Hello and happy 3rd Advent! The past couple weeks have been really fun. Because we had rented a car to get home from Frankfurt after our Italy trip, we decided to take advantage of the fact that we had a car at our disposal for 24 hours. We took about an hour drive to a town called Goslar, which is in the woods and up the mountain aways. We had heard it had a great Weihnachtsmarkt, which is why we chose to go there (I will talk more about Weihnachtsmaerkten later). It was truly magical in this hidden away medieval town and the lights, music, and Kinderpunsch (non-alcoholic version of Gluehwein, which is like wassail) were all amazing. After a few Brats, mugs of Kinderpunsch, and candied hazelnuts, we headed back to Goettingen. We are planning on taking Tom there when he comes here (in 6 days!!!).
Last Friday (the 5th), Mom, Kara, and I went to cute little town called Duderstadt, which is an hour bus ride away from Goettingen. Rosmarie, a cute older lady in our branch, lives there with her husband and has wanted us to come visit her so she can show us her home (built by her husband) and around the town. We toured the extremely oldRathaus, including the jail cells and torture chamber below. Rosmarie's house itself was very cool and had an amazing yard and is a state-protected wild-life environment because of the unique and old trees and at least 51 different bird species. Her husband (Aloys) had built many birdhouses and we just sat at the picture window and watched the birds for like an hour. It was amazing- we saw a woodpecker and dozens of other colored and interesting birds. And there was a beautiful pond with fish in the yard as well .Rosmarie showed as pictures from her wedding 8 years ago to Aloys, and we thoroughly enjoyed hearing stories about her and her husband's life. She is originally from Canada. Rosmarie herself speaks like 7 different languages and is the unofficially appointed translator for anyone in the branch during church, including some French-speaking investigators we have attending the branch right now. The day concluded with a delicious meal she made for us and singing Christmas carols.
Last Sunday, I had 6 of my friends from my German class (which I am not continuing because the next term started 2 weeks ago and doesn't end until February) over for dinner. A group of them all rotate who cooks Sunday dinner, and I had volunteered this time. I had been blown away by the incredible pizza we had tried all over Italy and I wanted to recreate it. It turned out pretty well- I made one pizza with fresh tomatoes and mushrooms on top, another with ham, and the last with olives and peppers. The family was a big help too and overall, it was a really fun evening, especially because I got to see these friends again and I got to tell them about my Italy trip. It was also kind of exciting to find out that we had progressed so well as a class, that they had all skipped the next class and gone to B12 instead of B11.
This weekend, my family took a 25 hour trip to Osnabrueck, which is where Dad served the first 6 months of his mission (33 years ago). He wanted to visit the couple people he still knows there before we go home and we haven't been able to make it work until now. We took a 2-hour train ride and got there in the evening, just as they city was coming to life with the magic ofWeihnachtmarkt. Weihnachtsmarkt , for those of you who don't know, is like, better than going to Disneyland. It is in like every German town and varies between them all, but they all comprise of tons of little kiosks set up all around the main downtown of a given city, where you can buy a variety of different foods. I've mentioned some already, but you can also get crepes, chocolate-covered or candied fruits, hot cocoa, fried cauliflower, fried mushrooms, okay pretty much anything fried, any type of nut or candy, etc. Besides food stuffs, there are people selling a huge variety of handicrafts, from wood-carved ornaments, to blown-glass figurines, to intricately-cut paper lamps, to delicate candles, to all types of jewelry, the list goes on. Anyway, it's not onecertain thing about Wiehnachtsmarkt that makes it special, but just the general splendor of all the lights, decorations, holiday smells, and merry-makers out after dark.
We met Joe Kaiser (a missionary who served here the same time as Dad and then ended up moving back here and has lived here for the past 30 years) at theRathaus, as he had just finished giving an English city tour of historic Osnabrueck . Him and his wife showed us around the town a bit and we climbed a 32 meter tower in a church which looked over the city. They also took us to all the best stands of where to find the best brats,Knuedeln, and roasted chestnuts, etc. They also were so nice to let us sleep at their house that night.
The next morning, we visited Ingrid Reinke, a sister in the ward here who Dad knows through her (late) husband. She and her son were incredibly nice to feed us a delicious meal and we had a great time talking with her- she is such a sweet lady. We then went to their ward Christmas party where she played the angel in a re-enactment of the Christmas story. Dad played one of the 3wisemen, last minute, and the highlight for me was the 2 missionaries playing the camel accompanying the wisemen ... Also, Joe Kaiser played his flute, and then... our family sang Angels We Have Heard On High (in English) and didn't botch it up too bad, considering we didn't know we would be doing it or practice at all :) Afterwards, I got recruited to take some family photos of theReinke's, upon sister Reinke realizing her whole family was there and I had a camera.
Overall, it was a really fun Christmas program and day. We walked through the Weihnachtsmarkt on our way to the train station and then headed home. A short but fun trip.
Tonight we are just back home in our cute apartment and we are discussing the rest of our plans while being in Germany- hence why I have so much time to write this blog entry :)
Viele Grüβe
Emily
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Italia!
Hello! I am so excited to tell you about our family trip to Italy! We left last Tuesday around noon (I left my last day of class a bit early and met the fam at the Bahnhof) and took the 2 hour train ride to Frankfurt. We then took a one hour shuttle bus to the Frankfurt-Hahn airport, and then the 2 hour flight to Rome, where we took a taxi to our hostel, arriving there around 11 PM. Surprisingly, we were not so dead tired by that point that we wanted to just go straight to bed... Temptingly, Rome's oldest gelato factory was right across the street from us. We grabbed some of that and than wandered over to the Colosseum. To see it lit up at night was fantastic, especially the juxtaposition of this ancient structure sitting amidst the blearing night traffic whizzing by all around it. We went back to our hostel, which was really nice.
The next day we had a marathon day in Rome, first visiting the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, then jumping on a Bus city tour where we hopped off at the Vatican. We tackled a sizable fraction of the vast Vatican museums and were struck speechless (and crick-necked) after taking in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. We then had some lunch (pasta) and then headed for St. Peter's Basilica. I remember being stunned by the size and dark magnificence of the cathedral in Koeln a few years ago, but St. Peter's was.... ethereal. The bright white and colored marble and just the sheer space was overwhelming. We saw the beautiful Pieta by Michaelangelo, which is a statue of Mary cradling the crucified Christ in her arms. Next we went to the Trevi Fountain where supposedly, if you toss a coin in, it promises a return trip to Rome (I threw in about 10, just to make sure). We got some gelato and then walked over to the Pantheon. The ancient architecture was amazing- there was a big hole in the ceiling for light to come in and to show what time of day it is. The incredible part is that for the keystone of a domed 
ceiling to not be there, it is still to standing today. Of course the interior was completely transformed into what it looks like now when the Catholics destroyed all evidence that it used to be a temple devoted to worship of pagan gods. Kara, obsessed with Greek and Roman mythology as she is, was in denial of this fact and was re-titling and re-imagining all the Christian statues and paintings as possible mythology scenarios... in an only slightly sacrilegious way.... :) It was dark by this point and so we meandered through a couple piazzas and then got some dinner at an Italian restaurant (I guess Italian was an unneeded adjective) and I had this amazing lasagne.
The next day we caught an early train to Pompeii. It was gorgeous and green and relatively warm there and it was one of the highlights of the trip for me: it was hard to grasp how old and well-preserved the city was. We were able to see the remains of mosaic floors, frescoes, pillars, pottery, and
countless
homes and civic buildings up to the bottom of the second story. The higher stories had mostly been made of wood as opposed to the stone and brick of the bottom story, which is why nothing very tall survived the volcano or the nearly 2000 years since. We saw some bodies that had been found too; that is, holes that were filled in with plaster to reveal that a body had been there. One of them, though most likely crouching from the heat, to me looked like he was praying. We then spent a few hours in Naples and went to a museum that had more antiquities from Pompeii.
On the 3rd day, we were in Rome for most of the day. It was pretty rainy, but we braved it and took a tour of the inside of the Colosseum as well as the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill
(essentially the ruins of the ancient Rome government buildings and temples). We left that evening for Florence.
Day 4: Florence (or Firenze in Italian) was beautiful, but cold and rainy. We took a bus tour of the city and got thoroughly chilled sitting on the open upper level of the bus. We ate some more great Italian food and then we went to the Pitti Palace, which housed the royal family of Florence, and an exceptional and colossal amount of paintings and sculpture. We saw many works of Michaelangelo, Raphael, and other famous painters. Walking around town, a poster for the Opera La Traviata caught my eye on a church. We found out it was showing that night and that we could just come half an hour early to get tickets. So we went and got some dinner (and then gelato of course) and did some window shopping on this cool bridge that has shops lining the bridge that are held up on stilts. And then we went to the opera, which was fabulous!
The next day we took a train to Venice (or Venetia). Once again, cold and rainy.... but of course
still marvelous and beautiful. We shopped and just wandered through the almost claustrophbically narrow and building-lined streets. We ate some great pizza and looked at the beautiful Venetian glass and mask shops. Dad let us take a gondola ride where our gondolier pointed out the home of Marco Polo. We were all impressed at the way he masterfully steered the gondola through narrow canals and under low bridges. We saw an amazingly gaudy and dark cathedral there that Kara said reminded her of the Holy Sepulchre. And we got hopelessly lost in the maze of Venice. But we caught our train back to Florence ok after having another amazing Italian dinner involving a lot of seafood and pasta.
Monday morning we saw the Duomo cathedral and visited the catacombs below. We did some last minute shopping, after finding out that the Museum housing the Michaelangelo's David was randomly closed :( and then were on a train to the Pisa airport (no we didn't have time to actually stop in Pisa) and then a plane back to Frankfurt. Unfortunately, we missed the last train of the day to Goettingen, so Dad rented a car and him and I drove back to Goettingen. It was kind of stressful for me to drive on the autobahn, along with the fact that it was a manual (thank goodness Kristi let me practice on her car...), but also really fun- I hadn't driven a car in at least 3 months. Anyway, we got home around 1:30 AM, but had a marvelous time!
Italy is beautiful, but we are also glad to be back to our Goettingen where the food is not quite so rich :) if it's possible, we got a little sick of pizza and pasta, after eating it virtually every meal for a week. Don't worry though- I could never get sick of the gelato! Love you all and hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving- we missed and thought of you dearly while we ate our pizza on Thanksgiving.
The next day we had a marathon day in Rome, first visiting the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, then jumping on a Bus city tour where we hopped off at the Vatican. We tackled a sizable fraction of the vast Vatican museums and were struck speechless (and crick-necked) after taking in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. We then had some lunch (pasta) and then headed for St. Peter's Basilica. I remember being stunned by the size and dark magnificence of the cathedral in Koeln a few years ago, but St. Peter's was.... ethereal. The bright white and colored marble and just the sheer space was overwhelming. We saw the beautiful Pieta by Michaelangelo, which is a statue of Mary cradling the crucified Christ in her arms. Next we went to the Trevi Fountain where supposedly, if you toss a coin in, it promises a return trip to Rome (I threw in about 10, just to make sure). We got some gelato and then walked over to the Pantheon. The ancient architecture was amazing- there was a big hole in the ceiling for light to come in and to show what time of day it is. The incredible part is that for the keystone of a domed 
ceiling to not be there, it is still to standing today. Of course the interior was completely transformed into what it looks like now when the Catholics destroyed all evidence that it used to be a temple devoted to worship of pagan gods. Kara, obsessed with Greek and Roman mythology as she is, was in denial of this fact and was re-titling and re-imagining all the Christian statues and paintings as possible mythology scenarios... in an only slightly sacrilegious way.... :) It was dark by this point and so we meandered through a couple piazzas and then got some dinner at an Italian restaurant (I guess Italian was an unneeded adjective) and I had this amazing lasagne.The next day we caught an early train to Pompeii. It was gorgeous and green and relatively warm there and it was one of the highlights of the trip for me: it was hard to grasp how old and well-preserved the city was. We were able to see the remains of mosaic floors, frescoes, pillars, pottery, and
countless
homes and civic buildings up to the bottom of the second story. The higher stories had mostly been made of wood as opposed to the stone and brick of the bottom story, which is why nothing very tall survived the volcano or the nearly 2000 years since. We saw some bodies that had been found too; that is, holes that were filled in with plaster to reveal that a body had been there. One of them, though most likely crouching from the heat, to me looked like he was praying. We then spent a few hours in Naples and went to a museum that had more antiquities from Pompeii.On the 3rd day, we were in Rome for most of the day. It was pretty rainy, but we braved it and took a tour of the inside of the Colosseum as well as the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill
(essentially the ruins of the ancient Rome government buildings and temples). We left that evening for Florence.Day 4: Florence (or Firenze in Italian) was beautiful, but cold and rainy. We took a bus tour of the city and got thoroughly chilled sitting on the open upper level of the bus. We ate some more great Italian food and then we went to the Pitti Palace, which housed the royal family of Florence, and an exceptional and colossal amount of paintings and sculpture. We saw many works of Michaelangelo, Raphael, and other famous painters. Walking around town, a poster for the Opera La Traviata caught my eye on a church. We found out it was showing that night and that we could just come half an hour early to get tickets. So we went and got some dinner (and then gelato of course) and did some window shopping on this cool bridge that has shops lining the bridge that are held up on stilts. And then we went to the opera, which was fabulous!
The next day we took a train to Venice (or Venetia). Once again, cold and rainy.... but of course
still marvelous and beautiful. We shopped and just wandered through the almost claustrophbically narrow and building-lined streets. We ate some great pizza and looked at the beautiful Venetian glass and mask shops. Dad let us take a gondola ride where our gondolier pointed out the home of Marco Polo. We were all impressed at the way he masterfully steered the gondola through narrow canals and under low bridges. We saw an amazingly gaudy and dark cathedral there that Kara said reminded her of the Holy Sepulchre. And we got hopelessly lost in the maze of Venice. But we caught our train back to Florence ok after having another amazing Italian dinner involving a lot of seafood and pasta.Monday morning we saw the Duomo cathedral and visited the catacombs below. We did some last minute shopping, after finding out that the Museum housing the Michaelangelo's David was randomly closed :( and then were on a train to the Pisa airport (no we didn't have time to actually stop in Pisa) and then a plane back to Frankfurt. Unfortunately, we missed the last train of the day to Goettingen, so Dad rented a car and him and I drove back to Goettingen. It was kind of stressful for me to drive on the autobahn, along with the fact that it was a manual (thank goodness Kristi let me practice on her car...), but also really fun- I hadn't driven a car in at least 3 months. Anyway, we got home around 1:30 AM, but had a marvelous time!
Italy is beautiful, but we are also glad to be back to our Goettingen where the food is not quite so rich :) if it's possible, we got a little sick of pizza and pasta, after eating it virtually every meal for a week. Don't worry though- I could never get sick of the gelato! Love you all and hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving- we missed and thought of you dearly while we ate our pizza on Thanksgiving.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
A fairly uneventful but wonderful Mittwoch
So... it's not the weekend, like it usually is when I make time to write here, but I just feel like writing today, for no apparent reason. Mmmm it feels good to write a somewhat complicated sentence with multiple commas and not give it a second thought to rearranging all the verbs... I love English.
So, my mom discovered this great thing called "Nugat Bits" at the grocery store, and they are changing my life :) It's like a little chocolatey cereal bite, but it is filled with NUTELLA! It is disguised in the form of a cereal box, but it is no cereal.... Haha ok- I know what you are all thinking with my comments all over this blog page about amazing food, much of it being not the most light foods out there, that I am going to be the size of Harry's Aunt Marge in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, during her blown-up state, when I get home. But I actually haven't gained any weight while being here. I go running frequently though, which is really fun. I have this route where I pass a quiet, old church; a little lake; a big park full of Europeans walking their dogs (which btw, sometimes have similarities... the owner and their dog, I mean. It is so funny, you wouldn't think there would be a difference in European dogs and American dogs, but there totally is: the dogs here act so refined and calm and they are therefore allowed everywhere people are. Even on buses and in restaurants.); and a handful of corner bakeries and flower shops.
I am getting really sad for my class to end (which it does officially on Tuesday the 25th). It has reminded me of being in elementary school again, just with the whole concept of being in the same classroom with the same people and only your one teacher everyday. It has made us become a really close-knit class of 12, and therefore, it is a very comfortable and productive learning environment because we don't care about making mistakes in front of one another or asking the same questions over and over :) Our teacher is the best language teacher I have ever had and has very logical and organized lesson plans and direction, and conscientious of our individual levels and needs. He has been teaching German (though he also speaks English, Greek, and Czech fluently, along with the half-dozen or so other languages he knows a little bit of) at the Institute for 10 years, but this is his last semester here- he is moving to Koeln (Cologne) in January.
During the class breaks, I have had a couple of theology discussions (we speak in a German-English conglomerate) with a fellow classmate, Marcio, who is from Brazil. He is a very strong Christian who believes in modern and personal revelation and has been slowly reading the Bible in English on his own. I asked the missionaries for a Portuguese Book of Mormon to give him before classes are finished, so hopefully I will get the opportunity to give it to him.
I have also somehow only added to my 'books to read' list while being here, despite bringing like 6 here with me that I have read/will read. John (to refresh your memories: English major guy who is about to begin his graduate work in English) has been drawing up a personalized list for me, according to my areas of interests and previous reading experiences, of course :) Maybe I will include it for those of you interested to know what they might be, or who randomly need a book recommendation.
Dad has been under the weather the past few days, but is slowly recovering. Mom's classes end on Friday, and Kara has been busy with school, and Italian and Swedish callers. Haha jk.... kind of... She bought and has been slowly trucking through the first Harry Potter book in German though, and I am extremely impressed by her perseverance in such a daunting task. Mom and I, meanwhile, continue to enjoy German children's books with more pictures than words.
I hope you are all having a delightful week, and that Grandma's birthday party went well! Good luck with school, work, and all other events that demand your time and energy. From Germany with love,
Emily
So, my mom discovered this great thing called "Nugat Bits" at the grocery store, and they are changing my life :) It's like a little chocolatey cereal bite, but it is filled with NUTELLA! It is disguised in the form of a cereal box, but it is no cereal.... Haha ok- I know what you are all thinking with my comments all over this blog page about amazing food, much of it being not the most light foods out there, that I am going to be the size of Harry's Aunt Marge in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, during her blown-up state, when I get home. But I actually haven't gained any weight while being here. I go running frequently though, which is really fun. I have this route where I pass a quiet, old church; a little lake; a big park full of Europeans walking their dogs (which btw, sometimes have similarities... the owner and their dog, I mean. It is so funny, you wouldn't think there would be a difference in European dogs and American dogs, but there totally is: the dogs here act so refined and calm and they are therefore allowed everywhere people are. Even on buses and in restaurants.); and a handful of corner bakeries and flower shops.
I am getting really sad for my class to end (which it does officially on Tuesday the 25th). It has reminded me of being in elementary school again, just with the whole concept of being in the same classroom with the same people and only your one teacher everyday. It has made us become a really close-knit class of 12, and therefore, it is a very comfortable and productive learning environment because we don't care about making mistakes in front of one another or asking the same questions over and over :) Our teacher is the best language teacher I have ever had and has very logical and organized lesson plans and direction, and conscientious of our individual levels and needs. He has been teaching German (though he also speaks English, Greek, and Czech fluently, along with the half-dozen or so other languages he knows a little bit of) at the Institute for 10 years, but this is his last semester here- he is moving to Koeln (Cologne) in January.
During the class breaks, I have had a couple of theology discussions (we speak in a German-English conglomerate) with a fellow classmate, Marcio, who is from Brazil. He is a very strong Christian who believes in modern and personal revelation and has been slowly reading the Bible in English on his own. I asked the missionaries for a Portuguese Book of Mormon to give him before classes are finished, so hopefully I will get the opportunity to give it to him.
I have also somehow only added to my 'books to read' list while being here, despite bringing like 6 here with me that I have read/will read. John (to refresh your memories: English major guy who is about to begin his graduate work in English) has been drawing up a personalized list for me, according to my areas of interests and previous reading experiences, of course :) Maybe I will include it for those of you interested to know what they might be, or who randomly need a book recommendation.
Dad has been under the weather the past few days, but is slowly recovering. Mom's classes end on Friday, and Kara has been busy with school, and Italian and Swedish callers. Haha jk.... kind of... She bought and has been slowly trucking through the first Harry Potter book in German though, and I am extremely impressed by her perseverance in such a daunting task. Mom and I, meanwhile, continue to enjoy German children's books with more pictures than words.
I hope you are all having a delightful week, and that Grandma's birthday party went well! Good luck with school, work, and all other events that demand your time and energy. From Germany with love,
Emily
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Tribute to Sharolee
So... I made a promise that I would someday write a blog entry in German, and the person I made that promise to is leaving on her mission to the Baltic Mission in 3 days (I am so excited for you Sharolee!) so this is my last chance to fulfill that promise.... so for those of you who don't speak German, I am sorry. And for those of you who do, I am also sorry because this is going to be really bad.
Ich kann nicht es glauben: nachste Woche ist die letzte ganz Woche von meinen Deutsch Kurs! Ich bin sehr traurig, weil ich da vielen Freunden gemacht habe. Auch, wir haben nur sechs Wochen in Europa. Verruckt!
Heute, haben wir Mittagessen im Kirche mit der Gemeinde gegessen (Jedermann hat Speisen mitgebracht). Dann, sind die Missionaire bei uns fur Dinner angekommen, weil wir einen neuen Missionair haben. Er heiszt Elder Schenk und kommt aus Idaho Falls, Idaho. Wir sind am Mittwoch Abend zusammen mit dem alte Missionaire zuessen gegangen.
Okay I am switching back to English for this part cause I think many will want to know this. So on Saturday night, we went out to dinner at a traditional German restaurant with Pika, and then we sent her off on the train to visit her friend Imke one last time and then she is headed back to the states on Wednesday. So sad for us, though happy for Pato, and you all. But we will miss her oodles.
Oh I wanted to tell you about my experience on Thursday night. My school had this really cool night of international music where any of the students could share their musical talents. So Carrie and another girl Rachel who is also an opera singer, sang a song from Hansel and Gretel and it was AMAZING. Tony, a music major from California played an amazing classical piano piece. Also, Brandon another American, played some Neil Young on his guitar and seriously made me itch to get my hands on a guitar again.... I somehow got addicted in the short time between Brighton and coming to Europe.... anyway, he did a really good job, and then my personal favorite number was when a girl from Switzerland combined with a girl from Canada to sing a Celine Dion song in French, since Celine Dion is from Canada, but is apparently currently living in Switzerland so it all tied together.... ok no I am kinda making fun of them because well..... it was Celine Dion.... (sorry Elyse, I know you love her...) but they actually did a pretty good job. My real personal favorite number was actually these two men from Africa who speak not only a bunch of diferent African dialects and French, but also English and German. Anyway, the one, Blanchard, is completely blind, which I knew. What I didn't know was that he can play the piano!!!! He sat down at the piano and started playing and I was like, what the heck! He can play a trillion times better than me and I have full vision! And then, he started singing. This rich, deep voice in some beautiful African dialect. It was like nothing I have ever heard. And I seriously cannot get over his playing the piano- he just totally played by touch. And I am not just talking about playing the keys by touch of his fingers, I am talking about making music with his soul. You seriously just felt the music eminate from his soul, via the tools of his fingers and vocal chords- who needs eyes. Anyway, with all of the music talent that abounded from my fellow students at my school that night, I realized how many of the students studying there were doing so to enrich somethin to do with a music career or talent. Or maybe, just people who love and understand music are more quantitatively minded and have a better knack for learning another language. Although I don't seem to fall into either one of those categories, so maybe this is all just useless and false generalizations...
Well, Sharolee, I am so excited for you and wish you all the best on your mission and I can't wait to hear you speak Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian, or whatever languages you know when you get back. And I promise I will write you lots!!!
And to everyone else, I miss you bunches and bunches and love you even more. Until next week,
Emily
Ich kann nicht es glauben: nachste Woche ist die letzte ganz Woche von meinen Deutsch Kurs! Ich bin sehr traurig, weil ich da vielen Freunden gemacht habe. Auch, wir haben nur sechs Wochen in Europa. Verruckt!
Heute, haben wir Mittagessen im Kirche mit der Gemeinde gegessen (Jedermann hat Speisen mitgebracht). Dann, sind die Missionaire bei uns fur Dinner angekommen, weil wir einen neuen Missionair haben. Er heiszt Elder Schenk und kommt aus Idaho Falls, Idaho. Wir sind am Mittwoch Abend zusammen mit dem alte Missionaire zuessen gegangen.
Okay I am switching back to English for this part cause I think many will want to know this. So on Saturday night, we went out to dinner at a traditional German restaurant with Pika, and then we sent her off on the train to visit her friend Imke one last time and then she is headed back to the states on Wednesday. So sad for us, though happy for Pato, and you all. But we will miss her oodles.
Oh I wanted to tell you about my experience on Thursday night. My school had this really cool night of international music where any of the students could share their musical talents. So Carrie and another girl Rachel who is also an opera singer, sang a song from Hansel and Gretel and it was AMAZING. Tony, a music major from California played an amazing classical piano piece. Also, Brandon another American, played some Neil Young on his guitar and seriously made me itch to get my hands on a guitar again.... I somehow got addicted in the short time between Brighton and coming to Europe.... anyway, he did a really good job, and then my personal favorite number was when a girl from Switzerland combined with a girl from Canada to sing a Celine Dion song in French, since Celine Dion is from Canada, but is apparently currently living in Switzerland so it all tied together.... ok no I am kinda making fun of them because well..... it was Celine Dion.... (sorry Elyse, I know you love her...) but they actually did a pretty good job. My real personal favorite number was actually these two men from Africa who speak not only a bunch of diferent African dialects and French, but also English and German. Anyway, the one, Blanchard, is completely blind, which I knew. What I didn't know was that he can play the piano!!!! He sat down at the piano and started playing and I was like, what the heck! He can play a trillion times better than me and I have full vision! And then, he started singing. This rich, deep voice in some beautiful African dialect. It was like nothing I have ever heard. And I seriously cannot get over his playing the piano- he just totally played by touch. And I am not just talking about playing the keys by touch of his fingers, I am talking about making music with his soul. You seriously just felt the music eminate from his soul, via the tools of his fingers and vocal chords- who needs eyes. Anyway, with all of the music talent that abounded from my fellow students at my school that night, I realized how many of the students studying there were doing so to enrich somethin to do with a music career or talent. Or maybe, just people who love and understand music are more quantitatively minded and have a better knack for learning another language. Although I don't seem to fall into either one of those categories, so maybe this is all just useless and false generalizations...
Well, Sharolee, I am so excited for you and wish you all the best on your mission and I can't wait to hear you speak Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian, or whatever languages you know when you get back. And I promise I will write you lots!!!
And to everyone else, I miss you bunches and bunches and love you even more. Until next week,
Emily
Sunday, November 9, 2008
School, politics, the weather: same old. EXCEPT THAT I AM IN GERMANY!
Ok so we just got back from the Thomas's house. They are a family in the branch and their 5 kids make up the entire primary and young men's. We are their home teachers and we had them over 2 weeks ago for dinner and games so this time we went over to their apartment. It is actually a crazy small world story: Sister Thomas was a foreign exchange student about 15 years ago in a U.S. high school. But not just any high school, PLEASANT GROVE HIGH SCHOOL. As in the high school Kara and I went to. Yeah. Crazy ironic. She even had the same P.E. teacher as me, good old Coach Bone who retired just last year. Anyway, Sister Thomas's English is brilliant and she has no accent whatsoever, and they are a really nice couple. And their kids, oh my goodness they are adorable. If my kids are half as cute as theirs I will feel really good about myself. There is Dennis (12), Imke (11), Johanna (10), Lasse (8), and Bente (6). Kara and I played Uno and some other random German card game with them for hours and it was so much fun. It is really fun to not be super self conscious about speaking German in front of them too because you don't feel obligated to speak in full sentences; you can just spurt out phrases, exclamations and slang words. Anyway, it was a really fun evening.
It was fast and testimony meeting at church today and Dad bore his testimony. I was asked to give the closing prayer and I (amazingly, and unlike last time when I chickened out) said it in German.
School is going fairly well. I mean, no- it gets more and more frustrating and seemingly impossible, but I have been told to regard that as a good sign, so all is good.
I had several people congratulate me on our new President. It was all every newspaper, radio, and news channel could talk about this past week. I have to say I am quite glad of the results, at least while I am here in Germany, due to the fact that all Europeans are obsessed with Obama and seriously would have broke into riots if he was not elected. They may not be as unbiased and informed as they think they are on American politics, but I have realized how profoundly American government and politics affect them here, and many other countries globally.
The weather here is still amazingly nice. The grass is even still green, but only the reddest of leaves still cling to the sparse trees. It has yet to snow in Goettingen, but the clouds feel at their leisure to rain as often and as much as they desire.
Ok, that must mark a fairly uneventful week if I am reverting to talking about the weather, so I will peace out. Bis nachste Woche. Ich liebe euch!
It was fast and testimony meeting at church today and Dad bore his testimony. I was asked to give the closing prayer and I (amazingly, and unlike last time when I chickened out) said it in German.
School is going fairly well. I mean, no- it gets more and more frustrating and seemingly impossible, but I have been told to regard that as a good sign, so all is good.
I had several people congratulate me on our new President. It was all every newspaper, radio, and news channel could talk about this past week. I have to say I am quite glad of the results, at least while I am here in Germany, due to the fact that all Europeans are obsessed with Obama and seriously would have broke into riots if he was not elected. They may not be as unbiased and informed as they think they are on American politics, but I have realized how profoundly American government and politics affect them here, and many other countries globally.
The weather here is still amazingly nice. The grass is even still green, but only the reddest of leaves still cling to the sparse trees. It has yet to snow in Goettingen, but the clouds feel at their leisure to rain as often and as much as they desire.
Ok, that must mark a fairly uneventful week if I am reverting to talking about the weather, so I will peace out. Bis nachste Woche. Ich liebe euch!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
"At least it's not raining..."
Okay so yesterday (Saturday), a bunch of my classmates decided they wanted to take a day trip to Eisanach to see the Wartburg Castle and I decided to tag along. It was a 2 hour train ride there and it was freezing cold and foggy when we go there. Steve had done a lot of research beforehand and found out that the bus that goes up to Wartburg every half hour, but after waiting an hour.... we finally noticed the small print on the bus schedule. It said something about Nov. 1st and calling ahead 45 minutes. We realized that it was in fact, Nov. 1st, but we couldn't quite figure out the complete meaning of the German sentence due to some disagreement about small, yet amazingly important words such as until, only, etc. Anyway, we finally decided to call the number listed on the bus schedule but no one answered. So then after a lot of asking people, who really didn't know what they were talking about, we went back to the Bahnhof and asked one of the ticket ladies there. She found a pamphlet with a newer number on that, so then we were finally able to secure a bus to come at the next half hour. So, 2 1/2 hours after arriving in Eisenach, we were on our way up there. It turns out that after Nov. 1st, if you want to take the bus, you have to call because it is no longer tourist season... yeah. Well we know now!
Anyway, we got up there and took a tour of the castle. It was awesome! I have been to a fair number of European castles and fortresses now, but this one was exceptionally cool. It was built in 1166 and had much of the original roots, but since it was in use until the 1950's, parts of it kept being updated every hundred years or so and so it has styles over a range of 800 years. It's true claim to fame, and the main reason why I wanted to tour it, is because it is where Martin Luther hid under the name "Squire George" and translated the New Testament into German from December 1521- February 1522. I had finally seen that really well done movie "Luther" about the life of Martin Luther, just a few weeks ago, so my interest was especially heightened. It was crazy to actually stand in the simple room where he worked tirelessly over a 2-month period and began the first stages of the Restoration.
So, we realized that it was getting pretty late, and that if we didn't catch the 5 PM train out of Eisenach, we would have to wait an additional 2 hours to leave, so we ran down the mountain, because no more buses were coming. Amazingly, though we got to the Bahnhof 2 minutes after our train should have left, it was still waiting for us, so luckily we got home by 7 PM. I was exhausted after being outside in the penetrating, damp cold and walking (or running) around all day. We saw the first snow I have seen here up by the Castle. But our response to any unfortunate event or complaint of someone being cold, was "At least it's not raining!" Because it rained the whole day when we were in Celle on Thursday. But it was totally worth it, and I am really glad to be fitting in all these weekend or day trips between school.
Today we went to Hannover for stake conference. Janet made a really yummy dinner tonight (taco soup) and we are all sad for her to leave back to Utah tomorrow morning. It has been really fun for Mom to have her over her birthday and for "the Blender Sisters" (named that for the weird voices they do around each other, dating back to a sleepover they had once upon a time, when the tried to impersonate the sound their voices made while talking into a blender... yeah, and everyone thinks the Woodbury girl cousins are so weird and unique with the voices) to reunite the past 8 days.
Anyway, we got up there and took a tour of the castle. It was awesome! I have been to a fair number of European castles and fortresses now, but this one was exceptionally cool. It was built in 1166 and had much of the original roots, but since it was in use until the 1950's, parts of it kept being updated every hundred years or so and so it has styles over a range of 800 years. It's true claim to fame, and the main reason why I wanted to tour it, is because it is where Martin Luther hid under the name "Squire George" and translated the New Testament into German from December 1521- February 1522. I had finally seen that really well done movie "Luther" about the life of Martin Luther, just a few weeks ago, so my interest was especially heightened. It was crazy to actually stand in the simple room where he worked tirelessly over a 2-month period and began the first stages of the Restoration.
So, we realized that it was getting pretty late, and that if we didn't catch the 5 PM train out of Eisenach, we would have to wait an additional 2 hours to leave, so we ran down the mountain, because no more buses were coming. Amazingly, though we got to the Bahnhof 2 minutes after our train should have left, it was still waiting for us, so luckily we got home by 7 PM. I was exhausted after being outside in the penetrating, damp cold and walking (or running) around all day. We saw the first snow I have seen here up by the Castle. But our response to any unfortunate event or complaint of someone being cold, was "At least it's not raining!" Because it rained the whole day when we were in Celle on Thursday. But it was totally worth it, and I am really glad to be fitting in all these weekend or day trips between school.
Today we went to Hannover for stake conference. Janet made a really yummy dinner tonight (taco soup) and we are all sad for her to leave back to Utah tomorrow morning. It has been really fun for Mom to have her over her birthday and for "the Blender Sisters" (named that for the weird voices they do around each other, dating back to a sleepover they had once upon a time, when the tried to impersonate the sound their voices made while talking into a blender... yeah, and everyone thinks the Woodbury girl cousins are so weird and unique with the voices) to reunite the past 8 days.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Celle
Happy Halloween!!! Oh my goodness how I miss the random and commercialized festivities of the Halloween holiday in the states... corn mazes and haunted houses, pumpkin carving, costume designing, and excessive candy eating. Actually, they are starting to get into it here. We actually had two girls come to our apartment trick-or-treating, or "Susser oder Sauer", but before that Kara and I had somewhat consoled ourselves by acting out the trick-or-treat procession with Pika as the door woman and Kara was Batman (don't ask me why she happened to bring a batman mask to Europe...) and I was a ghost... for lack of time to come up with something more creative. There actually was a party going on tonight at the school, but I am going on a day trip tomorrow early in the morning with some classmates so I decided against it. The party tonight was in celebration for "Berg Fest" which literally translates to "Mountain Party" but this is in reference to the 'hump' of being at the Goethe Institute and not the geographic feature; we are half done with our classes, which is a crazy thought.
Yesterday (Thursday), my class went on a day trip to a town called Celle. It was fun to have our teacher as our tour guide, as he was born in Celle. We went to a museum that showed medieval life in Germany, like farming and other trades, daily life, clothing, etc. And then we went to the Schloss (castle) in Celle that housed the royal family of Neidersachsen (a state in Germany) beginning in the 1500's. Also among our sight-seeing was a cathedral from around 1300. It was so old and very beautiful and intricate. The frescos lining all the walls were beautiful old and new testament scenes. We also went down to the catacombs below the church where all the royalty and their families from 1500 to 1700 are buried.... yeah pretty creepy and claustrophobic. It didn't smell too good either- Carrie kept threatening to pass out :) We also ate at this awesome classic German food restaurant/pub where my teacher proceeded to order a drink that I can't remember the name of, but that was essentially 1 part beer to 1 part Sprite. It was hilarious to me for some reason. I dunno I guess just because a teacher would never really drink in front of his class in the states (correct me if I am wrong, I have been living in Utah for a while now...), but beer is such a part of the culture here that it wasn't even considered weird. Anyway, we had a really fun day as a class.
I got home relatively late but Pato was here! Pika looked 10 years younger... than even her normal 10 years younger... so she looked like she was.... 20. Anyway, they both left today for Hamburg to see Lion King- on stage- in German.
Janet and Mom are getting back tonight from the travels to Berlin, Nuernberg, Eichstaett, Dresden, and Freiberg.
Happy Halloween! Enjoy it for me!
Yesterday (Thursday), my class went on a day trip to a town called Celle. It was fun to have our teacher as our tour guide, as he was born in Celle. We went to a museum that showed medieval life in Germany, like farming and other trades, daily life, clothing, etc. And then we went to the Schloss (castle) in Celle that housed the royal family of Neidersachsen (a state in Germany) beginning in the 1500's. Also among our sight-seeing was a cathedral from around 1300. It was so old and very beautiful and intricate. The frescos lining all the walls were beautiful old and new testament scenes. We also went down to the catacombs below the church where all the royalty and their families from 1500 to 1700 are buried.... yeah pretty creepy and claustrophobic. It didn't smell too good either- Carrie kept threatening to pass out :) We also ate at this awesome classic German food restaurant/pub where my teacher proceeded to order a drink that I can't remember the name of, but that was essentially 1 part beer to 1 part Sprite. It was hilarious to me for some reason. I dunno I guess just because a teacher would never really drink in front of his class in the states (correct me if I am wrong, I have been living in Utah for a while now...), but beer is such a part of the culture here that it wasn't even considered weird. Anyway, we had a really fun day as a class.
I got home relatively late but Pato was here! Pika looked 10 years younger... than even her normal 10 years younger... so she looked like she was.... 20. Anyway, they both left today for Hamburg to see Lion King- on stage- in German.
Janet and Mom are getting back tonight from the travels to Berlin, Nuernberg, Eichstaett, Dresden, and Freiberg.
Happy Halloween! Enjoy it for me!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
