As I'm sitting here writing this I'm home sick from school with my little sister. I evaded the influenza for four months, so I think I did pretty well. It's -6 out, colder than I've ever lived in in my entire life, and snowing snowing snowing. It hasn't stopped for the last few days, and yesterday we even got some hail; normally not that bad, but when it's been below freezing for a week, it makes for some scary roads. Anyways lets recap the last two weeks.
January 4th. The next day my host family was leaving to go on a week long trip to Austria to go skiing. That would have been super fun to go on, considering it's a country I've never been to and I haven't been skiing in years. But it also would have set me back close to 500 euros. Ouch. So on the 4th I hoped on a train and went up north to the small little town of Katlenburg, 30 minutes away from Gottingen. There lives the host sister of my aunt. My aunt was an exchange student when she was 18 (part of the influence to have me try exchange this year) and she is still very good friends with her host sister. They are such an amazing family. Anja the mother, Holgar the father, and Svenja the daughter. They have 2 sons, but they are gone at college. They all picked my up from the train station in Gottingen and we went and explored the Fussgangerzone (pedestrian zone). Gottingen is a really pretty University town with a lot of history. Anja and Holgar were such nice people they bought me a new pair of (every expensive) jeans. Thinking I was a California girl only with shorts they refused to take no for an answer. Then after some more exploring we hopped in the car and drove to their house in the rain. Their house is amazing! They showed me to my room and I got all situated and then we made our plan for the week. That day was a cave adventure. Anja, Svenja, and I made the 30 minute journey to a town with a cave. It was raining and cold, mist wetter! The cave tour was actually pretty short, but there was a super cool museum that went with the cave to it was pretty cool. Also the fact that the cave used to be a coral reef in Africa, and now it is a cave some 1000 meters up a mountain in the north of Germany, was pretty cool. We went back home after learning about the worlds oldest family and played some crazy Uno. Their Uno is terrifying in that a normal hand could end up being thousands of points. Holgar and Anja had just gotten their tax returns, a fair amount of money; and that with the fact that I was there deemed a celebration. So we had some Sekt. Lots of Sekt. After dinner we stayed up talking about everything. I went to bed a bit early to prepare for my next exciting day...
COSPLAY ON ICE. Svenja is really into Anime and Japanese culture and all that fun stuff, so the next day we (Svenja, her best friend, and I) went to Cosplay on ice. Svenja and her friend went as Lolita girls this year, so I lucked out and got to wear her costume from last year. I was
Ryoma Echizen from The Prince of Tennis. Anja drove us to the Gottingen train station where we met up with other Cosplayers and then we all walked to the ice rink. It was really cool to see people in costumes skating around on the ice. There were two girls I loved who were Alice and the Cheshire Cat. After many long hours of skating Anja came and picked us up and we got Mexican food for dinner. That night we watched the German version of American Idol on their movie theatre screen. It's HUGE.
The next day was Sunday, boy how the time flew. Svenja had school the next day, so naturally she had lots of work to do. So Anja and I went to East Germany. There is an old border crossing station that is now a museum 40 minutes east of their house, so we hoped in the car and headed there. On our way we passed a town called Duderstadt. Anja had been there with my Aunt and Uncle so we stopped in to see the sights. There was a new museum on the town wall so we went into it. It was really cool and they had fun shooting games so you could test and she how you would have fared as a archer in the old days. I've found that museums in Germany, and probably all of Europe, are REALLY cool. We spent and really long time in Duderstadt seeing all the old churches. In one Anja lit a candle fo rher mother and I lit one for the Kuljians. We made our way to the border museum, which of course was super cool. We ended up staying until it closed. We were last last people there. It's really cool to learn the history of a country in the country. We headed back home talking about music the whole way. When we got home we instantly got on youtube and showed each other music videos. Dinner was an event. Holgar wanted to go to a Steakhouse, but I'm a vegetarian. Then there was talk about a different resturant 30 minutes away, but Svenja still had lots of home work. So Anja ended up making the most delicious Salmon meal for dinner. I could eat it for the rest of my life, total lecker!
I'm an exchange student, so naturally I'm a bit crazy. That fact showed in my decision to go to school with Svenja on Monday. I arose to Anjas sweet voice waking me at 5:50. I got dress and went down stairs to a beautiful, typical, German breakfast. Then it was off to the bus. We had Physics, English, Latin, and then something like study skills. Svenjas school is super cool and fancy and big. It was cool to go. Holgar picked us up at the end of the day and took us home. Later that night I went to Zumba with Anja, what fun! And then came home and sat talking on the couch with Svenja and Anja, ending the night in a tickle fight and good byes.
The next day Holgar took me to the train station and I made my way to Epstein.
My "Uncle Karl" lives in Epstein. He is my Grandpas best friend, so I went to spend the rest of my week with him. I got into Epstein around 4 and Karl and I made our way to his house. We hung out until evening time when we went to dinner at an Italian restaurant with 2 of Karls friends who just got back from Egypt and Detlef (spelled totally wrong) Karls best friend. I drank good wine, ate good fish, spoke broken German. We went back home and Karl gave me a mini lesson in good liquor the important things to know in life.
The next day was a nice relaxed day. I slept in, had some delicious German breakfast. Then Karl and I went with Deflef to drop his car off at the mechanic to get a broken lock fixed. The mechanic was many many villages over so it took a while to get there, but it was super pretty too see more of Germany. When that was done we went back home and Karl and I did a crossword together. I started doing crossword at Anja and Holgars. I really like them, they help teach me German and it's nice time to spend with people. Unfortunately my host family doesn't have the time to do them with me, and there's no way I could do them alone. After a while the husband from the couple that went to dinner with us the night before came over for a beer and he helped us out with the crossword. Then Detlef came over and him, Karl, and I went to a really fancy Italian restaurant for dinner. I had "spicy" pasta. We went back home and ice cream with liquor, needless to say I drank a lot while there. Karl also has international calling so I got to call Ivy and talk to her for a good hour. It was so great to hear her voice and catch up on all the gossip and news in her life.
My final full day in Epstein Karl and I went to Wiesbaden after our daily late breakfast and crossword. Wiesbaden is the capital of Hessen. I thought I had never been there before but it turns out I went there with Elliot and Su when we went on our travel around Hessen day. We walked around and it was fun to learn some of the history of Wiesbaden and Germany and Karl. When we were there Detlef called us and told us he found a great Indian food place we could go to for dinner. So we made the 30 minute drive back to Epstein, Detlef picked us up and we made our way to the Beverly Hills of the region. Posh. Dinner was hilarious because I was the only one of the group who had ever had Indian food, and I've had it a fair amount so I know whats what. Who knew the 18 year old California girl could teach 82 and 60 something year old German men something. We headed back home, with Detlef giving me presents of 1kilo of Haribo and boxes of Marzipan. I'm going to come home so fat.
The next day consisted of my favorite breakfast, apple cake, and crosswords. Then around noon I hoped a train back to Giessen. Friday was the day me and my family got home, but I never actually saw them until Saturday, because I went into town with a friend pretty much as soon as I got home.
Saturday I found out that, my best friend and life fixation, Ivy's brother died. I swear more people have died before their time should have come this year than in the last 5 years of my life combined. I ended up heading to Lich to see Sofia, my friend from Spain. It was great to spend some time with her and a friend from school. I got back home just in time for the belated birthday party for my host mom. Her birthday was while my family was away on holidays, so we had a late party. I ended up spending a good portion of the party up in my room skyping Ivy. But when I came down my mom asked me what was wrong. I ended up crying in front of all my neighbors, but at least they all don't think I'm super antisocial.
Sunday? I can't remember Sunday..
Monday. First day back at school. Blah. I got invited to go to a club with some friends on Friday. It's a shitty club, but it's friends, so I said yeah. I met up in town with Jose and Diego, exchange students. We got in some snow fights and then I met up with Martin one of my friends from my host moms school. We got some coffee and then I headed home to do my copious amounts of homework. Hahaha jk, I never have homework.
Tuesday. School. Friends. below zero temps. ladida. throat ache
Wednesday. Same ol same ol. colder snowier. impending influenza
THURSDAY! My friend Jake from good 'ol Arcata came to visit for a few days. He has been living in Munich with his family for the last month while intransition between living in India and moving to Costa Rica. I picked him up from the train station, we went home so he could ditch his stuff then headed back into town. There was lots of beautiful Giessen to show off... sarcasm. After my week away I realized Giessen isn't that pretty. It's probably because it was all blown up and had to be rebuilt quickly because there were lots of US troops that needed places to live. Anyway. We met up with Jose and gallivanted around Giessen for a while. Then we met up with Martin to get some coffee at our favorite coffee spot. Unfortunately it is a popular favorite coffee spot, so the only tables available were outside. It wouldn't have been that bad if it wasn't -4 and we weren't outside for 4 hours. Though it was nice to talk with someone from Arcata and recollect on all the fun times we've had there. And brag a little bit to a German about how cool "Cali" is. We headed home where Jake met my fam and we had untypical German dinner.
Friday. Influenza has been born. I stayed home from school due to illness. I got to sleep in, and so did Jake. We had breakfast and then spent the entire day doing nothing. We drank some beers and watch Portlandia and Top Gear UK all day. I've missed having nothing but Netflix days. I messaged my friend and told her that even though I wasn't at school I could go to the club, only to find out her friends were too tired to go so no club. So Jake and I set out trying to find something to do. When no options beside crappy club presented themselves we decided to just head into town. *Mom and Dad stop reading here* We grabbed the bottle of Tequila patently waiting on my book shelf and caught a bus into town. It's still weird being able to drink in public. We drank most of the bottle on the bus, weirdness. We met up Martin and wandered around town for a while. Finally when we were ice cold we went to our coffee shop and got some hot Gluhwein. Many, very fuzzy hours, later Jake and I got home and went to bed.
Caturday. We both woke up late, though finally it wasn't me sleeping until 1. Jake was supposed to go home that day, so we decided we should do something with our day besides Netflix. So, with our coldness, brightness, and post day alcohol induced minor head aches we went to the Mathematicum, where they soon became full blown migraines with the addition of math. The Mathematicum is a math museum, I've been to 2 times before. It's really cool and fun. And a great way to spend the day. Jake went home and I was the only Arcatian in Hessen again.
Sunday. I spent the afternoon in Wieseck with Martin. We went on a walk around Wieseck. Everything is so much prettier in the snow. There was even a house with a water wheel that was covered in ice. Yeah it's been that consistently cold for that long. On our walk I also learned that there are fucked up people all over the world. The type of fucked up people in Wieseck are the type that like to put dog food filled with razor blades on the side of the road knowing and hoping that dogs will eat it and die. Mensch. We went back to Martins house and watch some movies till I got a call from my host dad saying it was ice raining (hail) and no buses were running anymore because the roads were pure ice. Opps. I ended up going home by a very slow going and terrifying Taxi. I got home and had a great conversation with my host parents about Fasching and Karnieval where I found out I HAVE to go to Koln. Apparently that's the best party.
Heute: sleep. coughing. REAL AMERICAN PANCAKES. cold. blogging from 11am to 5pm.
I'll post pictures another time. Sorry for typos.
I also found this while procrastinating writing this. It's an interesting read. Enjoy.
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/01/theres-more-to-life-than-being-happy/266805/
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