffee and Doener. I love Doener! I love that Germany has so much of it. That night was pretty chill. The entire weekend was pretty chill. I'm kind of sick - right now just have the cough of death when I wake up and go to bed - so took it easy this weekend.

Saturday - Slept almost all day. It gets dark really early here so it's hard to motivate myself to stay awake sometimes. That's my only issue with Munich in the winter.

Sunday - went to the Spielzeugmuseum (Toy Musuem). It's in the old Rathaus tower and it's so cool! They had trains, tin toys, Barbie from her "birth" til now, Robots, wooden toys from 1870's, really odd dolls - it was so neat. I had a great time. It's a small museum but has a lot of interesting things. Surprisingly, a lot of American toys.

Mostly my life returns to the normal pace. Well, my European normal life. Which is seemingly exotic and really exciting. These next couple of weeks are not going to be fun however. I have ridiculous amounts of work to do and of course it's all in German. It makes sense but it means it will take much longer than it would in English. I can do it. I just need to buckle down and focus.

Greetings from Munich and until next time!
Love,
Emily

Battlefield Sylvester!

Of everything I've seen here in Germany, Sylvester (New Year's Eve) has to be one of the most ridiculous/awesome/scary/thrilling. The day of Sylvester we hung out, played more Wii, lit of a few Boeller to test them and just chilled. That night we went to this club, Alex, and got dinner and all you could drink (your entrance ticket covered the cost) and played "Never have I ever" but the German version. It was a lot of fun. The music was good and the atmosphere was fun. Nicole and I danced in the conga line a couple times, the boys lit off more Boeller. It eventually became midnight and we all cheered and celebrated. I did miss watching the Ball drop though. That's been staple my entire life and it was sad not to have it. :(
We headed back to Jana's house and as we were walking down the street, I felt like I was walking through a battlefield. Fireworks were being thrown all around us and they were just going off at random moments and I legitimately thought I was going to get hurt at some points. There's really no regulations here and they make fireworks that sounds like bombs so it was nuts. The explosions would echo off the buildings and make it seem like the explosion was all around you. It's almost impossible to describe but it was so cool.
We get back to Jana's and the boys go out on the lawn and light off the rockets and "Effekte" (the pretty fireworks that don't make a lot of noise but spark pretty colors; you know, our normal ones.) They were out there for at least three hours and it was freezing! Nicole and I stayed on the balcony and watched from there. :) I just sat there watching the fireworks and hearing the city of Chemnitz explode and thought to myself, what a perfect place to be right now. This is such an amazing experience. I've heard so many good things about Germany and experienced so many good things here, but Sylvester was another level. It was solidified how much I'm happy to be here.
If anyone wants a really cool New Years experience, Germany is the place to come. So different from anything in the US, especially Utah.
Happy New Years everyone! Gesundes neues!
Love,
Emily

Christmas in Chemnitz

This year, I spent Christmas with my host family in Chemnitz. The summer between junior and senior year of highschool I spent a couple weeks with them and we've stayed in touch ever since so I hung out with them for a week and a half. It was really nice.
I got in on the 23th (Wednesday) and my host sister and her fiance did as well (Nicole and Dominik). My host father (Gerald) picked up from the train station and we went back to the house and had dinner and unpacked and hung out, caught up. Germany has a lot of dialects and my host family speaks Saxon, which means for the first couple of days I didn't really understand a whole lot of what they said.
On the 24th (Thursday) we celebrated Christmas and the whole family came over. Jana and Sylvio (aunt and uncle; Jana is Anja's sister), Billy (Jana's son), Opa and Oma, and myself and Anja and Gerald (host mom and dad). Nicole and Dom were with his family. We exchanged gifts, sang Christmas songs in German and English, and had a good time.
The next day we went over the Sylvio's and played Wii and ate a lot of food and drank lots of coffee and the men smoked a lot. We skyped with my parents. It was really good to see them. They were just opening Christmas gifts due to the time difference so they were all really sleepy. My german family sang them a song and we talked for a bit then went back to playing Wii. I fell asleep on the couch, following Grandpa Bob's example, and we finally ended up going home.
The next day (Saturday) we watched Cinderella in German, but it was the Czech version of the story which I hadn't known before. It was fun. Then after breakfast and ridiculous amounts of coffee (a common theme over my Christmas break) we watched almost the entire season 1 of Ally Mcbeal. It was a very nice relaxing day.
On Sunday, Sylvio took me skiing. It was Sylvio, Billy, Jana, Andrea (Sylvio's daughter) and myself. We went to Oberwiesenthal and it wasn't the best skiing but it was fun and a good wind down thing to do. We only skiied a half day and Billy kept taunting me and telling me that he was better, but he so wasn't. He eventually caved in and admitted that I was right. Later than day, we went back to Sylvios and played more Wii and the rest of the family came over and we had more coffee and more sweets and Billy, Andrea, and I ended up falling asleep cuz we were so tired. Another successful day. :)
The next three days we successfully did nothing. We went shopping, drank lots and lots of coffee, ate really good breakfasts and watched movies and Ally Mcbeal and Gilmore Girls and ate more really good food and drank more coffee.
On the 30th, Billy (cousin) drove up from Sayda (where he lives) and picked Nicole, Dominik and I up and we drove to the Czech Republic to pick up Boeller, large explosive bomb-like fireworks. They're cheaper in the Czech Republic and apparently you can stuff that's illegal in Germany. The parents left for Stuttgart to celebrate New Years with family friends so it was just Billy, Dominik, Nicole and I. We stayed in Jana's house and played Wii, ate pizza, etc. They made me watch me "Paranormal Activity", which consisted of me huddled up under blankets the entire time. It wasn't watching so much as listening.
The next day was Sylvester but that will take another blog post. :)
Love everyone! Hope everyone had happy holidays and a Merry Christmas.
Emily

Christmastime in Germany

Germany around Christmastime is one of the most beautiful places on earth. When everything is covered in snow and the Christmas markets are open, it's just amazing. I love it. There hasn't been huge amounts of snow in Munich but there's been enough. Snow just makes everything better. And all the old Gothics buildings and churches and castles look twice as majestic in the snow. Also, Germany LOVES Christmas. In fact, that's kind of an understatement. They did so much for Christmas. There's markets everywhere, all sorts of decorations up, all sorts of yummy candy goodness, and just lots of cool things. All the major cities like Munich, Nurnberg, Regensburg, Stuttgart, etc. have cool markets and their own specialities during Christmas. Gluehwein is my favorite. It's hot, spiced wine but it tastes so good! Just being here during Christmas has been magical. You hear a lot of things about Germany but no ever tells you how beautiful it is over here during this time of year. There's tons of Christmas parties and Christmas themed things.
My program had a little get together before we all went off for break. It was a lot of fun. We had Gluehwein, Chili, candy, and a great Christmas tree. Two of the people that run my program, Ralf and Crystal, got up and did a little poem/toast for us. It was great! Ralf was "der Weihnachtsmann" (Santa) and Crystal was an angel. We then sang Christmas songs (German and English) and just caught up with each other. After that we went to the Kill Bier party (play on "Kill Bill") in Stusta. It was fun. I still had class the next day, Ceramics as usual but it was still fun.
I'm really happy I'm here this time of year. It's amazing. So pretty and festive. It feels great.

Ska and heavy metal?

This is going to be a short post but I'm just too excited to not write something! The Monday before Christmas we out to this club, RockStudio, and it was not at all what I expected. It reminded me a lot of Area 51 in Salt Lake. The music was goth/heavy metal/punk and there was a ridiculous amount of black and chains and various deadly looking facial piercings. It was fun though. Anyway Jana, Crystal, Penelope, and myself and a bunch of other people went. Josh and Alan bailed early cuz Josh was too tired or something. Really, I think he just needs his beauty sleep. It was a lot of fun. We're dancing, hair swinging, whatver you want to call it, and then all of the sudden a Mighty Mighty Bosstones song is playing. "The Impression that I get." I went nuts! I haven't heard Ska music in public in forever, never ever in a club and on top of that, I haven't been to a concert in a long time. Point is, I miss Ska music. I started skanking around and just had a blast. They played a few more songs, some Reel Big Fish, some Cure, etc. It was awesome. My friends were kind of like, what on earth are you doing? :)
Anyway, I'm almost caught up on the blog. Love you guys!
Miss everyone.
Emily

Nicole's Visit

So this week I had a friend from LC visit me, Nicole. She was in Greece for the semester and her semester was up and she had a week-long layover in Germany so she stayed with me for a week and we wandered around the city and had a great time. I unfortunately had class during the week so I couldn’t hang out with her all the time but it was fun anyway. On Tuesday we went to Tutzing, to the lake there. It was beautiful but cold and since it wasn’t tourist season not a whole lot was open but we found a little café right by the train station and had a typical Bavarian lunch there: Bratwurst and beer. The café had two little rat dogs that hung out by our table the entire time and just watching us eat. You could see their little eyes begging for us to drop some food or feed them but we didn’t. They looked quite sad as we left. That night we went to a Christmas party at Bar 089 and had a great time. Nicole got to experience how the Germans party and (don’t) dance. We were out until really late and I had to get up early for class the next day and really didn’t want to get out of bed the next day. But sadly I had to.
On Wednesday, I had class all day so Nicole went off to Salzburg all by herself! It was quite the adventure. And despite our worries, she came home safe.
On Thursday, I went to class and Nicole met me for lunch at Mama’s Döner Kebap. Best Döner in Munich in my opinion. We then met up with Jana and took the Christkindltram around Munich and did some Christmas shopping. Nicole went with me to Kunstgeschichte (art history) and wandered around while we had class. She enjoyed it a lot. We were in the Alte Pinothek, which is one of the biggest art galleries in Munich and had all sorts of cool originals. It has a painting where you can see the beginnings of perspective. The bottom half of the painting has perspective going one direction and the top half has perspective going another direction. Both are correct; they just don’t match up with each other.
On Friday, I had to get up early and go to class (Ceramics at 9:00 am – bleh!) but I met up with Nicole later and we said that we would meet up for Kunstgeschichte but it was cancelled so I did some Christmas shopping, went back to Stusta and met up with Nicole and from there we made dinner and watching movies with Jana.
On Saturday, Jana, Nicole and I went to Neuschwanstein. There was almost no snow the entire week but then it began to snow and we got to see Neuschwanstein in the snow. It was so unbelievably beautiful. It looked really majestic in the snow. Sadly the bridge, where you can get the best view and pictures, was closed cuz of the snow but it was a great trip anyway. Nicole finally got to see the “Disney Castle.” That night, we got a group of people together (Jana, Crystal, Penelope, Josh, Marina, Nicole and I) and went to Hofbräuhaus with our Dirndls and Lederhosen. Nicole borrowed one from Jana. It was a lot of fun. We had traditional Bavarian food and drank lots of beer and played Kings and just enjoyed ourselves. We then put Nicole on the train to the airport cuz her plane was leaving mad early in the AM and Josh whimped out and went home to go to sleep and the rest of us (Jana, Crystal, Marina, and I) went to Killian’s. It was great fun. We discovered Killian’s by accident the other night and it’s this funky little Irish bar run by real Irishmen and it’s just a fun place to chill. The bartenders are a lot of fun.
It was a crazy busy fun week and I’m really glad Nicole visited.
Now back to the daily grind. Two weeks until Chemnitz!

Love,
Emily

Thanksgiving/Schweinegrippe

So this week was Thanksgiving. Since it’s strictly an American holiday, we American students were in charge of making the dinner. I made the gravy and it was actually really successful. I didn’t make enough of it, but it turned out well anyway. They also have no word for “gravy” so trying to explain it to them was a lot of fun. Anyway, it was a good time. All the food was amazing, despite some of our doubts. We thought that since most of the time our mothers cook Thanksgiving Dinner for us, it wouldn’t be the best success ever. But it was really good. There were toasts; Kirbee (one of the girls on my program) recited a poem for us. All of our teachers were there; it was a good gathering. As usual, I ate WAY too much and couldn’t move for at least an hour. I kept saying that I was just going to get in bed and pass out. However, Jana convinced me that I did indeed want to go to the Schweinegrippe party and that I wasn’t entirely immobile.

Side note: *So in my spare time and I have a lot of it, I either watch movies or go to Stusta parties. Stusta parties are ridiculous. Packed with men, cheap drinks, no entrance fee, and just fun. It is a little awkward however when we start dancing though because the Germans don’t dance. They stand there with drinks in their hands and move their shoulders a little, maybe a foot tap. The girls rarely move and they always look perfectly put together and beautiful and we dance and get all sweaty and then ask ourselves why the German girls look so much better than us by the end of the night. Oh yeah, because we actually dance.*

Anyway, sidetracked. So “Schweinegrippe” means “Swine flu” in German. For some reason, the people that plan parties in Stusta decided to have a party in honor of the swine flu. So there was a “Schweinegrippe” party and there were little pigs on the walls and DJs and cheap drinks (as usual) and an abundance of men. Unfortunately I don’t find a lot of the German men attractive so the overabundance doesn’t help me. However, it was fun. It was also Jana’s birthday. Big 20! We took birthday shots in honor of her. I ended up going to bed around 3:30-4:00 and had to wake up early again for Ceramics. That class is really cramping my style.

Love,

Emily

Salzburg

The last Sunday of November we went to Salzburg with the Erasmus program. It’s an exchange program within Europe and there are a lot of Erasmus students in Stusta. Anyway, we go to Salzburg and for some reason, I was in a really antisocial, “people suck” mood that day so it wasn’t as much fun as it could have been. But it was fun anyway. We had a little historic tour of the city, Jana fell in love with the tour guide, I took lots of pictures. We ate at a neat restaurant at the top of this windy stone road. I think it used to be a manor house or something. The building itself was really cool and the food was really good. We then wandered around the Christmas Market there and drank Glühwein and found this cool little graveyard with Catacombs. The Catacombs sadly were closed, but someday I’ll go back and see them. I’ve never seen them before. We then took a train back to Munich and I again did the homework I had been avoiding. I know this post was a little short but it was a short, good, relaxing day. I want to eventually travel all over Germany and see all the little towns, lakes, and historic cities that I can. I’m off to a good start.
Love,
Emily

Skilaufen! (skiiing!!!)

One of the things I heard before I left Europe was that I had to go skiing in the Alps. And I have! It’s so different from skiing in the Utah. Since the Alps were carved from glaciers and not formed from tectonic plates like the Rockies, they’re a lot pointier and sharper and steeper and at times it will just turn into a massive drop-off in front of you. It’s really scary sometimes. There’s not tree cover either which is weird. I love tree skiing and I can’t do that in the Alps cuz there’s not enough snow in the trees. It’s sad. But I like it anyway. It’s a good time. We go with a program called Studenten im Schnee (Translation: Students in Snow) and it’s great. We pay a base fee and get breakfast, bus ride there and back, a lift pass, and a beer afterwards. I love Germany. So far, I’ve been skiing at Hintertuxer, Stubai, Oberwiesenthal, and Zugspitze. My favorite was probably Hintertuxer. Zugspitze is Germany’s highest peak and it’s absolutely stunning but most of it is too steep to ski so the actual ski resort is a little too small for my taste. I can only imagine it in summer though. I’m excited to hike it.

It’s early in the season so the snow hasn’t been fantastic but its snow. Also, they color code the lifts differently. Black = black, red = intermediate, and blue = beginner. I was so confused the first time I saw that. I’m used to it now, but at the time it was a little too much for me to handle.

So, because I’m been lazy and haven’t updated, I have a fun little ski adventure.

Kearnsie, Jana, Jake, Kevin, Justin and I went skiing with Studenten im Schnee to Stubai Gletscher. We go skiing all day; the boys split after lunch and Jana and I stay in the lodge for several hours and make fun of people, take goofy pictures, etc. Anyway, we were supposed to be back at the bus at 4:45. However, several things went wrong. The boys call us and are like, “Can you grab our stuff and meet us down at the bus?” So we grab the bags but not their shoes because they had rented gear and had to return it. So we head down but you have to take trams to get high enough for the good snow and the mosh pit (line is so not an appropriate word for it) for the tram down was RIDICULOUSLY long. Jana and Colleen jump ahead of me and say they’ll hold the bus cuz we were obviously going to miss it. So I get down to the bottom and find out that the boys were below us, where you could also catch a tram down to the bottom and return your rented gear, and had beat us down. It also meant that their shoes were still at the top and it was now 5:30. The bus had waited for us and we finally got all the gear swapped and most everyone, Jake not included, got their shoes back. We finally left at 5:45 and drank beer and schnapps and sang really bad Bavarian songs all the way back to Munich. It was quite the adventure.

Love,

Emily

Nurnberg

On Sunday we went to Nurnberg. It wasn’t the best day ever which was too bad cuz Nurnberg is actually really cool. It started out well. We woke up early, caught a train, took a historical tour of the city, learned about the architecture, etc. Then we had a 1 ½ hour lunch break and I wandered around the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market). It was fun but my debit card was pissy at me that day so I couldn’t buy any Christmas presents which sucked.
They had these cool little dolls that are made out of dry fruit. Apparently during hard times, parents would make sure that their kids still had toys so they would make dolls out of dried fruit and walnuts. The bodies are dried plums and the heads are walnuts and they have little hats and clothes out of extra fabric. They’re really neat but sadly I couldn’t buy one. I liked them a lot. After the lunch break, we saw the Nazi History Museum. Crazy cool! I mean, really scary and creepy but really cool. It covered Hitler’s coming up, his prison time, how the NS Party really started, and all that stuff. It was cool to read about. It was creepy though cuz we were in the building that Hitler had built to house his original operation. He had entire blue prints and this huge complex planned. It was almost completely finished but then the war ended and a lot of was destroyed. Nurnberg apparently was Hitler’s favorite city, his home base, so there’s a lot of history there. Now the city is trying to “un”connect itself with Hitler and have people associate it with Albrecht Dürer.
During our city tour we saw his (Dürer’s) house and it was really cool! I still can’t entirely believe that I live in Europe and can see these things. I have been in Dürer’s house and seen the house where Johannis Keppler died and it was just blows my mind sometimes.
Anyway, after getting left behind in the museum cuz I misheard the time, I tried to catch the next train back to Munich but it was full so that didn’t work. So then we wandered around the market some more and then finally caught a train back to Munich. It was a really long/fun/interesting/aggravating/annoying day. Finally got home and had to do that homework that I had avoided all weekend. Oops.
Miss you guys!
Emily

Deustches Musuem

To start off, the Deutsches Museum is really cool. I would start off with “Today we went to the Deutsches Museum” but that’s not really true since I’ve been lazy and haven’t updated in awhile. Anyway, it’s crazy cool. They have old planes and cars and engines and the history of electricity and the different types of stages electricity has gone through. It’s kind of like a scientist’s wet dream. It was great.


My favorite part however was the key exhibit. They had all sorts of old keys from the Romans to the Middle Ages and so on. It was so cool! I loved that part. We then wandered further and found the modern part of the museum. That was awesome! They had robots and robotics and had this big moving exhibit that showed different enzymes and how they interact with each other. I didn’t really understand a lot of it but Jana explained it to me so it was good. Also, I learned a very useful phrase. “Auf die Groβe kommt es an.” Translation: Size matters. :)

After spending several peaceful hours there and having a very lazy, relaxing Sunday afternoon, we found a Doener place that was really good. They also had amazing fries! It was a really good day. Jana and I have decided to visit a musuem every Sunday that we can.

Bis spaeter!

Emily