The Europeans always tell me, "We don't need an excuse to have a party!"
I get that. I truly do. However, when given the opportunity, why would you not use a holiday like Halloween to have a little fun? You can dress up and have a beer instead of just having a beer. Oh, hey, and the day after Halloween is a public holiday that most Germans have off.
To my total surprise, the Germans and Europeans did not take advantage of this as much as I thought they would. I thought, to my utter horror, that I would be spending the night in my room instead of out celebrating one of the best (in my opinion) holidays of the year.
It turns out, that one of my wonderful friends was invited to a Halloween party at a house around Achalm. We had to walk quite a ways to get up to what turned out to be a German fraternity house. The fraternities here in Germany are not as socially-based as they are in the States. Here, the fraternity we went to hang out with on Halloween night was a textile-based fraternity.
The house was beautiful, the decorations were unbelievable, and the people inside were really nice.
Thank goodness my Halloween didn't end up being a bust like I thought it was going to be.
Hope you had a "spooktacular" Halloween!
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
A Change in the Seasons
The weather was so strange today - the morning was sunny and the breeze, or rather gusts of wind, were warm. It felt like summer all over again! However, after my lunch break was over for the day, the skies turned dark and cloudy, and the gusts of wind were no longer warm, but chilly. A storm was coming.
After checking the weather and seeing that rain shouldn't be hitting Reutlingen until about 9 p.m., I went grocery shopping as soon as I was done with work so I would make it home well before the rain. I haven't gone to buy groceries in a long time, so this trip was a bit pricey.
The results, though, were worth it. Tonight, I ended up making chili. I don't even really like chili, but this recipe sounded good. The Southwest Meatball Chili recipe I found online included a bunch of delicious ingredients. I ended up putting it on rice and throwing on some jalapenos, sour cream, and cheese, and I got a really filling, really delicious dinner, during which I watched my newest show obsession - Suits.
Only after coming to Germany and talking to international students from Europe have I learned how much I have been missing in terms of American television. Suits, as well as Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead are a few of the shows that I was looked at like I had grown horns because I had never watched them before.
I feel like I am beginning to hibernate - I am eating a lot, sleeping a lot, and holing myself up in my room to watch television. What has my life become?
I had to distract myself from wanting to go to sleep tonight - I was going to Skype with my family back home at 11:30 my time, 4:30 their time, and it felt like the few hours until I could Skype my family dragged on. I had my computer open at around 11:00 and waited. And waited. And waited. Around 12, my mom finally got on the computer.
When I asked what happened, she said that she was on at 4:20 and waiting for me, but I was not on the computer. After a few minutes, we both realized something - while Daylight Savings had happened in Europe this past weekend, it was not happening until next weekend back home - I should have been on the computer around 10:30 my time, not 11:30!
Sunday, October 27, 2013
A True Day of Rest
After weeks of crazy, extremely busy days, I finally have had a full day of relaxing.
Daylight Savings occurred for us this weekend, so I had an extra hour of sleep. Back home when this occurred, I always remember it coming on a much-needed weekend. Here, however, it happens to fall on the most relaxing weekend I have had since I got here! Oh well, I still enjoyed it.
I did not leave my building in the morning - I made food throughout the day in my kitchen, caught up on The Vampire Diaries, and napped.
After my relaxing day of nothing, I got ready to attend an orchestra concert - there were extra tickets from the Valpo program, as all of the students are off exploring Europe for their 2.5 week break, and I got tickets for me and a friend. Dawn joined me.
We took the bus downtown and quickly reached the Stadthalle - this new building in town is one that was not there when I was in Germany almost three years ago. It is a beautiful building.
Once we arrived, we found the new Valpo resident director, his family, the head of the Valpo German department, and the the Valpo program's German professor. I introduced Dawn, and then we went to try to find our seats.
The concert was interesting. It had a good mix of the old, beautiful classical music and the more contemporary orchestra music. I am unsure if I actually enjoyed the newer music, but I did enjoy that the students who had written the pieces were there that evening.
The orchestra was a joy to watch - they all played beautifully, and their love for the music was evident in the way they played their instruments.
Once the concert was over, we caught the next bus back, and I changed into my pajamas!
Once I had settled in, I Skyped with a friend from home, and then headed off to bed.
After my relaxing day of nothing, I got ready to attend an orchestra concert - there were extra tickets from the Valpo program, as all of the students are off exploring Europe for their 2.5 week break, and I got tickets for me and a friend. Dawn joined me.
We took the bus downtown and quickly reached the Stadthalle - this new building in town is one that was not there when I was in Germany almost three years ago. It is a beautiful building.
Once we arrived, we found the new Valpo resident director, his family, the head of the Valpo German department, and the the Valpo program's German professor. I introduced Dawn, and then we went to try to find our seats.
The concert was interesting. It had a good mix of the old, beautiful classical music and the more contemporary orchestra music. I am unsure if I actually enjoyed the newer music, but I did enjoy that the students who had written the pieces were there that evening.
The orchestra was a joy to watch - they all played beautifully, and their love for the music was evident in the way they played their instruments.
Once the concert was over, we caught the next bus back, and I changed into my pajamas!
Once I had settled in, I Skyped with a friend from home, and then headed off to bed.
I have learned to revel in these days - it does not happen very often that I get a full day, let alone a full weekend, in which I had nowhere to be and little to no stress.
Saturday, October 26, 2013
To the Top!
After being sick for the last week or so, I decided a relaxing weekend was in order. I had no trips planned - actually, I had NO plans. All I knew was that the weather was going to be great and that I wanted to sleep in, stay in town, and have a stress-free weekend.
Despite my plans of sleeping in, I was awoken around 9:45 a.m. to help a friend who had her laundry stuck in the washing machine. Apparently a piece of the machine has snapped and the lock was not un-locking. She was frantic, but was calmed down soon enough. The Hausmeister must have heard the desperation in her voice on the phone because, despite telling her earlier that she would have to wait until Monday to get her laundry (it was SATURDAY), he came back and somehow unlocked the machine.
There was no point in trying to go back to sleep. Instead, I ended up getting ready for the day. I watched a bit of The Originals, a spin-off of The Vampire Diaries. I'm hooked.
Despite spending those few hours watching The Originals, I managed to get out and into the world for a few hours on Saturday.
Julia, Chris, Joe, and I went out for a Chinese/Thai/Japanese sushi buffet. It was all-you-can-eat, and it was fabulous.
After being sufficiently stuffed, we all headed back to the dorms to change - we were climbing Aachelm.
Aachelm is the largest hill/mountain in Reutlingen and the view of the entire city and surrounding area is wonderful.
After a few bumps in the road, Chris, Lineke, and I were on our way. We walked leisurely up the large hill, stopped at the restaurant on the way to fill up our water bottles, and made it to the top about an hour before sunset.
We enjoyed the tower, as well as the wall overlooking the city, and headed down again. Overall, it took us over 14,000 steps - I received a step counter from AOK and it was cool to see how many steps it took us.
My night was spent watching the remaining episodes available of The Originals.
PHOTOS TO COME
Friday, October 25, 2013
Armed with a Cup of Coffee, Stapler, Staple-Remover, and Binder of Papers
With my best friend in town, work, and a bunch of other going-ons, I have fallen a little behind on the blog.
I hope you can all forgive me!
Not too many grand, new tasks in the office that I have been assigned (and the ones I WERE assigned, I will tell you about in this post!) - because of that, I choose to condense my last few weeks into one blog post. We can do it, I know we can.
If you missed it, I recently wrote a blog post about my wonderful road trip to Salzburg last weekend - check it out, pictures included.
This week has presented a few new hurdles in my professional journey here in Germany.
On Monday, I was to have an interview with a local hotel owner whose son needed an English tutor. I walked the 15 minute trek to Kantstrasse for my interview - much to my surprise, this interview was actually just a tutoring session! Unexpected, but alas, successful.
Stefan, the boys name, is 15 and is learning the English language. We spent an hour working on his pronunciation and reading through his text book so that we were sure he understood the material that was assigned to him.
During the middle of my session with Stefan, Herr H. came into the room and asked if I had time to meet with the next door neighbor's girl as well - she is in the same class as Stefan and also needed some help. After my hour was done with Stefan, I headed over. Mira had a few more questions about grammar than the readings - I promised her I would come back next time with a better understanding of my own language's grammar!
It is nice getting a little bit of tutoring experience on the side here. Both of the kids are very nice, and I think I am learning just as much German during our sessions as they are learning English!
Tuesday is when my next new task was given to me. Anne-Cathrin, who works with Erasmus scholarships for students studying in Europe, needed documents scanned into the computer and emailed to her.
This ended up being a lot more complicated than originally thought, and I ended up spending that entire day and Wednesday morning working on this project - never before this have I felt like my internship fit within the bounds of "typical internship." After spending hours in front of a copy machine armed with a cup of coffee, stapler, staple-remover, and binder of papers, I DEFINITELY felt that.
Due to a problem with the scanner function, I had to re-do about half of the papers the next morning. I bound all the PDFs that were related into one document and sent about 9 documents over to Anne-Cathrin on Wednesday morning.
After that task was complete, I had to head to German class, where I took my first test. I believe it went pretty well! I enjoyed today's class - we were speaking German with one another more than we were listening to a lecture, which was nice.
Dawn's birthday was on Wednesday, so Dawn, Ashley, Joe, and I grabbed some Swabian food downtown.
The next morning, Thursday, my focus was the Tandem program. I helped Karin to understand it more, and then we figured out how to put the Tandem Excel file onto a common network so that she could access it as well.
During the afternoon part of my shift, not too much work was done. Claudia had invited quite a few people from the department to celebrate her marriage. She made tons of delicious baked goods, bought some Sekt (sparkling wine) for everyone, and coffee was provided!
It was a great chance to see some of the beautiful pictures from Claudia's white dress wedding, as well as meet new members of the Reutlingen University staff. Tobi, Max, and I all got to catch up some, as well.
Today, Friday, the office was kind of slow. Gus came in to help me with more StudierenPlus stuff, but that was it! I worked a bit on updating my resume, as no one had anything for me to do.
There was a faculty get-together. We all met around 11 a.m. in the Aula and a lot of people made speeches (all in Deutsch, of course). Pretzels were promised, but after sitting through the presentation for over an hour (and almost thirty minutes into my lunch break), I ended up going home to make some food.
The afternoon was just as quiet in the office. After I got off of work, I headed over to Kantstrasse again to tutor Stefan - next week is fall break for the younger students and he will not be here next week for a session.
I hope you can all forgive me!
Not too many grand, new tasks in the office that I have been assigned (and the ones I WERE assigned, I will tell you about in this post!) - because of that, I choose to condense my last few weeks into one blog post. We can do it, I know we can.
If you missed it, I recently wrote a blog post about my wonderful road trip to Salzburg last weekend - check it out, pictures included.
This week has presented a few new hurdles in my professional journey here in Germany.
On Monday, I was to have an interview with a local hotel owner whose son needed an English tutor. I walked the 15 minute trek to Kantstrasse for my interview - much to my surprise, this interview was actually just a tutoring session! Unexpected, but alas, successful.
Stefan, the boys name, is 15 and is learning the English language. We spent an hour working on his pronunciation and reading through his text book so that we were sure he understood the material that was assigned to him.
During the middle of my session with Stefan, Herr H. came into the room and asked if I had time to meet with the next door neighbor's girl as well - she is in the same class as Stefan and also needed some help. After my hour was done with Stefan, I headed over. Mira had a few more questions about grammar than the readings - I promised her I would come back next time with a better understanding of my own language's grammar!
It is nice getting a little bit of tutoring experience on the side here. Both of the kids are very nice, and I think I am learning just as much German during our sessions as they are learning English!
Tuesday is when my next new task was given to me. Anne-Cathrin, who works with Erasmus scholarships for students studying in Europe, needed documents scanned into the computer and emailed to her.
This ended up being a lot more complicated than originally thought, and I ended up spending that entire day and Wednesday morning working on this project - never before this have I felt like my internship fit within the bounds of "typical internship." After spending hours in front of a copy machine armed with a cup of coffee, stapler, staple-remover, and binder of papers, I DEFINITELY felt that.
Due to a problem with the scanner function, I had to re-do about half of the papers the next morning. I bound all the PDFs that were related into one document and sent about 9 documents over to Anne-Cathrin on Wednesday morning.
After that task was complete, I had to head to German class, where I took my first test. I believe it went pretty well! I enjoyed today's class - we were speaking German with one another more than we were listening to a lecture, which was nice.
Dawn's birthday was on Wednesday, so Dawn, Ashley, Joe, and I grabbed some Swabian food downtown.
The next morning, Thursday, my focus was the Tandem program. I helped Karin to understand it more, and then we figured out how to put the Tandem Excel file onto a common network so that she could access it as well.
During the afternoon part of my shift, not too much work was done. Claudia had invited quite a few people from the department to celebrate her marriage. She made tons of delicious baked goods, bought some Sekt (sparkling wine) for everyone, and coffee was provided!
It was a great chance to see some of the beautiful pictures from Claudia's white dress wedding, as well as meet new members of the Reutlingen University staff. Tobi, Max, and I all got to catch up some, as well.
Today, Friday, the office was kind of slow. Gus came in to help me with more StudierenPlus stuff, but that was it! I worked a bit on updating my resume, as no one had anything for me to do.
There was a faculty get-together. We all met around 11 a.m. in the Aula and a lot of people made speeches (all in Deutsch, of course). Pretzels were promised, but after sitting through the presentation for over an hour (and almost thirty minutes into my lunch break), I ended up going home to make some food.
The afternoon was just as quiet in the office. After I got off of work, I headed over to Kantstrasse again to tutor Stefan - next week is fall break for the younger students and he will not be here next week for a session.
Monday, October 21, 2013
A Girl's Weekend in Salzburg - ROAD TRIP!
About a week ago, Lineke, Ava, Emma, Thea, and I decided we wanted to do something this weekend - there was talk of renting a car and heading to Amsterdam for the weekend, but that fell through.
Where else could we go?
I mean, we're in Europe, so the possibilities feel endless. We decided to start small - just over the German border into Austria sits the beautiful city of Salzburg, which is where we decided to visit!
We rented a car, one that Emma and Lineke could drive, as it was a manual car, and on Saturday morning around 8 a.m. we picked it up!
Around 8:30 a.m., we were on the road with a full tank of gas and a trunk stuffed full of our things.
It took us about five hours to get to Salzburg. We made only two stops on the way to our hostel!
We kept ourselves occupied for the five hours and made it to Salzburg in what seemed like a way shorter amount of time than five hours!
We got the last parking spot at our hostel, attempted to check in a little early, and headed into the city. We were starving, so that was our first order of business. After that, we wanted to actually do something that afternoon - we settled on visiting the Hohensalzburg castle, which was within view of the hostel.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Where else could we go?
I mean, we're in Europe, so the possibilities feel endless. We decided to start small - just over the German border into Austria sits the beautiful city of Salzburg, which is where we decided to visit!
We rented a car, one that Emma and Lineke could drive, as it was a manual car, and on Saturday morning around 8 a.m. we picked it up!
Around 8:30 a.m., we were on the road with a full tank of gas and a trunk stuffed full of our things.
It took us about five hours to get to Salzburg. We made only two stops on the way to our hostel!
We kept ourselves occupied for the five hours and made it to Salzburg in what seemed like a way shorter amount of time than five hours!
We got the last parking spot at our hostel, attempted to check in a little early, and headed into the city. We were starving, so that was our first order of business. After that, we wanted to actually do something that afternoon - we settled on visiting the Hohensalzburg castle, which was within view of the hostel.
From our hostel, we had a great view of the Nonnberg Abbey and Hohensalzburg castle
We found a sausage stand in the city and grabbed some food there. Then, we made our way to the base of the castle, and then up!**
Walking around Salzburg towards the Hohensalzburg castle!
*
Lineke, Ava, Thea, Emma, and me!
*
Saw a poster nearby that was like this and decided to reenact it
We stopped to take a few more pictures as we walked up the huge mountain to get to the castle:
We had about an hour in the castle before it closed, and that was just enough time! The castle was huge and there was a lot to see, but there were not too many people at the time to get into our way. :)
View from the castle
Hohensalzburg castle
*
Dancing in the square of the castle
We stumbled upon a beautiful cemetery - it looked a lot like the one from The Sound of Music movie!
St. Peters cemetery in Salzburg
As we continued walking, a very nice British couple snapped a picture of us with Lineke's camera amongst the beauty that is Salzburg.
*
On Saturday night, we ate a nice dinner at one of the more local-looking restaurants. I ended up getting a pumpkin pesto pasta, and it was phenomenal!
*
Emma, Ava, Thea, me, and Lineke at dinner in Salzburg
That night, we wandered the city as well - we wanted to make the most of our time in the city.
The next morning, we packed everything up, grabbed our free, delicious breakfast and had a nice, lazy day! We wandered around the city still, but we had seen most of what we wanted to see.
We wandered according to the map that we received from the hostel. When we saw a point of interest on the map, we would swing by and see if it was worth seeing.
We got to see the Nonnberg Abbey, the abbey we think was in The Sound of Music. The view from the abbey was beautiful.
*
Nonnberg Abbey
The view from the abbey
Our final, and very noteworthy, stop was the Mirabell Gardens.
*
We celebrated fall!
Mirabell Gardens - featured in The Sound of Music
Despite the weather getting colder, the gardens were still so very beautiful. We sat in the sun in the middle of the gardens around mid-day to soak up as much Vitamin D as possible!
While we were in the gardens, we saw a man walk up to a bench near the large fountain in the gardens and he set up a fake man - you know the street performers that are painted entirely silver and are completely motionless? Well, it was like that, except this one was not real, so of course it was motionless. We sat for about 20 minutes and enjoyed watching as people wandered by, took pictures, and debated about whether the fake, silver man was real or not.
We decided then, that we should grab some lunch and head home. The drive seemed longer on the way back. I think we were all a little tired from our whirlwind weekend.
We arrived in Reutlingen around 9:00 p.m. and, once we got back to the university, all headed to our rooms.
I had completed my first road trip and it was absolutely a success!
Photos with an asterisk (*) next to them:
Photo Credit to: Lineke De Paep
Photo Credit to: Lineke De Paep
Monday, October 14, 2013
Work and a Dinner With Friends
Today, my tasks in the office included the Tandem program and updating information for a classroom handout. Alas, it was a much less exciting day than my Wasen experience last night!
I paired and sent out the email to four pairs Tandem partners - I am excited to provide this connection between students and hope that everything goes well with the pairings.
My task that took about an hour of my afternoon was updating a handout that Herr Veit created for one of his classes. It was a handout about the auto industry in Germany and its importance within the country. I had to use the bibliography of the original handout to check each source and see if there were new figures to update the information that the handout contains. It was like a scavenger hunt to try to piece together the source with the information, but in the end, I think I figured everything out. I also included in my email of up-to-date information some of the charts that I found interesting that showed the information. I find I am a visual learner and know that charts would help me to understand.
It seemed like everyone was trying to avoid doing homework last night - Julia and Joe joined us after we were done eating. We ended the night with some tea, so very British, and that was that!
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Wasen: A Great Night, and What a German Beer Fest Has To Do With My Future
Today began as a nice, relaxing Sunday. Veronica and I woke up mid-morning and grabbed brunch at Cafe Sommer downtown. We both got tea, scrambled eggs, and a small brötchen - I also got ham. It was the most American, and most delicious, breakfast I have had since getting here! Both of us had gone to Cafe Sommer with Herr and Frau Brixner, who recommended the place to us the last time we were in Reutlingen.
We made it back to the university with just enough time to get ready for our evening fun - the final day of the Cannstatter Volksfest (a.k.a. Wasen) that we have been awaiting for months had arrived.
Wasen is the second largest beer festival in Germany (second only to Wiesn in Münich), and Herr Veit had gotten around 2,600 tickets for the students and faculty of Hochschule Reutlingen at a great price.
Veronica and I met everyone at the bus stop.
The bus was crazy - I think everyone was all heading to Stuttgart at the same time. We filled the bus to the max. There were even people who were preventing the doors from closing in order to try to squeeze more people in. The poor bus driver had to contact his supervisor to get permission to go straight to the train station with all of us!
Wasen is the second largest beer festival in Germany (second only to Wiesn in Münich), and Herr Veit had gotten around 2,600 tickets for the students and faculty of Hochschule Reutlingen at a great price.
Veronica and I met everyone at the bus stop.
Getting ready to get on the bus at Pestalozzistrasse
The bus was crazy - I think everyone was all heading to Stuttgart at the same time. We filled the bus to the max. There were even people who were preventing the doors from closing in order to try to squeeze more people in. The poor bus driver had to contact his supervisor to get permission to go straight to the train station with all of us!
I rode on the train with Tobi, Augusto, and Carlos, and when we arrived, we set up and then began to take the tickets from hundreds of excited students. Each ticket got the student two beer tickets and a food ticket. Having worked in a fast-paced environment at good ol' Steak 'n Shake definitely prepared me for the mad rush of students. I actually really enjoyed myself. After a while, the flow of students stopped and we waited around.
Carlos, another international student, and I gave students their tickets for food and beer for the first two hours that the university reserved spots in the Fuerstenberg tent.
Around 5:30, we were free to go and enjoy ourselves. I found my friends and joined their table - I got the try both the typical chicken and the plate of Käsespätzle. Both were delicious! I was very happy to be with friends after working during all the fun!
Rafael, Thea, Emma, Sam, me, and Lineke at Wasen
Me, Julia, Sarah, and Tammi during the festivities
We danced the night away and had a great time. The band that occupied the tent did a fantastic job, and the atmosphere was something that you cannot even imagine if you have not experienced it. I would have to say that I preferred Wasen over Wiesn, mostly because of the crowd of people I knew, our wonderful reserved table, and the free food and beer I received since I worked for part of the night. You can't beat that!
Perhaps some people are wondering what going to a beer festival has to do with my professional experience in Germany - having enjoyed and understand this type of cultural event has given me the chance to "be exposed to new people, places, and ideas," "be a more interesting and well-rounded applicant," and has will help my internship "sound like more than the traditional on-campus student job because
of where it was, what you were exposed to, and what you did." (quoted from How Study Abroad Prepares You For Your Career) I couldn't have said it any better than that, Ms. Lucier.
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Bad Urach UNESCO Geopark Tour, Schnitzel, and an Arrival
On Thursday, Herr Veit asked what I was doing on Saturday (today). I will admit, all I heard was "Saturday," "Bad Urach," and "ten minutes before ten" and I knew that I would want to participate! He also mentioned that it was going to take about five to six hours, but I thought there was no way that would happen. Bad Urach is big, but that was a long time.
On our train back, we made big plans to stop for some schnitzel in town. We were exhausted and hungry after our long day and could focus on little else.
I was wrong.
On this cold, grey, and rainy Saturday, around 20 students met at the train station at 9:45 a.m. to head over to Bad Urach, a nearby town. This beautiful spot on earth has a waterfall and old castle ruins on top of the Swabian Alb that lets you look out of what seems like half of the country.
When people ask me what there is to do around the area, I absolutely recommend the Bad Urach waterfall and castle ruins as a must-do. Here is the lovely tourism website for the trails and waterfall of Bad Urach (a plug for this tourism agency - after my internship at Indiana Dunes Tourism, I realize how important these plugs are!).
We arrived at the small train station for the Bad Urach waterfall and got out. A guide was waiting there for us, and we were on our way! I found out that this tour that we were on was a hiking tour of the UNESCO Geopark on the Swabian Alb - that's a mouthful of a name, but it describes perfectly what we did.
On our walk to the first waterfall of Bad Urach
Our tour guide took us on about a ten kilometer (a little over six miles) walk around the park. He stopped every once in a while to explain how the park was formed, the types of rock in the area that were created because of the waterfalls, and about the limestone in the area - being from Northwest Indiana and living about an hour away from a limestone quarry, I was well-versed on the properties of limestone!
We walked along the creek towards the Bad Urach waterfall and up to the top.
At the top of the waterfall, there is a small kiosk for food and beverages. I had only ever gotten about halfway up the waterfall and had not realized that there was food and drinks available for purchase! This was a nice stop on our tour.
The Bad Urach waterfall.
At the top of the waterfall, there is a small kiosk for food and beverages. I had only ever gotten about halfway up the waterfall and had not realized that there was food and drinks available for purchase! This was a nice stop on our tour.
We continued on along another path to the very top of the Alb, into a volcano vent, and made our way back down to the bottom. We could not see very much from the top because of the weather - it was much like my trip up Mount Pilatus in that there was so much fog and not much visibility!
The top of the Swabian Alb.
The start of the Bad Urach waterfall!
Beautiful, old farm house in the middle of a field on the Alb.
On the way down, we saw the remains of a monastery (there was very little left), saw another beautiful waterfall with a small pool, and wandered on the edge of a slippery cliff to see how the waterfall, over many years, created a small cave.
I was so glad that I had gotten up for this tour. I had only ever seen probably 1/4 of the things that our tour guide showed us - there was so much of the park that I had not even realized was there!
Another example of this was when we stumbled upon a state-funded farm at the bottom of the Alb! The stables/house were beautiful. They breed horses there, Arabians being one type. Beautiful creatures!
Despite the weather being pretty dismal and the visibility just as bad, the day was a success!
We boarded our train around 15:30 and just started to feel our fingers again, when we looked out the window and saw sun and blue skies - as soon as we had left the park (after a day of grey and rain), the sun came out just as we left. We were speechless and could do nothing but laugh!
The second waterfall in Bad Urach
I was so glad that I had gotten up for this tour. I had only ever seen probably 1/4 of the things that our tour guide showed us - there was so much of the park that I had not even realized was there!
Another example of this was when we stumbled upon a state-funded farm at the bottom of the Alb! The stables/house were beautiful. They breed horses there, Arabians being one type. Beautiful creatures!
The state-funded farm at the bottom of the Alb
Beautiful horses occupy part of a field behind the barn/house
Once we reached the bottom, we all received small glasses with the name and symbol of the organization that our guide represented. We all got to sample some home-made cider that was made from the apples in the small fruit fields that are in this part of the Alb.
Ava, Emma, Lineke, me, and Allie with our cider
Despite the weather being pretty dismal and the visibility just as bad, the day was a success!
We boarded our train around 15:30 and just started to feel our fingers again, when we looked out the window and saw sun and blue skies - as soon as we had left the park (after a day of grey and rain), the sun came out just as we left. We were speechless and could do nothing but laugh!
On our train back, we made big plans to stop for some schnitzel in town. We were exhausted and hungry after our long day and could focus on little else.
As we were looking at the menu for Onkel Otto's (we had arrived at around 16:30), I made a terrible realization - in my exhaustion, I had forgotten I was to meet Veronica at the train station around 16:15!
I frantically looked for my phone, relieved that I had no missed calls or text messages. I decided to call Veronica to see if her train was delayed. She picked up and I found out that she had arrived just fine and made her way up to the university already. She, somehow, ran into Tammi and a few other students who she had met at pre-departure meetings and was hanging out with them for the time-being. Relief.
I had enough time to devour my XL schnitzel and potato salad (if you ever get to Reutlingen, I completely recommend this restaurant), grab a bus home, and take a hot shower.
Once we got Veronica settled into my room in Wurm-Haus, we went upstairs so she could meet some of my international friends. We had a girls night, and ended up making plans to visit Salzburg next weekend.
Overall, a very successful and fun Saturday!
Friday, October 11, 2013
A Tutoring Job and The Afternoon Off!
Herr Veit gave me the number of a hotel owner in the area who is looking for
an English tutor for his son. He suggested that I call the man as soon as
possible, and today was the day. I ended up getting in contact with him, and he
will be calling me over the weekend to see when we could set up an appointment
to meet. The pay would be good, and it would be great experience for me to be a
tutor.
Once that was completed, I spent my morning assigning Tandem partners and emailing the student's their parings. This is a rewarding job, since all of the students voluntarily apply and are excited to be paired with someone who can help with their language skills, along with making a new friend.
The office seemed empty without Karin in it - she has gone on her holiday and will not be back for a few weeks.
I asked Brigitte and Claudia about any work that I could do for them - Claudia had just a small task for me to complete, and then it was my lunch break.
I had a nice, relaxing break where I ate some lunch and browsed social media and current events. This time that I spend doing this type of "research," if you can even call it that, has become such a wonderful part of my day. Through Twitter, Facebook, and news sites, I am keeping up with what is going on in Europe, back home, and everywhere else around the world.
When 2:00 p.m. rolled around, I was back in the office and ready for some work. To my surprise and excitement, I was told that I could go home early since no one was in the office but Brigitte, the office was closed to students for the afternoon, and there was nothing else that she could think of to have me do!
It is the little things, like an afternoon off, that make life wonderful.
Once that was completed, I spent my morning assigning Tandem partners and emailing the student's their parings. This is a rewarding job, since all of the students voluntarily apply and are excited to be paired with someone who can help with their language skills, along with making a new friend.
The office seemed empty without Karin in it - she has gone on her holiday and will not be back for a few weeks.
I asked Brigitte and Claudia about any work that I could do for them - Claudia had just a small task for me to complete, and then it was my lunch break.
I had a nice, relaxing break where I ate some lunch and browsed social media and current events. This time that I spend doing this type of "research," if you can even call it that, has become such a wonderful part of my day. Through Twitter, Facebook, and news sites, I am keeping up with what is going on in Europe, back home, and everywhere else around the world.
When 2:00 p.m. rolled around, I was back in the office and ready for some work. To my surprise and excitement, I was told that I could go home early since no one was in the office but Brigitte, the office was closed to students for the afternoon, and there was nothing else that she could think of to have me do!
It is the little things, like an afternoon off, that make life wonderful.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Alles Gute, Herr Veit!
Today, Claudia and I met around 9:00 a.m. to finish cleaning out the
Wurm-Saal. This is the room that we had the Scavenger Hunt pizza event last
night. While the event was fun and many students helped to clean up, there was
still a lot of cleaning to be done.
Claudia and I finished moving crates of drinks back into the RIO storage room in Wurm-Haus, and made a few trips down to the trash area. It was such a tease to see exactly where I needed to take all of these empty pizza boxes, but had to walk around the building and down a bunch of stairs in a rain storm. Not one of my best moments, I'll admit.
Once we had gotten most of the garbage out, Claudia left me to it. I had to vacuum the room, which was covered in crumbs from the night before. The things I do for my internship...
After I was done with that and just about to leave for the office, I got a call from Brigitte - it was Herr Veit's birthday today, and he wanted me to pick up a few things from the store before I came in. I made a Penny stop and got some cheese, lunch meat, butter, and grapes, and headed on in.
I could smell the fresh bakery buns that Herr Veit brought in for his birthday celebration that were in the other room. For two hours, I sat, did my work, and waited. While I was waiting, I finished up the RIO Intensivkurs certificates for the students using Mail Merge and then stamped them all.
Karin also wanted to begin going through the Tandem program information with me - she had sent out an email that morning and we had a ton of new applicants, which was exciting.
The Tandem program is a really great program that the international office offer students. Each willing student submits their native language, the language they wish to learn, their age, and their interests so I can pair them with someone who can help them learn the language they wish to speak better.
Once Herr Veit got back from the lecture he was giving, we all sat down, with a few people from other offices down the hall, to a birthday lunch. Everything was delicious - we made sandwiches from the fresh buns and pretzels. Something that I have not seen outside of Europe (or, at least, not that I remember) is putting butter on the sandwich bun, and then putting the meat and cheese. It is fantastic.
Apparently in Germany it is a tradition for the birthday person to bring in something for everyone to enjoy.
We also all had a glass of Sekt (sparkling wine). Herr Veit almost blew a hole in the ceiling when he tried to open the second bottle! My lunch break was not really a break today, but it was absolutely worth spending more time with my colleagues. As everyone was speaking in German, I was mentally exhausted trying to keep up.
For the afternoon, I asked Brigitte if I could help her with anything - she handed me a stack of rental contracts and security deposit information from this semester and last semester. I had to separate the stack into semester, then sort each stack by dorm building. It wasn't particularly stimulating work, but I knew it had to get done. I finished off my day in the office with that task.
After I had finished the afternoon part of my shift, I went home with the intentions of taking an hour-long nap. That one hour nap turned into a three hour nap, but I think it was good for my body to catch up on some sleep!
Claudia and I finished moving crates of drinks back into the RIO storage room in Wurm-Haus, and made a few trips down to the trash area. It was such a tease to see exactly where I needed to take all of these empty pizza boxes, but had to walk around the building and down a bunch of stairs in a rain storm. Not one of my best moments, I'll admit.
Once we had gotten most of the garbage out, Claudia left me to it. I had to vacuum the room, which was covered in crumbs from the night before. The things I do for my internship...
After I was done with that and just about to leave for the office, I got a call from Brigitte - it was Herr Veit's birthday today, and he wanted me to pick up a few things from the store before I came in. I made a Penny stop and got some cheese, lunch meat, butter, and grapes, and headed on in.
I could smell the fresh bakery buns that Herr Veit brought in for his birthday celebration that were in the other room. For two hours, I sat, did my work, and waited. While I was waiting, I finished up the RIO Intensivkurs certificates for the students using Mail Merge and then stamped them all.
Karin also wanted to begin going through the Tandem program information with me - she had sent out an email that morning and we had a ton of new applicants, which was exciting.
The Tandem program is a really great program that the international office offer students. Each willing student submits their native language, the language they wish to learn, their age, and their interests so I can pair them with someone who can help them learn the language they wish to speak better.
Once Herr Veit got back from the lecture he was giving, we all sat down, with a few people from other offices down the hall, to a birthday lunch. Everything was delicious - we made sandwiches from the fresh buns and pretzels. Something that I have not seen outside of Europe (or, at least, not that I remember) is putting butter on the sandwich bun, and then putting the meat and cheese. It is fantastic.
Apparently in Germany it is a tradition for the birthday person to bring in something for everyone to enjoy.
We also all had a glass of Sekt (sparkling wine). Herr Veit almost blew a hole in the ceiling when he tried to open the second bottle! My lunch break was not really a break today, but it was absolutely worth spending more time with my colleagues. As everyone was speaking in German, I was mentally exhausted trying to keep up.
For the afternoon, I asked Brigitte if I could help her with anything - she handed me a stack of rental contracts and security deposit information from this semester and last semester. I had to separate the stack into semester, then sort each stack by dorm building. It wasn't particularly stimulating work, but I knew it had to get done. I finished off my day in the office with that task.
After I had finished the afternoon part of my shift, I went home with the intentions of taking an hour-long nap. That one hour nap turned into a three hour nap, but I think it was good for my body to catch up on some sleep!
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
The First Half of My Work Week
The last few days of work were pretty standard days in the office. Students have been coming in to pay October's rent for the last few days, so I have been doing a lot more of the face-to-face interaction than computer work.
When I am not helping students pay for their rent, I am usually updating the RIO website with new or updated information. I also began to work on the grades for the RIO Intensivkurs certificates. I set up the spreadsheet for the Mail Merge function.
Last night, Lineke, Amy, and I did dinner together. I had found this ridiculously good looking recipe for chicken taquitos. They were fantastic and we had some good bonding time.
Tonight, there was a scavenger hunt for the Student4Student people. Student4Student is an organization on campus where a German student is there as a guide and mentor for an international student. Many times, the German S4S will meet the international student to give them their key and will help show them the ropes of Reutlingen life.
During the day, Augusto, Tobi, and I set up the Wurm-Saal for the pizza party that was to follow the scavenger hunt. I ended up going for the pizza part, as I had class during the scavenger hunt part of the night. A few of the students helped me and Claudia clean up the Wurm-Saal a bit, but we are planning on coming back tomorrow morning to do most of the cleaning.
After the scavenger hunt/pizza night, the plan was to go check out a club downtown. We ended up having a good time just hanging out in Wurm-Haus and did not want to make the trek to get downtown tonight.
Instead, we went to the campus bar CaRe for a little bit. The music was not as terrible as it has been the last few times we have checked it out. It was nice to see Dawn, one of the PPP students who just moved into Wurm-Haus, interact with my international and Valpo friends. I think that she will fit in well here. :)
When I am not helping students pay for their rent, I am usually updating the RIO website with new or updated information. I also began to work on the grades for the RIO Intensivkurs certificates. I set up the spreadsheet for the Mail Merge function.
Last night, Lineke, Amy, and I did dinner together. I had found this ridiculously good looking recipe for chicken taquitos. They were fantastic and we had some good bonding time.
Tonight, there was a scavenger hunt for the Student4Student people. Student4Student is an organization on campus where a German student is there as a guide and mentor for an international student. Many times, the German S4S will meet the international student to give them their key and will help show them the ropes of Reutlingen life.
During the day, Augusto, Tobi, and I set up the Wurm-Saal for the pizza party that was to follow the scavenger hunt. I ended up going for the pizza part, as I had class during the scavenger hunt part of the night. A few of the students helped me and Claudia clean up the Wurm-Saal a bit, but we are planning on coming back tomorrow morning to do most of the cleaning.
After the scavenger hunt/pizza night, the plan was to go check out a club downtown. We ended up having a good time just hanging out in Wurm-Haus and did not want to make the trek to get downtown tonight.
Instead, we went to the campus bar CaRe for a little bit. The music was not as terrible as it has been the last few times we have checked it out. It was nice to see Dawn, one of the PPP students who just moved into Wurm-Haus, interact with my international and Valpo friends. I think that she will fit in well here. :)
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Traveling Home and Girl's Night
Today was our last day in Lucerne. As our hostel was so far from the train station, when we checked out and went to walk around the city some more, we had to take our bags with us.
We walked over by the train station and ended up crossing the covered bridge. The bridge was such an incredible piece of history of the city. The beautiful flowers that adorned it made it picturesque, and there were these worn paintings of events that happened in the city dating back hundreds of years.
After the bridge, food was the next order of business. We ended up in a little café, a ways off of the beaten path. It smelled like Broadway Café, something I have been craving since I have gotten here! Their menu was much less substantial than Broadway's, but it did the trick.
We window shopped a little bit, and then decided that our bags were heavy and we wanted to relax for the remaining hour until our train arrived. I got my Starbucks (the pumpkin spice latte I have been craving!), we purchased some Swiss chocolate, and stopped in the grocery store in the train station to spend our last CHF.
In the chocolate store, I received a compliment on my German. :) The woman behind the counter told me that my German was very good, and that she could understand me very well. I was extremely flattered. I feel like I have been working hard at speaking the language, and it is nice to have my efforts noticed.
The train ride home seemed to take forever. We did not sleep as much on these trains as we did on the way to Fribourg. It also did not seem to agree with me - I ended up with a migraine and, as soon as we got home, I was down for the count and ended up having to take a nap to recover a bit.
Once I was recovered and had eaten some dinner, Amy and I headed up a few floors to Lineke's room for girl's night. About 10 of us crammed into the room to watch "Something Borrowed," drink some tea, and eat delicious snacky foods. It was a stereotypical girl's night to the max and I enjoyed every second of it. I had missed my friends from Reutlingen the last few days, and it was good to be back with them.
We walked over by the train station and ended up crossing the covered bridge. The bridge was such an incredible piece of history of the city. The beautiful flowers that adorned it made it picturesque, and there were these worn paintings of events that happened in the city dating back hundreds of years.
The Kapellbruecke, the oldest covered bridge in Europe!
The Kapellbruecke!
We window shopped a little bit, and then decided that our bags were heavy and we wanted to relax for the remaining hour until our train arrived. I got my Starbucks (the pumpkin spice latte I have been craving!), we purchased some Swiss chocolate, and stopped in the grocery store in the train station to spend our last CHF.
Mmm pumpkin spice latte! :)
In the chocolate store, I received a compliment on my German. :) The woman behind the counter told me that my German was very good, and that she could understand me very well. I was extremely flattered. I feel like I have been working hard at speaking the language, and it is nice to have my efforts noticed.
The train ride home seemed to take forever. We did not sleep as much on these trains as we did on the way to Fribourg. It also did not seem to agree with me - I ended up with a migraine and, as soon as we got home, I was down for the count and ended up having to take a nap to recover a bit.
Once I was recovered and had eaten some dinner, Amy and I headed up a few floors to Lineke's room for girl's night. About 10 of us crammed into the room to watch "Something Borrowed," drink some tea, and eat delicious snacky foods. It was a stereotypical girl's night to the max and I enjoyed every second of it. I had missed my friends from Reutlingen the last few days, and it was good to be back with them.
Saturday, October 5, 2013
The Golden Round Trip Tour - Lake Lucerne and Mount Pilatus
Despite the dismal weather forecast for the day in Lucerne, Amy, Eric, and I ended up buying tickets to do the Golden Round Trip tour. This included a boat ride on Lake Lucerne to the bottom of Mount Pilatus, a cog railway ride up the mountain (the steepest in the world!), a cable car to get back down the mountain, and a bus ride back to the train station. The hostel we stayed at had discounted group tickets for the people staying there, so we got to pay a little less for this experience.
The woman who worked at the hostel advised us against going, but I couldn't leave Lucerne without going up Pilatus. This ended up being worth every penny we spent and then some.
The weather seemed to be holding out for us on our 15 minute walk to the train station. We waited for the boat to arrive, and promptly boarded. We went to the top deck because we figured we would be able to see more. Once the ticket guy arrived, though, we all found out that this deck was just for first class passengers. Ugh.
We headed downstairs and sat down at a table inside near a window. We went outside every once in a while to take some pictures, but mostly we just enjoyed the view. It sprinkled on and off throughout our trip to the base of the mountain.
While it was kind of gray, there were bits of blue sky peeking out from behind the clouds and the clouds and fog that formed in the mountains around Lake Lucerne made a beautiful picture.
The boat ride took longer than I had expected - we arrived at the base of Mount Pilatus almost two hours later.
There was a short walk, and then we were at the cog railway. We were the last people allowed in to squeeze into one of the cars. We ended up in a car with seven other people (it was quite a squeeze) and we began out ascent. Because of the angles of the seats, we sat comfortably all the way up the mountain.
In our ride up the mountain, I was reminded how truly small the world is. Two of the seven people in our car were a father and his six-year-old son. They ended up being from Reutlingen!
The other five were Americans. We came to find out that they were from Illinois! What are the chances that the people in our car would all be from places that we know - places that we call home.
The ride was nice, but we couldn't see too much. The trees blocked most of our view. And then we reached the top of the mountain.
Unfortunately, we couldn't see very far down the mountain, but the experience was just as fantastic as if we could have. First, we walked for about ten minutes up to the top of one part of the mountain. We got a view of the hotel and visitor's center on top of the mountain, and a little bit down the mountain.
Afterwards, we decided to take a walk around the mountain some. The sign that we saw said that our walk was going to be about 40 minutes - we had assumed that the walk was round trip.
We took a bunch of pictures and just enjoyed ourselves for our walk. We even ended up seeing mountain goats!
And then the rain came.
As we continued on our journey, we kept going away from where we had started. After we had walked about 40 minutes, one way, and once the path went from paved to rocky, we figured out that the 40-minute trail was NOT round trip. And so, in the pouring rain, we made our way back to where we started. We were freezing, wet, and ready to get warm, and we decided we would get some coffee as soon as we got back.
Just happy to be out of the rain, we stopped at a gift shop in the visitor's center. A woman saw us and asked us if we had tickets to go down the mountain by cable car. Because we had that round trip ticket, we said yes and were then informed that there would be no more cable car rides down the mountain and that we had to go, as soon as possible, to the information desk.
I'll admit it - panic started to set in. We hurried over to the info desk, where the woman informed us that there would be one more ride down the mountain, and that we had to hurry. So much for our coffee.
We actually ended up being the first people in the cable car. It was eventually filled to the max with people trying to get down the mountain the way their ticket would allow them to. As the car was filling up, I thought the situation sounded like a movie situation: our cable car was going to get stuck and we would be stranded for hours, or because of the wind, our car would detach from the cable and we would fall to our deaths.
It was slightly horrifying, despite the beauty we saw around us.
Despite my initial concerns, our ride down was mostly uneventful and actually provided us with the best view we had had all day! We got to see the entire city of Lucerne, the surrounding mountains, and the lake; everything was green and grey, and it was so beautiful.
Halfway down the mountain, we got off of the large cable car and switched to smaller cars that fit about four people. Amy, Eric, and I had one to ourselves, and we enjoyed the ride.
At the base of the mountain, the sky was beautiful and blue, the sun was out, and we had a pleasant walk to the bus stop - of course.
We were ravenous and when we made it back to the city, we needed to get some food. I ended up eating a fajita, shared some guacamole and chips with Eric and Amy, and Amy and I split a crepe for dessert. It was so delicious and was definitely earned from all of the walking we had done.
Tonight, the carnival we had been seeing get set up for the last few days was finally open. We ended up walking through the area and peeking into the stalls for various products from around the region.
After our huge meal and a stop at our hostel, we decided to take a walk around town. We found a Starbucks near the train station and I made the decision then that I would have to get a beverage, no matter what the cost, from this Starbucks before we got on the train.
The woman who worked at the hostel advised us against going, but I couldn't leave Lucerne without going up Pilatus. This ended up being worth every penny we spent and then some.
The weather seemed to be holding out for us on our 15 minute walk to the train station. We waited for the boat to arrive, and promptly boarded. We went to the top deck because we figured we would be able to see more. Once the ticket guy arrived, though, we all found out that this deck was just for first class passengers. Ugh.
We headed downstairs and sat down at a table inside near a window. We went outside every once in a while to take some pictures, but mostly we just enjoyed the view. It sprinkled on and off throughout our trip to the base of the mountain.
While it was kind of gray, there were bits of blue sky peeking out from behind the clouds and the clouds and fog that formed in the mountains around Lake Lucerne made a beautiful picture.
Our misty view of the mountains from Lake Lucerne
Our misty view of the mountains from Lake Lucerne
The beautiful mountains, green grass, and Swiss houses on the lake
The boat ride took longer than I had expected - we arrived at the base of Mount Pilatus almost two hours later.
There was a short walk, and then we were at the cog railway. We were the last people allowed in to squeeze into one of the cars. We ended up in a car with seven other people (it was quite a squeeze) and we began out ascent. Because of the angles of the seats, we sat comfortably all the way up the mountain.
The cog railway cars
We paused in the middle of our descent up the mountain
In our ride up the mountain, I was reminded how truly small the world is. Two of the seven people in our car were a father and his six-year-old son. They ended up being from Reutlingen!
The other five were Americans. We came to find out that they were from Illinois! What are the chances that the people in our car would all be from places that we know - places that we call home.
The ride was nice, but we couldn't see too much. The trees blocked most of our view. And then we reached the top of the mountain.
A view from our cog railway car of another car making its way up the mountain.
Unfortunately, we couldn't see very far down the mountain, but the experience was just as fantastic as if we could have. First, we walked for about ten minutes up to the top of one part of the mountain. We got a view of the hotel and visitor's center on top of the mountain, and a little bit down the mountain.
View from the highest point of the mountain
Hanging out on Mount Pilatus
Beautiful sign on our way up to the high point of the mountain. In English:
"Come and see the works of God, which are so wonderful! ... God brought you and praise, you have a work of creation accomplished with glory and beauty."
Afterwards, we decided to take a walk around the mountain some. The sign that we saw said that our walk was going to be about 40 minutes - we had assumed that the walk was round trip.
We took a bunch of pictures and just enjoyed ourselves for our walk. We even ended up seeing mountain goats!
Wandering the mountain
Oh, you know, just some mountain goats!
As we continued on our journey, we kept going away from where we had started. After we had walked about 40 minutes, one way, and once the path went from paved to rocky, we figured out that the 40-minute trail was NOT round trip. And so, in the pouring rain, we made our way back to where we started. We were freezing, wet, and ready to get warm, and we decided we would get some coffee as soon as we got back.
Just happy to be out of the rain, we stopped at a gift shop in the visitor's center. A woman saw us and asked us if we had tickets to go down the mountain by cable car. Because we had that round trip ticket, we said yes and were then informed that there would be no more cable car rides down the mountain and that we had to go, as soon as possible, to the information desk.
I'll admit it - panic started to set in. We hurried over to the info desk, where the woman informed us that there would be one more ride down the mountain, and that we had to hurry. So much for our coffee.
We actually ended up being the first people in the cable car. It was eventually filled to the max with people trying to get down the mountain the way their ticket would allow them to. As the car was filling up, I thought the situation sounded like a movie situation: our cable car was going to get stuck and we would be stranded for hours, or because of the wind, our car would detach from the cable and we would fall to our deaths.
It was slightly horrifying, despite the beauty we saw around us.
Despite my initial concerns, our ride down was mostly uneventful and actually provided us with the best view we had had all day! We got to see the entire city of Lucerne, the surrounding mountains, and the lake; everything was green and grey, and it was so beautiful.
Halfway down the mountain, we got off of the large cable car and switched to smaller cars that fit about four people. Amy, Eric, and I had one to ourselves, and we enjoyed the ride.
Cable car down the mountain
Cable car down the mountain
Beautiful view from the cable car down the mountain
At the base of the mountain, the sky was beautiful and blue, the sun was out, and we had a pleasant walk to the bus stop - of course.
We were ravenous and when we made it back to the city, we needed to get some food. I ended up eating a fajita, shared some guacamole and chips with Eric and Amy, and Amy and I split a crepe for dessert. It was so delicious and was definitely earned from all of the walking we had done.
Tonight, the carnival we had been seeing get set up for the last few days was finally open. We ended up walking through the area and peeking into the stalls for various products from around the region.
Carnival near the train station
After our huge meal and a stop at our hostel, we decided to take a walk around town. We found a Starbucks near the train station and I made the decision then that I would have to get a beverage, no matter what the cost, from this Starbucks before we got on the train.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)