I'm 23 now! And I made my cake last Sunday, so I've been enjoying it for several days.
Microwave popcorn in Germany always fills up the entire bag and they don't put weird imitation butter on it.
Thursday was Christi Himmelfahrt, which literally means "Christ Heavendrive," but actually means "Ascension Day," so I went to church at the Augustinerkloster, which is a protestant church in Erfurt. It was pretty interesting - they had a live brass section that played.
On Friday I went to Leipzig because I wanted to see the Runde Ecke Museum and the new travelling exhibit at the Zeitgeschichtliches Forum. Above is a photo of Gera's train station. The Runde Ecke Museum was not very good. It was difficult to read, there were too many people there, and it was really dusty.
After the not-so-great Runde Ecke Museum, I went back to the excellent history museum in Leipzig. It's free and the travelling exhibit was "The American Way - Amerikaner in Deutschland." It was all about America!!! Here is the bit about the Fulbright Program!
Lufthansa planes used to be made in the US...
At the end of the exhibit, there was a survey on a touchscreen computer. One of the questions was "Do you like Americans?" I, of course, answered "ja," but the results were fairly close!
After I left that museum, I went to the Galeria Kaufhof, which is a high-end department store that has an import section. Erfurt doesn't have one. I wanted to see how much Pop Tarts cost (6 Euros for a small box, so I didn't get any), but then I saw this in the American foods section! This little bottle of mustard and I are both a long ways away from home.
After I got home from Leipzig I went for a walk to take pictures of the poppies. There are so many outside that it looks like that part from The Wizard of Oz when they all fall asleep. I also thought about that time in 7th grade that Mrs. Flud told us how to make opium.
Halli hallo! The last week or so has been pretty interesting. My friend Erin who studied abroad in Holzkirchen with me is back in Germany this summer to do an internship, so she came to visit me for her first few days in Germany! It was super fun to show her the city and experience the madness that is Erfurt two days before elections.
This week at school was also pretty great - on Monday, it was ridiculously hot (79 degrees!). 79 degrees isn't actually hot, but when your school is primarily composed of windows, it seems pretty bad. After school, I decided to stop off in the Domplatz to get ice cream. One of my fifth graders stopped me to chat when he saw me get off the tram - and he did so in English. It was completely amazing. I told him I was getting ice cream and he said that the weather was warm, but "tomorrow was warmer." (Fifth graders don't really work on verb tenses.)
Back of the Dom
Then I proceeded to go and buy ice cream from this cute little shop - I didn't notice until the lady was scooping up my cone that the flavor I had chosen was vegan! It actually tasted the same as regular ice cream, but it was twice as expensive.
On Wednesday, Erin was supposed to arrive around 8, but she had rotten luck with her train connections and didn't get into Erfurt until 11 pm! It was kind of fun to go into the city that late at night.
Stasi Museum
The next day at school, it was pretty warm (see above: school is 90% windows). When I got back into the teachers' room after 4th hour, almost everyone was huddled around the bulletin board and kind of giggling. Then someone told me that since it was too hot, they were cancelling school for the 5th-9th grades after 5th hour and the 10th-11th grades after 6th hour! It's called "Hitzefrei." Many of the teachers said they'd never had a day Hitzefrei before. (Someone said that usually they check the weather and when it's really hot they do a shortened schedule and let everyone out at 1:30, but they didn't realize it was going to be so warm until the day had already started.) I think the teachers were just as excited as the students. They kept on grinning and pointing at the bulletin board and saying "Krass, ne?" It was 75 degrees outside.
Yesterday Erin and I went to a museum just off the Domplatz that's about East Germany and the Stasi (East German secret police). I thought the building was a renovated Stasi office building, which was incorrect. It was a former Stasi prison! The top floor was left as it was so we could see the conditions and the bottom two floors were exhibits about the rise and fall of East Germany. It was a really good museum, mostly because it's Germany and I can't think of a really bad museum in this country.
"Tell me where you stand." Inside the museum.
Standing behind the anti-NPD protestors. You can see the NPD a tiny bit in the background, but this view is mostly protesters.
Since city council and European elections are tomorrow, there's been a ton of campaigning all around the city. I keep on getting flyers in my mailbox as well - it turns out that not only is there an elected neighborhood council, there's an elected mayor of the neighborhood. All the neighborhood council candidates are running on the platform of reopening the library behind Kaufland. (I think the decision to close it came from the city council, not from them.) There have also been several campaign rallies - yesterday Erin and I stopped to listen to the band at the SPD's rally because they were playing "Sweet Home Alabama." Then we looked over at Die Linke's rally, but their music wasn't as good so we left. Today the CDU had set up a mini-carnival in Anger, and I saw a small NPD (neo-Nazi) rally near city hall. Across the street was a much larger rally of people with balloons from every other party. Most of the people had whistles, so when the NPD tried to speak they would blow their whistles so they couldn't be heard. The protesters also had a band that played loudly while the NPD candidates were trying to speak. The NPD rally was being protected by people in army uniforms while the protesters were surrounded by the local police. It was very interesting to watch!
Hello, everyone! Here are a few pictures from the last week or so. I didn't end up working that much last week - the 12th graders are starting to take their Abitur, or the exams they have to take to graduate high school, so when a teacher has to monitor these tests their classes don't happen. Also the 11th graders are taking their midterms and lots of classes are going on day trips.
I think it's annoying that the weather has been stubbornly staying in the 40s and low 50s. I wore a sweater to work today. It's May!! I had also forgotten that in German during the spring/summer it rains every day for about 20 minutes then stops.
Last Friday I went to see the flower market at the Domplatz. It was so pretty! All the local gardeners had brought in their flowers as well as more practical plants. There was also a military band there playing on a stage, which was pleasant.
Pretty tree in the Domplatz
After looking around the flower show for a while, I decided to climb Petersberg again.
When I first saw this building, I thought it looked like a crime scene. When Erfurt was on Tatort, it was a crime scene...
All of the steps have a nice grill so you can always see the ground.
My favorite morning train treat - a Schockocroissant!
On Saturday I met my friend Melody in Zwickau and we went to Dresden together. I had never seen the actual city - I'd just been to Philip's apartment in Arnsdorf, so it was fun to walk through the city!
Communist mural in Dresden!
The Frauenkirche! It was destroyed during World War II and not rebuilt until after the wall came down.
"A life without friends is like a trip without a hotel."
There was a place in a mall we cut through where you could brush your teeth and get a consultation! We stopped to brush our teeth, but the line for the consultations wasn't moving so we skipped that part. A picture of us brushing our teeth ended up on the company's facebook page!
We saw some drummers dressed like Brazilians in the train station! (This is probably related to the World Cup. Every single ad on TV right now is World Cup-themed.)
There was also a Kinderfest in the train station where there was loud music and a magician!
Outside the train station there was a group passing out pamphlets. Their banner said something about how horrible Obama was. I took their flyer, but I wanted to tell them that I voted for Obama! There were several parties out campaigning all weekend - the European elections are coming up and in Erfurt they're at the same time as city council elections. All the light posts are covered with political ads again.
After we finished looking around Dresden, we went and stayed the night at Philip's apartment. We had barbecue chicken and roasted vegetables for dinner and it was delicious!
So far this week, I had to discuss magazines and the internet with a group of 7th graders. When I heard what the topic was, I guessed that someone would either mention Playboy or porn. I was right on both counts, so I bought myself ice cream!
I used a lot of exclamation points in this post, but a lot of weird stuff happened to me recently, so I'm not going to take them out!
After I got back from Jane Austen's house, it was only late afternoon, so I decided to go walking through the city again and try to find some places I wanted to see.
Due to the tube strike, finding Holland Road involved 2 different buses and wasn't a very fun experience. However, it was worth it when I discovered that my name is on the Holland Road sign. (I'm not enough of a Beatles fan to visit Abbey Road, but Holland Road? Much less touristy and more nerdy.) After that I tried to visit Chelsea's stadium, but the tube stop was closed due to the strike and I decided I didn't really care that much since I'm more of a FC Bayern girl anyhow.
Below find the explanation of why I wanted to see the Holland Road.
After that adventure I somehow ended up on the opposite end of Oxford Street that I'd been to the previous evening. It was a bit confusing, especially since the shops were the same at the other end. Eventually I found my way over to a cutesy alley where I went into a restaurant where the waiters were mostly goofing off and ordered a cheeseburger. (That's right, folks. You heard it here first. Chelsea ordered a hamburger of her own free will.)
After that I noticed a big crowd as I walked down the street. I asked someone in the crowd why there was a crowd and he gave me a look like no one had ever asked him such a rude question before, but then he told me that they're waiting for something on the stage outside Topshop. From eavesdropping on other people, I figured out that they were waiting for Kate Moss to show up. I decided I didn't really care enough to wait at the back of a huge crowd for Kate Moss, so I went on my merry way.
I then went into Waterstones Oxford Street! I was excited because they have a hilarious twitter account, but as a bookstore it was a bit underwhelming. I eventually ended up back at the giant Primark from the day before because I'd decided that I did indeed want this dress and sandals I'd seen in the window. So I went in and tried them on. While checking out, I asked the cashier how it was going, and the cashier next to him remembered me from the previous day. The rest of the customers at this incredibly busy shop must be so rude! This man sees hundreds, if not thousands, of customers a day and he remembered me because I showed basic human politeness towards him. People are the worst.
At that point it was getting dark, but I decided I could swing going over to King's Cross before the underground stopped running for the evening. My decision was made final when a beautiful red double decker bus with "King's Cross" written on it showed up in front of me as I was trying to decide.
St. Pancras International Station. It was a truly beautiful train station! My biggest complaint is that you have to swipe you ticket to get onto the platform, so I couldn't see the back half of the station.
Again, St. Pancras.
King's Cross!!!
Platform 9, Platform 10....but no 9 3/4.
(There was actually a wall off to the right that was made of bricks with a sign that said Platform 9 3/4, but I didn't take a picture of that.)
The outside of St. Pancras. (An older hobo sort of man stopped me and asked if I thought he was interesting as I was taking this picture. I said I needed to go, which was true.)
After that I got on a train towards my hostel, but I needed to switch at Westminster. I decided that while I was there I could check out Parliament at night. (Side note: the Westminster tube stop spits you out right under Parliament, which does seems like a security risk to me.)
The London Eye.
After grabbing some pictures, I went back into the subway station and sprinted from the bottom of the escalator into the Jubilee line train and caught the last one home!
The next morning I got up very early so I could go to the 8am service at Westminster Abbey! I got there just in time - the service was in a little side altar with about 10 people there. It was nice to have church in English, although British people say "trespasses" way differently than I do.
After breakfast I somehow ended up back at King's Cross where I got an almond croissant and vanilla chai tea from Pret a Manger before sitting outside the British Library to eat before it opened. Once inside, I looked all around their old and valuable books collection. It was breathtaking. They had original scores from famous composers, drafts of books by Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte, and tons of old religious texts. Their other exhibit was called "beautiful science," which I looked at for a few minutes as well.
Exterior of the British Library
After leaving the library I headed to Covent Garden where I took a free walking tour of all the major sights. The tour guide also told us about a half price theater ticket kiosk in Leicester Square, which becomes relevant later.
Trafalger Square.
King George & Queen Elizabeth
St. James's Palace. (In Jane Austen books, people are always getting presented at St. James.)
The end of the changing of the guard. It starts at Buckingham, but finishes here and there is a much smaller crowd!
Buckingham Palace
Big Ben as seen from a park.
Big Ben + the houses of Parliament. We heard the full story of the Gunpowder Plot.
London = sunburn. Who'd have thought?
After the tour was over, I walked around for a bit - I wanted to find that half price ticket shop to see if seeing a show that evening was anywhere within my budget. On my way there, I saw a place called Tortilla, so I stopped in for lunch. I got two tacos - one carnitas and one chicken. It was delicious and I listened to these super fratty bros talk in loud American English about their study abroad classes.
View from the taco place.
After that I walked on further and found the half price shop. They had a screen showing their prices for the evening compared to theater prices - it turned out that Once was only 19.50 if I got my ticket from the theater! (Book of Mormon was sold out.) So then I walked down to the theater where Once was playing and asked about tickets. The lady sold me a ticket for the 8th row for 19.50! (About 23 Euros and I've kinda lost my sense of how much a dollar is worth...) The lady asked me if I'd seen the show before, and when I said yes, she gave me a loyalty card. I'm now a member of the More Than Once Club!
With this victory under my belt, I walked down to see Piccadilly Circus. It was very busy and I didn't care for it much. (But it did look like the opening credits of Sherlock.) After a bit more wandering, I ended up buying Attachments by Rainbow Rowell at a bookstore and buying a Dr.Pepper from a shop in a train station. It was incredibly delicious. Although you can buy Dr. Pepper in Germany, it doesn't taste the same at all! British Dr. Pepper was the real deal.
After that I still had a few hours before my show so I went to the British Museum. I can't really recommend it. The only good things are that it's someplace to go and the bathrooms are free.
The mummies were still pretty cool, but I was expecting more stuff from British history - their entire collection of stuff from the past century was just a corner with dishes in it.
The money exhibit was pretty interesting.
As I left the British Museum I noticed that the giant line in Trafalger Square hadn't gotten any shorter - South African citizens were lined up to vote at the embassy, which seems to take a really long time. I got to see the ANC campaigning right in front of me, which I thought was interesting.
After the British Museum I wandered around for a bit before deciding that eating dinner at Chipotle wasn't a completely horrible thing to do. So I had tacos again for dinner. It was delicious.
After dinner it was time for Once!! Arthur Darvill was playing Guy again, so it was totally fantastic. I was a bit sad that the place was only about half full. I had almost an entire row to myself.
Taking pics of the stage is allowed in London until the cast comes out to play the pre-show music.
After the show was over, I headed directly home. However, I missed the last Jubilee train, so I had to take the bus from Victoria. It took me forever to find the right stop at Victoria, but once I got on the bus I thought it was all fine. Wrong! The buses were also being diverted, so it didn't stop at my stop, which I didn't realize until I ended up at the bus garage. I was quite panicked for a few moments and tried to ask a bus driver for help - he was very unhelpful, which surprised me because all the people working at tube stops were extraordinarily helpful - if you looked at the map they came to ask you if you knew where you were going. Eventually I realized that it was 2014 and I have a smart phone, so I punched in the name of my hostel and the gps helped me get back. (I did run for a bit of the way home, which I realized at the time made me look super sketch, but I was a bit frightened and lost and just wanted to be at the hostel.)
I was prepared to apologize for being noisy when I got back to my hostel room at midnight, but instead I had a pleasant surprise: the other three people had left and no one came to replace them! I got my own room!!
This was the nicest hostel I've stayed at thus far. You didn't even have to bring your own lock because your room key card unlocked your locker for you!
That morning I ate breakfast then headed out. It took me a while to get to Victoria Coach Station. (At one moment I was confused as to whether I'd missed it, but there was a sign that said Chelsea, Victoria Coach Station with an arrow pointing forwards. So nice, London. Putting up signs specifically for me.) Things at the coach station seemed to be in disarray, but I got on the correct bus to the airport. The ride was kinda horrible and took forever...but we eventually got to the airport. I flew home out of Stansted, which was not as nice as Southend. I got another Dr. Pepper at the airport before going to my gate. (I was actually three hours early for my flight, so I walked around for a bit as well.) The airline gate lady said the flight was going to Berlin "Shutterfield," which isn't even close to the airport's name (Schoenefeld). However, I eventually got back to good ole Germany...
...where my train from Berlin to Erfurt was delayed by 50 minutes so I had a nice long time to contemplate how sleepy I was. All in all, it was a fantastic vacation! I loved London!
Now I only have less than 8 weeks left at work, and I'm heading home in 76 days!
