So we knew it had to happen at some point, and that time has finally come... a blog post with no pictures.  The past couple weeks have been wetter than the previous few months, but thankfully not all of it was rain.  We did get a bit of snow during the first week of December, but it only stuck around for a day or so before being washed away again by rain.  Christmas is now 9 short days away (8, if you're using the German day of Christmas celebrations) but deep down I don't think I can say it really feels like Christmas.

At home Christmas is always a time of decorating, baking, watching cheesy movies and most importantly snow.  I can't remember the last time I was home for Christmas and we didn't have at least a little snow.  Here it seems that a white Christmas really will be only a dream for me.  The Christmas season is also normally one when petty annoyances are set aside and I really try to appreciate the people in my life and the time I get to spend with them.  While it is nice that I have friends here who I have a lot of fun with, as well as super roommates who are quickly becoming some of my best friends in Germany, the people I'd really love to be with now is my family.

This will be my third year living in Europe and not returning back to the US for Christmas.  The first year, when I was doing my Rotary exchange in Bavaria, I was living with a host family.  While it was difficult living away from my family for the first time and not seeing them for the holiday, living with another family who cared about me made it much easier to bare.  The second time, when I was studying in Austria,  I was living in a dorm and most of my friends were either at home for the holiday or traveling to see friends.  Luckily my best friend at the time, Kelsey, was still in the city and her mom was visiting as well.  It was nice to have a bit of the family feeling (in the form of a surrogate mother), though the holiday was still more difficult than the previous time.

This year, I plan on celebrating with two of the other Fulbrighters who will still be in the area.  I am expecting it to be not too much different than the previous time in Austria, except for the fact that I believe I am a much more mature person than I was three years ago.

By that I mean, the older I get, the more family oriented my life seems to become.  Three years ago, I was very much in the mindset of getting up, out and as far away from my hometown as possible.  With that, my family (who still lives back in my hometown) didn't factor into my life picture too much.  I was so happy to be living somewhere other than the US, and I was so concerned with myself and what my life would hold in the future that it was sometimes hard for me to be interested in where my loved ones factored in.  Yes, I am a self-centered person by nature, but aren't most of us in some regard? For me it seems to be mostly in terms of my goals.  If I want to accomplish something, nothing is getting in my way.  I am often told that drive is a gift, but sometimes it can feel like a curse, especially when I look back on the past few years and realize that the drive I've had could be misconstrued for selfishness.

Now that I am older (and a teeny bit wiser) I am beginning to more and more realize how important family is.  I have friends from my hometown that I will always love and will always look forward to seeing, I have friends literally all over the world who I would welcome into my home with open arms in a second, but I am aware now more than ever that family are really the ones who will be there for you til the end.

With that in mind, I must admit that so far this holiday season has been one of the hardest I have experienced.  I miss baking elaborate Christmas cookies with my grandma, watching Bing Crosby movies with my dad and even just sitting in the warm glowing combination of fireplace and Christmas tree at my mom's house.  I have tried to bring a little cheer to my room by making paper snowflakes, drawing a (pathetic) Christmas tree on my white board and burning holiday scented candles.  The next week or so before the holiday I will try my best to be more excited about Christmas, but it definitely won't be easy.  On the days leading up to and on the 25th I will constantly be thinking of my family at home and wishing them all the best.  Though I don't always take the time to tell them (and even if I sometimes do it through cheesy blog posts), I hope my family knows that I truly love and appreciate them and wouldn't change them for the world!

Until Next Time,
Chelsea

Long Time No See!

As you might have noticed (but probably not), I haven't written a blog post in over a month.  A whole 46 days to be precise! "What a slacker," you're probably muttering to yourself.  But the truth is, I was being a slacker with this, but not in any other area of my life.  I've been totes busy, yo!

So what have I been doing for the past month? The answer: lots of things.  Let's start from the beginning.  When I last wrote I had just come from Turkey and was flush with post-vacation enthusiasim for life, which quickly subsided my second week of the fall break, when all I did was watch movies in bed and occasionaly venture out to squint into the sunshine beyond my four walls.

When I got back to school the following week, I had a pretty set schedule and I began actually teaching most of my classes.  It is nice to feel like I am actually contributing something now, though I am still trying to get a hang of what I am doing.  My favorite things to do with the students involve speaking exercises (aka, games) and activities where I get to work with them in smaller groups.  Most of my students are really  sweet and seem genuinely interested in speaking English, even if it isn't always easy for them.  I know that some are still shy speaking English, especially around me, so during the class breaks I usually try to speak some German with them so they can see I'm not perfect either!  I think its really helped a few kids open up to me more.

As time goes on, I am enjoying my work more and more, even if some days can be a little frustrating.  I have definitely learned to always have a back up plan!

So obviously I haven't been working all the time, especially as I only work 12 hours a week, so what else have I been up to?  Well at the end of October my American friends and I celebrated Halloween by carving pumpkins and going out dressed in costumes.  We were excited because Halloween is a really popular holiday at home, but here it was not so enthusiastically embraced.  We still made the most of it though!

Bethany, Erika and Ariel carving pumpkins.

Our German friend, Shishi, even got in on the action!

Beautiful pumpkins.

Animal themed outing, obviously.

The following weekend was spent in Hamburg.  We had a surprise birthday party for our friend Jessica and it was super fun!  We had a party, went to a club and then visited the infamous Hamburg Fish Market.  By that point it is usually around 6am and people go to the Fish Market to eat some food, check out some crafts, and possibly drink more beer.  We skipped the extra beers, but got breakfast and listened to a band that was playing.  I'm glad I got that one checked off my "Living in Northern Germany Bucketlist".  Not that I actually had one or anything.

Birthday girl!

Foggy Hamburg

Harry at the Fish Market

So back in Kiel, the weather turned cold immediately after we stepped off the train from Hamburg.  No lie, I think it had dropped like 15 degrees over the one night we were there.  It also quickly turned extremely dark and foggy.  The fog, which is almost always encompassing and drifting through the city, is so thick it is sometimes hard to see in front of you.  I tried to get into the wrong apartment building one day. I'm not even joking.  I did set myself up with some nice candles in my room though, so at least the darkness isn't so bad when I'm at home.

On the 11th of November (11/11/11 anyone!?), Erika and I went to a music festival called Rolling Stone Weekender.  I had originally rented a SmartCar online with the plan of me driving us to the festival, which was located at a pretty remote beach resort about 45 minutes from Kiel.  When I got to the car rental place, however, I noticed the paperwork said I would be getting a Citron.  "Oh no, no, no," I said to the woman behind the desk, "You see, I had ordered the SmartCar online." "Well," she responded," We don't have one at the moment, so you are getting an upgrade!" Looking into her wildly grining face, I knew I had a problem.  "The only thing is that I had specifically rented the SmartCar because I can only drive automatic," I mumbled sheepishly.  From the onset I knew it was going to be difficult finding an automatic because everyone here only drives manual.  Being the lazy American that I am however, I didn't take my stick-shift driving lessons all that seriously (sorry Miles!) and for a split second had visions of the two of us hitchhiking to the festival.  After checking for a moment on her computer, the woman responded with, "Alright, no problem! We will give you another upgrade!"  Know what that means?!

I got to drive a Mercedes!  Don't get me wrong, it was no CEO-mobile or anything, but it sure did drive like a dream.  The best part is, since it was an upgrade and a mistake on their part we still only had to pay the price of a SmartCar.  Sweet!

GPS & S-H

So moving on, we drove through the pretty Schleswig-Holstein countryside until we came to the Weissenhäuser Strand beach resort.  Don't be fooled by the name though, I still have seen no beach since I've been here.  When we arrived we parked, got our bracelets, bought some beer and walked around the complex.  The place was super cool and I can see how it would be really popular during the summer months.  The bitter cold and whiping wind would probably dissuade me from staying there now, but I'm sure warm weather would suit it well.  We made our way to the main pavillion and saw some of the first band's performance.

After they were finished, we quickly rushed to the front of the stage thinking people would make a mad dash to get a good spot before Death Cab for Cutie played.  Not so.  We were two of maybe 15 people who waited there in between bands.  I still find that hard to believe, because I think at home people would knock down doors to see them.  Well the good part of it was we were FRONT ROW, CENTER!

It is hard to tell from that picture, but I was basically about to puke from excited-ness.  For real.  Right before the concert started a lot more people came in, but no one was really freaking out like I had expected.  I guess its just as well though, since my attention was already focused on one thing.

I like Death Cab for Cutie. And so do photographers.

The band was awesome and played for a whole hour and a half.  During "We Looked Like Giants" a 2nd drum kit was set up on stage and Ben Gibbard, the lead singer, did a killer drum solo.  The only thing I could have asked for would have been for the band to play "I Will Follow You Into the Dark."  Everyone agreed that it was an understandable leave out though, considering Ben Gibbard just broke up with his wife a couple weeks ago.  Oh well... next time!

The second band that played was equally amazing and sounded just as good as the first (the sound quality of the concert was outstanding!)  Fleet Foxes is a band that I have been into for a while, but hadn't really paid a whole lot of attention to.  They had always been pleasent background music that every once in a while I would catch myself thinking, "Hmmm this song is awesome." But the concert really changed my mind.  They're now in my top 5 bands, hands down.

Fleet Foxes

Fleet Foxes

Overall, I think both Erika and I would give the festival two very enthusiastic thumbs up.

The next day I went with Barbara to Lübeck to visit some of her friends there.  The city is gorgeous and I can't wait to go back again now that the Christmas market is open! We have a field trip with one of my classes planned for the 14th, so not only do I get to miss work, I get to have a history centered guided tour of the city (my favorite!) and check out the Christmas market!

Lübeck

The middle part of November is kind of a blur to me, but that might just be because of all the fog we had. I mentioned it before, but it was seriously so bad at points, I actually had a hard time riding my bike and seeing where I was going.  Thankfully we really haven't had any of the infamous Kiel rain that I've heard so much about, and in my opinion the fog is actually rather pretty.  

Fog at the Baltic Sea dock

More fog... this time at the Kiel "palace"

First day in a while that the sun was actually visible.

To round off this long overdue post, I think it would be fitting to write about the amazing Thanksgiving dinner we celebrated here.  On the day of actual Thanksgiving I had to work and then I had my German class, but I was still able to celebrate with my mom's family over Skype, which I was really pleased about.  It was nice to just sit back in my computer world and watch them over the webcam as they bustled around getting things ready and occasionally coming over to chat at a computer screen.  

The Saturday after Thanksgiving the other American teaching assistants in the area and I were invited to a Thanksgiving dinner held by Barbara's mentor teacher's mom.  Our wonderful hosts really went all out and even had the turkey (not a common dish here), potatoes, veggies and cabbage catered for us!  The six Americans of course did our part and brought dishes to pass as well.  I'm actually quite proud of how my banana bread and apple pie turned out!  The night was spent in great company with excellent food and after we said goodbye to our German friends, the Amis went back to Barbaras apartment and chatted and joked long into the night.  A perfect way to end a great night, in my opinion. :)

Turkey locker

Turkey and potatoes! 

Heidi, our hostess, setting everything up.

Ready to feast!

Desserts

Bethany's cookies and my apple pie :)

She's a natural

So now here I find myself on the second day of December and I can't believe how quickly the time has been passing already.  The weeks leading up to Christmas will surely prove to be a whirlwind of activity, especially as I already have almost each weekend and most nights of the weeks booked with exciting things to do!  I'll end this post with a picture from the opening night of the Christmas Market here in Kiel, and the hope that you're enjoying the Weihnachtsstimmung (Christmas spirit) as much as I am!

Please ignore the chub-ness of my face, or at least chalk it up to me being "jolly".

Until Next Time,

Chelsea

WARNING: if you don't like pictures, don't read further.

This week and last were the Autumn Break for Schleswig-Holstein and a few of us ETAs were able to take a trip to Turkey.  It was an amazing time, and as a result I have almost 800 pictures.  BUT I'll spare you from that, and post just over 100.  I'll start from the beginning:

On Sunday, October 9th Erika, Ariel and I set out from Kiel at 6:45am.  We had a flight to catch in Hannover, which is just over 3 hours away.

7am train ride through Schleswig-Holstein

After some worrying delays on the track, we finally made it and since our flight ended up being a little delayed we actually made really good time.  The flight to Istanbul was about 3 hours as well, and after a 4 course meal and an in-flight viewing of Arthur (the old one was better!) I exited the plane onto Turkish soil... err linoleum actually.  After a long line to get a Visa and an even long passport check line, we finally met up with Keriin and Jessica, the two girls from Hamburg.  Our hostel was in the middle of Sultanahmet, the area of Istanbul where the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia are located.

We met up with Wes at the hostel and decided to stroll around the neighborhood until our final party member, Harry, arrived a couple hours later.  We had our first tastes of real Turkish kebap and baklava and began to absorb the sights of hundreds of merchants lining the streets with brightly lit lamps and beautifully colored scarfs and trinkets.

The Blue Mosque

Hagia Sophia

sooo many sweets... check out that halva!

First tastes of baklava and Turkish delights

drooling

Hagia Sophia

Shisha

The next morning it was raining and chilly so we decided to check out some of the indoor attractions.

Hagia Sophia

First we visited the Basilica Cistern, which used to be housed beneath a Roman Basilica.  It is now a cavernous cistern, filled with a shallow pool of water and fish.

Column of Tears

One of two pillar supporting Medusa heads.  No one know exactly who placed them there or why.  The other is upside down.

After the Cistern, we attempted to visit the Blue Mosque, but as it was prayer time we weren't able to enter.  Instead we waited out some of the rain under the overhang and then headed to the Grand Bazaar.

Harry in front of the Blue Mosque

The Blue Mosque.  To the left of the columns on the ground floor are spickets where Muslims preform Wudu, or partial ablution, before praying or handling the Qur'an.

Waiting for the rain to let up at the Blue Mosque

The Grand Bazaar

Jessica and espresso at the Grand Bazaar

After navigating our way through snaking hallways and overflowing stalls, we finally made it out into the wet Istanbul streets once again.  In an attempt to get out of the hurricane weather and a get proper meal, we stepped into a restaurant.  We were ushered upstairs and ordered a huge family style meal, which ended up being a bunch of different grilled meats, rice, lettuce, tomatoes, french fries and some other stuff all loaded onto a huge tray and plopped in front of us with some bread.  Much better than it sounds.

After being sufficiently stuffed we wandered back to the Blue Mosque and finally were able to go inside.  It was worth the wait.  I have been to countless European cathedrals and palaces, but nothing I've seen before compared to the Blue Mosque's beauty.  The ornate painted tiles covered almost every surface and the large open floor space did wonders accentuating the majesty overhead.

I overheard a tour guide saying the Blue Mosque got its name from the three stripes of blue tile on this pillar, which was how the whole mosque looked at one point. Though I'm not sure if that's true.

A sign in Arabic asking visitors to stay behind the barricade.

The girls: Ariel, Jessica, me, Keriin and Erika

Seriously stunning.

Yummm... if you read any of my posts about Macedonia, you already know I'm in love with halva.

The Blue Mosque during our walk home from a shisha bar that night.

The next day we decided to visit Hagia Sophia.  It had been closed the day before, but we were able to see the humongous building's inside for ourselves on Tuesday.  From the outside one can see the different building sections jutting out and running into one another, each representing construction from different eras and rulers.  From the inside, the mish-mash of cultures is even more tangible.  First used as a Orthodox church during the Byzantine period, and later converted into a Mosque after the Ottoman Turks invaded, the interior suggests a bit of decorating ADD, but since Hagia Sophia is now a museum, different elements of the structure were highlighted to show the various eras of its history.

A mausoleum in the Hagia Sophia complex.

Mausoleum

Mausoleum entrance way

Hagia Sophia

Obviously from the mosque phase of the building

An uncovered Christian angel fresco above a Muslim Arabic shield

Uncovered Christian mosaic (a very GOLD mosaic, btw)

There were a LOT of tourists in Istanbul.

 The same evening as going to the Hagia Sophia, Jessica, Keriin, Wes, Harry and I boarded a bus which was to take us to the southeastern region of Cappadocia.  The bus ride was 10 hours overnight, but surprisingly wasn't as terrible as it sounds.  We were all dead tired when we got in at 8am, but mustered up enough gusto to find a hostel and sign up for a whole day tour which started an hour later.

The tour lasted from 9:30am until 4pm and took us all over the Cappadocia region.  The first stop was to one of the 37 underground cities where Christians used to hide from prosecutors.  The one we visited was 8 or 9 stories deep and made up of a huge labyrinth of tunnels and caves.  The complex could house over 4000 people at once, but would only have been used for a month or two at a time.

Me in one of the tiny doorways.

Stairway

A "living room" with ye olde graffiti.

Another living room

The boys had a slightly more difficult time with the high restrictions.

After the underground city we were taken to a valley where early Christians had lived and built churches into the rock walls.  We spent about an hour following our tour guide along the valley floor and ended up at a restaurant where we were served complimentary lunch.

valley tilt-shift style

Keriin, Jessica, Harry and Wes exploring some of the caves

Harry and Wes continued exploring the cave and came out standing awkwardly above our group and tour guide explaining the area.

Valley cave church

Pistachios are eaten in everyyyything in Turkey.  This is a Pistachio tree.

Cave dwellings further up the sides of the valley.

Wes and Harry scurrying up ahead of us. 

Panorama from the cave dwellings above the valley trail.

From the Valley we were driven to another area with more cave dwellings, this time a bit of a hike up the side of the cliff.  There were other tour groups there as well, and as the rocks were quite smooth, round and with absolutely no barriers it seemed to be not the safest of places.  The caves were really interesting though, and I'm pretty sure no one died while we were there.

Keriin and Jessica on the second floor.

High and dangerous with too many tourists.  But still awesome.

Chapel frescoes

After a long drive back to the Göreme area we were staying in, we stopped at a gift shop place and then an onyx shop.  Basically every sort of tour stops a billion times at souvenir places or cafes.  Everywhere you go is people hassling you to buy their junk or eat at their restaurant.  But the view from the onyx place was pretty cool.

Bromantic.

That night we wandered around town at what appeared to be the onset of a thunderstorm.  Luckily the rain held off and we were able to eat at a cool rooftop restaurant with brilliant flashes lighting the skies.  Dinner was followed again by shisha, at which point it started to pour and we were forced to sprint back to our hostel when it was time to leave.

Carpet merchants and lots of huge rocks in the town of Göreme.

Rooftop restaurant

The next morning we checked out and walked into town to see about things to do that day.  The boys had their sights set on renting mopeds to ride around the neighboring towns, but since none of the girls had ever driven a moped before, we were a bit leery.  The girls instead opted for a 2 hour ATV tour, while the boys got to ride their dumb scooters.  Doesn't matter though, cus we had a great time without them! :)

The courtyard of our "cave" hostel.

Harry on his scooter

Red Valley

Cave dwellings in a neighboring town

Jessica having a tea break.  The guy working at the stop said his grandparents lived in the cave dwellings until the '60s when the government forced people to move out after a cave in. 

Rural Turkey

A place called... wait for it... Love Valley. ;D
Get it? Cus the rocks look like... never mind.

We were literally in the middle of nowhere, but because tourists stopped there, you could get tea, coffee, some food, jewelry, scarves. 

Jessica and Keriin

Stopped at some more cave dwellings.  This time we were close enough to explore and there was no one else there! Super cool.

The upper portions weren't accessible, but they even still had paint decorating the outside. 

ATVin' BAs

After the ATV tour, we girls stopped for a coffee and baklava break.  We decided to check out the Open Air Museum about a kilometer outside of town.  On the way there we came across another random church inside a free standing rock.

We eventually made it to the museum and saw one of the very ornate churches before making it to the official entrance gate and deciding not to pay 10euro to enter and see the same thing we'd been seeing all day.  As we were making our way back to the main road we stopped to look at some more of the numerous tourist shops along the route.  One in particular caught our attention and the owner took a liking to us.  As we browsed around he chatted with us, gave us tea, ice cream, introduced us to his friends and family and in general was the epitome of Turkish hospitality.  He also ended up giving us really awesome deals on all the stuff we bought from him.  He invited us to join him and his friends for a big bon fire that night out by some caves, but we had to sadly decline as we had another 10 hour bus ride back to Istanbul.

A vividly painted church of the Open Air Museum.  It said no photos, but I snuck it anyway! Shhhhhh..

Our new shop owner friend, Ahmet.

Walk back into town.

Golden sunset light on the Open Air Museum.

Sunset and hot air balloons over Cappadocia.

The next day back in Istanbul, we napped until the afternoon and then set out to walk to a bridge where we had heard fisherman catch their fish and give them directly to the restaurants on the lower part of the bridge.  When we first started walking it was, of course, pouring rain but after a little while the clouds started to part a bit and we could actually soak up the atmosphere.

Fishing off the bridge.

We also wandered through the Spice Market, which was right next to the bridge.  There you can find almost any sort of spice or Turkish food you could imagine.

Turkish coffee trinkets

That night we met back up with Erika and Ariel, who had stayed in Istanbul the whole week.  We then met up with a Turkish friend of Wes's, who showed us around the student area of Istanbul.  I didn't take any picture while walking there (surprising, I know) but the decorative lights lining the streets and ornate white buildings reminded me a lot of Vienna during Christmas.  Which was weird.  We went to a Turkish restaurant for dinner and then went to a few different bars and eventually some clubs.  The streets were narrow and winding and everywhere you turned were more bars and pubs and people.  Overall the night was quite a success I'd say.

Raki, the favored Turkish drink.  Think Ouzo, mix with ice water to turn it cloud and sip it while drinking water.  It has a pretty strong licorice flavor therefore, I wasn't a huge fan.

Popcorn street vendor outside the last club we went to.  He made the popcorn over an open flame. 

Saturday was our last full day in Istanbul and Jessica, Keriin and I started it off by attempting to go to Topakai Palace.  Unfortunately even just the ticket line was about an hour long, so we skipped it and headed straight to the Archaeological Museum.  Being that Turkey has historically been a huge cross-roads of cultures and civilizations, there was a huge mash-up of stuff up in there.

Babylonian wall tiles

Mesopotamian? Babylonian? I don't know, but I do know he's freaky looking.

Egyptian hieroglyphics

Some king's mummy.  Why is his body arched up like that??

Detail of the Alexander Sarcophagus.  You can still see the remains of paint on it!

The Alexander Sarcophagus

Women Mourning sarcophagus

The Tiled Pavilion

"I am le bored"

"I am unimpressed by anything and everything.  I am also a bit drunk."

Ooooh so THAT'S how merpeople reproduce. Wait, scratch that awe and replace it with disgust and weirded-out-ness.

"Yup. Just a goddess.  Chilling by this pillar.  No biggie, ya'll." - Athena

The Tiled Pavilion

Inside the Tiled Pavilion

Our last night in Istanbul was spent on a rooftop bar smoking shisha and gazing out over the city.

Goodnight, Blue Mosque.

Goodnight, Hagia Sophia.

We left Sunday morning at 6am and got back into Kiel around 4pm.  I am now in the middle of my second week of break and I sure have made up for being so busy the week before.  I literally did nothing yesterday.  A day off is nice sometimes, but now I'm gettin' antsy! Time to go for a run, do some errands and plan some lessons for next week.  I am fairly positive that my next post won't be as exciting or action packed as this one, but since Halloween is coming up soon there might be a little ghoulish cheer involved.  :)

Until Next Time,
Chelsea