Day 32 2/21/2010
Well this was our last day in Munich but it was still a long day. Nobody's flight was till around 4 and only Jake and Jacob had to leave before that. I didn't get up as quickly as I wanted but I was still up around 8. Jake woke me up and told me that they were going to leave and to hurry if I wanted to join. I didn't exactly want to go but I also didn't want to wait down stairs until Catie and Trisha were ready to go. So I hurried and got ready I packed up my stuff and went down stairs to watch the others eat breakfast while David sneaked me some orange juice. I went up stairs with the rest of them grabbed my stuff because we were checking out that morning and we headed out. By now my feet were killing me. I shouldn't have gone with them but I wanted to see more of the city and I did my best to keep up with these long legged guys. No matter how hard I tried I had just brought too much stuff and I wasn't able to keep up. I felt bad because I couldn't and they had to wait for me at some points. It was because I brought my computer when I should have left it at home. I brought it because I might do some work on it and usually its better to have it and not need it. Not this time. I really wish I had left it at home. Well some of the things that we did on the walk was first we walked to Marien Platz. Yes, to there from the Hostel. We walked through the platz for the last time. The we went down some of the side streets and we found a different platz that had an interesting Romanesque temple type building with a statue in front of the platz. Then we found another area with another Romanesque porch. This was huge. It had statues under it. Right next to it was the theater cathedral. I only know the name because I looked it up in a book. This was a beautiful yellow cathedral with elaborate swirling on the tops of the two towers. It was very pretty to look at. This is where I got behind. I asked the guys to wait a moment while I looked for my battery and they just walked off. The battery on my camera had just died and I needed to find the other one I had with me. I couldn't find it so I missed out on quite a few pictures because I spent a lot of my energy trying to catch up to them. I was rather upset but here starts the downward spiral of keeping up with them. They walk fast already and I was hurting trying to catch up to them. After the area with the cathedral we went to a small open park like area with a pavilion in the middle. This was again Romanesque in style it was very pretty because the mosaic in the middle of this small pavilion was nice to look at and there were tiles arranged around the columns with different fountain bowls on them. I looked at that for a moment before resuming my attempt to catch up to them. After a little while longer we found an area that was just a park. A huge park. It was kinda like what you would think of when you thought of Central Park with out the skyscrapers. It was enormous. They even had a man made river running through it. We watched the ducks and took pictures of them. Jacob chased one around that was rather amusing. After that we started walking deeper into this park. Eventually we found another pavilion on top of a hill. It completely reminded me of the pavilions you find in Oblivion, a game I play. It was taller and thinner than the last one. It took us forever to get to it mostly because I was walking slower than the rest. The ice and the baggage again making it difficult to keep up. I didn't get to enjoy the pavilion that much because as soon as I got up the hill to them I was digging through my bag to try to find my battery. I was so afraid that I had left it at the home in Bonn. But, I found it, thankfully. So off we went pretty much right after I found that battery. I didn't even get to enjoy the sight, whatever. It was my fault that I brought so much stuff but still they could have waited a little while. Immediately started heading down the hill in front of them and we started to make our way to the museums we were interested in. The first one we finally arrived at was called the Glyptotek. This was a Roman and Greek sculpture museum dedicated directly to this guy who made a living out of collecting these things. I enjoyed it very much because I love sculpture and getting to see these things face to face was mind blowing for me. Yet again I spent the time in the museum alone. I walked through and studied what I could. Then I got to the sculpture I had been waiting for. This was the sculpture I spent at least a week of my life writing about. It was amazing to get to see it in person. To get to study it. I was so happy for that brief moment, also in awe of actually getting to see this relief. After seeing that I kinda went a little faster because I wasn't too interested in busts, which was the entire rest of the room. There were a few other neat sculptures that I found, but that was the star of the show. After that museum I called my group and they had already left for a different museum up the road. Again, I'm getting tired of these reminders that they don't give two cents about me. So I walked there. David was nice enough to meet me outside and he shared one of his apples with me. Hes one of the few that has actually treated me decently. So we sat outside for a little while while I rested my feet then headed into the building. This one was also amazing but I didn't let myself get too wrapped up in seeing these for one. Not as interesting and for two the only ones that I wanted to see were the Rubens and most of those were in the first few rooms. I didn't get to see much more than a few of the galleries. Most of these paintings were huge. I was amazed that anyone would work on one painting for that long. The renderings of cloth were amazing. It made me wish that I had studied a bit more art history because then I would know what some of this era meant in their paintings and that I might recognize any of them. All of them were incredibly well painted of course. We walked through there spending no more that around an hour because I had spent so much time at the other place. Then it was time for David and I to head back to the hauptbahnhof to catch our train to the airport. This day was just destined to be a bad one. So after we finally got to that place. It was a long walk on my hurting feet. This old guy decides he wants to help us. I didn't want to but David let him. He fixed the machine for us so we would get the right tickets but as it turns out he made us pay for twice as much as we needed because he put in there that we needed a 5 person ticket instead of a single for the both of us. I was a little irritated with David that he let him do this. So I gave 10 Euro for this stupid train ticket that should have only cost 6. I was a little irritated needless to say. Well we got on the train and got to the airport. After getting through security and getting to the gate we find out that our plane is delayed. Awesome. I ended up napping till it was time to leave. That was very uncomfortable. When we finally left the plane was leaving more than two hours after the scheduled time. So the plane took off and the plane landed and we were done. We got on the trains to head home stopping briefly in the Cologne hbt. This is when I realized that I left my ipod on the plane. As you can see this day wasn't all that great. We decided against going back and that I would just get it later that week. We headed home and I went to bed after reading for a while in a book instead of on my ipod.
Day 33 2/22/2010
This was the second to last day of German class. We went over verbs and then she told us to write down what we would be bringing the next day for breakfast. We were going to have breakfast together. I wrote down that I would bring some brot (Bread). Then we had our lunch break then for the last part of the day we had our game history class for the first time. This was interesting because we talked about the different types of games that exist. It was a fun discussion I really enjoyed it. I think I'm going to enjoy this class. Right after that we were done for the day. I spent the afternoon messing around on my computer till I was ready to head home. The only thing out of the ordinary that I did was I had to call Trudy to bring me some bread for the breakfast tomorrow. Did the usual other stuff at home, then bed.
Day 34 2/23/2010
Well today was the last day of Duetsch class. It would be the last time I would get to talk to Fenja. I was kinda sad but happy too because I don't know if I could have learned anything else in that class. We had our test that morning first. Then, the breakfast right after. It was nice getting a free breakfast. We just sat and talked and enjoyed the morning. I talked mostly to Fenja and Trisha. After that it was lunch break but we had all just eaten so it was kinda pointless. Then it was time to get to business with studio. Our final project was due on Thursday and we had stuff we needed to do. We worked most of the afternoon and into part of the evening getting stuff done. The next day we were going on an excursion so we wouldn't be able to do any work. Again not much else happened.
Day 35 2/24/2010
Today we were going to Frankfurt. It was one of our day excursions. We had to meet at the bus stop at around 7:45 ugh. I hate when we have to get up that early because that means I have to get up at around 5:30 in order to be ready in time to get there. I met Trisha and Catie at the bus stop and we rode one past our normal stop at the hbf to University/Markt. We got out and headed to the meeting place. We stood around waiting for more people to show or at least the professor. The bus came first then Lars. Thats when we boarded the bus. Trisha and I ended up at the front while everyone else was at the back. Then, unknown to our knowledge the students from LMU joined us. We were wondering why it was such a big bus. Now we knew. So we rode the two and a half hours to Frankfurt. When we got there we dropped the LA students off first then we went to where we were meeting our city tour guide. The tour guide took us to the platz where the rebuilt Altes Rauthaus and a cathedral were built. She told us about them. I don't remember much. Except that the facade of the Rauthaus was original because it somehow wasn't destroyed with the bombs but just the facade survived. Everything in the platz except that was a rebuild of the old style. She talked about the justice fountain in the middle of the platz having to do with justice after the war. The statue on top was a woman holding scales. She is a symbol dating back to the Egyptians. After that we went into a different larger pink cathedral. She told us about some of the art in there like one of the painting on the wall that was painted to depict a king. All the other like it were covered after World War II because they didn't want any reference to a male sovereign leader and all the painted referred to kings of some sort. After that she talked about the sculpture at the front of the church. It is a Crucifixion scene done in the Early Renaissance. I don't remember much about either. It was made out of Tuff and it was one of the first sculptures to come out that actually had expression and character in the figures. Right after that we were pretty much done with that tour and we went back to the broccoli trees where we met in the first place. Lars took us down to the street that we could walk down to find food. I went to get some cash while everyone else walked to find food. Finally I found an ATM and got some cash. Then I headed back to this chicken stand. I got some chicken and fries. Trisha and Catie were there. Catie didn't like that I ate it with mayo so she left to join the rest of the group. Trisha and I hung around for a little while while I finished eating then we walked over to a mall that we decided to explore a little. Trisha saw some "Geisha" standing inside and she wanted a picture. Then as we walked farther we passed a Hollister store and there were two models outside. Two extremely good looking men with very nicely ripped bodies. We couldn't help but drool a little. They were nice to look at very nice. We walked farther into the center and found... A LEGO Store. That's right a Lego store. We kinda squealed a little and went inside. I ended up getting a race car for my brother. Then we spent the rest of our free time digging through the people station making little Lego people. It was fun. Trisha made herself a wench and a soldier, and one of her characters. I made myself a wench, Sean and a race car driver for Colton. Right after that we had 20 minutes to get back to the meeting point. When we got there and everyone had arrived we headed to our next destination. A gaming company that we were going to visit called Keen games. After a little bit of a walk we arrived at the building and up the elevators we went to their floor. Then, we talked to them a bit and they told us what they do. Just like all the other companies we've visited, we talked and asked questions and blah, blah. However, since we were there they wanted us to try out a game they had. This was really cool because it is a game that hasn't been released yet. So we were essentially testing it and giving our opinion. It was quite amusing because after a while they had stopped what they were doing and everyone was watching us play. After that was done and we were going to gather our jackets, I mentioned that I wanted one of the mugs because I really liked them and one of the employees rushed off and brought me back one of them. He gave it to me for free. That was cool. I felt all special. So afterward we gathered our stuff and went down stairs to wait for the bus to pick us up. This was the last thing that we did in Frankfurt and we were on our way back to our final destination. This was the most interesting part of the trip because it was at a Winery. We were going to have a "wine tasting" but essentially they let us drink the wine. Trisha, Jacob and I ended up sitting at the middle table with some of the LMU students that joined us. We talked about random stuff. I ended up trying to explain some Aggie traditions to the guy next to me. We also ate dinner which was just cold cuts. So, bread, cheese, and meats. It was interesting because we were all quite loud and tipsy afterward. So I bought two of the bottles of wine because I knew that this was one of the things that Sean would want. So I bought him a bottle and myself a bottle. Afterward we all headed back to the bus and headed back to Bonn. They dropped one group off at the Hauptbahnhof which is where I got off and went on to drop the rest at Munster Platz. This was the end of the day. Trisha and I were talking about another deep subject having to do with her 'religion' or lack there of. Not lack of belief, lack of religion. Again. So we caught our train home and we were done for the day.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
Day 39 2/27/2010
Day 29 2/18/2010
Thursday. O so close to the end of the week but not quite there. This is a day that I was just being incredibly lazy. I decided to skip our rescheduled Maya workshop. (He rescheduled because he had to leave early yesterday). I didn't learn anything from them and I was going to sleep anyway so why not do it in a comfy bed rather than the hard desk. Well eventually I got up for the day and headed to class. When I got there it turns out that I didn't miss anything. The guy never showed up. Apparently he called in "sick." However, we all think that he just skipped out because he had a deadline to cover. So, we spent the rest of the day doing studio work again. Boring right. I don't even remember if I stayed late or not. I'm sure I did to get my travel info in order. The next day Trisha, Catie, Brian, Jake, Jacob, Alvaro, and David and I were all going to Munich. David and I would be traveling together. Jake and Jacob would take the train. Trisha and the rest were on a different plane. So David and I got checked into our flight that evening with the help of Alvaro and had all the paperwork that we needed printed, printed out. Then I went home to get ready. I was able to talk to Sean for a little while, while I packed but not long. I was sad because I wasn't going to get to talk to him for the entire weekend. I finished packing for the most part and after messing with facebook went to bed.
Day 30 2/19/2010
I had to wake up at 5:30 today in order to make sure I was at the station in time to catch our bus to the airport in Cologne. David was suppose to meet me at the Hauptbahnhof at around 7:30 well he ended up being late so we missed the first bus. It was ok we were able to catch another before it got too late. After David got there we walked over to the bus station to figure out where to get our tickets. We ended up buying the wrong ones at the machine just to find out later that we could have payed for them on the bus. So I have this train ticket that is useless till the end of the semester when Sean comes. Also when the bus finally got there we had a bit of a mix up with the driver again the English/German language barrier. I don't know why but I always feel embarrassed when this happens. So we were finally on our way to the airport on the bus. This took about 30 minutes but I got to see some interesting country side when I wasn't sleeping. When we got there we jumped off and hurried to our terminal. I wanted to be there almost an hour before that. Since we had already checked in and we had no bags to check we headed for security. This was the usual routine except for taking off your shoes, thank god, till we got to the end. David had packed his shampoo and toothpaste... I could have hit him. You can't take that crap in a carry-on on the plane, you idiot. So he decided to go back and check his bag. I was allowed to sit on the bench that was at the end of the security line waiting for him to come back and go through again. After a few minutes another person came up to me and told me I couldn't sit there, even though the other person said I could. I didn't press it, I just got up and moved over to the entrance to the Gates where I could be out of the way but still see the security lines. I waited and waited. He took forever but I guess its because he had to walk all the way back to the check-in gates then wait in line. Finally, he came back I gave him is jacket back and we headed for our gate. We both took at least one bathroom break while waiting. I took it to go get some water; they took away my water bottle at the gate. It didn't take long for our plane to get there. We were already more than an hour later than your suppose to be at the gate, but it didn't matter we caught our plane all the same. Both of us slept all the way there. We didn't really talk just slept. When we arrived we headed the the baggage pick up. Waited till the bags came out and snagged David's bag. Then headed outside the airport. We were suppose to meet up with the other four that took a plane because they arrived about an hour after we did. David and I just sat outside our gate and slept on some of the chairs waiting for them to call us and let us know where to meet them. Around noon the called and told us to meet them in Terminal 1. Apparently we were in Terminal 2. Awesome. Now we have to walk a looooonnnngg way. It took forever to get over to where they were but luckily they already had the train ticket situation worked out and we were able to leave for Munich. Riding that train took about 40 mins and half of that for me was spent separated from the group. I hate having those moments when I realize how cut off I am from them. Anyway as soon as we got to the station we headed out toward where we thought we should go out. This place is huge not like the Bonn Hbf. So no one wanted to actually say hey follow me which irritated the crap out of Trisha. She didn't shut up about it for the entire rest of the time we were around the other guys. Well finally we found out where we needed to go to get to our hostel, Jaegers Hostel. When we finally got there and checked in, we went up to our rooms. OMG. I now know why these places were so cheap. It grossed me out. I got over it though because again it was really cheap. It was like our cabins back at Prude Ranch. So we shoved our stuff into some lockers threw a jacket onto our beds to claim them then headed right back out the door to do some exploring. Before we went anywhere far we decided to grab some food. We ended up stopping at this Italian restaurant near the hostel. We sat in there and ate and talked for a while. Catie and I ordered Lasagna. Alvaro, Brian and David ate pizza. While, Trisha ordered spaghetti. We were going to walk around the town till around 5:30 when we need to head back and get ready for a show/concert that Trisha had sort of arranged for us to go see. Any way I gave them the place to go, Marien Platz. This was Munich's main square and the best place to just walk around and do nothing. The first thing we saw when we came out of the Train tunnels was the side of this beautifully elaborate building. This was the New Town Hall or Rauthaus. It kinda stood out against all the other buidings in the area because it was the only one made of gray stone and it had a Neo-Gothic feel to it. In the middle of this platz was a column dedicated to Mary. On the right side of the platz if your facing the Town hall is the Altes Rauthaus, or Old Town Hall. This building was a pretty soft pink color with the strange staggered facade. like a stair ran up one side then immediately down the other. Other buildings near here include the largest cathedral in Munich and another church. So we started walking just around no particular place. At one point we split up just to meet again at the Cathedral. I got separated from my group in there because of the size of the place. The bells for Evening mass began to chime and so we hurried out. Alvaro and I had a small argument about whether it actually was a mass or not because he seems to think that they all happen at the same time. I disagree because I know that the masses at St. Mary's in College Station are at different times than the masses at Holy Angels in San Angelo. After that we just walked some more. We also went souvenir shopping. I ended up getting some stuff for the family and a lot for myself. After that we headed back to the hostel to figure out what needed to be done to get to this place. Trisha had directions but they weren't all that great. So yet again we headed out with actually knowing where we were going and again she got overly irritated that no one was being decisive. She was also overly irritated that we weren't going to get there 2 hours before the show. I thought the entire time she was being ridiculous. Anyway after much confusion and complaints about the cold then getting wet because it started to rain slushy ice we finally found the correct street. We asked a lot of different people where to go and finally we found a bus and we got on it for a few stops. No one knew if we were going the right direction. I finally saw a street sign and confirmed that we were indeed going the right way. First we got off at the wrong stop that wasn't good because yet again we didn't know where we were. Finally a local helped us out again. He told us to get back on a bus going the same way and then get off in 2 more stops. That ended up working perfectly because when we got off we could kinda see the place hidden a few blocks away to our right. So we started walking through the icy rain to the show "tent." By all definitions the place was a tent. There wasn't much building there. It was called Das Shloss. So we got inside dropped our coats off, and headed inside to find a table. I spotted one with just enough room for all of us and we sat down. We got there nearly 45 minutes before the thing started and Trisha still didn't feel like we got there early enough. Whatever. A few of us grabbed a beer and talked till the show started. Brian, Jake and Jacob didn't show up till about 30 mins into the show. I forgot to mention that Brian stayed behind at the hostel till Jake and Jacob showed up because they hadn't arrived yet. Well it turns out that this was more a show than a concert. He did most of the talking and even though I couldn't understand any of it I could determine the high and low parts of the story. I was happy when I could understand any of it. We spent the evening listening to this story that we couldn't understand and enjoying the small bits of music that occurred during the performance. After this we headed back to the hostel to go to bed and get ready for the long day the day. We ended up walking most of the way back and catching a bus for the last bit of it. One exciting thing that happened along the way was that I saw a fox. This was completely unexpected and awesome. I squealed over that for a few minutes. When we finally got back to our hostel one of our room mates had come back. He sat up and talked to us for a while, and I messed with my computer. After about an hour and a half of that we went to sleep.
Day 31 2/20/2010
Today we all decided to get up early to go to Neuschwanstein Castle. The tour started at 9:15 so we needed to get there before then. I set my alarm for about 7:30 so I could get up and be ready by 8:30. I got up and took my shower first. After I had gotten dressed and had my hair up in the towel I woke the next person up. I milled about picking things up while the other took their showers and got dressed. by the time they were done I was done getting my stuff arranged and we all headed down stairs to eat breakfast. The bad thing was that it was 3.80 Euro to eat and the milk was bad. I was a little disappointed by this fact so I just ended up eating a small breakfast and drinking 3 Euros worth of Orange Juice. Then we headed to the meeting place at the Hauptbahnhof Starbucks. As soon as we got there the clock struck 9:15, perfect. The tour guide, Harriet, told us what we would be doing for the day. (Take a train, then a bus to visit Neuschwanstein Castle). Then she told us to follow her outside so we could pay for our tickets then be on our way to the train. We got our tickets using our student visas for a discount then immediately boarded the train heading for the town near the castle. So here commences the train ride. Nothing really exciting happens, except me laughing at Trisha getting to see landscape that she thought of for her book. She practically drooled over it. I think she was more excited to get to see it in person rather than just in her head. Well also along the train ride was talked and laughed and watched the scenery. Finally we arrived at our station. As soon as we were off our train we headed over to the bus stop to be picked up by the bus. Again a long ride to finally get to the castle. We had a few mins before it was time to head up to the castle so I decided to do some souvenir shopping. I found myself two books and and few other small things. Then it was time to go. I missed part of what she was saying as I walked outside. I didn't even get to grab anything to eat. That was a bad idea. Well we headed up to the first stop and the first story. Sadly, I missed part of it on my recorder. Basically she spoke about the castle on the hill near N. Castle called Hohenschwangau Castle. Don't ask me to say that out loud I have no idea how. I got the story about this castle how it belonged to his parents and how he didn't get along with either of his parents but he was really close to his governess. Then his father dies and gets crowned king. After a time Prussia declares war on Austria. This is all I can remember from the first part. I'm sure that there is more but I just can't remember much more. Well right after that we walked over the this huge lake that reminded me of the lake they had in King Arther. It was huge and nestled between two "foot-hills" by the way. Were in the middle of the Alps. Right after that it was time to walk up this huge god-awful hill. It was steep and slushy. I was not happy to walk up it but it was probably a good thing. I burned some calories. So after a long walk, where I walked mostly alone I might add, we were at the top. There she told us part 3 and 4, I think of the story. Then, it was time to head inside the gates. When we got in there we were able to mill about and take pictures. The sun came out so it was beautiful outside and the it was good for taking pictures. We did that till our tour number came up to go inside. A different person lead us through the castle. We walked up several flights of stairs because the inside was never finished only a few floors actually had finished parts to them. Those were the parts that we were going to get to see. They were beautiful. There were paintings all over the walls. the furniture was overly elaborate. You could tell that this entire building was dedicated to Wagner. As the story goes he built this place for Wagner. All the walls were covered in some depiction of some part of a Wagner opera. His bed room was the story of Tristan and Isolde. Also one of my favorites. The story not the opera. We walked through all of these areas. We saw the ball room and the throne room. The tour guide also took us to his bedroom and living room. There were only about 5 rooms that we visited, all of them painted all of them elaborate. The tour guide then told us that the tour was over that there was a gift shop on the third floor and that we would exit through the HUGE kitchen. The kitchen was huge. It would make Sean envious. I came out and Harriet, the previous tour guide was there to meet me. Remember I did most of this alone. I miss understood her because I thought that she said that my group had already gone to the bridge that was built near by and came back, therefore I wouldn't have time to go to the bridge. This bridge gave a great view of the castle and I kinda wanted to go see it but like I said I miss understood her. What she meant was that I was the last one out of the castle. I found out later that some people from my group was still at the bridge when I came out of the castle. So, sadly, I stared to walk back down the mountain. First, I grabbed a few pictures of the whole castle again with the sun out. When I got to the bottom I found a different souvenir shop that sold dolls. I found a Bavarian doll that I wanted. Then I headed back to the food stand that we stopped at earlier. I grabbed myself some Currywurst then headed to the bus stop. When I got there I realized that she was telling the rest of the story. I didn't get any of it on cam. This slightly upset me so I asked her if later she would be willing to tell me on the train on the way back. She said she would so all was ok. We got on the bus to ride the 10 minute ride back to the train station. I ended up sitting next to a girl from Russia. It was neat getting to talk to her. We didn't talk about anything particular though. We got the the train station. While waiting for the train, Harriett told us about some of Ludwig's family and how most of them were crazy, probably because of inbreeding. As you find out in my videos Ludwig himself was accused of being crazy as well. Finally the train got there. Trisha and I talked about what we wanted to do later that night. Harriet came up and told me the rest of the story and we were able to talk for a little while about it. We talked about what we really thought about his mysterious death and such. The train arrived in Munich and we depart saying good bye to our tour guide. By the way it is now dark. This tour literally took all day. Trisha and I wanted to go on a Ghost tour while the rest of the group just wanted to go drink. I was ok with just spending some time with Trisha. So after stopping by our hostel we headed to the underground to get tickets to where ever. Trisha and I didn't want to walk so we bought tickets. The rest of the guys didn't have the patience to wait for a ticket so they walked to Marien platz. When we got there we walked around and around this place and couldn't find what we needed. It was suppose to be near Mary's column but we couldn't find anyone matching the description Harriet had given us. It was suppose to be a guy in a robe or something like that. We just walked around at about 7:15 she and I decided to forget it and we just walked around some more. I wanted to go see a gate that was at one end of the platz. We also did some more souvenir shopping for her I didn't get anything. Then after Trisha had gotten over being mad at everyone for being indecisive, we headed over to the Hofbrauhaus. We had found this place earlier the day before and planned on going there. We found everybody upstairs in the restaurant area of the building. This was really neat because they played old German music and had dances and they did these songs in chorus with wips. That was strange. I ordered Wiesswurst. Which was incredibly good. The only thing I didn't like about it was that it was made out of veal. That made me a little sad but it was good all the same. Trisha and I shared two liters of beer and we talked and laughed for the rest of the evening. Everyone except David all left to go somewhere, I don't remember, before we were ready to go. Eventually we decided it was time to go back to the hostel. We took the underground to get there. I was nervous because David didn't have a ticket and I was even more worried because you get fined if you don't have one, but we got there with no problems. Trisha, David and I ended up sitting in the lobby area where the bar was talking about really deep stuff like, religion and why Trisha feels the way she feels, blah, blah. She was bit more talkative because of the alcohol. Shes not any religion but I don't exactly understand her reason. I think its because she agrees with most all of them. I really didn't like how she made it sound like the only reason Christians are Christians is because it was shoved down their throat since they were a child. That hit a nerve and I kept trying to tell her that, that wasn't the case with a lot of them she just ignored it and went on with her boohoo session.
She acts like the world is against her and personally I think its because she has emotional problems and she has an ego the size of Texas. The world doesn't cater to her, therefore she hates the world. She also acts like if she likes something, NO ONE ELSE DOES. Even though I've mentioned to her numerous times that I also like abstract art, and I also like wine, because I don't like it the way she does I'm some how wrong. I'm tired of her making me feel like crap for being the way I am. I'm lazy, so what. I like soft drinks, so what. I like impressionism over dada, so what. I like to buy souvenirs when you don't. So what. I like Farmville you don't.... I could go on but I won't. Get over yourself, Trisha. I prefer to not read a book I disagree with. So freaking what. I'm not a bad person and I'm not ignorant because I chose to be this way!
Sorry, small rant. Anyway. Right after that we pretty much did nothing else and went to bed.
Thursday. O so close to the end of the week but not quite there. This is a day that I was just being incredibly lazy. I decided to skip our rescheduled Maya workshop. (He rescheduled because he had to leave early yesterday). I didn't learn anything from them and I was going to sleep anyway so why not do it in a comfy bed rather than the hard desk. Well eventually I got up for the day and headed to class. When I got there it turns out that I didn't miss anything. The guy never showed up. Apparently he called in "sick." However, we all think that he just skipped out because he had a deadline to cover. So, we spent the rest of the day doing studio work again. Boring right. I don't even remember if I stayed late or not. I'm sure I did to get my travel info in order. The next day Trisha, Catie, Brian, Jake, Jacob, Alvaro, and David and I were all going to Munich. David and I would be traveling together. Jake and Jacob would take the train. Trisha and the rest were on a different plane. So David and I got checked into our flight that evening with the help of Alvaro and had all the paperwork that we needed printed, printed out. Then I went home to get ready. I was able to talk to Sean for a little while, while I packed but not long. I was sad because I wasn't going to get to talk to him for the entire weekend. I finished packing for the most part and after messing with facebook went to bed.
Day 30 2/19/2010
I had to wake up at 5:30 today in order to make sure I was at the station in time to catch our bus to the airport in Cologne. David was suppose to meet me at the Hauptbahnhof at around 7:30 well he ended up being late so we missed the first bus. It was ok we were able to catch another before it got too late. After David got there we walked over to the bus station to figure out where to get our tickets. We ended up buying the wrong ones at the machine just to find out later that we could have payed for them on the bus. So I have this train ticket that is useless till the end of the semester when Sean comes. Also when the bus finally got there we had a bit of a mix up with the driver again the English/German language barrier. I don't know why but I always feel embarrassed when this happens. So we were finally on our way to the airport on the bus. This took about 30 minutes but I got to see some interesting country side when I wasn't sleeping. When we got there we jumped off and hurried to our terminal. I wanted to be there almost an hour before that. Since we had already checked in and we had no bags to check we headed for security. This was the usual routine except for taking off your shoes, thank god, till we got to the end. David had packed his shampoo and toothpaste... I could have hit him. You can't take that crap in a carry-on on the plane, you idiot. So he decided to go back and check his bag. I was allowed to sit on the bench that was at the end of the security line waiting for him to come back and go through again. After a few minutes another person came up to me and told me I couldn't sit there, even though the other person said I could. I didn't press it, I just got up and moved over to the entrance to the Gates where I could be out of the way but still see the security lines. I waited and waited. He took forever but I guess its because he had to walk all the way back to the check-in gates then wait in line. Finally, he came back I gave him is jacket back and we headed for our gate. We both took at least one bathroom break while waiting. I took it to go get some water; they took away my water bottle at the gate. It didn't take long for our plane to get there. We were already more than an hour later than your suppose to be at the gate, but it didn't matter we caught our plane all the same. Both of us slept all the way there. We didn't really talk just slept. When we arrived we headed the the baggage pick up. Waited till the bags came out and snagged David's bag. Then headed outside the airport. We were suppose to meet up with the other four that took a plane because they arrived about an hour after we did. David and I just sat outside our gate and slept on some of the chairs waiting for them to call us and let us know where to meet them. Around noon the called and told us to meet them in Terminal 1. Apparently we were in Terminal 2. Awesome. Now we have to walk a looooonnnngg way. It took forever to get over to where they were but luckily they already had the train ticket situation worked out and we were able to leave for Munich. Riding that train took about 40 mins and half of that for me was spent separated from the group. I hate having those moments when I realize how cut off I am from them. Anyway as soon as we got to the station we headed out toward where we thought we should go out. This place is huge not like the Bonn Hbf. So no one wanted to actually say hey follow me which irritated the crap out of Trisha. She didn't shut up about it for the entire rest of the time we were around the other guys. Well finally we found out where we needed to go to get to our hostel, Jaegers Hostel. When we finally got there and checked in, we went up to our rooms. OMG. I now know why these places were so cheap. It grossed me out. I got over it though because again it was really cheap. It was like our cabins back at Prude Ranch. So we shoved our stuff into some lockers threw a jacket onto our beds to claim them then headed right back out the door to do some exploring. Before we went anywhere far we decided to grab some food. We ended up stopping at this Italian restaurant near the hostel. We sat in there and ate and talked for a while. Catie and I ordered Lasagna. Alvaro, Brian and David ate pizza. While, Trisha ordered spaghetti. We were going to walk around the town till around 5:30 when we need to head back and get ready for a show/concert that Trisha had sort of arranged for us to go see. Any way I gave them the place to go, Marien Platz. This was Munich's main square and the best place to just walk around and do nothing. The first thing we saw when we came out of the Train tunnels was the side of this beautifully elaborate building. This was the New Town Hall or Rauthaus. It kinda stood out against all the other buidings in the area because it was the only one made of gray stone and it had a Neo-Gothic feel to it. In the middle of this platz was a column dedicated to Mary. On the right side of the platz if your facing the Town hall is the Altes Rauthaus, or Old Town Hall. This building was a pretty soft pink color with the strange staggered facade. like a stair ran up one side then immediately down the other. Other buildings near here include the largest cathedral in Munich and another church. So we started walking just around no particular place. At one point we split up just to meet again at the Cathedral. I got separated from my group in there because of the size of the place. The bells for Evening mass began to chime and so we hurried out. Alvaro and I had a small argument about whether it actually was a mass or not because he seems to think that they all happen at the same time. I disagree because I know that the masses at St. Mary's in College Station are at different times than the masses at Holy Angels in San Angelo. After that we just walked some more. We also went souvenir shopping. I ended up getting some stuff for the family and a lot for myself. After that we headed back to the hostel to figure out what needed to be done to get to this place. Trisha had directions but they weren't all that great. So yet again we headed out with actually knowing where we were going and again she got overly irritated that no one was being decisive. She was also overly irritated that we weren't going to get there 2 hours before the show. I thought the entire time she was being ridiculous. Anyway after much confusion and complaints about the cold then getting wet because it started to rain slushy ice we finally found the correct street. We asked a lot of different people where to go and finally we found a bus and we got on it for a few stops. No one knew if we were going the right direction. I finally saw a street sign and confirmed that we were indeed going the right way. First we got off at the wrong stop that wasn't good because yet again we didn't know where we were. Finally a local helped us out again. He told us to get back on a bus going the same way and then get off in 2 more stops. That ended up working perfectly because when we got off we could kinda see the place hidden a few blocks away to our right. So we started walking through the icy rain to the show "tent." By all definitions the place was a tent. There wasn't much building there. It was called Das Shloss. So we got inside dropped our coats off, and headed inside to find a table. I spotted one with just enough room for all of us and we sat down. We got there nearly 45 minutes before the thing started and Trisha still didn't feel like we got there early enough. Whatever. A few of us grabbed a beer and talked till the show started. Brian, Jake and Jacob didn't show up till about 30 mins into the show. I forgot to mention that Brian stayed behind at the hostel till Jake and Jacob showed up because they hadn't arrived yet. Well it turns out that this was more a show than a concert. He did most of the talking and even though I couldn't understand any of it I could determine the high and low parts of the story. I was happy when I could understand any of it. We spent the evening listening to this story that we couldn't understand and enjoying the small bits of music that occurred during the performance. After this we headed back to the hostel to go to bed and get ready for the long day the day. We ended up walking most of the way back and catching a bus for the last bit of it. One exciting thing that happened along the way was that I saw a fox. This was completely unexpected and awesome. I squealed over that for a few minutes. When we finally got back to our hostel one of our room mates had come back. He sat up and talked to us for a while, and I messed with my computer. After about an hour and a half of that we went to sleep.
Day 31 2/20/2010
Today we all decided to get up early to go to Neuschwanstein Castle. The tour started at 9:15 so we needed to get there before then. I set my alarm for about 7:30 so I could get up and be ready by 8:30. I got up and took my shower first. After I had gotten dressed and had my hair up in the towel I woke the next person up. I milled about picking things up while the other took their showers and got dressed. by the time they were done I was done getting my stuff arranged and we all headed down stairs to eat breakfast. The bad thing was that it was 3.80 Euro to eat and the milk was bad. I was a little disappointed by this fact so I just ended up eating a small breakfast and drinking 3 Euros worth of Orange Juice. Then we headed to the meeting place at the Hauptbahnhof Starbucks. As soon as we got there the clock struck 9:15, perfect. The tour guide, Harriet, told us what we would be doing for the day. (Take a train, then a bus to visit Neuschwanstein Castle). Then she told us to follow her outside so we could pay for our tickets then be on our way to the train. We got our tickets using our student visas for a discount then immediately boarded the train heading for the town near the castle. So here commences the train ride. Nothing really exciting happens, except me laughing at Trisha getting to see landscape that she thought of for her book. She practically drooled over it. I think she was more excited to get to see it in person rather than just in her head. Well also along the train ride was talked and laughed and watched the scenery. Finally we arrived at our station. As soon as we were off our train we headed over to the bus stop to be picked up by the bus. Again a long ride to finally get to the castle. We had a few mins before it was time to head up to the castle so I decided to do some souvenir shopping. I found myself two books and and few other small things. Then it was time to go. I missed part of what she was saying as I walked outside. I didn't even get to grab anything to eat. That was a bad idea. Well we headed up to the first stop and the first story. Sadly, I missed part of it on my recorder. Basically she spoke about the castle on the hill near N. Castle called Hohenschwangau Castle. Don't ask me to say that out loud I have no idea how. I got the story about this castle how it belonged to his parents and how he didn't get along with either of his parents but he was really close to his governess. Then his father dies and gets crowned king. After a time Prussia declares war on Austria. This is all I can remember from the first part. I'm sure that there is more but I just can't remember much more. Well right after that we walked over the this huge lake that reminded me of the lake they had in King Arther. It was huge and nestled between two "foot-hills" by the way. Were in the middle of the Alps. Right after that it was time to walk up this huge god-awful hill. It was steep and slushy. I was not happy to walk up it but it was probably a good thing. I burned some calories. So after a long walk, where I walked mostly alone I might add, we were at the top. There she told us part 3 and 4, I think of the story. Then, it was time to head inside the gates. When we got in there we were able to mill about and take pictures. The sun came out so it was beautiful outside and the it was good for taking pictures. We did that till our tour number came up to go inside. A different person lead us through the castle. We walked up several flights of stairs because the inside was never finished only a few floors actually had finished parts to them. Those were the parts that we were going to get to see. They were beautiful. There were paintings all over the walls. the furniture was overly elaborate. You could tell that this entire building was dedicated to Wagner. As the story goes he built this place for Wagner. All the walls were covered in some depiction of some part of a Wagner opera. His bed room was the story of Tristan and Isolde. Also one of my favorites. The story not the opera. We walked through all of these areas. We saw the ball room and the throne room. The tour guide also took us to his bedroom and living room. There were only about 5 rooms that we visited, all of them painted all of them elaborate. The tour guide then told us that the tour was over that there was a gift shop on the third floor and that we would exit through the HUGE kitchen. The kitchen was huge. It would make Sean envious. I came out and Harriet, the previous tour guide was there to meet me. Remember I did most of this alone. I miss understood her because I thought that she said that my group had already gone to the bridge that was built near by and came back, therefore I wouldn't have time to go to the bridge. This bridge gave a great view of the castle and I kinda wanted to go see it but like I said I miss understood her. What she meant was that I was the last one out of the castle. I found out later that some people from my group was still at the bridge when I came out of the castle. So, sadly, I stared to walk back down the mountain. First, I grabbed a few pictures of the whole castle again with the sun out. When I got to the bottom I found a different souvenir shop that sold dolls. I found a Bavarian doll that I wanted. Then I headed back to the food stand that we stopped at earlier. I grabbed myself some Currywurst then headed to the bus stop. When I got there I realized that she was telling the rest of the story. I didn't get any of it on cam. This slightly upset me so I asked her if later she would be willing to tell me on the train on the way back. She said she would so all was ok. We got on the bus to ride the 10 minute ride back to the train station. I ended up sitting next to a girl from Russia. It was neat getting to talk to her. We didn't talk about anything particular though. We got the the train station. While waiting for the train, Harriett told us about some of Ludwig's family and how most of them were crazy, probably because of inbreeding. As you find out in my videos Ludwig himself was accused of being crazy as well. Finally the train got there. Trisha and I talked about what we wanted to do later that night. Harriet came up and told me the rest of the story and we were able to talk for a little while about it. We talked about what we really thought about his mysterious death and such. The train arrived in Munich and we depart saying good bye to our tour guide. By the way it is now dark. This tour literally took all day. Trisha and I wanted to go on a Ghost tour while the rest of the group just wanted to go drink. I was ok with just spending some time with Trisha. So after stopping by our hostel we headed to the underground to get tickets to where ever. Trisha and I didn't want to walk so we bought tickets. The rest of the guys didn't have the patience to wait for a ticket so they walked to Marien platz. When we got there we walked around and around this place and couldn't find what we needed. It was suppose to be near Mary's column but we couldn't find anyone matching the description Harriet had given us. It was suppose to be a guy in a robe or something like that. We just walked around at about 7:15 she and I decided to forget it and we just walked around some more. I wanted to go see a gate that was at one end of the platz. We also did some more souvenir shopping for her I didn't get anything. Then after Trisha had gotten over being mad at everyone for being indecisive, we headed over to the Hofbrauhaus. We had found this place earlier the day before and planned on going there. We found everybody upstairs in the restaurant area of the building. This was really neat because they played old German music and had dances and they did these songs in chorus with wips. That was strange. I ordered Wiesswurst. Which was incredibly good. The only thing I didn't like about it was that it was made out of veal. That made me a little sad but it was good all the same. Trisha and I shared two liters of beer and we talked and laughed for the rest of the evening. Everyone except David all left to go somewhere, I don't remember, before we were ready to go. Eventually we decided it was time to go back to the hostel. We took the underground to get there. I was nervous because David didn't have a ticket and I was even more worried because you get fined if you don't have one, but we got there with no problems. Trisha, David and I ended up sitting in the lobby area where the bar was talking about really deep stuff like, religion and why Trisha feels the way she feels, blah, blah. She was bit more talkative because of the alcohol. Shes not any religion but I don't exactly understand her reason. I think its because she agrees with most all of them. I really didn't like how she made it sound like the only reason Christians are Christians is because it was shoved down their throat since they were a child. That hit a nerve and I kept trying to tell her that, that wasn't the case with a lot of them she just ignored it and went on with her boohoo session.
She acts like the world is against her and personally I think its because she has emotional problems and she has an ego the size of Texas. The world doesn't cater to her, therefore she hates the world. She also acts like if she likes something, NO ONE ELSE DOES. Even though I've mentioned to her numerous times that I also like abstract art, and I also like wine, because I don't like it the way she does I'm some how wrong. I'm tired of her making me feel like crap for being the way I am. I'm lazy, so what. I like soft drinks, so what. I like impressionism over dada, so what. I like to buy souvenirs when you don't. So what. I like Farmville you don't.... I could go on but I won't. Get over yourself, Trisha. I prefer to not read a book I disagree with. So freaking what. I'm not a bad person and I'm not ignorant because I chose to be this way!
Sorry, small rant. Anyway. Right after that we pretty much did nothing else and went to bed.
Day 38 2/26/2010
Day 25 2/14/2010
Well I woke up at around 9:30 still under the covers. Adam had apparently already gotten up and was watching Tv. I laid there for a while. This is when things got a little weird, because I already new that Adam still liked me and even after the weird questions last night and explaining to him why I broke up with him. There is no reason for us to be together especially now because of Sean and because of the person Adam has become I don't really care for him in that way but I know he likes me. So he kept hinting that he was resisting kissing me and stuff. I didn't want that to happen in anyway shape of form so after talking for an hour and explaining that although I used to have feelings for him I'm a different person than he dated back then. There is no way that we will ever be that close again. When I could tell that he was still struggling I knew that it was time to get out of the situation. I sat up and grabbed my boots put them on and he gathered his things. I grabbed my jacket and we headed out. He checked out and we headed for home, here. When we got here we found that Nikki was still here. She had taken a bath the night before but she did the same thing I did when I first took a bath here. She used the drain-plug that doesn't come out. When I did it I got lucky and was able to pry it out with my nail scissors, destroying them in the process. However, she didn't have those when she took the bath so the water had been sitting there all morning. I found the scissors had we all had our go at the plug. It took us a while and eventually Nikki got it out. This time my scissors were destroyed beyond repair. So after that Nikki and I went down stairs to make some cookies for our host mom. Did I already mention that Nikki stayed here before I did? Anyway, we made a version of oatmeal clusters they weren't really cookies. It was good but strange because we didn't follow a recipe it was more like just add what you think it needs and hope that it works mix. So we made them and baked them. I tried to call someone on the phone back that called earlier but Nikki wrote the phone number down wrong. After that we just talked while the clusters baked. They ended up being really good even though I don't usually care for oats. After that she gathered her things. We were going to meet up with Natalie again for lunch before she left. We sat down at the bottom of the stairs waiting for Natalie to call and say that she was on her way. We just sat there and talked till it was time to go. Finally it was time to head to the train station to get to the Hauptbahnhof. We met up with Natalie and then we walked over to the lunch place that they wanted to eat at. It was a grill of some sort but it was basically a different way of making a Doner. It was in a tortilla type wrapping rather than the pita bread that is usually used. It thought it was pretty good but still not the best. I guess I just don't like Doners. Well after that we walked over to a place that we could sit down and not get our butts wet in the snow. We finished eating then started to go to the place that Nikki would be meeting her ride. When we got there we found that we were way early. We milled around for a while. This is when Adam started getting calls from his Sargent, which he didn't answer. I didn't know till he got here that he wasn't suppose to be here. He isn't suppose to go farther than 2 hours from his base and he was a good 5 hours away. Well he did another embarrassing thing by asking Nikki or Natalie to lie for him to his Sargent that they had found his phone. I was like Adam don't. Your asking someone to lie for you. When you knew very well that you aren't suppose to be here. Finally I think he understood that they weren't going to lie for him and he stopped asking. During this we decided to walk down to the palace at the other end of this long tree lined lane that was suppose to connect the Palace inside the city to the king's country home. Which in those days would have been outside the city nowadays its less than a 10 minute walk. So, we walked down there and I got some good pictures. We also saw a frozen stream with ducks walking around it that was amusing. Again, we just milled around admiring the scenery and the building. Then we walked back. It wasn't much of an excursion. Soon her ride came and we said our good byes and she left. Not long after that more of the people from Natalie and Nikki's AIB group showed up. I can't remember all their names but the two that showed up were Hecko and a girl. I don't remember her name. Well there was greetings and hellos. Then we started walking to meet up with more from their group. It was rather interesting because I like meeting new people. We walked over to the Doner place again and went into the coffee shop nearby. We all ordered something I ordered a cappuccino. It was cool because this was the first time that I'd ever seen Cappuccino Art. They used the foam on top to make a picture. It was really neat. Mine was a fern leaf while the others had a flower and a heart. So we sat there for hours talking. Adam didn't talk much but Hecko and I talked for pretty much the entire time, till they had more people show up. After they showed up talking nearly died down and I listened a bit more. Well we stayed there for a little while longer till more showed up and we payed our tab and left with them. This was interesting because they were all interesting characters. Although I can't really remember all that we talked about we just talked and got to know each other. at some point we grabbed another Doner at that same place and we started to walk. We walked all over the place. They showed us some of their old haunts and we just followed. Eventually we stopped in the field in front of the University. We stood there and talked more and had some fun. Eventually they had to leave and Adam and I had to head back to the house. So we walked with them to the train station and talked with them till our train came. We got back here and sat at our computers. Adam at my desk and me on my bed just talking and messing with the computer. I got to listen to a fight he had with his ex wife because she threw a fit over me being in one of his pictures. Eventually he went down stairs and I went to sleep.
Day 26 2/15/2010
Well when I woke up in the morning I sat up. Adam was back at my desk on his computer waiting for me. I got up and we just talked for a while again while we were both on our computers. I don't know what he was doing but I was working on some stuff that I needed to get finished. I found out from him that he ended up sleeping on the couch after the talk we had had yesterday morning. Well at around 2 he had to go. It was a rather uneventful morning. After he left I got a shower and got dressed. I headed up to the school because I thought that people were going to be up there. Well I was wrong. No one was there but I decided to stay anyway. I worked on the models that needed to be done and talked to Sean and mom on the internet. At one point I decided to watch some shows that I had missed and things like that. Around the time that I was ready to go, David, Alvaro, and Jacob showed up. They invited me out with them. I didn't know exactly what we would be doing but it was better than sitting in the dark there at the school. So I packed up my stuff and went out. All we did was walk over the outside a bar and watch the costumed drunk people sing to a song. We also talked a little bit. After a while I convinced them to come with me to that Doner place that Nikki showed Adam and I. We got some food and ate while standing inside there. After that we headed back to the AIB. At this point I was starting to not feel good. My throat was hurting so I decided to head home. I think all the partying and smoke finally caught up to me. When I got back here I got ready for bed and after talking to Sean went to sleep.
Day 27 2/16/2010
Well today I slept all day. I woke up to my alarm that morning found out how bad I felt then went right back to sleep. I woke up around 3 and got up. I pretty much just went down stairs and messed with my computer till I was ready for food. I grabbed a baguette from the freezer in the cellar and cooked it. I had just finished eating it and was about to go cook some dinner that Trudy and Vanessa came home. It was a little unexpected considering I didn't expect them till the next day. I felt kinda bad because the kitchen was a little messy from me cooking that baguette. I tried to clean some of it but Trudy didn't want me to. She said that she was home and that she wanted to do it. So I let her. I went back into the living room and messed with my computer a bit more. After a while I went in there and told Trudy that I was going to make myself some dinner. After that she stopped worrying about cleaning so much because I was going to cook. She pretty much went straight to bed after that. I cooked my self some spaghetti and sauce which was really good. Then went back to my computer. After a few hours I cleaned the dishes and put away the clean ones. I didn't like that I had made a mess. Then I went to bed.
Day 28 2/17/2010
This was a horrible day because I still really didn't feel that well and we had to be up so early. It was due to another Maya workshop that they set up for us because the last one was canceled. We went through it rather boringly and he ended up having to leave early due to a deadline that he had. So after that we worked on stuff for studio because it was due next week and we needed to get things done. What made this day so great was that I received my first package that day. It was from Sean. He sent me a bouquet of roses and a bear. I was so happy. It was awesome. I walked around holding my bear like an idiot and I had this big goofy smile on my face. It was so great. I put the flowers in one of the pitchers at the AIB till I could take them home. That was how the afternoon went. After a while we all went home and pretty much nothing else happened for the rest of the day. I took my flowers and bear home and put them in a vase when I got here and then spent the rest of the evening talking to Sean and figuring out what we were going to do in Munich that weekend.
Well I woke up at around 9:30 still under the covers. Adam had apparently already gotten up and was watching Tv. I laid there for a while. This is when things got a little weird, because I already new that Adam still liked me and even after the weird questions last night and explaining to him why I broke up with him. There is no reason for us to be together especially now because of Sean and because of the person Adam has become I don't really care for him in that way but I know he likes me. So he kept hinting that he was resisting kissing me and stuff. I didn't want that to happen in anyway shape of form so after talking for an hour and explaining that although I used to have feelings for him I'm a different person than he dated back then. There is no way that we will ever be that close again. When I could tell that he was still struggling I knew that it was time to get out of the situation. I sat up and grabbed my boots put them on and he gathered his things. I grabbed my jacket and we headed out. He checked out and we headed for home, here. When we got here we found that Nikki was still here. She had taken a bath the night before but she did the same thing I did when I first took a bath here. She used the drain-plug that doesn't come out. When I did it I got lucky and was able to pry it out with my nail scissors, destroying them in the process. However, she didn't have those when she took the bath so the water had been sitting there all morning. I found the scissors had we all had our go at the plug. It took us a while and eventually Nikki got it out. This time my scissors were destroyed beyond repair. So after that Nikki and I went down stairs to make some cookies for our host mom. Did I already mention that Nikki stayed here before I did? Anyway, we made a version of oatmeal clusters they weren't really cookies. It was good but strange because we didn't follow a recipe it was more like just add what you think it needs and hope that it works mix. So we made them and baked them. I tried to call someone on the phone back that called earlier but Nikki wrote the phone number down wrong. After that we just talked while the clusters baked. They ended up being really good even though I don't usually care for oats. After that she gathered her things. We were going to meet up with Natalie again for lunch before she left. We sat down at the bottom of the stairs waiting for Natalie to call and say that she was on her way. We just sat there and talked till it was time to go. Finally it was time to head to the train station to get to the Hauptbahnhof. We met up with Natalie and then we walked over to the lunch place that they wanted to eat at. It was a grill of some sort but it was basically a different way of making a Doner. It was in a tortilla type wrapping rather than the pita bread that is usually used. It thought it was pretty good but still not the best. I guess I just don't like Doners. Well after that we walked over to a place that we could sit down and not get our butts wet in the snow. We finished eating then started to go to the place that Nikki would be meeting her ride. When we got there we found that we were way early. We milled around for a while. This is when Adam started getting calls from his Sargent, which he didn't answer. I didn't know till he got here that he wasn't suppose to be here. He isn't suppose to go farther than 2 hours from his base and he was a good 5 hours away. Well he did another embarrassing thing by asking Nikki or Natalie to lie for him to his Sargent that they had found his phone. I was like Adam don't. Your asking someone to lie for you. When you knew very well that you aren't suppose to be here. Finally I think he understood that they weren't going to lie for him and he stopped asking. During this we decided to walk down to the palace at the other end of this long tree lined lane that was suppose to connect the Palace inside the city to the king's country home. Which in those days would have been outside the city nowadays its less than a 10 minute walk. So, we walked down there and I got some good pictures. We also saw a frozen stream with ducks walking around it that was amusing. Again, we just milled around admiring the scenery and the building. Then we walked back. It wasn't much of an excursion. Soon her ride came and we said our good byes and she left. Not long after that more of the people from Natalie and Nikki's AIB group showed up. I can't remember all their names but the two that showed up were Hecko and a girl. I don't remember her name. Well there was greetings and hellos. Then we started walking to meet up with more from their group. It was rather interesting because I like meeting new people. We walked over to the Doner place again and went into the coffee shop nearby. We all ordered something I ordered a cappuccino. It was cool because this was the first time that I'd ever seen Cappuccino Art. They used the foam on top to make a picture. It was really neat. Mine was a fern leaf while the others had a flower and a heart. So we sat there for hours talking. Adam didn't talk much but Hecko and I talked for pretty much the entire time, till they had more people show up. After they showed up talking nearly died down and I listened a bit more. Well we stayed there for a little while longer till more showed up and we payed our tab and left with them. This was interesting because they were all interesting characters. Although I can't really remember all that we talked about we just talked and got to know each other. at some point we grabbed another Doner at that same place and we started to walk. We walked all over the place. They showed us some of their old haunts and we just followed. Eventually we stopped in the field in front of the University. We stood there and talked more and had some fun. Eventually they had to leave and Adam and I had to head back to the house. So we walked with them to the train station and talked with them till our train came. We got back here and sat at our computers. Adam at my desk and me on my bed just talking and messing with the computer. I got to listen to a fight he had with his ex wife because she threw a fit over me being in one of his pictures. Eventually he went down stairs and I went to sleep.
Day 26 2/15/2010
Well when I woke up in the morning I sat up. Adam was back at my desk on his computer waiting for me. I got up and we just talked for a while again while we were both on our computers. I don't know what he was doing but I was working on some stuff that I needed to get finished. I found out from him that he ended up sleeping on the couch after the talk we had had yesterday morning. Well at around 2 he had to go. It was a rather uneventful morning. After he left I got a shower and got dressed. I headed up to the school because I thought that people were going to be up there. Well I was wrong. No one was there but I decided to stay anyway. I worked on the models that needed to be done and talked to Sean and mom on the internet. At one point I decided to watch some shows that I had missed and things like that. Around the time that I was ready to go, David, Alvaro, and Jacob showed up. They invited me out with them. I didn't know exactly what we would be doing but it was better than sitting in the dark there at the school. So I packed up my stuff and went out. All we did was walk over the outside a bar and watch the costumed drunk people sing to a song. We also talked a little bit. After a while I convinced them to come with me to that Doner place that Nikki showed Adam and I. We got some food and ate while standing inside there. After that we headed back to the AIB. At this point I was starting to not feel good. My throat was hurting so I decided to head home. I think all the partying and smoke finally caught up to me. When I got back here I got ready for bed and after talking to Sean went to sleep.
Day 27 2/16/2010
Well today I slept all day. I woke up to my alarm that morning found out how bad I felt then went right back to sleep. I woke up around 3 and got up. I pretty much just went down stairs and messed with my computer till I was ready for food. I grabbed a baguette from the freezer in the cellar and cooked it. I had just finished eating it and was about to go cook some dinner that Trudy and Vanessa came home. It was a little unexpected considering I didn't expect them till the next day. I felt kinda bad because the kitchen was a little messy from me cooking that baguette. I tried to clean some of it but Trudy didn't want me to. She said that she was home and that she wanted to do it. So I let her. I went back into the living room and messed with my computer a bit more. After a while I went in there and told Trudy that I was going to make myself some dinner. After that she stopped worrying about cleaning so much because I was going to cook. She pretty much went straight to bed after that. I cooked my self some spaghetti and sauce which was really good. Then went back to my computer. After a few hours I cleaned the dishes and put away the clean ones. I didn't like that I had made a mess. Then I went to bed.
Day 28 2/17/2010
This was a horrible day because I still really didn't feel that well and we had to be up so early. It was due to another Maya workshop that they set up for us because the last one was canceled. We went through it rather boringly and he ended up having to leave early due to a deadline that he had. So after that we worked on stuff for studio because it was due next week and we needed to get things done. What made this day so great was that I received my first package that day. It was from Sean. He sent me a bouquet of roses and a bear. I was so happy. It was awesome. I walked around holding my bear like an idiot and I had this big goofy smile on my face. It was so great. I put the flowers in one of the pitchers at the AIB till I could take them home. That was how the afternoon went. After a while we all went home and pretty much nothing else happened for the rest of the day. I took my flowers and bear home and put them in a vase when I got here and then spent the rest of the evening talking to Sean and figuring out what we were going to do in Munich that weekend.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Day 35 2/23/2010
Day 22 continued.
Wow I'm getting farther and farther behind.
Well on my birthday.
We hung out in front of that grocery story till the guys showed up. I took pictures of all the costumes and talked. There were people in costumes everywhere. Finally we walked over to the area that we would stay for the Karneval parade. By this time, my feet were numb and extremely cold. We stood there for a while waiting for the parade. It was late, so Trisha and I decide to walk over the grocery story across the street and walked around so our feet would warm up and stop hurting from the cold. We just wondered around there for about 20 minutes till we felt that we could face to cold again, then headed back to our group. We stood there a bit more waiting and finally it came. It was a long parade. They are all dressed up in costume each float/group has their own theme and they all throw candy. The crowd yells "Komella" and you get candy pelted at you. I didn't catch most of it with my hands it was all with my face or into my bag that I would hold up in front of my face when I wasn't taking pictures. The parade pasted slowly. Soon our feet were hurting again. However, it was fun all the same. At one point we spotted a mallet that was dropped by a drum player as some point. When the guard wasn't looking I ran over there and grabbed it because Trisha said that she wanted it. After the parade we all walked back to the AIB it was better than trying to grab a train because I don't think that there were any trains going back to town and they would have been full anyway. We walked back along the bridge then the streets till we got to the building. After we grabbed some lunch we spent the rest of the day messing around and doing studio work. We only had two more weeks to get our models finished and passed on to the other groups. After that I spent some time watching an episode of House. Eventually I headed home to drop my stuff off because I was going out to a bar or two for my birthday and for Karneval. I went home to drop my stuff off and realized that I left my keys inside when I had left for the day. I didn't know what to do. I milled about trying to decide when I called Trudy and left a message for her to call me back on her cell phone. She didn't answer so I decided to go over to the neighbors house. This is another family that is hosting a student from LMU. They told me to go over there any time I was locked out. This was a good of time as any. I walked over there and told her whats wrong. Her name was Elizabeth. She let me in and gave me some food. It was good. We talked about different things. I told her about my ranch and the goats. She told me a little about where she was from. She grew up in Minnesota but moved here and so on. After a little while Trudy was finally able to call me. She told me to buzz the guy upstairs and to tell him who I was and he would let me in. She also told me about the spare key down in the cellar that I could use to get inside. Elizabeth offered to walk me over to the house till I got inside. So, I grabbed my stuff and we walked over there. I buzzed and he opened the door. The nice thing was that he didn't ask question. He knew who I was from a previous meeting. I put away to food that Trudy's mom had made me that I didn't get home in time to eat. Then I grabbed my purse and headed out to meet up with every body at the Hauptbahnhof. I got off the train and I thought I was meeting them at the top of the platform but as it turns out they were in the main area of the station where we normally meet up with the group. So I waited around for a while waiting for them to show up. Finally I called them to see if they were coming. That is when I figured out that they were upstairs. I met up with them and we set out toward the first bar. Meeting up with a few others along the way. We walked to a bar called Painless and grabbed our first drinks. We stood around and talked and laughed. David H. was acting really retarded because he had already had a few drinks before meeting up with us, so we laughed at him. We talked and sang to songs we didn't know because they were in German. Finally I told David that if he filled up my glass I would do my ring dunk. He immediately poured me a glass so I had no choice but to dunk. I dropped my ring in and chugged as best I could. It isn't exactly easy to chug a beer. After that Allie got some pictures of me with my ring in my teeth. After that we decided to go to a different bar. I didn't know the way but somebody did because we ended up there. It was a quite bar we all went in to sit and talk and get a drink. The waitress/bar tender was an awesome person. She bought us all at least 3 drinks apiece. One of them was a shot that was nasty. The other two were a Karneval tradition. Its this small bottle of liquor that you first bang upside down on the table after you make a lot of noise. You grab it with your teeth twist the bottle open, spit out the lid, then stick the neck of the bottle in your teeth. Toast to everybody by clinking the bottles together looking everybody in the eye and say "Prost." Then you lean your head back and shoot it. It was very good. We did this twice and she payed for it which made it even better. At one point an older guy just came up and sat with us. He was very taken by Allie and she played along which made it even funnier. He kept kissing her on the cheek and I think she was really weirded out by the whole thing but she never let that show. He told us where he was from and a few stories about his childhood. Then I made us promise that we would see him again although I don't think that we will. He was amusing, but got annoying after a while. You could tell he had been drinking. After a couple of hours there, we decided to go on our way out the bar tender lady bought me one last shot for my birthday. It was Jaeger and it was nasty. I can tell you I won't try that again on purpose. So after that we walked to a different bar. We didn't stay there long. I got caught up by the door talking to a German guy he was cute but kinda imposing. It was really weird talking to someone I didn't know because the rest of my group went farther inside. He had this anti-American thing about him it made me uncomfortable after a while. Small world moment happened right here though. Turns out that he has a friend that goes to A&M. Its funny because hes not the last person I've met that had a friend that goes to A&M. So I made my excuses and went to meet up with everyone else. We squeezed our way back out and that was when everyone decided that it was about time to go home. I walked back to the train station with Jake, Kevin, and Jason. I caught the train I needed then headed home.
Day 23 2/12/2010
This was Friday. We didn't have class so I slept most of the day. I woke up around one o'clock in the afternoon. Adam was coming in that day so I decided that it was about time to get up. I got ready and threw on some clothes. At about 2 I found out that he had missed his train and wasn't going to get here till about 6. At that same moment I asked via text, Trisha and Catie when they were going to a movie we planned on seeing. Percy Jackson and the Olympians. It was only going to be playing for a week here in Germany in English. They texted me back and told me three. Crap! I wanted to go but I had less than an hour to get there. First I had to figure out where it was then what station to get off at then where to go from there. This ate up my time really fast. As soon as I knew the when and where, I grabbed whatever I needed and basically got to the trains as fast as I could. As soon as I got on the train I knew it was going to take forever. I needed to get there quickly and the train took forever. I waited and waited. At one point they checked my ticket. And waited some more. As soon as I got to the stop I jumped out of the train and ran up to street level. After a moment of indecision I chose a direction and started walking according to the map picture I looked at earlier I headed toward the theater. Luckily it was in the right direction. I got there and got in line, that ate another 10 mins because the line was long. Then I sped walked to the theater. After stepping inside I had to wait for a bright moment in the movie to get to my seat by Trisha, Catie and Brian. I came in about 5 mins. into the movie so I didn't miss much. We watched the movie, and came out. Brian headed his way while Catie Trisha and I headed toward a train station. Once we were on the train we rode it all the way back to our stop and went home. After I got home it was around 5:45. I decided to make dinner while I was waiting for Adam. I cooked some noodles and some seared some chicken in the pan so we would have something to eat. Eventually he called me and I game him directions as best I could to the house. He was going to stay with me this weekend because Trudy was out of town and I didn't think he should have to pay money. Well a few hours before he got here Trudy had called me and told me that she told one of her former students that she could stay the night here. So I was like crap. Later we ended up just getting him a cheap hotel for that night. More about that later. Anyway, he couldn't follow my directions so I had to go out and get him. Luckily, he was able to follow them well enough that I didn't have to walk far. I met up with him at the end of the second street. We hugged and walked back talking. After we got here he took off his jacket and got comfortable we ate. Then we just sat in the living room and talked. Forever we just talked. This was the first time we've seen each other in close to 6 years. Right after we broke up. We just talked until eventually we decided to go to bed. He slept in the floor of my bedroom because it was the only place in the house that was warm.
Day 24 2/13/2010
Well I woke up at around 11. I was getting ready to take a shower when the doorbell rang. I was like crap shes here already. So I immediately got dressed and ran down stairs to get the door. The girl's name was Nikki. She says "I don't know if Trudy talked to you." I said that she had and I invited her in. I told her that I had a friend upstairs and that I was about to take a shower. I hoped in and out of the shower. Got ready and Adam and I headed out to walk around town. I showed him Munster Platz and the Dom. We also walked over to the Cathedral and Beethoven's house. We just walked around. At one point we walked through the market that is out in front of the Altes Rauthaus (Old Town Hall) and bought some Currywurst. I hadn't tried that yet and I ended up liking it. We also milled around a shop that I bought a shot glass at and at poster. I really like the poster. After that it was getting kinda late so we decided to head back to the house so I could get a costume for Karneval and to head to Cologne for the Ghost Parade. We met up with Nikki as she was heading out the door. I asked her if she would wait for us because she was headed to Cologne as well. I ran up stairs threw on my costume and was back down before she and Adam had finished transferring the alcohol that she had to the plastic bottle she was carrying. She was told that she couldn't bring any glass bottles over so we were trying to get the alcohol into a plastic one. Well since they had just finished that and I was dressed we headed to the train station. When we got there we waited for her friend to get there on her train and then we went up stairs to wait on the train that would take us to Cologne. We had like 10 mins to wait so we went into the shopping center that is at the top of the stairs. The one that I walk through everyday to get home. We sat there and talked till it was time to get to the train. When we got back down to the platform, Catie showed up. We talked her into joining us to Cologne. We rode the train all the way there. It seemed to take forever. We talked and Adam embarrassed me a few times because he just said somethings that could have been worded better. Also he was being a bit obnoxious with some of his comments. Other than that though all was ok. We got to Cologne and came out of the Hauptbahnhof. By the way we rode there without tickets. Anyway, I thought that the parade was suppose to be in that plaza. Turns out that it wasn't. Natalie, Nikki's friend we met, and Nikki found a person that was willing to take us to the parade. So we immediately turned back around and caught another train to go to the parade. Catie wasn't too happy with this because she thought we knew exactly where we were going and we didn't. When we caught that second train she stayed on to go back to Bonn. I felt kinda bad because we talked her into coming. So we got off, said thank you to the guy who led us and headed out of the station. This wasn't exactly the parade we were thinking it would be but there were lots of costumes and awesome people hanging around. We got to see some fire dancers which made my day. They were really really cool. I also got to see some guys juggle balls that were flaming. That was really neat as well. We walked around and eventually found a Doner shop so we could get something to eat. Adam fell in love with them. I think that will be one thing that he missed the most when he goes back to the base. Well, while we were sitting inside what we think was part of the parade passed by outside. We hurried outside to watch and after that passed we walked up and down the streets taking swigs from the Rum in the plastic bottle to stay warm. We continued to walk and we saw some cool stuff with the costumes. Nikki made me learn a new sentence because she wanted me to ask people if I could get a picture with them. "Foto Sussamen Bitte." The spelling might be wrong but she made me remember because I wanted pictures and she wouldn't translate for me. Well I was finally able to use it with two guys who were dressed up like Mario and Luigi. That made me laugh pretty hard. After seeing the "Parade" we decided it was time to see what was going on in Bonn. So we hoped on the train heading back to Bonn. But this one didn't go all the way there. We got kicked off at around half way. That sucked because we were cold and tired of the train. They were packed both ways. So we stood around talking two other people joined us and we talked to them for a little while. Finally another train came to take us the rest of the way. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when we got to the train station. I was so afraid that they would check us. Adam doesn't have a ticket. Well we got off and proceeded to walk around Bonn. The city was dead. I guess all the partyers when to Cologne. Well after walking around for a while and seeing penises drawn in the snow and such we started to walk toward the bars in town. At one point Natalie slipped and fell. We all started laughing as well as these two guys who were walking by. After we got over the laughing the guys invited us to a bar where the beer and atmosphere was good. So we decided to go with them. It was a good bar. We just sat at a table talking and drinking. At one point we started playing spin the bottle, Truth or Dare. So after a lot of embarrassing questions were asked and a lot of stupid things were done, the bar tender pulled Nikki aside and said "You need to be aware of these guys. They're scam artists." So right after that Nikki sobered up really quickly. After that we decided it was about time to go. This is when the truth came out in what the bar tender said. When we said that we were ready to go "guy #1" asked if we wanted to go to another bar. When we said no we were ready to head home he just got up and walked out. He didn't pay his tab or anything. So Adam and I ended up paying for all but 10 Euro because "guy #2" paid that. After that Nikki helped me because I was feeling pretty good. We walked to the Hauptbahnhof and there we split ways with Natalie. Nikki, Adam and I headed for Adams hotel that we checked into earlier that day while we were walking around. I forgot to mentioned that this is the smallest hotel room I've ever seen. it was about the size of Sean's old dorm room wide and about half as long. There was a bed, shower, sink, chair, and Tv on a table all shoved in it. I sat down in the chair at first but after a little while Adam told me to lay down on the bed because I was falling asleep. The trains weren't running till 5 so we had to stay there for a few hours. Needless to say I crashed. I don't remember getting the covers pulled over me but at some point Adam put the covers on me. Nikki crashed there for the few hours till the trains came but I barely remember her leaving. At another point I noticed that Adam was shivering so I told him he could get under the covers as well. This was a little weird because it was a single bed but nothing happened and nothing ever would happen. So don't go getting any ideas.
Wow I'm getting farther and farther behind.
Well on my birthday.
We hung out in front of that grocery story till the guys showed up. I took pictures of all the costumes and talked. There were people in costumes everywhere. Finally we walked over to the area that we would stay for the Karneval parade. By this time, my feet were numb and extremely cold. We stood there for a while waiting for the parade. It was late, so Trisha and I decide to walk over the grocery story across the street and walked around so our feet would warm up and stop hurting from the cold. We just wondered around there for about 20 minutes till we felt that we could face to cold again, then headed back to our group. We stood there a bit more waiting and finally it came. It was a long parade. They are all dressed up in costume each float/group has their own theme and they all throw candy. The crowd yells "Komella" and you get candy pelted at you. I didn't catch most of it with my hands it was all with my face or into my bag that I would hold up in front of my face when I wasn't taking pictures. The parade pasted slowly. Soon our feet were hurting again. However, it was fun all the same. At one point we spotted a mallet that was dropped by a drum player as some point. When the guard wasn't looking I ran over there and grabbed it because Trisha said that she wanted it. After the parade we all walked back to the AIB it was better than trying to grab a train because I don't think that there were any trains going back to town and they would have been full anyway. We walked back along the bridge then the streets till we got to the building. After we grabbed some lunch we spent the rest of the day messing around and doing studio work. We only had two more weeks to get our models finished and passed on to the other groups. After that I spent some time watching an episode of House. Eventually I headed home to drop my stuff off because I was going out to a bar or two for my birthday and for Karneval. I went home to drop my stuff off and realized that I left my keys inside when I had left for the day. I didn't know what to do. I milled about trying to decide when I called Trudy and left a message for her to call me back on her cell phone. She didn't answer so I decided to go over to the neighbors house. This is another family that is hosting a student from LMU. They told me to go over there any time I was locked out. This was a good of time as any. I walked over there and told her whats wrong. Her name was Elizabeth. She let me in and gave me some food. It was good. We talked about different things. I told her about my ranch and the goats. She told me a little about where she was from. She grew up in Minnesota but moved here and so on. After a little while Trudy was finally able to call me. She told me to buzz the guy upstairs and to tell him who I was and he would let me in. She also told me about the spare key down in the cellar that I could use to get inside. Elizabeth offered to walk me over to the house till I got inside. So, I grabbed my stuff and we walked over there. I buzzed and he opened the door. The nice thing was that he didn't ask question. He knew who I was from a previous meeting. I put away to food that Trudy's mom had made me that I didn't get home in time to eat. Then I grabbed my purse and headed out to meet up with every body at the Hauptbahnhof. I got off the train and I thought I was meeting them at the top of the platform but as it turns out they were in the main area of the station where we normally meet up with the group. So I waited around for a while waiting for them to show up. Finally I called them to see if they were coming. That is when I figured out that they were upstairs. I met up with them and we set out toward the first bar. Meeting up with a few others along the way. We walked to a bar called Painless and grabbed our first drinks. We stood around and talked and laughed. David H. was acting really retarded because he had already had a few drinks before meeting up with us, so we laughed at him. We talked and sang to songs we didn't know because they were in German. Finally I told David that if he filled up my glass I would do my ring dunk. He immediately poured me a glass so I had no choice but to dunk. I dropped my ring in and chugged as best I could. It isn't exactly easy to chug a beer. After that Allie got some pictures of me with my ring in my teeth. After that we decided to go to a different bar. I didn't know the way but somebody did because we ended up there. It was a quite bar we all went in to sit and talk and get a drink. The waitress/bar tender was an awesome person. She bought us all at least 3 drinks apiece. One of them was a shot that was nasty. The other two were a Karneval tradition. Its this small bottle of liquor that you first bang upside down on the table after you make a lot of noise. You grab it with your teeth twist the bottle open, spit out the lid, then stick the neck of the bottle in your teeth. Toast to everybody by clinking the bottles together looking everybody in the eye and say "Prost." Then you lean your head back and shoot it. It was very good. We did this twice and she payed for it which made it even better. At one point an older guy just came up and sat with us. He was very taken by Allie and she played along which made it even funnier. He kept kissing her on the cheek and I think she was really weirded out by the whole thing but she never let that show. He told us where he was from and a few stories about his childhood. Then I made us promise that we would see him again although I don't think that we will. He was amusing, but got annoying after a while. You could tell he had been drinking. After a couple of hours there, we decided to go on our way out the bar tender lady bought me one last shot for my birthday. It was Jaeger and it was nasty. I can tell you I won't try that again on purpose. So after that we walked to a different bar. We didn't stay there long. I got caught up by the door talking to a German guy he was cute but kinda imposing. It was really weird talking to someone I didn't know because the rest of my group went farther inside. He had this anti-American thing about him it made me uncomfortable after a while. Small world moment happened right here though. Turns out that he has a friend that goes to A&M. Its funny because hes not the last person I've met that had a friend that goes to A&M. So I made my excuses and went to meet up with everyone else. We squeezed our way back out and that was when everyone decided that it was about time to go home. I walked back to the train station with Jake, Kevin, and Jason. I caught the train I needed then headed home.
Day 23 2/12/2010
This was Friday. We didn't have class so I slept most of the day. I woke up around one o'clock in the afternoon. Adam was coming in that day so I decided that it was about time to get up. I got ready and threw on some clothes. At about 2 I found out that he had missed his train and wasn't going to get here till about 6. At that same moment I asked via text, Trisha and Catie when they were going to a movie we planned on seeing. Percy Jackson and the Olympians. It was only going to be playing for a week here in Germany in English. They texted me back and told me three. Crap! I wanted to go but I had less than an hour to get there. First I had to figure out where it was then what station to get off at then where to go from there. This ate up my time really fast. As soon as I knew the when and where, I grabbed whatever I needed and basically got to the trains as fast as I could. As soon as I got on the train I knew it was going to take forever. I needed to get there quickly and the train took forever. I waited and waited. At one point they checked my ticket. And waited some more. As soon as I got to the stop I jumped out of the train and ran up to street level. After a moment of indecision I chose a direction and started walking according to the map picture I looked at earlier I headed toward the theater. Luckily it was in the right direction. I got there and got in line, that ate another 10 mins because the line was long. Then I sped walked to the theater. After stepping inside I had to wait for a bright moment in the movie to get to my seat by Trisha, Catie and Brian. I came in about 5 mins. into the movie so I didn't miss much. We watched the movie, and came out. Brian headed his way while Catie Trisha and I headed toward a train station. Once we were on the train we rode it all the way back to our stop and went home. After I got home it was around 5:45. I decided to make dinner while I was waiting for Adam. I cooked some noodles and some seared some chicken in the pan so we would have something to eat. Eventually he called me and I game him directions as best I could to the house. He was going to stay with me this weekend because Trudy was out of town and I didn't think he should have to pay money. Well a few hours before he got here Trudy had called me and told me that she told one of her former students that she could stay the night here. So I was like crap. Later we ended up just getting him a cheap hotel for that night. More about that later. Anyway, he couldn't follow my directions so I had to go out and get him. Luckily, he was able to follow them well enough that I didn't have to walk far. I met up with him at the end of the second street. We hugged and walked back talking. After we got here he took off his jacket and got comfortable we ate. Then we just sat in the living room and talked. Forever we just talked. This was the first time we've seen each other in close to 6 years. Right after we broke up. We just talked until eventually we decided to go to bed. He slept in the floor of my bedroom because it was the only place in the house that was warm.
Day 24 2/13/2010
Well I woke up at around 11. I was getting ready to take a shower when the doorbell rang. I was like crap shes here already. So I immediately got dressed and ran down stairs to get the door. The girl's name was Nikki. She says "I don't know if Trudy talked to you." I said that she had and I invited her in. I told her that I had a friend upstairs and that I was about to take a shower. I hoped in and out of the shower. Got ready and Adam and I headed out to walk around town. I showed him Munster Platz and the Dom. We also walked over to the Cathedral and Beethoven's house. We just walked around. At one point we walked through the market that is out in front of the Altes Rauthaus (Old Town Hall) and bought some Currywurst. I hadn't tried that yet and I ended up liking it. We also milled around a shop that I bought a shot glass at and at poster. I really like the poster. After that it was getting kinda late so we decided to head back to the house so I could get a costume for Karneval and to head to Cologne for the Ghost Parade. We met up with Nikki as she was heading out the door. I asked her if she would wait for us because she was headed to Cologne as well. I ran up stairs threw on my costume and was back down before she and Adam had finished transferring the alcohol that she had to the plastic bottle she was carrying. She was told that she couldn't bring any glass bottles over so we were trying to get the alcohol into a plastic one. Well since they had just finished that and I was dressed we headed to the train station. When we got there we waited for her friend to get there on her train and then we went up stairs to wait on the train that would take us to Cologne. We had like 10 mins to wait so we went into the shopping center that is at the top of the stairs. The one that I walk through everyday to get home. We sat there and talked till it was time to get to the train. When we got back down to the platform, Catie showed up. We talked her into joining us to Cologne. We rode the train all the way there. It seemed to take forever. We talked and Adam embarrassed me a few times because he just said somethings that could have been worded better. Also he was being a bit obnoxious with some of his comments. Other than that though all was ok. We got to Cologne and came out of the Hauptbahnhof. By the way we rode there without tickets. Anyway, I thought that the parade was suppose to be in that plaza. Turns out that it wasn't. Natalie, Nikki's friend we met, and Nikki found a person that was willing to take us to the parade. So we immediately turned back around and caught another train to go to the parade. Catie wasn't too happy with this because she thought we knew exactly where we were going and we didn't. When we caught that second train she stayed on to go back to Bonn. I felt kinda bad because we talked her into coming. So we got off, said thank you to the guy who led us and headed out of the station. This wasn't exactly the parade we were thinking it would be but there were lots of costumes and awesome people hanging around. We got to see some fire dancers which made my day. They were really really cool. I also got to see some guys juggle balls that were flaming. That was really neat as well. We walked around and eventually found a Doner shop so we could get something to eat. Adam fell in love with them. I think that will be one thing that he missed the most when he goes back to the base. Well, while we were sitting inside what we think was part of the parade passed by outside. We hurried outside to watch and after that passed we walked up and down the streets taking swigs from the Rum in the plastic bottle to stay warm. We continued to walk and we saw some cool stuff with the costumes. Nikki made me learn a new sentence because she wanted me to ask people if I could get a picture with them. "Foto Sussamen Bitte." The spelling might be wrong but she made me remember because I wanted pictures and she wouldn't translate for me. Well I was finally able to use it with two guys who were dressed up like Mario and Luigi. That made me laugh pretty hard. After seeing the "Parade" we decided it was time to see what was going on in Bonn. So we hoped on the train heading back to Bonn. But this one didn't go all the way there. We got kicked off at around half way. That sucked because we were cold and tired of the train. They were packed both ways. So we stood around talking two other people joined us and we talked to them for a little while. Finally another train came to take us the rest of the way. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when we got to the train station. I was so afraid that they would check us. Adam doesn't have a ticket. Well we got off and proceeded to walk around Bonn. The city was dead. I guess all the partyers when to Cologne. Well after walking around for a while and seeing penises drawn in the snow and such we started to walk toward the bars in town. At one point Natalie slipped and fell. We all started laughing as well as these two guys who were walking by. After we got over the laughing the guys invited us to a bar where the beer and atmosphere was good. So we decided to go with them. It was a good bar. We just sat at a table talking and drinking. At one point we started playing spin the bottle, Truth or Dare. So after a lot of embarrassing questions were asked and a lot of stupid things were done, the bar tender pulled Nikki aside and said "You need to be aware of these guys. They're scam artists." So right after that Nikki sobered up really quickly. After that we decided it was about time to go. This is when the truth came out in what the bar tender said. When we said that we were ready to go "guy #1" asked if we wanted to go to another bar. When we said no we were ready to head home he just got up and walked out. He didn't pay his tab or anything. So Adam and I ended up paying for all but 10 Euro because "guy #2" paid that. After that Nikki helped me because I was feeling pretty good. We walked to the Hauptbahnhof and there we split ways with Natalie. Nikki, Adam and I headed for Adams hotel that we checked into earlier that day while we were walking around. I forgot to mentioned that this is the smallest hotel room I've ever seen. it was about the size of Sean's old dorm room wide and about half as long. There was a bed, shower, sink, chair, and Tv on a table all shoved in it. I sat down in the chair at first but after a little while Adam told me to lay down on the bed because I was falling asleep. The trains weren't running till 5 so we had to stay there for a few hours. Needless to say I crashed. I don't remember getting the covers pulled over me but at some point Adam put the covers on me. Nikki crashed there for the few hours till the trains came but I barely remember her leaving. At another point I noticed that Adam was shivering so I told him he could get under the covers as well. This was a little weird because it was a single bed but nothing happened and nothing ever would happen. So don't go getting any ideas.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Day 27 2/15/2010
Day 18 continued 2/7/2010
We watched the game for a while. I sat next to Trisha. After a while she wanted to go walk around but then decided to wait till after the half. So they played and we watched dancing to the songs we didn't know the words to. I recorded some of the songs and the game. A little while after half time Trisha and I went walking around to see if there were any souvenir shops on the fourth level where we were. We walked all the way down and back and didn't find any. That meant that the only store was on the first level. Right after we figured that out we decided to get some food a drink and head back to our seats. They were some of the best french fries that I've ever had. I also got a beer but that ended up being not so great but hey I tried it. We watched the rest of the game with Dusseldorf winning 2-0. I don't remember the team that they played because I don't think anyone told me. Well directly after the game we stayed to watch the fans celebrate and to listen to them sing. Right after that we walked all the way down the stairs. I wanted to go to souvenir shop but Trisha didn't want to get separated and I really didn't either but I was hoping to find a shirt for Sean. Anyway after getting little upset about that we headed out the gate and to the train station. Surprisingly none of us got lost. We got the the platform and found a spot to stand and wait for the train. On the way there Trisha and I spotted a scarf stand for the Soccer team. It was more like a spot where a lady was selling scarfs there was no actual stand they were just spread out on the ground. Anyway, after we found where the group would be standing, Trisha and I ran back to that spot and bought ourselves some scarfs. Since she had payed for the food I bought her a scarf. It seemed to be a fair trade. So we waited for the train and when it finally got there we all piled in along with about a hundred other people. Holy crap that train was full. We were pretty much squished in there like sardines. Also more exciting stuff happened on the train then at the actual game surprisingly. First, Alvaro and I were stuck near the doors while some of the others got to sit down. Next, the train was delayed for 30 mins because of something. I think it was a fight. Found out later that 19 people were arrested and that is what held up the train. So I was standing there by the door watching the three guys next to me flirt with one of the security guards outside the door trying to keep people off. All the while they are probably at least feeling the alcohol. I sat there and watched them basically break the door on the train to talk to this woman. They kept forcing it open to talk to her. At one point they pulled off the weather striping that was on the hing of the door and throw it over the back the seat that was beside us. At another point a pretty messed up/drunk man jumped on the already crowded bus. He started to get mad at these guys because they were acting like idiots and he didn't seem to be all there upstairs either. Nothing came of that however. I just sat there and watched them make a fool of themselves. Eventually the train started moving and some people got off while most stayed on the train for a very long time. It sucked because you were literally squished. Finally we got back to the Dusseldorf Hauptbahnhof and we were able to catch the train we needed to get back here to Bonn. After that we all pretty much went home. No one wanted to go anywhere so they went home. I did too. I had dinner and went to sleep like most night because I had school the next day.
Day 19 2/8/2010
Another normal day for a school day. I had German in the morning and the studio in the after noon. Nothing special happened that day except that I finally sat down and ordered my tickets for the weekend in Munich that will be happening on the 19th. Went home, ate, talked to Sean and my mom, and went to bed.
Day 20 2/9/2010
Today we didn't have school we had a minor excursion into Bonn. First we met up at the AIB to talk about our time so far. So we could get a good understanding of what would be happening and tell them what was good or bad or what could be changed. So far all of us are happy because nothing major has gone wrong except the minor problem with some host family situations. Right after that Lars and Ariane took us to the student cafeteria where we could get another semi good lunch for cheap. I got chicken and sauce with spaghetti and some bread pudding. Personally I found the bread pudding nasty but the rest was alright. Not my favorite but it was better than nothing. We returned to the AIB and shortly after that headed to the museum they had planned for us for the day. It was a history museum about the Republic of Germany. Which was put in place starting with WW2 and then through the Cold War. Mostly just about the time of the 50's through the 80's. This was interesting but we only had an hour and it would have been better if we could have stayed longer. However, I got the see parts of the Berlin Wall and I got to see a moon rock and the space suit that the first German wore on the way to space. I also saw a lot of old school electronics and the first car ever bought by the Republic of Germany. I walked through a piece of a plane that bombed Berlin then three years later brought food over when Berlin was cut off from the rest of western Germany. I walked through a replica of Check Point Charlie. As well as see a lot of other parts of the history. It was interesting just short and fast. I didn't like that much I also wasn't able to purchase anything at the book store because as soon as we were done everyone wanted to leave. I'm certainly going to try to go back sooner or later. Right after that we walked back to the AIB and most of us just farted around or worked on school stuff. When I got home I had to do some stuff because my host mom would be leaving for Hamburg the next day and I would spending the next 7 days home alone. Not completely alone because a friend of mine was coming here to spend the weekend with me exploring and enjoying Karneval. So she showed me somethings that I would need to know and we had a noodle and meat casserole that her mom wanted us to save till the next day but didn't. It was ok though because her mom would still come and cook for me Wednesday and Thursday.
Day 21 2/10/2010
Today was a school day. Trudy had left for Hamburg before I woke up even though I needed to be up early that day. So her mom was here and she offered me breakfast and I excepted even though it almost made me late. We had a pantomimed conversation because she doesn't know German. She was trying to tell me to leave the back door unlocked and stuff like that. She also told me that she would cook that night. After that conversation I left for school. We started another class today. It is our Game History and Culture class. We talked about different things all morning that have to do with games. Then right after that we found out that our German teacher had to cancel due to sickness. She was suppose to teach us some Karneval songs because the next day was Karneval and my Birthday. That was disappointing but all was ok because we needed to work on our models anyway. I messed up and didn't do anything but fart around and I'm paying for it right now. I really need to get my crap done. Well I watched TV shows and messed around at the AIB till I was ready to head home. I got home and ate dinner with Trudy's mom. I think her name is Maria. Anyway, she talked to me and told me stuff that I needed to know but I have no idea what she was saying a few things I worked out like "When Trudy calls answer the phone." and other similar stuff but I don't really know what she said. After that I just went up to my room and talked to Sean till I went to sleep.
Day 22 2/11/2010
Yay! Happy Birthday to me. I am now twenty two. Crazy right. Today was the first day of Karneval. Thursday kicks it off. We all wanted to go see the parade in Bruhl but some of us didn't make it like Garrett and Alvaro who were sick. We met up at the AIB all dressed up. They bought us some Berliners and we took pictures of ourselves decked out. It was great. Everyone that came was dressed up except Tyler. He just put a sign on his shirt that said "Gods gift to women." We all rolled our eyes and laughed. At that point Lars realized that it was my birthday. He grabbed a candle and a Berliner. Lite the candle then proceeded to sing me "Happy Birthday." It was great because everyone sang. Jake kept singing in a ridiculously low voice making it even funnier. After everyone showed, we headed to the train taking us to Bruhl. It wasn't a long train it just took forever to get across the bridge. Once we got there we hopped off and headed to a meeting place in front of a grocery store. Jacob and Brian both live in Bruhl. It would have been pointless if they met us at the AIB for this.
We watched the game for a while. I sat next to Trisha. After a while she wanted to go walk around but then decided to wait till after the half. So they played and we watched dancing to the songs we didn't know the words to. I recorded some of the songs and the game. A little while after half time Trisha and I went walking around to see if there were any souvenir shops on the fourth level where we were. We walked all the way down and back and didn't find any. That meant that the only store was on the first level. Right after we figured that out we decided to get some food a drink and head back to our seats. They were some of the best french fries that I've ever had. I also got a beer but that ended up being not so great but hey I tried it. We watched the rest of the game with Dusseldorf winning 2-0. I don't remember the team that they played because I don't think anyone told me. Well directly after the game we stayed to watch the fans celebrate and to listen to them sing. Right after that we walked all the way down the stairs. I wanted to go to souvenir shop but Trisha didn't want to get separated and I really didn't either but I was hoping to find a shirt for Sean. Anyway after getting little upset about that we headed out the gate and to the train station. Surprisingly none of us got lost. We got the the platform and found a spot to stand and wait for the train. On the way there Trisha and I spotted a scarf stand for the Soccer team. It was more like a spot where a lady was selling scarfs there was no actual stand they were just spread out on the ground. Anyway, after we found where the group would be standing, Trisha and I ran back to that spot and bought ourselves some scarfs. Since she had payed for the food I bought her a scarf. It seemed to be a fair trade. So we waited for the train and when it finally got there we all piled in along with about a hundred other people. Holy crap that train was full. We were pretty much squished in there like sardines. Also more exciting stuff happened on the train then at the actual game surprisingly. First, Alvaro and I were stuck near the doors while some of the others got to sit down. Next, the train was delayed for 30 mins because of something. I think it was a fight. Found out later that 19 people were arrested and that is what held up the train. So I was standing there by the door watching the three guys next to me flirt with one of the security guards outside the door trying to keep people off. All the while they are probably at least feeling the alcohol. I sat there and watched them basically break the door on the train to talk to this woman. They kept forcing it open to talk to her. At one point they pulled off the weather striping that was on the hing of the door and throw it over the back the seat that was beside us. At another point a pretty messed up/drunk man jumped on the already crowded bus. He started to get mad at these guys because they were acting like idiots and he didn't seem to be all there upstairs either. Nothing came of that however. I just sat there and watched them make a fool of themselves. Eventually the train started moving and some people got off while most stayed on the train for a very long time. It sucked because you were literally squished. Finally we got back to the Dusseldorf Hauptbahnhof and we were able to catch the train we needed to get back here to Bonn. After that we all pretty much went home. No one wanted to go anywhere so they went home. I did too. I had dinner and went to sleep like most night because I had school the next day.
Day 19 2/8/2010
Another normal day for a school day. I had German in the morning and the studio in the after noon. Nothing special happened that day except that I finally sat down and ordered my tickets for the weekend in Munich that will be happening on the 19th. Went home, ate, talked to Sean and my mom, and went to bed.
Day 20 2/9/2010
Today we didn't have school we had a minor excursion into Bonn. First we met up at the AIB to talk about our time so far. So we could get a good understanding of what would be happening and tell them what was good or bad or what could be changed. So far all of us are happy because nothing major has gone wrong except the minor problem with some host family situations. Right after that Lars and Ariane took us to the student cafeteria where we could get another semi good lunch for cheap. I got chicken and sauce with spaghetti and some bread pudding. Personally I found the bread pudding nasty but the rest was alright. Not my favorite but it was better than nothing. We returned to the AIB and shortly after that headed to the museum they had planned for us for the day. It was a history museum about the Republic of Germany. Which was put in place starting with WW2 and then through the Cold War. Mostly just about the time of the 50's through the 80's. This was interesting but we only had an hour and it would have been better if we could have stayed longer. However, I got the see parts of the Berlin Wall and I got to see a moon rock and the space suit that the first German wore on the way to space. I also saw a lot of old school electronics and the first car ever bought by the Republic of Germany. I walked through a piece of a plane that bombed Berlin then three years later brought food over when Berlin was cut off from the rest of western Germany. I walked through a replica of Check Point Charlie. As well as see a lot of other parts of the history. It was interesting just short and fast. I didn't like that much I also wasn't able to purchase anything at the book store because as soon as we were done everyone wanted to leave. I'm certainly going to try to go back sooner or later. Right after that we walked back to the AIB and most of us just farted around or worked on school stuff. When I got home I had to do some stuff because my host mom would be leaving for Hamburg the next day and I would spending the next 7 days home alone. Not completely alone because a friend of mine was coming here to spend the weekend with me exploring and enjoying Karneval. So she showed me somethings that I would need to know and we had a noodle and meat casserole that her mom wanted us to save till the next day but didn't. It was ok though because her mom would still come and cook for me Wednesday and Thursday.
Day 21 2/10/2010
Today was a school day. Trudy had left for Hamburg before I woke up even though I needed to be up early that day. So her mom was here and she offered me breakfast and I excepted even though it almost made me late. We had a pantomimed conversation because she doesn't know German. She was trying to tell me to leave the back door unlocked and stuff like that. She also told me that she would cook that night. After that conversation I left for school. We started another class today. It is our Game History and Culture class. We talked about different things all morning that have to do with games. Then right after that we found out that our German teacher had to cancel due to sickness. She was suppose to teach us some Karneval songs because the next day was Karneval and my Birthday. That was disappointing but all was ok because we needed to work on our models anyway. I messed up and didn't do anything but fart around and I'm paying for it right now. I really need to get my crap done. Well I watched TV shows and messed around at the AIB till I was ready to head home. I got home and ate dinner with Trudy's mom. I think her name is Maria. Anyway, she talked to me and told me stuff that I needed to know but I have no idea what she was saying a few things I worked out like "When Trudy calls answer the phone." and other similar stuff but I don't really know what she said. After that I just went up to my room and talked to Sean till I went to sleep.
Day 22 2/11/2010
Yay! Happy Birthday to me. I am now twenty two. Crazy right. Today was the first day of Karneval. Thursday kicks it off. We all wanted to go see the parade in Bruhl but some of us didn't make it like Garrett and Alvaro who were sick. We met up at the AIB all dressed up. They bought us some Berliners and we took pictures of ourselves decked out. It was great. Everyone that came was dressed up except Tyler. He just put a sign on his shirt that said "Gods gift to women." We all rolled our eyes and laughed. At that point Lars realized that it was my birthday. He grabbed a candle and a Berliner. Lite the candle then proceeded to sing me "Happy Birthday." It was great because everyone sang. Jake kept singing in a ridiculously low voice making it even funnier. After everyone showed, we headed to the train taking us to Bruhl. It wasn't a long train it just took forever to get across the bridge. Once we got there we hopped off and headed to a meeting place in front of a grocery store. Jacob and Brian both live in Bruhl. It would have been pointless if they met us at the AIB for this.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Day 26 2/14/2010
Happy Valentines Day!!! Or preferably Happy Chinese New Year.
Day 15 2/4/2010
This was yet another boring day we did nothing but school. Boring day really. I spent the afternoon working on our project yet more talking and modeling. Also we had German class to start the day. Don't remember much else but i do know I probably came home and tried to talk to Sean but I can't remember if this is one of the days that I didn't get to talk to him. Other than that uneventful.
Day 16 2/5/2010
This was a boring day as well I woke up around noon to get ready and meet up with my group to go to the Haribo Factory. Or, I should say, what I thought was going to be the Haribo Factory. Most of us were under the impression that we would be going to the factory not just the store, but as it turns out they just meant the store. We were suppose to have a workshop that morning but it was postponed to another day so we had the day free. We went in and just browsed and shopped for whatever we wanted. It ended up being the best thing ever. I got some peach gummies that ended up being like the peach rings I eat at home. mmmmmm they were sooooo goooodd. That was the only thing I did during the day. After the factory I came back to my house for a while. My host mom, Trudy, made a really good dinner of Stuffed bell pepper. I talked to her boyfriend, John again because I'd briefly met him before. Right after that I had to run because I told Catie and Trisha that I would meet them at the Train Station at around 8:15 and it was 8:15 when I left for the station. I wasn't too late though and we headed to town. We walked around for a while trying to find a place that their host dad had told them about. We didn't find that place but we decided to stop at another place called "Habeneros" I don't know if I spelled that right. Anyway. I ordered a Strawberry Pina Colada. Trisha ordered a beer and Catie ordered a Grasshopper. We finally were able to talk about why Catie was having a problem with me going with them over spring break. I think that the reason is so stupid that I don't want to even repeat it here. Anyway, we got a big kick out of some Cheese cream and chips because it was like queso but they didn't call it queso. It was weird. Right after that we headed home through University/Markt rather than walking all the way back to the Hauptbahnhof. I guess not back we didn't even stop their when we headed out. I came back and went to bed after messing with my Farmville.
Day 17 2/6/2010
I'm still just trying to catch up..
Today I did some stuff but nothing big. I woke up late first of all. Then after getting ready my host mom, sister and I headed to a parade in the old village where she used to live that is not a part of Bonn. She pointed out her old school and where Vanessa went to Kindergarden and we just stood around freezing waiting to watch the train. I spoke, through my host mom, to a few people. One woman offered me a beer which I accepted, then she gave me some sprite. Again, I was grateful. At one point Trudy and I went and bought some food for me because silly me didn't eat any lunch. I was glad when the parade finally started because I was very very cold. Trudy's mom ended up going up to her home in which we were standing in front up and getting me a jacket and some gloves. The parade was fun because they kept throwing candy. I didn't really want any but Trudy and her mom insisted. They gave me a bunch that I didn't want. I ended up taking it to Vanessa asking her to take what she wanted and giving the rest to her mom. The parade was fun. It was fun to watch all the people dressed up in costumes. We watched until the whole thing had passed then we went up to Trudy's mom's place for coffee, talking and cake. I was carrying up some of the schnapps glasses and I dropped them right at the door. I have no idea how but I didn't have a good grip or something because they just fell. I really really hate being accident prone/a klutz. Anyway, we all sat down including a few other family members that I didn't know. One of Trudy's Aunts, again her mom and her great aunt. As well as, her cousin and I think Uncle. I never got the relation for the oldest gentleman. Anyway we talked and I listened most of the time. I was able to have a good conversation with Trudy's cousin and we talked about different things. Trudy's mom served a cherry cake/pie and a orange ma-range cream pie. It was wonderful.. I loved the orange one the most. I spent the first part of the evening in the living room with Vanessa and one of her friends sorting the candy that Trudy and her mom got me because I knew there would be something in there that I might like. Sadly, there really wasn't anything that I wanted. Right after that is when I joined the adults for the coffee and cake. We talked for hours. It was just like the first time at our house. After that we took her great aunt home because we had picked her up on the way there and we came home. I didn't do much after that except sleep.
Day 18 2/7/2010
This day I don't remember much detail for the morning. I got up and got ready then immediately went to the train. I met up with the rest of the group at the Main station again where we met on the first day there in the foyer. We were on our way to Dusseldorf for a Soccer game today, on Sunday oddly enough. So this was the first time I near any stores on Sunday. It was EMPTY. It was like all the people were abducted or something. Well I caught the train and met everybody in the main station where we met on the first day of the trip. We waited for one more person and in that time I grabbed a pretzel. Then we were able to get the train. I sat with David and Trisha on the way there going through my iPod trying to sort and delete all the stupid games that were on there. Finally I was able to go through them all and I wasn't feeling guilty for not doing something else, like homework. Well when we got to Dusseldorf we grabbed another train that would take us to the stadium. That was jammed packed with people. There were people everywhere and most of them were singing something that had to do with the team, which ever team. We walked into the stadium I got separated at one point for a short while but one call to Alvaro remedied that. Then we walked up to our seats. It was high but not too far away. And the game began.
damn it i'm not going to finish again.
Day 15 2/4/2010
This was yet another boring day we did nothing but school. Boring day really. I spent the afternoon working on our project yet more talking and modeling. Also we had German class to start the day. Don't remember much else but i do know I probably came home and tried to talk to Sean but I can't remember if this is one of the days that I didn't get to talk to him. Other than that uneventful.
Day 16 2/5/2010
This was a boring day as well I woke up around noon to get ready and meet up with my group to go to the Haribo Factory. Or, I should say, what I thought was going to be the Haribo Factory. Most of us were under the impression that we would be going to the factory not just the store, but as it turns out they just meant the store. We were suppose to have a workshop that morning but it was postponed to another day so we had the day free. We went in and just browsed and shopped for whatever we wanted. It ended up being the best thing ever. I got some peach gummies that ended up being like the peach rings I eat at home. mmmmmm they were sooooo goooodd. That was the only thing I did during the day. After the factory I came back to my house for a while. My host mom, Trudy, made a really good dinner of Stuffed bell pepper. I talked to her boyfriend, John again because I'd briefly met him before. Right after that I had to run because I told Catie and Trisha that I would meet them at the Train Station at around 8:15 and it was 8:15 when I left for the station. I wasn't too late though and we headed to town. We walked around for a while trying to find a place that their host dad had told them about. We didn't find that place but we decided to stop at another place called "Habeneros" I don't know if I spelled that right. Anyway. I ordered a Strawberry Pina Colada. Trisha ordered a beer and Catie ordered a Grasshopper. We finally were able to talk about why Catie was having a problem with me going with them over spring break. I think that the reason is so stupid that I don't want to even repeat it here. Anyway, we got a big kick out of some Cheese cream and chips because it was like queso but they didn't call it queso. It was weird. Right after that we headed home through University/Markt rather than walking all the way back to the Hauptbahnhof. I guess not back we didn't even stop their when we headed out. I came back and went to bed after messing with my Farmville.
Day 17 2/6/2010
I'm still just trying to catch up..
Today I did some stuff but nothing big. I woke up late first of all. Then after getting ready my host mom, sister and I headed to a parade in the old village where she used to live that is not a part of Bonn. She pointed out her old school and where Vanessa went to Kindergarden and we just stood around freezing waiting to watch the train. I spoke, through my host mom, to a few people. One woman offered me a beer which I accepted, then she gave me some sprite. Again, I was grateful. At one point Trudy and I went and bought some food for me because silly me didn't eat any lunch. I was glad when the parade finally started because I was very very cold. Trudy's mom ended up going up to her home in which we were standing in front up and getting me a jacket and some gloves. The parade was fun because they kept throwing candy. I didn't really want any but Trudy and her mom insisted. They gave me a bunch that I didn't want. I ended up taking it to Vanessa asking her to take what she wanted and giving the rest to her mom. The parade was fun. It was fun to watch all the people dressed up in costumes. We watched until the whole thing had passed then we went up to Trudy's mom's place for coffee, talking and cake. I was carrying up some of the schnapps glasses and I dropped them right at the door. I have no idea how but I didn't have a good grip or something because they just fell. I really really hate being accident prone/a klutz. Anyway, we all sat down including a few other family members that I didn't know. One of Trudy's Aunts, again her mom and her great aunt. As well as, her cousin and I think Uncle. I never got the relation for the oldest gentleman. Anyway we talked and I listened most of the time. I was able to have a good conversation with Trudy's cousin and we talked about different things. Trudy's mom served a cherry cake/pie and a orange ma-range cream pie. It was wonderful.. I loved the orange one the most. I spent the first part of the evening in the living room with Vanessa and one of her friends sorting the candy that Trudy and her mom got me because I knew there would be something in there that I might like. Sadly, there really wasn't anything that I wanted. Right after that is when I joined the adults for the coffee and cake. We talked for hours. It was just like the first time at our house. After that we took her great aunt home because we had picked her up on the way there and we came home. I didn't do much after that except sleep.
Day 18 2/7/2010
This day I don't remember much detail for the morning. I got up and got ready then immediately went to the train. I met up with the rest of the group at the Main station again where we met on the first day there in the foyer. We were on our way to Dusseldorf for a Soccer game today, on Sunday oddly enough. So this was the first time I near any stores on Sunday. It was EMPTY. It was like all the people were abducted or something. Well I caught the train and met everybody in the main station where we met on the first day of the trip. We waited for one more person and in that time I grabbed a pretzel. Then we were able to get the train. I sat with David and Trisha on the way there going through my iPod trying to sort and delete all the stupid games that were on there. Finally I was able to go through them all and I wasn't feeling guilty for not doing something else, like homework. Well when we got to Dusseldorf we grabbed another train that would take us to the stadium. That was jammed packed with people. There were people everywhere and most of them were singing something that had to do with the team, which ever team. We walked into the stadium I got separated at one point for a short while but one call to Alvaro remedied that. Then we walked up to our seats. It was high but not too far away. And the game began.
damn it i'm not going to finish again.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Day 20 2/8/2010
Catching up again but hopefully today will be the last and I will be able to write more about my days.
Day 13 2/1/2010
This was a Monday and a rather boring one. We had to be at school by noon for Deutch class but she decided to start early so I felt like I was late. She told me not to worry about it because she told us noon and that was when I got there. We got through that then sat down to work on your group project that we have been working on for a while. We decided to completely change the idea to a different one which later proved to be the best choice. So the afternoon was spent arguing out the details and getting them straight and ready to be presented on Thursday. The day was fairly uneventful otherwise.
Day 14 2/2/2010
Well today was interesting. This was when we really got to revise our idea. We were suppose to be having a work shop in the morning but it ended up that he didn't want to work with us with out us being able to do our own designs. So we were able to split up again to work on our own ideas. He kept asking us these really hard questions and getting us to focus on parts of our story that we didn't really intend to work on in the first place but ultimately we ended up doing way better than we originally thought we would. It worked out so that we had a set story and characters and everything. We didn't talk as much like we had done for the last week. This was pretty much how everyone spent the day. At some points different people went home because we didn't have any classes after 1 but most of us stayed to get the story right. Eventually most of my group had left so I sat down and watched a show that I had been missing for a couple of days. After I finished all that I could watch I went home as well. Mostly to just sit in the living room to talk to people on the internet. Then eventually I went to sleep if I remember right I went to bed fairly late.
Day 15 2/3/2010
Today was Wednesday and it was our second trip to Cologne. This was a great day I was excited to go and see the sites that we were scheduled to see. We left at around 9:30 in the morning. I remember because when I was leaving that morning I was almost all the way to the Underground when I realized that I didn't have my contacts in. I had a moment of indecision and then decided that I would go back to get them even if it did make me a little late. I ran for most of the way back and for as long as I could. I had a painful train ride to the Hauptbahnhof after that run. I wasn't going to leave them because we were going to be doing too many things that would require my ability to see long distances. I refused to miss out. Well, right as my train pulled into the station and I was running up the stairs to meet up with the group Alvaro called me to ask where I was. I love him, he made me feel better when I was feeling extremely left out by the group but that's a minor problem. I got there just as the group was walking out onto the platform to catch the train and as I stopped by Ariane the train we had to catch pulled up. Wow that was way closer than I wanted it. We hopped on the train and rode the 30 minutes to Cologne. We got off and immediately went to meet up with the first tour guide. All the while taking pictures of the Cathedral for the second time. We got a bunch of pictures the first time. So we waited for a tour guide that would take us around the city for a city tour. He told us about the Rhine and the background of the city. How it was named after one of the Roman emperor's wifes and such. He also had a lot of knowledge about the church. We went inside and he told us about it and when it was built in 1248. How it wasn't finished until the 19th century. Its the only completely Gothic church as well as the largest in that style. It is a beautiful church I'm glad that we were able to visit it twice because I didn't feel satisfied the first time. He told us that the relics of the three kings is buried there. I got to see the shrine of the three kings. It was beautiful. I also saw tombs to a few bishops which was kind of eerie. They were sculpted laying down and then buried underneath their likeness. Everything in the church was original the only thing different were that some of the parts of the building have been replaced due to deterioration. The calcium in the rocks is just eaten away by the acid rains. So its becoming structurally unsound so that is what they are trying to prevent. I didn't find most of that out till later on a different tour. He told us about the inside of the church itself and what everything was. It was really Cold in this church because it was so big. It was strange to still see your breath even though you were inside. Well I walked around taking video and pictures whenever I could but otherwise I listened to him talk. He talked about how most of the windows were the originals because they were removed during the war so none of them were lost. Although the vaults had been replaced because of the bombs. We also walked to the Rhine and he told us how Bonn became integrated with the town across the river and he also told us about how the city was here because it was one of the original Roman encampments that was placed every 40 KM along the river to secure the empire from the barbarians on the other side. The Rhine river was the northern boundary for the Roman Empire. I also learned about the Old Town Hall and how it was a copy because the original was destroyed in the war. It was an interesting building. We went inside but it wasn't that interesting. I don't remember exactly what order we went in on that tour. I think it was the Rhine, the Cathedral then the town hall but I don't remember for sure. I guess I could look at the order of my pictures but I'm too lazy. After that tour we walked to another museum with the same tour guide. This was the headquarters for the Nazi Police. This was where they kept prisoners before they sometimes sent them to camps. It was really spooky. I got separated from the group at one point and that freaked me out more than anything because it was easy to get turned around. So I wondered around a bit trying to find them. Turns out they were down stairs in the cellar where they kept the prisoners but when I walked down there the lady working didn't like that I had a camera and she sent me back up the steps I don't understand why because her English was choppy so instead of trying to understand I just went back up stairs and missed out of what was down there. So I have the brief glimpse of what was down there before she ushered me up stairs. Well after that we had about 45 minutes to eat. Allie, Lisa, David and I didn't want soup which was where the rest of the group was going so we walked around the platz and found a pizza place. It took us a little longer to eat than we had time but it ended up that it didn't matter because the tour guide was late so I walked with Ariane to a coffee shop so I could have a cup. It is the best I've ever had by the way. After that she and I went our separate ways. I found a souvenir shop. I spent some time there and purchased two Steins and my doll for Germany. When I walked back to the group to show someone it fell. I hadn't had the doll more than ten minutes and I broke it. Some of the group and I gathered up the pieces and placed them back in the box. I was stunned I'd never broken a doll before. That was the first ever. Trisha told me that she would go with me back to the shop to see if I could get another one. I told the shop keeper that I touch her and she broke. Which wasn't entirely a lie but he gave me a rather nasty look that told me off enough and handed me another one. She and walked around the shop for a bit then went back to the group. Since the tour guide was late it wasn't so bad that we spent so much time in the shop. Finally she showed up and we headed toward the part of the Cathedral that we could go up on. This was the part of the day that I was most excited about. This was when we would be going up on and into the roof of the Cathedral. This amazing and beautiful building. I was going to get to go to the top, or as high to the top as I could get that day. We started the tour at the bottom of the Cathedral with a little bit of explanation of the history for the third time since I've been in Germany but a repeat isn't a bad thing. After that we headed to the elevator and piled in. This was the most nerve wracking part. The elevator was loud and rattly. Most of us rushed off of it quickly when we got to the top. She gave us some more explanation about the exterior of the building this is where I learned about the calcium problem. She also talked about the buttresses as well as what they were doing to maintain the building. That part was rather boring but interesting at the same time. Right after that we walked into the Cathedral near the roof. This was the most interesting part because we were at the very top of the nave above the vaults and the ribs. She showed us plans for the different phases of the building and a copy of an original drawing for the facade of the building. She took us around explaining different things like how the crossing tower is smaller than the space for the crossing. The original plan for it was that it was going to be made out of stone but if they did it would be too heavy so ...someone... convinced them to make it out of metal and that was the final design put in place. It is also held up with these huge metal tube like structures places all around the middle keystone of the crossing vault. She talked about the structures and the roofing. It was made out of lead and replaced every 10 years. all the vaults were built after WWII because they were blown out at that time except a few in the Choir area of the building. She spoke about a medieval wooden crane that used to be a trade mark of Cologne before the building was finished and there was an Eagle on it representing one of the mayors that contributed money to the building it was taken down after the War because it was used by the Nazi's and became a crude symbol in Germany. She also showed us the workshop that the 90 people who work on the building now work to fix and replace the deteriorating parts. Most of the roof was held up with pointed arches as well. I learned a lot more but it is hard to remember. Before we went into the workshop we went up to the crossing tower top. This was the top most part of the main church area not including the towering facade. This showed us a full view of Cologne. You could see for miles. There were all the little churches within the city that the different areas of the city are named after as well as across the river to the 'new' part of town. You could also see 'The Rings' which is a series of streets that follow the original Roman wall line. It is amazing to see all of that from up there. Also I remember another thing the previous tour guide said. He said that the reason the church was never destroyed during the war and why most of the building is original is because it was a good landmark for bombers. They wanted to keep it because you could tell what direction you were going just by looking at the angle of the two facade tower in relation to where you are and know exactly where you are and where your going. Its the same for the locals today they can be placed in any part of the city and as long as there is a view of the Dom they can tell where they are. So after looking out on that breath taking view we headed back down the 'Visitor's Stairs' and that is when we headed to the workshop. Over the workshop was a wooden eagle that was on top the medieval crane that was used to build the building. The eagle symbolized one of the chancellors/mayor leader figure that put in a lot of money to get the building finished and he wanted the people of Cologne to know that he was watching over them. It was kinda weird and conceded but they took it down because they think of the eagle as a derogatory symbol. Right after the workshop, which was mildly interesting we walked down a huge flight of stairs. They were spiral stair cases down one of the columns of the cathedral. We went down to the level of the blind arcade and went out onto it. We were able to look down into the church. It was a really tight fit for all of us there. I wish I could have taken some pictures, however my regular camera is still broken and I have to wait for my mother to send me one. Anyway right after we walked down the rest of the stairs till we were all the way at the bottom. It was just around and around and around, at one point I had to stop because I got dizzy. It was like they were never going to end. Once we were out we walked back to the train station to wait for our train back to Bonn. I pretty much went back to my house and talked to Sean then to sleep after I came back.
Day 13 2/1/2010
This was a Monday and a rather boring one. We had to be at school by noon for Deutch class but she decided to start early so I felt like I was late. She told me not to worry about it because she told us noon and that was when I got there. We got through that then sat down to work on your group project that we have been working on for a while. We decided to completely change the idea to a different one which later proved to be the best choice. So the afternoon was spent arguing out the details and getting them straight and ready to be presented on Thursday. The day was fairly uneventful otherwise.
Day 14 2/2/2010
Well today was interesting. This was when we really got to revise our idea. We were suppose to be having a work shop in the morning but it ended up that he didn't want to work with us with out us being able to do our own designs. So we were able to split up again to work on our own ideas. He kept asking us these really hard questions and getting us to focus on parts of our story that we didn't really intend to work on in the first place but ultimately we ended up doing way better than we originally thought we would. It worked out so that we had a set story and characters and everything. We didn't talk as much like we had done for the last week. This was pretty much how everyone spent the day. At some points different people went home because we didn't have any classes after 1 but most of us stayed to get the story right. Eventually most of my group had left so I sat down and watched a show that I had been missing for a couple of days. After I finished all that I could watch I went home as well. Mostly to just sit in the living room to talk to people on the internet. Then eventually I went to sleep if I remember right I went to bed fairly late.
Day 15 2/3/2010
Today was Wednesday and it was our second trip to Cologne. This was a great day I was excited to go and see the sites that we were scheduled to see. We left at around 9:30 in the morning. I remember because when I was leaving that morning I was almost all the way to the Underground when I realized that I didn't have my contacts in. I had a moment of indecision and then decided that I would go back to get them even if it did make me a little late. I ran for most of the way back and for as long as I could. I had a painful train ride to the Hauptbahnhof after that run. I wasn't going to leave them because we were going to be doing too many things that would require my ability to see long distances. I refused to miss out. Well, right as my train pulled into the station and I was running up the stairs to meet up with the group Alvaro called me to ask where I was. I love him, he made me feel better when I was feeling extremely left out by the group but that's a minor problem. I got there just as the group was walking out onto the platform to catch the train and as I stopped by Ariane the train we had to catch pulled up. Wow that was way closer than I wanted it. We hopped on the train and rode the 30 minutes to Cologne. We got off and immediately went to meet up with the first tour guide. All the while taking pictures of the Cathedral for the second time. We got a bunch of pictures the first time. So we waited for a tour guide that would take us around the city for a city tour. He told us about the Rhine and the background of the city. How it was named after one of the Roman emperor's wifes and such. He also had a lot of knowledge about the church. We went inside and he told us about it and when it was built in 1248. How it wasn't finished until the 19th century. Its the only completely Gothic church as well as the largest in that style. It is a beautiful church I'm glad that we were able to visit it twice because I didn't feel satisfied the first time. He told us that the relics of the three kings is buried there. I got to see the shrine of the three kings. It was beautiful. I also saw tombs to a few bishops which was kind of eerie. They were sculpted laying down and then buried underneath their likeness. Everything in the church was original the only thing different were that some of the parts of the building have been replaced due to deterioration. The calcium in the rocks is just eaten away by the acid rains. So its becoming structurally unsound so that is what they are trying to prevent. I didn't find most of that out till later on a different tour. He told us about the inside of the church itself and what everything was. It was really Cold in this church because it was so big. It was strange to still see your breath even though you were inside. Well I walked around taking video and pictures whenever I could but otherwise I listened to him talk. He talked about how most of the windows were the originals because they were removed during the war so none of them were lost. Although the vaults had been replaced because of the bombs. We also walked to the Rhine and he told us how Bonn became integrated with the town across the river and he also told us about how the city was here because it was one of the original Roman encampments that was placed every 40 KM along the river to secure the empire from the barbarians on the other side. The Rhine river was the northern boundary for the Roman Empire. I also learned about the Old Town Hall and how it was a copy because the original was destroyed in the war. It was an interesting building. We went inside but it wasn't that interesting. I don't remember exactly what order we went in on that tour. I think it was the Rhine, the Cathedral then the town hall but I don't remember for sure. I guess I could look at the order of my pictures but I'm too lazy. After that tour we walked to another museum with the same tour guide. This was the headquarters for the Nazi Police. This was where they kept prisoners before they sometimes sent them to camps. It was really spooky. I got separated from the group at one point and that freaked me out more than anything because it was easy to get turned around. So I wondered around a bit trying to find them. Turns out they were down stairs in the cellar where they kept the prisoners but when I walked down there the lady working didn't like that I had a camera and she sent me back up the steps I don't understand why because her English was choppy so instead of trying to understand I just went back up stairs and missed out of what was down there. So I have the brief glimpse of what was down there before she ushered me up stairs. Well after that we had about 45 minutes to eat. Allie, Lisa, David and I didn't want soup which was where the rest of the group was going so we walked around the platz and found a pizza place. It took us a little longer to eat than we had time but it ended up that it didn't matter because the tour guide was late so I walked with Ariane to a coffee shop so I could have a cup. It is the best I've ever had by the way. After that she and I went our separate ways. I found a souvenir shop. I spent some time there and purchased two Steins and my doll for Germany. When I walked back to the group to show someone it fell. I hadn't had the doll more than ten minutes and I broke it. Some of the group and I gathered up the pieces and placed them back in the box. I was stunned I'd never broken a doll before. That was the first ever. Trisha told me that she would go with me back to the shop to see if I could get another one. I told the shop keeper that I touch her and she broke. Which wasn't entirely a lie but he gave me a rather nasty look that told me off enough and handed me another one. She and walked around the shop for a bit then went back to the group. Since the tour guide was late it wasn't so bad that we spent so much time in the shop. Finally she showed up and we headed toward the part of the Cathedral that we could go up on. This was the part of the day that I was most excited about. This was when we would be going up on and into the roof of the Cathedral. This amazing and beautiful building. I was going to get to go to the top, or as high to the top as I could get that day. We started the tour at the bottom of the Cathedral with a little bit of explanation of the history for the third time since I've been in Germany but a repeat isn't a bad thing. After that we headed to the elevator and piled in. This was the most nerve wracking part. The elevator was loud and rattly. Most of us rushed off of it quickly when we got to the top. She gave us some more explanation about the exterior of the building this is where I learned about the calcium problem. She also talked about the buttresses as well as what they were doing to maintain the building. That part was rather boring but interesting at the same time. Right after that we walked into the Cathedral near the roof. This was the most interesting part because we were at the very top of the nave above the vaults and the ribs. She showed us plans for the different phases of the building and a copy of an original drawing for the facade of the building. She took us around explaining different things like how the crossing tower is smaller than the space for the crossing. The original plan for it was that it was going to be made out of stone but if they did it would be too heavy so ...someone... convinced them to make it out of metal and that was the final design put in place. It is also held up with these huge metal tube like structures places all around the middle keystone of the crossing vault. She talked about the structures and the roofing. It was made out of lead and replaced every 10 years. all the vaults were built after WWII because they were blown out at that time except a few in the Choir area of the building. She spoke about a medieval wooden crane that used to be a trade mark of Cologne before the building was finished and there was an Eagle on it representing one of the mayors that contributed money to the building it was taken down after the War because it was used by the Nazi's and became a crude symbol in Germany. She also showed us the workshop that the 90 people who work on the building now work to fix and replace the deteriorating parts. Most of the roof was held up with pointed arches as well. I learned a lot more but it is hard to remember. Before we went into the workshop we went up to the crossing tower top. This was the top most part of the main church area not including the towering facade. This showed us a full view of Cologne. You could see for miles. There were all the little churches within the city that the different areas of the city are named after as well as across the river to the 'new' part of town. You could also see 'The Rings' which is a series of streets that follow the original Roman wall line. It is amazing to see all of that from up there. Also I remember another thing the previous tour guide said. He said that the reason the church was never destroyed during the war and why most of the building is original is because it was a good landmark for bombers. They wanted to keep it because you could tell what direction you were going just by looking at the angle of the two facade tower in relation to where you are and know exactly where you are and where your going. Its the same for the locals today they can be placed in any part of the city and as long as there is a view of the Dom they can tell where they are. So after looking out on that breath taking view we headed back down the 'Visitor's Stairs' and that is when we headed to the workshop. Over the workshop was a wooden eagle that was on top the medieval crane that was used to build the building. The eagle symbolized one of the chancellors/mayor leader figure that put in a lot of money to get the building finished and he wanted the people of Cologne to know that he was watching over them. It was kinda weird and conceded but they took it down because they think of the eagle as a derogatory symbol. Right after the workshop, which was mildly interesting we walked down a huge flight of stairs. They were spiral stair cases down one of the columns of the cathedral. We went down to the level of the blind arcade and went out onto it. We were able to look down into the church. It was a really tight fit for all of us there. I wish I could have taken some pictures, however my regular camera is still broken and I have to wait for my mother to send me one. Anyway right after we walked down the rest of the stairs till we were all the way at the bottom. It was just around and around and around, at one point I had to stop because I got dizzy. It was like they were never going to end. Once we were out we walked back to the train station to wait for our train back to Bonn. I pretty much went back to my house and talked to Sean then to sleep after I came back.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Day 14 Been here for 2 weeks 2/3/2010
Well again I need to do some catch up. gawd I'm lazy.
Day 10 1/29/2010
Well we're still in Renesse. We woke up the next morning later than usual because we didn't have to be anywhere till 10. After everyone had gathered their stuff and took it to the bus we headed to the ocean beach for the North Sea. It was amazing and beautiful. We didn't get to really enjoy it because it was still cold and on top of that it was raining and we had to work in this. They had given us our projects for the beach after we had our presentations with the other schools from America. We were supposed to make something that represented an opposite out of found objects from the beach. I was in a group with Trisha, Jason and Kevin. Interestingly I'd never worked or even talked with Kevin much. So we decided eventually after some experimenting and talking we decided on three circles with rocks on a sand pedestal in the middle. This was inspired by a pool of water with a rock in the center found near one of the beach jetties. On a side note this entire time I was keeping an eye out for shells. Ok so we made an experiment with a hole and a rock to figure out what we wanted to do. Then, we walked back up the to the restaurant near the beach to warm up. Next, we headed back down and noticed the tide had over taken our project. we were able to save the rocks but that hole was done. We moved farther up the beach and started to dig on our final project. we finished with the first hole and started on the second when we realized just how close the water was. I got down on my hands and knees and started digging and working as fast as I could. Kevin, Jason and I were digging. Jason with a shovel and Kevin and I with our hands. All the while Trisha was taking pictures. Also while we were experimenting earlier I was taking both video and pictures. We got the third hole mostly finished when the tide over took us. It just rushed in and swamped our holes. We wanted water in them in the first place so it ended up working for the better. We rushed to take pictures and get our work documented and them grabbed two of the rocks and carried them as far as we could away. We didn't get them back to the jetty the water had become too deep so we just left them and ran. We almost got stranded on our own little island because the tide was rushing in so quickly. I really wish I could have gotten a video of it. Well that was the end of the project. All of us were sandy, wet, cold and windblown. I don't think any of us didn't have rosy cheeks. We traipsed our way back up to the restaurant for lunch. While we were waiting I walked to the bus with several other people and grabbed some clothes to change into. They were sticky from me spraying DP on myself the day before, it was better than being in wet sandy clothes. I changed in the bathroom and I washed off my shells and boots. Then we ate. It was a good meal. We chose it the day before in the bus. I ordered the fried fish with bread. It was amazing yet again. After that our day was pretty much done. All we had left was the long bus ride back. I got on my computer briefly during that and typed but for the most part I was determined not to go to sleep and see much more than I had all ready. During this I really wish my camera wasn't out of batteries. There were several really neat buildings like a city gate and of course more windmills. Eventually we arrived back in Bonn. I walked with Alvaro to catch the train and then got home. I got on the internet to talk to Sean and mom. Then sleep.
Day 11 1/30/2010
Well this day was Saturday. I slept most of the day and talked to mom. I met Trudy, my host mom's boyfriend who is also black like her ex-husband. I sat on the couch that evening and messed with my computer with Vanessa, my host sister, with me. I don't remember much else because I didn't do much that day I was trying to recover from the trip. So I slept, and I messed with the computer, and I talked to mom.
Day 12 1/31/2010
Today I got up earlier than I would have normally. Usually I guess I would have slept in but Trudy invited me to go with her and her boyfriend's sister, 'Joy', to a Flea Market. This isn't like a flea market in America where everything is mostly old or used. This was new clothes, food, electronics and it was big compared to any that I had seen before. We walked around and eventually I spotted something that I wanted. It was a small purse. It is red with a golden design on it, including Elephants on one row. Anyway, the woman was telling me that it was one Euro, but I wasn't paying attention so I didn't hear her. When Trudy came over I asked her to ask the lady how much and she did then she told me that the lady said she already told me. Oops... Well I was slightly embarrassed. That was the only thing that happened there. We walked back to the house and we changed into some winter gear because we were going to go to the park to play and sled!! I was more excited than usual because, being from Texas, I've never sled before. This was awesome I was getting to fulfill one of my childhood dreams. So we walked to the park and met up with one of Vanessa friends and her mother with their dog Salen. On the way there Vanessa tied Salen to the sled and was trying to get her to drag her there, but Salen being a dog didn't know how and she kept running into things like trees. It was really funny. After we got there Joy and I started trying to make a snowman while Vanessa and the other girl sled. I was getting it to be really big while Joy wasn't having much luck. Eventually Trudy told me to go a head and go sledding because the day light was running out and she wanted a picture. So I ran up the hill and went sledding for the first time. Joy pushed me along for some parts of it. It was incredibly fun. I loved it, even though it was a small hill you could still get going pretty fast. After that first time I did it two more times so I could get a video of myself to show the family. After that Joy found a part of a snow man that someone had already made and rolled it over to where we were and we helped finish the snowman that she and I started. It was fun because it had a face from things we found nearby. I have a picture of it. We had a minor snowball fight as well. Afterward we were all tired so we headed back home. The girl and her mom went home to get the ice off Salen. Trudy, Vanessa, Joy and I went back to the house. We sat on the couch for most of the time trying to figure out the pictures on Vanessa's computer and I copied them to myself. The girl and her mom came over they had coffee while we continued to sit on the couch. After they left I talked to Sean again then went to bed.
Like I'm going to do now and continue to catch up on another day...
Day 10 1/29/2010
Well we're still in Renesse. We woke up the next morning later than usual because we didn't have to be anywhere till 10. After everyone had gathered their stuff and took it to the bus we headed to the ocean beach for the North Sea. It was amazing and beautiful. We didn't get to really enjoy it because it was still cold and on top of that it was raining and we had to work in this. They had given us our projects for the beach after we had our presentations with the other schools from America. We were supposed to make something that represented an opposite out of found objects from the beach. I was in a group with Trisha, Jason and Kevin. Interestingly I'd never worked or even talked with Kevin much. So we decided eventually after some experimenting and talking we decided on three circles with rocks on a sand pedestal in the middle. This was inspired by a pool of water with a rock in the center found near one of the beach jetties. On a side note this entire time I was keeping an eye out for shells. Ok so we made an experiment with a hole and a rock to figure out what we wanted to do. Then, we walked back up the to the restaurant near the beach to warm up. Next, we headed back down and noticed the tide had over taken our project. we were able to save the rocks but that hole was done. We moved farther up the beach and started to dig on our final project. we finished with the first hole and started on the second when we realized just how close the water was. I got down on my hands and knees and started digging and working as fast as I could. Kevin, Jason and I were digging. Jason with a shovel and Kevin and I with our hands. All the while Trisha was taking pictures. Also while we were experimenting earlier I was taking both video and pictures. We got the third hole mostly finished when the tide over took us. It just rushed in and swamped our holes. We wanted water in them in the first place so it ended up working for the better. We rushed to take pictures and get our work documented and them grabbed two of the rocks and carried them as far as we could away. We didn't get them back to the jetty the water had become too deep so we just left them and ran. We almost got stranded on our own little island because the tide was rushing in so quickly. I really wish I could have gotten a video of it. Well that was the end of the project. All of us were sandy, wet, cold and windblown. I don't think any of us didn't have rosy cheeks. We traipsed our way back up to the restaurant for lunch. While we were waiting I walked to the bus with several other people and grabbed some clothes to change into. They were sticky from me spraying DP on myself the day before, it was better than being in wet sandy clothes. I changed in the bathroom and I washed off my shells and boots. Then we ate. It was a good meal. We chose it the day before in the bus. I ordered the fried fish with bread. It was amazing yet again. After that our day was pretty much done. All we had left was the long bus ride back. I got on my computer briefly during that and typed but for the most part I was determined not to go to sleep and see much more than I had all ready. During this I really wish my camera wasn't out of batteries. There were several really neat buildings like a city gate and of course more windmills. Eventually we arrived back in Bonn. I walked with Alvaro to catch the train and then got home. I got on the internet to talk to Sean and mom. Then sleep.
Day 11 1/30/2010
Well this day was Saturday. I slept most of the day and talked to mom. I met Trudy, my host mom's boyfriend who is also black like her ex-husband. I sat on the couch that evening and messed with my computer with Vanessa, my host sister, with me. I don't remember much else because I didn't do much that day I was trying to recover from the trip. So I slept, and I messed with the computer, and I talked to mom.
Day 12 1/31/2010
Today I got up earlier than I would have normally. Usually I guess I would have slept in but Trudy invited me to go with her and her boyfriend's sister, 'Joy', to a Flea Market. This isn't like a flea market in America where everything is mostly old or used. This was new clothes, food, electronics and it was big compared to any that I had seen before. We walked around and eventually I spotted something that I wanted. It was a small purse. It is red with a golden design on it, including Elephants on one row. Anyway, the woman was telling me that it was one Euro, but I wasn't paying attention so I didn't hear her. When Trudy came over I asked her to ask the lady how much and she did then she told me that the lady said she already told me. Oops... Well I was slightly embarrassed. That was the only thing that happened there. We walked back to the house and we changed into some winter gear because we were going to go to the park to play and sled!! I was more excited than usual because, being from Texas, I've never sled before. This was awesome I was getting to fulfill one of my childhood dreams. So we walked to the park and met up with one of Vanessa friends and her mother with their dog Salen. On the way there Vanessa tied Salen to the sled and was trying to get her to drag her there, but Salen being a dog didn't know how and she kept running into things like trees. It was really funny. After we got there Joy and I started trying to make a snowman while Vanessa and the other girl sled. I was getting it to be really big while Joy wasn't having much luck. Eventually Trudy told me to go a head and go sledding because the day light was running out and she wanted a picture. So I ran up the hill and went sledding for the first time. Joy pushed me along for some parts of it. It was incredibly fun. I loved it, even though it was a small hill you could still get going pretty fast. After that first time I did it two more times so I could get a video of myself to show the family. After that Joy found a part of a snow man that someone had already made and rolled it over to where we were and we helped finish the snowman that she and I started. It was fun because it had a face from things we found nearby. I have a picture of it. We had a minor snowball fight as well. Afterward we were all tired so we headed back home. The girl and her mom went home to get the ice off Salen. Trudy, Vanessa, Joy and I went back to the house. We sat on the couch for most of the time trying to figure out the pictures on Vanessa's computer and I copied them to myself. The girl and her mom came over they had coffee while we continued to sit on the couch. After they left I talked to Sean again then went to bed.
Like I'm going to do now and continue to catch up on another day...
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