Lübeck

As promised, here are some pictures from my adventures in cities around me. Lübeck was the second major city i visited (Hamburg came first and there are way too many pictures for me to sift through right now, so Hamburg will come later) and I did it on a Thursday. I am done with classes at 10 on Thursdays, so it is perfect for shorter adventures. It takes about an hour to two hours (depending on what train you take) to get to Lübeck from Lüneburg and also includes switching trains in Hamburg (which is about a half hour north).

A little information on Lübeck... it is in the state of Schleswig-Holstein and is known for the Holstentor, which is a really big gate that was left over from a time when the entire city was fortified and you could only enter through any one of four sets of gates.

Other than that, I have no knowledge of Lübeck, other than there are very pretty buildings and the city is very old (this is my standard for German traveling. Everything is very pretty and most things are very old(this is where you get into tricky waters. Most of the main cities, like Hamburg and especially Hannover, were destroyed in World War II, so there are either very very old buildings, or very very new buildings throughout all of Germany. I haven't been to Hannover yet, but I am told there are still ruins from the bombing, not because they were too lazy to clean it up or even because they are preserved as monuments, but because the city had to be rebuilt and there simply has not been time to return and clean everything else up yet. There are also many places, including Hamburg, where it isn't always safe to drink the water because they are still dealing with the consequences of the war. The city I live in has been established for somewhere around 1000 years and is completely in tact and the water is 100% tasty!)

If you want to know more about Lübeck, here is the wikipedia link (hopefully in Enslish)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lübeck

Lübeck was a lot of fun. I went with two Americans, Mike and Nicole. We studied on the train (we have exams every Friday, so we studied on the way to and from Lübeck) and explored Lübeck for fun, food and potties, all of which we found. We ate at a restaurant called Feuerstein which had incredible service, but only okay pizzas. Mine was incredibly greasy and salty, probably because of the meat, but it was still good.

Then we worked our way back to catch the train back to Lüneburg. As part of our program, we can travel anywhere in Nedersachsen (which is Lower Saxony, not Upper Saxony, sorry for the error in an earlier post. They happen) and to some major cities that are not in Lower Saxony, like Hamburg(which is a city-state attached to Lower Saxony) and Lübeck. It was on this trip that we learned that you can, in fact, ride from Nedersachsen to Lübeck for free.... as long as you don't stop anywhere in Schleswig-Holstein. It was a tough lesson to learn (and expensive, €3 for something that should have been free, but it could have been much much worse), but now I know there are three stops between Lübeck and Hamburg that are not free for me, so I just have to make sure I am not an a train that stops there.

Well, it is time for me to get some lunch. Enjoy Lübeck!!!!

My House!!!

Hey Everybody!!!

So, I know it has been awhile since I have last posted, but it has been fairly busy around here. Unfortunately, it has mostly been classes and homework for the past two weeks, so there are very few exciting or interesting tales to tell. That's part of life though. You have to make your own excitement sometimes and studying has been taking the priority so far. The first part of my grammar class is almost over, my final is next Friday, so that has been a fairly key player in my daily routine.

Learning which prepositions go with which verbs in which cases. You see, in German, every noun has a gender(also in French and Spanish and I'm sure many many other languages) and when the noun is in different parts of the sentence (the subject, the direct object, the indirect object, etc.) the gender changes. This is pretty tough for most non-native speakers, especially when you have had teachers who have not put emphasis on knowing the gender of each noun(which is biting me in the butt now, I can tell you that much). So there are also prepositions that go along with verbs (I speak about something, etc.). Well, in German, there are specific prepositions for each verb and I could really go on about this for hours... but instead I'm going to show you my house.

*There is a baby crying outside of my window right now. It is incredibly amazing how universal somethings are. I know for a fact that this child fell down. I didn't have to see it and I can't understand a word they are crying, but the type of cry coupled with the mother's reaction tell me that someone just fell down and needs a hug. Somethings just go beyond the barriers that language create.*

Anyways, this is my house. Not necessarily the most interesting of topics I could show you, but I have to organize my other pictures before I can post them(I have been to three different cities and the pictures are all muddled together on my computer, so I have to figure out which city is which before I can share them with you.) I also thought it might be nice to show everyone that I am not living in a hole-in-the-wall somewhere, but a fairly nice place. The picture of the close up of the toilet is to show the differences between German and American toilets. Here, you control how much water you use when you flush. You have to physically start(spulen) and stop the flow(wasser sparen). I personally think it is a much better idea than not having a choice of how much water is used. We have two bathrooms and the one with the shower has the better toilet. I'm not sure why, but the little bathroom's toilet gets angry after usage and sounds like squeaking breaks for awhile afterwards, so we avoid that one as much as possible.

Also, don't adjust your screens for pictures of the bathroom, the light really is pink.

And in the spirit of adding... there is a reason why my bed is not made. This reason is the same reason why windows in Germany are almost always open... mold. There has yet to be a day here that we have had less than 85% humidity and all of that humidity plus concrete buildings equals mold. It is to the point that if I make my bed, simply put my cover over the mattress, that mold will form inside the mattress and I really don't want that. I also have to have my window open for around two hours a day(which means, since my windows don't have screens that I have spiders many times. I have a one spider a day rule that goes much like this "If you are the first spider I see in the day in my room and or in a completely catchable position, you will be moved outside(more like dropped, I live on the second floor). If you are not either one of those things, consider yourself squished." It may be a bit cruel, but the spiders here are huuuuuuge and spiders are one of the few things I am afraid of), but the window open keeps the bad smell away(it smells bad in here. It's because many students over the years have not aired out the room and it has the startings of mold and it just smells stale).

We also do not have a microwave, but instead there is a completely stellar hot water maker that heats water up in less than a minute, so there is no waiting for my tea(I found mint tea Grandma! It is incredibly good and as soon as my box is done, I'm going to try some other fascinating flavors like vanilla raspberry). I don't drink anywhere near as much pop over here as I do back in the states for two reasons. 1). It is incredibly expensive here. A 2-Liter usually runs around 2 Euro which is something around $3.75, so I drink tea instead. 2.) It doesn't taste the same and no, this isn't some sad "I miss home " syndrome. It is made with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup, so it tastes significantly different. Pepsi tastes closer than Coke does. Also, Germany uses recycled bottles(by which I mean "super duper power washed in really really hot water), so sometimes you get bottles that look like they have been run over by a car. That isn't one of the reasons why I don't drink as much pop, I just think it's very interesting ;)

I took these pictures awhile ago. I have more food in the cupboard and have actually moved my room around since then. My bed is on the wall where the shelf was and the desk is on the wall where the bed was and the shelf is over by the closet. I did it mostly because my room is always freezing and I figured if I pulled the desk out from in front of the heater, it would have no reason not to heat my room.

The heater and I are still working out our differences.


Well, enjoy the pictures! I am off to continue studying my verbs and prepositions. Have a fantastic weekend!! I have found the computer lab on campus, so I will most likely have pictures from my trips to Bremen, Hamburg and Lubeck up sometime next week.

Much love everyone!