All Hail!

Warwick Castle 9/29

Warwick castle is about 25 minutes away from the university and a few of us actually took an organized university group trip to visit the castle.

The castle overlooks the River Avon and is in the town of Warwick of the English county of Warwickshire. The castle dates back to 1088 and is one of the oldest in England. It was the best preserved castle that I have ever seen.

The castle sprawls over the English countryside and you can see the charming town of Warwick and sheep lazily grazing in the distance. The gardens are beautiful, especially the peacock garden - where a multitude of peacocks were just hanging out and basking in the sun (yes, we had sun today!) The atmosphere, besides the business of the tourists, was very peaceful and had a quite beauty.

I just read that the castle was bought by The Tussauds Group at some point - think Madame Tussauds...which would explain all of the wax figures. Using the life-like wax figures, Warwick set the scene of what living in a castle was like and how it operated. It was scary how real some of the wax figures looked.

Overall it was a great day! We had sunshine, saw an amazing castle, had a lot of exercise (over 500 steps) and had the chance to get off of campus and see the sights.

Photo 1 - Irina, Tatiana and me in front of the Warwick Castle
Photo 2 - Up on a look out tower with the castle in the background
Photo 3 - One of the wax figures
Photo 4 - In the castle gardens
Photo 5 - The remains of the bridge over the River Avon
Photo 6 - A view of the English countryside from the castle (can you spot the sheep)
Video 1 - A short video of the Castle

Where I live . . . .

Accommodations at WBS - here's the skinny

I live in a post graduate dorm called Lakeside (sounds elegant, but I assure you that there is no lake nearby). It is on the edge of campus, and only a 10 minute walk to class.

I arrived to a moldy bathroom, but the place is coming together - as good as a one bedroom can with limited resources!

There are 8 apartments in a flat and we 8 share a kitchen. We do have our own bathrooms which is very nice. It feels quite awful to be back in the dorms - I miss the luxuries of my condo!

One of the amusing things is the faucet set up in the bathroom. There is a hot and cold knob, but you can EITHER get one or the other. So washing my face in the morning is always interesting because I either get ice water or water that is much too hot. I have to mix the water to get a decent temperature. The faucets are like this in the kitchen as well. Oh, the little things we take for granted!

Photo 1 - Block 4 of Lakeside
Photo 2 & 3 - the shared kitchen
Photo 4 - the weird hot/cold pipes in my bathroom
Photo 5 & 6 - my messy bedroom and desk area

Royal Leamington Spa 9/23

No I did not go the spa already!! (but I sense I may need a trip to one after this term)

Leamington Spa is the name of a town in central Warwickshire, England - about 20 minutes from campus.

Leamington was once hailed as a city of healing waters aka spa waters and a favorite spa resort town of the elite. Leamington earned the "Royal" title after a visit from Queen Victoria. The statue was almost destroyed by bomb during, and you can still see that it was actually moved off its base by an inch. The town also has a rather large and beautiful English garden called Jephson Gardens.

These days it is a city of some pretty decent shopping - I spotted a pair of essential winter boots already!



Photo 1 - Queen Victoria statue

Photo 2 - Hanging on this huge tree in the garden - yes I climbed up there!

Photo 3 - Houses that reminded me of Mary Poppins!

England Arrival 9/22

I arrived via Birmingham airport on Saturday, September 22nd!

I arrived with two duffel bags - and no they did not have wheels. An entertaining image you can visualize is me literally dragging my very heavy (well heavy for me) bags around campus. Why didn't I bring my normal suitcase you may be asking yourself - well, The baggage limit was 20 kilos which is about 40 pounds in total, but you can have as many bags as you would like. How nice! My suitcases have a hard, durable back on them - but this add extra weight! So I arrived on campus with my duffel bags in tow - feeling like I was in the army!

That evening we tried to find something to eat on campus which turned out to be a fiasco. You see, campus wasn't open yet. So there were no decent restaurants open. We trekked to the on-campus pub - but by the time we got there they stopped serving food. However, the beers were flowing! So we ended up back at our dorm still hungry. Luckily three of us had went on a grocery shopping spree (our bags look like a pile of trash) and shared all of our frozen meals and it turned out to be a hearty meal!

I never thought I would go hungry in a country where English is the first language!

Oberservations en Deutschland

I head out to England this weekend, so here are a few observations so far from my month in Germany:

Shopping
1. The stores have very specific hours. If you are a working professional, Saturdays are your only days to really run any errands. Also forget Sunday was an actual day of the week, because almost nothing is open on Sundays.

2. You have to go to a few stores to get the items you need to run a household. There is no Target-like stores here folks. And Walmart failed here. Say you want aspirin - you wouldn't go to the Schlecker (like a Walgreens, CVS), you would have to go to the Apotheke because it is medicinal. I just recently went to the doctor and they wrote me a prescription. I had to go to the Apotheke to fill the prescription, then bring it back to the doctor to administer it.

3. Shopping malls are few and far between. A law was passed against them, as to not take away business from the smaller, downtown shopping areas - the mom and pop stores.

Food/Eating
1. You can find all sorts of cuisine here, you just have to look for it.

2. I have purchased fake cheese - nacho cheese, I didn't think it was possible. However, I am still on the hunt for canned or jar jalepenos.

3. Food can be really cheap. The essentials can be found at the cheap stores that are ALDI-like.

4. Germans really like their sweets. I think I passed about 20 bakeries on the main road in Mannheim. I was looking for something other than my usual favorite, chocolate croissants - something healthier.

5. Expect bad service in a restaurant, and be pleasantly surprised if it's good. Maybe living abroad will help my pickiness when eating out at restaurants - however, I still won't go near sour cream or mayo!!

6. Choose your dishes wisely. Germans do not waste and will clean their plates entirely. If you take too much or something you don't end up liking - you may feel compelled to choke it down to clean your plate.

Other
I was planning to take full advantage of internet services while in Europe such as netflix instant viewing, online library systems and network sites (abc, nbc, fox, etc.) to keep up on my shows this fall. Having a Mac + being out of the country = NOT possible. Quite Irritating! So I Tunes, may have to be my new best friend - so I can keep up with Greys, DH, Brothers & Sisters, Ugly Betty, etc.

Documenta 12

September 9, 2007 - Modern Art Exhibit

The documenta is regarded as the most important exhibition of contemporary art. It is held every 5 years in Kassel (about 2 hours north of Frankfurt). The exhibit is shown for 100 days, and this year was the 12th year of the exhibit. The exhibits are housed all around Kassel in various themed tents and museums.

I am not a big fan of modern art, but thought the exhibits were interesting. It would have been nice to have more time there and do an audio tour that goes into detail about the art pieces. My favorite exhibit was the "FEAR" exhibit, where the artist depicted various human fears. For example - we fear "yes" and "no" "which is why the smartest people choose maybe".

Wedding in Gottingen

September 8, 2007 - Sebastian & Danni

I went to my first Euro style wedding. One of Florian's childhood friends, Sebastian, got married in the beautiful, old town of Gottingen (about 2 hours north of Frankfurt).

The couple wed at the beautiful city hall (pictured here) with close family and friends in attendance. Then we all went for coffee, snacks, and cake at a cafe in the botanic gardens. Then a larger reception was held in a nice restaurant in a local theater.

New Classmates. New Friends.

Just spent a week at Uni Mannheim team building and meeting my classmates who come from all over the world: Russia, Japan, Egypt, Belarus, Ivory Coast etc.

Mannheim

September 3 - 7, 2007

University of Mannheim - main entrance. Wirtschaftshochschule = school of Business.

One of the entrances of the castle -it houses most of the universities' classrooms and offices. The size is equivalent to 12 soccer fields and is larger than Versailles.

DIXI

September 2007 - En route to Mannheim


Funny branded logo on a port-a-potty!

AFRIKA AFRIKA

September 1, 2007 - AFRIKA. AFRIKA.

This circus-style theater show features performers from all over Africa and is a combination of Cirque du Soleil's acrobatics, Harlem Globe Trotters' stunts, and a usual circus' oddities. My front-row experience was up close and personal - could smell the sweat of the performers!

Wilkommen in Deutschland!

August 25, 2007 - Festival in Frankfurt

The first night of my new adventure, Florian took me to the Museumsuferfest - a weekend festival. There was arts/crafts and food/drink along with music from all over the world. The festival was on both banks of the River Main. The last night of the festival was celebrated with fireworks.

Here I am drinking my beverage of choice - a Radler = Pils + Lemonade.