Dienstag + Mittwoch

We have been doing a lot of things despite all the snow and the cold weather!! I have really gotten used to public transportation and FRÜHSTÜCK :) yummmms.
Ok. Well on Tuesday I slept in until noon and then we went ice skating with her friends. It was a little funny when we were renting out skates because I couldn't out what size I was in the European sizes! The ice skating was outside and there was a lot of people there and they played European disco music and Lady Gaga and stuff. It was fun. I like all her friends. We drank Glühwein which is really hot wine. It's a Christmas time thing to do in Germany! It was good. I also taught them the word 'Zamboni'. hahaha
After that we went on the bus with all her friends and then Charlotte and I went site seeing in Chemnitz. I got to see the giant head statue of Karl Marx, the Opra house, the Museums (from the outside) and the old Church. I also saw a lot of grafiti and learned about the culture.
We went home and had dinner with the sisters and then we went out in the niiiight. hhaaha. We went to the Schauspielhaus and saw a play called 'Woyzeck!' We read the play in german class, so I knew what it was about. But it was WAAAAAY modern and they made it really abstract and added weird characters and made it sooo dramatic. When Woyzeck killed his lady friend, instead of stabbing her like in the play, he threw buckets of blood on her!!! hahah. I could not understand what they were saying and I fell asleep for a bit...ooops. haha
Later we walked through this creepy park that remembers those her were victims of Fascism. There were these really scary graves of people who died and I was freaked out in the night times and I yelled SPUKE!!!! (Ghosts)
Then we finally got to our destination to a resteraunt called 'Esperanto.' We met up with more of her friends and played games. It was so interesting because you got to order what games you wanted to play off a menu. Haaa. We played the german version of 'Sorry' which is called 'Mensch, ärgere dich nicht.'
Then we went home and went to bed!! yaaayyyy
The next day was our TRIP TO DRESDEN!!! We took a train there and it was an hour long ride. I got window seat and it was SOOO BEAUTIFUL!!!!! All the snow and the little villages and hills and forests. Oh man. I took pics, of course.
We got to Dresden and of course it is 20 degrees or colder and we were FREEZING, OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But it was ok, because all the sites were amazing. We walked through this crazy shopping area that had everything. They even had American Apparel! ha. Then we got to 'die Altstadt,' the old city. We saw 'die Frauenkirche,' which is amazing. It was bombed in WWII and they rebuilt it and it is just beautiful. We went inside, but they were having services..haha. Also, they had the traditional german 'Wiehnachtsmarkt' which is like a little market with food, Glühwien and pretty lights everywhere. There was a medieval one too, which I thought was cool. We saw all these crazy old buildings and walked along die Elbe river. We found the Dresden Snynogogue and there was a Holocoust memorial for those who died and a stone menorah monument for where the old snynogogue was destroyed. We saw the museums and the Martin Luther monument and then we got to see a giant wall with all the Dresden royalty from the past. Then we went to Zwinger, which is this giant courtyard thats really lavish and the King Johann built it. Pretty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I loved all the architecture. AP Art History peeps would've been in love. I took a lot of pictures, so I will show y'all.
We were so cold, and so we went into a Resteraunt in the train station to warm up and eat. We got celery apple soup, which was actually really good!
I slept the whole train ride. We listened to the new Ruby Suns, Dirty Projectors and Broken Social Scene on the train. :)
At home we ate pizza and got Kinder eggs with toys inside. Then we watched the Kanye West movie and hung out with the sisters. Then the rest of the night Charlotte and I played guitar and exchanged music and listened to music and talked and looked at pictures....and ate american candy.
Today we will go on another trip, but this time with all her friends to her friend Elie's village. We will get a tour of the town and the church and then go sledding. More train times! I'm excited.

Bis dann!!

Chemnitz, Saschen, Deutschland

Hello y'all! I am once again in Germany! I am so excited because instead of being stuck in the boarding school all day I get to live the way germans live and see the culture from east Germany this time. I am staying with Charlotte and her family which consists of her sister Theresa and her mom and her two other sisters, Sara and Lisa, are here for the holidays.
Ok. Well, I will first explain my trip. I got to Philadelphia without any problems. And it was Christmas, so I got chinese food at the airport for lunch! hahaha. But our plane had a million gazillion techincal difficulties, so for some reason we ended up leaving at 10 instead of 6:30. Scheisse. I found a plane buddy from Ralleigh NC named Melissa and we traveled to Leipzig together. We met these boys that were in a punk band going on tour in Europe. They hung out with us for a bit in the Philly airport.
In the Leipzig airport I called Charlotte and told her I was going to be late. :( But I got a nice lunch in the München Airport! Pizza with salami and long banana peppers!!! oooooo
So I FINALLY got to Charlotte :) We took a train to Chemnitz and then took a bus to her street.
I met all her sisters and we ate a traditional german meal that her mom made of cabbage, potatoes, and a lil beef thingy with onions rolled inside. LECKER! and I gave them the bread from Great Harvest and they gave me a book in german and it is called 'Als ich ein kleiner Junge war,' which means when i was a small boy. hehehe. We watched TV and hung out with all the sisters which was fun and reminded me of my rainey sister friends. hahaa
Today we had a realllllly good FRÜHSTÜCK (breakfast) with cheeses, bread, cold cuts, fruit, tea... but then I felt sick and slept all morning until 2. Everyone in this house is sick :(. oh well. We went to Charlotte's grandma's for her birthday. We had tea and cake and there was a lot of old people and little cousins. I had a good talk with her aunt. Then we took the U-Bahn to the middle of town and went shopping for a sec. I got a shirt from H&M! hahah then we came home and at this soup that had lentils and carrots and wurst. like german gumbo, i guess. YUM
I took a disco nap, and then we went back into the city on the bus and met up with her friends at a bar. They are all really nice and funny and wear cute scarves haaha. Then we walked all the way home in the snow.
I forgot to mention that there is SO MUCH SNOW!! More snow then I have ever seen!!! but it is very beautiful and my coat is soooo warm that it doesnt bother me. tomorrow we will go ice skating with all the buddies and then in the evening me and Charlotte will go to the Theater and see 'Woyzeck!' YAYYYYYY
I love Europe. :)

i will write again later!!!
viele liebe,

Hannah