I know it's been a while and I have a very good post coming after this on about my adventures at the beginning of November but first I must tell you what happened last friday.
I went out with most family on the 21st of November to go to a movie and shopping for groceries. There were no good movies out, so we decided to just go shopping. Believe it or not grocery shopping isn't much different here than in the states. The buggies are a bit smaller and the food looks better (there's a lot more fresh meat, fruit, and veggies). We left the house around 4:30, just as it was starting to get dark. It gets dark so early here. By 5pm it already feels like 7 or 8 pm just because it's so dark. It really messes with your head.
Anyhow, when we came home we took the groceries into the kitchen. We put away the food while making a simple dinner at the same time. Salad with bread and cheese and some fresh meat. We got home around 7:15. We ate our dinner and talked about what we were going to do the next day. We were going to go to a concert and go to their Cabin which is about an hour away in Brandenburg. After we ate my host mom (Andrea) and I started clearing the table, my host dad (Tommy) went somewhere and my host brother (Johannes) went to look something up on his computer.
A few minutes later my host mom and I were still cleaning in the kitchen when Johannes come down asking where his computer was. I made joke with him about it because he tends to lose things. But he said he left it on his bed and he said that I should remember because we were looking at something together on it when he last used it. My host mom went upstairs with him to help find it while I finished the kitchen.
A second later Andrea says that her computer (which was sitting on her desk in the office) was gone. That is when I felt the odd panic set in. "What is going on" I thought. It kind of reminded me of Christmas for a split second. When I was little my mom would take the gingerbread men and woman (and children and any other living gingerbread thing) and hide them in my doll house or somewhere similar. The reason was because on Christmas eve while we're sleeping and when Santa was coming they would come to live because of the magic of Christmas. I loved it.
I ran up to my room and opened the door and turned on the light. I had left my laptop on my bed, plugged in. It wasn't there. That is when my heart sank.
Someone had broken into our house while we were gone for 3 hours and took all of our laptops, half of my jewelry, all of Andrea's jewelry, and my host parents 50 kilo (140 pound) safe. The creepy thing is that besides the fact that all of our possessions were gone, there was no trace of anyone being in the house or how they got in. Later we discovered they broke the door handle of the back door and that's how they got in. The police came, dusted for prints and told us there was probably no likely hood of them finding our things. Which I expected.
Now we all have new laptops, new locks, and a little case of paranoia. We leave light on in the house when we leave and my Andrea almost always has here laptop with her. I hid the important jewelry I have left (I got lucky because some of my jewelry was already kind of hidden, not on purpose) and I kind of hide my computer when I leave. But I refuse to live in fear. That's no way to live.
Things will get better. They already are better. The insurance should cover most everything. Even my computer.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
Apres Moi
I've been a busy little bumble bee. Managing my internship, learning German, and keeping a good relationship with my host family (as well as my real family) takes a lot of work. However, the first week of November I was taken on a very lovely trip to Paris, France.
i took an ICE to Nurnberg to meet up with Ryan Kelly (the sweet guy that took me to paris).We had to take two different flights to Paris because of the time we bought our tickets and because waiting just a week or so to buy your tickets can change the price by 100 dollars. So, he left first on his flight and I waited four hours in the airport, wandering around the duty free shop, waiting to take my one hour flight over to meet him.
We stayed in a lovely hotel in Paris that was in a very good location (near the Eiffel Tower) with his grandmother who was doing a tour with a group of people over 70.
We got to see everything in Paris even though we were only there for 3 whole days (four if you count the day we came in but it was late at night). We took a free city tour with a wonderful tour guide. She was so sweet and filled with information and history about the city. It was a walking tour that lasted four hours but when you live in Europe, you get used to walking and Ryan and I were hardly tired afterwards.
So, we went on another tour with the same woman later that night in Montmartre. That's were Moulin Rouge is. It was cool, hip and the tour was filled with loads of interesting facts about artists that used to live there like Van Gogh. The tour also took us to the Basilica which is an beautiful church at the highest point in Paris. So, once you get there you can see the entire city, including the Eiffel Tower. Since our tour was at night we were able to see all the lights of Paris and the Eiffel Tower all lit up. The city honestly sparkles. At the end of the tour we got a free glass of wine. How could it get any better?
The next day we took a tour at the Palace of Versailles. We saw 16 rooms of the 700 hundred rooms in the Palace. All of which were beautiful for the most part with incredible ceilings. Some rooms were a little tacky and overdone but I guess that's just how they did it back then. The Hall of Mirrors was beautiful and the name says it all. It's filled with windows on one side that show the amazing courtyard.
Later that day we took a trip to Musee d'Orsay, Notre Dame, and Le Louvre.
In d'Orsay I saw the original Van Gogh self portrait and some original Monet. Notre Dame was absolutely gorgeous inside and out. Part of my kept expecting to see the Hunchback (okay just kidding). And the Louvre was huge, to say the least. In my opinion the Mona Lisa is definitely worth going to see. The colors of the painting have an effect and are beautiful. Its small but not as small as everyone says. That night at the Louvre there was a full moon and the best part of that trip was going up to where the invisible triangles lie and admiring the view. It was a very romantic night.
The last day, the sun was actually shining!! In November the sun hardly shines and the weather wasn't supposed to be good, so this was a pleasant surprise. We had been rushing to see everything in Paris since we got there and on our last day (the day we were leaving) we decided to take it slow and go back to look at two things we had already seen but a little closer and with more time. We went to the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triumph. We didn't get the chance to go up either one (each is supposed to provide a beautiful view of the city) but that's okay because I have decided that before I go back to the states in June I will try to make another trip to Paris. Or Maybe in the next couple of years I will study abroad there. I've always wanted to learn French.
i took an ICE to Nurnberg to meet up with Ryan Kelly (the sweet guy that took me to paris).We had to take two different flights to Paris because of the time we bought our tickets and because waiting just a week or so to buy your tickets can change the price by 100 dollars. So, he left first on his flight and I waited four hours in the airport, wandering around the duty free shop, waiting to take my one hour flight over to meet him.
We stayed in a lovely hotel in Paris that was in a very good location (near the Eiffel Tower) with his grandmother who was doing a tour with a group of people over 70.
We got to see everything in Paris even though we were only there for 3 whole days (four if you count the day we came in but it was late at night). We took a free city tour with a wonderful tour guide. She was so sweet and filled with information and history about the city. It was a walking tour that lasted four hours but when you live in Europe, you get used to walking and Ryan and I were hardly tired afterwards.
So, we went on another tour with the same woman later that night in Montmartre. That's were Moulin Rouge is. It was cool, hip and the tour was filled with loads of interesting facts about artists that used to live there like Van Gogh. The tour also took us to the Basilica which is an beautiful church at the highest point in Paris. So, once you get there you can see the entire city, including the Eiffel Tower. Since our tour was at night we were able to see all the lights of Paris and the Eiffel Tower all lit up. The city honestly sparkles. At the end of the tour we got a free glass of wine. How could it get any better?
The next day we took a tour at the Palace of Versailles. We saw 16 rooms of the 700 hundred rooms in the Palace. All of which were beautiful for the most part with incredible ceilings. Some rooms were a little tacky and overdone but I guess that's just how they did it back then. The Hall of Mirrors was beautiful and the name says it all. It's filled with windows on one side that show the amazing courtyard.
Later that day we took a trip to Musee d'Orsay, Notre Dame, and Le Louvre.
In d'Orsay I saw the original Van Gogh self portrait and some original Monet. Notre Dame was absolutely gorgeous inside and out. Part of my kept expecting to see the Hunchback (okay just kidding). And the Louvre was huge, to say the least. In my opinion the Mona Lisa is definitely worth going to see. The colors of the painting have an effect and are beautiful. Its small but not as small as everyone says. That night at the Louvre there was a full moon and the best part of that trip was going up to where the invisible triangles lie and admiring the view. It was a very romantic night.
The last day, the sun was actually shining!! In November the sun hardly shines and the weather wasn't supposed to be good, so this was a pleasant surprise. We had been rushing to see everything in Paris since we got there and on our last day (the day we were leaving) we decided to take it slow and go back to look at two things we had already seen but a little closer and with more time. We went to the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triumph. We didn't get the chance to go up either one (each is supposed to provide a beautiful view of the city) but that's okay because I have decided that before I go back to the states in June I will try to make another trip to Paris. Or Maybe in the next couple of years I will study abroad there. I've always wanted to learn French.
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