I just wanted to let everyone know, who follows this blog, that today will be my last post with the DAAD. My internship ends tomorrow and I will be searching for new things to do in Germany. I haven’t quite figured out what I will be doing yet, but for the summer I will hopefully go back to teaching English. I recently met some other people working as freelance teachers who think the hours and money are great. So while it isn’t exactly what I want to do as a career it will be a good option for the summer. Make some money and do some traveling.

But before I start working again, I am going to take a vacation to Berlin and see a bit more of Germany! I

flickr:Thomas Becker

leave Saturday morning and will be staying a week. I think that should be enough time to visit the capital of Germany. A friend of mine has told me about a free English tour that I hope I can join. I can’t wait to see all the historic landmarks of the East and West, and I know that there are many amazing museums that I will have to visit. If anyone has any tips from a trip they went on to Berlin please let me know.

I’ve had a great time sharing my experience with all of you. I will continue to check this blog periodically so if anyone has any questions or concerns about moving to Germany for study, for a career, or because they have a German boyfriend or girlfriend feel free to write because I am sure I have an answer for you. Take care! -Eileen

BBQing

I feel like I could start writing adverts for the city of Bonn now that I have positively mentioned the Rhein River in my blog for the umpteenth time. So yet again this post will be about the adventures that occur right outside my door step on the beautiful banks of the Rhein. As I mentioned previously, there are many events taking place this spring and summer that have me excited about living next to this beautiful river, and this past weekend was one of them. “Rhein in Flammen” took place this May the 2nd, and it was fantastic.

The actual fireworks show during “Rhein in Flammen” didn’t actually start until after eleven at night, but that didn’t stop the many eager spectators from arriving early to celebrate the entire day on the River. I arrived at three pulling a wagon full of food and had a BBQ with friends. By six o’clock there were so many other people doing the same thing that the river bank really looked like it was on fire due to all the smoke from the many grills. The local newspaper reported over 400,000 people attended this years event on Saturday. And the weather, at least during the day, was perfect. Everyone was wearing shorts, t-shirts and sandals. It actually felt like a

the Rhine at 8 pm

spring I could relate to. As it got a bit later, and the sun started to set, we decided to abandon our BBQ plot and move to a beach bar that had just opened for the season this past Friday. Complete with white sand, beach umbrellas, and tiki torches it is almost

the beach bar

like escaping to some far off place once you entered the gates. Although I was quickly brought back to reality as I looked down at my clothes and remembered I was now bundled in a sweater and jacket, which felt totally out of place at this awesome beach bar.

After a couple caipirinjas it was time to find an open space back on the Rhine for the fireworks show. Over 60 tour boats started to fill up the river in front of us (they had been following the firework show up the Rhein) to get a good place for the finale. The show was a great way to end the day, and luckily for me I didn’t have to fight the other 400,000 people to get home, as I lived only twenty steps away.

sleeping flamingos

Sunday is an interesting day in Germany because most shops and grocery stores are closed. For foreigners who come from countries were shops are open seven days a week it can be a big adjustment to figure out what to do on this day. I still have a hard time understanding why shops and grocery stores are closed on Sundays. For someone who works during the week it seems so natural to save up time to go shopping for the weekend, which more often than not includes Sundays, but not here. While in Germany I have had to find other ways of entertaining myself on Sunday.

This past weekend I pondered for a while whether or not I wanted to make it a lazy Sunday or actually enjoy the sun for a while. After looking up things to do in the area I came across the Köln zoo website. It had been a while since I had been to a zoo and I thought it would be a wonderful way to spend the day. As it was sunny and Sunday, and there weren’t many other businesses open, it was a packed house.

The strange looking Okapi

Every parking lot surrounding the zoo was completely full and we had to drive about a mile down the road to find a free place.

I really had a wonderful time at the zoo and was surprised at how long it took us to see all that the zoo had to offer. It took us over five hours to finish the tour, which I thought was quite impressive for a zoo that is in the middle of a busy city. There are over 500 species to see at the zoo from all of the continents, except Antarctica, and also many fish from the world’s oceans.

Here are some of the highlights from my zoo trip. The pink flamingos. I love these birds and I am always so impressed with how they are able to balance on their one extremely skinny leg while they sleep. The giraffes were amazing, and I hadn’t seen a giraffe since I was a little girl, maybe around seven. Seeing them was a great treat, especially because I think that their coats are so beautiful, and also, the okapi, which was a new animal to me. They are related to giraffes, look like a horse, but have legs with stripes like that of a zebra.

They have a great website too: www.zoo-koeln.de

flickr:bettybl

Germans, in general, really observe what foods they should eat depending upon the type of year it is. For example, this winter I wasn’t able to find asparagus in the local food market. If I wanted asparagus I had to go to this incredibly expensive supermarket where it had been imported in, and once I saw the price I promptly put it down and decided to wait for spring.

As it is full blown spring now, I have been indulging in all sorts of springtime foods, foods that I take for granted in the States, as they are cheaply shipped from whatever region they are grown in right to the supermarket near my home. Strawberries, green and white asparagus, corn, the list goes on.

However, there is another delicious food group that has also caught my attention this spring. I am in love with all of the homemade gelato ice cream shops. Before I came to Germany I was a fan of ice-cream, specifically mint chocolate chip, as it is called in the US, but here my obsession for ice-cream has taken on a life of its own. I can’t stop eating the stuff. Everyday I want at least a little scoop, and at 70 cents a pop, it isn’t too expensive.

At first I was cursing my life because there was one of these home made ice-cream shops literally 20 steps away from my front door. It was just too tempting not to go there, being so close to home, and I always get the same thing. Here mint chocolate chip goes by various different names, pfefferminze, minze and after eight. All of them a creamy light green with bits of chocolate swirled in.

So for a while I thought I had this amazing ice cream shop right in my neighbourhood, but that all changed when I took a trip to Weimar a couple of weekends ago. I had been sightseeing all day and all of a sudden I was having an intense craving for my daily ice cream scoop. It isn’t very hard to find these shops as there is

flickr:brenda K

generally a trail of people with ice-cream cones coming from whatever direction the shop is located in. Once you find the shop you have the option of sitting in the large outside patio they have set up where you can enjoy their ice-cream with a cup of coffee or just take a cone and keep on going. I found just what I was looking for and ordered my favourite, and my mouth soon was exploding from how good this stuff was. My little ice-cream shop in Oberkassel didn’t compare at all to this intensely delicious mint ice-cream.

And because of all this I have a new obsession. I have started trying mint ice-cream wherever I go. It is like my taste buds are judging there own little competition. I’ll go somewhere and see two ice cream shops and have to try a scoop from both to see which produces the most delicious mint.

In conclusion, I would like to let you all know that thanfully I have a gym membership, don’t want to gain any weight from this new hobby, and if you are in Germany try the ice-cream.

flickr: Thomas Reichart

So, on my first blog post I wrote about how cold and miserable I was here because I didn’t bring the right clothes to Germany. And on that post, I had a picture of me literally shivering by the Rhein. Ohh how things have changed! The Rhein is one of my favourite places to hang out now, and with temperatures reaching 20 Celsius this week (70 F) there isn’t a better place to be than near the waters edge. I mean I grew up in a place called Virginia Beach for goodness sakes, I’m drawn to water.

As spring and summer are gearing up, so are the events that are being held in the park adjacent to the Rhein, called the Rheinaue. It is a huge, green park where sun seekers go to lie out, kids and dogs are chasing ducks, and various football and rugby teams come together to play sports.

Because summer is a time for traveling, I wanted to do a post about some of the events I am excited about in the upcoming months. And if you have free time from your studies, perhaps you will consider a trip to Bonn!

April 19, 2009- the largest flea markets in Germany occurs in the Rheinaue. Starting in April and continuing on every third Saturday each month, booths and stalls selling anything and everything you ever wanted, or never wanted. The flea market covers over 4km of the park.

May 2, 2009- Rhein in Flammen- 60 ships line up in the Rhein, all hosting a ride for viewers of the fantastic fireworks show. The shows finale takes place in Rheinaue, where thousands of people will be

flickr: Baschmasterman

hanging out waiting for the Rhein to go up in Flames!

July 24-26- Bonner Bierbörse- the Bonn Beer Exchange take place in July with more than 600 different beers from all over the world gathering in the Rheinaue. There is free entry and live music concerts for all who come.

From this list I hope I will be able to take a lot more pictures beside the Rhein where I look a bit more confortable!

flickr: Andy and Michele Rau

This Saturday I wanted to do nothing else except sit at my desk and apply for jobs. I planned ahead for this the night before by staying in and getting a good nights rest. However, as I woke from my slumber Saturday morning I knew quite instantly I wouldn’t be able to stay indoors past breakfast.

The sun was finally out, and not only was the sun out, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Had spring finally arrived? As I opened my window and let the fresh air enter my room I remembered back to the first week I arrived in Germany, and attempted to bike down the path next to the Rhine River. I only made it about 15 minutes before I had to turn back because my feet, hands, and face were freezing, and I was completely miserable. Finally, I would be able to go on that bike ride I had been wanting to take for the past three months.

We rode from Oberkassel, my neighbourhood, to Königswinter a town just a bit south from us. It was quickly apparent that I wasn’t the only one who had been waiting impatiently for the warmer, sunny weather to arrive. The streets of Königswinter were packed with people trying to enjoy every second of this beautiful day. People were walking on the Rhine, people watching from cafes and shopping at the outdoor flea markets.

Flickr: homo_sapiens

From Königswinter we climbed a small mountain where the ruins of the Count of Drachenfels castle remains, named after the slain dragon that lived in the cave near the top of the mountain. Along the way there were many cute little restaurants were you could drink coffee with a beautiful, elevated view of the Rhine. There was also a man selling fresh honey on the side of the path we were climbing. His hives were next to his stall shop and you could see the bees fast at work. I got a good chuckle out of this man who had decorated two of his hives with the faces of George W. Bush and Bin Laden. A bit of irony when you looked at it, these two would now be terrorized by the bees who entered their hives through each of their mouths.

The day was wonderful, and as I arrived back home I could hardly wait for it to be Sunday, so I could again enjoy the start of spring. Unfortunately, it was only a tease, an allusion of the beginning of spring, since Saturday the weather has gone back to being dreary and cold, and the near forecast doesn’t look any better. Oh well, maybe this weekend I can work a bit on my job applications.

flickr:easyyy

It had been about two years since I had seen a live concert, and this is an embarrassing admission when as a college student I had tickets to see some live show just about every other weekend. Thankfully the dry spell ended this weekend when I went to see The Killers, live, in Düsseldorf.

I hadn’t even planned on going, the tickets were given to me as a Christmas present from my boyfriends family, and I eagerly accepted them, as The Killers are one of my favourite bands. So this past Friday my host sister, her friend, and I packed into a car with some of The Killer’s CDs and drove to Ddorf. The show was great and the band sounded phenomenal. They honestly sounded better than the recordings found on their CDs. Not only did they play tracks from their new album, they played all their crowd pleasers, and I mean every last one of them. I don’t think their was a disappointed fan in the music hall.

Now that I have brought up the ‘music hall’ I have to state what was wrong with the night. I hated the venue! The concert was located at Philipshalle which is an indoor sports arena. The problem is that the building was designed for sporting games not concerts. The area where most of the concert goers must stand to watch, is on the big flat surface area where teams play each other. There was some stadium seating along the outskirts of the playing field, but because the concert was at one end of the hall those seats weren’t necessarily good either, and my ticket was a standing one.

Unfortunately, we didn’t arrive early enough to get a good standing spot, and were closer to the back of the hall. With thousands of people’s heads bobbing in front of me, all on one flat level, I didn’t see much of the band. I had to step on my tippy tows just to take a picture of Brandon Flowers, the lead singer. To be honest, about all I saw was the strobe lights, which happened to be quite colorful.

All in all, the concert exceeded my expectations, at least where the music was concerned. And on that note, I leave you with my favourite line from The Killers, Smile like you mean it.

Flickr: poolie

After a bunch of crazy weekends of celebrating Karneval and traveling I decided to take a break this past weekend. However, whenever I decide I am going to relax and not go out to any bars or clubs I am always left wondering, what else is there for me to do? It is really hard for me to just lie around and actually relax. I still like to be entertained somehow. If I was in the US the answer to this problem would be simple, go to the movies. But it is not so easy when you live in a foreign country, and your grasp of the language there is less than par. You first must find a place that caters to showing movies in English.

That is why a little place called the Metropolis in Köln is my favourite place to go when I need to relax, but don’t want to just stay put at home. It is a movie theatre that shows movies in their original tone, and it isn’t just for the English speaking foreigners in this area. Many Germans who don’t like listening to the awkward dubbing of Hollywood movies also like to watch the films in their original version.

The theatre itself isn’t very big, There are three rooms showing movies and all the rooms are quite small, however there is a great snack bar that caters to any movie fans desires. Sweet and salty popcorn, all types of coffee, nachos, beer, and ice-cream just to name a few. Also, I recommend getting there quite early. The first movie I went to, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, was a packed house. Every seat was full and the last group of people to mosey on in were left sitting apart from their friends in the last open seats available. Even though it is small, it is still a great place to hang out. I plan on seeing the Reader starring Kate Winslet next.

So if you are ever in Köln and are dying to see an English language movie here is the link for the address of the theatre and the show times: http://www.metropolis-koeln.de/

flickr: Big Cheesy Grin

It is such a different concept to travel in Germany compared with America. In the US you can drive hours upon hours and still be in the same state. Germany however, is located in the heart of Europe, and surrounding it there are nine completely different countries to visit. Starting in the North and working clockwise there is Denmark, Poland, The Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and The Netherlands. This past weekend I took full advantage of the border that lies just to the West of me and visited Amsterdam, located in the Netherlands.

Now, Amsterdam is very famous for many things, especially their citizens liberal attitudes which allow the Red Light district and ‘coffee’ shops to run freely, but there is so much more to this wonderful city that gets overshadowed when visitors talk about what they experienced there. Such as the bikes. Never in my life have I seen so many bikes in a city. The population of Amsterdam is around 750,000 and there are over 600,000 bikes in the city. They are literally everywhere. Outside the main train station there is a bike park (similar to a car park), with bikes all lined up and locked, waiting for their owner to come back and ride them. I noticed that it wasn’t only environmentally friendly to ride these bikes around, but also quite practical. The city was consciously planned around a canal system that was built in the 17^th century. The remaining roads are really too thin for cars to drive on and parking is very limited. Biking is a much smarter option. During the trip, I went on a canal boat tour and learned that on average one

public urinal

car still falls into the water a week. No wonder there are so many bikes.

The next thing I saw I couldn’t believe. They had standing urinals for men to use right in the middle of the street. Now this isn’t a potter potty with a door and a lock. It is just a urinal with absolutely no wall to block out anyone’s curious gaze. I consider myself a liberal person, but this, this was just too much. To have men peeing in the middle of the street as I was on my way to get a croissant at the deli, I was disgusted. That evening though, my thoughts about this public, outdoor urinal changed completely. As the parties began and people were drinking boys were running to and from the urinal using it very diligently. I thought wait, this is a great idea! These same boys would be peeing right on the street or on the side of the building if there hadn’t been a urinal there for them to use.

Here are just two of the amazing, quirky things I saw while travelling this past weekend and now I can’t wait for my next vacation.

Flickr: Florian Seiffert (F*)

All throughout the Rhineland it is now Karneval. This is a festival that has been celebrated in this area since the 14th century, and it is so important in these parts that it is also considered to be the 5th season in Germany. The festival officially starts on November 11th at 11:11am and last until Ash Wednesday. Today the season comes into full swing as more and more people join in the festivities. As this is my first season celebrating Karneval I’m still not sure what to expect. All I know is that I am excited for whatever foolishness is about to occur.

So far the 5th season has been incredibly interesting, and the real celebrations haven’t even begun yet! Every weekend I’ve been out since New Year’s Eve I have seen more and more hilarious looking adults dressed up in the most ridiculous costumes partying all around the area. It is customary to wear costumes to different events, and many people have multiple costumes that they change into every different day of Karneval. So far I have three costumes planned, starting tomorrow when I will be dressed as Pocahontas and ending on Monday when I will be dressed as a neon colored clown.

Today is weiberfastnacht which stands for women’s day. I am taking off work to join in the festivities which take place at town hall. During weiberfastnacht women storm the mayor’s office and throw them out, and in their place they leave the Karneval Princess who will preside over the area until the festival is over. If men are daring enough to wear their ties to work on this day they shouldn’t be surprised if a woman comes up to them and cuts it off in exchange for a small kiss, even if it is an expensive tie.

The highlight of Karneval season is on Rosenmontag when 1.5 million people gather in the streets of Köln to watch as the huge Karneval parade goes by. I have personally been looking forward to this festival since I knew that I would be moving to Germany, and I am so glad it is finally here. I think that this is such an interesting topic, that I promise to leave updates next week with everything I experience. Let the party begin…Happy Karneval everyone or “Kölle alaaf” as the locals would say!!