http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Mayg/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Mayg en-us Sun, 27 Dec 2009 13:39:26 +0000 Sun, 27 Dec 2009 13:39:26 +0000 The morning we left for Amsterdam Adrian had had to spend some hours sleeping at my place before the busses started to run again. He shook me awake before he left saying set your alarm Set your alarm Don't forget i was totally out of it in a wonderfully deep sleep but fortunately I set my alarm crawled off the floor into my bed and went back to sleep for 4 more hours. Goodfreakingthing i set http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Netherlands/North-Holland/Amsterdam/blog-416444.html WEDNESDAYWednesday we booked a hostel. I had spent all night seeking out our best options. We'd be staying three nights and wanted to be near city center so we wouldn't have to use the trains or busses. The best we could find were multy person dorm rooms. Everything else was extremely out of our budget. The way I saw it I was going to Amsterdam might as well make it the whole 'travel experience' http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Hamburg/Hamburg/blog-416084.html I don't remember much happening during class today. I remember i was late and there was a new young girl sitting in with our class. Giving there were only 3 days left of instruction i was a little confused. She didn't have any books. Was she a friend of Sinzi's At break I asked her her name. Lena. She was doing an internship at the Goethe and would be working in the Culture office with Maxi. Very http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Hamburg/Hamburg/blog-415856.html On Monday the 22nd after our wonderful trip to Berlin we returned to Unterricht instruction school. It was also Sinzi's birthday But the little stink hadn't told anyone but me after seeing the big todo that was put up for my birthday. Instead she brought a box of chocolates to share with us all. Very yummy. But she didn't realize when she bought them they were liquer sweets so most of them ha http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Hamburg/Hamburg/blog-415806.html I slept well like always. Or always that I've been here in Europe. The beds were crreeeeaky though. I slept below Sinzi and honestly no matter who or where or what.... I really just don't like bunk beds. There's a reason Jen Ralph and my room was like it was with my head safely out from under her. S I just don't like it.Anyway slept well and I was the first to wake like always... I have bee http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-415183.html As I type this memoir of my trip to Berlin I am lying halfway in my room half way on the terrace bathing in the afternoon Hamburg sun. It is 84 degrees here with clear blue skies. I feel guilty for being inside so a tentative plan for tomorrow is donning a tank top and shorts and spending the afternoon on the Elbe reading or something along those lines. There is actually a beach. I could http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-414449.html The original goal was to leave for Berlin Friday after classes but the ticket price deal was only for Saturdays and Sundays. The ticket is called Schoenes Wochenende beautiful weekend and up to five people can split the 37 price and travel on trains all over Germany on that day. Another ticket to get home plus an 18 hostel stay trip to Berlin costing 36.5Friday was class as normal th http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Hamburg/Hamburg/blog-414093.html Thursday the 18th I returned to class and found that I had missed essentially nothing. I'd say that it was probably Thursday that Derronnie and I started to click a bit more. Derronnie is from Michigan originally but now lives in Germany with his life partner. He's an artist painter to be specific. Maybe 25. At first he seemed stand offish but I think we connect on just being Americans and our http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Hamburg/Hamburg/blog-412264.html Its been a while since my last post More than a week I'm just going to combine all in oneSunday the 14th... Today I slept most of the day after a long night early morning with Adrian and Matt on the Reeperbahn. I watched Dogma and Angela's Ashes chilling in my bed drinking warm cocoa. Its still been cold here. Monday was class as usual. We have a new teacher. Her name is BrandtCleider or som http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Hamburg/Hamburg/blog-411912.html Friday I went on a walking tour with Frau Jensen of whom I've uploaded a pic and other pictures from that tour. Saturday a group of Goethe Insituteners traveled up to Lbeck. It is an old smaller city farther north. It is most famous for Marzipan an almond paste candy. My camera died at the beginning of the trip so I don't have many pictures but Elizabeth took pictures for me that I can get f http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Schleswig-Holstein/L-beck/blog-409096.html Its Friday It's Friday Woah Where DOES the time goWednesday... right right. Wednesday a group of us went to the Hamburger Kunsthalle Art Museum. I went for a number of reasons.1. Nothing better to do.2. It essential to be cultural while I'm here and haven't made it to ANY museums yet3. It was freePossibly in order of importance Anyway we went as a group of a little less than ten and t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Hamburg/Hamburg/blog-408415.html I've been putting off blogging because I feel like I need all this time to be descriptive about every detail and now have instead said nothing. Because that just won't fly... blogon Short version.Monday Spent the day biking and meandering. In the evening I went with Maxi and Adrian to dinner in Hafen City and then onto the Feuerschiff supposedly to hear jazz. It was packed so we sat outside http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Hamburg/Hamburg/blog-407298.html Saturday morning I got up and met Jogi Hildegard's son at a flea market where he helped me haggle for a bike. I am now the proud owner of a cute like 3 speed bike with one hand brake that you generally don't use. Instead its like with kid bike's you pedal backward and those are your brakes. I rode around the city with Jogi for a while before he headed off to work. He is a bike taxi driver. He t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Hamburg/Hamburg/blog-406766.html The evening of my birthdayThe institute has a variety of levels A1 A2 B1 B2 etc... and after our separate courses each day we almost always have at least some option for a 'culture' experience. Once we went to a pub which is where I talked to Max and Matthew previous post. We went on a city tour... things like that. Friday a group of about 10 of us signed up to go on a tour of the harbor http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Hamburg/Hamburg/blog-406026.html Being away on my birthday isn't really a big deal to me at all. I haven't had a big fussy birthday since grade school and being in EUROPE is a sufficient celebration and everything on top of that... just icing on the cake My day started off beautifully. My house mother Hildegard shows up at my door with a tray holding a giant vase of fresh flowers a gift book over Hamburg and a kleinen Kuchen l http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Hamburg/Hamburg/blog-405906.html I am in Deutschland strictly to study German. I am not studying any other subjects. The government run language program Goethe Institut is in many cities throughout both Germany and the world. Why Hamburg I get that question a lot and don't have all that great of an answer. When I was fifteen I spent four days in Munich. Not long but long enough to say I've at least been there to see it. So if http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Hamburg/Hamburg/blog-405346.html I live with Hildegard WinterOtte. She is a middle aged woman with a lot of pep and two kids a girl 27 years old and a boy 23. I haven't met either yet but she thinks I might meet her son tomorrow. Hildegard as I call her is a teacher of painting and... something else that I can't remember. A tomcat lives here as well. His name is Juicy Ein sehr netter Kater. a great cat Hildegard spe http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Hamburg/Hamburg/blog-405337.html I flew out of KCI 1034 am and reached Newark 229. You can call me dim but YES I knew Newark was close to NYC but I didn't realize HOW close. As we lowered I thought Hmm what a bunch of large buildings and sky scrapers I wonder what city that is. Hmm it's nearly an island amidst all that water. Hmm that could almost be the Empire State Building There's no way Then where is the Statu http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-Jersey/Newark/EWR/blog-405260.html