Hanchen

We've been so busy lately! We went to Leipzig last week and stayed in a hostel called the Sleepy Lion. Hostels are actually pretty cool; we got to sleep in bunk beds and such. After arriving in Leipzig, we went on a walking tour of the city. Our tour guide was another nice German lady who asked us if we were all "complete" to see if the entire group was there. A lot of Leipzig was under construction; I wonder why there's more construction there than in Dresden.

The next day we toured the Bach and Mendelssohn museums. The Bach museum was amazing! The exhibits were incredibly interactive and had all kinds of interesting technology. We were all tired by the time we made it to the Mendelssohn museum. There was his death mask and some of his hair there so.......

The next day was our "free day." We went to the Zoo Leipzig and it was really nice. The aquarium/terrarium section was especially nice. I saw a lot of creatures that I had never even heard of before!

Then we ventured to the Monument to the Battle of the Nations. We read that it was the biggest monument in Europe and thought "Hey, that would be kinda cool." It was awesome! It was unbelievably huge. We went inside the base and were baffled as usual by the German that surrounded us. I found a door that lead to a staircase and decided to see where it went. About 15 feet up the tiny spiral staircase there was a lot of graffiti. I ventured oh-so-bravely onward and it started to get really cold. Did I mention that the base of the monument was a crypt? At this point Adam and Kathleen are telling me to come back and Lorilyn is having an asthma attack. I wasn't about to stop, so I ignored them and kept going. Suddenly, there was a glass door leading to the outside of the monument. I shrilly yelled back at them to keep coming and walked out on to what I though was an awesome, high view point of the monument. As the others joined me and we babbled in really loud English about how cool this was and how high up and suddenly an American guy told us we were only half way and we had at least TWO HUNDRED steps left....... To end this really long story, I'll just say that Kathleen, Haley, and I climbed all the way up and it was one of the coolest things I have ever done. The view was breathtaking!

After we came back down, I convinced Adam that he had to go up and that it was totally worth overcoming his slight fear of heights. So back up he and I went. That was two days ago. Today, I climbed 800 stairs that were carved into a mountain in the Saxony Switzerland National Park. Shaun T, that is true Insanity.

We also met a naked man, but I will save that for a later post on the soccer games, since this post was so long. :)

Walpurgisstrasse

Germans ride bikes everywhere. They're incredibly talented at multitasking while riding bikes. I've seen Germans eating ice cream, texting, taking pictures, and sleeping (not really) all on bicycles.

Ok, I have to go help Adam do laundry now!

First Blog!

I've been in Germany for a few days now, and have tried to start a blog multiple times. This proved to be way harder than expected. Now that I am in Germany, my computer thinks that I am in fact German. Because of this, I have had to start this blog by blindly clicking on promising links and begging my computer to please make the next page be in English.

So, I have a blog now! This trip to Germany is so far very tiring and amazing. The "old town" of Dresden is so beautiful that I teared up at least three times during our tour the other morning. Many parts of America are also beautiful, but nowhere in the States are there gorgeous, history-filled buildings like here in Europe. Speaking of Europe, I barely ever feel like I'm actually here. Usually, I just feel like I'm in another state where they speak kind of strangely and don't have air-conditioning. The first time I actually felt like we were in Europe was when we toured Old Town, and yesterday when we went to this cute little town called Pillnitz.

I'm about to head out to the grocery store, but before I go I'll quickly write down how different everything is here. It's not as if any one thing is completely different, it's just that EVERYTHING is a little different. The toilet flushes differently, the windows open differently, and everything is so very eco-friendly. I love the last one; it's so easy to recycle here. It's interesting though, no one has canteens or reusable water bottles like in the States. Also, they never drink tap water, although it seems fine to me. :)

Last thing: Germans LOVE ice cream! And now, I love German ice cream (eiss) as well.

Tschuss!