Ruhe auf den billigen Plätzen, bitte

So the rest of this weekend was off the chain! This morning I get a call from a strange number so I pick it up and its Swedie! (Johan from Sweden) He was on his way to pick up a car from a friend, realized Ikea was closed (Sunday...duh) so he wanted to know if I would take a walk with him! So we grabbed him and went for a stroll by the wasserturm (It was such a lovely day!) Well the Blümefestival was over so we sat in Starbucks (...how European) for a KaffeStunde! It was awesome because we talked mostly about cultural differences between America and Sweden, and I learned alot!

So then we went to the Mannheim Volksfestival where I ate my first Wurst and we had beer on a rotating bar!! We rode lots of rides and wir haben so viel spaß gemacht! haha. We sung swedish drinking songs and played on top of the Ferris wheel. Overall today was quite a relaxing day... Gillian, Hazel, Sydney, Johan, Knut and I had a lovely time full of pee in your pants kinds of jokes and lots of fun.

Now let me tell you about the Abenteuer...

We took out the trash today... That was about a ONE HOUR process, and NOT the abenteuer I was hoping to have today.
I made gloves out of newspaper and hairtyes and made a mask of Pashmina. Gillian and Sydney were equally as disgusted as I was with this. There was bugs everywhere and we cleaned it all up. We even took the glass down the street to the receptacle. It was horrible. We hate cleaning up messes that aren't ours. But now the kitchen is clean again.

So i've got that bad about myself feeling again. I hope tomorrow, that I will be productive and get shit done so I can feel better about myself. Lets keep our fingers crossed. I have so much work to do! Most of it is reading, I just want to sit somewhere quite without being distracted by life and be completely engrossed with legal material and German grammar... no... i'm not even kidding... then I need to go running. I need to keep myself on task. I've started with the rewards system. (shoutout to my comrade!) because it seems to work quite well....

Lets hope.

A slight nod..... But in which direction?

This weekend has been quite awesome :-) I didn't have class Thursday because my professor if off in an OECD country fighting world hunger... (wow.) So... Sydney, Gillian and I went to Hidelberg to celebrate Davide's birthday! We went to the movies (my first German movie! ) and saw Walle... SOOO GOOD! And then we went to Cafe Ellen where Davide works, had some cake and beer. Then (the way home is always an adventure) then we made it home lol...


Friday was also quite interesting... We spend most of the day at IKEA.... (common now...how can you NOT?!) I can get lost there... anyway.. that was a trip in and of itself... but we finally got back.. ( I bought an aloe vera plant! ) and Gillian took a nap... well Erica, sydney, Gillian and I ended up chilling out in my room for a while... 11:30 rolled around and I went to go see my boyfriend Almir on the 4th floor... well there was no discussion... he demanded that I be at the party at B7... ok.. well I walked up to Sydneys room and said : ....Its 12... do you want to go to a party?? and she said yes :-) within 10 minutes we were dressed and walking out the door to a Party at B7...which was AWESOME!!!!!

Today we woke up semi-early lateish... and headed to heidelberg. We saw Gillians AWESOME zwischenmeter and then we went to the Heidelberger herbst. This was such an awesome festival to go to !!! Both Mannheim and Heidelberg are beautiful places in the fall I wish you all could see them!!! With the rolling hills and castles in the background, it surely is such a majestic sight. Thankfully the weather has been nice to us... with only a cool breeze and some blowing leaves and bright sun, Germany is a great place in the fall.
So we walked around and I ate some traditional potato pancakes with applesauce.. the girls got the knob sauce :-) We listened to some music and explored the city.. we then headed on our next adventure for the day!
HAROLDS HAUSE!

Harold is my friend from the army whom i met at the bar through another friend. Harold lives in Weinheim, right below the castle. So we hoped on the train to Weinheim for a dinner party at Harolds! Harolds dad is in town for 2 months and was going to be cooking traditional Thai food for us :-) That was awesome! His dad owns several restaurants in Thailand so he loves to cook. Let me tell you, i've never had traditional-traditional thai food before, this was out of this world good!!! It was just spicy enough, and the thai beer went so well with it. So overall it was an awesome night. Oh, and we owe Harold a big one because he got us real Mayo from the army base!!! He's also going to secure us a Turkey for our thanksgiving feast :-)

Tomorrow we are going to the Mannheim flower festival by the Wasserturm, then going to the Mannheim Volksfest, which is conveniently one street away from where I live! The rides look awesome, and I can smell the wurst from my apartment!

Next week is also going to be soo cool! We are going to Oktoberfest on Friday, then We are staying in Stuttgart that night with a friend so we can go to the Stuttgart festival! This festival is also said to be one of the largest!!! so excited!

The week after that I leave for ITALY!!!!!!!! Ashley and I are going to see Rome and Tuscany :-) I've never been to Italy before!!!!!
Ti amo!

Then the week after that I am spending 3 days with VISUM in BERLIN!!! I hope I get to see the East Gallery! I did a presentation on that for Prof. Dombrowskis class and it looked so interesting.

So it seems like I have my plans all set! There is soo much to see and do!!!! But yes... I am still studying and doing what I am here to do... learning right ;-) ?

Well what do we have here...

I usually say that I should update the blog daily... because ALOT happens here in one day... but its been exactly one week and ALOT went on!!!


Since we spoke last I had just went on the pub crawl...and schnekenhof etc etc.


Well...hungover as we were we got up one beautiful saturday morning and went painting!!!! oh my gosh what an amazing day that was!!! we were all pretty pissed that we had to be up so early but let me tell you... doing something good for someone else makes you feel good too! (mentally and physically lol)

So the name of the day was "wir Schaffen was" ich bin dabei!!!
we painted a really old run-down sports hall in the middle of no-where!!! and it was all for a good cause! We split up into teams...Hazel, Gillian, Swedie aka. Johan and me. We made the best painting team ever! Schnoox, schatz, snappi, and swedie! (the best looking, and the most fun painting team too!) we managed to paint our room, paint eachother, sing and dance, and drink coffee and we managed to finish our rooms before everyone else! we finished so early that we had time to paint another room! and in that room we had a blast too!!!!!!
(pictures to follow :-) )Overall I met some really amazing people, and had a really awesome day :-)
WIR SCHAFFEN WAS!!! ICH BIN DABEI!

So after we volunteered we returned to the hauptbahnhof with paint all over us, faces, etc, etc. ;-) and then we all rewarded ourselves with a beer :-) after a hard days work.

So we went home and Gillian and I made some more Maultaschen... ADDICTED!!!!! and we mix it with Freekadellen and peppers (spelling?!?!). It was delicsch.
So.. because i'm an exchange student I got a ticket to the Uni Mannheims annual Schloss fest... for free!

Let me tell you about the schloss fest...

every year students, faculty, and anyone who cares, gets realllyyyyyy dressed up and comes to the school. its like an open house. And the choirs perform in Ehrenhof (Huge courtyard directly infront of the school) and then orchestras of all sorts play in different wings of the castle. The most beautiful parts of the castle are opened up for this event so I got to see the greatest parts of it.

To add a tangent story. I was on facebook while Gillian and I were making food that night.. and I suddenly get a wierd message from some random (but beautiful) guy... he commented on my status which merely said: (making maultaschen...then maybe some schloss fest). Ok... so he commented that my dinner sounded excellent and I should go to the schloss fest... well. we started sending messages back and forth and before you knew it we were talking about this great bar in NYC that we had both been to and how we should meet at the schloss fest for a glass of wine :-)
So i got dressed in my best and headed down to the festival. IT WAS AMAZING!

I first went to the HoorSaal and listened to the greatest sounded university orchestra who played a nice waltz... I have never seen so may beautiful couples dancing so well before!!!! The ladies moved gracefully across the floor and the guys... who knew guys could dance like that?!?!?! (video to be posted of the orchestra)

I then had a glass of wine with David and some other friends (shoutout to David who looked amazing in his suit! and the other david too, who I had painted on earlier that morning)... so within the span of a day I had met some great people who I then got to celebrate with at the schloss fest. how cool is that!! Then we went and listened to some jazz in one of the other rooms, then after the festivites were over (by the way... I was escorted around for the most part with my facebook stalker... but then the girls and I ditched him because he was a stuffy, yet extremelyyyyyyyyyyyy handsome man.
So we went to the catacombs for a dance party!!! then the rest is history :-)

Ok... so classes are going AMAZINGLY!!!!!! I know all the answers to the questions!! But the teachers yell at me because I whisper answers, even though they are right... because I hate talking in class... but they are thrilled that I can speak awesome english, understand the legal texts, and know what the hell the text really means... awesomeeeeeeeee
The german classes are going quite well... I speak German all the time when I go out, and with people who I live with
and they all go: Wow, your German is so good! and I smile :-)

OHH! THE WINE FESTIVAL!!!!! (link to follow :-) )
We all went to the wine festival Thats why we were hung over when we had to go paint!!! ( i was thinking to myself.... i don't remember whyyy I was hungover)
So we went to the biggest wine festival in the world and it was amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!
We sat in a cool tent and drank riesling from pint glasses....
and listened to cool music...
and ate some wurst....
and rode on rides....
it was like a big country fair.....
and then this middle aged couple sitting at the table across from me called me over. and I sat down (german of course) and they were telling me about their son... and they said: we would love to have you as our daughter in law! (this could only happen to me...) and I was like ... ok!
So they gave me their sons name and I found him on Studivz (german facebook) and we have been talking eversince!!! He is a musician ( I a dancer.) His major is VWL (that was my undergrad) and I am BWL :-) hes a cool kid. and he lives in Heidelberg which is all of 20 mintues away... and hes a looker too :-)

Ok... so Tuesday eventually rolls around and we had this great event called Running dinner. Cool event!
Its where you team up with one person and you are assigned a certain course (in a 3 course meal) and you have to prepare it for 2 other teams... then you leave that house and go to another teams place to eat the other course, and so forth.
BUUUTTT since we didn't register in time, it turned out being me and sydney making maultaschen, going with TJ and peter, and 2 other german girls to a nice apartment and having dinner together :-) Hazel and tj made the best taco dip everrrrr and then the norwegs made the best Tiramasu. Then we had wine (natürlich) and then Polish vodka that tasted like apple strudel and it was SOOO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!

Then after we had a great meal we traveled across town to another friends apartment (more norwegans... hahahahaa) and sat on the roof and had strawberry marguritas and some more wine!
Then after that we trucked down to Zimmer for American night! and dance to really bad english techno and some hip hop.

Then I came home and slept :-)

That leads me to today where school was fantastic!!! now. It may seem like I party alot... but I do SO many other things here! I run up and down the Nekar almost daily (THE NEKAR IS NOT SHORT!!) all the way down to Luisenpark (so schön!) and then I also read and study law... because unlike learning Economics at home...where I have to have my head stuck in a book learning graphs that I don't care about and theories that are going to changed anyway... I LIKE law, and everything that I learned about Economics pertains to what I read about and learn about in my Law classes. I think thats why I have an advantage in my classes, its because I can apply what I already know about law and business and use it.
Ok... and the English helps too.

But a bit of sad news... Gillian moved out :-( She found her own Wohnung but that means that I have 2 houses now!!! But it was nice having her here... she protected me from Vlad the intruder and toaster girl.
We watched 90210 together :-) and held eachothers hair when we were hugging the porclain bowl :-) Those were moments.
Tomorrow is Davides birthday and we are going to go see Wally, then go for drinks.

I think thats all for now :-) pictures and links and movies for everyone!!!


OH AND THE BEST NEWS: I AM GOING TO ITALY (ROME AND TUSCANY!!!!!!) JA WOHL!!!! and OKTOBERFEST IS SATURDAY!!!!!!!!!!! JAAAAA WOHLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Its only been a pretty productive week...

Well lets see... a lot can happen in a week... I won't bore you with the nitty gritty details... I'll just tell you the fun stuff :-)


Since we spoke last classes were just beginning.
I LOVE THEM!!!!
Im taking:

Allgemeiner Sprachkurs
Grammatik
Mündliche Kommunikation
Doing business in Germany
International comparative law
Business Law in comparative perspective.


They are soo much fun! It's alot of work!!! and ALOT of reading and alone study time.. but I think I like that better than hours in the classroom talking nonsense and doing assignments. I personally prefer personal research and then coming together once a week and hashing out the details.


So the university has parties which they call Schnekenhof. Schnekenhof really means snail... but its the quad inbetween the lecture halls. Wine tent, beer tent, 1 euro shots, Dj's, a nice stage, TONS of people, strobe lights.. i mean, this party is all out! Well.. I went to Schnekenhof and it was awesome! It was 90's night so we got to sing barbie girl and other throw backs :-)

Another cultural ding which I would like to share with you is VISUMs semesterly pub crawl. So we lined up outside the VISUM headquarters, prepared for a night of drunk debauchery, 5 beers, 5 shots (ended up being more) and a nice game of capture the flag. With over 200 people participating in 4 colored teams (representing yellow!) this event was sure to be the hit of the semester (and it was!!!!) i met some pretty damn awesome people!!!!!!
Well it first started with some warm ups.. literally... vodka red bull... then we trekked down the street to flic flac, the first bar... downed the beer and then took our shot... ok.... well you get the jist. There was alot of yelling and chanting amongst the teams... then we managed to steal the blue teams flag... guess who they put in charge of carrying and protecting it with pride?? ME!!! I carried that flag like it was my job! We all ended up at the brokers inn together where it got a little tricky... I ended up with beer on my head, scratches on my wrists, im sure david was equally as hurt LOL... as you can probably tell they tried to get the blue teams flag away from me... didn't work so well... we ended up stumbling out the front door of the bar where members from both the blue, red team (davids team- thats the catch) and the yellow team were waiting. Once they saw the struggle immediately came to my, and David's rescue... Do you recall upon a certain west side story?? Yea... it was great... so you had kids rumbling in the street over flags. We ended up with broken sticks (flag poles)... but the best part was when someone got tired of fighting we took shots together! On our journeys we also played games like pass the apple. It was such a great night :-) Then we each got a coupon for free dönner from City dönner. I'm not really a big fan.. but this was the best one i've ever had in my life..... After the bar we all ended up at Zimmer. Together.. everyone friends again, ready to have some beers and dance off the toxins. It was a wonderful night :-)

So I get this email (wont mention names) Gloria. and it was talking about my drinking habits in Germany. Yes, I love to go out with friends and have a glass of wine. I don't get wasted everynight of my life. We had this discussion a while back. When I flunk out of school, have a child, start abusing drugs, and get soo fat from drinking... then you may comment. I understand you're only looking out for me, however, I'm a big girl... I've gotten this far without fucking up. I survived the first month (yes... the hardest month) of living in a foreign country alone.. im sure I can control what I put in my body, and when, for recreational purposes. Not to harp on it... but drinking is a pretty big part of culture here in Germany. Did I mention that Oktoberfest is this weekend!!!!!!!!!
JA WOHL!!!!

Saturday I am volunteering painting a school sports hall so kids have a nice place to play....

Was Noch... Gillian is still here and we protect eachother from Vlad the intruder.

I can't believe the month is almost over...
I need to look back at the pictures and see what i've been doing the past week so I can fill you in...
Oh. I haven't heard from Dan my advisor in a while... if you're out there Dan I'm doing just fine!! And i heard you need help in the lab... hire my sister!




Ja know... I'm not just learning the German language... or about business and the law... I'm learning ALOT about myself and what I want to do with my life... this is what this experience is for...

oh... and we won't talk about that darn tuesday night.

Just some pictures... fill in the blanks

this was when we went to Würtzberg for the day :-) Enjoy...

I love dancing

I love the look of a new school year :-0

So Sunday, after the 7:30 Stalker at the door trying to break in we slept ALL DAY!!! i mean... there is no better way to spend a day in Germany on a Sunday. I read some of my book.

Monday was uneventful... It was Sydney's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
HERZLICHEN GEBURTSTAG!

I ate some (Maulthasen) it was delich :-) Then I got somewhat of a makeover.

I cut my hair (on my own) because I have no patience... but the real appointment in on Saturday at Blooms. Then I got some real German clothes. (You'd be surprised) and some real German boots. Looks good :-)

Then we went to this crazy place called SoHo for happy hours and Sydneys birthday. That was fun because it was all disco music and other music from that era. it was awesome! Tonight we are going to the Zapatto in the Hauptbahnhof for the VISUM welcome back university party. IM SO EXCITED FOR THE PUB CRAWL!

The nice kid at one of the university libraries helped me set up my network so I can use the University wireless. YAY! So now I am here, working on my Labor Econ paper, which should have been done a long time ago :-) Don't worry, im not getting drunk tonight if i don't get it done. Remember, I work on the incentive system now.

My first day as a law student starts on Wednesday and I am SOOOOOOO EXCITED!! I'll let you know how it turns out :-)


You know whats funny... Sometimes I keep having to remind myself that I'm in a different country... sometimes it doesn't feel that way... when im off in my own world daydreaming or reading a book... then I get on the tram and hear ALTEFEUERWACHE...and I'm back :-)

Thats all for now kids :-)


SHOES!

Kein Annung....

So its 3 a.m. and I just had a stalker outside my door. (yea... thats safe). and now theyre trolling with a guitar down the hallway :-)
Why beat. em. join em. Thats what I love about Germany. almost everything is closed on Sundays so even if you wanted to do something. you couldn't. Except when you have a date :-) then thats ok :-)

So I haven't written in a while, things have been quite busy around here. Everyone going on holiday, or getting in the last bit of traveling before the school year begins on Monday. So I'll fill you in.

After the last day of classes we decided to take a trip to IRELAND!!
We flew Ryan air, for under 30 American dollars round trip.. yes kids... Ryan Air is the next best thing to peanut butter.
Except the landings need some work... When a plane lands on its side its never good. Schadee .
We stayed at Jacobs inn, which is a youth hostel. ( My first Hostel ever!) and it was fantastic! It was clean and had the best breakfast of Irish bread everrrrr.
The first day we got there we saw a really cool Jail, and then walked a ton. We saw things such as the St. Patricks Church, which was nice because we also went to a Choral mass there. Then we saw Trinity college, which was amazing! We actually mocked the statue of the provost because he wouldn't allow women in his school; after his death women were admitted and now 52% are female. yay! We saw almost all of what Dublin has to offer in just a few short days. I had my first Crepe which was delich. We went to Temple bar, the most famous bar in Dublin, which was crowded and overpriced. So we decided on a small traditional Irish pub. The bartenders name was Jimmy and the music was beautifully sung. I like small bars better than crowded ones... Other things I got to do: We went to the Guiness factory and at the end everyone got to drink a free pint of Guinness in the sky bar! That was such a great view, Guiness is the smoothest beer i've ever had! We also went to the Jameson factory, I got a certificate because I got to become a certified whiskey tester!!! I now know how to test whiskeys!!!!!!!


The last full day in Dublin we decided to go outside to a town called Howel. It was a small fishing town with amazing seafood, a really amazing view, a drunk dog, a wierd dialect, great small shops, semi-friendly people, brownie mix, and real mayonaise.
By the way... the limit for liquid items to take on Ryan air is 100 ml. so when the security man took Sydneys 120 ml jar of mayonaise she began to cry. He then had 3 girls in his face pleading not to take the mayonaise... he pretended that he never saw it and gave the mayo back to Sydney. That was cool :-) The last night in the Hostel was movie night, a free movie and popcorn! We saw Fools gold. It was nice to speak English for that small bit of time, but surprisingly we wanted to speak German. I think because we weren't under pressure to speak it and thought that practicing it on eachother when no one else around us understood would help... it did.

So I am back in Germany now. Schadee.

I registered for classes. Im taking 4 German classes including a Grammar course, a speaking course, one about doing Business in Germany, a standard German course, and a law course about comparative European Law, which im really excited about. Im debating about whether or not to sit on another law class, i am under no obligation to hand in a (sheine?).

Gillian is here! I picked her up from the Hauptbahnhof with a sign! She is here and we are Lufeling :-) Shes going to stay with me for a while until she finds a wohnung.

Today we went to Heidelberg for the lighting of the Schloss. (Cant think of the German word now- i've been speaking German for most of the day, so now when I lay in bed i give my mind a break and try and speak what little english I can manage. lol).
So anyway. That was a really cool event. The fireworks were grandious, for all of 15 minutes ( i have a great video of them). I finally met Davide, Gillian's old roomate, which I heard so much about! We had AMAZING thai food, I had the duck.... ausgezeichnet.

This morning I went for a run, and helped Almir and the rest of the Tutors paint the party room! he ended up painting me more than the wall! It was super fun! I had a red nose for quite some time, as he had a giant white hand print on his tush :-)
The room looks great now, and ready for the first party of the semester!

Last night we went to the bar... can't remember which ones, I wasn't that drunk... just tired... I remember we went to Diablo.. then O'reillys... but after that... think we went home... think....

For now, I believe thats all. I had a really good name for this blog, but I can't remember... im so tired. Ill ask Gillian, then come back and rename it haha.
Thats all for now kids.

Our feet are the same.