fun weekend :-)

So last night ended up being lots of fun. First we went out to eat with Christine and her parents, then we went to the planetarium. Which was cool because I did understand most of what they said! Then we went to an Irish Pub where they had live music and hung out there for awhile, before heading to El.Pi., which is a fun dance club they have here. It was SO much fun. First of all, they played REALLY good music and second of all, everyone was just jumping around and going crazy and it was GREAT. Pictures to come on my webshots site, but there aren't that many so I'm debating whether or not to put them up. We'll see. :-)
Tonight I'm probably going to watch the English Patient (awwwww I miss Pooja!) and pack for Berlin. Woohoo!
*ain't nobody gonna hold me down!*

PS: go to this site, it's interesting: http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2004_09_21.shtml#1095965754

Slow Week

Yeah so not much has happened this week. Yesterday and today we had our placement tests for our german classes the rest of the quarter. It's been cool and rainy, so we just haven't done much. Costas (whose full name is Constantinos! how cool is that?) leaves today. Sadness, because I know him and he's nice. Ah well.
Tonight we are probably going out to eat, then to the planetarium to see "MarsMission" - mit akutellen Marsbildern! (that means, mars mission, with actual/real mars pictures) Brent's roommate who leaves tomorrow, because he was only here for a bit, but who is also very cool works at the planetarium so we're all going tonight w/ him. I think it'll be interesting, although I'm sure I'll understand very little of what's said ;-).
Sunday we leave for Berlin for a week. So be prepared for a very long update after that. And yeah, that's about all I have to say. I hope everyone is doing well :-) I miss you all much!
*when the rain washes you clean you'll know*

PS:
Before I forget, yesterday when I was cold and tired and just needed something to occupy my time, I decided to read lots about the Hindu religion. go figure ;-). In anycase, I learned lots of interesting things which I would like to share with all of you. First of all, for those of you who thought I was weird for saying that Hinduism isn't really polytheistic, YOU'RE WRONG ;-). Read:
Categorizing the religion of Hinduism is somewhat confusing:
Hinduism has commonly been viewed in the west as a polytheistic religion - one which worships multiple deities: gods and goddesses. 
Some have viewed it as a monotheistic religion, because it recognizes only one supreme God: the panentheistic principle of Brahman, that all reality is a unity. The entire universe is seen as one divine entity who is simultaneously at one with the universe and who transcends it as well. 
Some view Hinduism as Trinitarian because Brahman is simultaneously visualized as a triad:
-Brahma the Creator who is continuing to create new realities
-Vishnu, (Krishna) the Preserver, who preserves these new creations. Whenever dharma (eternal order, righteousness, religion, law and duty) is threatened, Vishnu travels from heaven to earth in one of ten incarnations.
-Shiva, the Destroyer, is at times compassionate, erotic and destructive.
**Strictly speaking, Hinduism is a henotheistic religion -- a religion which recognizes a single deity, but which recognizes other gods and goddesses as facets or manifestations or aspects of that supreme God.**
(taken from http://www.religioustolerance.org/hinduism2.htm)

Also there was some very interesting things about the Hindu Kush, which apparantly means Hindu Slaughter, and how that they're discovering/theorizing now that long long ago, when that area was mostly Hindu, it was conquered by persian Muslims who then practiced mass genocide and enslaved those surviving hindus. Then they say that the Gypsies are probably those enslaved Hindus who escaped forever long ago. Which makes a lot of sense, because their language is based in Sanskrit. in anycase, it's a very interesting idea, of course they don't know the exact happenings, but I think it's cool. here's where I got that: http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/modern/hindu_kush.html

another reason to love Germany

another reason to love Germany
Originally uploaded by thalia291.

So this is us at a biergarten, or just outside one on the hill Freiburg surrounds... isn't it gorgeous?!
In other news, I am the best cook EVER. I wanted to be healthy, so I bought frozen salmon for dinner... then got home w/ no clue how to cook it. so I literally MADE UP a recipe for it in a saucepan on the stove and it was sooooooooo good. I had bought sauce, but I didn't use hardly any of it b/c I am so talented my salmon didn't need it. It was perfectly moist and had just the right amounts of flavors and it was sooooooo good!
So, I'm awesome.

Quick Update

So we played the board game w/ Costas and it was a lot of fun!
Best line of the evening:
Costas: You are not Switzerland, you have to choose! (when Christine made megan and me rock paper scissors for who could trade w/ her.)
also, when he got a really good deal: "what the fuck is going on?"
only w/ an accent so it was really funny.

ok that's all :-)

Hiking Wochenende

Glacier in Alps
Originally uploaded by thalia291.

That means hiking weekend, by the way.
So this weekend, since thursday I guess, was very interesting.
First, thursday night all the german classes went out to the movies, 3 classes seeing Der Untergang (including mine) and 1 seeing Sommersturm. Both were pretty bad experiences. Der Untergang is a movie showing the last two or so days of Hitler's life. the word itself has a double meaning, it can mean the sinking or just going under, and it was about the end of the inner nazi core (= sinking) and them all hiding out in an underground bunker. but the real point of the movie, I'm sure, was to show as MUCH suicide and murder as possible. It was HORRIBLE. like, I can't even type out the details about it, if you really want to know, I can go on for awhile about it so ask me sometime, but I just don't feel like typing it all out now.
Sommersturm was a bit better, Jayme went to see it but she was expecting chick flick and it turned out to me lots of gay sex. as in, very detailed, boys having sex with each other. not so much fun. but afterwords we went to a restaurant/brewery w/ Roland (my teacher). That was fun. There is a picture of him on my picture site, so go look at him :-).
Friday was Wandertag, during which we went on a very long hike through the black forest hills surrounding freiburg to Sankt Ottilien chapel. It was nice, but lots of uphill walking so very tiring. There's some pictures of that on my site too so knock yourselves out.
Yesterday we went to Switzerland, and had to wake up literally before the sun came up. As in, it was still very much dark when I woke up, and the sun itself didn't come up until we were already at the bus station waiting for the tour bus. And some brilliant people couldn't get themselves out of bed, so we ended up leaving an hour late.
We went to Grindelwald, which was adorable (of course) and we went up a mountain and hiked to a glacier. I was one of about 15 or so that made it all the way... lots of steep uphill hiking after wandertag tired most people out. Also lots of pictures of that ;-). Afte that, we were supposed to go to Bern, but we couldn't because people were late AGAIN and so we jsut went back to Freiburg.
So last night we went to a bar, we being the girls and I and another guy named matt (Brent felt sick). Which was fun and really amusing b/c at this particular bar they have meter long beers. As in, a meter of beers. I'll show you pictures, but I'll upload those later tonight. Onto my site. So we all started w/ a cocktail and then shared the meter of beers and it resulted in lots of fun. Again, pictures to come :-).
So that's been my weekend. Today was slow b/c one, we were all exhausted and 2. it's raining out. Now Costas (my greek suitemate) is going to teach us some german strategy board game and we are also probably going to watch "Miss Undercover" (miss congeniality ;-))
my legs hurt! :-)

Krista's Geburtstag

Everyone
Originally uploaded by thalia291.

So yesterday was Krista's birthday, we had a small party involving lots of amusing things because we had to scratch things together. Not because it was done at the last minute, but only because our suites aren't equipped w/ the latest (or most common) appliances.
First, Jayme baked the cake in my suite while a bunch of us were there working on homework and watching tv. (Sex and the City auf Deutsch!) It turned out to be a very interesting process. First of all, the recipe called for softened butter. Now, there isn't a microwave in my suite so Jayme decides that the best way to soften the butter (even though someone suggested just melting it on the stove) was putting a pan in the oven that was being preheated and spearing the chunk of butter/margarine with a knife and holding it in the oven over the pan. Which, go figure, didn't work to well. Next, it came time to mix the batter, but no one has an electric mixer. I found a hand-cranked beater (probably can only be used with eggs) and so Jayme tried to use that, which failed miserably, because as soon as she put it in the batter to mix, it just wouldn't crank. Well, you could turn the crank but the beaters wouldn't move. So she and Christine took turns whisking it by hand, which resulted in a chunky butter batter.
During all of this, Jayme had been hearing something that sounded sort of like running water but not really, more like someone peeing. she decided it wasn't anything until she realized that she was standing in a giant puddle of water. Apparantly, the pipes under my sink had come COMPLETELY disconnected. So all of the water that she was using to rinse things off and such was just running right out into the cabinet and then onto the floor. I fixed it by just pushing it back up and together and then banging it so it stuck harder; hopefully that will last.
In anycase, the cake cooked and turned out fine. They don't have real icing here, just this "Glaseur" which is like a glaze that you melt and then drizzle/pour over whatever it is you're making. there's a picture of Brent consuming the leftover glaseur from Krista's cake on my site, as well as several other pictures from the fete.
Also, I took pictures of my bedroom and view, which you could look at and enjoy :-). http://community.webshots.com/user/thalia291
I guess that's about it for the past couple of days. We were going to go out to a biergarten last night to celebrate, but that failed due to massive amounts of rain. Tonight my class is going to a movie and then out to eat w/ Roland, our super toll teacher. woohoo!
*turn off your mind, relax and float downstream*

INTERNET!

Huzzah! I am sitting on my bed surfing the net, das heisst, I HAVE INTERNET. Super toll.
Also, I uploaded a couple more pictures onto my picture site:
http://community.webshots.com/user/thalia291
So check those out. I promise much more once I steal them from everyone else. I'm really good about remembering my camera when I go places.
Today we had class and then some stupid test, but afterwards one of the teachers gave us a tour of the Freiburger Münster, or Freiburger cathedral. It was very interesting, because he was able to tell us lots of stories about it and such. Like that in the middle ages, the inside of the cathedral was painted all sorts of bright colors with colorful stained glass windows, because back then the meinung of the church was that when you entered the church you left the drab real world behind and entered a place close to heaven. Also, you didn't really need to see that much because you looked inside yourself for your beliefs. Then later they changed and decided that churches needed a lot of light inside so they took out some of the stained glass to let in more light and painted the walls white to reflect the light better. I understand where both were coming from, but it saddens me that we can't see the colors like they had them back then. Ah well.
Other than that, nothing really has happened. I have a slight cold that was really bad last night so after we checked out the german walmart, I just came home, took some benadryl and laid in bed til I fell asleep. woohoo.
now I'm going to go guck (d.h. look ;-)) what I can make for myself for dinner.
super toll!

France!

I still don’t have internet in my room but I’m hoping to have it by the end of this week. I’m writing this on Sunday as I sit in my room, however I know it won’t be posted til tomorrow, so bear with me ☺. Yesterday we visited Strasbourg, in Alsace (that’s as in Alsace-Lorraine). We took a boat tour of the city first and then were given 2 hours free time to explore on our own. My little group of people (get used to these names ;-)), Christine, Jayme, Megan, Brent, Krista and I didn’t do that much, although Krista climed the tower on the cathedral there. Lots of very steep stairs and it was frightening coming back down them but the view was well worth it. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera so I have to steal pictures from them which I haven’t done yet. Maybe I will tonight, maybe not. No promises ☺. Afterwards we went to a huge brewery outside the city or somewhere near the city (still in france) and did a Bierprobe. (that is, we tasted the different beers that that corporation produced. So it was fun.
Right now as I’m typing this I’m watching the making of star wars or some such program in German. It’s pretty amusing, as are most of the tv shows here. Even the American sitcoms seem even funnier with different voices and such. There is also this show which is a cross between Jerry Springer and some sort of court show… and absolutely hilarious. We watch it during lunch and they just have the strangest things on it. We’ve come to the conclusion that it must be rigged. Still, it’s so amusing that it’s totally worth watching.
So that’s a bit of an update on happenings in Deutschland. I’m going to read my german cookbook and see what I’m going to mess up cooking for myself this week. ;-) I hope everyone at home is doing well and having fun!
* hums the star wars theme *

late night Eis on steps of Stadttheater

late night Eis on steps of Stadttheater
Originally uploaded by thalia291.

Yeah so it's impossible to be in Germany w/o eating ice cream. it's so unfair that we don't have their kind of Eis at home!

Causing trouble

Causing trouble
Originally uploaded by thalia291.

Funny picture of me, brent and megan

Alison, Gwen, Brent, Megan, Christine

Alison, Gwen, Brent, Megan, Christine
Originally uploaded by thalia291.

This is in the Kitchen/living area of Gwen and Megan's suite. Mine looks pretty similar. Eventually I'll take and post pictures of it.

Chinese restaurant

Chinese restaurant 3
Originally uploaded by thalia291.

The people I hang out with while we're at dinner, minus Brent who is taking the picture

Deutschland

Hey guess what?! I'm in Germany! And will be for quite some time.
Freiburg is beautiful and I've met several really nice/cool people. :-) Good times.
I live in a suite in which 3 more people will (eventually) live. Right now there are only two others, a girl named Annett and a boy from Greece. i don't know his name because I couldn't understand it ever and his mailbox only has his first initial on it ;-). he is really friendly but I'm afraid of Annett because she just stares at me. I think she thinks I can't speak german or something, but that makes me really nervous around her. We've had one conversation and it was basically me offering up information and her being like, oh. oh. oh. so yeah. whatever. Both of them will be gone in a month anyways so it doesn't really matter.
I should have internet in my room in a week or two so this will probably get more regular and I'll put up pictures and stuff along with posts.
It's really funny because right now the 4 other people from my dorm building I mostly hang out with and I are all sitting in the IES center w/ our laptops just typing away in this smallish room that only has this one long table. (think, the rooms around the edges of nu's library) So, amusing. at least to me. This is really the only access we have to internet until we get it in our rooms... we lucked out there, because I think we're one of very few in the city that actually have hi speed internet access. So be glad for me!
Soon I will make my way back home and cook dinner... I bought a german student cookbook but I think tonight I'm just going to make pasta. it's easy, and I know how to do it so no messing up because I misunderstood words.
I hope your years are going well and all that jazz. Maybe pictures will follow this post. maybe ;-)
Deutschland ist toll!