------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am writing this post for March 30th as well--let's see how much I can remember from Friday!
On Friday, I woke up around 7am. I went online and slowly got things ready to leave. I said goodbye to my roommate. After she left, I finished packing and such. I checked out of my room around 9am. Then I met up with my 1/2 German, 1/2 American friend in the lobby. After figuring out where to store my luggage, we went downstairs for breakfast. I had: bread+salami+cheese, hibiscus tea, fruit cocktail, oats/chocolate+yogurt, bread+Nutella pack (they should have these in U.S. restaurants!!), and fruit juice (kind of like V8).
After breakfast, we then started out on our day's adventure:
1) Saw the old Opera House.
2) Main Tower: We went up to the top of the Tower (54 floors) and it was quite windy. We got to see an awesome view of the city.
3) Frankfurt's Chamber of Commerce
4) Kleinmarkthalle: This was basically a farmer's market--my brother would love it! I took a picture of a sign that said "Asia-Latino." The stand owner saw me doing this and asked me where I was from. He told me that he is from Malaysia and that he sometimes sells Filpino vegetables.
5) Convenience store: We went here to find something to drink--I got apple flavored Capri-Sonne. It tasted like liquid green apple Jolly Rancher.
7) Frankfurt's Spring Festival: We went in search of rindswurst for lunch.
8) Galleria: It was kind of like a Macy's + Whole Foods + restaurant. We went up to the 5th floor to see another view of Frankfurt.
9) Mall with a lot of escalators/walkways/ramps.
10) Zeil Galerie: There was a line of people waiting to get into Hollister! :P
11) St. Bartholomew Cathedral: I'm glad my friend was okay with us stopping to see it! (I later found out that he is Catholic, too.) While we were there, someone played the organ a little bit. I felt like I was at "home." There was something about being in a Catholic church/cathedral that comforted me. It was awesome & makes me even more excited for Easter at the Vatican!
12) We then went on an adventure to find somewhere to recycle/deposit my friend's water bottle. I learned that you get different amounts for glass, plastic, or metal bottles/cans. We went to 2 lotto stores and 2 grocery stores. My friend ended up getting 25 euro cents for returning one bottle.
13) We went back to the hostel, got my luggage, and then chilled in the lobby for a little bit, and then we went outside to the bust stop. The bus came at 4:01pm. My friend put my luggage on the bus & told the bus driver where I had to go. I thanked my friend and waved good bye. In retrospect, I probably should've asked if he had a Facebook, but I'm glad to have met him! It was great seeing Frankfurt with him since he could ask for directions in German & help translate words for me. :)
I got off the bus and went into the train station. It was way more active than I thought it would be! I made my way to a ticket kiosk. It took me a while to figure it out (I tried 2 machines), but I finally got my ticket to Marburg. The train came (before that I figured out the 1st and 2nd class notation on the train) and i was able to get a seat. A nice guy helped me carry my luggage up the stairs of the train.
I sat next to a lady who spoke to me in German at first. We didn't talk too much (because of the obvious language barrier), but she was nice and wished me a good stay in Germany. :)
I got off at the Marburg stop and found a friend of my family. We went out of the station--she stopped to buy bread, and then we took a taxi (Mercedes!) to the place where I was going to stay for the weekend. I got settled in and had some snacks: bread+butter, hard boiled Easter egg, water, strawberries+yogurt. Speaking of yogurt, when I was at the hostel, I discovered that I didn't like German yogurt too much since I'm used to sweeter yogurt in America.
That night, we went to a Persian/International cultural event. I met some new people there and ate some good Persian food. There was poetry, music, and dancing. Included were Persian, Peruvian, German Catholic dances and the rumba. There was also a duo that played music. They were very inspirational. One plays the violin & the other plays the drum--both of them are blind. They play with a lot of heart and enthusiasm, and it is wonderful to hear!
We went back to the place where I was staying at and had some tea. That night, I think I finally admitted that I am allergic to cats (the cat that lives there wasn't there that weekend though)--thankfully loratadine came to the rescue! :) I was attempted to watch TV...I say attempted because all of the channels that I came across were in German. While I was flipping through the channels, I found "South Park" dubbed in German, and continued to change it because I don't watch that show in English anyway. I found MTV--which had "Jersey Shore" dubbed in German. Hilarious. I watched a couple minutes of that, and the show that was after was a concert show that was in English! :) It was nice to hear something that I could understand. Then I got ready for bed and then listened to choir recordings while looking through pictures.
Today, I got ready for the day in Marburg. For breakfast, I had bread+Nutella!, strawberries, tea, and a hard boiled Easter egg. Our family friend came and then we went grocery shopping. We dropped the groceries off at the apartment and then went out around the town. We went to the restaurant where her daughter works so that I could leave my laptop there to use later tonight. I also got to get a view of the city from the balcony.
Then we walked through the town--I saw a brush shop, pottery shop, among other stores. We also went in to St. Elizabeth's Protestant church.
Then we went to lunch at a little pizzeria that is owned by the husband of one of her friends. I had Hawaiian pizza and a Coke. It was kind of cool to her German + Italian + Filipino + English going on. It was actually a comfort to hear people speaking Filipino! 
After lunch, we bought some postcards, went to Paperworld, and then went to the local copy store (similar to Kinko's) for the going away get together since the owners are leaving. I'm not sure if there are German names for the food that I tried (I guess I could call it bruschetta), but this is what I had: bread+butter+cheese+tomato, and bread+butter+smoked ham+red pepper. I met some people there, including someone who speaks English really well. :)
We went back to the restaurant and I got internet access! :) I Facebooked (added pictures) and worked on my blog. Then we had dinner--I had gnocchi+pork+tomato+cheese. It was delicious!
At dinner, when we were talking and looking at pictures, I started missing home. I am now listening to choir recordings (including "Stand by Me") because I miss home. I'm okay now, but it hit me that I'm not going to be with them for a while.
I uploaded pics from my camera and am finally caught up with my journal. Hopefully I can work more on my pics/blog tomorrow...or rather, later today. I'm meeting with our family friend tomorrow for church. Now, I will listen to a little more music and go to sleep.
Side note(s): I also miss driving! At dinner, she asked me if I would move to Germany. My response: probably not. I love the area where I live too much! It is also very slow moving around here & it's very overcast most days...I need sunlight! I also miss smiling at people in stores and such...and getting a smile in return. I don't mean smiling in a creepy way, but just a friendly smile that acknowledges one's presence. It reminds me of a quote that is somewhere along the lines of: "Smile!...you never know--that could be the only smile that person sees today." I've seen more Fords since Wednesday. :) Focus, Fiesta, and saw my first Mondeo today! Alright, nighty night.
Peace. Love. Happiness.
--TR
No comments:
Post a Comment