Aachen, and a much needed update from the past 2 weeks!

I have not updated in so long, so it is about time! (This post will be in reverse chronological order as I think back to the last few weeks!) I am currently in Aachen. I traveled here this weekend because we had Thursday afternoon and Friday free. I took a taxi with lots of luggage to the train station, took the train to Gießen (the next stop on the way to Frankfurt) and then changed trains in Gießen. This was quite the task with so much luggage and very little time in between. The train going to Aachen was originally suppossed to be at track 1, but it was actually at track 12! I freaked out for a second when I saw that my train was not at track 1, and that I only had 15 mintues to find the new track and lug all my luggage there. However, I found the correct one and took the next train to Aachen. (For a while I was worried if I had gotten on the right train!) This endeavor took about 5 hours, from the time I was picked up by the taxi to the time I arrived at the main train station in Aachen. My guess family picked me up and brought me to their house. We only speak German, but switch to English only sometimes if I do not understand. They have two daughters in high school. I like living here, and they are very helpful and nice.

Today (Friday) my guest family mom (Doris) helped me look for apartments. She also drove me around Aachen and Würselen (where they live, directly outside of Aachen). I like it here! Much more going on than Marburg. I had an appointment to meet with a student who currently lives in the single apartment I have reserved. It is a little expensive because it is in the city center. It has a small kitchenettte on one wall in the same room as the bed! It has no oven, microwave or dishwasher, and a tiny refrigerator. We looked for other apartments with no luck today. Either all apartments have been rented bc the semester is about to begin, or the people I tried to call did not answer the phones because often times businesses close early on Friday. However, I was in Holland today for about 2 minutes! During the drive through the city, Doris took me over the border to Holland, and Belgium was just down the street- literally! I plan on exploring more when I acutally live here.

What else has happened in the past two weeks? Not a whole lot this past week. We worked on our Radio program script in class. I allso went to a SPD rally or speech on Tuesday. The election is at the end of the month, and SPD has a very strong precence in Marburg. It was interesting to experience.

I also went over to Sophia's on Monday. We talked about Nordrhein-Westfalen, because I had to talk about the Bundesland in culture class. Aachen is located in NRW, and everyone has to do a project on their Bundesland. I learned a lot of interesting things, and we drank Chai tea that she had bought at the Middle Ages fair a few weeks ago.

Last Saturday was the first AU football game of the season! We won! I was not personally there, but I wore my AU sweatshirt in support. Yep, it is fall here. I am wearing clothes that I normally wear in November! HAHA. Instead of football, I watched Fussball! The German ntl team vs South Africa game was on, and Germany won. Next year, the world cup is in S. Africa. so all the games leading up to this are very important. I was at Sophia's house, and we made typical German food for a fussball game. We made Frikadellen, Pototoe salad, and some type of appetizer. Frikadellen are similar to hambugers. They have ground pork and beef, with onions, spices, something like bread crumbs to hold it together, and egg. I mixed it all with my hands, and Sophia asked me to taste it to see whether the spices were good! This was raw meat! Apparently it is okay to eat raw pork or beef here. She says it is good on bread. I was really surprised, but I did taste it, and it was good! She also made Potato salad with mayo from scratch! The appetizers we made were grape tomatoes, blackbread, and gouda on a toothpick- the colors of the german flag!

On Sunday, I took part in a german cooking class. There were 9 of us from the group, while the others took a tour of the local castle. This was from 4 to 11, and we made lots of yummy food! I also got a copy of all the recipes. They are old, from the insturctor's grandmother! We made an appetizer, a soup, a main course, and a dessert. With every course we had a different wine. Every wine and dish we made came from Germany. Even all of the ingredients were made or grown in Germany. When I am back at home, I will write more about the dishes when I have the recipe book in front of me. Grandma, maybe we can make some of these when I come back!

I actually cannot remember now what I did the week before! I will have to think on it, as I am getting tired here typing.

Hope all is well in the US. I know today was 911. It is crazy to think that it has been 8 years already. I found CNN in English on the TV today, and they were showing the memorial service. I couldn't watch it very long, and I am not even from NY and do not know anyone that was personally affected by 911. Nevertheless, it still seems to have a big impact on everyone of us.

Got to go eat Abendbrot!

See ya,
RL