Sunday, March 29, 2009
Lisbon, Portugal
So we got back from Lisbon, Portugal last night and I am STILL exhausted. This traveling business really does wear you out. Anyway, Lisbon is actually pronounced Lisboa by anyone who is actually from Portugal. That made for some slight confusion in the beginning of the trip, but I got the hang of it by the end. I don't think I can pick a favorite place I've traveled to so far because they are all so different. However, Lisbon is definitely one the most beautiful places I've traveled to during my time here.
I knew waking up at 5:15 am was going to be difficult even if I went to bed at 11. What I didn't know was that I wouldn't actually fall asleep until 3:00am. You can imagine the joy I felt as my sweet sounding alarm rang at 5:15. I have never wanted coffee more in my life and I hate coffee. We got the airport in time and checked in without a problem. I'm seriously surprised I haven't had any major airport glitches yet. KNOCK ON WOOD! We arrived in LisBOA on time and made our way to the hostel. We had some complications finding our way there. We pretty much spent an hour walking around a sketchy neighborhood with our luggage. The entire time we were really only like 20 feet from our hostel. Did we find it? Of course not. Eventually Carly and I thought, "Maybe we should walk a little further down this road". That decision turned out to be key. We found the hostel. THE BEST HOSTEL EVER might I add. Although the location was quite sketchy, it was cutest place ever with a great view and staff. I absolutely loved it.
After we settled into our hostel Carly and I decided to head to the city center and look around. Quite famished, we decided to get some lunch. It was like 75 outside so we decided to eat in an outdoors cafe. I had steak, eggs, fries, rice and salad. It was delicious! After that we walked around, did a little shopping, and explored the area. I bought a few things: clothes, souveneirs, and postcards. Lisbon is absolutely gorgeous. The city center is part of Old Lisbon, so the buildings are older and really pretty. I took a bazillion pictures. When we got to the actual center plaza we got some gelato. I got mango and strawberry scoops. SO DELICIOUS! I could eat gelato for the rest of my life and totally be ok with it. At this point we had walked around for about 4 or 5 hours so we decided to make our way back to the hostel and rest for a bit. When our other friend, Shanna, arrived, we decided to go out and grab some dinner. I got steak again...it wasn't cooked. The rest of my meal was really good though. After dinner we went back to our hostel and made friends with the lobby lady. She gave us some suggestions and directions for beaches to visit the next day. Having slept only two hours the night before, I went to bed around 11.
The next morning we had breakfast the hostel and went out the door around 10am. In order to get to the beach we had to take a train to a place called Estoril. On the way to Estoril is this place called the Belem District. The Belem District has some really pretty buildings but is mostly known for their world famous "Pasteis de Belem". So of course we had to find some of these things. They are these little soft dough pastry/custard thinger-ma-jiggers. Actually, I don't really know what they are. I guess you could describe them as warm-doughy-GOODNESS! We had some of those, walked through a huge garden, and started to make our way to the train station. Half way through the garden I saw a palm tree that was probably 3 feet tall. I had to take a picture with it. In my infinite wisdom, I decided to put my wristlet down on the ground so I could more easily leap over a bush to get to the palm tree. I took the picture and proceeded to leave the scene WITHOUT my purse. About 5 minutes later I realized I didn't have it. In a panic I sprinted back to the scene to look for my purse. I was already picturing the phone call to my father. "Hello, Daddy. I lost my purse which has my money, ID, and credit card in it, in the middle of Portugal. HOW ARE YOU?! :)" God was smiling down on me that day. Leaning against the palm tree was my wristlet. PHEW! So we walked back to the train station, headed towards the Estoril station, and arrived at Tamariz beach. The beach was absolutely GORGEOUS! Right on the beach is this castle that the royal family of Monaco lives in periodically throughout the year. We spent the whole day there just relaxing and laying on the beach. It was a WONDERFUL day. And good news, NO SUNBURN! :)
We headed back to the hostel to shower at the end of the day. After we showered, we got a little spiffed up so we could go out to a nice dinner. We went to a place called Senhora Mae's. The food was DELICIOUS! I had a vegetable soup and penne with salmon and shrimp. For dessert I had apple pie with hazelnut ice cream. The meal was great except for one minor detail. I've grown accustomed to every restaurant in Europe charging you for bread regardless of whether you ask for it or not. However, at this place, they charged us one dollar for a little dollop of butter, a dollar for a dollop of sundried tomatoes, and a dollar for some green GOOP. Then, me and Carly asked for water. Water is NOT free in Europe...this I know. However, we were both anticipating our own bottles of water. We eneded up getting one bottle of water split between the two of us. THEY CHARGED US BOTH TWO DOLLARS FOR THE WATER. Nuh uhhhhh, I think NOT. The bottle of water is two dollars. NOT TWO DOLLARS PER PERSON. I was kinda pissed. Oh well. Moving on. Moral of the story....Dinner was expensive, but really good. After dinner we mozied on home and went to bed.
The next day we had a little time to kill so we walked around the city some more. I don't mean to sound mean or anything, but the men in Europe aren't exatly polite. Not all...but quite a few of them are pigs. I have never been cat-called, followed, or stared at more in my life. I've accepted the fact I cannot wear shorts or skirts while I'm here because I will be totally harassed. In Lisbon, men would just follow us on the street. The last day was especially bad. When we were walking in town Carly and I had a guy get in our faces and make sounds like he was..."excited". The worst incident was when Carly had a man reach up her skirt and grab her. Not good. Theres nothing you can do because these guys are likely drugged up on things and would hurt you if you tried to do anything. Not to mention, the police to don't give a flying whoop-de-doo about any of it. Heck, the police do it themselves sometimes. The last day kind of put a damper on the entire trip because of our experiences with the guys in Lisbon. At that point I was kind of ready to leave Lisbon. We just headed back to the hostel, grabbed our stuff, and caught a cab to the airport.
Overall, I had a great time in Lisbon. When I'm older, provided I have the money, I would definitely like to vacation in Portugal. The city is beautiful and there is definitely a lot to see. I also hear that the south of Portugal is amazing too. I just wish we hadn't had so many negative things happen to us in the streets with the guys. Oh well. I'll pretty much be forced to pull my ninja moves out of retirement if it happens again. BUT! I won't let that put a damper the trip. I definitely had an incredibly fun time on the trip. The beach day was amazing and incredibly relaxing. I'll be sure to post some pictures when I get a chance.
I hope everyone had a good weekend! I love and miss you all! <3
I knew waking up at 5:15 am was going to be difficult even if I went to bed at 11. What I didn't know was that I wouldn't actually fall asleep until 3:00am. You can imagine the joy I felt as my sweet sounding alarm rang at 5:15. I have never wanted coffee more in my life and I hate coffee. We got the airport in time and checked in without a problem. I'm seriously surprised I haven't had any major airport glitches yet. KNOCK ON WOOD! We arrived in LisBOA on time and made our way to the hostel. We had some complications finding our way there. We pretty much spent an hour walking around a sketchy neighborhood with our luggage. The entire time we were really only like 20 feet from our hostel. Did we find it? Of course not. Eventually Carly and I thought, "Maybe we should walk a little further down this road". That decision turned out to be key. We found the hostel. THE BEST HOSTEL EVER might I add. Although the location was quite sketchy, it was cutest place ever with a great view and staff. I absolutely loved it.
After we settled into our hostel Carly and I decided to head to the city center and look around. Quite famished, we decided to get some lunch. It was like 75 outside so we decided to eat in an outdoors cafe. I had steak, eggs, fries, rice and salad. It was delicious! After that we walked around, did a little shopping, and explored the area. I bought a few things: clothes, souveneirs, and postcards. Lisbon is absolutely gorgeous. The city center is part of Old Lisbon, so the buildings are older and really pretty. I took a bazillion pictures. When we got to the actual center plaza we got some gelato. I got mango and strawberry scoops. SO DELICIOUS! I could eat gelato for the rest of my life and totally be ok with it. At this point we had walked around for about 4 or 5 hours so we decided to make our way back to the hostel and rest for a bit. When our other friend, Shanna, arrived, we decided to go out and grab some dinner. I got steak again...it wasn't cooked. The rest of my meal was really good though. After dinner we went back to our hostel and made friends with the lobby lady. She gave us some suggestions and directions for beaches to visit the next day. Having slept only two hours the night before, I went to bed around 11.
The next morning we had breakfast the hostel and went out the door around 10am. In order to get to the beach we had to take a train to a place called Estoril. On the way to Estoril is this place called the Belem District. The Belem District has some really pretty buildings but is mostly known for their world famous "Pasteis de Belem". So of course we had to find some of these things. They are these little soft dough pastry/custard thinger-ma-jiggers. Actually, I don't really know what they are. I guess you could describe them as warm-doughy-GOODNESS! We had some of those, walked through a huge garden, and started to make our way to the train station. Half way through the garden I saw a palm tree that was probably 3 feet tall. I had to take a picture with it. In my infinite wisdom, I decided to put my wristlet down on the ground so I could more easily leap over a bush to get to the palm tree. I took the picture and proceeded to leave the scene WITHOUT my purse. About 5 minutes later I realized I didn't have it. In a panic I sprinted back to the scene to look for my purse. I was already picturing the phone call to my father. "Hello, Daddy. I lost my purse which has my money, ID, and credit card in it, in the middle of Portugal. HOW ARE YOU?! :)" God was smiling down on me that day. Leaning against the palm tree was my wristlet. PHEW! So we walked back to the train station, headed towards the Estoril station, and arrived at Tamariz beach. The beach was absolutely GORGEOUS! Right on the beach is this castle that the royal family of Monaco lives in periodically throughout the year. We spent the whole day there just relaxing and laying on the beach. It was a WONDERFUL day. And good news, NO SUNBURN! :)
We headed back to the hostel to shower at the end of the day. After we showered, we got a little spiffed up so we could go out to a nice dinner. We went to a place called Senhora Mae's. The food was DELICIOUS! I had a vegetable soup and penne with salmon and shrimp. For dessert I had apple pie with hazelnut ice cream. The meal was great except for one minor detail. I've grown accustomed to every restaurant in Europe charging you for bread regardless of whether you ask for it or not. However, at this place, they charged us one dollar for a little dollop of butter, a dollar for a dollop of sundried tomatoes, and a dollar for some green GOOP. Then, me and Carly asked for water. Water is NOT free in Europe...this I know. However, we were both anticipating our own bottles of water. We eneded up getting one bottle of water split between the two of us. THEY CHARGED US BOTH TWO DOLLARS FOR THE WATER. Nuh uhhhhh, I think NOT. The bottle of water is two dollars. NOT TWO DOLLARS PER PERSON. I was kinda pissed. Oh well. Moving on. Moral of the story....Dinner was expensive, but really good. After dinner we mozied on home and went to bed.
The next day we had a little time to kill so we walked around the city some more. I don't mean to sound mean or anything, but the men in Europe aren't exatly polite. Not all...but quite a few of them are pigs. I have never been cat-called, followed, or stared at more in my life. I've accepted the fact I cannot wear shorts or skirts while I'm here because I will be totally harassed. In Lisbon, men would just follow us on the street. The last day was especially bad. When we were walking in town Carly and I had a guy get in our faces and make sounds like he was..."excited". The worst incident was when Carly had a man reach up her skirt and grab her. Not good. Theres nothing you can do because these guys are likely drugged up on things and would hurt you if you tried to do anything. Not to mention, the police to don't give a flying whoop-de-doo about any of it. Heck, the police do it themselves sometimes. The last day kind of put a damper on the entire trip because of our experiences with the guys in Lisbon. At that point I was kind of ready to leave Lisbon. We just headed back to the hostel, grabbed our stuff, and caught a cab to the airport.
Overall, I had a great time in Lisbon. When I'm older, provided I have the money, I would definitely like to vacation in Portugal. The city is beautiful and there is definitely a lot to see. I also hear that the south of Portugal is amazing too. I just wish we hadn't had so many negative things happen to us in the streets with the guys. Oh well. I'll pretty much be forced to pull my ninja moves out of retirement if it happens again. BUT! I won't let that put a damper the trip. I definitely had an incredibly fun time on the trip. The beach day was amazing and incredibly relaxing. I'll be sure to post some pictures when I get a chance.
I hope everyone had a good weekend! I love and miss you all! <3
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Is today over yet?
I just wanted to write a quick blog because I'll be gone for a few days in Lisbon. I have to get up bright and early tomorrow at 5:15am to get to the airport for our 8am flight. I'm pretty excited for Portugal. Everyone who has been to Lisbon this semester has said it's amazing. Not to mention, it's going to be in the mid to high 70's while we're there. Wooo! We plan on shopping around when we get there on Thursday and exploring the city center. Friday we want to head out to a beach. Our flight doesn't leave till later in the day Saturday, so we'll probably do something then too. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures!
Soo my day hasn't gone too well. I had my Macro test and it went horribly. I studied a ton and it still didn't help. I just don't get macro at all. It's frustrating because I know what I did wrong after I saw my mistakes and realized they were stupid ones. I just have to accept the fact I can't do anything about it. I think I just over-analyze the problems and look to far into them, make them more complicated than they reallly are. I missed some stupid easy ones. So I think the A is definitely not even possible anymore, who even knows about a B. Wonderfullll. Andddd I got my first haircut here. The salon I went to basically has a deal with CEA. Who knows what CEA does but the salon gives the students discounts and guarantees that there will be an English speaking hairdresser there at all times. I'll start off by saying I did NOT receieve my discount and my hairdresser spoke absolutely no English. Guess how this went. I prob got 5 or 6 inches chopped off. I only asked for 3. :) Solid day if I say so myself.
You could definitely say I'm being a negative Nancy or pessimistic Polly, take your pick. I wouldn't even argue with you. I'm hoping to forget about my test and just have a good time this weekend. Sooo I'm off to Lisbon tomorrow morning. I'll be getting back late Saturday night so I probably won't update til Sunday when I'm rested. I hope everyone has a good weekend, doesn't fail a Macro test, andddd keeps all of their hair. I love and miss you all<3
Soo my day hasn't gone too well. I had my Macro test and it went horribly. I studied a ton and it still didn't help. I just don't get macro at all. It's frustrating because I know what I did wrong after I saw my mistakes and realized they were stupid ones. I just have to accept the fact I can't do anything about it. I think I just over-analyze the problems and look to far into them, make them more complicated than they reallly are. I missed some stupid easy ones. So I think the A is definitely not even possible anymore, who even knows about a B. Wonderfullll. Andddd I got my first haircut here. The salon I went to basically has a deal with CEA. Who knows what CEA does but the salon gives the students discounts and guarantees that there will be an English speaking hairdresser there at all times. I'll start off by saying I did NOT receieve my discount and my hairdresser spoke absolutely no English. Guess how this went. I prob got 5 or 6 inches chopped off. I only asked for 3. :) Solid day if I say so myself.
You could definitely say I'm being a negative Nancy or pessimistic Polly, take your pick. I wouldn't even argue with you. I'm hoping to forget about my test and just have a good time this weekend. Sooo I'm off to Lisbon tomorrow morning. I'll be getting back late Saturday night so I probably won't update til Sunday when I'm rested. I hope everyone has a good weekend, doesn't fail a Macro test, andddd keeps all of their hair. I love and miss you all<3
Monday, March 23, 2009
crazyyy stuff.
So the story I'm about to tell you is pretty much gossip magazine cover material. It's pretty intense. There is this boy in my program, we'll call him Bob, and he is quite the character. I think he is an incredibly nice guy. Bob is the one who organized the residencia dinners and what not. How to describe his personality? Hmmm. FREE SPIRIT! He was really carefree, almost too carefree, and really friendly. Mysterious would be another word to describe him. Everyone here joked that Bob was just a walking mystery. No one really knows what his deal is.
From the beginning of the program he kind of made it known that he was different than most people. He would just knock on peoples doors, walk in, and make himself welcome for an hour or so. Sometimes he would just go into someones room and use their computer for awhile, all without asking. One time he walked into Carly and I's room just buckling his pants, with wet hair, having just gotten out of the shower. We hadn't invited him in. One time we were walking around La Rambla with him and he would just disappear into the crowd without saying he was going anywhere. So yea, basically everyone knew Bob was a little different, but everyone just assumed that he was like the epitome of carefree. Ya know, just kind of did his own thing at all times and went about his business as if there was no one else in the world.
A few weeks ago Bob's weirdness level shot through the roof. It seriously went from a 2 on a 1-10 scale, all the way up to a 58. Everyone had a new story about Bob that was even weirder than the previous. Bob would brag to people that he just slept on a bench in the middle of Barcelona for the night. In fact, he rarely came home at night at all. Now, you have to be crazy to sleep alone on a bench in this city. Unless you have a death wish, you just don't do that. Basically Bob just started freaking out for no reason at random times. He would explode out of nowhere. A few weeks ago he went out to dinner with a group of my friends. When they were taking the metro to the restaurant Bob would just randomly disappear for a few minutes, come back, and disappear again a few minutes later. During the meal he was totally silent, which was really weird because Bob was typically quite the conversationalist. He also kept leaving the table randomly. While everyone was eating, these annoying people who sell fake roses everywhere tried selling them to the group. Yes, these people are incredibly irritating, but everyone is used to them by now. Bob apparently lost his cool and started freaking out on the rose seller. Everyone was telling him to chill out, that wasn't a big deal, but he was just furious for no apparent reason. Other kids were telling me that he would walk down La Rambla and get into peoples faces and scream, "COMO ESTAS BITCHES?" Not cool. And most of all, not safe. Everyone was really starting to get freaked out by his behavior and wondered what the heck was up. Two weeks ago he took a CEA trip to San Sebastian. He thought it would be a good idea to purchase a liter of vodka for the bus ride back. Not only is that incredibly against CEA rules, but your stupid to drink all of that on an 8 hour bus ride. He eventually had to go to the bathroom and there wasn't one on the bus. CEA had planned bathroom stops and one wasn't coming up for a while. Bob lost his cool x's 47549875. People on the bus said he got up in the face of the driver and the CEA chaperones, screaming wicked loud, and threatened to pee his pants, urinate on their heads, etc. Eventually the bus driver had no choice but to pull over because Bob was freaking out. Two girls who live in my building were on the bus and incredibly freaked out, rightfully so. They ended up writing to the head of CEA making a complaint saying that they were really concerned about their safety with Bob in our building. CEA emailed a few people and asked them to corroborate the stories they had receieved. Last night we found out that Bob had been kicked out of the program and went back home to the U.S.
I can't help but feel bad for this kid. He only had about a month left of the program and he got sent home. However, CEA obviously felt that he had done something to merit being kicked out. It's just unfortunate because he won't get a refund and he is now going to be a semester behind at school. Still, I can't really say that I feared for my safety, but I was definitely growing more and more uncomfortable around him as time went on. There was definitely something not right with him and he obviously needed help. People wonder if he got into drugs out here or if there was something wrong upstairs that just got magnified due to the intense stress we're under. It's probably in his best interest that he was sent home because he was just losing it here. Not to mention, he couldn't really have gotten any help out here if he actually needed it. I can't help but wonder what was really wrong with Bob to cause him to pretty much go crazy out here. I guess we'll never know.
OK! Just wanted to at least get something up in a blog. I figured this would be an interesting read. Mental health update for me? I'm doing just fine...no threatening to urinate on people..PROMISE! I'm off to study for my test tomorrow. ICK! I love and miss you all!<3
From the beginning of the program he kind of made it known that he was different than most people. He would just knock on peoples doors, walk in, and make himself welcome for an hour or so. Sometimes he would just go into someones room and use their computer for awhile, all without asking. One time he walked into Carly and I's room just buckling his pants, with wet hair, having just gotten out of the shower. We hadn't invited him in. One time we were walking around La Rambla with him and he would just disappear into the crowd without saying he was going anywhere. So yea, basically everyone knew Bob was a little different, but everyone just assumed that he was like the epitome of carefree. Ya know, just kind of did his own thing at all times and went about his business as if there was no one else in the world.
A few weeks ago Bob's weirdness level shot through the roof. It seriously went from a 2 on a 1-10 scale, all the way up to a 58. Everyone had a new story about Bob that was even weirder than the previous. Bob would brag to people that he just slept on a bench in the middle of Barcelona for the night. In fact, he rarely came home at night at all. Now, you have to be crazy to sleep alone on a bench in this city. Unless you have a death wish, you just don't do that. Basically Bob just started freaking out for no reason at random times. He would explode out of nowhere. A few weeks ago he went out to dinner with a group of my friends. When they were taking the metro to the restaurant Bob would just randomly disappear for a few minutes, come back, and disappear again a few minutes later. During the meal he was totally silent, which was really weird because Bob was typically quite the conversationalist. He also kept leaving the table randomly. While everyone was eating, these annoying people who sell fake roses everywhere tried selling them to the group. Yes, these people are incredibly irritating, but everyone is used to them by now. Bob apparently lost his cool and started freaking out on the rose seller. Everyone was telling him to chill out, that wasn't a big deal, but he was just furious for no apparent reason. Other kids were telling me that he would walk down La Rambla and get into peoples faces and scream, "COMO ESTAS BITCHES?" Not cool. And most of all, not safe. Everyone was really starting to get freaked out by his behavior and wondered what the heck was up. Two weeks ago he took a CEA trip to San Sebastian. He thought it would be a good idea to purchase a liter of vodka for the bus ride back. Not only is that incredibly against CEA rules, but your stupid to drink all of that on an 8 hour bus ride. He eventually had to go to the bathroom and there wasn't one on the bus. CEA had planned bathroom stops and one wasn't coming up for a while. Bob lost his cool x's 47549875. People on the bus said he got up in the face of the driver and the CEA chaperones, screaming wicked loud, and threatened to pee his pants, urinate on their heads, etc. Eventually the bus driver had no choice but to pull over because Bob was freaking out. Two girls who live in my building were on the bus and incredibly freaked out, rightfully so. They ended up writing to the head of CEA making a complaint saying that they were really concerned about their safety with Bob in our building. CEA emailed a few people and asked them to corroborate the stories they had receieved. Last night we found out that Bob had been kicked out of the program and went back home to the U.S.
I can't help but feel bad for this kid. He only had about a month left of the program and he got sent home. However, CEA obviously felt that he had done something to merit being kicked out. It's just unfortunate because he won't get a refund and he is now going to be a semester behind at school. Still, I can't really say that I feared for my safety, but I was definitely growing more and more uncomfortable around him as time went on. There was definitely something not right with him and he obviously needed help. People wonder if he got into drugs out here or if there was something wrong upstairs that just got magnified due to the intense stress we're under. It's probably in his best interest that he was sent home because he was just losing it here. Not to mention, he couldn't really have gotten any help out here if he actually needed it. I can't help but wonder what was really wrong with Bob to cause him to pretty much go crazy out here. I guess we'll never know.
OK! Just wanted to at least get something up in a blog. I figured this would be an interesting read. Mental health update for me? I'm doing just fine...no threatening to urinate on people..PROMISE! I'm off to study for my test tomorrow. ICK! I love and miss you all!<3
Sunday, March 22, 2009
myyy weekend
How is it Sunday night already? I don't know where the time goes! My weekend was really uneventful but it still managed to fly by. I figured I haven't really written a ton lately so I'll bore you with a play by play of my weekend :)
I had the place to myself the entire weekend because Steeter was going on a trip to Ireland. She got up to leave for Dublin at 5:30am on Friday morning...aka Hannah woke up at 5:30 am too. I'm the lightest sleeper ever. As soon as her feet hit the floor to get out of bed I was awake! It's a curse a tell you. Once she was out the door I had a pretty hard time falling back asleep. However, in true young adult fashion...I managed. I got up for good at about 11am, grabbed some study materials, and headed up to the roof top pool. It was kind of nice out, a little windy, and I figured I should at least sit out and enjoy the weather for a bit. I did that for about two hours, got some good studying in, and went back inside to morph into a couch potato. I don't really have a couch here, so I guess you could say a bed potato. I think you get the point though. I parked it in my bed and just relaxed for the rest of the day. My wooonndderrful boyfriend sent me a package a few days ago with some pretty sweet stuff in it, including a DVD (weeeuuu!) and some gummy bears. I decided to plow off the entire bag within the day and watch the movie too. I also watched some of the NCAA tournament basketball games online. Thank God for espn.com. I don't know what I'd do without it. My bracket was completely annihilated thanks to the Mid-West Region. Good news though, UNC is still in itttt. WEUU!! I ended my day with a horrible sinus headache. These headaches are kind of messing with my head, no pun intended. It's just getting really old having had these things everyday for the past two weeks. Friday nights was so bad I couldn't even open my left eye or stand up without pain shooting throughout my face. I tried a warm washcloth on my face and ibuprofen...NOTHING! Thankfully, that was the only one of the weekend.
What did I do on Saturday? Pretty much a repeat of Friday, minus the roof and headache. I got some more studying in and relaxed and watched some games/movies. It felt so nice to do absolutley nothing this weekend, especially after the crazy week I just had. Not to mention the crazy week I am ABOUT to have. I have a Spanish test Monday, Psych test Tuesday, and a Macro test Wedesnday. SHOOT ME NOW! I do have my trip to Lisbon, Portugal this weekend and I'm pretty excited about that.
Sorry for the horribly boring entry. I probably won't have much time to write this week because of all of my tests. I will try to though. If not, I promise I'll have lots of good stories when I return from Lisbon on Saturday. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. HAPPY SPRING TOO! I love and miss you all! <3
I had the place to myself the entire weekend because Steeter was going on a trip to Ireland. She got up to leave for Dublin at 5:30am on Friday morning...aka Hannah woke up at 5:30 am too. I'm the lightest sleeper ever. As soon as her feet hit the floor to get out of bed I was awake! It's a curse a tell you. Once she was out the door I had a pretty hard time falling back asleep. However, in true young adult fashion...I managed. I got up for good at about 11am, grabbed some study materials, and headed up to the roof top pool. It was kind of nice out, a little windy, and I figured I should at least sit out and enjoy the weather for a bit. I did that for about two hours, got some good studying in, and went back inside to morph into a couch potato. I don't really have a couch here, so I guess you could say a bed potato. I think you get the point though. I parked it in my bed and just relaxed for the rest of the day. My wooonndderrful boyfriend sent me a package a few days ago with some pretty sweet stuff in it, including a DVD (weeeuuu!) and some gummy bears. I decided to plow off the entire bag within the day and watch the movie too. I also watched some of the NCAA tournament basketball games online. Thank God for espn.com. I don't know what I'd do without it. My bracket was completely annihilated thanks to the Mid-West Region. Good news though, UNC is still in itttt. WEUU!! I ended my day with a horrible sinus headache. These headaches are kind of messing with my head, no pun intended. It's just getting really old having had these things everyday for the past two weeks. Friday nights was so bad I couldn't even open my left eye or stand up without pain shooting throughout my face. I tried a warm washcloth on my face and ibuprofen...NOTHING! Thankfully, that was the only one of the weekend.
What did I do on Saturday? Pretty much a repeat of Friday, minus the roof and headache. I got some more studying in and relaxed and watched some games/movies. It felt so nice to do absolutley nothing this weekend, especially after the crazy week I just had. Not to mention the crazy week I am ABOUT to have. I have a Spanish test Monday, Psych test Tuesday, and a Macro test Wedesnday. SHOOT ME NOW! I do have my trip to Lisbon, Portugal this weekend and I'm pretty excited about that.
Sorry for the horribly boring entry. I probably won't have much time to write this week because of all of my tests. I will try to though. If not, I promise I'll have lots of good stories when I return from Lisbon on Saturday. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. HAPPY SPRING TOO! I love and miss you all! <3
Thursday, March 19, 2009
I'm officially a horrible blogger.
No blogging for a week. Gosh. If there were a hell for bloggers, I would surely be sent to it. I'm so SORRY! I really don't know where this past week went, that's how busy I was. I had a huge 10-15 minute presentation to give in my Sport & Culture class this morning. I spent most of my week preparing for it. I was really nervous for my presentation today because the class size is one of the biggest I've ever been in. There are probably close to 40 or 45 people in this class. The typical class size at Le Moyne can be anywhere from 10-25 people. I used to have a huge fear of public speaking but I think I'm slowly growing out of it. I'm still at a the point where I stumble with my words, especially when I start out because of the initial fear levels. Knowing this, I pretty much plan out every single word I am going to say in my presentation and practice it over and over and over. Alone in the bathroom this morning, I stood there drying my hair and lecturing the mirror on Sports & Business. I then proceeded to walk to class while going over my presentation out loud. In retrospect, people were probably thinking, "Look at that crazy American talking to herself." Once in class I could no longer go over my lines out loud so I was forced to rehearse them in my head. 5 minutes into class and sweating like Shaquille O'Neal, my group headed up to give our presentation. Anddddddddd! It went really well. At least I think so? Everyone who has given presentations before us just read lines off of their slide. They never made eye contact with the audience or elaborated on concepts. They just stared at the powerpoint screen the entire time and read it. Our teacher mentioned that those people would not receive good grades, so our group made a concious effort to just bullet point ideas on the powerpoint and develop them out loud to the class. Anyway, our teacher really liked it. When we finished he said, "This is the best presentation I have seen yet in this class". That comment created quite the conflicting emotions within me. Part of me was like, "SSWEEET!". It's obviously a good thing that he liked it and thought that it was one of the best presentations he's ever had in class. That's a pretty good indicator we're going to get a good grade and that obviously makes me pretty happy. However, PLEASE DON'T SAY THAT INFRONT OF THE CLASS! That will only make the entire classroom HATE US. Let me tell you, the looks of disgust that were shot towards us at the front of the room were prrrrrobably equivalent to those directed at Sarah Palin post-Katie Couric interview. Oh well, my classmates can hate my group because our teacher liked our presentation...at least I'm getting a good grade. And for the record, I CANNOT see Russia from my house. ;)
What else has happened this week? Hmmmm. A bunch of my friends in the building decided to have a little dinner party in a downstairs lobby in our building. We sent out invitations to everyone that said, "BYOP"...bring your own plate. A couple people made food, I made dessert, others brought drinks. I figured dessert was the dish I could do the least amount of damage with. No one has ever died from some bad whipped cream. Raw chicken on the otherhand? I'll leave that up to someone else. Anyway, I went with "Dirt Cups". All the "cool kids" would bring them to their classroom birthday parties in elementary school. Dirt cups usually consists of a plastic cup filled with whipped cream, crushed oreos, chocolate pudding, and gummy worms. I went on an hour long shopping hunt for these products. I guess Spain does not believe in gummy worms. All I could find were...no joke...gummy FINGERS. Seriously?! I was not about to have fingers sticking out of my dirt cups. I decided to substitute the gummy fingers with little candy berries. After I got everything I headed back to the room to attempt to assemble the dirt cups. Now, dirt cups typically look...dirty. However, I wanted mine to look pretty because I'm ridiculous like that. After about 45 minutes of assembling ten dirt cups, the kitchen looked like a tornado had hit it, I looked like I had oreo dandruff, but I had a pretty snazzy looking finished product. Anyway, the dinner was alot of fun. The food was great! And best of all...my dessert killed no one.
It's really starting to get warm here in Barcelona (HALLELUJAH!). It's like PERFECT spring weather; temperatures are in the mid to high 60's everyday. One big difference here...the sun rays are STRONG! I made the nearly fatal mistake of laying out by our roof pool the other day. It was only 63 degrees and I still managed to back into the building a few hours looking like a freckle-faced LOBSTER. Fear not! My sunburn was gone the next day. I know, I know, I knowwww...SUN TAN LOTION. With my face looking like I was constantly blushing, I decided to go shopping for some spring/summer clothes. I ended up getting a few shirts and a dress. I WANTED to get two dresses but I resisted.
I'm also officially done booking trips! Everything is COMPLETE! I have Lisbon, Portugal next weekend. Ibiza the second to last weekend, and GREECE FOR SPRING BREAK! Weeeeuuuu! Me and two other girls, Jess and Sara are going to fly to Athens and tour around there for 2 days. Then we are going to hop aboard a ferry and head to Santorini. We plan on staying in Santorini for 5 days. I hear it's amazing there. I don't think there is going to be much to do, but I am definitely looking forward to staying in a beautiful place and just relaxing. I'm still gonna scour the internet for things to do there. We'll figure something out! I'm incredibly excited to go there and I'm sure I'll be taking a million pictures to show everyone.
One of the biggest downsides of being abroad right now? I'M FREAKING MISSING MARCH MADNESS!!!!!!!! Ughhhhh. I'm going to try my hardest to find something online but that's not looking very probable. Most US sites with video don't work here in Spain. I still completed my bracket though! As I have put for the past three years (and I have been let down every year), I have UNC winning it all. I sadly had to have them knock SU out in the Elite 8. I have a little contest going on with Jamie. Whoever has the winning bracket wins a prize...I still haven't decided what I want. I'm not too worried though. Even if I lose...I still actually "win", it's common knowledge! SO yesss, EVERYONE ROOT FOR UNC. As it stands, I'm not starting off very well...2 first round losses already!
Woooo GO ME! :)
Carly and a bunch of my friends going to Dublin this weekend, I decided to save some money and sit out on this one. Probably a good idea since I have crazy amounts of work I need to get started! I'll definitely sit outside a bit because it's supposed to be gorgeous this weekend. I figure I can do some studying outside because I have a HUGE spanish test on Monday. I thinkkk I'm gonna get cracking on that study guide now. I love and miss you all! LOTS! <3
What else has happened this week? Hmmmm. A bunch of my friends in the building decided to have a little dinner party in a downstairs lobby in our building. We sent out invitations to everyone that said, "BYOP"...bring your own plate. A couple people made food, I made dessert, others brought drinks. I figured dessert was the dish I could do the least amount of damage with. No one has ever died from some bad whipped cream. Raw chicken on the otherhand? I'll leave that up to someone else. Anyway, I went with "Dirt Cups". All the "cool kids" would bring them to their classroom birthday parties in elementary school. Dirt cups usually consists of a plastic cup filled with whipped cream, crushed oreos, chocolate pudding, and gummy worms. I went on an hour long shopping hunt for these products. I guess Spain does not believe in gummy worms. All I could find were...no joke...gummy FINGERS. Seriously?! I was not about to have fingers sticking out of my dirt cups. I decided to substitute the gummy fingers with little candy berries. After I got everything I headed back to the room to attempt to assemble the dirt cups. Now, dirt cups typically look...dirty. However, I wanted mine to look pretty because I'm ridiculous like that. After about 45 minutes of assembling ten dirt cups, the kitchen looked like a tornado had hit it, I looked like I had oreo dandruff, but I had a pretty snazzy looking finished product. Anyway, the dinner was alot of fun. The food was great! And best of all...my dessert killed no one.
It's really starting to get warm here in Barcelona (HALLELUJAH!). It's like PERFECT spring weather; temperatures are in the mid to high 60's everyday. One big difference here...the sun rays are STRONG! I made the nearly fatal mistake of laying out by our roof pool the other day. It was only 63 degrees and I still managed to back into the building a few hours looking like a freckle-faced LOBSTER. Fear not! My sunburn was gone the next day. I know, I know, I knowwww...SUN TAN LOTION. With my face looking like I was constantly blushing, I decided to go shopping for some spring/summer clothes. I ended up getting a few shirts and a dress. I WANTED to get two dresses but I resisted.
I'm also officially done booking trips! Everything is COMPLETE! I have Lisbon, Portugal next weekend. Ibiza the second to last weekend, and GREECE FOR SPRING BREAK! Weeeeuuuu! Me and two other girls, Jess and Sara are going to fly to Athens and tour around there for 2 days. Then we are going to hop aboard a ferry and head to Santorini. We plan on staying in Santorini for 5 days. I hear it's amazing there. I don't think there is going to be much to do, but I am definitely looking forward to staying in a beautiful place and just relaxing. I'm still gonna scour the internet for things to do there. We'll figure something out! I'm incredibly excited to go there and I'm sure I'll be taking a million pictures to show everyone.
One of the biggest downsides of being abroad right now? I'M FREAKING MISSING MARCH MADNESS!!!!!!!! Ughhhhh. I'm going to try my hardest to find something online but that's not looking very probable. Most US sites with video don't work here in Spain. I still completed my bracket though! As I have put for the past three years (and I have been let down every year), I have UNC winning it all. I sadly had to have them knock SU out in the Elite 8. I have a little contest going on with Jamie. Whoever has the winning bracket wins a prize...I still haven't decided what I want. I'm not too worried though. Even if I lose...I still actually "win", it's common knowledge! SO yesss, EVERYONE ROOT FOR UNC. As it stands, I'm not starting off very well...2 first round losses already!
Woooo GO ME! :)Carly and a bunch of my friends going to Dublin this weekend, I decided to save some money and sit out on this one. Probably a good idea since I have crazy amounts of work I need to get started! I'll definitely sit outside a bit because it's supposed to be gorgeous this weekend. I figure I can do some studying outside because I have a HUGE spanish test on Monday. I thinkkk I'm gonna get cracking on that study guide now. I love and miss you all! LOTS! <3
Thursday, March 12, 2009
lonnngggg week
Thaaaaaaank GOD it's Thursday. This week flew by but was so incredibly stressful at the same time. I'm so over tired because of traveling non-stop and I haven't had an opportunity to catch up. I think SLEEP will be my main goal this weekend. I can't seem to kick this sinus infection, so rest is probably a good idea.
Hmmm. What happened this week? I guess you could say it was pretty uneventful. I got a lot of my grades back for mid-terms, projects, quizzes, etc. I ended up getting an 8/10 on my Macro mid-term. I'm not happy with that grade but I'm trying not to beat myself up for it. I don't understand Macro at all and I put in a solid 5-6 hours of studying, I know I did my best. Plus, a B isn't the enddd of the world...sort of, kind of...ok it is. I got a B+ on my Religion mid-term which drives me offfffff the wall. This is the teacher that can't speak or understand English at all. During the test I raised my hand and asked him, "How long do you want our essay to be?". His response: "YES!". I think that should help convey what kind of teaching experience we're dealing with here. I would have preferred an A, but again, I'll take a B+ considering I essentially don't have a teacher for this class. We also got our Psychology mid-terms back and I got a 93 on it. I'm happy with that grade for the most part. It was an incredibly hard exam with ALOT of material, so I'm glad my hard work paid off. Jamie quizzing me on all 50 of my vocab terms/concepts at 2am probably helped too. After she returned the tests, we got our critical incidents back (the project where that girl plagiarized my work). I'm pleased to say our group wasn't negatively affected by the IDIOT that IS a fellow CEA student. We got a 96 on the project itself and a 90 on the presentation. In comparison with other grades in the class, I was very happy. Classes and tests are so difficult here its ridiculous. Some students here joke and say, "I thought I signed up for CEA Study Abroad, not Harvard Study Abroad." This is without question the hardest semester I've had in college thus far. I'm trying to accept the fact that I will likely break my 4.0 streak this semester, so I guess my goal is to just make Dean's List. I think it's possible. Hopefully...
In travel news, I just booked two more trips today. In two weeks I will be going to Lisbon which is in Portugal. Then the second to last weekend I will be going to an island off the coast of Spain called Ibiza. Both should have warm and sunny weather so I'm pretty excited. In comparison to my normally tan self, I pretty much look like an albino rat at this point in time. Yes, an albino RAT! Laugh all you want...I wish I was kidding. I have one more trip to book for spring break. We did want to go to Egypt but we read up on some stuff and it doesn't look very safe for us to go there. Greece and Italy were next on the list, but they turned out to be too expensive. So now we're looking at Croatia and another place in Southern Portugal called Vilmoura. We should be finalizing those plans soon. I get pretty proud of myself when I think of all the trips I've booked and gone on. I was scared to do it all by myself but I've managed just fine. I guess you could say I'm pretty much a seasoned traveler now. Except when it comes to packing appropriate clothing for inclement weather conditions! :)
It'll probably be a low key weekend. I think I'm gonna be a responsible adult and stay in tonight and rest up. Most everyone is gone on a trip this weekend so it's going to be just me and Carly. It's gonna be about 68 degrees here so we're thinking of heading down to the beach for the day. I also need to do a little clothing shopping. Yes, Dad...NEED to, not want to. I, in my infinite wisdom, only packed winter clothing for my time here. Apparently I thought I was studying abroad in Antartica? Anyway, I can work with jeans until May but I need to get some shortsleeve shirts and what not. Maybe a dress...or two. Ok, just one...PROMISE!
I hope everyone is doing well! I love and miss you all very much! <3
Hmmm. What happened this week? I guess you could say it was pretty uneventful. I got a lot of my grades back for mid-terms, projects, quizzes, etc. I ended up getting an 8/10 on my Macro mid-term. I'm not happy with that grade but I'm trying not to beat myself up for it. I don't understand Macro at all and I put in a solid 5-6 hours of studying, I know I did my best. Plus, a B isn't the enddd of the world...sort of, kind of...ok it is. I got a B+ on my Religion mid-term which drives me offfffff the wall. This is the teacher that can't speak or understand English at all. During the test I raised my hand and asked him, "How long do you want our essay to be?". His response: "YES!". I think that should help convey what kind of teaching experience we're dealing with here. I would have preferred an A, but again, I'll take a B+ considering I essentially don't have a teacher for this class. We also got our Psychology mid-terms back and I got a 93 on it. I'm happy with that grade for the most part. It was an incredibly hard exam with ALOT of material, so I'm glad my hard work paid off. Jamie quizzing me on all 50 of my vocab terms/concepts at 2am probably helped too. After she returned the tests, we got our critical incidents back (the project where that girl plagiarized my work). I'm pleased to say our group wasn't negatively affected by the IDIOT that IS a fellow CEA student. We got a 96 on the project itself and a 90 on the presentation. In comparison with other grades in the class, I was very happy. Classes and tests are so difficult here its ridiculous. Some students here joke and say, "I thought I signed up for CEA Study Abroad, not Harvard Study Abroad." This is without question the hardest semester I've had in college thus far. I'm trying to accept the fact that I will likely break my 4.0 streak this semester, so I guess my goal is to just make Dean's List. I think it's possible. Hopefully...
In travel news, I just booked two more trips today. In two weeks I will be going to Lisbon which is in Portugal. Then the second to last weekend I will be going to an island off the coast of Spain called Ibiza. Both should have warm and sunny weather so I'm pretty excited. In comparison to my normally tan self, I pretty much look like an albino rat at this point in time. Yes, an albino RAT! Laugh all you want...I wish I was kidding. I have one more trip to book for spring break. We did want to go to Egypt but we read up on some stuff and it doesn't look very safe for us to go there. Greece and Italy were next on the list, but they turned out to be too expensive. So now we're looking at Croatia and another place in Southern Portugal called Vilmoura. We should be finalizing those plans soon. I get pretty proud of myself when I think of all the trips I've booked and gone on. I was scared to do it all by myself but I've managed just fine. I guess you could say I'm pretty much a seasoned traveler now. Except when it comes to packing appropriate clothing for inclement weather conditions! :)
It'll probably be a low key weekend. I think I'm gonna be a responsible adult and stay in tonight and rest up. Most everyone is gone on a trip this weekend so it's going to be just me and Carly. It's gonna be about 68 degrees here so we're thinking of heading down to the beach for the day. I also need to do a little clothing shopping. Yes, Dad...NEED to, not want to. I, in my infinite wisdom, only packed winter clothing for my time here. Apparently I thought I was studying abroad in Antartica? Anyway, I can work with jeans until May but I need to get some shortsleeve shirts and what not. Maybe a dress...or two. Ok, just one...PROMISE!
I hope everyone is doing well! I love and miss you all very much! <3
Monday, March 9, 2009
Dachau Concentration Camp
When we decided to go to Munich, we all had a little discussion about what everyone wanted to do while we were there. On everyone's list: Dachau Concentration Camp. For me, personally, I feel that if given the opportunity, everyone should visit a concentration camp. It is such a sad, but very real, part of our world's history that people need to see. However uncomfortable and depressing it may be, I felt it was my duty to take some time out of my day and visit the camp. I may not ever get the opportunity to do so again.
Before we left for Munich, I did a little research on Dachau: how to get there, prices, hours, tours, etc. I was pretty excited to see Dachau in particular because in 8th grade I did a school project on it. It sounds stupid, but I find it pretty amazing that 7 years later I would be touring the very camp I presented to my class. The actual camp is now called the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. It is open year round, and absolutely free to enter. I loved the fact it was free. They could have very easily charged 10 Euro to enter, but they don't. This is something that people need to see, need to experience, and no one should be turned away because they cannot afford it. Entrance is free, guided tours are only 3 Euro, and audio guides are only 2 Euro. If you want to hear more detailed information on the camp you can pay the cheap fees for the tour or audio guide. If you can't afford it, you still have free and total access to the entire camp, you just have to do it on your own. I think it's great that anyone can enter through the gates and experience Dachau.
The English tours are held three times throughout the day. We decided on our train ride over that we wanted to take a guided tour. I had read some reviews online, and the writers highly recommend taking a tour because you learn a lot more from the knowledgeable guides. Our tour guide was pretty nice and really knew his stuff. We started off in the museum, the only heated part of the camp, and learned some basic stuff. He showed us a map of Europe that had all of the concentration camps, including subcamps, that existed during the Nazi reign. Standing before this giant map was pretty intense. There were probably close to 200-300 dots on the map that represented camps. In the museum we got to see a camp uniform, the patches that the prisoners had to wear, and photographs taken by SS guards. He gave us a little background information on Dachau too. Dachau was a working camp for men only; there were no women and children. The prisoners were forced to work, sometimes to their death, making things for the war, governement, etc. It was the first concentration camp in Europe and it was originally used for criminals. When Hitler took over he started using it for people who opposed his ideas and went against him. As time went on, it was being filled with criminals, homosexuals, gypsies, Jews, etc. Made for only a few thousand people, by the end of the war, it was holding over 60,000.
After we got the brief tour of the museum and a little information on Dachau, we went outside to have our tour. The first thing you see at the camp is the main gate. When it was actually up and running, Dachau only had one entrance/exit, everything else was surrounded by electric fences. Built into the iron gate entrance are the words "Arbeit Macht Frei", which means something along the lines of "work will set you free". It was kind of surreal seeing that because in my presentation in 8th grade, I remember showing a picture and telling my class about the gate. After we saw the gate, we immediately headed over to the barracks. When the U.S liberated Dachau they were forced to quarantine and eventually destroy all of the barracks because of the disease that had run rampant in them. There are no original barracks left, just the foundations remain. When the camp was made a memorial site, they built two replica barracks that are perfect copies of the original. Inside these barracks are three different rooms. The first room shows what the barracks looked like when Dachau first opened, just for criminals. Each barrack room held about 50 inmates and they slept comfortably in their own beds; an entire barrack could hold about 200 people. The next room shows what the barracks looked like once the war started. These beds were far smaller and about 80 prisoners were held in one room; full barrack capacity was now at about 300. The third room represented Dachau at the height of the war. The beds, referred to as "endless beds" didn't even look like actual beds. It was basically one giant platform that covered the length of the entire room; two more platforms were stacked above it like bunk beds. At it's population peak, a room like this in a Dachau barrack, originally meant for 50, held over 250 people; putting nearly 2,000 people in a barrack meant for 200. I remember seeing the last room, with the endless beds, and just having this total wave of sadness wash over me. The room was probably 20x20 and I couldn't even visualize over 200 people trying to sleep in that one place. You can't help but want to cry when you remind yourself that although it is hard to visualize, it did in fact happen.
After the barracks we walked by the memorials for the victims. One is a giant iron statue that shows people entangled in the electric fences and another that showed the ways the victims at Dachau were labled. Both were incredibly powerful to see. After walking by those, we made our way over to the other side of the camp. This pathway passes right in between the foundations of all of the barracks. There were hundreds of foundations left behind that stretched as far as your eye could see. At the end of the pathway was the Catholic Memorial for the victims of Dachau. Within close proximity of this memorial were the Russian Orthodox, Jewish, and Protestant Memorials. As we approached the Catholic Memorial, you could see a man kneeling infront of it with flowers. It was just a small reminder that this still affects people today, almost 65 years later.
We then made our way over the Krematorium area. This area was for guards only and totally off limits for prisoners. In order to gain access, you had to walk through a gate in the middle of the electric fence. He explained that these fences killed on contact. Along the entire length of the fence was a giant ditch. The Nazis put this here so prisoners were slowed down if running and attempting to make an escape at the fence. When trying to escape, they were either killed by guards from watch towers or by the electric fence. Our tourguide also mentioned that some people simply couldn't bear to live anymore and would try to "escape" knowing that it meant a quick death. There are no accounts, written or from survivors, that indicate that anyone ever was able to escape from Dachau.
Once we got into the Krematorium area, I got this horrible feeling, a huge pit, in my stomach. I kind of expected it though. You hear about it in all of your history classes, you read about it in books, but nothing really prepares you for seeing these things. Dachau has two crematoriums. The first was used when death tolls weren't incredibly high. As the war went on, people were dying at much higher rates from disease, starvation, the cold, abuse, etc. The single crematorium, one that was actually used in the real world for cremating one person at a time, could not handle the large numbers anymore. They were forced to build another bigger building, that housed an industrial sized crematorium. Inside this second crematorium was a gas chamber. Interestingly enough, Dachau was never considered an extermination camp. Hitler made sure that none of these camps resided in Germany. He wanted them to be in the countries that he occupied so it would be easier to transport the foreign people to them. So, knowing this, many wonder why Dachau had a gas chamber in it. The most popular theory is that since Dachau was one of the first concentration camps, it acted as a model for others. When Germans were trained to work in concentration camps, they were trained to use gas chambers, and some were trained at Dachau. With that said, survivors have reported that the gas chamber was not regularly used like at extermination camps. However, they did say that it was used on individuals or small groups on occasion. Our tour guide gave us all of this information before walking in. I really wanted to cry at this point, and I hadn't even stepped inside.
First part of the building was the gas chamber. I can't really describe a single emotion that I felt when I walked through it. It was a mixture of things: anger, sadness, frustration. How could anyone do this to a fellow human being? Above the entrance of the "shower room", was a German phrase that referred to the importance of cleanliness. I couldn't help but be so incredibly angry by the cruelty of that, the trickery of getting these people into the room. I entered into the room and sadly enough, it does look like a giant shower. There are drains in the floor and things that appear to be shower heads on the ceiling. Along one wall are these two grates that turn into a slot; this is where the poison, Zyklon B, was slipped into the room. At this point, I was feeling nauseous. Adding to the horrible emotions, were these other people in the gas chamber at the same time. These people had the audacity to act in an entirely disrepectful and disgusting manner when they were in the room. They were taking pictures of eachother standing under the shower heads like they were dying. Then they would take a group picture against a wall, all smiling with their thumbs up. I have never wanted to punch someone more in my entire life. How could anyone make light of a situation like that? How can you find anything remotely funny about the events that took place in that room? In any other circumstance, I would have gave them a HUGE piece of my mind with some choice words. However, I didn't feel right doing that. That room is a sacred place that is meant to be respected and honored, not a place to voice my anger towards these boys. I would have only added to the nonsense that was taking place. I opted to keep my mouth closed. They did, however, get quite the staredown as I exited.
The second room in the building was the much bigger crematorium. You could tell that this room and these ovens were designed for a lot of use. About 40,000 people were documented as having died at Dachau (the number is believed to be far higher). The ovens were used to dispose of their bodies. Our tour guide told us that the ovens were used so frequently that the Nazis ran out of coal a few months before Dachau's liberation. When the US soldiers liberated the camp they found a stack, in the buildings last room, of nearly 2,000 bodies. Standing in the room was such a hard moment for me. On one of the walls, was a picture of that room three days after the liberation of Dachau. The entire thing, floor to ceiling, is filled with bodies. The picture shows shocked and disgusted Dachau residents looking into the room of bodies. Many residents of Dachau tried to say that they had no idea what was taking place in the camp, that they thought conditions were bad, but had no idea that people were being murdered in mass numbers. I don't know if it was the intention, but I got a powerful message with that being the end of the tour. There was hell on earth in Dachau, and just a few hundred feet away, the people of Dachau were going about their daily lives. How could you NOT know what was going on? They were only lying to themselves when they said they had no idea. U.S soliders forced the residents of Dachau to come view the bodies, so they could see what happened when they stood idle, what happened when they did nothing. And that is the message I got out that room. When you stand there and do nothing, you are not innocent, you are just as guilty as the perpetrator. Maybe if people had stood up and helped, things would have been different. Dachau should never have happened, the whole Holocaust never should have happened.
I'm a thinker. Always have been, always will be. I analyze things until they cannot be broken down any further. My mind was racing about 600mph the entire tour. I kept on imagining what it was like to be a prisoner there. I kept trying to mentally put myself in their shoes. I think this is why Dachau may have been so powerful for me. I became engrossed in the experience and I think I got alot of it because of this. In the barracks, I just tried to imagine laying in those beds, with 200 other people around me. I would have been exhausted, hungry, and cold. How can someone not be thankful for the little things after experiencing something like this? Things I take for granted, like having my own bed, food, heat, etc., were unheard of at Dachau. When we were taking the 5 minute walk to the Krematorium area, my feet and fingers went completely numb. It was about 30 degrees out and I believe I already had a fever running; it wasn't a very pleasant experience. Everything in me wanted to complain, but then that "thinker" inside my head was like, "Hannah...are you kidding me?" How could I ever complain about being cold at Dachau? How could I, in my boots and a jacket, no matter how lightweight they were, complain about the cold? The prisoners at Dachau wore paper thin shirts, pants, and wooden clogs in the spring...and the winter. Jackets were not allowed and they could not keep their hands in the pockets for warmth. The same pathway I walked was where roll call was taken everyday. For 45 minutes, in sun, rain, wind, or snow, the prisoners were forced to line up as their numbers were called. Sure I was numb, sure I was sick, but this was nothing compared to what these poor people went through day after day. I am genuinely glad the weather was freezing. For me, it totally made the experience that much more powerful and humbling.
I don't think there is anything I could say that can fully convey my experience is a whole. My visit to Dachau was nothing short of powerful, mind-blowing, and entirely humbling. I am so glad I went. You can't help but be moved and even changed by the visit. It made me take a good look at myself, recognize the things I take for granted, and try to develop a new way of thinking. Is there one main thing I took away from my Dachau visit? Definitely. It may sound cheesy, but kindness, caring for one another, cannot be optional...we must do it. Dachau reminded me of what happens when we do not look out for eachother, when hate takes over. You cannot deny we are all different. I may look different than some, speak different than some, believe different than some, but at the end of the day I am a human being just like everyone else. That simple fact alone is reason enough to care for the person next to you. Hate gets you nowhere.
Before we left for Munich, I did a little research on Dachau: how to get there, prices, hours, tours, etc. I was pretty excited to see Dachau in particular because in 8th grade I did a school project on it. It sounds stupid, but I find it pretty amazing that 7 years later I would be touring the very camp I presented to my class. The actual camp is now called the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. It is open year round, and absolutely free to enter. I loved the fact it was free. They could have very easily charged 10 Euro to enter, but they don't. This is something that people need to see, need to experience, and no one should be turned away because they cannot afford it. Entrance is free, guided tours are only 3 Euro, and audio guides are only 2 Euro. If you want to hear more detailed information on the camp you can pay the cheap fees for the tour or audio guide. If you can't afford it, you still have free and total access to the entire camp, you just have to do it on your own. I think it's great that anyone can enter through the gates and experience Dachau.
The English tours are held three times throughout the day. We decided on our train ride over that we wanted to take a guided tour. I had read some reviews online, and the writers highly recommend taking a tour because you learn a lot more from the knowledgeable guides. Our tour guide was pretty nice and really knew his stuff. We started off in the museum, the only heated part of the camp, and learned some basic stuff. He showed us a map of Europe that had all of the concentration camps, including subcamps, that existed during the Nazi reign. Standing before this giant map was pretty intense. There were probably close to 200-300 dots on the map that represented camps. In the museum we got to see a camp uniform, the patches that the prisoners had to wear, and photographs taken by SS guards. He gave us a little background information on Dachau too. Dachau was a working camp for men only; there were no women and children. The prisoners were forced to work, sometimes to their death, making things for the war, governement, etc. It was the first concentration camp in Europe and it was originally used for criminals. When Hitler took over he started using it for people who opposed his ideas and went against him. As time went on, it was being filled with criminals, homosexuals, gypsies, Jews, etc. Made for only a few thousand people, by the end of the war, it was holding over 60,000.
After we got the brief tour of the museum and a little information on Dachau, we went outside to have our tour. The first thing you see at the camp is the main gate. When it was actually up and running, Dachau only had one entrance/exit, everything else was surrounded by electric fences. Built into the iron gate entrance are the words "Arbeit Macht Frei", which means something along the lines of "work will set you free". It was kind of surreal seeing that because in my presentation in 8th grade, I remember showing a picture and telling my class about the gate. After we saw the gate, we immediately headed over to the barracks. When the U.S liberated Dachau they were forced to quarantine and eventually destroy all of the barracks because of the disease that had run rampant in them. There are no original barracks left, just the foundations remain. When the camp was made a memorial site, they built two replica barracks that are perfect copies of the original. Inside these barracks are three different rooms. The first room shows what the barracks looked like when Dachau first opened, just for criminals. Each barrack room held about 50 inmates and they slept comfortably in their own beds; an entire barrack could hold about 200 people. The next room shows what the barracks looked like once the war started. These beds were far smaller and about 80 prisoners were held in one room; full barrack capacity was now at about 300. The third room represented Dachau at the height of the war. The beds, referred to as "endless beds" didn't even look like actual beds. It was basically one giant platform that covered the length of the entire room; two more platforms were stacked above it like bunk beds. At it's population peak, a room like this in a Dachau barrack, originally meant for 50, held over 250 people; putting nearly 2,000 people in a barrack meant for 200. I remember seeing the last room, with the endless beds, and just having this total wave of sadness wash over me. The room was probably 20x20 and I couldn't even visualize over 200 people trying to sleep in that one place. You can't help but want to cry when you remind yourself that although it is hard to visualize, it did in fact happen.
After the barracks we walked by the memorials for the victims. One is a giant iron statue that shows people entangled in the electric fences and another that showed the ways the victims at Dachau were labled. Both were incredibly powerful to see. After walking by those, we made our way over to the other side of the camp. This pathway passes right in between the foundations of all of the barracks. There were hundreds of foundations left behind that stretched as far as your eye could see. At the end of the pathway was the Catholic Memorial for the victims of Dachau. Within close proximity of this memorial were the Russian Orthodox, Jewish, and Protestant Memorials. As we approached the Catholic Memorial, you could see a man kneeling infront of it with flowers. It was just a small reminder that this still affects people today, almost 65 years later.
We then made our way over the Krematorium area. This area was for guards only and totally off limits for prisoners. In order to gain access, you had to walk through a gate in the middle of the electric fence. He explained that these fences killed on contact. Along the entire length of the fence was a giant ditch. The Nazis put this here so prisoners were slowed down if running and attempting to make an escape at the fence. When trying to escape, they were either killed by guards from watch towers or by the electric fence. Our tourguide also mentioned that some people simply couldn't bear to live anymore and would try to "escape" knowing that it meant a quick death. There are no accounts, written or from survivors, that indicate that anyone ever was able to escape from Dachau.
Once we got into the Krematorium area, I got this horrible feeling, a huge pit, in my stomach. I kind of expected it though. You hear about it in all of your history classes, you read about it in books, but nothing really prepares you for seeing these things. Dachau has two crematoriums. The first was used when death tolls weren't incredibly high. As the war went on, people were dying at much higher rates from disease, starvation, the cold, abuse, etc. The single crematorium, one that was actually used in the real world for cremating one person at a time, could not handle the large numbers anymore. They were forced to build another bigger building, that housed an industrial sized crematorium. Inside this second crematorium was a gas chamber. Interestingly enough, Dachau was never considered an extermination camp. Hitler made sure that none of these camps resided in Germany. He wanted them to be in the countries that he occupied so it would be easier to transport the foreign people to them. So, knowing this, many wonder why Dachau had a gas chamber in it. The most popular theory is that since Dachau was one of the first concentration camps, it acted as a model for others. When Germans were trained to work in concentration camps, they were trained to use gas chambers, and some were trained at Dachau. With that said, survivors have reported that the gas chamber was not regularly used like at extermination camps. However, they did say that it was used on individuals or small groups on occasion. Our tour guide gave us all of this information before walking in. I really wanted to cry at this point, and I hadn't even stepped inside.
First part of the building was the gas chamber. I can't really describe a single emotion that I felt when I walked through it. It was a mixture of things: anger, sadness, frustration. How could anyone do this to a fellow human being? Above the entrance of the "shower room", was a German phrase that referred to the importance of cleanliness. I couldn't help but be so incredibly angry by the cruelty of that, the trickery of getting these people into the room. I entered into the room and sadly enough, it does look like a giant shower. There are drains in the floor and things that appear to be shower heads on the ceiling. Along one wall are these two grates that turn into a slot; this is where the poison, Zyklon B, was slipped into the room. At this point, I was feeling nauseous. Adding to the horrible emotions, were these other people in the gas chamber at the same time. These people had the audacity to act in an entirely disrepectful and disgusting manner when they were in the room. They were taking pictures of eachother standing under the shower heads like they were dying. Then they would take a group picture against a wall, all smiling with their thumbs up. I have never wanted to punch someone more in my entire life. How could anyone make light of a situation like that? How can you find anything remotely funny about the events that took place in that room? In any other circumstance, I would have gave them a HUGE piece of my mind with some choice words. However, I didn't feel right doing that. That room is a sacred place that is meant to be respected and honored, not a place to voice my anger towards these boys. I would have only added to the nonsense that was taking place. I opted to keep my mouth closed. They did, however, get quite the staredown as I exited.
The second room in the building was the much bigger crematorium. You could tell that this room and these ovens were designed for a lot of use. About 40,000 people were documented as having died at Dachau (the number is believed to be far higher). The ovens were used to dispose of their bodies. Our tour guide told us that the ovens were used so frequently that the Nazis ran out of coal a few months before Dachau's liberation. When the US soldiers liberated the camp they found a stack, in the buildings last room, of nearly 2,000 bodies. Standing in the room was such a hard moment for me. On one of the walls, was a picture of that room three days after the liberation of Dachau. The entire thing, floor to ceiling, is filled with bodies. The picture shows shocked and disgusted Dachau residents looking into the room of bodies. Many residents of Dachau tried to say that they had no idea what was taking place in the camp, that they thought conditions were bad, but had no idea that people were being murdered in mass numbers. I don't know if it was the intention, but I got a powerful message with that being the end of the tour. There was hell on earth in Dachau, and just a few hundred feet away, the people of Dachau were going about their daily lives. How could you NOT know what was going on? They were only lying to themselves when they said they had no idea. U.S soliders forced the residents of Dachau to come view the bodies, so they could see what happened when they stood idle, what happened when they did nothing. And that is the message I got out that room. When you stand there and do nothing, you are not innocent, you are just as guilty as the perpetrator. Maybe if people had stood up and helped, things would have been different. Dachau should never have happened, the whole Holocaust never should have happened.
I'm a thinker. Always have been, always will be. I analyze things until they cannot be broken down any further. My mind was racing about 600mph the entire tour. I kept on imagining what it was like to be a prisoner there. I kept trying to mentally put myself in their shoes. I think this is why Dachau may have been so powerful for me. I became engrossed in the experience and I think I got alot of it because of this. In the barracks, I just tried to imagine laying in those beds, with 200 other people around me. I would have been exhausted, hungry, and cold. How can someone not be thankful for the little things after experiencing something like this? Things I take for granted, like having my own bed, food, heat, etc., were unheard of at Dachau. When we were taking the 5 minute walk to the Krematorium area, my feet and fingers went completely numb. It was about 30 degrees out and I believe I already had a fever running; it wasn't a very pleasant experience. Everything in me wanted to complain, but then that "thinker" inside my head was like, "Hannah...are you kidding me?" How could I ever complain about being cold at Dachau? How could I, in my boots and a jacket, no matter how lightweight they were, complain about the cold? The prisoners at Dachau wore paper thin shirts, pants, and wooden clogs in the spring...and the winter. Jackets were not allowed and they could not keep their hands in the pockets for warmth. The same pathway I walked was where roll call was taken everyday. For 45 minutes, in sun, rain, wind, or snow, the prisoners were forced to line up as their numbers were called. Sure I was numb, sure I was sick, but this was nothing compared to what these poor people went through day after day. I am genuinely glad the weather was freezing. For me, it totally made the experience that much more powerful and humbling.
I don't think there is anything I could say that can fully convey my experience is a whole. My visit to Dachau was nothing short of powerful, mind-blowing, and entirely humbling. I am so glad I went. You can't help but be moved and even changed by the visit. It made me take a good look at myself, recognize the things I take for granted, and try to develop a new way of thinking. Is there one main thing I took away from my Dachau visit? Definitely. It may sound cheesy, but kindness, caring for one another, cannot be optional...we must do it. Dachau reminded me of what happens when we do not look out for eachother, when hate takes over. You cannot deny we are all different. I may look different than some, speak different than some, believe different than some, but at the end of the day I am a human being just like everyone else. That simple fact alone is reason enough to care for the person next to you. Hate gets you nowhere.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Munich, or should I say...MUNCHEN
I just got back from Munich a few hours ago and I am exhausted! I had a wonderful time this weekend and I absolutely loved the homeland! Germany is definitely a lot different than any other place I have visited while I've been over here. Just having been to London the previous weekend, it was nice seeing something TOTALLY different from it. Munich was absolutely beautiful in it's own unique way.
So, where do I begin? Well, we left Barcelona around 10:25 am on Friday, and arrived in Munich around 12:30pm. The second I stepped off the plane and onto the little connector-walkway-thing-ma-jigger, the freezing cold air hit me. First thought that came to mind? Solid work Hannah, you have, yet again, managed to be totally unprepared for the weather. You think as I get older I would actually be a little more prepared. You know, actually pack appropriate winter gear? Pft. Why would I ever do that? I mean, who really wants to be warm when walking around a city in 20 degree weather for 9 hours? Did I mention I came into this weekend with a sinus infection/fever? I'm thinking there is a definite possibility my germs froze to death...it was THAT cold in Munich.
After freezing to death in the 20 foot walk from the terminal to the train station, we proceeded to buy our tickets for the S-Bahn. I can proudly say I have done my first illegal thing in another country (God, I'm SUCH a rebel!!!). Seeing as the train ticket purchasing machine was entirely in German, you can guess we had a little difficulty finding the correct ticket to buy. And yes, you guessed it, we did in fact by the wrong one. About half way through our ride to our hostel, the train people came around to check our tickets and informed us that we had bought the wrong one. The penalty? A 40 Euro fine. Hah, that's a funny joke! I would absolutely NOT pay a 40 Euro fine for a mistake, this was not an intentional violation. So we were told to make our way to another random U-Bahn stop, find the office, and plead our case. After some discussion, we were able to argue our fee down to 10 Euro. I was still pretty angry. I could have used those 10 Euro for I dont know something useful like...A JACKET!!!
About 2 hours later than expected, we arrived at our hostel. This hostel was AWESOME! I've only experienced 3 hostels in my day, but this one was definitely my favorite. It had a real cool atmosphere to it. They had a free German beer tasting at night and the rooms were actually really nice. So, we set our stuff in our room and decided to go out and look around. We grabbed some lunch and started walking around. Within about 10 minutes it became incredibly clear that I needed to purchase some gloves of some sort. I managed to find the ugliest pair of gloves in the country and bought them. Oh well, they kept my poor fingers warm. I couldn't help but laugh when I purchased them. I always manage to have the most random first purchase when I visit another country for the weekend. London: ear plugs to fend off the onslaught of Pablo's snoring. Munich: the worlds ugliest pair of gloves to prevent frostbite from being my only German souvenir.
Now, the best part of my trip to Munich was the fact my cousin, Carina, would be meeting us there. I have only met Carina once, about two years ago, when she came to the U.S for the first time. Her flight wasn't getting in til way later and she wouldn't actually be at the hostel until 10:30. I was pretty nervous to see her again, so I decided to drink my feelings at the free beer tasting. KIDDING!!!!!!!!! (Yes, Dad...I swear I am kidding). But, I did actually go to the beer tasting to kill the time. They served little glasses of different kinds of beer. I don't really like the taste of any kind of alcohol, especially beer, but I figured I'd try because hey, I'm in Germany...they are known for their beer. None of the beers were mind-blowingly good, but I did enjoy the wheat beer to some degree. Around 10:30 I got a friendly tap on the shoulder at the bar, turned around, and there was CARINA! Wooooo! We gave eachother a big hug and I helped her check in and bring her things up to the room. We talked for a little bit and she gave me a gift; a scarf and some German candies. We were all exhausted, so we decided to go to bed after that.
That morning we got up, had breakfast, and made our way into the city center; Marienplatz. Trying to turn over a new leaf, I tried to dress as warm as humanly possible. I wore a pair of stockings under my jeans, 4 pairs of socks, boots, 2 camis, 2 sweaters, 2 cardigans, my northface, a scarf, and my heinous gloves. It pretty much could have been Halloween and I was dressed up as little Randy from a Christmas Story....ya know, the one in the huge snowsuit. Had anyone pushed me over...there would have been NO getting back up. I felt somewhat successful in my attempt to stay warm. It took about 20 minutes for me to go numb, not 2. When in Marienplatz, we saw the giant clock, the Glockenschpiel, ring and rotate on the hour. We walked around and went in some souvenir shops to get postcards, gifts, etc. I really enjoyed the city center. I felt lie I was walking around in a fairy tale, it was great. After about an hour or so of walking around, we decided we wanted to head over to the Dachau Concentration Camp. We all decided that that was something we definitely wanted to do. When we got there we decided to take a guided tour that took about 2.5 hours. I'm going to write a separate blog about the entire experience, but let me say for now, it was a powerful one.
After Dachau, we decided to head back into the city center and get some dinner. We were in Munich and everyone said you HAVE to go to the Hofbrauhaus. The Hofbrauhaus is a giant beer garden that holds about 400-500 people. We walked in and my jaw just dropped. It was a CRAZY atmosphere. You were in charge of find your own seat and hope that a waitress, dressed in full bavarian garb, would see you. There is a Bavarian band playing, and everyone is singing and chanting along. They served giant 1L mugs of beer as well as HUGE Bavarian pretzels. I know it makes me sound ridiculous...but I probably had been this excited to eat in a LONG time. Walking around for 6 hours in the snow did not help the fever at all. I was pretty much dying at dinner. I didn't think drinking a giant mug of beer would be the best decision when I had a fever and was on pain meds..so I skipped that part. The one part I did not skip out on? My meal. I ended up getting a pork roast with bread dumplings and coleslaw. DELICIOUS! I had a great time at dinner. My cousin Carina was having a great time too. We sat next to eachother and just chatted like old friends the entire time; her English is really great, I was quite proud! She recommended we get an apple strudel for desert and of course, a pretzel. We did and both were to die for. Eating at the Hofbrauhaus was quite the experience; a fun and delicious one to be exact!
After the Hofbrahaus we made our way back to the hostel. I looked and felt the living dead. Carina's friend, Ann-Christine, lives in Munich and wanted to take us out to show us the nightlife. The responsible adult in me, that usually wins over, said, "Hannah you are going to make yourself more sick..I think you should stay in and get some rest". The irresponsible side of me, that rarely comes out when it comes to clubbing, said, "Oh Hannah, you're only in Munich once, go have FUN!". I listened to the latter. We went to this club that had three different clubs within it. One club played techno, the other played pop, and the last played hip-hop. It was definitely a fun place to be, but I just really couldn't have any fun because I felt so sick. It was so bad, I ended up getting soda to drink at the bar. That should be a good indicator of how I was feeling. BUT! I'm glad I went out so I can say I at least experienced Munich nightlife.
We ended up getting in really late, getting up really early to check out, and making our way to the train station. It was really hard saying goodbye to Carina...she cries quite easily. She is actually coming to visit the U.S in June with her father and little brother, so I just tried telling her it is only 4 months. Not toooo long! I said I'd be feeling better and I would get to show her around this time! I had a great time with her this weekend. I definitely feel like I've known her for forever, even though I've only met her twice. I would definitely think of going out to visit her in Germany someday. She is a sweetheart and I am so happy that I got to spend time with her this weekend. However, I must say, she is quite the bad influence. She encouraged and laughed at my use of the word SCHIZA. Let's just say it's one of three words I know in Germany...and it's a swearword. :)
I had a fantastic time in Munich. I wish I had been feeling better because that would made my trip a LOT more enjoyable. I also wish I had more time in the city. We really only had one day to do things...but we made the most of it. I am definitely looking forward to returning to Germany some day and really taking in the sights. I loved what I saw this weekend and cannot WAIT to see more. This is going to sound like an Academy Award acceptance speech, but thank you to my wonderful Grammy who helped me out with this trip! This wouldn't have been possible without you! I LOVE YOUU!!! The return to the homeland was a success!
Please excuse any and all typos in this blog. I need to head to bed so I'm going to have to skimp on the revisions. If I'm not too busy I will post some pictures tomorrow, as well as an entry on Dachau. I love and miss you ALL! <3
P.S - The German language has the LONGEST words I have ever seen in my life! I found it humorous, so I kept my eye out for some of the longest I could I find. I have no idea what they mean, and they come from random places like buildings, signs, etc, but here are some of my favorite finds: Fahrplananderungen, Landeskrankenhilfe, anddd last but not least, Anschlussubersicht!! :)
So, where do I begin? Well, we left Barcelona around 10:25 am on Friday, and arrived in Munich around 12:30pm. The second I stepped off the plane and onto the little connector-walkway-thing-ma-jigger, the freezing cold air hit me. First thought that came to mind? Solid work Hannah, you have, yet again, managed to be totally unprepared for the weather. You think as I get older I would actually be a little more prepared. You know, actually pack appropriate winter gear? Pft. Why would I ever do that? I mean, who really wants to be warm when walking around a city in 20 degree weather for 9 hours? Did I mention I came into this weekend with a sinus infection/fever? I'm thinking there is a definite possibility my germs froze to death...it was THAT cold in Munich.
After freezing to death in the 20 foot walk from the terminal to the train station, we proceeded to buy our tickets for the S-Bahn. I can proudly say I have done my first illegal thing in another country (God, I'm SUCH a rebel!!!). Seeing as the train ticket purchasing machine was entirely in German, you can guess we had a little difficulty finding the correct ticket to buy. And yes, you guessed it, we did in fact by the wrong one. About half way through our ride to our hostel, the train people came around to check our tickets and informed us that we had bought the wrong one. The penalty? A 40 Euro fine. Hah, that's a funny joke! I would absolutely NOT pay a 40 Euro fine for a mistake, this was not an intentional violation. So we were told to make our way to another random U-Bahn stop, find the office, and plead our case. After some discussion, we were able to argue our fee down to 10 Euro. I was still pretty angry. I could have used those 10 Euro for I dont know something useful like...A JACKET!!!
About 2 hours later than expected, we arrived at our hostel. This hostel was AWESOME! I've only experienced 3 hostels in my day, but this one was definitely my favorite. It had a real cool atmosphere to it. They had a free German beer tasting at night and the rooms were actually really nice. So, we set our stuff in our room and decided to go out and look around. We grabbed some lunch and started walking around. Within about 10 minutes it became incredibly clear that I needed to purchase some gloves of some sort. I managed to find the ugliest pair of gloves in the country and bought them. Oh well, they kept my poor fingers warm. I couldn't help but laugh when I purchased them. I always manage to have the most random first purchase when I visit another country for the weekend. London: ear plugs to fend off the onslaught of Pablo's snoring. Munich: the worlds ugliest pair of gloves to prevent frostbite from being my only German souvenir.
Now, the best part of my trip to Munich was the fact my cousin, Carina, would be meeting us there. I have only met Carina once, about two years ago, when she came to the U.S for the first time. Her flight wasn't getting in til way later and she wouldn't actually be at the hostel until 10:30. I was pretty nervous to see her again, so I decided to drink my feelings at the free beer tasting. KIDDING!!!!!!!!! (Yes, Dad...I swear I am kidding). But, I did actually go to the beer tasting to kill the time. They served little glasses of different kinds of beer. I don't really like the taste of any kind of alcohol, especially beer, but I figured I'd try because hey, I'm in Germany...they are known for their beer. None of the beers were mind-blowingly good, but I did enjoy the wheat beer to some degree. Around 10:30 I got a friendly tap on the shoulder at the bar, turned around, and there was CARINA! Wooooo! We gave eachother a big hug and I helped her check in and bring her things up to the room. We talked for a little bit and she gave me a gift; a scarf and some German candies. We were all exhausted, so we decided to go to bed after that.
That morning we got up, had breakfast, and made our way into the city center; Marienplatz. Trying to turn over a new leaf, I tried to dress as warm as humanly possible. I wore a pair of stockings under my jeans, 4 pairs of socks, boots, 2 camis, 2 sweaters, 2 cardigans, my northface, a scarf, and my heinous gloves. It pretty much could have been Halloween and I was dressed up as little Randy from a Christmas Story....ya know, the one in the huge snowsuit. Had anyone pushed me over...there would have been NO getting back up. I felt somewhat successful in my attempt to stay warm. It took about 20 minutes for me to go numb, not 2. When in Marienplatz, we saw the giant clock, the Glockenschpiel, ring and rotate on the hour. We walked around and went in some souvenir shops to get postcards, gifts, etc. I really enjoyed the city center. I felt lie I was walking around in a fairy tale, it was great. After about an hour or so of walking around, we decided we wanted to head over to the Dachau Concentration Camp. We all decided that that was something we definitely wanted to do. When we got there we decided to take a guided tour that took about 2.5 hours. I'm going to write a separate blog about the entire experience, but let me say for now, it was a powerful one.
After Dachau, we decided to head back into the city center and get some dinner. We were in Munich and everyone said you HAVE to go to the Hofbrauhaus. The Hofbrauhaus is a giant beer garden that holds about 400-500 people. We walked in and my jaw just dropped. It was a CRAZY atmosphere. You were in charge of find your own seat and hope that a waitress, dressed in full bavarian garb, would see you. There is a Bavarian band playing, and everyone is singing and chanting along. They served giant 1L mugs of beer as well as HUGE Bavarian pretzels. I know it makes me sound ridiculous...but I probably had been this excited to eat in a LONG time. Walking around for 6 hours in the snow did not help the fever at all. I was pretty much dying at dinner. I didn't think drinking a giant mug of beer would be the best decision when I had a fever and was on pain meds..so I skipped that part. The one part I did not skip out on? My meal. I ended up getting a pork roast with bread dumplings and coleslaw. DELICIOUS! I had a great time at dinner. My cousin Carina was having a great time too. We sat next to eachother and just chatted like old friends the entire time; her English is really great, I was quite proud! She recommended we get an apple strudel for desert and of course, a pretzel. We did and both were to die for. Eating at the Hofbrauhaus was quite the experience; a fun and delicious one to be exact!
After the Hofbrahaus we made our way back to the hostel. I looked and felt the living dead. Carina's friend, Ann-Christine, lives in Munich and wanted to take us out to show us the nightlife. The responsible adult in me, that usually wins over, said, "Hannah you are going to make yourself more sick..I think you should stay in and get some rest". The irresponsible side of me, that rarely comes out when it comes to clubbing, said, "Oh Hannah, you're only in Munich once, go have FUN!". I listened to the latter. We went to this club that had three different clubs within it. One club played techno, the other played pop, and the last played hip-hop. It was definitely a fun place to be, but I just really couldn't have any fun because I felt so sick. It was so bad, I ended up getting soda to drink at the bar. That should be a good indicator of how I was feeling. BUT! I'm glad I went out so I can say I at least experienced Munich nightlife.
We ended up getting in really late, getting up really early to check out, and making our way to the train station. It was really hard saying goodbye to Carina...she cries quite easily. She is actually coming to visit the U.S in June with her father and little brother, so I just tried telling her it is only 4 months. Not toooo long! I said I'd be feeling better and I would get to show her around this time! I had a great time with her this weekend. I definitely feel like I've known her for forever, even though I've only met her twice. I would definitely think of going out to visit her in Germany someday. She is a sweetheart and I am so happy that I got to spend time with her this weekend. However, I must say, she is quite the bad influence. She encouraged and laughed at my use of the word SCHIZA. Let's just say it's one of three words I know in Germany...and it's a swearword. :)
I had a fantastic time in Munich. I wish I had been feeling better because that would made my trip a LOT more enjoyable. I also wish I had more time in the city. We really only had one day to do things...but we made the most of it. I am definitely looking forward to returning to Germany some day and really taking in the sights. I loved what I saw this weekend and cannot WAIT to see more. This is going to sound like an Academy Award acceptance speech, but thank you to my wonderful Grammy who helped me out with this trip! This wouldn't have been possible without you! I LOVE YOUU!!! The return to the homeland was a success!
Please excuse any and all typos in this blog. I need to head to bed so I'm going to have to skimp on the revisions. If I'm not too busy I will post some pictures tomorrow, as well as an entry on Dachau. I love and miss you ALL! <3
P.S - The German language has the LONGEST words I have ever seen in my life! I found it humorous, so I kept my eye out for some of the longest I could I find. I have no idea what they mean, and they come from random places like buildings, signs, etc, but here are some of my favorite finds: Fahrplananderungen, Landeskrankenhilfe, anddd last but not least, Anschlussubersicht!! :)
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
idiots.
I need to get this off my chest...Let me just say, I am studying abroad with approximately 500 complete and total idiots. Why my words of hostility? Let me explain. About two weeks ago we had a project/presentation due for Psych. It involved you and your group members writing things called "Critical Incidents", assembling them all into a catalog, and presenting them to the class. Not a huge deal. Most groups had 6 people in there group which worked out nicely because you needed 6 critical incidents complete. My group had 5 members so I offered to be the person in the group to do two. They were due/we had to present them on February 19th. My group didn't really know how to format their critical incidents, not to mention our teacher is a tough grader, so I decided to get my critical incidents done in the beginning of February to have my teacher look over them. I figured if I had them done early she'd look them over, I could make any changes she suggested, and then send it as a rough guide for the rest of my group members. So about 3 weeks before the due date, I wrote both of my critical incidents. It probably took about an hour max. Really easy assignment. A few days later, I sent them to our teacher to have her look over them, she gave me a feedback, and I sent them to the rest of my group members. I made the catalog when all of my group members e-mailed me their critical incidents and then I made a powerpoint for our presentation. We presented everything the next day and I was pretty excited because I thought it went really well. I felt like she liked it. Wooo! Done with this project...no more stress. Or so I thought...
There are 3 different sessions of this Psych class I'm taking. Mine is on T/TH's and the other two are on M/W's. ALL of them are taught by the same teacher. Carly, who is in a different section of the class, had her critical incidents presentation the Monday after my Thursday presentation. CEA is really strict about having phones go off in class, so mine is almost always off. I was walking to my Macro class, during the time of Carly's Psych class, and decided to turn on my phone quick to see if I had any missed calls or texts. As I'm walking into my Macro class, I see I had gotten a text from Carly that said, "OMG Hannah. Someone copied and is presenting your critical incident word for word." AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I proceeded to pretty much have a panic attack. That Macro class was the longest hour and a half of my life. All I could think about is how strict this teacher is and how she can't stand the majority of the CEA students. It would make her DAY to fail someone for plagiarism. After class, I sprinted back to my room to talk to Carly. A girl had my same critical incident, word for word, with only the name of the character and the nummerical order of my answers changed. SERIOUSLY?! I'd like to know this girl's train of thought. I assume it's something along the lines of..."Wow, I put this project off til the last second. What am I going to do? Ahhh yes, let's copy a fellow Psych student's project. Even though I know we will both be handing it in to the same teacher." In the words of SNL....I mean, REALLY?!?!?!?!
You have to be a complete moron to think you are going to get away with that. How do I think this happened? I have my theories. I had my critical incidents done well before the due date and mailed them to my other group members. I know that the girl who copied me lives with one of my group members. This means that the copier had access to my example I sent my group members (the same exact one that just so happened to be copied). So two possible things happened. My group member knowingly gave her friend the critical incident to copy. The girl procrastinated...maybe it was a help-a-sister-out-type-deal. However, that doesn't seem all that logical to me. Why would my group member help her friend plagiarize with something from her own group? If she was caught, not only would this girl be in trouble, that means our group would be penalized too. It is far easier to track down who helped this girl plagiarize if the work comes from the "helper's" own group. Giving her other material, from say the internet, would have had my group member likely in the clear. You can't really trace it back to anyone specific, so just the plagiarizer would be in trouble. So why someone would help someone plagiarize with there own material, is beyond me. Second scenario I've come up with, the one I like to believe is true, is that my group member gave her friend my critical incident for the same reason I sent it to my group; to have an example to work off of. Then I think the girl must have gotten lazy and went behind my group members back and just copied the whole thing, with some minor changes of course. Either way...I'm not a happy camper.
I don't really need this added stress in my life right now. The teacher did notice the plagiarism, as well as others cases in the other classes. She right off the bat knew that I wasn't involved because of how early I had mine done. So thankfully, shes on my side. I also have old emails, Word document dates saved, and drafts that I can use as evidence if it comes to that. Hopefully this girl just fesses up, because if not I'll probably get dragged into the Dean's Office to defend myself. Which I have no problem doing, but I really have better ways to spend my time than sitting and figuring this all out with the dean, my teacher, and this girl. If it comes to that, I already know what I will be saying. I'll start by asking her what my name is. I have no idea who this girl is, I have never seen her in my life, bottomline, we don't know eachother. She probably won't know my name. Why exactly would I help someone I don't even know, someone who doesn't even know my name, plagiarize? I also have to prepare for the possibility that she has seen my name on Facebook. That works just fine as well. I'll still ask her my name...you can bet money she won't pronounce it right. Again, you think if I helped someone plagiarize they would at least know how to say my name. I think that right there might put her in a little hole. Hopefully, if she hasn't already, she'll just fess up and get this over with.
Thankfully, I have other things up my sleeve to defend myself with if the simple doesn't work. I also have the teacher in my corner which helps ALOT. I just hope this ordeal doesn't affect my grade at all. It's been about a week and a half since this all transpired and we get back our grades for it tomorrow. So I guess we'll be seeing how things work out. Worst comes to worst, I have to go defend myself at the Dean's. I'm confident I'll be fine. Until this is all behind me, I am stressed out like nobody's business. Oh well.
In other academic news...I got a 96 on my first Spanish Test (pure luck...I really don't know what I'm doing), a B+ on my Sport and Culture Mid-Term (I plan on trying to argue up to an A- because I don't think I should have been docked on one of my short answers), and I took my Macro mid-term today. Let's just say, no exaggerations, I probably did something that rhymes with SCHMAILED :)
Other than the huge test I have to study for tomorrow, the 1,9635 pages of reading I have to do, and the fact I think I'm getting a sinus infection, I'm doing real well!!! I'll be sureeeeee to let everyone know how this all ends up. Love and miss you all! <3
There are 3 different sessions of this Psych class I'm taking. Mine is on T/TH's and the other two are on M/W's. ALL of them are taught by the same teacher. Carly, who is in a different section of the class, had her critical incidents presentation the Monday after my Thursday presentation. CEA is really strict about having phones go off in class, so mine is almost always off. I was walking to my Macro class, during the time of Carly's Psych class, and decided to turn on my phone quick to see if I had any missed calls or texts. As I'm walking into my Macro class, I see I had gotten a text from Carly that said, "OMG Hannah. Someone copied and is presenting your critical incident word for word." AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I proceeded to pretty much have a panic attack. That Macro class was the longest hour and a half of my life. All I could think about is how strict this teacher is and how she can't stand the majority of the CEA students. It would make her DAY to fail someone for plagiarism. After class, I sprinted back to my room to talk to Carly. A girl had my same critical incident, word for word, with only the name of the character and the nummerical order of my answers changed. SERIOUSLY?! I'd like to know this girl's train of thought. I assume it's something along the lines of..."Wow, I put this project off til the last second. What am I going to do? Ahhh yes, let's copy a fellow Psych student's project. Even though I know we will both be handing it in to the same teacher." In the words of SNL....I mean, REALLY?!?!?!?!
You have to be a complete moron to think you are going to get away with that. How do I think this happened? I have my theories. I had my critical incidents done well before the due date and mailed them to my other group members. I know that the girl who copied me lives with one of my group members. This means that the copier had access to my example I sent my group members (the same exact one that just so happened to be copied). So two possible things happened. My group member knowingly gave her friend the critical incident to copy. The girl procrastinated...maybe it was a help-a-sister-out-type-deal. However, that doesn't seem all that logical to me. Why would my group member help her friend plagiarize with something from her own group? If she was caught, not only would this girl be in trouble, that means our group would be penalized too. It is far easier to track down who helped this girl plagiarize if the work comes from the "helper's" own group. Giving her other material, from say the internet, would have had my group member likely in the clear. You can't really trace it back to anyone specific, so just the plagiarizer would be in trouble. So why someone would help someone plagiarize with there own material, is beyond me. Second scenario I've come up with, the one I like to believe is true, is that my group member gave her friend my critical incident for the same reason I sent it to my group; to have an example to work off of. Then I think the girl must have gotten lazy and went behind my group members back and just copied the whole thing, with some minor changes of course. Either way...I'm not a happy camper.
I don't really need this added stress in my life right now. The teacher did notice the plagiarism, as well as others cases in the other classes. She right off the bat knew that I wasn't involved because of how early I had mine done. So thankfully, shes on my side. I also have old emails, Word document dates saved, and drafts that I can use as evidence if it comes to that. Hopefully this girl just fesses up, because if not I'll probably get dragged into the Dean's Office to defend myself. Which I have no problem doing, but I really have better ways to spend my time than sitting and figuring this all out with the dean, my teacher, and this girl. If it comes to that, I already know what I will be saying. I'll start by asking her what my name is. I have no idea who this girl is, I have never seen her in my life, bottomline, we don't know eachother. She probably won't know my name. Why exactly would I help someone I don't even know, someone who doesn't even know my name, plagiarize? I also have to prepare for the possibility that she has seen my name on Facebook. That works just fine as well. I'll still ask her my name...you can bet money she won't pronounce it right. Again, you think if I helped someone plagiarize they would at least know how to say my name. I think that right there might put her in a little hole. Hopefully, if she hasn't already, she'll just fess up and get this over with.
Thankfully, I have other things up my sleeve to defend myself with if the simple doesn't work. I also have the teacher in my corner which helps ALOT. I just hope this ordeal doesn't affect my grade at all. It's been about a week and a half since this all transpired and we get back our grades for it tomorrow. So I guess we'll be seeing how things work out. Worst comes to worst, I have to go defend myself at the Dean's. I'm confident I'll be fine. Until this is all behind me, I am stressed out like nobody's business. Oh well.
In other academic news...I got a 96 on my first Spanish Test (pure luck...I really don't know what I'm doing), a B+ on my Sport and Culture Mid-Term (I plan on trying to argue up to an A- because I don't think I should have been docked on one of my short answers), and I took my Macro mid-term today. Let's just say, no exaggerations, I probably did something that rhymes with SCHMAILED :)
Other than the huge test I have to study for tomorrow, the 1,9635 pages of reading I have to do, and the fact I think I'm getting a sinus infection, I'm doing real well!!! I'll be sureeeeee to let everyone know how this all ends up. Love and miss you all! <3
Monday, March 2, 2009
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