To the Ocean and Beyond... to More Oceans!

It's been a while since I posted, and I've done so many things! I'm going to dedicate this particular post to the photos I took in Split, Croatia and the Amalfi Coast in Italy. They were two of the most beautiful places I've ever seen in my life!

Jackie and me in Split

Emma and me in Split

Diocletian's Palace in Split

Plitvice Lakes National Park

Me at the Plitvice Lakes

The water is so clear you can see the fish swimming!

Jackie and me at Plitvice

View of Capri Island in Italy

Entrance to the Blue Grotto in Capri

Such gorgeous blue water!!!

Jackie, me and Emma on the boat

The chairlift up to the top of Capri

View from the top!

Jackie and me at the top of Capri

I'm an angel!

Another view from the top. Just so beautiful!!!

The colorful buildings of Positano, Italy

Me cliff jumping!

Final photo of Positano right before the two minute rainstorm

I think my pictures speak enough about my this particular trip!

Berlin Bound

If I were to leave Germany now, I would feel much better about my experience than had you asked me a week ago. Why? Because I can finally say I’ve been to Berlin! I was struggling with the idea that I may not visit not just the capital of Germany but also one of the most historically known cities in all of Europe. And what an awesome city it is! Don’t get my wrong, I’m so much happier I’m studying in Freiburg because I can see now that I’ve saved myself from getting lost a countless number of times. Berlin is massive! I had no idea it was so enormous! Even though I feel accomplished in my trip to Berlin, there must be an infinite amount of sights, museums, and buildings I didn’t see.

I went with my two friends Jackie and Curtis. It was a spur of the moment trip, and we had to take an 11 hour bus ride to and from Berlin, but it was all worth it. I got to see the Berlin Wall, the East Wall Mural, Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenburg Gate, Holocaust Memorial for the Jews, the Dalí Museum, the Television Tower, and all the wonderfully busy shopping streets. It was a lot of walking, and I’ve got some award winning blisters to prove it. Of course, I saw the Ampelmann, too. You can bet I got a mug with him on it.

We had so much fun walking around and eating döner (wow it’s so much better in Berlin). Friday evening, we went on a Berlin Pub Tour, and our host was an awesome British man who went by the name of Hollywood. I can only wonder what the background to that name is! In total, there were probably 50 people on the tour, so we got to meet some other Americans, Frenchies and Spaniards. Definitely a memorable evening.

I think I would go back to Berlin for the sole purpose of eating more döner and falafel. It was heavenly. Honestly, I don’t know if I’ll be able to eat it here in Freiburg again.

Highlight of the trip: being able to take so many photos of the East Side Mural. Enjoy the photos!

Had to get a photo with the Ampelmann

Famous kissing painting at the Berlin Wall

It was a bubble kind of day in Berlin

It was really incredible to see all these paintings.

Got asked to blow some bubbles, too! Couldn’t say no!

Me and Jackie in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

Me and Jackie at the memorial for the Jews who died during the Holocaust.

My favorite painting.

Well said.

Counseling Beats Schools

Weekends away make it hard for me to believe I’m supposed to be learning and doing school! I had such an awesome weekend in Langenbruck, Switzerland working as a camp counselor and teaching Swiss kids English. The theme for the weekend was “Let’s go to the USA”, so we got to make s’mores, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and (the best part) eat waffles and pancakes for breakfast. The weekend exhausted me, but it was so worth it to get to hang out with kids and be encouraged to speak English! It was also fun to create my own “American name”, but I never really got used to being called “Sabrina”.

I was so impressed that such a camp existed for kids for just one weekend. I had never heard of a weekend long language immersion camp, but they are such a good idea! The kids were anywhere from 12-17 years old, and they really loved getting a chance to hang out with their friends and learn English by playing games and singing songs. I would have loved going to a camp like that when I was younger!

The highlight of the weekend (besides the food, of course) was on Saturday night. All the counselors dressed up as fairy tale characters, and the kids split up into groups and came to talk to each of us individually. I was a pirate, and the other characters were an evil witch, a mysterious fortune teller, a cowgirl who owned sheep, a fabulous prince named Prince Fabulous, a crazy werewolf, and a beautiful princess.We each told them our own stories about our relationships with the other characters, and at the end, the students wrote their own stories about us, and we had to act it out. At the end of almost all the stories, 90% of the characters ended up dead, which was pretty amusing.

The camp was held at a creepy old orphanage, but the view from outside was incredible! I didn’t take my nice camera, so the pictures of the scenery came out a bit lackluster, unfortunately.

After all the kids had gone home on Sunday, Kate, the director of the camp, took all the counselors to dinner at her house. We had the best dinner. It was literally melted cheese on potatoes and melted cheese on bread. Then there was ice cream for desert. I wish that was an acceptable meal at my house in the US! All in all, it was a truly unique weekend.

I’m not entirely sure, but I think these are the Jura Mountains

Another snapshot of the gorgeous view!

Left to Right: Joe, Hannah, Marika, Ashlyn, Micah, Jack, and Eric or Wicked Witch, Fortune Teller, Princess, Cowgirl, Pirate, Werewolf, and Prince Fabulous

So comical that I was in charge of the basketball activity.

Just laughing about getting stuck in the playground structure.

Eric somehow got stuck and took at least 10 minutes to get out. Hilarious.

Vacationing from Vacation

Just spent a lovely week exploring Germany! I went with 7 other IES students, and I was able to hang out with some people I don’t usually hang out with, which was really cool. On the trip, we went to Weimar and Dresden. In between cities, we saw the historic Wartburg Castle where Martin Luther translated the Bible and we also visited the Buchenwald concentration camp, which was a really moving experience to say the least. I took tons of pictures of the castle, but I didn’t feel right taking photos of Buchenwald.

Of the cities, Weimar was by far the most boring. My friends and I tried to find food at only 7:30 in the evening, but the only place that was open was a Subway! And there were hardly any people walking around, like it was a ghost town. I recommended that in the future, IES skips going to that city altogether. However, Dresden was absolutely gorgeous. The weather was finicky, but lucky for us, it worked out so that we got a beautiful day in Dresden.

On the first night in Dresden we got really cheap tickets to see Romeo and Juliet at the opera house. Although I could really only hear the music, and if I wanted to see I had to lean over the people in front of me just to glimpse one half of the stage, the experience was really cool. The opera house is so gorgeous! I’m so impressed that it got reconstructed after the war to mirror the original opera house.

The next day in Dresden we went down the Art Passage which has really cool buildings, although I’m not really sure why it exists other than it looks really cool. We also went wine tasting with the whole group which was really fun. We had fresh bread, cheese, and olives, and we tried three different types of white wine. My favorite was the Riesling, but I don’t know if I actually could taste the difference if you gave me them all at once. Maybe one day I will learn how to distinguish them!

I wish we had had more time to see the rest of Dresden. It’s history is so interesting, and the city is really beautiful. Every time I think of Dresden, I can’t help but think of Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut. Ever since I read that book, I had wanted to visit Dresden and now I can finally say I have!