Mein Geburstag!

    Today was my nineteenth birthday and it started early in the morning.  On the 16th of May I was invited to a German party because the 17th happened to be Christi Himmelfahrt Tag (Christ going to Heaven) this year and is a free day.  This meant no school for the rest of the week.  My birthday started out with a rather unusual round of Happy Birthday. I didn't get to sleep until 3 in the morning and then woke up later that morning at 6 something, which I promptly rolled over and tried to get more sleep.  The reason for this was because I was going to be heading to Berlin for the day.  After squeezing in a bit more sleep I was privileged enough to have a ride home that allowed me time to get ready for the day ahead.  The first thing we did after a wonderful breakfast that included cheesecake for me was open my present.  A sock and a pair of earrings... the sock is the second to one I am still knitting.  After that we took the train to Berlin and enjoyed a little bus ride through the city.

"For the German People"

The Reichstag

Then we visited the Reichstag.  This meant we walked in and around the glass dome, which was super cool.

The glass dome of the Reichstag.

Anna, Me, Jakob

   The view was amazing - Berlin was spread out before me.

The Brandenburger Tor (The Brandenburg Gate)

Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Berlin Central Station)

Chancellor's House

After enjoying the opening in the center of the dome we headed down and ate Italian food.  I had a gigantic yet delicious pizza.

After that we headed to Tränenpalast (Palace of Tears), an old crossing point (East/West Berlin) by the Friedrickstrasse Bahnhof (Train station).  At this point I was dragging a little because of my lack of sleep and during our guided tour I almost fell asleep standing up, a feat which I didn't think was possible until I nearly crashed into a display.  After that we got ice cream and took the train back to Brandenburg.  All in all it was a birthday that will go down in the history books of Hanna.

Pre-Euro Tour Rambles

  Tomorrow I will be heading off on the grand adventure known as EuroTour with around 90 fellow exchange students.  I will do my best to have a blog post but I can guarantee that pictures will posted on my Shutterfly site: Journeys Across the Globe (see link in side bar).  Because of Easter holiday and EuroTour I don't have school for a month - yikes!  I'm a bit worried about going back because I will have missed 2.5 weeks.  At the end of March Laura headed back to Finland, her exchange over (she was with a different program) and we had a wonderful going away party for her, it's going to be sad going back to school without her.  My German has improved by leaps and bounds.  Frequently people will be speaking and it takes me a while to realize that, though I understand them, they are not in fact speaking English but German.  My English has also deteriorated and I often struggle to remember basic words.  And I dread when the English teacher asks me to define a word because now I just sort of nod and say "it's sort of like... you know..." because I forgot how to define it.  But all in all my exchange has been going peachy and I am not looking forward to July 25th because that means the end of the best year of my life.

A Small Tour of Germany

(10.4.11 - 10.12.11)

During the fall holiday, a result of Germany's reunification (Celebrated on October 3rd), my family enjoyed a nice little tour of southwestern Germany.  The towns on our trip were Quedlinburg, Eisnach, Neckargemünd, Speyer, Heidelberg, Neckarsteinach, Köln and Duisburg.

Some of the highlights from the trip included:
-Walking through old town Quedlinburg, a UNESCO site
-Seeing the treasures in the Quedlinburg castle/cathedral
-Spending the night in the Creuzburg Castle
-Visiting the Wartburg
-Standing in the room where Luther translated the Bible from Latin to German
-Seeing the Bach house and statue in Eisnach
-Seeing Luther's house in Eisnach
-The Eisnach Cathedral
-The Narrow House
-Spending several nights with Andrea's brother and his family in Neckargemünd (their house was gorgeous), we would make day trips from their house to other cities
-The Speyer Dom (Speyer Cathedral)
-The Crypt in the Speyer Dom
-Der Bretzel-Mann (The Pretzel Man, a statue on Speyer Dom)
-A quick trip to France for the afternoon
-Heidelberg Castle
-Giant Wine Barrel in Heidelberg
-Walking through Heidelberg
-Heidelberg Cathedral
-The castle ruins in Neckarsteinach (Mittelburg, Hinterburg and Schadeck)
-The castle ruins Eberbach
-The Upper Middle Rhine Valley (UNESCO)
-Stoping in Köln (Cologne) on the way to Duisburg
-Köln (Cologne) Cathedral
-Meeting Anna's sister (who speaks no English) and going to the SeaLife with her and Jakob

Quedlinburg Rathaus

Quedlinburg Castle

View from Quedlinburg Castle

View from my room in the Creuzburg Castle

The Wartburg

Eisnach Cathedral

Bach

Me in front of the Speyer Dom

The Crypt of Speyer Dom

Getting in touch with my inner child.

Der Bretzel-Mann

Heidelberg Cathedral

Heidelberg Castle

Giant Wine Barrel in Heidelberg Castle

In front of Köln Cathedral

After climbing up the tower

Köln Cathedral