Thursday, April 29, 2010

Day 60 in Esslingen







Dear blog,

today evening we went with Barbara to Frühlingsfest, which is sort of October Fest, but on spring time! So, basically, it is a huge beer festival. :P

Barbara got me to the 55m high big wheel!! I was a little bit nervous, but after the first round it was just fine, I didn't get vertigo anymore. Good for me!
We took another ride, too, it was going round and round with break dance music and disco lights and there was even fog from fog machine! It was fun!

I also met there my international friend, a German girl called Sina, and we had some fun in a huge beer tent were everyone was dancing on the bench and singing and drinking beer. Jag fick prata lite svenska också! :)

Day 58 in Germany: Excursion to Frankfurt







On Tuesday we had an excursion to Frankfurt and our small Berlin-group went straight from Berlin to Frankfurt.
Frankfurt is a real business city! You can see businessmen and businesswomen and skyscrapers everywhere. The city is called to be "the smallest metropolis in the world".

During the excursion we visited the stock exchange ("Wertpapierbörse"), St. Paul's Church which offered itself as the meeting place for the first all-German Parliament, and then.. Then we visited the Main Tower. We went up there, to the roof of 54 floors and 199,5 meters high tower. 53 floors in the elevator was quite fine by me, but to reach the last floor we had to take the stairs and the walls were made of glass.. It took some 10 to 15 minutes for me to get up the steps but I MADE IT!! :)

Days 55-57 in Germany: Berlin Baby! :D










After losing two of four travelers from our group on the way, we finally got to Berlin. The weekend trip went well, a part from the problematic journey to Berlin. The weather was good on Saturday and Sunday and only on Monday it rained in the evening.

On Saturday we walked in the Mitte (center) and we saw Bugatti! Of course it meant that it was time to start taking pictures! :D The group picture is from Brandenburger Tor and on the other side of the gate there was some kind of festival going on with carousels, beer tents and ice cream kiosks. :)

On Sunday I took a free walking tour in the City of Berlin and the tour was amazing! Our guide, Barry, made the tour so exciting by his way of explaining and acting the history of Berlin from foundation of the city, to the division to East and West Berlin, until the present state of the city. In one of the pictures you can see the TV tower of East Berlin in the background.
In the evening we went to DDR Museum and Pei found the Sandmann! My favorite program when I was a little girl. :)
On the wall of an East-Berlin-a-like-kitchen there is a aphorism, which says: "The saddest day in your life is the day you didn't smile."

On Monday I met a Finnish friend of mine, Janne, who is studying at the moment in Berlin as an exchange student, just like me! We had lunch in an Indian restaurant (really good food) and then went for a coffee after taking some tourist pictures at Zoologische Garten (we didn't go to the zoo though). It was really nice to share experiences in Germany and talk about the people we have met here and about cultural differences. :)

Friday, April 23, 2010

Day 54 in Esslingen: The Daimler Excursion!!



The excursion to Daimler was SO COOL!!

First they told us some basic facts about the company and the cars they produce (Mercedes-Benz) and THEN... then we got to the test drive tracks!! :P

They put on the whole show for us with truck driving extremely bad roads while we stayed in the buss and drove right next to it on normal road! The truck drove up and down even such hills as 60% and 70%!!

But the best part of the whole excursion was getting a ride in passenger car (of course Mercedes-Benz models, E500 STW and one convertible, and also one AMG Hybrid) ON THE TEST TRACKS!! What a rush!!! We drove max ~160km/h (it was only 3km track in total) but still it felt fast. The most exciting parts were all the curves! 45 degrees (you really feel the g-forces!) and quarter pipe, which was SO COOL! It looks like the car is driving on the wall! :P

In the end of the test drive track -trip, the buss driver (from the Daimler company and also one of the test drivers) drove the quarter pipe WITH THE BUSS and we were in the buss, too!! Best excursion ever!! <3

Äiskä: Päästiin mersujen kyytiin ja testiajajat ajelivat (me kyydissä) testiradalla, jopa semmosessa rännissä!! Niinkuin seinällä olis ajanut! Ei pelottanu! Oli vaan hauskaa! :P

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Day 51 in Esslingen




Dear blog,

last Sunday I found a beautiful jogging path on the hills! Today I had another walk there, and it was like heaven. Green every where, the view to the neighborhood, the blossoming trees, wonderful! It was warm day, again, so people were jogging in shorts and t-shirts. I still can't believe the summer is here.. so I had jacket with me, but of course I couldn't use it!! :D

Monday, April 19, 2010

Day 50 in Esslingen


Today was a little bit better day for me. I slept quite well in the night, no parties in the dormitory this time to disturb my sleep. So the day was just about taking it easy and doing stuff at home, cleaning and things like that.

On the way to our German history lessons with Teddy, we saw a cat! As I spotted the cat, I instantly spoke something to it as a reflex! The cat seemed to be very pleased to get some attention (even from strangers) and it came straight to Teddy, who is allergic to cats! :D

It was such a funny incident and luckily I got my camera with me so I got pretty good footage! The cat just threw itself on Eetu's feet, even though he did not pet the cat, or touch it at all!

Day 49 in Esslingen


No. I was not happy at all last Sunday. No.

During the whole week there had been a lot of parties in our building and it was very hard to sleep well. The worse thing happened in the night between Saturday and Sunday. The fire alarm. At 02:00 am.

It woke whole building, of course, and I was so frightened to be waken up to such a siren in the middle of the night that I couldn't go back to sleep, not even after hearing that it was only a false alarm. It was false alarm, yes, but intentional one.
I made a reclamation about it and I REALLY hope they will find the person who broke the fire alarm on purpose!

Day 48 in Esslingen



Dear blog,
last Saturday we went to Stuttgart with Cristina to enjoy the sun and the people, but no marathon-shopping this time. :)

It was just like a summer day. Exactly like summer. The city was full of people and the parks were totally green! People were sitting on the grass and sleeping in the sun, just enjoying the day. And that did we as well. I bought my first-of-this-summer soft ice cream and it tasted sooooo good!

Aurinko, +20 astetta ja jäätelöä = Suomen kesä. <3

Day 47 in Germany: Excursion to Bodensee







Oh, the Bodensee was so beautiful! We had a trip there last Friday with our German History course so the buss was full of exchange students. =)

We drove first to Friedrichschafen and visited Zeppelin Museum. In the museum we had a nice guide who told us the history and more of Zeppelin airships in one and a half hours. After the museum we had some free time and we went for a coffee and ice cream with Axel, a student from our school in Jyväskylä, who is doing his bachelor thesis in Friedrichschafen. He was so nice when taking us to one of the best ice cream cafés in the town with a view to the lake Constance.

On our trip we also visited the new castle in Meersburg. The castle had, of course, an amazing view from a hill to the lake and in the between there was the old village of Meersburg. It was really, really beautiful village!

The last activity on our excursion was the boat trip from Meersburg to Überlingen, which took about an hour. All of us went up to the deck of the ship and just enjoyed the ride. We sailed in the sun shine in a warm weather, we passed small harbor villages, green hills and sailboats, birds were flying in the sky.. Just beautiful.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Day 46 in Esslingen



Today we had our workshop group meeting in a pub nearby our school! As you can see from the picture, studying can be SO hard sometimes! haha!

In the evening we also had a student party, but this Thursday it was in our school! It looked more like a night club than a school building. We had really fun evening. =)

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Day 45 in Esslingen: The International Day






























We had the International Day today at school and it means that all exchange students are presenting their home universities and schools. It was so fun!
There was a lot of people: exchange students, German students, people from international office and even our German teachers were there and helping international office in organizing some snacks for the hungry students! =)

I was so excited! And surprised that there were so many people interested in Finland, I was so pleased to tell them about my school and home town.
The Finnish table looked very nice! We had powerpoint-shows and videos and brochures and handouts and pens and stuff, even a mascot! :D Maskottini Herra Arvi Hirvi istui myös meidän pöydässä ja edusti Suomea lippupaidassaan. haha!

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Day 44 in Esslingen


Dear blog,
the beginning of this week have been very slow.. Maybe I'm too old but I have been exhausted after the trip to Munich! haha! :D It's good to have some relaxing days between the trips, the next one is already this Friday!

Today I had a nice walk here nearby my home and I found a nice little shop on the hill and I bought shoes for summer!
They are quite cute, aren't they? :)

Monday, April 12, 2010

Day 42 in Germany: Deutsches Museum!






On Sunday morning in Munich we went to the Deutsches Museum, which is the biggest museum of technology and science in the world. I was so excited! The museum was so huge that we should have had whole day to spend there, but we only had three hours.

The Museum is located on an island and I got nice pictures from the bridge (you can see the museum building on the left side of the photo) and from a museum window to the river Isar.

Because of the time limit, we couldn't study all the information from the museum, but as a Paper Machine Technology student I really wanted to see the Paper Technology part of the museum! :P
In that section there was a very small, tiny, little (but working!) paper machine. It was so cute! Så jätte söt! Tosi söpö, pieni paperikone. :) The paper part was only a small part of the museum, but it still showed the history of paper machines and the basic principal how the machine works.

München




Munich (in German: München) is the capital city of Bavaria and it is the third biggest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. The name of the city comes from a German word for monks because it was monks who founded the city approximately in 1158.

Many of the buildings in Munich are built by the King Ludwig I, who was one of the first kings of Bavaria. Ludwig I liked the buildings he had seen in Italy and the influence of Italian architecture can be seen in Munich, for example in the royal palace (Munich Residenz, the first picture) which is the largest city palace in Germany and is nowadays open to visitors for its architecture and decorations.

One of the most famous beer hall in the world, Hofbräuhaus, is located in the city center of Munich. In the picture you can see Hofbräuhaus on the left side of the street.

At the center of the city there is the Marienplatz. It is a huge open square with the Old and the New Town Hall, in the picture you can see the new one, Neues Rathaus. In the tower of the Neues Rathaus is Glockenspiel, where you can see a show with music and life-sized moving figures at 11 a.m. every day.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Day 41 in Germany: MÜNCHEN!




Äntligen hemma!! What a weekend!

Vi hade en resa till München med International Office och jag och mina kompisar stannade över natt i München. Jag träffade min tyska kompisen, Bernhard, och vi hade jätte trevlig dag och kväll med honom och andra kompisarna. Det var tre år sen i Jyväskylä när vi hade träffat sist!! Det var verkligen dags att se varandra igen. :)

International Office arranged a trip to Munich for exchange students. In the morning we had a guided tour and we were walking around the city for three hours. After the tour I met my German friend, Berni, who I had met three years ago in Jyväskylä! Long time no see. Berni took us to a very nice Maelu café with amazing cakes! Yummy.

Our school sponsored dinner for all of us (exchange students) in a restaurant called Augustiner-Biergarten before the buss and most of the students left back to Esslingen, not everybody wanted to stay in Munich. Me and some of my friends stayed in hotel in Munich one night and in the evening we had some beer in Biergarten and good time in a good company. It was really nice trip!