What a weekend!

So much to catch everyone up on, so little willpower to write it all down =]

Friday was glorious and I woke up to a snow-covered StuSie (my housing complex). I finished packing, ate, went to class, and then headed to the train station with all the 6 of the other Freiburgers. Much to our dismay, we found out that we had a 4 hour journey ahead of us. However, with friends, Harry Potter and NPR on my iPod, and such a beautiful view, it was a pleasant journey. Seriously, I wish my camera could have caught the beauty that we passed- snow covered fields, barns, villages with one church and 50 houses total, frosty rivers that race the train, and of course: little kids throwing snowballs at us. Actually, that didn't just happen in the train, it also happened at a tiny little train station- a little 10 year old challenged the 7 20somethings, and guess what: he won. We officially called it when he caught us off guard, in a crowd, and he managed still to hit Cat right in the forehead, hahaha! That was ridiculously cute and painful at the same time (I still have no gloves). It was dark and below freezing when we arrived in Tübingen at 6:30. We waited for a bus to take us up the hill, but after 20 minutes, we realized no buses where coming. Matt called and said yes, we had to walk, and he'd be waiting for us at the top. UGH. So, Alison (aus Heidelberg) and I were badasses and started hoofing it, neither of us having remotely appropriate footwear. It was snowing harder the higher we got, and by the time we reached Matt, we were walking in 4 inches of snow.
Thanksgiving was held at a University-owned house, wherein a feast of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, and pumpkin pie awaited us. It was so great seeing all my other OUS friends, and within half an hour, we had thawed enough to decide it was time to go back outside for an epic snowball fight. Somehow, Genevieve and I managed to get ambushed by about 6 other people, but we put up a good fight :]
After dinner, Matt took me back to his place, where we changed pants and socks and headed back out for the city. Thankfully buses were running at this time, and we took two to get to Ryland's house, where everybody else was. We spent the rest of the evening hanging out until 1am. MAN, IT WAS COLD, but gorgeous. I'll never forget trekking through an elementry school in like, 6-8 inches of snow. It definitely got out of hand there for a while, lol.
Alison and I slept on Matt's floor, and it was surprisingly okay. The next morning we got up and headed for the train station. Lucky for us again, buses and trains were running just as efficiently as ever. Two trains and three hours later we arrived in Heidelberg. After a quick trip to the grocery store, Alison and I swam through the tourists to her dorm, which, by the way, is badass. She has her own bathroom, mini kitchen (I stress mini) and one of her walls is almost entirely windows. I'm definitely jealous of her set up. We meandered through the Christmas market with Lizzy and Shannon, but seeing as it was below freezing and the sky was crystal clear, we headed back to Alison's place. We attempted to throw a party, but nobody came, so we ended up watching Anchorman and A Very Potter Musical instead. :]
Sunday morning we slept in, and went to her friend's house to have American Breakfast with a few Americans, an Aussie, a handful of Brits, and a French guy. Mmm... I miss our breakfasts.
From there I headed back to Freiburg, met Chris in Karlsruhe (on the way home), rode back with him, and we got to know an awesome German named Marit who studies Art History, but whose number we did not ask for. (Slapping forehead) It was cool talking to a German in german for over an hour.
It's still snowing today in Freiburg, but definitely not as much as Thursday night. Mostly it's just painfully cold. All I've done today is go on a really nice walk with Cat. We just pick a path and follow it, no plan, no route. It's cool how much more of Freiburg we've discovered on these walks.

Bad news of the weekend:
- The Ducks are #2 in the BCS poll (wtf?!)
- I lost my camera at Thanksgiving dinner. Possibly in the snow? I'm devastated.

Check out my new and improved Christmas album on Facebook!
Click me!

Thanksgiving Message

Um, hallloooo?!

Where. Is. My. Snow?!





If I have to put up with a weekly high of 39 degrees, I SHOULD AT LEAST BE FROLICKING IN THE SNOW! haha =)

We meet again, Tuesday.

It is noon, and I am lying in bed with my blinds down. Haha, I may not like all of my classes, but I do love my schedule:
Monday- 18:00-20:00, History lecture
Tuesday- 14:00-16:00, History tutorium
Wednesday- 10:00-12:00, Immigrant class thing (propaganda)
Thursday- 10:00-12:00, German history, society, and culture
Friday- 12:00-14:00, EU class

My Spring term will definitely be heavy, but I'm looking forward to the challenge.

I logged on to Facebook this morning to find about 30 status updates from various Eugene friends, all saying some version of "OMG SNOW!!!" This made me incredibly homesick: snow the week before Thanksgiving? Think of the snowball fights and football games and food! Ugh. Freiburg and Tübingen are suppose to get some snow later this week. The high for the next five days is 39. I'm so not used to this! Long underwear bottoms and tops- EVERYDAY. I should buy gloves today.

Ok for real, I should open my blinds and get up for the day. This is just silly, lol.

It's beginning to look a lot like Chriastmas photo project

This is just the beginning. More pictures to come!

Woooo!

I'm heading to Rome!

Just Kaitie (Minnisota) and me, the second weekend of December. Heck yes!

What would Rick Steves do?



Today:
Finish downloading the 7th Harry Potter audiobook, make my bed and shower.
Head to the gym and work out for an hour.
Come back, shower, and finish history reading.
Class at 6.
Meet up with Eva and tour the Christmas Market.

I'm sure devouring my delicious leftovers will somehow be squeezed into this tight schedule. =)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I'M SO EXCITED

Haha, this pretty much sums up my feelings about today:

Oh dear...

I read this article and then found it again for you guys:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,729635,00.html


also, on the local front: here is what stopped my tram today and caused me to walk about a mile to my gym. Stupid hippies.

http://www.badische-zeitung.de/freiburg/fotos-bildungsdemo-in-freiburg

Achtung!

Everyone! I have an important announcement! I need you all to stop what you're doing and listen to me!



I'm sick :( I've got the aches, the extreme lethargy, and a tummy ache.


Harry Potter tomorrow though- come Hell or high water! hahaha

Good work, everyone-

-I'll call this a successful weekend!

I'm in a bit of a rush, but here are a few pics from Becca (my Brit) and my hike yesterday. We wanted to ride the gondola thing up a mountain and hike around at the top, but because of "severe weather" (we just finished living through a cyclone!) it was closed. So we made do and hiked to a nearby village, on top of another mountain!

Today, I woke up (after having gone to bed at 5, exhausted from coaching my football team) and ran to the train to meet my friends in Titisee. They had taken the train an hour before me, but waiting around for me to get there, bless them. :) We hiked around the lake and enjoyed some ice cream before heading home.

Now I'm about to go to see a symphony performance with Eva, who I hung out with last night. Can't wait!

Enjoying the ride

Good morning, everyone!
It is a fairly drab Saturday morning, the promise of rain lingers in the air. The best/scariest part of this week however isn't the rain- it's the wind! Never in my entire life have I experienced such winds! Ireland and France is experiencing it, too. I think we had 80 km/hr winds at some point a day or two ago! (50 m/h)
This is all good and fine during the day, but at night it just sounds like a zombie invasion is occurring outside my window, and as this is my first time living on the first floor of a house, I'm terrified, lol.
Yesterday was pretty solid. At my tram stop, I simply opened up my umbrella, and the wind picked me up and carried me the two miles to school. So much more convenient than the crowded trams! My EU class is proving to be much less structured than I need. Yesterday we were suppose to learn the institutions of the EU, and he talked about everything other than that, and then had us do an activity, where we made a chart of the EU institutions and discussed their rank in power, and what they did. One problem. He didn't go over it. I guess 50% of the class already knows what's going on, and maybe he forgot that the rest of us didn't have a clue. Meh.
After that, the wind blew Sage and I down to the post office where I "air mailed' 4 postcards. Keep your eyes open this week, Brett, Ma&Pa, Jacob, and AN&UB- they may land anywhere! ;)
Sage and I then went grocery shopping, and then I am pretty sure, all 4 Freiburgers left in town took naps. lol, I kid you not, we are a group of dedicated nappers.
I spent my evening hanging out with Tarlie, a classmate of mine from the EU class, and two of her friends. We made speghetti and attempted to watch a movie, but due to our indecisiveness, it never happened. It was a hilariously awkward evening, and I enjoyed myself immensely. Zum Glück I caught the last tram home, which was full of the BEST kind of people watching- the drunks, the girls scandelously dressed, the tired-from-a-day-of-work people, those who think they're going to get hook ups... ahhh a buffet for the people watchers... haha!
Today, I woke up homesick. I think I dreamed about Mama and Erin Fox or something, because I just woke up wanting to crawl down my Roseburg hallway and eat cereal with my Mom and stare out the window. Boo. Anyway, I have no plans during the day, but I'm sure my Brit and I will find something to do. Or perhaps I'll go on an adventure with Chris. Tonight, I'm hanging out with a real life German! Woo! haha, I'm not sure what we'll do, but es it mir egal, just hanging out with new people is enough to delight me.
Guess it's time to bake some rolls and make sandwiches for breakfast/lunch. How udderly Deutsch! :P

Fun, fun, fun

Hello everyone!
I write to you from the ultra-american establishment of Starbucks, because they let me use their Wi-fi (or WLAN in Germany) for free, and I want to kill some time in the city.

It's sunny today! Hella cold, but sunny, so I'm happy. Class was fun this morning, we talked about the Weimar Republik, which I've already delivered a presentation on in Tübingen. After class I went to get my lip repierced. I know this will disappoint some family members, but just remember it's removable and it's I happen to love it. :)

Later, I'm going to the gym for the second appointment with my trainer- I'm really excited to see what kind of program he's going to have me work on!

To go back in time- last night we DID go to karaoke and it was pretty fun. Unfortunately, people weren't as into it as they were last time I went, but we met some Germans had had a good time. I then spent the rest of my evening hanging with Harley and his roommates. It felt more like a Friday night than a Wednesday- ah, the beauty of living in a big city; there's always something going on!

Also- give me "man-of-the-house" points because I unclogged my hall's shower drain... without having to pull hair out. Dun dun dun! I bought this sketchy powder and it cleared it right up. I felt useful, lol.

Gotta go- there's a chocolate croissant with my name on it just down the street.

MORE POSTCARDS COMING YOUR WAY SOON!

Stichwörter

Didn't sleep too well last night so my post will be comprised mostly of "Stichwörter," or "key words/bulletpoints"

Good things-
- A flexible, though pleasantly full weekend.
- (Small) possibility of Karaoke tonight.
- Tubs of chocolate ice cream being on sale.
- My in-class comprehension has risen from 15% to about 40% in history class.
- I found a clean, reputable place to get my lip repierced.
- A package came for me today that I'll pick up tomorrow!

Challenging things-
- Overcoming insecurities
- Accepting occasional loneliness
- Finding a way to get involved

But don't you worry. Those things are all being worked on. =]

Whoa!

I just found out school goes until mid August. Damn.

On the up-and-up!

Good things are afoot, but you're gonna have to Skype me to find out! ;)

Miss all of your faces, beautiful people.

Listen to this song!

STRESS (and the news)

First the news:

There are massive demonstrations going on right now against the use of nuclear power. I was watching a news segment showing this protest, and all I could really think was: "oh come one. Grow up, children." These were young adults and adults protesting, but it looked so childish, the things they were doing. I dunno. It seems these German leftists will protest anything and everything.

Also, MOVE OVER, POPE! Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy might be having a meeting/conference/talk down here in Freiburg. Not sure how to feel about this yet, since I'm not a huge fan of protesters, and Merkel isn't exactly the leftist's favorite person right now. We'll see...

Freiburg is a fair bit windier than Eugene, so overnight it went from Fall to Winter. All of the trees are now naked and awkward-looking, haha. Oh! And the concert I tried to go to last night failed. 17 euros for a concert? Nein, danke!


Anyway, stress.
There is no right answer for this...
One semester or two? That is the question at hand. If there weren't a two (plus!) month break between semesters, I think I'd be fine. However, there is, and there are still bills to be paid, so I can't really travel. I was talking to Mom about this on Skype the other day, and she said something that may be true for me: I may not be the traveling type. Sure, I know HOW to travel, and August was incredible, but I may be happiest in my small town in Oregon.
Without structure, I fall apart, as seen in August-September. I'm afraid I'll have a meltdown in March and then it'll be too late.
"It'll be a challenging, growing experience!" -- I totally get that. And I love thinking about July, having survived and thrived for 10 months in another culture, but it's the march-june that freaks me out.
If I come back in February/March, I feel like I will have let everyone down, and that people will think of me differently. (However, if my biggest weakness is acceptance from others, than I really need to block that idea out of my head.)

Wow, 3 months already?

All at once, it's been a magical blur and it also seems like forever ago I was driving my Bee around and hanging out with Tim and Erin.

Homesick for this:


And don't even get me started on Nattles Rich. I haven't seen HER in over 4 months now!

Love you guys <3

A few pics from last night's dinner!

Zach, trying to get the innards out...

Becca, our Brit

Playing cards while dinner's being cooked...

FINALLY, dinner!

Rainy Sunday

Freitag ist der beste Tag!

Guten Morgen, ihr Liebe!

(I love how on Fridays, "morning" is approx. 11:30 am.)
So last night I had a Brit over for dinner. Her name is Becca and she's pretty much awesome. She, Zach, Harley and I hung out until 1 am, causing me to hibernate until 11. =]
For dinner, we made steak with caramelized onions and a garlic/soy sauce marinade and a side of green beans with almond. I could have made roasted herb potatoes as well, but I didn't realize potatoes don't have gluten (-Becca can't eat gluten). Not bad for a kitchen-challenged individual, eh?

I also had my first appointment with a trainer at the gym today. He was suuuper nice and really funny and patient with our communication problems. My back and shoulders have all kinds of things wrong with them, and I'm going to start doing some stretches and exercises to help build up those muscles and prevent back pain later in life. Woo!

(Later)

It's now 4:30 and I think I'm going to watch Elf and take a nap. Gotta be rested up for Manü's birthday party tonight =]

This is pretty much how I feel right now

My presentation this morning went AWEOME. My secret? Do the proper amount of research, but under no circumstances should you ever rehearse what you want to say. Totally worked. =] Also, my teacher adores me. I am without a doubt the darling of the class, haha. I really like her; she's very sweet and definitely a history dork like I am.

And! I have a presentation tomorrow in my EU class, and I just finished researching all the coolest news stories for it. I feel so edu-ma-cated! Since they're all auf Deutsch, I won't post it here, but here's what's up in Germany this last week:

1. Someone sent Chancelor Merkel a pipe bomb on Tuesday, but luckily it did not detonate. It said it came from the Greek Economic Ministry, but they're not positive of the origins of the bomb. This isn't the first time this has happened in recent history- just the day before four bombs were sent to various Embassies in Athens. Two detonated, and one man was minimally injured.

2. Merkel just passed legislation that extends the use of 17 nuclear power plants throughout Germany. The german hippies have their panties in a wad and there are massive demonstrations going on all over Germany. Most notably, a huge sign was hung from Merkel's party's headquarters a few days ago:

Directly translated, it doesn't make sense, but basically they're slamming her for catering to the desires of the nuclear companies, and putting Germany's safety on the back burner.

3. There was an integration conference in Berlin yesterday. This is by far Germany's biggest struggle/news story/problem (however you want to look at it). Originally it was believed that by living side-by-side, people would learn to accept each other and live in a multicultural (multi-kulti) world. Didn't work. Their plan now? Dish out about 400 billion euros for extra help for children of immigrants.
I am so for this. Go Germany! These poor kids stand very little chance of success without this aide. America is fairly immigrant/xenophobic, but Germany (historically speaking--not just the Nazi era) is much worse. I'm hoping things get better!

HEAR ME ROAR!

My eyes have not known 8 am for a while now, and let me tell you, they are not amused.

I've got class in two hours and I feel like I should practice my presentation. But I won't! I shant elaborate until I have successfully delivered the presentation...

What else?

The orchestra didn't work out; they already had enough drummers, unfortunately. I spent a good half hour trying to locate them, too. So ein Mist!

I've got my first appointment today with a trainer at the gym, so I'm really jazzed about that, and tonight, I've invited a Brit over for dinner. It should be a good day.

Except for the fact it's 8:11 am. Except for that. lol

Vielen Dank, Tante Nancy!

Thank you so much for the post card, I LOVED it! I think everyone I knew knew within 30 minutes that I had received a postcard from the States. Haha :)

Presentation about the Kaiserreich tomorrow. Still can't figure out what I'm talking about. Hopefully it'll somehow fall together.
I'm auditioning for the student orchestra tonight! I'm so excited, I can hardly stand it. I'll let you know how it goes. Gotta go study!

Um...

So apparently the Pope is going to visit Germany sometime in 2011...
As of right now it's all here-say, but they're pretty confident it's going to happen.
I get anxious on soccer gamedays with those crowds in the streets. If this happens while I'm here, I don't know what I'll do, lol. WAYYYY to clostrophobic for the kinds of crowds that guy will attract.