Oh the places you'll go..

Sorry I am so terrible at updating my blog! I guess a lot has gone on since I last wrote so I will try to give a quick overview and then I can talk about Berlin!!!!
Everything is going really well here. I've started meeting some people and have gone out a couple of times, although I'm not as much of a partier anymore. I like sleep! haha The Germans like to party til around 4 am so it's a little too much for me. I like to be in bed no later than 2. I guess I am just used to the American way of going out where everything closes at 2. I have a tandem partner now which should really help my German (we speak once a week in German and once a week in English). I also but Harry Potter in German and although it's a slow process it's fun being able to read in another language, as long as I have my dictionary by my side . Alex is coming in 9 DAYS! I'm so incredibly excied. We're going to Prague for a weekend and then Paris for about a week. My family here also but us a trip to Rudesheim, it's a small touristy type town but apparently really cute. We take a ferry on the Rhine there so that will be pretty exciting. My birthday was excellent even though I wish I could have been home. Cameron helped me make some cookies which was a lot of fun. Thats all I can remember for now.
So...BERLIN! I think I'm in love with the city haha. I stayed with a friend of a friend who I had met for a little bit back in Washington and it was a lot of fun. When I first got there we visited Brandenburger Tor, Monument for the Jews, The Reichstag, Christmas Market and some pieces of the wall. It was pretty cool to actually see the Tor in person rather than just through pictures same with the Reichstag. The Reichstag is part of a government building and it's glass at the top so you can see through, I didn't go up top though because the line is alwasy ridiculously long. Nonetheless it was pretty cool to see. The Christmas Markets here are soooo much fun! Well pretty much you just eat delicious German food which I think is fun! They also have Gluhwein which is a red wine with some spices in it. It is pretty yummy although not my favorite because I don't really like red wine. In Postdamer Platz they have 5 pieces of the wall with a little history. It's all outside and pretty cool to see. The fact that a wall seperated a country still completely amazes me.
The next day we went to The Brucke Museum. The Brucke is a famous art group in Berlin from I think WWII, I could be remembering that wrong though. The museum was pretty small but cool. The artist on display wasn't my favorite but it was still cool to look at. Then we went to go eat my first doener which is originally Turkish but it's more German than Turkish because people don't really eat it in Turkey. It is sort of similiar to a gyro but way more delicious! Anne had to go play some beach volleyball so I wondered off to Museum at Checkpoint Charlie. It is a really cluttered museum but I really liked it!!!! It gave a really good history of the wall and also had examples of some of the escapes which were pretty amazing. I went to another Christmas Market to waste some time. I ate a really good pizza type thing I have no clue what it was called though. I went to meet up with Anne and we went out for a little bit but just ended up at a bar which was good because I was exhausted. Sightseeing is hard work!
The next morning we went to go see a Salvador Dali exhibit. It was AMAZING! The exhibit had 400 of his works. It took awhile to go through because every picture had so much detail. Afterwards we just walked around for a little bit to kill some time before I had to go back home. I really really like Berlin and will probably visit it a couple of more times before I leave.

I'm really bad at keeping up with my blog so sorry. I should be getting my camera cord in the mail here soon so I'll be able to upload some pictures! Anyways, on Monday I went to Heidelberg with Michi and his older daughter who is 16. She was visiting for a couple of days. Michi had to work so Katarina and I explored the city which required A LOT of walking. The downtown area had a lot of really cool shops and most of them were pretty cheap. I bought a nice warm black jacket from H&M. I'm in love with it. Other than that I just did a lot of browsing, trying to not spend money on all the clothes was a little challenging but I'd say I did pretty good. After we decided we were done with shopping we went to go find the Heidelberg Schloss which is the castle there. After asking one person who pointed us in the wrong direction we actually found it. It's a wonder we couldn't see it from the streets because it's way up on top of a hill. 316 stairs later we got to the top and bought some drinks to refresh us. It was incredibly beautiful and was a great way to view the whole city and the Rhine. I can't wait to put up some pictures. There was also a HUGE barrell for beer inside and I mean HUGE. On our way back we stopped at a little cafe to get some coffee and cake which was delicious! We were pretty exhausted so it was a nice break. Our feet hurt soooo incredibly bad so we were both really excited when we could finally sit down. It was a really fun day and although Katarina and I had some trouble communicating sometimes it worked out perfectly. This Saturday I decided to venture out on my own to Frankfurt which is about 30-45 min away, longer by train. The Buchmesse was this weekend which is the largest bookfair in the world. It was huge. I probably ended up seeing about 1/8 of the actual fair. There were some halls I didn't even visit. I spent most of my time in the art book section which had a lot of cool books. Everything from classic art to tattoo's to graffiti. It was really really cool. I was lucky all of the fiction books were in German otherwise I may have walked away without any money left. I did end up buying a 3 cd collection of African music which I actually haven't listened to yet but I'm sure it is great! I also went to the comic book section thinking there might be some cool things and maybe I'd find something for Alex because he loves comics. Well lets just say it was a little different than I was expecting. All of the comics were like asian anime and all of the people were dressed up like the comics. It was a very interesent part of the fair. I decided to head back to the Hauptbanhof and see some other parts of the city. Frankfurt is the only German city that has high rise buildings so it's kind of cool to see. It also has a lot of museums due to an initiative passed I think in the 90's that devoted a certain amount of the budget to the arts. I planned on visiting a couple of museums but ended up only making it to one. It was a really nice museum with one really awesome exhibit and a really not so awesome other exhibit. They had 100 sculptures from the Mao era which was really cool. Mao had commisioned a group of students to depict the plight of peasents and farmers before socialism. The scultptures were incredibly life like and had a lot of emotion in them. The other exhibit was some artist that painted some lines and called it art. I was not impressed and quickly past through. By this time I was starving and needed to sit down so I found a wurst place and grabbed some apple wine which Frankfurt is also known for. It was pretty good. Then I ended up having a conversation with some guy who was writing a book about youth. Don't get too excited we talked in English. Then some guy and his friend who were in there 30's and 50's bought me a beer. So I went and sat with them and it turned out that they were actually from North Dakota. The younger guy was actually a lot of fun to talk to because he had lived in Germany before and knew a little bit of German. We just talked about our experiences and was saying by the time I have to leave I won't want to. Then we went inside the bar because it was freezing and got really windy and rainy. We sat at a table with three men who were in there 70's. They were hilarious! They actually ended up buying us a shot of Jack Daniels and one of them complimented my German which was exciting even though I had said like two things but I kind of translated for the other 2 guys so that was cool. I ended up complimenting him on his German as well which the younger guy thought was hilarious. I was starting to feel a little tipsy so I thought I better get home before I don't remember how to haha. So I made the train back home and actually met some people on the train too who tried to convince me to go to Wiesbaden instead of Mainz because they were Frankfurt soccer fans and Mainz is sort of a rivalry. I told them it was probaly best I actually go home but before they had me sing a German song with them which was quite hilarious. I was pretty proud when I got home that I made it both ways without any incident and made me super excited to travel around some more! Alex is going to come visit me during his Winter break so I'm super excited! He just bought a hotel for New Years Eve in Paris so it looks like we'll be having a romantic New Years. We are probably going to go a couple days earlier and stay in a hostel and explore some. We both love art museums so we're pretty excited or the Louvre! Miss you all!

So I have been here a little over a week now. Nothing too exciting has happened, I'm just trying to get myself settled for now. I really enjoy the family I am staying with they are very nice and fun. They are also really helpful. I am trying to volunteer at an organization while I'm here so Michi looked up some places for me in Mainz. Cameron is adorable and she has gorgeous blue eyes! She goes to the Kinderschule which is like kindergarten from 8:30 to about 3:30 everyday so during that time I usually clean some things and then go online. Hopefully when I start school and volunteering I'll be able to meet some people so that I can get out a bit. Hopefully my German will also improve by then. I had to take a test the other day for placement and lets just say I didn't do to well. It's kind of strange how 2 months of not speaking German can make things a lot more difficult. They have started only speaking German to me now though so hopefully by the time I start school, November 1st, I will be able to be placed in a higher level. I'm really shy about speaking German though which I need to get over. It is just a lot different speaking German to teachers, who are there to instruct you, and classmates, who also mess up, then it is to speak it in Germany. I'm trying though! I've ridden my bike a lot since I can't run right now. I think it is actually really helping my ankle to be doing something with it and riding doesn't put too much strain on it. I have more trouble walking on uneven ground then I do riding. I've really started to enjoy riding my bike though and hopefully I will have enough money to buy one when I get back. I have to be really cautious with my money though because I still have to buy a plane ticket home and put money down for rent and probably a deposit all without having a job when I get back. I'm excited to go start exploring Germany though! I absolutely love the food here! The bread is delicious and so is the beer. The families favorite place to eat schnitzel is called the adler and it's so GOOD! I had a zweibel kuchen which is onion cake and despite the sound of it, it is delicious. I also had some federweisser which is young wine and almost tastes like carbonated grape juice. You can only get it right when they harvest the grapes so I'm lucky to have been able to try some. Hopefully I will have more adventures to talk about next time! I love and miss everyone! Oh and I can't post pictures because my card doesn't register on my computer but hopefully I can fix that soon.

So this will be my second night in Germany! It has been really cold so far but I think the weather is just finally changing to fall as it has in the NW as well. So my plane finally left LAX at 11 pm Wednesday night and I arrived around 6 pm Thursday night in Germany. The plane ride wasn't too terrible. My doctor prescribed me some anti anxiety medication which I had never taken before and I'm not quit sure if I ever will again. I took the first one and I felt normal and then another and still felt normal and then I took the third and passed out! Which was good but I woke up and my whole arms were numb. I'm not sure if it was from the medication or what but it was a very odd feeling. I just really did not enjoy that it took 3 to knock me out but there was really no inbetween and I waited an hour after each one. Anyways, I arrived safe and sound in Frankfurt where Michi, the dad picked me up. It took about 20 minutes to find the car which was a bit hilarious. He kept saying well I can get a Phd but I'll never be able to figure out the Frankfurt airport. We went to his favorite schnitzel house afterwards and had delicious beer and schnitzel. Today I haven't done much. Cameron and Janet don't arrive until tomorrow, a little past noon. I'm really excited to meet them! Tonight Michi had a lot of his running friends over and we had dinner and some wurst which was a lot of fun although i did not understand much. They helped explain a lot of the time and I'm hoping soon I will be able to converse a little better. Already my English is becoming weird because I'm speaking a lot like the German speak English which is good but sometimes sounds a little funny. I'm sure it will make it interesting when I get back home. My sprained foot has been a bit of a problem just because it is not as easy for me to bike into town where I would be able to meet people but hopefully soon enough. My house is really big. It has three stories and I swear I keep finding rooms with nothing in them. They are still in the middle of renovating so it's not quite as homey as I would like but that is ok. I helped Michi plaster a little today which was fun. He had to teach me a word today that I didn't even know in English so that was funny. Well, that is all for now! Hope everyone is doing well at home.

So far I have only made it part of the way to Germany and well, that was definitely the short part. I am not a fan of planes or travelling. The LAX airport is spread across, I'm pretty sure 500 miles which I had to trek. My ankle is not happy with me right now. Plus, I'm pretty sure the place I bought my tickets from is retarted because they said my plane left at 7:10 but it doesn't leave til 11:00 and it is on time which is confusing but I have checked 500 times to make sure that I'm not just being retarded. Oh well, I promise I'm still super excited to go though! Saying goodbye has just been very tough over the last week and today was the worst of the goodbyes. I am just a little exhausted at the moment physically and mentally. Plus I'm smelly! I am going to make such a great first impression on my family! Well I believe I am done with my bitching for the moment and I promise my next post will be cheerful! I can't wait to finally get to Germany and begin my adventure.