Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Happy Thanksgiving week!

My friends made Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday night, but I couldn't make it because I had play rehearsal. However, they saved me some food, and I warmed it up when I got back-- you can never have too much turkey!

Thursday I took the day off from classes and work for Thanksgiving. We had Thanksgiving mass on south campus that Katie helped plan. Somehow I ended up bringing up the gifts-- me, right? I'm not even Catholic! I can't even take communion, and I brought it up! It was kind of weird, but I guess I've having all sorts of new experiences here in Ireland! After mass, the Chaplains treated us all to lunch! It was pretty delicious-- especially the banana and caramel dessert! When we were finished with lunch, Katie and I went out to explore south campus. We took a walk around the footpath that circles campus and took loads of pictures of whatever we could find! We even wandered into the church which was SOOO beautiful! We ran into a tour group that we followed for awhile, and we found out they were from Clongowes Wood College (where we toured last week)! It was a windy day, but a beautiful day. We hurried back after our photo shoot to tidy up for our departure for Castletown. Castletown House was built in 1722 for William Conolly, the Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. The house was inherited by Tom Conolly in 1758 and the interior decoration was finished by his wife Lady Louisa (great-grand-daughter of Charles II of England and his mistress Louise de Keroualle) during the 1760s and 1770s. The house was bought in 1967 by Desmond Guinness (an heir to the brewery throne) to save it from vandalism, became the flagship of the Irish Georgian Society, owned by the Castletown Foundation, and was later still transferred to the Office of Public Works. It was too dark outside to get great pictures of the house, but it was grand! It reminded me of the White House. It was cool to see the house, as most of it had been preserved and restored. After the tour, we had dinner in the restaurant in the bottom of the house. The Thanksgiving dinner was a delicious meal of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberries, and pumpkin pie. It was a very good attempt by the Irish to produce a traditional American meal, and it was delicious, but there wasn't quite enough food to fill us until we thought we would burst (like there SHOULD be on Thanksgiving).

On Friday I went to meet Lydia Manteufel at the train station. Lydia and I were in "The Wiz" together in middle school, and then in Creative Connections (a show choir in Wausau) together for a year or two after that. I hadn't seen her in years, but when I found out she would be in London for the year, I emailed her, and she decided to come visit for the weekend! I love how being across the world brings old friends together!

So, I picked Lydia up at the train station, we came back to my flat, got her settled, and caught up until my friends joined us for dinner. We all cooked a nice meal of delicious chicken stir-fry, and then we had Katie's boy story for dessert :)

We all bundled up and went to The Roost so I could show Lydia what an Irish pub was like. We chatted at the Roost for awhile and then stopped at Dunne's on the way home for some dessert. We decided on chocolate cake, apple crumble, and caramel icecream-- needless to say, it was delicious. After a lovely dessert (probably too much dessert), we snuggled up to watch Grey's Anatomy before bed.

On Saturday, we all got up early to go to Dublin. Our first stop was Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. Trinity College was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university"; Trinity and the University of Dublin form Ireland's oldest university. The Book of Kells is an ornately illustrated manuscript, produced by Celtic monks around AD 800. It contains the four gospels of the Bible in Latin, along with prefatory and explanatory matter decorated with numerous colourful illustrations and illuminations. The script and illustrations were really beautiful! After admiring a few pages of the Book, we went up to the Long Room, with books from floor to ceiling. The main chamber of the Old Library, the Long Room, is over 212 feet in length, and houses around 200,000 of the Library's oldest books. Marble busts are placed down either side of the room representing famous authors and philosophers. One of the dozen or so remaining copies of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic is on display. This signalled the start of the Easter Rising when it was read aloud by Patrick Pearse outside the General Post Office on 24 April 1916. Changing exhibits of printed books and manuscripts from the Library's collections are mounted in the Long Room.

While Erin and I were admiring the library, with its spiral staircases and 10 foot ladders, Erin noticed a man wearing a Notre Dame windbreaker. I approached him and asked him if he was a Notre Dame fan. It turned out he was the head track coach at Notre Dame! We told him we were from Saint Mary's and chatted with him for awhile-- what a small world!

After taking some pictures of the beautiful Trinity College campus, we moved on to visit the Molly Malone statue. "Molly Malone" is a popular song which has acquired the status of an Irish anthem. It has become the unofficial anthem of Dublin City in Ireland and tells the tale of a beautiful fishmonger who plied her trade on the streets of Dublin, but died young, of a fever. The statue of Molly was designed by Jeanne Rynhart and was erected at the bottom of Grafton Street to celebrate the city's first millennium in 1987.

After visiting the statue and meeting a cute Irish man that took our picture, we stopped for a quick lunch at Delish pie cafe and juice bar. I had a lovely steak and cheese pie with mashed potatoes-- it was, in fact, delish!

Next we went to visit Dublin Castle. Dublin Castle is a major Irish governmental complex, formerly the fortified seat of British rule in Ireland until 1922. Originally built as a defensive fortification for the Norman city of Dublin, it later evolved into a royal residence. Largely complete by 1230, the castle was of typical Norman courtyard design, with a central square devoid of a keep, bounded on all sides by tall defensive walls and protected at each corner by a circular tower. The castle was beautiful inside and out, and we were really excited that we knew a lot of the history that the tour guide talked about because of our Irish history class! We also ran into the ND track coach inside again, and he asked us if we knew where the Notre Dame building was in Dublin. We were so excited that we were able to tell him!

Next, we rushed across town to get to the Guinness Brewery before it closed. I wasn't sure if I would like this, since I don't like beer, but the factory itself was actually really cool, and the tour was pretty interesting. At the end of the tour we walked up to the top of the building, and Katie and Lydia enjoyed their free Guinness pints while the rest of us sipped nasty diet cokes. But the view was beautiful; we could see all of Dublin lit up!

When we left the brewery, we walked back towards Grafton Street, and we got to see all the streets lit up with Christmas lights! It was so beautiful! There were chandeliers across the roads, and people scurrying from shop to shop; all they needed was some snow to make it most beautiful!

We stopped at Carrol's to do some intense souvenir shopping and then at Supermac's for some garlic cheese chips (Lydia had to have them before she left Ireland!)

Upon returning to Maynooth on the train that evening, we made a fabulous pancake dinner (Lydia had been craving pancakes for weeks with no way to make them, so we thought we'd satisfy her craving) and watched Peter Pan (again, because Lydia really wanted to see it). All in all, a fantastic day!

The next morning, a few of the girls needed their "beauty sleep," so it was just Lyds, Katie and I who set out for Kilmainham Gaol the next morning. Kilmainham Gaol is a former prison, located in Inchicore in Dublin, which is now a museum. Kilmainham Gaol has played an important part in Irish history, as many leaders of Irish rebellions were imprisoned and some executed in the jail. Most famously, the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising were held and executed in the jail, and Eamon de Valera was the last prisoner in Kilmainham. Kilmainham Gaol was abandoned as a jail in 1924, by the government of the new Irish Free State. The jail has also been used as a set for several films including The Italian Job and Boondock Saints.

It was really weird standing in the yard where the leaders of the Easter Rising were executed. The Easter Rising was a rebellion by Irish republicans to win independence from Britain during Easter week of 1916. The rising was not very popular among the Irish until the leaders of the rising were executed in Kilmainham Gaol. Those executions changed the public's opinion and caused a huge surge of support for Irish rebels and Sinn Fein, a political party believed to have links to the rising. The executions seemed to be a catalyst in the nationwide push for Irish independence, and standing in the yard where those executions took place was a very intense experience.

The tour took a little longer than we expected, and when we finally got over to St. Patrick's Cathedral, we had already missed the service, and it was closed. But we walked around it and took some pictures. St. Patrick's Cathedral was founded in 1191 and is the larger of Dublin's two Church of Ireland cathedrals, and the largest church in Ireland. There was some restoration taking place on the outside, of course, but the garden behind the Cathedral was really beautiful (plus it had a playground, so we obviously hit that up). The green was the site of the well where St. Patrick baptised many of the local inhabitants in the 5th century A.D.

After visiting St. Patrick's, we had to get Lydia to the bus station so she could catch a bus to the airport for her return to London. It was sad to see her go; we had such a great weekend! I love how being so far from home brings old friends together...

After we got back, I had to snap myself back into reality and make myself work this week. I had a paper due this week that I hadn't even started so I finished that on Monday night so I could spend all day Tuesday memorizing lines for the play I'm in. Play rehearsals this week have been very frustrating. It was totally unreasonable and unfair for the drama society to expect us to memorize so many lines in such little time. Plus, we've only had a few rehearsals. I am NOT used to this Irish way of unorganization. My cast members would come late to rehearsals or not come at all. We've barely rehearsed at all! The third member of the cast dropped out last week, so we had to find someone new, and who knows if he'll be able to memorize his lines. Our director has a very different idea of the play and of our characters than we do, so that's been frustrating. Plus he stops us like every 5 seconds, so it's hard to stay in character and memorize lines and blocking with so many interruptions. AND I have to kiss the leading man in my play. Now, I'm an actress, and the reason I wanted to take the kiss out of the play was not because I'm not attracted to this guy (which I am not: he has long hair and a long pinky finger nail and he smells), but he is the most awkward boy ever! He's never even been on stage before, so he's uncomfortable acting in the first place, and he's obviously not very comfortable around me either. I just didn't want that to project itself onto the audience and make them feel uncomfortable too, as I feel I would if I were in the audience. Well, I voiced this to my director, and I thought I made a pretty good argument for myself. But, like I said, he had a very different idea of how the play should be, so he is basically making us do it. I'm an actress, but still... it's awkward. I can't wait for this show to be over. And besides all this, I definitely do NOT have all my lines memorized, and my cast members definitely do not either, and I am SO bad at improvisation. When things go wrong on stage, I just fall out of character. This is going to be one interesting experience...

It's been a stressful week, but I got two packages yesterday: thanks Katie and Rae! They made my week!

Jackie, one of my friends from Saint Mary's, is directing a play next semester. She wants me to be her stage manager, which I am DEFINITELY going to do now. We are going to show these Irish how to be organized and punctual and professional. We are going to be in charge, and our show is going to be polished and structured! I can't wait!

History paper and exam in two weeks, plus I still have to memorize all these lines and be prepared for the play. Stress, stress, stress. How many days until Christmas?

Pictures:

Thanksgiving and Exploring
http://nd.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2123102&l=3935e&id=5619987

Thanksgiving and Lydia
http://nd.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2123104&l=58a98&id=5619987

The Yellow Brick Road in Dublin
http://nd.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2123106&l=2d4ff&id=5619987

Peter Pancakes
http://nd.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2123107&l=fd7bb&id=5619987

Happy Birthday To Me!

Big English paper due last week, so that consumed most of my evenings. But now that I'm done with my anthropology class, I have a lot more time on my hands. I spent most of the week working on that paper (or thinking about working on it), and trying to avoid thinking about the fact that I was going to be turning twenty on Sunday.

Saturday we went on a little trip with our good friend Seamus. (He's about 65 years old and LOVES history. He comes to our Saint Mary's meetings to tell us about the history of places we visit). So Saturday afternoon we went to see Clongowes Wood. It used to be a castle and is now a boys' secondary school (or a "boys' college" as they are called here). James Joyce attended Clongowes Wood College from 1888 to 1891. He wrote about the school and many of his teachers and classmates in the first 120 pages of "Portrait of the Artist." The castle was built in 1450, rebuilt by Stephen Fitzwilliam Browne in 1718, extended to the back in 1788 by Thomas Wogan Browne, and bought by the Jesuits and turned into a school in 1840. Father Kenney, the founder of Clongowes Wood College, was buds with Daniel O'Connell (a famous political leader in Irish history), who sent 4 of his sons to the school. Also, Theobald Wolfe Tone, one of the leaders of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, wrote about dining in the dining room at Clongowes Wood. The house was really cool... especially the old library with the hidden doorway! I want a mystery house when I grow up! With secret doors...

Sunday morning, my birthday, I got up and scrubbed my floors and cleaned my apartment in preparation for my party! Then I got all gussied up, lit some candles, and welcomed all my guests. We had fun chatting and making Bacardi Breezer floats (mmmm! delicious) and then went out to dinner at Donatello's Italian Restaurant in Maynooth. It was delicious! I had to get lasagna because my dad always makes me lasagna for my birthday! It actually tasted a lot like my dad's lasagna, which made me very happy. After I was done with my lasagna, the waiter brought me out some chocolate cake with a candle and everyone sang me "Happy Birthday." It was a fabulous night! Thanks to all my friends that made it class, sassy, and fabulous!

After we got back, I pried of my false eyelashes (which i accidentally glued to my eyelashes on one eye instead of my eyelid and had to pry off with a tweezers... painful)! Then a few of us watched Peter Pan (the one that came out in 2003), which was amazing! Katie and I stayed up till 4am watching the movie and facebooking and such, so she just slept over. Fun times!

Today I went to class and then got my PACKAGE from my mom with all sorts of wonderful birthday items in it including silver stilettos and a Wisconsin badgers hoodie! I was REAL excited! Katie got the Josh Groban Christmas CD in the mail (which I didn't even know existed and which was basically also a gift to me since she let me put it on my computer right away). We had delicious chili for dinner (made by Beth), and then I spent the rest of the evening helping our friend Missy move into a new apartment and sending thank yous to all the people who sent me happy birthdays on facebook. It's so nice to feel so loved, even when I'm so far from the people I love the most!

Miss everyone!!! And Happy Thanksgiving!



Pictures from my birthday:



http://nd.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2121457&l=7fac8&id=5619987



Clongowes Wood and Miscellaneous Ireland pictures:



http://nd.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2121433&l=ea92c&id=5619987

The Secret Garden, N Sync, and Prom Updos

Friday has sort of become our weekly pizza night, and this last weekend was no exception. We had a pizza party in my room and I did Deborah's hair and make up for the ball she went to. She looked sooooo adorable! I also went to pick up my script on Friday afternoon. The play I'm in is called "The Bear" by Anton Chekhov. It's really funny, and I'm pretty excited about it. The play consists of me and two other boys. To read a synopsis, go to: http://www.shvoong.com/books/play/1593547-bear/

The play hits the stage on December 4, though, and i have a LOT of lines to memorize by then! Yikes! Wish me luck!

Saturday we had a Saint Mary's trip to Dublin. We went to the National Botanic Gardens-- I know, it sounds dumb; that's what I thought, initially. But it actually turned out to be really cool. Botanical gardens grow a wide variety of plants primarily categorized and documented for scientific purposes. We saw lots of cool trees and flowers, and it was nice to see trees that had changing colors and to walk through the crunchy leaves. We also went to Casino at Marino (which is NOT actually a casino). The Casino at Marino, located in Marino, Dublin, Ireland was designed by Scottish architect Sir William Chambers for James Caulfeild, the 1st Earl of Charlemont, starting in the late 1750s and finishing around 1775. Widely regarded as the most important Neo-Classical building in Ireland, the Casino is actually quite small, measuring only fifty feet square to the outer columns. The name 'Casino Marino' is derived from Italian which literally translates to 'The small house by the small sea'. Seen from the outside, the building has the appearance of a single roomed structure, with a large panelled door on the north elevation and a single large window on each of the other elevations. This is all illusion, however, as it actually contains 16 rooms on three floors. It was pretty cool. Roberta, our coordinator, brought her two daughters, Autumn and Rosie (9 and 12 years old). They are adorable redheads with lots of spunk! I love them to death. I was in love with Rosie's hair, and I was braiding it and playing with it all day. It's the most beautiful red color i've ever seen. she said she hates it because kids at school make fun of her and call her carrot head. SO SAD, right?

Anyway, we had Eugene, the bus driver, drop a few of us off in Dublin so we could go shopping. I had to find a party dress for my birthday! I found a PERFECT dress that was exactly what i was looking for! and it was cheap-- we all know i love a deal! now i'm a little bit excited for my birthday. my friends and i are all getting dressed up and going out to dinner at a piano bar, so it should be fun and classy, and all "grown up," i guess.

We sang show tunes on the train on the way home, and when people started staring, we kept singing! (Elizabeth fell asleep-- she doesn't sing). Then when we got back, we came to my place and watched Secret Garden and The Little Princess as I did prom updos for everyone (which all turned out really beautiful, if I do say so myself).

Last night we watched The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride in Elizabeth's room. The Nightmare Before Christmas was good, but The Corpse Bride was SOOOO good! It's definitely one of my new favorite movies! You should all see it!

And tonight we had pasta night in my room and then we all sang 'N Sync songs and had a dance party for about an hour. It was a blast!

I still can't shake this cough I've got. It's not too bad except when I get into coughing fits at night and can't stop and can't sleep. or when i get into coughing fits in class and have to leave so as not to disturb those around me. i think i've really got to go to the health center tomorrow... :(

I've got a paper due on thursday that i haven't even started. uh oh. these Irish are making me lazy! but i'm done with my anthropology class now, so i'll have 4 free hours every week open. i definitely have plenty of time to get it done.

elizabeth and i miss germany so much! everything we see or hear makes us think of germany and we look at eachother and just about start crying. we HAVE to go back! if anyone is coming to europe and doesn't know where to go: go to GERMANY!

pictures from this weekend:

http://nd.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2120244&l=e6ead&id=5619987

Sunday and Monday in Germany... and the aftermath

After breakfast at Suzanne's, we took a few trains to Frankfurt, snacked in cherry icecream and milch shakes at the airport while we waited for our bust to Frankfurt-Hahn, and checked into a Hotel across the street. As there is not much to do around the Frankfurt-Hahn airport, we went to the airport to people watch, shop, and grab some food. We chatted for awhile while Tom had a beer and then went back to the hotel to journal and watch Ice Age in German. The hotel was again really really nice. We couldn't believe how we had lucked out on accomodation the whole week. We never had to stay in a hostel, we always had our own room and our own bathroom, and we always always felt safe. We calculated how much money we spent (way too much) and then calculated how much money we had saved by staying at Johannes's house to make us feel better. After Tom and I had a little fight about be being too sassy to him, we drifted off to sleep.

Monday morning we woke up, packed up, and went to the airport to fly back to Ireland.

I can't believe how fast that last week went in Germany. It was seriously one of the best weeks of our lives, and we know we will never forget it. We miss Germany and our new German friends so much! We are definitely going back! Johannes said we should meet him in Berlin sometime, and he might even come and visit us here in Ireland next semester! It's been tough re-adjusting to life at Maynooth again. We can no longer avoid the papers and studying we should have been doing all semester. I had an anthropology test today (which went okay, I think), I have an English paper due next week that I haven't even thought about, and I have a sociology paper due the following week. But it doesn't make sense to stress about it. I am pretty sure that Saint Mary's prepared us well for the writing we will have to do here-- it doesn't seem like these Irish students even know the first thing about writing an essay-- so I think I will be fine.

Also, I got a part in one of the one-acts for the Drama Society's "First Timers Festival." I'm really excited! Hopefully I'll be able to meet some new people and get myself busy with something fun! Can't wait to get started!

Less than 10 days until my birthday, and I am dreading it. I don't want to turn 20! 20 is too old! I'll never be a teenager again! I don't want to grow up! I do, however, want to buy a party dress...

Saturday in Germany

After an early breakfast with people from all over the world, we took a bus to Neuschwanstein (just a 5 minute ride up the mountain). We shopped a little bit and walked up to the castle for a tour (we could have taken one of the many horse-drawn carriages, but decided we needed some exercise... plus it was another BEAUTIFUL day). Neuschwanstein is a 19th Century Bavarian palace. The castle was built by Ludwig II, King of Bavaria, as a retreat and as an homage to composer Richard Wagner, the King's inspiring muse. Although photography of the interior is not permitted, it is the most photographed building in Germany and is one of Germany's most popular tourist destinations. The castle was the inspiration for Disney's Cinderella's Castle. Both the inside and the outside were amazingly beautiful! We decided that one castle tour was enough (the other castle in Neuschwanstein is Hohenschwangau Castle, King Ludwig's childhood home... it kind of looked like Johannes's house on the outside). After having a brat, sauerkraut, pretzles, and some kind of delicious fried dough creation, we took a bus back down to Füssen. Tom went to get another Döner and brought us a pizza back while Elizabeth and I chillaxed and journaled...

Friday in Germany

Instead of going to Munich on Friday, we decided to take the train down to Füssen in Bavaria (a southern state in Germany, bordering Austria). When we arrived in Füssen, it was the most beautiful day of our trip! We had the address of a hostel, but on the way to it, we spotted a Bed and Breakfast with an American flag waving in front of it. We assumed that meant that the owner spoke English, so we went inside. Suzanne did, in fact, speak perfect English, as well as German, Italian and French. She had a family room left for the next two nights, and since we hadn't spent any money thus far on accomodation, we decided to splurge and stay in her beautiful B&B. We had four beds, a beautiful, clean bathroom with a hairdryer, and a beautiful room altogether. We had a porch with flower boxes, and the view outside our balcony was a perfect picture of the Alps! It was surreal. We dropped off our things, and Suzanne immediately gave us a map and told us where to go and what to do. We took a lift up the mountain to Tegelberg where we took pictures, watched parachuters jump off the side of the mountain, and enjoyed the beautiful day. We returned to the B&B later that evening and took a little nap (I know, it seems like we napped our whole trip away, but really, we hadn't gotten any sleep at NIGHT the whole week). Then we pulled ourselves out of bed to walk into town to find food. We settled on Döners once again (when will we ever eat them again, right? plus, they're cheap). We bought them from a friendly Tony Bennett look-alike and brought them back to the kitchen in the B&B to eat. The rest of the evening was spent journaling-- we had to remember everything that happened in our days in Osterode am Harz. We missed it already!

Although Füssen was beautiful, it was very surely filled with tourists. Everywhere you turned you heard a different language being spoken and cameras snapping shots of the mountains. It was nice to be around tourists, but nothing could compare to spending 4 days hanging out with real Germans in their small German town. Lots of people can say they've been to the Alps, to Füssen, to Munich, or to Berlin, but who else can say they rode horses in the Harz mountains and got to experience living in a German house with a German family and having German friends? We loved Füssen, and we were glad to be there, but nothing could compare to the Grammel family farm...

Thursday in Germany

After waking up, showering, and having a delicious breakfast of toast and Nutella (a european wonder-- basically chocolate in a peanut butter form) with Zita and her mom, we borrowed some jeans, boots, and coats from Monika (good thing we were all exactly the same size).

Then-- get ready for this-- we went horseback riding! I had never been on a horse before, and it was a goal of mine to go horseback riding before I left his beautiful continent. So Johannes's sister went out into the field to get her horses, and we helped her brush and clean them before she gave us a riding lesson! I almost fell off the black horse when we took it up to a trot, but we were in the pen the whole time, so it was all good. Elizabeth and I could hardly believe that we were so lucky-- riding horses on a beautiful German farm with a Harz Mountain backdrop-- it was beautiful!

Until... what we called the "Great Glass Fiasco of 2007." While we were tying the horses back up, Johannes and his mom were coming back in the John Deere tractor from feeding the cows. Apparently it was hot and smelly in the tractor, so Johannes opened the windows. And apparently Johannes forgot that when the front window is open, you can't use the tractor lift. So, when he tried, the windshield shattered in his mother's face. She jumped out of the tractor, and Zita ran to help. We didn't know what was going on at the time, so we put our helmets away, went to our room to change, and attempted the castle puzzle in our room. It was clearly an intense situation, and we didn't want to be in the way. As we were working on our puzzle, Monika came in to assure us that she was okay, that she was going to visit her eye doctor to make sure the glass was all out of her eyes, and that we'd be eating lunch a little bit later. (She is an amazing lady!) We ate a lunch of fresh beef from the farm, gravy, dumplings, cabbage, spaghetti, and fresh milk from a neighboring farm. Then, after we were all packed up and ready to leave, we were looking for train tickets and hostels on Johannes's computer. But due to the Great Glass Fiasco, we lost a little time. We didn't want to end up in Munich-- a strange and foreign city-- in the dark looking for a hostel, so we decided to stay for another night (plus we really didn't want to leave the comforts of staying in what felt like our new home).

We told Johannes that we didn't want him to plan anything for us-- that we just wanted to lay around and relax and go to bed early so we could get up early the next day to leave. But he continued trying to plan something... first it was ice skating, then it was the waterpark, then a movie... finally we decided on fishing in the Harz Mountains. We bundled up in Johannes's best Mosinee sweatshirts, and Johannes took us to Timo's house, where we met up with Timo and Eike. From there we went to Timo's dad's fish hatchery. It was getting dark, but Timo was prepared with his head light and fishing vest; he caught a big walley while the rest of us admired the sheep grazing around the pond and listened to Eike sing along with the "Gummy Bears" ring tone on his phone (in German-- hilarious!)

When we got home we took a nice long nap in Johannes's bed again-- one last time-- and had a delicious dinner of cheese fondue, bread, fruit, and Johannes's homemade cake. His mom helped us make some sandwiches to pack for the train ride the next day, and Johannes left for a party while we chillaxed at his house (we weren't up for a party, but we didn't want to hold him back). Although we stayed back to rest and sleep before our early departure, we ended up staying up way too late talking and crying together... I am not the kind of person who cries a lot, but the Grammel family was so incredibly kind to us, we were overcome with happiness at the few days we'd had and saddness at leaving them behind.

We took about a 3 hour nap, woke up at 4, and rode to the train station in Monika's Volvo. As the train pulled away, Johannes waved goodbye, and Elizabeth and I cried again... :(

Germany, Day 3

On Wednesday, Johannes took us to "Museum im Ritterhaus," the museum in his town. They did not give regular tours in English, but a woman there fought her way through the entire exhibit in English for us! She said she hadn't spoken English with native speakers in 30 years, and she was AMAZING! I hope she realized how much we appreciated it! Her adorable dog came on the tour too! Johannes also took us to a beautiful Protestant church in Osterode for us to look around in. Then we stopped at Oma's house (oma=grandma in German), but she wasn't home. So we moved on to Johannes's father's veterinary clinic and the party house that they own. We returned "home" for lunch-- the boys made us spaghetti while we enjoyed the great lighting and the great view from the kitchen window.

Later we took a beautiful car ride once again, but this time to a near-by town called Goslar. Johannes took us to Kaiserpfalz, a beautiful palace. Kaiserpfalz was built in the 11th century and became a summer residence for the emperors, especially Henry III of Germany who visited his favourite palace about twenty times. Henry's heart was buried in the chapel because, no matter where he traveled, his heart was always at Kaiserpfalz. The great hall of the palace was filled with elaborate paintings depicting the history of the empire and even a few fairy tales. The murals were incredible-- they must have been 20 feet tall! Our tour guide spoke only in German, but we had a booklet written in English with information about the palace. Johannes later found out that the tour guide's last name was Reinert! The same as Elizabeth's! Crazy!

We left the palace and walked around Goslar, admiring the beautiful streets, shops, buildings, churches and marketplace. The impressive Rathaus was built in 1450. The portico, with Gothic cross-vaulting, opening on to the Marktplatz, was used by merchants for centuries. Above this is the citizens' meeting hall and the councilmen's meeting chamber, lavishly decorated in the early 1300s. Marktplatz, in front of the Rathaus, was for a long time the town's hub of activity. In the center of the large square is a 13th-century fountain with two bronze basins and the German imperial eagle at the top. Many visitors think seeing the Glockenspiel perform is the highlight of their visit. Every day at noon, 3, and 6pm (there's a smaller version of the spectacle at 9am), a procession of mechanized miners, representing the silver trade of long ago, traipses out of the innards of the clock tower. Sadly, we didn't get to see the Glockenspiel... we had just missed it! There were children trick-or-treating in which hats, and everything was lit up. It was so quaint and beautiful, and Elizabeth and I decided we are going to live there.

We ate at a restaurant called Die Worthmühle. We had schnitzle, dumplings, and some kind of chicken wonderful that I don't remember the name of, and Tom had some local beer (his favorite German beer of the trip, apparently). Elizabeth and I tried it just to say we tried German beer. But, if you look at my pictures, you can see just what we thought of that-- sorry, Germany! We love you, but we just don't like beer!

When we returned to Johannes's house, Elizabeth and I took another power nap in Johannes's bed and attempted to make another puzzle-- this time of Neuschwanstein castle. Johannes told us to "get a life." Later we took the dogs for a walk down the road in front of Johannes's house. It was so dark we could hardly see in front of us. I don't know where the moon was, but I could see more stars than I've ever seen before. It was beautiful.

That night Johannes's parents, Monika and Thomas, and his 11-year-old sister Zita came home from EuroDisney (they took Zita there for her birthday). They were so nice and friendly and welcoming, especially considering we were strangers that had invaded their house for the past few days. We sat with them as they ate dinner and chatted. Mr. Grammel spoke perfect English, and his mother spoke it very well too. Zita was a little shy, but so nice! She was so cute too!

Later that night we went to Hemingway's again to meet Johannes's friends for a bit, and then we all piled into Big Red and went to Leoni's house to watch a movie. They put in "Along Came Polly" and watched it in English for us! Gotta love the Germans!

Germany, Day 2

Tuesday morning we got a late start after catching up on the sleep we'd lost on Monday. We got showered and had some bread and pizza for breakfast. Then Johannes took us out in his VW van ("Big Red," as we called it) to the marketplace in his town. His friend Morris drove, as Johannes's ankle was still healing and none of us could drive the stick-shift van). Eike came too, and after looking around at the quaint shops, restaurants, and other various buildings, we stopped at an Italian gelateria for some green apple icecream-- DELICIOUS! After a little driving tour of Osterode, we stopped back at Johannes's house to get directions for our next destination. Then we picked up Andi and headed up to the mine. The drive was beautiful, as were most of the drives that week, through the Harz Mountains, and we were so happy that Johannes's friends wanted to hang out with us! Once at the mine, Johannes bought us tickets, and we walked around and looked at the exhibits for a bit. Johannes translated some of the captions on the exhibits and gave us some background on the mine itself. then we went down into a part of the mine where there was a little bar and a water canal. We waited for the party before us to return, put on our hard hats, and hopped into the wooden boat. we made it to the end of the long, dark, wet stream by pulling on the rope that was secured above our heads. Once we reached the end, we all turned around and fought our way back out of the tunnel. It was so much fun! It reminded me of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in Disney World! Then we got out, and the boys had a beer/smoke break at the bar (all the kids in Germany smoke. don't worry, we yelled at them a LOT).

Later we had a tour of another part of the mine. We rode down with several German tourists (two families with cute kids) in a green train that reminded Elizabeth and me of Circle M Corral in Minocqua (where we both happened to vacation as children). We had on our hard hats once again, and the German boys sang loud German tunes as the rusty train carried us deep into the mine. We got out, and our adorable German tour guide showed us around the different parts of the mine. Eike and the kids in our tour group even got to do a little picking and drilling! Johannes tried his best to do some quick translating on the tour, and we got a good general idea of what the guide was saying, I think. About 100 wet and slippery steps later (poor Johannes-- still on his crutches), we got back on the train and emerged from the mine with growling stomachs. the boys decided to introduce us to a German delight for dinner (although it is really Turkish in origin): the Döner. we grabed our glorious pitas filled with meat and salad and God knows what else and devoured them in the van to escape the chilly evening air.

When we returned to the Grammel family mansion, we chillaxed in Johannes's room (and taught Johannes the meaning of "chillax"). Elizabeth and I took a quick power nap in Johannes's crazy-comfortable bed. Then we got up, freshened up, watched a little soccer, and went to Hemingway's (the bar in town) with Lucas and one of Johannes's girl friends (I don't know her name). The drinks in Germany are so cheap! Only €2 per drink (unlike in Maynooth where they are €5 per drink!) Our German friends opened our eyes to a mixed drink called a "keba"-- cherry juice, banana juice and vodka... I know that doesn't sound good, but it is very delicious. We listened to some techno music in the smoking room which made Elizabeth want to do a kick line, and Elizabeth said something profound:

"I never knew how much I liked bananas. I guess when you leave home, you learn about yourself; you find out what you love, and you find out who you are."

Aww, Elizabeth...

Our first day in Germany!

1 Nov 2007

Two years ago, a boy whistled at me when I walked into the band room to deliver some papers to the teacher. Today i am half-way around the world breathing in the fresh air of the Harz Mountains in his backyard. I didn't know Johannes very well in the year he spent at my hometown high school, but he was always very friendly (except when he gave me a hard time for scoring higher than him on a biology test). And one day in class, I mentioned to him that I wanted to study in Ireland in college. And he told me that if I was ever in Europe, I should come visit him and stay at his house in Germany... and I didn't forget that invitation. As soon as I knew I was going to be spending a year in Ireland, I sent him an email asked him if his offer was still good. He said "of course," that they have a guest room, that I could bring a friend, and that his parents were great hosts.

And so, for our first vacation from school in Ireland, my new friends, Elizabeth and Tom, and I traveled to Germany-- a totally foreign world-- all by ourselves. none of us know a word of German (except now the swear words that our new German friends taught us), and it's a wonder we made it here at all.

Monday morning we awoke at 3am to meet our cab at 4. We rode to the Dublin airport where we promptly got on the WRONG plane and almost ended up somewhere in Spain. The steward caught it just before the plane took off and just after we had gotten settled into our seats. Three different people had checked our tickets, and none of them noticed that we were in the wrong place. We felt like stupid Americans... but we were just glad that someone finally noticed and got us off that airplane.

Upon returning to the airport terminal, we ran into our German friend Gesa from Maynooth. it turned out we were taking the same plane to Frankfurt-Hahn! So we all waited for the RIGHT plane and boarded together. I slept soundly for the hour and a half flight, and as soon as we got off the plane, our luggage was there for us. We walked through passport control and customs and straight to the bus ticket booth. Gesa helped us get tickets to the Frankfurt airport and train station (even though the woman spoke English, I think). We said goodbye to Gesa, and I slept again for the two hours it took for us to get to Frankfurt on the bus. When we got to Frankfurt, Tom was freaking out about the train situation, but I told him just to trust me. We followed the signs to the train travel center and got tickets (EXPENSIVE TICKETS) to Osterode am Harz. With our extra time, we purchased and consumed some frankfurters in Frankfurt-- delicious! We boarded our first German train and chose some seats in a quiet compartment. The German trains are SO nice-- with automatic glass doors separating the many compartments. When the train man came to check our tickets, he told us we were in first class. So, once again we were uprooted. We made our way back to second class and eventually found three seats together behind an adorable little boy telling loud stories in German and giggling. I didn't understand the stories, but I understood the laughter.

A few train changes (and a missed train and a stop at Burger King) later, we found ourselves in Osterode about an hour early. As non of our cell phones worked internationally, we found an information office and asked if they had a phone. The woman directed us to a payphone outside. We tried to call Johannes, but each time we punched in the numbers, a German voice cut in and the phone went dead. So, we tried texting him from the payphone, and that worked! We sat on a bench at the train stop and waited for him.

About a half hour later, Johannes climbed out of his friend Eike's Volkswagon on his crutches and greeted us. (He had had surgery on his leg the week before). We exchanged a somewhat awkward hug and got our luggage and ourselves into the VW. When we pulled up to his house, I knew the week would be just as I'd imagined-- AMAZING! Even though it was dark out, we could see the grandeur of the place. Johannes gave us a tour of the house and the farm and took us up to the loft bedroom on the third floor that would be ours for the next few days. we had meat, cheese and bread (that Johannes cut for us with the fold-out bread cutter in a drawer in the kitchen), and fresh beef from his farm (which was AMAZING). We even met Oma (Grandma) and Johannes's aunt (who told us that when she was in South Africa, the first week she understood no English, the second week she understood a little, and by the third week she was dreaming in English!) Then we ran to the supermarket to get some drinks and snacks for the evening. When we returned, we made ourselves some kiddie cocktails and occupied ourselves with a puzzle until his friends got there. I also taught Elizabeth how to shoot a pool cue...

Johannes's friends trickled in, Eike taught us how to open a bottle of beer with a lighter, and we sat around until 3:30 in the morning talking with all of their friends. We met Christoph, vanessa, Leoni, Melani, Janine, Marcus, Andi, and Timo. There were lots of other kids there too, but man of them must have been shy about practicing their English with us. My new friend Christoph struggled through an hour of talking about Bambi and Japan. At 3:30, after being away for 24 hours straight, we finally retired to our lovely little loft in the attic...

Germany!

I will blog later... no time now, but feel free to peruse my pictures!

"We're in Germany!"
http://nd.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2119463&l=bfe5f&id=5619987

"I never realized how much i love bananas"
http://nd.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2119469&l=967e0&id=5619987

We're Living Here...
http://nd.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2119494&l=35b3b&id=5619987

Grammel Mafia
http://nd.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2119496&l=95cf5&id=5619987

Ellis the Horse
http://nd.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2119498&l=f25df&id=5619987

Son of a Bee Sting
http://nd.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2119504&l=c8529&id=5619987

Auf Wiedersehen, Germany!
http://nd.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2119500&l=6da21&id=5619987

In short, it was one of the most amazing weeks of our lives! And we want to go back!