insert big wall of text here....

So I have lots of exciting news to share. It has been a while since I updated, I have been pretty busy. I have been trying to adjust to life here still, and sometimes that in itself has kept me busier than I would like. But not busy enough that I dont have time to blog a bit now.

I have been working hard studying Swedish so that soon I can jump up a level. I still have my goal of speaking with Anton's family in Swedish at Christmas. Hopefully I will be able to achieve that. I certainly am working hard, trying to use it as much as I can. I feel like sometimes it is harder than others. It becomes especially hard when I have to think on my feet. I did notice something a couple of weeks ago in class though that kind of amazed me. I have noticed that I am relying on translating in my head what people are saying less and less. We had an incredibly difficult lesson in class, and I only say that because we didn't really learn anything, we just talked. We talked and talked and talked, about many different things. It was incredibly effective for me to be able to practice the skill of thinking on my feet. It was nice. I noticed though, that normally I am thinking about what people are saying, but I have to think about what all the words mean in English. The other day I was able to just, communicate. Without thinking. Just listen and respond. It was a really nice feeling.

I have started getting ready to be done with my first set of Swedish courses. By that I mean that hopefully in January I will be finished with SFI (Swedish for immigrants) and move up to the next level. That would be fantastic for me. I also hope to be starting a math course then. I am working on getting everything taken care of so that I can be ready to go in January for all of that. I am hoping that everything works out. Even if it doesnt, I should have a lot easier of a time finding a job. My skills in Swedish are improving each day. I am really beginning to see the progress in myself. More and more I am able to communicate what I need in Swedish, and not in English.

I have had to call the Dr. several times in the last few weeks, because I have been attempting to get an appointment set for my surgery. I would have had this done in September, because it is normally done as an outpatient procedure by a normal Dr. but my phobia of needles/injections complicates things a lot. I have had to call many Dr.s offices, and try to stumble my way through Swedish to get them to understand the problem. I have noticed that the past few weeks though, I am able to say more and more of what I need in Swedish, and am relying a lot less on English. I think it helps that I have had to say so much of this over and over again though.

Today's thoughts.

I've had kind of an up and down month so far. At the beginning of the month I was so down in the dumps, because sometimes I just miss home so much. But then I've also had some really great days, like when I got into SFI, and then basically got moved up a level within 2 days. This whole thing feels kind of a crazy experiment for me. Almost like how long can I last before I will just give up. Although for the record I have no intentions of ever giving up. I love it here, and have been thinking a lot lately about what exactly it is that I am trying to get out of this adventure.... and I guess that's where this blog post comes in. Its kind of a brainstorm of what I have been thinking lately.

Some thoughts and feelings after two months of being back.

I've been back for two months officially now. I figured it would be appropriate to post about what I've been thinking about lately, and about what I've learned in the past two months. I have had so many positive experiences, and learned so many new things, and had to adjust my way of thinking more than once. I feel that now is the time to look back and share all those things with everyone else!

Its a bit interesting being able to officially say that I live here now. When I was here before I could only say that I was visiting. I actually am proud to say that I live here, and that I am not just visiting. Its been a bit of a journey, but since I made it back I can say that I am very happy.

More updates

 So I think I will take this time to update more with pictures than with words, only because I don't really have much else to SAY so much as SHOW.  Especially since I have not shown any pictures since I have gotten back here to Sweden. So now I will update with pictures of our new apartment: 

This is basically the first thing you see when you walk in. Its kind of Anton's little area.

Our bedroom. What you can't see is the drawers in the baseboard of our bed, or the bookshelf in the headboard. We  built the headboard entirely on our own. and the baseboard with a little help from Anton's grandpa and mom. 

This would be the dining room table that I built almost entirely on my own! 

This is half of our kitchen. We haven't done the dishes yet today from dinner last night,  and I didn't feel like it was necessary to show off dirty dishes in the sink.

This is our living room. You cant see it, but we have two bookshelves and a television. Its pretty cozy. 

This is whats out on our patio. I personally like to snuggle up under the blanket on the beanbag chair in the corner with a cup of tea and a good book. Especially on rainy days like today. 

This is the road to the right of our apartment. We are the last apartment on the street. Its not  the best view ever, but I  think its actually quite lovely compared to the view we had at the other apartment. While we could see the water from outside the door... we couldn't see it from our window. We saw a little playground that was never used, and the recycle house. I am glad that we moved out when we did though, because about a week after we moved out, they began construction RIGHT OUTSIDE the window of our old apartment. You couldn't even get in through the normal door. You had to go down through the basement and up again. Its so nice here. We even have an elevator here that takes us straight down to the laundry rooms. 

This is what is on the left side of our apartment. Since we are on the end of the street its actually nice, we have a bike path basically right outside our door, and we have a park as well. 

 These are about all the pictures that I have at the moment... I don't really have anything else to show yet... BUT today as long as it isn't raining, after my culture class I will be heading out and taking pictures wherever I can! I really want to show everyone the city. It is quite beautiful here.  I suppose that update will either be up later tonight then, or later this week for sure.

New blog post!

So, it has been quite a while since I last updated. I have been working on a few blog posts in Swedish, but am still working out all the kinks in my grammar, so those won't be up for a few weeks I suppose. A lot of things have happened in my life since my last blog.

First off, I have registered for SFI (Swedish for immigrants). There are three course paths that you could take, I was supposed to be on the second path (for people who have not completed college) and in regular classes, which is 15 hrs a week. BUT I proved myself to the teacher who was supposed to give me a test, and explained to her how much I wanted to learn and improve my Swedish, and she not only bumped me up a course path, but placed me in intensive courses (25 hrs a week, and 25 hrs worth of homework a week). Its good for me. Its going to keep me busy.... as soon as I can get into a class. So Its just the waiting game now, and even though I dont particularly like it, its what I have to do. and I really can not complain, because they are paying me to take the courses in the end.

Anton and I have officially moved to a new apartment as well. Instead of living by the Baltic sea, we are now in a more central location, on the south side of the city. It is a very nice neighborhood. Our apartment is gorgeous. We have a big kitchen and dining room, as well as a large living room. My favorite part though is that we have a balcony now! Its quite lovely to sit out on the balcony and drink a cup of tea and read a book, especially on a rainy day.

I have now started Swedish culture courses. They take up the next two weeks, and I will learn a lot about the culture here. That will make it a lot easier to understand some things. I am very happy about being in classes, because That is where I shine. I like to be around people. I have only been in classes one day and have managed to make a new friend. We discovered that we will be in the same level and course path of SFI, and are around the same age. We walked around town for a bit after class yesterday, and have already made plans to get together more often, since she lives not too far from me, and we both have nothing to do really during the days. We also agreed that we would work together to learn Swedish, since neither of us are very good at it right now, and both of us are still on the waiting list for SFI.

It is SO exciting to have a friend here now. I really enjoy being able to go out and hang out with someone other than Anton. Its nice to have another girl to hang out with. My new friend is eventually going to come over for dinner one night. I will teach her how to cook, because I love cooking now. Especially since we have the city gross mat kasse (food bag).

Basically a mat kasse is a a food delivery service. You pay a certain amount each week, and you get a huge box of groceries, along with a meal plan delivered to your door. It makes deciding whats for dinner a lot easier, and we only have to buy food for the weekends and breakfasts now. It actually saves us money in the end. The bonus to it is that we get to try tons of new recipes! Its a lot of fun.

I am having a wonderful time here in Sweden. It really is a dream come true. I have so many more stories that I will post about later today, but now its time for me to head out to my culture class.

It has been quite the exciting summer...

This summer has been, what I think is possibly the most exciting summer of my life so far. So many things have happened. First off, I left Sweden on the 4th of June. I went back to my home in Ohio, and visited my family and friends there. After about 3 weeks, I decided that it was best that I go to see my dad, since I had applied for residency, and at that point I did not know how long until the decision would be made. 

On the day that I left to go see my dad and his family, I got the email telling me to schedule my interview with the nearest consulate. Had I stayed in Ohio I would have had to do my interview either in Cleveland, which is about a 4 hr drive, or in Washington DC, which is way too far to drive, I would have had to fly. I actually was able to do my interview in San Diego. I called the consulate to schedule the interview, and managed to miss the person that I needed to speak with. I emailed her from the airport though, and got a response back in two days. I flew in on a Monday, and managed to have my interview that first friday. 

After a tough time getting to the consulate, because the building numbers were covered up, I had my interview. It was nothing too tough. At the end of it, I asked how long she thought it would be until I would receive an answer, her response was not too surprising. She replied that she did not know, but that she would guess that it would be the middle of September, before I heard anything.

Needless to say that after a response like that, when I got an email from the migration board with my decision 4 days after my interview I was VERY surprised. I knew that the migration board here in Sweden (the one who made the decision) did not even get the information from my interview until Monday, because by the time that we had the interview on Friday in California, the offices here in Sweden were closed for the weekend. I had been told in my interview that I needed to get back to Sweden within a month of getting the decision so that I could do my biometrics (my fingerprints-picture). I booked my ticket the next week, and was on my way back the second of August.

I suppose that was the quick overview of what happened this summer. I did a lot of fun things, and made some new friends along the way, but I wanted to be quick about this blog, so that I can get to another one of all the fun things that have happened since I have been back here in Sweden. I hope that you will keep reading, because I know that I plan on keeping up blogging, since I really enjoyed it during my trip here before. Now you will get to see into the daily life of an immigrant to Sweden. I hope to have another blog up by the end of this week with pictures of me, and some of the things that I have been up to!

feelings.....

I guess I knew the time would come when I would have to come home. I also knew that it would not be easy to say goodbye. I guess I just thought it would be easier for me to deal with, because I know that I will be back. I guess it just doesn't seem soon enough.

I knew that coming here, I would love it. I love the environment. I love the people. I love the language. I just love everything. Life here is very different from life back home, and I am not so sure that I am ready to come back. I like life here. Although right now life is a bit easy here because I dont have a job, if I would have been able to get one, I would have done it. I like working.

Working here is nice, because you at least get paid a fair wage. I would get paid more here to do the same sort of job (cashier) than I did back home. Substantially more. The average cashier here makes close to 2,000 USD a month after taxes are taken out. That's WAY more than the average cashier in America. It would be lovely to be making that kind of money. Granted, things are a bit more expensive here, but its worth it in the long run, because you get so much out of your tax money. I personally love their education system here. I also love their health care system. I don't suppose that many people would agree with me, but I think that for such a small country it works. Plus, with less people you have less people to take advantage of the system. I think that is one thing that I will love more when I am able to be a working Swedish resident.

I love how relaxed things are here. I have never really felt rushed, or stressed. At least I have never felt rushed or stressed like I have back home. I like the way of life here. I like the attitude that most people here have. I like everything.

 At first I definitely felt unsure if I was ever going to be able to adjust. Especially to the way that people shop for groceries here. And to operating at a lower volume.... because I definitely have learned that I am much louder than the average Swede.

But after being here for 4 months now, I can definitely say that I can adjust, and have adjusted, and I think I like the way they do things here better. I like walking to the store, or if its raining taking the bus. I now know that I can get used to it, although some days I do hate it. I can deal.

I think that since I have been here I have learned so much, and expanded my view on things so much. I also think that I really am meant to live here, rather than back in the U.S. I think that going back is going to be a big adjustment to me, because I am so used to the way things are here, and how much I like things here.

I've come to realize also that,  I don't think I will be able to eat certain basic foods (bread, and yogurt) when I get home, because after tasting them here it won't be the same. I think in general I have become a food snob since I have been here. Because I have cooked so many good meals, with great ingredients. I hope that I will be able to keep that up when I get home as well.

I dont really have much else to say. I just am a big ball of emotions, because I am not particularly ready to come back, but I am so excited to get home as well, to share my experience with everyone. I will have plenty more to talk about after this weekend I am sure.  I will be sure to try to post it as soon as I can, so that its posted before I leave, since next week is my last week here.

Sorry for blabbering on about how I feel, but I think that its kind of appropriate given that my time here is almost up, and I am kind of emotional about it, because I am conflicted about how I feel about coming home. Now that its all out, I feel better. That's all that I have for tonight. I will post possibly on Sunday or Monday, about this weekend.

Museum time!

We went to a museum this week, well last weekend now, but that doesnt matter. What matters is that I had a wonderful time. We went to the science museum here in Malmö. Its awesome. Its divided into sections, and that is pretty helpful. Otherwise it would seem like a giant mess. The first section that we went to was what I am going to call the airplanes section. Basically it covers the history of flight, from the Swedish point of view. It was actually really interesting, because they had an actual old military plane, as well as its engine on display. but they also had models of all the different types of planes produced here in Sweden. It was just cool to see all the different types of planes, and to know that they all came from Sweden was also pretty cool. After that section we headed upstairs to the section where we spent most of our time, the kids museum. I understand that sounds like a silly thing to do, seeing as I am now 20 years old, and Anton is 22, BUT it definitely was an amazing experience! It was so much fun. For those of you who are familiar with it, this part of the museum was a lot like COSI. It was great. There was so much to do, so many things to play with! It was just a great time all  around! I didnt get a lot of pictures from this part, because it was mostly about interacting with the things around you, so its a bit tough to get a picture that tells the story. I guess its just something that you have to experience yourself. If you ever come to Malmö I highly recommend visiting this museum. I think I am just going to finish describing the rest of the museum, and then put the pictures at the end. That seems like the appropriate thing to do, since I have already described most of it. So the last rooms we went into were also really neat, we walked back downstairs, and into a room that had trains, and bicycles. There was also an upstairs section that had a bunch of taxidermied figures, and plenty of educational videos about atoms. It was really fun, and I learned a lot, and it was just overall an amazing experience. We went upstairs first, then worked our way back down, then we found the highlight of that room. it gave you access to get onto the submarine... I dont have a picture of it, but I promise that I will go back next week and take a picture. I was planning on going back next week anyways, because this was only half the museum, and then there is also a castle. So dont worry, my trip might be ending, but there is still TONS of fun in the next week.

May: a month of birthdays and holidays.

May seems to be a good month here. We started off with a holiday, which was wonderful. May first is basically the Swedish equivalent of labor day. It was great to start the month off with a relaxing day. Anton's youngest brother, Isak, celebrated his birthday on the 2nd of May. We went back home the weekend after, because he spent the weekend before traveling in Iceland. The weekend of May 5th we celebrated Isak's birthday, by going to see the avengers and having cake with the family. I really enjoy spending time with the family. Everyone is so kind, and so loving, and they speak English around me which puts me at ease, because then I don't feel pressured to speak Swedish. Although I am starting to pick up on what everyone is saying when they speak Swedish, which is nice, because it makes me feel like I am really improving in my language skills. We always have delicious food when we go home with the family as well, which is an added bonus. On a side note, I love Swedish birthday cake. Its amazing. I will have to get the recipe before I come home.

The next week was not very eventful, I just cooked new foods for Anton, and had a lot of fun. And of course I went to class. I feel like through out this whole time I have learned a LOT of the language. and I feel great, and I have been using my skills more and more, because I feel silly not speaking Swedish. I have the opportunity to speak it and get better, so I feel silly not speaking it. I still have problems with speaking, because I feel like I don't know enough vocabulary, but I am getting a LOT better. I really enjoy the language, although I will say that I am not too fond of the skåne accent. Its a bit difficult to explain, but just as we have accents in different areas of the United States, there are different accents here in Sweden. Skåne is the most southern region, and the accent sounds so awful. In my opinion it sounds very throaty, its very difficult to replicate the accent.

Here are two videos that show examples of skånska. 

Even though you wont be able to understand the videos, they give a pretty good example of the different skåne accents, and how awful they sound. I have one more video to share. I guess, I have disproved the image that we as Americans have come to see of Sweden. After being here for officially over one third of a year, I have noticed that many of the images that we see of Sweden are not true at all...  this video is made of clips from movies that you probably have seen at some point, and it proves at least to me, that the image that many Americans have of Sweden is very different than what things are really like here. 

After Isak's birthday came my birthday. Now as many of you know, I am now 20 years old! Its exciting to have spent my birthday here in Sweden. I got Swedish cake, and spent the day in gorgeous weather, and got to see Isak perform with his gymnastics group! It was lovely. I have lots of pictures and videos. So I guess I will just place those here... 

The first thing that happened on my birthday was I was awakened by singing, food, flowers, and presents. What a great way to start the day! I actually have video of it. Please excuse my morning hair. 

long time no posts.

It has come to my attention that it has been a while since I have posted on here. Not a whole lot has happened that was really worth blogging about. I do have more things that I have noticed since I have been here, although I am afraid that they are probably not too interesting. I dont have many pictures to upload either. I am working on it though. I also have been working on my Swedish. I have started working on a few blog posts that are in Swedish first, with an english translation. I just want to make sure that I word things properly, and use the proper words before I post them.

My written Swedish is getting a lot better. I wish that I could say the same thing for my spoken Swedish skills. Its not that I cant speak. Its more that I am afraid, and I shouldn't be. Its intimidating though. I get nervous speaking, because when I hear myself speak Swedish it sounds strange. While I love hearing others speak it, hearing it come out of my own mouth it sounds strange. I think I need to work on that.

Every day I love Sweden more and more. Malmö is gorgeous. Every day I find new things about the city that surprise me. I love walking around. Its relaxing. I feel like my time here has changed me so much. In a good way of course. I can not wait to be able to live here forever. It will be wonderful!

I dont really have a whole lot more to update on. All is well here, and I should have more to post soon!

Perspective change.

I officially have been here three months as of yesterday. It has been an interesting trip to say the least. It has proven my gut right, that I do want to live here. It has opened my eyes to a completely different lifestyle as well. I figured that I would take this blog post to talk about all the things that I have observed/noticed in the past three months, as well as look back at some of my experiences and reflect on them now.

I guess I should start by talking about my first experiences and observations from back at the beginning, and how my opinion has changed, because it actually has changed quite a bit. The first thing that I noticed happened before I even got into Sweden. It was at the airport, which is actually located in Denmark. When I got off the plane at the airport, I had to walk through what was basically an art museum to get to passport control. Once I reached passport control I realized that I was not back in the U.S. anymore. Anton told me all these horror stories about when he came into the U.S. about how he was questioned, and they wanted to know things such as how much money he had on him, and how much he thought he had in his bank account. The ONLY questions that I was asked when going through passport control were

More cooking adventures!

In this edition of cooking adventures I am going to post three recipes! Just to save space, and time on my part. The first recipe is for Chicken with bacon and penne. This recipe makes enough for 4 servings. This was one of my favorite recipes since we started our cooking adventures, because its really pretty simple to make, and it tastes really good.

Ingredients:
About a lb of boneless skinless chicken breast.
2 yellow onions
2 cloves of garlic
about 3.5 oz of mushrooms (Its best to use fresh ones)
about 5 oz of lightly fried diced bacon. (Do not substitute in bacon bits. it does make a difference)
4 servings of penne pasta (about 14 oz)
1 tbsp of oil
14 oz of crushed tomatoes
1/2 tsp of dried oregano
about 3/4 of a cup of light creme fraiche

Another delicious recipe

This recipe is for a toffee cake that Anton's grandfather made when we went over for fika a while back. Its delicious, and as I am writing this I am starting to want some more.

Ingredients for the cake bottom:
about 8 oz of Almond paste.
2 egg whites

Ingredients for the toffee cream:
13 tbsp. or 3/4 of a cup + one extra tbsp of cream
about 1/3 of a cup of granulated sugar.
2 tbsp of molasses
1/2 tbsp of butter

My first recipe post!

This is the first post of quite a few where I will either type out or type out and translate a recipe that we have made during our cooking adventures!  I'm starting with the one that we just made last night, because its pretty simple, and really delicious, and does not require me to translate anything. So without any more blabbering, here is the recipe for chili corn chowder:

ingredients:
14 oz frozen sweet corn
1 medium potato
5 cups or vegetable broth
1 large onion
2 sticks of celery
1 red chili pepper
A sprinkle of thyme
1 pat of butter
2 oz of cheddar cheese
a dollop of sour cream for each bowl that you plan to have.
olive oil
salt
black pepper

Köpenhamn!

This past weekend we went on a new adventure! We went to Köpenhamn, or Copenhagen as its spelled in English. Saturday morning we woke up early, finished cleaning the house, and did the rest of our laundry. Then we went to meet Anton's parents at the train station. We had fika and discussed what the plan would be for the day, as well as what is new in our houses. We talked about how I am teaching Anton Spanish, or at least basic Spanish. That way I can keep my brain in "foreign language mode" when I am speaking Swedish and don't know a word or phrase. A lot of my problem with speaking is that if I don't know a phrase, and have to say it in English, it gets hard to go back to speaking Swedish. After having fika we hopped on a train and we were off on a new adventure! We were on our way to Köpenhamn. I was excited. Anton tried to catch some sleep on the train ride. I was too excited to sleep. Once we got there I was excited. It was bigger than Malmö. It was pretty darn different too.

Back in Sweden.

So its been a while, and I really just have not had motivation to post. Although now I found it again, and am posting. We've been back from Berlin for a little over a month, and my three months here are almost up. I have however applied to stay here in Sweden. I love it so much, and want to just stay here, study, and adventure some more. Since we got back from Berlin a lot of things have happened. We started what I call cooking adventures. We found out that one of the grocery stores has an ad that contains recipes, so we have started using those to make a shopping list. We have made a lot of different things. I we have a few pictures, but none that really do the food justice. I think I will start trying to take more pictures of our food. I also am going to start trying to translate the recipes and posting them on here as well. That way I can share those with you all. They actually are very delicious.

I've been going out on my own as well during the past few weeks. Its interesting. Never once have I felt unsafe. I really like that about this city. I think thats one of my favorite things about it. There is only one area of the city that I have not really explored yet, which might just prove to be the most interesting part. I am going to try to get there soon.



Other than our cooking adventures not a whole lot else has been going on here, just life. I finished my first class in Swedish last week (level A1) and am starting level A2 tonight! Since I started I feel like I have learned so much about the language, and am able to have/understand basic conversation. I think the most frustrating thing is, I understand the grammar concepts, but I just dont have a vocabulary built up yet. I am still working on that. Once I get that built up I will be a lot more confident. Although I will say that I do pretty well at typing out stuff. I just have to use google translate to figure out some words. A lot of the time google translate leads me in the wrong direction, and if I would have went with what I thought originally I would have either been right, or closer to correct. Soon I will be starting to introduce more Swedish on here as well. so that I can get more practice typing it.

 Melodifestivalen has ended and the winner was crowned.  Loreen was the winner, and although she sang a song in English. I really did like her performance. I've linked the video to her performance below. I also have linked the video to the runner up. The one thing that I thought was cool about melodifestivalen was that throughout the whole process whenever you wanted to vote for a song, you were making a donation. The total donations that they collected were over 1million dollars.  You had the option  to donate either about the equivalent of half a dollar, or a little over a dollar when you voted based on the number that you called.  It takes about 6.75 krones to make one US dollar, and there are only 9 million people in this country. If you were to look at all the votes, it equals almost one vote for every person who lives here in Sweden.

I think that is about everything that has happened really in the past few weeks. Well, we had a birthday party for Anton and his uncle. It was a lot of fun! I made a pancake cake! Its basically a cake made out of very thin almost crepe like pancakes, you put whipped cream, and different types of jam on each layer. Our cake wound up being 15 layers! It was so much fun! I also helped make cinnamon buns! They were delicious! I always have fun when we go home to visit Anton's parents and brothers! On the next blog I will write about this past weekend! This past weekend I had an amazing saturday and sunday! I cant wait to share it with you all! 

Hej då! 

Day 2 in Berlin

Day 2 in Berlin proved to be just as nice as the first day. The weather was great, and we had a lot of fun. We started off the day trying to go up in the Reichstag, but by the time we got there the line was super long. We decided to skip it for the moment, and go back later in the day. From there we went on to the Natural history museum. That was amazing. It was a bit of a walk, but we wound up taking either the S or the U bahn part of the way, I don't remember which goes where, which considerably shortened the trip. Here are some of the pictures from the walk there:

Finally we arrived at the Natural History museum. It was interesting. There were a lot of really cool exhibits. Here are some of the pictures: 

There were a lot of really neat exhibits. The only thing that I did not really like about this museum was that the staff could not speak English. I asked them a simple question, and without even a word about how they couldn't understand, the first staff member directed me to another staff member, who completely misunderstood my question. I also noticed that not a lot of the exhibits had English translations. You would think for a national museum, that they would at least accommodate the tourists a little. I mean a lot of the world speaks English, so the language that most of the tourists are going to use to communicate would be English. I guess I thought it was a bit weird.

Moving on from there, we decided to get some good German food. We had been in Germany for a while, and had not had German food yet. By the time we had gotten out of there it was about lunch time anyways. So we went to another place that the book recommended. This one was a bit of a splurge, but it was TOTALLY worth it. It was DELICIOUS. Here are some pictures of the food that we had: 

After all that delicious food, it was time to move on to more museums. We wanted to visit some of the more classic museums in Berlin. So we headed to museum island again. We had been there the night before, and wound up getting the museum card that got us into 60 different museums in Berlin for one price. Which was handy, because had we just gotten tickets to each one, it would have cost us more than the price of the one ticket by quite a lot. We took a lot of pictures from the last three museums that we visited. (Alte Nationalgalerie, Pergamon Museum, and Neues Museum) All three were on museum island. I could not tell you which museum housed which statues. The Alte Nationalgalerie however is the only one out of the three that had paintings. So here are the pictures of the way to the museums, and the pictures from the museums: 

After hitting all the museums, we hit up another site that is on museum island, Berliner dome. Now the pictures  definitely do not do it justice. It is huge, and magnificent. It's definitely a site to see.  Here are some of the pictures of that. We couldn't take pictures of the inside, because they were rehearsing for mass. and, I did not climb to the tower, but Anton did. 

After that we went to the Reichstag, which we were disappointed to find out that we were not allowed to enter, because we did not make reservations saying that we would be going, in advance. We were unaware that we had to do that. Now we know for future reference to make reservations. After being a bit disappointed about not being able to go up there, we decided to call it a night. Especially seeing as earlier in the morning we had found out that the workers of the U-bahn were going on strike at 4am, which was the time that we were planning on leaving. 

So we had to leave to get to the airport at 2am. We took the U-bahn. Which was very confusing, because at first we were under the impression that we would have to take a replacement bus. Well, that's only on the weekdays between certain hours. So we finally got on the train, took it to where we were supposed to be able to catch a bus to the airport... only to find out that it didn't start running until 4am, and that it was not running then due to the strikes. After talking to some security guards we finally figured out that the only way to get to the airport at that point was a taxi. Now we were trying to avoid taking a taxi, because we had heard that it was expensive. but we were close enough that it was not too bad. It was still not as cheap as the bus. but it was better than nothing. 

Finally after an exhausting morning, we were at the airport. We talked for a LONG time until we decided to get breakfast with our leftover Euros. and after breakfast it was time to go through security, and head home. I think it was interesting though, how they ran things at this airport. We had no idea where our gate to get on the plane was at, so once through security we had to sit in a hallway for a couple of hours while waiting to see where our gate is, but instead of telling us where it was before boarding time, it told us instantly that we were boarding. It was a bit confusing. something that I thought was different about planes here is they board using the stairs, not directly into the building. I am sure that there are some that do, but the ones that we had to and from Berlin all boarded outside. It was overall an amazing trip. One that I will remember for the rest of my life. 

One last thing that I thought was interesting, because I don't know where I was supposed to put this but Berlin had a lot of casinos. within the 10 min bus ride we had on our way to the hotel we saw 9 casinos, and as we were walking the city we found more. I just thought it was interesting. I had so much fun.  I cant wait to go on another trip.