Irland, Weihnachtsmärkte, und Schnee in Berlin!

It's beginning to look (And feel! brrrrr!) a lot like Christmas/Weihnachten! Lots has happened since I last updated so here we go! First, a few weeks ago I got to see Lena for a very brief but awesome night! She was in Berlin for one night while they were on a trip for Uni and luckily we got to meet up and hang out for a while! It was great! Lena, since I know you are one of the people that read this- Ich bin so froh, dass wir uns wieder sehen konnten! Du bist die Beste! Ich hoffe ich kann naechtses Semester wieder nach Muenchen fahren (vielleicht mit Klapp!) :) 

Last weekend I got to go to IRELAND! I went with Michelle and we had such a great time. We got into Dublin on Friday the 19th and quickly had to readjust to not saying "Entschuldigung!" to everyone and being very relieved that all of the signs were in English! We also quickly realized as we were taking our shuttle bus from the airport to the hostel that we were driving on the other side of the road!! I guess we were so excited about the trip that we forgot that little detail about Ireland! We explored Dublin a little bit on Friday night, went to a pub for dinner, then went to another pub where I tried my first red beer (Sorry, that's as close as I'll get to Guiness...I just can't do dark beer!), but I have to say I am a fan of red beer! Dublin is a really cool city and very easy to navigate, especially since there is a giant spire in the middle of the city. When I asked one of the people who worked at our hostel what the purpose of it was he just said, "There isn't one! It's just a feckin waste of money!"...Well, I guess that explains it! We went to the Temple Bar section of Dublin and went into THE actual Temple Bar for a bit and heard some great live music. On Saturday we got up bright and early and got ready for our tour to Wicklow and Glendalough! Wicklow is a county south of Dublin on the east coast of Ireland and Glendalough is a glacial valley located in Wicklow. It was an absolutely beautiful tour and we got to see some amazing sights. The countryside of Ireland is so beautiful and the mountains and all the green just make it breathtaking. Sadly I forgot to charge my camera before coming to Ireland so all of my pictures of the beautiful scenery are on a disposable camera waiting to be developed...oops. We got to see where one of the scenes in P.S. I Love Your was filmed, we saw where Braveheart was filmed, we saw Bono's house, Enya's house, and Van Morrison's house! Our tour guide was an awesome 60-something year old Irish man who told me that he "liked the color of my hair". After our tour on Saturday we went out into Dublin again and went to another pub where we go to see some real live Irish step dancers! It was great! Then on Sunday we left Dublin to return back to Berlin.

Upon our return to Berlin it was like Weihnachten had exploded all over the city! And I LOVE it! There are so many Weihnachmärkte (Christmas markets) and while they are all very similar in principle they each have their own style. There is nothing better than sipping on a nice warm mug of Glühwein (hot spiced wine, DELICIOUS!) while enjoying the company of some great friends at a Weihnachtsmarkt. The Weihnachtsmarkt at Potsdamer Platz even has a giant ice hill that you can slide down on in inner tubes, and of course I went down! We also got our first Schnee (snow) in Berlin last week and along with that some COLD weather. I know I am from New England and should be used to this but it is just SO cold outside and it's only the end of November! 

Thanksgiving was last week and IES celebrated with us by hosting a dinner with all of the IES students and faculty at a restaurant in Berlin. It was very yummy and lots of fun to be able to celebrate our holiday with all of IES :) 

A little less than 3 weeks until I go home for Christmas! Yay!

Must go finish my Turkish homework!

Bis später!