Holidays in Deutschland und Amsterdam

So this post is three weeks overdue (whoops), but here are some pictures of winter/Christmas time in Hamburg and of New Years in Amsterdam! I hope these hold you over until I manage to write another post. Enjoy!

Holidays in Hamburg

Holidays in Amsterdam

Updates

It's been awhile since I've posted anything on here and for that I apologize. A lot has happened in the two and a half months I've been living in Hamburg. I've grown and learned so much, not just in my German language abilities, but also as a person. For all intents and purposes I stared my life over from scratch last November, more completely than if I had gone directly to college, and I'm still figuring out how to deal with that. I go to class five days a week, spend some times with friends, spend more time relaxing by myself, and don't spend as much time exploring Hamburg as I want to. In some ways it sounds a lot like how I lived back in America, but on the other hand, it's completely different. I spend four hours, five days a week speaking German with six other people, none of whom are from the same county. I hang out with a lot of (French) Swiss people, some from Turkey, and the others from all over the world. I listen to German music, watch movies in German (not very much) attempt to read a book in German every few weeks or so. And throughout it all I am surrounded by the wonderful city of Hamburg.

Part of the Wonderful City of Hamburg from the top of St. Micheals Curch

The First Month

I've already been here for over a month, and yet it feels like I just arrived a week ago. It's amazing how fast time has gone and how much fun I'm having. I've met a group of great people who I enjoy spending time and going out with.

The winter is one of the best times of year to be in Germany, especially in Hamburg where everything is so beautiful. At the end of November loads of tents and booths went up in Christmas markets all around the city. The Christmas spirit here is so amazing. Besides the beautiful Weihnachtmarks (Christmas markets) there are lights up all over the city and I live right in the center of Hamburg where I see all the beautiful lights every time I go out the door. Living right in the center of town also means that I can go get Gluhwein (hot, spiced wine), bratwurst, or crepes from one of the many Christmas markets. Honestly, that is probably my favorite part of the Christmas markets here: the food.

I'm very excited for my parents and brother to come visit me in just two weeks. I can't wait to show them all of the best places in my new city.

Hamburg by Night

Christmas Market

Christmas Market

Christmas Market

Rathause

 Berlin

Schokolade

Fun story time. There are a lot of French Swiss here. Like, 2/3 of the students at my language school are French Swiss, so naturally I have befriended some of them. One of them, Tom, is often trying to get me to help improve his English, specifically his pronunciation. One of the words that he has trouble pronouncing is "chocolate." Today I was hanging out with a group of people (only 2/6 are French Swiss, although a third spoke French as his native language). Of these people I only knew three of them previously, the rest were new. So, while we were hanging out the word "chocolate" came up for some reason and Tom asked me to pronounce it. So I said "Chocolate," and the guy standing next to me, who is from Britain says: "Wow. That's a very American pronunciation." Laughter ensued. And so, that is my funny story for the month. I will try to work on my comedy skills before next month. I'll also try to write a post about my trip to Berlin, soon!

My First Week

I finally managed to make my way over to the grocery store and in doing so, I found some stores that I'm sure some of you will appreciate when it comes time for me to do some Christmas shopping. I found an amazing stationary store, a pet store, two books stores, and, best of all, a chocolate store. I may need to sample the chocolate store's goods a few dozen times before I can be positive that it's good enough to give as gifts.

Some of you might know that I recently got a FitBit. It's been very interesting because, it measures how active I am, how many steps I take, miles I walk, floors I climb, and the length and quality of my sleep. Even though I only had it for a week before I left, I can also use it to compare how active I was at home vs. here. For example, even though I have way more active minutes (ten or more minutes in a row where my heart-rate is above normal) here than at home, I am in general walking fewer steps. This probably has something to do with the fact that every time I leave the flat to go out on the street, I have to walk four flights of stairs to get back up to my room. Although, with the fact that the ceilings are probably somewhere around 12+ feet tall, I'm really probably walking up at least five stories worth of stairs everytime. For example, my FitBit measured me climbing 37 flights of stairs on Monday alone. Thirty-seven. Maybe I'll go to the Grand Canyon when I get home in May.

I know many of you *cough* mom *cough* have been clamoring for photos of where I live, so I have decided to give in.

My room has a chandelier. How awesome it that??

My transportation to Narnia

Baked potatoes are amazing anywhere in the world

My view!

Also my view!

Other things I've learned since I've been here:

• Netflix is not the same
• My Spanish will most likely get at least slightly better
• There is no Pandora Radio :(
• It may not get as cold as Chicago, but it gets cold sooner
• I can bowl without bumpers!
• English is apparently not as hard to learn as I have been told