My Crazy Life

Family, my Boyfriend and Back to Concordia

2007-09-08T21:15:00.000-05:00

I really need to get better at this blogging stuff and write more regularly, especially as I have been busy since I wrote last month!!

After I got to see an entire side of my family at my house I spent a bit more time at home before shooting off to Nebraska to visit my cousin Rachel for some much needed cousin time. We got to spend several days together, talk a lot and do a bunch of things. Conversations went from how to do hair and make up to relationship to adapting to living with someone in an apartment, to our family and to recipes and cooking. We went to the Old market in town, yoga, took a walk, saw where she works, made Grandma dinner, attended a city league baseball game, and knitted together. I wonder how her scarf is doing anyways...

To sum up our time together, it was amazing and entirely too short. It was broken up a day early because she had to go to Colorado for a wedding that her boyfriend was in. So off I went to my Grandma's, who lives in the same town. That was good because I hadn't spent a lot of time with my Grandma (Dad's side) in the last years and so I was looking forward to spending time with her.

At her place we looked at a lot of family history information. It was neat to learn more about where my family came from and how they arrived in the USA. My Grandma had an old engagement ring from one of our ancestors which was really neat. There was an obituary in the pile of information that was about a page long fulll of positive things about this ancestor of mine. It is great to know that there have been people who have positively impacted others. Also just to think about how little information there is on some relatives leaves you wondering what their lives were like and how they lived. It was really neat to see that faith seemed to be a very important part of my ancestors lives.

Then came the day where I finally got to see Ben. I haven't mentioned him in this blog before, because I didn't really know what to say I guess. Many people already know that Ben is my boyfriend and we've been together for a little more than 6.5 months now, almost all of it with an ocean between us until we finally saw each other in Nebraska.

Which brought us on a crazy cool tour of going to a wedding and meeting lots of family and friends of his. I actually knew the bride and groom at the wedding and then also a 2nd cousin of the groom, which meant I knew a total of 4 people there before going, but it was still fun. Some of the highlights of our trip together weree flying in an experimental plane his uncle built, meeting his Mom and a set of Grandparents, learning how to play cribbage, seeing my other Grandma (Mom's side) and seeing my cousin Sarah, whom I hadn't seen in about 8 years.

In the experimental plane before take off.

The bottom line is, it was a very enjoyable time together and I am thankful for it. We actually even saw each other in time to see each other on our 6th month anniversary. We ended our time together at my parents house, he left the day after arriving there and I left my parents house a day after that.

He went to where he would be installed as a DCE one week later and I went to where I would be starting classes a week later. Those places are only 4 hours apart, which is just fine with me, because it is a lot less than having an ocean between us!

I spent the next week applying for jobs, getting things in order at school, organizing my apartment some and actually seeing some friends that I hadn't seen in over a year. The week went by quicker than I had imagined. Band start during that week, so it was fun to help the freshman get a bit oriented and to see old band friends. Being in choir I was able to sing in the opening service on the Saturday a week after arriving, which I left after and drove 4 hours so I could be at Ben's installation service that Sunday.

That was a great opportunity to visit with his Mom some more (who also drove out for the service), get to know one of his friends better and spend some time with him. His Aunt and Uncle we had visited right after the wedding actually came out to surprise him, which was great.

I got to get to know a few people from the congregation a bit and just get to know the city a little where Ben now lives. I was very happy for the opportunity.

After the weekend I made it back just in time for choir practice Monday evening and thus classes started. I am one of those seniors that has little left to finish in order to graduate. So I am sitting at 13 credits and lots of free time (night classes are great). Kate had arrived just before I went to the opening service, so by the time I returned home she had the furniture organized very nicely. The apartment really feels like home now.

Last week was filled with starting classes, finding books for classes and seeing people. I convinced my older brother Daniel to drive out for Labor Day weekend, which he left his place at 4am because he couldn't sleep any longer at 1am, silly boy! The night before he came I was able to catch up with my good friends Matt and Dan.

With Daniel we went to an art museum and learned a new game called Puerto Rico. It takes a long time to explain the rules, but I think I can now say it was worth it. We all attended my Aunt and Uncle's Church and they seemed happy to have the company.

On Sunday Ben arrived in the evening. I have been very spoiled to be able to see him so much after not ever being able to see him before. He got to meet a number of my friends, I should test him on names... :-) and we checked out the new beach Concordia has, which is pretty great. All in all it was a full weekend hanging out with friends and seeing family. Then the second week of classes start last Tuesday as we had Monday off for Labor Day.

Things have been going great and I continue to hang out with friends I have missed. It has been good starting up some new activities and getting into some old ones. I am excited to see what this semester has to offer in so many different ways.

Ben and myself

Farewell my dearest Deutschland!

2007-08-02T14:37:00.000-05:00

On July 23rd I left Germany to return to the USA. My last bit of time in Germany was very stressful, but good.

I went on one more trip before the stress really started though. My last trip during my time in Germany was to Freiburg and Strasbourg. In Freiburg I met up with a friend I met in Tübingen because he was visiting a friend of mine there for her birthday. I also visitied a friend I met in Spain, he's from Freiburg, so it was neat to visit him at his home. Freiburg is not very large, but has some neat things there to see, like the cathedral and the castle mountain where you can get a very nice view of the city.

From Freiburg I headed over the Strasbourg for a day and saw a friend from my university. Strasbourg, unlike how the name sounds, is a French city and where the European Union has its headquarters. Strasbourg is full of things to see and is very beautiful. My friend I saw was in the middle of a two week course in apologetics. It was just really good to catch up with a friend from home.

When I returned to Tübingen the stress started. I had to finish a paper and take two exams and I left myself too little time to study and write the paper. It was ok though because I managed to finish the paper and I know I did fine on one exam. The other exam I haven't heard the results yet and on the paper I don't know yet either.

When that was all finished I had choir concerts and packing to do with a small going away party squeezed in. It was really neat that Mirja, an exchange of mine from Germany came over for my going away party. It was good to see her and catch up with her. Several friends I had made during my time in Tübingen came out for it and a few couldn't make it unfortunately.

Then I had two choir concerts, one was in Stuttgart and the other in Tübingen. They both went really well and so I was pleased to have a nice finish to my time in Germany with those concerts. It was good to see the choir people once more before leaving.

On the 23rd I got to wake up early and head to the train station. That was a funny trip because another person from the US on his way home was on the same bus to the train station as me, then in the train to Stuttgart I saw my choir director. Basically the entire semester I had not met up with the one in the bus before and on our last day we do, I had also never seen my choir director in the train before, so that was really neat.

I am already looking forward to the next opportunity to see friends in Germany again.

Below is a photo of my bike that I had to leave behind in Germany, oh how I shall miss that bike. It's old and looks basically worthless, but it works well!

Now I have been home about a week and a half and I have been enjoying time with family. It was very good to see some cousins and my aunt and uncle last weekend. My Grandma was there too, so it was one entire side of my family in one place for less than 24 hours, we have to take our family reunions as we can get them, no matter how fast the time goes by!

A few trips and soon finals

2007-07-05T11:14:00.000-05:00

I am really happy right now that I am going to be spending some more time in Tübingen and not be traveling across the countryside all the time! This semester I have been fortunate to travel so much, but a bit of a rest from that is welcome.

After I posted last I spent 5 days with Lisa and her family in Kiel again. It was Kieler Woche (the sailboating week in northern Germany on the Baltic Sea). I wasn't there for all of it like last year. This year I also was familiar with many of Lisa's friends from the start, so it was neat to see them again and to find out what they have been doing since they graduated. Another plus this year was that I have a few friends from my exchange year that are studying in Kiel now, so I was able to see them!

I arrived on a Wednesday and Lisa and I took it easy that day. On Thursday we went to a nearby town so Lisa could drop off her art portfolio as part of an application to a university, I was also able to buy some movies, one of which is called "Das Leben der Anderen" or "The Lives of Others" in English. It won an Oscar for the best foreign language film. It is about Eastern Germany's secret police trying to find out everyone's secrets and more specifically about a playwrite's secrets. Lisa and I watched it that afternoon after returning, a very good movie! Thursday we slept in and then went to the Kieler Woche Party that evening. The good thing about this year is that Lisa didn't graduate and so she had more time to sleep!

On Friday a friend of hers that she met in Spain came over and we got all dressed up and went to Kieler Woche in our dresses then to Abiball from Lisa's school. She didn't know a lot of people there, but we had fun together! On Saturday we got to scrub a pool. Lisa's Grandma keeps fish in a pool and we were priviledged to scrub it. It was good upper body workout and the following day we were both sore! Then we also grilled afterwards, we had soo much food and it was all very delicious!

That Sunday we wanted to go to the beach, but the weather didn't cooporate. So we had coffee with friends at Lisa's house instead. That evening we went to the Kieler Woche again and there were fireworks. My fireworks for the summer as I was here for 4th of July!

Then I was home for a few days before leaving again for northern Germany, this time to visit friends from my exchange year from my school. I left on a Thursday with the train and met up with Sandra in Vechta first. Vechta is the university I was supposed to go to for the semester, but I liked Tübingen more. It was neat to see Sandra again, she had visited my university for several weeks, and so it was neat to meet up with her in Germany.

Sandra and myself

On that Friday I went to where I went to school at. I stayed at Wiebke's house and so it was neat to catch up with her. During my time there we didn't do a lot together but we are slowing doing more and more, so that is neat to see how that has developed! On Saturday we didn't do much during the day but that evening we went to Abiball from the gymnasium we both attended. We both knew quite a number of the graduates because they were in the 10th grade with us, but had gone abroad for a year or had to repeat a class.

Wiebke and myself at Abiball

One surprise at Abiball was Alex. He was an exchange student at the same school as me during the same year as me and neither of us expected to see another one of us exchange students at the Abiball. So it was really neat to see him! He had promised his host sister (who spent a year at his house in Guatamala and went to his graduation) that he would come to her graduation. What a surprise!

Gymnasium BRV Exchange Students 2002-2003

On Sunday I ate lunch with my host sister Henrike, the rest of her family was unfortunately out of town though. That evening I went to choir with the Tarmstedt Youth Choir, it was neat to see Wolf, the director, and the others from choir again! Everytime I know more people, it is really neat!

Wolf

I stayed at a choir member's house that night, her name is Birgit. She is really nice and told me some things about Chile, as she had spent a year there. Her Mom is also very sweet and speaks wonderful English!

Now I am back in Tübingen and I have to do a report and I have two oral exams coming up, so that should be interesting. Now it is study time. Choir concerts are coming up too and then I go home! The time has really flown!

This weekend we have a lot of choir practices here in town, then the next two weekends I get to sing with the choir, so it should be good! I am excited to see how the semester ends. I am counting down the days until I am home, yet I am going to be sad to leave Germany, again. :-)

My absence from blogger answered with a post!

2007-06-17T10:55:00.000-05:00

Well, I have been off of here for a while. I have been busy doing things though. In April I continued to go to my classes (and I continue to go now as well) and got used to my differenct classes. I am taking two typed of classes. Luther's Ethic and Christianity and Islam are seminars. Basically that means there is more professor/student interaction, discussion and homework. Then Exile Literature and Genesis are two lecture classes, so the professor stands up front and basically presents his thesis. I am enjoying all of my classes and I am learning alot in all of them. I get to start writing a 15 page paper for my Christianity and Islam class soon, so that should be interesting!

At the end of April/beginning of May Carrie came to visit me. That was a nice visit, we went hiking to Bebenhausen (1.5 hours walk, not a real hike). The trail was pretty and we got to see a modern (as in beginning of the 20th century castle) with the most antlers I have ever seen! The King was a avid hunter. It was interesting to see the mix of old and new in the castle. There was also a monestery which was neat to see.

In May I returned to Sevilla to visit some of the friends I made last semester. I got to stay at the residencia that I was in last semester, which was great to see those that still live there. It was also really neat to actually see Sevilla! When I was there the whole city was under construction to make a metro (tram). They had to have that all cleared away by Semana Santa (Holy Week, they have a huge celebration in Sevilla) so they could have all the parades and processionals. The metro, however, still doesn't run, or at least it didn't a month ago when I was there!

Carmen and myself, she's a choir friend.

Also while I was in Spain I went to choir practice to see choir friends. When I was at practice, the choir director was looking for people to sing the next day. Apparently someone with a scholarship wasn't going to be coming, so he wanted to use the money somehow and offered us 30 euros to sing. So I went! It was fun to see choir people and then eat lunch with them all afterwards.

Sevilla, when you actually get to see the city!

Then I layed low a bit after Spain! I went to classes (I plan my trips around my class schedule) and did some homework, and just took it easy. The only thing I did was a day trip to München to visit my friend Isabel and pick up some of my stuff that I had mailed to her. We were able to spend a very good day together and just catch up on life. I hadn't seen her since I had visited her up north in March. I always love seeing her!

Isabel and myself in the English Gardens in Munich

I went to Düsseldorf to visit friends before my Italy trip. It was neat to see how much the twins have grown! My coordinator, Sylvia, from my exchange year is married and has twins she is rasing bilingual. They are really cute, only 2 years old! I also got to see my good friend Iris. Everytime I get to see my Düsseldorf friends it makes me very happy. They are becoming like a family to me.

Over our Pentecost break Carrie and I went to Italy. Which was pretty much amazing! We were in Rome for three days, then we stopped by Pompeii for a day and onto to Reggio di Calabria for the rest of the time. Although 3 days isn't nearly enough to enjoy everything Rome has to offer, Carrie and I left satisfied with what we saw. We saw the Colosseum, the Vatican, the Pantheon, Foro Romano, Fontana di Trevi and much much more. It even rained on us, but we didn't care!

Carrie and I in front of Fontana di Trevi

Pompeii was also really interesting to see, because it seems like a preserved ghost town. It is incredible and sad to think this city was wiped out so quickly. We ate in the modern day Pompeii and the waiters were big teases. It was funny though because we decided that the tourists must always go to Pompeii and then return to Naples for dinner, because it seemed as if us being there as foreigners was unusual in that resturaunt, that wasn't far from the train station!

Reggio Calabria was my absolute favorite. We visited my friend Francesco e Teresa that I met on my trip to Italy last semester. We also met their families! I love Italians, they were soo hospitable and were just as nice as I thought they would be. Francesco e Teresa are also simply wonderful to take us in and show us around like that. We went all over Reggio and got to see the old Greek metal statues that were pulled from underwater. Info on the statues: We also went to a birthday party in Sicily with way more food than we could eat. It all tasted great though! We also ate homecooked Italian food with Teresa's parents. On our last night we met some of the english teachers at the school Teresa takes English at. We were there over Trinity Sunday and so we went to catholic mass with them. It was all wonderful, there are no words to express how good of a time it was.

Francesco e Teresa and I in Scila

A sunset in Reggio di Calabria

After I returned from Italy I hung around Tübingen for a while again. There was a Stocherkahn race on the Neckar in Tübingen, and it is really funny. The Stocherkahn that comes in last had to drink a half liter of cod liver acid per person (ewww...). It takes place every year. English info:

A photo I took at the races, those boats are called "Stocherkahns"

Some Stocherkahns on the river side.

Last Wednesday I hiked to Wurmlinger Kapelle alone. I had a book to read to start working on my paper for Christianity and Islam and so I hike to the chapel thinking it would be quiet there and I would be able to get a lot read. I was right! It was also a wonderful hour and a half out there! I am really happy I went and got to enjoy all those wonderful things God has created here!

Choir has also been going well. It is a shame for the Church choir, because I am often gone on weekends, but hopefully I can still sing with them we we sing in Church! The catholic choir I am part of is also going well. We just had choir camp. It was Friday evening through this afternoon. We practised a lot of our music and I think we got a lot of good work in on it. Very helpful! Also it was a good chance to meet some of the other chories.

This semester has been really good so far and I am excited to discover the rest of the treasures it will give me before I go home. Treasures like spending time with old friends and making new friends, being able to take hikes and enjoy the food. All of these blessings from God.

Classes Started

2007-04-22T08:54:00.001-05:00

Now that April is more than half over classes started for me. Which is great because now I can actually have something to do. The last two months in Germany I had spent in German classes, but those classes were not very time demanding. I spent a lot of time just sitting around doing little here, but now I have a few things on my plate.

I'm taking four classes here, three of which started last week. They are Luther's Ethic, Christianity and Islam, Genesis and Exile Literature (Exiles from Germany from 1936-1945). All but the last one started already. My Genesis class meets 4 hours a week where as the others meet only 2 hours a week. After first impressions I would say I am most excited about Genesis because the professor is very good. I will learn a bit about Hebrew in the class too, and since I am actually a language major, that is really exciting to me. They will end towards the end of July.

To go with all that, I am also in two choirs, one from my Church (a SELK congregation) and a catholic choir. They both seem good and I think they will be a lot of fun. It's so wonderful to be active again! I have also started to actually work out regularly, which is great. I have been meaning to make working out a habit and maybe, just maybe, I will make it a habit this semester. I guess time will tell.

A week ago I bought a bike. Living in this town, one needs a bike, it is a lot easier than waiting on busses, that are often not on time (which goes against the punctual Germans as a stereotype). It's been really great to have a bike... but I think I broke it somehow! Oops!! Today or tomorrow I hope to look at it and figure out what are the problems, what I can fix and what needs to be brought back to the shop to be fixed. So now I am out of a bike...

Eating Souls and the Long Night of Museums.

2007-04-01T13:23:00.000-05:00

Yes, that is right, eating souls. Here there is something called schwäbische Seele, it's a baked good. Basically a type of bread with a special dough and such. Yummy! I could eat more souls! That's all I really have to mention on that, I just think it's funny!

On the topic of food, I also learned out to make Spätzle, it's also a typical food here in the south. It has very few ingredients, flour, eggs, water and a bit of salt. But a special apparat to make the Spätzle form. I am going to buy one before I leave and experiment with making it myself at home! I love Spätzle, but I have never had good Spätzle in the US, so now I just need to learn to make it well.

Then a few weeks ago I went to something called "The Long Night of Museums" in Stuttgart. Basically we paid 14 euros each to get in lots of museums all over Stuttgart from 7pm till 2am. The thing is that not only are the museum exhibits open, but also there is often live music in the museums and you can buy drinks and food as well. It's all about the atmosphere I think and a good chance to get an idea as to what museum should be visited in more length at another time. Kimberly and I left early though because we had been busy all day and we wanted to get a train that would bring us home without having to wait 4 hours.

A quick snapshot at what has been going on the last two months

2007-03-14T15:38:00.001-05:00

Too many things have happened in the last two months. I think if I would try to write it all down here now, my head would would explode! So I will write the highlights and if you have any questions, please email me!

The last post about my doings I mentioned I was going to see the wind ensemble perform that I normally play it. I did get to and it was really good to see band people again. I miss being in a band, and I don't know if it will happen this semester.

Then I went to Taiwan for two weeks! That was a really great trip. I was priviledged to see my cousin, Anna, who's blog you find on my links. She teaches English there as a missionary and it was really neat to see what she does. I was really happy to get to see her again, especially since her being half the world away and me being busy at home anyways, we don't get to see each other very often anymore. She teaches three kindergarten classes and then a fourth grade class. Her students are all soo cute! We also went everywhere on the moped, that was fun. I also was priviledged to see someone name Yule, whom I had seen in Wisconsin when I visited friends. That was neat!

That was one week, during the second week I visited students who participated in graduate programs at my school. It was really neat to see what their lives at home are like and not just know them as they were abroad. They showed me around Taipei and area. That was really neat, I got to hike in some mountains, see pottery and meet their families. Those two weeks were really good because I learned a lot about their culture and how important it is that missionaries, like my cousin, are there. People, everywhere in the world, are in need of the message of Christ.

After Taiwan I flew to Germany. First I went to Bonn and spent 4 weeks at the Goethe Institute there. The class was really good and I learned in it. My classmates were also neat. There were two Tanjas from the Ukraine that both teach German for a living, yet they didn't know each other! Also while in Bonn I was able to see a friend, Carrie. We had both been exchange students in Germany in the same program several years ago. It was really neat to see each other again in the country that gave us the opportunity to meet each other.

Together Carrie and I went to Amsterdam, where we forgot to bring our hotel information with us, made for an interesting first night of trying to find it and not finding it until after midnight, and we went to Karneval in Cologne. I will be putting photos up of that in facebook shortly. Right now I am almost finished with my photos from Taiwan. Soon Amsterdam should get up there and no, no redlight district and such for us.

Now I am in the south, where I am studying for a semester. I need to search for classes and pray the classes I want are not full yet. It will be interesting to see what I end up taking. On Saturday I am going to attend the Long NIght of Museums, that should be interesting. Tonight we talked a little bit about busses and trains and trying to get back to where we live.

Ok, that is the major brief run down of what has been going on. There are many stories and many things to share, way to many to type here right at this moment. Hopefully I will post more frequently now.

Oops, two months, my bad!

2007-03-06T15:24:00.000-06:00

So, everyone probably thinks I dropped off the side of the world, which could almost be the case. I have been in Taiwan and am currently in Germany. During this week I hope to put more photos on facebook, and to put some stories in here. I apologize in advance if I forget something. This morning I finally got a constant internet, so now I can work on those sort of things in my free time.

Trying to get a profile photo....

2007-01-11T11:50:00.000-06:00

Hopefully I can use this photo to make it into a profile photo...

My New Year's was wonderful, I am going to put a photo of the snow on here, just so everyone knows how happy I was that it was cold and snowing! It snowed on New Year's Eve and the photo at the end is of a road near camp. It was really neat how you can see the snow flakes fall! I went to camp for two nights and we had a Bible study, small group skits and lots of fun. I had gone twice before and I really just love it. We talked about Dietrich Bonhoeffer. On Saturday night, the first night, my friend Jason and I decided to not go to sleep until the New Year. So we didn't, which meant we stayed up all Saturday night and then weren't allowed to sleep during the day on Sunday and then went to bed several hours after the New Year on Sunday night. It was a lot of fun. Because of that I really didn't keep much from the Bible Study though... Not good... It was really good to see some friends and catch up with them.

At this camp event (for young adults and it is called RUSH) we always celebrated the New Year with communion outside. It is really wonderful and one of the best ways I can think of to start a New Year. Start it directly thinking about God's promise of forgiveness and salvation through his son Jesus Christ.

I was home from that for a night before I went to my university to visit friends. I had such a wonderful visit there and I got to see a lot of people. Unfortunately though, I wasn't able to see some people as much as I would have liked and because of time I couldn't get into some conversations with some people that I would have liked to have gotten into. Oh well, I guess I have to wait until fall now. There I also got to see two of my cousins and their parents (as my Aunt and Uncle live in that town as well). It was just wonderful. I was up there three nights and I stayed in a different place each night. Twice on campus and once at my Aunt and Uncle's house. The time there really made me realize how much I miss it! I have not been gone long, nor am I gone for too much longer, but the short time away was enough for me to realize how much I miss and I miss it a lot. My friend Ben even came down from Green Bay to see me, so I got to see all sorts of people!

At my Aunt and Uncle's house a man named Yule was staying there as well. He is from Taiwan and he and his family are good friends with my cousin who teaches English there (see Anna under family links). I will be visiting my cousin shortly so I will get to see him as well (he returns before I go there). He seemed really neat, although I did not spend much time getting to know him, though apparently he is a tea master and I like tea!

Monday through Wednesday this week I stayed in another town of Iowa to help out with hispanic missions. I basically shadowed Pastor Bo and helped him out with things he needed help with. He started an ESL class on Tuesday which was really interesting to see. I enjoyed my time there immensely and it is something I can see me doing in the future, but I can see me doing a lot of things. Pastor does a lot of house visits to get to know the people and he helps them out by helping them find resources and other sorts of things. He leads several Bible Studies, one is call Panorama de la Biblia and it is to give someone with a small Bible knowledge and bigger Bible knowledge base.

This week I get to relax at home for a while and next week I get to see my university's wind ensemble on tour. I normally would be on tour with them, but not this year!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2006-12-30T09:18:00.000-06:00

Sorry guys, I have really been falling behind in posting...

Basically I finished my time in Spain with a choir barbecue, another Church service in a hotel (I found out that they have services every two months), taking finals, packing, going to Madrid, staying at one of the pastor`s houses (that was really great of them to let me stay there!), seeing Lisa (the girl from Kiel that lived in my house senior as an exchange student) see me off at the airport and then fly home. The last two weeks there flew by way to fast! Check out my facebook photos for some more insights on what I did.

I arrived in Minneapolis on the 15th of December and I went to a wedding over by Milwaukee on the 16th. My Mom had injured her arm, so I got to do most of the driving, which went amazingly and thankfully well. At the wedding (names Dan and Christine) I was very tired, but it was great to see some people again!

The following Monday Mom and I drove home, and once again I did most of the driving. Mom and I also got to see my aunt and uncle and two of their three kids. That Sunday I also went to Church and I didn't fall asleep there! I got to see my choir director from college there as he attends the same Church.

Then I went home and I was very lazy until Christmas. Christmas was good, everyone in my family got presents that they enjoy very much, so that is good. I received two cook books, so I am wondering if that is a sign, from two different people too. I am planning on moving into an apartment and move off of campus next fall, so maybe that is simply why. :-)

On Tuesday I cleaned my room. It is interesting how messy a room can get. I attribute my rooms messiness to packing my room last spring into boxes in record time (so now I don't know where my stuff is...), then have to find my stuff in said boxes to go to Germany last summer, then coming home and packing up to go to Camp for a while and then packing to go to Spain. I wasn't home a lot and a lot of things just ended up getting piled up as sometimes I would have to unpack a bunch of things to find what I needed or wanted and then it would not get repacked... Now my room is clean and I have plenty of room! I still need to organize somethings, but that is relatively small in comparison to the mess I had before.

Then Wednesday we left for Nebraska to visit the Grandmas. Unfortunately my Mom got a horrible stomach ache after we arrived at the hotel on Wednesday night. She didn't even get to go see her own Mom there... Then we wanted to stay over night at my other Grandma's but on the way we stopped at a hotel and now my Dad is coming down with it... Please pray that they get feeling better, my Mom is a lot better, but my Dad is getting it now.... So that has also we got to see some cousins at the first stop.

Whenever we arrive home AJ, my younger brother, and I are going to head out to camp for a New Year's thing there. I have gone to it twice, but this is the first year AJ could go. We basically have a Bible study and different topic leaders Saturday and Sunday and then we celebrate the coming of the new year with Communion at this really neat spot at camp called the Point. So I am pumped to go again. We will also get to see a bunch of people that we both know, which is always exciting.

So that is a rough run down of what I have been doing. Hopefully Tuesday when I am home again I can write more emails and get more things done.

Until then MERRY 6th DAY OF CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Italia!

2006-11-23T10:50:00.000-06:00

My trip to Italy was a blast, and I left it not being able to wait to return. It started with a few problems though... I left my residencia a little earlier that Thursday morning than I needed, as I was not sure how much time I need to arrive. So I arrived at the airport earlier than everyone else. A classmate happened to be in the same bus as me, so we chatted on the way to the airport. When we got there we were flying with different airlines, so we parted ways. At the airport another classmate was waiting in line at the airline next to the one I was flying with so we chatted for a while too.

Then I waited for a while to go to the gate, so that the 5 other people I was planning on traveling with and I could go in together. They didn’t arrive for a while, so I went in without them and waited for them at the gate. When they started boarding the plane and they still had not shown up, I started to worry. Then two of them came running in my direction and they seemed to have had a rough time. Their other two friends coming with us are not there yet, because one was not able to check-in. The reason is that he lost his passport on a trip to Paris and the airline would not accept the paperwork that he had in place of his passport. So the other person waited a little while to see if they could find him a different ticket (or something like that).

Finally he joined us at the gate and we were 4 people altogether. I found out later what happened to the other person. Due to some unrelated problems to the trip, she unfortunately had to go home early and could not make it (I wrote her an email afterwards and she told me what happened). So we got onto the plane to leave Seville for Italy.

We flew into Milan with not a clue what we wanted to do. Originally we were going to go to Bologna to meet up with a friend of the one who lost his passport. Since we didn’t know the friend we decided to scratch that plan. When we arrived in Milan our first goal was to find a way to Milan as we actually flew into Bergamo. Then we found this cheap deal to take a shuttle bus to Milan and got on the bus. On the bus we talked to this really nice couple, Francesco and Teresa. They were asking all of the typical questions, where are you from, what are you doing in Italy, what are you doing in Spain (as we had to explain a weekend trip to Italy, doing that from the US just doesn’t seem like a good idea) and such. They are from southern Italy and were taking a weekend trip to Milan.

As we were arriving in Milan they asked if we would like to eat lunch with them, and we said yes. We bought our tickets to Florence before going to lunch as we decided we wanted to sleep in Florence that night. So we got our tickets and went to a pizzeria. Officially they didn’t have the kitchen open anymore, but Francesco and Teresa convinced them to let us eat. It was really good. I had tuna pizza and we all had some tiramisu for dessert. Quite delicious--though I must add that I absolutely love Italian food.

After eating we went to see the cathedral. Now personally I generally do not like cathedrals a whole lot. They are interesting to see because they are full of history and full of art. This cathedral I actually liked quite a bit. It was enormous, but it was also simple. Most cathedrals that I have seen seem to follow the philosophy, how much stuff can be packed into one square foot; no, there cannot not even be a square millimeter free. So it was really nice to see a cathedral that actually didn’t follow this way of thought.

Then we went and got ice cream. Italian ice cream is one of those things that when you eat it once, you can never think of ice cream in the same way again. After that we went and saw the castle and received Francesco’s famous king of Milan speech. It was really cute, we got there and Francesco started out with something like, “Now I am going to be honest with you in good Italian fashion. I am the King of Milaano and this is my castle. There is my study and that is my library...” It was quite entertaining. Then we walked back to the subway station so we could catch our train to Florence.

The ride to Florence was quite easy. We got on the train and stayed on that train until we got to Florence. On the train we had to do some money exchanging because by that point we had already done a lot of borrowing money from each other. It happened that way because no one ever seemed to have the right change for anything. So we figured out how much everyone owed whom (basically everyone was owed something by everyone) and even managed to pay most of it off then in there. One or two of us had some very small amounts left to pay, but nothing big.

When we arrived in Florence we had to search for a place to stay. We already had reservations for the following night in Florence (we were going to go to Bologna that first day) so we went to the hostel we were going to stay in the second night in Italy. Fortunately they had enough room for the four of us. Then we found food for the night, I don’t even remember what we ate, but I do remember liking it!

The next day we visited the cathedral there and that was basically it. The trip as a whole was a lazy trip in which we didn’t do much, but I ate all the time. Then on Saturday we went and saw the David in the Academic Museum. The statue was impressive, but honestly I enjoyed the musical instrument exhibit almost more. The statue is of David (as in David and Goliath from the Old Testament) and it is absolutely gigantic. It is really neat and apparently when people see it, it affects a lot of them emotionally/spiritually. I cannot say why for sure that I did not feel like seeing the statue gave me any insights on anything or why I didn’t feel emotionally affected. Maybe it could be like the Mona Lisa. When I saw that it was ok, it’s the Mona Lisa, moving on... Maybe too many people are impressed with it and I feel like it should affect me, but in reality it just seems like a piece of good art. They are from a good artist, of course those works are supposed to be great. I think it is more in who the artist is than what the work is for some. There are people who come and know nothing about art and they will sit there looking at the David for a half an hour or an hour at a time. I just don’t understand.

We didn’t do much else that day because it was raining. Originally we were going to go see the castle gardens (or something like that), but due to the bad weather and lack of umbrellas, we decided to sleep or go to the markets instead.

On Sunday we went to Pisa, which was just fun to go to. We spent only a few hours there, which was enough to poke fun at all the other tourists taking the typical pushing the tower back up photos. I have several photos with a bunch of tourists doing that, but from the wrong angel. My favorite photo from that is me eating a pizza in front of the tower, yes it was a whole pizza and I ate it all!

Then we went back to Milan after visiting Pisa. We ate dinner in Milan then took the last shuttle bus to the airport and slept in the airport. Let it be known that if I can choose not to sleep in an airport, I will not do that again. If it must be, ok; but by choice, no. I barely slept that night and I arrived in Seville completely ready to say goodnight to the world. Our flight was at 7 in the morning, so around 5 we went and checked in. The flight went smoothly and I think we even landed early, which was nice.

When I got back to my resedencia, I truly did check out and fall asleep, I woke up for lunch and then slept some more before class. That is the nice thing about my Mondays, I don’t have class until 5pm, and so I have the entire day to practically do what I want. It took me a few days to recover from the trip. It was a good trip. The only thing that could have really made it better was the people I traveled with. Now, I really enjoyed traveling with whom I traveled with, it is just that we have different ideas and I would have been a lot more adventurous with other people. Traveling is an adventure and this last trip wasn’t as adventurous as it could have been. Next time right?

Almost a Month!!

2006-11-14T10:29:00.000-06:00

So I was thinking about my blog and how I completely have not done anything with it in practically a month! Sorry about that! I have not fallen off of the face of the earth.

Ok, some things that happened in October. Well, I went to Cordoba, which is a town near Sevilla. I really liked Cordoba, except the people in my program that complained about the rain all the time. We did some interesting things while we were there such as visiting the Mosque there. Now this is a one of a kind Mosque. Built by the Muslims many years ago with columns everywhere in it. I hope to bring my computer in to the wireless next week to put photos online, stay tuned! Then when the christian kings conquered Spain they actually built a cathedral inside of the mosque! As you can imagine it makes for a strange mix of Islam and Christianity that was really neat to see. Then we also visited some Roman ruins where they use heating similar to that of the Roman Baths (anyone from Wilmeth's Latin class should be thinking about the toilets of Rome video right now). It was set in a very pretty location with a view out into a valley and hills. We also did an olive oil testing! Now, I don't like olives too much, but the olive oil testing was a lot of fun, I even bought some olive hand lotion, which is some of the best hand lotion I have ever had. This was an overnight trip and our program treated us to a feast! We were given about 4 or 5 appetizers (anything from cheese to fried egg plant), the main dish and a tray of assorted desserts. Everyone left the meal completely satisfied with the food, if not a little too stuffed.

That weekend was the weekend that I went to Church! The Church here is a mission church as I believe I mentioned before in my blog. People attend from all over the area and there are not that many people that attend either. They also only occasionally have actual Church services because there are only two pastors of the IELE in Spain. Before the service we had a nice Bible study about what is the Church and I got to get to know the people that came. After Church I went to have lunch with Juan Carlos, the pastor and their families at Juan Carlos' house. That was really nice.

Last weekend I went to Granada, which I absolutely loved Granada, except the part that I had a somach ache for the entirety of Friday and part of Saturday, which was basically when we were there. By saurday lunch I could eat a meal again, instead of picking at my food. We visited the Alalambra which is the big thing to do there. It is one of the most visited sites in all of Europe. It is more mountainous there where as it is much more flat in Sevilla, and I definitely like the mountain scenery a lot.

Saturday when we returned to Sevilla I went to have dinner at Nick's apartment. Nick is from Australia and he and his friend Rolf run a Bible Study on the campus of the University of Sevilla. So Nick invited us all over to have spicy food (from Asia, as he has spent time there teaching English). I was very happy that I could eat again as the food was very good and my Dad should be jealous of how hot it was!

Sunday we had our first real choir concert in conjunction with the municipal band of Sevilla. The entire concert was Mozart. We sang Requiem, Ave Verum and Vammo di Core. It was a lot of fun. I am thankful for choir, because I know a bunch of Spaniards now that I do things with from time to time. They are soo nice!

More people have moved into my resedencia. Now there are 5 Spaniards, 5 US Americans and 2 Italians. It is really funny with the Italians (they moved in last weekend) because one speaks a little english and the other a little spanish. There is a lot more going on in the resedencia now than before.

We also had midterms a little while ago, which some tests were definitely better than others. I am not too worried though.

So that is the rough overview as to what I have been doing. I am sure that I will have a lot more to talk about next week (after this weekend, another trip, my last big trip of the semester) and I hope to get photos up as well. So until next week!

Long Time no Post...

2006-10-15T07:28:00.001-05:00

I checked my blog the other day to see when the last time was I posted and it has been a while, I am sorry! A number of things have happened since then too!

The weekend after I posted last time (as in the 1st of October) I moved to a resedencia. Reasons for moving away from the host family to a resedencia will be left at personality clash between my roommate (yes, American) and myself. I have been very blessed during college with roommate so far and this time it just didn't work out.

So the beginning of the month I moved to a resedencia, which has definitely proven to be a great decision. I have a roommate named Jacqueline from California and we are living with 4 other people. Two more people are moving in shortly, a spanish guy today and a spanish girl tomorrow morning. After they move in there will be 4 Spaniards and 4 Americans. Here I speak more Spanish than in my host family (due to roommate) and I have relaxed quite a bit. There is a nice couple that does the cleaning, laundry and prepares the food. They are soo funny and I love chatting with them. Enrique, the man from the couple, speaks really fast, but I have started to understand him!

I moved on a Saturday and the Friday before I went to Huelva. Huelva is about one hour away from Sevilla and I was supposed to go on an excursion with my program, but somehow four of us had the wrong time (about one hour late) in mind and so we went by ourselves to Huelva. There is a monastery there and replicas of Columbus' ships there, very interesting. Yet the four of us ran into a small problem. They apparently changed the time because things closed as we got there. We arrived at the monastery first (after walking back to the stop we should have gotten off at) and it had just barely closed. So we decided to eat our bag lunches before exploring farther. Then when we explored farther and found the ships they were closing in 5 minutes for the siesta as well. We ended up playing around in the water outside of this building there and going back, completely failing to see what we wanted to see.

The trip back was kind of bizarre when we were waiting for the first of two busses. First we weren't sure which bus was ours, so we kept asking the bus drivers. Then this guy that was also waiting for a bus came over and chatted with us. Suddenly he asked me in German if we were with Erasmus (european study abroad scholarship) and naturally I responded in German they we are not. So he told me that I speak English with a German accent (which I hadn't been told since right after my year in Germany) and then asked me if the others can speak German. I told him no and he went to English. He is from Austria and was also headed back into town to look for an apartment for his year. On the bus we chatted in German some more.

A week ago I got to see the Museum of Fine Arts which is located in an old monastery. I really enjoyed it. There are some very beautiful gardens and a painting (or more than one?) by Lucas Cranach. It was a very enjoyable visit and very interesting in my mind.

Of all my classes I think I like my Anthropology class the most. Just the whole idea of Anthropology interests me and makes me wonder why I didn't think about it earlier! My professor is very animated which makes the class fun to attend. I also really like my historical projection of the three cultures: Christian, Muslim and Jewish a lot. That professor is also very animated and fun. Though it has proven to be very frustrating to find the book. I finally ordered it through a book store and gave up searching Sevilla for it.

Last Tuesday was a lot of fun for me. I am singing in the Choir of the University of Sevilla and there was a concert given by the University of Venezuela Choir (very good by the way) and before the concert all the new member of my choir got recognized and given a strip of cloth with the choir symbol on it. After the concert both choirs went out for food and drinks paid for by my choir. Oh yeah, free food is always good, especially since it really helped me get to know some Spaniards from the choir. That made me very happy. Verena (from Germany) and I walked to the concert together and after things quieted down at the get together afterwards she and I went to an apartment party of one of her friends. They had just gotten the apartment and wanted to have a get together. Afterwards I went with a group of people to the Erasmus party that was that night. The whole evening-night was just a blast. I spoke a ton of Spanish, met Spaniards and didn't here a single bit of American english the entire time!

Statement about the last bit: I feel at times that I am living in mini-America and I do not like it. I want to learn the language and culture and being in a mini-version of the US doens't help. So that was really good. I am really looking forward to choir tomorrow where I can talk with all the people again and reinforce names I learned and maybe start making plans to go out with Spaniards!

I will bring my computer down somewhere to put photos on my blog and on my facebook, maybe even tomorrow or Wednesday. Sorry about the lack of photos!

Classes have finally started and I am changing my address

2006-09-26T10:34:00.000-05:00

Yes, I know some people will look at the title and think, hmm no one should be excited about classes and other people will look at it and think that that is right on. I enjoy classes and the stuff professors have for us to learn, I just don't always give the best attention I should. I will admit this.

Anyways last week I had a Spanish language course to prepare us for this university spanish grammar exam. The course did have some interesting aspects to it, but as for preparing us for the exam it really didn't do anything for us. Oh well, the exam does not really affect the courses we take anyways.

I want to put photos up, and they are coming soon, but I am not on my computer right now and I probably won't be until next week, so look for photos next week. As for now, let your imagination soar and read my story of events! ;-)

Last week my group went and saw the Royal Palace and the Cathedral here. The Royal Palace was complete with a Labyrinth (that was unfortunately easy to navigate, though I suppose it would be bad to let tourists into a complicated one...) and a beautiful garden. The architecture was interesting because the man who built it (sorry history buffs, my memory is not that great....) liked Arabic architechture so he hired some Arabs to design it. This brings the interesting mix of Christianity, Islam and Judaism into the building. Very cool! Photos to come....

The cathedral was also very neat. Christopher Columbus' tomb is there, or one of his tombs... I guess he is buried in 4 or 5 places. He just couldn't get enough of traveling even after he died! The cathedral here is built where the main mosque of the town was years ago and the tower, Giralda, is the same one from the mosque, with Christian adaptations though. There is a side chapel for the saint of lost things and there is a painting of this saint there too. Apparently one day or night someone cut the saint out of the painting and tried to sell him. So for a short time the Saint of lost things was lost, I find this to be ironic.

Just as a heads up, things have not been so great between my roommate and myself. She is very nice, but we will not be rooming together anymore as of this weekend. I will be moving to a resedencia. Ask me later this week or next week for the address and I will try to send an email out soon with my new information. If anyone happens to be getting ready to mail something, please hold off a few days or email me now!

I think the move to the resedencia will be good, there are spanish students living there too. This will provide me with the opportunity to meet some more spaniards that are my age.

This semester I will be taking a variety of courses. Political, historical, cultural and literary are some of the topics. My classes are probably going to be theses: Latin American Literature, historical projection of three culture - Muslim, Jewish and Christian, Political and democratic transition of contemporary Spain, Spanish cinema (looking at movies through the last decade and applying history and cultural lessons to them) and Anthropology of cultural Latin America. Some classes I am more excited about than others, but it is normally this way!

It is also going to work out to sing in choir here, which makes me very happy. Right now we are working on Mass by Beethoven. The semester is starting to get excited now that I am finally getting into it. Leaving the USA I was ready to dive into things, but I couldn't right away, so now it is much better!

Getting Settled

2006-09-16T06:40:00.000-05:00

Now I have been in Sevilla since Thursday and I absolutely love it. Yesterday I went to the Royal Symphony of Sevilla and it was absolutely magnificent. A violinist and a soprano were the highlighted instruments/voices. There is another concert of theirs in October with the Bassoon, Oboe, Clarinet and Trumpet being highlighted. I am very excited about going and so I hope I can!

My hosts are really nice and I do get along with my roommate well. We are very different, so it just might be that we won´t ever do much together, but at least we get along. Our personalities are very different (yes, she would completely agree) but we are finding ways to get along anyways.

Right now I am looking into the possibility of singing in a choir and/or playing in a band during my stay. I guess I shall see how that goes. I reall hope something works out, because going an entire semester without a music group is not something I am ready to do!

The program coordinators here are also very nice and helpful. I like them a lot. I feel like I am going to be able to get things going soon and start really enjoying my time, especially once I get to know Spaniards. Hanging out with the people in my group is fine, except they always speak English, which forces me to speak English, which does not allow my Spanish ability to really grow... I don't like that at all, I want to be able to speak Spanish very well when I leave. Granted this is just the first week and things may change, but I just simply don't want to speak English much here and many of the others have a hard time with that concept... Oh well! They are a nice group though.

This week I have a language course to brush up on my skills before the semester starts next week. I am very excited for classes to start because I know that I will learn more Spanish once it starts. I have some very interesting classes set up and I cannot to wait to see which classes I will for sure be taking. It is all so exciting!

Getting used to the different schedule has been very easy thus far and I enjoy it here a lot. I already have a sense of feeling at home and this city is very beautiful!

Until next time!

Madrid Trip

2006-09-13T13:49:00.000-05:00

Right now I am enjoying my last night in Madrid. Oh, being in Spain, what a joy!

To start with I would like ot say that all my flights went very smoothly and one of these times I simply have to have a scary plane trip. That is other than my mad rush in Toronto in July. Before I got onto the plane to Madrid I met a girl name Brenna who is going to a different city on my same program. So that was exciting, then I had one face I could recognize!

It is currently almost 9pm here and I still have yet to eat dinner! I thought this would be hard for me to adjust to, but at least thus far it has been fairly easy. I am hungry right now, but no more hungry than I am a 5 before a 6pm dinner time. They have been keeping us really busy, so we don't really have toime to think about being hungry.

The first day we had a lot of free time with one meeting in the evening with our respective coordinators/resident directors and then a group dinner. That was Monday. Tuesday we went to the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) which was really neat. I enjoy going through palaces and seeing all this neat art and decorations. Some rooms look very gaudi and others a very pretty.

That afternoon we went to El Museo Prado with some very famous artists there. Such as Goya, Velázquez and El Greco. Velásquez's famous painting of the royal family of the time is there (called Las Meninas). It is the one of the King in Queen in the reflection of the mirror as Velázquez paints them. Then there is the rest of the family and servants standing next to Velázquez in a group. It is also one of very few painting with perfect proportions. Here is a link to see it, let me know if it doesn't work. http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/velazquez/velazquez.meninas.jpg

Then we had more free time. That evening a group of us went to find food together and we ended up going to La cafetería Iowa. That was odd. I wasn't personally excited to EAT there though I thought it was funny to see it. The food was alright there, but we definitely could have gotten better Spanish food for cheaper. There are a lot of Nebraskas here and they are resturaunts as well.... Odd huh?

This morning we went to El Escorial which is a monastary with a school. There is a very neat Basilica with four organs! How cool is that? I really enjoy organ music, unfortunately no one was playing them while we were in there... There are also the graves of past kings and queens in the basement behind the basilica. You go down a marble stairway (everything is marble, the stairs, the walls and the ceiling) into a marble room with contains marble caskets. There are two wooden doors before entering that room that are known as the decomposing rooms. There three (maybe only two though) decomposing in there right now with their marble caskets waiting for them in the other room.

In the afternoon a group of us decided to go to the Reina Sofía museum and find food on the way there. We found this truly hole in the wall cervecería that got our orders completely mixed up. It was a lot of fun though and it did taste good. Then we found the museum where they having a special Picasso exhibit. We were able to see Guernica by Picasso, which you can see at this link: http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c186/simonquilty/guernica.jpg This famous painting depicts the town of Guernica after Franco allowed Hitler to practice bomb it.

Right now I am sitting in a café next to my hotel. We had our Sevilla orientation meeting tonight and that went well. We all received maps about where the university, program office and our host families are located (each with only their own host family or resedencia marked on it though). I am really excited and I have been thinking about what activities I want the coordinators to help me find to do there. In order to meet more Spaniards I need to get involved and be active!

Classes won't start for another week for me. We have a week of language review and training before we go to classes. So this is all very excited and I cannot wait for things to finally get started. I have enjoyed my time in Madrid, but I am exciting to get things started!

Leaving the Country

2006-09-10T07:47:00.000-05:00

As of today I am out the country! Woot Woot. Well for 3 months I am. I am very excited about this now and slowly I have gotten over the part that I am not home anymore and going to my normal school and seeing all my friends. Though I miss them dearly! So Spain, here I come! Soon I get to meet my roommate for the semester and my host family later this week! First of a time or orientation with my program and fellow participants. I will try to keep you posted on what is going on, but please be patient with me, I am not always very good at doing that.

My older brother Daniel is starting to get settled in his apartment! That is where I am now. Soon he should have some furniture, it just isn't here yet.... He's still sleeping on an air mattress, but I must say it is one nice air mattress... :-) Well, I have to repack a few things and pack a few things. So the next post you will read will be from the other side of the ocean.

Chicago and other updates

2006-09-01T08:23:00.000-05:00

So this week I made my trek out to Chicago. It wasn't a trek I really wanted to make, but in order to go to Spain this fall I had to do it. So, off I went, with my Mom, on Tuesday to Minneapolis. We got a few errands done. I had the opportunity to chat with the Peace Corps (a possible idea for the future, but who really knows what I will do) and then we went to my brother's. He's got himself a job and apartment up there and the furnishing part of the apartment is going a little slow... So we had dinner somewhere and went to a furniture store, where he did buy the couch, love seat combo that he had thought about earlier. There were also tables that came with it as well, but I am a little bit outspoken.... I told the man helping him that I approve of my brother's decision except for the tables and he showed Daniel some different tables. A set of wood tables where the coffee table top lifts up and over. Daniel was glued to this set after that. He then bought that table instead and a matching end table, it cost him more money too.... Oops! At least he is satisfied with his purchase we hope. They should be delivered to his apartment next week.

In Chicago we arrived at the office shortly before the office opened and after standing just outside of the office for a few minutes they let us (me and another boy doing the same thing) to come in and then gave us our passports and I was on my way before 9, when it officially opens. That was a relief that it took no time, then we went and had some breakfast. We had flown out and had to wake up at 4am to get ready to catch our flight. We asked someone where to get a good breakfast and he directed us to a very good place. After that we took the trains out in the direction of River Forest. One of my friends from my school had transfered there and she turned out to be the only person I had an opportunity to see. Chicago is a lot closer to where I go to school than home, so I tried to see other, but it only worked with this girl. That's what happens when it is the first week of classes, so it was expected.

We had a really good visit, it was short but good. After Heidi (my friend) had to go back to school for choir practice, Mom and I took the trains back downtown, where we found some lunch. Then we wandered around for a while and found a Puerto Rican cultural festival. That was really neat. They had a lot of interesting stuff there and I talked to one of the ladies about her stand. Fun times in Chicago huh?

Then we found the trains again so we could return to the airport and go home. This was an interesting arrival. We get to the airport and my Mom had a message. She listened to it and it turned out that one of the exchange students that she will be watching over this year arrived in the US that day. She was also in the middle of a 7 hour layover, in the other terminal. We had kind of hoped that she was in our terminal, but that wasn't the case. So Mom and I drove to the other terminal and decided to see if we could pick her up instead of having her wait another 3 hours for her puddle jumper plane down to Iowa. We would have been successful, but the airline told us that if she didn't fly this last leg her return flight would be canceled... Mom and I decided not to play games with other people's money and let it be. As we were leaving the airport completely the exchange students Mom called from Germany, so I talked to her while mom was driving and helped assure her that things will work out just fine. Her biggest worry was that the host family didn't know when she was arriving, but they did, so I was able to assure her that they did and that her daughter will be taken care of.

Hopefully my flight to Spain will not be as eventful, but I guess I am kind of in for an eventful trip like that, as I haven't really had one yet...

Now I am back at camp, working my last few days, the end is near here. I really enjoy it here, and being here has diverted my excitement to go to Spain. I am really looking forward to it, but I am not really excited yet... It will come, I know that will come.

More photos

2006-08-24T21:29:00.000-05:00

I have loaded some more photos onto my facebook, so if you want to check that out, you can see more of what I did in Germany.

Wow, time is going fast! I have only a few weeks before I leave the country again! Next weekend I should have some Taiwanese friends coming to visit me, they went to school with me and now they shall drive down for a visit. I am excited to see them! They are really neat.

I saw the movie "Snakes on a Plane" last night. That was really interesting. Well done considering the concept which wasn't soo great. But I am glad I saw it! Now I just have to wait for "Babel" to come out. Check it out sometime online if you have a chance, it looks like it will be really interesting, though potentially hard to follow (as I guess it was filmed in four different languages, playing off the biblical theme of the Tower of Bable).

This week everyone is moving onto campus and I am not.... That makes me sad, though I will have my own things to do soon, which I am slowly getting really excited about. The excitement can take a while to set in for me, I have known for a while about me studying abroad this fall, so it is kind of an expected thing, now that it is about to happen it hasn't actually registered yet, but we shall see soon enough how it is.

Random Things

2006-08-17T14:03:00.000-05:00

So after I posted a lot I haven't really posted anything. Camp has been wonderful and I really haven't had enough of a reason to post anything. The people have been great to work with, although most of them are gone now. There are only 6 of us (3 guys and 3 girls, funny that it is evenly split) living on camp now and a few more living nearby that still come in.

To expand a bit on my host family, I have a Mom and three siblings at home. One of the kids is married and doesn't live at home anymore, but he visits often the paper said. Then the other three are 28, 31 and 33. I was reading up on this and apparently rent is high in Spain, but income is low. When I am there I guess I will find out why, but that is the reason I have read so far. Also in my program we are placed with one other student and my roommate is Natasha. We talked on the phone and she seems really nice, I am excited to meet her.

Yesterday Paul, he works with me here and we go to school together, taught me how to drive manuel transmission. That was fun. I have wanted to learn for quite a while now and I finally got to try! I am not great at it yet, but I am not bad for a beginner apparently. I only killed the car once and at first I had difficulties, but I can get the car to move forward on the first try most times now, with little error with how much gas I give it. It was fun!

Last night I went to see "The World Trade Center" with several other workers from here. One other girl and I went in thinking it was going to be documentation like, but then again neither of us had really heard anything about it yet. It has a definite story line that really draws you into it and you feel like you know some of these people by the end. It follows two people who were actually pulled out of the rubble. I do not know if enjoy is the correct term, but I did like it and I think it was well done. It is worth a viewing if you are thinking about it, though it is really hard to watch.

I am looking forward to the release of the movie "Babel." I read online that it was filmed in four different languages. Just my cup of tea. It should come out end of October/beginning of November. I do not go to movies often, but this one looks worth my time to se ein theaters.

Spain Address

2006-08-09T11:23:00.000-05:00

Oh, and if anyone wants my mailing address or phone number for my semester this fall in Spain, feel free to email me!

Stuff I have been doing after Germany

2006-08-09T11:21:00.000-05:00

So after I got back from Germany I had only a few days to recover and it was off to Chicago. Now you must understand that this was not a trip I wanted to make, but I had to make. For whatever reason the Spanish Embassy has very few Consulats and I had to go to the one in Chicago. So into the car with me to make the 8-9 hour trek out to Chicago. My meeting there went by very quickly and painlessly, so that was good. I just have to go and pick up my passport later, this way I can study abroad in Spain! Yippee.

One very good thing about the trip was that I could see my Great Aunt and one of Dad's cousins and his family. So that was a neat way to spend an afternoon. I also got to meet my Great Aunt's helper, she was really sweet. The trip back wasn't so great though, I think at that point I had been riding in vehicles way to much, but I am ready to go at it again. :-)

The Wednesday after returning home my family and I traveled to Omaha so we could see my cousin Anna and the rest of her family. The reason I highlight Anna is because she is the one that is a teacher missionary (see Anna under family links, her blog is there). She teaches English in Taiwan. It was really good to see that whole family and catch up with them. My cousin Rachel is going to start at a different college this fall, so it was interesting to find out how everything with that is going. Then my cousin Tim is going to start in college this fall, he just graduated high school.

Then a week and a half ago I came out to camp to counsel for the high school camp. I went as a camper for three years and I absolutely loved it, so now it is my chance to give back to it. The week was really good and just being back at camp gave me a renewed interest to make sure I read my Bible every day. My campers were not the easiest bunch of campers I had, but they were fun. They just needed a little extra help to start discussions, but once they started they were really good and just going off with it. That week was definitely not the best week of my life and I did feel rather lacking as a counseling because I got a cold that took me out for about 1 and a half days. That was no fun, but regardless it was a good week. In the beginning of the week it was really hot outside, but it slowly cooled off, which was great. Otherwards I am certain that we would have had some terribly dehydrated campers.

Now I am working at camp. I serve food in the dining hall and clean up in the kitchens. As cabins empty I clean them and I help clean the shower house. I also watch rec check so people can use basketballs and such here. This is definitely not a glamorous job, but it's a lot of fun. Yesterday after dinner I got a little frustrated with the piles of pans we had to clean (it was hard to clean during the meal, as we were unfortunately one person short, so I ended doing pans all by myself, which can only go so long until you have to move pans from one sink to the next and then to the next and then just dry them and then put them away. In otherwards, it is kind of hard with soo much by yourself, but a little got done during the serving.). In the end it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Besides Joy (a fellow worker) is a super washer. She can get through the pots and pans quicker than anyone I know! So she washed and I dried, it was a good time.

So that is basically what is going on in my life now. It is quite the neat experience and I am always excited about what is going to come next. :-) Maybe too excited at times....

Rothenburg ob der Tauber with AJ and then onto home!

2006-08-08T10:42:00.000-05:00

So I arrived at Rothenburg on July 15, 2006, the evening before my brother arrived there. I stayed in the youth hostel, which was a new experience, as I have only stayed in youth hostels in large groups before. I stayed in a room with several other people, people from Korea, Mexico and the US. The girls from the US were never in the room that night, so I didn't talk to them much, but I talked to the two Korean girls and the Mexican girl. It was fun to chat with the Korean girls, they even taught me a bit of Korean! I don't remember many words, but I didn't learn a lot either. I can still say that's ok, cucumber and cheese. Oh and some of the names of money. Good thing I won't be dropped off in Korea today, I wouldn't be able to ask for the restroom!

The Mexican girl, Lily, and I walked around town together that night. She lives in Madrid right now and we spoke in Spanish. That was a very cool experience because it gave me the opportunity to try out my Spanish and to see if I can really actually speak in Spanish. Yay for comfort right before I leave for Spain (that is not until September though). Then on Sunday we walked around some more together and got some ice cream. Before Lily left we exchanged contact information, so I can call her when I am in Madrid.

That evening my brother came, so I went and bought him a typical southern German pretzel. The first person I talked to was Dr. Jones, the band director. He did remember me, I was surprised. :-) The group was a large one two years ago, when I went as an Iowa Ambassador of Music. Then a little while later the purple bus (AJ's bus) arrived). I then first talked to my high school flute teacher and her husband. It was really nice to see them again. Then I saw AJ and gave him the pretzel.

That evening was the orientation which was funny for me, because I had gone through it two years ago right in that spot again. Then when they had dinner I went and ate somewhere. Afterwards AJ, his friend Tony, and I went and saw "Der Meister Trunk," a theater piece based on a war when the Swedes tried to take over. But an official from Rothenburg had drunk out a large mug of beer in one drink. Basically the beginning of chugging contests. It was funny and I translated for AJ and his friend.

On Monday I met with Diane, my flute teacher, for coffee, that was really nice, I always enjoy getting together with her. AJ, a few friends of his, and I went to lunch and I exposed them to schnitzel. Their concerts were in the afternoon, and they were very good this year. The group had grown by about 200, so they now have around 500 kids total. After the concerts we went and bought 40 Euros worth of candy, trust me, it's worth every cent.

In the evening there was the ending party for the group and I joined in. The skits and songs were all well done and the kids all looked very enthusiastic. Two years ago I got sick which we were in Germany, so I wasn't able to go to the party, which was sad. I slept through the party and through dinner.

Tuesday came around and AJ's group had to wake up at 3am to get ready to leave and I woke up around 8am, nice and comfortably. Then I found the train station and went back to Munich to meet up with Kordula. Since Wednesday was her birthday I went and bought her some of her favorite food (according to Isabel) for her for the next day. In the evening I picked up my suitcase and brought it down to the Pharmacy where Kordula works, so we wouldn't have to haul it up the stairs again. Then I repacked everything and we went for food and at a really good Mexican resturaunt. It was a good time. That late evening when Mirja came back I stopped by her apartment to say goodbye. Tuesday I woke up around 7 and got ready to leave.

Everything went smoothly in Munich, but my layover in Toronto was not soo smoothly. I had to pick up my suitcase and go through customs twice, but no one explained that to me at all. I knew I had to pick up my suitcase, but as I was going on into the States my suitcase was somewhere else other than where we were directed too. Then I had to go through American customs after just having gone through Canadian customs. I almost missed my plane, but I got there about 10 minutes before take off because I was pushed to the front of lines, due to my take off time. Once I was on the plane we ended up having a hour and a half long wait in the plane as they fixed a few things. By the time I got home I was overjoyed not to travel. Especially since I had to sit in a car for three hours after touching ground.

The trip was a ton of fun and I would repeat it in an instant. But as for now, I have to go work lunch.

Tübingen and on the way to Rothenburg ob der Tauber

2006-08-07T15:46:00.000-05:00

So this post and the next few are going to be shorter, just as an fyi. The stays were shorter and if I don't talk about everything in one post I will forget something.

Late Wednesday Afternoon I rode on the train to go to Tübingen and arrive by 9pm. Lisa's aunt took me in for 3 nights. She was really sweet to me and I enjoyed her family a lot as well. Tübingen is where I am going to be spending a semester next school year and so this was just so I could go there and see the town as I was in Germany anyways. I also had a meeting with people taking care of my program there which was a good time to get to know them.

So Thursday I slept in and did a bit of laundry and then it was off to my meeting. Ingrid dropped me off a little early so I walked around that block area for a bit so I could familiarize myself with my surroundings. Then I went and met with the two people and talked about my program. With my program I will be doing a four week long language course in one of 4 or 5 cities that I will have to choose from. It was neat to hear where I could go so that I can be thinking about it now and not later while I am in Spain. I even think I have come to a decision. We talked about the different things offered in Tübingen and offered with the program. The more I find out about my program the more I believe that it is perfect for me.

That night I went out with the people I had met in Kiel that are down in Tübingen and they brought their friend Tom. We just kind of walked around town a bit and they told me about the different things students like to do in Tübingen. Friday was a slow day, I didn't do much and then I went to an open air music festival in a park in Tübingen. It is free to get in and it was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed Tübingen a lot.

On Saturday morning I left and rode the train for a little more than 3 hours to Munich. There I dropped my suitcase off with Mirja and stopped by Kordula's apartment to ask about staying over night with her on the following Tuesday night. Mirja and I talked for a while and it was just really good to talk to her again. I really enjoyed that.

Then I took the trains for a bit more than 3 hours again to go to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, where I was to meet up with my brother on Sunday. The next post will be about Rothenburg, just to break things up a bit.

Düsseldorf -- and the end of the World Cup

2006-08-07T09:29:00.000-05:00

So on that Monday I traveled on to Düsseldorf, that would have been July 3rd. I went to my friend Iris' house. The train ride was really interesting because we had to go on a detour and that added a bit of time and then they made us change trains and extra time. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but I was tired of hauling my suitcase around and wanted a break. Thankfully many times there are really nice people that help me out! I could generally through my suitcase around fairly well, but it does get tiring.

So I finally arrived in Düsseldorf and it was insanely warm. Most people don't have air conditioning in their cars, so I was thinking that I was going to be looking forward to a nice hot car ride to Iris' house. BUT she had air conditioning, so that was nice. Her cousin was also at her house because he wanted to go to a few World Cup games and catch the rest on tv in Germany. On that Tuesday (or maybe that Monday) we went into downtown to just walk around and whatnot. I ended up buying a skirt. Anyways, it was kind of interesting because when we first arrived downtown Iris saw this girl that looked like my ex-younger-host-sister. Apparently she kind of looked down when she saw us and kept walking away. I find this simply interesting. All in all I have no hard feelings against her, the time at her house simply did not work. (Basically as an exchange student in Germany I had to switch host families because my first one and myself did not get along together at all.) The skirt I had bought is really nice and I wear it a lot.

On that Wednesday Iris and I met two of our friends at the university and sad in on Chemistry class. I am really curious now to see if I like university classes in Germany, but there was a lot of talking during classes, which is unusual in the US, at least that is my experience. Being that I don't understand Chemistry anyways I sat there and did Soduku. Iris went to a Chemistry lecture with Eva and I went with Nadine, they took apr. the same amount of time anyways. One of Nadine's friend brough cake, so we ate some cake during class. After the lectures we went with Eva and one of her friends to grab lunch in the cafeteria and it wasn't that bad. Afterwards we went back to Iris' house and Eva came with.

That Thursday we went to Movie Park. It used to be affiliated with Warner Brothers, but Six Flags owns it now. And, to my surprise, I went on all the roller coasters! I normally don't think I would enjoy the bigger roller coasters and such, but I went on anyways and it was fun! They don't have as many spinning rides as I am accustomed to at amusement parks, so I went on the two they had. One spins you upside down and the other one is a regular spin against the wall and swings from side to side at the same time. I find these rides relaxing somehow. Anyways, the second one described, there was a guy that decided last minute to ride it and he ended up throwing up mid ride. That was really gross because of the nature of the ride. As soon as it was over everyone ran off.

We went on the water roller coaster 5 or 6 times. It started outside then you went into this mountain structure, saw a bunch of aliens doing alien things and then out and splash into the water. Anyways, there are two cameras on the ride and at the end you can buy a print out with both photos on it. So it took us a few times before we realized where the first camera was, so the last time or one of the last times, we decided to have fun with the camera. Iris' cousin sat on the side, then Iris and then me. So Iris and I shoved towards her cousin so that he would be crammed against the side. It looks like he is about ready to fly out of the car. Then we just had fun with the second camera because it is on the way down the slope into the water. They are both very good photos.

On Friday evening we went to Sylvia's house, she was my coordinator during my time in Düsseldorf. She now has year old twins Vincenz and Katharina. They are adorable! We went to the park with them and it was just a rocking good time. Then we had some dinner at her house and relaxed there for a while. Her husband, Matthias, is in the police force, so I had to ask him about the police uniforms becoming blue in Germany. In the last several decades or so, the police have been green there and now there is a movement to go to blue. Several states have already changed over but many are also still green. Matthias believe that in a year or so Nordrheinland-Westphalen will probably go blue in the next year or so. The reason for this is that blue policemen is more wide spread in the world, so that way if they go blue it can be easier to spot the police quickly. Or something like that. It's really interesting.

That Saturday Sylvia picked me up and we went to her sisters place in Gummersbach, she had her 25th wedding anniversary. It was really interesting because broken dishes equals good luck. So there were broken dishes every where by the door. Also they made a wreath and hung it around the door. It was really interesting, so please look at my facebook albums, I will put photos up and go into more detail about it. We watched the Germany versus Portugal game on tv that night. It was for 3rd place, a mention of the Germany/Italy game is coming after this section. Anyways Portugal and Germany both shot 2 goals each, but one of Portugal's was in Germany's net instead of theirs... So Germany got third which is great too!

Then I got to spend some time with Simone and Nick (Sylvia's neice and her boyfriend). It was good to spend time with them although I was really tired. I stayed over night and then Sylvia dropped me off at the train station on Sunday afternoon so I could go back to Düsseldorf. I bought a ticket and then I just kind of made up the route as I went, I didn't really know how to go. When I got back my train ended up being 10 minutes late and we rushed off to dinner at a golf club. The food was just really great, I really enjoyed it a lot. Then we went back to Iris' house and watched the championship game of the World Cup. Italy versus France. That was fun to watch.

So the Ital Germany game was kind of frustrating because there was no score until the last two minutes of the overtime! So frustrating, but it was a good game and a lot of fun to watch. Then of course the US didn't get past the pre-round, yet we gained one point in our group against Italy! We tied! So, we pretty much rock.

On Monday we brough Iris' cousin to the airport. He lives in South Africa, so he had to return home and to work. He even treated us to some pop in the airport before he went through security. Everything went smoothly there. On Tuesday Iris and I met up with Nadine in the downtown. It was a good time. Very good to see her again.

Sometime during the week we managed to watch episodes 4 and 5 of Star Wars in German. Wow, never do that if you are used to the English version. Darth Vader has a horrible voice. It is just bad. :-)

Well, I have to get some other things done, but I am almost finished with writing about my time in Germany, then it is on to camp! :-) Camp is soo much fun.

Back to my School Here

2006-07-14T07:39:00.000-05:00

After I was all done in Kiel I went back to my town area. I stayed with a classmate and friend of mine named Gesine. Things were a little bit calmer when I got there than they were in Kiel and that was good. In Kiel I was always doing something and on the move and at Gesine's house it was a lot calmer. And I managed to get a package sent off to a friend and some other things accomplished.

Soon after I got there we had our own Abigag (in Kiel this was Abistreich). We met on that Tuesday evening to go over the Abisong and the Abidance. Kiel and my school both did the same dance for the Abiball. The abisong was written by one of my old classmates. It was really good and to the tune of Ramalang (spl.?). Our theme was RockABIlly. Also a few of my old classmates told me that I had to participate in everything. OK, so I did, except for a few minor things.

Then we met early on Wednesday morning with water guns and water balloons. We then got all the students wet and rounded the teachers up in one corner. The teachers were a little annoyed with us as we got all the students wet... Then we had a stage where we had a dance contest with the teachers and students and then an air guitar contest.

In the afternoon we made our Abi monument official. It is a table with die and card suites on the stools. A photo will appear on this webpage later. We also sang out song for everyone and we sounded good I think. We also had a singing contest, but unfortunately it was hard to hear the voices over the music.

On that Friday was graduation. The 12th graders (there are 13 grades) put on a buffet afterwards for the graduating class with a Hawaiin theme. They came and performed a song for everyone during the graduation and it was really good. Sektfrühstück (what the 12th graders did) was really good. The graduatioin ceremony went off with no problems and that is a good thing. :-)

Afterwards was something called Sektfrühstück. Basically that is something the 12 grade puts on for the 13th grade and the song the 12th grade performs during the ceremony is part of the theme. Their theme was Hawaii and they did a very good job with the theme. I am going to have to look around and see if I can find any good photos of their decorations, because I didn't get any good ones. The food was really good and it was also just a great time to walk around and talk to different classmates, friends from that year and teachers.

That afternoon Germany had a game for the World Cup and so first Isabel, Alex (her brother), her father and a friend name Christian and I went to the town square because they had the game on a big screen down there. The problem with that was the screen was hit on directly by the sun and thus you could not see anything. So that idea got scratched quickly and we went to Isabel's father's hotel and watched it there. It was an enjoyable group there and I learned even more about soccer! :-) I am a pro on it now, come on, ask me questions, I may know the answers. It was a good time and Germany won that game! I don't remember who it was against though... Hmmm... Maybe I should look that up.

On Saturday the 1st of July was Abiball for my class. The biggest problem with Abiball was the place they selected to have it in. There was an Abiball from a different school in it the night before, so it probably heated up then, there was no air conditioning (which is normal in Germany) and hardly any windows to get some air circulating... Yeah, it was incredibly hot in that room, so I spent most of the time outside. ;-) It was good to see everyone for the last time this summer and I had a lot of good conversations. Herr Burfeind (my physics teacher 3 years ago) was probably the most sociable of all the teachers and he is really nice. My class and I will never forget my first day in class I think. Herr Burfeind is the tallest of all the teachers and he speaks relatively slow and deep. So he came over to where I was sitting and kind of towered over me and then asked me "Wer bist du denn?" ("And who are you?"). It wasn't anything too out of the ordinary I guess, but just his size and manner of speaking made that memorable. When I was back several old classmates mentioned this occurance to me, something I hadn't thought about in literally years. At Abiball I did the Abidance with everyone and it was just a ton of fun to be asked to participate in everything.

Then the next day Isabel and I went to the beach with some friends and just kind of hung out. She managed to get a glass piece in her foot (at the end), but oh well, she still lives today, so nothing too terrible. Isabel tried to convince me that entire day that I did not want to leave on Monday and that I did indeed want to stay until at least Tuesday, if not longer. But alas, her arguments did not work and I left on Monday for Düsseldorf.

It was a really good time in my old town. Though a bit of culture shock at how small it is. My town in Iowa is a lot smaller, but as far as Germany goes, that town was really small. I guess I get used to Millwaukee and things being right there and then going to a small town is a bit of culture shock again.

Kielerwoche

2006-07-14T07:07:00.000-05:00

So, I haven't typed much in the last several weeks. The time has been going by soo fast! I will try to recap in sections, starting with Kiel! When I get home next week I will work on loading photos onto my blog.

Kielerwoche was a lot of fun and it was really good to spend more time with Lisa. Almost every night from the Friday that I got there until the Monday that I left I was at Kielerwoche except for the night to Kielerwoche except the second Firday night that I was there and I went to Lisa's Abiball with her family.

There was a lot of stuff going on at Kielerwoche. Nights were good for going out with friends and drinking a beer. Daytime had more of what Kielerwoche is all about. Sailboats! There were sailboats everywhere and concerts throughout the day. One one thing they had was for the little kiddies. There were games for the kids, mud pits for the kids and crafts for the kids. They built a large octapus with the children, using wood and nails. Then they painted it. There was also a section with plastic tiles that they painted and then used to make a maze.

I went out with Lisa and her friends. At first the were a little reserved around me, but by the end of the week they were soo sweet!

On the Monday that I was there Lisa and I took the convertable and went north to Denmark. I got a nice sunburn and Lisa found shoes for Abiball. That was amazing, about every person I have stayed with has been on the hunt for shoes and Lisa is the first one that I was when when she found shoes! We looked all around Kiel on that Saturday or Friday (can't remember which now..) and didn't find anything and when decided what the heck, let's go into this store here in Denmark and maybe she will find something. Five minutes later she had a pair of shoes. I also tried my first authentic hot dog from Denmark. And it was good!

Tuesday we went Sailboating. That was fun. I went sailboating for a week with my class as I was here in Germany for a year and I just loved it. It was really great to have the opportunity to go again. We watched Germany's soccer game on the boat. That was cool.

They had a wonderful Abistreich, that is a prank so to say, that the graduating class does to the school. Many times the graduating class with pull everyone out of class and do something outside (my gymnasium still does that), but many times it also ends with the people just leaving after a little bit... Then it gets to be a bit boring. This year they weren't allowed to take the students out of class at Lisa's school. So instead they disrupted class the entire day. Just short little interuptions. Like a band that wandered from room to room. Or giving the teacher coffee or tea. There was a group of groupies that followed teachers around. Newspaperboy, grilling outside of a classroom, cleaning ladies and much more. Very well done. They even made it look like they camped in the school over night! A lot of fun it was I am sure, though I wasn't there...

Abiball was also great. They had a song the whole class danced to and then they walzed, yada yada yada. Showed a slide show and a video of Abistreich. The whole atmosphere was fun. They had a buffet with good food and everyone seemed to be in a good mood. It was a good time! At the Abiball I managed to talk to a Mexican (the boyfriend of one of Lisa's classmates) in Spanish (oh and it worked too!) and to some of Lisa's classmates that I hadn't met yet.

On the Wednesday that I was there we went and picked up Maren, Lisa's sister, from the airport. Maren was in Michagan for a year and really enjoyed her year. She was very enthusiastic about her experience and it was interesting for me to see another person in their first few days after the exchange, I already know how I reacted. :-)

Saturday morning, after Abibal, Lisa left for her graduation trip with her class. They all went to Denmark for the week. I left with Lisa's parents to go to a friend's house (friend of her family) to watch the sail boat parade. During that time I met a student from my future university for a semester here in Germany and also someone who works in that town and grew up there. So that was really cool. The sailboats were also very interesting. I would love to do more with sailing in the future if I can swing that!

Then on Sunday I went to a Motorcycle Church Service with Lisa's parents. That was really interesting! There were around 1,000 motorcyclists there if memory serves me properly. Most of the people were outside of the church during the service and caught everything over the speakers. We sat inside. Lisa's Dad rode with as the Doctor of the group. I do not envy the motocyclists, it was a very hot day outside! It was really interesting to see and I will put photos of that up later.

That evening we went to an aunt from Lisa to watch the fireworks. I met her cousin and his wife there. His wife is originally from Spain and so we spoke a little bit of Spanish as well. That was really interesting. In that week I managed to meet two native spanish speakers! It was a lot of fun.

Sometime maybe I will make it back to Kiel, but on Monday my trip went farther...

Lisa -- My Exchange student

2006-06-20T14:13:00.000-05:00

Right now I don't think I am going to try photos, though I am on my own computer. It seems to go very slow on my computer in comparison with their computers. Currently I am at Lisa's house and there is a big sailing fest going on in her town known as Kieler Woche. So in honor of Kieler Woche we went sailing today!

Before I talk much about that I should mention what I have been doing since the last time I posted, that was about the potatoes right?

I went to my host family's house and it was good to see them again. On Tuesday (a very warm day) my host Mom and I biked into town and had ice cream. I did survive the bike ride, once I had a bike that was not out of my height range and the heat didn't cause me to keel over either... On Wednesday I met up with a friend in town and that evening watched the WM Game of Germany against, well that doesn't matter, Germany won. I did that with Henrike, my lil host sis, who got quite tall in the last several years... On Thursday I met up with another friend, Tatjana, I was at her house several times a week during my year. I would eat lunch at her house while I waited for my extra German class. On Friday I left them and came up to Kiel!!

Kieler Woche started on Friday and so I have been out every night since coming here. Friday Lisa and I went down on the water in Kiel and then went shopping. Mainly to find shoes for Lisa's Abiball dress, but we didn't succeed... That evening we went to Kieler Woche. We met up with a childhood friend of Lisa's who had a visitor from the US there. She can't speak German... It was a little odd for me to switch between the two languages the whole time like I was doing, but it worked out. We met up with Philip's class from school.

Anyways, I am getting very distracted at the moment, but I will write more in the next few days, keep in tune!

As promised, another post today.

2006-06-12T16:54:00.000-05:00

So dinner went great! The food cooled down a little bit though because Isabel had to tutor someone for a bit. Yum yum lecker food!

My first day in northern Germany was crazy like my first day in Germany. This time Isabel was the tired one and not me. I was too excided about seeing everyone again to be tired. Sunday was really laid back and not much really happened (Sunday a week ago that is). We both slept late and then went to bed fairly early.

On Monday Isabel had to get some Abitur photos taken. For those of you not familiar with the german school system, the abitur is a test taken at the end of gymnasium (usually 12th or 13th grade) and my class in Germany took Abitur this year and there will be a lot of "abi" references. They make an Abi-Book and all the photos from the class members are in it. They also did some votes for who is the biggest this of the girl and of the guy and such. Isabel got some of those awards, to be possibly mentioned later, maybe not.

We went and she got her photo taken for the book and then we had to wait until she could take the photo with her male counterpart of the votes. We ate at this new little café in town. It was really good, we also wanted crepes, but we didn't have time so we got ice cream instead. YUM!! ice cream in Europe!! I love the ice cream here! One of my old classmates walked by as we were eating and he lost a lot of weight since I was last here. He looks really good now! I am very happy for him. After that we just got the other photo done and then we really didn't do much.

Actually I am thinking about this now and it is not making sense, because on Monday I went to my host family's house to have lunch and then stayed there into early evening. The photos must have been Tuesday. Sorry about the confusion, I hope you can still follow the post....

So Monday I actually went to my host family's for lunch and I gave Lena and Henrike (host sisters) the scarfs I made for them. Lena, my host parents, and I then went for a walk and Henrike met up with some guys for a run. It was really good to just see them again and to see what has been going on in their lives.

Then back to Tuesday! That evening some friends of Isabel's and me came over for a game night. That was fun. I do have to say, as a non-native speaker of German I was left at a small disadvantage sometimes, but it was very fun!

On Wednesday Isabel and I went into school, she had to talk to some of her teachers about finding out Abitur scores. She is leaving on vacation tomorrow and they do not get their scores until Friday, so that is a bit of a problem. She and her friend, Jessica, got that figured out with their teachers though. It was good to stop by the school, I got to see some people whom I hadn't seen yet. Teachers for example! One of my old teachers recognized the connection between Millwaukee and Harley Davidson when I mentioned Millwaukee. It was good to talk to them and they were all very surprised to see me! My old english teacher from that year spoke english with me then had a hard time remembering exactly who I was, but she remember USA!! While at the school I also got to see some other people that I had talked to frequently, so that was good.

For not really making an effort to make my visit a complete surprise I have! So many people have just had shocked expressions when they saw me and realized who I am. Or when I talk to them I can tell they were completely not expecting me. It is really cool, and has been a lot of fun.

Thursday was Assi's birthday. Thursday my cold was pretty bad, I couldn't talk very well. Isabel woke up and picked up Kordula (we stayed with her in Munich) and she also made the table all pretty for Assi to eat breakfast there when she woke up. It was a very relaxed day, I slept in and then took a bath when I woke up (because I wasn't feeling well), but then the day was good. Isabel and I went and got groceries for dinner and just in general. We cooked out, but the vegetables got a little dark.... The meat turned out well and we ate the potatoes anyways. It turned out that as long as you cut through the potato it wasn't burnt all the way through and they still tasted great! Kordula liked the potatoes a lot because they reminded her of the potatoes she ate in Peru. We wanted to do a bonfired, but that didn't work out... It was a great day though.

On Thursday I called my pastor from the Church I went to during my time here. He gave me a name of a member from the town I was staying in and mentioned there was going to be a fußball tournament on Friday and it would be great if I could make it. So I called the number I was given and they encouraged me to come to the tournament as well. I wanted to go, but I was not sure if it would work out with watching the opening game of the World Cup with Isabel (I really wanted to, it was Costa Rica against Germany and Isabel went to Costa Rica on student exchange). In the end I decided whatever, I will figure out a way to get everywhere I want to go to. So I went with this couple to the tournament on Friday.

The couple was really sweet. They had to do some errands before the tournament, so I went with them on errands. We decided to eat lunch at an italian resturaunt and we all ended up ordering tuna pizza. Yes, Americans, I know, TUNA PIZZA?!?!?!? It tastes really good, before you put it down try it ok? Everytime I mention tuna pizza in the US, someone, or everyone, acts like that has to be the worst kind of pizza known to man kind. It's great though, possibly my favorite kind, with pineapple.

When I was told fußball tournament I was thinking, well, soccer. There is a reason I wrote fußball instead of soccer, because that is what it was. Only instead of being teams of one or two, pushing the miniature men around on the take and flipping them to make them kick, it was life size! I took a photo of it and I need to try to remember to put that on here, I don't really feel like trying to figure that out right now. That was really cool to watch. I also talked to some of the youth from the congregation. It was really just a cool get together at the church and then afterwards they watched the opening game.

It turned out to be a bit difficult trying to find a ride back into town to get together with Isabel. I ended up waiting a bit until after the opening game started. Which, by the way, was really cool at the church. Before hand they had this little comedic act by two men. At one point I turned to the pastor's wife and asked her why the one man had such an american accent, she didn't know. I didn't get a chance to talk to him, but I am fairly certain one of the two men is from the US. He can't form the German "r," but otherwise he seemed to be able to speak German very well. He also made a lot of references to the US and used some English in the act. It was all very interesting. So the pastor's wife ended up bringing me back into town a bit after the game started. That was really nice of her.

In town I met up with Isabel and her friends (most of whom I met when I was here previously). Germany won the game 4-2 and Isabel was excited at every goal made, regardless of which team. That was neat. Afterwards I went to a birthday party from someone out of the graduating class and Isabel went home. At this party I was able to talk to some of my old classmates making it a really great opportunity. One of my old classmates explained to me that he was so surprised to see me because it isn't something they have come to expect from the exchange students. It turns out that most of the exchange students never revisit this school later and there I was suddenly in their midst again, picking up exactly where I left off 3 years ago. Talking to him was great, because I was able to gain a better understanding of how things have worked with exchange students in past years.

On Saturday there was another birthday party, but as I still wasn't over my cold and I wanted to go to church on Sunday morning Saturday ended up being a pajama day. I stayed around the house and took lots of naps, as I was tired.

Sunday I woke up and met up with the sweet couple to go to Church. The wife had to stay and tend to the guest. They run a sort of guest house here, so if anyone needs any tips as to a place they can stay in Northern Germany let me know. Thus they take turns on Sundays. This Sunday the husband went to Church and the wife stayed home and next Sunday it will probably be exactly different. It was such a blessing to be in Church. I can even almost still say the Lord's Prayer in German, but not quite, at least not very well. It was a blessing to be in Church in any case, especially as I missed the last two Sundays. After the service I talked to the missions director at the Church and he mentioned that they are getting very interested in Asia right now.

After Church I went for lunch with the Pastor and his family at one of the member's houses. They were all very wonderful and the food tasted great. It was a very good way to spend an afternoon. The pastor has 6 children, so there is always something going on and I like that. On the way out the door the pastor's wife, Anna, apologized for the hecticness of everything, but I liked it actually.

That evening I went to choir practice at a different church in a different town. Two guys picked me up at the first church I was at that day. One of them was in choir, the other wasn't. Sabastien was the one in choir and Wolf, the director, told me that my cousin spent an evening at Sabastien's house last summer when her university choir was out. The guys were really nice, but they didn't go to practice, swimming instead. According to them the weather was too good to sing. I say, the weather can never be too good to sing! I love to sing! I jumped right into the music with them. The music they practiced was a bit easier than I am used to, but then again they even said it was the easier music of their program. A lost of people remembered me from 3 years ago, though Wolf thinks it was only 2 years ago. After practice I went to grab some food at a local Imbiss with 3 of the choir members as I waited for Wolf to be ready to bring me home.

There was then some confusion as to where Wolf was at. Some of us figured he got distracted and forgot he was bringing me back. But he did remember, just got a little distracted and that is typical Wolf. So then we got to talking about the cds from the choir. I now have 2 cds from the Jugend-Chor Tarmstedt if anyone wants to listen to them. They are great! I am really enjoying them. We stopped in at the gas station that his sister runs and got some ice cream. Then we stopped by Wolf's Uncle's house and they weren't there. Then Wolf decided to try the tv, that didn't work out to well and then as we were getting ready to leave they returned. So we stayed and chatted with them for a while before he brought me back. Anyone who knows Wolf would know how typical of him this was. That's also fine.

It was really great to see a bunch of people again that I had met years ago and it was also a wonderful way to spend a Sunday.

Today was laid back, Isabel and I went into town and got some stuff including the stuff for dinner. I made the typical American potato bake potatoes. As in cheese, bacon bits, sour cream and broccholi. I could have prepared a lot more, but there are only four of us here right now, so it didn't seem necessary.

Now I need to get some sleep so I can wake up and pack up. I am going to my host family's house tomorrow and my stuff is everywhere right now! It's been wonderful to be here though and I am excited to see how it will continue. Right now though I am very tired and it is already 1am here.

Ooops... a while since my last post huh?

2006-06-12T12:08:00.000-05:00

Well, right now I am sitting waiting for the potatoes to start being cooked. I am doing a potato bake style dinner for Isabel and her family tonight. Fun times! Soon, I will have to stop and tend to the food.

I am in northern Germany now and a lot of things have happened since I last posted. So a bit of an update:
I got to northern Germany on Saturday the 3rd. That evening I went to Fruhtanz, which is a special party night sponsered by a local disco. A lot of my old classmates also came to it, so this was really great. The reactions I got from this night were great! Most of the people had no idea I was coming to Germany and the rest of them had no idea I would be here so soon. The best reaction was Tatjana's. She told me she saw me and thought, that cannot be Michelle. Then looked again and decided it had to be me. It was! It was really exciting and I was glad that I could have such a wonderful night. Of course I did not see everyone, and some people have moved from the area since my time here, but it was great to see those there and to see how many people I can remember names of (I did ok, but I also forgot many names...).

Ok food time, I will post sometime tonight about more of my activities.

2006-06-01T07:55:00.000-05:00

So, this will really be a short post, but just an update as to my whereabouts and such. Anyways, So Isabel's brother did come, and I have a photo of that, but I haven't downloaded it off my camera yet... He came and we went shopping for shoes mainly. We returned the two dresses that Isabel had bought and did not want after all and asked about returning a pair of jeans (that she was actually wearing). In the end Isabel had two pairs of shoes, Alex one and I bought nothing. I had bought so much already, I really couldn't justify buying anything more...

We were in the shopping area until about 8, when all the stores close, and then we met up with Kordula. If I did not say who Kordula is, she is the sweetest person ever and Isabel and I are staying with her currently. We met up with her and ate in a resturaunt and it tasted great! After eating Alex tried to catch a train back to Augsburg, but the U-Bahn had just left, so there was no way he would have gotten there on time. So he went back up to the apartment with us. I must say, walking on the streets and so, Alex really likes shoes, a lot more than I do I think... :-)

Yesterday was very relaxing. Isabel woke me up on her way to work and I slowly got ready and went down to Hauptbahnhof. There I got myself a Bahncard, so that I can travel a little more cheaply, and a ticket to Ingolstadt. There I visited my host family from my orientation and language course of 4 years ago. I cannot believe it has really been that long, it really feels like yesterday. It was really good to see them again. Sure enough Das ist ein Baum. Das ist ein großer Baum. was said. Those are the sentence Michael (the host dad) and I always say now. It comes from when he was practicing German with me 4 years ago. It is truly amazing that 4 years ago when I was there I really had no idea what was going on around me with the language and all. Now I can follow just fine.

So I spent the afternoon over there and part of the early evening before I caught a train back to Munich to catch up with Isabel and Cordula again. We then went to an Indish resturaunt and Isabel learned some Indian. Mainly counting. Next time she goes she will be able to count real well.

Today has also been very relaxing, I went down to Hauptbahnhof again and got some train tickets for Isabel and myself and then ate lunch with Isabel. I also called a few people to make a few of my future arrangements. That is really all I have done. Today Isabel leaves and I will stay here a few more nights. Tomorrow I need to get together with Mirja, assuming that that will still work.

I talked to my choir director from the Church choir in nothern Germany, they are unfortunately not having practice next Sunday, but I will still see them very soon indeed. It's so exciting to know after not have seen any of these people in 3-4 years that I will see them again, really soon too! What a Blessing!

Well, that is about all I have to tell about for now. Keep looking for more posts and more photos. Feel free to shoot me an email or a message and I will reply to you as I have time.

Deutschland! Hier bin ich!

2006-05-30T07:40:00.000-05:00

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

2006-05-22T08:13:00.000-05:00

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!

2006-05-16T13:58:00.000-05:00

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!!

End of April... Duh!

2006-04-24T22:03:00.000-05:00

So, now April is already coming to an end and I haven't posted in a while! This summer, who knows how much I will have a chance to post, but next school year, I better get back on track with this, and complete with photos of course!

My profile photo seems to have disappeared, that iis a little odd... Oh well, I will have to work on fixing that.

Easter was one crazy weekend, but it was good. I ended up leaving school a day early (and in the morning, so I missed two days of classes!) to go to my Great Aunt Lynn's funeral. It was a very happy funeral. My great aunt's death was not a shock and so it was easier to take. Some of my Dad's cousin's, whom I haven't seen in years, were there, so that was really good to see them, I don't have photos though, my Mom does.

My Grandma came home with my family for Easter. It was good to see her and my family again. It seems most times I am home my Grandma is also there. This is just an observation I made over break because I keep seeing her everytime I am home and I don't go home much where I can see family. Break was good though.

I also found out a bit before Easter that I have a summer job for the month and a half I can have a job. Yay for camp jobs!

Last Friday we cooked out on my balcony and this was a really good evening. Some of my guy friends came over and Kate (my roommie) and I were talking about cooking out, so I asked the guys if they wanted to. So they went out and bought some more coals, lighter fluid and some cups, pop (not soda though), brats, hamburgers and buns and went outside by my balcony and tried to get Kate's attention. But Kate had no idea, because I apparently never told her that we were going to cook out and I was elsewhere on campus at a Tupperware party. So I guess it was funny trying to get Kate's attention to start the cook out and then the confused look she gave when she saw all the stuff. Oops, my bad...

On Sunday Kate and I went to the mall and I found a present for a friend's birthday, I am really excited about it too, but as her birthday isn't for another month, I can't say anything else about it now... Ha ha ha ha ha.

Tomorrow we are having our hall cook out, I will post photos afterwards. We are having hamburgers, brats and kabobs. It will be good. Pray for no rain, that would be nice.

Anyways, I need to get some homework done and clean the room.

Catching Up on Things

2006-04-10T22:33:00.000-05:00

I realized I haven't written in a long while. Basically I have become busy with school work and activities and when I got my photos loaded onto facebook, that was good enough for me for the time being. Over spring break I went on choir tour and here are a few photos, I will talk about them a bit and thus tell you a bit about tour.

This is at the Getty, a museum in Los Angeles. This was a gorgeous shot. There is art in the buildings there and some gardens and interesting architecture.

Our bus broke down on the way to the Grand Canyon, so we stopped off at a rest stop in Arizona and there was snow. Kind of reminded us of Wisconsin...

Ahh the beautiful desert scenery.

This is now the Grand Canyon, we had to leave at 6am to see it, otherwards it would not have worked with the bus having broken down the day before. It was gorgeous, try to make it out there sometime if you haven't. I'd love to camp out there and take the trail ride.

This is our heater at the HoJo in Los Angeles. It was kind of scary. I will leave you with broken down hotel, drugs and we locked ourselves into our room at night.

Santa Barbara Beach in California. Ben tried to throw me into the ocean.

The great Hoover Dam. Our choir director turns out to be a big dam enthusiast.

This was at an A&W in either Arizona or Nevada. Why does everyone seem to make fun of Wisconsinites? We like our cheese, back off! :-)

This was at the strip in Las Vegas. Basically I don't care too much for Vegas, but it was cool to visit!

Ben seems to like trouble, so he put his head into a canon. I don't think it would make good ammunition...

So this is basically choir tour to the Pacific South West. We sang at a school in Las Vegas that was fun. The high school choir sang one sang with us and it went really well. They were fun to sing with. Now to post another post about cooking out!

Lots of things going on

2006-03-10T15:23:00.000-06:00

Last weekend a lot of really cool things happened. I went out with my old roomates for one thing. They are so much fun to hang out with! That made two weekends in a row that we all hung out somehow. We should really hang out more often. Hint Hint

Justine, Me, Charlotte, Jasmine

So there are the four of us. We went into Cedarburg to a coffee shop and then walked around downtown. It is really pretty and I found some fairly sweet German candy. Imported too!

Anyways, right now I am writing when I should be finishing a paper, cleaning my room, doing laundry and packing, but that stuff will have to wait until after choir practice at four. I will probably get my paper finished and submitted before then though. I have spring break next week and I get to go on my very first choir tour ever. We are going to Los Angeles, Phoenix and Las Vegas. I have never been out there either, so it will be quite the experience. So I need to do laundry and pack yet. A clean room would be great to come back to as well.

Then last Sunday several foreign students got together to make dumplings which were amazing! I have a photo album dedicated to it on my FB Photos link.

Well, all my things are calling me, I will post photos when I get back.

Matt and Dan are here!

2006-02-24T23:25:00.000-06:00

Dan, me, Matt

These to guys "adopted" me last year, my freshman year in college. If you ask Dan what this means he will tell you this "you owe your life time me, without me you wouldn't have made it through" or something very very similar. Matt and Dan are great and unfortunately they both graduated from here last spring... Every so often I will see Dan on campus as he is engaged to Christine, who still goes here. So that is nice, but Matt lives way to far away!

So Matt came up because he is currently between terms at seminary. Yay for breaks! I miss these guys, granted, last year we really didn't do a lot together, but it was really great because they both just kind of made sure I was doing alright. They would take me off campus from time to time and once, even blind folded me and took me out for food (Matt and Dan, that was my birthday which we celebrate in March I think?).

When I talked to Matt and realized he was up here I managed to find him in the library here at school (Dan called me, though I told Matt he had to, geez Matt, way to call, oh wait, he did while I was right there with him in the library, sorry, my bad!). We talked for a while until they went off to find people and I went off to choir. Then they wanted me to go to the Highland House with them, but I had a hall program I had to go to. I totally would have been there otherwise!

Then I went and played Farkel with my old roomies from last year. I miss seeing them everyday. I see them a lot more now because in the last months I have made it more of a point to see them and they me. They are soo fun to be around and wonderful people. Arla at least made for a great roommate! So we played Farkel (my first time I think) and then Matt, Dan, Christine and I went to go to swing dancing which was fun. Now I am here writing this. But I miss Matt and Dan a lot and am really happy that they are back on campus for a little bit and I get to see them and hang out.

Yeah, this post is dedicated to them. :-)
That's all.

Oh, and check out my like called FB photos.

Working Out

2006-02-19T16:57:00.000-06:00

So, I am horrible at actually doing something that I say I am going to do. But last week after thinking about how I need to work out for quite some time before it, I finally broke down and said, I will start tomorrow (tomorrow was Wednesday) which actually turned into Friday because, there was a good reason, I just don't remember at the moment, something about a late night I think. So Friday morning I woke up bright and early to go exercising at 6:30am. It felt great! I did some running and biking. I went back today (yesterday I ran around helping out at a wedding, so afterwards I was tired of running from one place to another all day) and all the treadmills were being used so I started with some circuit training and then moved onto a bike and eventually the treadmill when one finally opened up. Now I am going to go at 6:30am most weekday morning and get there when I can on weekends. It feels so great! Those of you who don't work out, you really should, it has a lot of benefits. Anyways, just thought I'd share that with you all.

Hmmm....

2006-02-16T11:48:00.000-06:00

Yay, for snow! So today we are having a large snow storm and classes have been canceled for the rest of the day. I was supposed to have Spanish this morning, but her she had to stay home to tend to a sick child. Then I went to history and my professor comes to tell us campus is being shut down at noon and if we want to stay we can, but if we don't we can leave. Well, we all left. What we were going to do can wait until Tuesday. Also my science lab was cancelled for the afternoon. What does this mean for me? I have more time to work on that book review that is due tomorrow, to which I haven't read the book completely through yet...

Wow, what a crazy week!

2006-02-13T15:07:00.000-06:00

So, sometimes things in life seem to go crazy at times and well, things have been happening. I will just give the highlights of my week last week. Here we go:

I got my trip to Germany booked! Now all I have to do is find some way to get cheap train tickets for two months... Any ideas for cheap travel within Germany? I would like to travel mostly on train when I am there. This is really great because now I get to see all my friends from Germany whom by that point I have seen in 3 or 4 years. I can say 4 because some of them I haven't seen since the beginning of my year there in '02-'03.

Also, going to Abiball seems to be a very formal event. I will probably end up mailing my prom dress before I go there. Which is pretty exciting because I have wanted to wear that dress again since I wore it for prom.

That last really exciting thing is that I got a package from a really great friend from Germany on Thursday. Iris, those gummi bears were simply great and I shared them with a few friends, one of which was really happy to have some green gummi bears. She ate one and had a look of joy on her face. She's such a goof. The calendar (Iris added pictures to a calendar) is hanging on my wall.

Anyways, those are some of the great things that have happened. I really should get back to reading a book for a book review that's due Friday.

CIT and Humoring My Brother

2006-02-08T23:34:00.000-06:00

So, CIT is this big tournament between the Concordias and it was at mine this year. My cousin Rachel came up with Aaron, Violet and Jim. Unfortunately I have no picture of Aaron, but I have ones of the rest of us. It was a lot of fun and great to see Rachel again and of course Violet and Jim.

Ok, now to humor my brother and have everyone hope that I might actually post a bit more often!

So Daniel tagged me and I choose to accept! ha ha ha ha ha ha

Four jobs I've had

1. Paper route
2. Baby sitting
3. Camp Counselor
4. RA

Four movies I watch over and over again

1. Phantom of the Opera
2. LOTR
3. Princess Bride
4. The Incredibles

Four places I've lived

1. Ingolstadt Germany
2. Düsseldorf Germany
3. Oerel Germany
4. Pawnee City Nebraska USA

Four websites I visit daily

1. Facebook
2. Google
3. My email
4. CUW

Four folks now tagged by meme

Daniel pretty much covered those, well instead of Chris and myself it would have been him and who knows who else...

Band Tour -- Portland and Seattle

2006-02-08T21:02:00.000-06:00

Oh! Before I forget to mention. My blog has had 12 squared visitors! Ha ha, now who's the true dork! ME!

This year band tour was the third week of Winterim (aka the third week of January) like every other year. Last year we went to Hawaii and check this out, the Pacific Northeast beats Hawaii any day in my book! So we went to Portland first and then drove out to Seattle and it was amazing!

Basically I decided (just as I decided about any where in Italy, Weimar Germany, Munich Germany, oh and Düsseldorf Germany) that I am moving to Oregon. There are several reasons to move there and not Washington. There are no taxes and Bill Gates and Paul Allen do not own the place. Ok, so there are two big ones. Most people when they think of the Pacific Northwest (hey fellow band members I got the right direction this time!) they think ewy gross rain all day long and how horrible that is. Well, I loved it! Every single drop of it! The temperature was great and I am told the summers aren't too warm either. Basically all that means is that it has a great climate. Cool and rainy.

Those of you who don't know this, heat is evil.

Well here are some pictures of our tour. So good!

These falls are so beautiful! There are some really neat hiking paths there too.

Ahh, beautiful Oregon scenery, I am definitely in love.

Another photo by the falls.

Some of us stayed on a college campus and the dorms are little apartments! Me want a kitchen and no more cafeteria.

Knitting! I learned how to from Lynn, the one on the right.

They guys in the airport on our way home. Who'd have thought?

Inside Airforce 1

A $1,000 elevator, or uh, I mean bathroom! You have to pay to use it and it opens automatically after 10 minutes. Let's hope you don't need that long! Oh, it is at the market in Seattle.

Yes, this is Airforce 1.

Basically band tour was a bunch of fun.

Time to play catch up!

2006-02-08T20:51:00.000-06:00

So, remember when I wrote not to expect a nice flow of posts? Yeah, well, that has proven to be true hasn't it?

Anyways, a lot of really great things have been going on, so I will try to give the basic run down of events.

So this is a picture of a dear lady's confirmation certificate from one of my Dad's parishes. My Dad was wondering what the translation of these were and wanted to make sure he had the correct Bible passages and hymn stanzas (the Bible passages are sometimes one or two numbers different in the German Bible).

Well, as a proper language geek would do, I was all over this task and went at it full out. Well, I pulled out my German Bible at one point to check the verse and I pulled out my English Bible to compare it or whatever, I probably did more than I needed to, and something truly amazing happened. The address list from my horse campers feel out of the cover of my German Bible!

See, I worked out at a camp this summer and one week all my girls gave me their addresses and then I lost them... Ooops. Well, now the lost is found and I am very happy about that! This was all right before I went on band tour in January. Talk about really cool!

Now I still need to write them all a letter, there weren't a lot of them, so it shouldn't take too long. Hey! It is something to do during science class...

Happy New Years and all that jazz...

2006-01-02T19:45:00.000-06:00

Unfortunately I don't have a photo to put up, but that's ok, no photo this time. Ha Ha Ha! Anyways, a few very exciting things have happened. My family got to go to Minnesota to visit some relatives on the second day of Christmas. My Dad's cousin Doug showed us some really neat American and Germany uniforms. Mainly German from WWII. I have a heightened interest in WWII. Doug also let us borrow "Band of Brothers", which is an amazing mini series that I highly recommend anyone, at least anyone able to hande the violence. It is of war folks, and with war comes violence. We also got to see Doug's family and my Grandma's sister (Doug's mother). That was real good.

Also it is a New Year! It is sure to be filled with many more blessings from God. This last calendar year was really good, with some tough times, but we get through them and keep on going. Now if that doesn't sound stereotypical new years! I celebrated the ushering in of the new year with my family at home. We even forgot to watch the ball drop in New York. Rather we forgot until about 5 minutes afterwards and then we turned on the TV and said "rats, we missed the ball drop!"

Now I am back at school and tired, for I had a 7 hour drive today. Tomorrow I start a class, band and I also have choir this week sometime. Which means back to work work work. The good news is that I have band tour during this Winterim (three week term in January). We are going to Washington and Oregon, so that will be exciting. I have never been there before. The new semester starts on the the 23rd I believe and I will be mighty busy in that time. Though these next two weeks shall be busy as well, trying to fit a semester class into that time, but it shouldn't be too bad, as that is about all I am doing.

Anyways, I hope the ushering in of the new year went smoothly for you all and God's Blessings in all you do!

Merry Christmas!

2005-12-25T22:04:00.000-06:00

So, I promise you no constant flow of posts, but hey, if I have time, I will write! Today has been a very relaxing day overall. We had the Christmas service in the morning at Church, which was very nice and later one we had a wonderful turkey lunch. I teased everyone telling them that now I can have Thanksgiving because I was stuck on campus during Thanksgiving being a good RA and fulfilling my holiday duty time. Now some of the holiday duty is not as holiday like as others, but mine definitely was holiday like.

So this is my lovely family, Grandma and all. This is what one calls a low key Christmas and I like it very much. We had a great time. Oh, and I got a new toy, that is why I could post this picture here already..... Well, I have had much much more fun with it than that...

Also today Dad and I went to a few nursing homes a played some flute cello duets (of course Dad was on cello and me on flute silly!). That was a lot of fun. I didn't play particularly well, but the people enjoyed it and it made me happy to put a smile on their faces. Last year I believe Dad and I played at a nursing home as well. It is fun, even though I make a lot of mistakes... Maybe I should whip out the pic next year!

Playing cards with Mom and Grandma can be fun and very ruthless, I guess you could say I am a ruthless card player if I get into the game. So if you ever play Phase 10 with me, be prepared to be skipped! Ha Ha Ha Ha Grandma is fun to play cards with, she really gets into it and wait, did she just try to stack the deck so she could have wilds? Oh, nevermind, Mom ended up with them all anyways. So this was just some small telling of the days events, I don't really have anything to do now, tomorrow I am going to visit some more relatives and I hope to get a bigger card for my new toy!

Have a wonderful 12 Days of Christmas and God's Blessings to you all!

So now I use Blogger, but don't expect a constant flow of posts!

2005-12-24T15:06:00.000-06:00

I was going to do this whole blog thing a year ago and it worked for a few weeks, then I stopped. Then I read what I wrote and erased it all... Crazy me! Anyways, I am now going to use this as a sort of way to keep people updated on what is going on in my life these days. Also as it is Christmas Eve I wish everyone who is reading this a very Merry Christmas! Keep checking back to see if I add anything about Christmas here at the beginning of next week. Soon I hope to start putting up photos on a website as well, so then you all can see what exactly it is that I do. Have a very Merry Christmas and remember Easter! God's Blessings! Michelle out.