recap on the queen of spain, and annie goes to germany!
So, I meant to explain in further detail about meeting the queen, and then I totally forgot in the excitement of having Erin around. So I’ll do it now!
For our program here we have a bunch of required visits that we have to do, that are generally pretty boring. This was one of those visits, we had to visit the Congress building and just walk around it. So we wander aimlessly around the building for about an hour, listening to a guide who talks way too fast for us to understand. When its over, we leave, go outside, and see a big tent and lots of guards dressed in their traditional clothes, complete with neon pink feathers in their humongous hats. So we wander over to it, and lo and behold, it’s the Queen of Spain, holding a fundraiser for the Red Cross. If you donate any amount of money, even like five cents, she will shake your hand and give you a little Red Cross pin (it’s a little white flag with the red cross on it). So obviously we all get excited and do it. It happened really fast and I didn’t even really realize until after I was done shaking her hand and was being ushered away by a man wearing pink feathers that I had actually just met Reina Sofia. It was pretty awesome, and I feel really lucky, because I know that lots of people in Spain would love to meet her, and I just kind of happened upon her.
On another note, this past Wednesday I went to Germany to visit my friend Ariel. She is studying in Erlangen, which is a bit outside Nuremburg. It was a ton of fun. I was only there two full days, but we managed to pack a ton in. Erlangen is a really nice small city, and it was gorgeous there, because unlike Spain, Germany does in fact experience fall. All the leaves were yellow and orange, and the weather was cold and brisk; it felt so nice.
Thursday we wandered around Erlangen and then went to Nuremberg for the afternoon, with another guy I met through the JSO, named Danny. It’s a cool city, it gets very into Christmas, so decorations were already going up. It was fun to see. We climbed to the top of a huge hill to an old castle to overlook the whole city, and it was pretty amazing. That night we went to a bar and I met a bunch of the other K kids who are in Germany. The beer was really good in Erlangen, and it was all really huge. Apparently the average size of a beer in Germany is half a liter…that’s a lot! I was sooo full, but I had to do it.
The next day we woke up early and took a 3 hour train to Munich, where we spent most of the day. It was a great city, and I was so happy that we got to go. I was afraid we wouldn’t have time since I was only there for two days, but it actually worked out perfectly. We wandered around the old city, saw lots of sights, and, in keeping with the tradition I seem to be creating on study abroad, climbed yet another incredibly steep staircase to the top of a steeple to over look all of Munich, which was even more impressive than the view of Nuremberg.
When we came home Ariel cooked me a delicious meal of basil tofu stir-fry with zucchini, greenbeans, carrots and green pepper! It was sooo good, and it was so nice to eat something that wasn’t fried and pig.
I feel like I got to know Ariel a ton better, which is awesome too! I cant wait to get back to K and hang out with her outside the JSO more. And I think she’s pondering visiting me in Madrid now, sometime in January, which I really hope she can work out, because I think it would be a ton of fun.
It was a really quick trip, but it was a blast! It felt so good to get out of Spain, finally. I’ve been feeling a bit cornered in, so it was a breath of fresh air, literally. I will post pictures soon at www.flickr.com/photos/anniemb so check that out, too! And I’m still working on that Google webpage, I just never have strong enough internet to really spend much time on it, but we shall see.
For our program here we have a bunch of required visits that we have to do, that are generally pretty boring. This was one of those visits, we had to visit the Congress building and just walk around it. So we wander aimlessly around the building for about an hour, listening to a guide who talks way too fast for us to understand. When its over, we leave, go outside, and see a big tent and lots of guards dressed in their traditional clothes, complete with neon pink feathers in their humongous hats. So we wander over to it, and lo and behold, it’s the Queen of Spain, holding a fundraiser for the Red Cross. If you donate any amount of money, even like five cents, she will shake your hand and give you a little Red Cross pin (it’s a little white flag with the red cross on it). So obviously we all get excited and do it. It happened really fast and I didn’t even really realize until after I was done shaking her hand and was being ushered away by a man wearing pink feathers that I had actually just met Reina Sofia. It was pretty awesome, and I feel really lucky, because I know that lots of people in Spain would love to meet her, and I just kind of happened upon her.
On another note, this past Wednesday I went to Germany to visit my friend Ariel. She is studying in Erlangen, which is a bit outside Nuremburg. It was a ton of fun. I was only there two full days, but we managed to pack a ton in. Erlangen is a really nice small city, and it was gorgeous there, because unlike Spain, Germany does in fact experience fall. All the leaves were yellow and orange, and the weather was cold and brisk; it felt so nice.
Thursday we wandered around Erlangen and then went to Nuremberg for the afternoon, with another guy I met through the JSO, named Danny. It’s a cool city, it gets very into Christmas, so decorations were already going up. It was fun to see. We climbed to the top of a huge hill to an old castle to overlook the whole city, and it was pretty amazing. That night we went to a bar and I met a bunch of the other K kids who are in Germany. The beer was really good in Erlangen, and it was all really huge. Apparently the average size of a beer in Germany is half a liter…that’s a lot! I was sooo full, but I had to do it.
The next day we woke up early and took a 3 hour train to Munich, where we spent most of the day. It was a great city, and I was so happy that we got to go. I was afraid we wouldn’t have time since I was only there for two days, but it actually worked out perfectly. We wandered around the old city, saw lots of sights, and, in keeping with the tradition I seem to be creating on study abroad, climbed yet another incredibly steep staircase to the top of a steeple to over look all of Munich, which was even more impressive than the view of Nuremberg.
When we came home Ariel cooked me a delicious meal of basil tofu stir-fry with zucchini, greenbeans, carrots and green pepper! It was sooo good, and it was so nice to eat something that wasn’t fried and pig.
I feel like I got to know Ariel a ton better, which is awesome too! I cant wait to get back to K and hang out with her outside the JSO more. And I think she’s pondering visiting me in Madrid now, sometime in January, which I really hope she can work out, because I think it would be a ton of fun.
It was a really quick trip, but it was a blast! It felt so good to get out of Spain, finally. I’ve been feeling a bit cornered in, so it was a breath of fresh air, literally. I will post pictures soon at www.flickr.com/photos/anniemb so check that out, too! And I’m still working on that Google webpage, I just never have strong enough internet to really spend much time on it, but we shall see.
posted by anniegoestospain @ 2:34 PM
1 Comments:
At 8:48 PM,
Unknown said…
Eliot was here
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