Top Hotel Essener Hof

... another girl, Lena. The train station is closer to the vaulting place than their house is. The team was 7 or 8 girls probably ranging from 6 to 8 years old. They looove Amelie and Lena. I got to help them jump over the fake horse. They couldn't be on a real horse because the arena was in use by a riding show today. As we were walking back to the house we met up with Kevin on his cooldown from his run. He can now say he has ran on 3 ...

Belgium was a bust



Hello!

So for two weekends in a row, my plans have not worked out exactly as I had hoped. That has only made me more determined to come back again and see Europe! It is unfortunate that I won't go over the border in my 2 months here. I will only set foot in another country on my way home when I stop over in Vienna and Singapore on ...

... looking things, violin-ish sounding ones and weird keyboard/piano sounding things. And really cute little twangy guitars. The percussion section was amazing! And then there were solo artists. One solo artist brought a flute onto the stage that was probably 3 metres long. 3 people held it and played the notes with their fingers and the one guy blew into it! Incredible, low, hollow sounds! Wow!
I really loved the imagery that accompanied the music. There were always ...

... came out of the hole once a year to be cleaned. Eww! And also pheww! I'm sure it smelt pretty aweful in the day...
One of the best things about Wednesday was that the weather was mild and beautiful, quite sunny, so a great day to go exploring. And the sunset was fantastic. I'll post some pics in a moment. So when I got back from Burg Linn, I made dinner, and prepared for my presentation Thursday morning.

Thursday arrived. I got to bed at 1 and didn't have as much sleep ...

... next Thursday and hopefully the Phantom of the Opera on Friday, plus on Valentines day I am going to see Don Giovanni. It should be good. And it's so incredibly cheap here. I have never known an opera to be only $15 for students in Australia. (Mind you, I have never been to the Opera in Australia...)

So I will leave u to think of me in a winter wonderland (I am not sick, so this is an accurate description).

Speak with u soon,
Sarah

... city with Rafael and bought a blank CD to put all of my pics on to bring home. Jan 22nd is also a really important day in Germany for shopping. All of the shops have massive sales on all their winter range starting from then. I went to a really popular German fashion shop called H & M. I found a cute cardigan there that would be perfect for my character in Backbeat, but I don't know if I would wear it otherwise... I'll post a pic of it ...

So I believe I left u wondering what I was going to do on Saturday after my dreams of seeing a German castle had been completely blown out of the water.
The tutors decided that we would have the excursion to Düsseldorf instead, which is where I have already been twice. I wished that I had just stayed in bed I was SO tired. In the last 2 nights I had had a total of 8 hours sleep ...

... beer and had a wonderful time. I sang a couple of songs for some of the brazilians, because they were talking about how much they love Jazz. Between Tara and Santiago a romance blossomed, and most of us got to bed between 3 and 5am, knowing that we had class at 9 the next morning. However we were told that in the morning we were to make a decision based on the weather as to whether or not it was safe enough.

Unfortunately, after less ...

... little villages. Most of Essen was bombed during WWII so it doesn't have much in the way of historical buildings. The bus tour was interesting, but because I was tired I found it a bit boring and was almost induced into sleeping. I wasn't the only one. Rafael from Chile was sitting next to me and fast asleep for most of the tour.

When we got back from the tour I finished my book, Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, and made dinner for Rrafael, Tara ...

... some photos, so check the last entries if you like. That was really different vacations this time, though no less fun and excitement than backpacking in South America, mind you. We hope to have spread the surfing virus a little, this is just one of the best sports in the world! Dahab is definitely a place we'd go back to for the surfing and the "drumherum", the laid-back atmosphere, the turkish coffe, the great food, the parties, the oriental friendlyness.