BON[N]jour

First comment, I really want to add “Bonjovi” to the end of this blog post title.  Those of you who make me have this urge know who you are!...  Baguette, Jacques Cousteau, Je m’appelle Dominique…

So, after getting to the train station in Koeln, Germany, I had to transfer to my last train--only a short 20 minute ride--to Bonn (the city where Kathi is studying).  It was about 9:45pm and there weren’t many people in the train station.  I only had 15 minutes to figure out from which platform my next train was departing and to board.  I guess I hadn’t really thought about the fact that I wasn’t going to understand anything anyone was saying ahead of time because I had the weirdest feeling come over me when transferring trains.  I don’t want to say I panicked, so I guess I would just describe it as being in a mini shock.  I wasn’t really worried because I figured out where the train was easily.  I guess it just really hit me for a couple of minutes, that if I got lost or missed my train, I would be kinda screwed—since I speak absolutely NO German.  Sounds kind of obvious, I should have thought about that, or at least expected it, but I hadn’t.  It was definitely an interesting feeling.    

I arrived at the train station in Bonn to see some crazy girl running down the train platform in my direction.  I knew instantly that it was my little Anna!  It was actually really nice to be welcomed so excitedly!  I hadn't seen Kathi in person since the middle of August (skype dates don’t really count), so I was super pumped to see her!  And after I arrived we didn’t waste any time jumping into the German college experience.  In Germany most students, I guess, live in the dorms (even when they’re older).  So, accordingly, all the dorms have bars in the basements and frequently throw parties.  Kathi, and I met up with a bunch of her friends at a dorm party that was going on that night.  It was fun, and interesting at the same time.  I was totally lost amongst the Germans who don’t speak English.  At one point there was a guy who shouted something in German at me (the music was loud- hence the shouting).  I had no idea what he was saying so I kind of gave him a panicked look and ran away.  Kathi later informed me that he was simply saying cheers.  Ha, "looking like a fool" moment number one.  **First German word learned = Prost**

Well, since I had been traveling on trains all day I was pretty tired so Kathi and I left the party pretty early.  Good thing we did because it took us about an hour to get back to her dorm.  Apparently the night bus goes all the heck over Timbuktu before getting to her dorm.  So we were reaaaaaaal tired by then. 

The next day, Sunday, Kathi, two Erasmus students from Britain, and I all ventured to Koeln to the schokoladenmuseum **Second German words learned = Chocolate museum, two very very important words**  That was pretty sweet (hahaha, get it? get it? sweet... hahaha).  We got to see how Lindt chocolate is made and a bunch o’ cool things like that.  Then we got to taste some free chocolate!  Free chocolate is always good in my book; you really just can’t go wrong with free chocolate.  Then we went back to Bonn, where Kathi and I enjoyed some delicious pizza, from a cute little Italian restaurant.  Ensuite (that means “next” for those of you beginning this journey of learning French via my blog), we returned to Kathi’s dorm where we watched some Grey’s Anatomy and hit the sack. 

The food that they have in German food
stands -- supes different that what is in French ones!

The Dom (cathedral) in Koeln!  Super cool!

The pretty, colorful buildings, which are also very
different than French buildings

In front of the Schokoladenmuseum!

A chocolate-fricken-fountain!

Monday came and Kathi had class from noon until 6pm.  I, therefore, spent the day doing very important things—watching two movies and checking up on all my tv shows.  When miss Anna got back from her classes we went to an Irish pub for trivia night.  I know what you’re thinking: “how the heck could I understand any of the trivia, if it’s all in German.”  But that’s the kicker; they said all the trivia questions in German AND English.  YAY, for understanding!  Not that it made that much of a difference.  I didn’t know one answer to any of the questions anyway.  It might as well have all been in German!  Despite this, it was still a lot of fun and was a really great atmosphere!

On Tuesday, Kathi and I began shopping!  We wondered from one end of Bonn to the next, and then back and forth a couple of times.  Needless to say, we walked a lot!  (Writing that expression “needless to say,” got me thinking.  That’s kind of redundant isn’t it?  If something really were “needless to say,” it should be so obvious that it doesn’t need to be said.  But when we use that expression, we always follow it with what needs not be said.  Why do we even use that expression?  Why don’t we just get straight to the point?  Bah, idk, whatevs, that’s enough on that tangent) Throughout this shopping adventure I managed to buy one shirt and four, YES FOUR, pairs of shoes!  Oh yeah, baby!  I got two different pairs of great heals, one for 3.99 euros and the other for 7.99 euros!  It was a GREAT deal!  And then I also got two other pairs of casual shoes later!  After an intense day of shopping we went out for some American bowling in Germany.  It was a lot of fun!  I started off strong and finished weak.  Oh well, shit happens. 

One of each of my new pairs of shoes, which
coincidentally are all some shade of grey/brown/tan

With the arrival of Wednesday arrived the viral plague of death.  Kathi and I were both sick by Wednesday morning.  Ugh, NOT FUN!!!! With this sickness I learned my **third German word = Apotheke, which means pharmacy.**  Mind you, this word is not at all pronounced how a person who speaks French would imagine it is pronounced.  So while learning this word I also got a lesson in German phonetics!  We got ourselves some drugs and cough drops and then ventured out to shop some more for our Halloween costume!  The continued shopping did not aid in the recovery process, but it needed to be done.  By the end of the day we had managed to gather all but one part of our costumes! 

On Thursday we completed the shopping for our costumes and took the rest of the day and night to rest and try to recover from the disease that was wracking our brains, throats and lungs.  The recovery process included a lot of listening to this song.  We listened to it so many times that I would definitely call it our theme song for the week! 

Friday was our celebration of fall day!  Two of Kathi’s friends came over to her dorm and we made some seriously amazing pumpkin bread and apple cider.  No joke, that stuff was delicious!  After an afternoon of homemaking we spent the night relaxing, watching a movie, and trying to continue to become healthy again. 

Saturday, I can’t remember what we did during the day.  I think that may because I may have screwed up my days in this exhaustive recall of my week in Germany.  Shows how good my memory is, bah.  Whatevs, it’s really not that important.  Saturday night we got ourselves all beautified and costumed, and then we went to Emily’s dorm (Emily is a friend that Kathi made in Germany.  Kathi sure has good taste, being friends with so many awesome Emily’s and all.)  We were gonna go to a dorm party in the basement of Emily’s dorm, but that proved to be a bust.  So we took the M’s off our shirts and went out to a normal club.  We spent the night dancing our little buns off to another very interesting European DJ.  Great night!  However, again probably wasn’t the best decision for our ill bodies.

We were M&M's!

As a result, we spent Sunday lounging around, reading and such.  Then Sunday night we went to Julian’s dorm (Julian is a German student that Kathi met).  It was scary movie marathon night, in honor of Halloween, of course.  We watched Paranormal Activity 3, which was pretty decent, but not amazing.  Then, we watched THE BEST SCARY MOVIE I HAVE EVER SEEN!  Grave Encounters has everything I have ever wanted in a scary movie, and MORE!  That movie seriously had all 7 of us screaming like babies.  At one point I even thought I had just about seen enough, but I still LOVED it!  Seriously, that trailer doesn’t do it justice (so here's another one).  You NEED to watch it!

Monday was Halloween, and Kathi had to go to class.  Again, I watched movies and tv all day.  However, this time I was productive and bought my plane ticket back to the states.  When Kathi got back from class, we made some dinner and got ready to head out for Halloween.  We met up with all of Kathi’s friends and went to a different club for the night.  There were two different DJ’s, which made for a very peculiar music arrangement.  However, there was one point where the one DJ took over and was awesome!  He played some great oldies including music from the Backstreet Boys and the classic "Blue," by Eiffel 65.  It was a nice way to spend Halloween and good ending to my week in Germany. 

On Tuesday, Kathi and I ate some McDo before I hopped on the train back to France.  This was "looking like a fool" moment number two.  Yes, I looked like a total fool in McDonald's.  So in America when I order a burger with only ketchup and cheese, that's exactly what I get.  However, apparently in Germany people don't do that.  Kathi ordered my burger with just cheese and ketchup and it was like we were instructing the lady how to perform brain surgery.  It was seriously ridiculous; she just didn't understand.  She asked us about 5 times what I wanted on my burger.  We then had to wait about 10 minutes before my burger was done -- it was just that special.  So, all that said and done, I learned my lesson the hard way.  Don't ever special order anything at McDonald's in Europe.  It's just not worth the trouble.  


I finally made it back to Sablé at 8:30 at night.  By this point my suitcase only had 2 wheels so I was really dragging that sucker around like a dead body.  It was not fun!  The Paris metro system sucks!  It does some serious damage to your suitcase if you are not tall enough to lift your suitcase far enough off the ground so that it doesn’t bump the stairs when you’re walking up or down them.  Yeah, it’s not cool.  Now I have to buy a new suitcase before I come back to America.  I refuse to lug that thing around anymore!

I finished the week out with two days of classes, Wednesdy and Thursday.  Friday was spent sleeping reading, watching tv, preparing for my classes, and adding pictures to this dang blog.  On Saturday I took a day trip to Le Mans, a city only 20 minutes from Sablé.  I met up with a group of couchsurfers, and we toured la vieille ville (the old city).  Le Mans is a medieval city and it is absolutely beautiful.  I’m going to let the pictures do the explaining.  But they don’t allow you to really appreciate the beauty of the city because the weather was kind of poopy.  However, it was really nice to be escorted around town by some really thoughtful French people.  

What remains of the medieval wall that
used to surround the entire city

Cathédrale Saint-Julien

One of 9 remaining cannon balls, in Le Mans,
from the medieval period

Then we met up with some more couchsurfers for un apero (a drink before dinner).  Finally, at 9:30pm we went to this tiny, but quaint restaurant for dinner.  By this point there were 16 of us gathered together.  There was only one other American, besides myself.  So, all in all it was a great day of speaking French, meeting new people, and touring the great city of Le Mans.  I crashed on one of the couchsurfer's couches for the night and head back to Sablé on Sunday afternoon.

Sunday was spent lounging around and preparing for my classes.  Today I went to my classes, where I talked about Florida and had students give oral presentations.  Tomorrow I hope to make some pumpkin bread for my class on Wednesday.  Hopefully, I will be able to find all the necessary ingredients, and that the dang thing will cook in my little “oven.”  HA, if you can call what we have here an oven!  I’m keeping my fingers crossed it will turn out!

And now, I’m going to end this blog post with a few fun facts:

FUN FACT #1 - You may or may not have noticed, but there is a “theme” that is being carried out throughout each of these posts.  Ten friend bonus points and an extra special European present goes to the first person that can guess what it is!  Rules:  well there is only one rule; you have to post your guess as to what the “theme” is as a blog comment.  This way others can see what your guess is, and we won’t repeat anything.  Any and all guesses are welcome!

FUN FACT #2 - So I’m guessing that by now you may have been wondering why the URL for my blog is “quiveutbienlesvoir.”  Or you may have just looked at that as a bunch of mumbo jumbo assuming, as experience has demonstrated, that I’m just crazy.  Well, in fact, the words “qui veut bien les voir,” come from my favorite quote by the famous French painter, Henri Matisse.  The entire quote is “Il y a des fleurs partout pour qui veut bien les voir.”  This translates to “There are flowers everywhere for those who want to see them.”  So now you know, and yes, the URL of my blog means “those who want to see them.”  And yes, it’s kinda weird, but I thought that using the ENTIRE quote was a little excessive. 

FUN FACT #3 - I wrote this blog post while listening to Adele music.  If you couldn’t tell while reading this, I was channeling her extreme awesomeness while writing (not that I really need to be any more awesome than I already am, bahahahahahahaha).

Well that’s it for fun facts.  So, in the words of the great Tigger from Winnie the Pooh, “TTFN, Ta Ta For Now! Hoo hoo hoo hoo” 

**For those of you that don’t know/remember that reference, watch this.  And don’t ask me why that came into my head for some random reason.  I have no clue why.