Mom and Dad in Germany!

Mom and Dad came last week to visit me in Deutschland. We filled up the week with lots of trips, sightseeing, and best of all, visits with international "family." First, we saw some of the big sights in Berlin. Then we spent 2 days in Kassel, visiting my exchange family and seeing sights there. Then we came back to Berlin and did a bit of shopping. Next we spent a day in Potsdam and finally, we got to see Hector (our exchange brother from Spain) and Heikki (mom's exchange brother from Finland). Here are some pictures from our wonderfully eventful week.

Sunday: After going to church (in German) we went briefly to a carnival/market that just so happened to be on the same street as the church. They had a lot of food, a little entertainment, games, and trinkets to buy. After walking around and eating a bit, we made our way to the touristy historical areas. We did a lot of walking, since taking a bus didn't really occur to me, and poor mom and dad were exhausted after seeing the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, Unter den Linden Street, the Memorial for Jews killed in Europe, Potsdamer Platz, Memorial to the Soviet Soldiers, the Sony center, Checkpoint Charlie and the Checkpoint Charlie museum.

*dad being a true German with a sausage in one hand and a beer in the other*

*by a remnant of the Berlin wall*

*the bear is the symbol of Berlin*

*in front of the Brandenburger Tor*

*in front of the Reichstag, Germany's parliament building*

*by remnants of the wall*

Monday: We left Berlin early on Monday morning to go visit my host family from Kassel, where I was an exchange student 5 years ago. We visited during most of the day, and then later went to visit several small nearby villages with the beautiful wooden frames (Fachwerk Houses) which escaped damage during the war. We also toured two Castles (the fortress types) which used to be divided by the border between East and West Germany.

*dessert/coffee hour with my host family: Bettina, mom, dad, Oma Elli and Opa Rudolph*

*with my german grandparents!*

*in Hann Munden, a nearby town with the historic Fachwerk Houses. Over 70% of Kassel was destroyed during WWII, but these nearby villages were untouched*

*at the top of the tower of castle ruins*

*another castle, which has now been converted into a summer camp/bed and breakfast*

Tuesday: Tuesday was another day with the Schluz family in Kassel, who took us to tour another couple of castles. The first was Schloss Wilhelmstal, which was a summer palace and one of my favorites from my former time in Kassel. In the afternoon we toured Loewenburg, which is now my favorite. A certain king wanted a medieval castle, but as none existed in the area, he built himself a castle as though is was a couple of hundred years old. The furniture, the paintings, even the chapel (which was built to be Catholic even though everyone at the time of building was Protestant and all of the services were Protestant) were "from" medieval times. Later we visited the city center, as well as the rest of the Schlosspark (castle park) where in addition to the fake medieval castle, the same king had built a giant fountain (along the side of a mountain) with a statue of Hercules on the top, several waterfalls, another castle, and a Roman aqueduct. That night, we went to dinner with the Schluz family (sadly without Katha) and dad ate wild boar.

*a summer palace, Schloss Wilhelmstal, in Kassel*

*in the garden of Schloss Wilhelmstal*

*view of the Orangerie from der Raum, a modern art instillation in Kassel*

Wednesday: We took a train back to Berlin on Wednesday, and after resting a bit, we saw a famous church (Kaiser-Wilhelm Gedaechtnis Kirche) whose half-bombed/half-modern state reminds Germany of it's past while looking forward to the future. We tried currywurst, which is Berlin's culinary delight (a curried sausage). In the evening we went shopping at KaDeWe, Europe's largest department store. After we got some Asian takeout food to eat at home, I led my parents on the wrong train-- as I realized, we tried getting off, but mom jumped out while the doors were closing. Rather than separate, dad and I had to hold the doors open while she squeezed back on..... but the bag with our food had to travel to the next stop stuck in the automatically shutting doors. We were scolded by a few Germans (we don't know exactly for what), but we made it home with everything (food included) intact.

*with the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gedaechtnis Kirche in the background*

*inside the church*


*trying currywurst*


*outside of the KaDeWe, about to do some major shopping*

Thursday: In the morning I had a class, so mom and dad rested and then met me to tour Potsdam in the afternoon. It was a horrible day and rained non-stop, so we didn't do everything we had planned. we did tour the palace Sanssouci, which was beautiful, and we found a gorgeous church called Friedenskirche (peace church) which really was extremely peaceful. After seeing the Venetian mosaic behind the altar, we stopped in the Dutch quarter of Potsdam for an early dinner, did a little shopping and then headed home.

*Schloss Sanssouci*

*dad outside of Sanssouci*


*courtyard of the Friedenskirche*


*behind the altar of the friendenskirche-- the mosaic was brought from venice*


*mom and dad in the Dutch quarter. They're laughing because I ran ahead to take the picture, and mom was so used to following me that she ran right behind me*

Friday: We were fortunate to be able to coordinate trips to Berlin with former exchange family members and met them on Friday. In the morning we met Hector, who lived with us in 2001, and then we met mom's exchange brother from Finland, Heikki, and his wife for lunch. In the morning, Hector took us to the district of Berlin where he used to live, where we went to a Turkish market. After lunch, we took a tour bus to see more famous sights around Berlin, then went to museum island to see the Berliner Dom, a majestic cathedral. After that we stopped at a cafe for a small dinner and then headed home to pack.

*After 7 years, we're reunited at a fountain in Alexander Platz: mom, dad, Hector and me*


*turkish market*


*lunch with Heikki and his wife Päivi*


*Berliner Dom*

The week went by very quickly but it was a lovely week filled with old friends and new memories.

Send me things

Here's my address while in Berlin:

Leah Gonzalez
Sachsenwaldstr. 30
12157 Berlin
Deutschland

This is my room:

Honeymoon & Misc

I finally found my flash drive with more pictures on it! Here are some more from the civil ceremony and the honeymoon:

*dad made friends with one of Nereida's birds*

*so excited to get married*

*my hairdo*

*with the flowers people gave us*

*a champagne toast thanks to Chris!*

*cheers to us, the newlyweds*

*at the hotel, with matching bathrobes*


*our room*

*checking the time on my new watch, a gift from Julian's family*

I also found my camera battery charger, so sometime soon I'll be able to take pictures of my new deutscher Haus! Ich bin sehr froh, dass meine Eltern reisen hier in ein paar Tagen! (I'm very happy that my parents will travel here in a couple of days).
Things here in Berlin are going pretty well. Regular classes start next week, but this week we have a German language and culture course, which is a nice review. I took a test to get into an advanced German class, and although my German is very rusty, I made it into a class with Olha and Daria. We're all extremely excited to better our German.
Today after class I took the public transport around the city and walked around near the Brandenburg Gate, Potsdamer Platz, famous streets, the embassies, etc. I did a little shopping too....
Tomorrow I have to register with the German authorities, then go to class, then open a bank account. Then Saturday morning, bright and early, mom and dad arrive!
Today I realized I live in the former East part of Berlin. How do I know? Well, the walking signs are different in Eastern sectors-- they're called the Ampelmann. On my street, the Ampelmann signals when to stay or go, so this must be former East Berlin!

*Ampelmaenner*

Mr. and Mrs. Gonzalez

Well, a lot has happened in the last week or so. I packed up my belongings, flew back to the US, spent a week doing paperwork and errands, got married, had a 2 day long honeymoon and flew back to Europe. I'm now in my beautiful apartment in Berlin, but sad to be away from my husband.

The wedding was a small civil ceremony on April 4th (our anniversary), which will be followed by a church ceremony next March (09). Everything went pretty smoothly, apart from the fact that neither the bride nor the groom remembered to bring the marriage license along to the court house, which is about 30-45 minutes away from Julian's apartment. He had to drive quickly back to find it, while I waited with friends and family. The ceremony was lovely, with nice words spoken by the officiant and the pastor who did our marriage counseling (early on in the week the pastor gave us an A+ for our preparations!). Afterwards, we went to dinner with everyone there. Here are some pictures of the event!

*getting ready*


*pic with the parents while waiting for Julian to come--so happy they were able to come!*

*saying vows*

*kiss the bride*

*with the friends: Chris, Nereida, Julian, me, Zuzi, Herber*

*the whole group: Chris, dad, mom, Julian, Nereida, me, Anne, Zuzi, Don Thomas, Herber*


*we're so happy*

*now let's eat!*

We also went to the cherry blossom festival in downtown DC, where we ran into some friends (Gio and her husband) and met some others (Zuzi and Herber). Here are some of those photos as well:

*throwing the fallen blossoms in the air*

*near the capitol building*

*me, Herber, and Zuzi with the sakura trees*

Happy Easter!!

*my easter treats: chocolate from belgium, a chocolate egg from dajo and antonia, and a party favor from church*

Happy Easter!! Today to celebrate Easter, I went to church (Zij is opgestand-- he is risen!) and then had lunch at Dajo and Antonia's house with a couple of people from the Bible Study. It was so nice to not eat alone, and especially to eat with them since we didn't have a Bible Study last week, and it would be my last time to see them. I heard good news there-- Antonia is pregnant! They'll make wonderful parents. Easter here is different than I expected. The town was more quiet on this morning than any other Sunday morning, although I thought I would see more people out and about going to church and to breakfast. The University closes for Good Friday and the Monday after Easter, and a lot of people have vacation from work, so I guess people go on vacation. On Good Friday they have a giant bloemenmarkt, a flower market, in addition to the normal market. The entire square was filled with flower vendors, and huge crowds of people were out buying plants, fruits, vegetables, fresh fish and bread. It's one thing I will miss here-- on the way home from class (if we get out early) I can pick up some fruit, fresh and cheap! It was strange not to be home for Easter, but altogether it was a nice day spent with lovely people. Happy Easter!!

*Kristina and me at the Easter flower market*

*tulips!*

*Easter lunch at Dajo and Antonia's house: Howa, Leeanne, Dajo, Antonia*

*After lunch, Happy Easter!!*

*the two engaged American girls!*

Root Canal

For the past couple of weeks I have had a mild toothache. But the past two days it has hurt so badly that I can't sleep, and the pain spread across my jaw, my neck and my ear. I had a dentist appointment scheduled, so I just had to wait it out. Well today I went, and they informed me that a filling I had gotten over the summer was too close to my tooth's nerve, and so was slowly killing it, which placed a lot of pressure on the surrounding nerves, hence the pain. So, I had part 1 of a root canal (the drilled a hole, took out my nerve and put in a temporary filling). Next week I go back for the permanent filling, on my last day here. I'm glad the problem is solved-- hopefully there will be no more pain!!