cream cheese on subway sandwiches

So I put Jon on the plane back home yesterday morning, which was sad, but the week he spent here was a lot of fun. We went to the museum Haus der Geschichte which is German history WWII and onward. They were setting up an exhibition about the movie Das Boot (pronounced like boat, not like a boot like a shoe). There was cubicle walling around it so you couldn't see anything yet, but it looks like they have a piece of the submarine on display which you can see because it stands so high. Jon and I tried peering in but received threatening looks from the security guard posted outside the display. It opens towards the end of the month and is there until the end of February, so I'll have to go check it out at some point.

We also went to Cologne and did a tour of the Middle Ages history of the city. Cologne was founded by the Romans as an outpost city where retired military officers could live. We walked around the city along what once used to be the wall of the original Roman city, because during the Middle Ages Cologne was actually the third largest city in Europe, even bigger than Paris. So it would have been too large to walk the perimeter of how huge the city had been during that time period. The guide was very cool, and since we were only a group of about 6, he was very interactive. We saw a lot of cool buildings that you don't see on the main tourist drag. Cologne sits kind of on a hill, and the way the guide described it was like an onion that has so many different layers. Anytime the city wants to undertake a project that requires digging into the ground, they find any number of Middle Ages, or Roman buildings, artifacts, etc. Since Cologne is right on the Rhine, during the middle ages, the city controlled all shipping traffic on the river, and basically had first dibs to anything they wanted off traveling merchants' ships, at whatever price they named. So they became very rich, very fast. Many buildings today are built on top of foundations and pre-existing walls of buildings from the Middle Ages. Sadly, I didn't take as many pictures as I should have because it was FREEZING cold and the wind was blowing so hard it almost knocked us over. Taking pictures would have required me to take my hands out of my pockets and remove my mittens.

Friday we went to an FC Koeln (stands for Football Club) soccer game in Cologne at the Rhein Energie Dome. It was very exciting. FC Koeln fans are some of the most loyal and craziest, even though their team hasn't won a title since 1983. The game was an impressive show of which team could make the most mistakes, allowing the other one to score. FC Koeln's first two goals were both scored in the first 8 minutes. The first one scored literally in the first minute. Jon and I both bought scarves in red and white to support our lovely billy goats, the mascot of FC Koeln. (Koeln being Cologne in German).

Saturday we went and saw the Beethoven House museum which was actually a lot cooler than I thought it was going to be. I had previously stood out front of this house where Beethoven was born and took my picture, but this was the first time I went into the actual museum. They had a lot of original scores that Beethoven wrote with his corrections and notes in the margins as well. Those were very cool to look at. Pictures were not allowed since the lighting had to be so low to preserve the really old documents. They also had 2 piano fortes which were given to Beethoven as gifts and which he used for most of his career. They had a bunch of other instruments which had belonged to him as well. It was all very cool.

Plans for the upcoming weeks include a trip to Berlin over Thanksgiving. We leave Tuesday the 20th and get back Sunday the 25th. It's an International Office trip, so I essentially only paid 150 Euro and that covers my trip there and back, the 5 night hostel stay, all museum entrances and other activities, and possibly some meals as well. (What a bargain!!!) I'm pretty excited about it because I've never been to Berlin before, and that will give me something to keep busy over Thanksgiving instead of being sad that I'm not spending it at home. (Save me some pumpkin pie!)

November 30th, Sophie and Stacy and I leave for Paris. We have tickets booked from Friday morning (REALLY) early through Monday evening. I'm SUPER excited about that trip. And Friday evenings the Louvre is open free to students so you can bet we'll be there!

Oh, and this Friday I have an appointment to get my hair cut. I'll definitely post pictures of that when it happens. Other than that, this week is just getting a lot of school work done. I have a presentation on Thursday (which I've pushed back from a week ago) on Who is at fault in WWI. Should be interesting. I also have to get to work on graduate school application stuff, they can't accept me if I don't apply! Okay well much love to everyone, I miss you all. More later!

Oh right, as the title to this post would suggest, one day Jon and I went to eat at Subway for lunch just because we thought it would be funny, and when they asked if we wanted cheese on our subs, the cheese they used was Philadelphia cream cheese! It was actually pretty tasty albeit unexpected.