Halo Lieben Leute! Hello Lovely People (at least I hope that's what I said). My German abilities are right at that dangerous point. I make attempts now and then, only to learn that I've butchered the pronunciation to bits. Anyways, things are nice here in Deutschland. It's been sunny and the flowers are blooming, and while it's still chilly, it's pleasant. I've been running tons and feeling good. I guess the main point of interest to my dedicated readers is my voyage to the motherland, Britain. Ah, but before I talk about London I should mention that the day we left we had a while to wait for our plane to leave Bremen so we met up with my buddies Andre and Martin and had a grand ole time. There was a traveling fair, just as tacky and wonderful as the one that comes to Dalton in the fall (except they don't showcase the world's largest bull like ours does). We checked out the fair and got to meet several of the boys' friends. It was so cool to be in a large group of people my age again. Doesn't happen much anymore. After the fair we all went back to the boys' apartment and cooked two heaping, delicious pots of chili con carne. Oh yum. I had a simply fabulous time there. Nothing is better than getting to know funny, interesting people over a home cooked meal. But before the chili reached our tummies, my friend Julie and I had to get a move on and start our big adventure.
Everything went fine with the flight, but we soon met some difficulty as a result of our hopeful accommodation plans. We tried out a website called couchsurfers.net where people offer up their couches and sometimes beds for travelers to stay in for free. It's supposed to be a cultural exchange thing that links travelers to locals and everyone can share pieces of their own story. So, beautiful idea, but as the wiser among you can guess, it also has great potential for failure. So, in our case, it wasn't a total failure, but nearly. Julie and I flew cheap with Ryan Air, which meant we had to arrive in a small airport called Stansted London super late, like midnight, and take an hour bus into the city. From there we met this couch surfing lady at the bus station and saw that she was friendly and extremely nice to meet us that late at night, but a little hard to talk to. She's French so English isn't her first language, but something was still off about her. So, with her we had to take another bus that was like an hour long only to get off and have to walk thirty minutes more to her place, with our luggage. I was exhausted and found it creepy to be so far away from everything, and get this, the name of her apartments is "Oman" ha ha! So we get there and discover that we won't be sold into sex slavery, but we will be sleeping in the same tiny, cigarette smelling room as her. Not cool. So Julie looks at me and says, "we're leaving first thing in the morning and getting a hostel", and I wholly agreed. We made it through the night and after our long pilgrimage back to civilization we found a decent hostel that night and a really nice hostel the other nights and started the sight seeing.
Overall impression of London: overwhelmingly grand, but difficult to access. I think I'm a snob of a traveler. I want to see the big stuff, but if I have to share the experience with ten billion other people and spend tons of money to do it, I don't get too worked up about it. Still, it was cool to see such wonders as Big Ben, London Bridge and the Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, various museums and galleries, Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral, and Parliament. We tried to get to know the area a little by going into non-Starbucks cafes and tried to chat up the locals in a tiny Athens-esque pub one night, but we just managed to meet a talkative Canadian who had a bachelor pad on a boat. Strange life choice. On Easter we tried thought we'd find a church service, but as it turns out, it's pretty hard to find a non Catholic church in London. We thought about seeing a Catholic service, but neither of us had ever been to one and decided we'd probably screw up some ritual and would feel really uncomfortable. So, we found a small protestant church. I was amazed at the similarities between a service there and one at Holly Creek Baptist. Similar songs, same vocabulary to talk about Jesus, same alter call. Small world, I guess. After the service there was a free meal. Being the poor travelers we were, this sounded great so we joined them for a tasty pasta and salad meal with ice cream for dessert. We learned that the catch to a "free" meal was having to listen to people blab our ears off. Dunno how, but we managed to sit beside the one man in the church who had to investigate and then argue everything. From our religious beliefs to our perspectives on marriage and dating at our age, he saw no boundaries in where he'd take a conversation. Julie got tied up with him while I listened to a Spanish lady talk about her abusive marriage which ended her faith in the Catholic Church and having to learn English all on her own to survive. Oye. We left the church feeling drained. Did we have signs on our backs saying "We're young and nice so you can tell us all your woes and thoughts because we're silly enough to listen?"
To decompress from that pro bono social work, we decided to take a cheap boat ride down the Thames to see the city from a different perspective. It was a fabulous decision. We were lucky that the weather was sunny and relatively warm and there was a guide that gave us a brief history of the buildings alongside the river. The boat docked at the majestic Greenwich Village where we walked around the royal gardens and took a look at the trade market as the vendors closed everything down. (We'd have seen everything if we hadn't stayed at the church so long...grrr). I did have a chance to eat Ethiopian vegetables and buy Elisa a bracelet made from a fork though. We headed back to London soon after and contemplated what an unusual but interesting Easter we'd had.
The last full day we decided we'd seen enough of London and we wanted to take a bus ride to the city of Oxford. I actually enjoyed the ride out there because there was lots of pretty country side to see. Once there, I concluded that if my nine year old self had been given permission to just run around the old, scholarly buildings of Oxford, I'd have been the happiest kid in the world. My 23 year old self still had fun. Julie and I kept having giggle fits as she feigned hyperventilation due to the fact that the stars of Harry Potter had been in those halls to record bits of the movie. We got to see the dining hall that inspired the gorgeous one in the movies, but sadly there were no floating candles or pitchers of butter beer. It was neat to be in a place where some of the world's brightest brains have walked around. However, I think Julie and I are the only people to have gone to Oxford and have our I.Q.s lowered. We made the imbecilic decision to see a movie there since we never get to see English movies in Germany, but we'd have been better off watching the Oxford grass grow. We saw the film "Remember Me" with that Robert Pattinson guy from the Twilight movies, and oh my heavens, was it bad. I mean BAAADD. No plot, terrible dialogue, insanely bad acting, and worst of all, they kill off the main character at the end in the twin towers on 9/11. On a plus side, Julie and I had a lot of fun griping about it the rest of the trip. And oh, the rest of the trip was exhausting. Our flight left at 6 the next morning which meant we had to take the 3 a.m. bus to the airport. We decided to pull an all nighter and the lady at the hostel was nice enough to let us stay downstairs in the common area until we had to go. We chatted with some nice people, and then lost track of time and had to rush to the bus to get to the station, but it all worked out. By the time we were on the plane I was too tired to care that we were delayed because the doors on the plane wouldn't shut. They eventually did, and to my knowledge, didn't open during the flight : ) I had to wait once more for my train to leave Bremen and by lunch time I was back in good old Edewecht, tired to the point of delusion. I played with Piet for a bit and then took a nap. Still slept like a baby that night. Traveling is not for sissies.
So, London ended up to be a lot of strange little experiences within a gigantic city. I don't think I'll want to go back unless I'm with people who've lived there and can show me the day to day side of it all. Seeing things through tourist eyes slants everything. Still, Julie and I got a lot closer and she's a friend I'll cherish for years to come.
Since I've been back I've hung out with Elisa, Yvonne, and Daniele and I'm still so glad that they're here. It's amazing how necessary friends are. Piet and I have had a great couple of weeks and I'm beginning to realize how hard and weird it will be to leave him at the end of June. He's figured out that saying things like "You're the greatest au pair in the whole world" just melt my heart. I think he picked up that phrase after I described my favorite chocolate in the whole world, but I'll take it just the same. He spent the weekend with his grandparents and asked if I'd come with his parents to pick him up Sunday. I did, and on the car ride home he looked at me and said, "It's so good to see you again." Melt Melt. We've been taking long bicycle rides and, of course, building trains. I think these last months will be really fun.
Still no news from Boston, they now say they'll reach a decision at the end of April. Maybe it was silly to put all my eggs in one basket, but I really want to be in Boston. Still, I'm trying not to count my chickens before they hatch. (Southern expressions are golden). I am quite sure I'll be heart broken if I don't get in, but something else will come up if I don't. I'd have more time at home, and that would be nice. Mamma and I have a tentative plan for our Dotson Family Vacation. Looks like we'll hit up Prague, Salzburg, and Munich and then fly back up here to the north and they can meet my host family and see Oldenburg, Bremen, and Hamburg. That's a lot of cities, so the plan may shorten or change all together, but I'm liking it for now. It's so fun to get to combine worlds.
So, just keepin on keepin on over here. Julie and I are planning to see the band "She and Him" in Berlin at the end of the month and my friend Lea from Athens will be here in mid May. Oh, the love of friends. Going to clean some veggies today and then hopefully Daniele will come to Edewecht and I'll leave him in the dust as we run : ) Missing everyone at home, as always, but so happy that the time is flying and the sun is shining. Enjoy your enviable swimming pool weather! Bis Spaeter!
