Mannheim and more...

Imagine trying to do your washing here.... I had to ask for help..... Annie and I were being silly...

There are sooo many setting to choose from if you use the tumble dryer!!

I FINALLY met my penpal. We have been writing for about 9 years now.. and we have never met each other. We are in Mannheim. I took the train (3 hours 30 min)

We had ice cream and sat by the fountain!

Mannheim, zoo and Germany game

Mannheim. Judith and I... after a long day in the sun (and at the zoo!)

Gardens at the zoo, lovely.

how pretty!

Don't worry-- this was not during the England v. Germany game.

This was when Germany versed Ghana.

Tuesday 29.6.2010

So we did our presentation this morning (8:15 AM!) and I believe the professor quite liked it! She kept saying "PRIMA!" which means (Great!) in German. It is nice to know that our work is appreciated. We did our presentation about prepositions in German and sung a few songs that we learned in America to help us remember which prepositions are which. That means one down... and more to go..... oh well. I finally have a children's book picked out for my 7-10 page essay. No more classes for the day. I am going to take my beach mat outside and lie on the grass and read for my class, tomorrow.

this past weekend!!!

This past weekend was lovely. Thursday night I just hung out with people in the Wohnheim and helped a girl with her English presentation... she did a really good job, I just had to correct a few words. Then Friday morning my host mom (Heide) from last year texted me at 8:50am to say they were about to eat breakfast and I should start heading over to their house. (They invited me to go the zoo with them.) I got to their house and ate breakfast with them. Then I played with the kids and we got ready to head over to Stuttgart to the zoo. Heide's brother was there with his wife and their 4 kids. So there were 6 kids all together! The weather was finally nice so they picked a nice day to go the zoo.
In the car Felix asked his mum when I leaving again... and she told him in about a month. He said: "Ohhhh nein!!!!" (I love those kids!) Then Judith kept asking "Warum?" (Why??) to everything.. and it reminded me of when I was a child!!
We had a good time there... it was nice seeing the kids get so excited about seeing all the animals. Felix, my host brother, kept asking me what the animals ate so I had to read the signs for him. It was good practice for me. (Mum--I think you would love to have Felix in your class at school.. he is a really good observer, quite serious at times and loves learning new things!)
I took a load of pictures of the kids and in general it was a good day! The sun was verrrry hot so we had to sit in the shade at times, especially since the kids were running around a lot. It was a very nice zoo and not too busy. They had a lovely garden that I think both Nannies and Aunty Pat would love!
OK.. just about to go into Schwaebisch Gmuend and get some food..... will write more later!


At the zoo the elephants had the German flag painted on their tails...

some picssss

They speak a dialect in Schwaebisch Gmuend and so my dictionary (that I can use when people speak the dialect to me... well I just have it as a souvenir really)

I am with my host siblings from last year.... they still remember
me and love to play.

"Let's see how many people we can fit in the telephone box!!!"

I really wanted Weetabix... and I had been trying to eat "German food" but I gave in because German food is not my favorite..........

I made this sign for the group that were at the same uni as me.. they only stayed for six weeks. I found pictures and made them a nice sign!!!

more Oslo pictures (click on them to make them bigger)

We walked down the pier a bit.. and found this place... there was an expensive restaurant to the left of me

You can see how Norwegian looks....

an "artistic" view of the harbor....

me sitting at a cafe.. it looked expensive so I was looking all "posh"

The Grand Hotel.. on top of the building it had flags from Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway

some Norway pictures....

Me sitting on the wall looking out onto the harbor... note the "viking" ship in the background.

Det Kongelige Slott
(The king's castle)

Annie and I sitting in front of a castle... I like this picture because you can see the Norwegian flag in the background....

Note: it is 11PM and it is still fairly light...

about to land... but couldn't help but take a pic
of the beautiful view looking down onto Norway

Look at our room which we slept in....(the classroom)