KRosebrook

Climbing trees, thanksgiving and more

12.8

Two weeks ago (on Nov 22 after all my visitors left) I spent a lot of time working on classwork. I had a small presentation on Monday, and Tuesday it rained like mad and we just went to the library to research images in children’s books for our studio project. I spent Wednesday, Thursday and part of Friday hunched over my laptop and my arduino board, building a simplified prototype of an interactive piece for my sculpture class. (Though I also found time for a mini pajama party watching Away We Go and to try some veggie Chili Sin Carne at the Weinachtsmarkt!) Friday the 26th we had the first real snow of the year… it wasn’t much, but it was beautiful to wake up to.

Saturday the girls and I woke up early to get to Oberhausen to participate in Tree2Tree, a climbing park / obstacle course. I don’t know the official name of the sport, but Will and I spotted it the week before and wanted to try it, though we were too late in the day for the training. We arrived in the cold, not knowing if they would even be open due to a little ice that was sticking everywhere, but they were, and they let us brave the ice in the trees! This was a really fun and new experience for me. I love zip lines! Each course lasts a little less than an hour, and we spent 4 hours monkeying around until the “schwer” course proved a little too much. I was pleasantly surprised by my own abilities, even if I did kind of fall here.

Sunday was my belated Thanksgiving dinner… a truly international one! Luckily all my friends here are incredible and really wanted to share the holiday with me. We all cooked our own dishes and brought them to Rao’s apartment. It was a little chaotic with everyone in the kitchen… just like Thanksgiving should be. I even made everyone say what they’re thankful for. I think I almost cried. Everything was delicious, and it was worth the hours I spent preparing tofurkey and gravy, unstuffed stuffing and pumpkin pie.

On the 29th it was back to class, but we were surprised by a really big snowfall and we played in it quite a bit. Tuesday I worked on my studio project and Wednesday was a pretty lazy day after our class was cancelled… Maeva and I sat around watching How I Met Your Mother (season one) while I crocheted and she origamied. Thursday we decided to go to Hattingen, a cute little town near Essen to check out their Christmas market. The buildings there are older and it’s a nice environment, except it was 15 degrees that day and windy. We grabbed some chestnuts and cotton candy and then headed home to make a crêpe dinner with our friends.

Friday was a bit lazy again, until Maeva and I decided to go shopping for some fancy Christmas clothes, and later we met Linus at Marius’s birthday party in South Essen. It was a great long night which even featured Loopin’ Louie, a favorite game from my childhood. After sleeping through most of the morning, we prepared for an Erasmus dinner at Christa’s house (our international advisor and Linus’s mother). She was extremely generous to let 12 students join them for dinner, and made us a giant pot of yummy ratatouille. I also brought a salad and a second pumpkin pie, and we had a lot of drinks and generally a great time talking to our hosts. Linus and his sister Nora joined us, and papa Dieter took pictures, changed the music and washed dishes, all with good spirit.

This week has been filled with even more work than last week. I think this means it’s crunch time? Time to wrap up my projects and return to good old Ohio! I miss you and I can’t wait for the holidays! However this also means it’s time for goodbyes. Already said goodbye to Rao on Tuesday night, and we’re hoping to have a couple get-togethers this weekend. See you soon on the other side of the ocean…

My many visitors!

11.22

Two weeks ago after my return from Berlin I had my first presentation in my studio course. Everything went smoothly thanks to my wonderful teammates, Maeva and Cristina. However, I was coming down with a cold and I was sweaty and nervous most of the day. I rested a lot that week and took a lot of medicine alongside my tea with honey, and I recovered quickly. Thursday night I had dinner in Werden with Teresa and I ate Raclette for the first time. Friday I worked on the project before going to Monheim to see a friend’s friend and his band… his name is Daniel Gardenier and he’s pretty good. We had a good time, despite the 3 hour journey back home between buses and trains. I didn’t get to sleep much… but I was excited in the morning to pick up my parents and Kelsey in Düsseldorf! Unfortunately the huge amount of rain cancelled my train and stranded me at my dorm a bit longer than anticipated, but I followed a couple locals to another U-bahn stop and arrived at the airport just a little later than I had hoped. It was really exciting to see other Rosebrooks here in Germany!!

Although they were jet-lagged and the weather was schlecht, my family was in good spirits and they were excited to see Essen. I helped them get to their hotel, and then we spent the morning checking out Villa Hügel and Werden. In the afternoon I showed them my school and we walked around the beginnings of the Christmas market before having an early dinner, a nice warm Glühwein and crashing into bed (some of us more than others). Sunday we checked out the Alte Synagogue, which has a pretty cool little exhibit on past and modern Jewish life in this part of Germany. Then we headed to Zollverein to have a full 2-hour tour of Schacht XII, for which Maeva joined us. That took up most of the day, and then in the evening we had a nice long dinner in Ruttenscheid, followed by a beer at an Irish pub in the area.

Monday morning I rushed the fam onto a train to Amsterdam, wishing them all well on the rest of their European adventure. Thirty minutes later I was welcoming Will back to Essen and showing him the shiny new Hauptbahnhof. Unfortunately I had to drag him to class with me for the next couple days, but he had the chance to say hi to Hassenzahl again and a few of his former classmates, as well as watch my team present our ideas and talk to the representative from 3M who is sponsoring our project. Tuesday was my birthday and everyone was really great and followed me to a vegetarian restaurant called Zodiac which was highly recommended by some guy who wrote a book I read. It was delicious and I got some nice thoughtful gifts :)

Wednesday I finished my sculpture class and so Will and I could break away to do a little sight-seeing. We went to Bottrop with Maeva to see the Tetrahedron, which is huge and actually kind of scary. We tried to watch the Matrix at our pajama party that night but I fell asleep :( Thursday we ran around Gruga park to look at Bonsai trees and we saw a really nice one from 1856. We also climbed another mining tip here in Essen where we found the Slab for the Ruhrgebiet by Richard Serra (American artist). In the evening we met up with Linus and some of his friends, where we tried to go out dancing and ended up at KKC again. They closed at 2:30 and we had to spend 2 hours at McDonalds before we could take the next train home. Much better than taking a cab… I prefer to have 5 dinners in one night. Friday we slept in a while and then explored another part of Essen and Phänomania, a place for SCIENCE. And children. But it was fun. We cooked dinner at home and tried to see the Weinachtsmarkt again, but it closed at 10 and we didn’t really get there in time. We found Temple Bar and had a couple drinks before going home early. Saturday we managed to get to Oberhausen by about 11 to see the Weinachtsmarkt in the daytime, check out the Gasometer in the daytime, and pay a visit to Miniaturwelt! (Which has about 3 different miniature versions of Zollverein at a scale of approximately 1:87.) Simon threw himself a birthday party and we had a good time there Saturday night, chatting with old and new friends. Sunday Will and I found our way to Gelsenkirchen to climb the stairway to heaven… and play the appropriate music for it. It WAS hard to find, but we did it just before dark and just in time to see some amateur fireworks on our way back down.

This week I have to work hard again but I’m throwing a Thanksgiving dinner at the end of it so it should all be worth it… enjoy the holiday everyone!!