Home Sweet Home

It's a little late in coming, now that I've been home for over a week, but I thought that my blog is not quite complete. There is one story missing: my trip home.

It started by taking the bus down the mountain on Friday (21st). It was my first bus ride in Eichstätt. We had been given a coupon for a free bus ride, and I had purposely saved it the entire trip, just so I could use it on my way home. It was certainly an experience, and, as Kelton said, a fitting last bus ride. The driver seemed to have a bit of road rage, and we almost ran into a few vehicles, and the driver honked his horn a few times, yelling at the other people. So that was fun. Then came the 1:44 train out of Eichstätt Stadt. Both Casey and I took the same train. But she was headed out to Frankfurt (through Nuremberg) and I was headed to Munich, so after we reached the Eichstätt Bahnhof, we parted our ways. Kelton was an absolute sweetheart, and offered to take the train with me to Eichstätt and then help me carry my luggage down a flight of stairs, and then back up a flight of stairs to get where I needed to be for my train to Munich. That was probably the most difficult part of my trip on Friday. Made it on the train successfully. At the Munich train station, I had a bit of difficulty maneuvering my luggage down to the S-Bahn platform, almost had it smash into the person in front of me, but I managed. Got on the S-Bahn no problem. Rode the S-Bahn all the way to the airport. I had decided earlier that instead of getting off and having to get my luggage onto a bus, then back off again, and then walking a distance to a hotel I'd never been to before, that I would just spend the extra 6 Euro and get a shuttle ride from the airport to the hotel. So once at the airport, I went to the Information desk where they called the hotel for me. Got picked up, went back to the hotel, got checked in, and was shown my room. It was a very cute little room, and it had a TV. I felt a little too tired to do any exploring, so I pretty much locked myself in, and relaxed for the rest of the evening. It wasn't a very long evening - I had to wake up really early the next morning.

I didn't sleep very well, even after taking Tylenol PM, but then... who would? I was much too excited about going home. I ended up waking up early, and got ready. It was quite a feat getting all my luggage down the stairs. Of course there were no elevators. So I had to lug one piece of luggage down the stairs at a time. Then I got on the shuttle van, and off to the airport I went. And that is where the real story begins. Found the correct check out counter (as there was a special counter for flights to the US). As I was getting checked in, I found out there was a problem with my connecting flight from Chicago to Minneapolis. I was supposed to be on the 1.10 plane out of Chicago. But, as it turned out, there was no such flight out of Chicago to Minneapolis at 1.10. Problem! I was sent to another counter (the ticket counter) where they searched (and found) a different flight from Chicago to Minneapolis for me. But instead of flying United, I was to change airlines, and fly American Airlines. My flight also left at 2.40, not 1.10. I guess what happened was that my original 1.10 flight had been pushed up two hours earlier, which would have been impossible for me to make, considering I wasn't supposed to touch down in Chicago until 11.40. All in all, it wasn't that big of a set back, but it definitely something I didn't really want to deal with on my way home.

My flight out of Munich posed no problem, other than the fact it was nine hours long. How I managed to last, I'm not quite sure. Maybe because I had a good travel companion. An older lady from Germany, but living in the US. She was kind of like my grandma for the day. We talked a bit, and I helped her fill out her US Customs Declaration form. Going through US Immigration and Customs was a breeze. I didn't have any problems whatsoever. Got my luggage re-checked, and my ticket printed. Rode the train out to the American Airlines terminal. Ended up getting lucky, and was picked for a random search of my body and personal belongings. That was fun. Got to my gate way before I needed to be. The whole Customs and re-checking my baggage went so smoothly, that I would have easily made my original 1.10 flight. But I had an extra hour and a half to wait. Bought a pop at McDonald's in the airport with my debit card, because I didn't have any American money. Sat around for a while, not being able to do anything, because I was too excited to go home. The airline ended up switching my gate, so I had to get up and walk across the terminal to get to the new gate. My connecting flight was uneventful. I spent most of the hour or so just staring out the window, and watching the clouds and the ground. And then, before I knew it, I was landing in Minneapolis. Kyle, being his usual self, was late picking me up, so by the time he made it to the baggage claimed, I had already claimed mine. It was a little weird to see him again after four months, but it was good nonetheless. After leaving the airport, we had a little picnic, and just hung out a bit, before going back to my house. He made me orange muffins. =) Once home, everyone was glad to see me, except for Curly, who didn't even pay much attention to me. After seeing Kyle's dog, and having her being really excited to see me, we decided that Curly must have been mad at me for leaving, or that he just wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to leave again. After a walk, a car ride, and lots of attention, he finally forgave me. All is well in the world again.

And that completes my Germany trip blog. It certainly was an experience, but it's good to be back home. <3

I'm coming home!

In about four hours, I will board the train that will take me to Munich. From there, I will stay over night in a hotel. My flight out of Munich leaves at 9 in the morning, and I'm set to arrive in Chicago at 11:40 am (local time). My connecting flight leaves Chicago at 1:10 (provided I make it there) and arrives in Minneapolis at 2:34 pm.

Needless to say, I can't wait to be back home again. =D

Vier Tage Noch!

Four days left!

Only FOUR days! With that in mind, I've just been picking up my grades (straight Bs on the European system, but once the grades transfer back home, they'll go up a little), getting packed, cleaning my apartment, saying good bye to everyone, and figuring out my travel plans to Munich.

Mostly though, I've just been lying around my room, reading the book I was supposed to save for the plane ride home (I bought a new booktoday for that purpose), trying to stay as cool as possible in the heat, and hoping that everything goes smoothly on my long trip home. I'm not so worried about getting to my hotel in Munich, nor about getting to the airport, that's the easy part. It's the only having an hour and a half to go through customs and security, and get to my connecting flight that worries me. But being that I have been gone from home for almost four months already, I can guarantee that I will be more than willing to push through lines, or use any excuse I can think of, in order to get to where I need to be when I need to be there. And, of course, I'll have my running shoes on.

But regardless of what happens, I'll still make it home, and that's the most important thing.

Meine Prüfungen sind vorbei!

My tests are over with!

And now I am finally free! Well, sort of. I still have one of each class before I leave, in order to pick up my grades. And I have to figure out what needs to be done before I move out of my apartment. And there is a problem with getting all my grades to the person (here in Germany) who is putting together the transcript that will be sent home before I leave. There's always something going on. Gotta have some problem to solve, or else life gets boring, right?

But the hard stuff is over. This weekend is supposed to be unbelievably hot (88 degrees, after the cold 60 degree weather we've been having), so you can bet that I'll be spending time relaxing at the public swimming pool.

Only ten more days, and I'll be back home again! =)

Praha

Prague (in the Czech language)

Even though I didn't leave for Prague until the early morning of Friday, my story really starts on Thursday. Both Casey and I have Thursdays completely free, so we decided to use this past Thursday to climb up to the castle in Eichstätt, and visit the Jura Museum there. Apparently, there have been a lot of fossils found here, so we got to see all those. It wasn't all that interesting to me, but at least I can say I saw it. We also got to climb up in one of the castle towers – all the way to the top and outside. The view was pretty much amazing. After our adventure in the castle, Casey and I went to McDonald's to eat. Mostly because that had been one of my goals to accomplish while living in Germany – try the McDonald's. When I took a cultural anthropology class last fall, I learned that McDonald's caters their menu to the tastes of the people of whatever country they're in. So, of course, I wanted to see if there was really a difference. The first thing you notice right away is that the burgers are smaller. I personally like this, because I usually can't finish an entire burger on my own. To be honest, I didn't notice too much of a difference, but did find that the food here is better. Probably because everything here in Germany is fresh. So that was my German McDonald's experience. Not too exciting. Anyway, later that day, I decided that I was going to need to withdraw more money out of the ATM, because I was getting low on cash. I went to the ATM that I always use... and it wouldn't let me withdraw money. Went back up the mountain, mostly to see how much money I really did have left, and then went back down the mountain again to try and withdraw a smaller amount. By this point, it's getting late in the afternoon, and I feel like I'm competing against time, because most of the banks close pretty early. I am in small town Germany, after all. I get to the ATM. Try 250 Euro. Nothing. 200. Nothing. 150. Nothing. 100. Nothing. 50. Nothing again. At this point, I'm getting worried that there is something wrong with my account, and that I'm going to be stuck in Germany without being able to access my checking account. So first I stopped by the computer lab to check my account online – nothing was out of the ordinary. I booked it back up the mountain in order to call the bank. I call the bank. I get, “Well, Ms. Shofner, there is nothing wrong with your account. Everything is in order.” Next idea. Booked it back down the mountain, this time to a different bank, to hopefully withdraw money. Get to the bank. It's closed. Yay. You technically are able to get to the ATMs, even when the bank is not open, but you need a card... a card which you only have if you're a member of the bank. Something which I didn't have. Luckily, there were people inside, so I just walked in when one of them walked out. Withdrew my money. With absolutely no problem. None at all. Sometimes I think life likes to make things difficult for me. I''m probably supposed to be learning something important like, “always think on your feet” or “always be on guard, because you never know what life is going to throw at you next.” Or probably something really simple, like problem solving. I would just like life to know that yes, I am already pretty darn good at problem solving, thank you, and should I have to have more practice, I would politely ask that the problems be slightly easier and less stressful to deal with if it would be at all possible. I would greatly appreciate it.

But next. Prague. The trip to Prague began at four in the morning on Friday. At four in the morning Germany time, it is actually about nine at night at home. So when all of you were thinking about getting ready for bed, I was dragging myself out of bed for one last big adventure in Europe before I leave. Did I mention I didn't sleep much the night before? Needless to say, I was tired, and not really looking forward to having to be on a train for a total of about eight hours. Casey and I made the 5:01 train out of Eichstätt, no problem. Bought our ticket to the Munich train station as well as a ticket for our trip back to Eichstätt on Sunday. Keep that last part in mind. It was my idea to buy the ticket, and it comes into play later in this sordid visiting-an-Eastern-European-country tale.

Met up with our travel buddy, Sara, when the train to Munich stopped in Ingolstadt, where she had been staying for the last month, with the other St. Cloud State students. Made our way to Munich. No problem. But then, it's a very easy thing to do. Got on the train to Prague. Or, at least on the part of the train we thought was going to Prague. But no. It wasn't. Unknown to us, the train was to be split at one of the stops. I forget which. I guess it's not really that important. So the guy that checked out tickets said that the first three cars of the train were the ones going to Prague. Easy enough, right? Wrong. We got up. Walked through a lot of cars towards the front of the train. Sat down. After some minutes, realized that, hey... there were still a lot more cars ahead of us and we were still not on the right part of the train. So we walked all the way to the front of the train, until we could not go any farther, and then found a seat and settled in. After that it was just a waiting game – were we there yet?

At the Czech Republic – German border, we had to give up our passports. Because I haven't traveled outside the country since I've been here (ok, so I went to Salzburg and that is in Austria, but it doesn't count), I was excited to finally get a stamp in my passport! Hoo-rah, right? Wrong again! The border patrol man took my passport, flipped through it a bit, looked at my student visa, and then gave me my passport back, without giving me a stamp. I was, needless to say, extremely disappointed. As far as I can figure out, the student visa makes me sort of like a citizen of the European Union, and because the Czech Republic is also part of the European Union, they don't give out stamps on passports – which is also why no one checked passports going into Austria. Anyway. There is a noticeable difference between Germany and the Czech Republic. Casey said that it was more “crappy” than Germany. I'm a bit more diplomatic, and so I called it “run down.” The train tracks are not in as good a condition, and so we traveled slower. The houses did look a bit worse for wear. The bridges made me nervous every time we had to cross them. They made this noise that made me not trust them. And they looked very rusty. But we made it to Prague then, without incident.

One thing that I realized when I first came to Germany was that when I was back home again, communicating would become so much easier for me. Mostly because once you have to communicate in a foreign language, you realize how truly easy it is to communicate in your native language. Well. Once in Prague, it fast became apparent to me how good I have it in Germany, because even though I may not be fluent, or not be able to understand everything, I still understand more than enough to get by. Not so in Prague. So that was also an interesting little realization. Oh the things we learn when we travel to new places.

We arrived in Prague around one in the afternoon on Friday. With a handy dandy map in hand, which wasn't always so handy, we made our way to our hostel. The hostel was right across the street from a police station, so we figured we'd be safe enough. I'm not even sure how to describe what the hostel was like. It basically just took up some “apartments” on different floors of this old building. It had a wicked cool elevator that had no real elevator shaft, just a cage around the area that the elevator used. Kind of scary, but I eventually took it while we were there, just to say I did. It was an experience. Though I actually think the elevators at St. Cloud are scarier, because of the way that the doors shut. The elevators at St. Cloud practically slam shut on you. This elevator you just had to close the door. Easy. Because we arrived at the hostel before it was our check in time, Sara and Casey dropped off their stuff, and we went on our way. Sara had everything she needed for two weeks, because after Prague she went to Barcelona, and then she is off to Italy, so obviously she didn't want to carry that around. Casey had more stuff than she wanted to carry, and... I didn't want to leave my stuff anywhere. I also managed to pack light.

So out we went into the streets of Prague. First we exchanged our money. Even though the Czech Republic is a member of the European Union, they haven't yet made the transition into using the Euro. So we got a bunch of Czech crowns. The exchange rate is something else. 30 crown to a Euro. This enabled me to spend a lot more money over the course of the weekend than I normally would have, but that's ok, and life goes on. Then we decided to get something to eat. I tried the goulash, thinking it would be similar to what we think of, when we think of goulash. But no! It's actually just little pieces of meat with some kind of sauce. Not to bad, actually, but I don't think that it will ever be a favorite of mine. Fanta will be though. I always have had a fondness for orange pop. After eating, we walked around a ton. We got to see some military men doing a show – they were marching around and throwing their guns around, and it was pretty darn awesome. Definitely wouldn't see anything like that in the US. After a while, we decided to walk back to our hostel, so that we could actually check in, and get our stuff into our room. So back to the hostel we went. Got our stuff, climbed up lots of stairs to our room, and picked out the free beds. Thus began our experience in the hostel. In walks a guy wearing nothing but a towel. As we're talking about where we're from and such, he proceeds to pull on his underwear, and get dressed in front of Sara and I (Casey had left the room). A bit out of both Sara and I's comfort level. But whatever. It's a hostel. How much worse could it get?

After putting our “important” stuff in our locker, we decided to head out again, and walk around some more. Somewhere along the line I picked up a scarf, a pin for my mom, post cards, and something for Kyle. Then Sara and I thought it would be fun to try Absinth later that night, so... we bought a tiny bottle of that, and then also shot glasses to drink it out of. Wandered across the Charles Bridge, and then up a lot of stairs to the castle, which at the time, we didn't know it was the castle. Saw some of the guards. The ones who don't react or move or anything. Well, their eyes moved. But you could walk right up to them, and they wouldn't move. So we took some pictures with one of them. Walked back down the stairs, back across the bridge, decided we needed to find where the astrological clock was, because we hadn't seen it yet, found it, saw it, then decided to eat something. After that I think we walked back to the hostel to try out our Absinth (there was to be a big production about it, with pictures and Mooey). That was a lot of fun, and I think the pictures speak for themselves (link to follow later).

Because the three of us had all been up extremely early, we decided to turn in early. Sometime later, some drunk Swedish guys were making a lot of noise. By this time, I had already donned my headphones, and cranked my mp3 player, so it didn't bother me much. But I know that Sara had to go out and tell them to shut up. I don't think it worked. Other fun stuff during the night: someone was snoring incredibly loud in our room, one guy came back and stripped down (I had the unfortunate luck of opening my eyes, which I quickly closed again), and something we didn't find out until the next morning... one of the guys was sleeping naked. Not really that big of a deal, had he been sleeping fully under the blanket. But no, his butt was hanging out. Casey and I decided that this was the hairiest ass we had ever seen. But when you add all these things up it equals a bad hostel experience. At least the first night. We had to switch rooms for the second night. And as we headed out into the city for the day, we had no idea what to expect for the second night.

Started off our day by going up in the tower on the Charles Bridge. Amazing view of the city. Came back down, and then took a boat tour. That was a lot of fun. The tour was in English, but Casey, Sara and I were the only native English speakers on the tour. Got a lot of good pictures of the bridge, and got a little history on Prague itself. Walked around some more, and found some place to eat. I ordered a strawberry margarita and potato soup. I've noticed that I tend to order what I like without giving much thought to whether they really go together or not. Potato soup and a strawberry margarita? It seemed a little odd, even to me. Especially since we were still a few minutes shy of noon. haha.

Walked around more. Somewhere along the line, I took out more money, and then realized that I wouldn't want to take any of it back with me, and so I would have to spend it. Tough task. Bought a shirt. And then later bought a really pretty necklace. Went out to eat again. Then, deciding we weren't quite ready to go back to the hostel yet, we found a bar, and hung out and had a couple of drinks and just had some quality girl-talk. Finally made it back to the hostel. Walked into the complete opposite experience of what we had gone through the night before. A quiet guy from Hong Kong, and an older lady who was traveling while she was in Europe for business. Nice people. We breathed a collective sigh of relief, I'm sure. But we weren't quite ready to hang around the hostel, so we hit the streets to see what Prague was like by night. We weren't disappointed. It was quite amazing. So we walked around some more, and then finally went back to the hostel and went to sleep.

The next morning Casey and I were to head back to Germany, and Sara would stay in Prague one more day before heading out on her way. Made it to the train station with little hindrance. Bought some food. I found Mountain Dew! So I bought some of that. Went to the platform. Got on the train. That was the easy part. Five minutes before the train was supposed to leave, Casey realizes that she threw away her train ticket earlier that morning because she thought that she didn't need it anymore. We had no time to figure out to buy a new one or anything. And so when the train rolled out of the train station, we weren't sure where we were going to end up. They don't take kindly to people riding without tickets. I had my ticket, of course, but I couldn't very well leave Casey alone. So when the lady that checked the tickets finally came around, Casey gave her our little insurance ticket thing, that came along with our train ticket, and luckily, that seemed to work. Which is good. I wasn't looking forward to being stuck in the Czech Republic. I guess that I wasn't too worried, because even if we would have been kicked off the train, we would have just had Casey buy a new ticket, and then continue on our way once the next train came around – it would have just screwed up our arrival time, so we would have to stay over in Munich for a night. It would have been unfortunate, but certainly survivable.

But that was just through the Czech Republic. Once we hit Germany, Casey would need a valid ticket. As luck would have it, if you remember from earlier, I had the ticket that we were going to use on our way back to Eichstätt. It was one of the tickets that you can use to travel anywhere in Bavaria, so we were able to use it not just for our trip from Munich to Eichstätt, but also our trip from the German border to Munich. So basically all this planning ahead that I always do, and often get crap for, finally paid off. We arrived safely back in Eichstätt.

And that is where the Prague story ends. I do, however, have yet another story to share.

In an earlier post, I mentioned that a couple weeks ago, I noticed that I had had a charge to my account that I was unsure about. After calling the credit card company, I was able to figure out that it was just my parking permit charge that I forgot about. Well, this week, I discovered that my balance was yet again lower than what it should have been. This time it was only nine dollars, but that is still nine dollars that I am responsible for paying. So I got to call the credit card company again, and ask what the nine dollar charge was, as it hadn't actually posted to my account yet. “It's for Entertainment Rewards,” the lady says. Well, I didn't authorize that one. So I get to call back on Thursday, when the charge is actually posted to my account. I do know what happened, though. About a month ago, I bought concert tickets through Ticketmaster.com and they had this stupid Entertainment Rewards promotion or something or other. I've very careful about not signing up for anything like that, and I know with 100% certainty that I didn't give my credit card number to Entertainment Rewards, nor did I authorize them to charge me $9 for whatever their services are. So after calling the credit card company, I went back down the mountain, with every intention of writing Entertainment Rewards an emailing demanding that the charge be taken off my credit card. But all I came up with was a lot of articles over a scam (yes, I'm a victim of a scam!) involving Entertainment Rewards charging people for services they never agreed to, and an 866 number. Well, I can't call 866 numbers from Germany. So I'm hoping that I can get everything resolved through Wells Fargo by simply disputing the charge, or else I'll just wait until I get back home, and then call Entertainment Rewards and give them a piece of my mind. All in all, though, I'm actually not too concerned about it. I'm sure that it will all work out in the end. The Scam

I have other things to worry about, like three finals next week, so I'm choosing to focus my stress in other places. But really, I only have 17 more days here, which is not that much at all, and so I'm not going to worry about this. I'm just going to enjoy the rest of my time here.

Praha Pictures
The Mooey Album

Personal Hygiene

Is a phrase that probably has no German translation, as it is a concept that too many Germans have failed to grasp. I honestly can't tell you how much I look forward to going home, and being surrounded by good smelling people again.

The end.

The Good, the Bad, and the Almost Ugly

The Good:

Last Thursday, Casey and I rented a couple of bikes, and made our way to the Roman ruins. The majority of German bikes are different from those in America – less like a mountain bike, and more old fashioned style. They were a little hard to get used to at first. And since we had to go through the city first to get to the path to take us to the Roman ruins, I'm pretty sure that everyone who saw us along the way were laughing at us, knowing that we weren't Germans. We probably looked pretty funny. But the bike ride was really nice. The path, for the most part, followed the river, and it was a nice peaceful seven kilometer bike ride. It was also good to travel somewhere by something other than our own feet. So we get to the Roman ruins, only to first have to climb up another huge hill (they seem to be the bane of my existence here) with our bikes. To put it simply: the ruins were not that spectacular. The most interesting part of the “ruins” were actually reconstructed replications of what the buildings/fort would have looked like. We didn't spend very long at the ruins before heading back down the hill. And that was an experience, indeed! A lot like going down on a roller coaster... and for those that know me, know that I don't like roller coasters. But I made it down safely. And that was actually a lot of fun. So even though the ruins were kind of anti-climatic, the bike ride there was well worth the trip.

Friday Casey and I went to Ingolstadt to visit our professor, and the other St. Cloud State students. By the time we left for the train station, it was thundering, so we started off our adventure by running down the mountain to try and avoid the rain. As we would later find out, rain is pretty much unavoidable. Made it to the train station no problem, get on the train, go to Ingolstadt. Our professor and a couple students meet us there. It's raining pretty hard by then, so we take the bus to the Villa (the same place that I stayed for the first two days that I was in Germany), drop off our stuff (we were staying the night), and start heading off to meet the other students. By this time, it was dark, rainy and windy. After meeting up with the other girls, we pretty much found the closest restaurant, and ate there. It was good catching up with the girls that I haven't seen for a while. Made plans for traveling to Prague. And also for a trip back to Ingolstadt to visit everyone one last time before they leave at the end of this month. Saturday Casey, our professor Isolde, and I were all invited to one of the student's host family's house for breakfast. And so there I got to experience a real white sausage breakfast. It was really neat to experience some real German culture, because it's something that I miss by living on my own in an apartment.

Sunday there was a flea market here, so a group of us went. That was really cool. I found (and bought) some old German money, including a few coins from the World War 2 period, which even have the Nazi symbol on them, and everything. After the flea market, we grabbed something to eat, and then headed over to the other market that was going on. It was some kind of pottery/hand work market. I bought some earrings. There was lots of other really neat things there, and I was kind of disappointed that I couldn't buy anything, because of the difficultly of transporting it back home. But for a Sunday, which are usually extremely boring, it was a good day.

The Bad:

Did some of the math with my credits on Saturday, and realized that I'm one class short for my German major. This means that instead of having to pay for two classes on my own, I'll now have to pay for three. And I also have other money issues to worry about, such as buying a car, wondering about the security of my job back home, and having to find a real job once I graduate. I'm going to talk to my professor the next time I see her, to discuss what I can do about this, but it's still not something I want to deal with right now, or so close to graduation. And I wanted to use all that extra money to buy books in German so I could try and stay fluent/get better! =(

I bought a lot of chocolate (which I have been doing a good job of cutting down on recently!) due to the Almost Ugly.

The Almost Ugly:

Went online this morning, to find that my credit line was about $150 less than what I expected it to be. Since I've been the victim of fraud before, and my mother just had some issues with her credit card right after she came back from Germany, I was worried that someone was making unauthorized purchases on my account, so I bought an extra phone card, in case I would have to be stuck on hold all day, dug up the international number, and called Wells Fargo. Luckily, as it turns out, the $150 was only my parking permit for next semester that was charged to my account, and nothing more. I had sent off my parking permit application last week Monday, and with all the other activity going on last week, I had forgotten all about it. But now I know. And am extremely relieved.

39 Tage Noch

39 More Days


I know that technically I shouldn't be counting down the days, because this makes everything seem to go slower, but I honestly can't help it. I'm getting so close to going home, and I just can't wait to be home again!

And even though I know that it seems like I'm not enjoying myself here at all, that is certainly not the case. It's just that when I'm online, I tend to talk about the disappointing things. Because, like it or not, the disappointing things about this trip outweigh the enjoyable things. Even if I did not have homesickness at all, I would still be disappointed. The point of me coming here to Germany was to learn, and to experience the culture. Because of where I live (both the town, and the location of my apartment), and the way the school is set up, I feel that this point is now moot. I'm here to learn, yet I've learned extremely little. Yes, I've learned a lot about myself, and I'm glad that I came, but by the same token, this trip could have been better, and there's a part of me that feels I've missed out on a true study abroad experience.

With that being said, here are a couple things that I would like to be do before I leave: biking to the Roman Ruins near Eichstätt. Go to Ingolstadt to have a "Girl's Night Out" with the other students from St. Cloud, who are here for the month of June. Travel to Prague. Hike back up to the castle here in Eichstätt. Survive my finals (they're only a month away).

Things that I've done or enjoy about being here (and will probably miss when I'm gone): going to the Freibad, spending a lot of money mailing people letters and post cards, not having to pay shipping and handling on things I buy from amazon.de, watching Berlin Berlin with Kelton (I finally gave in and spent 60 Euro buying the third and fourth seasons), baking cookies, reading books auf Deutsch, going grocery shopping (minus the climb back up the mountain), cheap liquor, Kleiner Feiglings, CHOCOLATE, most German food in general, Apfelschorle.

And because I can't resist making one more list: things I'll enjoy about being back home: Kyle, my family, Curly, Amanda, Neilly, everyone else I haven't mentioned, since that would take too long, being able to sleep in my water bed again, not having to climb a mountain, having a car to get around, being able to take care of important things in my life, like graduation preparations, looking for a "real" job, and finding a new car to buy, being surrounded by English speakers again, being able to go shopping on a Sunday, not having to watch dubbed movies/TV shows, feeling like I have control over my life again, and that I'm not just sitting around on my butt, waiting for my life to resume... and more.

That's all for now,
Amanda

Ich will nach Hause gehen

I want to go home.

This seems to be the theme of my life lately. I'm unhappy with school, bored because I don't have anything to do in Eichstätt, and traveling not only completely wipes me out, but it also makes me more homesick than before. At this point, I'm not sure what to do. I'm at a virtual stand still. I thought this second half would be easier, but instead it's turning out to be as hard as the first, just in different ways.

And I'm ready to be home again.

Thanks for sending love... and peanut butter.

And please, no more peanut butter! I have enough to last me through the end of July. I'm thinking about even making some peanut butter cookies. Mmmm. =) I definitely miss cookies. Chocolate chips cookies, especially.

But the letters, please keep them coming! They always make my day so much better, and I keep all of them set up in my room, so I can see them, because they always bring a smile to my face.

I know that I have been rather quiet lately, and haven't done much posting. This is mostly because I have been lacking in the adventures department lately. The most interesting thing that I've emarked on lately has been two trips to the local public swimming pool. And though that is definitely interesting and worth mentioning, it's not so much as a story, as it is simply one of those experiences you need to experience yourself. Let's just put it this way: Germans (as I assume most Europeans) are much more comfortable with their bodies than we are in America. And so this can often translate into old men wearing speedos. Or larger men wearing speedos. And public showers where everyone gets completely naked (it was insisted by a friend of mine that I try this out to get the full German experience, but I have declined such an opportunity and will continue to decline...).

In fact, I have not been out of Eichstätt since I came after sending my mother off. I am definitely ready to get out of here, however, and would have yesterday, if not for the icky raining windy cold weather. If luck holds out, I should be able to get out to Nuremberg this week/end to either watch Pirates of the Caribbean (auf Englisch!) or shopping. Or maybe even both. There are a few things I would like to get...

In other news, I've hit, and passed my half way mark here. So I'm on the way down. Which is good. I miss Kyle, and home, and Amanda (cuz she'll want to be mentioned here =P) and everyone else. And I'm becoming a bit frustrated with the school system here. I feel as if the German that I've learned here has come from living in a foreign country, and constantly having to see, hear, and speak the language, not from any class that I've been in. We have so many holidays that it seems like we're never in class, and we only have class once a week, so by the time the next class rolls around, you barely remember half of what you learned the week before. And taking notes? Forget about it. It's impossible to do auf Deutsch.

Though, to end this positively, I received two packages in the mail today. One from my aunt Nancy, and the other from Amanda. One thing Amanda sent me (as a surprise) was a necklace I had bought from her. And it is gorgeous. So for all of you ladies out there who like jewelry, check out Amanda's site here: http://home.comcast.net/~joyasbellas07/
And buy stuff. =)

Alles Liebe,
Amanda

TGIF

And not only thank god it's Friday, thank god I'm finished with my oral presentation, and thank god for friends too! =)

So the picture is of the poster I made for my presentation. It's very old school, but at the same time, it's cute, and I'm thinking about putting it up on my wall now that I'm finished with the presentation - and my walls are still pretty bare, save the one wall with my Happy Bunny poster, and the pictures that Kyle and my mom have sent me.

But this week turned out to be a tough one. I sent my mom off on Sunday, Mother's day. Then I had to get used to being on my own, all over again. And as stressful and tiring as her being here was, I really did enjoy my time with her, and I got used to having her around, so it was a really hard adjustment to make, and I got pretty homesick. It didn't help that my presentation was today, Friday, and I hadn't done any research for it - the day we were assigned days for the presentation was the day that my mom arrived, so there was really never any time for me to start on it while she was here. So I was struggling with homesickness, having problems reverting back into German (I still have problems, but I'm working on it), and trying to get most of my work done by Wednesday, because Thursday was another holiday, and everything, including the computer labs, would be closed, so I wasn't going to be able to do any research or printing or copying that day.

Monday I don't even remember what I did. Probably tried to work on my presentation, but didn't get anywhere, because it's extremely hard to concentrate on things when you're dealing with homesick. Probably cried some, since I seemed to do that a lot this week. On Tuesday, I went looking for poster board, but didn't find anything. That was very disappointing. Felt very discouraged on Tuesday, because I also didn't get much research done either. That was the worst day. Wednesday I was determined to get things done. Mostly because I had to. I had my two classes, then I went hunting for poster board. Found that, so that made me a little happier. Went up to my apartment to drop off everything, and checked my mail. Found out that I had gotten a surprise package! That was pretty cool. So instead of going down to the university right away to work on my presentation, I decided to open my package from Stephanie (and baby). A jar of peanut butter and a card were sitting right on top of everything. After pulling the card out, and seeing the "Miss you" on the front, I just started crying. Everything she had sent me, peanut butter, candy, picture frames... was everything that I needed. I had been meaning to buy picture frames, but just hadn't found any for the right price that I like, so I sat on the floor for a while, crying and putting pictures into my picture frames. But it was a good thing, because getting a package is just so awesome, knowing someone has taken the time (and money, because it's freaking expensive to send a package!) to put together something for you, and then mail it off is worth every penny spent. And it was just the perfect thing to help me feel a little less homesick. By far the best thing that happened to me all week!

So after I managed to stop crying, I went down to the university, got my handout finished, printed and copied. Went back to my room, made some food, had a little bit to drink, and just relaxed. Thursday I hung out with friends, finished putting together my poster, wrote a little introduction for my presentation, and called it a day. Today was my presentation. It went ok. I wasn't nervous at all, until I got up in front of my class, and then I made a few mistakes, but it's hard enough to speak in front of a group of people in your native language, let alone a foreign one! But now it's over, and it's the only major project for that class that I have to do, so now I can sit back and not have to worry.

Same goes for the weekend. I have nothing pressing to do, and so there's not much on the agenda. A little sunbathing, reading, relaxing... attempting to speak lots of German. Just trying to enjoy my time here. =)

Alles Liebe,
Amanda

Abenteuers

Adventures

Who ever knew life could be so eventful? *Warning: long post ahead.

Thursday, May 3rd:
Went to Ingolstadt with two other girls, and did some shopping. I ended up buying a very cute summer dress. It's light green and white striped with a halter top. I almost didn't get it, because I was still in my “save as much money as possible phase” but it's really cute, and it fit really well, so I took the plunge and bought it. And now I plan to wear it the day I come back home. =)

Friday, May 4th:
This was the day that I had to travel to Munich by myself and pick up my mom from the airport. Of course, I had to get through my Friday class first. I think that I had everything packed that I could before I went down to the university to check my email, and check the weather, since it was supposed to be rainy the entire time my mom was to be here. I did that, even got to talk to Kyle for a bit, which was nice, and then headed off to my hour and a half class. It was extremely hard to sit through that class, knowing my mom was coming, and everything that I had to do in order to go pick her up. But I survived. After class, I practically ran back up the mountain to my apartment, grabbed a bite to eat, threw the rest of my stuff together, and headed back down the mountain to start my adventure. I've traveled on the trains enough to be comfortable with them, but I'd never traveled alone before. I made the 1:44 train out of Eichstätt. By 3:30-ish, I had made it into the Munich main train station. First leg of the trip down. From the train station, I had to switch to Munich's S-Bahn system, which is probably a lot like the light rail system. From the train station in Munich, to the airport, it is about a 45 minute ride. It was my first time using the S-Bahn system, and found that it was pretty darn easy. Once to the airport, I got to wait around for my mom's plane to land. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to make it to the airport in time to meet her, but by the time I got to the airport, and the place I had to meet her, her plane was on time, and beginning to descend. Not a problem. Waited for what felt like forever before she finally came out. We hugged, I cried, she laughed at me and asked if I needed a moment. From there we headed to buy her a ticket so she could ride the S-Bahn back to our hotel, and left the airport. We weren't really quite sure where our hotel was, just that it was near the main train station in Munich, and the street address. So after the 45 minute ride back to the train station, we ventured out into Munich. And, while we were on the right street, we were headed the wrong direction. It didn't take us long to figure this out, however, and we found our way to the hotel, no problem. Turns out it was pretty easy to find. Get all checked in, get up to our room (German elevators are small), decide to hit the Hofbräuhaus for supper. With our handy dandy Munich map in hand, we set off. Turns out, the easiest way to the Hofbräuhaus (which is a must for all American tourists) was through the main shopping street. I know that I spent an easy 70 Euro that night on gifts, BUT the good news about that was I finished some of the most of the important gift shopping that I needed to do while in Germany. So we wandered our way through the stores (there are tons of stores in Munich) and towards our destination. Managed to wander too far in the wrong direction, but we got to where we wanted to go. The Hofbräuhaus was insanely busy when we got there, and we had to wander out into the biergarten before we found ourselves a cute little spot to sit. Ordered ourselves a bottle of wine, and food. I don't even remember what we got. I think I probably had Wiener Schnitzel, and my mom had some kind of sausage sampler plate. It was a good time: ate all of my dinner, plus some of my mom's, we shared an Apple strudel, and together we finished off the entire bottle of wine. Needless to say, I was feeling quite happy on our way back to the hotel. If I recall correctly, most of the stores were closed by the time we wandered back through the Marienplatz, and the Karlsplatz on the way back to our hotel, which was probably a good thing, because we probably would have spent more of our money. After we made it back to our hotel, we just hung out and then went to bed – it had been a long day.

Saturday, May 5th:
Started off the morning with a wonderful breakfast at the hotel. I ate way too much, but it was all really good. Decided that our plan for the day was to meander our way over to the Englisher Garten. Again, we started off through the main shopping street, so we spent a lot of time going in and out of all the stores. On our way to the Englisher Garten, we stopped at the Hofgarten, which is near the Residenz. Spent some time there, saw a man playing cello in what I think could be the Diana-tempel. It rained a bit on us at this point in time, but that was, and would become, pretty standard for the weather while my mom was visiting. From there, we finally made it to the Englisher Garten. Began to wander through there, in order to make it to the Chinese Turm (tower), since we planned on eating there. On our way, we passed some surfers surfing, which I took pictures of, but otherwise my mom and I just talked and enjoyed being in the gardens. Which is more like a park than garden. Made it to the Chinese Turm, had some food to eat. Saw very cute horse drawn carriages. And lots of dogs that I wanted to pet. But most dogs are very well behaved, and ignore all strangers. And I believe that it would be considered rude to ask to pet someone's dog. It's a German thing. Anyway, after eating (and drinking a bit) we decided that we would head back to the hotel, and then figure out some place to eat. We also knew that we would have to find ourselves another place to stay, because we wanted to stay in Munich until Monday, and so we would need a room for Sunday night, since we only had one for Friday and Saturday nights. Oh, and somewhere along the way to our hotel, I managed to buy myself a new billfold. It kept getting easier and easier to spend my money. After making it back to the hotel, and dropping off our stuff, we headed back out to find someplace to eat. There was this one place that I had been suggested to me (because the beer was good), so we set off to find that. Unfortunately the directions we had weren't very good, and after walking all over Munich earlier in the day, we walked around even more. Pretty sure my feet hurt. Anyway, we finally found this little Italian restaurant. My mom had her first beer in Germany (which turned out to be her favorite), and we relaxed after a long day of being on our feet. I think this was about the point I gave up on drinking beer. I just don't like it. After eating, we headed over to a gas station, where we picked up some snacks, and a little something to drink. Wandered our way back to the hotel, with the intention of stopping at the main train station to check the train schedules out to Neuschwanstein, since we wanted to see the castle. We didn't find any useful information (which was quite disappointing), but we did manage to be stopped by a young man, about my age with a cigarette in one hand, and a beer in the other. He was not quite drunk, but close enough. He asked me, in German, something about a train, but I wasn't able to understand him, so I told him that. He switched to English after that, realizing that we weren't German, and proceeded to attempt to invite himself up to our hotel room. We declined. And then walked quickly away holding in our laughter. Back in our hotel room, we enjoyed the drink we had purchased, and basically rested up, since it had been a long day.

Sunday, May 6th:
Breakfast again was very good. Managed not to eat as much as the day before. While discussing our plans for the day, it was decided not to go to Neuschwanstein castle. I think we were both a little too tired out from the day before. So we decided to buy ourselves a partner day pass on Munich's city public transportation system, and hit what we could. Directly after breakfast, we headed across the street to a Pension, where I managed to put my German to use, and secure us a room for the night. We went back to the hotel, put our things together, check out, dropped our stuff off at the Pension, then struck out for the day. We decided to go to the Olympia Park first, since it was more obvious how to get there on the public transportation system than the Nymphenburg castle was. With our city map in hand again (which also has the public transportation system map), we acquainted ourselves with Munich's subway system (U-Bahn). It was quite an adventure. And it makes me wish that the US had a better public transportation system. We made it to the Olympia Park, no problem. Wandered over to the Olympia Turm (tower). Decided to eat at the revolving restaurant at the top of the tower. But because we weren't quite hungry yet, we wandered a bit around the park. The weather was overcast and gray, so it wasn't very conducive to much picture taking, but we managed. Then we went up into the tower. It reminded me a lot of going up in to the top of the Space Needle in Seattle when I was there last summer. There was even the same kind of weather both times. My mom and I wandered around up top for a while, taking in the Munich skyline, which was much cooler than our cameras could capture. But it was pretty cold up there, so we made our way down to the revolving restaurant. Which we were, perhaps, a bit under dressed for, but it was a lot of fun anyway. We shared a meal, and took in more of the Munich skyline while planning our plan of attack for the second part of the day. My mom wanted to check out a youth hostel for my brother that happened to be sort of on the way to Nymphenburg caslte. So we jumped back on the U-Bahn, and made our way to the youth hostel. We managed to get lost trying to find it, and I was getting cranky, because my feet hurt from all the walking we had been doing, so we had just about given up, and were on our way back to the U-Bahn when we found the street the youth hostel was on, so we walked all the way down there to ask for information. After that, though, I was pretty much done for the day, so we made our way back to the Pension to rest up before finding some place to eat for supper. We decided on the Augustine Keller, which was, again, on the main shopping street, but luckily it was Sunday, and in Germany, everything is pretty much closed on Sundays, so no shopping could be done. At the restaurant, I took a German menu, and my mom took an English menu, but we still ended up ordering the same thing. Meat rolls stuff with feta cheese. It was really good! Though, I can't say that I've found any food over here that hasn't been good. Afterward we went back to the train station, to check the schedule for trains running out to Eichstätt, and then back to the Pension for the night.

Monday, May 7th:
After eating breakfast, we set off in search of finding a scarf for me. Scarfs are extremely popular here, and after my mom had gotten one (and I had used it), I decided that I wanted one too. So we went to do some more shopping. There weren't many stores open, and the one store we wanted to buy a scarf wasn't open until ten, so we continued on in search of a scarf. We happened upon a C & A, which is probably like the equivalent of an upscale Target store. I bought some more stuff there. Including a scarf. This killed quite a bit of time, and my mom had promised to buy me a scarf, so on our way back to check out of the Pension, we stopped at the same store my mom had bought her scarf, and she bought me another one. But scarfs are pretty neat, and I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up with more scarfs by the time I come home. After that, we checked out, and made our way to the train station, so we could catch our train to Eichstätt. The train ride was nice and relaxing. We put our feet up and just enjoyed the ride. Once in Eichstätt, we walked through the town to the hotel that I had thought my mom would like to stay. While we were passing through the Domplatz, we found that there was some kind of festival going on, and there were many little booths set up, where people were selling stuff. Very cute stuff. But we got my mom to the hotel, and again putting my German to use, I secured my mom a four nights stay in Hotel Fuchs. After dropping her stuff off at the hotel, I took my mom up the mountain to show her my apartment, and then do some grocery shopping. After I had food again, we went back down to the university, where I showed her around a bit, and then went to check my email. After I did my internet thing, and she did a little exploring, we decided to find someplace to eat. We wandered around again, trying to find something, only to end up almost where we had started our restaurant search. My mom tried the Wiener Schnitzel with Gorgonzola sauce and potato wedges, and I had pasta with Gorgonzola sauce. Both were really good. I am definitely going back there again. After eating, we decided to see if any place was open that we could find post cards, but in Eichstätt, most places close early, so we ended up just wandering back, and calling it a night.

Tuesday, May 8th:
Since I had class on Tuesday, we stuck around Eichstätt for the day. We ended up wandering through the festival, and there I bought two necklaces for myself. Since I seem to be lacking in the necklace department. One of the necklaces is to go with the dress I had bought, and I'm really excited about that. After that, we just walked around Eichstätt, did some shopping, and I tried not to spend more money. Then I had class, and my mom just did some more exploring on her own. We met up later, after my class, for a Döner, because you can't go to Germany, and not have a Döner. So we walked to the place I always get my Döners (if I eat 12, then I get one free!) and had the Döner experience. Afterward, we made the hike up to my apartment, where we enjoyed the bottle of wine we had bought the day before. Tuesdays are American TV show night, so I brought my mom to that. But it was a little boring, and it was getting dark, so we decided to leave. I walked my mom back down the mountain, and just after we said good-bye, it started raining. I tried walking fast up the mountain, but after a few minutes, I realized that it wasn't going to matter whether I went fast or slow, I was still going to get soaked, so I slowed down, cranked my music and enjoyed the moment.

Wednesday, May 9th:
My normal Wednesday classes had been canceled this week, so my mom and I, along with one of my friends headed off to Nuremberg for the day. The sky was overcast, and it was pretty clear that it was going to rain, but we risked it. And I'm certainly glad we did. Because Nuremberg turned out to be one of my favorite cities here. I'm not sure I can explain the reason why I like it, I just know that Nuremberg was the first city that I was really charmed by here. So we wandered through the city, saw a cool church, whose name I forget, saw their city market, which is about a hundred times better than the one in Eichstätt (which we had walked through very quickly earlier that morning), and then decided to stop somewhere for lunch, since it was raining. We found this little Italian place. Had an extremely good hot chocolate with hazelnut syrup in it, and then split another Wiener Schnitzel with my mom. And yes. We ate a lot of Wiener Schnitzel. From there, we walked up to Kaiserburg, the castle in Nuremberg. Took some pictures of the Nuremberg skyline, which would have been a lot neater, if the weather hadn't been so icky. But I definitely am going back there whenever I get the chance. Decided not to go into the castle, and just wander back to the train station, which was on the other side of the city. On the way back, I bought myself a beer stein. I hadn't originally planned on getting a beer stein while I was here, but after seeing this one, I had to get it. My mom also bought some Nuremberger Lebkuchen. Can you say: more good food? Once we made it back to the train station, we had some time to kill, so we got a few snacks from the bakery for the road. Yup, more delicious food there too. Then got on the train back to Eichstätt. Nuremberg is about a two hour train ride away from Eichstätt, but the ride back went surprisingly fast. Once back in town, we did some internet time, and reserved hotel rooms for the weekend. One room for Friday night in Salzburg, and one room in Munich near the airport for Saturday night. After that, we called it an early night. I think my mom and I were both pretty stressed out, and I know that by this time, I was definitely feeling the stress of having to translate, and coordinating the train schedules. Went back to my room, drank a couple glasses of rum and fruit juice, cried a bit and felt better. Got ready for the next day.

Thursday, May 10th:
Started off the morning by making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for our train ride later that day to Neuburg an der Donau. Our goal was to see the castle, so my mom could accomplish one of the things she wanted to do while she was here: see a medieval castle. I had also wanted to visit Neuburg, because of the girls that I had German class with last spring semester had done an exchange program in Neuburg while in high school. It's a very quaint little town. We probably could have spent a lot more time there than we did (and spent a lot more money too), but we saw the castle, and the Altstadt, and then made our way back to Eichstätt. After all the walking we had been doing the past week, my legs and feet hurt, and were quite sore. So we headed back to Eichstätt, and ate at Trompete, a little restaurant across the street from my mom's hotel. There we ordered a pizza, where I successfully learned how to explain in German that we were going to share our meal. Hung out there for a while, and then called it a night.

Friday, May 11th:
Here, the traveling adventure starts again. First, I had my Friday afternoon class, and my mom did the last bit of exploring of Eichstätt before she left. Went up to the castle here, and checked out the garden and just walked around a bit. I sat through class and didn't concentrate on much. After class, I hiked up the mountain, grabbed my bag with everything I'd need for the weekend, and then went back down to meet my mom at the train station. Because we were traveling to Salzburg, we had quite a haul in front of us. We left on the 2:44 train out of Eichstätt, made it into Munich around 4:35 with just enough time to make it to our train to Salzburg, and then settled in for our two hour train ride from Munich to Salzburg. And even though the train was crowded for most of the way, it was definitely worth the ride. We got to see the pretty country side of Bavaria, and some of the Alps. Exactly the kind of landscape one would think of, when thinking of Bavaria. Coming into the Salzburg train station was quite awesome. High above everything in the old part of the city, you can see the castle. And it was completely charming. Getting out of the train station, though, was quite another matter. It took us a while just to figure out how to get out to the street, and then from there across town (and the river) into the Altstadt where our Gasthaus was. Luckily, Salzburg is a relatively small town (sort of like Nuremberg, in some respects) and we were easily able to walk where we needed to go. After we had crossed the bridge and made it into the Altstadt, it started raining. We didn't quite exactly know where our Gasthaus was, but we kept going in the direction we thought it was going to be, and sure enough, we turned a corner, and there it was. The Gasthaus Hinterbrühl. An adorable little building that was apparently built right into the remnants of the old city wall. Of course, once we managed to make it inside the building, we weren't sure where we had to check in, and my brain was so completely fried from trying to switch from German to English and back again that all that I could come up with for a question was “Wo?” which is the German word for “where?” Luckily, the man at the bar, who also happens to be the owner of the place, along with his wife, spoke very good English. We were basically handed a key to room number 8, and left to our own devices for finding the room. But the room was worth it, and we even had a balcony. We set our things down, and then walked back down into the bar/restaurant and ordered some food. Again, fabulous. And they had my mom's favorite kind of beer, even. So we ate our food, and then headed back up to our room, where we sat out on the balcony and did some people watching. Even though it was getting late, and the weather wasn't all the nice, people were still out and about. My mom and I even got a good laugh in, when I explained to her that what she heard wasn't rain raining, it was the water fountain... fountaining. I'm not sure it was just one of those things that you had to be there or not, but we definitely laughed quite a bit over that, and it was a much needed stress reliever. After it got to be late, and cold, we went back inside and to bed.

Saturday, May 12th:
Woke up, made our way downstairs for breakfast. We tried to eat early, because we wanted to see as much as we could before we had to leave. The time we had in Salzburg just wasn't enough to really do much exploring. One of my goals was to find myself a purse, or a bag, and right next to the Gasthaus, was this shop that sold bags. I saw one that I really liked, but it was 125 Euro (though, according to my mom, it was one of those purchases that would be worth it, and I would have it forever), so before I bought it I wanted to think about if I really wanted to spend all that money, especially since it would require me to take money out of the bank. So we started off by heading towards Mozart's Wohnhaus, or the house that he lived in. Of course, we wandered down the wrong street, and ended up doing some shopping (I bought shoes to go with my dress) before finding our way. We walked through Mozart's Wohnhaus, and then started off towards the main shopping street in the Altstadt, which is also where Mozart's Geburtshaus (house he was born in) is. Did some more looking around and shopping, and wishing I could spend more money. We wound our way back to the Hinterbrühl where they were holding our stuff for us, and found out that the little shop that had the bag that I wanted was closed for the day. So apparently that purchase was not meant to be, even though I really liked it, and I really do want to buy myself a purse. Or bag. Or something while I'm here. But my mom and I decided to eat at the Hinterbrühl for lunch (it really is a great place). We shared our meal again, and then grabbed our stuff and began walking back towards the train station. On our way there, some ugly looking clouds came up, and we ended up getting stuck in rain. It also thundered a bit. Which was really cool, because it's the first thunderstorm I've experienced since I've been in Europe. And it makes me miss the thunderstorms at home, because the one there was really wimpy, and only lasted for a few minutes. Well, we made it back to the train station earlier than we had planned, so we got on the train to go back to Munich. We got all settled in on the train – there was barely any one else on the train this time – and sat back for the ride. Except the train only went to the first train station in Germany... and then back to Salzburg again. So there we were, back in Salzburg, and confused about how to get back to Munich. We finally figured out that once into Freilassing (the first train stop in Germany), we had to get off the train, and onto a bus, which took us to a different train station, and from there get on the train to Munich, because there was some repairs being made to the track. So that's what we did. Once into Munich, we had no idea where our hotel was, so we ended up riding the S-Bahn to the airport, and then calling the hotel and having them pick us up from the airport. After our lovely stay in Salzburg, I was definitely not impressed with the place we stayed in – definitely not friendly service there. But we checked out the restaurant, shared a meal, and had something to drink – something with alcohol in it. I had a seven Euro margarita, which wouldn't even really have been worth seven dollars, let alone Euro, but it still did the trick. After eating, we went back up to our room and crashed, since we had to wake up at three in order to make it to the airport.

Sunday, May 13th:
Happy Mother's Day!
We started off the morning at three. Taxi came at four to take us to the airport. Were there before they even opened to start checking people in. Then found out I wouldn't be able to get a boarding pass to see my mom off at her gate. Then there were problems with my mom's ticket, so we had to wait until five, when the help desk for the airline opened, but everything turned out ok, and we said our good-byes before my mom went through security. Then she was off on her way back home, and I was off on my way back to Eichstätt. Which I thought would be relatively easy. But no. The S-Bahn, which was supposed to go all the way to the main train station, ended up having to stop at the east train station, where we had to get off the S-Bahn and transfer to the U-Bahn in order to make it to the main train station. With the S-Bahn, I would have had plenty of time to make it to the train station, grab something with caffeine to drink, and perhaps even something to eat, but having to transfer to the U-Bahn, I lost some time, and ended up only with about ten minutes to spare. Which really didn't leave me time to grab something to drink, especially with the lines I saw. So I boarded the train, and got lucky enough to share space with a group of boys who I assume were still drunk from the night before. Eventually I pulled out my mp3 player and cranked the music to drown them out, and to help me stay awake. I was pretty darn tired. But after all that, the trip went smoothly, and I made it back to Eichstätt intact, if only a little tired, worn out, and homesick.



So that was my mom's trip to Germany. I learned a lot about traveling while she was here, like it's better to do lots of research and know what you're options are, rather than having a specific plan for what we want to do – we had so many adventures that we never would have had, if we had planned out everything that we were going to do. And yes, it was stressful to have her here, and do all the translating and train schedule coordinating, but it was good to have her here. Even though I'm totally in an English frame of mind now, not thinking in German at all, and even though it's really hard to switch back to being on my own again, and being homesick all over again. Being the one in charge this past 10 days or so has made me more comfortable with German, in that I'm not so afraid to make mistakes anymore. And even though I don't necessarily feel like I've changed much, I think that I really have. It's hard to tell now, but once I make it back home, everything will become so much easier, because I no longer have to worry about language barriers, or not knowing a word, or not understanding, or whatever. Once you realize how difficult life and communicating really can be, going back to what you're used to suddenly becomes a lot less frightening, and easily to deal with.

And now, I must get back into my German, and get ready for my 10 minute oral presentation on Friday. Yuck.

Ciao!
Amanda

Am Freitag...

On Friday...

My mom comes to visit! I am very excited, especially since I just found out today that my two classes on Wednesday would be canceled, because the teacher, who teaches both my classes, will be gone. It seems that I have so many sharp ups and downs all the time while I'm here, that I think seeing my mom will help a little bit.

We're into the second week of classes, and to be honest, I think this will be a very easy semester. The one big 30 minute presentation I was supposed to do, got made into an optional 10 or so minute presentation. I may or may not do that. Though I'm leaning toward doing it, just because it would be good practice. I have to remember to speak a lot of German, even if it comes out sounding terrible, or if it takes me a long time to explain something. It's the only way to do it. I know that my understanding of German is better, but I need to be able to speak it too. My goal is to be able to speak in German all of the time by the end of this month, when the other students from St. Cloud come to Ingolstadt.

I have finally gotten over some of my "having to save all my money" issue, and have bought a couple of books, and plates and whatnot. There is still a lot that I would like to buy, however, and now that Kyle has me a bunch of pictures, I am thinking that I will have to buy myself some picture frames as well.

One idea that I just had today, I think, is to save random items from my study abroad experience here, like city maps, or admission tickets to places that I've seen, and then try to compile it all together with pictures, and make a scrap book out of it. I think that would be very neat, and give me something concrete to remember my trip by.

Other than that, I am off to Munich this weekend with my mom, and perhaps other interesting places, such as Neuschwanstein castle, so be excepting more pictures soon! As well as another blog or two. ;)

Amanda

Send Love... and some Crunchy Peanut Butter

They say that it is normal to experience periodic bouts of homesickness while studying abroad. Lately I have been going through one. Maybe it was the start of classes, the change in my schedule, I'm not sure. But for whatever reason, the homesickness hit me hard Tuesday evening as I was walking down to the university. I haven't been able to shake it yet. It's becoming increasingly frustrating for me, because I feel like I haven't learned very much – and I've been here almost a month now. My understanding of German has grown, but I still have no confidence in being able to communicate in German. And with this homesickness, it just makes me want to go home even more, where I know I can communicate with other people without problems. I want to be somewhere that I can speak English, and not feel guilty about it. I wish that I could figure out how to get over whatever it is that's holding me back. I can't spend four months in a foreign country and not learn the language, especially when that is what I'm going to school for. Maybe I'm worrying when I shouldn't be, because I have a little less than three more months ahead of me still, and I've only started my classes. But this homesickness is accompanied by feeling disheartened as well.

So please, if you will, send me some love. And crunchy peanut butter... I'm almost out.

Alles Liebe,
Amanda

Regensburg und Dachau

Regensburg
Was our trip on Saturday. I went with three other girls: one from my university, one from Ohio, and one from the Czech Republic. It was, to say the least, an adventure. We started out at the Eichstätt Stadt train station at nine in the morning. From there we went to the Eichstätt main train station, where we changed trains to get to Ingolstadt (the same city where I stayed for two days when I first arrived in Germany). In Ingolstadt we had an hour and a half before our train to Regensburg left, so we decided to kill our time by walking to Ingolstadt's Altstadt (literally translated as “old city”). Most cities here in Bavaria, as far as I know, have an Altstadt. Eichstätt is small enough that the Altstadt and the city, for all purposes, are one and the same. And yes, I still need to take some pictures of Eichstätt. Unfortunately, from the main train station in Ingolstadt, to its Altstadt is about a half hour walk. We wandered around for a while, until we came across this church. Went inside, took some pictures, then realized we needed to start walking back to the train station if we were going to make our train on time. Even then, we took a few pictures as a group in front of the church. Because we took so long, we ended up nearly running to get to the train station on time. But we made it.

Little did we know, this was a foreshadowing of the rest of the day. The train ride to Regensburg was uneventful. I believe it was only about an hour or so long. Not bad. We arrived in Regensburg with the intentions of making the 2:00 ferry that would take us to Walhalla, which is a faux Greek building, and whose purpose is like a hall of fame for important Germans. We get to the place where we buy our tickets for the ferry – one way only, because we had decided to take the bus back to Regensburg – and this guy yells out to hurry up, because the ferry was going to leave soon. So we took off running towards our ferry, because it was a good distance aways. I didn't even have time to put away my wallet or anything before we started running, so I was running along with my wallet in my hand, and backpack slightly open, hoping nothing would fall out, and that we would make it to the ferry in time. We made it, and as far as I know, nothing fell out. The 45 minute or so trip out to Walhalla was a little boring, and a bit cold. But it was the worth the wait. The Walhalla is an amazing structure that sticks out of the German countryside. Something like 390 steps to get to the top. We climb up to the top, pay four Euro to get into the inside where all the busts of the famous people are. A little steep, I think, but it was fun, and I got some pictures with Mooey – one of which looks like he's kissing Albert Einstein. We wandered around Walhalla for a while, taking pictures and soaking up the view, then decided to find where the bus stop was. Stopped and asked people for directions about three times, found the bus stop, only to find out we had missed the only bus for the day. At a little bit of a loss for what to do, since we were a bit stranded, we decided to make our way back to the river, and see if we could pick up the ferry back to Regensburg. After walking a while, the ferry finally came into view, and we saw that it was still there. No worries. A few moments later, we heard the motors start up, and we took off running again, to see if we could make the ferry. But the time we made it to the dock, the ferry had taken off.

Oh, shit, right? Almost. One of the people working on the ferry saw us, and then turned the ferry around to pick us up. So we were lucky enough to get back on the ferry, even though we only had paid for a one way ticket (we made up the difference for the round trip ticket). And to make it even better (or worse, I suppose), everyone on the ship just stared at us as the ferry turned around, and one little kid, about five years old yelled out, “You are too late!” As if we didn't already know!

We decided to stay away from the crowded parts of the ferry, as to avoid any evil glares that would come our way. When the ferry docked, we got off and away as fast as we could. Then we decided we wanted to see the Dom St. Peter. It is quite amazing. Most churches here are unbelievable. I'm not sure there are words to describe them – one must simply experience them. After that, our trip was quiet and uneventful, as we were pretty exhausted by then, and all we did was wind our way back to the Regensburg train station, eat a Dönner (YUM!), and then make our way back to Eichstätt, which involved switching trains three times. But we made it back, all in one piece, a little exhausted, but overall satisfied.

Dachau
Left Mooey behind on this excursion. In comparison to our trip to Regensburg, this was the complete opposite – somber and a little depressing. I'm not even sure there are words to describe the what it was like, and if there are, I don't think I would say them. It's just something that has to be experienced (though I do have plenty of pictures to share). Going to Dachau did, however spark my interest in the Holocaust, and WW2. I would definitely like to learn more. And improve my German enough to read Anne Frank's Diary – the untranslated version, of course.

So my classes begin this week – Tuesday. I'll now have classes on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. It's not a bad schedule, and it definitely gives me a lot of free time. As much as I'd like to travel a lot, this weekend has shown me that a lot of travel by train could get really expensive. I've been told plenty of times that I should just go and travel and spend my money, but I'm torn between that, and being able to buy myself lots of nice things while I'm here in Germany. It's a tough decision, because I don't think I can manage both. As nice as it'd be, I don't want to go broke over here. There will be too much to pay for back home, and I'm not interested in holding down two jobs right after I get back, and through my last semester of college, in order to pay for everything. I'd like some free time to do what I want. But we'll see what the next three months bring me.

Miss you all,
Amanda

PS. For pictures, clink these links:
Regensburg and Dachau
The Mooey Album
Hallo Deutschland!

Morgen Wird Besser Sein

Tomorrow will be better.

At least that's what I keep telling myself. Tomorrow will be better. Tomorrow has to be better. Monday was frustrating because we didn't know how many classes we were supposed to take. Our advisor here said that most American students take – at the least – five classes. However, our advisor at St. Cloud (who is very hard to get a hold of, and had my mother not called her yesterday, I am not sure we would have gotten such a prompt response from her) has said that we only need to take four. Not so bad. That I can handle. But in choosing classes, I am limited in which classes I can take because I was placed into the lowest group for the intensive language course – a group that I probably should not have been in. So this morning I took another placement test. It was a lot harder than I expected, and I don't feel like I did very well on it. Another frustration. The advisor here for American students said that we should try taking some “Vorlesung” classes, which are basic lecture classes. The advantage to this type of class is that you don't need to take it for credit – you can just sit in and listen. But since these are for the typical German student, it is difficult for us international students to understand, especially when we don't have the vocabulary (or perhaps it's just me who doesn't have the vocabulary – I don't know), as I found out this afternoon. I actually got up and left the lecture when there was a break in the class because I don't think it makes sense to sit through a class that I can barely understand, and I certainly don't see how this is supposed to improve my German. I could just as well study on my own and work on translations, and make flash cards and drill everything into my brain instead of sitting through these lecture classes that I'd end up daydreaming through anyway, because I understand so little. Another let down point.

So tomorrow should be better, right? By tomorrow I'll have figured out what I got on my test, and I'll have signed up for classes, and I'll work on studying German. Whether it be working on flash cards or buying a magazine or book, and attempt to work on my comprehension. I'll find myself a quiet spot in the university somewhere, and study until my head hurts. What more can I do?

On another, more upbeat note, my weekend was pretty good. On Friday afternoon, my tutor invited Matt and I to a grilling party with her and her friends. This, I have to admit, was very uncomfortable for me, and I didn't enjoy it at all. I'm not good in big groups of people, they tend to make me edgy and anxious – I usually sit back and listen and not want to participate in conversations, and this holds for when I am back at home, too. To add to that, there were at least three conversations going on at once, plus the radio going, and it was so much German at once that I actually started getting a headache. But after the grilling party, there was a bar hopping thing with the international students. This was more my kind of thing. I am definitely more at ease with the international students, and I speak more, and better, German when I'm with them. I only wish that we didn't on top of this cursed mountain, and were closer to everyone else. During the bar hopping, we got to experience a Jägermeister party. With a deer mascot, and a “hunter” and plenty of women with skimpy clothes and orange wigs, they have us play games, and have you take pictures with the deer, and, perhaps best of all, get free Jägermeister shots. It was quite fun. I hope I get to experience another one.

Saturday was our last day of class. Most people had gone on the bar hop and didn't want to be there. I wasn't so tired, but we had taken our final test the day before, and we were just trying to cover the rest of our book, and I was very bored. And a bit disappointed because on Friday I had received another thing in my mail box that said I had a package to pick up at the post office the next day (Saturday) and that they were open from 9 to 12. I had class from 9 to 12:15, so I had to wait until Monday to pick it up. But thankfully, class finally ended. We went out to a restaurant to celebrate that night, and just hung out, trying to speak some more German.

Sunday was quiet. Perhaps the first day that there was not anything going on. It was nice, even though none of the stores were open. I walked around town with Casey, the other girl from St. Cloud State, and we had some pizza, walked through the museum in the church (which was amazing; I added some pictures to my album on Facebook), went to gather some information at the city hall, and was amazed at the inside (got some pictures of that too), then went back up and hung out and studied German a bit. Monday morning we got some grocery shopping done (have I ever mentioned that I love food? because I do), and also bought some much needed flash cards. Then began our international student meeting and the beginning of most of our frustrations.

I have managed to make it through all three dozen cookies my mom sent me. It took me a week or so. I've noticed lately that I've been eating a lot. Part of it is from climbing up to my apartment about twice every day, but a lot of it is an emotional thing. I know that today especially I was eating a lot because I was frustrated and upset with the way things are going with classes. At least now I know how many I am supposed to take, but that's just one little thing. It's really difficult to resist the urge to eat when that's one of the few things that makes me feel less frustrated.

But I can only hope that tomorrow will be better.

Tschüss,
Amanda

PS. I have added my address on here so that everyone knows where to send me mail. I like getting mail.

PPS. GOOD NEWS. Got to look at the score for my placement test this morning - I got into a high enough German class (and probably the one best suited for me!) that I can take the classes that I want to. And I'm all signed up for those classes. Talk about a relief! =)