SNOW! (Yeah, I'm that Californian who gets super excited about snow...)

It snowed this weekend! And I'm a nerd and felt the need to document it, so here you are! =)

(These are all of the Student Village where I live.)

The pictures below were taken on my walk to and from class this morning!



















The aftermath of a snowball fight in the Student Village!

Germany, Part 2: Gransee and Hannover!

After our whirlwind day in Berlin, we took the train to a very tiny town called Gransee, where Shannon's 98 year-old grandpa is from! He told her that she HAD to go see where he grew up, so that's just what we did! We walked around town (several times; it was REALLY small), and took pictures of interesting things, including the house where her grandpa grew up. It was pretty cool!

 

Inside that City Bistro, we met the only person we ran into in Gransee who spoke any English. As you can imagine, when we visited the Tourist Information office, we encountered an interesting language barrier!


The old medieval wall that still surrounds the city.


The building that Shannon's grandpa grew up in!











This is an action shot. These sheep saw us approaching the fence and they BOOKED IT over to us. I felt bad that we had no treats to give them. They were very friendly, though!











A random tomb in the middle of town? Sure.


Parts of this church date back to 1230! So cool!





A super old monastery building.





The restaurant where we ate lunch. The server didn't speak English, and we don't speak German, so this was an interesting experience. Luckily, body language in the Western world is pretty universal, as is basic restaurant etiquette.


Even Gransee has a love of Legos! 
After experiencing Gransee, we hopped back on the train and headed to Hannover, the last stop on our lightning-fast tour of Germany. 

The main train station is right in the city center, and we got in around 5:30pm, so it was CRAZINESS. There were people everywhere. Lots of pretty lights and things to look at as well, though!





The main train station.





If I were a horse, I would definitely want to be a super-elite police horse.


The bright circles are Volkswagen logos. 


LEGOS!


They had the same windmill tower thing that Berlin had!





A LEGO HARRY POTTER?! This city knows how to please me.


The next morning, we got up REALLY early to see the highlights of Hannover before our flight back. Luckily, Hannover has a convenient "Red Thread", a red stripe painted on the sidewalk that leads you by all the cool things to see!





More bears!





This building is kick-ass.


The mist made everything very dramatic.


Random church ruin? AWESOME.



























































There are so many amazing things going on here. A giraffe-spotted cow wearing boots, next to a bar on wheels, that I'm pretty sure can be moved by the pedals under the seats.





Back to the train station to go to the airport! Bye Germany, you rocked!