Come with us to Bremen!

This past weekend my host family and I went to the city/federal state of Bremen and Bremerhaven. We had a really great time. There is a pretty well known childrens´story about an donkey, a dog, a cat and a chicken that take a journey to Bremen. It is called "The Town Musicians of Bremen" Maybe some of you have heard of it? I got to take a picture with their statue! Bremen is a port trading city that started doing really well during the Renaissance. There are so many old, beautiful and quaint buildings! The damage to this city during WWII was not too severe, so almost everything is in its original state. We stayed in this super space-age modern hotel that really didn´t seem to fit with the old -world feel of the city, but it was still cool. On Sunday we went to the Klimahaus which is a really impressive museum on global climate change and environmental issues. http://klimahaus-bremerhaven.eu/ There is no way we could have possibly looked at everything in there in one day!

Two weekends ago I went to see the production "Der Mann in Schwarz " or The Man in Black, a take on Walk the Line and the life of Johnny Cash. I have to say I was a little disappointed, but I suppose I am spoiled by American entertainment. <.<>

I have been working with my future internship co-workers on small environmental projects in the area on Saturdays. It has been a lot of fun. I will be starting my internship with the ´Biologische Schutzgemeinschaft´ (biological protection community) in mid January. It is based out of the Umweltschutz Zentrum (Environment protection center) downtown. I will be involved in many different projects such as the Paper Conservation Project where we go to schools and give a little presentation and teach the students and teachers about what they can do to reduce the amount of paper used. I will also help keep up-dates on the marked trees in the city center. Because of the constant rain and moisture here, a lot of non-native trees in city get bacteria growth on the base of the trunk with makes it extremely dangerous during windy days (trees falling on pedestrians...not good) Another project they are working on is converting this old army shooting/training ground into a public nature reserve. The army had laid out a bunch of random concrete slabs everywhere for whatever reason, so we will probably work on getting those removed. There are a lot of other projects that were explained to me, but I just wanted to give you all an idea of what I will be doing in my internship.

Thanksgiving was a quiet day here although I still had to go to school (not a holiday here). I called my mom, grandma Krajeski, grandma Denton, and my best friend Rain to send some Thanksgiving greetings. It was nice to talk to them. Saturday evening I will be preparing a few small traditional Thanksgiving dishes for my hostfamily and then on Sunday I will be feasting with my american friend, Evisa, at her house. Then next Wednesday is my 19th birthday--kind of a boring year but it is an exuse to bake cupcakes! Hope you all enjoyed the holiday and that no one got hurt on Black Friday! I will try to send Christmas cards as soon as I can so they get to you all in time! >until next post!<

Elena

Hamburg!

This past weekend I went to the city of Hamburg with my friends from my german evening class. Luckily the Deutsche Bahn (German Railways) has a great deal for weekend travelers and we were able to take the train round trip and use the public transportation in Hamburg for only 14 euros a person. It was about a 4 hour train ride there, but it was pleasant because we slept most of the way and chatted a bit. As soon as we got there, my friend Evisa and I walked around the city (it was really wet and cold!) for about an hour while the others waited at the trainstation for other friends to arrive, then we took a boat across the harbor to get to where we were going. The reason for going there initially was to attend a birthday party of a friend of my Salvadorian friend. Crazy, I know, but that´s how Latin Americans are. The more the merrier. The best part was speaking spanish again! Most of the people there were originally from El Salvador, but there were also some Spaniards and Chileans. Of course it was an all-night party with lots of dancing and good music. It made me realize how much I miss Argentina. : (

We did a little city touring, but not a lot. I will probably make it back to Hamburg again before June next year. Next weekend my host family and I are going to Bremen to visit some museums and see some of the old Baroque and Renaissance architecture. I had to do a PowerPoint on Bremen for my german class in school, so I have a little background on the city this time!

All the action happens during the weekend. The weekdays are pretty rutine. School, german, german, german, maybe going out for a drink with a friend every once and a while and some more german. I am not complaining at all though--life needs to be monotone sometimes so you can appreciate the fun times to the full extent. Plus I have a lot of things to look forward to--Thanksgiving and my birthday! Bis das nätsche Blog!

Happy Halloween!

The past week has been just awesome. I recovered fully from the slight homesickness that I had a little while ago and now I have really found my nitch. I celebrated Halloween this year at this international english- speaking café in the city center. I´ve become a regular there now. I´ve gotten to know the owner pretty well and sometimes I run errands for him and he gives me free drinks! The party last night was a lot of fun. I think the German kids are really jealous of kids in the US around this time of year. There was a ´Haunted House`in the basement and the line for the tour went all the way out the door. There were classic halloween movies and halloween tv show episodes playing on the giant flat screen tv, the kids played games and did face paint while the adults drank and checked out some of the english books and DVDs that you can borrow there. I helped out here and there with everything. (My costume got in the way sometimes. :) ) I was a medieval princess, which I´ve already been, but it is such a cool costume that I wanted to wear it again.

I am finally getting underway with my internship. I am meeting all the people that I will be working with and learning about some of the things that I will be doing. I was recently sent some pictures of when we went to do some biological work in a field. We had to clear out some invasive plant species. See if you can find me in this picture!

It is now November--supposedly the most depressing time in Germany. It is rainy and cold all the time and everything is just dead and gray. Maybe we haven´t gotten there quite yet because the weather has been great lately. The colors are beautiful and the air is crisp. This picture here is from the woods near my house. Plus, American Thanksgiving is coming up and I can´t wait to share this part of my culture with my host family and german friends. I need to learn how to explain the history behind it in german first! I´ll work on that!