City Hotel Essen

... dot design museum. Red dot gives awards to objects with outstanding design. When I say objects I mean everything. They had cell phones, toys, plastic cups, cars, mp3 players, key rings, pens, lamps, sinks, vacuum cleaners, chairs, sofas, silverware, toys, power tools, deck awning, etc. This was still in the old mine so it had this really cool contrast between old, rusty equipment and new, innovative design. I took about a gazillion pictures because it was so weird to be ...

... boy running with me for a short bit encouraging me on. I made it through the village, with policemen and local cityworkers wondering why I was so far behind. Regardless, I made it up to many racers and was able to pass at least 200 of them before the finish line. I was proud of my 51 min. finish, and wondered how well I could have placed if I had started on time. It was very cool going ...

... pretty tough for everyone, especially yesterday. I have said goodbye to all of my friends. Tara has left for her host family, Santiago has left to his host family, Trevor went to visit his fiance and son before flying home today. I think that Rafael from Chile might still be around but he is travelling around seeing Karneval all weekend in Düsseldorf and Köln.

I went on Thursday ...

Hello my lovelies!
And a big 'hi' to my cousins Evan and Kristy who have recently decided to be my friends! Yay...

I am currently experiencing a lonely Valentines Day. I am talking to Scott online but it's just not the same...

My classes have pretty much come to an end. We found out how we did in our second exam. I got 20 more points which was a fantastic improvement. If I had have gotten this score initially I would have been in the 2nd top class, so that ...

... they hung up! No idea, but damn them whoever they were for calling me in the middle of the night!!!! Who are they and why do they know my name? And who is Janine?? Curiouser and Curiouser...

So that brings be to today. Thismorning we had a test. Everyone was nervous about it and had done a lot of study. Because I went to the ballet last night I couldn't really do that. I set my alarm to wake me up early. But after my early morning phone call, I needed to sleep longer. When ...

... and unfortunately Cori has to leave Saturday at 3pm to get back to Munich to work that night. Also, I promised Scott that we would see Neuschwanstein together and I am really looking forward to experiencing it with him.

I have 2 free days at the end of the course in which I might be able to visit other cities or countries. I was thinking maybe Brussels or Amsterdam then, because they are so close... I also have the option of coming back to ...

Hello!

Sorry that it has taken so long to tell u about my weekend. Usually I would only write one email... but I am always running off to class or to have lunch.
So I left u Saturday night and I got home at midnight. The most wonderful thing about the whole weekend was the fact that I didn't have an excursion Sunday and was able to sleep for over 12 hours!!

When I finally decided to get up I read a bit of my German teen novel ...

... But I still went. From Essen we had to catch an incredibly cramped bus to Duisburg and then from there we had to wait for over 30 mins for a train to Düsseldorf. Whilst there we walked to the Altstadt, that I have visited previously, took a stroll along the Rhein and had some lunch. Then we found a map and decided to walk to a park where we saw heaps of squirrels (they are so cute) and a playground with some pretty cool equipment. I went on the ...

... singing. I would buy a copy here if it wasn't so expensive, but I can't justify spending 30 euro $60 AUD on one DVD.

In the afternoon we met Herr Bayer, our politics and Berlin teacher and looked at some video footage from the reunification time in Berlin.

After class I went to the Hauptbahnhof for a couple of reasons, 1) that I wanted to purchase my train ticket to Fulda for the following weekend so that I can visit Cori and ...

Hi guys,
Don"t know if u have heard or not, but Germany is in the middle of a hurricane. 150km winds and severe warnings from the government to stay indoors. It was supposed to hit Essen really hard and we were all sent home from uni early and told to stay indoors. I really wanted to go online today to talk to u all like I said I would. Sorry guys!! I"ve just borrowed Tara"s laptop now. Mum, if u read this, send me a text message when u wake up so I can ...