Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! Mine will be a bit lonely but my amazing friends and boyfriend have still made it feel like Christmas by gifting me games on Steam ^___^ I will also be spending New Years with friends and hopefully going to the Stuttgart Zoo this week if my friend recovers from her cold. 50F and no snow makes it feel less Christmas-y but hopefully it will start getting cold again soon. I got myself a little something when I was out Christmas shopping. It was so cute I couldn't resist and hand made in Germany so also a souvenir.

Hunter bought me Skyrim! So I will be playing that all day today haha Hope everyone has a Great Christmas and I can't wait to get back to give everyone their presents!

Schokoladenfestival @ Night

More pictures of the festival at night :) My friend took pictures of our group so I will try to post them when I get them. Enjoy the beautiful decorations.

It turns out there is a Blogger picture limit... I have never had this problem before but I have never uploaded this many pictures haha. So no pictures for a while it looks like.

Schokoladenfestival

Today after class I was finally able to make it to the Schokoladenfestival! It was very cold today and kept snowing off and on which was pretty but I couldn't feel my hands or face. There were a lot of venders and it was fun to see the different companies and local shops. There was a lot of chocolate art as well. I had Glühwein for the first time and it was actually very good. A bit spicy (as in cinnamon and not peppers) but it felt amazing on my freezing hands. The sun came out for a little bit so I was able to get better pictures but they all turned out pretty dark. I will have to mess with my camera and try to figure it out. They had these awesome Ritter Sport bags made out of the chocolate wrappers so I bought one of those (it came with lots of chocolate haha). Ritter Sport is my favorite German chocolate. I don't think I will be able to eat US chocolate anymore after being spoiled like this ^_^

My nice, hot Glühwein :)

 There was a woman painting with chocolate...beautiful

 Love these

I will go back in the evening with friends and take more pictures because then they have a bunch of lights everywhere. Plus I have a lot more that I will put on my Facebook so I don't overwhelm this page anymore haha.

I also went to a piercing tattoo place that was recommended to me by my German friend because I wanted to get the next size gauge. The guy was very nice and helpful and stretched my ears for free like they do in the US. I had to buy two different kinds because the right one of the pair I wanted was bigger than the left. But I actually like the swirly one better than the glass one. Love that fresh from the piercer ache ^_^

Dark Visions

Kind of getting into a routine now. Still pretty bored since I only have school and games. I did finally meet some friends who I had only talked to online last weekend. We went to a concert and it was so much fun. I really need to work hard on my German since my one friend can't speak much English. I will start going to the international coffee hour every Friday to work on my spoken German. I think I mostly need to focus on vocab though because that is my biggest problem, not knowing certain words to use or not understanding. There weren't that many people at the event which made it not as fun as it could have been. I love dancing but I don't have the courage to do it in public unless there are a lot of people and there were only about 15-20 people dancing. There were two different rooms. One was having an 80's music night (eh) and the other was having Metal, Goth, Techno, Dubstep so I pretty much stayed in that room. Hopefully I will be able to go with them to the huge live concert next weekend but it's a 4 hour train ride so we are trying to find someone to drive us so we'll see. Sadly I didn't get any pictures. I don't like bringing my camera to dark indoor places like clubs and bars because the pictures don't turn out or you have to blind everyone with the flash. There was a lady there taking pictures but she either was not working for the club or just never posted them which makes me sad because my friends and I were in several pictures. Oh well, I will take my camera to the concert if we are able to go. I have mostly met stereotypical Germans who are very standoffish and are nice but not bubbly or warm. My friends met me when I got off the train and I actually got a hug from both of them lol I was shocked but it was a very pleasant surprise. Plus everyone of their friends we saw that night were super nice and friendly. It gave me hope for making more friends here (as long as I continue to improve my German of course).
 
There is a Schokoladenfestival this week. I am planning on going with some other international students on Friday so definitely lots of pictures to come. I have a lot of friends going to France, Berlin, Italy, and all over Germany and I wish I could join but everything here is so expensive! I thought that traveling here was cheap but that was a very incorrect stereotype that I was told. The train and bus are nice because once you buy your semester ticket you can ride as much as you want for free but it's only local. I can't take a train even to Stuttgart for free, it's about 25€ there and back so not terrible but not cheap by any means. Finding someone to drive you is a lot cheaper but also hard to find. We are hoping to find a ride to the concert because that would be a lot cheaper. Not sure if I will be able to go if we have to take the train since it's 4 hours away. But fingers crossed! Trying to save all I can and hopefully can save up to at least travel within Germany. There are lots of events happening when I come back after my semester break so that will help with the monotony of life in Tübingen (there really is nothing to do here unless you have money to shop... which would also get boring haha). I will have pictures from the Märkte soon!

Wordless Wednesday

Unknown bird of prey. Anyone know? :)

Nature

This is going to be a mostly picture post. I should probably wait for wordless Wednesday but I will save a couple for that and post most of them now. I really have been doing nothing...It's been a very boring experience so far. I go to class, I sleep, I play games, I talk to people online and that's about it. I did go to the international coffee hour once last week and hung out with friends that same day but other than that I've just been trying to find activities to fill my day. I go for a walk a couple times a day and always take my camera just in case. Here are some of the pictures I took on those walks. I have met 3 kitties so far and my favorite one I can never get a picture of. Maybe I will find him/her next time I'm out but it is a very sweet lap kitty and it makes my day when I'm able to see him/her.

 Foggy Day (looked a lot prettier in person)

 Crows everywhere

 Found a bat box :)

 Little woodpecker? One of my bird specialists will have to let me know ~_^

Fluffy kitty I met today