march on til spring

This winter is just so long and horrible. I haven't been any where warm for a while (first world problems, right?) and I've been working and going to school. It's actually refreshing, after a whole semester of only going to school without employment. I enjoy the busy-ness.

I'm teaching German to little children, and it is AMAZING. I always go there after a long day though, unfortunately, so that's kind of a bummer. And rather than taking a German class I'm filling that hole by teaching and working at the Essen Haus. Love the dirndl.

I feel like I want to blog this crazy time in my life after I've made this insane decision to flee the country. I hear people around me talking about their life prospects and how much money they'll make right out of school and I'm choosing the European bohemian life over all things material (including paying off my college debt). It's such a me decision, I feel like I'm making the right one. I have so many ideas and open roads to follow, so when I think long and hard about it I am 100% sure I'm making the absolute right choice. It's just when I hear everyone else talk about their life plans when doubts crawl into my mind. It's like jumping off a cliff when no one else is. About not following people on the straight and narrow.

March is my least favorite month. It drags on forever. It's cold. There's snow. Spring still seems distant. The only holidays suck (St. Patrick's day? That's pretty weak, let's be honest). And to boot I feel like I'm coming down with a cold.

I wish I had some deep and profound observation about the world around me, but today I guess I don't. How many of those can one person have anyway? Can everyone's conversations be riddled with depth and ponderences about the complexity of life? Sometimes things are just mundane and we need to accept that. 

warsaw

Old Town Warsaw

Warsaw, Poland has made me think. We've seen so much that just is in the past. A lot about Poland seems stuck in the past, stuck in the wars that Poland has been caught in the middle of, stuck in communism, stuck in trying to get out of being stuck. It's sad, it feels like things so dark happened here. Death, disease, cold...it might just be the winter. It's a weird feeling to put a finger on, it's not sinister at all, it's just an intense sense of sadness that pervades everything. I feel bad for these people, for the ancestors of these people, for the grandparents and the parents of these people. They try so hard so hard to move on and try to modernize, but they have this past that trickles into the architecture, into the reconstructed streets and wrinkles on the older people's faces. I feel bad, I feel like I want to help them, to tell them to just move on and not look back. To respect the past, but leave it there, view it as a bridge to the present. But they just seem so stuck. And it's so grey in Poland in the winter.
I guess it didn't help matters that we saw this man on the street who nearly died because of a sudden heart attack. The fragility of life is startling sometimes.

Justyna, Shaina and I near the Old Town

Anyway, on a lighter note, Justyna is an absolute angel. And Warsaw is stunningly beautiful despite what I just wrote. The old city is like walking through the past, the new part of the city is modern and reminded me a lot of Wisconsin. The weather here is similar to Wisconsin's spring weather...damp and windy, but the wind at least is at most times warm and when the sun peeks through it makes you appreciate it so much more than you would on a full sunny day.
Back to Justyna. Her apartment is a palace and she gave Shaina and I both welcome gifts for staying here. And she baked us muffins! Her house really looks like a catalogue picture out of Ikea, I'm so grateful for us taking us in and I just hope I can find an adequate way to repay her for her remarkable kindness. She's incredibly great in English so it's easy to confide in her and find things in common to talk about. I'm just so grateful for this experience, it's been great, especially having such a great tour guide and friend to be here to help us understand the city.

an array of Polish gifts

Otherwise, things have been great. I love that I feel like I am looking forward to going home to a new place that I love on a cursory level. I keep dreaming about Bonn...about how my life will be in less than a week. How normal it will be, how scheduled and school centric it will be. I just look forward to unpacking my suitcase, having a steady place to keep my coat, to rest my blankets on my bed. I just want a sense of security and normalcy, a place to come back to. These past few weeks, while amazing and the experience of a lifetime, have been nomadic. I have no home, really. My stuff is all sitting in the dark basement of a building I've only been to once, waiting for me to use it and place it where it needs to be. (Think: enchanted stuff in Beauty and the Beast)

Shaina and I in front of the Palace

köln

finally in Germany. I'll apologize straight away for the lack of personal pictures, but uploading them is a wee bit of a hassle and these past couple days have been more business and less leisure so it's no great shakes anyway.

Germany is such a relief after Paris. I had a great time in Paris, probably the most beautiful city on Earth, but frustrating with the language and everything. Disneyland Paris was amazing, but I'll bet you guessed that I'd say that already and I'm pretty exhausted so I won't go into detail.

Yesterday all of the people from UW (except one mysterious person who no one has met) met up at this hostel we're all staying at. We bonded over some stressful cellular telephone purchasing (I have a cell phone now, or as the Germans call it, a Handy) and today we climbed to the top of the Dom, which was SOOO high and scary and my legs were numb from all those stairs. But the view was incredible and so was the company. And nothing beats that feeling you get of accomplishment when you finish a climb like that! So beautiful. It was a beautiful day too, it was 7 degrees celsius (not sure in Fahrenheit) but apparently that's a pretty nice temperature to have in the winter.

Today I also got my first taste of Bonn. All I can say (well, I could say a lot more but all I really have time/effort to say) is that I loved it. It was stunningly beautiful in a serene way, but also was cute in the bar/club aspect of it. All the Bonners go to bed at reasonable hours, which is a huge plus because I won't feel like such a loser when I don't want to stay out until 6 am. Awesome.

I met my Bonn Buddy while I was there, which was so nice. Janina's awesome, she's so open and was so willing to listen to my slow German and talk to Shaina and I for hours. It was great. As far as people go on this trip, I really think I've hit the jackpot. I think everyone here is amazing, I really have enjoyed spending time with the other people from UW and getting to know the area we'll be living in for the next few months. I'm so pumped and in such a positive mood! Good times. Good times.

Bis später!
[side note: I figured out how to make those dots above the letters on my keyboard without copying and pasting. highly necessary and useful. Successful/productive enough day for me!]

paris deux

Bon Soir!

We've been in Paris now for a little under a week and done pretty much every tourist-y thing possible. There is something to be said about being a tourist! It's fun and exciting (yet expensive). Shaina and I have pretty much done every tourist thing to be done in this city (spare tomorrow's adventure to Disneyland (!!!!)) including but not limited to seeing the Louvre, Mona Lisa and Venus di Milo included; going to the Arc de Triomphe, eating escargot in Place du Tertre in Montmartre; eating mille feuille, crepes, wine, cheese and baguettes in general; seeing the Moulin Rouge, seeing Sacre Coeur and last but not least being pushed around and hearing 'americain' hissed in our direction more than a few times.
Other than that, all I've got to say about this place is that it is absolutely stunning. And LARGE. What look to be small distances on maps are actually really far away and sometimes (in the case of Montmartre) up/down hills. And the streets? Still really terrifyingly confusing.
I feel really excited and gifted to be here. Every experience is refining (in the mental way, not necessarily in the sugar way, although I have been enjoying my fair share of sweets), every sight a famous one, never a wasted moment. I think Europe in general is an enriching environment for anyone who visits. There are few moments where I'm not learning something new or being intellectually stimulated (and physically, too, I guess, we walk EVERYWHERE). I'm mostly just enjoying myself and trying to think about how long it will be until I get to see home again. Also, I feel like not being in school for so long may have messed with my head. When do I get to have a schedule again? This whole "I am not working" thing is CRAZY.

paris

Yesterday, Shaina and I made it to Paris after a long and scary trip to our hotel. We're staying in zone 2 of the metro system here, which makes things complicated...apparently not all of the trains come 'round these parts. But, thanks to six Paris police officers, one beautiful black man and one completely francophone woman, we made it. 

At last!

We started our tour of Paris the way any good tour would start, at the Tour Eiffel. I have been waiting, hoping and wishing to get to Paris since I was quite young. In sixth grade I wanted to take French, but as my luck would have it my middle school stopped offering it the year I became eligible to take it. So, alas, I have been Paris-less for 21 years of my life. No more! When we got off the metro and I stared up at the 80 story structure in awe...I was there! I saw it (as evidenced by the picture on the right)! I still am in a bit of a shock. Every time we go out on the streets, I whisper to myself, "this is it! this is Paris!" and honestly, I think it is just as beautiful as I imagined despite the less than desirable weather. In fact, it might even exceed my expectations.
Not everything about Paris is a picnic. It is extremely confusing...the streets are never in a grid and don't line up. Parisians all speak French and in response to my amateur, "Parlez-vous anglais?" 65% of the time I receive a curt "non." But hey, at least I try, and I've been getting better at broken French, too. "Je veux un....s'il vous plait" o "Bon apres-midi!" are among my more advanced French phrases.

After our morning with the tower, Shaina and I wandered into a nearby neighborhood in which there were fewer tourists, and consequently less English. But, I am happy to say, we survived and found this cute little French restaurant, and ate an extremely high-end French lunch with only one mix-up on the order (not in my favor, but probably for the best, as I ordered a not-so-good for me dessert and our serveur brought me a yogurt.) You can see the picture of Shaina full of food and joy as we finished up our lunch on the left. And now back to granola bars.

After the restaurant and a little bit more exploring the streets of Paris, Shaina and I decided to go home. On a whim we stopped off at Notre Dame (please see the completely unoffensive picture of me posing as the hunchback on the right). For being built in 1163, the place is stunning. Actually, it's just plain old stunning for being built in any year. I love the gothic architecture and the way it melds into all the newer buildings surrounding it. By newer, I mean 17th/18th century...still old by my standards. So, we made our way through the cathedral and then through the streets around it, finding ourselves immersed in a full-blown Parisian night. Each building is illuminated in a unique way to highlight the beautiful stone architecture; the shadows play with the light to create a completely different city than we experienced in the daylight. The way the lights reflect off the Seine is something that I could never capture in a photograph. It's a beauty that you have to see for yourself, like mountains or vast beautiful vistas. And what could have made it better you ask? Definitely the warm spiced wine served by street vendors. Perfect.

amsterdam II

Today is the last day in Holland. I feel like we've made pretty good use of our time here...
I'll start with today and go backwards...

Rijksmuseum exterior

Today we headed to the Rijiksmuseum, which is only a couple of blocks from our hostel. We've passed it so many times but we'd never entered before today. They had some of the most wonderful paintings by really famous and not so famous Dutch artists, but they were all fantastic and in that Renaissance style that is my favorite. I am not a fan of modern art so I felt like this was just the place for me. We mulled around the museum for a good five hours, taking our time in each of the 14 galleries. They had "The Night Watch" and another famous picture of several fabric testers in the 17th century painted by Rembrandt, which were amazing in the play between light and dark and how he made his figures move. What really intrigued me about all the artwork was the ability for it to be both realistic and completely fantastical at the same time. For instance, a woman's hand could hold such realistic detail and look as though your hand could have been in it's place, but in the same painting the artist could leave certain details up to the onlookers imagination, for them to decide what the painting was of. I like the realism/fiction that interplays in these paintings; it is absolutely fabulous and allows you to think and be creative in such more depth than looking at a photograph.
After that we went to McDonalds and Starbucks for the "only in the Netherlands" versions of things. I enjoyed a nice Appeltaart McFlurry for only €2,10. It was delicious with all those apple crisp chunks floating in it...

Anne Frank Memorial Statue

Yesterday we began with the Anne Frank museum, which was really interesting because you could walk through the rooms above her Otto Frank's jam factory/storage/office space that hid the Franks during the war. It was so sad that she died only one month before the liberation. Touching and heartbreaking, the museum was a cold reminder of all the horridness in the world, but also the good in people, and how people will perhaps not 'stand up' to what's wrong but at least try to make bearable a situation for others. Here in Amsterdam I think a lot of museum space is spent urging the visitors to consider what 'just following orders' means. I'm wondering if that's a European wide thing or just here specifically. It's an interesting thought process that Americans don't need to ponder as deeply as these people do, perhaps, because that mindset has never led Americans to such horribleness. Another really fascinating aspect of the museum was it's ability to guide the visitors into thinking about Anne's family members and friends outside of her subjective portrayal of them in her diary. I don't know about you all, but I've always thought of Anne Frank's diary as an objective account of how Jewish people felt living in the early 1940's in Europe, but when you think of all of her opinions about herself, her family and so on, you begin to realize that there are other viewpoints on this story, like how she got along with her mother and how she idolized her sister. It was also interesting to hear Otto Frank, who was always very close to Anne, warn that "most parents really don't know their children" after reading his daughter's diary. But, a once in a lifetime experience to actually see Anne Frank's diary.

The Harry Potters

We ended with a bar crawl that ended at 4 am. Yep, I stayed out until 4 am. It was probably worth it, €20 for a night out and drinks/entrance to six bars. Also, protection and safety in numbers. It was surprisingly full for a Monday night out on the town here...in one of the bars Shaina and I got a drink called the Harry Potter, and the bartender lit it on fire and produced a ton of sparks! It tasted like spiced, really spiced, rum and was served warm with an orange wedge. Delicious and sparkly.

Brouwerij 't Ij

Sunday we went to microbrewery here in Amsterdam called the Brouwerij 't Ij which was under the oldest/largerst windmill in the city. They had delicious unfiltered double distilled beer and cheese that was made from a local farmer who took the leftover wheat/other ingredients from the brewery to feed his animals. A good day.

Sorry for the extensive post, I hope all of my readers are doing well! I can't guarantee this update level throughout my trip, but I will post when I can. Tot ziens!

chicago

So I may have to upload this post after I will have left Chicago and moved on to Amsterdam, but I figured I had a couple hours to kill before I leave the country for good so I’d go ahead and write an entry for my loyal followers. If you’re new to my blog and just finding the link to this wonderful piece of online literature for the first time, welcome! If you’re an old friend/regular reader, I miss you already!

The long and arduous trip to Chicago was uneventful for the most part. We boarded the bus after a leisurely breakfast with four people who I have lived with (an observation that I made promptly upon sitting down). When the time came, saying goodbye to my mother was hard. I know I won’t see her for a long time and I worry. I feel like she may or may not depend upon me and I just worry that she’ll miss me a lot in our first long term separation since birth. She’ll make it. (Friends in Madison, please hang out with her if you can! She’s punny like her daughter, promise.) So I cried, like I knew I would. I cried not only because of my mom, but also because I was leaving my hometown! I have these memories about how hard it was when I went to Africa in those last few days, and I just hope that that homesickness was due more to the fact that Kenya is so completely different from what I’m used to that it started to be taxing towards the end.

So, now, we’re sitting in the terminal, waiting to board. We’re here really early due to the inconvenient Van Galder bus times, but that gives us a largely open window for me to catch up on the blog, the diary, the reading and the calling loved ones. I had some issues getting into the terminal; they weren’t thrilled with my choice of a one-way ticket and warned me that the Netherlands authorities will probably give me a little grief when we land. I’m hoping it won’t be a big deal. We had a slight change of plans, Shaina and I: my father (harmless and unprotective as he may seem) thought that couch surfing was a poor choice of living arrangements whilst we stay in Belgium, so he booked us a really nice hotel in Paris for 6 days in between Amsterdam and Köln. Thank-you, Dad! Needless to say, Shaina and I are pretty excited. We’re going to struggle through French together, see the Parisian sights and yes, you guessed it, Becca will be making a pilgrimage to Disneyland Paris. Yep. Yes, and she will love it as she loves the Disney Parks in her own country.

I think it’s that time…I’m going to wrap this up. I may be able to put this onto my phone and upload it onto blogger, but no promises. Time for me to hit the skies, try to sleep, and write obnoxious and strange observations in my diary that would make everyone hate me if they read them. Just kidding. But really, there are some strange things one thinks while traveling…

On to Amsterdam! Ooot yehayy (sounds Dutch, right?)

procrastination station

It's the last day of November today, but you knew that already. The weather here has been tolerable, considering. It's gotten to that point where the leaves are all dead and too crunchy to jump in, I can't wear anything on my feet without thick socks or fur, and I should be looking forward to a warm, pleasant winter break. Not so this year. I feel a little empty heading into December not having any winter break plans, save for going to colder/drearier places to visit friends before I go to Europe. The caribbean seems so nice. Island music, relaxing on the beach...massages on the beach...!

That's such an overprivileged, disgusting comment.

I've done something really crappy. I've gone AWOL at my lab job. I haven't gone there in weeks, but I just can't bring myself to go or to quit. I feel like I'm in limbo. I never quit jobs. I always let circumstances determine when I have to leave, which is what I was planning on doing when the time came for me to study abroad, but I just can't handle it anymore. The time I used to be in lab I use so much better when I'm not in lab. It's the only social time of my day, I see friends, get coffee. Today I even finished a stats project that's not due for two weeks. So what to do? E-mail and say thanks but no thanks? Just never show my face again? Go there with my tail between my legs and talk to my boss? Procrastinate?

I got an iPad today at the library, checked out for three days. One could say we've gotten close, his name is Fez. I'm buying one for my mom for Christmas, she deserves something nice (and yet...somehow the gifts I give her usually backfire) as well as internet access so she can skype me while I'm away. I figure a tablet will give her less of an opportunity to screw it up (as she has with two other computers) and the limited capabilities won't be so confusing. Hopefully we'll get started on lessons a few weeks before departure so she learns the ins and outs of the beast.

This last bit is for my own personal use...but friends are invited (indeed encouraged) to come with me to any of them!!
General Travel Goals as of 12/1/2011 when I return from Europe (ordered)
1. Nepal/India
2. Peru
3. Japan
4. Thailand
5. China
6. North Africa (Egypt and Morocco. Maybe Tunisia)
7.  Pacific Islands
8. Australia
9. Iceland/Northern Europe
10. Bolivia/Chile/Ecuador/Guatemala (after I learn Spanish)

And then, once I get to them all, go back and rediscover in more depth. And find new places.

That is all.