On the other hand though, I am in Germany. Defs not entitled to be jealous.
This week I didn’t really have much school. German on Monday got canceled because my teacher was on a class trip, so we just had English, where we finished up the book we’ been reading. Tuesday was fun, although fairly story-less as well seeing as the entire day got canceled due to big program somewhere in the city. The program was all about internet safety and what precautions you should take while using Facebook and why and how to change settings and….
I actually really wanted to go. I did! At least for an hour or so to get the Oldenburg Police Department’s perspective on the subject. Unfortunately, there were one or two key words that I didn’t understand, so I couldn’t figure out where I was supposed to go. At the end of the day (after the program was over, of course) I figured out that all the schools in our part of Oldenburg were supposed to meet in one place, and then go together to the Weser-Ems Halle (a big assembly hall thing) and take a look at the presentation.
Seeing as I couldn’t figure that out, some friends and I went and shopped for rain jackets. Very, very expensive rain jackets. I didn’t see a single one for under 70 Euros.
Dude, that’s $101.41 for a rain coat. A rain coat.
Grant it, they were North Face and Jack Wolfskin rain coats, but still. I’m quite happy I brought my PHS soccer rain coat here with me.
Wednesday was a normal, long, Wednesday.
Thursday and Friday though, were very different.
Thursday I went to a friend’s house (one of the girls that lived with me for a three week exchange) to have breakfast and celebrate her birthday. It was great to finally sit down and meet and chat with her friends. They’d all been so busy with the Abbitur, and I’d been so busy… well, just in general, that we hadn’t actually gotten to meet each other.
I learned a lot about Tupper Ware. Apparently, you can do quite well if you sell enough Tupper Ware avidly enough. Seriously, you can get a car inside of a year and a half. A nice car. And with a bit more time, you get a Mercedes. No, like. This is a pretty sweet deal. I forget precisely how it works though.
Afterwards my friend and I chatted about Paris a bit. In two weeks, we’re taking a bus from Muenster to Paris overnight, and we’ll have two days in the city, and one day in Versailles. Oh yes.
Freaking.
Ecstatic.
Friday I met up with this friend and her family, and we went to a place called “Forest 4 Fun” where we climbed all over the place. Now, I don’t like heights when I have to go up in an elevator or an escalator, but when I can climb up myself, I’m fine.
My friend apparently has the opposite problem.
We still had fun though, and there was a zipline that you could take! It wasn’t terribly high, but it did go nice and fast, and took you right over a lake!!!!!! How cool is that??!
Becca Fishman: thought of you the whole time!! You’d love this place!
After the climbing bit, we when to a Rennaisance Faire not too far away.
You already know I love history, especially the middle ages and the Rennaisance, and while Renn Faires are not exactly what I would call “historically accurate”, they are definitely pretty freaking cool.
And that’s putting it mildly.
We saw a jousting tournament and a sword fighting tournament thing and there was some really legitimately good music, and WHOA! It was loads and loads of fun!!
On Saturday (yesterday) I went to Bremen with some friends. We wandered around the city a bit, attempted to do some shopping but didn’t really buy much, and ended up eating some deliscious Spaghetti ice along the River.
Around 4:30 we took the train home. Well, we thought it was the train home. It was actually a train in the complete opposite direction of where we needed to go.
The Kehoe sense of direction strikes again!
Except, I actually asked if we had the right train; something seemed off. I was assured however, that we were at the right track, awaiting the right train.
Me not being a native German speaker, and not having spent 17 years living in the area and taking the train to and from Bremen fairly frequently, I didn’t push the issue.
However, one of the other girls I was with also noted that we were on the north bound track, when we wanted the south bound track. But apparently she was too quiet, or our surroundings were too loud, because me and the other girl don’t remember hearing her ask about that at all…
Anyway, we ended up spending a lovely half hour in Ganderkesee, a small town with about 5 streets to call its own.
Although there was a lovely fountain and a statue of a goose where we took some rather hilarious pictures.
So, to conclude, our spontaneous adventure was really quite fruitful. Not only do we now have a wonderful story to tell, we have some really wonderful pictures too.
On the Agenda for this week: OLMUN. Oldenburg Model United Nations. Apparently there are over 500 participants from 15 different countries. This should be an absolute blast!!! Can’t wait to see how it all works out. We’re supposed to speak in English the whole time, so that, at least, shouldn’t pose too much of a problem.
More next weekend,
Over and Out,
Shannon
