Oktober Break

Yes, It's a miracle, I'm still alive *insert applause*. Originally aka this whole break I was saying I would update on the whole break at once which I will do now with an overview however I am regretting this now! Somewhere between the lack of sleep and the anticipation of school plus no haircut in about two months (tried to end the streak yesterday but the shop shut down literally as soon as I got there) has me re-thinking so come next break I WILL MOST DEFINITELY STILL POST ONCE A WEEK.

So.. I attempted to get the pictures up today, however they aren't working because of the file conversion, I guess my computer is having a bad day.

1.) Attending a fellow FLAG CBYX'rs birthday party, spending the night and getting a tour by boat of "New Venice" which is an area of Berlin connected by a fairly large canal system; courtesy of his neighbor.

2.) Volkswagen factory, not many photos because cameras and all that aren't allowed in most areas.

3.) Braunschweig, a old city known for their love for lions evidence in the kings nickname, a few roads, and of course the coat of arms.

4.) Trip to Brandenburg (Havel) which was sacked after WW2, however it has two beautiful churches that have their own identity when you go inside and are of course very large. Other than that, the town is mostly modern and the city center consists of a large shopping mall along the road (got a pretty nice hoodie for 19 Euro)

4.) Trip to the Baltic Sea (the water is just a tad cooler than lukewarm water.. or maybe that's because the air here is getting pretty chilly and the water happened to be warmer) Also, the western Baltic Sea is salty, the middle is mixed fresh and salt and the east is basically fresh water. The water body is also loosing lots of biodiversity due to rare (now 10 year occurances) of salt water from the north sea flowing into the Baltic which has led to less oxygen (and no oxygen in some areas), and of course the sea is subject to over-fishing (from which populations haven't recovered much since previous centuries.)  The sea is also known for its plentiful fossilized remains, amber and fire rock.

5.) Trip to Stralsund, an old Hanseatic city on the Baltic with 3 large churches in what was previously a walled city that absorbed a nearby town and combined. On top of the Hanseatic homes, the city also has a Russian WW2 memorial and tiny graveyard and still standing memorial including the communist Hammer and Sickle symbol.

6.)Yesterday, I made pumpkin pie and seeds for my host family. It turned out pretty well (the homemade pie crust was a little unevenly cooked) but for the most part it was good.

My first solo Carved Pumpkin, NOT BAD!!

Working on my pumpkin pie, Thanks Grandma!!

Pumpkin seeds before the oven

Tomorrow break is over, that means school again! Which I am pumped for and look forward too (Spanish, Biology, Chemistry, and Geography)

Hopefully I can get more pictures up soon!