Michelle Hutchison

Last Week in Lüneburg

2008-06-29T05:18:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's already here. We're already getting ready to leave Lüneburg. It's crazy how quickly this has all gone. I leave tomorrow morning at 8:30 to go to Berlin and go on a tour of the city with my classmates for 3 days. Then on the 4th of July, I fly home to Boise! This has truly been a life changing experience for me and I'm so blessed to have the opportunity to come here.

Here are some of the last activities we did in Lüneburg.

One last group shot by the "beach"

Saying goodbye to the best Buddy ever! Marina showed me the real side of Germany and helped me practice my German speaking every time we got together!

Having a staring contest with Quattlebaum. He kicked my butt. It's not my fault he has such a funny face.

These lovely ladies made us a Farewell Spargel Dinner! Spargel is white German asparagus and is a real specialty in Northern Germany. You boil the Spargel and then wrap it with thin pieces of Schinken (cured ham that is kind of like eating raw bacon...it's weird) and then you mash potatoes around it and drench it in Hollandaise Sauce. It's AMAZING! We all got together at a friends house and came dressed up and ate lots of Spargel!

Enjoying some of the wonderful Spargel. They didn't get too dressed up...but we let them eat anyway.

Everyone spent a large portion of this night trying to stack these beer bottles on top of each other while on top of a ground light. Everyone failed. But I was not so easily swayed. So I painstakingly spent at least 10 minutes trying to figure it out. Just when I thought it was hopeless....all 4 bottles stayed upright. This is the victory pose of the exact moment!!
Last Friday was our friend Jeff's 21st birthday. This is the cake that I agreed to make him. I didn't have any cake pans...so they got made in 2 large pots!! It turned out good though!! =)

Denmark and Sweden

2008-06-23T06:47:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I made the 6 hour journey to Copenhagen, Denmark. Then on Sunday we traveled up to Malmö, which is in Sweden. What a great place to visit and experience!! Everything was so different!! And EXPENSIVE!! Whoo! I never loved the Euro so much till I went to Skandinavian countries!

Copenhagen, Denmark-Friday and Saturday

Who needs London!? You can stand next to BEAUTIFUL guards outside the royal palace in Denmark!! I didn't try to make him laugh...I was too scared!

This is a royal castle nestled in the "King's Garden" right in the middle of downtown Copenhagen. The royal family doesn't live in this one, but I did see the one that they stay in during summer! Pretty cool!!

Copenhagen's City Hall

That tiny person?? Yea, that's me standing in front of the giant court house. Luckily no one came to take me away for loitering...

Copenhagen has strange STRANGE art. This is only one example. Alyssa likes to think that she smashed it...but we all know the truth.

On our Boat Tour through the canals of Copenhagen! It goes...Annie, Alyssa, Trevor and Jane

Me and Super Scott!

Malmö, Sweden-Sunday

I don't know what this says or means...but I do know that the Swedes are weirdos...

This is the Turning Torso! It's a very sophisticated apartment building where the entire thing is twisted right around! We got to go down into the gallery at the bottom and see examples of the apartments. Very nice. Also, the tallest building in Sweden!!

We went into a Castle that had been converted into a Museum. This is one part of the King's chambers. Probably wrote all sorts of important things here.

A few of my favorite things in Lüneburg

2008-06-20T03:27:00.000-07:00

I love this town sooo much! There are so many silly, quaint and fun things to do and see. Here are a few of my favorite...

The next 4 pictures were an adventure we had trying to open a bottle of wine without a cork screw. We eventually settled on a screw into the cork and then prying it loose with our fingers/scissors. A lot of work for a cheap bottle of wine!Earl thought he could get it with his teeth...he was mistaken...

Annie couldn't hold her food in anymore it was THAT funny and ridiculous!

We finally got it!! And broke a chip out of the bottle in the process!! Whoops.

This is the Lüneburg "beach". It's become one of our most favorite hang outs. If you climb to the top of the rock face on the opposite end of this picture, you'll get to see one of the most amazing views of the city.

This is the CRAZIEST, MEANEST swan I've ever met. This is the male swan (the female swan is content to NOT bite people). One this particular day, we were having a picnic at the "beach"and Mr. Swan decided he wanted to join in. He literally attacked us and started rooting through our bags and stole our salami! No joke! He continued to harass us until a crazy German bum shooed him away for us...apparently German water fowl are quite assertive!

Lüneburg advertisements make use of some pretty awesome statues. This lady is my favorite...

You have not had real ice cream until you've had this stuff. It's AMAZING! It blows any Gelatto in the US out of the water!

Horse and buggy rides here? No big deal. It's pretty much a medieval town anyway...

German Graffiti is some of the most creative and intense I've ever seen. No one bothers to wash it off because most of it is so good. And one rarely sees offensive things either. This is one of my favorites.

Wednesday night karaoke at the Irish Pub. We're singing "Devil Went Down to Georgia". We brought down the house... =)

Singing "Down by the Bay" while down by the "beach". We often break out into song...and sometimes song AND dance...

Beck's Beer Brewery

2008-06-12T12:15:00.000-07:00

Even though I went last Saturday, I still wanted to post the pictures of my trip to the Beck's Braueri in Bremen, Niedersachsen. I made the trip with 5 of my male classmates (though I hate beer, I attended for lack of anything more exciting!) The trip ended up being a lot of fun and very educational!

This is a far away shot of the Beck's Beer Brewery. Beck's is the largest exporter of German Beer and makes up 13% of exported beer world wide! These giant cisterns hold all of the barley that will later become beer! On the other side (though you can't see it) are 12 very large round containers that hold the already brewed beer, allowing it to ferment and acquire it's taste. Our tour guide told us that if one of us wanted to drink one of those containers and had 5 beers a day...it would still take us 1000 years to drink the entire container!

These are some of the guys that I went with. Super Scott, Quattlebaum and Parker.

That's a LOT of kegs...

These are some of the huge mashers that mix up the barley and water. Original mashers were made of copper to withstand the hot temperatures. Today steel (or something) is used but they plate the outsides with copper to maintain the old allure! Silly!

This is our tour guide showing us some of the history of the first beer brewing.
That annoying flash of light? Oh, that's the reflectors on her sweet bright yellow safety vest that we all had to wear. That's right...I got to sport one of those all day long...

After our tour, we were taken into the "test kitchen" where two beers were set before us and we had to taste and then guess which beer was which kind of Beck's. Lucky for me I was at a table of college boys (aka beer connoisseurs!) and they told me which ones were correct. We were the only table to guess all of ours right and won 2 more free rounds! (Needless to say, I had the chilled orange and green lemon)

Europameisterschaft (Fußball!!)

2008-06-09T02:26:00.000-07:00

Let the Games BEGIN!!!

Yesterday, I accompanied my German friend, Marina and a group of her crazy fußball fan friends to Hamburg to watch the Fan Fest of the 1st German soccer game in the European Championships! Wow, do the Germans like their Fußball!!

We started out on the train to Hamburg, which takes about 30 minutes. The festivities had already started because many people on the train were also going to the Fan Fest. Cheers started to rise up from sections of the trains and were accompanied by bells, whistles and loud horns! This was only the beginning...

When we arrived in Hamburg, we had to take a subway to the arena. As we walked down onto the platform, all I can see is a sea of red, yellow and black. Piles of German fans swarm the compartments of the U-Bahn and for the next 5 minutes, I am trapped next to dozens of loud, shouting, chanting, wall pounding, subway rocking, crazed Germans!

The Fan Fest was held in an outdoor, open arena with a giant screen for all to see. The few pitiful Polish Fans (who Germany was playing) were clustered together in the middle of the crowd. Other than the Poles, the only colors to be seen were RED, YELLOW and BLACK!

The next two hours of the game were so awesome. You know how in high school, everyone knows the same cheers and sayings? Well here...an entire NATION knows songs, chants, cheers and expressions. And they all sing them in unison with motions and jumping and craziness. And when the fantastic German soccer team made a goal...it was like being in a moshpit! I've never seen such exhuberant people! They all hug and jump and scream and chant and kiss! It was fantastic.
Lucky for me, Germany won 2-0! The train ride home was tiring (as it didn't leave until midnight) but the excitement of the night never left. As I rode my bike home from the train station...I could hear the chants from inside houses and around corners of the devoted fans still in celebration.

The Baltic Sea Beach

2008-06-05T02:21:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, we went to the Baltic Sea Beach! It was a hot day but the water was SO cold. It was really fun though. Here are a few pictures of the adventure!

This is Ryan Valdes up to his neck! And yes those are, of course, boobs. Boys will be Boys.

Yup, that's a pirate ship on the horizon.

Some of the girls...Lindsey, Annie, Amy and Brigitte.

Some of the boys...Jeff, Ryan, Parker, Dicey Dave, Quattlebaum and Earl. For some reason, they didn't want to put their arms around each other like the girls did...

The Beach Babes...Monique, Lindsey, Amy, Brigitte, Slade, Annie and Me!

Silly things about Germany...

2008-06-04T08:59:00.001-07:00

Here are some silly things about Germany:

Dogs are better behaved here than children. People bring their dogs everywhere! In the grocery store, in department stores, in restaurants. But if you decide to leave your pooch outside...don't worry. He'll wait patiently for you by the fire hydrant...without a leash! Meanwhile, children find no problem screaming on the bus right into your ear or wiggling so hard in their stroller that they squirm their way out.

Eggs are not refrigerated in the grocery store. That's right, they're just sitting on a shelf.

You can buy beer in SubWay.

They HAVE SubWay here...in the prettiest building you've ever seen.

You can buy 24 rolls of toilet paper for 1.50 Euro but gas is almost 8.00 Euro a gallon!

Cars can and WILL run over pedestrians.

Showing up late to something is grounds for being written out of a will.

They always shut the doors. Always. I'm constantly walking into the bathroom door at night because my roommate keeps shutting the door! Haha!

They're not use to hot weather at all. On Monday it was 78 degrees by 10:00am and they sent the school children home.

They clap for a recital or performance for at least 5 straight minutes. I'm not exaggerating. My hands were raw when we were done...

Oh Germany...you're so silly! But I still love you!

Hamburg Trip!

2008-06-02T08:43:00.001-07:00

So we went on a group tour of Hamburg with our Resident Director as our guide. Hamburg is about 30 miles from Lüneburg and it's one of the biggest cities in Germany. It's also it's own city state, with it's own independent government. It was an incredibly hot day, so all the walking really wore us out, but for the most part it was a super enjoyable day. There is so much amazing History here...I love it!!

Here was our schedule for the day:

10:30-11:00 Train Ride to Hamburg
11:00-1:00 Mini Tour of City
1:00-2:00 Lunch (Where I had the grossest hot dog of my life!)
2:00-3:00 Boat ride around the harbor
3:30-5:00 Hamburg History Museum (I was like the only one in my group who liked it!)
5:00-7:00 Dinner at September, a sports bar
7:30-8:00 Train ride home to Lüneburg

Some Pictures:

This fountain was in the courtyard of the Rathaus or City Hall.

These are both views from the top of St. Nikolaus Tower, a church that was built in the 1300's and has been burnt down 3 times. It was 150 meters tall and for two years was the tallest structure in the world.

This is the outside view of the City Hall!

These are real live people being statues. If you put money in their buckets then move for you! It was crazy!

Both the below and above pictures are of the smaller part of the Hamburg Harbor (which is the largest in Germany). The fountain in the background stopped running for 3 years because it used too much electricity. But then some concerned (and rich) citizen decided to pay for it themselves!

I took this picture of the statue and fountain. Not until later when looking at my pictures did I notice that the beautiful, Romanesque building in the background...was the most magnificent Burger King I've ever seen!

Barbeque!

2008-05-29T03:02:00.000-07:00

I went to a BBQ last night with my German Buddy and all of her friends. Es macht viel spaß!! (It was really fun). But I forgot my camera, so I'll just have to describe it!

The Food:
We grilled on three tiny, mini BBQ's that came out of boxes! I had something called Schweinbach which is thinly sliced pork, marinaded in a spicy rub and then wrapped around skewers! It was really good. I also tasted my first "official" kraut and I surprisinly liked it. We also had lots of breads and noodle salads and really tasty Kartoffel (Potato) Salads. So far, I'm a fan of German food! I also had my first taste of German beer! Unfortunetly, I still don't like it. I guess, it's not THAT much better in Germany! =)

The Entertainment:
Everyone is so active here! Everyone participated in games like volleyball, soccer, football and a few irregular games. Surprisingly, many of the boys liked to play American football! That was silly to watch because none of them were very good! But one of the boys knew Boise State and Ian Johnson! Haha, he asked me if I was his cheerleader wife! =)

My Apartment!

2008-05-27T09:11:00.001-07:00

The outside of my "flat"

This is me holding the GIANT, sweet, castle key that unlocks my bedroom! Whoo!

My WC...or bathroom!

Living Room, it has a TV and everything...even though I can't really understand it!!

This is basically the Pantry in our kitchen. A place for everything and everything in it's place!

Tiny, yet adorable kitchen!

One half of my room...

...and the other half!

This is really awesome ketchup that has curry in it! It's sweet and a sour and I like it! Everything here comes in really tall, skinny bottles...I don't know why.

The toilets here...use a button...not a handle. Weird, huh?

Die Innenstadt (Downtown) Lüneburg

2008-05-26T13:14:00.000-07:00

The downtown area is amazing!
Here are some pictures.

The big white building below with the green and red top is the Rathaus or City Hall. Some of it's original pieces are from the 1300's!

This big church steeple is called St. Johannes Kirche and it has the largest tower in all of Neidersaachsen (the state where Lüneburg is). It has some amazing stained glass inside. Funny story...the architect didn't design it quite right and the steeple tilts just a little bit. The people of Lüneburg were not so happy and made him feel really bad. So he tried to commit suicide by jumping off the tower. But God had other plans and placed a wagon of hay underneath him. He fell into the wagon and was saved! Unfortunetely, that night his friends tried to cheer him up with a few beers. He must have had a few too many and fell off his chair backwards...and broke his neck! Haha!

Here are some pictures now of the downtown streets. So fun and cute!

These last few pictures are of a few of the nicer homes that are near downtown. In the 1300's these belonged to the wealthy merchants!

Pictures of Lüneburg

2008-05-24T12:51:00.001-07:00

Here are a few of the amazing buildings and sights that I get to look at for the summer!

I'm HERE!

2008-05-24T11:07:00.000-07:00

Lüneburg is beautiful and old and wonderful. I'm so excited to be here but I already miss all of you! As soon as I have a second to breathe, I will post some awesome pictures.

Off to Germany

2008-05-21T21:37:00.000-07:00

I think this will be a nice easy way for me to keep everyone updated while I'm in Germany (plus I won't have to write a million emails)

Tomorrow, I'm off! My plane leaves Boise at 1:40 pm then goes to San Francisco then to London then to Berlin...then it's a train to Lüneburg! Oh My!! On top of all that, I'm sick as a dog!

Wish me luck.