Friday, August 10, 2012

     My last few days here in Berlin have been awesome.  We have seen the Pergamon Museum, Sachsenhausen, the Sanssouci Palace, the Orangery Palace, the 1936 Olympic stadium, and an actual bunker that was used in WW2.  The Pergamon Museum was really cool because they had exact replicas of different gates, and parts of the actual structures that were in Greece.  I think the coolest part of the Pergamon Museum was that we could see a panoramic view of an actual city from back in those times.  We could actually hear all of the different sounds that would have been happening.  Sachsenhausen was a concentration camp where people went if they committed crimes.  It was very chilling to see this because there were so many people who died there.  The Sanssouci Palace was where Frederick the Great lived.  Every room in this palace had a different design made especially for that room.  The Orangery Palace was a place for Frederick to put all of his exotic plants in the winter.  The Olympic stadium from 1936was very cool to see, and it was even more cool that we got to swim in the pool, and jump off the 10 meter.  it was very painful jumping off the 10 meter, the bottom of my foot is partially bruised.  The bunker was very interesting, because it was built right into a train station.  In the bunker there are a lot of different artifacts that have been found all over the different ones from around the city. Well, this is my last day here in Berlin.  My flight back to America leaves tomorrow morning at 7 a.m.

Monday, August 6, 2012

     Today was quite busy, my mom and I biked around Berlin seeing the different sights.  We went to the Ka De We, which is a very big shopping center, and had some very delicious parfait type things.  After that we went to bike around the Tiergarten for about one hour.  While trying to find the Stasi Museum we passed by the Brandenburg gate, and the American Embassy. When we finally found the Stasi Museum it was very interesting, there were so many little factoids that I never knew before. It was really very cool.  After the museum we had lunch at a little pizza place.  We had a spinach and garlic pizza, it was really good.  Check Point Charlie was the next thing on our list of adventures for the day, it was quite small but overall a very cool thing to see.  For a long while after that we just meandered around the city not looking for anything in particular.  We found the German History Museum, which was really educational. More to come...

Friday, August 3, 2012

     Today we leave again to head back to Berlin.  Its been a good four weeks here, and I'll miss it.  But I'm excited to get back to Berlin, especially since I get to see my mom tomorrow! So goodbye Denmark, and hello Germany!

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

     Nothing too extraordinary has happened in the last few weeks; we go to the beach occasionally, go into one of the nearby towns for shopping, swimming, we went to an amusement park. The amusement park was fun, is no Cedar Point, but its hard to beat that. 
     Oh how I love the Olympics.  It is probably one of the things I had been most excited about for this summer, apart from this trip.  Since the Olympics started we have pretty much been watching the games all day, with a few choice trips every once and a while. Its pretty nice to just sit and relax.  I am, however, looking forward to seeing my mom in a few days. It's gonna be nice to see her again. 

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Shopping, swimming, badminton, candle making, beach adventures, and sunsets, that's what the last three days consisted of.  It has been really fun. Every day we go to a different town to go shopping, its really cool. Also every day we go to a community center thing, they have swimming, badminton, ping pong, and other things. The badminton is really fun, even though I'm not to good at it, but still fun. The swimming is great, as usual, and the sauna is as well. Today we went candle making, and it was a...different experience. They turned out nicely though, mine is like an orange-y pink-ish color, like a sunset kinda. One thing I have noticed is that Denmark is so different from Norway. It's not just the fact that everything is less expensive, its that there is so much more to do here; and the people seem genuinely nicer than the Norwegian people. Then there is the sunsets, which are so gorgeous! The sun turns the sky a deep pink, and the reflection on the water is priceless.




     I could definitely get used to seeing this view every night.  This is a great vacation. :)

Sunday, July 8, 2012

     Our first day here in Denmark was fairly busy. After we all ate breakfast we walked to a nearby farm. We saw all the animals; which include: cats, chickens, deer, donkeys, goats, guinea pigs, horses, pigs, rabbits, and roosters. It was really cool, one of the cats had a litter and the kittens were small enough to fit in your hand, it was adorable. The next thing we did was go strawberry picking. It was really cool, and I do have to admit that I may have eaten a lot of the strawberries as I was picking them. But hey, they were there, I wasn't just going to not eat them. :) Our next destination was a swimming pool, where I got my first experience in a sauna. They are really sweet. Also at the pool they had raft type things and all of the kids were trying to get the others off of the raft, I was the only one successful of not getting pushed off! :) It was a successful day at the pool. After the pool we relaxed and ate our strawberries that we picked earlier, and they were delicious! Our last destination of the day was the sand dunes, they are not as big as the Sleeping Bear dunes, but they were still cool. To get to the actual dunes we rode bikes through the sand, which I do not recommend because it is not easy, and then walking just a little bit. The cool thing about these dunes is that the sand has moved a little bit every year. for example, there used to be houses on the dunes but now they are destroyed because the sand went into a pretty intense drop off into the sea, and took the houses with it. All together I would say this was a great start to what will hopefully be an awesome four weeks here in Denmark.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

     Today we are leaving for Denmark, we will be staying there for four weeks! Woo! To get back to Denmark we have to ride the Ferry back for about four hours. This is probably going to be my last post for a while, because I'm pretty sure the place we are staying at does not have internet, but who knows, maybe it does. Well, we are gonna leave soon, I'd better finish packing!

Monday, July 2, 2012

     Everything we have been doing for the last few days has been pretty much the same.  Wake up, some people go fishing, some stay home and just relax and enjoy the view, and we go shopping in Farsund.  Pretty normal stuff for a vacation in Norway.  Today we went on a hike, for like 3 hours.  It was really cool, the different views we got to see were gorgeous.  Along the trail we found a little pool ish thing, and we were really thirsty, so Marie, Niels and I got in (we stood on the rocks) and it was really cool.  All in all, its been a sweet vacation so far.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

     The last few days we have been doing pretty normal things, we went to a light house, went out on the boat, and just relaxed.  Pretty normal things here in Norway.  
     Today, however, was not super normal. It did start out that way though. Most of the crew went fishing, while Bo, Niels, and I went to the store, and a beach, and a small town.  The beach was really cool.  From where we were if we had a boat and went straight across the sea, we would end up in Greenland.  Pretty cool if I do say so myself.  Now all of this is pretty normal, the not normal part about today was the fact that, when we got back into Farsund, there was a military ship docking.  You may thing that's not to out of the ordinary; but Farsund is a small town, so its pretty out of the ordinary for this place.  The ship its self was really cool.

Well that's been whats happening. Germany plays again tonight, lets hope they win!

Monday, June 25, 2012

     Exploring. That's what we have been doing for the past few days. It's so cool here, because you can go through the trees and find some rocks by the sea and just sit there and think. Yesterday morning Pamela, Helen and I went on a walk up one of the hills, and the view was breath-taking, even though we didn't make it to the top of the hill. However one of my goals while I'm here in Norway is to get to the top of that. While we were exploring we also found a deck that would make a great place to have a bonfire. 
     We rented a boat for the next few days. It's really nice, we went out today and Pamela and Piet fished, and Marie Helen and I just relaxed. It was really peaceful.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

     Over the past two days we have traveled through Denmark, across the North Sea, to Norway.  We stopped in Hamburg on Friday so we wouldn't have to wake up super early, granted we still woke up at 4 o'clock, it was later than we would have had to wake up.  While we were in Hamburg we walked around and went shopping and ate food.  We also watched the Germany vs. Greece soccer game.  Germany won, because they are awesome.  
     Getting to the place we are staying in Norway required getting on a boat and traveling for four hours, then driving another half hour-ish to where we are now.  It was totally worth it though.  After we got settled in and ate dinner we went exploring our surroundings.  Right when we walk outside the sea is right there, and so many jelly-fish are swimming there, its crazy.  And the view is gorgeous, there are so many hills, I cant even explain it. 

Thursday, June 21, 2012

     Today  we were all  prepping for our trip.  Packing our stuff and getting all of the necessities for our weeks away.  Tomorrow we leave for Hamburg, and from there to Denmark. WOO! 

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

     I could pretty much live in Ikea, just saying. We went there today so we could get a few necessities before our trip to Denmark/Norway.  It was the first time I have been there; and I have to say, its pretty sweet.  After our Ikea trip we went to the mall, but there wasn't anything to exciting to buy.  After our little shopping extravaganza we had a lunch of Currywurst with Pommes Frites (yummm!) its kind of really delicious. (:  We came home after that and just did what ever we felt like doing at that moment; and a little while later we went to go get stuff for dinner and we had ice cream.  

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

     Well, yesterday was one of the more boring days here in Berlin.  We mainly just hung out at the apartment, but we did go to Helen's grade school graduation.  I have to say, it wasn't that exciting.  

     Today we made more jam, this time erdberre (strawberry) and heidelberre(blueberry.)  Both of which are delicious!  I also got a surprise today from Pam and Bo, one of Germany's soccer jerseys with my name on it!!










     I am officially ready for the next soccer game! Go Germany!

Sunday, June 17, 2012

     Yesterday wasn't much of a day to blog about, it was a rainy day so we mainly stayed inside.  We did go out once, to go to the gay and lesbian festival that was happening just down the street.  Most of the people that attended that were very peculiar, there isn't really a word to explain them.
     Today was much more exciting. we had to wake up early and go to an engagement party.  Marie and I worked the party, serving champagne and wine (8 bottles of champagne and only 1 bottle of wine.)  We both got payed 50 Euros, about 63 dollars, over all it was a successful morning.  After the party we hung around the apartment a while until we got bored enough to go on a bike ride.  We rode to the Brandenburg Gate, which took about 20 minuets.  it was well worth the ride, when we got there they were already set up for the big soccer game tonight against Denmark, so it was really crowded.  we rode back home and are now preparing to watch the big game!! GO GERMANY!!!!

Friday, June 15, 2012

     Lets see, today I did a little sight seeing, just a few things around the city.  Pamela and I also made potato salad, and picked Helen up from a school trip. Later in the day we went to a big shopping center, it was really cool.  Every floor had something different. The best part about the shopping center? The cake on the top floor.  It was so delicious!  here's a picture:

looks delicious right?! Well it was.  The next exciting thing that I did was go out to eat with Marie and her friend, we went to this place called Vapiono, it was really good. It is kind of like a Mongolian Barbecue in that you get to see your food being prepared right in front of you, but they have salad, pizza, and pasta. I had the pasta, it was good.  That's about it for what I did today, tomorrow I get a balloon ride over Berlin!!! WOOT!!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

     Today I made strawberry jam with Pamela.  It took about 3 or 4 hours to make 82 jars full, so that's how I spent my morning. After all the jam was made and put into their jars we went out shopping for fishing stuff....fun?  Yeah, a little, I got to see even more of Berlin it was really cool. After the fishing stuff was over we went to the grocery store. What to say about a grocery store in Germany?  There is a lot of beer, there was isle upon isle, kinda crazy.  The other thing that made an impression on me was the fact that they had a life size cow, yes cow as in big things that produce milk, right in the middle of the dairy section.  There weren't many things that we did today, since the majority of the day was spent making jam, hopefully tomorrow there will be more.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Adventure day!!


Adventure day!
     Today I woke up at 5:30, said good bye to my father and my brother and left for the airport with my mom.  When we got to the airport we checked in, and my mom left. I then went through security, with no problems, of course.  Sitting at my terminal was, boring, yet it had a hint of excitement to it.  No matter what I did, weather it was reading my book or listening to my music, the excitement was always there.  The plane ride was un eventful, yet I don’t know a person who would want an exciting plane ride
     JFK airport, what can I say about that? Well, it was boring, but I suppose anything would be boring in you sat in the same area for 5 hours. When I first arrived at JFK I had to sit and wait for the Austrian Air place to open.  It took an hour, I read my book.  When it finally opened, I checked in, got my boarding pass, went through security, and found my gate. I then had a less than adequate airport lunch, which consisted of a sandwich that could have used a number of improvements.  But what can you do about that? its not your fault airport food sucks.  When the time came to actually board the plane it went faster than I expected, the boarding process, not the actual plane ride.  When everyone was seated it took about another 45 minuets to actually take off and start our journey.  About a half hour into our flight our tv's started working so we could watch movies.  I do have to say that that part was pretty sweet.  Along with our movie we got dinner which consisted of chicken,  veggies, a roll, and a dessert of cheesecake (don't worry dad, yours is much better.)  since my movie was over so early in the flight i decided that i might as well occupy my time with something, so i thought "lets start my blog for the day," so i did.  As i'm writing this I am flying somewhere over the Atlantic ocean.  Its 9:40pm right now and we should arrive in Vienna at 8:45am their time, which would be 2:45am Michigan time.  Well I've got another busy day tomorrow, another wait i an airport, another plane ride, and a new culture to get used to.

     I really hate babies right now, I mean why would you bring your like 9 month old baby on a vacation.  its not like they are going to remember it.  There is this one baby on my flight right now and she keeps crying and I'm getting really sick of it  At this point in time I have been up since 5:30 this morning, and its midnight now.  I'm running on fumes at the moment.  But this really annoying kid wont shut up so I can't sleep. Plus its really hard to sleep on a plane.  Have you ever tried sleeping on a plane for a long flight? Because I don't recommend it, it is probably one of the most uncomfortable things ever.  Well tomorrow is gonna be interesting.

     There is not much to say about Vienna's airport except that they had really comfy chairs. The flight to Berlin was pretty easy too.  Once I got there I got my bags and met with the Strohschein's we left the airport and went to their house.  We stayed their for a while, catching up. But we all got hungry so they took me out for a German dinner. It was really good.Now we are all going to watch the Germany vs. Netherlands soccer game. 

Sunday, June 3, 2012

9 Days


As of today there are 9 days until I leave for Europe for 2 months.  My mom and I are doing a trial run for packing to make sure everything is in order.  Last week was the last of my lessons for learning German, lets hope it was all worth it and I will be able to communicate well enough while I am there.