Springtime

Hello all! Long time, no see! Hee hee...

A few weeks ago, I took a 5 hour train alone to my host grandparent's house in Bad Neuenahr, and stayed with them for the entirety of my spring break - it was godly. The affectionate/intelligent/friendly/interesting Oma and Opa, as I called them, (means grandma and grandpa in German) brought me to...
- A Butterfly Green House
- Markusburg, a big old castle on a mountain next to the Rhein - the longest river in Germany
-Kammern, an old German village that's now open as a museum
-A Monastery

And meanwhile,
-I searched their awesome home, filled with old, german knick-knacks and trinkets from their many journies abroad...
-They taught me to bake a German Cherry Cake
-Biologist Opa taught me the names of all the birds that fly around outside the kitchen window
-I ventured through the endless forests and creeks surrounding their house


And THEN about a week ago, I got back from a really nice time in Mallorca, an island of Spain, with my Host Rotary Club here in Plön. I was the youngest by about thirty years, but it was really great. We stayed in a non-tourist filled Monastery in the middle of a big beautiful valley, with mountains surrounding us. I got my own little "Monk Cell" to sleep in, and there was a beautiful church within the area, and a little café. We would often have picnics in the nature surrounding us, witih the typical German meals of rolls, cheese, vegetables, meats... and every morning I'd eat breakfast up in the mountains, as the sheep and goats that roamed the area would sit and watch me, and wonder what I was doing in their territory. It was great and it's halarious to sit at the top of the mountains and hear all the goats baa-ing and their bells jingling from down in the valley.

And every day, all 33 of us were split into two groups: one group would take big, long hikes (up to seven hours) through the surrounding nature; and the other would take a bus to the destination and shop at the markets in the surrounding cities. But I was impressed that the majority of these people, some over 70 years old, would ALWAYS go with the hiking group. This is really an example of Germans' dedication for and love of nature.

It was a really nice time with all those old Rotary folks. I'll miss their releasing of endless knowledge on me during our 389028 hour long hikes, and asking me 39238 times what I'll be studying in college, to which I give the same reply, "Uhh, I dunno." Haha :)

But now, I'm back in school, and today I've got to work on a project for Philosophy about Ernst Bloch (?boring?) and one for English about Nelson Mandela (!exciting!).

Sorry I'm bad at updating. I do love you all! And I'll try to remember that I can also do SHORT posts. I always feel like I need to give long, explanatory ones, which makes me not to post so often. so, yeah :)

Love you all,
Jenny