On holiday

Again, another trip?! Why not - be back Monday with a full update!

Schooling Update

One grad school class done, one week of German lessons done!

I'm so glad I wrote the bulk of my paper before our trip to London. Not only did it feel good not looking at it for a week, I had a really good handle on it when we came back. I also took advantage of one of my school resources, the writing center. I submitted my paper for feedback, indicating two main areas to focus on (for me, it was the intro/conclusion/thesis, and also using APA style correctly). Within 24 hours, I had some really great feedback I incorporated into the paper.

Even though it wasn't due until yesterday by midnight central time, I turned it in on Thursday afternoon. Woo hoo! I'm feeling pretty good about it - I hope my professor likes it as much as me - it's worth a whopping 35% of my final grade. Now I have a mini break until my next class starts on Monday, November 11th. I'll be taking Business Ethics & Sustainability.

As for German class, the first week went well. I didn't cry at all! It wasn't overwhelming since I knew some words here and there, and I'm super impressed with the teachers. I say teachers because on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we have a female instructor and on Thursday and Fridays it's a guy. I like that a lot because you get to hear both male and female native speakers. And they are both really entertaining. Sometimes we stand up and do group activities, pair off, listen to a CD and write things down, sometimes we go to the board, or yell out from our seats. I still think that three hours a day is a lot to get through (we do get a break at the halfway mark), but when I leave class I leave much more confident in my abilities.

The true test will be when I start my next grad school class since I'll still have two weeks left of German and I anticipate that we'll be getting a little more homework then too. I might want to continue with the A2 class, but not the intensive daily class. Problem is, the other option is a weekly class for two hours a week for 16 weeks. Ugh.... and it meets on a Monday night, which seriously cuts into the half price night at one of our preferred restaurants.

Problems, people, problems!

At least Europe got that extra hour back this week, which always makes getting up for German class a little easier, even if it gets dark super early. 

Until next time!

Kim's London Tips and Tricks

1. Go during the off-season. I cannot imagine how crowded this city is during the summer, it was the middle of October and was packed way more than I like! The Tube stations were really stuffy so I'm sure in the middle of summer they'd be unbearable.
   
2. Plan to spend a full day in at least one large department store. There is so much browsing to be done, and the food halls have more than enough food to get you through breakfast, lunch and dinner if you wanted.
   
3. Go see a Broadway show. It's like a mini New York theatre district.
   
4. Plan to spend a lot of pounds, or plan to not go into all the sights. They are expensive, and with the exchange rate of 1.6 GBP to $1, it's borderline ridiculous. If you find out the prices ahead of time you can decide if it's worth it, and you won't have sticker shock.
   
5. More general to other cities, but bring your own earbuds. There are so many museums around with audio guides that require you to hold it up to your ear like a phone, but if you have earbuds you can just plug in and don't have to press something up to your head that has been who knows where else.
   
6. Eat meat pies and Indian food. London is going through a foodie renaissance, but these two things are especially delicious.
   
7. Get an Oyster card for the subway. So much easier than dealing with paper fare cards, and those familiar with the DC metro will feel quite comfortable - same concept.
   
8. Do an afternoon tea. They have tons to choose from in a variety of budgets and it's a prim and proper experience. If tea isn't your thing, most places will substitute coffee or cocoa instead so you can still enjoy the finger sandwiches, scones, and sweets.
   
9. Think business casual. London is not a shlubby city, and people who live there are really well dressed. I did fine with a pair of dress pants and nicer top, which also made me feel like I belonged at the theatre and afternoon tea. I also walked around in some dressier flats.
   
10. Walk quickly. I'm a fast walker - everyone walks really fast in London, even some of the tourists. Unfortunately hubby prefers more of an ambling pace which made this difficult to enjoy for me, but be prepared to book it.

Happy Travels!

I must be crazy....

I signed up for German language class, finally. I started on Monday. It's an intensive class, so it meets Monday-Friday, 8:45am-12:00pm. It lasts until November 25. (And yes, I will have class during American Thanksgiving - but it looks like we celebrate All Saints Day on Nov. 1).

I'm just finishing my last week of my first grad school class, and my next grad school class is scheduled to begin November 11, so I'll have a nice two weeks where I'm only taking German class. Then I'll have another two weeks where they overlap again.

The class is about 18 people, and only three, including me, are from the US. The rest are from all over the place - there are a bunch from Spain, two from Italy, even Bosnia, Israel, Somalia, Argentina and even Japan. The teacher only speaks German which is fine, because she shouldn't be expected to know however many languages everyone else speaks, and from what I gather she only speaks a little English anyway. Very patient, too - I like her so far.

On the first day we had to write our names on a card and introduce ourselves, then introduce others. Situated between two Spanish students, I had to really think about how I was supposed to pronounce their names correctly. Lucky for them, what's my name? Kim Jones. Easily the shortest and easiest in the class.

It's rough getting up early and actually going somewhere, but at the end I'm going to know lots more German, hopefully. We are supposed to get through 100 lessons so, at three hours a day for five weeks, that's a moderately steady pace. I'm super glad I won't have to worry about grad school for some of this, I'll definitely take advantage of extra study time.

Another good thing? Big windows and the sights of Fall:

London, baby! Day 3 + 4

We continued to pack in activities for days three and four. Day three started with a trip to the Churchill War Rooms. This place was really cool - it was the actual wartime bunker for British forces during WWII plus a pretty large museum on Churchill himself. The audio guide was really good, too, with personal accounts from staff during the time in the bunker, Sometimes they'd even play an air raid to really show you how it felt.

Here are some of the bunker rooms:

Churchill's private bedroom - he only slept here a few times (other times he was in another room) but this one was just off the main map room and he could really do anything here - from that desk he often broadcast radio announcements and made some phone calls. He really liked maps as you can see from the walls.

After emerging, we hopped on the tube over to Harrods department store, which I was really looking forward to seeing. It's huge and lovely and just wow. We could only spend a short time here, but what an ornate building and amazing selection of merchandise. I especially liked the floor that housed all the wine and spirits and the food halls were packed with things I wanted to try. We did manage to get a few chicken Caesar wraps for lunch that hit the spot.

But really, that store is so upscale I need to start making money now to afford something. One of the wings we walked through looked like a modern art museum, except all the art was for sale. I'm glad that I don't have a luxury handbag addiction or something. That would be a troublesome store for me!

Soon it was time to get to our next trip highlight - seeing the Book of Mormon! Yay! We've heard some awesome things about it, and London had been psyching us up for it since arriving. The marketing team really went all out with the ads, we saw them on all the double decker buses, at bus stations, and inside tube stations. After being out in the crowds and rain, it was really nice to sit down with a whiskey and ginger ale at the theatre. Hubby got us some really great seats center stage up on the top level.

Here's the opening act of the show, taken from the 2012 Tony Awards...

The show was quite funny, and hubby found some of the piano music online so he's been playing a little. There are definitely some adult themes and language and general outrageousness, but that makes it all the funnier.

After the show we had a little time before our dinner reservation so we found a pub (a pub!) and hubby had a pint of lukewarm beer. He didn't like it at first but said it grew on him. We went to Kettner's for dinner and I had mushroom risotto and hubby had the beef bourguignon. Quite tasty all around. I was already full from every other meal this trip, and continued to be full. We both went to bed in food comas.

Waking up on the last day, we still had a lot to cover before our flight at 8pm. We got up, had some breakfast and walked over to the grocery store to see what sort of tasty things we could smuggle back in our suitcases.

(Hubby would later learn that it's NOT a good idea to bring back cans of beer in your suitcase. Did you know they explode? I would later learn that beer smell that gets saturated in clothes doesn't come out after only one wash. Bleh.)

We picked up some jam, chips (crisps) and some other things and then left our bags at the hotel and headed over to the British museum. We didn't get to see all of it and could have definitely spent more time there, but we did manage to see the Rosetta Stone and a variety of cool pottery, statues and Egyptian artifacts:

 Hubby hiding behind some pottery...

Hubby and I found a yummy Indian restaurant for a late lunch and gobbled up the samosas, chicken and lamb before heading back to the hotel. Since we got done a little early, we decided to go to the airport so we could take advantage of the lounge. It was nice to relax there away from the masses. Soon we boarded our flight and headed back home.

A jam-packed (in more ways than one) holiday for sure, but really nice to get away!

London, baby! Day 1 + 2

Hubby and I went to London for a few days, yay! He's been before but not me, so I was excited to get to go.

We left on Monday afternoon and headed to the airport for a short hour and a half flight. The airport was a little hairy but once we got on the plane everything was fine. I really like flying Lufthansa because they offer actual alcohol to economy class.

This is my glass of wine and the remains of my snack :-)

We treated ourselves to the Heathrow Express train, which takes 15 minutes from airport to Paddington station. Then we walked to our hotel.

At this point I was in a state of culture shock: while it was really cool to see all English everywhere (I knew ALL OF THE WORDS!) and have to look in a different direction when crossing the street, what I was not expecting was to walk out of Paddington station to see several groups of Arabs, many in full dress. I guess I didn't do my research - according to BBC London, there are more than half a million Arabs living in the UK. Nothing wrong with that per se, just really unexpected.

But I digress. We got to our hotel, the Doubletree at Marble Arch, and were pleased to find we were upgraded to a suite. And not just any suite - the Cavendish.

Oh, the Cavendish. You're not a suite, you're a loft apartment. You have an upstairs and downstairs!

 PSA to all the other hotels in London: you're doing it wrong.

While very nice, it also included these iPod click-wheel type things on the wall and despite many attempts, it was always stuffy sleeping and wouldn't get colder unless we opened the windows. (And for a place with such high-tech items, the wifi was pretty disappointing).

Anyway, after checking in we were pretty hungry. First we decided to walk around a nearby department store: Selfridges & Co. For those that don't know, London is all about the huge department stores and they do them really well, in part because they all include the "Food Hall." It's basically a huge floor with different food departments (similar to a food court but on steroids) around the outskirts, and then in the middle a ton of other things to buy, like high end grocery items. It was definitely a highlight to check these out.

Selfridges is huge. I was a little overwhelmed, seeing as how I haven't been in a big store like this in the longest time. We did what we could, saw these sparkly shoes....

And decided it was finally time for dinner. We went to Roti Chai, an Indian place half a block from the hotel that was supposed to be good. And it was, oh it was. Hubby got a spicy bbq chicken sandwich dish (with lots of red onions, his favorite) and I got a lamb curry- we shared a spiked chai drink too, and samosas to start, of course. Everything was so so good! Ack, I want to go back!

The next day we got up and got our hotel breakfast which was pretty nice - you could order off the menu in addition to the buffet so I went for the Eggs Benedict. It just felt more likely ordering it in London than in the US, for obvious reasons. There was also tea to drink.

After hanging out by London Bridge, Tower of London, and Tower Bridge...

 (The queen apparently likes to have green grass in October)

...We made our way over to the Bank of England Museum, which was really interesting. We looked at old money, checked out the new notes and its security features, and even got to hold a real bar of gold!

Just so you know, they're really heavy! Sadly it was under a lot of surveillance and ropes so we couldn't lift it up more than a few inches, nor could you take pictures. But take my word for it.

We decided to get a little bite to eat and settled on a meat pie: I got a cheese and onion and hubby got the steak and ale. With mashed potatoes, of course! Just the thing to warm us up on a cool and chilly day. (Sorry for the lack of picture - we ate these pretty fast)

We saw a few more sights including Big Ben (and heard it, neat) and Westminster Abbey.

Oh and the red telephone booths. Don't look at me like that, hubby!

Still killing time, we decided to walk through St. James's Park, which was overrun with birds. Giant ducks among other things.

 Hey there, Mr. Pelican!

 Found a slice in the park with a peek at the London Eye, too.

Finally, it was time for our afternoon tea :-) Delicious.

We were totally stuffed from all the food, we couldn't finish all the sweets. Hubby got his beloved Earl Grey and I got the Assam, both nice and strong. (Note to self for next time: no need to have a bite between breakfast and afternoon tea - there was that much food).

To try and walk this off, we walked over to Trafalgur Square. Found some cool art...

...saw St. Martin-in-the-Fields...

And hey, wait a minute - George Washington, what are you doing here?

According to the inscription, it's a gift from the Commonwealth of Virginia (just Virginia). How sentimental. Hubby told me that Washington vowed never to set foot in England again, so this was sent along with Virginia soil to lay down once it arrived. Ha.

Later we stopped at M&M World, a four-level store devoted to M&Ms. Holy cow was it crowded.

 You could make your own mixes. Sadly (and weirdly) there were no peanut butter M&Ms for hubby, or mint M&Ms for me.

We spent more time walking around and eventually got to Fortnum and Mason, a huge department store/foodie paradise. We got some tea, jam, and even some new fancy shaving cream for the hubby.

On our way back to the hotel, I wanted to get some Pinkberry, my favorite frozen yogurt from back in the states. The closest one to us in Germany is in London. Luckily, it's in the same shopping area as Selfridges, which was close to our hotel.

I can't tell you how delicious this was - I haven't had it since the end of June! Oh yum.

We also picked up a few more pies for dinner (yup -ate frozen yogurt first, yeah vacation!). We both got this amazing lamb, chickpea and chorizo blend, half price since they were closing up, too! Score. We took it back to the hotel and watched some Netflix.

This was a really packed day so we were exhausted. Did I mention that since we were in the UK, I told hubby he had to switch sides of the bed, too? Good thing it was a king-size and neither one of us rolled off.

On holiday

...come back on Friday!

Mainz Oktoberfest: Re-cap

So hubby and I got our stuff together on Saturday afternoon and headed to catch the tram/light rail thingy to the closest station. We were packed pretty tightly into the tram and once we got off it was a sea of people waiting for a shuttle to the Oktoberfest area. It took awhile but compared to grabbing a taxi, was super economical.

It's all enclosed so no worries about being too chilly. Our host was Grant who scored us a super sweet table and loaded us up with beers. Here's a shot of the stage before the band got there.

Hubby: "How will we ever drink all of these?"

 I know! I'll stand up! Check out his awesome feather that was purchased at the Munich Oktoberfest.

 Sometimes we danced on the floor and not on the benches... slightly safer.

 And of course I got some spatzel for dinner. This one came with delicious creamy cucumber salad.

 I really tarted it up with the eye makeup this time...

 It was a dance party, after all! And the adjoining table was full of members from the Mainz football team! We're so cool.

 The hanging lights were covered in fuzzy stuff. Not sure why, but they were neat.

 Some guy dancing...

 Everyone dancing!

 Me and hubby with our beers.

Here's me standing on the bench.

These guys like pointing at the camera a lot. Maybe it's so they have something to focus on so they won't fall over.

 Here's a shot of our table (and the footballers down at the end). And all of our beer.

And yes, some funky short videos!

They play all sorts of music. We heard everything from traditional German, alternative, and oldies:

Quite a fun time, very different from Munich. It was pretty nice sleeping in my own bed at the end, but I definitely did not have a good Sunday. Next time, I'll drink more water during the day and make sure to order extra food when we get there - in all the excitement, we missed out on ordering apple strudel and getting some souvenirs! Next time, next time...