International Experiences

Hey Everyone!

Last week I wrote about how excited was with my upcoming weekend – cooking, Iranian New Year, and Skyline night. I am happy to say that it lived up to my expectations.

Maria, her boyfriend Joszef, and I cooked Chinese food with a Trinidadian flair – very yummy! We had sweet and sour shrimp and egg-fried rice with lots of vegetables. I really enjoyed the company and was way impressed with the food. My contribution was chopping vegetables for the most part – I excelled at it. ;)

Saturday evening was the Iranian/Persian New Year. I learned a lot at it. For example, it is called “Norruz” which literally translates into “New Day”, is celebrated on the first day of spring, and is celebrated by cleaning (“shaking the house”), wearing new clothes, visiting family and friends, and insisting that those family and friends who have visited eat lots of foods. There were also demonstrations of Iranian street dancing and traditional dancing, Iranian cartoons, clips of Rick Steve’s Iran, and some incredible live music. To cap it all off there was a meal of Iranian food which was pretty darn good – something like roast beef and rice, bread and dipping sauce for the bread, and yogurt sauce. For dessert there was ice cream that instead of being sweet was flavored with herbs including saffron.

Sunday night my friends and had a second Cincinnati night – this time with cans of Skyline Chili and smuggled cheddar cheese – it was SO good. It smelled and tasted like home to me. I also had found a box of brownie mix in a German grocery store that I made – they were completely edible and chocolaty, but not anything like American brownies. We also played a game of my family’s beloved card game, nickel. Blake won; I came in second, Kate in third, and last, but not least Maria.

This weekend I’m continuing to my international experiences – I’m going to a Brazilian bar where they speak Portuguese (a language I do not speak) and having a French night with my friends. Then on Sunday Lanie, my best friend from the States, is coming to visit for a week. We are going to do some day trips and explore Bremen some more together. I am very excited about her visit!

Classes are still going fine. I’m trying to get all my work for them done before Lanie arrives, so we can have more time together.

I hope all is peachy with you.

Love, Elizabeth










Maria, me, and Blake getting ready for a yummy night!











Mmm! Smuggled cheddar cheese!














A proper Skyline three way














Box of German brownie mix complete with baking pan - can you see the American Flag on the box?














The brownies were pretty, but didn't taste quite right

Too Unbelievable

Here in Bremen our weather is pretty consistent - cloudy, gray, maybe some rain or drizzle. Or that weird stage where you go outside and get wet, but it isn't actually raining. It's also highly unusual for Bremen to get snow. Ever. Today, 25 March 2009, this is what I woke up to:

Snow. Lots of snow. Snow that doesn't appear to be letting up anytime soon.

My oh my

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hey Folks!

This week has not been a quiet week I am happy to say. Quiet weeks are nice and absolutely needed, but I’m glad some things happened this week.

Tuesday was St. Patrick’s Day which was pretty cool. I remembered to wear green and we drew shamrocks on people who had forgotten to wear green. All in all, just silliness.

I knew there was a huge group of people going to an Irish pub downtown, but I had no plans to go originally, but practically everyone I knew was going and I was tired of sitting in my room so I went. It turned out to be pretty darn fun. It started out with 11 people traveling together from campus to this pub. Only one person had thought to get directions before leaving, so he became our fearless leader. Upon getting to the pub, it was so crowded you could barely move. There was also a band that consisted of two guys, one of whom was Irish, who played some good music. I ordered a Guinness, but after about 3 sips of it I couldn’t drink anymore. Leah and Blake, two of my friends, kindly finished it for me. We hung out swaying to the music, trying to talk to each other, but after about 2 hours we were done and headed home, running to catch the 11:11 train.

The next morning we all had 8:15 am classes which proved a bit rough. Suffice it say, we were all a bit zombified.

Today is Friday and I’m gearing up for what I hope is going to be a good weekend. Tonight I am cooking with Maria and her boyfriend who is visiting from Hungary, Saturday I am going to go to the Iranian New Year celebration, and Sunday my friends are coming over for a Cincinnati night – Skyline Chili and a game of Nickel. I am pretty excited about all of them.

Classes are going okay. I’m still enjoying European History and, to a degree, Asian History. The third class, Globalization, Migration, Linguistics, and Literary Taxonomies is not as stimulating as I had hoped it would be. All of the classes are piling on the readings and it has become not unusual for me to read a book in a day anymore. I’m not quite enjoying that.

I hope all is well with you and yours!

Love,
Elizabeth













Me with my Guinness - that was all I could drink. See the Irish band in the background?

Leah & Blake celebrating St. Patrick's Day

Quiet Week

Hey everybody!

This week has been calm for the most part. My friends and I had a wonderful spaghetti dinner last Friday. Yummy, meatless spaghetti, good garlic bread, salad, and cookies and precious Reese’s Cups from the US for dessert. All this was followed by a game of rummy and a rather rambunctious game of bullshit. Somehow I had managed to live 25 years without ever playing bullshit and I was missing out. It’s a fun game.

Spring may be creeping its way in to Bremen. The sun now shines two days a week! Granted the rest of the of the week it’s windy and rainy. The sunshine really makes a big difference in everyone’s moods.

I really got back into the swing of things this week. I made it to all of my classes, did a considerable amount of reading for classes and presentations, hung out at the Friseur (a café) with my friends, and met with professors. Nothing extremely exciting, but necessary.

In less exciting news I deep cleaned my little apartment this week. I washed all my bed linens, vacuumed, dusted, and all that good stuff. I figured after being sick for a week it wouldn’t hurt to give everything a good once over and make sure there were no strep germs hanging around.

Spring break plans have been made. I will be going to Barcelona, Spain from Monday April 6 to Thursday April 9. I bought the plan tickets and booked a hostel so it is definitely happening. I’m going by myself I think so this will be quite the adventure. I hear there is a Hard Rock Café there.

That’s about all I have to report. I hope things are going peachy keen & groovy for you.

Love,
Elizabeth








One of our best meals yet! Kate, Blake L., Blake B., and Maria














Is Maria trying to sneak a peek at Lyazzat's cards?












Blake & Blake knew what they were doing

A couple of cardsharks

Back in Deutschland

Hey Everybody!

I made it to Germany safe and sound, but, of course, with some new stories to impart to y’all.

My flights were from Cincinnati to Detroit, Detroit to Paris, and Paris to Bremen. There was a bit of drama regarding my luggage. Once again, I had over packed and my suitcase was over the weight limit, so Maria (who was driving me to the airport) suggested we stop at her house and get a duffle bag or something else that I could put stuff in and then get rid of when I got to Germany. As it was, I ended up checking my suitcase and a small bag and two carry-on backpacks. A backpack on the back on and one in the front is quite the fashion statement in Paris.

To top it all off I had cheddar cheese that I was trying to get into Germany in one of the backpacks. I wasn’t quite sure if bringing cheddar cheese into Germany was legal or not, but I am inclined to believe that it’s not. The very first security checkpoint in Cincinnati I got stopped for it, but they gave me it back to me and by sheer luck I didn’t get stopped anywhere else for having cheese in my backpack. All of us here in Germany are really thrilled to have the cheddar cheese – there are big plans for it.

The long flight from Detroit to Paris was really crowded and I sat next to a 2-year-old who was pretty well behaved given that it was an 8 hour flight. The neat thing about this flight was that everyone had their own personal media screen that you could watch movies or play games on. I played mah-jong tiles for a couple of hours which was pretty cool.

I did get confused going through security in Paris. I wanted to know if I had to take my shoes off so I pointed to my shoes and asked, “Meine zapatos?” which is part German, part Spanish in a Paris where they speak French. The security lady just shook her head and I went through no problems.

I did some overpriced quiche that was absolutely delicious in the Paris airport. I was impressed.

The flight to Bremen was short and easy. Kate, Maria, and Lyazzat surprised me and helped me with my bags. Maria even had kuchen for us to eat on the train. It really made me feel great.

I wasn’t feeling too great the Sunday night I got back, but I thought it had something to do with being in planes and airports for the past 24 hours. The next morning, Monday, I woke up with one of the worst sore throats I ever had and every symptom of strep throat that I knew of. I got myself to the doctor that day who confirmed my suspicions and gave me penicillin. To be proscribed antibiotics in Germany is harder than heck and you have to be really, really sick to get them. From previous experiences with strep I knew I was going to need them to get better and was prepared to fight to get them, but this doc was really great – I didn’t even have to ask. Bless him.

I spent Tuesday and Wednesday in my room feeling truly horrible. It’s been a long time since I felt so awful. Thursday I made it to class for the first time in over 2 weeks, but by the end of the day I was so tired I was back in bed.

Now it’s Friday and I’m feeling probably 85% normal. My friends and I are having our weekly cooking tonight. We’re making spaghetti so that will be good. I’m planning on a quiet weekend and hopefully will be up to speed next week.

My classes this semester are fine, especially since I haven’t hardly been there. I’m taking Contemporary European History which I enjoy, Chinese History which is challenging, and a class called Migration, Globalization, Linguistics, and Literary Taxonomies – I am pretty sure it’s a literature class. It’s the class I’ve missed the most so I don’t have an opinion on it at the moment.

I hope all is well with you.

Love,
Elizabeth









Dave, Lyazzat, Maria, and I in Hamburg








Maria's got all the pots going to Trini food night!

Yum! Lyazzat, Maria, and I enjoy Trinidadian food night!