May the blogging resume! It's 12:34 AM, I can't sleep, and there's no school tomorrow because the 12th graders are taking their finals.
It's ironic how although I am here on a cultural exchange, I'm still being quite the tourist. From the time since I've last blogged till now, I've been to Hamburg, Leipzig, Dresden, Stuttgart, Bochum, and Dortmund... All of these trips are filled with unforgettable stories.
Hamburg
I traveled here with the new AFS exchange students who came in Feb. They were going to their first orientation camp, but I was just traveling with them so that a) they wouldn't get lost, and b) I could check out Hamburg by staying in the same hostel as them (because AFS has the rule that you can't overnight anywhere yourself).
Originally, a friend of mine from church was supposed to travel with me (he would be coming a day later), but he ended up getting sick and phoned me the next day, when I was already in Hamburg. He couldn't come, so I decided to tour Hamburg alone. But anyone who knows me knows that I have absolutely zero directional sense. Zip. None. Nada. So I decided that it wouldn't work out so well, and found a free tour to go with instead. Sandman's New Eruope, the touring company, was awesome. It was 3 hours of fun, fast walking, and..freezing cold. My entire face and feet were completely frozen by the end of the tour. I literally couldn't smile for my photos.
The tour group was pretty big, and the people were nice. A lot of us made friends, and I overheard a kid saying that he would be in Germany for 11 months. The first thought that came to my mind: AFS! After eavesdropping for a while, it became clear he was with AFS, and we ended up talking..about AFS of course. Since we were both alone, we decided that exchange students should stick together. And because I had no where else to go after those 3 hours, I decided to kill time with him. We toured a pretty big section of Hamburg, and everything was going great, until we decided to go to the Reeperbahn. Now, even though I'm 19, I don't drink. I just hate all alcoholic beverages--they taste like crap to me. But I still decided to go, since my host mom had told me it was worth seeing.
Long story short, this kid got wasted at the Reeperbahn. He had four different drinks plus 37% Vodka, and got pretty screwed. He seemed ok after the first 4 drinks, so I didn't even try to stop him. But when he drank the Vodka, it just didn't work. I ended up dragging him back to my hostel, and was stuck outside yelling for help until 3 AM because the camp leader gave me the wrong key to the front door. Good thing the Latin American exchange students party late. He also ended up going to the hosptial, but everything was ok the next day.
Leipzig Attempt 1
I was supposed to go to Leipzig the next day, but I overslept and missed my train because I booked it for too early in the morning. Luckily, I found a Mitfahrgelegenheit for 8 Euros down to Dresden, and decided to go there instead (my original plan was to go to the Sunday church service at the Chinese church that's friends with my church in the US, but I got there too late and it was already over).
Dresden
Dresden is freaking gorgeous. I love this city. The people are great, and the architecture is amazing. I came here to visit my host sister who studies at TU Dresden. She lives in a WG (Wohnung Gemeinschaft), or a shared apartment. My host sister is also a voluteer with AFS (she went to Turkey for a year), and she invited "her exchange student" (the one she's supposed to check in on) so that we could cook together. We made a vegetarian Auflauf (my host sister was going temporarily vegetarian). I don't know what Auflauf is in English, but it tasted pretty good :)
But good starts don't always end well, because the next day, the apartment's toilet explodes. Yep. What great luck I have. So again, I ended up touring Dresden myself, and this time, without a free tour. I somehow didn't get lost, and hit all the main attractions. Thank God for that!
And with that, I think I should go to sleep :) More in a few days (maybe tomorrow, but tomorrow I'm going to Hannover)! I will have a picture post up sometime soon, because there are too many, and uploading takes a crazy amount of time here.
Just for kicks, here's a picture of me, the Thai exchange student, and her host brother :) We went to Mardorf (near Hannover) this past weekend.
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