Here we go again!

So, this week I started my 2nd semester at Dortmund. A year ago...well actually a few months ago... I had no idea I'd actually be living here for a year instead of 6 months. My flight back home February 26th left without me, but just barely. I didn't have the resolve to actually cancel the plane ticket until 2 days before.

I haven't updated since the end of January. A lot can happen in two and a half months!
 In January I went to see Henry Rollins in Cologne for my Birthday (it's January 26! Aquarius whoop whoop!). I'm a huge fan, and the show was as great as I had expected! I was right next to the stage. He came to Germany for the first time on his birthday, and I saw him for the first time on my birthday my first time in Germany. It was nice to be able to just buy a show ticket and take a train (for free- thanks semesterticket!)and then the subway to a show. So much freedom. In the states it would have been a complicated carpool situation and along drive. At his show I laughed, I cried, I agreed, I disagreed... and it was amazing.

He really embodies my philosophy on being American, and further, being an American who loves to travel:

'I want something that will educate me. I want to out into the world and learn a thing or two. I think we as a species; we need to travel more. All of you need to leave your country on a regular basis. Trust me your country will still be here when you get back. I just think it’s important for people to go to countries where they’re not familiar, where they definitely look like they’re not from there, they need to eat food that they cannot pronounce the name of, listen to music that they can’t understand, and shake the hands of everyone and say crazy things like, “Hey! What’s going on?” I think we need to do this more often, thus we become xenophobic, living a boring, flat-lined, fucked up life. This is why I travel.'

-Henry Rollins

Or, a story he told in Cologne about his Black Flag tour days about a spun out disgruntelled fan who got shanked in front of him' Go, go have a picnic in your blood'. Lol. Henry.

February was stressful, finals and then a break where I stressed myself out wondering if I would actually stay for a second semester and also worrying about my last semester back home (graduation!). Homesickness on a month long school break is the worst, there were much fewer distractions (oh, besides the whole living in amazing Germany thing which should have been enough!). And then I spent March in a Mon-Fri German language intensive course, and actually passed it this time with a hard earned B-, or in German terms a 2,3. So many new students!! Last semester there were maybe 9 Americans, and now there are a couple dozen if not more. It's like when I go to Dusseldorf and here English being spoken randomly. Tt feels so out of place. But it has been fun getting to know new people.

Also in March, I moved dorms from Studentdorf to Ostenbergstrasse. Since I had unexpectedly extended my stay there I had to move since my subleaser was coming back. I live 8 floors up(luckily with an elevator, it has only broken once so far. Walking. Stairs. Welcome to Germany lol), and have a great view of the sunrise and sunset as well as birds EVERY DAY! It's my favorite part of living here. Yes, It's a little further away than my old dorm but my roommates are extremely nice and so it's a fair trade I'd prefer any day. My new roommate Lily took this gorgeous picture.

There is a big field I walk through to get to the dorm. I keep seeing people walk their dogs, and also their are a couple house cats constantly on the prey or perched in a tree. It makes me miss my pets so much(Fun fact: you can take your dog, any size, into stores here. AND on the train!)! I have been joking since I got here that Dortmund should have a loan pet program for exchange students, but I'm serious. I mean there must be some pound kittens who need some love until they get adopted? Some kind of student run foster care? I can't wait to get back home to Baby Ray & Luna. I will probably look like this every day*:

*Except Ranger 'baby ray' Jones is way cuter. And more obese.

So, I'm glad the last semester is over but I still don't know how anything transfers here or what half my final grades were. Here, they use the 2 months of holidays to do final portfolios, exams, and papers. I could never go to college 4-5 years straight here without a break. Also the credit system is strange, and I'm faced with the dilema or transfering credits or not and how they will affect my GPA. even if I transfer a B, since I have an A GPA it will still hurt it. This is refering to LAST semester, this semester is 100% free tuition, Germany style :).

This first week of class has gone ok. They had to make a second A2 level German class last minute and I'm not sure the professor fits my learning style as much as the class I actually signed up for...but it is Monday & Wednesday instea dof MOnday & Friday which frees up my weekend betetr to travel. My A2 German conversation teacher is Amazing, however! She is so upbeat and instead of telling you what a word means in English she draws a picture or mimes it so her class is in 100% german... I'm going to learn so much! Of Course I like complex grammar to be explained in English, but other than that it needs to be 100% in German so I can figure out some of this dang language before I leave. Now I ask 'Sprechen Sie Englische?' Far less than I did the first semester. I may not get it all right, but I at least understand more or less and can get my point across, however gramatically poor (except I did accidentally say a student was stuck in a 4th floor broke elevator to someone when I meant to just say the elevator was broken...but you can't win them all!). I also am taking a two times a week free Italian class (the language center here is free. Take note, largely monolingual America cough cough ) because I am going to a family friend's wedding in Sicily in June. Mi chiamo Mercedes! Sono di Montevallo, I am from Montevallo! (how do you say Sono di Ex-navy brat\no home town? Close enough.). And on top of that, I am taking a drawing class which looks to be mostly independent study, and also will be volunteering again at an elementary school helping with English. I couldn't volunteer there over the break because my German class tookup all the school day, and I kind of miss those crazy kids. Even after having to untie them from crudely wrought rope bindings fastened to soccer goal posts they MacGyver during PE and reminding them to not cut their neighbor's hair with safety scissors. And that I'm not British. Or married.

Hopefully I think the words 'What the hell is going on??' at least just a couple times a day instead of all the time this semester.Or maybe not I guess what's the whole point of doing so many new things without it turning your world upside down. Complacency and normalcy are pretty big factors in my wanderlust, anyways... that's hwo I ended up here. Bored, looking for some newness. Whenever I skype my parents I strike a thoughtful pose and ask them if I look like a 'seasoned world traveller' yet... and they laugh...and then I start asking them to bring Ray Ray up to the webcam one more time.

Well here I go again, another semester abroad as an undergrad art student! My third. I don't know how I got so lucky.

Next post: Someone requested a Dortmund bunnies post! Wish granted.

My Life Since September: Part 2 (I decided to stay a 2nd semester, get a job, go to Berlin, see a soccer game and Dortmund had a huge Christmas market)

November: During my trip to Florence I talked a lot with Malvina about how my time in Dortmund was going by so fast and that I wanted to stay for a year. I was scared; I had a non refundable plane ticket, dwindling savings account and no job. But after that trip and having so much fun traveling I knew I wanted to try to make it work. I had this feeling deep down that I just needed to make it happen. And so I talked with my mother about the possibility of me staying. It would be a free tuition semester. But it would mean not seeing them for a year and added financial instability. She left it up to me, and I decided yes and made arrangements with the international office. It was such a hard decision to make! I had e-mailed many professors in the American Studies department explaining my situation and asking to forward any job leads to me all semester but no leads. However, in the middle of November a professor had an ex student who needed an English assistant tutor, and so they e-mailed me because I was recommended to them. After 3 interviews, I got the job! We are still working out scheduling conflicts since I got hired right before Christmas break and everything was hectic, but I think this will work out. I hope it does. If not, I’ll figure out something.

At the end of November, I went to Berlin. I found an amazingly cheap last minute fast speed train ticket for only 24 euros at ltur.com(98 euros was the official train website price for the same ticket…so it was a good deal), and also couch surfed. I didn’t buy the train ticket until after the 2nd interview when I thought I had the job. I couchsurfed with a really fun art student named Amber Sunshine. I would tour around Berlin during the day, and then we would go out together with her friends to bars or to cool restaurants. I thing one of the overwhelming things about Berlin is the amount of history, specifically World War II and the cold war history. To see the Berlin wall, to walk under the Brandenburg gate and to see the Jewish memorial were very emotional events for me. It made the history feel more real, closer in time, not black and white photos in a book but a real nightmare that affected millions. One of the camp survivors in an interview was shot last year…there are concentration camp survivors that are still alive. This was such a poignant reminder for me to not tolerate hate, because of what it can become.

I also saw an amazing exhibition at the Hamburger Banhof Museum in Berlin. It was Tomás Saraceno’s “Cloud Cities”. It was a plastic and plants bubble-shaped interactive utopia that you could literally go inside. Some of the larger structures had stairs going into them. These structures had been exhibited before, but never so many together all at once! He has truly created his own world that really makes the viewer contemplate the function of art as well as the function of our everyday structures like houses. One really nice thing about these installations was that they were enjoyed by people of every age. If you are in Berlin before February 19, I suggest you check it out! More information about the installation can be found here: http://www.hamburgerbahnhof.de/exhibition.php?id=29989. I loved Berlin. Not only because of the history, but It had a grittiness to it and a creative vibe. Malvina’s brother is moving there in April and he keeps saying I can visit and Amber said I can couchsurf there anytime. I would love to go back!

Also in November, some of my friends got together for Thanksgiving. I think people from five different countries ended up being there, and it was one of the most… free form yet traditional Thanksgivings I have ever had. It was so fun! The host, my friend Aaron, put fall leaves all over the wall and ground that his mother had shipped from back home in Missouri. I was so happy to be able to celebrate even though I wasn’t at home. And by the way, you wouldn’t believe how hard it is to find pecans in Germany to make pecan pie. I had to end up bringing rosemary mashed potatoes. December: In December, Dortmund became centered on the huge Christmas market. I drank Glühwein (mulled heated wine) so many times at the outdoor Christmas market stalls with everyone that I am honestly surprised my lips aren’t still stained red. Also, Dortmund has the tallest Christmas tree. To be fair it’s actually a bunch of small trees put together but it is still really impressive.

Also in December I went to my first professional soccer game here in Dortmund! The state team was the National Champion of Germany last year. People in Dortmund are really proud of that, it was even on the city's Christmas tree. In the picture above you can see the award you get for winning (the plate shaped Meisterschale). Fans get really serious. I understand why now, it was fun getting caught up in the game.

Well. That’s a pretty good summary of the highlights of the past few months. I have enjoyed Dortmund and all the places I have traveled to so much, and am so happy to be staying here until August. Since I kind of just summarized everything, just comment if you want to hear more about a specific thing I mentioned or place I went to.

What I did during my christmas vacation

Like many of my friends back in Montevallo, my classes starts back Monday at TU Dortmund. Honestly, one of the main reasons I almost backed out of going to Germany for this semester was that I knew because of the semester schedule here (it isn't over until the end of January), I would be spending Christmas away from my family. I can deal with homesickness and missing friends, but being without family on Christmas was something that made me sad to think about.

However while I still missed my family, this Christmas was a dream come true that I have had for years: reuniting with the neighbors who adopted my family when we lived in Sicily. And because of some top-notch Facebook sleuthing from my mom (do you know how many Giuseppe's there are in Sicily?), we got back in touch! And when I asked when a good time would visit would be, they said they would love to have me over for Christmas. Living in Sicily and being friends with their family is a very cherished memory in my family because of how often we moved around due to being a military family before my dad retired from the Navy. We lived in Sicily 4 years, which makes it the place I've lived longest outside of Alabama out of my total of a dozen or so moves (military brat for life!). They had our first address after we moved but after that they couldn't send anything. And we never really knew how much our families had meant to each other after all this time until I saw our family portrait on their wall in the middle of portraits of her kids & grandkids, and I told them that we did the same. Enzo, Enza, Carmelo, Giana and their son and his fiance all met me at the airport. Hugs all around, and Enza & Giana deathgripped my arm and kept joking that I was their prisoner. I was home!

I spent a wonderful 8 days there. We shared memories through my shaky understanding of Italian (I learned how to read & write in Italian before English, so I remember some) and interpreting through Nicko's fiance Esther. But mostly we communicated through huge bear hugs, tears of joy, and Giana's amazing cooking! The picture is of Christmas day lunch at Carmello's mother's house. 87 and happy (bottom left). I not only got to see everyone I missed so much, but Esther and Nicko also took me all around Sicily showing me different interesting places like Mt. Etna and Catania. Enzo documented most of these and made a DVD of the photos to send to my parents since they could not be here. They also took me to see my old house in Nicolosi, a village at the base of Mt. Etna.

Here is a picture of me in front of my old house.
I stayed with Enzo and Enza (landlords of the house)the first half and Giana and Carmelo (neighbors) the second. And because of Skype, I was able to let everyone talk with my parents on christmas eve! I will always remember Ginevra (Giana & Carmelo's son Giuseppe got married to Loredona, and that's one of their daughters) waiting for midnight so Babbo Natale would bring her gifts. When my family was on skype I looked at her and said "tua famiglia americana"- your American family. Her mom taught her how to say Merry Christmas in English, it was adorable. Dortmund has a Italian class, maybe I can study Italian next semester as well and start relearning something I was fluent in as a kid.

Ginevra is in both pictures, the woman holding the baby (Virginia) is Loredona, and her husband Giuseppe. His parents Carmelo and Giana (aka my surrogate grandmother while I was unable to see mine for 4 years)are with me and Ginevra in the other picture. The bought me the outfit as well as other things as a gift for Christmas. They wanted me to have "Italian style". Like I said, they treated me like family.

I felt so lucky to be able to reconnect after all this time! It meant so much to me reminiscing with them and making new memories. I also spent time with sara and her family, as well as Enzo's son Peppe and his family. I promised to come back in June for Nicko & Esther's wedding, she even asked me to be a bridesmaid. It was a truly magical trip more perfect that I could have hoped for, filled with love, happy tears, memories and Sicilian food. Giana said she always wondered how I turned out, and was so proud of me. I must be doing something right! When it was time to leave, I had to fight back tears. I said goodbye to everyone either night before or that morning, and when they took me to the airport they made sure my bag was stuffed with food in case I got hungry during my trip. Giana now has the permanent address of a house we have a mortgage on, and not the address of a house on a military base that we will leave in a few months or year.

If you would like to see more pictures from those 8 days and are a facebook friend of mine, I was an album up. Here's a picture of Esther, Sara and I sightseeing that Enzo took:

That trip was so emotional that I basically hibernated for a few days when I got back, and then enjoyed a trip to Cologne with my Taiwanese roommate Chia-chen and her friends to see New Year's Eve fireworks over the Rhine river! Said goodbye to an amazing year, and said hello to another one. 2011 will be a hard act to follow.

Guten tag, y'all

I am an art major and McNair Scholar at the University of Montevallo in Alabama. I grew up traveling with my family because my father was in the Navy, and continued that family tradition with my first study abroad in 2009 when I studied art and Portuguese at the Universidade Federal de Goias for six months of 2009 in Brazil.

Now, I am getting ready to leave August 18th to be an art student at TU Dortmund in Germany. 

I made this blog to keep everyone back home updated with my travel planning, pre-semester travels through Spain and France, and my semester at Dortmund where I will be located until the end of February.

Thanks for reading, I'm so excited to get this trip going!