Osterhase und das Geburtstagskind [Easterbunny and the birthday boy]

 Wow, what a great weekend I had last week! As I've mentioned before, I have two amazing friends in Germany who were exchange students in high school during my senior year. One is Julia, who lives in Leipzig (and with whom I stayed at the beginning of my trip).

Refresher: this is Julia.

The other is Edda, who studies in Kiel but is from Lüneburg, which is right outside of Hamburg. Edda's family invited me to their home for the weekend, which just happened to include Easter and my 21st birthday.

Finally reunited with Edda!

Anyway, I had an AWESOME weekend. As fun and exciting as city life is, it was so relaxing to stay in Edda's house (which is actually located in a tiny town outside of Lüneburg) with two levels, and a backyard, and a patio, etc. Edda's family was so hospitable--I really couldn't have asked for more. We spent one day touring the charming city of Lüneburg, which has population of about 70,000: so like the 120th biggest city in Germany. No really, I looked it up.  Later in the day, we stopped at a cafe and I had my second Flammkuchen [I guess we would call it a tarte flambée] in Germany: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flammkuchen Later that night, Edda and I went back into the city to meet up with two of her friends at an outdoor Kneipe overlooking the river.

 

A couple pics from the L-burg. 

 The night before Easter I drove into Hamburg with Edda to her boyfriend's house for an Osterfeuer  [Easter fire]. I would have never understood this connection between a fire and Easter if Frau Campbell had not made me do a presentation on it back in high school. Vielen Dank, Frau! I guess it's pretty common in Germany/Northern Europe to make a big bonfire on Easter. The tradition comes from the chasing off of the winter ghosts or something and welcoming warm weather. Maybe you all in Montana should have tried this a while ago?

Our Easter Fire

So Saturday night, Edda and I were at this celebration and we were up until about 1:30. Now, this wouldn't have been a big deal at all if we didn't have to attend a six a.m. church service. We slept for two hours at her boyfriend's house, got up at 3:30 (yes, I woke up on Easter Sunday at 3:30!) and drove back to Edda's house just in time to shower, get dressed and set off driving to another village for church by 5:30. I'm glad I did it though because it was really interesting to sit through a German church service that wasn't all that different from my own church back in Billings which has strong German roots itself. I did almost fall asleep though (Edda nudged me to wake me up), but I didn't feel too bad because I found out later that Edda's dad did fall asleep.

The rest of Easter Sunday was pleasant, although I did try to fit in as many cat naps as possible. We went to an Easter brunch and then drove to the Baltic Sea. Yes, the weather was warm enough to go to the beach--guess that fire worked,

With Edda's family at Easter brunch!

Soaking up the sun. BTW: See that coat? Yeah, found it for 10 Euros! Snäppchen! 

The next day was my birthday. Yep, I'm 21. Doesn't really feel any different. Edda and her dad took me into Hamburg. Hamburg is breathtakingly beautiful. I'll let these pictures I took from the top of St. Michel's church speak for themselves. 

But if I'm going to be completely honest, for most of the day it didn't really feel like my birthday. My favorite part of having a birthday is all the birthday wishes you get when you go out with friends, the calls and texts you get and the birthday cards. Facebook did a moderate job of satisfying this, but overall it just felt like another awesome day in Europe, but not my birthday. However, the evening ended splendidly because Edda's mom made my new favorite meal here: asparagus with Hollandaise sauce with a tasty raspberry-something for dessert. They even got me presents! It was nice that even if I wasn't home with my family for my birthday, I had another family to make my day extra special.

Das Einleben [settling in]

Shame on me, I know; I haven't been keeping up on my blog. But now that I'm settled in here in Potsdam, I should be able to be more active on here.

So last time I checked in, I had just spent a great weekend in Scotland. Now I write from my room at my WG in Potsdam, where it's starting to feel like home. Okay, maybe not my real home, but a home of sorts. I've had the chance to spend a lot of time with both my roommates Pit and Frederike. Some highlights include watching "Miss Congeniality" or "Miss Undercover" as it's called here, shopping at the local mall and playing a midnight game of Kniffel--the German version of Yatzee (doing math quickly in German is hard; maybe that's why I lost the game). I am so thankful everyday that I found this apartment, and I pity those international students who are living in the student dorms in Golm. I must thank the dear Martha Scheer for advising me this past fall not to live in these student dorms because they aren't really even located in Potsdam. Instead, they are on the outskirts of city in the farming community of Golm, where buses don't even run at night. It has also worked out splendidly because my room here was already furnished, and I can use all the kitchen essentials such as silverware and pans and plates that Pit and Frederike already own, which is an additional cost those students in dorms have pay.

I also had my friend Michael who just finished up a semester in Spain come to visit. We spent an afternoon exploring Berlin, which was a lot of fun. Here a few pictures from that adventure:

Brandenburg Gate

Checkpoint Charlie

One of the remaining sections of the Berlin Wall

As far as school goes (oh, yeah, almost forgot that I am studying abroad), classes finally started this week. That means with the semester just starting, I'll be in school until the end of July. But don't feel too sorry for me; I only have class two days a week. On Mondays I have a German class that focuses on grammar and vocabulary, and then on Wednesdays, I have two Russian classes back to back. One is written expression and the other one deals with oral expression. I've only been to class once, but I can tell I'm going to learn a lot. In the Russian class, we each have a computer and headset/microphone with which we have to record ourselves every class. Talk about intimidating!

Well, I think that's all I've got for you for now. I am very excited for next weekend. I'm heading to Lüneburg (near Hamburg) to stay with my friend from high school Edda and her family. It's Easter/ my birthday. That's right: Paul's turning 21! Look out, world!