Deutschland! Hier bin ich!

So, now I have been in Germany since last Wednesday (almost a whole week now!!). So what exactly have I been doing this whole time? Well, a lot actually, I have had so much to do, it's been great!

On Wednesday I got in a bit after 10 and took the S and U-Bahn to the apartment where I am staying with my friend, Isabel. It is Kordula's apartment (and yes, she is here too) and she is soo nice! I really like her and her apartment is also very nice. That afternoon I took a little walk in the nearby streets. It started to rain fairly hard on my way back to the apartment, so I stopped in a café and had something to drink there. It was really nice.

That evening Isabel went into Augsburg to a party with her brother Alex. It was really cool, though I was very tired. We celebrated into Isabel's birthday. Most of the time it was alright for me, with being so tired, but as the night went on, I ended up just finding somewhere to sit and waited until the others were ready to go. By this point it was really late and so Isabel and I didn't want to drive back to Munich. We got lost on our way out of Munich, we didn't want to do that again! So we stayed in a dorm room. Someone Alex knows gave us his keys, and he was staying somewhere else that night. So we had his room to ourselves. Isabel slept on the bed and I slept on an airmattress. Now that airmattress was something else! We pumped it from a bit after 4 until 5am and it still wasn't pumped up very well. I pretty much slept on the floor, but I was soo tired that it really didn't matter to me.

Thursday we slept in and had breakfast in Alex's apartment before going back to Munich. In Munich Isabel's father came over and we sat around and talked for a while before we went to dinner. We had Mexican food for dinner and it tasted really good! I really didn't talk much during this whole time, because I was just getting used to German again. That evening Isabel and I didn't go out again and instead had a relaxed evening, she opened her presents and we all sat around and chatted. It was really nice.



Friday I slept in late. I went to go find Mirja, she was an exchange student in my house when I was in ninth grade. It turns out that she lives right around the corner from where I am staying! I would have stayed with her, but she has a lot of stress at school right now as her time at college is slowly coming to an end (a lot of tests and papers and such). It was really good to see her and I gave her the presents from my Mom and myself. We chatted about Iowa and unfortunately I couldn't really tell her much new things as I myself do not really know what is going on in Iowa anymore.

That evening Isabel and I went out again. She was trying to get together with her friend that Kordula put her in contact with, but it did not work right away. Until this weekend they had never actually seen each other, but only called and emailed each other. Since making plans with her friend, Josué, was not working out so well, we simply went out and asked where we could find good a good disco or good dancing. So we went to 4004 here in Munich, there was an Abi-Party or something like that there. After asking everyone we met how to get there, we finally got there and were not sure if we really wanted to go. Then we heard this group speaking Spanish and we thought it might be Josué, but in the end it wasn't. Isabel even called his cell phone to see if it wasn't him.

In the disco we met up with some Austrian exchange students (college level) and talked to them for a while. They seemed a little bit drunk, but they were funny. Then Isabel had found some Mexicans and Italians. So we talked to them. They were doing a language course here in Munish. This group was very cool to hang out with, as we were quite the international group and none of us are very familiar with Munich. So we hung out with them the rest of our time at 4004 and in the end exchanged numbers to see if we can't grab a drink in a bar sometime this week. Who knows, maybe that will happen, maybe not.

Isabel then tried to get a hold of Josué again and we agreed to meet him somewhere. So we got to meet him for a half an hour and he seemed prety cool. His girlfriend also came by. They were really nice. Isabel and Josué spoke Spanish, so I spoke to the girlfriend who can't understand Spanish. I was really happy with my Spanish though, because I could understand most of what they were saying!


Just before the shopping area, Odeonsplatz.

On Saturday Isabel and I went shopping. That was really cool. My clothes all seem to be falling apart, so it was very good to buy some new ones. I even found a pair of jeans! I rarely find jeans that I like, I am way to picky... Kordula met us and we had some lunch then we looked at the dresses that Isabel was looking at for Abiball. We decided that they all were not something special, though some were nicer than others. She decided that she will bring back the one dress she already has, because it is not as good as it could be for that sort of thing. We also by chance ran into Josué in an H&M. That was really funny, he and Isabel saw each other and did not think much of it, then they both though hmmm, maybe I do know him/her. Then they finally spoke and realized who the other was.

That evening was "die Lange Nacht der Musik" or the long night of music. You only have to pay 15 euros and you can go to all these concerts all over Munich. Also these trams are included in the price, and they take you all over the city to all the concerts. It was really cool. We discovered the Gasteig (a big culture/music center) and Isabel gave up one of her three jackets there to be picked up on another day. We met up again with Josué and his girlfriend and this time his friend Alex was also there. We first met up with them in this neat little bar where they played jazz/latino music. I really liked listening to the flute and the saxaphone there. We wandered around some more and found some other latino music and a latino music dance club/bar thing. It was fun. I know that my family would absolutely love this sort of concert night and a lot of my friends would too.


Alex, Josué and his girlfriend Diana, Isabel and myself are in these two photos.



Isabel and myself on our way home after Die Lange Nacht der Musik.

Sunday we slept in and then we visited Isabel's half sister Ulrike. She has two little girls named Anna and Elisa. They were really cute. We spent the afternoon and evening there. On the way we picked up some cake for us all to eat and it tasted great! We went for a walk that took us by Ammersee very briefly and then back to the house. We found some snails that interested the little girls a lot. I must admit the snails were very cute and it kind of brought me back to when I was that little (they are 2 and 4 years old) and such things always interested me a lot. We ate dinner there and left late. We got lost in Munich again and had to call Kordula to get help with directions again. Finally we made it back and things were good again.

The next morning I woke up when Isabel had to to get ready for work and I spent the morning in the city. I bought myself a pair of shoes and I like them a lot! I then came back for lunch and the three of us ate a nice lunch together. Afterwards Kordula and I went into the city. I went to Gasteig and she had some errands to do. The Gasteig is really big and had a lot more entrances than I remembered. I finally entered one and the jacket was actually at that entrance!

Kordula and I met up again at Mariensplatz. By then it was raining fairly hard, so we left by way of taxi.

That evening we went into the little "latino" bar that is right by Kordula's apartment and had some dinner and a drink. Then we had a nice quiet evening and watched Dirty Dancing 2, Havana Nights. It was a great evening. Unfortunately we ran out of Keebler Fudge Shopp Cookies, Isabel really likes them. I will have to send her some sometime. :-)

Today I haven't done much. Isabel likes the room so dark that I have no idea what time it is and I simply sleep on. I look up and it still looks really dark, so I just roll over and sleep some more, even if I don't need anymore sleep. So I didn't wake up this morning until 11:30! I was not nearly that tired. So I woke up and showered, soon Kordula was back for a lunch break from work and she prepare lunch. Then Isabel was here and we ate. When they went back to work I finished writing some more postcards and then did this.

This evening Alex, Isabel's brother, will come into Munich and we will go into town and return the dress that Isabel doesn't want for Abiball. Who knows what else we will do, probably find us some food in town where Kordula will meet up with us.

It's really been great to be back in Germany and speak German again. Finally it is going well once more with this language. Also the rest of my plans for my time here and simply falling into place. Here I have very good internet access, but I don't know if it will always be so. So in the next several days I can check and answer emails pretty well, but after that I do not know.

I really can't wait to see my host family and my old school again! Soon I will be there. :-)

Anyways, I am going to grab a snack and go down to meet up with Isabel so we can meet up with her brother. Please excuse any writing mistakes, as I am sure I made many.

God's Blessings and bis bald!

Almost out of the Country

So today is my last day in the US until the middle of July. It ended up working out that a friend and I shall see each other later today, unless our plans fall through. Originally we planned on seeing each other this morning. That would be great to get together as we haven't seen much of each other since high school, I keep best contact with her out of everyone from my high school. She's getting married in August and I will be able to attend the wedding as well.

Today we are driving up to the cities so we don't have to wake up so early to drop me off tomorrow. I am excited to get going, I don't really have a strong schedule for the summer though. More of just a rough plan that could change. The comforting thing is that I do have people to go to to stay with and I am confidant not to be left high and dry with a place to stay. I just don't have the itenerary completely thought out, but it is almost there, mainly a few things could be switched around at the beginning and at the end. Then in the middle there could be a few days where I may not leave for the next place on the previously thought day, rather the next day, or something like that, nothing big though.

I have a few things left to pack and other than that I am completely ready to head out of here. You know, like this computer that I am using right now... Well, I better finish getting ready, my parents and I are going to a birthday coffee this morning, it should be good.

Hmmm.. Darn Photos!

So lately I have been trying to add some photos of my hall program and other things to my blog and it hasn't been working out so well... Oh well, I will tell about things now instead of showing them in photos and adding stories. Somewhere along the line my profile photo disappeared too. I am going to have to work on getting a new one up... Oh well....

The hall program meal went great! We had some hamburgers, bratwursts (to any Germans out there, no they were not like those in Germany), kabobs, strawberries, grapes, cookies and bananas for banana boats. It all tasted great and everyone who stopped by seemed to really enjoy it. It was good to just relax a bit and chat with different people from the floor and not from the floor that I hadn't talked to in a while.

There was also my older brother's graduation a week ago on Saturday. I was able to make out to his Concordia for that and I really enjoyed the weekend all together. Though I was sleep deprived and asleep on my feet the entire weekend, it was completely worth it. Daniel graduated on my Dad's 30th graduation anniversary as did on of his friend's on his Mom's 30th from the same school. That was really neat. I also got to see my cousin before she went to Taiwan to visit her sister who is a missionary there (check out Anna's blog under my links, she's the missionary) and several friends that had not vacated the campus yet after finals. My brother graduated with a degree in Computer Science and Math, so if anyone needs someone in that field, I hear he's good.

Right after my brother's graduation I had finals week. That was kind of a bummer of a week, ok more stressful than anything. I came back completely tired and I felt like I was getting sick with something, not good. The whole week I was kind of sick with something and I couldn't really shake it because there was no way I was going to be able to get a lot of sleep to catch up on it. I had 5 finals and 2 papers to do during finals week, along with some homework that I needed to finish up. Then, as an RA, I had to check all of my residents out of their rooms. If I was well rested and completely healthy coming into the week, this would not have been a big deal. However this was not the case and every day I reminded myself that I only had a few more days. Now that it is over and I have time to myself and I get to see my family here at home, I realize that I am going to miss a lot of people this summer and next school year. It was a good year overall, but I am glad it is over now.

Now I think I mentioned this before, but I will again just in case. Part of the whole reason for starting this blog is that I can share more easily what is going on during this summer and next school year. I have no idea what my internet access is going to be this summer, but at any rate, I am going to try my best to update my blog while I am in Germany. I leave for Germany the beginning of next week, there I will visit my host family and friends. Hopefully I will also be able to visit my (most likely) future university for a semester.

When I was in high school I went to Germany for a year as a foreign exchange student, I haven't really been back since and that was three years ago. Throughout the years I have made friendships all across the country and now I am going to take the time and money to go visit all my friends over there, or at least as many as I can manage in less than two months.

Then in the fall I will be studying abroad in Spain for the semester. I have never been to Spain and I am really excited to go. Ok, right now not really, but after I get back from Germany I am going to be really excited, I can't think that far ahead yet. The following spring semester I will be studying in Germany for a semester. Right now I am working on getting paper work in order so that this is all possible. This is why I made this blog to begin with. Then after my year I hope to continue to use it so that people, where ever they are, can see what is going on in my life. Feel free to email me at any time and if you want more contact information for me (though this summer really doesn't have any), please message me and if I want to give it to you I will.

Today was fun. It is my little brother's, AJ's, birthday. So this morning I went to the store and got noise makers and donuts and then Daniel and I brought them to school to interrupt class. It was a good time and AJ was surprised I think. Well, I have to get going and get some more doctor's appointments and such done (for whatever reason it is good to go to the doctor to get visas and such....).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AJ!!