Not only do you get pictures of Muenster with this post, by reading now you also get BONUS pictures of the best european hairstyle ever AND never before seen photos from Koln and Bergbau! An amazing gigabyte of value for FREE! And all you have to do is read on!

So yeah, I didn’t post yesterday, my bad. But, since its the end of the month you get lots o’pictures. In fact there would be even more than there are now, except that my internet is really sow and can’t handle the big pictures, so I had to resize them anyway (boo) and I didn’t do ALL my pictures, just the ones that are interesting but got left behind in favor of prettier pictures. But first Muenster!

It rained.

A lot.

All day.

I still managed to get some good pictures, but not as many as I would have gotten if it hadn’t been raining. I hated to expose the camera lens to the rain so I only took special pictures.

Muenster is less than an hour from Dortmund which was nice. It wasn’t like Koln where you leave the trian station and you are there. We had to walk a bit until we finally got here.

Those cages in the tower are where the city hung the Anabaptists ofter their revolution. The Anabaptists to over Muenster and burned all books except for the bible. The leader said that they were to go forth and conquer the world and rid it of evil. Well the town got retaken, and the revolutionaries were hung in these cages off the church. The cages have been hanging there ever since. Odd trivia: The Anabaptists were forerunners of the Amish.

Then we walked for like twenty minutes to look at this building.

It’s very pretty but it was kind of annoying to walk twenty minutes in the pouring rain to look at a building that we didn’t even go in. We just stood there, and looked at it. If it had been sunny we could have gone into the huge botanical gardens that are behind it, BUT it was raining. Our tour guide should have realized that, and not make us trek twenty minutes for nothing.

After the manor house we went and saw an astronomical clock that dates from 1540. I’m not sure how it works but it measures the movements of the planets and other heavenly bodies. It was really neat looking.

The picture is full size so click this link and it should take you to another page and the picture will load. It was just to big to put on my page.

And right above it is a Glockenspeil, which was kind of surprising. When I was reading about Muenster it always talked about the two as completely separate but they were actually all one thing. The glockenspeil plays everyday at noon.

Also in that same church was probably one of the coolest statues I’ve ever seen in a church.

This also is a link for you to follow to see it.

After that we, myself, Yuki, Robin, Cory, and Daniel went to lunch. We had Chinese food. It was good but different than we have in America. I had egg-fried rice, and there were nearly as many bean sprouts in it as rice. It wasn’t really bad, it was just different. I also tried some sushi, which was bad. It was supposed to be a California roll but it tasted nothing like a California roll back home. After that, Robin and Cory went shopping, while Daniel, Yuki, and I went to the Stadt Museum. A museum all about the history of Muenster. It was pretty interesting. While we were there I had chocolate ice cream spaghetti at the Eis Cafe downstairs. It was delicious. Then we came home.

Later that evening Daniel, Yuki, and I went and heard this guy singing scottish/irish folk music at the Irish pub in town. It was pretty interesting.

Also, my parents are on skype now so I get to talk to them for a lot longer! Yay!

Okay now for the other pictures. I’m just going to provide links because I think this post is long enough already.

The Bergbau Museum

First is a picture of Daniel. I think this is the first time you guys have actually gotten to see him.

Then there is a picture of our group listening to the tourguide lady talking. That thing on the side is a water carrier that the miners used.

Koln

First the big pictures I promised you.

Coloured lights with window.

Without window. <–currently my background on my computer.

This is Daniel and my other friend Robin as we rode the train out.

This is some more detail on the Dom in Koln.

This is the door going into the church.

And this next one is interesting enough I’m actually going to put it in here.

Pretty much everybody who is staring at the Cathedral is american. The one exception is the guy shading his eyes, he’s scottish, but he doesn’t look very impressed. The guy in the middle of the shot is from france, the girl on the right edge is from greece. Pretty much everybody not from america looks decidely unimpressed. I just noticed that as I was looking through my pictures. I suppose they’ve all seen one before, for that matter so have I. Maybe thats why I took the time from photographing the cathedral to photograph the people. Hmmmm.

Oh and now this is the best hairstyle I’ve seen in Germany, and its suprisingly prevelant. A lot of uys have their hair cut like this. And we aren’t just talking punks, semi-professional men have their hair cut like this to. Take my tour guide from the steinwache musuem.

I call it the Eine Kleine Mohawk.

There you have ladies and gentlemen. Th elatest in European hairstyling. If you want to be cool go tell your hairstylist that you want the Eine Kleine Mohawk.

*because I just realized some people might not understand it. Eine kleine means A small in this instance a small mohawk.

Well this is a really long post. Hopefully my links work right. Leibe!

Class was kind of interesting today.  We watched a film called Solino, about an Italian immigrant to Germany.  It was interesting.  I understood it pretty well, mostly because a lot of it was in italian, with german subtitles which sometimes its easier to read german than to hear people speak it.  This afternoon Wiebke and I went into town and bought my and Jeff’s train tickets to Rothenburg.  It was much MUCH cheaper than I thought it would be, it was only 140 euros, as opposed to the like 300 I thought it would be.

Tonight is the Blue Room, which will be fun.  Free drinks!  Though I’m leaving there at 12:20 and I’m taking the 12:45 train home so I can go to bed for Muenster.  The Cathedral there is supposed to be pretty cool.  After Muenster, Daniel and I are going to try and go to Limericks (an irish pub in town) and catch Irish and Scottish folk music.  That should be neat as well.  And then Sunday…. I sleep.  Saturday is going to be busy but in a good way.

Didn’t get to bed until two last night, and then turned around and got up at 8:15.  Didn’t get to bed until two the night before, and got up at 8:15.  I am so tired.  I got home from the Steinwache at 5:00 and went to bed.  I woke up about eightish.  I am still really tired.  I think I’m going to go back to bed at tenish.  Then I’m waking up at twoish because I have a Skype appointment with Jeff.  So I’ll be on Skype at 7:30 central time if anyone wants to chat.  And then I drag my butt out of bed at eightish for class.  I figure before the Blue Room friday, I’ll try and take a nap.  Ah, the joys of nightlife.

So my day so far.  Class seemed interminably long this morning, and we were forced to listen to this awful song called ‘Bochum.’  Yes I get that its cute because its about the area I’m currently living in, but the lines are awful, and it has absolutely nothing musically redeeming about it.   It was bad.  After that I ate a ridiculousy hug lunch.  Three suasages, covered in grav, half a thing of pureed onions, with gravy, and a plate of fries, dipped in gravy.  Yeah,you heard me, pureed onion.  When I read the sign in the Mensa about the sausages, and it said that it had pureed onions, I thought that it was referring to the gravy.  Oh no.  The thing I thought was an appatizing mound of mash potatos was half a plate of onions.  It was bad, when I was eating it with the sausages (covered in gravy) but when I tried eating it on its own it was just gross.  The gravy was delicious.  I probably shouldn’t have eaten so much but dang it was good.  Then we went to Steinwache.

Seinwache is a Nazi prison museum.  Its NOT a concentration camp, it was a prison, there is a diffrence.  But they still did some pretty awful things there.  Like cramming twenty people in a room made for barely one, and in the summer closing the window and turning on the heat, and in the winter leaving the window open.  I just find it hard to equate the people who did such horrible things, to the people who very nicely help me do things in town.

Oh and a complete change of subject here.  I’m pretty sure one of the girls in the program dislikes me.  I have no idea why.  I’ve barely talked to her, but every time I try to start a conversation.  She looks bored, and answers very precisly and volunteers no extra information.  I’d normally write that off as just her personality but then I see her turn around and act very personable to the other girls.  I don’t know.

But in a happier story, I made a new friend.  Her name is Yuki, she’s an exchange from Japan.  She speaks no English, and I speak no Japanese, so we communicate in stilted German.  But its still working.  She’s very quiet, and I haven’t seen her talking to anyone else, so I started a conversation.  I think the main problem is, no one would let her talk for herself when they tried talking to her.  I watched one girl attempt to talk to her, and she didn’t really even try to listen to Yuki’s quiet response.  Its like that because she’s quiet every one feels compelled to be loud.  But she is coming with me tomorrow to the Blauer Raum, so whoo!

Also, I thought I posted about the movie when I got home, appearently not.  So yeah.  The movie was AWESOME!  I understood a lot more of it than the last movie we saw.  Partly because I knew what they were supposed to be saying, and partly because I think the German was simpler.  After awhile I forgot that the words didn’t match their lips.  They did a good job with the dub, getting voice actors that fit.  Megatron’s German voice was great.  It amused me to hear some of my favorite lines auf deutsch.  Wo ist die Brille? *chortle*  I think I’m going to watch a few more movies at the theater like that.  Although not so late.  Daniel and I had to take a taxi home, because there were no trains running at 1:30 in the morning.  So that was interesting.  We neither one knew what we were doing when we approached the waiting taxis, but we made it back.  The total was only like 12 euros so that wasn’t too bad.

I apologize for all the spelling and grammer mistakes.  I’m really tired, so even if I recognize that a word is mispelled I have very little motivation to go back and change it.  Oh and its starting to get cold here.  I had to wear my bunny hat to keep my head warm it was that cold.  I also need waterproof shoes.  From the locals I talk to, it pretty much starts raining here one day and doesn’t stop until March.  I have an umbrella now though so I’m okay its just none of my shoes are waterproof so they get soaked and so do my feet, which makes for cold toesies.

Leibe!

Literally translated I think Bergbau means Mountain Engineering. I know the mechanical engineering degree here is called Machinebau so I think bau means engineering. So here (finally) are four pictures from the Bergbau museum. Really it was all that great, mostly because I’ve seen coal mining operations in the States so it wasn’t like this was all new butanyway.  Four pictures coming right up!

This is the Bergbau museum.

This is the Bergbau museum on crack.  No actually this is a wheely thing on the top.  It was SO cold up there!  It was windy, and slightly rainy, and cold cold cold.  It had a good view of the city though.

This is Micheal our tour guide.  He’s german, and yes, this is actually the way all germans look.  The guidebooks are just to polite to mention it.

This is all the students standing on this machiney thing, that I have no idea what it was for, listening to the lady talk.  The guys head that you can see half of is Daniel from New Orleans.

Well those are my four.  I bet you didn’t think I’d ever actually post only four.  I might not ever again so.   Well today was/is pretty good.  I met with my advisor and went over what classes I’m taking when the semester starts so that was good.  I’m also going to see a movie tonight.  Transformers in German.  I’m really excited about this, because one I think it will be funny to see actors I know talking in strange german voices, and second this film will be easier for me to understand than last nights because I already know what happens.  (Oh yeah, I went and saw a movie last night Ein Fliehendes Pferd in German.  I followed the storyline mostly do to the pretty moving pictures than the words.  It was a drama about love and aging.  It wasn’t bad, I just want to watch it with english subtitles, it was a little to heavy to watch and only get parts of what they were saying.)  Before the movie however we are meeting at a bar and having a drink or two.  Thats pretty much what we do for fun around here.  Go to the bar and sit around and talk.  Its actually starting to grow on me, a lot.  I think I’m going to bring that back with me to the states.  Except the problem is, most of the bars here are actually pubs.  With tables and a comfy atmosphere designed to just get a drink and chill, I’m not sure how prevalent that is in American bars.  I might have to turn it into a home thing.  Stock the fridge with drinks, invite all my friends over for drinks around the table.  Provide some finger food, and make sure the tv remains off.  Thats the main part.  You don’t really watch anything, you just sit there and talk.  I had a really fascinating multicultural conversation last night at a bar with some of the other Auslander students.  I think the most important part of the evening is to not rush.  Not have to be anywhere, just sit back and enjoy the now.  My friends in the states, feel free to go ahead and start without me.  I’ll catch up when I get back.

So I haven’t done much today, and I didn’t do much yesterday after my post so I really have nothing to write about except for some odd little ramblings.  This is a two part ramble.

First to the Ciabatta bread.  In the states we used to get Ciabatta bread from Publix and Dad and I would eat it with butter.  It was delicious.  So I get Ciabatta bread here at that bakery and its slightly different.  I’m sure its still made with the same ingredients, same basic process but the bread here has a harder crust.  I don’t know which is right.  Is the softer American ciabatta crust they way its supposed to be and they cook it to a harder crust here because thats the way Germans like their bread?  Or is the crispier crust the way it supposed to be and the Americans changed it to suit their tastes?  I’m not sure.  Let’s see what we can find on wikipedia.  Hmm, wikipedia says that it is an italian bread, usually with a crisper crust.  It is the Americans that changed it!

The more open-crumbed form, which is usual in the United States, is made from a very wet dough, often requiring machine-kneading, and a sourdough starter.

Andon a side ciabatta note, I didn’t realize that panini was made using ciabatta bread.  Seems rather obvious now that I think back to it.

In a side ramble about food that I hadn’t really intended to talk about.  Doner.  Germany has a very sizable turkish population and so all over Dortmund stadt you can find little turkish food vendors and most of them serve something called Doner (the o actually has an umlaut except I don’t know how to type that on my keyboard, same with Koln).  Doner is appearently a turkish german crossbreed.  The turkish part of it is the meat and the way it is cooked.  The meat, lets say chicken, is impaled on this vertical spit.  And we aren’t talking like whole chickens were talking slices densely stacked one on top of the other, this vertical spit rotates around and cooks from a single heat source on one side.  When you order something they take this big knife and shave off pieces, and then the recently exposed meat gets to roast. The german addition to this is to put it on bread.  The whole thing is quite delicious.  Here’s the wiki, though they don’t explain it any better than I do.  Usually when we Americans get it we just say “alles”, since we don’t know the German words for what ever they offer as toppings.  It’s messy though, at least for me.  I prefer pommes mit mayo.  Which I had just plain fries (no mayo) and it was weird.  I was like… “Where’s the mayo?” which is odd because I was a little doubtful at first.

Now I’ve forgotten what my original second ramble was about.  *ponder ponder*  Oh yeah!  Now I remember.  Mind tricks.  I know that none of my friends are here, but that doesn’t stop me from thinking I see or hear them.  There was this one guy in the library that I had to do a triple take on.  He looked just like Adam Kramerer.  I knew there was no way he was in the Dortmund Bibliothek but this guys looked just like him.  Earlier today I heard someone that sounded just like Quentin outside my window.  I don’t know what it is.  If these people actually look like people back home or if it has something to do with the way the mind works.  Like you see these people out of the corner of your eye, but you can’t really see any details so the mind supplies details from a someone you already know.  Thats the only thing I can come up with for why you have to look over your shoulder so many times because there was a girl there that looked just like someone you went to high school with.  Sometimes there really are doppelgangers, but most of the time they don’t really look like them.  I don’t know but it is weird.  And every time even though I know that that can’t possibly be them I still double check to make sure.  Of course the one time I don’t watch it actually be someone I know.

Oh and Mom?  Can you make sure and send my boots?  All the girls here wear boots (I am in boot heaven!) and I’ve managed to avoid purchasing any of the beautiful ungodly expensive boots, but this is one fashion trend I’m actually whole heartedly behind and I want to show off my boots.  Mostly because smug little me looks at some of the boots these girls are wearing and goes “HA! My boots are better than yours!” And I must show them how much better.

Leibe!