Koblenz with Christine and Laura

After my sister left, I had one day before I had to leave town again. I caught a ride with Mitfahrgelegenheit (ride share program) to Koblenz, near the border of Belgium. I met up with Christine and Laura for the weekend. Christine's dad met me at the train station with a flower! It was so cute. He was really friendly and met me with open arms. What a change from the normal German hospitality! It was SO nice seeing Laura again. We hadn't seen each other since last Thanksgiving. She's studying in Florida but flew back to Germany for the summer. Christine got in later that night, because she had to work. Christine's brother surprised his parents and was there for the weekend, too. He normally studies in Berlin. We all ate dinner together and Laura, Christine and I stayed up late talking and giggling like 13 year olds. :) It was great. The next day we rode bikes through town and Christine showed me the school which I'll be working at for the month of June. I don't remember how to get back there, but I should be able to figure it out on Monday when I'm back in town. Eeek.. The Elbe and Rhine rivers meet in Koblenz. There's four fortresses around town and the Romans used to occupy the area. It's beautiful! And bigger than I expected. That night the three of us went to a light/lazer show in town. It was AMAZING. I didn't really know what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised! It was spread throughout town. First we took a tram thingy up to the fortress above town and met with our tour guide, who happened to be the planning coordinator for the entire event. She walked us through the different exhibits (in German). I liked all of them, but the lazer one was my favorite. There were mist machines in a corner of the fortress and blue lazers set up. I don't know how to describe it, but it looked as if I was going through another dimension with the way the light was bending and the speed of the lazers. There was this sharp sound being played the entire time, too. As I was leaving the exhibit, I was walking past people in the mist and it was so eerie and strange, I literally felt as if I was dead and floating in some in between world. People just show up next to you in the dark mist and you can only see their shape. I guess you just have to experience it yourself. :) Then there was an exhibit with dancers from France. It was neat but kind of.. slow. I liked the exhibit in the castle gardens across town. There were bent pieces of metal hanging from trees and lights were moved across them at different speeds, it looked like fireflys flying around.

My sister's visit and our trip to Barcelona, Spain

My older sister Dana came to visit me the first week in May. That was her first time out of the States. Her plane was delayed for four hours, causing me to miss class but it was worse for her; she had to sit on a plane for a total of 12 hours! Shitty. She was tired when she got here, but I dragged her out into town. From the airport it's a 20 min train ride to the main train station, then over an hour from Frankfurt to Marburg. We dropped her bags off in my room then caught a bus into town and walked around a bit and got something to eat. I wanted her to try a doener, schnitzel, German chocolate and bananenweizen while she was here. She tried everything except the schnitzel. Four days in Germany is not enough! I planned a side trip to Spain while she was here. We flew out of Frankfurt-Hahn (1 hour 45 min outside of Frankfurt hbf) and into Barcelona Reus (an hour outside of Barcelona). I din't know the airport was that far out when I booked the tickets. Woops. We had to wait 2 hours for a bus into Barcelona, so we had a beer or two in the airport. We had to spend the night before in Frankfurt because our flight left at 6:30am and we had to take a bus at 3:30am from the main train station. So I booked us a hotel room close to the train station, so that we could just go to bed early the night before and walk to the train station. I booked us a hostel in the red light district of Frankfurt. I read that before booking, but I guess I didn't expect the district to be so... red light-y. There were people around at all hours and we felt pretty safe, but I had forgotten to tell my sister that we'd be staying there, so she was pretty pissed when we walked by some prostitutes on the street. The guy at the front desk had a coke nail, too. But the room was pretty nice! haha. Barcelona wasn't really what I expected. Spain is something completely different than Germany in every sort of way it seems. It's hard to describe, really. My sister was getting frustrated as the trip went on. She was exhausted from all the traveling and would get anxious when I didn't know where we were going. I'm used to getting lost by now, and I know that we will eventually find our way. I tend to forget that not everyone is that laid back. I feel bad for planning a trip that was so... unstructured I guess, but I think she had a good time nonetheless. We went to the beach one day. The weather was gorgeous! But there were people walking along the beach trying to sell stuff to us the entire day. It was so obnoxious! I played music to try and drown out their voices. It kind of worked... though I still heard little Asian women yelling "Massagie? Massagie?" NO I DON'T WANT A MASSAGE OR A SCARF! We took a bus tour the next day, which turned out to be a great idea! It was a hop-on-hop-off sort of thing, which allowed us to easily see all the major sites. We were given a pair of headphones so that we could hear narrations of the different sites. We both really enjoyed just laying back and seeing everything from a double decker bus. We saw Sangria Familia, Las Rambles, Cathedral and Gaudi's park. There seems to be a lot of immigrants in Barcelona. It was hard finding authentic Spanish food, made by Spaniards. Maybe it's because I didn't research anything before going, but I hope to revisit Spain one day and see a different side. I know it has to be more charming, romantic and authentic than what I experienced. Our hostel was pretty cool. I can't remember the name of it right now. We had a room with two twin beds, a tv and a fan. Finding channels in English in Europe is a challenge! Though I realize you shouldn't be watching tv if you're in Spain anyways. Our room was on a patio with two other rooms, motel style. The three rooms shared one bathroom. We barely saw any of our neighbors the entire time. There was a lounge room with another tv and a computer. There was a balcony overlooking the street, too. The staff were really nice and helpful. We ate at a Hard Rock Cafe one day. I had a burger- IT WAS SO DELICIOUS. I haven't had a burger in months! After Barcelona we came back to Marburg for a few days and just took it easy. She saw Elisabethkirche, Oberstadt and we walked up to the castle. We went out one night with some of my friends and Dana tried absinthe. I accidently set my glass on fire, so I didn't actually have any alcohol left in my drink after that. I was sad to see her go, but I hope she had a good time and I'm looking forward to seeing her in just one month!

Salzburg, Munich and Muehldorf

I spent a few days with my good friend Christine in a small town called Muehldorf, which is about an hour south east of Munich. I was going to use this ride share program to get a ride to Munich, but looked at the wrong bus and train schedules (week, not weekend). So I missed that and I had to take the train. I ended up taking a train from Marburg to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Walzburg, Walzburg to Nurenburg, Nurenburg to Munich and Munich to Muehldorf. It was an all day process! Totally worth it though. It was a lot of fun seeing Christine. She's so sweet! We walked around Munich one night and saw most of the sights in the old part of town. I saw where Hitler once stood and gave to give his speech. Behind the square was an alley with a "gold" stone path, symbolizing where people would walk to avoid saluting Hitler. We walked through a bit of the English Garden which was SO COOL! We saw the permanent wave with some surfers. I could sit there all day and watch them! We also went to Fruehlingsfest (spring fest), which is a mini Oktoberfest. It's held in the same spot with the same beer tents and everything, just at a smaller level. We ate cotton candy and chocolate covered apples and a huge butter pretzel... we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! :) Afterwards we drank some beers in a beer garden and met up with Christine's boyfriend. I was ready to pass out after my pint of beer that night! So good. We all went to Dachau Concentration Camp one day as well. Actually, it was something like 40 or 50 years to the day we visited that the camp was liberated by American troops. It was sad, intense and interesting at the same time. I learned a lot from my visit and changed a little bit, somehow. I tried to mentally prepare myself before going so that it wouldn't make me too emotional. The site has a large museum in the main building. The camp was the first started by the Germans and was actually built to imprison Germans, not Jews or other minority groups. We went on an English guided tour and afterwards watched a film in German. I think everyone should visit a concentration camp if given the opportunity- it's a good lesson in tolerance. Christine and I also went to Salzburg, Austria. It's only an hour away by train. I LOVE Salzburg! It's just so cute and charming. It's clean and just has a special feeling to it. I didn't go on the Sound of Music tour, because I don't honestly care but I did see the outside of the house Mozart was born in. I also tried Mozart kugel (chocolate ball) from the original candy store in which it was invented. There's a beautiful fortress that overlooks the city. Christine and I hiked up to it and did a self guided tour of the dungeon area. I saw a chastity belt! I had no idea those really existed! I thought it was something Robin Hood: Men in Tights thought up. I could spend all day in that fortress. I've been to castles before, but a fortress is really something completely different. It's like a tiny city inside of the walls. I'd like to come back one day and explore it more! I might apply for a teaching job next year in Austria, hopefully that'll be the opportunity to revisit Salzburg. :) We also visited Chiemsee one afternoon. It was nice but kind of busy because it was a holiday and there were a bunch of little bugs flying around. We didn't stay too long. Christine also gave me a tour of the paper factory she works at. She's a process engineer, a pretty respectable position. She's one of the few women to be working in the factory and was the first to hold that position. It's really an inspiration and I really admire her!

Italy

Wow. I haven't posted in MONTHS. I lost my internet for a while there and only could go online at the library. Major inconvenience! Though I was forced to get things done faster and more efficiently when I wasn't able to distract myself with the internet. So, let's see. Where did I leave off... In April I had my "spring break". It lasted about 2 weeks. I visited my host sister from 2006 in Stuttgart, Germany for a few days, where she showed me around her campus and Verbindung (fraternity). She was president of the frat and their end of the year party was the following week, so she was busy preparing her speech for that a lot of the time. We spent a few days her in her village, called Ursendorf. It's about an hour south of Stuttgart with a population of around 300. It's adorable! It was so nice being back there. My first trip abroad to Germany completely changed my life! It was the inspiration for my career path. The last two times I was in Germany I didn't speak in German, so it was nice being able to talk with Isa's mom and friends. I struggled to follow her friend's conversations though, because of their strong southern accents. We were able to go riding one morning which was AWESOME. The temperature that day was perfect and we had the woods to ourselves! We didn't ride for too long, because Isabel had other things to get done. We saw a deer while riding (first I've seen in Germany!). Isa and her family own around 14 Icelantic ponies, which they used to show. They breed, too. Rotary made a perfect match, putting her and I together. I've been riding since I was 7 or 8. Isabel had a bbq for me one night and all of our old friends came. It was really nice seeing everyone! Brings back good memories... though it's obvious things have definitely changed. We went out one night to this club with two levels. There were different rooms with different music and themes, it was cool! Before that I watched Titanic in German and in 3D (not really necessary) with Isa's little sister and her friends. I found 40 euros on the ground that night, too. SCORE. Isabel and I did a little road trip the next day through Switzerland (by accent) to Sirmione, Italy. Isabel had bought a pass for us to drive through Austria (faster than going through Switzerland) but the GPS wasn't working and we ended up going through there anyways. It was beautiful! Though the weather was kind of shitty the entire trip. We stayed at a bed and breakfast outside of town in Sirmione. The man at the front desk looked like Javier whatever his name is from Vicky Christina Barcelona. We had really nice breakfasts each morning at that b&b. We spent one day walking around Sirmione, which is on the Garda Sea and the next day we drove around the southern border of the lake, stopping along the way and taking a ferry with the car to the other side. Isa wasn't feeling too well, so she was a bit tired but the scenery was beautiful and I had a good time. We spent two days in Venice after that. We stayed about a half an hour out of town in a weird apartment which was apparently a bed and breakfast. The guy didn't have any sort of signs or labels on the buzzer, so we sort of just wandered around and asked some people who lived in the complex where the apartment was before finding it. It turned out to be just fine, but we were suspicious. We took the bus into Venice and ended up not paying a few times, because it was complicated and the bus driver didn't speak very good English. Venice was beautiful! And super touristy. But it has a feel that no other city really compares to. Every corner you turn is a new photo opp. It's just stunning! There's so many mask and glass shops. I felt like at any moment I was going to stumble upon a James Bond movie being filmed. It's just so... cool. We drove back through Austria and went back to Stuttgart the next day. Isa had her fraternity party, which was fun! So much beer was drunken by everyone, the supplies seemed endless. It's a tradition to sing old German frat songs while drinking pints of beer

. Even had one of the members playing the piano! It was so German it was ridiculous. Isa did great talking infront of everyone and leading the club. A night I will never forget!

March

Well, not a whole lot happened in March. I had a bit of homesickness when I got back from Ireland, but it was gone by the time I went to Amsterdam. I just bummed around Marburg for the most part. I had class everyday from 9-1pm and I spent my free time either doing homework, running errands or meeting up with friends. I don't know how I killed so much time, but I did... somehow.
I went to Kassel by myself the day after St. Patrick's Day and checked out two of the castles. One had a museum with Rembrandt paintings and the other artifacts while the other was a smaller medeval castle. I took a tour in German. It was cold.

I broke my laptop sometime in March. I was smart and plugged my adaptor into the wall wrong. It sparked and BAM, my laptop was out. Dead. Unresponsive. I lost everything.

I took my laptop to a repair shop in town, who said it would be 25€ to look at it and more if it requires so. Turns out they couldn't do anything for me and I fried the motherboard, though when I went to pick it up the guy tried to charge me something like 60€. I put him in his place and got my laptop back for the agreed price. ;)

I was feeling distant from my boyfriend during this time. It's hard when you only can talk for once or twice a week, for 10 minutes at a time. It's hard to sum up everything that's happened and to feel connected to that person, especially when you're preoccupied with the excitement of living in another country and the other person is doing the same old thing back home. I sort of knew that I might've felt that way before I left, so Steve and I both handled the bump pretty well. We're always open with each other, which makes it a whole lot easier to fix problems when they arise. He's always loving and supporting of my thoughts, goals and wishes and I can't thank him enough for sticking by my side and loving me! I don't normally like blogging about my relationship, but I felt it was necessary.

Amsterdam

Wow. It's really been a long time since I've blogged. 2 months, actually.

I met my friend Jacob in Amsterdam for a weekend last February. I skipped class and caught an early train from Marburg to Frankfurt (1 hour) and transfered to another train which went directly to Amsterdam (4 hours). I was lucky enough to run into a nice guy from Argentina who asked me to take his picture while we were waiting for our train. He didn't speak any German and was in Europe for some conferences, so we stuck together and had some really nice conversations on the ride to Amsterdam. I was really upset to find out after my trip that I had thrown out the piece of paper with his email address on it. Oh well.

After arriving in Amsterdam, the Argentinian and I walked together towards some unknown destination. I was supposed to meet Jacob at the hostel around 4, so I had a few hours to spare. I had planned to take the tram, which is what I ended up doing... but I wasn't able to use my credit card to buy a 3 day pass, so I had to take a number and wait around for a while to get an actual human being to help me. I didn't feel like waiting, so I just paid for a one way pass to my stop.

After walking in one direction for 15 minutes and seeing no signs for the hostel, I turned around and walked back for another 20 minutes or so. I ended up asking a few people if they have heard of the hostel or if they knew where it was, and none of them had any idea what I was talking about. Thankfully in Amsterdam everyone speaks English, so I wasn't ever too anxious. Finding my way in Dutch would've proved more difficult.

After get lost for another few hours and having someone direct me to another hostel with the same name, I gave up and asked the hostel staff for directions. The owner was nice enough to give me a ride to my hostel, the hostel which infact stole the name of his old hostel after he changed names (taking his unknowning customers as well). He asked for nothing in return, other than me spreading the word of what a crappy hostel Amigo's is and that his is better.

The hostel stairs were STRAIGHT up, though that's apparently the norm in Amsterdam houses. The hostel wasn't that great but the bed was comfortable and our roommates were pretty quiet. The people staying in the rooms next to ours weren't so quiet though, and I heard someone puking their brains out early one morning. Did I mention one bathroom for 30ish people? Yeah...

Amsterdam really took me by surprise. I knew it was something other than anything I had experienced in Germany, but I wasn't prepared for the size of the city. There's so many tourists packed around the main train station... something you'd see in the States I guess, but not in Germany. It's not like I haven't experienced being around thousands of people, but doing it alone intensifies it more I suppose. I don't even know if I actually met any native Hollanders. I didn't venture out of the city far enough.

Amsterdam is the Vegas of Europe, in my opinion. Anything and everything goes! Sex really is a huge business in the city and you can get anything from banana shows to live sex shows to plain strippers or, of course, hire a prostitute. Jacob and I stumbled into the red light district (it's not hard to find) and spent most of our nights around the area actually. It really only worked out that way because everythin else was closed and quieter in other neighborhoods. The district is safe, busy and probably overrated. Jacob and I took a ferry out to one of the "cultural districts" as the tourism office lady said. Turned out to be an abandoned industrial park. We stayed maybe 10 minutes and caught another ferry to one of the residential neighborhoods. The canals in Amsterdam are absolutely gorgeous!

We also had the opportunity to visit the Anne Frank Haus. It was really moving and I'm really thankfully we had the chance to visit. I bought the Diary of Anne Frank after the tour and read it two weeks. Reading it in Europe and walking on the same cobblestones that she had... is more moving than I'm able to write in words.

We also visited the Van Gogh Musuem. It was neat, though busy. There was a nice park outside where Jacob and I drank a cup of coffee and people watched.

Of course I had to buy some special cake... and... other... things...

My weekend in Amsterdam is one I will never forget!

Update

Why hello there!

It's been a while since I've written. I haven't had the motivation to lately, even with all the free time I've had on my hands. Let's see...

Well, I went to Ireland two weeks ago. That was pretty FREAKING AWESOME. I was lucky enough to stay in Killarney from February 15-21st on my school break with my friends Eric and Brittany. Overall, I had a really good time.

Ireland feels like home. Whether it's the convenient shops on every street corner or the use of "English" (half of the time I couldn't understand what they were saying), I'm not sure. But I felt more welcomed and comfortable in Killarney than I ever have in Frankfurt. The scenery was beautiful and the locals have a great sense of humor. It was also nice being able to lay on the couch and watch American Pickers and Pawn Stars when I wasn't feeling very well. German television really sucks for some reason.

The hostel was decent. The staff were especially helpful in recommending sights, restaurants, hiking paths, ect. A simple breakfast of coffee, tea, cereal and bread was served every morning for free. We all went grocery shopping the first night, which ended up saving us a lot of money. Eating out in Ireland isn't cheap! But every time we DID eat out, we weren't disappointed. Mmmm... Irish breakfast, fish and chips, lamb and cabbage...

We visited so many charming, little pubs during our stay. We heard great local bands play every night and we had ourselves plenty of Irish beer (Guinness, Kilkenny and ... something else that starts with a "s"). It's true that Guinness is better in Ireland. I didn't like it last summer when I bought a pint in Minneapolis, but it was really rich and creamy fresh off the tap in Ireland. Oh, did I mention it was only $4 for a pint?

Hot whiskeys are my new favorite I-kind-of-feel-like-shit-but-I'm-going-to-drink-anyways drink. I ended up getting sick at the end of the trip, but those Irish whiskeys made it much less miserable. Thanks to John O'Neill who was kind enough to show me around town and buy all of my drinks. He says that in return I just have to marry his son so I can be his daughter-in-law. No biggie. He was our tour guide on the Ring of Kerry. In exchange for writing him a good review on Trip Adviser, he agreed to buy me a beer (or two..or three..) and show me around town. Before I left to Ireland, I said I wanted to meet a local- and meet a local I did!

I tried to learn some Gaelic on my trip, but gezz is it difficult! The spelling does not relate to the pronunciation whatsoever! It was written on signs along with English. It's being taught as an official language in schools now, which is pretty cool.

So the last day on our trip I got sick. I had a fever of 101 F, chills, runny nose, cough... the whole shabang. When I got back to Germany I skipped out on the first day of class and ended up going to a German doctor on Thursday. It was relatively easy to schedule an appointment, and I only had to pay a one-time 10 euro fee. Meinen Arzt took my temperature by putting his hand to my head and my weight, height, ect. were never recorded. Kind of funny, that'd never happen in the States! Since I was really dizzy, he wrote me a prescription for nasal drops to clear my passages and I was on my way.

Round 2 of classes are going really well! I really like my two teachers and all of my classmates. I feel like for the most part we all have the same level of German. It's pretty easy so far.

My friend Kumiko who I met online at couchsurfing.com is leaving Marburg tomorrow! She was an au pair, so she wasn't with the group from Wisconsin. She's leaving her job early after discovering baby-sitting really isn't her thing. Her and I have been hanging out a lot lately and I'm really sad that she's leaving. Sigh. On to trying to make more friends... Now I know someone in Seattle though!

I was a bit homesick this past week. I think it's because things have slowed down and now I'm just focusing on going to school. Things will pick up again soon in a few weeks though and I keep reminding myself that I only have 3 1/2 months left. Time is passing so quickly! It's weird. Especially with the weather warming up, it feels like summer's suddenly rushing in out of nowhere. I'm hoping my boyfriend Steve can come visit sometime. I miss him lots.

My friend Jacob and I are trying to plan a trip either to Paris or to Amsterdam together for the weekend of March 10th. We'll go to Amsterdam if his friends are ok with him cancelling their planned trip to Amsterdam in April. Otherwise we'll go to Paris. Seems like hostels are less expensive in Amsterdam, but there's lots to see in both cities and they both have their own sort of charm. I'll have to brush up on my French... oh god. That one semester of French I took just might come in handy! Jacob and I met at UWSP. He's studying abroad in Spain at the moment. :)

I'm also trying to plan a trip with Brittany (from UWSP) and maybe Katherine (from UWEC) to Weimar, to visit Buchenwald (a concentration camp). We originally wanted to visit Auschwitz, but it's too expensive flying or taking the train to Poland so we decided against it. Weimar is only 3 hours away by train. We might go the weekend of March 17th.

Ok, that's all for now. Why do I always end up writing so much? Gah.

Prüfungen sind vorbei... Urlaub beginnt!

Hallo alle!

This past week is all a big blur to me. Let's see what I can remember...
Friday night I met up with Kifah and Brittany. We wanted to go to a jazz club, but there wasn't any music playing that night so instead we went to Sudhaus. Sudhaus is a really old, classic German restaurant/pub in the old part of Marburg (Oberstadt). We were just sitting in our booth, minding our own business when a group of drunk assholes threw a lighted match at us. Brittany got up and walked over to them, struggling to scold them in German. If it were me, I would've given up and started yelling in English. I give her props for trying!

Afterwards we went to Unixbar, a nightclub also in Oberstadt. We had a few drinks and danced a lot. It was fun! I was tired and sweaty (ew) by 1:30, so Brittany and I caught a cab back to our dorm. I don't know what I did, but I didn't go to bed until 4 that morning. It's so easy to waste time online.

Saturday Jean and I walked around Oberstadt and I finally was able to go in stores and take my time looking around! It's usually too late by the time I'm normally in Oberstadt, all the stores close by 4 or 5pm. I was able to get a few souviners for friends and family. Yay me!

Sunday.... I was really lazy Sunday. My stomach was bothering me so I laid around for most of the day. Later I met up with my friend Kumiko at the Aquamar, an indoor waterpark here in Marburg. It was so awesome! There was a body slide, a lazy river but without tubs and the jets were super strong. It was nice just being able to be pushed around in a big circle by super strong jets. I think we did that for atleast half an hour. Then we went into a deeper pool, where there's a rock wall sticking out of the water! It's so cool. You climb as high as you can, then drop in the water. They had some diving boards there, too.

The receptionist at the front desk was a beyotch, though! She overcharged me and I didn't bring it to her attention until we were leaving. She said she needed my ticket and since the machine already took it, it was too late. I knew she remembered my face, because there weren't that many people there that night. She was really rude. I understood everything she was saying, but I didn't know if she completely understood my reasonings so I asked her if she spoke English. She responded "nein" and started giggling. Come on, EVERYONE here is taught a bit of English in some point of their lives. She won that time....

I had my written test on Friday and it went really well. Today was my spoken test and it also went well, though I scored higher on the writing than on the spoken which surprised me. Either way, I passed and I'm now moving on to the next level when I get back from my break next week.

Speaking of break... I'm going to Ireland tomorrow! I'm superrrrr excited! I'll be staying at Neptune's Hostel in Killarney from Wed-Mon. with my friends Brittany and Eric from UWSP. I'm not sure if I'll be online at all... haven't decided if I'm taking my laptop yet. The hostel has free wifi, but I don't think I will. I'm looking forward to all of the awesome photo opps. I'll have lots to talk about when I get back!

Tschüss!

Catacombs, Church Service and Tandem-Partners

I don't remember the last time I wrote, but I think it was last Wednesday. I didn't do much last weekend. Friday was spent... actually, I can't remember what I did Friday. I think I just stayed in because I was sick. I ended up missing 3 days of class last week. I still have a productive cough and a bit of a runny nose, though I think it's slowly getting better. Saturday I slept in and met up with Maggie for dinner. We went to a restaurant in Oberstadt. There wasn't anything particularly special about the place. Maggie had a migraine and I had just watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind before leaving, so the night was kind of a downer. We both ordered pizza and soda. It was pretty good I guess. Like I said though, there wasn't anything special about the place. The bartender used his English every chance he got, including when we were leaving. He shouted "Bye bye!" as we were leaving. I always get annoyed when Germans switch to English. It's sort of an insult, as if they don't think I can understand them. I'm convinced that bartender just wanted to practice his English, though.

After going back to my dorm, I started getting ready for the night. I went into my kitchen to put away some milk and I walked into a dance party! Some Germans on my floor were going out dancing later and invited me to tag along. I really didn't feel like getting ready again then walking 15 minutes to a club and drinking and dancing. Anton (from Australia) and Sam (from UWSP) invited me out to Schwarzweiss, which is a bar next to my dorm. I passed on the dancing and went next door for a bit. It was a good decision! I met a few new people and had a few drinks. It was a laid-back night.

Sunday night I met my friend Kifah at the train station and went to Geissen, a town about 30 minutes by train from Marburg. An African girl in my class invited us all to watch her choir perform in a church that night. I'm so glad I went! It was really interesting. The sermon was in German and French. It was partly in French because some of the singers from Africa only speak French. I was still sick, so I coughed a lot during the service. I was really self conscious about it. :( It was worth it, though. I hope to go back next week and watch them rehearse. They have so much energy, it's really inspiring.

Today after class I met 12 other people from Eau Claire and Stevens Point and we went on a guided tour of the catacombs underneath the castle. It was SO COLD out today, but the tour was still interesting. I think it might've been a better decision to book the tour in English, just because our tour guide's accent was a bit rough and he didn't "dumb down" his speech for us. We climbed a lot of stairs, we saw a bat or two and a few ginormous spiders. It was cool seeing the carvings in the Hexen Turm (witchs' tower) from prisoners at one point in time. It stated their name and some biblical references. Here's a description from the Marburg.de website-

"Built in 1478 by renowned architect Hans Jacob of Ettlingen, the witches' tower once served as an advanced gun turret on the northwest flank of the castle. Access to the tower via a small external staircase. From 16 and 19 Century (1550 to 1864) was used as a prison tower. The small barred cell windows are also well recognized today."

Here's another interesting website which talks about the persecution of witches in Marburg (you'll have to translate into English. It's easy to translate the whole page with Google Chrome)-
http://www.vhghessen.de/frankenberg/aktuelles_hexen.htm

After the tour, a few of us decided to warm up with a hot drink in a cafe. Rouven (our group coordinator in Marburg) suggested a cafe which overlooks the lower part of the town. It was more old fashioned, with out-of-date furniture and a stale environment overall but the view was hard to beat. Our waitress was polite and the cake was delicious! Nom nom. I had some sort of chocolate something oeiwfwf. That's not at all helpful, but I don't even care. It was chocolatey and it, along with my cappucino, hit the spot. :)

I had to leave early to catch a bus so I could meet up with my tandem-partner. A tandem-partner is a language partner. You're supposed to meet weekly with someone who speaks your desired language. The idea is if you're trying to better your German, to meet with a German person so you're forced to converse with native speakers and improve your German. The German person is supposed to want to better their English too, though. It goes both ways and it can be set up with any language. I'm meeting someone from China on Thursday. My Chinese is really rusty, so hopefully this will help.

Riding!

Yep, two posts in one day. :O

I decided after all to go riding today. It was fairly easy finding the barn, though I walked in the wrong direction for 15 minutes. It's located about 5 minutes out of town, sort of in the "suburbs". After walking past a few fields and a pretty little pond, I asked a stranger who was getting out of her car if I was going in the right direction. I showed her my piece of paper with directions written in German and asked if I was at the right place. She replied in English, "are you looking to horseback ride?" With answering "yes!", she pointed me in the right direction. Turns out she owns a beautiful (and probably super expensive) Friesian-

http://thehorsepedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Friesian.jpg

I was jealous. I AM jealous. I want that horse!

I waited around for about 10 minutes and tried convincing a few horses to come visit with me (I didn't have food, so it didn't work). Maike showed up and instantly I thought of my friend Christine Karras! They could be twins, and personality wise they're both very similar. We introduced ourselves and I started grooming and tacking up my horse, "Fee" (fairy), a plump, lazy looking but overall friendly horse.

We walked up a steep hill to an "indoor arena"... but it really wasn't indoors. It was a large area enclosed by a sort of net/mesh material. Anyways, I jumped on and started walking around.

I rode western today-

http://www.frankenhorse.de/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Reining1.jpg

though it took me a while to get used to neck reining with two hands. :p I was trained in saddle seat-

http://www.horsechannel.com/images/horse-news-article-images/saddle-seat-equitation_200.jpg

which, as you can see, is very different! My posture used to be amazing before I quit riding. I was never as good as that girl, though. :p

I'm going back next Wednesday for another private lesson. We're going to keep working on me getting used to body cues and neck reining with two hands before I go into group lessons. Shouldn't take too long. :) I'm excited! I hope when the weather warms up we can go on trail rides. Also, Isabel Adams (if you're reading this) I hope we can go riding when I visit!

-Side note, I bought a book yesterday from a riding store on my way to class. It was 12,90 so I splurged a bit... but I hope to learn some horse vocab from it.

Sick in Germany

I've been sick for four days now with a cold, "Erkaeltung". I could feel it coming on Saturday while walking around in the rain at the zoo, but it hit me when I woke up on Sunday. It started off with an itchy, sore throat and how now progressed to a runny nose and irritating cough which brings up mucus. Fun fun! I decided not to go to class Monday... or today. There's nothing I hate worse than sitting in a quiet classroom and trying to constrain my breathing so I don't sound like Darth Vader. Also, blowing my nose every 5 minutes seems a little distracting.

The pharmacy near to my school is making bank this month, solely from all the purchases I've been making. I bought some DayMed (similar to DayQuil, though it doesn't do shit) for ten euros (!), some Nasen Spray which just makes my nose run more, some Ricola honey lozenges and some green tea. The last two seem to take an edge off of the coughing, but I'm hoping to find something else soon. I think I might have a sinus infection... but I'm going to see if my body can tackle this one on its own for now. I'll give it till next Monday.

I did bring some Centrum Multivitamins, which I've been taking once a day. I'm hoping that helps my immune system recover faster.

Although I didn't go to class today, I'm still planning on going to the stables. I am supposed to horseback ride today with the university's riding club, but from the way I've been coughing all morning I'm not sure that'll be possible. Since I don't have the head woman's phone number, I don't have enough time to send an email and reschedule today's lesson. I figure I'll just go out there and meet her if nothing else. Maybe I'll meet the horses and get a tour. I just took some DayMeds now, so maybe that'll help a bit and I can ride for half an hour. Fingers crossed! :)

Oh, and I hope I don't get lost...

The third week is already coming to an end!

This week is going by super fast. Class is slowing down... I feel like we waste a lot of time, though I'm still glad to be in this class. There's one guy in my class from Oman who is really obnoxious. He likes to shout out random words the entire class period (which, I should mention, is 4 hours. He raises his hand and shouts "ICH! ICH!" in hopes of getting the teacher's attention. There's only 13ish students in my class, so this is entirely unnecessary. When the teacher finally calls on him, he doesn't know where we are in the book OR how to format his sentences. I asked him today in German when we were broken up into small group if he could try for once not to talk in class. He apologized and said that he "must talk, because he doesn't understand". I told him that he in fact doesn't need to talk, but maybe should instead shut his mouth raise his hand for once. I don't think that'll really change anything, but if he's super distracting in class tomorrow I'm prepared to call him out.

I emailed the Volkshochschule about volunteering in the English classes, and got a reply but it only contained the woman's contact information. She called me to tell me she sent me an email. I messed up my sentence on the phone so she automatically switched to English (what we all absolutely hate). I emailed her back saying that her email was blank, and I offered to come and talk with her in person. Not sure what's going to happen with that, but I found a horseback riding club through the university! I send them an email and a girl wrote back saying I could come out next Wednesday and ride. They have 5 school horses, all of which know western so I'll do that. I'm a little nervous but more so excited! It seems pretty laid back. I'm not sure if it costs anything or not, but I asked her. I'm assuming it doesn't. Also, I'm not quite sure how to get there... but I also asked her this in the email. Hopefully there's a bus I can take.

I went grocery shopping two days ago and bought wayyy too much food. I mean, I'm glad I have all of it because honestly I'll probably eat it all by next week... but it was such a bitch to carry it all up to my room! I won't make that mistake again. Only 3 days worth of groceries at a time, haha. I love apple juice mixed with mineral water... it's super cheap here. You know what's not cheap? Normal water. Water fountains don't exist and free water at restaurants are unheard of. I brought a stainless steel water bottle with me though, and I just fill it up in the bathrooms of wherever I go.

Also I've noticed at public places like train stations and "public bathrooms" in general charge a fee of like, 1 euro. I know people who jump the gate but that's something so convenient that I definitely took for granted in the states.

Some people from Eau Claire and Stevens Point went on a little tour of the city last weekend. A decent amount of people didn't go, though the email was sent out late and some people already made other plans. I'm pretty sure a lot of people were hungover too. It was really informative, and I learned a lot of quirky things about the city. For instance, the scratches alongside a lot of the old stone foundations in Oberstadt are from stage coaches taking the corners too fast and scratching the stone. That's why you can see large random stones alongside the walls in some spots, because the coaches had to keep far enough away from the walls, otherwise the stones would ruin the wheels. Apparently these stones were also useful for helping small men of nobility get on their horses. It was far less embarrassing to step up on a rock and climb aboard your horse than to get a leg up!

I saw a movie last Friday with my friends Kifah, Jean, Brittany, Ashley and Maki. We saw Rubbel die Katze. It was funny!-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm847JiO_Zw

There was a trailer for Jack and Jill (in German of course)-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S3QZqcYAgA
I started cracking up watching this trailer in the theater. Adam Sandler movies are dumb in English, but they're even dumber in German.

Some of us got dinner at a nice restaurant before the movie. I don't remember the name of it. We sort of just wandered through the old part of town and stumbled upon this place. I had pasta with broccoli and zucchini along with a bananenweisse bier... sooo good. Perfect, actually.

Sunday Professor Leek took us all out to eat at this little pizza place. I got a hawaiian pizza... again, delicious! Afterwards Maggie, Sam, Ashley, Eric, Professor Leek and I went to Sudhaus for some drinks. It was a good time! Afterwards Ashley, Eric and I walked to a Mexican restaurant near the church to meet some people and watch the Packers game. I didn't end up staying very long, just enough time to drink a margarita. Apparently I didn't miss much. I caught the last bus but had to wait a half an hour outside in between buses. :/ It was a tad bit nipply!

Tonight, Brittany, Michael, Jean, Ashley, Anton, Maki and myself are all getting together for some sushi. I'm so excited! Maki is from Japan and offered to make it herself. :D

I don't have anything planned this weekend... I'd like to plan for a tour of the catacombs underneath the castle. I need atleast 6 people total for it to be affordable. It's 56 euros per group for a two hour tour, so of course with 6 people it'll be about 10 euros each. I know one or two people who are interested... so maybe I'll send out an email now and see if anyone else wants to. With my student pass I can ride the slow trains in the state of Hessen for free, so one of these weekends I want to take advantage of that and travel a bit. Maybe Sunday. Sometime I need to go to the Jewish Museum in Frankfurt along with the Frankfurt Zoo. Strange, putting those two things next to each other in a sentence.

I should finish my homework. Thanks for reading to anyone who made it this far! :)

Pudding, Unterricht und Das Schloss

This week has gone by fast! With class only taking up half of the day, I have a lot of free time. For one of my online classes at UWSP, I have to get involved with an organization, club or cause and write about it throughout the semester. I just sent an email to the administrators at the Volkhochschule, which is a type of community college open to everyone of all ages. One of my teachers earlier this week brought in a catalog from the school and listed were English classes of all levels. I'd love to assist in one of the classes, whether it be as an assistant to students in class or as a tutor out of class. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Yesterday Maggie and I made our way up to the castle. It was a beautiful walk through Oberstadt and up the side of a very large hill. Because of its location, the castle is easy to find anywhere in the city. Just look up! I had fun taking pictures of the castle outside, but I really wanted to go inside and either take a tour or go through the museum. For some reason, neither Maggie nor I could find a door to go inside. There were plenty of doors... but they all looked private! I didn't see one that had a welcome or enter sign over it. Some other people from my group said the same thing, so I know I'm not completely retarded.

I still have to visit the Elizabethkirche, which is centrally located in town. I think it's lit up at night on the inside, from some of the postcards that I've seen. That'd be cool.

My group's German tutor, Rouven, talked about setting up some type of tour for the groups from UW Stevens Point and UW Eau Claire this weekend. I was asked to ask the group whether or not they're interested if they end up having to pay 10 euros, and everyone (except one person) is interested. I think it'd be a great bonding experience for the group and we'll hopefully gain a completely different view of the city. There's catacombs located underneath the castle... I want to see that so bad! Who knows, though. I hope it works out!

Brittany invited people from her class and from the group to her kitchen last night for spaghetti and to watch Cast Away in German. It turned out Cast Away wasn't supposed to be on tv that night, but we ended up watching some King of Queens instead. It was a lot of fun, getting to know people from my group and people from all over the world. I met a really nice girl from Japan, who is making our group sushi next Wednesday. :D We've all decided to make this dinner date a weekly event.

I'm planning to go to the movies tomorrow night with my friend Keifa (Israeli) from my class and Maki (from Japan). I don't know yet what we're going to see... but I don't really care. Rubbel die Katze looks pretty funny... and dumb. But dumb usually equals simple language usage, which is good for me! Some people from UWSP are going to see the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo tonight, but I haven't decided if I'm going yet. It's only 3 or 4 euros for students, so I could afford it... but I brought the book with me, and I kind of wanted to read it before I saw it. I guess it doesn't matter too much, because it's in German so I won't fully understand it anyways. Seeing it again in English will probably be like me seeing it for the first time, haha.

I almost forgot to write about last weekend! Last weekend, Maggie, Marcel and I went to Magdeburg to visit the group of German students I worked with last summer in Stevens Point. The train ride consisted of two stops each way, with it being 5 hours each way. It went by fast, though. I noticed some changes as we went from Hessen, which is centrally located in Germany to Saxon-Anhalt, which is located in east Germany. The buildings seemed a little bit more run-down and the city itself didn't have the charm that Marburg seems to have. I feel safe in Marburg, where as I wouldn't want to travel around Magdeburg along not knowing the city. Both cities have a lot of graffiti, but the graffiti in Marburg seems to have more of a positive message than the contrary. Saturday night we met everyone out at a bar, including one of the German professors from UWSP who was in town. It was nice catching up with everyone! Afterwards we went back to Marcel's place and drank more. Mortiz compiled all of his videos he shot while in the US and turned it into a movie for everyone to watch. It was hilarious! At the end of the night, I ended up sleeping in Marcel's roommate's smelly bedroom because Moritz and Susann were pissing me off, haha. I'm ready to sleep when 6 am rolls around. Jesus.
The next day I met up with my friend Franzi and her boyfriend. She picked me up and we all had something to eat at her place. After talking for a while, they drove me to the Dom, aka old church in the city and we walked around a bit. I also saw the Hundertwasserhaus, built by Austrian Friedenreich Hundertwasser:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedensreich_Hundertwasser

Overall, I've been having a great time so far in Germany. I'm looking forward to what's to come in the following weeks! I'm starting to plan my excursions for the semester... so far it's Ireland, Spain and a roadtrip with my host sister through southern Germany, Austria and Northern Italy. I also need to make time to see a concentration camp... European history at it's worse. As morbid as it is, I'd like to see it for myself.

Thanks for reading!

Freitag, 06. Januar

News- I'm online! At the mensa. Hopefully when I go back to my dorm my internet will be up and running. It wasn't when I woke up this morning. Maggie's is working in her room and she was told it wouldn't be up until Monday, so I'm staying hopeful. :p
I'm skyping with Steve now, and it's so nice! I'm so excited to see him again. :) And I talked to my mom on Facebook. Her internet connection is too slow for her to use her webcam, though she could see me. Maybe it'll be better at my dorm.
Hulu and Netflix don't work here...maybe if I go straight to the network's website like ABC or whatever it'll work. Who knows.
Everyone from UWSP and Eau Claire is meeting tonight at 8pm by the cinema, to go have a few drinks and get to know one another. Should be a good time.
This weekend I'm going with Maggie and Marcel to Magdeburg, and Saturday night we will meet up with friends around 8pm at a bar. Professor Leek from UWSP will be there too. :) Then we will take on the 5 hour bus ride Sunday night and start school again Monday. Time goes by so fast here...

Donnerstag, 05. Januar

Ich schreibe jetzt in meinem Zimmer, mit der Fenster oftnet. I opened the windows because I was warm from walking up so many hills! The weather here in Marburg is a bit depressing. It’s always raining and the sky is grey. The temperature is temperate though, with temps 30-50 degrees F. I do prefer rain over snow and freezing cold temperatures, so I can’t really complain.

-Hey mom, that mini umbrella you bought me has really come in handy! It’s perfect to fit in my coat pocket and purse. :p

It’s been strange, not having internet access. I’ve gone the entire week only going online one time, and for only an hour or so. Some people have internet access in their dorms, though I won’t until tomorrow. I contacted the “Internet Tutor” today and he configured my laptop, so that I should be able to automatically connect to the internet. It should be up and running tomorrow. Really, I haven’t missed not having a phone or the internet as much as I thought I would. I can live without facebook and I don’t miss checking my emails. It’d just be hard for me not to have any sort of way to communicate with my boyfriend, my family and my friends. Skype is so nice...
I feel so bad! I have only talked to my mom once since arriving, unless she read my last blog post. I was able to use Maggie’s phone to call Steve this evening. It was really nice. I was sure he was worrying about me... the last time I saw or really talked to him was last Sunday (with today being Friday).

I’m really enjoying living in Marburg. I’m getting the hang of the bus system and it’s really not so bad. I got lost probably 4 times with other people this week, the most recent time being last night when Maggie and I were trying to meet our German friend Marcel at the train station. I misheard Maggie and got off at “Sudbahnhofstrasse” instead of “Bahnhofstrasse”. I thought, “hey, it’s just the south part of the train station, we can walk north.” Not possible. We walked for what seemed a few miles until we figured something out. By the end of the night, we were exhausted. Instead of going to sleep, though, we all went to the bar next to my dorm and had a few drinks and talked. Afterwards, it was agreed I’d sleep with Maggie in her bed and Marcel would sleep on the floor. Since I have a little bit of a cold, post-nasal drip was making me cough and making it impossible to fall asleep. Marcel and I talked until nearly 5:30am, until I decided to walk back to my dorm and sleep in my own bed. I had to wake up at 7:00am. Wednesday was a long day.

I have been grocery shopping almost every other day, because I can’t buy too much at one time when I take the bus. I was able to find some spaghetti tonight, so I’m pretty excited. I don’t want to spend too much money eating out. I bought some German milk (3,5 percent fat) because everyone says it tastes different than American milk, so we will see. Oh, I bought Schöfferhofer (a type of beer with cactus). It’s really good!

I like my class. I met a girl from Israel who is probably too good to be in level 1, but she said she could use some review in grammar. We got coffee on our lunch break and hopefully we can hang out while I’m here. :) We only speak in German when we’re together, unless I don’t know how to say something and I give up and say it in English. It’s really cool, being in a class where German is the common language. I look forward to seeing how much my German improves by the end of the semester! Every day I’m learning something new. Class is relatively easy and I feel that I’m learning a lot. I’d rather be here in level 1 and understand 95% of what is being said than to be in level 2 where some of my friends say they occasionally struggle.

A few times while I’ve been out whether it is at a grocery store or at the city hall, someone asks me something in German and I attempt to respond, but they immediately recognize my accent and start speaking in English. Most of the time, even if I mess up formatting my sentences, people respond in German. It’s such good practice and it really is satisfying being able to function with another language. Though if I’m doing something important, like filling out paperwork, I automatically speak in English just to make sure that the information is correct.

I keep forgetting to buy postcards... maybe I can do that next week. I haven’t really taken any pictures yet, either.

So tomorrow after class we all have to meet at the Mensa, or cafeteria, one last time to hand in some paperwork. If my internet is not working in my dorm when I wake up, I will bring my laptop to the Mensa and try to go online there. Fingers crossed!

The city of Marburg is beautiful, with the castle being lit up at night on top of the hill. Maybe I can go visit it tomorrow, though I’m not in a big rush. I do have 19 more weeks here to explore. :-) There’s a lot of graffiti, but much of it is positive... I saw one sign that said “end sexism” and another that said "voice your opinion". There is an underpass between the Mensa and the library, where the walls are completely covered in posters and graffiti. It’s pretty interesting. I will take a picture of it one of these days.

I’m going to finish some homework and get ready for bed. Thanks to those who read this... hope to hear from you soon! Love and miss you all!

First few days in Deutschland

After getting through security rather easy, I boarded the plane and was seated next to two strangers, though close to the other students in my group. Turned out I was seated next to a girl named Lacey who is about my age from Texas. She's stationed with the military in Germany. The other girl, Sabrina, is a German who married an American and now goes to school in Colorado. She was coming back home for her winter break. We all got along well, and they invited me out next weekend in Frankfurt. Lacey offered to pick me up and drive me there, which is necessary because I have not mastered the train or bus systems yet. I haven't decided for sure if I'm going to go because I might just want to explore the city of Marburg, but I can do that any other weekend. I am here 5 months...

I bought a cell phone yesterday at Media Mart for 9 euros and 25 euros worth of calling minutes. I still have to call the number to activate the minutes, though it's all in German so I'm waiting for my friend Marcel to arrive here from Magdeburg to do it for me. I sort of wish I had brought shampoo, conditioner, those sort of things with me because I reallllly wanted to take a shower last night. I ended up buying shampoo and conditioner so I could wash my hair in the sink in my room. I'm going to the store again with some friends after I get offline to get a towel. :I

I feel like I'm spending a lot of money, but that's just because I have to pay for all of these up-front costs like my visa, student id, housing deposit, essential food and beauty products... I hate that feeling though. Especially knowing that all of the prices I'm looking at aren't US dollars, but more. Conversion rate is 1 to 1.3.

My room is nice, small but tucked away in the corner by a little deck. There's a community kitchen which is ok, I'm nervous putting my food in the fridge. I don't want anyone to steal anything so I'm keeping the rest in my room. Eventually I'll put my insulin in the fridge... I don't know why anyone would steal it. I'm just so protective of it.

I haven't been able to use my credit or debit card anywhere! I have to just keep taking out money from the ATM. I still have the euros I brought with me. I'm glad I did that.

I had class this morning. I was placed in the lowest class along with 2 other people from Eau Claire. It's insanely easy, so I might move up to stufe 2 next week but we'll see. For most of the students in the class, our common language is German. Kind of cool. Most of them are from Oman. There's only 13 students in the class, it was split in two. I wouldn't really mind I guess if I don't move up, but some people who were in my class in Point who I thought did worse than me in class are in a higher class here, so I just want to be wherever I'll learn the most. I didn't do well on the placement test obviously, but it was retarded anyways. I'm impressed though... almost everyone else from WI placed pretty high. I'm trying to not let that effect my pride haha. I know it doesn't really matter though, because i'm here to improve MY German. I shouldn't compare myself to others. My teacher is nice.

The bus system is nice, but kind of complicated (for now). All of us took the wrong bus last night because it switches at 8pm, so we were out in the country. Not really, but it felt like it. Thanks to two people in our group who talked to the bus driver, he told us where to go from there. I did SO MUCH WALKING yesterday! A few miles atleast. I'm sore all over. Oh, and I live on the 5th floor of my building. I will lose some weight, for sure. haha

My friend Marcel from Magdeburg is coming to stay the night in Marburg tonight. Maggie and I worked with his group of exchange students this summer. I'm going to have him set up my german cell phone for me, thank god. Can't wait to have that. It's really hard getting around without internet or a phone! We had to all agree at a time to meet this morning at the bus station. Everyone who wasn't there was left on their own. It's kind of scary! I almost got left behind the first day when we were all going to dinner downtown because no one told me what time we were meeting. I was on a separate van because there wasn't enough room for me (when we got off the train and were getting dropped off at our dorms). I thought we had to meet at 3:30 when we had to meet 10 to 3, so I was going to go for a walk. I ran into one of our tutors, who was going to come to my room and see if maybe I was sleeping. If I was left behind, there was no way I could've found that restaurant downtown. :I Complicated.

They sort of threw us out at the dorms and we've all had to figure things out ourselves. Staying in groups has been essential! I kept laughing when I got off the airplane, when everyone around me was speaking German.

Ok, well I'm getting kicked out. I hope to write soon. Thanks to everyone who's read all of this, or even skimmed. Love you all!