Praktikums

So, as you all may or may not be aware, around the end of march I stopped going to gymnasium(german high school) and instead I started making two praktikums(internships). The first one is for the Christian Democratic Union(a political party)'s youth organization, at the office of the nordrhein westfalen state headquarters. The second is at a kindergarten, which in german actually means preschool, accross the street from my house. Both are really fun and interesting and I enjoyed both experiences a lot. Here are some pictures of some of the kids and the office where I work.

Wien

Sometime awhile ago I traveled with Julia to Vienna (Wien) Austria to visit Alex. We were there for about a week and to be honest I'm pretty sick right now and a little fuzzy on the details but it's mother's day and I'm trying really hard to get caught up on blog posts to make my mommy happy. Vienna was gorgeous and it had all these beautiful old buildings and churches and really interesting history and the weather was really nice, and it was just good. Alex had to work most of the time but it was nice to see him (it's funny writing that now because Alex is just in the other room).  

This is the roof of St. Stephan's cathedral, the main church of Vienna, where Mozart was married and also where he attended services.

A greek orthodox church

I THINK this was St. Michael's maybe? Julia can possibly confirm or deny. But I think it was the church that I found the prettiest.

Square surrounded by a bunch of museums, the spanish riding school, the library and I think also parliament

That is a museum

Parliament or the judicial building? Wow my captions are so helpful. I am so sorry.

This is the rathaus, shooooot, how do you say that in english? Town hall?

Us riding the Wiener Riesenrad, this old ferris wheel where instead of a little cart they have like this little wooden building and you could fit maybe 15 people in it or so, and you could also have a romantic dinner in it, if you wanted to.

Looking out over the amusement park (where I rode the swings that went 80m (?) high and Alex and Julia were both to chicken so I went with this little Italian boy, who I understood nothing of what he said except 'JESU CHRISTO!! JESU CHRISTO!!' so I think he was also scared. I thought it was cool.

The central cemetery in Wien. Gorgeous and large.

The cathedral in the cemetary.

Johann Strauss

Beethoven

A remembrance to Mozart (he is buried somewhere else)

Falco

Cool because we are descendants of Winklers who came from Nürnberg. Maybe that's a relation? Someone ask Uncle Jim.

Theater sets behind the scenes of the Opera house

The stage of the Opera

The, I dunno, room? In the opera house? I'm not sure but it had memorials to all of the famous Opera people who had worked there and playwrights (operawrights?) and such.

This is sparkling wine stuff that Alex FORCED me to try and I did not like it because wine is gross but it's a famous Viennese drink I guess.

Our Wiener sample plate. schnitzel and beef and ham and potatoes, oh my.

This is back in the St Stephen's dom, and I took a picture of this because it had a special story but ARG I don't remember what it was. Maybe something to do with Mozart? Or WW2? ugh I dont know.

ST Stephen's

The roof which is really cool and scared the crap out of Julia when we went up in the tower. I've never had a mother who wasnt scared of heights.

Also a cool church 

Paris

On march 30th I went to Paris for the day. Literally for the day: we left on a bus from Düsseldorf at midnight with about a dozen exchNge students and two dozen preteen germans. We got to Paris really early in the morning, toured the city in our bus before the city woke up, and then we spent the afternoon exploring the city, and left at 3pm. Still, we managed to get a lot done. We had coffee, croissants, and escargot for breakfast (they taste delicious but the texture is way too gross) saw the eiffel tower, notre dame, and that church on the hill that is called the sac re cor** or something (help! I can't French!). We saw the outside of the Louvre (because we didnt have the time to go in) ate crepes in the park under the eiffel tower, and explored the streets. It was an adventure. 

**been informed that it is the sacre cœur

The arc de triumphe (please I dont know french I dont know how to spell these things)

Look! I'm a sexy librarian