Stammtisch und Nürnberg

Since we have our excursion day on Wednesday, we all go out for stammtisch on Tuesdsay night. Stammtisch means something like to meet at the table; in other words, the whole group goes out for drinks. Even our three directors went, which I think makes it even more fun. I really like them a lot, and it is nice for me as well because I enjoy a more mature crowd at times. Its nice to talk about more serious things sometimes.. Anyway. Bo won an award from last stammtisch, because he was the one who found the most bars and got the right quesstions, as I explained a week or so ago. They gave him a little certificate, it was pretty funny. I had some really good dark beer, which I really enjoyed, but then after the first place, we went to another bar that was kind of in a basement. The atmosphere was neat; they had those cool circular chinese paper laterns (which seem to be very popular here. I have one in my bedroom, and I've seen them in other houses as well!) Unfortunately though, I ordered this stupid drink called Diva, which tasted something like grapefruit and vodka. It was horrid! Here's the thing though; I know now why there aren't so many DUI problems in Europe; it's not because they necessarily handle their alcohol better, but because public transportation is so great! No one ever needs to drive!! Anyhow. I ended up regretting it the next day, as we all had to meet at the train station the next morning at nine for Nürnberg, and I suffered from a bad headache for most of the day. I was a bit on the cranky side. :( So I had better take it easy next time!
Nürnberg was beautiful though! It took us about an hour to get there by train, which was an enjoyable ride. Again, public transport is amazing. It was pretty cold yesterday though, and I had a scarf, a sweater, and a light jacket on. Colder than it would be at home anyway. Our first view of Nürnberg was pretty exciting. You can see this to the left. I know how awful this sounds, but I don't think I ever really heard what exactly this was. We walked around for a while on our way to Albrecht Dürer's house. For those of you art history ignorant people, he was a famous painter/printer. We saw a lot of cute shops, and one of my favorite things I saw was this adorable little bakery that made the cutest little deserts!
This one is even more adorable! Unfortunately, I really didn't take any pictures at the Albrecht Durer house. It was neat though, because they had a woman as the historical impersonator playing Albrecht's wife, and she was our tour guide. Let me just say, she was JUST as convincing as Benjamin Franklin, in the office. Thankfully though, she didn't develop any crushes on any of use. Unfortunately, I was one of the two that didn't really understand what she was saying. This lack of understanding is REALLY starting to wear thin on me, especially since it seems that everyone else is leaps and bounds ahead of me. And yet, I never seem to have time to get a lot of "extra" studying in, to try and learn some verbs and vocab that I've forgotten. I understood a good portion of it, but still, I was pretty frustrated, which added to my sour mood. And then, to make things even better, after the Durer house we went to the "Nazi Hall of Fame", as Kevin, my neighbor put it. It made me laugh, and I think that he was just trying to lighten the mood after such a sobering experience. Instead of being a museum focusing on the victims and terrors of the Holocaust, this museum was really more geared towards the rise and fall of the Nazi's. Of course, it had to include information about the concentration camps and such, but that was not it's focal point. It included a lot of information on things such as the Nazi Youth, and different sects of the Nazi party. Thank goodness we were able to use the little headsets, so I could understand this time. What was even better though, was that it was simply narrating the placards on the wall, which were in German. I thought that this was a pretty good way to learn some German! I wish I would have taken my camera inside though, because it turns out the building used for this museum was originally a Nazi rally ground, but you don't really realize this until the end of the exhibit, when you are able to walk outside on this platform over the rally ground. It is an overwhelming experience, and unfortunately I don't have pictures of it. I would advise googling it. After this, we were all pretty tired and hungry, and we decided to stay in Nürnberg a little bit longer. The group split in half, with only a few of us going with Leonie and Orlando. But in the end, we all ended up eating in the same restaurant! It was pretty funny actually, that we all ended up there! I really enjoy getting to talk to Leonie and Orlando though. Orlando had actually thought about becoming a graphic designer as well, but it sounds like getting into any kind of art school here is quite difficult. Now, he works in theater, which he seems to enjoy very well.
After we ate, we headed back to the train station, and we all welcomed the hour long ride home, as we were all quite tired. So tired in fact, that we all joked about the idea of sleeping at the train station for the night! It was a good day overall, though. And of course, as always, if you'd like to see more of my photos, you can look at my photo albums on facebook. There were way to many photos to upload here!!