Tuesday 7/27:
To finish this day, we went out to dinner at Casa Mingo with a bunch of people. Great atmosphere, bread, ham, pollo asado. Afterward, Ita and Amanda accompanied me to get gelato in Sol. Best decision ever. I got frambuesa (strawberry) and chocolate on a cone. We walked up to the Royal Palace and hung out in front of that. It was a beautiful night, it looked extraordinary lit up. At that point, I knew I wouldn't go out in Spain anymore at night so I soaked it in.
Wednesday 7/28:
I had my religious persecution presentation today in Jorge's class. It went pretty well, Kristin said it was clear. Jorge gave us a nice sendoff with it being the last day of classes, gave us his email address if we ever wanted to say hi! Charo's class went over of course. I went shopping in the afternoon for the rest of my souvenirs and gifts for people. Got a ham bocadillo from Museo de Jamon for 1 euro for lunch. Never could get sick of those. I got a jersey for myself. It's size 14 kids and I got some shorts and socks with it! I spent the evening cleaning, eating, packing, studying.
Thursday 7/29:
Got up extra early with Katie to finish preparing for our exams that day. Hung out in the cafeteria with everyone for a bit, had some pan con tomate for breakfast. Jorge's exam was solid, more confident than the midterm. There were grammar sections, completing sentences, fill in blanks. I got a 92% on my project and a 93% on my essay about the novel we read, so I probably pulled a B in the class. My conversation exam went a lot better than my midterm as well, I felt more relaxed with the more general questions. I ran back to my apartment to check out and get my deposit back from Gabriela. Everything was in good shape!
Vanessa, Kendra, Katie, Kyle, Alex and I went to Rodilla (fast food sandwich place) for lunch, then shopping in Sol. It was cool to spend my last few hours with the apartment clan. I said bye to Katie with the assurance that I'd come visit her in Chicago. The boys were great when I left with the great departing words from Alex of "Ill never see or talk to you again." :-P
I cried on the way to the airport in the metro during my last moments in Spain. Hard to believe it was over.
Friday 7/30:
I met up with Rob in Stuttgart at the airport and we made our way to the hostel. It was a struggle to find it, carrying everything uphill. We eventually found the place tucked away behind some trees over a hillside so it was difficult to see. There weren't towels so I used a t-shirt to dry off my face.
We got up for breakfast and had musli, a oat/granola type of cereal with some bread and jam, plus some awesome hazelnut chocolate, fruit, and sparkling water. We caught our train to Munich which was about 2.5 hours. We dozed during the trip. We found our hostel there really easily since it was close to the train station. We couldn't check in until 3 pm so we left our bags in the luggage room and walked around by the fountain, main strip of shops, and church. Got a 1/2 kilo of cherries from one of the many fruit stands set up and sat by a fountain near the church. Had a bratwurst on bread with sweet mustard. Best brat I've ever had. We rested for awhile after checking in, showered, then met up with Dave and Ryan for dinner. I got a 0.5 L of Weiss bier (best I've ever had) with veal meatballs over potato salad. We made our way to an outdoor garden and had a 1L Radler (half bier, half lemonade) then headed to Hofbrauhaus (the original!) and had a 1L Russen (sprite with Weiss beer) that tasted more like bubble gum. We got some pretzels at Hofbrau which were amazing.
Saturday 7/31:
We slept late to recover from the lack of sleep and the drinks from the day before. We went and bought souvenirs and shopped more, got a sandwich. We had some strawberries from a stand before Rob went lederhosen shopping and found a great deal where he got the pants, shirt, scarf, and shoes! We grabbed some sandwiches and Chai tea in the train station. Later that night we headed to Olympia Park where they had carnival games and rides, food, and stores/markets. We got some chocolate covered fruit and found a nice tea and candy shop.
Sunday 8/1:
We got up early to get to the castles! It took a 2 hour train ride and a short bus ride up the hill to get to the castles. We had tours set up beforehand (good call Rob) so we walked right up. We grabbed some lunch between castle tours. I had meatloaf and potatoes while Rob had paprika chicken. The tours were relatively quick but extremely informative. We climbed a massive hill up to the second castle, it was ridiculous. We jumped into a German tour for the second one since we were running late, but they found us the English tour. There were beautiful gifts made of ivory, great views overlooking the valley and mountains. Got ice cream before leaving, hung out at the train station for an hour with some Haribo gummy bears since we missed the previous train by a few minutes. On the train, a tour group was there with a guide who was telling stories about the kings who lived in the castles. Very cool perspectives. We grabbed some dinner at the train station before heading back to Karlsruhe, salami sandwich and a pretzel with butter. We got to Rob's apartment late Sunday night.
Monday 8/2:
Slept in and had eggs and toast for breakfast. Rob's apartment was nice, 2 other roommates with their own rooms. Kitchen, full bathroom. We walked around Karlsruhe, saw the castle, went in their mall, found a cheap France hat, got an apple struessel (so good), stopped by a veggie market and got stuff for dinner. We went to their zoo for a little while, bigger than Rob thought it would be. Stopped by the grocery store and headed home to start cooking chili! We talked to Rob's roommate Andreas for awhile. He called birth control the "anti-baby pill" which apparently most people do over there. Rob super-packed my suitcase with all of my new souvenirs and clothes to make my backpack lighter.
-In Karlsruhe, they have several forms of public transportation with the above-ground trains and buses, as well as a metro that's under construction. They have the long-distance trains as well, very easy to get around without a car.
-Their sandwiches are always different and have tons of ingredients. Always a surprise when biting into one.
-For university students, they have time over the summer to prepare on their own full-time for a set of exams in the fall. Rob's roommate committed to studying 8 hours a day.
-Struessel is more pastry-like while Streudel is more like apple pie
-German culture is very clean and pleasant. They have a proud sense of history while being confident about moving forward.
-Their food was excellent and their beer was unlike anything I have had in the states
-In Europe in general, it's typical to turn the water off during your shower to save some
-Bathrooms are called Water Closets
-Didn't really have iced tea in Europe, just canned
-People in Europe don't usually drink anything while they eat. Andreas said it's bad to drink while eating because it weakens the digestive acids in your stomach
Tuesday 8/3:
Got up early to catch a train from Karlsruhe to the airport in Frankfurt, about an hour away. I made it through security after the people checking my carry-on luggage by hand after going through the machines. I had some Doppelkek cookies with me and the lady asked me if they were for her. My flight was 9 hours from Frankfurt to Detroit and I needed to stay awake as much as possible to adjust to the time difference. So I watched 3 movies: Valentine's Day, Alice in Wonderland, and Death at a Funeral. All great in different ways, did the job of keeping me awake. My flight out of Detroit was a little late but I made it back to Cincinnati close to on-time. Mom and Kirstie greeted me with big hugs and we found an O'Charley's so I could have some chicken tenders and rolls! Great way to come back to the US.
As I adjust to reverse culture shock, I'll probably write things on here about my progress. Europe was beautiful, I can definitely consider living there at some point in my life. I definitely want to see more of Spain, and Europe in general. I've posted some pictures on Facebook to start! I'll stick a few in here along with my commentary.
It feels good to be home, but I'll never forget Spain.
