Wow! I had a really amazing birthday! I'm really tired out now :-) No pictures for you today, but there is a recounting of the weekend!

My adventure started on Friday afternoon, when I took a pair of trains from Kassel to Frankfurt. Then I found The Stay and Learn Hostel, which has free wireless internet! They were nice enough to let me use the internet even though I wasn't staying there! So I hung out in a lounge area with music and lots of people chatting in several different languages, getting my fill of email, webcomics, and blogs. Ahhh... Then, at around 1am, a 6'7" blond guy came and and said, "You want to go to a Karaoke Bar." So I went along with Slayton and his friends to the Karaoke bar, which was only a block away. A lot of people there seemed to know him... he's been in town for several days, and those who don't know his name know him as "the big loud American!" The first song I heard karaoked (is 'to karaoke' a valid verb? probably not.) was, predictably, Robbie Williams' "Angels." Europeans are crazy about this song, which I had never heard of until coming here. I actually really like the song! For those of you who haven't heard it, Youtube! Slayton and five of his friends did a song later, I don't remember what it was called, but they did a very enthusiastic performance. I only stayed for 5 or 6 songs, and then I headed off to find the bus.

It was pretty easy to find, and I was soon asleep on the 2 hours' ride to the airport. Once I reached the airport I realized that I was starving, so I had an airport feast (generally not a good idea, as airport food is not the cheapest) But, it was delicious, including meat, bread, fruit, and chocolate! Yummy. Then I figured out checking in, and slept for another hour until boarding. Boarding was a lot of fun. RyanAir is a cheap, no-frills airline. There was no line for boarding, only a mob of people groggily (it wasn't quite 6am) jostling for position. After showing my ticket and passport to one of a pair of employees, I was able to walk out of the airport and right onto the tarmac. Then I just had to follow the signs to determine which of the couple dozen 747s was the correct one, and walk up one of a pair of rolling ladders to the plane. There are no assigned seats on RyanAir, so I got a window seat reasonably near the front. I spent the beginning of the flight taking pictures of the clouds and other scenery out my window, and the end fast asleep. Not that there was much of a flight; I think it was only an hour and a half long.

I flew in to Girona, which is a small airport 1:10 out from the city by bus. I took the bus on the "rapidapista" into the city, and wandered around the (huge) station for only a few minutes before being found by DEVIN WEST! He's a friend from high school who's studying in Toulouse, France this summer. He and some other students got into Barcelona the night before we did, so they already had the basics of the subway and things figured out, which was a nice bonus for me. Devin and I headed over to his hostel so I could drop off my backpack and change clothes. The hostel has the coolest elevator! It's very old and somewhat reminiscent of Disney's Tower of Terror.

Devin and I headed off to find a group of his fellow UW-Madison students. Along the way we saw a couple of buildings by Gaudi, the well-known architect from Barcelona. He was not the most traditional architect; one of the buildings was meant to look as though there were human skulls all over it. We also walked briefly in the Olympic Gardens. Then we found his friends and went to the beach!

Oh, it was so nice! Kassel's been almost constantly cloudy and cool lately. But the beach in Barcelona was PERFECT! The sun was out, the sand was hot, and the water was just cool enough. We set up a spot on the crowded sand as a group, and 6 of the 8 of us went swimming. Devin and I swam out to touch a bouy and swam around a bit. And for a while we just floated, which was so nice! I love to just feel the sun above me and the motion of the waves beneath. It's so relaxing! Later, we were watching some locals with wave boards, at least I think that's what they're called. The boards were shorter and wider than surf boards, and one end was flat. The way to use them is to wait on the shore for the right moment, when a wave is just about to leave shore, then run, throw the board down in front of you, and jump on. Then you can ride for a ways on a slant into the water. I went and asked them if they could show me how, so one of the guys let me borrow his board and I tried a few times. I sort of got it, but not without taking a few falls first. Devin also tried it a little bit. It's harder than it looks, but fun!

After the beach we saw some nice views of the city, and I went to La Sagrada Familia. La Sagrada Familia is a cathedral that's been under construction since 1882. Gaudi was the principal architect until his untimely death (he was run over by a tram!). His work is absolutely amazing. Fifteen minutes in, I realized that my mouth was hanging open, and closed it. There's a museum beneath, and I would have liked to spend hours there. But, time was short, so we took the subway back to the hospital and changed for dinner.

Devin, 6 other Madison students, and pair of British students, and I went out to a Sushi place called Wasabi. (Yeach, Wasabi! Luckily I didn't have to eat any) We had a really good time, and it was surprisingly reasonably priced for Sushi. We got a few assorted platters of sushi and some sake to share, and some people got miso soup.

Then, we went to a fountain show at the (confusingly named) Bread & Butter Barcelona. It was the most amazing fountain show I have ever seen! Including anywhere at Disney. The atmosphere was relaxed and friendly, with lots of people everywhere. We climbed up onto a stone wall (not the easiest to do in my silly girls' shoes, but it made the hacker in me happy) and had a great view. We were also just in range of the mist that the wind blew off the fountains. The show was set to music, some classical, some more modern, some even a little oriental. I don't really know how to describe the show. The fountains were powerful, and the amount of water massive, yet at the same time there was so much precision and intricacy in the patterns. There fountain was continuously colored in changing patterns by colored lights. The show was choreographed beautifully. After a while we climbed up a ways, in front an art museum, and looked down on the fountains from above.

After that we walked along La Rambla, and saw some very talented street performers. There was an amazing ventriloquist with a hideous puppet and an odd sense of humor, and Devin went up and talked to him (well, his puppet). We eventually found some gelato, a delicious italian ice cream that comes in lots of interesting flavors. My coconut gelato was delicous! We ended the night with tapas at a place called Tapas Gaudi. I had a spinach omelette and some sangría. It was an excellent end to an excellent day.

The swimming at the sunny beach, the wonderful fountain show, and the sangría all combined to make me feel the most comfortable and relaxed I've been here. It probably didn't hurt to be in the company of lots of Wisconsinites, either! And Devin bought me a pretty souvenier fan for my birthday! And fanned me! It was a good day :D

And then bus, plane, bus, train, yada yada yada. That's not so interesting. So, until the next wireless hotspot, take care!

I suppose it's technically my birthday now! (It's 12:30 in the morning here). I was born in Wisconsin around 4:30 in the morning, which makes the actual anniversary of my birth difficult to celebrate there. But that translates to 11:30 here, so I get to be awake when I turn 20! Actually, I'll probably be waking up around 4:30 anyways, after 2 hours of sleep on the bus I'll catch. Ryanair has cheap prices for the actual flight, but then you have to pay for bus rides to their out of the way airports. Meh. At least I can sleep on the bus.

And here are an assortment of pictures I've taken in the last week or so:

The papers on the wall are my attempt to learn German grammar through osmosis. The computer on the bed is my attempt to connect to the internet (if you zoom in on the screen, you'll see that I failed.)

Look, I found some nature! This was last Saturday morning, when I biked out along the Fulda. The clouds and scenery in general were great. I took lots of pictures of them. I remember thinking to myself that there was an unusually great display of clouds that day. And yet somehow I wasn't expecting the rain...

The Aua, on the Fulda River. Absolutely beautiful.

And ten minutes later, it started to rain. And ten minutes after that, the sun was shining again. Kas, a guy from the gym, told me he thinks the German people are like their weather. I might agree, but for now I'll reserve judgement.

This is part of a beautiful circle in front of the Orangerie, lined on both sides with trees. Unfortunately, it was windy, so sudden showers rain that had recently collected in the leaves kept blowing down onto me!

Near the center of the city, roses are selling at 4 Euros for 20!

Me in the pinkest dress I can remember wearing. Or seeing, for that matter!

A child picking up a chocolate Euro coin at the checkout counter of a store I was at. Those things were huge!

I was sitting on a bench at the University trying to find a wireless network on Sunday, when this bird hopped onto the wheel of my bike!

This is Sam! He came to visit me for a couple of days this week. He's traveling all over Europe this summer as the MISTI reporter, interviewing MIT students about their experiences at European companies. It was a lot of fun. I couldn't believe this garden we found behind Löwensburg. Sam's comment was: 'I've only seen this in Fairytales!' Sam came to work with me on Wednesday and Mr. Foth took us on a tour around DB. Later, Mr. Waßmuth took us on a tour all around Kassel. While we were at DB, Sam took a bunch of pictures of me with the trains. Here are a couple:

Sam's definitely dedicated to doing what it takes to get good pictures; that's his foot in this picture as he sits on the track to try this angle.

Sam and I on die Teufelsbrücke: The Devil's Bridge. It's one of the prettiest bridges I've ever seen.

Yay! I'm caught up on the blog. I don't really have anything to say now; I'm tired, looking forward to sleeping on the bus. On the train here I met a nice Spanish couple and we talked in a mix of Spanish, German and English. (She wants to learn English, I need to brush up on Spanish, and we were all in Germany) My head is so confused! Hope you're all having lots of fun! Email me!

Kim

Hello? Whoah, spooky. It's all empty and echoy (echoey? ok, so it's probably not a word. but you know what I mean) in here. So, I've been trying really hard to update my journal. I've been reinstalling drivers, wandering around aimlessly with my laptop open to search for wireless, biting off all my fingernails; nothing works. I wrote a blog on Friday, but alas, I can't upload it. I will continue trying whatever I can to fix it, but until then, I guess I'll just talk to myself...

I'll just do a quick outline of what's happening. On Saturday I headed out to go swimming, but it was sort of windy and barely warm and the lake was empty, so I took myself shopping again. On the way there it rained briefly, so I bought half a kilo of cherries and waited it out at a bus stop with an old motorcyclist who rolled his own cigarettes. I saw a little of the Documenta. I was told by a little old lady with a cute sunhat that she thought I was art. I think it's because my long hair isn't so common in Germany and it was in a nice braid. Or maybe because I sort of did one of those smooth running bicycle dismounts just before she said it. I don't know. I couldn't understand everything she said, but the part about being art was clear. When I was shopping, I tried on the brightest pink dress ever. Umm, I bought a couple of shirts and a pair of socks. Sorry, not too exciting. Oh, and I guess I bought a CD as well. And pizza and ice cream. Umm... I think I'm failing to be consise.

So: that night, Discotheque. Fun. Talked to a group of kids, got one of the girls's phone number; we might hang out.

Sunday: went to church, the gym, the University (where I failed to get wireless). Made a new playlist of music for myself.

Today (Monday): work. Was helped to fix some bugs in my Inventor files. Dance class! Met a girl named Yasemin who used to be an au pair in Boston and San Francisco. We will hopefully hang out sometime.

Tuesday: I'm going to work under someone else, not sure what on, tomorrow. Then hopefully picking up groceries, quick visit to the gym, and PICKING UP SAM! Sam Mauer's coming to visit me for a couple of days. He's an old friend from the MIT Marching Band, as well as the roaming reporter for MISTI. So, that should be fun.

Ok, enough talking to myself. Umm... bye.