So here is a synopsis of my epic adventures.
For the end of November I was in Valencia, Spain, visiting "family"... whenever I say that I have family in Spain people are like "OH VAIR COOL, you have family there?!" and I patiently explain that technically we are not related and I don't have hot Spanish sangre running through my veins, but I have friends that are so close that I consider them family. I spent the better part of three weeks basking in 20 beautiful degrees (celsius...so that's 70 farenheit...IN NOVEMBER!!!) and sun EVERY DAY, HARK. I have gotten so used to sunless days here in the 'Burg that it actually felt weird to see the sun every day. That's how sad this situation has gotten. Anyways all in all it was a fantasttiiicc little vacay. The Spanish can eat like no others. Seriously, they have five meals a day: desayuno, almuerzo, comida, merienda, and cena. FIVE. This is very dangerous when one is trying to avoid the Rotary 30, you know? Especially when they're cooking you all of the best Spanish foods...we're talking paella, calamares, tortilla española, etc. I can live off that stuff.
Does this look healthy? Niet.
Oh, how about this? Wait..no.
I also decided that I want to do the UVA-Valencia exchange in a few years. I loveeeee love lovee VLC soooo much! Can I argue with 70 degrees in November? Nope. For any of you who haven't visited Valencia, or Spain in general, GO! Spain is an amazingg country that shouldn't be missed.
But I eventually had to go back.
So, after almost missing both of my connections to get home, I had a mere one night of rest before I had the second Rotary orientation in a town called Bad Oldesloe, slightly outside of the city of Hamburg. All of the Rotary orientations are extremely fun; after all, there are 50 students from all around the world gathered in one place, so things are bound to get freaakayy. Instead of all staying in one hostel together, like last time, we were split up into host families. I stayed with Jessica, from Texas, with the nicest couple everrr. Our mom was hilarious. Our first night, they took us out to an Italian restaurant, and at the table next to us was a large birthday party. There were four cute little German kids running around; two of them were the CUTEST most stereotypical German, blue eyed, blond haired little boys in matching outfits, and two were little girls. Our host mom saw the older of the two girls and suddenly had a strange expression on her face. Naturally, we were like, what? She goes, "You know how the Devil's eyebrows curl up on the ends? Look...that little girl has DEVIL EYEBROWS" hahahahaha. The next morning we were eating breakfast and talking about gluhwein, a typical Christmastime drink here. It's basically warm spiced wine, sold at the Weihnachtsmarkts...but I'll get to that later. The point is, our host mom started telling us about an Indian boy they had at their house a few years back. Apparently, he was very serious; he had gone to a military academy and was very stern, didn't have any friends, would always stand at attention, and refused to drink alcohol. So she tells us, "We decided to have some fun with him. We got some gluhwein, put a lot of spices in it, and told him it was punch." HAHAHAHAHA I was DYINGG.
The second day, all of the students got back together in a large group and we went to Lübeck, an old town that wasn't destroyed during the war; therefore, there are a lot of old old medieval buildings. We toured the city a bit and went to the Weihnachtsmarkt. Weihnachtsmarkt means "Christmas market." There are Weihnachtsmarkts in every city, and they consist of booths selling Christmas trinkets and food... currywurst, bratwurst, CHOCOLATE FRUIT YES, spiced nuts, crepes, gluhwein, etc etc etc. Basically, if you go to a Weihnachtsmarkt, you're going to eat. So we saw that, walked around a bit, and took in the sights. Lübeck is very pretty, picture time:
The old city of Lübeck
The gate to the city, and my good friend Karmen, from Mexico :)
This was also the coldest day of my life.
By lunchtime, I was literally freezing-the type that doesn't go away until you take an hour long shower.
The restaurant that we ate lunch in was cold, too.
**Side note about German coldness: For the past week it had been -10˚C. That's a crisp 14˚F. So you see how it's reasonable to get a little upset when you go from +20˚C to -10˚C, right? I mean, I'm not out of line here, am I? And this is how the Germans do heating: there is no central heat. Every room is heated separately by a wall heater. What ends up happening is a quick dash from room to room. It's strategic. It all comes down to planning and bare necessity: what room will be heated? Is it worth the dash down the unheated stairs to get to the kitchen? Is food really that important? Or, can I hold it a little longer, because the bathroom surely isn't hot yet...
you see what I'm saying.
Then, after lunch, we headed out to go Go-Karting, in-wait for it- a huge unheated warehouse. By this point I think hypothermia was setting in and my organs were slowing down. After three hours in that building, it hit me. It was if the clouds opened up and the sun shined down onto me (I know that that's a very unrealistic metaphor since the chances of that happening here are next to none, but whatever) and everything became very clear:
Why does all the money go to Africa?
What are people doing for the Eskimos that are surely freezing in the far north? Hm? Does anybody even think of THEIR suffering?
And then I thought to myself, if, one day, I ever found a non-profit, it's going to be called, Bring Heat to the Eskimos.
And then my next thought was, "I hereby swear to myself, Sierra Nicole Prochna, that I will live in a tropical or semi-tropical climate when I am older."
