Weekly Post #10

Hey everybody!

I hope everybody had a nice week and a sunny weekend. I have been on fall holiday for the past week so I did a bit more than usual this week.

4. October 2014:

On Saturday I met up with my friend Maja to go take care of her horse. We rode our bikes about fifteen minutes away from my house. The area surrounding the stable is just outside of my neighborhood which is pretty busy with a fast rode and a canal. Even though it is really busy around the stable, it feels like they are on a completely different conitnent. Everything is so peaceful and quiet at the stables. There is a bunch of farm land, and forests surrounding the area. The rolling plain is also dotted with cute country homes with horses and cows of their own. Maja told me her stable holds about 100 horses. We took a friends horse out for a walk on the country dirt road because hers was already in the pasture. It was so funny. The horse kept walking right behind us and nudging Maja in the back and trying to eat her hair.

5. October 2014:

Sunday was a lazy sunday. We didn't do very much. Especially because my papa and I planned to go to Amsterdam early the next day.

6. October 2014:

On Monday my papa and I set out for Amsterdam at about 7 am. We drove on the autobahn for about 2 hours. The distance between Amsterdam and Dotmund is roughly the distance between Milwaukee and Madison, or Milwaukee and Chicago. We crossed the boarder into the Netherlands and switched to a Dutch radio. Dutch in my opinion is a silly and frustrating language. It is silly because it sounds like the Dutch are tripping over their tounges every other sentence. It really reminds me of the Sims PC games I used to play. It is also frustrating for me because it is a mix of German and English. Both of which I know a decent amount of. Even though I should be able to understand both, I couldn't understand a single sentence of Dutch. I would hear a word in English, and then the next one in German. But to make a comprehensive sentence out of it is impossible. When we first got there we took a boat tour of the city. I learned so much about Amsterdam. I learned that the foundation of the houses is set on top of slowly rotting piles of wood. Because of this the houses are slowly tipping over. I also learned many of the houses aren't as big as they seem. Many merchants who, in days of old, built these houses, made them lean forward on purpose. On the insides they would also place mirrors in certain spots to make the room seem bigger. Back then there was also no house number system, so many of these houses have stone carvings over the door to represent, the family, occupation, or defining aspect of who lived there. There is also one building that especially stands out from the rest of architectural theme of Amsterdam: the opera house. When the opera house was being built, many people thought it was hiddeous and not appropriate for Amsterdam architecture. Due to this they named it the stopera. It is still called The Stopera today, even though people don't hate it as much anymore. For lunch I had a huge plate sized pancake with gouda cheese and bacon. Sounds strange right? I thought so too, that's why I ordered it. It is actually really good. I ate almost the whole thing. It was so big I couldn't finish it though. I have also noticed that too. In Germany and Amsterdam, whenever there is anything left on your plate the waitor or waitress asks immediately if you didn't like your meal. I don't ever remember that happening in restraunts in the US. Papa and I wandered around the streets that crossed nine of the Amsterdam bridges. We also went to a flower market which was a perfect spot to get perfect Amsterdam thingamajigs. I also decided to start a flag collection of every city I have been. Afterwards we visited the Rembrandt House. Rembrandt is the Netherland's most famous and beloved artist. He painted, taught, and sold pictures, from himself, friends, and apprentices. Rembrandt also used his house to do all of that. He built his house for an insanely high amount of money, which later made him go bankrupt. He had special rooms just for art dealing, and about 3 of the rooms were completely covered in paintings from various artists. After the Rembrandt House Papa and I went to a hidden garden. If I had been alone or with another American, we would have wandered around for hours trying to find the entrance to this secret garden. The garden is hidden behind a door, which looks exactly like a door which should lead to a house. The only thing that is different is a small gold plaque with open hours. I thought this was the coolest thing ever. The garden/courtyard was surrounded by houses which are still occupied. It has a couple of religious statues and a small church. By the time we got finished looking around the garden, and grabbing a tiny snack, Amsterdam was getting dark and its lights were turing on. Amsterdam, in my opinion is 2x as beatiful at night than it is during the day. Centraal station is right across the square from a large church which are both lit up so perfectly. On the way home I learned a lot about all the different signs that can be found on the German roads. I learned about the no passing sign, speed limit  (or no limit) signs, and different highway numbers and directions. All in all I can say I understand German traffic much better now.

7. October 2014:

On Tuesday mama and I went grocery shopping. We went to the Kaufland. Kaufland is like a Woodman's or Costco gone European. It has shopping carts like at the Aldi which need a chip in order to be taken. There are also almost all German brand of foods. Even though it is comparable to a Woodman's or Costco, it is about the size of a Pick 'N Save. Later on we visited an animal shelter in the next town over. I plan to work there every wednesday for a few hours. The people there seem really nice, and there are no reptiles. Later on I went to the dance club, MOOG, with a bunch of friends. Unfortunately we left early because everybody was packed into a tiny space.

8. October 2014:

On Wednesday I volunteered at the animal center from 3-6. I observed mostly, as the vet went around taking care of sick cats, newborn kittens, dogs, and bunnies. I even got to name a new stray cat, Luna. Another one who was found earlier was named after me. That night Justus taught me all about dinosaurs, from one of his dinosaur books. He knows quite a lot about dinosaurs, even more than I ever learned in school. Maybe he will be an archiologist one day. I also realised I can't even imagine how hard it is going to be leaving my family in July. I don't know if I will be able to do it.

9. October 2014:

On Thursday Katja, Thorstun, and Verena came over to play my favorite board game, Scotland Yard. We also had burgers for dinner that night. I guess it isn't common to eat burgers with barbacue sauce in Dortmund. In all honsesty as well, the burgers here that we ate didn't taste mind blowingly different from the ones that you would eat back in Wisconsin.

10. October 2014:

On Friday Papa and I went to Köln for the day. It was about a two hour ride via train to Köln. As soon as we stepped out of the train station we were in the massive shadow of The Kölner Dom. The Dom is so big, its shadow could probably cover the whole surface of the city of Köln when laid flat. Any appartment with a tiny view of The Dom immediately pays €100 more. The Kölner Dom is so big even standing all the way on the other side of the huge plaza, I couldn't fit it all on one picture. The Dom has been built up from the ground since 1248, and it isn't finished. It needs to be consistantly repaired because it is mostly stone, and rediculously old. The outside is almost nothing compared to the inside. Even though The Dom is so tall, it only has two levels, plus a basement. The inside of The Dom is so big it could hold three services at one time. There are beautiful statues, and paintings of angles, saints, and The Madonna on every wall and in every corner. There are also magnificent stone and marble coffins with the bones of past bishops, in a gated area behind the actual sanctuary. So many times I caught myself just walking around staring at the ceiling and enormous stain glass windows, that I forgot to look down at the mosaic stories on the floor. Papa and I walked the 504 tiny circular tower steps to the very top of The Dom. Once you get to the top you are completely done with steps forever, but the view completely makes up for that. To the left lays the Rhein. Right next to the Rhein is the old city of Köln, which runs a circle around The Dom. Beyond that is the rest of Köln. The Dom also has a treasure room benieth the whole church. This treasure room has so much gold and other ancient items, it could have dug America out of The Great Depression with money left over. In the treasure room there are also discovered remaining parts of the ancient Roman Wall. I think this is so cool. It's literally history built on history, like the layers of a tree. Afterwards we went to the Rhein. The Rhein is really like any other river, its made of water, it's really fast, and it's quiet big. The only thing that seperates it from any other are all the stories and poems behind it. Unfortunately those aren't written in the waves of the river. On the river also lays the Chocolate Factory. I read about this one German guy in history who believed chocolate was the cure for almost all. He believed it could cure colds, stress, and many other things. If only that were completely true, I would eat chocolate all day everyday. We also got to see chocolate being made. The process was so clean, at first I couldn't believe it was the real process. There was also a chocolate waterfall that we got to taste a bit of chocolate from. In the level above there was an artist who painted actual pictures, just with chocolate. How cool would that be for a job? Oh ya I paint with chocolate for a living...You could never say you hate your job. On friday I also learned it is quiet common for Germans to date for several years before getting married. It is also considered relatively fast to get engaged after one year of dating. I thought that was really interesting to see how big the differences can be in the little things.

Thanks for reading!

Sandra