Introduction

Hello Blog Universe. I welcome you to my creative and informative blog about an American (me!) in Germany. I am taking a trip there this August (2013) and I want to get aquainted with the country and its culture, history, and society. In my opinion, one of the most important things about traveling is being able to adapt to a place's customs without hesitation. As a native New Yorker, I am used to the thousands of the tourists blocking pedestrian traffic and frustrating the lives of locals. As a tourist, I want to blend into the native scene and become immersed in the new culture, as opposed to staring at it from the outside.

The goal for this blog is to educate myself and others on the German lifestyle from varying perspectives, for example food, social etiquette, neighborhoods, or museums. I want to learn and explore their customs so that when I am in Germany (or when you go in the future), I (we) can be educated tourists and live life like a German.


Before we get started on our German journey, let me introduce myself...

My name is Cecilia Iliesiu, but everyone knows me as CC. I was born and raised in midtown Manhattan (NYC). Both my parents are artists of sorts, so they naturally put me in dance class at the  age of three. I am happy to say that my lifelong passion for dance blossomed into my current full-time career as a professional ballet dancer with the Carolina Ballet in Raleigh, NC. It is hard for me to call it a job because I love every minute of it. The company performs almost every weekend within North Carolina's Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill) from September through May. On my days off, as a part-time job, I teach all ages ballet classes at a local studio called CC&Co Dance Complex in Raleigh. It is great being able to teach what I love to students willing to learn. During the rest of my down-time, I am pursuing my undergraduate degree online through Fordham University in Communications and Visual Arts. Although I am not in college the normal way, the online classes have helped me get a head-start on my career after dance.

I hope you enjoy my blog and please feel free to comment with your thoughts or travel experiences.