| Cause I'm Leaving, on a jetplane (ooh, camp song?) |
[Jul. 12th, 2004|08:01 pm] |
Ok, first things first. For all of you who said 'I told you so' at the last entry, shaddup. Just because I don't want to leave means that I don't want to go home.
Second, Larissa. You promised 'long comments' and good comments that would make everyone else want to make long comments as well. However. Your comments are one sentence. I am not impressed.
Finally, I reserve the right to write one more final entry upon arrival in the States. Tommorow. Yowza.
Well, folks, its the end of the line. But still, funny stories from today. We were in the grocery store (I spent 30 Euros on food and candy. Rockin'!) and there was a huge line for the register. Thus, they opened another counter. Gerda ran over and got in line, but I had the cart, so I had to make my way over. Before I made it over there another couple got in line and blocked the way for me so Gerda told them to wait so I could bring the cart, but they ignored her. So she told them again and I nudged in with the cart. At this point the lady put on her angry face. So we unloaded the groceries onto the counter while the couple behind us glared at us. Then, randomly, one of the containers of cream Gerda had burst and spilled on the bottom of the cart and my foot. We started laughing because it was pretty funny. Then the jerk behind us goes 'Its punishemnt for your bad behavior.' I have never been closer to public violence than I was right now. I had half a mind to pick up a cucumuber and whack this guy upside the head and yell 'We were in line before you so suck it up and go clean up this spill while I taunt you and chuch cherry tomatoes in your general vicinity. Freak.' Luckily, Gerda missed this last comment or else I fear she might've beat me to the whole public-beating-with-a-cucumber thing. It would've gotten messy. This loser's wife looked like she could've done some damage with one of her pink stilettos (They were a little over dressed for a supermarket.) As it turns out they were from Belgium. So the French and the people from Belgium are tied for 'Most obnoxious European nationality.' I should tell them that.
After the grocery store cream fiasco we visited the electronics store. In this store they have a big music section where you can open the cds and listen to them on stereos before you buy them. Gerda hunted out a song she had heard on the radio, opened the cd, and was listening to it. And singing along. Very loudly. In the middle of the store. Those who know me know that I like to avoid most akward social situations like the plague. So here I am, in a German music store, trying to look like I know what's going on (The Germans call rap 'Black Music' so if youre looking for a DMX cd you have to go to the Black Music section. I think that's a bit weird, don't you?) and Gerda's singing. I stopped her, but then she started again. People started watching us out of the corner of their eyes. You could tell what they were thinking; 'I want to look but I know its rude so Ill just stare at a spot right behind them and try to look like Im not paying attention. And is that girls right cheek more red than her left?) This was uncomfortable. So we checked out washing machines and left.
As of right now I am all packed up, impressive. It took me four tries to pack my suitcase, I think I bought too much food. I think I spent too much money too, but thats another story for another day. So after squashing, rolling, kicking, punching, and sitting on my bag, I've got it zippered. If they ask me to open it at security, its going to get messy, I can tell you this. I think im going to tie a shoe lace through the zippers to make sure they dont pop open on the plane. Jeeze that would suck.
So were going to avoid the emotional end of trip moment and Im going to say that I had an amazing, wonderful time and thank you so much to all of my hosts and my partner in crime and Ill see you Americans in about 25 hours. Aah!
:o) |
|
|
| France, a boat, and a sunburn. All in one happy package. |
[Jul. 11th, 2004|11:25 pm] |
SATURDAY
France and I reached a new place in our relationship today. I no longer hate France, in fact, I love France. I just hate her people. Hate it a strong word, but any nationality that has given birth to Charles de Gaulle Airport and Air France merit the use of it. At the sun-sun-sunny hour of 0930 I was picked up by Maria (my new buddy from Wednesday) and her friend (I actually never got her name, let’s call her Louisa, just for kicks.) and escorted to meet Dana and her friend (once again, missed the name. She was wearing blue glasses so we’ll call her Blue (once again, just for kicks.)) at a gas station and then drive to Strasbourg. Oui oui! The trip was uneventful, minus a slight run in with a bush while doing 110 kilometers per hour down a winding side road. Yes, you heard me. Run in. With a SHRUB. Forget terrorism, what we need to worry about here is German driving. (Honestly, I feared for my safety on this drive. It was scary.)
In Strasbourg we parked in a nice French parking garage (as I'm typing this I’m saying it in my head with a lovely French accent, so you have to play along or else it’s no fun.) and made our way through the streets of France while I tried to contain my hostility. We then took a tram to see the European Parliament, the place where all the important stuff with the European Union goes down. We ended up at the Council of Europe and couldn’t make our way to said Parliament (although we did ask some attractive young beret-wearing men who were in the army, judging by the machine guns hanging at their sides and the camo jumpsuits.) Alas, we were forced to be contented with a walk through the park. Imagine our surprise when we came upon a Mini-Ferme! Indeed, it was a French mini farm complete with French emus, French wild cats, French goats, and (best of all) French MONKEYS! Aaaah! We watched said furry creatures for about, eh, 20 minutes. All 15 or 20 of them would chill on one side of the cage and then, randomly, they'd start shrieking. Freaky monkeys.
After this loverly break we continued back into the center of the city for a baguette. This is when France began to win me over with her charm. This baguette had two of my favorite things in it, tuna, and mayonnaise, and bread, and hard boiled eggs. Ok, check that, four. Four… of my favorite things. Mmm. We then checked out the cathedral in Strasbourg, I compulsively took pictures, and we headed off for Petite France, the section of the city containing a bunch of traditional old wooden French houses. It was nice, I guess. I wasn’t exactly sure what was original France and what was not (to be honest, I was expecting an arrangement of little houses. Seeing as the name translates to 'little France'. It was quite the let down.) So I just took a bunch of pictures of some wooden houses. Lots of houses were wooden. That’s besides the point, MOVING ON. Oh crud, what did we do next.
Er… oh, right, shiny thing. We got attracted by a large, shiny glass building and went to check ‘er out. Turns out it was a French modern art museum at which point Maria got all excited so we left her to go shopping. We went to this enormous French department store called Galleria Lafayette or something. Apparently it's famous (I took a picture). We left Dana and Blue in the shoe department (don't take Dana away from shoes, it gets ugly). I walked around, looked at all the French fashions I would never, ever in a million years be able to afford, if I could even get myself to wear them. Then we went to the stores bakery, I got this little pastry called a Canele. It was, surprisingly, delicious. It's this little cake in the shape of a bundt pan (about two inches high, 1.5 inches diameter) and it's really dense and heavy. It tastes like something I've never, ever tried before in my life. Sort of like a combination of hazelnuts and citrus. Maybe, whatever, it was delicious. Then we picked up Maria, I tried Turkish nougat (she had bought some, it was good), and we picked up the car. First, however, we got sucked into that huge makeup store, Sephora. I bought hand cream. It smelled really good, it was a light smell so it’s not like ‘dear God is that you or am I near a compost heap', it's more like 'golly, I could swear that I smell apricots on a summer breeze, and it's November!' If you catch my drift.
We found the car, paid for 4,40 Euros of parking entirely in change (much to the disdain of the three people in line behind us. To pay at the automated machines in all the parking garages you have to insert a coin and wait ten seconds to make sure the machine counts it. Half the time you have to reinsert the coin once or twice. Now multiply this 14 times to pay for one parking spot and try not to scream.) and drove home. Right through a lovely thunderstorm. I love lightening and thunder and rain and driving fast and big dark scary clouds and wet trees and curvy roads and people who drive fast but NOT ALL TOGETHER. That is really scary. For me, the one who has recently experienced the whole driver’s ED ‘drive-fast-in-a-rainstorm-and-you-will-crash-and-die-on-the-sidewalk-and-only-your-twenty-cats-and-parrot-named-Steve-who’s-actually-a-common-sparrow-that-you-got-talked-into-paying-a-month’s-worth-of-income-at-your-job-at-Burger-King-will-miss-you-and-its-your-own-fault!’ thang. But everyone's alive. And that’s all that matters.
Indeed it was an exhausting day. But I learned a lot. Monkeys are weird, and they can jump long distances. Men with machine guns are not to be messed with. Do not take pictures of everything you see. If a tram door has a red X on it, you should not try to enter it. And, most importantly, France is a nice country. It’s her people you should avoid.
SUNDAY
Today I had a rendez vous avec our old friend Denise, she was an au pair for the Rehnquist family (our down the street neighbors) and became friendly with us. We met at the Bad Kreauznak (spelling? Ack.) train station with little trouble (minus that little thing about me not knowing what train I was on and praying that I was going in the right direction and then getting yelled at by a freaky old man for having my feat on the seats. Atleast, that's what I think he said. He went all German on me.) We headed to a boat trip on the Rhine and got on for half price because of our status as students. Rockin’. As we were getting on the boat the sky was really dark and then, lovely, there was a huge slam of thunder and were like 'Shit, there's no room on the inside of the boat', but, luckily, we went in the opposite direction from the clouds and had perfect weather all day. In fact, it was so perfect, I didn't think about the repercussions. Which explains the stinging, burning, itching, stretching sensation currently radiating from my face. Meaning I got a sunburn. And it hurts. Like none other. I haven’t gotten any sun any other day on this entire trip. However, I have not spent four hours sitting in directly sunlight on any other part of this trip. Oddly enough, my right cheek is brighter red than my left. This is both painfully awkward, and oddly amusing. I have to keep rubbing my face because it's so itchy. And I think I got heat rash on my arms. And I've picked up a head cold. I'm going to be a mess on the plane. 'Um, excuse me, flight attendent? Can I change my seat? The girl next to me is sneezing and scratching her arms and face and I'm pretty sure her right cheek is redder than her left.' That's how it's gonna go down. I can tell you right now. This is a time for apricot scented body lotion. Because I can't seem to find any aloe. Curse you, poorly planned packing list!!!
Actually, Denise said my burn isn't that bad, it makes me look healthy. However, we all know that sunburns get worse a couple hours later. And ooooh it's gotten worse. Here's a conversation with Denise after the discovery of the parched face:
Me: Oh crap. Now I look like such a tourist! With my stupid camera and my sunburn.
Denise: And your back pack, don’t forget your back pack.
Me: Thanks. (Mental slap)
Anyways, boat trip. It goes from Bingen to St. Goar along the Rhine and on the way you pass like 10 or 15 or some odd ruins and castles and cool churches! It’s actually a great way to see the Rhine and it’s surroundings. Denise was kind enough to buy me a guide book, so I can show you all the places I saw today. I took lots of pictures too. Since it was a roundtrip boat ride we got out for a 1.5 hour lunch break in the lovely St. Goar and then returned for out trip home. We made some new friends, Steve and Jane (They called each other Stevie and Janey and we never were formally introduced so that's an educated guess.) from Wisconsin. They were really cute and in their 50's. Jane had a really funny accent and sounded very motherly, like the little old ladies you see on tv ('oh Stevie, let me take a picture of you dear!'). They were very interested in Denise and not so interested in me. They did think it very mature that I was here alone, not to mention that I was a diabetic. That reminds me, Jane's father had diabetes and lived to be 88! That's really cool incase you don't know. 88 is old for any healthy person, not to mention a diabetic. I took a picture of them too. Lots of pictures. There were lots of Japanese tourists on the boat too, they're sort of the laughing stock of tourism. They move in tour groups and take photos incessantly with tiny digital cameras. And most of the pictures have them in the foreground. Make that almost all of the pictures.
After the boat trip we went to see Denise’s gorgeous apartment in Bad Kreusnakckaiatdaa (I give UP.) and get some dinner. They’ve got the most amazing parking garage ever (I made a movie). It's so cool I almost died on the spot. You drive onto a metal platform and then you turn a key and it goes down or up, depending on the positions it's in. So in the space you could park one car in a normal garage, in this garage you could park three, vertically. So. Cool. You. Can’t. Believe. It. Denise thought I was ridiculous for taking a picture, much less making a movie of this thing. We met her boyfriend who's a pilot just back from a flight to Athens! I think that’s really cool. He's gone for days at a time though, not so cool. He was really nice and funny (he kept saying ‘oh shit’) and they’re a really cute couple. Sort of like Dickens and Eli, except Denise and her boyfriend are really tall. (No offense guys, it was necessary to state that so that everyone could understand the situation.) So I had a salad for dinner and then we got ice cream and then I took the train home, uneventful (except for the 11 year old boy who randomly started sobbing on the train because I think he was travelling alone and he missed his stop and his cell phone died... or something. I can't understand German, incase you didn't know. Especially not when the kid speaking is sobbing. I felt bad, but someone else made sure he was ok.). I was sad to say goodbye to Denise, it was really great to see her. She hasn't changed too much, she's got shorter hair (this is for my parents benefit, seeing as they're the only ones who remember her... I assume...).
Jesus, this is the longest entry ever. I've been typing for an hour. Now my hands hurt too (Curse you, fair skin!!!). I need aloe like Bush needs new advisors (Zing!). That was AWFUL. Pathetic. A lame excuse for a political joke. Shut up, Emma, time to go. Holy crap, tomorrow is my last day here. Can you believe it? I can’t. It really hasn’t hit me until now what a big deal this was. It was always like ‘Yeah I'm going to Europe for almost a month its cool hey is that a bird?' But now it's like 'Holy crap I've GONE to Europe and oh my GOD shut up what are you talking about of course it’s a bird but EUROPE!?’ Wow. Wowowowowow. Ow. Wow. Wowow. (hahahaha… easily amused…) Tommorow I have so much to do! Sleep. Eat some stuff. Figure out how much money I need/owe. Buy 50 Euros worth of food to bring home. And, oh shit, pack. Yikes. This is such a big step in my life, and now it’s over. (I’m typing this in word by the way and the ruler thing along the side is in centimeters and that’s just AWESOME.) Wow. Ok, time to post this and get some sleep. It’s a big day tommorow. It’s my last day. I never, ever thought I’d say this, but… I don’t wanna come home. Yikes. |
|
|
| We are sooo good at this travel thing. |
[Jul. 9th, 2004|09:32 pm] |
And the adventures of the Dill Family's apparent ineptitude (is that even a word? I give up.) at modern travel CONTINUE. After numerous (7) attempts at using an ATM the final answer was discovered as to why Emma's ATM card is seemingly useless. That's because... (wait for it...) ... it is! Indeed, it expired in June. So, Emma is without access to her savings account with 13 Euros and 43 Euro cent in her pouch. Enter Gerda and her operational bank card. Emma is now getting money by trading checks for Euros and fudging and exchange rate. No, that's not true. I know that 120 Euros is equal to 151 dollars. That's a bad rate if I dare say so.
In continuing the tradition I have had ice cream for the sixth day in a row. (Oh Mom, by the way, here's some more food I would appreciate if you happen to stop by the grocery store before my return: apple juice, unflavored seltzer, Camombert (spelling?), tomatoes, sliced turkey, and Breyer's Heath Bar ice cream. Danke!) Wow, someone thinks she's special.
Today Emma went for a little walk around to take pictures of the neighborhood. This walk was uneventful. There was a failed attempt at an ATM withdrawl and a friendly run in with a 13 year old girl sporting dred locks. There was the old lady who gave her the evil eye and probably put a curse on Emma for taking a picture of a house. There was the young boy who got his foot stuck in fence while goofing off with his friend at the bus stop and started screaming. There was the same child, after having wrestled free of his wrought iron foe, who was running around hollering like a stuck pig. Really, quite boring. Emma had meant to go out earlier to avoid youngins in general, however the sudden downpours this morning featured were somewhat unappealing. (She would like to note that it has rained every day since Larissa left, exactly as she predicted.)
Then Emma went to the Ramstein (spelling) army base to buy some souvenirs. She was entered into the computer and photographed, and would like to inform her friends and family that she can finally say that truthfully the FBI has a file on her.
I knew I was in the company of Americans again when we entered the department store thing that they have on most army bases. The screaming children and hastled mothers made her feel at home. 'MAAAMAAA' 'Robby! Stop punching your sister!' and then there was 'Well you know what? It doesnt prove anything that he picks on you.' and then there was 'ANGIE! Mommy said DONT TOUCH!' I note that one does not often hear such screaming in German stores. Emma made many nice purchases on base, despite her, shall we say, desperate lack of funds. I like how being on base is like being in mini America, except its a very integrated mini America. With cruddy stores. Although I did like the year round christmas store. That is quite fun and appealing. Although we had to leave before 6 pm when my status as 'visitor' ended and my status as 'potential terrorist fugitive' began. (Kidding about that last part.)
Anyone else notice that about 80 percent of that is in the third person?
I blame the navi. (Larissa? Remember?) |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Jul. 8th, 2004|06:34 pm] |
Ok, lets see. The reason no one has gotten postcards is because Im not actually going to mail them until tommorow. And then theres that whole air mail thing... Yeah... Some say I shouldve done this two weeks ago, I prefer to think that I am merely creating suspense.
According to mother my ACT scores have arrived at home. This is just one more incentive to stay in Germany. They dont require ACT scores to get into college.
Spent the rest of tuesday recovering from the whole getting up at 3am business. Everyone was wiped out.
Wednesday afternoon we met this family of 4 girls, one of whom spent 6 months as an au pair in the US. I think that they wanted me to stay with them for a while... But I wouldnt dare miss Seussical the Musical. You know Ive listened to the entire soundtrack 4 times? Yep. Not healthy, lemme tell ya. Let's see, the family. Right. In the German tradition we had cake, in the Emma tradition I had two chunks. You heard me, chunks. I turned down the offer to go to private Christian girls German high school for a day, I've had enough of school. And Ive seen a private school before, Victoria went to one. I did, however, take them up on a trip to France on Saturday. It looks like its going to be me, Dana, and the girl who was an au pair. We're going to shop around and visit some towns, including the town of Bitch (I'm not kidding, theres a French town called Bitch. And I'm going to buy a tshirt. Just wait and see, I'll wear it on the first day of school.). I'm not exactly sure what the plans are for the rest of the week, but I think I need to stop going into downtown Kaiserslautern. I spend too much money. Actually, I bought my scrapbook so Im all set to get right down to the making the memories when I get home.
You know whats weird? In Kaiserslautern (maybe in all of Germany) the post offices merged with the flower stores. So you cant find a free standing post office. Only a flower store/post office. Freaky.
Oops, dinner. (Boring entry, sorry) |
|
|
| Right, so, about me not updating recently... |
[Jul. 7th, 2004|11:25 am] |
Topics in this entry:
1. Doom Cabbage
2. Trains + punks = no fun
3. Buffalo
4. Dwarves and frozen spaghetti
5. Death by Air France/ I didnt know there was a 4am
1. Doom Cabbage
After our nice traditional meal at the German restaraunt Larissa spent the next two days being violently ill. This consists of not sleeping, not eating, and generally feeling like one's been hit by an 18 wheeler. We thought it was just a bug or maybe the stress of this trip in general but, as it turns out, this illness was the result of the one and only boiled cabbage of doom. When one eats said cabbage for the first time, one oftens becomes violently ill. To quote Larissa '... You'd think they would warn you!' Larissa's better now, this is good. She was eating normally again for her flight home.
2. Trains + punks = no fun
We packed up everything and got the bags and illLarissa to the train on time, early actually, and were all ready for a nice quiet train ride when we noticed all of these punks piling up on the platform. They were drinking and smoking and yelling and we were nervous about ending up in the same train as them. Not only were we on the same train, we ended up spending the first 45 minutes of the ride up close and personal with them. They oversold our train so that we couldnt find any seats. So we decided to wait it out in the train's entry way platform thing until there were seats. Right. 15 minutes in we were standing shoulder to shoulder with about 20 other people in this 7 foot by 7 foot train entry way. One guy had a mini keg and was dispensing beer. Another girl was smoking (it was a non smoking train). She then spit on the ground and rubbed it in with her boot. Lovely. Larissa ended up sitting on the bags while the roudies clinked their beer bottles over her head to hard I was convinced that they would shatter over her head. I got sprayed with beer when one of then opened his third bottle. They also fed Larissa chips. I dont think that they knew she was sick. Thank God they left about 1 hour in, I was sitting on the steps into the train with my back pack in front of me and a woman next to me, also sitting, and another woman right behind me. Talk about claustrophobia. So we finally got seats for the last half hour of the trip. This just goes to show you when you buy discounted tickets, you get what you pay for.
3. Glen and Gerda decided that we should go out for dinner. We were driving to the restaraunt and Glen kept talking about buffallo and Larissa and I were like 'alright, sure, buffallo, whatever.' However. Germany does have buffallo. We were driving and all of a sudden I see a 'caution, Buffallo' sign and then, lo and behold, we drove by a family of buffallo. No way. Sadly, larissa did not get to enjoy much of dinner because we did not realise at the time that eating was the worst thing for her, and so we almost killed her. Not good. But an early bed and some more medicine did the trick and 24 hours later she could ingest apple juice and cold cuts. Mmm mmm.
4. Sunday we went to Heidelberg to check out the city and the castle. The castle was nice, it wasnt particuarly gorgeous, although there were some really cool stories behind it. We had a guided tour which was nice becuase we got to see stuff you didnt normally (and it was really cheap). I took some good pictures. Then we decided to get ice cream (Larissa had a glass of coke instead.) It was really, really expensive, but really good. Gerda got spaghetti ice cream which was vanilla and pistachio ice cream shaped into noodles and topped with strawberry sauce to look like tomato sauce and shredded coconut to look like cheese. It was really funny, i took a picture. I had a regular sundae but it was delicious. We've had a lot of ice cream here, Germans like their ice cream apparently. There are ice cream stores everywhere you look. Honestly, even the tiniest towns have one. We spent the rest of the afternoon tootling around taking pictures and looking at stuff. There were these really weird pigeons that were... well... doing the big nasty in the middle of the town square. It was really funny. There were these little kids that were running and chasing the pigeons while screaming. Ahhh children. So young.
5. I didnt know there was a 4am / Death by Air France
Larissas flight leaves at 725 and you have to be there 2 hours early and the airport is 1.5 hours away. Oh yeah, you know what that means. Leaving at 4 am. I, being a genious, decided to be nice and go along. Bad idea. I shouldve just given her a hug and gone back to bed. But, most of the family got up to see her off. And so we left a little late at 420. The drive was nice (punctuated by two foxes running across the road infront of us and then Glen telling us what they were thinking. Then he started talking about what baby birds must think when they look out of their nests for the first time. I think everyone was a little bit tired.) but I was drifting in and out of consciousness. We got to the airport so early that they hadnt turned most of the lights on yet, and the Delta counter wasnt even open. So we sat around for a bit and then tried to check Larissa in. BUT, of course, the flight had been changed so we had to get a new ticket printed. But the air france counter couldnt do it. so we went to the delta counter which didnt open for 45 minutes. so we went to a different delta counter and got some random guy to print something (it wasnt a ticket) and went back to air france but air france couldnt use it so we went back to delta which had opened early and they printed a ticket and we went back to air france and it still didnt work so we went back to delta and as it turned out the reservation didnt work because the air france counter had been looking up the reservation under larissa's first name. I. Hate. Air. France. Her FIRST name? Honestly, have you never seen a passport? Is this your first day? OR ARE YOU JUST FRENCH?! Dear God. This caused for hysterics on our part, we were now worn out from dragging the suitcases back and forth from counter to counter because you cant leave the bags anywhere because, who knows, you may be a terrorist out to blow up the air france ticket window (not a bad plan actually...). They scan your bags before you get to go to the check in window and so Larissas bags got scanned 3 times. They put a little yellow tag on your bag each time and the guys kept looking at us weird because Larissa had 3 on each bag. ( I thought this was funny ). Atleast they took pity on us and started letting us cut the line (the people there probably knew us by name). This whole experience took about an hour (Glen had to move his car out of the 15 minute parking) We actuall thought ahead and I got my ticket printed so hopefully we wont have this issue next week. I actually havent talked to larissa yet (coughyouweresupposedtocallwhenyougotofftheplaneiwaitedupforyoucough) so I dont know if she had trouble in Paris too. Hope not. So we said so long and watched Larissa head off into the great unknown by way of the security check point. Rather, we watched her set off the metal detector, get wanded, and then finally pass onto the great unknown that is Frankfurt airport.
Things Ive learned:
1. Dont trust the French. Especially their airline.
2. Get to the airport early
3. The sunrise in Germany is nothing special.
4. There actually is such a time as 4 am.
5. Air France is responsible for about 40% of all stress related deaths each year.
6. Birkenstocks set off the metal detector, so Larissa always has to go through the metal detectors barefoot (its really, really funny).
Well, there you have it. I am now a one person party. Larissa is now back in the USA. She is no longer a journal writer, but a journal commenter. I have 6 days left. And, for the love of God, all of my clothes smell like death. |
|
|
| To school we go. |
[Jul. 2nd, 2004|04:26 pm] |
Today we went to school, German style. Its so different, you wouldnt believe it. All the kids get sent through metal detectors and they all eat breakfast at school and they dont use pens and pencils, only crayons!
Ok, so I was lying about all of that. It wasnt really that different. We got up early and to school early and got to sit outside and watch the people pass. Most of the kids come by bike or by the citys bus. theres no big yellow school bus. We started out with Elizas geography class in which she did a very mice presentation about the panama canal complete with drawings. They primarily use black boards in Germany, not white boards and markers. The first class was in english, and we (and by we I mean larissa) had to talk to the class a bit about where we were from and all that jazz. People didnt really talk to us, so it was ok.
Then we switched to Cecily and went to her music class, which was in German. The teacher looked at us, said hi, and we sat in the back of the room. You wouldnt believe it was a class. People were passing notes, talking at full volume, getting up and moving around, yelling, and this was all while someone was doing a presentation. Yikes. It was boring since the class was all in German. I started reading Cecily's copy of 'the wave' (which they were reading in politics) and larissa put her head down.
After second and fourth period every day the kids get a 15 to 20 minute break. Larissa and I didnt want to go to Cecilys german chemistry and latin class since we wouldnt understand any of it. So, we, my first time, decided to skip the next two periods, and we walked into the town center and got a bad ice cream, bought cookies, took a really long walk, and enjoyed ourselves mightily. We got back during the second break to head to Cecilys history class which was in politics. It was the same group of kids as her music class, in Germany all the kids pretty much stick together in one class. So it was like elementary school where youre with the same 20ish people every day all day. Oh well. In history we were interogated by the teacher about what courses we took, which we liked most, what we learned in history, etc. Yikes. He liked larissa more i think, since her favorite class, coincidentally, was history. The kids were learning about the Weimar Constitution, and i thought it was a dull-ish class, larissa liked it though. she answered questions when the german students didnt know.
Then came politics class, in the same room so we didnt have to move. The teacher came a few minutes late and the class was in ruins (everyone talking, fooling around, sitting on tables, jumping on chairs, heads were out the window, etc). I was amazed, if we did this stuff at school, we'd end up in detention or thrown out of the class. I talked to Vanieta and she said that in the 70s everyone decided to take power from the teachers and make the kids very hard to discipline, theres no detention and technically youre not allowed to throw kids out, we think. So the teachers are helpless to control these kids, who obvioulsy dont care much about school. In politics we got introduced, again, very briefly, and then we had to read aloud half a chapter each from the book 'the wave'. Larissa did a great job reading, I went way too fast, and when i finished a page they all started talking really loud and the teacher told me that they were amazed with my speed and i definitley heard some kid say something to the affect of 'she should freestyle' or something. I really didnt want to read because I dont read aloud well (I get confused and sometimes add or subtract words from a sentence.) and he gave me no choice. He also made a couple underhanded, mumbled comments about Americans thinking all germans were nazis or us being taught something to that affect, while at the same time assuming we didnt know anything about Nazis. Oook, i figured it was a touchy subject. So I mightve gotten sort of mumbly in my last page or so, because when I finished a bunch of people were imitating me. Ugh. It doesnt really matter, its not like Im ever going to see them again. In my life. (Thats really weird, isnt it?)
So they dont eat lunch at school, there are 5 45 minutes periods and two 15 to 20 minute breaks in the day during which everyone eats snacks and the younger kids (There are grades 4 to 13 in that school! weird! Actually, it was obnoxious because all the little boys run around and are just crazy. I almost got kicked in the head while they were standing on the bench i was sitting on and kicking each other around the tree behind me. Crikey.) They get out of school at 1:20, but some days kids have two more periods later in the afternoon, but they get a 45 minute lunch break first. They though that just the idea of our 1 and 1.5 hours periods, 30 minute lunch, and lack of breaks was scary and awful, 'how do you do it!?' I dont know. I like theyre style better.
Overall it was good experience, it was nice to see how other kids do it. We didnt really get to talk to anyone because even though its a bilingual program and the kids speak very good english, they were afrain of looking silly if they messed up. I dont blame them, i was in the same situation when leah took an exchange student for the summer from france. i spoke decent conversational french, but didnt want to because i thought i would look stupid. Now i know, though, that it just makes someone feel welcome to try the language. Because of this social situation which is not fun for our hosts or us (and our recent lack of sleep and need to pack, seeing as were leaving tommorow, and not to mention the fact that we could save money) weve decided to skip tonights party. Its ok, I hope. :-\. Oh well.
You wouldve been amazed by the lack of discipline. even if you wanted to sit down and pay attention, you couldnt have because there was so much going on around you that you couldnt focus, if you could even hear the teacher sometimes. Im almost glad that our school is stricter.
I did find out that in germany the college process, and the school process, is different. Everyone ends school at different times. the brightest students stay until 13th grade and then do two years at whichever college they want. they send the college their 12 and 13th year grades (thats it for the application, no essays, no SAT or standardized test, no letters of recomendation, no after school activities, no club, nothing else but grades from two years! Wow, thats a bit different, eh?), and what they want to major in (they have to know before) and thats it. they get to go where they want. I had trouble believing this. Kids who dont stay until 13th grade ( this might not be right, correct me if im wrong) go to trade school for fewer years and then go directly into a job. This is very different from our schooling. Theres is no honors, ap, etc. There are honors schools I guess (thought, honestly, the classes didnt seem too hard. it might be because its the end of the year too, summer vaca is in 2.5 weeks.)
Their school buildling is different too. THe doors are these big, painted metal doors with no windows in them. There are big windows in the classrooms that you can open though, and, gasp, no screens! The building is 4 stories too. So lots of stairs, you get your work out. And outside theres about 20 or maybe 30 square feet of bike racks that are filled. Oh, and at 4th break, theres and ice cream truck that comes! I love it. I like German school, it has its good and its bad, but it was a good experience to go see it. (thanks for reading this if you stuck through.)
Then for lunch ( dad i hope youre reading this ) we went to a traditional German 'gasthaus' (guest house) resturaunt and ate way, way, way too much. vanietas not here right now and I have to ask her what we ate, so hold on. |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Jul. 1st, 2004|10:12 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  content | ] |
My, my, what a day. Got off on the train very smoothly this morning, except...
except we were eaten by a monster. in case you didn't notice by the sudden change, this is larissa now as emma is off to bathe herself. and i say it's about time already. she has outlined my job for me though, i'm to write in the basics and she will fill in details later. so here goes, amsterdam in basics. (Emmas details are added in parentheses)
it was a nice train. (its a lot like an airplane! Theres a nice color scheme, an attendant with a snack cart, comfy sets, digital displays telling you where you are, and little tables in the seat in front of you. tres cool.)
amsterdam is in holland. ( that makes country number three! Germany, Austria, Holland! We got lots of holland souvenirs.)
we went to the van gogh museum. it's small, but lovely and the art was beautiful. (it didnt take very long, and their gift shop was lacking.)
then we walked around a bit towards the red light zone. we didn't go completely into it, but we went a ways in... (not too far, becuase i got really uncomfortable, and was low. i dunno, there were alot of nudey bars and sex shops and you know how that makes me uncomfortable.)
we found some lunch, we didn't find or have time to search for the indonesian place. ( i bet we can find it in the us. i had a delicious sandwich and larissa had a banana and a muffin)
we shopped a little bit. just a little though because then we headed to the... (we bought lots of tshirts and postcards and i, as ususal, found amsterdams one bead store. rockin! Nothing special by way of shops however.)
anne frank house. it was amazing. and powerful. and rather upsetting. but i'm really glad that we went. (... last. it wouldve been hard to do a whole day with that over your head, you know? It was really well set up. They worked the old with the new very well. it was a good experience. minus the obnoxious tour group of teenagers we wound up behind. they didnt really take it seriously. it made larissa, and me, angry.)
then we just walked around for a bit until our train...it was wonderful. ( we loved all the old townhouses and cafes and canals and all the people! so many people! its gorgeous. there is so much diversity its almost scary. and the public transportation, the trams, are awesome. theyre cheap and easy and go everywhere you need to.)
we had a great day. found our train home without any problems and here we are, back in düsseldorf.
so there you have it, amsterdam in basics. (with the details added by emma. anything missing?)
victoria -- larissas email is miss.laris@verizon.net |
|
|
| Oy. |
[Jun. 30th, 2004|09:17 pm] |
Slept late this morning, Larissa went for a jog, and I finally got my pictures onto a cd so I could clear my camera and make room for much more picture fun. Then we went shopping in Dusseldorf with the girls (Eliza and Cecily) this afternoon. I bought some plain shirts which I was in need of. Ive been wearing the same two tshirts alternating daily, gross. We did, however, get to do laundry. Clean clothes. That with showers every other day! This is the high life, folks. Today is my half way point I think. Hm. Not sure. Oh, larissa and i also got Stabilo pens. I already had some, but i wanted more. and now I have more. Huzzah!
Tommorow were off to Amsterdam, yikes. I hear theres drugs there. (kidding, i knew that a long time ago). Were not going to be there when its dark, so i think itll all go smoothly.
We got pizza for dinner tonight, 3 euro for a cheese pizza about the size of a small pizza at pizzagando, bargain! It was good too, but really salty. the crust of the pizza was covered in salt!
In the city today we went to this one street thats all bars and resturaunts from one end to the other, all next to each other. there are performers that walk up and down the street and play music, and all the bars have tables outside so everyone sites along the street, it was really cool. We also went to the really expensive shopping part of Dusseldorf. There are stores like Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Rolex, Cartier, and this big fur store. All the cafes serve all these fancy drinks and expensive foods and its kindof intimidating. most of the cars parked along the side of the street are mercedes, bmws, jaguars, and other frighteningly expensive cars. Really not my place. Im not in the, er... spending bracket that these stores require, you know? |
|
|
| I've been to heaven... and its located in the chocolate musem in köln. |
[Jun. 29th, 2004|10:31 pm] |
Dear GOD, people! YOU HAVE NOT LIVED until you have seen the beauty that is an ENTIRE MUSEUM (called the 'mmmmusem' by the pamphlets) DEVOTED TO CHOCOLATE! gah. words cannot describe the glory that is the chocolate museum. Or the gift shop. Oh. the gift shop. I shouldve bought more. It was... amazing. There was this chocolate fountain. A gilded, 6 foot masterpiece that spits melted chocolate into a giant dish into which wafers are dipped. I almost cried when I got this wafer coated in liquid chocolate. Sadly the ropes around the fountain prevented my attempts to fill my waterbottle in such a fountain. Curse you, modern concern for sanitary chocolate fountains.
In the gift shop we bought the best thing in the history of the world. Are you ready? Caffeinated Chocolate. Yes, you heard, er, read me. Its called Scho-ka-kola. And its like caffeine pills, in chocolate form. Take a piece and youre awake for hours. And yes. I bought some. They also had boxes of thin slices of chocolate that one puts on bread to eat. Weird.
We also did some other stuff not related to chocolate, but that was the hilight of the day. I CANT SPELL. bah.
We went to the Dom (cathedral) in Köln and it was amazing. I cant describe it, i took tons of pictures. We also climed a 500 step tower that allows you to see over all of Cologne, and now my legs are siezing up. Thats just peachy. it was gorgeous, but over run by school and tourist groups. Lots of foreigners.
then we went to a roman-german museum which had some cool original roman tile floors that had some how be preserved intact underground. the real fun of the museum was the group of girls we met. They were about 11 or 12 and discovered we were american when they asked for directions and larissa stared blankly at them. 10 of them cornered us later (literally, i found larissa with them surrounding her and her back against one of the exhibit walls) and asked us questions. they were Swedish I think, and spoke german, and decent english. They would all pull aside and talk to figure out how to ask their question, they would ask it, we would answer in small words, and (the funniest part) they would all translate our answer back into german for the one girl whos currently failing english in school (not kidding.) They asked me what my insulin pump was. And that got a bit messy. I tried to explain it twice using the smallest words i could think of. They all stared at me. then finally once i though theyd gotten it one of the girls looks at me and says 'youre very nice, but im sorry, i dont understand you.' and it was akward. they were all really sweet. and it was cute. We were americans, we were like a tourist attraction. I could charge a fee... hmm...
had some issues with banks today. learned that i cant use the atms with my bank card until the banks are open in the US. it did, however, cause quite the scare when i though id just wiped out my savings account... that mightve been messy.
Im going to see if larissa wants to write anything, so peace, love, and coleslaw, and until tommorow (when i will spend lots of money shopping in dusseldorf), i'm out.
so my public is calling, eh? i knew it...
so emma mentioned the 'swedish' girls then? well, they were actually swiss...it all started when one asked me a question in german, to which my response was oh so american: i speak english. from that point on they were fascinated. obviously.
it was quite the day really; next we headed over to the choclate museum. a fine topic of study in my humble opinion. the only advice i would offer the staff would be more free samples. free samples keep the world spinning.
köln was wonderful though, very güt.
then there was a great dinner followed by the long awaited, much anticipated, intellectually rejuvenating political discussion. ah, at last. clements, eliza, emma, vanieta, and myself got into a wonderful discussion, mostly focusing on bush, but since it was good old stephen that requested my input in this journal adventure, i will spare the liberal details.
tomorrow we're going....shopping. who's surprised?
and since i have now tired of this journal deal, i will close.
so this is larissa, (not slovo, i don't know where that originated but...oy, that's all i have to say, oy) signing off. goodnight and have a pleasant tomorrow everyone. |
|
|
| Cameras = love |
[Jun. 28th, 2004|03:33 pm] |
In unrelated news, I have five bug bites on my right arm, but only one on my left. Whats with that? Do German bugs only prefer right arms? Bizzare.
In related news, my camera has arrived. Without a tarriff (thank God, sometimes they can be 40 or 50 Euros!), and on time. Happy day! Missed some quality picture oppurtunities, but Ill get over it.
In other news, from this point forward everyone must refer to my camera as Clyde, seeing as that's his name. Yes, it is a male camera, because it came by mail. (if you try to think like me, this all makes sense.)
This morning we spooked around Duesseldorf (SPELLING, gah!) and visted the TV tower, a tower originally built for all the tv antennas, but soon after it was finished antennas became obsolete with everyone moving to satellite. Its something like 170 meters in the air at the top and you have a fabulous view of the entire city and most of the towns/smaller cities around it. Then we walked through a park briefly, but, as we learned yesterday, rain can come unexpectedly, so we kept it short. (yesterday we were biking down to the rhine but then, out of a partly cloudy sky, came a drenching downpour which soaked us completely through in 5 minutes. Were talking driving rain here people. And then, just like that, it was gone. i love it!) We tried to find larissa a down comforter, but we couldnt find ones like those that jen and sebastien had, and theyre expensive.
Dusseldorf is known as the 'desk' of all the surrounding towns because all of the management for the manual labor/production centers that are around the city are in duesseldorf. So accordingly there are lots of high priced shops (burberry, hermes, louis vuitton) in the city, along with other, less expensive stores. This means that theres going to be some good shopping coming my way. Bowchicabowwow!
Tonight we're finally going to see Raising Helen (in english!) at the movies, and tommorow were going to Cologne for the day.
Darby/spitzer - could you email me a copy of the cast list? i forgot to look at it carefully, and its driving me crazy because i cant remember who is what. stargirl87865@hotmail.com
anyone who knows ms.smiths email, could you email her and tell her to answer my email? or just tell me her email. I need to send her the link to this. |
|
|
| Curse you, language barrier!!! |
[Jun. 27th, 2004|05:22 pm] |
The train was an experience. I was surprised at how nice and clean it all was. The trains are quiet and the seats are really comfortable and everything is impressively clean. People are so nice too. The two of us were lugging these huge bags up and down elevators and stairs and train platforms and escalators and we wouldnt have made it if we didnt meet these two nice older people who were, oddly enough, going on all the same trains we were. They helped us find the platforms and waited for us discreetly at the end of hallways and the bottoms of stairs to make sure we made it. The only thing we could say to them was 'chus' and 'danka'. I wish I knew German!
Dusseldorf (spelling, gah!) is sooo much different. Much more modern and busier and gorgeous all the same. There are so many bikers here you guys wouldnt believe it at home. Everyone, or so it seems, bikes everywhere! They get pretty nervy, too. Cutting across streets during green lights and the like. Weve already got our whole week planned out here and it looks like its going to be an absolute blast! Im really, really excited for everything! Aaaah, so much energy!
The fireworks last night were to celebrate the 1300th anniversary of Würzburg ( i hope i spelled that right, seeing as its on my sweatshirt ((which I love)) )! 1300! Whoa! Too bad they stunk, eh? It went like this... Lots of excitement, they had colored lights on a castle and projections on it that were really cool, and since this is Europe, there was the soccer game on a ginormous (really big, for those who dont speak emma) tv screen. But then youd get 1 to 3 minutes of fireworks and then 5 minutes of some actor in costume talking and then 5 to 10 minutes of a voice talking and projections (which, i might add, was all in german. so we didnt get any of it.). Quite the let down I must say. Seeing as we endured awful crowds that nearly killed me (it took us 20 minutes to move 10 feet, and most of it you had to keep your face up or else you couldnt breathe because so many people were pushing you, it was awful), and had to wait until 1130 for it to start. We were bored and didnt get it so we left early.
Going to go call the 'rents (parents in emma-speak) and then go to the Rheine river, come back for dinner, and then a movie tonight (not at a theater, the only english movie started at 5). Tommorow is... oh, I cant remember, but Im psyched.
Chus! |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Jun. 26th, 2004|06:07 pm] |
Well today we said so long to Jen who has to work until next Wednesday. And we had our last strawberry cake at the farm and said goodbye to Jens mother and grandmother and various animals. We met Glen and Gerda at the farm and said goodbye to them until a week from today. Tonight we're going to pack and clean ourselves up and then wander into Würzburg to see this big fireworks display that's going on. Tommorow it's up early and to the train station to make our way to our next leg of the trip.
Thank you for your comments! Now I have to go spend money on all of you, aren't you excited? I still need adresses by the way... |
|
|
| moneymoneymoney... MONEY... (the theme song to 'the apprentice'?) |
[Jun. 25th, 2004|08:17 pm] |
Today we slept lateish, showered, and then shopped our feet off. Not a great haul, however. I got some amazing pens (Stabilo pens?) that I lovelovelove and may have to buy more of so that when I run out I have more. They may have these in the US... but you cant be sure. Larissa and I then both bought sweatshirts that say Wurtsburg on them (of course on the shirt its spelled correctly), mine is orange and white, hers is black and white. Theyre really soft and happy. Then we bought random Germanish cool things at a toy store. Toy stores are better here. Not all the talking plastic toys in the Us, but fun wooden toys and all that jazz. Not to mention really cool little kids jewelry that they are much too young to appreciate. Tonight its to the farm for the night and then we're going to meet Sue/Gherta Peach (I dont know if thats spelled right) tommorow and then pack for the big transition on sunday, oh so exciting!
Darby - its not akward to comment on this. If you guys dont want to comment on here, could you atleast email me so that i know someone cares when im gone? No postcards or presents until I get comments or emails or some attempt at communication. stargirl87865@hotmail.com if you please. |
|
|
| I negelected to mention this minute fact. |
[Jun. 25th, 2004|10:27 am] |
I forgot to mention how yesterday we tried (well, Jen was driving, i told her to turn around) to get into the army base at Gieblstat. Some very snippy men with very big machine guns told us that, no, you cant just drive around an army base. I knew it, but Jen wanted to find out. To get up to the entrance of the base you have to drive through this zig zag of concrete road blocks and through a double layer of guarded, razor-wire-topped fences just to ask someone if you can go in. Yikes. its Germany, no ones out to blow up the US base there. Jeeze.
The partiers got in, according to my watch, at about 4 am last night. I was asleep by midnight. Guess whos more awake right now? Yep.
I was going to check my SAT scores online, but it has to be after 8 am, and its 430 am US time right now.
I cant get the hang of this time change thing. Although, Ive been eating alot more lately and sleeping alot too, which is helping things to go faster and feel better.
Steph, how do you spell Wolomolopog? And is it a street or a road? I should know this... |
|
|
| Oh you loyal readers... |
[Jun. 24th, 2004|10:08 pm] |
Hallo good people! It is I, the only one who updates.
Quieter day today and yesterday.
Yesterday we slept very late, had a wonderful and very amusing lunch with Jens mother and mothers mother (grandmother, right...) trying to communicate with a handful of english words, but we made it work surprisingly. Then Jen came home from work and we took a stroll to visit two castles, or shall we say the ruins of said castles. We got to bring the dogs though, which was much fun.
Jens grandmother has a small dog whos name is Chico, the spanish word for boy. When Jens grandmother first got the dog, it was thought to be a boy, and so the fitting name was chosen. However, Chico is not a boy. Chico is a girl. And so Chico has turned out to be a very spiteful little ball of fur, probably a result of the gender confusion caused by her name. At the castle yesterday the dogs found a shallow stone well (about 2 feet deep) filled with muddy water. While the two big dogs only got wet legs which were easily cleaned in the main (said 'mine') river, chico was fully coated in mud. Thus, chico was bathed on return to jens house. While we were trynig to dry a very angry chico he ran away and tried to get in the house so i went to get him, and, apparently scared him. So, long story short, chico decided to try to take my finger, he bit me. Thankfully he didnt break skin, but it did sting for a bit.
Speaking of stinging, Larissa discovered this lovely german plant/bush thing, and when one walks into said bush, it causes ones skin to burn for several minutes. The second discovery (she walked into it twice) of the bush went like so-
larissa- ouch!
jen- what?!
emma- its ok, she got attacked by the burning bush.
larissa- my heritage has fortold this moment!
(in Jewish history God tried to talk to Moses through a burning bush, thus, God was trying to talk to Larissa... either that or she had an allergic reaction to a bush... but i like my idea better.)
We ended the day with a walk with Hexe, the wild pig, and then the final german soccer game (they lost and are now out of the championship) and then bed.
Up this morning to go visit Nurnburg for shopping fun. I finally got a small backpack for day trips, some beads, and a bright orange belt. Jen and larissa got the same belt in yellow, and larissa got a messenger bag for college, and jen also bought some beads.
On the way home we hunted out Gieblstacht, the town my parents lived in when dad was in the army over here. We found their old street ( we think/hope) and i took lots of pictures.
Then we met some nice german men when jens car refused to start, its very old and long day of driving made it not want to start again. With jumper cables and an assortment of friendly german men and women we got the car to start and made it all the way to a gas station in wurzburg near jens appartment before it gave out again. We managed to give it enough of a push to coast back to the appartment.
Tonight Jen, larissa, and sebastien are out to a club whilst i stay here (my own choice) to update this and call el parentos and read and get some sleep. Tommorow Larissa and I will venture out on our own to shop in wurzburg and then head to sebastiens home town to visit his friends birthday party.
One week anniversary is tommorow... only two and a half more for me...
ps
sharon friends... are you there? we had an agreement, i write, you comment. Darby? Amelia? Spitz? (thank you to steph and leah and anna for commenting, by the way). If I dont get excuses, comments, or notes as to whos not home to read this, no presents for you.
Which reminds me, i forgot to bring my address book so if you want a postcard, leave your address. even if you think i should know it... coughamelialeahcough. |
|
|
| Chickens... |
[Jun. 23rd, 2004|03:49 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | amused | ] |
We're at Jen's farm today and tonight. I was sitting here reading email, Larissa and Jen had gone to check on Jen's animals, and I heard someone outside shouting on a megaphone. I got a bit worried because it sounded like it was coming from outside the house, so I went downstairs to find Jen. They happened to be right outside so I asked what was going on, and apparently a man was selling boxed chickens from a small truck. Yes, boxed. The chickens had been put in small boxes to be sold. I love Germany. |
|
|
| so you want details, do you? |
[Jun. 22nd, 2004|09:19 pm] |
Jen's farm was great! We met all the animals and took tons of pictures and met her family (not her dad, he dropped something heavy on his toe and broke it in 6 places and is in the hospital for a little while.)
The castle was great fun as well. It was dark but my pictures came out well.
For those of you who dont know i managed to be brilliant and drop my camera (the love of my life, my $300 baby) into a river. the pictures are still there, but its having some issues right now. a billion points for mom and dad for not freaking out when i told them. in the mean time, ive got a multitude of disposable cameras.
spent the last two days in munich. great fun was had by all. we visited a traditional bavarian village complete with people in traditional garb (yes, that means lederhosen) and i took a picture of the pizza hut in the town center. thats great. america is everywhere.
munich was fun, larissa bought some excellent yellow and orange shoes for cheapo. we finally cashed our travellers checks (by the way, its not going to be enough, everything is more expensive than i planned) and could pay back jen and sebastien for the past few days.
in munich we went to the hoffsbrau house (dad, i swiped a menu for you), but it was in the morning. i love how a beer garden was half fun at 10 am. i tried beer, didnt really like it, but it was mixed with sprite so it wasnt that bad. the waiter thought we were weird for ordering two beers for four people.
we visited this cool museum today much like the science museum at home. it has everthing in it, its 6 floors, and you could spend a week there and not do and see everything. my favorite part was the live glassblowing demonstration.
Havent eaten that much traditional german food yet. we've eaten alot of french, italian, and american.
last night there was a big championship soccer game here, and apparently soccer is big in germany. all the out door cafes set up tvs and projection screens and dragged their ice cream coolers outside and everyone was watching the game, it was really funny, but we couldnt hear anything during dinner because it was so loud.
the youth hostel was interesting. we didnt actually eat any meals there. the room was tiny and there were no towels and no tissues. no one told us we had to bring towels. so larissa and i havent showered or done laundry in a little while. we probably smell, too. we should probably do something about that.
the z key is switched with the y key on this keyboard and i seem to be using a lot of words that have y in them, making this very difficult.
hey, friends of mine in sharon, why arent you commenting? i write this one third for you, one third my family, and one third for our other german hosts. stop being mean and leave comments.
mom - did father Bob die? if not, why were there tributes? oh, and tell amelia i hope she can walk normal soon.
austin - skinny dipping is weird. i hope you walked away quickly. oh, and give the dogs a hug for me. make sure they have an equally cushy bed in your room as they did in mine. but dont get used to it, when i come home, theyre mine again. |
|
|
| We made it! (i know, we're surprised too) |
[Jun. 20th, 2004|10:49 pm] |
First off, the keyboard here is different, so this may not be perfect.
Airplanes and airports are what is wrong with society. Our plane to Paris took off late and we onlz realised this would be a problem when we discovered that it was 9 am, our connection took off at 945, and we were still in the air. oops. to quote the flight attendant, 'its all over'. The french people in the airport were mean to me at security. If I dont respond when you yell at me, its because i dont speak the language. thanks alot. ok, make this brief. we're off to visit the castle Mariebourg (spelled very wrong) and then to a club. (isnt it weird that its 1030 here an 430 there?) |
|
|
| Schnitzel. |
[Jun. 16th, 2004|09:33 pm] |
|
Quick overview, this is so you can all see what's going on in Germany and so we can see what's going on over there. (Haha, over, because there's an OCEAN between us. Yikes.) Leave lots of comments and beware that my family's reading this and so let's keep in PG and nothing private, eh? I mean, yah? I mean, no! Stop it, Emma. This is Emma by the way, Larissa's not here right now. So leave lots of messages and tell us what's going on in Sharon. |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
mmm_lederhosen's journal