Happy Easter, Everyone!
Ok...I know it’s been a while and I’ve gotten really lazy about updating this thing, but here’s the dealy-o: my family was here from March 17th to the 24th and things have been busy with the Easter, so today, I actually have time to sit down and write a bit!
After getting thoroughly lost on their way down from Frankfurt, I got a frantic call from my mom saying she wanted me to meet them in town. Well, I wasn’t exactly sure about where they were so Tavi, who had just gotten a haircut from Sebastian, joined me. Although frazzled, they were happy to see me and I them! We navigated our way back to their hotel, which was very nice, and then went on to the freshly cleaned StuSie. I was pretty tired because I was up till 4 am the night before celebrating Sebastian passing his Latin exam, but I was way excited about my family being in Deutschland! After hanging out there for a while, my family, Tavi, Sebastian and I went to Tacheles. Sebastian left early to go to a grill party he had forgotten about and then Tavi and my family went up to the Schloßberg, where we youngins climbed to the very top of the highest tower. After that, we headed to Eis Café Portefino (my favorite ice cream joint!) and enjoyed ice cream outside. On a side note, the weather was perfect - sunny and warm throughtout almost the entire visit.
The next day, I joined my family for breakfast at the hotel and then we headed into town to view the market and to climb to the top of the Münster. Then we headed back to the StuSie, where we convinced Sebastian to join us crazy Peakes on a trip to Schauinsland, where a cable car takes you above the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) to a snow-covered peak(e)! We hiked and played in the snow, me getting thoroughly soaked after falling while having a laughing fit and getting pelted with snowballs by the boys. Once back down on flat ground, we went to Euphrat so that my family could experience the tasty goodness of a Turkish Döner! Later that evening, the boys, Sebastian and I went to KGB, a Soviet-themed bar before headed to Café Istanbul to smoke the hookah. In KGB we met the most interesting and stoned Austrian, who thought we were ‘’f***ing Americans’’ and couldn’t understand, in English or German, what I was studying! After our adventures in town, Sebastian and I walked the boys back to their hotel around 12.
On Saturday, the family and I traveled through the French Rhine Valley where all the vineyards are and stopped in Colmar and Mulhouse. Colmar is an absolutely gorgeous medieval city with water running through it like Venice and so much charm, it’s almost shocking! In Mulhouse, we saw a neato car museum and visited a train museum that had some very interesting audio recordings ;-) That evening, I acted as translator for the family at dinner, which taught me that translating is a difficult and stressful endeavor. Even though I had fun, I would never want to do that for a living!
Since we had been running all over, we decided to sleep in on Sunday and to just bum around southwest Germany. First, we stopped in Bad Krozingen for a spring festival they were having there. Because it was also Palm Sunday, a lot of the stores were open and there were a lot of pretty flower wreaths, crosses and poles decorating all of the little towns we went through. Then we headed on toward Sulzburg (not to be confused with Salzburg in Austria where the Von Trapps were!) to see an extremely old Jewish cemetery and some of the prettiest land you’ve ever seen. After driving through the huge mountains and scaring poor mom out of her mind, we headed to Badenweiler to see some Roman bathhouse ruins and a modern luxury spa! Then we went to Feldberg, where lots of people were still skiing and snowboarding - a great surprise seeing as we were all in short-sleeves! After cresting Feldberg, we descended into the area surrounding Titisee. This big lake was completely frozen even though it was warm in Freiburg, only a short distance away!
Monday was spent around Freiburg since the fmaily wanted to do some shopping. I, however, needed a little Annabelle time and went home after our lunch in the Schloßberg beer garden to do laundry and relax a little. After living on my own for quite a while now, it was a little odd to try to be part of the family again - I mean, to act like Annabelle the daughter and sister rather than the independent student. Alas, I cannot go back to being irresponsible!
Tuesday was spent in Basel bumming around and looking at the Jean Tinguely museum, which was absolutely incredible! The museum features machines that do worthless, but very entertaining things! There were so many lights, colors, and weird pieces of other things used to make these sculptures, that there seemed to be something new to look at everytime you looked at something. Some of the pieces included a chair that you could sit in and have someone else pump up so that it squeezed you around your middle, huge vats of liquid that just bubbled endlessly, self-tap-dancing shoes and a cube that radomly tumbled around it’s exhibition space! I really, really enjoyed this musuem and I highly recommend it to everyone who just likes to have fun and see goofily extraordinary things.
On Wednesday, the family’s last full day in Germany, we went to Heidelberg to check out the castle and market square there. The weather was absolutely amazing and I got some awesome pictures of the surrounding area. Heidelberg is nice, but I’m still really happy that I studied in Freiburg - there are simply too many Americans in Heidelberg because of the military base.
On Thursday morning after breakfast, we headed quickly to the market in town so that Jomo could buy a wooden snake that he had seen earlier in their visit. Then we headed back to the StuSie, where I said goodbye and they took off toward Frankfurt. They are now safely back in the States and it is strange not to see them here and to be running all over, but it gives me time to catch up on some much needed rest as THEY WORE ME OUT!!! And, according to Mom, I did the same to them, so we’re even ;-)
After they left, I headed into town to pick up my grade for my big middle high German exam and, low and behold, I got a 2,2 or the equivalent of a B!!! I am so happy and proud of that, you don’t even know! Friday, I went to a Good Friday service and then was lazy the rest of the day, just hanging out with Benedicte, who left in the afternoon :-( and Philobert. Benedicte and Jean-Philippe are going to be coming back in July to do some internships here though, so that makes me happy and gives me something to look forward to. Luckily, there have also been some awesome movies on tv to keep me busy and entertained! Yesterday, I slept in late, said goodbye to Philobert, the funniest Frenchman I know, went grocery shopping, and watched part of ‘West Side Story’’ and ‘’Stripes.’’ ‘’West Side story’’ was awesome because everything but the songs was dubbed! ‘’German…German…German…I feel pretty! I feel pretty!’’ It was absolutely rediculous and disorienting and I enjoyed it thoroughly :-D
After a very pleasant Easter service this morning and fun coffee and cake with the congregation, I’m home chilling and trying to get caught up on things I’ve pushed aside in the last few weeks. Well, I must skeedaddle, but I hope everyone has an awesome weekend and a very happy Easter!!!
Annabelle :-D
After getting thoroughly lost on their way down from Frankfurt, I got a frantic call from my mom saying she wanted me to meet them in town. Well, I wasn’t exactly sure about where they were so Tavi, who had just gotten a haircut from Sebastian, joined me. Although frazzled, they were happy to see me and I them! We navigated our way back to their hotel, which was very nice, and then went on to the freshly cleaned StuSie. I was pretty tired because I was up till 4 am the night before celebrating Sebastian passing his Latin exam, but I was way excited about my family being in Deutschland! After hanging out there for a while, my family, Tavi, Sebastian and I went to Tacheles. Sebastian left early to go to a grill party he had forgotten about and then Tavi and my family went up to the Schloßberg, where we youngins climbed to the very top of the highest tower. After that, we headed to Eis Café Portefino (my favorite ice cream joint!) and enjoyed ice cream outside. On a side note, the weather was perfect - sunny and warm throughtout almost the entire visit.
The next day, I joined my family for breakfast at the hotel and then we headed into town to view the market and to climb to the top of the Münster. Then we headed back to the StuSie, where we convinced Sebastian to join us crazy Peakes on a trip to Schauinsland, where a cable car takes you above the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) to a snow-covered peak(e)! We hiked and played in the snow, me getting thoroughly soaked after falling while having a laughing fit and getting pelted with snowballs by the boys. Once back down on flat ground, we went to Euphrat so that my family could experience the tasty goodness of a Turkish Döner! Later that evening, the boys, Sebastian and I went to KGB, a Soviet-themed bar before headed to Café Istanbul to smoke the hookah. In KGB we met the most interesting and stoned Austrian, who thought we were ‘’f***ing Americans’’ and couldn’t understand, in English or German, what I was studying! After our adventures in town, Sebastian and I walked the boys back to their hotel around 12.
On Saturday, the family and I traveled through the French Rhine Valley where all the vineyards are and stopped in Colmar and Mulhouse. Colmar is an absolutely gorgeous medieval city with water running through it like Venice and so much charm, it’s almost shocking! In Mulhouse, we saw a neato car museum and visited a train museum that had some very interesting audio recordings ;-) That evening, I acted as translator for the family at dinner, which taught me that translating is a difficult and stressful endeavor. Even though I had fun, I would never want to do that for a living!
Since we had been running all over, we decided to sleep in on Sunday and to just bum around southwest Germany. First, we stopped in Bad Krozingen for a spring festival they were having there. Because it was also Palm Sunday, a lot of the stores were open and there were a lot of pretty flower wreaths, crosses and poles decorating all of the little towns we went through. Then we headed on toward Sulzburg (not to be confused with Salzburg in Austria where the Von Trapps were!) to see an extremely old Jewish cemetery and some of the prettiest land you’ve ever seen. After driving through the huge mountains and scaring poor mom out of her mind, we headed to Badenweiler to see some Roman bathhouse ruins and a modern luxury spa! Then we went to Feldberg, where lots of people were still skiing and snowboarding - a great surprise seeing as we were all in short-sleeves! After cresting Feldberg, we descended into the area surrounding Titisee. This big lake was completely frozen even though it was warm in Freiburg, only a short distance away!
Monday was spent around Freiburg since the fmaily wanted to do some shopping. I, however, needed a little Annabelle time and went home after our lunch in the Schloßberg beer garden to do laundry and relax a little. After living on my own for quite a while now, it was a little odd to try to be part of the family again - I mean, to act like Annabelle the daughter and sister rather than the independent student. Alas, I cannot go back to being irresponsible!
Tuesday was spent in Basel bumming around and looking at the Jean Tinguely museum, which was absolutely incredible! The museum features machines that do worthless, but very entertaining things! There were so many lights, colors, and weird pieces of other things used to make these sculptures, that there seemed to be something new to look at everytime you looked at something. Some of the pieces included a chair that you could sit in and have someone else pump up so that it squeezed you around your middle, huge vats of liquid that just bubbled endlessly, self-tap-dancing shoes and a cube that radomly tumbled around it’s exhibition space! I really, really enjoyed this musuem and I highly recommend it to everyone who just likes to have fun and see goofily extraordinary things.
On Wednesday, the family’s last full day in Germany, we went to Heidelberg to check out the castle and market square there. The weather was absolutely amazing and I got some awesome pictures of the surrounding area. Heidelberg is nice, but I’m still really happy that I studied in Freiburg - there are simply too many Americans in Heidelberg because of the military base.
On Thursday morning after breakfast, we headed quickly to the market in town so that Jomo could buy a wooden snake that he had seen earlier in their visit. Then we headed back to the StuSie, where I said goodbye and they took off toward Frankfurt. They are now safely back in the States and it is strange not to see them here and to be running all over, but it gives me time to catch up on some much needed rest as THEY WORE ME OUT!!! And, according to Mom, I did the same to them, so we’re even ;-)
After they left, I headed into town to pick up my grade for my big middle high German exam and, low and behold, I got a 2,2 or the equivalent of a B!!! I am so happy and proud of that, you don’t even know! Friday, I went to a Good Friday service and then was lazy the rest of the day, just hanging out with Benedicte, who left in the afternoon :-( and Philobert. Benedicte and Jean-Philippe are going to be coming back in July to do some internships here though, so that makes me happy and gives me something to look forward to. Luckily, there have also been some awesome movies on tv to keep me busy and entertained! Yesterday, I slept in late, said goodbye to Philobert, the funniest Frenchman I know, went grocery shopping, and watched part of ‘West Side Story’’ and ‘’Stripes.’’ ‘’West Side story’’ was awesome because everything but the songs was dubbed! ‘’German…German…German…I feel pretty! I feel pretty!’’ It was absolutely rediculous and disorienting and I enjoyed it thoroughly :-D
After a very pleasant Easter service this morning and fun coffee and cake with the congregation, I’m home chilling and trying to get caught up on things I’ve pushed aside in the last few weeks. Well, I must skeedaddle, but I hope everyone has an awesome weekend and a very happy Easter!!!
Annabelle :-D