I went to Holland for the weekend. I came back with over 2,000 photos.
508 in Amsterdam proper
269 in the famous flower garden of Keukenhof
336 in a random set of inland dunes
154 in Utrecht (under the moonlight)
490 in the restored village of Zaanse Schans
320 in the small town of Weesp
Do you think someone's happy to have her DSLR back? :)
April 18, 2011
April 14, 2011
Status Update
Yesterday was not exactly my best day since coming to Germany. Bad allergies, fatigue, feeling like everyone was yelling at me about trip planning, not be able to go home between 7-11p.m., a friend flipping out, falling half asleep in class so that I ended up picking a bad project (and one scheduled to present the only day I need to skip in the whole semester >.>) and that's just half the fun. But it's okay, nothing seriously bad happened, I can start putting things back together and I've got some amazing trips coming up this month (probably will be my most expensive month this semester barring post-finals travel). Sometimes I worry I've bitten off more than I can chew. I'm not sure I can pass this German History course as pretty much all I understood on Monday was "I recommend you read these three large and very academic books". But I think I have another week to decide what I'm going to audit vs. take for a grade. And the other stuff might not all be easy but I think it's all doable and it looks like I'm going to get good credit for it all.
April 06, 2011
Registration
The credit situation was supposed to be easy here. Ah well, it´s really not too bad. The schedule may look weird, but I think I´m going to get all the German credits and all the Social Sciences credits I need. That leaves only Spanish, but I´m taking a Spanish class this fall that I hadn´t planned on, so it should be okay. There is a class here that may qualify, but it looks like it would transfer as 2.5 credits, and obviously there´s no way to get .5. I´m going to explain the situation to the professor and find out if there is any possibility of getting it bumped from 5 to 6 ECTS if I do some extra work, but I´m not overly hopeful. Basically, it comes down to next Spring. I´m toying with the possibility of going to Latin America instead of Norway. :S I´m very conflicted. I looked at Bergen´s site today and it looks very easy and straightforward to get a Spanish Literature credit there - maybe too good to be true (15 ECTS??? That would be 7.5 American Credits... in other words, all the literature I need.) Basically I just need to get really serious about the course proposal if I do that.
The Spectrum
Love: My new bike, having my camera back
Like: The beautiful weather today and randomly no allergies this evening
Dislike: Some of my MU advisers. One in particular.
Hate: My credit situation, making hard decisions.
Like: The beautiful weather today and randomly no allergies this evening
Dislike: Some of my MU advisers. One in particular.
Hate: My credit situation, making hard decisions.
April 05, 2011
Allergies Abroad
I've been fortunate enough to never have to deal with allergies abroad. The only time I've ever traveled in Spring was Italy in Spring Break of junior year, and I got home just in time. Well, it's all changing now. And with a vengeance. Normally I have a week or two of sneezing and itching before the bad stuff like asthma sets in. Not this time. We spent all day Saturday wandering the streets of Cologne - I was loving the fresh springtime air and the warm breeze on bare shoulders (btw, my friend In told me that in Korea its acceptable to wear extremely short shorts and skirts, but people frown on bare shoulders or too much revealed chest. Interesting as in Europe, people tend to get conservative about the legs first (see Spain). Anyway, after Cologne we had a party, and towards the end of the party I was NOT feeling good. I went pretty much directly home and tried to go directly to bed (I should mention that I had 12 hours of sleep the night before!)
Well, I couldn't sleep at all. I was miserable. No matter what position I laid in, I just felt asthmatic and congested and terrible. Finally, after trying to sleep for four hours, I got up and scoured my pathetic medicine cabinet, such as it is. Scottish sore throat drops... Spanish flu powder... American Ibuprofen... I took the flu powder since it said it was effective against light to moderate pain (always a sleeping plus) and congestion. I stayed up another half hour chatting with friends, drinking water, and eating chocolate. I started to feel sleepy and relaxed so I tried going to sleep again. It worked great! I slept happily through to 1 and felt fine. Which was really good, since it was Sunday and no chance of seeing a doctor or going into a pharmacy.
I'm confused! I've had nights that bad before, but not very often, and not like this. As far as I remember, there was that one night after I spent the whole day playing with Ragweed (one of the worse nights of my life), and then there are usually a few less than pleasant sleeps in the epicenter of the allergy season. I can't imagine what set me off that badly! Since then it's been rainy, and I've been okay. Sunday and Monday I was sneezing but no asthma and I didn't even take any medicine. This morning I'm /very/ sneezy, but I found my small supply of Benedril so I just took one of those and hopefully I'll be fine today too. I'm not looking forward to figuring out the medical system here, (even though I have shiny Europe wide insurance), but the way things are going I'm sure its inevitable!
Well, I couldn't sleep at all. I was miserable. No matter what position I laid in, I just felt asthmatic and congested and terrible. Finally, after trying to sleep for four hours, I got up and scoured my pathetic medicine cabinet, such as it is. Scottish sore throat drops... Spanish flu powder... American Ibuprofen... I took the flu powder since it said it was effective against light to moderate pain (always a sleeping plus) and congestion. I stayed up another half hour chatting with friends, drinking water, and eating chocolate. I started to feel sleepy and relaxed so I tried going to sleep again. It worked great! I slept happily through to 1 and felt fine. Which was really good, since it was Sunday and no chance of seeing a doctor or going into a pharmacy.
I'm confused! I've had nights that bad before, but not very often, and not like this. As far as I remember, there was that one night after I spent the whole day playing with Ragweed (one of the worse nights of my life), and then there are usually a few less than pleasant sleeps in the epicenter of the allergy season. I can't imagine what set me off that badly! Since then it's been rainy, and I've been okay. Sunday and Monday I was sneezing but no asthma and I didn't even take any medicine. This morning I'm /very/ sneezy, but I found my small supply of Benedril so I just took one of those and hopefully I'll be fine today too. I'm not looking forward to figuring out the medical system here, (even though I have shiny Europe wide insurance), but the way things are going I'm sure its inevitable!
April 03, 2011
Last Two Days in Bonn
Last Two Days -
- I took a random day trip to the Netherlands... teehee... including some really really delicious Dutch apple pie and waffles.
- Farewell dinner for the intensive month long orientation program! The Chinese food was actually pretty good, and it was nice to see everyone again. Still, I'm really glad the real semester is starting. Some fresh blood will be nice, as will be seeing a little less of the International Office's top officials (they make me feel like I'm in grade school again, occasionally).
- I met another random former Mizzou student who works at Deutsche Welle! After Mizzou, he went to the same small liberal arts college at Stephanie! Weird!
- I bought a bike at the bike fair! It cost me 58 euros including the bike lock. Not the 30 euros I was told was possible, and my friend In had the lowest price in our group with 40 euros. Still, it's not that bad, it actually fits me well (75% of the bikes were too tall for me) and I think the extra 15 euros made a big difference. In's gears have already gone off once. Mine seems to run great, and the guy gave me a card with his phone number in case something goes wrong with it. I think I'll use it a lot! And even by cutting my grocery store commute by 2/3th it's just about worth the price... Anyway, it's shiny and blue and pretty! :)
- Cologne yesterday reaffirmed that we hadn't gone as wrong as we'd thought on our last visit - there was pretty much the cathedral and the chocolate museum. (If we'd only been brave enough to take day trips, though!) However, it also reaffirmed that the cathedral and the chocolate museum are awesome! The chocolate museum was twice the size as in my memory and the samples were still good. It's not even that expensive (5 euros). We spent an embarrassingly long 3 hours there.
- Cologne Cathedral - wow. Sorry, Santiago de Compostela. I adore you, but the Kölner Dom is my first love. It's just so expansive, warm, peaceful inside... so dark and foreboding and massive from the outside.
- Class registration continues (first classes tomorrow). The professors here have all emailed me back giving me the green light to participate! It's been more complicated here than I'd hoped, but I think it'll be okay in the end even if not the golden ideal. I'm taking two classes from the International Office - Preparation for the DSH and Deutsche Medien. The former is pushing it for my ability level and is the top German language class for foreigners offered here. The second is quite a bit easier, but the subject matter fits my major, and hey, a nice little break that keeps me in touch with the other exchange students will be nice. All in all, with these and the introduction course, looks like I'm going to get 9 hours of upper-level German elective. Sweet!
-Then, I'm taking three Spanish classes (possibility of dropping the hardest one though) - Latin American Environmental Discourse, the Discovery and Conquest of the Americas, and Intercultural Studies Spain and Morocco. I'm having trouble getting SPANISH credit for them. But, I also need a few credits in general Social Sciences, which is how they're looking to transfer, so not the end of the world... just the weird thing of taking classes in Spanish in Germany. But hey, they look interesting at least. Finally, I'm going to try to take a Norwegian course. Based on my one email to the Norwegian professor, he wants me to take a literature or translation class. He said Norwegian II is also an option although it might be a little boring for me. I doubt it - I've never had a formal Norwegian class before and little things that I'm not used to having to worry about on MSN convo's are likely to kick my butt. Now, the most important thing... I have Fridays off!! :D :D
- I booked my tickets to Finland. I'll have a good chunk of time there - three full days and some left over. I am skipping two classes. However, I don't have any plans to go further than Finland while I'm here. It was a good place to use them. The flight was 100 euros (with the taxes and fees and everything!) and rounding up I'll probably be spending 200 to get to Liisa's place and back to mine with busses and trains and everything thrown in. Then it's just food and activities, so it's not that insane (and again, it's probably my biggest or second biggest trip here).
- Slovakian dinner last night was tasty - weird potato noodle things with a yogurt cheese sauce and bacon! How could we say no? German apple waffles for dessert, and a game that mixed taboo, pictionary, and charades.
- Looks like I have an elementary school to volunteer at! Wednesday mornings most likely. Good for my resume, my teaching experience, and my German skills. Plus I think I'll enjoy it! :D A win-win.
- Allergies have started. FML.
- I took a random day trip to the Netherlands... teehee... including some really really delicious Dutch apple pie and waffles.
- Farewell dinner for the intensive month long orientation program! The Chinese food was actually pretty good, and it was nice to see everyone again. Still, I'm really glad the real semester is starting. Some fresh blood will be nice, as will be seeing a little less of the International Office's top officials (they make me feel like I'm in grade school again, occasionally).
- I met another random former Mizzou student who works at Deutsche Welle! After Mizzou, he went to the same small liberal arts college at Stephanie! Weird!
- I bought a bike at the bike fair! It cost me 58 euros including the bike lock. Not the 30 euros I was told was possible, and my friend In had the lowest price in our group with 40 euros. Still, it's not that bad, it actually fits me well (75% of the bikes were too tall for me) and I think the extra 15 euros made a big difference. In's gears have already gone off once. Mine seems to run great, and the guy gave me a card with his phone number in case something goes wrong with it. I think I'll use it a lot! And even by cutting my grocery store commute by 2/3th it's just about worth the price... Anyway, it's shiny and blue and pretty! :)
- Cologne yesterday reaffirmed that we hadn't gone as wrong as we'd thought on our last visit - there was pretty much the cathedral and the chocolate museum. (If we'd only been brave enough to take day trips, though!) However, it also reaffirmed that the cathedral and the chocolate museum are awesome! The chocolate museum was twice the size as in my memory and the samples were still good. It's not even that expensive (5 euros). We spent an embarrassingly long 3 hours there.
- Cologne Cathedral - wow. Sorry, Santiago de Compostela. I adore you, but the Kölner Dom is my first love. It's just so expansive, warm, peaceful inside... so dark and foreboding and massive from the outside.
- Class registration continues (first classes tomorrow). The professors here have all emailed me back giving me the green light to participate! It's been more complicated here than I'd hoped, but I think it'll be okay in the end even if not the golden ideal. I'm taking two classes from the International Office - Preparation for the DSH and Deutsche Medien. The former is pushing it for my ability level and is the top German language class for foreigners offered here. The second is quite a bit easier, but the subject matter fits my major, and hey, a nice little break that keeps me in touch with the other exchange students will be nice. All in all, with these and the introduction course, looks like I'm going to get 9 hours of upper-level German elective. Sweet!
-Then, I'm taking three Spanish classes (possibility of dropping the hardest one though) - Latin American Environmental Discourse, the Discovery and Conquest of the Americas, and Intercultural Studies Spain and Morocco. I'm having trouble getting SPANISH credit for them. But, I also need a few credits in general Social Sciences, which is how they're looking to transfer, so not the end of the world... just the weird thing of taking classes in Spanish in Germany. But hey, they look interesting at least. Finally, I'm going to try to take a Norwegian course. Based on my one email to the Norwegian professor, he wants me to take a literature or translation class. He said Norwegian II is also an option although it might be a little boring for me. I doubt it - I've never had a formal Norwegian class before and little things that I'm not used to having to worry about on MSN convo's are likely to kick my butt. Now, the most important thing... I have Fridays off!! :D :D
- I booked my tickets to Finland. I'll have a good chunk of time there - three full days and some left over. I am skipping two classes. However, I don't have any plans to go further than Finland while I'm here. It was a good place to use them. The flight was 100 euros (with the taxes and fees and everything!) and rounding up I'll probably be spending 200 to get to Liisa's place and back to mine with busses and trains and everything thrown in. Then it's just food and activities, so it's not that insane (and again, it's probably my biggest or second biggest trip here).
- Slovakian dinner last night was tasty - weird potato noodle things with a yogurt cheese sauce and bacon! How could we say no? German apple waffles for dessert, and a game that mixed taboo, pictionary, and charades.
- Looks like I have an elementary school to volunteer at! Wednesday mornings most likely. Good for my resume, my teaching experience, and my German skills. Plus I think I'll enjoy it! :D A win-win.
- Allergies have started. FML.
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