Munich, Mommy, and Marvelous Memories!

Hey everyone!
Ok, so according to my calendar, it has been 23 days since my last post.....sorry about that.....

The first week in Stuttgart was a week of firsts-
first......
 -time seeing Charly (ok, it wasn't technically the first time, but still....)
 -time seeing Charly's high school (which is not at all like my high school-the teaching is less of a "watch lecture, then have homework assigned" style, but rather a discussion-based classroom)
-time meeting her friends (who, by the are all fluent in English-it's really impressive)
-time meeting her uncle, Martin (Martin reminds me of my Uncle John-he makes a joke out of absolutely everything!)
-time meeting Leslie, Charly's horse (an extremely stubborn, yet beautiful mare, who is a very talented jumper)
-Butter-Brezel (it's like a soft pretzel, except with butter inside of it and even more delicious)
-time meeting Cookie, their greyhound (Cookie was rescued from an Irish racing track where the owner wanted him killed because he wasn't winning the races anymore. He's only three years old and thank goodness he was saved and is now living in a safe, racetrack-free environment :)

Also during the first week, Charly organized a welcome grill/party. So, we went to a park that was nearby her house and one of her friends brought coals, and we were about to start grilling, when we realized that no one knew how to start the fire! We tried putting various things on the coals, to get them going, like paper, grass, twigs, leaves, but they would just burn and then leave those darn coals looking untouched. Anyway, thankfully one of her friends had a gas grill which we later used (THAT we could figure out.....) At the grill, I got a chance to meet a lot of her friends, and I'm really looking forward to spending more time with them because they were so fun to be around!

Dinner with Jackie and Florian-at "Die Reitschule"

After the first week of Stuttgart, it was off to Munich with my mom. The two of us had a blast, it was so fun exploring the city together. While there, we experienced the beauty of many baroque and Gothic churches(one of which was constructed by a prince and princess when they had their first son, so in effect, it was sort of like his birthday present!), an art museum that contained works of Monet and Manet (who actually were friends apparently-I wonder if that was a coincidence....) as well as other famous artists, the Hofbrau Haus, the BMW museum, the Olympic park, the Englischer Gardens, the Nimphenburg castle, the Muiskhochschule (it's the music school that used to be a main headquarter building for the nazis) and we were even lucky enough to see a marathon that was happening in downtown Munich! Every evening was completed with a visit to the gelato shop down the street from our apartment. So you know the feeling you get when you have a box of chocolates in front of you, and you know that they all taste delicious, but it's so hard to pick the one you're going to eat? That's how it was every evening-the gelato was so amazing, and it was a real challenge trying to pick one-chocolate ginger? Red fruits? Straticella? Greek yogurt with honey? Hazelnut? Coconut? Lemon Basil? Oh my gosh, the flavors were so yummy, and we always looked forward to getting some at the end of the day.

In addition to the sightseeing, just being with my family was part of the reason that the trip was such a success. We stayed in my cousins' apartment, and my aunt and uncle came to Munich in the last few days that we were there, so we got to explore Munich a bit with them as well-it's always fun being with them, and this was definetely no exception! Jackie and Florian, the cousins who own the apartment, were so welcoming, and despite their busy schedules and tiring work days, still made sure that we had a wonderful time in Munich. It was really funny because at one point, they went for a few days on a trip to Italy, to meet my Aunt and Uncle there, and told us that they'd be back on Wednesday. However, Florian had to come back a day early, and even though he sent us an email, we didn't see it and so on Tuesday night (at nearly midnight), as we were watching a scary TV show, the doorbell rang, and then we could hear a key turning in the lock. It was so scary, I didn't know a heart could beat as quickly as mine was at that moment! If he hadn't said, "Hi, this is Florian, I'm home!", I think we would've armed ourselves with a frying pan or two before taking the chain off the door! xD

The trip to Munich was such a great time, and undoubtedly my favorite part was being with my mom-we made so many great memories and I swear we laughed more than we talked! My first week in Stuttgart allowed me to experience the first shock of homesickness, and going to Munich with her was the perfect remedy. So, now I am back in Stuttgart, having a wonderful time, and my German class started on Monday, but I'll talk about that in my next post (but fyi, it's going really well :D) which will definetly be in less than 23 days this time!

This is the church that the prince and princess had built to celebrate the birth of their son-it was beautiful, but the bells rang for 15 minutes straight....sort of loud!

Lunch at the Hofbrau Haus :)

This is one of the Bavarian government buildings in the Englischer Gardens-but more importantly, it's a perfect place to take a photo!

The "i" series is a new kind of car that BMW is making that will run completely on electricity!

This was my favorite car at the BMW Museum-it's called the BMW Gina, there's only one in the world, it's made of Fabric, and it's completely functional! (not so practical though....)

 

Tchüss!
-Ania

Poland, Wedding, and the Family...Week One!

Greetings from Poland!

I know that this blog is supposed to be about Stuttgart, but the first week of our trip was spent in Koszalin, Poland. My cousin and her fiancée got married a couple days ago, and the celebrations were incredible! However, I will start at the beginning of the week:our arrival. On June 3rd, I finished up my final exams at school and mom picked me up-off we went to the airport! The flight was smooth, but after 9 hours in the air, it was nice to stretch a bit when we landed! During the eight-hour layover in Eindhoven, I came to appreciate the magical powers of coffee. I was soooooo tired and could not even form a sentence correctly, so I tried some coffee (my first cup!) and literally 2 minutes later, I felt like I'd slept for 15 hours, it was like instant liquid sleep!

                         

Anyway, we arrived in Gdansk, where my cousin, Dorota, brought us to her apartment and made us this really yummy vegetarian (even better!) dinner. At that point, we'd been awake for nearly 30 hours, and therefore gladly hit the hay. The next morning, we boarded a train to Koszalin, where a week full of festivities awaited.

Aga is my cousin who got married, and her husband's name is Kudzo. Kudzo is from Togo, and so we got to meet many people from his family. The only problem was that they all spoke French and Aga was the only one who spoke both French and Polish, so poor Aga had to translate every conversation! It's a wonder how she ate at all during meals-she was translating all the time! One of Kudzo's brothers had a new baby-Emmanuel, and my cousin from our side of the family also had a baby-Alexander. I swear, those two kids got so much attention; it was like the paparazzi was following them everywhere. Every smile or laugh was followed by countless "awwww"s, and "he's so cute!"s. It's true, they were adorable, and were both about a year and a half old, so they explored everything, and played with anything they could. Alexander's vocabulary consisted of the words "no", "umhmm", and “oh?” so it was very simple having a conversation with him. For example, if you asked, "Olo (that's the short form of Alexander), do you want to play with this toy?" or "Wow, did you see that bird over there?" You would get a smile as well as an affirmative or negative response-it was very cute :)

Ok, onto the wedding. Wow. If you have not been to a Polish wedding, that needs to change. The Poles truly know how to throw a party. I didn’t really understand most of the ceremony, as it was in Polish and French, but still, it was a beautiful traditional Polish wedding-the little church it was in was in the woods, with a view of a big lake outside that reflected the sunlight that was shining. After the rings, and the vows, and the kiss, Aga and Kudzo were walking out of the church, when Aga’s sister, Kasia, surprised them with a “different” sort of song. She has many friends who play instruments, so she organized a band and they played “All you need is love”. It turned out that Aga and Kudzo’s first dance was to the same song, and Kasia didn’t know that, so it was a very cool coincidence.  Anyway, after the wedding, the party happened. At Polish weddings, everyone eats and then dances for the WHOLE night. The dance was from about 8pm until 4:30am, and it was so fun! What was really incredible was the number of nationalities there-there were people from Togo, France, Poland, the USA, Italy, and Lebanon. I have a cousin from Canada, Maria, who studied linguistics with a passion and I think that even she wouldn’t have been able to understand all of the languages spoken! But the language barrier was not a problem at all. The night was filled with all sorts of dances and dancing contests, and dancing games, and at the end of the night, everyone was so tired that even though there was light outside, no one had a problem going to bed.

Now as I’m writing this, almost all of the guests have gone, the ones left are winding down from the wedding, and it’s almost time for me to go to Stuttgart. Later today, Mom and I will go back to Gdansk, and tomorrow (Wednesday), I’ll fly!

Until then,  
Tchuss!

-Ania

Ummmmmm, coffee :)

Almost in Poland!

The "All You Need is Love" clan!

This was taken just after the wedding!

The First Dance <3

Time to Celebrate!

Only a few days left!

Hello everyone,
So, summer has almost arrived and I could not be more excited! To start off my blog, I thought I'd let everyone know why I'm going to to Stuttgart specifically, and what makes it so special, so, here it goes!

Reason #1:
As many of you know, last year for the second semester of school, my family hosted an exchange student from Germany. Charly began as my exchange-sister, but after just a few weeks, we began to form a relationship larger than one of simply friends, and more like one of sisters. We went to school together, and had 5 out of 7 of the same classes, so this allowed us to be together literally for the entire six months that she was here. After school, we would do homework together, watch the same shows, play the same sports, bake together, laugh at the same things, shop for the same styles, and so much more. As you can imagine, it was extremely difficult for the both of us to part ways at the end of the year. Skype was very useful during the separation and I think that if the Skype people were to charge us for our calls, they would now be millionaires from just our calls. Anyway, now we are going to finally see each other after 327 days of waiting (but who's counting....?) in the city where Charly lives, Stuttgart, where I'll be living with her!

Reason #2: 
I think that German is a beautiful language and ever since I saw the tape of my parents' wedding where some people were speaking in German, I wanted to learn the language. So, while in Stuttgart, I will be taking German language lessons at the "anglo-german institute" for a month, in an effort to create at least a tiny German-speaking ability. I would love to be able to use German in my life, even if it's just speaking with someone in German for a few hours/week.

Reason #3:
Stuttgart is an extremely important city to me because it is also where my parents met, so living there for the summer will allow me to learn more about the city that is so important to their history. I want to learn why they loved it so much, and experience its supposedly very rich culture.

So there they are! This trip is sure to be incredible and I can't wait to share the adventures with all of you :)

 

Tchüss!
-Ania