Home Again

I never really did finish my blog, so I guess now is a good time. That last Friday I ended up going into the city to see off Jess and Christine. They were leaving from Frankfurt on Saturday morning. I met up with Jakob and Paul and we waited with them and Christine's host family before they left. We exchanged some tears and goodbyes. It was sad :-( After seeing them off we went to a Kiosk and bought some beers. We went to the park on the Rhine and drank the night away. It was freezing! When we all though we were going to freeze to death we walked to a restaurant and had some beer there. We were all feeling pretty good I must say! Then we decided to take the Bahn to Barbarossaplatz to get McDonald's but we ended up on the wrong one and went to Aachnerstrasse. We picked up a cab there and went back to Barbarossaplatz, and from there we decided to call it a night. I had to say goodbye to Paul there because he was leaving the next day too. That was really sad. I went home that night, and the next day I got stuff ready to leave and I watched some soccer with my family. My host dad made Gyros and Lauren came over to eat cuz her host mom sucked and left her that weekend. We hung out with my family and drank mulled wine. We had a great time. When Lauren left I went out with my host brother Timo, his girlfriend Mascha, and my host sister Yvonne. I realized that in all these months of blogging I never told you my host families names. My host dad was Udo, my host mom was Iris, and I had another host brother named Stefano too. So there you have it! That's their names! Anyways, I went out with the three of them, and we met up with Jakob. We went to a Koelsch bar in Heumarkt first. It was so cute! I wish I would have known about it sooner! After that we went to a cuba bar in Zulpicherplatz and hung out the rest of the night. After lots of beer and some tequila I was having a great night. Jakob had his first tequila ever! I said goodbye to him that night, which was sad also. I hate all these goodbyes. We had such a fun night. I really wish I could go back and savor this night with my host siblings...we really had a blast. I love them all so much! I was looking at the pictures today and just missing them all. Sunday I was really depressed. I just didn't want to leave. The reality had really set in. I went to the mall with Yvonne, but I just kept thinking about how it was all over. I really had a miserable Sunday. I spent the rest of the night packing. Monday I went into the city and did the rest of my Christmas shopping. I found the Harley store after much searching, and then went to the Christmas markets in Neumarkt and the Dom. I also walked through Altermarkt and Heumarkt, but the place was just packed with tourists. I went home that night and hung out with the family the rest of the time. We all watched movies and I knew I wasn't going to be able to sleep so I stayed up and watched Enemy of the State in German with Timo until late. I really didn't get any sleep that night. Tuesday morning I mostly spent crying. I was so depressed. I was sort of excited to come home and see everyone but mostly I was just depressed. I sobbed when Yvonne went to work. I sobbed when Stefano went to school. I sobbed when I pet the dogs. I sobbed when I had to say goodbye to Timo. I sobbed when I had to say goodbye to Iris. I sobbed when Udo dropped me off at the bahn. I just cried a lot. I really couldn't stop. The people on the bahn must have thought I was crazy because I had these big orange suitcases and I was just crying like a crazy person. When I was waiting for the train, a lady came up to me and asked me in German if I could help her friend find a luggage trolley at the airport, she was from Sri Lanka and only spoke English. Luckily for her I am American and speak English quite well. I helped her friend get her luggage on the train. It turns out her name was Sister Helen and she was a Sri Lankan nun on her way home from a year long mission in Germany and the UK. I helped her find a trolley when we got to Frankfurt and together we tried to find the check in counters in the Frankfurt airport. We got lost twice and took an elevator to baggage claim by accident. Eventually we found our way and she blessed me :-) She was so sweet. I finally made it to my gate, and boarded the flight. The flight was long and miserable. Relatively smooth but almost 10 hours due to high winds. When I finally got to Philly my knees were killing me. I got my bags and immediately turned on the cell phone that hadn't seen service since August 19th. I proceeded to receive around 800 messages which I deleted without even reading. It wasn't worth it. The guy in Customs turned out to be a Pittsburgher and he waved me right on through after a couple of cracks about how Philly is the shitty side of PA. The next flight went really smoothly, and I made it home in time to find my mom, dad, and bobby waiting for me. I was really excited to see them and I couldn't help but go pulling out presents in the airport. When I got home, I was eating pierogies within 15 minutes, and drinking German beer. I tried on my Dirndl for Kathi, and since I got home 2 weeks ago I don't think I've shut up once about my trip to Germany. I'm lucky to live in an age where I can talk to people and see their faces on my computer. I was able to see my host sister and host mom the day before Christmas Eve on skype, and Yvonne even brought the dogs in to see me. I've talked to Stefano and Mascha in facebook and Timo in e-mail. I really loved my family and I really hope we can stay in touch. I don't plan on staying away from Cologne for too long though. As soon as I can find a job there, I'm out! I really miss the city. Over the course of 4 months I felt something there that I've only ever felt in Pittsburgh. Cologne is definitely a place that I can consider home. The people there and the vibe, it's unreal. It's just like here. They have their songs and their sports and they're so damn proud. It's really something I can relate to. And I loved speaking German everyday. I love German so much - transferring to W&J and continuing with it was the best decision I ever made. After 3 years of not taking it, I figured that I'd never speak it again. I'm so glad that's not the case...I enjoy it so much. Truly, learning this language has given me the opportunity to enjoy the best 4 months of my life. How many 22 year olds have had the experiences I have? I'm so lucky! Oktoberfest, the Berlin Wall anniversary, Greece, Japan, 11/11, NFL in London, Thermal baths in Budapest, seeing Paris...these are the coolest things I've ever done. Hell, just one of those things is usually cooler than what most people have done in their entire lives! I just feel so lucky to have been able to experience those things. I know that I was given a great opportunity and I used it to my advantage. I took away much more than I thought I could. My original plan was to see Oktoberfest, Amsterdam, and Paris. My original plan was to pick 3 things that I had to do, because doing more was unrealistic. Instead I got to go to Oktoberfest, Amsterdam, Berlin twice, Paris, London, Athens, Mykonos, Vienna, and Budapest. That's CRAZZZZY! Not to mention starting my trip in Prague! Unbelievable. All the while I made 14 new American friends, got to know my amazing host family, and made friends with other Germans as well. It was fantastic. What a crazy new outlook I have on life. 4 months later and I'm surely a new person. I've grown up, absolutely, but I've also learned the good and bad in my own country and in others. I've learned to live independently, without relying on my boyfriend to bring me diet pepsi's and happy meals while I wait on rich jewelry customers. I lived without my family for the first time in my life. 4 months surrounded by a country and people who I didn't know. I feel pretty badass I must say. And I'd do it again Spring Semester if I had the money! Now I just have to work on readjusting to life back home...it's definitely been an adjustment. It seems like everything is different at work. I'm driving all over the place again and not walking anywhere. I'm getting used to having a boyfriend again and hanging out with him all the time. It's not easy. It's still a process. I miss my life overseas though. I really want to make it happen again soon.

Last Friday

Hi everyone -

I'm down to 4 more days in Germany...I'm really bummed, but hopefully I can make the last 4 count. The last week just basically consisted of a lot of studying and a lot of paper writing. I had a lot of stuff due this week. I stayed home during the weekend and got stuff done. Saturday night I hung out with my host sister and watched Germany's Got Talent which was fun. On Tuesday we were finally done with our finals, because we aren't in the Polysci class that had a final on Wednesday. To celebrate, me lauren and brittney met up with our new friends Jasmin, Irene, and Nora. They go to the Schiller Gymnasium right next to Elisabeth von Thüringen Gymnasium where our classes are. We went to a shisha bar then kinda hung out around Zülpicherplatz and Barbarossaplatz. Wednesday night we had our farewell party. We met at Frank, our program directors, house and we drank a lot of beer and had a jolly old time. After that we went to the Capitol and I ate some REALLY good tortellini and we drank more beer. As evidence by the pictures on my camera, we had a really fun night. It was nice to have all 15 of us together for a change. Yesterday we all met in Rudolfplatz for lunch, and afterwards we met our Schiller Gymnasium friends at the Cafe near the school for coffee. It was really sad to go to the cafe for the last time, and Maria who owns it gave us free coffee. Last night we went to a pool hall called Der Stiefel for a drink and then ended the night at Kim Phuc. Unfortunately I wasn't hungry at all so I didn't eat anything. Oh we also went to the Opera on Sunday which I though I was going to hate, but I actually ended up liking it. It was hard to understand because the parts that were in German they obviously didn't put the words up on a screen, but there were parts in French where they did have the words up in German so I could read that. It was interesting. I think my finals went pretty well but I'll know better next week I guess!

11 days and Finals approaching

Ughhh so I know I've been terrible about blogging the past 2 weeks but things are winding down and are a little crazy. We've actually been doing things after class so I haven't been home very much. So I left off 2 Sundays ago. I have to think about what all I actually did in that time period. Hmmm...

Maybe I'll skip over the weekday stuff. Although the Christmas Markets did open up last week and that was a lot of fun. We have done a lot of Christmas Market browsing in the last 2 weeks. We've been to the Markets in Rudolfplatz, Neumarkt, Heumarkt, the Dom, and Altermarkt. My favorite is Heumarkt and Altermarkt...they're kinda connected and really pretty. And there's an ice rink. Maybe I'll do that today? Who knows :-) They're all really nice though.

Last Thursday we all got together and had Thanksgiving dinner. They had a massive turkey which was DEEEELICIOUS definitely one of the best turkeys I've ever had. Stuffing was great, mashed potatoes and gravy were great, the cranberry sauce was the chunky kind so I didn't even try it, and there was apple torte instead of apple pie and no pumkin pie anywhere. But that's okay! The idea of pumpkin pie really freaks Germans out...this coming from the country where they eat pumpkin soup haha. We had a great time at dinner, everyone except for our professor Laurel who went back the US for Thanksgiving. We took a lot of great pictures and had a wonderful time! After dinner, Me, Paul, Hoss, and Jakob decided to try and find a brewery in Barbarossaplatz but we ended up getting lost and walking though a semi-shady part of Heumarkt. We hung out in Heumarkt for a while and then went home.

Friday I spent the day packing and getting ready to go to Budapest and we caught our flight there around 6:30 or 7. Budapest was really cool I must say. We stayed at a hostel called the Big Fish hostel. It was only $12-$15 per night! I can't believe how inexpensive Budapest was. I made it through an entire weekend - hostel included - on 50 euro. Unreal! Not to mention our flight there was only 45 euro round trip! Budapest was fantastic...I could actually eat in restaurants instead of living of dinner rolls from a supermarket. I really liked it there and I'd love to go back. Budapest is renowned for it's Thermal spas and trust me - they did not dissappoint! So anyways, we got to Budapest sometime after 8 and we went and found our hostel. We got all checked in, got our beds set up, and got a map, and decided to go grab some food and a drink. There was a little bar right down the street from our place so we decided to go there. We ate some goulash which was pretty good but a little spicy, and we drank some beer. By the time we were done eating and stuff it was already almost midnight so we decided to go back to the hostel and go to bed to get ready for the next day.

Saturday we woke up and got ready, then got out the door around 11. By noon we had eaten lunch at the most high tech McDonald's I've ever seen, and we were on a bus towards the castle. We got to the castle and walked around. It was more like a palace, and it was nice but at this point we've all seen much nicer castles. We decided to have a coffee in the cafe and take advantage of the free toilet situation. After walking around there we went to the Fisherman's Bastion. I'm not really sure what it's supposed to be but I know it's some kind of monument. It's huge and gorgeous with towers all over the place. I really liked it. Right next to it is the St. Mathias church which, along with most important sights in Europe, was covered in scaffolding. From there we walked down to the Danube and got some pictures of the gorgeous Parliament building. At this point I was soaking wet and also cold. Luckily about 15 minutes later the sun was out. We walked over the Chain bridge and along the river on the otherside to the Parliament building. We passed the shoe memorial for the Holocaust victims that were shot into the Danube between '44 and '45. It was really a moving memorial. After walking the river we went and saw St. Stephans Basillica - probably the most gorgeous church I've ever been in. It was decorated on the inside with dark red and green marble and had gold accents. I really liked it. We walked from there over to the Christmas markets which were packed and expensive. We didn't stay there long. We then walked back towards our hostel stopping for a halusky dinner and another free toilet. We took a nap at the hostel and got ready to go out to this Rockabilly bar that we found online. The bar was so cool, although they seem to think that "Confederate" is synonymous with "American"...something that we just had to ignore and laugh off as foreign ignorance. The bar was a lot of fun, I really like Rockabilly and they played a lot of songs that we knew. We met 2 hungarian boys and played foosball with them. We found out that they were 18 years old, and we were legally drinking with them in a bar. We laughed about this. They were nice guys and taught us some Hungarian words that we all promptly forgot.

Sunday was our relaxation day. We checked out of the hostel and they let us keep our backpacks and stuff there. We went and checked out a cool synagogue, and then had lunch at a Doner place. After lunch we went to this thermal bath that I can't pronounce, but it was HUGE and so pretty. Basically it was a giant thermal swimming pool in the courtyard of this huge european building. In the building were a bunch more thermal baths and saunas everywhere. We did a light therapy sauna that was really cool and relaxing. I really liked this place, and I wish we could have stayed longer. I'd love to go to Budapest again just to do the spa stuff. The best part of the Thermal baths was that is was less than 40 degrees outside but the water was over 100 degrees. So we could run around in winter weather outside in our swimsuits! The water felt amazing, but once you got out it was FREEEEEZING! I thought my feet were gonna freeze to the ground a couple of times. It was so much fun though. After the baths we went and ate some dough thing that was really good, then went back to the Christmas markets for a little. We caught our flight back home around 8 PM.

Monday I was really tired, understandably, but I made it through the day. I went with Nick and had lunch at Kim Phuc which was fantasmic as usual. Tuesday we had a girls night, so after class I stayed in the city. I went and got some stuff at the bookstore and went to starbuck's to read the German In Touch Weekly. Then I went over to the Dom and went to the Art library there to do some research for my art history paper due next week. I found some good stuff, unfortunately I have to do some translating because I couldn't find any sources in English. No big deal though, I got the gist of everything I was reading. From there I walked to Friesenplatz and ran into Emily at the Starbuck's there. I had another coffee and waited for the girls to show up. Girls night was Me, Emily, Ashley, Alex, Jess, Christine, and Lauren and we met up with our professors Ulli and Laurel. We went to an Indian restaurant, which was my first time eating Indian food. It was pretty good, but definitely a little different. I liked it nonetheless! We had a great time at dinner - I'm gonna miss these girls!

Wednesday was our last day of History and Special topics before finals next week. I hate my history class and it was brutal getting through the last one. I've never been so lost in a class in my entire life. Oh well. Thank god it's almost over. After class I went to the Christmas markets with Paul and had a couple of beers to celebrate never having to read an abstract historical idealogy text ever again. I went home took a nap, and hung out with my host family the rest of the night after that.

Yesterday was a lot of fun. It was our last day of classes! We finally went to that brewery in Barbarossaplatz that we had been looking for a week before. 11 of us went, and we drank 2 beer towers! A beer tower is basically a tower full of beer with a tap attached to it. It was amazing. 6 liters in all. After the brewery we went home and I took a nap and had dinner. Then we met at Nick's house and had a couple of drinks before we went to where everybody knows our name - the Capitol. We ate some pizza and pasta and then we went to Kim Phuc for the people that didn't want capitol food. We had a really fun night full of laughs :-) Today I have no school or anything so I'm gonna try and get stuff done for my final papers and start some studying.

Sunday - the countdown begins

Guten Sonntag!

It feels like YESTERDAY that I created this blog and had a countdown to when I was coming here. Now I have just over 3 weeks until I leave. The reality of the situation hit me like a bus about 2 days ago. Sure I miss home, and I definitely have my moments when I'm completely homesick, but right now I'm incredibly sad that in just 3 weeks I have to leave forever. I really really like my life here, I really love my family, and it really upsets me that I might never see some of these kids again. How depressing. In 23 days I'm going to be home...I'm so bittersweet about the whole thing. 23 days and I have to go back to working all the time and doing normal things all the time. I really love Cologne. I'm just totally bummed. Either way - here's what I did this week!

I didn't end up giving my presentation on Wednesday because there wasn't enough time. I did the school thing, and then came home and did the homework thing. Thursday I did give my presentation and I think it went pretty well honestly! After the presentation we went to the Hauptbahnhof and had coffee, then made our way over to the Ludwig art museum for our Art History class. We saw some interesting abstract art. After that we went to Starbucks in the Hauptbahnhof and had some coffee and I had a really yummy turkey sandwich on a pretzel bun. I went home and ate dinner that night, then had a low key evening. I was able to sleep in a little on Friday because our excursion wasn't until 4:30. I hung out with my host mom and the kids that she nannies for. The one, Killian, is two and he so sweet. And smart! He talks up a storm! He puts my German to shame haha. We listened to some Christmas music, and then I got ready and went to my excursion. We met at the Dom at 4:30, and we got to go up to the top. It was sweet, I was nervous at first because I don't like heights, but it really wasn't that bad, and it was totally worth it. We had a great time, we were up there for 90 minutes or something. After we were done I went and had dinner at home, then got ready and met the crew at the Capitol. We had a couple beers there, then we decided to drink kiosk beers because they're cheaper, so we went and got those and sat in front of a church and drank them. We topped the evening off with some Kim Phuc - the most delicious chinese food on the face of the planet. It was a good night!

Saturday was a fun Saturday. I met Brittney and Lauren at the Chocolate Museum around 3 and we did that. It was pretty cool you get to see chocolate being made and you get a free sample when you go in. And you get a wafer dipped in melted chocolate from the chocolate fountain. It was fantastical! After the museum we walked through Heumarkt along the river and up to the Dom and the Christmas Markets which open tomorrow! Then we walked through a shopping street, and I went back to Heumarkt by myself and walked through those Christmas markets. I came home and had dinner, and then my host sister and I went to Friesenplatz to meet the group. We went to a bar there, and then walked to Zulpicherplatz and went to the glorious Kim Phuc :-) I didn't get any food but I finished Paul's soup for him. After that we came home and went to sleep and now I'm up and I have to do homework all day...no fun! Oh well!

Jess

Wednesday November 18th

Hi guys,

I'm feeling pretty homesick today. I really just miss the comforts at home at this point. I really took for granted a lot of the stuff that I have in the States that I don't have here. Things like pizza delivery. Free refills on pop. Free water. 5 subject notebooks. Notebooks with lined paper and 3 holes, instead of graph paper and 4 holes. Notebooks that cost less that 7 dollars. Free toilets. Outback Steakhouse and really all other forms of chain restaurants that serve cheap American food. I miss lunch meat. I miss spaghetti-o's. I miss driving and not having to rely on the subway system. I really really miss Wal Mart and things of that nature - there is a separate little store for everything here and they're all privately owned and everything in them costs a fortune. We're talking 15 dollar day planners and things of that nature. I heard a rumor that there was a Staples in the area. I was so excited that I almost planned a trip there. I miss places like Eat-n-Park where I can get a meal for less than $7. They even give you free refills on coffee there! It's fantastic! Granted the coffee here tastes better, but it's over $2 a cup and it's just a tiny little cup, and that's all you get! No free refills. No free anything. Nothing is free in Germany. Not even bathrooms are free in Europe!

Ok well now that I got that out of my system I can tell you all about the week I had. It was a pretty good week, today is just kind of a bummer kind of day. I'm not normally like this actually. Anyways.

Wednesday last week was 11/11 which here in Cologne is a massive big holiday. It's the start of their Karneval season which comes to an end right before Ash Wednesday with a huge party from Thursday to Tuesday. The 11th is a giant party in preparation for the giant party in February. We all met downtown around 10 and it was already packed. Everyone is dressed up in silly costumes, and a lot of us wore our dirndls and stuff like that. 11/11 is a big drinking day, so I stocked up on beers and we went to Heumarkt which is jam packed with people. We hung out there for a little while, I'd say an hour and a half, then we walked to Zulpicherplatz to have some lunch. We ended up hanging out there and eating pizza and NOT drinking until about 2:30 or 3 PM when the others said that they wanted to go home. Which sucked in my opinion, because we really hadn't celebrated Karneval at all. So I met up with Nick and Andrew and their friend and hung out with them for a little while, about an hour or so. At this point I was kinda tired, but I didn't feel like going 40 minutes home for a nap, so we went to hang out at Nicks, and then we were gonna go back out around 7. Around 7 no one wanted to go back out. Defeated and sad, I went home to Rath Heumar, which took an hour and a half. When I got home I was very sad that I didn't get to properly celebrate Karneval, so my host sister Yvonne told me she would take me out! 15 minutes later she's dressed as a scottish girl and we're ready to go! We met my host brother's girlfriend Marsha at Subway in Friesenplatz with her friend and the 4 of us went to a club nearby. We had a great time and we celebrated really late. Needless to say I didn't make it to my first class the next morning.

Thursday after class I came home early because I wanted to get ready to go to Paris on Friday morning. I got all the Paris stuff figured out, and woke up really early again on Friday morning. I really hadn't slept well in a couple of weeks, because I'd been doing lots of traveling. I met Lauren at the Hauptbahnhof at 7, and by 1 PM we were in Paris! We went to the Nord train station to meet up with Brittney, and the three of us made our way to the Etap hotel that we were staying at. None of us really knew anything about the hotel, and we were a little leary, but it ended up being great! It was really clean, and it was just the 3 of us in a room so we didn't have to worry about sharing it with 10 other people like in a hostel. The hotel was a tiny bit out of the way, but it wasn't bad at all when we took the metro. That first night we did walk everywhere though. We first walked up to the Eiffel tower and we got to it just in time to see it sparkle! It was gorgeous! After we hung out with the tower for a while we went and got some food, then walked to the Champs de Elysees or however you spell it. We saw a famous bridge on the way and the beginnings of some Christmas markets. We went in a Disney store and saw a huuuuuge Louis Vuitton. We walked up to the Arc de Triomphe and around it too. This doesn't sound like a lot, but by the time we were done it was almost 11 or something and we were exhausted! We took the metro back home and crashed.

Saturday we woke up and went to the grocery store to get food for the day, since it's cheaper than eating in restaurants. Then we got on the metro and headed back to the Eiffel tower for day pictures. Lauren and Brittney sword fought with their baguettes and that was pretty funny. There was some sort of large protest gathering in front of some military building, so we decided to get out of there. We walked for about 20 minutes, then hopped on the bahn to Saint Michel. We stopped and got a coffee and then we went to the Notre Dame. It was really sweet! We didn't see the hunchback however, which was disappointing. We then made our way over to the Louvre and we walked around there for a couple hours and saw the Mona Lisa along with some other paintings that we learned about in Art History which was exciting. After a while our legs were tired so we found a bench and wound up sitting on it for an hour and a half til the Louvre closed! It was pretty rainy and miserable (as usual in Europe) so we went and found a place to eat. Afterwards we went and found Moulin Rouge, which was covered in scaffolding (like everything else in Europe including the Eiffel Tower). After Moulin Rouge we made our way back to the hotel to watch a movie and go to sleep. The next day we found the train and it took us 8 hours to get home which sucked. Either way though, Paris was cool! I enjoyed it a lot!

Monday we only had History class which was cool, then we all got to visit 1Live, a radio station here in Cologne. That was pretty cool, we were able to see a lot of the radio personalities and also watch people doing radio while listening to it! Yesterday was pretty low key, we ate pizza after class and that was it. Today I have to give a presentation. Not fun!

Vienna and Berlin

Hello!

So today is Tuesday. Let's recap the weekend!

Vienna was AMAZING! It was so gorgeous and it reminded me a lot of Prague. It's such a cute little town. Emi and Fabi who me and Brittney couch surfed with were so nice and a lot of fun to hang out with. They showed us around the city, and we saw Stephansplatz, the Rathaus, and some other cool parts of the Old Town. I love love loved the Old Town. It's one of the prettiest I've ever seen. It was pretty cold in Vienna though, so we spent a lot of Friday in a coffee shop. Saturday we got up and went walking through the shopping streets of Vienna. We wound up in a cool flea market and poked around for a while. From there we hopped on the Bahn to Schönbrunn Castle, where the royal family had their summer home. It was so pretty, although we didn't go in because it was expensive. Instead we walked around the gardens which were GIGANTIC, and we hiked up a hill to some gate thing, and there was a gorgeous view over the city. I really loved this castle. From the castle we walked over to the Danube Island, but it was cold, so we quickly walked away from there to the Prater, which is like a year round carnival or small amusement park. It was so cool because it was dark and cold and hardly any people were there. It was eerie walking around without masses of people like at Kennywood. It was free to go there, but the rides were expensive so I only rode one, called Ecstacy, which basically spun me and flipped my upside down in every way possible at very high speeds. It was a lot of fun! After we were done there we met up with Emi and she showed us a pub to go to. Instead we went and grabbed some food and mulled wine at a little cafe, and then we went to McDonalds. We ended up going home early that night and hanging out with our couch hosts some more. Sunday they helped us out with our German homework and we came home. I got home around 7 PM or so. I watched the FC Koeln game with my host family, they won and there was a streaker haha, and then we had spaghetti and I went to bed early.

I got up Monday morning around 5:15 and ran to catch a train to Berlin at 6:49. November 9th 2009 was the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. There was a big celebration in Berlin, so we decided to go with our professor Laurel. We didn't realize how huge the celebration would actually be! Hillary Clinton was there, along with the British Prime Minister, the French President, Gorbachow, Angela Merkel, and a bunch of other people. There were 1000 dominos stacked along the former border of the Berlin wall from Potsdamer Platz, past the Brandenburg Gate, to the Reichstag. Each domino was decorated by different school classes or groups or people, etc. and they were all gorgeous and conveyed a great meaning. Also, there were several angels standing on top of different buildings watching over the city, probably a reference to "Himmel über Berlin", the story for which City of Angels was based. Within about 10 minutes of arriving in Berlin we met a girl from the Associated Press and gave her an interview. Then we basically just walked around! It was a great celebration. We had some more mulled wine in souvenir cups, and we browsed the Christmas market. Emily and I also walked through Parisienplatz where most of the festivities were taking place (Brandenburg Gate), but it got too crowded so we met up with the rest of the group. We met some people from NBC and they taped us singing and dancing and - SURPRISE - when we woke up this morning we realized we'd made national news with Tom Brokaw on NBC! I've never even made American national news in the US, let alone from Berlin!! How exciting! I'll post the link. Look for me right around the 3:20 mark after a clip of Hillary Clinton!!! I'm with a group of PCIC kids singing and dancing and I'm right up front on the left..you can't miss me!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/33809427#33809427

Check it outtt!!! I'm so excited! How lucky am I to be thousands of miles away from home celebrating a historic event and wind up on the news! Definitely something I'll never forget. And I got to watch the dominos fall from right up front :-) It was freezing last night in Berlin and it was pouring down rain. We were drenched, so after the dominos came down we ran to Dunkin Donuts to try and dry off. We weren't very successful. We took the 00:32 train back to Cologne and we made it home after 7. It was nice because I had a couchette, which is basically a bunk, so I was able to get under the covers and sleep on the train. I went to starbucks in the Hauptbahnhof, and the straight to school. Then I decided I was tired and my socks and shoes were still soaked through as well as my pants and coat, so I came home early. And that's when I realized I was on the news! Thanks facebook!

Anyways, tomorrow is 11/11, a huge holiday in Cologne because it kicks off the season of Karneval which ends in a huuuuuge party the weekend before Ash Wednesday. 11/11 is just the first taste of the big party that'll happen in February or so. We don't have class tomorrow, and our only assigment is to wear a costume and take lots of pictures. And I'm sure we'll have a beer or two as well! Should be a blast! Talk to you soon!

Jess

November

Guten Tag!

So I just got to Vienna and I figured I'd write a blog before sightseeing! We didn't have much going on this week so I pretty much took it easy. Went to school, did homework, and maybe hung out after class a little bit. Wednesday we did get to go to a building that was the Gestapo headquarters in Cologne. Now it's a museum dedicated to the Nazi era. It's really crazy! We did our tour in German, and our tour guide literally spoke the fastest German ever, so we could hardly understand him but it was still cool. In the basement they still have the prison cells where they kept, tortured, and murdered their prisoners. It was really eerie. The prisoners had written things on the wall that you can still read now. It was very...well you can imagine.

That's really the only excursion I had this week. I hung out with my host family a little and did a bunch of homework. Today the others are going to Ford, but we skipped out on that so Brittney and I could come to Vienna! We're couchsurfing with Emi and Fabian who live on Langergasse in the center of Vienna. The location is great and they have two cute little kitties! Since we had an early flight and didn't get much sleep, Brittney is taking a nap and I am blogging. After that we'll go and do some touring around the old town, and tomorrow we'll go see some palaces and stuff! Monday most of our group is going with our Professor, Laurel, to Berlin for the 20th anniversary celebration of the wall coming down! I'm so excited, what a cool experience! I'm sure I'll have much more to blog about on Tuesday when I get back! And next weekend we'll be in Paris!

Talk to you soon!
Jess

Halloween week

Guten Tag!

So as promised I did some major relaxing this week. When I got home on Monday I was whoooooped! I just needed a week to get back into the groove. So here's how the rest of the week went. Tuesday - School and sleep. I was beat! And I was homesick. Really really homesick. I don't often get too homesick which is a good thing, but Tuesday definitely sucked.

Wednesday kinda sucked too because we had to watch a movie for history after class. Which means we had to stay in school until after 5. Which isn't even fair because technically we're supposed to be out of the building at 5...we almost got locked in! I would have flipped out. So anyways, because we weren't allowed to leave on time I missed my bahn back home...and I had to wait 20 minutes for the next one to come! And just when I thought I hated the KVB as much as I could, the bahn decided to only run to Ostheim, which is like 5 stops from my house. I was tired and frustrated and I had to get home for dinner and the sign showed no indication of another Line 9 train for at least 20 minutes, possibly longer. Defeated I took a cab back home. I had dinner with my family and I was in bed by 8.

On Thursday we went to an art museum for our art history class. That was pretty cool! After that I went to the Galeria to buy a new plug converter because my old one died. Then I went home, had a nap, watched the USA Women's team beat Germany, and then met some people at the movies and saw Inglourious Basterds. I really liked the movie even though it was rather graphic at times. Also, the movie theater we went to has movies in English, and this movie is an American movie so we assumed it would all be in English with German subtitles. Because it was a WW2 movie, half the movie was in German and French. In the States these parts of the movie were captioned with English subtitles. In Germany they weren't (for obvious reasons). The French parts had German subtitles and the German parts had no subtitles. We understood most of it, but there were definitely some jokes that went over our heads. I still liked it a lot!

Friday we went on an excursion to Bonn to a German history museum that dealt with German history from 1945 until now. The museum was SWEET and if any of you ever come to this part of Germany I definitely recommend this museum. It was really hands on and there was a lot of cool stuff. Our tour guide was so funny too. He was the cutest thing! Plus it was really cool because he lived through all the stuff so he gave his own personal perspective on it. Unfortunately I was having contact issues that day, and I had to throw away my left one. So I was walking around with no depth perception. Most of the group stayed in Bonn, but I headed back to Cologne so I could switch to my glasses. After I got that taken care of, I met Paul and Hoss at the Dom and we went and had a beer picnic in the park in Heumarkt. Hoss bought a mini keg, and I had some Kölsch and all was lovely. After our picnic I went home and had dinner with my host family. I wanted to take a 2 hour nap then go meet up with Brittney Lauren Paul and Hoss at the Capitol. Unfortunately my 2 hour nap turned into a 4 hour nap and I didn't make it to the Capitol until 12:30. It was okay though. I had a beer there and then we went to this club called the Cent Club after Hoss and his friend Peter showed up. It was pretty cool! We stayed there for an hour or so. I took it easy Friday night because I knew I needed to save my energy for Halloween!

Halloween was very exciting. I talked to mom and dad which was nice. I talked to mom for an hour and a half! I also got to talk to Bobby. I did a little bit of homework and hung out with my host family for a little bit. I pet Cheyenne for a good 20 minutes. She's the best dog on Earth. Filou was the perfect little Halloween cat - she's so adorable! I headed over to Laurens house in Riehl which is about a 40 minute train ride from me. We got all dressed up in our Dirndls and Brittney got dressed up in some form of Cowgirl costume, but she refused to wear her hat haha. Lauren made us poor man's pierogies which were deeeeelish, and we debated on what to do that night. We were going to go to the Live Music Hall because they were having an event, but we really didn't want to pay to get in. Instead we went back out to Rath Heumar and hung out with Hoss and his friends Peter, Mike, and Daniel and their moms. They were having a little Halloween party and the whole house was done up! Everyone had really great gruesome face paint. It was refreshing after a 40 minute train ride and seeing no one dressed up for Halloween. We stayed there until late just listening to loud music and singing and dancing. We had a great time. Then I walked home in the woods past a cemetary. It was creepy. I slept in this morning, and uploaded some pictures and now I'm blogging! I guess daylight savings happened in the states today...no more 5 hour time difference for us! Back to the 6 hours for my remaining 6 weeks. I can't believe how fast time is flying! I register for my Spring Semester classes tomorrow!

Jess

Athens to London to utter exhaustion

Hello!

I finally have a chance to sit down and write a blog! I must say, I had the best fall break ever. I am happy to be back in Cologne though, I'm whooped. I got home with every intention of making it to class, but I fell asleep, and slept until 5. I Guess if you sleep for 5 hours in the middle of the day without budging it's a good indication that you needed that sleep. I still feel like I could sleep the whole night. I can't because I have homework to do, but you get the idea.

So I left off in Athens. Wednesday we got kind of a late start, because we were waiting for the other girls to wake up to see if they wanted to go with us. At 1 we finally decided to just go on our own. We left the apartment and walked up to the top of the hill in the neighborhood. The view was amazing, the city just sprawled out in every direction. Athens is gigantic. We were able to see Acropolis and the Parthenon from there and we got a lot of cool pictures. After leaving there, we went over to Acropolis and started at the museum there. It was pretty cool with a bunch of statues and stuff from the Greek times, and you could walk over a glass floor and see the ancient ruins. After the museum we headed up to the Acropolis which was a long and steep walk, but still really cool. The Parthenon was giant and really sweet looking, even if half of it was covered in scaffolding. We stayed up there for a while, then headed back to the apartment. When we got back we had dinner and we were going to go out, but we all just fell asleep instead!

The next morning we got up early and went out touring. First we went to the temple of Zeus at Olympus. This used to be the largest temple in Europe when it was still standing. All the museums and temples were free for us also, since we have EU student IDs. After that we went over to the original Olympic stadium from the first modern Olympics. From there we walked back to the subway and went to the National Archaeological Museum. That had a ton of reallly really old stuff in it, along with some stuff that we had learned about in our art class. After that museum we went and found a Gyro to eat, which was super yummy, and we went and checked out the Parthenon at night. And got some delicious Gelato. I had tiramasu and cheesecake flavored. We went back to Antonios and he took us to a meeting of other Couchsurfers. We tried some honey liquor that was rather interesting, and then went and ate another Gyro. We met a lot of really nice people, and I also met my first neo-conservative European, which was interesting. After that we walked around the city and saw a bunch of historical ruins all lit up, then we were exhausted so we went back home and went to bed. I had to get up early in the morning to get my flight to London.

I left Athens around 8:30 in the morning and got out to the airport around 10 or so. I had to wait around for a while because my flight was delayed. We finally got moving, and I got to London around 230 or so, Gatwick airport. The lady in customs proceeded to drill me like I was a terrorist, and couldn't understand why I was living in Germany, why I flew in to Prague first, what I was doing in Athens, why did I fly to Mykonos first, why didn't they stamp my passport there, blah blah blah. Obvioulsy I radiate international criminal. When she finally determined that I wasn't a threat to national security, I went and waited for my bags for around a half hour. Then I hopped the Gatwick express to Victoria Station, and took a cab to the Intercontinental Hotel in London. When I got there, they wouldn't let me check in, claiming that no one had informed them of my arrival. I know that's not true but whatever. They let me call the contacts that Uncle David had given me for a couple hours, but I couldn't get a hold of anyone. The lady was nice and let me store my luggage and gave me a key to the lounge where I could take a shower and chill for a little bit. After I got cleaned up and relaxed I walked over to Buckingham Palace. The Queen was in, as noted by the flag on top of the building, and there were lines of cars waiting to get in. I guess there must have been some kind of state dinner or something. After that I took the underground to Kensington on a quest for fish and chips. I found some and they were pretty good. I went back to the hotel to try and call the people again, and a new lady was there who wouldn't let me. I was frustrated because she was nasty about it, like I was some creepy football stalker. I understood though, it was just for the security of the team. They got to the hotel around 11 and I met up with Uncle David and got the situation worked out. Once she realized I wasn't trying to sneak into their hotel rooms she was very pleasant. Once that was all worked out we went out with some of the people that work for the team. We were able to bypass a line and get into this pretty cool club. It was a nice change from getting denied entrance at the one in Berlin. We stayed there for a while and then moved on to a club in the Hilton. Someone saw Harry Connick Jr. there. We ended up going to a different one after that wayyyy up in some building. We had a sweet view of London from there. It was a pretty late night, and the original plan to get up at 6 and sightsee was postponed til 8.

At 8 we did get up and get ready, then we went and toured most of London in 4 hours. We went from Buckingham Palace to Big Ben, to Westminster Abbey, to the river to check out the London Eye. Then we hopped the tube to the Tower of London, and the Tower Bridge. We took the Queens walk on the Thames to the nearest tube stop and went back to the hotel. We were cutting it close time-wise because Uncle David had to be back to the busses by 12:30 to go to the stadium. We ran back, and the stadium trip had been cancelled! I decided to relax for a while before we did sightseeing again. Around 5 I decided to head over to Harrod's, and I stopped in H&M and wound up with free boots which is a whole other story. Harrod's was AMAZING, even though I didn't go through all of it. Someday I'll go back and give Harrod's the attention it deserves. I got back to the hotel, and we decided to go over to the Patriot's hotel to visit Uncle David's friend Jimmy. After that we walked to Shepherd's Market and grabbed some dinner. I had really good fish and chips there, and also a Koelsch beer which made me happy. We met some other guys from the bucs and walked over to Buckingham Palace again. After that it was a question of whether or not to go out again. I was too tired so I decided not to.

The next morning we got up and found some tourist trap stores so I could get spoons for mom and me. Then I walked over to Picadilly circus which is like the Times Square of London. When I got back it was almost time to head over to the stadium. I got an all access pass and got to ride the busses over with the team! When we got there I got to hang out outside the locker room, go on the field, go in the coaches boxes, and I got to sit at the camera box for the whole game! It was sweet! I also got to meet Mike Alstott who was very nice, and I got some pictures of Tom Brady. All in all it was the coolest thing ever. By the end of the game I was really tired. We got back on the bus and went to the hotel, and I went and called Bobby for a little bit. Then I went down to the room with all the computers where they were and had a beer. I was too tired to go out, even though there was a party and other stuff going on. I had to get up at 4:30 in the morning to get my flight. That sucked. I ended up getting there in time, even though I was a total zombie. I got home around 11 AM and decided to take a quick nap. At 5 I woke back up. And I'm still tired. Really tired. I'm gonna be taking it easy the next couple weeks until I got to Vienna.

Talk to you soon!
Jess

Mykonos and Athens

Hi all!

I'm sitting here in Athens waiting to take a walk through Ancient Greece today! But before I do that, I'll recap from Monday.

Monday basically consisted of lying on the beach. And getting an awesome suntan. And lying on the beach some more! It was great! Finally we were able to slow down for a day and just relax. We found a really gorgeous beach right by our hotel, and we walked down this cliff side path (covered with huge lizards) to get to it. The water was blue blue blue! I've never seen anything like it in my life! I wonder how polluted our water must actually be...because I could see the bottom of that water even when it was 15 feet deep! It was about 76 degrees without a cloud in the sky, it was gorgeous! The water was really flat and easy to swim in, and we swam out pretty far, but the entire time we could see everything on the bottom which was sweeeet!

After the beach, we went back to the hotel and got cleaned up, then went into the city to see the sunset. We watched the sunset from the dock at the harbor and went around looking for the restaurant that Mina had recommended for us. We were about to give up when we finally found it! I got spaghetti carbonara which was delicious, and we got a big thing of wine for 5 euro. We met some Canadians, which was cool too. At the end of the meal the waiters brought us all a free shot of Ouzo. Ouzo burns, but it was surprisingly sweet. After dinner Emily and I went in search of a cocktail, but every cocktail in Mykonos is 8 euro at least, so we gave up and bought Bacardi Breezers and an ice cream at this ice cream place.

Tuesday we were going to go to Delos, but it was 30 dollars and I really didn't want to pay that much. Delos seemed cool, but I'm not really sure what was there, so I couldn't justify spending the money. Alex ended up going and Emily and I just walked around this city for a while and took pictures. Mina drove us to her husbands office so we could drop off our luggage, and he was going to take us to our ferry at 2. She stopped at this really pretty outlook where you could see all the city and it was gorgeous! We dropped off our stuff and wandered around some gift shops. Once Alex was back we grabbed some lunch at a cafe on the water. I had a Greek salad that was really good. We went and got our luggage and Minas husband drove us to the ferry, which was actually the Titanic. It was soooo nice! We sat up on the outside part for a while and watched the Greek islands go by, and then we moved downstairs. We ended up getting a huge assignment done.

Now I guess I have to explain how I'm staying in Athens. Basically, we're doing this thing called Couch Surfing. There's a website: www.couchsurfing.org, and it has a network of people who are willing to open up their homes to you and let you stay for free. It sounds at first very creepy and very shady, but these people have had their locations and identities verified, and they have been reviewed by other couch surfers. Alex found Antonio on the website, and he's literally the king of couch surfing! He has hundreds of positive reviews from people all over the world who have stayed with him. The people that host surfers also surf themselves, and Antonio has couch surfed through Europe. It's a really cool way to see a city, because you can be shown around by a local and live the way they live. Antonio met us at the train stop and showed us back to his place. He has a cute dog named Jilda, and there are 2 other girls surfing here this week, one from Estonia, and one from Denmark. Also, there's a group of Americans coming tonight, so that should be cool! Basically his house is dedicated to couch surfing, he has a seperate room where the other two girls are staying, then in the living room two couches, a couch bed and two armchairs. It's really a neat way to help out travelers on a budget. I plan to couch surf in Vienna with Brittney, and we found a young couple our age who has agreed to host us.

So anyways, we got to Athens and got settled, and we were getting ready to go out when we realized that Em had been pickpocketed on the train here. She lost her camera and her wallet. So we spent that night getting that situation taken care of. Yesterday we got a late start, around 1, but we went for a walk up to the top of the hill where you get a great view of Acropolis. Then we went to Acropolis and went to the museum for a while. We went up and saw the Parthenon and came home around 6. Antonio made us dinner, which was really nice, and we made plans to go out to see the Parthenon at night and check out a bar. Unfortunately those plans are postponed until today, because we all ended up falling asleep around 9.

Now we're getting up and getting ready for our day today. First we're going to see the Temple of Olympia Zeus, then the Olympic stadium, and finally the National Archaeology museum. Big day ahead! Tomorrow I leave for London! I can't wait!

Jess

Berlin and Mykonos

Wow! So I wanted to blog last week again, but I got a little lazy and decided not to :-(. Tuesday night when I was done blogging we all got ready and went and saw a beatboxing play called Klasse Klasse. It was cute, the people wore these weirdo masks and played out high school stereotypes which is always funny. After the show I went home and watched Mean Girls with Christine and Jakob. I love that movie.

Wednesday we went to the Jewish Museum, and we had a really good tour guide who spoke German at a normal speed so we could all understand her. The museum was huge, so we missed a lot of it, but it was still really cool. After the Jewish Museum we went to Kudamm because Ashley and Emily wanted to get their noses pierced. We hopped on the Bahn and saw the Gedaechniskirche, then went to the tattoo shop. When we walked in it was really nice and clean so they were happy about that but still nervous. I didn't get mine done, so don't worry! In the end, they looked really good! After that we went to the mall and I ate some deeeeelish chicken friend rice. We were cooking dinner on Thursday, so we went to the grocery store to get stuff for that. Afterwards we went to dinner at the same place as Sunday because it was our professor Laurel's birthday. We had some wine and veal with veggies that was really good, and for dessert we had the best Tiramasu ever. After dinner we decided to go out for a drink, and we ended up meeting this group of kids from Israel who were in Berlin on vacation. We got their facebook information, and they were really nice.

Thursday we took a bus trip to Potsdam which would have been lovely if I wasn't so tired. Oh and the fact that it was cold and rainy didn't help. Apparently it's always cold and rainy in Berlin, at least every day that we were there. We did get to see the cute castle-thing where the Potsdam Conference was held, which was really cool, but unfortunately we didn't get to go into it. After that we went to some other palace thing, but I wasn't paying too much attention because I was soaked and cold and tired, and my brain simply wasn't processing German that day. I definitely fell asleep on the bus ride home. I really wanted to take a nap before I started cooking my penne with vodka for dinner, but I'm glad I didn't since the whole experience turned into a disaster. First off, I had bought stewed tomatoes instead of diced, so I had to dice all of them. Then, I was upset because there are no italian style Redpack tomatoes in Germany, so I knew right away that this stuff wasn't going to taste right. Then, when I went to cover the tomatoes with plastic wrap, I spilled them all over myself, Brittney, and the floor. It was a huuuuuge mess. There was nothing left to salvage for my sauce, so we had to send a bunch of people to the store. Meanwhile, we through our tomato sauced clothes into the bathtub with a handy little packet of Tide that Jess C. had. Then the other girls threw their laundry in too, and we had a big laundry party in the bathroom that involved make shift spin cycles and tons of fun. After cleaning the clothes, we cleaned the kitchen up, and started to make the sauce again. This time we had diced tomatoes but they weren't italian style and still didn't taste right, so my sauce was kinda gross. Oh well. The boys made beer brats, and that made up for my failed attempt at pasta. Our professors came over for dinner and it was really nice. We had really great cookies that Christine and Korie made too. After dinner we watched some youtube with the professors, and then I decided to go out. We went and hung out with the boys for a while, and then went to this bar in an illegaly occupied bombed out world war 2 building which was really cool! It didn't have any windows because they were...bombed out! We didn't stay there for that long, and I didn't have a drink there at all because it was a little sketchy, but it was still really cool looking. It was on the top floor and looked out over east Berlin. I guess now it's home to a bunch of artists.

Friday night we had a whole day to ourselves. So Friday I basically just stayed in. I sat around and just relaxed in the apartment alllll day long. Then Friday night we went to the symphony. We all got dressed up and it was really nice. I'm not sure if I'm a symphony kind of person, but it was still cool. After the symphony we went home and changed and made plans to meet my friend Firat who lives in Berlin. I met him over the summer at my friend Paul's house. We met him at the Bahnof Zoo, and then walked over to this club that we were on the list for. Unfortunately the doorman didn't think we were good enough for this club and he quickly turned us away. I think his reasoning was that our group consisted of Me, Firat, Andrew, and Hoss, which means I was the only girl, so maybe if we had more girls with us we would have gotten in. Reason number two could have been that Hoss has a shaved head. He's a swimmer of some sort, so at home it makes a lot of sense. In Berlin I guess it makes him look like a neo-nazi. So anyways, we weren't able to get into that club. We decided to go back to the apartments and hang out, then go out to an east Berlin club really late. We went and hung out for a while, then we got hungry so Firat and I went and got Doeners and met up with his 3 friends at Friedrichstrasse. We all went back to the boys apartment to hang out more, but I couldn't make it any later (it was already 3 or 4!) so I went back to my apartment and went to bed. We had to get up early Saturday morning to leave anyway.

Saturday entailed a long trip back to Cologne, and I wasn't feeling well anyway. I slept a little bit on the train, which was good. I got back to my house and immediately started packing for Mykonos! I had to leave my house at 1:52 in the morning for my 5:20 flight. The airport is right near my house, but no buses run that late at night, so I had to take the kvb bahn to the S-Bahn, and it ended up taking an hour to get there because the bahns only run once an hour. I tried to get a little sleep before I left, which I didn't really, but that's okay. I got everything together, and had to take line 9 into Deutz (so pretty much downtown), then switch and wait for the S-bahn for 40 minutes, then take that back out towards my house and the airport. Once I got there, we got checked in then went and took a nap til it was time to board. The flight was empty! I got a little bit of sleep which was nice. Mykonos airport was smaller than the South Hills Village...actually it was about the size of the Alpine Club with a runway. It was TEEEENY! I'm surprised our plane was even able to land there! When we got to the airport, Mina, our bed nd breakfast owner, came to pick us up! She was so nice. Our bed and breakfast is right near the water and there's a bus every half hour to take you into the main part of Mykonos, only about a 5 mintute ride. We got settled in to our room, which has two balconies and a sea view. Mina gave us some maps and stuff, and then we walked down to the beach. The water was cold, but it was still only 10:30 Am or so! We hung out there for a little while and took pictures, then went and changed to catch the bus to the city. The city is gorgeous, all the buildings are white and look like a square cake! The main part of town is pedestrian only, so we walked around there for a few hours. We went and saw "Little Venice" where the buildings are built straight on the water, and we saw the Mykonos Windmills. The city is really easy to get lost in, cuz the streets are all narrow and there are no street names! After walking around the city, me and Emily decided to go back to the beach, because at this point it was really warm out. We went swimming for an hour and a half or so, then came back and got showered and ready for dinner. I got some pictures uploaded onto my facebook, then we went and ate at this nice restaurant on the water, that was really reasonably priced. The food was amazing too! After dinner we wanted to go Greek dancing at this place nearby, but when we went and looked there wasn't really anyone there, so we decided to just come back and get a good night's sleep. Today is going to be a beach day, and we're just gonna relax and swim all day. We're going to a beach that's supposed to be one of the prettiest on the island! After that, we're going to try and see the sunset in Little Venice, and maybe check out some of the nightlife that Mykonos is renowned for. I love Greece so far!

Jess

Weekend and Berlin

Hello!

So I've been pretty busy since I last blogged. Thursday night after dinner my host sister told me that someone she knew had some hockey tickets for free, so she asked me if I wanted to go! Obviously I was totally excited, so we made plans to do that. I slept in on Friday and basically hung around the house most of the day and talked to my host parents, then I got ready for the game. I was so excited to get there I accidentally left an hour earlier than I was supposed to! I didn't realize it til I was halfway to the arena, so I just decided to go anyway. I went to the kiosk across the road and grabbed a beer, then I sat on the lawn in front of the arena and had a little beer picnic while I waited to meet Yvonne (my host sister). When she got there we went in and realized our seats were great! We were 10 rows off the ice on the side where they shoot twice! The game was a lot of fun, and the Koelner Haie ended up winning 4-2. Also, they played Wolfsburg, which was cool cuz that's who we played when I went to the soccer game too. After the game we went to the Capitol and had a drink and some pizza, then headed home.

Saturday I packed my bags for Berlin and Yvonne dyed my hair (it needed it bad). After dinner I went downtown to meet some friends, but no one showed up! I went to the internet cafe and got online, and Andrew said he'd come meet me. When he got there we talked to Hoss, who was at a little get together at his German friend's apartment, so we went there for a while. Luckily the persons house was right close to mine, so I could walk home instead of waiting on the Bahn.

Sunday we got up early and met at the train station to go to Berlin. It was a 5 hour train ride or so. We met Frank, the program director, in Berlin, and he took us to our hostel. Instead of staying in a hostel room, we have two huge apartments! The girls in one, and the boys upstairs. These apartments are sweeet! Ours is holding 10 girls, it has two bathrooms, and one has a gigantic tub. Both bathrooms have showers, and there hasn't been any fights over showering yet, and with 10 girls I consider that quite the accomplishment haha. We have a giant kitchen and living/dining area and really the whole place is just nice. After we got our beds made up and everything unpacked we went to eat at this Italian restaurant. We had 3 kinds of pasta and 4 kinds of pizza (I ate tuna pizza). Sunday night was pretty low key.

On Monday we took a walking tour of the city for 3 hours. We got to see a lot of cool places, but it was pouring rain the whole day, plus it was freezing! Oh, and my camera died, so I have no pictures of anything. After the tour we went and got coffee to warm up. Emily and I decided we needed boots, scarves, and gloves. We took a walk on Friedrichstrasse, but everything was too expensive, so we figured out how to get to Kurfuerstendamm. In Kurfuerstendamm we walked around for 2 hours. We couldn't find anything affordable that we liked, and we only had a little bit of time left! Finally when we were getting ready to give up, we both found the same pair of boots that we liked for 29 euro. We just decided to get the same ones. At home when we were getting ready for dinner I realized that my one boot was way too small, and I had accidentally gotten two different sized boots. I was bummed, but forgot about it when we got to dinner and I realized they had Heyl Wine there. Of course I took pictures and got a glass. After dinner we went and got beer and some jagermeister and we all had a little party together. It was a good time, we ended up singing and dancing all night.

Today we woke up and we had a 1 hour tour of the Reichstag. It was neat, but I wasn't too interested, since I don't know anything about German government. The building is pretty though, and has a great view from the roof. After the tour, we decided we wanted to go to Checkpoint Charlie. There was a giant black raincloud hovering over us, but we decided to go anyway. It poured for about 5 minutes, and by the time we were done with lunch it was gorgeous outside, but a little chilly. We met a funny guard that stamps your passport, but I sadly didn't bring my passport to Berlin. I did get to touch a piece of the wall though. I was a little exhausted and wanted to exchange my boots, so I decided to head back towards the apartment while the others went to the wall. I picked up my boots and headed back to Kurfuerstendamm. I walked around Bahnhof Zooilogischer Garten for a little, then exchanged my boots. I took the S-bahn to the Strasse des 17. Juni and walked to the Siegessaeule, then all the way down to the Brandenburg gate, and finally back to the hostel. Basically I went for a 2 hour walk in Berlin by myself, not counting all the walking I had done earlier. Now I'm exhausted. I'm getting ready to go eat with the others, and tonight we're going to see a beatbox play! Should be fun! Talk to you soon!

Jess

Thursday the 8th

Hello all,

I just got done with classes and midterms today! Woo hoo! Now I'm getting ready to embark on a 2 and a half week break!! Sooooo excited. Anyways, this week basically consisted of a whole lot of studying for finals. Monday I was completely exhausted from the weekend, and I basically was like a zombie all through class. After class I ran home and got a 1 hour nap. After that we had a dinner for the host families, but my family wasn't able to make it, that was ok thought because a few others couldn't make it either. It was still fun though, I had a beer and some cake and it was deeeelicious!

I got to sleep in on Tuesday which was greatly needed, and we went and visited the Cologne city museum, so I didn't have any real class on Tuesday which was cool! We also went and visited a pretty church, I can't remember what it was called but the inside looked like a Candy Cane and I liked that. After that we went to Kim Phuc (I laugh at the name everyday), and we had delicious fried rice. Then I went home and took a nap and proceeded to study the rest of the night.

Wednesday I had 2 finals, both of which were really tough and hurt my brain. After my second final I really needed to calm down so we went to the grocery store and got 35 cent beer and drank that. It was delicious and necessary. I came home after that, napped, and studied yet again.

Today was the last final, and it wasn't nearly as painful as the other two. After the final we went to the little cafe by the school and I had a coffee, a hot chocolate, and some french fries. And I was completely wound up haha. After the cafe we went to Art History, which is a pretty fun class, and I was excited because we got to talk about the Duomo in Florence, which I've been to. I was very excited about this, so I announced it proudly to the class. Turns out lots of Americans have been there. Oh well, it was exciting nonetheless.

After class I had to go look at a church in Appelhofplatz for my Art History project. Of course I pick the church that's completely under construction and hidden by scaffolding. Oh well. I picked up line 3 in Appelhofplatz and took it over to Deutz, since it's on the way to my house (I'm on line 9 which goes right through Deutz). I went there because that's where their hockey arena is, Lanxess Arena. I got some pictures of that, and walked around for a good 20 minutes until I finally found the fanshop. There I got a present for Bobby which hopefully he'll like. I jumped back on the Bahn and here I am! I'm gonna take it easy for a while, and hopefully go out the next few nights before Berlin.

So Sunday morning we're headed off to Berlin! We're staying at the Helter Skelter hostel, which I find ironic, because we were just talking about the Manson murders the other day. The hostel is right smack in the middle of Berlin, which I think is really cool. All the girls are staying in the big apartment and the boys in a smaller apartment. Here's the link to the hostel:
http://www.helterskelterhostel.de

The week should be a lot of fun, there's stuff planned everyday like a visit to the Reichstag, and a day trip to Potsdam. I'm so excited! I love when we're all on excursions together cuz we're such a fun group, and now we all get to be together for a week! I think we're gonna cool one night too because there's a kitchen in our apartment.

After Berlin I come back to Cologne to pack for Greece! I'm gonna attempt to conquer the famous German Laundromat at some point so that I have clean clothes for when I get there haha. I leave for Greece a week from Sunday, flying into Mykonos early in the morning. We'll be in Mykono's until Tuesday, then we head to Athens. After Athens I'm flying to London to meet Uncle David for the Bucs game on Sunday. I'm ditching school on Monday (shh!) and flying back home!

So that's basically how the next couple weeks are going to unfold! I'm bringing my laptop to Berlin and Greece, so I'm sure I'll be blogging a lot!

Jess

Weekend in Amsterdam

Hi all!

So I just got back from my weekend in Amsterdam! It was quite interesting to say the least. That city is a rough place! I don't know what my assumptions were before I went, but I can say I was surprised. Once you get out on the outskirts, it's a gorgeous European city, but the city center is a disturbing place with all the drugs and hookers around. That being said, I LOVED Amsterdam!

I know it sounds a little strange to love a disturbing place, but I just felt like the whole place was just interesting in a creepy gritty sort of way. I knew there would be hookers, and I knew they would be in windows, but I didn't realize how close you are to them, how many there are, and that people actually do...purchase them! It was really strange watching men come out of the little rooms. The overall aura of the city is just different. I can't really explain it...it's really touristy, but it attracts a certain kind of tourist - namely young guys that wanna get baked and buy hookers. So that was kinda weird.

Either way, Amsterdam has some great museums and stuff, so we went to go see the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank museum on Saturday. It was really interesting. I really liked the Anne Frank museum, because, like most people, I've read the book. So it was cool to actually be in the rooms that they were hiding in...it was really creepy and really sad too.

Most of the time we just wandered the streets and looked at the pretty canals, and went into little shops. It was a really good time. Our hostel, the Flying Pig, was really nice. It was tucked away on this little street that's full of shops, and it has a really cool environment. I really like hostels to begin with, cuz I think sharing a room with 10 strangers is cool for some reason. This hostel was definitely sweet, probably my number 2 hostel that I've stayed in.

I'd love to definitely go back to Amsterdam sometime, but I'd have to do it within the next 10 years, because I can't see myself enjoying a place like that when I'm in my thirties. For now, it was a really good time!

Pictures!

Hi guys!

I added a bunch of pictures to my album, including the ones from Oktoberfest! Check em out! And don't judge the drunken ones, it was Oktoberfest after all!

www.photobucket.com/smithjl2

Jess

Sonntag

Hallo Freunde,

So I'm sad to say that I'm blogging to you guys after a fairly uneventful week. I imagine a week like this means that I'm pretty well adapted and more like a resident than a tourist. Monday and Tuesday were pretty much recovering days from Oktoberfest. On Monday night we met Dr. Shaughnessy, he was in Germany with his wife the other Dr. Shaughnessy. They took us out for a beer, and that was really cool. Tuesday we went to a museum, and I checked out the Rhinepark. After that we hopped over to the Rhein Energie stadium to buy some goods for the SOCCER GAME!

I got to check out an FC Köln game on Wendesday. That was REALLY sweet! We played Wolfsburg, who apparently was the best team in the league last year. Pretty much everyone was expecting us to lose, but we pulled a win 3-2! It was sweet, definitely intense. They literally sang soccer songs the ENTIRE game! They make Steeler fans look like Seahawks fans. It's hilarious, I wish I knew all the songs, cuz we all had tons of energy and would have definitely sang along. After the game I met up with my host brother and his girlfriend and my host sister and they took me out to celebrate at a bar. They definitely know how to party on a Wednesday night haha. We had a great time!

Waking up Thursday really sucked, cuz we didn't get home til 2 AM, so when I got home from school Thursday I literally just crashed for 3 hours. That day I didn't do much of anything.

Friday we went to this place south of Bonn called Rolandseck, and they have a big art museum there. It was...interesting we'll say. A lot of the art was really abstract and I just didn't get it. The first floor we went to I liked better cuz the guy made colorful things, and played with flowers and stuff, but the second floor was just too weird for me. I don't understand how a large orange rounded rhombus in the middle of a room could be considered art, but then again I'm not an artist.

After being wildly inspired by the abstract art, I decided to go have chinese food, and later a beer with the friends that night. We all met at the Capitol (where else?) and that was pretty cool. Only a few of us were on hand this weekend, since the others headed to Oktoberfest. I spent pretty much all of Saturday and today doing homework, so after that nothing fun at all happened! I did get to talk to Bobby on Skype for about 2 hours while I was doing work, and I pet the cat for a while. The cat hung out in my room with me for 8 hours today. That was about as exciting as the day got!

This week should be rather mundane, but that's okay, because early Friday we're packing up for Amsterdam! I'm so excited! Talk to yinz soon!

Jess

Recovering from Oktoberfest...it might take a few days!

Oktoberfest was SWEET! We went on an excursion to Aachen on Friday with the group, and it was really cool...then we left a little bit early and hopped the train to Munich! At first I got on the wrong car, and I had to wait an hour before we got to Frankfurt and I could get to my right seat and find Emily. It was kinda nerve wracking and she was terrified that I hadn't made it on the train. Luckily I found my place and everything worked out. We met up with her friend Tori at the train station in Munich, she was letting us stay at her place this weekend. She was such a cool girl and she introduced us to a bunch of her friends over the weekend. It was sweet, they were from all over the place, like the UK and Australia. Everyone was super funny and nice.

So anyways, we got up early on Saturday, like at 6, and went to wait in line at the Hacker-Pschorr tent. We had to wait 2 hours for the tents to open, and we still weren't able to get a table inside. We ended up just sitting in the Biergarten which still pretty cool. Oktoberfest, by the way, is like Kennywood but with a zillion beer tents. It's SWEET. Anyways, I was wearing one of Tori's dirndels, but I didn't have the undershirt and Emily wanted to get one of her own, so we ended up leaving in the afternoon to go Dirndle shopping! I got myself a navy blue one that's really pretty. I'm so happy I ended up buying one. We went back to Oktoberfest, but it was super crowded (it was the first day), and most of our group had gone, so we went home and went to bed early.

Sunday we went back to Oktoberfest and we were able to cram into a table in the Hacker tent. It was soooo cool being inside. The music was awesome, and the atmosphere was great. People would get up on the table and chug their mas's and the whole tent would cheer them on. Just thinking about doing that makes me sick. I ended up drinking 4 mas's of beer that day which I later found out equivilates to 20 cologne beers. Needless to say I don't think I ever want to see a Hacker-Pschorr ever again. The ride home on the train was brutal. Oh, I also ate a half a chicken on Saturday and on Sunday. It was DELICIOUS!!! I've never had better chicken in my entire life! It was all seasoned and the skin was super crunchy and good! I loved that chicken. Basically all of Oktoberfest was sweet. I was really surprised how many people wore Dirndles and Lederhosen. EVERYONE was dressed up! The people that actually stuck out were the ones in plain clothes. I'm so glad I was able to be in costume too!

All in all Oktoberfest was definitely one of the coolest things I've ever experienced. I'm excited to be able to say that I have been there. I definitely want to go back someday, but I think I might need a few years to recoup from it! This week I'm pretty slammed with homework, but I'm excited because we have 2 museum excursions. I think I'm gonna take it easy this weekend, and maybe see if my host siblings want to hang out and do something. Next weekend I'm going to Amsterdam! I'm so excited. After this weekend I have a solid month of traveling pretty much! I'll have a lot to write about!

Sunday 9-12

Hello! So right now I'm writing from my German living room and I'm watching FC Koeln play FC Shalke. Shalke is winning 2-1 but there's still 20 minutes left in the game. Hopefully Koeln comes back and wins! I'm excited because I get to go to a Bundesliga game on the 23rd!

This weekend was good, we went to Scholl Bruehl on Friday, and got done there pretty early, so we went to the Hard Rock Cafe. The Hard Rock was pretty cool, it was smaller than normal, but I was dying for a bacon cheeseburger, and I got one there!

Friday night we met at the Capitol and there were a bunch of the kids from the Gymnasium there. The waitress at the Capitol officially recognizes us and knows our drink orders! I really love that little bar. We sat in the Biergarten that night and it was really nice. Then we went to a free dance club across the street. My friend talked my in to tequila, and that was pretty much the end of my night.

Because of the Tequila I couldn't move until around 2 PM yesterday. After I finally got moving and my headache and nausea went away I did some homework and made plans to go out again. Luckily everyone else cancelled because I really didn't want to go out again after the night before. Instead I stayed in and hung out with my host family, and it was really nice and a lot of fun! We watched some game show and some guy won a half a million euros. I was jealous.

Today I met Alex and Emily at Starbucks in Neumarkt, and we did a little bit of studying for our test. Then we went to Rudolphplatz and ate at the "American Sportsbar". I had a half rack of ribs. It was delicious! They had a bunch of NFL stuff on the walls and they had a vintage pic of the Buccaneers on their menus. No Steeler stuff. I was very dissappointed. Oh well. We watched Bremen vs. Hannover at the bar, and then FC Koeln came on so I wanted to come home and watch that. On the way home I saw a magical device called a Bier Bike. Basically there are 8 spots around a table and the people pedal and drink beer, and some guy steers. They were listening to die Prinzen. It was amazing :-) Tomorrow we start our regular school schedule, and our Lit class got cancelled, so I'll be done at Noon! First test on tuesday so I'll be studying my brains off!

-Jess

Thursday 9-10

Hello! Today is Thursday! Woo hoo! Unfortunately I caught myself a cold overnight, and I woke up with major sinus congestion and a sore throat. It was pretty nasty all day. I got home from school today and took a nap, but it was one of those sick naps where you're on the brink of a fever and are kinda tossing and turning. So anyways my host mom made me some peppermint tea, and after dinner some really good hot lemon carbonated stuff that had some medicine in it. I'm feeling a little better. I'm gonna take a nyquil soon and sleep it off.

Anyways, it was a pretty good week so far. I went to the Gruen Guertel on Monday which is a big park that goes around the city, and I went there Tuesday in between classes too. I also went to Happy Doener Monday for food and I went shopping in Neumarkt, but just bought a book. Wednesday I went to Campus Doener and the guys let us behind the counter to "help" make the Turkish Pizzas so I got some cool pictures of that.

Tuesday my line 9 train was down so I had to walk from school to Neumarkt Platz to grab the 1 train that would at least get me halfway home. I got off the train in Kalk Post because I knew there was a mall there. I figured I'd kill some time and see if the 9 would be running again. I ended up finding another book there that I wanted, and I also saw some cool FC Koeln tshirts, but they were too expensive. I went back down to the subway to find that the 9 still was out of commission, so I figured I'd take line 1 to a stop parallel with mine and maybe take a cab. Turns out this train stopped a little earlier than I had planned and we all had to get off. I decided to go to a little newsstand and ask the guy if Rath Heumar was too far of a walk. He didn't understand me at first, because apparently he was foreign too, but I got the message across and he let me know that there was a bus stop right across the road, and that bus would take me pretty close to my house. So I definitely lucked out. It would have been a pretty long walk. Anyways, the bus came like 5 minutes later, and dropped me off at Koenigsforst, and I walked home from there. All in all my little adventure took 2 and a half hours. I was fairly exhausted when I got home.

Last night I went out with my friend Emily and her host brother Kai, and we walked over a bridge to the Dom. It was really cool because there was some play going on and the Dom was all lit up in different colors. They had a stage and they were singing some song about how cool Cologne was. After that we grabbed a beer and walked to Rudolphplatz to go to a little pub. It was really nice and a lot of fun, but I didn't get to bed until really late and now I'm pretty tired. Come to think of it, I was running around in short sleeves yesterday and it was cold out so maybe that in addition to sleep deprivation is what led to me being sick!

Today we had a brunch with the German students learning English. The University of Cologne didn't have enough room for our program, so we actually rent the classrooms at a nearby high school, so the kids we were eating with were high school students. Their English put our German to shame I must say, but it was still a lot of fun, and they were all really nice kids. Actually I think that some of them are taking us to the bar tomorrow (the low drinking age continues to amaze me).

So anyway, tomorrow is Friday, and Friday is excursion day! Tomorrow we're going to see Schloss Bruehl, which is a palace between Cologne and Bonn. Bonn is really really close to Cologne and was the Capitol of West Germany during the split years. After that we're gonna visit the Hard Rock Cafe in Heumarkt and possibly eat there (because I'm dying for a legit bacon cheeseburger).

I'm not sure what the rest of the weekend holds really. I'll probably do some studying cuz I have my first test on Tuesday. Other than that, I got my whole fall trip booked and ready, so I'm definitely off to Mykonos, Athens, and London in just over a month! I'm really excited. I also found this really cool thing on Germanwings.com, which is a German airline, and it's called blind booking. Basically it's like a surprise vacation for the spontaneous (like me!) and you choose what you want out of your destination, such as culutre, party, shopping, beach, metropolis. Then you pay for your plane ticket (39.99 euro round trip). THEN they tell you where you're going! I think it's so cool! They give you a breakdown of possible destinations, which is nice. If I were to choose party for example, the possible destinations would include Barcelona, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Istanbul, Dublin, Budapest, etc. I think it's pretty neat. We are free Thanksgiving weekend so depending on how the rest of the trip goes I might talk to some of the other kids in the program and see if they'd be interested!

Anyways, that's about all I have for you today! I'm gonna curl up with my book in about 10 minutes and go to sleeeeeeeep. Goodnight!

Jess

Pictures!

I'm finally getting my pictures up somewhere that isn't facebook so everyone can see them! You can check out my pictures at www.photobucket.com/smithjl2

Oh and I apologize, the pictures are in pretty much not in order at all, but I'm not sure how to fix that


P.S. Nevermind I figured it out, they should be in order now! Also, click slideshow in the top right corner, it makes it easier to see them

Saturday the 5th

Hello! So my first week of school is over, and I must say that I was overwhelmed at first by all the homework. Luckily the workload has died down a lot towards the end of the week, and I was able to have some free time! On Wednesday night I met some people in the city and we went and had ice cream at that ice cream place again. It was of course delicious. Thursday I stayed in and relaxed some, and yesterday we went on a Rhine river tour! It was really cool, on the way down we saw tons of Castles. First we drove south to Koblenz to see a fortress which was really neat. When we were there we had a lot of fun goofing off and pretending to take "senior pictures". So we situated ourselves in the cheesy positions like lean against the wall and look in the distance, lean on the stone pedestal, "letter jacket" over the shoulder. It was a lot of fun. Maybe we were a little conspicuous but oh well.

After we Koblenz we drove another hour or so to a really cute little tourist trap of a village called Ruedesheim. It was really nice, but everything was crazy expensive there. I got a pop for E1,50! On our way down we must have seen 15 castles. Every 5 minutes or so, someone on the bus was yelling "Schloss!!" which means castle. The bus ride was tons of fun too, cuz we had a Disney sing-a-long, which surprisingly everyone joined in on. We finished with a very interesting interpretation of how Bohemian Rhapsody is supposed to sound, which was hilarious.

Anyways, the purpose of this journey was to get on a boat, which we did in Ruedesheim. We got on the boat and ordered food, which pretty much everyone got Wienerschnitzel and Semi-dry white wine. Everything was delicious. The weather kinda sucked, it was rainy and cold, but it was all still a good time.

I went home and had dinner, then got ready and went out to our little pub that is officially now our regular spot. We had a really fun night, but my head was pounding this morning so I spent most of the day so far in bed. At some point I'm gonna become a normal person and get going for the day. Not sure what the plans are for tonight yet, but there was some mention of a party and Nick's house. I haven't heard anything since yesterday, so I'm not really sure. Either way it should be a fun Saturday night!

Oh I'm also really excited because I got a few trips booked officially! I have my reservations made to go to Amsterdam on October 2-4, and I also booked a flight to Greece for the first part of my free week! I'm flying into Mykonos on Sunday October 18th, and we're going to Athens on Tuesday. On Friday I'm going to fly to London and meet up with Uncle David. The Bucs and the Patriots are playing that Sunday! I'm really excited. I also have to find time to go to Paris, and I'm definitely going to Oktoberfest also, I'm just not positive which weekend. I was advised to avoid week 2, since all the Italian men go that week and get drunk and chase blondes. I'll probably try avoid that as best as possible. A bunch of the girls want to go to Prague the first full weekend of November, then head up to Berlin for November 9th, which is the 20th Anniversary of the falling of the wall. I definitely want to go to Berlin, and I always love Prague but I have to see how my rail pass is around that time. I also think we'll go to Brussels the 2 days before we leave for Berlin. So I guess I have a lot to look forward to this semester!

Birthday!

Yay it's my birthday! And as a present I got a pile of HOMEWORK! That's right...day 1, and I'm already spending hours doing homework. And the fun doesn't end there! I even get a QUIZ tomorrow! Anyways, lemme go over the past weekend before I get too ahead of myself.

Saturday I went for a bike ride, and I rode out to the airport and back which was about 10 kilometers, so something like 6 miles...not too bad! When I got back to the house I had some plum cake and then I needed a nap. I ate dinner with the family, and I met with a bunch of the PCIC kids in Neumarkt square so we could go to a club. The club ended up having a 9 Euro cover which is outrageous! Then 1 heineken cost me 4 euro! After a couple hours we decided it was too smokey in there (one tiny advantage the US has over Europe...no one really smokes anymore at home!) We ended up going to this pub that we had been to before called the Capitol in Zuplicherplatz. It's a really nice place with great prices and not alot of smoke so we decided that it would be our main hangout :-)

Sunday I kinda moped around all day and felt depressed that I'm 22 and not at home to celebrate with my friends and family and Bobby...But later 5 of us met again in Neumarkt to celebrate my birfday, so I felt a little better. We went to Rudolphplatz and had ice cream, then we went to a little pub down the road. It was an early night, since today was our first day of school!

When I woke up I was pretty excited to start class. I haven't worked at all in almost 2 weeks, and for me that's CRAZY. I got all dressed and ready and went up to have breakfast. My host mom is so sweet! She had a happy birthday placemat set up for me and a couple gifts! I got a bottle of Chardonnay, a scarf, some bodywash, and a Halloween candle! It was really nice.

When I got to school I was really excited...plus pretty much everyone wished me a happy birthday which was super nice. My first class ever I got TONS OF HOMEWORK. I have to do like 4 sections of stuff, plus I have to memorize 37 words. I'm not a happy camper, but what can I do? I've got the vocab on notecards and I'm working on my 2nd section...Plus I still have stuff for this class to do that's due Wednesday, AND I have to do stuff for the other class I had today. Over my head already...thank god I'm not working on top of this, I'd be hyperventilating!

After my first class 11 of us went out for my Birthday Doener, and it was SEHR LECKER! Then we went to class 2, and then home. I was brutally exhausted. I had some coffee with my host family, then I took a nap, and started my endless homework. Dinner was good, and my host mom made us chocolate cupcakes and I got a birthday candle! They sang happy birthday to me in English and it was really nice!

Anyways I gotta go back to the homework!

Jess

Samstag

Okay! So it's Saturday, and I'm settled in with my host family! Everyone is really nice, I'm really excited. I have a nice big room with a tv in the basement and a bathroom close by, and a big yard. I live in a village not too far from the city, it's about 20 minutes on the U-bahn to downtown. I have 2 dogs and a cat! My host parents are Udo and Iris and I have 3 host siblings, Timo-25, Yvonne-20, and Stefano-15. Everyone is really nice and I'm excited and finally relaxing a little bit.

Yesterday all the kids in the program met at the school and we did paperwork to get our visas. Then we hiked to some store and got our pictures taken. We'll have our visas on Monday. It was a pretty short day, so we all went and grabbed a pizza after we were done. I came home and talked to my parents, then I took a nap, ate dinner, and some of us met up and went out in Zuplicherplatz. So basically it was a fun night. Tonight I guess we're all meeting with the activities coordinator and going to some club downtown, and tomorrow afternoon there is a streetfair. After the streetfair we're all meeting again in Neumarkt around 8 and we're gonna go somewhere for my birthday!

-Jess

Deutschland 8-27-09

Hallo!

I made it to Germany yesterday! The flight was good, everything was great. Then when I got to the hostel, I couldn't find any people that I recognized! I went to the front desk and the girl asked me if I was with the program...I said yeah. She said that I was the 4th girl who went to that hostel, I guess they had changed it last week, but I didn't get the e-mail. So anyways, I had to get another taxi to this hostel and finally I made it.

I got all my stuff put away and once all the people were rounded up we went to the top of this building and saw all of the city which was pretty cool. Then we went and got a beer and walked around, cuz you can do that here haha. After that was dinner, most people took a nap, and then we went out for the night! Mostly we sat around on a sidewalk having a beer for a while, then some of the others woke up and we did a small pub hop around the old town. It was pretty sweet! I ended the night with a delicious Doener, and all was well. Now my battery is dying so I'm gonna go and charge my computer. I meet my host family later too by the way! And I got some pictures of Zuzka's house that I'll put on facebook :-) I'm excited for her to come visit next summer hopefully!

-Jess

Prague 8-24-09

Today is Monday! 2 more days before I go to Germany! I'm getting really excited...a little nervous for a few reasons, but mostly excited. I'm finally a little nervous to speak German all the time, but that doesn't really bother me too much. I'm more nervous about how I'm gonna transport myself from the airport to the hostel with all of my bags...I guess I'll take a taxi but I'm worried it'll be really expensive.

Speaking of expensive, my camera broke so I had to go buy a new one. Cameras here are sooooo much money! But I really like my new one, it's a pink coolpix and it's pretty nice...it doesn't have all the stuff my old one had, but my old one broke after 3 years so I guess it wasn't worth it. Plus my old one was giant. This one is nice and small :-)

The weekend was fun. Saturday we went to a Car Cruise with a bunch of sweet cars. They had racing and drifting and a ton of food, so it was really nice. That night we wanted to go to a club, so we went to this club not too far away. When we got there, there was all kinds of techno blaring and neon lights, so I thought wow this is gonna be sweet! Then we went in, and I'm pretty sure the average age was about 45 years old. Oh, and there was a middle school aged boy sitting in this nightclub! A little different from home! We stayed in the club for about 30 seconds and decided somewhere else would be better. So we went to a club in Kladno that had similar music and lights, but it was much better and the people there were actually around our age. I'm pretty sure this place had cosmic bowling on the other side too, but I suck at bowling haha. We stayed there for the rest of the night, it was pretty fun! We just kinda hung out at the bar and listened to music, and I did a lot of people watching...people probably thought I was staring haha, and they were right. I love to people watch.

Sunday we had a lazy day, I finished my book and relaxed a little. I felt pretty homesick yesterday. In the afternoon we went out and did some shopping, then went and walked around Prague, which was really nice. Then we came home and I felt pretty sick. I feel better now though. Today we're gonna go to Prague again! I posted some pictures on my facebook, I'm not sure how to post them on here yet...but I'm gonna try and figure it out soon!

-Jess