Monday, August 18, 2014

Why I Needed This Year, Or the Year in Review

Dearest followers,

First, I'm sorry I haven't been posting!

I've been enjoying vacationing and (not so much enjoying) moving out to grad school.  I'm all settled into my apartment and meeting all kinds of new people at orientation for graduate teaching assistants.

Don't worry, friends! The Blog will continue to roll out while I'm in grad school - I can't help it!  I love sharing and I think, I hope you like reading it.

So...onto the year in review...

This post has been sitting for a long time in my Drafts folder.  Mostly because it's incredibly personal and mostly because I knew that this type of post needed to be released as my year in Chemnitz drew to a close. I've written and rewritten this post - mentally and physically - so many times and I've seriously debated whether or not to post it.

Because this post is actually more for me than for you, dear readers.  And it's a lot more serious and personal than a lot of the things I write.  But then I remembered that this blog isn't just for your amusement (although I confess, I do amuse myself while writing it), but also for me as a record of my time abroad.

My last letter to Tübingen was partially honest - the feelings in the post were (and still are) 100% true, but, in hindsight, the depth of emotion in the post lacks honesty.

So, this last letter to Chemnitz will strive to be as unabashedly honest as possible.

Anyway, here we go:

Right before graduation, one of my professors asked me if I was "happy" with all of post-grad decisions.

I lied.

I said I was happy, when in fact, I was deeply miserable.


Simply put, I did not want to accept to the Fulbright.


The long answer goes a bit like this:

I had applied for the Fulbright award in the late fall of my senior year.  It was a strange time in my life.

Although can remember certain events and conversations of senior year, most of the year is a blur of terrible.

 It was/is, to date, the worst year of my life.

And mostly, my Tübingen year is to blame for it.

Despite the fact that if I had the choice again, I would choose Tübingen again in a heartbeat, the time I spent in Germany majorly screwed up my senior year for many reasons:

 1) I had to take a heavy course loads with difficult classes (many of which requiring thesis papers of some sort), which were all required courses I need to graduate.

2) My year abroad meant I had to work harder and better in all my classes - I had gotten used to the easy (if not lazy) pace of university in Germany.

3) I overcommitted myself to 4 jobs plus my school work, deluding myself into forgetting about the pace of American universities by the pace of Tübingen courses (with their glorious no homework status).

4) Oh, and I had two weeks to recover from the culture shock from a full year abroad before starting the Merry-Go-Round of Death that was my senior year.

Add to this a healthy dose of worrying about the future, existential crises about what exactly I wanted to do with my job, trying to keep in touch with friends whom I hadn't seen a year, miserable all-nighters, forgetting to eat and sleep, and the struggle to "re-learn" academic English and you have the perfect brew for a shitty, shitty year.

The fall semester was definitely worse:  I remember being home alone at the apartment after class, making dinner, and I was so tired, I accidentally dropped a glass and it shattered.

Usually this would warrant some swears, but while cleaning it up, I found myself violently sobbing because I was so tired and I had to so much work to do, which I knew would have me working until 2 or 3 am before I had to wake up at 5am to get ready to teach 6th graders German AND THIS BROKEN GLASS WAS REALLY INCONVENIENT AND TAKING UP PRECIOUS TIME THAT I DIDN'T HAVE.

I was basically one missed deadline away from a full mental breakdown.

(Of course, only in hindsight, I am realizing now how miserable I was then.)

It shouldn't come as a shock then, I was trying my hardest to get accepted to program that would send me back to Germany, where life was easier, less stressful, and filled with full meals and proper hours of sleep.  I also hoped that year teaching abroad would shed some clarity on the decision which I had basically already made: that I didn't want to go to law school, but that I wanted to be an English teacher.

So I applied with optimism to Fulbright, knowing that I might not get an answer until April or May.

And I got sucked into life, work, tests, and other applications.

And my year slowly got better as I readjusted to American life, my old social life, the pace of college classes, and the English language in general.

As I became more certain that I wanted to continue studying English literature and as my acceptance letters started rolling in, I forgot about Fulbright as I started making grad school plans.

I was happily envisaging my future at grad school with Pinterest-cute apartment, an adorable beater car, and a little pug who would sit on my lap as I pondered all things literary whilst sipping tea with my newly found grad school friends, who would all be perfectly nice, intelligent, and laugh at all my jokes.

(Although the car and the pug didn't come true, I hope the adorable apartment and awesome will be true.)

I was finally used to American life again and I was ready for grad school.

And then I found out about the Fulbright.

While other people I knew were squealing and jumping up and down about receiving their Fulbright awards, I felt miserable.

While other people were shedding tears of joy that first week, I spent that time trying not to have a panic attack or burst into tears during class.  The Fulbright was a bomb thrown into my best made plans and I felt guilty - knowing that some people who I thought were better candidates than me did not receive them.  I also felt guilty knowing that although I love the German language, it is not in my plan for the future as teacher or a scholar (sorry German professors everywhere), and I knew I would be joining a group of people for whom German was their prime passion.

And knowing that I should be feeling happier or as some people told me: grateful, honored, special; (because once an official organization said I worth paying attention to, people also started to tell me how to feel and think about it),

It all just made me more miserable.

But I knew I also couldn't say no to a Fulbright.  I tried to recall all the feelings that made my initial application so passionate, but I was having difficulty summoning them.

I spent the summer relaxing with friends and working at my job, trying to stave off the panic attacks about being abroad.

This whole mess, in hindsight, I realize, was good for me.  (Which either proves that I'm quite self-aware or a masochist or both.)

Although I was reluctant and nervous about this year in Chemnitz, this was the year I needed for many reasons.

I didn't need this year for career reasons or resume building reasons, which is what I hear from some other Fulbrighters.  I didn't need this year because I wanted to help little kids or because I wanted to see the world, although I enjoyed doing both.

As it turns out, I need this year for myself.

What I've learned this year:

1) Best-Laid Plans

I'm a compulsive list-maker, planner, and worrier.  I like having a plan and following it.  I learned the first time in Germany that I can let parts go and leave things unplanned.  That's what makes life (and traveling, especially) fun.

But for me, there always has to be an end goal, whether its a tangible outcome ("I've seen this" or  "I've done this") or more of an emotional one ("This made me happy").

The thing that stressed me about college was that my plans and goals never matched up with reality.

It's not that I wasn't successful or happy in college!  I was extremely so, even during the Year From Hell.  It's that the plans I had imagined for myself never happened and I had to let them go.

I had imagined I would graduate as an English and Political Science major - I ended up with English and German.

I had imagined I would study abroad for a semester in England - I ended up studying abroad for a year in Germany.

I had imagined I would go to law school and became a fabulous attorney with a closet full of expensive heels and handbags - I am now prepping to teach Freshmen introductory composition and my closet has lots of teacher clothes.

You get the gist.

I now realize that although having plans and goals are important parts of life, I have to accept that my reality is way cooler than any plans for the future I could have imagined.

So I'm refusing to box myself in during grad school -  I know I enjoy teaching, thinking about literature, and writing about things with a modicum of sarcasm.

I might end up working on a Ph.D.
or I might become a travel writer
or I might become a high school English teacher
or I might become a movie/book/TV show reviewer
or I might end up doing what I've always wanted to do:that is, become a romance novelist.

Or I might end up doing something that I could never have imagined doing.


2) The Simple and Honest No

Part of the problem of my senior year is that I overcommitted myself.  I couldn't say "no" to people when I really needed to for my own sanity.


For clarity, here's an example from 
one of my favorite movies, 27 Dresses
starring the adorable James Marsden.

This year in Chemnitz has taught me how to say "no", an essential skill for adulthood.

Adulthood is terrifying what with the newfound independence, paying bills, the fear of failure, having to do your own laundry, expectations of maturity and rationality, paying more bills, and doing more laundry.

Terrifying stuff, truly.

But the best thing about being an adult is the freedom to choose.

Yes, for the first time in your life you can really choose what you want and don't want to do!

Hopefully, you'll be saying "yes" to new, fun experiences, but you also have to know how to say "no" to people sometimes.

The best thing about living in Germany is that you can say "no" to people simply.

Culturally in America if you have to say "no" to someone (whether it's a genuine or disingenuous "no"), you usually have to come up with an excuse.  You have to counter-offer with something if you have to reject someone ("Sorry I can't volunteer this week, but I can I come some time next week?" or "I've seen this movie already, maybe we can watch this one?").  We are even culturally allowed time to waffle with a "maybe" on committing ourselves until we can summon up a good excuse to say "no".

Germans, on the other hand, expect honesty and commitment when they ask you do something.  To waffle or go back on your word is the height of rudeness and it shows a weakness of character.  You can say "no" without excuse (if the situation calls for it) and it will be appreciated.

At my school, it was critical, because I was the only English Teaching Assistant and it only takes a few extra requests to swamp my schedule.

Here's an example:

Teacher:  "Hannah, I know you usually don't come in first period, but my class is watching a movie and if you wanted you could come and do a discussion for ten minutes after the movie ends."

Me (thinking): Ummm that's a big no. I could be sleeping, lesson planning, getting errands done, doing laundry, etc.

If I was in America, I would have to come up with an excuse to say no.  And if  I know the excuse is weak before I open my mouth (like the one above), I know I will have to say yes.

In Germany, I can just say: "I don't really think I can come in" with no further explanation and the teacher is not offended.  They might be disappointed, but they aren't offended.

Although I still find myself making counter-offers (even when I don't want to), I have learned to say "no" and, guess what?!  Life is so much better and less stressful.


3) Me, Myself, and I

One the big fears that reduced me to panic about heading off to Germany again was the fact that I was going to be all alone.

I'm an extrovert.

I'm used to being with friends and family, having an entourage, rolling with a posse...

Okay, yes, I enjoy having some time alone, but I prefer being with other people.

And the idea of being alone in a foreign country was more than little terrifying.  My time in Tübingen got me over my fears of being away from home and surviving in a foreign country, but I had a close group of friends (who became like brothers and sisters to me) there.

And although I have many friends and housemates here in Chemnitz, I spent a good percentage of my week (when I'm not in class) by myself.  Alone.

This was the thing that I was most worried about.

And surprisingly... I really liked it!

Spending time alone throws you into a quiet space with just you and yourself.

And I'm a firm believer in the oft quoted Oscar Wilde quip: "To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long love affair".

And although this love affair with myself has never really faltered, getting to spend more time with myself and my thoughts has let me become more self-reflective....which leads me to...

4)  Get Your Teach On

I love teaching.  I really do.

I could gush on ad nauseam about how much I like teaching with all kinds of anecdotes.

But suffice it to say: I now know what I began to suspect senior year - Teaching is what I should be doing.  What level and what kind of teaching, only time will tell.

To wrap this long, emotional post - if I was asked again: "Am I happy?", or rather, "Was I happy in Chemnitz?"

The answer is an unequivocal YES.

I also want to say thank you to the teachers and friends I made this past year in Chemnitz, who made my year so amazing.

I'm looking forward to the next big adventure in grad school!

Lots of Love,
Your Humble Blogger

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Home Sweet Home

Dearest Followers,

Wanted to let you know that I arrived, safe and sound, back on American soil about two weeks ago!

The jet lag knocked me outta commission for a few days...

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And the 4am  jetlag-induced-wakeups were unpleasant...

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"Well now that I'm awake, I guess I'll just play Candy Crush on my phone
 until the sun comes up."

But I'm back!

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I celebrated the 4th of July in style with my extended family in Cincinnati, which included hot dogs hamburgers, sparklers, and the time-honored tradition of throwing snappers at other people.

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I also drove out to Kansas to find a new apartment for my grad school livin', hence forth to be referred to as "starving gracefully".  (And as my Grandma reminded me, if I ever need money, selling organs is always an option. My kidney to the highest bidder!)  After days of searching, we eventually found an adorable one bedroom with a balcony within walking distance of campus!  So now I have a place to live!

I also got my grad school reading list and desk copies for the classes I'm teaching.

LIKE A REAL GROWN-UP AND EVERYTHING.

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It's the little things, people.
I'm wrapping up July with the glorious annual celebration of my birth (woohoo!) and more various family vacations.

Unfortunately, I might not have steady internet access while I'm traveling, so my posts will be sporadic. But I still owe you guys two more posts - FAQ and the End of the Chemnitz Year Review - so keep checkin' the blog and the Facebook page.

Lots of Love,
Your Humble Blogger

PS. For inquiring minds...part of my summer reading stack...

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Sunday, June 15, 2014

Finally!

Dearest Followers,

Sorry I've been away for so long!  The school year is winding down, but the craziness is not.  Anyway, I'm going to do a little recap of my life so far...

World Cup Update: Since I know very little about "football", I'm making predictions blindly, à la Paul the Octopus.  So far, at the time of posting, I'm 4 for 6 (alas, I picked Uruguay over Costa Rica and England over Italy).  David said that my results are not statistically significant, but what would he know, he's just a physics major.  I hope you guys are enjoying the World Cup too!

Anyway....

Thüringen Adventure!

Before I got bronchitis, but shortly after the disastrous haircut (which is now growing out nicely), Cathy and I decided to visit Chelsea in Erfurt, which is in Saxony's sister state, Thuringia, which is easier to say in German than in English.

Erfurt is the capital of Thuringia and not too far from the city of Weimar (which is the only place that matters to German majors other than Wittenberg and Berlin).  Erfurt is really adorable and it reminded me a lot Tübingen - and by that, I mean, it looks like a stereotypical image of Germany unlike the rebuilt parts of the East.

Random tidbit: Erfurt is also where lots of children's shows from the German kid's channel Ki.Ka are filmed and produced, so they have statues of figures everywhere. Including my favorites from Sendung Mit der Maus (my favorite character is Elefant) as well as Bernd das Brot (yes, "Bernd the piece of bread"), who is literally the most terrifying kids' show character.

And I've seen lots of terrible kids' programming.

(If you really want to be terrified, watch this episode of Bernd and then take a moment to think about the fact that this plays on a loop starting at 9pm until about 7am on Ki.Ka.  Also the amount of blatant copyright infringement in this video is hilarious.)

Anyway, we toured Erfurt with Chelsea...

St. Mary's Cathedral and St. Severus' Church


A view to the Altstadt

Inside St. Mary's

Germans love them some plaques:
This one commemorates Pope
Benedict's visit in 2011.

The famous Krämerbrücke, which features half-timbered
houses, where people still live, but it also functions as a bridge
with passages you can walk through.

Graffiti

Germans LOVE plaques, especially when Goethe or Schiller
are involved,  but this one takes the cake:

"Schiller and Goethe walked into this house
and then walked back out."

According to the local legend, the dynamic duo were
on their way to a city function and got lost.  Therefore,
plaque for the building they mistook for the one they wanted.


Downtown Erfurt has many gorgeous old
facades.
We got the first taste of summer in Erfurt!

We stopped for ice cream after our hike up and down from
the cathedral.  (Photo Credit to Cathy!)
After a fun afternoon in the city, we headed to Chelsea's apartment, which is just lovely and quite homey.  We did our best to experiment with making curry. I think it turned out pretty tasty for a newbie attempt!

Cathy and Yours Truly, looking a little more fluffy than usual.
(Photo Credit: Chelsea)
The next day, we headed back to Saxony, but not before we took a little day trip to Weimar.  Weimar is famous for being the cultural and intellectual hub of Germany during the 18th and 19th century.  Lots of famous writers, poets, philosophers, and composers made Weimar their home and then contributed to world culture (and the suffering of German majors everywhere).  It is also infamous for being the home of the short lived and terrible attempt at government between WWI and WWII.

The city is adorable and very walkable, so we enjoyed the first moments of summer during our day trip. We didn't go into any museums, so I can't tell you German Lit lovers what there is to offer, but here's a statue of the famous bros in Germany...

I like how Goethe has his hand protectively
over Schiller, as if to say, "I like him,
even though he's poor".


My favorite part was by far our little walk through the enormous park in the city.  We walked to Goethe's summer home, which really wasn't that far from Goethe's actual home...




And then we stopped for a photo shoot in the space underneath one of the bridges!


Chelsea!
(Photo Credit: Cathy)
Hey hey.
The ride back home was eventful - in short, I fought the Deutsche Bahn and the Deutsche Bahn won. 

And I had to cough up 40 Euros for apparently Schwarzfahring (riding the train illegally without a ticket) even though I had one. (It's a long story and it makes me angry just thinking about it.)

 If there was a moment where I regretted not playing the "stupid American" card, it was that one.

But all in all, Erfurt and Weimar are both charming cities and I really enjoyed seeing them.  I wish I could have stayed longer and seen more of Thuringia, aka "The Green Heart of Germany".

Bautzen Day Trip

One weekend, the group of us decided to head out to some little cities near to Dresden.  We had planned to visit Meißen (yes, the blue and white plates) as well, but the weather was cold and miserable, so we had to content ourselves with just a trip to Bautzen.

Bautzen is a charming little city, but it has a complicated past.

Part of the city was used as sub-camp of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp during the Nazi era. The city's prison was converted during the Soviet era as a prison for "prisoners of conscience", which also included Nazi members.

On the other hand, Bautzen is also the cultural hub of the Sorbs, ethnic Western Slavs who have lived in Germany since Bronze Age.  The Sorbs are one of the specifically named protected minority groups in the German constitution.  Interestingly, during WWII, the Nazis regarded the Sorbs as "true Germans" and sought to bring them into the Nazi fold.

We visited the Sorbian museum while we were there.  We learned about the history and cultural of the Sorbs, including music and clothing.  We also got to try our hand at reading and speaking some Sorbian, which was a lot of fun!  One of the exhibits detailed how the schools in Bautzen and the surrounding area are bilingual schools in order to preserve Sorbian.

Anyway, here are the pictures!
The Reichenturm, Germany's leaning tower.

A water tower behind the ruins of
a bombed out church.

The "witch's house".

My posse.
From left to right: Doria, Philip, David, and Chelsea

No comment.

Flowers in bloom!


Detailing on an old building.

Philip's Going Away Party!

All good things must come to an end, and Philip was leaving Germany before us.

Since we had been crashing at Philip's for a lot of our weekend adventures, it was only right that we join in for a final celebration.  Despite the drizzle, we had a little grill-out with Philip's host family/landlords, who are adorable, yet stereotypically German in their party throwing ways...which means they tried to drink us all under the table.

The favorite line of the night came when Herr Hoffman tried to ply Melody with more whiskey, which she tried to turn down gently by saying she couldn't drink anymore. The response: "Mach's nichts" ("That doesn't matter").

Huzzah for German Gastgabers!

All of us, before the food and the
copious amounts of drinks.

Prague Adventure!

At the end of May, I also had to say goodbye to two other teaching assistants. One was Virginie, the French assistant my school and my ice cream buddy. The other was Sarika, one of the British assistants, who worked in Stollberg.

As a last hurrah before Sarika left for London, we decided that we should go to Prague, since Sarika had never been!  We only had a day to see the city, so we booked it out of Chemnitz early to catch our bus in Dresden and we found ourselves in Prague around noon!  It was a warm, summery day and luckily, there weren't too many tourists.

If Vienna was my city of choice from Tübingen year, then Prague is my new favorite.

Just look at this city!

St. Charles Bridge

Old Town Square

The summer sky

There was also a festival in the square celebrating
minority ethnic groups in the Czech Republic.



We spent the day wandering around the city and doing some shopping.  Sarika bought a gorgeous pair of garnet earrings for less than 30 Euros! I managed to snag a Mucha poster for my future kitchen in the US. We also snapped up some cheap tickets to see Swan Lake in the evening. We ate some lunch at this great Italian place and we soaked up the summer sun while we had our Kaffee und Kuchen (the Germans have trained us well).

Of course, Murphy's Law had to apply to our trip, because everything was going so well (and because it's my life, the comedy of errors that it is), Sarika discovered when we got to the theater that she had lost her camera!  

After frantically searching through her purse multiple times, while at the same time trying to kindly refuse handouts from the singing Hare Krishnas (Which, not to slight any Hare Krishna readers, is actually still a thing?!). We then realized, to our dread, that most of shops were being to close by then, even if we could remember all the places we had gone.  

We sadly resigned ourselves to getting in line for our seats to the ballet.   As we stood in line, the ticket manager came up and asked if the camera in his hand was in fact one of our cameras! (Good thing I had taken a picture of Sarika on the St. Charles Bridge with her camera earlier that day!) Yippee! So thank you, ticket manager of the ballet - you're awesome!

We then went into the showing of Swan Lake, which was lovely, and we left the theater the sun was just started to set, even though it was about 9pm!  Don't you just love summer?



Pretend the tram lines aren't there.


We hiked up to the castle as the sun started to set and got some great views of the city, as well as got to see the castle and the cathedral with only a few tourists there!  So that's my pro tip for tourists going to Prague: go see the castle when everyone else is eating dinner.




Sarika!

Selfie!
Our journey home was eventful! We had to struggle through waking up at 6am for our early morning bus.  But the real struggle began when we left the hostel to catch the metro to the bus depot!  I only had paper korunas on me and Sarika had nothing but a 10 koruna coin.  The tickets were 24 korunas each (which for those of you playing at home, is about $1.18) but there were no machines there or shops open to break my 100 koruna note.  

We stood in the abandoned metro for while, deliberating our moral quandary:  if we walked back to the hostel to get change, we would miss the only bus heading back to Dresden on Sunday, meaning we would have to pay for another bus ride, another hostel night, and I would miss school on Monday morning.

So...we illegally re-stamped our old metro tickets, whilst planning the whole time, in hushed voices, to play to stupid English speaker card.  

It was the most nerve-wracking 15 minute metro ride of my life. Although we made it just in the nick of time onto the bus, I now know that I would: a) make a terrible criminal and b) that if I was going to commit a crime, I shouldn't do it with Sarika, who is plagued with the same guilty conscience that I am.

Oh, and when we crossed over the border into Germany, the bus got pulled over by border control and they came onboard to check all of our passports (thankfully they weren't looking for metro turnstile jumpers!), which was fun.  Good thing we both had remembered to bring ours with us!

By the time we got to Dresden, we were ready for breakfast (and some coffee).  All in all, despite the minor illegal infraction towards the end, our Prague adventure was a success!

Emma and Sophia's Visit
(Unless noted, all photos below are Sophia's!)

This past weekend, two Fulbrighters stationed near Düsseldorf, Emma and Sophia, came to visit! Emma was my first Fulbright friend - we shared a hostel room in Köln - and we both met Sophia one evening during orientation.

We met up in Leipzig on Saturday morning!  Interestingly, we in Leipzig for the annual Wave-Gothik-Treffen, which as the name suggests is a huge goth music festival.  Some of the outfits were typical goth fare, all black with lots of chains and piercings, but others were elaborate and even gorgeous historical costumes, ranging from medieval to Victorian to fantastical steampunk.

Nevertheless, last weekend was not a good time to be dressed in all black or with lots of layers and petticoats!  It was gorgeous, sunny, and hot on Saturday.  Emma and Sophia had already toured the city a bit, so we banded together with Claire and friend of Claire's, Lilah, who was also visiting Leipzig, and we headed off to one of Leipzig's parks.  We hung out, ate ice cream, and played some badminton and frisbee.

We packed up reluctantly in the late afternoon to head back to Chemnitz.  We did the Saturday evening-before-a-long-holiday-weekend-shuffle at the grocery store and filled up the fridge.  I took my East-side newbies out for dinner and beer at the Turmbrauhaus by the Chemnitz Rathaus.

Emma and Sophia with their Chemnitz beer!
The next day, we leisurely ate breakfast, packed a lunch, and headed off to Dresden!  Little did we know that we would be wandering around the city on the record-breaking hottest Pentecost weekend in Germany.  The train we took to Dresden had no air-conditioning, which was hellish and sweaty, but Deutsche Bahn got their act together for the rest of weekend and began using their double-decker, air conditioned trains for all the regional trains.  It was around 97 degrees during the hottest part of the day and most of our sightseeing centered around finding shade, water, and ice cream!

First Fulbright friends!
Note: In the shade.

A public drinking fountain?
In Germany?
Whaaaaa?
(Needless to say, we all filled up.)
We also made it across the river to the Dresden Neustadt, which is the unrepentantly hip, cool, and hipster part of Dresden.  We sought out the Kunsthofpassagen which is a series of interconnected courtyards that house speciality shops and cafes.  Each courtyard has its own theme, such as animals or the four elements.  It was a shame that it was Sunday and the shops were closed, but probably a good thing for my bank account!



The gutters move the water down into the
courtyard through the musically themed
pipes!


I think you can figure it out
without me translating!
We ended our day back in Chemnitz for some last photoshoots!

We visited the penguins...

And Karl.
Also Karl has got his Germany spirit going on!
On Monday, which was another holiday, Emma headed off to Prague to visit a friend, while Sophia and I headed up into the Sächsische Schweiz (Saxon Switzerland) to see the Königstein Fortress.

Thanks Wikipedia!
We took the train to the city of Königstein and then a bus and a tiny train (think Disneyland ride) up to the mountain and the fortress.  The castle itself, as you can see, is hewn from the rock and built on top of the plateau.  We took an elevator up to get to the wall and the buildings.  We walked around the wall and got some lovely photos of the surrounding area!





(Photo Credit: Me)
(Photo Credit: Me)
(Photo Credit: Me)
Königstein is also home to the second deepest well in Germany (factoid for your day, right there), which we got to see in action.  Sophia also had fun trying to listen to the thick Sächsisch accent the well operator spoke with.  After we wandered around and saw the exhibits, we headed back down the mountain to the city of Königstein for an ice cream break (a common trend in this post) and then back to Chemnitz.

Although Emma and Sophia weren't here long, I hope they got a feel for the "ostalgie" and East Germany!  I enjoyed having them over!

Well guys...I think I covered everything! 

I've only got two weeks left, so if you have a question about life in Germany, send me an email!

Lots of Love,
Your Humble Blogger

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