Willkommen in Deutschland! (Welcome to Germany!)

Germany was absolutely amazing!!! We first went to Berlin, then to Gransee (my grandpa's hometown where he grew up), and finally to Hannover. We were completely exhausted by the end of our trip, but we loved this country!
These are just a handful of pictures that I took during our weekend trip.

Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate)

Reichstag building (and dome on top)

Berlin's main train station (Berlin Hauptbahnhof)

Question, how exactly does this sculpture stay upright?

Checkpoint Charlie

Me in front of parts of the Berlin Wall (Berliner Mauer). Fact: Chapman University (where I go to school back in the states) has a section of it.

= )

Waiting in line to go into the Reichstag ("Dem Deutschen Volke" means "To/For the German People")

These little birds kept us company as we waited in the entrance.

We to the lift all the way up to the top. It was really really really cold!!

Me in front of the Dome at the top of the Reichstag.

Kate and I taking our pictures in the reflection inside the Dome.

At the top of the Dome.

The spiraling walkways going up and down the Dome overlooking Berlin.

We made our way to the Sony Center to go see a movie (HP7 to be exact). Two things we learned about cinemas here: 1) there are assigned seats and 2) there is an intermission.

 Here's a video of inside the amazing Sony Center! It had everything from fine dining to an IMAX cinema.

The Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom). Absolutely beautiful at night.

The main road in my grandpa's hometown, Gransee.

These were the friendliest sheep I've ever met! They came running over to us!

The church in my grandpa's hometown. He used to sing here when he was a boy!

This is the old monastery which is also where my grandpa went to school.

This is the house my grandpa grew up in!! (He lived upstairs and his father's business was downstairs)

We came out of the main train station in Hannover and wow!! Look at all the Christmas decorations! Berlin and Hannover was definitely decorated to the maximum with lights and Christmas trees. Everyone in Hannover also seemed to be enjoying a night out in town.

Who doesn't love a bear doing a handstand? Actually we saw loads of these kinds of bears all over Germany, but I must say that this was one of my favorites!

An old church ruin it seemed.

The archer statue in front of the Town Hall.

I loved walking through the streets of Hannover!

Germany was such an amazing experience!!
This last Thursday of course was Thanksgiving. This was my first Thanksgiving away from my family, but myself and three other American students here planned and prepared an entire Thanksgiving dinner! A lot of Irish students also came to have dinner with us so it was really neat to share our culture with them. It was also their first time trying a lot of the food, such as pumpkin pie = ). It will definitely be a Thanksgiving that I will always remember!
It is starting to get really cold here in Northern Ireland which means, SNOW!!! = ) We also went to the Belfast Festive on Saturday (November 27th) and went through the shops and markets. It was such good fun and Belfast was beautifully decorated for Christmas. I will post some of these photos in my next blog.
Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Cheers.

I Want A Talking Elevator

Finally! This post is all about Irish words, phrases, differences, and similarities. But, A WORD OF CAUTION: this post is rated PG-13 as some content may not be suitable for younger children.

So, aside from the accent (which is very prominent at first, especially the Derry one, but now I don't even notice it) the Irish also have different words that they use for certain things.
The first word in the list is what the Irish (could be different depending on certain locations such as Derry, Belfast, or Dublin) use and the second is what we would say in America (or at least in California to make that clarification).

lollies --- popsicles
car park --- parking lot
red sauce --- ketchup
brown sauce --- I still don't know what this is
pavement --- sidewalk
takeaway --- to go
pitch --- field (as in football)
yer man --- what's his face
tele --- TV
mind --- watch (as in "minding the children")
lead --- leash
bobbin --- hair tie
cinema --- movie theater
runners --- tennis shoes
plait --- braid
ring(er) --- call someone on the phone/the phone itself ("give me a ring" or "turn off your ringers" )
queue --- line
slashin' --- pouring rain

Ok now these can be a bit confusing (especially when said quickly). Ready?

chips --- fries
crisps --- chips
half to three --- 2:30
half three --- 3:30

And these are just really funny (for Americans that is)

bump --- pregnant belly (ha! I saw this on the cover of a magazine and it said "She's got the bump!!")
craic (pronounced "crack") --- news, fun (So, if someone asks you "where's the craic?", they're really asking  "where's the fun?")
mucker --- friend (Well, that can definitely sound like something else if you didn't hear them correctly!)
humps --- speed bumps (so when you're driving on the road, there are signs that say "Humps for 450 yards")

Now these can either be funny or offensive towards the Irish.

trousers --- pants
pants --- underwear (You might get a look of shock if you accidentally used the word "pants" in a strange connotation)
lift --- ride (do not ask a taxi driver, or anyone really, for a "ride"...)
bum bag --- fanny pack
fanny --- a woman's parts (yikes!! Good thing the Irish have a sense of humor and are most likely going to laugh so hard that they begin to cry if you say this word.)

The Irish also say words like "wee", "loads", "grand", and "aye" whenever possible (although some people from certain areas do not say these words and have different words that they use, like "lovely").

There are some other differences as well. Obvious ones are the change from degrees Fahrenheit to Celsius and being on the left side of the road. The street signs here are also not on a post on the corner of a street, nor are they hanging from signals. They are mounted on the side of the buildings. Many times, there aren't any street signs on the buildings so you have no idea what street you're on. Speaking of buildings, most building are joined, not separated. I also get a kick out of going up or down the elevators. They talk!! "Door opening", "door closing", "ground floor", "first floor", "second floor"...just imagine these phrases in a robotic English accent = ). And speaking of floors, the "ground floor" is actually the equivalent to the "first floor" in America. Then the "first floor" is actually the "second floor" in America and so on. So upstairs is really considered the "first floor" here.

Ok then, hope you enjoyed that! If you want to know about any more differences or have questions (queries...ha!) of your own, just let me know (that was literally just a handful of them)!

Here's a side note. I am very excited to say that my piece for the choreography class that I'm in has been chosen to be performed in the end of semester show!! Only two third year student pieces were chosen and mine was one of them! I'm excited to be able to say that a piece of mine will be performed in Northern Ireland.
Speaking of choreography, I have a choreography reel that I recently uploaded on youtube. It contains clips from some of my works from the years 2005-2010. Here's the link if you'd like to check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d41ouMSWTcA

I shall be in Germany starting on Thursday!! I'm so excited for this trip especially because I will be visiting my grandpa's (who's currently 98 years old) hometown where he grew up!!

Until then. Cheers.

All the signs are in Gaelic! (Galway & Aran Islands)

Hello all,
Last weekend (October 29-31), our program took us to Galway and the Aran Islands (specifically Inishmore). There are about 800-900 people who live on Inishmore and the daily language spoken there is Gaelic. We took the bus, then the ferry to and from the island.
I also had my first ever three course meal in Galway. Never again do I EVER want a three course meal. "Uncomfortably full" is an understatement. It was also Halloween weekend, so Galway was filled with people in costume.
Alright, enjoy the pictures!

We got to the Aran Islands and hired (rented) bikes. We would then be able to go and explore the island.

The cows were completely undisturbed by our presence.

I loved this horse! He had his furry winter coat = )

I was taking pictures while I was biking, hence the crooked photo. But note all the stone walls. I would estimate that they were about 3 feet tall.

Look who came to say hello to us! He was a very nice dog = )

Here is where the bike ride started to get a bit dodgy. We decided that we wanted to find "The Worm Hole" (I haven't a clue as to why it is called this) which is along the cliffs of the coastline.

We had to stop and ask some of the locals where to find it. They were very helpful and were also very interested in where we were from and what we thought of the island.

We found it! Clearly marked. haha

Beautiful. Although, there were loads of unstable rocks that you see on the right side of the photo. We had to climb across them to reach the shore line.

The waves were thunderous as they crashed against the rocks!

Oh man. This bike ride should have come with a warning. We had to bike all the way up and over that mountain ahead.

This horse watched us as we trekked up the hill! So cute!

Amazing views, but I just have to say that I'm glad I trained and rode in the Tour de Cure! That sure helped me out a lot!

Almost there! Look how far we've come! We were at the coast on the left side of the photo.

Look! Water on both sides! = ) Well, this is the one time where the phrase "it's all downhill from here" is actually a good thing. Although, we did have to stop and walk our bikes downhill a few times because of the gravel road. And, in general, the roads here were so bumpy that my arms were tingling from the vibration of the handle bars!

 = )

The Aran Sweater Market (hand-knitted sweaters and more) on the left and the restaurant we at at (Bayview Restaurant) on the right.

 

On the way back to Derry, we stopped at the Ulster-American Folk Park. And look what we found! Chickens! There were so many and they were just running around everywhere!

Geese as well.

And a rooster.

The view from the "viewpoint" in the park. Love the horse of course = )

Hope you enjoyed that!

Now, I have a challenge for all of my readers!!!! = )
I just learned about a study done about the variability of walking tempos (or rhythms) in different cities around the world. The results showed that (not surprising to me) Dublin was the city that had the quickest walking speed! It was calculated that, on average, it takes a Dubliner 10.76 seconds to walk 60 feet (20 meters). SO, I challenge you to first, measure out 60 feet. Then time yourself as to how long it naturally takes you to walk across that distance (do a couple of trials to get an average). Then, try to walk across that distance in 10.76 seconds like the people in Dublin. Does if feel fast? Natural? Too slow? Let me know what you think!!! = )

Cheers