Die Letzte Fotos

20.10.10

So after 2 months I finally finished uploading all the rest of my pictures to facebook, with a grand total of 19 albums.  I don't know if I mentioned this, but I had taken ~4782 pictures on this trip, so it was a feat to cut it down to only 9 albums with ~200 pictures each.

Since Dresden/Crimmitschau, I've uploaded:

 Schießen, Clubbing, Weiße Rose

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051601&id=1135320260&l=8464db6f43

 

Neuschwanstein und Oberamergau

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051752&id=1135320260&l=19f3b2921d

 

Tegernsee Museum und Ayinger Brauerei

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051841&id=1135320260&l=dc50a22966

 

München 2

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2052303&id=1135320260&l=08e999fc67

 

München 2.5, Chiemsee, Last few days

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2052375&id=1135320260&l=1c953bcd20

 

Salzburg 1

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2063879&id=1135320260&l=95d785dedd

 

Salzburg 2 und Wien 1

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2065689&id=1135320260&l=f1783e5444

 

Wien 2 und München 2.75

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2065700&id=1135320260&l=1c7babb95d

 

 

I really hope that one day I'll be able to uncorrupt my videos and get those online too... but for now, these photos will have to do, especially since they were a long time coming as it was.  

Bye for now,

Katie

      

Seegrotte und Zurückflug nach Chicago!!

11.8.10--Wien, München

So today after waking up and leaving Wien, we stopped at the Seegrotte just outside the city.  This is the largest underground lake in Europe.  It was originally a gypsum mine (discovered by accident when searching for water), and then after an accident, it filled up with water and such.  Later, the Nazis seized it and it was there that they built the first fighter jet.  So, lots of history there.  It was pretty cool, especially the boat ride underground.  Disney's 3 Musketeers was also filmed there, and they had a little cave prison cell still there, and they also left the dragon boat there (tour guide claimed they were too lazy).  After the cave, we hopped in the car and drove the 4-5 hour drive to München.  I think I was in Germany for too long, because when we got there I felt like I was home.  We had dinner at a little Italian restaurant across the street, then walked arounda bit, got some Spaghetti Eis, and went back and packed and eventually got to sleep.


12.8.10--München, CHICAGO!

Today was fairly uneventful, except that now WE ARE HOME!  Nothing of importance really happened on the plane....I had 3 lunches, because me and Alex bought a sandwich at the airport, then we got pasta, and later we got a sandwich and chips.  Therefore, my stomach is currently confused and I do not know whether I am hungry or not.  Anyway, my grand total of pictures from this trip is 4786.  Crazy shit.  I´m gonna go now....brave the ridiculously hot weather to see the friends I haven´t seen in AGES.   Not entirely sure whats happening to this blog now that the trip is over, so this may be the last one. 

Auf Wiedersehen!!!

Österreich, nicht Austria!

6.8.10 (ctnd)--Holzkirchen

So the Abschiedsabend was pretty fun.  Tasty buffet, some boring thank you speeches, some hilarious plays and songs and certificates.  The teachers all made funny joke certificate things to prove that we are done.  Mine was "group photographer," no big surprises there...  Everyone loved the slideshow, one kids host father said it was the best he´s seen in all 11 years of hosting students, so that was pretty sweet.  After the night was over, a few of us went to a local pub for one last time.  It´s so strange to think that after seeing these guys every day for the past 2 months, I most likely won´t see any of them ever again...


7.8.10--Holzkirchen

This morning, the last of those in Holzkirchen, my host father took me to the Trachten Outlet (Trachten= Dirndls and Lederhosen).  I got a Dirndl, its brown with a lime green apron!  The best part about it is that it was only 130 Euro!  (As opposed to the normal 200 or higher).  Later, my host mom and 2 of the girls had lunch with my family at a local restaurant, which was pretty interesting and fun.  I then gathered my things and left my host family´s house for the last time...which was pretty bittersweet.  =(  Me and my family dropped off the luggage at the hotel (back at Alte Post again!) and went wandering.  However, since it was Saturday, and since it was Holzkirchen, there wasn´t much places open, so we went to the HEP (and a grocery store, where I bought a Vuvuzela).  At the HEP we bought a CD and had some coffee, both were pretty good. 


8.8.10--Salzburg

After one last breakfast at the Alte Post, we started our trip to Österreich.  We reached Salzburg, checked into our hotel, ate a record-fast lunch, and hopped on our own private 4-hour Sound of Music bus tour.  Some of it was pretty cool, but other parts were a bit dry.  We did get to ride down an alpine slide though, which was pretty sweet.  Sound of Music-wise, we saw the steps from Do Re Mi, and the lake they fell in, and the house (from the movie and real), the trees they hung in, the wedding church, and the mountain they climbed over into "Switzerland" (it actually leads to Germany, and it is also the same mountain Hitler´s place was on in Berchtesgaden.  After the tour, we walked around for a bit, and then grabbed some dinner.  We then walked around the dark, closed-up city for a bit more, then called it a night.


9.8.10--Salzburg/Wien

This morning we went to Schloss Hellbrunn, which was built by a very rich archbishop with a sense of humor.  It is full of trick fountains that spray the guests from all angles, as well as some pretty cool hydraulic technology.  For example, he had a table in the garden (the Prince´s Table) that was made for cocktail parties.  If the guests got too loud, he´d turn on the water, which sprayed upwards from every chair, and from the back, so the party-goers got sopping wet.  He was smart, however, and made  it so his chair stayed completely dry.  There were a few other cool things too, but I´ll talk more about that on the pics I´ll eventually upload (if you are very curious, wiki it).  After looking around the castle, which wasn´t too interesting inside, we boarded the rent-a-car and departed for Wien.  On the way, we hit Melk, which is a small town built around an abbey, and we only stopped because my dad remembered having good beer there on his high school trip.  It turns out that my Oma and her family were there even longer ago.  It was the first place they went after they escaped the concentration camp, and they stayed there for a bit while her dad worked to get enough money to get to the next train station.  (I got quite a lot of interesting family history on the car ride afterwards.)  At the restaurant in Melk, a cat came up by our table, and I petted it, and it was SO ADORABLE.  The waitress gave it a few coffee creamers and some ham, and it was just such a cute kitten!  Unfortunately, we had to leave the kitty behind, for there is barely room in the car for us and our luggage.  We soon arrived in Wien, where we ate some dinner and then just bummed around until bedtime.  You all should Youtube Bernd das Brot by the way, he is the looping nighttime show for the children´s channel KIKA, and he´s pretty hilarious.


10.8.10--Wien

Today after breakfast (which had a pretty large selection by the way), we saw a bit of the city by accidentally going in the complete opposite direction.  We eventually figured out where we were and hopped on a touristy sight-seeing bus.  We got off at the Stephansdom, which is pretty cool looking on the outside, and just your standard cathedral on the inside.  There were at least 5 people dressed up as Mozart outside the Dom selling tickets for a concert tonight.  I probably saw at least 30 Mozarts today, not counting the ones on candies.  Austria LOVES Mozart.  It´s pretty ridiculous.  They also really love Sisi, or Kaiserin Elisabeth. We went to Schloss Schönbrunn after lunch, which was the Wien residence of the Hapsburg family (mainly Maria Theresia), and later Sisi and her husband, Franz Joseph.  Basically just your standard palace, with the rich people from years ago, and the restorations of the old things.  We didn´t end up going to the zoo, even though it is the oldest one in the world and has giant pandas.  What was quite exciting, however, was the Oma cookie store (Manner wafers, for anyone who had a sad childhood).  They have everything with the Manner logo on it there!  Alex bought a towel, lol.  Anyway, after the castle, we got some dinner at a tasty chinese noodles place, which was by the Anker clock, which is very interesting, yet hard to describe.  Google it or wait until I upload pictures.  We then went to the Prater, which was a small carnival-type amusement park, with a world-famous ferris wheel.  Each car fits about 10-20 people, and you can even rent them out for cocktail parties or other dinners, which is pretty sweet.  Since it was dark, we didn´t get much skyline pics, but we did get to see what little smount of things were lit up at night.  I also bought a hat today for my Dirndl, so thats pretty sweet too.  Its dark green, and Tirol style.  The one thing I´m really frustrated about on this trip is the amount of english everywhere, especially on the souvenirs.  I´ve found maybe 2 shirts that say Österreich and not Austria, or Wien isntead of Vienna.  Oh well...  I am falling asleep on this now, so I am going to bed.  Tomorrow we leave for München, and then the next day is CHICAGO!!!  Wooooo!!!!

The Solution is Just to Drive Away from the Rain!!

5.-6.8-10

The past few days in Holzkirchen have been fairly uneventful, for the most part.  Lots of stress about last minute homework and the slideshow, but everything is done now!!  We finished the slideshow last night, and its pretty awesome.  I´ll try and get it online, but idk if that is going to happen, because it´s 25 minutes long, and I think Youtube and Facebook both have time limits for that. Since I was at Divesh´s working on the show last night, his host parents asked me to stay for dinner.  It was some kind of Thai dish...a soup full of mushrooms and shrimp.  So, I picked those out, and ate the broth, peapods, and tomatoes.  Other than all that work for picking out stuff, it was actually pretty delicious.  After dinner, we sat around for about another hour or two talking about random things.  His family is soo nice and really funny too.  I kinda wish I got a family like that where not only do they have dinner every night, but its a big affair with lots of conversation.  Oh well....  In other news, its been pouring for about 2 straight days, and its about 60 degrees.  However, there is a happy part--Austria is bright and sunny and warm!!!  And after lunch tomorrow, I leave my host family for my real family, and we depart to the land of the sunny warm weather!  And after 6 days in Österreich we return to Sweet Home Chicago!!  I´m in a fairly good mood right now, for the above reasons, and a few others.  I was able to bs my way through the book discussion, being an "expert" on a chapter I read less than half of (and I read even less of the rest of the book...but in my defense, I could not read more than 2 pages without falling asleep).  I wrote my very last essay for my film class today after I got home in about half an hour.  I was pretty proud of my German writing speed. =)  Tonight is the Abschiedsabend (Farewell Dinner),  and everyone gets to see my and Divesh´s slideshow, and I get to see everyone do the skits and songs they´ve been working on, and it´ll be a pretty fun time.  It´ll be a bit sad, because I most likely will not see any of those people ever again, and I´ve become pretty good friends with some of them.  I´ll also miss my host family, though I will not miss the loud house.  I never really considered my house a quiet one, but I guess it is.  3 little kids make a big difference.  It´ll also be nice to get back to my (ir)regular sleeping schedule.  I was a bit disappointed with myself when I found that I could not stay up past 1:30 am or sleep past 11:30 am (as opposed to my normal 2:30 am to 2:30 pm sleep schedule).  Perhaps jet lag will "fix" that, lol.  Right now I am packing, and I am about halfway done (I took a short break to write this).  I think I bought too many souvenirs.  Oh well.  I think it will all fit.  I´ll try and get some more pictures up soon, I have about 6 albums in the queue ready to go, it´s just a matter of finding enough time to do so.


speaking of, Dresden/Crimmitschau:  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051242&id=1135320260&l=21197999b9  

Chiemsee and Stress and Excitement!

2.8.10--Chiemsee

Today the class went to Chiemsee, the largest lake in Bayern.  After an S-Bahn, a regional train, a little shuttle train, and a ferry, we finally arrived at our first stop:  Herreninsel.  This island is where both the old and new palaces are located.  We first went to the Altes Schloss, which was not that interesting, and not many rooms were open for tourists.  This was where the German constitution was written in 1948.  After a bit of a history lesson, we went to the Neues Schloss, which Ludwig II. built (same guy that built Neuschwanstein).  He based this castle off of Versailles, but only one wing was built.  It´s got some pretty interesting fountains in the garden, and its beautiful inside.  Though more of it was finished than Neuschwanstein, it still was not completed, due partly to money problems and partly to his death.  He only was in the palace for about 10 days.  After the Neues Schloss, we took another Schifffahrt to the Fraueninsel, where we had lunch in a Biergarten.  I had some kind of mess of spätzel and meat, with a side salad (I forget what it was called), and for dessert I had an Eisroulade, which was a "Swiss roll filled with ice cream" according to the menu.  It was pretty delicious.  It then began to storm, so we did not get to go swimming or anything, which was a shame.  At least the entire morning was sunny!  After a bit of exploring the island (it had a pretty cool little church--in the back there were a bunch of letters/plaques to God thanking him for things, like babies and such), we boarded another ship to return to the mainland, where we took the shuttle train and the 2 other trains back to Holzkirchen.


3.-4.8.10

Nothing too exciting has been happening these past two days...I just have a lot of last-minute projects and such to do for school.  On top of all that, the end of program party is this Friday, and me and another student are making a photo slideshow, which should be pretty cool (just a lot of work on my plate right now).  This Saturday after a lunch with both my families (host and real), I return to my real family and then Sunday we depart for Austria!!  I´m pretty excited to be going there, it should be cool.  I´m also excited/sad because I go home in exactly one week.

99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall....(And, If You Act Now, You Can Meet The Family! Call within the Next 10 Minutes and Learn About Cultural Differences!)

29.7.10--Holzkirchen, Aying

Today at school was the usual, the only really interesting thing was that we watched a terrible movie (Don´t ever watch Nikolaikirche--seemingly-longest, most boring German film I´ve ever seen).  After the movie, we had about an hour until we had to meet up for our trip to the Brauerei Aying, where we learned how they make beer.  During the tour, we got to taste ground water (90% of beer), smell some Hops, eat various flavors of Malt kernels, taste unfiltered beer straight from the tap in the factory, eat some "beer bread," and, of course, try a bunch of different kinds of beer that the brewery makes, all of which was pretty tasty.  The tour began in the factory, where we learned about the type of water used to make the beer (betcha didn´t know it needs a special kind!  But when it is 90% of the product, it´s pretty important).  We then moved on to the other ingredients:  malt and hops.  Our guide explained the processes to take both from seeds to plants to "liquid bread."  Next we followed him through the rest of the factory, where we saw the distillation tanks, the "ground control" room where there are a few computers that alert you when a certain machine isn´t doing its job (it will apparently also text you, in case you aren´t in the room!), and the filtration tanks.  From there we walked across the street to the bottling plant, where we saw all the conveyer belts and machinery necessary to wash the returned recycled bottles, fill them up again, add the labels, put them in crates, and put said crates on pallettes, ready for delivery.  After the bottling plant, we returned to the factory building, where we saw a 3D movie about the history of the brewery and brewing families.  After the film, we went down to the bar, where we sampled some bread made from the leftover malt and hops that didn´t make it into a beer (the stuff that couldn´t be used otherwise), and as many different kinds of Ayinger Bier we wanted.  And, to top it all off, on our way out we each received an Aying beer bottle opener!

After the brewery, we went to an Aying-owned restaurant, Liebhard´s (one of the original beer-brewing families), where I had the biggest schnitzel I have ever seen in my entire life.  Basically, it didn´t fit on the plate, and if I laid both my hands flat on the table next to eachother, it would still be larger.  It came with lemon butter and cranberries to spread on top, and, as an added bonus, underneath the schnitzel was a bed of french fries (which, by the way, were delicious...I am now convinced that the best way to serve fries is underneath a schnitzel).  To drink, I got the Ayinger Celebrator, a really dark beer that was so dark it tasted like coffee.  Odd, but tasty.  One of the other kids on the trip got some lamb dish, which came with "Speckbohne"--`bacon beans.´  Essentially, they were green beans either cooked with bacon, or cooked in bacon fat, I´m not entirely sure, but the point is that they TASTED LIKE BACON.  It was pretty insane.

So, throughout the whole evening, I sampled: ground water, malt seeds, unfiltered beer, beer bread, and about 5 different types of beer.  Yummy day.


30.7.10--München

In Literature class today, we read a poem called "Der Werwolf" by Christian Morgenstern.  I´d definitely suggest it to anyone who understands German (if you don´t, sorry, I don´t think you´d understand the joke...its a very tongue-in-cheek hilarious poem, with grammar jokes).  After school, we again went to Da Tosto, the delicious break from the sub-par daily cafeteria food.  After lunch, I traveled to München to meet up with my family (yay!!!).  We walked around the Altstadt, saw a few churches (though one was having mass and we couldn´t go inside), and got rained on (boo =[  ).  For dinner, we went to the Hofbräuhaus, which was again crowded and touristy, but still delicious.  I finally had some Münchener Weißwurst for the first time (as Bayrisch as Brez´n, Lederhosen, and Bier).  It was definitely an experience.  They came in the water they were boiled in, so I had to take them out, put them on the plate, and then peel them, because they have very tough skin.  They were good, though a bit bland, but the Senf (sweet mustard) took care of that.  After the Hofbräuhaus, I walked them back to their hotel and returned home until the next day.


31.7.10--München



Today me and a few other students went to the Deutsches Museum--all science and math stuff, with a bit of history mixed in.  It´s a huge place, with everything from ships and planes to nanotechnology, optics, and glassblowing.  We started the day off with the must-see high-voltage demonstration, which was pretty sweet.  They put so much electricty into it that you could see the lightning strikes and hear the `bzzz´ that is normally only present in cartoons.  We then walked around looking at various exhibits, some interesting and some not so much (mostly interesting!!) until we went to the liquid nitrogen demo, which was also pretty kickass.  They have a hell of a lot of exhibits there (50 exhibition areas!), so we only saw maybe 1/5 in our 3 hours there.  All in all though, it was quite fun.  We then walked around and looked for some lunch, because we were starving.  I ended up at Que-bap (the other guy went to the Subway next door), which is a "Turkish Barbeque" (read: fancy Döner chain...for those of you who haven´t heard me talk about Döner yet, refresh your memories:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doner_kebab Delicious, Turkish sandwich that is EVERYWHERE in Germany.  Dlner stands are more prevalent than McDonalds.)  Anyway, so Que-bap has special different kinds of Döners--Classic, Asia, BBQ, Spicy, and PESTO.  (Guess which one I got, lol).  It was frickin delicious, with its overflowing basil leaves and mozzarella...so good.  I also got fries, with some sweet and sour sauce to dip em in.  These fries were also different...they were kinda U-shaped, like the bottom end of a slurpy straw.  However, they smelled and tasted quite a lot like McDonalds fries, but a bit better.  All in all, very satisfying meal (except for the drink, which was very small).  We ate our respective lunches en route to the Englischer Garten, where we walked around for quite a while trying to find the famed river surfers.  After walking around the garden about twice (and its big too, the largest inner-city public garden in the world), we finally found them!  It was so exciting.  The reason they can surf on this otherwise slow-flowing river is because at the point where the Isar flows into the garden, it flows into a much smaller man-made creek through a drain under a bridge, creating a very fast moving, constant wave.  There are signs posted everywhere saying that only one, very experienced surfer can ride this wave at a time, for on either side of the river is a concrete wall, and I believe the floor of the river is also concrete, so it´s quite dangerous.  Nonetheless, the really good surfers go and show their stuff to the nearly 50 people watching.  (To give you an idea of the constant-wave idea, it´s a bit like the surfin´safari ride at the Kalahari resort in Wisconsin Dells.  Also, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisbach  )  We then walked down the street to the Hofgarten (court gardens), which is surrounded by various official government buildings, all much prettier than ours back home.  We walked around the city a bit, until we reached Marienplatz and the Peterskirche.  We payed the 1 Euro student entrance fee and ascended the tower (lots shorter than the Kölner Dom!! Also less claustrophobia and acrophobia!).  It´s said to be the best tower in München to climb, because it gives the best view, and I would probably agree (though I haven´t been up any others, it certainly was a great 360 panorama).  I was a bit disappointed, for I didn´t have any more 1 Euro or 5 cent coins, so I couldn´t get any of the pressed pennies from the ~5 machines we passed on the way up (which are not very prevalent in München, I´ve only seen 1 other machine, and that was at the Olympic Stadium).  After we descended, the other student went back to Holzkirchen, and I wasted a few hours in a bookstore reading German comic books waiting for my family to return from their trip to Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau.  When they finally arrived around 10 o´clock, we had a late dinner together and went our separate ways home.


1.8.10--München

This morning I woke up bright and early to meet my family at the Residenz Museum (too bad they had car problems and got there an hour late).  However, with my extra time, I was able to take a few cool artsy pictures, so not all was lost.  We finally entered the Residenz, which was the city-home of the kings, emporers, and electors (depending on the era).  Basically, it was where they lived when they had official state business to attend to.  The original palace was rather small, but each resident decided to add an extra building or two, so now its rather large, with a huge variety of building styles.  We only saw a small part it (partly because not all of it is open to the public, and partly because we did not buy tickets to see the treasury, only the palace museum), but it still took us a good 2 1/2 hours to see what we did.  Some of the rooms were pretty cool, like the Grotto courtyard, and others were a bit repetitive.  Pretty cool place though.  Definitely wouldn´t want to live there; I´d get lost on the way to breakfast every morning.  After our jaunt through the palace, we were pretty hungry, so we got some lunch across the street before saying goodbye for the next week.




Along my travels, I´ve realized that Germany and America could probably make a pretty good profit off of eachother if they pool their resources:

Various things I´ve noticed that Germany has and America needs (or needs more of):
-German food (obviously)
-Döner stands
-Gelato-type ice cream (almost as common as Döner stands)
-Pretzels
-Good beer
-Lederhosen/Dirndls (lots of people wear them for everyday things, not just ceremonies and such)
-Vests and male capris (America doesn´t necessarily need them I guess, but they are rather prevalent here)
-Interest in the World Cup
-Bicycles/bicycle lanes (EVERYONE rides a bike here, EVERYWHERE)
-Natural gas for cars (see the Dresden/Crimmitschau posts)
-More efficient, prevalent, and reliable public transportation
-Dollar and 2 dollar coins
-Colored/different sized dollar bills
...and probably a few more that I can´t think of right now...

Things I miss in America that I believe Germany could use:
-Mexican food (first thing I want when I get back--Chipotle)
-More smoothies (2nd thing I want--Jamba Juice)
-Chinese food
-More Mountain Dew
-More food variety in general
...there´s less on this side....but that´s all I can think of at the moment...


In other news, new photo album up--Hilter´s summer home, the top of a mountain, a shnaps distillery, and a salt mine!  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050845&id=1135320260&l=08c83290f3

and another one!  WM public viewing and Trachtenverein (traditional bavarian dances)  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050941&id=1135320260&l=e0b4c33521

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

27/28.7.10--Holzkirchen, Tegernsee

Not much has really been going on yesterday and today.  Just rain, school, and more rain.  We watched Das Leben der Anderen yesterday in the film class, and it was pretty good, though it started out a bit slow.  It was about a Stasi officer that is ordered to watch an author, but after watching him for so long, he starts getting other ideas...I won't tell you so you can watch it yourself.  Today after school the history class went to an art museum in Tegernsee that specializes in political cartoons and such...pretty cool, though they're kinda small and were having a special exhibition about French artists, so they didn't have that many cartoons.  Great postcards in the gift shop though.  Funny stuff.  After walking around the small town, and lookin around by the lake a bit, we caught the train and went back to Holzkirchen.


New photos up!  Hiking in the Alps:  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050551&id=1135320260&l=634e82870a

Fairy Tale Castles; Endless, Timeless Plays; and Brave, Determined Students

25.7.10--Schloss Neuschwanstein und Oberamergau

Today was FABULOUS.  Quite cold, but otherwise, pretty awesome.  After a 1.5 hour bus ride, we arrived at the foot of the mountain on which Neuschwanstein stands.  To reach the palace, we had our choice of paths: the paved, easier, plain path, or the "summer path"--gravel/dirt/etc, uneven, a bit harder, but beautiful.  It should be obvious which one we took.  It followed a river, with multiple rapids and waterfalls, as it wound up the mountain through the forest.  It was a bit scary at one part, where you had to walk across a grate bridge over the river (and we already know how I fare with grates and heights from the Kölner Dom).  Other than that, it was so pretty.  Then we got up to the castle, where even more beauty was there to behold.  I'm convinced that craziness inspires art, because he was batshit insane, but made such beautiful castles.  (For more proof: Van Gogh, Beethoven, and probably at least a few others.)  Sadly, he died while the castle was still being built, so only 1/3 of it was ever finished.  We took a tour, and saw all of the finished rooms (maybe 30? tops?).  Our tour guide had an interesting accent, and Emily asked where it was from, and she gave the ambiguous "Oh I guess its a mixture of a lot of things."  Anyway, the castle is what inspired Disney's Sleeping Beauty castle, and there is no wonder why.  The funny part about it is, is that it is very much like Disney.  To exit the castle, one must pass through not one, but two gift shops.  (Not counting the one at the entrance, of course.)  It's pretty insane.  After walking back down the mountain, we got a quick bite to eat, and after some confusion as to where we were supposed to meet, we finally all piled back on the bus for another hour or so.

We arrived in Oberamergau, and it was clear we were in the right place.  We were surrounded on all sides by gift shops full of hand-carved nativity scenes and ornaments, as well as various other tchotchkes and souvenirs.  Not to mention the large amount of people everywhere (lots of them were really old too).  The play itself was really long, but really good.  The first act was from 2:30-5:15, and then a 3 hour intermission for dinner, and then the second act was from 8:00-11:00.  The entirety of the second act, my legs were screaming to move.  The rows were very close together, so everytime I moved I bumped the seat in front of me with my knees.  So no chance for fighting the restless leg syndrome, except for trying to massage it out (didn't work).  Other than that though, the paly was really good.  In addition to the normal passion story, there was a greek chorus that came out between each scene to talk about what just happened and will happen next.  They also drew lots of parallels to other Bible stories, and had "living pictures" (the little shadowbox stage-within-a-stage would open up, where a few actors are posed for about 10 minutes) depicting each one.  Cool stuff.  Dinner was good, I had Hungarian Goulasch...yummy.. =)  Since there were so many people at the play, obviously the bathroom lines were long, and also obviously, only the women's bathroom had a really long wait.  In America when this happens, the women just wait patiently or give up.  However, here, half the women went to the men's room after they got tired of waiting.  One German man, as he walked out, joked about how there were more women in the men's room than there were men (they still went in and did their business too).  It was quite interesting/funny.  After the play, we got back onto the bus, and went home.  I ended up getting home about 1 am, and that bike ride from the Rathaus Parkplatz to home was so cold my teeth were chattering.


26.7.10--München

Today we went around to all the places relevant to the Weiße Rose (a student group against the Nazis).  We started out by seeing where they lived (which was right by where we ate Mexican food and Indian food the other day!).  We then moved on to the Universität München, where they had gone to school and where it all happened.  There we went in an exhibit about the group, which was pretty interesting.  We also went into the lecture hall, which was pretty awesome-looking.  I totally wish ours looked like that.  We saw the main hall where they had dropped all their anti-Nazi flyers from, and therefore got caught by the janitor.  From there, we followed their plight to the Justizpalast, and went in the room where they were tried and found guilty of high treason.  They were beheaded via guillotine, the favorite execution method of the time.  After lunch, we went to see their graves in the cemetary.  German cemetaries are so much more beautiful and well-kept than ours.  For lunch, we ate at the Augustiner Biergarten, where I had Wurst und Kartoffelsalat.  Pretty good food, though the Wurst was kinda weird, and made me sick later =(  The good news is, I think I feel better now =)

Chilling (Literally) in München

22/23.7.10--Holzkirchen, München

Not a whole lot happened on Thursday, just school and then chillin at home.  We watched a movie about König Ludwig II, who brought Wagner to fame, loved his married cousin, was engaged to her sister, was assumed gay, built a few beautiful castles, and went insane in his later years.  It was interesting, but had that 50s movie corniness. 

Friday was a tad more interesting.  After school, I went to the HEP (tiny new "mall" in town) with a few other students, and then chilled around til we met up again to go to München.  After a bit of confusion with people being late and such, we finally ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant, which, contrary to what I had previously heard, wasn´t too bad.  It´s a good thing we were there during happy hour though, because it would´ve been ridiculously expensive otherwise.  With the reduced prices, my enchilada con carne and a drink was 13 Euro.  Not too bad for a huge delicious dinner.  We then met up with a few others and one of the other student´s host sister took us out on the town to show us the München nightlife.  Despite a few speedbumps, a good time was had by all.



24.7.10--München

After sleeping in a bit (11:40...early for me by home standards, but late for my normal here), a couple of us went to München for the day.  There was apparently a festival at the Olympic Stadium tonight, with fireworks and such, but it was really cold and rainy so we decided not to.  It´s been awfully cold and rainy for the past few days, and it´s going to continue like this for the next week or so until it warms up.  A few days ago it was like 90 out, and today it was 57.  Crazy shit.  Not exactly too excited for tomorrow, when we go up in the mountains to see Schloss Neuschwanstein (built by King Ludwig II) and then sit outside for 6 hours watching the Oberamergau Passion Play (2 of those 6 are intermission=dinner).  Anyway, so after a bit of shopping, we went to an Indian restaurant, which was pretty tasty.  Then the rest of them went to BMW-Welt, which I could really care less about, so I went off on my own, walked around the city, and got some souvenir shopping out of the way.  When they were done, we met up again, walked around a bit more, and then decided to mosy on home.  Got some dinner at the Hauptbahnhof, and got on the BOB (Bayerische Oberland Bahn).  While on the train, we got surveyed--where were we coming from, how did we get there, where we were going, how we get home, how often we ride the BOB, do we like it, etc.  And now I am here.  And cold.  I hope there is at least a semi-roof or blankets or something tomorrow.


And, yet another album up: München part 1--  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049782&id=1135320260&l=3e0b074062 

Meisterschaftschießen beim Schützenverein Holzkirchen

20.7.10

Today at school we saw our very first happy-ending German movie--Das Wunder von Bern.  It is about the '54 World Cup (which Germany won), and a father that comes home from the war after 12 years and must try to find his place in his family (with a young son he's never met).  Quite a good movie.  And it ended happily! It was so bizarre.  German movies never have happy endings.  Later that evening, we went to the Schützenverein Holzkirchen, for some Meisterschaftschießen.   (We shot air rifles at a shooting gallery.)  It was quite fun.  Apparently it is a big thing to do in Bavaria (yet another reason to drink beer).  We ate some Laberkäse sandwiches, with Senf und Käse, and drank some Holzkirchener Oberbräu.  We then took turns (3 at a time) shooting.  After some teaching and a practice round, we each got 10 shots, and the top three scores got trophies (Divesh, Spenser, and Wes).  Everyone got a participation certificate that said how many points you got.  I got 6th place (out of 13) with 38 points (out of 100).  The highest was around 45.  A fun time was had by all.  After sitting around for a while, we went and got some ice cream, and sat around some more, before going to our respective houses.


21.7.10

Nothing particularly exciting happened today, just school.  At lunch, Herr Keel spilled his cola all over my (canvas) purse and backpack, so I'm looking for suggestions on how to clean them.  After lunch, the history class had to go back to school to make up for time when our teacher was not there (the other class went to Munich...gr.).  We watched Shtonk!, which was a pretty good movie, I think, though I only understood about half of it.  It's about the guy who forged Hitler's journals and made tons of money off it in the '80s.  The rest of the day has just been sittin around doin homework and putting up pictures. 

Speaking of which, new album (Berlin part 2):   http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049482&id=1135320260&l=c030bd344f 

and, Return to Holzkirchen and Vicinity!  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049631&id=1135320260&l=34c6ad1027  

Old Castles, People, and Traditions.

18.7.10--Crimmitschau

This morning I went to mass with Ulrike and Thomas.  It was pretty interesting; basically everything was the same, but in German.  I felt accomplished that I could figure out the Gospel story--Mary Magdalene washing the apostle's feet.  Pretty small, quaint church, with a capacity of maybe 50 or 60, and 30 or so people there.  After church, we had chicken noodle soup, schnitzel, potatoes, and some weird veggies that I'm really not sure what they were, but they were tasty.  After a short nap/chill-time/siesta, Thomas took me to Schloss Blankenhain, which was a small castle owned by a knight, that has since then been converted into a large open-air museum (consisting of several other buildings in the dorf).  The big main part is a farming museum, but it also showed the life of the people who lived in the castle (the nursery had a kick-ass castle dollhouse), as well as various other things.  Some of the other buildings were a brewery, an old school (lots of DDR stuff; young pioneers etc), and a windmill/miller's house.  It was interesting.  Then we went back and had some dinner and just chilled.


19.7.10--Crimmitschau, Zug

Today Thomas and Ulrike had to work, so Thomas called up one of Laura's (one of his daughters...both of them were away this weekend so I didn't get to meet them) friends, Julia, to show me around Crimmitschau.  We walked around the whole small city (took about 2.5 hours and she was running out of things to show me by the end).  We saw the theatre, city hall, school, church, cemetary (saw my great-great-uncle's grave), and some villas.  We also stopped for an ice cream, and I had nutella ice cream, which was FABULOUS.  I returned to the house for lunch, which was chili and noodles.  The noodles were interesting...they were really long skinny tubes...difficult to eat with chili.  Tasty though.  The rest of the day was just chillin around the house til I had to leave for my train (which was pretty late...I got back to Holzkirchen around 1:15 am).


Various things I noticed/found interesting this weekend:

-This was the first time I've met someone who never learned how to drive a car (my great great aunt, Maria).  It was too expensive in the DDR, and by the time the wall fell, she was too old to bother with it.
-It was really interesting getting to know people who lived/grew up in the DDR--lots of different things...It's very different learning about it in a book/from news/movies and actually living through it.
-Thomas's car takes Gas.  But not gas like we know it (gasoline). It is 60% butane, and 40% propane.  It's cheaper than Benzine or Diesel (the two more common forms of fuel), and it is better for the environment, and you don't have to fill up as often.  The only reason that everyone doesn't use it is because it costs 2-3000 Euros to make your car compatible.
-In Germany, when a kid is starting school, he/she receives a big cone-shaped bag filled with candy [Schultüten-- http://www.sights-and-culture.com/Germany/Customs/School-beginners.html ] (I learned this from Julia, as well as from my host family)
-All old people, wherever you are, are always trying to feed you.


Thats all for now, I gotta leave soon for a shooting range...more on that later!

Hallo von Crimmitschau!

16.7.10--Holzkirchen, Zug, Crimmitschau

Not a whole lot happened in the first part of the day, just school and Italian food.  Then I went to the train station, where I bought my ticket to Zwickau (a town near Crimmitschau, which is near Dresden) [only 117 Euro for both ways!].  I got on the train quickly, because it was leaving in 5 minutes, and had to walk through about 4 cars before I found a seat--next to Herr Keel and Werner, of all people.  It was pretty ironic.  It was really nice, because our ICE (inter-city express--really fast train) had working air conditioning (there´s a big fiasco on the news about that lately...the AC doesn´t work when it´s above a certain temperature outside...when you really need it).  After an hour, I got off at Nürnberg, where I transferred to the RE (regional express) for the 3 hour ride.  It was a bit warmer there, but still tolerable.  After a fairly uneventful ride, I finally arrived in Zwickau, where Thomas (a cousin of some sort) met me and drove me to their house.  We had Bratkartoffeln mit Quark, und auch sandwiches for dinner.  Then we sat outside for a while and chilled.  Before I went to sleep, I watched a bit of South Park auf Deutsch--Stan and Cartman have really weird voices...=/


17.7.10--Dresden, Crimmitschau

This morning I woke up, had some breakfast, and then we went to Dresden.  It´s pretty cool there--a good blend of new and old.  In 1945 the entire city was destroyed in an air raid, so it had to be completely rebuilt.  After leaving it be for about 45 years, as a memory, in 1990 they rebuilt the Frauenkirche to look like it did.  They used as many of the old stones they could (which isn´t much). It´s really interesting to see, because the new stones are all light, and the old ones are dark, so it´s easy to tell.  We went up in the cupola, and saw a nice 360 panorama of the city.  It was really nice, because for once, it had an elevator!  But the elevator only went up partway, and then a long ramp for most of the part.  It´s quite pretty inside.  After the Frauenkirche, we went to the Catholic cathedral, where the bishop sits.  The king of the time had it commissioned to look like a ship heading out to the Elbe, so its pretty cool.  The king also had a special passageway from the castle to the church so he didn´t even have to go outside.  Next, we walked through the courtyard of the Zwinger, and looked at all the pretty buildings and such...they had devils holding up the pillars, with very grotesque faces...pretty cool.  After that, we went to the Residenzschloss, and went in the museum.  There was some pretty cool stuff there.  Various kings had stolen lots of stuff from around the world, or it was gifted, or conquered, etc, so there are many many things from around the world.  Lots of porcelain sculptures, little pearl figurines, some ivory figures, etc.  One room had tiny little sculptures from cherry pits.  Another room had guestbooks from years past, and one for now that anyone can sign, so I did.  Perhaps I´ll be part of the exhibit years from now.  One of my favorite parts was the Turkish exhibit, with all the tents, weapons, and horse armor/decorations.  Pretty cool stuff. Then we came back, and grilled up some dinner--some Wurst, Leberkase, usw.  Lecker =)

Bavarian Dance Party!

14.7.10

Today we went to a dance hall, where we drank beer, ate butter pretzels, and watched lederhosen- and dirndl-clad people dance traditional Bavarian dances.  We learned about the dances, as well as the costumes and their uses from an old Bavarian man with a very harsh Bayerisch dialect.  After watching a few intense dances, some of which were performed by small children, they invited us to stand up and taught us a few, with beer breaks every so often.  Some were fairly easy, especially if you had a German partner leading you, but others, especially the Schuhplattern, were quite complicated.  For those Monty Python fans out there, the Schuhplattern is what the fish-slapping dance was based on.  Basically, its a long string of hitting random parts of your body (mainly your legs) to the beat.  Quite complicated, especially when you get into the long strings.  The last dance was the most exciting looking, but sadly, I did not get to dance the whole thing, for I was not with a German partner, and my partner gave up because we were so lost =(  I got quite a lot of the evening on video, but my battery ran out a few times, so I missed some parts.  All in all, it was an amazing night; probably one of my favorites so far.


15.7.10

Today was pretty unexciting, basically just school, a movie (Rama Dama--pretty good and not as tragic film, until you get to the end, which is pretty nonexistant. No closure, whatsoever.), and a short trip to Munich to try and figure out my plans for this weekend.  By the way, I am going to Crimmitschau to visit my dad's cousins, and they are going to show me around Dresden.  Should be pretty fun.  Right now, I am waiting for my clothes to dry so I can pack.  All I really want to do is go to bed, because it is 1 am, but I must do this tonight, because I have to leave shortly after school tomorrow, so I can buy my train ticket and hop on said train.  Haven't decided if I'm bringing my computer with, so I might not update until Monday night, at the earliest.

Obersalzberg!!!--Bunker, Schnaps, and Salt!

11.7.10 (part 2)
So I didn't end up going to München yesterday, just chilled around, watched the game with my host dad.  Netherlands lost, boo Spain!  =(  LOTS of yellow cards.  It was pretty insane.


12.7.10--Obersalzberg

Today was soo fun!  We took a 2 hour bus ride to Obersalzberg (not to be confused with Salzburg) [First experience on the autobahn!--this part was one of the first sections to be built and endorsed by Hitler, and he actually commissioned one of the parts just to get to his summer home].  First we went to Dokumentation Obersalzberg, which was a museum about Hitler´s summer home up in the alps and we also got to walk around an old bunker.  We didn´t actuallz get to go up to the Eagle´s Nest, it was wayyy higher up the mountain than we were, and expensive, but the bunker was pretty cool.  After that, we got back on the bus and drove on the Panorama Straße up the mountain, and then walked around a bit up on top.  It was soooo pretty!  We could see Salzburg, Austria, along with many other mountains and little towns and cows and sheep.  So beautiful!  We then got back on the bus and went to lunch, where I had Gebratene Laberkase mit Brotkartoffeln.  Tasty.  After lunch, we went to a schnaps distillery, which was pretty cool.  We had a very short tour/description of how they make it, and then watched a short film about Enzian, which is the mountain flower that they ferment to make the schnaps.  After the film, the tour ended in the gift shop (like Disneyworld!), where they brought out a big cart with 6 types of schnaps and many glasses full of each (enough for everyone) and told us to finish the cart.  So everyone had at least 6 shots, plus you could try whatever else you wanted to taste.  My favorites were the blood orange, peach, and HAZELNUT!!  The hazelnut came in little wafer shotglasses coated with chocolate on the inside, so you could eat it.  Yum.  I also had half a shot of absinthe, cuz one of the girls didn´t want an entire one.  Pretty interesting.  After this tasty venture, we went down into a salt mine, which was SO FUN.  We all had to wear these jumpsuits, which were so stylin.  Then we took a little train down into the mine, until we reached a bigger cavern, where we exited, heard a little spiel about salt mines, and took an awesome slide down.  We learned some more about salt mining, and all the little parts of the tour were very Disney-esque.  Lots of led-light shows, magical-sounding chill music, etc.  Very Epcot.  We got to taste the wall, and I felt like I had eaten about 10 pretzels.  We then rode across an underground salt lake on a boat, of course accompanied by another light show.  At the end of that, we got to taste the water, which tasted like 25 more pretzels, on top of the previous 10.  We then reached the "treasure room," where they had lots of interactive computery thingys so you can learn anything you ever wanted to know about salt.  Next, we took a diagonal elevator thingy up a bit, learned some more, and took the train back to the entrance (they even had a fake cave-in!  SO much like a Disney ride).  The conductor gave us each a little canister of the salt they make there.  The train ride, of course, ended up in the gift shop.  We then went to dinner, where I had Currywurst mit Pommes.  Such a great day =]


New photo album: Berlin, Part 1.  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2048894&id=1135320260&l=6e308f33d2  

The Nürnburger and Paul der Krake

8/9.7.10

Not much happening recently...Thursday was just school and then chilling at home.  Friday we ate at the delicious Italian place for lunch again; I had Salami (Pepperoni in America) pizza.  Pepperoni here is peppers.  Its interesting how the name changes.  Later that night we went to a pub in town and just hung out and talked for a while.  After that a few guys really wanted McDonald's, so we went there.  I got chicken nuggets, and when they listed off the sauces that were available, instead of just your normal bbq or honey mustard, they also had curry!! So naturally that's what I got.  It was better than the curry we had in the cafeteria one day, which is good.  There's also a new sandwich in German McDonald's--the Nürnburger.  We read an article about it in class.  Basically, Nürnburg is famous for its little sausages--Rostbratwurst. They are about the size of breakfast sausage links.  We actually had them the other  day in the cafeteria, and they tasted exactly like breakfast sausages.  But I wouldn´t trust the cafeteria to make things like how they actually taste.  The Nürnburger consists of 3 of those little sausages on a ciabatta roll with mustard.  According to the article, most Germans hate the regular burger bun because it´s too squishy, so the Nürnburger bun appeals to that.  I personally haven´t tried it, but one of the other kids did and said it was pretty good. 


10.7.10

So today I didn´t really do a lot, just kinda sat around.  Later though, I went to Emily´s for the game, and we won!! 3rd place!  What´s really awesome is that Paul the octopus (der Krake, auf deutsch) was right again.  He´s correctly predicted all of Germany´s world cup games this year.  Makes me want him to tell my future!  (For those of you who have not heard of Paul, read this: http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/news/oracle-octopus-gets-death/dinner--fbintl_dw-octopus070810.html  )  Sadly, lots of Germans are mad because he correctly predicted Germany´s defeat in the Spain game, so they want to eat him.  As a result, PETA wants to set him free...where there is less security than in the aquarium...(they actually upped the security on his tank the next day). 


11.7.10

Today is another just sitting around day.  The nice thing about these is that I get to sleep in (til 11:30!  My sleeping-in skills are deteriorating....though it could be the constant yelling of the little kids who wake up at 6:30...).  I might go to München later if I have time, but I have to do some homework first, so I don´t know if I´ll make it before the game [go Netherlands!!].  Not a whole lot going on really...tomorrow we are going to a salt mine, a schnapps distillery, and Hitler´s summer home.  Should be a pretty fun, yet busy day.

Vuvusadness

6.7.10--Holzkirchen

Today after school we went to the new mall in Holzkirchen--the HEP (I forget what it stands for).  Well, I don't know if you can even really call it a mall....it's got about 10 stores, and 3 of them are grocery stores.  They've got an electronics store, and you can scan a cd and sample most of them in the store, which is pretty cool.  Bought 2 new cds--Lena and Juli.  They're pretty good!  Nothing else particularly exciting happened today.  Watched Weiße Rose in film class, which was pretty depressing.  Then again, all German movies/literature are depressing.


7.7.10--München

After school today we went to München for the public viewing of the semi-finals at the Olympic Stadium.  A few of us went to an Irish pub and had cider, while the rest went to the English Garden to drink the beer they bought the other day.  We ended up meeting up with them in the garden, which was really pretty.  Fed some ducks, saw some naked people, and watched the river flow through the beautiful green scenery.  Then we went to the Olympic Stadium, and this time we sat on the grass, maybe 10 feet from the screen.  Pretty sweet.  Not as exciting as the quarter finals, because Deutschland played like shit, but it was still fun.  Next time we play is Saturday (vs Uruguay I think) for the 3rd place game.  I'm really glad Herr Keel canceled first hour tomorrow on account of the game, I get to sleep some more =)  Talk to you all later!



New photo album--Bonn und Mayschoß:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2048518&id=1135320260&l=f44ab7efc2   

The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Moosic...(and Bells)

4.7.10--Brauneck Berg

Happy 4th everyone!  I celebrated the birth of our country by climbing a 1540 m mountain in Bavaria!  It was pretty tough, but I'm really glad I did it and didn't wimp out and take the Seilbahn (lift--literally, cable train).  It was quite an experience, and now I can put it on my list of accomplishments.  =)  It took about 3 1/2 hours, after we briefly went the wrong way and had to turn around.  I was the last one there, but whatever, I enjoyed it.  Slow and steady wins the race.  There are lots of cows all over the mountains, and you can hear their bells from miles away.  We stayed overnight in the Brauneck Gipfelhaus (Brauneck was the name of the mountain; Gipfel=peak, and Haus=house).  It was fun; after a nap we explored a bit more, had dinner and a few drinks, and sat around a campfire and roasted marshmallows.  The marshmallows here are werid...they roast differently/not as well.  Perhaps its because it's less fake ingredients.  Dunno.  Also, apparently Germans don't normally roast marshmallows--usually only bread or sausage.  Roasted marshmallows are definitely an American thing.  It started raining, so we went inside, and after a bit of hanging out, we went to sleep.  The girls were all sleeping in one room, and the boys in another.  We had really really creaky bunk beds [and not just 2 beds per contraption, either--it was a mega bunk bed.  The girls had 3 on the bottom, 3 on the top, with another regular (1 on top and bottom).  The boys had 1 giant bed contraption with 14 or so on the bottom and top, respectively.]  Anyways, the beds were really creaky, so everytime anyone moved even the slightest bit, it was super loud, so sleeping was difficult.  It was alright though.  Quite fun.


5.7.10--Brauneck Berg

Today after breakfast, we went on a short ~3 hour hike on some more mountains.  We got up to 1712 m!  Some of the views we got were so spectacular.  I felt like spinning around and singing like Maria von Trapp, but then I would've fallen and plummeted to my death.  It was awesome though, seeing the world from such a great height really puts a new perspective on things.  It was really nice weather, quite foggy, but only on one side of the mountain, so the views weren't terribly ruined.  It was only 60- or 70-something degrees, so although I was sweating, it was not from the heat.  Much cooler than yesterday.  Also slipperier, but whatever.  I only fell twice.  After a while, it started raining, but not too hard, so it was still bearable, if not pleasurable and refreshing.  It wasn't until we took a break at an Alm (little cafe/restaurant/bar thing for hikers and hunters--lots of them all over the mountains) that I started to get cold because we were just sitting there in our cold sweat and cold rain.  Then it cleared up and we resumed our hike, ending at the restaurant where we ate lunch.  I had Kaiserschmarr'n, which literally means "emperor's mess."  It was delicious--it consisted of cut up pancakes sprinkled with powdered sugar, with applesauce with lingonberries on top to dip it in.  Tasty stuff.  To drink, I had a Russ (Wiessbier-Cola) which was interesting, but also pretty tasty.  When it first came, it looked like a coke float, because of the foam.  After lunch, we took the Seilbahn back down the mountain, which only took 10-15 minutes, and we got to see our previous path from above.  It was pretty crazy.  On the drive back home, we went through Austria for a short bit, and then later I saw some more cows, along with some other animal, a yak or a buffalo or something.  It was really hairy and had the big horns.  Saw a few horses too, but mostly cows.  Now I'm back home, and I've gotta finish up some homework for tomorrow.  Bis später!




Also, I put up the next batch of photos: Köln!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2048097&id=1135320260&l=9e06ecc617   

Weltmeisterschaft Public Viewing!!

3.7.10--München

Today a bunch of us went to the Olympic Stadium in München for Public Viewing of the quarterfinals game--Germany vs. Argentina.  It was very exciting, and there were SO MANY people.  So much energy and pride and craziness.  I truly wish the US cared at least 1/4 as much as the Germans about the world cup.  It's so cool to have the entire country united under one team, all cheering for the same people.  The ticket to get in was 6 Euros, but then each ticket came with a free drink, so it was really only like 2 Euro to get in.  Germany won 4-0, and totally owned the 2nd half.  It was crazy.  Then on the train ride home, all the people were screaming and singing and jumping around...ridiculously awesome.  One kid had a megaphone and was leading the group.  Crazy shit.  After we got back, me, Divesh, and Ian went to the Italian place to eat, and we had Spaghetti Eis for dessert, which was yummy =)

Tomorrow is our overnight hiking trip, which should be awesome.  What won't be awesome is that from Sunday afternoon all the way through the entirety of Monday, it's supposed to rain.  Ick.  I hope the forecast is incorrect.

Various Excursions; Having to do with Beer, Bikes, and Lakes.

1.7.10--Holzkirchen und München

So today we had school, ate some lunch, watched a movie, etc.  Didn't understand this movie/like it as much as Tuesday's, but oh well. You win some, you lose some.  After a short break, we all met up again to go to München.  Herr Keel gave us a small guided tour of the Altstadt (old town), and then we went to the Hofbräuhaus for dinner--good, but huge, loud, and touristy.  They serve beer only in the liter size (ein Mas), but its tasty.  I had Bockwurst mit Kartoffelnsalat, and it was a pretty small meal.  Didn't really matter though, cuz the size of the beer made up for it.  Got apple streudel for dessert, and it was yummy.  There was a live german band playing, and after a while, a few of the guys decided they were gonna ask some girls to dance, so they went up to them, and started dancing, and found out they were from Arkansas (where 2 of the guys are from) and go to U of Arkansas (where those 2 go to school).  Small world. 


2.7.10--Holzkirchen und Kirchsee

Today we had class, and then instead of eating in the cafeteria, we went to an Italian restaurant--Da Tosto.  Delicious! Much much better than the sub-par cafeteria food.  After lunch, a few of us took our bikes and rode ~45 minutes (10.5 km=6.5 miles) up and down a bunch of hills to get to the Kirchsee, which was really nice.  Although it had mosquitos, it was pretty, and it was really nice to go swimming.  It was also pretty shallow, by where we were, the deepest was probably 10 feet.  We swam across the lake to the other dock, and then back, and then we just swam around, and had some fun.  After a while, we rode back.  Sadly, my host mom's bike was a bit too short for me, and I couldn't adjust the seat without a wrench, so it was really tiring.  I ended up walking up all the hills and riding down (sooooo much fun!!!).  And now, I am doing laundry for the first time. Yay clean clothes!

By the way, I put up the first round of pics... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2047766&id=1135320260&l=86fabbd0f6

Animal Lessons

29/30.6.10

Not much been happening the past 2 days.  Just some homework and chillin'.  I really like my lit class, and the film class is pretty cool so far too.  I cannot stand this grammar class though, banging my head against a wall would be more productive.  Therefore, I am switching to the history class, even though it seems like it's gonna be a lot of work.  At least I'll learn something new that I didn't learn freshman year of high school.  Today after school we played some Fußball in a park, and right when we started leaving, we saw 1 bolt of lightning and heard 1 clap of thunder, and it immediately started downpouring.  We met back up at the ice cream shop to do some homework, and of course, a bit after we get there, it stops.  Irony at its finest.  Speaking of ice cream, throughout the entire time I've been learning German, I've always wondered what Spaghetti-Eis is.  It's always in the books for some reason.  I saw it today, and it looks exactly like a plate of spaghetti.  It looks fantabulously delicious.  So I've decided that before I leave the country, I am having at least one.  A bit later, we left the shop, and I went home to do some homework.  The girls came in my room though and had drawn me pictures, so I drew them some pictures, and then they wanted me to keep drawing more and more.  lol.  Luckily, before I became their drawing slave, Skye called and a bunch of us went to Divesh's to hang out.  On my way back, as I rode the bike into the yard, I saw a small animal running from the light.  Totally freaked me out.  So when I got inside I asked my host dad what it could've been, and so I got a bit of a vocab lesson trying to figure it out.  We're thinking it was a hedgehog, which I had never actually seen until a week ago, but that one was dead, so this was technically the first live one I've seen (wild, anyway).  Apparently there are also marmots, and they live on the roof and have babies up there so you can hear the scritchy scratchy feet.  And in the alps there are groundhogs.  So many different yard pests!  Also, I find this translation funny:  Raccoon=Wäschbär (literally, wash bear).  Anyway, time to finish up some homework.  Tomorrow after school we are going to the Hofbräuhaus.  Should be quite fun!!

Wandern auf Tegernsee

28.6.10

Hallo Alle!  Today we went hiking on the Tegernsee.  It was not nearly as steep or hard as yesterday; mainly flat, but with a bit of hill.  Pretty trail through the woods, along the lake, etc.  Beautiful.  Lots of panorama pictures.  At the beginning, it was less shady, cuz we weren't in the woods yet.  I wore jeans, so I was really really hot.  Later though, when we were in the woods, it was perfect.  I don't remember if I said this yesterday, but apparently there are no poisonous plants around here.  Elsewhere in Germany there's this berry that 2 can kill you.  The first makes you blind, and the 2nd makes you have a heart attack.  Also, there's no natural predators around here.  Well, big ones anyway.  Biggest animals in the forest are the deer and the foxes.  And the snakes aren't poisonous either.  So really the only bad things are the slugs, and although they're gross (und groß), they're harmless.  So after about an hour and a half of hiking, we ended up in Tegernsee (the city; we had started in Gmund, but we walked along the Tegernsee {the lake} the whole time).  We toured a beautiful church, I believe it was the parish church of St. Quirinus.  It was all white and bright inside, with lots of paintings on the ceiling....so pretty.  It was like a wedding cake.  I've only ever been in the dark cathedrals before.  After the church, we went to a restaurant/Bräuhaus next door, which was delicious.  I had Bierwurst mit Kartofflen/Gurkensalat, und eine Radler, which is half lemonade, half beer.  Quite tasty.  Then after a while of chillin, we got on the train and came home.  And now I must do homework.  The grammar class seems like its gonna be really easy, and the literature class is going to be interesting and fun.  Werner, the guy who teaches the literature course, is a hilarious guy.  And Frau Bambauer, the grammar teacher, is really nice.  Tomorrow's the first film class with Herr Keel, so we'll see how that goes.  Well, I shall talk to you all later, got Hausaufgaben zu machen.  Tschüs!

Chillin in Holzkirchen

[Unless otherwise noted, all days from here on out are in Holzkirchen.]

25.6.10

Today was the first day of school, but it was mainly an introduction.  Nothing too exciting.  After school I walked around a bit with everyone else, then went home and played with the kids all day.  Florentina is pretty attached to me--always "pick me up, throw me, push me on the swing" etc.  Speaking of swings, I was swinging with Florentina on my lap, and then I let go of the rope, and fell backwards off the swing.  Ripped my pants from the bottom of the pocket down to the knee, and scraped my back up (like a palm-sized scrape).  I also met the 2 turtles today.  One is Lucy, and I forget the other one's name (also a girl though).  Later that evening, there was a reception type thing (kennen-lernen: getting to know eachother) at the school.  They gave leberkase, which I thought I would never like, but apparently I just don't like it when it's spreadable.  I like it when it is of the consistency of spam.  It was delicious.  They also had pretzels, with some kind of cheese dip (specialty of Bayern), but I didn't like the dip.  There was also Tegernsee beer, which was good.  All the students introduced their host families, and everyone just got to talk to everyone.  There was a choir there singing songs every now and then, they sang us a welcome song.  It was a good time.  After the kennenlernen, me and a bunch of other kids went to the St. John's Day fire fest.  For the summer solstice, many German towns have a big party and a fire to celebrate.  It was a HUGE fire.  Maybe 2 or 3 stories tall.  Biggest bonfire I've ever seen.  And of course, they were selling beer.  By the liter.  Huge glass of beer to match the huge fire.  It was really fun, and one kid likened it to being at Bilbo Baggins' birthday party, which was a really good analogy.  When we bought the beer we got a little blue chip, so we could get a refund when we return the glass.  One kid lost his though, and really didn't want to keep his cup, so I gave him mine, cuz it's a pretty cool souvenir for only 3 Euros.  Says Holzkirchen on it and everything.  After a while of seeing lightening in the area, it began to rain, so we left. 


26.6.10

Today I went to München with Amy and Ian.  We walked around the city a bit, then met up with Amy's boy, Tom.  Pretty nice guy.  We had lunch, and I had Jägerschnitzel  and Spätzel, which was good.  Then Ian and I went to Dachau, which was really depressing.  If you want to stay happy, don't go visit a concentration camp.  Dachau was one of the first camps in Germany, and later, many other camps followed the "Dachau method."  We even walked through the gas chambers and saw the cremation ovens.  It's enough to make you sick.  On a lighter note, but still semi-sad, later that day I met up with some people at Spenser's and we watched the USA-Ghana game.  It went into overtime, but then Ghana ended up beating us 2-1.  For some reason I was exhausted all day, so I didn't catch much of the 2nd half or of overtime cuz I was nodding off.


27.6.10

Today was Florentina's 6th birthday, and they had a scavenger hunt party.  I was gonna go, but they left while I was in the shower. (Speaking of the "shower," it is just a bathtub, no shower curtain, and no shower head attached to the wall.  There is a shower head on a flexible neck thing, so I kinda sat/kneeled and showered in a bathtub.  Interesting experience.)  Anyway, they came back a few hours later, and after some lunch, I went hiking with my host dad.  We went to Marienstein, and hiked up a ~500 m mountain.  About 1 hour up, and 1 hour down.  It was really beautiful, and pretty fun, but I've never hiked anything so big before.  Some of it was really steep too.  At the place where we stopped, there was a small hut/cafe thing, but it was closed.  We sat outside there for a while and chilled and watched the cows.  On the way down, we saw some sheep.  Its interesting to hear all their bells clanging.  We brought the dog with, and Jamie was very excited to run all around everywhere and smell everything.  Me and Wolfgang talked a lot about random things.  It was nice.  We saw a small snake, but he said it was harmless and blind.  Jamie tried to play with it, but he stopped her.  Apparently around here there aren't any poisonous plants or big predatory animals; the biggest animals are deer and foxes.  Really safe, beautiful place to hike.  Shady too, from all the trees.  What astounded me the most was the lack of bugs.  Sure, there's a few, but I didn't even put bug spray on, and there were no mosquitos, and only maybe a few flies now and then.  Drastically different from America.  No wonder they just keep all the windows open all the time.  The only things that really come in are crane flies, and although they're big and weird, they're harmless.  On the way home from the hike, we could easily tell who won the game, even without the radio.  (We had missed the entire England-Germany game up in the mountains.)  Everyone and their grandmother was out driving, screaming, yelling, waving flags, hanging out of cars, blowing those damned vuvuzelas (horn things for the world cup, google it).  It was crazy.  And this was only the 1/8th finals.  I'm afraid for what will happen at the end, and I'm not sure if I'm more afraid for the win or for the loss.

Tomorrow after school we are going hiking on the Tegernsee, and then having dinner at a brewery in there.  Should be fun, I've heard it's beautiful.  =)

Ich bin ein Berliner!

Hallo!  So here's what's happened since the last episode:


22.7.10--Berlin

Today we went to the Stasi Museum, but it was closed, since they are moving closer to Checkpoint Charlie so they can get more tourists.  So instead, we went back to the Holocaust Museum, which was really moving and sad.  Great way to start the morning.  In one room they had letters that people in the camps had written to their friends and families....really depressing. =(  After that we went to the Pergammon Museum on the Museumsinsel (Museum Island).  Throughout the years, the Germans have accumulated various Greek, Turkish, Egyptian, Islamic, etc ruins and art and other artifacts and brought them here.  Pretty cool place.  My favorite room had a really pretty blue mosiac archway with animals on it.  I'm pretty sure it was Babylonian.  It was awesome, whatever it was.  Other cool things there were the Islamic pottery and the bones of an Egyptian king and his sarcophagus.  We then had lunch by the Nikolaikirche--I had this hamburger type thing that I forgot what it was called...it came with a fried egg on top, but I took that off.  (Herr Keel said in Bayern its called a Frickadelle).  Twas good.  Then we went on a Spreefahrt (boat ride on the Spree River), which was fun.  Then we walked around a bit, did some shopping, and had dinner at an Indian restaurant--tasty.  Then we went back to the hotel, and I meant to meet up with everyone down at the bar after a short nap, but my "short nap" ended up lasting until the following morning. 


23.6.10--Berlin

This morning we went to the Deutsches Geschichtes (History) Museum [starting from the first German civilizations (the tribes) and going until 1994].  It was pretty cool, especially the parts about the kings and the Enlightenment and the Renaissance.  It's cool watching the development of toys--it was around the Romantic era that they started making educational/gender specific toys.  There was one doll whose skirt opened up to reveal a kitchen and all sorts of kitchen implements.  Bunch of cool stuff there.  After that some people went to the Tiergarten for the Fanmeile with 5 million other people to watch the World Cup games.  Me, Amy, and Ian went souvenir shopping and ate at an Italian restaurant for lunch.  We went to an Irish pub for some cider and to watch the England game (the US game was also playing elsewhere in the same pub, so we heard those cheers too--exciting: the US scored in the 91st minute!).  After eating at a mediterranean place, we went back to the hotel and watched the Germany game in the bar--also exciting.  Germany, US, and England are all advancing!  When Germany won, there were fireworks everywhere, and it was crazy.  Basically, imagine what happened in downtown Chicago when the Hawks won, except everyone was cheering for the same team, and its the whole country.  If they win the cup (knock on wood), Germany is going to go MAD. 


24.6.10--Berlin-->Holzkirchen

Today we returned to Holzkirchen.  Very long train ride.  When we finally got back to Holzkirchen, we went to the city hall, where all the parents were waiting, and they had a kid's band dressed up in traditional garb playing triumphant homecoming music.  It was all quite intimidating/embarrassing/funny/nice.  Then the mayor had a speech, and the principal of the school had a speech, and Herr Keel said something, and the band played between each one, and then we went to our respective houses.  My family is very nice, and although the parents can speak a little German, they cannot speak it very much, so I guess I'll have to learn fast.  They have 1 Jack Russel Terrier named Jamie, and 3 Daughters--Ella (8), Florentina (6), and Maren (4).  The girls are adorable, but with all 3 of them speaking German at the same time, its hard to understand sometimes.  I'm really close to the school and the train station, which is nice.  Tomorrow is the first day of school, so I should go to bed soon. 


Good night!!

Updates of the Past Few Days

Hey, so I was gonna update 2 days ago when I was still in Koeln, but then my internet ran out halfway through writing it. So here's an update. (fyi I'm on a friend's computer so I can't do umlauts =[ )

17.6.10--Koeln

Today we walked around the city, saw a bunch of historical Roman sites, and the Dom (cathedral). Roman ruins are buried all underneath the city, and only some are excavated. We went to an underground museum to see the Praetorium, which was the center of the city, like the town hall/palace type thing. It was pretty cool. Apparently the Romans gave the Germans clean water, bricks, a sewer system, and roads. Then we went to the Dom, which is really pretty, both inside and out. Inside lie the ruins of the 3 kings (from Jesus' birth), which were transported to Germany in the 1100s from Italy I believe. They're in a gold box in the back of the church by all the shrines/sarcophagi of the dead arch bishops.

After we looked around inside, we decided to climb up to the top of one of the towers-->533 steps (I didn't count, this is just what someone told me). We got 2 random people to join our group so we could get a discount (only 1 Euro each!). Most of the stairs were spiral staircases surrounded by brick walls, which wasn't too bad until mild claustrophobia started clicking in. At the bell tower, there was a landing, wherein lies the largest church bell in Europe. After the bell was more stairs, and then a landing with even MORE, but these were worse, because they were more open (surrounded by chain link fence and lots of windows, so you could see how far you've climbed). So, needless to say, by the time I reached the top, I was shaking not only from exhaustion, but also from acrophobia. Really pretty view though. Again, I was astounded at the graffiti. All up the stairs, and also all over the top. People brought white-out up with them to write on the tower. Quite ridiculous. Another ridiculousness was that there was a a small information booth/gift shop at the top. That guy's commute to work must suck.

After that we walked all over the city, got a bit lost, then found our way back again. Got some souvenirs, had curry wurst und pommes for dinner (schmeckt sehr gut). Then we chilled in the hotel bar for a while.


18.6.10--Bonn

Today we spent the day in Bonn. First we went to a history museum-->end of WWII to today. Pretty cool museum, nicely presented exhibits. Cool interactive stuff. Then we had lunch; I had Himmel und Aeaed, which is black pudding (Blutwurst), liver sausage (Leberwurst), potatoes (Kartoffeln), onions (Zweibeln), and applesauce. Good, but not nearly as good as the blood sausage we make at home. Nowhere close--too mushy. After lunch we went to Beethoven's birth house...alright, but nothing too exiting. Just stuff he touched and composed and whatnot. Then we walked around the city for a while, and I bought some cool cds. Then we went back and chilled in the hotel bar for the rest of the night (way more fun than the previous night). The bartender was really nice and funny and chilled with us all night. He wanted to practice his English, and knew we had to learn German, so he spoke to us in English and made us speak in German; if we said anything in English to each other we had to buy a round. Had quite a few interesting conversations with him.


19.6.10--Mayschoss

Today we took the train to Mayschoss for a wine tasting. Unlike wine tastings in the US, where you get a tiny sip and then have to spit it out, we got full glasses, and they never let em get empty. We started off with a red champagne, which was interesting, though for some odd reason it had a hint of cheese. Then we had lunch, which started off with a really yummy salad and a white wine, and then chicken/spinach/noodles/creamy sauce with the same white, and then we got a red with dessert (seemed backwards to me), which was a hot rhubarb thing; consistency/taste of pie filling, and delicious. Then, since one kid was talking to the guy the whole time and asking lots of questions, he took out his favorite bottle of wine and gave us all some. We then took the train one stop over to tour a cellar, and we got another glass of wine straight from the barrel. It was pretty cool. After the tour we went in the shop, and they gave us more tastes of whatever we wanted, but these were only small sips. There were lots of cool things in there, including wine jelly, wine truffles, and wine cake. The winery and cellar were dug our of the ground, with stone all around (it was in the mountains) Apparently, its much better to grow grapes on a mountain than flat land because you can control the sun (which side of the mountain), and the water doesn't pool, and there are no shadows (the sun hits at a 90 degree angle), and it stays warmer in the valley. Very interesting stuff to learn. Then we went back to Koeln and ate at this American-European restaurant--it was trying to be American anyway. I had Salami Pizza, which consisted of minimal amounts of cheese and 4 largish pieces of Salami. A valiant effort to replicate American pizza, and it tasted good, but nothing akin to our pizza monstrosities. Then we came back to the hotel to pack (I broke a zipper on my carryon =[ )


20.6.10--Berlin

After a long train ride, we finally got to Berlin. Our hotel is in the old east Berlin, about 15 minutes away via train from the center of the city. We had Doener for dinner, which was delicious (google it). Then we went to the Reichstag, which is where the German parliament meets. We went up to the top, where there was a really pretty view of the entire city. Then we went to this one street that one guy's friend had said had really good food, and we just chilled there for a while and walked around.


21.6.10

This morning we went to the Checkpoint Charlie museum, which was pretty cool. I found it especially interesting how inventive people got in their escape from the east--i.e. homemade scuba gear, gliders, hollow speaker boxes, various places in cars, etc. Then we went to the Gustapo museum, where I saw a short propaganda video which was the EXACT scene "Be Prepared" from the Lion King. No joke. It's quite ridiculous what Disney does. Anyway, after that we went to lunch, and then after lunch we went to the Museum of the Deutscher Wiederstand, which was all the German people against the Nazis--i.e. people who tried to kill Hitler, the student uprising, etc. Then we saw the Holocaust memorial, and we were gonna go in the museum, but its closed on Mondays. After that we went and saw this church that was bombed in the war and never rebuilt/renovated as a memory of the horror. After some shopping, we had dinner, and then just chilled for a while.


Ok well I gotta go for now, its late and I'm on my friend's computer. Ta ta for now!!

Hallo von Köln!

Today was a long day of travel...lots of time spent on the train.  But I'm finally here =)  Unlike in Holzkirchen, I don't get free internet...I paid 2,00 Euro for one hour, so I probably won´t be on much.

Das Wetter hier ist sehr schön.  In Holzkirchen it was rainy and cloudy, and here it is hot and humid..big change.  Though despite the sweatiness, it is nice. 

The next few days are full of museums, touring around Köln, and a wine tasting, I believe.  Should be a fun time.

Dinner was good; the place we went had 1 meter long bratwurst (for 4 people). tasty. Had that, Bratkartoffeln with some kind of cabbage (cabbage was surprisingly good) and Kölsch--Köln´s brew of beer.  Then we walked around the city for a bit, saw the cathedral and the bridge; they were pretty, then we just ambled around, though most everything was closed by then.

The Köln S-Bahn is most like the El so far, but its still much cleaner. Everything is so much cleaner.  None of the train stations are dirty or smell like piss or have bums living in them. Its crazy.

Well I gotta sign off now, I´ll update later...maybe when  its less expensive.

Holzkirchen

Hallo von Holzkirchen!

So here are my thoughts and observations about Holzkirchen after walking around yesterday and today:
the town is made up almost exclusively of:
-bakeries
-dirndl/laderhosen shops
-other cafes/bars

saw some cows yesterday too. they were cute and they walked right up to the edge of the fence to say hello.
there are giant slugs EVERYWHERE on the sidewalk. so gross. und groß. gross in both languages.

last night for dinner i had a yummy beef broth soup, and then some grilled meat and fries, and then ice cream with mixed berries.  tried dunkeles Bier.  all was delicious. then i went with some of the other kids to the bar across the street to watch the soccer game (brazil and paraguay tied).

today we had breakfast at the hotel, which was delicious, and then orientation, where we introduced ourselves, and learned a bit about holzkirchen, the bayerische dialect, and some other things.  then we had lunch, which was a chicken goulasch thing, very yummy. had coke with real sugar.  then we had a scavenger hunt type thingy (eine schnitzeljagd) around holzkirchen to get to know the town.  and then i took a short nap cuz i was exhausted.  then was dinner, which was pork and a giant dumpling.  the pork was kinda fatty, but good once the fat is cut off. the dumpling was yummy.  i had apfelsaftschorle, which is apple juice mixed with mineral water so it is bubbly.  pretty good. interesting to say the least.

after dinner i came back to my room and packed; we had to put our suitcases in the other room to be locked up for the next 10 or so days, which is the whirlwind tour of deutschland.  tomorrow is köln, gotta leave for the 7 hour train ride at 9:45.

well, its almost midnight now, so im going to bed. gnite all!

I've Arrived!/First Impressions

So I'm finally here in Germany.  It is 1 pm here, plane got in at 9:20 am, and then i had to take 2 trains and a taxi to get to the hotel. 

The plane ride was...enh.  I was on the wing, so couldnt see much out the window [not that there was much to see, it was really cloudy].  I finished my book about 1.5 hours in, and the others were in my suitcase.  My tv also did not work (more on that later). Couldn't manage to fall asleep either, so it was fairly boring.

Since the tv didn't work, the stewardess gave me this card with a website on it that I have to go to to claim my "we're sorry" gift.  I'll check that out later and see what I won =)

The trains here are REALLY nice.  MUCH better than the El, better than the Metra, and better than in Sydney.  They're so nice and shiny =)  Really smooth ride.

 The hotel is pretty nice. Free wifi and breakfast, nice room, and a terrace (which I'm sitting on right now).

A few first impressions:
All the roofs are orange, with the occasional brown
Quite a lot of the billboards are in English
Lots of green/trees/farms

I'm gonna go explore the town; I'll add more later and eventually get some pictures and videos up.