and we're back

today we had class again for the first time in a while (we had one of our long weekends this past weekend up until yesterday). class was long but thats okay, we have to learn something while we're here. ;-) [i'm kidding, we are learning quite a lot which is evidenced in this blog]

i did go to dresden this past weekend and it was absolutely beautiful. it was the picturesque Germany i think i had imagined all of Germany would like. i am by NO means disappointed in Leipzig, but i think all of us on our trip would agree dresden was prettier.

dresden was completely destroyed by bombs within like a day or two of the war ending (not sure of the exact reasons why there but if you care to you can always google it), so much of dresden is less than 60 years old. however, efforts have been made to recreate it as it was, so it still looks and feels and is in many ways historical.

amy and i did a hop on hop off bus tour of the city on our second day there and that was really fun. it had 22 stops and some of them we had seen the day before because our hotel is located in a part of town that is very historical, but there were things further away that we got to see on our tour so that was nice (we wouldn't have probably made it too far away from our hotel otherwise). the tour was really good because you could listen to headphones for an english explanation of all the sights. my personal favorite thing (and i think it was amy's too) that we saw was the dairy. Pfund's (silent p) dairy is supposedly the most famous and beautiful dairy in the whole world and i totally believe it. we ate lunch there and it was the best cheese and milk i've ever had. The Pfund brothers invented condensed milk, and i think they may have invented milk soap too, not sure. anyway it was a cool place and very beautiful on the inside of the shop.

we also saw the palace there, the opera house, the outside of a castle (it was sadly a little disappointing, not as big as i dreamed), went to church (all in German, but the church was gorgeous), and we saw/did lots of other stuff.

pictures will be coming soon. i forgot my camera in our flat and so amy took pictures in dresden and i'll get them form her to post here at a later date.

random tidbits for you all:

1. my wisdom teeth are acting up...advil is my new best friend
2. during our free time amy and i have been reading a new book series (it's not actually new, just new to us) and we are being nerdy and loving it
3. we found a famous and fabulous coffee shop in Leipzig so now i plan to frequent it (it's called Kaffeehaus Riquet and is beautiful!)
4. gelato is amazing and i know i will miss it a lot when we leave
5. 1 other person here knows how to play euchre and so he and i taught some of our friends to play. that's right family, be proud, i'm passing the love of euchre on to others!
6. at the hilton, we called and asked for more pillows to be brough to our room and they brought us towels. towel and pillow don't sound alike to me, but i guess we can't fault them since english isn't their first language
7. it rained a LOT the past few days
8. it was also cold the past few days but is warming up again


Okay...tomorrow we have class again, then in the afternoon some of us are going kayaking (it's surprisingly very cheap and the river here is calm and tranquil so don't worry mom), and then tomorrow night we are going to a Jazz tribute to Bach. that should be a very interesting concert.

lovelovelove to you all!