Hey there and happy New Year! Hope you all had a great holiday season. I missed being away from my family on Christmas - it was a first for me - but I had a great time here! David is here visiting me and we spent the holidays traveling in three countries in three weeks! It was AMAZING!
We spent Christmas in Paris - ha! I'm beginning to feel like I know that city pretty well! As you know, my aunt lives there and she was incredibly nice and let us stay in her apartment while she was visiting my family back home. She decorated a beautiful little Christmas tree for us and left us all sorts of goodies. David and I walked around quite a bit and went to see Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, and the Arch de Triumph. David enjoyed it a lot - especially Notre Dame. For most of the rest of our time there, we stayed in from the cold cooking romantic meals, calling home to our families and friends, and using our Christmas gifts. My family sent me a drawing book and pencils, so I practiced drawing eggs and walnuts for a while.
The day after Christmas, we went to my aunt's friend's house for dinner. We had a great time talking with Isobelle and Claude over wine and the delicious meal she prepared. David and I both enjoyed seeing a bit further into Parisian culture through our hosts while we talked about music, history and food.
On the 27th, we flew to England to spend New Year's Eve in Manchester where a Granada friend of mine, Luce is from. We stayed at her house with Jake, Katy and Luce's boyfriend Nehad, so it was a party wherever we went. VERY GOOD TIMES! One night we went out to a pub to meet all of
Nehad's friends. We stayed there for hours and then went to one of their houses for a party. Jake, Luce, and I had a good time the next day filling everyone in on all the craziness that happened. Not everyone else had the good fortune of remembering.
We got out into nature a little bit while out there in England. We climbed up a very muddy and very steep hill. It was really nice to get outside with the trees and wind and the view from the top was pretty breathtaking. But alas, I fell in the mud coming back down! Yeah, it was a hardcore fall into the mud... too bad those pictures didn't quite turn out, huh?
For New Year's we just stayed in and didn't try to jinx our evening - all of us agreed that New Year's Eve tends to be a let down if too much planning goes into it. So we relaxed, drank some, watched Finding Neverland, and played games. We were so laid back that it was 12:15 when we looked at the clock to see how much time was left until midnight. Haha!! I hope I have many a similar New Year in the future!
On New Year's Day we flew to Munich, Germany and were picked up by my friend Nina who I lived with last year when she was studying abroad in San Jose. Neither David nor I had a clue as to what to expect while we were in Germany aside from enjoying Nina's company and meeting her family, boyfriend, and horse... But I can't emphasize enough what an amazing time we had there! Nina and her parents were incredible! They cooked for us and made us so comfortable in their home in Kaufbeuren. Their home, by the way - AMAZING! It's very spacious and bright and modern, but comfortable, and decorated beautifully. Her mom could be a top-notch interior designer!

It snowed the next morning (making the house that much more magical)! We went with Nina and her boyfriend, Basti to Kutschenverkehr Neuschwanstein castle. We took a horse-drawn carriage in the snow up the mountain to the castle. It's rather remarkable. One of the most picturesque, fairy-tale like castles I've ever seen. We didn't go inside of it - mostly because I didn't bring very good shoes for the snow, and by the time we were at the top of the mountain, my socks we drenched in ice water and I knew I should really take care of that sooner rather than later. We came back down the hill and had a German lunch in a restaurant right there at the bottom of the mountain.
Later that day Natasha (who also studied in SJSU last year) and her boyfriend Frederick came over! Seeing them again was really great! It's almost hard to believe we were able to reunite on the other side of the world! But I'm definitely glad it happened. Nina's parents prepared schnitzel accompanied by the best potato salad I've ever had in my life - lovingly prepared by her grandmother.
The next day David and I took a train into Munich. The train ride itself was enjoyable - Bavaria certainly has beautiful countryside. When we arrived at the Munich station, we were a bit lost in the huge-ness of the place, but soon we were pointed in the direction we were headed and saw the highlights of the city. We did one of those bus tour things, you know, where you ride around in a goofy red bus with headphones telling you in your choice of 8 languages about the city's facts? Well, it was fun actually, especially considering we had no clue what we would spend our time doing in a city so unknown to us. The tour pointed out a former Nazi headquarters building and talked a lot about what happened in Munich during World War II. I'm glad the tour was able to give me that perspective of the city. Its a very beautiful place, but was once a torn-up war zone. Its interesting walking around not knowing what might have happened decades before in the same areas and wondering how much or how many have been forgotten.
We got off of the bus in an area where there was this famous market. It was a nice place to walk around. All the food looked really good, but we just looked at it since it was a bit pricy. David and I walked around the city quite a bit before heading back. I wasn't unimpressed with the place, but I'd definitely like to see it again in the Spring or Summer when I'm sure it's a lot more exciting and picturesque.
Nina also introduced us to her horse, Landino. This guy is HUGE!!! I've seen a lot of horses, but I've never met one like this with ears so high I couldn't reach them. He's a magnificent horse. Very smart. Nina demonstrated some of his tricks for us in the stable. I think it's so amazing what you can teach an animal to do. She let me ride him a little bit too. He was so tall though!!! haha... it took me 3 tries to get on top of him! haha. Poor horse. I may or may not have kicked him more than once in my mounting attempts.
I think it was that night Nina took us to an Italian restaurant for dinner. Mmmmm!!!!
Then we went with her to a pub to meet a friend she works with. It was his birthday, and as is customary, I guess, he bought rounds of drinks. We only meant to stay for one, but somehow David was granted 4 drinks and we stayed for a while chatting with some new German friends.







The next two nights we spent in Nina's apartment in Augsberg, where she studies. We got to see both that town and Ulm, the city where Basti studies. He showed us around for a while and then had to go to play hockey. Ulm is BEAUTIFUL!!! Its so charming! There were cute little houses, swans swimming in the river, and cobblestone everwhere. There was also a giant cathedral with what is reportedly the tallest steeple in the world. Basti told me the cathedral is actually Protestant, which suprised me. I didn't know Protestant cathedrals like that existed. According to Basti, it used to be Catholic, but is now Protestant.













We really had a fantastic time in Germany and David and I had more than one fanciful conversation about learning the language and relocating. From what we saw in our few days there, the theme of Germany is: efficiency. It's every bit as modern as the US, but I didn't sense an all too familiar wastefulness I come to expect back home. Well, the least we can say is we were given a great impression of the country and were actually quite humbled by our experience.
The time came to return to Spain. David and I flew to Barcelona and stayed one night after a romantic dinner and a bit of walking around. The city seems great, but we really didn't get a chance to properly visit it. Sometime soon I'll be going back there. Our flight to Malaga was the next morning and from there we took a bus back to Granada. With the exception of the theft of a piece of luggage, our trip was terrific and went unbelievably smooth! Special GIGANTIC thanks to Aunt Lilly, Luce and Nehad, and Nina and family for your hospitality and generosity. I can't believe what David and I just got to do together! I'm sure we'll reminisce over these few weeks for years to come.
He's still here for a little over a week more. We're having a great time together in Granada, but he'll have to leave all too soon :( Well, another busy semester to keep me occupied is around the corner. I've got lots of travel plans and little projects I'm working on. I'll be sure to keep you in the know as far as what I'm up to. Until next time, take care of yourselves and keep in touch! CIAO!