Lidl Ticket

So, how do I begin to describe this situation I found myself in recently? Well, let me start by saying there is a small grocery store in Germany called Lidl. There is also a transportation system in Germany which consist of subways, above ground subways, trams, buses, and long distance trains which go all over the country. The fastest and most expensive long distance train is called an ICE (Intercity Express). This transportation system is run by something called Deutsche Bahn (DB). Anyway, every year in December for about a week this store Lidl offers something called a Lidl ticket for only 64 euros and you can go anywhere with any kind of train, round trip, but the ticket only last from January to March 31st. And the tickets are limited. Well, I bought one to use when I went to Köln for Karneval, but that was it. Then a little over two weeks my Area Representative in my program sent me an email asking if I would like a Lidl ticket. She had bought one too many and wasn't able to use it before it expired at the end of March. So, I took it.
I decided to go to Freiburg for 2 or 3 days to visit friends and see the area. Since I live in Berlin which is in the north-east of Germany and was traveling to Freiburg which is located in the south-west of Germany, I was definitely getting a deal. Normally, with an ICE that would have cost at least 200 euro and it's a 6 and a half our train ride with the fastest train in Germany.
I stayed with my friend (brother) Jake, who is in the same program. He lives in a little Village called Schuttern, about 50 minutes outside of Freiburg. I'd never really been to a village before and I thought some of the things Jake told me about it was a joke. Like there is no movie theatre or movie rental in the village. There is only one bakery/small grocery store in the village and one church that the village is centered around. It's a typical German village. From the village it's a 10 minute drive to France and you can see the mountains of France (and Germany, part of the Black Forest) from Jakes house. :)
We went into Freiburg for a whole day and i got to meet up with a couple of friends in my program as well as see some of the city. However, it was raining and grey the day we went didn't get to see everything in the city. My friends showed me around some and took me to eat Black Forest Cake (Schwarzwald Kirsch Torte). It was delicious, of course. Then they took me the the Münster and we climbed all the way to the top. All of these church like buildings are the same here. You go into these tiny stone stairwells and have to climb the never ending staircase. I always feel like Nancy Drew trying to uncover some mystery and it's always slightly creepy. But once you get to the top you get to see the entire city and that is beautiful.
To end my day in Freiburg my friend Mason took me a cafe to drink a glass of white wine made in the region. It was delicious. Definitely the best wine I've ever had. :)
The next day I started to head home but decided to stop in Mainz and spend the day with my hubby, Chris. We walked around a bit, had lunch together and had some wonderful ice cream (which I hadn't eaten since the summer) before I boarded my train and headed home to Berlin.


Schuttern with the Black Forest (mountains) in the background.



The only Bakery/shop in Jake's village.



Me and Mason in Freiburg



Black Forest Cake



In from of the Münster in Freiburg.



The stairwell up to the Münster.



View of Freiburg from the top of the Münster.



Me at the top of the Münster. It was windy.



Church in Freiburg



A square in Mainz. Can you find me? :p



The things you find in Mainz haha



Ice cream in Mainz with Chris :)

Of course

I typically always make a mistake when doing something on the computer. This time i hit post blog instead of save. So, I apologize for any grammatical errors. And here are the pictures from Christmas and the snow that I wanted to post.


My Christmas present from Johannes. :)



Our Christmas tree filled with Candles.



Grandma and Grandpa's treasure chest of Christmas cookies.


Taking a walk with the family a day or two after Christmas eve. Don't Ammar and I look cute. (I'm wearing Ammar's hat :p)

Finally

It started snowing on Christmas eve and it kept snowing all through January and February. Now after nearly two months of snow. It is melting. As the snow slowly fades, the grass underneath is green as it was the day it started to snow. As though it was preserved and just waiting to see the sun again. I feel like that grass. Just buried in something cold, annoying, and beautiful.

I haven't written in three months. So much has happened in this time. Every month here feels like it last about three months. Once the month is over it feels like everything that happened during it happened so long ago. Still it goes by too fast.

Christmas in Germany was beautiful. The glowing Christmas markets filled with people, arts, food, and the ever popular Glühwine (a warm spiced wine). The house and tree were filled with Candles. At night they were the only thing you needed to light. I had so many different cookies with the same delicious hot chocolate. All the cookies were home made by my host grand mother (who happens to live next door).

On Christmas eve we went to the Berliner Dome for Mass. It is probably one of the most beautiful churches I've ever been in. Then we came home, ate a marvelous dinner including duck and potato salad (how german), drank way too much wine and opened all of our presents. I was the first to go to bed at 2 am. The next few days were followed with a trip to Potsdam to see the New York Gospel choir, several big feasts with relatives, playing lots of Uno, and my very first opera (which i experienced with Julia, Ammar, and Bilal).

New Years was spent in a very nice part of the city at my host Cousin's apartment with Ammar, Julia, Bilal, Hector, Austin, and my cousin Robert. We ate, we drank, I made an amazing flourless chocolate torte, and we experienced the craziness of New Years in Germany. There were so many fire works that no matter where you turned the sky was lighting up in green, red, blue, purple, and orange.

Outside Robby's apartment. There was smoke in the air from all the fireworks.



In the beginning of January, I started a new internship at a school. I now work with fourth graders. I spend the first half of my day observing classes and helping the kids or teachers when they need it. The second half of my day is after school care, in which I play games with the kids for about 3 hours until 4 o'clock.

I enjoy my this internship a lot more than I did the last one. The theatre just had no work for me, except to run errands and hand out flyers. I wasn't learning any German in the theatre either and I felt as though I was hardly socializing because I was always out with the flyers. But working in the school has helped my german tremendously. The kids are very nice (with the exception of one or two) and they really seem to like me. Every now and then I teach them about where I came from or play games with them in English to help them learn. The other day I described disney stories/princesses in English and they had to guess which story or princess it was. I will gladly be staying in this internship until may.

I helped some of the boys build a snow man one day. The 4.1 is the class they are in. The fourth grade is split into 4.1 and 4.2.



Now I know this post is getting pretty long, but I only have one more thing to talk about. Since I wasn't in Louisiana, I wasn't able to celebrate Mardi Gras. The funny thing is other cultures celebrate something just like Mardi Gras. They have it in Italy and Germany as well. Except here and in Italy it's called Karneval.

So, for one week I went to Cologne to experience it. Cologne is like New Orleans for Mardi Gras and a city very close called Düsseldorf is like Baton Rouge for Mardi Gras. My friends and I spent a majority of our time in these two cities. Everyone was dressed up and drinking. Just having a good time. It was very similar to Mardi Gras except no king cake and no plastic beads. They threw a lot more candy and random things like rubber duckies and powdered soup at the parades. Oh and no one was flashing for things as far as I could tell. Thank God.