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!!

1 note | | Nov 22, 2010
  1. krosebrook posted this