Rotkohl in a bowl.
So, I am going to Poland this weekend. Well, here's how it all goes down. Last Thursday night I went up to Bonn for a friend's birthday party and Errol and Maura were like 'Hey, want to go to Poland?' Basically. So, between a few emails, text messages and a phone call...we're going to Krakow. So, Maura, Errol, Carlos and I will be hanging out there...reflecting on..everything, I guess.

Come to think about it...we're a pretty rowdy bunch when you put us all together because we just play off of each other so well. The four of us are going to cause some damage, I'm afraid. I guess, that's ok. It will be a nice and crazy 5 days...and, if Maura gets a hold of the apartment she wanted to rent for the week...I'm sure it will be even crazier.

My last day of work is Thursday. Wish me luck! I can't believe I actually made it. I was so sure during those first few months that they were just going to fire me right there on the spot for...whatever...anything. But, for some reason, I guess it worked out. Well, perhaps they got enough worth out of exploiting my english skills. Who knows.

Ahhh....I don't want to leave Germany!

I did talk to Adam last night and he said I could stay with him in NYC...so, I will probably be taking him up on his offer. Well, its a tri-fold reason, really. A. Flights are cheaper to come by if I wait a few days and then fly to mpls. B. I haven't seen Adam in a while and would like to catch up. C. I've never been to NYC before and I quite frankly need a good shock to the system of American-ness before I land in mpls. Otherwise, the next time you'll see me is curled up on the floor in a ball with a bowl of Rotkohl...ha. Actually, sounds kinda good.

Ok. I'll finish up my last couple weeks worth of stories some other time. But, there was a good one of one of the Techie interns making me feel stupid. Stupid Techie intern. Not a bad story, though.

Bread, a simple thing in life.
So... Last time I left off, I was somewhere in the very west of Ireland...on the Atlantic coast. The best comment I can say to sum up my experience there was I was the closest to home I've felt since I landed in August. I was staying with Rhea who I already knew and adore and I was on the coast of the Atlantic, which means I was as close, geographically, to home as I could have been.

So, Rhea's family has this dog, which can open the front door by itself. Does anyone else think that is amazing, or what? The dog can let itself out when it has to. Simple. Well, not so simple. The dog cannot shut the door behind him, so it just stands there open until someone else closes it. Cats who act like dogs are really the best cats out there. My Michael for example, will go out walking on a leash. Therefore, he is apart of this elite group I am referring to. Well, the dog that opens his own door also has a cat companion who thinks he's a dog. The funny part is that this cat knows what's up. If the cat wants to go outside, he gets the dog to open the door for him. I watched it myself.

Now, my whole experience of visiting Rhea makes me want to know more about and love Ireland. However, the same experience made me not like Dublin. Dublin is just like any big city. I didn't feel as if I could ever have any sort of connection or affinity towards it. I did the Guinness thing and got out. That was frankly enough for me. I would rather spend time in other cities or areas there. But, that's my humble, but forward opinion.

Andrea and I decided not to spring for a hostel our last night in Dublin since our plane left at 7am. So, we stayed up and walked around Dublin until 1am. At that point I really had enough of the city. We did find this awesome cafe near Trinity (I think...I'm not sure how far we had wandered away from there) called Kafe Mokka or something like that. Andrea and I sat around there for an hour journaling and I ordered a Chai. It wasn't the best I've ever had, and not the worst... the atmosphere made up for any failures of the beverage. We go to the Airport sometime around 2am. We were in good company because everyone at the airport looked just like us...young, packs in toe, tired. At that point I organized my disheveled bag and then took a nap on it. But, every hour I woke up to the airport announcement saying I should watch out for my bag and not leave it unattended. As with any good traveler (hitchhiker), I remembered to bring a towel. Andrea basically kept watch out because she was actually able to sleep on all the various transportation we had used since arriving in the country and I packed my towel in and around my head. Oh, one quick point...Andrea and I bought a package of cheddar cheese and at the whole thing. You see, cheddar is not common in Germany. One cannot go to the grocery store and simply buy a package of cheddar. Gouda, yes...Brie, yes...Cheddar, no.

We arrived in Berlin on Tuesday morning...a warm (finally, thank goodness!) morning and took the Bahn to our hotel. We dropped off our stuff, ran into someone we knew and went to KaDeWe (Kaufhaus Des Westes). It is the 2nd largest department store in Europe behind Harrods. What a privilege it is to say I have now been to both. Wow. How pathetic. But, we went up to the food halls on the top floor and sampled everything we could sample. (We're still in starving student mode!) The day went along and we started our seminar that afternoon.

I'll get more into what I did in Berlin later...as well as my quick road trip with friends to Dresden. As for my evening tonight, I am going to Bonn to celebrate a friend’s birthday. Hopefully, it will be a good time. I’ve heard the pub we’re going to makes Irish Brown Bread, my new favorite bread!

Just wait 'til I talk about Erdnuß flips!
Ok…so, to elaborate a bit more on my previous week…

I flew from Germany to Ireland with a plane full of rowdy people who thought it was a BYOB flight. Well, they made it a BYOB flight. We got to the hostel in Dublin and ended up meeting a girl who was also from MN (graduated from CDH). We walked around the Temple Bar area a bit and then crashed for the night. The next morning we got up and went to the Kilmainham Gaol. (sp!) Our tour guide was easy on the eyes, difficult on the ears. I felt like I had to pay more attention to him speak than I do when I’m having a conversation in German, and English is my native tongue. After our little jail tour Andrea and I hit up the IMMA which was…interesting…and rather empty. Not too much going on at that museum so we cut out and headed to Guinness. That is where the fun was, folks. We walked around and learned about Guinness and finished off our first pint before 1pm. Not too shabby. Actually, I have to admit I had a rather difficult time getting the whole pint down. The first half went down like butter but the second half I had to work at. You see, the breakfast offered at the hostel consisted of foods that I have not eaten since I left the US. That meant white sliced bread, rice crispies and so on…As you can imagine, it looked rather unappetizing and thus…didn’t eat a ton of it. I am used to eating yogurt and grainy breads from the bakery. So, I was naturally unprepared by the time it hit noon and all we had was this strange breakfast behind us. Well, lucky us… Andrea had some German bread in her bag so we split that and got through the second half of the pint.

After all of that I had the best bowl of soup in the world at this place called Soup Dragon somewhere in Dublin on our way back to the O’Connell St. Monument. It was a green curry thai chicken soup. Lecker…OMG. Then, we got on the bus and arrived (45 minutes late…) in Galway.

Since the bus was late, we missed our next bus out to Clifden. Well, we actually missed the last bus to Clifden which was the last possible way to get out west where Rhea lives. Ha. Almost. Andrea and I hitched a ride from Galway to Clifden (don’t tell my mom!) with an accountant who was returning home from a funeral. I think that was the most challenging conversation to have. I was digging for conversation, to put it lightly. For most of the trip, I just let it go and didn’t say anything but, I was so excited to be in a country where they spoke English. Ha, again. (They only kinda speak English in Ireland.) Once we got to Clifden we caught another ride with two guys who were just driving around for amusement. They were pretty funny and were able to joke at the lack of…well, everything out there.

So, we arrived in Letterfrack and got a ride from Johnnie (Rhea’s husband) out to their house. We sat around that evening just talking and went to bed rather late...mostly because it only gets really dark there for about 4 hours at night. So, it looked like 5pm in the afternoon at 10pm at night!

More to come later...

The Craic
So, I was in Ireland last weekend...and I didn't like Dublin. I'm sorry Nancy. I don't mean it personally, but I just don't understand the luster of Dublin. I went to Eagle's Nest, Renvyle...it's on the end of the world. And, in order to get to the end of the world one must hitchhike. Yes, hitchhike. It was a good time, and we got there just fine. And, I got to see Rhea and hang out with her, Johnnie, Annie and Sasha. I'm now in Berlin and I'm heading off to Dresden this afternoon. I'll fill you in on my week later. Gotta go. But, I'm still alive. So, all is good!

I’ll stop the world and dance with you. Naja… 43 days until I touch US soil again. The countdown is on. So, this weekend I am going to Erfurt and Weimar, which are cities in the former east part of Germany. (Weimar Republic ring a bell for anyone who was in AP European History?) My program is giving me a train ticket and a hotel room, so I can’t complain! I’ll be going there with a friend of mine who is from the east coast, but just got a job in Wisconsin an hour away from Chicago. Can we say ‘Road Trip!?!’ So, there is still a peacock on the loose in my neighborhood and I saw it a night ago as I was coming home. It was standing next to a car, smelling it. Ok, perhaps it didn’t smell it. But, it could have smelled it. I guess, peacocks don’t have hands so, it would have to use it’s beak to try and get in the car. But, all in all it looked kind of stupid. But, I wasn’t about to get close to it. Last weekend I went to Strasbourg for one day. And, I took pictures of all of the ‘Oui’ and ‘Non’ signs that I could find. I was there one day before the big vote on the EU Constitution, which the French voted against on Sunday. It was interesting because there were people on the streets handing out flyers about the vote from both the Oui and Non sides. It was also an awesome weekend. It was about 90 degrees and sunny. But, because of the heat, I ended up drinking 4 liters of water that day. It was crazy. I just couldn’t drink enough. It makes sense because I was walking around all day in the heat. I totally recommend Strasbourg because it’s a cute little French town with a slight German touch. However, no one really spoke German…or English for that matter. I did find some older people who were able to speak German, but for the most part I was perfecting my pointing and acting skills. My job search is not going as smoothly as I would have liked. But, I guess I’ll just keep at it. I figure I’m going to end up working at Caribou for a while when I get back anyway. Ah, it’s a job. I’ll take what I can get. If I lived in Minneapolis I could always try and get a job at the German bar…that would be funny. I could work along side of accordion playing Barefoot Becky…Wie schön!