Akron Art Museum

This past weekend, I went to the Akron Art Museum for the first time. It is free on the first sunday of the month, so that's when I went. It is a pretty small museum, but the exhibit that was featured was interesting. It was about different fabrics and their use in art. A few of the pictures were made totally of fabrics, others had fabrics woven or dyed or had rhinestones on them. One really spectacular piece was made of sequined fabrics from a thrift store put patched together. After that exhibit was one that featured local photography from Ohio. It was a little older, and was weird to see popular landmarks from a few decades ago. There were some other really wacky and bright colored sculptures in the museum which made it more interesting than a regular art museum. They even had a few Warhols. Downstairs in the museum, they have less art and it all consisted of realistic paintings and portraits from local artists. Those were really pretty, but not as exciting as the pieces upstairs. The museum also has a cafe in it and a gift shop. It was a nice day so we walked around downtown Akron for a little. It looks like a miniature city and is really cute.

Artist for a Day - Local Fun

For those of you who don't know, I live in Parma, OH which is just south of Cleveland. Since Italy, I haven't gone anywhere new, but I have found some fun things to do locally. My favorite thing to do now is go to a place called "Artist for a Day" in North Olmsted, OH. They have unpainted pottery pieces for you to paint in any color with all kinds of sponges, stamps, and other tools to aid painting your piece of pottery. I have painted mostly kitchen items such as plates and cookie jars, but they also offer figurines, cups, light switch plates, and even hair brushes. It makes for a relaxing day to go and paint something for yourself or a friend. They also have events such as birthday parties and diva nights. My favorite time to go there is on Mondays that are holidays, because they are usually closed on Mondays. On these days, there is a prize wheel to spin after painting, and last time I won free paint time for a year. They also give you a coupon for a free sub at Subway, which is in the same plaza. They glaze and fire the pottery after you leave and then you can pick it up in a week. My first pieces were okay, but since going so much, they've gotten a lot better. If you want more information, you can visit artistforaday.com.
Other places I enjoy visiting include Legacy Village and Beachwood Place. They have really nice shopping centers and really nice restaurants. Tomorrow, we are going to one of our favorite restaurants at Beachwood Place called Maggianos. They have great Italian food.
Next week, I will be going to the Akron Art Museum. I'm sure it will be interesting, and if not, I'm going there on a free admission day, so I'll write about that next week.

Last Day in Italy

Today was our last day in Italy, and we began packing as soon as we woke up. When we were finished, we went upstairs for breakfast and had some tiramisu and orange juice. Valentino’s parents went out to shop for the lunch they were going to make us. While they were out, Valentino took us around Vanzaghello, the city he lives in. He took us to the town square and we went in some stores and then into his favorite bar that he always goes to with his friends. We had a type of orange soda and then left. He took us to see his basketball arena because he plays for the city. He also coaches a children’s team and is a referee. After that, we went back to his house where his mom was preparing spaghetti. First, we had ham sandwich things, and then we got the spaghetti with pieces of ham in it. At first, it was embarrassing to eat the spaghetti in front of Italians because they are so much better at twirling. We got the hang of it, though, and his dad kept saying “bravo!” when we successfully twirled the pasta. When we finished the spaghetti, his mom brought us some meat, bread, and parmesan cheese. Last but not least, they brought us more tiramisu. Finally, we were off to the airport. We had to wait a while until we could check in, so we went to a café in the airport. I got hot chocolate and Tiffany got tea, which is spelled “the” here. Tiffany has been coughing a lot, so Valentino’s dad went to the store to buy here some cough medicine. Valentino’s mother gave us the recipe for tiramisu so we can try to make it at home. They walked us all the way to security and watched until we went through. They’re really nice and I’m going to miss them. If Valentino comes to America I am going to show him around and take him to see Lebron James in a basketball game because that is his favorite player. They said any time we come back to Europe we can stay with them.

Dinner and a Car Crash

We went out to dinner with Valentino's friends. One of his friends works at the restaurant we went to, so we got a few complimentary items. The restaurant is part of a hotel and is really nice. We got so much food though. First, they brought bread, an alfredo pizza, and raw meat balls on top of lemons. We didn't eat the raw meatballs though. They also brought us all a glass of champagne. We ordered our food and I got steak and fries and Tiffany got a pasta with fish and caviar. Both were really good and Valentino asked to waiter to bring us a whole extra plate of fries because we are American. After eating the meal, the waiter brought us a plate full of desserts. There was almond biscotti, strawberries, and apple cake. We ate some of it and then they brought us some chocolates to eat. I'm sort of getting used to being full constantly. After dinner, we met with more of Valentino's friends and they wanted to go to a pub. We found one, but they said it was empty and wanted more people in it. I told them that it's empty now, but if we go inside it will be full because together we had about 8 people in our group. They agreed and we went inside and ordered drinks. We all left after one drink but it took us forever to get in the car because they all talk so much to each other. Finally, we were going out of the parking lot and Valentino's friend was going really fast to look cool. Because of how fast we were going, we almost hit a pole but he dodged it and ended up hitting a stop sign with his front right tire instead. I could not believe he knocked down the stop sign. The tire cover flew across the street, part of the bumper came off, and his tire became flat. Valentino, Tiffany, and I had to get home, so his other friends took us. I hope that his other friend's car is okay though.
Tomorrow we leave Italy, and I'm really sad to go. We've had so much fun here, and Valentino's family has been really nice.

The Mall and Town Center

Yesterday at dinner Tiffany was too full to eat her tiramisu but was upset because she really likes that dessert, so when we woke up this morning Valentino said he had a surprise for her. His mom made Tiffany homemade tiramisu in a huge container. We had that for breakfast. The orange juice we have for breakfast is really good too, but we only saw a container with a pear on it, so we asked what kind of juice we were drinking. Valentino said that we were drinking orange juice that his mom squeezed herself. I was really surprised, and it’s really good orange juice. Today, Valentino told us we were going to an authentic Italian market. We wore warm clothes because we thought it would be outside. When we arrived, we saw that it was a shopping mall. He must not have known the right word for it, so I told him that it’s called a mall. They have a grocery store in the mall, and it’s huge and 2 floors. Because of this, you can take a shopping cart through the whole mall if you want to. And since people push around shopping carts, their escalators are like moving sidewalks that are ramps to go to the second floor. I’ve never seen anything like it. Tiffany and I found this store that had really good sales. We bought jeans for about 10 euro and shirts for about 6 euro. Valentino also took us to what he called “Italy’s first technology store.” The store was like a best buy because it had any electronic you needed. I guess they are just starting to get stores like that. He also showed us a store like Dick’s, but called Decathlon, that had all kinds of sports material. After the mall, we went to lunch at his Aunt and Uncle’s café. It was really cute and all the furniture and napkin holders were covered in snake skin, and Valentino said that his family did that themselves. I had lasagna and Tiffany had a sandwich. Both were really good. Afterwards, we had chocolate croissants. Next, we went to the town center that we went to last night to do some more shopping. Valentino took us to the Euro store, which is kind of like a dollar store. There were some fun things in there. We met some of Valentino’s friends at a café there. We got hot chocolate, but it came with a spoon. I asked how to eat it, and Valentino said to scoop it with my spoon. I told him that in America, we just drink it. When we scooped it, it was more like hot pudding than hot chocolate. It was really good though. One of his friends drove us back to his house and later we are going to his friend’s restaurant for more Italian food.

The Bruschetta Fraud, Valentino's Dad, and Strange Toilets

We ended up going out to dinner tonight with Valentino and his parents in the town where he goes to school. We drove there in his dad’s Mercedes. His dad always goes really fast in that car and it’s a lot of fun. In Italy, you also get points deducted you’re your license for traffic violations, only here you start with 20 points. Valentino said his mom only has 4 points left so she hardly drives now, but his dad has all 20 points even though he always speeds through red lights, makes U-turns, and drives too fast. The town we went to for dinner had a lot of stores in it, just like the ones in Milan. His parents had some errands to run, so they told us to go to the restaurant and get a table. The people at the restaurant told Valentino he needed a reservation, so we went back outside to call his dad. In Italy, it’s rude to be on the phone inside of places. Valentino always steps outside to take calls or he walks away from where we are. So his dad came to meet us, and Valentino explained the situation. Even though his dad is short, he’s really tough. He said “no, no” and winked at Tiffany and I and then went into the restaurant to yell at the workers. In about 2 minutes, he came out and said “viente minutos,” which means 20 minutes, and then we went to a café to wait. Tiffany and I just had to laugh at that. Valentino says that his dad is the boss of Italy because he always tells other people what to do. The café we went to was really cute, and we got bruschetta and cute little fruity drinks. So all this time, America has misled us when it comes to bruschetta. Bruschetta doesn’t always have to be hard bread with tomatoes and onions and olive oil and cheese. Bruschetta just means “little bread” and can have almost anything on it. We got about 6 different types of bruschetta at the café. One had salami with another vegetable on it, one had shrimp and a sauce on it, another had ham and a vegetable, one looked like a sandwich, and another had something like a salad with dressing on it, and the last one looked like it had salmon on it. They were really cute. I wish that they had different bruschettas in America. We went to the restaurant, and Tiffany and I spotted gnocchi on the menu, so we had to get that. We got 4 cheese gnocchi, which was really tender and good. We were so full from the bruschetta that we hardly ate anything, but Valentino said not to worry about it. He and his family ate everything on their plates, though. Valentino and his dad got spaghetti, which they twirled like pros, but his mom got just vegetables. Valentino said that she had a lot of food from the holiday so she is trying to eat light now. During the meal, Tiffany had to go to the bathroom. When she came back, though, she told me she didn’t go because the toilet was in the floor. Literally, the floor was flat and had a porcelain dip in it which was the toilet. They also had 2 places for your feet to go so you don’t slip and fall in. Valentino explained that it was cheaper to have that kind of toilet. I didn’t get to see it, but it sounds really strange to me. Even though Tiffany and I were stuffed, they insisted we get tiramisu. Tiffany didn’t eat any, so I ate the whole thing because it was so good. Valentino said that Tiffany can have tiramisu tomorrow since she was too full today. We watched some Italian TV when we got home, which were American shows with Italian voice over.

Milano

Today, we went to Milan to see some sites and shop. You have to be 18 to drive here, so Valentino, Tiffany, and I went by train and subway into the city. First, we stopped at an old castle, where the King and Queen of Milan used to live. It was old and looked very medieval. It was a huge building though, and when we exited the back, we saw people skiing. The funny thing about it, though, was that there was no snow in Milan, it was all fake. And the hill was fake too, it was set up kind of like those tall slides in the IX center that you use a potato sack to ride down, only they put fake snow on it and people skied down, I've never seen anything like it. Next, we started to shop. All down the streets to the town center (which is kind of like a Plaza Mayor from Spain) there are shops. Some of them were the same as American stores, others the same as Spain, and others were totally different. All the stores are having sales now for the holiday, so it was nice. The only problem was that since Milan is one of the fashion capitals, a lot of the stores sold designer things so they were even expensive on sale. We got to the town center and there was a huge white church in it. The building was really intricate and so was the inside. There were a lot of sculptures both in and outside the church. There was also a Christmas tree in the town center that was really tall, and it was surrounded by Tiffany blue boxes, but we did not see the Tiffany's store. To the right of the church were a bunch of giant pink plastic snails in front of an art museum. Valentino said that the snails were supposed to be a work of art. We found a European store that I really like, Zara, and spent most of our shopping time there. We went in their department store too which is called La Recinante. It had seven floors and all types of designers. We saw stores like Gucci, Prada, and Louis Vuitton. They also had a perfume called Aqua di Parma, and I explained to Valentino that Parma is my home town. He thinks that I am just from Akron because that was where my whole group went to school when we met in Spain. Valentino told us that eating can be expensive in Milan, so we went to a Burger King in the town center so it was packed. We waited in line for about 30 minutes to get our food. We also had to pay 10 cents for each ketchup packet! The cashier asked me how many packets I wanted, and I didn't know what to say. He kept repeating himself because he thought I didn't understand, but really I am just used to grabbing a handful and getting more if I needed it. We ended up getting 5 packets and it worked out well too. Luckily, we found a place to sit quickly. We went home by train again, and when we arrived at his house, a bunch of his grandparents and aunts and uncles were there, so we had to greet each one of them with kisses on their cheeks and awkwardly stand there because we don't speak Italian. We took a nap and now we are waiting for dinner in about 2 hours. After dinner, we are going out with Valentino and some of his friends. Tomorrow, he said he will show us around his town.

First Day in Italia

Today, Tiffany and I arrived in Italy. It was not an easy trip, though. Chris’ friend was supposed to drive us to the airport, but he was out of town so Tiff and I had to walk all the way to the train station in the snow with 5 bags! We also had to switch to 3 different trains. People helped us along the way, but it was no picnic. When we finally got to the airport, we were relieved and got a suit case cart. We checked in, had a nice lunch in the terminal, and waited for our flight. We had a lay over in Zurich, Switzerland and then had a delayed flight to Milan because of the weather. I was worried because I told Valentino that we’d arrive at 9:20, but we didn’t get in until 9:50. He and his parents were waiting, though, and we greeted each other traditionally, with a kiss on each cheek. His parents dress really fashionably, I think it’s because they live near a fashion capital. His mom has red hair and was wearing all black and super high heels. She is really short though, and so is his dad who wore ripped jeans. They told us they were taking us out to eat a traditional Italian dinner. The city we drove through reminded me a lot of how Spain looked. At the restaurant, Valentino’s parents ordered us 4 big pizzas because they wanted us to be able to try the different types. They were all thin crust and really good. His dad got some pasta. Afterwards, they insisted we have dessert. They didn’t have tiramisu for Tiff, but we got chocolate gelato instead. They also made us eat a warm apple cake with chocolate dipping sauce. It was different and also really good. At his house, Tiff and I have almost our own apartment. We’re downstairs with a bed, TV, table and chairs, our own kitchen, and our own bathroom. It’s really nice! Tomorrow, we are all going to Milan to shop, I can’t wait!

Happy German New Year!

Today, we woke up early for Chris’ “big surprise,” when we find out that we were going to go to a castle but it is closed for New Years Eve. That was kind of a set back, but we took out the map of Landsberg and planned to go to a castle-like building that we could walk to. We went into town to recycle some bottles; you get a quarter for like each bottle you return here, and eat and go to the bank. Then, we climbed some stairs until we were at this tall castle tower. We took a lot of pictures at the top of the hill and went around to little shops. Tiff was getting cold so we stopped at a bakery for hot tea. It was hard to find a place to go into because a lot of shops were closing early for the holiday. We went home to wait to go out to a restaurant to eat, but the Bavarian ones were closed too. I guess a lot of places are closed for New Years Eve. Instead of going out, Chris invited 4 of his friends over and made us all dinner. We had cheese tortellinis with tomato sauce and pizza. I really like their pizza here, the sauce is sweet, not salty. Then, we went over another one of Chris’ friend’s house. At the house, the kid covered all the walls and ceiling with metallic wrapping paper and then put on a strobe light so it would bounce off all the walls. They played music called “electro,” which to me sounded the same as techno, but they insisted it was different. A few minutes before midnight, everyone goes outside and brings fireworks with them. Then, at midnight, everyone begins to set them off. They don’t just set off little fireworks that you would buy at Walmart, they set off real professional fireworks right in the middle of the streets. It’s kind of scary to be really close to them and it’s really loud. While we were walking, a firework set off and something flew into Tiffany’s eye. She rubbed it a little bit and she was fine but it was kind of scary. After all the fireworks were done, we went home. On the way, a lot of fire trucks and ambulances were going through the streets. People must have gotten hurt. The fireworks are really close to everyone and to houses. It was crazy over here, but I couldn’t imagine if people in the US were aloud to set off professional fireworks in the streets. It would probably be a mess!

Concentration Camp

Today, Tiffany and I planned on going to a concentration camp. We weren't sure which one to go to, or even how to get to one, so we woke up early to go into town to talk to the people at the information center and the train station. The lady at the information center wasn't much help, she didn't even know what a concentration camp was so I had to harshly say "the place where the Nazis killed the Jews." Then she knew what I was talking about but hadn't been to one, so she couldn't tell us which was the best. Chris told us the one called Dachau was the best, so we decided we'd go there. On the way to the train station, we stopped at the bakery for breakfast and bought sandwiches to eat on the train during lunch. The guy at the train station was really helpful, and we ended up taking a few trains to Dachau which is near Munich. He gave us a public transportation day pass, which only cost 28 euro, so that we could take all the buses, trains, and subways we wanted. We had to take 2 trains, the subway, and a bus each way.
We arrived at Dachau and went through the front gate which said in German "work is freedom." When you first step into the camp, it's kind of weird thinking how many people used to pack the place and how many died there. The whole place is surrounded by cement walls with barbed wire on the top. There are also watch towers every few meters. The maintenance house was the first building we went into, it was really big and the Jews built it themselves. It was filled with historical quotes, stories, and artifacts to look at while walking through, so it was more of like a museum. Some cool things we saw in there were their uniforms, the whipping table, some of their belongings, memorials, pictures, and sculptures. After that, we went to the open area in front of the maintenance house where more memorials and sculptures were built in honor of the people who worked there. The sculptures were made up of skeleton-looking-people joined together to make shapes. It looked painful but cool. Next, we went to see a bunker, where the prisoners lived. The beds were bunked with 3 beds on top of each other and were really close together. They also had a locker area to keep their clothes in. They had to keep everything spotless and make their beds for inspection. This also meant that they couldn't carve things into the wood or have any stains on it or else they'd get beaten. We saw their bathroom which didn't look so bad except the toilets weren't in stalls, they were all just together. There were only 2 bunkers remaining, but there used to be around 30. After the bunkers were a few large memorials to pray in if you wanted. I took a picture of Tiff in one, and it looked like there was some sort of ghost in it. Then, 3 current churches are on the grounds of the camp. There was a christian church, a Russian orthodox church, and some sort of convent. I would be too creeped out to go to my church every Sunday in a mass grave. Next, we went to the Crematorium and "Showers." This was the creepiest part. We saw the old crematorium, which was pretty small, and so many people ended up going to Dachau that they had to build a bigger one. In the bigger one, there was a holding room where the victims were told they'd be taking a shower and then a "shower room" equipped with faux shower heads that were used to pour the poisonous gas in. We got to go in the shower room, and it was really dark and scary. We got out of there fast into another room where the dead bodies were dragged. The next room had 6 body ovens in it that could fit up to 3 corpses at once to burn. The last room was for people that already died due to work conditions and disease. They would just burn those people in the crematorium without gassing them. It was really crazy to think about what happened just a few decades ago right where we were standing. I'm glad I went.
Before leaving, we stopped at the visitor center cafe and ate some spaghetti. Then, we caught a bus and the subway back to Munich and bought a few souvenirs before catching 2 more trains back to Landsberg. When we got back, we had dinner at an original German fast food restaurant. They sold burgers, fries, and chicken and everyone was eating their fries with forks. We also went shopping and bought 2 sweater dresses that looked really cute. Tomorrow, Chris says he has a surprise planned for us so I can't wait to see what that is.

more shopping

Today, we did more shopping in town. It was while we walked there, then it stopped while we shopped, so of course when we were walking home it was raining. On the way there, we stopped at the post office to send some post cards. In this one part of town, the street is really busy, so instead of having a cross walk, they have an underground tunnel to walk through to the other side. It’s kind of a smart idea because that way, they don’t have to put a stop light there just so people can cross. Tiffany and I bought some shirts, I bought a present for Kevin, and we all bought presents for different relatives. We stopped at the same bakery we did before, and the lady called us the “senoritas” because she thinks we all speak Spanish. We also got marzipan, this really good bread that Toledo, Spain is famous for. I was really excited because I don’t know any place in the US that has it. It tastes almondy and is sweet. For lunch, Jessica showed us a café that had burgers. I really like the burgers here, but I’m not sure if I like them more than ballpark burgers. They don’t taste as sweet as the burgers from the US and have vegetables in the meat too. They had roasted chicken at the café too so I think I’m going to try that another day. We stopped at the grocery store on the way home. We got pomegranates, kiwis, pizza, milk, and water. We were really excited they had nutella and the koala bear cookies I used to eat when I was little, so we bought those too. We bought a six pack of water bottles that are 1.5 liters big, so Tiffany had to carry that all the way home because she’s the strongest. It was really funny watching her carry it, but there was nothing I could do to help.
We ate dinner, and then Jess, Tiff and I went back into town to recycle bottles and talk to the information center about going to a concentration camp. Little did we know that the shops in town close down at 7. It was kind of disappointing that we walked all the way to town for nothing. On the way home, we bought a small pizza for Tiff then settled in for the night.

Out and About in Landsberg

Today, Tiffany and I decided to go out to downtown Landsberg to do a little shopping. We woke up early to walk there, and it wasn't that cold out and it only takes about 15 minutes to get into town.
First, we stopped at the "1 euro store" which is just like our dollar store, but in a different currency. We thought maybe we could get some cheap souveneirs, but they didn't really have much there. Next, we stopped at a clothing store and saw a lot cute things, but it was all really expensive. I saw a pair of jeans for 129 euro! We asked the guy there where the ATM was because we hadn't gotten money out yet, and he didn't know what an ATM was. I described it to him and he directed us to the right place. Other stores we stopped in were filled with appliances and kitchenware. These types of things here look very modern and IKEA-esque. We were looking for ice cube trays because nobody has ice here, and luckily we found still water (water without carbonation). We went to a bakery for a snack, and the lady there didn't speak English, but she asked if I spoke Spanish. I was really excited to practice with her so I got to order in Spanish and ask her a few questions about the different pastries and drinks she had in the bakery. It was so much easier to understand her this way. There are a lot of tea houses and bakeries in town, so we stopped in those to buy candies and teas for my aunt and mom. Every shop is so cute, and it kind of reminded me of Frankenmuth, MI. For lunch, we stopped in a bakery and had sandwiches. We didn't want to stop in an authentic German restaurant because we couldn't understand the menu. The sandwiches had ham, sliced deviled egg, lettuce on sesame bread. They were really good, and you could tell they probably made the bread there that morning. We were so excited to eat something familiar to us. We went to grocery and convenient stores and they had most of the same stuff they have in America. Some of the cereals were the same, and of course they had really big jars of nutella. While we were in the grocery store, one lady just kept talking to us in German, so Tiff and I just laughed and nodded like we knew what was going on. I didn't want to interrupt her to say we couldn't speak German.
We walked home and did some dishes and we want to get a Pizza later at one of the restaurants. I think Tiff and I are going to bed early tonight even if Jess and Chris go out.

First Day in Deustchland

Today, my sisters and I arrived in Germany. It took forever to get here. We had to take 3 flights with less than an hour in between them. We were in some really cool airports, but only got to walk through them because we needed to catch our next flight. The first flight, we all sat together and Jessica sat by a man who used to live in Germany, so she got to talk to him about how the country is. The second flight was 7 hours long, and Jessica then sat by a really weird guy who had nervous ticks, breathed really loudly, and had a hug bag of medications. He talked to us a little about Germany, but he was just weird. We watched a few movies each to pass the time. They have individual TV’s for everyone to entertain themselves. The last flight was only about an hour long, but we were delayed because it was snowing and our plane had to get cleaned off. We were in a normal sized airplane, but there were only like 10 people on the flight. Tiff and I fell asleep on the plane, and when we woke up we had some type of Swedish bread in front of us on our tables. I was confused because in the US, if you fall asleep when they’re passing out food, you don’t get any. Also during the flight I experienced the most turbulence I ever had, it was kind of scary.
To get to Landsberg we took the autobahn. Some parts of it don’t have speed limits so it was a pretty wild ride. There are also a lot of twists and turns on it which made us sea sick. Chris stopped at his gym so we could say hi to one of his friends, and we asked for water. They didn’t have any normal kind though, it was either the water with bubbles in it or flavored water from the tap. We got the flavored water, but I don’t see why they don’t just have normal water. We drove through Landsberg and it looked so cute with little shops, it kind of reminded me of a toy land.
We got to Chris’ flat which is pretty small. It has a common room, two bed rooms, 1.5 baths, and a kitchen. All the furniture in it looks like it’s from IKEA and is pretty chic. The flat was pretty gross at first because boys just live here, but we cleaned it a little after taking showers and a really long nap. We went out to a club with some of Chris’ friends during the night. The people here are really friendly and easy to talk to, and we met a lot of the people he has been hanging out with. We left the club early because Jess, Tiff and I are really tired.
Not much happened today, but I can’t wait to go into town and go in the little shops and later I think we’re going to visit a concentration camp.

Christmas Year-Round in Frankenmueth, Michigan

My aunt, uncle, mom, sister and I went to Frankenmueth, Michigan this past weekend. It is a small town that houses the biggest Christmas store in the world, so naturally, that was our first stop. The store is called Bronner's and it has every ornament for any hobby you can imagine. It also has a kid's zone with toys, nutcrackers, precious moments and other figurines, stockings, trees, and probably more Christmas decorations that I cannot think of. The store is huge, but my little sister and I were done with it in about half an hour because right now we don't have our own houses and trees to decorate. My aunt and mom spent forever looking through everything though to decorate and give ornaments to people according to their hobby. Luckily for me and Tiffany, there were kids activities on the back of the store map, so we had a race to see who could finish the word find the quickest.
Next, we went to "downtown" Frankenmueth where all the shops are. It kind of reminded me of walking the streets of Amish country with little shops with crafts and locally made sweets. The theme of this town, besides being decorated like it was Christmas, was German. The people that worked in the shops and restaurants were dressed in traditional German clothes, things like those little overall shorts and dresses embroidered with foliage. It was a really nice day so we were able to walk up and down the street to look in all the shops. They had a lot of hand made fabrics made from sheep's wool and a lot of the pastry shops had employees making fudge right in front of us. The best thing about the shops was that a lot of them had free samples of the things they made. I got to try taffy, apple butter, different salsas, breads, and other treats.
Finally, we went to eat, and all the restaurants had German food. It was really good and they had good desserts. It seemed like such a short time there, but it was a lot of fun.

THE BIG APPLE

This past weekend, I went to Manhattan in NYC. We took a one day trip there by sleeping on a charter bus on the way there overnight, spending the next day in the city, and sleeping on the way back home. It was a lot of fun! It is really hard to sleep the first night on the bus, but on the way back home, it's really easy to sleep because you're so exhausted.
When we got there, we went straight to Canal Street in Chinatown. This street has a lot of small shops run by Chinese people and they sell really good knock off purses and jewelry by expensive brands. The knock-offs look so real, and when I carry the purse, nobody can tell that it is a fake. They have all kinds of brands, including Coach, Prada, Juicy, Tiffany's, Versace, Gucci, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and more than I can think of. Just make sure you ask for these brands when you go in the shops, because they are usually in a back room.
After Chinatown, we went to battery park near the Statue of Liberty. It is tough to get tickets for the Statue on Saturdays, because you cannot order them online but you have to buy the tickets when you get there. To get a closer look at the Statue, though, we took the free ferry to Staten Island. The ferry passes right by the Statue of Liberty as it's going to Staten Island and we got some really nice pictures of it without having to pay money to see it.
Next, we went to Pinkberry, a frozen yogurt store that my sisters and I have been wanting to try. It was really good, I wish we had one in Ohio. It had four flavors of frozen yogurt, original, pomegranate, passion fruit, and coconut. You can add all kinds of toppings on your yogurt, like fresh pineapple, strawberries, mango, kiwi, blueberries, raspberries, and more. Non-fruit toppings include granola, chocolate chips or shavings, coconut, captain crunch, and more. I got a parfait which includes the yogurt, granola, and three fruits of my choice. It was different than anything I have ever tasted and was really good.
We went to this very big Victoria's Secret next. It had so much stuff that I have never seen at my home VS store. We didn't end up buying anything, but we played with the makeup samples for a while. We all did our eyes and put on lip gloss. I tried to put mascara on my boyfriend, but he wasn't being any fun.
For lunch, we went to California Pizza Kitchen. We got a few pizzas to share.
For a little dessert, we went to Dylan's candy shop, which was right next door. For a dollar, you could dip a food item of your choice into their chocolate fountain. I chose to dip a rice crispy treat, but they also had marshmallows, pretzels, and some other things. Also, they had a candy bar taste challenge where you tried a sample of a few candy bars and tried to guess which flavor it was. Me and Kevin tried, and we both missed the last one.
Then, we went to 5th Avenue. We stopped in FAOShwarz, a famous toy store. It has really big stuffed animals, intricate doll houses, costumes, candy, and a lot of other interactive games that you can play with. When you enter, a toy soldier greets you, and they talk very properly. When you leave they say things like "goodbye now" or "thanks for visiting" or "come again" really articulately. We also stopped at the Tiffany's on 5th Avenue. The people were very polite there, and it was cool to see all their famous pieces.
We went to Rockefeller center next, and went into the NBC store. We saw all the ice skaters on their famous ice rink, and I think next year we will try to go ice skating there too.
Finally, we made our way to Times Square. On the way, we saw a Jamba Juice, another thing we've always wanted to try. I got a peach shake, Kevin got "Aloha Pineapple" and my sisters shared a pomegranate one. They let you add a boost for free too, like calcium, energy, vitamin C, and protein. The shakes are very healthy, and they even include on the menu how much calories they are. At Times Square, we ate dinner at Planet Hollywood. Since we were snacking all day, we just got salads or appetizers. They were still really good though. In previous years, we have gone through the different stores there, but this year we were running out of time to catch our bus, so we just paid for these bike carraiges to take us to the bus station.
We slept well on the ride home, and I cannot wait for next year to come so we can see more of the city.
Next, I believe I will be going to Frankenmueth, Michigan.